Chapter 1: In the Arms of the Hutt

Princess Leia Organa watched, mortified, as her love was taken away from her. Two Gammorean guards pushed his blinded, stumbling form ahead of them. Amused onlookers stepped out of the way, watching as the guards exited the chamber. Leia's heart raced as she watched the white of Han's shirt darken in the low light of the adjoining hallway, and then it vanished beyond the waddling guards' forms.

How foolish, how cocky, had her plan been? Her pride had gotten the better of her decisions—and where were Han and her other friends, now?

#

Over a year before, Han Solo, Leia's lover, an intergalactic smuggler-turned-Rebel, had been captured and brought to an old former partner of his, the loathsome Jabba the Hutt, to whom he owed a large unpaid debt. It had taken quite a lot of time and resources, but she, along with her friend Luke, and Han's friends and fellow Rebels Chewbacca and Lando Calrissian, had been able to track down the Hutt's palace.

Luke was only able to do so much; he had been communicating from the planet Dagobah, where he had been training with his Jedi master Yoda for some time now. And then he had sent in a holographic message, in which he proposed his plan.

First, Lando had gone into the palace in disguise, sending remote transmissions to confirm that Han was indeed there. A week later, C3PO and R2D2, two droids that had proven to be key members of the Rebellion, were dispatched to Jabba's palace with a message from Luke: they would serve him as gifts in exchange for Han's safe return. Lando would independently escape soon after, and all would be well. And if they didn't escape within four days, Luke—who would have at that point returned from Dagobah—would come to the palace and show off his new Jedi skills as he helped them all escape.

Sure enough, the greedy Hutt kept the droids as prisoners and ignored the deal. Luke's plan was quickly proving how insane, how risky, it was—and so Leia had decided to take matters into her own hands.

Disguising herself with the confiscated armor and identity of a captured bounty hunter known as Boushh, Leia took Chewie as a false prisoner to Jabba's palace, trying to land a bogus bargain for the Wookie. Jabba agreed, and with all the pieces in place, that night, she made her move.

Han was exactly as she'd last seen him, incarcerated in a framed carbonite mold, which Jabba had hung on a wall in his private art gallery, a sick trophy. Freeing him, Leia unmasked herself; although Han was temporarily blinded from his carbonite hibernation he was otherwise mercifully, beautifully alive!

Then Jabba's horrible laughter had erupted from behind the gallery's closed curtain, and Leia had frozen, completely unsure of what to do. Somehow, the Hutt had learned of her plan, and she and Han were immediately apprehended. It was painfully pathetic to watch Han try to bargain with Jabba. The Hutt what here and all of his offers, and ordered him to be taken away; Leia watched helplessly, knowing that in all likelihood, Han would be brought to a darkened prison cell, where at the very least, he would have time to heal.

#

He's safe, she forced herself to remember. If Jabba wanted him dead, he'd be dead by now. He's just being put in a cell somewhere, until—

Leia cursed under her breath as a hand grabbed her arm. Tensing, she spun to find a palace guard standing before her—and she had a momentary relief when she recognized the dark brown gaze peering out from behind the tusk-studded helmet. Lando. Perhaps he'd temporarily take her to a holding cell, and maybe later that night or the next, he could come back and—

"Gyacho," a deep, gurgling voice broke into Leia's consciousness, a Huttese command: Wait. Tensing, she turned fearfully to its speaker.

Jabba, a massive, bloated Hutt, was reclining on the floor in a previously-hidden alcove, waving a chunky arm toward himself. "Bring her to me," he said, his huge, orange eyes narrowing. Beside him, his majordomo, a Twi'lek named Bib Fortuna, flashed his sharp teeth in a sinister grin.

Another hand found Leia's other arm, and she turned to see a Gamorrean guard. Lando's hand squeezed her arm, but she kept her gaze averted from his, not wanting to blow his cover as he wordlessly changed gears, maintaining his cover. The guard stepped forward, as did Lando, and together, they began to half-pull, half-lead Leia with them.

As they approached Jabba, she heard a muffled thump somewhere behind her, and Lando's hand released her other arm, only to be replaced by the guard's. He'd pushed Lando away and was now pushing Leia forward himself. Leia tensed, puzzled as to why he was pushing her directly for the Hutt, without any sign of slowing down.

Now was definitely not a time to show any signs of confusion or fear. Leia steeled herself, lifting her arms and struggling briefly with the guard as she was pushed closer and closer to Jabba, until she was within his chubby arm's reach. "We have powerful friends," she stammered; it was all she could think of saying as the front of her desert outfit was shoved directly against the Hutt's huge, round belly. As his foul bodily odor began to assault her nostrils, she uttered another threat, if only to avoid openly flinching. "You're gonna regret this!"

To her disgusted confusion, the guard pushed her even more firmly up against Jabba's bulk, which dimpled around her frame, the slimy flesh producing sickeningly wet squelching sounds. Leia tried to arch her upper body back, but she was shoved closer and closer, until she could feel the bottom slope of his gut pressed against the fronts of her legs.

Far too close for her comfort, she watched as Jabba's mouth opened, his slime-dribbled chins doubling and tripling upon their thick rolls as he wetly grumbled, "I'm sure."

A third hand pressed against Leia's back, and when the guard repositioned one hand between her shoulders, she realized it was Jabba's. Together, they easily shoved her upper body foward again, until her face moved within inches of Jabba's own enormous, slimy one as he opened his lips wider, horribly cooing a foul, filthy-sounding word…until she realized it was her own name. "Leiaaaaahh…"

Her resolve cracked and fell apart as she watched his mouth open even wider, his huge tongue emerging with her name, thick pouring out around his tongue as it licked his wide lower lip. Overcome with disgust, she turned her head, squeezed her eyes shut, and gave voice to her repulsion with a loud groan. "Aun-ughhh…"

From nearby, she could hear a plaintive, electronic voice, and realized it was C3-PO, the golden protocol droid that Luke had sent in as a bargaining chip for Han. The droid helplessly whimpered, "Ohhh, I can't bear to watch," and Leia couldn't help but feel simultaneously annoyed at the droid's selfish response…and embarrassed to be a part of the reason for his disgust.

She listened as Jabba continued to slurp at his lips. Any time she'd previously witnessed the Hutt slobbering had been unwholesome at worst—but at least she had only ever seen the action from a safe, bearable distance. As he was doing it mere inches from her face, with the wet sounds mixing with his grumbles and moans, a miasma of warm, humid smells drifting over her features, it was far too disgusting to bear.

The Hutt's pet lizard-monkey hooted and cackled from nearby, and Jabba grumbled thickly, still slobbering. "Ooaah," he belched, and Leia was sickened to feel his big belly quake against her body with a heavy chuckle.

So that's his intent, she thought to herself. Jabba wanted to make her show a sign of weakness, to undermine her with something that not even she could bear. We'll see about that.

Grimacing, she turned her head back to face the Hutt, then opened her eyes—just in time to see his tongue, stretched out in the air before her, curled over and wetly met the left side of her face. Before she could fully react, it swiped across her mouth, slopping a beastly kiss upon her lips.

Leia was almost grateful for the laughter of the sick audience which then rose around her at this, because it almost completely drowned out a second, even more deeply horrified moan that escaped her slime-slathered lips. Cringing, she turned her head, spitting.

Jabba's tongue mercifully retracted with a loud, wet slurp. As the audience continued to laugh and cheer at her humiliation, he began to speak, his voice was suspiciously low. "But in the meantime…" She gasped as she felt his hand press more firmly against the heavy fabric hanging over her lowermost back, and around her, the audience quickly hushed as the Hutt finished, "…I shall thoroughly enjoy the pleasure of your company."

Spitting another invasive taste of Jabba's saliva, Leia tensed and glared at him. His particular choice of words, along with the knowing chuckles that arose around her, made her skin crawl.

"To start, let's get you into something a little more...appropriate..."

The sinking sensation in her gut increased tenfold, even as the Gammorean guard mercifully pulled her back from the Hutt, whose greasy flesh stuck to her clothes and weaponry.

"A suggestion," a low, processed voice said. Leia turned to watch Boba Fett, the Empire-allied Mandalorian bounty hunter who'd captured Han, stepping forward from the crowd, his helmeted head nodding at her. "Check her for weapons. She's a resourceful one."

"That she is," Jabba said, and Leia's skin crawled as he licked his lips again, staring at her in a way that made her more uncomfortable than uneasy.

As Fett came over, Leia tried to steel herself, feeling almost dizzy with helplessness. The bounty hunter patted down her arms and legs, checking for any outfit for any concealed weaponry. Finding none, he then began to remove her ammunition belt and jerkin. Off came the spare breathing packs for use in the harsh Tatooine desert air. Convinced that she was clean, Fett handed the weapons to a nearby guard, then nodded to the Hutt.

"Melina!" Jabba bellowed, and a pale-faced, black-haired woman in a form-fitting red jumpsuit came forth and half-bowed before Jabba. "Master," she said in a smoky voice.

"Process her. Bring her back in the morning."

Melina bowed again, then began to walk away, and the guard shoved Leia after her, heading for one of the massive connecting hallways.

Leia threw a final glare back at Jabba, watching as he licked his lips once more, slime dribbling thickly down his chins, Bib Fortuna leaning in beside him, whispering something unintelligible, his gaze fixed on Leia the whole time—and then the guard led Leia around a corner, and the audience chamber vanished from view.

Leia had a bad feeling about this.