Star Crossed

VI

A pair of cell doors opened behind Chewie. Chewie put down C-3PO's torso and turned just as two guards threw Han into the cell. The torture deemed too much for Han Solo as he fell to the floor limply. He leaned down and pressed his sweaty forehead against the cool metal flooring in search of a reprieve from the pain. It offered some solace, but he barely had time to appreciate it before Chewie picked him up. 

Han groaned as Chewie carried him across the room, and pressed a button in the wall that released a slender, metal table. Chewie laid Han down on the table before he looked him over. There were no physical marks on him, but still Han looked far paler than he ever had before, and his lips took on a slightly purple tint. 

"I feel terrible." Han admitted as he closed his eyes. He barely had time to relax before another set of doors opened to Han's right. Chewie looked over just as Leia was pushed into the cell with them.

Leia took one look at Han's pale figure and lowered herself to her knees beside him. Like Chewie, she looked him over for any marks or injury points. 

"Where's Jo?" She asked him quickly. "Han?" Leia shook the man as he kept his eyes closed. "Where is she?"

"I don't know." Han groaned as he turned his head away from her. "I just got here, sweetheart."

"I- I heard her- I heard her screams." Leia turned towards the door as she prayed for them to open with Jo on the other side. "I never want to hear her scream like that again."

Han felt an anger take over him. It gave him just enough strength to sit up and look at the Princess. "You know why she's screaming?" he asked her hotly. He pushed himself up to his elbows as he looked at her. "It's because of her job- because of who she is." 

Leia turned back to Han. She didn't want to listen to what he had to say- mainly because she knew he was right. 

"She's screaming like that because they're torturing her trying to find out which one of you is the real Leia. Her pain is because of you." Han gave Leia a tired, hateful look. 

"That's not-" Leia couldn't finish her thought. Deep down, in a part so far buried she barely knew it existed, Leia knew Han was right. Jo's pain- all of it- was because of her. 

She was being selfish. 

She barely had time to stew on it before the cell doors opened behind her. She jumped up in hopes that it was Jo. It was her, but she wasn't alone. Lando walked in front of her as two of his own guards carried Jo's limp, sweaty body in behind him. 

"Lando." Leia's startled eyes looked from the slimy gambler to the slunk over form of her best friend. 

Lando stopped in the middle of the room and watched as his guards brought Jo forward. She didn't move in their grasp. She looked like a bag of loose bones barely holding together. "They left her attached to the torture droid. No guards were with her... it was just... left on." He gulped as he saw the two distinct char marks on her temples. "She was pretty fried."

Han stood from the small metal bed to let the guards lay her in his place. When she laid where he had a moment before, he placed a clammy head to her sweating forward. "Hey Doll... look at me." He lifted his other hand to palm her face. He turned her head so she'd look at him but her eyes stayed closed. She was so pale he could see the blue veins pulsing through her eyelids. He looked her over and noticed the bright red burns on her temples from the torture droid. 

He could barely stand after a few minutes of it. He couldn't- didn't want to- think of what she had to endure. 

"She- she wasn't even screaming anymore." Lando told them as he looked over the unconscious girl. The same girl who wittily sassed him earlier that day.