AN: Okay, here is the next chapter. It's later than I wanted it, but given how I lost so much progress I was in a bit of a funk afterwards.

On another note. I'm working on two Stories other than this one right now. I won't publish either until this one is complete but I want to know which one my readers would be more interested in reading first, they are both Star Wars Rebels stories.

"Strong Now"

This is a sequel to "Fly Now" my first story. This one is what I considered the known quantity of the two, as it is a sequel with elements my reader are already familiar with. The other story I'm working on is

"In Zod we Trust" (Working Title)

This will mark my first attempt at a cross over, the title tells you with what other media. This is the unknown quantity or wild card as it is not a sequel or related to my previous works, as well as a cross over with a media type I haven't tried to write yet. It's also the one you as the reader will have less information on, and I am intentionally not mentioning the other media in use, but I'm certain most people can figure it out.

Well, tell me what you think of those options in your reviews, or send me a PM if you want. Do you want the known quantity or for me to give you something different? Both stories will be written, but I'm asking which one you want to see first.

Now onto the next chapter.

Disclaimer: Star Wars is owned by Disney and LucasFilm.


Chapter 8


"Enjoy your stay!" a trooper said as he threw Ezra into a cell. Stumbling to the wall opposite the door, Ezra braced himself against it, keeping himself from falling.

Looking around the small cell, Ezra felt the isolating affect. The only thing in it was a single bench and nothing else. There was no window or even proper lighting. The single light flickered, which he felt was intentional. The temperature was much higher than it should be as well. This was all tell tale signs of one thing, they were trying to break him mentally. Making him uncomfortable and isolating him, they were going to try and put him off his game and make him irritated and irrational.

Sitting down on the bench, Ezra closed his eyes and tried to meditate.


Sabine was lead into her cell, with significantly more gentle handling than she expected, although they still shoved her in with a fair amount of force. Looking around her cell, she found the bed and sat down. All alone, she found herself worrying about her friends. Tyber had not made the same mistake so many other Imperials would have. He was intentionally separating them so they couldn't plan an escape.

She didn't know if it showed some level of respect for them, that he wasn't under estimating them, or if he was just doing it to torture them, maybe a bit of both.

But what she kept finding herself wondering about was JV-FR13, that it was under Tyber's control. Did that mean all the killings were on his order's or was it doing so on its own. Neither idea was particularly appealing, it meant either Tyber was indiscriminately killing people or the thing wasn't completely under his control, meaning that it might go another one of its rampages while they were here.

Stripped of their weapons, their ship taken, an all of them in prison cell's, they were in it deep now. No way to call for help, and no real way to escape, Sabine was not sure how they were doing to get out of this situation, or even if they could.


The first thing Dral was completely aware of after being shot was waking up in his cell. Before that he only had scattered memories of what transpired after he had been shot. When he had finally come to, he was slumped against the wall of his cell, stripped of his armor, leaving him in with just his ragged under clothes.

Lifting up his shirt, he had a look at where Tyber had shot him. His chest was heavily bruised and he winced at the appearance of it. His implant which he was thankful they hadn't taken, told him that he didn't have any severe internal injuries, his armor taken the brunt of the blast, but he doubted it would be in any condition to be used after this, given how badly he'd still be hit.

Pushing himself more upright, he grunted in pain clenching his chest.

"I'm gonna die here, In an imperial cell." he snorted to himself "What do ya' know, mom was right."

Prior to this he had avoid Imperial prisons, mostly by being one of many bounty hunters how made a living on Imperial Contracts, but now he was a known associate of a Rebel cell, if he wasn't executed out right for being a traitor or imprisoned for the rest of his life, he'd be black listed for the rest of his life.

Putting his palms on his eye he let out a shout of frustration "I'm so screwed!" he shouted as he punched the wall, hard enough for it a ring like a gong.

Then he heard a voice "Shut up! We're all in the same boat if you didn't notice." It was Ezra's voice, he was fairly certain of it. It was coming from the cell next to his.

"You can hear me?" He said in a raised voice, not quite yelling, but keeping his volume up.

"Yeah, I guess the Empire skimped on the walls of these cells, their pretty thin." Ezra called back in a half yell.

"Yeah I can hear you to." Another voice called from the other wall. That one he was sure was Sabine.

Dral walked over to it and called "Sabine that you?"

"No, it's Ezra, I don't sound anything like Sabine!" Ezra's voice called back from the other wall.

"No, not you, I think Sabine is in the other cell." Dral called back.

"No, I'm Sabine, I don't know who is in the other cell, I can't really hear them."

Dral started grinding his teeth, and started banging on the wall. "Sabine! Ezra is in the other cell next to mine." Walking over to the other wall, he hammered on it "Ezra, Sabine is in the other cell."

"Dral, did you say Ezra is in the other cell?" Sabine called back to him.

Ruffling his hair in frustration, Dral was getting irritated at the confusion. "Alright this isn't working we need some kind of system here." Dral said to himself.

Leaning against the wall the bordered Ezra's cell "Ezra, when I'm speaking to you, I'm gonna bang on the wall like this." he hit the wall three times.

"Alright, can you tell Sabine something to Sabine for me."

Growling he said "Sure."

"Alright, tell her...you know what forget it."

Growling he went to Sabine wall's he repeated the same message.

"Alright, hey Dral can you ask Ezra something for me."

Muttering to himself he responded with "Sure."

"Great, ask him what really happened on Kamino, with Tyber and JV-FR13."

Rubbing his forehead Dral responded with "Sabine, I feel like I might be missing some context here."

"Dral just ask him the damn question!" she said in tone to reveled that something more was bothering her.

Dral started muttering to himself "Whatever, I'll play messenger boy."


"I'm starting to think, these three aren't going to give me any useful information." Tyber muttered to himself as he listened to the audio feed from the three cells.

He'd hoped that the thought of being able to commutate with each other when they had originally thought themselves isolated would make something slip. But as of right now they were just shouting over each other, trying to be heard.

He had figured of the six of them, these three, as the youngest would be the most likely to let something to slip. Kanan, Hera and Zeb were truly isolated, waiting to be questioned. Their droid was currently being hacked by the techs and the their ship was being worked over by a crew of mechanics, not that he needed to. He had secretly been picking up all activity on the ship ever sense the entire incident with the holocron, which he was currently tracking down. He thought he might of located it, and currently having a team search the area.

The door to his office opened with a telltale hiss. Turning he saw Agent Kallus standing in the door frame.

"Come in agent."

He came in walking in the incredibly stiff manner he came to expect from Imperials. He got the distinct impression the Agent didn't like him. He wouldn't either, he'd been on the planet for a fraction of them time he had, and not only had he managed to capture the Rebels and stop the "Shape" in less than a week. Granted in both situation he had an unfair advantage, JV-FR13 was under his control and he'd had the Ghost tapped for some time. But he didn't need to know that, this would look good for him.

He only had the Troopers he had drugged involved in the damn thing handling, but right now it was sitting in cell to keep up appearances with the Agent around.

"Sir, I'd like to be the one to interrogate the Rebels, I have the history with them, I feel..." Kallus started but stopped when Tyber raised his hands for silence.

"Alright, you can interrogate..." Tyber said as he scrolled through his data pad "this man." he flipped the pad around to show him a picture of Dral.

Kallus scowled at this. "The Bounty Hunter? He's not a part of the cell, I don't even know who he is."

"Name, Dral Rahm, a bounty hunter of moderate repute. Not much of a history on him, has spent most of his career flying under the radar. But maybe he's something more to the Rebels, take a crack at him agent."

Kallus clearly felt he was being given a fools errand. And he was right of course, but he wasn't going to let him near the rebels. "Sir, I really think."

"That is all agent." Tyber said turning around in his chair.

With that Kallus stomped out of the room.


"Does that thing even eat." one of the troopers outside the cell holding JV-FR13. Unlike Ezra's cell, this one had a window, and two troopers outside it looking in, one holding a food tray. JV-FR13 just stared through the window.

"Whatever man, just slide the food." the other said as he hit the switch opening a small opening, and he slide the food tray in.

JV-FR13 just stared at the tray. "He's not doing anything." the first trooper said.

"Well let's hope it stays that way, that guy has killed tons of a people, frankly I'm glad he's not doing anything."

Both troopers turned away from the window. In the cell, JV-FR13 continued to look at the food tray. Reaching his hand out, the piece of bread flew off the tray and into his hand. Holding it up to examine it, he tilted his head in curiosity, wondering how it had managed to pull it to him.


Dral lay with his back against the wall of his cell, mentally worn out with the back and forth. Sabine was mad at Ezra for telling them he had seen Zann being killed, when he had by his own admission only said he saw it attack him, Ezra constantly defending his choice, saying he only relayed what he believed too of happened and had no way of knowing what had happened. Dral got the feeling Ezra wasn't telling the whole truth, but was too tired to care.

"Dral tell Ezra, that he should of told us how it really happened, then we might not be in this mess!"

Sighing, Dral banged three times of the opposite wall "Ezra, Sabine say's that you should of been honest from the beginning, then we might not be in this mess."

"Dral, tell Sabine that I thought that thing had killed him, I told them what I thought was true."

Turing to his left, Dral banged on other wall "Sabine, Ezra say's that told you what he thought was true."

"Dral, tell Ezra that he shouldn't of started talking about thing's he wasn't sure about, that if he told the truth we might of been able to see this coming."

Sighing Dral reached over to his right, ready to bang on the wall but stopped before he hit it. He hand was shaking again. Grabbing his wrist, he pulled it in close to his chest.

"Dral, I'm not hearing any banging, did you tell Ezra what I said?" Sabine called through the wall.

"Sabine, how long have we been here?" Dral called through the wall.


Sabine heard Dral's voice, shaking a little "Sabine, how long have we been here?"

"Dral you okay?" her voice coming down from the arguing tone to a much gentler one.

"Sabine, just tell me!" his voice was much harsher.

"I'm not sure, I haven't seen the sky since we got, a day, maybe more. Hold on." she sat down and started thinking, the trooper's had brought them food twice, so it was probably close to a day. "Yeah about a day, why?"

The mental of the wall was fairly thin, but in order to hear each other they still need to speak up in order to hear each other.

"Dral, are you okay?"


Ezra was sitting in his cell, waiting for Dral to tell him what Sabine had to say. He hadn't told either of them what had really happened on Kamino, and if he had to tell Sabine, he didn't want it to be via Dral.

In their conversations he had learned that they weren't cell's like his. They had proper beds instead of metal benches, fully functional lights and windows that let them look into the hall. He was certain his specific accommodations were specifically from Zann, a mild form of payback on his part.

Banging on the wall, trying to get the conversation going to distract himself from the cell.

"Dral! What's going on in there? Did Sabine say anything?"

Pressing his ear again the mental and listening carefully, he though he heard a whimper.


Hera sat at the table, the only light directly over her, making it impossible for her to see beyond the light.

"So, Hera, I'm betting you never planned to see me again." Tyber's cool collective voice came from the shadows, sending chill's down her spine. She couldn't help but feel a faint feeling of shame at ever falling for his act, and now here he was working for the one enemy they had once shared.

"Tyber, I see you've turned lap dog for the Empire." he said, trying to convey a level of confidence she didn't truly feel.

"Well, I have you to thank for that." He said taking a seat across from her. "You left me there to die, leaving me at their mercy."

"Oh please, just because Ezra couldn't stop that thing doesn't mean we left you."

The look on Tyber's face didn't seem quite right, he looked genuinely confused. "What do you think happened in that lab?"

Now it was Hera's turn to look confused "What else could of happened? You got cornered by that thing and he bugged out, Zann even hared soldier's can desert under fire."

Then he smiled "You, my lovely friend have been mislead. That is not what happened, and I'm afraid that little Jedi friend of yours in hiding something from all of you."

"What do you mean?"

"Ezra and I were escaping, then we got caught in an explosion. He was fine but I was caught under some debris. I asked the boy for help, while that thing was banging down the door. He walked right up to me, looked me in the eye and told me he was going to leave me to that thing, that if I was dead then Sabine would be free from my control. Then he let that thing come to me, which I suppose in a way I should thank him for, now I have an indestructible enforcer."

Hera looked at him, with a scowl. "You're lying, Ezra isn't that cold blooded, he'd never."

"He did, and the first thing I had that thing do was try and return the favor, but it seems he just hitched a ride to Lothol."

"So you're the reason that thing has been killing people, we thought it was out fault."

Tyber shrugged his shoulders "In a way it is, if Ezra had just helped me then and there, that thing would of sunk into the ocean with everything else."

Shaking her head Hera continued "So why did you have it start killing random people?"

"I didn't, I only wanted it to kill Ezra for what he did, but it seems when he wasn't around he went to his default mood, which is murder, so yeah ,my mistake on that." he said as if it were something as simple as making a wrong turn on a trip.

"But why work for the Empire? You were free, why go to the Empire?"

"Oh, I wasn't free, I was still hurt pretty badly and what remained of the security force caught me, I wasn't in any condition to escape, then well." He pulled a vile of a eerily familiar substance.

"Is that?" she began.

"Indeed, the 'wonder drug', they had an entire shipment on the ship they pulled me on, and they shot me up, I'm afraid I'm hooked. If I don't get a shot every week, I'll have complete immune system failure."

For everything he had done, Hera felt a twinge of sympathy for Tyber, but quickly squashed it.

"Well you're a smart man, I'm sure you'll find a cure." he hissed out.

"Maybe, but our little stunt wiped out all the research on it, as well as a large portion of the stock and the ability to produce it. So I'm on a time clock here, right now I need all the research I managed to steal, and it's on your ship, I need to codes to get into the data banks."

"Ahh, so there it is, I was wondering when we'd get to what you wanted."

"My technicians can break the codes, but I'd rather it be done much quicker."

"Well forget it, I'm not going to make any of this easier for you. You hated the Empire as much as anyone, now here you are doing their dirty work." she said with a sneer.

"Fine, if you won't give me that, tell me where the holocron is, I have teams search for it, but I'd hate for them to hurt some innocent civilians in the search."

That caught her attention "I don't know where it is." she said truthfully enough, she'd left that to Kanan, she let him handle all Jedi matters.

"No, I suppose you wouldn't would you, Kanan would be the one to ask." Standing up he said "Thank you for your time."

With that, two troopers she didn't even know where behind her grabbed her and lifted her up and carried her back off to her cell.


Tyber didn't learn anything useful in this round, but he hadn't really expected to. He was just testing the waters. He already had, and had so for a long time, possessed access to all the data that had been on the Ghost, having long since had access to the data with his virus on the ship, running undetected.

No, he had learned she wasn't ready to talk yet, he hadn't truly expected her to, but he now had a better idea of where he stood.

She had picked up on his search for a cure, of barring that a way to synthesize the drug so he didn't run out. Urai had been searching for a cure ever sense he been captured, or rather as soon as Tyber had contacted him. He only had one lead, but it wasn't worth chasing down yet, nothing was confirmed, but he was hopeful of a resolution soon. He's made use of his situation to the best of his ability, but he was hoping that sooner, rather than later he'd be able to start his war on the Empire again.

"Trooper, bring me the Jedi." He called to one of Storm Troopers.


"Dral! Answer me!" Sabine shouted through the wall. For the past hour he hadn't responded, and she could even hear Ezra trying to get a response out of him. Unlike Ezra however, she was certain she knew what was happening. Dral was having another episode, or a flashback or whatever his exact problem was.

Then she noticed shadows crossing her door. Walking to the window, she looked out and saw Agent Kallus and two Storm Troopers outside Dral's cell.

"Open it up." Kallus said, and the two troopers did so and went in to retrieve Dral. With a pang she realized that they were going to interrogate him. The issue was that Dral really wouldn't know anything, so it was not going to do the Empire any good, and Dral, in the throes of another one of his episodes, wasn't going to do well.

The next thing she heard was Dral screaming at the top of his voice as they dragged him out. Despite the large injury to his chest and his previous injury he received from the "Shape." he was putting up quite a fight.

"Hey Kallus!" she shouted "He doesn't know anything, he's just a hired gun."

Kallus looked at her "I know that, but he's the only one I'm cleared to interrogate." he said turning to follow the troopers dragging Dral down the hall.


He could hear the laughing, the deep inhuman laugh and he could swear he could see the large silted eyes.

He could of sworn he was a seven year old boy again as he felt the restraints being tightened. Then he felt the prick in his arm and suddenly reality came rushing back.

Taking a deep breath he look around and found himself in a dark room, tied to a rack, facing a man he didn't know.

"Who are you?" he said in a voice trying to convey his normal mask of confidence.

"Agent Kallus, I'm going to interrogate you, and you will tell me everything you know about the Rebels. "

Dral attempted his usual mocking laugh, much not managing to quite pull it off. "Sorry buddy, but I was just hired for a job, I don't know anything, so you can either bring me back to my cell or kill me now."

"Oh, I know you don't know anything, but letting the other's see what I do to you, might just loosen their lips." pulling a table of tools over he picked a nasty looking tool that looked like a melon baller with jagged blades around the edge. "First, our scans indicate you have an implant in you right eye that we missed when he put you in. We can't have that can we."

The rack leaned toward Kallus as he raised the tool to Dral's eye.

Dral clenched his jaw right, determined to give him the satisfaction of hearing him scream.


AN: Okay please leave a review and tell me what you think. Also make sure to tell me which of my other stories you'd rather see first.