In the cockpit of the imperial shuttle, Chewbacca was fussing about the size of the chair. Luke was behind Han's chair, checking everything. Leia came in and sat down behind Chewie, then Han showed up.
"Everything's stowed in the back and the team is ready."
He sat down and Chewie muttered as he worked the controls. Han's usual style was highly subdued as he answered.
"I don't think they had Wookies in mind when they designed this."
They took off.
The team moved through the forest quietly and carefully, so as to surprise anyone they come up against. Suddenly, at the crest of the hill they were climbing, Luke and Leia, who were in front dropped to the ground, signaling the rest of the team to follow suit. Han and Chewie joined them, then Beth wormed her way up to look over the edge. She signaled to the rest of the troops, who stopped crawling upward. There were two speederbike troopers standing in the bushes.
"Should we try and go around?" Leia asked.
"It'll take time. This whole party'll be for nothing if they see us. Chewie and I'll take care of this. You stay here."
"Quietly. There might be more of them out there." Luke added.
"Hey. . . It's me."
Luke and Leia exchanged smiles and Beth rolled her eyes as Han and Chewie crept down the hill. Just before Han reached the first trooper, he stepped on a twig. The trooper whirled and knocked Han into a tree, sending his companion for help as Luke and Leia dashed down the hill to help. Chewie hit the retreating scout with a crossbow bolt, causing his bike to explode and two other troopers took off as Leia leapt on the empty bike they'd left behind. Luke barely made it on behind her. Han finally knocked out his opponent as the rest of the team moved down to clear the area.
Luke crept back into the clearing. He heard a whistle, then Han stepped out as the rest of the team did as well, guns drawn. Beth dropped from a bushy branch that had hidden her, to the ground in front of him. Han looked beyond Luke and asked.
"Where's Leia."
"She's not here? We got separated." Luke and Han stared at each other for a moment, then Han spoke.
"Then we better go look for her." He signaled to Beth
"Take the squad on ahead. We'll meet at the shield generator at oh-three-hundred."
She saluted and the two groups separated.
As Luke and the two Ewoks crept in toward the generator rendezvous point, a shrill bird call pierced the air. One of the ewoks disappeared into the underbrush as Luke and the other continued forward. There was no one there, at all. Then something moved in the brush to Luke's left, and he whirled, drawing his saber, as something dropped to the forest floor behind him. The light of the saber illuminated Beth's face in the gathering gloom of the early evening. She whistled again, the shrill bird call. The rest of the team stepped out of bushes or dropped out of trees, except one from the moving bush on the left, who was pushed out at spearpoint by the missing ewok, to the amusement of his fellows. Luke relaxed.
"We've found Leia and some allies. They're going to help us attack the imperials. We're going to their village, otherwise, we're still on schedule." They moved out.
It was pitch black by the time they reached the Ewok village. Han and Leia were working with 3PO to make the final arrangements with the small furries and they filled the rest of the team in on the plan. Throughout the short lecture, Luke and Leia kept exchanging glances, then when it was done and Han and Beth were busy directing the reloading of the packs, the siblings drew apart over to the side.
Luke glanced into the forest. "It's time to go, can you feel it?"
"Yeah." Leia nodded. "Guess we'd better say goodbye. You first."
Luke stepped over to Beth and tapped her on the shoulder. "Can I talk to you?"
The rest of the team didn't seem to need much direction, so she followed him over to where Leia was, then beyond her onto a platform extending behind the chief's hut out over the chasms between the trees. He held both her hands in his.
"We have to go now. Leia and I have to face Vader. There is still good in him, we can feel it. Besides, if we stay much longer, we'll endanger the mission. You and Han and the team will do just fine and Leia and I will go upstairs and deal with Vader." He sounded ever so much more sure of himself than he felt. "We'll see you back at the fleet when this is all over."
Beth rolled her eyes. "You and Leia, I swear. You make this sound so easy. We'll just go up there, defeat the Emperor, and turn Vader back without even breaking a sweat. We're Jedi and we can do anything."
"He's our father, we have to try." Luke tried not to lose his patience.
Beth looked away, contrite. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean that the way it sounded. I'm just scared to death something's going to happen to you and Leia, either he kills you or turns you. Either way, you wouldn't come back. I just don't want to lose you like I lost Tether. I don't think I could stand it."
Luke drew her into his arms, hugging her fiercely. "I'm coming back. Death couldn't stop me."
Han had followed Beth over and was intercepted by Leia a short distance away from the other two.
"It's time, isn't it." he asked
"Yeah. We'll be back."
"Yes, you will be, or Beth and I are coming up there after you two." Han grinned at her, a determined grin all the same. "You go do what you have to do, we'll do our job down here and we'll meet you when we're all done."
Leia smiled and they kissed. They separated, then Luke and Beth separated and Han and Beth watched the siblings head off into the night. When they could no longer see Luke and Leia, they headed back to finish with the prep for the attack.