Knowing The Ropes

Chapter 1

Well....they were screwed. The Ghost crew were meant to be on a mission which consisted of sneaking on to a Star Destroyer and collect some information. Key words "meant to be". Right now, Kanan, Anakin, Hera, Zeb and Sabine were all cuffed together, surrounded by more then thirty stormtroopers as they were being escorted into a highly secured prison located in the middle of no where on Lothal. It was so unknown that only the Empire knew of it's existence. So they had been caught and out-numbered, forced into a surrender. All of their babies had been take away, AKA their weapons and they were five minutes away from the prison. Thankfully however, the Imperials didn't know that two of their prisoners were in fact Jedi's!! Once the transport had stopped outside the prison, the group were pushed and shoved through all three gates and into the courtyard where the cuffs were removed. The prison guards left as the crew looked at their surroundings; there was some gym equipment, a lot of benches and bins that held strong fires and occupied punching bags. There were just over twenty other prisoners all scattered around the cut off courtyard. The crew made their way over to some spare benches and sat down to talk "great, now what??" Zeb asked, even though none of them had any idea of what to do "they took all of our weapons, com links, the lot!!" Hera stated with a sigh as he rubbed her forehead. 

Before anything more could be said, a yell could be heard from across the courtyard, catching all of the prisoners attention; one of the guards were stood on a set of stairs, holding a....a young looking boy by his hair?! The poor child was covered in cuts, bruises, dirt and blood from head to toe, wearing a ripped up pair of shorts that were clearly a pair of trousers once upon a time, as well as an orange vest that seemed to be in the same condition. He had either black or navy blue shoulder length hair, beautiful electric blue eyes that seemed like an illusion to hide what they had seen and tanned skin. Before they could analyse the boy further, the guard that had a strong grip on the kids hair spoke...more like yelled "anyone to disobey us again will end up like this street rat!! You hear me!!" that wasn't a question; what the hell had he done to the kid?! The Crew all felt their hearts cringe at the sight, especially when the guard pulled the him down the stairs; he toppled down with a light thud at the end as he hit the ground. All of the guards left to return to the nice blocked off area of the prison whilst the prisoners continued with what they were doing, ignoring the clearly injured child. The newbies subtly watched as the boy just lay there; they were unsure if he was unconscious or not!! Hera was about to go into full mother mode when the kid slowly rose up to his feet, some how with ease, clutching his stomach as he walked over towards a near by bench that was away from everyone and began to patch himself up the best he could. 

Startling the newbies was a sudden and extremely loud alarm which made all of the prisoners yet up from where they were and made their way towards a large and tall wall, lining up next to one another; the crew hurried to do the same as a large group of guards left their safe heaven and walked towards them - the head guard had a piece of paper in his hand as he stood in front of the line of people. "Jackson!! Smith!! Orrelios!! White!! Langa!! You lot will be laying bricks on the South wing, this will be your job for the next two months" the chosen people were led away by some guards. "Jonus!! Blake!! Syndulla!! Reid!! Wren!! Parker!! You lot will be cleaning the sheets from every single cell, this will be your job for the next two months" the guards did the same as the last group and began to push them in the direction of their work stations; Sabine glared at one of the guards as they pushed her. "Don't touch-" the girl was cut off by a hand on her forearm - it was the beaten kid from before?? "Just do as they say" he clearly knew how to survive this hell hole so she did as told; the head guard noticed this interaction and approached them, facing the young kid before back handing him across the face. 

The remaining crew's eyes all widened with shock and horror; the slap was so hard that the boy fell to the floor with a light thud. "No. Talking" was all the head guard said before returning to the front; Kanan and Anakin watched with complete and utter shock, as well as slight amazement, as the kid jumped up like it was nothing. The only evidence they had that it had just happened was the nasty red mark and that they had just seen it with their own eyes. "Bridger!! Jarrus!! Skywalker!! You three will be smashing up the rocks" the head guard stated "this will be your jobs for the next two months" and with that, they were roughly escorted to their working station. It was a cut off and rather isolated area; the guards left the three to get on with their jobs. The kid grabbed the three large hammers and handed two of them to the newbies; he turned towards one of the massive square shaped rocks before smashing into it. The two shared a look before joining in, finding their own rocks "so kid, what's your name??" the boy looked up momentarily "Ezra Bridger, what about you two??" Anakin spoke up "I'm Anakin Skywalker" he stated before nodding over towards his friend "and Mr Ponytail over there is Kanan Jarrus" that earned him a glare. 

A hour passed of silent rock making passed when they decided to take a short break...well the newbies did anyway "uhh!! This is horrible!!" Anakin exclaimed as he and his mate sat down on one of the rocks "get used to it, I've been doing this everyday for five years straight" Ezra stated as he continued to destroy his third rock. That one statement alarmed and shocked the two men "wait a sec...how old are you kid??" Kanan asked; Ezra didn't even look up from his job "I'm fifteen". Eyes were immediately wide from horror and complete shock, not just from his age but from what age this meant he was first lock up; what in the name of the force could a ten year old child do that made the Empire lock them up?! He did indeed look extremely skinny in his baggy clothes, as well as rather short for his age. "..So kid...you got any tips on how to survive this hell hole??" Kanan asked making the teenager think "hmm, let's see....don't get into or start any fights...if you get given an offer that involved drinking water, always take the water, no matter what...if you somehow managed to smuggle in some belongings then hide them under either the floor panels or the wall panels in your cell...and don't piss any of the guards off, the punishments are pure hell" well....that helped they guessed. 

It truly annoyed the two secret Jedi to hear this information, especially as it was coming from a child!! They were asking a fifteen year old how to survive prison for force sake!! A child that had been there for five years!! It was terrible to know what the universe was coming to but hopefully, the Jedi and the Republic  will wipe the Empire out and restore the peace. Another long and difficult our passed by of smashing up these stupid rocks "I have a question" Anakin spoke, catching the other two prisoners attention "why are you here?? What the hell could a kid do to piss off the Empire??" he asked; Ezra wiped his sweaty forehead as Kanan glared at his friend for swearing "relax, I know ever cures word there is" he reassured before answering the mans question. "and if you want to survive this place, never ever ask a prisoner why they're here".