Star Wars rebels Abducted

Chapter 5: Rescue Not Yet Available

Disclamer: Star Wars: Rebels is not mine. Though it'd be nice if it was...

The four Spectres sat in silence. Ezra was...he was...

Kanan closed his eyes, not willing to let his crew see how much this had shaken him. It was his fault, all Kanan's fault, that Ezra was gone. He hadn't been strong enough. Fast enough. Good enough. If he'd only seen the incoming Tie! Kanan himself could've held onto the overhang, he could've gotten them all out of there safely, he could've prevented Ezra from... from feeling this pain...

Even though they were light-years from his Padawan, Kanan had felt his pain. That was what had woken him up, momentarily seeing nothing but the Inquisitor's face lit by his lightsaber. He'd been awoken by hurt that did not belong to him. That could've been stopped by him. Now that the Jedi was awake, he could no longer feel Ezra's suffering as he had, but a small module of fear was present in the Force that wasn't his.

Their silence was broken by bleeps and whistles calling through the Ghost's ship-wide communicator. Hera blinked, as she was the only one who really understood Chopper's eccentric speech, and stirred. "Ch-Chop's fixed up the ship's systems as best he can." The crew made no move to show they understood.

"We..." the Twi'lek bent down her head, and Kanan knew she was also hiding weakness from her crew. Zeb spoke up, allowing Hera time to recover on her own. "We have to go get him." This was the part Kanan had been dreading. A deep breath from Hera told the Jedi that she was as well. Sabine leaped up off of the med-bay bench to agree with the Lasat.

"We can have the ship's system's repaired in no time if we all pitch in, then we can go back to that dratted asteroid and take him back!" She jammed on her Mandalorian helmet and made to run out the door, but was stopped by a quick sentence from Hera: "No."

Lasat and human eyes stared viciously at their Twi'lek captain. Both made cries of outrage, and in the blend of voices; Kanan only heard half scraps of what was said.

"-Can't be serious-"

"Could be de-"

"He's like yo-"

"-uo even thin-"

"We can't just s-"

"-ear him apar-"

"-hat reason do yo-"

"-'re not even gonna-"

"Stop."

The simple word from Kanan cut off both the angry Spectres, although they now glared daggers at him. "Kanan... the kid needs us..." If anything, these few words from Zeb made the pain even worse. There was no easy way through this, but it sure could be made harder. Kanan sighed deeply, mentally preparing himself for the discussion. His head hurt where a loose rock had struck it.

"You don't understand... there's more at stake here than just Ezra. More than just us." Hera's head bobbed up suddenly, and Kanan gave her a significant look. Now, if ever, was the time to explain exactly what their frequent cargo missions had to do with bringing down the Empire.

"What could be more important than the life of our crew?!" Sabine cried out angrily. "Kanan, he's a kid!" Zeb let loose a low growl. "I would've thought that you, of all people would understand... now I see you know nothing about how much Ezra can take. He's not as tough as h-" But Kanan sent out his own growl. The Jedi's eyes were narrowed dangerously, and Zeb seemed to realize that he'd said the wrong thing. He didn't looked abashed in the least, but his silence was all that Kanan needed to make his point.

"Do you not think I know my own Padawan's limits, Zeb?" His voice was soft, but carried through the med-bay. "That the bond shared between a Master and Apprentice can so easily be forgotten, or discarded?!" The Lasat averted his gaze, seemingly unable to continue looking Kanan in the eyes. He continued.