Sabine Wren

[OOC: Not official canon.]

As Sabine stood on the warehouse roof, three hours past curfew, and stared across the street, she was reminded of the words of Danis Fett: "There are risks and costs to action; often planned but just as often unexpected or over-looked." * 

The blasted and still smoking ruins of the storeroom the cadets had been using to practice their martial arts—pieced together from fragmented datafiles (all they could find of their planet's legacy)—were still crawling with 'troopers and officers. She couldn't see any cadets but that meant little. Frozen, she just stared as part of her processed the chemical signatures of the explosives and the scorch marks from the E-11 blaster rifles.

She knew the how.

She was the how. Her report had caused this, but why?

A sudden jerk on her arm derailed her thoughts and pulled her to the roof, prone and out of sight. "Are you trying to get yourself shot?" Hissed a voice. Sabine blinked and took a moment to recognize her friend, Ketsu Onyo. Relief flooded Sabine and she dared hope. If Ketsu hadn't been caught, maybe others had escaped as well!

"Who else is free?" She asked, hopeful and desperate.

Ketsu studied Sabine before answering. "I don't know. I only saw three of us get captured, but this is not the only way they struck. I think I heard more arrests on the south side of the block."

Sabine sat up and pulled her knees into her chest at this news, shaking her head. "No. No. No."

Ketsu looked from Sabine to the skies and back. "What?" She asked, picking up that something was very wrong.

Sabine swallowed the lie that waited on her tongue. Lying amongst the Mandalorian cadets, her family, was wrong and she owed Ketsu the truth. "This is my fault. I filled a report. I...."

Ketsu exhaled and shook her head in dismay. "Later," she commanded, interrupting. They had to get off the roof and back to the barracks before it was too late, if it wasn't already.

---

They made it back to their dorm and seemingly without being spotted or caught. Ketsu shushed Sabine yet again when she started to talk and indicated they needed to look for listening devices or cams. Finding three, Ketsu jerked her head towards the showers and pulled Sabine with her. 

"Explain yourself," Ketsu demanded once she had the water running to create a layer of white noise. "Why would you do this?" 

Sabine took a deep breath to settle herself before answering. "I thought the Empire would see the value of what we were doing, that learning the old ways would make us more effective as cadets. I had to report, the ISB is already watching me, but I was hoping to do some good."

"Little sister, that was foolish. How many names do they have?"

"I don't know." Sabine admitted, looking away from Ketsu's accusation. "I swear. I gave none. I didn't even tell them where we met or how many came. They must have been watching me ever since I filed the report."

"Okay," Ketsu said, rolling on her heels. "Okay, here's what we have to do. We keep quiet. Act like nothing has happened. At least until we can figure out how to get out of here. I'm done with the Empire, how about you?"

Sabine paused, honor warring with loyalty to the dreams the Empire promised. But she was Mandalorian, honor would always win in such contests. "I'm with you, but they'll be watching us closely. How can we plan anything, let alone act on it with the ISB watching us?"

Ketsu laughed. "We're Mandalorians and you are a prodigy. We'll do it because we have to."

[OOC: *This is actually a JFK quote, tweaked slightly.]

[OCC: This is not canon, but head canon based on hints given in Star Wars Rebels and Sabine's Rebel Sketchbook.]

The smell of chemicals has always been a comforting scent to Sabine. Today they were scents of solvents and paints but they could just as easily be that of explosives as far as she was concerned. She couldn't help humming lightly as she cleaned the paint sprayers and other components, even if she was being kept after class as a punishment.

She stopped humming immediately when she heard the room's door woosh open and turned, ready to offer a salute; which was good as it was her Imperial guardian and not a student. She executed her salute perfectly and held it, as regulations demanded.

"At ease, cadet," he said as he removed his hat and took a seat.

Not a good sign. Sabine thought as she relaxed to a loose attention.

He waited just long enough to build tension before continuing. "Your visual language instructor had a complaint against your behavior. Would you care to explain yourself?"

Was that all this was? Sabine wondered before placing the empty sprayer on the table beside her. "I was working on the propaganda assignment as ordered. I complied with all instructions, with one exception. I felt the addition of a magenta hue would offset the Imperial red well. My instructor informed me I did not have that liberty. I tried to argue my case but he would not listen. He wouldn't even look at the completed poster."

"And so he explained to me," her guardian replied as he straightened the crease in his pants. "Did you think your skills greater than the propaganda team hand picked by the Emperor himself? You, a mere cadet?"

"No, Sir," Sabine relied humbly, though it galled her. Anyone with the minutest sense of color would see she was right.

"Then you will comply with the color palette, and other requirements, as they are given to you?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Good," he said with a nod. The matter clearly done with. "I have other news. I took the liberty of presenting your file to the Imperial Security Bureau. They seem most interested in your potential. Tread carefully these next few weeks or months, Sabine. They will be watching you. You have a lot to offer the Empire, and I firmly believe you would be best utilized in the ISB. Do not disappoint me."

"Yes, Sir," she replied, a little shocked at this turn of events.

He smiled tightly at her then, as he stood to leave. Pausing at the door, he turned to look over his shoulder and meet her eye, "And keep an ear out for any rumors your fellow cadets might be sharing. The ISB finds much of use in them."

"Yes, Sir," Sabine replied with another crisp salute, though she wasn't sure about spying on the other cadets. Did he even mean her friends? What intel could possibly come from rumors?