"I used to be out for myself and alone, but that's not who I am anymore."
"You're on a different path now."
"And I have you guys."
Ezra smiled as his family embraced him with their care as they gathered in the kitchen for a meeting. Everyone was worried that he wouldn't be prepared for another mission, however, he surprised them with a drastic change in his attitude. He was still obsessed with the idea of being separated, but he was more confident than before.
"So, you want to go on this mission?" Kanan asked.
"Of course!" Ezra jubilantly responded.
"Well, we'll have to do it tomorrow! This shipment won't be easy to catch and that's the day when it'll be leaving, so if we fail, we can hopefully track it and see where it goes."
"That doesn't sound so bad. Is this just one of our normal missions?"
"Well, in this mission, we all have to split up."
"Why?"
"There are millions of tunnels and pathways in this Mining Institute. The dock is in the center of the building. If we go down them in a group, then we'll never be able to find the right one without being caught. The only option is for us to split up and have Hera stay in The Ghost or Phantom until we find the shipment," Sabine replied.
"And if one of us gets lost?"
"We'll be in touch with our comms. Okay?"
"Okay...I'm ready."
After discussing the plan once more, the Specters confirmed and Hera told Ahsoka about their plans. Although, Ahsoka didn't like the mission, she allowed them to execute it. Kanan continuously kept looking at Ezra to check for any signs of hesitance. He knew Ezra was still a little afraid, but not as much as before. His padawan's confidence and bravery began to show once again.
I guess I'm really going to be doing this mission..., Ezra thought as he returned to his room with Zeb, No turning back now...
****
"They are coming, Fifth Brother."
"Yes, my lord."
"Let's get ready," the Seventh Sister said.
"Prepare the troops!" the Fifth Brother shouted to a commander.
Then the Seventh Sister, approached the hologram of her controller.
"What are the following steps after we complete this mission, my lord?" she politely inquired.
"This is not my test, Seventh Sister. This is your final mission with the Fifth Brother to complete your...'training'. You all create the next steps, not me."
"Of course, my lord."
He ended the call and she faced the Fifth Brother.
"So, what should we do?" he asked her.
"Hm...," she thought and took a few unconscious steps away from him. "We'll use the boy as bait. Whatever is left of the rebels, we will draw them in. They know he's special, and they would do anything to get him back."
"I will take on the Lasat...devilish creatures..."
"You do that. Fight your everlasting rivalry with the Lasat kind. But if she comes, let me take her on. I will take him. You will distract them."
The Fifth Brother nodded and the Seventh Sister turned her head to her friend, a multi-purpose droid.
"Do you have the Force-inhibiting serum?" she whispered.
It nodded and emitted a few mechanical noises.
"Are the others prepared?"
It nodded again and made more noises.
"Good..."
****
He could feel the gravity drastically shift between his feet as Hera flew The Phantom out of The Ghost. He saw Ahsoka's reluctant expression and goodbye from the base's window as they began to enter hyperspace. Suddenly, a hand touched his shoulder and he looked up.
"You ready?" Kanan simply asked.
"You know it," Ezra confidently replied.
"Good. Just remember, keep your guard up and take note of your location."
"Will do."
"Just contact me if you have any problems."
"I will, Kanan! Chill! And you thought I was having problems!"
Kanan softly sighed. The kid's ignorance was returning with his bravery and confidence. Unfortunately, his padawan's confidence can easily be misunderstood as boasting and boasting can kill someone. It's a suicidal trait.
The Phantom exited hyperspace and began to descend to Lothal. Ezra could feel his heart palpitating and coldness reveal itself to him. He shivered as they went closer to his home planet.
"Are you okay?" Kanan inquired, who was not experiencing chills.
"I'm getting really cold."
"Really? I'm not that cold."
Kanan reached down and felt Ezra's forehead but quickly withdrew. He was freezing, almost to a deathly point. He immediately began to worry for Ezra's safety. He almost wanted to cancel the mission, but it was too late.
"Approaching the mines!" Hera alerted everyone as she began to make the final descent.
Sabine and Zeb lined up at the exit of The Phantom and Hera began to lower the back.
"We'll be back soon!" Sabine said.
"Stay connected!" Hera reminded everyone.
"We will!"
And then she jumped onto the roof of the building. Followed by Zeb and Ezra. Kanan waited a moment and Hera noticed.
"Is there something wrong?" Hera asked.
"No...," Kanan lied. "Nothing..."
Hera gave him a suspicious look as he leaped off The Phantom. She didn't wait too long before taking off again because TIEs immediately began to target her. So as the four other Specters invaded the ground, she would have to defend the air. Chopper remained at the rebel base to update Ahsoka on the mission.
"Come on, let's go!" Kanan shouted as he made an entrance into the building from the roof.
The four Specters jumped in and landed in a single hallway with two never-ending sides.
"Sabine, Zeb, you go left. Ezra and I will go right," Kanan commanded. "Remember to split up once you reach a fork or something."
They all nodded and began to swiftly and silently race in opposite directions. Just like in any horror movie, splitting up was detrimental to the victims. Another hundred yards of running, and Kanan and Ezra ran into their first split path. One appeared brand new, while the other was rusty, oxidized, and abandoned.
"Which one do you want to go in?" Ezra asked.
"You go in the older one!" Kanan said and raced off.
Ezra was stunned that his master had just taken off, but he disregarded it and ran into the other hallway. As he ran around he noticed that it opened up into a larger rectangular room with crates scattered everywhere, pipes lying diagonally across a section of the room and rusty grayed floors. There were a few vent shafts, but toward the floor. Those would make a great escape route..., Ezra thought.
****
Kanan ran through the hallways as quietly as he could and then saw something around the corner. He immediately stopped. He put his hand on his blaster and leaned over around the corner. What a relief!, Kanan thought and relaxed, It's just Zeb. Suddenly, a spark from Zeb's bo-rifle was swung in front of Kanan and he saw Zeb's alert look.
"Zeb! It's just me!" Kanan exclaimed.
"Oh...," Zeb pulled back his weapon, laughed, and scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. "Sorry!"
"Did you and Sabine split at two paths? Was one of them old and one new?"
"Yeah, we did as a matter of fact."
"Strange...do you think they set this up?"
"Maybe...but I was just looking around over here"--Zeb led Kanan over to an area hanging over the dock--"and I saw those crates. Those must be where the kyber crystals are, right?"
"Of course!"
Suddenly, the two doors on each side of the room slammed shut and they realized they were trapped. Kanan ignited his lightsaber and Zeb held up his bo-rifle. Out of nowhere, the floor collapsed beneath them and they ended up in a large dark black room outside the boarding dock. A large, shark-like man came out wearing tattered and scratched black armor. Kanan stared into the man's cloudy translucent eyes and saw his dagger-like teeth. The red lightsaber turned on and Kanan and Zeb stood up ready to fight. The red light from their opponent's weapon reflected onto ten stormtrooper's masks and their ready weapons.
"Welcome to your end...rebels," the Fifth Brother grimly said in a deep voice as he positioned himself to spar with the Jedi.
****
Suddenly, a loud noise shook him and he turned around. He began to slowly walk around the premises. He noticed two other hallways. One led into darkness and the other extended to a shut door. He curiously wandered into the hallway with the door and saw something there with three bright red dots. Lights.
"What is that?" he murmured to himself as he stood frozen. "A bounty hunter?"
"Guess again," a mechanical monotonous voice sounded and a red lightsaber ignited.
Ezra's heart began to beat even faster and he took a few hesitant steps back. His hand fell down to his side and felt his lightsaber. As the person began to run toward him he ignited his lightsaber and they began to spar. He was caught off-guard. This was unexpected. And the droids with the singular red eyes were just taunting and intimidating him. He jumped onto a crate to gain some distance from the black-dressed person, who he now determined was a woman from her acrobatic and graceful moves of death. Abruptly, she jumped in front of him with her spinning Sith lightsaber and kicked him off onto the floor. Then a droid snatched onto his right shoulder and collarbone. He began to try and pull it off, but was unsuccessful. Then she pounced on him.
"You and I are going to have a little talk...," she said through her mechanically altered voice.
Ezra's fear spiked as he nervously looked between her and the droid. Suddenly, a blast was shot and the woman on top of Ezra fell off of him. She looked up and saw the origin of the blast: Sabine. The droids duplicated into ten little ones and looked at the woman for command.
"Get her!"
Sabine saw the wave of small droids running toward her. There were so many, and she only had two pistols. One grabbed onto her wrist and began to shock her. Ezra was about to get up and help her, but the woman in the sleek black armor drew him back in and they fought. After each shot Sabine took, the droid attached to her wrist gave her a nasty shock. She pointed her blaster at it and it emitted a shock so intricate and powerful that it made her drop her blaster. The antagonist noticed and smirked under her mask.
"Take her away!"
Five of the droids scrambled onto Sabine and grabbed her. One droid sneakily shocked her comm. with so much voltage, it broke and she was left isolated from the other Specters. Sabine struggled to get out of their grasp, but failed as she was being dragged into the dark hallway Ezra never took time to discover. But he didn't have time now either. The woman was pressing against his lightsaber and him against a wall. But then, he remembered the air shaft vents and quickly devised a plan to escape this woman's wrath. He swung up and then focused on his powers and blew her away a few yards. Then he got to his knees, used his lightsaber and sliced open the vent, and began to crawl inside.
"Droids, get him!" the woman ordered as she sat up.
The remaining five robots raced over to Ezra and one--the main droid--attached itself to Ezra's left calf and began to pull him out. Ezra thought and tried to grab ahold of anything that he could to hinder the droid's power. But the droid on his shoulder electrocuted him and the other droids acted like stormtroopers escorting a prisoner behind him.
"Give it to him!" the woman commanded.
Then the droid on his shoulder crawled down to his arm and injected him with the serum. Ezra instantly began to feel something stunting his mind and body as numbness took over. He was turned over and saw his enemy staring down at him as his vision grew blurry. Within seconds, he fell unconscious and the droids waited for the main droid to do its final job. It approached Ezra's neck and injected him with another fluid. The woman smiled.
"Take him to my office and make sure he doesn't wake up," she sternly said.
The droids nodded and began to take Ezra away.
"Now, time to finish up the last of these rebel scum..."