Hearts of Kyber
a/n: Hello lovely readers!! I’ve been working on this work for the last couple months (and especially the last couple days). It has been an absolute pleasure working with these amazing artists who are astounding. I hope you love what we’ve put together!!
Corporalki: @kazandthecrows
Materialki: @anubem (art link) @generalstarkov (art link) @pijoshi (art link) @mitdemadlerimherzen (art link | art link 2) @erandraws (art link) @nannadoodles (art link)
Summary: When an Imperial pilot defects, the Rebellion sends its best spies to find out what he knows. They discover the existence of a planet-destroying weapon known as the Death Star and a scientist who holds the secrets to its only weaknesses. Guided by the pilot, Wylan, and a former storm trooper, Matthias, Kaz Brekker leads a team to uncover the secret that can save the Rebellion before it’s crushed for good.
A Grishaverse Rogue One AU for the Grishaverse Big Bang 2021
Read on AO3 or below the cut
Part I
Inej barely remembers those early days with her family living in the heart of a city. She gets flashes of memories - playing with dolls, toddling after her father, parties full of boring adults who couldn’t care less about her. What she thinks of when she remembers her family is what came after: the travelling band of performers they joined. It’s there that she felt comfortable. The troupe was her family: they encouraged her, taught her tricks of the trade, and were the ones who trained her as an acrobat. They travelled from system to system, performing in cities and small villages alike, on hot planets and cold. She had careful rules to follow about her interactions whenever they landed.
Despite all the restrictions, she remembers feeling carefree. The caravan was her domain and she was empress. The day her life changed was just like any other. She remembers her mother running a hand over her hair, whispering that they were going down into town. Her sleepy head full of cotton can’t remember her exact words, just the feeling of warmth, the comfort of routine. Only recently - on her eighth birthday - had she earned the right to sleep in instead of joining her parents’ customary outing.
Sometimes in her waking hours, she forgets that happened years ago and in her half-waking state she thinks she can still hear her mother’s soothing whisper and her father patting her hand as he tucks her treasured stuffed bear under the blankets of her bed so she has company.
Inej’s eyes fly open as the harsh lights of simulated daylight jolt her unrelentingly from her sleep into the cold reality of her life.
She rolls up to a seated position and runs her arm over her sleepy face. She makes no effort to make herself presentable and glares at her arm with the repulsive peacock feather tattoo. It’s been eight years since that morning when her whole life burned around her, her whole extended family vanished in the blink of an eye and she was sold into the slave markets of the Hutts before she was even aware what that meant.
“Inej Ghafa, the mistress will see you now,” a mechanical voice says over the speaker hidden in her room. Luxurious drapes and curtains cover the mechanical aspects of the room, but can’t hide the prison-like nature of a room without windows in a pleasure house. This has always been Inej’s cage.
Of course, to the Empire, this isn’t slavery. She has an indenture that she’s working off, this was a choice she made. Inej stands. The words are bullshit. It’s a pretty story told by those who believe themselves to be above such terrible things just because they use different words. Inej is old enough to know what happens in the different rooms of the pleasure house she currently calls home, but still too young to be expected to participate fully. But she knows her days are numbered.
Girls in this trade grow up quickly. She’s still a tease, only suffering a a groping hand here, a leer there, the occasional bit of voyeurism which makes her skin prickle and means she can never feel comfortable in any room, including her own.
Inej dresses with practiced movements in the ridiculous trappings Madam Helene requires. There are far too many bells on the outfit, too many dangling bits that can tangle for it to really be the exotic outfit Helene claims the clients want. She hates the way the silk feels against her skin when it used to mean the soothing comfort of performance attire.
For now, her role is to just be an ornamentation for the pleasure house, but madame makes sure she knows what could happen the moment she steps a toe out of line. She’s not above selling Inej off before her time, the cost of which would do nothing to lower the exorbitant cost of her supposed indenture.
Inej keeps her head down and walks quickly to the main room. In the early hours, there are few patrons who might be looking for a companion, but Inej has learned to keep her head down in any case. She’s short and skinny - underdeveloped to most tastes - so aren’t many interested in her and the ones that are she should avoid with even more care.
There’s a boy in the room with Helene: a boy with a familiar cane. Inej is so surprised to see him that she forgets to look away meekly when his dark eyes meet hers. She tilts her head in curiosity. Last she saw, he was slipping out of a back hallway which she knew allowed Helene to eavesdrop on clients as they spent the night with girls, or that she offered to well-paying customers who took pleasure from that sort of thing.
He looks just as cold as he did that night, but she vividly remembers the surprise in his eyes when she spoke from over his shoulder. He wasn’t a regular customer at the brothel but he was on good terms with a couple members of the staff and she’d seen him exchange kruge for information on more than one occasion. Last she saw him, she’d offered him help.
“Ah, there’s my little Suli Lioness.” Madam Helene smiles benevolently, but her perfume chokes Inej as she wraps an arm around her. “Inej, do you know who this is?”
“They call him Dirtyhands,” she answers, voice proper and meek as Helene likes. All the other girls have told her not to ask questions any time she tries to find out more. She can’t help but wonder if offering herself to him was a mistake, but she knows this place will kill her if she doesn’t find a way out.
“Hmm…,” Madame hums. She turns to the boy with a set face and Inej’s chest tightens in apprehension. “I’m afraid your offer will not be accepted, Mr. Brekker. Inej is precious to me.” Her bejeweled fingers dig into Inej’s shoulder. “I couldn’t possibly part with her.”
The boy raises an impeccable eyebrow. “I was under the impression our negotiations were finalized.”
Helene releases an exaggerated sigh. “Oh, you silly boy. Did you know the Empire has offered quite the reward for you?”
Inej tenses. She knows that Madame is fickle in her alliances, but she’s never openly invited storm troopers into her house: they don’t pay well.
“You’d better run, little boy, if you want to get out of here before they can grab you.”
Two doors into the main room slide open with a whoosh of air to reveal armored bodies with blasters levelled at the boy. Inej’s quick eyes note that the door closest to Brekker has no guard, instead being left clear if he wants to escape. If she were him, she would be running but instead he looks bored as he stares back at Madame. He lifts his wrist to check his time piece, an old fashioned analog device that hasn’t been used in decades.
There’s a pulse of static followed by a volley of blaster shots. Inej jerks down out of the way but is shocked to see that none of the shots were aimed at them.
“You should have taken the money, Helene,” the boy shaking space dust from his jacket. “We could have continued this lucrative partnership.”
Madame pales and looks around at the rumpled crew of men who are all standing around. Most have holstered their guns, but a tall dark-skinned man walks up to them and gestures Helene back away from Inej. Madame drops her grip as if she can’t get her distance fast enough. She turns to the boy.
“Please! You have to understand, the troopers would have killed me if I didn’t.”
The boy looks at her impassively before shrugging. “Per Haskell is still willing to buy out her indenture. I’m sure we can agree on a more reasonable price.”
Inej snorts. She can’t help it. They’re literally haggling over the price of her indenture after not killing one another. Frankly, it’s ridiculous. The boy looks over at her. Although his face is a mask which reveals no secrets, Inej sees a hint of amusement lurking in his dark eyes before he focuses again on Madame Helene.
“Congratulations,” the dark-skinned man who shooed Madame Helene away says, leaning down to her, even as his eyes stay on the boy and madam. “You’re being rescued.”
She looks around at the rag tag group she’s now willing to bet are Rebellion spies and wonders if this will actually be any better. Beyond them, she spots a couple of Helene’s girls with their bloodshot eyes, thin skin and haunted looks. It’s enough to remind her that is it. This is what she wants: a chance to save her father and get revenge on the Empire which has caused her so much pain.
Inej straightens as much as she can. It looks like she’s joining the rebellion.
...
Three years later…
“You ever wonder if Kaz is actually a demon?” Jesper asks speculatively. He points his blaster to the sky and stares down the barrel. It’s in the best possible order he can make it. The sights are calibrated, the lazer refined and the trigger pull smooth. He couldn’t ask for a better weapon.
Other than it’s partner, which is still in his holster and also freshly taken care of.
“You’re supposed to be watching his back, Jesper,” the Wraith’s voice reminds him, tinged with annoyance.
“Yeah, yeah,” he mutters, rolling over so he can look over the side of the building to where Kaz is meeting with his contact. “You know, I’m still not sure why all three of us need to be here for one pilot.”
“If you want, we can always switch positions,” Inej offers. “You can play get-away pilot.”
Jesper snorts as he lines up his sight again. “Yeah, right. That’s all yours, spider. Besides we needed the sniper position here, remember?”
There’s a long suffering sigh over the radio and Jesper grins. Through the scope his eyes bounce to Kaz. He can’t see his face, but Jesper knows he’s got that stone face of annoyance, which, as it turns out, is not so different from his normal ambivalent face except that it includes the slight twitching of the vein at his temple.
Inej claims he’s seeing things, that it’s all in Jesper’s head. According to her, Kaz’s tell has to do with his eyes or some other sappy thing like that because they’re both secretly in love with each other. Jesper thinks they’re both idiots and he likes to think that one day, if he makes a bad enough joke or an inappropriate enough comment, that vein on Kaz’s temple is going to burst.
He thinks it's good to have goals like that. It makes the dirty work they do for the Rebellion more palatable.
“I still think it would be better to have me on the ground,” Inej grumbles. “You know I’m no good at the piloting stuff.”
“You’re the one who wanted to come. If I recall, Per Haskell offered you leave and instead you came here.” Jesper notices the stiffening of Kaz’s shoulders. His informant is still calm, if a little jumpy-looking, so he knows that’s not the source of the tension. His eyes scan the street and see nothing alarming.
Jesper hasn’t asked but he knows there’s something going on here that they’re not sharing. Inej has been wound tight since they started to hear rumors of an Imperial weapon strong enough to take out a planet. While it was still just a rumor, Kaz and Inej were chasing the thread down with a vengeance. It’s what brought them back to this city world where they had found Inej three years ago.
Now if only his sneaky little cohorts would share the secret with him. That would be great.
Jesper grumbles to himself. Like that would ever happen. He looks through the scope of his rifle. The tell tale of white of stormtrooper armor catches his eye and Jesper focuses on the location. The odd trooper presence in a city like this isn’t necessarily something to make note of. It happens on occasion, but this is a pair and he can spot another pair making their way in what looks to his eyes like search patterns.
“Heads up, Kaz. We might have company.” Jesper says as he keeps an eye on the soldiers. “Moving in pairs. Looks like a search pattern.”
They’re too far away to hear the words that are spoken, but Jesper can guess what it is from here: “Hey! You there!”
He watches as Kaz drags their contact into an alley as the storm troopers converge from two directions.
“I’ve lost sight of you, Kaz.” Jesper sights the troopers through his scope and taps a finger against the trigger. Killing troopers brings more attention than Kaz likes. They work in secret. “Exit strategy?”
Through Kaz’s comm he hears the panicked pleas of Kaz’s contact swiftly silenced by a laser bolt. He grimaces at the additional body count as Kaz’s gravelly voice comes over the comm.
“I’ve got it. Jesper, join Inej. Meet me at the rendezvous point.”
He takes one last look at the troopers closing in on the alley and then stands. If Kaz needed help, he would ask. The man had a thousand and one plans. There’s no way he didn’t account for a way out of this trap. It sounds like he’s probably climbing, a feat considering his bum leg from when he landed on it wrong a couple years back and it never healed properly.
“You know, for once I’d like one of these missions to go smoothly,” Jesper mutters under his breath as he hightails it back to the ship. He stows his blaster and keeps it from sight as he moves through the crowds. Seedy cities have been a second home to him for years, since he left the Imperial flight academy, if he’s being honest. He liked the anonymity the city gave him. It always felt better than the emptiness of the moisture farm he grew up on. He hates the heat and the sand.
Oh, God, the sand.
He walks aboard the ship with the swagger of a drunk who won big at the betting table. He nods jovially to those he passes. There are a couple glances down to the pistols at his waist, but that’s normal on a large port like this one. Intergalactic travel to major cities has always been fraught with trouble and this one isn’t especially savory. They don’t have the clearance for savory.
Inej sits on the ramp of the ship, sprawled out across it like a cat. She opens her eyes as he arrives and stretches. “Ready to go?”
“Shouldn’t the get away pilot be ready to run?” Jesper teases as they walk up into the ship and Inej diverts to the cockpit, starting the take off procedure.
“I spent the last hour bemoaning my terrible coworker who insists on gambling at each port and always staggers back drunk, occasionally with unexpected company. I’ve already got tower clearance to leave. And taking off won’t set any red flags with the Empire so we’re clear.”
Jesper drops into the copilot chair as Inej goes through engine checks. “You did all that?”
“You’re not the only one capable of sweet talking people, Fahey.” She shoots him a look and he chuckles.
“I remember when your first attempt to blend in. Didn’t you end up stabbing someone?”
Inej scowls at the memory. “And no one has tried to grab my body since then without a threat of a knife point.”
Jesper chuckles. “Fair enough.” He shifts as they fly high enough to leave the atmosphere and then drop back down, drifting through the carefully mapped out empty space of blind spots that allow them to drift down to the meeting point. Despite it taking them almost no time to get there, Kaz is already sitting against a crate on the roof of a run down building, cane held out in front of him with his hands crossed on top.
Jesper moves back toward the loading bay and opens the doors. He leans against the side of the doorway as the ship turns to face Kaz. “Hiya, honey. Miss me?”
As always Kaz rolls his eyes at Jesper’s attitude as he climbs the ramp. “We’re clean. Any trouble at the port?”
“Nope,” Inej reports from the cockpit. “Just a couple nosy traders looking for a good time. Sent them after Jesper.”
“Har har,” he shoots back as the ramp closes with a firm whoosh of pressure stabilizing. He turns to Kaz who has dropped onto the bench and closed his eyes. His lame foot is extended slightly in front of him, a tell that it’s aching from the exercise of escaping the troopers. Jesper can also see where his blaster sticks out from under his jacket, the clip of the holster no longer in place. He definitely used it. “Did you get the intel?”
Kaz nods.
“Where are we headed?” Inej asks. From the body of the shuttle, Jesper sees her hand hover over the hyperspeed settings, preparing to change the destination of their jump.
“The pilot is on Jedha.”
They both freeze and you could hear a pin drop in the shuttle. Jesper glances at Inej and sees the same worry painted in the lines of her face. “Are you sure?”
Kaz finally opens his eyes and leans forward. “It’s been confirmed. That’s the second source and this one claims to have actually seen the pilot.”
“But he’s a defector, why would he go there?” Jesper asks.
“Jedha’s not a stronghold for the Empire, but they do trade there.” Kaz answers, as if that explains the reasoning.
“But it’s a Shu stronghold. They’re cut off. We haven’t had contact in years.” Jesper glances at Inej in the cockpit. “Nina was there when the communications shut down. She wasn’t able to get out and no one’s been able to go in.”
Kaz rams a gloved hand over the top of his cane. “That isn’t strictly true.”
Inej whips around. “What?”
He sighs. “We have a way onto the planet. The problem will be finding the defector and getting him to talk to us.”
“And getting off planet again,” Jesper cuts in. “Or have you forgotten how the Shu seize whoever and whatever they want? There’s a reason we don’t have an outpost there.”
Kaz stares at him with those cold, blank eyes and then turns toward Inej. “Set the course.”
For a long moment, Inej doesn’t move. Her fingers tap against the control as she gazes at Kaz with an inscrutable expression on her face for a moment before she turns back to the controls and the ship lurches into hyperspace.
Jesper crosses his arms as he faces Kaz from across the ship. “You knew we were headed to Jedha.”
Kaz stares back at him for a moment and then closes his eyes. He leans back against the side of the ship. Jesper wishes he was surprised about the lack of communication.
He sits down next to Kaz. “This way on to Jedha...does it have anything to do with Nina?”
Kaz cracks open an eye. He looks Jesper over and shuts them again. “She was able to get one message out since the Shu shut down. The last message that got out - the one that opened a path - the agent was lost. Haven’t heard anything since.”
“Nina?”
“Under orders to lay low.”
“Are we taking her out with us?”
Kaz’s hands tighten on the head of his cane. “We’ll see.”
...
There was something happening. Nina looks around the marketplace covertly as she examines the fruit in the stall in front of her. It’s the same bland, slightly bruised fruit that they always have. Two years on this desert planet and she’s still not used to the blandness of the food. She’s missing the lush variety of Aldaraan and the sweets she used to eat by the bushel. There’s no sweets here in Jedha, especially not in the mostly abandoned temple.
She exchanges a coin for two shrivelled pieces of fruit and a smile with the vendor. She slips off the main thoroughfare and into the archway that leads into the dilapidated temple. Like most of Jedha, it’s covered in a fine layer of sand and dust, and shows the wear and tear of years of war.
She tosses a piece of fruit to the tall and skulking shadow that leans against the archway. Matthias catches the fruit of the air. He pulls a wickedly long knife from behind his back and cuts the fruit into meticulous pieces, eating with precise movements to stop the juice from creating a sticky mess.
Nina is far less careful. She bites into the fruit and does her best to stop the overripe fruit from spilling juice down her chin. It’s a messy process and her fingers will end up coated in sugary sweetness. It’s her little act of rebellion that makes Matthias shake his head in her direction, when his eyes aren’t sweeping the plaza.
“There’s something in the wind,” he says as he slowly eats another slice of his fruit. Nina’s is almost gone. She’s sad for that.
“Rumors.” Nina glances at the gangsters on the corner of the street with their strange metal suits. They’re looking antsy, searching the street. “There’s not much chatter. Something about an Imperial pilot. Broke through the Shu blockade.”
Matthias’s eyes drift back across the crowds of people. Nina rearranges her robe and leans against her staff. Two years posing as acolytes of the temple and proselytizing about Sankts has her accustomed to her character. No one bothers with a monk spouting ideas of an old religion they no longer believe in.
“The Empire is still confined to their kyber shipments,” Matthias observes. He casually cuts the seeds from his fruit. “Their shuttle routes haven’t been altered. The Shu though.” His eyes dart to their locations around the square. “They’re looking for someone.”
“A defector,” Nina says.
Matthias finally looks over at her in surprise. “Yours or mine?”
“Does it matter?” she asks. “Either way, we need to find them before anyone else.”
“Do we?” Matthias grumbles and slips his knife back into the sheath hidden somewhere on his person. “It’s not like anyone’s come to get us in the last two years.”
Nina rolls her eyes. They’ve had this argument before. “Come now, druskelle. Where’s that attitude of dedication to the Empire?”
He snorts. “It died two years ago.” One of the Shu guards moves and Matthias’s attention strays. “Think it’s important enough that they’ll risk their peace with the Shu?”
Beneath the question is the unspoken one that neither of them have put words to, but they both know is lingering in the back of their minds: Is this defector more important than they are? Nina’s last mission was to get a contact off Jedha to the Rebellion. Matthias had saved her from capture by the Shu and they hadn’t been able to risk an attempt to leave Jedha since then. The Empire had some sort of deal with the Shu that allowed them access to the Kyber mines but that was it.
“Perhaps it’s time we went to collect tithes, Brother Helvar,” Nina announces. She pulls up the hood of her robes and leans on her staff as she walks out from the temple. Matthias follows behind her with grumbled complaints under his breath. The occupants of the city are familiar with their dynamic, although they’re sure to vary the times they depart the temple. Routines are too predictable.
Matthias doesn’t speak even as Nina stops to talk with every friendly face she sees. For the first year, he had complained at every moment, even as she explained to him the importance of blending in, of becoming part of the populace. Now he even lets the children climb on him when she stops to share a story about the saints.
“They’re jumpy,” Lin shares with Nina in whispered tones, her eyes darting around the square even though there don’t appear to be guards around right now. “Jan said he saw stormtroopers preparing to enter the city.”
Nina performs a blessing on an elderly man. “Any idea what they’re looking for?”
“A pilot.” Lin shifts her daughter around on her hip. “Imperial pilot. You don’t want to get between the troopers and their goal. The Shu are looking for him too. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll stay out of their way.”
Matthias moves closer. “And the pilot?”
Lin glances at him and then back at Nina. She’s always been more skittish around men. It’s a look Nina’s uncomfortably familiar with and one she knows speaks to a violent past interaction. The way she grips her daughter just a bit closer breaks Nina’s heart.
Nina nods encouragingly.
“Down by the old refractory.” Lin freezes up as soon as the words escape her mouth. Her eyes widen in surprise at what she just divulged. She darts away in a panic, leaving Nina and Matthias to continue to serve the poor with their usual tithes.
By unspoken agreement, Matthias follows Nina’s lead as she takes them on a winding path. The last year and half of long meandering routes work in their favor as Nina leads them with more purpose.
It feels good to have a purpose again. She hasn’t had contact with the Rebellion, but if this is big enough that the Empire is willing to fight the Shu for the interloper, then it’s big enough for the Rebellion to also be looking. The Empire has the strength to use brute force. The Rebellion will send Kaz Brekker. Per Haskell would be an idiot to send anyone else.
As they get closer to their destination, Nina slows her pace and purposefully plays up her monk persona, passing out alms and blessings in equal measure. Matthias moves gruffly in her wake, watching her back in a way that might be suspicious if it hadn’t been his stable characteristic for the last two years. The Shu are used to their dynamic of the devout believer jaded sceptic. They had adopted the personas for safe passage before the Shu blockade and been forced to maintain it since then.
It was useful, despite neither Nina nor Matthias being well versed in espionage.
By the time they reach the old refractory buildings, Nina and Matthias are moving at a crawl, speaking to every person they see. Nina’s eyes scan the faces for one that looks out of place, one that screams uncertainty or distrust.
She gets pointed down a dark alley by one of the urchins after she shares with him one of her precious jojo beans. It’s the closest she can get to her sweets in this city. She glances at Matthias and he nods. His body is intentionally relaxed, ready to move as necessary in response to a threat.
Nina leads the way into the factory, looking around carefully as they move into the space. She breathes in deeply and sinks into the meditative state. The air around her settles, buzzing with the life force of the inhabitants of the city. In a couple of breaths, she narrows it further so she can feel the interior of the building.
Matthias mutters under his breath, something about religious mumbo jumbo and insanity.
Nina turns sideways and opens one eye to glare at Matthias. He rolls his eyes and gestures at her to continue.
Her use of the Force is unrefined, based more in the faith that it will work than on actual knowledge about what she’s doing. It’s an old religion and the order they’re with is still respected even if not believed in. Okay, so maybe respected is pushing it. They’re disregarded as religious fanatics who don’t do much of anything.
She follows the light of the Force through the factory, letting it guide her feet, trusting it to protect her from bumping into any of the clutter. Dimly, she senses Matthias grunt as he moves something out of her path before she hits it or it hits her. She keeps her focus on the life signature that shines like a beacon, coming to a stop once they’re in sight of the huddled mass. She opens her eyes and peers into the gloom.
“We’re here to help you,” Nina says. Her soft voice carries around the large space. She ignores Matthias’s mutter about talking to herself.
“Who...who are you?” A tremulous voice asks. It sounds younger than Nina expected, more uncertain. She thought a defector would be more hardened, more convinced of their path to go against the Empire in such a way.
Nina squats down to look at the hunched over figure. Matthias has one hand hovering over his hidden firearm, the other on a dagger. She’s deep in her meditation of the Force and senses no danger from the huddled figure.
“You’re the pilot, right?” Nina asks instead of answering.
His eyes look her over, lingering on her and Matthias’s matching robes. “You’re priests?”
He inches forward. There’s enough light cast on him that his Imperial uniform catches her eye, answering the question he avoids. She smiles softly at him and holds out her hand. Behind her Matthias shifts, disliking her proximity to perceived danger, if she has to guess.
“Word on the street is you’re a defector. We’re here to help.”
...
Wylan doesn't think he's ever been this cold in his life. Which is bizarre because this is a desert planet. You'd think it would be warm but instead he's found himself huddled in dark corners, scavenging like a rat for scraps for the last couple days while he tries to escape notice from the Shu. Jedha was supposed to be a safe haven for him, somewhere the Empire couldn't touch. The Shu had tried to grab him first, had detained him and demanded answers to their questions about the Empire. His protests that he wanted to defect fell on deaf ears. Then they'd dragged him into a cave with a beast they called Bor Gullet.
It's a blur after that.
He remembers waking in a cell to garbled words, a blurred hologram of his father glaring disdainfully down at him. A comment about the Empire being grateful to the Shu. Wylan doesn't know how he escaped. There's a memory of loud noise, a flash of heat, and dirt. Then it's all dark and cold.
He'd avoided people after that, stuck to shadows, and only ventured out when the emptiness of his stomach threatened to eat him from the inside out.
He doesn't even know how long it's been since he escaped the cell...or was released...he doesn't know.
Then the woman appeared, like an angel out of the darkness and she promises salvation.
Wylan knows enough of his father's games not to immediately trust the gesture. "Who are you?"
“We’re with the Rebellion,” she says with a smile.
The monk behind her rolls his eyes and turns away. They don’t look like any monks he recognises. The only person he’s heard of who truly follows the old religion is the Darkling and Wylan’s not so unfortunate to have ever seen him in person. “You don’t look like Rebels.”
“He’s right. We don’t,” the man tells her.
The woman looks over her shoulder, eyes narrowed in a glare. “Matthias Helvar.” She turns conspiratorially back to Wylan and there’s a friendly glint in her eye that makes him want to trust her. “Once he was the most devout of you all. Rose through the ranks of the Empire almost as high as they come. You want out of the Empire. We can help.”
Wylan’s eyes drift over the man’s features and there’s something that reminds him of the way General Brum’s men carry themselves, the elite of the troopers he’s only seen from a distance. Wylan wants to string words together but they slip away like soap and water.
“Will you come with us?” She prompts, yet again.
He can’t combine the fears and hopes and questions into coherent sense. All he can do is nod in agreement. Whether they harm him or save him, he’ll be dead or caught if he stays here on his own. He needs allies and he’s not in a mental state where he can do much of anything himself.
“Good,” she says. She pulls him forward and manhandles Wylan into a monk’s robe over his tattered pilot’s uniform. “I’m Nina. This is Matthias. We’re going to get you out of here alive. Good?”
Wylan nods. She shoves a basket into his hands and drops additional bits of clutter from the warehouse floor into it.
“We should be heading back,” Matthias rumbles.
“Walk between us,” Nina instructs, pulling the hood of his robe up. Matthias mimics the movement. “Don’t make eye contact. Don’t talk to anyone. Just stay in step with us. We’ll speak for you if it comes to that.”
Wylan has enough sense to nod along. He knows talking will only give away his current state of complete confusion. He can see the looks Nina and Matthias exchange in response to his silence. He’s not so lost that he doesn’t understand what’s going on but the thoughts take too long to reach his lips and disappear like fragrance on a breeze.
The ground is dusty and uneven under Wylan’s feet. It captures his attention as he walks, so different from the metal hallways and corridors he’s used to walking. His feet catch from where they scrape the ground and he tries to tell his body to lift his feet higher, but they don’t seem willing to respond any more than what they do by instinct. When was the last time he walked on anything that wasn’t steel?
He’s so preoccupied by swirls of dirt that he walks right into a wall.
Well, not a wall, but the giant monk - Matthias. He bounces off the man’s back, which feels like the equivalent of walking into a wall. The man doesn’t even move in response to him walking into him at full speed, but Wylan almost falls on his butt, and would if it wasn’t for Nina catching him.
She steps past him to stand next to Matthias. She pushes him further into the shadows behind Matthias as she looks past him to see what’s grabbed his attention. Wylan shuffles sideways and ducks down so he can look around the hulking figures.
The white helmets break through his current haze and Wylan stumbles backwards. The Storm Troopers followed him. He can’t allow himself to be captured, not after he finally escaped that place and his father’s restrictive control.
“Wait!” Nina whispers harshly, but Wylan’s body is moving without his consent. The urge to get away is too strong. It drives him, haltingly, step-after-step through twisting and confusing alleyways. He’s not sure where he’s going except away. If he can get to a port, he’s sure he can fly a ship.
Another flash of white Imperial helmets send him careening in another direction which leads him into a square. The sudden exposure leaves him disoriented and he spins around looking for another exit as a child is ushered into one house and shutters are slammed shut. Wylan gulps. He walks back and turns, running into someone for the second time. This time the person rocks as he crashes into them, but Wylan’s still the one wheeling back.
He blinks at the man, carrying some sort of stick. He looks like he could belong here except that his eyes are too intent. It’s the kind of gaze you couldn’t stand for too long but are also scared to look away from. It takes him a second to notice the tiny girl at his side. She’s looking around, causally flipping a blade in her hand. The other rests on a blaster. Now that he realized that, Wylan notices the man is also armed.
“Wylan Van Eck?” The man asks.
Wylan blinks at him in shock. He’s helpless to do anything but nod. They’re not Empire and they don’t look like the Khergud who grabbed him, so they can’t be that bad. Or at least are likely better than the alternative.
“Right. Time to be off. Let Jesper know we’ve got the package.” The man turns abruptly.
Wylan glances at the girl who steps aside and gestures at him to follow. He hasn’t decided if he will when there are footsteps behind him. He twists back to see who’s following and breathes a little easier when the monks appear. Maybe monks are better than whoever the man is.
Maybe he’s dead anyway.
“Oh good. You’re here.” The man says. “We can all go then.”
Nina smirks from where she’s bent over catching her breath. “Nice to see you too, Kaz. Been ages.”
...
It’s convenient that they were able to find the pilot and Nina in one place. He would have trouble getting Inej and Jesper out of here with just the pilot. They’d had no communication with Nina, no way to get in contact with her once they were in the atmosphere. Kaz takes it in stride and moves back the way they came. The rest will follow and someone will make sure the pilot comes along with them.
It would have been a fantastic escape. In and out with no trouble whatsoever. It would have been too lucky for him, so the storm troopers that come streaming racing around the corner where Nina and her friend emerged are hardly a surprise. The real unlucky bit is that they also appear in the two other access points to the square.
The pilot looks ready to bolt. Nina and the second monk steps forward. Kaz respects the bulk of him and hopes that he’s good in a fight. If it were just him and Inej, they would split up and meet at the rendez-vous. The pilot is going to be the issue.
“Halt. Surrender or you will be terminated.”
Inej pushes Wylan behind her and toward Kaz. The boy curls in on himself. How he ever got up the courage to desert the Empire, Kaz hasn’t a clue. Now they just need to get him out of here with whatever valuable knowledge is worth breaking the standoff with the Shu.
Kaz pushes him into a doorway, out of sight of the blasters. “Stay down.”
The boy whimpers.
Nina steps forward, hands raised in a deceptively helpless gesture. “Calm down. We’re all friends here.”
“Stand down or we will open fire,” the trooper repeats. The entire line readies their weapons. Their blasters might be unreliable and clunky, but with so many firing, they’re bound to hit something.
“You don’t want to shoot us.” Nina tries again.
“That’s what you’ve got?” the second monk asks incredulously.
She glares at him. Kaz watches Inej palm a blade and twirl it effortlessly in one hand. The harsh sunlight glints off the edge of the blade: steel instead of a laser edge many prefer. He knows she likes the way the old fashioned blades feel in her hand. They look like they belong in her grasp.
Nina steps forward again, closer and closer to the troopers. “You’re not going to shoot us.”
“Hand over the pilot.” The trooper says. From across the square, Kaz can hear the gun prep to fire. This isn’t working.
“Yeah. That’s not going to happen,” he drawls from the back of the group. The second monk glares at him, but Kaz just twirls his kane, unbothered. It was going to come down to this anyway. There’s no point holding it off as more backup and fire power arrives to support the troopers.
Shadows fall across the square and Kaz gets his first look at the notorious Khergud soldiers who have kept Jedha independent for the last two years. “Imperial Troopers. You have no authority in our city. The pilot is ours.”
Nina, her monk, and Inej grow tense at the new party. Beside him the pilot starts to mutter under his breath, rocking back and forth.
This actually works to their advantage as the troopers are forced to divert their attention. The Khergud fires directly at the troopers before jumping into the air. The troopers open fire, most on the Khergud, judging them to be the bigger threat.
Inej seizes the moment to dive forward into the fight, taking out two opponents in moments before she’s engaged by one of the Shu soldiers. She moves like an acrobat, twirling through flailing limbs that breeze past her. She’s a force of nature.
Kaz is distracted from his awe by a guard landing a few feet away and leaping for Wylan. He dispatches the soldier with a few whacks of his cane. He crumples under a well-placed hit to the temple.
More troopers race toward the noise. They stop around the corner of an alley, firing from their protective spots and forcing the monk and Kaz to step back to cover. They lob a grenade into the square. Kaz takes two steps forward and hits it back with the metal head of his cane. It soars in a perfect arch back to the troopers, who scramble for cover too late.
The monk nods in acknowledgment and moves to relieve Nina from her two enemies. Inej falls back as she takes out her opponent and the rest are distracted by Nina and the monk. She moves to stand alongside Kaz, stretching out the muscles she just used as she slips her blades back in their many holsters. The explosion rocks the block which takes out one contingent of troopers but they're met with more troopers and Shu, crawling out of the cracks like cockroaches.
A moment later shots arc over their heads, rapid fire, each one hitting its target and leaving the recipients incapacitated.
Kaz relaxes infintestimently. He'd been prepared to dive for cover. His hand twitches toward Inej but he knows she can take care of herself. She doesn’t need him trying to tackle her and throwing off her center of balance.
A figure emerges along the roofline, a rifle resting against his shoulder. “There were an awful lot of explosions for people who were supposed to be blending in.”
“I hope you’ve got an exit plan, Brekker,” Nina says. She diverts to the Imperial pilot after a glance at the monk.
He nods and moves for the alley. “This way.” He glances at Inej and up at the roofline. She nods and follows his tacit directions. Kaz leaves her to do what she does best: cover them from the shadows.
Kaz walks with purpose through the streets. Now that fighting has broken out, it appears that no one is holding back. Shu are fighting stormtroopers, troopers are fighting the Khergud and civilians are running for cover. Jesper’s and Inej’s shadows move with them. The monk - who Kaz Brekker suspects is the Druskelle Nina mentioned before she went dark - leads the charge, with his long legs that eat up the ground in long strides. Nina covers their escape with a simple bo staff.
“Where are we going?” The monk asks as he fires off a round of shots.
“Left!” Jesper shouts as he crashes to the ground on the back of a Khergud soldier. “I don’t know why we ever thought this was going to be a quiet mission. And I still say we need a demolition expert.”
“We’re spies, Jesper,” Kaz growls over the sound of battle.
Jesper shoots him a cocky grin over his shoulder. “But this is so much more fun.”
“There’s something wrong with you,” the monk mutters.
“Kaz.”
He looks sideways, unsurprised to find Inej at his shoulder, silent as always. He follows her gaze upwards and nearly stumbles to a stop. “Jedha doesn’t have a moon.”
Nina and the monk stumble to a stop. Jesper glances up for a moment. “That’s what I wanted to tell you. It appeared out of nowhere. It’s too big to be a ship but moons don’t move.”
“That’s it,” Wylan whispers. The pilot suddenly jolts into motion. “We have to go. Now!”
Kaz is forced into an ungainly run. He tries not to notice Inej hovering at his elbow, keeping pace with him as they race toward the ship. The Imperial pilot is ahead of them all, heedless of laser bolts. Jesper yanks him back by the collar to direct him to the correct ship.
As he reaches the ramp, Kaz starts to hear screams.
“Jesper, get us out of here!” Kaz yells. Inej hits the control to shut the ramp as Jesper guns the engine.
“What do you think I’m doing, Brekker? Buckle up. This ride’s about to get bumpy.”
...
The whole world has turned upside down. Matthias isn’t sure what he’s doing, to be perfectly honest. Staying with Nina was a mutually beneficial proposition. They were stuck on a foreign planet, where the only people they could trust were each other. He’d become accustomed to their partnership and been shocked by how much he relied upon her. Now, looking at this ragtag group - so different from the ordered discipline of the elite Druskelle guard - Matthias is at a loss for how the Resistance has managed to become a thorn in the Empire’s side.
He will admit that they were, like Nina, surprisingly capable and effective. However, he can’t hide how scandalized he is by their lack of any sort of recognizable chain of command. The trio moves like his old unit in that they’re so familiar with each other, they don’t need to shout out commands. But their actions of Jedha display an alarming disregard for a cohesive plan and seem to thrive on the chaos of the moment.
“What was that?!” The boy with the cane asks, turning around to stare at the group before his eyes zero in on the unfortunate pilot.
Matthias hasn’t gotten much from the boy, except that he stepped back from the fighting yet was clearly capable of surviving physical confrontation. Nina and his two companions seemed to defer to him as some sort of leader, which spoke to a sharp mind. Nina called him Kaz, which would indicate one of the high level members of Rebel Intelligence. He’s heard him referenced as a nightmare or a demon, spoken of in whispers and myths more than anything else.
All in all: Matthias expected someone older.
“That was the Death Star,” Wylan whispers. His eyes look haunted.
Matthias frowns. “Impossible.” He starts when five sets of eyes jerk towards him in the silence of hyperspace. He grits his teeth. The word wasn’t supposed to be spoken out loud. “They’re decades away from creating that technology.”
Wylan is shaking his head. “No. They found a scientist. Got him to create what they needed. I...I was able to get away. To warn the Rebellion. It’s a planet killer.”
“A planet killer?” The small girl repeats.
“Is that even possible?” Nina glances at him for confirmation. Matthias has no answer. It was only an idea when he was with the Druskelle last. Brum used to talk about it, but it was never close to a reality. Not then.
“Why don’t you ask Jedha?” Kaz says.
“We don’t know that it destroyed the whole planet,” the small girl points out.
The boy doesn’t look away from where he stares out the window at the white streaks of stars passing in hyperspace. “At the very least, we know it destroyed the city. If the Empire has a weapon like that, we’re left defenseless.”
“That’s why I was sent to find you,” Wylan says. He freezes when all eyes turn to him and he curls in on himself from his spot beside the pilot. Matthias has spent years in Imperial bases and has no idea how this pilot managed to get into the program, let alone became important enough to have access to this top secret project. It seems highly suspect to him.
“Sent?” The boy asks, finally turning so his whole body faces the pilot. Matthias does have to admit he cuts an intimidating figure even as he leans on his cane.
The pilot swallows. “The scientist. I was supposed to get to a contact they had with the Rebellion. There was someone I was supposed to connect with...the Wraith? But I got redirected…” He frowns. The more the pilot seems to search for words, the harder they seem to come.
Matthias has seen this before. “He was captured by the Khergud. They most likely probed his mind using Bor Gullet. That’s how they dealt with any Imperial or Rebel spies they found.” He leans back against the steel hull. It actually feels good to be back in space again after being grounded for so long.
It feels like freedom.
The boy looks at Nina. She nods in confirmation. “It’s true. We only escaped detection because of the temple.”
“Because all she would talk about was the Force,” Matthias mutters. He adjusts his muscles so they’re loose and he can react in an instant if needed. Nina drops into the space beside him, using his shoulder as a pillow as she settles in like a cat that can get comfortable anywhere.
“I saved your life,” she says without opening her eyes.
He grunts and doesn’t let his smile emerge.
“The Wraith,” Kaz repeats, focusing on Wylan again. “What were you supposed to tell them?”
Wylan still looks nervous. “Well, I was supposed to pass on...a message...There’s a way to destroy it. A weakness.”
“A weakness?”
Wylan yanks at his hair. It’s useless to try to force him to remember more in his state. Matthias watches the trio of rebels to see what they’ll do at this obstacle.
“He didn’t tell me,” Wylan whispers, clearly realizing this might not endear him to his rescuers at this point. “I was supposed to...bring someone back. They wanted...they wanted someone to rescue them, and they would share the weakness. I was just supposed to be the messenger. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this.”
Kaz scowls and glances at the girl who looks at the man in the pilot’s seat, all having some sort of silent conversation. Matthias watches the interaction with interest.
“Where is this base?” Kaz finally moves closer, crouching so he can look Wylan in the eyes.
“Eadu.”
Matthias vaguely recalls the outpost. Far from most of the known universe, it’s one of the Empire’s research bases. There’s not a huge platoon placed there for protection. It’s a secret base, kept out of the way, and by necessity sees few changes in personnel. There were a couple training missions on the planet to diversify the team’s experiences and analyze security procedures.
“We don’t have anyone on Eadu,” the girl notes.
“Because Eadu’s on lockdown. Nothing in or out that isn’t high level.” The boy flying the craft throws over his shoulder. “Out of the flight academy, I only stopped there once because they needed a supply run immediately. They didn’t even let me off the shuttle. To be a pilot there, you’d have to have some pretty impressive clearance.”
Matthias alters his assessment of the crew that got them off Jedha. To get through the Imperial Flight Academy is impressive. The man also demonstrated impressive aim and combat skills. Despite not being highly regimented, they do appear to be a solid team. He glances down at Nina.
“So in order to get the information on the weakness, we have to go to Eadu,” the girl says. She’s twirling a knife in her hands, one with a true steel blade like he hasn’t seen in ages. Her comfort with it is another mark in their favor.
“Jesper’s right. It’s impenetrable. We haven’t managed to get anyone on the inside.” Kaz taps his fingers on the head of his cane.
“So we go.” The girl shrugs. “We redirect. We need to find a way to beat this thing or millions more are going to die.”
“Procedure is to report for further orders. We’ve got the pilot.” Kaz looks at her with a heavy look.
“Matthias can help.” Nina elbows him as she speaks up.
He scowls down at her as everyone turns to stare at him. She didn’t even bother to open her eyes to betray him.
“I’m not a traitor.” Matthias glares at the lot of them.
“You’ll help,” Nina says with a self-assuredness he’s come to hate over the last couple of years. Because as irksome as it is, she’s usually right about these things. They both know it.
“We’re supposed to just trust a stranger on your word?” Jesper asks.
“Get twisted, Fahey. You know my word is good.”
Kaz and the woman - whose name Matthias still doesn’t know - have another silent conversation. She turns to look at him, her eyes speculative. Kaz leans closer to her. “You think you can do this?”
She doesn’t take his eyes from Matthias. Her knives continue the casual twisting in her hand. She shrugs and looks back at the mastermind. “It is our kind of job.”
Kaz nods. “Jesper, alter course. Van Eck, help get him close without being seen. Matthias, you need to tell us everything you know, and quickly.”
“Why should I?”
“Because if you don’t, I’m going to make your life very unpleasant.”
“How do you even know the pilot is right? How do you know there really is a weakness? This could be a trap.” It sounds like the kind of thing Jarl Brum would think up to capture Rebel spies.
“Faith,” Nina says. “This is the right choice.” She finally sits up and stretches.
Matthias rolls his eyes at her religious display. He sighs. “I can tell you what I know. It could still be a trap.”
“The pilot is Wylan Van Eck. He’s on my list of potential informants. He became an Imperial pilot because of familial connections. It’s how he has access to sensitive information. We know they’re working on something on Eadu. If this is what he says, then we need that information.” The girl explains it in an even voice.
“And if there isn’t a secret weakness?”
Kaz and Inej exchange a long look.
“Then we find another way to blow it up,” Jesper supplies.
Matthias isn’t sure he likes the looks of glee on their faces.
“So how do we get in?”
The girl turns to look at Matthias, her dark eyes just the slightest bit terrifying now that he’s actually getting a good chance to size her up. She tends to fade into the background and let her comrades take charge, but definitely is not to be underestimated. He stares at her and then glances at Kaz.
“Inej is a ghost,” Nina says. “She can get in and out without anyone noticing.”
He looks her over, still assessing. This moment, more than any in the last two years of surviving, feels like he’s standing on the edge of a cliff. The last two years he could justify to his superiors: he was surviving a hostile planet, he had to get close to Nina or he would have died, he was trying to learn the secrets of the Rebel scum. This was different. If he does this, he’s helping the Rebel cause. He’s actively going against everything he’s ever learned.
Nina hits him in the shoulder, as if sensing his internal conflict. She twists upright to look at him and raises an eyebrow in challenge.
He can hear her voice in his head, berating him for his strict no-nonsense rules and his consuming hatred for anything that goes against the order of the Empire. There were countless debates as they marched through Jedha, each an intellectual exercise. He can honestly say that he doesn’t believe the Empire is never wrong, but is that enough to make him give up their secrets?
“They murdered everyone in Jedha,” she whispers to him softly. “Lin, Mauri, Katya…” She closes her eyes against the pain.
He wants to wrap her in his arms and pull her close. Nina feels everything so deeply, unable to stop herself from connecting with everyone she meets. He wants to protect from that pain, to comfort her. Those lives lost today. They were innocents. People that should have been protected and instead…
He opens his eyes and nods his agreement to Nina.
She grins, life and joy filling her back up as she bounces around in her seat, the way she gets excited whenever they found something reasonably sweet on Jedha. “Matthias meet Inej. Inej, meet Matthais. He’s a little shy but he knows what’s at stake.”
It’s like shedding a piece of armor or throwing off the last vestiges of who he once was. There’s no turning back now, and he has surprisingly little regret as he opens his eyes and asks the first damning question: “Where do you want to start?”
<hr>
Inej barely remembers those early days with her family living in the heart of a city. She gets flashes of memories - playing with dolls, toddling after her father, parties full of boring adults who couldn’t care less about her. What she thinks of when she remembers her family is what came after: the travelling band of performers they joined. It’s there that she felt comfortable. The troupe was her family: they encouraged her, taught her tricks of the trade, and were the ones who trained her as an acrobat. They travelled from system to system, performing in cities and small villages alike, on hot planets and cold. She had careful rules to follow about her interactions whenever they landed.
Despite all the restrictions, she remembers feeling carefree. The caravan was her domain and she was empress. The day her life changed was just like any other. She remembers her mother running a hand over her hair, whispering that they were going down into town. Her sleepy head full of cotton can’t remember her exact words, just the feeling of warmth, the comfort of routine. Only recently - on her eighth birthday - had she earned the right to sleep in instead of joining her parents’ customary outing.
Sometimes in her waking hours, she forgets that happened years ago and in her half-waking state she thinks she can still hear her mother’s soothing whisper and her father patting her hand as he tucks her treasured stuffed bear under the blankets of her bed so she has company.
Inej’s eyes fly open as the harsh lights of simulated daylight jolt her unrelentingly from her sleep into the cold reality of her life.
She rolls up to a seated position and runs her arm over her sleepy face. She makes no effort to make herself presentable and glares at her arm with the repulsive peacock feather tattoo. It’s been eight years since that morning when her whole life burned around her, her whole extended family vanished in the blink of an eye and she was sold into the slave markets of the Hutts before she was even aware what that meant.
“Inej Ghafa, the mistress will see you now,” a mechanical voice says over the speaker hidden in her room. Luxurious drapes and curtains cover the mechanical aspects of the room, but can’t hide the prison-like nature of a room without windows in a pleasure house. This has always been Inej’s cage.
Of course, to the Empire, this isn’t slavery. She has an indenture that she’s working off, this was a choice she made. Inej stands. The words are bullshit. It’s a pretty story told by those who believe themselves to be above such terrible things just because they use different words. Inej is old enough to know what happens in the different rooms of the pleasure house she currently calls home, but still too young to be expected to participate fully. But she knows her days are numbered.
Girls in this trade grow up quickly. She’s still a tease, only suffering a a groping hand here, a leer there, the occasional bit of voyeurism which makes her skin prickle and means she can never feel comfortable in any room, including her own.
Inej dresses with practiced movements in the ridiculous trappings Madam Helene requires. There are far too many bells on the outfit, too many dangling bits that can tangle for it to really be the exotic outfit Helene claims the clients want. She hates the way the silk feels against her skin when it used to mean the soothing comfort of performance attire.
For now, her role is to just be an ornamentation for the pleasure house, but madame makes sure she knows what could happen the moment she steps a toe out of line. She’s not above selling Inej off before her time, the cost of which would do nothing to lower the exorbitant cost of her supposed indenture.
Inej keeps her head down and walks quickly to the main room. In the early hours, there are few patrons who might be looking for a companion, but Inej has learned to keep her head down in any case. She’s short and skinny - underdeveloped to most tastes - so aren’t many interested in her and the ones that are she should avoid with even more care.
There’s a boy in the room with Helene: a boy with a familiar cane. Inej is so surprised to see him that she forgets to look away meekly when his dark eyes meet hers. She tilts her head in curiosity. Last she saw, he was slipping out of a back hallway which she knew allowed Helene to eavesdrop on clients as they spent the night with girls, or that she offered to well-paying customers who took pleasure from that sort of thing.
He looks just as cold as he did that night, but she vividly remembers the surprise in his eyes when she spoke from over his shoulder. He wasn’t a regular customer at the brothel but he was on good terms with a couple members of the staff and she’d seen him exchange kruge for information on more than one occasion. Last she saw him, she’d offered him help.
“Ah, there’s my little Suli Lioness.” Madam Helene smiles benevolently, but her perfume chokes Inej as she wraps an arm around her. “Inej, do you know who this is?”
“They call him Dirtyhands,” she answers, voice proper and meek as Helene likes. All the other girls have told her not to ask questions any time she tries to find out more. She can’t help but wonder if offering herself to him was a mistake, but she knows this place will kill her if she doesn’t find a way out.
“Hmm…,” Madame hums. She turns to the boy with a set face and Inej’s chest tightens in apprehension. “I’m afraid your offer will not be accepted, Mr. Brekker. Inej is precious to me.” Her bejeweled fingers dig into Inej’s shoulder. “I couldn’t possibly part with her.”
The boy raises an impeccable eyebrow. “I was under the impression our negotiations were finalized.”
Helene releases an exaggerated sigh. “Oh, you silly boy. Did you know the Empire has offered quite the reward for you?”
Inej tenses. She knows that Madame is fickle in her alliances, but she’s never openly invited storm troopers into her house: they don’t pay well.
“You’d better run, little boy, if you want to get out of here before they can grab you.”
Two doors into the main room slide open with a whoosh of air to reveal armored bodies with blasters levelled at the boy. Inej’s quick eyes note that the door closest to Brekker has no guard, instead being left clear if he wants to escape. If she were him, she would be running but instead he looks bored as he stares back at Madame. He lifts his wrist to check his time piece, an old fashioned analog device that hasn’t been used in decades.
There’s a pulse of static followed by a volley of blaster shots. Inej jerks down out of the way but is shocked to see that none of the shots were aimed at them.
“You should have taken the money, Helene,” the boy shaking space dust from his jacket. “We could have continued this lucrative partnership.”
Madame pales and looks around at the rumpled crew of men who are all standing around. Most have holstered their guns, but a tall dark-skinned man walks up to them and gestures Helene back away from Inej. Madame drops her grip as if she can’t get her distance fast enough. She turns to the boy.
“Please! You have to understand, the troopers would have killed me if I didn’t.”
The boy looks at her impassively before shrugging. “Per Haskell is still willing to buy out her indenture. I’m sure we can agree on a more reasonable price.”
Inej snorts. She can’t help it. They’re literally haggling over the price of her indenture after not killing one another. Frankly, it’s ridiculous. The boy looks over at her. Although his face is a mask which reveals no secrets, Inej sees a hint of amusement lurking in his dark eyes before he focuses again on Madame Helene.
“Congratulations,” the dark-skinned man who shooed Madame Helene away says, leaning down to her, even as his eyes stay on the boy and madam. “You’re being rescued.”
She looks around at the rag tag group she’s now willing to bet are Rebellion spies and wonders if this will actually be any better. Beyond them, she spots a couple of Helene’s girls with their bloodshot eyes, thin skin and haunted looks. It’s enough to remind her that is it. This is what she wants: a chance to save her father and get revenge on the Empire which has caused her so much pain.
Inej straightens as much as she can. It looks like she’s joining the rebellion.
<hr>
Three years later…
“You ever wonder if Kaz is actually a demon?” Jesper asks speculatively. He points his blaster to the sky and stares down the barrel. It’s in the best possible order he can make it. The sights are calibrated, the lazer refined and the trigger pull smooth. He couldn’t ask for a better weapon.
Other than it’s partner, which is still in his holster and also freshly taken care of.
“You’re supposed to be watching his back, Jesper,” the Wraith’s voice reminds him, tinged with annoyance.
“Yeah, yeah,” he mutters, rolling over so he can look over the side of the building to where Kaz is meeting with his contact. “You know, I’m still not sure why all three of us need to be here for one pilot.”
“If you want, we can always switch positions,” Inej offers. “You can play get-away pilot.”
Jesper snorts as he lines up his sight again. “Yeah, right. That’s all yours, spider. Besides we needed the sniper position here, remember?”
There’s a long suffering sigh over the radio and Jesper grins. Through the scope his eyes bounce to Kaz. He can’t see his face, but Jesper knows he’s got that stone face of annoyance, which, as it turns out, is not so different from his normal ambivalent face except that it includes the slight twitching of the vein at his temple.
Inej claims he’s seeing things, that it’s all in Jesper’s head. According to her, Kaz’s tell has to do with his eyes or some other sappy thing like that because they’re both secretly in love with each other. Jesper thinks they’re both idiots and he likes to think that one day, if he makes a bad enough joke or an inappropriate enough comment, that vein on Kaz’s temple is going to burst.
He thinks it's good to have goals like that. It makes the dirty work they do for the Rebellion more palatable.
“I still think it would be better to have me on the ground,” Inej grumbles. “You know I’m no good at the piloting stuff.”
“You’re the one who wanted to come. If I recall, Per Haskell offered you leave and instead you came here.” Jesper notices the stiffening of Kaz’s shoulders. His informant is still calm, if a little jumpy-looking, so he knows that’s not the source of the tension. His eyes scan the street and see nothing alarming.
Jesper hasn’t asked but he knows there’s something going on here that they’re not sharing. Inej has been wound tight since they started to hear rumors of an Imperial weapon strong enough to take out a planet. While it was still just a rumor, Kaz and Inej were chasing the thread down with a vengeance. It’s what brought them back to this city world where they had found Inej three years ago.
Now if only his sneaky little cohorts would share the secret with him. That would be great.
Jesper grumbles to himself. Like that would ever happen. He looks through the scope of his rifle. The tell tale of white of stormtrooper armor catches his eye and Jesper focuses on the location. The odd trooper presence in a city like this isn’t necessarily something to make note of. It happens on occasion, but this is a pair and he can spot another pair making their way in what looks to his eyes like search patterns.
“Heads up, Kaz. We might have company.” Jesper says as he keeps an eye on the soldiers. “Moving in pairs. Looks like a search pattern.”
They’re too far away to hear the words that are spoken, but Jesper can guess what it is from here: “Hey! You there!”
He watches as Kaz drags their contact into an alley as the storm troopers converge from two directions.
“I’ve lost sight of you, Kaz.” Jesper sights the troopers through his scope and taps a finger against the trigger. Killing troopers brings more attention than Kaz likes. They work in secret. “Exit strategy?”
Through Kaz’s comm he hears the panicked pleas of Kaz’s contact swiftly silenced by a laser bolt. He grimaces at the additional body count as Kaz’s gravelly voice comes over the comm.
“I’ve got it. Jesper, join Inej. Meet me at the rendezvous point.”
He takes one last look at the troopers closing in on the alley and then stands. If Kaz needed help, he would ask. The man had a thousand and one plans. There’s no way he didn’t account for a way out of this trap. It sounds like he’s probably climbing, a feat considering his bum leg from when he landed on it wrong a couple years back and it never healed properly.
“You know, for once I’d like one of these missions to go smoothly,” Jesper mutters under his breath as he hightails it back to the ship. He stows his blaster and keeps it from sight as he moves through the crowds. Seedy cities have been a second home to him for years, since he left the Imperial flight academy, if he’s being honest. He liked the anonymity the city gave him. It always felt better than the emptiness of the moisture farm he grew up on. He hates the heat and the sand.
Oh, God, the sand.
He walks aboard the ship with the swagger of a drunk who won big at the betting table. He nods jovially to those he passes. There are a couple glances down to the pistols at his waist, but that’s normal on a large port like this one. Intergalactic travel to major cities has always been fraught with trouble and this one isn’t especially savory. They don’t have the clearance for savory.
Inej sits on the ramp of the ship, sprawled out across it like a cat. She opens her eyes as he arrives and stretches. “Ready to go?”
“Shouldn’t the get away pilot be ready to run?” Jesper teases as they walk up into the ship and Inej diverts to the cockpit, starting the take off procedure.
“I spent the last hour bemoaning my terrible coworker who insists on gambling at each port and always staggers back drunk, occasionally with unexpected company. I’ve already got tower clearance to leave. And taking off won’t set any red flags with the Empire so we’re clear.”
Jesper drops into the copilot chair as Inej goes through engine checks. “You did all that?”
“You’re not the only one capable of sweet talking people, Fahey.” She shoots him a look and he chuckles.
“I remember when your first attempt to blend in. Didn’t you end up stabbing someone?”
Inej scowls at the memory. “And no one has tried to grab my body since then without a threat of a knife point.”
Jesper chuckles. “Fair enough.” He shifts as they fly high enough to leave the atmosphere and then drop back down, drifting through the carefully mapped out empty space of blind spots that allow them to drift down to the meeting point. Despite it taking them almost no time to get there, Kaz is already sitting against a crate on the roof of a run down building, cane held out in front of him with his hands crossed on top.
Jesper moves back toward the loading bay and opens the doors. He leans against the side of the doorway as the ship turns to face Kaz. “Hiya, honey. Miss me?”
As always Kaz rolls his eyes at Jesper’s attitude as he climbs the ramp. “We’re clean. Any trouble at the port?”
“Nope,” Inej reports from the cockpit. “Just a couple nosy traders looking for a good time. Sent them after Jesper.”
“Har har,” he shoots back as the ramp closes with a firm whoosh of pressure stabilizing. He turns to Kaz who has dropped onto the bench and closed his eyes. His lame foot is extended slightly in front of him, a tell that it’s aching from the exercise of escaping the troopers. Jesper can also see where his blaster sticks out from under his jacket, the clip of the holster no longer in place. He definitely used it. “Did you get the intel?”
Kaz nods.
“Where are we headed?” Inej asks. From the body of the shuttle, Jesper sees her hand hover over the hyperspeed settings, preparing to change the destination of their jump.
“The pilot is on Jedha.”
They both freeze and you could hear a pin drop in the shuttle. Jesper glances at Inej and sees the same worry painted in the lines of her face. “Are you sure?”
Kaz finally opens his eyes and leans forward. “It’s been confirmed. That’s the second source and this one claims to have actually seen the pilot.”
“But he’s a defector, why would he go there?” Jesper asks.
“Jedha’s not a stronghold for the Empire, but they do trade there.” Kaz answers, as if that explains the reasoning.
“But it’s a Shu stronghold. They’re cut off. We haven’t had contact in years.” Jesper glances at Inej in the cockpit. “Nina was there when the communications shut down. She wasn’t able to get out and no one’s been able to go in.”
Kaz rams a gloved hand over the top of his cane. “That isn’t strictly true.”
Inej whips around. “What?”
He sighs. “We have a way onto the planet. The problem will be finding the defector and getting him to talk to us.”
“And getting off planet again,” Jesper cuts in. “Or have you forgotten how the Shu seize whoever and whatever they want? There’s a reason we don’t have an outpost there.”
Kaz stares at him with those cold, blank eyes and then turns toward Inej. “Set the course.”
For a long moment, Inej doesn’t move. Her fingers tap against the control as she gazes at Kaz with an inscrutable expression on her face for a moment before she turns back to the controls and the ship lurches into hyperspace.
Jesper crosses his arms as he faces Kaz from across the ship. “You knew we were headed to Jedha.”
Kaz stares back at him for a moment and then closes his eyes. He leans back against the side of the ship. Jesper wishes he was surprised about the lack of communication.
He sits down next to Kaz. “This way on to Jedha...does it have anything to do with Nina?”
Kaz cracks open an eye. He looks Jesper over and shuts them again. “She was able to get one message out since the Shu shut down. The last message that got out - the one that opened a path - the agent was lost. Haven’t heard anything since.”
“Nina?”
“Under orders to lay low.”
“Are we taking her out with us?”
Kaz’s hands tighten on the head of his cane. “We’ll see.”
<hr>
There was something happening. Nina looks around the marketplace covertly as she examines the fruit in the stall in front of her. It’s the same bland, slightly bruised fruit that they always have. Two years on this desert planet and she’s still not used to the blandness of the food. She’s missing the lush variety of Aldaraan and the sweets she used to eat by the bushel. There’s no sweets here in Jedha, especially not in the mostly abandoned temple.
She exchanges a coin for two shrivelled pieces of fruit and a smile with the vendor. She slips off the main thoroughfare and into the archway that leads into the dilapidated temple. Like most of Jedha, it’s covered in a fine layer of sand and dust, and shows the wear and tear of years of war.
She tosses a piece of fruit to the tall and skulking shadow that leans against the archway. Matthias catches the fruit of the air. He pulls a wickedly long knife from behind his back and cuts the fruit into meticulous pieces, eating with precise movements to stop the juice from creating a sticky mess.
Nina is far less careful. She bites into the fruit and does her best to stop the overripe fruit from spilling juice down her chin. It’s a messy process and her fingers will end up coated in sugary sweetness. It’s her little act of rebellion that makes Matthias shake his head in her direction, when his eyes aren’t sweeping the plaza.
“There’s something in the wind,” he says as he slowly eats another slice of his fruit. Nina’s is almost gone. She’s sad for that.
“Rumors.” Nina glances at the gangsters on the corner of the street with their strange metal suits. They’re looking antsy, searching the street. “There’s not much chatter. Something about an Imperial pilot. Broke through the Shu blockade.”
Matthias’s eyes drift back across the crowds of people. Nina rearranges her robe and leans against her staff. Two years posing as acolytes of the temple and proselytizing about Sankts has her accustomed to her character. No one bothers with a monk spouting ideas of an old religion they no longer believe in.
“The Empire is still confined to their kyber shipments,” Matthias observes. He casually cuts the seeds from his fruit. “Their shuttle routes haven’t been altered. The Shu though.” His eyes dart to their locations around the square. “They’re looking for someone.”
“A defector,” Nina says.
Matthias finally looks over at her in surprise. “Yours or mine?”
“Does it matter?” she asks. “Either way, we need to find them before anyone else.”
“Do we?” Matthias grumbles and slips his knife back into the sheath hidden somewhere on his person. “It’s not like anyone’s come to get us in the last two years.”
Nina rolls her eyes. They’ve had this argument before. “Come now, druskelle. Where’s that attitude of dedication to the Empire?”
He snorts. “It died two years ago.” One of the Shu guards moves and Matthias’s attention strays. “Think it’s important enough that they’ll risk their peace with the Shu?”
Beneath the question is the unspoken one that neither of them have put words to, but they both know is lingering in the back of their minds: Is this defector more important than they are? Nina’s last mission was to get a contact off Jedha to the Rebellion. Matthias had saved her from capture by the Shu and they hadn’t been able to risk an attempt to leave Jedha since then. The Empire had some sort of deal with the Shu that allowed them access to the Kyber mines but that was it.
“Perhaps it’s time we went to collect tithes, Brother Helvar,” Nina announces. She pulls up the hood of her robes and leans on her staff as she walks out from the temple. Matthias follows behind her with grumbled complaints under his breath. The occupants of the city are familiar with their dynamic, although they’re sure to vary the times they depart the temple. Routines are too predictable.
Matthias doesn’t speak even as Nina stops to talk with every friendly face she sees. For the first year, he had complained at every moment, even as she explained to him the importance of blending in, of becoming part of the populace. Now he even lets the children climb on him when she stops to share a story about the saints.
“They’re jumpy,” Lin shares with Nina in whispered tones, her eyes darting around the square even though there don’t appear to be guards around right now. “Jan said he saw stormtroopers preparing to enter the city.”
Nina performs a blessing on an elderly man. “Any idea what they’re looking for?”
“A pilot.” Lin shifts her daughter around on her hip. “Imperial pilot. You don’t want to get between the troopers and their goal. The Shu are looking for him too. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll stay out of their way.”
Matthias moves closer. “And the pilot?”
Lin glances at him and then back at Nina. She’s always been more skittish around men. It’s a look Nina’s uncomfortably familiar with and one she knows speaks to a violent past interaction. The way she grips her daughter just a bit closer breaks Nina’s heart.
Nina nods encouragingly.
“Down by the old refractory.” Lin freezes up as soon as the words escape her mouth. Her eyes widen in surprise at what she just divulged. She darts away in a panic, leaving Nina and Matthias to continue to serve the poor with their usual tithes.
By unspoken agreement, Matthias follows Nina’s lead as she takes them on a winding path. The last year and half of long meandering routes work in their favor as Nina leads them with more purpose.
It feels good to have a purpose again. She hasn’t had contact with the Rebellion, but if this is big enough that the Empire is willing to fight the Shu for the interloper, then it’s big enough for the Rebellion to also be looking. The Empire has the strength to use brute force. The Rebellion will send Kaz Brekker. Per Haskell would be an idiot to send anyone else.
As they get closer to their destination, Nina slows her pace and purposefully plays up her monk persona, passing out alms and blessings in equal measure. Matthias moves gruffly in her wake, watching her back in a way that might be suspicious if it hadn’t been his stable characteristic for the last two years. The Shu are used to their dynamic of the devout believer jaded sceptic. They had adopted the personas for safe passage before the Shu blockade and been forced to maintain it since then.
It was useful, despite neither Nina nor Matthias being well versed in espionage.
By the time they reach the old refractory buildings, Nina and Matthias are moving at a crawl, speaking to every person they see. Nina’s eyes scan the faces for one that looks out of place, one that screams uncertainty or distrust.
She gets pointed down a dark alley by one of the urchins after she shares with him one of her precious jojo beans. It’s the closest she can get to her sweets in this city. She glances at Matthias and he nods. His body is intentionally relaxed, ready to move as necessary in response to a threat.
Nina leads the way into the factory, looking around carefully as they move into the space. She breathes in deeply and sinks into the meditative state. The air around her settles, buzzing with the life force of the inhabitants of the city. In a couple of breaths, she narrows it further so she can feel the interior of the building.
Matthias mutters under his breath, something about religious mumbo jumbo and insanity.
Nina turns sideways and opens one eye to glare at Matthias. He rolls his eyes and gestures at her to continue.
Her use of the Force is unrefined, based more in the faith that it will work than on actual knowledge about what she’s doing. It’s an old religion and the order they’re with is still respected even if not believed in. Okay, so maybe respected is pushing it. They’re disregarded as religious fanatics who don’t do much of anything.
She follows the light of the Force through the factory, letting it guide her feet, trusting it to protect her from bumping into any of the clutter. Dimly, she senses Matthias grunt as he moves something out of her path before she hits it or it hits her. She keeps her focus on the life signature that shines like a beacon, coming to a stop once they’re in sight of the huddled mass. She opens her eyes and peers into the gloom.
“We’re here to help you,” Nina says. Her soft voice carries around the large space. She ignores Matthias’s mutter about talking to herself.
“Who...who are you?” A tremulous voice asks. It sounds younger than Nina expected, more uncertain. She thought a defector would be more hardened, more convinced of their path to go against the Empire in such a way.
Nina squats down to look at the hunched over figure. Matthias has one hand hovering over his hidden firearm, the other on a dagger. She’s deep in her meditation of the Force and senses no danger from the huddled figure.
“You’re the pilot, right?” Nina asks instead of answering.
His eyes look her over, lingering on her and Matthias’s matching robes. “You’re priests?”
He inches forward. There’s enough light cast on him that his Imperial uniform catches her eye, answering the question he avoids. She smiles softly at him and holds out her hand. Behind her Matthias shifts, disliking her proximity to perceived danger, if she has to guess.
“Word on the street is you’re a defector. We’re here to help.”
<hr>
Wylan doesn't think he's ever been this cold in his life. Which is bizarre because this is a desert planet. You'd think it would be warm but instead he's found himself huddled in dark corners, scavenging like a rat for scraps for the last couple days while he tries to escape notice from the Shu. Jedha was supposed to be a safe haven for him, somewhere the Empire couldn't touch. The Shu had tried to grab him first, had detained him and demanded answers to their questions about the Empire. His protests that he wanted to defect fell on deaf ears. Then they'd dragged him into a cave with a beast they called Bor Gullet.
It's a blur after that.
He remembers waking in a cell to garbled words, a blurred hologram of his father glaring disdainfully down at him. A comment about the Empire being grateful to the Shu. Wylan doesn't know how he escaped. There's a memory of loud noise, a flash of heat, and dirt. Then it's all dark and cold.
He'd avoided people after that, stuck to shadows, and only ventured out when the emptiness of his stomach threatened to eat him from the inside out.
He doesn't even know how long it's been since he escaped the cell...or was released...he doesn't know.
Then the woman appeared, like an angel out of the darkness and she promises salvation.
Wylan knows enough of his father's games not to immediately trust the gesture. "Who are you?"
“We’re with the Rebellion,” she says with a smile.
The monk behind her rolls his eyes and turns away. They don’t look like any monks he recognises. The only person he’s heard of who truly follows the old religion is the Darkling and Wylan’s not so unfortunate to have ever seen him in person. “You don’t look like Rebels.”
“He’s right. We don’t,” the man tells her.
The woman looks over her shoulder, eyes narrowed in a glare. “Matthias Helvar.” She turns conspiratorially back to Wylan and there’s a friendly glint in her eye that makes him want to trust her. “Once he was the most devout of you all. Rose through the ranks of the Empire almost as high as they come. You want out of the Empire. We can help.”
Wylan’s eyes drift over the man’s features and there’s something that reminds him of the way General Brum’s men carry themselves, the elite of the troopers he’s only seen from a distance. Wylan wants to string words together but they slip away like soap and water.
“Will you come with us?” She prompts, yet again.
He can’t combine the fears and hopes and questions into coherent sense. All he can do is nod in agreement. Whether they harm him or save him, he’ll be dead or caught if he stays here on his own. He needs allies and he’s not in a mental state where he can do much of anything himself.
“Good,” she says. She pulls him forward and manhandles Wylan into a monk’s robe over his tattered pilot’s uniform. “I’m Nina. This is Matthias. We’re going to get you out of here alive. Good?”
Wylan nods. She shoves a basket into his hands and drops additional bits of clutter from the warehouse floor into it.
“We should be heading back,” Matthias rumbles.
“Walk between us,” Nina instructs, pulling the hood of his robe up. Matthias mimics the movement. “Don’t make eye contact. Don’t talk to anyone. Just stay in step with us. We’ll speak for you if it comes to that.”
Wylan has enough sense to nod along. He knows talking will only give away his current state of complete confusion. He can see the looks Nina and Matthias exchange in response to his silence. He’s not so lost that he doesn’t understand what’s going on but the thoughts take too long to reach his lips and disappear like fragrance on a breeze.
The ground is dusty and uneven under Wylan’s feet. It captures his attention as he walks, so different from the metal hallways and corridors he’s used to walking. His feet catch from where they scrape the ground and he tries to tell his body to lift his feet higher, but they don’t seem willing to respond any more than what they do by instinct. When was the last time he walked on anything that wasn’t steel?
He’s so preoccupied by swirls of dirt that he walks right into a wall.
Well, not a wall, but the giant monk - Matthias. He bounces off the man’s back, which feels like the equivalent of walking into a wall. The man doesn’t even move in response to him walking into him at full speed, but Wylan almost falls on his butt, and would if it wasn’t for Nina catching him.
She steps past him to stand next to Matthias. She pushes him further into the shadows behind Matthias as she looks past him to see what’s grabbed his attention. Wylan shuffles sideways and ducks down so he can look around the hulking figures.
The white helmets break through his current haze and Wylan stumbles backwards. The Storm Troopers followed him. He can’t allow himself to be captured, not after he finally escaped that place and his father’s restrictive control.
“Wait!” Nina whispers harshly, but Wylan’s body is moving without his consent. The urge to get away is too strong. It drives him, haltingly, step-after-step through twisting and confusing alleyways. He’s not sure where he’s going except away. If he can get to a port, he’s sure he can fly a ship.
Another flash of white Imperial helmets send him careening in another direction which leads him into a square. The sudden exposure leaves him disoriented and he spins around looking for another exit as a child is ushered into one house and shutters are slammed shut. Wylan gulps. He walks back and turns, running into someone for the second time. This time the person rocks as he crashes into them, but Wylan’s still the one wheeling back.
He blinks at the man, carrying some sort of stick. He looks like he could belong here except that his eyes are too intent. It’s the kind of gaze you couldn’t stand for too long but are also scared to look away from. It takes him a second to notice the tiny girl at his side. She’s looking around, causally flipping a blade in her hand. The other rests on a blaster. Now that he realized that, Wylan notices the man is also armed.
“Wylan Van Eck?” The man asks.
Wylan blinks at him in shock. He’s helpless to do anything but nod. They’re not Empire and they don’t look like the Khergud who grabbed him, so they can’t be that bad. Or at least are likely better than the alternative.
“Right. Time to be off. Let Jesper know we’ve got the package.” The man turns abruptly.
Wylan glances at the girl who steps aside and gestures at him to follow. He hasn’t decided if he will when there are footsteps behind him. He twists back to see who’s following and breathes a little easier when the monks appear. Maybe monks are better than whoever the man is.
Maybe he’s dead anyway.
“Oh good. You’re here.” The man says. “We can all go then.”
Nina smirks from where she’s bent over catching her breath. “Nice to see you too, Kaz. Been ages.”
<hr>
It’s convenient that they were able to find the pilot and Nina in one place. He would have trouble getting Inej and Jesper out of here with just the pilot. They’d had no communication with Nina, no way to get in contact with her once they were in the atmosphere. Kaz takes it in stride and moves back the way they came. The rest will follow and someone will make sure the pilot comes along with them.
It would have been a fantastic escape. In and out with no trouble whatsoever. It would have been too lucky for him, so the storm troopers that come streaming racing around the corner where Nina and her friend emerged are hardly a surprise. The real unlucky bit is that they also appear in the two other access points to the square.
The pilot looks ready to bolt. Nina and the second monk steps forward. Kaz respects the bulk of him and hopes that he’s good in a fight. If it were just him and Inej, they would split up and meet at the rendez-vous. The pilot is going to be the issue.
“Halt. Surrender or you will be terminated.”
Inej pushes Wylan behind her and toward Kaz. The boy curls in on himself. How he ever got up the courage to desert the Empire, Kaz hasn’t a clue. Now they just need to get him out of here with whatever valuable knowledge is worth breaking the standoff with the Shu.
Kaz pushes him into a doorway, out of sight of the blasters. “Stay down.”
The boy whimpers.
Nina steps forward, hands raised in a deceptively helpless gesture. “Calm down. We’re all friends here.”
“Stand down or we will open fire,” the trooper repeats. The entire line readies their weapons. Their blasters might be unreliable and clunky, but with so many firing, they’re bound to hit something.
“You don’t want to shoot us.” Nina tries again.
“That’s what you’ve got?” the second monk asks incredulously.
She glares at him. Kaz watches Inej palm a blade and twirl it effortlessly in one hand. The harsh sunlight glints off the edge of the blade: steel instead of a laser edge many prefer. He knows she likes the way the old fashioned blades feel in her hand. They look like they belong in her grasp.
Nina steps forward again, closer and closer to the troopers. “You’re not going to shoot us.”
“Hand over the pilot.” The trooper says. From across the square, Kaz can hear the gun prep to fire. This isn’t working.
“Yeah. That’s not going to happen,” he drawls from the back of the group. The second monk glares at him, but Kaz just twirls his kane, unbothered. It was going to come down to this anyway. There’s no point holding it off as more backup and fire power arrives to support the troopers.
Shadows fall across the square and Kaz gets his first look at the notorious Khergud soldiers who have kept Jedha independent for the last two years. “Imperial Troopers. You have no authority in our city. The pilot is ours.”
Nina, her monk, and Inej grow tense at the new party. Beside him the pilot starts to mutter under his breath, rocking back and forth.
This actually works to their advantage as the troopers are forced to divert their attention. The Khergud fires directly at the troopers before jumping into the air. The troopers open fire, most on the Khergud, judging them to be the bigger threat.
Inej seizes the moment to dive forward into the fight, taking out two opponents in moments before she’s engaged by one of the Shu soldiers. She moves like an acrobat, twirling through flailing limbs that breeze past her. She’s a force of nature.
Kaz is distracted from his awe by a guard landing a few feet away and leaping for Wylan. He dispatches the soldier with a few whacks of his cane. He crumples under a well-placed hit to the temple.
More troopers race toward the noise. They stop around the corner of an alley, firing from their protective spots and forcing the monk and Kaz to step back to cover. They lob a grenade into the square. Kaz takes two steps forward and hits it back with the metal head of his cane. It soars in a perfect arch back to the troopers, who scramble for cover too late.
The monk nods in acknowledgment and moves to relieve Nina from her two enemies. Inej falls back as she takes out her opponent and the rest are distracted by Nina and the monk. She moves to stand alongside Kaz, stretching out the muscles she just used as she slips her blades back in their many holsters. The explosion rocks the block which takes out one contingent of troopers but they're met with more troopers and Shu, crawling out of the cracks like cockroaches.
A moment later shots arc over their heads, rapid fire, each one hitting its target and leaving the recipients incapacitated.
Kaz relaxes infintestimently. He'd been prepared to dive for cover. His hand twitches toward Inej but he knows she can take care of herself. She doesn’t need him trying to tackle her and throwing off her center of balance.
A figure emerges along the roofline, a rifle resting against his shoulder. “There were an awful lot of explosions for people who were supposed to be blending in.”
“I hope you’ve got an exit plan, Brekker,” Nina says. She diverts to the Imperial pilot after a glance at the monk.
He nods and moves for the alley. “This way.” He glances at Inej and up at the roofline. She nods and follows his tacit directions. Kaz leaves her to do what she does best: cover them from the shadows.
Kaz walks with purpose through the streets. Now that fighting has broken out, it appears that no one is holding back. Shu are fighting stormtroopers, troopers are fighting the Khergud and civilians are running for cover. Jesper’s and Inej’s shadows move with them. The monk - who Kaz Brekker suspects is the Druskelle Nina mentioned before she went dark - leads the charge, with his long legs that eat up the ground in long strides. Nina covers their escape with a simple bo staff.
“Where are we going?” The monk asks as he fires off a round of shots.
“Left!” Jesper shouts as he crashes to the ground on the back of a Khergud soldier. “I don’t know why we ever thought this was going to be a quiet mission. And I still say we need a demolition expert.”
“We’re spies, Jesper,” Kaz growls over the sound of battle.
Jesper shoots him a cocky grin over his shoulder. “But this is so much more fun.”
“There’s something wrong with you,” the monk mutters.
“Kaz.”
He looks sideways, unsurprised to find Inej at his shoulder, silent as always. He follows her gaze upwards and nearly stumbles to a stop. “Jedha doesn’t have a moon.”
Nina and the monk stumble to a stop. Jesper glances up for a moment. “That’s what I wanted to tell you. It appeared out of nowhere. It’s too big to be a ship but moons don’t move.”
“That’s it,” Wylan whispers. The pilot suddenly jolts into motion. “We have to go. Now!”
Kaz is forced into an ungainly run. He tries not to notice Inej hovering at his elbow, keeping pace with him as they race toward the ship. The Imperial pilot is ahead of them all, heedless of laser bolts. Jesper yanks him back by the collar to direct him to the correct ship.
As he reaches the ramp, Kaz starts to hear screams.
“Jesper, get us out of here!” Kaz yells. Inej hits the control to shut the ramp as Jesper guns the engine.
“What do you think I’m doing, Brekker? Buckle up. This ride’s about to get bumpy.”
<hr>
The whole world has turned upside down. Matthias isn’t sure what he’s doing, to be perfectly honest. Staying with Nina was a mutually beneficial proposition. They were stuck on a foreign planet, where the only people they could trust were each other. He’d become accustomed to their partnership and been shocked by how much he relied upon her. Now, looking at this ragtag group - so different from the ordered discipline of the elite Druskelle guard - Matthias is at a loss for how the Resistance has managed to become a thorn in the Empire’s side.
He will admit that they were, like Nina, surprisingly capable and effective. However, he can’t hide how scandalized he is by their lack of any sort of recognizable chain of command. The trio moves like his old unit in that they’re so familiar with each other, they don’t need to shout out commands. But their actions of Jedha display an alarming disregard for a cohesive plan and seem to thrive on the chaos of the moment.
“What was that?!” The boy with the cane asks, turning around to stare at the group before his eyes zero in on the unfortunate pilot.
Matthias hasn’t gotten much from the boy, except that he stepped back from the fighting yet was clearly capable of surviving physical confrontation. Nina and his two companions seemed to defer to him as some sort of leader, which spoke to a sharp mind. Nina called him Kaz, which would indicate one of the high level members of Rebel Intelligence. He’s heard him referenced as a nightmare or a demon, spoken of in whispers and myths more than anything else.
All in all: Matthias expected someone older.
“That was the Death Star,” Wylan whispers. His eyes look haunted.
Matthias frowns. “Impossible.” He starts when five sets of eyes jerk towards him in the silence of hyperspace. He grits his teeth. The word wasn’t supposed to be spoken out loud. “They’re decades away from creating that technology.”
Wylan is shaking his head. “No. They found a scientist. Got him to create what they needed. I...I was able to get away. To warn the Rebellion. It’s a planet killer.”
“A planet killer?” The small girl repeats.
“Is that even possible?” Nina glances at him for confirmation. Matthias has no answer. It was only an idea when he was with the Druskelle last. Brum used to talk about it, but it was never close to a reality. Not then.
“Why don’t you ask Jedha?” Kaz says.
“We don’t know that it destroyed the whole planet,” the small girl points out.
The boy doesn’t look away from where he stares out the window at the white streaks of stars passing in hyperspace. “At the very least, we know it destroyed the city. If the Empire has a weapon like that, we’re left defenseless.”
“That’s why I was sent to find you,” Wylan says. He freezes when all eyes turn to him and he curls in on himself from his spot beside the pilot. Matthias has spent years in Imperial bases and has no idea how this pilot managed to get into the program, let alone became important enough to have access to this top secret project. It seems highly suspect to him.
“Sent?” The boy asks, finally turning so his whole body faces the pilot. Matthias does have to admit he cuts an intimidating figure even as he leans on his cane.
The pilot swallows. “The scientist. I was supposed to get to a contact they had with the Rebellion. There was someone I was supposed to connect with...the Wraith? But I got redirected…” He frowns. The more the pilot seems to search for words, the harder they seem to come.
Matthias has seen this before. “He was captured by the Khergud. They most likely probed his mind using Bor Gullet. That’s how they dealt with any Imperial or Rebel spies they found.” He leans back against the steel hull. It actually feels good to be back in space again after being grounded for so long.
It feels like freedom.
The boy looks at Nina. She nods in confirmation. “It’s true. We only escaped detection because of the temple.”
“Because all she would talk about was the Force,” Matthias mutters. He adjusts his muscles so they’re loose and he can react in an instant if needed. Nina drops into the space beside him, using his shoulder as a pillow as she settles in like a cat that can get comfortable anywhere.
“I saved your life,” she says without opening her eyes.
He grunts and doesn’t let his smile emerge.
“The Wraith,” Kaz repeats, focusing on Wylan again. “What were you supposed to tell them?”
Wylan still looks nervous. “Well, I was supposed to pass on...a message...There’s a way to destroy it. A weakness.”
“A weakness?”
Wylan yanks at his hair. It’s useless to try to force him to remember more in his state. Matthias watches the trio of rebels to see what they’ll do at this obstacle.
“He didn’t tell me,” Wylan whispers, clearly realizing this might not endear him to his rescuers at this point. “I was supposed to...bring someone back. They wanted...they wanted someone to rescue them, and they would share the weakness. I was just supposed to be the messenger. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this.”
Kaz scowls and glances at the girl who looks at the man in the pilot’s seat, all having some sort of silent conversation. Matthias watches the interaction with interest.
“Where is this base?” Kaz finally moves closer, crouching so he can look Wylan in the eyes.
“Eadu.”
Matthias vaguely recalls the outpost. Far from most of the known universe, it’s one of the Empire’s research bases. There’s not a huge platoon placed there for protection. It’s a secret base, kept out of the way, and by necessity sees few changes in personnel. There were a couple training missions on the planet to diversify the team’s experiences and analyze security procedures.
“We don’t have anyone on Eadu,” the girl notes.
“Because Eadu’s on lockdown. Nothing in or out that isn’t high level.” The boy flying the craft throws over his shoulder. “Out of the flight academy, I only stopped there once because they needed a supply run immediately. They didn’t even let me off the shuttle. To be a pilot there, you’d have to have some pretty impressive clearance.”
Matthias alters his assessment of the crew that got them off Jedha. To get through the Imperial Flight Academy is impressive. The man also demonstrated impressive aim and combat skills. Despite not being highly regimented, they do appear to be a solid team. He glances down at Nina.
“So in order to get the information on the weakness, we have to go to Eadu,” the girl says. She’s twirling a knife in her hands, one with a true steel blade like he hasn’t seen in ages. Her comfort with it is another mark in their favor.
“Jesper’s right. It’s impenetrable. We haven’t managed to get anyone on the inside.” Kaz taps his fingers on the head of his cane.
“So we go.” The girl shrugs. “We redirect. We need to find a way to beat this thing or millions more are going to die.”
“Procedure is to report for further orders. We’ve got the pilot.” Kaz looks at her with a heavy look.
“Matthias can help.” Nina elbows him as she speaks up.
He scowls down at her as everyone turns to stare at him. She didn’t even bother to open her eyes to betray him.
“I’m not a traitor.” Matthias glares at the lot of them.
“You’ll help,” Nina says with a self-assuredness he’s come to hate over the last couple of years. Because as irksome as it is, she’s usually right about these things. They both know it.
“We’re supposed to just trust a stranger on your word?” Jesper asks.
“Get twisted, Fahey. You know my word is good.”
Kaz and the woman - whose name Matthias still doesn’t know - have another silent conversation. She turns to look at him, her eyes speculative. Kaz leans closer to her. “You think you can do this?”
She doesn’t take his eyes from Matthias. Her knives continue the casual twisting in her hand. She shrugs and looks back at the mastermind. “It is our kind of job.”
Kaz nods. “Jesper, alter course. Van Eck, help get him close without being seen. Matthias, you need to tell us everything you know, and quickly.”
“Why should I?”
“Because if you don’t, I’m going to make your life very unpleasant.”
“How do you even know the pilot is right? How do you know there really is a weakness? This could be a trap.” It sounds like the kind of thing Jarl Brum would think up to capture Rebel spies.
“Faith,” Nina says. “This is the right choice.” She finally sits up and stretches.
Matthias rolls his eyes at her religious display. He sighs. “I can tell you what I know. It could still be a trap.”
“The pilot is Wylan Van Eck. He’s on my list of potential informants. He became an Imperial pilot because of familial connections. It’s how he has access to sensitive information. We know they’re working on something on Eadu. If this is what he says, then we need that information.” The girl explains it in an even voice.
“And if there isn’t a secret weakness?”
Kaz and Inej exchange a long look.
“Then we find another way to blow it up,” Jesper supplies.
Matthias isn’t sure he likes the looks of glee on their faces.
“So how do we get in?”
The girl turns to look at Matthias, her dark eyes just the slightest bit terrifying now that he’s actually getting a good chance to size her up. She tends to fade into the background and let her comrades take charge, but definitely is not to be underestimated. He stares at her and then glances at Kaz.
“Inej is a ghost,” Nina says. “She can get in and out without anyone noticing.”
He looks her over, still assessing. This moment, more than any in the last two years of surviving, feels like he’s standing on the edge of a cliff. The last two years he could justify to his superiors: he was surviving a hostile planet, he had to get close to Nina or he would have died, he was trying to learn the secrets of the Rebel scum. This was different. If he does this, he’s helping the Rebel cause. He’s actively going against everything he’s ever learned.
Nina hits him in the shoulder, as if sensing his internal conflict. She twists upright to look at him and raises an eyebrow in challenge.
He can hear her voice in his head, berating him for his strict no-nonsense rules and his consuming hatred for anything that goes against the order of the Empire. There were countless debates as they marched through Jedha, each an intellectual exercise. He can honestly say that he doesn’t believe the Empire is never wrong, but is that enough to make him give up their secrets?
“They murdered everyone in Jedha,” she whispers to him softly. “Lin, Mauri, Katya…” She closes her eyes against the pain.
He wants to wrap her in his arms and pull her close. Nina feels everything so deeply, unable to stop herself from connecting with everyone she meets. He wants to protect from that pain, to comfort her. Those lives lost today. They were innocents. People that should have been protected and instead…
He opens his eyes and nods his agreement to Nina.
She grins, life and joy filling her back up as she bounces around in her seat, the way she gets excited whenever they found something reasonably sweet on Jedha. “Matthias meet Inej. Inej, meet Matthais. He’s a little shy but he knows what’s at stake.”
It’s like shedding a piece of armor or throwing off the last vestiges of who he once was. There’s no turning back now, and he has surprisingly little regret as he opens his eyes and asks the first damning question: “Where do you want to start?”
...
Look out for Part II on 9/9!
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Paying the price
Chapter 23
*not edited*
@beautifulramblingbrains @pathybo @tigpooh67 @jojuarez26 @bookwarm85 @carefultheyspit @deepfrz @lets-play-truth-or-dare @scorpio2009 @iammarylastar @feminamortem
I knew the day had come when Dante carefully approached me after we were done running around the compound and told me it would be better to stay in the dorms for tonight.
Starting to smirk, I only gave him a wink since Avery choose that exact moment to pull me away for dinner and a little relaxing time after.
We stayed in the pit for an hour, all of us nursing one beer, the anticipation for tonight running so high that everyone knew what was coming. Even when ignoring all the comments being thrown our way.
Pretending to throw my bottle away when the three of us turned to leave, I purposely bumped into Rob, telling him to not get drunk and at least two hours of sleep. Ignoring his questions, I let Ivy pull me away towards our dorms.
After their teasing about how this was the first time I actually slept in my bed, not just coming to change in the early morning was done, we went to sleep at 10 pm just to be woken up at 2 by Dante banging a pipe against one of the beds, telling us we had 5 minutes to meet him in the pit. Smart as we were, we had already dressed in thermal underwear, only having to grab our combat clothes and our jackets, slipping in our boots before being ready to go.
The four of us, including a very grumpy Owen, were the first ones to arrive and I was pleasantly surprised to see that instead of the transfers instructor, who despised basically everyone, Harper stood tall at Theo´s and Ben´s side, flanked by the twins and Krissy, her best friend and Christina´s daughter.
Seeing them standing side by side, I couldn’t contain the smirk that threatened to split my face in two. This was going to be one hell of a night.
Harper and Krissy wore matching fishtail braids, only adding a more military air to their uniforms, not one hair out of place. Catching my grin, Harper wiggled her eyebrows at me but schooled her face carefully when the rest of the initiates arrived almost simultaneously followed by a loud holler of the drunk dauntless all around us.
Satisfied that everyone was here, the fourteen dauntless born as well as the ten transfers, Theo stepped forwards standing tall as ever.
"Listen up!" He called, his voice full of authority. "We are going to participate in a dauntless tradition as old as this faction." His announcement was interrupted by hollering and things banging from all over the pit. Raising his hand, Theo demanded them to shut up. "But since the factionless are still unsettled the security measures are heightened immensely. We´ll be on the old pier as every year, but for the duration of our war games, you´ll be forbidden to leave a certain area that is patrolled by our forces who made sure that this will go over without a hitch.
So, if I catch anyone of you beyond that certain area your ass is mine, understood?”
His answer was a series of yelled ‘Yes, Sir´s’ and Theo nodded, seemingly satisfied by our reply since he gestured for Ben to open the bag. Stepping forward, Ben pulled out a small gun and a packet I knew contained ammo, holding them up for us to see.
“We´re going to play capture the flag like every year. But this time, there will be a little twist.”
Cocking his head, he smirked. “We´ll explain everything in the train which will arrive in exactly four minutes at the rails. Everyone who´s not making it will pray for mercy once we´re done with you. Grab a gun and hurry the fuck up!”
Hollering the last part, he started jogging away followed by all of the members accompanying him, guns already hanging by their sides. Shooting Dante who smirked slightly a dirty look, I threw myself into the middle scramble.
We all made it onto the train, barely.
Panting like crazy, most of the transfers and a few of us were doubled over, hands stemmed on their knees, trying to catch their breath. My own chest was heaving heavily as I pushed through the initiates to get where my family was, sending them all glares.
"Listen up!" Harper called, the crowd quieting down slowly. "You all got a gun and a set of ammo.”
“Looks more like a toy.” One of the transfer said, inspecting the plastic gun with distaste. Knowing exactly what Andy was going to do, concluding from his expression, I loaded one of the darts into the weapon and pulled the trigger the same time as he did.
The transfer fell to the floor, clutching his abdomen while Andy´s leg gave out, sending him too, to the floor. With one knee on the floor and the other in front of him, he send me a glare, aiming in my direction. But before he could pull the trigger and start a personal war, Theo swatted the barrel away, bend down and pulled the stim dart out of Andy´s ass cheek, sending me a reprimanding look as he held it in the air.
"Thanks, Lexi." He commented dryly, walking over to the transfer to pull that dart out, too. "The neuro stim darts simulate the pain of a real bullet wound but only last a few seconds up to mere minutes, depending on where the target is hit. So far so good.” Theo nodded at Harper who stepped up with another bag, handing out devices to every one of the initiates.
"Those are trackers, lights, and sensors at once, they even have speakers so you´ll be able to communicate." She spoke up, pushing button making the device light up white. "You will place this and your jacket and be synced with whoever is your team captain." Looking up at Theo he gestured for him to go on and he pulled out something that looked like a tablet, typing something in. Harper's light flashed red. "See. That way your captain will see wherever you are at any time but beware: If this falls into the hand of the enemy you´re pretty much screwed." Her lips curled into a smirk and I knew it got even better. "Your sensors are also able to detect if you got hit and through the electric impulse also know which part of your body. Since you´ll synchronize all your darts before we start there will be also a ranking consisting of a hit-to-fire ratio, how often you got shot and if those would have disabled or killed you. All of this was specially developed for this year's initiation from yours truly." Gesturing towards herself and the smirking twins, Harper stepped back and let Theo take over again.
“Believe me, you don´t want to be last in this ranking.” Giving us a meaningful look, he clasped his hands in front of him, his expression turning excited. “Since we´re done with the formalities, Ben and I are captains, Dante with him while Harper´s with me, let´s choose.”
Gesturing for him to start, Ben stayed back taking everyone around him in. Smirking, Theo let his gaze flit through the compartment before he stopped at me. “Lexi.”
Walking towards him, he ruffled through my hair, pulling me into his chest while Ben groaned. “Marc.”
Freeing myself from his grasp, I came to stand beside Harper who slung one arm around my waist as Theo called Owen over. The choosing went on and to my delight did Cat and up on Ben´s team, just like Riley, while Ivy and Rob joined us.
Soon the initiates were all chosen, leaving the few members.
“Tonight we´ll see who´s victorious. The Coulter or Eaton clan.” Harper murmured into my ear and as I looked up confused by her statement, I saw that both of the twins had joined Ben, while Krissy came over to us. Turning towards our team, Harper stemmed her hands on her hips, her face turning stony as she addressed them. “Like you see, this is a family feud and if we lose you not only has to answer to your ranks but also to my father.”
Several faces turned white at her threat but Harper was unfazed, as she walked by me towards the door. “That should get them going.” She whispered before speaking up again. “We get off here, get ready to jump!”
Pulling open the door, she was the first one to disappear into the night and I let the transfers scramble after her, only turning around before getting out to look at Dante who was already watching me with a regretful smile. I replied with a promising smirk, throwing myself off the train, rolling up when I hit the floor, unable to just come to a stand.
“Okay, guys. Over here!” Waving his arm in the air, Theo ordered us to come closer, tablet in hand. “It looks like we´re ready to go, everyone´s synced. From the moment, the others are also done, we´ll have fifteen minutes before it officially starts. So, let´s discuss where we hide the flag!”
“What´s the strategically best place to hide it?” The erudite who knocked me over on the roof after the choosing ceremony asked, his eyes taking in the abandoned fair around us.
“We won´t help you transfer. This is an exercise for you all so don´t expect our help. We´re just here to make sure you don´t kill yourself out of stupidity.” Harper replied coldly, seizing him up. He shrunk back, her expression obviously intimidating to him and I snorted.
Pushing through the people, I came to a halt beside Rob who was standing on the sidelines, only watching. Turning away from the others, I murmured beside his shoulder. "The Ferris wheel."
“What?” He asked, startled by my appearance.
Rolling my eyes, I nodded towards my siblings. “The Ferris wheel is the best place to hide it. Speak up.”
Giving me a doubtful look, he hesitated but when I raised one eyebrow he scurried forward, interrupting whoever was speaking, drawing all the attention to himself. “We should hide it on top of the Ferris wheel. Technically we don´t even have to hide it, no one will be able to get up there, especially if we have a sniper targeting everyone who gets too close.”
Theo and Harper both stopped to stare at him, stunned that someone so ordinary as Rob would come up with a typical dauntless strategy. I could see that they took him in a second time, reevaluating their opinion of him. A light blush appeared on Rob's cheek when everyone turned towards him, only getting stronger when one of the transfer girls snorted at his idea.
“Yeah, Rob? And who the hell I supposed to get up there? None of us are stupid enough to even try…”
She trailed off as I slowly stepped forward, narrowed eyes never leaving hers as I grabbed the flag and demonstratively pulled it out of Theo´s outstretched hand, daring her to question my abilities. She was smart enough to keep her mouth shut.
Catching my brother´s gaze, I waited for his affirmative nod before gesturing for Rob to follow me when I simply walked away, determined to get the neon colored cloth of fabric onto the top of the Ferris wheel.
I was already several feet away from the group when he came running, falling into step with me, breathing heavy. “Damn, you showed it to Scar!” He laughed, shaking his head unbelievingly. “She´s from candor, her honesty can be scary sometimes.”
“The only ‘scary’ thing about candor´s is that they´re too stupid to keep their mouth shut.” I rolled my eyes, fastening my steps when Theo let us know through the sensor that our fifteen minutes had begun.
“I guess.” Rob replied off-handedly, an excited skip in his steps. “But it doesn’t make it less cool.”
Snorting, I refrained from answering, instead taking in the Ferris wheel in front of us. It used to be white but the years took their toll on the metal, several of the bars not safe to climb on. The first half was easy, a ladder would bring me to the center of the wheel but the rest I´d have to brachiate from bar to bar with nothing beneath me. I guess that´s what dauntless is really about, taking risks.
“You´re crazy.” Rob breathed, pulling me from my thoughts. I made a questioning sound, too lost to realize what he was talking about until I followed his wide-eyed gaze, looking up to the top from where we were standing at the bottom.
“That´s a possibility.”
“So…” He started to speak just as I went to step forward and begin my climb. “I realized that I´m the only one you´re talking to. I must be pretty special.”
Furrowing my brow, I looked at him incredulously, starting to laugh loudly at his smug grin. “No, you´re not. Get over yourself." Shaking my head in an overly exasperated manner, I couldn't help but grin when his face fell a little.
“Oh…”
“Yeah. There are a few others but if it makes you feel better, you´re the first from our initiation class.” Shrugging his shoulders, he pouted.
“Maybe a little.”
Chuckling, I playfully shoved him out of my way. “Now stop holding me up, I have a game to win.” Jogging over to the ladder, I paused when a thought hit me. “Hey, Rob?” Looking up, he threw me a questioning gaze. “Can you climb?”
His confused face was slowly overtaken by a knowing grin as he hurried over, ready to listen to my plan.
Like predicted, the first half of the climb was easy, even for Rob who admitted to only have ever scaled his house back in abnegation. That´s why I left him there, with the instruction to just make his way to the cab to our right. Halfway away from the ground he´d be in the perfect position to take out our opponents without getting hit himself or giving away his location.
Knowing I´d need to be fully concentrated I waited and watched him until he was safely in the cabin before going on, starting to pull myself up the bars. Having practiced so much in the city it was fairly easy especially since I was wearing my gloves, I only lost my footing once when I felt a bar crack beneath my grip, threatening to give way. I had avoided falling by swinging around, grabbing another one to my right.
After the scare, I took a short moment to catch my breath before going on, reaching the top only seconds before the red pyro at the other end of the fair signaled that the game had started. Balancing myself on the cab, I tied the neon-yellow flag to the metal bar and it immediately started flattering in the wind, glowing brightly for everyone to see.
Slowly making my way down again without trying to kill myself, I had just reached solid ground again and contemplated what to do shaking out my strained fingers when the sensor started to buzz, signaling that someone was trying to contact me, it was silent since every noise could have given my position away. Pushing the button, I was greeted by my brother´s heavy breathing.
“Lexi!” It cracked slightly and I could hear people running in the background. “If you´re done get on the roof of the building, we need you to cover for us! We´re surrounded on the west side of the pier! Hurry!”
Not losing a second, I sprinted across the open square without seeing any of the others, gun held securely in hand, ready to shoot.
Reaching the building, I pressed myself against it, looking around the corner. Squinting my eyes, I was able to make out the silhouette of two people creeping through the shadows towards the Ferris wheel. Waiting until they were in plain sight, I aimed and pulled the trigger bringing the one on the right to fall just as another dart came flying from the cabin I knew Rob was in, hitting the second one.
Concluding from the high-pitched scream, he had just hit Cat and I mentally congratulated him and me, for teaching him.
Still smirking, I stretched my fingers before jumping up to get a hold of the facade, slowly pulling myself up the building, relying mostly on the strength of my upper body. Judging from the height, it must have been around eight stories high, my breathing labored, arms burning from the exertion when I finally pulled myself over the ledge, careful of the steep of the roof.
I took a moment to level my breaths before getting up, unstrapping the gun and running over the roof ducked, trying to lay low.
Reaching the other side, I laid down, slowly robbing towards the edge of the roof near where I heard shouts coming from earlier. And there the majority of my team was the only cover a huge cement block on either side, my cousin's team slowly advancing. Counting at least eight of them, I slowly inched the barrel of my gun over the ledge, taking aim just as the devices vibrated again. Knowing it must be my brother asking where I was, I ignored it, grabbing one of the pyros he had handed me earlier. Scratching it along the stone of the roof, it caught fire and I threw it down, the red fire illuminating everything around it. Taking a deep breath I fired, took aim and fired again, not bothering to look if I had hit my target. The shouts of pain told me enough.
I rapid succession, I managed to hit the three on the right that blocked the way towards their flag, one managed to duck behind a tipped over car, the ones on the left following his lead, taking cover. My brother and the three with him were able to break through without getting hurt and I laid still, waiting for another opponent to come into range when suddenly a barrel was pressed against the back of my head.
Freezing, I cursed myself for not having them heard coming near me and let my gun fall, raising my hands. I knew that it most likely was a gun loaded with stim darts but in that moment it could have also been a real one, sending shivers down my spine.
Getting up slowly, the barrel moved with me, always staying pressed against my skull. One shot with a stun gun would knock me out cold, a real one would kill me.
Upright, I didn’t have time to move before a strong arm slung itself around my waist, pulling me back into a broad chest. “I just knew that I would find you up here, little monkey.”
Letting out a shaky but relieved breath, I let my head fall against his shoulder for a moment, closing my eyes. His chest was warm against my back, familiar, as he placed a palm on my stomach, burying his face in my hair.
The relief fast vanished and I turned around, punching Dante´s shoulder hard.
“You ass!”
Rubbing the place that would surely bruise, he winced but suddenly started laughing after he looked up, only fueling my irritation. “Oh, I´m sorry. Did I scare you?” He asked, a little twinkle in his eyes he rubbed the stubble on his skin, the gun now hanging from his shoulder.
Narrowing my eyes at him, I crossed my arms. “Fuck off.”
Shaking his head, Dante continued chuckling lightly as he pulled me back to him. Not wanting to give in so easily, I stayed rigid but when he nudged my head to the side, placing open mouthed kisses on my neck, I started squirming, winding my arms around him. He pulled back slightly to press a kiss to my lips and I pouted at him. “I meant it, you´re an ass.”
Looking down at me softly, Dante shook his head, pressing a kiss to my temple. “I´m really sorry but the opportunity was too good to pass up." Rolling my eyes, my lips curled up slightly and I bit down on them, not wanting to give him the satisfaction to forgive him that easily. But he lightly shook me, still laughing when his expression suddenly turned more intense, his hand wandering towards my jaw, angling my head up towards him. "I really missed you the past few days. I´ll be so happy when the first stage is finally over." He breathed against my lips, not quite touching them. "I´ll have to my own for a whole weekend."
“Oh, really?” Pressing myself against him, my voice turned hoarser. “And what are you planning to do with me?”
Looking deep into his eyes, Dante only let out a low groan, pulling me against him with all his strength, capturing my lips in a searing kiss almost prying my mouth open with his tongue. Meeting his passion with the same fervor, I pulled him closer with one hand around his neck, the other slowly wandering over his abdomen, dipping into the waistband of his pants.
Rubbing over the front, I felt him harden against my hand and I pressed myself against him, letting my other hand trail over his arm until I reached his hand.
Stepping out of his embrace so sudden stunned Dante and he stared at me with a confused expression, his eyes widening the moment he saw what I held in hand.
“Payback´s a bitch, love.”
Pulling the trigger, I shot him three times with his own gun only feeling slightly bad when he crumbled on the ground, groaning loudly frantically trying to pull the darts off his abdomen. Throwing the gun further down the roof to get a head start, I firmly grabbed my own and took off, running towards the towers on the end of the roof facing the moor.
Not slowing down, I jumped from one ledge onto the smaller roof, the glow of the green flag greeted me, taunting me to come and get it.
I knew that there were stairs leading up, most likely guarded by several players but the dirty white ornaments on the outside, cut outs, were perfect for climbing up on.
Casting another glance towards the door, making sure that this time no one would be able to sneak up on me, I grabbed the lower part of the circular cutout above my head and pulled me up, placing my feet on the ledge that framed the ornaments. Internalizing my way up, like usual, I started climbing, the texture making it so much easier than climbing the Ferris wheel or even onto the roof of this building. At the end, there´d be an upwards curve but it should be manageable.
But halfway through, about 20 feet above the roof, the doors were slammed open, a series of shouts and whizzing darts appearing beneath me announced the arrival of both teams.
I knew they couldn’t see me yet from where they fought but they were coming closer and I started pulling myself up faster, not wanting to be hit by a stray dart.
I thought that no one would be stupid enough to shoot me while I was climbing a tower but I was wrong.
The only indication of the pain to come was a silent whooshing noise before I was hit several times, the pain spreading quickly through my backside excruciating, pivoting up and down my spine.
Arching my back in reflex, I let go of the wall not even feeling myself topple backward until I was falling with no way of catching myself before hitting the concrete ground 20 feet beneath me. Closing my eyes, I pulled my knees up to my chest and covered my head with my arms, not knowing what was worse – the sensation of free falling or the pain spreading through my back.
But I knew, landing on the ground it would get so much worse.
The fall only took a second but for me it felt like forever as I clenched my teeth, waiting for an impact that never came. Instead of being met by concrete, a soft pair of arms encircled me, the force of my fall sending us both to the ground, him groaning in pain while I whimpered, the darts pressing painfully into my already bruised skin.
“Fuck, Lexi! Are you alright?!” Dante asked, frantically searching for injuries that weren’t there. Gripping his vest until my knuckles turned white, I buried my face in his chest, eye´s clenched shut.
“Take them out!” I whimpered, the darts even further inside my skin through the impact. Turning me slightly with a hand on my waist, Dante quickly pulled four parts from my skin, one directly over my spine, which explained the light numbness in my legs, making me wince with every single one. Immediately, his hand crept beneath my shirt, rubbing the irritated places in soothing circles.
Running his other hand through my hair, he positioned my lying frame on his lap, bending down to look at me. “Are you alright?”
“ ´m fine…” Murmuring into his vest, I breathed in deeply, my eyes still closed. The sharp pain was slowly fading, the gentle ministrations of his fingers slowly massaging the feeling back into my body.
A pair of feet came running over and someone fell on their knees beside me, cradling my head in hands, brushing the hair away from my face with shaky fingers. “Lexi, are you hurt?”
Looking up into the scared blue eyes of my sister, I shook my head grabbing her wrists in one of my hands. Getting the message, she slowly helped me up, catching me when I stumbled, my legs still shaky. Leaning against her, I felt her press a kiss to my hair, pulling me closer as she turned to Dante. “Are you sure she didn’t hurt herself? She can hardly stand!”
“Don´t worry.” He assured her, smiling tightly. “One of the darts hit her directly over the spine, not to mention that she almost died. It´s normal that she´s a bit shaky.”
I weakly rolled my eyes at his exaggeration. The fall wouldn’t have killed me, only given me a few broken bones and a nasty concussion, most likely. Trying to hide my wince, I straightened up, indicating that I was alright on my own and Harper slowly let go, cautiously watching me taking a step, her face hardening when I stumbled.
“I´m going to kill the bastard that shot you!” Harper seethed, her eyes narrowed into slits. But then her gaze fell onto Dante and it softened as she threw himself at him, slinging her arms around his neck. I watched as he caught her with wide eyes, only starting to smile when she mumbled something I couldn’t decipher.
A strange feeling rose in my chest as I watched him squeeze her tightly before letting go, a soft smile on his face as he looked from her to me.
Turning my gaze to the ground, it was hard to swallow as I angled away from them. Only a snort made me look back up into Harper´s incredulous face as she raised one eyebrow at me. "Seriously, Lex? Jealous of your own sister?"
Opening my mouth, I closed it again, staring at her wide-eyed. Harper only started laughing, shoved Dante´s shoulder and came over, ruffling my hair.
"How sweet! You thought I didn't know… We all do." She exclaimed laughing, before scrunching her face up shrugging her shoulders. "Well except mom, who´s too busy dealing with the Amity bitch and maybe dad, but you never know with him."
“I hope it stays that way.” Dante mumbled, his face contorted into a distasteful expression as he turned towards me. "I can imagine more pleasant things than being beaten up by your father and brother at the same time."
“Well,” Harper´s smile grew mischievous as she hooked her arm around his. “her sister is already on your side.”
“Yeah, just because you´re banging my best friend, H.”
My jaw was hanging open by the time Harper pushed him away, the faint red color of her cheeks detectable in the glow of the moon. Harper and blushing in the same sentence was something I had believed impossible but here she was, turning red as a tomato just because a guy was mentioned.
“I´m not just banging him!” She exclaimed, pointing a finger at him before suddenly turning shy. “Jeff´s special…”
“Yeah, a former amity that can down three beers in less than two minutes – special.” Raising one eyebrow, Dante sassed at her.
“Be careful my friend.” Fixing him with her stare, Harper crossed her arms. “We wouldn’t want dad to find out you´re doing his little girl, now would we?”
“As if you´d ever risk letting him find out you´re being defiled by an amity. I´m sure he´s more concerned about his princess than his little misfit.” This time it wasn’t Dante who answered and Harper froze, incredulously staring at me while I just smirked.
“You… you´re…” She stuttered, blinking rapidly. But a second later she already had me in her arms, squishing my tender back in a bear hug. “Oh, Lexi!” Harper exclaimed, almost choking me with her hair in my mouth.
"Harper… air…!" Letting go of me, she grabbed my face pulling it towards hers, pressing another kiss to my forehead before embracing me again. I felt awkward and tense, not used to so much affection coming from my oh-so-serious sister but Harper didn't care, not letting go.
“I love you, L.” She whispered against my ear and all uncomfortableness faded away as I melted into her arms, slinging mine around her.
“I love you, too, H.” Her only answer to my admission was a slight squeeze of her arms.
A loud cheering from right above us made us jump apart and all three of us whipped our heads towards the noise. There behind the railing of the tower stood Ivy victoriously thrusting the green flag into the night sky before being lifted off her feet by Theo, who placed her on his shoulders, joining in on their screams of triumph.
“What. The. Fuck.” Squinting her eyes, Harper watched our brother with a freaked-out expression. I felt her dilemma, seeing our ever-serious brother acting like a drunk adolescent. Snickering quietly, I slung my arm around Harper´s neck and pulled her closer, Dante watching our interaction with an amused expression.
"That my dear sister is the porn king celebrating the defeat of his worst enemy: Our cousin. Let the Coulter clan forever rule over the Eaton´s!”
Turning her head, Harper stared at me wide-eyed for a second before we both burst into laughter. He would never live it down.
Ivy and Theo had been the two of our team fighting through the whole tower, bringing us the victory while Robb had managed to defend our flag all on his own. It turned out that he was the only one that hadn’t been hit by a single dart while I, myself, was hit by four at once. Even his hit rate was good, one hit in every two tries and that from quite some height – I was proud. Theo only read out the more important statistics, claiming that he´d declare the rankings from tonight tomorrow afternoon at training, giving us the morning off.
With that he dismissed the group, most initiates being led away towards the train by Ben who said his goodbyes, since we stayed back for another dauntless tradition, having volunteered since the older siblings always took their younger ones and he´d already done it with Jon and Andy at their initiation.
The train that they took to leave also brought a few others who wanted to join us, just as the guards who had been patrolling the perimeter arrived. They did a great job making sure the factionless stayed away but I noticed how two of them approached Theo, speaking in hushed voices with him.
Giving them orders, they scurried away and he watched them with a serious expression before looking over at us, forcing a smile.
“You did great, L.”
“Yeah, except that she almost fell off the tower and died.” Harper replied sarcastically, making Theo´s eyes widen.
“Are you okay?” He asked, scanning me from head to toe. Giving him a thumbs-up, I ignored Harpers disapproving glance. I liked starting to talk to people individually, too many elated dauntless at once was a hazard in itself.
“So, who was it?” Snatching his tablet away, Harper pushed away on the touchscreen, her face turning stony when she found what she was searching for. Shoving it back into Theo´s chest, her gaze wandered over the people around us. “Great, thanks.”
Letting go of my arm, she sauntered away forcedly purposeless until she was a few feet away from us where she started fiddling with her gun, whirling it around like a stick. Theo, Dante and I watched her curiously, knowing there was no way to stop the force that was Harper Coulter.
Inspecting the barrel of her gun, it suddenly went off – shooting a stim dart right into Marc´s crotch.
Howling loudly, he fell to his knees clutching what I knew to be his manhood while everyone stopped and stared. Clasping my mouth, I tried to stifle the loud laugh that was bubbling from my throat and I wasn’t the only one.
Especially when Harper bend down to look at him, her face contorted in mock-horror. “Oh, no!” She cried, her hands flying to her cheeks. “What an accident! I should have looked where I was aiming my gun at, right?!”
Her tone dropped, turning into something frightening as she positioned her face right above his ear, whispering something with such a sickly sweet expression that I knew it must have been a death threat. “Understood?”
When he nodded, still writhing in pain Harper smiled brightly, clapping her hands as she came floating over to where we were standing, watching her bewildered while everyone around us started laughing at him. "Let´s get going, people! We´re almost there!"
And she was right, the Hancock Building rising up into the sky front of us in all its glory, the lights already turned on by some dauntless who had started the generator. Grabbing my hand, Harper pulled me through the lobby towards the elevators, pushing the button that opened the doors. We were the first ones inside, followed by Theo, Dante, Krissy, Ivy and a lot more, so much I was worried for a second the elevator couldn’t hold us all.
But like it has been for over a hundred years, it carried us up to the 99th floor where the dauntless poured out if it like a flood, the first one climbing the ladder and opening the hatch that would lead us onto the roof. Others had the harnesses, reaching them to the ones who were already on the roof.
We patiently waited for our turn, which wasn’t long since they all respected Theo too much to let him wait for an extended period of time and we climbed up the ladder, finding ourselves on top of the building that overlooked the whole city. The wind was blowing harshly through my open hair as we waited for the guys to secure everything and send the first ones down to catch the others. Leaning against Harper, I watched how Theo took out his tablet, once again going through the data of tonight’s game when he suddenly halted his scrolling, his face scrunching up in confusion.
“Dante?” He asked tentatively, reading again through whatever he was seeing on the screen while Dante looked at him inquiring, shooting Harper and me a cautious look as Theo opened his mouth again. “Why does it say here that you shot yourself?”
It was silent for a second, before –
“Why don´t you ask your sister?” Dante grumbled, turning to me with an accusing expression. Feeling all their eyes rest on me, I gave him an apologetic smile just as the guy on the rope called someone else to the rope. Shrugging my shoulders, I gave Dante my sweetest smile before sprinting away not longer able to contain my loud laughter.
"Don´t you dare!" He called, taking long steps after me but I had already bypassed Owen who just wanted to go on the zip line and let the guy in front heave me into a harness. Pulling the straps tighter, he winked at me, pulling me back and send me flying. The last thing I heard as the city extended beneath me was Dante calling my name and Harper´s loud laugh.
With a small smile on my face, I closed my eyes, stretching out my arms. This time, I wasn’t falling, this was flying.
I´m really sorry for the long wait but it took me a while to figure out how I wanted this to go since I´ve read so many capture the flag scenes that I didn’t want to make it boring. I hope you like the sibling time!
The next update for undoing will be soon, too! I have most of the chapter finished :)
Today (okay so yesterday since it´s 4 am :D) six months ago was the day I posted the first chapter of Faction before Blood, my first story…
Facts: FbB has 154 pages and 82.000 words
Paying the price has with this chapter 221 word pages and 114.400 words
FbB-Eric is 51 pages and 25.600 words long
Meaning that I wrote 426 pages and 222.000 words in total for this series which is… just crazy :D
I also looked up the meaning of some of the names and found that they are really fitting:
Amy – (dearly) beloved
Eric – honorable leader
Theodore – divine gift (that´s really sweet)
Benjamin – son of my right hand (somehow ironic)
Alexis – helper/ defender
Sam – sun child/ bright child (that´s just sad)
I think that´s enough of it… But I still want to thank every single one of you who liked/followed and/or commented on my fic, it means so much to me! All you´re encouragement helped me so much, not just because I´ve developed my writing skills immensely because you always manage to make me smile, so thank you!
Anna xx
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