L o t h a l

The sun was low in the sky as Jacen followed Alexsandr and Zeb back towards their ship, presumably to find Hera and get an explanation.

Jacen couldn't deny that he was crazy curious. He would be happy to finally get answers to whatever the heck was going on.

Then they'd go back to Lira San and life would fall back into its normal pattern. Jacen looked ahead where Alexsandr and Zeb were walking in front of him, talking to each other. Yeah, life would go back to normal, and he'd be okay with that.

That's when the ship showed up. One minute the plains were peace and still, and suddenly engines were blasting as a ship lowered itself, flattening the prairie grass all around. Strong wind almost knocked Jacen off his feet and he saw that he had been cut off from Alexsandr and Zeb.

"Jacen!" he could hear his uncles shouting. "Syndulla! Kid!"

The ramp of the ship was lowering and Jacen flattened himself down in the long prairie grass being whipped around. He stared as a figure came out to stand on the ramp.

Wearing a dark outfit, the figure had grey skin and untamed hair that looked like it hadn't been taken of in a long time. What struck Jacen most was the yellow eyes and the wave of darkness that came crashing over him.

He pressed himself as close to the ground as he could be as the figure called out, "Don't try to hide, child. I've sensed your presence already."

"Hey!" Uncle Zeb had taken his bo-rifle out and was holding it. "Who the Karabast are you?"

The figure looked down at Zeb and Jacen tried to suppress a shudder. He wanted to call out to his uncle, warn him to run.

A hand flew out from the figure and Zeb went flying backwards. "Its a Force user!" he growled, trying to regain his footing.

"Jacen!" Alexsandr called, trying to get closer to the boy. Jacen got to his feet and scrambled towards his almost uncle, heart pounding wildly.

"Alexsandr!" he cried, and he was almost, almost there, Alexsandr's arms outreached to grab him and pull him into safety when his body ceased to move.

And then he was floating, flying upwards. It would have been fun, Jacen loved to fly. There was nothing more exhilarating than being in the sky, free from the tethers to the ground. But this... this was terrifying. He felt like he was drowning in darkness, thought he didn't know how that was possible. 

He let out a cry and reached for Alexsandr, his almost uncle screaming his name and trying to grab onto him. But he was suddenly yanked back onto the ramp of the ship, the dark clothed figure looming over him. 

"Jacen!" Zeb shouted, and Alexsandr was screaming, "Syndulla!" 

The figure reached down to grab Jacen by the arm but he twisted away, causing him to miss. Jacen ran, ran for the end of the ramp and tried to jump.

The hand grabbed onto him, this time digging into his shoulder. Jacen frantically tried to wiggle away, his instincts screaming danger! at every moment.

Zeb was trying to jump for the ramp, but the figure was already pulling Jacen into the ship. The ramp closed as Jacen reached out one last time, and then the sliver of light that was Lothal sealed and all there was was darkness.

He couldn't see as the ship blasted away, away from Lothal and Alexsandr and Zeb and everything he knew. He couldn't see as his knees buckled, feeling like he drowning again. 

Drowning in nothing, drowning in darkness.

*

D e e p  S p a c e

Ketsu was stuck with Tristan Wren and that kid, Vyi. They were rehearsing clearance codes of all things.

Ketsu was bored. She wanted to get to that prison, break Bridger out, shoot up a few people, and get out. She wanted action, not being thrown back to her academy days of memorization drills.

"Outer Rim prison protocol clearance codes are 615-8339," Vyi was fiddling with a chain around his neck, a cylinder hanging off of it. As he spoke, his hands were messing with it, turning it over again and again. It was driving Ketsu insane. 

"615..." Tristan mumbled, but Ketsu cut in.

"What is that?" she pointed to the cylinder hanging from Vyi's neck. The halfbreed (Ketsu assumed he was a halfbreed, he had Mirialan markings on his cheeks and mostly human skin) looked startled at the question. He seemed started at everything.

Sabine had introduced him as a defected Imperial, although he looked too young to be an Imperial. That was the only reason why he was on this mission, Ketsu didn't think he'd be very useful.

"Its... um, a code cylinder," he stammered now. "Every Imperial had one."

"Can't we just use that instead of all this dull memorization?" Ketsu groaned. 

"No! Uh, it doesn't work like that," Vyi amended, looking down. "Its safer this way."

"Tell me the code again," Tristan pointedly turned the conversation back to the job. Ketsu stifled a yawn as Vyi repeated.

"615..." Tristan started again, and Vyi nodded encouragingly. "8... 3?" Vyi nodded again and Kestu resisted an eyeroll. "39!"

"Amazing job," Ketsu clapped slowly. Tristan turned a glare to her.

"If you won't take this job seriously, then why are you here?" Tristan accused. Ketsu gave a long sigh.

Tristan was the real brother of her blood sister, but that didn't make him any less annoying. He was such a rule follower, so serious. She couldn't stand it.

"Ugh, why does Jai get the fun job?" Ketsu glanced over to where he was talking to Sabine and Ahsoka.

"We get the fun job," Tristan amended. "We get to be Imperials."

"Yeah, how's that a good idea?" Ketsu rolled her eyes. 

"Because we are actually Imperials. Or at least, have been for a time," Tristan didn't look happy to be reliving those days, and neither was Ketsu.

"Remind me again how you're an Imperial," Ketsu pointed to Vyi, who looked startled at the attention. "I thought the Empire doesn't like aliens?"

"They don't," Vyi met her stare unblinking.

Ketsu cleared her throat. "Anyways, you're awfully young to be an Imp."

"I worked for my father," Vyi crossed his legs. 

"Right, right," Ketsu waved a hand. "Mhmm. So basically Sabine's thinking is that since we're the former Imperial group, we should play the roles?"

"The roles of a piece of a fallen remnant who want to join up with this remnant," Tristan confirmed. "Its the only way we'll get inside Kalar Remnant's territory without being shot down."

"And get close enough to the prison," Ketsu waved a hand. "Yeah, yeah, right. Because I'd prefer not to be shot down."

"Then focus," Tristan tapped his head and Ketsu groaned, resigning herself to more dull memorization.