Chapter 4: Always two there are
Two weeks had passed. Rex had been hanging around the Ghost quite a bit, only spending time talking with Ahsoka when she wasn't busy planning strategies with Sato and Darvos, or around the galaxy looking for answers about Darth Vader.
Nonetheless, the clone had attracted the interest of both Jaral and Ezra, as they sought to understand what it meant to be a soldier. Jaral was definitely the most interested of the two and she and Rex would spend even hours talking about past battles, analyzing the strategies, the tactics, but also, the girl would learn about sacrifice and the harsh truth about how a single life counts nothing in the grand scheme of things that is war.
Ezra, on his part, was already too much invested into being a Jedi to listen everything Rex told him, though he didn't dislike the stories about his clone brothers. He could see some values such as honor, camaraderie and self-sacrifice that he had grown pretty fond of since he joined the Ghost.
The siblings also started to spend a couple of hours a day in the workshop, trying to replicate some blueprints from the Milky Way that Jinx had presented them along the years. Even during their time on the Ghost there wasn't much time to go around and scavenge for the necessary parts, since they were too busy stealing to survive. Now, however, they had the Phoenix Cell to help with the sustenance. While the siblings were sent on supply runs even on their own from time the time, now they had the time to exploit a stop on a spaceport to look for additional components that they might need.
As she expected, Jaral was sent from time to time with the Phoenix Squadron on patrol or reconnaissance missions aboard her fighter, which she still couldn't find the time to customize, but at least this missions were useful to keep her skills on the control stick sharp.
The entire crew, except for the siblings, was in the common room. Rex and Zeb were playing dejarik, Sabine was working on her helmet, Hera was relaxing on the wooden bench right next to the holotable and Kanan was inspecting his lightsaber. Their last task had been completed four days before and so far they hadn't had any other assignment. The Ghost spent most of its time attached to the command ship of Phoenix Cell, in order to limit the consumption of fuel of the fleet.
While Jaral spent most of her time aboard the Liberator, Ezra was barely seen around in the last few days, except for the meals, and Sabine was actually a bit frustrated because he only told her that he was working on a project, but didn't want to risk any leak. Sabine had told him that she could keep a secret alright, but the boy had just smirked and said 'Not this one, you can't.'
The remembrance of that smug face actually made her press the screwdriver so deep that she almost grazed the paint off the helmet.
From the dejarik table, Rex made a quick laugh of triumph as he won the game.
"Chalk another one up for the clone."
Zeb laughed in embarrassment and passed his hand on his head.
"Takes more than brawn to win this game, big guy." he explained courteously.
"Yeah, maybe I let you win, old guy." Rex retorted joking.
Then the door beside the table hissed and opened, letting Jaral enter. Her armor on, her helmet was still dematerialized while the right hand was holding a datapad.
"Ok, fellas, we have a new mission. But first of all, has anybody seen my stupid brother?" she asked a bit annoyed. "I can't find him anywhere and he's not picking my calls."
"Welcome to the club." Sabine exclaimed sarcastically.
"He has been quite absent these last days, but he never tells us where he goes." Kanan added with a hint of worry.
"I promise it was for a good cause!"
The voice of Ezra came right from the corridor Jaral had just used and startled everyone. The girl immediately turned around and saw her brother, coming toward her with a big smile and hands behind his back.
Jaral lightly frowned at him and took a step back so he could come into the light of the common room past the threshold.
"You have been ignoring an operational communication and, worst of all, you ditched your girlfriend for three days straight." she said lightly nodding toward Sabine on her left. The mandalorian girl scowled as well to his absent boyfriend. "You better have a good reason." Jaral finished with an accusatory tone.
Ezra smiled awkwardly at Sabine and brought his right hand on the back of the head.
"Yeah, I've been very rude. I'm sorry, you two. But I hope that this will explain everything." he brought his hands in front, revealing what he had been hiding.
It was a darkened durasteel slab, the shape resembled somewhat a bean and in the center there was a faint blue light.
While everyone struggled to understand, Jaral was frozen, her eyes barred in amazement and her jaw dropped.
"The cloaking device?!" she almost yelled. "You finished it?!"
Ezra nodded emphatically.
Jaral regained a bit of composure. "Why did you want to hide it?" she asked with a smile that revealed how proud of him she was.
"Because this is for you." he said, now holding the slab device like a tray, offering it to her. Jaral was confused.
"Happy birthday, big sis." the boy said with a wide smile.
Everyone in the room gasped, but couldn't find the strength to say something.
Jaral seemed a bit confused at first, then she did the math quickly and realized that it was indeed her birthday, lightly slapping her forehead with the datapad as she chortled.
"Come here, you big dummy." she said while enveloping him in a strong and affectionate hug, that the boy returned happily, holding the device still in his left hand.
"Thank you." she said.
"Wait a minute…!" Sabine pointed at Jaral with an amused but still surprised face. "Today's your birthday?"
Jaral shrugged as to say 'nothing I can do about it.'
"Why you didn't tell us?" Hera asked with a happy voice.
"Well, if we are talking about that, we still don't know yours'" Ezra intervened with a smile, causing everyone to chuckle in agreement.
"We never celebrated our birthdays with someone else." Jaral patiently explained. "When you guys picked us up last year I had turned 17 just two weeks before. Then you guys discovered by accident when Ezra's birthday is."
"Yeah, let's not talk about that." Ezra said rapidly, handing over the device in his hands. "Why don't you show us how this works?"
Jaral grabbed the device. "Wait, you tested it, right?"
"Of course, but in private. Now it's time to show everybody."
Jaral smirked and put the device on her back, on a magnetic seal right above the belt, on her lower waist.
The voice of Jinx shortly later announced that the connection with the device had been established.
Jaral materialized her helmet and then activated the mental command to the omni-tool.
Everybody watched in awe as a blue energy field formed on Jaral's armor and then she completely disappeared from everyone's sight.
"I can't believe it." Zeb said.
"We had a ship capable of doing this," Rex remembered. "but I thought it was impossible to make a cloaking device for a fighter, let alone a person."
"Until now." Ezra said with a smug face.
Sabine suddenly rose from her seat and went beside him, facing his direction.
"You know, now I'm conflicted." she said narrowing her eyes.
Ezra chuckled, remembering that he had basically left her out of his life in the last three days without an explanation and she was probably furious.
However, Sabine kept a composed attitude. "On one hand, I'm absolutely proud and happy that you ignored me so you could make Jaral's birthday special. On the other hand, you prevented me from working on a marvelous military tech, and I should tell you now: Never get between a mandalorian and a weapon package." now she openly scowled at him and pointed a finger as she said the adage.
Ezra stuttered a bit before taking a breather and reorganizing his thoughts.
"Don't worry, we still have to built my own copy. I swear, I'll let you work on it as well." he said with a conciliatory smile.
Sabine kept narrowing her eyes and hummed for a few seconds, then she turned her body three-quarters and put her hands on her hips, turning her neck partially.
"I guess I'll give you a chance to redeem yourself." she said pretending to scold him.
"Thanks."
Everyone around them just couldn't help but find the scene entertaining.
Then Jaral reappeared as the blue field dissipated.
"So, how long can this last?" she asked Ezra.
"Well me and Jinx had ran different tests. Apparently it can keep you out of sight for 5 minutes straight, but even if you deactivate it before, it needs 20 seconds to recharge completely. I hope we will be able to improve it, but I'm certainly not complaining with the results."
"You can say that again." Hera commented enthusiastically. "With that duration, you can enter and exit an imperial base without anyone seeing you."
"Well, it has its limitations. For example, this is exclusive to our armors."
The enthusiasm in the room quickly dissipated at the news.
"Alas," Jaral said with a hint of regret. "while we took many theories and mechanisms from the cloaking device Rex was talking about, this is an adaptation to a blueprint of our father. Apparently, in the Milky Way they had already developed a cloaking device for single soldiers, though it lasted only a few seconds and deactivated as soon as you did anything else with the omni-tool. Hell, even shooting with your weapon would destabilize the field."
"So we worked with the technology in our galaxy to solve the problem, but as of now, we can only apply that on our armors."
"It's still very impressive, guys. Maybe one day we can equip other soldiers with that." Rex commented.
Jaral lifted a finger in front of her face.
"And...you just reminded me that we're wasting our time, here. Sabine, Zeb, Ezra and Chopper get to the Phantom, we're going to take a look at one of the old Republic bases that Rex so kindly informed us about, where we might be able to salvage some much-needed medical supplies."
Kanan objected.
"Wait a minute, Ezra has also skipped training for three days. If It's all about searching an abandoned base, I'm pretty sure he can stay here and focus on our lesson."
Ezra was about to say something, but Rex defended him.
"Relax, Kanan. He also needs to improve his wits. My Jedi general combined them with the Force and it made him a great warrior."
"Ezra has plenty of wits, but he still needs to improve his discipline." Kanan retorted, walking toward Rex.
Ezra rolled his eyes, along with Sabine and Jaral. Since Rex joined the fleet, he and Kanan had done nothing but bicker about their respective philosophies.
Rex stood up proudly. "Then you better let a soldier handle it."
"Excuse me?"
"No offense," Ezra interjected. "but until you two won't cease the crossfire, I prefer facing whatever is out there than staying here and listen to you guys." and he quickly climbed the ladder to the Phantom.
After flooring his two mentors, Ezra was followed by the rest of the designated team. Jaral detached the Phantom and they flew into a nearby void system, where they found an old, decommissioned medical station of the Republic.
As they approached the main hangar, Jinx transmitted the codes given by Rex, which surprisingly still worked.
The Phantom was guided to the ground gently and into the barely illuminated station.
There was still enough light for Ezra and Jaral helmet's night visors to work, while Sabine and Chopper lightened a couple of flashlights.
The droid trembled and made some worried rumbles.
"Come on Chop, it's not creepy, just dark. Nothing we can't handle." Ezra told him.
"Wait," Zeb asked. "You actually understand that over-glorified beeping trash can?" he had noticed that Ezra didn't require for Jinx to make a sarcastic comment or just plainly translating what Chopper was saying.
"Well," said Ezra. "I'm learning. Can't always let Jinx do the hard work."
"You're right," Jaral commented with a sassy attitude. "it would only increase his overconfidence."
Jinx heard that and spoke up on both their omni-tools.
"I don't require ulterior proofs to establish that I'm superior to the organics."
"See?" Ezra chuckled to the confused Zeb. "We have to be extra careful."
The group reached the closed anti-blast door. Sabine tried to push the button on the panel.
"Yup, as I feared. No power." she said behind her helmet.
"Zeb…" Jaral simply said with obvious tone.
"I'm on it."
The Lasat started to pull apart the panels of the door, until he could finally put his entire body and limbs to keep it open long enough for the rest of the group to pass through.
The squad walked through the hallway, where sometimes were small piles of junk that might have forced them to pass one by one in a narrow passage, lower their heads and slow them down in general.
At one point, Sabine stopped to start painting the Starbird with her paint-sprayer.
"Sabine, don't take it too long." Jaral admonished her as the rest of the group kept moving toward the command center of the station.
But Sabine took indeed too long. After two minutes without hearing anything from her, Jaral motioned Ezra to go back and call her while she and the other two companions waited.
Ezra went back and found Sabine pointing the flashlight to the opposite end of the hallway, as if she was looking for something.
"Sabine!" he called her, but she didn't respond.
So he got near her and extended his arm onto her shoulder. "Hey!"
Sabine gasped in fear and turned around, pointing the flashlight at his face. Then she sighed in frustration.
"Ezra!"
"What, you weren't responding. Is something wrong?"
The girl sighed again and took another look at the other end.
"No, probably just a shadow." and she started to walk toward their intended direction.
"You're not getting startled by a little darkness, I hope?"
"Watch your mouth, Bridger, because I'm still not sure if I want to forgive you for ignoring me."
Ezra smirked and brought his head near Sabine's. Even though they both had helmets, he whispered loud enough in a mischievous tone.
"When we get back, I promise I'll give you my full, undivided attention."
The implications were clear and Sabine didn't miss them.
She hummed pleased. "You better show me how sorry you are." she said with a lustful whisper.
They stopped as they noticed they were about to reach the rest of the squad. Then they all carried on with the task at hand. After a few other turns, the group finally reached the central command room of the station. While Jaral headed for the main computer, the others looked around, waiting.
"Chopper, restore energy." Jaral ordered.
The astromech plugged into the computer's socket and started working. A few moments later, the entire central section lights sprung back to life.
"Ehm, I meant only this control panel, Chop, not the entire station." Jaral said calmly.
Chopper complained.
"He's right, Jaral. You have to specify." Jinx commented.
Jaral rolled her eyes. "Ok...Chopper, please remove all the energy from the station except for this one panel." she said with a polite tone.
Chopper obliged and darkness soon fell on the station again. Only the light over the control panel was still working. Jaral connected Jinx to the terminal and he quickly found what they needed.
"I found the inventory files." the AI announced. "However, they are mostly corrupted. I will need a few minutes to restore them."
"Ok, so let's start searching for the supplies." Ezra proposed. "Jaral, you and Chopper stay here and wait for Jinx to restore the files and tell us where the supplies are, when we find something, we signal it to Chopper so he can come and drag it back to the Phantom."
"Sounds like a plan." Jaral said. "Let's do this."
Ezra led Sabine and Zeb down the next corridor, this time, though, it was so dark that he decided to activate the small flashlights attached on the forehead of the helmet, so that the night visor still had a source of light to amplify.
Zeb quickly started to complain, though.
"Why don't you put those Jedi powers of yours to use finding the medical supplies so we can get out of here?"
"The Force connects only the living things, Zeb." Ezra replied a bit annoyed at Zeb's tone. "I can't just find an inanimate object. And besides, I don't need my powers to find the supplies before you."
He stopped on their track. His head was turned left, the side where Zeb was, even if he was a meter behind his shoulder.
Zeb stopped and crossed his arms, frowning.
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"It means that while you were complaining, I found them." Ezra said smugly, pointing his left arm in the direction he was actually looking at.
There was a threshold leading to a storage room. Sabine pointed the flashlight and found a red crate with the symbol of the Old Republic on it. It was a crate of medical supplies.
The girl got in and immediately recognized them.
"Yup, he is right."
Zeb groaned. "You were lucky."
"Maybe." said Ezra before getting his omni-tool near his face. "Sis, we found the first stash of supplies. Marking position."
"Copy that, I'm sending Chopper. Jinx has found another stash of supplies two levels beneath. I'm sending the coordinates."
"On our way." Ezra said. "Come on, guys. I too don't want to stay on this station more than necessary."
"You can say that again." Sabine agreed. "This place looks like it's about to fall apart."
After sending her three companions to look for the other supplies, Jaral sent Chopper to recover the first stash while Jinx finished restoring the files in under four minutes.
"Jaral, I detected at least 12 depots, but only four of them might have not-expired medical supplies. Besides the one we already detected and the one Ezra and the others already found, the other two are on different arms of the station."
"Good job, Jinx. Mark the coordinates and let's regroup with Chopper."
After the AI was done, Jaral disconnected the omni-tool, then realized that Chopper should have come back to the center if he wanted to go back to the hangar with the supplies.
"Chopper, do you read me?" she asked in the comlink. No answer. "Chopper?" she asked again. "What is he doing now?" Jaral mumbled, then opened the line to Ezra. "Guys, Chopper might be in trouble."
"What do you mean 'might'?" her brother answered.
"I don't know. He's not responding and I can't trace his energy source. Let's regroup and look for him."
"Copy that. We're on our way." he answered before closing the comm.
"Jinx, focus your procs on the scanners. I want to know if even a whistle of air blows where it shouldn't."
"Prioritizing scanning tools."
Jaral took out her TL-50 and started to walk down the hallway that the rest of the squad had taken before, hoping to join with them sooner.
She also kept her eyes open in the hope to find Chopper or at least the medical supplies, so she would have a hint on where to find him, but she passed in front of the storage where Chopper was supposed to go, barely 200 m from the control room, and all she found was the supplies, still there.
In the end, she found Ezra, Sabine and Zeb jogging toward her.
"Found Chopper yet?" Ezra asked.
"No. And it seems like he never reached the storage room. The supplies are still there."
"Karabast." Zeb commented. "What is that bucket of bolts doing?"
"I don't know. But our priority are still the supplies." Jaral dictated. "Zeb, you and I are taking that crate back to the Phantom. Ezra, Sabine, you start looking around for Chopper. Maybe he just got lost over something, but honestly there's something I don't like here."
"You too, uh?" Ezra said.
"Yeah. Once we get the supplies back, we're coming back to help you. Let's move."
Jaral and Zeb walked back to the storage room, later coming out with Zeb holding the crate under his arm.
"If Chopper never got there, maybe we should check the corridors." Sabine suggested Ezra.
"Good idea."
The couple moved to inspect one of said corridors, not finding anything yet. Then the voice of Chopper attracted them into another hallway. As they reached the source of the sound, they noticed that, even though it was Chopper's voice, the astromech wasn't actually there.
"Chopper?" Sabine asked, pointing the flashlight toward what seemed a red photoreceptor.
The light revealed to be the eye of a black droid, hovering behind a metal plate on the ground, with five small, tentacle-like pincer legs. It emitted a pretty creepy sound.
"What is that?" Ezra asked, unsettled.
"It's an ID9 seeker droid." Jinx explained. "It comes with an electro-shock prod and a small blaster."
The droid hovered backward, landing on an arm. It was then that Ezra and Sabine noticed a humanoid figure in a black suit and a mask covering its face.
"My pet told me that you were here." the figure said with a voice modifier in the mask. It sounded like a woman, anyway. "I've been searching you for quite a while."
"A bounty hunter?" Ezra asked, pointing his repeater.
"Guess again." the figure said, igniting a red lightsaber.
Ezra gasped quietly, then he quickly used his left arm to fold his repeater on his back while the right hand quickly grabbed and ignited his lightsaber.
"Inquisitor." Ezra affirmed dryly.
"Oh good." the woman said with a mockingly relieved tone. "I don't have to explain it to you." two other seeker droids came from behind her back. "So you know what happens next." and she extended an arm toward the two.
"Sabine, run!" Ezra ordered.
"Not an option." she replied.
"You give me cover fire. Now, move!" he retorted.
Sabine went back into the previous hallway, shooting with her two pistols at the droids, which showed to be incredibly agile and evaded the shots. Ezra followed her, keeping an eye to their backs.
The seekers easily caught up to them and kept avoiding Sabine's bolts. One of them actually managed to grab her forearm and release a short discharge, but Sabine managed to shake it off while Ezra surged forward to face the female Inquisitor in a saber duel.
Surprisingly, the boy managed to keep up with her, the results of his training and experience against the previous Inquisitor definitely carrying a strong weight.
The Inquisitor was forced to activate her second blade and make it spin around to force Ezra on the defense. Seeing that the dark-sider was just buying time, Ezra made a jump back, slashing one of the seeker droids in half during the process, reaching Sabine's side.
"We need to meet up with the others." the mandalorian said quite urgently.
"This way." Ezra said, indicating a curve behind them.
The two sprinted there only to find in front of a giant man with the same suit of the Inquisitor. The hulk was holding the hilt of his lightsaber in his hand, but what stroke Ezra the most was his face: it was gray, as if it was made of stone, and his eyes were a mint color, almost devoid. Ezra couldn't tell what species that man could be, but he quickly lost interest as he ignited his crimson blade.
"This wasn't part of the plan." Ezra commented, before he and Sabine turned on their heels and ran into another hallway.
The kept running, but the two Inquisitors were right behind them, and the two remaining seeker droids were also firing at them, forcing the two teens to stop from time to time. Ezra quickly realized that they couldn't keep up with this.
Therefore, he waited until Sabine had run over one of the open blast doors.
"Sabine." he said. "I'll wait for you guys."
"What...no!" Sabine stopped and turned her head, only to see that Ezra was about to slash the door panel.
"EZRA!" she screamed.
But the boy cut the panel. Sabine almost slammed into the blast door as she was sprinting back to get him.
Behind the door, Ezra saw the two seeker droids coming straight at him, but now he simply pointed his left arm and used the power 'overload' to fry their systems. A small electric field enveloped the two machines when they were near to each other, and the droids crashed on the floor, still buzzing.
By then, the Inquisitors were standing a few meters from Ezra.
The woman's mask retracted, revealing a mirialan with the classic yellow eyes of the dark-siders.
"Such a noble act." the mirialan spoke with what seemed to be a voice with two different timbres that created a small echo. "Just like a Jedi."
"I'm learning." Ezra replied smugly, assuming the ready position of the form he decided to adopt.
As she and Zeb were closing again the door of the Phantom, Jaral felt a sense of alarm buzzing at her mind. She immediately recognized the Force bond telling her that Ezra had found some pretty consistent trouble.
As she and Zeb started running toward the hallway in which she had last seen her two companions, the voice of Sabine came echoed through.
"Jaral! Zeb!"
"Sabine, over here!" the girl responded.
Finally the three reconnected. Sabine was panting a bit.
"What happened?" Jaral asked urgently. "I felt something bad in the Force."
"They trapped Ezra." Sabine said with a hint of desperation.
"Who trapped Ezra?" Zeb asked.
"Inquisitors. Two of them."
The news was horrible for Jaral and Zeb as well.
"One wasn't enough, uh?" Zeb commented. "We need to get Kanan."
"No," Jaral intervened. "if we send a signal we might compromise the fleet. We have to rescue Ezra by ourselves."
"How?" the Lasat asked in disbelief.
"Jinx, are you tracking Ezra's armor's beacon?"
"Affirmative. Ezra is currently engaging the Inquisitors. I think he's trying to draw them back to the hangar we came from."
"Wait, he's actually fending them off? On his own?" Sabine asked, she and Zeb were incredulous.
Jaral smirked under the helmet. "That's my little brother for you." then she turned toward the direction of the hangar. "Come on, I came up with a plan." and started running.
As the three Specters turned into a secondary hallway, they surprisingly stumbled upon Chopper, who was laying down on the floor, apparently deactivated.
"Chopper! What did they do to you?" Zeb asked concerned.
Jaral used the omni-tool to give a spark of energy to the droid. Luckily, he wasn't that damaged. All three of the Specters concluded in their minds that he must had been attacked by one of the seeker droids, which probably registered his sounds to draw Ezra and Sabine away.
Chopper started chirping and warbling rapidly. Zeb put him back on his struts as the droid span his dome vertiginously, then took out his handler to mock some martial arts blows, as if he was still in danger. Once he realized that he was actually safe, he spoke binary in panic.
"Yes, Chopper." Jaral simply said. "We know we have a problem. And my plan has just changed. Zeb, take Chopper back to the Phantom and prepare it for immediate takeoff."
"Shouldn't we stay together?" Zeb countered.
"Don't worry. I have an idea that will most likely even the odds. And we're gonna need a quick exit from here."
"You're the boss...come on Chopper." Zeb said as he started jogging toward the hangar. Chopper followed him warbling. "You know I don't understand you, just shut up." Sabine and Jaral heard from the corridor.
"So, what's the plan?" Sabine asked.
"We have to find Ezra. Or better, you have to find Ezra..."
After sending Sabine away, Ezra felt like he could finally give all of his focus on the two opponents in front of him.
First things first, he retracted his helmet and the armor plates, as they hindered his agility and the ability to feel his surroundings. Now he was only wearing the nano-suit, as in the past few weeks he had put a lot of effort into training with it. Exploiting the advantages given by the suit with his great agility, Ezra was confident that he would be able to go toe-to-toe even with two of these guys.
He quickly realized that he couldn't rely on his strength, as the brute facing him was certainly on par if not stronger than him. The woman was agile and fast, but Ezra still beat her to it, so he had to stay mobile, using his technological perks to keep his opponents under pressure and not allowing them to pin him down. He was particularly worried about the possibility that the gray-skinned man would force him into a lock, which would most likely spell doom for Ezra. At least he had already taken out the seeker droids, he thought.
As he was cornered to the door, Ezra needed to free himself first. His chance quickly came as the impatient brute charged at him, eager to earn the kill and the glory. As he lifted his blade, Ezra hit him with a stun shot from the omni-tool. The loud air explosion made him stumble back, his guard wide open. Ezra jumped forward and delivered a crushing flying kick on the dark-sider's stomach, making him fall and exploiting the gap to flee from his disadvantageous position.
"You fool!" the mirialan retorted to her fellow dark-sider. Then she darted toward Ezra, moving in a lateral fashion as to take him by surprise. Ezra, however, managed to parry her strike anyway, pushing her back while he also started to slowly fall back. The other Inquisitor finally regained his feet and now the two dark-siders stood against Ezra again.
The boy was indeed frightened, but he managed to keep calm. His mind racing to his companions, to Sabine and Jaral in particular, who he was certain they were trying to reach him at this point, and if he wanted them to have any chance of helping him, he couldn't allow himself to lose and being captured, or worse.
Ezra used a moment of stalling from the Inquisitors to take a silent breath and connect himself to the Force, as he assumed a new defensive form of dueling.
When the Inquisitors attacked together, Ezra quickly noticed that they were far from coordinated. He realized that the woman wanted to capture him, and thus she was relatively holding back, while the man was more than eager to kill him after Ezra hit him. By doing this, they allowed Ezra to focus on one opponent at a time, and they even happened to get into each other's way from time to time.
Any time Ezra saw an opening to strike, he would rather use it to Force push away one of his opponents, as it was the quickest solution than slashing him/her, not leaving the other dark-sider the time to react.
Plus, Ezra realized that, while their abilities with a lightsaber were pretty good, the two Inquisitors seemed way less dangerous than the last one. He could clearly see all of their movements, while the Pau'an he faced a few months before sometimes eluded his awareness during sword fights.
The boy focused entirely on defense while slowly retreating in the hallways. Jinx was suggesting in his hear where to turn every time in order to get to the hangar quickly.
As he repelled another attack, Ezra suddenly heard blaster fire behind him, however, those bolts went for the Inquisitors. The dark-siders parried them, but the bolts kept coming. And Ezra recognized the weapons firing. He shot a glance backward and saw her.
"Sabine! What are you doing?" he reprimanded.
"Just get your ass over here!" she spat back as she kept exhausting her pistols on the dark-siders.
Ezra used the opportunity to start jogging backward, never losing sight of the two opponents. When he reached Sabine's side, the girl stopped shooting and started moving backward as well.
"Tell me this is part of the plan." Ezra talked under his panting breath.
"Of course it is." the girl answered from under her helmet.
The dark-siders were now very much frustrated and charged forward. They didn't notice that they were surpassing a lateral storage room on the side of the male Inquisitor. Hiding in there was Jaral, her cloaking device activated. Normally, the Inquisitors should have been able to perceive her presence, but they were just too focused on the teens in front of them. Sabine focused fire on the mirialan while Ezra stood ready to defend against the gray man, but then the latter was hit in the back by a cryogenic explosion and he screamed in pain, falling to his knees as the liquid nitrogen froze his back and part of his muscles.
The mirialan was confused and stopped, trying to understand who did that, but Sabine's fire prevented her from concentrating, even more when Ezra used the blaster function of his lightsaber. Then the other Inquisitor was lifted from the ground and thrown against his fellow dark-sider, they both smashed violently against the wall.
Jaral deactivated the cloaking device, much to the pleasant surprise of Ezra.
"Let's go!" the girl urged her companions and they sprinted back to the hangar, which by now wasn't very far.
"How do you like your present now, sis?" Ezra couldn't help but ask that with a smile.
"Best birthday ever." Jaral replied with an amused tone under her helmet.
They quickly reached the hangar and sealed the door to the hallway to be sure that the Inquisitors wouldn't follow them. Though it didn't prevent them from jumping onto the Phantom in a hurry.
"Go! Go! Go!" Jaral screamed at Zeb, who was piloting the vessel.
The Lasat lifted the ship and they shot out into the expanse of space, finally leaving the station.
Ezra breathed a huge sigh of relief.
"That was a close one." he commented, but he was interrupted by a new sense of danger tingling in the Force.
He turned and saw Sabine preparing to hit him with her helmet, her eyes screaming rage.
The boy lifted his arm in defense as the girl brought down the hit on his arms.
"You idiot!" she screamed, hitting him again and again as she spoke. "Don't you...ever...try...and leave me...behind-"
She wanted to say something else, but as he bore down another hit, Ezra grabbed her wrist gently with a hand while putting the other on her back and pushing her in for a long and deep kiss.
Sabine's fury melted away in front of that. She let her helmet fall to the ground as she embraced him and returned the gesture.
When they separated, Ezra looked at her with a gentle smile and a bit of a regretful gaze.
"I'm sorry. Didn't want to frighten you." and he gently hugged her.
Sabine pushed her head on his chest and put her arms around his torso tightly, a few tears of joy and residual fear for him flowing out of her eyes.
Jaral simply smiled at the scene and went to the commands with Zeb and Chopper in order to leave the two of them as alone as possible in that small space.
The Phantom returned to the Ghost without any other incident.
Ezra was the first to slid down from the ladder and saw Kanan and Rex playing dejarik with a cordial mood, while Hera was reading a datapad on the nearby wooden chair.
When Kanan saw his apprentice he commented to Rex "Speaking of lack of discipline…" then raised to his feet.
"Ezra, we need to talk."
"Yeah, we do." Ezra said meekly. "About the two Inquisitors we just ran into."
"Inquisitors?" Kanan exclaimed. Rex and Hera jumped on their feet and the three adults looked at each other with visible shock.
Sabine and Jaral came down next and the mandalorian spoke.
"Yeah. We only got away thanks to Ezra." she said with worry but also being very proud of him. She intertwined her fingers with one of his hands. "He managed to fight them off for several minutes until we could stun them and get away safely."
The adults were surprised, but happy at the news.
"Well done, soldier." Rex complimented him. Ezra nodded composedly.
Finally, Zeb climbed down with the crate of medical supplies.
"Those Inquisitors are nasty business, anyway." the Lasat commented. "Kanan, why you didn't tell us there were others?"
Kanan lowered his head in a bit of a shame. Jaral quickly realized that he simply had no idea.
"Come on, guys." she said. "We need to give Sato a full report about this."
"At least we got some of the supplies." Ezra said, trying to find the positive side of the matter.
Hera reassured him that this was indeed good news.
The strike team left the room with the supplies, that would've been delivered to the Liberator's med bay.
After giving Sato the report, Ezra, Sabine and Zeb were sent back to the Ghost by Jaral, telling them to rest. Ezra didn't even bother asking her what she was going to do as his sister quickly turned to Darvos and asked if she could use his cabin. The lieutenant, of course, happily obliged.
So Ezra and Sabine went to the latter's quarters. As soon as they closed the door behind them, Sabine pushed Ezra to the wall and kept her hands on his chest. He had already removed his armor, and she definitely preferred to touch his shirt than the hard armor.
"Now, I think you said something about getting my forgiveness?" she said with a smirk and narrowed eyes. She enjoyed pressing her hands on his muscular chest.
Ezra chuckled. "I sure did. After all I have sinned, letting my goddess alone for three days."
"Good boy. So, what do you intend to do?" she whispered, getting her mouth a millimeter away from his.
"Well, since I have to repent, whatever you want to do." he said while sliding his hands onto her hips.
"Everything?"
"Everything."
She smirked mischievously.
"Then start removing this annoying rags, and then remove mine. Then you're going to thoroughly show me how much you're sorry over there." she said tilting her head toward the bunk.
"This is the best punishment ever." the boy said while starting to remove his jacket.
Once he completed his first task, he lifted and carried her to the bunk. And so they closed that long and difficult day, emptying their leftover energies in a long session of repentance.