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Family Drama
Damian looked up from his armor as Ezra walked in, sighing heavily. "What's up?"
"How long is this supposed to take?" Ezra asked. "It's been almost two months and she's still not talking to me. Well, almost never."
"She talked to you?" Damian asked, raising an eyebrow and setting his polishing rag aside.
"I got into a tight spot while we were getting the fuel on that last mission and some purrgils saved me," Ezra said. "When I got back, Sabine gave me a hug but then told me I was an idiot, then went back to ignoring me."
Damian chuckled. "You're making progress."
"How was that progress?" Ezra asked. "She got mad at me for something I couldn't control."
Damian chuckled. "She was worried about you enough that when she saw you were okay, she was relieved enough to hug you. She was mad at you for worrying her in the first place. The first part is progress. Don't worry about her getting mad at you. That actually becomes endearing."
"How is her being mad at me because of something I can't control endearing?" Ezra asked.
"Because it shows you that she cares," Damian said. "That she's afraid of losing you."
"Oh," Ezra said. "I still don't think I'm making that much progress."
"Just trust me," Damian chuckled. "I've got tons of experience, so I know what I'm talking about."
Ezra sighed and nodded. "We're heading to Ryloth, by the way."
"I heard," Damian nodded. "I'll be joining you for this one. We need that carrier."
Ezra nodded. They walked up to the command ship just as the Twi'leks they were supposed to be meeting with docked with the ship.
"How do I look?" Kanan muttered to Ezra.
"Same as always," Ezra said. "Why?"
"No reason," Kanan said. "Straighten up a little bit, you're making me look bad."
"What's the matter with you?" Ezra asked.
"Nothing," Kanan said. "So, just calm down."
"You calm down!" Ezra shot back, Damian snorting in amusement.
Just then, the door opened and three Twi'leks walked in. One was thin with tan skin, tattoos on his head, and had the bearing of a powerful leader, both physically powerful and also in a leadership capacity. He wore a blue shirt and pants with dirty, white armor plates on his chest and shoulders. The next was a heavy-set blue-skinned Twi'lek male with a brown shirt under white clone-style armor, a yellow strip up the outside of the right sleeve. The last was a petite, teal-skinned Twi'lek girl with a brown leather cap, black sleeves over most of her lekku starting from the ends, a black shirt under a brown vest, clone-style armor on her left arm, and brown pants.
"It's been a long time Father," Hera greeted the leader.
The Twi'lek ignored Hera, turning to Kanan, instead. "Ah, you must be the Jedi I've heard about."
"Jarrus," Kanan said, stepping forward nervously. "Kanan Jarrus, I've-" he cleared his throat, "-heard a lot about you too, sir." He bowed and the Twi'lek smirked. "This is the rest of our team. Ezra-" he gestured to Sabine, "-Sabine-" he pointed back at Zeb, "-and Zeb." he set a hand on Ezra's shoulder.
Damian rolled his eyes.
"A fine group of fighters," the Twi'lek smiled, eyes flicking over the faces, Damian seeing the gears turning in his head as he corrected the mistaken identities in his head. "Cham Syndulla, at your service."
"The Liberator of Ryloth?" Sabine asked. "I studied your Clone War tactics at the Academy."
Cham chuckled. "Yes, the Empire is still trying to figure out how to beat me." He looked to Damian. "And who might you be?"
"Damian Shan," Damian said. "Lightsaber sparring partner for Kanan on occasion, and assistant mentor for Ezra. I'm also an occasional member of the team, though I'm officially the leader of my own team."
"It is a pleasure to meet you," Cham said.
"And it is an honor to meet you," Damian bowed.
"Allow me to introduce two of my finest warriors, Numa," Cham indicated the female, "and Gobi." He gestured to the male.
Both nodded politely, smiling.
"Well, we should get to the briefing," Hera said. "There's a lot to do."
Cham didn't look very pleased, but they followed Hera anyway.
Damian groaned, holding a hand to his head. Hera's landing was...less than pleasant. The plan to have A-wings pursue their stolen TIE bomber to the carrier and shoot at them to make it look like they were in need of an emergency landing was great. But Hera's idea to crash in order to sell the charade was much less fun. He pushed himself up slowly, wincing as his body protested and looked around. Cham and his two fighters were gone, and Zeb, Sabine, and Ezra were unconscious. He knelt, shaking them awake and they stirred, then gasped and sat up.
"Are you guys okay?" Damian asked.
"Damian, is that you?" Hera's voice called from the next compartment.
"Yeah," Damian said. "You guys make it through the crash okay?"
"Forget the crash!" Sabine said. "Cham and those other two stunned us!"
"They what?" Damian asked.
"They brought bags full of detonators!" Sabine said. "They're going to blow up the ship!"
"We have to stop them!" Hera said.
"They'll be headed for the munitions racks," Damian said. "I'll head them off. Sabine, Zeb, you two come with me."
Both nodded and everyone climbed out of the bomber. They split up as soon as they were out and Damian led Zeb and Sabine to the munitions racks. As they were walking in, they spotted Numa walking up a ramp in front of them. Zeb and Sabine ducked into cover while Damian shot forward, ducking behind a fuel canister just as Numa turned to look around. Then, as she turned back to the front, Damian stepped out of cover just behind her, slamming the butt of his pistol into the back of her head and catching her around the waist as she dropped. He set her down gently, taking the explosives from her, and Zeb and Sabine ran over.
"Good job," Sabine said. "Now we just need to find Gobi."
Just then, a door off to the side opened, stormtroopers beginning to fire at them, despite them being amid the ammo, and Sabine and Zeb turned to deal with them. At the same time, Gobi tackled Damian to the ground, wrapping an arm around Damian's neck. Damian pulled the arm away, keeping himself from being choked out, and rammed his head backward into Gobi's head. Gobi pulled back and Damian twisted, grabbing the back of Gobi's head, then yanked downward, slamming his forehead into the ground, knocking him out just as Sabine shot the controls for the blast door separating the hangar the stormtroopers were coming from and the hangar they were in, causing the door to seal itself.
"Zeb, help me tie them up," Damian said, shoving Gobi off of himself before moving to restrain Numa, Zeb handling Gobi.
As they were finishing, the intercom came on.
"The fire in hangar bay three is out of control," the captain said calmly. "Abandon ship. Get to the escape pods. I really mean it. This is the captain. Get to the escape pods. Abandon ship. The fire is out of control."
Damian sighed. "We have got to work on that kid's improv."
"Not half bad for his first time, though," Sabine said.
"True," Damian nodded as Numa groaned and stirred. "Sorry about your head."
Numa glared at him, then sighed. "I think it is probably a fair repayment for stunning you in the back as you were just waking up from the crash."
"You did?" Damian asked. "Rude."
"I am sorry," Numa said. "It wasn't personal."
"The bridge is secure, what's your status?" Kanan asked.
"All clear here," Damian said. "Tell the kid to work on his improv."
"Will do," Kanan said.
"Gobi, Numa, proceed with our plans," Cham's voice said suddenly from Numa's communicator.
Damian held it up for her and activated it.
"Apologies, General Syndulla," Numa said. "We have been captured."
Damian deactivated her communicator and extended his lightsaber blade. She gasped, backing away, but he simply cut her ropes, then Gobi's.
"What are you doing?" Zeb asked.
"Freeing our new friends," Damian said, then activating his own commlink as he put his lightsaber away.
"I want freedom from the Empire as badly as you," Hera was saying, "but this battle cannot be won on Ryloth alone! During the Clone War, you didn't just fight for a village, you rallied everyone to liberate the entire planet! You inspired me. The rebellion is no different. But either you couldn't see that, or you didn't believe in me, and that's why I left."
"She's right," Ezra said. "We have the ship. We just need to buy her enough time to get us out of here."
"I am with you, Hera," Gobi said.
"I am also with you," Numa agreed.
"Well father?" Hera asked.
After a pause, Cham said, "I guess you have your chance to prove me wrong."
Damian grinned, deactivating his communicator. "Alright, now, I'll need you guys' help."
"For what?" Numa asked.
"You guys wanted to blow up a ship, and we still have an Imperial Light Cruiser that needs to be dealt with," Damian smirked, holding the bag of explosives out to Numa and Gobi. "We'll need the bomber's remains, your detonators, two Proton torpedo's, and a single rhydonium canister."
Numa and Gobi both grinned widely and nodded, Numa taking the explosives as Zeb and Gobi worked together to lift a proton torpedo, Sabine activated a rhydonium canister's grav tech, and Damian used the Force to lift the last two torpedoes, all of them heading for their ruined TIE Bomber, which had long-since burned itself out, the damage having been minimal. They all piled their explosives near the bomber, then everyone but Damian ran for the turrets to begin fighting off the Imperials. Damian began to fill the bomber with the explosives, then lifted the bomber, gritting his teeth at the slight strain, walking it to the edge. He watched as the other bombers returned, the others all struggling to fight them off. Damian set his homemade bomb down and extended an arm, causing two bombers to flip and crash together, exploding and scattering debris into a third's path, destroying it as well. Slowly, the others picked off the remaining bombers one-by-one, until the last was destroyed. Damian smiled. Now the cruiser would have to come after them.
"The Light Cruiser's coming after us," Hera reported. "Ezra's on his way to the hangar with my father to deal with it."
"Already on it," Damian said. "I've got it handled."
"You do?" Ezra asked.
"Yeah, he's got it," Sabine said.
Damian pushed the bomber out of the carrier, and once it was out, hovering in the planet's orbit, he shoved it back toward the light cruiser. The carrier continued to fly away from the cruiser, and the cruiser, unaware of the bomb heading for them, flew after the cruiser. As Damian raised the detonator, Ezra and Cham ran over with the other four from the hangar.
"What did you do about the cruiser?" Cham asked.
"Loaded our useless bomber with explosives and sent it back to the cruiser as a going-away present," Damian smirked. "Your people will get their exploding ship after all, General."
Cham smiled. "It seems they will."
"Dammit, I had the same idea," Ezra said.
"That's because you're a smart kid," Damian said. "Here, you can even blow the bomb."
"How will I know when?" Ezra asked.
"How did you know when to shoot that walker when we were recruiting Rex?" Damian asked.
Ezra nodded, closing his eyes and focusing, thumb resting on the switch. Cham dropped into a turret to watch, as did Numa and Gobi, followed by Damian, and a moment later, Ezra pressed the switch. The explosion was much bigger than he anticipated. Instead of blasting a hole in the ship, maybe igniting the ammo, and destroying the cruiser's stabilizers, the bomber erupted into a massive fireball, blue on the outside with white flames shining from within, and the entire front quarter of the cruiser was blasted into debris. The rest of the ship plummeted instantly, further explosions beginning to rip backward through the ship before it began to burn up in Ryloth's atmosphere before crashing down in a hopefully deserted area. Damian nodded, satisfied, and stood, climbing out of the turret.
"Well done," Cham said. "That was quite the explosion."
"It was a little bigger than I planned on," Damian admitted. "Still, it was worth it."
"Thank you," Numa said. "We could not have accomplished any of this without you and the others' help."
"Don't thank me," Damian smiled. "All I did was build a bomb and shove it out of the carrier. You all are the ones who've been fighting the Empire for this long."
The Twi'leks smiled and bowed, Damian returning the gesture. Then, the ship jumped to Hyperspace. A few hours later, they were once again in the hangar, preparing to say goodbye to Cham, Numa, and Gobi. Damian had already said his goodbyes, however, so he was helping direct the fighters as they loaded the carrier, starting with their Mandalorian ones. Stealing those had been a great idea, and one that Fenn Rau actually admitted he could agree with, since Mandalorian ships were excellent ships.
After a bit, Cham and the others left in their ship and the Ghost crew left the hangar. Damian finished helping with the fighters and the Wraith flew in to pick him up before heading back up to the command ship again.
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