Secret Imperial installation, Bogden
6 months, 3 weeks ABY
The human once known as Gerell, leader of the Imperial Inquisitorius, stared at the tangle of metal on the catwalk above him and frowned behind his helmet, shaking his head in resignation.
What a mess.
The Fourth Sister spoke up suddenly, getting his attention. "Sir, we still have two rebel fugitives unaccounted for."
He turned to her. "I can only assume they're looking for a way off this station."
"But all our hangars are locked down," noted the Tenth Brother, a slightly shorter Advozse.
"Not necessarily," replied the Grand Inquisitor as he stalked toward the exit. "We impounded their jump-ship here after shooting it down. If they can get it operational, they might have a chance at escape."
"They won't get away," Four hissed.
"What about the Jedi?"
The question came from the Sakiyan First Brother, whose very existence grated on Gerell's nerves.
In response, he turned toward the debris and snorted disdainfully. "Aside from Lord Vader, there is no single man in the galaxy who could hold up that much weight indefinitely. If he isn't dead already, he soon will be."
…
Alen's eyes and mouth widened in shock and alarm as he froze suddenly, breathing becoming labored.
"Alen?"
The Jedi just kept heaving.
"Alen, what's wrong?"
His eyes downcast, he stared blankly into infinity. "I'm…it's…" his head shook rapidly, "Xel and Ezra are in trouble."
Sabine went stiff below him. "We need to find them." She reached for a hold to pull herself toward the exit hatch, but Alen stopped her with a hand.
"No. We need to get this ship operational. If we don't, none of us are getting out of here alive."
"I'm not going to leave them!"
"Of course not. But I'd rather have our escape route set before we go off on a rescue mission they may not even need for a longshot at blasting our way out of here."
Sabine glared at him with a scowl.
Alen sighed. "Sabine, I love Xel more than life itself, but I know that he and Ezra can take care of themselves. Even if we do find them and bring them back, the Inquisitors will have figured out our plan by then and destroyed the Phantom. And if by some miracle they haven't, and we arrive before they do without a working ship, we'll have to hold them off while you finish the repairs alone…and then it'll just be a matter of time. I don't like those odds."
Sabine kept frowning, but nodded eventually, turning back to her work.
Alen sighed harder, closing his eyes and stretching out over his bond to find the other end silent and deadened. Squeezing his eyes tightly shut, Alen took a breath and refocused on the repairs.
…
Meanwhile in the storage room, a massive pile of twisted metal and duracrete groaned and sunk lower and lower every minute. Only one thing prevented it from collapsing on itself, and that was the unfailing focus of one Ezra Bridger, whose body was tense and teeth clenched against the strain of keeping up that much debris. Both palms pointed upward, the energy flowing from them holding back the torrent. A single ray of light peeked through a gap in the tangle and illuminated just enough for Ezra to see an armored gauntlet just beyond the mess of collapsed machinery next to him.
He stretched out with the Force as the debris above sank just a little lower. Gritting his teeth against the strain, Ezra pressed his mind against Xel's and spoke.
"Wake up."
The groan of the falling metal echoed Ezra's groan of stress. His lips stopped moving as the strain became too much.
"Xel. Wake up."
…
Alen stopped his repairs mid-movement and looked up from his panel suddenly.
Sabine sensed his tension. "Alen?" Her voice was even edgier than before.
The Jedi's lips pursed hard as a feeling of resignation set in. "Sabine, whatever you do, don't stop working."
"What are you—"
"The moment you have this ship operational, I want you to blast a hole in that wall and get out of here."
"Alen, what are you talking about?"
He shot her a firm look as he climbed toward the exit hatch, pulling a dark brown hood over his features. "Just. Do it."
Sabine stared at him for a moment before looking out the side of the viewport, eyes widening in alarm. "Oh shab…"
Alen climbed to the top of the Phantom, standing with legs at shoulder width and crossing his arms.
Four Inquisitors approached the middle of the platform below, currently the entrance of the hangar, some looking a little worse for wear. The one in front stepped away from the others a little more and cocked his head curiously.
"So," he said in a metallic voice, "you're the one who detected us."
The Jedi just stared at them.
"I must admit, I'm rather impressed." He started pacing, hands clasped behind his back. "Faced with four of us at once and the knowledge that your allies are likely dead—you show no fear." Alen could hear the smile in his voice. "And I'd thought that I would never get the privilege of fighting a true member of the Jedi Order."
Alen turned his nose up at them. "You fought Ezra, didn't you?"
He shrugged. "True. But the Bridger child was a late starter, an inductee, if you will. From what I understand, Alen Li-am, you were born into the Order."
Alen's eyes widened. "You know who I am."
"I do. And I'm less than eager to kill you, knowing what you're capable of."
The Jedi smiled nastily. "You have no idea what I'm capable of. Whoever gave you my file must've known about my brother as well. Tell me, do the rest of your Inquisitors have the same knowledge?"
The leader's backup shifted in place and shot him a look.
"Or did you send them in blindly?" Alen nodded toward the largest one. "I can see that oversight is already taking its toll."
The leader stiffened for a moment before breaking out into bitter laughter. "You're trying to divide us, pit us against each other with mistrust, but what you fail to realize is that mistrust is our way of life. You give us nothing we haven't already. And on that note, I'll request that you surrender. I know you plan to use that ship to escape, and that one of your compatriots is currently inside performing repairs. Your posturing was a good bluff, Jedi, but I knew you were stalling for time. And you just ran out."
Alen sensed tension in Sabine just below him, feeling a little of the same seep into his own body. He took a long breath and let his eyes flutter closed as he opened himself to the Force. Barely two seconds later, his ice-blue eyes slid open, locked onto the four Sith assassins below him.
And then he just smiled.
His voice dropped almost a full octave, just barely loud enough to be heard. "Who said I was bluffing?"
The Inquisitors all took a reflexive step back and ignited their sabers, having no choice but to feel the overwhelming confidence being exuded by their Jedi target. Speaking of whom, Alen just kept smiling, eyes narrowing in cool determination as his left hand drifted down to his hip. He tossed the fabric of the robe behind him, right hand falling to the now-exposed lightsaber and gripping it firmly. Drawing it from the clip, he held it one-handed at his side, pointed diagonally downward.
Snap-hiss.
A blazing sapphire shaft shot from the weapon, its tip just off the surface of the ship. He swung it into a two-handed ready position as his legs shifted to a staggered battle stance, his weight balanced on the balls of his feet. The Inquisitors held their lightsabers high and at the ready, spreading out across the platform. Alen's body coiled up for a moment before he leapt from the Phantom with a roar of fury. The Jedi angled his body directly toward the leader, coming down headfirst with a vertical strike. The lead Inquisitor recoiled and angled his lightsaber in a horizontal block, deflecting Alen's falling strike.
The Jedi used the impact to pivot his body forward, flipping behind the Inquisitor and jumping again as soon as he hit the ground, dodging two thrusting strikes at once in the process. He twist-flipped through the air, immediately falling into a double-block and corkscrew dodge as all the Inquisitors rushed him at once. He deflected a stab to his left, letting his larger opponent charge past and kneeing him in the side of the ribs with his right leg. Pivoting with the movement, Alen made a shallow swipe at the female's head, then hooked the tip of his blade around the shaft of the shortest Inquisitor's blade as he charged in, sweeping it out and up to open him up for a sweeping kick.
Alen never once stopped moving, either as the lead Inquisitor ditched his propeller saber for a pair of shotos, or when the largest assailant attempted to bear hug him from behind and received a flying roundhouse to the face, further widening the gaping hole in his helmet. Eventually, that Inquisitor just got tired of it and tore his helmet off, revealing the black, slightly bulged head of a Sakiyan underneath. Alen withdrew to a relatively safe distance and began trading blows with the Sakiyan and lead Inquisitor at rapid speed. The other two Inquisitors moved in, forcing Alen on the defensive as they practically chased him across the platform. Closing his eyes, the Jedi took a single deep breath and gave himself to the Force.
One strike flowed into the next as Alen shunted their attacks aside—into each other. The Sakiyan's wild, power-driven style made him vulnerable to a duck and deflect that sent his horizontal blow into the guards of the short and female Inquisitors. The leader leapt for Alen with a flurry of vertical and diagonal strikes, but Alen's superior reach allowed him to keep his distance until the right moment. He countered a double stab with a one-handed wing block that led into a clockwise spin to bring the saber into a thrusting position. Leaning on his back leg, Alen extended his arm fully, aiming for the Inquisitor's left shoulder. Only a rapid drop and roll on his part kept him from being skewered on the Jedi's blade.
The other Inquisitors, having recovered, all began to move in as Alen put both hands on his saber and squared off with them.
"Wait!"
The Inquisitors snapped toward the leader.
Alen could hear the smile in the lead Inquisitor's voice as he slowly spun his sabers and paced to join the others. "I underestimated you; assumed that your age, or the lack of it, would hamper your abilities. She never mentioned how talented you were with a blade."
Alen's eyes narrowed dangerously. "Who's 'she'?"
His head cocked slightly. "No matter. He's a Form II practitioner, meant to fight one opponent at once. However, its techniques can also be applied to redirection and distraction. Attacking all at once is foolish." He pointed his right-hand saber on either side of Alen. "Take him in sequence, prevent him from using your attacks against each other. Focus on technique rather than brute strength. He's been fighting stronger opponents all his life. He knows how to use your power against you."
The Jedi's teeth clenched hard as his grip around his saber tightened.
Xel, Ezra, you better hurry your asses up. I can't keep this up forever…and there's something…different about this Inquisitor.
…
Ezra strained under the weight of well over a ton of metal and duracrete, his concentration and strength ebbing by the second now as his mental fatigue mounted. His teeth gritted against the pain, mind reaching out to the inactive one just below.
"Xel…Alen…Sabine…they need you. We need you. I can't lift this on my own, and even if I could, just two of us against four Inquisitors is not a good situation."
Nothing happened except the debris collapsing another couple inches.
Ezra's eyes slammed shut as he reinforced his mental efforts, pushing his telekinetic field back and raising the debris slightly. He took a deep breath, relaxing his body as much as possible and gently brushing his mind against Xel's, unable to even move his lips anymore.
"I know why you wanted to stay behind. It's not because Alen was more qualified for repairs than you. You wanted to face them…needed to face them. I know that feeling, Xel. The feelings of guilt and helplessness at not being able to save the people who matter most. I've been there. I went down the exact same path as you. And the results were just as disastrous. It took me a long time to move past it, time and family. You have both. It's one thing to forgive yourself of wrongdoing. It's quite another to see the consequences of your mistakes in the people around you."
The debris sank down again. Ezra grit his teeth and spoke both mentally and verbally. "You need to know, Xel—you need to know that I understand, that I don't blame you for any of it. Neither does Sabine, or Kanan, or Hera." He slowly reached down with one arm and gently wrapped his fingers around Xel's gloved hand. "We forgive you. I forgive you. So come back. Come back and help us finish this."
Ezra's jaw tensed as the debris sank a little lower. His grip on Xel's hand tightened.
A sudden thrust stabbed gently at the edge of his consciousness.
And the center of the smaller debris pile below exploded, a hole at the site of the eruption permitting an armored arm, the end capped with a clenched fist. The fist slowly expanded, fingers splayed outward, and like the flick of a switch, the weight on Ezra's mind became so much less, just enough that he could manage. A smile came over his features as they pushed together, and the light became so much closer.
…
Too close, Alen thought as he slid under a horizontal slash that nearly took his nose off at the root.
Upon rising to his feet, the Jedi swept his lightsaber from side to side, prompting the two corresponding Inquisitors to engage in rapid parry maneuvers before engaging their propeller blades like shields. Alen backed away rapidly, too focused on the approaching Sith to see the kick coming from his left. It collided with his collarbone with a glancing hit, and he felt something move as pain exploded in his shoulder and he was thrown to the ground. Groaning in pain, Alen pushed himself halfway upright before catching sight of the leader's incoming blade and barrel-rolling away nearly to the edge of the platform.
The female charged in with a rapid double-strike, one overhead, one under, parried rather sluggishly by the Jedi in a way that left him open for follow-up from the Sakiyan, who sent him flying toward the opposite end of the platform with a Force Push. He collided with a recovery roll and clambered to a coiled crouch position, eyes narrowed and blade ignited at his side. His hood had long since flown off, revealing roughly ear-length brown hair and icy blue eyes locked onto his four opponents. Since beginning the fight, his fatigue levels had increased by startling margins, and he knew he had about sixty seconds before he collapsed from the mental and physical strain, maybe ninety, if he really pushed himself.
Utilizing that much Force power to bolster his skills and reaction time was a dangerous move against four highly trained opponents, but then he'd always known this was just holding action. As the four Inquisitors steadily advanced on him, and the Phantom at his back, he readied himself for the final push. Which was when he noticed the Sakiyan cock his head slightly, eyes flickering to the ship. Alen's eyes widened in alarm when he realized his intentions, and he leapt just a moment before the Inquisitor threw his spinning lightsaber at the support gantry.
"No!"
With that final cry of fury, Alen swiped the Sakiyan's blade out of the air, saving the Phantom, but leaving himself open to a strong Force Grip that tightened around his torso and brought him slamming chest-first into the platform. The impact knocked the wind—and all remaining fight—directly out of him. Alen had barely pushed himself to his elbows when the Sakiyan kicked him down again, planting him on the deck.
"Okay," Alen coughed. "Yeah…I'm done."
"Yes," growled the leader, "you are." He motioned to the Sakiyan, who hauled Alen upright by the back of his collar. The lead Inquisitor examined Alen with a critical eye for a moment before speaking. "Yes…I think she'll have great fun breaking you."
Alen stared at him dead-on, then let his eyes flicker over his shoulder. He smiled just widely enough to be noticed.
The lead Inquisitor did. "Does that excite you somehow?"
The Jedi chuckled. "Sorry. I was just giggling in anticipation."
He grabbed Alen's throat. "Anticipation of what?"
Snap-hiss.
All Inquisitors snapped toward the entrance door, where a glowing blue shaft instantly drew their attention to a silver-blue armored figure stalking toward them with one empty fist clenched.
"Get—your hands—off—my—brother."
Snap-hiss.
A second blue blade joined the other as a brown-orange-clad young man strode up to the left side of the Mandalorian.
Ezra smirked dangerously, saber held high. "What he said."
At the sight of his brother, Alen's body felt a renewed surge of energy, and he suddenly saw an opportunity to exploit the Inquisitors' current distraction. With a rapid repositioning of his legs and a burst of Force power, Alen used the Sakiyan's knees as the springboard for an upward corkscrew jump that sent him rocketing from the platform's surface to its opposite end, on Xel's right. Still grasping his lightsaber, Alen added the blue light of his blade to that of Xel and Ezra.
…
Contrary to his posture and tone, Xel wasn't angry as much as he was worried. There were four Inquisitors between the three of them and the Phantom, and between injuries and fatigue, none of them were operating at full capacity. Add to that the fact that Sabine still hadn't fixed the ship yet, and they were in very, very deep water. Well, that and the Sakiyan had already attempted to kill her and all chance of their escape—and based on his impetuous combat style was likely to do so again. In complete silence, the Inquisitors approached and charged the trio, eight blades on three—which soon became eight on five when Xel and Ezra drew their spare lightsabers.
Xel stayed by his brother's side, noting the strict two-handed stance he adopted when fatigued and reinforcing his defenses. Several propeller systems engaged, causing an exasperated roll of the eyes and a charge toward the closest Inquisitor. It ended up being a fake-out, as Xel spun clockwise mid-step around his "target", instead angling his main blade toward the female in a one-handed wide slash. The collision stopped her blade mid-spin and locked it in place, leaving her open to a blow from his mother's saber. She leapt over it—and him—flipping around the Mando and landing in a deep crouch as he swiped his right sword just over her head.
The female lunged in a stab, Xel deflecting it and countering with a hooked cavalry strike to her shoulder, effectively a top-down slash meant to carve a line from shoulder to hip. She shifted her rear blade to block the strike, but his superior position and leverage effectively knocked her onto her back, leaving her exposed to a downward stab from his main lightsaber. Four barrel-rolled away as Xel's peripheral vision picked up Alen taking on the shortest Inquisitor and holding up all right for now. Ezra, by comparison, was basically jumping and flipping around both his opponents' attacks, the Sakiyan's style supporting more brute strength behind his double-blade as opposed to the Grand Inquisitor, whose shorter shotos were serving to constantly put Ezra on the defensive.
Refocusing on his own target, Xel turned his body sideways when Four lunged again, her stab followed by a blow to the shoulder from her rear blade and an attempt to use her propeller system to overpower his guard. Xel simply compensated by meeting her one blade with both of his and pivoting into the lock. The strain proved too much for the strangely constructed lightsaber, and a small column of smoke arose from its center as the rotary system failed and sparked. Xel just grinned behind his faceplate.
"That's what you get for relying on tech to fight your battles for you."
He deactivated Telia's saber and grabbed the hilt of Four's saber, using that anchor point to head-butt her, widening the crack in her faceplate. Xel threw her to the ground and smashed his fist into the side of her helmet, fingers hooking under the top edge of the crack and squeezing. Before he could deform the helmet too much, Four popped her hips up and kneed him in the faceplate, sending him stumbling back a step. Flipping herself upright, Four leapt for Xel, and he swung wildly at her, but she caught his wrist in her left hand in tandem with locking her legs around his head and beating the hilt of her saber into the side of his helmet repeatedly.
Caden was more stunned and annoyed than injured—mostly at the fact that she thought a direct physical attack like that would work. In response, he grabbed the outside ring of her saber hilt with his empty hand and squeezed hard. The metal slowly but surely crumbled under his grip until the ring itself shattered, further disabling the saber's rotational capacity. With a jagged shard of metal in his grasp, Xel brought his left fist forward hard, stabbing the sharp end of the piece into her helmet and causing a new crack to form in its shatter-resistant surface. A single fiery orange eye glared at him from the old crack before she activated her lightsaber and swung for his neck.
Dropping the debris, he caught her wrist and held her at bay for barely a second before Xel felt a crushing weight impact his left side, relaxing his grip as she released her legs' grip around his neck. Xel toppled to the floor side-first, checking behind to see Alen's bruised body lying there. Near Four, clearly having just tossed his brother, was the Sakiyan, with only one blade active and his hulking figure hovering over his smaller comrade protectively. A brief cry of alarm came from Ezra just before a hard impact was heard, prompting Xel to look over and see him being clocked in the lower ribs with a pipe the Grand Inquisitor had pulled loose and used to catapult him toward the other two prone targets.
The trio slowly pushed themselves to their feet, pain ebbing from every pore as Xel realized they'd switched positions with the Inquisitors.
"We can't hold them like this," Xel hissed.
"I have an idea," Alen replied, igniting his saber and standing between them.
"All ears," Ezra said.
"Just follow my lead."
Xel gave his brother a glance as Alen took a deep, calming breath, then swung his lightsaber down and sideways, cutting a deep gash in the platform's deck. Eyebrows furrowing, confusion struck both Xel and Ezra until Alen did it again, and again, more and more as he began withdrawing toward the Phantom. Catching on, the other two began following suit with their own lightsabers and effectively creating a long sheet of glowing metal on the floor. The Inquisitors advanced steadily, breaking into a run seconds later as the trio reached the end of their withdrawal.
Then Alen yelled, "Now!"
And all three of them emitted wide, constant Force Pushes that sent a torrent of red-hot liquid metal toward their opponents, too fast for them to block individually. As a result, many of the molten projectiles got through and impacted their ballistic armor, eating away at its surface and gradually melting through. Three Inquisitors brandished and activated their propeller sabers, managing to stop the brunt of the unorthodox assault and giving the Fourth Sister some breathing room, as she was using the rest of them for cover. Preoccupied as they were with their improvised and crude version of ballistakinesis, they never saw the Inquisitors' true intentions coming until it was too late.
"No, Sabine—no!"
With a desperate cry and attempt to catch the rapidly falling vehicle, Xel found himself plastered to the deck of the platform, completely drained and winded. Distantly, he felt Alen's hand on his shoulder, trying to shake him into coherence, but all he could focus on was the rapidly vanishing light of the Phantom's headlights as it fell into the bottomless pit below. He could tell Ezra had also attempted to catch her by the way he was leaning on his knees, breathless, but between the day's battles, recovering from Imperial torture, and having to support over a ton of debris alone for damn near five minutes, he was too drained to have made much of a difference. Hell, all of them were.
Slowly, they all stood upright and faced the Inquisitors, glaring at them hard with sabers at the ready.
"You're going to pay for that," Xel growled furiously.
"Seconded," Alen added in a similar tone.
To both their surprise, Ezra said nothing, simply stared off into infinity with a distant, curious look on his face. The brothers gave him a confused look. And then he smirked, just enough to be noticeable, and his voice took on an ethereal, almost mystic tone.
"Guys…everything's going to be all right."
Their unspoken question was answered a half-second later when the roar of repulsor engines reached them, and the Inquisitors were blinded by a pair of powerful headlights. Xel looked back and up to see the Phantom hovering just above the platform, with one fully armored Mandalorian woman behind the stick. The ship's external speaker system activated as Sabine voiced her opinion on the Imperial assassins.
"Usen'ye, hut'uune!"
The Grand Inquisitor responded immediately. "Scatter!"
Before any of his comrades could even think of obeying, Sabine opened fire with the Phantom's main guns, repeated blasts of high-explosive turbolaser fire ripping through the close quarters and sending up smoke and molten metal. When the smoke began to clear, the trio was greeted by the sight of four partially damaged Inquisitors and an open door currently admitting two full squads of stormtroopers.
"And I believe that's our cue to exit," Ezra commented.
"You got it!" Sabine shouted over the speaker.
She turned the ship around and fired three blasts into the room's back wall, creating a gap sizable enough to exit, then popping the back hatch open. Without delay, the trio leapt into the Phantom's hold, just managing to outpace the incoming fire of Imperial soldiers as the last man in hit the controls to close the hatch.
"We're set, go!"
Sabine gave Alen a nod, then hit the accelerator and took off into the open air of Bogden. She barely made it ten seconds before the anti-air fire from before started peppering their flight vector.
"Not this time, you worthless shabuire…hold on to something!"
Sabine put the ship into a downward tailspin, green laser fire just missing their bow and following them down as she cut the engines to confuse their tracking. The Phantom descended nearly half a mile before she reactivated them and kicked in the stabilizing thrusters to level them out.
"Come on, baby, hold together!"
The Mando reached up and hit the auxiliary systems, giving them just the boost they needed to stabilize their flight and keep low to the ground. Xel, meanwhile, hit a key on his gauntlet and tapped the side of his helmet feverishly.
Come on…get through…
…
Nearly half a minute later, the turbolaser fire stopped, but was replaced by something far more unsettling—the whine and roar of pursuing TIE Fighters. With them in a half-demolished ship barely keeping itself together, Alen did not like their chances. Sabine was good, but she wasn't that good. Not by a longshot. The first salvos of green plasma hit way too close for cover, even with Sabine getting some cover by turning into a narrow canyon some two miles from the tower and weaving around one rocky outcropping after another. Eruptions of smoke and falling debris exploded all around them as the TIEs kept up their pursuit, one of them misjudging his wingspan and taking off one at the joint when it crashed into a massive, hanging stalactite.
Finding herself at a sudden dead end, Sabine frantically pulled up, the ship's overtaxed systems just barely getting her to clear the plateau. The bottom of the Phantom still clipped a rocky outcropping, which jostled the shoddy circuit patchwork enough to temporarily cut their suspending repulsorlifts. Essentially all lift force was cut, and the Phantom's tenants felt their teeth chatter as the ship's undercroft dragged against the rough terrain. The whine of TIE engines got closer, and Alen tensed when they saw their pursuer in the rear scope, lining up a shot on their essentially sitting-duck ship.
They all braced for an impact that never came. Half a second before the TIE pilot opened fire, a flurry of red plasma turned it into a hulk of molten scrap, Alen recognizing the trademark sound and look of the Kandosii'tal's rotary cannon, then the ship itself when it shot overhead. The ship banked around toward them as Sabine began to reduce speed in an attempt to fix the repulsorlifts. It proved needless when the Kandosii'tal descended and activated its magnetic clamps, catching the ship right before it dropped off the edge of a cliff. Sabine let out a hard sigh and opened a comm. channel to their rescuer, her hail immediately answered by a familiar female voice.
"I leave you boys for an hour, and you manage to turn a simple rescue mission into a high-speed chase? Where would you be without me?"
"Not just the boys, I'm afraid," Sabine answered with a laugh.
"Sabine! Good to hear your voice."
"Yours too, Iol'ika. We're coming up soon."
"Roger that. I'll drop the Phantom at our landing site, get a more permanent anchor to the Shereshoy, and then we can get outta here. Are Kanan and the others okay?"
Ezra and Sabine exchanged a dark look.
"No," Sabine answered. "But we're getting them back."
"Understood. Standing by for your entry."
Leaning back in her seat, Sabine let out a long, relieved breath before climbing to her feet and moving into the passenger area, where Alen and the others were finally beginning to relax. The Jedi gave his Mandalorian comrade an approving smile as she pulled her helmet off, becoming a little disoriented when she gave him barely a passing glance. The feeling vanished as soon as he realized why—along with Xel. Barely a second after clipping her helmet to her belt, Sabine grabbed a surprised Ezra by the sides of his face and pushed her lips against his rather insistently.
Ezra, in response, was certainly surprised, but not offended or off-put by any stretch as he responded in kind, the two brothers exchanging awkward glances and looking everywhere except at them. After a much longer period than Alen was comfortable with, the obnoxious sounds of lip-smacking ceased and Sabine finally straightened up, using one hand to fix her partially disheveled hair (which he now saw was a mix of deep red and dark blue, almost black). The Phantom's comm. system powered on to break the awkward silence.
"Hey, what's taking you guys so long?"
Xel climbed to his feet and ensured his helmet was secured in place (no doubt to hide his certainly blushing face) before answering Iola. "On our way. Just had to…take a breather. It's been a very long hour."
"Roger that, Xel. I'm ready for ya."
…
15 minutes later
The Kandosii'tal, Bogden
"So…Mustafar?"
Ezra threw his hands up. "That's the best I can think of under the circumstances. Last I checked, it was their primary facility for imprisoning and breaking Jedi."
"And chances are," Sabine added, "they wouldn't have split Hera, Zeb, and the others from Kanan. The opportunity to use them as leverage is too tempting."
Ezra frowned deeply before nodding in agreement.
"Then we find the facility they're being held in and break them out," Xel said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
Both Specters laughed. "It's not that simple," they said in tandem.
"Of course not, but what alternative do we have? And do you really think the Imps are gonna expect such a direct confrontation of their defenses? I mean come on, for all their fortifications, I'd wager that's the last thing they'd count on."
Sabine shrugged. "All right, I'll concede that point, but the moment the element of surprise is lost, we're dead in the water. We don't have the firepower or manpower to blast our way in or out, and the Alliance can't afford to spare reinforcements for such a mission."
"Why the hell not?" Iola asked a little irritably. "Set aside for a moment that Kanan is one of the last Jedi Knights in existence.The Ghost and its crew have been an incredible asset to the rebels. One that they cannot afford to lose."
Ezra sighed. "And I'm sure Tobin would love nothing more than to mobilize all forces under his command to rescue them, but breaking four operatives from Imperial custody with that thick of a defensive line is, generally speaking—"
"Suicide," Sabine finished. "Our only chance would lie in subterfuge, and no offense Xel, but your crew isn't exactly renowned for its subtlety."
The Mando could only grunt in concession, thinking for a while. "On the other hand, that might actually serve to our advantage. If the Kandosii'tal can provide enough of a distraction in a neighboring sector of Imperial installations, we might be able to draw some of the heat away from your infiltration team."
"Which would consist of what?" Ezra asked. "Me and Sabine? We're good, but even if by some miracle your plan works, we'll still have more to get through than we can handle on our own."
"And considering there were four Inquisitors guarding just you two," Xel added, "we'd have to account for the possibility that the same might be said of Kanan and the others." He paused for a moment. "Speaking of which, do either one of you want to explain why we found four Inquisitors in one location at all? In addition to what I can only assume was a full platoon of highly trained shadowtroopers from the 501st?"
Sabine and Ezra exchanged a look, then turned to Xel and spoke as one. "That's classified."
Xel and Iola (surprisingly enough) adopted identical looks and crossed arms.
"Aaaand of course that didn't work," sighed Sabine.
"You really think it would?" Ezra asked her.
She gave a noncommittal grunt, then nodded to him.
Ezra turned back to Xel, tightening his jaw briefly before speaking. "Tobin's people got hold of some intel indicating a secret Imperial training facility on Bogden, out of the way in a backwater planet so as to avoid attention."
"Unfortunately for us," Sabine added, "the files never once indicated just how critical this facility was. It's a kriffing blacksite—created for the sole purpose of housing and training some of the Empire's most elite operatives. Before we even got close to uncovering its location, we were ambushed by a cluster of Imperial soldiers and special forces—including those Inquisitors."
"If they hadn't had those TIEs as backup," Ezra said, "we might've gotten away, but as it stood, they got Chopper and Zeb pretty fast, and without the big guy's muscle and bo rifle, it wasn't long before the Inquisitors had us backed into a corner."
"To make matters worse, the new Grand Inquisitor ordered the TIEs to bombard the Ghost's engines with mag-pulse cannons. Practically fried the circuitry from the inside out. Same thing they did to the Phantom when we tried to use it as our backup plan."
"By that time," Ezra continued, "they'd already pinned Kanan and Hera in the cargo bay of the Ghost. They ordered us to get out by any means necessary…to get help. So we did."
"And we failed," Sabine added grimly. "And now we don't even know if our friends—our family—are still alive."
"They're alive," Ezra said softly. "I know they're alive."
She turned to him abruptly. "How?"
"Because I still feel them." His jaw tightened visibly. "And because they have to be."
Sabine and Ezra stared at each other for a while, their fingers eventually lacing together in silent comfort.
"I guess the priority for now is finding out where on Mustafar they're keeping them," Iola said.
"They're not."
Xel's head snapped toward Alen abruptly, the Mando noticing for the first time just how uncharacteristically quiet his brother had been throughout the conversation. He realized the reason when he saw what was in his hands and the implications of what he'd just said finally registered.
"What do you mean, 'they're not'?" asked Sabine, a flicker of new hope in her voice.
Alen's eyes hardened as he looked up at them and handed his datapad to Xel.
Caden looked the data over for a moment before his eyes widened and he looked up at Alen.
The Jedi nodded back at him, then turned to an expectantly-staring Sabine. "When the Grand Inquisitor was busy trying to rub my nose in his four-on-one victory, I slipped a hand into his belt—" he smirked, "—little trick I learned from my dear brother. And as luck—or the will of the Force—would have it, he kept a data stick in one of those pouches, and my fingers went straight for it." He nodded at the datapad. "Xel, why don't you explain what I won?"
The Mando smirked and looked toward the Specters. "I don't know whether they're adopting a special procedure for the Ghost crew or what, but this data indicates classified correspondence between the Grand Inquisitor and another blacksite—on Mon Cala."
Sabine and Ezra's eyes went wide as they exchanged a look.
"Mon Cala?" Ezra asked incredulously. "But—that's impossible. They were one of the first full worlds to openly join the Rebellion. The Empire doesn't even have a presence there."
"That we know of," Sabine corrected. "If they do have a facility there…it's well-hidden and well-protected, probably by a traitor within the government."
"Which means we now have two priorities," Alen added. "Rescue Kanan and the others, and find intel that implicates whoever the Imps have in their pocket."
"Just one question," said Iola, "why would someone as smart as the Grand Inquisitor send such valuable prisoners to a world controlled by the Rebel Alliance?"
"That's exactly why he did it," Sabine answered. "It's the last place we'd ever think to look. Just look at us. My first assumption was to think they'd sent them to Mustafar, a world completely overrun by the Empire with nearly impenetrable defenses."
"Thus tricking us into an operation with so much more risk than reward—a reward that isn't even there," Ezra finished.
Xel snarled a little. "I'll admit, it is mildly brilliant."
Iola smirked as she gave Alen an approving look. "Guess they just didn't count on the Jedi having light fingers."
Alen looked down bashfully and attempted to suppress a grin as a blush threatened to crawl over his features.
Xel noticed and mercifully came to his rescue, grinning wildly and clapping him on the shoulder. "Like he said, I taught him everything he knows."
"Aaaand there it is," drawled Sabine. "The second half of your oh-so-charming personality."
He furrowed his brows at her in confusion.
She smirked playfully and flipped her fingers out to count them off. "Complete and utter lack of subtlety—"
"And an ego the size of a small moon," Ezra finished.
Sabine gave him a look. "Who said anything about small?"
Xel just chuckled and shook his head, feeling a lightness about him as a weight he hadn't known was there lifted off his shoulders. "So, what say we tether the Phantom and get moving? Our mission isn't over yet."
"Not by a longshot," Sabine said grimly.
Alen stood and turned to Iola, retrieving his datapad from Xel. "Iola, ready the Shereshoy for takeoff. I'll make sure the rest of you have access to the GI's data on the flight over. See if you can find something I missed."
"Doubtful, but we appreciate it," Ezra said with a smile.
The Shereshoy's crew made it halfway to the Kandosii'tal's exit ramp before Ezra's voice stopped them.
"And guys—"
All present turned and stared at him and Sabine.
"Thank you. For coming after us." Ezra turned to face Xel specifically. "I know it couldn't have been easy."
The Jedi and Mando shared a long look, Xel's mind flashing back to his words in the storage room.
Caden smiled and bowed his head slightly. "The best things never are."
AN: All right. Should be just one more chapter to this arc, and then we start skipping around in some downtime. I feel like I'll need to cool things down a bit after all this insane action.
I know I didn't really focus all that much on the Specters these last couple chapters, but I know my characters best, and I've only seen Ezra actually fight saber-to-saber a handful of times thus far. Well, that and I felt I needed to demonstrate how much of a badass Alen is with a lightsaber in his hand. I just feel like I've made the mistake of consistently underpowering his character—or at least his skill with a blade. In truth, as I believe Xel has remarked a couple of times throughout the story, he's the greatest duelist in this story (apart from Darth Vader, of course, but then he's just a giant ball of sheer power).
The fact that Alen practices a "dead" style that requires impeccable coordination and natural aptitude to master—and that he had to learn on his own, since his mother certainly didn't teach him—should be testament enough to his ability. However, pair that skill with a strong connection and surrender to the Force, and you get two to three minutes of one young, extremely talented Jedi holding out against four opponents at once. Granted, he wasn't winning, just holding, but still. Any lesser man—including Xel and maybe Ezra—would've been cut down within the first half of that time.
At any rate, as always, I hope you enjoyed this and are eagerly anticipating the next installment of Kandosii'tal. We'll finally be resolving this arc and wrapping up the Ghost plotline for good. Please review this chapter and spam the favorite/follow button at your leisure.
Oya, vode.
- CDrake
