Imperial Academy: A Star Wars Rebels Story;
Chapter V:
Characters: Sabine Wren, Ezra Bridger, Kannan Jarrus, Hera Syndulla, C1-10P (Chopper), Garazeb 'Zeb' Orrellios, Agent Alexander Kallus, The Inquisitor, Gar Saxon
Ships: Sabezra, Hints of Kanera, for now
Description:
Sabine Wren is the top cadet in the Imperial Academy on Mandalore, as such she is the one selected to tutor its newest pupil, Ezra Bridger. Ezra is a rebel spy, working for Phoenix Squadron; his objective was simple, find The Duchess and eliminate it. So what happens when the pair become entangled in the web of Rebel plots and Imperial machinations?
Disclaimer:
I do not own Star Wars. I am but a humble fan, may Disney, who may soon be the entertainment overlords please spare me their wrath and lawsuits, I wouldn't have much to give them anyway.
Exercise Room Delta-1, Imperial Academy
Ezra stared down Ketsu. He kept her blaster pointed at the floor with one hand while the other held her up against the wall. If he'd had to do this while physically holding her he'd have lost already. Thank the Force. The young Mandalorian strained against the push, but that wasn't exactly right. It was like her body was magnetized to the wall of the training room. There was nothing to fight against if she just stayed there, so she stopped struggling.
"So you have an actual plan here? Or are you just going to hold me here?" Ketsu smirked at the boy, he was young and stupid. He'd just made himself public enemy number one. Ezra gave off a smirk, one that said he didn't care at all. Slowly he drew a cylindrical object from the back of his belt where his thermal imploder should have been. A flare of blue light erupted from one end. The door behind slid closed with a flick of his wrist. "You use that on me and you'll be signing your own death warrant."
"Or maybe if you use it on me it'll be your death warrant." Ezra carefully pulled the weapon close to his body and gently burned his arm. He screamed and tossed the weapon at her. Ketsu caught on instinct and her magenta eyes blew wide open. She opened her mouth to say something, anything, as Ezra drew his sidearm and fired. The bolts smashed against Ketsu's armour and threw her weight off balance. The doors hissed and in came two armed Training Instructors. Ketsu glared at Ezra, but she was stuck. She had the lightsaber, she'd shot Sabine first, and now she'd been seen by Instructors. Saxon would have his Jedi and Ezra would be free and clear.
"FREEZE! Jetti!" One of the instructors reached back and pulled out cuffs. Ketsu brought her pistol to bear and fired off three rounds. A click of her teeth and her jetpack roared. She skidded across the exercise room floor as both the instructors returned fire and missed her by a long shot. She ducked low as one of them readjusted her aim and sent another burst through her jetpack and launched herself out the door. Both the instructors spun on their heels and chased after. The closer of the two stayed long enough to order Ezra to wait for medical treatment.
Ketsu hissed as flew through the halls, she bobbed and weaved around the students and instructors before she reached the main door and exploded out of it at full speed. She twisted and looked back at the academy and slid the lightsaber onto her belt and pressed a button on her gauntlet. The large powered turrets across campus began whine and their barrels lowered. She clicked her teeth again and pushed all the power she could into her jetpack. Ezra had just ruined everything. She'd have to pay it back to him, and Sabine.
Infirmary, Imperial Academy
Sabine nearly launched herself off the bed as she jolted into consciousness. Her eyes went wide and her breath came in short gasps. Sweat beaded across her body as pain burned through her abdomen. A hand caught her shoulder. Her head spun to face this new addition as her free hand curled into a white knuckled fist. Sabine stopped just short of striking, next to her was Viceroy Saxon. His face was grim, but it fell into concern as he looked towards her.
"You did better than expected Sabine. Sadly Cadet Onyo escaped. The Instructors are saying she had a lightsaber. Did you see it?" Sabine groaned and pressed a hand to her flaming side.
"No, she shot me, I… I don't remember much after that. She tried to get me to join her in running away. I refused and tried to stop her. That's when she shot me." Viceroy Saxon's lips twisted. This wasn't going to turn out the way he wanted.
"You're certain you don't have anything you remember that you can tell me?"
"Why not check the holocam logs?" Sabine forced her back to straighten despite the pain that filled her.
"Ketsu turned them off before she entered. Cadet Bridger told me that she drew a lightsaber, cut him, and fled after the Instructors entered and engaged her. I don't like it. We knew that there was a chance Bridger was Force Sensitive, but if there was a lightsaber involved that would complicate things. We don't have anything to hold against him, nothing that can disprove or confirm his story other than Cadet Onyo's actual success in fleeing this academy." Saxon curled one hand into the other. "We've lost one cadet over this, I need you to succeed Cadet Wren. If Bridger is Force Sensitive, we need him to go to The Inquisitorious and fast. We can't risk his time being here creating anymore disarray than it already has. Do you understand?"
"Yes, Viceroy." Saxon nodded and stood from her bedside.
"Good I knew I could count on you Cadet Wren." He stalked quickly from the room.
The blaster round had done little to no internal damage, but it had burned a good portion of her skin and it would take a few Bacta courses to correct that. The main reason Sabine was still stuck in the infirmary was because they wanted to make sure she didn't break open the cauterisation during classes which could cause more severe injury.
Throughout the whole process Ezra only showed up once or twice to make sure she was okay, he still needed a tutor after all. Otherwise though he avoided her. He made it a point not to be around her. Even when she tried to get his attention for any reason Ezra would let himself be dragged off by the other classmates.
In fact the other cadets had become enamoured with both Ezra and Sabine for standing up against Ketsu. The way the story was being told among them all was that Ketsu had been hiding her Force Sensitivity, or at least the Lightsaber, for a great period of time. Sabine and Ezra had found out and confronted the Mandalorian before she could do anything to strike back against the Empire or Mandalore. So now Sabine found herself no longer able to get her peace and quiet as easily. People were still terrified of her glare, but very few seemed to see it until it was almost too late.
Sabine still hadn't remembered much. That was part of why she kept seeking Ezra out. She wanted to learn what exactly had happened. She knew The Empire, they wouldn't tell the whole story.
Dormitory 5, Imperial Academy
Sabine stalked in, still coated in her armour, scorch marks decorated the white plates and she tore her helmet off in a fashion akin to a raging Zabrak. The rest of the room was empty save for Ezra. He'd been removed from the combat exercise for failing a test earlier in the week, namely because he'd blown off Sabine's tutoring sessions. Which meant she'd been forced to go it alone against a good portion of their class during the exercise.
"BRIDGER!" She stomped her way over to the blue haired cadet. He turned and raised an eyebrow at her.
"Cadet Wren?" His bright blue eyes sparkled with happiness.
"Because of you I had to run a combat exercise alone! Where were you?" Ezra smiled at her.
"I was required to attend the infirmary to double check on my injuries. Then one of the Training Officers remanded me to assist in a Strategy class. Sorry I couldn't make the tutoring session." Sabine glared down at him with his shit eating grin.
"Bridger I promise I'll make your life a living hell. You better explain why and when you're missing tutoring sessions. Because if I have to go through another exercise like that because of you; you won't have to worry about making it in the Empire." Ezra nodded. Sabine shifted around and went to her bunk. She tore off her carbon scored armour and set upon it with a cleaning rag. "What injuries?"
"Huh?" Ezra looked up from his datapad. Sabine met his eyes.
"What injuries?" Ezra's adamsapple bobbed.
"The lightsaber burn. They wanted to double check it." Sabine nodded and started scrubbing armour. Whatever was off about Ezra was getting more suspicious.
"Hey, Ketsu said to me once that you had some special project you were working on before I came around. What was it?" Sabine's hand went still. Her amber eyes just barely looked over the edge of the shoulder plate in her hands. Ezra didn't seem anymore interested than his normal random questions. But it caught her off guard, and it made her question what had happened after she was shot.
"It was nothing important, just a minor Imperial Weapons Project. Why the interest?" Her eyes didn't leave him as he scrolled through his datapad.
"I'm wondering about an idea that I had. Mandalorian iron is basically one of the most impervious substances in the galaxy, right?" Sabine narrowed her gaze on him.
"I don't think I like where this is going."
"Well back during The Clone Wars, during The Second Battle of Geonosis, The Separatists built a super-tank that was supposedly impervious to almost any type of enemy fire. I was wondering if we could outfit small AT-ST walkers with special Beskar plating in key areas to increase their survivability against more standard Rebel groups?" Sabine's eyes widened. It would work, but her weapon would render such an upgrade useless… her weapon would nullify her own armour.
"N… Not a bad idea Ezra, I'll pass it up to The Viceroy for you." Sabine didn't realise her slip. Ezra nodded.
"Thanks Wren."
A few hours later Sabine was getting ready to catch some sleep on her rack. A memory made itself clear in her head. The scene had Ketsu being thrown away from her and being pinned to the wall, unable to move. There was no physical object, it was like the air itself held her against her will. Then her vision panned up in the odd vision, and she caught sight of Ezra with his hand outstretched.
A/N:
Everything just kicked up a gear. Sabine will have some thinking to do. Thanks to everyone who has had patience with this work. A lot of stuff has been changing in my personal life lately and writing isn't always the first thing I go to when I want to escape. I hope you are still with me and I hope you enjoyed this chapter. See you next time!
-Six Out!
P.S.
I know it isn't a long note, but if you check out me most recently posted story in the She-Ra fandom (Turning Darkness to Light) you can find the complete note there.
Update List
- Imperial Academy (You Are Here)
- Time Itself [Estimated 7/5]
- Power & Tech [Unknown]
- Strong as The Steel We Carry (Turning Darkness to Light) [Estimated 8/5]