Mishaps on Malachor

Chapter 5 - Dark Side Nightmares

The start of the climax. :D I know a lot of people ship Ezra and Sabine, but I have not yet seen anything in their friendship that's anything other than borderline sibling, so... I'll just continue considering them as such, until/if I notice something that implies anything else. ^-^

~ Rivana Rita

We have finished a second tribute for Vader on our YT channel. Check it out if you're interested. :P No spaces in the link: youtu . be / TrRylvLR0fE

~ Amina Gila

Kanan knew it was going to be a bad night. The day had been chaotic enough already, and he really wanted some rest. Except, of course, he's not allowed to have any. When he opens his eyes, he's an adult again, back in the cell. How is he here? He and Ezra destroyed the ship, so what...? Before he has time to figure out what is happening, the door slides open and the Grand Inquisitor steps through, smirking gleefully. "You think you can escape me?" Except he was dead, too, right? He was. Kanan saw him fall into the flames, so how is he here? How is any of this happening?

"Your apprentice is a servant of the Dark Side," hisses the Grand Inquisitor, suddenly sounding suspiciously like Maul. All confusion turns into outright panic when Ezra steps through the door. No, no, he couldn't have. He would never.

"You held me back," the boy insists, eyes glowing golden.

"I –" he blurts, fumbling desperately for a response. Words fail him completely. He failed his Padawan. His son. You failed, the voice sings in his head. You knew you'd fail, but you tried anyway. Maybe if he hadn't tried this wouldn't've happened, but –

"My family is gone because of you," he hisses.

Kanan doesn't know why he thinks of the Ghost crew instead of Ezra's parents, and somehow manages to slip even farther into panic mode. Hera, Sabine, Zeb, even Rex and Ahsoka, what happened to them? Only vaguely does it register that something about all of this doesn't sound quite right, that someone else should be there too and none of this makes sense. But this is... they... Gone. They're... what happened? Did the Empire find them? Why wasn't he there? Why–?! He failed all of them. Somewhere through his shock and confusion, the crushing realization hits – that his family is gone a second time. They're just – Maul. It had to have been Maul. He's right here, and – wait, wasn't he left on Malachor?

He can hear the voices in his head now, whispering all those things he can't think about. That he's a coward, he ran when the clones turned on him and tried to kill his master. If he'd been fast enough, she might still be here. It should've been him who died that day, not her. At least she could've been the master Ezra needed.

But now, Ezra's gone, he – it – this –

"Kanan!"

The voice is distant and far away, but he can feel it breaking through the haze of his mind. That voice – it's Hera. She's calling him. She needs him. But he's trapped here. He couldn't go even if he wanted to, but right now all he can do is watch his former padawan who – how could this have happened?

He sees a flicker of the memory of his master dying. Flashes of the Grand Inquisitor again, of fighting Vader – something about that shakes him the most – and images of fighting the empire, the countless times his family nearly died. Of fighting Maul, Vader, and the Inquisitors on Malachor, but above all, the image of yellow-eyed Ezra remains, haunting him.

"Kanan!"

Sabine now. If they're gone, how can he hear them? But the image in front of him shakes suddenly, trembling. Like an earthquake. Flickering through his memories again. Something is wrong. This shouldn't be happening. Everything feels cold, the Dark Side. He knows that feel. It's holding him down, pinning him in place through he struggles against it.