Chapter Text
Shin follows closely behind as Baylan urges his howler to the edge of the mountain. He stops, looking over the valley, watching something in the distance. They’re lucky they found the bandits when they did, otherwise they might not have seen anything else besides dirt. Shin takes her place next to him, and the bandits fan out around them both.
Shin stares into the horizon, following Baylan’s gaze. She can see movement, and as she watches, she realises they must be a travelling band of creatures. Though, they aren’t alone. She can sense a Jedi presence, like a dull ache in the back of her mind.
Shin turns to Baylan, and he nods, confirming what she already knows. Bridger is here, and Wren must be too.
“So.” Sabine starts. “How’s life been on this wasteland of a planet? You’ve obviously survived.”
Ezra grins. “Well, there was a time where I was constantly on the run from, y’know, every predator here, but it’s not all bad. Obviously, I made a few friends.”
Sabine nods and smiles encouragingly. Ezra always has been a brilliant storyteller, what with all the adventures they've been on.
“The Noti have been great.” He continues. “Took me in when I really needed help, set me up with this pod.”
Sabine nods again, listening to him prattle on about the Noti. Gradually, she begins to feel a pressure in her head, something comforting and known. It calls to her with such a calm urgency that she can’t help but feel drawn in. It feels like-
“Ahsoka…” she mumbles, eyes staring at nothing in particular. Sabine is encompassed in this feeling, letting it wrap around her mind like a blanket.
“-Hey, are you alright?” Ezra says, startling her out of her trance.
He calls her name again when she doesn’t respond.
She feels relief caress her thoughts, and little by little, the feeling fades away entirely. Sabine blinks away the remaining fog.
Ezra touches her shoulder. “Something happened. What was it?”
“I don’t know.” She says slowly. “A feeling.”
Ezra nods eagerly. “What kind?”
Sabine doesn’t know where to begin in describing it. She wishes she could reach through his mind and pass it along, but she hasn’t gotten to that part in her Jedi training yet, so for now all she can say is-
“Familiar.”
Before Ezra can respond, the Noti slow to a stop, pointing and chattering nervously. Sabine stands up, squinting into the distance. She can see two silhouettes on the hill, and they look annoyingly familiar. Great. Trust Sith to ruin the moment. Ezra grips the steering module, leaning closer to Sabine to speak.
“Friends of yours?”
Sabine scoffs. “No.” She glares at the pair on the hill, a sour taste forming in her mouth.
Ezra shifts the pod to swing around to the left, hoping they can get away before they get targeted. The rest of the Noti follow on, still whispering nervously amongst themselves.
Sabine prays she doesn’t lose Ezra again.
On the hill, Baylan turns to look at Shin, shifting in his saddle. Shin says nothing, only staring back at him.
“Contact Thrawn. Kill Sabine Wren and Ezra Bridger, And take your place in the coming Empire.” None of this is said with hesitation.
Shin eyes his face carefully. “You won't help?”
Baylan shakes his head gently. “Your ambition drives you in one direction, my path lies in another.”
Shin nods, turning back to the valley, somewhat defeated. She lifts her arm, bringing her transmitter closer to her face.
“I’ve located Ezra Bridger. Sending his coordinates now." She types the location into the small transmitter pad and sends them off to Thrawn.
He doesn’t reply instantly, which gives her time to calculate her best route. Baylan clears his throat beside her, turning Shin’s attention to him once more.
“One parting lesson, Shin,” he says. “Impatience for victory will guarantee defeat.”
Shin almost huffs in annoyance. Trust his final words to her to be a lecture. She looks away again avoiding answering.
The Bandit leader rides up next to her, motioning down towards the valley, and then charges his howler into a gallop down to the Noti camp. Shin watches silently as they do, barely noticing that Baylan has turned his howler and is leaving. But, no matter. She can survive without him.
“Congratulations. We will send reinforcements to you. In the meantime, begin executing order 58 towards Bridger and Wren.” Thrawn’s voice crackles through the transmitter. “They will not be getting in the way anytime soon.”
Shin feels the hairs on the back of her neck stand up, Thrawn’s order sending bolts of energy through her limbs. She can think of nothing else anymore, entirely focused on the defeat of the rebels. She grips the howler's reins, commanding it forward to follow the bandits. Nothing can stop her now. She will do as Thrawn says, even if it kills her.
Sabine notices the approaching bandits as the same ones who attacked her earlier. She stands up in her seat to get a better look. The Noti are beginning to move the pods faster, frantically gesturing at the impending doom. Sabine pulls out her blasters and starts shooting at the bandits as they speed towards the camp. In response, the bandits start firing back, and Sabine ducks for cover.
Ezra yells something in the Noti language, and the Noti in the pod to the right pulls out a slingshot, firing a rock at the head of a bandit. It bounces off, and the Noti disappears into the pod again.
Sabine huffs in frustration. "That’s charming. Do they have any real weapons?"
Ezra shrugs. "They're peaceful people."
"Peaceful, fine. But you didn’t mention they were defenseless," Sabine says, standing up for a moment to fire at the bandits again.
"They've survived long enough," Ezra points out.
A bandit sneaks between Ezra’s pod and another, attacking the Noti. Sabine fires at it, knocking it off its howler and onto the ground. The Noti waves in thanks, but Sabine just aims her blasters at another charging bandit.
Behind the rebels, A bandit braces to stand on the saddle, aiming its staff at the pod nearest it. The Noti, seeing this, swings towards another pod, intercepting the staffed bandit and crushing the howler’s head, causing both the bandit and howler to fall back.
The victory is short-lived as another bandit sneaks up behind them with a staff charged with electricity. The bandit targets the power source of the moving pod, repeatedly hitting it until the pod shuts down in an electric explosion of smoke. The pod skids along the dirt, swaying from side to side before coming to a complete stop.
Ezra looks behind him frantically, hearing the explosion. Sabine continues her fire, also noticing the fallen noti and pod.
"We can't leave them! I'm going to circle up!" Ezra yells, pulling at the various brakes to slow his pod to a lurching stop.
He stands and relays this to the rest of the Noti, gesturing wildly with his hands, miming a circle. The Noti gradually form a circle and stop, chittering nervously, some raising the hoods to take cover inside the pods. One of the circling bandits tries to hit the pod with its staff but to no avail.
The bandits race around the outside of the camp threateningly, all on howlers. The blasters are still going off in all directions. Sabine aims her blaster all around her, not knowing where to begin. Ezra is only looking around, his eyes now fixed on something he’s seeing.
“Who’s that?” he asks, drawing Sabine to where he’s staring.
Sabine, blasters still held high, glances over to her right. Her stomach immediately sinks as she sees what Ezra means. Two howlers, standing still. Seated upon the left howler is the bandit leader, the horns of the helmet pointed at the sky. On the right howler, is Shin, completely rigid as Sabine stares.
She huffs, rolling her eyes. “She’s like you, but lacks your sense of humour.”
“Lightsaber?” Ezra guesses.
“Oh yeah,” Sabine confirms.
Ezra grimaces. “Great.”
Sabine holsters the blasters and grips the edge of the pod. More Bandits are approaching, dismounting from their howlers and aiming their rifles at the rebels.
“We better get ready,” Ezra says as he pulls the lever to open the lower hatch door, following Sabine down the ladder and out of the pod.
As Sabine rushes out of the pod and into the fight, Ezra convinces the Noti to stay inside the pods, assuring them that they will be okay. He isn't too far behind, and in a few strides, he stands next to Sabine, ready to make the next move.
Ezra shifts his weight from foot to foot.“So what's the plan?”
The bandits start to circle in on foot, rifles still aimed at the pair. Sabine unhooks Ezra’s lightsaber and holds it out to him, still eyeing the bandits.
“Here, do your thing,” she says.
“What thing?”
“It’s your lightsaber,” Sabine wiggles the hand holding the saber, trying to convince Ezra to take it back. “Take it.”
Ezra shakes his head, readying himself into a better fighting stance. “You keep it.”
Sabine adds this to the list of reasons to slap Ezra in the face.
“What?”
“I don't need it.” Ezra shrugs. “Besides, you've been training.”
Sabine scoffs. “Very funny.” she lightly taps Ezra’s ribs with the hilt of the lightsaber.
“No, I’m serious.”
“Take it!”
“I gave it to you,” says Ezra, as if this makes him right. “It’s yours now.”
Fucking fine then.
Sabine finally gives in, hooking the saber back on her belt and pulling out her blasters. “At least take a blaster.”
“No,” Ezra responds firmly. “The force is my ally. That’s all I need.”
Sabine swears he has a death wish, what with how stubborn he is.
“Well,” she says through her teeth, “I’m gonna need more than that.”
A bandit charges toward her, and Ezra yanks her out of the way, grabbing its staff and pushing it in another direction. It falls to the ground, but Ezra has already moved on to the next bandit, sliding on his side to knock out its legs.
Sabine runs, hiding between the pods for a few seconds before blasting a bandit. She thinks she is doing quite well until-
THWACK
-She’s hit on the back of the head with a staff.
The pain erupts into a throbbing headache, blurring her vision for a minute. She stumbles, trying to keep the upper hand while dodging various shots from the two bandits behind her.
Sabine is kneeling on the ground now, having been pushed forward by the blow to the head. She spins, wildly shooting at the bandits, and shifts to stand up. The closest bandit shoves a staff flat against her stomach, winding her for a second, but she recovers quickly and shoots it in the head.
Another bandit charges at her but Sabine manages to block the staff with her elbow and punches it in the face with the side of her blaster, then holds onto the staff with the other hand to swing it to the ground.
Once finished, she turns to shoot it in the face, not seeing the other bandit creeping behind her. Luckily, a Noti has popped its head out of the pod, armed with a steel pot. It throws it at the bandit, catching the enemy off guard. Sabine gives a final shot to the bandit lying on the ground and then whips around to deal with the newest fallen bandit. The Noti quickly shuts the pod hatch, disappearing for safety.
Meanwhile, Ezra twists the arm of yet another bandit and flips it over his head, using the force to push it into the closest pod. He looks around for more but only sees two howlers side by side, no sign of their riders.
Something in the force warns Ezra and just in time, he hears the hum of a lightsaber, ducking as it swings over his head. When he looks up again he sees a platinum blonde girl armed with an orange lightsaber. He assumes this must be Shin.
He raises his hand to his head, picking out the singed hair and holding it out in front of him, looking at Shin.
“Close,” he says, taunting her.
The blonde grits her teeth and swings the saber again, but this time Ezra’s prepared. He dodges the wild swings with ease, grabbing the nearest hand of the wielder and trying to shove her away.
Shin struggles with his grip for a while, using her free hand to try and pry his finger off her wrist. She finally wrenches herself free and begins wildly swinging the lightsaber around again.
Ezra dodges again and again, before blocking her next blow with the force, the light of the blade blurring for a moment.
Before Shin frees herself from the force, Sabine knocks against the blade with her lightsaber, parrying Shin’s saber away from Ezra.
Shin steps back, lightsaber pointed at the ground, eyes fixed on Sabine’s. The tension is immeasurable, and shit Shin looks so smug. Sabine almost rolls her eyes but straightens up her stance, Ezra following suit.
Ezra glances between the two women before fixing on Shin. “It’s not looking good for you.”
Shin steps forward, about to say something, but turns at the sound of fighter ships in the distance. Sabine and Ezra watch as they speed towards the camp, all poised in the middle of the fight.
Sabine takes this chance to lunge towards Shin, lightsaber held out in front of her. She strikes, aiming straight at Shin’s face. Shin whips her head back around to face her, and Sabine fliches. The lightsaber instead strikes the side of Shin’s head, cutting off some of her hair as it slides past the left side of her scalp. The wound draws blood immediately.
Shin’s eyes widen, her hand reaching up to cover the wound, blood spilling out through her fingers. She crumples to the ground, twitching, eye rolling back in her skull.
Panic floods through Sabine. Never has an attack ended so terribly. She rushes over to Shin scanning her face. Shin is still convulsing but is now mumbling something. Sabine smoothes the injured woman’s hair away from the gash. Shin's hands grip Sabine’s arm, eyes back from the back of her head, but no more focused.
“..have to follow orders…have to be a good soldier…have to be…” She chokes out before her eyes slip closed and all the tension from her body slipping away, no longer seizing.
Sabine sucks in a sharp breath.
Well shit, what now?