A/N: Okay, after some delay here is the new chapter.
As for the contest, I am glad to see more contestants this time around than the last one, and I really do appreciate the interest. Without exception everyone who put forward a guess, guessed the Matrix as the source material for the inspiration for the origin of the drug and it's delivery system.
I'm sorry to say that this is not the case. The correct answer was Stargate:SG-1, and extremely long running American-Canadian Sci-Fi series than ran for over 10 years, and once held the record for longest running Sci-fi series. The delivery system was inspired by device introduced in the shows fifth season. The chemical didn't brain wash the person into an obedient servant, but made them think the user was whoever that person wanted to think they were. The drugs actual function's interoperation comes from a control chemical used by two of the shows villains, Goa'uld named Hathor and Seth, which did control the subject.
Well, with my short Stargate history lesson over, all I'll say is better luck next time. I really do appreciate the reviews and the interest in the contest, there will be more chances in the future, if not in this story, then the next. But anyway onto the story.
Disclaimer: Star Wars is owned by Disney and Lucasfilm.
Chapter 7
Ezra wasn't exactly sure what he was going to do when he found Zann, but he was certain it was going to involve stunning him first. Zann wasn't a push over, Ezra felt than when he punched him, he hit well above his weight class, his imperial training on Carida was likely to thank for that.
He felt the angriest he had felt in a long time, maybe the angriest he had ever felt in his life, he supposed in the moment, actual ranking of emotions was hard, but he knew he wanted to hurt Zann. But first he needed to find him, preferably alone, he didn't need his thugs stepping in and stopping him.
And as Ezra checked the cargo hold, he was in luck. Zann was looking over a datapad, a look on his face saying something wasn't right. Ezra walked in as quietly as he could, but the hiss of the door closing behind him caused Zann to look up.
"Ezra? What do you want?" was all Zann got out before being hit by three consecutive stun blasts from Ezra's Lightsaber hilt. As Zann crumpled to his Knee's, Ezra ignited his lightsaber, and drove it into the control panel of the door.
Tyber gritted his teeth in pain as he rose to his feet. The boy's stunner bolts were weaker than the normal stun blast, but still gave him a great deal of pain, but he'd rather be awake and in pain and be able to defend himself than unconscious and at the boy's mercy. The fact that these shot were not fired from a standard blaster was likely the only reason he was still awake, if they drew power from the same source as the lightsaber, they were probably running low on power.
"What are you doing boy!" Tyber hissed out, slowing getting to his feet.
"I know what you did to Sabine, Zann!" He said brandishing his saber in Tyber face. "Tell me how to fix it!"
"What are you talking about!" Tyber shouted out this time, taking a step back from the humming blade of energy.
"You drugged her, messed with her head, tell me how to undo what you did!" Ezra shouted edging the blade closer.
Tyber looked from the blade, to Ezra's face to the now damaged door. Tyber was going to bet the rest of the crew, along with his own men, would come knocking down the door after the ruckus they had just caused.
"How did you find out boy!?" Tyber answered instead, buying time, although he suspected that the boy had hacked his datapad.
"It doesn't matter, just tell me how to undo it!"
"Or else what?" Tyber said with a ghost of a smirk flashing over his face. The boy was angry, to be certain, but he didn't think the boy was going to cause him any real harm.
There was banging on the door, not in earnest yet, no doubt just someone coming to check on the noise, they didn't know anything was so far out of the ordinary that they needed to break the door down.
"I'll make you talk Zann." Ezra said, either ignoring the noise at the door, or to focused on his current task to take notice.
"Really? Boy!" Tyber said making sure to emphasize the word "boy", as it seemed to rile Ezra up more, referring to him as a child.
Then, for the first time in a long time, Tyber received an genuine shock, as Ezra did two quick slashes with his saber. The first cut him along the brig of his nose, a painful cut but not overtly serious. The second however, cut a long diagonal slash from his hair line to his jaw, making a long burned a bloody line dividing his face in half.
It took Tyber a second to register that he had been cut, but his hand flew to his face in agony, and let out a howl of pain and crumpled to his knees gripping his bloody face.
The banging on the door started in earnest now, and it sounded as though it was starting to be pried open.
"Tell me?" Ezra shouted.
Tyber looked up through his fingers and looked at Ezra. He was in a bind, the boy knew, and if he hadn't told the other's, he would when they got inside the room. He needed to neutralize the boy, but not kill him, which he doubted he could achieve that at the moment.
"Alright, fine." Tyber said lowering his right hand to his pocket "I'll show you." and in his pocket he slipped on a familiar ring.
Ezra, two worked up to pay attention to his surroundings, was watching Zann's face, and failed to react in time to stop Zann from grabbing his left forearm. All Ezra ever noticed as a slight pricking sensation, then a dizzying blackness. The last thing he saw was Zann's fish inches from his face.
Tyber made sure to hit Ezra hard enough to knocked him into the wall, he needed a make it look like the boy had hit his head.
Tyber quickly took off the ring and pocketed it again. The drug did not work properly on force users, but it still had its uses. In their earliest testing phases, any force user it had been test on lapsed into a temporary comma, lasting from two to six days, waking completely normal.
Tyber didn't know if the reaction was some sort of healing trance to remove the drug from their system or if the reaction was purely chemical, but at any rate, in this case it didn't matter, the only one who knew of his unscrupulous testing methods. He just needed make it to Lothol with is men, then they could get off world and get back to business. Ezra just needed to out of commission for a few more hours.
Finally, shouts started coming through the door. It was Kanan, who now had managed to force the door open.
"Ezra!" Kanan shouted jumping down to where the boy lay on the floor, unconscious. "What did you do to him!" he shouted at Zann, before his voice caught in his throat and a new question entered him mind, "what had Ezra done to Zann."
The man's face had an extremely large lightsaber cut across it, which he was clenching grimacing in pain as he braced himself against the wall.
"I defended myself." was all he responded with, and started sliding down the wall to sit on the floor. "He shouted some things about betrayal, I'm not sure, something was wrong with the boy when he came in, don't ask what he wanted, I don't know."
Urai approached silently and helped Tyber to his feet and helped him out of the cargo hold .
Kanan looked at Ezra, and tried to search his mind for the truth, but all he felt anger and hate. Whatever Ezra had done, he had touched the dark side again. This was the second time he had done so, and that scared Kanan as much, maybe more than the fight that had just occurred.
This was his fault, he should of taught Ezra more on resisting the Dark side. While Ezra had made the choice, to do whatever he did, on his own, if he had just taught him more on resisting the Dark side, he wouldn't of made such a rash decision and acted on his own. He should of come to him, if he thought Zann was up to something, or done something, he should of come to him.
But Kanan was certain of something else in all of this, he was certain that Zann was at fault. He felt it, in his gut that, while Ezra was certainly guilty of poor judgment, he was certain that Zann had done something fairly substantial to illicit such a strong response from Ezra.
And he needed to find out what.
"That kid had got some serious guts." Tacker said to his wife after everyone else cleared out of the cargo hold."Aren't many people in the galaxy who'd try to take on Tyber Zann by themselves."
Paige snorted "That or pretty stupid, but looked like Tyber isn't ever going to forget this little encounter, and nice big reminder on his face." she smiled slightly at the thought. Tyber was her current employer, but she found him a bit full of himself, which granted wasn't completely unwarranted, she had seen him make some truly spectacular tactical and strategic moves in his carrier. It still didn't means she had to like it, as soon as the escort job was over, she'd be glad to move on from him and find an new employer.
Tracker never understood why working for Zann was so dangerous, he'd take any good paying job that came their way but she understood why working for the Zann Consortium was a high risk job. Foe starter's it was a Criminal organization, that put them on the radar of every law enforcement group in the galaxy if they were associated with Zann. That meant no imperial contracts, and those offered some exceptionally nice paydays.
The second was they were at odds with bounty hunters working for other organizations, and given Tyber was not top dog in the underworld, that made his organization more likely to be attacked by other large gangs. While the Hutt's currently had Zann in their employee that was not going to last long and the Black Sun's leader Xizor, was openly contemptuous of Tyber.
She had only agreed to take this job do to the extraordinarily high amount of credits that were offered, and the fact they hadn't had a job in a long time.
She just hoped that whatever the boy had attacked Zann over could be ignored until the trip was over, she didn't fancy the idea of getting in a fire fight over Zann's life.
Sabine winced as she cleaned out Tyber's cut's. There looked extraordinarily painful, and Tyber's expression seemed to say it all.
"Why did Ezra do this?" she asked as much to herself as to Tyber. This was such a malicious act, she doubted it could be anything trivial.
"I couldn't tell you." Tyber said, clenching his teeth together.
"I'm so sorry, about this, when Ezra wakes up, he's going to have a lot to explain." he said dabbing at the gashes. She actully did think Ezra would have a lot to explain, but he didn't think he'd of done something like this without a good reason. But he wanted to stay on Tyber's good side for now, that's what Kanan wanted, and she'd do it as best she could, and frankly, it was much easier than it should of been.
When Tyber spoke to her, she felt like he was talking to someone else. Someone who she reminded him of, and Kanan's explanation seemed to confirm this. It was only small things, like how he spoke to her a somewhat more familiar manner than he did with the other's. Originally she had thought it was just he felt more at ease around her because she was a Mandolorian, and now she knew that was at least part true.
As she he mind wandered, she felt a strong, but surprisingly gentle grip on her wrist. Coming back to focus, she notice Tyber looking at her. His eye's bored into her eye's and it seemed like something was dawning on him, like for the first time sense meeting her, he was seeing something in her eyes.
It scared and excited her at the same time, she felt the color rise in her cheeks as he spoke "I'm...have..."
It was scary to see Tyber trip over his words, he was normally so well spoken. "What is it Tyber?" she said, not really sure if she wanted an answer. The previous night, he had managed to throw her through a loop again, without even doing anything, just a few words and an inappropriate level of physical closeness, and he had her mind tumbling around all night.
But now he seemed off, and for someone like him to be bothered by anything, was disturbing.
"It's nothing, deja vu, I just felt like I had meet you someone before this whole little adventure, but that can't be, you are far too young." he said, his eye's casting down. "WE better get this finished up." he said gesturing to his raw face.
Sabine was unnerved by this attitude, but she decided that right now was not the time push the issue. She hoped this would be helpful in her attempt to try and get him to hand over the holocron.
Tyber was furious, in two day's he had suffered more severe injuries than he had in his entire life, one at the hands of no name stormtropper, the other by an untrained Jedi youngling. This was humiliating, but something else was sitting on his mind. Sabine had done something to him. To be more accurate, something about her eyes. In all honesty he hadn't been paying any real attention to her other than when he had decided to screw with her, which he found greatly amusing.
But her eye's, for the first time he had noticed, were hauntingly similar to some he had known long ago. But that person was long dead, gone to whatever lay beyond this mortal coil.
But her eye's, they had the same eye's. And for the second time that day, Tyber found himself off balance, and he detested the feeling.
Hera looked at Ezra in his bunk. He still hadn't woken up, but she hadn't expected him to, not yet after hitting his head so hard. He was also nursing a new black eye.
She cared about Ezra as much as any else on the ship, but she felt like he needed more watching than the others. Aside from being the youngest and the most unpredictable, he was probably the one who needed help the most. Alone for so long on the streets and losing his parents, she wanted to help him in ways she didn't or couldn't with the others. They had all lost something, but she felt that with Ezra, she, and the rest of the crew, may be able to help him more, that he was still young enough that he could still feel like he grew up with a family. She knew that they could replace his parents, nor did she want to, but that didn't change that she wanted to be there for him.
And that was what made him hurt so much more painful. He had found something out, or believed he had, and tried to confront Tyber over it, and while he certainly gave as good as he got, the fact he hadn't come to her or Kanan about what was bothering him, hurt.
She wouldn't know until he woke up what had set him off, but she not only wished he had confided in her, but also was certain that the entire incident could of been avoided.
It was times like this that reminded her that Ezra was still, indeed a teenager. He was impulsive and sometime prone to rash actions. But this was a step above what would be considered normal rash actions. Several steps above actually.
She and Kanan were both certain Ezra, in typical Ezra fashion, had gone and done something he wasn't supposed to and it had set him off. Whatever it was, she could only guess at, but it involved Tyber.
For all the experience she had with Zann, she still wasn't sure what to really think of him. His promise for Ryloth had, in a very roundabout way, come to pass. An Imperial Naval presence would essentially stop the slave trade. In her experience, once and Imperial Fleet showed up, it rarely ever left, at least not entirely, a few ships always stayed behind.
She hoped that when Ezra woke up, which should be soon she hoped, she was going to make him tell her what exactly had happened.
The Ghost dropped out of Hyperspace over Lothol and slipped pass the Imperial Blockade. Hera piloted the ship with less than her usual talent. Ezra had been asleep for more than few hours, which wasn't normal for some who had just been knocked out. She feared, along with the rest of the crew, that he may in fact have a serious head injury. They didn't have any way to tell on the ship, they'd need to take him to a real doctor to find out and get him proper medical attention.
Going to a doctor's office was always a risky business, they ran the risk of getting caught, which is why they handled most if not all medical issues onboard the ship. But if this was a more serious injury, they didn't have a choice. A head injury of this type could be fatal if not properly treated, if that was what indeed what was causing the issue. Zeb had made the suggestion he was simply faking it, although Sabine was fairly certain that was just to ease his own worries about Ezra and still maintain his "image".
Of course Hera knew Zeb was probably closer to Ezra than anyone except Kanan. As much as they two fought, she knew they cared much more about each other than either would ever admit to or let on.
Sabine, was oddly distant from the incident, and while Hera knew she sometimes found Ezra's antic's annoying, she knew she was worried. No, what was bothering her was she seemed to be unwilling to even look in on Ezra in this condition. If Hera knew a any better, she would of guessed she knew something about the incident.
But if she did, Hera was certain she would of told her about. No, she maybe suspected something, but she didn't have anything hard in the way of evidence.
As she set the ship down, she felt like a weight lifted off her shoulder. Like some huge task had been finished, and she realized that was exactly what had happened.
"Okay, we're here and I think that concludes our business together." Kanan said to Tyber, Urai, Tracker and Paige in the grass feild outside the Ghost's landing zone.
"Yes, of course, we'll be lying low for the next few days in the nearby town, after than we will be taking a ride off this planet to one of our other bases." Tyber said looking ober the group, his eyes resting on Sabine for a moment.
"You have all impressed me with how you've handled yourselves on this little adventure, especially given how many unforeseen circumstances we encountered. If any of you want to come and work for the Consortium, we'd be happy to have you. Come find us in town before we leave if you're interested."
With that, the four of them turned and started the march to town.
"Sabine." Kanan said once they were out of ear shot. "How's it coming, are we going to have to steal the damn thing?"
Sabine sighed "Probably, although he was acting weird when I was cleaning him up." she said in mumbling voice.
Kanan knew the idea wasn't likely to work, but it had been worth a shot. Now they'd go with plan B, which was probably a better Plan A than Plan A. They'd wait a couple days, then while Zann was asleep, they' steal the Holocron from him. Simple but effective. Ezra was the natural choice, but given his condition, he'd have to do it himself.
As his mind wondered to Ezra, he thought on his condition. As soon as they had landed, Hera and Zeb had brought him to what was the safest doctor's office on the planet. Safe only because it sat in small town that had virtually no imperial presence. In fact that was why they had chosen this landing sight, it was fairly close by. Kanan had wanted to go, but he wasn't about to leave the Ghost alone with criminal's around.
He felt like the whole thing was just one big accident waiting to happen, but he also felt that he was on the right course of action.
He didn't like the situation they were in, but all he could do was deal with and try to achieve their goals to the best of his abilities.
"Tyber, you know they are going to try and steal the holocron." Urai said as they marched to the outskirts of town.
"Definitely Urai, and I certainly hope they do. I've got a little surprise hidden in that holocron for anyone that tries to steal it. If they do try, and succeed, they will end up taking far more than Sith Artifact."
"What do you mean?"
Tyber cut his eye's at the bounty hunters they were marching with "Not in present company Urai, I'll tell you later, but you are the only person I'd trust with the information."
The Sunder's looked to Zann, with mildly offended expression but turned back to each to start a private conversation.
"This is where we part way's then." Paige said as they reached the town proper. "Good luck with you future endevor's Zann." She said turing down a different road the Tyber and Urai.
"And you as well." Tyber responded, with no sense of genuine sentiment in his voice what's so ever.
"Pay up." Paige said holding her hand out to Tracker with a big smirk on her face.
"No way, outside interference, Zann put the kid in a coma, no way he could of gotten anywhere in that state."
"To bad, so sad, pay up." she said pocking him in the chest. "Sighing, Tracker reached into his pocket and pulled out a hand full of credits. Counting out the amount he owed his wife, he handed it over."
"Thank you." she said smirking and pocketing the money. "You should never make such an audacious bet over such a short period Tracker. No way that kid could get her in two days, no way."
Tracker just scowled and changed the subject. "You think we should warn them about whatever Zann is planning?"
Paige raised her eyebrow "About what? We don't know anything, just some vague idea." she said clearly not wanting to peruse the conversation.
"Their good people, Paige."
"We don't get paid to look after good people Tracker, if we let them know, Zann will know it was us, and our reputations go down the toilet and we'll never get another job."
"We don't work for him." Tracker countered back, only to be cut off.
"But we did when we heard about, Tracker, you know as well as me what people think in this business is more important than the truth. If word gets out we betrayed the confidence of an employer that's the end."
Tracker sighed in defeat "Yeah, you're right."
"Come on." Paige said putting a hand on his shoulder "Let's get something to eat."
"I really can't say what's wrong with him." The doctor said, looking over a data pad. Well, Doctor was a generous term, Hera supposed. Vet was more accurate. She knew that Ezra would probably find it humiliating to be taken to a veterinarian, but a life of trying to avoid detection had taught Hera that if you didn't want to get caught in her line of work you needed to find a vet. with a flexible term for "pet".
While it seemed humorous to most people, it was how most criminal avoid detection at hospitals. A Veterinarian had all the equipment used to test and treat humans, but wasn't monitored near as much, and rarely ever checked by imperial scouts looking for injured suspects. This particular vet wasn't crooked, but a sympathizer with their cause, for which Hera was grateful. In most situations like this, the vet in question was normally a low end criminal that couldn't be trusted, Hera was grateful to find this man at all.
But at this time he wasn't much help.
"He only has a minor injury to his skull, it shouldn't of even knocked him out."
"Well he's not faking it!" Zeb growled, moving slightly forward in an more aggressive manner than was helpful.
The doctor, to his credit didn't flinch. "I'm going to run some tests on his blood, there may be more here than meets the eye. You'll have to take him back to your ship, he can't stay here over night. The good news is however, he doesn't appear to be in any immediate danger. Come back in a day, and I'll give you what information I can. Until then, keep him hydrated by putting a damp sponge or rag in his mouth once every hour. I'd give you IV's but I'd have a hell of time explain the discrepancies in the storage."
Hera thanked the doctor and she and Zeb loaded Ezra back into Speeder's they had brought.
Still worried, but slightly relieved that Ezra didn't seem to be in any immediate danger, they headed back to the Ghost.
Sabine had managed to track Tyber to a local cantina, where he was supposed to be staying for the next few days. Her mission now had two purposes, try, no matter how unlikely it was, to try and get him to understand the situation and hand it over. The second, more practical reason, was to find where Zann was staying, where his room was and if possible, some basic layout information in his room.
The Cantina was, as far as she could tell, having a slow day. She only saw five patrons, but none of them was Tyber. She didn't want to wait around for long, if he wasn't hear, she'd have to assume that her information has been incorrect. She had only asked as few people on the street if they had seen him, one had told her that this place had been recommended to him. Not the best lead but the only one she had, she was determined to follow it. She'd just have to asked the owner if someone fitting Tyber's description had rented a room. Not hard to figure out, she knew, his long white hair was easy to spot, but the fact his face was heavily bandaged would make him easy to remember.
As she walked into further into the room, a familiarly firm hand gripped her shoulder. "Sabine." it said.
"Well." she thought "That went quicker than I thought it would."
She turned to see Tyber, with a peculiar expression on his face she hadn't seen him use before.
"Tyber I.." she began before he started to lead her down to one of the hall's branching off from the main room.
"We need to talk Sabine."
This was almost too easy, he was doing all the work for her.
The room was small, and only had a few box's in it, that Tyber had certainly not had when he left the Ghost.
"Sabine." his voice sent chills down her spine. It didn't sound like any of the variations of the voice he had used previously. It did not put her at ease, but at the same time she felt like their was somthing important coming.
"Tell me what were your parent's names?"
That, she was not expecting, but it wasn't classified or anything, and it may help her succeed in her plan for all she knew.
"Well, they were Atin and Neth Wren, why?"
Tyber rubbed his chin and started pacing "Atin was your father?"
"Yes?" she said in a confused voice.
"What was your mother's maiden name?!" he said his voice getting somewhat frantic.
"Adeen, Tyber what is going on!"
Tyber stopped pacing and looked at her with and expression that out right scared her. He looked like he had seen a ghost.
His voice much quieter this time. "Your mother, am I correct in guessing she is dead? That she died five years ago?"
Sabine felt a stab of pain in her heart, as well as rage, this was probably the hardest subject that could ever be breached with her, and now Zann was just bringing it up out of nowhere. But what scarred her was he was correct. While she never knew the full circumstances of her mother's death, the time frame was correct. In part anger, part sadness and a shade of curiosity she responded.
"Yes.", her voice was much cooler and quieter.
"So you are her daughter."
"Yeah, I just told you that." she was annoyed and scarred now.
"Then they never told you."
"Told me what!?"
Tyber sat heavily down on his bed, and looked at her, his eye's expressing genuine shock. He gestured for a chair.
"Sit down, Sabine, we have a lot to talk about.
A/N: Okay end of chapter, please leave a review if you liked it, hated or felt totally indifferent
