Chapter 104

AN: Thank you to everyone who continue to read and leave reviews. I love to hear how people feel about the story!

"Ari…Ari…" Luke's voice interrupted her hazy dream state. She was warm and while slightly uncomfortable, she did not want to open her eyes. She knew that whens he did, she would have to be fully alert and ready for anything. An attack, a trap, or even death.

"Arianna…" Luke tried again and touched her shoulder.

"I'm awake," she answered, not opening her eyes.

"Are you sure?" Han asked from the pilot seat and Ari opened her eyes. He looked somewhat amused with his joke and Ari sighed. She did not know when they would next have a chance to rest, but she was thankful for the small time she had. It was sometimes just hard to wake up, knowing the difficult task that lay ahead.

She wiggled her toes in her boots as she slowly lifted her head. It was a bit stiff, but she turned to one side than the other to try and help combat that. Then she noticed that she had what looked like a cameflouge banket over her. She picked it up and glanced over at Luke, who was no longer wearing his poncho.

"I thought it would keep you warm," he explained.

"It did," she gave him a small smile and handed it back to him. "Thank you, Luke."

"I hated to wake you, but we are about to enter real space again, and I figured you would like to be awake for that," Luke explained as he pulled his poncho back on.

Ari nodded. "Yes. I guess I should go back there and see what Major Derlin has planned for us." She was she starting to get to her feet when Luke held out his hand to her.

Accepting it, Ari's fingers tightened around his as he helped pull her to her feet. "Thank you," she smiled at him. Luke's gaze stayed on her for a moment, as he gave her hand a small squeeze before letting it fall.

Ari gave him a questioning look. He had been acting very strange lately, but she could not place why. She had a feeling it had to do with Vader or the Emperor though.

Luke shook his head slightly to show it was not the time or place to discuss it. While she knew he was right, Ari knew that patience was not her greatest virtue, especially when it involved someone she cared about. Luke was carrying a burden and while she could not take it from him, she wanted to help lessen it. That would have to wait though.

"I'll see you all on the ground," Ari told him as she exited the cockpit, and went to join the others in the back of the shuttle.

The other Rebels were conversing among one another, a bit louder than before. They would have to be very quiet on Endor since there would be many places for Imperials to have look outs.

Ari slid into her seat next to Cal and buckled in just as she felt the ship enter real space again. Cal put one hand on her arm, clearly nervous. So many things could go wrong. The codes could be wrong, or perhaps they Imperials knew that this shuttle had been taken by Rebels. There was any number of things that could give them away. In response, Ari just patted Cal's hand with her own. She did not know if she was doing it to calm him or herself.

It was almost eerily silent again as the Rebels just wait and seemed to hold a collective breath. They could faintly hear the others in the cockpit and they all strained their ears to listen. If they were shot at, there was nothing the shuttle could do against Star Destroyers and an unknown number of TIE fighters.

There was some murmuring from the cockpit and then Ari heard Han's voice. "Shuttle Tydirium, requesting deactivation of the deflector shield."

There was some more conversation and then a pause. It was clear that Han, Chewie, Luke, Leia and the droids were just as nervous. The faint sound of a transmission could be heard and Ari knew that the next few seconds would determine victory or defeat.

Then Ari felt something. She didn't know what it was, and it was so fleeting she might have imagined it, if not for a strange, cold feeling in her stomach. She shook her head slightly. She must be getting as jumpy as Threepio. She knew there were a handful of other reasons, but she did not want to focus on those. They had enough to worry about without her jumping to conclusions that could turn out to be false.

"…fly casual," she heard Han say and if the situation had not been so uncomfortable, she might have laughed. She was not as good a pilot as Han was, but she did not know if he even knew how to fly causally.

There was some more murmering from the cockpit, but Ari relaxed slightly. If there was a problem, they would not bother still talking, right? Instead, they would have Imperial fighters shooting at them.

A few moments later, Han called back to them. "We're going to Endor!" All the troops gave a sigh of relief and Ari heard a few quiet cheers. They had somehow gotten past the Empire. They would soon be on Endor. Then they had to get to the shield generator and somehow destroy it. They couldn't do it too soon, or the Empire could fix it before the fleet attack, nor could they be too late. Perfect timing was a necessity.

While she knew she should get belted in, Ari could not help herself from getting to her feet to go to the cockpit. She just wanted to glance out and see for herself that they were going past the Imperial ships and toward the forest covered moon.

She slipped into the cockpit and looked out as they passed by one of the Star Destroyers. "I don't know what you said, but it must have been the right thing," she remarked to Han.

"It was my Corellian charm," Han smirked, joking.

"Or maybe the code that spies died to get to us," Leia countered.

"Whatever it was, it worked," Han replied.

Ari just rolled her eyes upward with a small shake of her head. Even though Han had been frozen for a year, they still bickered just as much as they had before. There was a slight change though, she noted. It was not in what they said or how they said it. It was in the looks that passed between the two of them. It was as if they spoke a language only they understood.

Glancing over, she saw that Luke looked deep in thought and very troubled.

"What is it?" she asked him.

"Vader is here," he answered simply.

"I told you, Kid. You're just imagining things," Han spoke up.

Luke looked up at Ari and she knew he was not imagining things. She gave him a small, tight smile and patted his shoulder. He placed his hand over hers and gave her a forced smile in return.

"You probably should belt in, we are about to land," Han spoke over his shoulder, hands on the controls again.

Ari gave a nod and gave Luke's shoulder another small squeeze before going back to the others, belting in next to Cal once more.

"How does it look?" he asked her.

"Well, we were just going by a Star Destroyer," she replied. "So it looks likes we are doing well."

"And Endor?" he asked.

"We are still kind of far away to tell much, but I can tell you that at least some of our information is correct," she gave a small smile.

"Oh really? Which part of the information?"

"It definitely is green."