Chapter 9: The Missing

Sabine was studying the newly sorted data when she heard the door to the bridge slide open. Her young Jedi companion stepped through, and proceeded to his seat before he looked up at the information. "What've you got so far?" He asked, looking towards her through the dimmed lights. She looked away from the data to Ezra. He looked slightly disoriented, but about what she couldn't tell just by reading his expression. She let it go, deciding that it would only be an issue if it was a repetitive thing. And even then, anyone that she asked would say they get a little disoriented after waking up. Though he was probably meditating, not sleeping. But meditating on what? She thought before letting the thought pass. There'd be time for thinking about other things later. Though I'm not sure why I'm concerned about that in the first place.

"Nothing much. A lot of these are just people, planets, small sections of fragmented schematics, and a lot of redacted files," She explained, focusing back on the now alphabetized data. "Not a whole lot of it makes sense, either. Some of it is beyond vague."

A look she recognized as Ezra's 'thinking face' came over him as he looked through the data. She followed his line of sight to a particular file, one with the profile of a man wearing a white outfit similar to Thrawn's. Ezra walked over to it and blew up the image, making the file big enough to read. "Any idea who this is?" He asked Sabine as she read over what she could see that wasn't redacted.

"The name has been removed, but that's a director's uniform. Whoever this is, I'd guess they're the one spearheading the project," She replied, examining the image. She turned to the now rust-painted droid. "Chopper, mark this file. It may be important later."

"Woop woo!" He replied, interfacing with the ship. A flag appeared at the top of the page, and it shrank down again. She stared at the data for a second longer, then a thought occurred to her. Standing, she opened the first location file she saw, and read the brief description. There was almost nothing. It was just a set of coordinates. But if that's the case…

"Chopper, hide any files that don't mention a location," She said. Three-quarters of the data disappeared. Ezra turned to her.

"What're you thinking?" He asked, crossing his arms next to her.

"I'm not entirely sure yet," She replied, looking at everything left. "Hide every planetary location…" More disappeared, and she continued. "Hide core worlds, hyperspace lanes, rendezvous locations… organize them by date…"

The files moved around until only around a dozen or so were left. "Plot these coordinates on the galaxy map, but leave the files open," She instructed. The holographic model of the galaxy sprang up before them, and 11 orange blips stood out among the thousands. She walked around the circular hologram, examining it closely. The Jedi across from her scanned the map over before she saw his eyes widen slightly as he focused in on one planet.

"Well, we were right about Geonosis. When was it there?" He asked, looking at the irradiated dustball

Chopper beeped, and Sabine instinctively translated. "He can't get a precise date. It was around 8 years ago."

"So we were behind on that one…" He said, looking at the rest of the blips.

"We completely missed it by six years," Sabine plainly stated. Ezra made a resigned sigh.

"Fine. We totally missed it. But that begs the question, where is it now?" He pointed out, examining the further out dots. Sabine turned to Chopper.

"Care to enlighten us?"

The droid responded by interfacing with the map, and it zoomed in on a sector of empty space, with the orange and now blinking dot in the center of it. Sabine considered the location aloud. "I suppose it makes sense. Open area, away from hyperplanes, and a stable zero-g environment. Perfect for a massive secret project, if you have everything on site. But that seems pretty far away from just about everything. How recent was this?"

"Woop woop woop woo."

"Two weeks, huh?"

"It's not unlike the Empire to overlook inconvenience in favor of nondisclosure," The Jedi input from the other side. "We're in command of our own operation here. I say we investigate."

"Woop woop woo woop," The rust-domed astromech input.

"Chopper says we leave it and use what we have. Sabine, you break the tie," Ezra said, looking at her. She bit her lip as she debated both sides in her head. While the safer option would be to return with what they had, which was mostly redacted and outdated, investigating further could lead to some real-time and concrete answers.

She let out a breath of disbelief. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but what we've found just isn't enough. We've managed to find a swath of redacted files and locations that tell us primitive information at best. We have several leads still to chase down before we know for sure this is all we have. I say we keep searching."

"Alright, Chop, you heard her. Set a course for this location," Ezra ordered as the map disappeared. Chopper made an angry warble, and then set the course. Sabine sat back down in her chair, spinning and propping her feet up on the console. She heard the door hiss shut behind her, but shrugged it off as she turned back to the blue light racing by. She didn't turn the lights back on, instead of focusing on the blue and white swirl of hyperspace racing by.

At some point, she must have drifted off to sleep, because she woke to the sound of a lightsaber buzzing. She stood up, leaving Chopper on the bridge alone, and headed into the hold. Ezra had fashioned a dummy out of a few support rods and one of the stormtrooper disguises. His lightsaber both looked and sounded like it was on its training mode, meaning it would not cut upon impact, just sting. She watched him swing tirelessly at the fake opponent for a moment, before proceeding over to the area she had noticed the spare parts earlier. Tapping a button at her hip, a workbench slid out, as well as an array of tools and items.

She pulled her jetpack out of the closet, as well as new power coils and other assorted electrical components. She opened the panels on either side to examine the circuitry, coming to the conclusion that most of it was fried from being overheated and having to much strain put on it. She removed the thruster mount, which had also burned out from the intense stress. She pulled out the burned-out ignition core and fashioned a new one out of one of the power coils, connecting it to the rest of the wiring in its place. She secured it in place with a micro-welder, and once she was satisfied with her work, she moved on to the rest of the device.

Using a roll of spare wire, she replaced the stress-broken circuits with new and stronger wire to tolerate a higher tow rate. She put the other power couplings in the place of the originals, and tweaked the hardwired maximum thrust capacity to suit the slightly higher limit. When she was satisfied with her work, she placed the panels back on the jetpack and stowed it in the corner of the room, magnetically locked against the wall. She then used a capacitor and some random chunks of metal to fashion a rudimentary power muzzle for the Darksaber, as it had not been built with a training mode built in. She could've easily tweaked the inner workings of the hilt to do so, but such a thing would be severely frowned upon by Mandalorian culture. An inhibitor to go over the handle would be much more effective and acceptable.

After she slid it onto the handle, she walked up to the Padawan, who was in the middle of an offensive sequence from Form IV, sometimes referred to as Ataru or Aggression as she recalled. His form was much more refined than it was a year ago when he had faced down Vader and three inquisitors on Malachor. He had blended the defensive models in Form III and Form V from Kanan into his own, somewhat more aggressive form for combat. Because of his skill in the two defensive forms and the one more offensive one, he had become a much more formidable opponent than he had been when he faced down most of his lightsaber-wielding foes.

As he returned to the ready position of Form IV, Sabine approached him. "Your fighting style seems refined, though a dummy can't exactly simulate a real opponent."

Ezra turned off his lightsaber and looked at her. "Form IV is an aggressive and highly acrobatic form of combat. It's good for 1-on-1 duels, but not the best against blaster fire," He explained. He glanced at the Darksaber in her hand, particularly at the rudimentary inhibitor she had just built. "What'cha got there?"

"It's a power muzzle. It'll make the blade less powerful than it is normally, so more like a training blade mode," She explained, taking her ready position. "I wouldn't want to accidentally remove a few fingers."

"You really think you're up to it?" Ezra said, taking the Form III starting pose. The doors to the cockpit slid open for Chopper wheeled into the cargo hold, but he stopped when he saw the training standoff. Ezra ignited his green blade, and within a second Sabine had her now somewhat grey blade up too. They circled each other, neither one of them making a move. The tension in the air built. Sabine watched his blade, his stance, and his eyes. Looking for any tells that he was going to strike. And sure enough, he tensed right before he made a move.

Sabine swirled the dark blade to parry, then made a counter-attack by swinging up from her hip, meeting pale green plasma before the strike landed. She attacked high, low, from both sides and finished her series of blows with a strong overhead cut. She held the saber lock for several seconds until Ezra slipped out from under it, making a spinning slash that Sabine blocked as he came up behind her. He made an attempt for her legs, which she jumped and did a handspring to the far side of the room to dodge. The Jedi ran up on her and launched a flurry of blows, which she struggled to keep up with. When he slowed for a moment, she used the sonic repulsor on her vambraces, and he slid back to the middle of the room.

Sabine tried to take advantage of the disorientation factor by circling him and landing a blow, but she was surprised when she hit the green beam instead of her intended target. The Jedi slid out from under her, taking a Form IV stance. "That may have worked last time, but not anymore."

Sabine steadied herself, assuming a defensive pose. "Then it's a good thing that I've also learned a trick or two," She replied as Ezra lunged. She sidestepped his blow, sending him off balance behind her. She lashed out with her energy rope, binding his legs and causing him to hit the floor. As she yanked him back towards her, he rolled over and saw her standing over him, the Darksaber at his throat. "Got you."

"Did you now?" Ezra asked.

"Wha-!" She managed to get out before the Padawan made his play. In a single motion, she felt him propel the Darksaber out of her hand and take her legs out from under her. She looked up after hitting the floor to find Ezra kneeling over her torso, with her head at the end of both his green lightsaber and the subdued black blade.

"Now who's got who?" He joked, and Sabine giggled. Chopper clapped his manipulators together. That brought a smile to both of their faces, and Ezra turned off the lightsabers to help her up. She accepted his offer and felt herself get hauled up to her feet. She stumbled into him before she regained her balance, and she felt a small fire in her cheeks at the action.

"Sorry about that," she apologized, then questioned why she was apologizing. Ezra rested his hand on the back of his neck.

"It's fine, really," He replied. Then he shook his head slightly and blinked, as if clearing his head, and his expression changed from jovial to serious. His position changed, and he seemed to be trying to avoid her gaze by looking at the floor as he crossed his arms and put one hand to his chin. "Watch out for that move if you get into a position like that again. It could easily change whose head goes rolling on the floor."

"Oh. Right," She responded, looking down at the floor too. She was confused at this abrupt change in mood. One second, he's laughing at her jokes and smiling. The next, he's completely serious and tactical, not letting a peep of emotion onto his guarded face.

"However, that tripping move you used is great. If you could find a way to use it without being put in that position, then that would be an unorthodox and incredibly effective move," He pointed out, gesturing towards her with his hand.

"I'll do my best, I guess," She replied, with her eyes still on the floor. An awkward silence fell between the two of them for a few moments before they were spared by the hyperspace disengage alarm going off. They both looked over at Chopper, who warbled a confirmation that they were arriving at their destination. They both dashed up to the cockpit as the lights of hyperspace blurred as they slowed to a stop. Sabine had been hoping to see this mysterious mystery weapon they were chasing. Or maybe some indication that it had been here. But that's not what she got.

Instead, the three of them stared out the cockpit at a Star Destroyer, coated in smoke and flames.

"I don't like the look of this," Ezra said, looking out the window at the metal behemoth. Small fires broke out all along its hull, enshrouding the structure in a massive cloud of smoke that slowly trailed off behind as the ship moved through space. Any signs of a crew were absent. All the lights were off, though the ship looked mostly intact. It was missing a few large chunks out of it here and there, and looking from where he was, Ezra couldn't tell if those areas had been sealed off or not.

"I'm not sure I'd like it in any world," Sabine commented next to him, studying the massive wreck in front of them. Chopper beeped from next to them. The Mando instantly repeated it out of habit. "Chopper says he doesn't detect any life signs aboard, and the ship is running on unstable auxiliary power. But he can't scan for thermal signatures because…"

"...it's so lit up with heat it'd be impossible to read through, I know," He finished for her, looking down at the console. "Chopper, can you construct a 3D model of the Star Destroyer?"

Chopper beeped an affirmative.

"Good. Compare it to an image of an undamaged Star Destroyer," Ezra instructed. The two images appeared in front of him, side by side. He turned the two holograms to the underside near the cargo hold, where he saw the majority of the damage. "Sabine, what does this look like to you?"

The girl leaned over towards him to get a better look at the damage. "It looks almost like an... energy burst. Spherical. It exploded out of the cargo bay, and caused severe hull damage, and took out weaker parts of the design as well as the power generators and engines," She analyzed, gesturing to different points across the ship. "I don't know anything that could generate that level of energy burst."

Ezra didn't have to think long about what could. "I do," He said, setting his lightsaber on the console. "Kyber crystals."

Sabine's eyes widened. "How big do they come?"

"From what I can gather, they don't have a general size. They come in all shapes and sizes," He commented, clipping his weapon back on his belt.

"Well, that makes that theory plausible. It'd take one the size of a few large speeder bikes to do this," Sabine estimated. "But I suppose you work with something like a Kyber crystal, this stuff can happen."

"It's too obvious. The Empire isn't this dumb," He blatantly stated.

"Have you met the Empire?"

"Okay, some of the higher-ups aren't that dumb. My point is, they wouldn't be dumb enough to blow up a Kyber crystal in their ship. That's a stupid thing to do. Anyone who knows a thing or two about Kyber crystals and has half a brain will know specifically not to try and run power to it unless it has somewhere to go. Furthermore, we can't scan the ship for thermal signatures because it's on fire. Something's off about this."

"I agree, but if the Empire was running Kyber crystals through this sector, perhaps even depositing them here, then something on that ship has the answer to that question," Sabine argued, looking him in the eye. She had pretty eyes. A bright, glimmering brown, with a spark in them that never seemed to be extinguished. Almost like…

No. You can't, and you won't. Focus. He told himself, and the stray thought departed from his consciousness. He considered what she had said, and he knew she was right. "I don't see an alternative, and we don't have enough fuel to make it to one of the other points mentioned in the files we got," He said, hesitating for a moment. "Though I have to say, this thing has 'Out of place' and 'death trap' writing all over it." He gestured to the sight before them.

"Woop woo! Woop woo!" Chopper exclaimed. Ezra rolled his eyes.

"We don't have a choice, Chop! It'd be pointless to get all the way out here and not investigate! If you're scared, you can stay on the ship and make sure we have a quick exit," He lectured. The droid seemed to have a large attitude improvement.

"Woop woop woop woo," He responded, backing off. Now Sabine commented as she flew them slowly towards the damaged hangar.

"Of course, after he figures out he won't be in the direct line of fire, he likes the plan."

"Woo! Woop woo!"

"She wasn't trying to be fair, Chopper," Ezra replied. Chopper grumbled as they approached the burned-out hangar. Loose wires hung from the ceiling, sparking bright blue and yellow on occasion. Wrecked equipment was scattered everywhere, the burnt silhouettes of TIE fighters strewn among the rubble. It appeared to still have the air shield intact, though at low power, as it seemed to flicker from a defined barrier to a ghost of a wall from moment to moment.

The ship set down on the deck, though the sound of the ship landing just added to the overall eerieness of the scene. Ezra saw the Mandalorian resting her hand on her blaster, and her other on the Darksaber, now with the power inhibitor she designed removed. Ezra took his lightsaber in his hand as they turned to disembark the ship, still unnerved at the strange appearance of this structure way out here. The all too familiar sound of the cargo ramp hissing open accompanied them as they stared out at the wreckage before them. As if stepping the wrong way they might destroy the entire ship, they slowly waded through the debris to the door, stepping through to littered hallways and darkened corridors.

"Where to?" Ezra asked in a hushed voice.

Sabine, who had left her helmet aboard the ship, replied, "The bridge. If there's a record of what happened here, it'll be there."

Ezra nodded in reply, following her down the hall to the left. Her blasters had crept up from their holsters to her hands at some point since they boarded. Though she hid it well, subtle things like this told Ezra that she was extremely on edge. So, as they walked through the dark corridors reeking of stale air and smoke, he attempted to partially alleviate the creepiness of their surroundings.

"Everything alright, Sabine?" He asked, noticing that her fingers were already on the triggers instead of resting beside them.

"Why wouldn't it be?" She replied, looking over her shoulder at him.

"You're holding your blasters like you're going to shoot the first thing that moves," He pointed out, and she looked back in front of her as they walked around a corner.

"I am going to shoot the first thing that moves, because I would hate it if we got attacked by something and after the fact think 'Maybe I should've had my blasters out'," She said with an edge in her voice.

"The only thing that might still move on this ship is a few pieces of loose debris or maybe a mouse droid. Anybody that was living here is probably a corpse around this ship somewhere."

"And that's exactly why I'm going to blast the first thing that moves because nothing should be alive on board except us!" She hissed as they came to a turbolift. Ezra stepped forward and ignited his lightsaber, cutting the door open. He kicked it in, looking up the torn up shaft to where the bridge should be. As he was looking up, he heard something shift along the metal in the darkness below, along with the familiar sound of something knocking against the walls as it fell. Just before Sabine stepped in, Ezra put his arm in front of her.

"Wait a minute. Something's not right."

"What?" She asked, looking at him. Ezra looked down the turbolift shaft once again as he explained.

"Anything that was on this ship would have died, right? The troopers, the officers?"

"Right…?"

"So, if that's the case, where are the bodies?" He said, looking up at her. Sabine's look changed from one of determination to one that could only be described as a fearful revelation. Not even 5 seconds after he had said it, he heard the unmistakable crackle of an electrostaff from behind him.

"Ezra! Look out!" Sabine shouted, quickly trading one of her blasters for the Darksaber to parry the blow. As the two energy weapons crossed, Ezra whirled around to see 3 more blood-red visors illuminate in the hallways around them. He heard more of the dark troopers moving in the elevator shaft he had cut open. The Jedi weapon in his hand snapped to life, and he took the Ataru starting stance as Sabine broke the weapon lock she had with one of the troopers, blasting him in the chest before he could move. They stood back to back as the troopers closed in around them, both of them holding the Form IV stance.

"Sabine? Any brilliant plans of the desperate and life-saving type coming to mind? I'm open to suggestions!" Ezra exclaimed in an alarmed tone.

"I was really hoping you had one!" She replied in the same tone of voice. Ezra watched the footwork of one of the troopers in front of him as their stance tensed. He opened himself to the floodgates of the Force. His grip tightened on his saber, and he heard the sound of a safety clicking off from one of Sabine's pistols. They both stopped in place, securing their footing, and they held their positions, waiting to engage the troopers. Waiting… waiting… waiting…

One of them spun their staff in a windmill around himself before lunging and jumping into the air for a powerful vertical strike. In that second, Ezra shouted, "Go!", and he and Sabine jumped out from under the blow and engaged with the other two shadowy troopers. Flashed of green and purple appeared before Ezra as his lightsaber once again became a green blur of energy, intercepting blow after blow. The third trooper came up behind him, and Ezra sensed his next move, ducking the strike so the trooper collided with his ally instead of himself. The dazed trooper fell sideways, recoiling from the blow. Ezra jumped up from the floor and kicked the other trooper in the chest, causing him to stagger backward. He glanced over at Sabine, who was having a more difficult time defending against the massive blows she was being delivered. It didn't help that the Darksaber was much shorter than your regular lightsaber. In a break between blows for her, called out, "Switch!"

He saw her quick change of pose as he used the Force to pull her towards him, and he ducked and jumped over to the trooper she had been fighting, crossing his blade against the electrostaff. He slashed back and forth against the block, and only managed to gain a little bit of ground in ten strikes. He heard the whine of Sabine's sonic repulsor charging behind him, and then her shouting, "Cover your eyes!" as both her repulsor fired and she detonated a smoke grenade. Ezra sidestepped a strike before locking his weapon against the dark trooper, glaring up at the sinister mask they wore. Holding the trooper's attention there, his right hand released his lightsaber and drew his DL-44 blaster, firing twice point-blank into the trooper's chest. The black figure collapsed after making a small grunt of surprise, and Ezra turned to the Mandalorian behind him as he deactivated his blade.

"Sabine! Run!" He cried, and she listened, rolling out from under an overhead slash and blasting her repulsor into the trooper she'd been fighting, sending the figure tumbling into the elevator shaft and taking down the others that were presumably in there. She then turned and ran from the final trooper, whom Ezra fired at until Sabine had reached him, then he turned and ran as well.

"Couldn't you have done that earlier?!" Ezra asked as they ran back to the ship.

"It didn't occur to me to do that right away!" She replied, rounding the bend.

"Also, pushing the trooper into the elevator shaft? That's my move!"

"Yeah, well, it's effective, and I steal from the best! Deal with it!" She shot back as they ran towards the hangar doors. That last statement took Ezra off guard. Did she just… compliment me? He thought. He quickly pushed it aside as they dashed through the doorframe.

"Chopper! Get the ship in the air! We've gotta go!" Ezra shouted into his wrist comm.

"Woop woo!" He heard in reply. The sound of the engines warming up filled the ruined hangar as they dashed towards their escape, but when they were twenty yards from the ship, a dark cloaked figure dropped down in front of them. They stopped in their tracks.

"Ezra Bridger," An anonymized voice said. "At last, we meet again." He recognized it, though he thought it impossible.

"You! Kanan killed you! This isn't possible!" He shouted, activating his green blade. Sabine did the same with her blade.

"Ezra, what's going on?!" She asked, holding her blade in the center of her body.

"Oh, my boy, you have no idea what's possible," The figure replied, reaching behind his back.

"Sabine, how much do you trust your lightsaber skills?" Ezra asked, focusing on the movements of the figure.

"Enough to beat most people, why?" She responded. Ezra said nothing, instead letting Sabine's first question answer itself. The figure drew a crescent hilt out from behind them, and ignited it, creating a glowing red blade that illuminated the figure's face. Rather, a helmet, with four slits running across the front of it. An enemy Ezra thought had died over a year ago, on the same day that he had lost everything on Malachor.

The Eighth Brother.

Chapter 10 will be released next Wednesday at 3:00 UTC, or 8:00 Pacific Time. As always, thank you for reading, please leave a review, and I'll see you in the next one.