Jacen's Rescue:
D349/3 ABY, Endor
Hera regrouped with her crew at the designated meeting point two hours before the deadline, relieved to see her crew show up one at a time from their recon missions. "Well?" she asked as they started walking back towards the Ghost some two kilometres away through the thick forest.
"Definitely some sort of Imperial facility," Rex said, wearing stolen stormtrooper armour. "We wandered around a bit inside and blended right in. I can guarantee the Ewoks didn't build it and probably didn't approve it."
"And you?" she addressed Zeb.
"I found four different entrances in a five kilometer radius. There must be something really large underground."
Hera sighed and looked up at the massive shapeless something that was in construction over the moon, making the guys look up too. "Well, whatever they're building up there, I can guarantee that it can't be good for the Rebellion."
"Is anything?" Wolffe wondered.
Hera smiled slightly. "Well, we have four established bases scattered around the Outer Rim and a wandering Headquarters. I say the Rebellion is doing all right and that we just might be able to handle whatever the Empire decides to throw at us next."
"And if it's another Death Star?" Rex only half joked.
Hera gave him a quelling look. "Don't even think it. Having to deal with a second one of those things would just put me in a very bad mood."
Rex pretended to cringe away in fear. "We wouldn't want that, would we, boys?"
The guys laughed together as Hera gave them a disgusted look that did nothing to shut them up, so she upped her game, walking a little faster. "Anyone still laughing in five seconds will be cleaning the refresher and the galley for the next year with a toothbrush. Your own," she said over her shoulder in her General's voice. The laughter died instantly and Hera smirked to herself as she strode on, stepping over the five millionth tree root, and continuing on with a little bit of extra sway in her lekku.
The clones might look old, but they were technically only thirty-six going on twelve. It was like the older they got and the further away they were from the constant war they were bred for, the younger they acted to make up for having to grow up and act like real adults by the time they were seven or eight. And Zeb? He was forty-eight, but his species lived a long time and was basically just a teenager as well. The three of them combined with Chopper and her four year old made Hera's days VERY interesting. And not always in a good way. Sometimes dire threats were all she had left. At least they worked. (After making good on one once.) It made her really miss Kallus' presence. The guys were much more dignified around him, following his example. And in comparison, Ezra and Sabine had been angels, despite the occasional prank war.
How she missed them.
Home One
Director of Intelligence, Alexsandr Kallus, combed a frustrated hand through his hair as he read through what had to be the eight hundredth report of the day, just before one of his assistants came running into the room.
"Echo Base is under attack! They're evacuating as we speak!"
Kallus jolted to attention, all tiredness suddenly gone at the shot of adrenaline that coursed through him. His first thought was a vile swear that would make a Hutt proud. His second was for Jacen, possibly the only kid he'd ever liked. Kallus knew that Hera was away on a mission right now, having been the one to recommend her crew for the job. He also knew that Jacen would have been left behind on the base under Leia's care. And he knew if anything happened to him, Hera would probably lose it. Permanently. "Get me Echo Base. I want to talk to the Princess."
"Yes, Sir!" The assistant ran out and came back with a holo commlink a minute later. "The Princess, Sir."
Kallus looked at the rather harried looking hologram of the planetless Princess. "Leia, I just heard. Please tell me you got Jacen on a transport?" Kallus said in a tone somewhere between no nonsense and pleading.
There was a long pause that Kallus didn't like as Leia's face went through a few different emotions. "I'll have to get back to you, Kallus," Leia finally said. "Luke was looking after him this afternoon."
"And do you know where Luke is?" Kallus demanded.
"In a snowspeeder?" Leia said with a definite cringe on her face. "Just give me a minute and I'll call him."
Kallus drummed his fingers on his desk impatiently while Leia's image disappeared for a minute.
Leia finally came back on the comm. "You can stop worrying, Kallus. Luke says he put Jacen on the first transport off planet and it already left successfully. After making some random jumps, it should rendezvous with Home One sometime tonight."
Kallus breathed a sigh of relief, but just to make sure... "Can you give me their frequency so I can give it to Hera? I'll call her next and let her know not to go back to Hoth."
"Oh, that's a good idea," Leia said. "Just hang on." A moment later she rattled off the frequency and Kallus typed it into a datapad just because, but he'd already memorized it.
"Thank you, Leia. Good luck," Kallus said in parting.
Leia gave a brief disbelieving laugh. "Ha. We're gonna need it." And then the comm went silent.
Kallus started to enter the frequency for the Ghost, but changed his mind halfway through. Starting over, he entered the transport's. A moment later he got an answer. "This is Director Kallus. Can you please confirm that you have Jacen Syndulla on board?"
"Uhhhhh, the kid?" came back the surprised reply from the pilot. "Hang on, there's a couple hundred people on here. I'll send someone to check."
Kallus once again waited with drumming fingers. He was getting a very bad feeling about this. A good ten minutes later, the pilot's voice came back. "I'm sorry, Director, but we searched the ship twice. The kid's not here."
Kallus hung up with a curt, "thanks," and immediately tried to call Echo Base back. He cursed under his breath when the signal wouldn't go through. They must have lost communications. Running a shaking hand though his hair again, he mumbled more curses as he commed the Ghost.
When all he got was the disrespectful droid, Kallus breathed in through his nose once, containing his frustration. "Please, just tell Hera to call me when she gets back to the ship, alright?"
"Fine, mutton chops," the droid beeped and then hung up on him.
Kallus' eyes narrowed in anger. That droid had driven him up the wall when he lived on the Ghost and he still did, even a good chunk of the galaxy away. Before moving into the Ghost, Kallus had thought the droid was an efficient model who did a marvelous job working against the Empire. It only took two days for his opinion to change drastically. In his admittedly Imperial opinion, droids shouldn't have attitudes, and Hera's had the worst attitude he'd ever encountered in a droid. But he was Hera's, and Kallus would never say anything to her about the droid because despite everything else, it was incredibly devoted to Hera, and she deserved all the loyalty she could get. Kallus would forever be grateful to her for accepting him into her family group despite his rather sketchy past.
Kallus rubbed his forehead as the headache that had been threatening for the past three hours decided to start pounding. He didn't know what to do. There was no way he could magically go search for Jacen himself. Not in the next few minutes anyway. But perhaps...
Mind made up, Kallus stood from his desk abruptly and strode for the command centre. He was going to Hoth and taking a corvette and a small fleet of X-Wings with him, whether Mothma and Ackbar liked it or not. He knew he could round up a whole crew and a bunch of pilots who either owed Hera a favour and / or loved the kid. Home One was about three and a half hours away from Hoth right now. Not an unreasonable amount of time to fly to search for one small boy who had practically become the Rebellion's mascot. It didn't hurt that he was the son of Kanan Jarrus, Jedi Knight, either. The legend of Kanan and Ezra had spread through the Rebellion like wildfire after the liberation of Lothal.
Hoth
After half a minute of standing frozen in the dark, Jacen sucked in a big breath. 'Okay,' he told himself. 'I'm a Jedi. We stay calm and think things through. There's nothing to be afraid of. It's just the dark. First thing to do is get some light.' He had two options for that. His datapad would light up a little if he turned it on, but it wasn't going to get him out of here.
As the ground shook and tiny pieces of ice fell from the ceiling, Jacen went for option number two. With hands slightly trembling with fear and excitement from what he was about to do, Jacen took a couple steps back and shrugged his backpack down his arm and around to the front of his body. Feeling around for the zipper, he opened it a little and fished out the lightsabre, then closed the zipper and put the backpack back around to his back. Very carefully feeling the lightsabre, he made sure it was pointed away from him, and with a shuddering breath for courage, he pushed the button to turn it on.
Jacen's eyes went super wide as he held the lit lightsabre for the very first time, gripped tightly with both hands. (Not wanting to drop it and cut off his foot.) "Whoa," he whispered, feeling the power of the Kyber crystal sing through him in welcome. The blue glow of the lightsabre lit the room easily and just fit within the space Jacen had left between him and the door. Jacen had thought that the lightsabre would feel heavier this way, but it actually felt lighter as the Force seemed to bolster his strength.
Jacen eyeballed the closed door with a determined look. He'd heard countless stories about doors being cut open with a lightsabre and no one ever said it was hard to do. Taking a step forward, Jacen touched the door with the end of the lightsabre. It sank through the durasteel like butter. "Holy nerfherders," he exclaimed. "It works!"
"Of course it works," Kanan said with a hint of laughter in his voice, despite the worry about his son's situation. He'd felt Jacen's wave of fear and immediately come to investigate. Somehow, he wasn't surprised that Jacen had already figured a way out on his own. "You think I'd lie to you?"
"Daddy!" Jacen said in surprise, automatically turning off the lightsabre because he knew he wasn't supposed to play with it, plunging the room into darkness again except for the glow of Kanan's ghost form. "I was just... Power gone... And..."
Kanan touched Jacen's head reassuringly. "It's okay. I know. And you did the right thing. But I'm here now and you don't have to do it on your own anymore."
Jacen sighed in relief, leaning into his daddy's gentle hand.
Jacen held the lightsabre up for his daddy to take, but Kanan shook his head with a smile. "You seem like you're doing alright with that, so why don't you keep it and it can be our light out of here?"
"Really?" Jacen said in disbelief.
"Really," Kanan replied, smiling wider.
"Sweet," Jacen breathed. He carefully pointed the lightsabre away from them and turned it back on, lighting up the room again, making Kanan look normal as the blue glow from the lightsabre obscured Kanan's.
The glacier rumbled again threateningly, making more small pieces of the ceiling fall on them.
"What was that?" Kanan asked in surprise. He had assumed Jacen was trapped because of the sketchy wiring in the base that tended to short out on a regular basis. He suddenly realized the situation was a lot worse than he had thought.
"We're under attack and 'vacuating," Jacen explained.
Kanan instantly understood that time was of the essence. "Gotcha. Time to go." He had been thinking about letting Jacen finish the hole he'd started for the fun of it, but that would take too long. Kanan waved a hand at the door and it slid open obediently.
Jacen grinned at his daddy for the show and then dashed into the dark hallway, leading the way back to the hangar at a quick jog. The glacier base rumbled and shook as they ran, raining more ice particles on them.
Outside, an AT-AT blew up the shield generators, causing a massive explosion that rocked the whole area. The already shaken glacier rumbled again, shaking under Jacen's feet. He came to a stop to keep his balance, Kanan skidding to a stop behind him, not actually affected by the movement of the ice because he wasn't in a solid form. Jacen waited for the shaking to pass before continuing on.
Only a few seconds later, they heard a massive crack, as if the glacier itself had been snapped in two. Jacen and Kanan looked up as cracks appeared in the ceiling above them, quickly running down the entire length of the hall in front and behind them. "Kriffing hell!" Kanan whispered as a sense of impending doom struck him. He picked Jacen up with the Force and ran like lightning down the hallway, making Jacen screech in surprise. At the last millisecond, Kanan put Jacen down and threw up a shield around them just as the ceiling collapsed, sending tonnes of ice down on them.
Shaking, Jacen raised the lightsabre and gawked at the perfect dome of ice that surrounded them. He looked at his daddy in awe as Kanan crouched on the ground, arms out to the sides, eyes closed in concentration. "Daddy?" Jacen whispered. "Are we in trouble?"
Kanan opened his eyes and tried to smile but it came out a little shaky. "To be honest, Jacen, yes we are." Jacen went to snuggle into Kanan's leg for reassurance but there was no solid form for him to lean on. "Sorry, buddy," Kanan explained as Jacen looked up at him in surprise. "I can't do that too." And that's what had Kanan really worried. He didn't have the energy to spare to summon help for Jacen. He could hold the shield or he could go get help. There was no question as to which he was going to do. Kanan could feel the pressure of the tonnes of ice pushing down on his shield. If he let it go, Jacen would be crushed and he would never let that happen, no matter how long he had to hold his shield.
"Jacen," Kanan said very seriously. "I need you to get help. You're going to have to meditate and contact someone to come dig you out. Can you do that?"
Jacen nodded solemnly. "Yes, Daddy." Jacen carefully set the lightsabre on the ground so it wouldn't turn off and moved into his meditation pose. He sent his will into the Force, aiming for the one person he knew might actually be able to hear him. Jacen looked for his big brother.
Cerulia
Ezra was sleeping deeply when his dream randomly changed from him and Sabine playing in the fields of Lothal with a pack of lothcats and two laughing children that had his dark blue hair and her eyes, to a battle scene on an ice planet. He tossed over, agitated that his pleasant dream had disappeared, brows frowning in his sleep. Ezra watched an AT-AT explode and a figure leap away from the blast. A few snowspeeders flew around, doing what damage they could. Ground troops fought valiantly against the Imperials who were clearly winning. The explosion of the shield generators was the definite tipping point in the Empire's favour. The rebels retreated in double time, escaping as fast as they could on transport ships off the planet. Ezra tossed over again, grumbling, thinking if he and Kanan had been there, those AT-AT's would never have gotten close enough to Sabine's shield generator to take it out.
Ezra watched a handful of Imperial shuttles land near the mostly evacuated base, a feeling of dread descending on his dream as a figure dressed in black marched down the ramp of one of the Lambda shuttles, cape swirling at his feet, along with dozens of snowtroopers.
Suddenly a voice was added to the dream. "Ezie, help! We're buried, Ezie!" An image of Jacen and Kanan lit only by the light of a lightsabre and surrounded by snowy walls flashed into the dream.
Ezra sat up on a gasp. "Jacen!" He immediately closed his eyes again and sent his image to Sabine.
Darth Vader strode through the icy hallways of the Rebel Base, certain that his son was on this frozen hell planet somewhere. His head whipped to the left as a strong sense of the Force became apparent. Stalking the beacon of the Light side like it was his prey, Vader and a few of his elite 501st troopers made their way towards the living quarters area of the base. It wasn't long before they came upon a collapsed section of hallway just past where it joined to the main one.
Vader glared at the ice, certain he felt something he wanted on the other side of the barrier.
"Shall we dig, My Lord?" an astute Squad Leader asked.
"Yes," Vader snarled. He paced the area nearby for a minute while more troops and tools were called for. Realizing his frustration was not helping. the Sith Lord made an attempt at calming himself down and was rewarded with the sense of another presence in the Force that he knew relatively well. Vader smiled evilly under his mask as he strode away towards the new enticement. The Princess was here, too. She would make a fine prize in his war against the Rebellion.
Lothal
Ezra appeared to Sabine, looking somewhat frantic, hours before his usual evening visit. "Sabine! Call Hera! Jacen's in trouble!"
Sabine put down her paint brush, eyes wide, sensing Ezra's distress. She immediately pushed some buttons on her wrist comm, contacting the Ghost. "Hera?" she said hopefully when the call went through.
"Not here," Chopper beeped in response. "On a mission. Will be back in two hours."
"Kriff," Sabine cursed and ran to her bedroom, Ezra following. "Tell Hera that Jacen's in trouble."
"Buried," Ezra supplied. "There was a battle on Hoth. Vader's there. Jacen's buried in the snow somewhere."
Sabine's eyes widened even further as she relayed the message to Chopper. "Do whatever you have to to get a hold of Hera," she told the droid before hanging up and swiftly changing into her armour and strapping on her blasters. While the lift was taking her down to ground level, Sabine called Ketsu. "Ketsu, I need you and our fifty best Defender pilots to meet me in the atmosphere. We're going to Hoth."
"What?" Ketsu squawked.
"I'll explain once we've jumped. I promise," Sabine said as she jogged over to the Lothhawk and dashed up the ramp.
"Okay," Ketsu said with a voice dripping incredulity.
While Ezra got the ship warmed up for her, Sabine made another call to Ryder, giving him a very brief explanation as to why she was taking a quarter of the Defenders off planet, not giving him a chance to protest before she disconnected.
Sabine took the Lothhawk up to the atmosphere and started calculating the jump to Hoth. Fortunately, the coordinates were still in the nav computer from when she'd installed and tested the improved shield she'd made for Echo Base a year ago. Unfortunately, she already knew the jump would take three hours. Those were going to be three of the worst hours of her life while she imagined horrible things happening to Jacen.
Jacen opened his eyes and looked up at his daddy. "I did it, I think. I told Ezie to get help. I'm pretty sure he heard me."
Kanan gave his son a strained smile. "That's great, Jacen. Hopefully the word will get to someone still here on the base sooner than later." Kanan closed his eyes again, sorry he had to cut his son out, but he really needed to concentrate right now. Holding this shield was the second hardest thing he'd ever done.
Jacen watched his daddy for a few minutes, noting the strain on his face that he was trying not to show, but Jacen knew his daddy, and that was not a relaxed and happy face. Wondering if there was something he could do to help, Jacen returned to meditating. His senses brushed against the shield, trying to figure out how his daddy had made it, but not really understanding the advanced Force technique without any explanation.
Thinking he could possibly get Unkie Luke to hear him if he tried really really hard, Jacen started searching for his signature. What he found instead made his insides freeze with fear. "Daddy?" he whispered.
"What?" Kanan said softly.
"There's someone out there. Someone really really cold," Jacen whispered, shivering. "And I think he knows we're in here."
Kanan cursed silently. Could this situation get any worse? "It's a Darksider, Jacen. Remember how I said they feel cold?"
Jacen nodded, eyes wide with trepidation. "Can I help you, Daddy? Help with the shield? Can we keep the Darksider out?"
Kanan thought for a minute. Putting up a shield would be very draining for Jacen, assuming he could even understand how. On the other hand, Kanan was using everything he had to hold it, which would leave him with nothing to defend them with when the Darksider found them. And Kanan was sure that would happen now. At least it would get them out of the ice. They'd have to deal with whatever happened after that as it came. Kanan sighed, stuck between two awful choices. "Okay, little buddy. You can try and help me, but I doubt it will keep the Darksider out, so you'll have to be prepared for that when he finds us, okay?"
Jacen nodded. "What do I do?"
"Close your eyes like you're meditating," Kanan said quietly. "Now, can you feel my shield?"
"Yes," Jacen said in a whisper. "It's strong."
Kanan smiled slightly. His son was amazing. "All you need to do is hold out your hands and imagine shaping the Force into another layer of the shield inside mine, like a different colour of a rainbow, where it blends into the colour above it."
Jacen smiled at the imagery, because he could immediately understand what his daddy meant. Jacen gathered up the Force around him and spread a thin layer of it all over his daddy's shield, imagining his daddy's shield as the green layer and his as the blue layer, melding the two layers together to make a pretty teal colour where they met that looked just like his daddy's eyes.
Kanan exhaled in surprise as he felt his shield gain strength, instantly relieving some of the pressure he was under. He glanced down at Jacen. "Little buddy, you are officially the most amazing son a man could ask for. Are you okay?"
Jacen nodded confidently, eyes still closed, pulling on the Force that swirled around him helpfully to maintain both his energy level and the shield. "I'm good, Daddy. I had a nap."
Kanan barked a quick laugh before closing his eyes again and putting himself in a partial meditative state so he could channel the Force for as long as he had to, determined that the shield would be mostly his work, with Jacen just being a bit of a support.
Disregarding Hera's order to stay with the ship, Chopper flew out of the Ghost on one wheel and zoomed through the forest floor to where Hera, Zeb, Rex, and Wolffe were scouting out an Imperial facility. He couldn't call her on her wrist comm because she'd turned it off to avoid detection from Imperial scanners. Much to Chopper's relief, because the forest floor was terribly hard to roll over quickly and he was in a serious hurry, he met them only halfway to where the facility was, as they were on their way back early.
"Chopper!" Hera exclaimed. "What are you doing out here?"
"Jacen!" Chopper beeped quickly. "Sabine says tiny organic is buried in snow. Echo Base under attack. Darth Vader there too."
Hera went pale and started running, Chopper zipping along in her wake.
"Karabast!" Zeb exclaimed and dashed after her.
Rex and Wolffe looked at each other. "That's not good," Rex said, before they too were running flat out through the forest.
It wasn't until the Ghost was back up in hyperspace to make the five hour return trip to Hoth that Hera sagged in her chair, shoulders and lekku drooping. "I never should have left him behind," she whispered to herself. He would have been safer staying on the Ghost with Chopper.
Zeb put a comforting paw on her shoulder, his eyes sad and ears laid back in sorrow. "It's not your fault, Hera. You couldn't have known."
Hera shook her head, burying her face in her hands, feeling the tears escape. "A war is no place for a child, and I knew it. I grew up in one. Why am I raising my son in another?" her voice caught in a sob at the end.
Zeb exchanged helpless looks with Rex and Wolffe, who just shrugged in complete cluelessness. The clones had no idea how to comfort a grieving female. Zeb pulled Hera out of her chair and hugged her to his chest, which she promptly buried her face in and soaked his shirt with tears. Zeb sighed and patted Hera's back a little awkwardly, wondering where Kanan was when you needed him.
Darth Vader growled in frustration as the cursed hunk of junk known as the Millennium Falcon flew away with the Princess onboard. With a snarl, he commed the Captain of the Executor. "There's a small freighter leaving the planet. Do NOT let it escape!"
"Yes, My Lord!" came back the snappy reply.
Vader clenched his fists and swung around on the ball of a mechanical foot. With determined strides, he marched back in the direction of his other prize. Along the way, he saw a couple of snowtroopers staring at a door with a torn yellow sign on it in apparent shock.
Lying through his teeth, one snowtrooper said, "Everything's under control."
Vader scoffed and marched on, having already sensed the animal inside the room and the dying throes of the man who'd been caught in the trap. If the surviving troopers wanted to save face, he didn't care.
Vader arrived at the scene of the cave in, where some progress had been made, but not enough for his satisfaction. Thoroughly annoyed now, he tossed the snowtroopers out of his way and concentrated on the blocks of ice and snow that prevented him from reaching his prey. With a jerk of his hands, the ice flew backwards down the hallway, hitting a trooper or two on the way, but Vader didn't care about that either.
Instead, his eyes took in the surprising sight of a Jedi reported as deceased and a tiny green haired boy, both kneeling in a meditation pose, holding a strong shield that Vader could feel from here. At their feet, a blue lightsabre glowed, illuminating them clearly.
Luke snuck into the hangar, surprised that there weren't more snowtroopers around. He shrugged, assuming they were all inside the base somewhere, searching for whatever they could find. Dashing over to his X-Wing that already had Artoo in it, he climbed up the ladder and jumped in. "Let's go, Artoo. I'll be happy to see the last of this iceberg."
Artoo beeped an affirmative and got the fighter running while Luke put his helmet on. He took off a moment later, laughing a little as a trooper appeared from a side hallway and tried to shoot him with a blaster as Luke left him in his wake.
After Sabine and her escort of fifty Defenders had jumped into hyperspace, Ezra finally stopped his pacing as he came to a decision. He walked over to Sabine, where she sat in the pilot's chair, pretty much vibrating with suppressed agitation, staring straight ahead blankly. He touched her cheek gently to get her attention and met her questioning eyes. "I'm going to try and find Jacen. Or Kanan. I have a bond with both of them. I've never tried to go to either of them before, but it can't be any different than finding you. I feel like they need help. Now."
Sabine nodded, amber eyes filled with worry. "Okay, Ez'ika. Be careful."
Ezra kissed her on the cheek and smiled just a little. "I'll be fine. I am just an image. Kind of hard to hurt that. If I can, I'll come back later and let you know what's happening."
Sabine smiled just as tightly, neither of them in the mood to pretend actual humour but vaguely trying to put up a brave front anyway. "Thank you, babe." She watched with sad eyes as Ezra's image winked out, then shook herself back into action. She needed to let Ketsu and the other pilots know what they were flying into. At this point, Sabine assumed the Empire would still be on and around Hoth by the time they got there, even if all of the Rebels were gone. Standard procedure was to investigate every nook and cranny of a Rebel facility to learn as much as they could when capturing one.
After that was done, Sabine had an inner debate with herself about calling her mother. Krownest was only two hours away from Hoth. If she called her now, her Clan could join in the battle as well. The question was whether or not they would be inclined to do so for a sort of disinherited daughter in a battle to protect a Jedi boy.
Hoping she wouldn't regret it, Sabine punched in her mother's frequency.
When the noises of the digging reached them, Jacen temporarily lost his concentration and his layer of the shield slipped for a moment.
"It's okay, Jacen," Kanan said reassuringly. "Just put it back up."
Jacen frowned in concentration and imagined his rainbow again. "What are we going to do when they get to us, Daddy?"
"Exactly what we are doing, little buddy. We hold the shield and we don't let them in. Help will come eventually," Kanan replied, keeping his voice as steady as possible. He actually didn't know if that would work, but he had to believe it would so that Jacen could too.
"But what about the Dark man? Won't he be able to get in?" Jacen whispered, flinching at the sound of voices that now filtered through the ice.
"Just have faith in the Force, Jacen. We'll get through this. And if for some reason the Darksider does get a hold of you, I want you to remember that you're a Jedi, no matter what he says or does to you. And what is a Jedi?"
Jacen smiled a little. "Jedi are filled with the Force, compassion, peace, and love, and are calm when things go wrong so they can think things through."
Kanan smiled down at his son, sensing that the reminder helped a lot. "Very good. Now, when they break through, you're going to act like nothing's changed and it's just you and me, okay?"
"Okay, Daddy." Jacen devoted his attention to his breathing, feeling the Force whisper reassurances to him, and holding his shield. He could do this. His daddy wouldn't let anything terrible happen to him.
Suddenly they felt a wave of furious impatience hit them and then the ice and snow in front of their shield disappeared like magic. Jacen took one look at the scary figure in black and immediately closed his eyes tight. 'It's just me and my daddy. It's just me and my daddy,' he repeated to himself over and over, ignoring the glare of the black mask.
And then something else occurred that almost broke even Kanan's concentration.
Ezra appeared, kneeling beside Jacen and adding another layer to the shield. He smiled at them cockily as they gawked at him. "Hey, guys. So I figured you two could use a little help. What with tall, dark, and freaky over there."
Kanan chuckled a little. "I am so happy to see you right now, Ezra."
"Me too," Jacen chirped with a happy smile at his big brother.
Ezra's blue eyes twinkled in the light of the lightsabre. "Glad to hear it. You've got help coming in about two and three quarter hours. Between the three of us, we should be able to hold out till then," he whispered in the barest audible tone he could get away with.
Kanan breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank the Force."
Vader wasn't the only one who was taken aback by the sudden appearance of another man inside the shield. The troopers that had regained their feet all gasped in surprise. It took Vader a minute to recognize the blue haired brat he'd wiped the floor with on Malachor, but when he did, his eyes narrowed in thought. This one was supposed to be either dead or missing. And the other Jedi was also supposed to be dead. How then were they here, obviously protecting the little boy. Could they actually be Force Ghosts?
To test his theory, Vader concentrated on the lit lightsabre, turning it off. The little boy gasped and the two men glowed, the older one a lot more than the younger, but Vader didn't think that was of importance. Vader almost smiled in satisfaction. They were ghosts. Excellent. No real threat then. That left him with one obviously Force strong child. Vader instantly had designs on taking the child to train as his own apprentice.
First thing to do was take care of that pesky shield. Vader poured every ounce of concentration into dissolving the shield, but nothing happened. The three calmly meditating Jedi built it back up as fast as he imagined it gone. Frustrated, Vader walked up to the shield to see if he could walk through it. He pushed a hand against it and the shield pushed back.
Vader stepped back again, crossing his arms over his chest while he thought. He couldn't hurt the ghosts, but perhaps... The child. If he threatened the child the ghosts would let down their guard and the shield would drop. Vader concentrated on the lightsabre again. It turned on, floated into the air, and pointed straight at the boy's heart.
Jacen stopped breathing and forgot about holding his layer of the shield, crawling backwards away from the lightsabre that followed him until his backpack bumped into the shield.
Both Ezra and Kanan reached over and grabbed the hilt of the lightsabre with one hand, keeping up the shield with the other. Kanan's eyes met the black mask of Darth Vader. "You will not hurt my son," he growled.
Vader raised a brow in surprise. He actually could sympathize in some small fashion with the dead Jedi, but it mattered not. He stared back at the Jedi ghost and flicked his hand forward, pushing the still lit lightsabre another fraction closer to the trembling boy. "Really? I don't see why not. The boy is destined to either turn to the Dark or die. Which would you prefer, Jedi? I recommend you drop the shield if you want your brat to live."
Kanan poured more Force into his grip on the lightsabre, trying to get it to turn off, but Vader had just the slightest amount of an edge because he'd grabbed it first. "Never. You won't win, Vader."
Jacen stared at the lightsabre in fear, before he registered that the crystal inside was whimpering instead of singing. It didn't want to hurt him, but was being forced to against its will. Jacen closed his eyes and strengthened his connection to the Kyber crystal, and thus the lightsabre itself. With a tiny smirk, Jacen turned off the lightsabre with his mind and heard the crystal sing again in joy. Feeling the Darksider's momentary shock at the change, Jacen took control of the lightsabre entirely, gently tugging it away from Ezra's and his daddy's hold and floated it into his hands.
Vader was impressed with the child. No one had ever done that to him before except his Master. "I will have you as my apprentice, boy. You show much potential."
Jacen shook his head adamantly. "Not in a million years, you sleemo nerfherder."
"Over my already dead body," Kanan said vehemently.
"And mine," Ezra added, allowing Vader to assume he was a ghost as well, because it suited him for the Empire to think so.
Obi-Wan appeared in front of Vader in his younger persona. "I won't let you have the boy either." Obi-Wan flung out a hand, sending Vader flying backwards several metres into the connecting hallway's wall. Obi-Wan walked calmly over to his ex-apprentice and looked down at him as he wheezed in air. "This one is not for you and never will be. Understand that he is protected by many and shall never fall into your hands."
Vader struggled to his feet and then stood staring down at the ghost of his old Master, not saying a word for a minute. "So be it, Kenobi. My son is better anyway," he said in disdain. (Hoping his words were true, because he actually didn't know.) With a wave of his hand, Vader collapsed the ice back around the shield, thoroughly burying the child again. "If I can't have him, then no one shall." Vader turned on his heel and strode away, gesturing for his troopers to follow.
Vader had left the partially destroyed base before he noticed that the presence he was actually searching for could no longer be felt. If steam could erupt from his helmet, then it would have, he was so pissed off.
As his shuttle took off from the ground, he commed the Star Destroyers still in orbit. "Destroy the base. I don't want there to be a single block of ice left when you're done."
"Yes, My Lord," came the prompt reply.
As the ice closed them in again, Jacen crawled back to his position in the middle of the ice covered dome. He put the lightsabre back on the ground and turned it back on with his mind, just because he could. Settling back into his kneeling position, Jacen put his layer of the shield back up. "We're back. In the ice," he said with a completely straight face at his own mocking joke.
Kanan laughed and grinned down at his son, wishing he could ruffle his hair. "Yes, we are. But at least the Sith Lord is gone."
Ezra smiled at Jacen from his other side. "Sabine's coming. She'll get us out as soon as she gets here."
Obi-Wan appeared in front of them, kneeling as well, smiling in an apologetic fashion. "I'm afraid it won't be as simple as that." He raised his hands and added his own layer to the shield.
"What do you m..." Kanan started. But the sound of the glacier exploding around them was answer enough. "Well, that sucks," he said as the weight on their shield increased tenfold.
Ezra winced as the sound of multiple explosions echoed through to them. "I think that might be an understatement, Kanan."
There was the sound of faint laughter and then the four Jedi settled into a peaceful meditation while they held the shield and waited for someone to come rescue Jacen.
After taking out his frustrations on the Officers who'd let the Millennium Falcon escape, Vader ordered most of his fleet of Star Destroyers to search the nearby asteroid field for the missing freighter. He left the last ten ISDs in orbit around the white planet, under the command of General Veers, in case someone who was actually still alive returned to Hoth to try to rescue the boy.
Two and a half hours later.
General Veers cringed as another ISD went down in flames under the assault of the Rebel forces that had shown up. With great reluctance, he placed a comm call to the Executor, Vader's flag ship. Veers put on a game face and stood straight and tall, hands resting at the small of his back, as Lord Vader's holo image appeared in front of him. "My Lord, I regret to inform you that we are being defeated as we speak. The Rebels arrived en force. They have little fighters that look vaguely like TIEs but I've never seen them before. There must be at least fifty of them and they're taking out our TIEs almost faster than we can deploy them."
Vader was not impressed. "You have over seven hundred TIEs at your command and you can't take out fifty Rebel fighters?"
Veers resisted the urge to flinch at both Vader's tone and the explosion he heard from the depths of his own ship. "I regret to say not, My Lord. Their fighters have shields and ours don't," he explained. "And that's not all," he continued before Vader could disparage him further. "There's also Mandalorian fighters. At least twenty of them of varying sizes. I just watched a group of their warriors disembark on one of our ISD's and take it out by HAND by running around on the hull and blowing up anything they could before flying off with their jetpacks. I think they're on my ship now, from the sounds of things."
"Is that all?" Vader asked in a deadly calm voice.
This time, Veers did flinch. "No, My Lord. A Rebel Corvette with a company of a dozen X-Wings dropped out of hyperspace just before I called you. The last I saw, they were going after the last ISD not already in flames."
"I see," Vader said. "I'm sorry things have gone so poorly. If you can make it to an escape pod, I might consider sending someone to pick you up eventually, only because you did win the battle on the planet. You can consider yourself demoted though, Lieutenant," Vader finished with pointedly before abruptly turning off the comm.
Veers sighed in relief. That had actually gone much better than expected. He made the call to abandon ship and took off at a run with the rest of his bridge officers, praying that they made it to the escape pods before the ship blew up.
Vader turned away from the holo emitter and went back to the windows to stare out at the asteroid field. Kenobi hadn't been lying when he said the boy had a large number of people willing to die for him. He was guessing the shielded fighters were Thrawn's Defenders that Lothal had claimed for themselves. The Mandalorians were a surprise of sorts. Although now that he thought about it, he was pretty sure one of Jedi Jarrus' associates had been a Mandalorian Countess. Or was it the heir to the Countess? Whatever. It made no difference either way. Ever since the Mandalorians had won their world back, neither Vader nor the Emperor had been interested in trying to reclaim it. Just like Lothal, it had lost its usefulness and would be better left as an example to blow up later when the second Death Star was completed. The Corvette and the X-Wings were self explanatory, being typical Rebel ships.
Vader spared a brief thought for the boy's mother, wondering who the Jedi had a relationship with before he died, but decided it was unimportant. If the Rebels were that determined to protect the green haired boy, they'd probably be just as enthusiastic about his mysterious mother. Wait. Green hair. Pointed ears. Twi'lek hybrid. Vader smiled. Sort of. He knew the mother. General Syndulla the second. Quite the family, that one, always causing the Empire grief like a pesky mosquito.
If the Jedi brat survived the destruction of the glacier, the Rebellion was welcome to him. By the time he was old enough to do any damage as an actual Jedi, Vader fully intended to have all of the boy's associated worlds obliterated and the Rebellion thoroughly squashed. And if things played out the way he hoped, he'd have his son at his side and Darth Sidious would be no more. Vader would take over ruling the galaxy, the way he'd planned since the day he'd realized that his Master had lied to him about Padme and his child.
As the surviving Imperial forces flew their escape pods in the general direction of an asteroid field about a two hour flight away in a crawling pod, Sabine opened a general comm channel to everyone who'd shown up to fight the battle with her, many of which she hadn't been expecting. She hadn't heard back from Ezra, which she hoped meant that Ezra was still with Jacen, but continued on with her plan anyway.
"Thank you, everyone, for helping with that. It's been a long time since I got to hand the Imps their asses on a platter, and I have to say, that was rather fun." Sabine heard quite a lot of laughter and agreements in response over the comm. "I'm heading down to the base now. You can stay if you want. All I know for sure is that Jacen is down there somewhere, buried, but presumably alive."
She closed the comm and flew down to the base. Or at least, what was left of it. Somehow, she wasn't surprised when every ship and fighter followed her. As Sabine got closer, she could see the ruins of the battle, lit by the reflection of two of Hoth's three moons on the white snow. There were downed AT-ATs and snowspeeders, bodies everywhere with wampas already feasting on them, and the blackened circle that used to be the shield generator. Sabine narrowed her eyes in anger at the nearest wampa eating a body and fired at it. Soon, every wampa had been taken out as the other fighters followed her lead.
Sabine landed the Lothhawk near the ruined base, but away from the bodies. She walked down the ramp and up to where the big hangar door used to be, staring at the mass of snow particles and ice chunks that was once a glacier with hallways and rooms and people running through it. She was so dismayed at what she saw, she barely even felt the chill of the Hoth night, which was twice as cold as the day.
Sabine stood there so long that her mother, Tristan, Ketsu, Bo-Katan and her husband, Fenn Rau-Kryze, Kallus, and a dozen other leaders of various clans came to stand beside her, with the rest of the roughly three hundred people falling into rough lines behind them.
"How are we supposed to find one small boy in all of that?" someone that Sabine didn't know finally voiced from behind her.
Sabine shook her head, because she didn't know. A scanner would never give an accurate reading through that much snow.
Ezra opened his eyes as he felt Sabine's presence draw near. He also felt her despair, which would never do. Ezra cleared his throat quietly to get the attention of Kanan and Obi-Wan, not wanting to wake up Jacen who'd fallen into an exhausted slumber more than an hour ago. Frankly, Ezra was impressed with how long the boy had lasted. His little brother was already way stronger than Ezra had been in the Force when Ezra was four times as old. When the other two Jedi opened their eyes and acknowledged Ezra with a curious look, Ezra nodded in the general direction of his wife. "Sabine's here. I need to go show her where to dig or we could be here forever," he whispered.
Kanan and Obi-Wan just nodded, resigned to taking even more of the load.
"I'll be back as fast as I can," Ezra promised before disappearing and reappearing beside Sabine. He heard a rather large gasp in chorus behind them but ignored it.
Sabine looked at him, relief in her eyes, noting how transparent his image was compared to normal and the exhaustion on his face. "Ezra. Thank the Force. Please tell me you know where Jacen is?"
Ezra nodded and led the giant group of people around the width of the glacier bits to the far side and about half a kilometre down before leaping up onto the mess. Ezra closed his eyes, clasped his hands together and pushed them apart out to the sides in a flinging motion, sending a large amount of the debris flying, leaving a fair sized crater a few metres in front of him. He turned to Sabine as she clambered up and stood beside him. He nodded to the hole he made. "He's down there, maybe another five metres deep. I wish I could dig out more for you, but I have to go help hold the shield again. Kanan and Obi-Wan are getting very tired."
Sabine nodded, face set in determination, noting that he didn't mention his own depletion of energy. "Don't worry. We'll work fast."
Ezra brushed a ghostly hand over her cheek in loving gratitude and disappeared again.
Sabine turned to her mother, who had climbed up behind her. "Please tell me you brought the shovels?"
Ursa nodded and sent a look to Tristan, who immediately gathered up a vast group of Clan Wren and they took off back to the ships in a brisk jog, used to running in the snow. She put a supporting hand on Sabine's shoulder. "Don't worry, daughter. We'll rescue the little ad'ika. There are many hands here. The work will go quickly."
There were enough shovels and space to work for about half of the people there. Kallus took control of the rest and organized a retrieval of the deceased, wrapping up what was left of the remains and putting them in the cargo hold of the corvette. They'd figure out who was who later.
Despite the large number of people helping, it took an hour to remove five metres worth of ice chunks and snow. There was a cheer as the people who were anything but cold despite the very sub zero temperatures finally caught sight of the top of the shield and the four figures inside it, lit by the blue glow of Kanan's faithful lightsabre.
Sabine tossed her shovel aside as it became clear that they'd dug far enough and were practically standing on top of the shield. "Now what?" she called down to Ezra from her perch on the sloped snow.
Ezra looked up at her with a tired smile on his face. "We're going to drop the shield and throw him up to you at the same time. The snow might collapse, so you should all get up higher. Don't worry about us though. Kanan and Obi-Wan will go back into the Force and I'll go back to my body. Don't expect me for my next usual visit, though, cyar'ika. I'll probably be sleeping, but I promise I'll see you again in a day."
Sabine smiled understandingly and blew him a kiss, which made him grin a little. Just before she turned to scramble up higher with the others who'd already started to retreat, Kanan called to her.
"Sabine, tell Hera that I'll come see her as soon as I've recharged a little."
"Don't worry, Kanan, I will," she called back, then made for the top of the snow pile. "I'm ready," she called down.
Ezra tucked Kanan's lightsabre into Jacen's backpack and then lifted the boy up with the Force. He nodded at Kanan and Obi-Wan and they dropped the shield at the same time that Ezra flung Jacen up to Sabine's waiting arms with a big Force push. Without the support of the shield, the snow immediately began to shift around and collapse. The three Jedi were long gone before their space was filled in.
Sabine held Jacen tightly as the snow moved around under her feet for half a minute and then settled again. She gazed down into his peaceful looking face while he slept, completely oblivious to the fact that he'd been rescued and that three different factions of Rebels had rescued him. She hugged him closer with one arm while the other hand brushed a lock of green hair to the side fondly. "You are one lucky kid," she whispered to him. Sabine walked carefully over the snow to the edge of what used to be a glacier and stopped for a moment so everyone could see that they'd been successful. The cheer that erupted made her smile and want to hold him up like a prize trophy, but she refrained. Instead, she handed him down to Tristan, who handed him to Kallus and so on until he made it back down to ground level.
Sabine climbed down the snowy mess just as the Ghost appeared in the sky above them, practically jumping right into the atmosphere if Sabine wasn't mistaken. She thought about chiding Hera for taking such a risk, but then thought that if she'd been in the same position, she might have done the same. Sabine retrieved a still sleeping Jacen from her mother and walked quickly over to where the Ghost had landed as close to the people as it safely could. The ramp opened and Hera ran down, followed by Chopper and the guys. There were tears streaming from her eyes as she met Sabine halfway and practically snatched her son from Sabine's arms.
Hera hugged her son close, crying into his hair, so thankful that he seemed alright, if sleeping soundly. After a few minutes, she managed to get herself together enough and look up at all the people who'd come to rescue her son. "Thank you," she whispered, as that's all that came out of her closed throat. Hera wiped her eyes and cleared her throat and tried again, calling out in nice loud voice that could be heard by all. "Thank you. Thank you so much. I owe you all a great debt."
The Countess was the first to shake her head, stepping forward and meeting Hera's eyes. "You owe us nothing, Hera. You and yours have done so much for the galaxy, we all owe you. Rescuing your son is an honour that Clan Wren is proud to do."
Every single person nodded in agreement with the Countess and smiled at Hera. Hera smiled gratefully back, squeezing Jacen to her just a little tighter.
Jacen finally woke up, blinking his eyes sleepily and then smiling at his mama, reaching up to touch the tear streaks on her face. "Mama, you wouldn't believe the great adventure I had while you were gone!"
Hera choked on a laugh / sob and buried her face in his hair for a moment before meeting his smiling eyes. "You'll have to tell me all about it, baby."
So Jacen did, wrapping his arms around his mama's neck as she walked back towards the Ghost. "First, Unkie Luke went missing and then Mr. Solo went to find him in the cold..."
Sabine couldn't help the dopey smile she was wearing as she watched mother and son retreat to the safety of the Ghost, followed by her crew except for Zeb, who'd made a beeline for Kallus to talk to in a very animated fashion. She glanced at her own mother, who stood at her side. "I guess we all go home now."
The Countess nodded slowly, looking back at the crowd who'd already had the same idea for the most part. "I guess we do." Ursa touched her daughter's cheek with the back of her fingers gently. "Until the next time we meet, daughter." The Countess turned and started organizing her Clan, who were already gathering up shovels and heading back to their ships.
Ketsu strolled up to Sabine and gazed after the Countess. "You know, Sabine? If I'd made a bet six years ago that you and your mother would never act like you were related again, I would have lost big time."
Sabine chuckled. "I would have lost, too. It's ironic that it was Jedi that brought us back together and actually made our relationship better than it ever was. I don't know if she's realized that yet."
Ketsu grinned. "I won't tell her if you won't."
Sabine sighed as they started trudging through the snow back towards Ketsu's purple streaked Defender. "I wish the same had happened for you and your father."
Ketsu shrugged. "I wish I could say that too and that it didn't still hurt, but I'm okay with it. I have a wonderful husband and son and a best friend who would fly across the galaxy to rescue us if it ever came to that. What more can a girl ask for?"
Sabine smiled and pulled Ketsu into a very quick hug. "Nothing, Ketsu, but we still unofficially belong to Clan Crazy."
Ketsu burst into laughter and started climbing up the wing of her Defender. "And I wouldn't have it any other way!" she called over her shoulder.
Sabine laughed as well. "I'll see you at home in a bit. I'm going to spend a few hours with Hera first."
Ketsu nodded in understanding just before dropping into the hatch of her fighter.
Not far away, Sabine spotted Bo-Katan and Fenn climbing up the ramp of their ship. She ran over, catching the Mand'alor's attention with a call. They turned back around and smiled warmly at Sabine with questioning expressions. Sabine stopped at the bottom of the ramp. "I just wanted to thank you for helping. I thought when I called my mother that I would be shot down. I was surprised when she agreed to come. I was even more surprised when you and the other Clans showed up with her."
Bo-Katan shrugged with a smile shining from her green eyes. "Your mother was hosting a Clan meeting. When we heard where she was going, the rest of us couldn't let your Clan have all of the fun. It's been about a year since we've had a proper battle to fight as well. I think we all enjoyed it. I may even consider allowing those who wish to to join General Syndulla's Rebellion. There's more than one warrior getting restless in our Clan and I'm sure other Clans have the same problem. We don't know how to be peaceful for long. Better to fight the Empire than ourselves."
Sabine blinked for a moment and then smiled widely. "I'm sure Hera would be thrilled to have our warriors join her cause. We Mandos are the best fighters in the galaxy after all."
Bo-Katan grinned back. "Perhaps a slight exaggeration, but I won't dispute it." She shared an amused smile with Fenn and they said their farewells to Sabine before continuing up the ramp into their Kom'rk fighter.
Sabine waved goodbye as their fighter took off, followed by the rest of the Mandalorians and the Defenders. She turned to where Zeb and Kallus were still talking and walked over to them. Sabine raised a brow at Kallus. "You surprised me when you showed up."
Kallus raised his own brow in return, a small smile tilting his lips up. "You surprised me as well when we dropped out of hyperspace to a battle already taking place. I never even thought that you would be here too."
Sabine grinned. "You should know me better than that by now, Kallus. My family means everything to me and I will do anything to keep them safe. I heard Jacen was in trouble and poof! Here I am." She looked at him curiously. "How did you know Jacen needed help?"
Kallus shrugged, hands tucked into his pockets as he finally started to feel the cold now that he wasn't working anymore. "I actually didn't. Not for sure. But I had a feeling. So I came running."
Zeb clapped his friend on the back with a grin. "Perhaps you're turning into a Jedi, Kal," he teased.
Kallus rolled his eyes. "I better not be. We have enough craziness in this family without my going all spooky too."
Sabine smiled and watched them banter back and forth for a few more minutes, wishing her own spooky Jedi could be here in person. She sighed to herself and headed for the Ghost with a wave goodbye to Kallus. Sabine wanted to spend some time with Hera, just knowing that Hera would need the support of another girl right now. Sabine knew how terrified she'd felt about the whole buried Jacen thing. She couldn't imagine how much worse Hera had it. It didn't even bear thinking about what would have happened to Jacen if he didn't have a ghost for a father who could appear in an instant. Sabine was glad she wasn't raising a child in this war torn galaxy. Even if Lothal was peaceful right now, there was no guarantee that it would stay that way. Until the Empire was defeated for sure, Sabine was content with her life as just a wife, albeit a part time one for the moment. If wishing could have changed that to full time, Sabine would have had Ezra back four years ago.
Just before walking up the ramp, Sabine stopped and looked up at the stars. "Hurry up and find him, Ahsoka. I want my Ez'ika," she whispered.
A/N: So I had some delusions of grandeur when I first envisioned this chapter. In my original mind draft, I had Obi-Wan and Vader fighting it out with lightsabres (Obi-Wan was using Kanan's.), and Obi-Wan kicked Vader's butt from one side of the base to the other, possibly even chopping off an arm or two. (Something we all wished had been in Episode IV, I'm sure.) Unfortunately I couldn't make this work for two reasons. One, I'm really not that good at writing fight scenes, so I couldn't even begin to do it justice. (My dad suggested I get some actors and cameras and film it. I replied I would need a few million to do the scene in my head and he laughed.) Two, I couldn't figure out how to get Kanan's lightsabre out of the shield without Vader taking advantage and getting in.
The other thing I had planned for this chapter was for Jacen to actually get caught by Vader and they would have to rescue him from the Executor, which would have been a very convoluted scene that I just couldn't figure out how to fit within the bounds of the movie. What I did write, I think does fit within the movie with maybe only one or two tiny plot holes that I might have missed, but I spent days researching as many facts as I could to make this as canon compliant as possible. (Silly, I know, considering a good chunk of my story is anything but, but I just felt like it needed to be that way.)
Anyway, I hope you liked what I did write. I agonized over this chapter forever. It has a million scene changes that I hope flowed well enough, and another million characters who all wanted screen time in my head but the chapter would have gone on forever if I actually gave them all the time they deserved. (My apologies to the characters, but they'll have to wait for their individual stories to get written properly.) For now, you guys are just going to have to imagine Hera's agonizing five hour journey from Endor to Hoth, Kallus' conversation with Mothma and Ackbar when he said he was going on an apparent wild goose chase, Sabine's conversation with her mother when she asked for more help, and so on and so forth.
Thank you for reading.
TheLoneRebel & MaybeImARebel