After ✔️

"Brother."

I m p e r i a l  P r i s o n 2 2 3 ,  h a n g a r   f l o o r  

Vyi sat slumped against the wall, his hands cuffed in front of him. In front of him Adali, still holding his code cylinder, was calling for backup.

Suddenly she slammed her hands onto the control panel, looking angry. "Where are they?" she hissed, probably to herself, but Vyi heard it all the same.

If her backup isn't responding... the others are okay.

Well... not for long.

His mind was still racing for a way to get the cylinder back from the admiral but he was stumped. Defeated. There was no way out this time and he could feel the hopelessness overwhelming him.

Suddenly the door slid open and someone entered. Vyi looked up, almost hopeful. Had someone come for him?

His eyes landed on a familiar face. But it wasn't Jai or Sabine or Tristan or Ketsu or Ahsoka. It was a dead man. Someone who was supposed to be gone and buried.

"You're the only one left?" Adali asked, sounding irritated.

"Apparently," Waylen Torwyn snapped back, his voice distorted and darkened with anger and malice. Vyi's breath caught in his throat as he stared in dim shock and horror.

His green eyes were a corrupted yellow, shining with untold rage. His skin was so pale it almost seemed grey, so different from the mixed patches of human and green Vyi was used to (their father had always had a thing for green aliens).

Because that was his brother there, half brother anyway, but he was supposed to be dead, he had died years ago, but he was standing here so different Vyi could barely recognize him.

"I apprehended this one attempting to shut down the power," Adali jabbed a thumb towards him. "Not sure where the others are. Kiyfi and Lyz aren't responding to comms."

And then, oh no, Waylen's attention was turned to Vyi and he froze in the same shock Vyi felt.

But there was no reaction. He was already turning away from Vyi back towards the admiral. "Go find your useless coworkers. I'll stay here. I have unfinished business with the Jedi."

"Oh, so you lost too?" Adali raised an eyebrow. "Who's the useless one now?"

Waylen raised a hand as if he was going to strike her, but she didn't seem overly concerned. After a moment he dropped his hand back to his side and the admiral tossed him the code cylinder.

"Hang onto that," she said, "if you can even manage a simple task like that."

Then she was gone, and it was just Vyi and Waylen, just him and his brother.

"Waylen?" he spoke up, tentative. He didn't know what else to do. But his brother was here now, maybe now he could get his cylinder back and finish the mission-

"That's not my name," he cut him off. Vyi paused, briefly wondering if he had the wrong person after all. It would make sense. Waylen was supposed to be dead and this person in front of him barely seemed to be his brother.

Corrupted. That was the word that came to his mind. There was a darkness following Waylen, trailing him and blackening the room. 

"What happened to you?" Vyi finally whispered. "You're supposed to be dead."

"Is that what they told you?" he asked, turning to face him. "That I was dead?" This being of darkness began to laugh. "As if they could kill me even if they wanted to." There was a certain crazed look in his eyes. "I've been rotting in this star forsaken prison for so long I can't remember the years. They locked me away because they were terrified of what I was."

"I'm not scared," Vyi replied.

"You should be. You don't know what I am," his brother held up the code cylinder in his hand. "You need this to complete your mission?"

Vyi didn't move.

Waylen crushed it in his hand and Vyi flinched, staring in shock. His code cylinder, the last thing he had of his father, of his life...

"This is how easy it is for me to take a life. Just like that." Waylen dropped the pieces onto the ground and Vyi watched in mute horror as they hit the ground. "You call me by a dead name. I am the Inquisitor and the Empire will fall to a darkness even they can't control. They could never control me. Don't you remember?"

Vyi couldn't pay attention anymore. All he could do was stare at the remnants of the cylinder, shattered on the ground, thinking the same thing over and over again. We lost. Its gone. We'll be stuck on this prison and we're all going to die.

"Is that what you're going to do? Kill me?" Vyi gathered the courage to look up at meet the Inquisitor's eyes.

"Depends on what kind of mood Kalar is in," the Inquisitor looked disinterested. "Some of you he might want alive, but I'm sure he wouldn't object to letting me kill the Jedi and his annoying pest of a Mandalorian."

Sabine. Ezra? Did she find him? Suddenly, hope sparked inside of him. The code cylinder wasn't the end. There was another way he could shut down the station, another way they could get out of here, because as long as there was hope there was always another way.

"I sense it. The light growing in you. Did something change about your situation that I should know about?" Waylen glanced down at him.

"Oh, a lot has changed," another voice added. Both of their heads whipped around to see Jai Kell standing in the doorway, holding a gun pointed right at the Inquisitor. "One such thing: I'm here and I'm really feeling like kicking you butt."