5 | Hope Isn't Lost

Chapter 10 ༄ Ezra

Tel and Eights reached the farm just as the sun began to set.

"I don't like this we should come back tomorrow!" Tel protested and put his hands on his hips.

"Shhhhh!" Eights shushed him, they had left their speeder a couple of yards away and were sneaking up on the farm.

"No ones even home." Tel said, but even still whispered. "And this is creepy."

"Well if you aren't man enough to go check out some old farm, then you can wait back in the speeder." Eights whispered back.

"I'm more than man enough." Tel mumbled in complaint.

"Then let's go." Eights grabbed Tel's hand and dragged him to one of the broken windows of the main building. Eights put a finger to his lips, shushing Tel, when he heard voices inside.

"Let's kick this popsicle stand." Kanan... no Sebrin, Eights corrected, said. What was up with her? He thought. I thought she promised not to be Kanan anymore.

"I agree." Another voice said. "There isn't anything left here for us to do here. I think we're ready to head back to the base. You sure you ready, Tekara?"

Tel gave Eights a puzzled look, and Eights just put his finger to his lips, trying to hide his scared expression.

"I'm ready, whenever you guys are." Eights heard Ezra say, and his heart skipped a beat.

"We better go now, too many people know what we look like now." The unknown voice added. "We can't risk the cause."

"Good idea." Sebrin inputted. "I'll  start up the ship and we can head back." Tel and Eights heard her footsteps, leaving the room.

Eights grabbed his gun, and was about to charge in when Tel put a hand on his shoulder.

His face said 'we need a plan and running in there isn't a plan'

Eights nodded, realizing Tel was right and put his gun up. Them two running up against three force users, wasn't the best odds.

Tel did some very confusing hand gestures with his arms and then nodded, as if to ask if Eights got it.

Eights shook his head and Tel whispered in a voice that was barely audible. "I'll go sabotage their ship, you try to stun as many people as you can before they realize we're hear."

Eights mouth made an 'O' shape as if to say, why didn't he think of that.

Tel rolled his eyes and started to sneak off to the ship. Eights watched him go, then after a couple of beats he pulled himself up so he could see inside the window. He could see Ezra and a cloaked figure standing in the middle of the room. Pulling his blaster, Eights prepared to stun the figure beside him.

Ezra and the figure looked Eights' way as soon as they heard movement, but they were just a second too late. Eights was able to stun the figure beside Ezra, before ducking back down to avoid Ezra's gaze. He knew something was going on here, to not immediately trust his friend.

Eights heard a loud curse word from beyond the house, and a thump. Eights prayed that it was Sebrin that went down and not Tel. His prayers were answered as Tel waved in victory from the top of the ship, holding what was apparently part of the engines.

Eights looked back into the house, only to see Ezra was gone, but the cloak figure he stunned was still laying unconscious. He was about to go find Ezra when he turned and it appeared Ezra already found him.

༄

Tel smirked as he pulled out the main energy core for the ships engines. It was an odd model Tel had never seen before, but he figured out how to take it apart regardless.

He heard running from behind him and without even looking stunned Sebrin, but not before she could drop a loud kriff bomb on him.

"Bull's eye!" He celebrated, and climbed up into the roof and waved to Eights to tell him everything went ok.

༄

Tekara saw, the young Sith, Mona go down before either of them had a chance to fathom what was going on. He looked out the window towards where the shot had come and saw a familiar tuff of red hair, follow d by a very familiar train of thought.

"Eights." He mumbled and ran out of the room to go find him. He found Eights still at the window where he shot Mona at and snuck up on him from behind, jump scaring him, producing a very high pitched yelp from Eights.

"What are you doing here?" Tekara filled his voice with venom, and put his hands on his hips. "Just assume I'm dead and mourn me like a normal person."

"I'm not a normal person." Eights protested, and then paused for a second. "You remember?!" Eights had just safely assumed, they had did something with his memory again.

"Yes they messed with my mind at first, but I got my past back, if I wanted it or not." He rolled his bionic eyes and said.

"So you're coming back, right?" Eights asked, wanting to get Ezra on their speeder as quickly as possible in fear that the others would wake up.

"I can't." He said, two words and all of Eights' hope fell to the floor. "I finally accepted my destiny, I can't escape it." Ezra said, and put a hand on Eights' shoulder. "Move on Eights, tell Sabine to move on for me." He gave Eights a sad smile. "I won't hurt you guys, I promise you right now I will never hurt my friends or my family."

"But Sebrin and Mona opened my eyes to the truth, a truth I have been lying to myself about for two decades, I'm done fighting. This..." Tekara gestured to himself, dressed all in black with a lightsaber on his belt. "This is me. I'm not sorry for my actions, I'm not sorry about my past."

Eights didn't know what to feel, he wanted to scream, he wanted to cry, he wanted to slap the Sith right out of Ezra, but there was something in his mind that was preventing all of that.

Tekara sighed and took his hand off Eights' shoulder. "So are you going to leave me alone or join me?" He whispered.

"I don't like either of those options." Eights crossed his arms and reached for his stunner.

"You going to leave or join me?" Tekara said, louder and more authoritative than the last time.

"I'm going to join you." Eights said, surprised by his own words, but felt his grip on what was right and what was wrong all fading away.

"Once a solider, always a solider." Tekara smiled at his old friend. "There are some people, I want to introduce you to."