The Force Betrayed: Cal Kestis x OC

27.

"What was he talking about?" Cal asked her breathlessly, eyebrows sharply turned inward.

"I don't know," she responded without thinking, knowing now was absolutely not the time to try to explain things. This was really, really bad. The Empire knew who she was now; it couldn't be a secret of the Mantis crew any longer and she had now become a terrible burden. If they somehow managed to escape, Darth Vader would stop at nothing to find her.

"You weren't acting like you didn't know," Cal responded, looking around the circular lift anxiously as if he expected Vader to somehow teleport inside.

"I was just trying to get him to let you go," she panted back, pressing her body against the wall for support. "I don't," she flinched, trying not to groan as she lied straight to his face. "I don't know everything about my parents' past. She...lied..." she continued to grit out, but that was all she could say.

She tried not to close her eyes because she knew that if she did, they might not open again. The hole in her side literally burned like hell, and she wasn't sure how much energy she had left. Whatever still remained was fading quickly.

"Thank you," he said, his concerned eyes staring at the wound she was pressing against, still begging the Force for her to hold on. "We're gonna be okay."

He wasn't sure that Sakana's response made sense, but he didn't have time to dwell on his doubts now. They were so close to escaping with their lives and the holocron, but he couldn't say the same for Cere. They had to make her sacrifice worth it. 

Sakana nodded and gave in, closing her eyes as she was unable to accept the fact that she was having to deliberately lie to him. Up until this point, everything she'd said had been mostly true, and she'd only answered questions he'd asked. She never would have gone out of her way to lie to him, and she still hated the feeling.

She was able to open her eyes again when the elevator came to a screeching halt and the metal doors opened to reveal a different hallway than before; they hadn't come this way, but that didn't matter now. They just needed to get as far away from Vader as possible.

They ran down the long corridor without running into any more stormtroopers, much to their surprise.

"Greez!" Cal shouted into his comm as they ran, his voice breathy and desperate. "We're gonna need a quick exit, but Cere...she sacrificed herself so we could get out."

"I...we'll be ready, kid," Greez responded solemnly.

Cal didn't respond as the door at the end of the hall opened to reveal Darth Vader again, sending a paralyzing chill down Sakana's spine. She couldn't physically see a man, only a machine, but her mind couldn't unsee the boy she watched grow into a man beside her father; the Chosen One. Anakin Skywalker.

Vader slashed overhead at Cal, forcing him to focus entirely on blocking Vader's vicious blows. Their blades only collided once or twice more before Vader decided he'd had enough and Force-pushed Cal backwards, almost knocking into Sakana. Like before, she was paralyzed in front of the Sith Lord, unable to move a muscle.

Cal's shoulders slammed against the ground and dizziness blurred his vision, making it nearly impossible to decipher the sight in front of him. It was a messy clash of yellow and red lights; Sakana and Vader. His ears were ringing and the only sound he could hear above it was the faint sound of BD-1 in his ear, gently beeping at him.

"Trill bee woop?" BD-1 seemed to ask, but Cal couldn't respond.

Vader swung his lightsaber at Sakana next, forcing her to wake from her stupor and ignite her bright yellow blade. It was almost comical how much he was holding back against her, and almost immediately, she could tell that his intention wasn't to kill her.