I got distracted... which is why this chapter took so long. Sorry...
Considering this story borrows a lot of elements from Star Wars, did any of you notice the hint last chapter that Jack and Merida are Force sensitive?
You guys' response to this story has been so amazing, I'm truly grateful!
Among the Stars
Chapter 2
With the celebration at the palace, anyone who could be spared had been called away to assist with preparations and security. As a result, Imperial Tower was running on a skeleton crew. And for the first (and probably only) time in his life, Jack was glad for one of Gothel's parties. Still furious at the extravagance, but glad for the window of opportunity.
He didn't see anyone as he took one of the service lifts to the 70th floor.
Hiccup and Merida were on a pointless trip to renew their Imperial Shipping License. They couldn't actually renew it for another couple months, but Jack really just needed them to do something that would allow an excuse for them to stay in the tower long enough for him to get the princess.
He still couldn't believe he was going through with this...
As he neared the cell block, he opened the hidden compartment of his gauntlet again and pulled out the data jammer.
The computer card was a souvenir of his time in the Imperial Flight Academy – a school boy's secret, as he had told Hiccup. But this had come with the gauntlet.
Sometimes he wondered what kind of life Toothiana had thought he would lead, considering what her goodbye gift had consisted of. Of course, he had used all of the tools over the years, so maybe his friend just knew him well.
The jammer would set all the cameras within one hundred feet into a 45 second loop.
It allowed him to get to the cell block undetected, but it hardly made his job easier. He still had to get into the cell block. Guards and officials weren't as easy to get past.
Distracting the guards was plausible, but risky. He had to get the princess out without sending the tower into high alert, and without them getting the slightest inclination to call for backup.
"This is not how this job was supposed to go," Jack muttered to himself.
Taking another side step, so he wouldn't be seen while he thought, a cool draft of air wafted over him.
Jack looked up, and felt a grin tug at his lips. This might be easier than he'd thought – provided all went according to the plan forming in his mind.
From his belt he took his ascension cord. With one more cautious glance toward the cell block door, he threw one end of the line.
The magnet at the end stuck fast to the ceiling, a few inches from the edge of the air vent that was blowing cool air over his face, tousling his hair. The vent itself was easily twice his shoulder width, so he knew there would be enough space for him in the air ducts.
With the ascension line clipped to his belt once more, he hit the recoil button.
Bless North and his tinkering. Jack had no idea how the tiny device was able to lift his weight and carry him to the ceiling, but he was grateful.
Suspended in the air just below the vent, Jack took the screwdriver from his belt and undid the single screw in the hinged vent. When the small piece of durasteel was in his hand, he carefully lowered to vent so it wouldn't slam into the wall. He would have to leave it open, and hope the side hallway was dim enough no one would notice until he was long gone.
Hope wasn't something he liked to trust in too much. But sometimes, like now, it was the only option.
He grabbed the inner edge of the vent and pulled himself up into the duct.
While he unhooked the cable from the ceiling that was now below him, he called back the layout of the cellblock. The map he'd looked at was simple, but he hadn't planned to be inside the crawl space.
There were several dozen ways this could go wrong, just off the top of his head.
The duct veered off in several directions, and he headed to the right – the direction of cell block. If it was set up like the cell blocks in every other Imperial facility, there should be a cent in each cell. He just had to figure out which was cell 1138.
The first vent he came to was above the guard station – as were the next two. Through the grates Jack saw two bored looking officials and three troopers in their full body black armor. Behind their helmets it was impossible to read their expressions. But their body language mirrored the official's boredom.
"So glad I got out," Jack muttered under his breath.
He continued to crawl forward, sliding his hands and knees across the bottom of the duct to avoid any sounds that might be loud enough to catch the Imperials' attention. Bored as they were, they would probably jump at anything out of place.
If his guess was right, he could count seven vents, turn left, and then the third one would be the princess's cell.
When he reached the vent, he risked speaking. There was probably some security in the cell, but the jammer would work on microphones as well cameras.
"Hey."
He heard movement in the cell, a good sign.
A moment later, a young woman appeared under the vent, looking up at him with wide green eyes. She was slender, long hair a golden blond, and younger than he had expected. She couldn't be more than eighteen, if that. Pretty, too. Though he had a feeling that was required of royalty.
"Who are you?" she asked.
"You're Rapunzel?" he asked, aware of the seconds ticking by that he did not have time to waste.
She nodded slowly.
A few deft movements and he lowered the grate, again careful not to let it bang against anything.
"I'm Jack Frost," he said. "I'm here to rescue you."
He kicked himself mentally. That couldn't have sounded more ridiculous if he had tried.
"Come on, there isn't much time."
He held his hands down to her.
She hesitated a moment, and Jack recognized a wariness of strangers. But then she nodded and reached up to take his hands. Her palms were soft against his calloused touch. She was also light, so lifting her into the vent was small work.
What caught his attention was her hair. He had noticed the color, and that it was long, but he hadn't noticed that it was endless. Even with her in the duct, the ends of her hair still hung half way between the ceiling and the floor.
"You have got to be kidding me."
He hadn't planned for that, and knew it could cause problems for the plan he did have. Rather, the plan he was still trying to throw together.
"Is all that necessary?" he asked, gesturing to the golden strands she was pulling up through the vent.
"Yes," was her inarguable answer. She was a royal; it was obvious in her tone.
So much for just cutting it off...
Jack wanted to ask how in the universe twenty feet of hair could be 'necessary'... but enough time around Merida, and other women, had taught him to just not ask when it came to women and their habits. He had just accepted that they were crazy and impractical.
"Okay," he sighed. "Follow me. And try not to make too much noise."
She just nodded.
When Jack had secured the grate back into place, he nodded to the left. It would be best not to go back the way he had come, since he had no idea if the princess was capable of being quiet.
In that aspect, at least, he was pleasantly surprised. She was nearly silent as she crawled behind him. The loudest sound was her hair sliding across the floor, which wouldn't be loud enough to hear outside the duct.
A couple times he had to pause to consult his memory of the layout.
"This should be it," he said finally, hoping he was right.
"What about the security cameras?" she asked.
Jack lowered the grate carefully before he answered. "I got it."
He took her hands the way he had to get her out of her cell and lowered her into the hallway beneath them. He jumped down a moment later, glancing up and down the hallway. Nothing was out of place (no officials or troopers in sight). And behind them, just as he had calculated, was another service lift. The Imperials were predictable, if nothing else.
Jack hit the down button. His lips twitched in a grin that they gotten this far. Maybe they wouldn't end up running for their lives this time.
Still, while they waited he checked that his ascension cable was back on his belt. His mind went over his plan again and again, checking for obvious flaws, or better ideas.
When the door slid open he ushered her into the lift, taking a deep breath to calm his nerves. They were almost out.
He hit the button for the second floor.
The lift descended in tense silence for nearly twenty stories before Jack's manners caught up with him.
"Are you all right?" he asked, glancing over at her.
Rapunzel's eyes were straight ahead. Her shoulders rose and fell with her breathing... but she nodded. Both her hands were clenched around a lock of her hair.
"I guess," she murmured.
"Why are you here?" she asked, after a few more tense moments.
Jack glanced over and grinned dryly. "Technically, making a delivery – supplies for the latest party Gothel is throwing."
When he looked over, he saw fury in her eyes. In that expression, he saw that her concern wasn't for herself, but for her people.
Well, at least she wasn't a spoiled brat, like most of the royals he had met.
The door of the lift opened to an empty hall on the second floor. Jack glanced right and left, to be sure, then gestured for the princess to follow him.
"The second floor is where they store hard copies of information, in case the datapods crash," he explained, so the silence wouldn't drive either of them crazy. "Electric security is the strongest, but there's rarely anyone here."
Just to be careful, he checked the jammer to be sure it was still working.
He led her to one of the large windows in the center of the hall. "You're not afraid of heights, are you?"
"No."
He nodded; glad this would be that much easier.
Once more he opened his gauntlet and pulled out one of the last tools Toothiana and North had bestowed on him. It was a small, flat blade, only a few inches long, and appeared to be made of glass, or some kind of crystal. There was a feint yellow tint to the otherwise clear substance.
He noticed Rapunzel eyeing it curiously.
"It's rathia," he said.
He slid the blade into the narrow space before the window frame and the window jam. As he slid it from one end to the other, he felt the tug and pull of wires cleanly sliced by the razor sharp edge. Imperial predictability again.
"It's mined from the volcanoes on Warren, and processed in the nearby caves. Once it hardens, it's virtually indestructible, and it can cut through almost anything.
He jumped up on the window ledge and continued to cut the trip wires on the sides. The top of the window was above his head, but the length of the blade was enough to reach the wires inside. He looked back at the princess with a grin.
"I say 'almost', but I've yet to find something it couldn't cut personally. I just know there are a few substances throughout the universe." Almost for emphasis, he pushed the window open.
A cool, flower scented breeze wafted over them, and he saw Rapunzel's eyes widen, a smile tugging at her lips. It was probably the first time she'd seen the sun since she'd been captured – and Jack was glad for the first time that he'd helped her. She seemed to revitalize as she took a deep breath.
Jack held a hand out, smiling at the life shining in her eyes. She returned his smile, stepping nimbly onto the ledge next to him.
"Down there is the royal gardens," he said, nodding in the direction of the flowering plants between the palace and Imperial Tower. "I have to go check out at the front, so I need you to hide in the gardens until I get there."
As he spoke he took the ascension line from his belt. He fiddled with the settings briefly so it was adjusted for her weight, then leaned out the window. The magnet fired and latched onto the ledge above them.
Turning back, he handed the device to the princess.
"Use this to get down. When you're on the ground, this button will release the magnet, this one will recoil it."
"Okay." She nodded, and accepted it.
Jack was surprised to feel his heart clench as her fingers wrapped around the small cylinder.
"Be careful with it," he said, his voice tight. "It can't be replaced."
"I'll take care of it," she said. "I promise."
If she thought him strange for being so sentimental about the small device, she gave no sign of it. Her smile was gentle and reassuring.
He could only nod. He remembered all the times he had used the ascension cable to climb up and down the Sunset Mountains on Warren. He had rarely needed it to actually carry him, just as a safety line – since everyone had lectured him for a solid hour when they had caught him scaling one of the cliffs without protection.
"Are you all right?" Rapunzel asked.
Jack nodded slowly. Taking a deep breath, he swallowed.
"When you get to the ground, run to the garden and hide,"
He pulled the last device from his gauntlet – a small tracker. The screen to track it was on the inside of the gauntlet itself. North was very much about practicality.
"Don't lose this, its how I'll find you."
She nodded, and slipped it into the pocket of her dress.
In his mind, Jack went over his plan one last time, making sure there wasn't anything else he needed to give her in the way of advice or technology. But he couldn't think of anything.
"Go," he said. "I'll stay here until you reach the garden."
Rapunzel hesitated a moment, then stepped out the window. With the help of the cable, she glided smoothly down.
She paused just long enough to hit one of the buttons on the ascension cable before she started running across the grass without a glance back. Jack rolled his eyes at her failure to follow the simple instruction... then reached out and caught the gadget just before it whizzed past his nose.
Jack couldn't bite back a grin as he caught it, realizing she had known exactly what she was doing in getting it back into his hands.
Looking up, he watched her disappear among the trees that formed the perimeter of the garden.
He flipped up the top of his gauntlet and turned on the small screen to be sure it was tracking her movements.
Okay, I wanted that to be a little longer... but I'm glad it's finally done.
Please review – I would like to know what you guys think!