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* The Game Begins *
(please don't fret--none of these are essential to understanding this story)
Star Wars Fanfix *Another fine mess you got us into back there,* Chewbacca
whuffed as he and Captain Han Solo turned a corner toward the
command center of the drafty castle that was the Rebel base on the
fjord planet of Brisben.
"Try 'got you out of,' pal," Han shot with a look back to his
towering copilot. "You're the one who said it was only held up by
thumbtacks. It's thanks to my stunning good looks that we got offa
that Force-forsaken planet without a couple more warrants on our
heads. You just can't resist adding to your collection, can ya?"
Two years after Yavin, the smugglers were still running supplies for
the Rebellion, which was working out quite nicely for them as a
means of hiding out from the various bounty hunters their old boss
Jabba the Hutt had sent to extract payment for a "lost" shipment. Of
course, in the process, the captain and his copilot had made a few
Rebel friends, too.
Just then they heard laughter and two sets of running footsteps
coming their way down an adjoining hall.
"You think that's bad?!" they heard a very un-Princess-sounding
Leia Organa call between giggles, her voice ricocheting off the cold
stone walls. "Wait until Wedge asks you about that game you lost to
your Corellian hero!"
*Speaking of things you can't resist...* Chewie began.
"Nice," Han bit. "How many times have I been her hero, but does
she ever act like it?" he said, turning to the wookiee.
*You know that's not fair. She has consistently thanked you for
your...*
"That does it. Prepare to be pummeled," they heard Luke Skywalker
call between laughs of his own as his voice and quick footsteps
grew nearer.
In the next moment Han and Chewie saw Luke looming over Leia at
the end of the hall, Leia crouching with eyes wide in mock terror.
She turned to the wall, as if not seeing him would make him
disappear. Luke lightly put his arms around her, and now both of
them were practically doubled over in laughter. It was hard to tell
them apart, both in light gray Rebel-issue fatigues.
"Aww, how cute--they're even dressed alike," Han sang, rolling his
eyes at the scene. "Practically twins."
"Hero?! Han's my hero?!" Luke mock-challenged into Leia's hair.
Leia nodded, not able to speak due to her now uncontrolled
laughter.
Tenderly turning her around, the Jedi-in-training grew suddenly
serious. "Better my hero than yours," he said a little breathlessly,
his blue eyes warming.
Reflecting the light of their uniforms, Leia's dark brown eyes turned
up to his, and time seemed to stand still between them.
"Hi, kids!" Han said brightly as he and his first mate continued to
approach them, waving a hand and the smile already leaving his
face. Chewbacca added his greeting, which Luke and Leia had
learned enough Wookiee to actually understand now.
Still synchronized, the "twins" snapped their heads up in surprise,
then straightened to greet their friends.
"Han, you're back!" Luke exclaimed with a smile, his eyes lighting
up and his hands leaving Leia for Han. Meanwhile, the Princess
took the opportunity to make sure the braids wrapped around her
head weren't falling out and sober a bit.
"Still master of the obvious, aren't ya, junior?" Han smirked and
shook Luke's hand. Chewie moved in for a traditional wookiee hug.
"Welcome back, Captain," Leia smiled, clasping her hands and
looking up at Han. "I gather things went smoothly on Solvay?"
"Not as smooth as this smooth-talker," Han leered and hefted a
thumb at Luke. "What's this talk about my being someone's hero?
There's plenty of me to go around, you know," he beamed, leaning
back and crossing his arms high on his chest. Rolling their eyes,
Luke and Chewie sat back for another Han-and-Leia volley.
"We know how you've gotten around, Captain," Leia grudged.
"Girl talk in the mess hall confirms that daily."
"Aww, they're just dreamin'," Han said. "Now you, Princess--I
could make your dreams come true."
"Ha," was Leia's simple reply. "This is where I get off," she said,
looking down, smoothing her uniform, and stepping back from the
group.
Not done getting his eyeful of her just yet, Han threw his racket.
"No, but you could..." he suggested.
An icy dark glare was all he got in reply. "Luke, see you later. Bye,
Chewie," she waved as she walked away. The echo of the
wookiee's farewell followed her down the hall.
Han shrugged and looked at Luke. "How come she always does
that?"
Luke shook his head and smiled to himself. 'If he can't figure it
out,' he thought, 'I'm certainly not going to help him.'
"So how'd it go, Han? Make all your connections?" he asked,
hoping to change the subject.
"Yeah, and made a few new ones, kid," Han said, game to forget
the Princess for now, landing a hand on Luke's back, and resuming
his and his copilot's walk. "Come with me and Chewie to command
center, and we'll tell you all about our 'acquisitions'...."
Leia was tired. And tired of being tired. Lounging in the privacy of
her small, bare quarters save the tapestry of Antibes on Alderaan that
Han had given her for her birthday last year, only here could she
afford these thoughts.
'Face it, sister--you're practically manic-depressive,' she chided
herself as she unthreaded her braids. 'Laughing hysterically with
Luke one minute, ready to cry you're so lonely the next.'
Loneliness had been a tragic fact of daily life for her two years now
since she witnessed virtually all her friends and family murdered in
the blink of an eye by a deadly green beam from the Empire's Death
Star to Alderaan.
But she hadn't really been alone all this time, had she? She'd made
friends among the Rebellion command and troops alike. Luke
seemed to be offering her more than just friendly companionship.
And Han had made it clear for quite a while now that he was
interested in adding her to his list, though that wasn't exactly
flattering.
Wait a minute--what was she thinking anyway? She didn't have
much time for friends, having taken on all the responsibilities she
had in her honorary officer's position. And she simply didn't have
space for feelings: they had been numbed, literally by the exquisite
"interview" method the Imperials on the Death Star had chosen for
her, which had left her with weekly nerve repair therapy; and
figuratively by the mass murder of practically everyone she'd had
feelings for on Alderaan.
'It'll never be the way it used to be,' she thought as her eyes
brimmed with tears. 'I can never replace what I've lost.' She turned
her head as if trying to turn away from her sorrow, and saw the
tapestry above her bed.
'That's it. This place reminds me of Antibes. It would have been my
palace one day....'
In the next moment she had pulled on her white parka, laid her hair
up and in the fur-lined hood, and walked out of the base.
On a cliff overlooking the colorless Brisben sea, Leia laid with chin
on fists, staring into the swirling, crashing waves below, her
swirling, crashing thoughts and feelings finding companions there.
Leia was almost at the point where she wanted to be, her spirit
beginning to lift out and away from the tensions of her body. But at
the same time a vague uneasiness was swelling within her. The
longer she stared at the water, the more she imagined she was seeing
things in it. She consciously moved her gaze to the dull horizon, but
it was eventually, inextricably pulled back to the waves. Suddenly,
as if in a dream, the eddies began to slow, to swirl in half-time, and
from them materialized the black, horrific mask...of Darth Vader.
Her blood ran cold. In a shot she leapt to her feet and began to run
from the cliff, stumbling over rocks but still faster than she had ever
run, running as if it were for her very life.
Han stood on a low turret of the castle-base, bathing in the wind
whipping his face and upper body.
'This must be what it's like to sail,' he thought to himself. He was a
captain and navigator allright, but never on water. In space he
always imagined it was this wind whipping at him, that this was the
enemy he was fighting as he tumbled in that black blanket of stars
from planet to planet, from occasional skirmishes to even more
occasional hasty escapes.
'It's so damn gray here,' he thought, his eyes moving from the
colorless sea to the gray cliffs to the grayer land that ran up to meet
the castle.
Suddenly, a small white dot streaking across the drab landscape
caught his eye.
'What the...?' he asked himself, leaning over the edge of the turret
to get a better look.
As the white dot grew larger, Han could see a stream of brown
flowing behind it...and realized it was Leia.
In reflex, adrenaline pumping, he drew his blaster and searched the
landscape beyond for her pursuer. But nothing was behind her. Yet
still she ran at breakneck speed.
"What's goin' on?" he muttered to himself as he slipped the blaster
back in its holster and knitted his brows, his hazel eyes swirling
gold-brown to gray.
As she neared an entrance, the Princess slowed then began to walk.
But Han could clearly make out the terror still on her face. He could
have sworn she had been running from...herself.
Luke was having trouble meditating in the cabin of the Millennium
Falcon he'd been renting from Han for the sum of a night of sabacc
playing every Friday. There were few places on any of the bases
they'd been on over the last two years that had given him the
solitude he needed to perform what little Jedi exercises he knew, so
he often found himself on the Falcon doing them. It was near
suppertime; Han would be back soon and they'd go to the mess hall
for another gourmet meal, but thoughts of Leia were what had been
filling his mind this past hour.
Sitting cross-legged and close-eyed on the floor, the vision of the
Princess looking up at him earlier that day came to him again. 'Can
she be more beautiful than the first time I saw her in that hologram,
than when I met her in that cell on the Death Star?' he asked himself,
opening his blue eyes to gaze unfocused before him.
Yes--she could be, and--yes--she was, he answered in the next
moment. And he was in love with her more than ever. She was so
strong, yet capable of such tenderness. And very funny, if in the
proper mood. She clearly had feelings for him, too. But was she in
love with him? He didn't know, but he knew she needed him. In
fact, she needed him...right now. Standing up and stretching, he
walked out into the Falcon's hold.
"Leia, where are you?" he asked.
'Luke, where are you?' Leia asked herself, nearly out of breath as
she walked briskly down the hall to the hangar, tying her hair in a
makeshift knot. Female Alderaanian royalty did not appear in public
with their hair down, and though she was the only such royalty left
now, she wasn't about to dishonor the tradition.
She knew this was the time of day Luke was doing his Jedi
exercises, most likely on the Falcon, but he was the only person she
could talk to, who would respect her need to talk about what had
just happened out on the cliffs.
'I hate to interrupt you, Luke,' she thought as she slowed and slid
her gloves into a pocket, 'but you're the only one who understands
me.'
As Luke was walking down the ramp of the Millennium Falcon,
Leia was walking up. Heads down in thought, they collided.
"Oh, I'm sorry," they said simultaneously, looking up then laughing
when they realized who'd they run into and what they'd both said,
and grabbing each other's forearms to steady themselves.
"Luke, I'm so glad I found you," Leia breathed in relief, speaking
quickly and keeping a hand on his forearm.
"I was just going to look for you. What's troubling you?" Luke
asked, his blue eyes searching her face.
"How do you know these things?" she asked, looking up at him
with a smile. "You're taking your Jedi training seriously," she
continued as they walked into the Falcon and sat at the hologame
table in the hold.
"Training didn't go so well today," Luke smiled and looked at her
sheepishly. "I was...distracted." Then he grew serious and leaned
his elbows on the board to be closer to her. "What is it?"
"You're not going to believe this, but..." Leia began, casting a
furtive glance around them to make sure they were alone, "...I was
down at the cliffs, looking at the waves, when--it's crazy, I know,
but...I had a vision...the waves slowed, and Vader's mask rose out
of them at me."
Leia watched Luke as he sat silent, staring at a point just above her
left shoulder as he tried to process this information.
"Luke, I'm not crazy...am I?" she asked softly.
"No, Leia," Luke began, leaning back. "It's just that..." he trailed
off. Something about what she had just described resonated within
him, as if he had had this vision, too, or was going to.
"Leia," Luke continued tentatively, "ever since I saw Vader on the
Death Star, I've felt I'm going to see him again. Part of me tells me I
have to, part of me wants to."
"Wants to?!" Leia asked incredulously, flattening her hands on the
table. "Because of what he did to Obi-Wan, of course," she realized,
relaxing. Luke answered with his eyes.
"This vision," he asked, "is this the only way he visits you?"
"Oh, I have...nightmares..." the Princess managed. Luke nodded.
"I've never really hated anyone in my life, Luke," Leia blurted, "but
I hate him," she finished, clenching a fist and swallowing hard.
A moment passed, then she found the courage to say, "I'm afraid...I
dream about him, and now a vision. I'm afraid this hatred will
consume me," she finished with tears shimmering in her eyes.
"Leia," Luke hastened to comfort her, reaching a hand over her fist,
"you're so strong and so good. You could never be consumed by
hatred. You made your choice long ago how you were going to deal
with..." he faltered and glanced away, then brought his eyes back to
hers and continued, "...with what happened on the Death Star.
You've chosen to put your energies into the Rebellion. There's
nothing to fear. Not for you."
There was a long silence as they held each other's hands and eyes.
"My only advice for you?" Luke continued softly. "Let yourself feel Leia looked down and nodded.
"OK," she said at last. Luke smiled
"Well," she began in another moment, feeling suddenly awkward,
"I've taken up enough of your time." She slid off the game seat.
"It's suppertime and...."
"Yeah," Luke interrupted and asked hopefully, "do you want to join
us?"
"I'd love to, but I've got an officers' dinner," she grimaced. "Don't "As in work to fight off Major Straate?" Luke asked with a laugh,
walking her out of the hold.
"Now that's another story entirely," she said with a wink, then
kissed him on the cheek. "Thanks, Luke."
"Anytime," he said, blushing slightly and looking up with Leia to
see Han coming up the ramp. The Corellian hadn't missed the kiss,
nor her apparent choice in confidant about whatever it was that had
spooked her outside. 'Luke,' Han thought, 'is that who she could
tell?'
"Princess," the smuggler regarded her in the most neutral tone he
could muster.
Leia hadn't the strength just then to amass the necessary offense and
defense to deal with him. 'Why couldn't he just be nice?' she asked
herself.
"Captain," she returned in kind, passing him on the ramp and
disappearing into the bustle of the hangar.
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