A pair of cell doors opened behind Chewie. Chewie put down C-3PO's torso and turned just as two guards threw Han into the cell. The torture deemed too much for Han Solo as he fell to the floor limply. He leaned down and pressed his sweaty forehead against the cool metal flooring in search of a reprieve from the pain. It offered some solace, but he barely had time to appreciate it before Chewie picked him up.
Han groaned as Chewie carried him across the room, and pressed a button in the wall that released a slender, metal table. Chewie laid Han down on the table before he looked him over. There were no physical marks on him, but still Han looked far paler than he ever had before, and his lips took on a slightly purple tint.
"I feel terrible." Han admitted as he closed his eyes. He barely had time to relax before another set of doors opened to Han's right. Chewie looked over just as Leia was pushed into the cell with them.
Leia took one look at Han's pale figure and lowered herself to her knees beside him. Like Chewie, she looked him over for any marks or injury points.
"Where's Jo?" She asked him quickly. "Han?" Leia shook the man as he kept his eyes closed. "Where is she?"
"I don't know." Han groaned as he turned his head away from her. "I just got here, sweetheart."
"I- I heard her- I heard her screams." Leia turned towards the door as she prayed for them to open with Jo on the other side. "I never want to hear her scream like that again."
Han felt an anger take over him. It gave him just enough strength to sit up and look at the Princess. "You know why she's screaming?" he asked her hotly. He pushed himself up to his elbows as he looked at her. "It's because of her job- because of who she is."
Leia turned back to Han. She didn't want to listen to what he had to say- mainly because she knew he was right.
"She's screaming like that because they're torturing her trying to find out which one of you is the real Leia. Her pain is because of you." Han gave Leia a tired, hateful look.
"That's not-" Leia couldn't finish her thought. Deep down, in a part so far buried she barely knew it existed, Leia knew Han was right. Jo's pain- all of it- was because of her.
She was being selfish.
She barely had time to stew on it before the cell doors opened behind her. She jumped up in hopes that it was Jo. It was her, but she wasn't alone. Lando walked in front of her as two of his own guards carried Jo's limp, sweaty body in behind him.
"Lando." Leia's startled eyes looked from the slimy gambler to the slunk over form of her best friend.
Lando stopped in the middle of the room and watched as his guards brought Jo forward. She didn't move in their grasp. She looked like a bag of loose bones barely holding together. "They left her attached to the torture droid. No guards were with her... it was just... left on." He gulped as he saw the two distinct char marks on her temples. "She was pretty fried."
Han stood from the small metal bed to let the guards lay her in his place. When she laid where he had a moment before, he placed a clammy head to her sweating forward. "Hey Doll... look at me." He lifted his other hand to palm her face. He turned her head so she'd look at him but her eyes stayed closed. She was so pale he could see the blue veins pulsing through her eyelids. He looked her over and noticed the bright red burns on her temples from the torture droid.
He could barely stand after a few minutes of it. He couldn't- didn't want to- think of what she had to endure.
"She- she wasn't even screaming anymore." Lando told them as he looked over the unconscious girl. The same girl who wittily sassed him earlier that day.
"Just get out of here, Lando!" Han yelled at his old friend. His anger was slightly displaced. He was angry that the guards just let Jo's torture go on. He was angry she wasn't responding. He was angry that he couldn't stop her pain. But then he remembered that all of it- it was all because of Lando's betrayal. "She's like this because of you!" He let go of Jo and stood up to face the man who betrayed him. "She's like that-" He pointed towards her unconscious form. "So your palace would be safe from-"
"Shut up and listen!" Lando cut off Han's rant. He knew Han was right, but Han didn't know the whole story. There was way more too it then Han would ever know. But even that didn't help Lando's building guilt. "Vader has agreed to turn one of the Leias and Chewie over to me."
"One of us?" Leia asked at the same time Han asked,
"Over to you?"
Lando nodded at both of them. "They'll have to stay here, but at least they'll be safe." Lando assured Han of that more than Leia.
Leia looked down at her unconscious guard, her protector, her best friend. "Which one of us?" She asked hollowly, then looked back to Lando as she added, "And what about the other? And Han?" She had far too many questions and she wasn't sure Lando could answer any of them.
"Vader's giving him and the other Leia over to the bounty hunter. He said..." Lando seemed almost pained to finish. "He said the Leia with the blue eye is to be turned over to Jabba."
"No!" Han protested. The last thing he wanted was for Jo to be in Jabba's hands. Han knew all too well what Jabba did with pretty things.
Leia licked her lips and stood protectively in front of Jo's unconscious form. "Vader wants us all dead." She told Lando. "Why would he give some of us over to the bounty and have the others stay here?"
Lando shook his head. "He doesn't want you at all." He told her harshly. "He's after somebody called.. uh-" He tried to remember the name. "Skywalker."
"Luke..." Han was almost scared to say the name.
Lando nodded. "Lord Vader has set a trap for him." He told them.
Han and Leia looked at each other. They thought the same thing.
"And we're the bait."
They all turned to see Jo push herself up to her elbows. Her eyes were tainted red which just made the blue eye stand out even more. She looked up to Han and Leia as she said, with a raspy voice, "This was all to trap Luke." She winced from the strain on her throat, but she tried to push past it as she lifted herself to her elbows. Her biceps shook fiercely under her and refused to move another inch. She let out a pained breath and decided to stay exactly where she was.
"Well..." Lando had a hard time looking at the girl. "He's on his way."
Han twisted around to Lando at those few words. "Perfect." His anger boiled over. He didn't think he could get any angrier, but there it was. Jo was awake- but hurt more than he could possibly imagine- they were going to be sent off to the worst Gangster in the galaxy, and Luke was falling right into Vader's trap. "You fixed us all pretty good, didn't you?" His words filled with venom. "My friend!" He spat as he launched himself forward and punched Lando.
Han was too weak, so with all the momentum behind his punch, he fell forward onto the ground after making contact with Lando's face. One of Lando's guards kicked Han forward to his hands and knees, then used a baton to strike his side. The other guard started to join in to Han's beating, but Lando ushered them away. "Stop!" He called off his guards. "I've done all I can. I'm sorry I couldn't do better, but I have my own problems." He apologized to them as he refastened the button of his cape.
Han groaned as Leia helped him sit up. He looked up at Lando with a snarl. "Yeah, you're a real hero."
Lando gave them all one last look before he and his guards left.
When they were alone, Chewie and Leia helped Han lean against a wall.
"You certainly have a way with people." Leia told Han not unkindly. She found his actions courageous, though they were also a little stupid.
Han didn't say anything as he rode through the waves of pain. When he could breath comfortably without a stabbing pain, he pushed himself to his feet and stumbled over to Jo.
Jo hadn't found a way to lay comfortably that didn't cause some sort of sharp pain in her. If she moved just right, she felt like she was being shocked all over again. As Han hovered over her she laid stiffly on her back and looked up at him. She hoped to find peace in his face, but the sweat gleaming over his skin and the worry wrinkles beside his eyes told her there was none to be found in him.
She wanted one of them to feel better, and if it couldn't be her, she wanted it to be him. To try and ease his worry she said, "I- told one of the guards- that I'd use his helmet- as a chip bowl-" She paused to breathe. Her lungs screamed at her for moving in such a way. To appease them she stopped when she took in a full breath and held herself incredibly still. Then when she thought she'd burst she slowly let the air out. "He didn't like that." Her eyes went cross-eyed, for no other reason other than the extreme pain right behind her forehead. "I think we- I think we might be stuck in this."
Han laid his palm over her sweaty forehead. "Don't say that, Doll." He looked between her bloodshot eyes. "We've gotten out of worse."
Jo tried to focus on Han's face, but every time she stopped moving her eyes, her vision went blurry.
"Yeah, but that's when I had a plan." She told him. "We can't rely on you to have a plan." Somehow, Jo still found her humor through all the pain, and it astounded Han and Leia.
Leia fell by Jo's other side. "Jo..." She reached out for Jo's hand.
"Don't-" Jo gritted her teeth as she looked up to the ceiling. Leia's hand stopped short of holding hers. "I am in way too much pain to even start to deal with you."
Leia's bottom lip trembled as she took Jo's limp hand anyways and cradled it in both of hers. "This is... it's all my fault."
"So... I'm the one laying here in pain and you- you still find a way to make this all about you?" Jo turned her head over to look at the Princess. "Suck it up, Princess. Things are about to get a lot worse for all of us."
Her harsh tone startled Leia. She thought the girl was mad when she made her kiss Luke, but this... this was entirely different.
Jo turned back to look at Han, who she would much rather try to focus on instead of Leia. "Okay... maybe we can go with one of your plans. What do you got, Rescuer?" Her voice was desperate, and cracked under the pressure of his nickname.
Han grazed her cheek with his knuckles before he looked over at Chewie. "How's C-3PO coming along?" He asked his partner.
Chewie gave out a long growl as he turned C-3PO back on. The droid's yellow eyes flickered on, then his head swiveled around as he took everything in. "Oh dear, oh dear,"
"He's fine." Jo groaned as her eyes went cross-eyed again. Leia squeezed her hand to pull her attention back in, and her eyes straightened.
"C-3PO, do you have the specs for this place?" Han asked the droid.
"The- sir, I beg your pardon but I am not an R-2 unit."
"No, I would much rather have had him." Han admitted as he looked back down at Jo. He laid his hot hands over her flushed cheeks, then decided he wasn't helping her any if she was already hot.
"Relying on C-3PO was your plan?" She sounded unimpressed as she tried to meet his gaze.
"No. My first plan was to follow your plan." He said it in hopes to get a smile from her, but all she gave was a light snort. "C-3PO was my plan B."
"Well, I say-" C-3PO didn't like being the back up, but he didn't have anything else to say as he really didn't have any helpful input.
Jo closed her eyes and swallowed to try and ease the tightness in her throat. "Okay. Chewie-"
Chewie gave a soft reply as he moved to stand by Jo's feet.
"Find a way to attach C-3PO to your back. He needs to be mobile if we plan to escape."
Chewie nodded before he went back to the droid and started to work on a way to mobilize him.
"Han, I'm useless, can you fight?"
"Are you kidding?"
Jo opened her eyes to see Han's crooked smirk.
"Did you see that punch I landed on Lando?" He boasted.
Jo's eyebrows pinched together, but it caused too much pain behind her forehead so she loosened the glare. "Okay, so Han can't fight either."
"Hey-"
Jo turned her head to look at the woman who refused her freedom. It took everything she had to look into her eyes, but desperate times... "Leia, please tell me you didn't tell them my name."
Leia's jaw went slack at what Jo was insinuating. Not only did she think that Leia was weak enough to succumb to torture, but she also thought she'd give up her best friend's name. "No." Leia told her sternly. "I didn't."
The cell doors opened, and in walked Boba Fett with six other Imperial guards.
"Get up." Boba Fett ordered them.
Leia dropped Jo's hand and stood to her feet.
Han began to stand, but he grabbed Jo's hand to help pull her up. "I can't." Jo sneered with gritted teeth. "Your guard fried me." To prove her point, Jo started to push herself up to her elbows, but the muscles in her shoulders shook too violently and she fell back down.
"Get her up." Boba ordered Han and Leia.
The two listened and pulled on Jo's arms. Though their grips weren't harsh, Jo let out a whimper under the excruciating pain. She tried to help the best she could but her body was working against her. Every movement only reminded her of the pain before. It was- quite literally- torture for her to move.
"Okay-" Jo squeezed her eyes shut as she put weight on her feet. "I'm up-" She spat as she looked towards the Bounty Hunter. "Are you satisfied?"
Boba Fett motioned towards the door. "Get moving-"
Jo groaned as she realized she would have to walk.
"I can-" Han pulled Jo's arm over his shoulder, but Boba Fett stepped between them.
He pushed Han back roughly and looked at Jo. "You have to walk on your own." He spat at her through his helmet.
Jo could see her reflection in his eyewear, and found she looked absolutely disgusting. "Fine." Her lips pulled back into an ugly sneer. "Keep your pants on." To prove her strength, she bumped her shoulder against his as she moved to follow the six storm troopers out of the room. While it caused an explosion of pain down her arm and across her shoulder, it was worth it to her.
The four prisoners- and droid- were escorted by six Imperial Storm Troopers and Boba Fett to a deep part of the palace.
Jo could barely remember the turns they took as she focused more on taking the next step in front of her. Each step felt like fire up her legs. Every sway of her arms added a weight to her wrists. Slowly they were pulling down until Jo was sure she'd fall under the pressure.
As they walked down the stairs, Jo was completely gobsmacked at her ability to stay on her feet. Each time she had to bend her knee she thought she'd fall forward. But... she persisted. Maybe the woman of Abench were right, maybe she was stronger than she realized.
"If only you had attached my legs, I wouldn't be in this ridiculous position. Now, remember, Chewbacca, you have a responsibility to me, so don't do anything foolish." C-3PO felt better as he adopted his old attitude. But no one paid attention to him as they focused on where they were heading.
At the bottom of the steps was large, freezing room with a hole in the middle of the grate flooring. In the middle of the hole was a tall slab, almost like the binding tables Jo was hooked up to when she was tortured.
In the room already were Darth Vader, Lando, and several other Imperial Guards with their blasters out and ready to use if necessary.
As the prisoners stopped, Han looked at Lando for a bit of comfort, or at least information. "What's going on... buddy?"
"You're being put into carbon freeze." Lando explained stiffly.
Boba Fett moved away from the Prisoners and towards Darth Vader's side. "What if he doesn't survive?" Boba asked Vader. "He's worth a lot to me." Even his voice had a bit of a mechanical tone to it. Jo figured it was the helmets they wore.
"You have your other bounty." Vader looked towards Jo who was growing weaker by the second. "But if you're concerned, the Empire will compensate you if he dies." He told Boba before he looked towards the Imperial guards. "Put him in!"
"Wait-" Jo got some of her strength back as she realized what was happening.
Her uproar alerted Chewie, who let out a wild howl and swiped at the Storm Troopers who closed in on Han. They flew backwards, but more Imperial troopers came and surrounded both Chewie and Han.
Jo looked on in grave concern, but she was too weak to even lift her hands to punch someone.
"Stop, Chewie, stop!" Han yelled at his long-time partner, his co-pilot. "Do you hear me? Stop!"
"Yes, stop, please! I'm not ready to die." C-3PO wailed from Chewie's back.
Han pulled his arms from his guard's grasp and moved towards Chewie who still swiped at anyone who came near him.
"Chewie! Chewie, this won't help me. Hey!" Han yelled at the giant Wookie. Finally, Chewie calmed down as Han gave him a stern look. "Save your strength. There'll be another time. The princess-" Han looked over at Jo. "-you have to take care of her- take care of both of them. You hear me?" Han looked between Chewie's soft eyes to make sure he understood. Han gave Chewie a wink which made the giant softie give a long, mournful wail.
Han turned away from Chewie towards Jo who already had tears in her eyes.
"Han, I can't lose you-" Her voice cracked and her body felt on the verge of crumbling, but if she lost Han then she knew her destruction was imminent. "I can't-" She shook her head pitifully.
In the moment, Han didn't care about her duties or about anyone else watching. He stepped up to Jo, grabbed her pink cheeks in his hands, and kissed her with everything he could possibly muster up.
Tears flowed freely down Jo's cheeks as she lost herself in her last kiss with Han. Even in her state of weakness, she felt the inevitable world tilting dizziness that surrounded her and Han.
He gave her just enough strength to hold herself together. Then, when he was pulled away, he let the guards place him in front of the coffin-like table.
"Han-" Jo wanted to say the words. She desperately wanted to say those three little words so he knew how she felt about him. But she couldn't. It was yet another thing her decoy duties prevented her from doing.
Leia looked at her best friend, her guard, her sister, and finally realized why it was so important for Jo to ask for a life of choice. It wasn't to run away from her, it was to be with Han Solo. Her job was keeping her away from him. And even as he was about to be frozen in Carbonite, her job still kept her from telling him her true emotions.
But Leia could tell him. She could tell him for her.
"I love you." Leia looked at Han as she said it. Both Jo and Han looked at Leia, but all it took was a single look for Han to realize she wasn't tell him as her, she was telling him as Jo.
Han looked directly at Jo with a slight crooked smirk on his face. It was one of Jo's favorite smiles. She could look at it all day.
"I know." He said those two words to her, and suddenly her world felt complete. He knew. He knew she loved him. He would freeze knowing how she felt.
With his final two words, the hydraulic platform lowered. Jo watched Han through her tears as he lowered, and when she couldn't see him she squeezed her eyes shut. She kept her eyes shut as she heard the hiss of the valve as it released the liquid down on top of Han.
Chewie let out a mournful howl that made Jo sob uncontrollably. Her knees shook under her weight and she knew soon they would give out entirely. A woman could only take so much, even someone as strong as Jo. Chewie reached out for her, and she fell into his warm arms. She used him to hold her up as she let her entire body envelop in her sobs.
Then, the hissing stopped, and a set of long mechanical tongs reached down from the ceiling and pulled Han from the hole.
Jo opened her eyes and peeked around Chewie's arms to see Han's frozen statue. He was stuck in a rectangular box of pure carbonite. Han's poor expression made Jo let out another sob. He had his hands up in front of him defensively as he was frozen mid-scream.
The tongs slowly lowered Han's frozen form until it laid flat on the ground.
Lando walked up to it and analyzed the small panel on the side of it. After he looked at the numbers, he gave a relief-filled sigh.
"Well, Calrissian, did he survive?" Darth Vader asked the Administer of Bespin.
Lando stood and turned towards Vader before he gave his answer. "Yes, he's alive." He made sure to speak loud enough for Chewie, Leia and Jo to hear. "And in perfect hibernation."
At that, Vader turned to Boba Fett. "He's all yours, bounty hunter. Take him and the Princess with the two colored eyes." Boba Fett nodded and motioned towards a few guards to help with carrying Han. Two guards approached Jo and pulled her away from Chewie.
"No-" Jo pleaded, but she had no strength after everything. She had no fight left. "Please..." She pleaded as her feet gave way under her. The guards carried her entire weight as they moved her towards Boba Fett.
"Don't take her!" Leia tried to fight the guards holding Jo up, but another guard came up behind Leia and pointed his blaster at her.
Chewie let out a howl as he moved towards Jo, but the same guard threatening Leia turned his blaster on Chewie. He paused and looked towards Jo. Han told him to protect the Princess, but he knew what Han meant- he meant keep Jo from Boba Fett, from going to Jabba the Hutt.
Jo's head lobbed from side to side as she tried to comfort her furry friend. "It's- okay- Chewie-" she wheezed. "Protect her." She whispered to him. It was all she could give before she fell limp in the guard's arms.
They picked her up and carried her bridal style as she laid motionless.
Leia let out a sob as she watched Jo go limp in the guards' arms.
"Reset the chamber for Skywalker." Vader ordered his troops. They followed out his order immediately, and had to work around Han's frozen form to get it reset.
An Imperial trooper strode in and stopped short in front of Darth Vader. He lifted his chin confidently as he said, "Skywalker has just landed, my lord."
Leia paused her sobbing as she looked towards the soldier who said it.
Vader's breathing spiked as he nodded at the soldier. "Good. See to it that he finds his way here."
"Yes, my lord." He nodded before he turned and jogged from the room.
Vader turned towards Lando who watched Jo's limp form cautiously. "Calrissian, take the Princess and the Wookie to my ship." He ordered him.
Lando looked on Vader with wide, confused eyes. "You said they'd be left in the city under my supervision!"
Vader's anger filled the room at Lando's disrespect. "I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further."
The threat caused Lando to swallow. He lifted his hand and rubbed at his throat at the mere thought of being strangled by the Sith Lord.
He cleared his throat and motioned for his own guards to lead Leia, Chewie, and C-3PO from the room. As he and his guards turned left, Jo and Han were taken right.
Chewie and Leia gave Jo's unconscious body and Han's carbonite form one last look before they were dragged around a corner.
~
Jo was going in and out of consciousness the entire walk to Boba Fett's ship. She remembered only pieces of the walk: Han's floating carbon form being pushed in front of her by two Imperial guards, the all-too familiar sound an in R-2 whistling commands, the feeling of hard armor pressing into her side and back as she was carried through the corridors.
Each time she woke, she remembered less and less before she fell unconscious again.
The guards carrying her exchanged a worried look when she didn't wake up next. "Sir, this bounty is weak." One of the Imperial Soldiers shared his concerns with Boba Fett. "She keeps passing out."
Boba Fett stopped in the corridor and whipped around to look at the guards. "That's because one of your men kept her under torture too long." He looked down at the supposed Princess to see her sickly pale face and incredibly blue, unnatural lips. "She's probably going to die because of it, and I'll be out my reward." Boba Fett snapped as he looked back at the guards.
"Can't you just turn her in dead?" The other officer offered.
"Dead? Jabba doesn't want his bounties dead. He wants them alive and well so he can kill them." Boba explained. Boba Fett looked back at Han Solo's carbon form. "At least one of my bounties will be alive. Jabba has been pining for Solo for far too long."
"There!" One of Fett's men yelled at he pointed down the corridor at Luke Skywalker.
The soldier holding Jo stepped back as the surrounding Troopers took out their blasters and began to shoot at the Force-wielding man.
Luke pulled out his own blaster and shot at Boba Fett and his men. His trained lasers shot down one of the guards, then Jo's carrier in the soldier.
The man toppled backwards and dropped Jo to the ground before he died. She hit the ground hard enough to rip her from her unconscious state. The sudden jerk cleared her head enough for her to look around. The bright lights overhead strained her eyes and heightened the pounding in her head. The loud laser blasts drowned in her ears, overtaking even the thunderous beating of her rapid heartbeat.
She squeezed her eyes shut and lifted her arms over her head to protect herself. She didn't know what was happening around her, but the pain was too great for her to bare any more injury.
An explosion sounded from down the hall and rocked the floor underneath her. She curled into a ball to better protect herself. Her body began to loosen as the pounding in her head lulled her back to unconsciousness. Right as she was about to fade away someone grabbed her arm and jerked her back awake.
"The Princess!" They screamed over the explosions. "We can put her on top of-"
"Leave her!" Boba Fett yelled at the Troopers. "She won't last through the flight."
The hand let go of her and let her tumble back to the floor. She groaned as she began to slip into blackness once more. Her entire body throbbed excessively, but her heart hurt the worst from watching the love of her life become entrapped in carbonite.
She almost wanted the pain to take her away so she wouldn't have to bare the weight of losing Han. But before it could, a beacon of hope filled her. It was familiar and light and warm and reminded her of simpler days.
"Luke?" The name took all of her strength to get out, but she had to. She could feel him. Through everything else- the pain, the anger, the heartache- she sensed Luke.
But her call wasn't loud enough, and as Boba Fett and his Troopers fled, so did Luke Skywalker. He left her, unaware that she was a mere few meters from him, unconscious and dying, alone.
Though Luke ran, R-2 heard her soft cry. He let out a soft beep as he moved through the smoke-filled corridor. He stopped at the sight of several fallen Storm Troopers, then let out a cry of a beep as he saw Jo's curled, trembling body.
He rolled around the troopers to get to her as he gave out a string of happy beeps.
Through her delirium, she could hear the whistles of an R-2 unit. With an ounce of hope- all that she had left, really- she opened her eyes just enough to see the droid's white and blue décor.
"R-2..." She moved her hand above her head and touched one of R-2's legs to make sure he was real. "R-2... you have to... find the others..." Her strength faded fast, and warning R-2 took every last bit she had. "Find them." Her eyes closed, and her body went limp as she gave in to her pain.
R-2 rolled forward to hit her hand, but she didn't budge. Her lack of response worried the droid, and he turned to try and find someone to help her. The small droid whizzed through the halls to try and find Leia or Han or even Luke. He needed someone to help Jo.
R-2's little wheels were tired by the time he found the rest of his team. He caught their attention with his loudest whistle, and C-3PO finally spotted him.
"R-2! R-2! Where have you been?" C-3PO asked his best friend.
At his call, Chewie turned to see the little R-2 unit coming up behind them. "Turn around, you wooly-" Chewie turned around so C-3PO could see R-2 again. "Hurry, hurry!" He yelled at his friend as Chewie, Leia, and Lando sprinted towards the east landing platform. "We're trying to save Han and the Princess from the bounty hunter!"
R-2 let out a string of whistles to try and tell them that Jo wasn't with the bounty hunter- she was still in the palace.
"What do you mean the Princess isn't with the bounty hunter? We saw him take her away!" C-3PO told R-2, but R-2 was very persistent.
"What's the droid talking about?" Lando yelled back at the two machines as he broke through the doors out onto the landing pad. Boba Fett's ship took off from the landing pad right as they ran out.
Chewie let out a growl as he started to shoot towards the ship.
"Oh, no! Chewie, they're behind you!" C-3PO watched several Imperial Troops sprint towards them.
One of the troops fired off a shot that almost hit Leia.
They all turned towards the troopers and raised their own blasters.
R-2 slipped into an elevator and held it open for the others.
"R-2 seems to believe that the Princess is in the west corridor, second floor." C-3PO told them as Chewie and Leia fired off shot after shot. "He says that the Bounty Hunter left her."
As Chewie and Leia kept firing at the troopers, Lando made a break for the elevator. As soon as he made it into the elevator he turned around and motioned for Leia and Chewie who were holding down their position. "Come on!" He shouted at them.
Chewie and Leia kept shooting at the guards. Both were furious, these Imperial guards had tortured them, taken their friends, and were now trying to kill them. The least they could do was take out a few of them.
"Come on!" Lando yelled when they moved.
Leia suddenly thought of Jo as she stopped shooting and ran towards the elevator. If there was a chance that R-2 was right, she had to listen. "Come on, Chewie!" Leia yelled for Chewie to follow her. "We have to get Jo!"
Chewie howled his compliance as he ran into the elevator after her.
When Chewie made it to the elevator, R-2 closed it and pressed the second level's button. He gave C-3PO a lengthy description of what he knew about Jo.
"R-2 says the Princess was barely awake... she was lying on the ground... told him to find the others- us-" C-3PO paused as R-2 finished. "She passed out and wouldn't wake up. Oh dear..."
Chewie gave a mournful howl.
"I'm sure the Princess is okay, Chewbacca." C-3PO comforted the Wookie who carried him.
As the doors opened onto the second floor, they all saw three Imperial guards standing over Jo's body.
"Get away from her!" Leia yelled at the Storm Troopers. Leia didn't wait for them to listen. She stepped out of the elevator, raised her blaster and shot each of them before they had a chance to reach for their weapons.
When the storm troopers fell, Leia, Chewie, and Lando ran towards Jo.
Leia fell to her knees beside her best friend. She grabbed her cheeks with one hand and shook her face lightly. "Wake up." Tears quickly built in Leia's eyes as Jo didn't respond. "Come on-" She leaned down and pressed her ear to Jo's chest. She held her breath as she waited for Jo's heart to beat. It took a second before she heard the sweet, sweet sound. "She's alive-" Leia lifted herself up and looked down at her friend. "We're going to have to carry her." Leia looked back at Chewie, but Lando stepped forward first.
"Move-" He told her before he bent down beside Jo.
Leia stood and backed away as Lando slid one arm under her shoulders and the other behind her knees, then lifted her up. The girl was incredibly light in his arms and it worried him as her head bobbed back.
"Careful-" Leia hissed as she repositioned Jo's head so it rested against Lando's shoulder.
"We need to get her to a med bot quick." Lando told Leia.
She nodded and looked down the empty corridor. "We have to get out of here first. Back to the elevator- we can take the Millennium Falcon."
"Right." Lando ran with the girl in his arms, but with each step Jo's head bobbed against his chest. "Sorry for this." He muttered down to her.
When they all got back in the elevator, R-2 took them to the floor with Han's ship. As the doors opened they sprinted to the doors leading out to the landing strip. They could see the Millennium Falcon, but before they made it outside, the doors closed in front of them.
Chewie turned around right as a small army of Storm Troopers turned the corner down into their corridor.
Lando and Leia moved into a small alcove to avoid the lasers, but Chewie stood his ground and returned fire.
Lando spotted a control panel on the edge of the hideaway. With Jo in his arms, he had to readjust her so he could lift one hand to the number pad.
He typed in the security pin, which should have overrode the system and let him manually open the doors out onto the landing pad, but the pin came back as incorrect.
"The security codes have been changed!" Lando tried to access the comm system at least to warn his employees and employers of the Imperial's siege.
"R-2, you can tell the computer to override the security system." C-3PO pointed to a small socket below the control panel. R-2 gave a whistle to agree before he attached himself to the control panel.
As R-2 connected to the panel, Lando broke into the systems intercom system. He pushed a button then stepped closer to speak into the small microphone. "Attention! This is Lando Calrissian. The Empire has takes control of the city. I advise everyone to leave before more Imperial troops arrive." He released the button and readjusted Jo in his arms so she laid more comfortable.
R-2 stuck his arm into the socket, and gave out a wild scream as his head started to spin around on top of his torso.
Smoke began to seep out from under him, but he was in too much pain to pull himself away. Instead Chewie had to grab him and manually release him from the wall.
"This way-" Lando nodded down the corridor when R-2's override failed.
As they ran, R-2 scolded C-3PO for telling him to plug into a power socket instead of the computer's terminal.
Lando led them through another set of hallways. At the end of it was another door out to the landing strip. "There-" He nodded towards the control panel. "R-2, hook up to that and open the door."
R-2 listened and hooked himself up. As he did, Leia and Chewie returned fire to the ever persistent storm troopers.
Land positioned himself so Jo was between him and the wall. He crouched over forward so the wounded girl would be protected from any hit.
"What are you talking about?" C-3PO nagged R-2 as he watched the droid go through the palace's systems. "We're not interested in the hyperdrive on the Millennium Falcon. It's fixed! Just open the door, you stupid lump." R-2 gave one more whistle before the doors opened. "I never doubted you for a second. Wonderful!" C-3PO changed his attitude as soon as caught sight of the Millennium Falcon.
R-2 released a fog that clouded their way as the group ran towards the ship.
"Get her on board!" Leia ordered Lando. "I'll cover you." Leia stayed on the ramp as Lando ran up and into the ship with Jo.
He ran towards Han's personal chambers and set her on the bed. He didn't like how limp she was as he laid her down. Her head bent at an awkward angle and he had to straighten it out.
"Just... hold on." Lando told the sweet girl. "Hold on."
"Lando!" Leia called out for him.
Lando sighed as he gave Jo one last glance before he ran from the room.
When Jo was alone, her eyes fluttered open. As she took in a breath, she smelled oil and burnt wire.
"Han?" Her throat scratched as she spoke. The smell was so vivid she could have sworn he was right next to her.
Jo's fists clutched on to Han's blankets. As she realized what she was grabbing, she turned her head to the side and saw Han's open closet. Beyond it were the same jackets she had run her hands over the last time she was in his room.
Tears fell from the outside of Jo's eyes and trailed down into her hairline. All around her were memories of Han and it only further broke her heart.
She closed her eyes and let her other senses become overwhelmed with Han. But, while she thought of Han, Luke's eyes kept coming to mind. No matter how hard she tried to imagine Han, she kept seeing Luke... holding on to a small pole as he winced.
"Jo... hear me. Jo..."
"Luke?" She spoke to him. She could see his face so vividly she knew it wasn't some sort of delirium. It had to be Luke. "Luke... I can't..." She told him. She couldn't move, let alone help him. "Leia, reach Leia..." Her communication with Luke took all of her renewed strength. As Luke's face faded, so did everything else around her until she completely succumbed to her slumber.
~
Leia sat in Han's chair as she piloted the Millennium Falcon away from Lando's base. But as she did, she got the nagging feeling that something wasn't right. She could feel Luke back at the base.
"Luke..." Much like Jo, Leia saw Luke desperately holding on to a thin pole. She saw him slip as he tried to keep his grip with only one hand. "We've got to go back." Leia told Chewie as she started to turn the Millennium Falcon around.
Chewie let out several growls as Leia turned them around.
"What?" Lando looked at the girl with wide, surprised eyes.
"I know where Luke is." Leia told them. She knew Chewie would understand, or at least she hoped he would.
"But what about those fighter?" Lando moved across the cockpit to hold onto the back of Leia's chair. He looked out of the cockpit to see several Imperial TIE fights heading directly towards them.
Chewie agreed with Lando as he refused to help Leia pilot.
"Chewie, just do it." Leia snapped at the Wookie.
"But what about Vader?" Lando tried a different approach to get them to not turn back. He was terrified of Vader, or more specifically what Vader would do to him once he figured out he helped his prisoners escape.
Chewie didn't find Lando's cowardice charming in the slightest, as he turned back to him and gave him a very low, angry growl.
"All right, all right, all right." Lando agreed to go back, not that he really had a choice in the matter.
Leia piloted the Millennium Falcon to the belly of the floating city. Somehow she could feel Luke hanging somewhere underneath the city.
"Look," Lando pointed out the cockpit window. "Someone's up there." Leia craned her neck to try and see what Lando was pointing at. In the very middle of a field of low hanging poles, Luke held on for his life.
"It's Luke! Chewie, slow down." Leia instructed Chewie. "Slow down and we'll get under him. Lando, open the top hatch."
Lando listened to the girl without so much as a quip about her being in charge. Unlike Han, Lando had no problems letting a girl lead.
Lando went to the top latch, and lifted himself up. He made sure to clip himself to the ship before he opened the hatch above him.
Above him, barely hanging on to one of the antennas, was Luke Skywalker.
"I got you-" Lando reached up and grabbed onto Luke's beaten form. Luke cradled his one hand against his chest, and as Lando helped him into the ship he realized Luke was missing his hand. His arm ended at his wrist, with black, charred skin.
"Lando?" Leia's voice came over the intercom as Lando lowered himself and Luke back down into the ship.
"I got him. Let's go." Lando told Leia. He didn't want to waste any time with Vader and several TIE fighters on their tail.
Lando carried Luke the entire way back to the cockpit. When they entered, Chewie and Leia turned back to them.
"Luke!" Leia jumped up from her seat and hugged Luke tightly. She didn't care that he was sweaty or trembling under her touch. She was just so glad to have one of her friends back.
Chewie shared the same sentiment as he let out a joyous bark, but he didn't have time to hug Luke as he had to focus on piloting.
"Oh, Leia." Luke held Leia back just as tightly with his one good arm.
"All right, Chewie." Lando moved around the two and took Han's seat. "Let's go."
"Come on, you need to lay down." Leia put Luke's bad arm around her shoulders as she helped him out of the cockpit.
"Put him with the other Leia! She's asleep in Han's room." Lando told them as he tried to out maneuver the TIE fighters.
Leia listened and led Luke through the shaking ship to Han's personal quarters.
As they entered them, the two friends saw Jo's unconscious form on the bed.
"What happened to her?" Luke asked as Leia sat him down on the bed next to Jo. He used his good hand to wipe some sweat from Jo's forehead. She didn't react to his touch at all and it worried him.
"She was tortured. They... they left her under too long." Leia moved around the bed and kneeled beside her longest friend. "She hasn't woken up once." Leia looked her over warily.
"I felt her." Luke told Leia as he kept his eyes on Jo. "She spoke to me. She told me to reach you-" Luke looked at Leia then. "She knew you would be able to hear me."
"She... she did?" Leia's porcelain forehead wrinkled as she looked at her best friend. "I... She asked me to relieve her of her duties. She asked me to give her the chance to live a life of choice... and I told her no." Tears build up in Leia's eyes and she had to blink them away. "I told her no." She grabbed Jo's limp hand and squeezed it with all the warmth and love she had. "That was our last conversation. What if she- what if she dies hating me?" Leia looked up at Luke as she asked. "What if the last thing I ever remember of her was her crying as I told her I wouldn't free her?"
"She could never hate you, Leia." Luke tried to comfort her. "You had a fight, but all family fights." Leia crumbled at that word: family. She always saw Jo as her sister, but what kind of sister would take away their family's chance at happiness?
The Millennium Falcon rocked to one side, and Leia almost fell if not for her staggered footing.
"I'll be back." She told Luke, but also Jo.
She leaned over and placed a chaste kiss on Jo's forehead, then she left her two friends alone.
When it was just Luke and Jo, Luke turned on his side and rested his palm along Jo's hairline. He looked all around her face, noticing the burn marks on her temples and the blue tint to her lips.
"Jo..." He whispered. He didn't know what he was doing, but he felt a surge of warmth extend from his hand to Jo. As it did, Jo's eyes fluttered open and she looked over at him.
"Luke?" Her blue and brown eyes were cross-eyed and extremely blood shot, but at least she could see him. "Are you- are you real?" Her hand flopped up sloppily and grabbed his wrist. As she touched him, she let out a gasp. "You are!" The childlike excitement made Luke smile. "Luke... they took Han." Her knuckles swept along Luke's forearm. "I couldn't- I couldn't do anything."
"It's okay." He ran his thumb along her hairline. "We'll get him back, but we need you to heal."
"I- I can't-" Tears spilled from her eyes. "It hurts." She squeaked as she looked between Luke's bright blue eyes. "Everything hurts, Luke." Her eyes went cross again as she arched her back off the bed. "It all hurts-" She let out a low moan as the rocking ship vibrated her sore muscles.
"Rest." Luke told her softly.
"Don't- don't leave me, Luke." Jo begged as she felt herself fading again. Whatever strength Luke's touch gave her, she wore through it. "Please." She moved her hand back up towards his.
Luke laced his fingers through hers and gave it a squeeze. "I won't." He told her. "I promise." At his word, Jo's body went limp again as the pain became too much.
Luke kept his hand in hers, and intended to keep his promise, but as he laid next to her a strange presence fell over him. A dark power surrounded him and within a second he knew who it was.
"Luke..." Darth Vader, Luke's father, called out to him.
"Father." Luke knew better than to give in to his father, but he felt too weak and too emotional to fight back.
"Son, come with me."
Luke tried to ignore him. He tried to ignore the dark side and his father's pressing presence. To fight it, he thought of Ben Kenobi. "Ben, why didn't you tell me?" He asked his old friend. He desperately needed some guidance. He couldn't believe that the Sith Lord Darth Vader was his father. There was no way he came from such a dark person. He didn't want to believe it.
His father's presence became stronger than it was before. Not only could he feel the power in his mind and soul, he could feel it in the air around him. "He's here." Luke dropped Jo's hand and pushed himself off the bed. He knew he promised to stay by Jo's side, but he had to warn the others.
He stumbled his way back to the cockpit, but with the rocking ship and his weakening state, it took just about everything he had to push himself into the cockpit. He looked out the window towards the Star Destroyer.
"It's Vader." He told Leia and Lando before he slumped down into the chair behind Leia. He closed his eyes and tried to save his strength, but he couldn't shake his father's presence.
"Luke... it is your destiny."
Luke ignored Vader's voice in his head. Instead of calling out to him, he tried to call out to his old master. "Ben, why didn't you tell me?" He moaned for his old friend before he succumbed to sleep.
Lando and Leia barely had time to worry about Luke before they were pushed back into their seats as they entered hyperspace.
"I think they fixed it." Lando told Leia.
She gave a relief-filled breath as she looked back at Luke. "Hold on Luke, we're almost there."
~
The entire Rebellion rejoiced in their arrival as the Millennium Falcon attached to the giant transport.
Their celebrations were cut short as the ramp lowered to reveal not one, but two wounded officers.
"What happened?" Commander Willard sprinted forward to relieve Lando of carrying Jo. The commander looked down at the girl he knew for years. He watched her grow up, and now she looked dead.
"The Empire." Leia told him as she put her hand on his back to move him along quicker. "We need to get them to the med bay, quickly."
Commander Willard understood as he picked up his speed to a near sprint.
The Rebel Alliance cleared way as the crew ran through the ship to its medical bay.
Once there, Commander Willard gently laid Jo down on a table for the med droids to look her over.
"When you didn't meet us after the attack on Hoth, we feared the worst." Commander Willard told Leia as she watched the med bots work on her guard. "Please, Princess, tell us what happened."
"We-" Leia tried to remember all that happened since they left Hoth. It felt like an entire lifetime ago. "We were being trailed by several Star Destroyers. Our ship was damaged and we- we weren't able to go to light-speed. We tried to out maneuver them, but they seemed to be one step ahead of us the entire time." Leia swiped her hand across her forehead as she watched Jo's head topple to the side lifeless. The sight made her physically sick. "We were trapped on a small base on Bepsin. Lord Vader froze Captain Solo and turned him over to a bounty hunter. He tried to have us taken to his ship, but we escaped." She thought that was everything- or at least everything of importance.
"Princess." Leia turned Lando who stood next to Chewie. "Chewie and I are going to track down Jabba the Hut. We're going to get Han Solo back." Lando's eyes flitted over to Jo's unconscious form. "We'll bring him back."
"Do what you have to, Lando, but keep us updated. I want to know the second you find him." Leia told him. Lando nodded as he turned to head back to the ship.
Chewie stepped up and threw his furry arms around Leia.
Leia lost herself in Chewie's hug, but it was comforting after everything. When Chewie pulled away, he let out a string of low, vibrating howls.
"I'll tell you the moment she wakes up." Leia promised him.
Chewie shared his gratitude before he moved over to Luke who was being looked over by a med bot. "Yeah, yeah, Chewie. You be safe too." Luke wrapped his good arm around Chewie and gave him the tightest hug he could. "Tell Lando once he finds Han to meet us on Tatooine. From there we'll make a game plan." Luke told Chewie. He didn't know a better place to meet up other than his home town. He knew it best, and could trust it.
Chewie left after that, leaving Leia, Luke, an unconscious Jo, and numerous officers and med bots.
"How's the hand?" Leia moved to Luke's side as several med bots took to changing Jo from her clothes into something more suitable.
"What hand?" Luke joked as he raised his nub. Leia paled as she caught sight of the charred skin.
The med bot took Luke's arm back and laid it on a small table attached to the front of his mechanical body. While one metal arm held Luke's arm down, the other arm came out with a life-like hand of the same color and texture of Luke's other one.
"Do you just have those lying around?" Luke asked as he watched the hand with unease.
"We have an assortment of human and alien limbs alike." The bot answered. "Humans are fragile creatures. They lose limbs quite easily." Luke and Leia shared a worried look.
The bot attached a small, thin layer of malleable metal to the end of Luke's arm. The metal strip attached to the mechanical hand almost seamlessly. Luke tried to move it, but he had no control over it.
"Will I ever be able to use it? Like before?" He asked.
The bot didn't answer, instead he lifted a flap on the top of the hand and messed with a few of the wires in the hand. After he activated one wire, several lights in the hand flicked to life.
"Luke, we're ready for takeoff." Lando's voice came over Luke's commlink. He lifted it up and pushed the button to talk back.
"Good luck, Lando." He kept his eyes on his hand as he spoke.
"When we find Jabba the Hut and that bounty hunter, we'll contact you."
"I'll meet you at the rendezvous point on Tatooine. Chewie knows where." Luke told him. He didn't want to be too specific in case anyone was listening in.
"Tell the Princess we will find Han. I promise." Lando gave his word.
At that, both Leia and Luke looked over at Jo who laid perfectly still on the table across the room from them.
"Chewie, I'll be waiting for your signal." Chewie gave a long wait over the commlink. "Take care, you two. May the Force be with you." He put down his commlink and looked down at his hand. The droid had placed a metal bandage around his wrist where his arm and the mechanical hand met up. Then he kept on adjusting the wires inside the hand. After a few more adjustments, he turned Luke's hand over so the palm faced up, then he pricked the tip of Luke's index finger. "Ow!" Luke hissed at the pain, then he gave a laugh and wiggled his fingers around. "I... I can feel it." He clenched his fist, then relaxed it. He raised it up and looked at it in fascination.
With Luke better, Leia turned all of her attention to Jo. She stepped over to her best friend to see her laying on a med pod. It was a long slender bed with a glass top placed over it to keep whoever laid inside in perfect condition while they healed. For now, that person was Jo.
"How long will she be in here?" Leia asked nervously as she watched them place wires all over Jo's body. She had a white wrap around her breasts and shorts to keep her modest, but they kept the rest of her bare to establish as many connections to the machines around her.
"The amount of volts she received damaged her neural connections, they attacked her brain. She is very lucky to even be alive-"
"How long?" Leia cut the officer off. She didn't need to know the specifics, those would only terrify her more than she already was.
The officer cleared his throat. "We don't want to be too hasty, especially when it comes to the brain. If we try to force it too soon, there could still be damaged tissue and she might never recover. Our safest option is to wait for her to wake herself up. When she is fully healed and ready, she will come back to us."
"So..." Leia tried to understand what he was telling her. "We're just supposed to wait?" She didn't like the idea at all. She was very impatient, Jo was always the patient one, never Leia.
"Yes, Princess. That is all we can do for her." The officer nodded at Leia before he turned to a machine and pressed several buttons on the control panel. At his touch, the glass dome slid over Jo's lying body and lowered to connect to the edge of the table.
There was a low hiss as the glass dome suctioned to the table to keep any air from entering or escaping.
Leia stepped up to the glass shield and placed her hand gingerly on it.
Jo looked dead, at least to Leia.
With all the wires attached to her and the loss of color on her face, she looked absolutely dead and it terrified the Princess.
"She's going to be okay." Luke stood from his seat as his droid finished his hand. "She's strong, Leia. Stronger than this." Luke placed a comforting hand on Leia's shoulder.
"I hope so." Leia turned into Luke and rested her forehead against his shoulder. "I can't lose her too."
Standing there with his arm around Leia, Luke looked out the window of the med bay to see the Millennium Falcon fly off. It turned away from the base before it flew off into light-speed.
"We won't lose her." Luke promised Leia, and he believed it. "We won't lose either of them."