Sparks

Chapter Twenty-One - The Hunter

"Hey! Wait." the boy says, walking up to me. I pulled my hood up when I was firing from the window, hiding my features. That comes in handy now. The woman who helped me walks out from behind a dumpster, as does the Mandalorian girl. The girl pulls off her helmet, shaking out her short, blue-green hair.

"Thanks for that. It was a close one," the boy says.

"Too close," the girl adds, checking something on her wrist.

"No problem." I look up at the woman, who looks back at me. "I guess we're even now." I look back to the boy. "But why were they after you all? I've never seen anything like that before."

The boy looks confused. "You've never seen a fight?"

Before I can say that's not what I mean, I've seen several fights, the woman answers him for me. "She's never seen anyone rebel, Ezra; it would not happen here."

"Yeah. I don't know how it is on other planets but no one fights back here anymore. And if someone does..." I sigh. "It's not pretty. The last execution was when I was younger. No one's rebelled since."

Ezra looks shocked. "As in public?"

I nod.

"Wait, they held public executions?" The girl also looks surprised. She hisses something to Ezra that sounds like, "Academy never...mentioned...public executions!"

The woman thinks about it for a moment, then seems to understand. "That's what he meant..." she mumbles to herself.

"Why do you think we haven't rebelled?" A second after I say that I hear the first bell ring, signaling 30 minutes before curfew. "You all should get going. Curfew starts in half an hour."

"Actually, do you know where this place is? All we have are coordinates." The girl says and shows me the coordinates on the device on her wrist.

Are they going to Jack's? "I know where that is. I'm going there actually, and it's not that far from here."

They follow me as the snow begins to fall faster. The girl, whose name I learn is Sabine, puts her helmet back on and I pull on my hood. I also learn the woman's name, which is Erica. I also learn that Erica and Ezra are siblings.

When we get to the back door I do the "special" knock that Jack told me about a few days ago. The door opens and Jack looks past us, scanning the area for Imperials. His eyebrows rise in surprise, but all he says is, "You all come in, quickly."

We file inside and Jack looks around outside before shutting and locking the door. "I was expecting that all of you would meet each other for the first time here, but I guess some things aren't meant to be," he chuckles.

The four of us look at each other in confusion. Jack smiles before motions for us to come upstairs to the supply room. Out of earshot of people passing by I suppose. As we walk upstairs I notice that his usually open and bright shop has its windows shut and the door closed, for curfew. And maybe for us? Apparently, I wasn't the only one that he was expecting.

We walk into the supply rooms, a surprisingly organized place compared to the shop downstairs. Clean shelves, labeled boxes line the two walls and an open window overlooking the city with a clear view of the Complex complete the room.

Jack looks at Erica. "You were sent by Hera, correct?" He asks Erica.

"Yes. And you must be Raydonia's agent then." Erica replies.

He nods. What? Before I can say anything Erica asks, "Where is the girl?"

"She's right here." Jacks gestures to me, and something registers in Erica's eyes. As if she's just realized something.