Chapter 7. Two Padawans and a Twi'lek Child
(AKA "The Army Advances" because the above was too long.)
Dirin-Va Village, Kaller
As the first few offworlders were filtered into the processed pen, a sergeant came forward to address the crowd. The annoyed hum died down as he approached the main group, subsiding with the more-or-less patience of a group of aggravated civilians being ordered around by military blasters.
"You will not be detained long. The Imperial army is seeking two escaped Jedi, Caleb Dume and Ginia Tix. Each of you will be called forward, asked a few questions and released. You will see their descriptions, and you are strongly advised to report any sightings in this area. There is a reward for any information leading to their capture or termination." He turned to move back to his partner questioning a human male, a trader from the army camp. The interrogatee was plainly hostile from the nose up but his mouth was answering questions so it was being allowed to pass.
Behind him, the crowd's voice rose again, a few shouting questions as it became apparent that was all the sergeant was going to say.
"What Imperial army?!"
"Weren't the Jedi on your side?" were the two questions that made themselves heard most clearly over the annoyed susurration. Canan glanced to his right as the second question had come from there somewhere.
The sergeant ignored the questions, brusquely dismissing the trader and nodding the next forward. Canan frowned, focussing on the man. Given what communication is like on this planet, I wonder if you know much more than I do? Although since you have the most immediately relevant stuff, I guess it doesn't matter. It would be nice to know what the hells is happening though. He shook off the thought, and the other thought, that at least Tix had apparently survived too. Both were distractions.
The crowd subsided again as it became clear answers weren't forthcoming. No-one was particularly happy, but no-one was arguing with the army (any army; there was apparently a choice of up to three now) and the processing was progressing swiftly. Canan had noted Ezra was staying back behind Hera with him, and wondered if he knew they were looking for a teenage boy and a small Twi'lek as well, or if it was co-incidence. He didn't really want to ask though, not least as his mind was far more focussed on what he'd do when he was finally nodded forward rather than what his fellow travellers felt about being stopped and interrogated. He started at a clone voice behind him, but the hand laid firmly on an arm to draw a teenage boy out of the crowd had alighted on Ezra's shoulder rather than his own. Canan slipped more forward into the crowd as Ezra was drawn out to be interrogated, feeling his cover was getting more and more scarce.
Ezra's questioning took a bit longer, as at the very least he matched "teenager, Human, male" and Canan hoped that the kid wouldn't say anything inadvertently dangerous. He had no idea what people actually knew about the situation or why there was an army hunt ongoing for Jedi. And Ezra seemed a bit open. However, he seemed to be doing fine and while there was a bit of a debate between the two stormtroopers questioning him, he was sent off to the processed pen. He was a little surprised that the scope-holder at Ezra's side wasn't enquired into more, since it was a tad incongruous on a fourteen-year-old with no blaster that would take a scope of that size, and it occurred to him that something like that would be a good cover for his lightsaber hilt. However, that was a solution for later, if there was a later. For now he had to hope that the lack of physical searches so far would hold true for him as well. Although if it really came down to it, he was probably going to end up using his lightsaber. If the options were fight them or just be shot, it wasn't much of a choice. So although he kept the hilt as well-covered as possible, his hand stayed close to his side, ready to extricate it as soon as things went to hell, which they were almost certainly going to do.
He turned his focus onto the questioning at the front as Sabine was called forward. She slipped from the crowd easily, keeping her arms down and lightly folded in front of her, ensuring her sleeves didn't ride up and reveal the armour beneath, and her body language was broadcasting totally credible innocent confusion. She seemed cool under pressure and as long as no-one grabbed her arm she would probably be okay. The dusky red overtunic covered up the slight bulking of her shape from the armour below the long undertunic. At worst, the costume was a little large for her, but that wasn't particularly suspicious. Clothing could be hard to come by and clothing for teenagers and children often had some growing room in them where possible, especially with resources scarce.
.
Hera glared at the man beside her as he crowded too close, also scanning for a way out of this. The red-faced and irritated Human was restless and inclined to shift about with no regard for anyone nearby. He'd already stood on her foot. The woman pretending not to be with him was by contrast standing very still in her long hooded wrap with her arms folded. Once Hera had caught a look of fury directed at his shifting and muttering but she paid them little attention overall.
There were still about twenty people in their group. Hera watched Sabine's questioning with slightly narrowed eyes. She and Ezra were both in a dangerous situation compared to herself or Zeb. Hera strained to hear as the two stormtroopers with Sabine conferred over the datapad, relieved that apparently the Human male was trying to listen too. At least he'd stopped shuffling and wasn't breathing so hoarsely.
"Pink hair?" A trooper inspected the pad, looking suspiciously from the screen to Sabine. Sabine smiled disarmingly. "It's only half-pink," she pointed out, indicating her white roots.
The second looked over his shoulder. "It says red anyway." The first still hesitated, likely due to a strong appreciation of the consequences of letting a Jedi slip through. The second looked at Sabine again.
"That's nowhere near red. She doesn't have blue eyes either. Go on, Miss." The trooper nodded Sabine onwards. The Mandalorian girl gave Hera a troubled glance but headed towards the processed group. An explosion wasn't the answer here, not in the middle of a tight crowd of refugees and innocent market-goers.
"Ugh, the sooner the Captain gets here with the proper holoimages the better," grumbled the one with the datapad. He nodded Hera and the child with her forward.
"Bet the speeder broke down again." The other had dropped his voice for the exchange, but Hera was near enough to hear by then. She gave them a smile, holding Mira's hand.
"Names? And is this child yours?"
"Hera Ryeet, pilot, and this is my daughter, Mira." She pulled a name from the air, figuring it best not to use the name of a well-known clan just in case any of them were familiar with Ryloth. "We're part of a group, you've seen those three and there's another still to come." She nodded first towards the trio and then back to Canan, for what little cover it might provide him.
"Hello," said the child politely with a cautious smile. Hera squeezed her hand encouragingly. She could feel how tense the small hand was in hers, and she was relieved at the kid's self-possession. It was hard to tell if the small-child charm was working with the troopers behind their helms, but one of them nodded.
"Any of them come from or were picked up on Kaller?" asked the clone trooper, the blank helm regarding Hera again.
"All offworlders. We had a bad landing and are heading to Plateau City to the spaceport." She turned slightly as she spoke, so her voice would be more audible from Kanan's position.
"As you heard, there are fugitive Jedi in this area, ma'am. Including a young Twi'lek. There's a reward for information leading to their capture if you should see them." He turned the pad so she could see the worryingly detailed description of a Caleb Dume and another escapee and noted that "a Twi'lek female of seven or eight" had neither name nor much of a description. Humans were so careless when it came to differentiating other species.
"Jedi?" she asked innocently. "I thought they were part of the army of the Republic?"
"The Jedi were declared traitors to the R- to the new Empire after an attempt to assassinate Emperor Palpatine. They are extremely dangerous and it is imperative you report any sighting of these people. Do not attempt to engage either of the older ones. Caleb Dume and Ginia Tix may look like harmless teenagers, but they are far more dangerous than they appear."
Hera scanned over it again, mostly attempting to buy time. Kanan, how did you get out of this last time?, she thought in frustration. There weren't many people left behind her. And then it struck her that there was no reason to think he had been here last time. They'd come to the market because they'd needed a disguise for Sabine. Don't interfere, the warning flashed through her mind again. She swallowed and gave the troopers a rather weak smile.
"No engaging Jedi, I understand. Not likely to come across them anyway." Regroup with the others and if they had to fight their way out of here…she hoped the timeline would cope with it. She reluctantly turned as the troopers nodded her courteously but firmly over towards the processed line, casting a worried glance back to Canan's rather white face in the small group left. As she did, her eye was caught by another movement as the woman she'd noticed earlier turned her head to say something to the man who had been annoying Hera. Whatever she said, she saw his face darken from red to purple and he suddenly grabbed her shoulder and shoved her forward towards the troopers.
"She's one of them!" he shouted to them. "Saw're arrive at the camp, Ginia Tix!"
The woman was taken by surprise and tripped on the hem of her robe as she stumbled forward, falling heavily on her hands and knees. Her hood slipped off in the fall, revealing bright auburn hair. Hera pushed the child back quickly as the clones converged on the fallen Jedi. The crowd had started forward at the sudden interruption and she felt Mira's hand pull loose. Hera cursed silently as she pushed through the crowd, seeing Mira wriggle out and dash back towards Canan.
"Mira!" she called, wide eyes meeting Canan's across the field a moment, as he attempted to shoo the kid back towards her. Mira had grabbed his arm and seemed to be talking urgently to him.
Canan had barely time to recognise at least two of the trio he had seen that morning as a few moments after the accusation had been cast (with one of those moments being lost on Wait, that isn't Tix), Mira was hurtling back towards him. His eyes met Hera's alarmed ones as he tried to fend her off.
"Mira? What are you doing - go back to Hera!" The kid was frantically whispering in his ear and he was only catching the half of it. The gist seemed to be that the man who'd pushed her had evil intent and wanted her dead and they had to help her. Given he'd just accused her of being a Jedi and shoved her into the clone troopers, Canan absolutely couldn't argue with that but he had no idea how they could help her without getting all three of them killed. Mira was on the edge of hysterics and was nearer to bursting into tears that he'd seen her yet. He watched frozen as the clones trained their blasters on the fallen woman, chilled again by their complete lack of hesitation. Their victim seemed frozen as well, trying to speak, but unable to manage anything above a panicked whimper.
The crowd growled around the children; confused, trapped and in many cases horrified. It didn't seem to worry the troopers at all, despite best efforts to get the Kallerans onside as recently as yesterday. The odd details flashed through his head, the same sense of unreality at the whole situation, but then he landed back in the present. She wasn't a Jedi and they were going to kill her as one. Canan muttered a quick reassurance to Mira and gave her a push back towards Hera. Then the young Jedi took a quick breath and decided to trust in the Force (and not give himself any time to think about just what a terrible, terrible idea this was) before he pushed through the group remaining and out into the circle, calling out to the clone troopers.
.
Several of the clones had managed to control the larger group again, pushing them out from the processing area and gesturing for crowding Kallerans at the far edges to move back. Zeb stood firmly where he was, with Ezra in his lee hanging onto Sabine's sleeve. Zeb couldn't actually move forward at all, but at the least the crowd was gradually thinning in front of him as smaller people were pushed back around him. He glared down at someone as they elbowed him in the stomach. The culprit carefully pulled his elbows in and attempted to sidle around him. Ezra was straining to see above or around people.
"Did Kanan get over?" he asked, looking up at the only member of the group that had a hope of seeing anything.
"Don't see him, but there's Hera. Keep a hold." Zeb made a path through the crowd by the simple expedient of weighing as much as any two of the others present, coupled with a blithe ignoring of mere conventions such as courtesy or physics. Several people ended up bruised from his passage as they were squeezed against others before being able to fall back behind him. Ezra and Sabine were dragged along in the Lasat's wake, occasionally apologising to the unlucky travellers in their way. Zeb reached Hera, pulling Ezra out behind him from between two people that had milled back too soon. Hera glanced back as they joined her, her face tight as the kid popped out like a cork.
"What's Mira doing over there?" started Ezra as Kanan pushed Mira back towards them and then – apparently tried to commit suicide?
"Wait, don't! She's not a Jedi!"
"What the kriffin' hell is he doing?" asked Zeb as he watched Kanan actively go and accost the clone troopers who had his specific description and orders to kill on sight. None of them had a good answer, but Ezra shoved past Zeb and evaded a clone trooper's attempt to grab his arm, skeetering under his glove with the ease of long practice and darting over to Kanan. The clones manning the nearest points turned their blasters on Hera and Zeb though and, with another trooper still in front of them, they were forced to stay put.
Caleb didn't have a good answer either, but his sudden arrival had at least temporarily halted the execution. He kept talking, feeling horribly exposed as helms turned to look at him. He felt someone come up behind him and was both surprised and relieved to see it was Ezra.
"We passed them on the road earlier and I heard them talking. Anyway, she's pregnant. I bet your descriptions would include that." That stray thought came back to him and he felt a rush of relief. If they hadn't noticed it earlier, he would …have had to somehow explain how he knew she wasn't a Jedi if she fit the superficial description. Ezra stayed quiet and nodded agreement although he had no idea if Kanan was telling the truth about the second bit. He assumed so. Or things were going to go really badly.
There was a short pause, but the sergeant raised his hand. The clones lifted their weapons from their victim, who looked stunned still. She had realised what the kid was saying though and shrugged off her heavy wrap with shaking hands, proving he was telling the truth.
The sergeant assisted the woman to her feet, while two of his men strode over to the waiting group and, ignoring her accuser's attempt to back up, took him firmly by the elbows and pulled him out into the circle. The man glared at Canan but then his eyes bulged. Canan tried not to back up a few paces. He didn't know the man, but that was a gleam of recognition in his eyes. Ezra, having a general bad feeling about this, shifted between Kanan and the group, glaring back at him.
"That's a Jedi," spluttered the man, pointing at Canan, who had to control an impulse to bolt for it. "I was a trader at the camp, I saw him there!"
By now the woman had recovered and she turned on him, eyes afire.
"He's a Jedi, I'm a Jedi, did you space your brain? Ginia Tix? I'm your kriffing wife, you piece of shit!" Apparently her feelings could be summed up far better with violence than words, as she pulled back and punched him in the face. She flew after him as he stumbled backwards and several clones moved in to try and separate the pair.
Canan decided that this was his best chance and started to edge back to the processed group but a white-gloved hand was placed firmly on his shoulder. He glanced back to a white helm looking down at him.
"Not that the sergeant won't be relieved an innocent civilian wasn't executed, but you fit the description too. With me, boy." Canan didn't have much choice as he was steered a few steps away from the melee. Ezra followed persistently, but was shooed away by the clone trooper. He had to settle for standing about ten steps away, watching the pair with his arms crossed. His eyes flickered to the row that was going on as both participants of the marital drama/possible attempted murder aired their grievances at the top of their lungs, apparently completely unbothered by the large and now fascinated captive audience. The troopers were attempting to regain some dignity to the situation with limited success. While normally Ezra would be amused to see stormtroopers in disarray, it did mean he couldn't hear a kriffing thing.
Caleb analysed his situation. No matter how he looked at it, it was an objectively poor outlook. "All things considered," he tried. "Would I have come and spoken to you if I was a Jedi?"
"Probably not, but there's not many that fit the description as well as you do. Name?" The clone trooper sounded brisk but not particularly malevolent. As he remembered the clones being two days ago. But he knew just how fast that would change if they identified him as a Jedi.
"Canan Lind. I'm here with a group, two Twi'leks, two Humans and a Lasat. Can I see the description?" He didn't give him time to answer, moving a step to the side to look at the datapad. He felt a chill at the detail. It even included scars. There was no normal way to argue his way out of this and that row nearby was going to be subdued sooner rather than later. Perhaps the trooper was being more cautious after the near miss and was checking carefully, but any moment he was going to call attention.
While the idea of using his Force abilities in plain view of approximately fifty people went against every instinct he had right now, the idea of being blastered to death (plain view or otherwise) went against them even more strongly. He kept his gaze on the trooper, opening his mind to the Force and spoke softly but with conviction, hoping the melee would continue until he could convince the trooper to dismiss him.
"There is no-one here of this description. You have the wrong person," said Canan quietly, carefully wielding his influence on the trooper. He didn't dare use the usual imperative where it might be overheard, focusing more on convincing the man to convince himself than triggering his impulse to follow orders. Nor did he risk an open gesture, raising his hand as if to push back his hair, and making it smoothly en route.
Ezra gave the back of the clone trooper planted in front of him a particularly evil look and moved pointedly to the side, folding his arms again as he watched Kanan and his captor speak. He glanced around for where the rest of the group were - they were thoroughly pinned in, with several troopers keeping an eye on Zeb. His bulling a path through the crowd with relative ease hadn't gone unnoticed. This is bad. Kanan looked sunburned and, well, like a refugee, but being a green-eyed human of the right age and gender on Kaller was already a bad start. His hand slipped down to his blaster as subtly as he could manage in the view of too many people, and used the stormtrooper's presence as an excuse to circle the conversation so he didn't have several more of them behind him when everything kicked off. Kanan seemed to be trying to talk his way out of it, although he couldn't hear a word over the shouting from the main argument. Bar the Spectres, the attention of the entire crowd and most of the remaining clone troopers was on that. Ezra's eyes narrowed as he noticed Kanan's hand move in a casual gesture as he brought it up to push back his hair.
"I…have the wrong person," muttered the clone to himself, sounding a bit confused. Canan nodded.
"I guess it's all a waste of time," he added, dropping the implanted thought into the relatively innocent sentence. "Since you have the wrong person, am I free to go." It felt a lot more difficult to do it this way than with ordinary open instructions. It was also surprisingly difficult to ask a question without his inflection raising at the end and have it sound natural. And he hoped there hadn't been too many for the man to cope with. He really wanted to be away from here before someone put a stop to the argument. There was a knife-edge pause as the trooper stared at the datapad a moment longer.
"Yes…I have the wrong person, so you're free to go." CR-9846 gave up on whatever was buzzing at the edge of his mind. This was a waste of time anyway. There was no-one here of the description. He waved the kid off, looking back to where the row was finally starting to fade off, mostly as clones had managed to separate the two and were firmly hustling them in opposite directions. He scanned over the few remaining offworlders. Mostly elders including one that looked about ninety. For a moment, he missed fighting Separatists. It was much more direct and useful than bullying angry civilians. He shook off the stray thought with a puzzled frown. They were seeking dangerous fugitives to protect the Rep- the Empire. CR-9846 shook his head again as he rejoined the group. He just hoped Captain Gray would get the damned holo-images here soon before they had a mess on their hands.
.
Hera's hand moved away from her blaster although her other hand kept a hold of Mira's arm as the two boys retreated from the clone trooper, closing her eyes in an exhale of relief. She had no idea how the clone hadn't recognised Caleb but she was nearly as grateful as she suspected he was. The clones let him past easily, having seen him processed and dismissed, although he kept his face down anyway, nearly burrowing straight past the group before Ezra grabbed at his wrist, pulling him to them. Caleb looked strained under his otherwise neutral expression.
"Mistaken identity," he muttered, scooping up Mira, who was far too short to be in a crowd crammed together like this one was. That was his excuse anyway. He wasn't admitting even to himself that the small arms around his neck were comforting and he felt like he was going to throw up as reaction hit him.
The last few offworlders were processed quickly, filing over to the main crowd as the troopers at the back started to relax the kettling. Canan wasn't watching, lurking as much behind Zeb as he could manage and behind him into the crowd as the pressure started to relax. He didn't feel remotely safe yet and kept his head down as if talking to Mira, shaggy brown hair hanging over his eyes. The others, far more secure in having been safely passed, stayed between the two fugitives and the clone troopers with a co-operation that would have surprised him if he had been in a state to notice it. His ears pricked as he heard the sergeant raise his voice over the crowd.
"You've all seen the descriptions of the Jedi traitors. The Empire will reward information leading to the capture of Caleb Dume, Ginia Tix or the Twi'lek youngling. There is heavy punishment for anyone who makes false accusations." The man was still being held between two clone troopers and his body tensed as the sergeant glared at him. Everyone got the point.
"There will be troopers posted here for the next few days to check travellers passing through and any information can be passed to them." At the clone's nod, the woman was released, and pointed firmly away from her presumably-now-ex husband. She didn't glance at him, stalking towards the crowd. The sergeant gave the order and the clones withdrew, allowing the crowd to disperse. The Spectres pushed away from the resulting mill of confused and angry travellers and towards the transport. The market was definitely done after that incident and the narrow laneway was going to be difficult to get through once the remaining crowd descended on it.
Hera barely waited for people to find seats, although that Zeb had claimed the front this time meant that there was more room in the back for the four younger ones. There was already a stream of people heading for the gate and she wanted to be first out to avoid being caught. The transport bumped over the grass, rattling the group inside around. Canan braced himself between his seat and the back of Sabine's, keeping an arm across Mira to keep her in her seat too and hoped that his second conversation with Sabine wouldn't have to be apologising to her. He focused out the window to distract himself and spotted the red-haired woman getting into a transport nearby as they passed. Canan felt some distant relief at that. She deserved a better chance than having to make that walk to the city. He was at least distantly aware that whatever story had lead to that moment where their paths had briefly merged was likely grim.
The transport was silent until they had turned back onto the city road and were some distance along it. Canan was keeping his attention distantly out the window as he dealt with a few of the unpleasant revelations. Traitors? Gray had said as much too. How? What had happened? What kriffing Empire? Had Tix escaped – and if so, what happened to Master Jhesa? He scratched his nose, wincing as the sunburned skin stung. He thanked the Force that these troopers hadn't been part of his unit. Whatever had delayed the holoimages and/or taken his unit in a different direction, he was grateful for it. It really hasn't been that long, he realised with a dull sense of surprise. The search of the forest would almost certainly continue for most of today as well, even if they were now calling in reinforcements on the road. And it could well get ahead of them. However, right now, they were alive and relatively safe and that could have ended so much worse.
We were incredibly lucky just there, he thought. Or the Force was with us. The thought came in Depa Billaba's voice and he nearly smiled, feeling his scattered, whirling thoughts starting to settle. The Force is with us. Although maybe don't make it impossible for it to help by walking up to clone troopers and practically asking them to shoot you.
Canan became aware as he calmed down that the transport was silent and that everyone in it had now seen their descriptions. They'd also heard that they – well, he at least, it was difficult to imagine the seven year old as a hardened criminal - was dangerous, a traitor and there was a reward for turning them in. On the other hand, they'd just had the opportunity to and hadn't.
And is this an awkward silence or is it just that they're all disturbed by clone troopers nearly executing an innocent civilian because they thought she was a Jedi, which really should be surprising to more than just me? He glanced away from the window to gauge what was actually happening in the speeder and found himself meeting Zeb's eyes in the rearview.
"So do you often go sticking yer neck out for strangers, kid?" asked the Lasat bluntly. Canan blinked, this not being even on the list of questions that he might have expected.
"..No?" he replied rather weakly, and heard a traitorous little snort from the seat beside him. He rolled his eyes. "She wasn't a Jedi. We passed them on the road this morning. She was just a refugee. He was trying to dump her. And the chances of the Jedi they were looking for being pregnant were really low." Regaining his composure a bit, he stared back at Zeb's reflection.
"What's this Empire he mentioned? Last I checked, that was the army of the Grand Republic. And they're not usually that trigger-happy either." Zeb looked away first, glancing to Hera. She frowned.
"The trooper questioning me said that the Jedi had been declared traitors for attempting to assassinate Emperor Palpatine."
"Grand Chanc-" Emperor Palpatine? Was it really possible that there had been some sort of coup of the Grand Republic? And…the clone army had betrayed them? He stared out the window again, entirely forgetting that he had been having a conversation at all. Gray and Styles, betraying the Republic? Although they'd betrayed Master Billaba and himself handily enough.
"None of this makes any sense," he muttered under his breath at a large tree-rodent that was able to have a prolonged stare back at them as the transport bounced past. It volunteered no opinion on the problem. No-one could, could they? Canan still felt that at some point the previous evening, he'd closed his eyes and opened them to a completely different galaxy. None of the old rules applied. The only thing he could be sure of was that nothing and no-one was safe on this planet. And maybe even further too.
He clung to the idea of Coruscant. There were other doubts and fears that crept even around that thought, but the Temple was calling them back. Home. If anywhere in the galaxy was still safe, it was the Temple where they'd been raised. Where the Jedi were.
He had to find them a way home.
Shoe's dropping now, although it's the shoe he's half-feared all along and is really not wanting to accept. By the way, his interest in Sabine is a red herring insofar as any potential Sabine/Kanan goes. He'd have to be blind not to notice her (too soon?), but he's a lot more focussed on staying alive!
Just on his name, as I tend to switch POVs a lot and need ways to clarify who's head we're in. Canan added a random syllable to the start of his own name, so to him, he called himself Canan. The rest, of course, heard "Kanan". So when it's from his point of view, it's Canan and from someone else's it's Kanan. When it's "Canen", it's because I apparently can't spell.
It's not that I'm terminally indecisive :D
In the same vein
::broadcast - comm broadcast from perspective of hearing it over the device
::broadcast - comm broadcast from the perspective of the speaker or someone with them
Thank you for the reviews, it's nice to know people are enjoying it!
ruby throne - Perhaps the only time Zeb will get away with criticising Hera's driving! But all in a the good cause of helping Kanan pretend they don't know what he is :D
Dragocken - Thank you, I'm glad to know that. It's always nice to get writing critique and feedback on whether the story's still flowing right and making sense :D I can at least guarantee that this story will be completed!
kobamaru - Haha, thanks! Hope it won't disappoint! :D Well, he did go and accost the stormtroopers, which could definitely be classed as being a complete idiot. He's going to have to learn quickly to control the Jedi instinct to intervene.
