These children you mislead

You'll watch them all bleed.

Strength will not bring victory.

- Divide, Jeff Williams

"And now, Captain Syndulla, I will accept your formal surrender. Or, you will watch your friends perish one by one, beginning with the Jedi."

Hera didn't know why she expected a miracle to intervene and save them all. Perhaps she had grown too used to the strange, omnipresent power of the Force, and the way it bent around Kanan and Ezra like a stream around a boulder. Perhaps she'd truly convinced herself that after all her crew, her family had survived, all the good they had done, that they'd somehow been granted invincibility. The galaxy at large must have owed them something, after all, in exchange for the blood, sweat and life-force the Ghost had poured into protecting it.

But nothing happened, there was no miracle. The sky was clear; there wasn't a cloud in sight. Only the dust from the prior orbital bombardment and the billowing smoke from the downed ships hung in the air around what was left of Chopper Base.

There was only Thrawn and his Death Troopers, surrounding them on the landing platform, blocking their only escape.

The pistol was yanked from Hera's hands just as she heard Zeb growl as his bow rifle was similarly taken, and even Kanan was forced to switch off his lightsaber and let it be snatched away by the soldiers.

Even now, Kanan kept his sightless gaze towards the sky as though he expected something to happen there. Perhaps, it was the miracle Hera hoped for, but she could see no sign of it or anything that would help them. Perhaps he was looking out for Ezra, but that wasn't right either- Ezra should have still been in orbit trying to take down the Interdictor. She doubted anyone else was coming to save them, or they would have appeared before now.

No, they were on their own.

"I require an answer, Captain," Thrawn said with the mock air of patience, stepping forward so he was directly before her, his hands casually clasped behind his back.

As bleak as the situation was, with her hard-gathered forces destroyed in a matter of hours, her people trapped and herded like animals to a slaughter, and hope failing faster every second, as a leader Hera knew she needed to remain strong.

"You already know my answer," Hera bit back coldly, folding her arms and holding her chin high. She refused to be intimidated, even if it was the end. "The Emperor's tyrannous reign is numbered. It doesn't matter if we all fall today, one day soon the entire galaxy will rise up to take our place in the fight."

Thrawn tutted, and appraised her with a tilt of his blue head. He lowered his tone. "A shame. I was looking forward to hearing you beg." He turned to his men and nodded. "Kill the Jedi."

Zeb, Rex and a few of the others made yells of protest and started forward, but were pushed back by the barrels of several blasters. Hera remembered with a pang that this wouldn't be the first time Zeb would have to watch people close to him be executed by the Empire.

Three of the black-suited troopers stepped forward and muscled Kanan away from the group and towards the middle of the platform.

"On your knees, Jedi scum!" one of the soldiers ordered brashly, and Kanan grunted as his legs were kicked out from under him.

"Hera," Kanan called, so calmly that Hera felt a wave of anger towards him that she quickly subdued. It wasn't his fault he was about to die.

What she would give in that moment to have the temperament of a Jedi. There is no emotion, only peace- her own heart was thundering in her chest, gripped by a tight, terrible fear, even as she forced her face to remain blank. She would not give Thrawn any more satisfaction than he already had.

"I know, love," she said back, trying for a small smile he wouldn't be able to see anyway.

Kanan nodded, and with once last sightless glance skyward, he bowed his head in surrender, or more likely, acceptance.

Hera desperately prayed one last time for that miracle, but the heavens remained clear. Nothing was coming, and if it was, it wouldn't get to them in time.

As the soldiers raised their weapons, pointed square at Kanan's back and head, Hera turned away from her Jedi and stared right directly into Thrawn's devilish red eyes. The monster was smiling as he raised his hand.

"Fire!"

Hera had no connection to the Force to speak of, but she seemed to feel it deep in her bones when Kanan died. It wasn't the blaster shots or the last cry of pain or the thump of him hitting the ground face first or even Zeb's guttural roar that hurt most- it was the sudden emptiness that had carved itself into the pit of her stomach and the gut-wrenching feeling of her heart being torn in two.

Hera did not cry, although her eyes did swim with traitorous tears that she resolutely refused to shed. She kept her chin held high, and tried to still the grief-tinged trembling of her lekku. Thrawn would probably recognise the twitches for what they were, he'd studied her people before, but Hera found she just couldn't stop.

Thrawn's teeth were white. They were not sharp, but they still reminded Hera of the fangs of a rancor. He smiled a gleeful executioner's smile.

"I did warn you, Captain," he drawled, appraising her with a sharp, calculating look.

Only once he'd turned his back to her did Hera allow her shoulders to slump.

Kanan was dead, and it made her want to fold in on herself like a collapsing supernova, to slowly fade away into the nothingness of her own black hole, but that simply wasn't an option at the moment.

It wasn't her style, either- Hera had always been the one to keep pushing forward and holding the line, even since she was a child, and she'd keep doing so until she too was bloody and lifeless on the cold ground.

She watched as Thrawn paced over and carefully toed at Kanan's body, as though searching for signs of life (or, more likely, making a show of rubbing salt in the wound) but the Jedi was deathly limp.

She almost gasped at the sight- stark red blood soaked through Kanan's green sweater and was pooling in a widening puddle on the ground underneath his limp limbs. Hera gritted her teeth and closed her eyes, while behind her, Zeb hissed with righteous anger.

Apparently satisfied with the situation, Thrawn turned back, his arms folded business like behind his back.

"Kill all the rest, except for Captain Syndulla and General Dodonna," ordered Thrawn.

There was a cacophony of protest from the group of rebels as Hera and Dodonna were tugged away from and restraints were forced around their hands.

"These people are much more valuable as your prisoners, Grand Admiral Thrawn," called Dodonna frantically, but Hera already knew there would be no bargaining this time. No one was coming to help them, and they were outnumbered, outgunned and decidedly out of time. They hadn't a snowballs chance on Mustafar.

"Oh, I quite disagree, General. And when you're done, Troopers, bring the Captain and the General aboard the Chimera and make sure they're secure for the journey to Coruscant," ordered Thrawn with a dismissive wave of his hand.

It seemed as though they had now lost Thrawn's attention entirely, as the Admiral made to stroll casually back towards what remained of Chopper Base, peering around as though he were a tourist visiting a historic landmark- like it was kriff-damned art to him, even as half of it was burning and littered with the corpses of good, brave people who'd followed her for freedom and justice, but instead she had lead them to their deaths.

Hera felt molten anger rise in her chest and had to clench both her gloved hands into fists to contain it.

Abruptly, Thrawn stopped and turned back to them, stroking thoughtfully at his chin. "Oh, and I want that ship impounded and everything aboard it meticulously catalogued. I will accept no mistakes."

Hera followed Thrawn's finger to the Ghost, docked at the end of the landing platform, and felt her fury reach its boiling point. He was ripping everything she held dear away from her with deliberate, bloody blows designed to hurt her specifically.

I want you to know failure, utter defeat, and that it is I who delivers it crashing down upon you.

It was all a twisted game, and Hera had lost.

Without further ado, Thrawn twisted back and continued off towards the base.

"Hera, what's the plan? What do we do?" asked Zeb, anger and fear simmering in his voice.

She looked to her friends, all gazing at her, their leader, for guidance, to escape, to fly away from this, to live. But Hera had nothing, no plan, no miracles, not even any of Sabine's. It was all she could do to hope that maybe Ezra would succeed and allow at least some of Phoenix Squadron to escape the hell Atollon had become.

Hera exchanged a hopeless look with Dodonna. The soldiers were pushing the rest of their small group up against the hull of a destroyed ship, creating a makeshift firing range.

"I'm sorry, you all deserve so much better than this," she said sorrowfully, shaking her head. She caught Zeb's eye and nodded, trying to convey as much gratitude and friendship as she could in the gesture. After a moment, he returned it with a salute, which Rex copied.

Her lekku trembled on their own accord again.

There was no hope for any of them right here and now- there was and always would be hope for the greater rebellion, for Mon Mothma, Bail Organa, Saw Gerrerra, and especially for her Sabine and Ezra. They and Chopper would be the only Spectres left, but Hera was certain they would all be strong enough to go on, to keep fighting even through the darkest of times.

She clung to that idea desperately, even as the Death Troopers once again raised their blasters and fired.

So I realised I had posted three fluffy fics in a row and that just wouldn't do, so Naturally I thought it was time for another angsty one. Mwahahaha.

I am a creature of angst and pain.

EDIT: I re-edited this chapter a little bit. No major changes, really, just fiddling with Thrawn's characterisation a lil bit and making the flow a lil smoother. I also had to remove Chopper bc I realised he wasn't actually on Atollon in the episode, he was with Ezra and Sabine. OOPS.

ALSO there are two more chapters to this, so stay tuned fellow angst lovers!