Battle for Earth

The extra mile

It was a few hours until they entered the heart of New York City. Ezra had somewhat gotten out of his petrified state and looked in wonder at the lights and other cars. Kanan was quite frustrated with the inner-city traffic as it seemed they hardly moved in some places. At a stop light, the light had turned green and yet they idled in the lane. They were at the light so long, Kanan turned the car off to conserve gas.

"Come on! Move!" Kanan shouted.

The responses he got were filled with swear words and Rae covered Ezra's ears. Kanan pounded his head on the steering wheel as they remained stationary.

"Welcome to Earth," Rae chuckled as she removed her hands from Ezra's ears.

Letting out a sigh, Kanan stated, "This planet is crazy."

As the line of traffic moved forward, Kanan turned the car back on. The car sputtered and the lights flickered as they struggled to stay on. The car let out one last moan and a sigh as it turned completely off.

"Oh no..." Kanan said under his breath.

There was a line of livid New Yorkers behind them blaring their horns and yelling at them. Kanan put his scarf on his face as he knew it was a little chilly outside and got out of the car. Soon followed Ezra and Rae; they too put on their scarves.

Kanan waved the traffic for them to go around them and they did. Often getting rude hand gestures as they rolled his eyes as he saw this and turned to the two teens. Soon, a man walking up to them caught his attention.

"Hey, ya broke down or somethin'?" the man asked. Having a similar accent to Lando Calrissian."You may want to move your car before someone loses their temper. You know people these days."

"Sadly, I do," commented Kanan.

"Can you help us, sir?" Ezra asked.

"It looks like ya got a dead battery by the way you tried to turn your car on and it died off like that. Probably because of the cold. You can just get it replaced it at any place really, there's one up the street. It's real easy to spot."

"Alright, how do you expect us to get it there?" Rae asked.

"I'll help you push it to the corner up here. From there you just turn and go straight until you see it," explained the man.

"Thanks," Kanan thanked as he, the man, his Padawan, and Rae began to push the back of the car so it rolled down the street, near to the curb so others could pass.

Standing next to the man in the thick coat, Ezra asked, "Sir, if you don't mind me asking, why are you being so nice?"

"It's Christmas. We all need to help each other out once and awhile," the man told.

Soon, they made it to the corner where the man stopped.

"Alright, I gotta get back. Merry Christmas to y'all," the man said and went in the opposite direction.

"Merry Christmas to you too," Rae said.

Ezra turned to Rae as they continued to push the car down the slightly less crowded road, he questioned, "What's Christmas?"

"It's a holiday celebrated by Athena's religion," explained Rae as they continued down the road.

Athena walked down the busy streets of New York as she followed the directions she was given. Abigail had memorized almost every street there was in the center of New York City, being so young and having such a thirst for knowledge. Athena's feet lead her down a road slightly less populated than others that was filled with apartment buildings and some small businesses.

She soon turned into a shop that was on the very end of the road on a corner. As she looked around, she felt the authentic vibe the architecture she hadn't felt in forever. There was something about the buildings around her that gave her that feeling that only New York could give a person.

Inside the shop there were several cars lifted in the air with machines. There was a lot of room in the garage. Athena walked into the shop, attracting as little attention as possible. Athena felt something odd in the Force, it was familiar...but strange. It was like a word or name long forgotten just on the tip of her tongue. She just couldn't figure it out.

Athena looked to see a group of people conversing in front of a 2005 Honda Accord. Athena narrowed her eyes as she looked at the figures. There was two men that were fairly tall that blocked most of the view for the smaller two figures. She couldn't tell the facial features of the men as the one wearing a green sweater had a scarf over most of his face and the other man had a bandana over his face.

Athena hid herself slightly behind a car and watched the two men talk. There was something familiar about the group, but she couldn't see them too well as they stood on the other end of the garage.

Soon Athena squinted her eyes and saw a glowing teal color come from the one man's wrist. Athena then began to move much closer to the group. The other man noticed the glowing bracelet and spoke in a harsh voice.

"Where'd you get that bracelet?"

"Sir, look-" the one man pulled off his scarf, revealing his face.

The other man seemed shocked and froze. He looked as if he had seen a ghost with the expression in his eyes. The man pulled off his bandana and slowly asked.

"C-Caleb?"

Athena wasn't close enough to see either of the men's actual facial features until a moment after the man said that name. She froze in her tracks as she could see that it was her bracelet that was glowing on her brother's wrist. And the man wearing the bandana was a face she had last seen in a holographic video. Athena gasped and the heads of the group turned to her. Athena now could tell that Ezra and Rae were there too.

Kanan blinked a couple times and he stepped in the direction of his sister, "Syla?"

Athena panicked and ran as fast as she could out of the shop and down the road. She soon heard the footsteps of Kanan's running behind her. He soon caught up with little sister and grabbed each of her arms tightly and turned her to face him.

She seemed so starved since the last time Kanan had seen her. She had this hurt in her eyes that he'd never really seen so much before. Her arms felt so fragile and frail as he held her to face him. Her face seemed hallowed mixed with a sense of hardened and she seemed to want to cry. Kanan wrapped his arms around his little sister. Athena let out a couple shaky breaths as she seemed scared as she stood there, frozen.

Kanan soon saw his Padawan, Rae, and the man that had just grabbed his wrist come up by them. Kanan looked over to the mechanic and gave him a half-smirk, filled with unsurety and yet a little bit of appreciation.

Kanan let go of his sister and she looked over to see her father standing there with an unsure look on his face. Almost as if he were saying 'Sorry'.He took a step towards her and she took one step backwards as she seemed to be unsure herself. Onthant slightly frowned and bit the inside of his lip as he seemed saddened.

The man looked near exact to Kanan. Having brown hair even in a ponytail, though it was slightly longer than Kanan's and had much more grey in his hair. He wore a black hoodie with long jeans that had patches of oil all over them. The fact he looked to be in his early to mid-fifties and had ice blue eyes was the only big factor that differed from Kanan. The nose was near identical to Kanan's; flat as if he had gotten into plenty of fist fights. His face was even the same long, narrow face Kanan had. There was no doubt that he was Onthant Solarburn from the way he looked, to his voice, to almost everything.

Kanan looked down at his sister and gave her an assuring nod. Athena looked over to Onthant and he knelt down on his knee and sighed.

"I'm sorry."

He held out his arms towards the teen as her green eyes were filled with unsurety and fear. She slightly moved forward, just enough so Onthant could gently hug his daughter he hadn't seen in what seemed centuries. She still seemed unsure whether to hug back or not as she stood hug soon dispersed when Onthant stood and Athena let go.