Chapter 14

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Zare didn't know what to think.

I mean, sure he was scared, not only was he a kid in prison, but an imperial trader as well. But what the Empire didn't know won't hurt him…

Zare had been here less the twenty minutes, his second time being here in two weeks, when he and his superiors had already jumped into their defence positions.

There had been a riot.

Luckily the guards had taken care of it; one of the troopers grumbling about the paperwork this routine check in was going to take. Zare didn't hear much of it though- he was too focused on the kid with blue hair. He had been the one to start it. He also kind of happened to be the kid that he had helped last time he was here… Oops.

It was kind of fun, though, helping a prisoner break into a cell.

Zare hadn't asked why he was out of his cell, what he was doing. It didn't matter. The kid was just like him- trying to fit in, in a foreign place.

"Keep it moving, Kid," A trooper ad barked at him. "There's a lot more action to be seen in this job then outer-rim trash throwing punches."

"Yes, sir." The Cadet nodded before following along. One thing Zare could not stand about these guys is how they always talk about every species, every planet, as if they only existed for the Empire's amusement.

Nonetheless, he held his tongue- as usual, and hoped the kid was alright.

But still, still, Zare forced his thoughts to stay thoughts, as words would be what got him killed. "Where are we checking next, sir?" Zare instead asked.

The trooper activated the holograph built into the armour on his forearm. "Infirmary." The trooper responded.

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Ezra played dead all the way until he was put in a bed. The blood gushing from his nose made it look all the more believable- lucky shot, I guess you could call it. "What the hell happened to him?" A guard asked.

"Kid went crazy." The guard guessed.

"Again." The other snorted, jabbing his thumb over his shoulder to gesture the wounded men still asleep in the hospital beds, gun shots and blaster burns all healing alike.

And with that, and his vitals normal, the busy and underpaid guards left him in a bed, presuming he would stay in his comatose state.

Good thing he was never in one.

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Zare relaxed when they'd finally left anywhere where a prisoner might be. They were not the most liked people in this place- or anywhere for that matter. At least here they were unconscious…

"Clear." A guard chirped, making Zare jump in the slightest. He had learned to control his nerves over the past few months. He wasn't exactly a trader- not yet anyways. But next week that would all change. Acing every simulator in the academy was enough to get you noticed. Soon, he would be promoted- and so would his privileges. He would be granted so much more freedom in the Empire's databases, which would only mean being one step closer to finding his sister.

But for now he was just a cadet, way out of his elements.

"Stay close, Cadet." The other trooper ordered. "We're going to check the boiler." He said, gesturing to the large metal door on the other side of the room. Way out of place, as most of the doors here that weren't made out of bars were built out of cheap and chipping wood.

"Copy." Zare hears himself say. "Sir?" He soon asked after, though, because you didn't get to see half the galaxy in your teens and not develop a curiosity.

"What?" The trooper barked back.

"Why put a boiler room in an infirmary?"

The trooper all but growled, as his partner didn't even turn around and was already half way across the room. "Don't waste my time with stupid questions, boy." The trooper growled, because why wouldn't they put the most dangerous room in a prison in the same place where all of the prisoners in it were incapacitated?! It's just called logic.

"Why are we checking this thing in the first place?" The further trooper asked, already opening the door and waiting for the other.

"Because, you imbecile," The frustrated trooper shot, "do you even know what a boiler is? Builds up too much pressure and it goes boom. Do you really trust some outer-rim trash pile to maintain that properly?"

That was all Zare heard as the pair disappeared behind the heavy door. "Whatever," The boy mumbled. He didn't need to take this disrespect. Well, I mean… he did, but he didn't have to like it. Zare spun around on his heal, equal parts bored, and on edge, as he examined all of the beds, along with their wounded, comatose criminals. But one bed, which had been laid in, sat empty… Zare's grip instinctively tightened around his blaster.

"Don't shoot!" Ezra called when Zare had finished his spin, glancing around the room and screaming out in surprise when he found himself an inch away from two familiar blue eyes.

"Jeez, kid!" Zare yelped and he jumped back. He starred at him in surprise for another second before the adrenalin pumped out from his blood. "What the hell?!" He called, walking back up to Ezra.

"Sorry!" The kid yelled back.

He stopped. "I remember you…" He said, recalling their last encounter. It had been one of the best days in his seven months with the Empire. Finally, a silent way to rebel without risking his ranks. After months of taking orders from guys you don't like, it felt great to use his uniform for good. Still, it seems like from the battered boy standing before him, his choice was going to come back to bite him.

"What happened to you…?" Zare asked before memory caught up with him. "You were in that riot, weren't you?"

The kid smiled. "Started it."

Zare's jaw dropped. "Are you crazy? You could have been killed! I could have been killed. Why would you do that?!"

"So they'd put me here." Ezra stated as if the two had been old pals.

"Or an asylum!" Zare called back. "Wait…" He said. "You knew I was going to be here…"

The boy nodded. "I may have memorized your troop's rotation…" Ezra sheepishly and shamelessly said. Zare wasn't special, though. Ezra had memorized all of the Empire's troops rotations, just in case, and he was sure he wasn't the only prisoner to do so. "I also know that you don't like the Empire anymore then me. We're both on the same boat here; we're just wearing different uniforms."

Zare laughed. "Oh no, dude. Your ships sinking from the look of it."

"Then throw me a line! You helped me once; I know you're not like them. Please, I need your help." Ezra said. It was his first time since prison- his first time in a long time, admitting he needed it. But there was something about this guy… he could trust him. And that thought alone was scarier then all of the Bronka's out there.

"I don't even know your name!" Zare said, because this stranger sure was asking for a lot!

"Dev Mo-" a short and frustrated bath was taken "…My name is Ezra." He said, followed by a true and genuine smile.

Zare looked at him curiously. He looked so relieved when he said his name, like he hadn't said it in a while. Zare feared when that would become him. Once he graduated from Cadet to Trooper, he would be given a number.

Zare Leonis would be a memory. OZR1200 would become reality.

Maybe they were in the same boat, just on different floors…

"So what exactly is it you need, Ezra?" Zare asked.

He smiled. "You see that room over there?" Ezra said, gesturing to the heavy metal door Zare's superiors were behind. He feared for when they came through it. "Only you have accesses to it." The boy smirked.

Zare froze. "Oh no. No, no, no, no, no. You know what's behind that door?"

"Boiler room." Ezra answered. "And do you know what happens when you mess with a boiler?"

"It goes… boom…" Zare's eyes grew. "You want to blow up the prison?!" He shouted, now pointing his blaster, once hanging calmly at his side, directly at the boy. Because what was he thinking, talking to a prisoner? No- what was he thinking plotting with one?!

"Wha…? No!" Ezra shouted, shooting his hands up in defence on pure reflex. "Would you calm down and quit pointing that thing at me? I'm not a psychopath."

"Debatable." Zare slide.

"Funny." The boy responded just as dryly. "Now wanna guess what's directly under our feet?" He asked, never lowering his hands. "Come on, I know they made you study the whole infrastructure of this place before they even let you step foot in it."

Zare thought back to the blue-prints and holograms they had made him engraved into himself. It was grueling weeks of no sleep and memorization, but he had done it. Funny, he had earned his spot in this prison, just as everyone else had, but in a different sense. "How did you know they made us study that?" He asked.

"In this place, you need to be observant." Ezra said. "No way that shot was luck." It took Zare a second before he realized that he was referring to when he had shot the lock, opening the cell. He had memorized all of the major locking mechanisms of the prison for weeks before he was cleared for the outer rim. He had been the envy of his class when they had learned that he and a few others would be shadowing the troopers on their routine missions.

This kid was smart. Luck had nothing to do with that shot.

He made eye contact for a long while before finally asking, "What else do you know?"

Ezra returned the stare. "That you probably know a lot more about mechanics then me. They make you learn that at the academy, too?"

A small smirked quickly crossed the boys dark lips. "Engineering."

"Well, did you know what if that boiler does go off, that that giant door will contain the blast? The only thing that will happen, if the blast is small enough, is pop open the cell right under it. Which would be-"

"Solitary confinement." Zare finished in awe. His eyes grew, and his voice dropped along with his stomach. What was this guys thinking? His grip on the blaster aiming at the boy tightened, though the rest of his body hung loose. "You want me to pop open the doors on solitary confident? You really are crazy! No wait, scratch that, you must think I'm crazy!"

"Just enough."

Zare scoffed. "Well, when you were making up this insane plan, I bet you didn't stop to think that even to create the smallest blast, the pressure would have to build up for days."

Ezra smiled. "About five days is my calculation. Just enough time to reach my deadline, and to have you far away when it happens."

Zare starred, completely and utterly dumbfounded. This guy... this kid... this prisoner- he had this all figured out. He was just forgetting one thing. "Why on Alderon would I help you open up solitary?! You are a prisoner! As in, bad people! I'm supposed to get promoted next week, why on all the seven moons would I risk that for you?" The gun finally fell because this kid wasn't a threat, he was just delusional.

For once the blue haired kid didn't have an answer. He just stood there… thinking. "Because I'm not a bad person… but you already know that. Or else that blaster in your head would have already gone off, and I can assure you if you were a real cadet, it wouldn't have been set to stun." Zare followed Ezra's eyes to the switch on the blaster.

"Good catch..." He said, cautiously.

"Look, you see the Empire at work every day- how many times have you actually agreed with the arrests they make?" Ezra asked. His blue eyes pierced Zare's brown ones. "The arrests you help make."

Zare hated to admit it- but four. He had counted. Treason, common theirs and commoner people who just happened to have different beliefs. Those are whom suffer most in the Empire ruled, outer rim judicial system. No guilty man was here.

"You hurt anybody?" Zare asked, hands staying tight around the weapon at his side, slipping a bit with sweat.

"No one more then myself." Ezra answered truthfully.

Finally, finally, the Cadet dropped his weapon. His smile was twice as mischievous as the new friend before him. "Then less mess with the Empire." He said in childish excitement, because if he didn't defy at all agents the dictatorship he was a part of, then it wouldn't matter what his beliefs were. He would be them.

Just then a low, moaning screech bellowed from the large metal door. Ezra's smile didn't waver as Zare's fell in fear. "Don't worry," Ezra whispered. "I owe one, you remember?"

As the door quickly opened, Ezra fell to the ground and tossed the blaster back up to Zare. "Don't shoot!" He cried the second Zare's shaking and confused hands grasped the weapon. He was pointing the blaster at Ezra before he knew it, and at that the two troopers raised theirs on instinct as they race to their young counterpart.

"What happened?!" A trooper demanded, but Zare had no answer.

"I tried to swipe his weapon!" Ezra yelled out in fake terror. "He got the drop on me! That guy is crazy!" Ezra's swollen and possibly broken nose only helped his case. The blue haired boy then looked to the other two troopers with a sly grin. "And here I though troopers sucked at hand to hand combat."

"Guard!" One trooper called as the other had just acted as if the kid had said nothing, though Ezra heard a faint growl at the back of his throat.

Guards came storming in the second the troopers voice had been heard. Zare was still giving Ezra a look of utter surprise, gratitude mixed in. "This kid just tried to attack one of our Cadets." The trooper informed, as two guards scooped Ezra off the floor, pinning his arms.

The same trooper looked down at Zare. "Good job, Leonis." He praised, as the other patted him on the shoulder.

"Looks like you're really gonna earn that promotion!" The other said. Zare smiled a bit, looking to Ezra who returned it a bit, giving a slight shrug.

"Well, looking like you're feeling better, Morgan." A third guard cocked. He then turned his attention to the other two guards who had followed him in. "Put him with the rest of his gang in solitary."

"No!" Ezra protested, and Zare almost wanted to applaud the kid for his acting, begging and pleading, lighting them every step out of the door.

The troopers laughed a bit, as if it was funny. I mean, it was, but they didn't know that. They didn't know that that kid way playing them like a flute. "Next time, kid." The trooper said, pulling the blaster from his hands and flicking the switch. "Make sure it ain't set to stun." He said, passing it back.

As usual, he bit his tongue. "Yes sir. Thank you, sir." He bit out, as the two made their way out the door to meet up with the rest of the squadron. The second they were out the door, Zare switched it back.

"Don't call me kid." He muttered, pulling out the key card he had swiped off of the Trooper when he had patted his shoulder.

Wordlessly, he wove through the sleeping inmates, most looking to have some pretty bad blaster wounds… Ignoring it, he made his way to the metal door- the only one in this antique that actually required one, and swiped it.

Oh, this was gonna be fun.

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A/N – When the chapter's been finished for over a week but you literally didn't have twenty minutes to edit. -_- Lol
Anyways, hope you loved it my loves! Anyone else exited to see the crew in solitary with our favourite kid?! Are they gonna be mad or impressed? Yes? Next chap up in the next week or so! (I hope!)

PS- HOW AWESOME DOES THAT NEW SOLO MOIE LOOK?

If I could write a chapter, can you write a review? 3

-Azilia