~How it All Began: Part 8~

Breathless, Han peered around the doorway. His beautiful ship waited innocently for her crew. Her dull, carbon-scored paneling glittered in the bright lights of the space station's hanger.

"Didn't we just leave this party?" Han muttered, mentally counting the Stormtroopers blocking their path to the Falcon.

Having caught his breath, Chewbacca growled and smacked the back of his partner's head.

"I'll admit, I could have used a plan back there," Han muttered, rubbing the spot Chewie decked him. "But it turned out fine, right?"

He didn't really know why he suddenly decided to throw all self-preservation to the wind and chase a squad of Stormtroopers. Sweet revenge had pumped through his veins, urging him to pursue with his co-pilot in tow. They captured his ship. They trapped him here. They tried to kill him. And of course his sudden need for revenge wasn't spurred by the Empire trying to execute the princess or hurt the kid. Of course it wasn't.

It was too satisfying to watch those bucket-heads flee. Until he discovered it was a trap.

"We could just go," Han suggested slowly. "Just you and me. It'll be a risk, especially if the old man hasn't disabled the tractor beam. We could find another job."

The tall Wookiee stared down at him, sadness in his eyes. Han found himself looking away from them. The moment the words left his mouth, he regretted them.

"It's okay to care about them. They need our help."

His best friend's words hit closer to home than he would like to admit. A job was a job, nothing more. Yet now Han found his own code crumbling because of an innocent kid and a spitfire princess.

"I care about them. We don't get paid if we bring back bodies."

His own voice sounded false to his ears. He remembered how much fear he felt at the very idea of Luke going off on his own and getting killed. The terror that consumed him when the dianoga dragged Luke under still pumped in his erratic heartbeat. He remembered hearing the princess' composure shatter to the fear of being crushed. And now he was searching anxiously for them, scenarios of what was keeping them filling his mind.

He did care.

He learned from his time with the Empire that battle has a funny way of tying unbreakable bonds. Only now Han realized it wasn't the fighting itself, it was working together as a team towards survival. In the last few hours, he had come to know Luke better than some of his long time smuggling buddies.

"You're right," he admitted softly. "I wouldn't have left them."

He was startled by Luke and Leia appearing behind them, panting heavily. They were both drenched in sweat and Leia's buns were coming undone in loose coils.

Hardened and cocky demeanor restored, Han gruffly asked, "What kept you?"

"We, uh, ran into some old friends," Leia answered.

"Is the ship all right?" Luke inquired directly after.

"Seems okay if we can get to it. Just hope the old man got the tractor beam out of commission."

Han thought he could hear some odd, faint hissing and crackling, but didn't have time to dwell on it as the patrol of troopers suddenly left, leaving an open path to their ticket out of here.

"Now's our chance. Go!" the smuggler hissed to his companions.

The group hurried quickly and quietly to the ship. R2-D2 and C-3PO were just ahead of them. Unexpectedly, Luke skidded to a halt.

"Ben?"

Han turned to see what was so important. On the other side of the hanger, two figures were locked in a duel of lightsabers. One wore the familiar brown cloak and wielded the blue lightsaber of Ben Kenobi. The other was tall in obsidian black armor, wielding a crimson blade: The legendary Darth Vader. He had heard the countless stories of death and terror that followed that monster and his blood red sword. His very presence instilled fear into Han Solo.

Shaking himself out of his stupor, Han tugged the loose sleeve of the kid's tunic. Luke was frozen, his mouth agape as he watched helplessly.

The duel paused for a moment, the fighters eyeing each other as if picturing how the fight would continue. Then Ben turned his head ever so slightly. There was no fear, only calm and focus on his weathered face. Ben sent his protégé a touch of a smile and, it could have been his imagination, gave Han a trusting nod.

Ben drew in his blade and made no effort to stop Vader's incoming strike.The red lightsaber cut through him and the cloak and deactivated lightsaber fell into a heap. Ben's body had vanished. Simple tricks and nonsense.

"NO!" The horrified scream shattered the stillness. Luke rushed forward with a rage Han had never seen before. Acting quickly, the stronger man hooked one arm under around the kid's torso and began dragging him towards the Falcon.

He was forced to release him under enemy fire and the kid's struggles. Luke stood out in the open while Han took what little cover there was behind the arms of the ramp.

"Luke, it's too late! We have to go!" Leia screamed at him over the battle. Amazingly, the Troopers didn't hit the idiot even though he was out in the open. Luke fired back furiously.

Terror seized his heart as Han realized Vader was walking towards them, his crimson lightsaber dragging through the metal floor like butter.

"Blast the door, kid!"

Luke listened and shot the controls, trapping Darth Vader on the other side.

Finally, the kid snapped out of it and rushed on board. Han ran to the cockpit to join Chewie, head spinning with all that had just happened.

* * *

Luke had thought the entire station was just cold. Now he realized that Darth Vader himself was the cold. He could feel a darkness from Vader's presence, and it made his entire body feel chilled.

At first, he was afraid. But that fear was consumed by anger as he lost the last person in the galaxy who cared about him. All of his grief and anger and pain from what the Empire had done to him poured into one scream. He didn't even notice Leia screaming at him or Han's attempts in dragging him to the Falcon.

He just pulled the trigger over and over. He burned through his emotions quickly like a hot spark until he was just shooting numbly. He heard Han's shout and blasted the door, cutting off Vader's approach.

  "Run, Luke. Run."

He didn't know if was imagining it, but Kenobi's clear voice snapped him out of his stupor and he followed his friends aboard the ship.

Luke's blaster clattered to the floor as he slumped onto the couch, folding his arms against the holo table. He felt like he should cry, but the adrenaline had dried his eyes.

His poncho draped against his shoulders, chasing away the lingering chill. He turned his head briefly to find the Princess Leia sitting behind him. She smiled sympathetically, but Luke couldn't bring himself to smile back.

"I can't believe he's gone."

"There wasn't anything you could have done."

Luke stared at the checkered surface. What would happen to him now? Join the Rebellion, he supposed. With no one left to train him in his father's footsteps and no reason to return home...

"Blast, what am I doing?" Luke scrubbed his face and looked back at the princess. "You just lost your entire home planet—"

"A loss is still a loss," Leia interrupted, her voice tight with pain. "We can't let it defeat us. The galaxy is counting on us."

Us? Luke was a farm boy from Tatooine that was supposed to become a Jedi, like his father. A keeper of the peace and a sworn enemy of the Emperor. What could he offer the galaxy now? Yes, the galaxy needed Jedi, but he had only a few hours of training. If Darth Vader could defeat a Jedi Master with decades...

"How are you so... okay? I feel like—in the past day, I lost my only family left, and now my mentor. I've never been off my home world before, and now I'm million kilometers aways from it. It's like I've been knocked out of orbit and I don't know how to get right side up again. How do you do it?"

Leia bit her lip. "I want to cry," she admitted. Luke got the impression she doesn't usually show venerability, "all the time, every moment. But I know that if I start I won't be able to stop, and that's not useful right now. Our situations aren't the same, but I do know what you're feeling right now. What it's like to be alone—"

"Even though you're surrounded by strangers?" Luke finished.

"Exactly." She paused and her brown eyes took on a far off look. "I think about when I was very young, running wild through the palace, playing hide-and-seek with my mother and father." She let out a faint laugh, smiling at the memory. "They were both so busy and important—they had the weight of the universe on their shoulders—but they still had this great capacity for fun and love. And hope. They never gave up on this idea that the galaxy could be a safe, beautiful place for all life. Joining the Rebellion finally let me have a real voice—a real way to fight for the changes I believed in. Now, fighting alongside them will be my way of honoring my parents and my people. It gives me a reason to push through and keep going. And... maybe it'll be the same for you."

"Yeah," he began slowly, still processing her words. "I think I'd like that."

At that moment, Han burst into the central hold, face flushed.

"Come on, buddy," he panted. "We're not out of this yet."

Luke was exhausted and he could tell Han was too, but he threw off his poncho with a grateful smile to Leia and joined his friend.

"Where do you want me?" he offered. Han clapped him on the back and gestured him to follow, running down one of the Falcon's many passageways. They stopped at a ladder going up and down.

"You keep saying you can fly and shoot. Well, now's the time to prove it." As he climbed down the ladder and Han climbed up, the pilot yelled down to him, "Just aim and fire—and try to keep up with me, if you can."

As he sat in the gunner's seat and felt the controls, a thrill seeped it's way into Luke against the tiredness. He settled the headset over his head and Han's voice immediately crackled in his ear.

"You in, kid?"

"Yeah, I read."

  "Okay, stay sharp."

Leia must have joined Chewbacca in the cockpit because her voice filtered into their comms. "Here they come!"

Luke jumped as several TIEs streaked past his view. His thumbs slammed the buttons, but they were already out of range. Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, Luke eased up on the controls and reminded himself to actually aim before firing.

A tremor nearly tossed him out of his seat and he could smell smoke.

"They're coming in too fast!" he yelled, gritting his teeth in frustration.

  "We've lost lateral controls," Leia reported.

  "Don't worry, she'll hold together," Han assured, but he forgot to mute his comm when he muttered under his breath, "You hear me, baby? Hold together."

Then a laugh from the smuggler meant that he took out at least one enemy ship. Luke refocused. He needed to catch up.

When a TIE passed by his sights again, Luke remembered to relax and use the targeting computer. He was rewarded by an orange fireball that temporarily blinded him.

"I got him!" Luke cheered. Forgetting that Han could hear him perfectly through the headset, he leaned back to shout up the ladder, "I got him!"

"Great, kid! Don't get cocky!"

  "There's still two more of them out there," Leia reminded them.

"On it!"

"Not if I get there first!" Han countered, sounding like he was having as much fun as Luke.

Luke chewed on his lip as he swung his chair around, chasing the quick tiny fighters. Letting out the breath he was holding and taking careful aim, Luke poured firepower onto his target. It blew into space dust. He wasn't aware of the grin of pride as Han saw Luke's hit flash on his targeting computer.

Two seconds later, the Millennium Falcon shuddered with the aftershock of Han's kill.

Luke heard Han's sigh of relief in his headset while he laughed. "That's it! We did it!"

Throwing off the headset and untangling himself from the wire, Luke sped up the ladder where Han was waiting for him. They were both sweaty and grinning.

"Nice shooting, kid!" He clapped Luke on the shoulder. "Where did you learn that?"

He shrugged. "Moisture farming got boring sometimes." And that's all he would say.