5 | Hope Isn't Lost

Chapter 20 ༄ The Reason

Mouse woke up in a cell with a jolt and sighed.

He was alone, there was nothing with him, only empty walls.

Always alone. Mouse thought and began to pick at the duct tape on his arms, with a sigh, flopping down.

"Another bad spot isn't it, Mouse?" He talked to himself, standing up. "You've never really fit in, but you try."

Mouse worried for his friends, for Eights, hoping he is safe, for Freedom, the small boy who didn't deserve all of this and for Roe, his old lover who he just wanted happy.

He reached to his back pocket for cheese and felt fear grip him when he realized there was none left. I can't help if I can't work. He laid back down onto the floor, not wanting to lose hope.

Mouse did a quick calculation in his head estimating how much time he had left. Around a few hours, if I'm lucky. He hopped up renewed spirit inside him and ran over to the door and banging his fists on it.

"This won't be the end." He yelled in the direction of what he thought was a camera. "Because no matter what we won't lose. We won't give in"

༄

Sebrin turned off the screen that was showing her the little scared mouse, yelling at her and faced Eights, who was sitting across from her unconscious, tied to a chair.

She rolled her eyes and slapped him, waking him up.

He jolted awake in the chair, cursing when he realized he was tied down and looked up at Sebrin. " Let my friends go.What do you want?" He snapped at her. "What's your big plan?"

"Now why would I tell you that?" She leaned back in her chair. "I don't quite like you, you're trouble."

"You helped us out once, what's changed? At least tell me that." Eights tried to keep her talking, not wanting to give her a chance to focus on him or focus on hurting his friends. Maybe, just maybe he could convince her to let them go.

She opened her mouth to answer as someone pounded on the door.

"Sebrin!!" Mona yelled through the door, knocking pretty hard. "Sebrin!! You in there?"

She facepalmed. "Of course I'm in here, you can sense me with the force, remember?" She did a overdramatic sigh. "Just come in, but no talking to my prisoner." She set the ground rules before he came in.

Mona walked in, as soon as she gave him permission. "I was just wondering-" he cut off and looked at Eights. "Why is he here?"

"Why is any of us here? What is the meaning of life?" Eights combated, sassy. All he got from Mona was a small laugh.

"I told you not to talk to him." Sebrin snapped at the other sith in the room.

"Sorry." Mona put up his hands in surrender.

"What do you want?" Sebrin asked.

"Oh yeah..." He trailed off, seemingly nervous. "I was just wondering if you wanted to grab some food together is all, nothing too important or anything."

"I'm in the middle of something." She snapped, then rolled her eyes at him. "Out now, but maybe we can reschedule for another time." Sebrin waved her hand at him.

Mona took one last look at Eights before he walked out the door, hiding his smile from them both. Happy that she agreed.

"Now where were we?" Sebrin asked Eights as the door shut with an ominous almost final thud.

"You were about to tell me why you are doing all of this?" He reminded her, scared of what she might have planned for him if he didn't keep her talking.

"Why? The orphan from Tatooine asks me. Why did I join the dark side? Why am I working for the first order?"

Eights nodded, wishing she would just get to her point.

"You see the thing I've been striving for isn't to save the galaxy like the Jedi are trying to, it isn't even to rule the galaxy like the sith strive for. My goal is to change the galaxy because that's what people will remember, in this vase endless expanse of space, it's hard to get remembered because there are so many so many people." She shook her head, thinking about her long dead parents and every person she's ever shapeshifted into.

"Those people will never be remembered." Sebrin said, continuing her train of thought. "The Jedi are barely remembered now, even through they're still around. They've kept the peace in this galaxy for over 10,000 years, but now they are just myths, legends, long gone and forgotten. Everyone remembers the Empire, everyone will now remember The First Order. The First Order is different from the Empire in this way, we don't look to save the galaxy or to rule it. We look to change it." She brought her face closer to Eights. "So don't you and your puny band of misfits try and stop change. You can't stop change anymore than you can stop the clock from ticking."

She left her point hanging in the air, staring at Eights as if daring him to speak, after a few beats he spoke up a reply.

"You're right." He stated, simply.

Sebrin was a bit shocked, she tilted her head with a look that said keep talking. She even double checked his brain, but Tekara's presense wasn't there, he was acting on his own accords.

Eights took her silence as invitation to continue. "You're right and I understand about wanting to be remembered, wanting to change the galaxy for better or for worse." He gave a small smile, thinking of his past and his friends. "But I don't care about being remembered, because no matter what history will shape you into something you aren't. I would rather be remembered by my friends and family because they will only ever be the ones to truly to get to know me. I joined the Empire back when I was younger to make a difference, I deflected to join the Rebellion because I could do way more good there and I'm sitting in this chair right now tied in front of you because I wanted to save and help my friends. Sebrin, I think your problem is that you need some friends." He tried to hold in a laugh at her confused grimace. "You want to change the galaxy. Why don't you start, but making a change for one person's galaxy rather than the whole galaxy." Eights took a breath and looked back up at her.

Sebrin starred at him for a moment before slowly closing her eyes and shapeshifting out of Kanan's form into her true one. "A change to one person's galaxy, huh?" She asked as if wanting him to repeat it so she could remember.

He nodded, Eights had hoped there was still a humane part of Sebrin left that he could get to. He believed everyone should get a second chance, he was pretty sure he could forgive her for kidnapping Ezra, to be fair he did that himself once too.