Dax's ship remained exactly where it had crashed all those years ago. It rested in a small clearing of mangled trees, halfway on top of an old dead tree trunk. The ship gave him a nostalgic feeling even as the proud gold and white stripes of the Empire made him want to throw up. At a glance it didn't look particularly flyable, engulfed in shrubs and with paint peeling off to reveal rusted metal underneath. Although Dax hadn't tried to lift off yet - the noise would've been hard to hide from the palace guards- he had run diagnostics since replacing the battery with a powercell he had lifted from the library. As long as there weren't any critical issues undetected by the ship computer, they should be fine. Assuming they could lift off from a crash site in the first place.

Dax's relief at seeing his ship was cut short when he noticed a figure standing by the cockpit. He immediately recognized the robe as one of the Vismutors, and he was holding his hand up to an ear-piece. Dax was too far away to hear what he was saying, but he was clearly telling his companions about the ship. They didn't have much time.

Dax gently set Ren down by a tree along with his bag, then slid a knife out of his boot began to creep around the edge of the clearing. The weight of the knife was comforting in his hand. It would get the job done just as easily as gun, and make less noise too. He stepped carefully over dead branches and under a half fallen trunk. Just a bit closer.

"...old, but still in good shape."

Dax was close enough to hear the robed man.

"Understood, I'll melt it down."

The Vismutor put one hand on the cockpit door and another on a large bush within reach. The metal beneath his hand began to drip slowly as the bush drained of color. He was melting a hole in the ship. They would never be able to leave the atmosphere. Dax stood up hastily, taking aim with his knife. The careless movement snapped a twig under his foot, and the man turned just in time for the dagger to sink into his eye. He dropped without a sound. Dax let out a breath. Moving quickly, he dragged the man out of the way of the cockpit door and ran back towards where he had left Ren.

To his shock, Ren was standing. Leaning against a tree and looking sick, but very much awake. Dax cursed. Had he not used enough of the medicine? As he approached he noticed a very slight green glow dissipating from Ren's eyes. Another reaction to the Vismutor? Perhaps it had woken him up somehow.

"Ren?" Dax called carefully, turning his friend slightly to get a better look at his eyes.

"Ugh. What's...going on?" Ren asked sleepily, stumbling slightly as his hand left the tree trunk. Dax scooped up his bag then pulled Ren's arm around his back and began walking them towards the ship.

"Don't worry, I'm taking us somewhere safe."

"Mmm." Ren acknowledged wordlessly.

They shuffled through the bushes towards the ship. Dax hoped Ren would nod off again, but at the sound of the passenger door opening Ren stiffened.

"Wait... what is this?" he said, a bit more lucid.

Dax pushed him into the passenger seat and pulled the harness over him, clicking it into place. He hoped with Ren's limited knowledge of technology he wouldn't be able to figure out how to undo it. He shut the door then jumped on the wing; it was faster to go over the top of the ship than around it. From the top he heard shouting. At least two Vismutors, still too far off to see but heading towards them. Dax quickly slid down the side of the ship and pulled the driver door open. He sat on the well worn cushions of the drivers seat and reached over his head to pull his own harness on.

Ren was breathing quickly now, looking all around him.

"Are we in your ship? How did we...that tea...Shit!" Dax felt Ren's eyes drilling a hole through his temple. "Dax, did you drug me?"

Dax flinched but didn't respond.

"You didn't...did you bring down the barrier? Dax, answer me!"

Dax began the start up sequence, flicking various switches. All the screens around him fizzled into life slowly, as if grudgingly waking up from a long nap. His hands moved automatically, muscle memory taking over. He let it absorb him.

"You've gone crazy!" Ren yelled, pulling at his harness wildly. "You're INSANE! Dax, you have to stop this RIGHT NOW!"

Dax wiped the sweat from his brow. He couldn't speak. He prayed to every God he knew and then pulled up on the vertical thrusters. With a heart-wrenching sound of grating metal they were jostled to the side. The left wing was free, but the right was caught in a thick bramble. Ren sucked in a breath and clutched at the cockpit walls for something to hang on to.

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Dax turned the yoke more and more to the left, giving more power to the starboard thrusters. After a few terrifying moments of groaning metal the ship burst free, this time throwing them to the left. Dax got the ship balance under control and glanced at the stern camera monitor. They had taken too long. Two ships were already after them, having just lifted off from the palace. They must have realized their friend wasn't responding. Well, maybe he could use them for their escape, Dax thought as a new plan started to form.

He angled the ship up about sixty degrees, and wrapped his hand around the hand of the sliding thruster. It felt smaller than he remembered. Despite the circumstances though, it was good to be flying again. He punched the accelerator. His head whipped back as the G-force rammed into him. The rattling of the ship was almost louder than the engines, and just over all of that he could hear Ren yelling bloody murder.

Dax trained his eyes on the altitude readings. The planetary net would be tricky. All he knew was that the network of mirrors was somewhere around the edge of the atmosphere. Even trickier, it was impossible to see through either his ship's sensors or by eye. He couldn't rely on luck a second time to get them through the gaps in the plates.

He glanced at the rear camera to make sure the enemy ships had followed him. Sure enough, they had copied his new trajectory. Dax slowed an imperceptible amount to allow them to catch up. He would need them to be close behind in order for his plan to work. He hoped they wouldn't shoot at him as long as they thought Ren was on board.

Looking back and forth between altitude and enemy ships, Dax counted down the minutes. The enemy ships grew closer and closer. Sweat trickled down his back. The stars in the sky shone in brilliant high definition as they exited the atmosphere. Dax thought he saw a strange shape in the sky. The corner of a window, perhaps. At the last possible minute, he yelled and with one hand punched the emergency breaks and with the other pulled up on the yoke. The force of the break thrusters nearly wrenched the controls from Dax's grasp. He felt the harness knock the wind out of him, thinking he might have broken a rib. At the same time, they flew upwards and the enemy ships shot forward beneath them.

They immediately started to break too, but Dax took aim and fired at both ship's rear thrusters. The first ship simply exploded, but the second shot was spot on. Without thrusters, the ship maintained it's momentum. Dax watched it drift.

"Come on, come on," he muttered, praying he had gotten close enough. Then a piece of the sky broke apart.

"Yes!"

One minute the enemy ship was flying through empty space, and the next it was like a window the size of a mountain had shattered in the sky. Ren gasped. Massive shards spun slowly outward, appearing like glass from one side, and mirrors from the other. It was mesmerizing. Dax slowly flew them through the debris, until the planet horizon simply vanished. The massive square opening below them appeared like a portal to the world they had just left.

After clearing the net a behemoth ship came into view a little less than a league away. Its sharp black edges were as striking and menacing as the woman who captained it. Dax noticed a ship like that could easily have more fighter ships inside in addition to the ones planetside. It wouldn't be long before they noticed the shattered mirror if they hadn't already. Dax wasn't planning on staying to find out.

He busied himself turning on comms and charts in order to plot a course towards the nearest civilization. As he did he sneaked a side glance at Ren. The prince still seemed to be coming to terms with the fact he was in space. He gripped the straps of his harness, eyes wide and breathing still slightly panicked. Dax wanted to say something to comfort him but suspected it wasn't the right time.

Turning back to his charts, Dax plotted a course for Ursai. It was a service station on a dwarf planet which circled the outskirts of the solar system. Dax had been heading there after he had escaped the Empire, but miscalculated fuel consumption and ended up drifting all the way to Ren's planet instead.

The solar system the Navinian's called home was just outside of the Empires reach, skirting the edge of unknown - no man's land. Still, no one would have expected the Navinian people to be so close to Empire territory.

Once the course was set Dax powered off all comms so they couldn't be tracked, and engaged near light-speed travel. The G-force pushed them back into their seats again as the stars blurred together, and then they were off. Even with the luxury of light speed travel it would take about nine hours to arrive. He felt Ren relax next to him.

"They're not following us anymore?" Ren asked quietly.

"No," Dax responded, relieved he had broken the silence, "we're safe now."

He fidgeted with some switches. "Ren, I'm-"

"Stop." Ren cut him off coldly. "If you're trying to apologize, don't. I know you're not sorry."

Neither of them looked at each other.

Ren continued. "Because of you my people could all be dead. And I might never be able to go back. I just wish I could've said goodbye to my father-" his voice broke and he turned away towards the window. "But what do my feelings matter, right? My opinions don't matter to you. Apparently I'm 'the key' first and a person second, so I guess that makes it okay for you to fucking kidnap me."

Dax flinched. "That's not-"

"I thought we were better friends than this, but you're just like everyone else."

A lump grew in Dax's throat. Ren had never been this angry at him. He wasn't sure he'd seen Ren this angry ever. It was to be expected though, and although Dax knew he deserved it, it was true he wasn't sorry. Better for Ren to be angry than dead or enslaved. He would have done it even if Ren wasn't a Key.

When he trusted himself to speak again, Dax said "Try to get some sleep, it's a long flight."

Taking his own advice, Dax pulled a jacket from the duffel bag to use as a pillow and settled in to sleep.