A Light in the Darkness (Star Wars Rebels)

Hauntings

Evelyn guided the shuttle closer to the forested moon's surface. Ezra held Switch in his arms as he looked out the viewport.

"There's a landing platform here," Evelyn said. "We can get help there while we contact the rebels."

"Are those cannons supposed to be facing us?" Ezra asked.

"They must think that we stole the shuttle," Evelyn said.

"Contact them using the transmission system!" Ezra told her. She activated the comm system and began speaking.

"This is Duchess Evelyn Kryze," Evelyn said. "Hold your fire."

There was no reply. Evelyn stopped trying.

"The transmission system must be malfunctioning," Evelyn decided.

"Let me try to contact the rebels," Ezra suggested. "Circle around again."

Ezra pressed a button on the console. Luckily he had memorized the emergency transmitter signal for the Ghost.

"Kanan, Hera, Zeb, Sabine, Chopper," Ezra began. "I'm with Evelyn and Switch. Some guy named Jared tried to kill Evelyn. We're hiding on Mandalor's moon. We need some help."

"Hold on!" Evelyn shouted, rolling the shuttle to the side. It wasn't enough to avoid the cannon fire. Red lights flashed in the shuttle.

"We're going down!" Ezra told her unnecessarily. "Aim for that open area!"

"You try steering this thing!" Evelyn growled in reply. The ground rapidly filled the viewport. The shuttle slammed into the ground, throwing its occupants around. There was a blast of sound, of metal tearing and crunching, and blackness swallowed everything.

Ezra opened his eyes. He was in an unfamiliar location. He couldn't recall how he had gotten there.

"This isn't you, Ezra!" Kanan's voice shouted from behind him. Ezra turned, but couldn't see Kanan. Everything was dissolving into a silvery mist. Kanan's voice had a slight echoing quality to it.

"Look at what you've become!" Kanan's voice continued. A creature appeared out of the mist in front of Ezra. Its amber eyes flashed as it lunged forward and attacked. Ezra stumbled back in horror as pain exploded inside of him.

His eyes flew open. Everything was dark, illuminated only by the red emergency lights from the shuttle. Switch was holding on to Evelyn. Evelyn was bent over Ezra, a tired and relieved look on her face. The pain from his vision hadn't faded. Evelyn's face swam in and out of focus.

"You scared me there," Evelyn said. Her voice sounded far away. "Are you with me?"

Ezra couldn't respond. His surroundings were fading.

"Don't you dare go towards the light," Evelyn warned. "I helped you start breathing once. Don't make me do it again."

Ezra's eyes closed and he fell asleep.

Evelyn saw Ezra's eyes closed and leaned forward worriedly. She relaxed when she saw that he was still breathing.

She stood up, wincing as a spike of pain jolted through her arm. She assumed it was broken, but couldn't be sure. Switch was just fine because Ezra had protected him during the crash. Evelyn didn't know what was wrong with Ezra yet.

When the shuttle had crashed, Evelyn had lost track of what was happening. She was certain that Ezra had shielded Switch with himself during the crash, but after that it was all a blur. When the shuttle had settled, the first thing Evelyn had done was check on Ezra and Switch. Switch had been fine, but Ezra hadn't been breathing. Thankfully, Evelyn had remembered how to help him start breathing again.

Evelyn left Ezra in the shuttle and opened the hatch. Their surroundings were dark. The air smelled wet and earthy. High above was a hole of light in the otherwise dark area.

When the shuttle had been shot down, it must have broken through the crust and into one of the many series of caves that riddled the moon's interior. The upside was that they were now safe from their attackers. The downside was that the cave walls would block any and all transmissions that they attempted to send.

Evelyn returned to Ezra's side. Switch was sitting quietly on one of the chairs. Ezra was still passed out. He was mumbling in his sleep.

"This isn't you . . ." Ezra was saying. Evelyn shrugged. He must have been dreaming. Evelyn wondered briefly whether he was dreaming about Kimble. She knew that Ezra and Kimble had been together before Kimble turned evil and tried to murder everyone. Then Evelyn decided that it didn't matter what he was dreaming, he needed help.

"We all need help," Evelyn said to herself with a slight smile.