A/N: Thanks for the reviews, guys! Keep it up!

Chapter Seventeen: The Unexpected

Meanwhile…

Boba finally found his way to the dungeons. Vader reached out with the Force, but he couldn't feel anyone's presence but their own.

"They are not here," Vader said.

"What?"

"They're not here," Vader repeated. "If they were, I would be able to feel them, but I can't."

"Uh-oh. That means they either escaped, which is unlikely, or they are being thrown into the lava!"

"We must hurry," Vader said as calmly as possible. (He felt anything but calm.)

Boba nodded and led at a running pace to where he remembered the lava river to be. At first he thought he knew where he was going, but soon came another corridor, and another, and they all looked the same. At this point, he began second guessing himself.

Boba stopped walking and paused.

"What is it?" Vader asked.

"I think I'm lost," Boba admitted.

"Lost!? Of all times for you to get lost! They could be executing my son right now!"

Vader couldn't help himself when he overreacted. With each passing second, it was another second that Luke was in danger.

"Okay, okay, I think it may be this way," Boba said, turning to the left."

Vader reached out and grabbed him. "If you're wrong, you will pay dearly."

"There's no time to argue," Boba said. Apparently he didn't mind receiving threats, even when it was from Darth Vader.

They started off once again at a slightly faster pace. It was because of this that they nearly ran into a shadow guard.

The guard yelled in surprise at seeing them there, but Vader reached out and grabbed the man by his neck and held him up in the air.

"Where did you put the prisoners? Where is my son!?"

The man choked and gurgled as he spoke. "I… I don't know whi… which prisoner… you… you are re… referring… to…"

"The small blonde boy!" Vader said, giving a quick, yet accurate description.

"He… he's… dead."

"What?" Vader asked breathlessly. With a huge wave of anger, he crushed the man's neck and threw the dead body across the hall. Vader stood very still.

Dead? His young child dead? DEAD!? Somehow he couldn't come to grips with the reality of such a thought. He couldn't be dead. Vader had just found him… no… NO! He never even had time to get to know Luke. And now he was dead. Just like that. It was Vader's fault. He let himself fall asleep when he knew he should have stayed awake and watched the boy. Because of him, his son was dead… and so was Padme. Everything was his fault.

Fett didn't want to say anything. He knew that the shock of his son's death would anger Vader. Truth be told, this situation was a little awkward for him. He didn't know what to do. But he couldn't let them stand there in silence forever. He had to find Bella. She may be dead too!

"Um… Vader?" Vader came out of his daze and looked down at the bounty hunter. "We still need to find Bella and Han."

Vader didn't want to go rescue them. He had already been too late for his son. No one else in the galaxy mattered to him.

"Vader, Han is Luke's best friend. You have to rescue him." A pause, and then, "Luke would have wanted you to."

He was right. If he couldn't save his son, the least he could do was save his son's friend. Luke would have asked him to do that… if he were here.

"Very well, Fett. Lead the way."

…

Han and Bella were completely lost. They had given up arguing because they were sick of it, and now they were running aimlessly through the volcano lair without even the slightest idea on how to get out, much less find Luke.

Han was about to say that he blamed Bella for getting them lost when suddenly he saw Vader and Boba Fett!
Normally, Han would be running away from the Dark Lord of the Sith and the most dreaded bounty hunter in the universe. But right now, it was a more than welcome sight. Both Bella and Han ran toward them.

Boba and Bella hugged and Han looked around, hoping that they had found Luke. When he didn't see him, he asked.

"Where's Luke?"

Boba and glanced at Vader. He didn't want to be the one to tell Han that his best friend was dead. But he needn't have worried.

"He's dead," Vader said flatly.

Han's eyes grew wide and he shook his head. "No. No way is that kid dead! He's… he's Luke! Luke can't die!"

"Nevertheless, he is," Vader said.

Han lifted his head up high. "I won't believe it until I see the kid with my own eyes!"

"Lava kind of destroys any hope of seeing his body," Boba said.

"But… dead. He can't be!"

But the more he said it, the more he felt that it was useless to argue with the truth.

…

When Luke tripped, he fell for a few meters. Then suddenly, he landed on something hard. He looked up and realized that he was on the back of an open cockpit speeder.

Luke climbed to where the seats where up ahead and slid into the passenger seat next to the driver.

"Who are you?" Luke asked.

"I'm Leia," the girl answered. She appeared to be around his age.

"Well, thank you, you just saved my life."

"Any time," Leia said.

When Luke realized that she was leaving the Volcano Lair, he stopped her.

"Wait! We have to go back!"
"Why!? So you can die!?"

"No," Luke said in a voice that meant to say, "duh, only and idiot would think I'm doing that." "My friends are back there. I need to rescue them!"

Leia sighed and brought the speeder around and began driving toward the volcano again. "I can't believe I'm doing this," she muttered.

…

When they got back to the volcano, Leia landed on the platform that Luke had fallen off of. It was the only place she could land. As soon as they landed, Luke jumped out and began running back to the dungeons, followed closely by Leia.

As they ran, Luke couldn't help but ask her, "How did you get here?"

Leia paused, then spoke. "Back home, I kept having nightmares. I don't remember them clearly, but the things I did remember were something about Kayoa, these weird dark cloaked people, and you. I told my father about the dreams. When they didn't go away, he decided that I was meant to be here. Apparently, I was."

Luke and Leia were so caught up in their conversation that they didn't realize that they were running in the wrong direction. Suddenly, they found themselves in some open-spaced room. With no doors, just open passage ways on each side of the room.

As soon as Luke realized his mistake, he tried to run back out. But as he tried to follow Leia, a hand suddenly caught his shoulder in a death grip. He turned around to see whose hand it belonged to.

It was the Shadow Queen. For the first time, Luke couldn't help but think that she looked familiar.

She was much stronger than she looked. Soon she had his arm secured in her hold and with her other hand, she held a knife at his throat.

When Leia rushed toward them, the queen stopped her. "Don't move, or I will kill your friend right here."

Leia froze where she was. "What do you want?"

The queen never paused. "No one shall escape their redemption."

"What redemption!?" Luke demanded as he tried to squirm his way out of her grip. "You throw people into lava. Not much of a redemption if you ask me."

"Well I didn't ask you, so keep quiet," the queen said in an icy voice.

…

Vader felt a sudden urgency in the Force. He changed directions, and the others could do nothing but follow. Soon they came to a wide open room with huge entryways from every direction. But it wasn't the room that everyone was looking at.

"Luke!" Han cried out with joy.

For it was Luke. Unfortunately, some evil looking lady was holding a knife to his throat. Everyone expected Vader to lunge out, kill the woman, and save Luke. But instead he just stared at her.

"Padme?"

A/N: Cliffy again! Review!!!