A/N:Okay this the first real chapter and as promised it is longer than the prologue.
I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed AzulaBlue92, lchichi05, WindPardoxRune and Classic Cowbay. It's nice to know my work is being read and enjoyed and it's great knowing I have loyal readers. Not only do your reviews motivate me to write but they genuinely help me with the thinking process. Sometimes I'm reading reviews and one of you will say something that gets me thinking and it launchers as whole story from it. So not only are your reviews appreciated but they truly do help.
Also, in my previous story I had contests for readers to try and win a spot for their OC's in my story. I'm not sure if I'm going to do that with this one, but tell what you think, would you like more contests?
Anyway onto the story.
Disclaimer: Star Wars is owned by Disney and LucasFilm
Chapter 1
All he saw was red, the world stained in red. Every being drove him to end their lives, for he knew in the very heart of his soul, they were responsible for the fire in him, the burning that engulf his very bones, to the very core of his entire being.
They ran from him, clearly scared of receiving their recompense for what they had done to him. They begged, at least the ones who saw him coming, but they had set fire to his mind and soul, leaving him in eternal agony, for he knew his pain would never end, he was dammed to wonder the world for all time, but he'd make as many of them pay as he could, they would pay.
The voices could not deter him, the man and the woman, trying to force his action, direct him but they couldn't stop him. The woman was kinder and more compassionate, but feebler in force mostly sounding like a whisper. The man was more cruel and forceful, but as much as he railed against the voice of the man, he had managed to sway his action. Not control, never control, he could not be truly controlled, but he could lead him to those most deserving of punishment.
The burning came again, this time almost to terrible to handle. It was time for another hunt, another judgment to pass out. The voices had gone silent for now, their directions to be ignored for tonight.
"This is so screwed up Kanan." Hera muttered more to herself than Kanan as she sifted through the information Tyber had stolen.
"What did you find now?" Kanan asked not really sure that he wanted and answer. Many of the experiments done on the station were sick. But the JV-FR13 experiments were particularly disturbing to read about. The scientist in charge had tried dozens of experiments in his search for an indestructible soldier. Some attempts had included attempts at growing a soldier, like the clone troopers of the Clone Wars, other's had been experimentation on actual subjects, normally convicts. Almost every case resulted in the death of the subject, and the manner of death was never quite.
"The thing running around out there, I keep finding more information on it, and none of it really is going to help us stop him." She took a deep breath, "But what they did to him, Kanan, I think there is a legitimate chance that he's insane."
Kanan didn't need a scientific study to tell him "The Shape" was at the very least mentally unstable, and probably not capable of being reasoned with. "How does that help us Hera?"
"Well, it helps us understand him a little. And at the very least, we can forget about any plan to try and make a pattern or predict his movements."
Again Kanan didn't need anyone to tell him this. This thing was killing at random, civilians and Imperials alike. "So what do we know so far. His base line genetic code is Human, but he's been spliced with the genes of several other species, giving him his strength, durability and regenerative abilities." And Kanan had been correct in assuming the theirs was Indeed Zillo beast in the genetic code, although these traits only appeared in hard tissue.
"But Kanan, that's the thing, that many different genetic codes, so many different no-related species, that shouldn't be possible. He shouldn't be alive, if he was grown...well they never should of been able to splice the different genes together like that and grow him like the clones. And if they spliced the genes into another subject, well it should of killed him."
Kanan already knew all this. But he suspected something worse was involved in the creatures creation. He could sense something lingering around it, a disturbance in the force. The creature itself wasn't particularly strong in the force, at best Kanan thought it might just be more sensitive to force disturbances than others. No something else was lurking behind the thing, and the odd thing was, Kanan didn't think it was malicious. It had, as far as he could tell it was trying to warn them whenever it was near.
Not for the first time Kanan wished he had a chance to properly finish his training. A full Knight or Master may of made more sense of it than he could. But he couldn't dwell on this, there was nothing for it now, he didn't have much of a chance of ever meeting another member of the order who could give him some more insight.
Getting back to the subject at hand Kanan continued on with Hera. "So no weakness we can exploit?"
"Not in terms of an actual physical weakness no, at least not in any means readily available. But I keep coming across the notes Dr. Cooper left, and he keeps trying to fixed JV-FR13 low intelligence. While I think the Doctor severally underestimated his intelligence, he did appear to be right on a single minded ferocity he displayed. Once he set's on a track almost nothing will stop it."
"Maybe we can work with that, set a trap, contain him at least until we can figure out what to do with him."
Ezra was running down and abandoned street, it was after him, relentless, unstoppable and indestructible. It didn't even flinch with his strongest attacks, his light saber might as well stick for all the good it did him.
Panting, he came to a stop, looked around and ducked down an ally. Finding some crate to hind behind, Ezra kneeled down and peered around the corner, and watched the street, his heart pounding so hard he was certain it would give him away.
Then the thing walked past, the mouth of the alley, it didn't even turn to look. The mask it wore, Ezra was certain made it harder for it to see out of its peripheral vision. JV-FR13 or "The Shape" as the media had taken to calling him, stalked past slowly, not in any clear hurry to reach its target.
As it passed, Ezra sighed a breath of relief. Standing he turned to look down the alley way to make sure there was nothing there. After satisfying himself there was nothing to follow him or give him away, he turned to head back to the street and double around.
The next thing he felt was the vice like grip on his throat, slamming him into the wall. It was come back, and it looked like it was examining him. Ezra was kicking hitting it where ever he could, but for all the good it did he might as well of tired spit on him. Reaching up he grabbed the mask, and pulled.
It came off and feel to the ground, Ezra shocked with what he saw. Instead of the malformed creature he had seen in the tank, was the face of Tyber Zann.
Shocked and even more scared, Ezra continued to rail against his attack. Then it spoke.
"You killed me Ezra, left me to die, now I've come to return the favor." Zann's cool and collected voice whisper in his ear. Raising the blade and bringing it down Ezra screamed.
Waking with a start, Ezra whipped the cold sweat from his forehead. This dream had been coming more and more often. He hadn't told anyone, not even Kanan. He didn't need to tell anyone to get help understanding what it meant. He was deeply regretting his action's now, but at the same time, he still didn't feel like he had made the wrong choice. Zann was dangerous, and deserved what he got, but he still felt a burning guilt over it, and that was why it was torturing him.
He felt like he had done the right thing intellectually, but emotionally and even spiritually, he felt his actions were wrong. He could reconcile the two conflicting feelings and it was horrible. Part of what made it even harder was he couldn't talk to anyone about, or rather he didn't dare do it out of fear of their reactions for what he did. Part of him wanted to believe they would understand why he had done what he done, but another part of him was terrified if they didn't.
He felt trapped and he only recourse was silence and hoping he would learn to live with it.
"Almost...and...their!" Sabine exclaimed to no one at all, given she now sate in her room alone. She had finally finished fixing the helmet's circuit's and power source. It felt good, finally being able to fix something, even if it was something trivial as a piece of equipment.
Putting the helmet on, which did not fit properly but wasn't so large that she wouldn't be able to test some of the features this helmet had. The HUD was different from her own and confirmed what she had suspected when fixing it. This helmet had far more bells and whistles than the standard Mandalorian helmet.
This one had multiple visions modes, and she flipped through them she wished she had some of them on her own helmet, it would certainly help to have a variety options available in certain situation where vision may be obstructed. It even had built it scanners of a very sophisticated quality for to be found in a piece of equipment. Looking around the cabin, it started scanning and giving her very detailed information on her own equipment. It gave her Intel on her blasters and armor, including weak points and max fire limit.
Taking the helmet off she looked at it again, wondering who it had belonged to. It was Mandalorian Iron and fitted with top of the line equipment. Who every it was had likely been a very high ranking member in his clan or a very successful mercenary to be able to afford such equipment.
But he or she had lost it, probably been killed and had their body looted. It was not a pleasant thought, not a pleasant thought at all.
Unknown to Sabine, she had sent a single to an unknown ship when she had powered on the helmet and it was currently transmitting all the data she was scanning to it.
The pilot of the ship smirked to himself as he watched the video feed. "I knew you were out there, I've got you know, nowhere to run."
For everything that happened, Zeb was feeling surprisingly good. While he hated the helplessness he felt with the "Shape", for everything they had been through, all they had done recently, he thought they should feel pretty good. They had destroyed an Imperial target far beyond anything they had ever done before and they had all made it out alive, as long as you didn't count Tyber, and Zeb didn't count Tyber.
Zeb was frankly glad that the man was gone. He was a sick and dangerous man, and frankly Zeb was scared of him. Not in the way he was scared on "The Shape", not in what he could do to him physically, but it how he could mask his true self, and had nearly tricked Zeb into thinking he was something he wasn't. He remembered the whole "shopping" trip with him for food and how he has acted friendly and even charming, then later that day turned vicious and brutal.
It scared him that someone could so wholly trick him, and it unnerved him that he was so blind to his real nature.
No, he was glad he was gone. He just wished Ezra and Sabine would come around to his way of thinking. Sabine was the more understandable of the two. What Tyber had done to her was bound to have long lasting affects, it may never go away, the influence of the drug. Ezra was less easy to understand, although he thought maybe that seeing a man killed by that thing may of traumatized him. It was one thing to see someone being taken down with a blaster bolt, quite another to see them cut to piece with a solid blade.
He had tried to cheer them up in whatever way he could, Kanan and Hera were near completely absorbed in their research.
Today, he hoped to get both Ezra and Sabine to enjoy themselves, under the pre-text of a supplies run, he was taking them into town. They didn't need them supplies and the market was by no means the best place to have a good time, it was better than sitting in the ship alone with their misery.
Zeb could tell that the trip was bad idea almost from the onset. Ezra had always, prior to the whole Zann incident, tried to talked to Sabine, impress her and basically make a fool out of himself, which Zeb always found highly amusing. Now he just looked absent mindedly from the back seat of the speeder not even looking at Sabine.
Sabine was in a similar mood, but instead just stared at the helmet she had taken from the facility. It had become an obsession for her, and while Zeb understood the need for a hobby, but this couldn't be health.
He was so preoccupied with his thoughts , he didn't notice until it was too late. The explosion flipped the speeder sending all three flying.
Ezra was on his feet faster than Sabine or Zeb and had his lightsaber ready. He was scanning the area for the attacker with his eyes and with his feelings. He had been so caught up in his thoughts he hadn't sensed the attack coming.
Before he could get his wits about him however something big and heavy crashed into his back, sending his tumbling back to the ground. Rolling over out of the way he barely avoid several blaster shot. Turning to face his attacker, for one heart pounding second he only saw a shape through the dust and smoke, a large hulking figure, and he understood why the media had dubbed JV-FR13 "The Shape", and was certain it had found him. But then his logical thinking caught up with him, this attacker was using blasters, that thing never used any sophisticated weapons.
As the area cleared and Ezra could see the figure more clearly, he could tell it was wearing Mandalorian armor, and was probably a good head shorter than JV-FR13. Calmed in the fact he knew he was facing a mortal man, he managed to intercept the next shot fired from the attack. They didn't bounce back but dispersed, they were stunners. He was trying to subdue them, not kill them.
Before Ezra could make he own counter attack, Sabine appeared out of nowhere and opened fire on the unknown Mandalorian.
The big man was lifted into the air by a jetpack Ezra hadn't been able to see behind his large frame. Using his elevated advantage he fired down on them, but Ezra dispersed all the stunners with his lightsaber and Sabine fired back, but the big man weaved through the air dodged her blasts.
Then, the unknown assailant tossed something at Ezra. Expecting a grenade, he reached out with the force and caught it, only for it to explode. The last thing Ezra remembered was a blinding flash of light.
Sabine covered her eye's as the flash bag went off and knocked Ezra to the ground. He should of either run or thrown the explosive away, not catch it with the force and hold it out in front of him.
Before she could make her move against the unknown attacker, he was upon her and a deep, gravelly vocie came from the helmet. "Where is he?"
Not responding, Sabine tried to bring her blaster's up to open fire, but with a speed she wasn't expecting for a man his size, he grabbed both her wrists and twisted her arms, making her drop her blasters.
"Don't make me ask again lovely."
Trying to think with the figure bearing down on her, she saw something moving behind the attacker. The Attakcer seemed to notice her eyes moving and turned, just in time to have Zeb's staff crack him across his masked face causing him to reel.
Breaking free Sabine took the opportunity while he was distracted to kick him as hard as she could between the legs.
The man let out a grunt and buckled over in pain. Zeb followed up with a haymaker which, sent the man sprawling on the ground.
"Ezra, wake up." he heard from some far away voice. Opening his eye he saw Sabine and Zeb standing over him. His eyes were sore and he felt like his head was in a vice.
"Did we get him?"
They both looked over their shoulder then back to Ezra "Oh yeah, we got him."
Ezra sat up and saw the Mandalorian who had attacked them on his knees with his arms bound behind his back. "Let me guess, bounty hunter?"
"Well you're probably right, but he's not exactly cooperative." Zeb said huffing in annoyance.
"Hey, you all done chatting or are you gonna let me up so I can take a piss!" the man shouted over to them.
"Yeah he's a real charmer." Sabine sighed to herself. "He was looking for someone, I asked who but he wasn't talking, he keep saying he knew he was her though."
Ezra immediately thought of Kanan, who was certain to have a bounty on his head by being a Jedi alone, never mind a major figure in a group in open rebellion.
"Well let's see if we can't get him to be more cooperative." Ezra said standing up and walking to the man.
As he neared Ezra got a better look at the man, now that his helmet was off. He couldn't of been much older than Sabine, but his black hair was already thinning and he had a fairly pronounced receding hair line. He looked like he had shave for a few days making his look fairly haggard.
But the most defining feature on his was burn scar the appeared to run from his neck to just above his right eye, dominating the right side of his face.
"Who are you looking for?" Ezra said trying to sound more intimidating than he really felt.
"Ask your pretty little friend over there." he said gruff and irritated voice nodding towards Sabine. "She'll known him, he's one of us."
Sabine's eye's went wide ""You're looking for a Mandalorian!"
He smirked at her, showing four copper teeth. "Don't play dumb lovely, you have to know where he is, the tracker unit in his equipment brought be right to you, even caught a few glimpse of ya on his video feed."
Sabine's face went red as she realized that the helmet she had been tinkering with had been giving a live feed from inside the ship once she had fixed it. In a combination of embarrassment, and rage she shouted."Whoever he is he's not with us, it's just his helmet you muscle bound moron, you flew across the galaxy chasing a ghost."
The man's face fell quickly, but the shadow of the smile still graced it. "Your kindin right? Your havin' me on." But a quick look at all of them told him they weren't, and as if to seal the deal Sabine produced the helmet. Then his face formed a scowl and he spit on the ground.
"Then let me up, if I'm not gonna find him here, I'm gonna be neddin' to see to other affair."
Ezra let out a bark of laughter "You attacked us, nearly killed, why in the galaxy would we let you go?"
"Okay drama queen, I didn't nearly kill you, non-lethal only, nothing permanent, don't see what the big fuss is."
"You're and idiot." Ezra said.
"You have my word I won't attack you if you let me go. Come one if this really is a dead end, I need to get back on the job, nice fat bounty to be had here, good way to make up for the comin' here."
Ezra immediately thought of Kanan, and asked "Who?"
The man laughed "You been livin' under a rock? There's a killer on the loose mate "The Shape" their callin him, Killin' Imperail's and Civilians, the Moff council just okayed a huge reward for his capture."
Zeb, Sabine and Ezra looked at each other, this man was formidable enough, to be sure, but JV-FR13 would surly kill him.
This man was after whoever this helmet belonged to, she wondered if he knew where it had been when she found it, she doubted it, but it also peaked her curiosity on who this helmet belonged to.
"Your in luck, we want that killer taken care of as well, maybe we can help you." Sabine said stepping forward, but the man scowled at this "You can keep the bounty all for yourself, we just want him gone and we have some information that might be useful."
"Okay lovely." he said smirking at her "Let me up and we can... cooperate." and as is to ass an exclamation point to his sentence he made a kissing expression towards her and winked.
Without missing a beat Sabine balled her fist and punched him as hard as she could in the face with a loud crack."Don't do that again."
He started laughing and spit out a glob of blood "I like you girly."
Ignoring him she turned Ezra and Zeb, who looked unsure of letting the bounty hunter go. The hunter apparently caught onto this and said "Look, I ain't gonna try anything, I need that intel on this fella to track him and catch. Just untie me and we can get to work on it."
"We ain't untying you...yet." Zeb said pulling him to his feet."We're gonna talk to Kanan about this first Sabine." then he pushed the hunter to make him walk "It's a long walked back, and you blew up our only transport, hope you like walkin' buddy."
Despite his protests the hunter started the slog back with the rebels. After a few minutes of silence Sabine asked the first of two questions she really wanted answered.
"What's you name bounty hunter." she said raising her eye brow.
He snorted and said "Dral Rahm"
"Okay Dral, who are you looking for." she said holding up the helmet to emphasize the point
"Just some old washed up Mando named Atin Wren." he said not breaking a step, not noticing Sabine stopping dead in her tracks "Thought the man drank himself after his wife died, but there are people looking for him still, guess he knows something important."
Sabine had stopped listening at the name drop and stared at the helmet with the long gash in it. Her father's helmet, at that facility, what had happened to him?
A/N:Okay end of the first real chapter. tell me what you think.
