As usual, Raen's inside man had given her good information. After the raid that had basically confirmed to the ISB a Jedi was running loose on Coruscant, he'd tried to talk her out of doing another one so quickly. The specific wording had been 'you're shabla jare'la to do a back-to-back run'. Raen wasn't well-versed in Mando'a, but she had a feeling he was calling her insane. Maybe she was; maybe insanity was the only explanation for this need to do something.
Plus, it was fun to make the Imps jump.
She lifted a pair of macrobinoculars to her face and scouted out the route. From the nearest supply depot to her sector, the convoy to the sector's spaceport had to come down this boulevard; the walker escort couldn't fit through the narrower streets and alleys. Raen had already plotted out her route once she had the loot, but if she mistimed any aspect she'd not only lose the cargo but her freedom.
But that was what made it fun.
Raen had her training 'saber and a blaster pistol as her only armaments. Utility meant she had a code cylinder stuffed up one sleeve and a fifty-meter fibercord grapple with a magnetic hook on her belt. The grapple was only in case she needed the assistance for a tricky maneuver, and, so far, had gone unused, along with a set of special surprises that she had nabbed on a whim when she had lifted weaponry from the Empire once. Her contact might think she was reckless, but Raen had sat idle and useless for too long. The past three years of actually doing something was better than reducing herself to the scavenger child of Nar Shaddaa. She didn't have her powers just to stop using them when the Jedi were driven to extinction.
There were a few people out on the boulevard, but Raen's focus was on the side alley where she had parked the first link of her getaway plan. Five speeder bikes were lined up, but the one on the far left was hooked up and ready to launch to her voice command. She would only be able to lift two crates from the full supply, but the last time she'd tried taking everything Raen had come far too close to getting killed. She only frowned briefly when she spotted a green Twi'leki woman approach one of the bikes – not hers. So long as she didn't go to the left one…
Raen's senses flickered, and she folded up the binocs as she spotted the convoy on approach. She unhooked her 'saber and crouched to wait.
There were two two-legged walkers that led the convoy, marching steadily but slowly for the troop and cargo transports that made up the rest of the lineup. Following the Imperial protocols that she'd been exposed to, Raen counted back two transports and mentally tagged the first of the cargo speeders. The troopers for the convoy would be on that one faster than scavengers on a fresh crash if she dropped on that one. But the hauler three more back, that would be her meal ticket. Hers, and enough for her neighbors, at least for a week. Technically her last haul was supposed to still be feeding them, but Black Sun had heard of that mess and "confiscated" half of the supplies she'd left for neighbors to pick up. Raen could care less about Black Sun taking the loot – she still had to let them have at least a quarter of whatever she lifted – but Black Sun had the power structure that, if they wanted to push the fact she was Force-sensitive, they could make her life hell.
Today wasn't going to be that day.
Raen cleared her mind except for her plan and goal, and the Force crackled through her as she drew it in. For a moment she felt a familiar niggling sensation in the back of her head, as if someone was close and knew she was, too. Raen put it out of her mind before stepping off the edge of her overlook. The drop was ten stories, and her stomach leaped into her throat, but Raen held the Force close, let it fill her from toes to brows, and cushioned her landing with relative ease. She rolled, as planned, behind a stack of crates and one dumpster in the mouth of an alleyway. Peering out, her speeder waited across the boulevard and to her right; exactly as planned. The first of the transports was passing as she waited, coiling ready for her attack.
The tingle of a presence itched at the back of her mind again, as if pinging her. Raen locked her jaw into a scowl and refocused some of her energy, flattening, then thinning, her Force-self into near-nothingness. Once it was thinned, Raen stretched it out until there were only a few specks of her specific self in the Force close to her real location.
"Damn red-bladed hunters," she breathed before refocusing on the plan. Transport the third coasted past; soon would come her target. If the hunters came at her in the middle of the recovery, she wouldn't be able to line something up like this again for at least a month. She couldn't let that happen. Wouldn't.
As the fourth transport cruised past her, Raen set down her 'saber to reach into the pouch where her surprises waited: two electromagnetic pulse grenades and one bioshocker that would knock out the driver and any backup that would be inside. Hopefully she could keep one of the pulse grenades. Transport five came past, and Raen primed the grenades.
Her target began to sail into view, and Raen released the pulse grenade. With the Force, the grenade spun towards the transport, and with a light lift it dug into the underside with three seconds to spare. Everything began to slow once the pulse crackled, sending the transport careening as its systems shorted out. Raen scooped up her weapon as she vaulted out from hiding, hurling the bioshocker as she soared into the air.
The door into the transport's steering area dragged open right as the bioshocker sailed towards it, and with a light nudge Raen sent it over the shoulder of the unfortunate Imp at the opening and any of his friends soon to be reduced to a shivering, drooling mess for the next half-rotation. She landed easily atop the transport, and she snapped her 'saber on as she turned for where the crates of rations were anchored for the time being.
Immersed in the Force as she was, Raen moved on pure reactive instinct. Blaster bolts winged towards her, but the yellow blade batted them away with only a few twists of her wrist. She hit the maglocks on the crates and, with a bare furrow of her brow, willed two of them to fly towards her bike. Almost there, almost –
Her concentration shattered as a wave of intent crashed past her, and Raen snarled to herself as her hold on the Force halved, forcing the crates to skid to a halt on the roadway. Raen lifted her 'saber into a guard, but a loud roar and a rash of blaster bolts not aimed at her sailed into the stormtroopers trying to hit her. A purple-furred thing – Lasat? Weren't they all extinct? – sprinted past her right, hands working at a bo-rifle as it stretched from blaster rifle to electrostaff. It was as if he was giving her cover! She'd never seen a Lasat, much less any specific one, before; she would remember bargaining with a Lasat if she ever brought anyone on her supply raids.
"Kriffing hells," Raen swore before she bolted for the crates, refocusing as best as she could to lift the crates again, then drag them after her to the bike. The green Twi'lek was still there, holding a snubnose pistol and firing at the soldiers, too. "Who in nine hells are you supposed to be?!"
"Good guys, like you!" the Twi'lek answered, even as she stepped into cover and pulled out a comlink. "Spectre Four, get out of there, we've got the goods!"
Goods. They won't be taking my supplies. They want me!
Raen took all of three seconds to latch the crates to her bike, mount it, then snap out "go!" which the bike heard and roared to life in response under her. Raen thumbed the throttle open all the way and zipped off down the alley. No way was she going to let a pair of bounty hunters take her in! The Empire didn't even know she existed!
The tingling sense struck again as Raen turned out into a skylane, and she looked over her shoulder to see the sleek black profile and Imperial logos of an approaching speeder. The red glow behind the windscreen was all she needed to see before twisting the gear and taking off as fast as she could. Not today. She hadn't survived Order 66 just to be taken down because of either a pair of strange bounty hunters or the red bladed stalkers that had started chasing her since they'd caught her in the Temple!
She gunned the bike down the lane, and prayed to the few powers she knew. At the very last, Raen couldn't help one final whisper.
"Caleb. Please."
–
"Karabast, bolted!" Zeb growled as Kanan ran out of where he'd been hiding. That blur that had hit the convoy would have been hard for anyone without the Force to see, but Kanan had seen it. It had been beautiful, but also raw and unfocused. Even if he hadn't heard Raen's description from all the holos, Kanan would have known that had been Raen. He tilted his head towards Zeb as the Lasat growled, "Now what?"
"Bikes!" Hera insisted. "Kanan, with me!"
He didn't need to ask why, but Kanan made sure he was able to focus on Hera and got onto one of the remaining speeder bikes behind her.
Caleb.
Kanan held onto Hera tighter than he meant to as they took off, but the whisper in his head drew a clear line through the Force, an echo of the path Raen had taken. Somehow, he knew they were…connected.
Please!
"Right!" Kanan shouted over the wind shear, and was grateful that Hera could hear him. He shouted directions as best he could, following the link between himself and Raen.
I'm coming, he thought, trying to reach out to her. I'm coming, just hold on, Raen.
CALEB!
"She's in trouble, I gotta drive!" Kanan growled in frustration. If he wasn't blind, if he could just see…
"Kanan, Inquisitors up ahead, looks like!" Hera called back; Kanan started feeling them as he pushed his senses outward. "One speeder, but there might be more than one of them inside!"
"Tail 'em, Spectre Two," he ordered; it was time for business, and if they could get the Inquisitors' eyes on them, for just long enough, they could catch up to Raen later. "Spectre Four, loop around, try to keep eyes on Raen!"
Kanan sensed Zeb's affirmative – probably a thumbs-up – before the Lasat peeled off. Kanan tightened his hold around Hera's waist and sighed weakly, trying to focus on the connection, but Raen was getting focused on outrunning the Inquisitors. She wasn't going to manage that without their help, one way or another.
"Get me in close, Hera!"
"You're crazy! Kanan, you can't – "
"You know me, don't you? Now get me in close!"
Kanan sensed Hera's exasperation and didn't blame her, but the speeder hurtled closer to where he felt the Inquisitors – plural. He sensed a line of Force direction towards her bike, but a slash from her sent what must have been the circular blade of one of the Inquisitors spinning off down to the abyss Kanan knew was below them. If he misjudged this…
No. No, he couldn't doubt himself. Not now. Not this time. Hera was counting on him, so were Zeb and Raen. He had to do this.
He felt the Inquisitors' speeder coming closer, Hera piloting them right up towards the underbelly. Kanan gave Hera's shoulders an additional squeeze as he braced himself on her, pulling his feet under him so he crouched on the back of the bike. It was a good thing Sabine had seen them off with plenty of explosives, and Kanan made sure the Force was balancing him as he reached into his belt and pulled free a detonator.
The laser sword's okay, I guess, but those little bomb things are a lot faster, Raen had told him once. That little adage had gotten him through a lot in the past few years, and Kanan couldn't help a small smile as he stood on the bike. The wind shear buffeted at him, but the Force kept him steady as Kanan planted the detonator and set the timer.
"Down, down, go!" he ordered as he dropped down again, and Hera gunned the bike forward, dipping under the Inquisitor craft. He heard the explosion behind him almost dimly, but the sense of the Inquisitors' surprise and panic as their speeder started to fall made Kanan's grin spread fiercely. Now they just had to catch up to Raen.
"Spectre Four, we've stalled the Imps, what's your status?" Hera asked into the comlink as they got moving again, following the flow of traffic but Kanan couldn't pinpoint where Raen had gone. So much for having a bond with her if she kept dropping out of his awareness.
"Spectre Two, I managed to tail 'er to a cargo train stop," Zeb reported. That smacked of familiarity to Kanan again, made it hard to stay anchored on the present without a tight hug around Hera's waist. He knew where she was now. "By now she's prob'ly camped out in a car to get outta this sector. Train's pullin' out soon. Want me to catch a ride?"
"Negative, Spectre Four," Kanan said before Hera could tell Zeb yes. "She bolted with the unasked backup, if she sees you again she'll either run or fight."
"What's your plan, Spectre One?" Hera called back to him. "Somehow, I know I'm not going to like it."
Kanan leaned forward to smile against the back of Hera's neck; she knew him so well.
"Zeb, follow the train, we'll catch up with you soon," Kanan advised. "Hera, we got enough fuel to briefly match speeds with that train?"
"While also burning out the engine for good? Yeah," Hera sighed. Kanan sensed her resignation and realization of what he planned to do. "Just tell me she's not going to lead you off on a chase if she sees you."
"Gonna find out soon," Kanan told her. "Take a left up ahead, then down to level three-six-one. You'll see the signs for the station soon."
Hera's lekku twitched against his chest in affirmation, and the shifting breeze kept Kanan aware of their progress. The air cooled significantly as they began their descent, and as they approached the train station Kanan started to feel the familiar untrained hum of Raen's passing, getting stronger. He nearly reached out to her again, but as soon as he thought it Raen's presence scattered again; she knew she was being followed.
"Kanan, the train's already pulling out!" Hera warned him as she made a final turn and Kanan smelled the industrial zing of the refueling platform. The vicious hum of the repulsor rail was too far to be clear, but the familiarity magnified the sound. "I can't keep up once it gets to full speed!"
"I'll call once I'm off, then you and Zeb catch up!" Kanan said as he gathered himself into a crouch again. A flash of frustration told him exactly what Hera thought, but Kanan knew it was the only way. Raen would only keep running until she could get somewhere to hide; the only person she would consider stopping for was someone fifteen years forgotten. Kanan was the closest she'd get.
As Hera swung into position and sped up to follow the train, Kanan angled himself, following the sound of the train to get an idea of how far he'd have to jump. His brows folded as he focused, wishing for just a moment to see clearly. He wouldn't miss. He had to do this. Kanan dimly heard Hera shout something in warning, but the Force and the sound of the train drowned her out. It rang in his ears, charged his limbs, and when Kanan leaped from the bike he felt a guiding arc, from the bike to the roof of the train car. He only pinwheeled his arms once and Kanan just managed to catch onto the edge of the train's roof –
Right before he had to squeeze himself tight against the wall as the train raced into a tunnel. Hera's sense faded as Kanan rocketed away from her, but Raen was closer now. Her presence was starting to recoalesce, but slowly, wary. She probably guessed she was still being followed, but not by whom. Kanan wasn't Caleb, after all.
He held tight until the tunnel opened, and Kanan levered himself up onto the roof of his car with a sigh. Now to find Raen before she got off and vanished.
Familiarity and memory clawed at the edges of his awareness as Kanan took off along the top of the train, jumping the gaps between cars because he remembered where they were, how many strides it took from one end to the other. He instantly dropped to his stomach when the train sped into another tunnel, remembering that specific turn. This was the same line a Jedi apprentice had chased after a Jedi initiate on a lifetime ago.
Kanan kept moving until he reached the sixth car forward from where he'd clung on, fighting the wind shear and being sucked into the past. Raen's presence radiated out from inside, and even though he felt her trying to disappear again Kanan also sensed her wariness, her curiosity. It must have been ages since she felt another Jedi; he knew the feeling from when he had felt Ezra on Lothal. He shuffled forward, arms raised against the fist of the wind despite the Force keeping him upright, until the toe of his boot hit a hatch. There. Instead of using his 'saber to open it, Kanan ducked to pull free the latch, then slid inside through the opening headfirst. He just managed to catch himself from falling on his backside, but sighed in relief to be out of the wind – and, if his guess was right, somewhere in front of Raen. He let himself sit down on the floor of the car and sigh again, catching his breath before the soft hum of a lightsaber – not his – filtered into his ringing ears.
"Some way to say hi," Kanan grumbled as he tilted his head towards the hum. "First you bolt from my friends, then we cover your backside from those Inquisitors only to find you hopping trains, again…"
"I'm supposed to thank you?" a voice that only distantly sounded like the voice Kanan remembered as Raen's answered. She doesn't recognize me. She didn't even notice his little quip about their old habits. "You and your friends could have gotten me killed. Now the Imps are going to think it's more than one person raiding their convoys."
"It's what Jedi do," Kanan said as he stood slowly, then turned for her voice. "Especially Jedi like you and me."
"Said like I'm supposed to know who you are," Raen argued, but Kanan sensed her uncertainty. He could see her outline, just like with Ezra, but unlike the kid's Raen's was spikier, more suspicious. But as she looked at him, really looked, Kanan saw the spikes shrink slowly, and smooth lines of light flickered within the outline, fragments of her appearance blinking through. That was new. "…who…who are you? I…I know you. I do know you."
"It's definitely been awhile, and we've both changed a lot," Kanan replied, voice softening. "Maybe you don't recognize me, but I think you'll recognize this."
He reached for the 'saber parts on his belt, connecting emitter and hilt before presenting the weapon for Raen to see. The spikes in her aura vanished, shifting to waves of surprise and uncertainty. The hum of her own 'saber died, and Kanan heard her take a few steps closer.
"…where did you get that?" she whispered, voice shaking. "Where?"
"I made it," Kanan answered, even as his chest clenched. "When Depa Billaba accepted me as her apprentice."
A clatter of a fallen lightsaber hilt rang out as the uncertainty vanished in an explosion of warmth and remembrance, and for the first time since being blinded Kanan could suddenly see, and it was Raen, the outline filled in. He recognized her face, but not the angled features that she had grown into. Her eyes were the same. The breakthrough faded, leaving Raen's outline, bright and nebulous, though the rough edges still grated a little on his senses.
"Caleb?" she asked, almost hopefully. "It…it's you? It's really you?"
"…yes and no," Kanan replied, even as his chest clenched tighter at hearing his old name again. "Fifteen years does a number on you. After what happened. I'm Kanan now."
"Kanan," Raen murmured, some of her bright eagerness fading, the kid he remembered withdrawing slightly. "I…I guess it suits you."
Kanan took a step closer to her, and mercifully Raen didn't move away from him, not even as he raised a hand and took her shoulder tightly.
"I never forgot you," he told her. "When I heard about a Jedi taking out Imperial supplies on Coruscant, I knew it was you. I thought you were dead but I knew it was you."
Raen looked up at him – hells, he was so much taller than her now – but Kanan felt her smile, felt the gratitude that he'd come back.
"…c'mon, Fish," he murmured, using the name that had been hers before she came to the Temple. He had been the only one she'd told, who was allowed to use it. "I might be slower than you but I'm not stupid."
"Guess not," Raen answered, voice even but Kanan felt her happiness – to see him again, to know he'd come back even after so long. It was a few beats longer before Raen had thrown her arms around him, head buried into his chest, and Kanan held her tight. The Force glowed between them, and Kanan felt a bond – old, nearly-forgotten, but strong – between them begin to flare. He knew the bond; a similar one connected him and Ezra. Master and apprentice.
"…missed you, Caleb," Raen muttered. "So much."
"Missed you, too, Raen," Kanan sighed into her hair. Now that he'd found her, it was time to leave Coruscant with her, and the sooner, the better.