(A/N)- Boy oh boy oh boy are we in for a ride today! :D
I can't even contain myself, I'm just gonna get out of the way and let you get to it. Enjoy, dear readers!
Disclaimer: Ha ha right. There would be way more villain crackshipping between Thrawn and Pryce if I owned Star Wars.
Into The Inferno
Ezra stood at the railing, eyes trained on the horizon, scanning through the macrobinoculars for any sign of Imperial patrols. The pipes and treads of the crawler churned idly behind him. They'd captured it yesterday, seeking to commandeer its long-range transmitter and tell the Alliance the good news; that the Ghost had picked up the departure of the Chimaera from Lothal's airspace, a fact they had confirmed once in possession of the crawler and its transmitter.
They'd been in a frenzy of activity since, coordinating, comparing intel. Now it was just a waiting game to see when the signal to strike would come.
Ezra lowered the macrobinoculars a moment, exhaling softly, tingling with anticipation.
It was finally happening. Finally, they were going to free Lothal!
And not a moment too soon, either, Ezra thought, sober notes creeping through him.
While tuning the transmitter they had picked up an Imperial announcement, broadcasting on all local frequencies. Pryce had spoken, warning that summary and random executions of suspected Rebels or Rebel sympathizers would begin the next day and continue daily until the leadership of the cell turned themselves in.
Ezra had been startled to be addressed directly, his blood turning to ice as Pryce's voice called his name over the transmission.
"Each day you fail to surrender yourself to Imperial custody, Bridger, is another life on your hands. Ask yourself honestly, are you willing to let these people die for you?"
Ezra gripped the macrobinoculars tighter, remembering the cold pool of terror that had swelled inside his stomach at her threat. He'd trembled openly, distress and dismay locked on his features until a sharp comment from Ryder snapped him out of it.
"She's baiting you," the former governor had said, barking in a tone that told Ezra there would be no negotiating the matter. "She knows you Jedi have a weak point about civilian lives and she's trying to use that to cripple us." A firm shake of the man's head. "We can't surrender to her. Don't let her threats get to you."
It hadn't reassured him then, and it didn't reassure him now. Only the knowledge that the attack was coming, would be there today if all went well, kept Ezra from spiraling apart into guilt and self-blame and anxiety over standing by while Pryce murdered his people.
Ezra exhaled carefully, shaking off his unease. The attack is coming, he reminded himself. She won't get the chance to execute anyone.
Footsteps on the landing made him glance back, to see Sabine coming to join him. She stepped up next to him, leaning her arms on the rail.
"Anything?" she asked.
He shook his head. "Skies are pretty clear." He crossed his arms, stepping back a bit and surveying the cloudline with his eyes. "Only seen a couple birds. If the Empire's looking for us, they're not trying very hard."
She was looking at him with a certain knowing concern in her eyes. "You nervous?" she asked. "I know Pryce's broadcast rattled you up a bit."
Ezra's mouth twitched with a grim smile. "I was kind of hoping to never have to hear her voice outside of my nightmares again," he admitted. He was quiet for a moment, then seemed to find a conviction inside him, his spine straightening. "Whatever threats she made don't matter," he said, firm-toned and fire in his eyes. "We're liberating Lothal today. She won't be in power much longer."
Sabine's face twisted. "Now, hold up a second," she said, gesturing cautiously with a palm. "We're going to try to disable and destroy the TIE factory so that the Empire can't make any Defenders, and the Alliance retains fighter superiority. That's a far cry from liberating a whole planet," she chided him.
Ezra shrugged, giving a grin. "Well we have to start somewhere," he quipped.
She gave an amused huff, shifting her balance to another leg. "Your optimism is cute," she told him.
"When you're facing a seemingly insurmountable task, sometimes all you can do is break it down into what you can do, and do that," he commented.
Sabine chuckled low in her throat, impressed by the maturity in the statement. "Who told you that?" she asked.
The vision in the caverns of Ilum seemed to flit through the back of his head. But he only replied, enigmatically, "A friend."
Their gaze held for a pregnant moment. Sabine was the first to break eye contact, eyes dropping towards the space between them, suddenly hesitant.
"Ezra..." she started, significantly. "I—"
A loud whoop from behind interrupted her, and both of them heard heavy metal footfalls leaning out from the bridge as Zeb called excitedly to them.
"Sabine! Ezra! Incoming transmission from Yavin!" he yelled.
They met eyes again, lighting up, holding that moment of exhilaration before whirling around one after another and trumping down the gangway to the ladder, which they swiftly ascended back up to the bridge level.
Zeb gestured them quickly through the door, where they dashed inside and hastened to join Kallus and Kanan around the speaker.
"The attack?" Ezra asked anxiously.
Kanan nodded. "Rebel Command just authorized it."
He and Sabine shouted in triumph, flinging elated arms around each other and dancing in place for a few moments.
"When are they coming?" Sabine asked breathlessly as she pulled away first, and a young familiar voice answered her from the comm.
"We're fueling up ships right now," Mart told her. "They think we'll exit hyperspace at eighteen-hundred local time."
Ezra's grin could have cracked his face. "Don't keep us waiting," he joked.
Kallus, meanwhile, was having an entirely different reaction to hearing the Ensign's voice.
"Mattin, please tell me you are not taking part in the attack," he begged wearily, stress lines all over his face.
It was Gooti who answered this time. "They needed volunteers and, well, we all volunteered," she explained.
That only made Kallus sputter more. "Since when are you and Jonner pilots?!" he cried.
"Mart's been teaching us."
"Who authorized your involvement?!" Kallus was close to screeching now, hysterical. "Get a superior on the line, I want to talk to them!"
Kallus's demands were drowned out as Ezra and Sabine talked excitedly with their friends, trading suggestions for how and where they could meet up after everything was through and Zeb chuckled behind them, entirely too amused by everything.
Kanan slowly moved to the door, unseen, slipping out quietly while no one was looking.
-SWR-
He found Hera underneath the console of the Ghost's bridge, furiously working on something, her signature tight with contained irritation and tools scattered on the floor all around her that Kanan almost tripped over as he walked up to nudge her legs.
"Attack's been authorized," he told her.
"I heard," she said tersely, not pulling her head out from under the console.
Kanan tilted his head, listening to the winching and bolt twisting that was coming from below for a moment, confused as to what she was even doing. It didn't sound like regular maintenance.
"Something the matter?" he asked her.
Hera gave a sigh. The odd noises beneath the console stopped, and a scraping sound let him know the Twi'lek pilot was pulling herself out from under the panel.
There were a couple soft footfalls as she stood up.
"I should be out there with them, leading the attack," she complained quietly. The feel of the displaced air as she gestured made Kanan think she still had a wrench or hydrospanner in her hands. "I know how to run a blockade better than anyone," she said.
Kanan reached out for her, finding her shoulders and placing placating hands there.
"There'll still be plenty for the Ghost to do down here," he reassured her. "We might even have a better shot at the factory than the attack team," he quipped lightly.
She didn't share in the joke, and Kanan sobered, reading her mood and chewing on his lip.
"Hera, what's wrong?" he asked.
The worry he could sense in her reverberated a moment, before she seemed to get a handle on it. She exhaled softly.
"I just... I can't help feeling like Thrawn has left some nasty surprises for us," she confessed, her voice lined with strained tension. "He always seems to be one step ahead of us. I don't know if him not being here is enough of an advantage for us to win today," she told him, her free hand coming up and placing itself on his arm, seeking reassurance.
"We won't know unless we try," Kanan said, reaching up and covering her hand with his own, somberly.
He could feel her verdant eyes on him, looking earnestly into his face, even if he couldn't see it.
"Whatever happens today," she said, "know that... I wouldn't choose to face it with anyone else but you."
Warmth moved through his heart. "I know," he said, leaning in toward her face.
She let him capture her lips, melting into his kiss with fervent emotion that swelled and filled the small cabin around them.
-SWR-
Hyperspace was quiet until it erupted with a series of bursts, ships dropping out of it rapidly until the attack force was fully present, guns bristling and pilots eager and ready to fight.
"Stars, look how many ships they have in orbit!" Gooti breathed breathlessly in his earpiece. "You'd think they were guarding the Imperial palace itself!"
Mart adjusted his targeting computer and regripped his yoke. "Let's stay focused, guys," he told his squadmates. "This is going to need all we've got."
The squad leader barked orders into their comm headsets.
"Phoenix Remnant Two and Three," he said, "stay tight on me until we reach their outer defenses. Red Group, engage enemy fighters and buy our bombers an opening to get through." A brief pause. "Remember, once we break through the blockade, we make straight for Capitol City."
Mart nodded. "Copy Red Leader," he said.
He nudged forward on the throttle, accelerating his fighter to attack speed and beelining straight for the wall of Imperial ships that spread out before him.
-SWR-
Fighters clashed, red and green bolts meeting in a furious flurry, starcraft weaving in and out as they dodged their imminent death.
-SWR-
"How's it going down there?" Hera commed to her team on the ground, checking in once more just to reassure herself.
"We're planting the explosives on the last anti-air tower now," Ezra reported.
Easing the Ghost forward in the air, Hera gave a nod of satisfaction. The plan was solid and pulling off smoothly; Ezra and the others were tagging the anti-fighter cannons around Capitol City with bombs, to disable them in advance of the attack team breaking through the blockade, assuming they could. Hera was standing by to swoop in and deal with any tanks and walkers the Empire deployed, meet up and escort the bombers to the factory and fuel depot. The brand-new fuel depot seemed the better target to her, less chance of them accidentally killing civilian workers alongside Imperial mechanics, but the Alliance wasn't leaving anything to chance. If they had a shot at the factories, they were to take it.
From the chatter she could occasionally pick up through the Empire's jamming, the fighters sounded to be holding up well. Mart and Gooti and Jonner's voices cut through the static, detailing fragments of the dogfight happening far above their heads. A chunk of fighters, a mixed group of Yavin veterans and Phoenix group survivors it sounded like, had managed to disable one of the Star Destroyers in the formation and were using the opening to rush through the blockade, several X-wings hanging back to defend the splinter from enemy fighters and bombardment.
So why did she feel a constant unease churning through her stomach?
Hera glanced aside at Kanan, trying to read his expression and see if he felt the same kind of apprehension. His face was almost undreadable behind the mask but from the firm pinch of his mouth she guessed that his eyes were closed and he was immersed in the Force, sensing out, his hands tight on his legs where he sat.
He seemed to feel her gaze and her silent question, glancing towards her but making no comment.
Hera stirred herself, shaking off her paranoia and trying to focus, calling down between her feet to the nose gun station where Kallus was.
"How's it look down there?" she asked. "Any unfriendlies?"
"None," he replied, his voice magnified by the internal comms, sounding a bit disturbed by the fact. Hera glimpsed him shifting back in his gunner seat. "At least, not that I can see."
Hera settled back into her seat, comforted by that knowledge. "You don't sound too happy about that," she teased, small grin stealing its way onto her face.
-SWR-
Down in the nose turret, Kallus frowned, staring at his senor readouts with a perturbed wrinkle between his eyes. This close to Capitol City they should at least be picking up the occasional patrol but there was absolutely nothing on his scopes, not even a distant blip.
It was... odd in a way that gave him pause.
"Well it's not..." He trailed off, struggling to find the words to explain. "It's not standard protocol for... for patrols to just cease circulating," he said.
"You think they know our attack is coming?" asked Kanan over the speakers.
"I'm sure they know on some level," Hera dismissed. Her voice turned serious and lost the playful edge as she announced, "We're coming up on the anti-air turret perimeter."
Where Ezra and Sabine and the rest were there with Ryder, planting the explosives to take out the turrets. Kallus knew their mission was a crucial part of the overall operation—the fighters would never reach the fuel depot in the Capitol if they were shot down by the city's anti-fighter defenses after all—but Kallus couldn't help but feel a bit useless, stuck in his usual post up in the Ghost's nose gun while his young charges risked their lives in the skies above.
His thoughts kept drifting to them. He strained his ears upwards for any snatches of their voices that made it through the Empire's strong jamming, reassuring himself every five seconds that they were okay, they were still alive and making their way into atmosphere.
He could almost dismiss his fretting as the tics of a nervous parent but then something caught his eye on the targeting computer display.
Kallus squinted, preening his eyes at the electronic readout.
In-between flickers that stretched and distorted the lines of the readout, the sensors seemed to register an inordinate amount of blips and bogeys, clustered tightly together on the left side of the screen.
"Captain Syndulla?" he called, leaning forward and adjusting his instruments, eyes and mouth pursed. "I'm picking up something odd off in our periphery. Multiple contacts, unknown."
-SWR-
Hera could see them too, pulsing on the sensor display. She frowned. Keeping one eye on the readout, she glanced forward out the viewport towards the line of towers off in the distance, little metal lumps on the horizon.
She thought for a moment, considering, feeling an itch travel up her spine, her instincts tingling.
She made her decision.
She clicked the comms on. "Go ahead and blow the towers, Spectre 5," she ordered. "I have to divert course for a moment, check something out."
"Copy, Spectre 2," Sabine acknowledged.
Hera watched the first couple towers flare up as she slowly turned the freighter.
"Chopper, pull all power to the forward deflectors and keep that signal scrambler cycling," she continued, reaching up and flicking a few switches.
"WOMP!" he blorted, wheels squeaking against the metal floor as he scurried to comply.
Kanan had shifted in his seat, leaning over closer to her shoulder, almost hovering.
"Talk to me, Hera," he whispered.
She bit her lip, her hands worrying on the yoke. "Something's odd," she said. "I know you sense it too."
His frown was a silent agreement, and he leaned back upright again, perching on his seat like a tensed ground animal listening for rustles in the grass.
Hera turned her eyes forward, watching the cluster on the sensor display grow slowly closer.
-SWR-
Sabine groaned in frustration, shoving up the rangefinder on her helmet.
"Argh, one of the bombs didn't blow!" she complained, half-straddling her getaway speeder as she watched with the group from their vantage point on the plain, clear of the detonations. She ground her teeth inside her head, glaring at the still-standing tower at the end of the line. It had buckled, it was definitely no longer upright, leaning heavily to one side, but it hadn't collapsed like the others, its guns still pointed up towards the sky and, most disappointingly, still functional. Sabine crossed her arms sourly, wishing she had had loaded her jetpack with a pop rocket. "Must've been a dud," she grumbled.
Ezra stepped up next to her, confidently grinning. "I got it," he promised, planting his feet and reaching out a hand.
His eyes slipped closed and his breathing steadied. He stretched across the distance with the Force, mental fingers tracing along the sides of the tower, sliding down, down, finding the faulty detonator attached to the side and looking for the two capsules of explosive within.
He squeezed the containment chambers just a bit...
BLAM!
The capsules broke apart, the two reactive substances hitting each other and igniting, blowing apart the detonator and completing the demolition of the tower, cracking the base and sending it crashing to ground.
Sabine's eyes widened, impressed, and Zeb gave a low whistle behind them.
"That's a trick I could stand to see more of," Sabine commented. The grin she wore faltered as she glanced towards Ezra, and saw that he was taking no pride in his feat, was staring off towards the clouds, his eyes fixated and serious.
He barely even heard her when she took a step closer, reaching out a hand to touch his arm in concern.
"Ezra?"
The boy inhaled slowly, unable to find the words to describe the rising cold static creeping up from his stomach, as the Force filled him with a slow premonition of dread.
-SWR-
"Could they be ships?"
The question bounced around inside her skull for a few moments. Hera considered the theory with some flat disbelief. "That many?" She shook her head, her lekku bouncing off her shoulders. "That's not possible, unless they recalled every TIE fighter from every garrison within—"
She stopped, a harsh twist squeezing her heart, freezing the blood in her veins.
The lack of TIE patrols made a sudden, horrifying sense.
Kanan jerked forward, panic in his face and voice as he grabbed the yoke and yanked it to the side.
"Hera!" he cried, almost in tandem with the emerald laser volley that spewed from the clouds straight at their cockpit.
"Shavit!" Hera cursed, sending them into a dive.
Chopper screeched in alarm as the freighter swerved, but the forward deflectors held, the stray shots that hit them pinging off harmlessly. Hera shoved Kanan off for better control, grinding the ship into a hard left turn.
Multiple TIE fighters emerged from the cloud cover. Five, then ten, only a handful of the swarm hiding within but more than enough to send the Ghost scurrying about in retreat. Hera's head was ringing with agitated stress, her nerves dancing like live wires, as she pushed the freighter's evasive abilities to the limit.
"Chopper, divert power to aft deflectors!" she yelled, over the multiple proximity warnings sounding shrilly on the dashboard.
Metal steps sounded as Kallus scurried up the ladder into the cockpit.
"I'll do more good in the turret!" he told her, lurching across the sloping deck and stumbling immediately out into the hallway.
She didn't argue, merely nodding at him in passing. She pushed the ship forward with all speed, watching out the periphery of her vision in dismay and horror as the bulk of the TIE swarm emerged from cover, rose to meet the descending Rebel attack team.
-SWR-
Hot blaster bolts sizzled in the Ghost's wake, the handful of TIEs after the freighter methodically picked off one by one by precise shots from the turret until they were recalled by their commander.
"Concentrate your attention on those X-wings and Y-wings," he ordered. "We are not to let a single one through."
They obeyed, buzzing like stinging hornets around the quickly dwindling Rebel fighters.
-SWR-
His hands clung to the rattling joystick like a lifeline, teeth gritted and shaking inside his head. One engine plumed smoke, the other sputtered uselessly through shredded turbines. It was all Mart could do to keep the ship from spiraling into a complete freefall.
Frantic radio chatter splashed on his unhearing ears.
"Maday, maday, I've lost my astromech unit—"
"Phoenix Seven, pull up!"
"This is Red Leader, is anyone still airborne?!"
"I'm hit! I can't make it—!"
A rumble of static flared in his earset and from the corner of his eye Mart glimpsed the fighter next to him exploding apart.
R3 beeped frantically as pieces pinged off their own craft, Mart pulling the crashing X-wing hard to the left to duck under the spinning remains of the other vessel's cockpit.
Mart tensed up, willing himself not to scream. When he was clear he strained his eyes for a glimpse of his friends.
"Jonner! Buddy, can you hear me? You hit?"
A shaky young voice answered. "Yeah... but not bad. I... I think I can make it to the ground," he said, though there was quivering uncertainty in every word.
Mart's fingers flew across a row of switches on the dashboard. "Angle all deflectors forward, fire boosters and try to keep your nose up!" he instructed. "R3! Where's—?"
"They're all over me!" Gooti screeched out, her starfighter swerving erratically above them. Mart could see at least four TIE fighters taking shots at her, and watched with mute terror, helmet pressed as far back against the headrest as it could and eyes straining straight up. "I can't shake them!"
"Gooti—Gooti, cut your repulsors!" he cried, unable to do anything else. "Cut your repulsors, they're—"
A flurry of emerald shots punctured through her aft engine and Gooti screamed as her fighter began to plummet.
-SWR-
The Ghost groaned as it finished setting down, the whine of the engine slowing and fading, its pitched notes cycling lower and lower until it silenced.
Wordlessly, the hatch popped open, the ramp lowering down, behind the speeders of the others at their designated rendezvous point. Hera was the first to run down, but Kallus wasn't far behind, both them spilling out of the freighter and turning frantic eyes up towards the airspace above Capitol City. Ezra, Sabine, Zeb, Ryder, and Jai were already watching, standing by their speeders, brows shadowed, feet rooted in place, stone-cold silent.
Kanan was the last one out, feeling his way along the wall until his feet found the ramp, feeling the cloud of dread rising from all of them.
A dozen small lights like shooting stars plumed across the dimming amber of the sunset, bright pieces falling off of some, smoke trailing behind others like a comet trail.
The entire attack force, struck from the sky.
Hera's shoulders shook as the breath shuddered in and out of her. Thrawn wasn't here, but his fingerprints were all over this trap. She felt nausea in her stomach at the thought of him hearing this news, the smug look on his face as he was brought the report of total Rebel annihilation.
Her fists closed tightly, gloves wringing around her fingers as she hated herself for not seeing this coming.
She glanced over the rest of her crew. Ryder's expression was one of grim resignation, his brows low and narrowed over his eyes as looked towards the city. Sabine's hands were wringing in her hair. Zeb's were clenched tight around the pair of macrobinoculars he held to his face. She couldn't see Ezra's expression but his back was tensed and he seemed frozen solid, like a block of ice.
Kallus fidgeted hysterically.
"Some..." he strained, his voice rasping on the way out of his throat. "Some ships made it down intact." He looked towards her, expression haunted. "There's still a chance we could retrieve survivors."
His word choice was clinical and detached, but Hera knew exactly what he meant, and against her better judgement found herself rushing into agreement, hot-blooded anger and worry and fear colliding inside her and galvanizing her resolve.
"We'd never make it to them," Ryder bit sharply, voice cynical. "That city is locked down tighter than a Corellian drum."
"There must be some way!" The ex-ISB was all but gasping, breaths thin and desperate, his feet staggering.
"The sewers." The comment had come from Ezra, who was stirring, whipping around. "Jai, you said they were only watching the main access ports right? Some of the smaller auxiliary tunnels might still be unguarded. We can get in that way—"
"And then do what, exactly?" Ryder demanded, face hot, fists clenched.
Even Jai was shaking his head in defeat. "Ezra... there are Stormtroopers everywhere."
"Even if we get in, we'd have no way to find them," Zeb pointed out, lowering his macrobiconulars soberly.
But now Sabine was turning to face them. "If Chopper can get me access, I can slice the communications network, listen in on patrols."
"Now wait a minute—" Ryder started to protest.
Brown eyes looked plaintively at hers. "Hera, there has to be something we can do," she pleaded.
Hera held up a hand, tensing with stress. "Give me a minute," she said. "I'm... I'm thinking."
Kanan stirred. "Hera—"
"There's nothing to think about!" Ryder yelled, shrilly. "What you're asking is impossible!" he shouted at Kallus.
"That is my squad out there, do you understand?!" Kallus brayed back, anger slipping through his normal stoic control. "Those are my kids. I'm responsbile for them and if they've survived or perished I have to know!" He jabbed a finger, pointing towards the capitol. "If they're hurt, if they're captured, all I know is that they are in there!"
"Then they're as good as dead!" Ryder screamed back. "And that's assuming they even survived the crash!"
"They're alive," Ezra interrupted. Both men to turned to look at him. Hera saw conviction in his eyes as he stood there, mouth firmed, eyes determined. "They're alive, and they need our help."
Boots crunched in the grass as Hera felt Kanan step up beside her.
"Ezra—" he started to say, and Hera braced for the long dissuasion speech even as her heart rebelled against it.
But Kallus rushed up to the man, making Kanan take an awkward step back, startled, as Kallus's hands wrung the front of his shirt.
"Please," Kallus begged, his face pale and gaunt, strained from every angle. "If—if anything happens to those kids I..."
He trailed off, but Hera saw the understanding and sympathy settle into Kanan's posture, the recognition of what he must be feeling.
Kanan turned his attention past the man, toward his apprentice, whose blue eyes burned stubbornly.
"They came for me, Kanan," Ezra pointed out, voice quiet.
There was conflict on the Jedi's face for a long moment before he rolled his face up with an aggravated groaning sigh.
"All right," he aquiesced. "Let's... let's take a moment and see what we have to work with."
Zeb and Sabine exchanged a look, but obediently stepped over and joined the cluster.
Ryder gaped at them. "You can't be serious."
When no one responded, he smeared a hand down his face.
"You're all crazy. I won't have any part of this." He turned stiffly on his heel and walked the short distance to his own speeder.
Jai stopped him, putting hands on the handlebars so he couldn't take off, glaring mightily.
Ryder considered the silent challenge a moment, then glanced back towards the Ghost crew. "We'll hit the perimeter blockades at as many points as we can, cause a distraction." His eyes warned Jai sternly. "But that's all. Once you're in the city, you're on your own."
Jai nodded and let go of the handlebars. He nodded at Ezra as Ryder leaned forward and gunned the bike behind him.
"Good luck," he said earnestly.
Hera watched the boy go, swinging a leg over his own speeder. She came up to Ezra, putting gentle hands on his shoulders right before he sagged, the fire leaving him, now clearly showing his worry and apprehension.
"You know Capitol City better than any of us, Ezra," she whispered encouragingly in his ear. "What's our move?"
She felt him shuddering as he took in his next breath, ready to speak.
Quietly, she pulled him into the circle.
(A/N)- Mwah-ha-ha-ha have some chapter notes.
1. A very "now or never", "calm before the storm" sort of feel for the Ezra/Sabine and Kanan/Hera scenes at the beginning. Tried for a mix of Minas Tirith before the seige and the love-confession-before-the-coming-battle from BioWare's Jade Empire.
2. Ezra continues to use Shatterpoint to great effect. Such skill. Much proud.
3. Kallus going into terrified Papa Wolf mode because his babies are in trouble is definitely recalling back to how this whole series started, with his desperation to help Ezra escape the Chimaera and save him from the Empire. It all comes full circle you see.
4. Ryder's cynicism, on the other hand, is a call forward to his doubts in the Season Four finale. Ye of little faith.
Cliffhanger ending! I'll let you scream at me about that for a week or two and then we'll see what the next chapter holds. I won't spoil but... shit gets real. Hope to see you then!