Disclaimer: I don't own it; it belongs to George Lucas, yada, yada, yada.
Needless to say, Master Yoda was less than pleased to hear of their decision to leave. The look he gave Aurora was particularly eloquent, and she had to force herself not to squirm under it. The decision was made and only time would tell whether it was a mistake or not. And she really, really wished she'd quit having these premonitory shivers every time she thought something like that.
Turning away from her in evident disgust, the Jedi Master tried once again to convince his stubborn student to change his mind.
"Luke! You must complete the training."
But Luke only shook his head, his mind already made up. "I can't keep the vision out of my head. They're my friends. I've got to help them."
"You must not go!" Yoda sounded almost desperate, which really wasn't helping Aurora's nerves.
Luke, always the nicer of the two of them, was still trying to soften the blow by making Master Yoda understand their motivations. "But Han and Leia will die if we don't."
"You don't know that." A new voice suddenly replied.
Aurora stiffened as she and Luke both turned and looked across the clearing to see her father standing there. He was slightly blue and shimmering, but he was also undeniably there.
Luke blinked and cast a swift glance at Aurora. He couldn't stop the blush that spread across his face. Here he was standing across from a man who he had watched be cut in two with a lightsaber and all he could think of was that Ben knew exactly what had happened between Luke and his daughter last night on the wing of the fighter under which he was currently standing. Which was rather stupid, when he thought about it; Ben obviously had bigger concerns on his mind right now. And yet, he couldn't stop himself from taking a step away from Aurora. Just in case.
Ben, meanwhile, had continued with the issue at hand. "Even Yoda cannot see their fate."
Aurora, oblivious to Luke's discomfort and the reason behind it, took a step toward her father. "But there's a possibility they may. That's what Luke saw in that vision."
"A possibility is not a certainty."
"But it's enough reason to go and help them."
Ben shook his head. "The risk is too great."
"But we can help them!" Luke asserted, jumping back into the conversation. "We can feel the Force!"
"But you cannot control it." Ben replied. "This is a dangerous time for you, when you will be tempted by the dark side of the Force."
"Yes, yes. To Obi Wan you listen." Yoda added. "The cave. Remember your failure at the cave!"
Aurora shuddered in remembrance, but Luke plunged ahead. "But we've both learned so much since then." He turned to the older Jedi Master. "Master Yoda, we promise to return and finish what we've begun."
Shaking off the bad memories, Aurora stepped closer to Luke, unconsciously making them into one unit, as Luke had done with his words. "You have our word."
Obi Wan eyed the two of them with trepidation. So much like Anakin… With that thought guiding him, he tried again to change their minds.
"It is you and your abilities the Emperor wants. That is why your friends are made to suffer."
"And that is why we have to go." Luke replied his voice apologetic but firm.
"Luke, I don't want to lose you to the Emperor the way I lost Vader." Obi Wan nearly pleaded.
The young man met his eyes, determination shining in his own. "You won't." Next to him, the same determination marked Aurora's face, more so perhaps in that she was obviously also determined to protect Luke from whatever fate it was that Yoda had foreseen. Obi Wan felt his heart ache at the sight.
Into the suddenly emotional atmosphere, Yoda's voice came with a shocking briskness. "Stopped they must be. On this all depends. Only a fully trained Jedi Knight with the Force as his ally will conquer Vader and his Emperor. If you end your training now, if you choose the quick and easy path, as Vader did, you will become an agent of evil."
"Patience." Obi Wan counseled.
Aurora had had enough. This was nothing more than emotional blackmail. Luke was already swamping himself in guilt; neither of them needed any more added to the load they were already carrying.
"And sacrifice Han and Leia?" She demanded into the silence that followed.
"If you honor what they fight for…yes!" Yoda shot back.
Luke glanced back and forth between his teachers, guilt and indecision written on his face. Aurora took a step closer to him until their shoulders brushed, giving him her moral support. She'd already told him it was his vision and therefore his decision. She'd do whatever he thought was appropriate. Not because he was her commanding officer, but because at this point, he was operating with more information that she was. She'd caught only the edges of that vision, as if it had been filtered through him.
As if fortified by the contact, Luke took a deep breath and straightened his shoulders.
Seeing the decision in his face, Obi Wan sighed. "If you choose to face Vader, you will do it alone. I cannot interfere."
"I understand." Luke said. He turned to the small astromech. "Artoo, fire up the converters."
"Not alone." Aurora told her father quietly, the words almost lost under Artoo's happy reply. "Never alone."
Obi Wan nodded. "I understand." He repeated Luke's words, both of them realizing he meant far more than just Aurora's decision to accompany Luke on the rescue mission. Aurora turned and climbed into the cockpit of her ship that she had moved to the clearing early that morning.
"Luke, don't give in to hate – that leads to the dark side."
Nodding, Luke too climbed into the pilot's seat.
Standing on a log in the clearing, Master Yoda suddenly looked strangely diminished. "Strong is Vader. Mind what you have learned. Save you it can."
Aurora paused in putting on her helmet. "I'll remember." She had the sudden feeling that Yoda knew far more than what he was telling, and whatever he knew, it wasn't good.
"We'll return." Luke was saying. "I promise."
The cockpit closed on his words, and with a roar of its engines, the X-Wing leapt for space. Aurora hesitated a moment. "I'll watch out for him. I promise, Master." Then she too closed her cockpit and was gone in a swirl of morning fog.
Yoda sighed. "And who will watch you, hmm?" He shook his head, tired. "Told you, I did. Reckless are they. Now matters are worse."
"Those two are our last hopes." Obi Wan replied.
Looking up where the two ships had gone, Yoda waited a second. "No. There is another."
*
Flying through swirls of clouds tinted gold by the distant sun, Aurora frowned at her display panel.
"Where are all the guards? We should have been challenged by now."
"Where's all the traffic, for that matter." Luke's voice came back through her com. "I haven't seen any ships at all."
"No sign of debris anywhere though, so I don't think there's been any kind of battle."
"No sign of debris? Maybe Han and Leia aren't here." Luke said dryly.
"Something's wrong." She stated, unease curling in her stomach.
"Then I guess that means we are in the right place." Luke replied cheerily.
"I thought we already knew that." Aurora answered.
"Well," his voice came back, dragging the word out. "I was almost positive."
"Almost positive? Need I remind you that we've been flying for two days, have alienated a very old Jedi Master, not to mention my father, who, by the way dragged, himself back from the dead in order to prevent us from coming here, and all this time you were only almost positive?"
Luke winced as her voice increased in volume. "Hey, what can I say? It was a pretty short vision. And let's not forget, I was somewhat distracted when Artoo showed me that image."
There was a long moment of silence from the com in which he could almost hear her blushing.
"…not my fault." She finally mumbled.
"Excuse me? It most certainly was your fault I was distracted." Luke replied. "It certainly wasn't Artoo that got me into that state."
"Hey! Let's not forget: you kissed me!"
"Yes. Yes, I did." He answered, satisfaction practically dripping from his words. He grinned to himself at the audible growl that came from the com. Pissing her off might not have been the best way to get her to talk, but it had worked. She'd been avoiding any mention of that night with studied focus, constantly changing the subject or pretending to sleep when he came anywhere close to mentioning it. Of course, having a serious discussion over a comlink about the state of their relationship probably wasn't the greatest idea, but what else could he do? They were stuck in hyperspace in two different ships and didn't exactly have time to stop off somewhere where they could have a face-to-face discussion. Sometimes, saving the galaxy really interfered with his love life.
"Are we finally going to talk about this?"
"Now?" Her voice sounded strangled.
"You have other plans?"
"Actually, yes. Like, oh, I don't know, saving Han, Leia and Chewie?"
"We can do both." He assured her.
However, he hadn't counted on Aurora being just as stubborn as he was, and when she didn't want to talk about something, nothing in the galaxy could make her.
"Oh, look!" She said with false disappointment. "A landing pad. Too bad. I guess we'll just have to postpone that little chat for another time. Back to work."
Her ship shot out ahead of his and Luke cursed under his breath at the bad timing.
*
With no one to interfere, it was only a matter of minutes to land the two X-Wings close to each other. Luke gazed across the otherwise empty landing pad as the cockpit canopy rose around him. It was eerily quiet, with no other sounds but the wind blowing across the dark grey metal and the hisses and creaks of the two ships shutting down.
When Aurora's voice came, it almost startled him.
"Creepy."
He couldn't help but agree. It reminded him of holos he'd seen of abandoned settlements and towns on rim planets. But unlike those, which were mostly in ruins, this city still had lights and atmosphere. It simply looked as if its inhabitants had just stepped away a moment ago. A shiver worked its way down his spine.
"You coming?" Aurora called, breaking his reverie.
Seeing she had already doffed her helmet and flightsuit and was climbing down the ladder, Luke followed suit. A moment's concentration saw Artoo lifted carefully out of his socket and set down next to them. Seeing Aurora's raised brows, he shrugged. "I figure he can access the city's computer if we need to."
She nodded. "Alright. Come on, short stuff." She turned and headed towards the lighted doorway across the pad.
"That better have been directed at Artoo." Luke said, following behind her.
*
A short time later found them huddled in an alcove while Artoo accessed data on a public terminal.
"Anything?" He asked the little droid.
Artoo's dome swiveled towards him and he let out a blatting sound before turning back to his work.
"I think that means be patient." Aurora suggested helpfully.
"Yeah, I got that." Luke said wryly. He leaned his head back against the smooth white wall of the alcove, looking around carefully. They'd finally passed a few small groups of people, but nowhere near as many as he'd expected in a city of this size. Even more surprisingly, no one had challenged their presence there, and those few small groups they had passed had seemed rather nervous about something, hurrying along without making eye contact or seemingly even taking notice of the three intruders. Maybe, despite the lack of damage, there really had been a battle of some type here. But what interest could the Alliance have in Bespin? Sure, the tibanna gas was valuable and could be of great use in fueling blasters, but they didn't have the facilities to create them and no where to store them.
It was really bothering him what Han and Leia were doing here. Something was wrong with it, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.
Artoo suddenly let out a series of excited whistles and chirps.
"Slow down, Artoo." Aurora told the little droid. "You're going way too fast. I didn't catch that."
The astromech whistled again, this time significantly slower. Luke and Aurora exchanged horrified glances.
"The Empire?" He croaked. "They're here?"
Aurora was studying the terminal over Artoo's dome. "Not just here, but here in force! Look at those numbers."
Luke's stomach was twisting with dread. "Why do I have the feeling they're not here for some tibanna?"
"It's got to be Leia. As one of the leaders of the Alliance she'd be a prime target. Somehow, they must have found out she was here." She turned back to the little droid, a sense of urgency rushing through her. "Artoo, I need you to run a search for any ships that have landed recently, anything that fits in the same class size as the Falcon. Never mind the names or registration codes; Han and Chewie will be running under false ones."
It only took the astromech a few minutes to bring up a list. Aurora ran her finger down the display, trying to ignore Luke reading over her shoulder. They both spotted it in the same instant.
"Here! Docking bay m23. A YT 1300 light freighter. It has to be the Falcon." She frowned. "It says the main hyperdrive was damaged. I wonder how they managed that?"
"Come on." Luke grabbed her arm and pulled her away. "You can ask them when we find them. I'm sure it will be a long and complicated, though thoroughly entertaining, story."
Aurora was still frowning as they headed down the corridor in the direction of the docking bay. "Luke, did you see what ship the Imperials arrived on?"
"Yeah," He said grimly. "The Executor. Vader's ship."
*
They were moving quickly now, stopping only to check that they were heading in the right direction. However, they weren't moving on the most direct route. Frequently, corridors that they needed to take would be shut down, while others were conveniently open. As a result, they were moving in a sort of diagonal towards the docking bay.
"We're being herded." Aurora said grimly.
"I know." Luke replied, his jaw set. He couldn't shake the feeling that they were being watched and it was making his skin crawl; especially because he was pretty certain who it was. He'd felt that nasty cold aura he remembered from the cave the moment they had set down on the landing platform. From the way her eyes were constantly moving, he knew Aurora did too.
Eventually, they might need to take matters into their own hands, and make their own way through the city. He fingered the lightsaber hanging at his belt, feeling the familiar smooth metal under his fingers. He wondered what their mysterious watcher would do if they started to just cut their way through doors and walls.
As before, the corridors they were moving down were once more deserted. Luke wondered if that was because the inhabitants of the city had fled or if they were being kept out of the way so that when Vader finally made his appearance, there wouldn't be anyone to offer any unlikely heroics. He rather figured the latter. A sudden thought occurred to him and he turned towards her.
"Aurora, promise me something."
At the sudden seriousness in his voice, she stopped and faced him.
"Promise me that if we get separated for any reason, you'll get to Han and Leia. Don't bother trying to rescue me or anything like that."
She opened her mouth to protest, but he cut her off. "Promise me. Please. I need to know that you'll help them, if for some reason I can't."
Her eyes narrowed and for a moment, he thought she was going to refuse, then she nodded once. "Alright, as long as same goes."
At this look of confusion, she elaborated. "If something happens to me, you get them out and leave me."
Luke felt his stomach clench. Leave her alone at the mercy of the Empire? He didn't think he could do that. His first instinct was to refuse absolutely, but then he saw the look on her face and realized it was exactly what he had asked her to do. He swallowed, hard. It was one thing to risk himself in order to help Han and Leia, but something else entirely to risk Aurora. And yet, hadn't she trained just as hard as he had? Wasn't she just as capable? Even more so, considering the number of times she had put him on his back when they sparred. He needed to remember that she was his partner, not his….whatever she was. Somewhere in the back of his mind it occurred to him that maybe this was why Jedis didn't do relationships.
Taking a deep breath, he nodded. "Fair enough."
Aurora's mouth twisted slightly, as if in ironic amusement, and Luke realized she had been expecting him to refuse. Was he really that overprotective of her?
Shaking his head at his own thoughts, he started walking again.
Considering the direction of his thoughts and the way that ominous feeling had been growing, it wasn't too surprising that when they heard the sounds of a group moving towards them, both Luke and Aurora ducked cautiously into alcoves to each side, neither one assuming that it was either innocent bystanders or potential assistance. Artoo let out an excited whistle, only to trail off sheepishly when Luke glared at him.
Ahead of them, a figure dressed in strangely old-fashioned armor appeared around a bend in the hall, followed closely by a strange black floating box pushed by two guards. They were in turn followed by two stormtroopers.
"Fett!" Aurora hissed.
"Who?"
"That's Boba Fett. I recognize the armor."
Even Luke had heard of the infamous bounty hunter and he whistled soundlessly. For the Empire to lower themselves to hiring bounty hunters meant they were really serious about their mission here. He began to have a really bad feeling that it didn't have anything to do with Leia.
Unfortunately for the two Jedis-to-be, sound carried better than they had expected and the stormtroopers spotted them and quickly opened fire.
Cursing under her breath, Aurora returned fire, catching one in the throat. Luke took out the other trooper, but before he could turn his blaster on Fett, the bounty hunter had fired some kind of laser at him. It hit the wall directly in front of his face, causing him to duck down hastily and showering both Luke and Aurora with chunks of the wall. When they both recovered, it was just in time to see the two guards with their strange burden disappear into a side corridor. They rushed after them, but a thick metal door had closed between them.
"Shavit!" Aurora swore again, slamming her hand into the door. "This place is like a damn maze!"
Luke couldn't help but agree. Something tickled at the edge of his mind, and he turned in time to see another group of stormtroopers heading down a hallway behind them. In their midst were several figures: one of them was extremely tall and hairy; another, with intricate dark braids, was almost lost from view.
Leia spotted him at almost the same time.
"Luke! Luke, don't – it's a trap! It's a trap!" She tried to hang onto the edge of the door, but one of the troopers pulled her through.
Without a word, Luke tore after them, Aurora yelling as she followed him with Artoo behind her frantically whistling as he tried to catch up.
Luke reached a kind of anteroom and skidded to a stop, looking around desperately trying to catch his bearings. Leia and Chewie had disappeared. And where had Han been? He heard Aurora coming up behind him, but suddenly another thick door slammed shut between them, leaving him suddenly alone. That nasty cold sensation he'd been feeling since they landed suddenly doubled.
The trap had just been sprung.
*
Aurora just barely managed to catch herself from slamming face first into the door that had shut unexpectedly between them. She swore again as Artoo came scooting up next to her.
"What part of 'it's a trap' did he not get?" She demanded in exasperation. The little droid only whistled mournfully.
"Come on, Artoo. We need to find a way around this. You navigate."
Typical Luke. Someone needs rescuing and he rushes off headlong, regardless of his own safety.
Only now, she had a really bad feeling that Luke was the one in need of rescuing. In fact, she thought maybe he might have been the one all along and maybe they really should have listened to Master Yoda and her father. And thanks to her own stupid confidence that he would never agree to abandon her, she had promised to not try to rescue him. Stupid, stupid, stupid, she thought. But who was she actually referring to was unclear, even to herself.