"Did you three seriously stay up all night playing holo games?" Hera questioned, hand on her hip as she glared at the three.
Kanan shook his head awake as he heard Hera's voice. She stood there at his door waiting for an answer. The holo-console still on and running. Controller in his hand.
"We…" Kanan sighed, realizing Hera really wasn't about to put up with any stupid shenanigans today. He looked to his right and saw Ezra still clutching him in a sleepy hug. On his left, Athena drooled a little as she buried her head in his side in a tight hug. "We had an emergency game."
"How late was it until you three went to sleep?"
Hera wanted to keep her strict mom-face on; disappointed in Kanan and the two Padawans for spending the night playing games when they should have been sleeping. But, they just looked so darn cute cuddled up on Kanan like that.
Kanan spoke softly, "Athena had a nightmare in the middle of the night. Ezra and I woke up and we managed to calm her down a little."
"So, you played holo-games to help get her back to sleep?" Hera questioned.
"Yeah," he looked down to Athena then back to Hera. "She thankfully went back to sleep after a while."
Hera stepped into the cabin, looking at the girl in compassion, "Must've been one heck of a nightmare that it woke you both up."
"Yeah...it was bad," Kanan frowned a little as he looked down to his little sister. "She vomited a few times in the 'fresher it got to her so bad."
Hera's worried eyes looked to Kanan, "She threw up? How bad was this nightmare? What was it about?"
"She didn't say, but I can guess it was pretty bad."
"How are you gonna wake her up?" Hera asked. "I don't want her waking up in a panic again."
Kanan sighed, realizing that Hera had a good point. He thought for a moment before looking down to Ezra on his right. He patted the back of the boy's shoulders to wake him up.
He groggily awoke and looked to Kanan, "mmm...Morning, Kanan." he looked to his captain. "Morning, Hera."
"Morning, Ezra," Hera greeted.
Ezra looked to the other side of Kanan to see Athena still asleep. "Athena? You awake?"
"No" the girl softly mumbled, gripping Kanan a little tighter as she nuzzled her head into his sweater. "Sleep."
"Come on, Athena," Kanan encouraged. "You gotta get up."
"I don't wanna…" she grumbled.
Hera chuckled. "You're not much of a morning person."
"Come on, Athena," Ezra yawned as he sat up, stretching his arms. "We gotta get up."
She yawned and followed Ezra, soon stretching as she stood up from Kanan's bottom bunk. The girl scrunched up her nose in disgust.
"Ew. My breath stinks more than usual."
"Probably because of the vomit," Ezra said.
Athena groaned as she rubbed her eyes, "Agh, great. Just great."
Hera patted the girl's shoulder, "Alright, go freshen up."
She groaned and did what the captain told her. Ezra stood and stretched some more.
"Agh! That was some fun gaming though," Ezra chuckled and looked back to Kanan. "Thanks for letting us use your cabin, Kanan."
"Yeah, but don't do that again without asking me first," Kanan warned, soon standing up next to his Padawan and captain. "Also, make sure if you two are gaming later at night to be away from each other. Athena can hurt you if something goes wrong in the middle of the night."
Hera chuckled, "Or when she wakes up."
Ezra rubbed the back of his neck, "So, is that like normal? Her doing crazy things when she wakes up in the middle of the night?"
"What do you mean?" Hera questioned.
"Well, when we were in the cargo bay the other night, she woke up in the middle of the night-" Ezra started. "-I felt something weird in the Force and woke up. She seemed okay. It was just that…" he trailed off.
"What?" Kanan questioned.
"Her eyes looked weird," Ezra shrugged. "I dunno might've been the lighting."
Kanan put a hand on his chin in contemplation. "Well, I guess all we can do is make sure not to be too close to her when she sleeps."
"Go freshen up," Hera nodded towards the door.
The boy followed his captain's orders and soon left the cabin. Hera and Kanan glanced at each other.
"So, Athena's sleep thing wasn't just an out of the blue thing," Hera sighed.
"I'm afraid not," Kanan admitted. "We're just going to have to be careful. She could get herself or someone else hurt if we're not careful."
"What...exactly happened with her last night?"
"Well, those two had been playing holo-games in here when they fell asleep. Athena was using Ezra's arm as a pillow," Kanan explained. "She woke up from a nightmare and seemed to go into an attack worse than what you and I saw the other day. We got her to the fresher and her little ring started heating up and burned her. I think she accidentally activated some of her powers in the stress."
"A ring?" Hera raised an eyebrow.
He nodded. "They got it from town yesterday for free. Apparently made of obsidian or something. She must've activated her fire powers and started heating it up,"
Hera let out a sigh, "Well...I guess we just need to make sure she's not near anyone when she sleeps then."
"So, what's on today's agenda?"
"Nothing much," Hera admitted. "Remember, while we're here we're not really supposed to do much rebel work. Not as long as we got all these Padawans with us. Sato made it explicitly clear we can't have these Padawans on the Empire's radar if they aren't able to defend themselves against the Empire. Second Brother really put it in perspective for us that the Empire could take any of you Jedi away if they ever knew where you were."
"Maybe we can go into town and get something to eat today," Kanan suggested. "Make it a fun little family outing."
Hera smiled a little, "Alright. Just no getting entangled with the Empire."
"Aw, you know me," Kanan smirked. His smile soon vanished when he saw the saddened-seriousness in Hera's eyes.
"I mean it. We can't have those Padawans in danger of being taken by the Empire," Hera said. She paused with a sigh. "You said they wanted to make an Inquisitor out of you when they captured you. If they got a hold of Athena…" she shivered.
"She would be the most dangerous Inquisitor we'd face." Kanan completed her thought. Hera was slightly amazed that Kanan knew that.
"Yeah. I don't want to think of Athena as a possible enemy but…"
"You can't help but see how dangerous she is."
Hera nodded. They shared a moment of silence before she spoke again. "I wouldn't know what to do if any of you guys got turned against us."
"It's not going to happen, Hera," Kanan put a hand on her shoulder as he met her eyes. "We'll get these kids trained to where none of us could ever be captured."
Hera chuckled and joked, "I'd sorta love to see the Inquisitor's faces when they realize we got a little flamethrowing Jedi Padawan on our side."
Kanan laughed, "Yeah, they'll be in for a surprise when she gets strong enough to face them."
Hera nodded towards the door, "Come on, time to wake up the rest of the crew."
"Ya know, maybe this town wouldn't be so depressing if they actually had some color." Rae raised an eyebrow at the town around them. The grey and dreary sky matching all the grey and dark blue buildings surrounding them. Even the people wore dreary colors.
"That's what I was thinking," Sabine commented.
"Okay, let's try to not stand out too much," Kanan instructed the rest of the crew. He looked back to Ahsoka who wore a grey cloak. Her Padawan right next to her wearing all black once again. They were the only two who actually blended in. "Where did you say this cantina was?"
"Cantina? You guys use that word?" Athena raised her eyebrows. "That's a Spanish or Italian word on my planet."
"What are you even saying?" Ezra confusedly looked at the girl. His bright orange clothes were a screaming contrast to the rest of the town around him.
Athena waved it off, "Some languages from where I'm from."
"Over here two blocks up and to the left," Ahsoka instructed, looking at the little holographic map in her hand. She smiled as Athena looked at it with wide and curious eyes.
"So, is this like a bar with alcohol?" Athena questioned. "Do I get some?"
"No!" Hera warned. "You're thirteen!"
"Aww…"
"It has food too," Ahsoka assured her Padawan.
Rex couldn't help but burst out laughing, "Ey Kanan, your sister is already trying to drink with the adults!"
"She will not," Kanan glared back at his little sister. "We just got her off smoking, we are not about to fight drinking too."
Ezra raised his hand. "Can I-"
"No." Kanan glared. "None of you children get drinks."
Athena chuckled as she looked to Ezra.
The two shared a smile and shrug, figuring it was worth a shot to ask.
Athena caught eye of some pedestrians on the other side of the street. For some reason, the people of this town seemed more lively than they did yesterday. More energy buzzed around in these people. Even the usually depressed vendors had some life in them that day. They even had smiles on their faces. The rain drizzled on them and the skies were still dark and dreary, but the people were brighter than usual.
Athena couldn't really sense much of the magma chamber now, seeing that the souls of her shoes were interfering with her senses. But, she could feel the energy shared above ground now. The energy between people.
The cantina had a good bout of people bustling inside. There were strings of brightly colored lights strung across the room - adding even more life. All the lights were orange and red. Fiery streams of yellow and orange danced around on the ceiling fans. Quite a change from the rest of the town's grey and dark blue.
The group decided to split into two small groups. Seeing that Chopper was left at the ship, there were nine of them now. Five of them sat at one booth. Four of them sat at another. Hera, Kanan, Ezra, Rae, and Sabine sat at one booth. Rex, Ahsoka, Zeb, and Athena at the other booth.
Athena had to go over to Kanan real quick across the restaurant to ask what she should get, seeing that she was new to this galaxy's food.
"Why are you asking me? Can't you ask your table?" Kanan looked at his sister, who held the menu up to him.
"I can barely read and I don't know what I like," Athena said. "Also, you're my brother. I might like what you like because we got similar genes."
Kanan sighed and pointed to the menu, "I was going to get that."
"What does it say?" Athena squinted at the text.
"You tell me. Haven't you been practicing your Aurebesh?"
Athena let out a disgruntled sigh and kept her finger on the words Kanan had pointed at, trudging back across the cantina to her table.
She soon sat down and focused intensely on the order Kanan had pointed at, sounding out the letters.
Zeb sat across from her at their booth and raised an eyebrow, "Are you telling me you haven't been practicing your readin' ?"
"I'm doing my best, okay?" Athena defended herself.
There were two sides to the booth. The table was a rectangle made of dark wood and a single light hung above them. Ahsoka sat inside the booth while Athena took the outer seat. Rex took the inner seat on the other side while Zeb took the outer.
When their order was taken by the droid-waiter, Athena froze with surprise. Everyone kept forgetting she had never seen so much technology. Ahsoka ordered the meal she had been struggling to read for her Padawan and Athena slumped her shoulders.
"All that hard work reading that for nothing."
Ahsoka ruffled the top of her hair, "Ah, but you're learning, aren't you?"
"Slowly but surely," Athena joked.
At the other table, they casually chatted until their food arrived. The droid came out with the trays of food and slid them onto the rectangular table. Rae, Sabine, and Ezra sat in that respective order on one side - Ezra on the outer edge of the bench. Hera and Kanan sat on the other side.
"Hey, do you think we can vandalize some Imperial stuff today?" Sabine asked, picking up a forkful of food.
"I don't think I even saw one Stormtrooper today," Ezra said.
"No, you guys." Hera shook her head. "We're here to lay as low as physically possible. We got too many of you with us." she eyed Ezra and Rae specifically. She then did a small nod towards Athena across the cantina. "Especially with one of our newest members. We don't want to gain any attention while we're here."
"Aw, but just a couple of paintings on some TIEs will be okay, right?" Sabine said.
"Ooo, that sounds fun," Rae said.
"No. Guys, I hate to tell you this, but for this month, we have to be invisible. Do not do anything unless it is a dire emergency," Hera's voice was serious.
"But-"
Kanan stopped his Padawan and spoke in a low voice, looking around to see there wasn't anyone too close to hear. "Guys, you gotta realize that we're in serious trouble if the Empire finds out she exists with those powers." He nodded to the other booth. "Not only are there five of us here on this planet at once, but we already know the Empire has wanted her since she was a baby. I don't want to imagine what the Inquisitors would do to get her."
"She would never turn on us-" Sabine was surprised to be interrupted by Rae this time.
"You don't get a choice," she solemnly spoke. "You never get the choice there."
Kanan sighed, "I know it's going to be hard, but we have to just stay low here this month until you kids can hold a decent fight with an Inquisitor."
There was a moment of silence amongst the booth. For just a moment, Sabine, Rae, and Ezra started to realize what kind of trouble they'd be in if the Empire did take Athena. What kind of counter measurements would they have against a girl who can shoot flames and ice?
Ezra was the one who brought the silence to an end. "Hey, Kanan?"
"What?"
"They forgot our drinks."
Kanan sighed and looked around the table to see the lack of drinks. He stood from the booth. "I'll go get them."
He walked over to the circle in the middle of the cantina, bar stools lined all the way around the counter. Rows of bottles stacked the shelves behind the man holding a glass, cleaning it with a towel.
"Hey, we didn't get our drinks over there," Kanan got the bartender's attention. "Four fizzy drinks and one lite beer."
The human man nodded as he sat the glass down.
"Yep, I can get those for you. The darn droid must've forgotten them."
"Thanks."
Kanan leaned against the bar, one foot on the rail as his elbows rested against the edge of the counter.
About three seats away sat a rodian man and a mirialan man next to him. Kanan wasn't one to try to listen to stupid gossip, but he always did hold an ear open for any important info from the locals.
"Hey, so where are you going to watch the show from?" the rodian asked.
"Probably on top of my house," the mirialan responded. "It's gonna be great watching such a historic event."
That got Kanan's attention.
"Yeah, I just hope that nothing hits my home." the rodian laughed.
"Oh please, this is Inferna we're talking about! She will make no falters!"
The bartender came over with the five drinks.
Kanan questioned in a low voice, "Hey, is there some kind of festival today? We're new around here and I noticed all these decorations."
"Oh, you haven't heard?" the man nearly guffawed at Kanan.
"Haven't heard what?" Kanan asked as he took a quick sip from his beer.
"The mighty show of Hellvius Inferno!" he exclaimed in joy. "Goddess Inferna will come to relinquish the mighty flames erupting from its core!"
Kanan was wide-eyed, "Are you telling me that volcano is supposed to blow?"
"Yes, it's been in the prophecy for ages that it will erupt on this very day," the man said. "Goddess Inferna has already been rumored to have visited our town yesterday to save an old man from some Imperials. I have no doubt she will relinquish the mighty volcano with ease."
"I saw her myself yesterday," the mirialan man proclaimed. "Taller than two meters with amber-colored hair! A fiery cape strung upon her shoulders!"
"No way, I was the one who saw her yesterday!" the rodian claimed. "She was the height of a child, just as prophesied. Bright red hair burning at the ends! She ran in the woods just outside of my fields yesterday!"
The bartender waved them off, "Oh, like you two even know what you're talking about. The only one who saw her yesterday was Old Man Stinner and the two Stormtroopers who dared hurt one of Bakunyuu's citizens. Still, he refuses to even say what the girl looked like. Just that she had a loyal muse at her side! When he tried to give her a token of thanks from his jewels, she took just the cheap ring of obsidian and left him a necklace blessed by her touch!"
"Wait, so this volcano is actually supposed to erupt today? Aren't you all right in its blast zone?" Kanan questioned, gobsmacked by these people's nonchalant disposition to the situation.
The bartender chuckled, "Yeah. Half of this hemisphere is in its blast zone. That's why mighty Inferna is the only one who can tame Hellvius Inferno's rage. Otherwise, chunks of this planet would go into orbit."
Kanan's eyes looked at the men like they were insane. He took the glasses back to his table and looked to them with disturbed eyes.
"What's wrong, luv?"
"Those locals were talking about some prophecy about the volcano," Kanan said as he sat down. "They said that a Goddess Inferna is supposed to stop the eruption and save them all."
Hera blinked in confusion, "Are you serious?"
Ezra gulped in concern - remembering the whole fiasco he and Athena went through yesterday with that old man selling jewelry.
Sabine put a hand on her chin, "Well, there wasn't any smoke like there would be for any other active volcano, so maybe the eruption is symbolic?"
"I'll have Chopper scan over the planet to make sure things are stable," Hera said, taking a bite from her food. "I didn't see any smoke from the volcano, so I doubt anything will happen today at least."
"Those guys said it was prophesied to be today," Kanan said. "I don't know. Maybe you should have Chop run those scans now."
"We did have that quake last night," Rae pointed out. "That's a sign for an eruption."
"Alright, I'll contact him now." Hera picked up her com from her belt and pressed the button. "Spectre 2 to Ghost, can you run a scan on the planet for me real quick? We have a theory the volcano is getting too active for us to be safe."
Chopper replied with some whirs and whistles begrudgingly.
"Thanks, Spectre 3. Spectre 2 out."
She put the com back on her belt and they went back to their meal.
Something wasn't sitting right with Kanan. A Goddess spotted in this town just yesterday? Who saved a jewelry seller from Imperials? Who also took just an obsidian ring as thanks?
Kanan stood and looked back to his table for a moment. "I'm going to ask them over there a quick question. I'll be right back."
As the Jedi approached the table, he saw Ahsoka smack Zeb's hand as he began to push his beer towards Athena. Athena also got her hands shooed away from the beer as well from Ahsoka. Rex couldn't help but laugh in the corner of the booth as he watched this.
"Come on, just one sip! I never tasted your guys' beer!"
"No!" Ahsoka shoved the beer back towards Zeb. "You're thirteen!"
"Almost fourteen!" Athena argued.
Kanan put his hand on the edge of the booth's walls and looked to the group, "Hey, guys."
"Hey, Kanan," Rex greeted. "Don't worry, Athena hasn't gotten ahold of anything yet."
Kanan rolled his eyes and looked down to his sister, "Athena, you and Ezra were in this town yesterday, right?"
"Yeah, to get the battery," Athena nodded.
He looked to see her right hand holding a fork - a black ring made of obsidian on her index finger.
"Did you hear about a Goddess Inferna?" Kanan raised an eyebrow, knowing full well that this kid got herself into trouble.
"Uh, yeah. Some crazy dude was going on about it," Athena shrugged. "He saw I had bare feet and thought I was the Goddess, so he gave me this ring."
She sure was a professional twister of tales.
"Those guys over there at the bar were telling me that the volcano is going to go off today," his voice was more serious. Kanan spoke in a lower voice. "Can you possibly sense anything?"
Athena shrugged. "Yeah. I just need to take off my shoes and touch the ground."
"Alright, as soon as you're done eating, I want you to do that. Chopper's doing a scan of the planet, but I want to double-check," Kanan looked at his little sister. "You were able to tell when the magma shook after that quake yesterday, right?"
She nodded.
"Good. I want to make sure we're off this planet if it does decide to blow," he glanced back to the rest of the restaurant going about their happy business. "Hopefully we can get some people evacuated too."
"Okay," Athena nodded.
Kanan patted the top of her head before glaring at Rex and Zeb, "You two don't give her any beer. I need her senses sharp in case that volcano really is about to blow."
"Can I at least taste the foam?"
"No." he glared at her.
Zeb chuckled, "Alright, will do."
"I mean it. She's extremely small. Any alcohol, even the foam -" he glared at the girl, "- could mess her up."
"Fine," Athena huffed with an eye roll. "Thanks, Dad."
Kanan went back to the other booth and finished his meal, leaving most of his beer untouched after the news of a possible volcanic eruption. He took it to-go instead.
The other booth finished up their meals and paid as well. The crew regrouped outside of the cantina.
Kanan looked to Athena, as they walked away from the cantina a little more. "Alright, kid. Do what you need to do."
Athena rolled her eyes and lightly grabbed onto Ahsoka with one hand to take off her shoes. Even as just one bare foot of hers touched the ground, her eyes went wide. She took the other shoe and sock in a flash and crouched down to the ground, planting her hands onto the cement side-walk.
"What? What's wrong?" Ahsoka questioned - never had seen such a worried expression on Athena's face.
"We…" she gulped. "...are going to die. Oh my f****ing God we're going to die."
"Can you feel the manga? Is it doing something?" Kanan questioned.
"It's going insane!" she jumped up, looking at the others with widened eyes. Fear written across her face. "I-I never felt it do this yesterday! It's going crazy!"
Hera looked to the girl with concerned eyes, "So you can feel the magma going active?"
"It's not just active, it's-" the girl's fearful plea was cut short by a strong rumble beneath their feet.
A couple of them got knocked off their feet, the vibration within the planet was so strong. Some of the sidewalks even began to crack and crumble under the violent shake. When it was over, they looked up towards the gigantic mountain in fear.
Clouds of thick, black, smoke began to pour out of the top.
"We're going to die," Athena couldn't even stand, despite the ground shakes fading away. "We're going to die."
Hera's com went off and she plucked it from her belt, Chopper's beeps going insane.
"Yeah, yeah, Chop, we figured that out!" she responded to the droid. "We're going to warn the citizens and hopefully get them evacuated."
He whirred and womped some more.
"The entire Imperial presence has already been evacuated?!" she questioned with horror. "Are they still in orbit?"
Hera's eyes went wide with fear as Chopper let out another string of beeps.
"What? What'd he say?" Zeb questioned.
"They left the planet's system," Hera could barely keep the fear in check. "They said the entire side of this planet is going to blow into orbit."
"Come on, we gotta warn these people!" Kanan rallied the crew. "Ahsoka and Athena, warn the southside citizens. Sabine and Rae, go warn the westside of town. Rex, Zeb, and Ezra, you three take the central and eastside citizens. Hera and I will go warn the northside."
"The planet is going to blow within the hour!" Athena pled. "We got forty minutes at best!"
"That leaves us at least twenty-some minutes to get these people to their shuttles and off the planet," he looked to his sister. "It takes us five minutes to get back to the Ghost in the Phantom and ten minutes to take off into orbit, at best, in the Ghost. Rendezvous back at the Phantom in twenty minutes."
The others nodded and set off in their designated direction.
Ahsoka took the reluctant Athena with her towards the southside of the city. Athena threw her shoes into her bookbag on her back and followed her Master through the city, shouting that the volcano would blow in any minute.
Each of them pleaded with the citizens to leave, but they just shrugged it off and continued to put up their fiery decorations around their homes.
"What do you mean the volcano will stop itself?" Zeb argued with a citizen. "Don't you know that the Empire knew better to get off this planet?!"
They shrugged it off, "Goddess Inferna will take care of it. All of the doubters and non-followers of her have already left the planet. I suggest you do too, seeing you have no faith in the mighty deity."
"What if she's not even real?" Zeb growled in frustration.
The citizens just ignored them and went about their business. They didn't want to hear any of it.
Athena ran beside the togruta through the streets, stopping any citizen they could to plead with them to evacuate.
It was when she heard an old man's voice did Athena freeze in fear.
"Goddess Inferna! I knew you would come to save us-"
It was the old man she had saved from the Stormtroopers. He had his cart of jewelry decorated in red and orange streamers and dressed in red. His face bright with excitement, even as the ground lightly rumbled beneath their feet.
The others around them looked to the girl and saw she had no shoes. They oohed and awed as she stood there.
"It's her! Goddess Inferna!" a woman shouted with glee, a baby in her arms. "She wears no shoes, just as foretold!"
"I just took them off!" Athena pled. "Please! You need to leave! This volcano will kill you all!"
"Nonsense!" another citizen assured. "Mother Bakunyuu promised us that a child of her own will stop Hellvius Inferno's rage!"
Ahsoka was back-to-back with her Padawan as they were surrounded by the citizens now. The togruta whispered over her shoulder to the girl. "Are you telling me these guys figured out what you can do?"
"I barely did anything!" Athena pled, looking up to Ahsoka. "I showed no fire!"
"We need to get back to the ship. We can't convince these people to leave."
"Agreed." Athena nodded, feeling the magma burst and bubble like never before beneath the surface.
They began their sprint to the Phantom, parked on the westside of town. To their surprise, the others were already there or arriving just as they were.
"These people are insane!" Zeb yelled in frustration. "None of them will budge!"
"Some of them even have kids and are staying," Ezra said in disbelief. "How could they have so much faith in their Goddess?"
"Some people are very devoted to their beliefs, Ezra," Kanan shook his head in disbelief. He looked to the rest of the crew already surrounding him and the Phantom. "We need to get out of the area. There's nothing we can do."
"I just feel like we could've helped more," Ezra let out a sigh of defeat.
"Some people just don't want help," Ahsoka let out a solemn sigh. "We can't force them to leave if they don't want to."
Athena stood there for a moment, her feet tingling more and more with every moment. Even as the rest of the group began to board the Phantom, she froze.
"Hey, come on, sis!"
Athena shook her head and turned to the source of the voice.
A teenage boy, probably about seventeen or eighteen, chased after a little toddler - maybe two. They were by a small home a bit of a way away.
The human boy with scraggly brown hair scooped up the little girl with bright blonde hair as she laughed and giggled. He held her close and turned the other way with her.
"We don't want to miss the show! Who knows, maybe we'll see mighty Inferna herself!"
That would be about what she and Kanan would look like if they had known each other when they were younger. They looked so happy. The little girl clung to her brother as she laughed - just happy to be in his presence. Happy to be loved.
And she was supposed to let them die?
She didn't know what took over her body, but it sure didn't match her own mind. Every alarm bell rang with all its might in her head as she sensed the magma get more and more volatile beneath her feet. She threw her bag into the ship before sprinting the other direction.
The wind whispered in her ear and told her to run towards the mountain of fire.