Welcome Back Everyone!
I am so proud of this chapter. I can promise it's full of emotion and I hope you'll like it! :D
Special mention!
-Magic = Loll! Hera's tray to the rescue XD That should work... but I don,t think she could get enough close of the Inquisitor for that XD
-Rebel Spectre 6 = I'm sorry, but no can do. The Inquisitor still have so many things to do with Ezra, he can't possibly leave him alone now :3
-Jade = As promised, here is chapter 10 with his lot of emotion. I wish it will be to your liking :3
-Chitsukee = I am so happy to be able to touch your feelings like that! Thank you for sharing it with me! And, please, if you remember which song was playing, could you let me know it's name? I would love to listen to it :3
-Another guest = Thank you very much for your support and kind words! I know the comment before yours is a simple one, even ridiculous compared to some other writer received, but it came a day that was really important to me so it got to me a lot more than it should have and your review really cheered me up. So I wish to dedicate this chapter to you :3 Thanks again from the bottom of my heart :3
Have a nice reading time! :3
P.s. I own Nothing!
Chapter 10
Inside Ezra's inner-self, the atmosphere had become heavier as the Grand Inquisitor kept walking hurriedly toward the kneeled, chained boy. The blue mist surrounding them was moving eeriely as usual, but some passed behind the trembling kid and he felt something resembling a warm hand leaning on his back, here to reassure him.
As the tall Pau'an was almost on the boy, his inquiring voice echoed around them. -"What happened here?"
Ezra gathered himself so his own tone would sound natural. -"Nothing. Why would you..."
But the Inquisitor interrupted him. -"Don't lie to me." He posed a knee to stoop at the kid's level. "I felt some disturbance on our bond." And he took the yellow chain in hands to observe it.
The second he touched it, he felt something strange under his fingers. Moving it around, he discovered the blue stream, his expression changing with horror and disgust!
His voice changed too, filled with pure hatred. -"How dare he..." And he swiftly pulled on it, making Ezra scream all the air in his lungs!
Behind the kid, the mist fell on his back, and though no sound was heard from it, Ezra knew it was squirming in pain too!
-"How can this thin tread be so strong!" Spitted hatefully the Inquisitor, releasing it when he realised it would not budge from there.
-"Do you want to kill me?" Panting heavily, Ezra dared his look in his captor's eyes. -"If you don't know how it was done, stop trying to remove it!" Shoving back to the Inquisitor the words he had said himself toward Kanan when he had pulled on the yellow chain.
Hissing his anger, the Grand Inquisitor's representation turned away and disappeared from Ezra's inner-self.
Beside the kid, Kanan reappeared, falling on the ground, grunting as he leaned a hand on Ezra's shoulder to help himself get back on his feet.
-"How can he send his Inner-self from so far away? You need to be close to invade another's mind..." Said the Jedi, pulling himself together.
Ezra looked pondering, his expression suddenly opening like he had been illuminated.
-"... on 5-6-3/1-6-9... Kanan, those coordinates, which place is it?"
-"Lothal." Answered the man without hesitation.
-"And," He felt his blood freeze in his veins. "where is your crew doing the diversion?"
-"Kid, where are you going with that?" Replied Kanan, growing uneasy.
-"Kanan, you need to run!" Bursted Ezra, urging him with fear in his eyes.
-"Not before you explained..." Frowned more Kanan
But, frightened, Ezra unconsciously released his Force to push the man out of his Inner-self! Looking at him, back in the room, Ezra didn't lose time and grabbed Kanan's arm. -"He is on board!" Then turned him to push on his back, leading him to the door.
-"How can you know?"
-"No time for that. Just run!" And, as he managed to shove Kanan in the corridor, he saw him looking with frowning, worried eyes and continued. "I don't have time to explain. Please, just believe me."
The man finally nodded, heavily, and started to run, putting the helmet back on his head. Ezra returned inside, leaving the door open and raising the chair so he could sit on it and take the Holopad to continue his study like nothing happened.
Only a moment later, Ezra heard the sound of footsteps stopping in front of his doorway, the shadow of the Grand Inquisitor casting itself in the tiny room, and, immediately after, the air became colder.
The Inquisitor asked, each word pronounced slowly, lowly... menacing... -"Where is he?"
-"Who?" Retorted Ezra, still reading like nothing happened... Then, facing the silence, realizing this tremendous mistake.
Turning his head to look at the imposing Pau'an, the kid felt all that was left of his courage run away when he saw the normally composed face twisted into a furious wince! The Grand Inquisitor roared, moving his hand to Force push the kid onto the wall, maintaining him against it while Force chocking him!
-"STOP LYING TO ME!"
The kid struggled against the invisible strength, his feet moving an inch away from the floor. Opening hardly an eye, fighting to breath, he caught a glimpse of the Pau'an's look at him and his blood froze for the umpteenth time this day. Still, one question rose above the others in his mind. 'Where have I seen that angry look before...'
-"You warned him to run away. How did you guess I was close by?"
Still fighting to find air, Ezra answered hardly. -"I heard you on Kallus' comlink saying 'We have a 1-4-5 on 5-6-3/1-6-9.' A 1-4-5 is an emergengy protocol about insurgent with an average priority level and you added 'There's your chance to catch them.' You sent the Agent alone on Lothal to catch the Rebels."
His rage fading slowly away, the Inquisitor took a deep breath and released his grasp, letting the boy fall on the floor, coughing and gasping to find air.
-"At least, you are learning." He simply commented, looking down on Ezra, his expression staying unchanged even after the kid had raised a darting look toward him. "Now, keep studying until you've learned all those protocols."
-"Why?" Ezra managed to say with his coarse voice. As he saw the interrogative look on the Inquisitor, he continued. "I know I should be dead by now. Why the preferential treatment? Why did you let me live?!"
-"What makes you say that?"
-"Kallus said you normally send people like me in some kind of academy. I know I'm a special case, but you could still have thrown me there... or eliminated me, and don't even begin with the unique ability! I'm sure it's not worth all the trouble I give you!"
The Inquisitor joined his hands behind his back, turning so his side was facing the boy. -"I believe... you deserve at least the truth." At first, gaining only a raised brow from the kid, the Inquisitor still continued. "I, too, am from Lothal."
Ezra was suddenly intrigued, listening to every word with all his attention.
-"You see, on Lothal, there is a place that was hidden by the Jedi." He turned his head to look at the boy. "A Temple." Then, he walked to the bed and sat on it. "I was one of the Temple Guard. It was my home for many years and I devoted myself to protect this place."
-"You? But, what happened? How did you..." Asked Ezra, troubled by the revelation.
-"A Sith discovered the localisation of the hidden Temple and menaced to tore the place apart... until I made a deal with him." The Pau'an locked his golden iris inside the sapphire of Ezra. "He offered me to leave the Temple untouched and unknown if I accepted to follow him and become his Apprentice."
Ezra couldn't hold the stare and lowered his gaze, the Inquisitor's story running in his thoughts at the speed of light.
-"As you see," Continued the Pau'an. "I never threatened you on that Rebel's ship. I gave you the same opportunity that was offered to me when I was younger."
-"Why?" The boy was having a hard time to process all those new information.
-"I suppose... because I felt some kind of kinship from you. Some kind of... nostalgia. Knowing you were from the planet that once meant everything to me, long ago..." He raised from the bed and turned away to walk toward the exit.
Ezra felt a strange twinge in his heart, reminiscing his home planet, how he was snatched away by the Inquisitor, then remembering the offer he had made him in the Ghost... And, ultimately, he thought again about how Kanan had reacted when the blue stream had been pulled and couldn't refrain one last question.
-"How did you know there was something happening to your chain?"
The Pau'an stopped just before the doorframe. "Although Force user are trained to resist pain, it doesn't mean we can't feel it. And, feeling our bond being attacked, it hurted like nothing I ever felt before."
The Grand Inquisitor exited Ezra's room, shutting the door behind him, but the kid saw Kallus meeting the Pau'an in the corridor just before the door had completely closed. Curious, he managed to get on his feet, walking clumsily, and leaned his ear to eavesdrop.
-"Why did you stay behind?" Snapped the Imperial Agent! "If you had come, we would have caught those darn Rebels!"
But the Inquisitor replied with his composed tone, showing he was perfectly hidding any troubling emotion that could have still lingered in him. -"If I had gone with you, I would have lost my Apprentice."
-"Losing one child to catch many Rebels would have been a more than fair trade!"
The voice of the Grand Inquisitor became menacing. -"I believe I am the only one who can decide what I should prioritize, Agent. You can dismiss, now!" If possible, his voice became even more threatening, growling. "And don't trouble my Apprentice anymore."
Ezra leaned his back on the door, suddenly remembering where he had seen those same angry eyes.
When he was very young, he dodged a speedster at the very last second and his Father saw it. Fearing he had lost his only child, he ran to the lying body of Ezra and realized he had survived and was still breathing. He had kept saying to his child, again and again, to watch both sides of the road and, this day, he had been so very angry that he grabbed Ezra's arm without restrain, dragged him back home and his voice had made the little home's walls tremble!
Later, his Mother comforted him while he was crying, trying to explain to him that his Father loved him so very much and it was because of his love for him that he had been so furious. At the time, little Ezra hadn't understood...
And now, those very same eyes, he just saw them on the Inquisitor! He let himself slide to the floor, his mind unfocused as he was thinking 'Was he furious because he was afraid to lose me?"
Deep inside him, within his chest, Ezra felt something strange. It gave him the same feeling as eating a salty-sweet treat... In his Inner-self, crawling through the yellow link's hole, a golden stream rejoined his heart, nesting itself just beside Kanan's blue bond...