A/N: I re-wrote and re-edited this chapter if anyone is about to ask why it looks different.
"Italics are thoughts coming from the characters."
In Honor of Carrie Fisher. She is now truly one with the force.
Act Two : Spoiler Alert!
19:00 PM
In The Death Star...
Clint Barton had never had a normal life. Abusive parents, working for the circus, working for SHIELD, hanging out with Romanoff... (Was that normal? He wasn't quite sure) So if there was one word he would definitely use to describe his life- it would be insane...
And yet whatever the hell was going on here was even more insane than his entire life times one million.
It had started out as a normal day. Tony had been up early, but he had beat him to the chase. As usual.
Steve was awake as well, Vision couldn't sleep, and Thor and Banner had been snoring back in their separate bedrooms. Falcon and War Machine were training outside, so none of them were really concerned about something strange happening.
He had been training with Wanda, the two of them sparring with each other- a little counterproductive considering their powers; a bow was not exactly that useful against energy magic, but they had been training nonetheless.
And then from the living room they had heard Tony give a shout of surprise before a blindingly yellow light had filled their vision, and somehow Barton highly doubted that it had been Vizh firing into a mirror again.
Then, once the light had passed, they had ended up here. A long, gray hallway with some serious lighting issues. Well wasn't this just a fantastic start to his day.
"Remind me to kill Stark later." Clint heard the Russian-accented voice of Wanda Maximoff cut through the air like a knife. "If this is another experiment I swear.." She left her sentence empty, leaving Clint's imagination to finish it. No matter what she did, it most likely would be even more horrible then what he could think of.
Despite this, he shook his head. "No offense to Tony, but he'd never be able to think of something this elaborate." Sure enough, the hallway they were walking down seemed much too detailed and authentic, as well as big, for something even Tony Stark would make for a prank.
Besides, he doubted that the giant yellow light he saw before they got here was just a hallucination either. "Yes well, as soon as I find him I am going to rip his throat out." Wanda continued, eyes tinted with just the slightest shade of red.
Clint grinned. "Remind me to join you. Maybe I can test out some of my new arrows on him. Ollie gave me this really cool boxing-glove arrow a few days ago." He took out an arrow from his quiver, pressing a small button on it. The arrow's tip retracted to show a tiny inflatable boxing glove stuffed inside the arrow's hollowed out shaft.
Wanda held back laughter as she looked at Clint, raising an eyebrow. "Boxing glove arrow?"
Clont nodded, pressing the button once more to place the tip of the arrow back on itself before putting the arrow back in his quiver. "You heard that right- boxing glove arrow. Only the great mind of Ollie Quee-" He paused mid-way through his sentence and stopped. He swore he heard.. Screams? People and screams?
Wanda frowned and continued walking for a few more seconds before stopping as well, noticing Clint's almost sheet-white face and turning back to him. "Something wrong?"
"Do you hear something?" Clint asked, eyes darting around the area they were in. Silently, a few voices, their words mere echoes in the silence, resonated. The voices were much too far away for him to make out the words that they were saying, but he could certainly tell where they were coming from.
"Quiet!" Clint hissed , grabbing Wanda and quickly dashing through the one of the halls. The voices seemed to be coming from there. "Listen. Someone's there!" He pointed down to the doorway one of the rooms, which was glowing an ominous black.
"This planet's fate was decided as soon as you refused to tell us the location of the rebel base..." A calm, demeaning, strangely familiar voice echoed through the hall as feet which weren't their's seemed to walk around, tapping against the floor.
"What the hell?" Whispered Clint, pressing his back against the wall and slowly sliding himself down the hall, motioning for Wanda to follow and making a "don't make a sound" gesture with his finger.
The sound of voices got louder and louder until they were right next to the doorway. From what Clint could hear, the person who the voice belonged to seemed to be interrogating someone else.
"Something's wrong." He grunted, turning back to Wanda. "Someone's being questioned in there!"
"Well we have to stop them!" Wanda hissed, Clint nodding in agreement.
"On the count of three, got it?" Clint whispered, inching just a little bit closer to the door. "Three..." He mouthed, putting three fingers up for reference as he grabbed his bow and put himself into a shooting position. "Two..."
"What are you talking about?.." A female's voice popped up this time. Also familiar, Clint swore he had heard it before but didn't know where.
"Wait a minute.." Another voice, which was also strangely familiar, and also a male's, seemed to pause. "Do you hear... scratching from the outside?" The third voice was deep, gruff, and almost muffled in a way, not including the fact that Clint could swear that he could practically hear the voice's breaths as he talked, which were loud, deep, and rhythmic.
The first voice again. "It may just be another one of the troopers..."
"Troopers?" Clint frowned, hesitating for a moment. What did he mean by troopers?
Wanda on the other hand, wasn't phased by the remark. Her eyes were a bright crimson now, and red tendrils of energy bounced off of her hands. He sucked in a breath, ignoring the thought about the troopers and notched an arrow in his bow. No time left.
"ONE!" Both him and Wanda dashed into the room at once and found-
"What the-" The first man's voice stopped talking, the speaker turning towards the shout as both Clint and Wanda stormed into the room, Clint with armed with his bow and arrow, and Wanda with her hands looking as if they were enveloped in maroon fire.
"Alright hands up or-" Before he could finish Clint's mouth dropped open. In the room they were standing in, there was an incredibly authentic looking Darth Vader, Grand Moff Tarkin, and Princess Leia.
Either in Tony's explosion they had been teleported to the highest-budget Star Wars geek-con he had ever seen or something was seriously wrong here.
"Intruder!" Unfortunately Tarkin's reaction was quicker than his. He smashed a button on the panel and a red light began flashing as sirens blared overhead. "Take the princess away, now!" He commanded, pointing at few stormtroopers. "Looks like that was what he meant by troopers." They dashed off with Princess Leia as more troopers began filling the room to capture them.
"More rebels?" The Vader look-alike said incredulously. "I thought I killed them all?!" He exclaimed, backing away from the two a bit.
"So did I.." Growled Tarkin as Vader's lightsaber's familiar *swish* filled the air as it sparked alight, red plasmic energy reflecting off of his mask. "Kill them!" Tarkin roared, Clint faltering as he ended up dropping his notched arrow on the floor.
"What's going on!" Wanda panicked, turning to Clint, eyes alight with fear.
"Maximoff, you probably won't believe this but.. I think we're in a movie.." Clint realized, watching as the identical replica of Vader began charging through his army of soldiers, ready to strike them down and cut them into a million pieces!
He didn't get any further through his army though, as a wall of red light from the troopers flew towards them, Vader halting; thinking they were going to be finished. Fortunately for them, the wall was narrowly stopped by Wanda who quickly twisted her hands and made the blasts disintegrate, much to Tarkin and Vader's surprise.
"What do you mean we're in a movie!" She shrieked, turning towards him for just as second before having to stop another wall of blasts, Vader trying unsuccessfully to shove his way through the troopers to reach them.
"You see, there's this movie called Star Wars and-" Clint once again didn't get to finish his sentence as him and Wanda both dove for cover as the last wall of blasrs was shot, Vader hitting of his own men out of his path with his lightsaber in an attempt to get closer.
"And?" Wanda hissed, enchanting one of the troopers and making him hit another, starting a bit of a tussle between the group and blocking Vader from continuing.
"I think this morning Tony might've done something to get us in that movie." Clint finished, notching an arrow and firing at straight at one of the troopers, only to have it bounce harmlessly off of its armor before the warrior was promptly pounced on by many other soldiers, all the while Vader struggled to get free of the sea of troopers, Grand Moff Tarkin looking on in astonishment at the sheer stupidity of his army.
Clont remembered Tony earlier in the evening two days ago talking about the premiere of Rogue One and that they were going to see the originals before seeing it. Something told him that his unboxing of the classics didn't go as planned...
"Well then, I'm guessing this isn't a romance movie." Wanda said sarcastically, controlling another few troopers to increase the riot among them. "What is it? Sci-Fi? Mystery? Thriller?" She guessed, twitching her arm to make one of the troopers' blaster fly out of their hands.
"More like an action-adventure." Clint confirmed, smirking at the joke she had just made. He quickly filled her in on the basic plot of the first few minutes of the first movie as the civil war between the troopers temporarily stopped their attack against the two.
"So we're on the Death Star?" She asked, eyes widening.
"I think so." Clint nodded.
"And I thought my life couldn't get more crazy..." Wanda chuckled only for Clint to grin and shake his head.
"Get used to this kind of stuff Maximoff. Just be glad we didn't end up in the prequels.." He muttered, holding back a laugh at the image of Hulk getting angry at Jar-Jar Binks. "On second thought maybe it would've been better if we ended up in the prequels..." He said whistfully, only to get grazed on the arm by a blast from a trooper and returning to reality.
"Wait a minute- you said the cannon was going to destroy a planet?" Wanda repeated, giving Clint a familiar look.
"Yes..." He said carefully, backing away slightly. Knowing her, the look she was giving her indicated she was either going to do something incredibly crazy that was either going to get them an incredible victory or end up getting them killed.
She smirked, "Well we can't have that..."
Clint's eyes widened as what she just said sunk in. "You're going to destroy the Death Star, aren't you?..." He realized, shocked. Ripping out a robot's robotic heart was admittedly not a small feat, but to try and blow up a giant mechanical ball of death with your mind was a whole other thing entirely!
She chuckled. "We're still on the ship. I'd rather not get killed. I'll just.. Break the cannon for a while."
He instinctively gripped a bar on the nearby wall, but he didn't move to stop her. Soon she bent down on the floor, eyes ablaze and began to mutter something inaudible, red tendrils seeping and flowing into the cold metal of the Death Star.
"Surrender!" Vader shouted, finally freeing himself from the miniature civil war the soldiers were having and running towards them "Stop with the games and get them!" At this the troopers snapped to attention and got back to attacking the pair once again, with Vader leading the charge.
"Done!" Wanda shouted, Clint hearing a loud boom from a nearby room. "Well, there went the cannon..."
"I think I broke it!" She continued, and at that moment even more soldiers entered the room, all of them branded with the Imperial sigma and all of them carrying weapons of both long and short range.
"Run!" Clint shoved Wanda over to the nearby open entrance as a Stormtrooper's blast narrowly missed his arm. "Get out! I know Vader and this movie more, I can take him, lead them away and distract them!"
Wanda looked back at him with a look of concern, though it changed into determination as she quickly hypnotized some of the other troopers and lead them away, dashing down the other corridor.
"They broke the cannon!" Tarkin exclaimed rushing to the controls, nearly ripping hair out in the mix of rage and confusion he was in as he looked at the flashing image of the damage Wanda had done. "But that's not possible! How..." His cries were drowned out by Vader roaring in anger and scanning the room for Clint.
"Shoot." He grunted as he saw Vader charging at him from across the room. He quickly notched another bow and shot at the floor, a second later smoke filling the room. His escape was masked by the haze, but this didn't fool the others and seconds later the troopers followed, along with Vader...
"I am dead, I am dead, I am so goddamn dead!" Clint thought as he raced down the hall, trying in vain to get away from Vader's troops as alarms blared overhead, the sound pounding in his ears.
"Ok, what do I leave with who again?.." He muttered, hearing a laser fire from behind him as he whirled around to run down the left door. "To my wife, my money and the house. I'll leave Francis my equipment, my other son my car, Nathan and my little girl whatever is left." He repeated, dodging another blast as he darted to the left.
"Stop right there." Clint nearly slid to a stop as he suddenly found Vader standing right in front of him, crimson light saber ablaze. "You will not move another step. Unless of course you want your home planet to be destroyed..." He snarled. While usually due to obvious reasons Clint had a high suspension of disbelief, the fact that Vader caught up to him this quickly was something he could not accept. He was Darth Vader, not Quicksilver or the Flash!
"How the hell did you even get in front of me this quickly!?" Clint yelled, confused. Before he could continue he quickly found something tighten on his neck, and soon enough he was pinned against the wall, Vader leaning in so close to his face he could hear each individual breath in which Vader inhaled.
"State your business..." Vader growled. "Or I will crush your throat. And believe me, you and your friend have tested the Empire's patience quite well after your little stunt with the cannon. Minor damage of course, able to repaired within less than two days' time, but such an annoyance." He snarled.
Clint gulped, and quickly went through all the lore he could remember about Star Wars. "When in doubt, bluff." Especially when your opponent could literally crush you with his mind. "Of course." Mentally, he grinned. He knew just how to deal with Vader, AND buy him enough time not to die.
"Poor poor Ani.." Clint mocked, noticing Vader flinch a bit at his real name. "All these years and he went against everything he once stood for. Shame really... Well, at least he got a bit of power from it... But was it really worth his wife?"
From under the stone cold mask Clint almost swore he saw a look of both vengeance and regret flash in Vader's eyes.
"Oh that's right." Clint smirked, soaking in the great Lord of Evil's sudden raw fear present in the air. "I know Anakin. I know everything. Me. A pathetic rebel scum." He chuckled, Vader's astonished facade quickly wearing off and quickly turning back to anger.
"What did you say?..." His grip tightened and Clint could almost feel his windbag being crushed against the wall.
"I meant congrats man!" Clint wheezed, trying his best not to cough at his lack of air. For a few split seconds Vader's grip on him loosened, a look of confusion on the man's face under his mask.
"I have nothing to be congratulated upon." He growled, Clint taking a deep breath before Vader tried to choke him again.
"You sure about that Ani!" Clint mocked, deliberately sticking out his tongue to infuriate Vader. Of course, he felt like his neck and throat was on fire but he tried his best to ignore that. The longer he kept him occupied the more time he had for Wanda to get here and hopefully save him before he got his ass choked. "No man- I meant the greatest parent in the world award!"
Vader's helmet heaved backward, as if taken aback by that sentence and Clint dropped to the floor, instinctively grabbing his bow and gripping it before Vader could throw it away. "Parent? What are you talking about?!" Vader exclaimed, stepping backward as if Clint had suddenly turned radioactive.
"I said I know everything." Clint rolled his eyes. "I know about Padme too. You remember right, the chick you banged and would've gotten kids with but after you got mad Emperor Electric Albino Potato Man told you ended up killing?" Clint asked. The question was entirely rhetorical, but he knew the impact it would have on the Dark Lord. Sure enough Vader gripped a beam in the wall for support.
The Dark Jedi was currently stuck between strangling Clint again and wanting to know how in Endor he knew Padme- much less how he knew his name.
"Well - spoiler alert- she didn't die you moron!" Vader's mouth dropped open from under his mask. How did he know that! Was he even telling the truth? He was lying! He had to be! That meant his sweet Padme was alive?!
"L-Liar!" He shrieked, but even the Dark Lord himself seemed a bit reluctant in his objection. "You don't know a thing!"
"Sure thing Mr. "I Hate Sand." Clint repeated. "Well, you also one the Idiot Award with the Best Parent one as well. You tied with Jar-Jar Binks for the idiot one though. Because after you went cuckoo bananas Padme just so happened to give birth to little twin babies!" He mock-squealed, while Vader was having a mental breakdown.
"So- y-you're saying that.."
"Yup- you're a dad! Well, you were about nineteen years ago." Clint corrected, Vader grabbing his helmet to keep himself from freaking out. He stood there, frozen, for several seconds, almost as if he had just died from the shock alone.
"The twins got separated after their mom died though." Clint continued, the tiniest spark of hope in Vader being washed out by sorrow. "Because a certain someone let themselves be manipulated by a murderer and didn't try to use their brain."
Vader seemed to completely forget the battle he had been having with the intruder and was far too interested in what he was telling him about what had happened to his wife. He needed to talk to Palpatine after this. If what he was saying was true then he had quite a few things to accuse the Emperor of...
"And one just happened to get adopted by..." Clint paused for dramatic effect, watching as the Sith stared numbly at him, waiting for him to finish the sentence. "The King and Queen of Aleraan!"
Vader clammed up. "King and Queen- Alderaan- but- Princess-..." He paused and realization hit him like a stone. "LEIA IS MY DAUGHTER!?" He schreeched, Clint trying not to burst into laughter.
"Ding ding ding!" Clint shouted. "Correct lord Ani! And here's your prize- A SNEAK ATTACK!"
Before Vader could react with his force magic Clint shoved the man into a nearby control panel, the panel breaking and electricity zoomed over Vader, causing his robotic limbs to stop functioning and causing him to temporarily go unconcious.
"Sorry mate. That's what you get for looking at spoilers. Really should've heeded my alert." Clint grinned, turning to run back but finding himself running headfirst into Wanda, the two smacking into each other.
"Wait! Maximoff?! I though I told you to-"
"DUCK!" Wanda yelled, tackling Clint before he could respond. The two tumbled into the small compartment under another control panel, seeing red blasts from Stormtroopers flying through the air where they had just occupied seconds ago .
Ookay.. that was way too close." Clint breathed, holding his chest. He swore he had almost gotten a heart attack there. "Thanks Wanda."
"It's my fault." Wanda whimpered, holding a hand up to her forehead, eyes dimming back into their usual brown. "It lead them to you."
"It's fine kid." Clint assured, poking his head out of the tight spot just a scratch so he could get a look of the situation they were currently in. There was a crowd of troopers on their right who wouldn't hesitate to turn them into Swiss cheese if they wanted to. "But right now, we need a plan. Badly."
On the left he could hear people marching. But it was distant and was much less loud. Most likely a smaller crowd there. Probably last-minute people being called in as backup. Hopefully they wouldn't be expecting anyone to sneak up on them.
"You go through the right entrance and daze the guards or something!" Clint commanded, Wanda panicking. Darth Vader moaned in pain and tried to get up from the now broken control panel. He was awake.
"I'll go on the left. They're gonna be less people coming in there. We'll meet back up wherever those entrances are leading to. And if you see Vader or his friends, just do some magic tricks, got it?" Clint continued, Wanda looking up at him in confusion.
"Which one is Vader!" She shrieked, just as another laser just barely grazed the wall next to them.
"I though I told you?!" Clint said, looking confused.
"You never told me what he LOOKED LIKE!"
"Uh- he's the guy who looks like Shredder if a black bucket of paint was dropped on his head!" Clint shouted, at first trying to point to Vader but quickly giving up once his finger was nearly blasted off by lasers.
"Who's Shredder?!"
Clint groaned. It looked like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had never gotten a Russian dub before. But then again knowing Michael Bay's movie, that was probably a good thing for that cinema flop.
"Vader is the guy with the black bucket on his head who tried to kill me two seconds ago." He tried again.
Wanda seemed to realize who he was talking about, glancing over at the now missing figure on the sparking panel, and took a breath, and then nodded at him. "Got it." She waved her arms for a few seconds and a dazed look came over some of the troopers, allowing her to slip past.
Clint nodded at her, giving her a thumbs up and watched as she dove into the small room on the right, Barton hearing a loud yelp of pain from a rogue trooper. Now all he had to do was take care of the troopers on the left.
He shuddered slightly, hearing the sound of firing looming ahead. Well, too late now. He slowly waited, hoping to catch the stragglers when they least expected. The faint patting of Stormtroopers' feet tapped through the air and stopped. Now was his chance.
"Hey you!" Clint leaped from underneath the small hiding place and drew his bow, arrow in hand. In the left doorway in the hall, seven stormtroopers froze out of shock, staring at their opponent. "Take this!"
He grinned and deliberately fired at the ground, the arrow sticking into the floor in front of the troopers. They all seemed to freeze at the sudden attack then relaxed, and looked back and Clint and chuckled, taunting him and narrowly missing his leg with another blast.
Clint just kept smiling.
Feeling as if something was wrong, and noticing Clint's suspicious behavior, the troopers shared a look of concern. Then they all tensed as they noticed just the faintest sound of something beeping.
*Beep*
*Beep*
*Beep*
The seven troopers froze. A bomb. They then looked down at the arrow, the arrow that had seemed so carelessly aimed.. And sucked in a breath. On the side of the arrow, a tiny red light flashed on and off, waiting to blow.
They were too late.
Just milisecond after they noticed this, the red light stopped flashing and stayed on, the faint beeping turning into a shrill! And the next thing they knew, a great explosion enveloped their faces, knocking them onto the floor, unconscious.
"Sweet dreams.." Clint mused, kicking aside one of the soldiers and walking through the doorway.
Not much time left.
Wanda dashed down the corridor, trying her best to keep the frequent blaring and flashing lights of the intruder alert out of her head. "I hope Clint is okay.." She took a sharp turn, noticing a lone trooper in the hall.
Reacting quickly, she tore a strip of metal from the wall, throwing it straight onto the trooper before he could react, the soldier yelping in pain as he was slammed into the wall by the shrapnel, Wanda knocking him out with a smaller strip of metal, silencing him before she continued running.
"I need to get out of here.." A voice echoed through the chamber and she stopped mid-stride, backing up a bit, trying to process what she had just heard. Was that a woman's voice... through the wall? After scanning the area for a few seconds she once again sprinted down the hall, merely waving her arm and sending thoughts of drowsiness to stationed stormtroopers along the way.
Sure enough at the end of the hallway there was a small room. A second door- the exit to the small room, was also in front of Wanda. This was where the two entrances met. This was where she and Clint should've met up. But he wasn't here.
Instead, a young woman was begin kept in a holding cell inside the room. The same woman who had been with Vader in the main deck, and the same one Tarkin had ordered to be "taken away" when she and Clint had been discovered.
She was a little younger than her- eighteen or nineteen to be specific. She had dark brown hair wrapped in buns on both sides of the head, and was dressed in some white gown. Her arms and legs were currently bound in small ropes that were tied together loosely with knots clearly not made by people with restraining experience
"Who in the world are you?!" The woman exclaimed, finally noticing Wanda and staring up at her with a confused gaze. Her accent- British, as Wanda had recognized from so many times with Vision- cut through some of her words.
Wanda hesitated for a few seconds, looking at the woman's predicament. She hadn't seen Star Wars before, so she didn't know if this woman was good or evil. And Clint's first-few-minutes summary wasn't too specific about looks. Either way leaving a prisoner onboard seemed a bit cruel. Even to her.
"My name is Wanda Maximoff.." She explained, her eyes glowing red as the lock was suddenly torn in two by her "magic" (in reality it was energy manipulation but as far as she was concerned everyone just called it magic so she didn't care too immensely about calling it that) "And I'm here to help."
"Leia. Princess of Alderaan- and current former prisoner of the man known as Darth Vader." The woman said, Wanda flinging the doors open and untying the Princess. "I'd say pleasure to meet you but currently in our situation greetings are not exactly necessary." So that was the princess Clint had told her about when he had briefed her about the movie.
"Come on, let's get out of he-" Wanda began, being cut short by a sudden blast from behind them. The laser hit Leia squarely in the shoulder and the Princess let out a cry of pain, being thrown backward as Maximoff whirled around to face the shooter.
"Not so fast!" In front of her, one of the less distracted soldiers was aiming his blaster straight at their chests. "Or else we'll end up having to clean the wal- GAH!" The trooper let out a muffled cry, going limp.
Both Wanda and Leia shared a looked of confusion before it melted into relief, the now unconscious body of the trooper falling flat on the floor, revealing the smirking Clint Barton standing above the body. "Miss me?" He chucked, slinging the bow casually over his shoulder.
"Oh you have no idea." Wanda laughed, hugging Clint as Leia looked on. Before she could relish the reunion, the trio heard firing coming from a distance, and Wanda felt something tightening on her neck. Vader was coming. And he was bringing reinforcements.
"Huh, rein-"force"-ments. How ironic." She muttered to herself, remembering Clint's words about Vader being a force user, whatever that meant- only to be grabbed roughly by the shoulder by Leia.
"We have to go! Now!" No one out of the three objected to that statement. They followed Leia to another room in the Death Star, one littered with large spaceships inside. TIE Fighters, as Clint had called them. "It's a little desperate, but we have to try." Leia panted, running to the nearest Fighter, the two superheroes following.
"Wait, won't they see us going out!" Clint protested, stopping mid-run. "They'll shoot us out of the sky! We'd never make it out alive!" He pointed out, eyes wandering over to to one of the control rooms, where two workers were manning the more minor cannons on the ship.
"Leave that to me." Wanda turned and quickly focused on the people in the control room, eyes glowing crimson. The two people certainly must've not had much training, since both of whom's minds were not the strongest. It wasn't hard to hypnotize them. They quickly felt exhausted within seconds.
Just seconds later, a few stormtroopers checked on the pair, not questioning why they were asleep, as it was a hard job; but more questioning why they looked as if they were making out with the firing system while they were unconcious.
"They're knocked out. We have a good few minutes to get away from this Death Cannon." Wanda's eyes finally returned to their normal color, and she got up from her kneeling position on the floor.
"Death Star." Clint corrected as the door to one of the TIE fighters flung open.
"Come on!" Leia urged, motioning for them to get over to the fighter. Both Clint and Wanda turned to find the troopers and Vader entering the room.
"There they are! Kill the intruders! I need the Princess alive!" Vader commanded. All of the stormtroopers fired, only making Clint and Wanda run faster to the fighter. By some god-forsaken miracle all of them somehow missed. Leia held out her hands to them and they both practically launched themselves into the cockpit of the ship.
"You know how to run this thing?!" Clint panted, laser blasts from Vader's forces were quickly going to turn the ship into molten steel if they didn't hurry!
"I don't know! This thing is garbage compared to what I'm used to!" Leia shouted from over the noise of the blasts, the fighter's cockpit shaking violently as Vader began to attempt to tip it over.
Wanda chewed her lip.
They were so dead.
"Do you know how to fly this thing?" Leia asked as the *pew* of firing stormtroopers buzzed behind them. In a few minutes, the fighter would either tip over and they would get knocked unconscious, or they would die from the impact of the fighter crashing onto the floor.
"I don't know I'm just a farmboy!" Clint hollered, tossing his quiver and bow into the floor before trying to get himself seated in the captain's chair, trying to ignore the scraping of metal as the ship rocked back and forth. "I can try I guess?" He began to go over the controls.
"Shit.." The numerous buttons and one steering wheel of the fighter weren't exactly helping him identify how to turn in on. "What did that Star Wars' manuel say about flying TIE Fighters? Come on Barton, think, think.."
"A farmboy with a bow and arrow?" Leia asked sarcastically, pointing to the quiver as Clint mashed a few random buttons. "Who just took down a squadron of Vader's forces?" A loud hiss of steam came from the outside, the fighter shivering a bit. "Alright, making progress..."
"I do a lot of hunting okay?! And that was one guy, not an army!" Clint fired back, managing to remember just enough from the movies to turn on the tie fighter. "Got it!" The fighter slowly hovered in the air, thrusters adjusting themselves to the side as Clint grabbed the steering wheel.
From below a bewildered Vader raised his hand up, about to choke the captain of the escaping fighter before freezing, eyes temporarily glowing red. A second later he collapsed down on the hard metal floor, much to the confusion of Tarkin- of whom had just entered the room.
"What in the wo-?" Tarkin began but was interrupted by a group of red-eyed stormtroopers firing their lasers everywhere from another room. Tarkin grimaced. The soliders were going need an extensive amount of reconditioning after today.
"Alright Empire, get ready, because the Rebel's are about to ride!" In that moment the thrusters boosted off, the tie fighter zooming into the vacuum of space as the Stormtroopers' firing slowly fell nearly silent as they flew away from the Death Star.
"Wooohooo!" Wanda's friend, who Leia still hadn't gotten the name of, pumped a fist in the air, whooping in triumph as Leia turned to the other woman, giving her a "is he serious?" look. When she didn't answer Leia sighed.
"I cannot believe I just did that." She gasped, sinking into the seat, trying to ignore the stiffness of the leather. "And to think that I though Obi-Wan was going to rescue me!"
Wanda grinned. "Hey, just be glad we were there, alright.." Leia smiled, turning away from her rescuer.
The trio flew on for several minutes before any of them felt like taking again, Wanda's friend concentrating on piloting the vechicle before he ended crashing them onto some distant planet while she and Wanda stared out the windows. Leia had never really gone out of Aleraan before, and the mere scale of the universe was astonishing to her.
Seeing a light blue sphere fall into view, and remembering Tarkin's words from the Death Star, a single thought popped into her mind.
"How long is the Death Star cannon going to be out?" Leia inquired, frowning at Wanda. "I heard Tarkin shouting even from my cell. He seemed quite angry. I don't know what you did but I'm glad you were there, the planet that was going to be tested was spared from being destroyed, and countless lives were saved whether you meant to do so or not."
Wanda shrugged, and Leia hoped that she had taken it as the compliment she had meant it to be. The neutral expression on her face made it hard to tell what she was thinking. "A day maybe. Two or three at best. I'm pretty sure that we just made Vader quite angry though. We're probably on his "kick their ass" list at this point."
Leia paused, processing the information. She didn't know whether or not to be relieved, confused, paranoid, or all three. Two or three days could be enough time to evacuate a planet, and maybe enough to think of a plan to destroy the Death Star, but she didn't even know where the Empire would strike!
She sighed, trying to shake the doubts out of her mind. It would be best not to worry for now. There was also the fact that Wanda had told her that they were on Vader's "Kick their Ass" list. She didn't exactly know what that meant, but considering who Vader was, Wanda had probably meant to say that he was angry.
"Well, while I'm not sure what the other thing you just said means, I'm very sure that he wants to kill us." Leia snickered. "He will probably put up a bounty on us in a few hours. Make sure to be cautious of whom you're talking to." She added. The last thing they needed was for one of them to run into Boba Fett in disguise.
"We'll have to remember to trust no one." She said, seeming quite already attached to the other two despite being with them for roughly five minutes.
The two nodded in agreement.
Leia paused then asked the question she had been wanting to say since the two showed up on board, since the intruder alert had flashed. "So, who are you two really? And why were you on the Death Star? You're certainly not outfitted or kitted like those in the rebellion." She was annoyed, but not surprised when the two shifted uncomfortably in their seats, not giving a response for several seconds.
"Uh.. Well.." The older man paused. "It's a long story. My name's Clint, Clint Barton. And you already know Wanda." Leia nodded. So that was his name. Clint.
"That was an impressive show back there you know. Shooting and loading an arrow at a stormtrooper with extensive precision, causing two imperial workers to fall asleep at the flick of your finger.. Qualities like those usually aren't present in farmchildren."
She had never really seen farm children, but she knew enough about them to have basic knowledge of the fact that farm children, even those on the dark side, didn't exactly have magical red force powers that made their eyes turn crimson.
"You seem to know a thing or two about the force." She noted, casting a sideways glance at Wanda. "Why is that?"
Wanda avoided her gaze, looking away as her muscles tensed, fidgeting slightly as she refused to meet her eyes. "Well-"
"And how do you know him?" Leia asked again before she could finish, gabbing a thumb at Clint. They were most likely related, though it wasn't uncommon for people in their world to have traveling companions either, although usually that was for smugglers.
"He-"
"Is my cousin." Clint finished. Leia watched as Wanda opened her mouth then closed it, staying silent.
"Yes, cousin. We live on a farm in a planet not to far from here." She continued, any remnants of the nervousness on her face five seconds ago suddenly erased. "It's quite lovely actually. Serene."
"And the Death Star?" Leia asked, looking at both "cousins" to gauge their responses.
"Well-"
"She's a force user." Clint piped up from the driver's seat. Wanda's face visibly turned red from the seat next to Leia's.
"I-"
Her protest was cut off by Clint shooting a glare at her. Wanda quickly shut up, causing Leia to furrow her brow in suspicion.
"Force users are quite a rarity these days." She observed causally. "They're not exactly common after Vader took over. Though then again, you did manage to rip that lock in two..."
Clint took a few seconds to think of a good lie, slightly confused about Leia's "rip the lock in two" line. "We thought that maybe we could find someone that could train her. So we uh- "borrowed" her dad's ship. It's cheap and doesn't really fly well.." He admitted, turning to give Leia a shrug.
"But it worked. We took off. So we were going past a few planets and er-" He shifted, his face moving around loosely as if he was trying to stifle a laugh. "She uh- felt a great disturbance in the force." His voice shook a bit at the end, and Leia could hear the slightest hint of amusement in his tone.
"She started to guide me and take the controls for a few seconds, steering around saying that she "felt something coming". Next thing you know- Big, Gray, and Mechanics, is right in front of us." Leia relaxed a bit in her seat. While she still questioned the authenticity of their story, things were definitely starting to make more sense in her own mind.
"We crashed the ship after we got shot by their cannons." Clint continued, Leia snapping back into reality. "We crashed on there- that's why there was an intruder alert."
"So your sister was thinking Vader might be a teacher?" She watched as a flash of annoyance passed over Clint's face. He was probably feeling as if this ship ride was becoming more of a trivia game with every passing second.
"Actually, we went to find Kenobi." Clint made up, Leia's eyes widening. "It was only Wanda's mag- POWERS that we found the Death Star." Clint blurted out, trying not to draw too much attention to his slip-up.
"You know Obi-Wan?"
"Sorta." Clint confessed. The more and more he continued the more his story seemed to pile up on top of itself. "We know he's on a nearby planet. Some "Tatoo" place or something."
Leia nearly shot up out of her seat. "Tatooine! Obi-Wan is on Tatooine!" She shrieked, nearly grabbing Clint out of the driver's seat. "We need to get there now!"
"Hey, HEY!" Clint objected, trying to dodge her groping. "Farmboy remember? Just got my flying license for this thing like- two minutes ago?"
Leia chewed her lip but stayed silent. He was right- it was a miracle they were even flying in the first place! And going all the way to Tatooine when they barely knew the controls was too much of a risk to take.
"Fine then. Just take me to my home. Alderaan." They could restock on the planet and hopefully get a better ship- preferably one that didn't have the Imperial label stamped all over it.
"And that is where again? Just so you know- I didn't exactly bring a Star chart in my back pocket."
She pointed to Clint's right. "Go in that direction, it should take a few minutes. Thankfully the Star was parked not to far from my home planet." Clint nodded and obeyed her orders, swaying the fighter to the right.
"Speaking of Aleraan, you probably should evacuate it." Clint noted in, not turning back as he struggled to keep control of the tie fighter.
"Why?"
"Let's just say tall, dark, and throat cancer isn't exactly going to be happy with you after he recalibrates that thing. Wanda may have damaged it, but like you said, it isn't permanent." Clint improvised. Leia's jaw dropped.
"I have a day to evacuate all of Alderaan!" She exclaimed, her expression caught between "Are you kidding me?!" and "You have got to be joking!".
"No, a day and a half." Wanda corrected. This did not help Leia's temper.
"And how am I supposed to do that?"
"Relax, just uh- get some aircrafts and make a speech." Clint assured, much to Leia's anger. "Unless of course, you want everyone on Aleraan dead. Seeing as you're- what? Nineteen? You probably do. Teens are like that."
It was a joke, but Clint seemed to forget that Leia was standing right behind him, had a very strong grip, and well.. wasn't exactly the type for jokes.
Next thing you know, Clint Barton is finding himself being strangled by a nineteen-year old with a bad haircut.
"How dare you!" Shrieked Leia as Clint let go of the controls, hands flinging to keep his windpipe from being crushed.
"Don't-distract-the driver!" He choked, the TIE fighter beginning to falter as they started to fall downward.
"Leia, stop!" Wanda half-ordered, snapping her hand upward. Suddenly Leia nearly launched towards her, Wanda just barely managing to leap out of the way as Leia clipped her jacket, flinging into the back of the tie fighter and lurching the vehicle backward.
"Holy-" Clint nearly fell into the controls before grabbing ahold of the steering and quickly regaining control. "You ladies okay back there? Or are you gonna force-battle again?" He grunted, looking at the others.
"Perhaps if you keep taunting me." Snapped Leia, brushing herself off.
"We're fine." Wanda shot a glare at Leia. "Just a bit of a scare." The two went back to their seats as Clint silently reminded himself not to try and taunt either of them while they were sharing a moving aircraft. Especially one in middle of space.
Another awkward few minutes of silence later the planet of Alderaan came into view.
"Here we are- next stop- would-be asteroids if we didn't just completely break the Death Star!" Clint declared, much to Leia's annoyance and confusion. Wanda laughed and winked at Leia, giving her the "Don't question it" look.
It was a good thing neither of them knew that it would literally be asteroids in the movie if they hadn't done that.
"I'm just surprised he managed to keep this thing intact for this long." Leia joked, trying to distract the utter insanity she was currently going through. Clint gave an annoyed "Hey!" and Wanda began snorting in laughter.
Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.
Clint felt a small frown form on his face as he watched the blue colorful sphere of Alderaan appear in his sight. The two girls were still joking in the back, but he had shoved the amusement into the back of his mind once the true weight of the "mission" hit him.
This was real. This was not a hair-raising, fun adventure. This was real. There were real lives on the line, regardless of the fact that they had been played by extras in the original movie. Regardless of the fact that it was a film in his world.
Here, the fate of the universe was at stake. Here, the destruction of Alderaan could've meant the galaxy flourishing, or turning into hell. Here, he and Wanda could die, and no one would see them again. And if they ended up mixing up the timeline a bit too much, well then, they would destroy an entire world.
A world that was real.
The atmosphere of Alderaan came into view.. Along with Leia's home. Clint had been surprised they hadn't been gunned down yet considering that the Imperial symbol was stamped all over the fighter.
"Oh joy." Thought Clint silently Wanda and Leia chatted in the back of the fighter as they landed. The TIE Fighter had remained stable, and as long as it didn't get hit by anything too powerful it should stay stable. Handy if they needed to make an emergency retreat if Bail and Breha decided that they were enemies.
"Okay, emergency plan if this doesn't go well- run to the TIE Fighter and hope like hell that they don't shoot you down." Clint made a mental note to try and not run directly to the fighter, lest it get shot at and blown up.
As the trio hopped out of the fighter as two familiar faces stepped out to greet them.
Leia's adoptive mother.
And father.
And a squadron of guards all around the area, ready to fire at the slightest tip of the hand...
End of Act Two : Spoiler Alert
Act Three : Bounties
SETTING : Jabba the Hutt's Bar
CHARACTERS : Boba Fett, Thor, Vision, Jabba the Hutt, A Bunch of Very Drunk Aliens, A Rancor
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