Jabba spat in Huttese at Fortuna. "You weak minded fool. She's using an old Jedi mind trick."
Leia was dressed in a black semi-military tunic and trousers, with a coarse robe and hood over all. Her black hair was braided and wrapped around her head in a utilitarian fashion. She carried no weapons and the first person able to resist her had been Jabba.
"You will bring Captain Solo and the wookie to me."
Jabba laughed outright. "Your mind powers will not work on me, girl. I was killing your kind when being a Jedi meant something."
In serene certainty, Leia replied, "Nevertheless, I'm taking Captain Solo and his friends. You can either profit by this. . . or be destroyed. It's your choice. But I warn you not to underestimate my powers."
Threepio attempted to warn his mistress. "Mistress Leia, you're standing on. . ." But Jabba broke in.
"There will be no bargain, young Jedi. I shall enjoy watching you die." Leia reached out and a guard's pistol jumped into her hand. The guard jumped after it and the floor suddenly opened beneath them, dropping them both into the pit. Jabba's slab moved forward until he could see directly down into the pit, where the rancor was being released. A guard, Lando, stabilized her on the slab so she wouldn't fall off while it was moving. The small slab the prince was on moved as well, to give him a view of the entertainment. The beast ate the guard first, giving Leia a very short amount of time to plan. She picked up the long leg bone of a previous victim as the rancor turned and came after her. She wedged the bone in the creature's mouth and was dropped while it removed it. Hiding in a recess in the wall allowed her to locate the exit door in the part of the cave the rancor had come in from, and as it reached for her again, she slammed a rock on it's fingers and made a dash for the door, which opened onto bars. She turned around to face the oncoming rancor and saw the switch to close the center door. There wasn't enough time to reach it directly, but she hefted a skull at the switch, causing it to crash down on the beast's head. Both Beth and Luke breathed obvious sighs of relief, but Jabba was livid. He pulled on the chain so hard Beth thought he was going to strangle her. Leia, Han and Chewbacca were dragged back into the 'throne' room, all three well restrained.
Leia asked Han "Han! Are you all right?"
"I'm fine, Leia. Together again. There's Beth. And his Highness."
Beth choked out, fighting the neckpiece. "Hi."
"How are we doing?"
Leia actually grinned. "About the same as always."
Chewie growled. Han answered him. "That bad, eh."
3PO translated for Jabba, who had calmed down enough to give Beth a few inches leeway with the chain so she could breathe and was instead petting her like a lap gurchin.
"Oh dear. His High Exaltedness, the great Jabba the Hutt, has decreed that you are to be terminated immediately."
Han remarked caustically. "Good, I hate long waits."
Threepio continued, "You will therefore be taken to the Dune Sea and cast into the Pit of Carkoon, the nesting place of the all-powerful Sarlacc."
Han looked at Leia and shrugged. "Doesn't sound so bad."
Threepio went on. "In his belly you will find a new definition of pain and suffering as you are slowly digested over a thousand years."
Han shook his head as Chewie barked something. "On second thought, let's pass on that."
Leia addressed Jabba. "You should have bargained, Jabba. That's the last mistake you'll ever make."
Jabba cackled evilly at her as the guards dragged them out of the room. Leia had a slight smile on her face, as did the prince, countered by concern on Beth's.
On Jabba's huge sail barge, the entire retinue had accompanied Jabba on this expedition, including his captive for ransom and his new pet. Luke couldn't actually see anything outside of the barge, but Beth had managed to pull away long enough to stare out an observation window at the skiff where Leia, Han and Chewie stood, surrounded by several guards, one of whom was Lando. Jabba pulled the chain tight and tugged Beth back over to him.
"Soon you will learn to appreciate me."
The skiff floated over the sand dunes that Leia remembered so well. Han turned towards her. "Is there supposed to be scenery?"
"Han, there's nothing to see. I used to live here, you know."
"You're going to die here, you know. Convenient. If this is your big plan, I'm not impressed yet."
Leia smiled. "Just stick close to Chewie and Lando. I've taken care of everything. Besides, it's his Highness's plan. Beth fought it all the way. We don't plan, remember? We run in halfcocked."
Han snorted. "Oh. . . great! This time he stupidly followed you in here like this. I suppose I should mention I love you before we die."
"I love you too, smuggler. Just stay close to Chewie and Lando and just maybe we'll be able to do something about that."
Over the pit, Threepio's voice was amplified over loudspeakers as he translated for Jabba.
"Victims of the almighty Sarlacc. His Excellency hopes that you will die honorably. But should any of you wish to beg for mercy, the great Jabba the Hutt will now listen to your pleas."
Han shouted up to the barge. "Threepio, you tell that slimy piece of worm-ridden filth he'll get no such pleasure from us. Right?"
Chewie growled in agreement. Artoo appeared on the upper deck of the sail barge. Leia sighted him, and nodded.
"Jabba! This is your last chance. Free us or die."
Threepio moved away from the window to stand next to the young prince as the assembly rocked with laughter. Jabba cackled and then spoke into his comlink in Huttese.
"Move her into position." A guard released her wrists and prodded Leia onto the plank. She saluted Artoo as Jabba spoke into his comlink again.
"Put her in."
The guard prodded her and she jumped off the plank. Spinning around in midair, she caught the edge of the plank,which bent and threw her skyward. A complete flip and she landed in the skiff. She casually extended her arm and her lightsaber landed in her open palm. She ignited it and by the time the nearest guard had his gun, he was dead. The two others followed the first into the pit. Lando knocked the one next to him off the skiff and into the pit as Leia released Chewie from the binders restraining him.
On the barge, Luke had released his own chains, removed his lightsaber from Threepio's arm and before anyone realized anything was going on here as well, was taking out the guards on the barge. Beth climbed over the hulk of Jabba to get away from the blasters and the saber and found herself standing next to the power supply. She picked up a container nearby and slammed it down on the thing, plunging the deck into darkness. The end of her chain was actually attached to the slab in front of Jabba, but long enough to allow a dancing girl a lot of leeway, so it was long enough to throw back over Jabba's head again and pull. She put all her weight into it and pulled the chain taut around Jabba's neck. After an interminable time to her, pulling and pulling, the heaving bulk went motionless. Luke was working his way onto the upper deck, having cleared the observation deck of personnel. Artoo rolled back down, came over to Beth, cut her chain and zapped a small creature that was attacking 3PO. They moved to follow the prince up to the upper deck.
At the first sign of trouble, Boba Fett had ignited his rocket pack and flown over to the skiff containing the prisoners. Leia had taken care of three of the guards aboard the skiff by the time the bounty hunter landed. He aimed at her, but she sliced his gun in half before he could fire. Then Chewbacca was hit and in Leia's momentary distraction, the bounty hunter fired a cable at her, and it wrapped around her torso, pinning her arms to her body. She was still able to use her saber to deflect several shots from the other skiff, one into Boba Fett, rendering himunconscious momentarily, then cut the cable. The second skiff was closing in, all the guards aboard firing all guns at the combatants on the first skiff. She leaped across space to land onthe second skiff and began working through those guards. Boba Fett regained consciousness, stood, aimed at the saberwielding figure on the other skiff, and suddenly flew into the air as Han ignited his rocketpack with an accidental swing of a power battleprod. The bounty hunter hit the side of the barge, bounced off and rolled into the Sarlacc' mouth. The creature burped approvingly. A shot from a deck gun on the barge tilted the skiff, knocking Lando over the side. He hung onto a mass of wires and tried unsuccessfully to climb up.
The deck gun on the barge was trained on the prisoner's skiff. Han was hanging over the side, trying to reach Lando when the next shot hit, knocking him completely over the side as well. Chewbacca caught his legs before he could become the Sarlacc's next meal. Han had managed to keep hold of the battleprod. He turned it off and offered the muzzle to Lando, who couldn't reach it. Lando tried crawling up the side of the pit and just before he touched the prod, a tentacle wrapped around his ankle, pulling him slowly back down. Han yelled back up to Chewie, who held him with one hairy arm and handed down a blaster. Lando almost panicked, if he could be any more frightened.
"Are you sure about this?"
"Trust me."
Lando had no choice, but he could swear Han was aiming at him. "Just a little higher, a little higher." Han fired, hitting the tentacle 6 inches below Lando's foot. The thing unwrapped, Lando crawled up and caught Han's hand and Chewbacca pulled them all up into the listing skiff.
Luke was making headway into the armed personnel on the upper deck. One good shot got him in the artificial hand, but didn't do enough damage to incapacitate it. The shooter had the next shot deflected back into him and fell over the side into the sand. As Luke got farther away from the ramp, the two droids, and then Beth skulked up. She picked up a gun from a felled guard, dived behind a case of something, then worked her way to one of the two deck guns. She caught them from behind, so intent they were on the man wielding the saber that was deflecting every shot they sent his way. Two quick shots and the deck gun was no longer aimed at Luke, but at the rigging between the two guns. Her second shot from the big gun took out the other deck gun. Luke slashed two more guards, discovered there was no others on the deck and yelled at Beth.
"Point it at the deck." Beth complied, and Artoo pushed Threepio off the side of the barge, following him down, beeping madly. Luke holstered his saber, wrapped a rope from the rigging around his right arm and motioned to Beth. He gathered her in his left arm and felt the soft kiss she placed on his mouth as she wrapped her arms around his neck. He kicked the trigger on the deck gun and jumped as the gun exploded into the deck.
The two of them swung on the swaying rope all the way down to the escort skiff containing at this point one Jedi and one soon to be dead guard. She finished with him, grabbed the rudder and steered them over to the prisoner's skiff, where Chewbacca, Han and Lando were crawling back on board. Luke and Beth helped them on board the escort skiff and Leia was just about to go pick up the droids, when Beth unexpectedly panicked.
"Leia, the detonator." She looked terrified.
Leia released the rudder, snatched Lando's decorated knife out of its sheath, and appeared to attack Beth, knocking the girl to her stomach in the middle of the small deck. Leia's eyes were closed and she was running her hand up and down the nearly naked girl's body, from neck to knees. She settled on a spot on Beth's left flank, just below the ribs and started cutting. Beth whimpered and involuntarily flinched in pain, as Leia cut deeper. Leia gave a curt order.
"Someone hold her down flat. Keep her from moving." Luke and Lando each grabbed one of Beth's arms and pushed her chest into the deck and Chewbacca held her legs, as Leia continued cutting, then reached into the wound. She pulled out a small metallic object and flung it at the sail barge. It exploded in the air halfway there. Leia stood up, handed Lando his knife back, wiped her hands on her cloak and commented.
"Now we can go." Lando took the rudder as she added, "Don't forget the droids." She turned back to where Luke was helping Beth to her feet. They cut Luke's inner robe, made of a softer fabric than either the outer robe or Leia's, to pack the wound and then wrapped it around Beth's middle to hold the packing in place. Chewbacca growled something. Han wanted to know the same thing.
"What was that all about?"
Beth was lowered back down, leaning against the railing. "Escape prevention device. Every slave has one implanted somewhere on their body. Try to escape and they blow you up. And just for social purposes, there is never an implant scar, just a removal scar, so you never forget what you once were."
"Oh." A pause. "How rude." Han said uncomfortably, Luke pulled Han over. "Sit down and rest with her while we check supplies and get the heck back to the ships. Nice to see you again."
Han sat down and let Beth lie down with her head in his lap as Luke covered her with the senatorial robes. "I guess I really owe you kids. Leia said this was your plan, but somehow I think everyone was involved. And it worked." He patted Beth's bare arm. "Not a bad view either." Beth hurt too much at the moment to hit him. Luke smiled and moved off to help check the perimeter and supplies. Leia found the med kit shortly thereafter and by the time the skiff ran out of fuel, 10 kilometers from the Falcon, in the middle of the Tatooine night, Beth and Chewie, whose wounds hadn't been helped by pulling Han and Lando back onto the skiff, could make the walk. The last kilometer was done blindly in a sandstorm, holding hands and following Artoo, who followed the homing beacon. First Threepio, then Leia leading Han, then Luke supporting Beth and finally Lando supporting Chewbacca. Beside the Falcon was Leia's X-wing and the 2-seater Y-wing that C-3PO and Luke had come in. The bounty hunter's ship, piloted by the 'prisoner' Chewbacca, that had brought Beth and Chewbacca to Jabba's, remained there. They all entered the Falcon, to rest and eat before they left. Not only that, but Beth needed help to get out of the metal bikini and both she and Chewbacca needed a little more time with the medkits.