Star Wars Rebels fic: On the Edge of the Devil's Backbone (Chapter 12: Morning Star)

[bedlamsbard]

On the Edge of the Devil's Backbone (138516 words) by bedlamsbard
Chapters: 12/?
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 Inquisitor leaned a shoulder against the doorframe, his arms crossed over his chest. Up close, Ezra could see the marks of the previous night’s fight on his face, but they were already healing, the bruises faded to yellow-green and the cuts scabbed over. It should have been impossible; even with bacta – and Ezra couldn’t imagine anyone using bacta (imported and too expensive for everyday use) for something as minor than that – but there it was.

He didn’t look like an Inquisitor – well, not that Ezra had ever seen any other Inquisitors. He looked like he had back in Capital City, another gunslinger spacer just passing through Lothal on his way to somewhere more interesting. He definitely didn’t look like the Inquisitor from last night, except that Ezra knew deep down in his bones that it was the same guy. He couldn’t say how, he just…knew.

Ezra stared at him, too horrified by his presence here to think of anything to say. After a long moment of silence dragged out between them, the Inquisitor said in a drawling Outer Rim accent completely at odds with the refined Core accent he had used last night, “I think you have something that belongs to me.”

Ezra’s gaze dropped to the lightsaber hilt in his hand, to the red shadows the blade was still casting across the floor in front of him, then looked back up at the Inquisitor. “What – what do you want?”

“Well, right now I’ll settle for my lightsaber back.”