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The dimly lit corridor echoed with the hum of a lightsaber blade and the deflected beeps of small red laser bolts as Kanan Jarrus deflected the attacks of three incessant imperial probe droids with practiced grace. But being blind and fighting opponents without a living signature in the Force, that is to say, relying solely on one's senses, could only get you so far. Especially, Kanan thought, when he couldn't seem to hit the droids however much he tried. He tried reaching for his comms three times now, each resulting in a very near miss by the probes. With a warning shooting through his skull so intensely it felt like a slap from the Force itself, he leapt to the side, slamming his back into the wall just as he sensed the three laser bolts fly in the spot he just vacated. He sighed a shaky breath of relief and raised his saber again as he sensed more attacks.
"Uh, Spectre 6 to all Spectres," Ezra's voice crackled through Kanan's wrist comm, and his heart leaped with excitement. "I see a lot of bucket heads running in the eastern port direction."
"That's our cue, Spectre 6," Hera said. "Let's pack it up, everyone. Confirm all Spectres."
Oh, thank the Force.
Kanan patiently waited for everyone to confirm they heard Hera.
"Spectre 1, confirm," Hera said.
The thought only crossed his mind that he could try to activate the comm with the Force and got the payback in the form of one of the laser bolts grazing the back of his hand. He hissed and banished the thoughts, focusing on the danger all around him again. He had to trust his friends would realize what his silence meant. Hopefully sooner than the troopers closed in.
***
"Spectre 1 come in!" Hera demanded over the comm, eerie quiet being her only answer. Ezra was running now, following the troopers trying to guess where they were aiming to get in case the commotion was because of his master.
"Spectre 2," Ezra called into his comm. "I'm going after the imps."
"Copy that, Spectre 6. Other Spectres near the port?"
"Negative, Spectre 2." Sabine said. "Spectre 4 and 5 are closer to the Ghost. Should we-"
"No, the Ghost will be faster-..."
Ezra tuned the conversation out as he sensed a familiar presence. Kanan was hyper-focused on something, Ezra could tell. "I think I have him! Stand by!" Ezra barked into the comm.
He picked up the pace, jumping over the flat roofs, and with one fluid leap, he was falling towards the dark space port, using the Force to slow his fall and gracefully landing. "Oof..." Ezra grumbled when a painful pulse spiked through his legs.
He didn't land gracefully.
Frowning into the darkness, he picked a door and dashed through it into the baggage area. The halls were empty, the lights in only the emergency mode, bathing the white halls in an eerie green light. Ezra closed his eyes and focused. Kanan's controlled fear rippled through the Force and gave the padawan direction. Ezra vaulted across the checkpoints, and his legs carried him towards the hall to another terminal. And now he could hear him. And the droids. Indeed he could see his master now, and the four probes levitating around the blind Jedi. Ezra watched for a full five seconds as the man's blue blade swirled around deflecting the laser bolts one by one. And then he noticed Kanan was facing only three of the droids. And the fourth one was levitating a little too close.
"Kanan!" Ezra shouted, igniting his green saber and running towards the droid as fast as he could.
"Ezra," Kanan turned back with a fond smile, only for it to be replaced by tightly gritted teeth as the droid he didn't see coming sent a laser bolt straight to his shoulder.
Kanan grunted and stumbled on his feet, barely deflecting the incoming bolts. Ezra chastised the droid by a really rude name before jumping on it and running his blade through its top.
"Kanan! Look out!" Ezra jumped in front of his master, deflecting more shots while Kanan gratefully let his guard down as he spoke to his wrist comm. "Spectre 1 to Spectre 2, we need a pick-up!"
"On our way, Spectre 1."
"Sword and shield?" Ezra smirked at Kanan deflecting the bolts as he had before, finding it hard to deflect them directly at the spider-like droids.
"I'm the shield then." Kanan retorted, slurring his words, making Ezra look back at him in concern. But he didn't argue as Kanan jumped in his place. Ezra drew his blaster and waited for the right moment.
"Now!" the two Jedi barked in unison, Kanan dropping to the ground, and Ezra shooting three quick bolts right into their glowing red orbs for eyes. "Uh oh." Ezra stammered.
"What?" Kanan struggled to get back on his feet, and Ezra quickly took his flailing arm to pull him up.
"I think the droids are self-destructing." Ezra said in a panicky voice. "And aiming right for us! We need to-!"
Kanan extended both of his arms towards the droids and made a clapping motion, and the droids slammed into each other and fell harmlessly to the ground.
Ezra whistled. "How did you know they wouldn't explode?"
"I didn't." Kanan said, wiping sweat from his forehead and leaning his fists on his knees as he tried to catch his breath. Then his hand went to a smoking spot on his shoulder and gripped it with a hiss.
"Oh right!" Ezra took Kanan's hand away and tried to see the damage. "Doesn't look too bad."
"Yeah, Hera will kiss it goodbye with one of those tooka patches." Kanan laughed humorlessly.
"These things are the worst." Ezra mused, looking around for the fallen droid and dropping on his knees next to the remains, tugging at its various appendages. "Probes just carry these with them?" Ezra frowned, finding a syringe with a clear fluid.
"These what?"
"Needles. What is that about?"
"Truth serum most likely. For...."
"Mind probing. Hence the name." Ezra reached for the syringe and tried pulling it out.
"Don't mess with that thing," Kanan warned. "We should get going before the company comes."
"But we should take it with us," Ezra argued, trying to wiggle the vial free. "Could come in handy if we need to-..." Ezra stiffened as he noticed the stormtroopers on each end of the hallway. "You jinxed it!" Ezra complained to his master, while Kanan instead of answering lit his saber.
"Lower your weapons, Jedi scum!" The commander closer to Ezra demanded. "We have you surrounded!"
Ezra frowned, letting go of the syringe, but as he tried to get up, an iron grip on his collar tugged him back down, and a sharp sting in his arm made him yelp and draw his saber, slashing the not-so-dead probe, jerking the needle out. "Dank Farrik!"
Which, in turn, startled the troopers. "FIRE!" yelled the commander, and panic ensued. There were red laser bolts everywhere as the troopers frantically started firing, and the Jedi shielded. Some deflected bolts found their targets, some fired bolts found the opposing troops, and normally Ezra would've liked to have said something about that, but the dizziness settling in his body made it difficult to just focus on staying alive.
"Spectre 1! Spectre 2! Take cover!" Zeb shouted from their comm wrists, and a second later, a colorful explosion went off just behind the commander.
***
Kanan covered his head on Zeb's request when the explosion went off, and when he reached out with the Force, he could sense some of the troopers stumble about blindly. "Sabine..." Kanan frowned at the dreamy voice saying the name. It sounded like Ezra.
"Kid? What happened?"
Ezra giggled—giggled? "Art, master, art," he spoke.
Kanan's worry deepened. He quickly reached Ezra's side and placed a hand on his shoulder. "You were messing with the probe!" he barked accusingly.
"Yeah!" Ezra said brightly, swaying on his feet. "You told me not to!" He added as if he was giving Kanan a priceless piece of information.
Suddenly, the commander's voice came through the smoke. "Fire! Fire, you useless good-for-nothing-" To the troopers' credit, they started blasting, but it was impossible not to hear the commander's squeal: "Not on me!" during it all.
Kanan drew his saber, defending both himself and Ezra, who apparently found all the commotion funny. Thankfully, Zeb suddenly charged through the troopers like a solid wall with Sabine right behind him, taking out the more fortunate who avoided Zeb's Bo rifle.
"Come on, you two! Your ride's outside!" Sabine shouted over her shoulder, tossing more grenades at the surrounding troopers, their white armor getting splashed with bright colors.
Kanan turned to Ezra, grabbing him by the shoulder to make him move in the right direction. Only for a brightly colored blinded stormtrooper to slam into his side, making the Jedi lose his balance, in turn slumping into Ezra and taking them both to the ground, knocking off Kanan's mask.
Kanan growled in frustration, ready to jump back up when Ezra placed his hand on top of Kanan's head, completely disconcerting the Jedi. "You know, Kanan," Ezra said in a serious tone. "I always wanted to tell you that you have really nice hair. Like, really nice. How do you manage it?"
Kanan stared for a complete 3 seconds before he gave into a sincere guffaw, even in the midst of battle. "I guess I've just been lucky," he replied, feeling a genuine sense of warmth from Ezra's unexpected compliment.
"Don't dig this thing though," Ezra frowned, moving his hands to Kanan's full beard. "Makes you look like an old fart."
Kanan let out an exasperated sigh, pulling Ezra to his feet. "Remind me to teach you how to resist mind probes," he grumped, dragging the kid after Zeb and Sabine.
"You're just not ready to hear the truth, master!" Ezra chirped. To Kanan's immense relief, Ezra actually drew out his saber and deflected the laser bolts coming their way, giving them not only the space to make their way to the Ghost but Kanan the opportunity to summon his fallen mask.
The four stayed on the open ramp, Sabine and Zeb shooting back at the troopers, Ezra and Kanan deflecting.
"Not what you see every day." Zeb commented.
Kanan looked at his friends in confusion.
"Oh, Sabine gave the bucket heads a paint job." Ezra explained, as they filed in, the ramp closing. "Not her best work." Ezra shrugged.
"Excuse me?" Sabine growled.
"Just saying, imps looked like they were headed to a crazy rave party, how's anyone gonna be able to tell it was us and not them having fun?"
There was a long silence before; "Okay, did he finally lose it?"
"He got hit with a truth serum." Kanan grinned.
Now it was Zeb's turn to smile. "Did he now?"
Ezra frowned and opened his mouth while pointing a finger at Zeb, but before he could say anything, the ship shook, and he lost his balance. Kanan tried to catch him and groaned in pain when Ezra grabbed his shoulder, and now both of them crumpled in a heap on the floor.
"Alright, people," Hera called from the ladder, Chopper on her heels. "Fun's over; let's give our Jedi some space."
End