Slaves Of The Empire {1}

Forty-Three | Reprieve From Grief

"Where the hell did you get this?" she demanded in a sharp whisper, waving a hand enveloped in a translucent guard's glove. "Shadow holograms were outlawed after Chancellor Palpatine was kidnapped on Naboo."

"I have a few friends who know how to get their hands on contraband, when they need to," Lux said vaguely. "One of them owed me a favor."

"You have friends?"

"Hey."

Alynna hit him with an unapologetic stare. It was jarring to see her eyes looking out of a helmet that wouldn't normally have fit a Togruta, but that meant the shadow hologram was doing its job in concealing her identity. "Honest question. You never talk about any friends."

"They're... more like acquaintances than friends."

Alynna's eyes narrowed in suspicion, but she didn't press him. For his part, Lux had to keep from grinning. He'd missed her wry banter fiercely, but now that he'd drawn her out, he didn't want to send her scurrying back in on herself with a poorly placed comment or gesture.

Her eyes widened again when she noticed the pair of guards in Noreino livery – real blast-proof leather and lightweight armor instead of his and Alynna's falsified approximation – standing watch at the end of the hallway. "I take it we're sneaking out?" she asked.

"I bribed those two, and the ones who'll take over for them at the next changing of the guard, if we're out late."

"The cams and other surveillance they'll have watching the landing platform? Did you take those into account, too?"

"I did. Hence the shadow holograms."

Alynna shook her head in exasperation beneath her facsimile helmet, and Lux watched the hologram fuzz, unable to track the gesture smoothly. She freed her arm from his and lengthened her stride to a steady lope. With the quiet popping of joints settling into place, Alynna threw her shoulders back and straightened her spine.

Lux blinked. The transformation was so small when he broke it down, but it flipped her bearing from cautious to commanding in the space of two heartbeats. His love for her burned higher in his chest, and not for the first time, he marvelled at how lucky he was to have met someone like her.

"Lux," she hissed in warning, and Lux got the message. Flushing, he mimicked her as best he could, and was rewarded by a gruff noise of approval.

The real Noreino guards nodded subtly as the pair of pretenders passed them and leapt into the nondescript open-top airspeeder waiting on the platform, Lux in the pilot's seat and Ahsoka on the passenger side. Chanting prayers under his breath that their deception would hold long enough, Lux made the most cursory preflight check of his life and lifted off into the air.

No one tried to stop them. No one came to point and shout or call for reinforcements. Lux hit the accelerator and transmitted his clearance codes to the nearest traffic control tower – the operative of which was also on his payroll for the night – and sped out of the city.

The wind whipping over his hologram-veiled hair was freeing in a way Lux hadn't realized he missed, and before he knew it, he was grinning at Alynna through his translucent visor. Feeling reckless, he fed the engines more power, picking up speed until they'd left the city behind and cleared even the generous margin outside of it still in the thick of construction projects.

Laughing like a madman, Lux deactivated the shadow holograms and flew faster still. He choked off into silence when a hand scrabbled for his shoulder and latched on, and realized it was a wonder a bug hadn't flown into his mouth by now.

"Lux! Lux, this model doesn't have airbags," Alynna snapped over the wind.

Wincing, Lux dropped to a more manageable speed. "I'm sorry, I–"