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Ezra had his hands tucked in his armpits as he followed the others into the small community. He looked around at the haphazardly built homes and all the sad people wandering around despondently. It made him nervous. “Lived on Lothal my whole life… never been here.”
“Imperials don’t advertise it,” the armored girl said, still pushing her crate forward toward the center of town.
“Locals call it Tarkintown,” the Lasat - Zeb - added, pushing the other two crates.
“Named for Grand Moff Tarkin, Governor of the Outer Rim” the girl elaborated with sarcastic reverence. Her voice got darker as she went on. “He kicked these folks off their farms when the Empire wanted their land.”
“Anybody tried to fight back got arrested… for treason,” Zeb growled.
Ezra tightened his arms around himself, swallowing as he remembered the broadcasts his parents would send out. They called for the people to fight back against the Empire for their freedom. But then one day Ezra came home… and they were gone. He had looked everywhere, but as he moved the fallen furniture to the side and ran around the house, all that was left of them were echoes. All he saw were flashes of their struggle, of the stormtroopers dragging his parents away as they kicked and screamed.
That’s why Ezra knew it was always better to just keep his head down.
“Who wants free grub?!”
He was brought back to the present as Zeb and the girl pulled the lids off the crates to reveal an assortment of fruit. Ezra blinked at the food in confusion. This was what they had come here for? They went out of their way… just to give these people free food?
People started walking up, the relief and gratitude palpable as they gave soft thanks. Then there was a hand on Ezra’s shoulder, and he yanked himself away with a gasp. “Don’t touch me!” he snarled.
The Rodian pulled his back hand, his eyes wide with surprise. “Oh I’m so sorry… I-I just wanted to thank you. Really, thank you so much.”
Ezra deflated, watching the Rodian walk away with the fruit cradled in his arms. “I…” He looked around at locals, whose spirits were noticeably raised. Zeb and the girl were also smiling as they helped hand out the food. “I didn’t do anything…” he murmured, thinking about the bruised jogans in his backpack.
No one had heard him. They were all preoccupied with the food. Food Ezra would have just taken, abandoning the excess without a second thought.
He backed away from the crowd and slipped away, keeping his hands tucked in his armpits. He didn’t want to risk touching anything in this place.
When Ezra got back to the ship, he turned around and sat on the ramp. He stared down at Tarkintown with a slight glower. Was this really what this crew did? Steal Imperial supplies and then just… give it to people who couldn't possibly pay them back? His stomach clenched painfully. Where were people like this when he needed them?
Then there was a hum.
Ezra frowned, sitting up a little straighter. At first he was certain he imagined it. But then it was there again… a soft buzz in his head. Similar to the one he had felt earlier today in Capital City. Usually when he had this sort of feeling, it was because he picked up the wrong object or a trooper’s foot was about to swing towards him.
This was different. It wasn’t a warning, and it wasn’t the jolt of energy that usually accompanied images and sounds from the past. It was… a pull. And it was coming from inside the ship.
He stood and began to follow the direction of the pull. As he walked up the ramp, he felt that it was coming from above him. So he climbed the ladder up to the cockpit and looked around. The hum had ebbed a bit but it was still pulling at him. It took a moment for him to realize it was coming from beyond the doors. He walked out into a short hallway that had two doors on either side. With a slight frown, he took another step forward.
The hum suddenly swelled, and Ezra immediately turned to his right. It was coming from beyond this door. But it had a lock on it.
Pressing his lips together, he shrugged his backpack off as he knelt in front of the control panel. This shouldn’t be too difficult. He pulled out his manipulator and started to work the lock. He bit his lip as he twisted it back and forth, feeling for the telltale signs that he was triggering the magnetic keys. He almost had it, just a few more seconds…
With a click, the door popped open. Ezra smiled and stood as he put his backpack back on, quickly stepping inside and letting the door close behind him.
It was a bedroom. Looking around, it didn’t seem to be in use. There were no signs of personal effects or furnishings... It was just an empty room.
With a slight frown, Ezra walked over to the bed and sat down, keeping his hands in his lap. Maybe it really had just been his imagination.
Then the hum was there again. Pulling him… downward?
“Um… okay…” Ezra stood and looked down below the bunk. He knelt, trying to look for the source. But as far as he could tell, there was nothing. “Weird…” Taking a slight chance, he ran his fingers along the ledge of the bunk. Maybe there was a catch….?
His finger caught on something and a small drawer popped open. Ezra pulled it open all the way, looking into it curiously.
There were two objects: a golden cube with what looked to be transparisteel diamonds on each side, and some sort of cylindrical implement. It almost looked like a comm and an emitter stuck together.
Ezra bit his lip. Should he risk it? They could be worth something. Probably nowhere near what that crate of blasters would have gotten him, but it would be something to make this insane detour of his worthwhile. Taking a deep breath, he reached down and brushed his fingers along the edges of the cube.
She pulled an item from her sleeve. “Take this holocron. Use it to study the role of questions - and peaceful dissent - in the Jedi Order.”
He took it with a smile, excitement rising up in him. “Yes, Master. Thank you.”
Ezra blinked as the memory faded. He picked up the cube fully and looked at the designs and patterns. It was pretty, but there wasn't much too it other than that. What did this thing have to do with Jedi? And what were these jokers doing with it? Weren’t Jedi artifacts illegal?
Of course, they had just stolen a bunch of blasters and food from the Empire, so they obviously didn’t care about what or wasn’t illegal. Ezra certainly sympathized with that. This cube was probably just a trinket they had picked up from one of their heists. They probably didn't even know it had once belonged to a Jedi.
He pocketed it and looked down at the other object. The hum he heard earlier seemed to be coming from it. Ezra sighed. The cube hadn’t been so bad. Maybe this other thing wasn’t either. And it was pulling at him so why not?
He reached down for it. Even if it wasn’t valuable, it might have some useful parts…
A cold dark was rising up in him, panic and disbelief clawed at his mind as his saber sliced through his comrades, his friends.
Why?
“Caleb, we cannot win this battle…"
His head snapped to her, bolts flying past his head. Her back was to him, deflecting as many of the bolts as she could. He couldn't believe what he was hearing.
“You must run! Go!” she yelled at him. “I’ll be right behind you!”
Horror gripped his heart. It was a lie. She was lying. But as he looked on at the scores of men, all of them intent on killing them…
He turned.
He ran.
Why? Why? Why?
Ezra cried out, yanking his hand away and stumbling backward. His breathing came in short panicked breaths as he cradled his hand to his chest, feeling as if he had been burned. His body was shaking and his heart was pounding as he stared at the object in horror. He had never seen or felt anything like that before.
The door to the cabin opened, Ezra turned and looked up to see the ship’s leader. The tall brown-haired human had a slight frown as he looked down at Ezra. “Kid, what’re you doing in here?”
Ezra quickly scrambled to his feet. “Just… hanging out…” he murmured, hating how much he was still trembling. The memory had faded but the residual terror was lingering. He saw that the Twi’lek pilot and the droid were standing nearby as well. Just great.
The man looked past him at the still open drawer. Ezra swallowed hard and drew his shoulders back, trying to appear nonchalant. “Look, I know you’re not going to believe me, but it’s like that…” Ezra glanced back. “... thing wanted me to take it.”
The man smiled. “You’re right…” Then it faded. “I don’t believe you. Now, get out.”
Ezra spared the drawer another glance. “What… what is it?”
“Get… out.”
He got the message. Folding his arms across his chest, Ezra quickly walked out. At least they hadn’t seemed to have noticed that the cube was missing.
He scrambled up the ladder of his tower, trying to ignore the small ache of dashed hope that pulsated in his chest. Really, it had been stupid of him. He didn’t belong on that ship. No matter how good it had felt to save Kitwar, to have Kanan’s hand on his shoulder, to have him look down at Ezra with something akin to pride…
The lightsaber - the weapon of the Jedi - was heavy in his pocket as he climbed. He didn’t expect they would just let him get away with it. Kanan would probably come after him soon. And then Ezra would know. They took care of themselves. Ezra wasn’t one of them. Kanan was just going to want his Jedi saber back.
Getting to the top, Ezra walked over to the entrance of what was once a control room. The door opened with a soft whoosh, and he stepped in with a soft sigh. He looked around at what has been his home for years now. His scattered belongings. His makeshift bed. His deteriorating obstacle course. The scratches of aurebesh in the durasteel walls he had carved out over and over again…
Always Alone
Ezra swallowed and pulled the lightsaber out to look at it. There were no echoes now. Generally once he had touched an object, he never saw anything else with subsequent contact. That is, if there was anything to see at all. Most stuff was relatively harmless, but there was just no way to tell... He thought about what he had seen earlier and shivered.
The now familiar hum buzzed in the back of his head. He still didn’t know what it was, but he was starting to associate it with Kanan. “What’s the Force?” he asked quietly.
“The Force is everywhere,” Kanan replied, seemingly unperturbed by the fact that Ezra had known he was there without turning around. “It surrounds us, and guides us, and binds the galaxy together. And it’s strong in you, Ezra. Otherwise you wouldn’t have been able to open the holocron.”
The holocron. The cube. That’s what the woman had called it. The same woman he saw when he first touched this lightsaber. The one she had told this saber’s owner - Caleb - to run.
Ezra turned and looked up at the tall rebel leader hesitantly. “Are… are you Caleb…?” he asked carefully.
Kanan’s eyes widened, his body visibly stiffening. Ezra tried hard not to flinch at the reaction. Referencing information he had seen through his weird power was always risky. Ezra had been beaten more than once for accidentally letting slip that knew things he shouldn’t.
But Kanan didn’t seem angry. Just confused. “How…?”
Ezra swallowed and looked down at the lightsaber. He should have kept his mouth shut. How could he possibly explain this? “It’s… a-a thing that happens when I touch things. Sometimes... I see things..."
“Psychometry.”
Ezra looked up to see Kanan gazing at him thoughtfully. The word was spoken softly, more of an afterthought than a statement directed at him. Ezra frowned. “Psycho… what?”
Kanan blinked and shook his head slightly, his eyes refocusing so they were actually seeing at Ezra again. “Psychometry. You have the ability to glean an object’s history just by touching it.”
“You… You know what this is?” Ezra straightened, facing him more fully. “It has a name?!”
Kanan gave a small smile. “It’s an incredibly rare ability. I only knew of two other Jedi who had it.”
Ezra was trembling as wary excitement blossomed in his chest. His parents had never believed him. On the streets, all it did was make his nightmare of a life almost impossible to survive. Most of the time, Ezra just assumed he was crazy. Or a freak. Maybe both. This was the first time he had ever heard anything close to validation. It was… overwhelming.
“What did you see?” Kanan nodded to the object in Ezra’s hand. “When you first touched my lightsaber?”
Ezra swallowed, remembering the intense fear and horror that had risen up in him when his fingers had brushed up against the saber’s durasteel. An unnatural cold had slithered up his spine as he saw helmeted people shooting blasters at him. “There… There was this woman with a green blade. Sh-She said to run…”
Kanan looked down and away, his face unreadable. But Ezra could tell that the description deeply affected him. Because Ezra had been right. He was Caleb. Or at least, had been. That memory was his.
Then Kanan’s expression hardened as he looked back up at Ezra. “You could come with us,” he said softly. “Come with me. And I could teach you about your powers and about the Force… I could teach you what it truly means to be a Jedi.”
Ezra bit his lip. Growing up, he had always been told that the Empire had wiped the Jedi out. They were traitors who had tried to assassinate the Emperor. But he had also heard whispers, stories and legends about how they were warriors of the Republic and defenders of the peace. Ezra had never really given any of it much thought. If they were gone, what did it matter?
But here was one now, standing right in front of him, asking Ezra to go with him. Offering to give him answers to the questions that have plagued Ezra his entire life.
Ezra looked down at one of his gloved hands. The material never made any difference when it came to his powers, but they still gave him a modicum of comfort. He looked back up at Kanan. “You can help me control this?” he asked quietly.
Kanan gave a small smile and nodded. “I believe I can.”
Nodding slowly to himself, Ezra curled his hand into a fist and cradled it to his chest. Then he stepped up to Kanan and offered him back his lightsaber.
The Jedi’s smile widened slightly as he took his saber back. Then, with only the slightest bit of hesitation, Kanan put a hand on Ezra’s shoulder. It was warm and heavy, accompanied by the hum in the back of his head. It felt as though Kanan's reassurance was flowing from his hand and filling Ezra’s chest with prickly hope.
Ezra couldn’t help but smile back at Kanan. He had no idea what was in store for him, but he knew… somehow, knew… that this was right.