Smile
Sides.
"From the lady."
It was electric blue, whatever it was, with swirls of green skirting the bottom, just waiting to be mixed up into the rest of the drink. He eyed it, speculatively, frowning a little, before glancing up and following the gesture of the bartender to the figure sitting at the other end of the bar.
He wasn't really sure quite what to expect, when he looked up. Some women just liked the uniform, others just liked the authority, the prestige – and sometimes the fear – it presented. Alone, he was an easier target than if he was with his men. An Imperial Captain without a squad of stormtroopers was somewhat less intimidating than one with a squad, especially if he was already drinking.
She was Togrutan, and not dressed like most of the other women in the cantina, in short, clingy clothes and sparkling cheap jewelry. His frown deepened. She wore a heavy brown trenchcoat over her dark clothes, a small bulge just barely visible under her left arm, suggesting she was carrying a concealed blaster. She wasn't smiling, but she wasn't glaring, either. If anything, she seemed…curious. Her dark lips were puckered slightly, and her head tilted infinitesimally to the side. One of her fingers tapped on the rim of her own glass, and she made a small wave of hello at him.
He sighed. All he wanted was a quiet drink for at least a few minutes, preferably an hour or two. Chasing Rebels in this sector was like chasing ghosts, they'd strike and then fade out into hyperspace before any cruisers could make it into the area. The persistent guerilla tactics were causing headaches for anyone in command. The woman, though…who knew? Maybe she was a loyalist, willing to become an informant. She looked like a spacer, maybe a smuggler. It was about time he caught a break.
Polishing off his own smaller shot of whiskey, he scooped up the more colorful drink she sent him and moved down the table. She turned on her stool and set an elbow on the glowing surface of the bar, white brows rising. Her facial patterns were blunt looking; a wide stripe down her forehead, a pair of ovals on her cheeks, and another stripe down her chin. Still, she was a handsome female for her species. Togruta always did have a certain elegance.
"Ashla," she said once he was standing before her.
He set his drink down, lifted his chin and tucked his hands behind his back. "Captain Bonteri."
She smiled, then, and something flickered in her blue eyes as she checked out the pips attached to his chest, signifying his rank. "Captain, huh?" she drawled, taking a sip of her nearly watered down drink. Judging by the dregs, it was the same as whatever she sent him. "Not sure how I feel about that."
Lux frowned, not sure what to make of the statement, or the laughter in her eyes. After a moment, the laughter faded into something more serious.
"Quite an honor, to be a Captain," Ashla continued, now leaning her cheek against her palm. "Can't say I'm too thrilled about the grey, though."
Stiffening, he ran a hand absently over the fabric of the front of his grey uniform. It was standard for officers. This conversation didn't seem to be making much sense, and she wasn't acting like she had any information for him. Stiffly, he asked, "Is there something you needed Miss…Ashla?"
"Just…wondering. Why join the Empire?"
"I don't see how that's any of your business," he retorted, becoming irritated. He enlisted once he was old enough, just a few years after the Republic fell. At the time, it'd been a relief, to see the Republic fall, even if the Separatist movement had fallen with it. The Empire served as a unifying force, and though it could be ugly work, it was better than the violence of the Clone Wars, better than the corruption and rot of the old Republic.
Ashla smiled again, this time a bit sadly. "It's not. I'm sorry for asking. I suppose in a way it makes a certain sense."
Baffled, he stared at her, thinking. Did he know her? Was that why the strange line of questioning? He tried to remember the last time he'd talked to a Togruta female. There weren't many non-humans in the fleet; it was discouraged. Lux had never quite agreed with the exclusivity of humans, the pro-human, anti-alien stances taken up by the Empire. It seemed illogical, considering the vast numbers of non-humans in the galaxy. Still. He stared harder, trying to recall. Something tugged far in the back of his mind, but between the slight buzz of his drink, the steady jump music thrumming through the cantina, and Ashla's various odd statements, he couldn't quite pull the memory to the surface.
Ashla polished off the last of her drink and stood, dusting herself off. "I wish I could stay a bit longer, Captain, but it's probably not a good idea." She looked him up and down and smiled again, warm if solemn. "Maybe in a few years, things will be different."
A spacer, probably a smuggler, who thought it was a bad idea to talk to an Imperial Captain? He scowled. "You're a Rebel sympathizer."
Ashla chuckled, a little sadly. "When's the last time you met a Rebel sympathizer, Captain Bonteri?"
He was tempted to draw his blaster pistol and march her to the outpost, but an odd feeling of recollection gave him pause. Though the Rebel attacks were growing more frequent and more daring, they still refused to battle openly, or engage on planet. Shooting them down or analyzing their battle tactics didn't equate to meeting them. "You would be the first."
She stepped forward, slipping around him, looking over her shoulder with a smirk while folding her arms. "I don't seem so bad, do I?"
He'd seen this before. He was so sure of it. Grimacing, Lux wracked his brain, trying to remember why this seemed so familiar.
"It's good to know there are some good people on your side," Ashla stated, still with her strangely sad sort of smile. "You don't seem so bad, Captain Bonteri. I'm glad of that, at least."
She inclined her head gracefully, her tall, striped montrals dipping towards him for a moment, before she turned and left, quickly mingling into the crowd.
For a moment, he stared at her retreating form, her montrals visible over the shoulders of most of the men. He murmured, to himself, lips barely moving, "I don't seem so bad." A petite Togruta female, on a different side of a war, who didn't seem so bad.
His head snapped up and he rushed forward, pushing aside any beings that got in his way. "Ashla" was heading up the steps towards the exit, rounding the corner just as he shoved another body aside, trying to force his way through the crowd, causing exclamations and irritable grumblings in his wake.
Taking the steps two at a time, he rushed outside, stopping just outside the exit and looking around. The sea of sentient beings drifted past, in every shape and color imaginable, some laughing, some shouting, some hurriedly moving on their way.
And Ahsoka Tano was nowhere to be seen.
Lux Bonteri closed his eyes for a moment and sighed. It'd been…what now? Fifteen years? Since the day she and Senator Amidala came to visit his mother.
It'd been a time of great doubt. He was a teenager, trying to understand a war that took both of his parents from him, one at a time. When he was young, they all belonged to the Republic. But after the war broke out, and the galaxy wide conflict brought with it conflict of a more personal nature, Ahsoka made him think more carefully about who and what the "other side" was.
It seemed she was doing it again. She was a Jedi. Of course she'd be a Rebel.
Part of him wanted to call in the troops, place orders to lock down the spaceport, to scour the city for her and her accomplices. He knew that was what he should do. Duty dictated it.
But it wasn't what was right.
"You didn't turn out so bad either," he said aloud, earning a couple of odd looks from passerby.
It didn't change anything. If they met again, he'd have to hunt her down, fight her, chase her from one end of the galaxy to the other.
Today, though, it seemed he just bumped into an old friend. None of the Empire's concern, really.
From across the plaza, tucked into the shadows of a side street, Ahsoka watched him smile.
I'd been wanting to write something involving these two for awhile, and was considering making this one of the epilogues in This is Not Our Fate, but decided I'd put it here, instead, since it fit the theme. This almost certainly fits into my Said the Joker universe (note Ahsoka's brown coat , hidden lightsaber and pseudonym).
And no, I'm not switching to Luxoka. :P But I do like the idea of them as friends.
~Queen