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The crew has made it back – and as it turned out, just barely. Learning of not just one, but two more Inquisitors was enough of a shock. But hearing the whole story as they debrief on the Command Deck only makes it all feel so much worse. How many of these red lightsaber wielding, Dark Force users could there be? How many more might be looking for them? Some quick thinking of Zeb and Chopper had managed to save everyone, but they couldn't count on that the next time. How much could they expect Kanan and Ezra to protect them from?

There were the medical supplies. Not everything the Phantom could have carried off that base, but then, Hera had long since learned that when it came to scavenger run, it was best to plan for coming back empty-handed. What they'd managed to recover would still last them a long while if rationed and conserved well enough. Things were still, for now, better than they had been. Considering those Inquisitors had been out there, had already known about Ezra and Kanan. And even Ahsoka.

Kanan stays silent during the meeting, and as soon as it's over, he pulls Ezra aside. Hera watches them leave together, but she doesn't follow them, instead staying behind to talk to Sato. They'd had a signal through an intermediary from a contact on Ibaar, an agent who'd barely managed to escape the planet as the Empire was building up a blockade. Things had been bad enough before, as the Empire had designated Ibaar an industrial zone and ripped up cities and towns to build factories and mines, with the populations pressed into labor. But apparently unhappy with the output, the local Moff, or maybe Tarkin, had responded by stopping food shipments.

It's the only news Hera imagined could make her feel worse. She and Sato began initial plans to break through the communications disruptions, assess which ships would be most likely to make it through a blockade. But she'd have to see it for herself to really know what might work, and though she didn't say it out loud, she saw no way they'd get food through to the Ibaarians without losing ships and crews in the process.

Which all means a few hours have passed by the time Hera's making it back down into the Ghost. The ship is mostly quiet. Hera can faintly hear music from Sabine's cabin, Zeb and Ezra's voices from up, maybe in the cockpit. Chopper's playing dejarik against himself. He gives Hera a one-armed wave as she passes, and Hera responds by dragging her knuckles gently along his top plating.

It's just a guess, she can't hear anything within. But she stops at Kanan's cabin, and knocks on the door.

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Hera shrugs, taking another sip of her tea.

"I wonder a little about..."

She's not sure how to broach this, and she takes a few seconds to think over her words. "... where they must be coming from?"

"Well," Kanan says, after a long moment. "I'm pretty sure they're not following the Rule of Two. But -- "

He shivers, closing his eyes and shaking his head.

"Do you think there's a . . . a school?"

"Like the -"

But she stops herself, because what she's thinking is, like the old Jedi Temple. And it really doesn't feel right to say that.

Instead, she sidetracks to, "What's the Rule of Two?"

If Kanan were letting himself think about the Jedi Temple, his mind would be following right along with Hera's, so maybe it's good she didn't say that out loud.

"It's -- I guess it's a rule for the worst of the dark Force users, the Sith, that there's always two of them, but only two. They've always been enemies of the Jedi, or so the stories said, and that was always how it worked."

Of course everyone in the creche -- and out of it, too -- thought they were only stories.

"Which I guess is good news for us, in that the Inquisitors aren't Sith, but . . . is also bad news, because it means there can be a lot more than two of them."

Edited 2019-01-24 01:18 (UTC)

Hera... doesn't really understand this. Why an enemy of the Jedi would only want to number no more than two, when there had been thousands of Jedi.

"But you said - that other one -"

The one in the mask, whom she felt certain was the one her father had told her stories about.

Edited 2019-01-24 02:20 (UTC)

"The one in the mask. With the cape."

Kanan doesn't want to say his name, or even the term 'Sith Lord' just now.

"I don't know if that one was the master or the apprentice. I . . . I hope he was the one in charge. But -- "

Hera lifts her hand, rubbing over her eyes for a moment before she lowers it again.

"And they - all of them, they're working with the Empire. So the Empire has to be..."

She's not sure how else to say it. "We know they were looking for others like Ezra."

Kanan presses his lips into a flat line, his stomach bottoming out as that thought takes hold.

"They're recruiting. Forcibly."

Or maybe not always forcibly.

Edited 2019-01-24 02:27 (UTC)

"Do you think it's just to find remaining Jedi?"

Because she can't help wondering how many the Empire thinks may be left, if there are more Inquisitors.

Kanan swallows. Hard. This is something else he doesn't like to think about, but in order to really map out what they're facing, he's going to have to.

He takes another deep breath, working to keep his pulse steady, and speaks.

"I think they'd like that, yeah. Maybe it's why they're recruiting. But even the Jedi couldn't find every young Force sensitive that was ever born, and I'm sure these Inquisitors -- and whoever in the Empire is commanding them -- know that, too. There's others out there, ones without training. The Inquisitors might think they'd be easier to turn."

Edited 2019-01-24 02:35 (UTC)

Maybe it's where Ezra would have ended up, if they hadn't found him first.

Hera decides not to think on that too long.

"The Empire still says the Jedi were traitors," she says, her eyes falling to her tea. "Now it looks like they're making - something of their own."

Kanan's not thinking about it, either.

He takes a long sip of tea, possibly to buy himself time to think about what he wants to say.

"Something they can control."

He tries not to sound bitter, but he can't quite manage.

Hera tilts her head, her eyes still down.

"The Force is just something else for them to exploit."

"Of course it is," Kanan agrees, still bitter as the dregs of the caf they're not drinking.

"Just like people, or planets, or anything else they can see."

Hera presses her fingers to the sides of her cup, before lifting it again.

After, "It doesn't seem like they want that many people to know, for now."

Kanan looks down into the red liquid, looking at his reflection for a second.

"Maybe they think it would make them too sinister," he says at last, "given what they told people was true about the Jedi."

Which . . . doesn't really seem that likely, but --

"Or maybe they're waiting until they have more of them."

Which is... not very comforting, but at least might give them an idea of how many there might be out there.

"If that's the case . . . what are they planning to do with bigger numbers? Go public?"

He frowns, considering that.

"That would be . . . now I'm almost hoping they're just here to hunt former Jedi."

It makes the scope of the problem more manageable, in some ways. Still terrible for him and for Ezra and for the crew, but the rest of the galaxy might not be so bad off. But if it's a way for the Empire to increase its grasp on the populace . . .

That's another thing altogether.

"I don't know."

She looks up to him. "I just think the Empire's always building to something... bigger."

Kanan presses his mouth into a thin line again, turning his cup of cooling tea between his hands.

"Dark Jedi -- or these Inquisitors, or both -- would be very good at armed crackdowns on dissent. Or as scouts for expansion."

Unfortunately.

"You think it's likely to be expansion?"

"I think it could be anything that helps the Empire."

Abductors, executioners. One red blade that cut through dozens of bodies in seconds.

She makes herself take another sip of her tea, willing herself to feel its calming effects. And perhaps it works, because she adds, "I don't know. Maybe with something like that - the Emperor could think it'd get too powerful. That's basically what they said about the Jedi, isn't it?"

"That's one of the things, yeah," Kanan says, scrubbing his hand over his face. "It might even be the one they said the most often -- that I heard, anyway."

He exhales, sending ripples over the surface of his tea.

"But why would he be recruiting more if he was worried about that?"

"They might not all be trained. Or be trained the same way."

Or be kept alive, she thinks, but doesn't feel the need to say.

"Maybe they get killed when they make mistakes," he says, caught halfway between dryness and the real horror he feels at that idea.

"The Empire seems to like killing the messenger whenever it can."

And, you know, anyone else who's nearby.

"Either way, they're not going to want anyone who's Force-sensitive to not be under their control."

One way or another.