Author's Note: Argh! I know, I am a horrible person! This chapter was supposed to be longer, too, but I figured you'd waited long enough. I am so sorry! And for those of you who like me enough to keep reading, please review and let me know how this chapter works! It was a fairly difficult chapter for me to write, so I hope it comes off well! Enjoy!
Chapter Eighteen: Dinnertime
I was shocked to see Vader there, but I got over it very quickly.
Then, I became angry.
I wasn't the only one. Han drew his blaster and fired at Vader in quick succession. But Vader wasn't the arch-villain of the galaxy for nothing. He simply raised his hand, and the bolts deflected into the wall. Then, quicker than the blink of an eye, Han's blaster was resting in Vader's hand.
Vader placed the gun on the table. "We would be honoured if you would join us," he said calmly.
It was only then that I noticed the bounty hunter standing at Vader's side and slightly behind him. I thought I recognized him, but didn't dwell on it.
Han glared at Lando, not bothering to reply to Vader.
"I had no choice," Lando protested. "They arrived right before you did. I'm sorry."
"I'm sorry, too," Han snapped.
"Leave us," Vader ordered Lando. The door behind us slid open – I hadn't even noticed that it had closed – and Lando backed out hurriedly.
As soon as he was gone, with the door tightly shut once again, I turned to Han. "I told you not to trust him!"
Han's jaw sagged. "This is not –"
"And you!" I whirled to glare at Vader."You told me you would stay away from here!"
"Wha . . ?" Han gasped beside me, but I didn't even spare him a glance. I was past caring about who knew about our so-called deal.
"Leia –" Vader began, but I cut him off.
"Your Highness," I snarled in correction.
"Hold on –" Han objected, having found his voice once again.
"Shut up, Han!" I growled at him, then turned back to Vader. "I want you gone within the hour," I ordered icily.
"I cannot do that," he told me flatly. "Sit down."
I crossed my arms. "No."
"Princess. Sit."
"No!"
Vader moved around the table toward me. Han stepped in front of me, but suddenly the bounty hunter – Boba Fett, my mind finally supplied – was there and pulled him around to the other side of the table.
Vader stopped merely inches from me, looking down at me from his towering height. "Your Highness," he said, his voice as low and soft as it could be, with that harsh vocalizer, "sit down. We can talk about this."
"What is there to talk about?" I hissed. "You went against my wishes, which you had agreed to. As far as I'm concerned, you just broke this deal into tiny little shards!"
His gloved hand shot out an gripped my upper arm. His fingers overlapped as they circled my bicep. "My business here has nothing to do with our deal."
"Hey, Your Worship –"
I jerked at my arm; Vader held it fast. "You should have thought of that before you followed me here."
"I was here first," he reminded me.
"That's not the point!"
"Then what is the point?"
"The point is that you did what you said you wouldn't do! You went against your word, you betrayed me! And therefore the deal is off!"
"So why are you still here?"
"Because the door is locked!"
Vader tilted his head. "How do you know that?" he asked, his tone no longer challenging but curious, his hand dropping from my arm.
I blinked. How did I know? Had I heard the click of the lock as it fell into place? I couldn't remember. "I don't know," I snapped impatiently. "I just do!"
"I see," Vader replied mysteriously. I glowered.
"Leia –" Han's voice was beginning to sound slightly hysterical now.
And then an all-too-familiar figure sauntered into the room from a door behind and to the left of Vader.
"You!" I hissed furiously.
He actually had the audacity to wave cheerfully at me. "Hey, Princess. Good to see you again." Then he spotted Han. "Solo! Hey man, been back home lately?"
Han stared at him, completely stunned, as if he hadn't been before. I was actually surprised he didn't collapse. "Uh, no," he managed. "It's Jix, right?"
"Yep," the infernal Imperial replied with a grin.
"Hey, weren't your eyes blue last time?" Han blurted out, coming back to himself a bit.
Jix's grin became a bit forced, and there was a rather pregnant silence.
"So Uncle D," Jix began, turning to Vader.
"Anything?"
"No."
"Any what?" I demanded.
"Very well," Vader sighed, ignoring me.
"Is it dinner time yet?" Jix asked, slight yearning in his tone.
"We were waiting for you," Vader replied.
"Seriously?" Jix looked far too delighted. I wanted to smack him silly. "Aw, Uncle D, I didn't know you cared!" He pulled our a chair and fell into it, then stared at the table expectantly.
Vader pulled out a chair for me. I nearly refused it, but I realized that I had a better chance of getting answers from Vader if I cooperated with him – for the time being, anyway. After all, it was just dinner. We'd be in better shape after eating something other than cabin rations anyway.
Vader took the head seat, putting me at his right hand and Jix at his left. "Solo?" he said to Han, making the question sound like an order.
Han and Chewie exchanged looks, and whispered a bit, but they sat down beside me when Boba Fett took a menacing few steps toward them. The bounty hunter himself remained standing. Vader paid him no attention.
The food came quickly; it was an impressive spread, I had to admit. Vader had even remembered Chewie in his preparations, and there was a large raw bantha flank for him to tear into. Chewie looked half surprised at Vader's thoughtfulness, and half convinced that he was about to be poisoned. He sniffed the meat cautiously.
For the rest of us, there was fresh Hodean bread, butter still hot on the top of the loaves, and an assortment of spreads to go on it; nerf steaks, a bantha roast, Nautolan fish, Nubian fowl and Kaminoan shellfish; fruits and vegetables from numerous worlds, made into about six different kinds of salads and side dishes, with real cheese cubes in some of them (I couldn't remember the last time I had real cheese); some kind of soup I didn't recognize but which smelled heavenly; and all the nerf milk, sparkling water and fruit juice one could want. There was even a bottle of Alderaanian wine. My throat closed up at the sight of it.
Vader and Fett made no move to take off their armoured helmets, and I idly wondered how only three of us were going to finish off this elaborate banquet.
Then I remembered that they were Imperials. Leftovers didn't matter; only the amount of selection. I cast my eyes down at the napkin my well-trained hands were automatically smoothing over my lap, inwardly wincing at the waste of food.
I made my way through half a dozen shellfish and a serving of salad (the cheese tasted even better than I remembered) before I started talking again.
"So tell me why you're here," I said to Vader, trying to sound pleasant, as if we were just making idle conversation. It was easier now that I had eaten something.
"Wei-wa –" Han tried to interrupt, his mouth full. I kicked him under the table and kept my eyes on Vader. Jix looked at me as if he thought I was going to rip Vader's throat out with my bare hands. Which, come to think of it, wasn't such a bad idea.
"Please, Princess, just be tolerant," Vader told me.
I leaned forward. "Listen to me, you son-of-a –"
"Don't go there," he hissed at me. "I'm warning you, Your Highness – do not go there."
Something in his mechanical tone frightened me enough to drop the insult but not enough to dissuade me from continuing on with my speech. "I have been nothing but supportive of you. I have done everything you have asked of me. I have stayed in this little arrangement far past the time when it should have ended because you still had things you wanted to do, things that, may I add, are going nowhere fast. I've done research for you, I've herded the Alliance in the direction you desired them to go, I have accepted all your sorry excuses, I've hijacked ships for you, I've kept certain secrets of yours. You have nothing to complain about when it comes to my work for you. The very least you could do is be respectful of my wishes for once! But now I find you're incapable of even that much!"
I stood up and placed my hands on the table, leaning toward Vader in hopes that my point come across unaltered by Vader's selective hearing. "Do you know what it's like to have someone take things from you and give nothing back? To have them use you until you are worn out and weary to the bone? I have to admit, I never did. I thought I gave up everything for the Alliance – all my personal hopes and dreams. Now I realize that nothing I have ever done has hollowed me out the way this deal has. Everything I do revolves around you and your grand plans. I'm trapped in your delusional little scheme and I'm sick of it!"
Han had stopped chewing and was staring at me in horror, his mouth hanging half open. Chewie was limp in shock. Jix looked impressed. Fett hefted his blaster a little higher. Vader was still as a stone.
"I didn't realize you felt that way," Vader finally answered, his voice so low that even with the vocalizer, I could barely hear it. That piece of machinery could pick up and convey a surprising number of inflections.
"Well, I do," I snapped back. "And I want things to change. Immediately, and for certain, this time. I don't want you nodding and agreeing with me and then turning around and doing the exact opposite of what I ask of you. Again."
Vader stood, and I straightened. The action didn't do much; he still towered over me. "I will review our arrangement –"
"And how exactly will you do that, considering it's not written down?" I interrupted harshly.
"I will consider what you have said," Vader rephrased, "and we will talk in the morning. Is that a suitable short-term agreement?"
I frowned. "I suppose."
"Very well." He nodded his head in my direction in a shallow bow and stepped back from the table. "To me, Jixton," he added as he swept toward the door.
"But-but-but – I'm not done!" Jix protested as he stood, then sat, then stood again as his stomach warred with his boss.
"Finish your meal," Fett ordered suddenly, eyes fixed on Vader. He moved to block the Sith Lord's path. "His Lordship and I have to talk."
Vader's shoulders tensed, and he drew himself up to his full, incredible height. "I don't believe we do," he stated coldly.
Although Vader's icy tone would have had anyone else scampering away like a beaten pet, Fett didn't so much as twitch. "Well, you believe wrong," he informed the other armoured man. "You're changing your plan for some Rebel girl, and I want to know how this is going to affect my plan."
"Take care to recall that if it weren't for me, you wouldn't have a plan," Vader snarled back.
Jix was on his feet now, warily eying the confrontation. Food forgotten, he began to slide around so that he could see Fett around Vader's wide shoulders, and his fingers twitched at his hip, as if anticipating having to draw a blaster in the very near future.
"I prefer to be the one calling my own shots," Fett retorted, "not some two-bit Sith Lord who can't even –"
And then Fett was smashing into the wall behind me and directly over my head. I shrieked and shot from my seat to a far corner of the room as the bounty hunter slid down the wall. Han scrambled to my side, Chewie at his heels.
"What is going on?" Han demanded.
"I don't know, I wasn't informed about Fett's involvement!" I snapped back, more harshly than I'd intended.
He reared back, insulted. I put my hand gently on his arm.
"I'm sorry, Han. I don't mean to snap." I watched Fett struggle to his feet as Vader towered over him angrily. "It's just . . . now's not the best time."
"Well, when would be a good time?" Han replied impatiently.
Fett pulled his blaster from its holster and cocked it. Jix did the same, and Vader's lightsaber was ignited and humming before both of them were done.
I gulped nervously. "Can I get back to you on that?"
Han sighed. "Whatever you say, Princess," he muttered, but I barely heard him. I was already focused on the seemingly forthcoming battle.
I knew without a doubt that this room was too small for a duel among two blasters and a lightsaber. This was going to have to end before it began, or someone I had to yell at was going to die before I had a chance to give them a good and loud lecture on the errors of their ways.
I pressed my back to the wall and began to move toward Fett. If I could catch him off-guard, then Vader or Jix could end this before things got even further out of hand.
Jix caught my eye, read the look on my face, and shook his head frantically and minutely.
"Leia!" Han hissed at me.
Shut up, I glared back.
I caught Jix's gaze again. He was still giving me don't-try-it looks, so I ignored him and focused on Fett.
The bounty hunter had moved from the wall to the table; now, using a chair as a step, he boosted himself up so that he was standing on it, now he was head and shoulders above even Chewie. His hidden gaze appeared to be locked on Vader, and we all could see that his blaster was aimed directly at the Sith.
Vader, I knew, had seen me. I could feel his displeasure at my involvement in the back of my mind, but he was just going to have to deal with it.
And then I was finally behind Fett. I sized him up, planning to tackle him –
– and he spun, leapt from the table toward me, and hit me in the temple with the butt of his blaster. I dropped like a stone, pain exploding in my head and all my limbs paralyzed in shock.
"Leia!" I heard Han yell.
"My plan and my cut remain the same," I dimly heard Fett order, and I managed to crack my eyes open enough to see that he was pointing his blaster straight at my face.
"Just get out," Vader snarled back, and I wondered if I had actually heard defeat in his voice before I sank blissfully into darkness.
