The moment Ezra caught sight of the tall pillar of smoke rising from TarkinTown, he was hit with a wave of disjointed emotions – fear, malice, panic – that didn't belong to him. He knew that something had gone horribly wrong.
Leaving himself no time to think things through or give anyone the chance to stop him, he climbed aboard one of the speeder bikes parked outside Lando's base of operations and hit the gas.
The ride was short, but even so, Ezra's worries prolonged the journey. Was anyone still there? What had happened to everyone, or was happening? Was he in time to help anyone, or was he too late?
All of his questions were answered simultaneously with one horrifying reality: TarkinTown was a smoldering ruin; nothing more than ashes, smoke and cooling embers. He couldn't sense any signs of life with the Force, nor could he see any movement other than the occasional collapse of a beam or a sudden flare of sparks, even with his binoculars.
A moment later, a speeder pulled up behind him. He recognized Kanan's familiar presence immediately, and so he spoke: "There's no one. They're all... gone."
"They're prisoners of the Empire now," Kanan intoned solemnly.
"And all I sense is evil... Why would they burn TarkinTown?"
He sighed. "To spread fear; make us afraid. The people who lived here just got caught in the middle."
"This happened because of us?" Ezra looked up at the older man's serious features, hoping to find a negation there.
But he wasn't about to get his wish. "There's a cost for any action we take now, Ezra. Things are getting worse, just as they did back when I was your age... But back then, there were ten thousand Jedi Knights protecting the galaxy. Now..."
"There's just you and me."
"Against an Empire."
"We can fight!" he exclaimed determinedly. "We have allies! We've got Commander Sato, and Senator Organa, and– and we've got Teri! He can even use a lightsaber, just like us. They're all on our side."
"Do you understand what you're saying? You saw what we're up against." He made a wide gesture with one arm to the wrecked village. "Look!"
"I'm not afraid," he said, walking back to his speeder.
As Kanan gazed out at the smoke spiraling up into the sky, he spoke again, but so quietly Ezra almost didn't catch it: "That's what worries me."
"Fulcrum to Cavalier. Cavalier, do you copy?"
The sound of the familiar voice over the comlink gave the young woman standing nearby pause. Mumbling a polite "Excuse me" to the old man dressed in faded clothes standing before her, she made her way towards the origins of the sound: the transponder on her sleek blue A-wing fighter.
"Copy that, Fulcrum. Cavalier here," she said, leaning over the smooth metal side of the ship to hit the button on the dashboard to open a comm channel.
"Kaya, I need you to get back to the rendezvous, pronto. We're making our exit in the Ghost in Sector 05, but the Empire's closing in. Your window offworld is getting smaller and smaller, and you're needed more back with Phoenix Squadron."
Kaya Ti Areeko, the part-time assistant to the informant Fulcrum, part-time pilot for Phoenix Squadron, pursed her lips as she pulled her dark brown hair from the crown it had been wrapped in around her head. "No can do, Teri. I've got some people here from TarkinTown I've got to see safely relocated."
"What? Kanan and Ezra told me they'd all been captured!"
She smirked. "That's what I made it look like. I managed to cause enough of a distraction from the air to allow about half the villagers to make a run for it."
"Kaya, even though you went against a director order from me, you're brilliant. Reckless as hell, but brilliant."
She tried not to let her face heat up at such praise. But, then again, it wasn't easy – she had had a crush on Lux Bonteri since they had first met, and any sort of compliment he gave her inevitably brought a smile to her face. Her feelings had only deepened with all the time they had spent working together for the Rebellion, but she tried not to let it go to her head...
She knew and had long since accepted his heart belonged to someone else.
"We're in the mountain range – or whatever sort of rock formation you call these weird hill-thingies – just a little to the south," she continued. "There's a series of caves further on they can stay in until they find another home."
Teri was quiet for a moment. "I'll have one of my contacts get supplies and food for them. I think I still have enough in my Lothal bank account to cover it."
"Your cut of the Bonteri fortune isn't going to last forever, you know," she reminded him. "You won't be able to afford being generous for much longer."
He chuckled gently. "We'll find a way, Kaya. We always do." Then his tone sobered. "But I still need you back here. Things have... things have changed, and I need to know I have people with me I can trust."
"What's happened?" she asked, her voice immediately softening in compassion.
"I... I found her."
"Found who?"
"Her."
Kaya's eyes widened. "But that's... That's impossible! She died in the battle of Norolan Plains; you said so yourself!"
"They never found a body. But there were... So many died that day, and we had no choice but to accept that the cannon blast that hit her squadron..." His voice was shaking so much that he couldn't finish he sentence.
"Well, shouldn't you be... You know, not crying?" Kaya said, trying to keep the bitterness out of her tone. Up until now, she had comforted herself with the fact that Teri was in love with a dead woman, and that when he was ready, he would move on, and she might have some sort of a chance with him.
But that was a foolish hope now that she was back, and Kaya knew it.
"She's... Kaya, I can't explain it. She's different. I have here with me, but... Remember how I told you she was a Jedi? How she–"
"Yeah. She left. I know the story." She gazed down at the two pockets in her flight suit, one on each leg, each of which concealed a lightsaber. The Jedi had made an example of Ahsoka Tano after she left the Order, branding her with the label 'What Not To Do' when she came up in the youngling classes.
"She switched sides."
Kaya started, dropping the three sections of her hair she was putting into another long braid down her back. "Your ex-girlfriend's a Sith? Saint Murphy in his Workshop, Teri! How crazy can you possibly get?"
"Do you trust me? Completely?"
The question came out of nowhere, but her answer was still as unfailing as ever, despite what she had just learned: "Yes. Yes, of course I do."
"Then trust me when I say I can change her back. I have to believe that I can." He sighed. "But the others on the Ghost don't. They're either against me or don't know what to think. I know what I did was stupid, but I need to know that I have allies. So... Are you with me?"
She bit her lip, trying to convince herself to say no, but she just couldn't. "I'm with you, Teri. I'll meet you back with the rest of the fleet in a few hours."
"Thank you, Kaya... You have no idea how much this means to me," he murmured, exhaling softly.
"It's nothing," she said through gritted teeth. "Cavalier over and out."
Kaya hit the button to end the call, then grabbed her sticker-plastered helmet and fitted it onto her head. Teri, I really hope you know what you're doing.
*Aaaayyyyyyy, two updates for the same fanfic within three days of each other! How's that for a record? :DDDD
Twas a bit of a filler chapter, however, but there were some important things – Kaya Ti Areeko, for one. Heh, the last chapter was Storm's plot twist, and this one is the lovely Superkate-Studios' doing. I hope I got her personality right according to your imagining of her!
Yes, in this fanfic, Kaya has a crush on him, contrarily (THANKFULLY) to UAAT. Kate just asked me to include the character, and we discussed professions in the Rebellion other than working/training with Ahsoka, because she's obviously not a Jedi here. That had been settled for quite a while when, late one night, I said to her, "I have a crazy idea. How about Kaya likes Lux in HWOF?"
She agreed, so that's why this particular crazy idea actually saw the light of day XD
But don't worry. It won't interfere with the Luxsoka, I promise. At least... not THAT much...
Anyways, I've started dropping hints about what happened between Lux and pre-Sorena Ahsoka, which I will go into more depth about and explain in the flashbacks. (I foresee at least six of those in this fanfic, but knowing me, it's gonna be a lot more than that.) Also, remember the bit about Norolan Plains. It's going to be VERY important later.
PS: Speaking of flashbacks, I'm going to try to write them so that they mirror other plot events in the present. The next flashback (though it'll probably be a few chapters away at least) is where Lux and Ahsoka meet up, and I'm sure you can all guess what current event that particular moment would be related to... ;}
May the Force be with you,
Sharron