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Cal's first impression of Capital City on Lothal?
Infested with Imperials.
There were at least two Stormtroopers down every alley. Imperial officers were more of a common sight than citizens. In fact, the only non-Imperials he'd seen were stall owners and a sparse amount of market-goers. He was glad he'd trusted his senses and had Greez land far beyond the borders of the city.
BD had been fidgeting around worriedly on his shoulder the whole time. He couldn't blame the little droid for being on edge; This place felt off to him, too.
"Keep an eye out for me, okay?" He muttered back to BD. BD chirped lowly in response, drawing the attention of a nearby Stormtrooper.
"Hey! You!" They barked. Cal froze. The Stormtrooper walked over from where they had previously been standing in the mouth of an alleyway.
Ah, great. Already.
"Is there... something I can help you with?" Cal asked, trying to hold himself in some way that would look inconspicuous. Please don't see my lightsaber. Please don't see my lightsaber.
The Stormtrooper stepped closer to him. "We're looking for a little boy. Human, blue hair, tan skin, about," They gestured to their waist, "this tall. Seen him?"
"Can't say I have," Cal replied.
"He's been stealing our shipments," The Stormtrooper continued, "Just today, he took half our supply of meilooruns. Keep an eye out for him, will you? Tell an officer if you see something."
Cal nodded. "Will do." Which was a lie, of course. He would never turn a kid in to the Empire. He'd definitely keep an eye out, though – If the Empire was hunting this kid, too, then he probably needed help. Cal's top priority was to help.
The Stormtrooper nodded and went back to their post. Cal kept walking like nothing had happened, but he was paying extra attention now to every shadowy corner, rooftop and alleyway. He had a feeling that kid was close.
"You hear that, BD?" Cal muttered to his shoulder. "A little human boy."
BD beeped in assent.
Before he knew it, he'd left behind the bustling city streets and found himself on a relatively empty avenue. The dark, shadowy alleyways were becoming even more frequent. Contrary to this, there were fewer Stormtroopers. He only saw one or so in front of every other building, each with a blaster held ready in their hands.
None of them stopped him, much to his relief. Their gazes on him as he walked by made the hairs on his neck stand up, but he doubted he needed to be concerned – Even if they did confront him, he could handle a few Stormtroopers, no problem.
Then, as he came upon a square of buildings, each unguarded and dark, he began to wonder why this place was so… empty.
“I wonder what’s going on here,” He said to BD. The road he was walking along led off to the left, so assumedly, there would be more people down there, but the only sounds were those of his boots on the ground.
He heard the telltale sigh of a Stormtrooper and ducked against a nearby building. Oh, poodoo.
“Did you hear that?” A Stormtrooper said, their voice staticky through a modulator. Cal risked it and leaned around the corner to see what he was dealing with. There, standing in front of a low barricade, were two Stormtroopers, looking around like startled boglings.
I can handle two Stormtroopers. Cal cleared his throat and stepped out of his hiding spot. Immediately, two blasters were trained on him.
"S-State your business!" One demanded.
Cal put his palms up placatingly. "Woah! Woah," He lowered his hands to his sides. One of the Stormtrooper's blasters clicked. "Easy, easy. I just got lost."
"We're going to need you to show some identification," The other Stormtrooper shouted.
Cal obliged, lowering his hands to his belt. "Alright, just let me get that out for you..."
One of the Stormtroopers approached him hesitantly, still pointing the barrel of their blaster at Cal's chest. They gestured to BD on his shoulder. "Is that thing Imperial issue?"
"Nope," Was all Cal said, before he pulled out his lightsaber. The first Stormtrooper fell limply to the ground.
"J-Jedi!" The second one yelled. They fired off a haphazard shot that must have missed him by at least a light year.
"Keep it down, will you?"
Then they were laying dead on the ground alongside the other trooper. Cal was clipping his 'saber back onto his belt.
"What do you think, BD, did I take 'em out too quickly?" He snarked, tilting his head back to look at the little droid–
His blood froze.
BD-1 was gone.
"BD?" He called out, looking around the courtyard. That little droid wandered off pretty often, but never when he knew they were in Imperial territory. "BD!"
There was a panicked beep from an alleyway to his left. He gasped and raced after it, only to find himself at a shadowy dead-end.
"BD! Where are you, buddy?" He called out, his voice echoing against concrete. There was another beep from somewhere overhead. He ran towards the wall and launched himself up onto the nearest rooftop.
Scanning the roofs of Capitol City provided nothing more than a better view. He didn't see BD or the thief anywhere, just a lot of balconies and loth-cats. No droid-nappers anywhere.
He heard another beep to his right. On a rooftop across the square, he saw a little shadow dart onto a balcony, and felt the Force tugging him that way.
"Hey!" Cal called out, hopping from rooftop to rooftop after the little rat. It seemed like this entire cordoned-off area was completely empty, save for a nest of loth-cats he startled when he stepped on someone's chimney. It wasn't like he could lose the thief in a crowd or anything. So where were they? Why wasn't the Force being helpful?
He saw something moving in a alleyway up ahead. Gotcha.
Bounding forward and using a tiny force push to propel himself forward, he launched himself into the alleyway. He landed right in front of the thief, who immediately slammed into him.
All Cal had time to process was the little human boy's blue hair, before the kid turned and high-tailed it. Fortunately for him, he was tiny. Cal grabbed his arm and yanked him back, demanding, "Hey! That's mine."
BD quickly scurried out of their arms and up onto Cal's shoulder, beeping adamantly. The kid tried to squirm out of his grasp.
"You got your droid back! Let me go!"
"Hold on, hold on!" The kid pulled away from his grasp. Cal didn't think he was going to be able to stop them, so he tried, "You're wanted by the Empire."
The kid stopped briefly, glared, and pointed behind him. "What's that?"
Despite himself, Cal turned and looked over his shoulder. "Wh-"
The sound of boots scuffing and a yelled "See ya!" had him realizing his mistake. As he turned back to see the boy bolting around the corner, he sighed.
"Well, that worked."
BD beeped in cheerful agreement, which Cal had to chuckle at. The kid wasn't going to get off that easily, though. Even if he had to stay in Capitol City for much longer than was comfortable, he was going to find them. He wasn't about to let a kid get hunted by the Empire, even if they were a wiry little rat.
Maybe, in the process, he could find out what had happened to this entire area of the city.
Taking a back route to avoid any overt self-incrimination, Cal made his way back to the main street. The Stormtroopers were watching him, but he kept his eyes off of them and instead, on every shadowy alleyway and corner. That kid had to be somewhere.
He caught a flash out of the corner of his eye, a slight brush against his senses. Wait, is that kid force-sensitive?
BD whirred as a speeder engine revved and a small, blue-haired boy sped out of an alleyway and skidded into the road.
"Hey! That's the thief! Get him!" A Stormtrooper cried, firing off a few haphazard shots after the boy. The rest of the Imps were much slower to react, as was typical for them, and the boy had time to shoot Cal a sloppy salute before speeding off.
"After him! Go!"
"Eh, he's already gone. He'll be back."
Cal still didn't know who that boy was, but he did know that the Force was strangely strong around him. Which made this a lot more complicated. Greez, Cere and Merrin would definitely understand if he took extra time getting back, watching over a force-sensitive kid.
Probably.
New objective: Find this kid, try to save them from the Empire.
First of all, to find the kid, the Force was telling him to head deeper into the city.
Later, around sundown, he had followed it further into the empty part of town, to a building labeled 'off-limits'.
The door was locked, and all the windows were boarded up. Sure, the walls looked like they would give in if he so much as leaned against them, but the last thing he needed to his name was property damage. In theory he could've had BD slice the door, but he had a feeling – A feeling that the kid would be showing up soon.
A brush against his senses confirmed that feeling, a split second before the kid rounded the corner and aimed a scary-looking slingshot in his direction. Okay, yeah, perfectly understandable reaction.
"Hey, wait – Sorry for sneaking up on you," Cal yelped, nearly jumping back into the arrangement of pots in front of the doorway. The kid pulled back the slingshot. BD beeped that maybe, not letting him slice the door had been a bad idea.
"What are you doing here? Are you going to turn me into the Empire?"
"Why would I do that?" Cal asked thoughtlessly. "Listen, kid, I'm not going to let them take you – You have my word."
"And why should I trust you?"
Cal decided that, while he was in absolutely no position to bargain, he might as well try something. Just in case the kid actually was force-sensitive. "Use your feelings."
The kid still stared at him with furrowed eyebrows, like he was half expecting Cal to shout that he was just kidding and call up an Inquisitor. But after a moment, it seemed to click in his head. In fact, Cal could feel it in the air, the second the kid understood he wasn't going to hurt him. It was slightly more of a relief when he lowered the slingshot.
Regardless of this, he didn't see a single change on the boy's face. He actually just looked angrier.
"Fine. But get out of my way," He grumbled, and shoved past him. Crossing his arms, he watched as the kid pulled out a data chit and swiped it through the door's locking unit. They jolted open, and the kid stepped through.
Nothing for it, Cal decided, and stepped through after him.
The inside of the house was surprisingly nice, for its condition on the outside. No overturned tables, only a few various things scattered on the floor. The last of the fading daylight filtered through the boards on the windows, casting the room in magenta and orange.
The kid had walked up to a single table in the center of the room and set his 'pack on it.
BD beeped in his ear, asking for permission to scan. What, exactly, Cal couldn't guess, but he shook his head anyways and instead watched the kid. " So, kid, what's your name?"
The kid side-eyed him, pulling a few nondescript things from his pack. "Ezra. Listen, I don't know who you are or what you want, but we're not friends. I only let you in here because..."
Cal moved a hand to his hip, sensing that Ezra's next words were going to be serious.
"...Because you looked sad out there and I felt bad for you. Stop staring."
Scratch that. Cal averted his eyes. They landed on a cup laying sideways on the floor. It was intricately carved and ornately painted, made of what looked like delicate clay. It was just an ordinary cup – There were others scattered around the place, including a few that Ezra was now shoving off the table. Still, something drew him to it, calling him...
Kneeling, Cal hovered a hand over the cup. He was drawn in, or the Force drawn out. Whatever. Even after living an entire lifetime with it, he still didn't quite understand his psychometry.
What he saw and heard, though, was vivid nonetheless.
"Ezra!" A man, bearded and smiling, called.
The woman beside him laughed, shaking her head at her son's antics. That boy... "Ezra! Time for dinner!"
Cal had to fight to stay present when he came back to himself, the Force swallowing itself back up. This kid's parents were gone – No wonder he seemed so guarded.
"For the record, my name is Cal," Cal offered, standing back up. BD beeped unenthusiastically on his shoulder.
"Great. I'll make sure to write that down."
Cal looked around some more, thinking of half a dozen probably intrusive questions he could ask – About the kid's parents, about the Imperial warning slapped over the doorway, about the unnecessary assortment of pots outside. Finally, he settled on, "Where is everyone?"
Ezra stopped doing whatever he was doing for a moment. There was a flicker of pain from him, a moment of quiet rage that slipped through. "They're gone. They've all been sent off to Tarkintown so that the Empire can wreck their houses, build some academy. Now, I'm..." The kid side-eyed him, like he was gauging his reaction, "...all alone."
Cal knew what it felt like to be alone. "How long have you been alone for?" He ventured, quietly.
The kid's glare hardened. "Doesn't matter."
This kid still seemed so young – nine or ten, Cal would bet – and yet he was already so suspicious. Unfortunately, he doubted it was a recent thing. More like years of being unsafe, being on the streets. Relying solely on the Force, consciously or unconsciously.
Speaking of the Force, it suddenly started buzzing in the back of his brain. He reached out, trying to find the source, and–
What do you know, more Imperials.
"Stormtroopers," Ezra muttered under his breath.
The buzzing was getting closer; The kid started shoving things into his backpack with a fervor that was bordering on panicked. "You feel it too?" Cal asked lowly.
"Uh... yeah." The kid snapped his pack closed and grabbed Cal by the wrist. "They'll know we're here. C'mon."
BD beeped in alarm as the kid tugged them hrough the doorway. "How will they know we're here?" Cal translated roughly.
At this, Ezra faltered. "I may or may not have... harassed them a little on the way in here."
So that's what that Imp had meant by stealing.
"Well, you've got guts."
"I know, right?" Ezra gave him a smirk, yanking him around a corner. "It's fine. We can get out through the sewers."
Oh, sewers. For the most part, Cal had been fortunate enough to avoid sewers. Looked like his luck had finally run out.
"How many Stormtroopers?" Cal asked. The sewers had been, surprisingly, the simplest part of their exit strategy.
"I don't know. Maybe ten–" Ezra's breath caught as he peeked over the storage crate "–Wait. There's a transport coming in."
Carefully, Cal peered around the corner of his two crates. Sure enough, there was a transport slowing down at the gate. About half the Stormtroopers went up to inspect it, leaving Ezra's speeder bike unattended.
"They're not looking! Let's go!" Ezra urged, pushing at Cal's back.
He was right. They could get out of here, the Stormtroopers wouldn't be able to stop them, and Cal could get back to Greez, Cere and Merrin before they got too tired of waiting.
Still, though...
BD beeped quietly, saying that he'd scanned the crates. According to him, they were full of explosives. For what, Cal could only guess, but he himself had a few ideas about how to use them.
Besides, the others would probably be less exasperated with him if he at least got a hit in at the Empire.
"Wait. Help me get these crates open," Cal told Ezra, nudging him aside so he could start trying to pry open the lid. Currently, the Stormtroopers were engaged in conversation with the transport pilot. It would be a while before they noticed anything.
"We don't have time," Ezra gritted.
"We'll have even less if you don't help me." And, gambling with his luck, Cal projected an image of what he intended to do through the Force.
The kid seemed to get it. He sighed and grumbled, "Okay, fine."
They both started trying to prise open the crates as quietly as possible while the Stormtroopers were distracted. It wasn't working, until BD informed them that he could to it.
Cal pressed his back to the crates as BD started away at the durasteel. The speeder bike was just off to his right. He and the kid could grab the explosives, make a break for it, and get out of there before the Stormtroopers even knew what hit them–
"Hey! You! Droid!"
Cal winced. Well, one Imp had taken notice.
There were heavy footsteps as they stomped over. Ezra slid lower to the ground, shooting Cal a pained look as he tried to stay below the crate.
Silently and painstakingly, Cal willed the Force to direct their attention away and maybe, say, back towards the riveting conversation the others were having with the pilot–
"You're not authorized to be here. What do you think you're doing?" They demanded. BD stopped slicing the crate and beeped cluelessly at them. He shrieked as the Stormtrooper grabbed him. "You're coming with me."
Eh, they were about to blow this joint anyways.
Cal nodded to Ezra, then slipped out around the corner of his crate.
By the time the Stormtrooper dropped his droid, Cal was already standing in front of them, lightsaber brandished.
He cut off their scream with one decisive move, but not before the other Stormtroopers broke off their discussion and turned around. "Jedi!" One yelled. "Blast him!"
BD scurried up Cal's leg. He started deflecting fire, calling to Ezra to, "Start the bike!"
After a second or two of somewhat concerning noises from behind the crates, the kid darted behind him.
"Get the kid!" One Stormtrooper barked.
Cal rushed to protect Ezra as he revved up the speeder bike. Is it just me, or do his pockets look stuffed?
"Let's go!" Ezra demanded, pushing down on the pedal.
"Don't let them get away!"
Cal slipped onto the bike behind Ezra. Batting away one last blaster bolt, he asked, "You get those explosives?"
"Don't worry." The kid flashed him a grin, fished around for something in his pocket, and chucked it at the transport. Knew it.
The nearest Stormtrooper stared down at the grenade, with every obvious sign of recognition. "Uhh-"
They took off, speeding down the highway. The transport blew, and they were home free.
Cal flicked off his lightsaber and clipped it onto his belt. All around them were the grassy fields of Lothal, illuminated in indigo light. The two moons shone brightly overhead like giant planetside stars.
The Force was so much lighter out here, away from the city. It actually would've been nice.
"Where's your ship?" Ezra asked, as they pulled off the highway. They came upon a valley of towering spires, surrounded on all sides.
"Just a bit East of here," Cal replied easily. The kid jammed the controls right, and they tore out of the valley. That's one way to do it. "How did you know it's not in the city?"
"You're a Jedi," Ezra observed, not looking away from the horizon. "You wouldn't want to risk getting impounded, right?"
Cal chuckled. "Yeah."
"Also I doubt you would've gone through those sewers if you didn't have to. Call it intuition."
BD beeped that the kid had a point.
The fields sped by, the distant city cast in shadow. Soon enough, they came upon the Mantis. The landing ramp was down, as always. The sound of Cere's hallikset drifted out into the air, though, which was new. Maybe Lothal's overwhelming connection to the Force had made her pick it up again. If he could feel it, she certainly could.
Ezra stopped a ways away. "Guess you're going, then," He muttered. Cal slid off the bike, but he didn't start walking just yet.
"You could come with us," He found himself offering. Yeah, he'd told Merrin and Cere that he wasn't going to put any young lives in danger, make them live the life of a Jedi in these times. But this kid was strong, and alone nonetheless."You deserve more than this, Ezra."
The kid looked down at the ground for a second. He could've been considering, Cal didn't know, but when he looked back up, his eyes were hard-set. "Thanks, but this is my home. I'm not leaving Lothal."
All Cal did was nod. There wasn't really much else he could do, anyways. "I... understand. Keep yourself safe."
With one more suspicious glance and a rigid nod, Ezra kicked the speeder bike into gear. He took off in towards a comms tower in the distance. The breeze rustled as Cal watched him, getting further and further away until he was barely visible.
After a gentle prompt from BD, Cal ran a hand through his hair. Ezra could survive on his own; It was obvious he'd been doing it for a while. Cal had done it, too, and eventually, he'd found his people. Something told him the Force would provide for Ezra, too.
Still, it was too bad. He felt like he'd left something unfinished here.
Like there was something missing.
It was as he started walking back to the Mantis and his hand brushed his belt that he realized what it was.
That little Loth-rat stole my lightsaber!