Athena kept her head down as she trudged along down yet another grey hallway.
Grey. Grey. It was all she ever saw.
The Sith Lord was yet to leave her presence. He kept her surrounded by the Death Troopers, armed with electrocuting weapons - long staffs with two prongs at the ends. They weren't deadly, but they were painful.
It had been hours since she was taken into Imperial custody. They kept moving her around. They kept taking her to different places. They even moved her from one Super Star Destroyer to a regular Star Destroyer.
Athena couldn't help but feel a storm of emotions.
She had saved her family. She got them out of harm's way - but at what cost? This was her family's worst fear. Their whole mission at one point was to keep her away from this exact situation. From being in the hands of the Empire. It was as if she'd failed her Master. She failed Ahsoka - the woman who put all of her hope into her.
This wasn't some game.
She was supposed to fight Abeloth one day, and now she was in the hands of the Empire? How was that supposed to work? If she wanted to defeat a monster, she needed to be on the good guy's side, right?
Chains clattered and clanged now. Around each of her upper arms there was a tight band of metal attached to chains each held by a Death Trooper. On each ankle, more chains. Around her waist - more chains.
She didn't dare escape. She could barely escape Second Brother with the help of Kanan. She had no chance.
It was all so dark. It was so cold.
Then, she felt a light.
The girl carefully picked up her head a little as she felt a ping in the Force.
She couldn't see anything but the black cape in front of her, but she could feel something just beyond them.
The Sith Lord stopped the group and began to speak to someone in front of him. "Agent Kallus, were there any rebel casualties from your encounter over Geonosis?"
A man with an Imperial accent responded. A voice Athena recognized belonging to a blonde guy with mutton chops.
"No, my Lord."
She poked her head slightly around the side of the dark figure in front of her. Her eyes widened as she caught eye of a glowing rock in the ISB agent's hand. The rock she had given Zeb.
No casualties. They were all safe.
"Does not matter, we got what the Emperor requested," Vader spoke.
"Friend…" Athena mumbled. She remembered that word was the reason she made that rock for Zeb. Then it clicked. The Force wanted her to make that rock for a 'friend' to end up with.
She then managed to make eye contact with the ISB agent. He was wide-eyed to see the girl. "The Goddess Inferna?"
"That is just a myth the pitiful people of Bakunyuu fabricated," the Sith Lord said. "You are dismissed, Agent Kallus."
Athena sniffled a couple of times before a stream of spit forcefully erupted from her mouth in a sneeze.
She let out a scream of agony as electricity crackled across her body - the prongs of the Death Troopers' weapons stabbing into her back. She fell to the ground in agony and her muscles twitched. Her heart palpated and she lost control of her body as it seized on the ground.
The ISB agent was frozen in fear as he watched the Troopers dressed in black attack the girl. As her body began to twitch from the remnants of electricity, she was met with the hash boots of the Death Troopers. They kicked her until she spat out blood.
The Sith Lord turned and put his hand up to signal the halt of the assault.
They soon brought her back up to her feet, held up by the chains. Blood dripped from her mouth and nose. Her teal eyes looked at the agent.
She knew her mind-reading abilities were shaky, but she did her best to get through to Kallus.
"Is this really the place you want to stay?"
Agent Kallus sat in solitude in his silent quarters. A golden, glowing rock with a dwindling warmth in his shaky hands.
That lasat saved his life on Bahryn. He had every right and every chance to kill him, but let him live. Even when that entire mission above Geonosis was to capture one of his beloved crewmates, the lasat still treated him with honor. He even gave him the rock that Athena Jarrus had made for him.
He looked into the glowing light, thinking how that girl called a monster by his own emperor also indirectly saved his life on that icy moon. Without this source of heat - they would have frozen to death within an hour.
And how did he thank that lasat and that girl?
He took a piece of that lasat's family away. He'll never forget that stare the lasat gave him before he had rejoined the remaining rebels - learning the news of Athena's capture. The glance of utter hurt and betrayal.
The girl - she was now in the hands of a being of utter abhorrence. A machine with no remorse. The screams she let out when the troopers electrocuted her for a simple sneeze - it was inhumane. Kallus couldn't help but to see a small child at that moment instead of the murderous monster the Empire painted her out to be.
It had been a couple rotations since then, but the rock still gave him warmth. It still reminded him of the unconditional care those rebels had for each other; a stark contrast to the cold embrace of the Empire.
He grabbed his bo-rifle and pointed it upward as a rustle erupted from the vent above his head. The noise hustled to the other side of his quarters. The grate to the air duct soon swung open.
A blonde ponytail. Kallus blinked in confusion.
Then, a girl's head. A girl with teal eyes.
"You." Kallus aimed for the child's head with a shaky finger on the trigger. "You escaped?!"
She put a finger to her mouth, "Shh. You know Zeb, right?"
He was about to reach for his com, but it soon flew into the girl's hands. Same with his bo-rifle. With both of the objects in hand, she softly leaped down from the vent and looked to him. Her eyes filled to the brim with fear. Muscles tense.
"I don't have much time before they realize I'm gone," her voice was tight. "Just...listen."
"What...do you want?" he eyed the girl carefully.
"I...had a premonition that whoever ended up with that rock would become a very good friend of mine. I pray that you and I will be on the rebel side when that happens," her eyes were unyielding. "You don't like it here? Do you?"
"I- I am loyal-"
She shut her eyes and held out a hand in his direction. When she opened her eyes, her voice was even softer than before. "They don't treat you well here. Your leg is shattered - a measly bacta patch around it."
"The Empire treats me perfectly fine," he snapped.
She tossed his com and bo-rifle to the side and stepped towards him. He froze as she placed her hands on his forehead. He remembered watching her injure and kill multiple Stormtroopers with ease on Bakunyuu. Her lava was potent. She was truly dangerous beyond all belief.
Then...his leg. It felt warm and fuzzy. When she took her hands away from his head, she stepped back. "Your leg is healed."
The ISB agent paused. He looked down to the leg once shattered and burning with a constant ache of pain. He could move his toes, his ankle, his knee. It no longer ached. "You...can heal?"
"You helped Zeb, I can tell. So I will help you."
"How...exactly are you planning to help me?"
"Getting you out of here. I don't have a chance, but you do." she stated. "I am risking my life just to give you the option of leaving this place. To lead your own life."
"You risked your life, with Lord Vader as your warden, to...give me an option?" Kallus squinted in confusion at the girl.
The girl looked to the crate at the foot of his bed. She brought her hand out and used the Force to swiftly drag the datapad that laid atop of it into her hand. She quickly began to write something.
She handed over the tablet, "They will help you."
He looked over the datapad in hand and looked to the girl with confusion ridden across his face. "What...do you want me to tell them?"
"That you want to get out of here."
Kallus sighed and contemplated it. This kid was currently risking everything for him - all for this little note she scribbled down.
"Is...there anything you want me to tell your rebel friends if I do decide to talk to them?'
He could almost see tears well up in her eyes and her voice was tight. "Tell them I'll do my best. Tell them that the true form of myself will always love them and whatever I might become is not a true representation of who I am."
"What you might become?"
"They...never told you why they captured me instead of killing me, did they?" she scoffed.
He shook his head.
Her eyes were stone cold. "You and I may become friends, but you better pray that it's when we are with the rebels. If not - the fear your heart contains when near Vader will be but an inkling in comparison to the terror you will feel when you stand near whatever monster they turn me into."
"They- you're going to be an Inquisitor?"
"We'll see."
She walked back across the room, stopping under the vent, and turned to the man once more. She was about to re-enter the belly of the beast. The never-ending Hell of all Hells.
"May the Force be with you."
And she disappeared.
Kallus sat alone in his quarters once again. The glowing rock sitting beside him now emitting more heat and light than ever before.
A child Inquisitor? She...what…? Kallus' stomach churned to think about it. The Empire somehow forcing people like that girl to become the beings of horror used to hunt down Jedi.
That lasat gave him a fighting chance. Zeb gave him the option to come with the rebels or go back with the Empire. Zeb gave him the chance to live to fight another day. Zeb did not kill an unarmed man. Zeb was welcomed back into his family with a moment of cheers and celebration - they were so worried about him.
The Empire electrocuted and beat a girl relentlessly after a meager sneeze. They kicked her helpless body as she laid on the ground, arms cuffed behind her back. They dragged her away with chains on her arms and legs. The news of her absence was met with despair amongst her rebel friends.
Kallus was welcomed back with cold nods and the blatant statement of his title and name. No one cared if he were alive or dead. They did not even question his severe limp.
Athena now gave him a second chance to join these rebels. A simple piece of contact information with the name 'Fulcrum' written above it and a simple message. She healed his leg and gave him a spark of hope and all she wanted in return was to tell the rebels that she loved them.
He was not about to let these efforts go to waste.
He may not have been ready to leave the Empire just yet, but he wanted to act honorable for once in his life. He may not have had someone to tell 'I love you' to, but that girl did. That lasat did. Those two rebels risked their lives to help him, so the least he could do was give the other rebels an inkling of relief. He could at least let them know that that girl loved her family.
Ahsoka sat near the radio in solitude as a single tear rolled down her face.
Athena was truly something else. Even when she was in the Empire's custody, she managed to help the rebels in any way she could.
She got them a new Fulcrum. An invaluable friend inside the Empire.
Not only that, she let her Master know that she was still thinking of them. She let her know that she was fighting her best fight.
There was a thick haze of uncertainty for the destiny of the Force now that Athena was captured, but that girl did what she knew best.
She made a spark. She gave a spark of hope in the darkest of times.
