SHUT. UP.

Disclaimer: If I owned Star Wars, my fanfiction wouldn't be scribbled in notebooks as opposed to my taking actual notes in the weeks before finals.

Chapter 9: The Calm Before The Storm

"I think you should give her a chance to explain herself," said Lila mildly. "I mean, maybe you misinterpreted. Or something…"

"Hey, if she chose Luke, it's got nothing to do with me," said Han stiffly. "Let them do whatever they want, I don't care. None of my business."

Lila frowned. "Didn't Leia tell me you two made out on the Falcon? And haven't you two been together since Jabba?"

"It's not my issue if she chose him," Han insisted. "Just leave it alone."

Shaking her head, Lila wandered off back to the main Ewok village, wondering why nobody had told Han the news yet, and especially why she hadn't just then. "I hope they don't make the mission awkward for the rest of us," she said to a passing R2, ignoring his confused beeps in response.

It was early morning, and the pre-dawn light filtered through the trees. Passing other members of the strike team, Lila ignored all around her, choosing instead to spend the time in quiet contemplation to prepare for the coming battles.

Walking along a platform, Lila reached a tree that was higher than the rest and gave a nice view. Lila gazed out into the forest. Dew evaporated around her; the sun was rising.

And what is it rising on? she wondered. A day of victory and defeat…whose? She cast her mind outward, reassuring herself that her friends were still with her. There was Han, checking and rechecking his weaponry. There was Leia, doing the same, but distractedly. Chewbacca was warding off a group of Ewoks that wanted to be his friends, while attempting to check his crossbow. Lila laughed silently to herself.

There was the Death Star Mark II, visible from the surface of Endor. Lila turned her musings skyward, towards Lando, somewhere in space. In a way, his mission was far more dangerous than hers. As long as it didn't go to his head, fine. This was Lando, after all: if it hadn't gone to his head, it meant he was already dead. The thought sobered Lila up quickly. I shouldn't think like that, even to myself.

I wonder if he's thinking of me. Lila smiled again. Lando was a good man, even if he had sold them out on Bespin; Lila wasn't picky. Maybe if Luke reorganizes the Jedi Order, I'll talk him into allowing marriages. Lila Calrissian has a ring to it. Chuckling, Lila realized she sounded like the local girls on Tatooine, gossiping about their boyfriends.

The forest teemed with life, but was quieter at dawn; nocturnal creatures were settling down, everything else was waking up. Lila savored the peace for what she knew might very well be her last morning. She inhaled, filling her lungs with clean, pure air. Air that wasn't tainted with smoke from exploding computer workstations, as it hopefully soon would be.

I'm sure Luke and I can handle this. He had his training from Master Yoda himself, after all. And I can take anything they throw at me. Lila stretched her arms behind her back, and froze suddenly. She furrowed her brow and searched with her mind for Luke. . Oh, no no no… Lila took off at a run for the village proper.

"Hey—Leia—where's Luke?" she asked breathlessly. Leia looked at her curiously and worriedly.

"I haven't seen him since last night," said Leia. "Lila, he talked about finding Vader, and going to confront him…"

Lila sighed. "Yeah, I know. The idiot," she muttered. "Alright. Be back in five." She ran off again, sincerely hoping her erstwhile brother wasn't doing what she suspected he might be.

She spotted him on the forest floor, heading away from the Ewok village, in the direction of the shield generator. Lila climbed down the nearest ladder as quickly as she could, nearly twisting her ankle in the process. "Hey, Luke!"

Luke stopped and waited for her to catch up. Lila looked him over with a critical eye; he carried nothing but the lightsaber at his side.

She sighed again, this time somewhat forlornly. "Luke, what are you doing? No, don't answer that: I know what you're doing. Luke, why are you going to confront Vader?"

"I know I can get through to him, Lila. I have to." Luke's voice was tired, and somewhat final.

Lila shook her head. "I can't believe that. I'm sorry, I just can't. I know you want to believe in him; I get that. But what happens when you're proven wrong?"

Luke gazed at the sky. "I'd rather we not have this argument again. I know you don't believe in him, but I do. You don't have to agree with me." He met her eyes solidly. "Please understand that this is something I have to do." And Lila understood.

This wasn't Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight, savior of the Rebellion trying to save another lost soul. Luke wasn't trying to be a hero by redeeming Darth Vader. When Luke said he had to, he was doing it for himself. Everything Vader or the Emperor had ever said about him joining the Dark Side…Luke needed to prove that someone could be brought back from the darkness. He needed to know that he wouldn't follow the same path as his father.

"I understand, but…" Lila whispered. "Please, Luke. You can't save everyone. We need you here."

"You're a Jedi too, aren't you?" asked Luke with raised eyebrows. "You can do anything I can. You can fight Darth Eris, you can play your part in freeing the galaxy. You don't need me to always be by your side."

No, Luke. You can do so much more than I. "May the Force be with you."

"And you."

Lila watched him walk away, her face emotionless. She shook her head again, and slowly trudged back to the ladder she had descended from. Looking up at it moodily, Lila brushed some stray hairs out of her face and jumped up to about five rungs down from the platform.

"Well where is he?" asked Leia, once Lila had returned. "Did you find him?"

"He left," murmured Lila, not meeting her sister's eyes. "Went off on his stupid mission to try and save a monster…" She couldn't continue. "Stupid" was muttered once more, and then Lila went off to go check her things.

Lightsaber, communicator, blaster for just in case…that was all she needed, really. What were the others taking? Lila couldn't remember the packing list that Han had proposed last night. Lila rolled a cyanide pill between her fingers for a few seconds, before putting it back with the rest of her unneeded luggage. She had a lightsaber; as always, she would live by it or be killed by one. Except if she chose to run, because thinking back on it now, Lila realized that tended to happen a lot.

Well, not this time. Somehow, Luke had become the better Jedi, and he wasn't here now. It was Lila's turn to show exactly which one had been trained practically from birth. You're a Jedi too, aren't you?… That stung. Well, alright. Maybe I have been relying on him too much.

She ignited her lightsaber. The meter-long silver beam of light snapped into existence, as it always did. Lila smiled faintly; not for nothing had she spent nearly a standard month building it, her trusted weapon. She spun it around once, and turned it off, to be placed at her side once more.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Han came up from behind. "Time to go, come on!"

"Yeah, wait, hold on a second." Lila fumbled to holster her blaster and turn on her communicator, and then she was ready.

"Come on, Lila," Leia reprimanded. "You don't want to hold us up, no?"

"No, sorry," Lila answered with her usual lack of grace. "I'm ready now, let's go."


This one was a little more introspective and less action-oriented, and there's a reason for that. See, I will be giving you a new chapter before the end of June, and the action is slightly easier for me to write in a hurry. (That's not a resolution, it's a promise.)

DragonRider2000: I know, I try…sometimes I take a bit long, but I do try.

totallyNsane: She is! He's just too Zen in this movie, someone needs to snap him out of it.