Fame and Fortune

Chapter Four

Chapter Four

Hapes

When she had first left Coruscant, all those long months ago, Leia had hoped she would come to love Isolder. Now she knew the truth. There would never be love between her and her future husband. This was the ultimate Royal Marriage of convenience, put in place by both the Ruling House of Hapes and the leaders of the New Republic.

It was now only two days until her wedding. As a young girl, Leia had, like most other girls dreamed about her perfect wedding, what she would wear, who she would marry. Never in her wildest imagination did she think she would marry a man she didn't love and that obviously didn't love her. Because, if anything was now apparent, it was that Prince Isolder was marrying her because his mother, Queen Mother Filamina, had ordered him to do so. Ever so polite and deferential to Leia, he showed no passion toward his fiancée, and the only intimacy they shared were stoic kisses on the cheek after dinner before they each retired to separate bedrooms in separate areas of the palace.

Leia couldn't stop thinking about the man she'd love and lost. When Luke had arrived on Hapes two weeks ago and told her the terrible news it didn't seem real. Her first reaction was annoyance, and she told Luke to stop joking - Han was most certainly NOT dead. Han must have decided to manipulate her emotions to get her to return to Coruscant and Luke was going along with the Corellian's lame game plan. Right? RIGHT? Then, seeing her brother's shattered expression, Leia knew it was no joke, no manipulation. Han was dead. For three solid days Leia stayed in bed, wishing she could die as well. I deserve to die. I left him for another man. I told him to have a nice life, even though he already knew his life was about to come to an end. It wasn't supposed to end this way. Han was supposed to swoop back into my life, come here and rescue me from this nightmare.

That was never going to happen, though. On the morning of the fourth day after learning the news about Han, Leia got up, got dressed and steeled herself to enter into a loveless marriage, for the good of the New Republic.

It's what I deserve.

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Kashyyyk

Doctor Nik had provided Han - now officially using the name Evin - with two thousand credits as well as one pair of brown slacks, tan shirt and ankle high black boots. After leaving the apartment on Corellia, the first thing Han did was stop at a gun shop that sold blasters and bought himself a replacement DL-44 and gun belt. This set him back over four hundred credits, but he considered the money well spent, even though Han knew he'd have to spend more time and money to modify this blaster to match his missing one.

His next expenditure was a one-way ticket to Kashyyyk. He would go to Chewie's home and tell him he was still alive. This would probably take some fast talking, but Han was confident he could convince his long-time partner who he really was, deep down. Of course, after Chewie believed him, they would jump into the Millennium Falcon and rush to Hapes to stop Leia from marrying that Hapan slimeball. He and Leia could still have their happily ever after, once he convinced her who he really was. If anyone could pull this off, the ever confident Corellian believed he could.

So, with those thoughts in mind, Han knocked on the door of Chewie's home expecting Malla, Lumpy or maybe Chewie to answer the door. It wasn't any of them.

An older female Wookiee answered the door, frowning at the human standing in front of her. *Yes? Can I assist you?*

Han stepped back, studying the home's outward appearance to double check he was at the correct home. "Yeah, I think so. I'm looking for Chewbacca. He lives here."