A/N: Okay, sorry for the long wait, I've just been busy with work and school lately and this just had to take a back seat.

However, I think that this update came just in time or Halloween so I think it works out in that regard.

Well I've kept you waiting long enough, onto the story

Disclaimer: Star War is owned by Disney and LucasFilm.

Chapter 9

"That thing just creeps me out, it just stares at us all day with dead eyes." The Trooper said to his partner as he approached the door to the cell. "I really don't want have to move him." he said with his hand hovering over the control panel.

"Just open the door, I've got you covered. Put the cuffs on him and let's get this over with." the other trooper said raising his rifle.

"Alright, alright." the first trooper said opening the door with the control panel. Walking in with the cuffs held up in front of him. "Alright big guy, we're gonna move you to another cell, Captain's order. I'm going to put these cuffs on you, and you aren't gonna do anything we're going to regret right?" he said masking the fear in his voice reasonably well.

JV-FR13 just look at him, not moving. For a second the trooper planned on bolting back to the door. Then it raised its arms level with the troopers cuffs, holding them out for the trooper to put them on.

Letting out a sign of relief, the trooper put the cuffs on. "You know for one of the most prolific killers in Imperial history, you are an extremely compliant prisoner. " and with that he started leading JV-FR13 out of his cell.

He wanted to reach out and kill the men before him. They watched him in this cage, directed his movements. But he was still restrained, the man still held him in place, but his voice was weakening, soon he's be free. He was growing stronger, much stronger, soon they would pay, they would all pay.

Kallus watch as the dragged the limp body of the bounty hunter out of the interrogation room and back to his cell. They hadn't gotten any information out of the man, but Kallus had never actually expected them to. Zann had only given him leave interrogate the bounty hunter, and Kallus had been certain Zann knew he was not a regular part of the Rebel group. But hopefully the results of the interrogation on him would loosen the lips of the Rebels. He had used much more primitive methods than the empire normally would have for the simple reason they left much more visible marks.

Zann was up to something, he was sure of it, the man was a career criminal, and his refusal allow anyone other than himself to talk to the Rebels made him suspicious. The problem was most , if not all, of the crew seem unusually loyal to Zann. This was beyond odd, for one Zann was a known detester of the Empire, the fact he could inspire any sense of loyalty in imperial troops seemed like a long shot. Then there was the fact Zann only had his commission for under a year.

If Kallus didn't know better, he's say that the troops under Zann's command were just his old thugs in imperial armor, but a quick background check on any of the enlisted men dismissed this theory.

He investigated what he could, but Zann wasn't a typical captain. His past a crime lord made him paranoid and took great measures to keep his information hidden from people he didn't want to see it.

But he'd find out soon enough, he was sure of it.

Kanan looked stone faced at Zann from across the table, blinking far less than he normally did. Tyber looked back at him, trying to gleam any sort of emotion in Jedi, to see any sign of weakness. He had heard Tyber's story of the events at the station and hadn't even blinked.

Tyber suspected that if Kanan didn't know exactly what had happened on that station, he at least had a vague idea.

"Why are you telling me this Zann?" Kanan finally said, keeping his voice even. "Are you trying to get sympathy from me? I don't approve of what Ezra did, but I don't fully fault him either."

Tyber smirked "No, I don't want your sympathy, but you help would be greatly appreciated in remedying the matter."

For the first time sense the start of the interrogation Kanan showed some form of emotion, it was just a simple eyebrow raise, but Tyber picked up on it none the less.

"I'm hooked Kanan, and frankly, on borrowed time, I have a six month supply of this drug, and with your little stunt destroying the only known means of production, well you see my dilemma, even the best estimates for rebuilding the facility put it at just over a year, I'll be long dead at that time."

"Well that's very sad, but how can we help, what's more why would we want to?"

Tyber started to grind his teeth "I can give you your freedom, in exchange for you hunting down a lead for me. I can't do it myself, with Admiral Thrawn watching my ship movements so closely. You go free, and you I get a potential cure for this condition, win-win I'd say."

Kanan couldn't help but think this was a trap, but it was looking like the best option at this point. Tyber had done an excellent job of isolating him from the rest of his crew, making communication and coordination impossible.

The fact the Kanan knew at least parts of what Tyber was saying were true was also helping him lean towards this plan. He's seen the research on this drug and it did a complete override the user's natural immune system, and Kanan had personally seen to the production facilities destruction.

"Say we did this, what would we be looking for, hypothetically speaking."

Tyber smirked "Well, Hypothetically speaking, there is a plant that grows on the planet Dathomir that some of my informants have heard from some of the locals that can cure immune system failure, a rare plant that only grows in a forest region in the planets southern hemisphere."

"Okay, say your informants are right, why don't they just get this plant for you so you can study it yourself? Why do you need us?"

"Well, my informants has unfortunately been stranded on world, his ship was destroyed in, unspecific circumstances, I no longer have my private fleet to go retrieve him, I can't try to contact any passengers service to retrieve him, with Thrawn monitoring all out gong communication and I most certainly can't sent an official Imperial force. Now if you managed to somehow escape, why I could stop you from say, running and hiding on the planet, and I may say, investigate their at a later point."

"Okay, I get it, you want us to do it under the radar for you." Kanan said cutting Tyber off.

Kanan was seriously considering taking the offer, at least to them off the ship, but something was bothering him with Tyber's plan. How could he even expect them to follow through with this if he let them go, he'd have no way to actually enforce this.

As Kanan was thinking this however, Tyber slide a case towards him, smirking. Kanan eye the small case suspiciously before Tyber spoke.

"Go on open it up, it's a little gift to you."

Opening it Kanan say a dozen viles of a familiar looking substance. "IS this?"

"Indeed, that is the very drug I am currently dependent on."

"Why are you giving me this? It's not going to do us any good?"

"Oh isn't it? I'd say the three younger member of your crew would greatly appreciate it. Also you might want to tell them, in future not to blindingly accept food offered by a known enemy, you, Hera and Zeb were much aware in that regard."

Kana went wide eyed "You drugged Ezra and Sabine!"

"And the bounty hunter for good mesure, not sure where he came from, but his smart mouth didn't do him any favors in this regard."

"You sick..."

"Yes, I'm a monster, but know I'd say you don't have much of a choice to comply. I'll set up for you to escape from your cells in one hour, then...

Tyber stopped talking as the lights went out. A moment later backup lights came on and an automated announcement range over the P.A system. "Partial power failure, backup generator online."

"Alright, that wasn't planned , but let's go with it." Tyber said tossing Kanan his lightsaber and blaster "Go get your friends, get to your ship and find me that planet, my informant will contact you on Dathomir. Now if you don't mind, I've got go act like this is a disaster."

And without further ado Tyber left Kanan, temporarily stunned at how confident he was they would do what he wanted. But Kanan knew he was partially right, they would have find a cure or Ezra and Sabine would die.

Sabine's Cell 20 minutes earlier

Sabine had been drifting off to sleep when the door hissed open and the guard threw something onto the floor with them call out something about "giving her an idea of what was waiting for her."

It took her a moment to realize it was Dral and he looked horrible. He was covered in blood and cuts.

He was muttering "they took it."

Sabine rushing forward helped him sit up right, wondering what "they" had taken. It only took her a moment to realize what he was talking about, they had taken his ocular implant, and with it the rest of his eye.

"Oh my...Dral, what did they do to you."

Dral spat out a gob of blood and looked at her with his one remaining eye. "Tried to make me talk, I told them nothing."

Sabine felt a sudden surge of gratitude for Dral, but was count off mid thought "Not much of an accomplishment, I don't know anything about your Rebel cell anyway."

"Dral, why..." she began "these methods, they aren't imperial standard, it looks like they used knives and hot irons, this is primitive, why..." This brutality was disturbing, she had expected torture but not such primitive methods.

"Well, if I had to guess." Dral gasped out "For the reason I'm seeing right now, it's freakin' you out isn't it? I'm bettin' that was the reason for it all, I'm certain they knew I didn't know crap, they were just makin' an example out of me."

That made sense to Sabine but it didn't do anything to ease her nerves, if anything it drove them higher.

"I'm not gonna make it out of here." Dral said after a few minutes silence.

"Don't talk like that, we'll all get out, you'll get paid and you can finally do...whatever it is you always wanted to do." she finished lamely.

This statement caused another few minutes of silence. "So, what are you going to do after we get out?" Sabine asked in an awkward attempt to keep the silence at bay.

Dral glanced sideways at her, then looked dead ahead at the wall."Retire, I can't keep doing this anymore, I'm not good enough at it for one and I can't keep having these episodes. No if I make it out, I'm gonna find some place quiet to settle down, maybe get some help for my...condition." he trailed off.

"Dral...what exactly...what...can I ask what is wrong with you exactly?" Sabine tried to word the question as gently as possible, but this was a question she had been thinking on for a while now.

"You already know, so why ask."

"Well, I'm pretty certain you have some sort of PTSD, but what happened? Was it a battle or..."

"No, it was when I was a kid, and I don't want to talk about it, it's not something I want to think about, so either pick a different subject or stay quiet.

Before she could respond the light went out, then turned over to emergency lights, followed by an announcement of the backup generators turning on.

"See, here's out chance." she said running to the door. As she suspected the cell's lock had come undone when the power had gone off. With a great heave she tried to pry it open. It barely budged, even with the power off the door's were still heavy. Looking at Dral, she wanted to tell him to help, but soon remembered his condition. Even if he was fit he'd have a chore getting this thing open, but she wasn't about to give up, this was probably going to be their only chance to get out of the cell.

Pushing and shoving the door was barely moving, but she didn't stop.

Suddenly the door started to slid open with greater ease.

Jumping pack her first thought was of guards coming in to secure them, but then she heard Ezra's voice call into her.

"Sabine! Why did you stop pushing?! We've got to hurry up."

"Ezra?How are you moving that thing? It's so heavy..."

"Jedi remember?"

m\Mentally smacking herself for forgetting Ezra's force abilities, she started prying the door to the point where they could pull Dral through.

"We need to help Dral Ezra, he's not going to be able to walk on his own." She said she helped him through the partially open door.

Ezra flinched slightly at seeing Dral's condition, but got under one of his arms none the less. "We need to head to the armory first and get out equipment before anything else, I'm betting that's where the other's will go, we can try and meet them there."

"What if they're not their Ezra, then what?" Sabine said as they carried Dral down the hall.

"Then the Ghost is the next place we'd meet, if nothing else I can find Kanan with the force." he said, his breathing becoming labored "But let's start with the armory first."

Ezra had thought this through much more than she had expected him to, and frankly she was pretty impressed with his quick thinking.

Putting these thoughts out of mind for the moment however, Sabine started to notice something very off about their escape, they hadn't encountered a single guard.

Power Core

"Stop, please, I !" The trooper was cut off with a sickening crunch as a heavy first collided with the side of his helmet with enough force to shatter it.

"The Shape." was making its way through the now partially functioning room, having smashed several panels to disrupt the power of the ship.

"I thought that thing was locked up in its cell, how did it get out?!" another trooper shouted to his two remaining comrades as he opened fire with his blaster rifle, the bolts impacting on its body to no affect as he advanced on them.

"Stop!" a voice range out from behind the shape, and it surprising did so, and slowly turned around, to face the new voice.

"Captain Zann!" the troopers called out, with a level of relief for the reprieve.

"Put the machete down and go back to your cell, this is your one and final warning." Tyber said leveling his blaster at JV-FR13, and behind him came no less than fifteen heavily armed troopers carrying heavy machine guns and rocket launchers, and all of them leveled them at the shape.

In Tyber's mind this was all for show, this thing was completely under his control, as far as he knew.

That idea however quickly left his mind as the "Shape" whipped the blade at him, sending flying end over at right at Zann's head. Tyber ducked and barely avoid being hit by it, the trooper behind him was not as lucky however as the machete planted itself firmly between his eyes.

Wide eyed at the attempt on his life, Tyber rallied himself "Drop him!" he shouted as he and the remaining troopers let lose a torrent of blaster fire and rockets.

"Okay, the armory." Ezra said panting slightly as he opened the door, to be greeted with a blaster rifle leveled at his head.

Jumping back, letting go of Dral and nearly forcing Sabine to drop him.

"Wow you're jumpy aren't ya?" Zeb's voice range from inside the armory.

It only took Ezra a moment to realize Kanan, Hera and Zeb were already inside the armory retrieving their gear. Ezra couldn't help but notice Hera and Kanan giving him grave looks, but he was certain he'd find out the reason soon enough.

"We don't have long, whatever is going on isn't going to last long, and we better get going. Everyone grab you gear and move." Kanan said as he moved to the door to watch for guards.

Kanan didn't know if Zann was telling the truth about this "power problem" being his idea or not, but he didn't have much of a choice really if they wanted out, what's more, if Zann really had drugged Ezra, Sabine and Dral, he doubted Tyber would provided them with regular treatment

His train of thought was interrupted, by a voice ringing over the P.A, the unmistakable voice of Tyber Zann.

"All hands, this is your Captain, we have a prisoner out of containment, he is not to be approached under any circumstance. All hands initiate asset denial protocols and abandon ship."

"You don't think he means us do ya?" Zeb asked as he came up behind him.

"No." Kanan was sure of that, because he knew Zann wanted them to escape, but what was more, he wouldn't initiate asset denial procedures for them being on the ship, it would be a waste of resources. The only explanation would be if there was a prisoner he couldn't hope to contain or stop, and there was only one thing on the ship that fit the discription. "It's JV-FR13, Tyber's lost control of it, now it's running loose on the ship.

"But I thought Tyber had that thing under his control?" Ezra said as he turned his lightsaber on to make sure it still worked.

"Well apparently it didn't last, we need to move now."

They started to move out of the door while Ezra and Sabine helped Dral, who hadn't bothered to retrieve any of his equipment, it was all to damaged to be salvaged.

"Hold up." Zeb said walking over to them, taking Dral and throwing him over his shoulder "we'll move faster if I carry him."

and without another word they made their way to the hanger.

Scowling to himself in the escape pod, Tyber didn't understand how the damn thing had gotten out of control. The serum should of kept it in line. Perhaps it's mix-matched DNA had something to do with it, maybe it adapted to it and an became immune.

For whatever reason, it had at least given a much more credible reason for the Rebels escape. Soon it would be stuck on a hollow shell of ship with no power, it's own damage to the ships power grid had been greatly compounded by the fire fight in the power room.

It didn't matter how much damage that thing could take, the ship it was on was going to be a I giant floating metal shell soon once all protocols were followed.

Then it could just sit in a giant floating prisoner for however long it would live.

The Ghost was sitting in the hanger, and thanks to the evacuation order, not guarded what so over. They all ran up the loading ramp, and Hera went straight to the cockpit.

"Well, good news, they haven't done anything to the Ghost to keep it from flying."

"And the bad news?" Kanan asked.

"None really for a change, other than Chopper is in piece on the cargo room floor."

"Well, let's get flying then, get us clear of the planet I've got something important to tell everyone."

Hera didn't pry, she was eager to get going herself.

Sabine stood on the ramp, watching for any troopers who may find their way to the hanger.

"Sabine, close the ramp, we're taking off."

"Roger that." she said, as she turned to raise the ramp she saw something out of the corner of her eye. Turning to look, she saw "The Shape" standing at the opposite end of the hanger. Just standing there, staring at her, directly in the eye. He wasn't stalking or charging, he was just staring her down.

The look in his one good eye sent chills down her spine.

"Sabine raise the ramp, we have to go!" Kanan's voice rang over the intercom.

Snapping her out of her thoughts, she hit the switch to raise the ramp as the Ghost took off.

"Sabine, meet the rest of us in the sitting area, I have something important to tell you, Ezra and Dral.

This did nothing to put her at ease, and judging from the tone in his voice, it couldn't be anything good.

A/N: Okay, tell me what you think, please leave a review.