If I had never met Kanan, I don't think I would have ever set foot in a bar. Much less an unsavory place like the Asteroid Belt. I swear, at some point, I'm going to wake up on the Ghost, go to Kanan's room, and punch him for tainting me with whatever virus he's got. Now I'm having realistic dreams.
"Hey, this seat taken?" A man says. He pulls up the chair and sits beside me without waiting for an answer.
"Sit there and I'll punch your neck."
He quickly scurried away, and I felt someone watching me. I looked around, but everyone was engaged in their own business. Unless…
I looked towards the bar. Zaluna was still washing dishes, but had her head turned to look at me. Or, more accurately, to point her huge ears at me. My voice! That's how she knew I was here!
I started walking towards her, my cloak wrapped tight around my face. I couldn't risk recognition. For all I knew, the Empire already has a bounty on me.
Turns out, that was a really bad idea. I tripped over the hem and fell into a table. The men sitting in a circle turned to face me, and it didn't look like admiration. Quickly, I backed up, but I bumped into another creature. His drink spilled all over his clothes, and he growled at me. This place was packed!
I could barely move, hammed in between a gang and a creature the size of a sumo wrestler. More people were beginning to see, and they started to chant. Fight! Fight! Fight! The different languages shouting, trying to keep in synch, it would have been funny had I not been the one they wanted to start a fight.
I kept my composure. Slowly, I withdrew a Taser that I had snagged from the guards. Crouching low, I managed to swing it around in a full circle. People fell like flies around me, and I managed to get to the bar.
"Zaluna, it's me, Hera." I said, panting.
"I knew. I could tell by you voice and the chanting. Who else can raise such a ruckus?" The old Sullustan said with a chuckle. "Come one, Layda, you're late for work."
"With pleasure, Boss."
"Kallus, there's a transmission coming in from a bar in Gorse."
"A bar, you say?" Kallus raised an eyebrow, which was hard to see because of the helmet he insisted on keeping on, even inside the ship. "What does it say?"
"It says that a fight broke out, and that one of the fighters had a Taser. The same Taser that was stolen today, perhaps?"
"Perhaps. Take us there."
There was a reason, of course. His commander, Count Vidian, before he was killed, told stories. Stories of a renegade who worked in a bar. That same renegade that had ruined his career, and "saved" the moon of Gorse. The renegade whose name was Kanan Jarrus.
He didn't believe in coincidences.
The brawl almost immediately seized when Agent Kallus walked into the room. Only one pair was stupid enough to keep fighting, and soon regretted it when troopers came over and arrested them for illegally fighting.
"Kallus," I say calmly, standing straight. There's no point in hiding; he's already seen me.
"Hera. I suppose I've come here to bring you to justice, shall we say," He says, his voice laced with anger.
"Oh?" I laugh in a mocking tone, "Do you really think I'll just step aside and let you take me?"
"No? Then let's fight."
I immediately dove between his legs as he swung forward with his fist. I wheeled on my heels and turned to face him, but I was a second too slow. He slugged me in the stomach and I slid backwards. I miss Zeb, I thought as I kicked at a couple of troopers on the side. My taser was lost somewhere in the fray, and so were my blasters. The people out here were so desperate they were willing to steal weapons!
Kallus was done fooling around. He took out his Bo-rifle (Sorry guys, but seriously. Have I been calling it a Bo-staff this whole time and no one corrected me?!) and hit a few unsuspecting bystanders with it. I cursed silently under my breath and regained my fighting stance. Then, I yelled as loud as I could while I charged at him. He was stunned for a second, as if he didn't expect such a frontal attack, but a second was all I needed. I grabbed his weapon and deactivated it, and bolted for the door. I tried to smash it on the doorframe, but it was too strong. It clattered uselessly to the floor, and a flood of storm troopers came out to greet me.
That was all I knew before I was hit over the head.
