STAR WARS REBELS || Her Wings Of Fire

CHAPTER EIGHT: Various Forms Of Planning

"What the hell did you do?"

Kanan's words sounded harsh even to his own ears, but he didn't care: he was seething. He stared Teri down in outrage, rubbing his scorched shoulder.

"Nothing more... nothing more than I had to," the informant said, his voice scarcely above a whisper.

It was then that he noticed that Teri was crying. He wasn't shaking – a man with his obvious military expertise had probably taught himself how not to – but the lines being drawn in the fine coating of dust from the fight on his cheeks by the little drops of water that wouldn't stop coming said all.

And the way he was looking down at the Togruta woman in his arms said something similar too. Whatever had gone down on Teri's side of the battle, it had shaken him badly.

But Kanan wasn't about to go soft. The informant had brought a kriffing Darksider along with them, of all people – not some random stray! And now it was too late to turn back and get rid of her unless they threw her out the airlock.

And however tempting that was, he wasn't one of the Empire's thugs. Even though he had done some pretty bad things before he fell in with Hera after that situation with the miners on Gorse, Jedi were far better than that.

"That does not even come close to answering the question," he retorted heatedly. "What are your motives, Fulcrum? What are you planning?"

"Kanan!" Hera's sharp call from across the room stopped him from berating the dark-haired man any further.

Kanan wasn't able to stop himself from letting out an angry huff, and stomped across the cool metal tiles to throw himself down in one of the passenger seats. Teri still hadn't moved from his place on the floor, cradling the Togruta in his arms, so Kanan chose to make them the focus of his enraged glare.

"Zeb, make sure they can't track us," Hera said, looking up at the burly Lasat standing in front of her for a moment.

He put a hand over his chest, nodding. "Consider it done."

Next the green Twi'lek turned towards Sabine, who was sitting next to her. "You all right?" she asked softly.

The young Mandalorian took of her helmet, and although she was trying to hide it with her long, brightly colored bangs, Kanan didn't miss the small cut over her eye that was oozing blood sluggishly. The direct hit to the visor from the fight had broken a small area of the dark glass, and a shard of it had sliced her skin. "Yeah. I'll live."

"Kanan."

Hearing his name, the Jedi looked up. His eyes immediately met a pair of deep blue ones, which, although fearful, were still every bit as youthful and curious as he had ever known them to be.

"Kanan," Ezra said again from beside him, his voice cracking slightly with fear, "what was that? A-another Inquisitor?"

He looked up from his injured shoulder. Although he was no Healer, he could use the Force to lessen the pain until it stopped being a bother, which he was in the process of doing. "No. It was something... Worse. Much, much worse."

The kid's eyes widened at that. "What?"

"It was a Sith Lord." Everyone in the room looked up as Teri spoke. Although his eyes were still wet with more unshed tears, there was no tremor in his voice. "The most ancient of enemies to the Jedi. I've only run into one of them once, and..." He looked back down at the woman in his arms. "It was a day I try so hard to forget."

Suddenly, Teri lifted his head again, and Kanan found himself wanting to flinch under the sheer intensity in his greenish-grey eyes, despite the tears. "I know what you must all think of me. You see this as an act of betrayal. But do you know why I brought her with us?" he asked in a voice that was deadly calm, gesturing to the Togruta in his lap. "It's because I'm thinking. I'm coming up with ways to get our asses out of here and out of situations in the future. You're right about one thing, Kanan. I am planning – planning ahead."

When no one said anything, he went on. "She's the Inquisitor's successor. And according to the rules of the Dark Side, the strongest Force-users make it to the top while the weaker ones serve them. The Empire won't want to lose her so easily. If need be, we can set up a hostage situation for things we need: fuel, medical supplies, information."

"But she'd cause more trouble than she would help!" Kanan exclaimed. "It was foolish to take her and you know it!"

Teri's gaze was petrifying, and his expression dared anyone to challenge him. "Do I look like a foolish sort of man to you?" He let that question hang in the air for a moment, then exhaled a breath tersely. "We need to take these Darksiders down before they take us down."

"H-how do we fight?" Ezra asked.

"Fight him? "Kanan gave him a hard look. He didn't agree with Teri at all, and he didn't want the kid's opinion to sway too much. "Ezra, we were lucky to survive!"

"Then that settles it." Hera and Sabine stood up, and the former gestured towards the cockpit. "We'll discuss the Inquisitor later. Teri, give her some sedatives to make sure we can get her somewhere we can contain her before she wakes up. I'm going to make for orbit so we can jump away."

Yeah, like that would work. If the guy they had just run into really was a Sith Lord, then they were facing a whole new kind of enemy: one who knew no mercy or kindness, and would certainly have a plan. Hera and the crew had plenty of the first two, but the third one was sadly lacking – they were no match for him, even without the Togruta backing him up.

"Hera, no," he said. "He will have a blockade of Destroyers waiting for us."

Sabine grabbed onto the first few rungs of the ladder to the cockpit and pulled herself up. "And this shuttle is slow; barely any weapons or shields. Ha! We're going to have to smuggle ourselves off Lothal for a change, along with the cargo and the crazy lady over there."

She pointed back towards the Togruta, and it could have been Kanan's imagination, but it seemed like Teri tightened his almost protective hold on the woman at her words.

Hera thought for a moment. "That's not a bad idea."

"What are you thinking?" He had a feeling he knew what she was about to propose, but if he was right, then he didn't like it at all.

"I'm thinking... we know the right man to smuggle us offworld," she said, and began climbing back up towards the cockpit.

Kanan and Ezra sat up immediately, and when they spoke, it was the same thing at the same time: "Not him!"

*Hostilities are starting to rise between the informant and the Jedi... What will come of Lux's decision to take a dangerous Sith disciple hostage? And will new revelations about Fulcrum's past and present push him and the Ghost crew apart even further? Because, as we'll soon find out, Teri has friends in the most unlikely of places...

Well, that was fun. Some character development for Lux, some past events hinted at, some angsty stuff, some Kanan being a jerk (one of the things he does best)...

*ignores Kanan yelling at me in the distance for that last comment*

It was actually exceptionally hard to find a place to put Teri's speech about motives and planning and stuff. The dialogue in the scenes from SWR varies in degrees of how seamless it is, meaning for me how easy it would be to potentially sneak an additional character's voice in there. This one was almost perfectly seamless, and, sadly, so I couldn't put it anywhere except where I did without compromising a lot of really good lines and the general flow of the conversation.

But I think I did an okay job, so I'm not going to push my luck XD

Next up is a chapter from the point of view of a mostly unconscious Sorena, having flashbacks that will explain her side of the story in a little more detail, and an appearance that won't become significant until a few chapters later... (Which Storm will like. A LOT.)

May the Force be with you,

Sharron