ABOARD THE MALACHOR, 40 YEARS ABE:

The door to Cell 3827 swished open and a solitary stormtrooper clattered inside. Breha jerked upright as best she could in her bonds. "Bey!" she cried. Her hair was lank with sweat, her eyes sunk deep above puffy circles as dark as a bruise, and her lower lip was scabbed and bloody from where she'd bitten it repeatedly, but her haggard features were suddenly illuminated with joy.

Bail yanked his helmet off and stooped mid-stride to distractedly half-place, half-drop both it and his blaster on the floor before he rushed to his sister's side. "Sorry I couldn't get here sooner," he began, reaching for the straps holding Breha in place on the torture couch, but she flapped her fingers at him and tried to interrupt:

"Wait! It's-"

Bail grabbed the clasp over her wrist and immediately convulsed as blue waves of electricity coursed through him. Breha, lacking the insulation of his stormtrooper armor, was hit even more strongly; she arched her back and gritted her teeth in an attempt to modulate her shriek into a moan instead. Bail hit the deckplates in a clatter of plastoid armor and scrambled back to his feet, eyes wide.

"Sorry!" he cried.

Breha slumped in her bonds as the vicious energy cut off. She shook her head at him, panting. "It's rigged to a shock shield," she explained belatedly, nodding at the terminal next to her. "Anyone who touches it without inputting the right codes first-"

"Zap," Bail said.

Breha nodded. "Zap," she agreed. "It's also set to administer shocks of varying intensity at random intervals, so I can't concentrate enough to use the Force to get free, that's why I haven't already escaped-"

"Nasty," Bail observed with a grimace.

"Efficient," Breha countered, and shivered as a mild shock raced through her almost on cue.

All Bail could offer in response was a wince and a shrug. "Well, too bad for them they didn't rig the whole room that way," he said, and stretched out a black-gloved hand. The binders holding Breha in place cracked open at his command and she half-rolled, half-tumbled off the torture couch.

Bail stepped forward and caught her before she could hit the floor, pulling his sister up into a hug. Breha clutched at him, her fingers clenched white-knucled against his armor. She visibly fought the urge to sob. After a few deep breaths she had herself under control again and stepped away, shaky but upright. She cleared her throat and asked briskly, "What's the plan?"

"Stella's guarding our exit," Bail said, bending to retrieve his blaster and helmet. "We've also got a stormtrooper defector named Finn with us, he's springing Poe. We're to all meet back in the hanger where we entered and get out of here before the Empire realizes anything's going on."

Breha nodded. "So you'll be escorting me as your prisoner?" she guessed.

"That's the idea," Bail nodded, fumbling to turn his helmet without dropping his blaster. "They have any binders in here? The stormtrooper armor we borrowed from Booster came with suspiciously empty pockets." He patted the belt that usually held a trooper's assorted tools, from binders to grappling cords to emergency rations and spare power packs for their weapons.

"Booster?" Breha repeated, eyebrows raising. She shook her head ruefully but didn't inquire further. "Yeah," she said in answer to her brother's question, stepping to the control terminal for the torture couch and plucking free a set of the long, elbow-length restraints she had worn for her journey to the bridge. "Use these."

Bail paused in the act of donning his helmet to whistle. "Those look intense," he observed.

"Stun cuffs," Breha said, grimacing grimly. "They work the same as the chair to disrupt Force-use."

"Sounds like this new Emperor likes to be prepared." Bail tucked his blaster under his arm and set his helmet on the edge of the control terminal so he could take the cuffs and inspect them. "Can we turn off the shock function?"

"No," Breha said, "but we can probably break it. See if you can disrupt the generator's connection or sever the randomizer's trigger," she suggested. "That should be the easiest way."

Bail nodded, closed his eyes, and focused on the cuffs he held. After a moment he shrugged and held them out. "You're better with tech, you try it."

Breha took the cuffs, took a deep breath, and closed her eyes. After a moment there was a crisp snapping sound within the cuffs. She opened her eyes and smiled. "Done," she said.

"Good," said Bail, and stepped forward to clip the binders around his sister's arms. He hesitated, then looked up and made himself meet her eyes. "Rey, did...do you know if...did Jaen…?"

"He made it," Breha said. Her voice was firm.

Her presence in the Force wasn't.

"You're lying."

Breha winced. "I'm not. I'm just...not sure. I didn't see him jump. But he must have, because the fleet came and no one else could have summoned them. He made it, Bail."

Bail forced a weak smile and said, "Thanks." His sister patted his armored shoulder and he heaved a deepy, shaky breath, visibly steelin himself. Then he turned away and retrieved his helmet, moving towards the cell door. "Now, let's…"

Bail's voice trailed-off and he paused, his eyes taking in the lack of control panel beside the blank gray door.

"Huh," he said. "So uh...how do we get out of here?"

Breha's frown matched her twin's, then deepened. "Looks like it's set to only open from the outside," she said. "Clever."

Bail sighed. "Of course it is." Shoving it open with raw Force was an option, of course, but that would probably trigger half a dozen alarms and likely also look a bit suspect on the security cams. Instead, Bail stepped forward and pressed his ear to the unmoving door. "Well, let's see if any helpful passerby feel like being lured into opening it for us…"

He closed his eyes, spreading his awareness out through the hall, searching for signs of life-

And the door whooshed open.

It rose with the abruptness customary to Imperial vessels and Bail stumbled forward into the sudden gap, Breha reaching out with her bound hands to stop him before he could trip over the mouse droid sitting in the doorway. Aside from the small droid, the corridor was mercifully empty of anyone who might have witnessed the precipitous arrival of the twins.

Breha frowned at the open door. "Did you do that?" she asked her brother.

Bail shook his head, staring at the droid. "I...I think the mouse droid did it," he said, his voice soft and incredulous.

Breha frowned at the little droid. "Scheduled maintenance rounds?" she suggested dubiously.

"Better than any explanation I've got," Bail agreed, cramming his helmet back on. "Let's go."

The Organa-Solo siblings stepped out into the Super Star Destroyer's austere grey hallways. Behind them, the mouse droid chirped once before whisking into the recently-vacated Cell 3827. The door swished closed behind it and the little droid got to work, falsifying the room's security monitoring in an attempt to keep the ship's central computer from noticing that there was now an absence where its primary prisoner should have been.