Star Wars Rebels: When Hope Is Lost

Chapter 9: A Month Later-The Hunted

Ezra ducked into an alleyway and instinctively reached for his lightsaber. He cursed quietly under his breath as his hand met the empty spot on his belt. It had been a month already. He shouldn't keep reaching for a weapon that was no longer there. But a month couldn't outlast almost two years of memories. He found himself wishing that he had kept his lightsaber. It would have come in handy in the situation he was now in.

Turns out that Kanan hadn't killed the Seventh Sister back at the old Republic medical station. How he knew? He had seen her and the Fifth Brother in the Klothal market he was in now, only a few seconds ago. Try as he might, he still hadn't been able to find a way off Lothal. Then he might have been able to find peace and tranquility to think about what to do with his life now. But no. The Force kept finding new ways to keep him here on this stinking planet that held too many memories. Memories of his parents. Memories of his crew. Overall, memories of family.

Ezra shook himself and reached for his slingshot instead. Even though he wasn't able to fight the Inquisitors with lightsabers, if necessary, at least he still had the Force and his trusty slingshot. He had tried to use the Force as little as possible over the past month as to not attract attention or let the Force-sensitives in the Empire's ranks sense him, but apparently that hadn't worked. Dammit. He shouldn't have used the Force on a vendor to give him free food. He felt bad about it, but hadn't eaten in three days. Well, they had sensed him and come back to Lothal, bringing about five squadrons of stormtroopers with them. Nothing he could do about it now except try to avoid them–and get off this freaking planet.

Peering around the corner, he saw the Sith lackeys questioning the human vendor he had stolen from a few days earlier.

"What do you mean, you never saw this boy?" The Seventh Sister asked angrily, holding up a datapad. Ezra gasped softly when he realized his face was on it. I'm being hunted. Why do they want ME so bad?

"I hardly saw any kids today, let alone one with eyes and hair like that," the vendor said, studying the picture.

The Fifth Brother growled. "Bridger erased his memory. This vendor is useless." His hand grasped his lightsaber hilt. The Seventh Sister's did the same thing.

Ezra gasped. They're going to kill him because of me!

But then the Inquisitors seemed to think better of it. They stalked away in the opposite direction, away from Ezra, who sighed in relief and wandered through the alleys in a desperate attempt to put distance between him and the Sith acolytes. After walking about 10 blocks, he felt it. He stopped walking.

He was not alone.

"Hands where I can see them," he heard a crisp, mechanically modified voice say from behind him. He heard the click of a blaster being charged. He slowly raised his hands above his head.

"Turn around," he was ordered. Ezra did as he was told.

He was facing two people, both about the same height as him and both pointing blasters at him. One wore a silver helmet that covered his or her whole head that bore resemblance to the Seventh Sister's mask, as well as a silver one-piece armour. He couldn't tell if it was a boy or a girl. The other didn't wear a mask, and was a boy his age, with green and brown armour like Kanan's, and brown hair with a thick streak of gold through it, and bright green eyes. He could instantly tell that they were not friends of the Empire.

"Who are you?" The boy challenged.

"Who are you?" Ezra countered.

"I asked you first," the boy growled.

"I asked you second," Ezra replied, smirking slightly.