Ezra Lost

Chapter 59

59

KANAN BACKED away slowly as Ezra advanced. The boy's every move was akin to a carnivore creeping, creeping forward, eyes sharp as it stalked its prey.

Kanan's eyes were stretched wide with horror, grief, and disbelief. "Ezra," he said shakily. "N-no, this - this can't..you aren't... Ezra.." Tears spilled over onto his face. They stung against his cold face and felt painfully hot.

"You are correct," Ezra growled, his voice steaming with acid. "That name no longer has any meaning to me." He came to a stop almost two feet away from Kanan and pointed his humming blade at his former master's devastated face. "I am Shadowhunter. And I am here to destroy you."

Kanan stared at his Padawan, shaking.

"No," he said fiercely, gathering himself back together as quickly and strongly as he could. "You aren't Shadowhunter. You're Ezra. Ezra Bridger, my Padawan, my friend." His tears continued to flow, dripping down into his suit. It was an uncomfortable sensation, but Kanan paid it no attention. There was nothing he could do to stop it - but there had to be something he could do to succeed in his mission. "I'm still going to save you. And no one in this galaxy is going to hold me back!"

Ezra glowered at him. "I am Shadowhunter," he repeated, quiet and venomous. "Ezra Bridger...is...DEAD!" Ezra lunged at Kanan with his crimson lightsaber. In an instant, Kanan activated his own and met Ezra's strike with a flash of blue.

"I'm not going to fight you," he hissed, pressing against him with all of his might.

"Then you are a fool," Ezra snarled. With an incredible surge of strength Kanan hadn't known the boy had, Ezra sent Kanan sprawling backwards across the ice.

Kanan's yelp was cut short as his head slammed against the freighter. For a moment, he lay there, stunned as his lightsaber switched off and rolled away.

Ezra kicked the device aside as he prowled towards Kanan, his weapon raised.

Suddenly, a cold, malevolent chuckle rang out from above.

Ezra paused.

Someone sprang down from the top of the Imperial freighter to land between Kanan and Ezra with nary a sound. Ezra lowered his head slightly in submission.

As Kanan groaned and lifted his head, he noticed straight away the seeping of the Dark Side into his bones. It was worse than the cold. It caused his insides to feel as though they had frozen over and shut off, all except for his hammering heart.

But this particular feeling... was different.

It was different in a way Kanan had only ever felt so many times.

Rather than fear and hatred, there was merely only the unsettling coldness. The emotionlessness. The wrongness.

"No.." Kanan mumbled, his eyebrows meeting.

Slowly, the tall figure turned. His golden, red-rimmed eyes, set in hollow ovals of black, glittered ominously as he offered Kanan a sinister smirk that bared jagged and yellowed teeth.

Kanan stared.

"You."

The Pau'an chuckled again.

It was the chuckle from Kanan's nightmare.

His returned foe reached up and removed a circular lightsaber hilt from the holster at the back of his armored suit. He held it before him and switched it on.

The twin crimson blades jerked out from either side of it and began to spin faster than the eye could follow.

"I trust you remember me," the Inquisitor drawled casually, pinning Kanan to the spot with his vile gaze. "Ready to die?"