Leia closed her eyes against Han's distress. If she couldn't prevent him from witnessing what was about to happen, she could at least block him out and pretend he was somewhere else. Fairly soon she wouldn't be able to see anyway, maybe wouldn't remember he existed. The liquid hallucinogens and nerve toxins were circulating, freezing cold in her veins and soon the pain would begin. The despair in his eyes told her he didn't understand why she had done this, why she couldn't let him continue his gallant self-sacrifice, but her training in resistance techniques had helped her the last time and, perhaps, even her Force abilities, both of which he lacked. He would certainly die, but she held a small glimmer of hope that she could endure the pain long enough for Luke to save them both.

She could hear Han yelling, somewhere in the distance, as the mind altering drugs took away the control of her limbs and she struggled to remain standing. Luke, she thought her brother's name into nowhere. He would come for her whether it was a trap or not so, before she lost her mind as well, there was something she wanted to do. Her memory traced the route they had taken through the underground cave, picturing where guards had been placed, the number of doors in each corridor, the number of corridors, until it reached the door behind which they were trapped; visualising the position of everyone inside. Leia. I'm coming. Hold on. Luke answered. She snapped her eyes open just as the second needle entered her arm, injecting her with the all too familiar pain serum, a chemical burn appearing at the entry site.

Her muscles spasmed involuntarily, making her body rigid, her face contorting with pain. She could hear herself screaming now. Every nerve in her body felt like it had been dipped in acid and set alight, an inferno searing up her arm and burning every synapse in her brain. Either the pain or the hallucinogens, one or the other, brought on the vision.

Temporarily free of the manacles, she fought her way through the smoke of Alderaan's past, stepping over the burning bodies of both Jedi and Sith alike. She moaned with deep-seated, unbearable pain and checked herself. No, it was her other self, back in the cell. Bile filled her mouth either from the pain or the smell of burning bodies. She could no longer tell the difference. The figure of the duke drifted into focus through the smoke and she headed towards him with purpose, grabbing her arm as the introduction of more toxins back in the cell caused the intense pain she had foreseen. Alderaan's destruction would soon be upon her and, when it happened, she was going to take the duke and the House of Thul with her as her ancestors had done. Stumbling and fighting to stand in the expected earthquake, she clutched the duke's uniform in a tight grip.

"You should join me Vader's daughter. We could rule the galaxy together," his voice echoed.

"I will die first and I'm taking you with me," she heard herself savage.

As the ground opened up in her envisioned environment to swallow her in it's molten lava core, she pulled the duke with her, watching as their flesh began to burn. In her cell, her skin appeared to blister and she fought the hallucination in her mind as her body gave up. Luke, hurry.

When Han had heard brief mention of Leia's torture in the past, he had never imagined something as horrible as he was witnessing. He was finding it hard to believe this had been done to her by her own father. It was no wonder she couldn't forgive him as readily as Luke had. Watching her suffer like this was worse than having to go through it himself and he was filled with anger, at the duke for hurting her, at himself for not protecting her and at Leia for throwing herself on her sword.

"Are you ready to tell me where the Jedi has taken the Star?" the duke asked her, not really sounding like he expected an answer. Leia managed to raise her head and look at him. Was she laughing? Han was flabbergasted. It was just discernible as a laugh.

"You need to move," Leia whispered to the duke. "or you're going to die." She lost consciousness.

#

Chewbacca fired bolts from his bowcaster, making every shot count, clearing any stormtroopers Luke didn't clear with the wave of his hand. Although they had traced Han's distress signal to the cave and had landed the Falcon on top of the rocks surrounding it, totally unseen, Luke made no attempt at stealth now, walking boldly down the centre of the cave, hood raised and robes flowing. A forward thrust of his hand as he approached the hatchway to the base, buckled the thick door and ripped it from it's rock frame, the whine of stressed metal echoing round the damp cavern.

Chewbacca kept his distance, covering Luke's back. He only needed to fire occasionally as Luke moved through the corridors like an invisible tornado of which he was the epicentre, hurling troopers and security forces away from him and leaving them unconscious. Chewbacca picked off the unfortunate few who chanced into the corridor after he had passed by.

Luke tried to clear his mind of everything but Leia's memory map she had been smart enough to send him before the nightmare he had foreseen in the Dagobah cave had begun. Unfortunately, he was also feeling her pain and seeing her hallucinations and compartmentalised them, concentrating his Force power on ensuring clear passage through the corridors.

From a door just to the left of him a young officer in a security forces uniform came out to find the source of the commotion and now raised his weapon. Luke gestured with his hand, raising the officer off his feet and choking him, dropping him again when he felt him lose consciousness. His intention was not to kill unless it was absolutely necessary as he didn't know which of the Alderaanian security forces were imposters and which were being unwillingly influenced.

Hold on, he thought to his sister. He felt nothing in return, her hallucinations weak and his sense of her fading. She was losing her fight. He picked up his pace, pausing outside a blank, unidentified doorway, shifting his gaze from the floor ahead to the door itself. This was the one.

"Stand back, Chewie," he motioned Chewbacca. Pushing his palm forward, he imagined the door as soft, pliable material, moulding itself in answer to his demands. It buckled and whined, propelling inwards at such force it embedded itself in the wall opposite, taking with it a security officer and the caped figure of Duke Delcar Alde. Surprise slowed the second guard and Luke dismissed his intended attack with a flick of his hand, knocking him out against the left hand wall.

He walked purposefully towards his sister, waving his hand again to disable the magnetic strip console, releasing Han and Leia from their prison.

Leia's limp body crumpled to the floor and he crouched beside her, raising her head and shoulders up with one arm as Han ran to her side and grabbed her hand.

"Leia." Han tried to raise her. He looked at Luke's hooded face. Luke seemed to be scanning her body for damage with his free hand moving quickly across each limb, inches from her. "Kid, tell me she's alright," he demanded reassurance but, when Luke didn't reply, he rubbed her hand as if trying to warm her up. He felt her fingers twitch. It was almost undetectable and, unsure whether it was a response to his touch or merely a reflex, he peered at her pallid face just as her eyes flickered open weakly and she looked at her brother.

"What took you so long?" she scolded breathlessly. Luke formed a thin smile.

"Your map was a little fuzzy," he chided in return. A tiny smile crept on the corners of her mouth and she swore at him – in her head, as she drifted back into unconsciousness. Luke looked worried. He turned to Han.

"She needs medical attention urgently." Han moved to pick her up but before he had a chance, Chewbacca growled at them to get out of the way and scooped her effortlessly up in his furry arms. Han knew his Wookie friend well enough not to argue. Leia's self-appointed woolly protector had taken over and even he wasn't going to get in the way. Chewbacca's superior strength meant he could run faster with her anyway.

He retrieved a blaster from the unconscious guard, glancing back at the crumpled and bleeding body of the duke. He was about to leave him, whatever his status, but Leia's voice in his subconscious halted him and he rolled his eyes. She would have checked if he was alive before she left. He felt the duke's neck for a pulse. He was dead. Han wasn't sorry.

"Well, she told you to move, pal," he said under his breath.

Chewbacca jogged as quickly as he could, Leia in his arms, the others following. Han was painfully aware of the urgency of her situation but something was niggling at him, his promise to Leia playing at the back of his mind.

"Wait!" he shouted to the others as they got to the exit hatchway. "I need to do something." He had seen a conduit further back that looked like it had power cables running from it and ran back to find it. Shielding his eyes and firing his blaster, he exploded a hole in the side of the outer container. As he had suspected, the damage shut off the power, opening the doors to some of the hatchways and blank doors, releasing the children held behind them.

"Han!" Luke shouted. "We need to leave now." Han checked the children were beginning to come out of the cells and then ran to catch up with Luke. He resolved that he had unfinished business here but, right now, Leia was a priority.

C-3PO's reaction at the sight of his mistress on their return to the Falcon, was not unexpected and Artoo whistled pitifully.

"Oh, Princess Leia!" 3PO exclaimed, waving his arms. "Chewbacca. Somebody. Tell me what's going on." He followed them down the corridor, no one responding to his enquiry. "No one tells me anything. I'm always the last to know." Chewbacca pushed past him and went straight to the life support bay, placing Leia gently on the bunk. He growled mournfully to the others that she was in a very bad way and freezing cold. 3PO blustered in the corridor, craning his metal body to look past them, curiously.

"What's happening? Master Luke. Please tell me if the Princess is alright."

"3PO it would take too long. She needs medical treatment and we're going to get it. Why don't you find some blankets for her," Luke suggested, to give the droid a job. He tried to move in to assess the situation but had trouble getting round Chewbacca who almost completely filled the med bay and was extremely reluctant to leave. He turned to Han for assistance. Han wanted to help too but the three of them and a droid fighting over looking after her wasn't helping. Luke was the best one to take care of that.

"Chewie. Come and help me," he insisted. Chewbacca shook his head and roared. "Chewie, you're not helping. Let Luke do his thing. I need you in the cockpit," Han ordered his friend. Chewbacca looked at Leia and back at Han, then followed him out of the med bay.

Luke grabbed the pile of blankets that 3PO had brought, covered Leia and wrapped her burnt arm and sore wrists with bacta patches from the med kit. Sending 3PO away on another errand, he pulled the fold out seat from the wall and sat next to the bunk, checking readings from the life support data computer overhead. She was barely alive.

"Where are you going Leia?" he asked quietly, placing his hand gently on her forehead. There are people here that love you. Don't leave. He thought. He rested his head on the side of the bunk for a moment, exhausted from his exertion. There was no time for proper meditation that usually made him feel revitalised.  It would take a matter of minutes to get to Maz's castle and medical assistance. A hand rested on his shoulder and Han's voice was soft but concerned.

"How's she doing?" He looked at the life support data screen, flicking through the data with his other hand.

"She's not good." Luke was honest. Han took a deep, steeling breath in and swallowed hard. "She needs proper medical attention."

"We're landing shortly, taking her to an old residence Maz leant me. It's out of the way, where she'll be safe. There's a med droid available there." Luke nodded. "I was intending to borrow the place later so it's a bit rustic but it should be more or less ready." He paced backwards and forwards through the med bay door, running his hand nervously through his hair, rambling thoughts spilling out.

Looking at Leia, her skin ashen and her body drained of life, he wanted more than anything for her to wake up and yell at him for something.

"I can't understand why she did this. She just threw herself on the mercy of that maniac for me, knowing what it was going to be like."

"Of course she did," Luke said confidently. "She loves you. Are you really surprised she did it?" Han listened, examining Luke's face. Perhaps he wasn't surprised, he was just in denial.

"I asked her to marry me," he announced to Luke ruefully. "but then this happened." Luke turned to look sympathetically at him. "I thought Maz's old place would please her. I was gonna take her there in a couple of days for an escape from all this but now, it's all different." Luke could feel his friend's distress. If Han were a less stoic man, he may have cried about now but he just looked thin lipped and agitated.

"That's great, Han. Hold on to those thoughts. She needs you to keep them going. We'll fix this," he reassured him, standing and giving Han's shoulder a firm, bolstering squeeze. Han took his hand and slapped him on the upper arm.

"OK. Yeah, we'll fix it." He smiled briefly and breathed out heavily. Luke watched the Han Solo, completely unphased expression cross his face but knew, inside, he wanted to punch holes in every panel in the Falcon.

Chewbacca growled their arrival at their destination over the comm. Han gestured to Leia with his finger.

"Get her ready, I'll send Chewie back up for her. It'll be quicker than getting the hover-sled out." Luke bowed his head in acceptance of his instruction and began separating the wires and tubes from the med computer ready for transport as Han ran down the corridor to the cockpit.