Chapter 32

Sorry for the slow update! First day of school today! :p R.I.P Summer. Ok, hope you enjoy! (And please don't kill me for how I end this chapter!...)

….

Shots were fired in a whirr. Ships exploding, star destroyers pouring in so fast it seemed like there wasn't enough room in space. Calls for back up jamming up every frequency, and in all the chorus trying to land on a docking bay under reapers. A battle reminding them of the clone wars. But in all fairness, they didn't win that one.

The Freedom landed in a jostling screech. Ahsoka quickly pulled out her com and begun forming a plan out of nothing. It's worked so far! "Marah, Zatt. Stay in your guns and so not leave the Freedom crews sides! Wolf, get to the cockpit, and be ready to fly off in a moments notice! And scare for anything coming our way writhing a twenty mile rations! Rex, Chopper. Your with me! Get in, find the Ghost crew, and get out." She commanded.

"Wait…" Said Zatt, his voice a worried stutter through the com. "What, uh, what if when you get there, it's, you know, it's too late."

"What are you saying, Zatt?" Questioned Ahsoka.

A sighing voice came through the com interrupting. It was Marah. "What he's saying is what if you get there and it's too late? What if the Jedi, or mostly likely, the padawan, have fallen to the darkside? What then?"

Ahsoka closed her eyes. Took a breath. And answered. "Then I will take the means necessary."

And that was all she said before slipping the com to her belt and meeting with Rex and chopper. It was time to save the Ghost crew.

At first the shots that hit the ship were large very large so large that it almost knocked Ahsoka and the other to the floor as they ran through the halls. Most where empty due to the attack. But they still needed to take out the occasional trooper. "Looks like we're winning!" Called Rex.

"Do not come to conclusions so fast." She spoke.

And as if on cue, as of they all rehearsed this as some sort of a sick skit before they came aboard. The shots began to die down.

Chopper begun making a series of beeps and sounds. "What'd he say?" Called Rex unto the speeding Jedi in front of him.

"He said looks like we're not!" Translated Ahsoka. "Now hurry! Time is of the essence. The blast occurred from down one of these hallways! You take the one on the upper level, and I will search the detention levels on this one, and I will meet you up there if it prove unsuccessful." Nodded Ahsoka, as Rex fled in the other direction to search the upper levels, leaving Ahsoka with the task of finding a hay in a haystack. They could be anywhere.

Through the hallways and up stairs, it was all like one deranged game of hide and seek, but when your playing agents the Empire. No one wins.

Ahsoka desperately reached and stretched her mind out to the force, trying to find a connection, but it was muffled, I thick low cloud of fog corrupting the mind, and refusing to let passage.

Once, at a point of desperation, at a point of hope lost, and a point where giving up seemed to be the last answer and letting in would be so much better then continuing to fight, something deep inside Ahsoka, told her to keep going. Told her that no good can ever come form giving up, and to search one more hall. Though she did not want to, she needed to. The constant question of 'what if' would constantly scratch and claw at her, what if she had gone down the hallway? So no. She could not give up. She would search one more hall, and when that too proved to be empty, she would pull herself together just a little bit more until she was sure she was going to break, and she would go help Rex. Because force knows other people have been through worse.

She dashed through the halls, met with emptiness both in the cells and in her, and every step was forced, as of her legs had turned to cement and lifting them was too much, because every empty room she passed was a reminder. A reminder of how many life's she put in danger to save a crew, a crew that she couldn't even find!

But then, she felt fear. And sadness. Depression. Never before had she felt so much…hope having been lost. And it was at that moment, she realized. It wasn't her. It was the broken and tormented soles of the Ghost crew. And all they had to endure. She found them.

…..

Ezra was scarred, all that surrounded him was darkness. All he could feel was fear. All he could hear was the shear insanity inducing silence. All that he could remember was the darkside. Coldness. That seemed to creep in with the fear. A coldness so pure that it made his very sole shiver as it was turned to ice.

But then, something happened. Some of the coldness, and a bit of the fear, felt, just a bit warmer, as he felt strong arms wrap around him. And then, pain. So intense at the simple act of being moved. But now, almost as if he forgot what it felt like, he felt something solid. He must have been on the ground. The change in motion and the circulation difference made his wounds bleed all the more.

It hurt, it hurt so much! Pain was a thick heavy cloud that surrounded him like a thick cloak fog. But then, the darkness turned into a bright, unbearably hot, stinging light, that seemed to take his frozen sole, a fry it. It was almost worse. Then he realized that the pain of the light was him opening his eyes, what was happening?

….

Ahsoka Tano, rebel Jedi now stood at the foot of the imperial cell, yet questioning just had to wait, as she quickly on instinct, drew her light saber and burnt off the lock.

The other wanted to ask, they wanted to ask so much! So many questions circled their minds and threatened to come to surface. But before they could, Ansoka spoke, as she asked the last question any of them wanted to hear.

"Where is the padawan?"

…..

'Where is the padawan.' The simple question making Zeb grimmest. As they ran out of the cell, it came with a split second of absolute relief as they passed the threshold of the cell. Something they thought they might never do.

"Across the hall!" Called Kanan, as he pointed to the door directly across from them. "There!" He pointed, as Ahsoka once more activated the vibrant green that appeared from the holster. Is three swayed motions, as it was a much harder lock then the cell, she slashed her light saber across the door until it opened a crack, as Zeb and Kanan helped push it open the remaining way.

As the door to the cell opened, all hearts stopped and all mouths dropped.

….

Without hesitation Zeb and Kanan ran to the restarts and began pullin got them, well Ahsoka tried to get off the electric ones with the computer. But the young teenaged boy in front of them wasn't Ezra Bridger, he was under there somewhere, but what he was under was think layers of blood, wounds, cuts, burns, and light saber slashes.

As the restraints were ripped off, Zeb and Kanan began placing him on the floor, he was out cold, but you could see the pain burned to his face. He drained out in pain as they placed him on the ground. Zeb grimmest as he pointed out the blood beginning to pour more rapidly. As Sabine cursed under her breath, a look of confused panic became planted on his face.

"Kids waken' up!" He called as Kanan got down on his knees to see for himself, as Sabine held Hera back, knowing she would only crowd the injured boy, and also because she needed to hold on to something, or else she was sure the ground would collapse under her.

…..

She would take care of it. She would do what was necessary. She would need to be smart. All these things Ahsoka Tano promised herself and her crew. That if it was, err, 'too late' then she would need to 'take care of the padawan'. But to kill an padawan, a child how lost their innocents to the dark side, well, that might just kill her too.

She held her breath as the young one, half alive lay on the cell floor, she held her breath. But the strangest thing happened, taking back both Kanan and herself.

His eyes opened as if purposely slow, to revile tinted yellow. Everything, everything, that had once hoped for had been lost, and for a brief but long second, all hope had simply and unmistakably vanished. Leaving behind a dark void. But then it happened.

Dark tinted yellow eyes glanced up to Kanan, realizing his surroundings, and as he looked to Kanan, he blinked, and as he blinked, and his eyes were reviled to the world once again, they were the bright and vibrant blue that truly marked Ezra Bridger. And his eyes closed once more, into painful dark nothingness that was an unconscious stat.

It was a moment of compleat relief followed by a moment of compleat panic, as the ship jostled once more, and they were all shocked back to the harsh reality that they were on a tight schedule, they were on a ship that was under attack, and their side was losing that attack!

Zeb,following the stern look that Kanan gave him, nodded to the Jedi, and picked Ezra up, mumbling under his breath, "sorry bout' this kid." As he lifted the small teen from the ground, resulting in him letting out a small, pain induced cry from his unctuousness stat.

"We need to move. Now!" Said Ahoska softly but firmly, as Hera opened the door.

Little did they know who, and what, was waiting for them.

…..

They speak through the halls of the star destroyer, the crew forgetting how good it was to run free after being in a cell this whole time. No one spoke unless it had to do with the mission. None of them could speak. No one in. The crew could have even imagined what kind of things Ezra had been through. The only thing they could hear was the screams from his cell, and now they knew what was happening on the other side of the door.

Knowledge sucks.

But still, it was strange. Even with the attack going on, there was virtually no one in the hallways. The whole situation making Kanan feel off, even without the force.

They came to a door that stopped them dead in their tracks. It was a large protective wall blocking the way.

"Zeb." Said Kanan, "set the kid down and help us with the door." Called Kanan, as Zeb placed Ezra down a few feet away, and walked up to join the others, as Sabine was already altering the electronic lock, with Hera at her hip.

Ezra's eyes slowly pried opened as he saw the crew's backs. He was….out? He was out! He was laying in the ground and he realized that someone, most likely Zeb, had carried him out. 'Aw man!' Ezra thought to himself, 'I'm never going to hear the end of this! He'll never let me live it down!' But honestly, he was just glad to be out. Wait. Did this mean they didn't hate him? His thoughts seemed less clouded. And holy mother of force did it hurt! He was still greatly confused, and plenty of things were fuzzy, but he could feel that he was pressed up agents a door.

The last thing he remembered was that door opening, and a hand covering his mouth before he could scream. And sire enough, he was dragged through the door way. The last though entering his mind was, 'here we go again.'

….

As they fiddled with the lock some more, Kanan glanced back to Ezra. "Uhh, Zeb." He asked.

"Yea?" He said, slightly turning his head to the Jedi.

"Where's the kid?!" He shouted.

Zeb looked confused. "I set him over right ther-" but was cut off when he saw the bear floor.

Just then all eyes were drawn to the door, as Sabine praised herself yelling "got it!" Not hearing any of the words of the missing padawan, having been focussing. As the door slid open, what waited for them on the other side was a question. And the answer, having been wrong, would have dire. Consequences.

….

There stood Ezra. Ezra's?. Birth bloody and beaten. Both identical. Both with the same look for confused horror on there faces, as a voice came over the load speaker, echoing off of the empty halls. The voice cold. Evil. Kallus.

"Attention all rebels." He then stopped for a quick and devious laugh. "You may have noticed the padawan's. Yes, indeed, one is a 'clone' you called it. One chance Jedi. One strike. You must kill one. But be cautious. You have already mixed up the two once. And look how that turned out. One wrong move Jedi. One wrong move is all it will take to smite down your own padawan. Hardly hatters through. Soon the entire fleet will be in an imperial cell. And I can assure you, this time, you will not escape." And the speaker went dead.

Kanan, never looking more scarred, drew his light saber. One wrong move, and his padawan was dead. He would not mistake them again.

…..

End.

Sigh, you know it's bad when at the beginning of the chapter I said it was my first day of school, and now I'm going into my second week! Ok, I know this chapter wasn't the best, hope you liked it anyway! Update soon.

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-Azilia