Star Wars Rebels: Just Hold On

The Attempt

Kimble's POV

"Ezra?" I asked. He was still on the ground, looking at his hand.

I couldn't believe he had done that for me. He had volunteered to be tortured so that the stormtroopers wouldn't kill me. No one had ever done that for me. Well, no one except for my brother and . . . but I wasn't thinking about him right now. He had broken his promise.

"Ezra, please tell me that you can still talk. They didn't cut out your tongue, did they?" I asked worriedly. Ezra turned so that he was facing me and grinned.

"Nope, I can still talk. And I've got a way for us to get out of here," he told me. He showed me what was in his hand. It was the same thing that the stormtrooper had used to deactivate the ray shield. How had Ezra gotten his hands on it? Maybe here was more to him than meets the eye.

Ezra stood up and used the thing to deactivate the ray shield that was separating us.

"We'll have to rely almost entirely on stealth. If anyone spots us, they can use the metal bracelets to subdue us. Let's go. We don't have much time," he told me. Ezra moved towards the other ray shield that was connected to his cell. He deactivated it and began running through the cells, deactivating every ray shield in his way. I followed closely behind.

After passing a couple of cells, we reached Conner's. He blinked in surprise as we deactivated the ray shield.

"What, how, how are you, what are you doing here?" Conner stuttered.

"We're here to bust you out," Ezra explained. "You and all of the other prisoners."

"How are you deactivating the ray shields?" Conner asked.

"When Ezra was tortured, he swiped this thing from a stormtrooper. It deactivated ray shields," I explained. Conner frowned.

"Can I see it?" he asked while extending a hand. Ezra handed over the metal thing.

"I know what this is! It's a current disrupter!" Conner gasped.

"Isn't that a good thing?" I asked. Conner shook his head and pointed to a piece of metal on the end.

"It has a locator on the end," he said. "They already know we've escaped!"

Ezra reacted in a flash.

"Conner, stay here. Kimble, go back to your cell. With any luck I can make them think I acted alone," Ezra commanded.

"I can't let you take all the blame!" I protested. He grabbed my shoulders.

"The punishment will likely be death. They can't kill me. I'm too valuable. But they can kill you. Don't worry about me, I'll be fine!" he told me.

"How long has it been since you deactivated he ray shields?" Conner asked urgently.

"About two minutes," Ezra said, releasing my shoulders.

"The shields will come back online in roughly thirty seconds. You have to get back to your cells by then. If you don't . . ." Conner warned.

"Don't worry, I'll make sure your sister is back by then," Ezra promised.

"You mean I'll make sure you're back by then," I pointed out. "Don't think I forgot you were just tortured for information."

"I don't care who saves who, just go!" Conner shouted while shoving us towards our cells. We took off running. Ezra was slightly ahead of me. I could hear him counting as we ran.

"Ten seconds!" he said.

"We're not going to make it!" I gasped. Our cells were still hopelessly out of reach. Ezra stopped running and closed his eyes. I caught up to him.

"What are you doing?" I demanded. He stretched out a hand as a strange force lifted me into the air. I began spinning in a lazy circle.

"Uh, Ezra . . ?" I asked slowly. His eyes clenched shut. Suddenly I was shot across the rest of the hall and to my cell. The ray shields activated as I skidded to a stop on my cell floor before coming to a rest beside my cot. I stood up and glanced back towards Ezra. The ray shields blocked my view of him.

I could only hope that he had another plan up his sleeve.

Ezra's POV

As soon as the I got Kimble back to her cell, the ray shields activated. I placed a hand on my side and took a few panting breaths. Using the force had taken more out of me than I had guessed it would. But it would all be worth it if Conner and Kimble were safe.

The metal band on my wrist exploded with electrical waves of energy. I closed my eyes and attempted to use the force to drive away the pain. The only thing that seemed to help was thinking about the rebels, or thinking about Conner and Kimble.

The door to the cell I was in opened. The Inquisitor entered, along with several stormtroopers. He picked up the current disrupter and turned it over in his hands.

"Ezra Ezra Ezra," he said. "You're almost becoming more trouble than you're worth. I think we'll have to make some modifications to your security."

He held up something. All I could tell was that it was shiny and metallic before I passed out.

Torture and prisons can really take it out of you.