"You may now remove your flight glasses," the synthesized voice of the droid stewardess said. "Thank you for choosing Star Tours and welcome to Imperial Center."

"Coruscant," Leia muttered just loud enough that only Han could hear.

"What?" Han folded away his flight glasses.

"The planet is called Coruscant," Leia said. "But the Empire is so brazen that they think they can just rename an entire planet to make themselves feel more important."

Han glanced around, as Leia must have done, to make sure they weren't being eavesdropped upon then cocked half a grin. Behind both of their seats, Chewie let out a mirthful bark accompanied with a growl.

"You said it Chewie, Come on sweetheart, you don't even remember a time when it wasn't Imperial Center," he said.

"It's the principal of the thing," Leia said.

Han just laughed. "You should watch yourself, you're starting to sound like him."

"What do you mean sound like him!?" Leia said as Han stood. He just grinned and squeezed around her, making sure to fire a devious smirk her way as their bodies brush past each other. "Who do I sound like?"

"You know who I'm talking about," he said as he busied himself with getting their luggage out of the overhead compartment; all the while several passengers tried to squeeze their arms, legs and tentacles past him.

In spite of the lightness of their banter, he still couldn't believe he let her talk him into this. Being an enemy of the Empire in the Outer Rim had its risks, venturing into the Mid-Rim could be very dangerous, but taking a trip to the Core? Many would consider that out and out suicide.

Yet here they were, perhaps two of the Galaxy's most wanted beings, walking off a transport and onto a landing deck in the Galactic City. Everywhere he looked, he could see security droids, checkpoints manned by stormtroopers and camera drones hovering every which way.

"You're sure these contraptions will work?" Han said as he followed Leia toward the security exit.

"The Alliance has used them for years to sneak in and out of highly secure planets," Leia said. "Don't worry, any facial recognition scanner will be completely fooled by it."

"Swell," Han muttered. "So as long as no one recognizes us with their eyes we'll be fine. I've told you this plan is crazy, right?"

"At least half a dozen times," Leia smirked.

They neared the final security checkpoint, this one a station flanked by a couple of bulky security droids and troops to match. Passengers lined up to have their id and faces scanned before they were allowed into the city proper. Han could only bite the inside of his lip as he looked around for R2, who still had his blaster tucked away in a secret compartment. But that was no good. R2 was in the cargo hold and would be released with their luggage.

"I feel like I should tell you at least one more time," Han said just before they got to the checkpoint.

Lucky for him, but not his reputation of being right, they got through the checkpoint with surprising ease. The identification tags they presented named them and Jysella and Jarod Hess, and the facial recognition program seemed to have fooled the droids as well. Soon they were stepping out onto the main platform, awaiting the speeder they'd rented and their droids to be delivered.

"So, Jysella," Han said, finally managing a genuinely sarcastic smile. "I can't help but notice that the id's you gave us are a little bit… close."

"Well I had to come up with some way to explain why we were traveling together if we were asked," Leia shrugged. "Siblings seemed to do quite nicely."

Han's smile faded and he tried to work out what exactly the Princess was playing at making them related instead of… other possibilities. He didn't even notice R2 and C-3PO approaching as he worked on this. "Wait… siblings? As in Brother and sister?"

"Or other depending on the species," Leia said, getting into the hovercar all the while C-3PO chatted merrily with R2 about how good it was to be back in civilization again.

Han pulled himself into the driver's seat, his brows furrowed, not simply because he couldn't stop thinking about how creepy it was to be Leia's brother, but also a general annoyance at having to hear Golden Rod in the back running his vocoder every couple of seconds.

They took off and Han quickly ascended to the nearest skylane, where they had to come to an immediate stop and start limping along. It was yet another reason he preferred the Outer Rim to the Core. Probes and skycamera's recorded every lane. If a single vehicle broke formation and actually decided to use the sky to get where they needed to go, they could expect at the very least heavy fines, at the worst… stormtroopers knocking down their door.

After several minutes of just staring at the bumper of the hovercar ahead of them, Han turned to Leia. He had intended to start another conversation about the whole, sibling thing, get her to admit that, that was the wrong call, but the worry lines on her face told her that would be the wrong choice.

"Look," Han finally said. "I'm sure Luke is fine. He probably just got into a little trouble and blew it out of proportion."

"I don't think so…" Leia said. "He wouldn't have contacted us unless it was serious. He knows that where I go, Obi-wan goes."

"Right," Han nodded grimly and edged the hovercar forward. "You know I really wish the Kid would get over whatever it is he's got against Obi-wan. The Old Man's proved himself time and again."

"That 'Old Man' is barely older than you," Leia rolled her eyes but then sighed. "And I wish Luke would come to terms with him too. I think Obi-wan reminds him too much of his time with the Empire."

Han merely grunted and settled in to the driver's seat a bit more. They'd unfortunately caught the rush hour traffic, and it wouldn't be getting any easier from here considering they were headed for the Old Market. It would be nearly as packed as the skies.

"You still haven't told me where he is," Han said.

"Yes I did," Leia said. "We're meeting him at the Old Market."

"No, not Luke," Han said. "Obi-wan."

Leia glanced out at the cityscape then shrugged. "I was able to talk him out of coming. He's the most wanted man in the Galaxy so it's dangerous enough for him in the Mid-Rim, he'd be apprehended in an instant if he came to Coruscant."

"You mean Imperial Center," Han quirked a smile.

"Shut up and fly."

It took them nearly an hour and a half to get to the market and then another half hour to simply find a parking space. In the end they had to remind themselves to 'walk casual' even though they were cutting it dangerously close to missing their appointed rendezvous.

Upon entering the open air of the market, Han nodded to himself. It was as good a place for a covert meeting point as any on Coruscant. The hundreds of booths, surrounded by all manner of goods, peddlers, patrons made hiding simple and eaves dropping hard. Not to mention the fact that it was one of the few places on Coruscant's upper levels were non-humans were still allowed. They wouldn't stand out with Chewie beside them… well, not more so than usual.

"You want to remind me again why we didn't just fly in the Falcon?" Han said as they pretended to examine some Deralian Golden Fruit. "I'd sure feel a lot better about this if I knew we actually had a reliable ship to get out of here if things get dicey."

"The Falcon is too recognizable," Leia said. "Remember this is an extraction from the most heavily monitored planet in the Galaxy. If all goes to plan we'll fly Luke's ship out, if not we'll sneak him and Winter off the same way we got in."

"Right, because a J-Type Nubian Starskiff is way less noticeable than the Falcon," Han muttered then looked around. "Where the hell is Threepio?"

Leia glance around, R2 still followed nearby, chirping as he rolled past the many late afternoon shoppers. He beeped a couple of times when he noticed them looking at them, as though asking if he should deploy their weapons from his casing.

"Not yet R2," Leia said. "Only-"

"There he is," Han grumbled as he spotted the golden droid.

"I really need to run him through a diagnostic," Leia shook her head. "He's been acting so strangey lately."

"We ought to run him through a scrap heap," Han said, breaking off and approaching the droid who looked to be perusing a booth of weapons.

"See anything you like?" he all but growled at the protocol droid when he reached him.

"Oh Captain So… that is Jarod!" Threepio raised his arms in surprise. "Do not worry, these aren't real weapons, just replicas. We're not here to buy contraband."

"Fantastic," Han shook his head, his eyes rolling over the assortment of weapons. The blasters were all fakes, but there were a couple of vibrowhips that he would bet his last credit were the genuine article.

Without another word he grabbed Threepio by the arm and dragged him away from the stand.

"Captain Solo!" Threepio said. "I don't understand what I've done wrong! I was merely trying to 'blend in' as you said!"

"Oh yeah," Han said as they approached Leia and R2. "Because so many protocol droids browse for prop weapons."

"Perhaps we're putting on a show of some kin-"

He was cut off when Chewbacca broke through the crowd, his face obviously distressed, the hair on his head standing a little stiffer than before. Han glanced to R2, then the Princess, but she wasn't looking at either Chewie or himself. Her eyes were fixed on one of the many floating vid monitors that hovered all around the market.

Chewie pointed at them and he turned his attention to the monitor to see Obi-wan staring back at him. Han was about to say something about it when he found himself looking closer. The image initially looked like Obi-wan sitting in a cave with his Jedi hood over his head, but on second glance he noticed the gray beard and the wrinkles, to say nothing of the yellow eyes.

"That's… not Obi-wan…" he muttered.

As if to answer his doubts, the video began to speak with a similar accent as Obi-wan but in a more gravelly, dark, tone.

"Citizens of the Galactic Empire," he said. "Once again I appear before you. Once again I, Obi-wan Kenobi, reveal myself to you to offer you further warning of what your future entails. Even now my forces in the Rebellion are mounting for an attack the likes of which this Galaxy has never seen. Soon the streets of Talravin, Coronet, even Imperial Center itself will run red with the blood-"

"What the hell is this?" Han finally said to Leia, who managed to pull her blazing eyes off the screen.

"One of the reasons I didn't want Obi-wan coming here," she said, her face somewhat flush with anger. "Imperial propaganda that started running about a year ago. They're trying to scare people away from seeing Obi-wan as the hero he was during the Clone Wars."

"Didn't Imperial Propaganda get the memo that Obi-wan is about half that age?" Han glanced up at Faux-bi-Wan still issuing threats to the general populace.

"They probably thought people wouldn't believe it if Obi-wan was still in his prime," Leia said. "I've been working with Command on a way to discredit these recordings. Biggs has a few ideas, but until then I don't want Obi-wan knowing about them, he's got enough on his plate as it…"

She trailed off as a sudden movement in the video caught her attention. Faux-bi-Wan had stopped his tirade and was now looking off screen as the sounds of a struggle filtered through. The distinct sound of blaster fire came a moment before the imposter was thrown off screen by some invisible force.

Moments later a cloaked figure with a blue lightsaber came onto the screen. He looked around for a moment before shutting down his blade, clipping it to his belt, and lowering his hood. Kind eyes, with the faintest twinkle in them now stared out the screen and a soft smile came beneath his light brown beard.

"Hello there," Obi-wan, the real Obi-wan said. "Sorry to interrupt but I was passing through the neighborhood and thought I should pop in to introduce myself. I am Obi-wan Kenobi, Jedi Knight. The man you've been watching all these months, as you saw, due to his inability to resist me, was an imposter. An actor employed by Imperial Propagandists with the intent on deceiving you all about the nature of the Jedi and the Alliance to Restore the Galactic Republic. But that really is emblematic of the nature of the Empire. They work through brutality and deceit, even to the point where they have tried to convince you all that this planet is called Imperial Center and not Coruscant as it was in the Old Republic…"

Han glanced over to smirk at Leia but stopped himself when he saw her staring intently at the screen, shaking her head in utter disbelief at what she was viewing.

"… I'm afraid you've all been deceived. The Empire promised you a safe and secure society. In return all you had to do was give them a little more power. And each time it happened you told yourself that it was necessary, that surely this was as far as it would go. Surely, with this or that right claimed by the Empire you would be safe and secure enough. And so it went, with the Emperor side stepping law, and the Senate in order to "save" people. Something he has been allowed to do until he was able to abolish the very legislative body that first gave him this power.

"Must I even go on to describe what he has done with that power? I could be on all day laying out the atrocities that have been committed in the last twenty years. But I feel that all I need to do is ask, how many more worlds would have suffered the same fate as Alderaan if the Alliance had not destroyed the Empire's weapon?

"But you know all of this, the lines of communication are not so closed that even here in the Core, in the Heart of the Empire, you do not know the horrors that have been committed in the Emperor's name. My simple question to you then is… what are you going to do about it? What part will you play in the days to come as the Rebel Alliance works ceaselessly to liberate the Galaxy and restore true peace? I know the thought of resisting the Empire is frightening, I know you feel as though you have no power to fight back.

"I'm sorry, but you're wrong. What the Emperor fears most, more than the Rebel Alliance, more than the return of the Jedi, is that the people of Corellia, the people of Onderon, even the people of Coruscant, will someday realize that they don't need him. You don't need to be told what to do, what to think, and what to say! You don't need a government bureaucrat to give you permission to live your life as you see it. You are so much more than a simple underling in the Empire. You, each and every one of you, is unique, is touched by the Force in some way, is completely capable of knowing and doing what is the very best for yourself!

"The Emperor knows this and that's why he's trying to device us. Loyalist against Rebel, human against alien, even man against woman. But you all know we're better than that, you know that we are all so much more, especially when we work together. And I promise you that if enough of you truly realize this, truly understand how powerful you are… not all the Death Star's in the Galaxy could stop you…"

Obi-wan glanced off screen for a moment then sighed.

"It would appear that my time is at an end. The agents of the Empire are at the door and if I don't affect my escape now I'm afraid we will not be able to have another one of these chats. Now I know that many of you dismiss what I say as hopeless optimism or the ramblings of someone that belongs to a hokey religion, but in ending, I have only one thing left to say, one thing that during my time, meant a great deal.

"Remember, the Force will be with you, always."

Obi-wan waved his hand and the transmission went dead. For a brief moment the entire gawking crowd stood still, merely staring at the vidscreens as though awaiting for them to come back on with further footage or messages. When the screens finally did flicker back to life, all they did was show the Imperial Seal. Then the streets erupted in movement and sound.

Friends, families, and strangers alike began talking, even shouting at each other over what they just saw. Hands, fingers, tentacles and everything in between flew into the air as people tried to make or reiterate points. Almost nobody, even the shopkeepers, seemed to have commerce on their mind. For the first time in two decades, they had seen an actual Jedi in action, there was little else to do except talk about it!

Han couldn't help but shake his head a bit. Surely they all knew that their conversations wouldn't last long? After a stunt like that, the Empire was bound to send in the troops to keep things quiet. Imperial Law Enforcement would be in full damage control now… apart from scrambling a manhunt for a certain Jedi.

And perhaps that was the point of the sudden, frenzied conversations, everyone wanted to say their piece before law and order shut them up. Obi-wan had wanted them talking, and wanted them making decisions and for the moment it seemed like he'd succeeded. There was even a mass crowd surrounding the fake weapons stand now; no doubt people about to be disappointed that they couldn't get their hands on the real thing.

Finally Han glanced over to Leia, looking for her input. But she merely shook her head in disbelief at the whole thing.

"I… I'll kill him." She finally said.

"Let's hope you get the chance," Han said. "If I'm not mistaken, Imperial Propaganda is located in the old Jedi Temple, Obi-wan is going to have a hell of a time getting out of there."

"No," Leia said. "Don't you see? He never wanted me to come here because of the risks. When he finally relented and further saw reason to stay behind… it was just a ruse. He did all of this at this time to make sure that we wouldn't be caught."

"By riling up Imperial Security around the planet? They're going to be at maximum alert right now!"

"Maximum alert looking for him," Leia said. "He just turned himself into a lightning rod. No one is going to notice us coming and going so long as we don't have a beard and a jedi cloak."

"So you're saying we shouldn't try to bail him out of this," Han furrowed his brows.

Leia sighed, "I suppose I am. We need to make our rendezvous with Luke. Otherwise Obi-wan's diversion will be in vain."

"Alright," Han scratched the back of his head, still trying to come to grips with how crazy his Jedi friend was. "Lead the way sister."

"Don't call me sister," Leia said.