Chapter 7
The day could be going better.
It wasn't the first time Ezra had helped his master retrieve a Force-sensitive youngling, but it was the first time a couple of Inquisitors showed up right in the middle of things. Kanan tried to lead them away from the Ithorian mother and son, but when that failed it was up to Ezra to defend the pair.
Pypey kept whimpering as they ran, despite Oora trying to shush and soothe him. Ezra focused on the Force, using it to guide his charges along the quickest route to the spaceport that didn't have Imperial stormtroopers along it. Unfortunately, that meant taking some back alleys and side streets while one of the Inquisitors simply jumped along the rooftops trailing them - and getting closer by the minute.
Mere yards away from the sealed spaceport entrance, Ezra suddenly had to turn and jump, his blue lightsaber deflecting a spinning red one. A slim figure dressed entirely in black, helmet and mask included, recalled the blade to her hand as she landed on the street.
"Stand down, Jedi," the Inquisitor called out, approaching his position with a swaying walk. "Give me the child and I'll let you live."
"Not gonna happen." And with that, Ezra attacked.
His initial jab was deflected, though the Inquisitor had to jump back to avoid his roundabout kick. She retaliated with a series of lightning fast strikes, which Ezra blocked or dodged as needed. He took a swipe at her helmet, which she swerved right to avoid. Ezra took that opening to shove her with the Force, throwing his opponent back several steps before she could recover and resist.
"Hm. You have more training than I expected." The Inquisitor's mask slid aside, revealing a Mirialan who couldn't have been much older than Sabine.
"Yeah, well, that's what comes from being raised and trained by a Jedi Knight for nine years," Ezra smirked, dropping into another battle-ready stance. His confidence failed, however, when the teen detected another Darksider's presence approaching rapidly from behind.
He turned just in time to see a different red saber curve through the air and cut straight through Oora.
"No!" Ezra didn't have a chance to try and leap forward to save her, as the Mirialan Inquisitor attacked again, trying to take him down while he was distracted. Rather than engage in another duel, Ezra allowed himself to be pushed back, ducking beneath a blow in order to grab a screaming Pypey from his dying mother's arms. She mumbled something he couldn't catch, and then the light went out from her eyes.
Wielding his saber with one hand, holding the infant with the other, and facing down two Inquisitors instead of one, Ezra sent a frantic call to Kanan through their bond. The older Jedi responded that he was hurrying towards them as fast as he could, but the teen knew it wouldn't be soon enough.
Then the doors behind him opened.
And the crew of pirates Ahsoka had sent to help them stepped through.
"Well, this doesn't look to be a fair fight, now does it?" Captain Katooni said as she came to a stop beside Ezra, lightsaber igniting.
"Not in the slightest," her first mate Petro agreed, taking up a mirror image on the teen's other side. "Why don't we do something about that?"
Another of their crewmates, a wookie by the name of Gungi, roared out his approval, as he, the nautolan Zatt, the Rhodian Ganoodi, and the Ithorian Byph all activated their own weapons.
The pair of Inquisitors suddenly looked a lot less sure of themselves.
-J-
When Kanan finally arrived at the spaceport side entrance, he slid to a stop with wide eyes. Ezra and the Ithorians he'd been protecting were nowhere to be seen, but from the relief flowing in from the boy along their bond he figured two of the pirate-Jedi crew had gotten them back to the ship, the Lost Saber.
The other four were wrapping up their fight with the Inquisitors.
Zatt rose from where he'd stabbed the male Darksider, looking to where Gungi was shaking some dust from his fur. Katooni, meanwhile, was in the process of disarming the female, tossing the deactivated saber back to Petro.
"I remember you, Taril Bestuli," Kanan heard the Tholothian woman say as he approached. "You were a happy child once."
"That was before I learned happiness has no meaning!" The Inquisitor spat back, looking furious where she was pinned to a pillar. Katooni simply sighed, before taking off her head with a single lightsaber swipe.
Kanan blanched, but didn't say anything to the woman who'd been surviving as a pirate for much longer than she'd been serving as a Jedi. "How are Ezra and the others?"
"He and the baby are fine. The mother didn't make it." Katooni told him. "Byph carried her body back to our ship, and Ganoodi's starting the engines."
"Let's get out of here, then."
-J-
"Palpatine must be getting desperate if he's sending out Inquisitors to kidnap mere infants," Ahsoka murmured, standing with Kanan to one side of the room. Before them, the crewmembers of the Lost Saber were regaling the older Dagobah younglings with their tales of battle, while Ezra was introducing the pair of babies rescued that day to their new family. One was Pypey, whose mother's ashes would watch over him from a shelf over the fireplace, and the other was Lora, a human girl whose grandmother had happily given her to Ahsoka, with the promise that they would be allowed visits in the future.
"I know. Normally he waits until they're old enough to talk." Kanan sighed. "Guess that means we're doing a good job of cutting into his recruitment schemes."
"Not good enough. There are still children stolen from their families and indoctrinated to serve him." Ahsoka's gaze briefly rested on Mara Jade, whom she'd saved from stormtroopers more than ten years back and probably rescued from a life of obeying Palpatine.
"We're doing what we can, Ahsoka. And every youngling we save is important."
"You should listen to him, little 'Soka." Both Togruta and human smiled as they were approached by the other grown Jedi living in Yoda's Enclave. "Each child brought here is an accomplishment, even if others are missed and lost."
"I know, Master Plo." As the crippled Kel Dor shuffled up to stand beside her, Ahsoka leaned over to give him a brief hug. "And that's why we'll keep carrying on as we have."
