Chapter Two

When he'd woken up the first time it had been so cold. And empty. He didn't know how else to explain the complete mental agony of expecting to wake after only a few hours of being in carbonite and to have the force. The fact that neither of those things were true made him gasp and struggle and grip onto the hand that reached for him.

He didn't need the force to know it was Ahsoka that reached for him.

They'd both been blind. Both alone in the cells; he had no idea if the clones has been woken or taken at that point.

"Where are we?"

"I don't know," Ahsoka had whispered back. "I don't know what went wrong."

They'd never found that out.

The next time that Luke woke it was because of his sister. There was a terrible moment when he saw the cage and felt her that he thought she was with him, but she felt distant. Scared.

Annoyed.

For a two year old, Leia could convey annoyance worryingly well.

He reached out and wrapped her up in his shields without thought because she was broadcasting too much and too loudly and that was like a homing beacon. He sent her an image of the ship and the mental equivalent of a shrug and then wished her good luck conveying that to Mom.

Stars, Mom had probably hit the roof now.

The cage he was in was underneath a walkway and he could hear footsteps on the section above. He was under the deck and there were cages everywhere, though only a few of them were full. Shifting, Luke looked around and then fixated on the cage opposite him.

"Kanan?"

The boy didn't move and Luke stifled a frustrated groan. He poked his fingers through the cage wires, more to experiment that he wouldn't get a shock than anything else. When nothing happened, he clung to them and then stretched a little, trying to rotate the ache out from his shoulders.

And reached out.

There were three life forms that felt at ease and confident. And six that were scared or unconscious. The ship wasn't large, just bulky and that meant it struggled to manoeuvre and he could feel the creaks in the engine as it struggled with some of the controls.

He'd been stunned in the back and he was sure he'd have bruises. He could feel the blood struggle to flow with the swelling; nothing major but enough to let him know the area would be tender.

Leia's mind hit him again with all the delicate feeling of her stomping her feet and an image of Mom throwing something across the cabin which made Luke lose focus for a second.

Since when did Mom throw things?

I don't know he said firmly. It's a ship. How should I know where I'm going?

Well…there was one way. But he wasn't exactly keen on testing Vader's temper again. And Vader would only be able to guess on information that was years out of date and now in the wrong timeline.

Leia was too little to understand that. But she huffed at him so he figured she got the gist. As far as his sister was concerned, he was being annoying because he wasn't there and Mom was angry about it.

Luke cast a glance out across those in the cages once more. Those who weren't unconscious looked like they were faking it and he left them alone, unwilling to get them into trouble if they'd been around the ship longer and had learnt a few tricks.

A shadow fell across the cages as something walked above and Luke twisted and turned so that he could peer up through the bars. The Trandoshan was wearing heavy boots and making that almost snarly gurgle noise at the back of his throat that Luke could remember from having had one of their kind on board a ship once when he'd been with Obi-Wan. Or not with him but…the other timeline.

Wow, was it weird to even think that now.

But he knew their kind. Could remember that someone had made a joke about the Trandoshan (what had his name been?!) because there had been an outpost a while ago in which Trandoshans had hunted children. Dour (Luke had never known if that had been the captain's real name) had suggested that the Tranoshan hunt Luke up and down the ship if he were bored.

The Trandoshan had sworn at them all and stomped off. Apparently insulted by the remark. But these Trandoshans…yeah, these might have been the ones that Dour had been talking about. In which case, he was about to be hunted for sport.

"Well? What's the problem?"

"There's something wrong with the hyperdrive," one hissed.

The response to that was a snarl and some clanging.

Luke nearly reached to rap on the bars and draw their attention but something… he frowned and tried to search out what the feeling was, but couldn't quite grasp it. Only it felt like…

Like not yet.

If they had to land and find someway to make repairs then perhaps he might have a chance to escape. And it might be close enough to Kaller that Mom could just slip in, grab him and the rest and then slip out again.

Maybe.

Seemed better than helping them to get to their destination though.

xxx

The Queen's throne room was built to demonstrate power. It was a long narrow room that led towards the throne that was raised high up with exactly twenty three steps up to get to it.

Anakin knew, he'd been forced to climb them many times before so that he could kneel directly in front of her while she studied him.

Behind the throne, the large windows allowed light to come in, bathing the Queen as if she was some kind of goddess. Often, her pet birds would perch on her shoulders or on the posts around her adding flashes of colour to the otherwise monotone golds and silvers.

"The cuffs?" she asked as she fed the bird on the perch to her right. "Again?"

Anakin said nothing. Really, what did she expect him to say?

When he glanced up, she was staring down at him. Her russet fur and ears catching the light in a way that almost made her look like she was a flame above him. She had a delicately pointed face and a long neck emphasised by the golden hoops around it. Ironically, he thought it looked like she wore her own damned collar, but he knew enough now about their culture to know that a long neck and lifted chin were considered attractive features.

"You know I dislike it when I do not get an answer," she said after a moment. The six guards, three lining either side shifted as if to make him answer, though how they thought they could get him to do that he would never know.

"Yes," he said tightly. "I tried to escape. Again."

"The fifth or fourth time now?"

"Sixth," Anakin said tonelessly.

"Hm," she said, lowering her hands so that both arms rested fully on the throne. Her clawed nails tapped at the metal it was made from and force did that have to be an uncomfortable chair to sit in.

He hoped she hated every second she had to sit in that thing.

Then her fingers edged closer to the control pad that she had and Anakin drew in a steady breath, bracing himself for the electrocution that was likely to follow.

Was it possible to build up a tolerance to such a thing? If there were, he hadn't yet got to that stage.

Something to look forward to, he thought bitterly as he watched her finger hover over one of the buttons.

Then she turned her finger and beckoned him. Steeling himself, Anakin started the ascent to her throne, pausing on the penultimate step and kneeling down. He was close enough that she rested her claws on his hair and he stared intently at the patterns of her blue gown.

She started to card her hands through his hair and he pushed his own hands into the metal below him. It wouldn't have surprised him if he'd managed to put dents in the force-forsaken thing, tense as he was.

He hated her. With everything he had, he despised her.

"We are going to be entertained today," she murmured. "A battle in the ring. Perhaps you might glimpse a familiar face."

He couldn't help but snap his head up to meet her eyes and the amused smile that tilted her lips upwards. With whip-like precision, her hands moved from his hair to his chin and forced him to arch his neck.

"I don't believe she still looks as pretty as you do," the Queen breathed. "Still, perhaps you might find a way to persuade me to show mercy today."

Xxx

By the time Kanan was starting to wake up properly, the Trandoshans were having a proper argument above Luke. And, for Trandoshans, that meant claws were out and spittle was flying as they snapped and snarled at each other.

Luke peered up, half curious and half grossed out by it. But mostly baffled that they were still arguing despite the fact that they hadn't even bothered to look at the hyperdrive yet.

"Where are we?" Kanan whispered, crawling over so that he was as close to Luke as he could manage in his cage.

"No idea," Luke said, not bothering to really lower his voice. The Trandoshans seemed unaware of anything but their argument. Then he looked over. "How's your head?"

Kanan nodded, rubbing the back of it as if Luke had just reminded him. "They drugged us," he hissed, clearly frustrated by the idea. "How long have we been out?"

Luke shook his head. "I can still feel Leia," he said. "But…I've never really not been with her since she was born so I have no idea about how far our range is. She's…she feels far away…" He bit at his lip and it was impossible when he was thinking about her not to reach out to brush her mind, however much it felt now like he was just reaching out for a holo version of her. "Trandoshans captured us," he said, nodding his head up.

Kanan crawled a little, head angled up and clearly trying to get a better look at what was going on. "Two?"

"Three," Luke said. Then he glanced at Kanan's expression. "They're armed," he warned. But Kanan kept his eyes fixed upwards and didn't say a word.

A warning alarm started to echo from the cockpit and Luke twisted, eyes fixed on the controls as it finally stopped the argument.

"We need to land," one snapped.

"Fine," the other replied, stomping around. "Land. See how helpful they are."

Luke almost groaned in frustration. Would it really have killed them to have been more specific?

Xxx