A/N: Okay, a quick update and this chapter was really fun to write. This chapter also has what I feel is a fairly risky choice in terms of story line decisions, and you'll know it when you read it, and I'd really appreciate feedback on this chapter in particular.
On related notes, this story is probably going to only have one more chapter. That is due to the fact I feel this story is just about at an end. However, you can probably tell, if not yet at least by the end of this chapter that another story is going to branch off from this one. Whether it's a true sequel or just set in the same story line is yet to be seen. At any rate onto the story.
Disclaimer: Star Wars is owned by LucasFilm and Disney.
Chapter 11
This creature was, he realized all at once, a creation of the stations scientists. He had read the reports on the station and this creature could only be JV-FR13, a supposedly failed attempt to create an indestructible soldier.
The Inquisitor walked purposefully towards the abomination. The report's on this thing indicated only rudimentary level's of brain functions and inability use complex tools. It certainly seemed to fit these indications as it marched towards him.
It had shown a resistance to blaster fire in tests, but he knew they had never tested it's toughness against a lightsaber.
With a casual throw, he watch as his red blade twirled towards its target. All he would need to do it cut it in half, then he could pursue his real target, the Jedi and his apprentice.
To his shock, when the blade stuck, it appeared to bounce off the target. Regaining his composure he called his blade back. He had never seen and organic being resist a lightsaber blade.
But he noticed something on the torso of the abomination. His lightsaber has indeed cut the soft tissue, the skin was blackened and burnt, although it was quickly healing.
"So, you're not so easy to stop." he said as JV-FR13 started running towards him. It was faster than he expected and closed the distance quickly, but not quick enough to catch him. Flipping up and out of the way onto one of the remaining containers as a wild swing missed him.
Reaching out with the force, the Inquisitor gripped the creature with the force. It clearly did not known what was happening as it flailed wildly at the invisible force holding it and as it lifted him into the air. The Inquisitor smirked, this creature may be strong and resilient, but it was completely untrained and ignorant of the force.
Swinging his arm, he slammed it into the ground with enough force to break the bones of a normal man. This creature was made of tougher stuff, so he did it again, and again, and again.
After the fifth impact with the ground, he started slamming it into the walls of room and the crate. Then raising it up as high as the ceiling would allow and brought it down with as much force as he could muster. The force the impact filled the entire room with sound that sounded like a gong being struck nerf steak.
"And for good measure." he said as he lifted the unmoving body and tossed in into one of the fire's the blazed in the room.
No sooner than he turned to leave, he felt a tingle at the back of his neck and turned just in time to avoid a flaming machete wiz past his head. JV-FR13, now engulfed in flames and holding a flaming piece of scrap metal in hand, leapt out of the flames made anther wild swing at the Inquisitor.
The piece of metal was quickly slice in two by the Inquisitor's blade. While ducking behind the creature, the blade cut deep across it's back. The creature did not seem to register the injury, but the Inquisitor followed up seven deep penetrating thrusts into the torso of the creature.
This time the attacks seemed to have some affect. While the creature did not seem to resister the injury, it's movements became more sluggish. While the attacks didn't seem to actually hurt it, it still functioned like a standard humanoid, meaning severed and damaged muscles meant it couldn't move.
The creature had managed to pick up its blade again, and was regaining its normal movement as it lunged again. Slashing back, the Inquisitor's lightsaber blade meet the solid metal of the machete. Again he was surprised to see his blade be deflected, only leaving a small divot in the blade.
"You are full of surprises aren't you." He said to the creature, which stayed silent as ever. But he had his plan, he was certain he could kill this thing now, the soft tissue was the key, he just needed to hit it where the damage would be so severe it couldn't come back.
Another powerful, but wild swing passed over his head. taking the opening, he cut his saber deep into the stomach of the subject. This was followed several quick strikes to the elbow joint's, across the biceps and triceps, the back of the knee's and the Achilles' tendon.
Spinning back around to the front of the creature as it feel to its knee's as it lost the ability to stand of move its arms. Splitting his lightsaber into two separate blades.
Taking one blade in each hand as the subject looked up at him, he drove the blades into its eye's and kept them there. The smell of smoke and burning flesh filled his nose as the creature twitched violently as the center of its nervous system was burned away.
Yanking the blades out violently, the Inquisitor forced pushed the subject across the room with such force that when it slammed into a large shipping container the whole room rang with the impact. Then, reaching out with the force again, he pulled another large crate from the top of the pile, and dropped it on JV-FR13, again making the room ring.
Walking towards the creature, the Inquisitor was now sure it was dead. There wasn't a creature in the galaxy that could survive having it's brain obliterated. That is what made what he was seeing so terrifying.
The creature was moving, not the random jerking of a dying nervous system but deliberate movements trying to move the crate off its self. As he approached it, it looked him dead in the eye, it's eye's had already re-grown.
Pointing his lightsaber at it he shouted "Why won't you die!"
In response, the creature kicked him with the one leg that was out from underneath the crate with enough force to throw him across the room. Then in an freakish show of strength, it flipped the massive container off itself.
Getting groggily to his feet the Inquisitor didn't have time to react as the blade cut him from shoulder to hip. His only saving grace was it was just the tip of the blade, and while it cut deep, had he been much closer, it would of surely cut him in half.
Falling back as he gripped the injury, he looked up into the masked face of the abomination as it raised the blade again for the finishing blow.
On instinct alone, he pushed out with the force again, this time throwing the creature into the door the rebel's and left through. Opening the door with the force, he tossed the creature through and followed the action with throw of his lightsaber into the control panel.
Panting, he tried to rise to his feet but feel to his knees as gripped the gaping injury. "Let that rebel scum deal with you monster, that's what you weren't meant for anyway."
The sound of something being slammed into the floor echoed down the hall. Tyber knew almost nothing about the Inquisitor, but he knew he was supposed to be a powerful warrior. That creature would tie him up never the less, even the greatest warrior couldn't kill that thing without high end explosives.
"Your little distraction back their will of triggered the fire systems. That means certain door won't open now." Tyber said turning his head around to communicate with the rest of the group. "We might have to take an indirect route to the landing pad now."
Before he could continue however, the whole station shook. "That...wasn't one of yours was it?" he said turning to look at crew, but Sabine in particular.
"No." Sabine said quickly. "We have another fifteen minutes before any of our bombs go off. "
"Then it must of been something that happened after you blasted the room to ash." Tyber said more to himself than to them. "If a fuel line ran though there, well, needless to say we could be looking at a very nasty situation."
The station shook again. "We need to move." Tyber said, starting to move again.
They were running for less than a minute when it happened. The floor beneath the ruptured in loud explosion.
Ezra rolled off his stomach and looked around, and for a moment it took him a moment get his bearings. He only saw Tyber already getting to his feet., and behind him a pile of burning debris, and from behind it he heard Kanan calling his name.
"Ezra! Are you alright! Ezra!" Kanan's voice came through muffled and flowing with concern.
"I'm fine." he called back "Just a bump on my head. Is everyone else alright on your side?"
"Yes, look Ezra, you and Tyber need to make it to the ship from where you guys are, we're going to go another route we'll meet you at the ship."
"No, we need to stick together!" Ezra called back. "We can clear this debris."
"No time boy, we need to move now, this place won't stand the detonation of the generator now. It's structural integrity is already compromised." Tyber said gripping Ezra's shoulder firmly pulling him.
Ezra wanted to stay and try to get back to the rest of the crew, but he knew Kanan and Tyber were right, time was short and they couldn't afford to wait now. He did not like the idea of being alone with Tyber at all, they had an extremely rough history, quiet and achievement given how short of time period they knew each other for. But he was out of options. "Okay." he shouted "We'll meet you at the Ghost."
Sabine didn't need to be force sensitive to know that Ezra and Tyber being by themselves in such a stressful situation would result in trouble. But there was no helping it know, she just had to hope Ezra's impulsiveness or Tyber's ruthlessness would result in either of them being hurt.
She hated to admit it, but she was still worried about Tyber, which simultaneously made her hate him more. This affection was completely unnatural and forced upon her by mean beyond her control, and it made for a most peculiar sensation to love and hate a person so powerfully at the same time.
She did know, however know that her concern for Ezra was completely genuine. As time went on, she found Ezra's somewhat clumsy attempts to impress her become less annoying to her, and more enduring. She felt a sudden pang in her stomach as she thought of him never again making attempts to impress her, to make what he thought were clever remarks.
"Tyber!" she called through the debris "If anything happens to Ezra, I don't care what influence you have me under, you'll answer to me!"
"Relax my dear girl!" his voice came back, clearly not at all concerned with what she might do. "The boy is safer with me than he is on the Ghost."
Sabine wanted to say something back, but Hera was pulling her along, it was time to go, there was no time to waste in arguing with Tyber.
Without another word, she ran after the rest of the crew.
"This way!" Tyber shouted over his shoulder, leading them into another room. The door hissed open and he and Ezra ran in. Pulling out his data pad, Tyber started to examine the blueprints.
Ezra stared at him as he worked. This man, who had possibly irreversibly harmed one the people in the galaxy he cared about most, seemed completely incapable of feeling any remorse.
"What is your deal!" Ezra suprised himself at the abruptness of the question.
"What do you mean?" Tyber said not even looking up.
"Why do you do what you do? You just seem to just...I don't know, hurt people for no reason."
Tyber stopped looking over the data pad "Oh on the contrary, I do everything for a reason, every action I take gives me information, an advantage, an edge over the competition. As hard as it is for you to believe, I don't get enjoyment from pain in other's."
Ezra snorted in disbelief "Yeah right."
"I don't." Tyber reaffirmed his point "I just don't care if they do." He looked back at his data pad, then moved to the door. "This way."
"Have you ever cared for another living being!"
Tyber stopped dead in his tracks, and slowly turned to face Ezra "I tried caring once, boy." He said his voice dripping with venom. "You know what happens if you care about people!" his voice near yelling "They either die or get you killed. No, caring is a liability, you best learned that yourself." turning he went to the door and walked through it.
Another shaking spell ran through the station told Ezra it was time to go and followed after Tyber. As he went through the door, he heard the whispering voice again. Turning to the door behind him, Ezra ignited his lightsaber and slashed the control panel on his side then drove the blade through the wall so it would destroy the panel on the other side.
A second later, the thing was pounding on the door, and Ezra swore he saw the metal start to warp. That fact this thing was here meant that the creature had either beaten or at least survived the Inquisitor in good enough condition to continue its pursuit of victims.
"Ezra, come on!" Tyber's voice rang back into the room. "I don't want to explain to your friends how you got crushed by a falling ceiling panel."
Ezra took off into the hall. He secretly hoped that the creature had killed the Inquisitor, both were incredibly dangerous, but he doubt this thing would chase them across the galaxy.
As Ezra though this he was rocked once again by a sudden explosion, this time erupting from one of the wall panels.
"Their!" Zeb shouted leading the charge through the final door out onto the landing pad where the Ghost was sitting, waiting their arrival.
Chopper, cantankerous as ever, rolled down the ramp, beeping and whistling in annoyance. Zeb largely ignored the droid and ran onto the ship ahead of everyone else and started looking for Ezra and Tyber, but quickly discovered they were not there.
"No sigh of Ezra or Tyber, must still be inside." Zeb called down the ramp towords everyone else.
"I'm going back to look for them." Sabine said turning on her heels.
"Sabine stop!" Hera shouted as she grabbed her shoulder. "You have no clue where they are, you'd just get lost at best. All we can do it wait, Tyber has a better understanding of this place than any of us, we have wait, it's the best thing we can do."
Sabine wanted to argue with her, but she knew she was right, he wouldn't have clue where to look, for all she knew they were right about to run onto the platform.
Resigning herself, she pulled away from Hera and turned to watch the door.
Ezra didn't have clue to how long he had been out this time, but he was getting sick of being knocked out. Getting to his feet, he felt a chill run down his spin as he heard the sound of something slamming on a nearby door mixed with the sound of bending metal.
Looking around quickly, the first thing Ezra caught sight of was Tyber's data pad. The second was Tyber himself. It was odd seeing him in the manner he found him. Tyber was trapped under an I-beam, his torso and left arm pinned beneath it.
Ezra watched as he tried to lift it off himself but either he was too badly hurt to muster the strength or the beam was simply too heavy.
"Ezra!" he called out, "Help me! WE don't have much time, use that pipe to leverage this thing up so I can slide out." he said gesturing at a piece of piping that lay on the floor near him.
Ezra, however bent down and picked up the data pad, and pulled up the layout of the building.
"What are you doing! We're running out of time! Either this place is going to blow or that thing is going to break through the door!"
"Why?" Ezra said, his voice cold as ice.
Tyber, for the first time in the short period Ezra had known him, showed both complete and genuine surprise and fear on his face. "You can't be serious! I'm the crime lord, you're the Jedi, you don't leave people to die!"
Ezra looked at the data pad again, then to the door, then to Tyber.
"I'm the only one who can sure your friend!" Tyber shouted, a twinge of panic in his voice. "I have all the research data on that drug, if anyone has a hope of curing her, it's me!"
"I think the cure is about to come tearing through that door." Ezra said as the door opposite of them started to warp under the constant barrage of the JV-FR13.
Tyber caught on to what Ezra was saying, if he died, there would be no one left to influence Sabine, and Tyber knew he was right.
"You can't kill me like this."
"I'm not killing you." Ezra said turning and exiting the room "I'm just not saving you."
With the JV-FR13 smashed down the door, and Ezra turned to see it bearing down on Tyber, who had was now trying desperately to reach his blaster and JV-FR13's hand reached down to grab the crime lord.
Ezra could bring himself to look, and closed the door, and destroyed the panel with his lightsaber and started running down the hall, following the instructions on Tyber's data pad.
Ezra could of sworn he heard the scream of Tyber as ring out behind him.
Sabine was about to ignore Hera and run into the facility, then she caught site of Ezra running through the door's onto the landing platform, Sabine ran out to greet him.
"Ezra, you and Tyber sure took you sweet time..." she trailed off and noticed Tyber was not with him. "Where's Tyber?"
Sabine had never seen Ezra look the way he did now. He looked like he was going to be sick. "That thing, that experiment got him." Ezra said his voice shaking a little.
Sabine felt like the bottom had dropped out of her stomach. While here feeling's about Tyber were muddled, she wouldn't wish an encounter with that thing on anyone.
Ezra came to his sense's before her. "We need to go, that thing is right behind me." he said pushing her towards the Ghost, and Sabine moved mechanically towards it.
No sooner than they were up the ramp that it closed. In the next few minutes they ship was taking off. Sabine walked to kitchen and sat down and tried to process the feeling she was experiencing.
Tyber's drug had really done a number on her, and now she was feeling like such a mucked up mess, she doubted she'd ever get her own real feeling separated from the synthetic one's Tyber had planted in her.
She wasn't really aware of how much time had passed before the rest of the crew came in and sat down.
"So." Kanan started, clearly trying to start the conversation. "Tyber's gone, We have the Holocron, and we wiped out and important Imperial research facility."
"That's quite a list of achievement's." Zeb muttered, "That's a lot to happen, just from meeting that bastard for what was supposed to be a routine trade of goods."
Ezra tossed Tyber's data pad on the table. "And we have all the information he managed to steal from the facility."
They all sat quietly, and they started to realized all they had achieved thanks to Tyber Zann. That a crime lord had completely indirectly and unintentionally done more for the rebellion and hurt the Empire more than most.
They all stared at the data pad before Ezra spoke. "There has to be some kind of lesson here."
Kanan looked pensive, thinking before eh spoke. "I was never much a philosopher Ezra, but I think maybe it's something about... I don't know... something about uniting against a common enemy or something?" Kanan said lamely.
"I hate to bring this up, but do we have to worry about some kind of retribution from the Zann Consortium? I mean, their leader was killed on a mission we made him go on." Zeb said.
That was not something the other's had considered, what was the worse, the Consortium's second in command knew exactly who Tyber was with.
Hera spoke up "Well they won't know for a while, even then, it's more likely they are going to blame the Empire anyway. Still, it may be best to set the record straight, tell Urai what happened, that experiment killed him. I don't know if we can trust Urai, but it's better than him jumping to an incorrect conclusion."
When no one objected to this idea, the conversation moved onto to where to go.
"We're gonna go back to Lothol as soon as we can, but I don't think we're going to be doing much after this little adventure, I think we should just lie low for a bit." Kanan said, now just trying to avoid silence.
But silence kept coming, they were all exhausted mentally and physically. Sabine was caught in synthetic grief for Tyber and the rest of the crew we're ready to get some rest after horror show the facility had been.
But Kanan was dead set on keeping the conversation going, because he could sense something from Ezra. They would need to talk.
Later that night Ezra, while trying to get to bed, found himself being lead into the kitchen again by Kanan.
"Ezra, we need to talk." was all he said to him as he sat him down.
Ezra looked pale, like he was going to get in trouble.
"I know, on that station, you felt it to. When that thing was near, the voice, the warning whenever it was near."
Ezra seemed to lighten up at this comment, Kanan assumed it was do to finally having the subject appraoched.
"You should know, that is not a normal force sensation. The force does not speak in words, it speaks in feelings and sensations, not in voices." he said, clearly not sure how to really address the situation. "I have no clue, what that was Ezra." was all he managed to say.
"You don't think it was...another Jedi, do you?" Ezra said in an uneasy voice.
Kanan pondered this for a moment. He supposed that could be it, but he knew his own understanding of the Jedi art's was incomplete, his own training having never been complete. But he knew force user's could sense each other, and he could sense emotional levels of others, could a powerful force user communicate to other force user's in actual words when they couldn't be sensed. That was the problem, he didn't sense another force user other the Inquisitor, whom he doubted would ever warn them about a threat.
"I don't know Ezra, maybe, but it's not an ability I ever learned." he muttered. It was comforting to think maybe there was another Jedi looking out for them, but he didn't think that was it. "I'm stumped on this Ezra, but we should be on the lookout for anything that might explain this, a familiar sensation to this."
Kanan wished he was a better teacher in this regard, and found himself wishing, not for the first time , he had completed his Jedi training.
Bridge of the Admonitor
Thrawn stared at the sinking facility from the bridge of his flagship. The research in that building was invaluable, not sinking to the bottom of the Ocean, though he doubt anything has survived the damage the facility had sustained.
Security video's showed Tyber and his Rebel companions entering the facility before the chaos that followed their arrival. No doubt Tyber has slipped away with his Rebel friends, a true shame, he wished he could of caught his old student, he was proving to be a greater annoyance than he had originally predicted.
"Admiral, what is our next move?" a cool collected voice said from behind him
Thrawn turned to face a badly injured Inquisitor, still recovering from his encounter with a rouge experiment.
"I'm brining my fleet to Lothol, Tyber is sure to be with the Rebels you are hunting, if we capture one, we capture the other." Thrawn said coolly walking past the Inquisitor, who grimaced at the idea of Thrawn taking out the Rebels instead of him.
"That facility is a much bigger target than anything your rebels have ever targeted before, they are growing bolder, in no doubt do to Tyber's connections. Both these group's need to be wiped out. With that Thrawn left the bridge of the ship.
Lothol
Sabine felt such conflicting emotions she felt physically ill. She hated Tyber for doing this to her, but still she could help but feel grief at his death. She knew she felt genuine pity for how he had meet his end, killed by a monster, but that was a far as her genuine feelings of pity for him went. She wondered now with Tyber gone, if the affects of the drug would wear off, or if this would be like losing a loved one for real, that he pain would always be there.
She sincerely hoped that would not be the case. Right now, she distracted herself with thought's of "home", of Lothol as the Ghost entered its orbit. The Ghost was their home, but Lothol was what Sabine considered their neighborhood.
The grass field came into view as Hera pulled the ship in for a landing, and Sabine felt her heart sore at the familiar site. It was so...normal, and she was ready for normal.
Ezra felt sick. He did not know what to do about how he felt. What he had done, or rather failed to do, now felt incredibly wrong. He tried to reason that it was Tyber Zann, a crime lord who had abused Sabine, used her as a test subject, manipulated them all to get his way.
But he had come back and saved them from JV-FR13. "But that was for selfish reasons." Ezra muttered to himself, trying ease his own guilt." It's not like I killed him, he had it coming anyway."
But this did nothing to ease his sense of guilt. He wanted to talk about, to voice it to someone, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. He didn't even want to think what they would think of think afterwards.
As the ship landed Ezra felt the urge to get out and walk, to get some fresh air on his home planet, and no sooner than Hera landed the ship than he was running down the ramp, inhaling the fresh air.
He was at a total lost as how to handle this. He needed to talked to someone, but couldn't, if they didn't outright disown him he was certain that at least they could be severally disappointed in him, and the thought of disappointing Kanan in particular was hard pill to swallow.
Ezra walked around the Ghost think to himself. Then he heard it again. The voice he had heard on Kamino, and once again, it was warning him. His hand went to his lightsaber, and Ezra spun around, seeing nothing.
Thiniking maybe it was just an echo of what ever had contacted him on Kamino, Ezra turned around, still keeping his hand on his lightsaber just in case. Then screamed in an unusually high-pitched voice as something huge and covered in ice fell in front of him.
The rest of the crew came running at the sound of the screaming, and found Ezra standing over the frozen body of JV-FR13, machete still in hand.
"How in the galaxy did that thing get here!" Zeb shouted, he bow rifle at the ready.
It was clear to anyone that the thing has hitched a ride on the hull of the Ghost, and the water that had covered it from Kamino's ran had not only frozen him solid, but frozen him to the ship.
"Is he dead?" Sabine said keeping her pistol's on JV-FR13.
"He'd have to be Sabine, if the cold or vacuum did kill him the radiation of hyperspace would off." Hera said looking curiously at the frozen corpse.
"So what, that thing's desire to kill was so great it chased us right onto the ship?" Zeb said nudging it with his foot.
"That what the empire built him for Zeb." Kanan said, with a note of pity in his voice. "A single purpose, a single drive, never had a chance."
They stood around it for a moment before Ezra spoke. "Who do we do with it? We can't leave him out here, aside from the implications of a dead body, I wouldn't want the Empire making more of him."
"We'll have to bury him." Kanan said grabbing his feet "Zeb, grab his arms."
Zeb did so muttering to himself the whole time. "Man this sucker is cold." Zeb said more loudly.
"Yeah, well a body in the vacuum of space covered is water tend to freeze over." Kanan said back to him grunting with the effort to move the giant man.
They had the hole dug by sundown and had tossed the body in before shoveling dirt in.
They stood over the freshly turned dirt for moment before Zeb awkwardly said "Any one have a few words?"
"Zeb, he was an Imperial Experiment who had his mind set permanently to murder, that terrorized us what could we possibly say?" Ezra snapped at him.
"Well, his final act did make you scream like a six year old girls." Zeb said smirking. Ezra turned red and Sabine and Hera laughed lightly at the joke. Kanan smirked and even Ezra cracked a smile after a moment. That one single comment had made them feel like things were finally getting back to normal.
A/N:Okay, thanks for reading, please leave a review if you liked it, hated it or felt completely indifferent.
