Chapter Thirty-One

"Did the intel account for the TIE fighters that are chasing us? Or is this a recent addition?"

I questioned in a monotone, using the Force to prevent myself from staggering as Hera performed maneuvers to avoid the blaster bolts that were aiming for us.

"Definitely the latter!'

The response came hurriedly, as she was focusing on flying, instead of paying attention to my annoyance.

What really ticked me off was that the wait took hours, we had to stay there until the evening and we left in the morning.

Sighing, I turned around, grabbing Sabine's shoulder, preventing her from falling to the ground from the chair she was clinging to as Hera turned suddenly.

Walking past her, I extended my arms forward, allowing my mind to sink into the force and feel where the TIE fighters were located in the air. They were moving erratically, trying to follow us and barely succeeding.

Using the force to grab the two TIE fighters from the six that were trying to guide us to the afterlife, I returned the favor, slamming them into each other.

I breathed out. That was harder than I thought it would be, but not draining enough for me to just stop at the two.

I clenched my palm, crushing one of the tie fighter wings, causing it to lose its balance and slam into a stone pillar.

Three more left.

Suddenly, Hera turned the Phantom, and I had to re-focus on grounding myself, feeling the bottom of the ship scraping against something.

I felt two of our pursuers die, followed by the sound of explosions, leaving only one of our pursuers left. Not for long though.

Sitting down after dealing with the tie fighter appropriately, and by that I mean ramming it into a cliff we passed, I took off my helmet, turning to our pilot.

"I knew you were good, Hera, but damn."

I had to give credit where credit was due. It was one thing fighting in space, where you could dodge bolts by going in any other direction, but it was another thing to dodge bolts while avoiding rock pillars and dealing with the tie fighters without firing a single blast yourself.

I wanted to do that.

"Did you expect anything else?"

I chuckled, standing up and keeping the helmet propped on my hip with one arm, I walked over to her, bending at my waist to bring my head leveled with her.

"What will it take for you to teach me how to fly a ship?"

She sent me a glance and smirked knowingly.

"Aren't you busy enough already?

I just shrugged, time could be made, it wasn't a problem if I finished the projects I was working on quickly, I just needed to learn how to fly a ship if I ever decided to leave the crew.

"Very well then."

I nodded, and went back to the seats in the back, waiting to arrive at the ghost.

All in all, the mission wasn't a quick in and out, took most of the day.

I sighed, playing with the helmet in my hands absently as I thought over what had happened.

The explosives in the road were a good idea, some of the hoverbikes were also damaged which made our job considerably easier. The toppled armored transport had to be exposed from the inside.

The tie fighters made things complicated but nothing I could not avoid.

I could not get a look at what I was destroying, but that was the least of my worries. What bothered me was the "Confidential information" that was the identity of Fulcrum.

What was this? The military? I understood keeping someone's identity a secret, but what Hera was doing was making me feel like I was in a large organization.

The consistency of the crew made me a bit suspicious as well.

A Lasat, seemingly the last of his kind, a Mandalorian, a Jedi, a pilot that could outfly any imperial, and finally me.

Just the knowledge of the bounty Kanan and I had on our heads should have been enough for us to leave the crew, but we were still allowed on the ghost.

A few reasons popped into my mind. Most of them I dismissed, mostly due to the lack of their ability to subdue me. I didn't trust these people, even the arm I made Kanan had a contingency and the upgrades I was making for Chopper did as well.

But some lingered, and those that did were more troublesome than I wanted them to be.

I realized that I might or might not joined an army that opposed the empire unintentionally.

Then again, I might be wrong.

But the mere fact that something like that popped into my head was bad news.

I remained silent for the rest of the flight as Sabine and Hera argued in the cockpit about keeping secrets, which I wisely tuned out.

As soon as the Phantom connected to the Ghost, I waited for the other two to leave the ship before I followed them.

"Zeb, perform a checkup on the phantom, Chopper, and Colt will help you."

I walked past Hera, heading to my room.

"Not now, Hera."

Without a word, I walked into the hall that had all of the rooms and made a beeline to mine. Entering when the doors opened, I walked over to the table I left a single candle on and stared at it for a moment.

Sucking in a deep breath, I grabbed it. With a small burst of force, electricity cracked between my thumb and pointer finger that I used to light the candle.

The memory was still painful, but I was recovering, slowly.

I placed the candle down on the floor and went down to my knees.

"Hey, Sis, I got a lot to tell you."

Would she be happy with how I turned out? Definitely not. I was a terrorist, and I was good at what I did, Anna would be disappointed, and my parents would be disappointed too.

___

The silence was prominent in the room and I basked in it. I didn't know how long I was here, just sitting, but it didn't really matter in the end.

My mind wondered, was Earth still out there? Probably, but what year would it be? Was it even worth it to look for it again?

In the end, I discarded the thought. this was my new life that's what mattered.

The commotion outside the door caused me to tune into the real world again and I focused on the conversation that seemed to end when I started listening in.

My door opened and I felt Kanan's eyes fall on me and through the Force, his hesitation was felt but I was done already.

"Colt."

Opening my eyes, I turned my head slightly, giving him a questioning look. His jaw tightened before he finally said what he came here for.

"Hera and Sabine are in danger."

I nodded, leaned forward, extinguished the flame on the candle, and stood up, grabbing my helmet on my way out.

"Let's go, give me the details on the way."

He nodded and we made our way to the cockpit.

"hear had to leave to grab the supplies that were left for us, but Sabine decided to join in. Turns out the fuel hold was damaged so they don't have a way out. Some kind of creatures are attacking them and they seem to be afraid of light."

I narrowed my eyes as we entered the cockpit, where Zeb and Chopper were waiting. Zeb looked regretful and Chopper was oddly silent as Kanan sat down in the pilot seat and I took my place right behind him.

I put on my helmet and pressed the com button.

"Specter two, this is Specter five, come in."

The communicator buzzed before Hera responded.

[Specter five, this is Specter two.]

Sighing in relief, I got back to giving them instructions.

"If there are any buildings, hide inside. Use the phantom if needed, it will buy you more time until we get there."

Kanan began to fly the Ghost and we were heading to their location as we spoke, should be in time until they found the two of them.

[Can't, even if we did, it wouldn't be too long until they got to us. Sabine has a plan that should buy us time for you to get here.]

I sighed again, slumping in my chair.

"Roger, stay safe."

She didn't respond, but I heard a blaster being shot, so I assumed that the light was obstructed.

"How long until we get there?"

Zeb asked and I glanced at him. The Lasat was holding his Bo-staff in a death grip.

"We should be there in a few minutes at most."

Kanan's response was short and he didn't even turn his head. I placed a hand on Chopper, getting his attention.

"Go man a turret, provide cover fire before we land."

He let out a beep and turned, rolling off. Standing up, I walked past Zeb, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Come on, big guy, Let's head to the ramp."

He didn't respond but I did hear his footsteps behind me.

Jumping over the railing as per usual, I crossed my arms and waited.

"So, you think you can help them with the Force thingy you got?"

I snorted and nodded. The Force thingy was a powerful tool, yes, but even without it, I would be of help. I conveniently ignored the moments when I got wounded when not using the Force.

Nope, those were the moments I got too lax, I was not doing that again.

Finally, I felt us getting close to a lot of Force signatures, and only two of them I recognized.

Narrowing my eyes, I reached out a hand forward, and with a single wave of Force, the other Force signatures were pushed back, violently.

The bey opened, and our two missing members came into view, along with a dozen beasts that walked on four legs, and looked hideous if you asked me.

Sighing, I walked off the ramp and landed on the Phantom.

"You two, get on the Ghost. I'll cover the phantom until Kanan latches it onto it magnetically."

Before the two could protest, Lightning crackled around me as Chopper shot bolts at the offending creatures.

My hand shot forward, and lightning danced on the field. I did not understand Kanan, the "Dark side of the Force" as he described it. He made it out to be a bad thing, but this was very effective.

Stopping the attack, I watched some of them writhe in pain before shaking it off pretty easily. I raised my eyebrow at that, they seemed to be pretty resistant.

Grabbing my blaster, I aimed it at one's head and pulled the trigger. The beast dropped dead the instant the bolt went through its skull.

Well, not that resistant to lightsaber bolts, apparently.

I looked up, seeing the Ghost descending to pick up the phantom and jumped off its roof. Waving my hand as I landed, the beasts were blasted back, colliding with each other and the surroundings.

Some that avoided the blast jumped at me but it wasn't too long before they had their necks broken and spinal cords damaged.

As soon as I heard the phantom connected with the ghost, I tuned back, using the Force to jump to the bey and holster my blaster.

It wasn't really challenging, but I guess that was natural since I used the Force to do all the work.

Not really feeling like talking right now, I jumped up to the railing, getting over it.

Sabine was already there, looking rather awkward.

"Uh-thanks."

Raising an eyebrow behind the helmet, I walked past her, offering a "You're welcome" over my shoulder.

I needed to get my mind off of things, making a few things would do the trick, probably.

The Force has been bugging me ever since I sat down in front of the candle and I could not figure out why. The last time that happened, I stopped using it for a year and a half.

Hopefully, this time, it would be different.

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