They snuck out of the villa shortly before dawn in a brief interval between guard rotations. It was a process Ahsoka found laughably simple, but the household staff probably thought itself too well protected by their ray shield to bother with tighter security. She could use that, if it came to it.

Still, that shield was going to be a problem. It covered such a large surface area that Lux saw no need to go beyond it to find a secluded place to train. Ahsoka still had no idea if the shield's filters were programmed to allow her through – and even then, Zakhan had promised to link her slave tracker to Lux's person, but how far she could get from him before it activated was a mystery.

She hadn't dared ask for information on either point thus far. Her alliance with Lux was stable for now, but that didn't mean she could let her guard down. If he'd been involved with a rebellion against the Separatists during the Clone Wars, it was a safe bet he agreed with Republic ideals or at least disagreed with Confederate ones. But consorting with Jedi was another matter entirely.

"The spot I was telling you about is just up ahead," Lux said. Ahsoka glanced up, scanning the jungle for a break in the trees. They hadn't been following any set path she'd been able to make out, but confidence and nostalgia wreathed Lux in the Force like twin plumes of colored smoke. He knew exactly where he was going.

"What's the terrain like?" she asked, tucking the couch cushions she was carrying a little tighter under her armpits. Lux had insisted they were the firmest he'd been able to find in the villa, but Ahsoka still thought they had too much give even for makeshift punching bags. She wasn't going to be picky, though. If she wanted to uphold her part of their agreement, she couldn't afford to be.

"It's a flat clearing protected from the wind on the seaward side by a few boulders. I used to go there for picnics. The ground wasn't rocky, as I remember it."

"Good. I don't want you to break any bones if I throw you. We're trying to stay under the radar, and that wouldn't look suspicious at all."

" 'Throw me'?" Lux echoed, incredulous. He snorted before Ahsoka could fire back a snappy comment on his faith in her, and she held back a smile. "Well, I guess I got myself into this. Just what exactly are you going to be teaching me?"

Ahsoka wished she knew. She was a capable leader, but she'd never felt the same certainty in a teaching role. She'd always told Anakin as much when Temple rotations or mishaps on the frontline made sharing her skills with others instead of just briefing them necessary. He'd been convinced she would grow into it  – but she was nearly the same age he'd been when he'd started teaching her, and still nothing.

Though she and Anakin had clashed often in the early days, he'd always been able to rely on what Obi-Wan had taught him, and the preliminary teachings she'd received in the youngling crèche. Ahsoka couldn't teach Lux how to fight at her level – a Jedi's level – when his connection to the Force was too weak to levitate a pebble.

She wondered if that counted as an inherent flaw in their bargain.

They rounded a group of palm trees – they often grew in tight knots here, like several trunks shared the same root system – and the clearing came into view. It was larger than she'd expected. "That depends," she said, stalling for time.

"On what?"

Think, she urged herself. How did Anakin start me off? I was a prodigy, but young, for a Padawan. How did he make sure the two of us were on the same page?

Blessedly, the memory came back quickly. Once they'd returned Jabba's son and were en route to their next mission, they'd commandeered a cargo hold to spar in. Anakin had told her to fight as hard as she could with the most advanced techniques she knew. He'd taken none of the obvious avenues of victory against an inferior opponent, and the fight had lasted over an hour. Then, finally, disarming her, he'd tossed her a ration bar, praised her victories, and corrected her mistakes.

Maybe she could do the same thing here.

They stopped in the center of the clearing. Lux unfolded the blanket he'd been carrying and set it on the ground, weighing down one corner with a backpack he'd filled with rations and water canteens. Ahsoka tossed the cushions down on the opposite corner. When she realized Lux was still looking at her expectantly, she breathed a silent prayer this would work. Then, she cleared her throat and began.

"I'll be assessing your skills to start," she said, turning away and beginning her old stretching routine. Thankfully, the serving girl whose clothes Ahsoka was borrowing until the tailor could make her some new ones liked to wear leggings and shirts built for exercising in her free time. "First, tell me what your friends in the uprising taught you."

"Why should that matter? It was years ago. I've learned a lot since then."

"Did you have any combat training before that?"

"No. Just on how to fire a blaster."

"Were there any people you knew there who'd been properly trained?"

"Ah..." Lux hesitated, and she could tell he'd seen her point. Good. "No."

"Then those are the first lessons you'll have to unlearn," she explained. She doubled over to touch her toes, and the rough leaves of a bluish fern tickled her montrals. "Some of them may have served you up until now, but they were meant for fighting droids and rare skirmishes with King Rash's military. Not me. And certainly not the types the top dogs would send after you if they cared to."

"All right. Saw was the best fighter we had, the one who taught all the others, and he was a brawler. All he knew was a rudimentary form of Corellian kickboxing. We all wore metal armguards we'd fashioned from scrap durasteel to defend against vibroblades, but I never fought someone with a blade when I was unarmed."

Ahsoka pursed her lips. She had her work cut out for her. Hopefully that trainer Lux didn't think very highly of had still managed to pass on something to override his original teachings.

"Well, the only thing we can really work on out here is your hand to hand combat. Run the circumference of the clearing ten times, do a set of sit-ups and a set of push-ups, then jog another ten times. Then, we'll see what you can do."

Lux wilted.

"Do you want to be dealing with muscle soreness for the next two days? Because that's what's going to happen you don't warm up before I kick your sheb."

He set off on his first circuit, grumbling as he went. Ahsoka grinned. No use warming up when she wasn't even going to break a sweat, unless she wanted to set a good example. But there would be plenty of time for those later.

Ahsoka sat down cross-legged as Lux passed her on his first circuit, meeting his dirty look with a bright smile. Then, she shut her eyes and pressed a hand to the rich dark earth, digging her fingers in deep when it yielded before her. For the first time since her arrival at the villa, she reached out with her senses.

Her presence in the Force became a climbing vine, stretching leafy tendrils into the vastness beyond itself in search of a new anchor. The auras of billions of life forms – trees, undergrowth, small animals, predators, sentients – sang with an energy that permeated the entire surface of the planet. Their individual songs of birth and life and decay and death were just small parts of a grand overture. Ahsoka dove into it more deeply than she usually dared, hunting for lapses in the rhythm, countermelodies that should not have been.

Connected to the global ecosystem as she was, she found them quickly – the Elites with their midichlorians pieced together from dozens of different Jedi and implanted in a new host body. The tiny creatures screamed into the Force, cries of agony at their unnatural treatment and sorrow for the symbiotic relationship they had lost. It was said only the most rigid of conditioning could keep a person sane once the process was complete. Ahsoka wasn't surprised; the pain had been nearly as madness-inducing to be on the other end, being forced to give instead of receive.

She counted three hundred Elites on the surface. Only a deeper meditation, the kind that would probably get her detected, would allow her to sense if any were on the other semi-habitable planets in the system or aboard starships in orbit.

Ahsoka sighed in relief when she realized she and Lux were far enough away from the monitored inhabited areas to escape the search grid. She wouldn't fight with them – that would make an already unfair fight next to impossible for Lux – but using her senses to track his level of frustration or comprehension would help a lot.

Lux came to a stop beside her, breathing heavily and radiating such a sense of bedraggled pride Ahsoka was sure he hadn't skipped anything. She must've been meditating longer than she'd thought.

His quick shallow breaths broke off as he scooped a canteen of water out of the backpack and began to drink. Tired of relying on her hearing alone, she opened her eyes and turned to him. The color rose in her montrals and lekku instantly.

It wasn't particularly warm even with the boulders blocking most of the wind off the Inland Sea, but with the warm-up, Lux had worked up a sweat. His shirt clung to his chest, giving her another glimpse of the slim, strong torso she'd tried so hard not to stare at on that morning with the bath towel. (Had that really been only three days ago?) His hair was plastered into spikes, and as he combed it with his other hand to ruffle it free, he caught her staring – and what a smile it was he gave her.

Stars, he was beautiful. Ahsoka spent a few long seconds baffled she hadn't noticed until now, before remembering she had – little things she'd seen in him but brushed aside instinctively. Dwelling on aesthetic values alone wasn't the Jedi way.

"Get a grip, Ahsoka," she muttered, tearing her eyes away from him. "You've seen sweaty men on the regular since you were fourteen. This is nothing new."

"I'm sorry?"

She knew Lux hadn't heard her – no Human would have, with ears as unsophisticated as theirs – but she still didn't trust herself to look up. "I said, 'Good job. Now that you've gotten your blood flowing, the real fun can begin.' "

Her word choice made her want to smack herself as soon as she'd spoken. She smiled through it as blandly as she could, even when Lux raised a brow at her and asked, "The 'fun' part being the one where you kick my sheb?"

"Yep."

"Oh. Lovely."

He put his arms behind his head and stretched his triceps leisurely. Then, because the universe had clearly made up its mind that this was not going to be Ahsoka's day, his shirt rode up. She swallowed a curse, dropping into a ready stance.

As much as she wanted to, it wasn't safe to release her feelings into the Force with so many Elites on the same planet. Maybe her battle instincts would take over and push her out of whatever frame of mind this was. Blessedly Lux took the hint and got low as well, tossing the canteen away to bring his fists up and guard his face.

He surprised her by aiming the first punch. Ahsoka dodged easily, and they shared a grin. Then she snapped her body forward, and began the fight in earnest.

"So?"

Lux twitched beneath her. Ahsoka had pinned him to the ground with his right arm behind his back and his left above his head some minutes before, and twitching was the most motion he could manage. He wasn't pleased about that, but so far he hadn't been able to break her grip.

"Gods above, it's the sixth time I've said it, but you're stronger than you look!"

"Come on, think," she pressed. "I was nice enough to tell you how to get out of this two hours ago. In another situation, you might've been killed by now."

"Well I'm not dead yet, thankfully," he panted, "and having my face smushed to the ground is extremely distracting."

She sighed. Even after the incident with the towel, his ability to hold straight conversations in the most awkward positions imaginable amazed her. "Look, you–"

Lux put all his weight on one leg and swung his body to the side, throwing her off. She rolled to absorb the impact and landed in a crouch, her eyes wide.

The first flash of surprise dwindled when she realized he'd tricked her. He'd feigned irritation and lulled her into banter while he quietly marshaled his strength and moved into position. It shouldn't have worked. She'd given him an opening she hadn't been in control of and able to use to predict his next strike – one he wouldn't have had if she'd been following Anakin's model from that first day properly.

In her defense, sitting astride him was pretty distracting, too – and they'd been sparring on and off for hours now, long enough that they were both getting worn out. But both of those were poor excuses for a Jedi.

"Good, you remembered," she said, forcing calmness. "Use your body weight against a lighter opponent. Always keep the tools at your disposal in mind."

"What's at your disposal, then?"

Ignoring how her arms protested (she was starting to regret having skipped that warm-up, even if Lux was far worse off from the fight than she was) Ahsoka pushed herself up and aimed a kick at his face. With her montrals to supplement her eyesight and judge the exact distance, her aim was perfect; while Lux managed to block her with his forearm, the force behind the blow unbalanced him.

Smiling to herself, she snaked around him and jabbed the back of his leg. Another blow between his shoulder blades knocked him to the ground again, and she bent over him. "Togruta are built for speed and agility. We aren't the strongest ones out there, but I can slip past your guard and hit the places that count in a fight."

Lux laughed, a high, winded sound, when she put one hand at his throat and curled the other into a fist, ready to strike at a moment's notice. He rolled onto his back and sprawled out, raising his arms by his head in surrender. "Well, I've said my piece about your strength already. If I concede my sheb has been thoroughly kicked and that I realize how much I have to learn, will you let me up for some water?"

He was teasing her, and she knew it, but something about it made a warm feeling kindle deep inside her anyway. "All right," she said, taking her hand away from his neck. The soft bite of his stubble lingered on the pads of her fingers for a moment before fading away. "I have a sense of where to start for your training – start it properly, not just random exercises. Once you've had a break, we'll go over–"

She'd been keeping her use of the Force at a low burn since their sparring began, a connection flickering so faintly only the most attuned searcher would've sensed it. It didn't improve her fighting (much), but it was enough to warn her if anything else was amiss. She felt that now, pinpricks like laser blasts striking a cruiser's shield, and pushed more energy to her physical senses for confirmation.

Footsteps in the jungle beyond. The clink of white plastic segments that made up storm trooper armor as the bodies inside them moved. The eager chatter leaping from one helmet comm to the next as the heat readings of two people were detected and confirmed in a clearing near the edge of the water.

They were too close; Ahsoka hadn't been open enough to the Force to sense them soon enough to take action. The blanket and cushions made a perfect backdrop for the act they'd rehearsed to explain their absence, but how did actors justify a performance when the set was twenty feet away? They had to be settled and eating their rations for the tableau to make sense, and they couldn't get there in time.

"Well, Alynna, let's get to it, then," Lux prodded gently. He spoke loudly – too loudly – and she winced. "I want to continue my training as soon as–"

Shut up, she thought urgently, and kissed him.

It was artless and without passion, but it worked. Lux tensed, and she felt a dozen emotions she couldn't name thunder through him in the Force before his control returned. He tried to push her away by the shoulders, but she held fast to his shirt, keeping herself close enough to feel his breath on her lips.

"What is the meaning of this?" he demanded, his eyes flashing.

"The guards are coming," she hissed. "They can't know!"

"And this is the first thing you think of?"

"I'm a pleasure slave! They'll buy it!"

"They know that's not what it's like with us," he shot back, trying to wriggle out from under her. "Despite what you said at the auction, my reputation isn't–"

Brittle undergrowth crunched beneath sturdy boots nearby, so sharply the sound cut through the air. Lux jumped beneath her. His gaze shot to the left, tracking it and judging its distance, and he groaned. "Fine. But I'm acting under protest."

Then he put his hand on back of her neck and yanked her back down – and even if his resentment darkened the Force around them, with the way he kissed her, she wouldn't have thought any kind of protest was involved.

His free hand snaked down to her hip and pinned her flush against his body. The closer contact sent a thrill through her, and she gasped against him, fisting her hands tighter into his shirt. He pressed the advantage, deepening the kiss to do something with his tongue that went straight down Ahsoka's spine.

The guards tromped into the clearing and found Lux and Ahsoka locked together, fighting their way through kiss after kiss. The Force burned with their mortification, and they huddled together, unwilling to leave but even less willing to interrupt Ahsoka and Lux's display. Perfect, she thought dizzily.

He didn't let up until the leader, a woman dressed in Noreino livery – the same Captain Mareto Felarra who'd escorted them to the villa, if Ahsoka wasn't mistaken – cleared her throat. "Your shirt," he murmured, and sat up in such a way that she was concealed behind him.

Ahsoka frowned at him for a second, a little dazed, before it hit her. She'd chosen the shirt for its built-in support as well as the fact that it did up in the front – a necessity when most necklines wouldn't fit over her montrals. Quietly, using him as cover, she clambered out of his lap and pulled the zipper down so low on her chest there could be no doubt about what they'd just been doing.

"Good call," she whispered back, and did a decent job of looking embarrassed as she hid the sliver of exposed cleavage behind the palm of one hand.

Lux's mouth quirked up in a hint of a smile before he turned an annoyed stare on the guards. "Hello, Captain Felarra. I don't know why you interrupted me, but I hope you have a good reason. Things were just starting to get interesting."

She could sense he wasn't lying as he said it. She flushed, and was just about to agree before it occurred to her he probably meant her promise of more training. Oh, well. The extra color would help them better sell their story.

"The Lord Imperator wishes for you to make contact with him," the captain said. "My lord, the entire household was in a mad scramble looking for you. There was an attempt on your life not three days ago, and to find you'd suddenly up and disappeared, why, we thought–"

Lux sighed. "Are the ray shield and the bio-filters not protection enough?"

"My lord, you saw with your own eyes that a Jedi was involved in the attack!"

"Not even a Jedi could get through those bio-filters undetected."

One already did, Ahsoka thought, and tried her best to snort.

Lux stood and dusted himself off before helping her to her feet in turn. "But I digress," he continued. "Did you bring a communicator for me? I left mine inside."

"Yes, my lord," Captain Felarra said, striding forward to present the device to him with a faint bow. He accepted it, turning it over in his hands thoughtfully.

"Thank you kindly. Now, please leave us."

"I really must protest–!"

"You know where we are, now, and I promise we won't go anywhere but the beach without sending word. I have a few things I'd like to get back to once I'm off the call." He wrapped an arm around Ahsoka's waist, and she arched obligingly up into him, pressing a few cheeky kisses to his neck. She could taste his sweat on her lips, sharp and salty and uncomfortably enthralling.

Captain Felarra hesitated for a long moment before bowing again and signaling her troops. Then, they withdrew into the jungle.

Lux went several minutes without moving, his eyes glued to the stand of trees the storm troopers and Noreino guards had left through. Then, whispering so quietly it was hardly more than an exhalation of breath, he asked, "Are they gone?"

Ahsoka didn't hear anything, but she reached into the Force for confirmation anyway. She nodded, and Lux disentangled himself from her. "Well," he said, his gaze flicking down to chest as she zipped up her shirt again, "that was, uh..."

Mercifully, the comm in his hand started beeping before the awkwardness became any more palpable. With an apologetic smile, he hurried to the other side of the clearing to answer it. Whether that was an oversight on his part or a formality, Ahsoka had no idea – but he had to be aware by now just how good her hearing was.

Either way, he wasn't far enough away that she could easily tune him out. Ignoring an uneasy feeling in her gut, she took the opportunity that had been given to her and listened in. She'd stated her intentions to him as plainly as possible the day before, anyway – so it wasn't like she hadn't warned him he couldn't trust her.

"I apologize for the delay. I was out enjoying the fresh air, and I forgot to take my wrist comm with me," Lux was saying, tense and formal through the lie. "Captain Felarra just found me a moment ago. What news from Kyzeron?"

"The investigation is ongoing, but the situation overall is much improved. A show of strength cowed the lower classes back into submission, as I knew it would. If the rabble got any ideas from the defective merchandise at the auction house, those have long since been quashed."

Lux turned restlessly, hiding his face and Zakhan Noreino's hologram from view, but Ahsoka could sense his despair plainly. "Then... no leader came forward to claim credit and present their terms? There was no hope for a peaceful settlement?"

"None whatsoever," Zakhan said flippantly, "which brings me to my reason for contacting you. Since the threat to you directly has been deemed minimal, I have a task for you – effective as soon as Dakharen arrives with the finer details."

"All right..."

"I am sending you on a tour of the most vital iron mines from here to Iziz to garner support from the surrounding villages. I'd made arrangements to go myself and leave you in command in Kyzeron, but... an emissary of the Emperor himself is to arrive shortly. Considering the circumstances, my presence here is not optional."

"Then why not simply push the tour off until the emissary has left?" Lux asked cautiously. "Is it not wiser to present a strong, unified front on our home territory, after what happened at the auction house? You always remind me to think of our family's reputation, and–"

"It is because of our reputation that I do this. I am presenting our strongest player – myself – to ensure there are no... unanticipated developments."

Ahsoka heard no definite change in Zakhan's tone, but Lux's presence in the Force thrummed anxiously at the last few words. His thoughts cycled through a half-dozen instances where he'd ranged from contrary to insubordinate, but she couldn't read the specifics without probing his mind deeper than she felt comfortable doing.

"Well, then, while I preach the virtues of a close alliance with the Noreino family, may I also investigate Etrik Bonaga's claims about missing equipment and wares? If I'm remembering correctly, he owns a significant amount of the mines near here and has shares in almost all the rest."

"Bonaga has already been dealt with. You are not to cause me more problems when I've just finished cleaning up your last mess."

"My last mess?"

"You're lucky no one besides myself is left alive who heard your slave girl speak of your interest in the Jedi. Some might have considered your decision to wait and assess her as a ploy – a means to facilitate the attack by buying her time to act."

This time Ahsoka caught the threat without Lux's emotions as guidance – but the way fear spiked through him was still solid confirmation. She knew Zakhan was heartless, and that he and Lux disagreed more often than not. But was he truly willing to implicate his own son in a critical investigation if he stepped out of line?

Unfortunately, Ahsoka thought, walking to the blanket to fish a ration bar out of the backpack, he probably is. She was starting to understand what Lux had meant back in the auction house, when he'd told her all the rules were different in Kyzeron.

"I understand, Father." Lux's tone was frigid. "When can I expect Dakharen?"

"Tomorrow evening. I suggest you begin preparing your first speech now. As of overmorrow you'll be giving several a week."

Lux nodded. "As you wish."

They exchanged farewells, and then, with a deep breath, Lux ended the comm. He stood in silence for a long time, his arms folded behind his head and eyes shut, letting the soft morning sunlight wash over him. Once the roil of emotion beneath his calm surface had abated into logical thought patterns, Ahsoka let her ration bar fall back into the bag and went over to his side.

Lux was alert again at the first scuffle of her feet on the ground. He watched her approach out of the corner of his eye, his arms falling back to his sides. Words failed her as soon as she was close to him, so, hoping a friendly touch would make up for it, she took his hand. He smiled wearily, threading his fingers through hers.

"What's the word?" she asked finally.

"I have a task to do in the mining villages – I'm sure you heard." So the space he'd put between them during the call had been a formality, then. "I expect Father will want you to be by my side through it for the newsfeeds."

That was not a particularly appealing prospect. She was lucky so far she hadn't been caught in the projection of Zakhan's address at the auction, and even luckier she'd stayed far enough under the radar that no one had recognized her as Ahsoka Tano just by seeing her face. But if it would get her through the ray shield...

"But let's not think about that now. I'm not going to force you to come with me after what happened last time. What's next on the training itinerary?"

Ahsoka frowned. "But your father said–"

"Don't worry about that. I can write a speech in my sleep." He smiled wryly. "I have some skill in that, at least, even if he won't acknowledge it. But I'm nowhere near as proficient with fighting. I want to learn what you have to teach me."

Ahsoka hesitated. Every living thing had its own melody to sing in the Force, and while nothing was ever constant, the song in Lux's soul had changed. She sensed anxiety from him, fast winds that would obscure his sunshine with more clouds if he let them, but also a deep resolve. The commitment he'd made to her teachings and even to Ahsoka herself were a lifeline. He wasn't going to back down now and let go.

A rebellion can grow from a single spark, she thought, smiling, and squeezed his hand. "Then get some water, and let's change that."

Lately, Ahsoka's had to bluff her way through a lot of sticky situations – getting to Noreino House, trying to save Barriss, her agreement with Lux, and his training regime, to name a few – and pretend to feel things she didn't to make that happen. But could there have been more genuine feeling behind the kiss than she'd like to believe? How will Lux, who knows she's willing to manipulative the circumstances if it will get her what she wants, perceive this? Will his work even give him enough time to decide how he feels? Only time will tell...

Well, I can't be sure (read: I'm too lazy to go back and check), but I think this chapter is the longest in the book so far by 600 words or so. AND WASN'T IT EVER FUN??

Sorry for dangling their first kiss over your heads for fifteen chapters plus a prologue PLUS an interlude, but I really couldn't figure out the right time and place to do it. It wasn't until I went back to their interactions in my beloved TCW that I figured using to the source material was the way to go. These two are gonna have a lot of pitfalls and blunders in this fic, and hey, a Death Watch reversal was too good an opportunity to pass up.

I apologize in advance (well, technically not, but in advance of the upcoming ones) for the training scenes! I've done some karate and kickboxing, but it wasn't extensive enough that I can write without feeling I need to fact check things. Lux's background in street fighting and boxing will help me out some, but if those among you who know martial arts spot any glaring issues, I hope you'll forgive me!

Also, Zakhan is back to make Lux's life difficult. But also easier, because Lux likes working with people and he's good at delivering speeches? But still difficult. If Lux is lucky, maybe it'll even out, in the end.

I'll talk to you guys in the next chapter!