Kanan raced toward the bunkroom where he'd left his sister after he finished his battle against the Inquisitor who had engaged him when he found him after he'd reached the main corridor. It had only been after he was already in the midst of his fight that he realized that the other man, an Inquisitor that he'd yet to have seen before, hadn't been alone. That meant that as he was fighting the dark acolyte, he was worried about what was happening to his sister.
Once he'd knocked the Inquisitor out, he raced back to where he'd told Kiara to stay put. He reached the door to the bunkroom just as it opened.
"Kanan!" Kiara was clearly relieved to see him.
"Are you alright?" Kanan pulled her into a hug, thankful that she'd made it through the encounter with the Inquisitor.
"Better than her," Kiara joked as she nodded. "But the question would be, why were they here?"
Kanan thought about the answer before saying, "We must have triggered some sort of alarm when we activated the base. We need to pack up and get out of here. And as close as we still are to Suaren we'll have to discuss this with the leadership there. It may not be wise to stay there now that the Inquisitors were sent to investigate so close by."
Kiara sighed. This was her fault. They'd come here so that Kanan could help her learn to control her force abilities. "I'll go get the Phantom ready."
When Kiara left Kanan used his senses to take in the scene where she and the now dead Inquisitor had fought. He heard the slight hiss of where the discarded double lightsaber lay on the ground and bent to pick it up. He could tell that Kiara must have caused the wiring to fry when she was in the heat of battling for her life. He examined it briefly before he headed in behind Kiara. They would have to leave before the other Inquisitor woke up. Not to mention, they didn't know if they had any backup in the area.
Kallus left the Shadow Chaser to head toward the main center for the base to begin his shift of the day. He had volunteered to help Rex and some of the others to train some of the lesser capable individuals in the cell so that they could defend themselves in hand-to-hand combat if need be. As he started across the hanger, he was surprised to see the Phantom landing. He didn't expect Kanan and Kiara to be back until this evening at the earliest. What could cause them to return at such an hour? When he approached and got close enough to the pair, he saw the telltale signs of a struggle; including the deep bruise that could be seen across Kiara's neck.
"What happened? Why are you two back so early? Wha-"
"Inquisitors," Kanan said simply. "Call the leadership staff in. I'll need to fill them in on what happened, and we may need to evacuate as close as we were when it happened."
Kallus nodded, "I'll get right on it." He turned to Kiara before he left. "Are you alright?" Kiara motioned that she was but instead of answering him further she turned to head to the Shadow Chaser; leaving Kallus confused. "Kanan? Is she alright?"
"I think she's a little shaken, but she won't admit it. Not that anyone can blame her. But she did have to face off with an Inquisitor on her own when I was fighting another one in a different part of the base."
Kallus lowered his brow as he looked back toward where the woman in question headed. "Why would an Inquisitor have been sent out to the base?"
"I figured that we triggered an alarm when we turned the power on. It happened before when Zeb, Sabine, and Ezra went on a supply mission to gather medical supplies."
Kallus shook his head. "Inquisitors are only sent in to investigate if there is a reason to believe that Jedi, or other force sensitives, are involved. Not for every possible case of petty theft and ransacking of former bases."
Kanan paused as he listened to the former ISB Agent explain that the encounter couldn't just be a random one. "There are so few Jedi still around, and not many force-sensitives go to former Clone Wars bases. You think that they were specifically looking for me?"
Kallus shook his head. "I'm not sure. But I don't like it. It doesn't feel right."
It had been a long two weeks since his daughter and her rebel friends escaped from his grasp. Elios had been lucky to have survived the emperor's displeasure resulting from the incident. He had heard of many others who hadn't been as fortunate. But he'd promised that he wouldn't rest until he'd righted the situation.
The emperor seemed to be intrigued when he heard the details of the incident of what had happened in his office that day. Elios didn't know how the man could be impressed by his daughter's recklessness, but he had been. The man said that he'd see to it that she would be found and brought to him. Moff Dume figured that if he could find her, and this time successfully deliver her to him, that he'd find favor with the emperor.
Of course, he'll have to devise a different manner to ensure that Kiara isn't able to retaliate with her unstable abilities should his forces be able to find and contain her. Not just sedate her since she'd been able to use them when she was barely conscious of what was going on around her. If only he'd had ordered the injections to be given hourly instead of bi-hourly.
Elios pulled up another report that had been logged by one of the few men who had firsthand experience with force users. He'd had some of his own scientists start to look into methods to deal with the Jedi who was a thorn in his side. The project had been abandoned when the funding dried up upon the other man's untimely demise but from what he read, the scientists had been close to a breakthrough.
Elios smiled. He'd meet with these scientists and if they truly were on the cusp of a discovery, he'd fund the rest of their research for himself.
"We have to move bases again? Why so soon?"
Kiara heard one of the women over at another table during the mid-day meal. She knew that the pending evacuation was the main topic of discussion going on around the base. It hadn't taken long for the previous night's run-in with the Inquisitors to practically become common knowledge.
Sabine heard the conversation but decided to ignore the other table. Instead, she nudged the woman sitting beside her. Most of the Ghost crew, as well as Kallus, were still busy with the leadership as they mulled over the possibility of having to evacuate.
"Hey, I heard you took on an Inquisitor on your own," Sabine smiled. "Impressive. I've had to fight against them, too, while out with Ezra so I know that it isn't easy. But I thought you said that you worked as an archeologist in the research division at the Empire. How does an archeologist learn to fight well enough to take on an Inquisitor?"
"I didn't. The only training that I have is what little I had at the academy. But I have always pushed myself at the gym anyway. I've had a few brushes over the years where I've had to fight but last night, I got lucky. I actually had to..." Kiara glanced around since no one at the base outside of the small crew of the Ghost and Alexsandr knew that she was force sensitive. "I had to use my other... talents to escape with my life."
Sabine nodded in understanding. "Well, if you want, I could always help you so that you can be better prepared. And I promise to not tell the guys about it, either." She leaned into Kiara before whispering, "We don't need them deciding to poke their noses in, do we?"
Kiara laughed. "How could I possibly pass up the chance to train with a Mandalorian?"
"Simple," Sabine joined her in laughing. "You can't. The others will be busy all day. And if anyone asks, we will be sparring, not training."
After the meal the two women went off to the outer edges of the base to work on training with hand-to-hand to combat. Sabine took her through the paces and while for the most part the other woman's tactics were predictable, likely thanks to the Imperial training, she was impressed with her ability to pick things up quickly. Sabine actually found that she had fun while training with Kiara. While she was still just a bit older than her, she wasn't as old as the rest of the crew of the Ghost.
By the end of the afternoon, they both were dripping in sweat and knew that they'd need to get cleaned up before the evening meal came. They went their separate ways until then but decided that they should definitely train more together since they had both enjoyed themselves.
Kiara was in the common room on the Shadow Chaser hours later, after the evening meal, when Alexsandr joined her on the ship. She looked up from a datapad that she'd downloaded some information from the Holonet and she was going over it. As the man started to walk past the common room, she called out to him.
"So, what was decided? Do we head out or stay?"
Alexsandr paused and leaned against the doorway of the room. "The leadership has decided to go with the wait and see approach. More sensors were dispersed so that we will know if the Imperials show up to do any further investigations of the area."
"Is that wise?" Kiara asked as she set her datapad down.
"I suppose it depends on your perspective." He shrugged.
"In other words, you pushed for an evacuation, and you were outvoted by the leadership," Kiara grinned when Alex's face showed that was exactly what had happened. "Well, I suppose that this means that I won't be heading off with Kanan to train at any other former Clone Wars' facilities."
"That would be best, yes." He then paused before adding, "But I still think that it would be wise to train; just in case."
Kiara rolled her eyes at his insistence but really couldn't come up with an argument against it, so she just returned to her datapad. She was a bit surprised when Alex sat beside her to try to see what she was reading.
"What is this," Alexsandr reached for the datapad that seemed to have Kiara's attention.
"Hey," Kiara reached for the pad but it was already out of her reach.
"Stories?"
"Legends. Old folklore about..." Kiara took a deep breath before she said, "About the purgill."
Kallus eyed the datapad strangely before handing it back. "Why are you reading about the purgill?"
"I've been cross-referencing ancient as well as recent reports so that I can try to decipher a pattern to their migratory patterns. If I can discern th-"
"You're looking for Ezra!" Alexsandr didn't know what to say. He knew that the boy's disappearance was still hard on the crew of the Ghost, but he also knew that what little information from the trajectory that the creatures had gone hadn't been enough for anyone to mount a search for him.
"Yes, but don't say anything to anyone yet. I don't want to raise anyone's hopes. This will likely take some time."
"I don't get it. How did you know to do all of this?"
"It's really not that much different than collecting information to determine the best and most likely place to find a discovery before actually going to dig at a site. An archeologist can't just go digging everywhere until they eventually find something. There is always tons of research to do, sometimes for years, before going out into the field."
"I guess I've never really thought about that."
"So, you aren't going to tell the others, right?" Kiara looked over beside her on the couch in the lounging area of the common room expectantly.
"If you don't want me to say anything then I won't. But I think that they'd appreciate knowing what you are doing." Alex reached over and put an arm around Kiara's shoulders to show his own appreciation.
"Maybe. But there is no reason for them to know and get their hopes up for now." Kiara leaned in to accept the hug for a few moments before she sat back up and returned to her datapad.
The next morning Kallus and Valour were both heading toward the Mess Hall for their first meal of the day. That was what they were doing when one of the newer additions to the base, even newer than Kiara, approached the former ISB Agent. She was a pale blue Twi'lek and had been brought to the base during the time that both of them had been out on their separate missions the week after Kiara had first joined the cell. The woman seemed to find herself where Alexsandr was quite often.
"There you are. I must say, I was disappointed when you had to withdraw from giving the self-defense lessons yesterday. I had hoped that I'd be able to learn quite a bit from you." Salora smiled up at the blond human male brightly.
"I'm sure the others were able to teach adequately in my absence."
"Adequately, perhaps. But you were still missed." The Twi'lek then put a hand on his arm for a moment before she said, "Perhaps next time I'll be able to watch your form." With that she walked away.
Beside Kallus, Kiara snickered before she used her hip to bump him from the side. "Are you dead? She couldn't have been more obvious." Alex eyed her so she added while laughing, "That woman is hot for your body. That is the form she wanted to watch the next time. Not your fighting prowess."
"So I gathered."
Kiara shook her head before she mimicked, "So I gathered. Is that all you have to say? I can't believe it. You don't even seem to have been tempted." She took his wrist and held it while she placed her fingers across the base of it.
"What are you doing?"
"Checking for a pulse." Kiara did her best to rein in her laughter as they neared the others. "It's there. I just wasn't sure. I'm sure Salora isn't sure after how you practically ignored her, either."
"Could it be that I'm just not interested?"
"Not interested in what?" Zeb asked as he and the rest of the crew of the Ghost joined them at the entrance to the Mess Hall.
"Nothing," Kallus gave Valour a look that clearly said to drop the subject. Unfortunately, she wasn't ready to do that yet.
"Salora was blatantly flirting with him, and he acted as if he didn't even notice. I think that we should send him down to the infirmary. Any heterosexual, unattached, warm-blooded male would have to be dead to not have responded to the way she was acting. The poor woman is likely wondering if she's lost all her sex-appeal now." Kiara stopped trying to hold back her laughter when she heard her friend groan.
Zeb snickered at his friend while Hera and Sabine both exchanged looks behind the two who had joined them for their morning meal. Still, they didn't say anything to either fill Kiara in on why they felt Kallus may not have acted interested in the other woman nor to help the man out as Kiara kidded him about the Twi'lek. It was Kanan who changed the subject, giving the blond a reprieve.
"After the meal, Kiara, I figured that we'd go away from the base for today's lesson. We'll still take the Phantom, but we won't leave the planet this time. There is an uninhabited continent to the north. We'll go there to train."
"You don't think it's too risky? After the run-in with the Inquisitors?" The humor that had filled her voice moments prior had all evaporated.
"Not as risky as not having you prepared for the next time."
