Chapter 13
"AAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" his cries of pain could be heard from a mile away, but he still couldn't scream loud enough for Kanan, Hera, Sabine, Chopper, and even Zeb to hear him. He still couldn't scream loud enough for them to hear him, rush right over, rescue him, dump the clone, and then they would all be safe. Zeb would probably say something along the lines of, "you scream like a girl." But it would be worth it to just be back on the ghost. He wounded what was going on, on the ghost right now, he wounded of they were all ok.
He thought about all of the crew in the cockpit, with Hera piloting, and repeatedly saying no to Sabine, who keeps asking to pant the cockpit because she's running out of room in her bed room, and then relatedly saying no to Zeb asking to tape Chopper to the outside of the ghost, and then repeatedly saying no to him after asking to fly the ghost, and then there would be Kanan, looking like he was thinking of something wise, but really, he was just focusing on his migraine.
He smiled at the thought of it all, even though it was far too brief, for the second he let his guard down, and felt like the first time he had been happy sins he got here, he felt it once more, the sharp, white hot, burning rays of electrocution shoot through his body, burn his skin, and scorch his already open wounds. The electricity stinging and poking at his wide open flesh, from early that day, and also from the day before, the wounds from the day before were starting to heal, and slowly scab over, but when they saw that, Tarkin just smiled, and said something in the man in bla- I mean 'Darth Vader.' At the time Ezra had not known what he had whispered, but about a second later, he felt it, a shard blade, moving up his skin and through the wound that was trying to heal. He screamed out in pain until his through hurt as much as his body, but he still didn't stop until every last cut was exposed to the cold air once more.
"Tarkin, I'm telling you! There is no further information about a rebel cell in that boy's head!" Kallus said, aggressively pointing his hand at the blank screen.
"Ok, fine, check to make sure we didn't miss anything, and then you can take him back to his cell, and tomorrow we will begin attempting to get him join the dark side, if he refuses then he will die." Tarkin said through clenched teeth.
"There is no attempt about it" Darth Vader said assertively, as he turned to the men. "He will join the dark side, or even worse, we let him go."
"Let him go!" they both said, trying to keep their respect for the man, but at the same time were trying to wrap their heads around what he had just said.
Ezra's head shot up at this new information, were they going to let him go?
"I would be worse to live with it." Vader said, an unmistakable evil taunt in his words.
'Live with it? Live with what, what was he talking about!' thought Ezra anxiously.
"What would be worse?" Asked Kallus.
"living with the fact that if he refused to join our side, and his crew," he looked deep into the boys frightened, blood shot, blue eyes and finished his sentence "his family would be the ones to suffer."
Wait what?! What did he mean by that?!
"Wait!" Ezra yelled as loud as he possibly could, but it was too late, Vader was already gone, leaving Ezra with those words hanging in the air, so it was either join the dark side or they would hurt his family?! What was he suppose to do?!
"I'll be right back." Tarkin informed Kallus before quickly exiting the room, and following Darth Vader.
"Vader!" he called as he caught up to the man, "are you saying that if the boy does not do as we wish, you will eliminate his crew? They could hold valuable informat-" but he quickly hushed himself when he saw his gloved black hand go up, symbolizing him to stop.
"Tarkin, do you know how I convert someone to the dark side?" Vader asked, but clearly wasn't really looking for an answer.
"uh, well, no, but I-"
And once again he was cut off by Vader, "the way you convince someone to join our side is you find the one piece of light inside of them, the one thing keeping them going, and you destroy it."
"W-well, yes I realize that, all I am saying is that the information the rebels possess can be ver-"
"You don't think I know that! All I am going to do is, when the boy is beaten to a pulp, and he can't survive much more, I will merely tell him his master is dead. Information like that, and his injury's he will have sustained will either kill him, or turn him dark."
"Uh! I see, genius!" exclaimed Tarkin, "just one question, what if it does kill the boy?"
"Then we will take his body to his master and his, family." He grimiest at that last word, "to show them what happens when you go agents the empire."
"Um, sorry to intrude," Kallus said as he poked his head out of the door, "you might want to see this."
"See what!" barked Tarkin.
Kallus spoke once more, "something came up on the mind probe, I think you'll find it very.. interesting.
The rest of the day on the ghost was fairly normal. The Jedi, naturally, was shooting the clone worried looks all day. He wanted to talk to him about this but he really had no idea what to say, he was trying to sense Ezra's presence all day, he figured that he was just distracted, what with all that's been going on, but his mind kept drifting to what was off with his padawan, he was acting more like himself to day though.
The clones acting skills did improve over the night, after almost blowing his cover numerous times in only the first day, he had to except that these rebels were actually pretty smart, and he was going to have to act more convincing if he was going to keep his cover long enough to lead them to the ambush.
He did think that it was odd though, if Kallus or someone had been captured and replaced with an exact clone, most likely no one would have noticed, but these rebels were different. They knew if the loth-rat was acting strange, and they cared! They even risked their own lives well trying to rescue one solider! The more time he spent with the rebels, the more odd their disunion making was, they did not act like the empire, their way of life was, new, odd, wrong.
"Ok guys, I have good news!" the piolet exclaimed, shaking the clone from his thoughts.
"What is it?" Sabine asked.
"We finally using Chopper for spare parts!" the Lasat laughed.
'Joke?' thought the clone.
"No!" she sighed, her green eyes moving in circles at his comment, " so after repeatedly moving around I've realized that we are not being followed, so we can move up our plan for the kyber crystals to tomorrow."
"Really?" asked Kanan, "are you sure?"
"Kanan," said Hera, "if they had known where we were they would have followed us or attacked by now, were in the clear, and the sooner we get the get those crystals the better!"
"She's right Kanan" said Zeb, "you really want to risk having those crystals in the imperials hands for an extra day?"
"Ok, good point, let's start making a plan." He said starting to feel a little less worried now that he had something else to focus on.
Well they were all forming a plan; no one noticed the clone slip out of the room. "Bridger to bass, bridge to bass, bass come in." he whispered into the com.
"Bass here, what is it?" Tarkin answered in an eager voice, as if something was happening that he wanted to get back to.
"We have a slight change in plans."