Hera and Kanan along with Chopper were in the cockpit of the Ghost . Chopper had a hologram of Capital City and its street project out of his camera as the lights in the cockpit were slightly dimmed so it could be viewed better. Kanan and Hera had been composing the best possible places to plant the fireworks to distract the Imperials while Kanan takes over the Walker. They were also considering placing explosives in the middle of the street for the next Imperial vehicle to explode once the Walker is taken.
They had been planning for nearly three hours and Kanan could tell Hera was becoming exhausted. His eyes were starting to burn as he had had to stare into the blue light emitting from the hologram. He saw that Hera's eyes were starting to get red from straining her eyes for so long. He felt like she should say something.
"Hey, Hera," Kanan spoke. "Why don't we take a little break? You look tired."
Hera shook her head, "No, I'm fine. We gotta plan for Empire day or it'll never get done."
"Hera, you're exhausted. You're starting to get bags under your eyes," Kanan pointed out and turned to Chopper. "Chopper, go take five."
Chopper soon shut off his hologram and rolled out of the cockpit before Hera could even protest.
Hera turned to Kanan, "Love why'd you do that? Now it's gonna take me forever to get Chopper back here."
"You need to take a break," Kanan stated as he stood from the co-pilot seat. "We've been working on this for hours. I think we should take five to refresh our minds."
Hera stood from her pilot seat, "Do I look that tired that you're telling me to take a break?"
"Yes! Now, go do something other than looking into a hologram for the next few minutes before you burn your brain up."
Hera gave Kanan a 'really?' look and crossed her arms across her chest, "Are you giving me orders?"
"Just go and take a break for your own sake," Kanan told. "Let's go outside for a bit, ok? Get some fresh air."
Hera sighed and looked over to Kanan, who had that expression on his face whenever he wanted Hera to take a break. It was a mix of compassion and jokingly fun smile with a little bit of seriousness too. She rolled her eyes and shrugged, "Fine, I'll take a break if it concerns you that much."
Kanan smiled and soon turned to the ladder that led to the cargo bay and climbed down to the cargo bay, soon followed by the twi'lek pilot. They looked over, once they reached the bottom of the ladder, to see Athena looking over Kanan's speeder bike with curiosity in her green eyes. Kanan and Hera shared an 'aww' glance at each other and turned back to Athena.
"Hey, kid, you looking at the speeder bike?"
Athena slightly jumped once she had heard Kanan's voice casually greeting her, she nodded, "Yeah,"
Hera and Kanan came to the opposite side of the bike as Athena, "You ever ridden one?"
Athena shook her head.
"Want me to teach you ride it?" Hera asked.
Athena looked at Hera with wide eyes, "Really? Me? Ride it?"
Hera slightly smiled, "Hey, why not?"
A large grin grew across Athena's face, "Really? You mean it?"
"Come on, help me push it outside and I'll teach ya," Hera offered.
Kanan looked at Hera with wide eyes and she looked back at him with an assuring look on her face.
An eager Athena then soon helped Hera push the speeder bike out of the cargo bay and down the ramp to the outside. Kanan sighed and followed the two outside where Hera had put Athena on the speeder bike. Kanan put both of his hands on each of his little sister's shoulders as she sat on the bike. Hera began to instruct Athena on how to start the bike as she pointed with her gloved hand.
Kanan gave Hera an unsure look one more time, she responded with a smile and a nod. This didn't make Kanan feel much better.
Athena soon twisted the handle to start the bike as Hera looked away, and like that, she zoomed off with a surprised scream.
Kanan slightly stumbled and widened his eyes even more as he saw Athena riding the speeder bike at full speed through the grasslands. He turned to Hera, "Hera! Shouldn't we have told her how to stop before she started the bike?"
Hera was as shocked as Kanan was when Athena had accidentally sped off like that. She winced as she heard Athena yell through the grasslands;
"HOW DO YOU STOP THIS THING?!"
Kanan and Hera's mouths went slightly agape as they looked at the bike continuously speed through the land as their eyes widened with fear. Hera and Kanan shared a glance at each other.
"Do you think she'll figure it out?" Hera asked.
They looked back to see Athena continuing to ride the speeder bike at full speed with no aim, and Kanan said, "I don't think so..."
They Hera looked over to Kanan, as if she were saying, "Is this how helping raise a kid is like?"
Kanan saw this facial expression and smirked, "Could be worse; we could've let her try to fly the Ghost ."
That thought made Hera sigh and tightly close her eyes as she let out a frustrated sigh, "Yeah, I guess so."
Hera and Kanan looked back to the field where they saw the speeder bike that Athena rode upon slowly decline in speed as it hovered over the grass. They both smiled as Athena continued to fiddle and experiment with the gas and the newly found brakes. Kanan let out a soft chuckle as he nonchalantly placed his arm around Hera's shoulders, "I guess she found the brakes."
Hera smiled as Kanan wrapped her into a side hug. They were never really to show their affection in front of the others as they thought it could compromise missions and distract from the rebellion. But, Hera did enjoy the rare moments when Kanan would pull her in for a hug or when she would call him 'love'. She slightly snuggled a little closer to Kanan to savour the moment while it lasted. The two watched as the kid born to Earth experiment with the speeder bike, smiling every time she'd abruptly stop or go.
"Welp, so much for teaching her," Kanan said.
"She learns things on her own I guess, just like Ezra. Kids just need to find their own way of doing what needs to be done."
Kanan let that sink in for a second. The fact that kids need to find their own way on doing what needs to be done. He thought, maybe, that if he let Athena find her own way on lightsaber and Force ability skills, maybe she'd learn a bit better. He just needed to find a way to start her off before he let her learn on her own.
After a little bit, the two saw Athena start to stall a little bit more than usual in the field and they shared a glance.
"I'll bring her back in, you go get the plans back up," ordered Hera.
Kanan took his arm away from Hera and nodded, "Alright, will do."
The two soon walked in opposite directions. After a bit of walking, Hera approached Athena, who was sitting on the bike seemingly staring at something atop of a mound. Hera's eyes followed in the direction Athena's were looking in and saw a white owl with brown speckles all across it. It had light blue eyes as it looked at Athena. Hera approached Athena and placed a hand on her shoulder.
Athena turned around to see the twi'lek pilot. Hera said, "Hey, you seem a little down. What's up?"
Athena looked back to the owl and leaned back on the handles of the bike, she admitted, "I guess it's just...I got to thinking about my mom..."
Hera crouched down next to Athena, she gave her a comforting look as she too had thought on her mom, who she had lost too soon. She too looked over to the owl as it sat on the rock mound, she said, "I know what it's like, it's horrible."
Athena turned to Hera with a confused look on her face, "You lost someone?"
"My mother," Hera began. "She was killed in a resistance on Ryloth. A day doesn't go by when I don't think of her."
Athena's facial expression became to compassionate and sadden as she looked over to Hera, "I'm sorry, I didn't know."
Hera looked back at Athena, "I don't share that too much. But, your family. You might as well know."
Athena slightly smiled, "Thanks...for making me feel like I'm family. Not too many people are like you."
Hera stood up next to Athena and placed her hand on her shoulder again, she suggested, "Why don't we go in. You learned quite a bit for now."
Athena nodded. She stole a quick glance at the speckled owl before she turned the bike around and the two walked back to the ship.
That night
-0-
As Rae tossed and turned in her bunk, she kicked aside her blanket as sat up. She felt fairly restless that night as she could catch no sleep and the concept of sleep eluded her mind. She looked around the colorful cabin as she saw Athena sprawled out on the floor. Athena had chosen to sleep in their cabin for the time they were on Lothal because it reminded her of her times as a foster child on Earth and the place didn't have a bunk at the time being. She felt around the Force to see if anyone was awake and for some odd reason, she felt no one's Force signature. Not even Ezra, Kanan or Athena. She was puzzled by this and she stood up from her bunk.
Rae looked up at Sabine's bunk and saw that she wasn't there. Rae gave the empty bunk a confused stare as she was even more befuddled than before.
"Ok...that's...odd..." Rae spoke to herself.
She turned around and went over Athena as she lied on the floor with her back turned to Rae. Rae crouched down to Athena and shook her right shoulder.
"Athena, Athena, Athena?" Rae shook her shoulder of the unresponsive Athena. She felt for Athena's pulse and found none. She figured it was normal since this had happened before. Rae shook violently this time on her shoulder to see if she was ok. "Athena!"
Athena rolled over and Rae gasped as she saw the front of of Athena. Her eyes were open with a dead look inside her green eyes with a crystal look on covered her mouth to muffle a yell. Rae nearly broke out into tears as she looked at her lifeless friend. She quickly stood up and dashed out of her cabin and ran to the common room. She soon froze in her tracks as she saw a familiar face she wish she would've never seen again.
A man with a whisper of a blonde beard on his chin with dark blonde hair on the top of his head stood there with his red lightsaber activated. His brown eyes gazed over to Rae.
"J-J-Jalo..." Rae stuttered.
Rae's eyes fell onto the door that led to the kitchen and she beheld the sight of Ezra's boots laying there as they were still attached to their owner, who was out of view other than the shoes. Rage filled Rae as she looked back at her former Master and she ripped her twin lightsabers off her belt. She soon noticed they weren't the same as she activated the crimson blades.
"Have you killed the others?" Jalo asked.
"I would never kill my friends!" Rae yelled at Jalo. "You killed them!"
"Is that so? I would take a second look at who you are before I'd say that if I were you," Jalo spoke.
Rae was confused on what Jalo was speaking of as she held her twin, red, lightsabers in her hands with a firm grip. She glanced over to the metal wall next to her as she saw the blurry reflection of herself holding her crimson lightsabers. She looked closer and saw that she had all black on with red stripes on her boots and blood red gloves. She then saw two yellow circles reflect back at her where her eyes were. Rae gasped and lowered her blades and deactivated them as they clattered to the floor. She froze at the sight of her eye color as they glowed the bright yellow within the iris with blood red speckling them.
"No...no...not again..." Rae spoke to herself as she backed away from the wall. She soon felt herself misstep and plunge towards the floor. But, instead of falling to the floor, she continued to fall as blackness engulfed her.
She let out a scream as she felt herself continuously fall through the darkness.
-0-
Rae sat up with an immense jerk through her spine as she felt as if she had fallen for real back into her body. She heavily breathed as she gripped her blanket at her sides. She looked around to see that she was still in her cabin she shared with Sabine and Athena. She felt through the Force to sense that everyone was there and alive. Rae let out a sigh of relief and lied back down on her bed, shaken by her nightmare.
Hey, everyone! Hope you enjoyed! Please comment and stuff! Thanks! (:
