Chapter 42
-Sabine POV-
Location: Epsilon Station
System: Epsilon Star System
Date: 5 ABY - Month 2 - Day 30
...
It's been several weeks since Ezra went missing. Vader had set a trap and managed to destroy an entire battle fleet and nearly took out another. A top admiral is confirmed KIA, Ezra is MIA, hundreds of Rebels dead or missing - if it wasn't for Tenith's navigation program that automatically wipes all navigational data upon a ship's destruction, the Empire would already be at their front door. That and the fact that Luke Skywalker is back with the Rebellion is the only good side to all of this - but even those aren't enough to help Sabine's emotions.
She's already gone through nearly half of the Rebel's seemingly endless supply of targets and training dummies, doing everything from shooting, blowing them up, hacking and slashing them to pieces, and even just punching and kicking them hard enough to knock the heads off a few dummies. Rex had to force her out of the training facilities so he could spare the rest of the supply for the other rebels. She hardly ate a proper meal, usually only eating a ration stick while she stares at a map or paints her room, or just listening to Imperial broadcasts trying to figure out anything about Ezra's whereabouts.
Sabine was present at an emergency meeting that Hera called into order the same week Ezra went missing where she made the decision to divert every resource she could spare to finding anything out about Ezra - whether he's dead or alive, and if he is alive, where he's being held and what is happening to him. Some of their best intelligence agents and most trusted contacts are keeping their eyes and ears open for any sign of him. Even though whatever resource she can spare isn't a lot - with the war restarted and heavy fighting all over the galaxy, vital resources are needed everywhere, leaving just scraps for this search. As important as finding Ezra is to Sabine and the rest of command, they cannot put the war on hold to find him.
Once word of Ezra's capture reached the Terrans, they've offered to assist in the search. Since they themselves are not in direct war against the Empire, they can spare more resources into tracking him down, though not too much more since they are engaged in a skirmish war with the Conglomeration.
...
"Sabine, you've been staring at that map for days!" Hera exclaims. "I'm about to order you to your quarters to rest!"
She's sitting in the command room with Hera and a few other members of Central Command, as well as a few intelligence officers tasked with searching for Ezra's whereabouts, or those of the Imperial 501st. She's been running on no sleep - just caf and ration sticks. She looks terrible with dark bags under her bloodshot eyes - she looks as if she's about to pass out at any moment.
"I can't rest, Hera," she protests. "Not while Ezra is out there."
"If I know anything about how the Empire treats the Jedi," Kanan begins, "is that they probably won't let Ezra get rest."
That's not reassuring in the least, but he's not done talking. "But that doesn't mean you can deprive yourself of it. I know you're upset, Sabine, but you have to be able to let go."
"Let go?!" Sabine shouts. "That's easy for you to say, for a Jedi!"
Kanan grimaces as though he's been stabbed. "You're right, it's easy to say. But that doesn't mean this is any easier on me as it is on you."
"This is hard on everyone, Sabine, and we have our best intelligence officers searching for him," Hera comments. "Let them do their jobs and get yourself some rest."
Sabine chokes up with anger and fear. She wants to argue, but their cards are on the table. Their tones make it known that they won't leave any room for more arguing so Sabine smacks the holotable and storms out. Her thoughts are racing through her mind at lightspeed and she can't keep up with them - Ezra's broken fighter just floating in space, the certainty that he's being tortured at that very moment for information, the helpless feeling she's filled with knowing she can't do anything to help him. She's certain she won't be able to get any sleep, but once she reaches her quarters and lies down on her bed, all her anger and what little energy she had completely drained from her body. The moment her head hit the pillow, she was met with darkness.
...
She's used to nightmares. She had them since she was forced to leave her family after the Empire used weapons she designed against her people. They were always about what had happened then - sometimes there were different things happening, but they've always led to the same outcome. She'd gotten used to those nightmares. This time was different. She was seeing Ezra restrained on an interrogation table. He was looking right at her, but didn't seem to see her. He looked awful. Cuts all over his face and arms, a bloody lip and swollen black eye, his right arm looked like it had been twisted to unnatural angles, then set back in place. His shirt was shredded, revealing even more cuts and bruises. His face showed clear agony, but his eyes were full of defiance.
Sabine's heart broke at the sight. She willed herself to reach out to him, but her arm wouldn't move. Her feet refused to take any steps. But she could look around seemingly at her own will.
A mechanical voice could be heard in the dark corner of the room and Sabine knew immediately who it was.
"You are more stubborn than I had expected," the Sith lord muses. "You could have avoided all this pain had you just told me where your friends are hiding."
"Unlike some people," Ezra growls. "I don't betray my friends."
"Perhaps not," the Sith agrees. "But that doesn't mean you can't be turned nonetheless. By the time I'm done with you, you will either be serving the Emperor, or dead."
"Might as well kill me now," Ezra says.
It's clear he isn't interested in any more talk and Sabine can tell the armor-clad Sith can sense it too.
"So be it."
The sound of electricity buzzes through the air and Ezra grits his teeth, obviously trying hard not to give Vader the satisfaction of hearing him scream.
Sabine can't bear to watch any more, but her nightmare is cruel this time and forces her to watch. She wants to wake up desperately, but she seems to have lost any ability to do anything. She hears a sickening crack and Ezra finally screams - a frightening, bloodcurdling scream that could scar the most hardened Mandalorian. His right arm is now twisted at an awful angle and Sabine somehow knows that Vader must have used the Force to inflict that kind of pain.
It's only then that her nightmare ends.
She bolts upright in her bed, soaked head to toe with sweat, her heart beating so fast and so hard that she's afraid it might explode. She draws in a deep breath in an attempt to slow her heart, but she ends up giving herself a coughing fit. She finally realizes that she's hyperventilating, and that realization frightens her. She never hyperventilates, much less has a panic attack.
She crawls over to her refresher and forces herself to stand at the sink. With shaking hands, she turns on the water and douses herself with cold water. The shock she feels from it makes her breathing hitch, but it's enough to start calming her down. Her mind drifts to what she saw and she suddenly feels sick to the stomach. She scrambles across the refresher and empties her stomach of what little food she'd eaten that day. She knows she needs to find Ezra and fast. Otherwise she may never see him again.
...
One week later...
"Commander, there's nothing here," the ship captain reports, his voice full of regret and disappointment.
"Scan it again," Sabine orders.
"With all due respect, ma'am," the captain begins, "we've scanned the surface five times already. We would've found something by now."
Her right hand curls into a fist and she clenches her teeth, her eyes shut tight. Images from her nightmare and others since that night flash through her mind. She's desperate to find Ezra, but she knows the captain is right. They would have found something already.
"Alright," she says with difficulty. "Let's go then. We'll check the next location."
They've been following reports of possible sightings of the 501st. There isn't a lot that they could get about Ezra's whereabouts, except the fact that the Empire is keeping him mobile. They aren't holding him in one set location so Sabine suspects that he's in the middle of the dreaded fleet - in the heart of Vader's flagship. But they can't leave anything to chance so they've been scanning every system they pass through. It's impressive to say the least that the Empire is able to hide a massive fleet, unless perhaps they've already started spreading out to avoid detection.
Come on, Ezra, Sabine thinks to herself. Where are you?
The corvette she's commanding jumps into hyperspace, the soft hum of the engines normally sooth her, but she's so full of anxiety that she can't relax. She tries to look around at the shiny new bridge of a CR-100. This ship - plus 19 others - are a brand new class meant to replace their aging CR-90 Corvettes currently serving. They're all tasked with going out and searching for Ezra, and to keep under Imperial eyes, they've removed the rebel colors and emblems and kept them painted white.
They've already snuck through several Imperial checkpoints the past couple days using old yet valid civilian codes and the Empire doesn't suspect a thing. At least, that's Sabine's hope. If they know they're rebels they haven't done anything to stop them. Either it's another trap or they really don't know.
Sabine gets up from the captain's chair and walks over to a console to her left, opening up a map of the galaxy. It's been marked with places already checked, places currently being checked, and places that have yet to be checked. They've got probes everywhere and they still have close to nothing on Ezra's whereabouts. That thought makes Sabine's throat close up and her chest tighten. She opens a few recent scouting reports from the probes and other ships and they're all the same thing. Nothing found - not even a trail or a clue.
A shaky sigh leaves her lungs and the ship captain walks up next to her.
"Are you alright, Commander?" he asks her, noticing her expression. They're keeping their voices low so the rest of the bridge crew can't hear them.
"Honestly? No, I'm not alright." She doesn't even look at him. She just shuts her eyes and balls her fist against the console, trying to keep her emotions in check. It's never been this hard for her before.
"We'll find him. Sooner or later, we'll bring him home."
"I hope so," Sabine says, opening her eyes to look back at the map. "It's been so long... What if he's not even alive anymore?"
"You shouldn't think like that, commander. You should trust him."
"I do trust him, captain," she says. "But there's only so much he can handle on his own."
The captain nods. He can't argue against that logic. "You should go get some rest. I'll notify you if there's anything new."
She wants to protest, but she's done enough of that already. She just sighs and shuts off the console. "If it's the same news we've been getting, don't even bother telling me."
"Understood."
She leaves the bridge and finds her quarters, locking the door once she's inside when she lets her emotions out. Her eyes burn with tears and her face feels hot as she angrily draws her knife and throws it into the wall, screaming in frustration and pain. It sticks perfectly, the blade sinking almost to the hilt. Her hand doesn't usually hurt anymore since it's been several weeks since she's broken it and the bacta treatment has sped up its healing, but this time the old injury seems to resurface and it makes her hand ache.
She thinks about everything they've been through together. That day they first met, when she and the rest of the Ghost crew were trying to steal Imperial blasters. Ezra had come out of nowhere and driven off with one of the speeders. When Ezra showed her the TIE he and Zeb stole and he had her paint it. She thought about the time they used that TIE to rescue Kanan from the Grand Inquisitor. Their run to the abandoned Republic medical station where they encountered two other Inquisitors, and Ezra protecting Sabine from them. When Ezra helped her reconcile with her family and bring them from the Empire's grasp. She smiles at the thought of his stupid smirk whenever he made an annoying comment - though she had grown to miss that smirk after Yavin. He rarely ever smiled after that, up until they discovered Epsilon. They way his eyes seemed to shine when they found the Jedi cruiser in one of the hangars, and again after the reveal of the Avenger class star destroyer.
Her throat starts to tighten again at the thought of their confession to each other. The memory of their first kiss - it was almost the end of them then. They were sacrificing themselves to destroy the Death Star. They've survived that. They've survived everything else. She thinks about Ezra's confident demeanor while he's in command. The reassuring smile he'd give her when things look grim. She thinks of what the ship captain had told her - trust that Ezra will make it out.
The truth is she trusts Ezra completely. And she knows he wouldn't want her to be distraught - he'd want her to be focused. Even though she's still choked up, she smiles and forces herself to breathe.
We'll find you, Ezra. Just hang in there a little longer.
...
A few more days pass and Sabine's ship is ordered to return to base. Hera herself contacted them and told them to return for reassignment. Naturally, Sabine was furious and protested the order, but Hera wouldn't give in, promising Sabine that they're not done searching. So there she is, standing on the bridge of her corvette, staring at the blue swirl of hyperspace. Her thoughts are everywhere and nowhere at once. She feels empty. She's starting to lose hope.
A communication console beeps with a new report, but Sabine tunes it out. She's just about to leave the bridge when the officer calls out to the captain.
"Sir! You need to see this!"
Sabine's head snaps around until her gaze settles on the officer. The ship captain rushes to his side and reads the report. His eyes widen and he turns to meet Sabine's.
"Captain?" she asks.
"We have a confirmed sighting of an Executor SSD. It's signature matches Vader's flagship. One of our other patrols spotted it and managed to place a tracker via stealth-X."
"Do we know if Ezra is on board?"
Or even alive...
"There's no way to know for sure but if we can get another Jedi out here. Or maybe somehow contact him..."
Sabine rushes to the helm. "How soon until we get back home?"
"We have another day, yet," the helmsman replies.
"Does Command know about this?" she asks then, looking over to the comms officer.
"It was broadcasted on a secure Rebel frequency. But they couldn't risk a possible interception and signal trace," the officer reports.
"Then we'll tell Hera once we're outside of Imperial comms range," the captain says. "I want power diverted from weapons to the hyperdrive."
...
Five days later...
There was an elite strike force put together for a high risk operation. Sabine is in charge and Luke is taking part in it. This is his first combat operation since Yavin IV and since he's returned to the rebellion, Kanan had been training him to use the Force. He can sense someone's presence easily now which is exactly what they need if they're going to find Ezra. If he's even on board, but several contacts have confirmed there are no records of Ezra being admitted to any prisons or camps.
The ship they're using for this operation is a stealth frigate - complete with sensor jammers, countermeasures, cloaking device, signature scramblers, the works.
The soldiers selected are part of the Delta and Omega squads - two of the Rebellion's most elite squads, even though they use the term squad pretty loosely since they're more the size of a company or battalion. Only the best of those two squads have been selected for this mission.
Right now they're in hyperspace, just minutes away from dropping back into subspace, outside the scan range of an Imperial fleet. A stealth fighter is currently in the system monitoring the fleet. Judging from the fleet's bearings, and checking the local star charts, they are not aligned to any known hyperspace routes.
"Coming out of hyperspace in three... two... one..."
The blue swirl quickly changes into the spotted blackness of normal space and right in front of them lies the Imperial fleet. At its center is the Executor.
"We've got visual confirmation of the target. Blackbird, continue to maintain surveillance of the target," the ship captain orders. "Once we get the green light from Commander Skywalker, we'll either move in or pull out."
"Understood, sir!"
Sabine's heart rate quickens and she looks at Luke with hope in her eyes. He looks back at her, looking a bit uneasy.
"It's cold..." he says.
"Ezra said that before..." Sabine says. She has trouble finishing her sentence. "Before he..."
"So this is how the dark side feels... I don't like it," he says then.
"If you feel cold then that means Vader is here," Sabine says.
"It's possible that if I can sense him, then he can sense me, too. I might be endangering this mission."
"Perhaps, but first thing's first. Is Ezra there?" Sabine asks him, her tone turning urgent.
Luke closes his eyes for a few moments, trying to concentrate. He soon reopens them and catches Sabine's eyes.
"I think he's there, but it doesn't feel good," he says.
"How so?" the captain asks.
"Not really cold like a Sith lord," he explains. "But it's... it doesn't feel warm either. He's there and... barely alive. I think."
Sabine looks at the dreadnought. "Captain, let's proceed."
"Yes ma'am. Cloaking systems active, we're going in."
"I'm going to try to hide my presence," Luke says. "Like how Kanan taught me."
"Good idea. We don't want them to know we're here," Sabine says.
She doesn't take her eyes off the dreadnought. Ezra's close and she knows it. He's alive, but Luke said something wasn't right. All she can hope for is that she isn't too late.
...
A/N: Specifications for the CR-100 are unknown but a reference photo will be added to the Archive. As a disclaimer, I am not the owner of the design- all credit goes to the owner.