Star Wars Rebels fic: On the Edge of the Devil's Backbone (Chapter 2: Spectres)

[bedlamsbard]

On the Edge of the Devil's Backbone (20193 words) by bedlamsbard
Chapters: 2/?
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, Ahsoka Tano
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.

*

The doors slid shut behind them with a heavy clang that made Ahsoka wince, locking them inside the high security prison known as the Spire. She rested a hand on the hilt of one of her lightsabers as she ran quickly down the corridor, QT-KT rolling after her. There was a data terminal next to the turbolift and QT-KT plugged into it without being asked. Ahsoka bent over the terminal, running a finger down the information until she found what she was looking for.

“Got it,” she told the droid. “Detention block CC-01. Isolation cell 0169. Blast, the schematics we have must be outdated; there weren’t supposed to be isolation cells on the lower levels.”

That had been a risk – it was always a risk – but there hadn’t been anything more recent, and Ahsoka had had to pull favors just to get her hands on the data in the first place. But all that really meant was an adjustment to the plan, and since the plan mostly consisted of “wing it,” Ahsoka could live with that.

She hit the call button for the turbolift and stood back, tapping a finger anxiously against the hilt of her lightsaber. She hadn’t told anyone that she was coming here; she didn’t have any backup waiting for her if she ran into trouble. With QT-KT with her, she didn’t even have someone to call if she needed a quick exit. Ahsoka wouldn’t walk anyone else into a trap, especially a trap that was undoubtedly meant for a Jedi. There were at least two beings she knew who would happily have walked into it with her, but not this time. This she had to do on her own.

Ahsoka Tano hadn’t been a Jedi for a long time now, but she was the closest the galaxy had anymore, and she knew that neither the Sith nor the Inquisition cared one way or another what she called herself.