Leia scrunched up her face, cringing in disgust as yet more of the wiry-furred creatures swarmed over her. She tried scaring them off by screaming, but that tactic merely resulted in her nearly choking on a wad of foul smelling hairs that got sucked into her throat as she took a breath. She could hear Han continuing to shout as they were dragged down the alley. Something, or somethings, was holding onto her binders and the ligaments in her shoulders burned as her body scraped over the bumpy ground. Suddenly they stopped.

"Mine! Mine!" screeched a cacophony of voices, and the beings fell on her as Leia forgot herself and screamed in horror. Tiny claws scraped at her wrists and ankles, and for a moment she thought this was finally the end.

"There! Beat it! Get the hell out of here!" As Leia was closing her eyes, waiting to breathe her last, the heavy weight of her attackers disappeared. She heard them skittering off down the alley, squeaking triumphantly, and then a strong pair of hands lifted her to her feet.

"Little bastards," Han grumbled. "If that was all they wanted they didn't have to kidnap us."

Astonished, Leia looked down at her wrists. The binders were gone.

"How….?" she asked incredulously, "Did they do that?"

"Yeah." Han brushed tufts of fur and clumps of muck and garbage off her as best as he could before taking her hand and leading her back towards the main thoroughfare. "Just took 'em apart. Must be some kind of metal scavengers."

Noticing her boots felt loose, Leia glanced down at her feet. The boot laces hung to the ground, dragging behind her. "They got the hooks off my shoes too," she said. "Guess that's a small price to pay."

Han nudged her. "Told you I'd take care of it."

Trying to glare at him, Leia chuckled. "That's the second time today you've taken credit for a barely averted disaster."

Shrugging, Han said, "Barely averted disaster is my middle name, sweetheart."

They walked on in silence for a moment, clinging close together. Multiple times Han felt for his blaster instinctually as an ominous growling or crying echoed down the alley. This was not a place to travel unarmed.

"Do you know where we are?" Leia asked quietly.

"Coruscant," Han responded, hoping for a smile.

"Han, be serious for once. We need to find shelter."

"We will," he told her sternly. "No worrying. I think we're still generally under the Palace District—didn't you say you had some contacts down here? Are they around this zone?"

Leia thought a moment. "My primary contact has likely moved, I imagine. I got him into a bit of mess recently—I'd hate to do that again."

Han scoffed. "How recently could it have been? You haven't been to Coruscant in years…"

"Actually," she confessed, reddening, "I was here for a short while recently. Just before we got you away from Jabba." Seeing Han's skeptical look, she added, "With Luke. And Chewie. And Lando. I was perfectly safe."

"I have no idea how the bunch of you managed to survive so long without me around to keep you out of trouble," Han responded. "But never mind. I think I've got somebody we can ask. Just gotta find her."

"Her?" Now it was Leia's turn to be skeptical. "Old girlfriend?"

"Nah, nothing that serious," he teased. "Don't worry, she won't feel threatened by you."

"You sure?" Leia asked. "I think I look pretty frightening right now."

Han stopped, clasping her hands and turning her to face him. The bruise on her forehead was swollen and purple, and scratches crisscrossed her face. Mud and other unidentifiable goo was plastered over her head and mashed into her hair, and her clothes looked and smelled like she'd gone for a swim in the sewer. "You're beautiful," he said with a smile.

"And you're very handsome," she replied with a wry grin, pulling back as he leaned into kiss her, "But you need to brush your teeth if you're going to try that."

"What? You kissed me when you got me out of carbonite and I know for a fact my breath was way worse then."

"I hadn't seen you in months then," she explained. "It was hard to wait."

"And now?"

"Now we need to find that girlfriend of yours and see if she'll loan you a toothbrush."

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Luke was waiting dejectedly with Chewbacca and the droids when Lando came strolling in, whistling casually.

"The fleet split up: Coruscant, Carida, and the Kuati shipyards," Lando announced proudly. "Most of the damaged ships went to Kuat, and apparently Chimaera took some good hits." As Chewie began growling, Lando added quickly, "No severe damage though."

"How did you find that out so quickly?" Luke asked, genuinely impressed. "You must have some good contacts!"

"Well, yes," Lando said with false modesty, "But it was simpler than that. I just pulled rank…." Luke raised an eyebrow. "Okay, I told Rieekan what was going on. He was pissed about Mothma refusing to send someone after Leia and got me the full intelligence report."

"So we're off to Kuat," Luke said, standing up.

"Not so fast. We can't just stroll in there in the Falcon. We'd be shot down before you could blink." Lando stood between Luke and the door. "And what are you going to do when you get there? Just storm every Star Destroyer til you find them?"

"It's worked before," Luke mumbled.

"I have a guy on Belnar who owes me a favor," Lando continued. "Let's at least swap ships and try to do this somewhat strategically."

"So we get to Belnar and then what?" Chewie growled. "They could be dead by then, or on their way to Kessel."

"If they were going to kill them, they already would have," Lando told him. "Right now the Chimaera is our only link. It's the best we can do."

Grumbling irritably, Chewie got up to follow him. The three of them, tailed by the two uncharacteristically quiet droids, walked down the busy halls of Home One, trying to avoid eye contact with the passing soldiers and staff. As they reached the hangar, a young Alliance soldier stepped in front of him holding up his hand.

"Do you have the authorization code to go in?" he asked pleasantly.

"I beg your pardon?" Luke responded.

"High command instituted an authorization requirement for accessing the hangar." He gave them a sheepish grin. "Too many pilots sneaking their ships out to go party planetside."

"Well, I can assure you that isn't what we're doing," Luke said, trying to keep the exasperation out of his voice. The youth was just trying to enforce a reasonable rule. "We don't have authorization but we need to get our ship."

"I'm sorry." The boy gave them an uncomfortable smile. "Maybe you can contact High Command…"

Luke took a deep breath and looked into the boy's eyes. "You will let us through."

Lando and Chewbacca stared, making Luke suddenly feel self-conscious. Ben had been able to hypnotize people with the Force with panache: he just felt a bit idiotic. But self-doubt wouldn't help them now.

"You will open the door," he said firmly. Please let this work, he added silently.

As though moving through water, the boy turned, inputting his access code and stepping out of the way as the door slid open. Luke could see a security cam watching them, and felt relieved that High Command would see that he'd forced his way in against the boy's will. No reason for the young man to get in trouble. Unwilling to waste time, he made a beeline for the Falcon, his companions in close pursuit.

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"We can't go in there looking like this!" Leia protested as they rounded a corner and found themselves standing in front of an admittedly seedy looking nightclub.

"This isn't a joint that caters to royalty," Han told her under his breath. "I wouldn't worry about a dress code."

"You really think we'll get past the bouncers?" she asked skeptically, looking at the two enormous specimens guarding the door. "I know you like dives, but I'm guessing even a bar in the underground has standards."

"Well," he said, pulling her towards a darkened alcove, "We could, uh….lose a few layers."

"What?" Leia's voice was dangerously flat. "Care to explain what you mean by that, flyboy?"

He responded by stripping off his jacket and outer shirt, using the latter to scrub some of the muck out of his hair. "See. Better, right?" He was left in a tight, sleeveless tank, and were they not tired, starving, injured, dirty, and in mortal danger, Leia would have liked some extra time to enjoy the view. At the moment, though, she wasn't in the mood.

"I am not taking my clothes off." Leia looked down at the ground and kicked a crumpled piece of plastic packaging into a nearby wall. Stripping down to her clean layers would leave her in knickers and a low cut tank. "Absolutely not."

"There's no need to be uptight about it," he said, starting to get annoyed. Modesty was one thing, but since when was she not willing to make a small sacrifice to further their cause.

Leia continued to avoid his gaze, knowing his annoyance was born out of ignorance and not a lack of compassion. She'd been so careful to keep him from finding out what Jabba had done to her, even going as far as to threaten to shave Chewbacca's fur off in the night if he breathed a word to Han. By the time his eyesight had returned, she was back in her Alliance issued jumpsuit, the bruises on her neck covered up with concealer that she'd stashed away in the Falcon's 'fresher, the slave garb tossed out the hatch to wither away in the relentless wind and sun of Tatooine. But in spite of her satisfying revenge against Jabba, she couldn't relive that kind of humiliation so soon. Gazing downward, she just shook her head.

"Please don't ask me to do that," she said. "I can't."

Han gave her a long look, sensing there was something other than princess-ly reserve behind her reticence. He'd had a sneaking suspicion that her stay at Jabba's hadn't been as drama free as she had implied when he asked, and wondered—not for the first time—whether this was related to ill-treatment by the Hutt. But there was little to be done about that now, and he leaned back to think of another plan.

"You go in," Leia said finally. "I'll wait here."

"Alone?" Han scoffed. "Over my dead body."

"I'll hide," she insisted. "Go in and find your contact. The sooner we're out of her, the safer we'll both be."

"Nope." His foot was down. "We'll find another way. Let's just go try—maybe I'll be able to charm them enough that they won't notice you."

Sighing, Leia followed. She doubted she could slip in under the radar—even a human could probably smell her from fifty meters away. But Han had enough confidence for the both of them. Maybe it would work.

Her magical thinking was interrupted a few seconds later when the giant bouncer stepped in front of the door to keep them from passing. He looked disgustedly at Leia.

"You here for the cleaning staff job?" he said in an impossibly deep voice. "Round back. You don't come in with the patrons."

"Uh, yeah." Han couldn't believe their luck. "Mind pointing the way?"

Rolling his eyes, the bouncer gestured towards a metal door inserted into the heavily graffitied wall about twenty meters down yet another dark alley. "Knock on the door and tell Buff you're here. Can't believe he finally got someone to answer that ad."

"Do you really think this is a good idea?" Leia whispered as they made their way down the alley and rapped on the door. "We need a contact, not a job."

"It gets us in, doesn't it?" Han hissed back. "We'll worry about the rest later."

The door swung open, and a deeply scarred humanoid from a species neither of them recognized stared out into the murk. Presumably he was the aforementioned Buff.

"You want the cleaning job? Six credits an hour, no overtime."

"Six credits? That's not even close to minimum wage," Leia started to protest before Han silenced her with a hand over her mouth.

"Sounds good," he said cheerfully. Gesturing for Leia to precede him inside, he added, "After you, milady."