Behind him, Ezra hadn't quite caught up yet. "What does that mean?"
                          
"It means the plan changes," he told him, a harsh edge starting to take over his tone. 
                          
From behind him, Zeb started picked up on the snap at the kid and tried to intervene a little bit. "You got a backup plan?"
                          
The visual of the new schematics ran through his head, and already he was trying to plan new routes for them. "Figuring out one right now," he told them, walking towards the elevators. If they were in unknown territory, then splitting up was a bad idea. "Zeb, Sabine, you're coming along."
                          
"What, we're supposed to hold our escape route here?" Zeb questioned, hesitating before joining them in the lift.
                          
"Now the turbo-lift is our escape route," he explained, starting to put the pieces together in his mind. "Let's go!"
                          
The Lasat complied, and Ezra hopped onto the elevator with them. The doors closed and took them down, and Kanan started working through the finer details of what needed to happen next. It wasn't like he was a stranger to having his plans ruined, but why did it have to happen on the day they were rescuing a Jedi? A real Jedi, not a Padawan like himself? 
                          
He tried not to worry, but for some reason he was feeling the pressure of this mission. Master Windu was the closest thing Kanan had gotten to Depa in over a decade, and he was ready to hand leadership over to someone else. Most of his life since the Jedi Purge had been just like this: he was making it up on the fly. He didn't know much about training an apprentice, but he was sure improvising was not the right way to do it and he was sure Master Windu would agree. Once he had another Jedi's lead to follow, hopefully, life would get a little easier. 
                          
Much easier than being cramped in this elevator. "Ugh, his plan gets worse all the time," Sabine complained from his right, almost proving his point. 
                          
"Just hope he doesn't change it again," Zeb reminded her, which hurt his ego just a little bit. 
                          
"I'm standing right here," he announced, pointing to the very spot on the floor that his feet were on. 
                          
That didn't deter the others. "We know," they both said in sync, and Ezra only adverted his gaze so he wasn't looking at any of them. Kanan crossed his arms in defiance. And this is why we're rescuing Master Windu, he thought.
                          
~
                          
After beating up the two guards who were standing at the turbo-lift entrance, Kanan creeped out of the doors into the detention block. "Maintain com silence, and whatever you do, hold. This. Lift," he instructed, and he looked around to make sure no one had noticed their entrance. 
                          
Unfortunately, someone had. Two more stormtroopers came around the corner and raised their blasters at the Padawan. Ezra stepped to the side for cover, but Kanan didn't move. Instead, he moved them, using the Force to pull the soldiers towards him. He tensed his biceps and contracted them as their heads flew towards his arms, and he knocked them both out with one hit. 
                          
"Wow, you're really not messing around tonight," Ezra noted.
                          
He could have spent the rest of the evening explaining why that was, but he settled for: "There's a lot more at stake than you realize."
                          
They found the cell they were looking for, along with another set of guards. It made sense, the Empire would guard any Jedi they found with as much manpower as they had. It was the same reason Kanan was so determined to not be captured. He was only a Padawan, but that wouldn't matter to someone like Agent Kallus.
                          
Catching the gaze of the farthest trooper, he waved his hand in front of his face. "Shouldn't you be guarding the Jedi's cell? It's on the next level."
                          
"It's on the next level," the guard repeated, and the other man turned to face Kanan. 
                          
"You'd better get moving," he suggested.
                          
The trooper nodded in agreement. "We'd better get moving." The two of them turned and ran for the turbo-lift, and Ezra ran up behind Kanan. 
                          
Gesturing to the fleeing troopers, he asked, "When do I learn that?" 
                          
"Master Windu will teach you," Kanan answered, moving Ezra so he could access the control panel for the cell. As the door opened, he added, "Much better than I could." He didn't look back to see how Ezra reacted to his statement.
                          
The cell, of course, was dimly lit, but the two of them walked in and saw a man seated on the far side. A human with dark skin, handcuffed and wearing an orange prisoner suit, just like in the announcement. Yet when Kanan looked at him, something was different than what he remembered. The man looked up when he realized they had entered, but the uneasy feeling only increased when Kanan made eye contact with him.
                          
Ezra, who was making sure to stay behind Kanan, asked, "Is it really him?"
                          
"Yes, but...something's wrong," he said, looking again. The relief he was expecting to feel right now wasn't there. 
                          
Master Windu stood up from the bench and walked over to them, standing right in front of Kanan. He said nothing, though. There was no greeting, no recognition, nothing. Surely, Master Windu couldn't have forgotten him that easily, right? Yeah, he looked different as Kanan Jarrus, but some small part of him was Caleb Dume, the apprentice of Windu's apprentice. Didn't he know that?
                          
"Master?" he asked, hoping his voice would trigger some kind of reaction. 
                          
The one he got wasn't the one he was hoping for. Master Windu walked to the side of the cell, and if Kanan looked closely enough, his image flickers. He turned around, and with a sorrowful face, he walked back into a module of some kind. No, not a module, a sarcophagus. 
                          
Neither of the other two could keep the surprise off their face when they realized what was happening. The Jedi Master's form changed, and the life that had been projected into the room faded into reality: What was left of Mace Windu's remains took their place in the coffin. His cheeks sunk into his face so his jawbone was prominent, and his brown skin faded to dark grey. It was a good thing they couldn't see the rest of his body, who knew what it looked like now.
                          
"What happened to him?" Ezra asked, but Kanan couldn't speak to answer. "I don't understand!"
                          
"No?" an unfamiliar voice called out from outside the cell, and the two of them turned to see the visitor. "It doesn't seem complicated."
                          
He was almost more unnerving than seeing Windu's remains. He had the palest skin either of them had ever seen, and the red markings on his face didn't help either. His armor suggested that he was Imperial, but his presence suggested something more. There was something about him that sent goosebumps down Ezra's arms. 
                          
"I am the Inquisitor," he announced, drawing a lightsaber from behind his back. A red one. His yellow bloodshot eyes stared down Ezra and Kanan, and his mouth split into an eerie grin. "Welcome."