All The Small Things Watch That Man and Some Rescue, a star wars fanfic

Hey, everyone! Long time, no see, eh? No excuses are to be offerred this time. I have had this ready for about two or three weeks, but was unsure if I should post it or not (because my plan for this chapter was longer). In the end, I left it at its current length, so I apologize for the unnecessary delay. Anyway, I have a few notes about this chapter that I need to mention: 1) The only two characters who are part of the action in this chapter not part of the SW cannon are Valerie and Messandra, even though a good number of other characters look like they are not. If you think about the clues I left in the text, you should probably be able to identify whom the others are. 2) Any language that sounds like it's out of a Shakespearian play is due to the fact that I wrote this while I was studying Macbeth. 3) This chapter is about 30 pages long. If necessary, read this in multiple sittings. Unless, of course, you have oodles of free time, unline me. 4) I would really like some feedback about how I did with the scene centering completely on the new captain of the Executor, especially on the, for lack of a better word, gooier parts (warning/translation: romantic stuff ahoy, but only in that section).5) There are three chapters left. 6) A number of conversations, aliases, and lines are influenced by british literature, certain other movies, and my new obsession with Wonder Woman. Read at your own risk. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter, but don't expect an update for a while (Robotics season has begun). Thanks to all the reviewers, and again, I hope you like this installment of AtSM!

As Vader watched the Millennium Falcon escape from the Executor, he noticed that the newly promoted Captain was smiling slightly, as if he was glad that the Rebels has escaped. Vader grimaced when he remembered the conversation which had taken place on the shuttle back up to the Executor. The captain had made an offhand comment that the Rebels seemed smart enough to get away safely. Apparently the man had made some sort of bet or something. Vader didn't care. The man had at least half a brain, which was a lot more than could be said of many other Imperial officers. Well, either that, or he's Force-sensitive, Vader admitted before checking to see if the captain was a Jedi. As far as he could tell, the captain was just smart. That was great news. Now the fleet had a competent admiral (Piett) and the flagship had a decent captain (Vader's former aide).

Aside from all of the benefits of having knowledge of the future, Vader was still rather rankled that the Millennium Falcon had still managed to escape the Executor. The worse part was that he only had himself to blame. Maybe if he had brought a interdictor cruiser along, then the flying scrap heap would not have escaped. Vader did recognize that that was only wishful thinking. It was probably a good thing that Vader had not captured Luke. Then he would have had to take the boy back to Coruscant to have an audience with the Emperor. Vader did not want to go through the conversation he knew would have taken place. Vader looked down at the floor and then out the window one last time. He turned around and walked off of the bridge. As he exited the room, Vader overheard the captain commenting nonchalantly to one of his aides about how a number of the bridge crew lost a certain bet.

In the Millennium Falcon, Luke sat in one of the chairs in the cockpit. Everyone had long vacated the room. In fact, the others were asleep and the droids were powered down. Luke couldn't remember how long he had been sitting there, staring out into the ether. Time passed so slowly when you were berating yourself for crimes you had not committed. Luke glanced at the chronometer. It was just a little past three in the morning. That meant he had been sitting still for about seven hours. Leia was going to yell at him in the morning for staying up all night, but Luke didn't particularly care. When he told her about his father, Leia would probably blow a gasket, at best. Luke shook his head. No, Leia wouldn't do that. She would be surprised, but she wasn't the type of person to judge someone like that. Luke sighed. The Rebellion probably would not let him off as easily.

Luke turned back to stare at hyperspace when the door opened and Leia walked in. She looked like she was sleepwalking or something close to it. She yawned and sat down in the chair opposite Luke. Leia stared at him, trying to figure out what was wrong. She knew Luke had a right to be upset, anyone would if they had been maimed, but she knew there was something else wrong. Leia could not explain how, but she just had a feeling that Luke was not only in a deep depression but that he was hiding something as well. Recollecting herself, Leia started to ask him about what happened. He probably would talk in time, but they were fighting a war, for Force's sake, and the Rebellion could not have one of their officers in such a melancholy and unstable condition. "Luke?" she hazarded.

Luke didn't reply for a moment, and when he did, he just kept staring out into space. "I thought you were asleep," he stated, definitely trying to hide an emotion. Now Leia was all the more determined to find out what was going on. Luke was not getting off that easily.

"Luke, please tell me what happened," Leia begged him. "You can trust me. If you keep whatever it is a secret, then whatever's wrong will just become worse over time." She waited for him to say something, anything, but he did not. "Luke, please. I can tell. Don't try to pretend that you are perfectly fine. Anyone could tell you are not."

Luke stared down at the floor for a moment then turned to face Leia. He grimaced. "I cannot tell you," he murmured despondently. The two just stared at each other, not conceding to the other's point of view until Luke finally broke down. It was all too much for him to take. Leia could not take just sitting around, watching her best friend crying and in such a sorry state. She moved closer and hugged him. "It'll be all right, you'll see," Leia whispered, trying to calm Luke down. "Everything will get better. I promise."

Boba Fett thought about what to do now that he had captured Solo. It was almost like he had nothing else to do. He could take the worthless smuggler back to Jabba, but the giant slug would probably not pay him a good reward for the irritating smuggler. Of course, he could try to sell the block of carbonite off as a piece of art made by the second-in-command of the Empire. Boba set the coordinates for Coruscant; he other business there. Apparently the Black Sun needed him for something. It did not particularly matter to Boba. He was too puzzled about what to do with Solo. Killing the man outright would not be all that satisfying. Maybe the "art" way was the way to go. Boba glanced back at the carbonite. Damn, that Han-sicle is going to drive me mad...

Xizor sat in his office in his castle on Coruscant, staring out the window. He checked the time and saw that the bounty hunter Fett would not be arriving for some time longer. No matter. Fett was only a small part of his plan. The bounty hunter was undoubtedly the best in the galaxy, but Xizor doubted that even he could catch the boy Skywalker. Xizor was particularly fond of playing over the scene which would occur once Skywalker was in his custody. Vader's spawn would pay for the destruction of Xizor's castle, even if it was in a different reality. Vader would pay, too. Then Xizor would go about killing the other Skywalker, the General from the Clone Wars. That man was just as, if not more, annoying than the other two with the same last name. A Jedi, too. It would be fun when Xizor hunted down and killed that one. That Jedi had been disrupting the Black Sun's activities ceaselessly since Xizor had come into power, and it was starting to become tiring. When all of that business was finished, Xizor was going to go after Princess Leia.

Leia. The Princess of Alderaan. Xizor had still not given up on her, and he now had a second chance to try to seduce the girl. Maybe she would be more receptive this time. Of course, Xizor had to factor in all of the other annoyances. By the time the Skywalkers were dead, who knew what the state of the galaxy would be. Xizor then realized by that time, he might be dead as well. Such was the way with wars; no one could predict what would happen. Except, of course, the Emperor, Xizor added to himself. Yet another person in his way on the path of power. Xizor conceded to himself that he would have to run his plans concurrently yet again. What a pain. He opened his calendar on his personal computer and made a note that he had to plan an assassination in a few days earlier than planned so he could devote the rest of his free time to his hobbies.

As Xizor was changing his schedule, Guri walked into the room. "My Prince, you told me to inform you whenever Lord Vader was to come back on planet," she stated. Xizor waited for her to continue. Guri would have sent a message if something that relatively unimportant happened. "He demanded a meeting with you as soon as possible, but the Emperor heard of this and decided that it would be best if you and Vader were to meet when you were supposed to have reported to the Emperor tomorrow."

"The discussion is to be in the Emperor's presence, yes?" Xizor surmised. Guri nodded curtly, and Xizor smiled coldly. "All the better. Vader will not be allowed to make any veiled death threats this time. He would not dare with the Emperor watching."

Guri shifted her stance. "My Prince," she started. "I must not have been completely clear. When I said that you would be meeting with Vader at the same time as the Emperor, I meant that the meeting with the Emperor would go as planned. The rest of the Dark Lords will be present as well, and you still have to prepare your presentation on the current venture you are trying to sell on them. It will now be much harder with Vader present."

Xizor waved Guri off. "Those fools do not matter, and Palpatine will listen to my scheme and agree with it, like he did before, no matter what Vader says," he asserted. "Seriously, my dear, do you really think that any of the other Sith would try and block my plan? They would agree with it wholeheartedly. At least, Dooku would. He seems like the intelligent type. Whatever he does, Ventress copies, and Maul does not count. As you know, he has not quite been himself since he discovered the vending machine."

Guri allowed herself a small smile at that comment. "Yes, my lord. I was not thinking properly. In the other category of information you wish for me to sort through, it has come to the attention of some of your spies that Vader dueled a Jedi on Bespin, and---"

Xizor sighed in affected exasperation. "Yes, Guri, I know this already. Vader dueled Skywalker. Skywalker lost the duel and his hand. Princess Organa and her friends spirited the boy away, and are currently in parts unknown. If there is anything else, say so now."

"Prince Xizor, I was only providing a context for the situation," Guri defended herself before continuing, "Before the battle, Vader's personal aide warned Skywalker away from the Dark Lord. All of the information points to Vader having some knowledge of the incident or at least noticing the aide's strange behavior. Signs, however, also point to the aide being a Jedi, light or dark. It is nothing more than an unsubstantiated rumor, but something which should be heeded. The man may be a Jedi spy, or an agent of the Emperor."

Xizor had been listening intently to Guri's report. The whole situation was rather odd and slightly disturbing. One of Vader's aides showed a propensity towards rational thinking and possibly the Force? Why was the man not dead yet? "Vader would never let anyone who would entertain the thought of betraying the Emperor live if he met one in person," Xizor puzzled out loud. He added, "Unless, of course, said person was useful to the Emperor at the time. Therefore, I think your surmise is correct, Guri. This aide must be an Imperial agent sent by the Emperor to keep Vader on track."

Guri nodded in agreement. "It is the only feasible explanation at this time," she added. She then placed a number of documents and files on Xizor's desk. "This is all of the information you requested for the meeting today with Mr. Fett and your potential investors for Xizor Transport Systems." She pointed to which files corresponded with which. "And finally, the information which the Emperor expects you to know for the meeting tomorrow."

Xizor nodded, not really caring. He had already rehearsed his forthcoming speech to Fett about the job he wished to have done. The investors were really worth nothing at all. Xizor already had a huge amount of money. The money he could hope to gain from the investors would be tantamount to a grain of sand being added to an ocean floor. And with the meeting concerning the Emperor, Xizor knew more than he needed. Regardless, Guri did have to be kept busy. Xizor dismissed the human-like droid after giving her assignments to assassinate certain rivals of the Black Sun and XTS as well as gathering more information on certain persons who were hopefully soon to be dead. Xizor turned to look out the window of his office once more. If he played his cards right, maybe he would be the ruler of the galaxy sooner than later . . .

When the Millennium Falcon arrived at the Rebellion's rendezvous point, the ship was immediately swamped with an overabundance of messages from friends, specifically one message from each of the Rogues every three minutes (thirty seconds in Wes' case). As Leia read the message box, she suddenly wished she had also mentioned in her call ahead to the base that the fewest number of people possible were to be informed of their arrival. Apparently she had neglected to remember the resourcefulness of Rogue Squadron whenever she or Luke were in jeopardy. The same did go for Han, but Leia was trying not to think of the smuggler. She shut down the terminal in the common room and walked to the door to the room Luke had decided to lock himself in for the duration of the trip. She knocked on the door. "Luke? Are you awake?" she asked. "We're with the fleet."

She heard him groan and guessed that he already knew and was just trying to avoid human contact like he had for the past few days. That was until he opened the door a minute later. Leia smiled. From the look of him, Leia realized that Luke really had been sleeping for the past few days. Luke was still dressed in his fatigues with his right arm in the sling Leia had made days ago. "We're at the rendez-vous point already?" he asked, still half-asleep.

Leia nodded. "The Rogues demand an update, Commander," she said mock-seriously, trying to keep the mood somewhat light. She still remembered the mood Luke had been in the first day. Hopefully he had improved somewhat. Leia had started to fall into bad moods whenever she had passed the cabin in the last few days, but she did not hold Luke responsible for what had happened to Han, so Leia had concluded that the Force was playing tricks on her. She did wonder why it was only happening to her, however.

Luke managed a smile. "I take it Wes has been demanded to know where I've been this past week?" he guessed, trying not to upset Leia. He had noticed, after all, the moods she had been in of late. "Or is Tycho berating me for running off somewhere?"

"Both of them are doing that," Leia admitted. "You did forget Corran yelling at you for not taking him along, and Wedge wondering if you were all right. Hobbie, on the other hand, has made a request for a new X-wing. Apparently he trashed another one."

Luke snapped back into Commander-mode gladly; he was able to keep his mind off of more disturbing matters. Like Vader. He replied after a moment, "Leia? Could you tell Wes to wait a while for me? And tell Hobbie he needs to go through someone else for the fighter? I'd write to them myself, but . . ." He let the sentence trail off; neither finished it.

Leia nodded. "Of course." She was about to walk off, but she stopped herself. "Luke---I'm sorry. For reminding you of---" Leia searched for a phrase to say. "---the duel." Luke was about to stop her from apologizing for what he considered to be his fault, but Leia cut him off before he could speak a word. "I just want you to know that I don't blame you." Luke visibly stiffened, not wanting to remember, and Leia continued. "I did not blame you before now, either, so please stop blaming yourself for everything that's happened? Luke, you're only going to hurt yourself more if you keep acting like this!" As soon as she said the sentence, she regretted it. The pain that had returned in Luke's eyes was more than enough to convince her she had depressed him again. Little did she know that he was imagining how she would react if he actually told her what had happened. "Oh Force!" Leia exclaimed, voicing her anger at herself. "Luke, I'm sorry---" she began to apologize.

"Don't, Leia," Luke murmured. "Just---don't. I know you're right, but---" He halted himself for a moment. "Like I told you before, I can't---no, I'm not ready to tell you. Leia, I swear I'll be fine. I just need some time," he reassured her. "And, what you said to me goes double for you. Stop blaming yourself. This is not your fault," Luke said. He then promised, "When I'm---when we're both feeling better, I swear I'll help you as much as I possibly can to find Han." He smiled sadly. "You have my word, Princess."

Leia returned the smile and replied, "Thank you." There was a rather awkward silence following Leia's thanks, which was broken by Threepio walking into the hall to inform the two that the Falcon had just landed. Luke and Leia glanced at each other before walking to the exit of the ship. Lando and Chewie were busy shutting the ship down, so Lando told the other two to not wait for them. Leia gave him a curt nod, and Lando went back to the cockpit.

As soon as Luke and Leia stepped out of the Falcon, a whole squad of medics swarmed over Luke while a good number of Rebel diplomats immediately went to Leia for a comment on what had taken her so long to return to the fleet. Rogue Squadron was shortly behind the other two groups in arriving, but by then the medics had already whisked Luke off to sick bay. Therefore, a couple of the guys in the squadron waited for the crowd surrounding Leia to disperse in order to get her attention to find out what was happening.

Leia had shooed the diplomats away a few minutes after Lando and Chewie exited the Falcon and went off to talk to the deck officer. The Princess sighed in relief that she did not have to be debriefed until later. Then she saw the Rogues. Leia somehow knew that Wes was about to interrogate her on what had happened, and cut him off before he could start his near-endless stream of questions. "Could we go somewhere else to discuss what's happened?" she asked. "I don't want the entire Rebellion to know everything yet."

Wedge looked at her quizzically. "What do you mean, Leia?" he asked. She waved him off in a manner that implied that she would tell them when they were somewhere a little more discreet. Therefore, Tycho decided it would be a good idea to go to Rogue Squadron's break room. When they arrived, it was empty, but that was only because it was currently time for lunch. "What's happened?" Wedge asked once Tycho shut the door.

Leia shook her head. "Way too much," she replied. Wes, Wedge, Hobbie, and Tycho exchanged glances, and Leia continued. "As you probably noticed, Han did not come back with us, Luke's injured, and Lando, one of Han's friends, came with us."

"What happened to Solo?" Tycho asked, somewhat worried. Sure, he did not particularly think that Han was worthy of Princess Leia, but the smuggler was his friend, although they did not agree on everything. Truthfully, they rarely agreed on anything.

Leia took a deep breath, bracing herself for the answer she had to give. "Han---along with Chewie and I--- was captured by the Empire, specifically Vader. That monster had set up some sort of trap for Luke, and we were the bait," Leia recalled, injecting sarcasm and hate into her description. The Imperials tortured us, but that was nothing. Then Vader decided to conduct a little science experiment with the carbon freezing chamber."

"Wait just a second," Wes interjected. "Are you saying that Vader had Han frozen in carbonite! That's insane! Didn't Vader know that odds of whether a living being can survive carbon freeze?" He paused a second. "Vader did want the freezing to go well, right?"

Leia smiled bitterly. "Of course. After all, Han's freezing was only a test run for Luke."

"Speaking of Luke," Wedge began, "what happened to him? You called for an entire medic team right after the Falcon exited hyperspace. How bad did he get hurt?"

Leia fiddled with the hem of the right sleeve of her shirt. "Vader cut his hand off."

"Sith," Hobbie cursed. He shook his head. "We should have stopped him," he said before turning to Tycho. "You remember when we got that message from Kyle right before Luke left. He said that a friend of ours who's in deep cover gave him a tip that we were under no conditions to let Luke leave. Of course, Corran said that something was not right about the message, and I brought up the whole incommunicado thing, so we ignored it."

"If only I had not told everyone not to come after us," Leia murmured, staring blankly at the floor. She looked up at the Rogues. "Look, it's no one's fault that this happened save Vader and the rest of the Empire. We need to remember that. This is just another reason to fight this war. I will never rest until Warender is overthrown and the Empire is gone forever."

"Don't you mean Palpatine?" Wedge asked quietly. The Rogues had asked the Jedi Council what they thought of Wes' conspiracy theories, and the majority of the Council had actually agreed with Wes' crazed ideas. That particular point, however, the Jedi Council in its entirety had agreed upon. Anakin Skywalker was particularly vehement in his opinion.

Leia nodded in assent. "Yes. Palpatine then." She paused. "That son of a sith. I can't believe I called him by that false name. He's tried to ruin the peace the last generation fought so hard to preserve, and now he's trying to secure his hold on the galaxy once more!" She glared at the wall, angry. "None of his lackeys are any better. The Corellian hells are too good for those sith. The Imperial soldiers, on the other hand, may not be all that bad, but there are some monsters. Like Tarkin and that other sadist, Isard."

Tycho narrowed his eyes at the mention of Tarkin's name. "At least Tarkin's dead," he mentioned before adding, "and we can take a small amount of satisfaction in the fact that Isard can't play ping-pong to save her life. Plus, we have a secret weapon against her."

Leia turned to Tycho, confused. Wedge groaned at the explanation he knew was to come as Hobbie explained. "The answer is Wes. He can infuriate Isard like no other."

Leia smiled. "Well, that means we have two Imps down with a few thousand to go."

Wes nodded sagely and stated, "It is definitely a good thing. Seriously, people, think on the bright side. That means we have defeated one and have the resources, me, to defeat another. I would say that's progress. Or something like progress. It's a good thing."

Leia felt a little less depressed and finished recounting the events which had happened on Bespin. The Rogues listened attentively to the entire tale, and speculated on the importance of the aide who had actually asked an intelligent question and where in the galaxy Boba Fett could be taking Han. Tycho had hypothesized a number of places, including Coruscant, where Han would be turned in to the Imperials, and Tatooine or Nal Hutta, where Han would be taken to Jabba the Hutt. Wes speculated on what Vader was up to, and Hobbie brought up the huge bounty which had been placed on Luke by some anonymous Imperial who was most likely in the upper echelons of the Empire.

While the situation was discussed, Leia listened and waited for someone to come inform her of how Luke was doing. It only vaguely entered her mind that the messenger would not know where she was. About an hour after Leia and the Rogues had begun their discussion, there was a knock on the door of the room. Leia stood to answer it, and when she opened the door, a messenger was standing in the doorway. The messenger gave a slip of flimsiplast to the Princess and dismissed herself. After shutting the door again, Leia read the message. It was about Luke, thankfully, and informed her that the surgery to attach a prosthetic hand had just finished. Leia blinked and stared at the sheet.

Concerned with Leia's reaction, Wedge walked over and asked, "What's wrong? Did something happen?" Leia handed the sheet over to Wedge. He read it. "What the heck!" he exclaimed. "They already scheduled and performed surgery!"

Wes was not as surprised as Wedge and Leia had been. "It's not that strange. Luke is one of the best pilots in the fleet. Of course the higher ups would make sure that he would be taken care of immediately," Wes reasoned. "Besides, remember the hell Mr. Skywalker was raising after Leia had called in? That little rant against Vader?"

"The one which ended with him hitting his head against the wall, calling himself an idiot over and over?" Tycho added. "He was probably just mad because he and General Kenobi let Luke go off to Bespin without us tagging along." The three Rogues looked to Hobbie for his opinion. Hobbie shrugged. "Then again, who knows?" Tycho added.

Leia turned to stare at Wes in realization. "Wait a second. Jedi Master Skywalker is with the fleet? When did that happen? I thought the Jedi Council was in voluntary exile for the time being? Furthermore, why is he here, of all places?" she demanded.

Since no one else was willing to talk, Wedge explained, "Well, the Council apparently had enough of staying on a swamp planet---sans Yoda---so they decided to leave and make themselves useful in the fleet, hence why Mr. Skywalker is here." Wedge paused for a moment before musing, "We really should call him General, though, since his rank from the Clone Wars was reinstated." He addressed Leia. "Are you going to go see Luke or not?" he asked. "I don't think that this good news will stay secret for long."

Leia smiled and nodded before taking her leave. She rushed off to the room in which the piece of flimsy said Luke was. She quietly knocked on the door and was answered by the Zeltron medic who had offered to throw the celebration party once they had left Hoth and was the only female on the Hoth base who had actually considered dating Wes. Regardless of the past, the medic was very somber while showed Leia into the room and left Leia and Luke to talk privately. When the door shut, there was only silence in the room for a few minutes. Luke was staring out the window at the nebula nearby in space. Leia sat down in the chair next to his bed. Luke spoke first. "It's beautiful, isn't it?"

Leia nodded. "Yeah." She sighed. "You want to know how completely spazzed out the Rogues are?" she asked. Luke nodded, and she filled him in on what was happening. She managed to finish her rather humorous explanation about ten minutes later with the phrase, "...and so Wes is planning the downfall of the Empire on the back of a napkin."

Luke smiled at that. "They never give up, do they?" he said, laughing softly and in much better spirits than he had been since before they had left Hoth.

Leia shook her head. "No," she agreed, grinning at Luke. "They don't. None of us will ever surrender, come hell or high water. And that's why the Empire's doomed."

"The more strict the Empire becomes, the more systems will join the Rebellion," Luke added. "The outlook is rather bright, despite the fact that more recruits will be chased off by our lovely choice of bases and our wonderful rations than by Imperial threats."

Leia giggled. "Don't forget that Wes will chase off any of the Imperial spies."

"What, by his bad pick up lines or asinine pranks?"

Leia thought for a moment in mock seriousness. "Both," she decided and was silent for a moment. Her gaze eventually traveled to Luke's hand. She wanted to ask, but felt that it would just make everything awkward between them once more, so she stared at the floor.

"I still can't believe they gave me a top of the line prosthetic," he said, noticing Leia's reticence. "I mean, you can't even tell it's not . . ." He sensed Leia's unease with the topic and did not bother to finish the sentence. "Leia, if you really feel uncomfortable, you're free to leave," Luke told her. "I don't mind. Besides, don't we need to start looking for Han?"

Leia looked up immediately. "What!" she exclaimed, surprised. "What makes you think I---Oh, nevermind. I thought you didn't want to talk about . . . what happened."

"I don't. Not yet," Luke replied hastily. "But I thought you didn't want to talk about anything that concerns what happened back at Bespin. I mean---Force, this sounds conceited---it sort of seems like you go into a depression every time I say something about my hand. It's really not all bad. Master Skywalker has a prosthetic arm, after all."

Leia nodded. "I know. And you're not being conceited. I didn't want to say anything because you have been becoming depressed every time I bring up anything that happened," she explained herself, and they both went back to gazing out the window. After a moment, Leia asked, "We will find Han; won't we, Luke?"

"Of course we will," Luke replied. "We have to."

A few rooms away on the frigate Redemption, a certain temperamental Jedi Master was interrogating the medical staff. The Zeltron medic, Messandra, calmly explained to the very twitchy Jedi that his son was all right (although said Jedi did not think that losing a hand was "all right") and that the commander would have to stay in his room for a few days just in case he had a relapse. What seemed like a hundred questions later to Messandra, Anakin Skywalker finally left the break room in peace.

Halfway across the galaxy, Boba Fett walked into the office of the Dark Prince of the Black Sun. He was unimpressed. Xizor finished signing a document before greeting Boba. "Mr. Fett, what a pleasant surprise!" he said. Fett rolled his eyes, glad Xizor could not see through his helmet. You called me here, he thought sarcastically as Xizor kept talking. "Well, as you know, I have called you here on a very important job." No, I didn't get that from your message saying to come as soon as possible. "It is, as you have already guessed, a hit." No surprise there. "The target is some one particularly annoying to me, a member of the Rebel Alliance." Get to the point. "I am willing to pay a very large sum of money." Define large. "In fact, why don't you name your price."

With that sentence, Boba's jaw dropped. For a second time today, he was glad Xizor did not have x-ray vision. This job must be very difficult. The man he was supposed to kill had to be a Jedi. No one else merited that free range of money. However, this did pose an interesting solution to the Han-sicle problem. Boba smiled. He named a very large sum of money. Then he said, "And my second condition will be you purchasing a certain work of 'art' which has recently come into my possession." Boba was amused when Xizor raised an eyebrow. If he had been talking to the man over a comlink, he would have muted the sound and laughed for a solid minute. However, that was not the case, so Boba continued: "What I speak of is actually a carbonite block in which Han Solo is incased."

Boba took great pleasure in the fact that it was Xizor's turn to gape at the other occupant of the room. "You are not going to take Solo to Jabba the Hutt?" Xizor demanded. Boba looked at him, a little confused. "Oh, nevermind. I momentarily failed to remember that Solo is still in Jabba's good graces." Xizor considered Boba's offer, and accepted it shortly thereafter. "If that is your price, I am willing to pay it. You shall receive half of your payment now and the second half after you have completed the job."

Boba nodded in agreement. "That's fair," he stated. "Who do you want me to kill?"

Xizor smiled one of his wicked reptilian smiles. "Luke Skywalker."

Boba stared at Xizor for a moment. No wonder Xizor had asked him to take this particular job. Boba knew he was truly the only bounty hunter good enough to take on the job in addition to being the only bounty hunter willing to take it. Vader had offered a similar amount for Skywalker, alive only. Boba could only guess what Vader's motivation was, but it was plainly obvious that Xizor wanted revenge, most likely on Vader. Fett considered the pros and cons to the job and came up with a final decision. "It's a deal. I'll take the job."

Xizor smiled wickedly again and drew up all of the paperwork which needed to be filled out. As he was completing the forms, Boba realized that he might have to quit this particular job early. Vader was one of his better paying employers, and Boba did not want to have to take jobs from Jabba the Hutt for the rest of his life. Aside from those two points, Skywalker's father probably would not be too pleased with him once he learned the Boba was the one who killed the Jedi's son. Boba was good in combat, but he wasn't that good. There was that off chance, however, that Anakin Skywalker was in no way related to the Rebel which shared the same last name, but Boba was almost positive that they were. The battle records spoke for themselves.

The meeting concluded, and Xizor's human replica droid showed Boba out to the landing platform where the Slave I was waiting. He unloaded the Han-sicle from the ship and handed the block over to the droid. After the droid had returned to the shelter of the inside of the building, Boba boarded the Slave I. As he prepped the ship for departure, Boba reevaluated the situation. There was definitely something amiss. Boba was not positive what that feeling was, but it was definitely there. From Xizor's manner, it seemed as if the Dark Prince did not believe that Boba would actually be able to complete the mission. If that was the case, then why would Xizor send him on the mission in the first place? As a warning to whomever would be hurt the most if Skywalker was killed? Or as a warning to Skywalker himself? Boba stopped thinking about the whole mess. He could figure out the particulars later. He had a job to do. At least, until it proved to be that Xizor was sending him on a suicide mission on purpose. If he had proof, then all bets were off.

It was barely a week since the duel on Bespin, and Darth Vader was again on Coruscant. It felt strange, looking out on the cityscape of what could have been. The Jedi Temple was still where it had always been, as was the Senate building, but the Imperial Palace and his personal castle were missing. Coruscant was in much better shape than he had ever seen it, however. Apparently having a democratic republic as the form of government did accomplish some things better than an empire, but Vader was not going to voice that particular opinion to anyone.

After landing at the Senate building and frightening half of the Senate simply by stalking around, Vader drove himself to Palpatine's lodgings, which were coincidentally where he had lived before the rise of the Empire. Vader was unsure if Palpatine had converted 500 Republica into the Imperial Palace or not, because when he stepped into the antechamber of Palpatine's apartment, it was identical to the Emperor's chambers in the Palace. Of course, Palpatine could have hired his old decorator. Vader locked the door after him. There was a table in the center of the room and everyone was already seated at it, excluding himself. Vader sat down in the empty chair opposite Palpatine. Maul was to his left and Ventress was to his right. Wonderful. I am to be entertained by the crazy woman and the moron. Joy, Vader thought. Dooku and Xizor were seated next to Palpatine. Vader noticed how Xizor was seated to the right of Palpatine. He momentarily wondered if the Emperor was trying to say something to him. Maybe that he should watch out lest Xizor try to take his place? Vader did not put it past the Emperor. He sighed, which just sounded like a normal breath to all but Palpatine (the fools), and prepared himself for yet another boring strategy meeting. Wasn't Xizor supposed to present his ploy with the second Death Star?

"Wonderful," Palpatine said. "Now that we are all present, I think Prince Xizor has a plot which shall work particularly well to draw the Rebellion to their doom." Vader raised an eyebrow. What did the Emperor just say? Was the man going senile, despite the age of his youthful clone? Damn him for cloning a young version of himself.

Xizor smiled wickedly and outlined his plan. "Everyone in this room knows that the second Death Star is being constructed. Regardless, it shall spell doom for anyone who resists in the entire galaxy. However, it would be more expedient to eliminate the threat of the Rebel Alliance before it truly becomes more than a nuisance and into a power in the galaxy. Therefore, we should give them the plans to our space station."

Vader watched passively as Ventress stared in shock, Dooku raised an eyebrow, and Maul twitched. Vader decided to add his piece. "That sounds incredibly stupid."

"Oh really, Lord Vader?" Palpatine asked. "Please enlighten us."

Nice job, Skywalker. Dammit. Now I'm referring to myself as that idiot. Sith. "Lemelisk has perfected the weapon this time. There are no mistakes. Why would they risk the fight?" Who knows, but they were obviously suicidal or desperate enough to do so. "Even if they were to do so, more rebellions would crop up every so often, Death Star or not. Is it really worth the risk of all of the lives of everyone on the space station and the materials to lure the Rebellion to destroy it? What if they do succeed?" But it was working. "And if we used the Imperial hierarchy as bait, what happens if a suicide squad is sent?"

"Lord Vader, your old age has certainly made you paranoid," Xizor said condescendingly. "Now, the perfect way to draw the Rebels to the Death Star---"

"You have no right to talk. You are old enough to be my grandfather," Vader replied lazily, not allowing Xizor to see his anger. Damn Falleen bastard. Because of the comment, Ventress giggled, Dooku looked bored, Maul had a delayed reaction and started laughing after a moment, and Palpatine looked like he felt as if he were surrounded by idiots. Xizor, on the other hand, was furious. Vader felt immense satisfaction in that simple fact.

"Lord Vader, that was certainly out of character," Xizor replied smoothly, hiding his anger, even though all in the room knew he was enraged. "As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted," Xizor said, glaring at Vader. "The perfect way to lure the Rebels to the Death Star is to make sure that the plans are delivered to them in a way that eliminates any unease about whether or not we are attempting to trap them then offering them bait they cannot refuse." Ventress was about to ask what, but Palpatine made a motion for her to stay silent while Xizor explained. "If all of the Dark Lords are on the Death Star, then the Rebellion would be completely mad not to endeavor to destroy the space station."

"That would also put you in place to take over the Empire, should the Rebellion succeed," Dooku pointed out. Vader was overjoyed that someone in the room besides him had a functioning brain. A functioning, rational brain, Vader corrected himself.

"Ah, but the Rebellion would have to defeat the entire Imperial navy and the ground forces would have to defeat the best of the Imperial army," Xizor stated. "I highly doubt the Rebels can accomplish that feat. If we defeat their ground troops before the shield generator on the forest moon is destroyed, then there is absolutely no way that the Death Star would be harmed in the slightest. Think about it. We could even capture the ground crew before they land at all and hold them in cells aboard the Executor, or whatever ship is available for the position of flagship. I would personally recommend Executor as the picket ship patrolling everything that lands on Endor. As for the flagship, I recommend the Lusankya or maybe the Iron Fist. If neither are acceptable, then maybe the Chimera would suffice. I have heard that Thrawn is a very capable commander."

Ventress scoffed. "Are you serious? The Lusankya! Pardon my Ancient Alderaanian, but Isard is out of her Force-damned mind! And the Iron Fist? Do you want me to go on to Zsinj's numerous problems? The Chimera is the only possible choice outside of the Executor! Thrawn is sane and incredibly intelligent, but the only reason that the Executor might be put before the Chimera is that it is a Super-class Star Destroyer."

"I agree with Ventress," Maul piped in. "But didn't the Executor recently change admirals and captains? It's now the former Captain Piett and that Foray character."

Palpatine was unimpressed. "Your aide, Lord Vader? You made your aide the captain of the most powerful ship in the fleet? I have not seen such stupidity since Anakin Skywalker freefell from a speeder in the Coruscant airlanes during rush hour."

That worked, if you remember correctly. "The young man is a good officer and knows how to take orders," Vader defended. "He actually thinks for himself and does not perpetually live in fear of making a mistake, despite my capricious nature, and unlike many officers, he does not live with the one purpose to take his commanding officer's place."

"He might be a Jedi spy or an assassin," Dooku ventured. "Some sort of agent for the Rebellion. If he wasn't, then we probably would not be discussing him."

"He is Force-blind, insofar as I have determined," Vader replied. "However, I thought this meeting concerned this scheme of Xizor's to destroy the Rebellion, not the loyalties of a commanding officer on my personal Star Destroyer. If the captain was a traitor, he would be long dead, and it is obvious that he does not have Rebel sympathies."

Xizor smiled craftily, and Vader realized that the irritating Dark Prince had evidence to the contrary. However, instead of completely humiliating Vader, Xizor agreed. "Lord Vader is correct. We should be concentrating on the task at hand, not some insignificant officer."

Vader as rather amazed. Xizor, of all people, was agreeing with him. Judging by his surroundings and if he did not know better, he would have thought it was the apocalypse. Actually, if my other, lucky self was here, he'd say it was. Vader glanced around the table. Maul was snacking away on a Almond Joy, and Ventress looked sane today. I think I would agree with him, Vader decided. "Prince Xizor, I must have given you the impression that I disagree with your little plot, but I only think the scheme needs some work."

Palpatine found the little exchange rather amusing. "Yes, I think Lord Vader is correct in stating that your plan has some miniscule details to be cleared up. However, I assume I am correct in thinking that you were not finished with your presentation, Prince Xizor?"

"Yes, Emperor. You are correct," Xizor responded. "The ship carrying the computer which holds the plans for the second Death Star shall be under the guise of one of my company's transport ships transferring food and rations to a military base on some planet upon which the identity of is yet to be decided. The Rebels would be doubly lured to the bait because of their unique food issues." Vader smirked at that comment. "The battle which ensues would also have to be very convincing, so a heavily armed and armored ship is to be dispatched this job. The Rebel fleet would have to be carefully watched, so the Empire would have a good idea of when the attack would take place. I recommend sending an excellent secret agent to accomplish that particular assignment, one who used to work for the Rebellion previously if possible. Then all that is left is the battle itself."

"Which is best left to the military strategists," Dooku interjected. "Based off of what has already been discussed, I would recommend that Lord Vader and Grand Admiral Thrawn discuss the impending battle at Endor. They should meet at in a somewhat neutral territory, if at all possible. I would suggest Naboo. They are openly against the war, but the population is split on whether the Empire or the Rebellion should be supported."

"I agree with Count Dooku," Maul said. "But going back to what Prince Xizor said, who are we sending to watch the Alliance? Good spies don't grow on trees!"

"No gee, really?" Ventress said sarcastically. "And I thought money was made out of cotton candy and the Jedi don't have lightsabers stuck up their---"

"Moving on," Palpatine cut off Ventress. He was in no mood to listen to another of Maul and Ventress' fights. "Prince Xizor, prepare your ship for the plans. Maul, do something useful, like sorting my email or calling Thrawn to tell him to take the Chimera to Naboo. Ventress, pick out the crew for Xizor's ship. Dooku, discuss the spy situation with Director Isard. And Lord Vader? Prepare your super star destroyer for immediate departure." Palpatine paused for a moment. "You are dismissed."

Another week later, Grand Admiral Thrawn was studying Corellian art while the Chimera was orbiting the planet of Naboo. He was waiting for Darth Vader to arrive, but Thrawn was unconcerned about what they were supposed to be planning. No, Thrawn had a bigger, more important plan to sell to the Dark Lord. He knew that Vader would jump at any occasion to overthrow the Emperor, but Thrawn did not put it past Vader to betray him. Darth Vader was known for his capriciousness, and Anakin Skywalker was known for his loyalty. Thrawn did not like his odds enough to blatantly request for Vader's assistance in his current plot. Said plot was mad enough as it already was, without the help of a Sith.

Thrawn shook his head. No, Vader would definitely acquiesce to Thrawn's request. Thrawn had long known that Vader was from a time too close to the Battle of Endor for Vader to dare to say no. It was not like he had not done any research into the matter, either. The first time he had been able to access the information, Thrawn had delved deep into the secret libraries of the Empire and learned just what exactly occurred when the Empire had been born. Vader's tale was the stuff of space operas, not reality, and that was why Thrawn knew that the Empire was most likely doomed under Palpatine. Of course, that was disregarding the fact that he himself had been foiled by that rather nasty chest ache over Bilbringi. That had finally convinced Thrawn that the Empire was doomed, regardless.

The door to the bridge opened, and Thrawn turned his chair around. Captain Pellaeon was standing at the door. "Lord Vader is here to see you, sir," the captain said.

"Show him in," Thrawn replied, turning back to the art, which he changed shortly thereafter to pieces from Alderaan. Alderaan. That was one of the few reasons that Thrawn was rather pleased to be in the current reality. The Empire's stupidity had not managed to eradicate that particular piece of culture from the galaxy. Thrawn turned his chair around once more when the door to the room shut once more and stood to greet the Dark Lord. "Lord Vader, what a pleasant surprise. I am sure your trip to the Chimera was a pleasant one?"

"Dispense with the pleasantries, Thrawn," Vader thundered as he walked farther into the room. He halted when he was about five feet away from Thrawn. "I know you know the results of the Battle of Endor. There is no need whatsoever for this pointless conversation, aside from the little fact that Xizor recommended that the Chimera be the commanding ship of the fleet for the battle and that the Executor be on picket duty."

Thrawn smirked. "Oh yes, Xizor. The Falleen are rather annoying that way, but does he not act that way because you killed his family?" Thrawn could almost sense Vader rolling his eyes, because it seemed so in character for the Dark Lord. "Yes, you have done that to many people, including yourself, but it is a good reason for holding a grudge."

"Thrawn . . ." Vader rumbled threateningly. "I am not here to discuss my personal life with you, but to fulfill an idiotic order given to me by our all-powerful Emperor. How is the Battle of Endor to be arranged? Do you wish to take command of the Executor, or would you rather command the fleet from the Chimera whilst the Executor draws fire away?"

Thrawn considered what Vader had said. He had thought the exact same thing when Darth Maul had sent that rather odd message about Xizor recommending Thrawn for the tactical commander of the battle, but he had not expected Vader to suggest the same tactic. "I had considered that, but I decided it was rather cowardly. However, your protectiveness of the Executor is legendary, so I suppose you would not wish another commander on the ship to decide what happens to her? I personally would rather stay on the Chimera."

"Then it is decided," Vader stated. "We remain on the ships we prefer, and you command the fleet. I find that satisfactory. Since we have no more to talk about, Thrawn, this meeting is over. If you need to sort any other details out, talk to Captain Foray."

Thrawn raised an eyebrow. Vader had promoted his aide to captain of the Executor? That was rather strange, but Thrawn decided the aide could be someone other than who he pretended to be. After all, "foray" meant a sudden invasion into enemy territory. Thrawn filed the information in his mind to think upon later. "Wait, Lord Vader," he said, just as the Sith was about to open the door. "I have a proposal."

Vader stopped in his tracks and turned around. "Oh?" the Dark Lord said skeptically. "And what are you proposing? If this has anything to do with Endor, I am leaving."

"No, Lord Vader. I assure you of that," Thrawn replied. "Are you familiar with the saying 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend'? I believe we share a particular enemy which will only do damage to the galaxy as a whole rather than strengthen it, and so I was wondering if you would be willing to participate in a project of mine."

Vader stepped away from the door and walked back over to Thrawn. "Are you suggesting what I think you are insinuating?" he demanded. Thrawn did not move a muscle. "You are planning to commit treason," Vader stated. Thrawn was silent as Vader tried to guess whether or not Thrawn was serious. Then Vader said, "Where do I sign up?"

Thrawn shrugged nonchalantly. "Nowhere at the moment. As I said, I have only been planning the coup, and the time in which I have planned is limited to since when Darth Maul decided to leave me a message to the present. I had been hoping that you would endorse my venture to create a little discord within Imperial ranks, possibly start a coup, and in the end, ensure that the Republic governs once more."

"Besides myself, who do you have in mind for your venture?" Vader asked before seriously reminding, "We are talking treason here, on par with the Rebels. Palpatine trusts neither of us; how do you know that we are not being overheard, Thrawn?"

Thrawn smiled. "Oh, I know we are not being overheard. As everyone on the Executor is loyal to you, everyone on the Chimera is loyal to me. There is no risk whatsoever of any of this talk finding its way back to the Emperor, unless Miss Jade decides to talk, but I doubt she shall cooperate with His Royal Highness more than she has to. As to who we should recruit, our two star destroyers make a good start, but I have also been thinking of talking to Baron Fel. We would then gain the 181st, which would be a real boon. Have you heard the tale of their encounter with Rogue Squadron at Selttiks?"

Vader nodded. "The two squadrons came to an agreement to disagree and went their separate ways, theoretically not disclosing the true facts of what occurred. What happened that would cause you to think that Fel would be willing to take his squadron on our suicide mission? Does he harbor Rebel sympathies or disagree with the Emperor?"

Thrawn called up a number of pictures on the screen which had been displaying the Alderaanian art. A number of the holos were of engagements between the 181st and Rogue Squadron. "As you know, the woman on the far right is Wynssa Starflare. Her real name, however, is Syal Antilles, and her brother is Wedge Antilles, second in command of Rogue Squadron. It would be obvious that she should be a Rebel sympathizer, no?"

"Of course," Vader replied, "unless this has something to do with Fel."

"Exactly. She is married to the good Baron, so Ms. Starflare has some alliance issues. She cannot support one side or the other without condemning one of her loved ones to death. This could be the perfect way out of the situation for Fel and his wife. He would not have to meet his brother-in-law in battle, and Ms. Starflare would have a better state of mind. Regardless of how it turns out for them, we win."

"Bringing Fel over to our side would be a good start to winning over the rest of the fleet," Vader added. "I think I would be able to convince a number of the star destroyer captains I deal with normally. The Emperor would be practically powerless if the armed forces were taken away from him, and it is necessary that we gain control of the Death Star."

Thrawn nodded. "No arguments there. Do you think that the other Sith could be convinced to join this scheme?" he asked, expecting Vader to ask him if he were mad.

"Maul would be overjoyed," Vader replied honestly. "Ventress follows whatever Dooku does, and I think Dooku would be more than willing to help us, even though I sort of killed him. It was Palpatine's fault, though," Vader added. "We need to look out for the Emperor's Hands, however, as well as Palpatine's psychotic Red Guardsmen."

Thrawn was vaguely and pleasantly surprised. All the Sith were willing to go against their master. Perfect. "And what of the Noghri? Do you know if they would still serve you?"

"No," Vader stated. "My other, incredibly lucky self has managed to become their savior for one reason or another, and I doubt they would help me even if I proved to them that I was him since we are on the opposite sides of this war. And you?"

"I have no desire to work with the Nohgri ever again," Thrawn answered laconically. "The reason I asked was that we have Imperial Intelligence against us. Isard absolutely detests me, and from what I have heard of your interactions with her, she hates you an equal amount. Speaking of other commanders of Super-class star destroyers, I do not think we should talk to Admiral Zsinj. He is a brilliant commander, but we would make better progress in reestablishing the Republic without him."

"That sounds suitable," Vader acknowledged. "One question, Thrawn. How do you plan that we eliminate the old man? It is not like I can sneak up on him and throw him down one of those convenient bottomless shafts on the Death Star."

Thrawn hid a grin with his hand and simply replied, "You never know."

On Naboo in the capital city of Theed, the captain of the Executor was on shore leave. Little did he know that the highest and mightiest in the Empire had been discussing him, although truth be told, he would have been disturbed to hear that information. Yes, Captain Kayl Foray would have been very disturbed. Like Vader had said, Kayl was a good captain who thought on his feet and was not scared to death of the Dark Lord. He was acutely aware that a good number of the bridge crew resented him for that ability to "ignore" the Dark Lord. That was actually why he was in a more peaceful part of town; none of the crew save he had ventured that far into the city. Kayl glanced at his wrist-chrono and noticed it was around lunchtime. That reminded him that he had not eaten real food for too long.

Kayl stopped and made his way back to the spaceport. He walked into the bar he had noticed earlier, before his excursion into the city. It was called the Red Windmill, and it was built in the same style of architecture as the rest of the city and, despite its location, had a very nice interior. There was very little artificial lighting, and the atmosphere was relaxed and had a devil-may-care attitude to it without being dingy. There was the normal type of spaceport crowd also in the tavern, and Kayl seated himself at a table near the window and waited for a waitress. Considering how happy he was to finally eat out after eating Imperial rations for a few months, Kayl realized he really needed to get out more often. Unfortunately, working on Vader's prized ship really tended to kill one's social life. As he was thinking about his social life or lack thereof, she arrived.

Kayl completely missed the arrival of the waitress and only looked up from the table once she had cleared her throat because she was rather impatient. The first thing the raven-haired captain thought when he saw her was, Is she an angel? He did not say that out loud, of course; some of his friends had used that particular pickup line so much with little success for far too long, but he really did mean what he thought. The waitress was one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen. Her fire red hair was done up in a tight bun, and her green eyes radiated boredom. Kayl suddenly felt very embarrassed for daydreaming.

The waitress rolled her eyes. She had been having a bad day so far, and this event was only making it worse. Imperial officers had to be treated with respect, but she did not feel any for this one. "May I take your order?" she asked, a tad annoyed.

"Erm, I don't have a menu," Kayl replied. He cursed his inability to talk to women; his so-called friends constantly made fun of him for that. "I'd like a Coca Cola to drink, though."

The waitress realized she in fact had not given him a menu and rectified her mistake before saying, "Fine. I'll give you a few minutes to think, and I'll get that coke for you," and storming off into the kitchen. While in there, one of her coworkers walked over. She suddenly had a very bad feeling about the whole situation. "Valerie, what do you want?"

Valerie, a fellow waitress, grinned like a cat. "Oh, come on, Tessa!" she exclaimed. "You could at least be a little nicer to the poor Imp. Think about it! He's probably been having to eat Imperial rations for who knows how long." She paused and put on a thoughtful expression, plotting. "And besides, he's rather handsome. Looks lonely, too."

Tessa glared. "You are not going to try to set me up with another customer, especially not an Imperial!" she retorted. Valerie had done so at least three times in the past month. "And he seems like he has horrible social skills! That's no reason to date him. Even if he does have pretty cobalt blue eyes!" Once she said that, Tessa immediately regretted it.

"So you do like him?" Valerie said. "C'mon Tess, admit it. You actually like this one."

"He looks nice. That's it. He probably has the personality of a cardboard box," Tessa replied, "like the rest of the Imperials. And do you not have a table to wait on? That one with the crazy 'shady substances transporters'? I think one of them needs a refill. Isn't he the one that has been asking for your number every single time they come here?"

Valerie looked hurt. "Oh, Tessa. That was low. Phoenix is completely sane. His friends are just much saner, and yes, he has asked me out multiple times. Besides, you're pointing at Perceval, and Perceval never drinks more than that," she added. "You shouldn't talk of them like so. They are our most frequent customers. And about that Imp, you know someone with 'pretty cobalt blue eyes' has to have some sort of a personality."

Once again, Tessa was glaring daggers at Valerie. "Well, I just don't like him. He reminds me of someone I hate desperately, who does have a personality of cardboard."

"Uh-huh," Valerie said, disbelieving, and rolled her eyes. "You just keep telling yourself that, Tessa, while you go talk to him. I think he's ready to order."

After filling a glass with the soft drink Kayl had ordered, Tessa glared at Valerie one last time before walking back over to Kayl's table. She set the drink down and asked, "Are you ready to order yet?" She felt like sighing in exasperation because of Valerie but didn't.

Kayl smiled disarmingly at her. "Yes. I'd like an order of Corellian curry and some Alderaanian soup," he replied. His sister hated Alderaanian soup, but he happened to like it. A friend of his obsessed over it and made it more often than ramen.

Tessa nodded and wrote down the order. She was about to walk off, but decided to add, "You're a brave soul. You do know how spicy Corellian curry is, don't you?"

"Yeah," Kayl replied, grinning. "One of my best friends makes it all the time." Kayl's smile faded when he remembered he had not seen either of his Corellian friends for about a year and a half. "Well, he and another of my friends used to make it. I---" He sighed. "Well, I haven't seen either of them for a year and a half, to tell the truth."

Tessa was very intrigued. A year and a half? Could he be from...? she wondered. "Why past-tense? Did your friends die or did they go off and join the Rebellion?" she asked, noting Kayl's slight wince when she mentioned the Rebellion.

Kayl grimaced and shook his head. "No, I'm the one that defected," he admitted, but he went on to defend himself, "However, the reason is that I somehow ended up deep in Imperial-held space with no way to contact the Alliance. I wasn't recognized, so I joined them." He took a drink and laughed bitterly. "Biggest mistake of my life."

Tessa raised an eyebrow. His story sounded all too familiar. She finally noticed the what rank he was. There were only two star destroyers orbiting Naboo, and one of them was captained by Gilead Pellaeon. The other was the Executor. "Why? You're probably one of the best paid men in the galaxy; you are the captain of Vader's ship."

Kayl stiffened. He knew he should not have worn his uniform, but that was another department he was lacking in besides a social life. "So I guess you have not heard about Vader's explosive temper?" Kayl asked. Tessa laughed and shook her head, which caused Kayl to remember that Vader did not have such a bad reputation in this part of the universe.

Tessa grinned. "Why don't we start over? My name's Tessa Stargate, and I think you might be from the same section of the universe which I am from. I should be more specific: the place where Vader does have that reputation."

"What a coincidence," Kayl replied good-naturedly. "That is the same place I'm from. It's nice to meet you. I'm called Kayl Foray. Well, around here at least. I couldn't keep my real name. You can probably imagine why." He paused. "I shouldn't hold you up. I mean, you are working right now. I don't want to be the cause of you losing any pay or anything."

Tessa shrugged it off. "No problem. The owner (he's the bartender) couldn't care less. That, and I'm getting off work in another ten minutes." She smiled. Valerie had actually known what she was talking about this time. Back where she belonged, Tessa would have never guessed she would ever talk to a Rebel peaceably, but that was another life now. "Say, you wouldn't mind if I joined you for lunch, would you?" she asked.

Kayl's face turned red. "Um, s-sure," he managed to stammer. "I'd be honored."

Tessa smiled slyly. "I'll be right back with your order," she said before waltzing back off into the kitchen. Valerie was standing next to the door with a triumphant expression on her face. "Yes, you were right this time," Tessa conceded. "But because of that, I'm punching out ten minutes early. So, I'd like an Ithorian salad with Coruscantian dressing."

Valerie shrugged. "All I can say is that it was well worth it this time, Tessa. You're infinitely happier now," she said as Tessa told the cook Kayl's order and her own. "So," Valerie said conspiratorially, "What's Mr. Imperial Officer's name, rank, and comm number?"

Tessa threw her work apron at Valerie. "He didn't give me his comm number," she replied. "He's a captain, though." Valerie waited, and Tessa continued, "His name's Kayl Foray, and before you say anything else, you were right: he does have a personality."

Valerie stared blankly at Tessa. "Wait a second. You mean he's Captain Foray of the Executor? Vader's right hand man?" she asked. When Tessa nodded, Valerie continued, "Dang. I really can pick 'em, can't I? Anyway, I'd make sure he doesn't talk to Phoenix and his friends. They absolutely hate the Empire, and especially Lord Vader."

"All smugglers hate the Empire, Val," Tessa pointed out. So the captain's been in the news? Odd that I've never seen anything on him, she thought. "What's their big beef with Vader, though? As far as I've heard on the news, he's one of the better Imperials."

"Well, from what I've gathered, he maimed a friend of theirs," Valerie replied. "Phoenix doesn't like to talk about it, and Spiro never mentions it at all. There's some huge hatred there. Makes you wonder what sort of person Vader really is."

"Yeah," Tessa replied, nodding. Well, that narrows down who those smugglers are a whole hell of a lot, Tessa thought sarcastically. She had known for a while that they, like she, were actually from the other version of the galaxy, but she had never really desired to talk to them. They were extremely dedicated to the Alliance, and the only reason that they were not there was that they could possibly meet their other selves. Tessa could relate to those sentiments; that was one of the reasons cloning was outlawed after the Clone Wars.

The cook then called Tessa over and handed her the food, and Tessa made her way back to the table which Kayl was sitting at. She set the food down and handed him the check. "If it's not a bother, could you pay now instead of later?" she asked.

Kayl smiled and replied, "Of course." He fished a hundred credit bill from his wallet and handed the money to Tessa. She smiled back at him and said, "I'll be over in a minute or so," before walking over to the cash register. While she was fiddling around with the register, Tessa noticed one of the smugglers (if memory served her right, he was named Spiro Cook) rise from his chair and walk over to Kayl. She watched in bewilderment as Cook grabbed Kayl by the collar and decked him. "You traitorous bastard," Cook spat.

Kayl sat up from the floor and wiped the blood from his mouth, and the smuggler called Calvin Hobbes walked over to help him up. Hobbes apologized for his friend. "I'm sorry, Captain," he said, noting the rank insignia. "Spiro's a little drunk. Sometimes he gets like this, but he rarely lashes out at Imperials," Hobbes continued, lying about the frequency of Spiro's outbursts. Tessa had actually heard Valerie and Phoenix talking about how much trouble Spiro and occasionally Perceval got themselves into by their dislike of Imperials.

"Don't help him up, Hobbes," Spiro growled. "Don't you recognize him?" Tessa watched in rapt amazement. So these were Kayl's Rebel friends. Spiro was Corellian, without a doubt. Hobbes looked at Spiro questioningly before Kayl shook his head.

"It's all right, Hobbes," Kayl said to the smuggler with a sad smile. "I can get up on my own." He stood and addressed Spiro. "I thought I'd never see you again, much less see you again in a bar. I thought you said you weren't cut out to be a smuggler?"

"Well, some things changed my mind," Spiro retorted. "I thought you hated the Empire more than anything in the universe?" Kayl looked down at the floor in disgrace. "I mean, after everything they've done to all of us? Especially what Vader's done to you."

"What was I supposed to do?" Kayl demanded, stricken. "Should I have just said, 'Oh, Lord Vader, by the way, I'm an officer of the Rebel Alliance and a traitor. Can I borrow a TIE Defender?' I had no choice!" he exclaimed. "I had no Sith-be-damned choice!"

Phoenix walked over. "Spiro, really. You shouldn't be so hard on him," he said. "You know he doesn't---sorry, can't lie." Phoenix sighed and shook his head. "We have no right to talk, you know. We're not with the Rebels, either! It's a miracle he's still alive, too. If Vader knew, you know that fragging Sith would kill him in an instant." Spiro pretended not to listen, so Phoenix repeated himself. "Dammit, Spiro, you know it would happen!"

Spiro glared at Phoenix and then shifted his gaze to Kayl. "I trusted you," Spiro said, disgusted with his friend, and stormed out of the tavern. Perceval walked over and exchanged a look with Hobbes, who ran off after Spiro. Phoenix just shook his head.

"Damn," Perceval swore before turning to Kayl. "Care to explain yourself?"

Kayl nodded and explained distraughtly, "I woke up on the Imp base, Mustafar, and I've worked as Vader's aide since then. Right after Bespin, he suddenly promoted me to captain, and to make things worse," he said, "I ran into someone we all know well. Let's just say I couldn't talk him out of making a mistake." Kayl laughed bitterly, his right arm shaking. "You have no clue how glad I am that Vader hasn't asked me to order the destruction of---"

"You don't have to say any more," Perceval said, stopping Kayl. He looked in the direction of the door. "Spiro's not really mad at you for joining the Imps; he's just---well, we're all upset that you haven't contacted us at all. But, I guess there was no way you would have known we were here," Perceval admitted.

"Look, Boss," Phoenix said, causing Kayl to cringe. "Why don't you just look us up the next time you're on Naboo? I'm sure Spiro'll have calmed down by then."

"Please call me Kayl; I'm not worthy of being called your boss anymore."

"Whatever you say, Commander," Perceval said in his Alderaanian accented Basic.

"Tyk, please don't," Kayl begged his friend, but Perceval Tyklonin was adamant. Kayl turned to Tessa, who had walked over during the argument. "I'm sorry, but I think I'm going to leave. Can I take you up on your offer later?" he asked, anxious to return to the Executor as quickly as possible. He did not want to still be in the bar when Spiro returned.

Tessa smiled warmly and replied, "Of course. Call me when you're in town next." She handed him his receipt (which had her comm number on it) and was about to hand him his change, but he shook his head and told her to keep it before he said goodbye to his old friends and left. Tessa was rather shocked. As was Phoenix, who glanced at the change and exclaimed, "Dear God! Damn, Kayl must really like you." It was not an odd thing to say, Tessa reflected. After all, the change Kayl had turned down was eighty credits.

Back on Coruscant, the Dark Lords of the Sith were in their semisecret base in the industrial sector of Coruscant, sitting at an ancient wooden table, discussing Vader and said Dark Lord's obsession with young Skywalker. Palpatine was to join them later, but it was currently just Maul, Dooku, and Ventress complaining about their fellow Sith. Ventress was particularly cautious of the man in the suit, and now had this opportunity to voice her opinion on the matter with her fellows and Palpatine without Vader himself knowing. Dooku, on the other hand, felt like there was some deeper motive to Vader's hunt for Skywalker than the fact that the boy was incredibly powerful in the Force. Maul, quite frankly, did not care. Yes, he was curious about Vader, but so was the rest of the galaxy. "Count, Ventress; look, I do not think that we should be speaking this way of one of our own," Maul said, defending Vader. "Our hate and anger would be better spent on the Jedi rather than another of the Sith. If you remember correctly, this is exactly why the Sith of old decided to instate the 'only two' rule. Or do you not remember that?"

Ventress rolled here eyes. "There's something wrong about Vader, and you can sense it, too, Maul. You just decide to ignore the the Force is telling you," she retorted. "I know his Force-signature; I just cannot place it. And then there is this obsession with Anakin Skywalker's son." Ventress spat out Skywalker's name with the utmost amount of hatred. "It's almost as if he has a better reason to take revenge on Skywalker than we do."

"You never know, Ventress," Dooku replied calmly. "And Maul, I specifically remember you saying a while back that Vader had too much light in him. If you have noticed, his light has actually been gaining ground against the dark. This change started occurring right after he interrogated Senator Amidala, if you did not notice."

Ventress raised an eyebrow. "Verily? That is strange," she said. "I actually had not noticed any light coming off from him, but do you remember that one time when that irritating aide of his ran into us in the halls about four months ago? All Vader did was tell him to be more careful, which was completely out of character for him. Normally, he would have Force-choked the boy and have been done with it. You know, this is the second time that damn aide has come up in a meeting where we meet. The Force has to be telling us something!"

Maul shook his head. "No. I do not think we have anything to fear from that particular Rebel," he said, getting looks of shock from the other two occupants of the room. "What? You couldn't tell? Well, I supposed Vader cannot, but I thought you both sensed it."

"Is this just a feeling, or do you actually have proof, Maul?" Dooku queried.

"Just a feeling," Maul replied, but added, "I did question him about his loyalties, though, and he said he would not betray the Empire unless he was ordered to do something that conflicted with his morals. I mind-wiped him after that, but that was pretty tough since he has a surprisingly strong mind. Oh, and he's Force-sensitive, too."

"And you neglected to tell us this before why?" Ventress demanded.

"It didn't seem important. Besides, Xizor's a pain in the rear end. I didn't want to see him proven right at the expense of Vader, because at least Vader is almost standable."

"Maul has a point," Dooku admitted before changing the topic back to Skywalker. "What do either of you know about young Skywalker and what happened at Bespin?"

Ventress took a sheaf of paper out of her briefcase and set it down at the table. "This is all of the information that the Imperial spynet has gathered on Luke Skywalker," she stated. "From what I have read, Vader and Skywalker dueled on Bespin, but Skywalker got away, albeit less his right hand, but he still got away . . ." She scanned some more of her papers. "Oh, this is interesting. Captain Foray warned Skywalker away from Vader."

"That is rather peculiar," Dooku said. "I have a feeling that that piece of information is what Xizor was withholding at the last meeting about a week ago. Remember when he donned that expression which made him look as if he had the upper hand against Vader? If that information had been introduced during that meeting, then Lord Sidious would have been very displeased with Vader. It is very likely that Xizor has some sort of scheme in place to completely destroy Vader in the eyes of the Emperor. That is the only possible reason that the Dark Prince did not say anything that the meeting."

Ventress nodded in agreement. "That makes perfect sense. Xizor also seems to bear a grudge against Skywalker, too. I mean the elder Skywalker, the annoying General."

Maul put on a sagelike expression. "Ah, that is because the Chosen One busted an important Black Sun drug ring a few years back. I read it in the paper."

Ventress glared at Maul. "How do you do that?" she demanded.

Maul, confused, was about to reply when Palpatine waltzed in. He was wearing one of those ridiculous naval officer dress uniforms, and Maul was reminded of when the Chosen One had been acting as Palpatine's secretary and had protested by wearing the same outfit. Maul had problems containing his laughter, and the rest of the occupants of the room just decided that Maul was having another one of his episodes.

Palpatine sat down at the head of the table and asked, "What has been discussed so far in this meeting? Have you heard anything from Lord Vader or the Grand Admiral?"

Ventress pushed the papers off of the table in a subtle manner and replied, "No, Master, we have not received any word from either Vader or Thrawn. Um, we have, however, been discussing certain things in the Empire which have come to our attention as rather strange or quite odd. Or, in one case, damnably annoying."

Palpatine sighed exasperatedly. "I explicitly forbid you all from creating conspiracy theories about the assassination plots of and on Prince Xizor, and yet you do so anyway. Secondly, if anyone else mentions how curiously Vader's aide acts, I'll zap them with Force lightning. I'm the only one that needs to worry about that boy. And finally, I've told you all multiple times, I ordered Vader to capture Skywalker so we could a) turn him to the Dark Side and b) use him as collateral against that damned Chosen One."

"That's all we talked about, Lord Sidious," Dooku said quietly. "It is my unfortunate duty to inform you that nothing else is going on in the Empire that concerns us."

Palpatine stared at the other three people sitting at the table. "Oh. Continue your mindless chatter, then," Palpatine said irately, albeit he listened closely to the discussion.

Princess Leia stared off into the sunset over the Tatooine desert. For some reason or another, she was completely entranced. She hadn't expected the setting suns to create such an effect on the sky with the swirling reds and yellows mixing in with the blue of dusk. As the day gradually faded into night, the air and the scorching sands were cooling off. Leia, still awed, barely noticed that she was also becoming chilly. Someone else, however, did notice. Leia felt a blanket around her shoulders and turned to see Luke standing next to her.

"You know, you shouldn't be standing out here all alone, Princess," he said, smiling.

Leia smiled back sadly and returned her gaze to the sunset. "I know," she replied before realizing she had repeated what Han had said. She had to tell Luke about what was bothering her, but she had not expected it to be as hard as it was to say the truth. "Luke . . . There's something I have to tell you," she said. He looked at her, a little confused, and Leia continued, "A long while back, I heard from a friend that your father was---is a Dark Lord."

Leia, unsure of how Luke would react, turned to see her friend, head bowed, staring at the ground. He laughed nervously and shook his head. "You mean you've known this entire time?" Luke demanded, not quite angry. "I suppose you'll tell the High Command?"

Leia arched an eyebrow. "Why would I?" she asked rhetorically. "And even if I did, they wouldn't give a damn, Luke." Pieces of the puzzle suddenly fit together in Leia's mind. "Wait a second. Is this what's been bothering you since Bespin?" she realized.

Luke sighed and turned to stare at her. "You really don't care, do you," he asked quietly, hoping that what he said was true, that Leia really did not think any less of him. "You don't care that my---my father's a Sith Lord or that he tried to get me to join him?"

Leia shook her head. "You jumped off a gantry to certain death to escape him," she reminded him. "I think that's enough proof you won't turn to the Dark Side anytime soon." Leia smiled. "Besides, I don't think anyone loyal to the Empire would want to help me save a good-for-nothing smuggler with Rebel sympathies from a bounty hunter, would they?"

Luke held her gaze. "Thank you," he murmured before falling silent for a moment. The real reason he wanted to talk to her resurfaced. Although what she had said had softened his resolve a little, Luke was still adamant in stopping her. "Leia, I know you want to find Han, but what you are planning on doing is just plain suicide!" he exclaimed.

Leia grimaced. So that was why he had come out of the hotel to talk. Not because she looked lonely, but because she was planning on going on a "suicide mission," as Luke had taken to calling it. "Would you just stop with that? I know how dangerous the Black Sun is!" she yelled back at him. Her patience on the matter was wearing dreadfully thin. Of course she knew how bad the Black Sun could be. Her father ranted against it every time he sent himself on a mission to stop the group's corrupt dealings in the criminal underworld.

"All I'm trying to say, Leia, is that it's not worth it!" Luke replied, now on the defensive. "What would Han say if he knew you were going to go to Xizor to find him? What would your parents say if they knew you were going to a criminal overlord for help?"

My father would lock me in my room for life, Leia thought, but she said, "I don't care what my parents would say. You know as well as I do that Xizor, with his spynet, would be able to find Fett, and therefore Han, without batting an eyelash!" Leia could only hope that Luke would not say anything about the payment that Xizor would demand.

Unfortunately for Leia, Luke, incensed, went on to say just that. "And how exactly are we supposed to pay for the information, Leia? The Rebellion sure as hell doesn't have enough money to get that sort of information out of him and still let you go. Remember how high the bounty is on you? For the Force's sake, it's almost as high as the one on me! Even if the Rebellion did cough up the money, who's to say what would happen to you once he receives it? You could be turned over the Empire or---or who knows what!"

Leia set her jaw. "I'm going and that's that," she declared steadfastly before turning around and walking back into the hotel, leaving Luke where he was standing. Once inside the hotel, Leia walked to her room and slammed the door behind her. She angrily started to pack her belongings once more, like she had at lunch the day before when Luke had tried to dissuade her. He had almost convinced her then, but now she was going to go no matter what. How dare he insinuate that I'm incapable of taking care of myself! she thought irately, stuffing a pair of desert fatigues into her satchel. For Force's sake, Luke isn't my older brother, so he should stop acting like one! Leia stomped into the refresher and grabbed her toothbrush and toothpaste. Leia's anger stemmed from her feeling that she actually did care that Luke was that concerned about her, but also that she knew he would come after her if something horrible were to happen. He would rush off into the heart of the Empire, and Leia was scared of what would happen to him if he were caught. Especially now that her fears were confirmed. Leia sat down on the bed and hoped that Luke would not go as far as to tell her father about what she was planning to do. Then she remembered that not even her best friend knew she was the daughter of the Hero With No Fear.

Guilt entered her mind then and plagued her with a vengeance. The voice would not abate until she was halfway to Coruscant on the transport she had booked the week before. She eventually took some solace in the fact that she had hired a "freelance jack-of-all-trades" to look after Luke while she was away on Coruscant and Lando and Chewie were searching the Corporate Sector for clues about Han. When she had met the colorful Corellian mercenary, she had been completely unsurprised when he had introduced himself as the aforementioned euphemism. Leia had wondered what she had done to the galaxy in order to cause it to make her run into a plethora of annoying men from Corellia. On the bright side, she thought, at least Rendar took the job. Then again, I wasn't expecting him, a member of one of the most influential and wealthy families on Coruscant, to show up and offer his help! Leia had a sneaking suspicion that Han had something to do with Rendar's willingness. What was next? Han being related to Dalla the Black? Leia hit her head against the support beam in her room on the transport. She shouldn't have thought that; now that she thought about it, it made all too much sense if Han was related to that former mob boss.

A Jedi, a mercenary, and a bounty hunter walk into a bar. Dear God, that sounds like the beginning to a bad joke, Dash mused as he followed Skywalker into some random cantina. He had noticed Fett tailing the Rebel pilot about a half an hour before whilst Dash was effectively doing the same thing for the same reason, although Dash knew he had a different purpose. Regardless, it was starting to become annoying. Dash felt like he had to clarify that both Fett tailing the kid and the kid moping around were annoying. Skywalker---Dash called him that even though he was a friend of a few friends of his---had started moping when that crazy Jedi princess had flown off to Coruscant to talk to the Dark Prince of the Black Sun. All the moping had made Dash's job harder since no less than three assassins and four bounty hunters (excluding Fett) had already tried to capture or kill the kid since said crazy girl left a few days ago. All that deterring which Dash had been forced to do made him want to push up the rate he was charging, especially when he looked at the updated "Most Wanted" list and found that the kid was at the top with a hefty sum on him.

Dash shook his head and meandered over to the nearest sabacc game in the cantina as the kid sat down at the bar and ordered a drink which looked suspiciously alcoholic. Fett still had not made a big move and was slinking around in the shadows. Dash wondered if the bounty hunter had caught on to the fact that Dash had guard duty. Halfway through the sabacc game (and on the kid's third drink), Fett finally did something. Although that "something" was an event which Dash wished could have been avoided: Fett walked over to Dash and asked to talk to him outside. All of that was said civilly, no less.

Once in the dark outside the cantina, Dash demanded, "Okay, Fett. What the hell is going on around here?" Dash knew he could probably get away with saying something along the lines of that because of his connections and hopefully because Fett was not after him. If that wasn't the case, then Dash would not be around long enough to regret saying so.

"I'm sure you know 'what the hell' is happening, Rendar," Fett retorted then gestured back to the cantina. "You've been guarding the Skywalker boy for the past few days. That interferes with my current job, coincidentally," Fett explained before drawing a blaster on Dash. However, Dash was already a mile ahead of the seasoned bounty hunter and had drawn his own blaster at the same time. "I see we are already at an impasse."

"It's only an impasse if you make it one, Fett," Dash replied. "I'm doing my job regardless. I owe a few people. I know you're not backing down, either, but maybe we could come to some sort of agreement," he suggested, hoping Fett wouldn't shoot him where he stood. Since Fett didn't shoot him or say anything more, Dash continued, "Look, I know that kid's got a krething big bounty on him by the Imps, but I didn't think---"

Fett caused Dash to stop talking when the infamous bounty hunter suddenly reholstered his blaster. Thank God for small miracles, Dash thought, but he couldn't help but wonder what was going on in Fett's head. That was as much a mystery as what the man looked like. "Fine, Rendar. Just tell me one thing, and I'll think about it. Where did the Princess of Alderaan go to? She was supposed to be here with Skywalker."

Dash raised an eyebrow. Why would Fett want to know that of all things? Dash decided it would be best to answer the bounty hunter. "En route to Coruscant to talk to Xizor as of five days ago," he answered. Fett reacted rather well to the information.

"Force dammit all to krething Sith hell," Fett suddenly swore. "I should have known that damnable Falleen would double-cross me." Dash decided it was a definite score for the Alliance: Fett would not be working for Xizor anytime soon it seemed. Fett noticed Dash was staring at him questioningly and explained, "Xizor decided yesterday that I would only be paid if I captured the girl as well as killed Skywalker. If what you're telling me is true, then I would be better off turning Skywalker over to the Empire." Dash took the safety off of his blaster again. Fett noticed and continued, "Fortunately for you and Skywalker, I have another job to attend to now that I am not working for Xizor anymore. And, if you have any care to know, that idiot Solo is in Xizor's possession at the moment." Dash was about to say something, but Fett cut him off. "It's my revenge; you must understand." Fett glanced back towards the cantina and commented, "I'd suggest you go retrieve Skywalker before he drinks himself under the table," before walking off into the night.

Dash chalked it up as the bounty hunter finally having lost his mind and walked back into the cantina to find the kid looking somewhat drunk and still moping at the bar where Dash had left him. Sighing, he walked over to the kid to tell him about Han. That particular piece of information proved that the Jedi princess was in fact completely insane. Then again, if the princess had not left, Dash would probably not be breathing after that encounter with Fett. Shaking his head, Dash tapped Skywalker on the shoulder and sat down at the bar next to him. "Aren't you a little young to be drinking that?" Dash asked.

"Go away," Luke replied laconically before taking another drink. Dash realized the kid was more upset than Dash had thought when he saw what Luke was drinking. Besides, the kid did not normally completely ignore old friends. Truthfully, Dash knew him through Wedge's older sister, but he was also Han's friend. Hence why Dash had agreed to this job in the first place. After a moment, Luke said, "You know, I didn't think that Leia actually hired a bodyguard for me until Fett walked into the cantina and started talking to you."

Dash rolled his eyes. "And you didn't think of this when you suddenly stopped being attacked by every bounty hunter and assassin in a twelve lightyear radius?"

Luke glared at him. "I could have taken care of myself!" he exclaimed bitterly. "Who does Leia think she is, anyway? My sister?" He glared at the glass he was holding.

"You think you could have taken care of yourself, kid?" Dash repeated, unconvinced. "So says you, who I happen to think is rather drunk." He shook his head again. "I can't believe Tycho and the rest actually let you and the princess out of their sight after what happened to Han. It's a damn shame the Imps caught him. Bigger shame Xizor has him."

Luke looked up from his drink. "What?" he demanded, all anger gone. "Xizor has Han? You---you can't be serious! Please, Dash, tell me you aren't serious!"

"Oh, so now you're being friendly, Luke," Dash said sarcastically. "And I thought you were going to act like your 'sister' the Ice Princess all night." After a few seconds of Luke looking at him pleadingly, Dash gave in and explained. "Look, Fett, who as you noted decided to have a little chat with me, gave me that little piece of information free of charge because Xizor was cheating him out of money and reneging on some agreement. And then he walked off without killing either of us. It was a very nice arrangement, if you ask me."

Luke was staring at Dash wide-eyed. "Boba Fett, the infamous bounty hunter, actually told you, free of charge, where Han is? And decided not to pick up the bounty on me?" Luke asked in complete disbelief. He scoffed and continued bitterly, "Yeah, right, Dash. Does that also mean Anakin Skywalker's my father?"

Dash raised an eyebrow. Now where did that come from? "So why are you using his last name, then, kid?" he asked, genuinely curious. "I mean, if---"

Luke went on the defensive. "Leia suggested it. I never wanted to use that name."

Dash resisted the urge to whistle. Apparently there was some sort of deep problem Luke was dealing with which had absolutely nothing to do with the Princess. The last time Dash had actually talked to Luke, the kid had practically been preaching about how completely awesome the Hero With No Fear was. And now there was this complete turn around. "Kid," Dash said, completely serious. "Luke, look at me." The young Jedi reluctantly obeyed. "I'm serious here. Fett told me Xizor has Han. Leia is going to Xizor to find Han. That is a bad thing. Xizor does not like her father. That means the Princess is about to be held in order to check the Rebels, particularly her father. She might also be used as bait to lure some of the Jedi, and even you, to Coruscant. So, Kid, what are we going to do?"

Luke stared at Dash. "We're going after her," he stated and paid the bartender a lower amount than Dash had expected. Luke observed Dash's shock. "What? Did you think I was really drinking? If you can't tell the difference between Whyvren's Reserve and water, Dash, you're sure as hell in the wrong business . . ." Luke left a tip and walked out.

Dash contemplated the counter. How the hell had he missed that? Damn Jedi mind tricks, he decided before following Skywalker out of the cantina.

The Executor had just completed a mission near the Outer-Rim world of Arips, helping to put down an insurrection which concerned a malfunctioning, ancient superweapon. Admiral Piett and General Veers were, as usual, taking their victory coffee break. Truth be told, only Veers was taking a coffee break: Piett was taking a tea break. In any case, they were both rather glad to be done with that planet, especially after having dealt with the locals the captain had deemed "rather eccentric." When Veers finally brought the eccentric locals back up, Piett said, "You know the captain was only being polite when he said that, Max."

"Of course," Veers replied, taking another sip of coffee. "God forbid he ever insult someone, even if it is a hyperactive mechanic who was hellbent on driving us mad."

"Don't forget the local guide who spoke like a Gungan on death-sticks," Piett mentioned. "At least that local priestess understood the situation. She was the one that called for help, correct?" Veers nodded. "And the government was in complete shambles."

"Pity we couldn't help set up a government," Veers said. "It looked like they were in a transition period from a theocracy into a system of separate, local governments."

"Yes," Piett agreed. He paused. "Do you think Lord Vader is going to have us go back to Naboo any time soon?" he asked, secretly hoping for a small vacation.

Veers shrugged. "I don't know. All the plans concerning the DS-II has already been

solidified for the army. The Emperor and his staff saw fit to make me the commander of the ground forces. Isn't the Executor supposed to be the picket ship guarding the station?"

Piett grimaced. "Yes. It is. I know we are supposed to report to Endor in a month to begin duty, but I wish Lord Vader would grant us shore leave at least for a while before that deadline. Maybe I should go ask young Kayl if he has received any news from Thrawn."

Veers shook his head. "I find it amusing that Lord Vader still has the captain act as his aide," he commented. "Actually, it is rather amazing if you think about it. Those two get into too many disagreements for most of the crew to expect Kayl to live past tomorrow."

Piett shrugged. "I am not sure about that. Whenever the two disagree, it is generally over some minor part in the larger scheme of things. And, strangely enough, the captain tends to be right about whatever said disagreement was over."

"And so Lord Vader commends him instead of executing him," Veers concluded. "Then again, because of that, a good portion of the ground troops stationed on the Executor think that the good captain is actually a Jedi or maybe even a Sith."

Piett cracked a smile. "A Sith? Kayl?" he said dubiously before laughing. "Right. The one person who managed to not mime strangling that darn mechanic every time the girl's back was turned and still was incredibly polite to her is a Dark Lord. And to follow that brilliant line of reasoning, Dr. Jones is a Scottish lord while the Emperor is Mickey Mouse."

"Well, we might never know about that particular medic, but I don't believe that rumor about the captain," Veers replied, amused by a sudden picture of the Emperor with mouse ears. "Firmus, you have to remember that these are the same people that came up with the rumor that Lord Vader is actually some alternate dimension's version of Anakin Skywalker."

Piett shuddered. "Now that is a disturbing thought. I'd truly pity the galaxy which had their greatest hero turn against what he stood for," he said softly.

Veers glared at Piett to warn him from saying anything else which could be construed as treason as Foray walked into the room. Confused at the silence and feeling completely out of place, Foray turned to walk out, but remembered he had to deliver a message from Lord Vader. "Erm, sirs?" he said, suddenly feeling like an aide again.

"Yes, Captain?" Piett asked, hoping like Veers was that Foray had not heard what he had said about Vader. "What is it?"

Foray cleared his throat nervously and reported, "Lord Vader wanted me to inform you of our current schedule. The Executor is to go to Naboo shortly where we shall rendez-vous with the Chimera before taking a short break and then heading off to Endor."

Piett was about to reply when the comm rang. All three officers looked at the break room's comm station for a moment before the two older officers volunteered the younger to answer it. Foray answered the comm after the third ring. "Yes?" he said hesitantly.

Foray gulped as Vader appeared on the screen. "Captain Foray, I assume General Veers and Admiral Piett are with you?" Foray replied to the affirmative, and Vader continued, "Good. Admiral, you and the captain are to return to the bridge. Our plans have changed, and the Executor is going to be making a stop on Coruscant. General? You and your men are to be given shore leave when we reach the planet." Vader hung up.

"That was . . . interesting," Veers commented. "Not every day we get time off."

Piett sighed and replied, "Yes, but it's even more rare a day which lets the naval complement of this ship actually have time off." He turned to Foray. "We should go."

Foray glanced at the comm screen and nodded. "We should," he said before the two naval officers made their way to the bridge. When they arrived, Lord Vader gave a number of assignments to Piett before addressing the captain. "Captain Foray, I would like to speak to you about a very important mission on which you are to be assigned."

Vader turned and walked off the bridge. Foray, rather nervous, followed him. The two walked through the hallways of the Super Star Destroyer for a few minutes before Vader spoke. "Foray, I have a special mission for you. I am sure you know who Xizor is?"

Foray halted immediately and stared in shock at the Dark Lord. "I---I'm sorry, sir?" Vader stopped and turned to face the officer. Kayl could just imagine the Dark Lord with one of his eyebrows raised. "I know of Prince Xizor," Kayl admitted, keeping the fact that the Falleen crime lord did not particularly like him much. Or at all . . .

"Good," Vader said. "I don't particularly like to deal with---" ---that creepy, lecherous lizardman--- Vader thought, but said, "---the Prince, so you have the honor to discuss the dealings between the Imperial military and XTS, specifically the transferring of the plans of the second Death Star into the hands of the Rebel Alliance."

Kayl was a little apprehensive about the order. "My lord, I would be honored, but I have the feeling that you would wish that the least number of people know of these dealings between the Black Sun and the Galactic Empire?" he asked, crossing his fingers and hoping that he would not be eliminated after the mission was complete.

"Captain Foray, you have little need to worry about an execution," Vader said flat out, sensing the captain's apprehension. "If the Empire succeeds, then you will be credited with some of the honor of finally stamping out the remains of the Republic. If it fails, then in all likelihood, you, and the Executor, would not be alive to regret the loss of the battlestation anyway. If on the off chance that the DS-II is destroyed, Xizor would be blamed for the mistake." He stared directly at Foray. "Besides, I generally don't kill the messenger, and you're a competent officer, something which is very hard to come by in the Imperial ranks."

"Thank you, sir," Kayl said. "It truly is an honor. I just---"

"It is understandable," Vader cut him off. "I make it clear that I dislike bad news, and certain measures are enforced to protect the secrecy of missions, but as I said, it would be a complete waste to have a competent officer silenced. I am sending you to deal with Xizor because, believe it or not, I trust you to a degree." Vader took a datapad out from underneath his cape and handed it to Foray. "This is the other half of your mission. Give the datapad to Xizor and Xizor alone. Do not read it yourself, nor let anyone else read it."

Kayl could guess what was on the datapad, but did not betray his knowledge to the Dark Lord. "Yes, Lord Vader. I shall guard it with my life." He paused. "Shall I set up another meeting with Xizor after this meeting is concluded?" Please let me never do this again!

"Hopefully, Captain," Vader started musingly, "Neither of us shall ever have to talk to that criminal again." Killing Xizor, on the other hand, is something I very much look forward to . . . Vader added silently. The two Imperials then made their way back to the bridge.

Leia was nervous as she sat in the waiting room outside of Xizor's office. Something just plain felt wrong. Her intuition told her that, and the Force was practically screaming that at her. If she did not know better, she could swear that there was a Dark Lord of the Sith talking to Xizor in the other room. Luckily, Guri, the human replica droid, did not throw off the same warning signals that everything else in the building screamed. Leia felt that the droid did not pose the same kind of threat that Xizor and the Black Sun did, even though she was an assassin (Leia had figured that out when they had met) and in the employ of Xizor.

Maybe she should have listened to Luke and stayed on Tatooine. A moment after thinking that, Leia became angry at him once more. What right did he have to tell her what to do? In any case, if Leia had not gone to Coruscant, Luke probably would have done exactly what Leia did do. Then again, I would have been the one to say "I told you so!" for going off and executing a completely harebrained scheme, Leia thought. She looked around the room once more, hoping to find any sign that she did do the right thing. The only sort of sign Leia received was Guri staring blankly at her, yet somehow radiating pity.

Leia decided to reconsider her situation. There were a number of things that could possibly go wrong in the meeting. The first scenario was that Xizor would turn her over to the Imperial authorities, and that she, as a rebel ringleader, would be publicly executed. The second scenario was along the same lines as the first, but instead of the Imperials executing her, she would be used as a bargaining chip to force a treaty between the Alliance and the Empire. Another scenario would be Xizor holding her hostage to lure her father to Coruscant so the annoying lizardman could have his vengeance. Of course, if Leia was detained, then her friends would try to rescue her and possibly become caught in the same trap she was in. A final scenario would be that Xizor would cooperate, and Leia would leave Coruscant unharmed, hopefully with the information she traveled to Coruscant to procure.

As Leia continued to contemplate her situation, the Twi'lek who had had an appointment with Xizor before Leia walked out of Xizor's office. Guri smiled coldly at Leia and said, "You may enter now." Leia smiled wanly back and made for the door, glancing back once to see a vaguely familiar-looking Imperial officer walk into the waiting room. Leia stepped through the threshold into Xizor's office and shut the door behind her.

Xizor was sitting behind a rather cluttered desk and looking rather bored. The Dark Prince of the Black Sun then noticed Leia and put on a completely different expression. "Why, Princess Organa, for what reason do I have the honor of meeting you?" he asked before gesturing to the chair in front of his desk. "Please sit down if you wish."

Matching the Falleen's smile, Leia sat down and began to speak. "I am sure that Guri has told you at least part of the reason I have come?" Leia said, knowing that she had earlier told the HRD that she was looking for some information.

Xizor nodded and replied, "Of course. I, however, was not aware that the Rebellion wanted to barter for information with the Black Sun. I was under the impression that the Alliance does not like to overtly work with the criminal underworld."

Leia shook her head. "I am sorry if I gave that impression, but this is a purely personal matter. The High Command does not know about this meeting at all," Leia clarified. Unless Luke told them about my plans. Or even worse, told my father!

"Hm. This certainly is interesting," Xizor said. "So, do you wish to have information on the whereabouts of Captain Solo or on who has posted the bounties on your friend, Commander Skywalker?" Xizor asked. He had known exactly why she was there because he did have one of the biggest spy networks in the galaxy.

Leia was a little unsettled that Xizor knew that she was looking for Han, but she was more unsettled by Xizor's comment about Luke. She knew about the reward for Luke's capture, but that was for him alive only. There was a second bounty? Leia hid her confusion as quickly as it appeared and replied calmly, "I desire information on both topics, actually."

"As I thought," Xizor commented. He picked up a packet of files on his desk. "This is the sum total of the research which I had ordered to be available for this meeting," he explained. "Unfortunately, knowledge is power, and power is not free. There is a price tag attached to the information." Xizor named the sum, and Leia's jaw dropped.

She collected herself quickly and attempted to regain her cool. "I am sure I can procure that amount within a few days, given the fact that I will be cleared by the Imperial Bank to withdraw from my personal bank account." And that Bail and my parents don't have a collective aneurism once they hear from the Royal Alderaanian Bank about the transaction. "However, I do not think that I would be able to evade the police for that long."

Xizor waved her off. "No matter. I have more than enough space for you to stay here at the castle," he said, noticing that she was averse to the thought of staying at the castle. She probably had been planning to stay between systems in her spaceship (an older Alderaanian personal long-distance transport, according to Xizor's spies) while the bank transferred the money.

Leia wanted to decline the offer, but that action would be rude. She considered her alternatives. If she said no, Xizor could do one of the things she had thought of before entering the room, but she would not get the information. If she said yes, any one of those things could still happen, but she would acquire the information about Han. "That is acceptable," Leia replied, hoping she was not making the biggest mistake of her life.

Xizor smiled, and Leia suddenly had a very bad feeling. "Perfect. When the money has been transferred, I will hand the information over to you." He paused and glanced down at his appointment book. Apparently noticing some business he had to attend to, he said, "Now, Princess, I have some important business to attend to, so will you excuse me?"

Leia nodded and wished him a good day before exiting the office. The Imperial officer who had been present before she had gone to talk to Xizor had vanished, but Guri was still there. Leia addressed the HRD. "Prince Xizor said that I would be provided with accommodations while I wait for a bank transaction?" she said hesitantly, wondering what had happened to the Imperial officer, but thankful that he was not present.

Guri nodded and replied, "I know. Prince Xizor was expecting this situation to occur." She stood and walked towards the door opposite the office. "Follow me, please," she said, and Leia did so. They took a long and twisting path through the building, eventually stopping at the door to a suite a few floors below Xizor's office. Guri opened the door and motioned for Leia to go in. Leia did so, and Guri spoke. "You have free reign over what you do here. The holovid projector will provide you access to everything from INC to the Animated Holovid Network and everything in between. Dinner will be served at 6:30." Leia nodded, still somewhat worried about the presence of the Imperial officer, and Guri then said, "And, if you were wondering about that Imperial, he will most likely be gone by the time you meet with Prince Xizor, although he came for the appointment a few days early."

Leia smiled graciously, and said, "Thank you," before the HRD left Leia alone in the room. She looked around before finally staring at the shag carpet. It was a cream color, like the rest of the room, and the carpet probably would have been enough to entertain her father for a few hours. Leia wandered over to the closet and found it to be filled with designer clothing of all sorts of colors. Her mother would have been in heaven over that. Leia sighed and wondered how she was the only normal one in her family. She sat down on the very comfortable bed and suddenly had a vision of what the Jedi Council and Rogue Squadron would do if they were locked in the suite. She decided that she was the only sane one in the entire Rebellion, save Bail and Mon and maybe Bel Ibis, but he was a Corellian. Like Corran. And Wedge. And Dash. And Adi. Leia had a sneaking suspicion that Obi-Wan was Corellian, too, but he just would not admit it. Maybe there was some group called Corellians Anonymous, like Alcoholics Anonymous, but with crazy people, too. Han could be their leader, Leia thought, nodding sagely to herself before realizing what she had thought and falling back into a depression. At least I'm doing this to save him, she thought but felt guilty that she was to enjoy this luxury while she was waiting for the information. Hopefully, this whole experience would just be a memory in a few days time.

Dash was watching Chewbacca fiddling around with some miscellaneous component to the hyperdrive on the Millennium Falcon. According to Lando, this was the second or third time that month that the hyperdrive had been on the fritz. The ship was currently en route to Coruscant with Dash, Lando, Luke, and Chewie aboard it. Luke had called Lando and Chewie to inform them to return to Tatooine and the reason why they had to return once he and Dash had made it back to the hotel where Luke had been staying. The Wookie and the gambler had been very pleased to hear that Han had been found, but were less than enthused that Leia had walked into the figurative lion's den.

Currently, the ship was a light-year out from Coruscant, and once Chewie made sure that the hyperdrive would not malfunction at an inopportune time again, they were going to make the final jump to the Imperial capital world. Dash knew of a good place to park the Falcon where it would not be searched by the Imperials, and Lando had already formulated a plan to break Han and Leia out of Xizor's castle. Much to Chewie's displeasure, they were going to go through the sewers. Luke had been delegated the role of finding a way out of the castle. His plan was to basically run like a mynock out of hell. The others remained unaware of Luke's lack of a plan, but it did not really matter anyway. Any plan would probably be completely useless by the time that they rescued Leia anyway.

Chewie growled to Dash that the hyperdrive and all the systems connected to it were in good repair, and Dash replayed the message to Lando, who had the Falcon make the jump into hyperspace. A few minutes later, the ship exited hyperspace in the near viscinity of Coruscant. Everyone had gathered in the cockpit at that point, and when the space traffic controller contacted the Falcon, Dash made up a story to allow them to land. The Imperial had absolutely no clue what ship he had just let through. According to the transponder and Dash's explanation, the beat-up freighter was the Kryptonian Bullet coming from the planet Vulcan with parts and a technical crew for the Emperor's latest pet project. As it has been noted before, Imperials were not the sharpest tools in the shed.

The Falcon landed without consequence. When they landed, Dash rushed off somewhere and returned a few hours later with a copy of the blueprints for the sewers near Xizor's castle. Luke asked where Dash had found the plans, and Dash had replied that he had persuaded "someone he knew" to cough up the plans. Consequently, Dash would have to find a "real" job after the escapade concluded by order of his older brother.

The next day, the Wookie, the gambler, the mercenary, and the Jedi set off for Xizor's castle by way of the sewers. None of them had been expecting anything out of the ordinary in the sewers, save the disgusting smell, but that did not stop them from running into no less than three giant vicious, man-eating sewer rats, two diagonae (with which Luke had an unfortunate encounter), and an abandoned krokodial. The krokodial, while appearing to be very dangerous, seemed to be rather friendly and made a habit of following Lando through the sewers. Dash had been rather disturbed by the appearance of the large lizard, having previously thought that the krokodials living in the sewers of Coruscant were merely myths. Luke had a similar reaction, but decided to just ignore the huge lizard once he saw that it had a collar which identified it as Godzilla and as owned by someone named T. Djo.

Once they arrived at the underground entrance to the sublevels of Xizor's castle, Lando tried to shoo Godzilla away to no avail. Dash put in the codes to enter the building, and Luke said, "Uh, guys, I neglected to say this earlier, but I think that might be a pet of a friend of mine. So, I was thinking maybe we should take it with us?"

While Chewie laughed, Lando stared at Luke and said with all seriousness, "Please say Janson isn't the owner of this thing." He gestured to Godzilla.

Dash glanced back at the krokodial. "It's that weird Dathomirian girl's, isn't it?"

Luke nodded sheepishly and replied, "Yeah." As a result, Chewie barked something in reply about how Godzilla was not going to come within a mile of the Falcon. "Point taken," Luke said. "But how are we going to get rid of it? And think about the shock effect that the krokodial would cause with the guards in Xizor's castle!" The other three stared at Luke like he was crazed, and Dash turned back to the door to continue entering the codes. Lando continued to try to shoo the lizard away from him. "Fine. Then you get to explain to Teneniel why we left her lizard in the sewers of Coruscant."

The other three thought about that for a moment, and Lando said, "That's a fair trade off. Now, could you please get this giant lizard away?" Luke rolled his eyes before telling the lizard to scram through the Force. It complied and started to battle a giant moth further down in the tunnel. Luke was a little unsettled by that and decided that they had made the right decision to leave the lizard in the sewers. Teneniel could find it later at her own leisure.

Dash finally opened the door, and Luke used the Force to knock out all of the guards in the room directly off of the sewers. Lando hacked into the mainframe and disabled the cameras on the floor they were on, as well as the first fifty floors directly above them. He also stumbled upon what room Leia was being held in. With those tasks completed, the group made its way up through the building to save the Princess and Han.

The good captain of the Executor was also in Xizor's castle, although he was waiting to see the Falleen crime lord. He had seen the Princess Leia in the same room three days before and had barely believed his eyes. For what reason was she there? Did she have some harebrained scheme to find out why her friend Luke was being hunted by every bounty hunter in the galaxy? Kayl had half a mind to help her escape. Unfortunately, that would cause a diplomatic relations disaster between Xizor (and therefore the Black Sun) and the Empire, and it constituted as treason. Guri, Xizor's HRD, had been staring at him emotionlessly for the past twenty minutes, and Kayl was starting to become very nervous.

A light flashed on the HRD's desk, and Guri told him, "You may enter now." Kayl nodded to her and entered Xizor's office. The office looked exactly like what he had glimpsed a few days prior, but with one major difference. "Do you like my most recent art acquisition?" Xizor asked, gesturing to the block of carbonite containing Han Solo. Kayl felt sick and blanched. Xizor, a little puzzled by the reaction, asked, "Are you feeling well? Would you like to sit down?" He was being polite only because this fool of an Imperial probably did not know about his connections with---his leadership of---the Black Sun and probably thought that he was just negotiating a agreement between the Empire and XTS.

"I'm sorry," Kayl apologized. "It is just that I've never seen any artwork that lifelike before," he said, thinking, How on Earth does Xizor have Han! "Um, from my briefing from Lord Vader, I believe we are supposed to finalize the plans to transport a particular computer containing very sensitive material essential to the Imperial cause to Kothlis."

Xizor nodded knowingly, wondering at the same time how much that sithspawned Lord Vader had told this aide. Of course, Xizor did know the man was a captain, but there was something about him that made the Dark Prince hate him as much as he hated Vader. "I have selected a light transport in advance," Xizor replied, "and the payment which had already been suggested by Lord Vader is acceptable. The pickup date for the delivery has also been confirmed, as has everything else, as per the Imperial terms suggested."

Kayl smiled gratefully. The meeting had not had to be long, and he was thankful for that. Kayl handed over some documents for Xizor to sign (Vader had done so in advance) and remembered that he had a datapad to give to Xizor. It was the datapad Vader had expressly forbidden him from reading. Once Xizor had finished signing the documents and handed them back to Kayl, Kayl took the datapad out of his pocket. "Prince, Lord Vader requested that I deliver this datapad to you. As far as I know, this message pertains to some personal matter or top secret information; I have no knowledge of its contents."

Kayl handed Xizor the datapad, and excused himself. As Kayl exited the room, Xizor started to read the document, and Kayl could almost feel the anger the Dark Prince was radiating. Kayl decided there was definitely no love (or even ambivalence) between the two henchmen of the Emperor. He passed through the waiting room with Guri staring at him the entire time. Kayl decided to show himself out. He knew the way to the fiftieth floor landing platform. After walking down the halls for some time, Kayl noticed Guri tailing him. Apparently Xizor did not trust Kayl as far as he could throw him. Not that Kayl did not feel the same. Shaking his head, Kayl realized he was more like his father than he cared to admit.

For one reason or another, Kayl stopped in front of a random door. Guri would not catch up with him for a few more minutes (he had managed to cause her to follow him at a greater distance after he walked around the sixtieth floor five times), so he knocked on the door. More quickly than he expected, he was answered. He stood in the doorway for a moment, stunned that he had happened upon Princess Leia's room. She arched an eyebrow as he stared at her in amazement. The Princess did not seem to be surprised at the fact that an Imperial officer was standing at her door. "Wait a second," she said, recognizing him, "Weren't you that aide back at Bespin?"

Kayl nodded before deciding to hell with it all. He had to help her escape. "Princess, you friend, Han Solo, is here," he told her. After receiving a stunned stare from the girl, Kayl explained, "He's in Xizor's custody, albeit still frozen in carbonite." Pausing, he then asked her, "How well can you work with the Force? Can you sense people?" After being stared at like he was an idiot, he said, "Can you sense Commander Skywalker around here?"

Leia blinked a few times before checking and replying, "Yes, he is." She paused. "Why the hell is he here!" she exclaimed. "How would he know I was in trouble?"

"You are in Xizor's castle," Kayl reminded her, then hypothesized, "Your friend probably found out about what Xizor's done." He paused. "Han's in Xizor's office. If you can tell where the Commander is, go find him and make for the office. I'll distract Guri."

Leia nodded in thanks and smiled. "I owe you. You'll probably be killed for this."

Kayl shrugged. "I'm just doing my duty, and I doubt Vader would punish me too much for this 'betrayal.' He hates Xizor even more than, well, Anakin Skywalker does." He started to walk off, but Leia stopped him by saying, "Wait! What's your name? And why did you tell me all of this? You're an Imperial officer! Under Vader's command, no less!"

Kayl turned around and smiled sadly. He told her, "My name's Kayl Foray, and I'm here to rescue you." He glanced back at the empty corridor and behind him and departed before the Princess could say anything more. Kayl heard her close the door to her room. Good, she's going to wait for Guri to follow me before escaping. I hope her friends came up with an escape plan, he thought. But knowing them, it's probably "Run like hell."

Kayl continued to walk around in circles for another good twenty minutes before Guri, tired of following the most-likely eccentric Imperial around the building, approached him and guided him to the landing platform. Once they were there, Guri finally spoke to him. "I half-expected you to break the Princess of Alderaan out of her room."

Kayl started up the speeder Lord Vader had lent him and turned to the HRD. He smiled and asked her, "Who says I didn't, Guri?"

"I meant an active participation in her escape, not telling her what her comrades would report to her later." She raised her chin. "You've shown incredible control in restraining yourself from helping the Rebels storm the castle. I was also rather amused when Prince Xizor blew a gasket after reading that datapad you gave him from Lord Vader."

Kayl shrugged and informed her, "That was not my fault." After a moment, he said, "Hey, if you don't want to be around when Xizor runs into said Rebels, do you want to come with me back to the Imperial base or where ever? You could then find someone to erase your assassin programming. I could even recommend a very good Rebel mechanic."

"Know him by reputation, or because you know the mechanic?" Guri questioned.

"By reputation. I'm an Imperial officer, remember?" Kayl replied, amused. "Are you coming or not?" he asked kindly. "If necessary, I'll pay for your passage off-planet."

Guri shook her head and sighed before getting into the speeder. "You really are too kind to be an Imperial officer. I'm amazed Vader hasn't killed you yet."

Kayl laughed as he drove them away. "He only kills people who do not do their jobs well enough to fit his standards: an Admiral must have a fully functioning brain, a captain must be competent, and everyone else needs half a brain. Lord Vader ignores the all Grand Admirals and only comes into contact with one of them, who happens to be the one that Lord Vader likes to work with. I've never met the man, personally."

Guri stared ahead. "Could you find me a job in the navy, then, Captain?" she asked.

"I'm sure Lord Vader would give you one if you told him you defected from Xizor's service for one reason or another," Kayl told her sincerely. "As you know, they hate each other and would gladly see the other rot in hell, specifically the frozen ninth circle."

"With the rest of the traitors?" Guri inquired and glanced at Kayl, who said nothing.

Luke was surprised to find that Leia was not in need of rescuing shortly after the rescue group reached the door to the thirty-ninth floor. None of them were particularly more winded than the others, but they were all happy to see the Princess. Dash was about to start filling her in when Leia reported, "I know where Han is. He's in Xizor's office. I know the way there." All the guys stared at her before continuing their journey up the stairs.

"How do you already know this stuff, Leia?" Luke asked after a while. If Leia had planned this from the beginning, then he really owed her an apology. Leia did not answer him for another flight of stairs, at which point they all rested for a while. It was floor sixty.

"I know this stuff," Leia replied while catching her breath, "because an Imperial officer I've run into before told me. I think he has taken care of Guri in one way or another." After receiving puzzled stares, Leia informed them, "Guri is Xizor's human replica droid. She's programmed to be an assassin. Kayl, the Imp, is probably leading her around in circles on some floor, pretending to be searching for the landing platform."

"That was certainly kind of him," Dash said sarcastically. "There has to be some sort of catch. An Imperial officer would not just free you and give you information because he feels bad. I've run into enough of them in the past two years."

"No, I know he had a reason other than taking pity on me," Leia retorted. She turned to Luke and Lando. "Do either of you remember that aide? You know, the one with the black hair and dark blue eyes? From back on Bespin, right after Han was frozen?"

Lando remembered the man she was speaking of. "Him. Vader's aide. There was something strange about him," Lando recalled. "I actually thought he was a Rebel spy in deep cover. He did not act like most of the Imperials any of us have met, like Dash said."

Luke had been strangely quiet. He was remembering how that officer had warned him away from fighting Vader. It was almost as if he had known the outcome of the battle. There had also been that strange muffled feeling which had disturbed his contact with the Force. Luke had been meaning to research what could cause those effects, but he had not had the time. "I remember that guy, too," he said. "He warned me about Vader." Leia stared at Luke for a moment once he had said that. Luke noticed and said, "We should get going. Xizor might know about the break-in by now." The climbing resumed.

They continued climbing the stairs for another ten flights, at which point it was unanimously declared that they could use the turbolifts the rest of the way up. Finally, they reached the floor on which Xizor's office was located. The plan they had formulated by that time was for Luke and Leia to distract Xizor while Dash, Lando, and Chewie freed Han. The plan was as brilliant and well-thought out as Luke's escape plan, which Leia had guessed back on floor forty-five. Unfortunately, none of them had any better ideas.

When they were near Xizor's office, all of the males stayed around the corner of the hallway, out of sight, and Leia waltzed around the corner and into Xizor's office. She barged in unannounced since Guri was still missing. Xizor was sitting behind his desk, somehow completely expecting her arrival. Han's frozen form was hanging on the wall to her right. Leia glared at Xizor, who only laughed. "Did you really think that I would notice your little escapade of escaping from your room? I sent Guri after you a few minutes ago. She just finished sending that bumbling Imperial off. He really was irritating, almost as much as that damn Jedi General or even Vader himself. No matter." Leia glared at him with fire in her eyes. "When she comes back, I'll have her take you back to your room."

"How dare you lie to me!" Leia growled, understandably angry. She noticed that he had not been informed of Luke, Lando, Dash, or Chewie. "You knew where Han was this entire time! What am I to you? Bait to lure my friends here? A bargaining chip?"

Xizor smiled wickedly. "Oh, I would most likely have used you for both of those purposes. If you wondered, I was going to tell you the truth about where Solo was, but I figure that you would eventually figure out who were behind the rewards for Skywalker."

Leia's eyes narrowed. "I already knew one of them, and you are the other. The reward you promise is for Luke handed over to you, dead or alive. The other . . . well, I am sure Darth Vader will be less than enthused to find out that you have put a death warrant out for his son!" Xizor seemed to be surprised that she knew about Luke's father, so she went on. "I'll even go tell him myself. All I have to do is find a comlink around here and announce myself. Vader is on planet, so my arrest would be supervised by him, no doubt."

Xizor glared at her venomously. "You are aware that you would have to reach a comlink without being caught by Guri, myself, or any of my guards. That is almost impossible. Besides, you are assuming that I need you alive. I could always turn you over to the Imperial authorities dead, and the Rebellion would be sorely effected."

Leia laughed bitterly. "You would risk making me a martyr? Think of the headlines! 'Teenage Rebel leader found dead at the residence of the leader of the Black Sun.' That's very encouraging. It would do wonders for the war effort. My father would also swear to hunt you down and kill you in the most painful way imaginable. A very smart move."

Xizor snorted. "Your father? Bail Organa? What would he do as revenge? Have Alderaan boycott XTS? There is no way that he could do anything more than that." Xizor unlocked a small compartment on the bottom of his desk.

Shaking her head, Leia laughed hysterically. "Oh, Prince Xizor, how wrong you are. Bail is my godfather. I'm sure he---and nearly everyone else, for that matter---would not take revenge, though. My father would not leave anything left to take revenge on. Who knows, the galaxy might even gain another Sith Lord in the process."

That last comment disturbed Xizor as he had taken the small blaster out of its secret compartment. "Your father, whoever he is, will just have to wait and take revenge, then," Xizor said, drawing his blaster and firing it directly at the Princess.

Unfortunately for Xizor and fortunately for Leia, a green lightsaber blade blocked the bolt from hitting its mark. Luke had entered the room just as Xizor had aimed the blaster. He turned to Leia, grabbed her arm, and dragged her out of the room before Xizor could get another shot in. Luke and Leia ran out the door with Xizor following them, shooting at them while Luke blocked the blaster bolts. They rounded the corner opposite where the others were waiting and made a mad dash to the turbolift. Xizor, taking the bait, followed them.

At the moment Xizor rounded the other corner, Lando, Dash, and Chewie ran into Xizor's office. Once in the room, Chewie took the slab of carbonite off of the wall. Lando knelt beside the carbonite and pressed the correct switches to melt the carbonite. Immediately, the substance started to sublime, freeing Han within the span of thirty seconds. Han, who was being helped up, although still completely disoriented, demanded, "Where am I? Who are you? And what the hell is going on?"

Dash rolled his eyes and yelled at Han (just in case his hearing was not working properly either), "We, your three amigos, are freeing you whilst the crazy Jedi kids are running like hell from that psychopathic Falleen crimelord!"

Han stared in the vague direction of the big red blur known as Dash, and Chewie commented upon how they were sort of in a hurry, so they needed to get a move on. Lando, who Han still had not managed to recognize, said, "Right. Han, do you think you can run, or are we going to have to commandeer one of Xizor's ships and have Luke and Leia escape through the sewers?" He realized that Han didn't know that they would have to escape through the sewers if they did not take a speeder, but Han managed to figure it out.

"Commandeering sounds good to me," Han decided. "If I tried to run, I'd hit a wall."

"Good," Dash commented. "That means you only have to climb one flight of stairs." Han grimaced, and they ended up taking the turbolift to the roof. At the top, Dash edited his story from their landing on Coruscant and persuaded the guards that they were just borrowing a speeder to go tell the Emperor about some recent development with some sort of pet project that Xizor was helping the Emperor with. The four of them then drove off.

Back in the depths of Xizor's castle, Luke and Leia were still running from Xizor, but they were starting to tire. After all, they had just scaled a good portion of the building before pissing off the Dark Prince. Of course, they preferred irritating a Dark Prince as opposed to a Dark Lord, but Leia was pretty close to making good on her threat and calling the Imperials. At that moment, Luke's comlink started going off. Leia took it from him and answered it since Luke was still blocking blaster fire. "What?" she yelled. "We're a little busy here!"

"Geez, calm down, your Highness-ness," Han's laid-back voice came from the comlink. "It's not like you're in any more dangerous a situation than normal."

"Yeah, everything's the same as always!" Luke exclaimed, adding his two cents.

"That bad, huh?" Han replied. "Hmm . . . Hey, you guys, do you think we should save them or make them walk through the sewers?" Han asked the others. Muffled voices responded something that sounded like "sewers." There was also something about a krokodial. "Then it's unanimous. Meet us at the level fifty landing platform."

Han hung up, and Leia started twitching. Both she and Luke started sprinting to reach the turbolift so they could go back up to the fiftieth floor. Xizor had been chasing them around the thirtieth. They made it in time for Xizor to have no clue where they went. After a minute or two, they were on the correct floor. After exiting the turbolift, Luke used the Force to push the button that would send it to the roof. Seconds later, the two were gone, down another hallway. It took less than five minutes to locate the platform, and their friends were already there and waiting. Han, who was still in somewhat of a daze, said, "What kept you?"

"No time," Luke said, diving into the speeder and landing on Han. "Talk later, drive now." Leia did something similar and ended up on Luke. She said something in agreement, and Dash, rolling his eyes, hit the gas pedal. The speeder raced off into traffic.

Xizor scoured his castle for the two brats and, failing finding them, decided to go up to his skyhook to monitor the outbound space traffic in order to blast them into space dust. He vaguely remembered that the last time he had done so, Vader had blasted him into space dust. That was not an event that Xizor wished to repeat, and he would not have, had he remembered completely. The Force (and Darth Vader) had other things in store for him.

By the time that Xizor had located the Millennium Falcon (now traveling under the pseudonym Curse of Circe), Captain Kayl Foray and newly recruited Lieutenant Guri Kisaragi had returned to the Executor. Captain Foray informed Vader of the situation and was helped by the lieutenant on certain points. It took Vader five minutes to decide whether to blast Xizor into space dust or Force-grip him over the Holonet. He decided to go the Holonet route since the captain pointed out that innocent bystanders could be working for Xizor on the skyhook. The captain had that particularly irritating quality that resurrected Vader's long dormant (and presumed dead) conscience.

Shortly before the Falcon was about to be destroyed, Vader opened a link with Xizor. They had a pleasant conversation in which Vader (not so) politely demanded that Xizor cease and desist trying to destroy the vessel. Xizor said he was disinclined to acquiesce to Vader's proposal (and said some rather disparaging things about Vader's mother and the legitimacy of the good captain). Vader paused for a moment before mentally telling Xizor to go to hell and executing him. Pleased with the events of the day, Vader walked off of the bridge. The good captain and Admiral Piett exchanged glances before Foray called Xizor's navy and told them that Lord Vader had "removed their employer" and if they wished to live, then they should stop firing on the Falcon. Needless to say, Xizor's fleet complied, and the Millennium Falcon disappeared into hyperspace.

Ok, people. Big question here. Do you want me to respond to your reviews via here, or via the review reply buttony-thinger? I'm just wondering, but here's last time's review replies:

SuperBlonde: Hm... Interesting... I think we both might be crazy. And as to jello pudding pops at Hoth---HOW COULD I FORGET SOMETHING LIKE THAT? I'm such a doofus! It was the perfect chance! I loved writing Qui-Gon in as the Force-ghost. I mean, who else could pull off talking to a random Jedi apprentice who's about to go into hypothermic shock? Certainly not Obi-Wan, with his being alive and all. Unfortunately, I couldn't come up with a good enough way to have Wedge's blaster eaten by the wampa, so I just referred to it. Sorry! And as to the scene in the medbay, Anakin would have had a spaz attack had he been present. You KNOW he would have (and maybe giving a stern talking to Han for good measure). Jedi Council reality TV? I pity the children who would watch that. Think about all the emotional scarring... and Anakin's broadening of their vocabulary. But I do agree that it would get incredible ratings. As to Luke having two fathers, it's sorta true, but not, but is, but isn't. You also mentioned what Vader's planning. After this chapter, I hope things made a little more sense. Sorta. There are still some very important plot points to get through... And just a hint, but Kayl's going to play a important role in the Battle of Endor---for where his true allegiance lies. And there I go being vague again! Thanks for reviewing, and I really, really apologize for my crappy update speed!

JadeAlmasy: I thank you for saying you like the longer chapters more. Unfortunately, I doubt this is what you had in mind. I appreciate that you don't mind that I take long, and I am, again, super sorry that I did take this long. Thanks very much for reviewing!

Tanydwr: Thank you very much for reviewing AtSM. As to your question, yes, Luke, having been half-dead at the point at which Qui-Gon imparted that sage advice, has forgotten that little bit of information, but even if he did remember, that doesn't necessarily mean to him that the version of Vader in his reality isn't a dark Jedi, although we know otherwise. At least, I think that was what I was thinking when I wrote that. (Translation: I forgot about that. Maybe. I can't recall whether I forgot about that or my explanation as shown is what I was thinking. Either way, what is said there is law-ish.)

I hope you all have enjoyed this chapter. See ya next time! (and hopefully it will be before Spring Break...)