Azulia's P.O.V
"Azulia?"
Thwack
As my name was called, a cool, solid surface made a harsh contact with my forehead. I froze in pain momentarily and bit my tongue in order to stop an unpleasant word from escaping my mouth. Shoving myself out from under the communication panel, I rose, rubbing the now sore spot on my head.
"Thanks." I spat out groggily. I looked up to see Bridger, to my dismay.
"Sorry." He apologised, although he didn't sound it. I tried to shake off my grogginess and glared up at him before taking my mechanic goggles off.
It had been a week since I'd come back from Felucia. It was safe to say that me and Ezra hadn't really spoken. In fact, I'd barely seen him at all, or maybe it was more accurate to say that I'd been avoiding him. Ezra had tried to approach me three days ago, but I'd made a point of having to get back to work, despite having been exhausted that day.
"What do you want?" I went about collecting my various tools and equipment, attempting to get my bearings back from the rather rude awakening. After getting back to the command ship, I'd gotten changed into a slim fitting grey and white mechanic jumpsuit and had a pair of goggles strapped to my head from when I had been welding the previous night.
"They want you in command." That made me stop. I turned to face him.
"They want me in command?" I asked skeptically. He nodded. "Um... ok." I said awkwardly. "Thanks." He didn't leave. "Don't you have a command to report back to?" I snapped.
He was looking at the holo-tables pushed around the room. "Did you do all of these? What time did you sleep?" He asked, his eyes widening slightly.
"I dunno?" I massaged my head trying to think. "Two, three o'clock?"
There was an awkward silence as I collected my thoughts and tidied up the mess I made. I had successfully turned the once organised mechanic room into my workshop; it was now an incomprehensible mess.
Once I dragged myself into a presentable state and didn't look like I'd slept on the floor, I begrudgingly followed Ezra through the halls of the main command ship, the Hope.
It was just my luck that my favourite guard was at the door.
As I walked up to the door behind Ezra, the guard held out an arm to block me. Seriously, doesn't this guy take lunch breaks?
"Look, I have to get through." I said tiredly, still too shattered to pick a fight.
"She's with me." Ezra confirmed. Reluctantly, the guard let us through, but not without giving me a scowl. The door slid open to reveal a vast room. A holo-table was in the centre and steps led up to a dais of which the Hope's flight controls lay. About seven workers sat at the horseshoe shaped controls. Screen showing various statistics adorned the walls the it was the people around the control panel that brought my attention the most. The entire crew of the Ghost stood there, as well as Ahsoka Tano and a middle aged man, who looked like he was just starting to push into elderly years. His hair was greying slightly and he wore armour similar to that of Stormtroopers, but different.
"Nice to see you could join us." Kanan commented to Ezra. I suddenly became aware of the large dark circles that had formed under my eyes from working into that late hours of morning.
"How were the holo-tables looking?" Ahsoka asked me.
"A lot of internal problems. Loose shilo pins were the biggest issue as well as fried circuits. Although, you did have a corroded fan on a couple and a cooling generator had completely failed from age. I fixed most of them though and there are only about three more to go." I said smoothly, trying not to sound as if I was to drop dead at any second.
"Good. Anyway, I'd like you to meet someone. This is Captain Rex of the 501st." I narrowed my eyes at that. It was weird. I felt like I'd heard that somewhere before, but I couldn't think where. Turning my thoughts away from the number, I took his hand of which he had stuck out to shake.
"Nice to meet you." I said out of courtesy but still slightly wary. Yes the Rebellion had taken me in in the end, but I had grown up learning that being careful was the best way of staying alive.
"And you." He replied.
"So, what did you call me here for? I thought I was banned from this room." My runaway tongue proceeded to speak without my mind giving it permission.
Rex chuckled and muttered something to Ahsoka who also laughed. Then Kanan turned to me and decided to answer question.
"We need you to come with us on a run to Kessle." He replied. I frowned. Hadn't I specifically told them that I didn't want to be on any field missions? Kanan seemed to notice this and hurried to make amends. "Don't worry, it's not a field mission, just grabbing supplies and dropping some off to some rebels there."
"And you need me there because?" I asked raising an eyebrow sceptically.
"Well, by the sounds of it, you know your way around mechanics. And we're taking a rust bucket whilst the Ghost and Phantom are in for maintenance." Sabine smiled.
Something sounded off in this whole thing, but I went along somewhat reluctantly. Sabine was good with tech as well as Ezra and Zeb. So why did they actually need me?
"When do we leave?" I asked coolly.
"In the morning." Hera said.
"I'll see you then." I said before walking towards the door. I then stopped and turned back around awkwardly. "Uhh, am I supposed to sleep in the tech room again or..." I trailed off.
Sabine followed me and put two hands on my shoulders. "You're bunking with me." She laughed lightly.
I came up with the ever intelligent response of, "Oh."
I didn't mean to sound rude, it's just that after a few years alone, I wasn't used to sleeping in a confined space with others. Or any confined space with others.
As Sabine guided me back to her- no, our room, I pondered on this seemingly innocent run to Kessle. They were telling the truth, but my intuition told me that they hadn't told me the whole truth.
So what were they hiding?
Anonymous P.O.V
My eyes snapped open as I hurriedly uncrossed my legs, my focus shattered in a fleeting glimpse of someone who simply couldn't exist. Sunlight filtered through the blinds casting luminescent strips against the wall, broken by the shadow of my figure passing over it.
The round meditating stool that I had been previously sat on rocked unsteadily and was slightly moth eaten. A varied range of tattered rugs decorated the floor, barely covering the cold wood floorboards.
I cracked open the door and spotted the slender figure hunched over the sink. The quiet clank of pots against pans penetrated the still air.
"You've sensed something. " She said calmly.
I sat down heavily on a kitchen chair and propped a youthful chin in one hand. "I can't be sure. But if I'm right..." I trailed off thinking of the possibilities.
The woman by the sink turned around. Her chestnut hair was pulled into a slender bun. "This wasn't ordinary. Who did you see." She asked, eyes alert.
I stared back at her. "A Zanarian."
"Force almighty... she's alive." She chuckled. "I should have known." And then she reached to her waist before placing a cylindrical object on the table. "Wherever she is, she'll have the copy of this." It dawned on me what she was thinking.
"We can't go looking for her! She safer not knowing about me and thinking you're dead."
"She's your only family." I sighed and ran a hand over my face. Raven hair swept over my eyes before I pushed it out of them. "What if she knows where your sister is? And Ahsoka? Don't you want to see her?"
I gave a light laugh at that. "You know that Juni and I never got along. Anyway, she wouldn't even know me. Juni probably never told her about me and whatever Juni did, so did Epolion, her husband. And as for Ahsoka... well yes, I want to see her. She was my best friend. But I also want to keep her safe."
The chestnut placed a light hand on my shoulder. "Just think about it... okay?"
Not waiting for a response, she walked off, leaving me drowning in my thoughts.
Azulia's P.O.V
The next morning was utter chaos. The crew of the Ghost rushed around frantically, doing last minute preparations for the journey to Kessle. I lugged a bag of my lucky tools through the corridors to the Hope and into the Starsailer III. And yes, I have lucky tools. Deal with it.
Throwing the bag down with a thud, I looked around the small shuttle and understood why they needed a techie there. The thing looked like it was about to fall apart at any second. It was an old Eta-class shuttle and the inside looked in bad shape. The cockpit controls were in a shaky condition and the whole thing looked like it had been through the Clone Wars. Twice. Slowly, the crew trickled into the small spaceship and whilst Hera piloted with Kanan as co-pilot, me, Zeb, Sabine, Chopper and Ezra were forced into a separate compartment to the back of the ship.
The first part of the ride was carried out in silence and I took the time to generally analyse my surroundings. My eyes settled on Zeb's weapon eventually. I hadn't seen anything like it before. In fact, I didn't even know what it was.
Zeb seemed to spot me eyeing it and scowled slightly, pulling it closer. I suppose with my reputation as a thief, and the way I was looking at it, I probably would have done the same.
"Don't worry. I'm not going to steal anything; I have my own weapons." I comforted, smiling slightly before bringing out my blaster and staff in baton form. It was only a small pistol, but packed a punch which was the sort of weapon that I liked. Concealable, but deadly.
Zeb seemed to relax and I placed my blaster down at my side. The rest of the ride was mainly carried out in silence with only Kanan or Hera calling back to check on us sometimes. Everything seemed to be going smoothly.
Until we exited hyperspace.
As we disengaged lightspeed, the shuttle gave an unhealthy shudder and something underneath our feet banged loudly before smoke rose through the hatch to the control bay.
"Uhhh, Azulia!?" Hera called back, her voice hinted with alarm.
I frowned and replied, "Yeah?"
"You know when we said that this thing could fall apart and all that?" Kanan yelled.
I started to get a bad feeling as more smoke rises. "Yes, I do remember that. Why?"
"Because out hyperdrive just came offline!" Hera shouted before the ship careered to the side violently. Quickly getting up, I burst into the cockpit.
"What the-!" I was cut off when I saw swarms of TIE's gathering around us.
"Unidentified ship, you have breached an Imperial checkpoint." The prissy voice of a military officer came over the intercom. "State your business." He commanded.
"Well, this just gets better and better." Hera muttered. "Azulia, we need that hyperdrive now." She ordered.
I nodded and ran back into the back room before yanking the control bay hatch open. Pulling my shirt over my nose and mouth, I dropped down into the cramped space. I then checked over the wiring and circuits before focusing on the hyperdrive. I put my hand near it and it was already unbearable when I reached about three inches away because of the heat.
"Azulia, what's happening?" Sabine called down to me.
I yelled back the reasons to her absentmindedly whilst I tried to figure out what I was going to do with an overheated hyperdrive. "Just breached an Imperial checkpoint blah, blah, blah, got an overheated hyperdrive just to make things better!" I called up to her. "Pass me my heat resistant gloves!" I ordered. Sure enough a pair of heatproof gloves dropped down and I quickly slid them on before examining the broken hyperdrive. Wrenching open the hatch, I cursed as I withdrew a charred lump of thenamium. Well this was great. We wouldn't be going anywhere without this, and I didn't have any spare. Crawling out from the control bay, I scrambled into the cockpit again. "It's not good. We have to land." I said.
Kanan turned in his seat. "What?"
"The thenamium's gone!" I said waving the black lump of metal around. "We aren't going anywhere without that and I haven't got any spare!"
"Well, we need to find an alternative quick. Because I don't think the Empire is going to wait much longer." Hera said gravely.
And that's when the Imperials called back.
----Author's Note----
Ok, so writing this at four in the morning with a fever and generally feeling like I'm about to hurl.
Anyway, the rebel crew have come across some complications in their plans! The Imperials are back and with a temperamental hyperdrive, it looks like they're going to be forced onto Kessle to gather more thenamium from the mines. What is this bad feeling that Azulia keeps having, and will Ezra and Azulia ever make up?
Sorry, I know that was weird but SO AM I!!! I know that this chapter is positively crap and it took forever to come out, I wanted to give you guys at least something, and I NEVER release a chapter with less than 2000 words in it. It's a pet peeve of mine to release anything that's shorter than 17 pages.
This chapter is now edited. Finally.
2318 words.
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