Chapter 3
"Oh little Jedi, come out come out wherever you are!" The Seventh Sister's mocking laughter bounced around through the maze of canyon walls, causing Ezra to flinch and shuffle along a bit faster. Trying the hide from the Inquisitor would be a lost cause, so the teen kept moving, clinging grimly to the hope that he'd be found by friendlies before being caught and dragged back to the torture chamber.
His muscles kept seizing up from time to time, dried blood coated his arms and lower legs, but Ezra's biggest problem was the lingering serum in his veins, still blocking most of his ability to access the Force. While he'd been able to push past them all in order to escape from the ship, exhaustion was making such a thing infinitely more difficult by this point.
"Found you!" The sing-song voice was the only warning he had, a split second before a heavy weight plowed into his back, driving Ezra to the ground. He gasped and coughed from the new pain blooming across his chest, while the Inquisitor chuckled as she approached. "My my, you've certainly come a long way, even with that Force-suppressant still working. Not far enough, though."
Ezra couldn't help the small flinch when her lightsaber activated, the crimson tip humming less than an inch away from his face. Too tired to muster up a sarcastic retort, he settled for glaring up at the Mirialan.
"Oh? Nothing to say? Have broken you that much already?" Letting out another chuckle, she pulled out a pair of binders and locked them around Ezra's wrists behind his back. The Inquisitor then flipped him over, grabbed ahold of his left ankle, and started dragging him back the way they'd come. One of her little probe droids took up a position hovering just behind them, keeping a close watch on Ezra in case he tried anything.
Honestly, though, the teen was just too tired to put up a struggle at the moment. He resigned himself to waiting for a better opportunity-
The Inquisitor froze. Ezra looked at her in weary confusion, wondering what had attracted the crazy woman's attention. His leg was suddenly released in favor of the Seventh Sister snatching his collar, hauling him upright so fast Ezra's head spun.
"If you don't want me to start cutting off limbs, I suggest you show yourself," his captor called out. A moment later, Kanan jumped down from the cliff above in order to land just in front of them.
Dire situation aside, Ezra couldn't help but relax a bit at the sight of his mentor. Then the end of Inquisitor's unlit lightsaber was held against his neck, and all his anxiety came right back again.
"Now," his captor practically purred. "Give your saber and blaster to my pet, and then we're all going to walk back to my ship with no fuss or struggle, understand?"
"Kanan, don't-!" Ezra's words turned into a pained hiss as the Inquisitor dug her fingers into one of the gashes on his arm. In turn, Kanan practically threw his weapons at the hovering droid, which then brought them back to the Seventh Sister. As she reached up to take them, however, something slammed into the backs of both her and Ezra's legs, sending them stumbling forward.
Sabine and Zeb immediately rose into sight on the cliff above, and starting firing at the Inquisitor while Chopper, cackling from the success of his sneak attack, used a manipulator to snag the front of Ezra's tattered jumpsuit and pull him away from the fight. Kanan crossed paths with them, sending the teen a relieved smile even as he summoned his lightsaber in order to attack and further distract the Seventh Sister.
-MS-
Hera was tapping her foot anxiously as she watched more than half her family set of into the moon's wilderness in search of their missing member. Rex was staying behind with her, though just as Hera waited in the cockpit he was positioned in the ship's top turret as a precaution.
Half an hour later, that foresight proved to be well-placed.
Chopper appeared out of a gully several hundred yards away, leading a stumbling Ezra. Despite not being able to pick out many details, Hera could still easily spot a great deal more red on the boy than there should've been, something that turned her stomach unpleasantly.
While the pair were still hurrying towards the Ghost, Zeb and Sabine came out of the same gully, firing back the way they'd come. And only a few seconds behind them was Kanan, dueling a female Inquisitor that Hera would bet her bottom credit was the same one who'd captured Ezra a couple months before on the med station mission.
"Rex, start laying down some cover fire!" She ordered over the ship's comm, even as her hands moved to activate the engines.
*Understood, Captain.* Laser blasts began raining down around the spot Jedi and Sith were battling. The Inquisitor was forced to back away, which Kanan took full advantage off, as he immediately turned and began running for the ship. He caught up to the other Spectres along the way, the three of them coming alongside Ezra and Chopper just as they passed out of Hera's sight, disappearing beneath the Ghost and, hopefully, onto the waiting ramp.
*Everyone's aboard, Spectre Two, get us out of here!* She only had to hear Kanan's first couple words before taking off, lifting up and out of the Inquisitor's range before there was time for her to get close enough for another attack.
-MS-
"The next time someone volunteers me for another mission," Ezra grumbled as Kanan finished bandaging the last of his injuries. "Remind me to run in the opposite direction."
"I'll keep it in mind." The older Jedi grinned, giving his Padawan a nudge to lie down. Needing no other encouragement, Ezra eased himself into laying flat on the med bay bed, easily dropping into an exhausted sleep as soon as his eyes were closed.
Once he'd finished putting the unused supplies away, Kanan sank into the room's chair, positioned directly beside the bed. He finally allowed himself to look closer at the injuries his student had sustained during the mere couple days he was away from them, and decided then and there that Ezra would NOT be going on any other missions without at least one other Spectre around too.
-MS-
When word came in that Spectre Six had been recovered, Commander Sato took a moment to close his eyes in relief. Guilt over the boy's capture and subsequent transfer had been eating at the man, but to know he was once again aboard the Ghost was like the dawn coming after a long, cold night.
After returning to the Rebel fleet, it took a few days for the young Jedi to return to full strength, during which time he was never seen without one or more members of his crew close by. This evidently got on his nerves rather quickly, hence why Sato wasn't surprised one morning to have Ezra arrive on the bridge of his command ship via the ventilation ducts.
"I'm never going to have another minute of privacy again," the boy muttered, replacing the vent cover he'd come through before dropping to the ground. "Hey, Commander."
"Hello, Ezra. Are you up to crawling around in those?" Sato asked, eyeing the youth.
"Maybe not, but it was the only way to get away from the others. Even Zeb's been hovering over me! Can I please hide here for a while?"
At the pleading expression sent his way, Sato couldn't help but smile slightly. "Of course."