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If there was one mission the crew of the Ghost was getting increasingly good at pulling off, it was rescue missions.
While they had already mastered runs and getting past blockades, rescue missions were becoming so frequent that within time, they were sure they would be able to perform them successfully with their eyes closed.
Successfully, yes, perfectly? Not so much.
After all, it wouldn’t be a Ghost crew mission without something going mildly wrong.
This time around, it was Kallus who needed their saving. His infiltration mission on one of the Outer Rim Imperial stations went sideways when they underestimated how fast news traveled around the galaxy about Kallus’ betrayal. They had thought they could station him there in hopes that he could get some information about future plans, but maybe after two days they lost contact with him and feared the worst.
“See, I told you we should’ve gone with him,” Ezra mumbled as he slipped on a Scout trooper helmet, “I knew it was going to be a bad idea.”
“Quiet,” Kanan urged, putting on his trooper helmet as well, “we knew the risks but we also needed this information. Besides,” He turned to Ezra, patting him atop his head, “you just wanted an excuse to dress as a trooper for a few days.”
“Hey, watch the helmet!” Ezra exclaimed, pushing Kanan’s hand off him with a huff while Kanan chuckled.
“Okay, maybe that’s partially true because I like wearing this armor, but still,” Ezra muttered, folding his arms.
“Ooh, don’t let Rex hear you say that,” Kanan remarked with a smirk, “I think you’ll hurt his feelings.”
“Don’t let me hear what?” Rex asked, looking up from across them where he was also getting into his trooper disguise with lots of grumbles and complaints. His hearing wasn’t at all what it used to be, but he still had the cold, hard, intimidating stare he often had to use that seemed to do the trick. He narrowed his eyes at the two Jedis who just stood up straighter and muttered answers of “Nothing!”
“Right,” Rex muttered, plopping on the stormtrooper helmet with a grunt.
“We’re coming up on base,” Zeb informed, walking into the room from the cockpit of the shuttle they stole and were currently using, “Everyone ready?”
“Of course,” Ezra answered confidently, patting Zeb’s arm, “we’ve done this several times before. How different is this one going to be?”
“Still,” Zeb grumbled, folding his arms across his chest, “we need this information.”
“The information or Kallus?” Kanan queried, tilting his head towards Zeb.
Zeb’s ear twitched; “Oh yeah, him too.”
The shuttle landed on the base without an issue. Their codes checked out and their disguises worked, to really no one’s surprise. It was almost laughable on the Empire’s part at how often and how well these infiltration rescue missions went.
“Chopper, as soon as we get off, plug in and find where they’re holding Kallus,” Kanan instructed as they lined up to exit down the ramp of the shuttle and out into the base.
“ Oookay ,” Chopper responded in his usual mumble of beeps and clicks.
As soon as the ramp was lowered, they moved out, Rex and Kanan in their trooper disguises, walking on either side of Zeb who was posing as a prisoner, much to his irritation. Ezra and Chopper took up the rear end, both of them rather amused at Zeb’s role in their little production.
Once they unloaded, they were met with their first inconvenience, as expected. Not too far from them, a trio of troopers was walking towards them, with the one in front bearing the shoulder marking of a commanding trooper.
“Stop right there,” he demanded, holding out a hand.
They all stopped in their tracks, not wanting to cause a scene.
“What is this?” The commander questioned, looking up at Zeb, “Where are you taking it?”
Zeb growled threateningly, glaring down at the troopers, fists clenched.
“It’s one of the rebels,” Rex responded, stepping forward, “he was captured on Ord Mantell and we were instructed to bring him here.”
“A rebel? Ord Mantell?” The trooper scoffed, “why would you be told to do such a thing?” He looked across at the group, suspicious, but he carried on.
“Well, if that’s so, then we’ll take it from here,” he motioned for his two other troopers to come forward.
Now it was Kanan’s turn.
He stepped forward, hand extended as he waved it across all three of their visors.
“You will let us pass,” Kanan convinced, “you will ignore us and carry on.”
There was a pause, putting all of them on edge, until finally, the troopers responded, all three in monotone voices; “We will let you pass. We will ignore you and carry on.”
And just like that, the troopers turned a heel and walked away, leaving the rest of them to do what they came to do.
“Impressive,” Rex muttered, “That trick never gets old.” He reached out and patted Kanan’s shoulder, getting a grumble in return.
“Yeah, well, anyways we should get going,” Kanan mumbled, nodding his head towards the nearest door into the base. The others nodded in agreement and followed after Kanan until they came to a port that Chopper could use to locate Kallus.
Ezra and Rex stood guard as Chopper plugged into the port and began to search for information about where Kallus was being held.
"Did you find him?" Zeb asked, ears twitching impatiently.
Chopper shook his free hand, beeping at Zeb angrily.
"What did he say?" Zeb questioned, looking at Kanan.
"He said he doesn't know why we brought you along," Kanan replied, glancing over at Zeb, "He's saying that you're too impatient and too distracting for this mission."
"Why you-"
" FOUND HIM! " Chopper beeped suddenly, moving out of the way of Zeb's hands, spinning around as he did so before zooming past Ezra.
"You better have," Zeb growled, shaking an accusing finger at the giggling droid who was using both Rex and Ezra as a shield.
"Alright, alright," Kanan addressed, putting a hand on Zeb's arm and pulling him back before turning to Chopper. "Where are they holding Kallus?"
Chopper poked out from behind Ezra, muttering and beeping his answer.
"He says there's a detention level a few floors above us," Ezra translated, looking between Chopper and Kanan, "He says Kallus is in the second to last cell."
"Well then we better hurry," Kallus instructed, taking the lead, "If we're spotted or if anyone questions us, we're still here to transfer Zeb to a cell. They should let us go by no problem."
"Should," Ezra repeated with a mutter, audible to him and him only.
Ezra had been right to doubt the positive outcome of the plan as there were a few problems as opposed to none.
A few times they were stopped, a few times Kanan had to use a Jedi mind trick (which Ezra begged to let him try, but Kanan didn’t), Rex at one point had to take out a patrol droid before it spotted them, and even Chopper got into a little fight with an astromech who was demanding to know why they were there.
In time though, the team managed to make it to the detention level and so far no alarms had gone off, so that had to have been a good sign.
“There are two troopers standing outside Kallus’ cell,” Kanan informed in a quiet voice, peering around the corner, down the hall where two troopers stood with blasters. He then turned to Rex and motioned him to follow, “Let’s see if we can settle this in a civilized manner…”
Rex followed after Kanan, the two of them walking down the hall towards the troopers while the other three waited quietly and anxiously around the corner, Ezra peeking out just slightly to make sure that nothing went wrong.
“Troopers!” Kanan called out, getting the guards’ attention, “You’re being reassigned to a different post. The superiors are assigning us to this post.”
“Reassigned?” One of the troopers questioned, looking at the other, “We didn’t get any information about being reassigned.”
“That’s because we came to tell you,” Kanan explained, him and Rex taking their place in front of the troopers, “The higher-ups couldn’t be bothered to comm you, they just sent us.”
“Oh really?” The other trooper scoffed, grip tightening on his blaster; he wasn’t buying it. “If that’s true, what’s our reassignment?”
Kanan hesitated, “Uh, janitorial.”
“Janitorial?” The trooper exclaimed, “That can’t be right. I’m going to check with the Lieutenant-” He started to raise his hand up towards the comm in his helmet to contact someone for confirmation when he was suddenly knocked out by the barrel of Rex’s blaster.
“What the!” The other trooper exclaimed, fumbling with his blaster, trying to aim it at Rex but ultimately met the same fate as his fellow guard at the end of Kanan’s blaster.
“On second thought, I think you two just need to get some rest.” Kanan corrected with a grin.
As soon as the troopers were confirmed to be knocked out, Rex motioned the other three to join them in the hallway as Kanan dragged the bodies out of the way.
“Need another helmet, kid?” Rex asked in amusement, tapping on one of the helmets with his blaster.
“No thanks,” Ezra responded, holding up his hands, “I have enough. Besides-” he pointed at the side of the helmet, “-there’s a dent in it now.”
“Fair enough,” Rex shrugged, chuckling.
“Alright Chopper, get on it,” Kanan directed, motioning to the port next to the cell door.
Chopper brought out his claw hands, spinning his orange top as he clapped the metal limb-like hands together before he inserted one into the port and started to spin it around until the cell door opened.
Once it did, the four humanoids poked their heads in, breaths held in anticipation as they looked around the cell for the one they came for until they found him; huddled in a corner, cross-legged, hands tied together and lying in his lap.
“Oh look, it’s my knights in shining armor,” Kallus muttered, looking up at the group of troopers from where he sat on the floor, leaning up against one of the walls. He sniffed, bringing up one of his hands to rub his eyes before he made a face, squinting at the lights behind them.
“Where’s your armor?” He questioned, eyes falling on Zeb, the only one not wearing any kind of stormtrooper armor.
“I don’t fit into one,” Zeb grumbled, annoyed at the rather silly question. He stepped into the cell and hoisted Kallus up onto his feet when he paused, blinking in realization; “Wait, are you messing with me?”
Kallus rolled his eyes, “Of course I was. You really think I wouldn’t know why you came without armor?”
Zeb’s ears flattened to his head, lips curled in a snarl.
“Okay, well, if anyone else forgot, this is a rescue mission,” Ezra spoke up, “so a ‘thank you’ would work, and then we can get out of here-“ he tossed his head back, motioning to the direction that they had come from.
Kallus sighed, “Yes, right…thank you.” He looked from Zeb to the others, “Thanks for coming to rescue me.”
“Yeah, that’s better,” Ezra encouraged with a thumbs-up as he started to back up into the hallway, “that wasn’t so bad was it?”
“No,” Kallus muttered, rolling his wrists after Rex took off the handcuffs, glancing over at Zeb for a moment before heading out of the cell.
As soon as Kallus was out, the group made their way down the hallway in a line; with Kanan at the front and Zeb leading the back. So far there were no alarms of any sort, so that had to be a good sign.
“I didn’t think that you guys would come back for me,” Kallus admitted, frowning slightly as they hurried through the hallway, “I thought that you would…just leave me.”
Ezra glanced back at Kallus, frowning slightly and feeling a bit of guilt and understanding towards the Ex-Imperial. He could see why Kallus would think such a thing, even if it wasn’t the case and he and Zeb would still tease and joke that they should’ve left him.
“For starters,” Ezra started, holding up a finger, “we aren’t the Empire, we come back for our people.”
He grinned proudly underneath the mask but missed the look Kallus gave him; a look of relief and gratitude, with soft eyes and a tired smile, the expression of someone who wasn’t used to people coming back for them.
“Don’t feel so special,” Zeb grunted from behind them, “we needed that information you came to collect.”
Kallus turned his head over his shoulder to glare at Zeb.
“Speaking of the information,” Kanan spoke up, stopping at the end of the hallway to look back at Kallus, “where is it?”
Turning away from Zeb, Kallus looked over at Kanan before answering; “It’s in a disc in the Lieutenant’s office. When I was found out, they confiscated it and left it there.”
“Lieutenant’s office?” Kanan muttered, “Where is that?”
“Second to the last level at the top,” Kallus replied, pointing up, “I’m sure your droid could get the directions easily from one of the ports.”
“Okay, then I guess that means we split up.” Kanan decided before laying out the plan to the rest of them.
“Chopper, Rex, and I will go to get the disc,” he instructed, “Zeb and Ezra, you two will take Kallus back down to the hangars and secure us a ride out of here. Extract us from the top of the communications tower, got it?”
“You got it,” Ezra saluted.
With a nod of acknowledgment, Kanan and his team took off, headed to the lieutenant’s office, just as Kallus had instructed, leaving Zeb, Ezra, and Kallus alone in the hallway.
“So where to now?” Ezra asked Kallus, moving along the halls once more, taking the lead, “How do we get back to the landing decks?”
“There should be some elevators on the far side of this level,” Kallus informed, following close behind Ezra, “if we continue down this hall and make a right, we’ll get there.”
“Alright, let’s hurry then,” Zeb instructed behind them, “before something bad happens.”
Ezra nodded in agreement, following Kallus' instructions on where to go, a hand near his dangling saber in case he needed to use it. Neither Zeb nor Kallus had weapons at the moment, so it was all up to Ezra until they could possibly get their hands on some should they run into troopers with blasters.
“How’d you know to come and find me anyway?” Kallus inquired in a low voice, breaking the silence as they headed down the hallway cautiously but swiftly. There was genuine curiosity in his voice, something anyone could hear, but there was also something else. Something only Ezra managed to hear.
It was the sound of disbelief. It wasn’t so much of a question of how, but rather a question of “Why?” Why had they come back? Why did they get Kallus before the information? Why did they save him when things could’ve been easier to just leave him? Why, why, why .
“Well, you never responded to our calls, so we figured something was wrong,” Zeb answered, oblivious to the layered question, “Y’know since you’re so…punctual.”
“Why did you say it like that?” Kallus questioned, eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he looked over at Zeb.
“Like what?” Zeb asked, looking just about as confused as Kallus.
“ Punctual ,” Kallus repeated, though his tone was slightly more exaggerated than what Zeb’s had been, “It sounds like you were insulting me.”
“I wasn’t insulting you!”
“Then why’d you say it like you were?”
“Guys!” Ezra scolded, turning around with a stop and flipping up his helmet to glare at them, “You’re starting to sound like Kanan and Rex!”
The two others stopped just before they ran into Ezra and instead ran into each other before composing themselves after a glare at the other. They then looked over at Ezra in both confusion and slight offense, as Ezra continued on with his spiel with a groan;
“Except you sound less like a father-in-law and son-in-law duo and more like an old married couple and I don’t know which one is worse.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Zeb demanded, narrowing his eyes.
“The bickering!” Ezra responded, throwing up a hand before motioning to the two of them, “Why do you two always sound like an old married couple? It’s almost worse than what Kanan and Hera do sometimes!” He flipped his helmet back on, turning around and continuing down, leaving Zeb and Kallus in confused silence.
“We do not sound like an old married couple!” Kallus argued, following after Ezra.
“Yeah, for once I agree with Kallus,” Zeb nodded, following after the two of them, mumbling under his breath.
The three of them continued down the hallway with absolutely no difficulty and no more bickering; it was almost unnerving.
“How come there’s no guards on the detention level?” Zeb asked in a mutter as Kallus input the code to get the elevator to come down. “It seems like everyone just disappeared…”
“We might’ve managed to avoid the patrol troopers because of the circular way this level is built,” Kallus explained, stepping back from the keypad on the wall, “while we were on one side, they were on the other. Like hands on a clock chasing each other.”
“Yeah, well, we aren’t that lucky,” Zeb huffed, rubbing the back of his neck. He stayed on alert, ears pressed close to the side of his head, his shoulders tense, and his eyes darting around the corner, waiting for troopers or a patrol droid to show.
Ezra didn’t seem to be that fazed by their lack of confrontation, instead, he had other worries.
“Hey, were you crying in the cell?” Ezra questioned, frowning a bit as he tilted his head, looking up at Kallus as they waited for the elevator to arrive.
Kallus blinked, caught off guard at the question.
“Was I…what?” Kallus stammered, the tips of his ears pink.
“Crying,” Ezra enunciated, “Y’know like…when water comes out of your eyes and you like-“ he brought up clenched fists to his eyes and pretended to rub his eyes.
“Yes, I know what crying is ,” Kallus responded with a groan, pushing Ezra’s hands down and getting a chuckle out of Zeb who stopped being tense for just a second, just to listen to their conversation, “I just…No-“ he shook his head, clearing his throat as he shifted his gaze back onto the elevator in front of them, “I wasn’t crying.”
“Right,” Ezra nodded, clearly not convinced.
He didn’t say or ask anything more than that though, instead, he turned his head, waiting for the elevator to arrive and when it finally did, the three of them stepped inside. Zeb and Ezra first, near the back, and then Kallus who took the front, pressing the access code to get to the ground level where they’d get a ship and get out of there.
“Where did you guys land?” Kallus asked, pushing some more buttons inside the elevator before taking a small step back once the door slid closed.
“Platform 5-B,” Zeb answered, “we’ve got a pilot waiting who can help us pick up Kanan and the others from the tower like he instructed.”
“Yes, supposing we don’t get caught,” Kallus muttered, nodding slowly in acceptance of the quite possible possibility. After all, he’d never been saved by the Ghost crew, he was always on the opposite end of things prior to it, so while he knew that they eventually got the job done, it wasn’t always done in a practical manner.
Lost in thought, Kallus became oblivious to the sudden mischievous shift in the atmosphere from behind him.
“Hey Zeb,” Ezra flipped up the opening of the scout trooper’s helmet suddenly, “we should do ‘get help.’” He grinned mischievously as he leaned over towards Zeb, talking in a low voice so that Kallus couldn’t hear them.
Zeb shot Ezra a curious look, “You actually want to do ‘get help?’”
Ezra shook his head, making a face, “Not me! Him .” The last bit was barely audible, a low hiss through teeth as Ezra motioned to Kallus with his head.
Zeb raised an eyebrow, following Ezra’s motions to Kallus’ turned back, the cogs slowly turning in his head until it clicked.
Usually, Ezra was the one who got the short end of the stick when it came to their “get help” tactic. Before he’d become powerful in the Force, he was the one who was used as a human battering ram, courtesy of Zeb’s throwing skills, and only recently was Zeb the one to be thrown via the Force by either Ezra, Kanan, or both of them. This time though, they had an unsuspecting Kallus who made for a very useful battering ram.
With a grin and crack of his knuckles and neck, Zeb nodded, chuckling underneath his breath, “Ah, I get what you’re saying.”
Ezra beamed, also unable to hide his giddiness over the idea as the elevator continued to get closer and closer to the ground-level floors.
“What are you two up to?” Kallus asked, looking over his shoulder with an eyebrow raised in suspicion, snapping out of his thoughts, “I can hear you whispering and giggling like children about to do something terrible. What is it?”
“Nothing,” Ezra quickly responded, clearing his throat and standing up straighter, “we’re just…strategizing.” He shot Zeb a glance, who coughed awkwardly, avoiding Kallus’ gaze.
“Yeah, uh-” Zeb stammered, rubbing the back of his neck, “The kid and I were just coming up with a plan to get us from, um, the elevator to the extraction point.”
“Oh really?” Kallus questioned, not believing them in the slightest, “Care to inform me, or is this another one of your crazy plans that you purposely hide from me?”
Ezra opened and closed his mouth, unsure how to respond at first, but within seconds he laughed nervously, scoffing and waving a hand in the air. “What? Nooo…” he interjected, glancing over at Zeb, “We’d never do something like that to you!”
“Yeah!” Zeb agreed, nodding vigorously, “ ‘sides, our plans aren’t that crazy. They work…” he trailed off before muttering under his breath, “...most of the time.”
“It’s times like these why it’s beyond me why I never managed to capture you all during my time with the Empire,” Kallus muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose.
Zeb and Ezra both looked at each other before looking back at Kallus.
“I don’t know if you’re insulting us or yourself,” Ezra admitted, frowning with his head tilted in contemplating confusion, “but I hope it’s the latter.”
Kallus shot Ezra a glare as he lowered his hand from his face, but when he realized that Ezra did come to rescue him, his expression softened to mild irritation. With the shake of his head, Kallus sighed, moving on; “So I’m assuming you don’t have a plan? We’re just going to get to the lower levels and hope we make it out of this prison?”
“Yes,” Ezra answered before quickly correcting himself in stutters, “I mean, uh, no! We do have a plan!”
“Yeah,” Zeb nodded, leaning forward so that his head was side by side with Kallus’, “can you pretend you have a limp again?”
Kallus tensed at the sudden proximity as he whipped his head around to face Zeb, a baffled look on his face; “Again?”
Ezra blinked in confusion at the response; “What? What do you mean again?”
“What does that have to do with the plan?” Kallus questioned, ignoring Ezra’s question with his eyes narrowed at the grinning Lasat.
“Trust me,” Zeb encouraged, trying to look as reassuring and convincing as possible, “it’s vital to the plan.”
“You better tell me what the plan is Garazeb or so help me I’ll-“
“No time!” Zeb quickly interjected as the elevator dinged, reaching the ground level.
At the announcement of their stop, Ezra quickly put his mask back down while Zeb quickly ducked underneath Kallus’ arm and stood back up, making Kallus clamor in surprise. Zeb was holding Kallus by the waist with his left hand while his other hand held Kallus’ right arm firmly around his neck so that when the doors opened, Zeb was Kallus’ crutch. Immediately, they hobbled out like some uncoordinated, many limb-ed creature, while Ezra followed behind them, doing his best not to break out in laughter.
There weren’t any troopers to meet them at the bottom, but the sound of approaching boots echoed through the hallway, closing in on them rapidly from the right so the three of them took the left exit, hoping it would lead to the hangar.
“I don’t see how this is part of any plan!” Kallus attested, trying to pull himself away from Zeb as he was practically dragged through the hallway.
“You’ll see soon enough,” Zeb assured with a grunt.
They kept running, Zeb as Kallus’ crutch and Ezra behind them, covering their backs in case the troopers caught up with them. Within a minute or so, though, they finally arrived in one of the hangars and to no one’s surprise, they were met with troopers with blasters aimed right at them.
“You three! We have you cornered, surrender or be blasted!” one of the troopers commanded, raising their blaster as if trying to be intimidating.
“You want to know our plan?” Ezra questioned with a low voice, slowly raising his hands up, “Because you’re about to find out first hand.”
“What does that mean ?” Kallus hissed, looking at Zeb for answers.
“I apologize in advance,” Zeb responded in a mutter before turning back to the troopers. He took a few steps forward with Kallus, getting tense troopers and raised blasters in response.
“Somebody get help!” Zeb shouted, looking across the troopers in fake desperation, causing all of them to falter just slightly in confusion.
“Please, my partner, he’s hurt!” Zeb begged, motioning to Kallus, “Someone get help!”
“What in the world are you doing?” Kallus questioned through his teeth, narrowing his eyes as he limped closer towards the troopers with little to no choice.
Zeb ignored him of course, still wailing at the troopers to help them out, insisting that Kallus was hurt and needed medical attention or he was going to die. It seemed to confuse the troopers enough to stall for time, but as soon as Zeb got too close, the sound of blasters cocking clicked across the hangar walls.
That’s when the plan reached its full effect.
In one swift move, Zeb picked Kallus up from underneath his arms and hurtled him towards the group of troopers in front of them. As soon as Kallus was in the air, screaming in surprise, Ezra jumped forward, arms outstretched as he gave Kallus an extra boost via a Force push.
With a loud crash and the sound of trooper armor clattering onto the ground, Kallus had successfully managed to knock out all the troopers (Of course, with the help of both Zeb and Ezra) and now he was finally filled in on the plan.
“Classic,” Zeb chuckled, lowering his hand so Ezra could high-five it.
Ezra sighed in satisfaction, biting back laughter, “Ah, it’s so much better when it’s not you being thrown.”
Zeb nodded, “I agree.”
“What in the WORLD was that?!” Kallus demanded, his voice booming across the walls as he stood up on shaky legs, his hair disheveled and his arms spread out in disbelief.
“That’s a little something we call ‘get help’!” Ezra explained with the click of his tongue, “It’s a fun little tactic Zeb and I came up with a year ago.”
“Fun?!” Kallus shouted, eyes wide, hair falling in front of his face, “In what galaxy is that fun?!”
“The kind where you’re the one doing the throwing, duh,” Ezra answered with a grin as he ran past Kallus and towards their waiting shuttle as the sound of alarms started to ring overhead.
“ Unbelievable !” caterwauled Kallus, stepping over the unconscious bodies while Zeb hurried towards him.
“Hey, if it helps, I can carry you the rest of the way,” Zeb offered, taking Kallus’ hand and helping him step over the very last body, “Y’know, if you got hurt or anything.”
“Right,” Kallus responded sarcastically through gritted teeth, letting go of Zeb’s hand to run it through his hair to fix the falling strands, “because I wouldn’t have gotten hurt from being thrown into a group of stormtroopers, Garazeb.”
Zeb rolled his eyes, holding his hands out, “Alright, alright, I got it. Besides, it wasn’t even my idea, it was the kid’s.”
Kallus narrowed his eyes at Zeb, “That does not help your case.”
“We could just leave you here,” Zeb countered, “Take the information and go.”
“Well at least I won’t be thrown around in my cell, so maybe it’s an option I’m willing to consider,” Kallus snapped
“C’mon guys!” The sound of Ezra yelling at them got both of their attention, turning them around to see Ezra waving his saber in the air, halfway to the shuttle that was already powering up.
“Hurry up! Or I’m going to leave you both behind!”
Zeb grumbled in response, glancing back at Kallus before he took off, only picking up the pace when he saw that Kallus was following him and wasn’t doing so with a limp. Had he been, Zeb would’ve carried him, despite any forms of protest, feeling guilty, even though throwing Kallus was totally worth it.
“Hurry, hurry, hurry!” Ezra urged, hanging out from the hangar, standing on the ramp, and deflecting blaster bolts back towards the troopers who just emerged from one of the deck doors and were slowly gaining on Kallus and Zeb.
Within a few seconds, Kallus and Zeb successfully made it on the ship, unscathed from any blaster fire and Ezra shouted back at the pilot to take off.
The pilot managed to take off from the platform and Ezra headed to the cockpit to instruct them on where to pick up Kanan, Rex, and Chopper before he took to his comm to inform Kanan that they had made it to the ship and were on their way to pick them up.
Meanwhile, Kallus and Zeb stayed in the hangar of the shuttle, trying to get their breath, Zeb’s hands on his knees and Kallus sitting on a crate, his hands on his right knee. Whatever previously held tension between the two from the platform seemingly disappeared into an atmosphere of relief as the realization of succeeding and living another day started to settle in.
“We’re about to reach the communications tower,” Ezra informed, popping his head into the tower, “Kanan says they’re waiting but we need to be careful of blaster fire.”
“Got it,” Zeb muttered in acknowledgment, heading to the lever that lowered the ramp and opened the hangar. “Try not to get shot,” he smirked, looking back at Kallus who only narrowed his eyes in response.
When Zeb got the ramp lowered, Kallus managed not to get shot, though one stray bolt did get a little too close for comfort. Then as soon as Zeb had opened the door, Zeb was closing it already; Kanan, Rex, and Chopper successfully inside the shuttle with little to no visible injuries, though the first two lay sprawled out on the floor, panting and trying to catch their back.
“Did you get the information?” Zeb asked, looking down at Kanan.
In response, Chopper beeped, pulling out the disc while Kanan held out a hand towards Zeb, asking to be picked up. Zeb obliged, pulling Kanan up so that he was now sitting up straight and fumbling to take off his helmet.
“Gee, thanks for that,” Kanan sassed, sweaty hair sticking to the sides of his head, his ponytail coming undone, “we almost die and you’re worried about the disc.”
“Well, wasn’t that what we came for?” Zeb sputtered, holding his arms out.
“Oh how nice,” Kallus uttered tartly, “not only do you throw me around like some kind of tooka doll, you have to insult me.”
“Insult you?” Zeb repeated, eyes wide in bafflement.
“Throw you?” Kanan questioned, raising an eyebrow and looking between Zeb and Kallus, “Zeb threw you?”
“Technically Ezra helped,” Zeb countered, motioning to the emerging Ezra.
“Hey, what?” Ezra whined, not wanting to be dragged into things, “Zeb physically did it, I only added a small push!” He pointed accusingly at Zeb who growled.
“Besides,” he started, lowering his hand, flipping up his mask, and looking over at Kallus, “Zeb only keeps saying that because he doesn’t want you to think he cares that much about you when in reality he was suuuuuper worried.”
He turned back to Zeb, teasingly nudging him with his elbow, a shit-eating grin on his face as he wiggled his eyebrows; “Ain’t that right Zeb?”
Zeb huffed, his face dark purple as he looked away, ears twitching. “Watch yourself, kid,” he threatened with a low growl, moving away from him.
“You know it’s true,” Ezra argued, taking off his helmet and tucking it underneath his arm. He looked over at Kallus, mouthing, ‘ It’s true ,’ with a grin and a wink.
Kallus merely blinked in response, his gaze shifting from Ezra to Zeb, face warm with light pink as Ezra’s claims started to sink in. Had Zeb really been worried about him? Did Zeb insist they come to get him? Was he only back with the rebels because of Zeb? Did Zeb care about him?
“Wait, wait,” Kanan clamored, standing up and getting everyone’s attention, “Go back to the throwing thing. Why did you need to throw Kallus?”
“Get help,” Ezra answered simply, “Thought it would be fun.”
“Aw man, you did ‘get help’ with Kallus?” Kanan pouted, setting his helmet to the side, “I wanted to do ‘get help’ with Kallus.”
“No one is ever doing ‘get help’ with Kallus again,” Kallus retorted, glaring at all of them, as the pink blush from earlier turned into a darker color of embarrassment and irritation.
“Aw, don’t look so upset,” Ezra encouraged, patting Kallus’ back, “being thrown around is what makes one a part of the Ghost crew.”
“Is that just like a Jedi thing?” Rex questioned, looking to Kanan, as Kallus argued with Ezra in the background, “They just throw around people with the Force?”
“What do you mean ‘Jedi thing’?” Kanan inquired, raising an eyebrow at Rex, “Did you get thrown around by a Jedi during the Clone War?”
Rex sighed, nodding, “All the time.”
“Weird indoctrination tradition or not,” Kallus declared, getting Kanan and Rex’s attention, “don’t you rebels have any other ideas that involve not throwing people around?”
He looked over at the others, all of them looking back at him with blank stares, trying to come up with an answer or counter-argument that would work in their favor.
“I mean-” Ezra started, “-sometimes we give Chopper a blaster?”
The droid beeped in agreement.
Kallus sighed, rubbing his face in his hands while muttering; “Nobody should ever give that droid a blaster…”
“It works though,” Ezra pointed out, “Just as ‘get help’ works well too.”
Kallus made a face, giving up, “Yes, I suppose…it does work.” He shook his head, a small, fond smile forming for a second before he brought up a hand, pressing it against his mouth in an attempt to hide it.
Despite everything, they had come for him. Even if it hadn’t been practical and he got thrown into a group of stormtroopers, they still noticed he was gone and did something about it. They risked their lives just for Kallus, just to bring him back and all the anxiety, worry, and acceptance that had once settled in his bones during his time in the cell slowly started to dissipate.
So this was what it felt like to be cared for.
It hurt, Kallus decided. Physically and emotionally.
“Y’know, if I had credits for every time one of you tossed me around I’d be a rich man,” Kallus started, lowering his hand and looking over at the others, “but…Despite it, I am…grateful.” He nodded, clearing his throat awkwardly as a small, genuine smile formed.
Zeb’s ear twitched, Ezra beamed, Kanan and Rex both gave Kallus nods of acknowledgment and if Chopper had eyes, he’d be rolling them.
“But um,” Kallus coughed, “no more doing ‘get help.’” He looked over at Ezra and Zeb specifically.
“No promises,” Ezra responded with a wink.
“Yeah, I’m with the kid,” Zeb agreed, hesitantly nodding as he rubbed the back of his neck, “‘Sides, you’ll come to love it eventually.”
“I seriously doubt that,” Kallus denied, “It’s humiliating.”
“To the person being thrown, yes,” Kanan agreed, “but to everyone else…?”
“Not you too,” Kallus griped, pinching the bridge of his nose.
“Okay, okay, how about this-” Ezra started, stepping forward with his hands extended, grinning widely to everyone else’s guarded anticipation, “-Zeb and I get to toss Kallus or Kanan around and Kallus you can team up with Kanan to toss Zeb around.”
Nobody really seemed to care for that idea.
“Hey!” Zeb exclaimed, turning to face Ezra who just giggled in response, “What about you ?”
“Yeah,” Kanan frowned, folding his arms, “What makes you think you’re safe from ‘get help’?”
“No one’s safe from ‘get help,’” Zeb nodded, cracking his knuckles.
“I would like to be safe from it,” Rex piped up, “After all I’m an old man…”
Kanan looked over at him, “You’re like twenty!”
Rex blinked, “Not physically.”
At this point, Chopper had thrown up his hands with a huff and headed out of the hangar, ready to push the button to open the hangar and dump the rest of them out in space should he be prompted to. It was an urge he had often and Hera wasn’t here to stop him.
However, Kallus made eye contact with him and shook his head in warning, reading Chopper’s thoughts. With a dejected sigh, Chopper backed away from the lever, shaking his orange top in disappointment. The only reason why he even listened to Kallus was that unlike the others, Kallus saw Chopper’s unlimited potential, though it didn’t stop him from running into Kallus on purpose from time to time.
Which is exactly what he did next before hurriedly hiding behind Rex with an amused giggle.
Kallus yelped in response, glaring at Chopper before turning to the rest of them. “Alright, alright," he addressed, hands extended, “I can see that this conversation is getting us nowhere so I suggest that we all drop it and agree to never do ‘get help’ again. Yes?”
Everyone else fell silent, not looking all that compliant but also not looking all that defiant either. Reluctantly they all nodded in agreement, ready to drop the subject but not all that on board with forgetting about ‘get help’ entirely.
Of course, Kallus knew they would continue to do it, regardless if they all silently agreed not to just now. After all, they were rebels.
And Kallus wasn’t an exception.
Later, as the ship cruised through hyperspace, on route back to Yavin 4, Kallus approached Ezra when there was no one else within earshot.
“Jabba,” Kallus called, teasingly using the nickname as he so often did with Ezra. It was something of an inside joke between the two of them and Ezra didn’t mind, finding it amusing so Kallus used it when he could.
When Ezra turned, eyebrows raised, Kallus continued; “I have a proposition.”
If Ezra hadn’t been curious before, he was now. Arms folded across his chest he examined Kallus closely and suspiciously before asking in a hesitant voice, “What is it?”
At Ezra’s defensive response, Kallus grinned, grateful Ezra was willing to hear him out.
“Next time we’re on a mission, I get to do ‘get help’ with Zeb and you’re going to help me,” Kallus explained, unable to contain his giddy smile at the thought of getting back at Zeb in the future.
It wasn’t what Ezra expected, but it was definitely something he could get on board with. So with a big grin and an excited nod, Ezra stuck out his hand, “You’ve got yourself a deal.”
Kallus took the hand, giving it a firm shake, “We don’t tell anyone about this.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Ezra responded, “Though I can’t promise I’ll turn on you if someone else comes to me with a similar proposition.”
“I’ll do your chores for a week.”
“Done.”
Kallus let go of Ezra’s hand, cursing silently in his head at how easily he gave up his free time for things like favors or covering for Ezra when it came to chores. He figured it had to be worth it in the end though, on the day that he could get Zeb back.
“Nice doing business with you,” Ezra saluted, walking away as the pilot announced their departure from hyperspace.
“As to you, Jabba,” Kallus replied with a nod and smirk.
For the first time, Kallus had felt what to be genuinely cared for was like and on top of that, for the first time, Kallus couldn’t wait for their next mission.
——-
“Hey! We should do ‘get help’!”
“No, we shouldn’t. I thought we agreed not to do that again.”
“That was in the past, I say we do it.”
“What? Kallus, are you seriously siding with Ezra right- Oh no .”
“Oh yes! C’mon Zeb, you gotta do it!”
“No, I am not doing ‘get help.’ You can’t make me.”
“You don’t have much of a choice, I’m afraid-“
“Kallus if you-“
“Someone get help! Please, my partner, he’s dying, get help!”
BAM!
“Ah, I get it now. That was rather fun.”
“Right? We should do it more often.”
“Alright, I’m crushing you both .”
“And now’s the part where we run.”
“Right behind you, Bridger.”