I do not own Star Wars in any capacity.
Enjoy chapter 63!
Thank the Ashla that the Phantom had a binary translator, otherwise Zeb would have had no idea why the rust bucket was beeping insistently at him through the emergency channel.
Spectre Three and Spectre Six tried to stop Spectre Five but now Spectre Five has gone crazy. Beacon activated for pick up.
Zeb would have expected anything Chopper said to be littered with curses, but maybe the translator automatically removed those. Regardless, the message itself made no sense. Chopper and Sabine tried to stop Ezra… from what? With Hera and Kanan well on their way to destroying the shipment, the mission was basically over. And how was he supposed to interpret 'Ezra has gone crazy'? Maybe the translator was just wrong. Or Chopper was just being dramatic.
But that was no reason to waste time. Leaving the Phantom locked down at the edge of the city, he followed the location of Chopper's beacon on his datapad. They seemed to be keeping to the back alleys, away from the more crowded main streets. That certainly didn't bode well. If everything had gone right, there was no reason to avoid blending in with the crowds.
Their progress had been painfully slow, so by the time Zeb found them, they were still uncomfortably close to the Academy. Chopper was seated at the entrance to a small alley. He blated something at Zeb as he approached, which of course he knew Zeb couldn't understand. "Just tell me where the kids are," Zeb said with a roll of his eyes.
Chopper wheeled back a bit and pointed with a manipulator. Zeb frowned as he walked into the alley and found Ezra sitting curled up against the wall with Sabine standing nearby. When she saw him, her shoulders immediately relaxed. "Zeb! I can't tell you how good it is to see you."
"What happened?" he asked, eyeing Ezra worriedly. He had barely moved a muscle.
"You are asking the wrong person," Sabine said bluntly. She was pacing back and forth across the narrow width of the alley. "We got the job done, we got the intel to Kanan and Hera…"
"Yeah, Chopper told me."
"... and then Ezra tells me his family is here? That he had to see them?"
Zeb stiffened at that. Obviously he hadn't been talking about the Spectres, but about his old family. Ezra had never spoken of them to Zeb, but he knew that Ezra had been an orphan… and that his relatives had abused the kid.
"I've never seen Ezra like that. He was just so angry, and then he had a breakdown, and then he just attacked them!"
"Sabine." Zeb grabbed her shoulders, stopping her pacing and forcing her to face him. "You're not making much sense, but it can wait until we get back to the Phantom."
Sabine took a deep breath, nodding as she let it out slowly. "Right. And we need to get out of here fast. With what just happened… I'm surprised the city hasn't been swarmed with troopers looking for us."
Then they didn't have a moment to lose. Zeb knelt down in front of Ezra. "Hey kit," he said, trying to keep his voice light. "Ready to go?"
Ezra was trembling as he looked up at Zeb, although his gaze seemed to go straight through him. "I-It's cold…" he mumbled.
Well that could not be a good sign. "Alright," Zeb mumbled, tucking his hands around Ezra's middle and gently picking him up. "Let's go."
Ezra had his face tucked against Zeb's neck as he was held to Zeb's chest. He was shaking despite the fact the evening air was on the warmer side. And if anything, Ezra felt hot. Was he sick?
Thankfully no one paid the four of them any heed along the main streets. Zeb supposed people assumed that Ezra was just a sick kid in his guardian's arms with his sister and droid.
When they got to the Phantom, Chopper immediately rolled up to the controls and got it ready for take off. They were supposed to wait out in the great plains, far away from Capital City, until the Ghost returned. From little Sabine had said, getting as far away from the city as possible was definitely a good thing. Zeb sat Ezra down one of the seats, where the kid curled back up on himself. "K-Kanan…?"
"He'll be back soon," Zeb promised, giving Ezra's shoulder a squeeze.
Ezra just nodded, pulling his knees in closer and resting his forehead on them.
Zeb turned to Sabine, who was leaning against the door with her arms crossed tightly and her foot tapping restlessly. "You alright?" he asked.
"I'm fine," she insisted. "Ezra's the one whose gone catatonic on us."
Zeb sighed, looking back and forth between the two of them. He wasn't generally the comforting type. That was Kanan and Hera's job. But who knows how long it would be until they got back. He sat on the seat closest to Sabine, who seemed to be the most cognizant of the two. "So tell me what happened. From the beginning."
Sabine closed her eyes, rubbing her temple. "I had no idea Ezra had living family. And the last thing I would have expected was for his sister or whatever to be at the Academy."
"And Ezra confronted her?"
"No, not her. Her parents. He went looking for their ship and…" Sabine hesitated, as if she was unsure how to phrase her words. "I mean, I know he's like Kanan. I've seen him working with Kanan's lightsaber and a few times I've seen him hover some rocks, but what he did back there, was like nothing I have ever seen. Not even from Kanan." Then Sabine's face transformed into a look of horror. "Wait, Ezra said that the Inquisitor was coming here."
"The Inquisitor?" Zeb echoed in alarm. "Are you sure?"
Sabine nodded, suddenly turning and going to kneel in front of Ezra. She grabbed him by his shoulders and pushed him out of his self-contained cocoon. "Ezra, is the Inquisitor coming to Lothal?"
Ezra gazed at her with wide eyes. Then he simply gave a small nod, his lip trembling.
"How do you know that? When did you learn this? Why didn't you tell us?"
Sabine's grip was tightening, and Ezra's gaze was getting more and more unfocused as his breathing started to hitch. Zeb immediately stepped in, pulling her back while putting a protective hand on Ezra's chest. "Now is not the time for this." Sabine looked like she was about to protest but Zeb just bared his teeth as he shot her a glare. "What's important right now is that we regroup and make sure we're somewhere safe. Then we can untangle this mess."
"L-Lothal was safe…"
They both turned to Ezra, who looked to be whispering to himself as he stared down at the floor with glassy eyes. His head dipped down, his face obscured by his hair. "I-I've ruined everything…" he whimpered.
"You haven't ruined anything, kit," Zeb said softly, gently petting back Ezra's hair. The kid's grown a lot, but he was still so small under Zeb's hand.
Ezra just curled on himself even tighter, his trembling unceasing.
Zeb looked over at Sabine, who had finally collapsed into a seat herself. She was gripping the edges tightly, her lips pressed together as she glared out the viewport. There was no question about it: this was a mess. But both kids had shut down, and Zeb would take it for now. He didn't have the wherewithal to deal with not just one but two emotionally distraught teenagers.
He got up and walked over to bow of the shuttle, sitting in the pilot's chair. Chopper warbled something at him, which had Zeb glancing at the translator. He rolled his eyes. "Oh keep your bolts screwed in. I'm not messing with anything…"
Chopper continued to grumble quietly, but Zeb elected to ignore him. Even though this mission was basically a success, even though the kids had conducted themselves well, something unexpected had happened that had rattled the youngest two Spectres so much. Something having to do with Ezra's family and his Force powers.
Zeb rubbed the back of his head, silently praying for the Ghost's quick return. Kanan needed to get back to his son.
Kanan would have sworn on the very Force itself that the jump back to Lothal was ten times longer than the jump to the space station.
After the initial wave of cold darkness had literally knocked him to the ground, Kanan had been forced to put a strong shield on their bond just to keep himself lucid. After a few minutes, he tried to reach back out to the bond, desperate to make direct contact with Ezra, but he found that he had been blocked out. But with a cold dull ache still leaking through, it was all Kanan could not to completely lose it.
What could have possibly gone wrong in such a short amount of time? Sabine and Ezra had sounded fine when they relayed the intel. The only explanation Kanan could come up with was that the Inquisitor had somehow found them at the worst possible moment. The Inquisitor had his boy and was torturing him, and Kanan could do nothing but wait.
"Hera…?"
"Kanan, if I push the Ghost any harder, we're gonna have a burnout."
Kanan bit his lip, keeping back the angry retort his body had automatically given him. He could feel Hera's worry almost as keenly as his own. He knew she was doing everything he could. But Kanan could hardly sit still as the feelings of failure and helplessness threatened to completely consume him. "What if he has them?" he whispered.
"We'll figure it out," Hera said with confidence that seemed entirely unearned.
"This is the Inquisitor, not just some derelict Imperial prison in the middle of nowhere!"
"Kanan, you don't know for sure it's him."
"What else could it be?!"
"I DON'T KNOW!" Hera shouted back. Her grip tightened on the steering yoke, her gloves creaking against the plasteel surface. "But there's no reason to jump to conclusions. We were monitoring Imperial chatter before we left. There was no indication that an Imperial as important as the Inquisitor was on Lothal." Her voice was shaky, and Kanan could see a fine tremor running through her shoulders, even as she took a calming breath. "ETA two minutes."
Kanan nodded, looking back out the viewport with a shaky exhale. I'm coming, Ezra. No matter what, I'm coming for you…
The moment they exited hyperspace and Lothal came into view, Hera hit the comm. "Ghost to Spectres: check in."
"This is Spectre Four," Zeb's voice replied almost immediately. "Spectres Three through Six all reporting in from the Phantom."
From the tone of Zeb's voice, they didn't sound like they were panicked or in any immediate danger. Kanan let out an explosive sigh as he sagged in his seat, sheer relief washing over him. Thank the gods.
"Is everyone alright?" Hera asked. "Is anyone hurt?"
"Not… exactly."
Kanan and Hera exchanged a glance. Of course Kanan knew that everything couldn't be picture perfect, not with Ezra's bond still shored up and leaking distress, but it was still discouraging to hear from Zeb nonetheless.
"Look, I'm not rightly sure what happened. But Spectre Three's already got your signal, and we're on our way to rendezvous with the Ghost."
"I see you on my scope," Hera said, lowering the Ghost into Lothal's upper atmosphere.
Kanan got up and ran to the common room. He wasn't going to be able to relax until Ezra was back safe in his arms. He listened to the Phantom docking, feeling a drop in his stomach as Hera pulled the Ghost back up into orbit. The hatched opened, and Sabine climbed down first. Her brow was furrowed and her lips pressed together tightly.
"Sabine…" Kanan put a hand on her shoulder. "Are you alright?"
She immediately shrugged him off. "I'd worry more about Ezra if I were you. I'm fine."
Kanan was taken aback by her vehemence, but before he could muster a response, she pushed past him and marched towards the cabins. That was not a good sign.
Chopper came down next, using his rocket to steady his descent. He immediately went on a loud and rapid fire rant about how the Baby Jedi had finally taken after the Stupid Jedi and how dare Kanan do that to Ezra…!
"Whoa, wait a minute!" Kanan shouted back. "What are you even talking about? What happened?!"
Chopper just grumbled about needing to report to Mom as he rolled away.
Fear, frustration, and apprehension were brewing into a violent storm within Kanan, and he couldn't take it much longer. He climbed the ladder up into the Phantom and found Zeb kneeling in front of Ezra. His boy was curled up tightly and trembling in one of the seats, his face tucked into his arms. When Zeb saw Kanan, he stood up and walked toward the hatch, putting a hand on Kanan's shoulder. "I'll leave you two be," he said quietly.
Frustration swelled in Kanan as he still had no idea what had happened, but he shoved it down. He doubted anyone was deliberately keeping it from him. It seemed that no one had a clear picture of what had occurred, but judging from what Kanan was still sensing from his bond with Ezra…
With a sigh, Kanan stepped over and knelt in front of him. "Hey…" he said softly, running his hand over Ezra's hair.
Ezra flinched, slowly raising his head to look up at Kanan. His eyes were bloodshot but he wasn't crying. "I kriffed up…" he choked.
"Ezra, the mission is done." Kanan instinctively knew that wasn't what Ezra was talking about, but it was important to remind him nonetheless. "We destroyed the shipment of kyber and got away without a scratch."
Ezra quickly shook his head, squeezing his eyes shut. "I-I risked everything j-just for a chance to s-s-see them… b-but when I did…"
"Ezra…" Kanan cradled his face in his hands. He didn't seem to be injured at all, but his presence in the Force was cold and just wrong. "You're not making any sense. Who did you see?"
His breathing getting caught in his throat, Ezra suddenly looked at Kanan with wide eyes. That was when Ezra's bond opened and a deluge of cold anger washed over Kanan and -
He walked through the hanger, looking at ship after ship until he saw it: the silvery shine of the courier-class yacht. And patrolling in front of it… PA-32.
Kanan's eyes widened. He recognized that ship. And that droid. "Your relatives…" he breathed in disbelief. "Your relatives were at the Academy?"
Ezra was shaking hard. "Kanan… I-I kriffed up…"
Kanan was overwhelmed with the simple knowledge those monsters had been anywhere near Ezra again. "Just… Just tell me what happened."
With a shaky sigh, Ezra pulled away from Kanan's hands, sitting a little straighter. "I lied," he said his voice breaking. "I... I-I got the decoder a week ago…"
Kanan blinked hard. "You got the decoder with your first pass?" He grabbed Ezra's arms. "You lied to us?!"
Ezra flinched and looked down. "I did," he breathed.
Kanan just shook his head in disbelief as he wrapped his head around the fact that they could have had this mission done a week ago. Sabine and Ezra would have been back home safe on the Ghost , and Fulcrum could have used their resources to wipe out the shipment instead without risking the ship disappearing into hyperspace. His grip on Ezra's arms tightened as he could only manage a single response. "Why?"
Ezra flinched again, shaking harder under Kanan's grip. "T-The back up plan w-was on the same day as Visiting Day… which would mean…"
Another memory flashed before Kanan's eyes. It was just a glimpse, an image of the woman he recognized as Ezra's shutta aunt and a heavy set man with similar complexion to Ezra that could only be his uncle.
With growing horror, Kanan was forced to face a simple fact: the sickening feel of the dark, the cold hate that had stabbed through him earlier hadn't been from an Inquisitor attack… it had come from Ezra himself. And even now, it was still clinging to his son, like a parasitic fungus growing and spreading through Ezra's signature.
Even Ezra understood the implications, and now the boy was practically petrified with fear.
The details of what had happened no longer mattered. Ezra had made the completely idiotic decision to confront the people who had brutalized him for years, which left him so vulnerable that he had become susceptible to the Dark Side.
Kanan had never thought this would happen. To be consumed by the Dark Side, to actively use it , was not a trivial thing. In his foolishness, Kanan hadn't bothered to prepare Ezra for this possibility. He hadn't realized how fast Ezra's abilities were growing now that he was actively training him.
"I-I wanted to kill them…"
Kanan was startled out of his thoughts at the uncharacteristically grim admission from Ezra. He was shaking, but the fear from before had vanished, leaving behind only cold rage.
"I don't know why I went to see them…" he said quietly. "A-At first it was just echoes, like I was back there, but then I actually saw them and…" Ezra looked up at Kanan with a mixture of anger and desperation. "I wanted to kill them. Punish them for what they did to me!"
Terror filled Kanan's heart as he listened to Ezra. He pulled him into a tight embrace. "Ezra, you have to stop talking like this…"
Ezra's breathing hitched against Kanan's neck. "They ruined me. And I just wanted them to feel this pain…"
"They did not ruin you!" Kanan said sternly. They had never spoken about his family. Not really. Nothing beyond Kanan's assurances that his relatives were wrong in the height of Ezra's panic attacks. Ezra had never wanted to talk about them and that suited Kanan just fine. He hadn't realized that Ezra had been holding on to his past like this. "Ezra, You can't let them win like this."
Ezra was still shaking, but Kanan could feel the cold anger slowly diminish with every passing moment. "W-Win?"
Kanan sighed, rubbing Ezra's back. "What your relatives did to you was horrible," he said softly. "But acting out of anger, mirroring their treatment of you… Don't let your emotions turn you into them. You are better than that. I know you are because you're my son, and I've watched you grow and evolve away from what your relatives tried to make you. If you stoop to their level, inflict pain the way they hurt you… They've won."
Ezra started shaking harder as Kanan spoke. The cold he felt over their bond slowly waned, and Ezra started letting out soft hiccuping sobs against Kanan's neck. His arms snaked around his middle as he gripped his father with strength Kanan had never felt before. "I'm sorry… I'm sorry…!"
Kanan just held him. He couldn't simply forgive and forget. Ezra had put not only himself but the entire crew in unnecessary danger for a chance to face his past. They were only lucky enough that none of them had gotten caught by the Empire. But in this exact moment, condemnation wouldn't help anyone. That would have to come later. For right now, Kanan focused on keeping Ezra grounded and slowly tried to purge the cold that had infected his child.
Please leave a review to let me know what you thought!
