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Ezra sat and watched his master walk through form V for probably the hundredth time. The young man just couldn’t pull himself away from watching the memory loop. It had been an easy-going day on Lothal, only a few days after Ezra built his lightsaber. Once both master and padawan had a lightsaber, they were finally able to go into more advanced sets.
“Four and five. Now it’s your turn,” said Kanan.
“Like this?” past Ezra asked, holding his lightsaber slightly off of formation. Current Ezra watched as Kanan came over and nudged his padawan’s hands into place.
“You need to keep your elbows loose but your wrists firm. Start the form just off of center to give yourself room to go into the next stance.”
Ezra smiled at the image of his master. It had taken some walking, but, finally, there were voices again in the World Between Worlds. They started as whispers that grew louder until they all started layering and overlapping each other. It was as overwhelming as Ezra had remembered it.
At first he had tried to find a way out that was close to the time he left, but so far there was nothing. As he searched, he saw unfamiliar pieces of time with faces he never knew. Occasionally something would pop up that he recognized, usually someone or an event. During this search he had heard Kanan’s voice and immediately sprinted to its source, coming across the pocket of space he sat before and watching over and over again with misty eyes his master teaching a younger version of himself basic form five katas and ending with a casual spar before the moment would loop.
Once or twice he unknowingly reached out to the memory, but just as quickly would come to his senses. Kanan was dead. He couldn’t change that. There was also, to help remind him in those moments of weakness, a pressing sense of foreboding from the Force. Ezra huffed and squeezed his knees with his arms. If there was one thing he was sure about from the Force, it was that he wasn’t allowed to touch anything. So… he sat, and he watched, and he watched again.
The young force user began to wonder about his circumstances when he realized that he had lost track of how many times he had watched the memory. It made sense that the World Between was outside of time, all things considered, and apparently that meant there was no need to eat, no need to drink, and no need to sleep. The dull ache of his shoulder where Thrawn had shot him had long faded and Ezra was left with an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. He needed to get back to his friends. He needed to find a time close enough to when he had been sucked in here.
Ezra breathed in let out a deep sigh, bracing his hands against his knees and lifting himself up to his feet. He looked once more at his long-gone master with a small smile, fond, sad, and wistful.
“Bye, Kanan.”