𝕃𝕖𝕘𝕒𝕔𝕪 - 𝔸 𝕊𝕋𝔸ℝ𝕎𝔸ℝ𝕊 𝕊𝕋𝕆ℝ𝕐

24 - PHOENIX RISING

(Song: SOS - ABBA
and Fine Line - Harry Styles)

"Our defences will hold. We just need some time to help the injured."

"Do we have that time? Their armies keep pressing forward. It's like the clones all over again."

"Yes. And just saying the Clones were smarter than this. Look all you have to do is..."

Caleb stopped listening to Ezra at that point. Right now, they were stuck on Mandalore. Once a great planet, now even more so a barren wasteland of war. The sky was always clouded with smoke, not even the moon could shine through. The building shakes from the war raging outside.

It's been so long he'd since he left what was left of the Resistance. The Mandalorian clans finally had settled their differences and decided to work together under their old leader, Lady Bo Katan Kryze of house Kryze. Bo Katan was far too old now to actually go out and deal with their New Order problem alone. She called on her old friend and trusted ally Lady Sabine Wren, of house Wren to bring the clan leaders together to fight and drive The Order out of Mandalore. Sabine contacted the Resistance and Ezra offered his and Caleb's services.

Soon after Caleb and Ezra had got to the Resistance after the vanishing of Mae, Poe and BB-8 had been sent on a mission to find vital information on the location of the missing Luke Skywalker. Caleb volunteered to go find Poe but Leia stopped him telling him that they couldn't lose another Jedi. A month or so later Han had come across 2 people named Rey and Finn, who had protected the droid. Before Caleb could meet them Ezra told him that they were leaving to fight on Mandalore.

Even on Mandalore, Rey became something of a small legend of the base by besting Kylo Ren at lightsaber combat with no training. The last Caleb heard from the Resistance was that Rey was sent to find Luke Skywalker and the Resistance was forced to retreat and go on the run. They lost connection with everyone. They seemed to be losing again.

Caleb desperately wanted to go with Rey to find Luke. He needed to tell Luke about Mae, to apologize and to get answers for her. He never even got a chance.

On Mandalore, he spent all his time training and reading Mae's books. He found her personal journal and read it too, hoping to find some sort of understanding of what happened to her on Endor. Her journal had less of her stories and more of her grandfathers. Caleb learned that Anakin was brought back from the dark side by Luke and saved him by killing Darth Sidious on the Death Star. The stories of the Clone Wars were true. Anakin Skywalker truly was the Chosen One. Caleb never told anyone his findings, he understood why they were kept secret in the first place.

"Can you do that Caleb?" He was interrupted from his thoughts.

"Sorry, you want me to..?"

"Take out the walker? While Sabine and I distract it and the trooper platoon." Ezra asked.

"My apologies. I can do that."

Caleb had learned a lot more than basics in the past few months. Ezra had taught him and pushed him extremely hard. Not only for his safety but for a distraction from Mae. Caleb hadn't got over it. No matter what he tried.

Caleb put on his jet pack and the team shuffled out of the door. He had gotten used to wearing makeshift Mandalorian armour. The action started as soon as they reached the end of the shields. Ezra gave a signal and they all used the jetpacks to get over the first lines. Bo Katan's warriors kept those ones distracted while Ezra, Sabine and Caleb went for the big guns.

A walker started to shoot at them and they prepared to attack. Ezra and Sabine fought well together as they had never spent so much time apart. Caleb landed on top of the walker then using his lightsaber cut a hole through the top. He jumped in and took care of the troopers controlling it. Then he aimed it for the trooper reinforcements headed their way. He shot them all down then walked the walker over to a ledge of a pit. He stopped just a foot away. Pulling himself out of it he looked down at Sabine and Ezra who were already heading back. Ezra gave him a thumbs up and turned away.