Well, what can I say I've got a muse as they say. So I decided to get as much done as possible while I have momentum. So, here we go.
Chapter 3
"Okay what in the world happened? I thought the Empire didn't have much of a presence here," Ezra shouted as soon as he and Zeb ran into the Ghost's meeting room.
"Agent Kallus must've guessed our next move," Kanan mused, characteristically stoic and composed, unlike Zeb and Ezra, who were flipping out big time over the capture of Sabine.
"That would explain the Star Destroyer in orbit," Hera said regret laced in her voice, "We should have known better than to let her go alone."
"None of us could have seen this coming, let's all just calm down and figure out how we're going to get her back," Zeb piped up.
"That's the thing, we should have known better, we've had so much success that we should have known that the Empire would step up their efforts to try and capture us. Now they've got Sabine," Hera snapped, very much surprising everyone as she collapsed onto the chair, "Now they'll be expecting us. It's the only reason the ship hasn't been attacked."
"Hey," Kanan said, crouching down next to her and resting a hand on her shoulder, "We've gotten through tougher scrapes than this. We'll figure something out."
Then Chopper rolled up and chirped at them in his own language that only Kanan and Hera could understand. But usually you could get a rough idea from the tone of his voice, and judging by his unusually calm tone he had figured something out.
"You're right Chopper, they are probably watching the ship," Hera sighed, then perked up as she realized something, "We can use that…"
"Uh…care to share?" Ezra questioned, slightly confused how the Empire keeping tabs on them was a good thing.
"They want us to try a rescue, we've done it enough times that Kallus will try and predict our next move. Otherwise they would have made a try at all of us at once. They're watching us, keeping tabs on our movements and our ship so they can take us all in one fell swoop when we try and rescue Sabine," Kanan replied, piecing things together on the fly as he paced around the room.
"So what? We do nothing because the Empire may be watching us?" Zeb roared out of frustration, "Either way Sabine's still theirs. They still win!"
"Not if we do what they don't expect," Kanan said.
"Well they've been able to predict our moves lately, so I'm pretty sure that they'll see us coming either way," Ezra piped up.
"We leave," Hera whispered, her mind starting piece it together.
"Or make it look like we left," Kanan smiled, "I've got a plan."
"Care to explain oh fearless leader?" Zeb groaned.
"Ready the Phantom, and get a map of the skylanes, see if we can find one that's close to us. And Ezra," Kanan said.
"Yeah?" Ezra responded, curious as to what he was getting at.
"You ever hotwired an air speeder?" Kanan asked with a slight grin.
"Well…"
Davenport Gateway, Imperial Security Bureau Headquarters
A feeling of utter weightlessness combined with the added oddity of immobility bombarded Sabine's senses as she slowly returned to consciousness. It was enough to make her feel like hurling as her sense of balance was thrown way out of whack. She creaked her eyes open as the numbness wore away to be replaced with the sensation of soreness, like she'd gotten clubbed right in the chest by Zeb. It was enough to make her grown a bit as she took in the room she was held in. It was quite dark, and it was actually quite large. Her hands were out to the sides slightly above her head held in place with extremely tight restrainers that were activated with the pulsing blue and white energy fields around them surrounding her body. Her ankles had a similar setup holding them in place.
Then she remembered what had happened all at once. Kallus ambushing her in the food court near her destination, her attempted escape down an alley and then being suckered right into a well laid trap. And now, she was here, in Imperial custody, with the most secure restraining system she'd ever seen holding her helplessly in place. She began to feel her heart beat faster and faster as butterflies of fear fluttered around in her gut. Sabine couldn't get a coherent thought together as she pulled futilely against the restraints. She didn't care how futile it was, she just couldn't stay here, she couldn't be captured. She knew very well what horrors were in store for prisoners of the Empire. But as for traitors of the Empire, no one knew, as no one lived to speak of it. And she was classified as a traitor.
That was enough for her to just fight, even if the odds were against her. But in reality, all Sabine accomplished was to completely exhaust herself completely, and the hot humid air of the cell she was in didn't help her in this respect whatsoever. She knew that she was trouble, big trouble, and she just held her eyes shut, knowing that she couldn't let the fear and despair she felt taking over show. But as she struggled with her own emotions the sound of the doors sliding open greeted her ears and her eyes shot open and she looked up to see Agent Kallus himself flanked by two guards wearing all black uniforms and those stupid looking black shovel helmets on their heads.
"Well then," the voice of her tormentor said as he walked in and the two guards moved to their positions at the controls to the restraining system, "Cadet, or former cadet Sabine Wren. What are we going to do with you?"
Kallus had his hands grasping a data pad with some script that Sabine couldn't quite read from the distance she was at. Her fears were now soon to be reality, but she had to put on a brave face, she had to keep her mouth shut. No matter what, she couldn't, wouldn't, give up her friends.
"I'd suggest you'd just get this over with Kallus, I'm not talking," she growled to him as he walked behind her, out of sight.
"You have quite a record my dear," Kallus said from behind her, almost daring her to look behind her, "High marks in all respects, I understand the ISB was looking to potentially recruit you. Oh what promise, now it's all for nothing it seems."
"I wouldn't call fighting for a cause a waste," Sabine said with a brave smirk, looking dead ahead.
"That's what they all say, when I begin," Kallus laughed, and then from behind Sabine he nodded to the men at the controls and all of a sudden a powerful and visible surge of electricity ripped through Sabine's body, causing every nerve in her body to fire all at once, and continue. She couldn't help but scream in agony as the pain didn't subside. Kallus calmly walked back in front of Sabine as the torture continued until he raised a hand without a care and the pain stopped and Sabine couldn't help but go utterly limp. Her head hung down as she panted heavily.
"I won't…talk…" Sabine gasped, making Kallus smirk and brag her by the chin.
"You would, if I had any questions. The fact is you're just a means to an end. Your leaders don't trust you to tell you everything, I wouldn't. So I don't expect you to know anything I don't already know," Kallus said, dropping her chin, and then signaled the controllers once more.
Another, far more powerful surge attacked Sabine's body once again. Her screams were just a futile release as the torture just continued, without any signs of stopping. But it stopped, after several agonizing minutes of nonstop pain and outright suffering it stopped and Sabine couldn't help but feel a few tears fall from her eyes as blood leaked from her ears and nose slightly.
"Why? If I don't know anything…why don't you just…just kill me?" she gasped as she tried to fight it.
"I've always been curious about the Jedi. They say that they can feel the pain of those they love through the force. They will try to rescue you my dear, let's hurry them along shall we?"
Sabine didn't quite understand what Kallus said in her state of mind. But she at least heard him before the pain continued, and didn't stop.
Davenport Gateway, Aboard the Ghost
The feeling hit Ezra like a ton of bricks, it was like a slight stinging in the back of his mind that pulsed like a heartbeat. But it grew, not like a headache but in measured waves as he focused. And he couldn't get it to leave. He held a hand to his head as he leaned against the door trying to get it to leave.
"You sense it too," Kanan's voice said with some measure of concern to his voice.
"Yeah…I-I just can't figure out what it is," Ezra said wincing as he stood up to face Kanan who was clearly concerned.
"Close your eyes Ezra," Kanan ordered, "Clear your mind, focus. Reach out with your feelings, be still, let it come, don't fight it."
Ezra subtly nodded and closed his eyes and tried clearing his mind focusing and then felt it coming like a raging bantha. He could now hear something as well, a shape was forming, colors were starting to materialize in his head. His connection with the force had grown with each day of training since he'd met Kanan, but perhaps too fast, especially after he'd met the Inquisitor on that old asteroid and had let himself slip with uncontrolled emotion that had saved them but had given him his first taste of the cold feeling of the dark side. Ever since then he and Kanan had taken it easy, focusing on control and not allowing emotions to cloud his mind. He'd heard Kanan speak of being able to sense things when his mind was tuned correctly, even seeing the future. But that was something Kanan had said he'd never mastered. Many Jedi could get glimpses of the future very few Jedi were capable of clearly distinguishing it and fewer still had shown a reliable ability to act upon it.
Now, Ezra felt himself seeing something, he began to hear a familiar voice, although he couldn't make out any of the words. He was seeing a familiar face but it was too vague to make out. But it was clear that they were in pain, such great pain that he was starting to get a slight headache himself, like he was experiencing it through them. And then he figured it out and like a tidal wave he came to the realization he was seeing Sabine.
"It's-," Ezra babbled out, but was stopped by Kanan holding his hand out calmly.
"I know, Sabine's being tortured as we speak. You can sense it as I can."
"We-we gotta save her, we…"
"Ezra," Kanan snapped, "I know you want to get going I do to. But that's exactly what they're torturing her for. Kallus knows we're Jedi and he's trying to get our attention and force us into a rash course of action. We have to stick with the plan. We won't be doing Sabine any good if we get caught."
"How…" Ezra stumbled his frustration growing as he tried finding other outlets, "How can I sense it?"
"When you've formed an attachment to someone you can almost see things as they happen around them, or to them if it's extreme enough. And judging by what I'm sensing Sabine is in a great deal of pain right now," Kanan shook his head, frustration giving his voice an edge to it that only came out whenever things were incredibly serious.
"Then we've gotta hurry," Ezra growled, turning to go to the bridge, a boiling rage starting to fill him.
"Ezra," Kanan snapped, grabbing him by the shoulder, "I can feel your anger, your frustration. I know what you're going through, we all do. Don't let those feelings control you, don't give into them. We all know what you're feeling right now."
Ezra let out a heavy sigh and tried releasing the tension that was building up inside with limited but noticeable success.
"Is it that obvious?" he whispered lowly.
"Yeah, I've seen that look before," Hera piped up as she poked out of the bridge and glanced at Kanan with a knowing smile.
"When you try every pickup line in the book it tends to be obvious," Zeb said as he walked out of their shared room.
"Okay can we stop analyzing me and get to saving Sabine, I'm pretty sure Sabine needs our help."
"Alright here's the plan," Kanan said stepping forward. Hera, Ezra, Zeb and I will be aboard the Phantom. Chopper is going to pilot us right to a crowded series of sky lanes, close enough for us to deploy the Phantom and hopefully blend in with traffic. From there we'll go to a parking garage where the Empire keeps its air speeders. Ezra will hotwire one of them and we'll aim them right at the ISB headquarters and let them fly right to the building. Then using some explosives we'll scatter them all over the building and detonate them, causing enough damage to get every emergency vehicle in miles to converge on the building. Hopefully we'll then be able to sneak in with the emergency vehicles and Hera will drop us off near the high security holding facilities on the top levels. Zeb, Ezra and I will then get Sabine out of there and rendezvous for extract on the top floor where Hera will get us out and then we'll meet with Chopper and the Ghost and make our escape."
"Sabine would like this plan."
"She'd rather be the one to execute it though," Zeb chuckled.
"Well she'll have to deal with this one being done without her, Hera, are we ready to lift off?" Kanan asked.
"I'm ready whenever you are love," Hera responded, "I've got a course plotted and ready to go. All Chopper has to do is follow it."
"Let's get the explosives aboard the Phantom. We've got a friend to save."
Well there's another one. Thanks for reading guys and gals hope you enjoy. As usual if you have any suggestions or pointers I'm receptive, although keep it within reason.
Next Chapter Preview: It's on now, one way or another this little episode is going to end. But no matter what, we're gonna have explosions!