Chapter 27

AN: Thanks again to Steph!

"All flight troops, man your stations. All flight troops, man your stations," a voice announced over an intercom, as pilots and flight crew scrambled to finish last minute preparations.

Ari cast one last look towards Han and saw Luke, who was wearing an orange flight suit, starting towards him. She forced herself to turn back to her squadron.

"Troublemaker!" a familiar voice called and she felt herself get pulled into a hug from behind

"Ship jumper!" she laughed and turned to see Bigg's grinning face. It was contagious as she grinned back at him.

"Nice outfit," he teased, wearing the same suit as her.

"I am now officially a part of the Rebellion," she grinned.

"You really are going to have to tell me how you ended up here," he smiled.

"You better believe I will," she assured him. "It might even beat your stories," she added with a mischievous grin.

"Well, I am going to go wish Luke some luck and I should get ready to go. But may the Force with you."

"You too, Biggs," she replied and hugged him one final time before scampering over to get her ship assignment.

"Ok…Ari is it? You are Green Seven," Green Leader, a man in his mid thirties announced. He pointed to the third Y-Wing. "That is your ship." A beep emitted from the back. "And what would be your R4 unit. Your new best friend."

"Hi there R4," Ari waved with a small laugh. The droid beeped in hello in response.

"There is a screen in there to interpret what he says," Green Leader continued. "Do you think you can handle all this?" He looked at Ari, skeptically.

"I know I can," she replied, determined. She then turned and scanned the crowds for Luke and saw him by an X-Wing, talking to Leia. She watched them for a moment and felt her heart stop as Leia leaned over and kissed him, on the cheek.

Ari turned back to inspecting her Y-Wing. It hurt her to see that. It was one thing to hear about it, but to see it…it took almost all she had to not scream. When she was finally certain she could handle it, she turned back and saw Luke talking to one of the two technicians, who were helping to load R2 into the back of Luke's figher.

Ari jumped into her ship with ease, pulling on her helmet that seemed a bit big on her still but she wasn't about to complain.

Luke took one last worried glance to the other side of the hanger, where he could barely see Ari's blonde head through the glass covering of her ship. He sighed, and readjusted his gloves before preparing to take off

Ari bit her lip. She wished she were with Luke. She thought of the times she had been his second in the races at Beggar's Canyon. But those days were now long gone. "Ready, R4?" she asked. The droid beeped in an affirmative, as it clearly showed on the screen. "Good." Then under her breath she muttered. "At least one of us is."

Luke sighed. That girl was going to get herself killed, he knew it. Why wouldn't she listen to him? She was so blasted stubborn. Frowning, Luke noted the signal from one of the men below and began slowly moving his ship.

Ari watched as Luke's X-Wing started to move and held up one hand as if to say good-bye and good luck.

Luke noticed Ari's gesture out of the corner of his eye, and he raised a hand back, before he blasted out of the hangar.

AN: You know the R&R message by now. Also I want to thank my friend Emily for helping me with this big upcoming battle.