POWER STRUGGLE: JEDI: FALLEN ORDER

CHAPTER TWO: FURY

CAL RAN THROUGH THE HALLWAYS, BREATHING HARD AS HE LOOKED OVER HIS SHOULDERS FOR HIS PURSUER.

Raven was right beside him, matching his quick pace as the two of them made a sharp turn, nearly sliding down the hallway.

"C'mon," Raven urged, grabbing Cal's hand as he began to fall behind. "We've almost made it!"

At that very moment they ran smack dab into something, both falling onto their backs and sprawling out on the ground; letting out pained groans as the air was knocked out of them.

"Cal? Raven?"

Uh oh.

"Hey, JJ." Raven grunted as she sat up, sending him a nervous grin, trying to pretend that they hadn't just sprinted for their lives down the hallway.

If there was anything to know about Raven, it would be that she was a bad actress.

"What'd you do?" JJ asked flatly, and Cal could picture his eyes narrowing comically beneath his helmet. He always wondered what JJ actually looked like, even though he was always able to pick him out of a crowd.

"What? Pssh, nothing. Who says we did anything–"

"Raven." JJ interjected; not saying anything else. Just staring her down. The two of them had some kind of stare off that freaked Cal out, one that Raven lost.

"Fiiine...So, we may or may not have made Master Kenobi very mad." Raven finally admitted, twiddling with her fingers.

JJ audibly sighed before bringing his hand to his faceplate, as if face-palming.

"Why am I not surprised?" He drawled. "What'd you do?"

"CAL KESTIS! RAVEN SKYWALKER!"

Cal and Raven whirled around, JJ looking past them. Even he struggled to contain his laughter, poorly smothering a loud snort.

Kenobi's once glorious beard was patchy, as if it had fallen victim to some sort of unfortunate shaving incident.

"That." Raven said, glancing up at JJ nervously. "It was an accident?"

"The way you said that makes me think it was a bit more than an accident."

Kenobi stormed over to them like a man on a mission, steam just nearly coming out of his ears. A blaze of fury, headed straight for them.

"Run!" Cal shouted, grabbing Raven's hand and pulling her along.

"Ah, hell." JJ muttered before following suit.

Cal jerked awake at a sudden voice, its owner being the short, green pilot of the ship.

"You talk in your sleep," Greez said, standing over him. "Weirdo."

"Don't be a dick, Greez!" JJ could be heard shouting from somewhere in the Mantis, amusement accompanying her harsh words.

"But it's what I'm best at!" Greez shouted back as he left Cal's quarters, voice growing faint as he went further into the ship.

Cal sat up, cradling his own head in his hands. Too much had happened in such a short time, it was too much to process. His friend had been killed, his life had been saved by a group of some of the strangest people he'd ever met, and one of those people happened to share a name with someone significant from his past.

"Hey, Jedi." Cal jumped at the sudden voice, head flying up to see the woman in question leaning in the doorframe.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you." She said sympathetically. "Just wanted to check in. Figured it's been a pretty weird few hours, huh?"

"You can say that again..." Cal mustered a faint laugh before going silent again, brow creased in thought.

"Can I ask you something?"

"You can ask."

"How did you know about me and Bracca? You said you were the reason why you guys found me, but you never actually explained that." Cal pressed her for answers, knowing in the way that her body tensed that it was more than just some radio transmission.

"I..." she hesitated, unsure of how to phrase this in a way that wouldn't give away too much. "I was compromised."

"Compromised?" Cal blinked at her.

"Yes. By the Empire." She let out a shaky breath, refusing to drop her tough front. "They had me for a while. I escaped, and on the way out I heard chatter about Bracca and their plans to find a Jedi."

"They took you?" Cal asked, suddenly feeling guilty for being too pushy. "They must've hurt you, didn't they?"

JJ was silent, and Cal worried he had pushed too far.

"Don't worry about it, Jedi. I'm alright. Right now, all you need to focus on is Bogano."

JJ turned and left his quarters, leaving Cal alone once again with his own thoughts.

JJ went to her own quarters for a moment, taking a seat on her bed. She felt the tears sting her eyes but did not let them fall.

The Empire had tortured her, brutally, in unspeakable ways. She didn't want to think about it anymore. She just wanted to forget.

Why couldn't she just forget?

Her pain was soon replaced with a special kind of rage, a fury, one that made her breathe hard and her knuckles turn white as she clenched her fists.

The Empire was going to pay for all the people they'd hurt.