28 Chapter Twenty-Eight

The crew was in bad shape.

That much was obvious. Sabine had a broken leg which would take a while to heal, Zeb had bruised ribs from the impact he made with the metal wall and finally, the most severe of them all, Kanan had lost an arm.

I got off scot-free.

Sighing I massaged my temples looking at the discarded helmet that was on the desk in front of me. Hearing footsteps from next to me, I glanced to the side, seeing Hera slump into the free seat.

"Are you okay?"

I nodded, dropping my hands from my head and letting them rest between my legs.

"Zeb will be fine by tomorrow and Sabine should be fine in a few weeks."

My shoulders slumped, a small bit of relief flooding me at the news and ignoring the fact that she didn't even mention Kanan. We both knew that the situation was bad. He would either have to get used to having a missing limb or get a mechanical one.

Alternatively, I could build him one.

"That's good, it turns out, our target was dead the whole time. This was most likely a bait. Two dark siders at once are unusual unless they are inquisitors."

Hera tensed, her back straightening momentarily, and leaned forward, putting her elbows on her legs.

"There was an inquisitor there too?"

I nodded in affirmative, grabbing my new lightsaber and handing it to her. She seemed confused but took it carefully, frowning at it.

"That was his, he won't be a problem anymore."

She took a quick breath and finally sighed. I didn't know if she was relieved or satisfied that someone who, in her mind, had a hand in injuring her family, but I knew that now wasn't the time to ask.

"What happened in there Colt?"

She held out the hilt of the saber as she asked the question. Taking the mockery of technology back, I leaned on the backrest.

"The communications cut off, and we didn't know what was going on outside for a while. We split up with me remaining on the ground floor and the trio went to secure the prisoner. I faced an inquisitor, don't know which one, but not like that matters anymore."

I shifted, glancing at Her to see her paying wrapped attention to what I was saying, so, I continued.

"The building shook, probably because of one or two of Sabine's bombs going off, so I went up the elevator and went toward the sound of combat. When I arrived, Kanan was already in bad shape with Zeb and Sabine slumped on by the wall."

I just realized that I was giving her a debriefing. Sucking in a breath through my nose, I turned to her.

"I don't know what that thing was, Hera, he was stronger than the inquisitors I faced, I managed to hold him off and gave the others some time to run."

She placed a hand on my shoulder and I waited for something, a shout, a reprimand, even a slap to the face. If I just went to them sooner, this wouldn't have happened. I could have prevented the injuries if I had just killed the inquisitor faster.

Instead of what I was expecting, she just sent me an understanding look and I remained silent.

The said silence stretched as the two of us sat there, onboard the Ghost, until I realized that I would have to talk to Kanan about the fact that I could use the Force.

I would have to tell the whole crew.

It was strange, they accepted me even with the amount of bounty I had on my head, That would only increase given what happened today.

Standing up abruptly, I turned to her.

"Where's Kanan?"

She blinked and pointed at the door that led to our rooms.

"He's in our room."

Nodding, I walked to the door and into the hallway. Heading to the correct door I stood in front of it for a moment, hesitating to knock. In the end, I sent a small pulse through the Force and waited for a response.

"Come in."

The answer came after a second and I pressed the button to open the sliding doors. Walking in, I saw Kanan sitting on the floor, meditating.

Was this the right time to meditate? I didn't know, I didn't do much of that.

He opened his eyes and motioned in front of him and I took the hint. Sitting down with one leg propped up with the other bent in front of it I waited.

I didn't know how to start the conversation, so I remained silent. After what seemed like an eternity, the older man finally spoke up.

"You can use the force."

I nodded wordlessly, the only sound that could be heard was breathing.

"How long have you been able to use it?"

I looked up to the ceiling, trying to remember when I discovered the feeling, and gave up after a second, I couldn't remember.

"Since I was little, to be honest."

He hummed and resumed meditating. I did something similar, slowly letting my consciousness sink into the Force around us. It was soothing, distracting me from the problems looming over us in the real world.

"Do you want me to teach you the ways of the Jedi?"

I blinked. Ways of the Jedi? There were a lot of problems with that, a lot of constrictions.

"I don't want to be a Jedi-"

I shook my head, shifting in my position slightly.

"But I'm not opposed to learning. I know the basic things along with lightning, and the Force healed me once but I wasn't able to replicate it."

Kanan just stared at me for a moment and nodded.

"As difficult as it might be for me now, I will teach you what I know."

I frowned and looked at the sleeve that was dangling at his side.

"I'll make you a prosthetic, I promise."

I stood up, turning to leave.

"It's not your fault what happened today Colt."

I paused as I was about to exit the door and turned my head slightly. Pondering for a moment, I decided not to respond and walked out of the door.

I needed to check on the others.

Walking to Zeb's room, the door opened as I was about to knock and Zeb stood in front of me, looking slightly startled since we were about to run into each other.

"Uh- hey?"

I said, more like asked, lamely and we stared at each other awkwardly.

"How are you feeling?"

I tried. Zeb nodded silently, he wasn't usually this silent.

"Uh- Okay, just... Wanted to check."

I turned and felt a large hand on my shoulder. Turning, I noticed Zeb was smiling slightly, confusing me.

"Thanks, for coming for us."

Wasn't that normal? Why wouldn't I go to them?

Despite my confusion, I nodded and watched as he headed down the hall. Shaking my head slightly, I turned to the door that was the opposite of Zeb's.

This would most likely be the toughest one out of the three.

I knocked and I didn't have to wait for long for an irritated response to come from the other side.

"Come in!"

The doors opened with the press of a button and the sight of Sabine lying on the bed with her leg in a Bacta cast.

She took one look at me, huffed, and continued with what she was doing, which was checking a tablet for something.

Looking closer, I spotted what she was looking at. There was information about me, or more specifically, the "Ghost".

Raising an eyebrow, I walked inside the room and up to the bed she was lying in.

"How do you feel?"

I was blunt, ignoring the page about my exploits she was reading. Her eyes snapped toward me and then back at the tablet.

Closing it, She looked at me, looking a little irritated.

"Like somebody launched me into a wall."

I kind of got that.

Sighing, I looked around, searching for a chair, which was absent from the room for some odd reason. She seems to have noticed this and motioned to the bed.

Sitting down on the bed I intertwined my fingers and let my hands rest on my legs.

"Why didn't you tell us you were a Jedi?"

Turning to look at her, I raised an eyebrow, not intimidated by the glare she was sending me in the least.

"I'm not a Jedi, Sabine."

My voice was even, calm. But that seems to have made her more irritated.

"Then what were those things you did back there?"

I sighed, she was being unreasonable.

"Just because I can use the Force, does not make me a Jedi, I was born with it, it wasn't really a choice."

At this point, she wasn't even listening, as indicated by the shaking hands and the look on her face that seemed to indicate that she was restraining her anger.

"Well, knowing what you can do is essential, isn't it?! We don't know anything about you! We only know that you are a good thief and a good killer! We should have known! We could have made a better plan! Because you kept it a secret! Zeb and I got injured and Kanan lost his arm!"

I looked at her for a moment, letting what she just said sink in, but it didn't seem to want to.

"What do I know about you, Sabine? I only know that you are a Mandalorian, can fight, and like to paint. That's it, I don't know you, you don't know me. I know Zeb, I know Kanan and I know Hera. You blame me for keeping a large part of my life a secret, but you do the same. You can't expect me to tell you everything about me."

I stood up, deciding that this conversation was over, and went to leave the room.

"I'm not done talking, Colt!"

The door opened and I walked out into the hall.

"I'm done."

Walking down the hall to look for Hera, I left Sabine in her room to seathe by herself. I'm not a punching bag, I don't need anybody to tell me that what happened was my fault. I couldn't change the past, but I could make up for my mistakes.

Hera came into view when the door to the cockpit opened, she was with Chopper. The opening of the door got her attention and she turned to look at me, her eyes looking me over and stopping at the Helmet I held in my hands that I picked up on the way here.

"What's wrong?"

She frowned and I shifted the helmet to hold it in both of my hands. Her frown deepened when I put it on.

"I'm going to be out for a few days, just thought I'd let you know."

She got up from where she was fixing something and walked over.

"Where are you going?"

I motioned to the door and started walking to the hanger with her following.

"I'll try to distract the empire, go on supply runs until the crew is ready. They are in no shape to fight if something happens."

She hesitated for a moment and remained silent until we reached the hangar. I felt her grab my wrist, making me stop and turn to her.

"You don't have to do this, you know, we can last a few weeks if we lay low."

I thought about it for a moment and frowned, shaking my head.

"I want to. Besides, I'm going to gather parts for Kanan's prosthetic. I'll be back in a few days."

She let my arm go and I gripped the railing, jumping over it. Landing, I looked at the place where I had my bike and got on, activating the hovering function.

The ramp opened and I took off, leaving the ship behind.

I needed to remind the Empire that I existed.

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Okay, shameless P-atre-on plug here: patreon.-com/user?-u=-79594910

Just delete the dashes and it should work... probably. Currently, there is one chapter in advance with two thousand words, but I'm planning on adding more by the weekend.

I will post here once a week and promise the chapter quality will improve and it won't all be just all fighting.