"Chewie! Grab me I'm slipping!" Han yelled to Chewie, feeling his body sway as he hangs overboard to try and get Lando. Chewie grabbed a hold of Han's feet. Lando, now trying his best to stay in one place on the side of the pit extends his hand toward the spear Han is offering.
"Grab it! Lando, c'mon!" Han yells, his own fear overstepping the boundaries in his voice.
Luke and Anakin finished off the last guards on the second skiff. Anakin saw the deck gun blasting away at his helpless companions.
"We have to get your sister!" Anakin, and soon followed by Luke, leapt from the skiff to the metallic side of the Sail Barge. Barely able to get a fingerhold, they begin a painful climb up the hull, when suddenly an ax smashes through a window an inch from Anakin's head. With Jedi agility, he grasps the wrist holding the ax and yanks the helpless guard through the broken window and into the deadly pit.
The now injured Chewie reaches over the rail for the dangling Han. Lando has stopped his slipping down the sandy slope of the Sarlacc pit by lying very still. Every time he tries to reach for Han, the loose sand moves him closer to the hungry Sarlacc.
Another blast hit the skiff, causing Lando to let go of the spear that was just in his grasp. Again, Han tries to extend it to his friend.
"Gently now, alright! Easy, easy..." Han mutters, more to himself than Lando, "Hold me, Chewie!"
Lando then screams. One of the Sarlacc's slimy tentacles has wrapped tightly around his ankle. The tentacle pulls him toward the Sarlacc, but Han won't lose him today.
"Chewie, Chewie. Give me the blaster, don't move, Lando." Han says, Chewie hands a blaster lying on the skiff over.
"Wait! I thought you were blind?!" Lando panicked a moment.
"It's all right. Trust me. Don't move." Han said, adjusting his blaster to what he could hear. Lando kept yelling to point a little higher. Han could see a mass blur but colors were there, then how long the spear was plus Lando... he shot. It was a direct hit to the tentacle. The Sarlacc yelped and retracted the tentacle from Lando's ankle.
The moment it let go, Lando leapt toward the spear he was so relieved and hopped up on adrenalin. Han felt the weight now attached to the spear and smiled.
"Pull us up, Chewie!" Han yelled and Chewie proceeded to pull the two back on board the skiff.
The deck gunners have Chewie and the dangling human chain in their gun sights when something up on deck commands their attention: Luke and Anakin Skywalker igniting their lightsabers. The deck gunners have barely reached for their pistols before the young Jedi has demolished them. Immediately, Anakin turns to see two more gunners, who had been uncovering a giant gun at the end of the barge, racing for him, firing their laser pistols.
Anakin disarms them at record speed then joins his son. The two of them together takes barely a minute to clear the deck. Leia then emerges onto the deck with cut chains still around her ankles and wrists.
"Get the gun! Face it towards the deck!" Luke had an idea. Leia seemed to understand and follow suit quickly, swiveling the platform to point the barge cannon at the deck.
A laser blast hits Luke's mechanical hand and he bends over in pain. Anakin saw what happened and managed to swing his lightsaber upward and take out the last of the guard.
"Are you alright?" Anakin asked, Luke looked at the wounded hand, which reveals the mechanism. He flexes the hand; it still works, "You should think about leaving out pain receptors next time."
"Yeah, that's probably a good choice." Luke said, getting back up, he looks to see Artoo and 3PO jumping off the barge deck. It reminds him he needs to get off here.
Anakin goes to Leia grabbing hold of her and a rope from the mast. Leia grabs her fathers shoulders,
"I hope you know what you're doing, Luke!" Anakin called back, then took off swinging towards the skiff. They landed, and then immediately looked back for Luke.
Luke kicked the trigger to the cannon then jumped towards the skiff, flipping a few times before landing with flair. "Let's go, and don't forget the droids." He said, like a drill sergeant.
The barge explodes in stages from a distance as the gang picks up the droids from the sand. Anakin looks at his children, seeing the parents traits so greatly passed onto them. He thinks of (Y/N) then, calling out to her. Hoping she's listening. That he'd find her soon.
~
Darth Majka waited alongside imperial royal guards to greet her Master, The Emperor. She kneeled before him. The Emperor's hideous face hidden by his dark cloak looks onto his apprentice. Her mind now guaranteed to be his from now on.
"Rise, my friend." The Emperor smiles, waving his hand. Majka rises and falls in next to the Emperor. They walk along the imperial troops, everyone, even commanders and admirals, only rising after the two have passed by.
"The Death Star will be completed on schedule." You vouched for your troops.
"You have served me well, Lady Majka." The Supreme Ruler stopped, and stared at his apprentice sensing the anxiety within her, "Now I sense you wish to continue your search for the Skywalkers?"
"Yes, my Master." She admits.
"Patience, my friend. In time they will seek you out. And when they do, you must bring them before me. The young one has grown strong, the Father even stronger. Only together can we turn them to the dark side of the Force." The Emperor told her what he had foreseen.
"As you wish." Majka replied, not knowing any better.
"Do not fret, my Apprentice. Everything is proceeding as I have foreseen." He laughs to himself as they pass along the vast line of Imperial troops. He knows exactly what he will do, his plans unfolding in front of him. His mastery of manipulation coming to play.
Majka innocently follows him. She feels a presence in her soul, one that calms her like the memories that have been slipping.
I..
A broken message, like a radio with bad signal tries to come through to her head. It takes everything in Majka to walk normally while she listens. She didn't know how to make it better.
She didn't understand it, but her not being herself closed her from the bond she shared with the one she wanted to speak to. Majka didn't recognized the voice right away, the reprogramming in her mind not letting her, she closed her eyes a moment.
.. love you .. children are safe ... it's not long until I find you .. we can be together again.
She didn't understand it but she called back.
Who are you?
~
Anakin received the message loud and clear, along with it was the presence of confusion and fear. He recoiled, sitting down in his lonesome. The Emperor has ripped her away again. Anakin grabbed hold of his necklace. He gripped it so tight it was amazing his skin hadn't bled.
He resisted. Anakin wanted to cry, struggling to get her home to him. He was getting too old for this. He wished The Emperor took him instead. He wished it was him having to endure the pain, manipulation, loss, and grievance. He thought maybe if that were the case, (Y/N) would've been able to save him now. She was always fearless, as reckless as she had become, she could've stopped this. She wouldn't have been the coward he had grown into.
He wonders how different the world might've been if it was him sitting in the chair across from the Chancellor so many times. Listening to his manipulation and lies and believing them somehow as truths. Maybe he would've killed Count Dooku. Maybe he would've thought when he murdered so many sand people that it was justified. Maybe he would've never become wiser. Maybe he would've struggled more to leave the order when (Y/N) became pregnant. Maybe he would've slaughtered all those Jedi. Maybe he would've fought (Y/N) and lost, or worse, won and killed her.
He wept. Instead all the worse happened, he watched and felt the loss and pain as his loved one became the tortured soul. Separated from his children and the world in hiding for 19 years. The Emperors plan to silence him by dangling the death of (Y/N) had succeeded, but not anymore. He would no longer watch idly by as the galaxy suffered from what he failed to fix. The Jedi did fail, but so are the Sith. Anakin decided he would no longer be silent, he would find the solution to balance the galaxy forever.