Leia dropped down on her hands and knees and slid behind some broad-leafed bushes next to the trail she had been following. The grinding of the armored personnel carriers resounded through the silence of the deeply forested planet giving warning well in advance to the rebel troops that moved silently through the vegetation. Small units on the uniforms concealed their heat signals and made location by the machinery virtually impossible. If a unit failed and the soldier was located, the clumsy machines had proven themselves extremely susceptible to attack from below. The princess-turned-soldier made no attempt to disguise the contempt she felt for the unimaginative Imperial commanders. One problem with having strong central leaders was the tendency to promote the unimaginative but easily controlled personalities to roles of lesser leadership.
Even as she stared with some contempt at the large machine as it ground its way past her location, she did admit to a certain chill at knowing just how far ahead the Imperial forces were technologically. It would have been daunting equipment if it were in the right hands. "Thank God they're fools," Leia whispered. She settled her helmet onto her head with one hand while checking the workings of the heat dissipater with the other. It wouldn't do to get caught now.
As soon as the monstrous machine had moved out of eyesight, she returned to the trail and scurried along it. She kept close to the sides of the trail where her camouflaged uniform worked to her advantage. Her arms ached from carrying the heavy laser rifle, and her legs shook from the pace. The stitch in her side had gone from merely uncomfortable to a stabbing pain, but she pushed on. Occasionally, she would stop to lean against a tree and wipe the perspiration off her face with a dirty hand. The thought of Han in danger kept her moving. She loved him. He was exasperating, pompous and entirely too self-assured but she loved him. That realization had been a hard one to swallow but she had accepted it. The need to have Han as part of her life was like a drug and she was addicted.
She felt more than saw Luke standing against a tree ahead of her. She smiled warmly at the sight of him. "Damn him anyway," she mumbled with some pride. "He can move quicker than I can think about it."
Without turning, he motioned her to hide before slipping into the vegetation himself.
"How does he do that?" Leia slipped off the trail and sank gratefully behind a tree to catch her breath. She closed her eyes when her ears picked up the grind of yet another carrier passing along the trail.
A human touch made her jump before a hand clamped down on her mouth to keep the small yip of surprise from becoming vocal. She glared over the hand into the bright blue eyes of her brother. Slapping his hand away, she glared at him.
Luke grinned back at her and pretended to nurse his hand.
Leia rolled her eyes at him and then made a chopping motion with her own hand against her wrist.
He smiled broadly and wiggled the fingers of his synthetic hand at her as though it was the greatest joke. She couldn't help but smile at him. Sometimes, he was still so young even though the war was aging him quickly.
The sounds of the machine faded into the distance and Luke hunched down next to her so they could talk. "They have him in a small building off to the left of the enclosure."
Leia groaned. "How in the hell did he get caught?"
Luke shrugged his shoulders. "One of the local yokels needed some quick cash. It's not like Han is exactly a wallflower. His picture is all over the place on those wanted posters."
"In other words, he got into another card game." She blew air out her mouth in annoyance. "He just can't resist those damn card games."
Luke glanced sideways at his sister. "Okay, that sounds good."
Leia leaned forward to stand up but took one look at her brother's face and sat back down. "Okay, let's have it. What really happened?"
"You won't like it." Luke picked up a small stone and spun it into the bushes.
"I already don't like it." Leia pulled his face toward hers and glared at him. "You might as well tell me."
Luke took a deep breath. "There was this girl..."
"I'm gonna kill him." Leia's voice was softly threatening. "I'm just gonna hafta kill him."
"He didn't go looking for her, Leia," Luke was eager to defend his friend. "She remembered him from a while back. When he wasn't interested, well..."
Leia shook her head. "...she turned him in," she finished for him.
Luke nodded. "That's about it."
"That man has at least one girl on every planet in this system. What in the hell am I gonna do with him?" Leia finally made it to her feet. "Let's go get Casanova."
Luke smiled as he realized the moment of annoyance had passed. "Sounds good to me," he agreed standing up beside his sister. "I can get past the guards really easy. They're a bit dim-witted."
"But?" Leia waited patiently.
"What makes you think there's a but?" Luke looked at her innocently.
"Luke, I've been on quite a few missions with you and Han," Leia stared up at him, "there is ALWAYS a but."
Luke took her arm and moved her purposefully towards the compound through the vegetation instead of the trail. She cursed softly as she tripped over tree roots and small rocks that seemed to pose no problem for her brother. They stopped at the edge of the forest and Leia groaned.
The compound was of typical imperial construction with a double wall of metal. There were three openings into it, guarded by sentries. It was the tall slim figure in the middle of the yard that made her curse softly.
The man was dressed totally in black and swaggered across the compound. He had a small silver object hanging from his belt and a light sure step that reminded Leia of a jungle cat. The Imperial soldiers never looked at him but managed to give him a clear berth just the same. The man stopped and looked directly at their hiding place and raised an arm in greeting as though he knew they were there.
"A Darth Vader wannabe," Leia fumed. "Everyone wants to be the next Vader."
Luke shook his head. "I don't think this one's pretending, Leia. The force is strong with him. He can sense me even as I sense him."
"You are the last of the Jedi's, Luke." Leia appraised her brother with some alarm. "There are no more."
"There are no more on this side of the force." Luke corrected her. "It's not out of the question that my father might have trained someone to the dark side before he changed his allegiances."
Leia turned white. "You can't go down there. I won't let you go down there."
Luke smiled at her. "If I don't go, who's going to get Han?" he asked reasonably. "I'll be okay. I can take care of myself."
Leia shivered as she remembered the broken body that had fallen from the chute of the station into her arms. Bruised, broken and missing one hand, Luke was all but destroyed. She had cursed and sobbed and railed against the man she later found to have been her father. She shivered uncontrollably at the thought and forced herself to stare at the compound so he wouldn't see her tears. "How do you plan to get him?" She swallowed hard to steady her voice. "If that man really knows you're here..."
"As long as I do not strike in anger, he cannot defeat me." Luke ran his natural hand along her back. "Don't be worried about me. Worry about Han."
"We'll need a diversion." Leia wiped her sweaty palms on her uniform pants.
"I think I can provide that," Luke nodded towards a hovercraft on the edge of the compound. "That's our way out."
Leia nodded in agreement. "Okay, when do we move?"
Luke looked at the waning sun in the sky. "We'll wait until the darkness is on our side. It'll cut down on the number of minds I must control." He gave her a quick smile of encouragement. "It'll be a cinch, you'll see."
Leia nodded and then watched as her Luke stretched out beside her on the ground. His lean body was encased in the form-fitting outfit he had adopted when he finished his training as a Jedi. Part of her accepted the evolvement of her brother while part of her kept insisting that he was a child and had no business being at war with anybody. She watched him fondly, a bit envious of his ability to relax in the most unusual places. After a few minutes, his attitude became infectious and she found herself relaxing against a tree to watch the sunset.
A firm touch on her hand brought her awake. She immediately reached out for the comforting assurance of Luke's mind and found it there and slightly amused. "Okay, so I fell asleep," she whispered. "It was a damn long walk."
Luke's soft chuckle was close to her left ear. "I wasn't criticizing."
He tugged gently on her hand and she left him lead her out of the forest onto the now empty trail that led to the compound.
"We're going in the front door?" she asked him quietly.
She felt him shrug his shoulders. "Why not?"
Leia could think of about twenty reasons but acquiesced to Luke's unique sense of strategy that often took bizarre turns. She soon realized with horror that when Luke meant the front door, he meant it literally.
They stepped from the forest into the moonlit meadow of the compound and walked to the front gate. The guard appeared on the screen in front of them and demanded their identification. Luke held up an empty hand and spoke calmly into the speaker. "I have this. It's a temporary pass, but it should be quite acceptable."
In a monotone drone, the soldier repeated the word acceptable and left them enter the compound. As they encountered one soldier after another, Luke would simply wave his hand in front of their eyes and they would go on their way as though the two rebels didn't exist.
Even though Leia had seen this trick performed many times in the past several years, she was still in awe of the response that Luke received. Her mind kept screaming that somehow they weren't really unawares and would come back with their rifles blaring. She stepped a bit closer to her brother and took a better hold on her own rifle.
The guard at Han's prison behaved exactly as the one at the gate. A feeling of great uneasiness settled over Leia. Her own intuition was screaming that something was not right. Luke pulled her next to him and whispered in her ear. "I know."
"It's a trap." Leia stated the obvious hoping her brother would contradict her. Instead, Luke nodded in agreement. Her heart sank to her boots and she groaned.
He winked at her. "A trap only works well, if the people being trapped are unaware of it. We have the advantage."
Leia looked around the compound at the large number of soldiers wearing Imperial white and the rather formidable armored vehicles that lined its walls. "We have the advantage?" she murmured more to herself than to Luke. "Oh yeah, sure we do."
Luke winked at her as they stepped into the corridor of the building. They walked along the narrow hallway. Leia was painfully aware of the echoing sounds their boots made against the metal of the floor. Her heart moved into her throat as Hans voice floated back towards her from the room in front of them.
"They won't be stupid enough to come in here for me, Rastin. They'll just wait you out and keep taking out your men as they go out on patrol." Han's voice was confident but a lot weaker than Leia was used to.
"They are already here," the smooth voice of another man joined Han's. "They won't leave you to my hospitality."
"Luke's just a kid, he's no threat to you." Han's voice held a pleading quality.
"He's a Jedi," the click of leather heels against metal indicated a change of position for Rastin. "All Jedi's are of interest to me. He and I are the last of our kind. It is inevitable that one of us should survive."
Luke stepped into the room with Leia behind him. "I quite agree." His arms were held lightly crossed in front of him and calmness seemed to settle over him like an invisible cloud.
Hans groaned and he his eyes closed. Leia's heart beat heavy in her chest as she saw the bruises and cuts that covered Han's face and arms. His hands were bound behind his back, and he was slumped in a chair.
Leia spared a glance for Luke who was holding Rastin's interest with a staring match that seemed endless. They were locked in a contest of wills that took precedence over anything else in the room. She walked over and untied Han who practically fell forward in her arms. He protested weakly as she pulled him to his feet and slung one arm over her shoulders. "Luke..." he mouthed the name.
"He'll be all right," Leia reassured him with a certainty she didn't feel. It had become painfully clear that this was the diversion that Luke had planned all along. She gave her brother a mental glare before half-carrying Han back down the corridor. It wasn't until she was halfway to the guard post that she realized she couldn't get out the same way they came in. Luke was locked in some sort of battle with Rastin and she didn't know the Jedi mind tricks.
Han felt her hesitate. "What's the matter, honey?" He tried to pull himself up to his full height despite the pain in his ribs. The guards had been very professional in their job. "What's wrong?"
Leia fought to keep her voice calm. "Can you manage on your own for a bit?"
"Why?" Han's voice was filled with the skepticism that had settled in her stomach.
"We might have to fight our way out of here." Leia checked her rifle for a full load and took off the safety.
"Oh good. We just went from bad to worse." Han leaned against the wall and tried to get a lungful of air past his bruised ribs. "Luke's gonna try to fight that sicko and we're gonna blast our way out of a fully armed compound. Some days are just not worth waking up for."
Leia cast him a sideways glance. "I guess it depends on who you're waking up with."
"I didn't touch her. If I had, I wouldn't be here." He wiped at his bruised eyes trying to clear his vision. "I never told you I was a monk."
Leia relented and dropped a quick kiss on his lips. "I think I knew you weren't a monk. I just didn't expect you to know half the quadrant on a personal basis."
Han left a smile cross his features. "Jealous?"
"Like I'd tell you," Leia scoffed. "Can you shoot straight?"
"Honey," Han reached for the rifle, "I can be on a three day drunk and a two day binge and still shoot straight."
"Just see you don't hit me," Leia inched her way towards the door.
She took the handle when the sound of lightsabers in play floated down the corridor. She sent a prayer for her brother and then turned the handle. Immediately, a soldier blocked her way. As quickly as he appeared, he fell backwards with a large blackened hole in his armor at chest level. She turned around and smiled at Han who gave her the high sign. She moved forward into the compound knowing that Han stood in the doorway to cover her movements.
Within moments, the doorway to the building became the target of the soldiers on duty. Streaks of light filled the courtyard and illuminated Leia's way to the hovercraft. With Han shooting a steady stream into the ranks, they were unconcerned about an unarmed person slipping past them in the shadows of the walls. A soldier passed close by as Leia held her breath and froze. A blast from the open doorway took his attention and she slipped past him into the darkness beyond.
The hovercraft had been left unguarded since no one should be in the compound without authorization. Leia grinned humorlessly and hoisted herself up and over the side to land in the cockpit. The simple instrumentation wasn't keyed to a security lock. She thanked the heavens for that bit of luck and started it up. The craft rumbled and then rocked as it rose off its pads. Far too busy with the intruder to question a routine hovercraft activation, the soldiers continued to press towards Han's lone battle.
Throwing a switch for the armaments, Leia took aim and proceeded to make the fight a more balanced match. The confusion that ensued would have been funny if Han's life wasn't hanging in the balance. She pushed Luke out of her mind and concentrated on Han first. He wasn't in very good shape to keep this up for long.
Luke sensed Leia pulling Han from the room but he didn't take his eyes from the man in front of him. He worked against the need for action that usually ruled him. This was a time for analysis. When he had fought his father, he had sensed some good deep in him that he could draw from and use. With Rastin, there was nothing. The force was strong with him, but there was a darkness there that Luke hadn't felt since Palpatine.
Rastin stepped away from the wall and stood loosely centered in front of Luke. "We need to settle things between us, young Skywalker. You took my mentor from me."
"You and Palpatine took my father from me," Luke answered quietly.
"I took nothing," Rastin pulled the lightsaber from his belt. "I was given a great gift by your father. A gift you refused."
Luke felt his saber slip into his hands. "The dark side of the force is not a gift, Rastin. It's a curse."
"I hope you don't mind if I disagree?" Rastin's saber glowed brightly and swung in a vicious downward swing towards Luke's arm.
Luke sidestepped gracefully without parrying the stroke. Rastin's momentum carried him forward, temporarily off-balance, but Luke didn't move in.
Rattled, Rastin quickly gained his balance and advanced again. "Nice trick, Skywalker."
Luke shrugged his shoulders, "No trick, Rastin. You stepped too far into your swing."
Rastin's face clouded and he gripped the saber a bit tighter. "You're going to tell me how to fight now? My, aren't we the grown Jedi?"
Luke sighed but allowed the light to hiss out of his saber. "I would prefer to just leave. This is not the way of the Jedi."
"No," Rastin snarled, "this is the way of power." He lunged forward and brought down another arcing blow.
Luke was already gone when the blow landed against the floor-leaving sparks to fly from the metal. "You can't win this fight as long as anger consumes you." Luke watched the older man with some interest. "If you keep throwing yourself off balance, you will leave yourself open to an attack."
Rastin kicked back and brought his laser in an arc that would have decapitated Luke if he hadn't ducked. "Save your sermons for someone who believes in that sort of thing."
Luke sprung from his position to vault over the head of his opponent and land behind him in one graceful move. Rastin swung to meet him and their sabers hit with a clashing sound that left sparks fly into the room. Neither man gave ground as the confrontation became a test of strength.
Rastin left his beam slide down towards the hilt of Luke's saber until they were inches apart. "You have your father's nerves even if you don't have his good sense."
Luke pushed him away and slid his saber around in a sparkling arch that would have disarmed most opponents.
Rastin deflected it and flipped to stand between Luke and the doorway. A smile crossed his features as he indicated the corridor. "Sounds like your friends are having a bit of a problem leaving."
Luke heard the sounds of riflefire for the first time and his thoughts turned to Leia and Han. That split second of inattention cost him. Rastin pulled his saber directly up in a quick movement that warmed Luke's skin as he jumped back from it. Rastin's laughter set his teeth on edge. He fought to force down the anger and worked on a picture of Han and Leia sitting in the hovercraft. He reached out and touched his sister gently with his thoughts to verify her safety. The warm response was enough to put his mind back on business.
He stepped back and raised his saber in front of him as though saluting his enemy and began a sideways crawl that pulled Rastin back towards the center of the room.
As though sensing that playtime was over, Rastin left the smile slide from his face as he began to search in earnest for a hole in Luke's defenses. They circled each other like prizefighters.
Rastin's blade swung out and was parried to the side. He barely had it back in place to parry the offensive blow that Luke had brought down against him. He slowly backed up towards the corridor as Luke pressed him in a one-sided battle.
Growling, Rastin parried and then struck back using his greater height and force to advantage.
Luke was forced to give ground. His mind searched frantically for the one thing he may have missed that would give him an edge against this opponent. One tactic after another came to mind and was discarded as ineffectual. He took a step back and his foot made contact with the chair that Han had been sitting on. Without missing a beat, Luke caught the chair leg with his foot and sent it sliding across the floor towards Rastin.
Unprepared for the chair, Rastin dropped his guard and was open to Luke's attack.
Luke swung and was rewarded with a string of curses as Rastin's sword arm slipped from his shoulder and landed with a dull thud on the floor.
Rastin grabbed the sword from its lifeless fingers and threw it at Luke causing him to duck as the sparks flew from the handle. The commander ran into the corridor holding what was left of his arm by his side.
Luke jumped over the broken chair to follow him but was met with an empty corridor stretching towards the exit. Although no openings seemed to go off the corridor, Rastin was gone.
"Well my friend," Luke deactivated his saber and returned it to his belt, "now we're even."
Leia took advantage of the milling soldiers to push the hovercraft over to the door of the building.
Han ran towards her still firing his rifle. He stumbled over a fallen soldier and seemed to pick himself up with difficulty.
Leia bit her lip and kept a watchful eye for reinforcements as he painfully pulled himself to his feet and staggered once more towards the hovercraft.
"Will you hurry?" Leia called to him over the roar of the engine.
"What in the blazes do you think I'm trying to do?" Han yelled back irritably as he threw the rifle into the seat next to her and then pulled himself in headfirst.
Leia threw the hovercraft over a notch and it began to lift while Han struggled to get upright. His foot slipped over in front of her face as he worked to get the long legs under his torso.
"Watch what you're doing!" Leia pushed it away. "I'm looking for Luke."
Han grabbed the back of her seat and righted himself. "So am I."
Leia looked down at the floor. "He's not down there."
Han threw her a squelching glance and grabbed a pair of binoculars from the catchall in front of him. "I noticed."
Leia left out a burst of gunfire at a guardtower that had decided they weren't with the Imperial forces. Sparks flew as the shots found their mark and guardsmen were hurled to the ground.
"Hey, do that again," Han yelled at her.
Leia gave him an incredulous look. "Do what?"
"Shoot something." The binoculars were pressed tightly against Han's face and he was staring across the compound.
"Like what?" Leia hit the fire button and the night lit up with another explosion as the laserfire found what was apparently an ammo dump. The bright light that radiated across the compound turned the night into daylight.
"That's a girl," Han nodded approvingly. "He's over there at the base of that flagpole."
"Flagpole?" Leia aimed the hovercraft in what she hoped was the general direction of Luke.
"A little to the left, honey, then hold it steady," Han coached her over with a combination of hand signals and soft words.
Leia looked down to see Luke standing at the bottom of the pole. "Now what?"
Just then, Luke took a hold of a rope that was being used as ballast for the heavy flags. He cut the rope from the bottom with his lightsaber and the ballast rocketed him up towards the hovercraft. Just before he hit the top of the pole, he released the rope and jumped gracefully over to land behind Han in the cockpit. "Let's go."
Needing no more encouragement, Leia aimed the hovercraft out towards the forest and gave it a full head of steam. "Nice of you to join us."
Luke smiled at her and relaxed back against the seat. "Any time."
Leia spared a crosswise glance at Han. "As for you, buster. We do have a few things to discuss."
Han looked to Luke for help, but Luke was staring back towards the compound. Luke turned and gave his friend a wan smile. "The force is still strong."