"K-one-zero, all troops disengage. Run for your lives!"

Leana glanced down at the comm and then out of her viewport, at the remaining walkers. A lot of the speeders were veering around; Luke had crashed his speeder and was on the ground, positioning himself under a walker in order to take it down.

"Well, that's it," Egan said heavily. "The battle is over. Let's head back, Leana."

"No," Leana said, continuing to survey the field.

"What do you mean, no?" Egan demanded. "Leana, they sounded the retreat signal!"

"Yeah, but I'm not retreating yet," Leana shot back. "There're some more walkers we can take care of first."

"I'm the gunner, and without me, you wouldn't be able to take down these walkers," Egan said angrily. "Turn around, Leana."

"And I'm the pilot," Leana shot back. "Without me, you couldn't shoot these walkers."

There was a moment of silence before Egan said, "I could stop shooting, and you wouldn't get anywhere in this battle."

Leana rolled her eyes. "And I could crash this thing, and you literally wouldn't be going anywhere after that, would you?"

Egan didn't say anything. Leana veered the speeder toward one of the walkers, making sure it was different from the one Luke was currently in the process of taking out. "What options do we have for attack?" she asked.

"Hmm," Egan said, still sounding annoyed. "We've out of tow cable, so we can't use that line of attack. We've got the guns, but they did nothing earlier, so they're useless. Leana, there's nothing we can do!"

Leana gritted her teeth. "There has to be something we can do." Dammit, Luke's still out there doing stuff, so there's got to be something I can help with! "Come on, Egan, we can still help the cause!"

"The cause died out five minutes ago," Egan told her flatly. "Leana, give it up! We follow orders, okay?"

Not now, we don't. She banked to the right, circling over the battlefield. They were the only remaining speeder to be seen, aside from the crashed ones, smoldering in the snow below. "The Rebel cause is not dead, Egan."

"The battle is," Egan insisted. "Leana, come on! We've lost the base, we've lost this fight - what more are you trying to lose? Our lives?"

Leana felt her anger rising. "Look, pal," she started, twisting around instinctively in her seat. "I don't know -"

Her incensed retort was cut off by the flash of scarlet lighting up her viewport. She jerked back around to face the front as warning lights lit up her console.

"Hold on," she muttered through gritted teeth, gripping her controls tightly. "We're going down!"

If Lucas was here, he'd make what I just said into a Fall Out Boy quote.

Leana shoved all thoughts from her mind, focusing on their descent. She was quickly losing control over the speeder but had to make one last ditch effort to save herself and Egan. Just a little more...a little more....

The white bank of snow and ice loomed before Leana and she yanked back on the controls, managing to get the nose to level out before the bottom slammed into the ground, skidding through the snow. The white spray covered Leana's viewport as they spun, eventually coming to a halt half buried in snow.

"What the hell," Egan managed.

"We're alive!" Leana said.

"For now!" Egan exclaimed. "I told you we should have gone back."

"Well, we can go back now," Leana groused. "You happy?"

"We - excuse me, you - just crashed the speeder and the plain is crawling with Imperials. You think I'm happy?"

Leana rolled her eyes and opened the cockpit bubble, hauling herself out. She blinked out at the landscape as Egan pulled himself out after her, shading her eyes in the direction of the walkers.

A lone figure was jogging toward them. Luke. Leana waved to him, knowing her orange flightsuit would separate her easily from the light landscape, as his did.

"Who's that?" Egan asked.

"Luke Skywalker," Leana answered. "Come on, let's head back to base!"

"This is all your fault," Egan grumbled. "If you had listened to the retreat order, we could have flown back."

"Shut up," Leana said, yet a prickling in her gut told her he was right.

****

The Rebel base loomed before Vader as he stalked across the snow, his black cape fluttering behind him. He didn't feel the cold as the snowtroopers headed through the hangar doors before him, red lasers firing from their blasters as they shot the remaining Rebels. General Veers walked beside Vader as they entered the base.

Here I come.

****

Lucas and Lumina sprinted along after Han and Leia, C-3PO tottering along behind them. They didn't meet anyone in the corridors, the other Rebels seeming to have already reached their transports.

A glance at Lumina's face showed it to be as pale as the ice walls surrounding them. She hadn't said a word since greeting him back in the command center and seemed almost...numb. Not seeming to care they were in a base that was being invaded by Imperials, and that technically, according to the film, they were heading in the wrong direction. They would never make it to Leia's transport.

But Lucas knew Han would never listen to him, so he kept his mouth shut.

Whatever. We're not wasting that much time anyway.

We'll still make it.

In front of them, Han and Leia stopped suddenly and it was all Lucas could do not to run into them at top speed. As it was, he slammed into Han's back as he tried to slow and knocked the smuggler forward a step or two, Lumina skidding to a halt beside him, brow furrowed.

"Why...?" she started to ask and then her eyes widened.

Lucas straightened and his own eyes widened. Standing ten feet away from them, a squad of snowtroopers behind him, was Darth Vader himself. Next to him was the aforementioned Imperial General Veers, the idiot from the intercom.

Silence fell as the two enemies stared at each other, the rasp of Vader's breathing the only noise in the cold. Lucas felt a mixture of terror and excitement rise up inside of him. Darth Vader was standing in front of him!

That's bad. Very bad.

Part of him thought it was cool, but the other part of him, the one that feared Vader, tried to get the Star Wars fan side to shut up.

"Well, well," Vader boomed. "What have we here?"

Before he could stop himself, Lucas shoved himself between Han and Leia, standing in front of the Rebels facing the Sith Lord. What the heck are you doing? his fearful side demanded.

"Hello," Lucas found himself greeting Vader, his voice calm and pleasant. Holy crap, I did not just do that, did I?

"What are you doing?" Lumina hissed, coming out of whatever trance she was in with the sight of Lucas confronting Vader, with only a rifle on his back, his hands empty. Part of Lucas was asking himself the same question, but that was the fear side. He needed to ignore that part now.

Fear won't get me anywhere. It'll just make me shut down. I have a job to do, and I might as well start now.

Besides, that's Darth Vader standing in front of me!

"I'm saying hello to a legend," Lucas said over his shoulder. "What does it look like I'm doing, Lu?"

"I hope you know what you're doing," Lumina whispered as Han made a noise of disgust.

"Oh, I don't, believe me," Lucas muttered, glancing back at Vader and raising his voice. "I've heard a lot about you, Vader. You're quite famous in these parts."

Lucas couldn't see Vader's expression, due to the intimidating black mask, but he could practically sense the confusion rolling off him in waves, even without the Force. General Veers looked very perplexed, looking from Vader to Lucas and back again.

"A legend?" Han muttered. "Is that what he thinks?"

"Shush!" Lumina hissed.

"How you been?" Lucas asked conversationally, standing as relaxed as possible. "How's work? How is the dark side treating you, buddy?"

"I'm sorry?" Vader's deep voice sounded so confused. Lucas would have laughed had this been on a screen and him safely on the other side of it.

"I mean, it's been a while," Lucas continued, lifting a hand as he gave a grin and a slight laugh. "We don't talk anymore! I mean, that could be due to the whole thing on Coruscant, I know you thought you were doing the right thing but kids, Annie? Really?"

Oh, crap, I'm dead.

"Annie?" he heard Han repeat behind him, sounding somewhere between a laugh and sheer horror. Leia had been completely silent the entire time; Lucas wouldn't be surprised if she was in shock or something. He was surprised he hadn't already gone into cardiac arrest.

"Who are you?" Vader asked.

"You don't remember me?" Lucas asked. "I mean, it's been years. But you don't remember all those times out late, getting midnight breakfast at Dexter's Diner? Man, the juma juice at that place was to die for!"

"Lord Vader -" Veers began, looking flabbergasted.

Lucas took that moment to hiss over his shoulder to Lumina, "The Falcon."

"I've finally managed to catch you!" a voice cried out behind them and Lucas froze, recognizing the English accent of C-3PO's. "I - oh, dear." And the droid fell silent, clearly recognizing this as a bad time to scold the others for their quick pace.

Vader's mask moved slightly, as if he was looking at the protocol droid he had built as a child, one of the two witnesses at his wedding, and Lucas knew he had to regain the Sith Lord's attention.

"Ah, Annie," Lucas said again, and he heard a definite titter run through the snowtrooper ranks. He supposed they hadn't turned their helmet comms off. Even Veers looked like he was trying hard not to laugh. Bad luck for them; good luck for him. Maybe.

Vader turned, sweeping his gaze over his troops, immediately silencing them. And Lucas took that as his cue.

He charged forward.

What are you doing? his brain demanded again.

As soon as he was close enough, Lucas dove forward, right at the Sith Lord, his back still toward the Rebels. He heard gasps echoing behind him but for some reason, some blessed reason, Vader hadn't drawn his lightsaber or called on the Force to repel his attacker. He did...nothing.

So Lucas crashed right into him.