Out of the Shadows 3
This story is mainly for my beloved Mona because I
could not do without her and also for all my friends on the SSB list. The
characters all belong to Lucasfilm and I am only playing with them for my own
pleasure. If you are looking for the established timeline(?) and character
continuity…forget it. This is a very alternative universe albeit still a
Star Wars one. My thanks also to Rhea Jedi-knight for help with the title and
Michele for adding in a clear sighted view.
Ash Darklighter
Dagobah
It was with a sense of coming home that Luke
watched the mist enshrouded planet fill his view screen. “Okay, Artoo.
I’ll take her in on manual.”
Artoo Detoo swivelled his little domed head and
twittered a question roughly translated as, ‘Are you sure you know what
you’re doing?’
“I know what I’m doing this time…up to a
point.” Luke’s senses were already caught up with the massive teeming life
on the hidden world below. He could also pinpoint the flickering presence of
the being he was seeking. This was progress indeed.
Artoo blew an electronic raspberry of derision.
“I like that, Artoo. I landed perfectly well the
last time too.” Luke’s voice was indignant. “My ship just sank the first
time. Set the approach vectors and then I’ll do the rest. There’s
something in the atmosphere that makes the instruments go crazy. Your sensors
are useless here; you have to remember that, Artoo. I had to fly in blind on
that first occasion when we landed in the swamp. Now I can see.”
Artoo whistled derisively.
“The Force, Artoo. It makes everything so
clear.” There was wonder in the young Jedi’s voice. Wonder and not a
little awe.
He was returning to Dagobah. He’d left all that
he knew and loved and was willingly cutting himself off from his friends,
family and the life he had known to complete his training as a Jedi Knight. It
was one of the hardest sacrifices he’d ever had to make. Now that he’d
found his sister, he didn’t want to be without her again – her or Han. But
he had a duty to the Jedi and to all the beings who had kept him and his
sister safe. The choice, and therefore the sacrifice, had to be made. It
wouldn’t be forever, he told himself optimistically. By this time next year
he would return.
Artoo began to chirp as the strange planet grew
closer. “Okay, little fella. I’m on it.”
Mysterious white vapour curled eerily from the
tree-infested swamp as the x-wing lowered gently to land on solid ground. This
time Luke’s ship didn’t sink into the mire but he let out the breath he
hadn’t realised that he was holding.
Artoo beeped quietly.
“So, I wasn’t as confident as I made out,”
Luke muttered ruefully as the sound of the engine died into stillness. He
relaxed into his leather seat for a moment, letting the tension slip slowly
away from his body, before unfastening his harness. “Okay, Artoo - now to
find Yoda. I should think he’d be expecting me by now.”
He was surprised at first that Yoda was not waiting
for him as he climbed out of the ship but Luke had tried to shield himself
against discovery. He was effectively going to disappear from the galaxy until
he considered the time was right, so a little practice never went amiss.
Still, he’d never expected Yoda not to see through his shields. He turned to
Artoo and levitated him out of the x-wing. “Careful there, Artoo. Remember
what happened the first time we came here? Lucky you weren’t easily
digested.”
The little droid tootled a pithy reply.
“I don’t want you to come to harm, shortstuff.
See any sign of Master Yoda yet?” The routine was strangely now as familiar
to Luke as breathing. Land on strange planet, warn Artoo of the dangers and
then wait for the local wildlife to show up. He’d been on enough worlds to
learn. He finally relaxed his own tightly held shields and let his own essence
mix with Dagobah’s beating heart. Yoda would sense his presence immediately.
He grinned down at Artoo. “We could start
unloading and then go and find Master Yoda.”
Artoo beeped his agreement.
“Or he will find us first.” Luke lifted his
head as he sensed…something. But this time he was not unprepared for what he
had to face and turned to meet the tiny being that stood behind him. “Master
Yoda,” Luke said bowing his head deferentially. He could remember his first
mistaken impression of the Jedi Master and had learned not to rely on
appearance alone. But this time he fought to keep his expression unchanged.
Yoda had aged greatly in a mere few months and he’d looked old and unwell
the last time Luke had seen him. There was a frailness about the old Jedi that
worried Luke.
“Welcome, son of Skywalker. Why make that face
you do?”
“What face?” Luke replied carefully.
Yoda shook his head. “See through you I do. I
will not fade quite yet.”
“You…fade? Never,” Luke scoffed lightly,
although his heart missed a beat at the thought of losing Yoda.
“When my time it is, fade I will. Tis part of the
Force,” Yoda pronounced with a far away expression in his eyes and then
cackled, the familiar twinkle returning. “But not today. No…no…not
today. Long way have you come, Luke. Hungry you must be.”
Luke’s face broke into a genuine smile. “You
know me, Master. I’m always hungry.”
Yoda nodded and Luke thought he paused as if he
wanted to say something else. Yoda was a law unto himself and Luke knew that
if he was to learn what Yoda wanted to tell him, he would have to practice his
hard won patience and wait until the old Jedi was ready.
“Come, come. Soon food will ready be,” Yoda
urged brightly and hobbled off briskly towards his dwelling.
“Artoo, stay with the ship,” Luke instructed
the little droid. “I won’t be long.” Through the trees he could see the
flickering light denoting the tiny window of Yoda’s primitive home. “We
have our own place to set up before the rain starts again.”
“Hurry, Luke.” Yoda’s voice reached back to
the young Jedi.
“I’m coming,” he answered and headed after
the diminutive being.
************************************
“Master Yoda,” Luke said softly, placing his
spoon in his empty bowl and setting it aside. “Something is bothering
you?” For a moment, Luke almost thought he had startled the little green
being.
“Growing in strength are you, young Skywalker.
Your prescience is keen. No, nothing is ‘bothering me’. Think not I did
that you would return.”
“But I gave you my word,” Luke said earnestly,
wondering why Yoda was lying to him and perhaps more surprised that he had
seen through the old Jedi’s evasive words.
“Learned what you needed, had you. A Jedi are you
now.”
“A Jedi – a real Jedi?” Luke’s face grew
stiff. “No. I had learned enough to enable me to undertake the task that was
mine as soon as you were aware of my existence – destroy the Emperor, and
with him, Vader. I may be considered a Jedi Knight by the galaxy at large, and
for that I thank you but…”
“Sorrow you feel?” Yoda’s large luminous eyes
seemed to see right through the young Jedi, stripping the layers away from the
aching hurt he had tried so hard to conceal from all around him. “Fear and
anger perhaps consume you?” the Jedi Master persisted. “Was Darth Vader
worth all this emotion?”
Luke’s mouth tightened and pain flashed across
his visage. “He turned back to the good side at the end. Vader saved me and
it was he who destroyed Palpatine – not me. There was still good in him. He
regretted not having known me, his only son but knowing me…killed him. He
only learned about Leia…at the very end.”
“Many evil acts he committed but would not have
destroyed his Master unless you had been there. Good thing you did, son of
Skywalker. Turned Vader back to the light. Impossible I thought this was.
Doubt I had.”
“He was still my father!” Luke clenched his
black gloved fist. He’d been right; they had trained him to complete a task
but not to shoulder the emotions that went with it. So many things had been
taken from him and he needed to be strong and not let that affect him but he
wasn’t strong enough. Inside him was the small boy who had longed for his
father. “I still…loved him.”
“A Jedi should not know love,” Yoda declared
resolutely.
Luke’s chin lifted. “I disagree. Where has not
being able to love got the Jedi? If you don’t mind me saying it, you are
alone on a swamp planet without friends or family.”
“I’m not alone. With me you are.” Yoda gave a
merry cackle. “And I have the Force. A Jedi is never alone when he has the
Force.”
“Stop twisting things. You know very well what I
mean.” Luke’s eyes grew bright with suppressed emotion. “I love my
sister and my friends…Han, Chewie... Love is a strength and it was a
weakness that made the Jedi disregard it.”
Yoda sighed. “Told her you did.”
Luke was unrepentant. “Yes, I told her. I never
knew my real family. You denied me the chance to know my father. Would the
Force begrudge me my sister? If I had to save them from
Yoda sighed. “Reckless.”
“‘A Jedi craves not excitement’…I know that
one – you said it to me often enough. But I’m human with all the frailties
of my species…”
“You are a Jedi Knight,” Yoda insisted gruffly.
“The last of the order are you. See the Jedi rise again you must.”
Luke held out his hands in appeal. “I have not
learned enough to pass on my knowledge to the next generation of Jedi. I
don’t feel like a real Jedi inside.” He pounded at his chest with his
clenched fist. “I worry that I would not be able to instruct others as you
taught me. I worry that I could fail…Leia.” Suddenly, the image of a woman
he had never seen before flashed into his mind. She was fierce, yet beautiful,
with hard green eyes and an abundant mane of fiery red curls. Who was she? Was
she a possible Jedi? He tried to keep hold of the image but the woman laughed
at him and disappeared. If she was Force-strong, could he fail her too?
“Ah…” Yoda stared hard at Luke as his
apprentice momentarily appeared to see something shift in the layers of the
Force. “Interesting,” he murmured, wondering what the boy had seen. Luke
was stronger in the Force than he had anticipated – and he’d sensed that
Luke was powerful from the exact moment of his birth. How much power did the
boy really possess? If they had been back in the
Shaken, Luke wondered if Yoda had seen the woman
too but the old Jedi said nothing. He gathered his thoughts together and
continued, the bitterness in his voice exposing the way he felt. “I was
angry with you and Obi-Wan, Master Yoda, and I know anger is of the dark side
but you used me.”
Yoda’s breath escaped in a long hiss and he
seemed to deflate in front of Luke’s eyes, again appearing old and fragile.
“Right you are, young Skywalker and wrong we were. But no other way was
there.”
“I disagree. You told me the truth from a certain
point of view but that truth, and the way it was told, could have destroyed
me.”
“We had to hope that this was not so. You were
our only hope.”
“But Leia…”
“Her strengths lie along a different path. Not a
warrior is she in the way that we needed. Strong you were and proud was I when
you did not turn.”
Luke’s eyes widened at the unexpected admission.
When he’d first come to train on Dagobah he would have given almost anything
to hear a word of praise from Yoda. Now somehow, it didn’t matter. Without
actually being human, the Jedi Master had exhibited to his apprentice some
very human failings. He could see the folly of the Jedi’s own destruction.
“Proud,” he whispered.
“You were the only one who could have defeated
the Emperor – not me or Obi-Wan, not even Vader. He needed you to be there.
Afraid the Emperor was of your power.”
“I know – I saw it in him,” Luke said simply.
“He thought to turn me to the dark side but he could not. My love for my
sister and my father was almost my downfall but in the end became stronger
than my hate.” Luke pulled on his tunic jacket and fastened it. “Master
Yoda – Palpatine came close to breaking me,” he admitted in a small,
ashamed voice.
“Know that, I do. Prouder still am I, that admit
it, you can.”
Luke hesitated and then decided to speak his
thoughts. “You must have known that I would return here. I got your
messages.”
Yoda stared at the young man. He had changed so
much in such a short time – grown up almost overnight. Luke Skywalker had
turned out to be far more than he expected and it was one of the most humbling
events in the old creature’s long life. Luke had his father’s strength in
the Force – perhaps even greater than his father’s because it was tempered
with his mother’s reason. The boy had the face and colouring that marked him
as his father’s son but the determination came from Padme Amidala of the
Naboo. “I sent no messages. No means have I to do so.”
Luke shook his head. “Yes, you do….more
powerful than any holonet. But my dreams…I heard you calling me.”
“Dreams?”
“You said when I was calm and at peace I would
see things and I do…all the time whether I’m calm or not. But in my dreams
I was summoned here. You called to me.”
Yoda turned away and hobbled to place their used
dishes in the sink for washing. “I sent you no dreams, young one.”
“I heard your voice,” Luke insisted. “Yours
and Obi-Wan’s.
Yoda frowned. “Strange.” Luke was more
susceptible to Force-sent visions and images than many Jedi he had taught. But
always in motion was the future. “You are certain of this?”
“Yes,” Luke said. “Obi Wan came to me about
the troubles on Bakura…”
“Of this I was aware. Needed you were.”
“Then, when I returned I heard his voice and
yours calling me here. I meditated on it and saw you in my visions.”
“Then it is as the Force wills.” Yoda bowed his
head. He had not consciously called the boy but if the Force willed it, he
would obey its commands just as Luke had.
“I’d better go and unload my ship.” Luke
stood up, just managing to avoid bumping his head on the low ceiling of the
little hut. He still felt the ache in his skull from the very first time
he’d been in Yoda’s home. “I brought supplies.”
“Supplies?”
“I cannot stay in here with you,” Luke said
with a rueful chuckle. “I have a Rebel Alliance temporary shelter to act as
my accommodation. It’s actually quite strong for all that it looks like a
piece of reinforced flimsy.”
“Not like my home?”
“No…well, yes.”
“It will not be of this planet,” Yoda said.
“Organic my home is – part of this world and therefore part of the
Force.”
Luke’s face lightened. “Maybe, but I can’t
stand upright in it without doing some serious damage to my skull and Artoo
needs somewhere he can move around in relative safety. He spends his time
wondering if some creature wants to eat him or the climate will have a
detrimental effect on his circuits.”
A glimmer of amusement found its way onto Yoda’s
face. “Understand I do.”
“Master Yoda…”
The old sage peered at Luke’s shadowed face in
the gloom of the faintly shining lamps. “You are thinking of your sister.”
“Yes. Leia is often in my thoughts. If I can’t
teach her, I cannot teach anyone and I fear…”
“Fear?” Yoda shook his head. “No…you
mustn’t fear.”
“But I do fear. I worry that I will never see her
again, that without me to protect her she will die. Sure she has Han and
Chewbacca to look after her and its not easy to get past Han, let alone a
Wookiee but…”
“Ah…” Yoda cut off Luke as he started to
ramble. “Protect your sister from harm like the young man you tried to save
on Bakura – Dev Sibwarra. His future was never written long in the Force.
His destiny was to die. That was his time.”
“But I should have been able to save him.” Pain
leaked through Luke’s shields.
“You did save him. He died with the light of the
Force surrounding him.” Yoda was firm. “But no…you cannot rescue
everyone.”
“But I have to try.”
Yoda shook his head. “Do or do not – there is
no try.”
Luke laughed bitterly. “All I can do is
try, Master Yoda. I do the best I can. Sometimes it’s not good enough
and I regret that more than I can say. I cannot let that happen with Leia
or...” Luke frowned. The nagging feeling that he was missing someone out of
his equation gnawed at him but he knew of no-one else that might require
tuition. The cold-eyed beauty he’d glimpsed earlier flashed into his mind
but he had the feeling she was hidden from him by some other means. Her sense
to him through the Force was clouded. It could be that the key to finding the
whereabouts of the green-eyed beauty would be to continue his studies. “I
need to further my training if I’m to see Leia again because if I do,
nothing will stop me from instructing her in the ways of the Force.”
Luke’s shoulders slumped as if weighed down by a great burden. “I did not
want to return. It was so hard to leave them – one of the hardest things
I’ve ever done. Leaving Tatooine with Obi-Wan was easier because I had
nothing left to go back to but now…I have Leia and Han…They still need me
and I felt as if I was abandoning them and their cause. The war is not over
yet.”
“What does your heart tell you?” Yoda asked
gently. The boy was still governed by his emotions. Perhaps it was time to
start working with him and not against him. Nine hundred years and it was
still possible to learn something new. He had succeeded against insurmountable
odds and it gave the old Jedi Master hope.
“That I will see her again,” he said softly.
“And I will train her to become a Jedi.”
“Then you will. Come Luke, your shelter you must
set up and then sleep you will require. Rest will be necessary for work you
hard I must.”
****************************************************
Coruscant Spaceport – Three Years Later
Wearily Han Solo pulled the offending piece of
fried wiring from the panel above the Millennium Falcon’s main view
port. “Damn Wookiee, thinks he can rewire everything but does he have to do
it when I’m trying to get home?” He was tired. Tired of chasing Imperial
remnants and jumped up warlords from one end of the galaxy to the other; tired
of he and Leia never seeing one another from one month to the next and tired
of wondering whether the Kid was still alive or not. It was three years to the
day that the Kid had walked out on them and there hadn’t been a day that he
didn’t wonder where Luke was and how he was doing. Didn’t he know that
they needed him – he’d said that he would know. Han shook away his feeling
of betrayal.
He’d seen the change in Leia, seen the way she
tried to keep hold of her brother’s presence and how her beautiful dark eyes
had dimmed a little as she lost the thread of the spirit that linked them
together. But despite time and lack of contact and Han’s misgivings, Leia
maintained that her brother was still alive and would return to them when he
decided that the time was right. Since Luke had rescued Han from Jabba’s
palace, Leia’s faith in her brother’s abilities had been unshakeable.
‘Time was right. Hah!” Han thought that
he might punch the Kid in the jaw for putting them through hell and back when
he hadn’t needed to. Han admitted to himself that he hadn’t understood why
Luke had decided to leave them and he still didn’t. But he had no
doubts that Luke was still alive. If Leia had said he was alive – then he
was alive. He didn’t really believe in Luke’s hokey religion but there was
something weird about the Kid at times. Han Solo respected ‘weird’.
“What the hell did you do to this for, you great
overstuffed Ewok?” he bellowed irritably at his two metre tall, shaggy
companion.
Chewbacca loped into the cockpit waving his
hydrospanner about and growling angrily, “Don’t take your temper out on
me, Han.”
“Okay, okay, I’m sorry,” Han apologised
swiftly. He hadn’t been too even-tempered of late. It was a wonder Chewie
was still speaking to him.
The Wookiee cocked his head to one side and gazed
at his long-time friend and partner. “You need some time out.”
“Well, that’s not gonna happen anytime soon.
We’d better get this ship fixed. We can only spend a week here at the most
and then we need to head out towards the Outer Rim. The Empire has been a
little too active there recently. Some over-important Moff thinking he can be
the next Emperor.”
“I’ll fix it…you get some sleep and in a
proper bed. Not here.”
“I sleep better here on the Falcon.” He
didn’t add ‘without Leia’. He didn’t have to. Chewie understood that
little fact all too well. But Leia was on the other side of the galaxy trying
to persuade various worlds and star systems to join the
“Well, go and get some decent human food inside
you,” the Wookiee ordered gruffly.
“I need a drink and conversation with my sort of
people.”
“You drink too much,” the Wookiee commented.
“It’s food and sleep that you need. Your sort of people aren’t ‘your
sort’ any more.”
“Now you sound like Leia.”
Chewie bared his teeth in a threatening expression.
“Go home.”
Han threw down his tools. “I’m going, I’m
going.” He fastened his low slung holster around his thigh and exited via
the loading ramp muttering curses in several languages as he went. It wasn’t
fair of him to take his bad mood out on Chewie but on the last planet they’d
stopped on for refuelling and provisions there had been a giant holo which had
screamed the latest galactic gossip in large flashing aurebesh…
‘Princess Leia Organa to marry
the Duke of…’
He’d commed Leia, trying to keep it light but it
had ended up as a slanging match. It was difficult to argue with the one
person in the galaxy you desperately loved more than any other. She’d
laughed it off at first.
“I shook his hand at a function, Han. That’s
all.”
“Well, it’s all over the holonet. It looked
disgusting the way he was slobbering all over you.”
“He kissed my hand, nerfbrain, and believe me,
that’s as far as it went. He’s boring. He has the personality of a wet
flannel…”
“And a fortune of several billion credits,” Han
had snapped. “The
“If you think so little of me, Han,” Leia
had snapped back. “Then perhaps I should be considering the Duke’s most
generous offer.”
The chinless wonder had actually had the nerve to
make an offer! Han was incensed. “Fine. You do that.”
Han had scowled at the billboard. The way he’d
acted it wouldn’t be any surprise if she married the first aristocrat with
enough money to bail the
He’d once joked that he would just kidnap her or
they’d elope but he had a feeling that he’d have to do some serious
grovelling before Leia would let him anywhere near her. He patted his left
pants pocket and felt the reassuring lump of the ring box. It wasn’t as
flashy as perhaps the Duke might manage but he loved her and that must count
for something. He wondered what the Kid might have to say about it. Maybe he
would have to ask Luke for permission to marry his sister – that is, if the
Kid eventually surfaced from wherever he was hiding himself. The idea struck
him as amusing and for the first time in several days, his lips tilted into
his familiar lop-sided grin.
That’s if Luke was still alive. The smile
slipped. Suddenly things didn’t seem so funny any more. For a while he’d
suspected that Leia knew her brother’s whereabouts. It had led to more rows
until he had simply stopped asking.
Just overhead, an enormous, ugly, red ship glided
smoothly into one of the docking bays and something about it caught and held
Han’s wandering attention. It was a huge bulk Action VI transport. These
ships were considered to be slow, poorly armed and easy targets for pirates.
“Surprisingly quiet,” he murmured appreciatively. In his expert opinion,
this ship was more than it appeared to be. His instincts had never let him
down on matters of ships and hidden hardware. It probably belonged to one of
the big trading guilds or even a smuggling group.
Han moved a little closer as the ship powered into
a gentle landing. The engines on that class of ship were never that quiet or
particularly powerful and he recognised the signs indicating that she was
carrying top-grade concealed weaponry – he’d been in the smuggling
business too long himself. ‘I know that ship’, Han thought suddenly, as
his trained eye noted the reinforced hull armour. ‘It’s the Wilde
Karrde.’ So Talon Karrde had arrived on Coruscant and Han wondered why.
The smuggler and master trader was reputed not to like the city planet and
preferred to operate from a series of secret bases scattered around the
galaxy.
Considered to be one of the shrewdest and most
intelligent men amongst the smuggling fraternity, Talon Karrde had been plying
his trade - both legal and illegal - for longer than Han had been flying and
was considered to be the best in the business. Han knew that the rebellion had
done quite a few deals with Karrde over the years but the wily smuggling chief
had not been keen to advertise the fact. No, Talon Karrde had tried and
succeeded in staying neutral. Han pursed his lips thoughtfully. One day, he
suspected that the smuggler might have to choose sides. But for the moment,
Karrde worked for the profits of his organisation only.
There was another side to Talon Karrde’s
operations that Han had discovered by accident when he’d helped out a former
colleague who’d got himself into a tight spot with a bunch of Imperial
inspectors. Karrde had sent him a message thanking him and Han’s suspicions
that one of the inspectors was one of Karrde’s men had blossomed. He’d
been unable to do anything without blowing his cover and it was only with
Han’s help that Deavin had got away without further problems. Karrde liked
to know exactly what was happening on all fronts – a good thing for someone
existing on the fringe of legality. The suave smuggler chief employed the best
spies in the business. Han had tried to get the Rebellion hierarchy to take
that on board and use Karrde, if and when they could. But Ackbar was not
overly fond of smugglers and distrusted any information supplied. Han would
have staked the Falcon on any news that Karrde’s people brought to
the table being the real deal.
Could Karrde do what Han had been unable to do and
find out where Luke was hiding himself? It was worth considering. He walked
away unaware that his interest in the ship had already been noted and filed
for future reference.
“Han!”
He spun around at the sound of his name, his jaw
dropping with surprised incredulity at the sight of a small figure rushing
towards him. This wasn’t real – it was a dream. He blinked but he
wasn’t seeing things. His lover was still running towards him. “Leia?”
Leia Organa stopped abruptly a few metres from
where he stood. It was as if she had suddenly remembered their last
conversation. Han could see the two burly security men General Airen Cracken
had posted with her remain several respectful metres behind her but close
enough to act if he should turn dangerous. It should be him and Chewie
protecting Leia, he thought sourly.
“Han…I’m sorry,” she whispered, her dark
eyes stricken.
“Aw…hell, Leia. I’m the one who’s sorry.”
He took a step towards her and held out his arms and, with a little whimper of
relief; the last Princess of Alderaan hurled herself into the welcome warmth
and feeling of love and security that Han Solo’s embrace represented.
“Sweetheart, I’m a jealous fool.”
“Han, I’ve missed you so much,” Leia said.
“I love you,” she said, truth shining in her eyes. “They would like me
to make a nice dynastic marriage to the scion of a wealthy house but how can
I? I can’t bear how they’ve pulled us apart.”
“We won’t let them do that any more,” he
muttered, dropping a kiss on top of her head.
“How?”
“We’ll think of a way.” Han rubbed his chin
over the top of her tightly braided coronet of hair and was struck by a memory
of the last time he had held her in his arms, her hair spilling across the
pillows in their cabin on the Millennium Falcon. “Besides…we’ve
been doing a damned good job of that ourselves and it’s time that we
stopped.”
She stared up at him, her face serious. “We have,
haven’t we? Let’s go.” Leia removed herself from his embrace but clasped
his hand in hers.
“Yes – good idea. I need you, Leia. This
chasing all over the galaxy without me isn’t on anymore.”
With an imperious nod of her dark head, Leia
dismissed the security guards. Han could see they were unhappy about it but
there was nothing they could do. Sometimes he wondered if the
“I need Han more than I need you,” she said
firmly. One of the guards made as if to speak but Leia held her hand up in a
staying motion. “Han will protect me.”
Han’s grim expression lightened and his lazy
heart-stopping smile shone down into the face of the woman he loved. “With
my life, Highnessness.”
**********************************