Choo choo get on the angst train
"I'm not leaving you." Kanan said.
"I'll be right behind you." Ezra yelled as he blocked the blaster fire being shot at his crew.
Kanan reluctantly started backing away blocking the bolts that got past Ezra.
"Everyone's aboard!" Kanan called to Ezra.
Ezra started backing up towards the Ghost. A trooper got a lucky shot. No they didn't hit Ezra, they hit the control panel to the door in between the Padawan and the Ghost.
The teen gasped as he realized he was cut off. He took out his comm. "Go on and leave."
"We're not leaving you behind." Hera replied.
"You can come back for me later. I can handle a couple of hours with these losers." Ezra asserted. "I'll be alright."
Ezra took a deep breath before turning off his lightsaber and holding his hands above his head. "Bucket heads I surrender. Stun me or whatever."
"Oh no, you won't be stunned." a coy voice spoke.
"Oh not you." Ezra sighed as his least favorite blue admiral stepped out of the shadows.
"Bring the boy up to cell number 1715E." Thrawn ordered. Three troopers moved to follow the order; one grabbed Ezra's items while one stood behind him holding his wrists behind his back and the other trooper in front of him to lead the way.
When they arrived at the cell the troopers strapped him down to a vertical table. He was bound at the waist, just above the knees, the ankles, chest, wrists, and his head was strapped so he could only look straight ahead.
Thrawn approached him with a smirk.
"I'm not talking." Ezra explained.
"I have no interest in interrogating you." Thrawn chided. "You are merely a child, you aren't going to have any information worth my while."
"If you are using me as bait my crew is smarter than that." Ezra reminded. "After all, I rescued one of them off a Star Destroyer when I was fifteen."
"You aren't being used as bait either." Thrawn dictated. "Once your rebels come to rescue you, they can have you."
"Then why did you capture me in the first place?" Ezra asked.
"If I have no use for you, I'll make it so you are no use to the rebels either." Thrawn droned.
"What you talking about?" Ezra retorted. "I'll always be of use to the rebellion."
Thrawn leaned in uncomfortably close. "Not if you're broken." he disclosed.
"There's nothing you can say to break me." Ezra replied.
Thrawn smirked. "I won't have to say anything." He pulled out a file and started to read it. "Ezra Bridger, born on the day the Empire rose to power, on your own from age seven. It seems that your parents were arrested for speaking out. Lived on the streets and under the radar for about seven and a half years, until you joined the rebellion. You went your whole like with the belief that your parents were dead, that is until you heard about mass Imperial break out. You had hope that they got out, only to have that hope squashed when you learned that they lead the escape but never made it out. They lead the escape after gaining hope when they heard a message, the message you sent out."
Ezra realized he was trying to mess with him. "Where are you going with this?"
"Attempted escape from a prison is punishable by execution." Thrawn informed. "Do you know what your mother's last words were?"
"Shut up," Ezra growled.
"I needn't tell you." Thrawn smirked. "Did you know the Empire happens to record every execution."
Ezra's eyes widened when he realized where Thrawn was going with this. "Don't" he begged.
"As you see, I needn't say a word." Thrawn bragged. "All I have to do is have you watch one little ten second holo over and over until you friends come to rescue you. But at that point, you will be too broken to be of any use to them."
Thrawn started to head towards the door. He used a remote to turn on the screen on the wall. It was filled with static before an image on it showed up. Ezra saw the upper halves of his parents. A voice off screen who Ezra worked out to be an Imperial prison guard spoke, "Any last words?"
"Without hope, we have nothing." his mother calmly spoke.
"No," Ezra muttered.
"Fire." the Imperial ordered.
The holo's sound was filled with blaster fire. Both of his parents were hit by multiple blaster bolts before falling to the ground.
"Dispose of them." the Imperial said.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw Thrawn crush the remote. "There is no way for the play back to stop." he disclosed.
The holo was filled with static for a moment before starting from the beginning again.
Over and over it played.
After three times tears filled Ezra's eyes.
After four more he started begging. "No, make it stop. Turn it off. Please turn it off."
"Without hope we have nothing." "BLAST BLAST BLAST!"
"Stop it." Ezra pleaded.
Ezra lost all sense of time. All sense of how many times he was forced to watch his parents die. All he could do was close his eyes, but that only seemed to make the sound louder. Soon enough the images were imprinted on the inside of his eye lids, so even closing his eyes didn't stop the image of his parents being pumped full of laser from reaching his brain.
"Stop it!" Ezra begged.
Minutes passed, hours passed. At one point a trooper came in for a moment and gave Ezra some water but made sure he wasn't blocking the feed.
"Stop it." Ezra cried.
"Without hope we have nothing." Blaster fire. "Dispose of them."
Something inside of Ezra's mind finally snapped. All the emotional torture was too much. He found that he could only mutter "Stop it," in between sobs.
The feed continued.
"Without hope we have nothing."
BLAST! BLAST! BLAST! BLAST!
"Dispose of them."
Ezra wasn't sure how much time had passed when the door opened, but he took no notice of this.
"Ezra!" a voice resounded out from distance.
"Stop it." Ezra muttered. "Stop it, stop it, stop it."
Kanan thought it was too easy getting to Ezra's cell. He practically threw the door open. "Ezra!"
He heard no response from his Padawan, other than muttering. "Stop it, stop it, stop it, stop it." Over and over again.
"Stop what?" Kanan asked, approaching where he heard and felt Ezra. He felt sadness just pouring of him.
He heard something else in the room, a woman's voice calmly saying, "Without hope we have nothing." Before the sound of blaster fire overtook everything else. Before another voice ordered, "Dispose of them." A second later the feed seemed to start over and repeat.
It didn't take a genius to realize what it was. He reached out and found the holo screen. He took out his lightsaber and slashed through it, effectively shutting off the feed.
"Stop it, stop it." Ezra muttered.
"It is stopped," Kanan tried to calm his Padawan.
"Stop it," Ezra continued.
Kanan shook his head. He couldn't believe it. The Empire had broken him. All it took was four hours and a short video on repeat.
"I'm getting you out of here." Kanan comforted. He found the bindings and caught Ezra as he feel forward.
"Stop it," Ezra continued to mutter.
"It's going to be okay," Kanan soothed. He swung Ezra over his shoulder and found his way back to the Ghost, Ezra muttering "stop it," the whole way.
"Take off!" Kanan ordered over comm. link.
Kanan did feel any physical pain coming off Ezra, it was just emotional, so he took him to his room rather than the med-bay.
"Sabine take over." Hera dictated over the comm.
"Be right there." Sabine answered.
"Where's Ezra?" Hera inquired.
"In my room." Kanan replied. He was grateful that Ezra had finally stopped muttering.
Hera came in a few moments later. "Did they torture him?"
"Not physically." Kanan replied softly.
"Mentally?" Hera asked.
"More like emotionally." Kanan corrected. "They played the video of his parent's over and over. I can only assume the entire four hours they had him." He sighed, reaching out and touching the side of Ezra's face. "I think it broke him."
"Is there anything you can do?" Hera asked.
"The mind is a difficult thing." Kanan explained. "Anything I do to try to help, could end up making him worse. These sort of things take time."
"Thrawn said he studied everything about his enemies." Hera informed. "He knew just what to do to cause the most harm to him."
"A broken mind can be hard, but we will be there every step of the way to help him." Kanan uttered. "I won't stop until we have our son back."
I may or may not write a sequel about like a road to recovery.