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It was supposed to be a peaceful talk, but things rarely went that well for Han, much less Luke, and Leia had her fair share of messes. As Luke, Leia, and Han fled out the door with gang members in hot pursuit, Luke nods to a speeder parked on the side of the road. “Here’s our ride!” He jokes, spinning his lightsaber to deflect a blaster bolt. The speeder they had come in is on the other side of the building, and there’s no way they’re making it without getting shot full of holes. Han takes one last shot at the angry beings behind them before diving for the speeder with Luke and Leia.
In the ensuing scramble, Luke ends up in the driver’s seat and Han and Leia wind up squished together in the passenger seat. Han notices there aren’t any keys and he starts to scramble over Leia in an attempt to reshuffle into the driver’s seat, but Luke reaches under the steering wheel and pulls off the panel underneath, hotwiring the speeder with a practiced hand. The engine roars to life and Luke slams his foot down onto the accelerator, slamming the speeder into gear at the same time.
“Where did you learn to do that?” Han asks in shock.
“My speeder back home’s ignition was broken for about a week once before I could find the time and the parts to fix it, but I still had to get places,” Luke says, and then turns to grin at Han as he drifts around a corner.
“Eyes on the road,” Han snaps, flinching a little as a spray of blasterfire slams into the wall beside them as they take a sharp turn and Leia slams into his side. She snarls and throws herself over Han to poke her arm out the window and return fire. Han slides out from under her to allow her better range of motion and ends up jammed between the gearshift on the left and her knees on the seat beside him to his right. Han considers the sunroof above him for a moment, but when another sharp turn nearly sends him into Luke’s lap, he instead decides to hold on as best he an to the dashboard and pray Luke knows where he’s going. Luke turns halfway around in his seat to look behind himself.
“How many do we have on our tail?”
“EYES ON THE ROAD, EYES ON THE ROAD,” Han screams, and Lluke turns back just in time to swerve into the opposite lane of traffic to pass a hovertruck they had been barreling towards.
“I count six speeders and at least twelve guns,” Leia yells as she shoots another round of blaster bolts out the window.
Luke nods. “Hang on,” he warns before making a turn into an alley barely big enough to fit their speeder, and Han has to grab Leia’s belt to stop her from flying out the window and then tug her in by it before her arm gets taken off by the narrowing alley.
Leia squints out the back windscreen at their pursuers and Han hears a nasty-sounding crunch of metal behind them.
“I think we still have three or so on our tail,” she says. Their speeder shoots out of the alley into an actual street, and Han curses as a blaster bolt punches straight through the back window and out the front, only missing his head because Luke pushes his head down a moment before, thankfully not taking his eyes off the road this time. Leia pushes back out the window to return fire, and Luke leans forward to peer at a passing sign.
“What side of the city are we on right now?” Luke asks as he weaves recklessly through traffic. Han wishes he had something to do except watch his life flash before his eyes every time the speeder comes a little too close to the side of another vehicle, but he doesn’t dare attempt to stand to shoot out the sunroof or switch with Leia. He settles for pulling out his comm and keying Chewie’s frequency.
Leia squeezes off another bolt, and Han hears the sound of a repulsorlift being fried and subsequent crashing noises.
“I think we’re still on the north-west side. If we can get on the Outer Loop and get back out the West Gate, that’s our best bet to making it back to the Falcon ,” Leia says. Luke hums in agreement and then swings the wrong way up a one-way street. Three speeders coming towards them swerve to the side, honking angrily at them and then their pursuers as they hurtle up the street.
Han spots a group of children gaping at them as they fly past their front lawn, watching in astonishment as Leia fires off another round behind them. Chewie answers his comm.
“Things went south. We’re gonna be coming in hot, you better have the engines running,” Han says, spotting a sign for the Outer Loop after they turn onto the next street, and pointing wordlessly towards it. Luke follows its direction and turns right. Chewie warbles an agreement, and Han curses as a blaster bolt slams into their bumper. “I’ve gotta go, see you soon,” he says, disconnecting the call.
Up ahead, there are four speeders stopped at a traffic light, waiting to be allowed onto the ramp up to the expressway. Luke veers into the shoulder and flies past them up the ramp, nearly getting them rear ended as he cuts someone off. Han reads one of the signs as they shoot past it and grits his teeth.
“Luke, this is the wrong direction.” this side of the Loop will take them on a full circle around the city to reach the West Gate unless they can get off and switch sides.
“I know,” Luke says mildly, still weaving erratically through other speeders.
“I have a bad feeling about this,” Han mutters, and then screams and drags Leia back through the window as Luke makes a hard left across four lanes of traffic, crosses the median, and then slides into the middle lane of the Outer Loop going the opposite direction they had entered it from. A blaster bolt knocks off their right side mirror.
“ Who gave you a driver’s license ?” Han demands once he’s found words again. Luke takes his eyes off the road again to look at him in confusion.
“You need a license to drive?” Han and Leia open their mouths at the same moment, but just before they can demand clarification, Luke floors the accelerator, barrels across the two lanes of traffic between them and the shoulder, narrowly avoiding an accident, and slams the speeder into the wooden fencing on the side of the expressway.
The fence shatters and their speeder goes flying out into midair. The engine stalls out, leaving Han and Leia’s screams the only sound besides the rushing of wind as they plummet through the air.
Han manages to tear his eyes away from his incoming death to glare in betrayal at Luke, who doesn’t even have the decency to look apologetic for sending the three of them to their deaths. Instead, he reaches beneath the steering wheel and rabs the wires he’d disconnected earlier, and then stares calmly out the front windscreen. He sparks them together and the engine roars back to life again, but Han knows the repuslorlifts aren’t strong enough to break their fall. He closes his eyes, still screaming, ad hears Luke slam his foot back onto the accelerator, then feels Luke’s arm fly out across his chest.
The speeder hits the ground, and Han waits to hear metal tearing and feel the impact rattle through his bones as he holds tighter to Leia. He waits a long moment for it to happen, but, impossibly, even as the repulsorlifts whine like they’re going to explode, the speeder shoots forward again and Han is pressed back into his seat. As he opens his eyes to find the three of them miraculously alive, Luke lets out a loud whoop and begins to laugh.
“That was fun!” he says brightly, turning to look at them instead of out in front of the speeder again , somehow dodging an outcropping of rock even though he isn’t looking as they speed towards the ship lot they’d left the Falcon at. Han stares in wordless horror at Luke. Luckily, Leia doesn’t find it as hard to find her words.
“ LUKE SKYWALKER, ” she shrieks at the top of her lungs, and the speeter makes a startled wobble as Luke jolts in surprise. “ STOP THE KARKING SPEEDER. ”
In the face of Leia’s incandescent rage, Luke does the first sensible thing he’s done in almost ten minutes: he slams on the brakes. Han manages to get his arms to release their death grip on Leia in time to prevent himself from being brained on the dashboard.
“Leia?” Luka asks worriedly. “What-” Her death glare shocks him into silence. Her jaw works for a moment, and for the first time Han’s ever seen, she’s at a loss for words.
Finally, she blurts “ You don’t have a license? ” Luke glances nervously at Han as if he’s looking for help, but Han can barely form a coherent thought at this point, with everything he needs to properly function as a human being still freefalling outside the walls of Trassyck.
“...Do I need one?”
“ YES, YOU -” with a monumental effort, Leia closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. “Get out of the speeder.”
“Wha-” Luke begins.
“Get. Out. Of. The. Speeder.” Luke scrambles for the door and nearly falls flat on his face in his sudden urgency to get out of the speeder as fast as possible. If Leia wasn’t half on top of him and also between him and the door, Han would also be getting out of the speeder as fast as possible.
Leia lets go of Han, and he realizes her nails have left little crescent moons along his arms from where she was holding on for dear life as they fell. She gets out of the speeder and stalks around the front to the driver’s side door. She looks up at Luke, who at least has the sense to be ashamed now.
“Get in the back.” she says dangerously. Luke dashes around the speeder as fast as he can and scrambled over Han to get into the backseat. Han watches Leia ball her hands into fists and then very deliberately exhale a long breath. She gets back into the speeder and closes the door. She looks over at Han.
“Han. are you alright.”
Han makes a strangled noise in an attempt to speak, and then nods his head.
She nods back.
“Close the door.”
He does.
Leia smoothly hotwires the speeder back to life and sets off towards the ship lot. The inside of the speeder is completely silent for the ten minute drive, except for the occasional whine from the abused repulsorlifts. They don’t dare to break and risk Leia’s rage turning to them, so they make it back to the Falcon with no further incidents, as they’d left their pursuers back on the Outer Loop.
When they reach the Falcon , Chewie is waiting on the ramp, scanning the horizon for pursuers. The engines are idling, and he’s holding his bowcaster loosely. Leia gets out of the speeder and marches up into the ship with only a short hello. Once she’s gone, Han manages to get out of the speeder to stand unsteadily. Chewie rumbles worriedly at him as Luke gets out as well.
“I- Yeah, I’m fine. We should probably get going before they figure out where we are.” He says. Han stares up at the ship and then back at Luke in sudden horror as a thought occurs to him.
“What?” asks the younger man.
“I let you fly the Falcon .”
An offended look crosses Luke’s face. “I have my pilot’s license!” he exclaims defensively. Han stares.
“You have a pilot’s license but not a driver’s one?” Before Luke can respond, he waves a hand. “Wait, wait, nope, I’m done for today. I’m just gonna-” Han makes a vague movement towards the Falcon and then turns to board it. Behind him, Chewie grunted a question to Luke.
“Why does everyone keep asking me that?”