245Thank you all for the reviews last chapter! I wasn't sure how the story would go down but now...I have bits of other chapters done and will be getting them done in tangent with all the other stories (why do I do this to myself?). I forgot to mention in the last chapter: I don't own any of this, I'm only having fun playing around with the characters and the favourite what if senerios.
"Let go!" Ezra struggled as Zeb refused to let go of her arm, dragging her from the gun torrent to the cockpit and saw that a twi'lek was manning the ship. "Take me back to Lothal." She demanded. 'Or else Vizago will have my hide.' she thought miserably.
"Calm down, that's exactly what we're doing." The pilot said. Ezra could help but blurt out. "But those Imperial fighters behind us!"
"The Ghost can scramble its signature. They won't recognize us when we return." Ezra let out a breath of relief. She tipped her nose into the air. "Good. Then you can drop me and those blasters off at Capital City." 'And hope that these will pacify Vizago or else I'm dead.'
"They're not your blasters." Sabine said coming in.
"So you do talked." Ezra snarked. She wasn't in a 'play nice' mood right now.
"And we're not going back to Capital City."
"What?" Ezra said in outrage.
"The job's not done." Ezra wanted to throw a tantrum. Instead, she just let it simmer.
She heard the man call the pilot Hera and Sabine call the man Kanan. 'At least I have names,' she thought as she stormed out and went back down to the cargo hold and climbed back onto a crate and drew her legs up, dropping her head on her knees. Taking deep breaths, Ezra sorted out her chaotic emotions and closed her eyes to calm down. Having volatile emotions was never a good thing and Ezra's emotions were never stable after her parents left her. A part of her hates her parents for leaving her while a smaller part was cheering them on for going against the Empire, but her more cynical side usually squishes that pretty fast. She sat there for a small while until everyone came down when the ship landed. When the ramp lowered, Ezra could only see fields until she looked down and saw a small village in the middle of nowhere. Noticing that Kanan and Hera were going in a different direction, Ezra couldn't help but point it out.
"If I told you I'd have to kill you. I just might anyway."
"Grab a crate and pull your weight." Sabine snapped as Ezra watched as the two older adults left with her blaster crate. Ezra grabbed a crate in silence and followed Zeb and Sabine down to the village. Ezra could see and feel in everyone's expressions that they feel no hope. Only acceptance and weariness.
"What is this place?" Ezra asked.
"Locals call it Tarkintown."
"After Grand Moff Tarkin. Governor of the Outer Rim. He kicked all these folks off their land when the Empire wanted it." Sabine finished.
"Anyone who tried to stop him got arrested for treason." Zeb said. Ezra grimaced, all too familiar with that sentencing. "Who wants some free grub?" Zeb called out. Everyone crowded the three crates.
Ezra couldn't help but think, 'I grabbed the wrong crate.' She was startled when a rodarian put a hand on her shoulder.
"Thank you, thank you."
"I didn't do anything though." She muttered in confusion. Looking over, she could see that Zeb and Sabine have the food under control so she went to explore. Not believing that these people couldn't work this land (she's seen the fields so growing food can be an option), she walked to the edge and went into her pocket and grabbed a couple of precious seeds. She couldn't do anything with them herself but she can get a very good price when she does sell them. Not noticing the crowd around her, Ezra worked on her small project for a while before getting up and looked satisfied. It was then she noticed the small crowd. "What were you doing?" Ezra grinned, happy to share the information she got from a pilot. "Have you ever heard of Usa'lairdat?"
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Kanan and Hera were staring at Vizago to give up the intel on the Wookies. "And how do we know you're not lying?" Kanan asked, crossing his arms. Vizago shrugged. "Business is business. It's no good to get you killed no is it?" Hera and Kanan looked at each other before they walked away.
"You also wouldn't happen to know where one of my girls went would you?" Vizago called to them. Kanan gave Vizago a dirty look at that.
"No, we don't."
"Shame cause she was one of my best dancers." Hera and Kanan quickly left after that.
"Whoever it is I hope she's alright." Hera said. It's not easy breaking away from that type of life. Kanan just shrugged.
"It's not our problem though. What we need to concentrate on is freeing those Wookies."
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Ezra went back to the ship and sat on a small container out in the field staring out into Tarkintown. She couldn't help but wonder who these people were. Sure they stole stuff but they also gave back to others. She couldn't help but feel mad because these people have a means of making a living out of the land while Lothrats like herself and other children aren't so lucky and are usually ignored, unless they're getting blamed for something or just brushed off. Standing in agitation, Ezra felt the voiceless voice again coming from the ship. Turning her head, it seemed to have gotten stronger. Going up the ramp, she followed the 'voice' until she came to a locked door. 'Like that'll stop me,' she thought, taking off her bag and rummaging through it for her lock picker. She froze when she heard whistling and whipped her head around and saw an orange blur. Shaking her head, she turned her attention back on the lock and grinned when it opened.
Going inside, she couldn't help but notice how bare the room is, almost like its not lived in. She sat down on the bed, frowning. "Ok, I'm here." Her fingertips felt a small bump. "Hello, what do we have here?" She got off the bed and pried the small compartment open and saw two items.
One was a large cube that fit in her hand and she put under her jumpsuit and what looked like… "a lightsaber," Ezra breathed. She's heard stories about them from her father but she's never seen one. She couldn't help but feel a pull towards it and decided to activate it. A long blue blade erupted from the sheath and she had a look of awe on her face, lighting up her blue eyes in childlike wonder she hasn't had since she was a child. Giving it a few waves, she froze when the door opened.
"Careful." She turned around slowly. Kanan was standing in the doorway with a cold expression on his face. "Put that down before you cut your arm off."
"I know you won't believe me but...it felt like...it was calling me." Ezra explained lamely. Kanan's face didn't twitch, making Ezra want to squirm like she was about to be scolded by her father.
"You're right, I don't believe you. Now hand me the lightsaber." Deciding to play dumb, her eyes went wide as she exclaimed, "lightsaber, isn't that the weapon of a jedi?" She put emphasis on jedi to see if she could get any reaction from him. "Give it to me, and get out." He said coldly. She deactivated the lightsaber and handed it back to him, who took the lightsaber and disassembled it and put the two pieces on separate hooks on him belt. As soon as Ezra was around the corner, she started wandering around and came across Sabine drinking caf.
"Not too good at following directions are you?" Ezra just looked at her.
"Not really." It all depended on who gave them. "You?" Sabine snorted quietly.
"Never been my specialty." Ezra was quiet for a few minutes. Swallowing her pride, she said, "sorry for snapping at you. Hasn't been the best of days."
"I bet."
"Who are you anyway?" The question has been bothering her for a while. "I mean, you're not thieves exactly."
"We're not exactly anything." Sabine replied. "We're a crew, and in some ways, a family." At family, Ezra turned away, feeling the familiar feeling of hollowness in her chest.
Sabine noticed her look and put the pieces together. "What happened to yours?" Ezra asked.
"The Empire." Sabine bit out with venom. "What about yours?" Ezra didn't get to answer when Zeb came in with Chopper.
"Kanan wants us in the common room. If he tries anything, sound the alarm. Or shoot him." Chopper argued back but was shushed by Zeb who gave Ezra a look. Sabine left with Zeb. Sabine stopped at the door.
"My name's Sabine." Ezra had to bite her tongue to say that she already knew that. When the door closed, Chopper rammed into her.
"What's your problem?" She asked. Taking off her hat, she quickly fixed her hair so her braid wrapped around her head and put it back on. Chopper talked again. Ezra didn't know very much binary but she could tell that Chopper was surprised. "Say anything and I'll tear you apart before anyone realizes it," she hissed. Wondering what was going on (and ignoring Chopper's squawks of outrage), Ezra looked around the room and smirked when she found the air vents. "Perfect." Using her screwdriver, she unscrewed the vent and climbed in, thankful for her small frame. Climbing through the vent quietly, she stopped where she could hear the voices.
"-ookies were soldiers for the old Republic."
"I owe those hairy beast. They saved some of my people." Zeb said.
"Mine too."
"If we're going to save them we've got a tight window." Were they talking about wookies? Ezra struggled to remember if her father made any mention of them but came up blank.
"-cept this ship, we'll never find them. Now I have a plan on how to get on board but-" Kanan stopped talking. He looked up and with a sigh, he looked at Hera slightly apologetically and pulled the panel down, dropping the dark haired teenager onto the floor.
"Um...hi?" She said awkwardly while trying to get the dust off her jumpsuit. Zeb grabbed her ankle before she could flee.
"I ordered Chopper to keep an eye on you!" Chopper came into the room, waving his robotic appendages around while defending himself and was outraged. Ezra found herself backing up when she found Zeb standing on top of her. "Can we please get rid of him?" He demanded through clenched teeth.
"No we can't." Ezra gave Sabine a grateful look. "He knows too much." Grateful look gone with it replaced with a glare instead.
"We don't have time to take him back anyway." Hera helped Ezra up and was surprised on how small the boy's hands were. Walking Ezra away Hera said, "I'll keep an eye on him." Ezra just sighed in defeat and climbed into the cockpit with Hera right behind her. She sat down in the co-pilot chair and was very uncomfortable and was fidgeting in it. When Hera sat down, she just had to say what's been bothering her.
"This whole thing is crazy. I'm not against sticking it to the Empire (She knows she's done it tons of times), but I wouldn't stick my neck out this far for anyone. Who does that?" She learned that the hard way when she was ten and her trust became almost non-existent, except for one person.
"We do." Hera replied. Ezra was stumped as to why they would. What's the point? They came out of hyperspace and a transport ship with some TIEs attached to it was the first thing that drew Ezra's eye. "Imperial transport ship 651, this is Starbird." Ezra was amazed at how cold Hera's voice went.
"We copy. What's your business?"
"Bounty. We captured an additional wookie prisoner and have orders to place it with you." Hera replied. Ezra stayed quiet and watched as Hera worked. She noticed that Hera referred to the wookie as an it and not as if it was a living being.
"We have no such orders." Two TIEs were released and Ezra couldn't help but feel nervous.
"That's fine." Ezra could hear the shrug in Hera's voice. "We've already been paid. By Governor Tarkin. If you don't want the oversize mona then fine. I'll jetason here and let you explain to your superiors why the Empire has one less slave." There was silence as the TIEs kept following the Ghost. Ezra was getting antsy when, "permission to dock. Bay one." Hera had a grin on her face and Ezra was just relieved that she wasn't going to be blown up. "Now all we have to do is wait." Ezra sighed and leaned in her seat as Kanan's voice come over the comm.
"Ok, you no the plan. No troopers and security's sof-" Static filled the air.
"Spectre one come in. Spectre four, spectre five." No answer. "Comms down." She said in frustration. "No, not down…jammed." Ezra had a bad feeling about all of this as the hair on the back of her neck rose.
"Something's coming," Ezra whispered. Her eyes darted around and a star destroyer came out of hyperspace. Her eyes widened at the implication. "This whole thing was a set up." Ezra said in realization.
"It's beginning to look that way," Hera muttered as she tried to raised the rest of the crew on their comms. A feeling came over her that she hasn't felt since…her eyes widened and her knuckles went white.
"You need to board and warn them Ezra." Ezra swirved in her seat. "Me? Why not you?" She demanded.
"Because I'm needed here to be ready to take off or none of us stands a chance." 'We don't stand a chance now,' Ezra thought as the ship got closer.
"No. Why would I risk my life for a bunch of strangers?" Ezra's mind took her back to the one and only promise she's made since being on the streets and the innocent face that filled her mind. She cut Hera off harshly. "I'm not doing it for you or anyone here, or for the sake of being good." She cursed the fact she made the promise years ago.
"Then why are you doing it?" Hera called to her. Ezra stopped.
"A promise I made."
0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Ezra took off running down the halls, trying to find Kanan and the others. She followed her feet that seemed to know where she needs to go. She could hear Zeb.
"It's a trap!" She called. "We need to get out of here!" Her eyes darted around, looking for stormtroopers. Kanan and Zeb were startled when they heard Ezra's voice with Kanan pointing his blaster at her.
"Karablast!" Zeb swore. "Now the kid is blowing another op!"
"I'm not blowing it! Hera sent me. There's a star destroyer here too." The sliding doors opened revealing stormtroopers.
"Run!" She said while grabbing her small blaster and firing it at the troops. "We need to warn Sabine and Chopper!" She actually liked Chopper. He isn't just a droid, but also has a bit of attitude which makes him seem more alive.
"They'll follow the plan." Kanan said. Ezra scoffs in her head. 'The plan is already blown.' She thought.
"Because the plan has already gone great so far." She snapped back. They kept running until the feeling of weightlessness took hold, making Ezra freeze in fear and seeing troopers in their way. She tried making her way by following Kanan who was blasting the troops when Zeb pushed her behind.
Kallus looked up and froze.
"You." Ezra nearly squeaked in fear but grabbed Zeb's foot and hung on when he tried to kick her off. She climbed up onto him and let him do the work since she has no idea how to work without gravity. Zeb finally pushed her off.
"Doing ok kid?" Ezra stared.
"Are you kidding me?" What kind of question is that? The gravity came back on and she dropped. Quickly getting up, she followed Kanan who was talking with Sabine with Chopper by her feet. She followed Kanan when Zeb pushed her backwards.
"You bloody-" the rest of her curse was cut off when she got grabbed from behind. Struggling against the choke hold which was getting tighter, she clawed at the arm to give her breathing air as spots started appearing in her vision.
"Give me a stun gun." Kallus said as Ezra was getting harder to hold. One of the troops gave it to him and was about to shoot when Zeb said, "You did great kid."
Zeb saw the betrayal in her eyes before she got shot and dropped to the floor when he shut the door and slid to the floor.