From Flames, I Soar

by Kurenaino

With the Empire at the height of its power and the shadow of a greater threat hanging above all those who would oppose Palpatine, the Specters, led by former Jedi Padawan Kanan Jarrus, are forced to contend with the Sith Lord that set the galaxy ablaze. Sequel to In Chaos, I Thrive.

45. Stealth Strike

AN: I was going to get this out sooner, but my time's being eaten by my dog, who I'm going to have to put down within the next few days. I don't think the quality here has suffered, but if it has, try to forgive it. I think it's pretty good, but I'm a bit biased.

Next chapter of this thing by the weekend, next chapter of The Road Not Taken later this week, Blood of Mandalore will be updated...I don't know, when people want to read it. If you haven't read Negotiator and want something dark, bloody, with no redeeming qualities, you can check that out too. Probably. All this is very tentative, since writing has been pretty tough this week because of dog.

Enjoy, kids.

Chapter 45: Stealth Strike

They were arguing. Again.

It started as it usually did. A snide remark, a roll of the eyes, a disdainful scoff, and it escalated from there into a snarking, bitter fight between Rex and Kanan, the traumatized Jedi and the veteran clone unable to put aside a very difficult past history and effectively work together. This fight, however, was compounded and made even worse by Cody, who happened to be in the room making adjustments to weapons and armor when they had started, and the adversarial, barely functioning relationship he had with the other clone only served to set Rex on edge. In a matter of moments, Cody's mere presence had transformed the usual bickering of Rex and Kanan into a small scale, volatile representation of the Clone Wars, each of the men trapped in their own minds in a war that they couldn't quite seem to put behind them.

A dig at Kanan in a particularly sensitive spot sent the Jedi right back to his firm insistence that no clone could ever be trusted, which dragged an insulted Cody into the fight, and before long, the three Clone War veterans were all fighting each other, past resentments and hatred of their former enemies for their former allegiances driving them right to the edge of physically attacking each other, their hands floating dangerously close to lightsabers and blasters. The scars left by the Clone Wars ran deep within all of them, and despite their promise to work together for their now common cause, some wounds did not heal so easily, and their mistrust was only made worse by fights such as these.

It was like this, the clone, the Jedi, and the Mandalorian standing as far from the other as they could in the Ghost's hold, their weapons threateningly in hand, that a hapless Obi-Wan stumbled upon them, his new Inquisitor pet close on his heels and the mask of Darth Nihilus in his hands as he silently contemplated it. He froze, looked around the room at the wild eyes staring intently at the newcomer, and he groaned, running his hand over his face and through his hair.

"You have got to be kidding me..." the Sith Lord growled, his vast irritation clear in the sneer that curled his lips and dangerous flash in his eyes, the mask in his hands pointing at Cody. "Stand down, you big idiot. Nothing good can come from fighting here."

"Nothing but the eradication of this Republic filth," Cody said cooly with a sharp edge in his voice that made Kanan grind his teeth together, his eyes wide and wild as he looked at the blasters in the clones' hands, his breath coming in fast, tight gasps, his mind clearly elsewhere, and Obi-Wan understood, his hand raised to calm the frantic man.

"This is why clones can never be trusted!" the Jedi said, his voice tense as his hands tightened around his lightsaber.

"You can't lump me in with him!" Cody snapped, his blaster pointing at Rex. "I didn't submit when the Republic demanded it of me!"

"Neither did I!" Rex snapped back. "And the way I see it, the only enemy in the room is the Separatist!"

"Oh, Sith Hells, the war is over!" Obi-Wan shouted, the weight of his anger immediately causing both Kanan and Rex to train their weapons on him and the Twi'lek behind him to drop quickly to her knees in submission, cowering in fear of his wrath. "There are no Separatists, no Republic, only the Empire, and us! Now you will do as I command and stand down!"

Neither Rex nor Kanan moved, but Cody slowly lowered his blasters and sunk to one knee, his breathing fast and ragged as he attempted to calm himself, and with the Separatist threat neutralized, reason began to return to assert itself, and Rex holstered his blasters, his eyes cast at the ground and feeling terribly foolish. Even as the clones disarmed themselves, Kanan remained tense in his corner, switching off his saber, but keeping the hilt tight in his hands.

"I'm sorry..." Rex muttered, his hand sweeping over his bare head and looking sheepishly at the ground. "We're...all on the same side, I know that. I don't know what came over me..."

"I do..." Kanan growled, but Rex dismissed the biting comment.

"The war touched us all," Obi-Wan said almost gently. "It's part of the reason this rebellion has taken so long to form, and why we are still struggling to unite. Old habits are difficult to break."

"Speaking of old habits..." Kanan said, pointing to the scantily clad red Twi'lek at the Sith Lord's feet. "Is that a slave, Kenobi?"

"Tch, no," Obi-Wan scoffed with a roll of his eyes. "This isn't a slave, she's an Inquisitor! Or was one." He grinned broadly when Kanan's eyes widened, his saber hilt twisting in his hands, and Rex scooted closer to him protectively, the barrel of his blaster slowly rising to aim at the woman. "I picked her up on Empire Day! She isn't a slave..." he drawled, his eyes drifting down to look at the subservient woman. "Isn't that right, dearest?"

"Whatever you say, Master..." the woman said in a flat, mindless drawl, and Obi-Wan looked slowly back to the distinctly unamused Jedi.

"Alright, admittedly, she isn't helping my case very much..."

"Kriffing Hell, Kenobi, we talked about this!" Kanan snapped, his hands fidgeting nervously with the lightsaber in his hands and his entire being stressed like Obi-Wan hadn't seen him in a while. The unfortunate explosion of the time bomb that was the duo of Rex and Cody, until this day never previously in a room together unsupervised, had put the Jedi on an edge he was having difficulty coming down from. "No more slaves! We agreed that there would be no more slaves!"

"In my defense, Kanan, the Twi'lek are a slave race, they can't help it!" Obi-Wan threw his hands up when Kanan looked at him with angry outrage. "I have...subdued her, yes, but what other option did I have?!"

"I don't know, you could have killed her!" Kanan yelled at the Sith. "I don't know why you didn't, you've made it very clear you were out to destroy them!"

"What's this?" Obi-Wan said, laying his hand over his chest in mock surprise. "The Jedi suggests I execute this woman? She is defenseless! I...seem to remember that the Jedi policy was to value all life forms, wasn't it? Does that only extend to life forms that you approve of?"

"N-no, of course not..." Kanan stammered, his gaze shifting away from Obi-Wan when he grinned wickedly, commanded the Twi'lek to rise, and pushed her forward into the middle of the room.

"I will not end her life, Kanan, because I find her pleasing and she can be of use to me, but if you object to the way in which I keep her..." Obi-Wan casually gestured to her with a dismissive flick of his wrist. "Go ahead and kill her." There is a moment of silence between them as Kanan looks at the woman, her yellow eyes fixed on the floor and her head bowed as she trembled, her lekku quivering just enough to be seen, the telltale sign of extreme fear that he had only ever seen once before in Hera. "We cannot let her go, Kanan," Obi-Wan said in a soft, smooth hiss. "Death or imprisonment are the only two options. And as a Force sensitive trained user of the Dark Side, she is far too dangerous for normal means of captivity. My way is not only the best way, but the safest. So what's it going to be?"

"W-we can help her," Kanan said almost desperately as he snapped his lightsaber back on to his belt, and with a soft, mewling whimper, the woman's legs ceased to support her and she dropped to her knees, only there for a moment before Cody stepped forward, helped her to her feet, and led her back to his side of the room s she gratefully, desperately clung to him. "She's been...corrupted by the Emperor, by the Dark Side, we can help bring her back to the light."

"So you'd bring her to your side, make her do things your way..." Obi-Wan said with sharp amusement in his voice as he leaned forward. "How is that any different from what I do?"

Before Kanan could finish stammering and respond with exactly how help was different from slavery, Hera came storming into the room, a datapad in her hand and ignoring everyone as she passed them on her way to the holotable, where she quickly plugged in her datapad and activated the holodisplay. In the presence of their captain, the conflict between them all was quickly forgotten, and Kanan and Rex drew closer looking at the partial recording of the distress call they had received from one of the commanders of Phoenix Squadron.

"The mission Ezra was on has failed," Hera said somberly, gently squeezing Kanan's hand when she heard him suck in a sharp breath beside her. Obi-Wan was beside them a moment later, his shoulders just as tight as the Jedi's and faint, concerned anger in his eyes as he watched the recording play back again, only a few seconds long when they were interrupted, the frantic commander only able to get out that the Empire had pulled their ship out of hyperspace before the message stopped.

"Interdictor cruisers..." Obi-Wan growled. "We encountered them over Bandomeer when we were there. I was under the impression that they were still testing them."

"That may not be the case any longer..." Hera said as she shut off the projection. "But that is ultimately irrelevant. What matters right now is that our people were captured, and they need our help. Ezra needs our help, and if we move quickly, we're likely to find them not too far from where we lost contact with the ship."

"Well, we know what we need to do then," Kanan said, turning from the table and heading toward the ladder. "Suit up, everyone, we're going after them."

"Not everyone," Hera said softly, touching the Jedi on the shoulder and stopping him. "The nature of this mission is very sensitive, and the force that the Empire likely has on hand to protect a valuable, experimental ship like an Interdictor is going to be massive. We don't have the resources or the fire power to put up a fight against that kind of a fleet when they have a ship that can prevent us from escaping."

"So..." Kanan drawled slowly, his eyes searching his lover's face. "You want us to infiltrate."

"As swiftly and as silently as possible, yes," Hera said quietly. "No incidents, just in, rescue our people, and out. I've sent Zeb and Sabine out to secure Stormtrooper armor to help you blend in and an Imperial shuttle so you can actually get there. You'll have a better chance of evading detection that way." She pointed back into the room. "Take Rex with you."

"...what?" Kanan gasped, laughing almost manically for a moment until Hera shot him a pointed, irritated glare. "You have got to be kidding."

"I'm not," she droned, she arms crossed over her chest, her face cold as she assumed her role of his commander, not her lover, a switch that she had always made easily.

"Not Rex..." Kanan groaned, ignoring the look that the said clone trooper looked at him with.. "Let me take Zeb, or Sabine. Ooh, or Kenobi! There's nobody better at sneaking about than him!"

"There isn't anyone in that galaxy that causes a bigger scene!" Hera said, pointing to the widely grinning Obi-Wan. "Everywhere he goes, he makes a mess."

"Everywhere he goes, he wins," Kanan drawled smugly, bit he dropped the attitude quickly when Hera shot him a withering glare.

"Maybe so, but he isn't invincible, or we would have already liberated Lothal, Ryloth, Coruscant, any other world under Imperial lock down. And furthermore..." she said, soft and menacing as she looked at Obi-Wan. "You may have been the Empire's most wanted before, but Empire Day came and went, and now it's much worse. It's an active manhunt. Even Fulcrum is worried!"

"See, that's actually a funny story..." Obi-Wan began to explain, but the Twi'lek quickly held up her hand to silence him, completely uninterested in what he had to say.

"The galaxy's biggest heist in the Empire's most secure bank, over thirty people killed, dead Inquisitors on the Emperor's throne in the Galactic Senate, and reports of bodies, bodies falling from the sky over a small farming community that provides food for the Imperials." Hera placed a hand on a tilted him and sent the Sith Lord a look that demanded an explanation.

"To be fair..." Obi-Wan began in a small voice made timid under the mothering gaze. "Not all of that is really my fault." Hera sighed, shooting Kenobi a look that in no uncertain terms expressed her displeasure with the man, and she reached up to stroke Kanan's cheek, and the man quickly covered her hand with his own.

"Hera...if things go wrong, and they almost always do, there are very few people I'd rather have at my side than Obi-Wan."

"I know, Kanan..." Hera said with a sigh. "Maybe he could get in and out without anyone noticing. Maybe if things went wrong, he could hijack the ship and fight his way out. But with a force of unknown size and the presence of a ship that can not only keep us from escaping, but rip us out of hyperspace in the event that we do...with Ezra's life on the line...do you really want to risk it?"

There was a brief, tense moment of silence, the Jedi biting down on his lip as he glanced between his lover and the Sith Lord, his hand clenched by his side. "...no," he said softly. "We'll do things your way. But I need a team I can trust," he said firmly. "Let me bring Sabine or Zeb."

"Zeb doesn't fit in the armor, and Sabine is way too small to be a Stormtrooper," Hera said quietly, her gaze shifting momentarily toward Kenobi as he quietly stroked his beard, a thing he only did when lost in thought or plotting something. "Rex is ex-military, he has a familiarity with Imperial codes and procedure that will be absolutely useful, and he can impersonate a Stormtrooper."

"Because he is a Stormtrooper!" Kanan snapped, so harsh that he surprised himself, hie gaze shifting to the ground before he looked apologetically at Rex. "S-sorry..."

"Kanan..." Hera said gently, drawing closer to the Jedi. "I know you don't trust clones. I know and I understand. But right now, all that needs to be put aside because Ezra needs you." She took in a shaking breath and laid her hand on his chest as she averted her eyes. "I sent him on this mission, Kanan..if it made any sense at all, I'd be running in there right next to you to get him back. We'd all be running in if I thought it was our best chance, but it isn't. The Empire knows all of our faces. They know Ezra, and they know we'll be coming for him. I just...don't want him dead because of a mission I sent him on, and I trust nobody more than you."

"Alright..." Kanan said softly, stroking the guilty, worried woman's cheek. "Rex and I will get him back. I promise you."

"Kanan," Obi-Wan called from his place seated at the holotable. "I'll be on standby in the next system over, ready to make a mess of things in case you need a distraction." He pointed at his clone from across the room. "Take Cody."

"Uh..."

"What, are you kidding me?" Cody scoffed, releasing the Twi'lek and stepping toward the Sith Lord. "You want me to work together with that Republic slave?" he asked incredulously, pointing toward the equally appalled Rex. "No, I don't think so."

"You will do as I say because I command it," Obi-Wan snarled, the room suddenly growing colder and the Inquisitor swiftly kneeling on the ground, Kenobi appearing every bit the Lord of the Sith that he was, the man that Kanan so often forgot that he could be. "Kanan isn't Ezra's only Master. You will go with them, you will lend them your talents, you will work together to bring back my student, or there will be hell to pay. I want you all back alive. Do I make myself absolutely clear?"

"...perfectly, sir," Cody grumbles, none too pleased, but it's clear from his defeated posture that he won't disobey his directive. Obi-Wan takes a quick glance around the room before grabbing the Inquisitor and storming out, far more upset than he was letting on, and with a sigh, Kanan looked between the two clones he was going to be working with, neither of them happy about this arrangement, and he couldn't help but wonder what he did to deserve this.

---

"You know..." Cody drawled lazily, leaning far back in the co-pilot's seat, his hands clasped behind his head and his body covered in the pure white of Stormtrooper armor. "One of the nicest things about working with a Lord of the Sith is that he works me constantly to keep me fit." The comment was pointed, intentionally so, the rogue clone grinning devilishly, and from the back of the shuttle, Rex stopped putting on his own armor to glare at him.

"And just what are you implying?" Rex growled at the smiling man, and beside him, Kanan rolled his eyes as he finished snapping on the last of his own armor.

"He means, Rex, that your armor doesn't fit because you're out of shape," the Jedi said with a mocking smirk as the clone adjusted the admittedly tight, ill-fitting armor.

"Oh yeah?" Rex sneered, drawing up to his full height, which was still considerably shorter than the very tall Kanan. "At least I know how to wear it," he said, smacking the Jedi's shoulder, and the out of place guards snapped into place. Both men glared at Cody as he devolved into riotous laughter, and with a sneer of distaste, Rex walked to the back of the shuttle to put some distance between himself and the other men.

"You know, for the record," Kanan said as he sat down in the pilot's chair, "this wasn't my idea."

"Oh, I that," Rex said with a roll of his eyes. "Just try and act like a professional."

"Are you kidding me?!" the Jedi gasped. "What happens if you get in there and forget what side you're on?!"

"I would never betray the people I'm fighting for!" Rex said sharply, leaning forward in his seat and pointing at Cody. "But traitor over there sure would."

"Sure would..." Cody drawled lazily. "War's complicated and things change. Only a slave blindly follows the side they're on. Although..." he drawled, his hand drifting to stroke his chin. "The Republic became the Empire, so I guess, technically..." He flashed Rex a bright, cheerful smile. "You're a traitor too."

"This conversation really isn't helping my confidence in this mission..." Kanan muttered, casting nervous glances at the two clones.

"Yeah, well, this junk armor isn't helping my confidence," Rex growled, tearing off the chest piece and trying to adjust it to make it fit comfortably.

"It isn't helping your confidence because it makes you look fat," Cody drawled, earning himself a frustrated groan from the other clone.

"I suppose it fits you fine because you're used to the garbage armor the Separatist provided," Rex said, finally wiping the smirk off of Cody's face. "This is nothing compared to clone armor. Not that you'd remember."

"Clone armor was as good as it was because it was based on Mandalorian armor," Cody said smugly, his momentary irritation quickly faded. "I kept the armor I wore while I was fighting for the Republic until Kenobi upgraded me to actual Mandalorian armor." He shrugged slightly. "I still have my clone armor."

"...you kept it?" Rex asked, slightly surprised and eying the other clone suspiciously. Cody slowly nodded.

"I never forgot where I came from, slave," Cody said, though his tone was softer than it had been, the sharp look in his eyes dulled considerably. "I never forgot what it was like to grow up among thousands of brothers. You were my family once."

"And still you betrayed us."

"...yes." Cody closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and turned his chair around to face the viewport and the blue and white of hyperspace as it raced by, gazing blankly out into nothingness. "After Kenobi freed me, after I learned the truth of what we were to the Republic...how could I go back?"

"You knew?" Rex asked, slowly creeping closer. "You knew and you never returned to warn us?"

"I was the commander of the Lost Legion," Cody said blankly, as if he were in a distant place, a distant time. "We were branded a bad batch, ordered to be killed on sight as traitors to the Republic. Would any of you have even listened anyway?" he asked, looking over his shoulder at the other clone, his eyes drifting to the scar on the side of his bald head where he had the biochip removed. "There was a time when I wished to save you," Cody said softly. "I asked Kenobi to help me free all my other brothers enslaved by the Republic. But the war went on, the fighting grew worse, and capturing you became...difficult."

"...we weren't trained to surrender," Rex said softly, and Cody chuckled and shook his head.

"No, we were trained to follow our commander's orders without question. We were born to die. Like slaves."

"Sort of how like you follow Kenobi's orders?" Rex asked pointedly, and Cody sneered and turned back to face the viewport.

"It's not the same..." he muttered under his breath. "Obi-Wan is different."

"I said the same thing about General Skywalker," Rex said morosely, and Cody's shoulders tensed. "And look where he ended up."

"Nothing like Obi-Wan!"

"Exactly like him, traitor."

"Alright, enough!" Kanan snapped at the two clones, both of them bitterly folding their arms over their chests, both with the same expression on their identical faces. "I am so not happy about this mission!"

"Really..." Rex drawled with a roll of his eyes at the Jedi's petulance. "That wasn't clear..."

"I honestly don't know what Kenobi was thinking, having both of you in one place..." Kanan muttered. "I don't know what Hera was thinking, I could have handled this mission myself!"

"The last Jedi she sent on a mission alone was captured," Cody drawled. "You Jedi don't do well on your own, you never have."

"She's worried about you, obviously..." Rex added. "And going in with backup is always a good idea."

"Backup from a clone?" Kanan asked, scoffing. "Are you serious?" He didn't wait for an answer as his hands raced over the console and dropped them out of hyperspace, the blue ans white streaks reverting to pinpoint stars on the blanket of space, and the trio's bickering was immediately forgotten as they stared out the viewport at not one ship, but six, five massive Star Destroyers and the smaller though no less intimidating Interdictor. But what really caught Cody's attention particularly was the commanding Star Destroyer, bigger than the rest, the belly of the ship sporting an intricate engraving that was as beautiful as it was intimidating.

"The Chimera..." Cody whispered, his hands planted on the console as he stood up and leaned as close to the viewport as he was able. "I can't believe it..."

"Thrawn's ship?!" Kanan hissed, leaning in for a better look and swallowing hard. "You have got to be kidding me..."

"We have to tell Kenobi..." Rex muttered, reaching for his wrist com, but was quickly stopped when Cody reached out and grabbed his hand.

"We can't tell Kenobi..." Cody growled, and for just a moment, Rex stared at the other clone in disbelief before he growled and snatched his hand away.

"Isn't this the guy he's looking for?" Rex scoffed, shaking his head. "Unbelievable. You'd betray your own commander? We can expect nothing less from a traitor, I suppose..."

"Spoken like a slave..." Cody said wryly and pointing out the window. "What do you suppose will happen if Kenobi finds out that Thrawn's ship is here? He'll be here in a moment and everything will go to shit."

"Ahsoka makes this guy sound like bad news," Rex said firmly. "If we have a chance to catch him off-guard, we need to take it."

"There is no catching Thrawn off-guard!" Cody hissed. "Look, I get it, you're still pretty new to this rebellion so you don't know, but he has been hunting Kenobi relentlessly for years. This is no chance encounter." He took a deep, calming breath, though his hand was balled into a tight fist. "Hera said it herself. Our faces are known to the Empire, they will know who Ezra is, and they will know we are coming for him. This is a trap."

"Damn it..." Kanan muttered, his eyes running nervously over the ship. "Would Thrawn think Kenobi would come for Ezra?"

"Oh yeah..." Cody said absently. "It's Thrawn. He knows."

"You're right, we can't call Kenobi in..." Kanan groaned, running his hand over his face. "This whole rescue is pointless if we lose one member of our team to save another." He was silent for a moment, his finger tapping against his chin as he thought, and slowly, he placed his hand on the yoke and pressed them closer to the Imperial line. "We stick to the plan. Even if this is an obvious trap, we can't leave Ezra behind. If we're lucky, this plan is baited for Kenobi, not us, and they won't look twice at a couple of Stormtroopers."

"It might be targeted toward Kenobi, but mark my word, this trap is here to catch rebels," Cody said, his eyes running over the six ships. "Thrawn may not even be here, we've been misdirected several times before. Just because the ship is sailing doesn't mean the Admiral's on board."

"Will that make much of a difference?" Kanan asked, and Cody slowly shook his head.

"Hey..." Rex said, speaking up after silently listening as he got a feel for the man that commanded the ship the other two were so concerned about. "If this trap is set for Kenobi, what the hell did this guy bring to trap him?"

"And on which ship are they keeping Bridger?" Cody asked, and the Jedi shut his eyes tightly.

"Both good questions..." Kanan muttered, reaching into the Force and feeling for his student, and he felt the Force run cold, not just with fear, but with restless, predatory anger. He tried to push past it, to isolate the feel of Ezra in the Force, and found it, though it seemed small, faint, distinctly wrong, and not on the ship he was expecting. "He's on the Interdictor," Kanan said, frowning as he looked at the much smaller ship. "Why? Why would they keep him there and not bring him aboard the Chimera?"

"Because Obi-Wan would see that ship and run right toward it..." Cody droned. "The Chimera is bait for him. Ezra's bait for us."

"I'm starting to hate this man..." Rex grumbled, and the other two quickly muttered in agreement.

"There's something else here," Kanan said quietly, his eyes closed in concentration as he tried to puzzle out exactly what it was. "I can't get a good feel on it, but it ain't good."

"Sounds like a problem we'll have to deal with as it arises," Cody said quietly. "Our more pressing problem is how we're supposed to get on the Interdictor."

"You just leave that to me," Rex said as he muscled his way beside Cody, invading the quietly cursing clone's personal space as he leaned over his shoulder to get a good look at the console, his eyes on the ships before him and a smug smirk on his lips when the shipboard com picked up a transmission to them over the Imperial line.

"Shuttle S257," the stiff voice of an Imperial officer said tersely over the com. "This is a restricted area. You do not have clearance."

"Copy that, sir," Rex said in an almost bored tone of voice. "We have a 157 aboard and are in need of assistance."

"I repeat, Shuttle S257," the officer said, more irritated than before, "you are not cleared. This is a 675 testing zone, and it is off-limits. Acknowledge or be destroyed."

"This isn't working..." Cody said through clenched teeth, holding down the mute, and Rex shot him a disdainful glare.

"Big talk from a com officer, he's a nobody," he growled, smacking the other clone's hand away from the console. "With all due respect, sir," he said once again into the com, "if we are not rendered immediate assistance, we're going to have a 3376 on our hands." There was silence for a moment, tense for Cody and Kanan, who both shifted uncomfortably in their seats beside the calm, collected Rex.

"Shuttle S257," a different voice over the com said, and Rex grinned broadly. "Requesting your emergency access codes."

"Copy that, sir," Rex said smugly. "Priority Protocol 7-"

"Ugh, this is the stuff I can't stand..." Kanan whispered to Cody as he leaned toward the clone as Rex continued to rattle off an impressively long and complex sequence of numbers and letters. Cody scoffed and nodded in agreement. "All this...protocol nonsense..."

"Not much of a military man, are you?" Cody whispered, and Kanan merely shrugged.

"I guess not. Hard to be after how my last stint in the military ended."

"Standby for code check," the man on the com said when Rex had finished, and the clone leaned back, his hand gripping the back of Cody's chair as the clone was given back a touch of his space.

"My squad and I practically invented these emergency protocols during the Clone Wars," Rex said proudly, a large grin spreading across his face as he began to laugh. "These idiots are still using them!"

"Shuttle S257," the com chimed with the same, deep voice from before. "You are clear to proceed on heading 1599 vector 11. Do not deviate from this course."

"Thank you, sir!" Rex chirped, cutting off the com and grinning at Cody as the clone rolled his eyes.

"We didn't need protocols with Kenobi..." Cody muttered, his arms crossing over his chest and refusing to meet the other clone's eyes, knowing full well the superior look that was within them. "Kenobi talked to us like people."

"Oh, stop it..." Kanan grumbled, frowning at his navicomputer display as he entered the heading and vector into the system. "Well done, Rex, but I don't think you'll like where we're headed. They're sending us to the Interdictor."

"Good, because Ezra's there," Cody grumbled, as displeased as Kanan looked.

"Bad, because they probably know it's us," Rex said with a sigh. "We have no business on a ship they're testing when there are five Star Destroyers here. They're guiding us into a trap."

"My thoughts exactly..." Kanan muttered, groaning as he rubbed his face. "That's alright, we can work with this. As soon as we get out of the hangar they put us in, we can disappear. One Stormtrooper is like any other. We'll have to change our exit strategy, but this is manageable. We'll just have to deal with everything else as it comes."

"You sure you don't want to contact Kenobi?" Rex asked, and Cody tersely nodded his head.

"I'm sure. He can almost not help walking right into traps when he sees them. When he engages Thrawn, it has to be on his terms."

"Let's just make sure we get out of here so we can tell him," Kanan muttered, and the two clones nodded their agreement.

They spent the rest of their time in the shuttle in silence, their eyes fixed on the mighty Chimera, which somehow was able to be seen from the viewport from every moment on their approach to the Interdictor. It wasn't far to the ship, but the cold dread that settled over them made the short journey seem infinitely long, the slow creeping of the nearby Chimera across the viewport making it feel as though they were moving immeasurably slow. Even worse than all of that was the feeling that Kanan felt through the Force, disturbed, not disrupted, but restless and uneasy, the feeling of something unmistakably there that set his nerves on edge. It wasn't the cold, oppressive dread that he had felt in the presence of the Sith Lord Vader, or even the mortified, horrific awe when Kenobi opened himself up and revealed what was just underneath. It was wilder, less controlled, unpredictable and all the more dangerous for it.

When their little shuttle passed under the shadow of the Interdictor's starboard, secondary repair bay, Kanan surrendered the controls to the Imperial control and got out of his seat, walking to the back of the shuttle and grabbing his helmet, the clones quickly following his lead, sliding their helmets on their heads and gripping their blasters tightly.

"Well..." Kanan said as he pressed the hatch controls, the airlock hissing as it disengaged as he looked at the two clones. "This must be like old times for the two of you."

"Oh, please," Cody scoffed, his head lolling to the side as Kanan imagined his eyes exaggeratedly rolling. "If this were old times, slave here and I would be trying to kill each other."

"It's a wonder you haven't tried yet, traitor," Rex quipped, and the other clone simply shrugged his shoulders.

"I made a promise to Kenobi. Don't you worry, as soon as this mission's over, his protection over you is over and we can get right back to it."

"Oh, I am greatly looking forward to that..." Rex drawled, straightening up when the boarding ramp extended. "Just follow my lead and we'll be just fine."

"Uh, no..." Kanan hissed, his longer stride bringing him to the front of the group. "You follow my lead. Hera put me in charge of this mission, and it's going to stay that way. And I can't trust either of you to be leading."

"Ugh, not this again..." Cody groaned. "You know, not all-"

"Not because of that, idiot!" Kanan snapped quietly. "You two won't listen to each other because you're too busy arguing like an old married couple!"

"He started it," Cody said with a shrug, and the only thing that kept Rex from responding was the proximity to the guard posted bu the door in the otherwise sparsely populated hangar. The sentry and his partner stepped out away from the door, their blasters clutched tightly in their grasps and holding up a hand for the trio to halt when they drew closer.

"The command deck says you need to make your repairs and depart," the trooper said in a strong, commanding voice, and Kanan took a step to stand before him, his hand making a small, subtle motion in the air before him.

"We need to get to maintenance..." Kanan said in a flat, expressionless voice, and both of the guards stood up straighter, their weapons in hand lowering.

"You need to get to maintenance," the guard mindlessly repeated, the two clones looking at each other as Kanan gestured slightly with his hand again.

"We can go on our way."

"You can go on your way, the guard chanted, standing to the side and putting in the security code for the door, which slid open without complaint, and the trio stepped through, a confident, easy stride taking them into the corridors beyond.

"Not bad..." Rex said in a tone of voice that was clearly unimpressed. "I've seen better."

"So have I," Cody quickly agreed. "Kenobi's basically the authority on that trick."

"Well, I've been training with Kenobi, and I'm sure he'd agree I'm lacking..." Kanan grumbled. "Maybe I'll practice on you two when we get back." The two clones behind him snickered quietly before they abruptly stopped and defiantly turned their heads away from each other. They were silent after that, slowly making their way through the halls until they found a security terminal, and with Rex stepping forward to input a string of codes to grant them access, they soon had a wealth of information at their fingertips.

"Alright, see if you can find where they're keeping Ezra and the rest of the crew," Kanan whispered to Rex, occasionally looking over his shoulder at Cody, who stood guard at the corridor's junction.

"You don't need to look that up," Cody hissed from his post, looking behind him at the pair when the coast was clear. "We already know where he is. In a secure cell, and if we go on up there, I'm willing to bet he's going to be in the one with tripled security."

"Traitor's right," Rex said a moment later. "The kid's been transferred to a secure cell. The rest of the crew is in the brig."

Kanan groaned in irritation as he stood up straight and crossed his arms over his chest. "That's not good. I don't want to split up, but the moment we make our move, they're going to know we're here. I can't see how we can get everyone to safety."

"Then we don't," Cody said firmly. "My directive was to get Bridger out of here. Kenobi never said anything to me about crew."

"We leave no man behind, traitor," Rex growled, and Cody defiantly stepped up to him.

"If we don't, none of us will escape, slave."

"And this is why I'm in charge!" Kanan snapped, smacking the two upside their helmeted heads. "Ezra first. If it looks like we can get the rest of them out after, we'll go for it, but otherwise, we need to go. We'll deal with it when we get there." He pushed both men forward as he strode out into the hallway toward the elevators, and both clones fell into step behind him. They cut an impressive little squad, the two clones easily falling into perfect step with each other and the Jedi that led them, their uniformity and rigid, military posture allowing them to pass unnoticed through the lines of a hundred other soldiers marching to the exact same, monotonous beat.

It didn't take long before they made it to the secure cells, Rex quickly speaking to the officers at the desk in a series of codes and protocols that the young men had to covertly look at an Imperial manual under the desk to understand, and when it all checked out, they were allowed to go on their way. As they made their way slowly down the dimly lit corridors, the three men drew closer together, the same, uneasy feeling settling over them as they all came to the silent conclusion that this had all been far too easy.

"You know, slave," Cody whispered, leaning in slightly toward Rex. "After today, these codes will never work."

"Maybe not, but they're working now..." Rex growled back.

"Or have been allowed to work..." Kanan muttered grimly. "Maybe they know you're working with us and they you and your crew made these codes. Maybe they have moved on and have kept these protocols on file to use specifically for identifying rebel elements." He paused, his step faltering for a moment as he slowed down. "...exactly how smart is this Thrawn?"

"Smarter than you," Cody scoffed. "Maybe smarter than Kenobi, and I can't even begin to tell you how scared that makes me. That's exactly the sort of thing he'd use to trap us and-"

"Don't say it, don't you dare," Rex growled, the other clone looking at him in silence for a moment.

"...and this has been way too easy," Cody finished, and Rex groaned loudly.

"Saying that shit aloud is how you make bad things happen!" Rex snapped. "You should know that by now!"

"Oh please, they don't happen because I say them, I say these things because they're obviously going to happen!"

"Shh, shut up!" Kanan hissed, his arm extended and catching both clones in the chest before they rounded the corner, and the Jedi flattened both himself and the two men against the wall. "Ezra's cell is just up ahead. You were right, Cody. The guard presence is...substantial." Slowly, Rex and Cody crept forward, leaning their heads to peek around the corner, and with a uniformed whistle in perfect unison, both men pressed themselves back against the wall.

"Ten troopers and an officer," Rex said softly. "That is a lot."

"Now would be a great time to show off what Kenobi's taught you," Cody says as he leaned in closer to the Jedi. "A wave of your hand and all our problems just walk out the door."

"It's not that simple..." Kanan growled.

"Yes it is," Cody swiftly insisted. "I've seen Kenobi do it. Entire rooms of people, forced to obey his every command."

"Yeah, well, I'm not Kenobi..." the Jedi grumbled, peeking around the corner once again and groaning when he looked upon the guard presence. "Eleven people...maybe Kenobi can exert perfect control over eleven people and bend them to his will like it was nothing, but I doubt I could do more than..." He peeked around the corner again for a second before flattening himself to the wall once again. "Five. Maybe. If I really focus."

"You know..." Cody drawled lazily. "If Kenobi were here-"

"If Kenobi were here, he wouldn't be here!" Kanan hissed. "He'd be over on the Chimera! Don't forget you're the one who said we shouldn't contact him for exactly that reason."

"So we're just going to have to be smarter," Rex said nonchalantly with a carefree, easy shrug.

"Rex, I don't think you can protocol your way out of this one..." Kanan said, and a moment later, his shoulder erupted in dull pain because the clone had punched him.

"Not me, idiot!" Rex hissed, pointing toward the soldiers around the corner and swiftly sweeping his hand through the air. It took a moment for him to understand, but when he did, the Jedi softly gasped in realization, a chuckle of amusement in his voice.

"Oh, I can absolutely do that," Kanan drawled, motioning for the clones to step out in the hall, and with a swift nod, Rex and Cody rounded the corner, walking with purpose toward the group of guards. The Stormtroopers watched the men as they drew near, their weapons charging and rising to the ready, but neither Rex nor Cody paid them any mind, casually walking past part of the line and coming to stand at the door opposite the ones the Imperials were guarding. Rex turned to fiddle with the console by the door, punching in codes into the device while Cody stood facing the line of wary Stormtroopers and their tense, uncertain commander.

Cody inclines his head in their direction. "Long day?" he asks in a light, friendly voice, and a few of the troopers in the line eagerly nod in response, only to be elbowed by their stoic fellows beside them. "Must be a hell of a prisoner to need such a large guard detail."

"A teenager, actually," the officer said, clearly irritated by the conversation, or the assignment, Cody wasn't sure, though he suspected standing guard over a child had wounded the man's pride. "A rebel. We're only here until they return to finish interrogating him, but it seems he is difficult to break. So..." He gestured to the troopers behind him with a disdainful sneer. "The elevated guard presence."

"Ah..." Cody said, thrusting his thumb over his shoulder. "We're just testing the security systems. After the failures on Muunilinst last week with the bank and all..." He whistled when the officer stood up straighter, clearly uncomfortable, the soldiers shifting uneasily behind him. "The Admiral wants to take no chances."

"N-no, of course not..." the officer mumbled, the door Cody stood before hissing open as Rex finally unlocked it, and the two clones stood leaning in the doorway of the cell.

"Well, our work here is done," Cody said with a friendly wave. "Have a nice day."

It was slight, the smallest vibration in the air, the sound of soft humming around them, and Cody and Rex turned sideways, flattening themselves against the wall just inside the open cell just as the officer flew past them, a strangled gasp in his throat as he was thrown into the cell and struck the far wall, and a singular bang as all ten Stormtroopers were slammed into the corridor's wall to slump dazed to the ground. The clones moved quickly, stepping out into the hall and striking each trooper on the back of their heads before they picked them up and flung the unconscious soldiers into the cell with the groaning officer. After knocking the officer unconscious and making certain that the other troopers wouldn't wake up for some time, the clones stepped out into the hall and sealed the door just as Kanan came jogging up.

"That wasn't bad either," Rex said when Kanan stood before them. "Still, a real Jedi could do better."

"I'd like to remind you, Rex, that if it weren't for the clones, I would have been a real Jedi," Kanan said flatly, his arms crossed over his chest.

"Mm, no you wouldn't," Cody immediately responded. "If not for the Purge, Sidious would have sent Kenobi to execute you all."

"...great," Kanan droned. "That's great." The Jedi scooted closer to Rex as the clone worked at the panel outside Ezra's door. "Did you get the security disabled?" he asked, and Rex slowly shook his head.

"Not disabled, but I did manage to stop the monitors from playing the live feed," Rex muttered. "It should give us a little time before they realize that the picture isn't moving, but it's still recording."

"It's going to have to do..." Kanan said, shifting eagerly from foot to foot as he impatiently waited for the door to open. When it did, he rushed in without a thought, the clones swiftly following and the door closing, but not sealing behind them, the prospect of them being sealed inside diminished significantly with the two lightsabers between them.

In the center of the small cell, Ezra was strapped to a horizontal, metal table, restraints around his ankles, wrist and chest squeezing his body tightly and keeping him firmly rooted in place. His head hung limply to his chest, his hair matted and plastered to his forehead with sweat that smelled distinctly medicinal, as if his body was so filled with drugs it exuded out of his very skin. Panic gripped Kanan, and he swiftly rushed to his student, his hand to the boy's throat to check for a pulse, and breathed a heavy sigh of relief to find it beating evenly, if a bit slow. More disconcerting was how he felt, the boy's presence in the Force just...off. Thin and weak and barely a trickle in the Force, but even then, something else was wrong. He was disrupted, certainly, and perhaps it was just the drugs repressing his abilities, but they weren't like any drug Kanan had ever seen. Certainly not like the ones he was subject to when he was under Imperial interrogation.

"Difficult to break, he said..." Cody muttered, stepping down into the room and observing the boy while Kanan frantically checked the readouts on his vitals at the side of the interrogation chair. "I wonder of that means they didn't get anything out of him."

"Even if they did, Ezra wouldn't know..." Kanan said in barely a whisper, his hand at the boy's cheek and trying to stimulate the Force to flow through him with their connection. It wasn't working. "When the Empire captured me, I was interrogated by the Grand Inquisitor, among others. I wonder who they brought in to interrogate him..."

"Maybe they didn't," Rex said quickly, but Kanan quickly dismissed the idea with a wave of his hand.

"They did..." he said darkly. "I can feel it."

"All I know is that rescuing to rest of the crew isn't going to happen," Cody said sternly, and beside him, Rex tensed and swiftly looked at the other man, his posture tense and defiant. "Oh, what?! Maybe if the kid was alright, it would be a possibility, but he is done. He's not a help, he's a hindrance! There's four of us, but there may as well be two since one of us needs to carry him, or he's not getting out!"

"I can go!" Rex said firmly, his tone and demeanor entirely confrontational, and Cody rose taller to meet the challenge. "If I go right now, you give me five minutes, and I can be down in the brig before they even know we're here! The ship isn't hard to navigate, and you saw how easy it is for me to pass myself off as one of them!"

"That is completely absurd!" Cody snapped. "I don't like the idea of splitting up, and Kenobi told me to make sure you all get back safe! How can I do that if I'm not there?!"

"Aw, that's sweet..." Rex said mockingly. "For a moment there, it sounded like you care about what happens to us, traitor."

"Yeah, well, for a moment I almost did, before I remembered what you are, slave!"

"Will the two of you shut up?!" Kanan hissed, activating his lightsaber and cutting away Ezra's restraints, the boy falling limply against Kanan's chest as he was freed, the Jedi carefully taking him in his arms and lowering the unconscious teen to the ground. "None of this is going to matter if we can't get away..." Kanan whispered. "We need to disable the Interdictor's gravity wells on our way out, or we aren't going to be able to escape. We do that, and we can call in Hera for a quick extraction. The Ghost can get in and out before the Imperials will have a chance to mobilize. If we're ready to go."

"We might have to split up regardless..." Rex said, and Kanan uneasily nodded. "If I go now, you can have a chance to maybe get Ezra able to move on his own, and I-"

"Shh!" Kanan hissed, his hand held up for silence and his body tense, and both clones crouched down, blasters raised, and listening intently for what the Jedi sensed. They heard it a moment later, the soft padding of fine boots striding quickly to keep up with the heavy footfalls of metallic legs, a hard, pounding ring with that set their nerves on edge and drew closer with each step. The clones drew closer to the two Jedi, protectively crouched before them as Kanan scooped the unconscious Ezra in his arms and silently tried to wake him.

"I'm telling you, my Lord," the accented, frustrated clip of one of the approaching pair said. "All of our security checks out! There isn't anything here!"

"No..." the other voice said, a soft, dangerous sound that is not entirely present, its owner stalking the Force as he stalked the halls. "No, something's here...someone..." A low, frustrated sound, half growl and half whine is torn from the man's throat, followed by an almost manic burst of quiet laughter. "It's close, so close, so familiar..." In the cell, Cody lowered his weapon, straightening up from his crouch, his eyes fixated on the door from where beyond the two voices seem to have stopped very nearby. Shoulders tight, he silently unclips the lightsaber from his belt and holds it tightly in his hand. Kanan silently does likewise, taps Rex's shoulder, and passes his precious student off to the clone, not thinking twice if he trusted him.

"My Lord, what will you have us do?" the accented voice asked quietly, and for a moment, heavy metal legs pace swiftly, predatory in small, short bursts along the hall, the sound of rough and ragged breathing in the air.

"I feel him..." the man snarled, more vicious than before. "Here, the aching, painful nothingness. He is not the Force, he is the absence of it..." The heavy pacing stopped, the sound of almost frantic hyperventilation ceasing as suddenly as it had begun. "...contact the Admiral," the voice said again, no longer the frantic, desperate animal, but a cold, dangerous calm. "Inform him that we have him." A swift clicking of heels and the echoing of footsteps echoed through the air until there was nothing but silence, but still, Kanan, Rex and Cody remained still, even as Ezra began to groan as he regained consciousness, though the boy was still heavily under the influence of the powerful drugs the interrogation droids had administered.

They were silent and still for a long while as they listened intently for the sound of breathing, of footsteps, of something unknown prowling the corridors. Kanan is almost too afraid to reach through the Force, to enact any pull upon it that may draw what was once there back again, and even if he does, he is uncertain he will be able to navigate the oppressive darkness of a disturbed and stormy sea well enough to locate its origin. So instead, they rely on their senses, as Rex had once advised young Ezra, and they wait, perhaps not long enough, but time is of the essence, and Thrawn may very well be on the way.

Cody rises first, motioning for the others to stay put when they rise as well, Ezra's arm draped over Rex's shoulder as he sways on legs that will not hold his weight on their own. Creeping closer to the door, his blaster in one hand and stabilized against his chest while his other hand grasped a lightsaber ready to be switched on in an instant, Cody took a deep breath, waved his hand in front of the unlocked door's sensors, and stepped out into the hallway. Not a second later there was a loud, sickening crack, and Cody went flying back into the room, striking the wall with enough force to dent it, and the clone fell to the ground, the saber and blaster dropping from his limp grip, the white armor covering his chest hopelessly shattered and splattered with red from where the shards had dug into his skin and muscle.

Kanan's lightsaber is on in a flash, stepping before Rex as he raises his own weapon and grasps Ezra tightly to him with his other arm, and Cody, groaning and coughing on the ground as he reaches a shaking hand out to grab his fallen lightsaber. Kanan's teeth grind together, his eyes narrow in focus as he steels himself against the oppressive Dark Side when the reverberating snapping hiss of two sabers igniting simultaneously fills the air, and he takes a slow, defensive step back when a red Zabrak with black, tribal markings covering his fearsome face steps into the cell, seeming to loom above them despite his small stature, his metallic legs heavy with each step upon the ground.

"Clone..." the creature hisses delightedly, a malicious grin spreading across his face as his red, double bladed lightsaber spun effortlessly at his side. "I see you..."

"Maul..." Cody groaned as he slowly rose to his feet, the lightsaber in his hands igniting as he took off his helmet, a smug smirk on his lips, but no matter his best efforts, he couldn't keep the pain from showing on his face. He staggered when he stepped forward, and was kept from falling when Kanan swiftly reached out and grabbed hold of him, and the clone pressed his lightsaber into Kanan's hand. "Not an Inquisitor," he whispered in a strained voice to the Jedi. "A Sith. All we can do is run."

Kanan never looks away from the nightmare creature in the tiny room, though he gives Cody a curt nod of acknowledgment and takes a deep, calming breath as he watches delight, excitement, animal savagery and malice streaked with madness stain Maul's face, his cybernetic knees bending slightly, the nearly imperceptible quickening of the spinning saber, the quivering in his hunched shoulder muscles, the intensity of his focus in the Force. Kanan feels the explosion of intent before Maul even moves, and in that split second, Kanan grabs the Force and throws Cody out of the way when he feels the Sith's attention latch upon him, the suddenly moving Zabrak rocketing through the air and his spinning saber striking the walls and the ground as the Jedi moved to intercept.

A howl of rage splits the air when his intended target is pulled out of the way, his blade striking the ground in a shower of sparks instead, the Jedi he now faced deftly side stepping and using the two blades in his hand to swipe hard at the Zabrak, and Maul is forced to step back. His gaze fixates briefly on the clone, the Stormtrooper - also a clone, by the feel of him - and the drugged teenager flee the room, the injured man and the Jedi Padawan hauled out by the strong, stocky Stormtrooper. In an instant, Maul's focus shifts to Kanan, his double sided blade coming down hard and fast upon him, and within seconds, Maul has Kanan in the corner, the sweeping strikes of the red blades slashing against the walls of the corner which the Jedi cleverly used to box himself in and aid in his own defense, showers of sparks and splatters of molten steel raining down upon them.

Molten holes burn through Kanan's armor, and sharp pain accompanies the smell of burning flesh as steel and sparks leave deep, speckled scars across his skin, pain making his arms begin to shake under the rapid, furious onslaught, but he's pinned down and cannot move, not until Maul rethinks his tactic or tries to stab at him, the shifting of his blades allowing the Jedi to slip away, but the Sith's mind is locked into his fury, single minded in his brutal efforts, and does not relent, knowing full well that the Jedi will be unable to withstand for as long as he can keep this up.

It only stops with a high whine and a yelp of pain, and Maul's next strike is off-balance, thanks to pain and the impact of a direct shot from a blaster, the red blade glancing off the wall instead of off Kanan's saber. Kanan grabs his moment and slides under the Sith's legs, his sabers sweeping along Maul's cybernetic knees and cutting straight through the black pants he wore, and though his blades sparked against the Sith's legs, his saber doesn't cut through, the burning red line in the metal not damaged, simply heated, and Kanan sprints toward the door through blaster fire that is carefully not aimed at him, but at the furious Maul. The Sith reeled around to deflect the suppressing fire from the two clones, Rex standing in the center of the doorway with both blasters blazing in hand, and Cody leaning against the wall for support, his blaster held at the end of his extended arm as he fired as fast as the weapon would allow.

It wasn't enough, and the one shot they managed to hit the Zabrak with seemed to only make him stronger and more fierce. Easily deflecting the shots fired, Maul extended his hand, and the firing stopped as the clones rose into the air, their weapons clattering to the ground as the Sith Lord used the Force to choke them. It stopped a moment later when Kanan sprinted past them and drove his lightsaber into the security panel, the cell door slamming shut on the outraged Zabrak. A second later, and the end of a red lightsaber was pressing through the door as Maul began to cut his way through, the momentary glance of a molten eye glaring at them through molten steel jolting the group into action.

"Go, go, we need to go now!" Kanan commanded, quickly tossing the fallen blasters to the clones and helping to pull them to their feet.

"We can't escape with him on our tail!' Rex snapped as he scooped Ezra up in his arms from the little alcove housing the door to the cell across the hall where he had placed him for safe keeping as they extracted Kanan.

"No, but we're sure as hell going to try!" Kanan said quickly, grabbing hold of Cody and starting to run down the hall with him, but the clone tugged on the Jedi's arm as his step faltered, and Kanan was forced to slow down.

"This armor doesn't protect you from anything..." Cody said with a weak laugh, his hand clutching at his bleeding chest as he took his arm away from the Jedi. "I'm slowing you down..."

"It's fine, it'll be fine," Kanan hissed, the two of them quickly looking over their shoulder when a loud, crashing bang echoed through the corridors, the halls lighting up with a red glow as Maul stepped out of the cell, having cut himself free nearly twice as fast as Kanan had anticipated.

"Would have been fine if we didn't have that following us!" Cody snapped, swiftly raising his blaster and firing at the furious, advancing Sith, Rex quickly beside him and Ezra clinging to Kanan as the clones fired at the Sith Lord, keeping close to each other to avoid the deflected bolts. The shouting and swift commands of Imperial soldiers echoed through the halls, though they couldn't see any troopers yet, and as they passed underneath one of the many arches that segmented the Imperial corridors, allowing blast doors to slam shut to contain damage to smaller areas. As they retreated, the Sith Lord grew faster, more furious as he advanced under the suppressing fire, only growing quicker as he drew closer, and with a burst of strength and speed he didn't know he had, he sprinted toward Maul, heedless of the cries of Rex and Kanan, his blaster aimed behind him as he shot the control panel, the blast doors slamming shut as the power shorted.

Kanan and Rex stared at the door, their hearts stopped in their chests and unable to breathe, and when Kanan finally jolted forward, his blade in his hand as he rushed the blast door, Rex grabbed the Jedi and shook his head.

"We can't leave him!" Kanan shouted at Rex as the clone dragged Ezra up from the ground.

"You cut that door open, Kanan, and we are right back where we started, and we still won't have Cody!" Rex snapped. "He is a soldier, he was injured and slowing us down, and he made a choice to give us a chance to escape! Do not let his decision be for nothing!"

"B-but-"

"He made a promise to Kenobi," Rex said swiftly, handing him back the drugged Ezra as he primed his blaster, the sound of shouting now accompanied by the beat of footsteps on the ground. "That promise won't be fulfilled if we are captured here!"

With a final glance at the blast door, Kanan grit his teeth, scooped up Ezra, and sprinted through the ship's corridors, following Rex on their way toward the maintenance corridors in an attempt to reach the controls for the Interdictor's gravity wells. More than once, they ran into trooper patrols, a perfect mix of Jedi Force abilities and deadly clone accuracy once he removed the helmet, which Rex claimed limited his vision and made it difficult to hit his targets, allowing them to move through the ship quickly. Mostly, they kept to isolated corridors, avoiding troopers if they could instead of engaging them, and it wasn't long before they had disappeared from the regular pathways so they could traverse through the service corridors, a much more direct line to the gravity well projectors.

"We should have done this first..." Kanan growled when he and Rex had dispatched another group of Stormtroopers, a hazy Ezra slowly beginning to complain about being carried and insisting with heavily slurred speech that he could help them fight.

"Yeah, maybe so..." Rex muttered, leaning around the corner, his blaster at the ready, and motioning for the Jedi to follow as he ran into the next hall, the grated floor clanging under their feet. "Live and learn. Next time, we need a sabotage team."

"Which is exactly what we had Kenobi on standby for..." Kanan grumbled as they turned another corner, Ezra wriggling in his grasp and muttering something unintelligible as he reached to activate the comlink on his wrist, the call quickly answered by Hera. There was no visual, but he could clearly hear the Twi'lek's relieved sigh.

"Spectre One. Are you in need of extraction?" she asked, professional as always, but Kanan could hear the relief and excitement in her voice."

"Not exactly..." Kanan said through his panting breaths, tightening his grasp on Ezra as he ran faster. "There have been several complications, but I have Spectre Six in custody, and we'll be ready for extraction once we shut down the gravity wells on the Interdictor so we can make our escape."

"...wait, you were detected?!" Hera said tightly, groaning loudly in the silence that followed. "This is what Spectre Zero is for, I'll-"

"You can't," Kanan quickly interrupted. "Thrawn's here. This entire thing is a trap for Spectre Zero."

There was a long pause before Hera said in a strong but quiet voice, "Standby, Spectre One." Kanan slowed to a jog next to Rex when the maintenance corridor opened up into an enormous room filled with towering structures, power pylons, and a dangerous looking reactor supported by a field of shimmering energy, the control platforms just a short ways away, the Imperial presence limited to scientists, a few engineers, and a handful of armed soldiers. It wasn't anything they couldn't handle, and finally shedding his limiting helmet, Kanan hoisted the slowly recovering Ezra on his back and commanded him to hold on, the boy responding with thick-tongued compliance.

The Jedi led the way, his saber slashing the air before him to bat back the plasma bolts the Stormtroopers fired, the deflected shots aimed at hitting the power pylons. From cover behind the shield the Jedi's saber created, Rex shot at the Imperials on the platforms, easily able to pick them off from a distance with the necessary focus provided by the Jedi's cover. It didn't take them long to clear the room, and with Cody's lightsaber in the other clone's hands, it only took them a moment to thrust the blades through the control consoles, the power shorting out and the central reactor losing power with a long, low groan.

Taking Ezra off his back when the boy's legs slipped from around his waist to dangle behind him, Kanan once again scooped the boy up and ran quickly behind Rex as he led the way back into the dark maintenance corridors to hide, the only occasional presence of soldiers in the service areas making it a safer place than in the ship proper.

"Spectre One," the com blared, and Kanan crouched down, propping Ezra against a wall as he quickly answered. "What is your current situation?"

"The Interdictor gravity wells have been disabled," Kanan said, nodding in appreciation to Rex as he picked up Ezra, and he followed the Jedi as they continued their run through the ship. "The ship is guarded by five Star Destroyers. We have secured Spectre Six, but we have been unable to extract the other targets."

"I see..." Hera muttered. "Under these circumstances, docking is ill-advised. "Do you have an extraction plan?"

"I do," Kanan said firmly, skidding to a stop when the maintenance corridor ended and they found themselves standing in a long, broad expanse of ship, the dark of space and the nearby Star Destroyers visible through small, rounded viewports that lined a wall with evenly spaced rows of airlocks leading to hundreds and hundreds of attached escape pods. Rex picked up quickly on the Jedi's plan, and he ran to one of the consoles on the wall, entered a few quick codes, and the airlock opened. "We're going to jettison an escape pod," Kanan said as Rex carefully laid Ezra against the small, rounded bulkhead.

"Are you prepared?" Hera asked, and Kanan watched as Rex stepped away from the pod, his hand on the wall as he stared back toward the long hallways and corridors of the Interdictor.

"Y-yeah, hold on..." Kanan muttered into the com, silencing it as he approached Rex and finally acknowledging the quick beating of his heart and the pulling pain in his chest. "Hey..."

"We're leaving a lot of people behind..." Rex muttered. "I don't feel good about it."

"I was thinking the same thing..." Kanan muttered, touching the com once again. "Spectre Two, who do we have on standby for extraction?"

"Myself in the Ghost, Spectre Five in the Phantom, and the Chiss in the Shadow." There was a brief moment of amused silence, and Kanan could almost feel the Twi'lek brimming with pride. "It would seem that the Chiss is a fair pilot, and the Shadow's stealth systems are ready to be tested, and we are waiting on your command for extraction."

"We're jettisoning the escape pod now," Kanan said, Rex grinning and running to the console and entering the appropriate commands. "Launch the first ship and standby for second launch on my command."

"...Spectre One..." Hera said slowly. "Are you and your crew not on that escape pod?!"

"Negative, Spectre Two," Kanan said, a soft smile on his lips as a loud hiss filled the open space, followed by the explosive thrum of the escape pod launching from the ship. "We're going back in to get the rest of them. Standby for my command." A string of colorful curses hissed over the com as Kanan shut it off, closed his eyes, and reached out with the Force, pushing past the cold, oppressive feel and the frantic rushing of hundreds of life forms aboard the ship.

"Kanan..." Rex said quietly, his hand on the Jedi's arm. "I wasn't just talking about the rest of the crew. We...can't leave Cody behind. Alive or dead, he needs to come home with us."

"I was thinking the exact same thing," the Jedi said, a faint smile upon his lips. "Free the crew, then back for Cody?" Rex swiftly nodded. "We'll probably be dealing with that kriffing nightmare creature. You got my back for that?"

"Tch, do you even need to ask?" Rex scoffed, and Kanan closed his eyes, a faint smile on his lips.

"No. Guess not."

"Spectre One," said the weary, slightly worried voice over the com. "Spectre Six has been extracted by the Shadow and is being brought to the Umbra for medical attention. Spectre Zero insisted. He's getting restless, and you're going to want to keep him busy so he's not there."

"Thanks, babe," Kanan drawled, switching off the com and grinning at Rex. "So...you ready to go?"

---

The frantic, excited pacing of swift, heavy steps rang in Cody's ears as he groaned awake, squinting against the light and taking short, shallow breaths for the pain in his chest. Everything hurt, every twitch of his muscles a new lesson in agony, every breath like setting fire to his nerves and still, through all of it, was the rapid strides of the animal in the room, a predator mad with the thrill of his capture. When his eyes adjusted to the light, he glared defiantly at the creature as he paced, which only seemed to make the beast's malicious grin even wider.

Cody was certain he was going to vomit.

"Commander Cody..." Maul drawled sweetly, striding forward and roughly grasping the clone's chin. "Master of the Shadow Legion, and Kenobi's most prized possession..." His grip tightened, but the clone didn't flinch. "The last thing in this galaxy he holds dear..." Maul laughed maniacally, his teeth bared. "I thought the little Jedi was a fine catch, but you..." His hand shot up and grabbed the clone's hair and pulled hard, Cody struggling for only a moment in the restraints of the interrogation chair. "Kenobi will come for you. He will come for you and I will take you from him like I took his slut and his spawn..."

To Maul's great displeasure, Cody laughed, actually laughed, in his face. "That's your plan?" the clone drawled with amusement so overwhelming that he didn't even flinch when Maul threw his head back against the steel of the interrogation chair. "After all this time, that's how you're going to try and get his attention?" Cody laughed again, the sound making Maul grind his teeth together in his anger. "Honestly, it would be sad if being pathetic wasn't this hilarious." The clone flashed the increasingly angry man a pleasant grin. "Aw, what's wrong? Do you miss him, baby?" Cody said in a voice filled with mocking sympathy before he pursed his lips, locked eyes with the furious man, and teasingly kissed the air in his direction. "Because he misses you...and sometimes at night, I can hear the rancor crying for his favorite toy..."

"You're worse than I remember!" Maul snarled viciously, his hand extended before him and the clone groaning as the Force slammed into him, his jaw tight as he felt the familiar snaking around his throat as his breathing was restricted, and while he managed to glare defiantly at the Zabrak for a moment, he shut his eyes tight in pain when his injured chest and hopelessly broken ribs spasmed for air. "You..." Maul snarled, drawing closer to the struggling man, the clone's face clutched tightly between his hands. "Night after night, I suffered under you! If it wasn't Master, it was you, his cruel, constant companion!" A sharp peel of manic laughter was torn from Maul's throat, his eyes wild as he released the clone and brought his hand down across his face, blood splattering to the ground from Cody's mouth as the Force released its hold on him.

"You know..." Cody rasped, his voice thick and his throat raw. "Master has been spending an awful lot of time replacing you..." he drawled, watching carefully as the Zabrak's eye began twitching, the corner of his lip curling up in what could have been a smile or a snarl, and a whimper that could have been reluctance or yearning was torn from his throat. "The Grand Inquisitor serves in your place now. I think Master likes him better..." Cody hissed, leaning forward as much as his restraints and the pain in his chest allowed. He was going to die, he had resigned himself to that, and he'd be damned if he didn't go out messing with this wretch. "The Inquisitor can service him in ways you can't, since his lower half isn't cybernetic."

"All because of him!" Maul snapped, his temper flaring, and Cody could feel pain spreading like molten steel through his veins. "All because Obi-Wan Kenobi took them away from me, took everything away from me! I came back to the Sith broken because Master claimed everything I was, everything I had for himself!" Maul shut his eyes tightly, his rapid pacing continuing as he grasped tightly to his cranial horns. "It was never mine, never, never! Always his, always Master's..."

"...you know, for as much as he enjoys violating that Inquisitor's body, I do think he liked your mouth better," Cody said lightly, smirking through the pain when glowing, furious eyes looked at him through the Zabrak's fingers as they covered his face. "The Inquisitor has these sharp, pointy teeth, you see, which makes that particular prospect a gruesome affair, and as an added bonus, you have those adorable little horns to grab on to..." Maul slowly, dangerously stalked toward the restrained clone, and despite the sudden pain and the cold fear that ran through him, Cody forced himself to grin. "I should warn you, though. He just recently captured another Inquisitor. Twi'lek. Female. Got both her legs and a pretty mouth. I dare say she stands to be the new favorite!"

"I should expose you to all of it!" Maul snarled, grabbing the man's jaw with crushing force and sticking two of his fingers deep in the gagging clone's mouth, the strong grip on the tight muscles of his jaw preventing Cody from biting down. "Raped relentlessly until there is no fight left in you!" Maul withdrew his fingers and violently slapped the clone again, the prisoner coughing and whimpering pathetically when the irregular, powerful contractions put undue strain on his broken ribs.

"I should very much like to see that happen..." Cody managed to weakly gasp. "I hear you lack the parts..."

"I can find other ways to accomplish the same results," the Sith sneered. "Perhaps that is how I will present you to Kenobi..." Maul said viciously. "Hopelessly broken..." The Zabrak grinned, a cruel and menacing thing as he drew himself up against the restrained clone, raked his nails across the openly bleeding mess of cut skin and shrapnel on the groaning man's chest, and leaned in close. "You're here, which means Kenobi is not far away. He will come for you, and when he does, he will be captured, he will be restrained, and I will make him watch as I kill you. Slowly. You will beg for death before I bring it upon you."

"Then I'll be living a long time..." Cody growled, and the Zabrak shrugged as he laughed.

"It doesn't matter. You will die, and I will watch Kenobi break."

"You're overestimating my importance..." Cody muttered, the Zabrak frowning and stepping back. "He's not going to kill you for killing me. Hell, he won't even enslave you again. No, he's going to ignore you. And that will be it. Your Master's attention, faded into indifference."

"No, he won't!" Maul snarled viciously, almost desperately, highly aggressive, though he took steps away from the clone, observing him intently for a moment before he grabbed hold of the restraints pinning Cody to the table, ripped them off their bolted fastenings, and threw the clone hard against the wall. Pain erupted through him so intense that his vision bursted in blinding light, the ringing in his ears drowning out the fast, heavy steps as they quickly approached him. He groaned with pain when a hard, heavy weight sat on his hips and a strong hand wrapped in his hair, lifting his head from the ground. Squinting up into the wrathful face above him, Cody mustered all the strength he could and spit at the Sith, blood and saliva splattering across Maul's face.

"You are nothing," Cody hissed weakly, a dazed, lazy smirk on his face. "A shell of what you used to be because Kenobi owns you." Maul's fist slammed into his stomach, the white armor around the point of impact cracking under the weight, and Cody wrenched violently sideways, the sudden pain from his ribs and the Zabrak's fist making him vomit on the ground, a distressing mix of blood and the meager contents of his stomach.

"Soon, very soon, Master Sidious will catch Kenobi..." Maul hissed, his hands wrapping back in the clone's hair and lifting him up, his shoulders painfully off the ground and their faces mere inches from each other, and Cody felt the strength begin to drain from him under the piercing yellow gaze. "Be it here, today at Thrawn's hand or by his own volition, it matters not, but the reign of Darth Lumis is coming to an end. He will be broken, enslaved, and when he is, I will take back everything he has stolen from me! I will be free of this..." he hissed, laying a long finger on his own temple, the yellow eyes suddenly wild and frantic. "His voice in my mind, calling, calling, always calling to me!" A pained, yearning whimper was pulled out of Maul's chest, the clone's head landing with a hard thud on the ground when the Sith Lord grasped his own head, his eyes shut tight and his shoulders hunched as he rocked back and forth from his immovable seat on Cody's hips. "Master...Master..."

Cody shut his eyes and allowed his body to finally relax, his breathing ragged and shallow and submitting to the pain that rushed through him. The urge to provoke the man further crossed his mind for a moment, hoping to spike the Sith's fury so that the savage creature may finally end it for him in a fit of rage, but as he listened to Maul's chanting for his Master become more desperate, more manic, the man quickly growing madder by the moment as his fragile mental state swiftly deteriorated, he couldn't bring himself to do it. Keeping Kenobi from this place had been the right call. For as patient as Darth Lumis could be, he was emotional and quick to rage, and this entire situation would have seen him sprinting full speed into a trap set by the cunning Chiss. One mistake, one slip was all it would take, and Obi-Wan was impulsive and wrathful when it came to defending the few things he had left.

"I'm not going to kill you, clone..." Maul said, impressively smoothly for how frenetic he had been a moment later, his hand caressing Cody's cheek gently, almost lovingly, and the clone looked up into yellow eyes that were wide and wild and on the verge of shattering. "Thrawn needs you alive for his plans." A sharp, snapping hiss filled the air and the acrid scent of the ignition of burning plasma invaded his senses as a single red blade extended out of the haft of Maul's lightsaber. "But he didn't say he needed you in one piece..."

"Mutilating me won't bring your Master back to you..."

"I have a Master!" Maul snarled, his hand wrapping around Cody's throat, the blade in his other hand drawing perilously close to the clone, but he didn't flinch, only grasped the Zabrak's wrist to relieve the pressure on his neck and watched as something behind the frantic yellow eyes broke. "Master is strong," Maul snarled, his voice shaking despite the rage and the yearning in him. "And he is cruel. His touch is like fire and pain and fury, and I need it!" Maul took a deep, shuddering breath as he began to laugh, quietly at first, but it quickly escalated into something maniacal, his grip on the clone's throat becoming punishingly tight. "Wrath and passion and pain and pleasure, Master, every moment of every day filled with crawling, aching need in your absence!" The lightsaber hung loose in his hand, the blade hissing as it burned a molten line into the floor by Cody's head, the Zabrak's hand easing around the clone's neck and his breathing fast and uneven as his shoulder shook with dry, broken sobs.

"Come with me..." Cody rasped hoarsely, wide, frantic eyes shooting to him. "Return me to my Master and he will not forget it." The hand around his throat trembled, the struggle within him clear on Maul's face, his weight shifting from leg to leg as he contemplated releasing the clone, and in the moments before the hand tightened and the yellow eyes narrowed in blind fury, Cody thought me may have been free.

"Do you take me for a fool?" Maul hissed, raising his blade off the floor and driving it through Cody's shoulder into the ground beneath him, the clone screaming in pain as skin and muscle and bone burned. "Maybe I will kill you, but oh how you will suffer first..." Maul snarled. "We can bait a trap with a dead clone as well as we can with a living one..."

With a sharp, feral snarl, Maul quickly looked over his shoulder, his blade quickly pulled out of the clone's body just as a hail of blaster fire was shot at him, and in a moment, the Sith was on his feet, his second blade activated and slashing at the air to deflect the plasma bolts back toward the shooter. The deflected shots were batted out of the air by blue lightsabers, the Jedi providing cover for the clone behind him, the two working in perfect unison, and for just a moment, Maul felt as though he were staring down a Jedi General and his Clone Commander, a once fearsome partnership that had broken on the wheel of the Empire. Apparently, these two hadn't gotten the memo.

Maul pushed off the ground and sprinted toward the pair, effortlessly deflecting the shots fired at him, and just as he was bearing down upon them, the Jedi and the clone broke rank and sprinted in opposite directions to flank the Sith Lord, the clone running further out and continuing to shoot as the Jedi swiftly cut in, both lightsabers swinging as he engaged the snarling Sith Lord. Attempts to move out from between the pair didn't work, and when Maul grabbed at the Force to throw the clone away, the Jedi darted between them, his own hand raised as he pushed back against the Sith, their hands extended toward each other but the power between them kept them from touching. The Sith was stronger, wilder, with years of intensive training behind him, and the Jedi began to slide back, hit jaw clenched tight as his white armored boots scraped against the ground.

In the time that Kanan had Maul's full attention, Rex had run behind the dueling pair, taking shots when he could that were effortlessly, almost reflexively deflected by the Sith even while pressing against the Jedi, but his goal was the collapsed and bleeding clone on the floor. Casting a quick glance at the two Force sensitives as the power between them broke and the lightsabers clashed in a flurry of sparks against each other once again, Rex quickly knelt beside Cody and dragged the broken man to his feet, draping his arm over his shoulder for support and pressing a blaster into his shaking hand.

"We need you to fight," Rex softly commanded the gasping clone. "Just for a moment, just until we're out of here. Can you shoot?"

Cody swallowed hard and shook his head, barely able to raise the blaster enough to shoot in a straight line. "N-not in this hand." Rex nodded in swift understanding, quickly transferred his support to Cody's other side and draping the other arm over his shoulders, and Cody almost sighed in relief as the blaster was pressed into the other hand. Without a word between them, the clones aimed their blasters and fired upon the Sith Lord, the drastically uneven fight between him and the Jedi evening out a bit as his attention was divided. With their target secured, Cody and Rex slowly began circling around toward the door and Kanan quickly moved to keep himself between Maul and the clones.

The Sith's fury exploded in a flurry of savage, unpredictable and uncontrolled strikes, and Kanan slipped into his defensive posture, his natural Soresu which he had been tirelessly working with Kenobi to perfect, and while he wasn't nearly as good as his Sith teacher, he was learning, and his style reflected it. His minimalist movements were all affected with Kenobi's touch, the Jedi's movements mirroring the Sith's distinctive, perfect style, not so refined, but the marks of his teacher were clear, enough for Maul to recognize, and it made the raging Zabrak falter. It was just for a moment, a slight widening of the eyes, a hitch of the breath, but it was enough, and Kanan's blades caught Maul's at just the right angle, the slash deflected wide, causing the Sith to extend his step to compensate. The momentary disruption was just enough for Kanan to reach through the Force and push Maul back, not to fly through the air, but for his boots to screech and skid along the ground, putting distance between them.

The moment they disengaged, Kanan turned and ran, not looking once behind him as he dashed out of the room to the waiting clones, the two of them opening fire on the console on the wall, the electronics within shorting out and slamming the heavy doors shut just in front of the screaming Maul. The red lightsaber was through the door a moment later, but Rex and Kanan were already fast at work tearing the helmets off dead Stormtroopers that lay scattered on the ground.

"You should have left me..." Cody said in a weak, thin voice as Kanan slammed a helmet over his head right before putting on his own and scooping the clone up into his arms.

"You can lecture me about compromising the mission when we're safe back home," Kanan growled, slamming his hand on his wrist comlink and quickly shouting, "Spectre Two, we need immediate extraction!"

"On my way, Spectre One," the woman said, the com silencing, and Rex and Kanan began to run, sprinting as fast as they could down the halls, the clone shooting every security panel they came across, slamming heavy blast door behind them as they went. The ship was swarming with Stormtroopers, but not a single one moved to engage them when Kanan began shouting about the Jedi on the loose in Sector 7 and barking frantic commands for a medic, which several officers and soldiers rushed to deliver at the sight of the severely wounded trooper in his arms. It made their path through the ship extremely expedient, the group only ducking into smaller corridors when they needed to cut across to make it to their destination, or when they grew nervous about the Sith that was hunting them and felt another blast door between them would be beneficial.

They came to the launch bay fast enough just as the emergency alarms began to blare, and Rex swiftly attached himself to a console, punching in the override codes to give them access to the locked down escape pods, and growled in frustration when it did not work. But the second code did, and moments later, they had piled in to the small, cramped space, the Jedi in the one pilot's seat as the escape pod was launched, a wash of relief filling him when he saw the Ghost, warm and familiar, swiftly flip around and fly right toward them, the squadron of TIE Fighters behind them forced to engage with the Shadow and the Phantom. Not ten seconds later, the Ghost swooped overhead, its maglocks engaged, and the tiny escape pod latched on to the hull, space racing by their little viewport as they sped away from the Interdictor, the Chimera, the other Star Destroyers, the squadron of TIE Fighters that inexplicably broke off their pursuit. The pod shuddered, and the viewport filled with the blue and white of hyperspace.

There was silence in the pod, a feeling of relief washing over them as all their previous tension evaporated, and Kanan felt weariness over come him and the clones in the back. He rubbed his eyes, stinging from the overwhelming weariness of exhaustion and emotional strain, and he looked over his shoulder at the clones behind them, their helmets off, their eyes closed, the two huddled close together.

"...hey, slave," Cody slurred in a thick, heavy voice, and Rex opened one eye to look over the man. "...thanks."

Rex scoffed softly, settling down, and shutting his eye, his shoulders relaxing. "Think nothing of it, traitor."

"Alright, you big idiots," Kanan sighed, turning away from them and looking out the viewport at the calming lines of hyperspace, a slight smile on his lips. "Let's get you two home."