Star Wars Rebels fic: On the Edge of the Devil's Backbone (Chapter 10: Siren)

[bedlamsbard]

On the Edge of the Devil's Backbone (112830 words) by bedlamsbard
Chapters: 10/?
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.

*

He could have reached out into the Force, searching for the Togruta’s Force-signature, but he knew that there was a good chance that she could conceal it just as well as he could, and he – and he didn’t want to open himself up to the Force that much. Not after last night. Not ever.

He couldn’t stay out here forever, he knew, and made himself start walking towards the Imperial Complex again. He reached it just as the side came up over the rolling plains to the east of the city, walking past the blackened but no longer burning wreckage of the parade vehicles, most of which still hadn’t been cleared away. The stormtrooper guard on the gate was heavier than usual, and they eyed him askance as he approached.

“Who are you supposed to be?” one of them demanded, ignoring the urgent gestures some of the others were making; apparently they remembered that there was an Inquisitor onworld.

He didn’t have the energy for this, so he pulled his lightsaber off his belt and ignited it, making a few of the stormtroopers flinch back. “The Emperor’s hand,” he said. “Move.”

They moved.