Chapter Text
Chapter 1: Run Like a Rebel
If there was one thing Ezra has learned over the course of his life, it was that the galaxy was filled with nothing but pain. Sure, it had its moments where things were better, like during the first few years of his life growing up on Krownest and gaining the bestest friend in history, but Ezra knew that it would never last. It gets worse when he knows that he is nothing more than a curse, for he was born exactly 6 years before Order 66 was unleashed across the galaxy which saw the end to so many guardians, leaving only a few left, cowering in fear over being found and killed by the empire, or worse… For as long he could remember, he had a great connection in the force, like his parents before him. But now, he keeps it buried deep within his soul and refuses to think about the force without drawing up memories that start happy, but end confusing and terrifying. The worst one came a few years ago, when he chose to open himself up once more. At first it was peaceful, being on Krownest doing some basic control training with his father while Sabine played in the snow. But then it changed into a void of paths and endless stars, an unfamiliar place that was incredibly dense with the force. He doesn’t really remember what he was doing there, but he remembers the end. Darth Sidious, the ultimate puppet master, the man behind Order 66, calling out to him in such a creepy tone.
“Ezra Bridger, Mine at last.”
The only thing he allowed himself to remember was him running, and getting away from Sith flames, before bursting awake in the tower he found and took over. Now, at nearly 21 years old, he looked nothing like his parents. People that knew him said that he would grow as tall as his father, but he just looked like a little kid. A lack of a decent diet is going to do that to someone. Homelessness was a bitch that made his life the same old cycle of hell; wake up, ignore the hunger, try to shower, change into whatever fit, continue to ignore the hunger, head into capital city to rummage through trash cans and try to steal food, hopefully get away with stealing whatever he could and eat it, or just eat whatever ruined food that he could grab from a bin, stay out of the way of imps (Being considered dead means he’s gotta stay extra careful), try to help out others by making the imperials lives hell or just confusing the ever living shit out of them. He knows it’s not what his parents would want, but they’re gone now. Everybody was gone, like always.
“Everyone always leaves me, in the end.” Ezra thought to himself as he stared out towards the ruined capital city, thinking. Mentally preparing himself for another day of hell. His thoughts get interrupted by the sound of a star destroyer coming in which around here means only one thing, off-world goods and weapons that would make a black market buyer lose their shit. Ezra instantly kicked into high gear as he flung himself down the tower stairs and onto the busted speeder bike sitting at the bottom. He turns it on and leaves for the city. But as he approaches, the force rings out in him, someone is there and the force is guiding him towards it. He doesn’t know if it’s somebody he knows or somebody that will help him, but he knew better than to go against the will of the force, regardless of how hard he cut himself off from it.
Breathe in.
One heartbeat.
Breathe out.
Two heartbeats.
Three heartbeats.
That was the process Sabine did everytime she needed to calm down and focus on the task at hand. And that was the case as she awaited the signal From Kanan to toss explosives on Imperial bikes and get on top of a building to watch for any Imp that would alert for reinforcements. But no matter how hard she tried, her mind kept wandering back to the dream. From the moment it ended, she knew something would come of it. That something was going to change and it involved her friend from childhood. Did she know it to be true? Absolutely not. But people always said she was good at prediction and had a keen sense of awareness. Her thoughts stopped as she heard some kind of singing. It certainly didn’t sound like singing, more like ringing, but it was impossible not to notice. At first she thought her helmet was accidently tuned into something, but it wasn’t. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Kanan having a confused look on his face. To her, it meant he was also hearing something weird. The noise began to have more of a direction. She didn’t want people to think that she was weird and was hearing things, so she continued standing in her spot in front of a stall, trying to figure out the noise's direction, the noise happened again and she figured out it was above her and to the left. What she saw, she couldn’t really tell, all she saw was blue, a copper-like brown, and orange. What she did know was that it was staring right at Kanan. The person then ducked down quickly, seemingly to avoid detection. Sabine then realized that it’s showtime as Kanan walked behind her and gave what she was looking for, an all clear to blow shit up and ruin Imperial’s days.
“This is gonna be good.” Sabine thought to herself while smiling beneath her helmet. Walking by the bikes, she tosses the detonator as it arms itself and begins to beep after latching onto it. Of course, one of the Imps noticed her, calling out for her to stop. But he got cut off as he realized there was a little something attached to the end of the speeder. She quickly ran off to behind a building just before it exploded, she then quickly jumped up the building, she was told that she was really good at jumping, to give herself an advantage above to cover her friends. Things were going good, until she saw the person that she saw before driving off with a speeder with some of the crates attached to it. Of course, Kanan was yelling over the comm, “AFTER THAT KID!”
Sabine quickly booked it to land onto the speeder bike before it got too far and became impossible to reach from the rooftops. Taking a leap of faith, she landed, barely, on the back crate, getting the attention of the boy. She took out her blasters ready to shoot out the lock that held the crates to the back, but the thief realized what was happening as he began to shake the speeder bike violently, making it hard to land a clean shot on the lock, while also loosening the coupling between the crate she was standing on and the rest of the bike.
“Ok. This is stupid. Sorry kid, but I gotta stop this bike.” Sabine thought before beginning to aim her blasters at the back of the kids head.
“You’ve got guts kid. But this ends now.” Sabine threatened
The boy didn’t even look her in the face, “I don’t think you understand. I’ve come too far to give these up now.”
“Well what are you going to do? You’re all out of tricks.” Sabine snapped back
The boy let out a chuckle. Sabine knew that this kid had something up his sleeve.
“I’ve still got one last ace up my sleeve.” Was all the boy said before he finally turned around to face her, and she saw made her freeze.
Electric blue eyes that she hadn’t seen in years, staring right at her. “I hope you’re ready to fly!” Was all the boy said. The street rat disappeared as Sabine saw a 5 year old Ezra with a massive grin on his face, staring at her. “I hope you’re ready to fly Beanie!” was all she heard
“It can’t be.” Was all she breathed out so quietly, she barely heard herself say it. Staring right in front of her was her best friend (as well as her first and only crush, not that she would admit it), Ezra Bridger, all grown up and looking like he did in that trippy dream from last night. Ezra(?) then turned around as he began to jerk the controls of the bike in a way that shouldn’t seem possible. The result was that the bike began to spin in circles like a top, breaking the damaged coupling instantly and causing her to fly off the bike with it. She didn’t even care that she was rolling on the ground violently as Kanan and Zeb sped off after the kid. The only thing she could do was grab the crate she had and call Hera to pick her up.
“Spectre 2, come get me. The others are going after the other crate.” Sabine said over comm
“On my way. But what happened? What do you mean ‘the others are going after the other crate’?” Hera asked
“Just come get me and catch up with the others please?”
“Fine…”
Run, run, run
That was the only thing going through Ezra’s mind right now. He’s gotten this far with a crate of blastes, and he wasn’t going to stop now. Not even considering the fact that not only did he have Imperials on his tail, but also others who were trying to steal from the empire. He’d already shaken off the Mandalorian that landed on the back of the bike, but it cost him a crate but that’s fine, just means less money to buy food and supplies. Now, he had a Lasat and a human that was most likely force sensitive, if he were to go off of the call in the force he heard, chasing him alongside the imperials. The bad thing about the situation was the amount of people chasing him. The good thing was that they were shooting each other, and not at him. As usual, he spoke too soon as one of the imps' blaster shots hit the back of the bike, causing it to catch fire.
“That’s not good!” Ezra shouted out
Ezra then fell deeper in the force as he used the force to jump the bike to the other side of the roads leading out of Capital City. He then heard an explosion go off behind him, but he didn’t really care. He had to focus. He could sense TIE fighters on the way and he needed to get into the fields and find some kind of cover with the crate before he got swarmed. He heard the force ring out again and then saw the human on the bike he stole right in front of him.
“Gotta admit it kid, I’m impressed. But you better hand over that crate before things get messy.” The man said
“No deal. I stole fair and square and I’m not giving it at the home stretch just because you're in front of me.” Ezra snapped back
“Look kid, you don’t even know what’s in there. So just give it over and go. I’d say you’re finished for today.” The man said back
Ezra barely even heard what he said because his mind was focused on the TIE closing in. The only thing he could say in the moment was a snappy remark.
“Well, the day's not over yet.” Was what Ezra came up with before moving the bike out of the way before the TIE shot.
“Oh great.” was what he heard from the man before his speeder blew up, leaving him on the ground.
“See ya.” Ezra said before speeding off with his crate.
Of course, he didn’t get far as the TIE began to chase him. Taking shots trying to blow him up.
“This better be worth it because this is a lot of heat for just some supplies!” Ezra shouted out at absolutely nobody.
The TIE then got a lucky shot and blew up his speeder bike, leaving him on the ground with the crate on the ground nearby.
“So this is it? Dying in a field, trying to get some fucking blasters.” Ezra thought to himself as he accepted the end.
Just then, the TIE was blown up. Ezra immediately got up and saw a cargo ship with the man he just ran from standing on the edge of the ramp.
“Need a lift?”
Ezra then ran for the blaster crate that was tipped over while more TIEs began to show up. “Leave the crate, you’ll never make it!” The man shouted at Ezra. Sure to most, he wouldn’t be able to make it. But being force sensitive gave Ezra an edge over others as he began to run for the ship with the crate before tapping into the force to leap into the ship. The man was definitely impressed because he heard his response- “Woah.”- Seems that he hasn’t seen someone use the force in some time.
Ezra looked around and saw that it was a fairly standard cargo ship, at least as standard as illegal ships could get, the only difference was that there was an angry Lasat and a Mandalorian with their helmet on, making it impossible to figure out what she was thinking.
“Well then, this doesn’t look good for me.” Ezra thought to himself
Ezra was on the ship…
Ezra was on the ship!
EZRA WAS ON THE SHIP!!!
That was the only thought that was screaming through her head as Sabine stared at Ezra, eyeing everyone in the ship. Luckly, she had her helmet so nobody could see the shock on her face.
The biggest question she had right now (outside of why Ezra was on the ship), was what was going to happen. She saw that Ezra wasn’t backing down from either Kanan or Zeb about the crate he stole.
“I need those blasters. Besides, I stole ‘em first.” Ezra spat out
“Please let me just toss him out.” Zeb begged towards Kanan
“Try that Zeb, and we’ll see how long you’ll live.” Sabine thought to herself as her anger towards Zeb increased each passing second.
“Nobody’s throwing anybody out of the ship. And those blasters aren’t yours.” Kanan said to the two of them.
Then, Kanan climbed the ladder that was heading for the cockpit, leaving herself, Zeb, and Ezra in the hold. All while TIEs shot at them.
Normally one would be afraid when a Lasat is threatening to kill you. But Ezra isn’t like most, he’s seen the horrors of Order 66 firsthand. He’d seen a group of Jedi slaughtered in front of him, one angry Lasat and a Mandalorian who didn’t seem to want to be involved with anything, wasn’t going to scare him in the slightest. Ezra, of course, still needed a blaster. He needed a part that could be found in an E-11 blaster so he could fix the one thing that kept him from wanting to end it all. He’s got the scars from times he’s dealt pain to himself, in an attempt to feel something. But now wasn’t the time to be miserable, now was the time to snag a blaster.
Ezra dropped deeper and deeper into the force, and activated his ultimate trump card force ability. There have been stories that every now and then, somebody with the force would discover that they had a one of a kind ability. Sensing one’s true allegiance, force-walking, mind domination, the ability to split parts of the soul apart into two individuals, all have come before and Ezra is no different. His ability, however, required incredible amounts of concentration and telekinesis to perform: Force time. With it, he can stop the flow of time for a small window of time. It is the one thing that has kept him a step ahead of imperials for almost 11 years. Once it activated, everything became quiet. The ship, the Lasat, everything. This was his chance, he quickly opened the lid of one of the blaster crates and grabbed an E-11 and quickly slipped it in his bag before closing the lid and returning to his position before he couldn’t hold it any longer.
“You don’t even know what we were doing you little rat.” The Lasat growled as time resumed and Ezra’s senses were filled with sound once again.
The ship then violently rocked as the Mandalorian stumbled around, but kept her balance. The Lasat didn’t, and landed on Ezra. Sure, he had smelled horrible things before; rotten food, burning flesh, his own blood, but the smell of the Lasat made it impossible for him to breathe.
“Get…Off.” Ezra wheezed out
“I ain’t THAT heavy, even in gravity.” The Lasat snapped back as he stood up
“Not the weight, the smell. I’ve smelt corpses that smelled better than you.” Ezra whined back
That certainly made him angry as he picked up Ezra (not too hard when he’s really underweight and there hasn’t been enough nutrients in him to get any kind of growth spurts), and threw him in a room and locked the door.
Left in the room, Ezra took advantage of the situation by pulling out the blaster he took, his multi tool, and the one memento of his parents he had left; his father’s damaged lightsaber. Ezra hadn’t seen the lightsaber functioning since the beginning of the purge, when it was shot in the hilt, damaging a few of its parts. The lightsaber had always been beautiful to look at, a sleek alloy metal making up the hilt with intricate carvings of his homeworld, both the cute, but deadly, loth-cats and the mysterious loth-wolves. Even though it hadn’t been used in around 15 years, Ezra could still hear the crystal humming. The other thing that made it more unique than any other saber he’d ever seen, was its kyber crystal, a pure silver one that when activated, emits a silver blade. Earning it the name; Lothal’s Howl. Ezra quickly dismantled the blaster and grabbed the last parts needed to fix the damaged saber and replaced the ruined parts. After closing it up, the crystal was singing in joy, giving Ezra the clue that it worked again. Smiling at the saber, he quickly put it back in his bag and opened up the vent inside the room. The perks of being small was that he could still fit into vents.
“Guy’s, where is that kid?” The man called out over an intercom
“Relax boss, he’s in-.” The Lasat began to say before cutting himself off.
“Zeb, where is he?” A female voice asked
As Ezra moved around the ductwork, he knew he was making a ton of noise. But he knew where he was, right above the cargo hold and his escape route. He silently sat there, waiting for them to move
“Oh he is DEFINITELY in the ship alright” The Mandalorian said
“It doesn’t matter, get to the turrets, damn TIEs are keeping us planet-side.” The female voice shouted out.
Ezra then sensed the others moving to different parts of the ship, this was his chance. He pulled out the lightsaber and pointed it down before making a hole to the cargo hold. But not before catching the part with the force before it slammed into the ground. After Ezra made it down, he placed the sliced part of the vent on the ground before moving over to the hatch controls.
“No turning back now.” Ezra thought to himself as he slammed the button and the floor opened.
He heard movement behind him, but he didn’t care. He would be fine, he’s done this before. He then jumped out of the ship towards the ground, concentrating on the force to make sure he could catch himself. What Ezra failed to notice was that a bit of a busted TIE was barreling towards him. It slammed into Ezra’s leg, causing pain to shoot throughout his entire body and having him shriek out in pain.
“OW FUCK!”
Ezra wanted to focus on the pain but he couldn’t, not when he was approaching the ground fast. He quickly centered on the force again and concentrated everything he had into a push to halt his momentum. He succeeded, but also began rolling down a hill, which would’ve been fine if not for the fact that Ezra’s hurt leg hit a rock on the way. If it wasn’t hurt badly before, it was most definitely fractured at the least. After tumbling down the hill, Ezra pulled out one of his super emergency stims that could fix his bones in a short amount of time and injected it into his busted leg. He could feel the adrenaline running off as its effects kicked in, Ezra then passed out.
When Ezra woke up, it was getting close to night. Reality set in that he was far from Capital City and the only kind of food he’s got, is some berries he took from a vendor after helping him out with Imperials. Ezra sat up and noticed a small town in the area that he could most likely lay low in. He then got up, put his damaged bag on, ignore the after pains in his leg, and walked towards the town on a limp.
After safely escaping, everyone just sat in the cockpit, trying to process what just happened.
“So what EXACTLY happened in my ship?” Hera asked the others
“Well, some kid stole some of the crates and made it all the way out of the city before Kanan gave him a lift to escape. We fought over the crates, I shoved him in a closet, and he somehow got out and jumped outta the ship.” Zeb explained
“But the question is, why would he do that?” Kanan asked
Sabine’s mind kept running through the situation, trying to figure out why he’d do that. Everytime she went through it, she came to the same conclusion: Ezra was afraid of everyone on the ship.
“It better have been a really good reason as to why he’d attempt suicide to get out of the ship.” Hera snapped out
Then, Chopper rolled in blabbering out binary that Zeb couldn’t understand at all, but Sabine had a good idea at what he was saying.
“I found some interesting things in the closet and cargo hold!”
“What did you find, Chop?” Hera asked
“A dismantled blaster and a cut bit of the vent right above the cargo hold.” The astromech said
“Wait, are you saying there’s a hole in my ship?” Hera asked with anger in her voice
Sabine knew what Hera was going to say, so she just left and went to the cargo hold to see if Murderbot 9000 was lying or not.
When she got there, she immediately looked up, and saw a hole. That didn’t seem good.
“He’s not lying Hera!” Sabine called out
The silence that came from above spoke louder than anything she could think of. She knew that Hera was seething over the fact that someone damaged her ship. The beeping from the console that signified the end of the jump broke everyone out of the silence as Sabine went back to the cockpit.
“Alright then, Zeb? You and Sabine will take food crates into the town once we land while Hera and I deal with the blasters alright?” Kanan said
Zeb just nodded, understanding what to do. Sabine, with her endless levels of curiosity, wanted to know where they were going.
“Where are we even giving the food?”
“TarkinTown.” Hera said
Just hearing the fact that there was a town named after that ass didn’t feel right to her. It didn’t help when she saw the town, and it was just a bunch of tents and a couple ruined buildings on bad ground.
Sabine and Zeb began taking the crates into town, with the people coming up to see what was going on. Once the lids were popped open, everyone started grabbing food. A lot of them said thank you for their kindness, which filled her heart with glee. All her life, she’s only done things for herself, or for her clan. Now, she’s doing it for others and it felt a thousand times better.
One of the townspeople came up to Sabine asking, “Hey, there was someone who came into town a few hours ago and he’s not coming over to eat. Do you think you could bring something to him? He looked hurt.”
Zeb then started grabbing a few pieces of food while Sabine asked what the person looked like.
“Well, he’s kinda small looking, blue hair and eyes, orange jacket and gear, and he had a slightly torn bag on. He should be behind the far building.”
Sabine and Zeb shared a look knowing who this person was describing, it was the thief from earlier. The townsperson then walked off over to what appeared to be his family.
“So, what do we do?” Zeb asked
“You take the crates back and I’ll see if I can talk to him.” Sabine said while Zeb’s face began to turn into one of complaint, “If you come with, you’ll scare him off and who knows where he’ll go. Not to mention he’s got something on him that can cut through metal easily.”
“I hope you know what you’re doing.” Zeb grumbled before taking the crates back towards the Ghost .
Sabine then tossed on her helmet and activated its scanner. After a quick search, she found the target behind one of the buildings, sitting there. As she approached, her heart started beating slightly faster.
“This has to be Ez. He looks too similar for it to be a coincidence.” Sabine thinks to herself as she begins to hear the sound of him eating something. She’s coming in on the right side of the building as quietly as possible. But of course, she slightly tripped on a stone, causing noise to be made and the eating to stop.
Sabine stopped dead in her tracks as her heart began racing while she held her breath, praying that he didn’t hear anything. She then heard the ringing from earlier again, which caused confusion. She didn’t know where it was coming from, but she couldn’t tune it out with how loud it was.
She then saw her supposed friend take off into the hills. “Shit.” was the only thing that came out of her mouth before she broke off in a sprint after him.
“Wait up!” She shouted out towards Ezra
But he wouldn’t stop, it seemed like he was just speeding up.
“Stay the hell away from me!” Ezra shouted back
She didn’t know how long the chase would go, or how she would get from town, what she did know was that it was becoming more familiar, she remembers this from that damn dream. If this was going the same way the dream went, then Ezra was about to trip on something.
And that’s exactly what happened as Ezra tripped on seemingly a rock and tumbled up a hill. He quickly caught himself and stood up facing her.
“Easy now. Just stop running.” Sabine said, trying to calm him down
“I’ll calm down once you get out of here.” Ezra growled back
“I’m not going anywhere.” Sabine said back with slight anger in her voice, “Just calm down, and let me help you.” Sabine continued
“No way. People just don’t help others. You want something from me.” Ezra snapped back
“I don’t want anything from you.” Sabine argued
“You lie.” Ezra said back quieter
Sabine was getting frustrated. She was getting anywhere with this. She knew she had to step it up.
“I’m not going to hurt you, Ezra Bridger.” Sabine said in an attempt to try and break through
Ezra’s face definitely seemed shocked, but then quickly turned back into a glare, “Ezra is dead.” Was what he said back.
“Gotcha.” Sabine thought quickly, “No he isn’t, I’m staring at him right now.” Sabine said
“So what are you going to do? Hand me over to the Empire for some quick credits?” Ezra asked
That certainly rattled her a little. Not only did he basically confirm who he was, but there’s also a bounty on his head? Why?
Sabine knew that if she wanted to get through to him, she’d need to pull out all the stops.
“When would I ever do that?” Sabine asked
“Well I don’t know, Manadlorians these days tend to be either bounty hunters, or Imperial enforcers.” Ezra answered
Again, another answer that rattled her. What has Ezra seen that she hasn’t? What she did know was that she was out of options. She couldn’t beat around the bush any longer.
“I would never harm a friend.” Sabine said back
“A friend? I don’t even know you.” Ezra asked back
Sabine began to take off her helmet, “Oh but you do Ez, you know me well.” She then dropped her helmet on the ground and waited for his reaction.
Ezra began studying her face. Paying close attention to every detail. What she hoped for was that he would focus on her eyes, she had a feeling he would never forget their color. Ezra’s eyes went wide with shock, a really good sign. But then his look changed into a look that signified he was about to attack. That’s not good.
“This is either a sick joke, or a trick.” Ezra growled
And THAT was the response she was afraid of. Ezra was too afraid to admit that someone who actually cared about him was standing in front of him.
“This isn’t a trick, Ez. It’s me.” Sabine said back
“Lies. Deception.” Ezra breathed out
“This isn’t either of them dammit!” Sabine shouted
“THEN PROVE ME WORNG!” Ezra shrieked out as he grabbed something from within his bag, the same lightsaber that was in the dream. Looking at it now, she realized it belonged to Ezra’s father. The silver blade erupted from the end of the emitter as it stared at her viciously.
Sabine had to think, what could she do to prove to Ezra that it was her? Her mind raced for an answer but nothing came up. At least until her mind drifted back to the dream and remembered the day before he left, the speeder bike, and the cave.
Sabine could feel tears forming in her eyes. It was such a treasured memory to her, but she completely forgot about it for so many years. It was coming back to her, clear as day after a storm. “The day before you left my home, we went out playing with a speeder bike when we shouldn’t have. After we got it up the hill, you said that you’d be leaving for home the next day.” Ezra began to lower the lightsaber, “We made a promise to try and stay the bestest of friends, even when we were across the stars. We then played with that speeder and we tried to see if I could withstand your family's technique. I fell almost instantly.” Ezra’s expression began to change from angry to sad, “We then got the speeder stuck in the snow near some mountains. A bad storm was coming in and we wouldn’t make it back in time. So we camped out in a cave nearby, snacking on whatever we had in our pockets.” The lightsaber began to shake in his hand, “It was mostly just candy with, I think some fruits. We had no way to start a fire, so we had to rely on each other to stay warm. We weren’t found until the next morning when your father came bursting into the cave and scooped us up and took us back to my family’s stronghold. Your parents and my father were worried, but my mother just seemed angry about the fact we were so reckless. I’m sure deep down, she cared. But she just didn’t want anyone seeing her weak.” There were definitely tears in her eyes as Sabine finished the story. She looked up to see that Ezra was beginning to cry as he dropped the lightsaber.
“It really is you, Beanie.” Ezra said out between tears
She did it. She convinced him it was her. A wave of relief washed over her as Ezra began to close the distance between them. Next thing she knew, Ezra was hugging her like there was no tomorrow. Part of her wanted him to stop hugging her, most likely her tough girl persona, but the rest of her being wasn’t having it as she pulled him into a tighter hug.
“After so many years.” Ezra said as tear fell down onto her armor
“It’s so good to see you again.” Sabine said as she felt her tears run onto his jacket.
Sabine hadn’t felt this happy in a LONG time. Just seeing her friend again made her forget so many painful memories from across her life. Now the question came as to what she was going to do with Ezra.
She began to pull back from Ezra “So what are you going to do?” asking as she backed up
Ezra picked up the lightsaber with the force and put it back in his bag shrugging “Not sure. I didn’t really think about what I was going to do. All I wanted was to fix my father’s lightsaber.”
An idea went off in her head that most likely wouldn’t work. “Maybe you could join the crew I’m running with.”
Ezra looked surprised by the request, but then looked down “You’d think they’d want me?”
“I’d be surprised if the person who owns the ship hasn’t thought about bringing you onboard.” Sabine said, doing her best to convince her friend to join. “You’re resourceful, brave, and you’ve got guts.”
“I’ll give it some thought.” Ezra said
Sabine let out a long sigh “Good enough for now.” muttering under her breath “I really hope you do. It’ll be nice to catch up.” she said louder while smiling
“Not to mention I’ll get to have you all to myself.” A much naughtier version of Sabine said to herself
“HEY! WHO LET YOU OUT?!” Her tough girl side shouted out in her mind
“Were you getting lost in your head again Beanie?” Ezra asked smugly
Sabine instantly felt the heat rising in her face “That obvious huh?”
Ezra just nodded “You had that face you always made when you did that.”
Sabine then punched Ezra lightly in the shoulder “Come on, let’s get back. At least have a look around.”
Ezra then let out his sarcastic sigh “Fiiiiiiine.”
Sabine couldn’t help but laugh as she began walking back to the Ghost with Ezra right behind her.
When they got to the ship, it was completely empty. The Lasat, Zeb apparently, might have been either still in the town or asleep according to Ezra’s friend. The human, Kanan, was most likely with the pilot of the ship, a Twi’lek named Hera, dropping off the blasters. The only one unaccounted for was the droid, Chopper, who Sabine said was either doing maintenance somewhere, with Hera, or plotting his next prank.
Sabine then walked off into another room saying “Have a look around. If you need me, I’ll be in the galley.”
It didn’t take long for Ezra to figure out where he wanted to go. He was going after the kyber crystal humming he was hearing in the back of the ship somewhere. He then quickly found the room where the humming was strongest, using the force as a guide. He noticed the door was locked, but that hasn’t stopped him before. He then opened the panel and began fiddling with the wires until he broke the lock open. When the door opened, he realized he was in someone’s room. He instantly knew this was a breach of privacy, but he didn’t really care. He hasn’t exactly known privacy ever since the Empire muscled in. After a quick search for where the humming was loudest, he found a drawer on the bottom bed that, when he opened, contained a lightsaber, who it belonged to, he didn’t know. But it seemed like the saber hadn't been used in a while. He then pulled it out, along with a holocron, and activated the saber. The crystal began to sing with joy as a blue blade shot out of the emitter. Ezra then began to swing the saber in controlled motions as he went through the rough concepts of the lightsaber forms he knew: basic strikes from Shi-Cho, quicker strikes and quicker footwork from Makashi, tight bladework movements from Soresu, light, acrobatic strikes from Ataru, powerful and heavy strikes from Shien/Djem So, some more general and balanced strikes from Niman, and finally some more aggressive strikes from Juyo.
“Careful with that, you might cut your arm off.” A voice said next to him
He then turned to see the man, Kanan, standing in the doorway with the pilot standing right behind him. Ezra then rolled his eyes and began twirling the lightsaber skillfully and almost flawlessly “This isn’t my first time seeing or holding one of these. I know what I’m doing. Not to mention the fact that I was called to it.”
“You? Were called to it? I don’t believe you.” Kanan scoffed
Ezra then deactivated the lightsaber before tossing to Kanan “I don’t care if you believe me Cranky Pants. All you need to know is that the force called out to me to find that saber.” He then walked off, leaving both of them in the hall.
Sabine was both anxious and excited. She was bouncing with joy over the fact that Ezra might join the crew. But part of her was scared of the fact that he might reject the offer, and she may never see him again.
“It certainly won’t be fun around here if he’s gone.” The naughty side whined out
She could feel her tough girl side roll her eyes (If a side of personality could do that) at her more romantic side “Please, the only reason you want him around is so you can get into his pants.”
Her empathetic side finally decided to chirp into the conversation “I just want to keep him safe.”
She then heard the door open as she saw the man at the forefront of her mind enter the room, sighing. “Welp, just met your boss and I don’t think my chances of joining are high.”
“How? Hera is like, the nicest person in the galaxy. The only thing I can think of that could’ve made her mad, is if you ruin her ship.”
Ezra shook his head “No, I met, I think Kanan. He wasn’t happy that I broke into his room and found a lightsaber.”
“What? Why does he have one of those in his room?” Sabine asked
“Probably because he’s force sensitive. He might’ve been a Jedi before the purge.” Ezra explained
Sabine’s eyes went wide. On one hand, she was in awe at the fact that she was working with a Jedi. Not to mention it might give Ezra more of a motive to join, so he could get trained to be a skilled Jedi. On the other hand, the Jedi were her people's enemy. But then again, she wasn’t exactly on good terms with her people, so she’ll let it slide.
“So what exactly do you guys do? You aren’t really thieves.” Ezra asked
Of course he would ask that. If he wanted to join, he would want to know what they were doing.
“It’s less of that and more like we help people. We’re less like a crew, and more like a family.” Sabine said
Ezra looked down, seemingly in a sad way. She then realized that she may have made a mistake. She doesn’t know how long he’d been on his own. He may not even like the term ‘family’.
“So what happened to yours?” Ezra asked
More than she’d ever want to admit. She was declared dar’manda, a traitor to her people, and she deserved it. Especially after what she made. “The Empire, what about you?”
Ezra then looked down again, this time in a pained expression. She may not even want to know what he went through, it may have been even worse than what she went through.
Before he even tried to begin to say what happened, Zeb walked in. “Meeting for the next op.”
Sabine then began to walk off into the next room. She then heard Zeb talking to Chopper. “If he tries anything, sound an alarm, or blast ‘em.”
Chopper then beeped something along the lines of “Overkill much?”
She didn’t want to leave Ezra alone in the room, but she had no choice as she walked into the next room with it closing behind her after Zeb walked in.
The door shut behind Ezra, leaving him alone. He wanted to see what was going on, what these guys were doing next. But he couldn’t begin to try and move for the door before the droid stopped him.
“Don’t even think about chasing the female.” The droid beeped out.
He didn’t want to deal with this stupid droid “Shut it you rust bucket. I wasn’t chasing tail.” He then moved over to a vent and began climbing into it.
“What are you doing?” The droid beeped out again
“What do you think? I’m spying.” Ezra spat back
The droid then took out one of its manipulators and did a motion like ‘go ahead’. “Oh, go have fun with that.” It beeped out before rolling away.
As he crawled through the vent, he mentally laughed to himself over the weird droid. He then found himself in a closet, the others talking outside.
“Start getting ready, we’ll be heading out for the cruiser soon.” Someone said
He wanted to know more. What were they doing? He tried moving closer, seeing if he could hear anything else or see what they were doing, then he slipped.
He then heard stomping coming right for the door while Ezra scrambled for the vent. He made it halfway into the vent before someone grabbed his leg and threw him out of the vent and into the room, he also hit his head on the doorframe while being thrown. His head spun for a minute as he put his hand to his head and felt a bit of blood, another injury added to the list.
“NOW can we get rid of him?!” The Lasat shouted
“No. we can’t get rid of him.” Sabine said. Ezra felt like his friend had his back, but what came out of her mouth next shattered that thought. “He knows too much.”
He thought he was dead. He was going to be shot, he was going to die. For a while, he wanted nothing but the sweet release of death. But now? He wasn’t so sure. He looked up and saw Sabine with a look that said, ‘sorry, I don’t mean it.’ He calmed down a little, maybe he wasn’t dead yet.
The twi’lek then started walking over to him. “If anybody is thinking about killing him, get rid of it. I’m not having it on my ship.” She then knelt down in front of him “Hey, what’s your name?”
He gulped loudly, he was afraid to share this. He felt like this was going to get him hurt, but he couldn’t stay silent and his instincts were telling him to trust her. “Ezra.”
“Alright then Ezra, why don’t you head up to the cockpit and stay there. I’ll be there in a minute.” The woman said
Ezra then picked himself up and found his way towards the cockpit of the ship and waited.
He then heard someone come up the ladder. When he turned around, he saw the twi’lek walking towards him and sat down in the seat next to him. “Sorry about that. I needed to calm the others down.”
“Thanks.” Ezra muttered out
She then started toying with the console before beginning to hit it. “Stupid hunk of junk” She growled out quietly
Ezra then sat up a little before twisting off his bag and placed it in front of him “Hey you need a hand with something?”
The twi’lek turned around with a slightly shocked look on his face before she responded “Uh yeah, the navicomputer is acting up. Could you take a look under the console and see what went wrong?”
Ezra pulled out his multitool, went underneath the console, and got to work.
“So apparently, you were able to find a lightsaber on the ship. Wanna explain that?” The twi’lek asked
“Well first off lady-.” Ezra began before getting cut off
“The name is Hera.” She said
“Right. Well first off Hera, I didn’t find it. The crystal called out to me.” Ezra explained
“It called out to you?”
“Yeah. I heard the crystal calling out, and I just followed where the force told me to go.” Ezra continued
“Wait. You can use the force?!” Hera shouted out
“Yeah. I’ve been able to my whole life. Both of my parents were Jedi.”
Hera was definitely shocked about that little fact about himself. “Wow. You might be able to bring Kanan back to being a Jedi.” Hera muttered
“Heard that!” Ezra shouted
“Whoops.”
Ezra then just started laughing. That certainly caught her off guard. But between what the force told him, the lightsaber, AND the holocron, Ezra was already almost convinced that there was an ex-Jedi on board the ship. “You’re fine. I already had a pretty good suspicion.”
Ezra then finished up underneath the console and pulled himself out “Try it now.” Hera then plugged in a set of coordinates and activated hyperspace. “Wow! It works better than before!”
“How’d you know what to do?” Hera asked
“Kinda just taught myself how to fix things. It was basically a way for me to get food or credits without having to steal or dumpster dive.” Ezra explained as he sat back down, watching the blues and whites of hyperspace.
He sensed the pilot felt bad about him after learning that the only reason he knew machines was so he could survive, but she didn’t seem to want to push any further. “How much of that plan did you hear?” She asked
“Not much, just that you were leaving for a cruiser soon.” Ezra said
“We’re heading to a cruiser to free Wookie prisoners, as well as try to find the whereabouts of other prisoners.” Hera explained
Ezra’s eyes went wide. These people were risking their necks, just to save a few people. He almost felt inspired. Part of him wanted to join the crew even more now. Partially because he wanted to help others and partially because he wanted to honor his parents memory by helping others. But his survival instincts were telling him that it was a really, REALLY bad idea.
“Wow. You’ve got guts for trying this.” Ezra said
“WE’VE got guts? Says the guy who jumped out of a ship.” Hera scoffed
That got him embarrassed, he knew that at that moment, he should’ve kept his mouth shut. But he did, and now he’s gotta live with the consequences. “Well that’s just because I was afraid you’d hurt me.”
“What?! Why would we hurt a kid?” Hera asked loudly
“Well, people have said that they wouldn’t hurt me, and then tried to do exactly that and turn me over to the empire.” Ezra spat back
Hera did a double take and looked at Ezra with an angry/concerned look on her face. “Why would anyone want to try and turn you over?”
Ezra went silent. He wasn’t going to answer that question out of fear. He didn’t want these people turning on him now. Hera took the hint and promptly kept quiet until the console beeped out that they had reached their destination. Hera then began transmitting codes towards the ship while pretending to be someone transferring a prisoner to the ship. He could also hear wrestling noises coming from down below, making it seem like either they had a Wookie, or the Lasat was playing the role.
Everything was seemingly going fine, at least until Hera couldn’t contact the others and Ezra sensed incoming danger. When he looked out into space, he saw a Star Destroyer coming in.
“They knew we were coming!” Hera shouted while banging on the console
“Ezra, I need you to get in there and warn them!” Hera said
And that’s when Ezra froze. He felt the conflict within him. His survival instincts wanted to get the hell out of there before it was too late. Leave the others for dead and run. But the rest of him wanted to go in there and warn them. Especially a part of him that he hadn’t felt in years, the part of him that wanted to keep his friend safe. He knew that Hera saw the conflict in his eyes. He had to choose, would he save the others, or leave them for dead? In that very moment, Ezra had a vision, something he hadn’t had in years. A part of it showed him alone, crying and muttering something to himself, with the only words he could make out being, ‘I shouldn’t have ran.’ The other parts were harder to figure out. Someone with yellow eyes and a red dualsaber, Ezra in a field in front of a mountain, a Tougata woman with twin white lightsabers, a man with blonde hair, deep blue eyes with a scar over his right, wearing armor, wielding an ice blue lightsaber and a grayish red lightsaber, fighting someone in a full suit. He could feel the cold coming off of him, a hooded figure in the dark, holding a cane, Ezra in the bridge of a Star Destroyer with a blue skinned, red eyed man in a white uniform standing in front of him. The man spoke in a cold and calculating voice saying, ‘Whatever happens to me, happens to both of us’. The vision ended as he found himself back on the ship. The force was seemingly telling him something, but he couldn’t figure out what. What the force was telling him, was that he needed to help. He sucked in a breath, stood up, put his bag back on, and gave his response. “I’m going after them.” He saw Hera smile briefly before he began to take off out of the cockpit, and towards the airlock. Once he reached it, he slammed the open door button and readied himself as he charged into the ship to help the others.
Only one thought went through his head as he began to run, “It’s my turn to help others.”