Star Wars Rebels – E2 P1 – Flash of Anger
Before you read the story, it is Imperative for you to read the prologue, A Fallen Hero, as this is a continuation from that. Link here:
/12310211/1/Star-Wars-Rebels-Fallen-Hero
I cannot put full links in because of the rules :(
I would like to thank everyone who's been liking and following the story so far and want to apologise for the colossal mess that'd been in part 5 of A Fallen Hero and this chapter until I updated them. What was happening was I'd be typing the stuff up on a word document, then putting it on Archive of Our Own (where I'm also posting these stories at the same time) and doing final edits in the thing there. I would copy what I'd put down and paste it here, not realizing that it would change the document to a HTML version once I saved it. This won't happen again now that I know what the problem was.
They finally got the lightsaber after pursuing it through several systems. They'd planned to attack the research station on Draxxus V after Revan's lightsaber had been discovered, but it'd been moved at the last minute to another station. From there it'd been shuttled between bases several times until it reached this planet, Corthyan VII, a planet that seemed to be constantly bombarded by rain. Clean, drinkable rainwater due to a mysterious lack of natural salts on the planet. Ezra and Sabine had entered the station, stolen the lightsaber, and escaped undetected. They were sheltering from the rain under a small rock ledge, one of several that stuck out of the otherwise flat ground, pointing skyward at a slight angle. The base itself was partially built into a cliff and hand a large parade ground / vehicle park and an observation tower.
"That was a good mission," commented Ezra as he stretched his arms
Sabine mumbled an agreement, focused on drying out the bag they'd brought to store the lightsaber in. "Nice not to be shot at for once."
"I think we're owed some easy missions like this."
"What happened to all the energy and enthusiasm I heard earlier?"
"I'm just tired, that's all."
"Oh, sure. Like you haven't been sneakily sleeping in every morning."
"What? How'd you know about that?" Ezra didn't even bother to deny it.
"After Hera does the morning rounds I began checking on whether you were up after I stopped seeing you go to the head at your usual time. And you were always fast asleep. Lazy bones." She smiled.
Ezra elbowed her. "Am not!"
"Are too!" She replied as she elbowed him back. "You've been basically unconscious every time!"
"I'm not that bad! You and Zeb are far worse! We never see you before midday when we're not on operations."
"Shhh, I'm just teasing. No need to get us detected now."
Sabine was wrong though. They had already been detected.
The sniper waited, watching the pair chatter from the tower and occasionally getting a glimpse of the object they stole hanging from Sabine's belt. An old, red lightsabre from some Sith Lord, a priceless trophy for the Empire and the Rebels alike. He adjusted his scope slightly and made a correction according to the wind, which was gentle and stable in a westerly direction. He had been waiting for a while now, letting the inquisitors nearby argue over the finer points of the trap. He loaded a single bullet.
He preferred to use kinetic weapons. With more energy weapons and fewer kinetic ones, they signified his success by getting enough money to buy them. He also found that they hit much harder and did more damage than the lasers from blasters, and there were also a much wider variety of bullets, with different designs according to purpose. Some could splinter upon impact, while others had a sharper point for piercing armour. Some could even be loaded with explosive rounds, although he found them a bit messy.
He aimed at the girl, who'd just stood up to tell the boy off, probably for flirting. He could see her innocent face, her colourful hair and felt a pang of regret for what he was about to do. Ruining their young lives, and potentially their love. It was sad, but it didn't matter in the end, as long as he got paid. He had to feed his own family, and the Empire made use of his skill with rifles. He owed them his, saving him from Trandoshans capturing people to sell as slaves to the crosshairs settled on her chest.
A slight twitch of the finger was all it took and the girl was sent spinning off behind a large boulder. The boy ran forward and dragged her all the way behind it, much to the sniper's annoyance, as he'd just finished reloading.
"Hit one," he reported in a monotone voice to the Inquisitors.
Ezra was shocked by the sudden change in situation. They'd been happily joking, he'd flirted with Sabine a little and got her to stand up to tell him off. Then there was a dull crack and she'd been sent spinning off into the darkness. Acting more on autopilot than anything else, he'd dragged her behind the next nearest boulder and crouched beside her.
"Sabine," he managed to stutter.
Her face was pale and he could see the bullet wound's entry point, a neat little hole between 2 of her armour sections, just above the right thigh. A sudden change in wind must've caused the bullet to drop from where it was aimed, which was most likely the heart and lungs.
"No, no, no, no. Sabine. You have to be alive, you just have to be," he said, shaking her gently.
He put his hand to her neck, searching for a pulse. His wet fingers pushed into her wrist, desperately searching for a sign of life. He listened to her chest, checked if it rose and fell, but in this light, he couldn't tell, in the rain he couldn't hear. He activated their emergency transponder.
"You'll be ok… They'll come and get you out of here."
He put his hand to the wound and it came back darker and sticky with blood. His vision narrowed and his eyes began watering. He crunched his hand into a fist.
"Sabine…"
He looked at the Imperial base, floodlights shining into the dark and he felt a sudden surge of anger as something within him snapped. He felt the force nexus call to him, and he welcomed it. He grabbed the prize they'd worked so hard to steal, stepped out into the rain and activated both lightsabers, illuminating him in a mixture of green and red light. He began walking and almost immediately, a bullet whizzed out of the darkness aimed at his head, but he simply flicked his right hand up and the red beam of energy disintegrated the bullet. Another bullet came, and another, but Ezra deflected them and walked on, heading to the main gates of the base. All throughout his advance only 1 thought was in his mind.
I will have revenge.
In the Ghost, Kanan suddenly gasped.
"We need to get back to them now!" he said, shocked by the ripple he felt in the force.
"What's happened? Is it Ezra?" inquired Hera, worried now.
"They reported in a successful mission," interjected Zeb. "They would've activated their emergency transponder if something happened."
"I don't care. Something bad happened and we need to go NOW!"
"What's happened?"
"I can feel so much anger and pain. Something must've happened to Sabine."
The Ghost left the Nebulae it was hiding in and rushed to the planet at its maximum speed, ignoring the potential Imperial patrols.
"How long till we get there?"
"5 minutes, 10 if we have to deal with fighters."
A squad of Stormtroopers ran out of the gate and began firing. Ezra blocked all of their shots effortlessly, deflecting several back into the original shooters. A second squad joined the first, but they were too late to stop him as he reached their lines and began wielding the 2 swords with deadly accuracy, even though he'd never used 2 swords before. Within seconds, both teams were dead and he quickly crushed the gate turbolaser before it could fire at him. A single blaster bolt had gotten through and impacted on his shoulder, but he ignored the pain as he marched into the base.
"There he is!" one of the Stormtrooper commanders called.
The Ghost arrived just as Ezra reached the first Stormtroopers, while Hera was unable to land as the sniper in the tower fired at her and almost destroyed the airtight cockpit glass when she tried.
"I can't land until that sniper is gone," Hera called from the cockpit. "That last bullet almost shattered the glass. You need to do something to take him out!"
Instead they just watched, too high to jump and too far to shoot, especially in the rain.
"Where's Sabine?" asked Kanan.
"I don't see her." Replied Zeb. "But look at what the kid's doing…"
"Oh my god…". All 4 on the Ghost, including Chopper, were unable to comprehend what was happening below.
Ezra charged through the Imperial forces, blades flashing as he cut into the Stormtroopers or deflected their shots. The shots that did hit couldn't stop him savage the Imperial forces that were streaming from the structure built inside the cliff. He thrust, blocked and sliced through the throng of helpless Stormtroopers. Blood splattered his clothes and stained his fists, dead Stormtroopers lay in his wake. He mowed them down as he slowly advanced towards the main entrance, blades flashing left and right until suddenly there were none left. The silence was deafening as he stood alone, lightsabers in hand, surrounded by white, armored bodies. Here and there a head or and arm lay apart from its host, blood seeping out onto the parade square.
The door opened again and the 2 unknown inquisitors marched out.
"Impressive," the woman said smoothly, albeit nervously. "You know…"
"Shut up," ordered Ezra. "I'm going to kill all of you."
The 3 charged and met in the middle, a blur of red and green as they parried and stabbed relentlessly. The inquisitors were more skilled in lightsaber fighting, but Ezra had his reactions and accuracy boosted by the Force Nexus, so it wasn't long before he pushed both of them back and sliced the woman down the leg. She dropped to one knee, blocking the man's attack and giving Ezra an opportunity to force-grab the sniper and dash him against the rocks below. The brother charged once he had enough attack space, but Ezra dodged to the side and stabbed him through the heart. The body slammed down into the ground, his blood mingling with that of the Stormtroopers.
"EZRA!" Kanan called from the Ghost.
Ezra looked briefly at them, giving the woman a chance to leap up and stab him through the stomach. The lightsabers dropped from his hands, splashing down into the puddles of mud and blood, once shiny hilts now colored a dark red. Everyone looked on, horrified.
Ezra stared at the woman defiantly.
"Was that the best you could do?"
He grabbed a knife from his belt, hauled himself further along the lightsaber and stabbed her in the throat. She fell, gurgling horribly as she struggled to breath. Ezra withdrew her lightsaber, dropped it, and staggered out the main gate back to where he left Sabine. Kanan jumped down from the Ghost as soon as he was able to and charged after Ezra, searching amongst the boulders to find him collapsed next to a deathly-pale Sabine.
"ZEB!" He called into the darkness. "Grab a medkit and some hover-stretchers ASAP!"
He looked back down at two people he'd grown to love and felt a tearing in his heart. He did what he could for Ezra and Sabine while he waited for Zeb to come with the medical supplies, then sat down, wondering how it all went so wrong.
Ezra awoke with a start, disoriented and in quite a bit of pain. He was on a ship, in a small medical ward, alone. The main lights were off, and the only source of light was from an empty bacta tank nearby, glowing blue and casting shadows along the wall. There would be the occasional groan of metal, and the quiet rumble of engines told him that the ship was moving. There were 2 IV tubes going into his arm, connected to a standard saline drip.
A door opened and he immediately questioned the medical droid that walked in. "Where am I?"
"You are on the medical transport Theseus. Please, don't stress yourself," it replied.
"Where is Sabine?" He demanded, trying to sit up. He gave up after he felt a fierce stab of pain in the stomach where he'd been stabbed.
"She is in Medical Ward W3, just next door. She has to wear a brace around her leg for a while due to damage to the musculature around the right thigh. Minor damage to the intestines and the liver have been rectified during surgery."
"Surgery?" Asked Ezra, aghast.
"Yes. Some surgery was needed in order to remove shell fragments and retrieve the bullet, as well as repair the damage done by the bullet."
He struggled to get up again. "I need to see her."
"You cannot. You have suffered severe internal trauma and she is in a cast, unable to walk. To move you now would severely disrupt your recovery schedules."
Ezra sighed and relaxed a bit. He wasn't going to go anywhere with a lightsaber stab wound.
"When can I get up?"
"Estimate puts it at 2 weeks before you will be able to walk without badly damaging your insides, which have been partially regenerated using flash-cloned cells and some basic surgery."
"Since when did we have that stuff?"
"It was provided by Senator Bail Organa along with the ship to care for wounded combatants fighting against the Empire." Some kind of blue liquid began flowing into his arm. "I'm afraid this excitement caused by your waking up has caused some damage to the new tissue. I'm going to put you under for now."
Before Ezra could reply he felt the falling sensation and blacked out.