Waves on the Sand

Chapter 5

Chapter Text

When he didn't hear from her within minutes, Lux pulled one of his shirts back on, along with a pair of boardshorts, and headed down to reception.

"Have you seen..." He began.

"A very angry Togruta who likes to swear in Mandalorian?" The receptionist said. "She came through five minutes ago and borrowed one of the rental bikes. Lux winced. He'd expected her to head for the hotel bar, not take off on her own. Knowing his girlfriend, she was probably on her way to a dive bar, in a state of high dudgeon, and prepared to tell the world about her problems, at length. He didn't waste any time after that. Nodding his thanks, he hurried through, swiping his room key, and firing up a bike.

One of the many things he knew he'd never equal Ahsoka as was as a pilot, driver or helmsman. Instead, he cruised at the fastest speed he knew he could definitely control a speeder bike at, knowing that his best option was to find which bar she was in.

Given her prior experience, and having met several of her clones, he suspected she'd have headed for the dingiest, most run-down dive bar she could find. There was one difference, though, that he knew she hadn't considered for a second. There wouldn't be a battalion of clones on hand to protect her.

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Ahsoka jumped off the speeder bike she'd borrowed from the front of the hotel. Her room key had started the engine, so she supposed it was something acceptable for her to borrow. The side of her that encouraged risk taking steered her straight past a number of well-lit clubs, and into a dimly lit dive.

"Had a row with the boyfriend, darlin'?" the bartender asked, as Ahsoka stalked up to the bar and took possession of a barstool, ignoring the heavily tattooed swoop-biker who shot her a glare from next to the pool table.

"He's just.... argh..." Ahsoka spat. "He treats me like I need protecting from everything. Jet Juice, on the rocks, no lemon."

As the man reached under the bar, Ahsoka didn't notice the way he hesitated for a second, before coming back up with one of the bottles. "You sure you can handle it?" He asked.

"I'm not a kid." Ahsoka replied, before the cocktail was placed in front of her, and she slammed back half of it in one go, feeling the alcohol burn its way to her stomach. There was a very slight salty taste that wasn't normally there, almost completely masked by the strong alcohol.

Slugging the rest back, she pushed the glass back towards the bartender, who refilled her drink. Even though Ahsoka was fairly light, she could usually handle two or three potent cocktails before starting to feel the effects.

For some reason, this one seemed to be hitting her harder and sooner than she expected.

And then it hit her.

I've been drugged. She thought, staggering to her feet as she tossed perhaps a dozen credits on the bar, and staggered out of the bar, hoping she could find somewhere safe to sleep it off, already drawing on the Force to speed up the detoxification process.

She hadn't got more than a few steps up the street when an arm curled around her shoulders and led her away from the bar, and towards a nearby alleyway, shadowed by the setting sun.

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Dropping his bike off next to another, identical model, Lux scanned the surrounding streets, which were full of pulsing music, humanoids in a wide variety of states of dress, intoxication and foreplay, and brightly lit.

He immediately ruled out that direction. Ahsoka didn't like throbbing bass music, as it made her feel like her head was inside the speaker. Another direction yielded a quieter street, several bars he wouldn't personally enter without a military escort...

And an orange togruta, clearly worse for wear, being led towards an alleyway by a large human. Her face tilted towards him for a moment, and he caught a flash of Ahsoka's facial markings. The human, he noticed to his disgust, had his hand looped around Ahsoka's shoulders and across her chest.

Reaching under his jacket, he hauled out his blaster, and flicked off the safety. With it safely extended in front of him, he stalked towards the alleyway, knowing exactly what he would find.

Inside, the well-built, blond human had pulled down his trousers, and was in the process of using an... unresisting... Ahsoka's sports bra to tie her hands behind her back. Ahsoka, for her part, was apparently out cold, with occasional small noises of discomfort being all she was producing.

Lux didn't waste any time. He raised his pistol, lining up the sights between the scumbag's shoulder blades, and paused, before switching the selector from kill to stun, then snapping off his shot. The concentric blue rings of a stun blast slammed into the man's shoulder blades, dropping him on top of Ahsoka.

With a growl, Lux hauled him off, roughly.

Before anything else could happen, there was a rather familiar descending 'Be-woot' from behind him, along with blue strobes. Glad he always kept his senatorial ID (or a copy of it at least) in a flat pocket, he held it up calmly, and turned to deal with the authorities.