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.

47. Future of the Force

Chapter 47: Future of the Force

"Alright, Ezra, clear your mind," Kanan said in a smooth, calm voice, his teenage student's eyes closed as he breathed deeply and reached out through the Force. "Focus. Don't just think about what we're looking for, feel it."

"I just don't know if the best time to have a lesson is when babies are in danger..." Ezra grumbled, his lips turning into a petulant frown, and Kanan sighed when Ahsoka and Obi-Wan began snickering from the cockpit.

"I think it's the best time..." Kenobi drawled lazily, flicking a few switched on the console and spinning his chair around to face the Jedi pair in the back. "Just think: You fail in this, apprentice, and those poor, defenseless infants are going to die. Or worse! Sounds to me like the best time to succeed in your studies."

"Great..." Ezra growled. "So no pressure, right?"

"None whatsoever," Obi-Wan said with a pleased grin as he winked at the distinctly unamused Kanan.

"Never mind him, Ezra, focus," Kanan said to the suddenly uncomfortable Ezra. "Clear your mind, we'll try again."

"Kanan, I don't even know what I'm supposed to be looking for!" Ezra says, huffing in frustration as he ran a hand through his hair and frowned. Suddenly, the length of it is irritating him, making him feel younger, more boyish than the man he's been striving to be. "How am I supposed to find a baby in the Force?!"

"The Inquisitors can do it!" Obi-Wan called from the cockpit. "If those talentless fools can do it, you certainly can."

"If the Inquisitors can do it, you can do it!" Ezra shouted, jumping to his feet. "Sith Hells, Kenobi, why can't we all stop messing around and go save this kid?!"

"Never much cared for children..." Obi-Wan muttered, Ezra gritting his teeth as Kanan pulled him back down to kneel before him on the floor.

"Because, Ezra..." Kanan explained as calmly as he could, but he was growing restless and agitated as well. "This is the perfect opportunity to hone your skills, and you have always worked best under pressure."

"Y-yeah, but..." He groaned, his eyes drifting toward the cockpit and looking out the viewport at the bright points of a thousand lights that made up the streets and buildings of the city far below them on the arid world of Takobo. The Chiss enhanced engines and thrusters of the Shadow made it a much faster ship than the Phantom, and it was for that reason in addition to the advanced prototype stealth system that they had chosen to take Kenobi's custom U-Wing for the mission. They could rocket through the lower atmosphere and be at the city in minutes. Speed was of the essence in their line of work.

"But nothing," Kanan says sternly, as he always does when Ezra drifts. "Focus. Trust in the Force, and it will guide us. Find the child, sense it, feel it."

"Right, but how!" Ezra snapped, leaping to his feet and pacing. "I can feel you in the Force, Kanan, because you and I have a connection, but I've never met this child! I don't know what to look for, so how, in a city that big, am I supposed to find a single child?!"

"You just..." Kanan stammered, biting his lip as he thought. "You just feel for...um..." He shot a pleading look to Ahsoka and Obi-Wan, the two of them laughing softly to each other for a moment before the Torguta stood, started to walk closer, and stopped when the Sith Lord grabbed her hand and urged her back into the seat, his own fingers steepled together as he looked at the teenager.

"All of us view the Force in a different light," Obi-Wan softly explained. "Be it the pull of the earth, the shifting of light and dark, the breeze in the air, the flow of water...the Force, all of it, different and at once the same. For me, it's water." He crossed his arms over his chest, a slight pout on his lips as he chewed the inside of his cheek. "When it isn't all on fire, in any case..." He exhaled sharply and waved his hand as if to dismiss the idea. "Be it a river or ocean or lake, it's all the same. Every creature, every being lives within it, moves it calms it. Sensitive to it or not, all beings are a part of the Force."

"Right, that isn't helping!" Ezra said, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning against the bulkhead. "Really, there's a kid down there in danger, why are we up here?! Shouldn't we just...look for the Inquisitors instead? They're stronger, we can find them easier."

"The Inquisitors are trained," Ahsoka said quietly. "What's more, darkness obscures them. They can be difficult to detect from a distance. A predator will keep to the shadows until it is ready to strike."

"And your task, apprentice, is looking for the child," Obi-Wan said, Ezra's irritation making him irritated as well. "Pay attention. Every single living creature can move the waters of the Force, but only those of us sensitive to it can call it to us. We are not the pebble cast in the stream, we are the current that moves it along. All of us exert our pull upon the Force. Even an infant."

"...t-that's how the Inquisitors find them?" Ezra asked, his hands falling to his sides and his eyes widening in understanding. "That's how we're going to find them!"

"Precisely so," Obi-Wan said quietly. "Focus on the Force, yes, but not just on it's movement, but on what it is moving to. It's a child, so it will be small. Subtle. But it will be enough."

"...b-but what if I-"

"Ezra," Ahsoka quickly interrupts, the boy looking at the calm strength f the Togruta. "The child is safe. Obi-Wan knows where he is."

"Ugh, works well under pressure, Tano!" Obi-Wan groaned, running his hands down his face and avoiding Ezra's shocked, angry stare. "He works well under pressure! There isn't any pressure when he knows the kid's safe!"

"Pressure is one thing, but his fear and his anger are unbalancing him!" Ahsoka said with a roll of her eyes. "Using those emotions isn't a natural thing for most, Obi-Wan, not even you. A very advanced lesson for another time, I think."

"If we know where the kid is, why aren't we down there saving him?!" Ezra snapped, and Obi-Wan laughed, sharp and harsh, and the teenaged took step away.

"The child is safe, Ezra," Obi-Wan said in an almost hissed whisper. "But the Inquisitor that is coming for him is not. I will not waste the opportunity to kill one when I have the chance. Do not forget that your mission is a rescue. Mine is a murder." He flicked his hand in the air. "So find the child so that you may accomplish your mission. You serve as better bait anyway, your presence attracts more attention."

"You're just being an asshole on purpose now, aren't you?" Ezra grumbled, sinking back to his knees, taking a deep breath and shutting his eyes. "Follow the current, right?"

"Precisely so," Obi-Wan said quietly.

"Clear your mind, Ezra," Kanan said, laying his hand upon the boy's shoulder. "It's easier to see where the Force is flowing when you tune everything else out. Be calm, centered and focused. You can do this."

Slowing his breath as best as he was able, Ezra did as he was told, reaching out to touch the Force and working as best as he could to clear everything from his mind. Slowly, his fear for the safety of the Force sensitive infant began to fade, the anxiety about the inevitable appearance of the Inquisitors drifted away, the general sense of apprehension he had about the mission becoming distant. With his worries behind him, the Force surrounded him, became more vibrant, filled with the feel of a thousand, thousand lives teeming below them, all of them unique, all of them filling the Force with light like a million burning flames. One by one, he let those go too, allowed the tiny, flickering flames to fade into soft, glowing embers.

And still, the Force was blindingly bright, beautifully lit by the presence of Kanan, strong and stalwart and protective despite his own fear and discomfort, the Last Padawan, once again called to do the work of the Jedi when he had sworn to himself he would never travel that road again. By Ahsoka, removed and pragmatic, hardened by the streak of darkness that ran through her, placed there by her Master's fall to the Dark Side, her mistreatment by the Jedi, watching her Master die, seeing what her friend Anakin had become. And Kenobi, who he couldn't feel at all, which made it all the more unsettling and noticeable, the Sith Lord more the absence of the Force instead of the nexus he knew him to be, safely hidden away within the folds and shadows of the light.

It was too bright. He couldn't see, couldn't focus, and instead turned his eyes toward the darkness, to the void that the Sith Lord created, to the strange way that the light warped and twisted around him, the way it dimmed as the darkness almost seemed to bleed from the void like an open wound. Ezra could feel his chest tighten with a feeling he couldn't place, with the cold he felt when he thought of his parents, of living abandoned on Lothal for years, of the fear he felt of being alone again, his anger toward the Empire. Even the light seemed to fade away now as he fell deeper into the Force, strangely calm with his conflicting emotions.

He saw it then, when everything around him was dark, the faintest light, small and pulsating, a long, thin thread that reached far into the darkness, and Ezra grasped it, felt it, warm and unassuming, small and unaware, another being sensitive to the flow of the Force, too young to know it, too old to conceal it. He grasped hold of the thin thread, and even when he gasped and opened his eyes, his world within the Shadow materializing around him, Ezra could still see the tiny presence stretching out before him.

"I-I see it!" the teenager said excitedly. "I think I know where to find the child."

"Well done, Ezra..." Kanan says, a soft, proud smile on his face. Behind the Jedi, the Sith Lord scoffs, turns his seat toward the viewport, and flicks a few switches on the console, his hands coming to rest on the yoke as he guided them toward the planet.

"Took you long enough..." Obi-Wan muttered. "I expected you to have it faster. If you hadn't spent so long fretting, we'd be on the ground by now." Behind the Sith, Ezra was grinning. Obi-Wan was a hard Master, but he had been working with the Sith Long enough to know that disappointed high expectations and a swift chastisement like that was approval. A truly disappointed Kenobi didn't speak, only sneered and looked at him like he was the most distasteful of the scum of the earth. He had only seen the expression once, and it was crushing.

"It gets easier each time you do it," Ahsoka said with her small, almost secretive smile. "We'll continue to work on it."

"Well?!" Obi-Wan growled as he looked over his shoulder. "Are you going to come guide us to the child, boy, or do I have to get us lost?" With a bright, pleased grin, Ezra sauntered up to the front of the fighter and placed his hands on the backs of the two pilot seats, his eyes fixed on the viewport as he quietly guided Obi-Wan down toward the city, an enormous thing built behind high, circular walls that dotted the barren landscape around them like a forgotten coin upon the ground. As they drew closer, the true, sprawling size of it became obvious, a city that built around a towering, palatial center and tapered down into lower buildings as they crept toward the walls and away from the high-end city center.

Guiding them closer down toward the northern quadrant. It becomes obvious how rundown these buildings are, how tightly packed together everything is, everything poor and worn and quickly falling apart, not from disuse, but from misuse and a lack of care. Though there are very few buildings that are smaller that seven or eight floors in height, everything seems short, as if the shambled buildings were too hunched, too timid, too sickly to seem their actual height. The quadrant is poor, primarily Ithorian and the thread in the Force is without question leading them here. Obi-Wan sets the ship down in the spaceport nearest to the spot that Ezra excitedly points to, not as close as they'd like, but the place can't be more than a half hour walk away.

With the slightest gesture of his hand, Obi-Wan gets the docking authorities to turn away from the ship and quickly sign the proper authorization for their landing, watching the pair of lumbering Ithorian officers leave and forget about the new arrival before he turned back toward the ship and walked up the extended boarding ramp.

"Remember," he says quietly as he stands before the other Force sensitives. "As of right now, there are five Inquisitors that remain at large."

"So far as we know," Kanan said, and Obi-Wan shot him an irritated look.

"No, Kanan. Five. At the time I captured the Grand Inquisitor, there were nine remaining in service to the Empire, and before you ask," he growled, his gaze flicking over to Ahsoka, "I know because he told me, and yes, we can trust the information. I...consulted his mind to confirm the information was genuine."

"Oh, is that what we're calling it now?" Kanan asked in a slow, disapproving drawl, which earned him an accusing finger pointed in his direction.

"If you only knew what he did to Luminara Unduli before he murdered her, even you, Jedi, would find it within you to subject him to the worst horrors imaginable." Kenobi leaned in toward Kanan, his eyes blazing with fury. "Luminara, Kanan, dear, sweet, lovely Luminara. She deserved to live, and if not that, she at least deserved the mercy of a swift death. Our friend the Grand Inquisitor owes me a great deal more suffering before I am satisfied enough to let him die."

"Focus, Obi-Wan..." Ahsoka said tightly, her posture rigid and uncomfortable with silent, seething anger, a reminder to Kanan that once, Ahsoka had known and worked closely with the Mirialan Master as well. "Nine Inquisitors that he knew of."

"No, nine. All Inquisitors once reported to him, and he in turn reported to the Sith Lords. Dear Vader and Maul can't be bothered with peasants." Obi-Wan scoffed, crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the wall. "Since that time, I have killed three and captured one, leaving us with five remaining Inquisitors, and of those, I have fought one that survived because I got distracted dealing with Vader, and Ezra and Sabine escaped two." He shrugged. "The remaining two are as of yet unknown to us, so please, do be careful out there."

"Obi-Wan and I will be keeping ourselves hidden in the area," Ahsoka explained as she stepped forward, effectively taking the mission briefing from Kenobi, which the Sith quietly allowed without any sign of complaint. "Remember, we want to draw the Inquisitor out, and more importantly, keep them here, but your primary objective is getting this child to safety. If the Inquisitor doesn't show, so much the better, but I doubt we'll get so lucky."

"We want to keep them from escaping," Obi-Wan quietly added. "If you can hold their attention, so much the better."

"But don't be stupid," Ahsoka said firmly. "No unnecessary risks. Losing one of you isn't worth killing an Inquisitor, so above all else, save the kid and get to safety. You just being here should be enough to drive the Inquisitor out into the open. Focus on your mission, and let Obi-Wan take care of his."

"And please, try not to make too much of a mess..." Obi-Wan said with a roll of his eyes. "We don't want to complicate the matter by having Imperial forces alerted to our activities."

"Well, if you handle the Inquisitor quick enough, that won't be a problem, now will it?" Kanan said brightly, flashing a smile at the Sith Lord who forced a tight, insincere, almost mocking smile in return. "I've got a kid to save. Come on, Ezra, we've wasted enough time."

"Right!" the teen said, dashing off ahead of the Jedi, and Kanan gave one last look to Ahsoka and Obi-Wan as he started to leave, the two huddling together and speaking in whispers so low, he couldn't hear them. With a sigh, he jogged after Ezra, his hand on the boy's shoulder slowing him down when he finally caught up to him.

"Easy, Ezra..." Kanan said in a hushed voice. "Being in a rush makes it look like we're up to something. We don't want to attract unnecessary attention."

"I just...don't want to lose this kid," the teenager said quietly, drawing closer to the Jedi. "What if we're too late? We wasted a lot of time already."

"Patience..." Kanan advised, almost grimacing when he heard himself say it and saw the look of irritation n the teen's face. When he was a Padawan, he also didn't want to hear he needed patience when it seemed the situation called for action. "If this were urgent, if there was any chance of the Inquisitor getting what they wanted, Obi-Wan and Ahsoka would have brought us here faster. We're here exactly when we need to be. The two of them follow the flow of the Force. You must trust that."

"I just don't see how getting here faster would have been a bad thing," Ezra grumbled.

"Yes, well, you can't always see the bigger picture." Ezra groaned loudly and rolled his eyes, and Kanan couldn't keep himself from laughing. "S-sorry. My Master always used to speak in riddles, and I hated it. I swore I never would if I ever took a student. Sith Hells, listen to me now, she'd be so proud..." Kanan rubbed at the back of his neck and smiled down at the teenager. "I'm not the greatest Jedi, Ezra. I never completed my training, and there were years that went by when I was disconnected from the Force. I'm still getting back into it. I don't understand everything, and I haven't been training constantly like Kenobi and Ahsoka."

"I think you're just as great as they are," Ezra said quietly, his eyes cast at the ground as he kicked a stone across the cracked pavement. "So what if you're not as powerful, I still learn just as much from you as I do from them." He shrugged. "Maybe more."

"Alright, I know that's not true," Kanan said, eying the teen suspiciously. "What do you want?"

"Nothing!" Ezra cried, throwing his hands up and finally looking at the Jedi. "Yeah, sure, Obi-Wan's teaching me a lot about the Force and the Dark Side and how to control my own...I don't know, my own weakness to it, I suppose. But you're teaching me how to follow the right path. The good path. I don't know that I could do that without you."

"Don't be ridiculous, Ezra, you have a good heart..." Kanan said quietly, stepping closer to the Padawan to make room for a large, lumbering Ithorian shuffling in the opposite direction. "You would do the right thing on your own."

"I don't know that I would..." Ezra whimpered, his gaze falling back to the ground. "Before you and Hera, before my life on the Ghost...I was selfish, Kanan. I didn't care that others were suffering, I never helped those that needed it because I only cared about myself. You taught me how to be better than that." He laughed almost bitterly and thrust his hands in his pockets, shuffling slightly before he picked up his pace again. "What I'm learning with Kenobi is great and all, and the Dark Side is useful, but..." He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "You're here to save a life. He's here to take one. And if I had a choice...w-well, I'd rather be like you."

"You always have a choice, Ezra..." Kanan muttered through the tightness of emotion in his chest. "I've always trusted you to make the right one."

"Can you..." The teenager ground his teeth together. "Can someone use the Dark Side and still be a good person?"

"...I don't know," Kanan whispered after a moment of pensive silence. "Obi-Wan's fall to the Dark Side began with the best of intentions. Maybe the opposite can be true as well. Maybe something truly good can come from a place of darkness and pain."

"It could have been me, you know," Ezra said quietly. "This kid we're saving? I could have just as easily been picked up by the Inquisitors. I could have been corrupted and turned to darkness, and I wouldn't have known any better." He took a deep breath, his exhale shuddering with emotion as he quietly released them, calm settling over him where anxiety and fear had been only a moment earlier. "I guess that's why I've been so impatient to save him. I-I'm sorry. I'll...try to do better." He quickly shook his head. "No, I will do better. I promise."

"Never doubted you for a second, kid," Kanan said, a smirk on his lips as he gently bumped into the teen and grinning when the now pouting boy was knocked off balance. "We're getting close. Lead the way, I swear I don't know where I'm going." Ezra rolled his eyes and frowned petulantly for a full three seconds before a smile cracked through, and he sped up to walk in front of the Jedi, his breathing calm and even as he followed the pull of the Force.

It was only a few blocks they had to walk, but it felt like forever to Ezra. The streets were grimy and rundown, the people meandering through the alleyways dirty and haggard and primarily Ithorian. It was a slum, no question about it, and part of Ezra thought that even the cramped, impoverished conditions of Lothal's many Tarkintown camps was preferable to this. At least those were outside in the rolling fields of Lothal under a wide, expansive sky with clean, fresh air and a gentle breeze. Everything here felt sick, claustrophobic, the air thick with soot and smoke and pollution from the many, many rows of production factories they had seen on their approach.

It was making Ezra feel almost paranoid, like something might be lurking in the shadows of every tenement they passed by, the looks of the impoverished hungry and wanting, like they were being sized up, and though Ezra felt greatly sympathetic for these people, he had been here himself not too long ago. He knew very well that many of the people they passed were sizing them up, deciding if they were worth mugging or pickpocketing. Darkness was here, greed and fear and suffering, and it was making it difficult to see, to sense anything. It would be an easy thing for the Inquisitors to hide themselves here, and as they drew closer to their destination, the threat of ambush gnawed at the very heart of him. One look at Kanan, and it was clear that they Jedi felt it too.

"This is it..." Ezra said, stopping outside the doors of a ramshackle building, the iron and steel of the walls covered in patches of rough, red rust and the street-facing windows too tightly packed together gave the impression that the apartments within were equally cramped. Ezra couldn't imagine living in a place like this. Even on his own, he always had space, be it the open fields of Lothal or the privacy of his abandoned transmission tower. But he knew poverty trapped these people, factory workers paid too little for too many hours at work for the Empire. This was happening all over the galaxy.

"So it is..." Kanan muttered, looking up at the building, his expression unreadable.

"...Do you feel like we're being watched?" the boy asked, partially for reassurance, but Kanan slowly nodded his head.

"I do, yeah," Kanan whispered, shifting from foot to foot and looking sidelong down the street to either side of them. "Keep your eyes open. I can't feel what it is, but there is definitely something here."

"Inquisitors?" Ezra asked softly, and Kanan nodded so slightly that Ezra almost didn't see it.

"We are expecting them. I can't imagine it being anything else."

"Well, let's hope Obi-Wan isn't late then," Ezra said, taking a deep breath and stepping up to the door, which jerked and screeched open, the outdated mechanics screaming to be fixed or replaced. The inside of the building was, if even possible, worse than the outside, the walls dented and stained with large sheets of tacky decorative coverings peeling off at the corners and patchwork, worn industrial carpet covering the floor where the creaking sheets of steel beneath didn't show through large rips and tears. Every step was a litany of creaks and groans of a building that seemed to object to standing, and the thick, foul stench of alcohol, spice and mold hung heavy in the air, making Ezra gag and attempt to cover his nose with his shirt until even that proved to be futile and he gave up, resigning himself to the stench he could taste that permeated everything.

"I don't think it's just the Inquisitors we're saving this kid from..." Ezra muttered as he followed Kanan up a narrow stairwell that felt unstable and ready to collapse. "How many children sensitive to the Force had to grow up in places like this because the Jedi are gone?"

"How many of them were exposed to worse..." Kanan whispered. "How many children since the fall of the Republic have been abducted by the Sith and corrupted, left no choice but darkness..." Kanan shook his head, his hand grasping tightly to a splintering railing. "It's not just here. Every place the Empire touches becomes like this."

"...we need to stop them," Ezra growled softly, and Kanan laid a gentle hand on his shoulder.

"We will. But not today. Focus on the task at hand." Steeling himself and continuing on, Ezra turned into a thin hallway on one of the landings in the stairwell, grimacing as he pressed himself close to the musty wall to step around two Ithorians sitting sprawled out in the hallway in a drug-induced haze. The creaking groan of their each step grated on Ezra's nerves, the boy uneasy with the inability to move silently through this place, though he took some comfort in the fact that others would not have the advantage of silence either, They didn't need to Force to know if Inquisitors were stalking them, the building would tell them so.

Ezra stopped outside a rusted, dented door he thought to be far too thin for the Ithorian residents to comfortably squeeze through, hesitating for a moment before Kanan urged him on. With a short, sharp breath, Ezra pushed his hand to the intercom, and winced when he was met by a brief burst of static that quickly shorted out. With a sigh, he hit the door control, and while he found it to be unlocked, the rusted door screeched as it jerked slowly open on a bent track and ultimately failed to open the entire way. With an irritated sigh, Ezra squeezed through the thin space, waiting patiently in the dark room beyond for the much bigger Kanan to wriggle his way in. For what it was worth, the apartment was a bit bigger than it appeared to be from the outside, though that wasn't saying much. The room they had stepped inside was long a thin, a ratty couch pressed up against the wall near the window and a small, pitiful counter with a heating plate upon it that stood in for a kitchen. Off the room to the right and the left were small archways covered with curtains standing in for missing doors, one leading into the refresher, and the other into, presumably, a bedroom.

A faint, flickering light shone from under the curtain and through worn holes in the fabric, and the soft rustling beyond and the sound of someone hushing a babbling child confirmed the presence of the infant they were looking for, that the home was not, in fact, empty as it had appeared, and Kanan and Ezra took a moment to regroup outside the entrance to the small square bedroom beyond. Despite the obviously poor conditions, this home was clean, devoid of any trace of dirt and dust and grime that seemed to cover the rest of the building, though the walls still showed their age and sported stains from rust and leaks within the walls. Not the fault of the family, who was clearly trying to do their best and carve out a living in a bad circumstance.

"Hello?" Kanan called, and the rustling in the room stopped, the tension in the Force spiking. "We aren't here to hurt you, we just want to talk."

"We think your child might be in danger," Ezra said softly, as gently as he could. "May we come in?" They were met with silence and a stillness that came from fear, and Ezra leaned closer to Kanan. "What do we do if they won't talk to us?" the teenager whispered as quietly as they could.

"We stand vigil, I suppose..." Kanan quietly answered. "The Inquisitors will come, and the child is in danger regardless of if our help is accepted or not. It is needed, and we will be there."

Before Ezra had a chance to respond, the sound of careful, creeping footsteps could be heard behind the curtain, and a moment later, the fabric shifted, and one side of an Ithorian's hammerheaded face poked through the opening, the singular eye looking suspiciously at the pair who stood a respectful distance from the doorway. The eye disappeared again behind the curtain, and a moment later, the fabric was drawn, revealing the small bedroom behind it as a thin Ithorian woman stood in the doorway.

"Why do you think that?" she asked cautiously, the two mouths of her species making it sound as though two beings were speaking at once in perfect unison. "Who would be after my son? Why?"

"Ma'am, we have reason to believe that your son is...unique," Kanan gently explained, the Ithorian's long, flat neck lowering in suspicion and confusion.

"Unique how?" she asked defensively, and Kanan took a small step forward.

"We believe he may have sensitivity to the Force," he whispered, his eyes focused on the door as Ezra walked toward it to listen for anything that may be happening outside. "We're from a group that aims to protect these unique individuals."

"The Force?" the woman muttered, her eyes widening for a moment as if things she failed to understand before suddenly made sense. "You think my son has...a-are you Jedi?!"

"The Jedi have been gone for a long time, ma'am," Kanan said, drawing up taller and taking his lightsaber from his belt, the Ithorian's focus drawn to the cylinder in his hands as she gasped, her gaze held by a weapon she didn't seem to recognize, but knew all too well what it was. "We're just...a concerned party. We have reason to believe that the Empire has detected your son's unique abilities and are on the way to take him from you. We are here to protect him from them." The woman leaned her head out to look at the door and quickly turned to head back into the bedroom, motioning for Kanan and Ezra to follow her inside, and the two slipped into the small, square bedroom, allowing the curtain to close behind them. On the bed, bundled up tightly in a soft, blue blanket was the infant Ithorian and with a sigh of relief, Ezra walked over to sit on the edge of the bed, smiling as the child wriggled and reached out to him.

"Oh, he's cute..." the teenager cooed, looking over his shoulder at the Jedi that remained standing near the doorway. "This is definitely him, Kanan."

"I know, I feel it too," the Jedi muttered, watching as the child's mother scooped the tiny thing up and held him close.

"What does the Empire want with my son?" she asked, the dual tones of her voice strained with tension and fear. "How would they even know that he's got this...thing?"

"They felt it," Kanan quietly explained. "Just as we did. We don't have the time to explain what they want with him, and honestly, I'm not sure you want to know. But we're going to protect you both."

"How?" the woman asked, her eyes wide with fear. "If they know, what's going to stop them from just coming back when you're gone?"

"We were hoping to take you away from this place," Ezra said quietly, moving to stand beside Kanan. "We've got a ship in the spaceport ready to go and a group pf people who have been protecting children like yours for a very long time. We can take you both out of the Empire's reach. You'll be safe with us."

"I wish there was another way, but there isn't," Kanan said quietly. "This galaxy just...isn't safe for people with this talent."

"How do I know that you aren't going to hurt him?" the woman said defensively. "How do I know that this is the right thing?"

"...you don't," Kanan said as gently as he was able. "I'm sorry, but you're just going to have to trust us to do what's best for you and your son." The woman didn't have time to respond, clutching the boy tight to her chest when a sharp, snapping hiss and the acrid smell of molten metal filled the air, and Ezra quickly grabbed the woman and pulled her with him into the corner of the bedroom, his lightsaber clutched tightly in his hand as he crouched defensively before them, ready to be activated at Kanan's command. A dull, light thud of the flimsy metal of the door falling to the ground was accompanied by heavy footsteps and the low, menacing thrum of more than one lightsaber, and a moment later, a red blade pierced effortlessly through the wall and sliced across the doorway to the bedroom, the curtain cut and falling to the ground.

It wasn't one Inquisitor that stood menacingly in the hallway before them, but two, a huge, bulky male so broad shouldered he'd be unable to fit through the narrow doorway without turning sideways, and a tall female, a pair of short, thick, light blue lekku draped over her shoulder that ended in long, pointed white horns that fell past her chest. The black helmets they wore concealed their race, but the female was clearly Chagrian, and from the way she leaned forward while the larger male hissed and drew back, she was clearly the more aggressive of the two. Behind them, three spherical probe droids floated, jet black and intimidating constructs that made both Kanan and Ezra tense with the memory of their torture at the hands of the Empire.

"Well..." the woman drawled when Kanan ignited his lightsaber, retracting the blast shield on her helmet to reveal a light blue face sporting black, tribal tattoos and pale yellow eyes. "We certainly didn't expect you here, Jedi..."

"Really?" Kanan scoffed, his saber held at the ready and gesturing to the Inquisitors and droids that crowded the other room. "You brought all of this to capture an infant? How utterly pathetic are you?"

"I'd say it's a good thing we did," she said softly, less offended than she was amused. "And to think, my friend here was going to come alone." She laid her hand on the large man's chest and grinned at Kanan. "The Force certainly does have a way of giving us exactly what we need." Behind him, the baby began to wail, the fear and hatred in the air distressing the infant to the point of panic.

"We should leave..." the male behind her growled, and the woman rolled her eyes, a vicious sneer on her lips. "You know we should. Where this Jedi goes, Darth Lumis isn't far behind. There are other children in the galaxy. We need to leave. Now."

"You should listen to your friend," Kanan said, his face completely unreadable, and standing strong against the feel of the Dark Side as it closed around him, the Inquisitor trying to reach into his mind, but unable to breech his defenses. She hissed in frustration, her Eyes never leaving Kanan as she flicked her wrist back at the probe droids.

"Go," she commanded the droids. "Search the area for the rebel leader, Obi-Wan Kenobi. Do not engage, just report on his location." Her lip curled up into a vicious sneer as her gaze drifted to the corner where Ezra crouched defensively before their target. "And keep an eye out for these two as well in case they manage to escape. I don't want to lose them." Without a sound, the three spherical droids flew from the room, leaving the two Jedi, the infant, and the mother alone with the Inquisitors.

"Ezra..." Kanan hissed, his eyes never leaving the Inquisitors. "Get the kid out of here. You know what to do." Without a word, Ezra struck on his lightsaber and thrust it through the wall and began cutting a section away, large enough for him and the thin woman to slip through with the infant, but much too small for Kanan or the Inquisitors to follow through. The moment Ezra's lightsaber powered on, the Inquisitor attacked, heedless of her surroundings as the red blade struck against the thin walls and the floor, effortlessly cutting through them while Kanan held his ground, deflecting each strike angled at him in an effort to keep the Inquisitors out of the room. Holding his position at the open door suddenly seemed much less important when the large male ran to the end of the room and thrust his saber through the wall to cut another entrance, but when Kanan briefly looked back toward his Padawan, Ezra, the Ithorian mother and her son were already gone, the edges of his cut hole still smoking.

With the other's gone, Kanan quickly began sorting through a way to escape, and when the large male had finally managed to cut a hole into the room he could fit through, Kanan shifted his stance, using a moment when the Chagrian's lightsaber slowed when it struck the wall to press into an attack of his own, the woman hissing and cursing as she was forced out of the doorway in her own defense. With a snarl of anger at the suddenly aggressive Jedi, she slashed up high, caching Kanan's blade and forcing it upwards just as her larger companion sent his own saber smashing against both her's and the Jedi's. Instead of fighting it, Kanan used the momentum and the force of the large blade against his own to spin, maintaining his balance by spinning low and ducking under the Chagrian's blade as she swung it around, sliding behind her and out of the bedroom to stand out in the other room.

With a focused push, Kanan slammed th Force against the Inquisitors, knocking them back into each other to send them tumbling in a tangle of limbs and dangerous blades onto the bed behind them. Kanan didn't wait to hear their furious screams as he jumped through the hole in the wrecked door and went sprinting down that halls as fast as he could. He didn't waste time running up the stairs, instead using thee Force to help him leap up entire flights at a time in his mad dash away from the outraged Inquisitors. He could feel them in the Force, furious and enraged and hateful and very quickly following in his wake. He wasn't sure if he was gaining ground or if they were closing in, but all Kanan needed to know was that he had to keep running. The longer he held their attention, the more likely that Ezra would get the mother and child to the safety of the Shadow.

Throwing his hand in the air before him, the rooftop escape door flew open, and Kanan dashed through, out into the muggy, polluted air that felt like a relief when compared to the stale smell of the apartment complex. He ran as fast as he could toward the edge of the flat rooftop, the sound of the screaming Inquisitors and hard footfalls behind him, and Kanan jumped, flying across the gap between buildings and landing with a roll on the roof of the next building over. He was on his feet quickly, losing very little speed as he came out of the roll, and he was sprinting full speed across that roof as well. He knew the Inquisitors were there, could hear their heavy footsteps, could feel them closing in, and he jumped once again, landing on the next roof and continuing on.

For a while, Kanan felt like he may have been pulling away from them, could feel himself centered in the Force and drawing continuous strength from it as he jumped from building to building. He wasn't exactly sure where he was going, and after a few minutes, he was certain he had been turned around several times. His mad dash came to an end when he made a sharp, quick turn from one roof to another and found that the only jump available to him that didn't see him backtracking into the Inquisitors was across the broad street. It was a formidable jump, but Kanan felt he could do it, and glancing back to be certain there was enough distance between him and the Inquisitors, he ran to the far edge, steeled himself, and sprinted toward the jump.

As soon as he pushed off from the edge of the roof, he knew he was going to make it, the sound of the Inquisitors landing and shouting seeming almost muffled, like they were more distant than they actually were, the swift, hard pounding seeming to fade away as he flew across the space over the street far, far below. The triumph of his success ended with a hard lurching in his chest as his body was suddenly yanked backwards, the Inquisitors grasping him with the Force and pulling him back toward him. He twisted in the air to avoid one lightsaber as it cut up at him, and he slammed hard to the ground, his own lightsaber igniting and deflecting the second Inquisitor's blade as he rolled along the ground and leapt to his feet. When he was righted, he looked for a new place to run, only to find the two Inquisitors boxing him in toward a corner with nothing but a very far drop beneath him. He raised his saber, looking between the two to try and devise a way out of this and quietly wondered where Ahsoka and Kenobi had gone to.

"It's over, Jedi," the woman growled, all her previous amusement gone and replaced with frustration and a distinct lack of patience. She was breathing hard, and she had enough, and with her prey in her grasp, she would give him no chance for escape. "After we kill you, we'll find your apprentice and kill him as well."

"I somehow doubt that..." Kanan said, which only seemed to make the woman more angry.

"Oh, do you?" she hissed, her lightsaber spinning I her grasp as she slowly advanced, and Kanan was forced closer to the edge. "Your support isn't coming, your Sith Lord isn't here! And if he is, he's forgotten about you." A sharp chime from the comlink on her wrist chimed, and with a furious snarl, she checked it, her eyes narrowed in anger for only a moment before her jaw fell slack and her eyes widened slightly in surprise.

"What is it?" her counterpart asked, drawing closer to her as she snarled, bearing her teeth and holding her saber out before her.

"Our probe droids have been destroyed," she growled viciously. "All of them."

"All of them..." the male repeated listlessly before he growled and swiftly shut off his lightsaber. "We need to leave now. Before it's too late. It might already be too late, we should have left when I said so before!"

"Are you out of your mind?!" the Chagrian snarled, looking at him like he was out of his mind as he turned to leave.

"Killing the Jedi isn't worth dying here today!" he snarled as he turned away. "Do what you will, I'm leaving!"

"Coward!" the woman screamed at his retreating form as he broke into a jog, sensing fear and panic in the Force that only sparked her rage. "Our Masters will hear of this!"

"They won't!" he called back to her, turning to face her and stopping, his arms spread out in an almost welcoming gesture. "If you stay, you'll be dead! If you run, you're in the same boat, and even if they find out, I'd rather deal with Lord Vader's punishment than face Darth Lumis again. You don't know what it's like. If you know what's good for you, you'll run too." He didn't say anything else as he turned and ran, jumping from the rooftop to another one nearby, and he was quickly out of sight.

"You should listen to him, you know," Kanan said quietly, almost sympathetically, his blade lowered as he looked at her. "If you're lucky, he'll kill you, but I wouldn't count on it. He captured the last Inquisitor he faced and, well..." He looked her over once before he met her furious gaze. "You're sort of his type."

For just a moment, it seemed as though the woman would back down, that she would turn tail and run like her companion did. For just a moment, her saber wavered in a shaking hand, the corner of her mouth twitching, her yellow eyes filled with fear and uncertainty. But it was only for a moment. Her hand tightened on her lightsaber, a cruel smirk spread across her lips as her eyes darted sideways, and Kanan followed her gaze to stare in horror at Ezra in the streets below, the Ithorian with the baby tucked in her arms following closely behind him. It seemed...impossible, with how zigzagging his path over the rooftops had been, with his lost he had felt, but he had been running at full speed from two enraged predators, and Ezra had been leading a mother and her child through the streets. He hadn't considered once that he may be faster, that he pay pull out ahead of his student.

When the Inquisitor sprinted toward the edge of the roof and vaulted off, falling directly toward Ezra in the streets below, Kanan jumped after her without a second thought to how high up they were.

Ezra felt it just before it happened, and using the Force to push the mother and child to the side, his saber was in his hand, the green blade extending just as he spun to catch the red blade of a falling Inquisitor. The impact was so hard that Ezra was forced to his knees, and instead of trying to hold the Inquisitor off, the Padawan rolled back, his boot slamming into the woman's stomach and sending her careening backwards as Ezra rolled over his head, his hands pressed firmly against the ground, and he pushed off the ground to land back on his feet. Blade raised and ready, he faced a furious Inquisitor that had missed her mark, and with a savage cry, she rushed at the young Jedi, only to be stopped when the falling Kanan's boot smashed into her face and sent them both tumbling to the ground in an uncontrolled, tangled heap, their lightsabers knocked out of their hands as they collapsed.

They struggled for only a moment, fists flying and striking ribs and faces as the lightsabers flew back to their Masters' hands, the blades igniting simultaneously when the Inquisitor straddled the Jedi and slashed down hard, the blue catching it and holding the blade that hovered inches from his face. The Inquisitor was dislodged from her position of strength when Ezra rushed her from behind, the greed blade angling right at her, and sensing the danger in the Force, she dove over Kanan, keeping her blade on his to keep him pinned until she was clear and then slashed back at the Jedi on the ground, the blade catching his shoulder and searing through muscle and bone and the armor that covered his arm.

A sharp, started, pained scream was torn from Kanan's throat, and Ezra ran to kneel protectively beside him, his blade held at the ready. If the hard landing wasn't enough, the slice through his shoulder was enough to disable him temporarily, though he quickly scrambled to a kneeling position, his saber held in his off-hand to keep the blade from shaking. Triumph filled the Inquisitor's eyes, the woman pacing before them like a caged animal as she reveled in the pain, the fear, the darkness that surrounded them, the wounded Jedi meaning that her victory was close at hand. Her hand tightening around the hilt, she activated the second blade, the double-sided saber spinning rapidly in her hand as she rushed at the pair.

She didn't get far, the Inquisitor suddenly and violently thrown backwards into the nearby building to fall limply to the ground, and with a sigh of relief, Ezra clung to Kanan as he watched Ahsoka Tano come to stand before them, a brief look over her shoulder to glance quickly at Kanan's injury.

"...hurts like a bitch, doesn't it?" the Togruta said with a smile, and with a feeble laugh, Kanan nodded in agreement, his hand clutching at the blackened, burning wound. "Nothing a little bacta can't fix. Can you still fight?"

"Y-yeah..." Kanan groaned, holding tightly to Ezra as the boy pulled him to his feet. "I just need a minute..."

Ahsoka nodded slightly and turned her gaze on Ezra. "Complete your mission, Bridger. Get the youngling to the ship, it's not far. We'll be right behind you."

"W-what about Kanan?" he asked, his face drawn with worry and concern as he looked at the Jedi, dirty and sweating and breathing far harder than he'd ever seen. "He can't fight, Ahsoka..."

"Trust in your Master, Padawan," she said with a small smile. "You need to move fast anyway, and he'd likely to slow you down. Don't forget, there's still another Inquisitor out there." A slight, sly smile touched the corners of her mouth as she looked back at the Inquisitor, the Chagrian finally rising and looking at them with a mixture of confusion, rage and fear. "Besides, I do my best work when I have someone to protect..." With a reassuring squeeze on his shoulder by the wounded Jedi, Ezra silently nodded, took a deep breath to calm his nerves, and rushed to the Ithorian's side, the mother tightly clutching her child close, and the teenager led them quickly into an alleyway, disappearing quickly from view.

"Ahsoka Tano..." the Inquisitor said breathlessly, the saber back in her hand and quickly lit. "Lord Vader said you were alive. I'm not sure anyone believed it. I think maybe he even stopped believing it himself." She grinned maliciously her eyes narrowing as she watched Ahsoka casually ignite her two emerald lightsabers. "He is going to be very pleased to see you again."

"What a coincidence..." Ahsoka said quietly as she took a step closer, her lightsabers spinning to be held in her backhanded grip. "I know a Lord of the Sith that's been eager to meet you as well." She smirked softly when the Inquisitor sneered and crouched slightly down, ready to spring forward on the attack, though fear rippled strongly through the Force. "If you come along quietly, I'm sure he'll be gentle with you. Obi-Wan's always had a fondness for those that willingly serve him."

It was enough to send all the Inquisitor's fear tumbling into blinding hatred, and with a savage snarl, she threw her lightsaber at Ahsoka, the red blades a deadly spinning disc that sliced through the air toward the Togruta as she rushed forward to engage her foe. Ahsoka effortlessly batted the spinning blade out of the way as she rushed to meet the Inquisitor, the Chagrian calling her blade to her extended hand just in time to catch Ahsoka's strike. The plasma sabers exploded in flashed of lights and showers of sparks as they repeatedly struck, the Inquisitor standing her ground as Ahsoka darted athletically around her, her movements fluid and lithe and graceful, her every strike and deflection effortless in its execution.

The fight was uneven from the start, and from where Kanan stood watching, breathing deep as he called upon the Force to take away his pain, the sharp burn fading into a dull throb. The Togruta was in no need of help, the woman an absolute flurry of vicious strikes and athletic movements that was both beautiful and fearsome to behold. The Inquisitor was getting more angry, more savage as the fight drew on, her blade activated to spin on its access when the Togruta's swift movements became too much, and with the additional aid of technology to cover her weaknesses, the Chagrian finally managed to get Ahsoka on the defensive. Managing to get a moment of space between them, Ahsoka powered down her lightsabers and let them drop to the ground, her face the perfect image of calm and focus as the Inquisitor grinned wickedly and jumped, her spinning blade poised to slash down at the kneeling Togruta.

The moment she landed, the blade arched downwards, Ahsoka just barely leaning away, the blade so close she could feel the heat, and she reached out and grabbed the saber's hilt, the spinning blades stopping and the Inquisitor's eyes wide with disbelief. With a swift pulse of the Force, the red blades disappeared as the saber deactivated, and Ahsoka twisted the weapon out of the Chagrian's hands. Slicing her arm through the air, Ahsoka slammed the Force into the Inquisitor, the woman flying through the air to strike the building she had hit before. Just before she fell to the ground, he body was lifted again, and the ground rushed to meet her again and again as the Togruta repeatedly smashed her against the wall and the hard stone of the pavement. Pain exploded in a white flash behind the Inquisitor's eyes when her head hit the ground, rendering her dazed and disoriented, and her pain quickly began to fade and grow distant as her vision grew dark and unconsciousness took her.

When the body went limp, Ahsoka released her, quickly rushing over and kneeling beside the girl to check for a pulse, and she sighed in relief when she felt it, slow but strong. Calling the Inquisitor's blade and her own dropped lightsabers to her and attaching them to her belt, she looked back and smiled softly at Kanan as he limped closer, wincing with each step.

"Do you think you can carry her?" Ahsoka asked softly, raising the body with the Force, and Kanan looked at her skeptically.

"You're not actually going to hand her over to Kenobi, are you?" he asked as he tucked an arm under the Inquisitor's knees and grasped her around the shoulders to his chest, wincing slightly as he adjusted to her weight when Ahsoka slowly released her.

"I am," Ahsoka said quickly, sighing softly when the Jedi tensed in objection. "Look, I know that talking to Obi-Wan is like hitting your head against a wall, but he actually listens to you when you talk. You said something to him that made him...rethink his methods. I don't think even you would object."

"...r-really?"

"Really. I swear that sometimes he is just obstinate on purpose. It gets to you, and I think he likes to see you riled up." She pointed at the Inquisitor. "She has known nothing but darkness and pain and cruelty. She was never given a chance to choose. Regardless of what Kenobi wants, I don't feel comfortable killing that."

"...y-yeah, I agree," Kanan muttered softly, following after Ahsoka when she gestured for him to follow, his every step becoming stronger as the Force took the pain away. "You think we can turn her away from the darkness? Do you think we could save the others instead of killing them?" Kanan asked hopefully, and Ahsoka looked sidelong at him for a moment before she shrugged.

"I don't know. I doubt we'll be able to save all of them, but we can certainly try. Some of them were Jedi that fell after the Empire rose, some of them never had a choice, but if we believe they are lost, then they truly are." She took a deep breath and looked at the unconscious woman in Kanan's arms. "Creatures of pain and fear and suffering, but Obi-Wan has always said the Dark Side is more than just that. If they continue to reject the light, then perhaps they simply need the right Dark Side Master. Someone to guide them, not trap them."

"And you think Kenobi can do that?" Kanan asked softly, and Ahsoka shrugged again.

"Who knows. He's exceptionally cruel to those who have wronged him, or if he has a specific purpose for being so, but she hasn't done anything to him. And that Twi'lek he's keeping now..." She shrugged slightly. "I walked in on him training her the other day. Actually teaching her like he would teach an apprentice. He may be corrupted and rotten, but I think a very large part of him misses the company of other Dark Siders. For a long time, he had his old Master, Dooku, Asajj Ventress, Barriss Offee, my Master Quinlan..." She smiled, a sad and distant thing like she was lost in a memory, her hand slowly tightening around the lightsaber at her hip. "It's lonely in the dark. I think being around you and the other Spectres made him realize just how alone he's been."

"I can understand that..." Kanan muttered, gripping the woman tighter to him, a new surge of sympathy for the Chagrian and his Sith Lord friend rushing through him. "You know what he needs?" Kanan said resolutely, drawing up to his full height and smiling when his legs didn't give way. "A girlfriend, Like, a real one, not the sort of women he just keeps around for sex."

"I've been saying that for years," Ahsoka said with a smile. "But, pleasure is a major part of the Dark Side. I can't see him giving it up. And I honestly don't think he'll ever love again. Obi-Wan's just a creature that...mates for life, I suppose, and his died a long time ago." She shrugged. "But maybe. Who knows, he might get close again someday."

"Maybe we can help save him too." Ahsoka closed her eyes, smiling softly as she laughed.

"I think you already have, Kanan."

---

He had fought Darth Lumis on Lothal.

At first, he hadn't recognized him, hadn't been able to sense him, had thought he sensed a Jedi when the young, clean shaven, golden haired man called a blue lightsaber to his hand. It didn't take him long to realize that the Jedi he had sensed was Kanan Jarrus or Ezra Bridger, both who had been in his company. It wasn't until he had tossed the blue blade into his off-hand and drew a red saber that the Inquisitor realized his mistake, that the man he could not sense before him was Darth Lumis, the renegade Lord of the Sith. It was too late to run. Lumis had his sights set on him, and before he knew it, he was facing down the Sith that had bested his Master, Maul, on both Naboo and Mandalore and irreparably tore through his mind to leave madness and submission in the bleeding wounds, and his Master, Vader, who he had beaten and dismembered on Mustafar, condemning him to a life trapped inside the black armor that so terrified those that looked upon it.

Lumis fought with effortless grace, elegance, and the reckless abandon of a man with the confidence that came from knowing he was in no danger. He had won before the fight had even started, and while Lumis' blade work was excessively dangerous, it was his mastery of the Force that was the real threat. Even as he had blocked and parried the Sith's slashes and thrusts, even as he hissed in pain when that red blade touched him and sank only just beneath the skin before he withdrew, a constant reminder of all the time he could have killed him and didn't, the Inquisitor could feel him in his mind. He wasn't sure how the Sith got in, felt his mental defenses strong and tight, and yet the teasing clawing within his mind set his teeth on edge and disrupted his focus when he heard the soft, amused laughter echoing inside him and the amused commands to submit.

With each burning touch of the saber to his skin, with each scrape of the claws upon his mind, with each sickening squirm of what felt like snakes worming through his brain, he could feel his defenses cracking, his walls being broken from the inside. It wasn't long before Lumis had foregone the use of his lightsabers entirely and commanded him to kneel, and he had no choice but to obey. A moment later and they were running through the hallways toward the hangar, the Inquisitor following with a jerky shuffle after the Sith Lord, and the last thing he remembered before unconsciousness took him was the sight of his Master, Darth Vader, turning to face off against the man that had crippled him.

He wasn't sure why Lumis had let him live. He thought, perhaps, that he had been distracted by the presence of the other Sith Lord, his own threat insignificant in the presence of Darth Vader, but the Inquisitor didn't really know. All he knew was that when he had groaned awake some time later, Lumis was gone, and Vader was...he wasn't sure what he saw in the hangar that day. What he was certain of was that he was rewarded for his survival and his failure by being given to Admiral Thrawn to experiment on, a torturous experience that only grew worse and more painful as the Chiss perfected his ability to combat those that walked with the Force. By the end of his tenure under Thrawn, the Chiss could stop him dead in his tracks in an instant, and there was nothing he could do about it. He wasn't certain if it was enough to combat the might of Lumis, but at the very least, it was an excellent start.

And when just a few weeks ago, three Inquisitors turned up dead in the Senate...it gave him the motivation to run today. His previous escape from Lumis had been nothing but luck, and he would not be so lucky again. Ending up like that simply wasn't worth the capture of a child, or a thousand children, or the death of two Jedi rebels. His fellow Inquisitor simply didn't understand. She had never faced Darth Lumis, she had never fought him and lived to tell, had never felt his shadowy grasp, combing through his mind like he owned it. She didn't understand, and perhaps she would die here for it. He wasn't going to take that risk. He was leaving.

He ran faster when he caught sight of the spaceport, sprinting across the open expanse of the maintenance field and heading right for the hangar bay where he and his fellow Inquisitor had docked their TIE Interceptors, the latest in Imperial starfighter technology to come out of Lothal. He rushed past rows and rows of secure private hangars, some guarded, some left wide open, others locked tight to protect the ships inside belonging to the city's more wealthy businessmen. He found his hangar untouched at the far end of the spaceport and quickly punched in the code for the lock, the inner mechanics whirring as they unbolted and unlocked the various components of the elaborate security system. He bounced impatiently on his heels when the door began to rise, waiting for the moment he could duck underneath and get to his ship, and as soon as he saw his TIE's curved wings through the door's opening, he scrambled through the opening and ran forward, the door groaning as it continued to rise.

He stopped so suddenly his boots screeched against the steel floor, the noise echoing through the hangar, and with a pitiful whimper, he retracted the blast shield on his helmet to rub at his eyes to be certain his mind wasn't playing tricks on him. There, seated cross-legged on top of his TIE Interceptor, was Darth Lumis, the black robes he wore making him almost seem a part of the shadows in the hangar's lo lighting, his eyes glowing a fierce gold in the darkness. The Inquisitor's legs felt weak when he felt the Sith's eyes upon him, a cruel, amused smirk spreading across his face. He was absolutely certain he was going to vomit.

"Hello there!" Lumis said, soft and amused, and the Inquisitor did the only reasonable thing he could in such a situation. He turned and ran. He hardly took three strides toward the now open hangar door before his feet were pulled out from under him and he fell hard to the ground, his face slamming on to the ground and his nose erupting in a fountain of blood. Panic overcame him as he was slowly pulled backwards, and he clawed at the ground, his fingers bleeding as the frantic friction peeled the skin of his fingertips off. "Now, now, none of that..." Lumis gently chided as the man began to scream and sob. "I've been waiting for you! You're not just going to leave like that, are you, dear? That is terribly rude..."

"Please..." the Inquisitor sobbed, flipping over and trying to dig his heels into the ground to back away from the Sith, but no matter how he struggled, he was slowly pulled closer to the man on the TIE. "Please, Lord Lumis, I-"

"Oh, no, no, don't beg, your Masters taught you better than that..." Lumis scoffed. "Have some more pride than that, show me you are worth something..." He patted the ship he was sitting on. "And I was tasked with bringing new ships to my cause. These are going to do nicely, I thank you for delivering them to me." He looked down at the Inquisitor, frowning as the man continued to struggle. "Wait a moment...I know you!" Laughing, Lumis jumped off the TIE and landed on the ground, raising his hand and the Inquisitor was pulled up into the air. "You're the Inquisitor I fought on Lothal!"

"No! N-no, I-I'm not-"

"Mm, don't lie to me, boy, I remember you..." Lumis drawled, a tight smile on his lips as he patted the Inquisitor's cheek, and with a wave of his hand, he dropped the man on the ground, frowning as he watched him scramble to his feet and make a futile dash toward the open door. With a sigh, the Sith extended his hand, and the Inquisitor was sent slamming prostrate on the ground, the panic in his fast and heavy breathing audible.

"You are making this very difficult..." Lumis said as he drew near the man on the ground. "Much more difficult than it needs to be, I assure you. I simply want to talk." He drew his lightsaber, the red blade igniting and held in a relaxed grip, the Inquisitor's eyes wide as he stared at it. "There is no escape, so stop trying. If you fight me, I will kill you. Do I make myself absolutely clear?"

The Inquisitor whimpered as he nodded, the pressure on his body lifting, and he immediately grabbed his lightsaber and ignited it, a furious slash drawing a hissed curse out of the Sith Lord as he stepped back, immediately falling into an easy defense of the furious assault. Lumis was less surprised than he was irritated, though he expected little lese from a cornered animal, but in the past, those cornered animals had always submitted to him, rolled over and exposed their necks to him. It was rare that one fought, and when they did, he had always been able to force them to submit. Today, he was trying something new, and the large, frightened, thoughtless man had failed spectacularly. To attempt to fight his way out of such a situation instead of exercising patience and cunning wasn't just idiotic, but it wasn't the sort of creature he had any use for.

Lumis caught sight of Ahsoka and Kanan out of the corner of his eye, and he couldn't help but smile as his gaze shifted back to his opponent, a small sidestep and the slightest flick of his blade sending the Inquisitor's lightsaber striking against the ground. His blade twisting in his grip, Lumis slid his blade up along the other blade, the tip of his weapon sliding effortlessly into the Inquisitor's throat. Lumis deactivated his blade and stepped away as the Inquisitor dropped to his knees, a strained wheeze escaping through the hole in his neck as he reached a shaking hand up to touch at the smoking wound before he pitched sideways and lay still. With a final, disdainful look at the dead Inquisitor on the ground, Obi-Wan turned away from him and strode quickly to meet Ahsoka and Kanan.

"He started it..." Obi-Wan grumbled, gesturing back at the Inquisitor on the ground, his gaze immediately drawn to the dazed woman in black at Kanan's feet, the Jedi's saber pointing menacingly at the scowling Chagrian. He looked her over once before the Sith Lord's attention turned to the wound on Kanan's shoulder, burned and blistered through his cut armor, and he hissed, his furious glare shooting to the captive woman. He quickly grabbed Kanan's ponytail and pulled him downwards, the Jedi leaning over with a quiet complaint as the Sith tore the armor off to look at the wound.

"Oww, hey! What are you-"

"Are you hurt?" Obi-Wan demanded with a growl. "Did this wretch harm you?!" he snarled, his red blade in his hand as a second as he waved a hand in the air, the hangar door slamming shut with a resounding bang.

"I'm fine, dad," Kanan said with a roll of his eyes when Obi-Wan leaned in, his golden eyes squinting as he looked closer at the wound, his lips pressed together in a thin line before he nodded curtly and gently pulled on Kanan's shirt to cover it.

"It's not so deep as it appears..." the Sith Lord grumbled. "You're fortunate. Much deeper and it would have been very difficult to return use to your arm."

"Lessons for next time," Kanan said with a bright smile as he looked at the serious concern on the Sith's face.

"The mission was a success," Ahsoka said quickly when Kenobi's furious gaze drifted to the Inquisitor, the Chagrian's arms shaking as she looked at her dead fellow on the ground, effortlessly slain by the Sith Lord, the exact fate he had been hoping to avoid. "Ezra and the youngling are safe on the Shadow."

"I had no doubt he would succeed," Obi-Wan said as if it were the most obvious thing in the galaxy, his hand gesturing to the TIE Fighters behind them. "You wanted ships."

"I wanted real ships, not starfighters," Ahsoka said teasingly. "But I suppose they'll do until you find us something better." She pointed at the lifeless Inquisitor on the ground. "What happened to him?"

"He stupidly decided to fight me," the Sith Lord snarled, his gaze slowly returning to look at the Chagrian Inquisitor that remained slumped by Kanan's feet. "A mindless brute is of no use to me, Ahsoka, and his Force potential was average at best. No, the surge of strength I felt came from her." A slow, wicked grin crept across his face as he slowly sauntered toward the Inquisitor on the ground. "And what about you, dearest?" the Sith Lord said sweetly, his deactivated saber spinning on his palm as he looked down at the Chagrian and with a wave of his hand, sent the fallen Inquisitor's blade flying to her hand, the woman grasping it with wide-eyed surprised as she looked up at the intimidating Sith Lord. "Do you mean to fight me as well?"

"...Tano said you would be gentle if I did not resist," she muttered, bowing her head as she placed the saber on the ground and rolled it to the Sith Lord's feet. "I do not wish to resist."

"What's this, not going to beg for mercy?" Obi-Wan scoffed, calling his saber back to his hand. "Your friend begged."

"He wasn't my friend, he was a coward and a fool!" she snapped, her hands tightly grasping her knees. "He should have known that there is no room for mercy among the Sith." She scoffed bitterly and shook her head. "The only mercy the Sith have to offer is death. I will not beg for that which I do not want." She gasped, her eyes wide for only a moment before she screwed them shut, her teeth grinding together as she grasped her head between her hands, the burning touch of the Sith Lord deep inside her mind. Memories flashed before her mind, all of them hers, long forgotten and buried beneath pain and suffering, a childhood stolen when she was ripped from her world and hurled into darkness, the pain of feeling herself being twisted and corrupted under the torture of others far stronger than her, the brutal training under the Sith that only she and a handful of others survived. And through it all, she could feel the Sith Lord's satisfaction and his sympathy burning like a cold flame within her.

"You are intelligent..." Obi-Wan whispered as he circled around her, the woman shivering as she felt that fiery gaze looking deep inside her. "And powerful, though not nearly so strong as you could be. The Sith Lords have wasted your potential, honed you into nothing more than a weapon when you could be so much more..." He stood and observed her, stroking his beard as he looked her over. "Darth Sidious has Mas Amedda serving close beside him. I feel my former Master may...appreciate that I have a Chagrian serving beside me as well." He extended a hand to the Inquisitor on the ground. "Come with me, girl. Pledge yourself to my service and I will teach you to be everything that your Sith Masters said you could not."

The Inquisitor sucked in a sharp breath, her eyes widening and filled with greed, with lust for power, with desire, but also with crippling loneliness, pain and fear, and a deep longing for it to end. Exhaling a shuddering breath and licking her lips with a black, forked tongue, she reached out and clasped the Sith Lord's hand between her own, her shoulders shaking as she laid his fingertips upon her head, groaning softly when she felt the Sith sink deep into her open mind, this time the feel warm and pleasurable in her submission.

"Ahsoka, you take the Shadow back to the Umbra, Kanan and I are going to follow in the TIE Fighters," Obi-Wan said quietly, motioning for the Chagrian to rise, which she quickly and dutifully obeyed, and he and his new charge quickly moved to one of the TIEs, the woman jumping up on top of the ship and entering the cockpit to unlock the console and controls, which she quickly did with the other when she was done.

"Dark Side apprentices..." Ahsoka muttered quietly to Kanan as he called his cast away shoulder guard to him, a frown on his face as he looked at the cut upon it. "It almost looks as though he's beginning to form the basis of his new Sith Order. He's been talking about it for years."

"...are you nervous about it?" Kanan asked, and the Togruta shrugged.

"Perhaps not as much as I should be," she said softly. "If Obi-Wan's the one doing the teaching, if he's going to change the Sith as he said he would...co-existence between different philosophies on the Force may be possible. He is friends with a Jedi, after all." The Togruta's mouth pressed into a thin line. "No, what worries me is that his Sith Order has always been a Sith Empire. A part of me has always known what it is he seeks to do, but..." She sighed and shook her head. "Our rebellion leaders may be in for a bit of a shock when they realize that one of their founding members is, at the very heart of him, Imperial. Not a revolutionary, but a usurper."

"Sounds to me like Obi-Wan may one day soon have a great deal to discuss with the rebel leaders," Kanan mumbled, and Ahsoka quietly agreed, her gaze fixed on the Sith Lord as he jumped into the TIE's cockpit.

"A great deal, yes..." Ahsoka repeated, and couldn't help but wonder if one day, the rebellion she had worked so hard to help form would one day be called to stand against an Empire ruled by Obi-Wan.