The whole cell was a monotone gray. Sabine would have a fit in one of these though her armor alone would be plenty of color, not to mention the hair, she might even come up with a creative art solution to get out. Ezra leaned his head against the wall, his head pounding and feeling nauseous as he had tried to walk on his broken leg a few times before giving up.
He felt like a twice rung wompa rat at the moment. Or turned over bantha dung.
Both those fit honestly.
He swallowed and pushed his head back against the cold metal, feeling it sooth the pain in his head slowly. Not to mention the lump he had from hitting the crate the last time they set it down.
He was still struggling to reach out into the Force, if he could just reach it he could get out. He could make his way around and escape. He was good at that...usually.
He had no idea how long he'd been sitting there when the cell opened with a hiss, the last man Ezra wanted to see in the whole galaxy standing there, smirking at him with his golden and red eyes.
"If it isn't the padawan." The Pau'an drawled. "Without his Jedi teacher even." He chuckled as he stepped in, smirking more as Ezra pushed himself back into the metal walls. "I do hope you've had time to reconsider the offer of joining. You know you could be so much stronger on this side of the Force. The Dark would welcome you if you only gave into that anger and hate we can feel in you."
"Never." Ezra growled out more bravely then he was honestly feeling as he pushed himself as hard into the walls as he could.
"Hmm, not unexpected but a pity still, you'd would be a wonderful asset to the Empire and the Inquisitorius." The man drawled before raising his hand and almost elegantly jerking it back. Ezra gave a shrill cry of pain as he was pulled by broken leg of the durasteel bench he had been sitting on.
His vision swimming he tried to turn onto his stomach so he could get up on his knees only to be jerked again, this time out of the cell, crashing against the wall on the other end. "A bit unrefined, but perhaps it will gain me the results I desire and drive in the point." He heard the Inquisitor say through the haze of pain before he was jerked again, this time hitting the wall, practically hearing his own skull crack and sear with pain as he did.
He hit the ground, panting, so close to throwing up with his skull rattled around.
"Ah...Inquisitor?" Ezra raised his head to look at the fuzzy form of Agent Kallus with a few stormtroopers. The blond man looked kind of surprised from what Ezra could tell.
"Agent Kallus, if you would prepare a interrogation cell I would appreciate it. Also fetch a interrogation droid, a IT-O will do the job. If it were to fail, I will have to do its job." From the sound of his voice, Ezra knew he didn't want the latter to happen at all.
Ezra tried to get up, staggeringly managing to get onto one foot before he was jerked down again, this time sliding until he was by the Inquisitors feet, the Pau'an smirking down at him. "One way or another, you'll talk little padawan. You either break or you talk." He said cruelly.
"I'm not telling you anything." Ezra spat out before actually spitting on the mans boots, his whole body trembling.
The Pau'an growled slightly before Ezra was once again sliding against the floor. "Take him to the cell and strap him in. No mistakes Agent Kallus." He snapped. "The Force Suppressor will only last so much longer."
Ezra jerked his pounding head up at that. He'd be able to access the Force soon?
He yelped as he was hefted up and then carried, throbbing to much to put up any kind of fight. It felt like a hour of the troopers armor digging into his stomach before he was suddenly dropped onto a metal bed and a metal strap went over and trapped him to the board. Ezra swallowed, feeling much to small against the cold metal even as he tried to tell himself that he wasn't small by any means, he was tall for his age.
"...Loth-rat." He looked up at Kallus who gave him a long, hard stare. "Just tell him what he wants. It will be easier in the long run, for all of us. And especially for you." He turned and left, the door hissing shut and leaving Ezra in yet another cell, this one so much worse then the monotone gray as Ezra could clearly smell a iron like scent in the air. Blood.
He shook a bit, looking around, squirming under the metal as he tried to escape it. Though how far he could possibly get with his broken leg being jerked around as it had he had no idea, even the slow returning of the Force wouldn't exactly help him walk.
Giving a full body jerk as the door hissed open again, sapphire eyes went wide in fear at the floating droid almost lazily coming into his cell. "No..."
The screams that followed from the closed cell moments later should never come from any sentient humanoid.
()()()()()
There was a tickle, followed by a jerk, a pull and then a explosion. That was the best way Kanan could explain how it felt when suddenly Ezra could be felt. The others had been going through the manifest to find where the ship with the bounty hunters had gone while he had been trying to meditate, to find Ezra still.
Kanan gasped, falling out of his meditative pose.
"Kanan?" Hera looked to him quickly, Sabine still pouring over the manifest. Zeb watched them all with Chopper whirling angerly in the background.
"I felt him. I felt Ezra." He panted and rubbed his face before settling back to search for his missing padawan, closing his eyes.
'Ezra?' He called out, following the thread of Force that was Ezra. 'Ezra where are you?'
There was a slow burst, full of pain and fear, directing Kanan towards where the other was.
'Ezra?'
Another burst, this one clearer but just as full of pain yet tinged with hope.
'Kanan...help me...'
Kanan snapped his pale green eyes open. "I know where he is. We need to get him now." He stood.
"Where?"
"The Star Destroyer. He's there. In a cell. He's hurting so much but...I can't quite...he feels so slippery, almost oily...as if he's fading in and out of the Fo-oh...oh no." He groaned, realizing why he hadn't been able to sense his padawan.
"What?" Hera asked, alarmed.
"They gave him a Force suppressor. I didn't even think of that, I mean why would a couple of bounty hunters have that, its expensive to make and buy. I didn't even consider anyone here...they must have been supplied." Kanan cursed. "Kriff! We need to get him, we need to get him out of there..."
"Easy Kanan, we'll get him back but we can't just waltz in there as if we belong." Zeb tried to reason.
"What other choice do we have? Ezra is in PAIN. I can feel that even through the oily sensation when I reach for him." Kanan was close to tearing his hair out at this point.
"We could try to slip in? I mean it wouldn't be the first time we've tried?" Sabine offered, Chopper beeping and then twirling angerly in the background. "What you bucket?!"
"Chopper?" Hera focused on the astromec. "Oh! Well we could contact Fulcrum. He might be able to help?" She looked at Kanan who took a deep breath, trying to gather himself, finding his center. "Kanan, we can't go in there blind." She reasoned.
"...I..."
"Go meditate, I know its not the best advice but...you need to be collected for this. If we're going in there, we all need to be." She got up to contact Fulcrum.
With reluctance everyone left for their cabins though Zeb ended up not going in and instead sitting down in his chair, settling in to maintain his bo-rifle instead.
What Sabine was doing was up to anyone's guess with the way noises were coming from her cabin. Perhaps something to help save their lost friend.
Kanan stopped in the middle of his cabin, taking a deep breath through his nose before slowly kneeling down and resting on his legs, doing exactly what Hera had suggested despite wanting to exactly the opposite and pace the ship. Or worse, board the Star Destroyer alone.
So he tried to meditate, feeling Ezra and the pain he was going through, feeling helpless and cold at his own inability to save him, to protect him like a good mentor should. He clenched his hands on his knees, taking a harsh, shuddering breath before reaching out again.
'Ezra. Ezra can you hear me?'
There was a burst of emotion. Pain, fear, hopelessness.
'Ezra hold on, we're trying. We're trying.'
Another burst of emotions and then a image. It sent Kanan reeling out of his meditation to stare at the bare walls of his cabin, eyes wide. And then he was on his feet, ignoring the ache in his knees from kneeling to long.
Hera, Chopper and Zeb were in the common area, the Twi'lek telling the other something as Kanan burst in.
"Kan-"
"They have a interrogation droid in the room with him! With Ezra!"
()()()()()()()
It tickled.
That was the thing Ezra could feel through everything else. Through all the hazy pain and Kanan reaching out to him in the Force, he feel the tickling.
Blood sluggishly rolling down his left upper arm, down the lower and dripping of his index finger tickled. He dropped his head to rest on his shoulder to watch it, swallowing dryly as he did.
He was used to being in pain
He wasn't used to feeling like he had been disemboweled though.
Ezra forced himself to look up as there was a hiss from the doors, his body tensing on instinct. Then he relaxed a bit as it was just Agent Kallus, the man lit up by the almost orange glow of the cell. Honestly, out of the Inquisitor, the sadistic droid and Agent Kallus, he much preferred this guy.
The agent stood there, his arms tucked behind his back as he stared back at Ezra, blue eyes sparkling dimly in the light. "...The Inquisitor has been delayed with other matters. He has informed me that you have gotten a extension of your...thinking time. As it is I am here to hear what you have decided."
Ezra's tongue felt to big in his mouth as he tried to laugh, the sound coming as if through a broken hallway. "Like I told the rust-bucket, have to try better then that. Not telling you guys anything." He tried to smile but the bruises hurt to much to get a proper smile going and he ended up with a weird grimace with teeth.
Kallus took a deep breath through his nose, instantly regretting it at the heavy smell in the air before focusing on Ezra. "If you don't give him what he wants, you are never leaving this cell."
"Then I'm never leaving this cell am I." Ezra shot back, trying to lick his lips but having to little moisture to make it feel right. "But my friends will come pick me up at that. I'm sure."
Kallus snorted at him. "Your friends who don't even know where you are? I've given you the message. My jobs done." He stepped back sharply and closed the door.
Ezra stared at the door then looked down at the strap over his chest, swallowing a bit. He knew the others were coming from him, he could feel Kanan out there now.
'Focus...Ezra focus...' He tried to breath with the Force. How did Kanan make this look so easy?
He almost missed it when the strap started to move, Ezra pulling it far enough that he could slip under and fall to the ground, shuddering at the pain he caused himself as the strap snapped back in place.
The door hissed and Ezra snapped his head up, throwing his hand up in response and throwing the Stormtroopers against the wall. The door was open.
Ezra swallowed and crawled to it, using the doorway to pull himself up before leaning against the wall, using it to support himself for now until he could find a better solution, adrenalin taking over for the pain. As he walked, a blood smear was left against the wall.
'Gotta get out of here. Come on you laserbrain...you need to get out of here.'
()()()()()
"We have ONE shot at this. You all hear me? One shot." Hera stared at them. "If you get caught we don't have another way onto this ship."
Kanan nodded, clenching the Stormtrooper helmet in his hands.
"The codes we got will only work out this rescue mission, they WILL be changed. And the agent on board will have to be removed for their own safety and placed somewhere else in the Rebellion. This was the best Fulcrum could do and we should be grateful for it." She looked at them all.
"Once on board, you Sabine will set your surprises. No hiccups. Zeb you are to stay on the ship and be backup. This has to be quick, before the alarms are raised. Kanan you need to find Ezra and you need to get him down to the hanger fast." Hera's lekku's were twitching in her seriousness.
"Chopper will stay here and help me. We need to be ready for a quick get away...now go get Ezra back."
They should have known getting on the ship went to easy.
Finding Ezra was a lot harder because the teen had already sprung himself from the cell. Both Sabine and Kanan stared at the long smear of blood that went down the hall before tracking it, afraid of what they'd find.
"Specter 2, he's not in the cell." Sabine informed their friend.
"Copy, find him. Quickly, before we get discovered."
Kanan didn't dare reach out with the Force while on the ship. He had a feeling the Inquisitor was somewhere on it and as badly as he wanted to find the teen, he didn't want them to be found and for their escape to be hindered.
It was a poor choice either way and Kanan cursed it to the deepest voids.
The blood smear ended in a hallway and Kanan looked around wildly as Sabine cursed beside him. "Where did h-"
They both shut up as a door opened, a Imperial technician standing there and behind him on the bed in the room...Ezra.
Kanan almost shot the woman before she quickly raised her blood coated hands, looking around. "Shhh! Don't. Specter one?" She looked anxiously between them, giving a relieved sigh when Kanan nodded, stepping out of the way to let them in. "I found him in the hallway. He's not in a good shape and I don't know if we can get down to the hanger without anyone seeing us." She twisted her hands together.
Ezra did NOT look good but the agent had tried to help him in the time she had found him.
He was unconscious, coated in blood, his clothes had seen better days, his breathing was shallow and Kanan spotted a splint set up on one leg. "What happened to his leg?"
"He came in like that. The bounty hunters swore they hadn't done it to Agent Kallus." She looked even more anxious. "Are we leaving now? I'd like to leave..." She swallowed.
Kanan took a deep breath and nodded. "We are, Specter Five?"
"Got it. One big distraction coming up." She nodded grimly.
Kanan turned to his padawan, running a gloved hand through sweat and blood coated hair before reaching one arm under Ezra's lower back and the other under the knees, lifting the teen up and getting a pained groan.
"We're going for the west hanger." He looked at the woman. "And we're going to have to go quick. The east hanger is going to blow." He said seriously, looking at her face pale. "That's our distraction, we're going to blow up the east hanger. With everyone to busy there, we're getting out."
"I...yes, yes I understand." She nodded hurriedly.
"We're ready Specter Five..." Kanan held the teen close, feeling the others head rest on his shoulder, listening to the shallow breaths he was taking.
"One big boom." There was something vindictively satisfying in Sabine's voice as she said that.
The whole ship rocked at the force of the blast and hadn't Kanan already been prepared for it he might have fallen over. They shot out of the room, the Jedi keeping a tight hold on the young man in his arms as he let Sabine take point with the agent following behind them as quick as she could.
The sight the four must have made for anyone who saw them Kanan couldn't imagine but right now people were to occupied with the blast. Just as intended.
What was not intended was for the Inquisitor to anticipate their ruse and intercept them, standing between the ship they were suppose to get on and them.
The tall Pau'an smirked unplesantly at them, giving the agent a glance before snorting. "Well, we fished out the mole at least...and we got the bigger price." He smirked at Kanan.
Kanan growled before putting Ezra down against a crate, pulling his lightsaber out and connecting it. "Specter Five..."
"I got it." Sabine nodded and pulled her communicator as Kanan engaged the Inquisitor in a duel, hard and fast.
"Specter Four, come in, we have a situation and we could REALLY need your help out here." Sabine looked at Ezra. "Hold on, we're getting out of here." She looked at the female agent who was hiding with Ezra. "Keep a look at him, my friend will be here soon to carry him." She wasn't sure about carrying Ezra without causing him more pain.
The Lasat moved quickly on his large feet, glancing towards where Kanan was dueling the Inquisitor before focusing on Sabine and then on Ezra, the big male cursing before he reached out and picked up Ezra not unlike Kanan had done earlier
"What about K-Specter One?"
"He can handle himself, we need to get Ezra on board." Zeb was already moving, keeping his grip on the young man as the agent followed quickly. Sabine followed, holding her blasters in her hands.
The sound of the lightsabers hitting fast and furiously made her stop on the ramp and watch, feeling the ship start up. "Specter One!" She called out as the ship started rising, watching Kanan glide backwards before throwing several crates through the air at the Inquisitor.
Then he ran towards the ship, jumping onto the ramp and letting it close behind them as they shot out of the Star Destroyer.
"Ezra?" He looked at Sabine.
"Zeb took him in."
"He's here." Zeb called out from the small cockpit where he had Ezra in second pilot chair. "Figured best to keep a eye on him.
Kanan moved to the front to gently touch Ezra. "Has he moved at all?" He tried touching Ezra's Force, brushing ever so gently against it.
"Not that I've seen. Groaned a few times but that's all." The Lasat answered. He looked at the female agent. "We'll be dropping you of on Lothal where a ship is waiting to take you away to safety. We haven't been told the details."
Her shoulders slumped in relief. "Oh thank you."
Zeb gave her a short smile before looking at Kanan again. "He's in a bad state. I can smell fresh blood Kanan. But we got him and once we get to the ship we can get him into the medbay."
Kanan gave a sharp nod and continued stroking Ezra's soaked hair, letting Ezra cling onto the bond between them with his clumsy attempts, letting his mind at least know he was safe.
"Yeah...lets get him home." Kanan said quietly.
()()()()
His eyes felt glued shut. He was SURE they were glued shut.
Or it was just hard to open them. Whichever.
What he did know was that he was laying comfortable and everything smelled like Zeb.
A door hissed open and Ezra stayed right still until a gentle hand ran itself through his hair, slow and caring. "Uh?"
"Ezra?" A quiet voice whispered. "Come on...open your eyes."
'Kanan?' Ezra struggled to open his eyes, giving a small grunting noise before he finally just gave up, feeling a soft, comforting and understanding brush against his mind.
"Its alright, we can wait. Just do what you need Ezra." Kanan murmured softly, feeling better then he had for days, settling down on the bunk to slowly stroke the others hair. "Just sleep if that's what you need. We'll be right here."
Ezra gave a frustrated noise before giving in and falling asleep again.
"Kanan?" He looked up and smiled at Hera's hesitant face.
"He was...conscious for a few moments. He's back asleep now. Its alright." He returned his attention to Ezra and continued slowly petting his hair.
"Does that mean I can convince you to eat?" Hera smiled slightly.
"...Yeah. I'll come eat." He waited until Hera left before leaning in and kissing Ezra's brow. "Sleep well kid. You are so grounded." He chuckled weakly at his own words before getting up and going to the door.
Author note: Yeah, okay yeah...I don't know. I like space dad apparently. So yeah...the next chapter will have Ezra healing and perhaps some space mom and space siblings instead ^^