Dudes! Wassup! So yes, its been awhile, blah, blah, excuses, excuses, etc. but its up now so…..you're welcome.
Btw who has seen the NEW REBELS TRALER?! If you haven't already, you should go do that (after you read and review my chapter of course.) But OMG i'm so excited!
Okay so first off I want thank all of you who reviewed/favorited/etc. You guys rock, however a big thank you in particular to Rebel Spectre 6, responsible for Star Wars Rebels: The Cold (which you should also read *nudge nudge), but who has also been super great and helpful in my creation of this piece, so thank you muchness!
{I will have more shout outs at the bottom too so take note:)}
Also, this chapter is quite a bit darker and more graphic than the past few chapters so please just be cautious. I don't want to offend anyone, hurt any feelings, or scare any small children, so take heed.
Disclaimer: Don't own SWR...you know the drill
Everything that happened at the market, had passed in a blur for Ezra. One moment, he was standing behind Zeb trying to blink the hot desert sand from his eyes, the next an arm was snaked around his neck with the hot metal of a blaster pressed to the side of his head.
He was about to call out to Zeb when the gruff voice of what he could only assume was his captor tickled his ear "Better keep your mouth shut kid." Ezra shuddered. The mans breath, smelling of illegal substances, was hot on the back of his neck. After a brief consideration of his options, he opted to raise his hands slowly in surrender. "Hehe, not so tough now are you kid!" the man snarled again, Ezra just groaned.
He was led across the square, and when he got to the mouth of an adjoining street he mentally kicked himself for being so stupid, because standing there was a group of five or so of the men that he had taken on earlier. They weren't the same exact men, but he could tell because of the similar black clothing with a strange symbol of some kind of animal decorating the sleeve that they knew each other.
"Gentlemen, I should have guessed I might be dealing with you again." His voice portrayed a false sense of confidence that he truly didn't feel, but he always tended to get cocky in sticky situations. Something that annoyed Kanan to no end 'its just going to get whoever it is to like you even less than they already do', he recalled his masters voice guiding him from his memories.
"Don't try and be smart with us kid" one of the men said.
"Yeah you don't think we would let you ge' away with tryin' to stealin' our merchendisin'" A different, behemoth of a man also chimed in.
"I see we're using our big words today," shut up ezra what are you doing?! he thought, but he couldn't keep his tongue in check, "your mother must be so proud" Suddenly he couldn't breath, realizing that the large man had stepped forward and punched him squarely in the stomach. Instinctively, he lifted his legs, and used both feet to kick the man back into his buddies. Then the arm around him loosened and both him and his captor fell back. A shot went off, and the men descended upon him, grabbing both his arms. Still, the padawan fought to be free of their grasp, kicking his legs again, feeling contact. Another punch came out of nowhere, Ezra saw stars, and the world spun violently. Hands grabbed at his ankles, holding them still, and the men holding his arms shifted to get a better hold of him. A deep, ripping pain tore across his collarbone, Ezra gasped.
"Come on then." A new voice boomed, "lets give this little runt what he deserves." He vas vaguely aware of movement, but at the moment he was more worried about his eyes inability to focus properly. Colors around him began to melt together and his head rolled uselessly around his shoulders.
At some point, the men must have dropped his legs, for they were now dragging behind him in the sand. The suns must have also gone down at some point, because it was now significantly darker than before, even though heat still radiated from the sand below. This went on for about… umm...actually Ezra wasn't entirely sure how long it had been. Or about where he was. Or what had happened in the past...however long it was. At the moment, he wasn't really sure about anything.
Anyways, after what seemed like 20 minutes (or was it 50?), the dragging stopped, and Ezra was thrown to the ground. They had come upon some kind of 'lean-to' shelter with three walls, and one side open to the night. This was lit with 4 smallish lanterns scattered about the perimeter, and a raging fire contained by some sort of bucket in the middle. Then voices sounded.
"This is him?"
"Ah its him alright, little bastard" the voices were distant, but he could still sense the disgust given off by their speakers.
"Our plan is all ready boss. Should we continue?"
"Good, yes." the movement started again. "But-" it stopped abruptly "first lets take him out back, show him what his little stunt cost him." This sentence was met with harsh, evil sounding laughter.
Once again, the dragging began, somewhere out of the light, but wherever the destination, it didn't take very long, because soon after he was, for what seemed like the twentieth time, was thrown face first into the sand. A small sound escaped him when another bolt of pain shot across his clavicle. Ignoring this, Ezra tried in vain to crawl away.
"Not so quick their little one" A hand grabbed a handful of his hair, forcing him to face upwards. "Just look at what you did"
What was in front of him, made Ezra feel sick. It was the woman from the market, the one who was screaming for her child, the one he had rescued. She lay on across the sand, her limbs were splayed at all angles, and between her unmoving eyes was a hole from a blaster. Blood trickled down her face running parallel to the tear tracks that had carved their way through the dust covering her skin, her child was nowhere no be seen. But it didn't matter. She was dead. And it was his fault.
A voice sounded behind him, but he didn't quite catch what it had said, for soon a cloth was shoved over his face, and he was drowned in the depths of unconsciousness.
"I don't understand. According to this he's in the middle of the desert?" Hera stuttered. "How could he be in the middle of the desert?"
"Maybe the slavers have some kind of base their or something?" Sabine chimed in.
"No this it...50 miles, at least. It wouldn't make any sense to have a base that far out. I- I don't understand." Hera ran the data again but still came up with the same location.
"Unless- he's actually in the middle of the desert." at Zebs words, everyone was quiet. This thought only brought more worry to the Ghost crew, because they could only imagine what reasons the slavers might have had for bringing Ezra miles away from civilization. Their was really only one logical answer, of which no one dared to think of.
"Well," it was Kanan who broke the silence "I say we follow the source and see if we find...any clues as to where he might be."
Everyone nodded in agreement, as the pilot set course. Kanan could sense everyones heartbeat beginning to quicken (except chopper of course), and no one acknowledged the the increasingly anxious atmosphere inside the cockpit. The jedi in particular also kept silent even with his senses screaming in alarm for his padawan. For he knew, that wherever he was, Ezra was in danger...
Yahoo! Its getting' real excitin' up in here! No? Okay…
Anyways, heres some more super contributors to my completely unjustified cause!
To Guest: Well i'll see what I can do. I aim to please!
To TheUltimateAngela: I wont stop! Thanks for the boost!
To HowlingSkies: Thank you as well, I'm so glad you like it
To FandomAffairs: Thanks for the tips they were very helpful! You give great advice, and it is greatly appreciated, also I like my picture too! ;)
To Alexa: I will keep 'em a-comin' for you man. Hopefully they will gradually start becoming a lot longer, but we'll see.
To Specter 13: I hope I can make you happy!
Alright, I will try to get up the next chap. Up ASAP, but I sadly can make no promises. However, do you know what keeps me motivated? Do you? Yes? You do? Yep, you guessed it… reviews! Please leave one! It makes me happy! Please? (puppy eyes)
Right-o, this is LordAndEmpiressDoodle signing off, have a Fabulous-Force-Filled-Friday! (three cheers for alliteration!)