5 | Hope Isn't Lost

Chapter 12 ༄ The Base

Mona rolled his eyes and sighed. "Are we there yet?" He complained, fidgeting in his seat.

"The part of the secret of the grid base is the off the grid part." Sebrin rolled her eyes. "We'll be there in just another hour."

Mona sighed again and Tekara looked up from mediating from the back off the cockpit. "Can you two keep it down?" He growled.

"Yeah." Mona said. "Don't get so worked up." Tekara briefly force choked him and stopped after a few seconds. Mona rubbed his neck and mumbled complaint.

"What was that?" Tekara asked.

"Nothing." Mona mumbled.

"I can't hear you."

"It was nothing, Tekara." Mona said, louder that time. Tekara seemed to be satisfied and went back to his meditating.

Eights was in the back of the ship trying to make waffles, but since they didn't have a kitchen on the ship that was proving impossible.

The three sat in silence from then on until they reached the base.

༄

"Jones!" Thrawn said into his commlink.

"Yes sir." Jones commed back, and he heard things clank to the floor as she reached for the commlink.

"How's the research going?" He asked, leaning back in his chair on one of the few star destroyers left in the galaxy, but that was beginning to change.

"We have hit another.... um roadblock." Jones answered, nervous.

"What did I say about roadblocks Jones?" Thrawn warned.

"To figure them out, yes I know sir." She answered. "But we don't have enough resources to continue the research."

"Well find some, you are the head of this project and I trust your judgement." He ordered. "You have the right motivation to get this done, and I am watching you."

"I know sir." She glanced up at the camera in her workroom. "I'll figure it out, I always do."

"That's why you're here." He smiled to himself. "Now get it done."

"Yes sir, Grand Admiral Thrawn." She responded and breathed a sigh of relief when he hung up. "What did I get myself caught up with?"  She frowned and got back to work.

༄

"Always with the cold dreary planets." Tekara observed as they touched down on Starkiller base.

"Yeah..." Eights agreed and threw on a coat.

Mona grabbed his cloak and put it over his robes. Tekara and Sebrin did the same and they all stepped into the hanger bay.

"Yeah." Mona agreed as well.

"So where are we headed to?" Tekara asked Mona, assuming he knew the most about the base.

"One of the meeting rooms, there is someone who would like to meet you." Sebrin piped up and lead the way. The rest of them followed in silence down the corridors.

Tekara could sense thousands of people on the base, not a lot were up and about. They were all mostly in rooms, working on weapon and ship designs, he picked up. Some appeared to not be working on their own free will as well, working more as captives than as slaves.

They reached a door and Sebrin pulled out a code cylinder from her back pocket, she put it into the hole and the door soon slid opened after reading it. She gestured for them all to come inside, Mona went in first followed by Tekara, then Eights.

Eights was looking around confused, he didn't know exactly why he decided to join them yet, but he felt like he made the right choice in doing so. He wanted to shrug off his doubts for joining him and go with the flow, but something or someone was telling him different.

They all grabbed a seat and Sebrin went over to a holoprojector and two faces appeared in front of them in an eerily blue light. One was a familiar red eyed face and the other was a cloaked figure Tekara had never seen before, but even though the projector he sensed much darkness emitting from under that cloak.

"Good job." Thrawn commented as he saw Tekara in the room, addressing Sebrin and Mona. "You have succeeded in your mission." He eyed Eights with suspicion, but didn't comment. "Wait for future instruction." He cast a sideways look at the other figure and cut his connection, obviously having more important stuff to take care of.

"I assume he remembers." The other figure spoke in a raspy voice, it appeared the dark side user was starting to take his toll from using the dark side.

Sebrin nodded and the figure leaned his head against his hand.

"Good, so you broke-" The figure started, but Tekara cut him off.

"Excuse me if I may." He cast a look at Eights. "I have a question."

The figured stared at him for a second, wondering who this man was to interrupt him. "You may." He said after a moment.

"I don't mean to correct you, but I was already and always broken." Tekara started.

"I was broken when the Empire made me think I killed my- I killed Kanan. I have been broken ever sense then, I tried to fill in the cracks with love, with friendship and I was never successful, it was probably the way I preceded to try and fill those cracks in. Thrawn saw to it that those cracks would deepen and never fill in. Thrawn is smart, he is cunning and calculating." He said, with a bit of awe in his voice. "He wouldn't of done those things if he didn't have a reason. I assume bringing me here was his idea again and I'm wondering why. I can't be loyal to something without knowing why."

Sebrin looked at Tekara dumbstruck thinking how does he have the guts to just speak his mind like that.

The figure thought for a moment. "Sebrin, Mona, and Eights, you are dismissed."

Sebrin wanted to complain, but thought better of it. She walked out with Eights and Mona to go do who knows what.

Tekara faced the figure. "I'm waiting." He said once the door closed and his friend and his acquaintances had walked down the hallway.

"Thrawn thought you would be perfect for helping me train a new generation of dark side users, the Knights of Ren." The figure said, slowly. "After some persuasion of course."

Tekara thought for a moment. "What if I don't do it?" He said.

"Then you and everyone you love don't have long to live." The figure threatened, and Ezra felt something in his gut.

༄

"Mom!" Freedom yelled, worried as his mother began to claw at her neck, falling onto the floor, in the middle of making breakfast. Freedom ran over to her and tried to figure out what to do. "Mom! What's going on?"

Sabine tried to speak, but was quickly losing the breath in her lungs.

༄

"That feeling, that's me force choking your wife." It explained and Tekara growled back at him, but was relieved when he felt it stop.

"I don't play games here, Tekara." The figure said. "I suggest you don't try to either." With that the figure cut the holo connection leaving Tekara and Ezra alone to his thoughts and a very dark presence in the room the holo had once inhabited.