AN: Alright, done it! This would have been up yesterday, but I had some really, really bad computer problems and was totally unable to write. But, it's done now! Writing another chapter for Blood of Mandalore before I update this one again. I should have that done Wednesday or so, so new chapter of this baby up next weekend. I think. I hope. Fingers crossed, kids! The next...four chapters or so are really moving away from the show, so I need a little time to craft those anyway.
Enjoy, lovelies! Let me know what you think! There will be some absolute madness happening next chapter, so look forward to that!
Chapter 42: Always Two There Are
Something felt off to Ezra the moment they arrived on the abandoned outpost. The Phantom's scans of the area turned up nothing they weren't expecting, only the low surge of power through the thick power cables running through the compound, a common occurrence for systems still attached to a draining power source, even long after the main facility had been abandoned. At first, Ezra thought he was simply being paranoid because of the recent, frightening brush with the Empire they had on Seelos, a thing that had touched him much more than he was willing to admit. Even the bold and brash Zeb was jumpy, and Sabine was treading much more cautiously than was her norm. There was nothing wrong with due caution, and as they slowly picked their way through the compound, Ezra decided that their precautions would be looked on favorably by both Hera and Kanan, and the young Padawan was always looking to impress his parental figures.
But the further they ventured in, the more Ezra became convinced that he wasn't just uneasy in the dark, abandoned building, that he wasn't simply jumping at shadows. This was one of his hunches, one of his intuitions that he relied on to survive when he was a child living alone on the streets of Lothal. This was instinct, and like Kanan and Obi-Wan had taught him, his instincts were based in the Force. He didn't just feel like something was there, something actually was. He couldn't place what it was, or where in the dark it was lurking, but he could feel the agitation gnawing deep in his mind, bringing his attention back to the uneasy feeling every time his thoughts drifted away from it. The usually impulsive Ezra's caution was enough for Sabine to decide that whatever the reason for his sudden change in demeanor, it was good enough for her to decide that they three of them should stick together. Splitting up would only make them easier targets for whatever it was that prowled the darkened corridors.
They were silent as they made their way through the compound, their feet making barely a sound as they slunk down the halls and scanned each room before venturing further in, the Mandalorian taking point while the Lasat covered their backs, leaving Ezra between them to monitor the strange unease he felt. When they stopped to allow Sabine to scan a room for signs of life, Ezra would close his eyes and breathe deep, Kanan and Kenobi's lessons at the forefront of his mind as he touched the Force and tried to navigate the choppy, disturbed flow. It was not unlike the feeling he had on the asteroid when he had first reached out and touched the Dark Side. It was a cold, frightening thing to him then, one that left him weak and freezing the moment he had let go, but close exposure to a Lord of the Sith and his brief, intense lessons with him made this darkness feel less oppressive.
Before, there had been beasts, wild and feral creatures of the dark that responded to him when he had calmed his mind and connected with them. There was fear, a great deal of it, not just a creation of the dangerous situation they found themselves in, but fear from deep within himself, a fear of losing everyone he cared about, a fear of being alone again, but he and Kanan had pushed through that together. There was the Empire and the soldiers and the machines of war they had brought to bear upon them, knocking the Force out of balance and disturbing it in a way that Ezra had never felt before in his limited understanding of the mystical power that filled him. And there was the Grand Inquisitor, his very presence turning the warmth of the Force into bitter cold, the stormy waters snapping frozen into long, sharp blades of ice that cut deep and threatened to end any life that did not exercise caution.
This felt exactly like that.
"Sabine..." Ezra whispered, creeping close to the Mandalorian as she pried a console off the wall and diligently set to work cutting and connecting wires to make the large, thick blast doors open. "Sabine, I think there are Inquisitors here."
She immediately stopped, her helmeted head turning up to look at the boy. "Are you sure?"
"N-no..." Ezra quietly confessed, his eyes roving around the large, dark room and trying to see with more than just his eyes like his Masters had taught him. "Honestly, I'm not really sure of anything. But what I'm feeling now feels a lot like it does when we've faced the Inquisitors in the past."
"Every time we've fought the Inquisitors, Kenobi's been there, and Kanan says his presence does some really weird things to the Force," Sabine whispered, her fingers swiftly connecting wires even though her attention was on Ezra. "Are you sure what you felt before wasn't Kenobi?"
"I'm not sure of anything, Sabine, but Obi-Wan's not here and I still feel it," Ezra said through grit teeth, his rising agitation swiftly stopped when Sabine reached up and laid a calming hand on his arm.
"I'm not saying nothing's here," she calmly explained. "I'm wondering if what you're feeling could be something even worse than an Inquisitor."
"...o-oh." Ezra bit down on his lip, his eyes closed as he tried to push past his rising fear and focus, a thing that became more difficult as the cold intensified with his own feelings of dread. Sifting through it all was impossible, especially since his own rising emotions were effecting the chill. He felt colder than it probably was, and with a deep growl of irritation, he reached out into the Force and grabbed hold of his anxiety and his fear, the very pit of him chilling as he welcomed the Dark Side to feed on his emotions, just as his Sith Master had taught him. Immediately, the air began to clear, the frigid haze vanishing into clarity as his own temperature dropped.
This wasn't like the terrifying feel of the Sith Lord Vader on Lothal, nor was this at all like the dread and helplessness he felt in Obi-Wan's presence when he allowed himself to be felt through the Force. It was cold, yes, much colder than Ezra liked and certainly much colder than he was willing to reach for, but it wasn't the frozen, bladed waters of the Force that sliced and cut the moment he touched it like it was with Kenobi. This was no Sith Lord. But there was something here, something steeped in the Dark Side. He could feel it.
"Inquisitors," Ezra finally whispered, opening his eyes and looking around the room, the dark lighting considerably to him as he felt his eyes burn with the Dark Side as it stalked through him. "I'm sure of it. But nothing more than that."
"Got any idea how many?" Zeb softly growled, his bo-rifle ready in his hands as he stepped closer to the two teenagers, and he tensed further when Ezra slowly shook his head. "Well, one Inquisitor is more than enough for me. We should get out of here, write this off as a bust. If they're here, it won't make for a good base anyway."
"Which is too bad, Hera was so hopeful about this one..." Sabine muttered, the door she was working on hissing as the locks disengaged, and with a groan, they slowly began to open, rough and erratic movements as the doors stuck on its tracks indicative of just how long the place had been abandoned. Looking cautiously in to the room beyond, Sabine sighed in satisfaction as she drew up, her hand on her hip and looking pleased as could be. "At least it's not a total loss, there's the medical supplies Rex told us about."
"Would you look at that..." Zeb said as he leaned in to look inside the newly opened room, his feline green eyes easily able to see in the low light, whistling at the high stacks of crates within. "There's more here than we can take back on the Phantom."
"Let's take back what we can carry now and tell Hera about what we found here when we return," Sabine said, sliding the tools she had used to take the console off the wall back into its place on her belt. "I don't want to risk sending her a transmission in case there really is something here that's monitoring us. Maybe we can send a team back here later to pick up the rest of it."
"If it's safe..." Ezra muttered. "Why would the Inquisitors even be here?"
"Looking for you, I bet..." Zeb grumbled, stepping into the room and examining the crates and quickly checking to be sure the anti-grav systems worked. "You should have stayed on the Ghost, you weren't even assigned this mission."
"What, and listen to Kanan and Rex take shots at each other all day?" Ezra scoffed. "No thanks. I'd rather be out here facing down Inquisitors than back there dealing with their spats."
"A good thing you came, then," a smooth, dangerous female voice drawled, the sound seeming to come from everywhere as it echoed around the room, and the trio immediately drew together, their backs to each other and facing outwards, their weapons drawn and readied in their hands. The crackling of the electricity on Zeb's bo-rifle and the thrum of Ezra's lightsaber filled the air, almost deafening in the otherwise still silence, and for a moment, they began to question whether they had heard the voice at all.
"Shut your weapons off, you idiots," Sabine hissed, hitting the two males behind her. "They make too much noise and the light is drawing attention to us!" They quickly complied, the glowing green light that the saber bathed the area in shutting off and plunging them back into darkness and silence, and it took a moment for their eyes to adjust once again to the dim lighting. Slowly, they crouched down, their eyes darting around the room as they made themselves as small as possible, their muscles trembling and at the ready for swift action should running or fighting become necessary. Whatever it was that had spoken was nowhere in sight, and despite the sudden movement of the Force, Ezra couldn't see past the haze of the Dark Side to locate them.
"We need to leave..." Zeb quietly growled, his green eyes emitting a soft glow as they looked about the room and his sharp ears flat against his head, his superior senses sharp as he tried to detect the presence of the unseen intruder. "Call the entire mission a loss, no amount of medical supplies are worth our lives." When it looked like the teenagers would protest, Zeb quickly rapped the side of Sabine's helmet and covered Ezra's mouth with a clawed, padded hand. "Hera sent me here to look after you, and that is exactly what I'm going to do. Now get a move on," he hissed, gently nudging the two forward and grasping his bo-rifle tight in his hands.
They didn't argue again. This time, Ezra moved to the point position, his lightsaber in his grasp as he reached out through the Force, his senses attuned to the Dark Side and his blue eyes glowing softly in the dark with the power that ran through him. Behind him, Sabine's scanner was pulled down in front of her visor, the helmet's infrared scanners searching for anomalies and for the heat of bodies beside their own, though something in the air was jamming the scanner and making the readings rough, erratic and inaccurate. Zeb brought up the rear, his hand on the Mandalorian's shoulder and his sharp nose sniffing the air for unfamiliar scents, though he as well found something odd and undefined in the air that confused his senses.
But something was there, something that prowled the shadows and remained unseen to their vastly differing senses, something that continued to confound and confuse as they slowly made their way empty handed back to the Phantom. Occasionally, they would swiftly stop and defensively draw together when they heard a rustling behind them, a loud bang down a branching corridor, a soft, cruel laugh that seemed to echo all around them from no direction at all. Whatever it was that was hunting them wanted them to know it. They were being allowed whatever progress they were making, being toyed with for the amusement of the cruel predator that tracked them. There would be no escape, and they all knew it.
"What chance do you suppose we have of fighting and winning against an Inquisitor?" Zeb asked quietly when they swiftly drew back to back when they heard soft, light footsteps receding down the corridor before them.
"Not good..." Ezra whispered, shaking his head and turning the lightsaber over in his hands. "I've only just started my training with lightsaber combat."
"Kanan beat one," Sabine said under her breath. "And Kenobi beat three at once just the other day. How good can they really be?"
"A hell of a lot better than me," Ezra grumbled. "Let's not forget that Kanan's an actual Jedi, and the last time I trained against Kenobi, he beat me in under two seconds because he waved his hand. The Inquisitors might be nothing to them, but they're more than I can handle. If we see them, we run."
"Do you have an idea of how many there are?" Zeb asked, and Ezra slowly shook his head.
"I'm trying, Zeb. I can feel them, but I can't see them. I don't know how many there are, I'm sorry."
"Can you at least tell if there's more than one?" Sabine asked, slowly creeping forward when the echo of footsteps stopped.
"Maybe..." Ezra said with a sigh, his eyes closed as he tried once again to part the obscuring veil of the Dark Side. "Without knowing how powerful one is, it's hard to decide if what I feel is the pull of one or of many. And if they know how to hide their presence..." He flicked his hand dismissively in the air. "Then forget it. There's no telling at all."
"It doesn't matter anyway..." the smooth, even voice said again, this time clear and coming from right in front of them, and the trio brought their weapons up and aimed them at a lithe, black clad figure in the hallway. She slowly advanced toward them, her features hidden by a visor on a black helmet, and her low, almost seductive chuckle slightly reverberated in her throat, giving the impression of two sets of vocal chords working in perfect unison in her slender neck to create her chilling two-toned voice. "Even if there were a hundred of us, just one is more than a match for the likes of you."
"Keep together!" Zeb snapped, his hands quickly grabbing the two teens' shoulders and shoving them down one of the branching hallways, and without looking back, they took off running down the corridor, Sabine turning to fire at the Inquisitor when she stepped around the corner. The sound of a lightsaber igniting chased them down the darkened halls as the fired bolts were easily deflected, and the three skid to a halt when before them, the corridor was bathed in red light from another lightsaber. They didn't wait to see what lay before them, instead quickly backtracking toward the slowly approaching woman and ducking back into another hallway. They didn't have the time to check and see where they were going, and in their haste to lose the Inquisitors, they became turned around in the dark halls, stopping only when they ran into a large, sealed blast door, which Sabine quickly set to work opening.
"How many of them are there?!" Zeb panted, his lungs burning as he caught his breath and his bo-rifle held at the ready as he paced.
"At least two..." Ezra muttered, standing still as he tried to calm his nerves and keep his hand from trembling. He was afraid, and there was no getting around that. He grabbed the feeling and held it close, shivered as he felt the cold spread through his veins, and he very quickly felt that fear turn to boldness when he focused not on what he was afraid of, but why he was afraid. He looked to the quietly cursing Mandalorian as she fiddled with the uncooperative door and the pacing Lasat ready to defend his charges and felt the swell of protection within him, a feeling that only grew as he watched the end of the corridor turn red with the light from the Inquisitors' sabers as they came around the corner.
"I've been searching for you, boy..." the woman said sweetly, the saber held before her suddenly extending into a double-bladed creation, and Zeb and Ezra responded by igniting their own weapons. "You know what happens next. Don't fight it."
Hearing the triumphant hiss from Sabine behind him, Ezra held his saber in both his hands and rushed forward to meet the Inquisitor, fury pumping through his veins as his green weapon struck against red in his attempt to buy the girl the few extra seconds she needed to get those door open. Zeb roared behind him, the buzzing drone of the electric ends of the bo-rifle humming in the air as the Lasat rushed forward to join Ezra in stopping the Inquisitors, only to be thrown aside with a casual wave of the second Inquisitor, a tall, powerfully built male that dwarfed his female companion by a considerable amount.
Ezra's strikes were effortlessly parried by the Inquisitor, the woman's movements smooth and elegant, the arching blade more than once slicing far too close to Ezra for comfort as he ducked and dodged out of the way, doing all he could to keep the attention focused on him while Zeb struggled to his feet. Through the sound of the clashing sabers and the menacing thrum of the red blades as they sliced through the air, Ezra could hear the blast doors behind him slide open, followed by Sabine's quick command to follow. He didn't need to be told twice, and when the Inquisitor's foot slammed into his stomach, knocking him back and down to the floor to gasp for breath, Ezra wasted no time in scrambling to his feet and running after Sabine and Zeb as they run into the hallway beyond, the Mandalorian standing ready and waiting to shoot the console on the wall to slam the door shut behind them.
Just as Ezra crossed the threshold, he felt his legs grow heavy, the boy pushing off the ground to run as fast as he was able, but found that he was going nowhere. Before he recognized that he was being held by the Force, the Inquisitor flicked her hand in the air, and Ezra's feet were pulled out from under him, his hand clawing against the ground and trying to find something to grab on to as he felt himself being pulled back. When he saw Sabine and Zeb both rushing in to help, Ezra felt calm sweep over him, the Force stilling as his fear vanished, and with clarity he had never felt before, he drew back his lightsaber and threw it, the green plasma blade sinking into the console on the wall, and the blast doors slammed closed, separating him from the Mandalorian and the Lasat. He was trapped, alone with two Inquisitors, but his friends were safe for now, and that was all that mattered to Ezra.
"Such nobility!" the Inquisitor mocked, her hand held out before her and Ezra found himself lifted into the air and slammed against the blast door, his saber embedded in the wall switching off and flying to her grasp. "So like a Jedi, young one."
"I'm learning..." Ezra said through clenched teeth, and the woman simply laughed as she drew closer, clipping his lightsaber to her belt.
"Such a shame it was for nothing. Did you truly believe that sacrificing yourself would save them?" she asked, the black visor covering her face tilting as she watched the other Inquisitor quickly cut into another hallway to give chase to the two escaped rebels. When Ezra didn't respond, only looked coldly at the black visor, the Inquisitor growled softly in irritation, a gesture of her hand sending Ezra pitching face first to the ground. He quickly moved to rise to his feet, only to have a sharp heel slam into his back and pin him to the ground, his entire body immobilized by the power of the Force as his captor restrained his hands behind his back. When Ezra felt the pressure release, he sat up with a groan, testing the restraints, and finding them secure. He leaned back against the blast door and glared at the woman. There would be no escape from her, not here.
"I can sense your fear, boy," the Inquisitor said, her visor retracting to reveal a woman with yellow skin marked by small red tattoos and eyes marked by the glowing yellow of the Dark Side. "You are seeped in it, almost as if you are calling it to you. Are you so afraid to die?" she asked lightly, her head tilted to the side as she looked at the stoic Ezra when he shrugged, almost bored in his demeanor, his acceptance of his situation a thing he learned from Kanan.
"If you were going to kill me, you'd have done so already," Ezra drawled, meeting the woman's eyes as she examined him, and slowly, her thin lips cracked into a cruel smile.
"I've no intention to kill you, boy," she said slowly, drawing near and moving the length of her lightsaber to pose menacingly above Ezra's exposed throat. "Not yet. You're far too valuable as bait. We may finally be able to draw that Jedi out of hiding." She laughed softly when Ezra glared defiantly up at her, taking the boy's lightsaber from her belt and igniting it, casually spinning the blade around her hand. "You have potential, apprentice, but you're wasting your time with him. Your skills with a lightsaber are seriously lacking, as expected, I suppose, since your Master never achieved the rank of Jedi Knight."
"Maybe not..." Ezra muttered, taking in a deep breath as he evenly met the woman's gaze. "But he did beat your Grand Inquisitor, so I think I'll stick with him."
"A lot of good that has done you," she scoffed, rolling her eyes at the teenager's petulance. "Perhaps you should be considering an apprenticeship with me. There's a great deal you could learn from the Dark Side, you only need someone to show you the way."
"What, and you think you could teach me?" Ezra drawled, the mocking amusement in his voice making the Inquisitor draw back. "I've already got a Dark Side Master, and he says you Inquisitors are a pale imitation of real power." He grinned broadly when those yellow eyes widened with something that lay far beyond terror, but quickly hardened into disbelief as she quickly looked over her shoulder down the corridor, checking to be certain that there was nobody behind her. "I believe him," Ezra mocked. "He kills your kind for fun."
"No..." the Inquisitor hissed under her breath. "No, Darth Lumis doesn't take students, and he certainly wouldn't take one that was anything less than exceptional. And if he had been training you like you said, you would certainly be stronger than you are." She smirked when Ezra's lips curled up into a sneer, her confidence returning as she drew up tall and looked down on him. "You are lying."
"Do you really think it's a good idea to try and use me as bait?" Ezra asked, smirking slightly when he felt that confidence waver in the presence of her fear for the Sith Lord. "The funny thing about bait is that you don't get to decide who takes it. You might end up catching a predator far too big for the trap you set. You sure this is a good idea?"
"Lumis wouldn't come for you, rebel!" she hissed, her fear vanishing in favor of overwhelming anger as she extended her hand and brought the Dark Side crashing down upon him, the teen gasping and groaning in pain as he felt the Force tear at the core of his being and light his every nerve on fire. "But your Master will come because we know him to be a noble fool, and when he comes, he will die. We have nothing to fear from him because the Jedi of old are dead."
"And all that's left is the Lord of the Sith that not even your Master could contain," Ezra said in a tight, pained voice, his lips curled up in a cruel, amused smirk when he grabbed hold of the savage pain that rushed through him and held it close, embracing it to turn it into power, just as Kenobi had taught him. "That, and a Jedi strong enough to stand against the darkness. And doesn't that just scare you to death."
"You don't-"
"Don't lie..." Ezra interrupted, his breathing heavy as he felt the cruel delight of power pulsing within him as the Force grew turbulent with fear. "I can feel it."
"You are nothing!" the Inquisitor snapped, her hand extended before her and Ezra's head slammed against the blast door as the Dark Side gripped him, the power he felt wavering and quickly turning into pain once again as the woman exerted her dominant control over the Force. "You are bait, a tool to be used to lure in your bigger, more important friends. Your little rebel cell will die because of your capture here, your Jedi Master will be tortured and slaughtered, we will make you watch as we execute your friends and Darth Lumis will hardly notice you're gone!"
"That's a dangerous assumption you're making..." Ezra gasped, his eyes shut tight against the suffering the Inquisitor was inflicting upon him. "Given what happened to the other Inquisitors, is that a chance you're really willing to take?"
The roar of the Force in Ezra's ears kept him from hearing the heavy footsteps coming down the hall, but he did notice when the heavy thud of Sabine's body was dropped beside him, the Mandalorian limp and unconscious, her helmet gone and a bleeding wound under her colored blue hair. With a frantic cry strangled out of Ezra's throat, the teen quickly wriggled his way beside her, his eyes frantically running over her prone form, her armor scored with burns from the fight he didn't see that resulted in her capture. Her chest rose and fell slightly with her slow, shallow breathing, wounded but alive, but Ezra could feel his stomach tighten with fear when he looked up at the towering Inquisitor, a smug, triumphant look upon his face, and realized that Zeb wasn't there.
"Now..." the woman whispered, pleased as could be as she drew closer to the young Padawan, her lightsaber drawn and pointed at Sabine. "Tell me where your rebel friends are, and we won't kill your little girlfriend. Contact them, bring them here, and I'll let the Mandalorian go."
"Where's Zeb?" Ezra asked, raising up to his knees and gritting his teeth when the Inquisitor tightened her grasp on him. "The other that was with us, where is he?!"
"He's dead..." the woman drawled, a heavy sigh in her chest when she felt the dread in the Force as the boy's will began to waver. She raised her hand, and Sabine's body rose from the ground, and spinning her lightsaber in her hand, she held the blade at the girl's neck. "I will not ask you again. Contact the rebels. Bring them here."
"That isn't a good idea, Sister," the other Inquisitor growled, earning a glare from the woman. "Darth Lumis is linked to this rebel cell, contacting them may bring the Sith upon us."
"If he cares enough to come save a young fool that made the mistake of getting caught!" she snapped, her yellow eyes narrowing as she threw Sabine to the ground. "Allowing him to avoid the consequence of his failure is not the way of the Sith!"
"No, but ruthlessly hunting their enemies is the way of the Sith, and Darth Lumis seems to be hunting Inquisitors." When the woman rolled her eyes, the towering man snarled viciously and shot his hand out and wrapped his fingers around her slender neck. "Learning there are two of us here could call Lumis down upon us. The presence of this boy is irrelevant when we are prey."
The woman pried his fingers from her throat, rubbing her neck when she felt tender bruises forming on her pale flesh, and just as she drew up, her eyes narrowed in anger, the comlink on Sabine's wrist began to chime. The room fell deathly still, nobody even daring to breathe as Sabine began to softly groan, shifting slightly as the incessant ringing drew her back to reality. When she tried to sit up and failed, her head falling back and striking the ground and causing the girl to whimper pathetically, Ezra shuffled on his knees beside her, his arms straining against his bindings when he tried to reach out and hold her. Both red lightsabers were immediately pointed at the teens, but Ezra wasn't intimidated, only irritated by what he knew was an empty threat. Until they were united, they were a greater threat to each other than to him and Sabine.
"Answer it," the woman hissed, and Ezra looked up at the man, his visor retracted to reveal gray skin and pale, almost white eyes that offered no objection to the woman's demands. Ezra shifted and wriggled his arms, an eyebrow arched as he met the Inquisitor's gaze.
"Can't answer it if I can't move my arms," the teen drawled, a smirk on his lips when the woman sneered and gripped him with the Force, holding him in place as she disappeared behind him, and a moment later, the pressure in his shoulder blades released as she undid the restraints and swiftly secured them once again, his arms now in front of him instead of uncomfortably behind. Instead of answering the comlink, he reached out and brushed back Sabine's hair, the back of his knuckles running through blood and she winced, her wide, afraid eyes quickly darting to look up at the reassuring smile on Ezra's face before her attention turned once again to the menacing saber held less than a foot from her.
"Answer it," the woman snapped, and when Ezra only glared defiantly at her, a swift flick of her wrist sent the tip of her lightsaber whipping across his face, the boy crying out in shock and pain as a thin line on his cheek blistered and burned from the touch of the saber. "I only need you alive..." the Inquisitor hissed, leaning down and putting herself face to face with the stunned teenager as he grasped his cheek. "I never said anything about you being in one piece, now answer it."
"This is Spectre Five," Sabine said into the comlink when Ezra gasped, uncertain of what to do. A deep, growling sigh if relief sounded over the com, and both Sabine and Ezra felt their pulse jump, life suddenly infused back inside them. It was Zeb, their missing friend not nearly so dead as the Inquisitor tried to make them believe.
"Spectre Five, glad to hear you're well," Zeb said, relief at the edge of his voice. "Is the rest of your team safe? We lost contact with your ship a while ago."
"Spectre Six is with me," Sabine said, eyeing the Inquisitors as she slowly sat up, her hand rubbing her head as she leaned against the blast doors. "We don't have contact with Spectre Four, local communications here are...quite bad."
"Typical," Zeb scoffed. "Is it safe to assume that you need a team to help investigate the warehouse and transport the supplies we find?"
"No, that won't be necessary, Commander, we can handle it. There's no need for you or the others," Sabine said, defiantly looking up at the Inquisitor, and her expression dropped into one of fear when the red blade of one of the lightsabers was held to her throat, the heat of the burning saber leaving a red line upon her skin.
"On second though," Ezra quickly cut in, "we might need a little help. You better..." He took a deep breath, his hand off the comlink as he sighed and shook his head, his jaw clenched tight as he looked at the two Inquisitors.
"Your Master, boy," the gray-skinned male growled. "Keep Darth Lumis out of this."
"You better send Kanan. This task seems suited for him," Ezra said warily, his heart pounding in his chest and hoping the Zeb had the good sense not to send for help. Where there were Inquisitors, the Empire was always close behind, and it seemed very likely that outgoing communications were being monitored and tracked. It was a quick and easy way to find the entirely of the drifting and vulnerable Phoenix Squadron. They needed a base.
"Copy that, Spectre Six," Zeb said smoothly. "We'll see you soon." The moment the call dropped, the male Inquisitor grabbed Sabine by the forearm and tightened his grasp, the comlink beneath sparking as the crushing grip shattered it. Sabine grit her teeth to keep from screaming when jagged shards of sharp metal sliced into her skin and cut through muscle, blood falling in thick, heavy drops to splatter on the floor. With their connection to their rebel friends severed, the Inquisitor unceremoniously threw Sabine to the ground, leaving her and Ezra to scramble awkwardly to their feet when red sabers pointed at their chests and the Inquisitors demanded they rise.
"I hope you know what you're doing, Seventh Sister," the Inquisitor grumbled, his pale eyes narrowing at the smug woman. "If Darth Lumis comes, we will die."
"You question me, Fifth Brother?" the woman cooed, teasingly stroking the man's cheek and smirking when he hissed and drew away revolted from her touch. "Lumis has no reason to come, nothing sounded wrong. More than that, even a Lord of the Sith cannot traverse the galaxy instantaneously. It will take time to get here, and by the time any of the rebels get here, we will be long gone." She grinned wolfishly when the Fifth Brother's eyes widened in understanding, his hand tightening on Sabine's shoulder as the two teens felt fear pool in the pit of their stomachs. "The boy is bait, Brother, but this is not the trap. We shall make a better one on our own terms. Our Master has been searching for a way to draw Lumis to him, and this may very well be it."
"And if we're lucky, we'll catch that Jedi as well," the Fifth Brother growled in sinister delight, shoving Sabine into line with Ezra and slashing his saber in the air to get the teens to begin walking after the Sister. "Get moving. You're coming with us back to our ship."
"W-wait!" Ezra cried frantically, his heart rate suddenly spiking with fear and desperation as his window of escape was rapidly closing. "What was the point of calling Kanan here if you've no intention of catching him now?!"
"As you said, your Master defeated the Grand Inquisitor. He's not a man to be taken lightly. And desperate people make mistakes, apprentice," the Sister smoothly drawled, grabbing Ezra's chin as she spoke to him and holding him in place despite his momentary thrashing. "When your Master arrives to find his precious student gone, I am certain that he will come out of hiding to find you."
"If he comes," the Brother growled, pushing the teens down the hall as the Sister led them through the dark corridors. "We are not fool enough to believe that you haven't devised something to save yourselves. You rebels have been known to be slippery."
"We aren't slippery," Ezra said, hissing when the man roughly pushed him forward. "You're just stupid."
"We'll see if you are still saying such when you are sitting in a cell at the heart of a fleet of Imperial Star Destroyers," the Sister hissed, a pleased look on her face as she glanced over her shoulder, and Ezra fell silent, the sinking dread in his stomach growing heavier with each passing moment. The Inquisitors were right. Phoenix Squadron was too far away to get here before he and Sabine were taken away to an Imperial prison where they would be bait for their friends. Even Kenobi in the sickeningly fast Umbra wouldn't be able to arrive in time. All that was left was the hope that Zeb had a damn good plan. Being prisoners of Dark Siders was a terrifying prospect, if Kenobi's many playmates were any indication.
The rest of their dreaded march through the dark halls of the abandoned facility was in silence, their steps echoing off the walls and the groaning creaking of metal the only sounds in the air. Even though their mad rush through the building, the ensuing fight and the oppressive dark had them disoriented, Ezra knew exactly where they were headed. He wasn't sure if there was more than one hangar in the facility, though he suspected that there was, and they were headed toward one of them. That gave them very little time to find a way out before they reached the Inquisitors' ships, and their chances of actually escaping their imprisonment were dismal at best. The Inquisitors may have been nothing when measured up against Obi-Wan, and Kanan may prove to be a challenge for them, but Ezra was a student and no match at all for them. An escape attempt would very likely end in Sabine's death, and nothing was worth that.
When they passed through the large doors of the primary hangar, Ezra felt his heart drop as he looked out through the environmental shield to the open sky beyond and at the two TIE Fighters that sat in the center of the otherwise empty bay, seeming much larger than they were in the excess of space. The Phantom was nowhere to be seen, and for the briefest moment, Ezra felt relief wash over him when he thought that at least Zeb had escaped. That relief quickly faded, the thought too good to be true because Zeb would never abandon them. Even if he had temporarily fled, the emotional Lasat would be back, just as they had returned to rescue Kanan when he had sacrificed himself to ensure their escape from Lothal. They were family, and they were a family that would die together. All of them had lost too much for it to have been any other way.
As the Fifth Brother slowed to contact the Imperial fleet, Ezra felt the tug of something, strong and insistent in the Force that immediately drew his attention and staved off his encroaching hopelessness. Slowly, he looked around the room, drawing closer to Sabine and nudging her when the Inquisitor's soft growl rumbled in the air. With a small, sharp gesture of his head and a swift flick of his eyes to the now empty space where the Phantom had previously been docked, Ezra's silent communication was picked up by Sabine in an instant, and she quickly began scanning the room, the two teens working together to covertly look for any sign of the escaped Lasat.
A moment later, Sabine drove her elbow into Ezra's side, the beginnings of a bright, excited smile peeking through her attempts to hide her elation, and she slowly looked up, the Padawan following her gaze and feeling his heart skip when they saw the Phantom hanging upside down and magnetized to the ceiling. Through the transparisteel window of the cockpit, they could see their Lasat teammate, the man sighing in relief when the teens spotted him before his eyes narrowed in anger and focused on the black-clad Inquisitors, his sharp teeth bared in a predatory snarl as his clawed hands tightly grasped the ship's controls.
The Inquisitors stopped when they felt the sudden change in the Force, the chill vanishing as the fear of the teens was replaced with determination. The red sabers hissed as the Inquisitors activated them and they reeled on the teens a moment too late, the full weight of the Force slamming into them and throwing them backwards as Ezra extended his hands before him. Feeling the Force move through him, the Padawan tightened his hands, his fingers shaking with effort as he narrowed his focus, and pulling back hard, his lightsaber ripped away from the Inquisitor's belt and flew to his hands, the green blade hissing to life and slicing through his bindings. Quickly cutting Sabine free, they took one look up at the ceiling where the Phantom was fixed and flashed a quick grin to Zeb as they began running.
The two Inquisitors caught themselves in the air, flipping around and landing gracefully on their feet, the Fifth Brother's double-bladed saber spinning in the man's hand as he drew back and threw the weapon, the red blades spinning like a buzz saw as it sliced through the air toward the teens as they sprinted across the hangar. Feeling the vibrations in the Force, Ezra sped up and rushed toward Sabine, tackling the Mandalorian to the ground just as the saber shrieked over their heads, only narrowly missing them.
They were on their feet again quickly, Ezra keeping his eye on the saber and trying to direct it away from the Inquisitor with the Force while Sabine shot at the now unarmed Fifth Brother. The Sister quickly intercepted the plasma shots, her face contorted in rage as her blade gracefully arched through the air as the Fifth Brother used the Force to call his weapon back, the hapless Ezra stumbling to keep his footing as he was dragged behind the weapon he wanted desperately to keep away from his enemy. He only let go when he heard the loud, piercing whine of engines and the popping sound of metal separating as the Phantom disengaged from the ceiling and dropped through the air, its forward cannons aimed at the Inquisitors and rapidly opening fire.
Finding the tables suddenly turned, the Inquisitors quickly banded together, working in tandem to deflect the powerful bolts away from them and keeping moving to make themselves a harder target. With their enemy distracted, Ezra and Sabine ran for the open back hatch of the Phantom, their hearts pounding as they jumped inside the transport, their safety now within reach when it had only a few minutes ago been a distant, unattainable dream. The moment they were inside, Zeb pulled back on the accelerator, the whine of the engines rising in pitch as the ship lurched forward toward the open hangar door.
The three of them quickly found themselves thrown forward against the viewport when the ship came to a sudden stop, the engines straining against whatever it was that held it, and Ezra ran to the open back hatch, cold fear gripping his chest when he saw both Inquisitors, their hands extended before them as they grabbed the ship with the Force and were slowly but surely pulling the straining ship backwards. Before Ezra had a chance to act, Sabine fired her blaster at the Inquisitors, and a red bolt of plasma flew past his head and struck the Seventh Sister in the shoulder, the woman falling with a gasp of pain to the floor.
With her hold released, the Fifth Brother could not hold the ship alone, and the Phantom lurched forward, dragging the Inquisitor behind it as he tried to maintain his hold. It was far from enough. It was far from enough, and in moments, the Phantom was rocketing out of the abandoned facility and toward the safety of space. They didn't say much when they entered hyperspace, the three collapsing to the floors in weariness and tending their wounds as they allowed the relief to wash over them, grateful to have their lives when it seemed so likely they would lose them.
"Kanan!" Ezra shouted when he was back safe inside the Ghost, his quick stride taking him to the living area where Rex and Hera sat together going over all the information the clone had contributed to the rebellion. The moment Hera set eyes on the boy, she was out of her seat, her green eyes wide with worry as she cupped his cheeks and ran her thumb gently over the long burn on Ezra's face.
"What happened?" the woman gasped, her eyes darting to the ladder in the corner and sighing in relief when Zeb and Sabine climbed down.
"The mission was a bust," Sabine snapped, throwing her helmet on the couch and dropping into a seat around the table. "We found the medical supplies, but we couldn't get any of it. There were Inquisitors waiting for us, Hera. Two of them. We only managed to escape because Zeb was there to save us."
"Inquisitors?" Hera muttered, her eyes wide for a moment before she looked back at the shocked, speechless Rex. "How could the Inquisitors have known we would be there?"
"I-I don't know..." Rex mumbled, shaking his head as he pulled up the information on the abandoned facility. "I could have sworn it was off the Empire's radar, how could...I-it's impossible! They must have tracked you, or somehow..." With a growl of frustration, the clone dropped the datapad and ran his hand over his face. "I'm sorry. This looks really bad, I know, but I swear to you, I didn't-"
"I know, Rex," Hera said softly, grabbing a medkit and smearing bacta on Ezra's burned cheek. "There's no such thing as a safe lead. It's not your fault that the Inquisitors are watching us. That mess on Seelos must have caught their attention, I'd be surprised if every Inquisitor in the Empire isn't hunting us now."
"I'd be surprised if they were," Ezra scoffed. "Kenobi slaughtered the last three."
"And has yet to leave the bodies," Hera said flatly. "Presumed dead and confirmed dead are very different." Hera sighed heavily and shook her head, her lekku seeming to droop as she looked at Zeb and Sabine. "I'm so sorry. I may have rushed the mission, I should have cased it better."
"All missions are dangerous, Hera," Zeb growled, his voice warm and kindly as he laid his hand upon the Twi'lek's shoulder. "It wasn't your fault that those Inquisitor assholes were there. Who knows, they might have someone on their side that can see the future like our creepy friend Kenobi."
"...just get some rest," Hera sighed as she took Ezra's hand. "I'm sorry the mission was a failure. We'll have more luck next time." After the tired mumbles of her crew and with Rex armed with the medpack and quietly promising to care for the Lasat and the Mandalorian, Hera gently pulled Ezra after her down the hall to Kanan's room and walked inside without knocking. The room was bathed in gentle blue light, and Ezra found himself sighing as the warmth of the Force rushed over him, only just realizing how cold he had been when he stared at the open holocron floating before the kneeling Kanan. They stood and watched him for a moment, the Jedi seeming not to notice that they were even there, his eyes closed in deep meditation as he focused on the holocron.
"Kanan," Hera began gently, frowning when he didn't move, and she stepped beside him, her fingers brushing his shoulder. "Love, Ezra's back. He ran in to Inquisitors." The gently spinning holocron wavered on its axis and the Jedi's eyes flew open, concern filling him as he looked at his lover and his student, and he jumped to his feet, the glowing cube dropping to the ground when Kanan placed his hands on the Padawan's shoulders and looked him over. Swallowing hard and nodding when he saw the scar across his cheek was the worst injury he sustained, Kanan pulled Ezra into a tight embrace.
"You alright, kid?" Kanan asked even though he knew the answer, and Ezra tightly nodded against Kanan's chest, his hands balling into tight fists in the Jedi's shirt and allowing himself to feel how afraid he had been in the Inquisitors' grasp. He was afraid then, but he hadn't really felt it, not like he did now, and he found his hands to be shaking at the memory. "How many Inquisitors, Ezra?"
"T-two," Ezra stuttered, swallowing hard when he pulled away from his Master. "They called themselves the Seventh Sister and the Fifth Brother. Kanan, they were looking for you, they were going to use me to lure you to them, they-"
"Hush now, it's alright," Kanan said, laying a soothing, reassuring hand on Ezra's shoulder. "We'll talk to Kenobi about this. He's been talking about killing the Inquisitors anyway, I'll see if I can't get him to fast track that. Alright? Everything's fine, Ezra, we'll sort this out."
"...isn't killing the Inquisitors going to get the attention of the Sith Master?" Ezra asked quietly, his chest tightening when he felt the slight shift in Kanan's presence, his fingers digging ever so slightly into his shoulders. "I haven't forgotten the vision I had in the Jedi Temple on Lothal. Won't this sort of...make that happen?"
"It very well may..." Kanan mused, a gesture of his hand causing the holocron on the ground to rise into his hand. He gave Ezra and Hera a small, tight smile, his hand tightly clutching the cube he had been learning from. "I confess, I am out of my comfort zone. I'm much more accustomed to hiding from this sort of thing than going out and hunting for it. It's...not exactly the Jedi way to stalk someone with an intent to kill."
"They started it, Kanan," Ezra whispered. "They aren't going to stop, they'll hunt us forever if we don't do something about it."
"I'm sure Obi-Wan will echo your sentiments..." Kanan muttered. "I'm just not comfortable with murder, and you shouldn't be either. You may have a foot in the Dark Side, Ezra, but that doesn't mean you have to lose sight of who you are, and you aren't evil."
"R-right..." Ezra said, his eyes cast to the floor and his face burning with embarrassment. "T-that isn't what I meant, I just-"
"I know, Ezra, I understand," Kanan interrupted. "We'll speak to Obi-Wan about it. Considering dead Inquisitors might turn the Sith Master on him, as you said, he may find an alternative solution to our problem." Kanan patted Ezra on the back and gently nudged him out of the room, kissing Hera quickly on the cheek and running his fingers down her lekku before he turned to leave, walking down the halls toward the docking port where the Umbra lay just beyond, Ezra walking right beside him.
Things were moving quickly now, so quickly that even Kanan could feel the cold closing in, rushing closer with every breath toward an inevitable conclusion. It was only a fraction of the sinking dread he knew Kenobi felt, but even the Jedi was beginning to hear the chilling, sinister laughter when he was deep in the Force, accompanied by pale yellow eyes brimming with a darkness that his friend Darth Lumis lacked. It felt unavoidable, and no matter how much they slowed it down, Kanan didn't think they'd ever be truly ready for it.