Hello, again! We're almost to the end of ESB! Hooray! Over the Summer, I'm going to be focusing more on my other Fanfics and getting a rough draft written for the third and final movie, plus an original story in-between. So, don't expect any uploads for a while.

Also, I looked up a few Youtube videos on how to play Sabacc, and I'm still not too sure about the rules. So if someone finds something wrong about the Sabacc game I wrote in here, please tell me and I'll fix it. I'm taking a card hand from the Hasbro game and mixing it in with the one that you can get at Galaxy's Edge.

Anyway, SmarmySmirk out!

"Straight Khyron," Calvin grinned as he threw his revealed Sabacc hand on the table, a round of applause coming from the other half-dozen players as he reached for the pot. On the other side of the table, Lando raised an impressed eyebrow.

"Pretty good for an amateur player, kid," he grinned.

"Well, it's not like I haven't played before," Calvin replied smugly, dropping the small amount of credits into his pocket. The Sabacc game they were playing wasn't serious; the highest anyone had yet raised was twelve imperial credits. And compared to the amount in serious games, that was nothing.

But nevertheless, it was incredibly fun to win.

As everyone deposited their cards into the deck, the dealer, who for this round was Chewie, took it and began shuffling it with finesse, which surprised Calvin because most Wookies weren't exactly renowned for their nimble hands. Once the deck was shuffled, he dealt out two cards to each player and placed the rest of the deck face-down in the middle, with one card facing up for the discard pile.

Calvin picked up his cards and inspected them. A positive five and a negative five. Not bad. Throwing two credits into the starting pot, he began to play.

"I bet one Imperial credit," the man to the left of him announced, throwing a square silver chip into the pot.

"Call," the red-headed woman after him said, matching the amount.

"Call," Lando followed suit.

"Call."

As the game went back around to Chewie, he threw in his credit to match and rolled the dealer's pair of dice. The result came up as one and five, and Calvin inwardly let out a breath. If the dice had shown two of the same number, all players would have had to discard their decks and receive new ones from the dealer. Not what he wanted to happen.

The rodian to the right of him took two slender, yellow fingers and tapped them on the table to show that he wanted to swap. Chewie nodded and dealt a card from the top of the draw pile as the alien placed one of his own cards in the discard pile.

Calvin, seeing that it was his turn, tapped just one finger on the table to draw, and received a Sylop card- equalling zero. Suppressing the urge to grin, he watched as the rest of the players took their turns, the next two drawing, and Lando raising by two credits. The last man called, and Chewie did the same. He still oversaw the game, however, and rolled the dice. A one and a two. Thank goodness.

"Last round," Lando grinned. "Are you ready, Calvin?"

"Ready to whoop 'yer butt!" Calvin boasted, and noticed the yellow rodian junking (folding) his cards. "I raise you three credits."

"Oho! Someone's fired up," Lando laughed as Calvin threw in his raised amount.

"I junk," the man next to him grumbled, throwing his hand on the table.

"Call," the redheaded woman nodded, and threw in three silver credits.

For a few seconds, Lando was silent as he reviewed his cards. Finally, he smirked and said, "Call."

"Call," the last man agreed, throwing in his amount.

Now it was down to the wire. There were multiple ways this game could go. One, the roll of the dice came up with unequal sides and Calvin held the winning hand. Two, the dice came up with unequal sides and Lando or one of the other players had the best hand. Or three, the dice came up with equal sides and everyone discarded their decks. Rolling the dealer's dice, Chewie and everyone else sat with suspenseful silence as the sides came up to show a six and a three.

Everyone threw their cards down face up, as per the rules, and Calvin looked at the cards of the man and the redhead. One had a pair of two, and another displayed a Bantha's Wild, consisting of three of the same card number plus a four and a one.

"Impressive, guys," Calvin grinned, "but not enough, I'm afraid. Yee-haa!"

He slapped his cards on the table, revealing what was literally called the Yee-haa hand. Two cards with the same numbers, plus a Sylop.

The two players sighed in defeat as the people spectating the game cheered for Calvin, his hands already slowly moving to take the pot.

"Now, hold up," Lando's voice came from across the table, reminding Calvin that he hadn't checked the businessman's hand. Standing up on his seat to better see what Lando had, he was shocked to see that Lando was boasting two tens along with a Sylop card; Prime Sabacc.

The spectators went wild at the unexpected turn of events as Lando scooped up the pot and placed it in his case. Not sure whether to be enraged or impressed, Calvin reached out to clasp the mustachioed man's hand. "Good game."

"Likewise," Lando smiled. "You're a pretty good gambler, kid."

Now bursting with pride, Calvin sat back down and looked at the credits that he had left to gamble with. "So what say we go at it again, Lando?"

"Alright," Lando laughed. "One more game. But I have business I need to attend to, so try to keep up with how quickly I'm gonna win this."

"Oh, don't worry," Calvin chuckled. "I'll swipe that pot out from under you so fast you'll think I went to lightspeed!"

As the experienced idol and the enthusiastic learner bantered back and forth, causing good-natured laughter to spring up from the crowd around them, something caught Chewie's eye. He had been standing to the side for a little while, watching the game's end play out, when a golden glimmer appeared in the corners of his vision. Swiveling his head, he just barely noticed an Ugnaught- one of a species of menial workers found across the galaxy- pushing a cart laden with pieces of scrap and junk. And just for a second, he thought that he had seen C-3po's arm on it.

Probably just his eyes playing tricks on him. But come to think of it, Chewie hadn't seen 3po since a few hours ago, when they were on their way to the rooms that Lando had provided them with. He had figured that the droid was just taking an oil bath or something similar, but now his suspicions were aroused.

Making up his mind, the Wookie began to walk out of the room as the sabacc players took their seats again.

"Hey, Chewie! Arent'cha gonna play with us?" Calvin asked.

Chewie shook his head in response, waving goodbye, and exited the gambling room. Immediately, he noticed the ugnaught at the far end of the hallway, about to turn a corner, and raced after him. Reaching the corner, he looked and saw a maintenance elevator at the end just closing, a golden object on the cart inside shining again. Reaching the doors, he jammed the button with his hand to send the elevator back up, fidgeting as he waited. Finally, the doors opened and he stepped inside.

The elevator closed, and for a second, Chewie was at a loss. What level had the ugnaught gone to? The suites? The landing pads? The tibanna refineries?

But wait. The ugnaught was pushing a cart of scraps. Junk. And that probably meant that that stuff was going to be either ejected or melted down and recycled. As the doors closed, he pressed the button to go down to the maintenance area, which should include scrap recycling.

The doors opened half a minute later, and, stepping out, Chewie was greeted with the sickening smell of metallic smoke and the clamor of loud machinery. Sharp, twisted scrap piles were everywhere, surrounding a conveyor belt in the middle that fed the metal into a bubbling incinerator.

Doing his best to ignore the vicious attack on his senses, he began walking about, looking for the cart from earlier. Ugnaughts were moving around everywhere, collecting scrap and throwing it onto the conveyor belt with the efficiency that their species were renowned for.

Suddenly, an ugnaught bumping past him caught his attention, and he turned to see him placing something shiny on the conveyor belt. Running up to it, his stomach seemed to go into free fall inside of him as he looked upon 3po's dismembered leg rattling towards the incinerator. Grabbing it, he looked around and saw the rest of the droid's parts being put on the conveyor belt as well!

"Grawrr!" he began snatching parts out of harm's way, frantically collecting arms and legs and hands. Noticing an ugnaught about to place 3po's head onto the conveyor belt, he reached for it. But before he could get it, the worker threw the head in the air where it was caught by another one.

Frustrated, Chewie did his best to try and get the head, but the ugnaughts began playing a game of catch with it, throwing it this way and that and giving the poor Wookie quite a workout.

It was a rather cold day on Dagobah as Luke packed up his remaining things onto the X-wing, recently cleaned and sitting calmly near the shoreline of the pond. Loading the last ration pack into the storage compartment, he was aware of Yoda watching him from atop a nearby log.

Feeling rather self-conscious, he tried to ignore the guilt inside of him and instead verified that R2 was in his seat on the top of the X-wing. Hobbes had already left, using a beacon to find his way back to his Y-wing. The time for them to exit the atmosphere and meet up in space was coming close.

"Luke!" Yoda's small but gruff voice split through the silence. "You must complete the training."

Sighing, Luke closed the storage compartment and turned around. "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 argued, surprising Luke. He hadn't been this agitated for the whole month he had trained with him.

"But my friends will die if I don't," Luke told him.

"You don't know that."

Surprised at the sound of a familiar voice, Luke looked towards the ground in front of the log that Yoda was sitting on. There, shimmering into existence, was Obi-Wan Kenobi, clad in his desert robes as if he had never died. Shocked by his sudden appearance, Luke stood speechless.

"Even Yoda cannot see their fate," he continued, his voice containing a slight resonance.

"But- but I can help them!" Luke got out. "I feel the force."

"But you cannot control it. This is a dangerous time for you, when you will be tempted by the dark side of the Force," Obi Wan warned him.

"Yes, yes," Yoda nodded. "To Obi-Wan you listen… the cave. Remember your failure at the cave!"

A shudder went through Luke as he thought back to his vision; how he had faced off against Vader, cut off his head… and how when he had looked under the mask, the face that greeted him was his own.

But his friends needed him. He was certain of it.

"But I've learned so much since then," he argued. "Master Yoda, I promise to return and finish what I've begun. You have my word."

"It is you and your abilities the Emperor wants. That is why your friends are made to suffer."

"And that is why I have to go."

"Luke, I don't want to lose you to the Emperor the way I lost Vader," Obi-Wan pleaded.

"You won't," Luke promised.

"Stopped they must be," Yoda declared. "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 told him.

"And sacrifice Han and Leia?" Luke asked, angry,

"If you honor what they fight for, yes," Yoda said.

Now, this was a true dilemma. He knew that he wasn't ready to face Vader. The cave had shown him that. He knew that it was a trap- that they were trying to lure him in. He knew that the risk of him being tempted by the Dark side was a real and frightening possibility.

But even with all of that, Luke couldn't get his friends off of his mind. The bold, innovative character of Han. Leia's smile and her fiery attitude. Chewie's affection for all of them. 3po with his polite and helpful words, and Calvin with his enthusiastic and wisecracking nature.

"If you choose to face Vader, you will do it alone," Obi-Wan told him, sensing his decision. "I cannot interfere."

Placing a hand on the X-wing's retractable ladder, Luke turned his head and said, "I understand. R2, fire up the converters."

R2 whistled a joyous reply, glad to finally get out of this swamp which, contrary to Luke's words, was not perfectly safe for droids. He needed an oil bath, stat.

"Luke, don't give in to hate. That leads to the dark side," Obi-Wan told him.

Nodding, Luke climbed into his seat.

"Strong is Vader," Yoda gave him a few last parting words of advice. "Mind what you have learned. Save you it can."

"I will… and I'll return, I promise," Luke said. Pressing a button, he watched the glass canopy slowly come down, until he was encased in the familiar bubble of the cockpit. Flicking switches and turning knobs, he felt a surprising jolt as the engines started. Looking outside, he waved at Yoda, who nodded back.

The thrusters whooshed, blowing mist and bits of moss and dirt everywhere as the X-wing slowly rose up into the sky. Clearing the tree canopy, Luke verified that everything was working properly, and pushed forward the accelerator The ship's thrusters crackled with power and heat as they propelled Luke and R2 further and further away from the surface. Soon, the sky grew dim as they dove up through Dagobah's twilight zone and entered the starry expanse of space. For a few seconds, his body felt lightweight before the ship's gravity pulled him back into his seat.

Immediately, a ping came from his scanners, showing an unidentified ship leaving Dagobah as well. He turned towards its location, and soon saw the faraway silhouette of a Y-wing against the light of the system's star.

"Czrrch! Luke, come in. Do you read me?"

"Hey, Hobbes," Luke greeted the tiger. "You alright?"

"Yep! Ship's working alright… do you know where we need to go?"

"Bespin," Luke told him. "It's a gas giant in the Anoat system."

"Alright... I see a Hyperspace path to the system a few minutes from here. You ready to go?"

"Yeah," Luke nodded, his voice somber. "Let's go save our friends."

High up in one of the white spiral towers of Cloud City, Leia looked outside of the window, giving her a marvelous view of the entire mining colony. Cloud cars zipped by, dozens of ships docked and took off all the time. Great mining vessels searched for tibanna clouds on the horizon.

The sun was shining through the clouds, bathing her and the ivory room in a warm, orange haze. And if she were anyone else right now, she would have enjoyed this moment.

But she was too worried to be happy.

The sound of the door opening behind her caused her to turn, and there she saw Han walking in, looking refreshed and radiant from the shower that he had just recently taken. "The ship is almost finished," he told her, smiling. "Two or three more things and we're in great shape."

As soon as she saw him she spun and walked up to him. "The sooner the better! Something's wrong here. No one has seen or knows anything about 3po. He's been gone too long to have gotten lost."

"Hey, hey," Han calmed her down, placing his hand upon her shoulders and giving her forehead a gentle kiss. "Relax. I'll talk to Lando and see what I can find out."

"I don't trust Lando," she told him.

"Well, I don't trust him, either," Han agreed. "But he is my friend. Besides, we'll soon be gone."

"And then you're as good as gone, aren't you?" Leia asked him softly.

For a few moments, the two were silent, before the door suddenly opened again and Calvin's voice went, "Whaddaya mean, you don't trust Lando? He's awesome!"

"Calvin!" both Han and Leia shouted, looking angrily at him.

"What?" he asked them.

"How long have you been there?" Leia asked him.

"For the… whole time you guys have been talking…" Calvin admitted. "But that's beside the point! I don't get why you don't trust him. Lando is awesome. He's a great Sabacc player, he's got a great sense of style, and it's obvious that I'm quickly becoming his personal protege."

"No matter how awesome or great he is, he's hiding something," Leia argued. "I can feel it."

"What, are ya force sensitive now?" Calvin scoffed. "Listen: everyone's told me that I'm not good at hearing sarcasm or reading people, but if I'm sure of one thing, it's that Lando's friendliness towards me is genuine. He likes me."

"And nobody's disputing that," Leia calmed him down. "But no matter how much he likes you, he has ulterior motives. Count on that."

As if on cue, the door slid open again and in walked Chewie, carrying a dismantled 3po in a box.

"Oh, no, what happened?" Leia asked, rushing over as Chewie deposited the parts on the table. Growling, the Wookie gave an explanation.

"Where?" Han asked. "Found him in a junk pile?"

"Oh, what a mess," Leia sighed. "Chewie, do you think you can repair him?"

Looking at the complicated wires and pieces, Chewie shook his head.

"Well, Lando's got people who can repair him," Calvin pointed out.

"No," Leia shook her head. "I've had enough of this-

The door slid open once again, startling everyone as they looked over. Standing in the doorframe, clad in cape, was Lando. Looking at them, he asked, "I'm sorry. Am I interrupting anything?"

"Not really," Leia lied.

"You look absolutely beautiful," Lando smiled. "You truly belong here with us among the clouds.

"Thank you," she gave him a smile.

"Will you join me for a little refreshment?" he asked her. Looking at everyone, Leia saw Han suspicious, Calvin excited, and Chewie just plain hungry.

"Everyone's invited, of course," he added.

Nodding, she took Lando's outstretched arm to be polite, and the group began to file out of the room. Looking back, Lando noticed 3po's parts on the table and asked, "Having some trouble with your droid?"

Exchanging a quick glance with Leia, Han said, "No. No problem, why?"

Lando shrugged, and walked out of the room, everyone following right behind him.

As they walked through the ornate hallways of Cloud City, Calvin grinned as the prospect of food came into his mind. He hadn't eaten much, and he was sure that whatever Lando was serving them was way better than the rations on the Falcon. What a great guy. Of course, Chewie had just found 3po dismantled and in a trash pile, but it was probably just a mistake. And Leia was most likely just mistrustful of Lando because he was being all courteous and nice and stuff, and she favored Han. Girls, ew.

That was the one thing that Lando could never get. A membership into G.R.O.S.S, although that would have been fun. It looked like it was just him and Hobbes… and 3po, if they could get him together again. Say, how did 3po get dismantled in the first place? An accident? Or did he find something out about Mr. Calrissian?

He pushed those thoughts down. Probably just an accident.

"So, Lando," Han asked. "How does your city here fit in with the rest of the galaxy? Do you have a contract with the Empire or something?"

"So you see," Lando explained, "since we're a small operation, we don't fall into the... uh... jurisdiction of the Empire."

"So you're part of the mining guild then?" Calvin asked from behind them.

"No, not actually," Lando shook his head as they turned a corner. "Our operation is small enough not to be noticed, which is advantageous for everybody since our customers are anxious to avoid attracting attention to themselves."

"Aren't you afraid the Empire's going to find out about this little operation and shut you down?" Han asked the businessman.

"That's always been a danger looming like a shadow over everything we've built here," Lando frowned. "But things have developed that will ensure security. I've just made a deal that will keep the Empire out of here forever."

Strangely, his frown didn't go away.

"Here we are," he said, standing in front of the dining room door. Walking over to the side, he pressed a button and it slid open, motioning for them to go in first.

Entering the room, Calvin looked up and his jaw went slack. At the other end of the long dining table, covered with a three-meal course was the last person- or cyborg- that he thought he would see here.

His robotic breathing filling the room, clad in a dark suit sat the right-hand man of the Galactic Emperor himself, looking up at them from under his impenetrable helmet. Frozen with shock, betrayal, and fear, Calvin couldn't move for a second.

Then, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Han draw his baster and did the same. Steadying his hand, he shot scorching bolt after bolt at Darth Vader, filling the room with blaster fire. In response, the dark lord stood up and stretched out a hand, causing every single shot to be absorbed by it. Suddenly, a powerful tug pulled the blasters out of Han and Calvin's hands and they were deposited calmly on the table in front of him.

"We would be honored if you could join us," Vader mockingly said as Boba Fett, clad in his Mandalorian armor, appeared beside him, shocking the group even more.

Slowly, with barely-withheld rage, Han and Calvin turned to stare at Lando, who had positioned himself in a corner of the room. The hurt and betrayal on Calvin's face especially pained the businessman.

They arrived right before you did," he told them. "I had no choice… I'm sorry."

"Yeah," Han muttered, almost growled. "I'm sorry, too."

:D