First chapter of the sequel to my previous fanfic: The Descendant of Revan (Even though it's technically incomplete because Disney's now releasing a season 7 of The Clone Wars) First things first. If you haven't read the fanfic in the top sentence, I suggest doing so. Otherwise the title will sound misleading and certain things won't make sense. One other thing: Unlike the fanfic mentioned above this one will not be split into separate seasons just like the description said, which means it could take years before this is completed. It took me roughly 4 years to complete all five books of my previous fanfic.
"Are you certain we should hire him?" Hera Syndula, captain of the Ghost asked the hologram of rebel informant Fulcrum. "Yes. He is someone you want, but do not mention me. Things between us are... tense at the moment." they replied. "I won't, thank you, Fulcrum." she replied before the transmission ended and she walked back to the cockpit where Kanan Jarrus, Jedi-in-hiding sat at the co-pilot seat. "So, did they say where this guy is?" he asked as she sat and punched in the coordinates. "Yes, Tatooine. Mos Espa spaceport." she replied before they jumped into hyperspace. "Way in the Outer Rim... I wonder why..." he trailed off.
"Fulcrum says things are tense between them right now, so whatever you do, don't mention their name." Hera replied, earning a nod from him. "Did you get his name?" he asked a few seconds later. "Yes and he'll be wearing Mandalorian armor." she replied. "A Mandalorian?" a voice asked from the doorway as a female mandalorian walked in. Sabine Wren sat in the chair behind Kanan and took her helmet off before placing it on the ground beside her. "Yes, Fulcrum says we may need him just in case." Hera replied as the teen nodded, curious to see another mandalorian after so long.
The ship exited hyperspace just above the sand-covered planet before descending to the planet and landing just outside of Mos Espa. Hera, Kanan and Sabine exited the ship and made their way into the spaceport settlement. The three entered the nearest bar and looked around, noticing all sorts of different aliens drinking at partying.
"There." Sabine said, pointing at the table where a man in Mandalorian armor sat shuffling cards. The three walked over to his table and sat in the three chairs across from him. A few seconds went by before he spoke while still shuffling. "Can I help you?" he asked.
"Yes, we were wondering... are you Anakin?" Hera asked as he continued shuffling. "Do I owe you money?" he asked. Hera shared a look with her friends. "No." she replied.
"Then Anakin I be." he said, taking off his helmet after setting the cards down. Sabine blushed and was glad she still had her helmet on.
"I assume your here to hire me. In that case a hundred creds a mission for as long as you want me. Anything not job related is an extra hundred per job. You can pay me at the end of each month. Miss three payments or attempt to backstab me and I'll sell you out to the Empire. They've put a price on rebels. I know Fulcrum told you to hire me because you used my name not my title: The Merc With No Fear. That sum everything up?" he said, shuffling the cards with a bored look on his face while the three stared at him with jaws dropped at how quickly he figured that out and how casually he said it all.
Anakin drank the Jawa juice that was just set on the table in one swig before standing up, slipping the card deck into one of his belt's pockets then slipped his helmet on. "So where we headed?" he asked the three still surprised rebels.
The young man met and spoke with other two Ghost crew Garazeb Orrelios or Zeb for short, one of the few Lasat still alive after the massacre of his people and C1-10P or Chopper, a rude and cranky old C1-series astromech droid. 'He's like the opposite of Katie.' Anakin entered the cockpit just as the ship exited hyperspace above Lothal.
"Another planet on the ass-end of nowhere." he mumbled to himself as they entered the atmosphere and landed in the grass plains far outside the capital. "So what's the job?" Anakin asked as he and the others, minus Hera and Chopper, walked down the ship's ramp.
"Two jobs actually. This one is stealing blasters from the imperials and the other is getting the location of some Wookie prisoners." Sabine explained. "All right." he replied.
Now in the Capital the rebels and merc waited patiently as Kanan and Zeb over to Anakin and Sabine. 'First I sensed Kanan when he arrived on Tatooine, now I'm sensing someone nearby here on Lothal.' Kanan patted his leg when he stopped near the two teens, signalling them before Sabine did the same.
The young woman walked over to a speeder bike a casually tossed a thermal detonator on it as she turned to start walking back towards the others.
An AT-DP trooper noticed the beeping and turned around to stop Sabine before the bike exploded, killing the trooper. "Get those crates out of here! Keep them secure at all costs!" one of the three Imperial Officers ordered the other AT-DP troopers who quickly mounted the bikes with crates attached before taking off.
Anakin and Sabine made their way onto the rooftops before seeing some kid on one of the bikes about to zoom bye. Sabine suddenly jumped off the roof and landed perfectly on one of the crates. 'Impressive.'
After picking Kanan up they made their way in the direction the kid went and picked him up after Hera had blasted the TIE chasing him out of the sky. "Whoa! Do you have any idea what these are worth on the black market?" the kid asked in awe as he looked in the open crate filled with E-11 blaster rifles. "I do, actually." Kanan said.
"Don't get any ideas." Zeb warned. "They're mine." he protested as Zeb took the blaster out of his and put it back in the crate.
"If you hadn't gotten in our way-" the Lasat started before the kid interrupted him. "Too bad. I got to them first." he said. "It's not who's first. It's who's last." Kanan said. "What the hell does he mean?" Anakin whispered to Sabine. "Don't ask me. I still haven't figured him out." she whispered the reply.
"Keep an eye on our friend here." Kanan said before starting to climb the ladder. "Is babysitting part of this job?" the merc asked as Kanan was halfway up the ladder before sighing. "I'll add an extra hundred." the older man said before continuing up.
A few minutes later the kid was now sitting on one of the crates as the rebels and merc continued watching. "Look, I was just doing the same thing you were: stealing to survive-" the kid started before Zeb cut him off. "You have no idea what we were doing. You don't know us." Zeb snapped.
"And I don't want to. I just want off this burner." Ezra countered. "And I would like you to shut up. I'm being paid to watch you not hear you whine." Anakin said, which promptly shut the kid up, much to Zeb's amusement.
A blast from a TIE suddenly rocked the ship causing all but Anakin to fall over. "Get off! I… can't… breathe." the kid groaned seeing as how Zeb had fallen right on him. "I'm not that heavy in this gravity." Zeb defended as he pushed off and stood up while Anakin help Sabine up.
"How did you not fall over?" she asked. "I've trained for this sorta thing." he replied with a small shrug. "Not the weight. The smell." the kid said groaning in disgust as he tried waving the supposed stench away.
"You don't like the air quality in here, eh? Fine. I'll give you your own room." Zeb replied before picking him up and tossing him into a small closet in the common room.
"Zeb, Sabine, Anakin? Where's the kid?" Kanan asked over the ship's com. "Calm down, chief. He's in- uh, here." the Lasat trailed off after opening the closet and seeing that the kid wasn't there anymore as they noticed the grate on the air vent inside was open.
"And there goes my extra hundred creds." the merc sighed. "Zeb, where is he?" Kanan asked him. "Well, he is still in the ship." he replied. "Oh, he's in the ship, all right." Sabine said as they heard him crawling through the air vent above them.
A few minutes later they found the kid sitting in the cargo bay turret and Sabine grabbed his shoulder before tossing him out of the seat.
Anakin blushed and felt his mouth dry when he face for the first time. 'Spirits... she's beautiful... This must be how dad felt when he met mom...' Anakin wondered as Sabine put her helmet on the top of the seat before sitting in it and taking shots at the TIE fighters.
"My name's Ezra. What's yours?" the kid now known as Ezra attempted to flirt with her, earning a brow raise and look from Anakin that said 'Really?'. 'Normally if someone flirted with a girl I liked I'd feel jealous and be worried they'd would win her heart before I had chance. But I don't have anything to worry about, judging by the annoyance I'm sensing from her.'
Zeb suddenly grabbed Ezra who had been standing beside the merc. "My name's Zeb, you Loth-rat." he growled. "Calculations complete, but we need an opening." Hera's voice sounded over the ship's com. "Found one." Sabine said, blasting a TIE to pieces.
"Entering hyperspace." Hera said before the blue swirling of hyperspace suddenly surrounded them.
"So just drop me and my blasters outside Capital City and-" Sabine cut Ezra off as the door opened while Anakin and Kanan stood behind her after the ship exited hyperspace back near Lothal. "They're not your blasters." she interrupted. "And we're not going back to Capital City. The job's not done."
Kanan said before the ship entered the atmosphere and Hera landed it on a grassy hill. The group minus Chopper exited the ship with different marked crates. "Hey, where are they going?" Ezra asked as Kanan and Hera walked off in a different direction.
"If I told you, I'd have to kill you. Oh, and I might just kill you anyway." Zeb said as he pushed two crates towards the small town.
"Grab a crate, pull your weight." Sabine said to Ezra as she passed him while pushing a crate and following Zeb. Anakin reluctantly trailing behind her. Ezra caught up while pushing a crate just as they reached the town. "Lived on Lothal my whole life. Never been here." he said as the four made their way through the small town.
"The Imperials don't advertise it." Sabine said. "Locals call it Tarkintown." Zeb told him. "Named for Grand Moff Tarkin, Governor of the Outer Rim. He kicked these folks off their farms when the Empire wanted their land." the mandalorian girl explained. "Anybody who tried to fight back got arrested, for treason." the Lasat said.
"Who wants free grub!" Zeb called out as he, Ezra and Sabine opened the crates to reveal food before the local came over and each took some. Sabine's brow furrowed when she noticed Anakin was leaning against one of the makeshift homes far away from them and decided to ask why he wasn't helping.
As she got closer the young woman noticed his shoulders were tense and he fidgeting a bit before her expression changed to worry and a wave of concern washed over her now that she realized he was very uncomfortable.
"Hey..." she said softly while gently placing a hand on his shoulder. The merc jumped slightly at not having sensed her before relaxing a bit. "Oh. Hey Sabine." he said quietly. "What's wrong?" she asked before he sighed.
"It's just... I've only ever done one other relief mission in the past two years I've been a mercenary and it got uncomfortable very fast once the people we helped started practically worshipping us for helping them. And it reminded me of a story my dad told me about a mission he and my mom had during the Clone Wars that involved slavers and how it almost went horribly wrong with my mom enslaved and my dad forced to pretend working for them for the rest of his life. And how he also mentioned that some slave masters would force their slaves to worship them. I mean a little praise I don't mind but something that borders on worship or goes straight to it..." he trailed off with a shudder.
Sabine's eyes widened at how much detail he he'd gone into and felt concern for her new friend when he shuddered. Anakin returned the hug she suddenly pulled him into before separating a minute later. "You going to be okay?" she asked gently as he nodded.
"I actually feel a bit better now that I've got that off my chest." he replied, smiling behind his helmet and even though she couldn't see it the mandalorian girl returned it. "One other thing." he said before stepping close to her.
"You're quite beautiful, Sabine... Especially this caring side of yours..." he said softly, caressing her one cheek with his thumb before walking back towards the others and leaving her blushing there. The young woman smiled shyly and only had one thought run through her head: 'I think I'm in love...'
Anakin quietly slurped on a bowl of noodles while Sabine drank a glass of water as the merc sensed Ezra walk into the kitchen. "Not too good at following directions, are you?" she asked the kid as the door closed. "Not so much. You?" he asked as she chuckled.
"Never been my specialty." she replied with a smirk. "Who are you people? I mean, you're not thieves exactly." he pointed out. "We're not exactly anything. We're a crew, a team, in some ways a family. Well except Anakin. We hired him for jobs like this." replied, gesturing to the other teen in the room.
"What happened to your real family?" Ezra asked her.
"The Empire. What happened to yours?" she replied. The door to the kitchen opened to reveal Zeb and Chopper before he could reply. "Kanan wants us in the common room. If he tries anything, sound the alarm. Or shoot him." Zeb said to the droid as he let out a complaining beep.
"Shush. Just watch him." Zeb ordered as Sabine grabbed her helmet and Anakin slipped his on before following Zeb. "Sabine. My name's Sabine." she said to the kid before following after the merc.
"We have a new mission. Vizago acquired the flight plan for an Imperial transport ship full of Wookiee prisoners." Kanan informed them after Zeb and the teens sat down while he and Hera remained standing. "Vizago? You trust that sleemo?" Anakin asked him. "You know him?" Sabine asked.
"Yeah. He hired me a few months before you guys did. Tried to talk his way out of paying, but a simple threat got me my well-earned credits." he replied.
"Most of these Wookiees were soldiers for the Old Republic." Hera said. "I owe those hairy beasts. They saved some of my people." the Lasat said. "Mine too." the Twi'lek said.
"If we're going to save them, we've got a tight window. They've been taken to an unknown slave labor camp. If we don't intercept this ship, we'll never find them. Now, I have a plan. But..." Kanan trailed off as they all turned their attention to the closet after hearing a loud bang come from inside. Kanan opened the door to Ezra right there, who promptly hit the ground from having been leaning against the door.
The kid let out a small groan of pain before standing up and trying to climb back into the air vent. Zeb quickly grabbed him by the ankles and pulled him out before tossing him to the ground in front of him and the others. "I ordered Chopper to keep watch." the Lasat growled as said droid entered the room letting out grumbling sounds.
Zeb growled threateningly at Ezra while punching a fist into his other hand. "Can we please get rid of him?" Zeb growled as he advanced on the kid before Sabine and Kanan held up one arm each to stop him. "No. We can't. The kid knows too much." Sabine said as Hera helped him up.
"We don't have time to take him home anyway. We need to move now. I'll keep an eye on him." she said before leading Ezra to the cockpit.
Anakin stood behind Zeb as the docking bay door was opened by the Imperials. "That thing's not a Wookiee." one stormtrooper said. "Haven't you ever seen a rare hairless Wookiee before?" Kanan asked them as Zeb tried to imitate a Wookiee growl.
The two stormtroopers looked at each other for second before looking back at the Lasat. "Oh, forget it." he said before punching both of them. "Told you they wouldn't buy it." he said as they stepped into the transport. "You didn't exactly give 'em a chance to buy it." the Mandalorian girl pointed out, blaster pistols ready.
"Ah. There's just something about the feel of their helmets on my fists." he replied with a chuckle. "Okay, you know the plan. Move out. No troopers. Security's soft." Kanan said as they they split up into two teams. Anakin, Sabine and Chopper on one and Kanan with Zeb on the other.
The teens and droid reached the freighter's control room and immediately worked on disabling the gravity. "Chopper, stop grumbling and work that gravity generator." Sabine told him as he grumbled. "I've got the backup ready. Anakin?" she asked as he pressed a few more buttons. "Ready." he replied.
"Now." she said as the droid turned of the gravity and they started floating. "Artificial gravity is down for two minutes." the Mandalorian girl said before the two teens placed detonators all over the room. Once done the two teens grabbed onto Chopper before he activated his thruster and propelled them out of the room.
Sabine started counting down once they neared the door where the ship was docked. "Five, four- get ready- Two, one." she said before they landed on the floor as the gravity turned back on. Anakin raised a brow when he noticed Ezra was right behind the two older men as they caught up to the droid and older teens.
"Where are the Wookiees?" she asked them. "No Wookiees. Sabine, man the nose gun. Chop, tell Hera to take off." Kanan ordered. "Uh... right." she replied, taken off guard by the sudden change of plan as they ran back onto their ship.
"There. Airlock shut. We're out of here!" Hera said over the ship's com before Sabine pressed the detonator controlling the bombs.
"The whole thing was a setup." Kanan sighed as he, Sabine and Anakin entered the cockpit after jumping to hyperspace. "You think Vizago was in on it?" she asked as they sat in the three unoccupied chairs.
"He'd sell his mother to Jawas for a couple credits. But we're a source of income for him. Even odds he didn't know. The kid did all right." Hera said as Zeb entered the cockpit. "He did okay. Where is he?" Kanan asked the Lasat. "I, uh, thought he was with you." he replied, sounding a bit nervous.
Anakin could sense a bit of guilt coming from him and did a small reading of his mind. 'So he left the kid when he was grabbed by an Imperial. Oh well, it's not like I was getting paid to protect him after all.'
"Zeb, what did you do to him?" the Mandalorian girl asked, sounding a bit worried. "I didn't do anything to him. But that I.S.B. agent grabbed him." he replied. "What?" all but Anakin exclaimed. "The kid got grabbed, okay?" he said. "Garazeb Orrelios!" Hera scolded.
'I know enough from my mother that when a woman uses your full name, you're in deep trouble.' The merc quietly sunk further in his seat, hoping to not draw attention to himself. "Oh, come on! We were dumping him after the mission anyway. This saves us fuel. They'll go easy on him. He's just a kid." Zeb said, looking at the ground in guilt.
"No. No, no. No way! You cannot be serious!" Zeb protested after Hera suggested they rescue Ezra. "It's our fault he was there." Hera reminded. "Come on, Hera! We just met this kid. We're not going back for him!" he tried reasoning.
"They'll be waiting for us. We can't save him." Sabine said, siding with the Lasat before Chopper grumbled in binary. "What? What did he say?" Zeb asked. "He voted with me. That's two against two. Kanan?" the Twi'lek asked him before he nodded after a few seconds of thinking.
And instead asking the merc, she just tossed a gold credit ingot worth a hundred on his lap. The the teen just smiled behind his helmet as he picked it up.
Hera landed in the star destroyer's hanger bay before the group minus Chopper exited their ship. "Find Ezra. I'll be ready." Hera said as she remained on the ship's ramp while the others took off towards the hallway. Sabine stopped near some crates for a second and painted an orange starbird on the floor before catching up.
'Seems like a weird time to vandalize the place.' "Hold this bay till we get back." Kanan ordered the Lasat. "And this time, try not to leave until everyone's back aboard." the Mandalorian girl added, half joking half serious. "That was not my fault Zeb defended as he stopped.
"Well, that's debatable." Ezra's voice was heard from the air vent above before he dropped down inbetween them, wearing an Imperial cadet helmet. Zeb suddenly punched the kid which knocked him down in front of the older teens and Kanan before standing up and taking the helmet off.
"First you ditch me, then you hit me?" he asked, glaring at Zeb. "How was I supposed to know it was you? You were wearing a bucket!" he defended himself just before the I.S.B agent and three stormtroopers rounded the corner and opened fire.
"Spectre-1 to Ghost we're leaving." Kanan said to Hera over his com as the group ran back into the hanger. Anakin pulled the trigger on his DC-15A blaster rifle twice, scoring headshots with both before running up the ship's ramp and into the cargo hold as Sabine removed her helmet.
Once everyone was in and Hera took off, Kanan nodded to Sabine with a smirk on his face. The Mandalorian girl returned it and pressed the button on the detonator in her hand before they heard an explosion just outside the ship. "Explosive paint? That's pretty impressive." Anakin complimented with a smile.
"Thanks." she replied, returning his smile with a small blush on her face as the ship entered hyperspace.
"I know where they're really taking the wookies." Ezra said as Kanan, Chopper and the two older teens entered the cockpit. "Have you heard of the spice mines of Kessel?" the younger teen asked as everyone became silent for a moment.
"Slaves sent there last a few months, maybe a year." Sabine replied, breaking the silence as she turned in her seat to face him. "And for wookies, born in the forest, it's a death sentence." Hera said. "Then I guess we better go save 'em." Ezra replied with a small smile. "'We'?" Sabine asked, sounding a bit confused.
"Come this far. Might as well finish the job." he replied with a small shrug. "Setting course for Kessel." Hera said, typing in the coordinates.
Hera opened fire on the Imperials surrounding the wookies after exiting hyperspace near Kessel and descending to the planet. Kanan, Zeb and the teens stood near the ramp and waited until the ship lowered just a few feet from the ground before Kanan opened the ramp to show stormtroopers opening fire on them.
The group quickly jumped off the ramp and took cover by the crates between them and the Imperials. The two in Mandalorian armor managed to kill one each as Kanan and Zeb moved over to a different set of crates. The group watched as the Wookies quickly overpowered the troopers from behind after Ezra snuck around and freed them.
The rebels and merc stood up and walked around the crates as the wookies walked up to them before the front two moved out the way to reveal Ezra in the middle with a smirk on his face. Kanan returned it before they all turned their attention to sudden sound of TIEs coming from behind them before they opened fire on the Ghost.
A moment later the ship blew one of the TIEs out of the sky before an Imperial transport rose up from the side of the cliff behind them. The group and wookies quickly dived out of the way as it opened fire on them.
The two TIEs started pursuing the Ghost, forcing Hera took take off as the transport landed. The ramp lowered to show the I.S.B agent from earlier with a squad of troopers behind him. "Take them down!" he ordered as the troops opened fire. The Ghost crew quickly moved back towards the crates.
"I can't maintain position!" Hera said over Kanan's com as the group and wookies took cover. "Go! Lead the TIEs away and give yourself maneuvering room!" he ordered. "I am not leaving you behind!" she replied. "No, you're not. We're running a 22-Pickup." he said.
"Seriously?" Sabine asked, wondering if was joking. "You have a better option?" he asked. "Jump into the pit and get it over with?" Zeb retorted. "All right, I'll be back. Make sure you're ready." Hera replied.
"22-Pickup? Care to let me in on the secret?" Ezra asked. "I second that." Anakin said after shooting another trooper. "I'm about to let everyone in on the secret." Kanan replied before stepping onto the crate then hopping down before walking towards the Imperials.
The agent gestured for his troops to cease fire before Kanan pulled two thing off his belt and connected them as he stopped walking. Anakin's eyes widened as he saw employer activate a blue bladed lightsaber and take a defensive stance before frowning at the now revealed Jedi.
'A Jedi? Great... And here I was hoping he was only Force-sensitive. The money from this point on better be worth it if I'm going to have to put up with Jedi everyday.' Anakin shared his father's negative opinion of the Jedi after he'd told him how they had practically betrayed the merc's mother.
"All troopers, focus your fire on... on the Jedi." the agent ordered, taken off guard by the sudden appearance of a Jedi. The troopers opened fire just as ordered and Kanan started deflecting any shots that came near him, even managing to deflect a bolt back at one troop, killing them.
"Time to go!" Kanan ordered. "Right. Everyone into the container!" Zeb yelled as the large group quickly ran to the large container ten feet behind them.
Anakin and the rebels covered the wookies as they all entered the container. "Zeb, Hera's incoming!" he exclaimed while continueing to deflect bolts. "Get in, you furballs, now!" Zeb urged. "He's one to talk." Anakin joked, earning a chuckle from Sabine as they kept shooting at the Imperials.
Everybody else entered the container and Zeb closed the door right before it shook slightly. "Magnetic seal locked." Hera said over their coms. "I hate this part." Zeb grumbled.
The merc, rebels and wookies stood in the cargo hold just before Kanan, Ezra and a young wookie entered. One of the wookies growled when he noticed the young one and said wookie climbed down the ladder before they hugged.
Kanan descended the ladder and stopped when he noticed Anakin had his hand out before groaning and reluctantly dropping a hundred cred gold ingot into the teen's hand.
"Uh, he says if we ever need help, the Wookies will be there." Sabine translated the wookie leader's growl as they stood near the docking port where a wookie ship was docked. The leader growled again before giving Ezra's head a friendly rub as the younger teen chuckled.
"Good luck, Kitwarr. Try to stay out of trouble." Ezra said to the younger wookie with a smile as he got a happy growl in reply before both wookies waved goodbye and entered their ship. "Look who's talking." Zeb joked.
"So... I guess you drop me off next." Ezra asked, sounding like he didn't actually want to leave as the Lasat closed the docking port door. "Uh, yeah. Finally right?" he asked, chuckling lightly. "Right." he replied quietly while walking back towards the cargo bay.
The Ghost landed a few kilometres from Ezra's 'home', which happened to be an old comm tower. Chopper warbled a bit as Sabine worked on him, while Zeb was checking a crate and Anakin was doing small tricks with his two ingots.
'I love money... I love taking things...' he sang in his head as Ezra came down the ladder and walked up to Zeb before sighing. "So, uh... see you around?" he asked. "Not if we see you first." Zeb replied with a chuckle as he gave what he apparently considered a friendly punch on the shoulder.
Judging by Ezra's reaction, he didn't see it that way. The younger teen rubbed his shoulder from the slight pain. "Don't worry. You won't." he replied before starting to walk down the ramp while Zeb made a gesture as if to say 'What I'd do?'.
Anakin walked to the kitchen and re-heated the noodles he didn't get a chance to finish earlier as he sensed Ezra enter the ship and make his way towards Kanan.
'It would appear that he's joining us. I don't mind as long as still get paid.' the merc finished the bowl and set it into the sink as he made his way to his temporary room he shared with Sabine before suddenly stopping as he sensed a dark chill. 'Shit... That did not feel good...' the teen looked over his shoulder for a second before entering their room.
All right! First chapter done. Next one should be up soon. And I know I wrote this at the top but I'm going to write it again to get point across: The title will sound misleading and certain things won't make sense unless you read most or all of the five episodes of The Descendant of Revan.