Star Wars Rebels: Deep Dark Secrets

Chapter 5: The Deadly Mission

(Jessie pov)

When we reach our airspeeder, Ezra climbs on first. Then I go behind him, and Arianna behind me. Ezra hits the ignition but the engine sputters and stops making noise. Ezra sighs and gets off the speeder. He opens the front of it and swears. "Carabast! We're out of fuel. Too bad I dropped the one Shadow gave us." He smiles sheepishly. "I guess we'll have to get more. Plus, we need a shield generator anyway."
I climb off the speeder and give him a look. "No. Way. We are NOT going to Imperial Headquarters now! We need to get Arianna back to the Ghost."
"Imperial Headquarters? Like, where the Academy is?" Arianna asks, fear in her voice. She looks like she's seen a ghost, her skin is so pale.
I nod. "Are you okay? You look like you've seen a ghost."
She sighs. "It's time I told the truth. About why the Empire is after me."
"Yeah, about that," Ezra says. He leans against the speeder as she dismounts. "The bucketheads said 'that's her!' when they saw you. Why?"
She sighs again. "Because I used to be an Imperial Academy cadet. Before the Empire decided to test me to see if I was Force-sensitive. So I ran. Now they're after me, they want to see if I am a Force-sensitive. Just because my mother was a Force-sensitive."
"Your father?" I ask gently.
She hesitates. "He's-dead. The Empire killed him."
"Oh. I'm sorry," I say.
"Me too," Ezra says.
"I... I just... I don't know if I should go with you guys," Arianna says, looking down at her feet. "I'd be putting you in a lot of danger if the Empire knew I was there."
"Danger?" Ezra asks, chuckling. "We just faced bucketheads, and Jessie and I have faced Darth Vader and the Inquisitor! Danger is our middle name.
It's a part of our daily lives."
"Come on," I gesture to Arianna. "Let's go get that fuel. Then we'll take you back to our crew."
She hesitates, then nods. "Okay. Let's go."

(Agent Kallus pov)

The stormtrooper before me is nervous. I can tell by his stick-straight posture and his fast breathing. I look him in the black lenses of his helmet and try to gather my thoughts.
"And you're positive it was her?" I ask him. "It was the redhead we've been looking for?"
He nods his helmeted head. "Positive, sir. It was the renegade. But she had help to escape. A navy-haired boy and blonde-haired girl, about the same age as the redhead, sir."
"Jabba and his lover," I murmur. When I first met the boy, we didn't know he was a Padawan back then, he called himself  'Jabba the Hutt' to quote. I still end up referring to him as Jabba sometimes.
"You can go," I wave a hand at the trooper, who nods and leaves. I lean back in my chair and access the records the Inquisitor got me. I stare at the red hair on the screen and feel anger rise in my chest.
Why are you with them, Arianna? Why would you do this to me? Why would you run from us?