Fire Across the Galaxy
part 4
Author's note: FATG airs tonight! Woah! I most likely won't finsih by then, but, I'll try my very best. Enjoy!
Jade eyes snap open. Great darkness. Those orbs swirl around the room as if they would find the thing the darkness was streaming from, hidden in a corner. There was great darkness flowing on the destroyer. Could it be the Inquisitor? Kanan asks himself before quickly shooing away the thought. The Inquisitor's signature in the force was dark, yes, but, this was different. Dark energy reeks from it, spreading it's stinking tendrils through the force. Only a great dark-side user would have a signature like that in the force. Only a..a sith lord.
The very thought wakes Kanan fully from the alluring embrace of sleep. The very thought drives some of the pain away from his throbbing body. A Sith lord and a Jedi on the same ship already reeks of bad news. Kanan could only hope the Sith would refrain from paying a visit to him.
C.C
"The transport you stole will get us close to Tarkin's star destroyer," Hera announces. "What then?" The question emerges from Zeb as the blue and white lights of hyperspace streak past the cockpit. "Find Kanan and get out of there as soon as possible," Hera says over her shoulder. The twil'lek was lost in the worry and hope in the moment. Worry consumes her at the thought of what would happen if they didn't arrive there in time and Kanan would be awaiting death or already dead on Mustafar. Or if they did arrive there in time and were captured in their rescue attempt. Then the hope for a better tomorrow would die, just as Fulcrum warned. But, hope was there too. Hope that they would rescue Kanan and find him safe and sound. Hope that they would live to see the next day, hope they would live to see a better tomorrow. Hold On Pain Ends. Hope was of the most importance now in these dark times.
"Sounds simple enough," There it was, hope once again finding it's way into someone and spreading it's intoxicating tendrils through out their soul, their mind, their body. This time it was Ezra who hope had ensnared. "It's never that simple," Doubt and worry had wormed it's way into Zeb's grumble. Doubt as always trapped even more then hope. Worry had squirmed itself into yet another person's mind. "Let's just stick to the plan. From what I have seen, Tarkin's destroyer is pretty big. There's a chance we might not even encounter any stormtroopers at all," Hope peeps up inside Sabine's voice. A sigh hangs in the air behind Hera, from who, Hera didn't know. All she cared about was Kanan. Hera could care less about the Empire. Hera could care less about Fulcrum's plans for the future. Hera could care less about the greater rebellion at hand. Over-flowing her mind were golden memories.
The first time they locked eyes. Their first mission as a team. The moment they finally completed Chopper, and heard him curse the first time in his first five minutes alive. When Zeb joined the crew. The time Kanan went to a bar with Zeb and ended up trying to hug a Imperial. Sabine joining the crew, Kanan smiling at Hera's side. When Kanan rushed to her after having a vision about the last member of their crew joining. When Zeb and Ezra had stolen a TIE fighter. Golden memories of them together, emerald gazing in jade. Two pairs of jewels twinkling as Hera and Kanan laughed together. They were going to get Kanan back, they had too.
A grumble following a series of beeps interrupts her thoughts. Emerald eyes glance up, warned by Chopper, to find Mustafar. The planet was a deep, rich red color, streaked with glowing rivers of lighter red and orange that could only be rivers of lava. In the background looms another planet and all around them stood the vacuum of space, but all Hera saw was the fleet of Destroyers ahead of them. Hera didn't need to be a Jedi to feel that Kanan was in one of them.
C.C
Darth Vader paid no attention what so ever to the chattering of Tarkin. As he strode next to the Sith lord, Tarkin talked on and on about how they had finally captured the Jedi and how the Jedi hadn't told them anything about a larger rebellion. All Vader cared about was meeting this Jedi. Once the Jedi was transported to Mustafar, the death of another Jedi and a rebel leader would happen. The rebels would be lost without their leader and would be easily captured, but Vader hardly cared about that too. The death of a Jedi didn't happen everyday.
The rattling of Vader's breathing fills the cell, surrounding the Jedi. As Vader descends downwards into the cell, the Jedi's eyes snap open, showing jade green orbs filled to the brim with anger and fear. As always there was fear. Wherever the dark lord went, he brought along fear. Fear sparked in the citizens of the planets he visited, fear blazed in the eyes of his co-workers, fear hide poorly in the eyes of the Jedi. Underneath his mask, a triumphant smirk grows upon the once padawan's destroyed face.
C.C
"Chopper, stay and keep the ship ready for hyperspace. We're going to need a quick getaway." A beep was Hera's response. Low grumbles emerge from the orange astromech as the rebel trio leave the cockpit. Chopper simply couldn't understand why he of all things couldn't go along with them to rescue Kanan. Chopper too misses Kanan, though Chopper wouldn't admit that to anyone. Chopper would even give away several of his parts if it meant Kanan would come back onto the Ghost. The Ghost seemed empty and deserted without him. Without Kanan, the rebels were simply rebels, a mashed together group of individuals annoying the Empire. But, with Kanan they were different. They were a team, a crew, in some ways a family. They would always have a plan before launching a mission, they would have never invaded a Star Destroyer with as poor a plan as they did now. Use the TIE to land in Tarkin's Destroyer and then find and escape with Kanan. Chopper thought it was a lousy, karabast plan.
C.C
"Ready?" The question comes from Hera. "Ready as we'll ever be," Sabine answers as, with a slight shove into Zeb's arm, the mandolorian was finally stationed behind Hera. Refraining from shoving Sabine back, Zeb instead tries to shove Ezra into the far corner of the cockpit. A bump and then.. "Hey!" "Wasn't my fault, you were just in my way!" Zeb protests back, his voice ringing in Hera's ears. More bumps and shouts and then Hera's command slices through the fight from behind, "Zeb, Ezra, be serious, we need to have our wits about us for our mission." Silence was her answer.
C.C
"Ok, Chop, cut us loose," Hera's voice streams in from Chopper's comm. Beeps were given back as Chopper, pressing several carefully chosen bright green button that lit up through the dim cockpit, unleashes the TIE from it's connection with the transport.
As the TIE flies away towards the fleet of destroyers, as tiny as a bug compared to the mighty Star Destroyers, the mission seemed even more dangerous then ever.
C.C
"How do we even know if Kanan's still alive?" Racing down the dimly light corridor, shadows casting down their faces, weapons raised, Sabine's questions haunts her fellow rebels. What if all they did here was for nothing, they asked themselves. Doubt creeps upon them again, but there was hope too. Hope that what they were doing would end up with Kanan safe and unharmed on the Ghost. And the rebels needed most of all now was hope
Minutes pass. More and more tension floods into the rebel's minds. It seemed like every corner, every doorway would hold Kanan, but, all they would find were stormtroopers. Fire, run, repeat. These three motions were hardwired into the rebels as they flee from stormtrooper after stormtrooper. But, the Destroyer was huge and the rebels were small. They weren't surrounded, not yet.
"He's alive!" The sudden burst from Ezra halts the crew. Ezra's zaffre blue eyes widen as he senses something the rest of the crew couldn't.
C.C
Rough hands force him down the corridor. Circles of metal press down upon the back of his head, their cold touch chilling him. And yet, Kanan had never felt so free since he been brought onto Tarkin's Destroyer. No metal bindings biting into his skin, no endless questions, no bolts of energy racking up and down his body. Kanan was momentarily free from the haze of pain and sleep his cell had brought him. Escape now seems a true option, not a faraway dream.
Kanan was free of the Inquisitor and the Sith. So what if his his hands were bound behind him, and four stormtroopers had their blasters trained upon his head. Kanan could almost taste freedom.