Zinea

Part 3 - The Escape Pod

I woke up on the floor of the cell I had first been put in. Ezra was leaning over my face, shaking me.
"Come on! Please, please don't make me do mouth-to-mouth!" he was begging. I opened my eyes and a groan escaped my lips.
"Don't you dare tell me you did mouth-to-mouth."
"Come on, we've got to get Kanan. We don't have much time." He pulled me to my feet and helped steady me before dragging me up out of the cell. "Do you know the way to his cell?"
"Yeah, this way," I said before taking off in the direction I had been led before. It was eerily quiet in the corridors, and we only had to hide from one patrol on our way. As we approached the door I slowed. "This is it." Ezra punched the access button and the door flew open in front of us. While Ezra went inside, I kept watch in the hallway.
"Turns out you taught me pretty well," Ezra commented as he entered the cell.
"You shouldn't have come here, but I'm glad you did." Kanan's voice was weaker than before. They must have continued the torture after I was removed.
"You would have done the same for me. In fact, you have." Ezra released Kanan from the machine and caught him as he stumbled. They made their way slowly out of the cell.
"Nea. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
I took Kanan's other arm over my shoulders. "I'm glad you held out. My life isn't worth more than everything we've fought for. If it was, I never would've joined up."
"This way," Ezra directed us to a door at the end of the hall. We entered into a large chamber filled with bridges spanning over hundreds of feet of space and machinery. Facing us, several paces ahead on the bridge, was the Inquisitor. It was as if he had expected our escape. He reached behind his back and drew his saber, igniting it.
"Let me borrow that," Kanan said to Ezra, reaching for his saber.
"Yeah, no problem." Ezra stepped back while Kanan stood weakly at ready stance. The two held gazes for a moment, then Kanan advanced, poised to strike. Halfway there, he switched stances, deactivated the saber, shot at the Inquisitor, reactivated the saber, and struck.
"Damn," I whispered, watching the two clash swords. They pushed back and Kanan pulled the same move, again, ending up on the other side of his opponent.
"I never thought of that," Ezra mused before running closer.
"That's why he's the master and you're the apprentice," I panted as I followed him. Ezra caught sight of the saber on the Inquisitor's belt and pulled it to him with the force, igniting it upon contact. The Inquisitor pushed Kanan back and activated the other side of his saber.
"At last, the fight might be worth my time."
Kanan and Ezra rushed at him from opposite sides. The Inquisitor was ready, blocking attacks on both sides and pushing Ezra back so that he could go into the offensive position for a short time. The clashes of red and blue nearly kept me from noticing someone else emerge on the other end of the bridge. Kallus. And, on his belt, my saber. There seemed to be no way to reach him, so I closed my eyes and tried to pull it to me through the force.
Slowly, I felt it detach from his belt and float toward me. Something held it back, though. I opened my eyes to see Kallus holding on to it, grinning at me.
"What, you want your toy back? You'll have to come and get it." Troopers swarmed the bridge behind him, watching the commotion and waiting to provide backup. My eyes narrowed, zeroing in on the battle in front of me to find an opening. Ezra stumbled to the side, and I rushed in front of him. The Inquisitor swung for me, but just out of reach of his saber I jumped, flipping over his head and to the other side of Kanan. I landed and took off sprinting. Kallus remained standing where he was, holding the saber in front of him. His hand itched over to his blaster, taking a hold of it and setting it to stun. He raised it at me and aimed. Not this time, shitface.
The moment that he pulled the trigger, Ieft the ground, jumping high over the stunning beam and landing right on top of him. Kallus grunted from the impact of my body crushing his torso and the blaster went flying over the side of the bridge. So did my saber, but I reached out with the force and pulled it back to me. I turned it on and held it against his neck again.
"Call off your dogs," I demanded, then turned to the troopers behind him. "You shoot me, the saber falls and cuts off his head."
"Stand down!" Kallus yelled at the troopers, and they looked between themselves, slowly lowering their blasters.
"No!" I heard Kanan scream, and I whipped my head around to see Ezra stumble toward the edge of the bridge.
"Ezra!" I ran toward him, but I was too late. He went over. There was no way he could survive that fall. Somewhere through the fog of my mind I noticed Kallus pulled out his bo-rifle and I felt it pushed against my head. He was saying something, but I didn't hear. Kanan was on his knees, staring after him, while the Inquisitor grinned his pointy teeth. Slowly, he got up. His face hardened from anguish into pure, cold fury.
"That was a mistake." The deepness of his voice sent shivers down my spine.
Kanan- I thought, wishing I could warn him. Keep it together.
"Why? Because you no longer have a padawan to die for you?" the Inquisitor sneered at him. Kanan pulled his own saber to him.
"No. Because now I have nothing left to fear."
The Inquisitor grinned, drawing his saber in front of his face. Kanan followed suit, and they re-engaged.
"Kanan, no!" I tried to lunge forward, but I found that Kallus had twisted my saber hand behind my back and was holding me in place. He pulled my saber out of my hand and put it back on his belt.
We both stood, transfixed on the scene in front of us. Kanan had lost all restraint and all insecurity. He fought with reckless abandon, trusting wholely in the force moving through him--guiding his actions. They moved all over, ending up fighting around a control console. The Inquisitor nearly fell off the edge of the bridge at the force of one of Kanan's strikes.
"You were right. I was a coward," Kanan was saying, "but now I know that there's something stronger than fear, far stronger. The Force. Let me show you how strong it is." He angled the sabers forward, positioning them between the handles of the Inquisitor's saber, and sliced apart the weapon.
The collision of the kyber energy sent the Inquisitor flying over the edge, where he was only just able to catch himself on the lip of the bridge. Below, his sabers hit the power core at the bottom of the tunnel. Kallus and I stumbled, barely able to keep our footing as the whole ship trembled in response.
"Get to the hangar!" I heard troopers shouting from behind us. An alarm began to blare. A pulse of energy rose up through the tunnel, searing my skin. I saw the Inquisitor speak to Kanan before Kallus yanked me around and pushed me through the door at the end of the bridge. Troopers were running to the left, but Kallus turned me right. Another tremor wracked through the ship.
"Fools," Kallus murmured as we ran, "the hangar is too far."
We turned another corner and came face-to-face with escape pods. There were only a handful left. It seemed that a few others had the same idea. Kallus pushed me in the nearest one, then let me go to close the hatch and man the controls. I lit my saber and held it at him, daring him to move.
"What, can you man an imperial escape pod? I'd imagine not. I'm your only chance at survival, right now." Kallus swerved around my saber and took a seat at the controls. He pressed several buttons before the pod disconnected from the ship with a hiss and slid into space.
"Fine." I lowered my weapon and stepped up next to the pilot's chair. There was a slight rumble as the engine lit up and pushed us away from the exploding destroyer. I looked out the window to see a brightly painted TIE being persued by others before the Inquisitor's TIE came to its rescue. That had to be them. They were okay. A breath escaped my lips, and I realized that I had been holding it in. Then I noticed the cloud of TIEs heading toward my crew.
"Call them off!" I yelled at Kallus.
"You think I'm in any position to do that? All I can do is get us to the nearest destroyer."
"Like hell you can!" I reached over and took the controls from him, jolting us in the opposite direction.
"Stop that! You'll get us both killed!" Kallus tried to take it back from me, but I pushed him away. I stumbled and landed in his lap, but instead of jumping right off I used my weight to hold him down while I aimed the escape pod away from the destroyer.
A TIE flew straight toward us, getting closer every second. I yanked the controls to the side, but our pod was clipped by the TIE's wings and we went flying in the opposite direction. Our pod quickly approached a nearby moon, getting sucked in by the gravity pull.
Kallus shoved me off of him and tried to land the pod, yanking up on the controls as hard as he could. The ground was hurtling toward us. It grew closer every second. I heard myself screaming before everything suddenly stopped.