Woohoo, I'm back! Sorry for the long disappearance! Hopefully this, and ESPECIALLY part 3 will make it up to you! 🧡

"It was a weapon worn on the wrist," Sabine said in an emotional voice.

Ezra stood up. "Sabine, whatever you know about this, you have to tell Kanan and the others. Come on!" He went to leave, but saw she was still sitting quietly in bed. He stopped where he was and waited.

Sabine saw him and knew he was waiting for her to say something. She took a deep breath and spoke, hiding the truth behind a web of half truths.

"Ezra, it's just a theory. It could really be anything. I'm just picking one option out of my helmet, it could be totally wrong!" Ezra walked back over and stood in front of her.

"Sabine, even if it's just a guess, it's so much better than nothing. You know more about the Empire's weapons than any of us. For the safety of us all, you've got to tell us, Sabine." He used her name to inflict deeper meaning, then he held his hand out to her.

Sabine looked from his hand, to his face, to her hand. She rubbed her right thumb. Then she looked up and her hand was in his. He smiled, and she smiled back. But it was not a true smile.

***

Sabine sat on the couch in the common room while Ezra gathered the rest of the crew. They all came in and circled around the Mandalorian. Hera sat next to Sabine and put her arm around her.

"What is it, Sabine?" She asks kindly. Sabine looks at Ezra doubtfully, but he gives her an enthusiastic nod, and she sighs. She looks to the ceiling and avoids all eye contact as she shares her theory.

"Right before I decided to leave the Empire, we were working on a wrist weapon, designed for Mandalorians. There was a team of us, me and two other Mandos I knew, Batcko and Keedo. We were given a drawing and description of some Imperials idea of a weapon, designed to counter rebels, and were told to make it come to life. They locked us in what they called IC rooms, or Inspirational Creation room."

Zeb snorted, and Sabine glanced at him, nodding. "Our thoughts as well. We were not allowed to come out until we had a weapon to test. We were given all the necessities to survive, and, of course, endless tools and supplies to create this weapon." Sabine stood and aggressively started pacing the room as memories came back to her. The others let her have space.

"The three of us worked well together. We often laughed, and joked. We didn't take it very seriously. We might've been locked in, but that meant the rest of the world was locked out. And all of us were good with that." Kanan sensed the sadness in her voice.

She looked at him, then quickly looked away. She spoke quickly, emotionless, trying to get it all out as quick as she could.

"Within a month, we had a plan. 4 months later, we had a functioning prototype. We let the Imperials know, and were brought to the testing grounds. The first prototype failed. As did the second, and third. But the fourth, it succeeded, for the most part." Sabine cleared her throat.

"We called it Shock 4. It was, essentially, an electrified webbed net, wrapped up tight, and packed in a mini launcher, which we turned into a wrist band. It was designed for close quarters combat. When launched, the web spreads out in a six foot by six foot square electrified web. It can be set to stun, kill, or torture." She inhaled deeply before continuing.

"The benefits of this weapon were that one, you don't need to be accurate, as the web was much bigger than a blaster bolt. And two, it was worn on the wrist, which is much harder to remove than simply letting go of a gun." Kanan sensed her deep emotions about this weapon and wondered at it.

Hera jumped in. "Well, that doesn't seem too bad. We've certainly dealt with worse. Let's hope that's what it is." She stood to leave when Sabine continued talking.

"Hera, that was just the prototype. The Empire had much greater plans for it. Don't you see the potential for this? There are so many ways you can modify this. For example, the modification we were trying was to shrink the web projectile, so we could fit multiple in the wrist band, then having them expand when they come out. You don't even need to have any blaster training for these things, Hera. Anyone can effectively use one!" Hera slowly sat back down.

Sabine looked into the faces of each of her crew members, her family. "We were tasked with writing down all the possible uses and modifications this weapon could do. Being faithful students, we wrote many. But, the biggest one we could come up, we called the draft of it Death Wind. It's the same Shock 4, but on a mega scale, up to a thousand times bigger." She met Heras wide eyes.

"It could be dropped on any army and wipe out the entire group, in a minute, while not leaving a mark on the ground or a speck of dust in the air."

The crew sat stunned as they listened to this. They could all imagine the terrible implications the Death Wind could inflict if the Empire had actually made one.

Sabine added, "The only flaw in this theory that this is the weapon we were just informed of is that when I realized the Empire wasn't what they claimed to be, I destroyed all evidence and everything on the Shock 4 before I escaped. They were left with nothing and would've needed to start it all over again. But this time, without Mandalorians."

The others nodded, thinking, but Kanan had heard something he wanted to clarify. He spoke, "Sabine, you said the fourth prototype worked, but only mostly. Was there a fifth prototype?" Here was where Kanan felt great emotions welling up in the girl. He then felt her sit and withdraw so deeply inside herself, Kanan could no longer get an emotional read on her. She was getting good at that, he thought to himself. Perhaps too good.

Sitting down, Sabine's heart raced. She knew she needed to answer Kanans question enough, here and now, so that he'd never ask it again. She focused on telling the story, minus a few details.

She leaned back and pretended to relax. "Our fourth prototype could only torture and stun. We hadn't been able to make it kill, and the Empire insisted we do. We were locked back up, and began working. This one took us nearly a year to complete however, because soon after, there were rumors of a mole in the academy, a traitor. We had many interruptions, and many interrogations. But finally, the fifth prototype was ready. We took it to the testing grounds." Sabine looked up the ceiling, then closed her eyes. "There on the testing grounds, they accused my Mando friend Keeda as a traitor. She never had a chance to defend herself. We entered the testing grounds as three," Sabine could only whisper the last part.

"and I left by myself."

The crew was silent. Sabine sniffed, desperately holding back her tears. She willed someone to say something, anything, to get the attention off herself. She gazed at Ezra, and he took the hint. He nodded.

"Ok, so we have the location, and a good theory as to what the weapon is. Do we have a plan?" The others looked at each other, then they huddled up and began thinking of a way to destroy the weapons. Sabine stood up and quietly left for her room. Kanan felt her leave, and he knew, somehow, that she took much with her. He glanced in her direction, but Hera called for his attention. Sighing, he decided to leave it. For now. He went back to planning.

***

"5 minutes till landing," Hera called. The others did one final check of their gear, assuring themselves that they hadn't misplaced anything since the last time they checked, a whole minute ago. All was good.

The Ghost lurched smoothly out of hiper-space, arriving at the small planet Tysyion. Hera neatly navigated the Ghost into the atmosphere and found the docks that their intel indicated was the location of the weapons.

"Bringing her in!" She yelled, preparing her team. Steam came out of multiple release ports as Hera expertly placed the Ghost down in Bay 19. She opened the cargo door and turned on her comm link. "I'll be right here in case we need a quick getaway. Stay safe."

She watched them run through the hanger door and into the main complex. Ezra paused for a moment to turn and wave to her. Hera smiled and wiggled her fingers at him. She was glad this mission seemed to be helping him focus on the team more, and not just himself. Swiveling in her chair she spoke to Chopper.

"And now, we wait."

Are you ready to wait? Because I'm not! Part 3 is nearly done, and will be posted soon! What do you think Sabine is hiding? Could it jeopardize the mission? Her new family? Wait till next time to find out!