From an ember came a spark. From that spark came a flame. And from that flame came unquenchable fire, burning across the galaxy.
Hope is ablaze, and dissidence is springing up everywhere from Core to the Outer Rim. But there are those who would seek...
The moment Ezra caught sight of the tall pillar of smoke rising from TarkinTown, he was hit with a wave of disjointed emotions – fear, malice, panic – that didn't belong to him. He knew that something had gone horribly wrong.
Leaving himself no time to think things through or give anyone the chance to stop him, he climbed aboard one of the speeder bikes parked outside Lando's base of operations and hit the gas.
The ride was short, but even so, Ezra's worries prolonged the journey. Was anyone still there? What had happened to everyone, or was happening? Was he in time to help anyone, or was he too late?
All of his questions were answered simultaneously with one horrifying reality: TarkinTown was a smoldering ruin; nothing more than ashes, smoke and cooling embers. He couldn't sense any signs of life with the Force, nor could he see any movement other than the occasional collapse of a beam or a sudden flare of sparks, even with his binoculars.
A moment later, a speeder pulled up behind him. He recognized Kanan's familiar presence immediately, and so he spoke: "There's no one. They're all... gone."
"They're prisoners of the Empire now," Kanan intoned solemnly.
"And all I sense is evil... Why would they burn TarkinTown?"
He sighed. "To spread fear; make us afraid. The people who lived here just got caught in the middle."
"This happened because of us?" Ezra looked up at the older man's serious features, hoping to find a negation there.
But he wasn't about to get his wish. "There's a cost for any action we take now, Ezra. Things are getting worse, just as they did back when I was your age... But back then, there were ten thousand Jedi Knights protecting the galaxy. Now..."
"There's just you and me."
"Against an Empire."
"We can fight!" he exclaimed determinedly. "We have allies! We've got Commander Sato, and Senator Organa, and– and we've got Teri! He can even use a lightsaber, just like us. They're all on our side."
"Do you understand what you're saying? You saw what we're up against." He made a wide gesture with one arm to the wrecked village. "Look!"
"I'm not afraid," he said, walking back to his speeder.
As Kanan gazed out at the smoke spiraling up into the sky, he spoke again, but so quietly Ezra almost didn't catch it: "That's what worries me."
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"Fulcrum to Cavalier. Cavalier, do you copy?"
The sound of the familiar voice over the comlink gave the young woman standing nearby pause. Mumbling a polite "Excuse me" to the old man dressed in faded clothes standing before her, she made her way towards the origins of the sound: the transponder on her sleek blue A-wing fighter.
