Zeb cheered as he collected the pile in the center of the table - the three cards lying on the table showing an Idiot's Array. Athena and Ezra groaned as they threw down their cards, sitting on the opposite side of the kitchen table. Snacks replaced credits for this game.

"I swear you gotta be cheating at this!" Ezra complained. "There's no way you can win three times in a row."

"He doesn't have any sleeves, so he doesn't have that advantage for cheating," Athena shrugged. "I straight up suck at this game since it's new to me, so what's your excuse?"

"Rude." Ezra rolled his eyes.

"I guess you could call us an array of idiot's," Athena nudged his shoulder as she chuckled.

"You are so annoying," Ezra sighed.

"Oh how the tables have turned," Zeb joked. "But hey, as long as we're all friends at the end of the day."

"You're only saying that because you won," Ezra said, crossing his arms over his chest.

Athena paused, slightly squinting her eyes as she looked into nothing. There was a buzz in the back of her head. Something was telling her something. She didn't know why, but the word 'friends' stuck out to her when Zeb said it. Something in the Force was trying to tell her something.

"Hey, kid, you're zoning out. You okay?" Zeb asked.

She shook her head, blinking herself out of the daze. She looked to her lasat friend and offered a small smile, "Yeah. I'm good."

About an hour later, Athena sat in the cargo bay of the Ghost. A glowing lump of rock glowed a bright yellow and orange as it floated between her hands. Her slicked back hair was the same color, tied into a ponytail similar to her brother's . The chunk of material between her hands was none other than some of the left-over lava she had practiced with on Bakunyuu. This particular clump wasn't a good viscosity to make armor, but it was beginning to work as a great heater.

Something nagged at her to make this glowing rock of warmth. Something was egging her on to give it to Zeb. It was illogical and had little to no reasoning behind it, but she did it anyway.

When her creation was complete, she held the warm rock in her hands to examine it. It did not have a burning touch, but rather everlasting warmth. Warmth that seeped through the skin and into the bone in a blissful manner. Warmth that would keep any being alive in the bitter cold. Most of it was a glowing orange and yellow, but some of it was ashy grey. It reminded Athena of a mythical dragon's egg.

A set of feet descended the yellow ladder not too far from the girl. She looked up to see a boy with orange clothes and blue hair.

Ezra waved as he approached her, "Hey, whatcha doing?"

Athena held up the warm rock as she stood up. "Oh, just making a silly rock."

Ezra took the warm rock in hand, looking at it with intrigue. "Wow, is this old lava?"

She nodded, "Yeah, some leftover stuff from my lava armor."

"Cool," Ezra smiled and handed the rock back to Athena. "I wish I could do stuff like that. You're so cool."

Athena slightly blushed and rolled her eyes, "Ah, shut it. It's nothing."

"If it's nothing, why are you blushing?" Ezra teased.

"You are so weird," Athena said.

"Says you," Ezra jabbed.

Athena rolled her eyes again, crossing her arms in front of her chest. She met Ezra's blue eyes and paused. She hadn't put much thought to it, but Ezra really was becoming a best friend to her. Even though she could tell he harbored some feelings of infatuation towards her, he stuffed them as far down as he could for the good of their friendship. He listened to her, laughed with her, played games with her, and accepted her into the family so well. They bonded. She'd never had this kind of bond with another teenager.

Something was nagging her again. Something in the back of her head was nibbling at her mind. Telling her to do something.

"We should be arriving near Geonosis here soon," Ezra said. "Something about a construction module."

The boy with blue hair stumbled back a little as he felt two arms wrap around him. He was wide-eyed to see Athena quickly engulfing him in a hug. Her chin rested on his shoulder.

Ezra let out a chuckle of disbelief as Athena held him in this hug. "Hey, what's all this about?"

She spoke softly, almost as if she were frightened. "I don't know why, but I know that something is going to be different after today. I just...I just want to let you know that I appreciate you. For being such a great friend."

Ezra knitted his eyebrows in confusion. Athena let him go and he met her eyes. "You...did you have a vision?"

"No, it's just a gut feeling," Athena admitted. "You've been a great friend to me all this time I've been here. I can tell you're doing your best to stuff down your feelings for me out of respect, and I really appreciate it."

Ezra blushed and rubbed the back of his neck, "Well...yeah-I-"

"We can work something out, I think," Athena blurted it out. "I-I think it can work a little."

Athena took a step forward and quickly kissed the left side of his face - right on top of the two lines the Grand Inquisitor's lightsaber had carved into his skin. Her lips were so soft.

Ezra blinked. His hands were tingly and his body paralyzed. His heart beat like a war drum.

Athena took a step back and smiled as she met Ezra's eyes. "After this mission, maybe we'll talk about it."

Even when the girl left the cargo bay, the boy was still paralyzed. His face was plastered with the color pink. The memory of her lips on the side of his face lingered.

After a minute or so, Rex came down the ladder and stood on the platform above the cargo bay. The clone looked to the boy with curiosity.

"Kid, you alright?"

Ezra's body let out a chuckle and he gained some control over his body back. He had a stupid grin on his face.

"Alright then," Rex rolled his eyes before heading off to the lower turret gun. He was weirded out by the boy's strange demeanor, but didn't care to ask about it.

When Ezra finally regained his cognitive clarity, he dashed out of the cargo bay. He sprinted to his cabin, a giant grin on his face to greet his confused cabinmate. The lasat held the glowing rock in hand as he sat in solitude in his bunk. His ears stuck up as he heard the boy enter their cabin.

"What's with that stupid look?" Zeb chuckled.

The door closed behind the boy and he took a step into the cabin. He threw his hands up as he kept his grin. "She kissed me! She kissed me!"

Zeb blinked a couple of times, then, he laughed. "The girl must be going crazy. First she told me to keep this weird-lookin' rock on me during our mission, then she kissed you?"

Ezra excitedly pointed to the left side of his face. "On the cheek! Right here! She said we can work it out! She wants to work something out!"

"Aw, how cute," Zeb chortled. "See? I told you to just wait."

Ezra was about jumping up and down with excitement. He could hardly contain it all. Just as he was about to say something, the door behind him opened. The boy turned to see Kanan.

"Hey, does anyone know why Athena is being so weird today?" Kanan questioned, holding up his mother's holocron and bracelet in his right hand. "She gave me our mom's stuff and seemed really out of it. She told me to keep them in my cabin for some reason."

"Yeah, she gave me this glowing rock and told me to hold on to it for some reason," Zeb stood, displaying the golden stone.

"Did she have some sort of vision?" Kanan was confused more than ever. He looked to a nervous Ezra. "What about you? Did she give you anything or say something?"

"Uh...she hugged me," Ezra shrugged, trying to suppress his blushing. It did not work.

"So that's why you're weird," Kanan figured, shrugging. He looked to Zeb. "Maybe she's having some kind of premonition that we need these items. Maybe they'll come to our use."

Zeb chuckled, "Alright. I guess I'll go with this Jedi-stuff. It's helped us before."

"Her senses have greatly helped us before, I agree," Kanan said. "But I don't know what's going through her head. She seems really weird today."

"Eh, she's a kid. She should be good as soon as this mission is over," Zeb shrugged.

Ezra offered, "Maybe she's just worried about this mission. It's the first she's gone on with us."

Kanan nodded, "That's a good possibility."

"I don't know in what situation I'd need this specific warm rock, but I guess I could bash some bucket heads in with this thing," Zeb chuckled as he lightly tossed it in the palm of his hand.

"Suit up, we should be there in a couple minutes," Kanan said before walking away.

Ezra soon found himself sitting in the green chair of the Ghost's cockpit. Sabine sat in front of him in the co-pilot seat next to Hera. Zeb sat in the chair next to him. Kanan was in the top turret gun, Rex in the bottom turret gun. Athena hand one hand on the back of Ezra's seat as Rae stood by her.

When they jumped out of hyperspace, a giant orange planet with rings around it appeared in front of them. Kilometers of old Imperial junk floating around the old planet.

"Rebel intelligence was right," Ezra said, leaning forward to look at the planet better. "The Empire was building something out here."

"Yeah, but what? I've never seen an orbital construction field this big," Sabine said.

"The Geonosians made weapons back in the Clone War. Whatever they were up to, I'm betting we're not gonna like it," Kanan said from his top turret gun seat.

"What kind of project were they working on? This is gigantic," Rae's eyes scanned over the space debris.

"Must've been huge if they had to build it up here instead of down on a surface," Zeb commented.

Rae looked to her Earthling friend to see her teal eyes carefully study the orange planet. She remained eerily silent. She gripped the chair in front of her with one hand, not making a single sound.

"Chopper, run a planetary scan," Hera ordered the droid.

The droid beeped a few times and rolled over to the wall beside Athena. He plugged in and began the scan.

"Good idea," Rex said. "I know through experience the bugs down there don't take to unexpected guests."

After a few moments, Chopper let out a sting of beeps and whirrs. There was no life.

"No life?" Sabine questioned as she turned to the droid.

"You cross-wired? There are billions of bugs on Geonosis," Rex said. "Scan again."

Chopper concluded with the same result.

"He's right," Athena spoke in a soft voice. Goosebumps ran across her arms. "There's no life. It's all dead. All of it."

"Wait, Athena, are you telling me you can sense the entire planet?" Rex questioned. "I don't doubt Ahsoka's teachings, but that seems a little far fetched, even for you."

"There was great bloodshed here," she let out a soft sigh, keeping her eyes on the planet ahead of them.

"They're dead? All of them?" Ezra questioned.

"I don't like any of this," Zeb said, looking to Ezra and then Athena.

"We don't know that for sure," said Hera. "Let's check out that construction module."

"Ahsoka said there's some kind of tie in with the Earth people on this construction site, right?" Athena looked to Hera as the twi'lek navigated the ship to the construction module.

"She said that part may have been just a rumor," Hera reminded. "Your planet is very hard to get to and leave from, remember?"

"Second Brother managed to come and go as he pleased," Athena reminded.

The ship landed and the crew got ready to depart. Kanan came into the cockpit to go down the ladder and looked to the captain.

"Keep the ship running in case things-"

"Go as they usually do?" Hera remarked.

"Pretty much, yeah," Kanan chuckled and descended the ladder.

They met in the cargo bay for a brief moment. Kanan raised an eyebrow to see Athena not wearing her lava armor. She wore just a black tank top, dark pants, and her usual sneakers. Not very tactical.

"Alright, how about half of us go left, the others go right?" Rex suggested. "Two Jedi per team would make sense."

"Athena and I can go with you," Rae offered.

"Alright, let's go," Kanan encouraged as the ramp to the ship opened up.

Zeb strapped the satchel that held his glowing rock to his belt a little tighter and followed Ezra, Kanan, and Sabine to the hall to the left of the ship. Athena, Rae, and Rex went right.

Not even five steps off the ramp, Rex's team had wide-eyes as they encountered a pile of crates. Crates with an unusual rectangle painted on their sides.

"Shit, that's my country," Athena squatted down by crate, tracing her fingers around the red, white, and blue flag. She looked back to Rex and Rae. "Ahsoka's intel was right. The Empire's got some ties to my planet."

"We better get these in the ship," Rex said, looking at the stack of crates. Six of them.

Athena had to watch carefully as Rae and Rex pressed a button on the side of the crates. She followed their action and was surprised to see her crate float just above the ground. They quickly rushed them into the ship.

Rae and Athena were about to join Rex in getting their respective second crates when they froze. Momentarily paralyzed on the ramp, the two girls shared a glance.

"You sense it too?" Rae asked.

Athena nodded.

The Force may as well have been smacking her in the face at this point. But, Athena didn't take kindly to unclear messages. So, she took off running towards the cold shadows once again.

"Athena!" Rae shouted as she took off towards her friend. Rae glanced back to Rex as she continued to sprint across the platform. "Get the rest of those in the ship! I'll get her!"

Rex was shocked. It'd been a while since he saw a Jedi run off so unexpectedly. He shrugged and quickly put the rest of the crates into the cargo hold. The clone went back to the lower turret gun and called up to Hera.

"Ahsoka's intel was right. There were crates apparently connected to Athena's home planet."

"That's not good," Hera said. "What could they want with that planet?"

"We'll see. Those crates were locked, so I didn't want to waste time trying to open them."

"Where's Rae and Athena?"

"Athena ran off for some reason and Rae is chasing her," Rex responded.

Hera had her mouth open to question this act of irrationality from the Earthling, but was interrupted by the echo of a metal crash. Her eyes went wide as several AT-DPs emerged from the hangar.

"Aw great. As if this mission couldn't get any better!" Hera groaned. She pressed a few buttons and picked up her ship - knowing they were in for a fight.

"I got them!" Rex shouted, shooting at the Walkers.

Kanan soon got on the com, shouting, "Spectre 2, we're in the usual mess. Agent Kallus has joined us and there's some droid out there locking down doors."

"Agent Kallus, how lovely," Hera remarked.

"Chopper, go get that droid," Rex ordered.

The astromech soon barreled out of the ship, ready for murder once again.


Rae was just on the heels of Athena as she shouted, "Where are you going?! We're on a mission!"

Athena glanced to her friend, "You go back to the ship. I sense something up here and I wanna check it out."

"I sense it too and I sense we should go back!" Rae was getting worried now. It was getting colder. And colder. And colder.

Athena didn't stop until it was far too late. The girls froze in the hall as the door behind them quickly shut. Frost crept across the side of Athena's face.

The Earthling looked to her petrified friend as they both realized what they had done. "You need to get out of here."

"Me?! We both need to-" Rae halted as she saw Athena's eyes. They were stone cold.

Mechanical breathing echoed through the hall.

The fear. The anger. The hate.

The cold.

Athena stepped in front of Rae to face the dark hall ahead of them.

A single red blade.

Rae shakily raised her two purple blades up as she let out a shaky breath.

More darkness surrounded the Sith Lord. About a dozen men in black armor flanked behind him. Heavy-duty weapons and armor. Two green lights on the bottom of their black helmets.

"Death Troopers…" Rae murmured. Her friend was still in front of her, but no powers flashing just yet.

The amount of power this monster had was immense. It made Athena want to tremble. He was on a whole other plane than her. She may have been trained by the Ones - but this man could make the Son and Daughter bow down if he wanted to.

Athena slowed her breaths as she remembered Ahsoka's teaching. Calmer heads really do prevail in a fight like this. She took the silver cylinder from her belt and ignited the two iridescent blades.

Vader was impressed as well. He hadn't sensed this sort of presence since Mortis. The girl had the Force flow through her like no other being. Her grasp on the Force and her abilities were not like any Jedi before her. Standing in front of him, usually, the Sith Lord would feel the terror ooze from the doomed Jedi. This girl - she somehow managed to conceal it. The frost her family would see as a sign of her fear only confused the Sith Lord. Was this some sort of threat via her powers?

"You are strong with the Force, Syla Dume. You waste it with these Jedi-"

A rush of wind overcame him and his men. The heavy clomp of his foot took one step back as the black cape attached to his shoulders wiped in the wind. It was extremely cold.

His dark eyes looked in front of him to see a large wall of ice now separating him and the Jedi. The death troopers around him momentarily knocked back.

He looked to his men. "Dume is to be kept alive. I do not care for the other Jedi. She was useless as an Inquisitor trainee anyhow."

Athena's hair was white as she let out heavy breaths. Her frosty blue eyes were filled with fear as she looked back to her best friend in purple.

"Run. He's after me. You run."

"I can't leave you!" Rae stated. "I won't leave you!"

"Run!" Athena shouted over the crash of ice.

Shards of the cold solid flew at them as the Sith Lord held his hand in its direction. The girls shielded themselves from the blast.

Rae's purple blades and Athena's now white blades were soon clashing with a barrage of red bolts.

The Sith held his hand up and spoke. "Do not shoot at Dume. We need her alive."

They focused fire on Rae.

Rae was a skilled lightsaber combatant, but the Death Troopers were some of the most elite Imperial fighters. Athena attempted to assist her friend, but they couldn't do it all.

The girl with dark hair screamed in agony as a blaster bolt ripped through her leg. Another through her stomach.

Time slowed again for Athena.

Her fearful eyes looked to the monster in front of them. The machine who caused so much hurt within the galaxy - including her own family.

She made a decision.

Either she did something or her best friend died.

Athena's blades retracted back into their hilt and she stepped directly in front of Rae. One end of the cylinder pressed against the Earthling's chest as her fingers loomed over the button. She shouted.

"One more shot and I press this button!"

Rae was on her knee as she shakily held onto her sabers. Her vision was going blurry, but she could still see the girl in front of her threaten the killers ahead of them.

The troopers stopped and looked to Vader.

The Sith Lord was intrigued.

"I'm wanted alive, right?!" she shouted, legs trembling in fear as her shaky finger hovered above her lightsaber's button. "I die and you go back to your boss with nothing!"

"You would be so foolish in a time like this?" he questioned.

She barked, "What are you going to tell your boss when you show up with my corpse? That you killed another Dume? You'd only have one Dume left to capture and he don't have the powers I got. How is your boss going to feel about that?"

No one dared to move.

In that dark hall, there was purple behind her, red and black in front of her.

The air was thick with tension. Blasters pointed at the girl with a lightsaber hilt pointed to her heart, but none of them dared make a move.

"Take one step closer, I'll press the button, and it all ends," Athena stated as sweat beads began to form on her forehead.

"And what is to be of your friend when you die?" Vader reminded. "You may be the Emperor's main goal, but I refuse to go empty-handed on this mission. Your brother and his Padawan are on this module as well, no?"

Athena froze. She didn't think too far. She just figured that threat would be enough to ward them off. Get them to go away.

But if she did pull that trigger, Rae would be killed. Ezra would be killed. Rex, Sabine, Hera, and Zeb would be killed. Kanan would be captured.

She had some cards - but not very good ones.

There was no winning at this point. She was nowhere near the strength of this Sith Lord.

"I give myself as a prisoner and you don't lay a hand on my family," Athena stated, inhaling sharply. "Win-win, right? You get me and my crew goes home safe."

"Athena...no…" Rae's breaths were labored as she could barely hold herself up. Her vision was getting darker.

"I trade myself for my family's safety, okay?" Athena barked. "Your Emperor will be happy just to get a hold of me. Right?"

The red blade lowered to the Sith Lord's side and he carefully studied the Earthling. His mechanical breaths once again being the only sound in the dark hall.

"It is a deal."

"Athena, no!" Rae pled.

Athena shakily put her lightsaber hilt on her belt and looked to the Sith Lord. "But you have to promise not to go after my friends. None of the Ghost crew will be hunted by you anymore. Even the Jedi. Not Kanan, not Ezra, not Rae...no one."

"I agree to your conditions - as long as you do not resist capture."

Athena nodded. "I accept."

"Athena!" Rae was barely grasping onto consciousness.

The last thing Rae saw was Athena's teal eyes. The girl's frost melted away and she went back to her normal state. Her kind eyes and smile were the only things Rae saw as the darkness closed in around her.

She didn't even realize Athena was the one making her go to sleep.

It was an old trick taught to her by Son - a way to weaken an opponent's stamina and eventually put them to sleep.

She didn't need to see her friend's capture.

The Earthling looked to Vader. "Open these doors. I want her back with my crew."

The Imperial complied. The door behind them opened back up to the rest of the dark hall, a light at the end. But only for Rae.

Athena carefully squatted down next to her friend as the blasters of the Death Troopers followed her every movement. She timidly grabbed the com off Rae's belt as she placed a soft hand on her friend's back.

"Rebel Rachelle Styles down in the right wing. She'll need a pick up."

"Athena?! Where are you?!" Hera shouted over the com. "Get back to the ship! We're under attack!"

Athena sighed and spoke in a tight voice, "Hera, please tell the others I love them."

"Athena?" Hera called over the com. "What do you mean? Where are you?"

The girl made eye contact with the Sith Lord. She took a deep breath. "You guys were the only family I truly loved. Thank you."

The Earthling put the com back on her friend's belt and took away her hand. It was difficult to heal the wounds while also talking on the com, but she managed. The Imperials didn't even realize the girl with purple armor no longer had any damage. They just saw the Earthling put her hands on her head and slowly walk towards them in surrender.

Two metal gauntlets engulfed the entirety of her hands behind her back. A sense of immense dread filled the girl as she kept her head down, the heavy steps of the Sith Lord following her down the dark hall.

She shouldn't have been chasing shadows after all.


Hey, everyone. If you couldn't tell, I spliced this chapter inside of the episode "The Honorable Ones". Hope you enjoyed!