Invisible Smoke ➵ l.s. (editing)

TWO ☾

Time had stopped behaving like time. Elara didn't know if they had been there a day, a week, or a month. There was no day or night aboard the Death Star.

Space station the size of a moon and they couldn't even install a clock anywhere?

The cell was cold and quiet. Sickeningly so. She and Leia hadn't spoken a word in ages. Not that they were angry at each other, there just wasn't exactly a whole lot to talk about in a place like this.

Leia sat on the bench, back straight, arms crossed, while Elara chose the floor, knees hugged to her chest, head pressed to the wall.

Then — the door hissed open.

Two guards marched in.

Elara flinched. Her body instinctively tensed before her brain could catch up. Then came the shape sent a chill down her spine.

Vader.

Trailing behind him was an interrogation droid. It hovered without sound, arms unfolding like a metal spider, one syringe already extended — long, sharp, glinting under the lights.

Vader came to a stop directly in front of Leia.

"And now, Your Highness," he said, voice cruelly calm, "we will discuss the location of your hidden Rebel base."

Leia met his gaze but didn't answer.

Elara barely had time to register the dread crawling up her spine before a guard moved toward her. Without ceremony, he grabbed her arm and yanked her upward.

"Get up," he snapped.

Her legs weren't ready. She staggered halfway to her feet, nearly falling — and paid for it instantly.

He slammed the butt of his blaster into her ribs, driving a sharp, hot pain through her side. She gasped, stumbling into the wall with a thud, barely catching herself.

Now upright, barely steady, the guard kept her pinned there, his grip tight. This certainly was going to leave a bruise later.

Then the droid moved. Its needle lowered toward Leia's arm.

Leia cowered back just slightly. Still silent.

Elara's breath hitched, and she moved — just barely — a small, instinctive lurch forward toward her friend. "Don't—"

This was a foolish mistake. To think she could stop this. For force sake, they were their prisoners — she knew she couldn't stop anything they wanted to do. The guard holding her reacted to her protest immediately. He shoved her harder against the wall, keeping her in place as the second one stepped in behind her.

And before she could dare protest again, a soaked cloth was slammed over her mouth and nose.

The smell hit her violently — sweet, artificial, and utterly nauseating.

She twisted in reflex, trying to pull free, but there was nowhere to go. Within seconds, her body betrayed her. Her limbs turned heavy, knees buckled, vision blurred. All noise sounded now like she was being held underwater.

The last thing she saw before the blackness was the needle piercing Leia's arm.

The next moment, all she knew was that her lungs ached, no, burned, from whatever the Empire soaked that cloth with.

The world spun so violently she stayed exactly where the guards had dropped her, face pressed to the cold metal floor. The pounding in her head didn't help either.

She breathed in shallow, shaky gasps. The air was too thin. Too still. Something flickered in her vision — the overhead light, or maybe it was just her own eyes. She blinked, taking in the scene clearly.

The bench was empty. Leia was gone.

She didn't panic. Not right away. Her mind was still too fogged for that. She didn't even know how long she'd been out. Force, she wasn't even sure she was still alive.

This is not happening.

The cell door hissed open.

She's barely managed to tilt her head toward the sound. Harsh, fast footsteps echoed, followed by two shadows, one shoving the other forward, before disappearing with another hiss of the door.

As her vision cleared, the shadow turned into Leia, crumpled on the floor, trembling.

"Leia?" Elara's voice was hoarse, barely above a whisper.

"It's gone."

Elara blinked, then braced her palms against the floor. Her limbs protested, but she pushed herself upright, inch by inch, until she was sitting.

She looked at Leia, really looked at her — the way her shoulders shook, the way her face had gone slack with shock.

"What's gone?"

Leia didn't answer right away. Just stared ahead, like she was still somewhere else. Then she spoke, flat and quiet:

"Alderaan."

°°°

With Alderaan gone, she and Leia had nothing left — just each other and the clothes on their backs. Not that it mattered. Their executions could come any minute now.

She was nearly asleep when the cell door hissed open.

A Stormtrooper filled the doorway. Elara didn't move. Leia barely looked up. Both assumed he was here to take them to their deaths.

But something was... off. He lingered in the entrance, uncertain, fidgeting with his blaster. He was smaller than most — too small, almost.

Leia squinted. "Aren't you a little short for a Stormtrooper?"

"Huh? Oh — the uniform!" He ripped off his helmet, revealing a boy with tanned skin, tousled blond hair, and hopeful blue eyes. "I'm Luke Skywalker. I'm here to rescue you."

"You're who?"

"I'm here to rescue you," he said again, this time faster. "I've got your R2 unit. I'm here with Ben Kenobi!"

Leia's gaze snapped to attention. "Ben Kenobi? Where is he?"

Before he could answer, she was already on her feet, pulling Elara up with her. They rushed past him, the urgency overriding all exhaustion.

They stepped out into chaos.

Blaster fire echoed through the corridor, sharp and relentless. Smoke curled along the floor.

They nearly collided with a tall, brunette man, also in a trooper uniform, and a Wookiee bursting around the corner.

The only path forward was the one lit up with red fire.

Leia turned sharply on Luke. "You've managed to cut off our only escape route!"

"Maybe you'd prefer your cell, Your Highness!" the other man shot back.

A fresh volley of fire forced them all to flinch, ducking back into cover. Elara found herself pinned to the wall, caught between Leia and Luke, her heart hammering against her ribs.

Luke fumbled with the comlink on his belt. "Threepio! We've been cut off! Are there any other ways out of the cell bay?"

a/n
this is still a little rough, but I was just editing what I already had written when I originally write this back in ~2019, rather than rewrite the whole thing.

[edited; 07/07/2025]