Rex finished strapping one of the Mandalorian jet packs to his back and moved towards Feton. The crime lord lowered his monoculars. "There are guards everywhere outside the walls. They'll see us coming," Feton growled.
"Not if we're at a high enough altitude."
"If we go too high our jet packs with combust."
"Then we'll just go high enough that they can't hear us coming," Rex pointed out.
Feton nodded and signaled his men. They activated their jet packs and took off. Rex flew towards the front of the group. They dodged a few speeders, but luckily, the prison wasn't near a busy airway. They flew over the wall and dropped onto the catwalks. The stormtroopers were swiftly silenced. Three Mandos stayed on the catwalks while the others moved on ahead.
Two stormtroopers began firing at them when they approached the door. Rex pulled out his own blasters and hit both troopers. One of the Mandos stepped up to the door and bypassed the security protocols. Two men stayed behind in the hallway.
"What level is she on?" Feton ran alongside Rex.
"Don't know. I figured I'd follow the stormtroopers. They'll probably be moved to her cell as soon as they know we're here."
They rounded the corner and stunned more stormtroopers. One of their comms went off. "TK-4216, what was the disturbance? TK-4216 please respond. TK-4216 where are you?"
Rex kept running but heard the final comment in the distance. "Blast it! Someone go find Kevin!"
"I think they know we're here," he called to Feton.
"Wait!" Feton held up a hand, stopping them. Footsteps echoed through the next hallway, but didn't come closer. Feton glanced at Rex.
"They're heading to her cell." Rex didn't wait for Feton. He took off running. Feton signaled to three of his troops to remain. The last two followed him.
Rex rounded the corner and blaster fire erupted around him. He ducked behind one of the outlying doorways and fired a few shots. Feton and two Mandalorians dodged into the hallway, ducking behind walls for cover. More stormtroopers came from the other direction.
"Shock grenade!" Rex hollered. He launched one of his own at the troops guarding the door. The grenade shot off in an explosion of electricity. The stormtroopers fell as soon as the electricity disappeared. He glanced the other way in time to see the same thing happen to the other stormtroopers.
By now, alarms were blaring. "Go! We'll cover you," Feton ordered.
Rex nodded and blasted the control panel next to the door. It hissed open. He crept inside cautiously. An electrolined table faced a window. "Ania," Rex whispered. He went around the front of the table. It was empty.
The blast door hissed shut, unaffected by the damaged control panel. A woman dressed mistakably in Inquisitor armor stepped out of the shadows, a Togruta girl limp on the floor beside her.
"I wondered when you would get here, Captain. It took you far longer than anticipated, although it would seem you were preoccupied," the Inquisitor drawled.
Rex kept his eyes on the Inquisitor. "Hey, Commander. Ready to go home?" He asked Ania.
"I'm afraid she won't be leaving any time soon," the Inquisitor drawled. Her voice was ominously garbled by the mask.
"She'll be leaving with me," Rex growled. "One way, or another."
"CT-7567, Clone Captain Rex. You served under General Anakin Skywalker and Commander Ahsoka Tano, did you not? It's a pity they're both dead. Don't worry though. You won't be kept from them much longer!" The Inquisitor laughed and slashed her crimson blade through the lights, plunging the room into utter darkness. Rex flicked on the night vision and began to creep around the room.
Ania couldn't see past the fog in her eyes or hear past the ringing in her brain. She knew something was wrong when the Sister stabbed another sedative into her arm. She'd been wrong. It wasn't just a sedative. The bad thing was, she couldn't tell if she'd only been drugged, or poisoned.
What few colors she could see vanished suddenly. Where'd the lights go? She wondered. She tried to move, but found her limbs as heavy as steel. Sounds drifted past the ringing in her head. She strained again, listening intently. A blaster? Sister doesn't carry blasters. Someone is here for me! Ania probed the surroundings through the Force. There were two other presences near her. One was the Inquisitor and the other...Rex.
Ania's heart leaped within her. Someone had finally come for her! She tried to move again. Her hand moved a few inches. The ringing in her head dulled a tiny bit, then moved back with a devastating roar.
Rex dodged the arching lightsaber. The Inquisitor deactivated it as soon as she missed. Rex glanced back at Ania. Her hand moved ever so slightly then fell still again. She wasn't dead; that was a relief. "Feton," Rex hissed into his comm. "We're going to need to escape with Plan B! I'll meet you back at the wall."
"Got it."
The lightsaber swung again. Rex rolled and fired his blasters. He slowly worked his way towards Ania. The Inquisitor leaped atop the desk, blocking their path to freedom. Rex knelt beside Ania and snapped his fingers next to her montral, then waved a hand in front of her eyes. No response.
Ania drifted deeper into her mind. The ringing was constant. No sounds could penetrate it now. It must be poison, Ania reasoned. No drug can wear off and then kick in again without another application. She began to grow tired and her eyelids drooped shut.
Rex held two fingers against her neck and began to shake Ania. "Commander, snap out of it!"
The Inquisitor laughed. "I'm afraid she won't. You were too late. Even if you escape, she'll be dead before you make it off world. I could give you the antidote, of course, but you'd need to answer everything Ania would not." Rex didn't reply. He kept shaking Ania, even as her heartbeat slowed further.
She wasn't aware of anything anymore. She was just drifting, unseeing, through an unknown realm. Memories began to flash before her, even memories that she didn't know existed. This is it, then. I'm dying. The thought didn't scare her as much as it should.
"No, Ania. There are still people who need you."
Ahsoka?
"You can overcome the poison inside of you. Fight it. You have all the power you need."
As though emerging from water, Ania flew up and slammed back into her own body. She opened her eyes and saw everything more clearly than ever. The Inquisitor seemed shocked, but only for a minute.
"Well, it seems you are very resilient," the Inquisitor sneered.
"Rex, move aside." Two voices thundered from Ania.
She stood and felt as though a long train flowed around her. There wasn't. Only the tattered remnants of her senate disguise were there. Ania raised both hands as though they were being pulled by strings. She unleashed a bolt of power, throwing the Sister through the window. Rex jumped up and ran through the window. Ania jumped against him right as his jet pack powered on.
She looked back in time to see the Sister crawl back into the room. Ahead, several Mandalorians were firing missiles into the catwalks and ships docked in the yard. Ania pushed down the poison again. She had to hold it down until they reached help. As soon as they cleared the wall, the Mandalorians followed them.
One flew next to them and removed his helmet. "My debt to you is repaid, Bonteri," Feton Ralius said, dipping his head. "You should probably avoid any Imperial entanglements for a while."
"I'll take that advice into consideration," Ania rasped.
Feton replaced his helmet and the group of Mandalorians broke away from them. They flew a little further before landing in a docking yard. The Redemption winked up at them. Rex landed and motioned Ania aboard the ship. She did so, not pausing to wait for him.
The poison began to drag at her feet and claw at her eyes. Ania stumbled into her bunk and rolled onto her back. She plunged into the Force, letting it wash over her. She heard Rex enter the ship and felt them take off, before letting her senses dull. The strange sensation of the Force wrapped around her, settling into her very bones. She exhaled slowly, before sinking entirely.
"...injured very badly."
"...not sure what they used."
"How long...not sure...take her..."
"Hold on, Ania," a familiar voice whispered.
She gasped and shot upright, breaking the concentration of the boy beside her. He was instantly by her side, a hand on her back. Ania had to look twice, before her vision enough to recognize him.
"Ezra!" She whispered, her throat drier than ever.
He wrapped her in a tight hug. "I'm so glad you're all right! They said you might not make it so I've been trying to pull you back through the Force and there's been so much going on." He pulled away.
"What is is?" Ania prompted.
"Not right now. You just woke up. You need food and water." Ezra stood. Ania's eyes widened. He had definitely grown since she'd been taken. Ezra stepped out of the room but returned shortly with a tray and a droid. Ezra sat the tray on her lap and she began to eat while the droid checked her vital signs.
"All traces of the poison are gone," the droid reported. "I prescribe resting the rest of the day and a night spent in the bacta tank before returning to your position."
Ania nodded but didn't reply as she continued to shovel food into her mouth. The droid left shortly. "Tolsa and Sabine will be by soon. They've been taking R-Squadron out on practice runs every day," Ezra said.
Ania took a drink. "What all has happened since I've been gone?" She raised a hand to Ezra's head. "And what did you do to your hair?"
He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "I thought I'd try something new. You don't like it?"
Ania tilted her head. "I think it could grow on me."
Ezra smiled, but she could feel the turmoil radiating from him. There was something new in his presence too, something dark and sinister. He caught her questioning glance.
"How long have I been gone?"
"Four month and 16 days," Ezra replied. "Tolsa, Sabine, and I wanted to go after you immediately, but Commander Sato told us we couldn't. He ordered there be no rescue party sent after you but Rex disobeyed him. He said Ahsoka was his general and he would obey her orders before anyone else's and she had ordered him to watch out for you."
"Wait, where is Ahsoka? Is she off world? I need to talk to her about something that happened while I was prisoner," Ania interrupted.
Ezra's head dropped for a moment and he sighed. "Our mission took us to Malachor," he began.
"There's a Sith Temple on Malachor," Ania recalled.
"There was," he corrected. "We may have collapsed it. We went to find knowledge and we did find it, but the Inquisitor's found us and so did Vader. There was another man there and he helped us fight against them. He wasn't with us when Vader came. Ahsoka save me from Vader and got me and Kanan to safety, but the temple exploded while she was still fighting Vader. I'm sorry, Ania." Ezra lifted sorrowful eyes. "She's dead."