She's a Rebel [Star Wars | Luke Skywalker] *EDITING*

Rescue

I stare down at the dead body of the Officer, the way it lays slumped on the floor, as I clutch what remains of my lightsaber in my fist, waiting for any other Officers or Stormtroopers to come charging up the corridor to kill me.

I let my guard down after a moment, switching off my lightsaber, and I hold it in my right hand, staring at it. It seems silly, really, now that half of it is missing. The design I was so proud of and loved seems too complicated to me now, too over the top, too pretentious. It needs to be simpler.

I shake my head, forcing myself to ignore what's just happened and something as insignificant as my lightsaber's design for now. I'll have time to worry about that when I'm out of here, safe, back with Leia and Zach and Luke.

I hook my lightsaber back on my belt and I take the Officer's blaster pistol from his holster with my good hand, pressing my injured arm, which is still throbbing and burning, to my side, and I take off down the corridor, searching for my comrades.

After rounding several corners and running down the long, white corridors in an erratic search, I come across the group. Leia and Chewie, with Threepio still on his back, surrounded and guarded by six Stormtroopers and led by Lando, marching down the corridor in front of them, his regal blue cape no longer flowing behind him.

I frown at this. So did Zach make it out? Where the hell is Luke?

I shake the thoughts from my head and slink down the corridor after them, waiting for a chance to intervene. I wonder who I should shoot first. A Stormtrooper or two? Lando? Or do I pull out my lightsaber and strike them all down, saving Lando for last in order to give him a chance at redemption?

Pressing my body up against the wall, I inch towards the group slowly, holding up the blaster, ready to aim and fire. I watch as they come to a stop in an intersection, and then, suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, a dozen Bespin guards, in their bright blue tunics and caps, and the bald man with the AV^6 cyborg construct surrounding his head step forward from one of the corridors. The guards raise their blaster rifles at the Stormtroopers, who look around, startled, and confiscate the Stormtroopers' weapons, the bald man handing one to Leia and one to Lando.

"Well done, Lobot," Lando says to the bald man, giving him a nod, and my mouth drops in shock. "Hold them in the security tower - and keep it quiet. Move."

Lobot salutes Lando and the guards march the Stormtroopers away, back up the corridor they came down, and Lando turns to Chewie, beginning to undo the binders around his wrists.

"What do you think you're doing?" Leia demands, glaring at Lando.

"I knew all along it had to be a mistake!" Threepio calls from the net on Chewie's back.

"We're getting out of here," he tells her, and I run forward to join them. She glances up at me for a second, but then her eyes widen and her glare fades. "Nat!" she cries as I pull her into a hug with my good arm. She stares at my burnt arm in horror as she comes away from me. "What happened to you?!"

"Not important," I tell her, my voice sounding harsh and broken.

"Oh! Miss Hawkins has returned!" Threepio exclaims from Chewie's back. "Thank the maker!"

"I didn't see you there, Natalie," Lando says, glancing up at me as he continues to undo Chewie's restraints.

"I'm used to sneaking around," I snap at him.