Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars Rebels that goes to Disney, Lucasfilm and Dave Filoni.
Ezra sat in the Ghost's rear cannon with a holographic image that had her birth parents and her younger self when she was still male on it, "Mom? Dad? I'll free Lothal today if it's the last thing I do, we've come a long way and I'll finish what you started, even I'm afraid for my twin sister, Sabine and our friends. They've fought so hard and gained so much and helped me understand why you stood up to the Empire and made the sacrifices you did. I wish you could meet them, my new family including my other parents, Ursa and Alrich Wren and brother, Tristan. I guess in some way, you will be with us today, when we finish what you started. I want you to know everything I've done and will do began with you."
"Ezra?" She then heard Hera call her name and saw her below her at the ladder, "They're bringing her up."
"You disgust me, traitor," Pryce told Kallus as he and Ryder as they began escorting her to the Ghost.
"The day I betrayed your Empire, Governor, was the Day I finally stopped betraying myself," Kallus countered.
"You've given up years of service, a promising career, prestige, for what? To join a band of failures who don't stand a chance," Pryce remarked.
"I think we do…" Ezra told her as she walked down the Ghost's ramp with Hera, "Especially with your help."
"I will never never help you," Pryce told her, chuckling in disbelief at what she heard the Mandalorian just suggested.
"Uh, yes, you will. It will be your last act as Governor of Lothal," Ezra responded, "You're finally gonna do the right thing and help free your home world."
"I will do no such thing," Pryce told her.
"Okay, if that's your choice," Ezra remarked before whistling to the white Loth-Wolf who stood behind Pryce and began walking towards her and barked at her as it snapped its jaws as Pryce fall onto her back and backed away towards Ezra gasping as the Mandalorian stood above her, "Or you could transmit the victory code, and then we could fly to the Capital as your prisoners. If the odds against us are as bad as you say, what do you have to lose?"
"Fine. I'll do it," Pryce said, giving in as the Loth-Wolf continued to snarl above her, "Just call off your dog."
"I don't know about this plan, Rex," Gregor told Rex as they stood on an Imperial patrol transport with Ketsu, Hondo and Melch with both clones and the Mandalorian bounty hunter holding onto the rail above them.
"In my experience, when it comes to Jedi and Mandalorians, the worse plan, the better the result, Rex told him as he wore stormtrooper armor with a stormtrooper helmet to his side.
Meanwhile on another Imperial patrol transport across from the one Rex and the others were on, Ezra who was standing next to her sister with both of them wearing scout trooper uniforms with their scout trooper helmet visors flipped upwards while Kallus stood behind them wearing black Imperial uniform as they held onto the rail above them with Pryce and Ryder standing nearby.
"Hey, you okay, Sis?" Sabine asked her twin as she turned to her.
"I'm glad to be your sister, Sabine," Ezra told her.
"As am I," Sabine responded.
"We're coming up on the Capital. Better get ready," Hera suddenly said on their comlinks as she flew the Imperial patrol transport.
"Copy. Head for platform zero delta," Sabine said into the comlink
"The command center? You're going to attempt to launch the dome," Pryce realized, "Your plan is worse than I thought."
"Mmm, bolder," Ezra said, correcting Pryce, "You mean bolder than you thought."
"More creative than you thought," Sabine added.
"Now, about these landing codes…" Kallus told Pryce as he handed her a comlink, "And remember, I'll know if they're correct."
"Gladly," she said as she took it from him, "The sooner we land, the sooner you will be my prisoners." The two Imperial patrol transports soon neared one of the Imperial Complex's landing platforms as she spoke into the comlink, "Executive code 6-2-7-3-1-1."
"Code's authorized, Governor. You're cleared to land," an Imperial navy officer said from inside the Imperial Complex's command center, "Security will take the prisoners on the platform."
With that, the Imperial patrol transports landed on the landing platform with Rex who had the stormtrooper helmet that he had over his head as he walked down the ramp of Imperial patrol transport that he was on with Melch, Hondo, Gregor and Ketsu while Sabine and Ezra who had their scout trooper helmets flipped down walked down the ramp of their Imperial patrol transport with Kallus, Zeb, Ryder and Pryce with the twins and Kallus acting as Imperials.
"Nice and easy, Governor," Kallus ordered Pryce as he aimed a blaster pistol at her back as they approached two stormtroopers and a stormtrooper commander.
"We'll take it from here," the stormtrooper commander told them.
"They're all yours," Ezra told them as Zeb growled.
"Hey! Look out!" The stormtrooper commander warned her as they aimed and cocked their blaster rifles at Zeb as they saw Zeb was about to attack her only for Zeb to push her at the stormtroopers before jumping over them and began running towards the entrance of the Imperial Complex.
"Stop him!" Ezra ordered the stormtroopers as they began firing at Zeb before Ezra grabbed her lightsaber and ignited its green blade and slashed it against the stormtroopers' blaster rifles before Force pushing them away, causing one of the stormtroopers in the distance near containers on the platform to aim their blaster rifle at them.
"Alert security! Seal the blast doors!" An Imperial officer ordered from the command center above the platform after witnessing what was happening on the platform outside from the window.
With that said, Zeb rushed over to the blast door and held it open with his arms and legs as Sabine and Ketsu rushed into the Imperial Complex as his strength began to strain as the door continued to close before he gave up and entered the Imperial Complex as well.
"Ketsu, get that door open!" Sabine ordered Ketsu as stormtroopers appeared and began firing at them, "And to jam their comm systems!" Sabine then began to fire back at the stormtroopers with the scout trooper blaster pistol she had as Ketsu began to unlock the door with the panel on the side of the door.
Ezra began to use her lightsaber to deflect blaster bolts as she rushed over behind containers with Kallus as he pushed Pryce behind the containers with them as Kallus continued to fire upon the stormtroopers while Hondo, Melch, Gregor and Rex hid behind another group of containers as Ezra fired upon the stormtroopers with her scout trooper blaster pistol alongside Kallus as the stormtroopers began to rush towards them only for one of them to be shot in the chest by Hera after she left one of the Imperial patrol transports with Chopper and then fired at the other stormtroopers in the chest as well, knocking them to the ground.
"Go, go, go!" Hera ordered the others as she ran past them and they all got out from hiding and followed her and Chopper.
"How's that door coming?" Sabine asked Ketsu after she knocked two of the stormtroopers to the floor with blaster bolts from her scout trooper's blaster pistol.
"Got it!" Ketsu exclaimed as the panel of the door beeped and chirped as it slid open with the others running towards the door from the platform.
"Nice work," Zeb told Ketsu.
"What about the comm systems?" Sabine asked.
"They're all locked down," Ketsu answered, "Now let's get everyone inside."
"Hey, purple guy!" Hondo called out to Zeb, "Get in position!"
"Good luck," Ketsu told the Lasat as she and Sabine ran through the corridor while he rushed out of the Imperial complex as Hondo made a square with his fingers.
"Okay, okay, getting there. Right there, and stop!" Hondo said as Zeb stopped in front of him and turned to Melch who was approaching them, "Melch, back further, a little more. Go bah-bah-bah-bah."
"Can you get us in?" Hera asked Sabine as she, Ezra, Chopper, Rex and Gregor reached Ketsu and Sabine at a door that Sabine was trying to unlock with the panel next to it, outside the command center.
"Give me a minute," Sabine told her.
"Where is the security detail?" The Imperial officer asked an Imperial technician that was standing around a diagnostic and control console as the Imperial navy officers aimed their blaster rifles at the door.
"Communications have been cut off," the Imperial technician reported.
"Ezra we are in position," Hondo said, contacting Ezra with his comlink as Melch had his hands on the floor of the platform.
"Sabine?" Ezra said, turning to her twin sister as she had her finger on the side of her scout trooper helmet.
"Okay," Sabine replied as she turned around.
"Hondo, go!" Ezra told Hondo.
"Now!" Hondo ordered Melch who ran towards Zeb who had his arms extended outwards with his palms upwards before clinging Melch into the air towards the command center as Melch ran onto Zeb's hands, "They can fly."
As this happened, Melch landed on the ceiling of the command center, causing the Imperials to fire their blaster pistols at him only for the blaster bolts not to hit him.
"That's our cue," Ezra announced as they all rushed into the command center with her igniting her saber as she leaped over to the Imperial officer on the deck at the edge of the room and swiped his blaster pistol away and pointed its blade at the officer's neck as the others aimed their blaster rifles and pistol at the other Imperial officers causing them to fold their legs as they got on the floor as Melch slid down the ceiling as Ezra flipped her helmet's visor up as Sabine took her helmet off as she began to hack into one of the computer consoles as Ezra motioned the Imperial officer towards the other Imperial officers as he folded his legs and place his arms over his head like the others as Kallus entered the command center and went over to the computer console next to Sabine as Ezra looked to Rex, "Rex, lock them in the storage bin."
"Yes, ma'am, Commander," Rex replied as he went to lock the Imperial officers into the storage bin in the room as Pryce who was escorted into the room by Ryder as he pointed a blaster rifle at her back as Zeb followed him into the room.
"It's only a matter of time before you're discovered. You can't hope to defeat my forces," Pryce told them as Ryder forced her onto the floor.
"Defeat them?" Sabine repeated her, "Hmm, not planning to. But we do want them all in the dome."
"We'll utilize protocol 13," Kallus added.
"The Empire's new order, for the immediate recall of all personnel to the base for a full evacuation," Hera explained to Pryce.
"Once they're all inside, we'll launch, and it'll be goodbye to the Empire," Ryder added.
"Specter-2 to base," Hera said as she held her comlink in her hand.
"We're in, and we've taken the dome. Wait for me to signal pickup," Hera said on Wolffe's comlink as he walked off of the Ghost as Vizago and Mart approached him, carrying a container in their arms.
"Acknowledged, Specter-2. Nice work. We're standing by," Wolffe responded.
"I forgot to tell you guys, Ezra gave me a special mission," Mart told Wolffe and Vizago when Rukh, who was watching in the distance, hiding before rushing for the rebels.
"What are you talking about?" Vizago asked Mart before noticing Rukh charging towards them, "Watch out!" Rukh then leaped onto him, knocking him to the ground as Rukh landed on his feet a few feet away and kicked Wolffe to the ground as Matt went to fire his blaster pistol at the the Noghri only for Rukh to knock it out of his hand and kicked him towards the container that he was carrying with Vizago before Wolffe ran up and grabbed Rukh from behind before Rukh head butted him with the top of his head before throwing Wolffe towards the side of the container as he too fell unconscious like Mart and Vizago as Rukh walked forward and grabbed Mart's blaster pistol and aimed it at Mart before he heard a Loth-wolf growling and snarling and saw it as it ran towards him and the wolf grabbed the pistol with its mouth as Rukh jumped upwards and threw a thermal detonator at it as he activated the detonator and it exploded as it hopped away from the detonator and bashed it's head at the Imperial patrol transport that Rukh just hijacked as it began to take off and soon it flew away from the rebel base.
"The rebels have captured Pryce," Rukh informed a hologram of Thrawn as a holographic image of the Chiss Grand Admiral appeared in front of him in the Imperial patrol transport's canopy after switching on the ship's holocommunicator, "I have no doubts they've used her codes to infiltrate the Imperial headquarters. To what purpose, I do not know."
"I expected Governor Pryce to fail, but not so completely," Thrawn told him, "You must get inside and deactivate the shield generator before the Rebels lock down the Imperial Dome."
"And then?" Rukh asked.
"Then, wait. I'm already en route," Thrawn answered.
Ezra and Sabine were out of their scout trooper disguise and replaced them with their Mandalorian armor as Sabine turned to her sister, "Sis, we're ready."
"Kallus, you're up," Ezra told Kallus as she walked up to him.
"Attention, all personnel. Protocol 13 is now in effect," Kallus said, speaking into the comm system with his voice going to the hangar of the Imperial Complex as well as in Capital City, "Report to your action stations immediately. Repeat. Protocol 13 is in effect."
"Hangar 2-7 to command," an Imperial officer said from a station within a hangar into his comm system, "Please confirm lockdown order."
"Command center to all units. The order is confirmed," Kallus told him with the comm system.
"This is highly irregular," the Imperial officer told him with confusion, "Please repeat sector authorization."
"Ryder, get ready," Ezra whispered to Ryder.
"Repeat. The order is confirmed," Kallus added as Ryder walked up to the other side of the console.
"This is ISB Colonel Yularen. I am executing override code Base Gamma Zero," Ryder said into the comm system, mimicking Wullf Yularen's voice.
"Imperial security? I was unaware ISB was involved," the Imperial officer said on the comm system.
"That is the point of this exercise," Ryder replied.
"Then this is a drill?" The Imperial officer asked.
"Is it? And do you always question the orders of a superior officer?" Ryder asked the Imperiap officer.
"Proceeding with protocol 13 immediately," the Imperial officer said after clearing his throat.
Sounds like they bought it, 'Colonel'. Nice work," Ezra told Ryder.
Meanwhile down in Capital City below, Imperials riding speeder bikes, Imperial troop transports and AT-DPs began heading back for the Imperial Complex as TIE fighters did the same and flew into the hangar of the Imperial Complex along with the Imperial patrol transport that Rukh was piloting and landed in front of two Death troopers who began to follow him as the doors of the hangar bay and and troop entrances began closing.
"All personnel, report to your stations. Protocol 13 is in effect," a woman said from the Imperial Complex's intercom.
"All units have returned to their duty stations, and the dome is now secure," Kallus reported to Ezra.
"Hera, start the launch cycle," Ezra told Hera before turning to her twin, "Sabine, set the self-destruct."
"We do have a way off this thing before, it explodes… Right?" Hondo asked.
"That's where the Ghost comes in and pick us up," Hera told him as she began to start the Imperial Complex's launch cycle.
"All right, let's get airborne," Zeb said
"These thrusters haven't been fired in years. Gonna take time to prime them," Hera told him.
"You're too late," Pryce told her as she saw The Chimera hovering above the Imperial Complex.
"It's Thrawn," Kallus realized.
"Shutting down the launch cycle," Hera announced.
"No. We can't just sit here," Ketsu protested.
"Thrawn is holding position directly overhead. If we launch the dome, we'll crash into his ship and destroy the entire city," Hera explained to Ketsu.
"Karabast. We're trapped," Zeb cursed to himself.
"Chopper, put me through," Ezra ordered Chopper and a hopped grunted a response as he plugged his scomp link into the astromech port at the computer console and a hologram of Thrawn appeared before Thrawn Ezra approached him, "Governor Pryce is our prisoner, and we have complete control of the Imperial Dome, with every trooper, pilot, and officer trapped inside. You failed, Thrawn. Leave Lothal, and we might let your troops out before we blow the dome to pieces."
"Are you quite finished?" Thrawn asked her, "If you truly wish to save Lothal, Commander Wren, the only term I'll accept is your immediate and unconditional surrender."
"Why would I surrender when I hold your entire army prisoner?" Ezra asked him.
"You were successful in getting all Imperial forces into the dome, you also made them all safe from attack and given me a clear shot at Lothals capital, now surrender or I will bombard Lothal until it is nothing but a molten rock," Thrawn corrected her, causing her eyes to widen.
"Rex, raise the planetary shields!" Sabine ordered the clone who was standing around one of the diagnostic and control consoles.
"The generators just went offline," Rex reported.
"Shield generator powered down, sir," an Imperial technician reported to Rukh from one of the power generator rooms with Tukh standing on a ledge above him as the generators in the room powered down.
"Someone's engaged the manual override at the power terminals!" Sabine stated as she stated at a diagram of the Imperial Complex.
"Your shield generator is under my control," Thrawn told Ezra, "Just so you understand my intentions are genuine, and think of your birth planet while I shall demonstrate my power. Open fire."
With that said, the turbolasers of the Chimera began firing upon the city below with civilians running for their lives as everyone watched Thrawn's Star Destroyer's turbolasers devastating the city with a holoprojector in front of them with buildings getting damaged, and civilians getting wounded while others were killed.
"Enough! I surrender!" Ezra told Thrawn, not wanting her birth planet to get destroyed and with that, the Star Destroyers stopped firing their turbolasers.
"I await your arrival. And make no mistake, come alone. If you attempt any heroics, I will resume the bombardment and destroy the planet and then both your sister as well as your friends," Thrawn said as the hologram of him dissolved.
"Ezra…" Hera called out to Ezra as she handed her lightsaber and WESTAR-35s to Chopper before placing her repaired jetpack on her back and went to walk out of the room, "I understand that you think you need to do this, but…"
"I have to do this or if I don't do this more people will die," Ezra told her.
"I don't want to lose you like I lost kanan," Hera told the Mandalorian Jedi.
"Hera, I have to do this, trust me," Ezra told her.
"Okay," Hera relented, "Just be safe."
"Will do " Ezra told her as she turned to her twin, "See you after all this is over, Sis."
"If we survive all this, that is," Sabine teased.
"Don't jinx it, Sis," Ezra warned her as she continued out of the room.
"Let's see what else we can do while Ezra's with Thrawn," Hera told Zeb as Ezra left the room.
"Charge up the dome's cannon. We'll blow him out of the sky," Zeb said as a hologram of the Imperial Complex and the Chimera appeared around one of the diagnostic and control consoles as Rex left one of them.
"Easy. Our turbolasers are no match for that for that Star Destroyer," Rex told him.
"Even if we do blow him out of the sky, we don't want him to crash down onto the city," Kallus added.
"The only way is to find a way to get the shield up," Hera stated.
"Hera, over here," Sabine called as she walked towards the Imperial Complex's schematics and began to point at it, "We should use the Primary schematic if we're going to find a way to raise the shield. We need to get down here and take control of the power terminals."
"How do we get past all the Imperials we've locked in here with us?" Zeb asked as he and Kallus approached the schematics as well.
"We can bypass the upper barracks levels using the executive turbo lifts," Kallus explained.
"So, we got a plan to get the shield up. The trick is to pull it off before he starts firing anyway," Hera told them as they finished planning on getting the planetary shields back up, "I hope Ezra can stall Thrawn long enough."
"Let's hope she does alright," Rex added as they saw Ezra fly up into the air going towards the Chimera above with her jetpack.
"I'm sure she will," Sabine told him, "She's my twin and a Mandalorian like me after all and a Jedi one at that. Besides the best way we can help is to get that shield up, so when Ezra makes her move, we're ready. We have to assume the generator will be well-guarded, so we'll need two teams to hit it from different sides if we're gonna capture both power terminals. That is, if you agree, Hera."
"It's a good plan. The best chance we've got," Hera said, agreeing with Sabine before Chopper grunted from the astromech port with his scomp link still plugged into it.
"Stormtroopers," Sabine repeated as stormtroopers and a stormtrooper commander rushed over to the door to the command center on the other side of the door as everyone in the room but Pryce got into battle position.
"It appears my troops have decided your drill is over," Pryce stated.
As soon as Ezra arrived at one of the Chimera's hangar bays, the Star Destroyer's alarm went off with a squad of stormtrooper commanders rushing into the room and placed stuncuffs on her wrists and took her to Thrawn's office.
"It was a wise decision for you to surrender," Thrawn told the Mandalorian as he sat in the seat at his desk.
"I didn't have much choice," she responded as the stormtrooper commanders left the room with the door closing as they left the Mandalorian and Chiss.
"Oh, nonsense. You could have chosen to let the people of your birth planet to die and let it get destroyed until nothing but a molten rock remained. However you chose to be a Jedi and a Mandalorian one at that, which is unfortunate," Thrawn said as he got up from his chair, "You follow a long history written by the Jedi, where they choose what they believe to be morally correct, instead of what is strategically sound, but with you, you've added some Mandalorian qualities to it."
"And yet, the Jedi and Mandalorians have both survived," she countered.
"Hmm, the Jedi once numbered in the thousands. What's left are a scattered, frightened lot, mostly beaten and in hiding, or poorly trained children or now young adults like yourself," Thrawn told her as he picked up the Jedi Temple guard mask that was on his desk, "I must admit, the mysteries of the Force are an enigma to me. But for all those abilities, all the power, the Jedi lacked the vision for how to wield it."
"The Force isn't a weapon, but you'll never understand that," Ezra retorted.
"Oh, I don't have to " Thrawn told her as he placed the mask back on his desk, "It was never my intention to utterly destroy Lothal, but that is inevitable now." He then walked over to a painting on a canvas made by her sister, "These are a few of the artifacts I've gathered from your birth planet. I saved what I could. I have even taken some of your sister's work. She's quite talented. Or was quite talented."
"You think you can take whatever you want, things you didn't make, didn't earn, things, you don't even understand!" She spat at him with anger, "You don't deserve to have this art or Lothal."
"Who deserves what is irrelevant. What matters is who has power. But that is something the Jedi won't teach you, so I'll take you to someone who will," Thrawn told her.
Moments later, Thrawn led Ezra to a room within a special chamber with the surroundings in the room looking like parts of what was part of the Jedi Temple on Lothal while they saw a hologram figure wearing white robes standing in the distance at the base of the temple.
"My Emperor. I have brought you Ezra Wren," Thrawn told the hologram of Palpatine.
"My dear girl, I've so wanted to meet you, and here you are at last," Palpatine told her as he turned around revealing that he has assumed his un-scarred visage prior to his duel with Mace Windu during the last days of the Clone Wars and Republic 19 years ago right after the end of the Siege of Mandalore.
To be continued
Please favorite and review. Would you like me to continue adding the Imperial scenes or not?
