Star Wars Rebels fic: On the Edge of the Devil's Backbone (Chapter 1: A Forlorn Hope)

[bedlamsbard]

On the Edge of the Devil's Backbone (10650 words) by bedlamsbard
Chapters: 1/?
Fandom: Star Wars: Rebels, Star Wars - All Media Types
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Kanan Jarrus/Hera Syndulla
Characters: Hera Syndulla, Kanan Jarrus, Sabine Wren, Garazeb "Zeb" Orrelios, C1-10P | Chopper, Ezra Bridger, Cham Syndulla, Barriss Offee, Kallus | ISB-021, Darth Vader
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe, Canon-Typical Violence
Summary:

Ten years after she vanished during an Imperial raid on a Twi'lek colony, Cham Syndulla sees his daughter Hera for the first time in a hologram -- now wearing the uniform of an Imperial agent and apparently working closely with a human Inquisitor. All Cham wants to do is to bring his long-missing child home to what remains of her family, but he soon finds that Hera Syndulla is only interested in two things: her duty to the Empire and her loyalty to her crew, a mismatched collection of outcasts brought together by Hera and her pet Inquisitor.

With Cham and the Rebel agent known as Fulcrum in pursuit, a new mission takes Hera and the crew of the Ghost to the planet Lothal, where a chance meeting with a Force-sensitive teenager awakens something long buried in the Inquisitor once known as Kanan Jarrus...and has dire consequences for Hera, their crew, the Empire, and the fledgling Rebel Alliance.

Ten years ago
Zardossa Stix, Outer Rim Territories

Hera Syndulla woke to chaos.

The colony’s emergency alarm was blaring, streaks of light flashing through the fluttering curtains over the room’s window. All of that came secondary to her little cousin Xiaan, who was sitting on Hera’s chest and pulling at the front of her nightshirt, shouting, “Hera, Hera, Hera!” at the top of her lungs. Mixed with the sound of someone else screaming and the baby crying, it was nearly enough to drown out the klaxon.

Hera scrambled upright, lifting Xiaan off her chest She took in the rest of the room with a glance – Koyi pushed into a corner with his arms over his head, wailing uncontrollably, Ojeda silent but terrified as she tried to coax the baby into silence, Doriah somehow still asleep. Hera’s other two cousins were nowhere in sight.

Xiaan paused to breathe, then opened her mouth again, getting “Her –” out before Hera said, “I’m up, Xi!” as if that wasn’t obvious. “Where’s your brother?”

“Don’t know,” Xiaan said, then tried to hide her face in Hera’s stomach.

Hera wrestled her off and flung the blankets aside. The eight children in the Syndulla household – her, her aunt Seku’s Nury and Xiaan, her aunt Aleema’s three, and her aunt Clotho’s Doriah and baby Lika – had all been sleeping in one room, sharing the beds and blankets the way Hera vaguely remembered doing years earlier during the Separatist occupation of Ryloth. Only the Separatists were no more and they weren’t on Ryloth, they were in the Twi’lek colony on Zardossa Stix, and there shouldn’t have been an enemy.

Comments

[dogstar]

I couldn't decide where to leave a comment so leaving it here. :D

I am REALLY liking this! I was kind of meh on the concept, although the themes sounded interesting (but well... I *like* freedomfighter!Hera, so...) and it's yours so of course I was going to read it but oh man, I like this more than I was expecting to, and can't wait to see what happens next! (I'm kinda hoping for Thrawn, somehow. Because Thrawn is the most awesome and Empire Non-Humans and yeah.)

(also I finally finished Gambit and had a GIANT-ASS COMMENT OF DOOM which the internet ate. I will re-write it at some point, but short form "OH SHINY I LIKE THIS."

[bedlamsbard]

I'm glad you're enjoying it!

Thrawn is unlikely given that I bounced hard off the Thrawn trilogy, alas.