Jo stood behind Han's and Chewie's seats as she watched the Death Star grow even bigger in front of them. She was right before, it was way bigger than the last one, and far more protected. She counted over two dozen TIE fighters and several Star Destroyers like the ones that followed them through the asteroid bed.
"If they don't go for this, we're gonna have to get outta here pretty quick, Chewie," Han told his co-pilot.
Chewie gave a low growl as he agreed with Han.
Jo let out a slow breath through her mouth as she kept a steady gaze on the ever-growing Death Star. The closer they flew, the more power she felt. It wasn't necessarily the power of the Death Star itself, there was something in it, something much more powerful.
"We have you on our screen now. Please identify."
Jo jumped at the sudden voice over their radio. She looked down as Han picked up his receiver. "Shuttle Tydirium requesting deactivation of the deflector shield." Han kept his voice steady and deep. Something Jo didn't think she could do right now.
"Shuttle Tydirium, transmit the clearance code for shield passage." The voice demanded. Jo watched as Han flipped a switch for the ship's transmission codes.
"Transmission commencing." The crew could hear the hiss of the high-speed transmission as it played through.
Jo reached back for Leia's hand without even thinking. It wasn't until Leia laced her fingers through Jo that the decoy even realized what she was doing. Leia really was like an extension of herself. She was always there for her, just within reach, ready for her whenever she needed her. Being her decoy wasn't all bad, Jo had come to love Leia like her sister.
"Now we find out if that code is worth the price we paid," Leia said after the transmission finished sending.
"It'll work," Han told her as he kept his eyes on the Death Star in front of them. "It'll work." He whispered to himself.
Chewie let out a low, nervous whine as he looked at his partner.
Again, Jo couldn't shake the ever gloomy presence of immense power as they approached the Destroyer. She tried to talk herself into it just being the situation, but it was more than that.
"Vader's on that ship," Luke said.
At his words, Jo sucked in a quick breath as she realized he was right. She felt that power before, back on Bespin.
"Now don't get jittery, Luke. There are a lot of command ships."
"He's right," Jo agreed with Luke. "I can feel him too." Jo looked over at Luke to give him comfort. "He's there." Luke and Jo exchanged a long, sorrowful glance.
"Keep your distance, Chewie." Han decided to listen to the two. "-but don't look like you're trying to keep your distance." Han added as an afterthought. Chewie, who was busy flipping several switches to slow down their vessel, questioned what Han meant. "I don't know. Fly casual."
"I'm endangering the mission. I shouldn't have come." Luke's eyes were still on Jo as he said it.
"It's your imagination, kid. Come on. Let's keep a little optimism here." Han tried to cheer them all up, but Jo was too focused on what Luke meant by that.
"He can sense you too?" She asked him. Luke seemed hesitant to answer. "How? I thought we could only feel each other because of our connection? What connection do you have to Vader?"
"Woah, Woah-" Han turned in his chair to look up at Jo. "What connection do you have to Luke?" Han's jealousy started to show as he looked between Jo and his friend.
"Han," Jo sighed impatiently. "Not now." She told him sternly before she looked back at Luke. "Well?" She asked him.
"It's complicated."
"Complicated how, Luke?" She pressed him. "You said you felt like you were endangering this mission just by being here. Why does he have such a vendetta for you? It's not only because you're an upcoming Jedi Knight is it? That's not enough to explain this-"
"Jo-" Leia stopped her. "Don't do this."
"He's not only endangering this mission-" Jo looked down at Leia. "He's endangering you- and all of us-" Jo looked back at Luke suspiciously. "What aren't you telling us? Ever since you came back from your 'promise to an old friend' something's changed. What happened?"
Luke stayed quiet with his lips pressed together so tightly Jo could barely see the pink of them. Still, she didn't give up. If she didn't say anything then eventually he would cave.
"Shuttle Tydirium, deactivation of the shield will commence immediately. Follow your present course." The radio broke the tension in the cockpit.
Jo knew, for now, she would have to put their dispute on the back burner, but she wasn't done with Luke yet, there was something he wasn't telling them, and she would figure it out.
"Okay! I told you it was gonna work." Han turned back in his chair as he focused ahead of them. "No problem." He jerked the joysticks to aim their vessel down at the moon, Endor, where the deflector shield was.
Jo gripped onto the back of Han's chair to keep herself steady as they lowered to the moon.
She tried to shake off the horrid feeling in her stomach and remind herself that hope could beat anything, even undiluted power. But... it was hard for her to feel the hope when Vader's anger swirled around inside. It reminded her of her own anger when Han was still frozen in carbonite and no one was doing anything to help him. That same anger, she could feel it ten times more in Vader.
She kept focusing on it, even as they landed and everyone started to unload from the ship.
"Hey-" Han put a finger under Jo's chin to get her to look up at him. "You have a look on your face."
A divet pushed between her eyebrows. "What look?"
"Like you think this is all gonna go south." He told her truthfully. Jo's lips pulled into a deep frown. "If you think it is, tell me now-"
"You're the General." She stopped him. Her eyes flicked between his decisively. "This is your mission." She forced a smile to comfort him. "Nothing can go wrong... right?"
Han gave an airy laugh. "I wouldn't say that, Doll." He rubbed his thumb along her lower lip. "You better start thinking about a backup plan, just in case." He leaned down and gave Jo a sweet, chaste kiss on the lips before he moved past her in the cockpit and left with the others.
Jo gave herself a second. She needed to fight with a clear head, she couldn't leave the ship with any anger- even if it wasn't her own. She closed her eyes and let out a breath, as she did, she imagined all the anger in her body leaving with the exhale. "Stop." She told the anger around her. "Leave me." She wasn't sure what she was doing, but the overwhelming power started to dissipate, and all she was left with were her own emotions.
She opened her eyes as she gave a startled laugh. "That was new." She told herself as she left the cockpit to join the others. Whatever she had just done stunned her, but she soon forgot about it as she entered the luxurious moon, Endor. "Oh... my..." All the green trees breathed a new life into Jo, they were absolutely huge- bigger than any tree Jo had seen before. She was sure she could stretch her arms out as wide as possible and the trunks would still be thick than her arm span. She took a deep breath of fresh, humid air and gave a wide smile. "It's beautiful." Already she could feel the moisture on her skin but she didn't mind. She'd take the humidity over Hoth's ice any day... or a ship's AC.
The calming sound of different exotic birds sung one of Jo's favorite songs. She loved nature, she loved the deep greens and the smell of dirt and the fresh air. She loved all of it.
As she admired the scenery, she looked out ahead of her to see most of her crew walking up a steep hill. She had to force herself to stop taking in the sights as she rushed to join them. She had to hold onto her blaster as she sprinted so it didn't bounce around too much against her thigh.
The thick, heavy heat made her sweat as she ran up the hill to join Leia and Han at the front of the group.
"So nice of you to join us," Leia told her sarcastically.
Jo pursed her lips as she looked at her best friend. Her eyes flicked up to the odd helmet Leia had put on sometime between the cockpit and now. Jo didn't have a helmet, but the way it looked on Leia, she didn't want one. "Did you miss me that bad?" Jo gave a dry joke. "I'll try to do better in the future to better please you, My Princess."
"Ew, stop-" Leia's face scrunched up in disgust. "Don't ever do that again." Jo gave an accomplished smirk before she looked ahead of them. They were, after all, on a very important mission.
"Okay, but in all seriousness, I think you should get behind me." Jo held up a hand to stop Leia from advancing anymore. "It is still my duty to protect you and I can't do that if you are in front of me."
"I'm not staying behind you." Leia shook her head. "You've been training me for the past two years so that you don't have to protect me anymore."
"No- no-" Jo stopped walking entirely as she held up a hand. "I've been training you so people wouldn't see that one of us is extremely skilled in combat and shooting while the other is completely incompetent. That makes it really easy for people to tell who the decoy and guard is."
"I'm not staying behind you," Leia told Jo stubbornly.
"Do you want to die? Is that it?" Jo's voice started to rise considerably.
"Hey, you two- knock it off, will you?" Han stopped them before the fight escalated anymore. "This is my mission, remember?" Han looked directly at Jo as he said it. "So listen to me and shut it." Both girls pursed their lips as they looked at the bossy new general. "Now, why don't both of you stay back?"
Jo scoffed at Han's sexist comment. "Have we not convinced you that we can take care of ourselves?"
"Sure." Han agreed easily. "But I care about you and want you safe." He told Jo shamelessly.
"Well, just because I'm sweet on you doesn't mean I'm going to listen to a horrible plan." Jo patted Han's shoulder degradingly. "I'm not staying behind you, Rescuer, ever."
Leia gave Han a charming smirk as she followed after her handler with pride.
Han huffed as he looked back at Luke and Chewie, but Chewie just gave a laugh as he followed after the two princesses.
"Women, right?" Han asked Luke, hoping he would at least have something positive to say.
"You picked her," Luke told Han with little support. "You knew exactly who she was when you did too."
Han gave a crooked grin then as he looked back at Jo's retreating form. "Yeah... I did." He said proudly. "And I'd pick her again too." Luke gave a soft chuckle as he lovingly patted Han's back as the two moved to catch up with the rest of the group.
As Chewie, Leia, and Jo reached the peak of the hill they looked down to spot two Storm Troopers below. They appeared to just be scouting the surrounding area, but what Jo noticed were the two speeder bikes they had.
The three dropped to the ground and signaled for the rest of the group to stop moving.
Han and Luke had to bend down and crawl up to the peak to look at what the others saw. When they reached the peak, they looked down to see the Storm Troopers.
"Shall we try and go around?" Leia asked Han.
The others looked at him expectantly for his answer. "It'll take time. This whole party'll be for nothing if they see us."
Jo nodded in agreement as she looked back down at the two troops. "Or we could get to them and take them out before they alert the others." She offered up a plan. She didn't want to steal Han's thunder, but this mission was too important for her not to put her two cents in.
The others seemed to like her plan as they all nodded.
Leia turned back to the rest of their squad and motioned for them to stay put before she, Jo, Han, Chewie, and Luke slowly- and quietly- started down the hill towards the troopers.
Jo stayed low to the ground as she kept her gaze on the two. Her fingers grazed the hilt of her blaster, ready to grab it and shoot it they were spotted.
When they reached the valley of the hill they all slumped behind a bush to keep from being spotted.
"Chewie and I will take care of this. You stay here." Han put a hand on Jo's shoulder.
"What did I just tell you about me staying behind?" Jo looked up at Han expectantly.
"Just, please this once, listen to me." Han pleaded with her exhaustively. Usually, he was all for her stubborn attitude, but not when the whole mission could be blown.
"Quietly," Luke told him as if Jo hadn't said a word. "-there might be more of them out there." He warned him.
"Hey... it's me." Han gave them a cheeky smile before he and Chewie turned and crouched through the bushes towards the scouts.
Leia, Jo, and Luke all shared an amused glance at Han's confidence. He was many things, but quiet wasn't one of them. Just as Jo feared, right as Han raised his gun to knock the scout out, he stepped on a twig which gave an impossibly loud snap.
The scout turned and pushed Han back into a tree "Go for help!" The scout yelled to his companion as he neared Han. "Go!"
The second scout ran towards his speeder bike and took off without a second glance back at the first scout.
Jo reached for her blaster to take care of him, but she didn't have to as Chewie lifted his own crossbow and took a shot at the scout.
"Great." Luke groaned as he stood from his cover. "Come on."
Jo stood as she watched the scout crash his speeder bike into a tree. The loud explosion caused her to flinch, not from surprise, but because she knew it would draw more attention to them.
"So much for a stealth mission." She grumbled as she ran over to help Han with the first scout. "This is what happens when I listen to your plan!" Jo yelled at Han as she grabbed the troopers raised arm and bent it backward. As it cracked he let out a pained scream, but that didn't deter Jo as she kicked out the side of his knee and slammed the butt of her gun into his helmet to knock him out.
"I had that handled," Han told her as he wiped a bit of blood from the side of his mouth.
"Really?" Jo didn't believe him in the slightest, but she didn't have time to tell him as she heard another speeder bike startup. She turned to see two more Imperial soldiers take off on bikes, then she saw Leia jump on an extra one and start it up. "WAIT!" Jo holstered her gun as she broke out in a dead sprint towards her Princess. "Don't you dare-" But Leia didn't hear her as she and Luke took off on the speeder. "NO!" She screamed as she watched the person she was supposed to protect leave her behind. "LEIA!" Jo's voice strained under the pressure and her throat throbbed but none of that pain mattered as she watched Leia slip away from her.
Han came up behind Jo and put his arms around her. "Hey, hey-" He held her tightly as they watched Leia and Luke drive off after the Troopers. "She'll be okay. She has Luke."
"But she... she said she'd be okay because she has me-" Jo let Han hold her as she looked up at him for comfort. "She's never done something like this without me before."
Han could see the concern clear in her eyes. "You trained her, Jo. She had the best teacher in the galaxy. She'll be fine." He promised her.
As Jo leaned her head into Han's chest, he looked out at the spot Leia and Luke had taken off in. He hoped, desperately, that he was right. He needed to be right, just this once.