(no subject)

Not an option, Kanan.

It had always been an option.

Maybe what should shock her is that it took this long. Leave Kanan to the Empire, or hesitate long enough to be shot out of the sky, be captured or killed next to him. The mission came first. Hijacking the comm tower would mean nothing if there was no one left to send a message. It had to mean something. She'd heard that in his voice, when he shouted her name. So she'd closed the Phantom's doors, and flown them away. Kept her eyes ahead as she felt her crew watch her uneasily, having seen her leave one of them behind.

On the Ghost, Ezra sends out their message. An echo of the broadcasts of his parents from years ago. Their signal cuts out moments after the message ends.

A few hours later, Hera takes the Phantom out again, in a low, wide circle around the tower – or as it turns out, what's left of it. She knows Kanan and his captors will be long gone, though she still flies cautiously, slipping from cloud cover to mountain shadows. But all that's left is rubble, still smoldering in a bright haze that rises from the Lothal plains. Apparently reversing Sabine and Chopper's work had been too much for the Imps, or maybe they were just too impatient for it. Hera supposes it shouldn't surprise her. The Empire never saw a problem it couldn't blast away.

When she returns to the Ghost, they're already planning. But before anything else, they need to know where he is. The Imperial Complex in the capital is the likely, but not the only possibility. Especially not for –

If they know Kanan's –

And by now, they must know.

Get into the Imperial data network, find out where Kanan is. This isn't over, Ezra had said.

This isn't over. But whatever she might tell herself, with her even tone and her steady flying, the seconds are ticking away in Hera's mind, measuring out transport, arrival, preparation, interrogation –

Timing out the likelihood they'll ever see him again.