I do not own Star Wars or any of the characters.
Investigation
"So, any idea what we're going to find on the trip?" Kanan asked.
"No," Damian said, glancing at the back of the Phantom where Ezra and Zeb were sitting. "But it's not going to be pleasant, and probably will be very hard to miss."
Kanan nodded.
"So, Ezra, any progress?" Damian asked.
"With what?" Ezra asked.
"You know what," Damian smirked.
Ezra's cheeks darkened slightly. "Uh, not really, no."
Damian hummed, turning back tot he front.
"Progress?" Kanan asked.
"With Sabine," Damian muttered, Kanan snorting and rolling his eyes.
"I should have guessed," Kanan said. "Why do you want to help him with that?"
"Because I see myself in him," Damian said. "A younger version of myself, before I was taken in by Hondo Ohnaka. The best thing that ever happened to me was being with Ahsoka. It saved me from what I had become. I think it might do wonders for Ezra too."
Kanan nodded. "Maybe. But then, there's also the rule about falling in love that the Jedi order used to have."
"Like you and Hera?" Damian asked, Kanan narrowing his eyes and grumbling under his breath, turning away. Damian chuckled. "I was never a real Jedi, and even if I had been, I never would have followed the rule over being with Ahsoka. Ahsoka, obviously, didn't follow the rule, Barriss clearly didn't follow the rule, you're not following the rule, you didn't even tell Ezra about the rule. I'm pretty sure that rule's basically done. Not that anyone ever actually followed it. Ahsoka's master was married in secret, his master would have left the order to be with the love of his life if she hadn't told him he'd never see her again if he left the Jedi Order, an old Jedi Master named Ki-Adi-Mundi had five wives and seven children, two Jedi Masters named Aayla Secura and Kit Fisto were apparently together for years before they both died, and supposedly there were rumors about Master Yoda having had multiple relationships throughout his nine hundred years in the Jedi Order."
"How do you even know all of this?" Kanan asked.
"Ahsoka and Barriss heard a lot of stuff they weren't supposed to while they were eavesdropping on secret meetings of their senior Jedi to find out what they weren't being told," Damian smirked. "Not all of it was related to what they wanted to know."
"I suppose some things never change then," Kanan smirked, referring to Ezra having been eavesdropping when Ahsoka and Kanan had taken Kanan aside to tell him abut the mission in private.
"That they don't," Damian said before his current situation with Ahsoka came to mind. "And yet, some things do, and we're not really sure if they're good or bad."
"Trouble in paradise?" Kanan asked.
"I don't know if I'd use the word trouble," Damian said. "But I'm pretty sure we definitely dropped our map and compass while we were sailing along."
Kanan hummed thoughtfully. "I'm going to go out on a limb here and say it's personal."
"Oh extremely," Damian confirmed just as they reached their destination. "Good timing."
He landed the Phantom and they all got off.
"So did Ahsoka say exactly what we were looking for?" Zeb asked, having been sleeping for the entire flight.
"No," Kanan said. "She just said we have to get whatever it is before the Inquisitors do."
"And you don't know?" Zeb asked.
"I know as much as you do," Damian said. "She found coordinates that were important but didn't know what they were and sent us to investigate."
Zeb nodded as Kanan spotted a data access point and had Chopper check the location of the coordinates. A moment later, he was displaying a hologram of housing units.
"Housing units?" Ezra asked. "What would the Inquisitors want there?"
"I'm guessing there's a Jedi, or at least a Force Sensitive, here somewhere," Damian said.
"That would make sense," Kanan said. "But didn't Ahsoka say this had to do with some second job?"
"Possibly," Damian said.
"Well, we won't find anything out standing around here," Zeb said.
"Zeb's right," Kanan nodded. "Zeb, you take a look around the spaceports for the Inquisitors' ships. If they're already here, I'd like to know."
"Don't worry," Zeb smiled. "If I find any sign of them, you'll know."
"Bring Chopper," Kanan said. "Stay in touch."
Zeb nodded as Damian, Kanan, and Ezra turned, walking away toward the coordinates. After a few minutes, they reached a huge building, looking around, Damian activating his Aura Sight as well as sensing for them. Nothing. He led the other two inside, right hand hovering beside his blaster's holster, attached to the front of which was a small magnetic sleeve for his lightsaber, similar to what Ahsoka now kept hers in at the back of her belt.
"No sign of the Inquisitors," Ezra said.
"Yeah, that's what worries me," Kanan said.
"They may not have gotten here yet," Damian said. "Or they may have come and gone."
Both of the other Jedi nodded. Finally, they reached the door, which had been forced partway open and was jammed. Damian shoved the door the rest of the way open with the Force and stepped inside, followed by the others. The room was destroyed. Mirrors cracked, furniture broken, and scorch marks pockmarking the room.
"I think we're too late," Ezra said.
Just then, a voice groaned and Damian turned to a female Ithorian lying behind an overturned table.
"Over here," Damian said. "Are you alright?"
She responded in her native language and Damian struggled to translate it in his head.
"She says she's alright," Kanan supplied, and her name is Oora." he stopped as she began to speak frantically.
"Did I just hear the words red-blades?" Damian asked.
"Two of them came for her child, Pypey," Kanan said, then paused as she spoke again. "They didn't get it, she sent it away with a droid."
Ezra stood. "I promise you we'll get your child back to you."
Oora thanked him and Damian helped her up onto the bed beside her.
"Oora, as soon as you're able, get to Docking Bay twelve," Damian said. "We have a ship there with an R-series astromechs. Tell him I asked him to look after you."
She nodded and Damian and the others left.
"What did they want with her child?" Ezra asked.
"The child is most likely Force-sensitive," Damian said. "They're trying to raise the child as an Inquisitor, or maybe a Sith Stalker."
"It's possible," Kanan nodded.
As they walked out of the building, Kanan radioed Zeb. Then, within a few seconds, Zeb reported he had found the child. Damian smirked. Zeb was having a lucky day.
"Specter One, making it back to the Phantom is not going to happen!" Zeb shouted into his communicator suddenly.
"Copy that Specter Four," Kanan responded, all three beginning to run. "Where are you?"
"On the move," Zeb said. "I ran into your two friends." He paused for a moment. "We'll be in the tower at the grid nine intersection. Hurry!"
"I'm on my way," Damian said, using the Force to speed up, hurtling along the roads away from Kanan and Ezra, who stared after him with their mouths agape.
As he rounded a corner, he saw the two Inquisitors walking into the tower, a shorter female releasing a small probe droid. Damian drew his lightsaber and jumped, igniting the blade and splitting it in half as he passed, making its pieces hover as he landed. Then, he hurled the halves away and walked into the door. The Inquisitors turned right and Damian extended his senses, finding the child finally. He was right. The child was Force-sensitive. He quickly ran along the hallway, leaving a trail with his lightsabers, then turned left, heading up the stairs before taking several turns into before finding Zeb.
"You're fast," Zeb said. "We just got here. The kid's quiet, for now. Where are Kanan and Ezra?"
"They'll be here," Damian said, putting his lightsaber away and walking over to the child, lifting him gently into his arms, holding him on his left side to keep his right hand free to use his weapons, and began to bounce and sway gently.
The child cooed and curled into Damian, falling asleep in a few seconds.
"Wow," Zeb said. "Guess you got good at it with your own kid, huh?"
"You pick up a thing or two," Damian smiled, just as Ezra and Kanan ran in. "He's safe. We need to leave."
Kanan nodded, then looked to the floor below Zeb. Damian sensed it as well and snapped his free arm out, sending Zeb staggering back a few steps just as a red lightsaber blade stabbed up through the floor where he'd been standing, then retracted. A moment later, Ezra jumped back as it stabbed up at him as well. Then one stabbed in the door.
"Now where do we go?" Zeb asked.
"Only one way left," Ezra said, jumping up on a desk with Kanan, both beginning to cut a hole in the ceiling.
Damian drew his blaster as he sidestepped a stab and shot down through the floor several times, sensing that he managed to hit the Inquisitor's leg once but missed the rest, then jumped up through the hole after the others, putting his blaster away and drawing his lightsaber again.
"I've got something they can retrieve," Zeb said, arming a thermal detonator and dropping it through the hole.
They all ran out of the room only for the grenade to fly out of the room and bounce against the wall beside Damian. They all sprinted down the short hallway and around a corner just as the grenade went off, the child waking and beginning to wail again.
"Well whataya know," Damian said. "They retrieved it."
"Oh shut up!" Zeb growled.
They continued to run up the stairs and Damian glanced back, seeing the Inquisitors' shadows as they entered the stairwell, barely a single level below. He sighed, drawing his lightsaber and passing the child to Ezra.
"Ezra, the child is strong in the Force," Damian said. "You have to calm your own fear, or else he won't be able to calm down."
Ezra nodded.
"Good," Damian said. "Now keep running. I'll deal with these two."
"I'll help," Kanan said.
"No," Damian said. "It's only two Inquisitors. I can handle them easily enough."
Kanan hesitated before nodding, continuing upward with Zeb and Ezra. As the Inquisitors rounded the stairs, Damian ignited one lightsaber blade, watching them calmly.
"Well, well, Fifth Brother," the female said. "Do you know who this is?"
"Don't insult my intelligence, Seventh Sister," the male growled. "Try not to die too soon."
"Funny," the Seventh Sister said. "I was about to tell you not to get in my way."
Both shot forward, extending the blades of their lightsabers and Damian began to deflect the blades, backing away quickly. After a couple seconds, he jumped back, narrowly avoiding the Fifth Brother's blades, and extended his second blade, separating the lightsabers. He took his usual stance and the two Inquisitors charged again. This time, as Damian fended them off, he was able to strike back, though they were able to block his blows as well thanks to the raw speed of their spinning lightsabers. Finally, Damian slashed both lightsabers together, sending out a powerful Force blast from each, sending the two Inquisitors bouncing down the hallway. Both stood after a moment and the Fifth Brother charged as the Seven Sister was struggling to regain her bearing. Damian smirked, reconnecting his lightsabers and stepped forward, striking at the Inquisitor rapidly with his two blades, forcing him onto the defense. The Fifth Brother backpedaled rapidly as Damian struck again and again. Then, finally, Damian managed to deflect his lightsaber out to the Fifth Brother's right before twisting and bringing his own rear blade up through the Fifth Brother's right upper arm, slicing it off.
The Fifth Brother howled in pain, staggering backward, and clutching at his arm just as the Seventh Sister leapt over him. However, Damian shoved his left hand forward and sent both Inquisitors flying backward again.
"Damian we're clear, meet us at the space port!" Kanan's voice said from his commlink.
"What are you kidding?" Damian asked. "I'm having fun."
The Inquisitors both stood and Damian readied himself again, only to stop as the same type of droids as had been on Zeltros began to step into the hallway from the stairs, four of them in total.
"Okay, I'm on my way," Damian said, turning and sprinting down the hallway, leaping through a window at the edge of it before flipping and landing on his feet.
He sprinted down the road, speeding himself up with the Force, and skidded to a stop beside the door into their hangar beside the others, the door apparently being locked, just as a pair of speeders slowed to a stop, the four droids, the Seventh Sister, and the currently one-armed Fifth Brother all climbing out of the speeder, igniting their lightsabers.
"Why are there so many?" Kanan asked.
"The ones who look alike are droids," Damian said. "We ran into them on Zeltros."
Kanan nodded, and Damian, Ezra, and Kanan all ignited their own lightsabers before Ezra passed the child off to Zeb. Damian separated his lightsabers again just as the door behind them opened, light spilling through, briefly silhouetting Ahsoka before she stepped out of the doorway, igniting her own lightsabers, holding both in reverse grip. Then, Barriss stepped up beside Ahsoka, igniting her lightsaber as well.
"Unexpected," the Seventh Sister said. "But not unwelcome."
"Zeb, get the youngling to the ship," Ahsoka said.
"Right," Zeb nodded, turning and running into the hangar.
"How dangerous are these droids?" Kanan asked.
"I'm actually not sure," Damian admitted. "I killed two of them after stealing one's lightsaber, but I wasn't really paying attention to how hard I was trying."
"I'll handle the Seventh Sister," Ahsoka said.
"I'll finish off the big guy, then," Damian said.
"I'll take a droid and help Ezra with his if he needs it," Barriss said.
"Then I suppose that leaves me to run cleanup," Damian smirked.
"I have a better idea," the Seventh Sister said, shoving a hand forward.
Kanan flew backward through the door, crashing into the side of the Phantom. However, Ezra was shielded from the blast thanks to being behind Damian and Ahsoka, who blocked it.
"That barely did anything," the Fifth Brother noted.
"Oh shut up!" the Seventh Sister snapped. "This is enough!"
She raised a small metal cylinder and pressed a switch on it. A moment later, a half dozen more droids crashed down around the two Inquisitors. Damian smirked.
"That's more like it," Damian grinned. "Follow me boys! You two Fifth Brother."
He turned, leaping onto the roof of the building beside him and all of the new droids followed, along with the Fifth Brother. Damian spun instantly, beginning to fend off their lightsabers. He grinned. It was actually more challenging than he expected.
Ezra ducked under his droid's lightsaber blade, glad it was only using the one. He deflected its next slash then jumped, flipping over its next and kicking it in the face. It staggered away and he landed, lunging and stabbing at it. It deflected the blade, sweeping the blade toward him and he bent backward under the blade, then stood and shoved a hand, blasting the droid with the Force as powerfully as he could, only for its magnetically locked feet to stick to the road, spraypaint directly beneath its feet announcing buried powerlines.
"Oh come on!" Ezra groaned, beginning to backpedal, deflecting the droid's strikes.
Off to his right, Barriss was beginning to get the upper hand on her droid, the other two having gone to help the Seventh Sister. Barriss spun around her droid's lightsaber and slashed at its back, only for it to spin, deflecting the lightsaber upward and stabbing at her. She spun around the blade, slashing back downward and lopped its arm off. Then, she spun, splitting it across the torso and it collapsed. She glanced at Ezra just as Ezra dropped, slashing at its feet and making it jump, then spun again, lightsaber suddenly in reverse grip, and slashed at it. However, as it blocked his lightsaber blade, a blast of the Force exploded out of the blade, launching both Ezra and the droid away. The droid cleared its arc only for the Seventh Sister's lightsaber to spin through the air and bisect it before bouncing off the road and deactivating, skidding a few feet.
"Dammit, I thought I had it figured out that time," Ezra groaned, standing.
Ahsoka saw Ezra launch his droid out of the corner of her eye just as the Seventh Sister hurled her lightsaber at Ahsoka. Ahsoka shoved one of her two droids with the Force, launching it into the Inquisitor before deflecting her lightsaber, sending it out to meet the droid before it dropped. The other droid slashed at her but Ahsoka spun, sweeping its blade aside before decapitating it. She finished her spin in time to drop to a knee and cross her lightsaber blades just in time to block the Seventh Sister's lightsaber again. The droid she had launched into the Seventh Sister charged at Ahsoka from off to Ahsoka's right, but Ezra suddenly yanked it with the Force, then split it as it passed.
Ahsoka smirked and shoved the Seventh Sister's lightsaber into the air then blasted her backward with the Force. Then, she deactivated her own and put them away kneeling. When the Seventh Sister slashed downward at her again, Ahsoka caught the Seventh Sister's hands and used the Force to deactivate her lightsaber, then yanked it away and hurled it before kicking the Seventh Sister in the face hard enough to throw her, igniting her lightsabers again and holding one to the Seventh Sister's throat.
"You are beaten," Ahsoka said.
"Right about now, your husband should be beaten too," the Seventh Sister grinned, looking up at the building Damian had gone to, seeing a body fly off of it.
Damian flipped over one of the droids, landing on its shoulders, then leaping off as another slashed at him, that droid only barely missing its ally. He yanked the droid that had slashed into the air and split it town the middle, then flipped, leaping off of half of it, slashing a second on the way by before spinning and deflecting the other four's blades. The Fifth Brother stepped forward to slash but Damian yanked a hand downward, the Fifth Brother's head streaking down to bounce off of the ground. Then, Damian turned, deflecting two droids' lightsabers into the other two's before flipping his lightsabers to reverse grip and splitting the first two droids up the front. They both fell backward and Damian dropped low, throwing himself backward as the other two stabbed over him, driving his lightsabers up through their torsos from where their stomachs would be to extend out the back of their necks. He stepped forward, yanking the lightsabers out and reconnecting them, deactivating one before turning to the Fifth Brother as he stood. Damian held his left hand behind his back, holding his lightsaber at his side in Form Two, but making it look like he had his guard down to mock the Fifth Brother.
"This should be easy," Damian said.
"You bastard!" the Fifth Brother snarled. "Just die!"
He lunged, stabbing at Damian and Damian blocked the blade with a twirl of his own lightsaber, sending the Fifth Brother's arm out to the side before severing it at the elbow. Then, just as the Fifth Brother opened his mouth to scream, Damian slammed his foot into the Fifth Brother's nose throwing him backward, unconscious, and off the building. Damian stepped up to the edge, seeing Ahsoka standing with her lightsaber to the Seventh Sister's throat, the Seventh Sister staring up at Damian in shock and fear.
"Sorry I took so long," Damian called down to Ahsoka. "Those droids' Djem So gets pretty annoying with more than four."
Ahsoka snorted, shaking her head. "I'd like to point out, you beat six while Barriss had moderate difficulty against one."
"What?" Damian asked, then sighed, shaking his head. "She's been slacking on her training."
Ahsoka chuckled again, then stopped as the Seventh Sister laughed. "What's so funny?"
"You've lost," the Seventh Sister smirked just as several troop transports loaded with Stormtroopers and Purge Troopers turned onto the main road, heading straight for them. "Your capture will greatly please Lord Vader."
Ahsoka stepped back, deactivating her lightsabers as the Phantom began to take off, the back hatch open. "Tell your master he'll have to wait."
Then, she sprinted forward, jumping just as Damian swung an arm, hurling her into the ship with the Force. Then, she landed on her feet and turned, she and Damian pulling each other with the Force at the same time, Barriss and Ezra both pulling Ahsoka from behind at the exact same time, resulting in Damian being slingshotted a hundred feet up to the ship. He flipped, landing on his feet inside and closed the hatch, smirking.
"I think that went pretty well," Damian said.
"You definitely handled one of the two," Ezra said. "No arms means no fighting, right?"
"Wrong," Damian said. "No arms means prosthetics. He'll be back."
Ezra sighed.
"You missed it, Damian," Barriss said. "Ezra almost pulled off that move where you use your lightsaber blade to blast someone with the Force, and then killed a droid for Ahsoka by pulling it over and slashing it."
"Impressive," Damian nodded. "Glad to see your extra training's paying off. And speaking of training results." He turned on Barriss. "I hear you've been slacking."
Barriss sighed, rolling her eyes. "Maybe a little."
"Mhm," Damian smirked. "Remediation."
Barriss groaned and the others all laughed, including Oora, who was holding her child, Zeb holding a human one. Damian sighed, sitting beside Ahsoka and wrapped his arms around her, Ahsoka resting her head on his shoulder and smiling, closing her eyes as both began to meditate.
Leave a review.