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Things didn't go according to plan.

They had made it to Grakkus' palace without any trouble. It was an enormous building, square and clay-colored, with a cavernous, decked out entrance hall that was already filling up when they entered. The party had been easy to join, with plenty of edges and corners to slip into, to watch the other guests, and to follow the Hutt's triumphant entrance as he introduced his prize. The crowd wasn't given much of a look at it, surprising no one, only assurances that it was highly valued by the Empire. It looked like nothing more than a large black box, and they had watched as it was carted away, down one of the side halls. Chopper had slipped away to see if he could plug into the palace's computer system, while Hera and Kanan slowly set off toward their quarry. And then –

It's about an hour and a half later, and Hera can still hear the music from the party, the bass beating through the dusty walls, even a whisper of the talk of the revelers. Which is all the more impressive given that she must be at least two floors beneath it, in a small, dark cell. There's a flickering lamp in the ceiling, and a small, barred window in the door, filtering in the dim light from the hallway. Hera is sitting on the floor, her hands shackled to the wall on either side of her. She can feel the low buzz of the shock collar against her throat, but she's not paying much attention to it.

Instead, she has spent most of the last ten minutes trying to contort herself to get close enough to kick Kanan in the shins. He hasn't moved since he was stunned with some kind of electrorod Hera had never seen before. It must've really packed a punch, because he's been out for nearly thirty minutes, as Hera finally manages to shove her feet close enough to him to stamp against his leg.

"Kanan!" she hisses. "Kanan, wake up!"

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Eventually, the footsteps reach the end of the hallway. They stop for a moment, and then another door opens, and closes.

Hera closes her hands. "Okay, that's a ten minute rotation. Kanan, there's a switch on the wall -"

She nods her head to the door, where there's as a small panel with three blue, horizontal switches. "Do you think you can hit the top two?"

"Ten minutes?" Kanan asks quietly, blinking heavily and shaking his head to clear it. His vision's still a little blurry, and centering himself in the Force is more challenging than usual.

"I -- gimme a minute. Things are -- "

He breaks off, trying to reach up and rub his eyes, but the shackles on his wrists get in the way.

"Huh? Oh. No, I've got it."

He has to do this. One deep breath, two, and then he reaches out with the Force to try to flip the first of the switches, deliberately not even trying to lift his hand in its usual gesture. It might help him focus, but since he's all tied up at the moment, it will only be a distraction he doesn't need.

click

Now for the second.

When he hits the first, the shackles around Hera's wrists retract into the wall. She jumps up at once.

"I can get it," she says, hurrying to the doorway. She flips the second switch, and Kanan's shackles also snap open and slip back into the wall.

"I think the door's a simple deadbolt," Hera says, standing on her toes to peek out the door and into the hallway beyond. "I heard it lock when they brought us in."

Kanan hisses again as he pulls his wrists away from the wall, rubbing them lightly as he stands. He's already reaching out into the area around him, trying to determine where people actually are, and where --

Where there might be ways to move around unseen.

"I can manage that," he says, voice only a little slurred. It's getting better every second, but they don't exactly have time to wait for him to recover fully.

"You're keeping count of the rotation time?" He knows the answer's yes, but the repetition can only help focus him. And he needs that little nudge, just now.

"Now closer to eight minutes," she answers, stepping out of the way of the door.

"That leaves the shock collars, but I'm pretty sure they have to be triggered. Chopper could deactivate them - we've been out of contact long enough that he should've noticed by now."

"Right."

His tone and expression both firm at that reminder that the clock is ticking, and he steps toward the door, one hand held out as he reaches with the Force and slides the deadbolt free.

"Here's hoping they keep these hinges well-oiled," he mutters, reaching out to nudge the door open.

They evidently don't, but it doesn't seem to matter. There's no other sound in the hallway, aside from the party still raging on above them.

"I think they're still distracted," Hera says, taking one cautious step out of their cell. "And I'm pretty sure they just think we're petty thieves."

"Well, we sort of are," Kanan says, frown lines drawing down between his brows.

"Do you hear that?"

It doesn't sound like a party, but maybe . . . maybe this place just has strange echoes.

She turns back to him, staying still for a second. (It takes some effort.)

"You mean the party?"

"No, I don't think . . . no. But it's this way."

He gestures, pointing farther down the hallway.

"For what that's worth. I can't sense anyone down there, but I can hear . . . "

She turns to look down where he's pointing.

"Is this a 'we should follow it' kind of sound?"

"I think . . . "

Kanan reaches out a little more, stretching the usual bounds of his Force-use these days. It's a sad murmur of many voices, the opposite of the party up above. And, on occasion, it's punctuated by something sharper. something almost familiar.

"I almost hate to say it, but yes. Yes, we should. I don't imagine it'll take long, and maybe we'll find something helpful. I . . . I'm pretty sure we will."

"Well, it's good to have a lead."

Hera's fairly sure she could lead them back they way they were brought, but they would almost inevitably run into a guard going that way. She nods her head forward, waiting for Kanan to lead the way.

Kanan moves ahead without hesitation, brow still furrowed. Nothing's getting louder, but he feels more certain.

More . . . at home, which should be more alarming than it is.

"Here."

He doesn't pause outside the third door down the hallway, just reaches out and nudges the door open.

"I don't think it's a way out but . . . "

Where is the sound coming from? (He knows it's not a sound, it's in his mind and not his ears, but it still feels very much like voices in a vast, echoing hall.)

There's a sound at the far end of the hallway. Hera grabs Kanan's wrist.

"Good enough." She pulls him through the door with her, turning quickly to slide it closed again behind her. Then she presses herself to the door, the cone of her ear tipped against it, her hand held out toward Kanan again.

As they wait, lights along the ceiling of the room blink on. It's not until she hears the footsteps pass on the other side of the door that Hera turns, looking around the space they've found.

It looks like another hall, only this one is lined on both sides with labeled drawers. She steps along one side, spotting one label reading 'medical supplies,' another 'holos,' and then -

"Tools." Hera presses her hand to the drawer, and it slides open, revealing a mass of various tools and instruments that look as though they've been haphazardly tossed inside over years. Despite the mess, Hera begins to dig in through it, murmuring, "Oh, perfect.

"I can deactivate the collars with these, hold on -"

Edited 2018-02-09 07:09 (UTC)

"That's good," Kanan says, but his expression remains distracted, and he begins wandering idly around the space, looking for . . . .

He's not sure what. Only that sense of muttering in a crowded room grows louder and more pervasive, and much as he'd love to get this collar off (or at least deactivated) --

What's driving him is something completely different.

"I think it's over here, what I'm -- "

Hera's also distracted, rummaging through the tools. She picks out a magna-driver, tuning stylus, and power tester, and then steps over to him.

"Here, stay still a second -"

"Huh?"

Hera's closeness pulls him out of his own head, if only a little.

"All right, if you're sure -- "

He's growing more and more certain, himself, about where he needs to go next. There's a metal storage locker at one corner of the room, and that's . . . there's . . .

It's where they are. Whatever and whoever 'they' is.

She lightly presses down on his shoulder, moving him to lean forward so that she has easier access to the back of his collar. Hera works slowly - a careless mistake and, well, she doesn't really want to think about what could happen.

But after a few minutes, the buzz against Kanan's neck goes quiet. Hera takes a step back.

"All right. Don't take it off, they won't be able to tell it's shorted out."

Edited 2018-02-10 04:44 (UTC)

"Good idea," Kanan says, still half-distracted.

And then, even more slowly --

"Do you want me to do yours? I'm not sure you can reach on yourself."

It's an effort to pull his mind away from all that noise, but he makes it, because . . . this is important.

"Yeah."

She holds out the tools to him. "I'll talk you through it."

He's got a slight headache by the end of it, holding his focus so tight and narrow on what he's doing (and also so that the murmuring of whatever else is in here doesn't distract him at a key moment) -- but eventually the collar light clicks off.

He takes a deep breath, swapping the tools to one hand so he can rest the other on Hera's shoulder, patting lightly.

"Right, that's done. You make it look so easy."

It's anything but.

And then his head turns, inevitably, toward the metal storage locker in the back of the room.

"I got plenty of practice."

She holds out her hands to take the tools, figuring they might be useful for something else in here, but then she follows his gaze toward the back of the room.

"Sorry, I was - what were you saying before?"

He winces a little, shaking his head.

"Ah. Right. Sorry."

Kanan can't quite stop himself from looking at that locker, and though his words are directed to Hera, he's not facing her at all.

"I -- there's something here. It's . . . calling me. Not dangerous, just -- sad."

"Well -"

They don't have much time, but then, Kanan's senses were what let them find this room in the first place.

"Can you find it?"