A long time ago in a galaxy far,

far away….

STAR WARS REBELS

The Kessel Run: Heart of Darkness

Starship Ghost, Kessendra Spaceport, Kessel, Maw Nebula – 22:10 Local Time – 04 BBY

"How much longer are they gonna be?" Zeb demanded.

"Patience, Zeb," Hera said calmly. "It'll take as long as it takes."

"Yeah, right," Zeb huffed. "'Take as long as it takes.' Very helpful. You're starting to sound like Kanan."

A series of irritable chirrups sounded from Chopper, the little Astromech waving his maintenance arms in the air.

"You see? Chop agrees with me," Zeb proclaimed, before frowning and turning to the Astromech droid. "You were agreeing with me, right?"

"No, he was warning us!" Hera replied as she sat up in her seat. She looked at the Ghost's exterior sensors, spotting the squad of Imperial soldiers swarming towards the ship. "Stormtroopers!" Hera called out. "I'm bringing the landing ramp up." Hera raised the boarding ramp.

Zeb stood and scowled at the armoured troops assembling on the landing pad in front of the ship. "What do they want?"

"Nothing good," Hera replied. Another bleep from the console alerted her to the Stormtroopers manoeuvring a mobile boarding ramp into position beside the Ghost's port docking ring. "They're trying to board us!" she warned.

"Damn it!" Zeb grabbed his bo-rifle. "Do you think they have Kanan and the others?"

"I don't know!" Hera replied.

"I'll hold them off. Get us in the air."

"We can't just leave them!"

"What's the alternative?" Zeb replied hotly. "We stay and get captured too?"

"Surrender your ship, or be destroyed," a voice suddenly piped through the Ghost's intercom. "You have nowhere to run. If you lay down your arms we will consider leniency."

The alarms on the console were going crazy. Several red blips appeared on the sensor screen indicating enemy ships were incoming.

"We've got Tie Fighters inbound!" Hera said.

"What!?" Zeb exclaimed

Hera started to power up the Ghost. "Bringing the deflectors online."

"Hera!" Zeb yelled pointing out the cockpit window.

On the landing pad, the squad of Stormtroopers had formed up, levelling their blasters at the Ghost. Suddenly, eight Tie Fighters appeared above them, hovering over the spaceport as they trained their weapons on the ship.

Zeb smashed his fist against the console. "Now what?" he asked. His query answered by an echoing thud from the port docking ring as it was forcibly opened. They could hear the echoing thump of booted feet storming onto the ship.

"We have you surrounded. You have ten seconds to surrender or we will open fire!" the voice ordered over the speakers.

Fists started to pound against the cockpit door as the muffled shouts of the invading Stormtroopers called out to them. "Open up in there! Open up in there!"

"We can't surrender the Ghost!" Zeb insisted clutching his bo-rifle.

"We don't have a choice," Hera told him forlornly. She sat back in her seat, defeated and dejected, gazing at the distinctive profile of the Citadel dominating the Kessendra skyline and a quiet expression of regret escaped her lips. "I'm sorry, Love."

Commander Roto Shar slowly approached the four intruders, his lightsabre held out in front of him like a spear.

Sabine, Ezra, Kanan and Han raised their hands, trying not to provoke the small army of Stormtroopers pointing their blasters at them while the Shar stepped closer to the group. The Commander's retreating hairline was combed so close to his scalp that his jet-black hair looked like it had been painted on. He had a prominent, hawk-like nose and was clean shaven, which only served to emphasise his rather weak chin.

Ezra and Kanan eyed the lightsabres in the cabinets at the centre of the room. Roto Shar caught the sly glances directed at the weapons and grinned, the skin of his face stretching across his skull like a mask.

"I shouldn't bother. The laser swords have been deactivated. All except this one," he said indicating the lightsabre in his hand. He gestured expansively his left hand. "What do you think of my collection? Impressive isn't it? I get so little opportunity to show it off to visitors."

"Must have taken a while to assemble all this junk," Han said conversationally.

"Oh, it did," Shar verified, ignoring the snide remark. He stepped closer, nodding towards the display of holocrons behind his desk. "Those holocrons especially. Fascinating items. Only those attuned to the flow of the Force can read them. Which means that whoever opened it is a Jedi!" Shar pointed the glowing blade directly at Han and the holocron he'd taken from Ezra still grasped in his hand.

Han's expression was a mixture of disbelief and open contempt. "Seriously? You think I'm a Jedi? Do I look like a Jedi to you?"

"Maybe if you squint really hard!" Kanan muttered.

"I knew my collection would tempt one of your kind here eventually, Jedi," Shar continued. "But you had to reveal yourself to me. So I devised this test. A door that had to be opened from the inside. You could have used your Force powers for that, but instead you sent the boy through the vents." He pointed at Ezra. "How very cautious. But you couldn't resist the holocrons, could you? They contain all the knowledge from your Jedi Temple. I wasn't sure which one you'd take so I had them all fitted with sensors. Which makes me wonder: why you chose to take that one?"

"Hey, you've got the wrong idea," Han insisted. "We were just taking a stroll and got turned around…"

But Shar cut him off. "Don't patronise me! You are not here by accident." He turned, noticing the violet starbird Sabine had scrawled on the wall. "And you will pay for you wanton vandalism, philistine! There is a Jedi in this room," he added with evident glee. "One of you is Force-sensitive. And I will know who it is…" The Commander turned the blade on Ezra and waved it dangerously close to the young man's face. "One way or another…"

The team watched in alarm as Shar advanced towards Ezra with the lightsabre. His eyes widening, the young rebel tried to back away from the deadly blade of plasma, but Shar had backed him up against the holocron cabinet.

"Everyone talks eventually. They just need the right incentive," Shar said calmly.

At that moment, something caught Han's attention. His gaze flashed to Sabine and the small detonator she was holding in her hand. Han's eyes narrowed and he stared at the starbird emblem Sabine had painted, his mind racing.

"Wait! You don't have to do that, Shar," Kanan pleaded, keeping one eye on the heavily armed Stormtroopers still training their weapons on the team. "We'll tell you anything you want!"

Shar nodded, his eyes still fixed on Ezra. "Yes," he hissed, stooping lower to hold the blade so close that Ezra could feel his skin prickling under the plasma, "I know you will."

Ezra couldn't take his eyes off the glowing blade. He could hear the hum of the lightsabre intensify as the Commander lowered it closer. Shar grinned, the shadows cast by the focused beam of energy contorting his face into a hideous death mask.

Kanan opened his mouth to come clean… but was cut off by a voice from his left.

"Okay! You win," Han yelled. "It's me!"

Shar pulled the blade away from Ezra's face

"What?" Kanan looked at Han askance.

"You're kidding?" Sabine exclaimed.

"I think I peed a little!" Ezra confessed.

"Say that again," the Commander told Han.

"You got me, Shar," Han said shrugging. "I am the Jedi you're looking for."

"Keep moving, schutta!" the Stormtrooper ordered. Hera was shoved firmly in the back for emphasis.

"Touch her again and I'll brain you!" Zeb snarled at the Stormtrooper, only to have a blaster waved threateningly in his face. He gave a growl of frustration and continued to march.

The squad of Stromtroopers steered Hera, Zeb and Chopper across the Spaceport towards the far side of docking bays.

"Where do you think they're taking us?" Zeb asked Hera in a low voice.

"To the Spice Mines," Hera whispered back. "That's where they send all the prisoners."

"We're going to get out of this," Zeb assured her. "Count on it."

"No talking!" another of the Stormtroopers barked.

Hera took a quick peek at the Citadel in the distance. She fully expected to be dragged onto a waiting Imperial shuttle and sent straight to the mines (or to be executed, though she didn't want to say that to Zeb), so she was surprised when the Stormtroopers pulled up beside a familiar Correlian freighter and ordered them to wait.

"That's Solo's ship," Hera said, staring up at the beaten smugglers vessel. It looked like it'd had a hard life.

"What are we doing here?" Zeb asked.

As if in reply, a fierce growl sounded from behind the ship.

Chewbacca emerged from the ship, walking down the landing ramp flanked by four Stormtroopers; the Wookiee's wrists fastened together with silver bindings.

"That one give you any trouble?" the Stormtrooper behind Hera asked his fellow trooper beside Chewbacca.

"A little," the Stormtrooper escorting Chewbacca confessed. Hera noticed his white chest-plate was scuffed and dented. She smiled. Evidently, the Wookiee had given them more than a little of trouble.

"Any idea where they're going?" the armoured guard behind Hera enquired.

"The Commander ordered us to detain them here until he decides what to do with them," came the reply from the trooper beside Chewbacca.

Hera and Zeb exchanged a glance. They weren't going to the mines immediately it seemed. They still had time to find a way out of this…

Roto Shar advanced on Solo, the Commander grinning in triumph. "I knew it. At last! I never stopped believing one such as you would come here eventually." Shar took in the puzzled expressions of the other captured humans. "Look at your friend's faces. They didn't know what you were, did they? How have you managed to hide your true nature, Jedi?"

Han shrugged modestly. "Hiding stuff is what I do. I've had years of practice."

Shar looked Han up and down as if he was giving him a long and considered inspection. "Yeeess. You will be ideal," the Commander muttered.

Solo frowned. "Ideal for what?" he asked with suspicion.

Shar hadn't turned off the lightsabre and started twirling the Jedi weapon in a series of intricate and evidently well-practiced katas. The distinctive low hum of the weapon changed pitch as Shar spun and whirled the blade back and forth.

"After the Great Purge, the Emperor decreed that all surviving Jedi should be hunted down and executed. Your kind is nearly extinct, Jedi. You have become extremely rare. And, consequently, incredibly valuable to the right people." Shar stopped twirling the blade and pointed it at Han. "You know, I should hand you over to the Empire right now. But I can't let an opportunity like this pass me by. It'd be too wasteful…"

Shar stepped closer to Han, the glowing blade mere inches from the smuggler's neck. He reached forward and prised the holocron from Han's unresisting fingers. "I see the potential in you," Shar breathed. "I can help you become immortal!"

Han met Shar's gaze, becoming slightly disquieted as he recognised the look in the Commander's eyes. It was the same look that some of the more unhinged individuals and clients he'd encountered during his time as a smuggler had. There was obsession in those eyes. There was craving. But, most of all, there was madness. Han swallowed and leaned away from the fanatical Commander.

"You, Jedi, will become my crowning glory," Shar declared. "The pinnacle of my collection."

"I'm flattered," Han said dully.

"You should be. Imagine it: Your body preserved in carbonite. Frozen for all time. Immutable. Perfect!"

"And hanging on your wall, huh?" Han asked with contempt.

"Yes," Shar replied happily.

"Well, as tempting as it is to spend eternity as a collector's item, I'm gonna have to decline," Han insisted, fixing the Commander with a fierce glare. "I'm nobody's work of art, Shar!"

"Oh, I don't know," Sabine murmured quietly.

Shar recoiled from Han as if he'd been struck. "Don't try your mind tricks on me, Jedi!"

"You'd need a mind for that to work!" Han retorted.

"Enough!" Shar declared. He turned his back on them. "You are all enemies of the Empire. You have aided and abetted a fugitive from justice. There will be no leniency… I had hoped to take you undamaged, Jedi. But, I fear that will may longer be possible." Shar turned off the lightsabre and strode towards his men. "Take them to the detention block!" he ordered the Stormtroopers.

As one, the first rank of Stormtroopers advanced. They marched forward, training their rifles threateningly at the four intruders.

Kanan caught Sabine's eye and gave her a slight nod. Sabine acknowledged the signal and edged away from her drawing of the starbird, the detonator ready in her hand.

Kanan waited until the advancing Stormtroopers were almost next to the violet graffiti before calling out to the Commander. "Hey, Shar!" The Commander stopped and turned. "You know what's so great about street art? They make wonderful distractions!" Kanan nodded at Sabine, and she pressed the detonator.

The paint bomb exploded.

There was a blinding flash and thunderous roar as the advancing troopers were sent hurtling across the room, violet paint peppered across their armour.

The crew drew their blasters and all hell broke loose!

A Stormtrooper next to Shar went down under Han's blaster fire. The smuggler dived for cover behind a cabinet, while Ezra and Sabine overturned Shar's desk, taking refuge behind it. Kanan quickly sheltered beside another cabinet as he traded shots with the Imperial troopers.

The room was alive with laser blasts. One of Shar's precious displays burst open as a bolt ricocheted past him.

"Watch the artefacts!" Shar screamed at his troops.

Two more troopers went down under the rebel's fire. Han slipped from cover and winged a trooper by the door. Kanan finished him off with a precision shot that hit the trooper in the helmet.

"Not bad," Han yelled.

"You mean for a Cabin Boy?" Kanan retorted.

"Yeah!" Han replied with a grin as he fired again taking out another trooper.

Ezra rose from behind the desk to fire off several shots with his wrist mounted energy slingshot, while Sabine stepped out and sprayed the room with blaster fire. Two troopers went down, revealing the crouching figure of Roto Shar who was cowing behind them.

Shar screamed as another cabinet exploded. He dropped the holocron and fled the room, shielding his head against flying glass and laser bolts.

Only two troopers were left. Han and Kanan blasted the remaining enemy soldiers and then stepped out to survey the damage to the office. Miraculously, a single cabinet holding the remains of 'Professor Huyang' in the centre of the room was left untouched.

"Let's move before reinforcements show up," Han said. Sabine dashed past him to check the door. Spotting the holocron that Shar had dropped on the floor Han retrieved it and holstered his blaster before tucking the octagonal device safely inside his waistcoat. He turned back to see Kanan rifling through the wreckage of the holocron display. "What are you doing?" he demanded.

"Shar was right. All these holocrons are from the Jedi Temple. We've got to save as many as possible," Kanan insisted.

"Hey, we've got the one that matters," Han said. "All the others are worthless."

"Not to me!" Kanan snapped.

"Do what you like, just don't slow us down."

Kanan fitted as many holocrons into his pocket as he could. He thrust a couple at Ezra ordering him to hold them.

Han and Sabine exited the office, glancing up and down to make sure the coast was clear. A red light was still flashing in the corridors.

Han retraced his steps to the first intersection, only to pull up short when a familiar figure stepped out to block his path. Commander Roto Shar was standing in the corridor, the lightsabre ablaze in his hand and a maniacal expression on his face.

"You're not going anywhere!" he declared, flecks of spittle flying from his mouth. "Face me, Jedi!"

Shar started to wield the lightsabre left and right, sending the green blade through a series of perfectly executed swings. The blade whipped through the air as Shar cut and scythed the laser sword expertly around his body, demonstrating his evident prowess with the blade.

Han rolled his eyes, and in one smooth movement drew his blaster and shot Roto Shar.

The Commander went down without a word; not being a Jedi there was no way he could have deflected the blaster bolt.

Han holstered his weapon and turned to Sabine, muttering one last insult under his breath. "Idiot!"

Kanan and Ezra appeared behind them, their pockets bulging with holocrons.

"You took your sweet time," Han accused.

"What happened to him?" Ezra asked, pointing at Shar's prone form.

"He got cocky. Come on!"

They dashed past Roto Shar. Sabine gave one last hard stare at the results of Solo's handiwork and a quiet "Wow!" escaped her lips.

Kanan led the team down the red-hued corridors, glancing back briefly to see Sabine trailing behind. "We're gonna need an exit!" he yelled at her.

"I'm on it!" the mandalorian called back.

Sabine pulled out another detonator from her armour and activated it. The other paint bombs she'd scrawled on the corridor walls exploded, sending out shockwaves throughout the upper levels. A focused detonation at the far end of the corridor took out a rectangular section of the wall and natural light swept into the corridor.

Sabine accelerated past the group. "This way!" she ordered.

Hera saw the explosion from the docking bay. A bright flash blossomed on one side of the Citadel, near the top of the building. The Stormtroopers turned as the sound from the blast echoed across the landing pads.

The lead Stormtrooper immediately spoke into his transmitter. "CT-421 reporting. We just saw an explosion on the Citadel's north side. What's going on?"

"The Citadel's under attack," a voice echoed from the trooper's helmet. "We need reinforcements immediately."

"Acknowledged. On our way," the trooper replied. He turned to his fellow Stormtroopers. "Blue team, with me. Red team, guard the prisoners."

The squad separated into their respective fireteams, the fourteen man squad suddenly reduced to just seven men watching the four prisoners. Four against seven... Hera thought.Much better odds than before.

Hera and Zeb watched the retreating fireteam double-time it towards the Citadel. Once they were out of sight, Hera gave Zeb a slight nod, then she glanced at the Wookiee. With Chewbacca's help they had a chance of defeating the Stormtroopers.

Zeb sidled up to Hera. "Kanan?" Hera smiled and nodded. "What do you think?" he asked.

"I think this calls for a certain degree of subtlety," Hera suggested.

Zeb grinned. "Subtlety, right. My kind of subtlety," he heartily agreed. Four of the Stormtroopers were still watching the flames from the Citadel. Hera backed up closer to Chewbacca, while Zeb cracked his knuckles together. One of the Stormtroopers saw the movement and raised his blaster.

"Don't get any ideas," he warned Zeb.

"I'm not the one you need to worry about," Zeb replied with a smirk. The Stormtrooper turned to Hera sidling up to the Wookiee and called out, "Hey!"

The Stormtroopers all looked at Hera; which was exactly what Zeb wanted.

With a snarl, Zeb grabbed two of the Stormtroopers by the necks and bashed their heads together. At the same moment, Chopper staggered the trooper next to him with a shock from his charge arm. Zeb lifted one of the troopers off the ground and hurled him bodily into the man beside Hera. Four troopers were down. In the ensuing chaos, Hera snatched up the blaster from the fallen Stormtrooper and whipped around to face the Wookiee. She held it against Chewbacca's cuffs and fired. The shackles disintergrated under the blast and the Wookiee was release.

Against the strength of a Lasat and a Wookiee, the remaining Stormtroopers stood no chance. Zeb and Chewbacca made short work of them, scooping up their weapons as the armoured men lay prostrate and moaning on the ground.

Hera retrieved her C1 comlink from one of the prone Stormtroopers and spoke urgently into the transmitter. "Kanan? Kanan! Can you hear me? We saw an explosion. Was that you?"

Kanan flipped on his personal comlink as soon as he caught Hera's voice coming through the speaker. "Hera! I read you. We're making our escape now. Get the Ghost powered up. We need to make a sharp exit."

He glanced down at the drop outside. The explosion from Sabine's paint bomb had blasted a hole in the side of the building a good ten metres above the ground. Fortunately, the sloping side of the Citadel was a shallow enough angle that they could slide down it without injury.

Ezra and Sabine went first, closely followed by Han, but Kanan stopped when Hera's voice cut through the air.

"They have the Ghost!" Hera told him frantically. "Stormtroopers boarded us. They have it. We can't get to it!"

"Are you safe? Where are you?" Kanan asked as he leapt out of the building.

"…Where are you?" Kanan's voice demanded through Hera's comlink.

"Still in the Spaceport. We're by Solo's ship," Hera replied.

"Are you sure you can't get back to the Ghost?" Kanan asked.

At that moment, Zeb grabbed Hera's arm and pointed down the far end of the Spaceport. "Hera. Look!"

Racing towards them from where the Ghost was docked, were two squads of Stormtroopers. Looking closer, Hera could make out several Tie Fighters being scrambled. One of the fighters rose into the air and started to scream towards them.

Hera knew there wasn't a hope of taking on so many enemy troopers.

She spoke into the comlink, her voice deadly serious. "I'm sure, Kanan. We're about to be overrun!"

Zeb nodded grimly as he watched the amassing enemy forces. "Well, we're farkled!"

Author's Note: Thank you for reading, and may you all have a very merry Christmas.