So it goes.
By PerilousPie
Chapter 2: Morality is for the Dead
"Agent Jarrus, I'm glad you could make it," Agent Oamuys was a tall, broad woman.
Kanan had changed upon returning to the Imperial base, before quickly heading to Agent Oamuys' office. He was now seated across from her, uncomfortable in the stiff chair and the chilled room.
"Of course," Kanan replied, he shifted in the chair, the uniform pinching in all the wrong places.
"You spent most of you career on Coruscant and then Bnach," Oamuys said, eyes fastened to a data pad in front of her.
She looked up to him to confirm this. Kanan hesitated; with pale, translucent skin, her large nearly black eyes were alarming. The stiff, crew cut of black, bristled hair did not help the image.
"Yes," Kanan replied.
She nodded slowly, looking once again down at the data pad.
"And you keep all of your sessions dark?" Her voice was curious.
Kanan gave a nod. This question came up a lot, but mainly from other interrogators.
"I find it better to not film any of my interrogation sessions."
Everyone assumed it was because of the cruelty of his methods, that he kept them closed because even the Empire might balk at the depravity. It was rather the opposite, Kanan didn't like violence, he found there were much better methods for extracting the truth.
"I'll be candid, Agent Jarrus," Oamuys said, setting the data pad on the desk.
Kanan nearly snorted, candid, he'd never met a candid person in his life.
"Results aren't expected out of this team, many are rather unsure of the purpose of our presence. I am hoping to prove this otherwise. While I'm not expecting you to make headway, I am expecting full cooperation."
Kanan gave a stiff nod.
"Good, if you do find anything, report it to me. Agent Theodorus of Enforcement and Agent Pou of Investigation are working with me. If you wish to, you may join them in their individual endeavors, or you can work on your own," with that, Agent Oamuys stood and moved over to the door.
Kanan followed, waiting for her to open it and then stepping out.
"Have a good day, Agent Jarrus," her tone indicated that she didn't care what kind of a day he had.
Kanan managed a terse smile and polite response before the door shut. Stiffly keeping posture, Kanan resisted his urge to sigh and slump as he headed back towards his room. It was getting late and the day would be ending soon. He decided to skip chow, or any form of dinner, and headed back to the Interrogations office. He still needed to finish up his transfer paperwork and make sure his living stipend was adjusted for Lothal.
When he arrived, he saw the secretary Agent Linch standing and talking to a young teenage girl dressed in ridiculously colored Mandalorian armor.
"Jarrus!" Linch said, a look of relief on his face.
Kanan had a sinking feeling, knowing that that was the look someone gave someone else when something was going to quickly not be there problem.
"This is one of our Bounty Hunters, Ishtar."
Kanan eyed her skeptically. A keen pair of hazel eyes met his, regarding him cooly. Kanan's gaze flicked to the Mandalorian helmet in her hand and the blasters at her hip.
"Agent Jarrus with Interrogation," Kanan said in greeting.
The girl's lip quirked in a acerbic smile before dipping down again.
"Pleasure," she said, a biting insincerity in her tone that was well masked.
"What's this about?" Kanan asked, glancing over at Linch, a small mousy man who appeared perpetually anxious.
"Well-" Linch started, the girl interrupted him.
"I brought you someone who can help in taking apart Mok's syndicate."
Kanan raised a brow, he'd heard a little about Mok since arriving, apparently the biggest black market dealer on Lothal and someone who did nasty business. He'd been a thorn in the Empire's side. Whoever took him down could expect a big payday. Something about the girl rubbed Kanan the wrong way.
"Where is this 'someone'?" Kanan asked.
It was Linch who answered.
"I just put him in the cells."
Kanan gave a nod, and then turned to the girl.
"Well, thank you for your brave efforts in aiding the Empire, we'll make note of it."
Kanan was pleased to see the flash of anger in the girl's eyes at his dismissal of her.
"I want to know what he says, I don't do handouts, not even for the Empire," she said, stepping in front of him as he tried to walk away.
Kanan stopped, was silent for a few moments and eyed her sharply.
"This is the Empire, sweetheart, if you want to place your bets, you sure as hell shouldn't be doing it with us."
The girl bristled, but she seemed to understand that she wasn't going to get anywhere with Kanan.
"Make sure my prisoner is processed with Agent Trinh'son," she said, addressing Linch.
"Bu-but Agent Trinh'son, he's been transferred," Linch said timidly.
"Well find me someone else other than than Agent Jarrus," she said rudely.
Kanan spun around, he was not going to be underhanded by an adolescent girl.
"Agent Linch, you will process the Empire's prisoner under me, Agent Kanan Jarrus, and you," he said, turning to the girl, "if you want any of the information I get from my prisoner, you'll wait till it's in the news. Now, please leave the facility or I will have to escort you out."
Kanan watched the girl's eyes flash with venom before an acidulous smile came on her face. Kanan knew he'd just made an enemy, and probably one he didn't want to have. Mandalorians of any age were trained killers. Somehow, he didn't care much at the moment.
"Of course," she said in mock subservience, throwing her arms wide in a faux gesture of benevolence, "all hail the Empire."
Kanan watched her exit with a gut feeling that the girl was probably going to get a hold of the information with or without his help. With a nod to Linch who saluted, he shook his head and headed to his quarters. Tomorrow would be a new day.
Hera was frowning. Zeb had come to learn that a frowning Hera was never a good thing, the woman had a suspiciously improbable amount of patience and hope which was not often exhausted.
"Whassit?" Zeb said, looking over at her from where she was kneeling on the ground.
"Diagnostic got done," she said absently, eyes roving over the panel she had open.
"And?" Zeb said, moving to stand near her with his arms crossed.
Hera let out a sigh and with her hands on her thighs pushed herself to a standing position.
"Turbine reactor is busted," she said.
It was Zeb's turn to sport a frown and he looked quite distraught.
"I thought it just needed a bit of maintenance?" Zeb asked, a fragile hope peeking out meekly.
Hera shook her head, hands going to her hips.
"The fission moderator was barely there when we landed, it gave out after resting and the turbine reactor can't function without it."
Zeb gave a nod. That wasn't good news.
"Can we replace it?" He asked.
Hera's mouth did a little quibble and Zeb, who had learned that a quibbling mouth meant Hera had news she didn't want to share, prepared himself.
"Yes," she started, hesitating before continuing, "but they aren't exactly easy to come by. Even if someone did have one, I doubt we'd be able to afford it."
"So we're stuck planet side?" Zeb asked even though he already knew the answer.
Hera nodded.
"Let's-" she let out a sigh, "let's just let it alone for tonight, we can worry about it tomorrow."
Chopper came rolling in and let out a few beeps and whirs. Hera patted him on his top and moved towards the common area, her shoulders slumped. Her disappointment was palpable. Zeb understood. If they were stuck on planet that meant they couldn't take jobs, no jobs meant no credits and they were already having to pay for supplies, repairs, and the daily docking fee. Rubbing a hand against his head, he thought about what he could do. There wasn't much to do except to go out and try to find a fission moderator as soon as possible and to do whatever was necessary to get a hold of it.
"Someone's tense."
Sabine flashed a glare at Ketsu who in turn let out a soft laugh.
"Want to talk about it?" Ketsu asked.
It was the next day and they were currently in the room cleaning and preparing their weapons. They didn't have a bounty at the moment and they had plenty of money to last them until they did. Sabine was at the desk while Ketsu was on the bed.
"No," Sabine snapped, forcing herself to pay attention to the small round containers she was filling with the material for smoke bombs.
Ketsu's brow raised and she leaned back, not as amused. She was cleaning her staff and had just finished cleaning Sabine's set of WESTAR-35s, a testament to the trust between the two.
"Alright," she said, eyeing Sabine as she continued working.
It was silent a few moments, the two girls working.
"You never did tell me how it went with the street rat," Ketsu said, trying to get Sabine to open up.
"I didn't," Sabine replied.
Ketsu shook her head as Sabine didn't elaborate. Several more minutes passed in silence and then Ketsu got a sharp grin on her face, setting the staff to the side. Sabine ignored her, continuing her work on the last three smoke bombs. Ketsu slunk over to Sabine, a hand going on the other girl's shoulder and fluttering down Sabine's bicep. Leaning down, she nipped at Sabine's neck.
Sabine shrugged Ketsu off.
"I'm working," she explained, still not looking at Ketsu but peering intently at her work.
Ketsu stood up, disappointment on her face. She then moved to the desk, pushing a few items to the side and then hopping onto the surface. Sabine ground her teeth, setting her tools down to glare at her friend.
"What?" She snapped.
"I'm bored," Ketsu said in a rather unconvincing whine, "and I want to know about what happened or at least get to do something. Besides, you're tense, it might be good for you."
"I'm not in the mood," Sabine said dryly.
Ketsu didn't look particularly happy about it, but she shrugged.
"Then tell me about the boy," she said.
"Nothing, Trinh'son isn't there anymore, some tightwad named Jarrus replaced him, he'll probably release the kid. So I didn't get anything and we're stuck with nothing on getting Mok."
"Why do you want to get Mok so bad?" Ketsu seemed perplexed by Sabine's irritation, "you've been chasing shadows to get dirt on him, picking up little street rats on the off chance they'll spill something."
Sabine stood up, feeling annoyed and overwhelmed. She didn't have to explain herself to Ketsu. Besides she didn't even know what her motivations were for wanting to take Mok down, and not knowing left her in a confusing flurry of upset.
"I'm going out," she said shortly, heading to the door after clipping her belt back on and putting her blasters in their holsters.
Ketsu said nothing, watching her go with a contemplative look.
Ezra woke to an empty nauseous stomach and a pounding head. Blinking past the gritty stickiness of his eyes he looked around himself to find that he was in his worst nightmare. An Imperial prison cell. Panic surged through him and he scrambled to a sitting position. He had to get out, he had to get out. The walls seemed to be pressing in on him and with a sense of urgency, Ezra began checking himself over.
He had nothing, everything he'd been carrying with him was gone. His lock picks, his little energy dagger, every little knick and knack he kept on himself for when times got desperate was gone. That Mandalorian girl had stripped him bare. With nothing to work with Ezra's mind began to go through his options. There weren't really any.
"Hey!" Ezra yelled, hoping that someone was guarding his door.
"Hey! I have to go pee!" Maybe that would incite the guards to come it, if there were any.
No one answered and Ezra realized that there was no way he was important enough for them to leave guards outside his cell. The question was, how did he end up in a cell? The Mandalorian girl definitely hadn't been an Imperial, she'd said she was a bounty hunter. Or maybe she'd lied. Ezra shivered, the room temperature of the cell was a lot cooler than outside and he curled up, hands brushing at his arms. He just needed to think of a way out of here.
Hours passed and nothing came to mind. If he had his screwdriver, or multi-purpose tool as it was generally known as, he'd be able to at least fiddle with the vent. When he was considering the plan of faked heart attack, the door slid open.
A tall gangly sort of man stood there, not exactly a perfect image of an Imperial but there was something about the predatory grin on his face which made Ezra shiver.
The first thing he did was laugh, a horrible barking laugh that was loud and raucous. Ezra cringed at the sound, drawing into himself.
"Jarrus it's the damndest guy," the man said to himself.
He shook his head before waving over at someone outside the room. An IT-O droid hovered into Ezra's sight, the round black piece of machinery with the eerie red glow of its operation light. Ezra felt terror seize him and he threw himself back against the wall. He'd heard horror stories about IT-Os.
"I guess I'll do some of his work for him, let him settle in before having to do the nasty stuff."
The man let out another barking laugh.
Kanan hadn't slept well. Dreams of distant times plagued him, Billaba's sonorous voice reaching out to him through the years and the many atrocities and sins he'd committed. He'd been in the Jedi gardens of Coruscant, in the training hall, murders, the awful smell of burnt flesh from blaster wounds. Kanan rubbed a hand across his face and tried to steady his breathing so the knot in his chest would loose. It didn't really help.
He was sluggish as he got ready, lackluster as he gelled his hair back and shaved. His uniform felt heavy and uncomfortable, a reminder that he was not a Jedi now and that his past was far away from him. Staring in the mirror he wondered how he had come so far from the curious and innocent boy named Caleb Dume, Billaba would be so disappointed.
Wanting to escape the thoughts which hadn't haunted him for quite some time, Kanan thought about what to do for the day. A pretty smile, sharp green eyes and the slim curves of a certain Twi'lek came to mind. Hera, that was her name, wasn't it? A desire to go see the woman entered him and he found himself deciding on what he would do for the day.
Kanan headed to the transport area once again, ignoring the memo he had, and taking once again a speeder. He stopped at the same Imperial station to drop the speeder off at and began his trek to the port market.
Today was as crowded as yesterday. The warmth of the Lothal sun was pleasant and Kanan wandered for a bit, enjoying the scenery.
His enjoyment of it all was interrupted by shouts and screams. Pushing past a crowd that was quickly forming, Kanan came into view of a pair of troopers harassing a stall owner. They'd thrown the merchandise, a quantity of baked goods, on the ground. One soldier had his hands wrapped around a woman's wrists, a woman who was screaming in hysterics, crying and babbling in some language other than common. Kanan was watching the other soldier point his gun at the two, shouting in common at the woman to stop. His efforts were only making her scream more.
Kanan pushed forward, entering the circle the crowd had made. The soldier immediately turned his gun to Kanan. Kanan raised his hands, grateful that the weapon was no longer pointed at the woman.
"Hey, why don't we take it easy?" He said, stepping closer.
The soldier seemed unsure, obviously a young man probably right out of the academy and far away from home.
"Halt!" The soldier stuttered out.
Kanan smiled warmly, hands still held up.
"C'mon, let her go and we can come up with something that doesn't get you two court-martialled, how about that?" Kanan used the small bit of the force he was still connected with to lace his words.
The soldier let the woman go and she fell to the ground, weeping into her hands. The other soldier pointed his blaster to the ground. Kanan stepped in even closer so he was right next to the two men.
"What are you doing?" Kanan said in an authoritative whisper.
The soldiers looked baffled and the one lifted his blaster again.
"You're compromising my operation, I'm Agent Jarrus of the ISB, with Interrogation and you two idiots are going to blow my cover."
He didn't have to see their faces to know that they were pale and shocked.
"Y-yes sir," one of them managed to stutter out.
"Now, hit me with the gun and say something about it not being worth the trouble. You're going to walk away after that and hope that my entire operation hasn't been ruined because you two don't know how to deal with street market licenses."
The men both nodded dumbly and stood there.
"Hit me," Kanan hissed.
The soldier who had been holding the woman seemed to catch on a little faster and brought his gun up, smacking Kanan in the chest with the butt of his gun and sending him to the floor. Kanan hit hard and stayed their so as to appear dazed. The soldiers managed to shout something at him which was believable and then left. Once they were gone, Kanan got up and crouched down next to the woman. She was still crying, but not as hysterically. Kanan smiled at her and held a hand out, she took it and he lifted her to her feet.
The crowd was dispersing, a soft murmur replacing the tense silence of the people from before.
"Here, let me, I speak Huttese."
Kanan was shocked to see the Mandalorian from last night crouching down. She smiled at him, a malicious tinge which made Kanan uncomfortable.
Unfortunately, she hadn't been the only person to witness the event.
"Kanan?" Hera apparently had seen it all, along with her friend the Lasat.
The Lasat was eyeing him with approval and Hera looked shocked, worried and admiring.
"That was really brave of you, standing up to the Empire like that, not anyone could do that" she said, looking at the woman.
The Mandalorian girl, Ishtar as she went by, cocked her head and eyed Kanan with vicious curiosity.
"Yeah, stupid Imperials mess up everyone's lives," Zeb said, righting the woman's stand.
The Mandalorian girl calmed the woman down and helped her salvage some of the pastries, all the while keeping an eye on Kanan. Hera helped as did Kanan. By the end, the woman was thanking them profusely and the Mandalorian girl sweetly interpreted. They then said their good byes, the woman returning to her stand and the Mandalorian girl flashing Kanan a nasty look akin to the cat catching the canary before disappearing in the crowd.
"I saw that they hit you, are you alright?" Hera asked.
Kanan nearly forgot about his new predicament from how wonderful it felt to be under the full attention of Hera. She looked worried and proud and he wished she was always looking at him like that.
"Yeah," he said, rubbing at his chest, "I'm okay."
"I'm glad," Hera said softly, regarding him differently than she had before.
"I guess you guys aren't fans of the Empire either."
Kanan knew he shouldn't be prodding, knew that more likely than not this was going to lead to difficult situations. It would be better if he said good bye and parted ways with them, they would be safer for it and he would be able to work the job he did without difficulties arising. He had never really done what he was supposed to.
"No," Hera said, face darkened.
Zeb looked no more friendly on the subject either.
"Look, why don't we treat you to dinner, see if we can thank you for doing what you did?" Hera offered.
Kanan wanted to, he very much wanted to, but he had things he had to do, the speeder had to be turned in by a certain time, he had to figure out what to do with this situation.
"Umm," he hesitated, wanting to say yes.
"That's okay, I get it, you probably have somewhere you need to be. Maybe you can swing by and visit us some other time, we're going to be on planet for a little while. We'd love to share a cup of caf with you."
Kanan found himself agreeing and then promising to hold her to it. They parted ways, her smile brandished in his mind.
Arriving back at base, Kanan was happy with how the day had gone. Now back in his uniform, he was headed to dinner when he suddenly realized he'd completely forgotten to turn in his paperwork with Linch. Rushing off, he headed to the Interrogations office.
"Agent Jarrus," Linch said, an anxious little smile on his face.
Kanan waved at him, handing over the files he had meant to turn in so much earlier. Why Bnach's system was still run on offline storage chips, he didn't know, but he knew it was making his getting completely into Lothal's system a pain.
"I-well, your acquisition, you have some new updates on it," Linch said, wide eyed as he looked at Kanan like he would bite.
Acquisition? Kanan hadn't had any acquisitions since arriving, no body to interrogate. Then it hit him, the person the Mandalorian girl had brought in that he'd so idiotically taken hand of. Now he was going to have to deal with that paperwork.
"I-I sent you the memo," Linch said meekly.
"Wait, what do you mean new updates? All that should have happened was them being processed?" Kanan asked, confused.
Linch replied by offering out a data pad with the file on it. Kanan looked at it, apparently someone had ordered an IT-O droid. A pretty straight forward interrogation tactic, but who would have the gall to go above his head on something like this? When Kanan saw the name of who had signed off on it he was pissed. Kriffing Hooge. He knew that Hooge was a complete skrogger, but this was a step too far.
"You let someone have access to my acquisition?!" Kanan said, pissed in general about the situation.
He didn't let Linch reply.
"You ever, and I mean ever, let someone mess with my acquisitions without my explicit permission I will have your kriffing shebs into Investigation, from now on, all of my acquisitions will be only accessible to me, got it?"
Linch gave a quick nod. Kanan gave a nod back, hoping that the pale face of Linch and the fact that he looked like he was going to pass out were indicators that the man would fulfill his wishes.
Kanan backed off, letting out a frustrated sigh. It was too late to do anything about Hooge, but he should probably go in and see his acquisition. He looked at the data pad. Hooge had submitted them to an hour of torture this morning, another in the afternoon. That was way too much in one day.
The acquisition was in one of the nearby cells and it didn't take Kanan long to get there. He was nearly to the door when something hit him. He automatically brought a hand up to his head. Someone, a force user, was nearby and they were in a lot of pain. Kanan's head was splitting with the complete out pour of emotions through the force. Fumbling blindly, he remembered Billaba's lesson on creating walls to protect yourself and quickly threw up a shoddy one. The pain lessened and he was able to breathe.
That was weird. Kanan stood frozen to the spot. None of the other cells were occupied as far as he was aware. Cautiously approaching the cell where his acquisition was, he stared at it. The force user was in there. Kanan hesitated, wondering that if he entered would he see someone he knew. Maybe someone had survived. His heart was in his throat and everything seemed to depend on what lay behind the door.
Opening the door, Kanan stepped in. The door slid shut behind him and the lights, which had been dim before, turned bright.
A little boy, about ten, was curled in on himself in the far corner of the room. Kanan felt sick. Hooge had tortured a child and it was because Kanan had detained him.
"Please, don't, not anymore," the boy whimpered.
Kanan took in a deep breath.
"You're not going to be hurt anymore," Kanan promised, taking a step farther into the room.
Brilliant blue eyes darted up to him and they were strikingly familiar.
"I'm Kanan Jarrus, I won't let anybody hurt you anymore, now tell me, what's your name?"
The boy seemed to hesitate, but a shine of determination flashed in his eyes which let Kanan know that though the boy was hurt and scared, he was not giving up and he was not broken.
"Ezra," he said softly, "Ezra Bridger."
Kanan felt his mouth go dry, he knew that name, knew it because he'd heard it on Bnach in one of the tiny cramped interrogation cells. He knew it because he had been the one to interrogate Mira and Ephraim Bridger.
