(A/N) I apologize for this taking so long to get out. Things have been kind of hectic lately. I got my truckers license, got a job (Somehow in the midst of all this chaos. I guess one of the perks about my chosen career is it is an essential service), and I got a girlfriend now as well. So yeah, hectic, but very, very good on my end for whatever reason. I have truly been blessed in these troubling times and I thank God for that. I know not everyone has been as lucky as I have though so you are all in my prayers. I am especially praying that this virus will be ended soon and that the quarantine will be over Good luck everyone and I hope updates will be more regular after this now that things have begun to settle down. Have fun reading everyone and I hope to have brightened your day a little.

Guest Reviews:

TheForceIsStrongWithThisOne: Looks like it.

Mogor: Thanks

Ramage: Yep, you got it.

nw150: I'm curious to know what exactly you think the bad guys plan is.

pnew106s: The Jedi have been pretty much dead for about 30 years now and she's basically grown up as a slave on the streets. I don't think she knows much about Jedi at all.

Brandon Plamer: Glad you liked it :D

Or-lan-do626: Yes it does

sabinewren20.22: Thank you, glad you enjoyed.

Achillies453: Yep, I guess the kids go lucky there eh?

Guest 1: Yep, can't leave Sabine and Ezra alone for second can we?

Guest 2: Thank you.

Nate: Sorry for the wait.

Guest 3: You've pretty much hit the nail right n the head.

Guest 4 & 5: Sorry, for the wait. I try to get this out as often as I can.

Chapter 24

The Nightbrother shuddered under a fusillade of blaster fire and rolled out of the way, sending Ezra, Sabine and Rachel tumbling across the ship's hold and eliciting a cry of pain from Rachel.

"Can't we go on just one trip without getting shot at!" Sabine yelled as they leveled out.

"You're a Mandalorian traveling with a Jedi," Rachel laughed through clenched teeth. "Isn't getting shot at the normal way of life for you?"

"Doesn't mean it doesn't get tiring," Ezra replied. "Sabine, help me get her up the ladder."

Ezra climbed up to the second floor while Sabine helped Rachel to her feet. They counted down to three and then Sabine did her best to keep Rachel steady while Ezra grabbed her with the force and hauled her up. The two landed on the deck together and cried out in pain.

Sabine hurried up the ladder to check on them. Rachel was predictably lying on the floor and favoring her blaster wounds, but they didn't seem to have opened up any further which was good. What surprised her was Ezra's grimace as he tried and failed to hide his own pain from her. She had seen no obvious injuries on him when she had helped him back to the ship, which she had taken as a good sign, but that thermal detonator must have done more damage than she thought. Memories of rebels who had made it back to base and decided to just walk their injuries off only to die later of unseen internal bleeding filled her mind.

Her concern must have traveled across their bond because in the next moment he was waving her off. "I'll be fine. Get to the cockpit and get us out of here."

"Kriff that! You're marching your butt into the med bay and I'm making sure you stay there until you get checked out."she said, then reached down to help Rachel to her feet and to the med bay.

"Sabine, you need to be in the cockpit. I'll take care of her."

"K-4 can handle it."

"He's a security droid, not a pilot." Ezra pointed out. The Nightbrother shuddered under the impact of another round of blaster fire as if to back him up.

"He only has to last long enough for the authorities to show up. It will be fine."

"But-"

She glared at him.

Ezra threw his hands up in surrender, but she could tell he immediately regretted flailing his hands so wildly when his face twisted in pain. Nonetheless, he didn't fuss any further and followed her to the front of the ship.

o~0~O~0~o

"Why aren't we shooting back?" Aurora asked as K-4 tried his best to weave around the incoming blaster fire. He was doing quite well considering he was only flying with one hand as his other was occupied by a sleeping child and he refused to relinquish his hold on him.

"Foreword facing canons are inoperable." K-4 replied.

"That's all we got?"

"Aft canon controls are in the corner."

Aurora followed K-4's directing and found a console in the back corner of the cockpit. She rushed over and booted it up. A targeting screen appeared on the console with a little triangle on it indicating the small ship that was following them.

Before she could do anything the ship shook again and another alarm joined the symphony of alerts screaming at K-4.

"What's that?" Aurora asked.

"Shields are down to twenty five percent integrity."

Great. She was going to die. There was no other way around it. She had got both her and her brother killed the moment she laid eyes on this ship. She wasn't going down without a fight though, so she experimented with the joystick in front of her to get a feel for the guns, then started blasting away at the triangle. She didn't manage to hit it, but the ship veered wildly off of their tail and became much more careful now that it knew its prey had teeth.

"I am unable to raise Pixelito Spaceport Authorities." K-4 stated.

"Fa-Jin deals under the table with the Dug Council." Aurora stated, "On planet, he's untouchable. We won't be getting any help from anybody."

"Understood." K-4 replied, then pulled back on the yoke to point the Nightbrother's nose towards the sky.

"Where are you going?" Aurora asked, allowing a trace of fear to work it's way into her voice for the first time.

"If we will not be receiving any help from the spaceport authorities, escaping into hyperspace is our best course of action."

"NO!" Aurora yelled, "You can't do that!"

"Why not?" K-4 asked.

"There's a reason Fa-Jin lets us walk around the city wherever we please. He's put explosive trackers in us that will blow the second we leave the city limits!"

K-4 reacted immediately, rolling the Nightbrother to the side and back down towards the city below. He seemed to be considering something for a second, then said, "Find Ezra or Sabine. Update them."

Aurora looked over to her sleeping brother. An idle thought passed through her brain, how could he still be sleeping through all this? But more importantly, she wasn't sure she could leave his side, especially when he was literally in the hands of a stranger.

"You want to keep him safe? Then go do as I say." K-4 said.

Aurora still hesitated, but realized she was in a situation where she was way out of her depth and needed to trust those around her, as much as her instincts told her not too. She let out a yell of frustration and left to go do as he said.

o~0~O~0~o

As soon as Ezra, Sabine and Rachel entered the med-bay, the medical droid on the wall came to life. "Hello Mast- oh. You are not Maul. Hello, I am CT-1050. How may I assist you."

Sabine helped Rachel onto the examination table, "She's been shot," she said, then pointed over to Ezra, "and he had a run in with a thermal detonator."

"I'm telling you, I'm fine." Ezra said.

"No you're not. Let the droid do it's thing."

The med droid moved to check on Rachel first, scanned her and then began applying a bacta spray to the wounds. It was still working on her when the girl appeared in the doorway.

"We got a problem," the theelin said. The three organics in the room turned to look at her, "We uh, can't leave the city, the police wont help us, and there is still a ship trying to shoot us down."

"Why can't we leave?" Sabine asked.

"Fa-Jin put a tracker in me and my brother. If we leave, we blow up."

"What!"

The outburst came from where none of them expected it. Rachel pushed the med-droid away from her, ignoring its protests and standing up on shaky legs. There was furry raging in her eyes as she looked the kid up and down. "Where is he?" Rachel demanded, "Tell me and I swear that after I find him his own mother won't be able to recognize his ugly mug."

Sabine put a restraining hand on Rachel's arm, "Easy there. You're in no condition to do that to anyone. I'll handle it." she turned back to Aurora, "Make sure these two stay here and get the medical attention they need. Especially him." she pointed to Ezra, "I'll be back."

"Uh, sure."

Ezra tried to follow, "I can still fight."

Sabine turned on him. "I mean it." she said. "Until I get back and can make sure you're not going to hurt yourself, the girls are in charge."

Sabine left the room, grabbed her helmet off the common room table on her way by and hurried down to the hold. She opened up the ramp and saw a little yellow fighter coming around after them for another pass. She smirked to herself a little, grabbed her lightsaber and lit the blue blade. Then she jumped.

o~0~O~0~o

As soon as Sabine was out of the room, Rachel turned to Ezra. "I need a med scanner and your blaster."

"What? Why?"

"No questions. I'm in charge, remember?"

"It's my ship!" Ezra argured, but handed her his blaster and pulled a med-scanner out of a nearby drawer.

The medical droid then began berating Ezra to not take medicine into his own hands and let It perform its function, until Rachel grabbed a hold of it's neck and ripped a couple wires out of it. The droid immediately powered down.

"Hey! What are you doing?" Ezra asked.

Rachel ignored him and began pulling apart the tip of his blaster with a small screwdriver she pulled from a pocket in her shirt, "Scan the girl for irregular objects." she said.

Ezra gave up trying to figure out what she was doing. Finding the explosive in the girl and getting it out of her and her brother was more important than a few broken items anyways. It took less than a minute to find the device buried in the flesh of her left thigh. "Got it." he said.

Rachel looked up. "Good." She had taken the wires she had pulled off the droid and hooked them up to his blaster's static pulse adaptor. She then grabbed a couple needles out of a drawer and limped over to the girl. "Look… I don't know what to call you."

The girl hesitated. "Aurora." She finally said. "My name's Aurora."

"Ok, Aurora. This will hurt a little bit, but when I'm done, you won't have to worry about Fa-Jin ever again."

Aurora was silent for a moment, then looked up at her with hopeful eyes. "Do you actually mean that?"

Rachel smiled, "I promise."

Aurora gave her a nod. "Do it."

Rachel stabbed two needles into Aurora's leg, one on each side of the device. She then attached the wires from Ezra's blaster to each needle and switched it to stun mode. Before she pulled the trigger she tore a strip of cloth off the blanket draped over the medical table, rolled it into a ball and handed it to the girl. "Bite this and brace yourself."

Aurora did as she was asked and Rachel pulled the trigger. Ezra watched as blue jolts of electricity entered the girl's skin. Aurora's eyes went wide as all of her muscles contracted. It was more than the girl could take and mercifully, she passed out. Ezra quickly stepped in and caught her before she hit the floor.

"There," Rachel said as she pulled the needles out of the girl, "She should be safe now."

"Where did you learn that?" he asked.

Rachel shrugged. "Old smugglers trick I picked up. Stunning a slave can be a good way to pacify them without damaging the merchandise, so slave trackers are designed to withstand a stunner's particular electrical current. Channel the stun into a localized area around the tracker and it fries the device's circuits without setting it off. It will allow us to move freely for now, but we should still get it removed at a later date."

"What exactly was it you were involved in?" Ezra asked.

Rachel sighed, "A good question for another time. Right now we should go and get that other kid done as well."

o~0~O~0~o

There was a blaring in Alex's ear that made sleep very difficult and something hard was digging into his side. Alex, stretched and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. Then he realized he wasn't on the ground when he saw the view out the window.

"What the… where am I?" he asked over the sound of several alarms.

"You are on the Nightbrother, a ship owned and operated by Sabine Wren and Ezra Bridger. You were caught trespassing." a droid that he was apparently sleeping on stated.

"Oh." was all he said as the memory of sneaking on board and getting caught came back to him. He still wasn't sure what exactly had happened after that and how he got in the droid's arms, but he shouldn't worry about that. Right now he needed to figure out how exactly he would get back to his sister.

The ship shuddered and a new alarm blared to life. A small yellow fighter rocketed ahead of them and slowed just in front of their viewport. The ship's comm unit beeped, indicating someone was trying to get in contact with them. The droid answered and the face of Fa-Jin appeared in front of them.

"You're a droid." the dug stated in his own language.

"I am K-4R1, a security droid aboard this vessel. You are compromising the integrity and safety of this ship and it's crew and I demand you cease your attack."

"Fa-Jin does not speak with droids. Get me the captain." Fa-Jin replied.

"The Captain is currently unavailable. You will have to speak with me."

Fa-Jin growled, "Fa-Jin demands you return to Fa-Jin that which is Fa-Jin's and that you took. Namely that boy and the girl that came with him. Do this And Fa-Jin will spare your ship."

"The boy and the girl have been entrusted into my care and until they have been released from my care, I will follow my programing and ensure their safety. I will not allow them to fall into the hands of a man with such an extensive and violent criminal record as you."

The dug narrowed his eyes. "Very well. You have sealed your fate. Fa-Jin will tolerate no thievery."

Alex had listened to the entire conversation, but kept his eyes glued to the yellow fighter and so he was able to watch wide eyed as a figure of a person rocketed underneath of it and climbed on.

Fa-Jin screamed as a thin blade appeared on the holo in front of him and the feed cut out. An explosion ripped apart one of his ship's engines and the fighter began rapidly losing altitude. The humanoid figure jumped off the burning ship and then began flying back towards the Nightbrother.

K-4 sighed in relief. "One problem rectified." He then turned his attention back to him, "Now to figure out what to do with another."

"I'll take care of him." someone said from behind them. Alex turned and saw the man from before. The one who had caught him as he tried to run from the ship. "Look, I know you don't have a reason to trust me, but your companion, Aurora has started to. If you come with me, it won't be fun, but we can help get you away from this place for good. Sound good to you?"

K-4 let his grip on him loosen and Alex was able to get down off of his lap. He turned to look at the man in the door again. He didn't like this situation one bit, but if Aurora trusted him, he would too. He gave him a single nod and began following him.