"This is a horrible idea, Han," Lando worried as he watched his friend drag two unconscious stormtroopers up the ramp of the Falcon, Luke and Leia's figures following the shadowed figures of Padmé and Vader off in a distance before they turned the corner and disappeared. 

     Han simply glared up at him, pointedly ignoring the twins leaving and huffing with exertion from carrying the dead weight of the trooper. "And your plans are any better?"

     Rolling his eyes, Lando pushed down the guilt of Bespin and quickly snarked back at the Corellian, "All I'm saying is that putting together this lavish rescue plan for a couple of droids is a bit excessive." Han scoffed at that. "Besides, I thought you hated droids."

     The second and final stormtrooper dropped onto the metal, grated floor of the Falcon with an echoing thump, Han wiping his sweaty brow and brushing off his pants as he moved to look up with exasperation. "Of course I hate those damn scrap piles. But Luke and Leia insisted I get them and...and I wasn't gonna say no to them," Han bit his lip and then kicked the stormtrooper towards Lando. "Now put that armor on, we only have so much time."

     Lando fought a smirk and just barely heard Chewie's bark of a comment as he came stomping up the ramp. "Shut up, furball," Han grumbled, ripping the armor off the other trooper and beginning to secure it over his own clothes.

     "You have it bad for those two, don't you?" Lando teased, getting another glare.

     "Don't you join Chewie now, he's hard enough to deal with by himself. Luke and Leia are my friends, I just...I care for them, that's all," Han snapped, his voice hesitant on the word 'friends'.

      Putting his hands up in mock surrender, Lando went to putting on the armor as he had been instructed, but he didn't skip out on the chance to share  another amused look with the Wookiee.

     Han slid on the armor with ease, unnerving familiarity of wearing it triggering muscle memory as he latched each part together. Once both men were secured in the armor, Lando instantly complained at the feeling of the tight armor and how everything was too small, him obviously having a much harder time than his companion. Han simply chuckled as he watched Lando struggle, thinking back to Luke so many years ago--stars, had he really been only 19?--struggling just the same with the much too large armor on his thin frame, "The kid and I did this back on the Death Star a few years back," He commented lamely as he slid his helmet on, "Our undercover plan worked then, so it can work now."

     "It barely worked then," Chewie grumbled, fumbling with buttons on the Falcon and making sure she was ready to fly at a moment's notice.

     "Yeah, but we made it, didn't we?" Han countered, grabbing a blaster from the ground and unlocking the safety. "Rescued Leia and everything."

     "The princess would argue that she rescued you and Luke," Chewie countered.

     "Point of view. Unimportant," Han said in embarrassment.

     "Leia can take plenty care of herself, I'm not surprised that she ended up looking after you, Han," Lando teased, not letting Han respond as he turned back to Chewbacca, "Comms all set, Chewie?" Chewie growled an affirmative and Lando followed Han's suit by sliding on his helmet and grabbing a blaster. Static instantly entered his ear from the hacked commlinks connected through the Falcon where they could each communicate with one another.

     "Alright then. Off to save the droids then. No problem," Han sighed.

     "See you on the other side, Chewbacca," Lando called before he and Han darted down the Falcon's ramp and out into the ongoing battle. Their mission was their main priority, but all the mention of the twins sent Han's mind into the thoughts he had been trying to avoid. His brain, the traitor, flashed images of Luke and Leia off confronting the Emperor, both of them holding sabers and quaking before the massive Sith. Han could even swear that he could feel both of the twins emotions' deep in the back of his mind, their fears and worries blending with his.

     Come on Solo, what are you Luke now? Don't go falling for the Force mumbo jumbo Kenobi put in his head...

     But now Han wondered how Luke had known why to come to Bespin...he couldn't possibly have been commed, yet Vader had seemed so confident that he could lure him there. When Han had been tortured by Vader, Luke's scream had echoed in his mind, along with Leia's, his pain reflecting into their bodies equally. Luke would call it a Force bond, but Han had thought it had just been a product of the mental torture. As he thought more on it however, he began to realize that it may have been more than just that...and then the carbonite...he could still feel the bitterly cold liquid pressing into him,  yet somehow, deep down, he could also still feel the warmth of Luke and Leia reaching out for him...

     "Hey, Han, you still with me?" Lando's voice echoed in his ear and he turned to stare a stormtrooper helmet that concealed his friend underneath.

      "Yeah. Yeah, I'm good. No ground troops yet?"

     Lando shook his head, deciding to humor Han and ignore how he had spaced out for a few minutes, "Vader must've cleared them out, ordered more to the sky to keep them away from the Emperor and to focus on the rebels."

     "Right..." Han responded, nervously fiddling with his blaster's trigger.

     "The Executor's right up here. You still sure about this?" Lando inquired, eyes skirting around to study the battlefield that Coruscant had become.

     "Absolutely."

     Lando sighed, pausing in step for a moment. "Han...I just want to apologize. For everything. I was foolish to give into Vader, to put you all through that--"

     "Lando," Han blurted. "No one blames you. If anything we never would've escaped without you. Don't apologize, just keep fighting. Your little deal may have sparked the downfall of the Empire, but we can't finish that if we don't get those droids back. I hate them, but they do carry important information."

     Lando nodded, not surprised. "Right. Thanks, Han. It really is good to be with you again."

     Han clapped him on the shoulder, smiling genuinely underneath his helmet and finally feeling able to relax his nervous train of thought, "Same here, buddy. Now let's go get some droids."

***

See-Threepio took pride in his abilities to stay calm in most situations.

     His astromech friend, Artoo-Detoo, might disagree; call him a bundle of stressed wires an circuits; but Threepio liked to think otherwise.

     However, seeing Mistress Leia, Master Han, Master Lando, and Master Chewie all get taken out by stormtroopers and a considerably angry Darth Vader--whom Artoo insisted was an old Master of theirs for some reason but Threepio always called him foolish, as if a Sith would have a stingy protocol droid and a sassy astromech like themselves--all in the span of a few minutes was quite the distress on his wires.

       It was the word 'restraining bolt' that had frightened Threepio the most though, memories of being captured by Jawas and packed inside a cramped, dark sandcrawler returning to his memory boards.

     He watched in agony as Princess Leia crumpled at Lord Vader's feet, the droids unable to see more as they were whisked away into a corridor by an insistent pair of stormtroopers. Artoo beeped his usual profanities at the troopers, but like most organics, they could not understand him and simply sent a swift kick to his metal sides to shut him up.

     These troopers obviously did not know Artoo-Detoo.

      Kicking the little astromech only sent him into more of a frenzy, demands to see Master Luke and his frustration at being unable to use his tools all piling up into one angry rant of beeps and buzzes.

     "Stars, does this droid ever shut up?" One trooper complained, seconds away from just chucking the astromech into the nearest trash compactor.

     "I'm afraid he's rather passionate about things, sir. Easily frustrated and quite a violent binary vocabulary," Threepio explained, unable to help himself.

     "Great," The other trooped muttered, "We're getting cursed out in droid language."

     "Well actually sir, binary isn't used by all droids, in fact--"

     "Just shut up already, would ya?" The first trooper snapped, whirling to turn his blaster to Threepio's head. "Unless you want a hole in that shiny gold plating of yours."

     "Oh my," Threepio exclaimed frightenedly.

     The troopers and the droids moved forward in silence, the only sound the whir of Artoo's servers as he unwillingly wheeled along behind the troopers. Threepio knew that his friend would make a break for it if he could and go searching for Master Luke, but as long as they wore the restraining bolts, the trooper's were in complete control of their movements.

     "We're here. Make this quick, I have better things to do than to be a guard for some Rebellion droids," The first trooper demanded.

     The other trooper quickly ushered Artoo and Threepio forward into a room filled with machines, wires, and tools of all kinds.

      "I don't like the looks of this, Artoo," Threepio whispered to his friend, the astromech beeping in melancholy agreement.

     A woman in an Imperial uniform stood at the helm of a machine, looking up at the approaching trooper and the droids. "What can I help you with?"

     "We got two Rebellion droids. Direct orders from Lord Vader to find any valuable information and report it to Imperial Intelligence," The trooper explained before violently shoving the two droids forward.

     "What about memory banks? Wipe those clean as well?"

      "As per procedure, cadet. Don't ask stupid questions." The trooper rolled his eyes and then made his way out to rendezvous with his partner.

    The woman narrowed her eyes after him as he left and distractedly blew a curl form out of her eyes before tucking it into her cap. Grease stained the woman's dark skin from working with mechanics all day, but she was far from menacing...despite being an Imperial that was. Surprisingly, she smiled at the droids, a hydrospanner in hand. "Rebellion droids, huh?"

     "That's right, ma'am," Threepio responded, ever formal.

     The woman nodded and picked up the control to the restraining bolts that the trooper had left for her. She fiddled with it before firmly pressing a button on the front. Artoo and Threepio braced for a shock, but instead the bolts beeped in deactivation and shut down the buzz that was vibrating through their circuits--as was common with most restraining bolts.

     "I'm a slicer. I do undercover work for Chancellor Mothma. I'm gonna need your astromech to help me out with some coded messages, think you can do that?" The woman inquired, raising an eyebrow.

     "Stars, Artoo did you hear that? A rebel spy! We're saved!" Threepio exclaimed, his arms flying up in the air in his elation.

     The woman laughed, shaking her head. "No, I'm afraid I'm not your rescue. I can't blow my cover here, I've been hacked into the Imp system for almost two years now and I won't stop until I receive word from the Council themselves. You two will just have to be my new droids from now on. And don't worry about the mind wipe thing, they never come back to check up on me. I just feed Intelligence false Rebellion information and claim it as intentional misleading by the Rebels in order to sate them when they come sniffing for why the information I 'stole' was incorrect."

     Artoo beeped quickly and the girl's smile fell, her reaction to Artoo's words revealing her fluency in binary. "You're the princess's droids? She's not here is she?"

     "I'm afraid she is, ma'am," Threepio said sadly. "Captured by Lord Vader."

     "Karabast," the woman muttered under her breath, moving her hydrospanner to her mouth and chomping down on the metal handle in a force of nervous habit. "I'll see if I can link in with the Alliance network and send them encrypted coordinates, but it might take me a while."

     Removing the hydrospanner from her mouth and absentmindedly chucking it to the floor, the woman began furiously typing away at her machines, lights reflecting in her dark brown eyes and another curl popping loose from her cap. "I'm Sei, by the way. Sei Krandor, Rebellion Intelligence."

     "Pleasure, Mistress Sei," Threepio said.

     Sei chuckled, "Force, I love droids." Threepio and Artoo gathered beside her as she worked away with a message for the Alliance, a message that would help clear up Leia's earlier message and bring the Rebels to Coruscant for the battle of a lifetime.

***

"You two!" A demanding voice came booming behind Han and Lando as they strolled as casually as they could through the halls of the Executor.

     Nervously, the two whirled and snapped to attention, it coming more naturally for Han from his time at the Imperial Youth Academy. "Why are you not at a station? Are you not aware that there is an attack currently going on?" The man steamed, his face growing red under his hat.

     Han hesitated for a moment, but Lando's quick thinking won out, "We're aware, sir. But we were given direct orders from Lord Vader to obtain info from Imperial Intelligence about Skywalker's astromech droid. He interrogated the rebel, but he wouldn't break, so he sent us to see if any vital information would be stored in his personal droid...sir."

     The man paused, taking in the story with a look of skepticism. Every second that ticked by was another beat that Han's heart sped up by, sweat sliding down his neck. Finally..."Very well. But our slicer hasn't reported any findings as of yet so you'll have to check with her. She's two floors down, to the right and then another left. But as soon as you're done I want you on active duty helping your fellow troopers, is that clear?"

     "Yes, sir!" Han and Lando echoed in unison, saluting once more.

     The man nodded, satisfied. "Good. Dismissed."

     Once the man turned away, Han and Lando let themselves relax, practically oblivious to the rushing officers and troopers around them, all of them antsy to rush out into the line of fire.

     Han put a hand up to his ear to adjust his comm, the static ringing clear. "Chewie, we're in the clear. Once we get the droids we'll head back out to the Falcon. Just keep her running for us, yeah?"

    "Copy that." Chewie growled back.

     "You think more troopers will come to the Falcon?" Lando inquired. Han shrugged, biting his lip and lengthening his pace in a hurry to get the droids and be gone.

     "Hard to tell. Vader might've directed them all off with that Admiral of his like you said, but that doesn't stop a few of them from recognizing the ship and trying to disable the hyperdrive again. Chewie can handle himself though, it's not him I'm worried about."

     Lando chuckled, "Just remember that she was my ship first."

      "Yeah, and you lost her to me fair and square."

      "I don't think fair is the right word to use there, Solo."

      Han smirked, "I'm Corellian, Lando, what more did you expect?"

     "Better card playing for one." 

     Han rolled his eyes.

     "Hey, we're coming up on the room, keep your blaster hot," Han quickly instructed in a whisper, slowly creeping towards the door and keeping an eye out for any holocameras tracking their movements. The last thing they needed was to alert security and blow their cover when they were so close to the droids. Han could almost hear Threepio's complaints and Artoo's vulgar beeps in his head. Or...wait...

     "I hear them. Through the door," Han whispered to Lando, who was leaning up against the doorframe with his blaster primed. 

     "I thought they would be powered off. The slicer tinkering with their memory banks or something." Lando called back, confusion evident in his voice.

     "They should be... Something's up," Han said,

     "You don't think they reprogrammed them, do you?" Lando asked.

     "Only one way to find out..." Han sighed, not wanting to think about Luke's beloved astromech forgetting who he was. "Alright, on the count of three...one...two...three!"

     Lando's leg shot up and kicked the door release, the impact hard enough to send sparks through the sliding door and for smoke from the exploded circuit to cloud up and block their vision.

      "We've got blasters aimed at your head, hands up and stay up!" Han shouted, squinting through the smoke and cursing the infernal helmets that were lowering his visibility even more.

     Once the room cleared, Lando and Han came face to face with Artoo, Threepio, and a dark-skinned, curly haired woman in an Imperial uniform looking startled. Her hands raised tentatively and her eyes nervously skirted around the room before landing on a blaster only a foot away from her.

     "Don't try it," Lando warned, his blaster aimed directly at the girl's head.

     She looked between the two men nervously, and then in the blink of an eye her hand shot forward and pressed a button that triggered a fan in the ceiling. The smoke puffed back into the room and the woman dove for the blaster, firing it immediately and without hesitation. Han cried out when the bolt hit his left foot and he staggered, Lando instantly at his side.

     "That's for the Rebellion! For my family!" She cried, her hands trembling as she pointed the blaster at a more fatal area, her finger pulling back on the trigger--

     "Mistress Sei! Wait, please!" Threepio exclaimed, finally finding an opening to speak amongst all the chaos. He was confused at first as to why two stormtroopers had burst in and had worried for a moment that it had been the same two that had dropped them off a day earlier. He had worried that somehow they had found out Sei's true identity as a spy and had returned to take her into custody only to later execute her for treason. However, it had been Artoo beeping at him about familiar voice patterns that had finally made him realize who exactly was behind the clunky metal helmets.

     "Threepio?" Han groaned, wincing when Lando moved to probe his foot.

     "You know these droids?" Sei demanded, waving her blaster in the two men's faces and trying to understand what was going on.

     "Yes. The protocol droid belongs to Leia Organa and the astromech belongs to Luke Skywalker. We're here to get them back out of Imperial custody," Lando explained, slowly moving his hands to remove his helmet. He put the helmet on the ground and then lowered his blaster as well, demonstrating peace. "We're with the Rebellion," He studied her, "As are you apparently. Either that or an Imperial deserter."

     Sei lowered her blaster, blinking slowly to rearrange her thoughts. "You work for Princess Leia?"

     Han chuckled weakly, removing his helmet as well and wincing once more, this time with a swear, as he moved his foot. "We don't work for Leia, she's our friend. But we do operate under Chancellor Mothma."

     Dumbfounded, Sei suddenly gasped, "Oh my gosh, your foot. I'm so sorry, I panicked. I thought my cover was blown and I didn't know what to do and--"

     Lando raised a hand to stop her babbling. "It's alright. You're a spy, right? It's only nature to be paranoid. Han'll be fine."

     "Well..." Han started, letting Lando gradually help him stand as he grunted from the effort, "Fine is relative."

     "You need to get the droids back to the princess. I...I can help with that. Get you a clear passage back to your ship," Sei said, lighting up with enthusiasm before running back to her desk. "I saw that the Rebellion got my message, the bombings can be heard from even in here."

     "Wait, what about you? You can't just stay here. Like you said, it's a war zone out there." Lando asked. 

     "I'll be fine." She waved him off, "I've been undercover for almost two years now, I can handle myself." She picked up the blaster she had previously dropped and waved it confidently. 

     "We noticed that," Han joked, stretching out his injured limb. 

     Sei flashed an apologetic smile and set the blaster back down before returning to her work. A second or two passed before her fingers stopped flying and she suddenly backed away from her screen triumphantly. "There. I sent the fake information I 'collected' from your droids to Imperial Intelligence. You should have a clear shot and reason to get the droids out of here and off ship. But you have a time limit so I'd make it fast. This battle is only gonna get more heated."

     "Thank you," Lando said, gesturing for the droids to follow Han and him out.

     "What was your name again?" Han asked, trying not to limp as Lando began to usher the droids out of the room.

     "Sei Krandor, sir."

      Han smiled genuinely, "Han Solo. This here's my friend Lando Calrissian. We owe you one, Sei.."

     "Consider it a favor," she shrugged, "I just do the job I'm told to do. Keep fighting the good fight. We've all lost too much to the Empire."

     "Han," Lando interrupted, sliding his discarded helmet back on and unintentionally disrupting the somber moment, "We gotta go."

     "Right," Han called, moving after his friend and also putting his helmet back on. "May the Force be with you, Sei!"

     "And you!" Sei called before the door slid shut behind the two men and the droids, leaving Sei Krandor alone once more.

***

The Falcon was sitting proudly, and unharmed ahead of them. Threepio had blessedly not said a word the entire trek out of the Executor and back towards the docking bay and hope began to blossom in Han's chest as he heard Chewie through the comm confirm them in his sights. The ramp extended from below his beloved ship and he breathed a gulping sigh of relief.

     "We actually pulled this off. I'll be damned," Lando breathed, pulling off his helmet and wiping the sweat from his forehead. "Gotta give it to the twins, I thought they were sending us on a suicide mission."

      Han meant to chuckle, but the sudden reminder of Luke and Leia once more sent his body ramrod straight, his spine stiffening, his blood running cold, his heart beating faster, his breath quickening, and his eyes dilating. "Han?" Lando asked tentatively. However, the minute he touched Han's shoulder, the man collapsed.

     Swirling images of flashing, colored lights--red, green, and blue--clashing against each other along with the sound of hoarse screams and the vicious in and out air of a respirator rushed his mind. 

     The fight with the Emperor. Luke, Leia, Padmé, and Vader were fighting the Emperor.

     And they were losing.

     The thought of Luke and Leia's lifeless corpses boneless and unnervingly still on the frigid, durasteel floor of the Emperor's throne room left Han shuddering, his pulse like thunder in his ears.

     He could hear each twin call his name and hear both Padmé and Vader cry out in agony and grief. Something was wrong...drastically wrong...Han had told them not to go, he had begged them...

     He shot upright in Chewie's arms, the Wookiee frantically stroking his sweat-drenched hair and humming in concerned, almost untranslatable Kashyyykian. "Han? Hey man, you okay? You scared us," Lando's voice trickled into his ears, his face swimming into his vision and radiating the same concern.

     Han shivered violently despite being wrapped up in his co-pilot's shaggy arms. His eyes looked outward past his normal line of sight and he took a deep breath, troubled by his plaguing mind. "Luke...Leia...they're in trouble. They need help..."

     Chewie shared a nervous look with Lando before concerningly muttering again. Lando bit his lip, aware of the presence of the droids behind him, each watching with curiosity. "Han...we can't help them, not now. They need us here."

     "No...we have to."

     Chewie put a massive, furry paw on Han's chest to ease the young man from trying to sit up. "Rest, cub. You mustn't stress for the smaller cubs. They are not alone in their fight."

     "But something's going to happen..." Han pleaded.

     "Han, you don't know that--" Lando tried.

     "Someone's going to die."

     It was said with such certainty that neither Lando nor Chewie could deny it, not even in a reassuring way. The Skywalker's had known that they were walking into one of the most dangerous encounters before they had even got there, but the fact that one of them wouldn't return...

     "Well let's just pray to the Force that you're intuition turns out to be wrong."

     Han fought back a sob, his hazel irises leaking salty tears, "It won't be."

***

A/N

Gosh, I really suck at keeping promises of faster chapters.

For the trillionth time, I am sorry, but here is the next chapter of Ghost. There should be the next chapter (maybe another after that? prob not) and then an epilogue based on my notes. The next chapter is the big showdown, which Han gratefully foreshadowed for you (you are welcome). Then all the buildup should lead to right before the epilogue. 

Maybe I will make my goal to finish this book before The Last Jedi comes out? Who even knows. School has been crazy and so has life so I'm finding the writing time whenever I can.

Love you guys lots and I hope you enjoyed the OC I added (Sei Krandor; pronounced SAY CRAN-DER), she was fun to write and this will probably be her only appearance, but Kirei from Redemption got a lot of attention so I made another plot-driven OC. Sue me.

Anywho, hope you guys enjoyed! New chapter as soon as I can! And a Happy early Thanksgiving to my American readers!

*space hugs and kisses*

May the Force be with You, 

-lucky_ducky_123