Chapter 2

Lothal, Capital City

Gizem and Segar hadn't heard the call to action on the holonet. They'd entered their mother's gym, and after saying hello to Titus, Erisi, Trochime, and Callenia they'd gone straight to the roof where their mother few a vegetable garden. Once out there they'd gone straight to a relatively young Yogan tree. Their plan was as simple as it was ill-advised.

They'd grabbed the Yogans from the ground that their mother allowed to drop and rushed them over to the wall where they peaked over the edge and sought out targets. They weren't actually wasting these fallen fruits. In fact they were mildly toxic as they were now. Yogan trees don't produce edible fruit for three years after they begin bearing said fruits. So what do a pair of young children think of when they have easily thrown, unwanted fruits? Throw them at passers-by of course.

"Aww…" Gizem pouted as she looked over the edge and saw that there wasn't a soul in range.

"Where is everyone?" Segar asked, more out of curiosity.

Gizem grumbled unintelligibly in a way that just said 'I don't know' and continued looking. But when they turned their heads right they saw the unmistakable white armor of Stormtroopers.

"Look, bucket heads," Gizem called out, bouncing in excitement at the prospect of a target to throw at.

"Yeah…get ready," Segar grinned happily, now assured in the prospect of a target.

And they were some big ones. A column of white armored Stormtroopers, eight of them, with an Imperial officer walking out in front of them. They were on patrol, doing whatever it was that Imperial patrols felt like doing. It couldn't have been good, as they were Imperials and that was what they did.

"Return to your homes or be arrested!" the Imperial officer commanded a pair of people standing at the corner, "By the order of Governor Tarkin."

The two citizens didn't want trouble and obeyed, walking away from the Imperial squad without comment. However before the Imperials could continue one of them jumped in surprise as a yogan landed with a splat right at his feet from above. The Imperials all looked to the splattered green and blue fruit and then looked up as another one landed right on the helmet of one of the troopers.

"Got him!" Gizem hollered as Segar dropped another yogan, aiming right at the officer. This time he missed again.

The officer simply sidestepped as the fruit splattered on the street next to him. His face was a mix of annoyance and anger as he pointed up at them and signaled to his troopers.

"Arrest them!" he ordered loudly, and four Stormtroopers rushed to the door.

"Uh oh," Gizem mumbled as she looked towards her big brother, who now wore a mask of fear.

"Gizem, Segar!" a voice cried out behind them and they turned to see their mother coming onto the roof.

Kia Algan was a picture of beauty, as most all Twi'leks were. Her light blue skin was a visible source for where her children got their own looks. She was wearing her own workout clothes as she was preparing for the day working in her gym. But that wouldn't be happening today.

"What are you two doing?" Kia demanded of her two children, who she'd heard on the roof and saw them at the wall looking down with some inedible yogans next to them.

"Kia!" another voice called out and the source of that voice, Callenia, ran out onto the roof, "Stormtroopers just ran into the gym."

The young redhead had shut the door behind her and her tone was quite fearful as the look in her eyes showed. But that wasn't for herself, that fear was for her boss and her children.

"Oh no," Kia barely got out as she put two and two together and figured out why the Stormtroopers were here. And then four troopers came through the door right behind Callenia who turned in surprise and had a blaster rifle in her face as the other three aimed their weapons at the three Twi'leks.

"Hands up!" the lead Stormtrooper wearing the orange shoulder pauldron ordered them.

"Please, they're-they're just children," Kia begged the trooper who paid her no mind as they came towards them on two sides.

Both young children whimpered as their mother put her arms around them protectively, unwilling to move away from her. Callenia as well was not wanting to let this happen, but the blaster and the Stormtrooper holding it next to her wasn't going to allow her to do anything.

"Then you're under arrest as well," the lead trooper snapped at Kia as he grabbed her by the arm and tugged her away and the other two snatched up Gizem and Segar who immediately began trying to fight back and protesting.

"No!" Callenia cried out, and went to move towards them but the trooper holding her back stopped her.

He wrapped his right arm around her neck and his left one grabbed her left arm and twisted it behind her back. There wasn't much she could do, unwilling to physically strike him, yet.

"Bring her as well. She's complicit in the crime of treason."

Callenia's eyes widened, treason meant one of two things, life imprisonment or death. She'd never gotten into trouble before, just minding her own business most of the time. The Empire never did anything to her, at least it hadn't before now.

"She didn't do anything, please!" Kia pleaded, trying to prevent everything that was happening as she was being hauled away.

"Shut up," the trooper snapped at her with exasperation, as if this was just an everyday chore.

The troopers roughly dragged their prisoners down the stairs to the ground floor where Titus, Erisi, and Trochime were standing together, trying to figure out what was happening. When they came downstairs Trochime's face was a mask of panic and fear. This was not what any of them wanted to see, but the sight of Callenia taken prisoner was almost too much. He immediately went to run towards the Stormtroopers, intent on stopping them. But Titus saw him and stopped him stepping in front of his friend and grabbed him and shoved him back.

"No! Don't, it won't work," Titus whispered lowly, despite Trochime's struggles.

"I can't Titus, she's innocent!" Trochime snapped anger fiercely tainting his voice, "We have to do something!"

"We can't," Erisi sadly responded, placing her hand on Trochime's shoulder.

"No! I won't accept that, I…" Trochime snapped again, but shut his mouth quickly, growling lowly as he held down his words despite nearly letting it slip the way he felt about Callenia.

"They're only going to get worse," Titus mumbled under his breath, remembering what that young rebel voice had called for.

"The rebels," Erisi realized.

"Stand up and fight," Trochime finished for him.

Titus let go, and Trochime looked at the Stormtroopers who had slapped on binders on the wrists of the family of three and Callenia with their hands in front of them. The officer seemed pleased with himself as he spoke into his comm link, calling for a transport to take these prisoners to a holding cell. The four individuals were then forced to sit on the curb with the Stormtroopers watching over them with their backs turned to the gym.

"I've got an idea," Titus said nervously, "I have no idea if it'll work, but we have to try."

"I'm game," Trochime instantly said, eager to rescue the girl he loved.

"Erisi?"

"You don't have to ask babe," she cooed warmly, "She's my best friend."

"God I love you," Titus chuckled, planting a soft kiss on her lips before stepping back, "Get dressed, go grab your speeder and be ready to drive us out of here."

"Got it," Erisi responded, and hurried into the women's locker room.

"Us too," Titus suggested to Trochime, "Then we need to grab a few things."

"I've got an idea of what we can use," Trochime replied as both of them rushed to change and prepare.

Outside things for the Stormtroopers and their lone officer were starting to get somewhat testy. A crowd was starting to gather around them. Many were shouting, protesting at the arrest of what they perceived to be innocents. There were several dozen men and women, raining down a torrent of verbal insults on the Imperials who were outnumbered and starting to get nervous. Their troop transport for prisoner transport hadn't arrived yet. It had been delayed by other, larger protests in another part of Capital City.

Their officer watched the crowd carefully, looking for signs of outright aggression. He didn't want to fire at them for verbal assaults, those were harmless to his unit, but the moment he came under direct threat he knew he'd have to give the order to fire stun blasts into the crowd, and if that didn't work, lethal force would be called for.

He heard the door to gym open behind him, and saw a young, and rather attractive young short-haired blonde girl wearing a green long-sleeved shirt and black leggings and a black skirt walk out with a gym bag over her shoulder. He paid her no mind, and turned back to the crowd which was starting to get even more restless.

"LRC-033 to base, where is my transport?" he demanded into his comm link.

"We're a few minutes away LRC-033," the vehicle in question responded.

"Be advised we have attracted a crowd, proceed with caution."

"Copy that," the individual replied as the door behind him opened up again.

He turned around just in time to see two individuals attack he and his troopers.

Leading was Titus, and next to him was Trochime. Titus had changed into a red long-sleeved shirt and black vest with gray pants with his usual black working boots. Trochime was now wearing a blue hooded sweatshirt and jeans with his own brown utility shoes. Both had tied bandanas over their faces to protect their identities as they would have to along with weight gloves on their hands for physical protection. In their gloved hands they held two large bowls of white powdered chalk which they used to great effect.

Swiping the large bowls across the line of Imperials they successfully blinded them and sent them reeling. Trochime was the first to actually strike a Stormtroopers, slapping one of them across the face with the only weapon either one could really find, an electrified pugil stick four feet long. He slapped the white Stormtrooper across the face as he tried rubbing the chalk off of his blast eye pieces like the rest were doing. The blow was a powerful one and the trooper was knocked backwards, falling over a market stand of fruits.

A roar of approval came from the crowd as Titus slugged another trooper in the face, sending his opponent stumbling back and then popped a second one and then used the staff to strike him in the chest and onto the ground. This managed free up the area around the restrained family of three and Callenia who was facing away from the chalk spray and now figured out what was happening. Callenia looked up in time to see Trochime hit his second trooper in the back of the knee, knocking him down and then violently uppercut the Stormtrooper in the face with the staff. However a trooper standing right in front of her leveled his blaster at her friend, and she took action.

With a quick kick she swept the Stormtrooper's leg out from under him and he fell back as the blaster went off into the air. She then saw a Stormtrooper next to the officer lunge backwards onto the ground after another blaster went off behind her. She ducked down as a second red blast struck the Imperial officer in the shoulder, and he tumbled back onto the ground, clutching his wound.

"Titus!" she called out as she saw the guy who'd fired at the Imperials as a speeder with Erisi drove up in front of them.

Titus put the borrowed staff down next to her as he fired a stolen E-11 Blaster Rifle into the binders around Kia's wrists. He went down the line as Trochime did likewise, and got in front of Callenia and pulled down his bandana and smiled to her. She too beamed in delight at his attempt to save her.

"Hold out your hands," he said calmly and she held her wrists out for him to destroy the cuffs.

"Boy am I glad you have a crush on me," she laughed as he put the barrel to the middle of the binders. But this sentence made him slip up as he registered what she'd said.

"Y-yeah well you're welcome. Perhaps you'd be willing to grab a bite sometime after this."

"We're not safe yet Troy come on hurry up."

"Oh right."

With one very carefully placed shot the binders split apart and she was free along with the three Twi'leks. The crowd was cheering loudly by now, and Titus now noticed. He wasn't exactly sure what to make of it, he'd never been the subject of a crowd's attention before. But he knew that Imperials were probably well on their way and they needed to go.

"Guys, let's get out of here!" he yelled out and ushered the two children to Erisi who was keeping the speeder running. He then realized he didn't need the staff he'd used for a weapon now that he had a blaster rifle and tossed it to Callenia, "Here, use this."

"Thanks…but it won't do much good!" Callenia cried out, and pointed around the corner as a familiar noise caught everyone's attention, "Incoming!"

The boxy form of an Imperial Troop Transport came barreling around the corner and fired its front blaster cannons. The crowd around them scattered when the blasts struck the gym's front façade in a fiery explosion and a concussion that caused them all to flop onto the ground.

"Erisi, around back!" Titus yelled as the Gizem and Segar crouched down low in the back seat of her light blue speeder.

Erisi quickly complied rushing her vehicle around the corner in full reverse, getting into solid cover as the Imperial vehicle fired at them again. The blasts struck the ground, sending up a dirt plume behind a short-lived fireball. By now the four others on the ground had seen what had become of their favorite place in the city.

"No!" Kia sadly cried out at seeing her gym and her home go up in flames and ran to the door and yanked it open in the hopes of saving something.

"Kia!" Callenia yelled, and charged in after her, "Don't!"

Once inside she saw that a hole was in the ceiling and the floor was scattered with debris. Fire was licking at much of the wall and smoke was crowding in. The air seemed to burn as the two rushed inside.

"Callenia, go!" Kia ordered her, "I have to save my family's albums. It's all we have that is worth saving."

"We can't stay much longer Kia. Those fires are too strong."

"I have to try," the young Twi'lek responded and ran into a wall of smoke going upstairs.

Callenia just hesitated, not quite knowing what to do. She couldn't do anything about Kia going after her family album and all she was really able to do was wait here or go help. So she decided to help. Taking a big gulp of air she dove into the hot searing smoke and could see the glow of the fires behind her as the smoke burned at her nose and eyes. She knew her way around here, and by memory alone ran into the living room where she ran into Kia was pulling out a holographic tablet from her cabinet.

"Kia?!"

"I've got it," she responded and then a tower of flame belched into the room.

"Get to the fire escape."

Both of them ran forward to the window and kicked it open and ran onto the thin piece of metal outside the window. They could see that the rest of them were already in the alley, with Trochime and Titus firing their blasters at the Imperial Stormtroopers who had followed them around the corner.

Titus fired at the vehicle with his stolen E-11. The score marks on the front of the vehicle signified that he had no chance. Trochime fought back as well, firing his own captured rifle at the Stormtroopers who were firing back at them from behind their vehicle. Their blasts weren't very accurate, but the Stormtroopers weren't very impressive either, but both sides were ducking and firing, neither wanting to poke out too much.

"We need to get outta here," Erisi called out, knowing they were in a bad place.

"Momma!" Gizem called out as she saw Kia and Callenia appear behind them coming down the fire escape.

"They're here!" Erisi alerted Titus and Trochime.

"Troy get into the speeder, go!" he ordered his friend and forced to him to duck away.

Trochime ran to the speeder and sat down behind Erisi as Callenia got in behind her friend, patting her on the shoulder to let her know they were in as Titus sprinted over and jumped into the seat next to his girlfriend. Blaster fire followed him around the corner as the Stormtroopers fired at the place they'd thought the young group was still located. However they wouldn't be there much longer, Erisi was ready to floor it.

"Hang on!" the short-haired blonde called out before slamming down the accelerator.

The blue craft zoomed straight out of the alley, and the blaster fire was right there following as the Stormtroopers advanced on them with the aid of their troop transport. Erisi wrenched the controls right, turning the speeder tightly and zoomed down the long street, intent on getting out of the city. Several cannon blasts hit the ground near them as Erisi bobbed and weaved to get through the market place as people scrambled to get out of the way.

However, the Imperial vehicle gave chase, and wasn't limited to avoiding the market stands, it just ran them over, and closed with them. And just as the group's speeder was about to get away a blast shook the vehicle as the Imperial turret's blasts hit right behind and to the right of the speeder. The end raised up in the air and then came crashing down. What happened next was perhaps the worst thing that could have happened. Kia, the mother of Segar and Gizem, fell out of the speeder's open rear seat.

"Kia!" Callenia yelled, trying to grab her before she'd fallen out but missed and the light blue skinned Twi'lek fell to the ground, rolling on the dirt street before stopping in the middle of the street.

"Stop, we have to get Kia," Titus ordered Erisi, who looked back and instantly hit the brakes and turned, prepared to rush back and get her. But the speeder had traveled a long way, at least twenty or thirty yards.

But Kia wouldn't let them. She took a second and looked at the firing Imperial vehicle closing on them rapidly, and did the math. The math didn't look good and decided then and there that her children had to come before her own freedom, and her own life. Standing up and looking back at them she yelled something.

"Run! Get out of here and look after my babies."

"No!" Callenia pleaded, "We're not leaving you!"

"Mommy!" Segar cried out, holding out his arms, wanting his mother to come back, his young mind somehow knowing what was happening.

"Segar," she responded, "Promise me you'll look after your sister. It's what your father would want you to do. Promise me."

"I-I promise."

The Imperial Troop Transport pulled up right in front of her and Stormtroopers jumped out and leveled their blasters at Kia, and two of them ran at the speeder and its occupants. There was only time for Callenia to jump back into the back of the speeder, tears forcing their way to the surface. Segar then started yelling, promising something that was beyond his young years, but he understood. He knew very well what had just happened. As of that moment he was the only person his sister had left. Erisi pulled away and ducked into a side street, getting away from the Imperials who decided not to give chase and after a few more turns was out of the city. After a few seconds the speeder was out into the large expanses of golden grass, nothing around them but the grass and cone-shaped rocks and nothing above them but the clear sky. They were safe.

In the back of the speeder the young Gizem was crying, she knew that her mother was no longer with them. Her brother too had tears running down his cheeks, but he did exactly as he promised. Taking his sister in a tight hug he held her close, allowing her to clutch onto him and continue to weep. Trochime and Titus suddenly felt the weight of what had happened hit them. They looked down in their hands at the blasters they'd taken from the Empire's soldiers and used against them. Erisi herself tried keeping a straight course, fighting back tears herself along with the lingering fear. Callenia was just stunned, she was leaning against the seat, her electrified sparring staff on the ground at her feet as she stared straight ahead.

None of them had been able to really bring themselves to figure out what they'd just done or why. All they knew for sure was that they had lost Kia, who they'd all known for a very long time. They knew that they were also wanted, they'd fought against the Empire. Now, they were Rebels.

It wasn't easy writing this chapter, let me tell you that. Losing a mother is tough, especially for these kids. I really don't have much else to say actually. This chapter sort of says it all. They're rebels now.

Next Chapter Preview: Coming to terms with the consequences of their actions, the group finds help.