Chapter Text
There was only one explanation.
Chloe was insane.
She was quieter when she woke up this time.
Her cellmate’s quip didn’t impact her nearly as much this time.
She had to be insane.
Sane people don’t believe that they can control time.
This had to be some trick of her mind.
Some last stage of grief or sorrow or guilt or something.
Just to test that it wasn’t a freak occurrence, she raised her hands up, just like earlier, and tried to recall that inciting incident.
And just like before, the world went quiet.
Then, everything moved in reverse.
She figured out she could stop it by lowering her hands, now.
Afterwards, she just exhaled uneasily.
Well.
If she was insane, she might as well make the best of it.
She looked to her cellmate.
Chloe didn’t really look at her in great detail, before.
She had kind of a pissy, bitchy resting face.
Even with her eyes closed and her lips drawn into a line, she looked like she was judging something.
Her hair was short and blonde.
It was an impressive feat to keep it styled after all of the abuse and mistreatment they had suffered, so far.
She must have put a lot of care into it, before.
“Well? Are you just going to ignore me?”
Chloe hadn’t responded to the quip, earlier.
It distracted her away from her study.
“Maybe. Are you going to keep being a bitch?”
This wasn’t the right approach to take, and Chloe knew it.
But she couldn’t resist.
The woman’s face harshened and she snapped her eyes open and she huffed and she turned her head and ---
She blinked and stopped dead.
She had no words.
Just a troubled expression.
Chloe felt self-conscious all of a sudden.
But it took her a few seconds to vocalize.
“What?”
Her cellmate frowned.
“You’re bleeding.”
Chloe blinked herself.
“What?”
Her cellmate sighed in exasperation and looked away.
“Your nose. It’s bleeding.”
She hesitated,
“It wasn’t doing that five seconds ago.”
Chloe raised both of her hands up to wipe at her nose – since her wrists were still bound together by chains.
Sure enough.
Blood.
Her vision blurred.
But then she shook her head, and breathed in deep.
Now was not the time to lose it.
Even if she was going insane.
She lowered her hands back down.
Her cellmate was looking at her, again.
“Are you going to be okay?”
Chloe made an amused scoff.
“Like you care.”
Silence.
Chloe looked to her, but she was looking back at the wall, again.
Chloe sighed and leaned back on the bench.
The bug was still going to come.
She still had to find a way out of here.
Insanity or no.
This was going to be painful, but she had to make some kind of peace with her cellmate.
The bug wanted her, after all.
Not Chloe.
“Hey listen.”
Her cellmate looked to Chloe again.
“One of those …”
Chloe looked away, towards the bars of their cell, before back to her cellmate,
“things, is going to come. He’s going to try and kill you.”
Her cellmate frowned again.
“But, it’s our only chance of escape. You need to bum rush him when he tries it.”
Her cellmate was quiet for a few seconds.
Considering.
Her lips had been pursed into a fine line.
She then bit her lip, before,
“He’ll just kill me if I try that. Hard pass.”
Chloe sighed and looked away.
She then slumped forward.
She clasped her hands together, though it was kind of a useless gesture when her wrists were bound together anyway.
“Maybe.”
She needed a reason – a lie – to embolden her.
Thankfully, Chloe always had an affinity for spinning stories and facts.
“I fucked with his gun earlier. You’ll have a jammed shot and the element of surprise.”
She straightened her posture, and looked back.
“It’ll be your best shot at escaping alive. I guarantee it.”
Chloe’s cell mate stilled and her face scrunched up in consideration.
She was quiet for a long while.
Eventually, she opened her mouth to say something, but ---
Chloe heard that damn bug coming down the hall way, again.
“Shh. It’s coming. Your choice, princess.”
Chloe looked to the bars that demarcated the prison cell and the hallway.
“Alright.”
Her cellmate’s voice was softer than Chloe had ever heard it.
Progress.
Maybe.
Chloe closed her eyes and stilled her nerve as the bug opened the door and came inside.
She tightly clasped her hands together and tried to keep her breathing steady.
She was insane.
She was insane.
She was insane.
There’s no way she was actually controlling time and changing the outcomes of events.
This was a dream or something.
Or she was insane.
Every grunt, hiss, and click that the bug produced was of the same that Chloe remembered hearing last time.
It was all happening the same exact way.
Then, that frustrated sound, when her cellmate didn’t oblige.
Chloe kept her eyes closed as she heard the struggling for the blaster ---
Click ---
She flinched as the blaster fired.
Quiet.
Thud.
Carefully, Chloe opened her eyes.
Her cellmate had the blaster and her eyes were as wide as could be.
The bug had fallen back onto the floor.
Dead.
Score.
Her plan worked.
But.
This was only step one.
And she frowned.
There was still a lot to do before they were free.
Chloe’s cell mate remained frozen for another few good minutes.
She then peeled herself off of the bench and ambled over, until she could kneel next to the bug’s corpse.
She looked up to Chloe, with an expectant look.
“Aren’t you going to help me search this thing?”
She sounded annoyed, but she kind of always did.
Chloe looked the hallway, and back again.
“Yeah.”
There was that part of Chloe’s brain.
The part that didn’t stop reminding her that she was insane.
That this wasn’t real.
That she couldn’t possibly be doing this.
It didn’t go away.
But Chloe figured out quickly enough that if she had something to do or something else to think about, she could keep it mostly at bay.
At least enough to focus on the task at hand.
Escape.
The search of the bug’s corpse was fruitful, if morbid.
It had another blaster pistol, some ammo, and the key to their cell and associated restraints.
The two women mostly operated in silence as the items were found and restraints unshackled.
They were still silent as they made their way out into the hall way.
“We need a plan.”
Chloe’s cellmate spoke first.
Chloe turned to face her.
“I was thinking of just booking it to the exit.”
Her cellmate groaned and raised a hand to rub at one of her temples.
“There’s going to be way too many of those creatures in the way. You’ll get killed.”
Chloe just scoffed and rolled her eyes.
“There you go again, acting like you give one shit about me.”
Her cellmate shook her head.
“I do, if only because we have a much better chance of actually escaping if we stick together.”
Chloe sighed.
“I can feel the love from here.”
Quiet.
"Then we'll stick together and try to find the exit. Quietly."
"Good."
"Wonderful."
"Fantastic."
"Amazing."
Quiet.
"We should get going."
"We should. If you weren't so busy talking I would have said that already."
Chloe just groaned.
This was going to be so painful.
But.
As much as she didn't want to admit it, working together was the best idea they had so far.
She just hoped she didn't come away from this with an urge to kill her newfound companion.
First, they had to find out where in the ship they were.
They carefully and quietly made their way down the hallway, together.
There were other cells, like theirs, lining the entire way.
Only they were different.
There was a thick, opaque blackness in between the bars for those cells.
It made it impossible to see in.
Or out.
At least they wouldn’t have to deal with anyone begging to let them free.
The end of the hall way exploded out into a massive room.
They were on a platform that ran the perimeter.
It had guard rails.
It looked like there were other similar floors below them.
Several.
All along the walls, hundreds upon hundreds of other cells.
They both gasped when they saw the sheer scale of it.
Chloe stopped short, but soon walked to the guard rail in front of them, and leaned on it.
“Wow.”
Her companion came to her side after some delay, resting on the rail in a similar manner.
“This is immense. There has to be thousands of people here.”
Chloe looked around, examining the sameness of every single inch of this massive room.
It took her a while longer still to fully process the situation.
“We have to ---“
Her companion started, but then made a frustrated sound, smacked the railing, and stood up straight, with her arms crossed.
“Damn it.”
Chloe frowned, and looked to her.
“What?”
Her companion just shook her head.
“Nothing, never mind.”
Chloe just peered at her with a frown.
Her companion hesitated, then sighed wearily.
Chloe wasn’t going to let it go.
So she decided to talk.
“One of my … friends, was with me. When I was captured. He might be somewhere in here.”
She frowned herself.
“But there’s no way we could find him in all of this without getting caught.”
Chloe looked forward, to the infinite cells again.
“Maybe there’s some central location that controls everything. We could bust it and crack open this joint.”
Her companion scoffed.
“They can’t possibly be that stupid.”
Chloe grinned, but her companion wasn’t done speaking.
“Our cell was all analog, anyway. Nothing centralized about it.”
Chloe thought for a few moments, and then sighed.
Her grin went away.
Her companion was right, of course.
They’d have to do this the hard way, or not at all.
Some miserable part of Chloe reminded her that her situation was awfully similar.
And that Max might be in here somewhere, too.
But Chloe didn’t want about that right now.
She had to focus.
“He’d … understand if we left without him.”
Chloe looked at her companion,
“Yeah?”
Her companion started to nod, but ---
A bug hissed to their side ---
They both looked to it ---
The bug had a blaster ---
Chloe’s eyes widened ---
The blaster was right in front of Chloe’s face ---
The bug started to pull the trigger ---
Time slowed.
The color left her world.
Everything went dead silent.
She could hear the blood rushing near her ears.
What the hell?
Time was basically stopped, now.
Chloe took the time to look around.
Her companion was starting to raise her own blaster, but she wasn’t going to get a shot off in time.
The bug seemed to be alone.
How did it sneak up on them, like that?
Was she stopping time like this?
She had so many questions, and that stupid part of her brain that was telling her that she was insane and this wasn’t really happening was having a field day with how unreal this was.
But …
If she was being given the opportunity –
She raised her hand up and tried to rewind time.
She watched the bug slowly lower its blaster and walk in reverse into …
Oh.
One of the many hall way entrances around here.
At least that explained why she didn’t see any guards patrolling.
After the bug was out of sight, Chloe lowered her hand.
She didn’t feel nearly as exhausted from that rewind.
But that was only a few seconds.
“ --- without him.”
“Shh!”
“Wha –“
Immediately, Chloe launched herself at her companion and shoved them both into the hallway that they had come from.
Her companion’s face cycled through quite a few amusing expressions.
Chloe pushed them both up against the wall, and raised a hand to her own lips in a universal “shush” sign.
Chloe was expecting her companion to be difficult again, but she was quiet, this time.
Maybe the suddenness of Chloe’s advance just choked that part out of her.
Either way, they were mere inches apart, now.
Face to face.
She’s kind of cute.
Chloe frowned, and lowered her hand.
Bad thoughts.
She needed to think of something else.
She looked to the side, to the hallway exit.
She watched the bug walk on by.
Chloe waited a while longer before pushing herself off of her companion.
“That was close.”
Chloe kept looking to the exit as she crossed her arms.
She heard her companion inhale sharply before hissing,
“Don’t do that!”
Chloe blinked, frowned, and looked to her.
She opened her mouth to retort about how she just saved them from the bug, but ---
“You’re blushing.”
Her companion was, and it wasn’t particularly subtle, either.
But that just earned her huffing and shaking her head.
“You’re imaging things. Just ---“
She raised a hand up to rub at her temples,
“Don’t --- push me up against a wall like that.”
Chloe shrugged.
“Alright. … I guess.”
She really didn’t need to give her any more reasons to be pissy.
Chloe looked back to the hallway’s exit.
“We should get going. See if we can find an exit of some kind.”
Her companion sighed.
“Yeah. Okay.”
They made good, steady progress along the ship.
Chloe was getting more comfortable with her rewind.
It was easier to ignore the part of her that was still unbelieving the reality of the situation.
She still had way more questions than answers, but.
At least she had a fighting chance to escape.
“My name. It’s Victoria.”
Her companion --- Victoria, apparently --- started suddenly, when they were about to round a corner.
Chloe hesitated, but peeked around it to ensure this was a good enough time to have a chat.
Seeing only empty hallway, she turned around to face Victoria.
Chloe frowned, slightly.
“There a reason you’re telling me this?”
Victoria frowned, too.
She then sighed.
“Because we’re stuck together. And I’d like it if we hated each other a bit less.”
Chloe scoffed and crossed her arms.
But she was smiling, now.
Slightly.
“Yeah? You mocked me for crying. You expect me to just forget about that?”
Victoria sighed.
She was quiet for a few moments.
Thinking.
“No. Not really. I don’t know. I just -”
She breathed in deeply and supported her chin with a hand,
“You reminded me of someone and I got defensive, okay?”
Chloe blinked and went quiet herself.
The stillness felt awkward and unnaturally quiet.
Victoria shifted on her feet uncomfortably.
She wasn’t enjoying the silence.
It wasn’t all that long before,
“Let’s just --- keep moving. Forget-I-said-anything.”
Victoria forced her way past Chloe.
And around the corner.
Chloe watched her go, still speechless.
She understood this Victoria less and less with every interaction.
But then she just sighed wearily.
And caught up.
“My name is Chloe.”
Chloe still kind of hated her for being such a cruel bitch.
But she hated her a bit less after that brief glimpse of vulnerability.
That’s what she wanted, right?
They both smiled.
Slightly.
They continued.
They agreed to not kill guards they came across.
Not out of any mercy, but.
They figured they had a better chance of escaping if they did it quietly.
And the more bodies they made, the less likely they’d be able to do it quietly.
Chloe’s powers worked quiet well to that extent.
It wasn’t very long before they were on what they assumed to be the bottom floor.
Chloe peeked the corner.
Two bugs.
Guarding an exit.
A ramp of some kind.
To the outside.
She quickly pulled her head back to avoid being seen and sighed.
“Two, then we’re outside of the ship. Looks like we’re landed, at least.”
Victoria frowned.
“Do we have anything to distract them with?”
Chloe scoffed, amused.
“Short of one of us going naked, no, I don’t think so.”
Victoria groaned and hid her eyes beneath a hand.
Chloe just grinned.
“But. I think we can just take these two out, and bolt.”
Victoria was quiet for a few seconds.
She lowered her hand and looked thoughtful.
“What if there’s more outside? How do we get off this planet?”
Chloe shrugged.
“We’ll play it by ear.”
Victoria frowned.
“We didn’t come this far on a hope and a prayer.”
Chloe then frowned, too.
She crossed her arms.
“Well then, what’s your idea?”
Victoria made a thoughtful sound.
“I like part of yours. We can shoot these two and then run.”
She breathed in,
“But then we need a ship. Can you fly?”
Chloe looked to the side.
She raised a hand up to rub at the back of her neck.
“Yeah-sure, I think.”
Victoria’s frown deepened.
“If you’re lying to me now after ---“
Chloe raised both of her hands up defensively,
“Easy, easy. It’s not that.”
They both softened.
Chloe sighed.
“Don’t worry about it. If we can find a ship, I can fly it.”
Victoria smiled, gently.
“Good. Alright.”
It was settled.
On three, they both popped out from behind the corner, and both took out one guard each.
There were two other guards on the other side, who came to investigate, though.
They were dealt with, but much less cleanly.
That’s when they bolted.
When they got off the ship, Chloe was almost overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the city around them.
It looked like it went on for hundreds of miles in all directions – including up.
But Victoria didn’t give her the time to process.
They ran.
They ran through the landing pad.
They ran through the nearby space port.
They ran out into the street.
They ran past the degenerates and the low lives.
They kept running, until people stopped being suspicious and shouting at them.
And then they ducked into an alleyway.
They hid opposite a trash repository.
And breathed in deep.
“Eventful.”
Victoria started, first.
But she was breathless, and her word was airy and distant.
They were quiet for a little while past that as they recovered their breathing.
“Where’d you learn to run like that?”
“Where’d you learn to shoot like that?”
“Where’d you?”
They both went quiet again.
In unison, they answered,
“My father ---“
And then they went quiet again.
More out of shock, this time.
Eventually, Chloe resumed,
“We should get going. We still need to find a ship and get out of here.”
Victoria was slow to respond this time, though.
“Yeah …”
And her voice was softer and more thoughtful than it had been since they had met.
Chloe never quite knew what brought out that soft side to her.
But she liked hearing it.
Now that they were done running, they walked.
They needed to not raise much attention, now.
Their clothes actually helped with that.
Slave tatters made them look as destitute as the other low lives around them.
New clothes weren’t a top priority right now, anyway.
They needed to finish escaping.
And for that, they needed ---
“A ship.”
Chloe hissed.
They both looked conspiratorially at one another, then down the alleyway that Chloe was indicating towards.
Down the alleyway there was an opening, some measure of clearing between the giant high-rise buildings all around them.
And in the center of that, a small ship.
A figure in armor was outside, talking to itself.
“We can’t ---“
Victoria started, but seemed to think better of it.
They started to walk towards their objective.
“We can’t kill him for it.”
Victoria finally finished, with a frown on her face.
Chloe gave her a sidelong expression.
“I wasn’t gonna.”
Victoria kept her frown, but didn’t look to her.
“Then what’s your plan?”
Chloe smiled.
“My plan is always ‘play it by ear’. Haven’t you figured this out by now?”
Victoria just groaned and rubbed at her temples.
“You’re fucking impossible sometimes. Alright-fine. You do your thing.”
Victoria lowered her hand and checked her blaster again.
“I’ll back you up if it goes sideways.”
Chloe nodded.
Victoria stopped now, and leaned against the alleyway’s walls.
She regretted that almost immediately, due to all of the grime present on them.
Chloe continued walking up to the armored figure and his ship.
“Hello? Hello. Damn it. Don’t do this to me now.”
The figure sounded increasingly exasperated.
Chloe walked up behind him.
Finally, he realized that he had company, and stopped facing his ship to turn around and face Chloe.
She couldn’t read his expression through the helmet.
But from his build, she figured he had to be a human.
“What the hell do you want? I don’t have any drugs.”
Chloe ran her brain for some lie of fabrication that would cause him to willingly leave.
Nothing immediately came to mind.
He didn’t have any reason to trust her, right now.
“Who were you talking to, just now?”
But maybe he’d trust her if she was sent by whomever he was talking to.
He scoffed.
“Get bent. Like I’m telling you.”
Chloe shrugged.
“Some guy sent me to go find some hard-ass with a ship and give him a message. Figured you might be him.”
He shook his head.
“Nice try, asshole. Cheep-cheep isn’t a man.”
He pulled out a blaster from his side, but had it pointed skywards for now.
“Now, get lost. I ain’t askin’ twice.”
But Chloe had the information she needed, now.
She rewound.
“What the hell do you want? I don’t have any drugs.”
Chloe smiled.
“I’m not here for drugs. Cheep-cheep paid me 50 credits to go find some hardass with a ship and give him a message.”
The armored figure hesitated.
“Yeah? What was it?”
Chloe crossed her arms and nodded back towards the exit.
“That it’s not safe to communicate here and you need to meet her, in person, just down the street a bit.”
When Chloe lied, she always tried to add more details in, to make it seem less likely that she just made it up.
“Jiro’s Diner. Tell the man at the counter ‘cheap meat’.”
The armored figure hesitated, before groaning.
“What the hell did Cheep-cheep get herself into now … All this fuckin’ secrecy and shit …”
He crossed his arms and started to out of the alleyway.
Chloe grinned.
Score.
Suddenly, he paused, and turned his head around.
"200 credits in it for ya' if you watch after my ship. No touching. Just keep other fleabags away from it."
Chloe smiled warmly.
"Sure thing, boss."
He shook his head and continued on walking.
She watched him leave, and then watched a disbelieving, shocked Victoria walk up.
“I … can’t believe you talked him into leaving.”
Chloe grinned massively.
From ear to ear.
“What can I say? I have a golden tongue.”
Victoria hesitated.
“You mean silver tongue.”
Chloe just shook her head.
“Nah, mine’s better than silver. It’s golden.”
Victoria hesitated again, before groaning viciously and shaking her head.
She closed her eyes.
“You are such a fucking dork.”
But she was smiling, gently.
Chloe laughed.
“Hey, fuck you too. I just got us the ship. Be a little appreciative.”
Despite the content of her words, the tone was more playful.
Victoria opened her eyes and forced her way past Chloe.
“Oh I’ll give you appreciative. When this is over with.”
Chloe couldn’t tell if Victoria was actually being playful in response.
Or if she was just hallucinating.
Either way, Chloe followed her.
Onto the ship.
Surprisingly, it wasn’t even locked.
It was a very small ship.
Hardly more than a corridor.
The cockpit had seating for two, though.
It was enough.
Chloe sat down on the pilot’s seat.
She examined the console and all the flight equipment.
Victoria crossed her arms and rested them on the co-pilot’s seat.
She looked to Chloe.
“You can fly this thing, right?”
Chloe nodded.
“Duh. Where we going?”
Victoria hesitated.
“Alderaan.”
Chloe looked up from the controls to peer at Victoria.
“Why the hell would we go there? There’s nothing but stuffy politicians and ---“
“Chloe.”
Chloe frowned, but allowed Victoria to continue.
“My name is Victoria. Organa. Daughter of Bail Organa.”
Victoria sighed.
“I’m a princess. That’s my home.”
Chloe went quiet for a while longer, still.
Is that why that bug wanted her?
“Alderaan it is, then.”
Chloe’s voice came out a little drained.
Victoria frowned, and sat down on the co-pilot’s seat, while Chloe went to starting up the ship.
“Please don’t make a big deal out of this.”
Chloe sighed herself, and stopped to look at Victoria again.
“Not gonna. Just thinking. It explains some things.”
Chloe couldn’t help the slight playfulness that seeped into her voice.
Victoria smiled, despite it all.
“Hey, fuck you too.”
But then she looked forward.
“But thanks. For everything.”
The ship suddenly hummed to life.
“Score.”
Victoria peered at her.
Chloe cleared her throat.
“Um. I meant to do that.”
Chloe did manage to get the ship to take off, and to start their voyage towards Alderaan.
This ship wasn’t really designed for a lot of long space travel.
It was designed more for infiltration on planet surfaces, and jumping to adjacent planets.
But it would have to do.
“So. Who’s Max?”
Victoria started, suddenly, while they were staring at the bunch of nothing of space outside the cockpit.
Chloe frowned and gave her a sidelong look.
“The fuck do you know that name?”
Victoria sighed.
“Because you talk in your sleep. He a boyfriend of yours or ---“
Chloe shook her head.
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Oh.”
Quiet.
It was awkward.
Now they were literally stuck in a box together.
That wasn’t helping.
“Is it because I made fun of you earlier because ---“
“Yes.”
Chloe exhaled slowly.
“And some other stuff. It’s complicated.”
Victoria closed her eyes and relaxed back into the stiff seat of the co-pilot’s chair.
The stillness dragged on, but.
At least it felt a bit less awkward the longer it was.
After what felt like hours,
“When I was younger, I met this … boy.”
There Victoria was with her quiet, thoughtful voice, again.
Chloe looked to her again.
“Whatever you’ve heard being a princess is like, it’s bullshit. It’s boring. Political.”
Victoria inhaled and exhaled loudly.
“If it wasn’t for him, I probably would have gone insane out of boredom.”
But then she frowned.
“I liked him. A lot.”
She shook her head.
“I’m so fucking stupid, though. I never told him.”
Quiet.
“And now, he might be … dead, or … who knows what.”
Chloe was speechless.
She didn’t know what to say in response to all of that.
Victoria was hugging at herself, and looking down.
Maybe on the verge of crying.
Eventually,
“So I just --- you know --- never mind. It’s … stupid.”
Victoria huffed.
But it was too late, this time.
Chloe had already seen the illusion shattered.
She looked forward, away from Victoria.
“It’s okay.”
Chloe said, finally.
More quiet.
But it felt less awkward, still.
“You gotta find your boy. I gotta find my girl.”
Victoria blinked.
“Max is a girl?”
Chloe nodded.
“And I’m fucking stupid too. She doesn’t know how I feel about her, either.”
Victoria smiled sadly.
“Hey.”
Chloe looked sidelong to her again,
“Yeah?”
“Promise me something?”
“Yeah?”
Victoria breathed in deeply.
“If we see him. Again. Promise me you’ll kick my ass until I tell him.”
Chloe looked forward.
“If only you’ll promise to do the same for me.”
Victoria laughed.
“Deal.”
“Deal.”
Chloe hesitated,
“Pinkie swear?”
Victoria groaned.
“Such a dork.”
Chloe laughed.
“Hey. Fuck you too.”
Victoria stood up, suddenly.
“I’m going to see if our friend left anything of value on the ship.”
She hesitated,
“Nice talk.”
Chloe sighed.
“Okay. Yeah.”
Chloe hesitated, too.
“Nice talk.”
Now that there was the stillness, and her life was no longer in danger, Chloe had to think.
About Max.
About her powers.
About what it all meant.
Maybe Alderaan would have some answers for her.
Somehow.
It was better than nothing.
Slightly.