Han peeked out the window of the transit. Blue-white lights flashed by as the rebels and their imperial guide sped to the most powerful and deadly gun mounted on the Star Destroyer.

After giving them enough time to look out the window, their guide asked, "Where has your squad been previously assigned?"

Han hesitated at the question he hadn't expected. "Manaan, one of the water worlds."

"Ah," the man said. "I was just wondering because you seem like you've been going through a lot," he explained, then more quietly, "I thought you might have been… one of the squads from the Death Star." He bit his lip and looked out of the window. "So many people died in that attack…" he trailed off, "I mean, the Empire isn't perfect, but that doesn't justify what the Rebels did," he said with his fists clenched by his side.

One of Han's men stood up straighter. "With all due respect, sir. We're not as innocent as that. We destroyed Alderaan."

There was a long silence. Han's heart raced, sure that their cover was blown.

The officer let out a long hiss of breath. "Damnit." He bit his lip harder. "Damnit, you're right."

The transit slowed to a halt, and the doors slid open, revealing a giant dome made of-

"Is that… an energy field?" one of Han's men asked tentatively.

"Yes," the officer said, trying to regain his composure. "This way, the energy cannon can revolve and rotate to nearly any position, and none of the oxygen can escape. The field is a changeable energy one, so we can fire out, but the rebels can't fire in.

"Interesting," Han said, raising his blaster. I hope the men have theirs set to stun. I really don't wanna kill these guys…

The officers were too surprised to raise their blasters in time. Han's men blew them down like leaves in a hurricane. Their guide managed to avoid Han's blasts.

"I don't understand!" he screamed. "Why are you doing this!?"

Han knocked him out with a quick, well-aimed blast.

The men in the rear brought the crates of fuel cells forward. Another brought out some wires from under his uniform.

"Did everyone have their blasters set for stun?" Han asked.

They all nodded.

"Alright let's blow it up and get off this piece of junk," he ordered. He looked back at all the unconscious officers. "Bring these guys along. We might be able to interrogate them once we get back, and find out about their new leader."

Luckily there weren't that many, so his men only had to haul five unconscious bodies back to the transit, including their guide.

The trooper who was fiddling with the wires cried out, "Alright let's go! We have five minutes!"

They hurried aboard the transit, and Han slammed the button. They sped away.

He turned back to the others. "Do you think we should go ahead with phase two?" he asked wearily. He desperately hoped for an all resounding 'no'.

His men looked at each other, obviously torn.

"We've already dealt with the big problem-" one of them began.

"But if we just leave without executing phase two, more people will die," another responded.

A third slammed his fist against the plass window. "More people will die especially if we do it," he growled. "Most likely even us, now that we'll be seen carrying these guys," he said, adjusting the unconscious officer slung over his shoulder.

Han sighed, a static crackle that escaped his helmet. "Take a vote. It's what Lei- the Princess would want."

All the men turned to face him.

"All in favor of leaving, raise your hands."

Seven.

"All in favor of carrying out the plan, raise your hands."

Six.

There was a long silence.

"You haven't voted, General," one of them said.

Han paused.

Leia turned to Ackbar's hologram. "They should be back by now," she stated. There was no audible worry in her voice, but Ackbar knew she feared for the strike team's safety. "Or at least, we should be seeing the signal to attack…" She stared into the deep dark hole of space. "Are the fighters prepped?" she asked.

Ackbar nodded. "My pilots are ready now. The enemy is in perfect position as well, hovering as far away from the capital as possible. If we're going to attack, sooner is better than later."

Leia sighed, crossing her arms. "We wait for another half an hour. If our team isn't back by then, we storm the capital only." She hadn't told their strike team that they would be attacking both Coruscant's capital and the Empire's fleet, just in case they were captured. "If we do receive the signal, then we take out the fleet as well, understood?"

Ackbar nodded, then his hologram turned to face something that Leia couldn't see. "Wait. Princess Leia. I think it's them," he exclaimed in amazement.

"What?!" Leia turned and pressed herself against the thick plass that separated her from the void of space.

A tiny dot was speeding towards them, growing larger and larger. She recognized it as the strike team's ship. Why didn't we receive the signal?

"It's them alright," Ackbar said. "I'll get them to dock here," he said. It made sense, his ship was closer.

A few minutes later, Leia found herself confront of a small hologram of Han.

"What happened?" She asked.

Han shook his head. "I couldn't complete the mission, but the men-" he paused. "About half of them stayed on the ship to… finish the job."

Leia raised a hand to her mouth. "They'll never get out," she whispered.

"They knew that," Han said angrily, although most of it was directed at himself.

Something cold dropped through Leia's stomach, as if all the heat had been sucked from her body. The wave of cold rolled over her.

She shuddered, then buried her head in her hands, knowing what it meant.

Almost immediately, a hologram of Ackbar appeared next to Han.

"General Organa!" He exclaimed. "The star destroyer our team infiltrated, it's rammed into the second one!"

"I know," Leia said monotonously.

"They made it," Han said in horrified wonder.

"No they didn't. We're the ones who made it, because we weren't the ones who died," she said angrily. "Begin landing our troops," she ordered and Ackbar's hologram disappeared.

"Leia," Han said, reaching out a blue hand.

"Just… I'm not feeling good Han. We shouldn't be this desperate after destroying the Death Star. We shouldn't be giving up lives for a cause we've already won."

Han shook his head. "We haven't won, Leia. Not by a long shot." He paused. "Hang tight, I'm coming over to your ship," he said, a little of his old grin crossing his lips.

He was falling, gently into a deep, warm sleep.

Luke's eyes opened gently. He blinked a few times, then pulled himself up, leaping nimbly to his feet. He strode outside the hut, but before he'd made it a few steps-

Beep woop Woo?

He turned around slowly. "Taking a walk. I was going to go meditate, R2." His voice was expressionless.

"Woo?"

"No, R2." Luke extended a hand, and R2's lights dimmed. He had disconnected a power circuit. "I don't feel like I'm Luke anymore," he said, looking at his gloved hand.

Sparks flew as if it were a droid factory. "That's..." He closed the fist, and electricity jumped and coiled up and down his arm like a serpent. "That's interesting."

Luke jolted awake, sweating and heaving, as if he'd been running for hours. He glanced at his hands. They were balled into fists. He unclenched them and noticed the marks his fingernails had made on the palms of them. He must have been tensing his hand for hours…. Luke tried to slow his breathing, but to no avail.

"R-" his voice cracked, "R2?" He looked wildly around. "R2, where are you!?"

A weak ee woo, sounded from a corner. Luke scrambled up, taking in the view of Yoda's hut. "R2…" he said shakily, "What happened here?"

The table was overturned, and the plates and bowls Luke had brought with him were smashed against the ground. All around him it looked as if there had been a great struggle, as if a wind had blown through and blown everything to the ground. Ash floated in the air like toxic fog.

"Eh po uu woo," R2 blipped, his lights flickering from blue to red. The droid blipped again.

"What do you mean, it was me-?" Luke began, then seeing R2's lights flicker again, but this time on and off, he called out, "No, wait! Don't go low power on me now, R2!"

R2's lights dimmed.

"Shoot," Luke spat, reaching over to pry open R2's control panel. It came off easily. That's not a good sign, Luke thought. He scanned the complex criss-cross of wires, searching for the power.

Wait. No. First, he thought, I need to figure out what happened here. It's no use repairing R2 if it's just going to happen again, he reasoned.

He replaced the first control panel, then scooted around the little droid to a different one, the memory panel. He was trying to isolate one part of the droid's functions; maybe R2 had recorded what happened while he'd been asleep. He fiddled with a small pressure sensor.

"Oh you clever droid," he gasped as a blue hologram appeared on the dusty floor.

There he was, lying flat on the ground under his blanket. He saw his miniature chest rise and fall. He was panting. His hologram jerked. A bowl fell to the ground and shattered. Luke tossed in his sleep and suddenly the fireplace disappeared into a cloud of ash. He moaned. I mustn't have as good a control over the force as I'd thought… He gritted his teeth. The door slammed open. Luke cursed as he pulled it closed. He tried to focus on the hologram.

With each convulsion in his sleep, something clattered to the ground. Luke shuddered as he saw the hologram of himself clutch into the air, trying to grab something that wasn't there. There was a small rasping sound. Luke leaned in.

"Leave me alone," the hologram of himself said. He sounded pained.

The whole image shook. I'm lifting R2! he realized.

The hologram blurred and shut off. Luke blinked, then stood up. He stretched out a hand, and his lightsaber jerked out of his bag and flew into his palm. Immediately, he felt a wave of self-disgust. What had he come to? At one time using the force for such little, pointless tasks felt like cheating, but now…

"What am I like now?" he muttered. He decided that he didn't care how he used the Force right now. He needed to train an apprentice and pass on his knowledge. The ways of the Force had to be passed on, and to do that, he had to be alive.

He pushed open the door to the hut and stepped out into the humid air. He began running. He leapt over a log, scrambled up a rock and jumped onto a vine which he clambered up with ease. He jumped from branch to branch, using the Force to aid him. What he needed. What he needed was a safe place. No. What he needed was to not hurt anyone. Luke groaned as he realized the most surefire way of not losing control when he went unconscious was to not become unconscious. No sleep.