Rebuilding (COMPLETE)

*Episode 6 (5)

Author's Note: Many of you have mentioned picking up the pace of the story, and I'm starting to think this episode, in particular, is dragging. I'm going to go ahead and post the last part of this episode (Part 5) so that on February 2nd, the next episode will be published. Refer to the Season Overview for episode names and release order :)

Not much later, both the Rogue and the Ghost set down on the ground, and the Phantom docked with its home ship. Hera was waiting for Zeb when he climbed out of the shuttle. "Not soon enough, right?"

"Yeah, barely," he assured her, laughing. "You really made good time coming over the mountains, though. You nearly had him."

"A few more meters probably would have done it," Sabine remarked as they all went down to the cargo bay. "It was close, Hera."

She sighed, but she kept her chin up. "I know when I've been beaten. I'm just glad Skywalker doesn't have a better ship, or it wouldn't have been as interesting."

Kanan laughed. "I never thought I'd hear you admit defeat."

That sparked laughter in nearly all of them. Despite the jabs from her crew, Hera remained humble and took the heat. She knew when she lost a race, and by all means, Skywalker had earned it. She walked down the ramp of the Ghost, smiling. "You knew exactly what you were getting into when you started this, didn't you?"

"Always do," he teased, walking with Rex and Artoo in tow. "Good game, Captain Syndulla."

"Good game," she agreed, sticking her hand out to shake. Skywalker grinned and shook it, then pulled away.

His arm didn't come with him.

The entire Ghost crew screamed, much to the amusement of Skywalker and Rex. Hera dropped the hand, recoiling from the limb while staring at her competitor. They started cracking up, and despite missing an arm, Skywalker didn't seem to be in pain.

When he could breathe again, Skywalker held a hand up. "It's okay, it's robotic," he assured them, bending over to pick it up. "Sorry, I couldn't help myself."

"Are you kidding me???" Hera screamed, shrinking away from the hand as he reattached it. "How long have you had that?"

"Twenty years and counting," he laughed, tucking his sleeve back into the glove. "Lost a duel at the beginning of the Clone Wars and lost my hand with it."

Kanan had been the only exception to the screaming, as he remembered the stories from his childhood instantly. Crossing his arms, he facepalmed and sighed. "Should've seen that coming."

"Hey, I gotta poke my fun somewhere," Anakin argued, refastening the straps. "I guess I should head out now, though. If I leave in the next few hours, I'll be ahead of schedule to get to Rinn."

They knew this was coming, but it was still disappointing. It had been nice to see him. "Any idea when you'll come back around?" Kanan asked. 

Anakin shook his head, looking up at the sky. "Not a clue. It depends on the next orders I get from the rebel council. If I'm in the area, I'll be sure to give you a shout, and if I find out anything about Offee or the Inquisitors, I'll pass it along."

"At least now, we'll be expecting them to show up," Kanan encouraged, nodding firmly. "We'll be ready this time."

"I hope so. May the Force be with you," he bade the crew, smiling as they turned around to board the Ghost again. They had their own work to get back to too. 

Before he left, Anakin rested a hand on Rex's shoulder. "Keep in touch, yeah?"

"Yes, sir," he promised, smiling. "Don't get into too much trouble."

"No promises."

Rex laughed. "Shocker." Still, it was good enough. With one last salute, he followed the Ghost crew onto their ship. Back to work, as usual.

In the cargo hold, Ezra imagined Master Skywalker's hand coming off again and shuddered. "I was not ready for that."

"Eh, don't worry," Rex assured him. "You get used to it. He did the same thing to me when I first met him."

"Seriously?" Zeb asked. "Just like that, on day one?"

"Oh, yeah. Skywalker still likes a good practical joke these days, but he's nothing like he used to be. Started as a loose cannon, if I ever saw one," he remembered, steadying himself against the wall as the ship took off. "I was with the commander I had trained under. He was introducing me to Skywalker, and I went to shake his hand, as you do, and lo and behold, suddenly I was holding a prosthetic limb. Thought I had done it at first."

They laughed, even Kanan. Just a little. Rex grinned, then looked down at the ground. "Now that I think of it, I don't remember his name."

"The commander?" Sabine asked, assuming he wasn't talking about Skywalker.

Nodding, he kept looking away. "He went down not long into the Clone Wars. A new commander came in right after that. Lasted for three years, a lot longer. Haven't brought him up since then."

Rex walked off, signaling that he wasn't about to comment further on the topic. Ezra looked after him. "Is he okay?"

"Probably just remembering his clone friends," Sabine guessed, making sure Rex couldn't hear her. "Give him some space. He probably just wants time."

~

Once he was back in the cockpit, Anakin stroked Artoo's head fondly. "Nice work, buddy. Couldn't have done it without you."

Artoo beeped smugly, commenting on how fun it was to beat Chopper at something. Anakin grinned to himself. He almost felt bad: the race probably didn't help the tense relations between the two droids.

Starting the takeoff sequence, the Rogue ascended into the upper atmosphere and made to exit orbit. After a minute, Anakin remembered something. "Hey, can you check the heating system?"

The astromech agreed to, but he asked why the Jedi had brought it up. "I felt a draft at the start of the race, but I was almost sure the heat was turned off. If there's an issue, I'd like to fix it before we get to Rinn."

It seemed as random to Artoo as it did to Anakin, but he plugged into the ship and ran a quick diagnostic test. A moment later, he reported that nothing was coming up on the ship's computer. 

"Huh. That's... strange," he commented, but he began entering the coordinates for Rinn into the hyperdrive. "I'll check it out in a few minutes. Maybe it was just a fluke or something. Thanks, though."

Satisfied, Artoo rolled away to amuse himself, but Anakin was still slightly confused. The Rogue had never had issues with the heating system before. He couldn't recall when the ship had taken significant damage recently, so he didn't think that was the problem. He knew it wasn't the engine overheating either because it had happened before the race started, not after. What had caused the draft?

It's probably nothing, Anakin reasoned, killing the engines and activating the hyperdrive. If Artoo says nothing's wrong, he's probably right. It's an old ship, anyway.