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.

63. An Inside Man

AN: Me: I'm going to get this chapter done before Thanksgiving!

Also Me: HOLY SHIT POKEMON IS OUT I MUST COMPLETE THE POKEDEX.

So you see, I got distracted. Just a little bit. But it's worth the wait, I promise! This is one of the big ones I had inside my head for a very, very long time, for as long as I decided that this fic wasn't going to end with the Clone Wars. The trouble here, though, was writing it, because I had a few things going on. Thing one: due to circumstances, this chapter actually covers the plots of two separate episodes, An Inside Man and Through Imperial Eyes, so it was already going to be big, but the other thing, and this is the Big Thing, was that my first draft of this chapter was actually almost double the length, because I had written scenes to run parallel to what I have here, but from Thrawn's perspective. It was very interesting and super fun, but it didn't fit AT ALL because while it did give a nice look at our Villain's Process, it also killed the tension.

Which to me is entirely unacceptable.

But even still, it took me a while to be willing to abandon the idea and accept it wasn't going to work. Who knows, one day I might post the Lost Content as something else. We'll see. That all being said, the next chapter isn't really very long, but it might take a little while for me to get it posted because there's some, uh, Weird Shit happening there, and I'm not entirely sure of the shape it's going to take yet. Don't expect an update on this baby until the holidays are over.

Alright, you nerds, enjoy the chapter and Happy Holidays to you all! I hope it's great for you! As always, let me know what you think. I love hearing from you guys and I literally live on feedback. It's made me a better writer and I thank you all for your input.

Chapter 63: An Inside Man

"We have a way in."

She said it as soon as the Sith Lord strolled into the room, his leisurely pace coming to a swift halt and the carefree smirk on his face quickly crumbling as paper smiles so often did. She sent him no warning, no indication of what this meeting was about, and as he so often did, Obi-Wan took his time in getting there, and in this moment, with surprise and shock and disbelief plain upon his face, Ahsoka knew he regretted coming so slowly, and she was loving every second of the Sith's stricken silence.

"Excuse me?" Kenobi finally managed to choke, and with a bright, somewhat condescending smile, Ahsoka gestured to the seat across from her. For a moment, Kenobi didn't move, only stared at the Togruta as if he didn't understand a word of Basic, when finally a relieved, shaking laugh tumbled from his lips. For a moment, he drew up tall, his throat tight and his expression serious, his sharp eyes surveying the room, and when he found that he was alone with Ahsoka, a wide smile spread across his face, the first genuine expression she had seen upon the Sith Lord in a very long time, his bravado melting away as he dropped into his seat.

"You have a way past the blockade," Obi-Wan said slowly, his voice quivering with excitement that he didn't bother attempting to suppress.

"And a way into the factory," Ahsoka added. "The former governor of Lothal, Ryder Azadi, has been sympathetic to the rebel movement since he was deposed by the current Imperial Governor."

"Politics..." Kenobi scoffed with a roll of his eyes. "Who's Lothal's Governor these days?"

"Arihnda Pryce," Ahsoka said darkly, a frown on her lips as she pulled up the information on Lothal's Governor on her datapad and passed it to Kenobi. "A real piece of work. She's cold and ruthless, even by Imperial standards, which was how my contact got taken out of power. I don't have to tell you that he has a very personal interest in seeing Pryce taken down."

"Seems like I'll be a disappointment to him," Kenobi drawled, finishing his quick scan of Governor Pryce's information and passing the datapad back to Ahsoka. "I'm not going down there to murder this governor of his. What makes him even think that's in the cards?"

"Apparently, she's working closely with Thrawn," Ahsoka said quietly, watching the Sith Lord's expression shift from indignant to thoughtful. "Word is that Thrawn was assigned to deal with the Lothal insurgency because she personally requested him."

"Oh?" Kenobi asked, his eyebrow arching as he delicately took the datapad back. "I had assumed it was because Thrawn's schedule is free now that Nightswan's gone. He was hunting us before. He's the logical choice to hunt us again."

"It could be both," Ahsoka said. "Regardless, we need to keep an eye on Governor Pryce. Thrawn isn't well liked among the Empire's political elite. Personally requesting him is an odd choice for a woman of her status."

"Maybe she just likes to get things done," Kenobi said drolly. "I imagine it's hard to argue with his results, regardless of their personal feelings for that filthy Chiss."

"It's possible," Ahsoka said, her lip curling up in a slight, amused smile. "But with what we know about her, there may be an ulterior motive. We need to be cautious in our dealings with her. Her particular brand of ruthless is exactly the sort of thing that can lead her to impulsive, short-sighted actions that may end up being very costly for us."

"And costly for them as well," Kenobi quietly pointed out. "A thing we may be able to use to our advantage."

"That will depend entirely on how predictable she is," Ahsoka said as she took back her datapad from the Sith Lord. "We'll keep an eye on her actions, but if she's as erratic as I think she may be, we need to keep our distance and wait for her to overplay her hand. Imperial bureaucrats are more vicious than we could ever be."

"Seems like it might be in our best interests to assassinate the bitch after all," Kenobi grumbled. "Azadi will be so pleased."

"There's a very real possibility that her death could bring Tarkin back to the sector," Ahsoka said gravely. "We can't deal with Thrawn and Tarkin at the same time. I'm alright with making Azadi wait a little while longer before we deal with Governor Pryce." Ahsoka was silent a moment, biting down on her bottom lip as she looked away from Obi-Wan, her fingers absently drumming on the table. "A favor, Kenobi..." she muttered, turning worried eyes on the Sith. "The past few days, the information I've gotten out of one of my Fulcrum agents has been..." She trailed off, a heavy sigh falling from her lips as she rubbed her temple.

"Your contact inside the Empire?" Obi-Wan gently asked, and Ahsoka answered with a solemn nod.

"We've been running small missions, relief efforts and recon missions and supply runs that have all gone awry this past week. All of them tips from this particular Fulcrum agent." She sighed again. "You were right. Thrawn's feeding him the information he wants us to have. He's using my agent against us, and he has been for some time."

"I don't see a good way we can spin this, Ahsoka," Kenobi quietly cautioned. "Your agent is more useful to Thrawn as Fulcrum than a loyal Imperial could ever be. I don't see any advantages we can seize from this situation. We have nothing to gain here."

"I agree," Ahsoka whispered, turning her gaze up to meet the Sith Lord's. "Which is why I want you to get him out of there."

For a long moment, Obi-Wan was silent, the man leaning back in his chair and staring blankly ahead, his eyes distant as he reached out and touched the Force, his own presence skimming the waters to taste the ebb and flow of thoughts and emotions swelling the cresting waves. "Are we talking about who I think we are?" he asked quietly, and Ahsoka nodded, her fingers flitting over her datapad as she selected the relevant files.

"ISB-021, Agent Alexsandr Kallus," Ahsoka said firmly. "I'm sending you his file."

"It won't be easy to get him out, Ahsoka, he has significant rank. He's not exactly a nobody that can disappear in a crowd." Kenobi's brow drew together, his lips pressing into a thin line. "Do we even know he's going to be there? He was on Skystrike Academy a few months ago, he was stationed on Lothal before, from the way you talk, it sounds like he might frequent the Chimaera. Sounds to me like he bounces around an awful lot."

"He'll be there," Ahsoka said quietly. "If you can't get hold of him, if he's not there, fine, but if it's not out of your way, if you can do it without compromising the mission..." Ahsoka sighed wearily and bowed her head. "I'd appreciate it if you brought him home. Thrawn's taken too many. I don't want him to have Kallus too."

"I'll see what I can do," Kenobi quietly promised. "Is there any way you can get a message to him and let him know we're coming?"

"There's no guarantee that he'd even get it," Ahsoka said. "His situation's perilous, he can't always safely check in, and that close to Thrawn's project, I doubt he could safely get a message." A wry, bitter smile twitched at the edge of the Togruta's lips. "More than that, I think knowing we're coming could cause the slightest change in behavior that could tip Thrawn off that something's up, and the mission must come first."

"Agreed..." Kenobi muttered, his eyes flicking down to his datapad and scrolling through all the information Ahsoka had sent him, files on Kallus and Ryder Azadi, clearance passes and fake identification for transport to Lothal, credentials to blend in with the factory workers in Thrawn's factory, a slight frown crossing his lips when he saw that the schematic of the factory was woefully incomplete. "Your contacts couldn't get me a completed blueprint of the complex?" he said dryly as he turned the datapad around to show Ahsoka the image, and hissed a curse under his breath when a tremor shot down his hand and made him drop the datapad onto the table.

"I said he could get you into the factory, Obi-Wan," Ahsoka responded equally dryly. "I didn't say he could get you where you needed to go. Our contacts work the assembly line. They don't go anywhere else. Once you're in, you're on your own."

"Unless I can find Kallus," Kenobi pointed out. "He may be able to take me where I need to go."

"He might, but I wouldn't count on it. Even if he can bring you to the proper section, he can't get you in. Kallus doesn't have a high enough security clearance to even get information about the project. He isn't going to be able to get you inside."

"I suppose I'll just have to think of something," Kenobi grumbled as he stood, a flick of his hand making his datapad rise from the table and slowly float to tuck back into the Sith Lord's pocket. "Honestly, Ahsoka, if I have to do all the work myself, what good are you?"

"Not much, I'm afraid," Ahsoka said with a shrug. "You have a team in mind for the mission?"

"Just Kanan," Kenobi said absently. "A smaller team makes it less likely we'll be noticed."

"That it does," Ahsoka nodded in approval. "Take a droid with you." With a scoff, Obi-Wan rolled his eyes and Ahsoka shot him a stern look. "Don't give me that, Kenobi. Droids don't attract attention, and they can get you into places quietly you might not otherwise be able to go. And whatever Thrawn's up to, we want to download as much information we can about it."

"Fine," Kenobi snapped with a roll of his eyes. "HK-"

"HK is an assassin droid, Kenobi, you can't take him," Ahsoka interrupted. "Take Chopper. The Spectres use him all the time for missions like this. Sabine paints him up in Imperial colors and he blends right in."

"Do you think I don't know that?" Kenobi reflexively snapped, and with a heavy sigh, he bowed his head and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Alright, alright...I'll take the cranky little shit, if Hera allows it."

"She will," Ahsoka said smugly, a knowing smirk touching her lips as she leaned back in her seat. "She's the one that requested you take him along. The kids are already painting him for you."

"I love it when you two team up against me..." Obi-Wan drawled. "I'll pick the droid up when I go to fetch Kanan."

"Be careful out there, Obi-Wan," Ahsoka said gravely, a quietly worried edge to her voice that made the Sith Lord tense. "It may be your game, but this is Thrawn's field. Imperial dissidents pressed into service inside the factory have been sabotaging the equipment they've been forced to produce, and I doubt that's slipped beneath Thrawn's notice. He's going to be on edge."

"He must have known the risks of using unwilling labor..."

"I doubt it was his decision," Ahsoka said. "Regardless, that project of his is under the highest level of security. Even if you manage to get in, I don't think you'll have much time to get what you need before you're detected. Please, keep that in mind when planning your attack."

"I will," Kenobi said, giving the woman a respectful bow. "Thank you, Ahsoka. I'll see you when I return."

"Victorious, I hope. We need this win against Thrawn, if for nothing else, to show our people that he can be defeated."

"Anyone can be defeated," the Sith Lord said quietly. "I promise you, Ahsoka, I'll bring you back your victory."

"I know you will," Ahsoka said, a gentle smile touching the edge of her lips as the Sith Lord began leaving. "May the Force be with you, Obi-Wan."

---

"You know, we could get lucky," Kanan whispered to Obi-Wan as they filed in with the large group of factory workers as they made their way to the check-in at their work stations, the thick, heavy safety suits they wore concealing their faces and allowing them to blend seamlessly in with the others. Trailing far behind them, the black and red painted Chopper wheeled in with the group, occasionally drifting off to plug into terminals and sending short bursts of irritated electronic grouching the way of all those that crossed his path. "Thrawn's been bouncing all over the galaxy. It's possible he's not even here."

"That would be ideal, wouldn't it?" Kenobi whispered back. "When have you ever known us to be that lucky?"

"Hey, there's a first time for everything."

"Yes, but now that you've said it, he's certainly going to be here." Beside him, he could hear Kanan mutter a quiet, muffled curse, and a wry smirk slowly crossed Kenobi's lips. "One day, you might learn to keep your mouth shut."

"You give me too much credit," Kanan drawled, and in his voice, Obi-Wan could practically hear the man roll his eyes. "It's the sabotage..." Kanan whispered as he leaned in closer to the Sith Lord. "Even doing it the way they've been doing it, someone's bound to notice. It's subtle, but not enough, not to get by Thrawn. He'll trace the sabotage right back here."

"I feel he already has," Kenobi mumbled, looking up at the Jedi beside him. "Don't you?"

"Yeah," Kanan nodded. "Scratching right underneath my skin. Something's up."

"Something's up," Kenobi quietly agreed. "Let's hope the disturbance is centered around our saboteurs. With the focus elsewhere, we might just be able to pull this mission off."

"At the cost of our allies..."

"Sacrifices must be made," Kenobi said with a shrug. "Stay focused, Kanan, and we won't return with nothing to show for our efforts here."

With a silent nod, Kanan drew away from the Sith Lord, his stride quickening to close the gap between himself and the workers in front of him that had formed while he and Obi-Wan were talking. Azadi's little resistance on Lothal was made mostly of farmers, displaced when the Empire had seized their farmland and pressed them into service working in the factories. The ones on Lothal predominantly supported the Imperial war machine, manufacturing AT-ST Walkers and speeder bikes used by Stormtroopers in their patrols. It didn't take long for the disgruntled, displaced farmers to band together in quiet resistance of their Imperial occupiers, and before long, they had created a way to quietly resist the Empire without taking up arms against them.

Sabotage was a tricky business, a thing that needed to be done quietly for it to be effective, and Azadi's group of malcontents had it figured out. Their sabotage was subtle, the speeders and Walkers they produced able to pass a basic inspection, but failed the moment they were put to use, the Walker mechanics freezing up when the firing systems were activated, and the speeders fine until they hit top speeds, at which point the engines would overheat and explode. Once they were shipped away from the factories to be put into use throughout the Empire, it was difficult to track where they came from, difficult to see a discernable pattern. But they could be tracked, and a pattern could be seen, and both Kanan and Kenobi were certain that this quiet act of rebellion had been discovered.

They expected nothing less from the cunning Grand Admiral that had destroyed both Nightswan and the Free Ryloth movement.

The Force pulled tighter around both the Jedi and the Sith when they entered the assembly line where the workers were gathered, people milling about and talking to each other before the shift started, a line of speeders in various states of completion placed neatly along the conveyors. Obi-Wan quietly scanned the room as they made their way toward the center, taking note of every exit, every stationed Imperial, every place where they could disappear from the Stormtroopers' watchful eyes. His attention was swiftly drawn away when a group of Imperial officers entered the room through one of the many doorways, and Kenobi quickly drew to Kanan's side and nudged the Jedi as the rest of the workers began to fall into line for inspection.

"Look," Kenobi whispered, pointing through the crowd at the stalwart officer at the edge of the room. "That's Agent Kallus."

"Eww!" Kanan scoffed. "That guy's caused us so many problems."

"That guy's also a Fulcrum agent," Kenobi whispered, standing just in front of the Jedi as they filed into lines. "Ahsoka trusts him, and that's good enough for me."

"She's always had such terrible taste in men."

"Can't argue that," Kenobi said flippantly. "She hangs out with you and me, after all."

"Look sharp!" a stern, harsh voice echoed through the room, sending the milling workers scrambling to get into their lines. For the most part, the workers were ambivalent or bored as they shifted from foot to foot in their hastily made lines, some irritated that their work was disrupted by a pointless meeting, others simply eager to get to work. A notable few appeared uncertain and nervous as Kallus removed himself from the wall, two Stormtroopers falling into step behind him as he slowly strode before the line, his sharp eyes examining each neat row as he passed them. "This factory," he began as he drew up to his full proud height, "is being honored with a visit from Imperial high command."

The Force snapped cold, and Kanan shivered as his vision exploded in spears of ice blue, and he swiftly reached out to grab hold of Kenobi's shoulder to steady himself. The same thought seemed to pass through both Kanan and Kenobi's mind, as the Sith Lord leaned back and tapped the Jedi's leg, his shoulder tense beneath Kanan's hand. They did not need to speak to understand the meaning of the Force's flow. This was a nearly identical situation to the one Kanan had heard Sabine had described at Skystrike, nearly identical to the Imperial gathering Kenobi had seen inside Sabine's mind.

It was their fear and expectation come to life. Thrawn was here.

"Thank you for the introduction..." came the cold, monotonous voice seemingly from nowhere, and Kallus visibly jumped as the Chiss Grand Admiral entered from the service corridor behind the assembly lines, his hands folded neatly behind his back as he slowly strode down the rows of workers, his glowing eyes quickly assessing the people he passed. "My visit is not an honor," Thrawn said as he reached the front of the assembly, "but an investigation."

"Stars, he is so much worse in person," Kanan whispered between clenched teeth, his hand tightening around the Sith's shoulder as the burst of fragmented color slowly faded from his vision like ice melting away from a pane of glass.

"I know..." Kenobi said with a swooning sigh. "Isn't he magnificent?"

"Vehicles assembled in this factory malfunction at a rate much higher than that of others," Thrawn continued, stopping to stand beside Kallus as sharp eyes roved over the neat and orderly lines of suddenly uncomfortable workers. "I believe poor craftsmanship is to blame, and it has cost your Empire troops and missions. This will not be tolerated." The Chiss' sweep of the room stopped, his gaze falling upon one worker that stood near the front, shifting nervously from foot to foot. "Worker 5473," Thrawn said in his chilling monotone as he took an imposing step toward the unsettled worker. "You were pressed into the Empire's service."

"Yes sir," the worker said, a fearful tremor in his voice. "A-after losing my farm."

"Do you stand by your work?" the Admiral asked, a hard, sinister edge in his voice that made the hairs on the back of Kanan's neck stand on edge, and in front of him, he could see Kenobi's chest expand with a tensely held breath. Looking down at the ground for a long moment, the worker finally glanced up to meet Thrawn's glowing gaze.

"I do."

Nodding, Thrawn turned away from the line of workers and gestured to the assembly behind him as two Stormtroopers brought forward one of the speeder bikes and fastened it into one of the testing cradles interspaced along the aisle. "This 624 AVA is the last bike you personally assembled and inspected," Thrawn said as he turned back to the worker. "Please, demonstrate for me how quickly it can achieve full speed." The room was deathly quiet, the tension laying thick upon them, and for a long moment, the worker didn't move, didn't speak, dared not to breathe, only stared at the ground as if remaining still would turn those predatory red eyes to a new target. But it didn't, the intense gaze of the Admiral never leaving the man as he tried to look as small as possible.

"We don't have all day," Thrawn said coldly, the silence breaking with a cutting chill that swiftly turned the tension in the air into fear. Swallowing hard as he jolted back to life, the worker lifted his head up high and straightened his hunched shoulders as he walked out of the line and toward the mounted speeder. Stopping and taking a deep breath, he climbed up onto the bike, quickly ran a pre-ignition check, and powered the speeder on, the hum of the engines echoing off the high ceilings of the factory. He gingerly throttled the engines, the thrum rising in pitch as the engines revved faster with the acceleration.

They all saw it before the mount's sensors picked it up, the slight warble in the bike, the engine casing beginning to turn red as it heated up, and finally, the sensors began beeping in warning, error messages flashing across the monitors as the malfunction in the engine was detected.

"Something's wrong, it's overheating," the worker said swiftly as he quickly backed off the acceleration, the high pitched shriek of a malfunctioning engine quieting into a safe, low hum. "I have to shut it down."

"No," Thrawn said harshly, snatching the control tablet away from the Stormtrooper at his side and swiftly running his fingers over the engine controls, overriding the worker's input and accelerating the malfunctioning engine back to full speed. "The demonstration is not yet over."

The low hum of the engine quickly turned to a high pitched scream as the faulty mechanics were pushed to their limit, the body of the bike glowing red and then molten white with heat, and as the panicking worker tried to swiftly remove himself from the increasingly rickety speeder, his foot got caught on one of the struts. Panic turned to wide eyed horror as he tried and failed to yank his leg free and desperately tried to stop the machine, and over the sound of the screaming engine, they could hear the terrified cries of the worker calling for help. Nobody moved, fear keeping their feet rooted firmly in place, and the worker was silenced by a deafening, resounding roar as the speeder exploded, sending debris and shrapnel and charred, blackened flesh and blood flying through the air and scraping along the ground.

For a long moment, there was silence as the ringing in the workers' ears subsided, each of them too afraid to move, too afraid to speak or shout or object to what had just happened, lest Imperial ire be turned upon them as well. They just stood, looking on in horror at the charred, twisted remains of the sabotaged speeder and their former coworker, hands gripping their heads in disbelief or grasping on to each other for balance. Slowly, Thrawn turned away from the smouldering wreckage and turned narrow, angry glowing eyes upon the frightened workers.

"Now that I have your attention, know this," Thrawn said harshly, his voice seeming loud and imposing in the horrified silence of the room. "Whatever you build here, you will test personally. I expect your malfunction rates will drop substantially." His eyes raking once again over the assembled workers, his gaze stopped, his attention held for a moment by something at the back of the room, and finally, Thrawn turned away, inaudibly muttering something to Kallus as he strode away from the workers and disappeared out the side doorway.

"Well, I hate everything about this," Kanan grumbled as he released the breath that he had been holding and punched the Sith Lord before him on the shoulder. "You said Thrawn worked to limit casualties!"

"I said he avoided unnecessary death," Obi-Wan said absently, watching the panicked workers get snapped into tense order as Stormtroopers moved in to herd them back into their lines. "This death...this was necessary. There won't be anymore sabotage or careless work in this factory..."

"Hold them here!" Kallus snapped to the Stormtroopers. "This factory is on full lockdown. Workers, form two lines. Prepare for verification and questioning!"

"Get the feeling this is more than an effort to end the sabotage?" Kanan asked through grit teeth, his hand tightening hard around Kenobi's shoulder.

"It certainly is," Obi-Wan muttered, rising up on the balls of his feet to gaze over the heads of the workers in line at conveyors around the factory's assembly hall. "He saw something, something tipped him off...oh." He hissed out a short, angry breath, his gaze freezing on the far side of the room at a droid that was wheeling between the conveyors. "Kriffing Chopper..." Kenobi growled. "So much for anonymity, Thrawn recognized our kriffing droid!"

"You sure?" Kanan asked, looking over his shoulder and watching as Chopper cautiously rolled toward the forming lines of workers.

"Of course I'm not sure!" Kenobi snapped, turning around to hit the Jedi's shoulder and pushing him away from the scrambling workers as they hastily followed the Imperials' orders. "But what else could it be? Locking down the facility serves no purpose when murdering a man would effectively end the sabotage!"

"Don't you think he'd stick around and oversee this check personally if he thought we were here?" Kanan asked as he and the Sith Lord slowly drifted toward the end of the line.

"Maybe. Or," Kenobi said in a tight, frustrated voice, "he's giving us space so he can observe what happens. See where people go and what people do so he can unearth something bigger that's at play."

"...you think so?"

"We can't put anything past him, Kanan, not after Ryloth."

"Then we better get lost before they take a closer look at our IDs," Kanan muttered, looking over the heads of the workers at the Imperials at the front of the line and watching as Kallus spoke to another officer, took another glance at the two lines, and turned to leave the room through one of the side exits, two Stormtrooper guards following him out. "Still think it's a good idea to get Kallus out?"

"It might be our only opportunity. I don't think Thrawn will want to keep him around after we find out what he's doing here."

"Then I think I found our chance," Kanan said as he pushed Kenobi toward the back of the line, and when he was certain nobody was looking, he ducked behind one of the conveyor belts, the Sith Lord swiftly following suit. "I saw Kallus leave through there with a pair of guards," Kanan said as he pointed toward the back of the room. Staying still for a moment as he reached out to the Force, Obi-Wan swiftly looked above the conveyor when he felt the tension in the Force go slack, and swiftly dropped back down when he saw the door Kanan was talking about.

Without saying a word, only exchanging a silent nod between them, Kanan and Obi-Wan crept along the conveyors toward the door, keeping out of the Imperials' sight and ducking into the shadows when they felt the Force ripple with the presence of another being. With Imperial attention on the lines of workers as they ran their security checks, it didn't take long for the Jedi and the Sith to slink their way to their destination, their progress grinding to a swift halt when they found that the door was coded with a high security encryption that their false credentials couldn't pass, a byproduct of the factory-wide lockdown.

"Killing a man to prove a point is one thing, but locking down the factory's just rude," Obi-Wan grumbled.

"Can you open it?" Kanan asked, earning himself a dismissive scoff from the Sith Lord.

"Can I open it..." Kenobi mockingly repeated. "Of course I can open it. There isn't a door that exists that can keep me out of where I want to go. Remember, Jedi, the Force is the galaxy's greatest wedge."

"It just seems so disrespectful to call it that..." Kanan muttered, watching as the Sith Lord shook out his hands, the air growing colder even through his insulated protective gear as the Force swelled around Obi-Wan. "Don't you think forcing the door open might be a bad idea?" Kanan said through clenched teeth, looking over his shoulder and leaning over to look around a large, bulky machine at the line of workers as they slowly made their way past the Imperial checkpoint. "Without the proper codes, you might trigger an alarm system and before you know it, we could have every Imperial on Lothal coming down on us."

"We unfortunately don't have a lot of options..." Kenobi muttered, holding out his hand to the door, and Kanan looked beyond the Sith Lord as Chopper came speeding around the corner of a distant conveyor and began rolling toward them as fast as his wheels would allow. "It's a risk we have to-" With a flurry of hissed curses in ancient Sith, Obi-Wan fell to the ground as Chopper slammed into his legs, the droid letting loose with a series of admonishing warbles and waving his utility arms for emphasis. Growling in irritation as he jumped to his feet, Obi-Wan hit the cantankerous droid on the top of his flat domed head.

"Damn fool droid, are you trying to get us killed?!" Kenobi snapped, putting his foot on the droid to hold him back when Chopper took another swing at him. "Take the droid, Ahsoka said!" Kenobi drawled mockingly. "You know, this lockdown could very well be because your paint job isn't fooling anyone!" Another very rude outburst from Chopper and Kanan swiftly came between the Sith and the droid, shooting Obi-Wan a withering look when he felt the Force tighten around Chopper, and with a roll of his eyes, the Sith let the droid go.

"Do you want to get caught?" Kanan said in a hissed, harsh whisper.

"The scrap heap started it," Kenobi countered, looking around the machines to see if their minor commotion had alerted the Imperials, but the Stormtroopers appeared to be occupied with a young, rowdy worker who was causing something of a scene.

"That might be true, but you aren't helping!" Kanan growled between clenched teeth. "Chopper, can you get the door open?" Kanan asked, and the droid gave a short, indignant response, making Kenobi scoff, and hitting the Sith Lord with his utility arm as he rolled past him, the droid plugged into the console on the wall, and after a moment, the door effortlessly slid open.

"Nice work, Chop," Kanan said as he and the Sith Lord ran through the open door, and Kenobi swiftly stopped when Chopper followed them into the bright hallway beyond the assembly line.

"You can't come with us, droid," Obi-Wan said, holding out his hand when the droid began loudly protesting, and much to Kanan's surprise, Chopper fell into a sullen silence. "If there's even the slightest possibility that Thrawn recognized you, then we can't be seen with you or the whole mission's compromised. But," he swiftly interrupted when Chopper began angrily waving his utility arms around, "if you stick to someone else, you might just draw attention away from us and force the focus on the wrong target. It'll give you an opportunity to freeze the security cams around the sector as well so we don't have so many eyes on us."

For a long moment, the droid was silent, his utility arms frozen in the air as if ready at a moment's notice to begin waving them admonishingly once again. His flat domed head turning to gaze at Kanan, then Kenobi, than Kanan once again, Chopper retracted his utility arms with a resigned grumble and backed away from the Sith Lord.

"If it's safe, contact Hera," Kanan said quietly to the droid. "Let her know the facility's locked down and we're trapped inside."

"We are not trapped," Kenobi scoffed, and Kanan shot him a hard glare.

"We're trapped," Kanan said again, slower this time to drive the point home. "You think Thrawn knows something's up, and when he's on high alert, the trap's already started to close. By the time we know for sure, it might be too late." He turned his attention back to Chopper. "Got any idea where this project might be?" Gesturing with his utility arms, Chopper gave a few grinding electronic warbles. "They sectioned off sector A2, huh?"

"Sounds like a good place to start," Obi-Wan said as he peered around a corner into a hallway that branched off the main corridor. "We'll meet you there. Go do what you need to do, droid." With a few short, rude electronic mumbles, Chopper wheeled around and sped down the hallway, and without wasting a moment, the Jedi and the Sith walked together with long, quick strides down the corridor.

"We've got to ditch the safety suits, Kenobi," Kanan said as they turned down yet another hallway. "I don't think the workers are allowed to be here, we're going to start attracting attention."

"Kallus has two Stormtrooper guards," Obi-Wan said quietly. "When we take their armor, we'll trash the peasant suits."

"You're such a snob..." Kanan said with a roll of his eyes. "Kallus got a good lead on us, how are we even going to find him?"

"Really, Kanan?" Kenobi scoffed, the golden glow of his eyes visible even through the shielded face plate of the safety suit. "We have the Force. I can feel him. Can't you?"

"We might have the Force, but he doesn't!" Kanan said almost defensively. "He's one man among thousands, how are you going to pick him out from all the others?"

"By paying attention," Kenobi said as he pushed Kanan down another hallway, their brisk pace picking up when they both felt a nearby presence. "He was just in the same room as us, I got a feel for him then."

"Just like that?" Kanan asked, and the Sith Lord nodded. "You've got to teach me how to do that."

"I can," Kenobi said quietly as he pulled Kanan into another hallway, the two of them still and silent for a moment as they heard heavy, marching footsteps grow louder as they drew closer, and a pair of patrolling Stormtroopers passed by them without incident. When the footsteps grew softer again, Kanan and Obi-Wan slipped back out into the hallway, their rapid walk becoming a swift jog as they continued down their path. "The skill isn't terribly difficult," Kenobi continued. "You shouldn't have any trouble picking it up."

"...can you identify Thrawn?" Kanan asked quietly as they turned down yet another pathway, and without seeing the Sith Lord's face, he could feel the man's featured hardening into focused thoughtfulness.

"That isn't what you're asking," Kenobi finally said. "Even without looking for him, I can identify Thrawn. His presence is...unique, especially among all his human Imperials. A Force sensitive with no training could pick him out. What you're asking is if I can read him."

"I suppose so, yes," Kanan muttered, stopping when they came before a locked door, and the Sith muttered a quiet curse under his breath. "You're a mind reader," Kanan said as Kenobi stood back from the door and held his hands out before him. "The Jedi used to say you could even get inside the heads of species that are resistant to the Force. So...what about Thrawn?"

"I've broken Chiss before, Kanan," Obi-Wan said quietly, his voice distant as the Force swelled around him and the doors slowly slid open as they were forced apart, the heavy slabs of durasteel shaking as their internal mechanics attempted to resist the intrusion. "Their minds are...opaque," he said as Kanan carefully stepped through the small opening in the forced apart doorway, the facility's alarms thankfully remaining silent. "Their thoughts are neat and organized and completely unreadable, like mathematics in an unknown language. But Thrawn...he's different."

"Different how?" Kanan asked as he helped Kenobi through the opening, and once on the other side, the Sith Lord very carefully allowed the door to close.

"Emotions run like a current through the Force," Obi-Wan said as they returned to rapidly traversing the facility's hallways, the Sith Lord turning corners like a predator on the trail of its prey. "The Chiss mind may be unclear and difficult to read, but that current still runs through them. No matter how organized, no matter how rational, emotion binds their thoughts together." With a scoff, Kenobi flicked his hand dismissively before him. "Not so with Thrawn. His kinsmen's minds may be opaque, but his is entirely impenetrable. I can't see his emotions, I can't read his thoughts..."

"Just because a mind is guarded doesn't mean it's safe," Kanan muttered. "My Master told me how you found your way inside her mind, and she was a Jedi Master on the Council, she was trained to resist mental intrusion. Certainly you've given this some thought."

"I...have, yes," Kenobi mumbled, his pace slowing as his head bowed in thought. "Could I break into the fortress of Thrawn's mind? Probably, yes. There isn't a barrier that exists that won't crumble before the Dark Side. But walls that strong when destroyed cannot be repaired, not the way they were, and patchwork walls remain brittle. Thrawn's a work of art. It would be a shame to destroy him."

"Kenobi, he's trying to kill us," Kanan said in a flat, deadpan voice. "If we don't do something about-"

"There he is..." Obi-Wan drawled as they turned into a wide, bright hallway, and far down the corridor, they could see three figures walking away from them, two Stormtroopers in their pristine white armor flanking an officer in dark gray with reddish brown hair that Kanan instantly recognized as Agent Kallus. For the briefest moment, Kanan instinctively hesitated, his pace faltering as he fought the urge to dive back into the hallway they came from. In that brief moment, Kanan watched as Kenobi tore off his shielded safety hood and broke into a full sprint toward the Imperials, Sith recklessness in stark contrast to Jedi caution.

Cursing under his breath, Kanan ran after the Sith Lord, his long stride not quite able to catch Kenobi's determined faster sprint, the sound of rapid footfalls echoing through the hallway alerting the Imperials to their presence and making the Stormtroopers swiftly turn around, their blasters raised at the two men swiftly running toward them. Before they had a chance to aim and fire at their assailants, the two Stormtroopers were lifted into the air, their blasters clattering to the ground as they reached up to futilely claw at the invisible hands tightening around their throats.

Quickly backing away from the immobilized soldiers and the man he instantly recognized as the Shadow King, Kallus raised his own blaster and fired two rapid shots at the Sith Lord only for the air to fill with a snapping hiss and a flash of blue light. Kenobi's Jedi companion had finally caught up to him, the man jumping between the Sith Lord and the Imperial, his lightsaber spinning in his hand as he effortlessly deflected the bolts away. Before Kallus could get off another round of fire, the Shadow King brought up his other hand, and the blaster was torn from Kallus' grasp as he felt his legs kicked out from under him, a cold grasp closing around his neck as he fell hard to his knees.

Clutching at his throat as he tried in vain to free himself, Kallus looked up through blurry eyes as the two men approached him, the bright blue of the lightsaber disappearing as the Jedi shut off his weapon and collected the fallen blasters. A weak, strangled gurgle slipped past his lips as the Shadow King crouched down, his hand held in a loose fist as he looked at Kallus with golden, glowing eyes that almost seemed to churn and shift like a molten sea.

"Alexsandr Kallus..." Kenobi said quietly as he slid the code cylinder out of the Imperial's breast pocket and handed it to Kanan. "Fulcrum sent us to retrieve you. Thrawn knows what you are."

"Not a conversation to have out in the open, Kenobi," Kanan said as he tore off his safety hood and jammed the code cylinder into a slot in the wall, the closed door beside it sliding open without protest. "Drag them in here and we'll regroup."

A slow, devious smirk spread across the Sith Lord's face as he watched Kallus' eyes widen, his emotions flashing with disbelief and fear and confusion, and rapidly closing his fist, the Stormtroopers suspended in the air thrashed violently for a moment before they went limp and still, the grim visage of two men that had been hung. With a flick of his wrist, the two solders were unceremoniously flung into the room Kanan had opened, and rising to his feet, Kenobi sauntered into the room after Kanan, the Force dragging Kallus along the floor after him.

As soon as the door sealed shut, Kanan set to taking the armor off the bodies of the Stormtroopers, and looking around the small storage room, Kenobi released his grasp on Kallus, the man coughing as he pushed himself off the ground to his knees.

"Thrawn can't know about me," Kallus rasped, rubbing his neck as he watched the Sith Lord step out of his safety suit and smooth down the fine black shirt he wore, and despite the intensity of the golden eyes that fell upon him, Kallus held his gaze. "If he did, he wouldn't have let me live."

"That's exactly what he would have done," Kenobi said in a soft, menacing voice. "There isn't a tool more useful than an inside man, and Thrawn's been using you for a long time."

For a moment, Kallus was silent, his mouth pressed in a thin line as he raked his mind for any sign that Thrawn had known, any hint that could have tipped him off, his gaze drifting to watch as Kanan swiftly began snapping on the white armor he had pulled off the Stormtroopers. With a soft hiss, his eyes widened in understanding, he looked up to meet the Sith Lord's gaze, hot and molten and terrifying, but Kallus didn't feel afraid.

"You think Thrawn's been making sure I get the information he wants you to have," Kallus said slowly, the dawning realization making his voice tremble slightly.

"We know he has," Kenobi said flatly. "Several missions based on information you've passed to us have been intercepted by Imperial forces, and it's cost us valuable lives and resources. Some have been successful, but they've been small, negligible victories that have done nothing but allow Thrawn to track our assets."

"Shit," Kallus hissed, his teeth grinding together as he looked away from the Sith Lord and rose to stand on his still shaking legs. "For how long?"

"We aren't certain, but if I had to guess, and I do," Kenobi said as he jabbed his finger against the durasteel breastplate the ISB agent wore, "then I'd guess he puzzled it together when you aided in the release of Sabine Wren at Skystrike Academy. Maybe before that."

"That's been months!" Kallus said in disbelief, and with a mocking smirk, Obi-Wan pat the man's cheek.

"Yes..." the Sith Lord drawled. "And you've never been more useful to the Empire."

"It can't...I framed someone else!" Kallus said indignantly. "I used his code cylinders, I covered my tracks...stars, they arrested him!"

"You really believed you pulled one over on Thrawn?" Kanan asked as he stepped up to Kenobi's side, the Stormtrooper armor covering his body and the helmet tucked under his arm. "You must not know him very well." He pressed a white armored breastplate against Kenobi's chest. "Put this on quick, we need to move."

"It's not going to be quick, Kanan," Obi-Wan said as he held up a shaking hand, and Kanan scoffed as he smacked the Sith Lord's hand out of the way.

"You have the Force, don't you?" Kanan mocked. "Use it."

With a roll of his eyes, Kenobi stepped away from Kallus, a flick of his wrist making the pile of his armor rise into the air, the individual pieces floating and spinning as they rearranged into perfect order, a disjointed, empty shell of a man floating in the air that slowly opened to allow the Sith Lord to step between the floating pieces. Quickly, the white armor snapped to Kenobi's torso and limbs, the straps and buckles snapping and tightening and adjusting to fit his body.

"The factory's on lockdown," Kanan said to Kallus, snapping the ISB agent out of staring transfixed at the Sith Lord and his floating armor. "Can you get us out of here?"

"I...y-yes," Kallus stammered, absently touching the his breast pockets where his code cylinders were kept, his heart jumping when he found them to be missing, and he breathed a heavy sigh of relief when he saw them in the Jedi's hand. He had forgotten the Sith Lord had taken them from him. "I have a high level security clearance that can bypass the lockdown." He paused, his brow drawing together. "Unless Thrawn's restricted my access..."

"What are the chances of that?" Kanan asked, and Kallus was silent for a moment as he thought, then slowly shook his head.

"I don't know," Kallus muttered. "I was able to get out of the production line, so I don't think he's suspended my clearance."

"That'll change by the end of the day," Kenobi said almost flippantly as he rejoined the pair, the last of the armor strapping to his body. "As if the saboteurs weren't enough, we think it's possible that Thrawn saw our droid. He might know the Phoenix rebels are here."

"Don't you think that if he suspected rebel activity, he would have suspended my codes?" Kallus asked.

"Not if he didn't want to tip you off," Obi-Wan scoffed. "Five minutes ago, you didn't know Thrawn was on to you, and it's easy to keep an eye on people when they don't know they're being watched..."

"The lockdown is overkill," Kanan said quietly. "Giving you the illusion of safety would make it easier for him to root out the rebels trapped by his lockdown. He'd just need to watch you."

"Then we need to get out of here. Now," Kallus said as he turned toward the door. "If we leave quickly, we might be able to get out before Thrawn traps us in here."

"Not so fast..." Kenobi drawled smoothly, his hand turning a slow circle in the air as he stirred the Force to turn Kallus back around to face him. "You aren't the only reason we're here, Kallus..."

He stared at them for a long while, his gaze drifting between the silent, somber Jedi and the devious, arrogant Sith Lord, the Imperial's jaw slack as he tried to understand how truly mad the two rebels were.

"You're here for Thrawn's project?" Kallus tentatively asked, a short, scoffing laugh falling from his lips when both rebels nodded. "You're insane. You can't even get into the sector without his personal codes, and even I don't have those!"

"Can you take us to the sector?" Kenobi asked quietly, and a disbelieving scowl marred his face.

"If Thrawn's been alerted to rebels here in the facility, you aren't going to be able to even get close!" Kallus said firmly. "It was improbable before, but it's impossible now!"

"Just the odds we like," Kenobi said nonchalantly. "Can you take us to the sector?"

"It's suicide!" Kallus said loudly, as if that would help the pair understand. "He's been so secretive about the project, even I don't know what's going on in there!"

"Because he knows you're a Fulcrum agent," Kanan said flatly.

"Not because of that!" Kallus snapped, wincing when he realized what he was very loudly admitting to. "Not just because of that," he began again, calmer this time. "The project is classified under the highest level of military security. Access to that information is only available to those at the very top of the chain of command, and the only people that Thrawn's giving clearance codes to are those that are directly involved in the project's development."

"Can you take us to the sector?" Kenobi asked again, his voice quiet and calm, and Kallus just looked at him in confused silence. "It's a big secret, we get it," the Sith said with a roll of his eyes. "So whatever it is he's got going on in there is important, and closely guarded secrets usually spell bad news for us. If we're going to have a hope of defeating Thrawn, we need to know what he's doing in there, and this is the only shot we have."

"You don't even have that shot anymore!" Kallus said between clenched teeth, his shoulders tightening with nervous tension. "If he knows you're here, that opportunity is gone!"

"If," Obi-Wan said pointedly. "And even if he does know, we need to try anyway. This mission is too important to abandon. This thing is bigger than ourselves, so I'll ask you again," he said, drawing closer to the ISB agent. "Can you take us to the sector?"

"I...can," Kallus said hesitantly. "But I can't get you in."

"You just leave that to me," Kenobi said, sliding the Stormtrooper helmet on his head, Kanan beside him doing the same, and he gestured to the door with the blaster rifle in his hand. "Lead the way, Agent Kallus."

There was a brief, fleeting moment when Kallus thought to argue, the defiant retort in his throat catching on resignation as he looked at the fierce commitment of the rebels sent to save him, knowing full well that it was likely none of them would come out of this. Perhaps they didn't expect to. Perhaps they intended to send the information out to their people, and their own escape wasn't a part of the mission's success. Kallus didn't know, but he did know that they were right about how important this information was, that Thrawn's project likely spelled the end for them, and knowledge of what was to come would be the difference between life and death.

That alone, perhaps, was worth it.

With a heavy sigh, Kallus nodded, inserted his code cylinder into the lock, and walked out into the bright, starkly lit hallway, the two rebel Stormtroopers close behind flanking him, just as his original, Imperial guard had done. They made their way quickly through the winding corridors and open rooms filled with Stormtroopers and nervous workers lined up for inspection, not a single soldier or officer sparing them a second glance as they went about their duties, save for the few that recognized Kallus and quickly saluted.

He knew the way to sector A2 all too well, including the entrance to the secretive area in his patrols on the off chance that he could happen upon a way to learn what was going on inside. He was never questioned, since the secrecy of the sector was widely known and restricted areas had increased security, though he suspected that he never found anything out because Thrawn had been very cautiously watching him. Now, he couldn't help but wonder how many others knew he was a traitor, making him look at each officer and each stationed guard with new, suspicious eyes, though from what he knew of Thrawn, it seemed more likely that the clever Chiss would have kept those cards very close to his chest to avoid the risk of someone else playing his cards at an inopportune time.

It was a long way to sector A2, though they made their way there quickly, Kallus guiding them on the most direct path there, though the path itself seemed winding and unfocused, the result of each and every hall looking exactly like the other. They only stopped their brisk, purposeful march through the factory when they came to an elevator at the end of the wide, seemingly infinitely long central corridor, the harsh lighting making the stark white walls blindingly bright. So bright that Kanan squeezed his eyes tightly shut when bursts of color began to swirl within his vision, a myriad of neat and orderly trails forming out of the usually chaotic pallet, as if a swift and practiced hand had quickly sorted a mess of colorful spilled beads.

Under normal circumstances, Kanan might have been satisfied that the disorder of his random and unpredictable plunges into the chaos of an infinite spectrum was beginning to take reasonable shape, the disorienting upheaval becoming more rooted in what he knew and understood and far less likely to make his stomach turn. But here, now, the order and the unnatural stillness of the usually turbulent sea of colors made him uneasy, the thought that he was simply growing used to these episodes quickly banished with the wrongness he felt deep in his chest. Around him, the streams of color funneled into strict, coordinated lines seemed to quiver and strain beneath the oppression that held them in place, and Kanan found himself longing for the wild chaos of free life that the spectrum of the Force thrived in.

After a short wait, the elevator doors sild open, four Stormtroopers stepping out of the elevator and swiftly saluting Kallus before they marched down the corridor, continuing on their patrol without another glance back. Stepping into the elevator, the doors slowly closed, and Kallus let out a relieved breath he hadn't realized he was holding.

"If you act tense and nervous, you'll draw attention to yourself," Kenobi said quietly, and Kallus gave the Stormtrooper at his side a wry glance.

"Fortunately for all of us, being uptight is commonplace for Imperial officers around here," Kallus said dryly, and Kanan scoffed beside him.

"What, can't become an officer unless you've got something shoved way up your ass?" Kanan drawled. "No wonder you guys are so humorless."

"No..." Kallus growled between clenched teeth. "It isn't always like this. Thrawn makes a lot of people here very nervous. The worker he murdered this morning isn't the only person he's disposed of since he got here. He's sent some very high ranking people packing back to Coruscant because they haven't been preforming to his standards."

"That's my Admiral, getting the job done right," Kenobi said with a heavy, almost swooning sigh. "You're doing great, sweetie!"

"You do realize he's our enemy, right Kenobi?" Kanan said dryly. "When he's doing well, it's bad for us."

"Of course I know that!" Obi-Wan said, the haughtiness in his voice heard even through his helmet's vocal modulator. "What I meant was, boo! How could you hurt my feelings like this, Thrawn! You know how much it turns me on when you act this way!"

"Do you...do you even know what you're saying?" Kallus asked as he stared in disbelief at the Stormtrooper beside him, who simply shrugged and shifted his weight to cock his hip in a manner that could only be considered flirtatious.

"I'm having some very confusing emotions," Kenobi said flippantly. "Our relationship is very complicated, Thrawn and I have a lot to sort out after I seduce him."

"Aren't you supposed to be the Shadow King?" Kallus gawked, real confusion on his face as he looked at the man that had kept the Imperials scrambling for balance in his wake for as long as he could remember. He had expected someone intimidating and regal, someone worthy of the moniker given to him. But what he faced now had less the attitude of the fearsome, dangerous terrorist that had taken Lothal's capital city on that dark and bloody day and more of a flippant nuisance, more an inconvenience than a threat.

If they weren't standing in the heart of Thrawn's power on Lothal, Kallus would have believed him to simply be that, a less impressive reality than his legend had become. But there was more there, much, much more. He could feel it.

"You do know why they call him the Shadow King, don't you?" Kanan said behind him, and Kallus quickly looked back at the much taller Jedi, his face hidden by the expressionless helmet, though he could hear tired annoyance in his voice, the tone of a parent at the end of his wits with an unruly child. "They call him that," Kanan said slowly, tapping the side of his helmet, "because he's not very bright."

"Kanan, dear, you know I'm sensitive about that!" Obi-Wan said, mock offence in his voice as he laid his hand over his chest. "Keep talking and you might drive Fulcrum here back into the arms of the Empire!"

"I wouldn't blame him," came Kanan's dry reply. "Nobody in their right mind willingly associates with you."

Even beneath the armor, Kallus could see Kenobi's chest swell with pride, the man answering Kanan with only smug silence. In the next moment, Kallus felt the elevator slow, the two rebels at his side already stiff and at silent attention, slipping back into their roles much faster than Kallus was able to. When the doors finally slid open, the three of them stepped outside, their even march in perfect step, Kallus' emotions once again under his control and his face a hard, stern mask, though his collar felt tighter than usual, the knowledge that Thrawn was aware of his treason keeping his heart beating almost painfully fast.

They arrived at the guarded entrance to Sector A2 quickly, the halls they traversed silent and empty, save for the occasional droid that passed them by without acknowledgment. Standing guard before the otherwise innocuous door were two Death Troopers, the menacing visage of their black armor in stark contrast to the white walls that surrounded them. Unlike the Stormtrooper officers that usually guarded this sector, the Death Troopers didn't acknowledge Kallus as he approached, didn't speak to each other to fill the silence of the long, uneventful post.

As they drew closer and closer to the Death Troopers, intimidation and unease made Kallus' pace falter and slow, though the two men at his side did not follow suit, the two rebels actually moving faster as they swiftly passed Kallus. The Death Troopers finally moved to raise their weapons, a sharp bark of a jumbled, coded warning coming through the heavily modulated speakers of their helmets, and they suddenly jolted, their bodies jerking unnaturally as their weapons fell from limp fingers onto the floor, their limbs jerking erratically as if they were being pulled by two opposing forces.

"You got them, Kenobi?" Kanan asked, his pace slowing to a cautious walk when the Sith Lord stopped, his shaking hand extended before him.

"I've got them..." Kenobi said quietly, his voice tight and strained as he slowly inched closer toward the two men caught in his grasp. "Death Troopers...I kriffing hate Death Troopers..."

"You can't kill them, Kenobi," Kanan hissed when the two med dropped to their knees, their hands clawing at their helmets as their shoulders heaved. "I don't see anywhere to put them, and if we just leave bodies laying around, we're going to attract attention."

"If I was going to kill them, Kanan, they'd already be dead," Obi-Wan growled between tightly clenched teeth. "But they are strong willed, as all Death Troopers are, it makes controlling them difficult."

"Weird," Kanan said flippantly. "I thought you said you could control anybody."

"I can," Obi-Wan huffed. "But these things take time, dear. Break them too quickly and they'll be of no use to us. A vegetable may as well be a dead man."

"We don't have time," Kallus said in a hushed, irritated whisper, looking swiftly over his shoulder to be certain they were alone in the long, exposed hallway, his heart dropping when he looked up at the security camera above the door. "They probably already know we're here!"

"We're dealing with Thrawn, of course he knows we're here..." Kenobi muttered as he drew closer to the Death Troopers, their ragged breath becoming slow and even as their shoulders sagged. "With any luck, Chopper found a way to freeze those security systems."

"There's no luck involved in that, disabling security is what Chop's best at," Kanan said, hanging back with the tense and nervous Kallus as Kenobi stood before the Death Troopers, the slightest wave of his hand making the two soldiers grab their fallen blasters and slowly rise to their feet. "Are they under your control?" Kanan asked tentatively, gesturing to the Death Troopers.

"Yes..." the Sith Lord said quietly. "For now."

"How long do we have?" Kallus asked.

"That's the wrong question," Kanan swiftly said. "It isn't a matter of how long, but how far. How close to you do they have to be before your hold on them slips, Kenobi?"

"Not far, unfortunately," Obi-Wan whispered, shaking out his hand and laying it over one of the Death Trooper's face plates. "Though I don't think it will matter much. What I'm doing to them will weaken their memory and leave them disoriented. I don't think they'll even remember we were here." He quickly looked over his shoulder when he heard the faint screech of rolling wheels, and a moment later, Chopper turned into the hallway, the droid's utility arms waving as he raced toward them. When he stopped at Kanan's side, he very forcefully struck the Jedi on the leg, irately spatting the difficulties he had in his infiltration of the compound.

"Nobody said this mission would be easy!" Kanan said defensively as he bat away one of the droid's utility arms. "Did you freeze the security systems?" The droid gave a short, offended warbles as he once again struck the Jedi. "Alright, alright, I'm sorry for asking!" Kanan said with a roll of his eyes. "Cams are frozen, Kenobi."

"It would seem that things are going our way," the Sith Lord said, patting the Death Trooper on the side of his helmet as he tapped his fingers upon the key pad at the door. "This one here knows Thrawn's code." With a swift chime, the key pad flashed green and the door slid open, and Kenobi quickly waved the others inside, keeping the door open for them and following after grumpy Chopper rolled inside.

It was dark inside sector A2, a far cry from the bright and starkly lit halls of the rest of the complex, the majority of the lighting coming from the glow of consoles and workstations, casting the rooms in eerie blue and green and purple light. For as big as the rest of the factory was, sector A2 seemed fairly small, a collection of desks and workstations surrounding a circular central room, more a research laboratory than a production plant like they were expecting.

"I thought they were building something here..." Kanan muttered. "Sabine said he had some secret project here. I assumed they were building a weapon or something, but it looks like all they have going on here is some serious paperwork done by sulky accountants."

"I'll admit, it's not what I expected..." Obi-Wan said, his gaze running over the many displays on the desk, hoping to find something useful but discovering nothing.

"There's got to be more than just this, it wouldn't be called a sector if it was just a room," Kanan said, tapping Chopper on his flat domed head and swiftly pulling his hand out of the way when the droid took a swing at him. "Chop, did you manage to download a schematic of this place?" A few irritated grumbles from the droid, and Kanan sighed. "This place is big, Kenobi, but Chop says a detailed schematic doesn't exist. If we look around, we might be able to find our way to the rest of it."

"I don't know that we have the time for that," Obi-Wan said quietly as he pulled off the Stormtrooper helmet to have a better look at his surroundings, his unsettling eyes glowing brightly in the dim lights. "This looks like the central information hub. We might be able to find what we're looking for here."

"Sounds like a job for you, Chop," Kanan said, and with an affirmative grunt, the droid followed Kenobi into the circular central room and quickly plugged himself into the large holotable in the middle. For a while, nothing happened as Chopper worked to get into the system, and the Sith Lord slowly walked around the central command room, examining each monitor at the numerous workstations. Most of the monitors and displays were locked or switched off, but a few displayed a confusing array of numbers and equations, mathematics and symbols that Kenobi hadn't even seen before, let alone understood.

He felt Kanan walk up beside him, the Jedi reaching out to pick up one of the many scraps of loose paper on the messy desk, and Obi-Wan looked over his shoulder, quickly surveying the room to see Chopper still working at getting into the system and Kallus standing guard at the entrance to the room, his back straight and his shoulders tense. Returning his attention to the Jedi, Obi-Wan found Kanan's helmet off and tucked beneath his arm, a frown upon his face as he looked over the documents in his hand.

"This could be anything," Kanan muttered, flipping one sheet of paper over and laying it back upon the desk as he looked at the next one. "Do you have any idea what this is?" he asked, handing the page to the Sith Lord.

"I'm not a physicist, Kanan," Obi-Wan said with a roll of his eyes. "They're using symbols here that I haven't even seen. But this," he said, tapping his finger on the middle of the page. "This is an equation for energy conversion."

"Which tells us nothing at all," Kanan scoffed. "Everything uses energy conversion in some form, this could be for a blaster, or for shields, or for power generators, or something entirely unrelated."

"With any luck, Chopper can get inside the system and tell us what we need to know," Kenobi said quietly, and as if on cue, Chopper gave a low, worried grumble, and in a flicker of blue light, the holotable switched on, the Imperial insignia displayed in the field before Chopper cleared it away and accessed the files.

"Your droid got in?" Kallus asked, turning away from his post by the door and joining the other two men around the holotable, his eyes scanning the information that quickly flashed by as Chopper searched for the relevant files. "This is under the highest level of security, how did he do that?"

"Kenobi has Thrawn's personal codes," Kanan said smugly as he pat the droid on the head. "And for the rest of the Imperial codes..." He shrugged. "Chopper's very good."

"Ahsoka did say it was a good idea to bring him," Kenobi said almost absently as he scanned the swiftly moving data, and with a sharp gasp, he slammed his hand on the table. "Wait, stop!" the Sith Lord said sharply, and the data crawl stopped on the schematic of one of the many speeders assembled in the factory, Chopper grousing at the man and shaking his utility arm at him for the interruption. "Not this, droid, go back!" Obi-Wan snapped again, earning himself some more rude explicatives from Chopper before he began going back through the previous data pages.

The field flashed with each new page of information, some long blocks of text, some hastily scribbled lines of equations, some neat and orderly schematics of speeders and blasters and ships and Walkers, a varied array of equipment and munitions in the vast Imperial arsenal within the catalogue. It didn't take long before the Sith Lord demanded that Chopper stop once again, and from the tightening in his chest and the chill that ran up his spine, Kanan knew they had found what they were looking for. A quick glance at Kenobi and Kallus and he knew that they felt the same thing.

"What is it?" Kanan tentatively asked after a short, tense moment of silence, and beside him, Kallus took a short quick breath, as if he had only just remembered that he needed to breathe.

"It's a new type of TIE Fighter," Kallus muttered, frowning as he looked closer at the blueprint, the original TIE's characteristic spherical cockpit surrounded by three angular wings.

"No..." Kenobi said quietly as he slipped a datacard into a reader to download information. "This ship is the end of the rebellion. Sith Hells, look at it!" he hissed, pointing to the datacrawls beside the blueprint and expanding the information. "The speed and maneuverability of a TIE Fighter, but this one's equipt with shields and a hyperdrive."

"That...isn't possible," Kallus whispered, his eyes swiftly running over the data. "The TIEs are as fast as they are because they don't have all those extra systems weighing them down. It can't be as fast with all those extras."

"Let's suppose for a moment that it is," Kanan said quickly. "A ship like this is more dangerous than anything we've faced before. If they're actually building these in numbers, Kenobi's right. Our pilots won't stand a chance. This could end the rebellion." Kanan stopped, looked over the data once again, and turned his attention to the pensive Sith Lord beside him. "Do you think this ship's still just a pretty theoretical on a page, or do you think Thrawn's actually gone and built one?"

"We know he has..." Kenobi absently mumbled, the hand stroking his beard visibly trembling. "This data doesn't come from an equation, Kanan, it comes from a test run."

"It comes from multiple test runs," Kallus said tightly as he pointed to the column of relative data. "See here? This coding denotes the date it was recorded, the overseeing officer, and that it was the fourth trial in the series." A hollow, humorless laugh slipped past the ISB Agent's lips as he braced himself on the holotable, his gaze unmoving from the block of data. "I've been here for over a month, I knew Thrawn had something planned...how could I have missed this?"

"A very good question with some troubling implications," Obi-Wan said quietly. "If he could keep several test runs of a very distinctive ship top secret like he has, I wonder what else he's got hiding. Droid, see if you can't find how many of these ships he's made."

With a swift, affirmative grumble, Chopper set to work, for once without a word of complaint, his utility arm twisting in the holotable's dataport as he searched through the information. The search only lasted for a second before the power surged, the holotable's field flickering off and the room plunged into darkness as electricity ran through the dataport and into the screaming droid, the frantic Chopper trying in vain to disengage from the port. Cursing under his breath, Kenobi swiftly pulled his datacard out of the reader and backed away from the electrified table while Kanan swiftly moved in toward the smoking droid, using the Force to try and carefully pry Chopper away from the table.

Before Kanan managed to get the droid disengaged, the surge was over, leaving them in a room lit only by the eerie red glow of the emergency lights.

"What happened?" Kanan asked as he knelt beside the droid, his hand upon the overheated dome. "Did we trip a security measure?"

"A lot of our highly classified data is coded to purge entire systems if the security network detects tampering," Kallus said in a hushed, nervous whisper. "If we're lucky, that's all this is."

"And if we aren't?" Kanan asked grimly, and was answered when Chopper jolted to life, his head slowly turning as his internal processors churned, the utility arm in the socket slowly turning. The immediate wash of relief Kanan felt to see Hera's droid unharmed quickly turned to cold, icy dread as durasteel shields fell from the ceiling and rose from the floor and met with a hard, metallic clang as magnetic locking mechanisms snapped into place, sealing them all inside the circular control room.

"I think," Obi-Wan said quietly as his lightsaber flew into his hand, "that we've overstayed our welcome."

"Chopper, get us out of here!" Kanan snapped as he snatched his own lightsaber from his belt, and instead of a barrage of rude explicatives like he had been expecting, Kanan was met with silence from the usually mouthy droid. The nagging scratch at the back of his mind exploded into sharp, painful warning, and Kanan swiftly turned to face Chopper, the droid's visual receptor aimed right at the Jedi and the utility arm turning slowly in the socket, and Kanan had the cold, sinking feeling that engaging the security systems was no accident.

"Chopper?" Kanan asked weakly through a growing lump in his throat, his hand tightening as he grabbed hold of the Force and pulled the droid away from the holotable, the utility arm disconnecting. "Come on, Chop, come back to us."

"Kanan," Kenobi said in a flat, emotionless voice, and the Jedi quickly reeled on the Sith Lord, his chest tightening with the grief of possibly having lost Hera's beloved companion.

"No, don't you dare say it, Kenobi!" Kanan snapped, and without warning, he was pulled off his feet by a cold sweep of the Force, landing hard at the ground by the Sith's feet. Glaring up at Kenobi and ready with a swift, angry retort, the words caught in his throat when he saw that Obi-Wan wasn't even looking at him, his gaze fixed upon the holotable as the holofield flickered to life, an all too familiar face staring back at them through vibrant red eyes, not just an image but a live projection.

Kanan swiftly jumped to his feet, his heart racing with fear and the edges of his vision beginning to bleed with slowly creeping colors. It was one thing to see an image of the Empire's Grand Admiral. It was another thing entirely to look into the face of the man that would destroy them.

"Shadow King," Thrawn finally said after a tense silence. "What an unexpected surprise..."

"Just for you, darling, I know how you love surprises..." Kenobi drawled, taking step closer toward the holotable and folding his hands behind his back. "Sorry I took so long. Are you pleased to see me?"

"I am," Thrawn said quietly, a smooth satisfaction in his otherwise monotone voice. "This plan was far too bold to be devised by your Phoenix Squadron. I suspected you must have had a hand in it, but I did not expect you to come yourself." The faintest smirk touched Thrawn's lips as he stared at the Sith Lord. "You have, perhaps, overplayed your hand."

"You think so?" Kenobi said flippantly, waving his hand in a careless, dismissive gesture. "While I'd love to chat about this, dearest, I'm afraid I can't stay. Something else came up, I'm going to have to postpone our date."

"You know I cannot allow you to leave," Thrawn said, his features hardening as he stared intently at the Sith Lord.

"Fortunately, I don't need your permission," Kenobi said, his voice just as hard as the Admiral's. "We can see ourselves out."

"I very much doubt that," Thrawn said in a soft, menacing voice, his gaze flicking away from the Sith Lord to look at the still and silent Chopper. "Your Fulcrum agent's codes have been revoked, and I believe you will find that your droid," he said, gesturing to Chopper, "is now my droid." His glowing red eyes returned to the Sith Lord. "Your options of escape have been severely limited."

"You son of a bitch!" Kanan snarled, his hand tightening into a fist as the heat of anger and grief made the colors fade from the Jedi's vision as reality snapped back into focus. Hera had lost too much already to this cursed Imperial. First her kalikori, then her Father, and now the droid she had loved since childhood. That was bad enough, but Chopper was a valuable member of their crew, and now, he was being made to serve the Empire he hated, a fate even worse than if the poor droid's electronics had been hopelessly fried.

Kanan didn't know how he was going to tell Hera.

"I understand that this droid holds great importance to Captain Syndulla," Thrawn said in a tone that almost sounded apologetic as his attention turned toward the Jedi, his hand raising to lay over his chest. "The significance is not lost on me." His gaze returned to the Sith Lord, and he seemed to stand taller, his back straightening as he once again folded his hands behind his back. "I shall be seeing you very soon, Obi-Wan Kenobi."

"Yes, you will," the Sith Lord quietly agreed, his hand raising up before him and the veins beneath his skin beginning to glow bright blue. "But not so soon as you believe." With a flash of blinding blue and the sharp crackle of electricity, lightning shot from the Sith Lord's fingers and struck the holotable, the circuits shorting out and sparking as they were hopelessly destroyed, plunging the room once again into the eerie red glow of emergency lighting and the occasional spark of light as exposed, damaged wires shorted out. The red glow intensified with a snapping hiss as the Sith Lord ignited his lightsaber, the thrumming blade in his unsteady hand pointing at Chopper.

"Kenobi, wait!" Kanan said quickly as he stepped between the Sith Lord and the droid. "What are you doing?!"

"I'm doing what must be done," Obi-Wan said quietly.

"You can't!" Kanan said desperately, swallowing hard as he looked over his shoulder at the droid. "Chopper is-"

"Chopper is gone, Kanan," Kenobi said flatly. "That's Thrawn's droid now, and there's all kinds of information in there we don't want him to have."

"We purge Chopper of all his navigational data every time we come back from a mission!" Kanan said frantically, holding his hand up and retreating as the Sith Lord took a step closer. "We didn't use him for any navigation at all on this mission so there's nothing to see! Thrawn can't find our base, not with the data Chopper currently has stored, and anything in there about us Thrawn already has!"

"We don't have time for this!" Kallus snapped, readying his blaster and pacing back and forth before the tightly sealed shielding on the door. "We need to get out of here, now, before we're completely swarmed!"

"Kenobi, please..." Kanan said quietly, ignoring the nearly panicking ISB Agent. "Hera's lost too much already."

"We can't take Chopper with us, Kanan."

"I know..." the Jedi sighed, his shoulder slumping with the weight of resignation upon him. "I know. But you want to recruit Thrawn, yeah? When you do, or when you defeat him, or whatever, maybe there's a chance we can bring Chopper home."

For just a moment, Kenobi was silent, his gaze flicking between Kanan and the droid, and readjusting his grip on his lightsaber, he turned around and drove the plasma blade into the secured shielding that encased them inside the command room, the durasteel superheating to molten white as it touched the hissing blade.

"My plan," Kenobi said through clenched teeth, "is to cut through every wall in our way until we reach outside."

"That's a terrible plan!" Kallus snapped as Kanan ran to the Sith Lord's side, muttering a soft word of gratitude as he ignited his own blade and drove it into the wall to help cut the opening, his cut smooth and perfectly rounded while Kenobi's cut was jagged and uneven, the result of his unsteady hand despite his best efforts to keep his arm steady.

"Eh, when that fails, we'll improvise," Obi-Wan said with a shrug.

"You are aware that Thrawn's sent people deal with us, aren't you?" Kallus said in a voice that was strained with irritation and fear, though he drew back when Kenobi glanced back at him with a wide, manic grin on his face.

"Ah, and therein lies our advantage!" Obi-Wan said triumphantly, his blade touching Kanan's with a crackling hiss as they completed the cut, and with an outstretched hand, he pushed hard with the Force, sending the cut out piece of durasteel flying into the other room to a chorus of clanging metal and heavy wet thuds and cracking armor and frantic shouting. Before any of the Stormtroopers in the room beyond had the chance to regroup and begin their suppressing fire into the central, quarantined room, lightning sprang from the Sith Lord's fingers, the electricity running along the metal walls and shorting out the consoles around the room as the soldiers were thrown into chaos, some scattering and taking cover, others caught up in the lightning storm and electrocuted.

As Kenobi kept up the pressure on the Stormtroopers, the Dark Side growing stronger and stronger with each life he claimed, Kanan gave Chopper one last look before he slipped out behind the Sith Lord and ran to the far wall, his second lightsaber called to his hand and igniting in a flash of green. With Kallus falling in close behind him, Kenobi's discarded Stormtrooper helmet upon his head and his blaster raised to cover him, Kanan stabbed his sabers into the wall and swiftly began cutting the next hole for them to escape through and quietly hoping that where they ended up would not be a worse place than where they were now.

It didn't take long for Kanan to finish cutting a way out of the room, the discarded piece of wall falling with a hard clang into a narrow, dark hallway, and he and Kallus swiftly stepped through, their weapons raised and facing down opposite sides of the corridor so that they could deal with any possible threats. But they were the only ones in that desolate, empty hallway, the entire place feeling abandoned and forgotten, the only light coming from the blue and green glow of Kanan's lightsabers and the bright flashes from the lightning in the other room.

Sticking his head into the other room, Kanan called for Kenobi, but the Sith Lord did not immediately join them, instead stayed where he was and continued to use the Force to pull Stormtroopers out from behind their cover and into the deadly currents of lightning that arched around the room. Only when he was certain that the last of the Imperials was dead did he turn away and follow Kanan into the hallway, a quick pull of the Force tearing the console stations up from the ground and slamming them against the wall to barricade and conceal their exit, plunging the narrow hall into darkness lit only by Kanan's lightsabers.

"Our advantage," Kenobi said quietly, picking up the conversation he had abandoned earlier, "is that Thrawn didn't know I was here."

"I don't see how that matters," Kallus grumbled as he followed the two Force sensitives down the hall. "In all my time with him, not once has Thrawn seemed concerned about engaging with you. He knows how to beat you."

"Maybe so, but that isn't the point. I was unexpected, he said so himself, and we saw that to be true in the troops he sent to deal with us. Stormtroopers, ill-equipt to deal with my particular skill set." The Sith Lord looked back at Kallus, the glow of his golden eyes faintly illuminating the cruel, devious smirk upon his lips. "Thrawn's going to have to change tactics, and that gives us time to slip out before his next trap is set. We're a step ahead of that brilliant, beautiful boy and I aim to keep it that way."

"Thrawn isn't an idiot Kenobi," Kanan said with a roll of his eyes. "He's got the entire Imperial compound at his disposal, and he's going to use every resource he has. We can't stay a step ahead of his trap if he sets his trap ahead of us."

"He has no reason to chase us, and he won't," Kallus quietly added. "To escape, all of our paths lead directly to him."

"Well, aren't you two a couple rays of sunshine!" Obi-Wan sneered. "We'll cross that bridge when we get there, alright? The best thing we can do now is keep Thrawn on his toes by remaining unpredictable."

"Can we even do that?" Kanan asked. "He knows you pretty well."

"I've still got a few tricks up my sleeve..." Obi-Wan muttered, stopping and putting his hand upon the wall, still and silent for a moment as he felt the flow of the Force. "But I suppose we'll find out, hmm? If Thrawn captures us, we'll know he could predict our movements perfectly."

"Well, at least we have that," Kanan grumbled as the Sith Lord ignited his saber and pressed it into the wall, the Jedi quickly following suit and aiding him in cutting their newest path. The wall was much thinner than it had been inside the closely guarded command center and the lightsabers cut through it quickly and easily, the light temporarily blinding them as it poured in from the hole into the corridor beyond, one of a thousand brightly lit, white walled hallways that made up the Imperial factory.

Quickly stepping through the hole, they took off running down the hall, this time doing nothing to conceal their entry point, but they were quickly forced to stop when a group of Stormtroopers came rushing around the far corner of the hallway. Quickly spinning around to return from where they came, they were forced to stop again when Stormtroopers began to close in from that way as well. With no branching corridors, no adjacent rooms to duck into, they had nowhere to go but through the soldiers that were blocking their way.

With a hiss of irritation, Kenobi quickly turned around and rushed toward the first group of Stormtroopers they had seen, the closer group between the two, not the standard white armored Stormtroopers, but a variant he hadn't seen before sporting blue and white armor. Hand extended before him, lightning shot in crackling arcs toward them, the electricity finding several of the soldiers and striking them in the chest to no effect at all, only the slightest stagger backwards from the sudden impact before they began once again charging toward them.

Finally, Kenobi stopped, stared at them for just a moment before, with a hissed curse, he grabbed hold of one of the retracted blast doors interspaced throughout the hallway with the Force, and with a hard, powerful pull, he slammed the blast doors closed, sealing the corridor off and stopping the Stormtroopers' advance. Throwing his lightsaber, the plasma blade struck the control panel on the wall, the delicate circuits and wires severed and destroyed, preventing the door from being opened. Taking a cue from the Sith Lord, Kanan ran in the opposite direction toward the other row of Stormtroopers, his sabers spinning to deflect the shots fired at him. Kallus followed close behind him, taking cover behind the Jedi and the shield his lightsabers wove and returning his own suppressing fire on the Imperials, forcing them to shoot less often and more defensively as they advanced toward them.

They stopped when they came to the nearest blast door, Kanan's green lightsaber held in a loose grip as he reached out with the Force to shut the heavy doors, his other saber continuing to spin as he deflected the shots and relying on Kallus' fire to ease the pressure of the Stormtroopers' assault. But, his attention divided as it was, he couldn't manage to do more than make the blast doors shake as their internal mechanisms struggled to keep them in place. Just when he thought he wouldn't be able to do it, Kanan felt the all too familiar chill creeping up his spine and brushing along his limbs, and with the Sith Lord's aid, the blast doors slammed shut, Kallus quickly turning his blaster upon the control panel to destroy it as well, leaving the three of them sealed tightly inside the hallway, cut off from the Stormtroopers that flanked them.

"Well," Kanan drawled as he turned to face the furiously pacing Sith Lord. "A step ahead of Thrawn, yeah? It would appear that your Admiral's taken two steps forward."

"Stormtroopers with insulated armor!" Obi-Wan snapped, his red blade spinning in his hand as he readjusted to a backhanded grip. "I've never heard of anything so ridiculous!"

"You're just mad because it's effective," Kanan said with a roll of his eyes.

"Do you think it's just electrically insulated?" Obi-Wan asked as he dropped to a knee and stabbed his lightsaber into the ground, the hissing blade leaving a trail of molten white as it cut through the thick metal of the ground. "Or do you think it's disbursing the energy? Because if it's energy disbursal, our lightsabers may not be effective against it either." Kanan knelt beside him to help him cut a hole through the floor, and Kenobi looked up at Kallus. "Well? Which is it?"

"Me?" Kallus scoffed, looking back at the blast door before he once again faced the Sith. "How should I know? I've never seen the armor before."

"More things Thrawn's been developing in secret, then?" Kenobi asked, an uneven smirk on his face as his hand jerked, creating a sharp, uneven trail through the floor. "Oh, secrets don't make friends, Thrawn!" he drawled as he grabbed the saber with both hands in an effort to keep it steady. "I thought we'd have more time, I didn't think he'd move so quickly!" Leaning into his saber, the blade sunk deeper into the floor as he sighed wistfully. "Oh, Admiral! You're doing wonderfully, sweetheart!"

"Uh, what is happening right now?" a confused Kallus asked Kanan, and the Jedi just rolled his eyes.

"Don't worry about it," Kanan said dismissively. "This idiot's just hot for bad boys." They completed the circle, and the cut away piece of floor fell only a few feet down, landing with a muffled thud on another layer of metal. Kanan quickly leaned into the hole and frowned when he saw that the crawlspace between their floor and the one beneath them was filled with piping and was far too narrow to crawl through. "Hey, Kenobi," Kanan asked as he sat up and looked quickly to the closed blast doors when a loud, sharp thud was heard on the other side. "What's the plan?"

"The plan?" Obi-Wan asked as he dropped his lightsaber into the hole, the blade held by the Force and hissing as it sunk into the next metal layer beneath them. "The plan hasn't changed. We keep cutting our way through this place until we reach outside."

"I don't think that plan's going to work," Kanan said quickly, the nagging, incessant warning in the back of his mind growing worse as the banging upon the blast door grew louder and faster. "They're going to get through those blast doors, Kenobi, and when they do, every cut we make is like leaving a trail right to us! They'll have us in no time at all!"

"Look, I didn't say it was a good plan!" Kenobi snapped as he slid into the hole, a second saber flying into the air before him and igniting, that blade too plunging into the ground to make faster work of cutting through the thick durasteel. "You have something better, Jarrus?"

"Well, no-"

"Then this is just going to have to do until we can come up with something else!" Kenobi said brightly, flashing the Jedi a charming smile as he waved and disappeared through the hole, the two sabers still floating in the air after the cut had been completed before they switched off and dropped down the hole as well into the Sith Lord's waiting hands. Leaning over to look through the new holes in the Imperial infrastructure, they could see the Sith Lord's hands outstretched to his sides, his hands quickly closing into fists and the heavy clang of blast doors slamming shut echoed up to them.

Kenobi looked up at them, gestured for them to follow, and with a heavy sigh, Kallus jumped down, Kanan easing the long fall with the Force. With one last glance at the blast doors, Kanan dropped down after the other men.

Everything went wrong the moment his feet hit the ground, his vision exploding in a violent shower of fiery reds and splashing blues, the suddenness of it sending him scrambling for balance on unsteady feet. With a groan, Kanan covered his eyes, reached out to brace himself on the green and orange splattered wall at his side and fell right through the wisping, smokey colors, sending him pitching hard to the floor. He could feel Kallus beside him, blue gray and blazing yellow as the man tried to help him to his feet. He could see Kenobi, a shimmering black void at the center of a molten vortex, and when Kallus had successfully dragged him to his feet, he could feel warmth on the back of his neck, could taste the sweet tang of the wilderness in the air, and could hear a distant howl and soft clicking on the durasteel floor behind him.

Quickly turning around to face the presence he felt was there, Kanan saw a brilliant white Loth-wolf at the end of the hallway, the wild, untamed colors that raged through the Force calming to perfect stillness around the beast.

"Kriff!" Kanan shouted as he reeled backwards and fell to the floor once again, scrambling back on the ground as he pointed at the apparition. "Kriff, what is that?!"

"What is what!" a startled Kallus asked, and Kanan finally managed to get his footing, his hand blindly reaching out for the wall and anchoring himself to it when he finally felt cold steel beneath his hand.

"That! There!" Kanan snapped as he jabbed his finger at the wolf that calmly stared at him. "It's a Loth-wolf! But it's huge! Don't you see it?!"

"There's nothing there, Kanan," Kenobi said, looking between the Jedi and the closed blast door he was pointing at before he hit Kanan on the shoulder and stuck his saber into the wall, one of his other blades flying from his belt and stabbing into the opposite wall as he cut two holes at once. "Now shut up, Jedi, your delusional ramblings are going to bring the Imperials down upon us."

"Too late," Kallus said tightly as he turned his blaster up toward the ceiling and fired at the Stormtroopers that were beginning to crawl down from above them, the wail of the emergency sirens beginning to blare. Cursing in ancient Sith as his lightsabers shut off and flew back to his belt, Kenobi swept his hand through the air and sent Kallus flying back toward the blast shield and out of his way. Grabbing hold of one of the thick metal discs cut from above them with the Force, he flung it up toward the hole, the piece clanging unevenly as it was forced through the opening and the sharp sounds of screams cutting through even the alarms as blood rained down from above, followed by a neatly severed leg.

The Sith Lord didn't hesitate as he grabbed hold of the second disc and sent it flying upwards, this one wedging itself in the little crawlspace, making the hole too small to enter and blocking the Stormtroopers' path. It wasn't too small for blasters, however, and laser fire rained down from above them, effectively covering a band across the hallway but unable to hit their targets that were standing safely out of their range. Another gesture and the severed leg was lifted off the ground and dropped at the Sith Lord's feet, and Kenobi swiftly began to strip the blue and white armor from the limb and fastening it onto his own leg.

Despite the wail of sirens and the high pitched whine of blaster fire echoing around them to a deafening roar, despite the flash from the fired shots as they struck the ground and the pulsating, ominous red of the emergency lighting, Kanan heard nothing, saw nothing but the glowing white Loth-wolf and the way the colors of the Force seemed to calm and fall at its feet like an iridescent lake, unnaturally bright blue eyes staring back at him as if the creature could see right through him. Time stopped, an eternity passing by as Kanan could feel two hearts beating within his chest in perfect harmony, the glowing Loth-wolf in his vision just as he was certain that he was looking upon himself, his consciousness in two places at once, both within him and without, one with the Force in a way he had never felt before.

And then it was over, eternity ended in a second as the Loth-wolf broke eye contact and walked away, disappearing around a corner into an adjacent hallway, the lake of colors at its feet becoming a moving stream that flowed in the creature's wake, a soft green wind picking up and blowing at Kanan's back, urging him to follow.

"Hey, Kenobi..." Kanan said quietly, and the shimmering void in the Force turned toward him, the storming vortex slowing to a sluggish churn as the molten pinpoints of the Sith Lord's eyes looked at him. "I think I have another plan," Kanan said, stronger than before, and he could feel Kallus' attention turn on him as well. "We should follow the Loth-wolf."

"Are you out of your mind?!" Kallus snapped, looking at Kanan in disbelief as he gestured down the hall with his blaster. "There's nothing there, Jedi!"

But Kenobi was silent, the Sith Lord drawing closer to the Jedi and looking into glowing silver eyes that burned with salient, ice blue fire, a thousand fractured colors drifting like wisping embers through him. The faintest smile tugged on Obi-Wan's lips as he looked at Kanan, felt his scorching presence not just within him, but bleeding into the Force around him, an open conduit through which the Force flowed, just as he himself was with the Dark Side. For years, even before he had joined the Sith, the Force had shown Obi-Wan visions of Kanan, a lone Jedi among a sea of corpses. Perhaps this was why, not just the literal meaning in the boy's survival of the purge, but something far deeper and more significant.

"...we should follow the Loth-wolf," Obi-Wan decided, breaking his silence with a firm, resolute nod and gesturing toward the blast door, both to open it and to invite the Jedi to do as he had suggested. "Lead the way, Kanan."

"Woah, wait a second!" Kallus shouted, quickly moving to stand before the other men and very ineffectually block the wide hallway, though the Jedi stopped anyway. "Are you both crazy?! You said it yourself, Kenobi, there isn't anything there!"

"Just because you or I can't see it doesn't mean it isn't there," Kenobi said impatiently as he pushed his way past the ISB agent, and stopped just before the edge of the Stormtroopers' range of fire, the laser rain continuing to fall from the obstructed hole above. "This is the plan now. If you don't like it, you can try to get out of here on your own. Or," the Sith said, turning to face Kallus and flashing him a tight, malicious smile, "you can shut your kriffing mouth and come with us."

Obi-Wan didn't wait for Kallus' decision, only turned and grabbed tight hold of the Force and pushed hard upward toward the hole, the entire ceiling warping under the sudden impact and the firing stopping with a cascade of surprised shouts as the Stormtroopers above were knocked off their feet. With the path clear, Kanan and Kenobi ran forward, a cursing Kallus close on their heels as they followed the Jedi down the hallway and into the next corridor where the Loth-wolf had turned into earlier.

Though Kanan didn't see the Loth-wolf again, the creature was easy to follow, his surroundings outlined in foggy gray and the vibrant splashes of color that stained the Force sinking to the ground in a clearly flowing river, the faintest wisps of verdant green wind easing alongside them and guiding him along the correct path. Closed blast doors blocked their path through the larger corridors, byproducts of protocols triggered by the state of emergency the factory had been placed under, though the barriers didn't stand in their way for long. A surge of the Dark Side and a temporary scattering of the spectral river forcing the heavy blast doors open long enough for them to run through, only for them to be slammed closed behind them once again, Kanan's vision rippling with the sound as the rainbow river settled, once again flowing toward their goal.

The path they cut through the factory was winding and twisting, abandoning the blocked main corridors for smaller hallways that felt like they were looping back on each other, but Kanan was focused and certain in where he was headed, quickly turning corners into new halls or leading them into dead end rooms that the Sith and the Jedi swiftly cut through. Their rush through the Imperial factory was made even faster by the fact that it was eerily vacant, not a Stormtrooper or worker or droid in sight as they wound their way through the seemingly abandoned facility, another byproduct of the lockdown and the emergency protocols, perhaps, but it wasn't a thing they thought about, brushing it off as a stroke of good fortune and the favor of the Force.

It didn't take long before they reached the large, heavy locked doors of one of the factory's several entrances, their breathing heavy from their prolonged sprint through the facility. The moment they stopped, Kanan nearly collapsed against the door, gasping as the Force released its hold on him and the vibrant flowing river of infinite colors vanished, dropping him back into reality as glowing sliver faded from his eyes, revealing their natural teal once again. They only took a moment to catch their breath, listening closely to the sounds of muffled shouting and the cacophony of moving machines of war. With a deep breath to steady themselves, the Jedi and the Sith reached out together, their bodies straining with the effort it took to pry open the massive sealed gates of the factory, eyes shutting tight when the light from outside blinded them.

When they opened their eyes, they looked out upon not the fearsome barricade they were expecting, but the chaos of a battlefield.

Streaks of red blaster fire filled the air as the Imperials fought and screamed and died, not in battle against rebels come to help them or against an uprising of repressed and angry workers that had been pressed into service, but against a pack of Loth-wolves, large, ferocious beasts that swarmed the fortified compound and tore into Stormtroopers and officers and destroyed speeders and Walkers with powerful jaws and swipes of clawed paws. They seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere at once, a Loth-wolf darting away seeming to disappear into nothingness while others seemed to materialize out of thin air to strike before vanishing once again. It could have been a trick of the light, a mistaken perception caused by the chaos around them, but as they looked out at the scene spread out before them, Kanan and Obi-Wan became more and more certain that the Loth-wolves were using the Force to aid them.

And above it all, standing atop a fallen Walker, surveying the vicious ambush, was the glowing white Loth-wolf that had led Kanan here.

"Magnificent..." Kenobi muttered under his breath, a delighted smile slowly spreading across his face. "The Force never ceases to amaze me..."

"I-I...don't understand what I'm seeing..." Kallus whispered as he rubbed his eyes, staring once again in disbelief at what was happening. "The...the Loth-wolf was real? It can't be real!"

"You don't need to understand it," Kenobi quickly dismissed. "We know what we need to do."

"We need to get to that Loth-wolf," Kanan said firmly, flashing the Sith Lord a quick, tight smirk. "Get the feeling that the alarms weren't for us?"

"Oh, we're unimportant next to this," Kenobi quickly agreed. "How do we defeat Thrawn?" he asked with a smirk. "We hit him with something he can't predict, and he sure as hell wasn't expecting to be besieged by Force sensitive Loth-wolves today." Crouching down, he laid his hands on Kanan and Kallus' backs as they followed suit. "You ready? We go for the white Loth-wolf."

With a swift nod, the three men sprinted into the battlefield, dodging out of the way of stray blaster fire and the occasional Imperial that was flung across the battlefield or chased down by the savage beasts. They wove unnoticed through the chaos, remaining undetected in the presence of a much greater, immediate threat, the Stormtrooper armor they wore further discouraging any closer look the Imperials would have otherwise taken.

They were halfway to the downed Walker when the white wolf leapt off, landing gracefully upon the ground and immediately taking off running toward the trio, snarling and snapping at any Imperial that chanced too close to the creature. Whipping around to snap at a Scout Trooper on a speeder bike, the Loth-wolf crouched down, the creature looking back at Kanan as they approached, and lowered itself further, its tail flicking slightly as they drew closer. The meaning was clear, and without hesitation, Kanan placed his hand on the creature's soft fur and climbed up on its back.

Kenobi and Kallus quickly followed the Jedi's lead, climbing up upon the Loth-wolf and holding on tightly to its fur and each other as it rose to its feet and howled, a haunting thing that cut effortlessly through the noise of the chaos around them, the eyes of each and every Loth-wolf around the compound fixed upon them.

Turning in a full circle, the white Loth-wolf took off running, the massive pack following behind and beside them as they ran away from the factory, red streaks of blaster fire following them as the stricken Imperials quickly recovered and attempted to kill the retreating enemy. The Imperial counterattack was quickly mobilized, speeders and transports flying after them and continuing to shoot at the beasts.

The attack ended quickly, however, when the Loth-wolves seemed to sink into the ground and disappear, the entire pack vanishing as if they hadn't ever been there to begin with.