Chapter Text
Thirteen years ago, on the backwater planet of Xianthria
Hanging lanterns shuddered over Kam’s head as another barrage of explosions racked the surface. He cowered with his people in an underground bunker. Just above them, a battle was waging on between the Empire and their planet’s rebel group.
Kam’s father was the leader of that group.
His brother, Talin, was also in the fight up there. His whole family was fighting for their freedom on the surface, while he was hiding away, useless. Kam wanted to aid in the fight, but his father wouldn’t let him—for fear of his safety, because of his lack of training or a proper lightsaber, Kam didn’t know.
Talin had reassured him, saying he would be better off in the bunker, watching over his people. That was a load of bantha fodder. They needed all the help they could get, and Kam could fight! He had the Force, and he could easily get a blaster from the armory.
So, sneaking away from the bunker, that’s exactly what he did.
The surface was littered with bodies and burning rubble, smoke making the air dark and putrid. Huge warships were posted in the sky, deploying hundreds of smaller ships to the ground. The noise of blaster fire filled the air and the ground thudded with the steps of giant machines trampling over trees and buildings. Kam took a breath and entered the battle zone.
He had to find his father and brother. They would be stronger together, their connection through the Force could overpower the Empire.
He let the Force pick a direction and he went with it. He avoided the large groups of soldiers clad in white armor—stormtroopers, his father had once informed him.
He heard the familiar sound of a lightsaber cutting through the air, then a glimpse of green and blue in the dense smoke—he found them. Kam broke into a sprint, determined to help his family fight.
When he reached a clearing, he stopped dead in his tracks. Something was wrong. Through the Force he felt anger, sadness, betrayal. But more worryingly, he felt the bitter power of the dark.
Ahead of Kam, bodies littered the ground. An accumulation of both stormtroopers and rebel fighters lay on the dirt, leading him to the middle of the clearing, where two people were attacking each other.
Kam’s heart dropped. His brother… was viciously advancing on his father, a snarl on his face and the horrible feeling of darkness around him.
And then the electric blue of Talin’s saber pierced his father’s chest.
“No!” He screamed, aiming the blaster and firing shot after shot. He got lucky the first time, the element of surprise aiding him as one of his shots hit Talin’s leg.
His father fell to the ground, green lightsaber sheathing itself and rolling out of his grip. While Talin continued to block Kam’s blaster pistol, Kam instinctively reached out his hand and let the Force fly his father’s saber through the air, landing clutched in his hand. The blaster was thrown away in favor of igniting the lightsaber.
“Talin, why?” Kam asked, voice pained and small.
Eyes blazing with unrelenting fury, his brother replied, “The Empire can give me everything our coward of a father could never!” He started to take slow steps closer to Kam. “It can give us everything!”
Kam’s eyes flickered to his father, somehow still conscious. His face was contorted with pain and despair.
“The Empire lies, Talin! It’ll only use you!” Kam paused before adding, “You're better than this!”
Talin laughed, a cold, dark thing. “I will never be better than what I am now!” With every step he took, Kam stumbled backwards. He lowered his lightsaber and held out his hand to Kam. “You can join me, brother. Together we can have power.”
Kam fervently shook his head, eyes watering at the very mention of him betraying all he stood for. “I will never join the dark side,” he said resolutely, willing his hands to stop shaking.
Talin huffed. “You always were the weaker one.” Suddenly, he dashed forward and pinned Kam to the building behind him. The only thing between the fierce blue of Talin’s lightsaber and Kam’s face was the green lightsaber desperately gripped in Kam’s hands. The crackle of the sabers drowned out the frantic heartbeat in his ears as he stared into his brother’s eyes.
“You can’t win this one, Kam.”
There was a searing pain across the bridge of his nose as the heat of his saber came far too close for comfort. He wasn’t ready to die.
“Please, Talin,” Kam whispered.
“You should have joined me, Kam,” Talin said. “We could have been rulers of the galaxy, together, with Vader. We could have been powerful! Just see the bigger picture, brother! Wake up!” His voice echoed on the last word. “Wake up, Kam.”
“Kam, wake up!”
Kam’s eyes shot open as he was wrenched from his dream. He squinted against the offensively bright lighting, and—wait, where was he again?
Memories flooded back to him—drinking poisoned punch, being ambushed, Ruus kidnapping them. “...Shit,” Kam sighed. He needed to stop blindly trusting people.
“Kam,” a familiar voice said. He looked across from him to see the blurry shape of the Mandalorian, standing against a wall. As his eyes adjusted he saw that his wrists were chained to the wall behind him, with handcuffs around them as well. A quick glance upwards and an experimental tug showed him that he was also in the same predicament.
“Where in the kriffing hell did he take us,” Kam growled, rolling his shoulders to try and relieve the soreness from being hung up on a wall.
“I don’t know,” the Mandalorian replied, sounding equally angry. “They took the kid.”
Kam cursed. “Fucking shit.”
While he worked on containing his temper, he took a quick look around the room. It was mostly painted a harsh white, with bright lights burning into his eyes. Many chains were protruding from the wall, like the room had been specifically designed for imprisonment. Come to think of it, it probably was.
Looking to his right, Kam yelped in surprise at seeing his neighboring chains occupied by some alien. She—at least Kam thought they resembled a female—seemed to be asleep, or unconscious. She had blood orange skin that was contrasted with white pigmentations. If he had to pin her to a species, he would probably pick a Togruta, though he had only read about them and never seen them.
“What the kriff,” he breathed. The Mandalorian hummed in response. “We need to get out of here,” Kam said.
“I’ve been trying. They took my weapons and your lightsaber, but I think they missed the knife in my shoe,” he tapped the corresponding boot against the floor. “It might be our only weapon when we escape.”
Kam nodded absently. He was a little distracted by the strong waves of the Force coming off of the alien next to him. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, calling on the Force to clear his mind.
“What are you doing-“
“Hush,” Kam interrupted the questioning Mandalorian.
He sensed the Force within the alien, confirming his suspicions. She could wield the Force, like him. He furrowed his brows as he searched for the familiar essence of the child. His shoulders slumped in relief as he located him—he was close, but still far enough that he couldn’t tell if he was alright or not.
He expanded his range, only to find a deep emptiness surrounding the structure that they were in. Well, at least he knew where they were now.
“We’re on a ship,” Kam announced, opening his eyes. “Most likely on our way to whoever placed a bounty on our heads.”
The Mandalorian tilted his head minutely. “You have a bounty as well?”
Kam shrugged lightheartedly, even though his heart clenched at the thought. “Rescuing you more times than I can count probably put me on someone’s list.” He wasn’t wrong, but it wasn’t his main bounty. His brother would always keep searching for him.
“Never asked for you to ‘rescue’ me,” the Mandalorian replied snappily, but not with any real heat.
Kam chuckled. “Maybe if you avoided trouble I wouldn’t have needed to.”
“Are you people done flirting yet?”
Kam jumped and twisted his head to the right, seeing the Togruta woman wide awake and glaring at them.
“You two interrupted my nap with your blabbering,” she groaned, like that explained anything.
Clearing his throat, Kam greeted her with a quiet, “Hello to you too.”
The woman gave him a quick once-over. “Ah, a Jedi. Welcome to the club.” Her voice was dull and laced with sarcasm. Kam didn’t blame her, he had no clue how long she had been stuck in this room too. He didn’t bother correcting her on the title either—she would most likely keep calling him a Jedi anyway.
He felt the Mandalorian’s gaze on him and sent him a reassuring nod. “My name is Kam. That’s, uh.. Mando,” he settled on. He hadn’t even noticed the lack of a name associated with the Mandalorian until now, but he respected the man’s privacy, so he didn’t really care.
“Name’s Sola,” she replied. “Did Ruus fool you as well?”
“Yeah…” Kam slowly responded. “You know Ruus?”
Sola nodded, yawning. “Stopped at Coros for a few weeks, then next thing I know I’m being sold off to the highest bidder.” Her voice grows cold as she says, “Once I get outta here, I’m killing him.”
Something clicked within Kam, and he said, “You must be the Jedi Ruus was talking about.”
She shrugged. “Probably.” After a slightly awkward pause, she said, “Well, do what you wanna do. Wake me if anything interesting happens. And good luck getting out of those,” she said sarcastically. And with that she rested her head on her chest and closed her eyes.
Kam didn’t even want to think about how uncomfortable it must be to sleep like that. Perhaps she was used to it, which caused a spark of sadness in him.
Lightly, Kam tugged on the chains to test their resistance. They were durable and didn’t seem easy to break apart. The cuffs on his wrists looked like they could possibly be picked, but he didn’t have anything to do it with…
Wait. He peered up at his hands, grinning when he saw a thin leather bracelet still safely tied around wrist. It was a gift from his mother a long time ago, the strand held together by a small metal clip. Just long enough to pick the lock successfully. Thank the Force for the stupidity of their captors.
He looked over at the Mandalorian and shot him a victorious grin. “We’re getting out of here.”