Chapter 8: The Faith

14 BBY- 5 Years after the Rise of the Empire

Kanan always knew that after the Jedi purge, it was just a matter of time before he was going to die.

However, he did not expect it to be this soon.

"Hi there," Hera called out uneasily. She offered a sheepish smile.

But with the way the guards were currently brandishing their blasters, he expected it would at least be quick and painless.

"We… I, uh, I've brought you a prisoner."

That is, hopefully, if, they had good aim.

"Hera Syndulla, you are under arrest and to be taken under custody for your crimes against the Pyke Family and the planet of Oba Diah," one of the guardsmen barked, raising his blaster higher. The circle of guards started to close in on them.

"No, no, wait! I can explain!" Hera yelled frantically, waving her free arm. She pointed at Kanan. "I've brought—"

"You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in the courts of Oba Diah."

"Listen, will you?!" Hera jabbed the nose of her blaster between Kanan's shoulders again, making him flinch. "I'm saying that—"

"According to Pyke law, you would have the right to a galactic attorney. If you could not afford an attorney, one will be provided for you."

Great, Kanan thought miserably. Now they would have to deal with the most complicated thing in the galaxy: legal matters.

"However, due to the insignificant nature of your crimes and the immense amount of business the Pyke courts are already attending to, you will be taken into custody and executed by firing squad at dawn."

Hera's jaw dropped.

"What?!"

The guards had gotten close enough that one of them grabbed at her elbow. Another snatched up Kanan's poorly-tied wrists and inspected them.

"Hey, just hold on a damn minute!" Hera snapped. She yanked her elbow back, fuming. "Let me speak, would you?!"

The lead guard blinked in surprise, and Kanan did, too. It was a lot of anger for such a little Twi'lek lady.

Hera took the guard's silence as permission. "If you hadn't been so busy acting al high-and-mighty, you would've learned that I'd actually brought something of value to the Pyke Family."

The guard's blaster titled down ever so slightly as his curiosity grew. "And what would that be?"

"What would that be?" Hera scoffed, "only one of the strongest humans in the Outer Rim. The mines of Kessel would be lucky to have him as a slave."

She haughtily dragged a finger along Kanan's jawline, sending his cheeks blooming red as he visibly tensed.

"He's strong enough that he'd put out twice the work of any usual slave. Maybe even three times. Which, of course, makes him three times the price."

"You think the Pyke Syndicate would pay a common thief such as yourself?" the guard jeered.

"Of course not!" she answered hurriedly. "He's a gift! An apology, for the… inconveniences… that I caused the Syndicate."

"The records state the property you stole was worth thousands of credits," he said shortly. "Surely, this slave cannot match that price."

"Oh, but he can. Just wait 'till you see him work," she purred.

If it was possible, Kanan felt even more uncomfortable.

Hera didn't take notice. "Plus, I brought back the ship I borrowed, and I'm ready to get back to my job. So, between the slave and the ship, you can consider my debt paid."

"If this slave is so strong," the guard holding Kanan's wrists broke in, "why wouldn't he just break free of these flimsy restraints?"

Silence ensued as the guards awaited Hera's excuse.

"He's… obedient?"

Way to sound convincing, Kanan thought. Might as well hand over her weapon while she's at it, at this rate.

More silence. And then,

"Hera Syndulla, you are under arrest and to be taken under custody for your crimes against the Pyke Family and the planet of Oba Diah!"

"Wait, no!" Hera gasped, but the guard had already grabbed her arm and re-pointed his blaster at her chest.

"Your feeble excuse for your arrival here on Kessel is not enough to fool me or the members of the Pyke Family. You will be detained and executed in the morning!"

"You've got it all wrong!" Hera insisted, but the guard ignored her.

"Insolent thief!" he seethed. He raised his fist and Hera instinctively put her arms over her head to block.

With a shout, Kanan swung his tied wrists high in the air and brought them down hard, striking the guard over the head. He yelled and stumbled backwards. Kanan whirled around and landed a kick on the next guard's jaw. The blood was pounding in his ears and muscles itched to fight.

He dodged a shot from another guard and did a flying kick to knock the blaster out of his hands. With another grunt, he slammed his elbow backwards before the guard could react. A satisfying crack sounded in the air as elbow met nose and bone fractured.

"Kanan, look out!" came Hera's urgent voice.

But he was out of practice, and he didn't see the guard pistol-whip his blaster so that the grip was raised high over his head.

There was a sharp thud. And then stars.

Kanan didn't come to until the metal bars clanged shut and the guard hooked the keys on his belt. The second his eyes opened, Hera was at his side, hands hovering and eyes watering.

"Kanan!" she breathed in relief, leaning over him. Her eyes darted all over him. "I thought you were—"

"It'll have to take more than that to kill me," he cut her off, groaning, "…like you said, I'm super strong… or something."

"Oh, don't you start," she muttered, but the concern was still there. She sniffed and wiped her eyes on her sleeve, putting on her best annoyed face. She put her hands under his head and lifted gently, much to his surprise and discomfort.

"Hey, what are you—"

"Checking your head. Now hold still," she scolded, "I need to see if you're bleeding bad."

She propped his head up on her leg and started to comb through his hair with her fingers. Kanan winced as she brushed against the gash on his head, but clamped his mouth shut. He closed his eyes and listened to her breathing as she continued to search. Her touch was light and it sent a shiver trickling down his spine.

"It doesn't look too bad," Hera conceded after a few minutes, but she didn't remove her hands. Kanan opened his eyes to see her eyebrows knitted together in determination as she hunched over him.

She'd moved on from the injury, distracted by a knot in his hair. She worked diligently to detangle it.

He coughed, and she blinked.

"Oh, right," she said awkwardly, sitting back.

Kanan slowly sat up from her lap, grimacing as he propped himself up on his elbows. His hands were still poorly bound by the thin wire. "So, I'm gonna live, right?"

Hera shrugged. "I mean, I guess. You might have brain damage, but you might've already had that before."

Kanan snorted and let his shoulder slack a bit. He stared around their cell. There were cement walls on either side of them and iron bars in front, with one door and a lock. The ground was stone and covered in red dust. They were underground, if he had to guess.

"The Ghost isn't too far, if that's what you're wondering," Hera put in. She let out a deep sigh and draped her arms over her knees. "They dragged us through the shipyard and down into this… prison, or whatever."

"They're executing us tomorrow, right?"

Hera nodded dismally. She buried her nose into her sleeve and mumbled something that came out muffled.

"What was that?" Kanan asked.

"Nothing, I…"

She raised her head towards Kanan. Guilt tumbled over her face when they locked eyes, taking him by surprise.

"I'm sorry. This is all my fault. I should have paid more attention, recognized the coordinates or something, and then maybe we wouldn't have—"

"Hera," Kanan cut her off gently, sitting up. He scooched over so that he was sitting next to her and their shoulders were touching. "This isn't your fault. We just need to focus on finding a way out of here, alright?"

"… alright," she faltered, still sinking into herself. "But I'm still sorry."

"Of course you are. You're stubborn."

She stared at him with pretty, wet eyes, offered a weak smile, and nodded, making Kanan's heart twist.

He'd be damned if he didn't figure a plan, and fast. Especially with the way she was looking at him like that.

Hera rubbed her eyes with her wrist and shook herself. "Alright, alright," she started with a tremor of confidence. She stood up and brushed red dirt off her knees. "There's a guard on the outside of the entrance. And I saw they put my blaster on the shelf near said entrance. So, if we can get out, I can grab that blaster, knock him out, and we could try to sneak out."

Kanan closed his eyes and tried to think, hard. They need to get out, to escape, somehow. He tried to remember if there was anything like this that he might've seen in his training or during the war. He'd heard of Master Qui-gon's escape from the Gungan City, but that was more of a youngling legend. He'd heard of Master Piell's breakout from The Citadel, but that had just been gossip, not anything about methods or strategies. And he'd heard of Padawan Tano's escape from the Temple Prison, but it was rumored her Master had helped her, so that didn't get Kanan anywhere, either.

So, he tried thinking harder. Focusing more. Remembering more. But there was nothing. At least, nothing his dumb brain could scrape up and remember.

He glanced down at his hip. The two halves of his lightsaber, looking like useless trinkets, were still clipped on to his belt.

But that, Kanan reminded himself quickly, alongside using the Force, was an absolute last resort. And they weren't quite there, at least, not yet.

"I'm really good at picking locks," Hera put in, "but… only when I have a lock pick. Which I don't."

Kanan struggled to his feet, his head throbbing from the blow. He hoped Hera was right and that it wasn't too bad. He might have a mild concussion, but that he could deal with. Cranial damage and a swelling brain, on the other hand, was a little bit more difficult.

"But I don't really see another way to get out of here. These bars are made of iron, and I, for one, can't bend metal," Hera went on, biting the inside of her cheek.

"Sorry, what did you say?" Kanan asked, coming out of his thoughts and walking over to stand next to her.

"I said I can't bend metal. Why, can you?" A tease glinted in the green of her eye.

"No, I can't," he deadpanned. "But before that. What did you say before that?"

"I… said I'm good at lock picking. But I don't have a lock pick."

Kanan lifted his tied wrists. "Will this do?"

Her eyes lit up as she caught sight of the thin wire. "It just might," she said excitedly.

Her previous trepidation forgotten, she grabbed his hands and hastily worked to untie them, which wasn't really too hard. Once it was free, Kanan watched over her shoulder as she twisted and yanked the metal to mold it into a needle-like hook with. Within moments, her newly-fashioned lockpick was complete. She quickly took it over to the door and stuck her arms through and around the bars to try it.

Kanan tried not to worry too much as he waited. Hera was busy with her wrist bent at an awkward angle as she fumbled with the wire in the lock, her tongue peeking out the corner of her mouth as she focused.

If the lockpick didn't work, they'd need to find another way out. Digging would take too long, and the floor was made of stone, anyway. If a guard came by, he could try using a mind trick, but he never really got good enough at that to be anywhere near competent. Maybe he could use the Force to get the key off of the guard's belt—but, that guard was outside, and they would need to lure him in somehow. And then, even if they did do all that, he'd have used the Force and they'd really be in deep poodoo, so that wasn't an option, either. Maybe he could—

"I got it," Hera whispered, sending a wave of relief washing over Kanan. The lock clicked into place. A loud creaking bounced off the stone walls as Hera slowly pushed the door open.

"Could you do that any louder?" Kanan hissed.

"It's rusty!"

Despite her sharp retort, Hera tried to open it more slowly. When it was wide enough, they stepped free of their prison cell and tiptoed down the hallway, passing cobwebs and more empty cells. Like Hera had said, her blaster was sitting on the shelf, left unguarded.

What a poor slip-up, Kanan thought. Leaving prisoners unguarded, and a weapon out in the open? The clones would never have made such rookie mistakes.

Hera grabbed her blaster, and they snuck up and out of the prison. Kanan stealthily came up behind the guard at the entrance, grabbed his head, yanked it back, and wrapped the crook of his arm around his mouth, suffocating him. He slid to the ground unconscious moments later.

From where they were standing, they could see the Ghost at the end of the shipyard, right where they'd left her. But several guards still milled about the yard, guns ready and stances alert.

"We'll have to take them out silently, one by one," Kanan whispered, crouching down behind a row of storage bins.

Hera nodded and hunkered next to him, clutching her blaster tight against her shoulder. "We could split up and take care of them faster, then meet back at the ship," she suggested.

"Good idea," Kanan said. But the thought of her being on her own made him a bit wary. He gestured to her blaster. "Does that have a stun setting?"

"If it did, I would have put it on already, dumbass."

Deciding that that was fair enough, Kanan swallowed his own dumbass-ery and fought the urge to roll his eyes. "I'll take the ones on the left, and you go right. Then we'll meet back at the ship, like you said. Just remember to take it slow and careful."
"I know, I know," she huffed. "Don't mother me. I know what I'm doing. I've probably done this more than you have."

"Okay, relax, I'm just making sure."

"Relax? Don't tell me to relax!"

"Fine," Kanan gave up, now letting the eye roll slip by guiltlessly. "Then don't give me reason to."

Hera gave him a glare so murderous he felt it take three years off his life right then and there. "You just have to have the last word, don't you?" she growled.

Kanan didn't have the courage to see what would happen if he proved her right.

They went through the plan one last time, just to be sure. Hera counted out the guards again while Kanan whispered the stealthiest route to take. She locked her gaze firmly on his as he spoke, resolutely hanging on to every word. Her eyes gleamed with determination and trust.

The clear, sincerity of the faith she had in him was almost overwhelming. Kanan wasn't sure how to handle it. He also wasn't sure if the dizziness he felt was because of the sweltering heat of the planet, the blow to his head, or the way she was unconsciously biting her lip as she thought the plan through one more time.

With the plan finalized, they moved silently through the guards, taking them out one by one, Hera with the grip of her blaster and Kanan with the crook of his arm. There were a couple instances he could see out of the corner of his eye where she almost slipped up by stepping on a branch or not hitting them hard enough, and he almost died inside each time, but she always recovered and took them out before he could panic and before the guards could sound the alarm.

The Kessel sun was burning on the back of his neck and he could see the sweltering heat in blurry waves across the shipyard. Sweat trickled down the bumps in his spine and collected behind his ears and in the crevices in his palm. His arm was getting tired and the number of unconscious bodies on the ground was growing. The Ghost was getting closer, and it was only then that he realized there were seven more guards—about five or six more than they could handle on their own—were guarding the ship.

It was also then that he saw Hera, seemingly having already noticed the guards, say something into the commlink on her arm. A second later, the Ghost hummed to life, causing the two guards keeping post in front of it to jump back in surprise.

A triumphant beep from a certain feisty astromech echoed from inside.

Kanan swallowed. If they just stayed put for a moment, then they wouldn't suspect anything more—"

"Hey! Over here!"

Kanan snapped his head around at light speed to see Hera jump out from behind another ship in the yard with arms waving. He had just enough time to register what exactly she was trying to do before his heart plummeted like a brick into his belly.

Oh, Force no. That wouldn't do.

"Hera!" he called out, but the guards were already shooting and she was already ducking and running. To his left, two more guards heard him and ran in his direction. To his right, the Ghost started to lift off of the ground, sending red dust billowing outwards. It clouded up and clogged the air, making visibility low, near impossible. The guards started coughing and waving their arms in the air, cursing. Kanan pulled his shirt up over his nose and squinted, taking the opportunity they provided to bolt across the clearing to the other side where Hera was still being chased.

"Hera!" he shouted again, searching wildly through the russet dust to see her. He heard thundering booted footsteps and the sounds of a blaster before an echoing "over here!" that sounded like it came from everywhere all at once.

The Ghost's engines were whirring and the ship levitated over the land, further into the shipyard. It's left bulky wing scraped against another ship in the yard, sending an earsplitting metallic screech resonating through the dirt-filled air.

The missing parts of Hera's plan that had so far been lost to him started to click into place. His worries only doubled. A droid can't fly a ship that bulky on its own. And she can't draw all their fire from the engines of the ship without getting hit herself.

"Hera, hold on!" he yelled out, "I'm coming!"

But Kanan's feet didn't move from the ground. He stayed rigid and screwed his eyes shut. And for the first time in a very, very long time, he reached out to the Force.

It was hard, at first. It felt like the gears in his brain were rusted and the tethers that connected the ends of his nerves to the flow of the Force were stiff and tarnished. So he concentrated harder. Twisted up all the muscles in his face. Strained to feel it in the ruddy air around him. And he knew it was there, he just had to feel it.

Then, gradually, like a candle just starting to burn, he felt a warmth and a presence deep in the cavern of his mind. It pulsed; a life form. Hera.

The confidence mixed with fear started to radiate off of the flame with an ebb and flow that he knew was her rapid, panicked breathing. She was running. And she was running fast.

His eyelid twitched and his wrist flicked. He turned, slowly, eyes still closed as he felt it out around him. He searched for where the warmth felt the strongest.

It came to a very abrupt halt and then it held its breath, but the thrumming went on and he realized it was her heartbeat, not her breathing. He knew that she was hiding, somewhere, somewhere close and somewhere very much to his right.

Kanan's eyes flared open and he bolted, sprinting, in her direction. Through the thick clouds of red dust, a pile of crates became visible, and he felt the guards hunting her further to his left before he actually saw them. They hadn't spotted him or the crates, and if he was lucky, they still wouldn't for another minute.

The Ghost came closer to them, its mechanical droning swelling in the air as it flew low and slow over the ground. Kanan used to the booming sound as a cover as he darted for the crates and kicked one aside, revealing a very determined but fearful Hera backed against a wall with her blaster raised.

"Kanan!" she gasped, dropping her baster as her jaw went slack. "Where are the guards? Did they find you? Where's Chop, did he—"

She was cut off as he grabbed her elbow and hauled her to her feet. As soon as she straightened, the guards spotted them.

"Quickly, over there!" one shouted. "Don't let them get away!"

Hera and Kanan did not need another heads-up to send them sprinting away from the crates and toward the center of the clearing. Chopper had, much to Kanan's surprise, managed to keep the ship levitating and in the center of the yard without inflicting too much damage to itself. The other ships in the yard, however, were another story.

"Let's go!" Hera urged, and this time it was her turn to grab his hand and pull him towards the ship. He followed her without so much as glancing back at the guards behind them whose blasters were now sending lasers whizzing over their head.

The onramp to the Ghost lowered half-way, allowing Kanan and Hera to jump up and grab onto the edge to pull themselves up to the ship. Kanan shoved himself up and in with an explosive push of his arms. Hera grunted as she swung one leg up and hooked it around the edge, straining to pull herself up. Kanan didn't waste a second before reaching down and grabbing her under the arms to pull her up safely, and this time, she didn't object.

"Let's go Chop, let's go now!" Hera ordered as soon as they were stable, and they raced to the cockpit as the ship lifted further into the air. Kanan hopped onto the ladder and climbed swiftly into the nose turret gunner station.

The ship was already halfway out of the sky by the time he got in the seat, grabbed the controls, and spun around to face the skies. But there were no ships chasing them.

"What the…" he muttered, hesitantly releasing the controls. He stood back up and pressed his hands and his face against the glass and struggled to look down at the scene below.

The shipyard was a smoking, dusty wreck. All of the ships that had been there were either flattened, destroyed, or knocked to the ground, rendered unflyable. The guards were racing around the yard in a frenzy, frantic and barking orders and pointing to their ship in the sky. They were completely immobilized. And, Kanan realized quickly, this was the doing of the Ghost. Or rather, of Chopper.

The guards didn't find a single working ship until it was far too late. They tried to race up and chase them down, but the Ghost and her crew were long gone.

She breached the atmosphere of the planet. The simmering heat and the thick red dust of Kessel disappeared behind them.

The second they were in the black openness of space, they jumped.