And here we are in one of the pivotal points of Season 1. Until now, I had to change very few details in order to keep the development acceptable, but this time I had a lot of fun creating a situation where the siblings would be able to break out from the prison against impossible odds, and even the first meeting with the Inquisitor.
I'm happy to see that some people appreciate the story and helped me clarify that I have to use the word 'siblings' and not 'brothers' for the MCs. If you came this far, I hope you noticed that English is not my native language, and even though I'm pretty comfortable with the language, it's bound to be far from perfection.
Chapter 4: Rise of the Old Masters
The day right after the TIE incident, Ezra found himself on top of the Ghost, while in flight. The ship was hovering over the clouds, but staying still.
Kanan was making him undergo a few gymnastics that he himself was taught as a child, at the Jedi temple. These workout was supposed to train both Ezra's muscles and mind.
Right now, Ezra was doing a handstand on the dome of the dorsal turret. He was trying to keep the position with only one arm, but he could barely hold it that way for a couple of seconds at best before feeling like he was losing balance.
"Feel the Force, Ezra." Kanan said calmly. "Let it go."
"I'd rather hold tight, thank you very much." Ezra said to ease the tension, though he didn't stop the exercise.
"Enough jokes. Focus."
Right beside Kanan, Jaral watched carefully. Differently from Ezra, she was wearing the armor, just without the helmet. Then there was Zeb, who had been watching them for a while but now he was sitting down, visibly bored. Chopper too was there, making some of its rumbling from time to time.
"I'm trying…" Ezra said, while trying to make the one-hand again.
"Do or do not, there is no try." Kanan said firmly.
"How does that makes sense?" Ezra asked. He was keeping the position a bit longer, but now had to put the second hand back in place. "How can I do something if I don't try it first?"
Kanan raised a finger and opened his mouth, but nothing came out of it.
"Actually…" he said after retracting. "That one always confused me too, but Master Yoda surely used to say it a lot."
Zeb yawned loudly. "I thought this Jedi stuff would be more entertaining. No wonder the old religion died." he said while standing up and arching his back a little. Then the Lasat walked toward the turret.
"Come on, boy. Do something. Amuse me." he provoked. "Use the Fo'ce." then he grabbed the barrels and shook the turret.
Ezra managed to hang on for four seconds before losing balance and falling down toward the front of the ship, landing into a box full of empty milk packs that supposedly would be needed for one of the exercises. Ezra glared at Zeb, who in turn laughed loudly along with Chopper.
"Does he have to be here?" Ezra asked angrily.
"He's a pain." Kanan said while passing over him. His hands behind his back and walking toward the edge of ship's nose. "But there will always be distractions. You need to learn how to focus despite all of them."
There was a bit of silence as Ezra walked out of the box. Jaral tried to help him but he politely turned her down.
"Here. Let's try a new thing." said Kanan in the end.
He turned around and put his lightsaber together. A wave of astonishment getting on the faces of the others standing there.
Kanan went in front of Ezra and offered him the weapon. Ezra was a bit nervous as he took it with his right hand.
The boy immediately pointed the hilt upward, wary not to ignite the blade right at the neck of Kanan or Jaral, who were standing beside him.
"That reminds me." Ezra said. "When, and how, am I supposed to get my own?"
"You'll get one when the time comes." Kanan reassured him. "But it's not a lightsaber that makes someone a Jedi."
"Gets me closer to." Ezra mumbled. Then he grasped the hilt with both his hands and activated it, the energy blade coming out aimed at the sky.
Kanan got behind Ezra and put his hands on the boy's shoulders. "There is a control on that side that adjusts the blade to your height." He explained, pointing at a very small control knob.
Ezra pinched it with two finger and the blade shortened. Ignoring another taunt from Zeb, who declared that it should be even shorter, only attaining a slap on the back of the head by Jaral, Ezra adjusted at a height he deemed acceptable.
"Go there." Kanan instructed.
The boy walked a few step forwards, just a couple of meters from the edge, then turned around.
"Close your eyes." he heard. Ezra took a deep breath and obeyed. After taking a moment to clear the mind, he assumed the ready position and declared.
"I'm ready."
Kanan motioned for Zeb and Chopper to come forward. The exercise would include Chopper using his manipulators to throw the packs toward Ezra, who would have to cut them as they came to him. Zeb would pass them to Chopper one by one.
"Let him have it Chopper." Kanan declared.
Chopper grabbed the first pack, then his dome started spinning rapidly and made four or five rounds before launching the pack at a solid speed.
This one, Ezra cut in half with incredible precision, stunning everybody.
"Not bad." said Kanan. "Let's keep going."
Chopper received another pack. This time he increased the rounds and the speed, yet Ezra managed to hit it again.
The droid made some frustrated grunting.
"You're not wishing my brother to fall down, are you Chop?" Jaral asked suspiciously.
"Wooop wooo."
"Well I say we turn it up a bit." Zeb smiled. This time passing two packs.
"Just don't overdo it." Kanan admonished.
Chopper threw the packs in a rapid sequence. Ezra, not sure he could swing the lightsaber quickly enough, dodged the first and cut the second.
This went on for around two minutes. Though Ezra was hit by the packs a couple of times, he managed to keep up. And yet, Kanan could see that his movements were becoming more and more unfocused.
"Keep calm." he said pretty harshly. "Keep the blade up."
Ezra grunted under his breath. Kanan's tone was not helping his concentration.
Things really hit the fan when Zeb and Chopper decided to turn it up even higher and Zeb pretty much dropped the entire box onto Chopper's dome.
"Hey, cut it out!" Jaral pushed away Zeb before he could finish the entire box, but the damage was already done.
Chopper became literally a machine gun, throwing multiple packs at Ezra. The boy, feeling the mole of objects being thrown at him, opened his eyes and tried to defend himself the old way, but he started to fall back. When another pack hit him right in the nose, Ezra found himself with a leg in the sky of Lothal, barely holding his balance.
"No, no…" he said, terrorized a moment before he fell back, losing his feet. The lightsaber fell back on the rooftop.
"Ezra!" "Kid!" Jaral and Zeb's voices resonated.
Ezra managed to grab himself onto the dome of the nose gun, where Sabine, who was quietly reading a datapad, saw him and jumped on her seat. Ezra threw a quick glance in, his eyes shooting out fear and panic. Then he looked up again, he was slipping. He desperately tried to climb, but on that smooth glass there was no hope of doing that. Before he knew it, he slipped down the dome and was falling down the sky, launching a brief scream of surprise and horror.
Ezra's mind was struggling to make any clear though. Was he going to die, just like that? Because Zeb and Chopper couldn't take this seriously? He would make sure to haunt them for eternity…
Then, his fall stopped. Ezra looked around in total confusion as he even started to float back to the Ghost. He took a glance over his head, and saw Kanan on the nose of the freighter. His arms pointing at him, his face deeply concentrated. He was lifting Ezra back.
Hera, who had been alerted of the event, started to gently push down the Ghost and shorten Ezra's path, before Kanan might lose strength.
The cargo bay's ramp opened. Jaral was waiting in apprehension but ready to grab Ezra the moment he got close enough.
When finally the respective vectors of approach collided, Jaral sprang forward with her upper body and grabbed Ezra's hand, immediately dragging him with full force back on the ramp and into her embrace. The two fell on the ground.
"I got him!" Jaral announced on the comlink.
The ramp closed, Jaral knelt on both her knees and carefully touched her brother's face.
"You ok?" she said, all of her facial muscles screaming in apprehension.
Ezra breathed a sigh of relief and tapped one of her hands. "I'm fine, sis."
It took a couple of seconds for the adrenaline rush to get out of his head, as Jaral too relaxed his expression and gently embraced him. Ezra patted her on the shoulder to reassure her, then they separated and stood up.
Walking toward the common room, they met Kanan and Zeb. The latter looked away in shame, but Kanan came forward with a severe gaze.
"You lost focus." he declared.
"Hard to focus when I'm falling to my death." Ezra replied.
"You wouldn't have fallen to your death if you were focused." Kanan urged.
"Look." Ezra turned all of a sudden and faced Kanan. "This might be natural for you, but I've been training literally for three days. This shit is difficult, Master!"
He was frustrated. He wasn't going that bad until Chopper decided to be Chopper and made things too difficult when Ezra wasn't ready. He didn't understand why Kanan was being so harsh on him.
The Jedi sighed. "You're right." he turned to a sadder expression. "I'm sorry. I'm pushing you too quickly." He looked away for a moment. "Maybe I'm not cut out to teach you." and walked toward the common room.
Ezra looked at Kanan's back in discomfort. He lowered his head with a sad expression and Jaral tried to comfort him. Then Hera, who saw the scene, came forward, smiled amicably to them and gently pushed them into the common room.
"Kanan…" Ezra tried to apologize, but Sabine, who was sitting on the couch, shushed him excitedly.
"You guys made the HoloNet."
The room fell dark as the dejarik table became a projector for the news. The announcer was narrating the events of the previous day about the TIE fighter.
"The stolen TIE has been then used to attack a transport full of innocent workers…" the voice narrated.
"Liars!" Zeb snapped. "We helped them."
The HoloNet was then abruptly interrupted. The picture of an old man, with a formal dress, short white hair and a thin mustache took the place of the holograms with the TIE.
"Citizens. This is Senator-in-exile Gall Trayvis. I bring you more news the Empire doesn't want you to know."
Right after the record said the name, Ezra and Jaral turned to look around, with the latter asking who the man was.
"The only member of the Imperial Senate with the courage to tell the truth to the galaxy." Hera declared boldly.
"One of the Republic's greatest peacekeeper, Master Jedi Luminara Unduli, is alive!"
Hera and Kanan shared a gaze of disbelief as the hologram changed to show the record of a mirialan woman, in the orange suit of a prisoner, being escorted by two stormtroopers.
"She has been imprisoned unlawfully somewhere in the Stygeon system. As citizens, we demand the Emperor produce Master Unduli, and grant her a fair trial in front of the enti-"
The transmission was interrupted as the HoloNet started again with its propaganda.
"This Luminara…" Ezra asked turning to Kanan, who was deep in thought. "You knew her?"
"I only met her once." the Jedi said, remembering. "She was brave, compassionate, disciplined." then he opened his eyes again. "In fact, she would be a great teacher for you."
That last part hit Ezra as a train, though he managed not to show it. Was Kanan actually thinking about giving up on him?
"They've always been rumored she survived the Clone Wars." Kanan kept talking, mostly to Hera. "but they never came with a specific location before. We can't pass this up."
"Was hoping you'd say that." Hera smiled to him. "I'll set course for the Stygeon system." and she went back to the cockpit.
"The rest of you, prep for an op." declared Kanan before leaving.
As Zeb and Sabine left too, Jaral walked in front of Ezra. She immediately understood what sort of effect Kanan's declaration about having Luminara teaching the boy would have.
"Ezra. Before freaking out, just try and look at this with the right mindset." she said urgently.
"And what would 'the right mindset' be?" he asked in a hushed and very frustrated tone. He walked a bit toward the center of the room.
"You heard him. He's done with me. He's going to pawn me off to some stranger." his fists clenched almost on instinct.
Jaral wasn't sure what to tell him anymore. Even if she wasn't Force-sensitive, she could always tell what her brother was feeling, and right now she had the feeling that Ezra's heart was shattering in a myriad of pieces.
"I thought I could trust him…" Ezra whispered, his voice choking. He took a deep breath before moving toward his cabin.
Around an hour later, the crew was in the cockpit, waiting for the siblings to show up and start the briefing.
Jaral entered the cockpit alone, a stone face glancing at the rest of the world. She still didn't have the helmet, probably left it into the Omni-tool.
"Where is Ezra?" Kanan asked.
"He is meditating." she answered coldly.
"What, right now?" Zeb asked in disbelief.
"I'll catch up to him later. Let's proceed with the briefing." Jaral cut short.
Kanan shrugged and motioned for Chopper to show the hologram of the prison, which was built literally at the tip of a triangularly shaped mountain.
"Welcome to the Spire of Stygeon Prime." Sabine announced fascinated. "The only imperial detainment facility in the Stygeon system, and it's impregnable."
"That never stopped us before." Kanan joked.
"Oh, believe me. We've never been in a place like this. It's a real work of art" Sabine started to count with her finger. "Blast proof, ray shielded, protected by anti-ship weapons, TIE fighters and short and long range scanners."
"Jinx can easily fool the short-range scanners. As long as me and Ezra stay close to the strike team, the Empire won't be able to track us inside the structure." Jaral explained confidently.
"Neat." Sabine acquiesced. "We should have something to fool the long-range ones as well. That just leaves an army of troopers and guard posts on all the walls.
"Look, even if we get into this beauty, the hard part's getting out. Since it's, you know, a prison."
"What about sneaking low and infiltrating from this platform?" Zeb suggested, indicating the place on the holomap.
Sabine hummed negatively, shaking her head. "Landing platform has a heavy trooper presence and reinforced blast doors. Impossible to get in or out that way."
Kanan looked attentively at the map, noticing a possible weak point in the prison.
"Here. There's only room for a couple of guards. We take them down, make our way to the upper level isolation cells, free Luminara and come back out the way we came in."
Chopper closed the projection and blabbered something in his binary code.
"Yeah. You'd have to be crazy to try that lousy plan." Sabine commented.
"Let's hope the Empire thinks so, too." Kanan replied jokingly.
"I'll go notify Ezra." Jaral declared pretty meekly, before turning around and get out from the door.
Noticing something was very wrong, Sabine decided to follow her and stopped her in the common room.
"Ok, what's going on?" she asked.
Despite Sabine having trust issues herself, the two girls had bonded quite rapidly. After all, it might have been expected. Aside from Ezra, they were the youngest on board, the teenagers in a ship and world of adults. And Jaral always had a way to appear as a reliable sisterly figure. Probably Sabine was starting to feel like Ezra in regard to Jaral. Therefore, seeing her friend suddenly turning the cold shoulder to everyone was bound to worry her.
Jaral sighed. Keeping a hushed tone she replied.
"You heard Kanan saying that she wanted to have this Jedi Master teach Ezra?"
"Yeah."
"Well, that was insensitive. He hurt Ezra." she simply declared.
Sabine's expression became sympathetic. "Well...I'm sure he has a good reason for that."
"Sabine, I don't care if he has a reason. Ezra was on the verge of crying!" now Jaral was actually hissing. "Do you have any idea how difficult it was for him to trust a stranger to train his abilities? And now Kanan, after the first hiccup in said training, and at the first occasion, intends to dump him on some other stranger."
Sabine lowered her gaze. "I think...I understand."
Sensing some sincerity in those words, Jaral's fury relented and gently squeezed Sabine's shoulder.
"I appreciate your concern. But don't worry about it too much. It's up to them to resolve this. Let's focus on the mission now."
Sabine acknowledged with a nod and the two went their separate ways.
After two hours of hyperspace, the Ghost finally reached the orbit of Stygeon Prime. The planet seemed almost completely covered in clouds and its two moons gravitated around pretty closely.
The Ghost scrambled its signal and entered orbit by the dark side of the planet. The plan consisted in the entire crew, except for Chopper, to reach the prison via the Phantom, the VCX auxiliary fighter poised into the back of the freighter, where it stood its dedicated docking space.
Hera would pilot the smaller ship, while the rest of the crew stood in the backseats, as the small ship had 8 retractable panels acting as seats. Ezra and Jaral occupied the furthest, right next to the ramp. After entering from the underbelly, which had a small hole connected to the ladder in the common room, the only way to get out of the fighter would be that ramp. Next to Jaral on the right row were Kanan then Sabine.
Next to Ezra on the left row stood Zeb, who alone took almost two seats.
As they were about to leave the Ghost, Chopper jabbered something in the comlink.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Chop." answered Zeb maliciously. "We just don't need your damaged logic circuits on this one."
The Phantom finally departed, a faint red light illuminating the backseats.
As they approached the Spire, Ezra stood up, conjuring something from his omni-tool. The crew noticed two pistols materializing in the boy's hand, who handed one of them to Jaral.
"What models are those?!" Sabine asked in suspicion.
"You'll see." Ezra replied confidently while checking his own pistol.
"Just leave the platform to us." Jaral added.
Hera announced "Thirty seconds." while from the cockpit they could see the fortress. "Good luck." she added while turning her head to the rest of them.
"Luck?" asked Zeb skeptically. "We're gonna need a miracle."
"Well, here are three." answered Sabine while taking out three thermal detonators from her hand. Zeb and Ezra both took one each.
As Ezra moved back to the ramp, Kanan spoke behind him.
"Try to stay focused."
"Thought there was not 'try'." Ezra replied in a stinging voice.
A few seconds later, the ramp opened. The Phantom was flying pretty high from the ramp, which was carved into the rock and had only a small portion exposed, in order not to alert the two regulars overlooking the door.
Ezra and Jaral exchanged a quick glance, they powered up their armors and then ran-up out of the Phantom.
Their enhanced muscles and their armors did their job perfectly. They landed right in front of the guards, who were expecting absolutely nothing. Before they could react, the boys pushed their pistols against their necks and shot.
Kanan and the rest of the squad could see the siblings' action. The moment they saw them using the pistols, a moment of panic sent chills up their spines. 'What are they doing?' their minds screamed. Using firearms would give away their presence.
But then, the guards caved in, clearly unconscious, as the Bridgers made sure to ease the corpses down.
When the Phantom got low enough to allow the rest of the team to jump safely on the platform, Zeb reached the kids and asked in amazement.
"What was that? How did you do that?"
Ezra turned around in order to start violating the control panel for the door. Jaral quickly explained.
"A project from the Milky Way that we adapted with blaster technology. The 'Suppressor' includes a mechanism that severely hampers the sound and the blaze of a blaster shot. It reduces the effective range, but for a stealth mission is the ultimate tool.
Sabine stared at it through her helmet, babbling in awe. "I want that…"
"When we find the pieces, you'll be the first to know." Jaral said jokingly, patting Sabine's shoulder.
"I hate to interrupt." Ezra interjected. "But there are 4 regulars behind this door and I'm about to open it." his omni-tool glowing. The holographic monitor was running a command prompt. Lines of source code flowing down to up at a ridiculous speed.
The boy backed off from the panel, pulling out his Suppressor again and pointing it to the left side of the door, while Jaral took the right.
"3...2...1…" Ezra counted.
The door opened, showing the four regulars waiting in the hallway just a couple of meters away.
They were almost completely lined up, casually talking. Two of them were not even keeping their rifles properly and one didn't even had his helmet on. The moment they turned instinctively to look at the door, the siblings gunned them down in rapid sequence. The first two didn't even realize that something was wrong. The others did, but didn't have the time to react all the same.
The Specters this time heard the sound of the Suppressors, but they noticed that it was barely louder than a finger snap.
Ezra and Jaral dragged two corpses out on the platform, Zeb grabbed the other two.
After hiding them, the crew proceeded inside the prison, with Jaral and Ezra leading the way, their silenced pistols aimed and ready to take down whomever might have spotted them.
Luckily, they reached the near turbolifters without any complication. Sabine pressed a few buttons on the small panel beside the lifters, looking for info about their target.
"Where is Master Unduli?" asked Kanan.
After a few seconds, Sabine reported. "Detention block CC-01. Isolation cell 0169."
Kanan eyes widened in a grim realization.
"They have detention cells on the lower levels? We planned off outdated schematics."
Jaral sighed. "Ten credits that we're gonna need to get out of here the hard way." said to Ezra.
"Yeah. And by then we might have run out of 'miracles'."
"Then we'll just need a bigger one." she said smirking under her helmet.
"I have to go with Kanan, now. Can you handle this alone?"
"Something tells me you're the ones about to have the undivided attention of the garrison."
"Fair enough, but still…" the boy raised his left arm horizontally and bent the forearm. "Jinx. Transfer two processors into Jaral's device."
"Acknowledged." the AI replied.
The rest of the crew noticed what looked like two small holographic discs going from a omni-tool to another.
"Hope you find the miracle." Ezra finished.
"Just trust me." replied Jaral confidently. She took a moment to find the nearest armory on the holomap thanks to Jinx and then cautiously ran off.
"I think we should be going." Ezra said to the other three Specters, who had absolutely no idea what just happened.
Kanan shook his head. "Right. We're all going down the lift."
Zeb looked puzzled. "Weren't me and Sabine supposed to protect the escape route?"
"Now the turbolift Is our escape route. Let's go."
Everybody entered the lift. Ezra took himself to stay right in front of the door.
While they were descending, Sabine couldn't hold her curiosity.
"Ezra, mind telling us what you two are up to?"
"Well, me and Jaral usually try to concoct a backup plan, especially when the operation includes walking right into a trap."
"Wait, what do you mean, trap?" Zeb asked.
"I mean, that upon talking about this entire hullaballoo, it seemed a little strange. Why would the Empire bother spending time and resources to hold a Jedi Master? Their very existence is dangerous as the Empire always proclaimed that they freed the galaxy from the Jedi."
The reasoning actually made a lot of sense to the rest of the team, and their expressions became increasingly worried.
"Still, we thought the Empire might have his reasons to keep Unduli alive. Maybe they thought she could lead them to other Jedi, or something...yet my instinct is still screaming in my brain that something is awfully off. We're gonna stick to the plan, but since Kanan's plan has survived for three minutes before changing, we decided it wouldn't be bad to have a trick up our sleeves. And that's exactly what she's going to procure us."
Sabine chuckled. "You can say it out loud. His plans get worse all the time." said referring to Kanan.
"Let's hope it doesn't change the way you pictured it." Zeb added.
"I'm standing right here." Kanan said annoyed by the insinuations.
"We know." Sabine and Zeb said in chorus.
After delivering the strike team, Hera anchored the Phantom to the mountain side, completely vertical. She was supposed to wait for the squad to come back there, the Phantom hidden by a jammer invented by Sabine.
While she waited, the scanner suddenly picked up something.
"Uh-oh, company." she murmured to herself.
As she attentively looked outside the cabin, she saw something darting right over her, but it didn't look nor sounded like a TIE fighter. In fact, it barely made a sound.
Then the face of a flying creature the size of the Phantom showed up.
Hera gasped in surprise. "Ok, you're not a TIE fighter."
The Twi'lek watched as the creature flew back then slammed into the ship.
"Hey, watch it buddy." Hera protested.
The creature flew back and screeched in the air. That attracted other two specimens, and they all started poking the Phantom.
Hera realized in horror that Sabine's jammer was operating on the same frequency of ultrasounds as those creatures. In fact, it was sending out a mating call.
"You lovebirds are attracting too much attention." Hera declared.
As she powered up the Phantom on a minimal level to limit the possibility of being spotted by the prison's sensors, she could only hope that the team wouldn't need her anytime soon, and flew away with the creatures chasing her.
As the turbolift finally reached the lower levels of the prison, Ezra's scanners picked up a couple of troopers waiting just outside the lifter's door. When that opened, he wasted no time into grabbing them and yanking them into the lifter, where they were put to sleep by contusion.
Ezra and Kanan stepped out, leaving Sabine and Zeb behind.
"Maintain comm silence." Kanan's ordered. "And whatever you do, hold this lift."
He and Ezra turned in different directions to check both directions. Two more regulars came out from Kanan's direction.
"Hey, you! Stop!" one of the guards ordered as he and his comrade aimed their blasters.
However, Kanan grabbed them with the Force and used attraction to throw them back to him, where they were met with his stretched arms, which hit the two on their heads, knocking them unconscious.
"Wow, you're really not messing around, tonight." Ezra commented sarcastically.
Kanan didn't get the sarcastic tone. "There's a lot more at stake here than you realize." then motioned him to follow him, while Zeb hid the knocked troopers into the lift and closed its door.
Kanan and Ezra moved a few blocks away from the lift and finally found the cell of Master Unduli, guarded by two stormtroopers.
The Jedi didn't want to risk detection by opening a conflict so he resorted to the Jedi mind trick. He extended his arm and confidently walked toward the two soldiers, the Force allowing him to move them like puppets.
"Shouldn't you be guarding the Jedi's cell? It's on the next level."
"It's on the next level." one of the troopers repeated in a daze.
"You better get moving."
"We better get moving." repeated the other trooper. And they both sprinted away.
"Wow." said Ezra in admiration. "When do I learn that?" he said excited.
"Luminara will teach you." Kanan replied simply. "Much better than I could." he said with a hint of sadness.
Ezra wanted to retort, but he didn't know how, and that wasn't the time.
They stepped into the cell, where they found the Mirialan sitting on the bench, her head looking down. Though she raised it slowly when they entered.
"Is it really her?" Ezra asked doubtful.
"Yes, but...something's wrong." Kanan asked, looking carefully.
The mirialan stood up and walked in front of Kanan, not a word nor a hint of emotion.
"Master…?" Kanan asked.
Unduli turned on her left and went straight for what seemed like a cryostasis capsule, linked to the wall.
Then she slowly turned around and started disappearing into the cell, until her face turned skeletal and now it was behind the small glass of capsule.
The two Specters gasped in horror.
"Is that a...sarcophagus?" Ezra asked undertone. "This is a trap!"
"How perceptive!" a smug voice said from the door.
The two turned and saw a male Pau'an, in a black light armor with the imperial insignia on the pauldrons. Red tattoos adorning his face, in particular two were drawn under his eyes, as if it was a flood of bloody tears. His eyes though. The irises were yellow, the sclera was black.
"I see why you managed to avoid capture so long." said the tall man to Ezra. The tone was malicious, yet it seems that he poured some respect in that sentence. And malicious was the only way to describe his facial expression.
The man took out a lightsaber and ignited it, revealing the blade to be a crimson red.
"I am the Inquisitor." he said, taking a few steps inside the cell so the sensors would close the door again.
"Welcome."
Kanan ignited his blade. While the Inquisitor wasn't looking, Ezra pushed a button on his omni-tool.
"Yes, I'm afraid Master Luminara died with the Republic. But her bones continue to serve the Empire, luring the last Jedi to their ends."
"Specter-4, come in." Ezra tried to use the comlink, but quickly noticed that the transmissions were jammed. He could've called Jaral, but didn't want to risk giving away her presence.
"There will be no reinforcements." the Inquisitor declared.
Kanan lounged forward, trying to strike him down, but the Inquisitor parried it nimbly, dodged another blow and simply pointed his blade at Kanan, showing him how open and flawed his defense was. Kanan hit it over and resumed the attack, but it was clear that he was outmatched. Ezra, for once in his life, was unsure on how to act. Shooting him in that close area would be too dangerous for him and Kanan, and it seemed like the man would have no problems handling him as well.
As the saber wielders kept dueling, Ezra quietly turned around them, trying to reach the door.
"Interesting." the Inquisitor commented while pushing back Kanan and the two were locking the sabers together. "It seems like you trained under Jedi Master Depa Billaba."
"How...Who are you?" Kanan asked in fear, before cooling back and parrying another blow.
Ezra by now had reached the door and was placing the first 'miracle' on it.
Kanan kept being pushed back, barely holding against the Inquisitor, who was clearly a highly trained swordsman.
The Jedi lunged forward. The Inquisitor simply moved aside and diverted his wrists with a hand.
"The temple records are quite complete."
Kanan broke from the small grapple and attacked again, being parried and forced back again by a locked confrontation. The Inquisitor easily pushing him back with a single hand on the saber.
"In close quarter fighting, Billaba's emphasis was always on form III." the Inquisitor explained. "Which you favor to a ridiculous degree."
Ezra finally decided to step in by firing a stun bolt with his blaster, which the Inquisitor's blade easily dissipated. Kanan tried to use the distraction to attack, but the dark-sider jumped and kicked him in the back, sending Kanan tumbling in front of his apprentice's feet.
Ezra immediately knelt down to protect his master, who got back on his feet anyway.
"Clearly, you're a poor student." the Inquisitor mocked the Jedi again.
Ezra decided to resort to one of the power in his omni-tool. The device lit up and Ezra pointed his arm to the Inquisitor. A capsule exited quickly from it, aiming at the Inquisitor and leaving behind what seemed like frozen gas.
It was called "Cryo-explosion" and it was designed to turn the opponent into a froze statue for a few seconds, also making it much more vulnerable to projectiles.
The Inquisitor had no notion about the Omni-tool, since the Empire had barely figured out what the Bridger's armors could do. He managed to put the blade on the trajectory of the capsule, which exploded mid air.
It released a frozen explosion. Liquid nitrogen spilling onto the Inquisitor. Had the capsule it him directly, he would have turned him immediately into a harmless icicle. Although signs of ice could be seen growing on his body, the Inquisitor could still move.
"Impressive." he grunted. "Seems like you have some very interesting tricks, boy."
"I just started…" Ezra said with a cool tone, indicating the detonator on the door, which blew off a few seconds later.
On the lift, Sabine was trying to contact Kanan uselessly.
After another failed attempt, she grunted.
"Thought so, they are jamming our comms, they know we're here!" she muttered.
"Here on the elevator, or…?" Zeb asked, but he was interrupted.
"Here, period. They lured us in upstairs at the prison's weak point. We're expected to exit the same way so you can bet there will be troopers waiting for us." the girl explained.
"We'd never make it out of the lift." she concluded.
"So what do we do?"
"Well, time for a miracle." the mandalorian took out her thermal detonator.
A few minutes later, the lift from the lower levels reached its terminus, and there was indeed a squad of three stormtroopers, who immediately fired inside the small cabin. They realized, however, that there was nobody inside it, only the knocked down regulars. One of the stormtroopers peeked in, only to be greeted by the beeping of the detonator, which went out with a loud explosion.
At the same level as Kanan and Ezra, Zeb heard the small quake caused by the explosion.
"That's one lift offline." the Lasat commented, his Bo-rifle in his hands.
Sabine came back running. "I've disabled the other two. There are other ways down, but it'll take'em a while. Let's go."
And they rushed toward the nearest landing platform, the same one they deemed unassailable.
Ezra's trick did allowed him and Kanan to run out of the cell, but still, they took the wrong turn a couple of times, which gave the Inquisitor plenty of time to catch up with them and forcing Kanan into another duel, while Ezra stood back, biting his lips to think of something, anything to help his master, who was being outmatched again. The Inquisitor had even ignited another blade, as his lightsaber turned out to be a double-sword.
"Are you paying attention, boy?" the Inquisitor put up his evil smirk again while forcing Kanan back in a block.
"The Jedi are dead."
Ezra glared at him under the helmet.
"But there is another path. The dark side."
"Never heard of it." Ezra replied. Then the omni-tool lit up again as Ezra bent his arm quickly.
This time he resorted to a "stun shot", a small projectile which, upon impact, released a burst of highly compressed air, pushing back the foe and even disorienting it. At least when it was at full power.
Since the Inquisitor was too close to Kanan, Ezra had to use his powers at the lowest level of power. In this case, the shot managed to push back the Inquisitor's arm, allowing Kanan to free himself from the interlock.
This time, the Inquisitor took it personally and force pushed Ezra away, slamming him against the lateral wall.
"Have you taught him nothing?" the Inquisitor asked Kanan, seeing how vulnerable the boy was to a simple push.
The two exchanged a few blows, until Kanan pirouetted back.
"Do you really think you can save the boy?"
Kanan looked back, seeing that Ezra was back on his feet, albeit he wobbled a bit.
"For his sake, surrender."
"I'm not making deals with you." Kanan snarled back.
The Inquisitor simply straightened up. "Then we'll let him make one, shall we?" and he effortlessly pushed away Kanan as well. The Jedi flew past Ezra, leaving the boy exactly in the middle of the two duelists.
"Kanan!" he screamed.
"Your master cannot save you, boy."
Ezra turned around, gnashing under the helmet.
"He's unfocused and undisciplined."
"Then we're perfect for each other." Ezra retorted, putting away his repeater and assuming a fighting stance.
The Inquisitor smirked as he lunged forward, raised his sword and brought it down from top right.
He couldn't see under Ezra's helmet, so he didn't notice that the boy had his eyes closed. He was clearing his mind and let the Force guide his actions in order to apply the crazy plan he conjured in his mind.
As the Inquisitor brought down his blade, Ezra's right forearm went up to intercept it. A small, very concentrated energy shield created by the Omni-tool sprang up. Ezra conjured that up by focusing on his forearm, and the neuro-receptors of the device acted exactly like he wanted.
The small shield prevented Ezra from hurting himself with the laser, as he pushed the blade down and the Inquisitor with it. The dark-sider was expecting none of it. He thought the boy had some interesting technology, but he thought that he wouldn't be so confident in his melee skill to the point of actually going bare-handed against a lightsaber.
Ezra dragged down the blade, then used the momentum to swing his right arm back, hitting the absolutely stunned Inquisitor with a strong punch and literally lifting him from the ground. The Inquisitor left a loud grunt of pain as he flew back through the hallway, landing on his back and letting go of his lightsaber, but managing to land on his knees, his head still looking down.
The boy turned to check on Kanan, who was just recovering from his own landing and had his jaw that seemed like it was trying to reach the floor, as he couldn't believe what he just witnessed.
Ezra rushed to him and helped him stand up, just in time before the blades of the Inquisitor hissed on the other side. They both looked that way. The Inquisitor was brushing under his nose with two fingers, and they all noticed that he was bleeding.
The eyes of the Inquisitor now became outright frightening. As the Pau'an stood up, glaring at his adversaries with pure hate and rage, he activated a strange circlet on the hilt. Then he put the saber in front of him, as the circlet turned out to be a wheel meant to turn the saber into a lethal whirlwind. The blades started spinning around, leaving the Jedi and his apprentice in awe.
"Does yours do that?" Ezra asked while starting to run away, pushing his master in the same way.
"Just run." Kanan answered.
As they turned at the following curve, they saw Sabine and Zeb, the former gesturing them to follow her.
"You figured it was a trap?" Kanan asked when he and Ezra joined their run.
"Yeah?" answered Sabine. "Luminara?"
"Long gone." said Kanan. "Our new exit?"
"Landing platform."
"Thought it was impossible to get out that way."
"Don't worry." Ezra intervened. "Jaral will break us out."
As the boy sprinted in front of the formation, the others just exchanged a quick, clueless gaze.
The Inquisitor was catching up to them, his lightsaber stir whirling. As all of them entered the final hallway before the hangar, the Inquisitor slowed down to a walk and took his comlink in front of his mouth.
"Secure the facility. Full lockdown." his voice even resonating through the speakers of the prison.
A long series of blast doors started closing up. The Specters had to run for their lives. The Inquisitor started running again.
Sabine shot a couple of bolts back at the Inquisitor, who parried them with ease, not even slowing down.
"Don't shoot him, you're only angering him!" Ezra exclaimed.
"You punched him in the face, Ezra!" Kanan exclaimed with a smirk on his face. "I doubt he can be angrier than this."
"You what?!" Zeb and Sabine asked in unison.
"Just save your breaths!" Ezra urged them.
The group kept running and leaping over the closing doors. The Inquisitor did the same, although both parts were losing ground to the doors.
The last one, Zeb had to jump in and use his limbs to force it to stay open long enough for the others to pass, leaping out of the way before the Inquisitor arrived and shutting the door in front of him.
Zeb made a smug face, before the red blade of the Jedi hunter penetrated the door, very close to his face.
"You really punched that thing in the face?!" Sabine asked Ezra again, partially in admiration, partially considering him completely crazy.
"Yes." Ezra replied dryly. "Can we focus on getting out of here, please?"
They crossed the last door, Zeb shot at the control panel to slow down the Inquisitor even more.
They were in the lobby of the landing platform. Other than the door they just came from, the cubical room had two of the same size, while the biggest would bring them on the landing platform. And Jinx quickly notified that there were at least 20 stormtroopers and an operational anti-ship cannon waiting for them.
"Jaral." Ezra activated his omni-tool. "We're at the landing platform, I hope you're very close!"
"Just look on your left." the voice of Jaral answered through the comm.
The squad looked in that direction and they saw Jaral coming out running from the door. Nobody seemed to chase her, but she shot the panel behind her anyway.
"Where have you been?" Zeb asked dumbfounded.
Jaral walked up to them and activated the omni-tool. "To get the bigger miracle."
She put the repeater away on her back, and a second later a Z-9 rotary cannon materialized in her hand.
Everyone except Ezra wowed.
"I made a visit to the nearest armory. I don't think they'll miss this beauty." she commented.
"All right. Get ready." said Ezra as he motioned Sabine to go hack the control panel.
The mandalorian, however, grunted in frustration after dialing something on her wrist-pad.
"They isolated it from the system. I can't open it."
Kanan thought quickly. "Ezra, with me." he said.
They both walked up in front of the door and Kanan extended an arm. "Together." he said.
Ezra gave a look to her sister and nodded. She nodded in response. As Ezra and Kanan focused on lifting the door, she instructed Jinx.
"Jinx. Put 3 procs for shields. 2 for weapons."
"You will significantly slow down." the AI warned.
"I'll stop completely if they penetrate the shields." she responded calmly.
"Good point. Transferring."
The shield around Jaral started becoming green. Even more, two holographic barriers materialized on the two sides of the gun's barrel.
The door was opening. Jaral walked in front of the two Force-users, while Sabine and Zeb waited on the side, ready to find a cover the moment they went out.
The door was finally unlocked and went up on his own now.
The stormtroopers had formed two lines of fire, ready to blast everything that moved in any point of the lobby.
Instead, they were met with a walking juggernaut holding a rotary cannon. Fear, for a single, important moment, prevented them from firing.
"What up, bucket-heads?"
The Z-9 started whirring. A moment later, it spit out a rain of blaster fire.
At least 6 stormtroopers were immediately cut down. The others didn't even dare to return fire before they had dived behind any sort of cover, mostly reinforced crates.
Ezra laughed excitedly. "What you gonna do now, uh?!" he screamed at the imperials while he took his repeater in hand.
Kanan, Zeb and Sabine were stunned for a moment, then they realized they were still out in the open and rushed to take cover.
Sabine almost hesitated to call Hera. "Uhm...Specter-2. We could use a lift out of here."
"I see fireworks down there, is it safe?"
"Don't worry, it's friendly fire." Sabine said while basking in the view of imperial stormtroopers running around in panic and getting mowed down.
"Roger that. I'm coming, and I'm taking in the fleet."
"We got a fleet too?" Zeb asked, actually scared at the show of force.
A few moments later, the Phantom came into the picture, surrounded by the flying creatures.
Some of the troopers tried to return fire, but either Jaral or Ezra immediately gunned them down, or if they did manage to fire, their bolts simply evaporated on the shields. While they were weakening them, it would take a coordinated burst by everyone to put Jaral in danger, which was not gonna happen when Sabine and Zeb too started to give the girl covering fire.
The anti-ship cannon started to shoot at the Phantom, which used the creatures' hard skin as a shield.
"You guys still have a 'miracle' left?" Ezra asked.
Zeb passed him his detonator. Ezra made a quick rush to get closer then swung his arm, throwing the detonator to the cannon and destroying it.
On the platform were four TIEs lined up. Jaral destroyed a couple of them just for fun.
The processors she destined to the weapon's cool-down allowed her to fire uninterrupted for three minutes. At the end of those minutes, the stormtroopers laid dead on the ground, or had actually jumped out the platform, preferring the slim possibility of surviving the fall than face an unstoppable war-machine.
"Sis, I don't even know if you can beat yourself at being a badass!" Ezra said enthusiastically while walking up to her. The two clasped hands vigorously.
Hera brought the Phantom down, opening the ramp, and the squad jumped on. Jaral turned down the shield, but brought the cannon with her, recalling it into the Omni-tool.
In the lobby, the Inquisitor was finally cutting down the last door with his lightsaber, but when he sliced it open, the Phantom was taking off, leaving him to snarl in frustration and still very pissed at the idea that a child managed to punch and injure him.
"Jaral." Sabine commented on the way back, struggling to keep her enthusiasm in check. "That was the best thing I've seen in years!"
"I'm actually wondering…" Zeb was laughing. "How did you put that thing in the device?"
With a smile, Jaral explained. "The Omni-tool can store a certain amount of weight by converting objects in a special 'gel'. When me and Ezra planned this, I pretty much emptied it in order to make room for a heavy weapon."
Ezra was smiling with them from the front seats, then he heard Kanan talking quietly with Hera.
"Master Luminara?" the Twi'lek asked.
"Dead. We need to find a way to spread the voice."
"How's Ezra taking it?"
"Not badly as me…" seemed like Kanan wanted to add something, but after a quiet moment, he turned around and walked in front of Ezra, sitting right in front of him.
"Look…" said Ezra as if he was preparing to get a cold shower. "If you don't want to do this, I understand."
"What are you talking about?" asked Kanan.
"What am I supposed to be talking about?" Ezra lashed out a bit. "You wanted to dump me to Luminara, didn't you?!"
Everyone else in the Phantom fell silent.
"Ezra, are we having this conversation right now?" Kanan asked, noticing the discomfort on everyone else. Only Jaral seemed to be ok with that.
"Yes, Kanan! I want to know it right now, I don't give a damn for anything else!" the expression on the boy now became fiercely stubborn. He wanted to know the truth, didn't matter if he had to go crazy in front of everybody.
Kanan struggled for a while. "...Ezra...I just wanted you to have the best teacher…"
"Kanan, the best teacher is sitting in front of me right now!" Ezra said loudly. It was a heartfelt proclamation that left everybody stunned, while Jaral was the only one to openly smile.
Kanan was speechless.
"I don't care who you think might teach me better." Ezra continued, the voice now abated, but still strong. "I want you!"
Kanan lowered his head.
"Ezra. I'm not gonna try to teach you anymore." he shook back his dead, a confident smile now crossing his face. "If all I do is try, that means I don't truly believe I can succeed. So from now on, I will teach you." he proclaimed that with absolute confidence. "I may fail. You may fail. But there is no try."
Ezra suddenly became silent. Then took a deep breath and acquired a serene expression.
"I understand...Master." and smiled proudly at him.
Everyone in the ship shared the sentiment, looking at the two of them with a satisfied smile.
"We'll see if you do." Kanan joked as the Phantom landed back on the Ghost.
A Star Destroyer was orbiting Stygeon Prime. As a shuttle brought the Inquisitor in the lower hangar, Kallus and an escort of stormtroopers greeted him.
"Inquisitor." Kallus said respectfully.
"Agent Kallus." the Inquisitor acknowledged. "Let's not waste any time. Todays events suggest the direst of threat is walking toward us."
"I concur. If you would follow me." Kallus escorted him to the control bridge. There, he ordered everyone but his aide from the ISB to leave them alone.
"I see you found yourself...bumping into the rebels."
The Inquisitor slightly massaged his nose. "The Jedi is actually of little concern. His training was marginal, to say the least. The one who worry me are the two persons in those...intense armors. One of them seems to be the apprentice."
"Yes. The boy." Kallus tapped his datapad a few times and the holotable showed up the dossier regarding what they knew about the Bridgers.
Their photo wasn't even a photo, but a drawing based on the security cameras. The Empire had absolutely no idea who hid behind those helmets.
Looking how very few data there was about them, the Inquisitor sighed. "Agent Kallus, do we even know the name of these people?"
"I regret to inform that even that information is still under verification. Only a few audio records from our security cameras and some intercepted transmissions suggest us that the boy's name is Ezra, the young woman's called Jaral.
"By analizing the security reports on Lothal, the surveillance Division suspects that these two are siblings. They go by the family name 'Bridger'. Unfortunately, it seems that every data regarding their origins has been...cancelled."
"Cancelled?" the Inquisitor was astonished.
"Looking through the data banks, I discovered that six years ago, a cyberattack on the planetary registry wiped out the personal data of at least a hundred citizens, and the Bridger siblings were among them. They never caused any issue that would raise the ISB attention, until two weeks ago, when they joined the rebel cell."
The Inquisitor put a hand on his chin and mumbled.
After a few seconds, he took his decision.
"Agent Kallus, I want all of the resources the ISB can spare used to find any sort of informtion on the Bridgers. Forget a small rebel cells, these two alone are formidable adversaries. We need to know where they come from, where they got such advanced technology, and we must find a way to deal with them. Quickly."
Kallus nodded. The Bridgers had proven themselves to be bringers of misfortune. If not stopped, the consequences for the entire Empire might be severe.