The sun glared in Kanan's eyes, making them burn as he frantically searched the arena for his wife. The Imperial Stormtroopers had just finished latching the chains around the top of a large post—nearly fifty feet tall—holding his wrists above his head. The fake Geonosians all cheered in the crowd along the seats of the circular arena. A light breeze blew the sand around his feet, forming a tiny tornado in the center.
As the dust cleared, Kanan finally saw it: a crashed gunship, one of the original models. He hadn't laid eyes on one of them since the Clone Wars. Inside appeared to be supplies, but he couldn't be sure. Adaara's presence strengthened and that's when his eyes finally found her: she was sitting inside a small black cage which hung above the gunship. Metal wires connected the top of the cage to something else high above, something Kanan couldn't see. Nineteen other black cages hung next to Adaara's, each filled with a different being. Some were droids, while others were sentient races.
The Force trembled next to him. What appeared to be a zabrak female was chained to a post on his right, but a heavy weight rolled off her toward Kanan in the Force. Sith, Kanan thought. To his left was someone else strong with the Force...a Jedi. Kanan didn't recognize the human male. Across the arena from him, the gunship blocked the view of who was chained to which posts. To the right, diagonally across from him were several beings, too far away for him to see properly. Several feet behind their posts were large arched doorways slowly siding upward.
The doors opened to reveal large monsters. Kanan barely had time to recognize a rancor before he felt the Force twist and jerk. His breathing stopped as he heard a loud roar from behind him.
I've felt a presence like this before...
It was all the time he had to think. Using the Force, he felt the mechanism inside the cuffs around his wrists and slid the lock open, thankful that after all this time, he still could use the Force to at least unlock chains.
There was a bellowing crack, causing Kanan to instinctively roll to his right. His post collapsed to the ground in two pieces. Walking on top of it with two thick legs was a Terentatek. Jedi-killers, Kanan thought in horror. Along its back were at least six or more large spikes the size of Kanan's body. It towered over him at least nine feet tall, if not more. Its clawed hands were enough to impale a person easily.
It lashed toward him with its left claw, making Kanan back-flip backward to avoid it. He desperately tried to recall what little he remembered about the creatures: they suck blood and something about them is poisonous. What was it? Unfortunately, the Terentatek reared its head and charged straight for him.
Kanan held his hands together and shoved the Force away from his palms, toward the creature. Instead of being thrown backward, like it should have, the orange-colored monster simply continued toward him.
Without thinking, he front-flipped forward, using the Force to guide his landing perfectly behind its head-spikes. He stood in between two spikes. If he moved an inch in any direction, the spikes would stab him. With a curse, he tried calling a weapon from the gunship in his hand, but that didn't work either. I know I can use the Force, so why isn't it working? Am I too far away? If so, why didn't it work on the creature?
With no answers, Kanan called the Force to his body as he took a giant leap. Immediately upon landing on the rough sand, he rolled forward and darted toward the gunship.
Suddenly, he was thrown aside and air fled his lungs as he lurched into the air. The Sith female zabrak, who Kanan realized was actually human with zabrak face tattoos, had force-pushed him backward and now force-choked him, keeping his feet off the ground.
Closing his eyes as he lost more air by the second, Kanan called every ounce of the Force to his hands as he could. With a wild grunt, he shoved it toward the woman's chest, throwing her backward several feet. The movement did as he hoped and distracted her enough to stop choking him. The instant his feet touched the ground again, he entered the gunship, searching for a lightsaber.
Blaster shots zipped toward him. Using the Force, Kanan twisted left and then ducked down to avoid them. One barely grazed his left arm. A dark-haired man held a hold-out blaster aimed directly at Kanan's chest.
Kanan picked up the nearest weapon on his right and swung it toward the man's head, who backed up and fired at him again. That's when Kanan realized what he himself was holding—a cortosis blade. He cursed but decided it would have to do for now.
The Force lightly trembled, urging Kanan to step forward on a crate. Just as he did, he heard a hum and he jumped just in time to avoid a red lightsaber slashing at his ankles.
A blaster shot pierced his left shoulder, making Kanan groan. He used the Force to guide the blade as he threw it toward the man. Just before it landed in his shoulder, another person shoved the man out of the way, reaching for supplies. The blade landed in the person's back. As the person turned around, Kanan realized it was a Togruta woman.
Kanan winced but picked up the crate that had been beneath his feet. The red lightsaber slashed through the box, shattering the supplies inside in half. The Sith woman wielded the saber, striking toward Kanan. Only this time, his back was against the wall of the gunship and he had nothing else to block it.
Instantly choosing which part of his body would be best injured, Kanan shifted at the last minute so that the lightsaber stabbed his shoulder, exactly where the blaster shot was. It's already injured anyway.
With the laser stuck in his shoulder, Kanan used his left palm to slam the Force into the face of the Sith woman in distraction. With his right, he struck her wrist, causing her to drop the saber. It was imbued with the Dark Side, but Kanan used the Force to call the hilt to his hand.
He held the blade in front of him just as the Sith woman threw lightning at him. Before Kanan could react, the Terentatek slashed her chest with its claws. Immediately her skin turned a dark purple. Using the lightsaber, Kanan stabbed the ceiling and began cutting a circular hole to jump through. Adaara. For now, he was safe, but Adaara was in a cage that the creature could easily tear through, could easily reach and easily kill.
Panic threatened to consume him, but he shoved it down, calling to the Force to steady and strengthen his hands.
The other Jedi entered the room, holding off blaster shots from someone outside the gunship that Kanan couldn't see. "If you have a lightsaber, it's going to take you and me together to take that Terentatek down," Kanan said.
The Jedi nodded, backing up closer to Kanan. "Together then." Kanan backed up as a circular piece of the ceiling fell in front of him. Using the Force, he leaped through the hole to land smoothly on the top of the gunship with the Jedi man right beside him.
Adaara's cage was three feet higher than the gunship, just in front of it—the Terentatek's next target. Without hesitation, Kanan jumped on top of the creature, slicing through two spikes to give him room. The Jedi man used his own lightsaber to pierce a claw that charged toward him.
With a grunt, Kanan shoved his lightsaber deep into the creature's skin all the way to the hilt. The Terentatek screeched and began thrashing. Kanan jumped off it, grabbing onto Adaara's cage with his left hand.
"Didn't you have a lightsaber?" Adaara yelled at him.
Cursing, Kanan glanced at the creature, which had the lightsaber stuck inside it. "Yeah, but it's inside that thing now." Kanan cursed again, reaching inside the gunship with the Force. With the effort of holding onto her cage, combined with sensing for danger, all Kanan had the mental strength to call to his hand was a small hold-out blaster. "Great," he muttered, firing it at the bars of the cage. The blaster bolts barely scraped the metal.
Below him was the Sith woman's body, lying beside a human man with chestnut colored hair.
"I've got an idea." Kanan glanced back at Adaara who clenched the bars tightly.
"Is it a good one?"
Kanan paused. "... It's an idea." With that, he used the Force to back-flip off the cage and land perfectly on the creature's back, which was still thrashing and
howling in pain. With a grunt, Kanan pulled the saber out of the Terentatek's back and threw it toward Adaara's cage. He had never been very good at lightsaber throwing and it had been years. Using all of his concentration, he guided the saber to slice through the bars on the front of her cage.
Adaara crawled to the edge. "Now what?" she screamed over all the noise.
"Jump! I'll catch you!"
In perfect trust, she jumped from the cage. Kanan felt her presence and grabbed her with the Force, grunting with effort. Sweat coated him in a thick layer and all the concentration to hold her nearly made him pass out. He was aware of nothing else except the Force and Adaara. After a time that seemed like forever, he landed her safely on the ground outside the gunship.
Suddenly, Kanan flew through the air, unsure where he was, what had happened or what direction he was in. Pain exploded in his body as he landed on the ground, viewing the blue sky above. He tried to stand but realized he couldn't. Not only that, but he couldn't breathe.
As he looked down at himself, he finally understood why. A Zygerrian man towered above him with a whip wrapped around Kanan's neck. With a laugh, the man ignited the shock waves in it, sending volts of electricity coursing through Kanan's body. He twitched and jerked as agony violently surged through him.
When the pain finally stopped, Kanan gasped, rolling onto his side. "Come on," a voice urged in his ear.
Adaara grabbed his arm and helped him stand. "I have a few weapons and knocked that Zygerrian bastard out. Let's go. Come on!"
Kanan's eyes blinked, but sleep overtook him.