(A/N)- This fic has become something of an exercise in "How Many Times Can Tari Hurt Ezra (Again)". I make no apologies.
Disclaimer: Can I have Rebels at least? No? Okay then.
Chapter 5
The explosion rocked the ground, rending the air with a powerful boom, a pluming orange fireball that flared out into black smoke.
Sabine pulled down the arm she'd flung in front of her face to shield her eyes, rolling up from her crouch behind cover and already leaning into a dead sprint.
Hera called out sharply from behind her, reaching a futile hand, but Sabine paid no heed, not listening, her ears flooded with the roar of the explosion and resulting fire, heart pounding tightly inside her chest, the sole thought clanging inside her mind the horrible knowledge that Ezra had still been inside the facility.
So she ran, straight into the smoke and flames, desperately searching for him.
-SWR-
The smoke was chokingly thick, burning down his throat. Ezra gasped and coughed, struggling to breathe, stumbling down what he hoped was the right hallway.
It felt horribly like being back in the gas cloud of Clouzon-36 on that Mining Guild asteroid, when he couldn't get enough air, when the fumes had almost suffocated him.
He raised his head and looked through squinted, stinging eyes, but the smoke obscured everything, flooding the hallway with a thick haze. He could barely see past his own extended hand, as it searched for a wall to orient him.
Heat grew at his back. Still coughing, Ezra glanced behind him to note with dull dismay that the fire was rapidly spreading from the room he'd just left. He didn't know what had gone wrong, if the Imperials had accidentally fired on their own buildings or if Sabine's planted diversionary explosives had been ill-placed, but it had created a situation he assuredly did not want to be in.
If he could just see!
Flailing in the haze, he finally found the wall, and flatted a palm against it as he moved forward, pulling his collar up to try to block out the smoke.
His coughing fit didn't cease. He just continued hacking into the fabric with rasping, jagged breaths. As he felt his way forward his head grew lighter, fuzzier. He'd inhaled too much smoke, and now it was costing him.
Dizzy, he kept going, knowing that if he stopped he would regret it, trying to get to the next corner, the next room.
The air seemed thinner and thinner as he stumbled along.
-SWR-
Sabine pulled her frantic run to a stop as she came to a wall of smoke, reeling back as the ashen fog hit her nose.
She coughed a couple times, stumbling backwards and wishing for her helmet, carelessly left behind on the Ghost because she hadn't anticipated needing it.
Clearing her throat, she dropped her hand and called into the smoke.
"Ezra!" she cried, eyes darting frantically. "Ezra, where are you?!"
Her ears strained, keening for any kind of human noise under the hissing, spitting fire and the popping electronics.
Very faintly, she caught small, choked coughing noises.
Heart leaping, she pulled in a deep breath and plunged into the smoke, one hand up in front of her eyes, one on the wall.
She spotted the darker shape in the gray haze almost immediately. Ezra was moving weakly towards her, his steps faltering, knees collapsing him to the ground, his hand still desperately on the wall for some means to know where he was.
Sabine took three long steps and reached him, her hand already out and grabbing around his elbow, hauling him up.
His eyes looked unfocused and clouded, his head rolled a bit dizzily as she pulled him back up to his feet, both arms around his left elbow now, guiding him out of the smoke, out to clear air.
The two teens stumbled from the haze in a rush, Ezra's coughing loud and pronounced, horribly uneven, a dry sound rasping through his lungs each time.
Sabine pulled him closer, slinging an arm around his shoulder.
"It's okay," she promised him in a whisper, directing him quickly towards the door. "It's okay, I've got you. We're almost there."
He couldn't even respond, gasping desperately as the air grew cleaner.
-SWR-
They emerged from the doorway, and a rush of activity met them, Hera and Zeb and Kanan crowding all around, asking a thousand worried questions. Sabine gave short, quick answers, still in a slight daze, as she was forced to let go of Ezra so Kanan could take over.
Their retreat onto the Ghost was a blur, sounds blending into each other all around her, as Sabine coughed out the smoke and looked anxiously towards Ezra.
His eyes still looked way too dull and glazed over for her liking, even as Kanan brought him into the cargo hold and grasped him feverishly, whispering for him to breathe and focus like the words were some kind of magical incantation.
The adrenaline beat in frantic rhythms through her body until she finally saw Ezra's chest relax, expanding and decompressing in a way that seemed more natural.
She watched for several moments as Kanan helped him breathe properly, probably calming him through the Force, if the serene expressions that stole over their faces were any indication.
She wished she could have watched longer, but Hera was already in the cockpit and yelling for her to take a gunner position, so she turned towards the ladder and hauled herself up, stealing glances at Ezra to make sure he was okay before she pushed herself into the nose gun seat.
The familiar handles helped her forget about her worry as the streaking form of TIE fighters loomed in to harass them, becoming easy pickings for her rapid shots.
-SWR-
She expected she would be in for it once they made the jump to lightspeed, and peeled her hands off the triggers with a grimace as she pulled herself out of the gunner's seat, but to her surprise Kanan was already up in the cockpit and running interference with Hera.
"—says he couldn't have taken another step, was about to black out," she caught, as she approached the ladder.
Sabine slowed her steps, listening quietly. The light from the cockpit fell across her face softly.
She couldn't hear Hera's reply. But Kanan continued.
"Gonna need oxygen for a while, smoke inhalation was pretty bad. I don't want to think about what would have happened if she hadn't gone in for him."
A heavy sigh from Hera, and a muttered, "All right."
Grinning faintly, Sabine chose then to reach for the ladder rungs and climb up into the cockpit. She didn't say a word, just nodded to acknowledge them, before moving down the main hallway, a quiet sense of pride and relief inside her.
(A/N)- I had the hardest time coming up with a fifth scenario for this. I considered Imperials, bounty hunters, Jabba the Hutt, finally started getting somewhere with a trapped underwater idea before switching it to a burning building and having everything just sort of fall into place.
Next chapter, Ezra turns the tables. :)