The young girl drew in, and let out a slight, shuddering breath.
She hung, suspended by the Ray Shield in the prison cell. Her long golden hair reached just down below her shoulders, but after years of imprisonment it looked almost brown, so flecked with dirt and filth. Many scars covered her body, and her dress was ripped, torn, and in some places, stained with blood. She must have been quite beautiful once. But years of torture had left her brutalised. She tried to cry. But couldn't. The Ray Shield stopped her. Her only company: two stormtroopers on guard. She had tried begging, tried pleading for mercy, but for all the good it was doing, she might have been begging a cloud for snow. The two just laughed, and whacked her in the face again.
But all that was about to change.
She heard someone open the door to the cell. Then she heard a trooper speaking.
"The boss is tired of waiting. Get rid of the girl."
"With pleasure."
The girl heard two sets of footsteps leaving the cell, and she heard the click of a blaster.
This was it.
She was going to die.
She closed her eyes, and waited for death to come, and sweep her away. She heard the gunfire, and tensed herself for the blinding flash of red…
…
…
…
…
…
But it never came.
Ezra raced down the hallway, desperate to get to the girl and stop her execution. He counted the doors, and finally, reached the one. He had to hurry. He wrenched the door off its repulsors, and dashed into the room. He picked up the trooper, and threw him against the wall. Then he turned his attention to the only remaining occupant.
A girl hung, suspended by a Ray Shield. Her eyes were closed and her face was covered in dirt and dried blood, but there was no mistaking her. Ezra slowly walked into the cell. As he got closer, he heard her start to moan.
"No… Noooo…"
Ezra stared at her. She was blind. A Microchip sat on her neck, and seemed to be infecting some kind of fluid. He pulled it out, and at once, she gasped, and opened her eyes.
It's like waking up from a deep sleep. Her eyes haven't been open in years. But once she could see again, she saw her rescuer.
"Ezra?"
Ezra's eyes widened.
"Star!"
He cut the Ray Shield at its base, and the girl fell into his arms.
"Ezra! I haven't seen you in years! Why are you here?"
"No time here." Ezra answered. "We have to get off here before my friends blow this place to the Tingel Arm! Can you walk?"
Ezra draped one of her arms over his shoulder, and the two ran back through the maze of corridors.
Sabine jumped behind a cargo box, and opened fire with her twin Westar-35 Blaster Pistols. She dropped three troopers, and blasted another four out of the way with a concussion grenade. She jumped backwards, and the Ghost appeared through the Shield. Sabine lept onto the boarding ramp, and amidst a hail of blaster shots, the crew retreated out of the hanger, and jumped to lightspeed.
When Sabine entered the living room, all the faces there looked worried, if not downright scared. Hera was talking to Kanan. Zeb was sitting at a chair, staring blankly into space.
Sabine felt a sick feeling in her stomach. She did a quick headcount.
"Wait… Where's Ezra?"
The crew all turned to look at her. There was a long, uncomfortable silence. Then, finally, Kanan spoke up.
"Ezra… Didn't make it to the extraction point."
"Wait, WHAT?!"
"Something came up. He told us not to blow the explosives, and left."
"And you just let him go? Kanan, he's still on there, and…" Her face went a ghastly shade of white. "The automatic timer."
"What!"
"The automatic timer! All the bombs are set to detonate automatically a while after I set them. It was a precaution, just in case I didn't make it! And…" Her face went whiter still. "And Ezra doesn't know."
Kanan stared at Hera. Her face too had gone pale, resulting in a sickly green colour not unlike vomit.
Ezra half-supported, half-dragged the young girl through the corridors. It was no use going to the hanger. Their only hope was to get to an escape pod before…
A loud BOOM rocked the vessel, as the automatic timers on the bombs reached zero. In minutes, the whole station would be rubble and debris. Ezra rounded a corner, and saw salvation.
The escape pods.
He shot a trooper in the back, and climbed into the pod, lying the girl down on one of the seats, and remotely jettisoning all pods. The doors closed behind the two teenagers, and the pod rocketed out into space. Barely had they gone a safe distance away, when the station exploded. Huge chunks of durasteel went flying into space, as the stain erupted into a massive fireball. As he turned to the girl, though, he realised his troubles were far from over.
The largest chunk of debri was heading straight for the pod.
The two collided in a shrieking of metal.
A girl screamed.
There was a moment of blinding confusion.
And the pod, damaged but still in one piece, began hurtling towards the planet below.
Ezra hurled himself on top of the girl, to protect her. The two went spinning off towards Lothal.
The pod was falling apart now. Ezra shielded the girl from further harm, but he couldn't shield her from a crash course for the planet.
Sabine entered the living room. She had been watching, for the past few minutes, the readouts on the Detpacks she had placed on the station. Her face was wearing a very woebegone expression.
"The Detpacks… Were set off. No survivors."
The rest of the crew sighed. Now there was only one thing for it. They would leave the system for a few standard days, maybe a week, and then come back and try to find Ezra. Hera noticed the Mandalorians face.
"Don't worry love. I'm sure he's okay. Remember, he lived on the streets for years. He's a survivor."
Just as she said this, Kanan's head exploded with pain.
It was crushing him. He dropped to the floor, clutching his head. He roared in pain…
And then it was gone.
Kana stood up again. Hera rushed to him.
"What is it? What did you see?"
"I heard… I heard Ezra."
Everyone gasped.
"He cried out, and I heard a girl's voice screaming, and then… Nothing."
Everyone fell silent. There was no need to talk anymore.
This just got serious.