Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Janice ran as fast as she could. It had been a normal day in New York, when the sky had opened up and suddenly monsters had fallen from it. Great flying whales, and stranger things, creatures on flying bikes who fired on the crowds below.

"I'm going to die!" she screamed as she turned down an alley and—

An explosion sent her flying. She rolled over, head ringing, and blinked. One of the monsters was there. It raised its rifle, and Janice whimpered and then—

A boy, teenager really, jumped in front of her, and somehow deflected the monster's bolts with a blade made of… light? Then he dropped, spun, and the monster was falling, now in two pieces. Another monster appeared, but a bolt of energy hit it.

She looked behind her, and an armored figure was shooting the monsters. Slim—a woman? Then the boy with the magic sword was pulling her up, saying something to her in a language she didn't understand.

"Where are we, Sabine?"

"I don't know," Sabine said. Hit an Imperial base that is supposedly working on a hyperspace system that lets you keep the engine at home and just send people where you want them. Get the data, get on your way out when they fire the damned thing up and evidently it doesn't work…

Because everyone else died. Sabine shot another attacker, this one going after a crowd of screaming humans. The only reason they were alive was that Ezra tried to shield them with the Force but where were they? Sabine had never seen a world where you couldn't find a single alien in a city and the architecture… Not to mention that all the vehicles had wheels.

She shook her head, and went to Ezra, flying up there right now was a very bad idea. "We need to get under cover, find out what is going on!" Sabine said.

"Right," Ezra said. "Where do we go?" Sabine knelt down in front of the woman and made pointing gestures.

The woman stared and then nodded, pointing away from the fighting.

"We're just running?" Ezra asked.

"Ezra, nobody knows who we are. The good guys—if there are any here—are just as likely to shoot at us."

"Right," Ezra said. A deep roar, like some monstrous giant, echoed through the city. "Right," he repeated.

The next several minutes were a nightmare. They were attacked twice, ending up fighting off a small band of monsters that wanted to attack an odd-looking bus full of children. And then, they just… died. All of them.

Sabine knelt down by one and grabbed its weapon.

"Sabine?"

"These aren't blasters. I want to know more."

"Right." The woman was making more and more desperate sounds, and Ezra looked around. There were sirens sounding. "Sabine…"

"I know, let's go." But now the girl was pointing to a shattered storefront.

Sabine nodded. "Ezra, get those coats. Under them, we'll look like anyone else." Not that most other people were paying any attention to us.

It took several hours to follow the woman to her destination. She spoke into a small comlink several times, but evidently the net was down. They were passed by many ground vehicles, primitive fliers in the sky. Sabine, wondered how nobody had ever heard of repulsors. The girl waved at some yellow vehicles, but none stopped.

But they got out of the combat zone, and just as the woman seemed unable to go any further, her comlink worked.

Should we stay? She was excited, jabbering into it. Sabine didn't know if that was good or bad, but at least they had an in with her. They'd saved her life.

How can nobody know standard?

Michael was pacing at his desk. He'd wanted to go out when his niece had called. But Mark didn't let him.

"You're the head, Michael. If you go, the organization goes, and you're good with a gun, but against flying monsters?"

So he'd waited, and finally got a call. Janice was okay and needed a ride. And then Michael almost went out again, but Mark made him sit down, and so he waited.  Finally, as the sun started to go down, the limo drove up to the driveway. Mark frowned, listening to his earpiece.

"A pair of kids helped her. With guns and a… light sword?" he glanced at Michael. "Maybe you—"

"My niece, and they saved her, Mark." With that, he stood up, a few bodyguards standing away. Janice ran to him and hugged him. "Uncle Michael!" she said, bursting into tears." I thought I would die!"

"But you didn't," Michael said.

"Because they saved me… Uncle Michael, they don't speak English, Spanish, or Japanese. I tried them all, and I don't think they have a place to stay…"

Michael glanced at the two, and immediately found his eyes fall on the girl. About the same age as Janice, but she was a soldier—as much as any of his guards, maybe more. She'd noticed the bodyguards and was standing, body poised for action. She had a helmet under one arm and was wearing some kind of armor. Next to her was a younger boy, looked to be half way through high school, still wearing an overcoat he'd gotten from somewhere. But he'd also noticed the bodyguards.

Dangerous. But they'd saved his niece, and he'd give them shelter for that, if nothing else.

And also…

You've got enemies, Michael. And these two don't know the language. Take care of them, teach them, and make certain they get your side of the story…

At the very least, they could protect Janice. After all, the other Families didn't like upstarts, and they might try for her.

At best? He could always use a few more soldiers.

"Thank you," he said, bowing. "You've saved my niece, and my home is your home."

Chapter Text

"Apple?" Sabine asked.

"Orange," Janice replied.

"Thanks," Sabine replied. "Ezra?"

"They're fruit." Ezra said.

In galactic basic.

"Ezra…"

"Fruit," Ezra repeated in English. Sabine nodded. Ezra hadn't had as much experience as she had in learning other languages. Bounty Hunting required that you be able to quickly pick something up, and Sabine had always been interested in how other people saw their art—which meant speaking in their language. A world like Lothal… Well, the Empire discouraged that, speaking of a day when Galactic Basic would be the only language needed—or remembered.

They were both doing better learning written English, having free use of the oddly advanced data net. How can these people be so advanced and so primitive? Sabine wondered. Battery technology was laughable—but they used it to power tiny comlink systems that were more advanced than all but the best coreworlds boasted. A world girdling network of advanced computers, and yet the "neat robot" Janice had shown them, a little disk like thing bumbling along the floor unable to even talk wouldn't have been out of place in a museum of ancient history.

And yet…they were oddly naive. Talking about everyone online and yet… Sabine could slice into it, and she didn't even want to think about what Chopper could do.

"Do you think we should talk to the Avengers?" Ezra asked.

"No. Not yet." Sabine said. "They saved the world—remember that's how the Empire got started."

"Those things weren't Jedi."

"No, but it's sort of suspicious, isn't it?" Sabine asked. "Suddenly an invasion shows up, and then goes away, with every one of those droids just… turning off, in time for these people to save the day?" Especially Captain America. An icon from the past? Frozen in time? Sabine snorted.

"So, um, wanna get something to eat?" Janice asked.

"That…Spaanish place?" Ezra asked. "With the noodles?"

"Spanish." Janice said. "And it's Italian."

That was another thing that Sabine had a problem wrapping her head around. How did one world have so many languages? How was it that one world's people had never even left their solar system?

"So what is it?" Nick Fury asked.

"It's not a Chitarui tool, and the portal…" Banner shook his head. "Not the same thing. It may have been piggy backing on them, but not from the same destination."

"Got that in one, Big Green," Tony said. Fury frowned. Tony had been a little off since the attack. He's not a soldier. And he'd almost died several times. Normally a concern, but a bigger concern when the person in question could put on a suit of armor that could take out a city.

"Why?" Fury asked.

"Well first of all," Tony said. "We had to cut it open. The canister's seals weren't just frozen shut—there had been vacuum welding, migration of atoms across the borders…" He shrugged. "This has been in space for a long, long time."

"Longer than the Chitarui?"

Tony shook his head at Fury. "This thing makes the pyramids look young. We're talking a long, long, time ago."

"Is that a technical term, Tony?"

"Might as well be," Tony said. "We're cutting into it." Inside the isolation chamber, the cutter slowly moved along the canister, opening the hatch. Moments later, it opened.

"Well, it didn't explode," Tony said. The scanner showed images of what was inside. A collection of crystal and metal cubes, wrapped in some kind of cloth. What looked like some books, and…

There was a flicker, and an image was projected into the air. A man, older. Gray beard.

"Jor El?" Tony asked. "Jarvis, are you getting this?"

Then he started talking. The words were gibberish, but several words repeated. "I think his name is Kanan," Bruce said.

"Yeah, so who the hell are Ezra and Sabine?" Fury replied. Those were proper names if he'd ever heard them.

"Someone who came here before?" Bruce asked. Then the guy held a little tube, and a bright beam of light emerged from it. He said something that sounded formal, and then the image flickered out.

Fury stared at it. "This is Fury," he said into his phone. "I want a list of any anomalous damage to Chitarui, or any other object or person. Focus on thermal injuries, coupled with slashing damage."

"Yes, sir."

"You think there may be someone here?"

"I don't send care packages unless I think somebody is here to get them."

"So why do you want us to protect her?" Sabine asked. "Why does she need protection?"

Michael frowned. This was delicate. They'd stayed in the house, save for little excursions, the two kids getting the feel of the community. But the girl had learned English fast, and was working on Spanish. The kid, for all that he had some kind of magical power… not so fast. He just oozed "Fresh of the Boat" to Michael.

Not the girl. The girl kept her eyes open and had a poise to her. She was dangerous. Like when Janice had tried to get her to wear some dresses. She'd refused, unless she had to, and after whining and bemoaning, she had accepted a blouse, leggings and a short skirt…

That she could just pull off if she had to so it wouldn't bind her movement.

Fortunately, she was also a teen and he'd learned more from them than they had him. And his family…

"Come with me," he said. They followed Michael into a room full of boxes. He pulled a carton out. "You know what these are?"

"Um… Death Sticks?" Ezra asked.

"Yeah, some call 'em that, but see, they're legal. But the government likes to tax people, and poor people use them more, so they tax 'em when you buy them. Just across the river, these things are half what they are here. So we… help people not spend so much money."

"What are the taxes for?" Ezra asked.

"Oh, to 'help' the people. But they never say for what. They put up ads and specials and never actually try to stop them. Sound familiar?"

"Yeah," Sabine said, glancing at Ezra. "The Empire did that a lot, giving someone a monopoly and talking about how it was for our own good."

"So you see my problem. Technically, it's against the law, but it's a law passed to help people get rich. But because it is against the law…"

"People may cut in."

"Right, and some move other things, things that are just dangerous. Guns, drugs that will kill you. I'd like you two to help now and then, if you want…" He raised his hand. "You saved my neice once already. Whatever you say, you have a home here." And it didn't hurt that he actually meant that. If they wanted to stay here and go to college on his dime, Janice's life was worth that.

"No, you've given us a place to stay. We'll help."

"Good. Now Janice will be heading back to school, so I've set up some ID…"

Moments later, Ezra blinked. "Wait. School?"

"I say we just cut it open," Tony said, staring at the innoffensive cube currently held in a clamp.

"I'm sorry sir, but the force required to cut it open would destroy the contents," JARVIS replied.

"But the data in there must be incredible," Bruce said. "Look at what we got from the quantum scan."

"None of which helps us, unless we can get them to work. You think the Big Guy could scare out some information?"

"I don't think I want to see what the Big Guy would do if he got frustrated.

"Right, still fixing the helicarrier." Tony tapped his fingers, and then nodded. "Okay, Fury's wanting to find out who made these, and we know they weren't Chitauri, so I have an idea."

"I'm not liking this," Bruce said.

"C'mon, you love my ideas. JARVIS, how long before you could make a duplicate?"

"A non-functioning duplicate? I can have one made in about three hours."

"Great. You know what the Museum of Metropolitan Art needs? A new exhibit, mysterious art, with a bunch of things, including these things front and center."

"I…"

"If they were sent here for someone, someone's looking for them, so we put the fakes on display with a tracker, and publicize the hell out of them."

"What's Fury going to say?"

"He'll say 'thank you' when I get around to telling him."

Chapter Text

"Boss, hold the presses!" Mark said as he ran into Michael's office. "Screw cigarettes, you and I are gonna be rich!"

"You been tasting too much brew, Mark?"

"Nope. The chick, you know the one who knocked out half our guys in that sparring session?"

"Hey, a body guard needs to be able to fight."

"Yep. Well, the kid also can fight, but that light sword of his? It shoots some kind of knock you out bolt."

"Yeah, you and I both saw it. He's got a magic sword."

"Yeah, but the boys were talking to him, and one mentioned that would sure come in handy, you know, to keep from accidentally killing anyone and he was surprised. So was the chick. Boss, that isn't a magic gun. That's something that everyone had back home."

Michael stopped. "You're kidding."

"Nope. How much will the cops pay for a knock out gun that doesn't need wires? That has nearly as much range as a real gun?"

"Fu…" Michael bit the curse word off. It'd be a license to print money… And even in the normal business, if you started shooting at someone, even if they shot at you first, and a bystander got hit… Well, it'd be bad.

But if the worst you could do was knock someone out, then the feds would be landing on the other guy…

"And they can make this?"

"Sabine says yah. I just needed you to pay for the stuff."

"It's done. Let me talk to the lawyers about patent law…" He paused. "Or have him suggest a guy." After all their lawyer was more into tax shelters than patent law.

"Okay, everyone, we're going to have some dodgeball."

Dodgeball, what's that? Ezra had never been in school, not since his parents had died, and Sabine had been tutored. The both stuck with Janice in class, with a cover story that they were from some place called… Sokovia.

Hopefully Ezra wouldn't meet anyone actually from there.

"Hey, let's target the fresh meat!" someone said. Ezra tried not to roll his eyes, as one of Janice's friends walked up to him, evidently annoyed that she'd shown up with Ezra and Sabine. "How do you like that?" He was a lot bigger than Ezra and was sort of looming over him.

Is he trying to intimidate me? Ezra looked up at him and remembered another voice.

Your master has deceived you into believing you can become a Jedi… A great, dark figure, untouched by the fire around it, untouched by anything they were able to do. Darth Vader.

"Sure," Ezra said. "It'll be fun."

Later on, Janice bounced up to them, with a smile on her face. "So, how did you like um, bodyguarding me?"

Sabine tilted her head. "From what? Your friends?"

"Didn't you have…" Janice blinked. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said it like that."

"Our friends were a little different, but I didn't feel any real hostility." Ezra said.

"Which is good, because we're not exactly armed." Sabine muttered.

"Did they let you take guns into school?" Janice asked.

"Like Ezra said, our friends were a little different." Sabine said.

Behind them, one guy was telling his friends. "I'll get that little shrimp later. It was just luck the way he dodged everything."

Smirking is not the way of the Jedi. Ezra tried to remember that.

"Cool… you know, did you want to go to the museum with me?" Janice paused. "I mean, Uncle Michael wants you to go out, but he's really over protective especially since…" She gestured towards downtown.

"Museum?"

"Art Museum," Janice said. "I thought you'd be interested, since you painted your room like that…"

"What kind of art?" Sabine asked.

"Here, they had a flier in my AP class." Janice handed Sabine the paper and Sabine…

Opened it and sounded like she'd been kicked.

Ezra felt the shock in her mind. "Sabine, what is it?"

Sabine turned the flier over to Ezra and the center picture caused his eyes to widen. "Are those…Holocrons?"

"Maybe, but look at the banner!" Sabine said. Ezra stared, at it. It was… There was a three-pronged symbol, along with Sabine's starbird.

"Did you ever…"

"No, not like that," Sabine said. "What…"

"Yeah. We'll go," Ezra said.

"If Tony Stark paid that much to put it up, it's gotta be worth something."

"But in the middle of town?"

"Half the roads are still congested. And we've got this Chitauri firepower we grabbed off the street. The moment we pull the trigger, the cops will back off and we'll be long gone before anyone else shows up. Then it's pay day."

"Right, Boss. Payday."

They were among a group of friends of Janice when they headed out to the museum.

Sabine really didn't know how this worked. She'd been tutored. The school had been strange. No combat training, no teams competing, no political slogans on every wall extolling the virtues of the Empire…

The whole place, even now, was strange. The soldiers were leaving the town, because the last of the alien hardware had been cleaned up. The ones left were…

Not like home. Not like Lothal, at least not under the Empire.

Worst of all, the only thing she had on, under her normal clothes, was her bodysuit. No armor, no guns. Every other place had detectors. Ezra had his lightsaber, but nobody knew what that was. And not only that…

The detector buzzed.

"Pardon me, young man, can I see what's in your pocket?"

"Oh, right," Ezra said. He held out the lightsaber. "It's a toy I bought for my little sister. Am I going to have to stay out? I…"

The man shook his head. "Nah, Kid, go on in, but just remember not every place is as easy going as we are."

"Thank you, sir!" Ezra said, his eyes wide and earnest.

Sabine rolled her eyes as she went through.

They followed Janice, and both Sabine and Ezra had decided not to head right for the holocrons. That'd be too obvious.

And Sabine actually enjoyed it. There was the art from a place called Greece, some of it a few thousand years old.

Sabine had to remind herself that was old for this world. The abstract Chinese landscapes were a bit drab for her tastes, but she could appreciate how the artist had worked to blend all aspects of the landscape into one cohesive whole.

Ezra was jittering, barely bothering to look at the other exhibits.

Way to stay subtle…

But finally Janice headed over to the exhibit, and Sabine and Ezra followed.

"Mysterious arts of America," Janice said. "Found in a deserted shack…"

Ezra stared, and then lifted up one hand…

Then he frowned.

"What is it?" Sabine murmured.

"They're not real. They're fakes," Ezra said. "I can't feel the Force in them."

Sabine started looking around, casually. Is this a trap? But the banner used her art style, so it had to come from back home.

"We need to—"

"THIS IS A HOLD UP!"

Ezra looked up as several men entered the building, holding the alien weapons they'd seen when they first arrived.

"I want you all to sit down and shut up," the man said. "We're here to make a withdrawal courtesy of Tony Stark."

What? Ezra stared. They were going for the fake holocrons?

"Sabine?" he murmured.

"Let them take it. We can follow them," she said.

"Right, I—"

"Hey!" A girl shrieked as one of the men walked up to her and pulled her phone out of her hand. "That's mine!"

"You were filming us!"

"You leave Cindy alone!" Now the guy who had tried to intimidate Ezra was getting up.

How can they—they have guns! Why is he even?

"Oh, you wanna play hero? Fine!" Now the man was leveling the gun at Cindy and her protector.

No time. Ezra lifted his hand and pushed with the Force, and the man went flying back. Now guns were coming out, pointing at the crowd and…

Ezra's lightsaber was in his hand, and he started opening up with the stun bolts, keeping the blade deactivated. He'd seen stories about things called Tasers, which sounded like stun-only weapons. But he'd never seen anything that looked like a lightsaber, so he couldn't use it without outing himself as a Jedi. A force assisted leap took him away from the crowd as a display was hit and started to burn cheerily. Ezra dodged another bolt and then kicked the man into a wall.

"Ezra!" Sabine took out two men aiming at him, the teen having grabbed a quarterstaff from the martial arts exhibit, using it to smash down her assailants.

Then, it happened. One of the wild shots struck the ceiling, and a heavy, hanging display came free, plummeting to the ground where a family was crouched. The mother looked up and shrieked.

Ezra reached out and held the display. "Run!" he shouted, and the woman grabbed her children and managed to pull them away before Ezra let the display go.

"Too bad, asshole!"

Ezra spun around just in time to dodge the bolt fired at him. But now two other guys were also raising their guns, and Sabine was occupied with—

And with a crash of glass, a golden and red form dropped through the skylight, bolts of energy knocking Ezra's assailants across the room.

"Gentlemen, I don't recall paying for live entertainment…" he said.

"Ezra!" Sabine had Janice by one arm. "Let's go."

"But the—"

"He'll handle them." And then Sabine got closer to Ezra and spoke. "Fake Holocrons and look how fast he showed up. I think he was here for us!" Ezra looked around and nodded. "Fine."

"JARVIS, hack the street cams, and follow those two. I want to be able to track them—"

"A call for you, sir, from Mr. Fury."

"Well put him on," Tony said, stunning one man with a well-timed bolt. The other's were trying to run, all into the welcoming hands of the rapidly arriving NYPD.

"Stark! What are you doing?"

"I think I found your aliens, Nick."

"Do not pursue! Repeat, do not pursue!" Tony paused.

"I thought you were all about control."

"Not when it is one of your plans. Head back to the tower, I'll meet you."

"Well, that's interesting. Okay, no pursuit. JARVIS, get me an ID on their companion, and where they live."

"Yes, sir."

Back at the tower, Fury was well, being Fury. Natasha was with him.

"What the hell was that!" Fury asked.

"Oh, I don't know. Finding out about a human-looking kid with magic powers who was interested in the display."

"So you planned for the attack?" Natasha asked.

Tony shook his head. "No, that was unexpected. I was just going to have JARVIS go over the footage of everyone who visited the exhibition and see if there was anyone who didn't exist. But why didn't you have me go after them?"

"Because they might be friendly?" Nick asked. "The only signs of violence in New York were signs of them fighting the Chitarui. So maybe trying to find out who they were and talking to them would have worked."

"I have no control over random gang members…"

"Fine, let's run the footage," Natasha said.

Thirty minutes later, everyone was quiet, except for Tony, who had grabbed a bucket of popcorn. Bruce had come in and was leaning against a wall.

"Okay," Natasha said. "They spend some time with the other kids, wandering around the museum."

"Not just wandering," Tony said. "Look at Sunset Shimmer over there, staring at the art. She's not doing that to just pass the time."

"So aliens are into human art," Bruce said. "Not the weirdest thing."

"Yeah, but look at this part." Fury pointed. "The kid holds his hand out to the artifacts, then pulls it back. Something about it made him realize they weren't the real deal."

"Something like the way Thor's hammer is built?"

"You think we have some teenage Asgardians wandering around?" Natasha asked.

"No," Fury said. He fast-fowarded it to the brief fight. "The girl isn't nearly as strong as Thor is, but she's skilled…"

"Very good," Natasha said, watching as the girl dodged a bolt and then knocked two men out. "She's keeping a wall to her back—making certain they can't hit anyone?"

"I don't know, I'm more interested in Junior's magic spell. I wonder if he goes to a magic school." Tony said. "Look at that—he's holding what must be about three tons of exhibit!"

"Not for long," Bruce said.

"But long enough to get the civilians out. And that gun of his, whatever it was, only stunned, it didn't kill." Natasha frowned.

"So they're good Samaritans." Tony said. "I—"

"Mr. Stark," JARVIS said. "I have located their current domicile. Their state IDs read as Sabine Wren, and Ezra Bridger, both refugees from Sokovia—or at least that is what it would appear to be on a short look. A deeper examination of the records shows no evidence of entry into the United States."

"Stark, you and I are going to have a talk about infiltrating government databases," Fury said.

"Fine, so, shall we take the limo or just fly over?"

"Whoah…" Bruce said. "You know, from experience? I'd be pretty paranoid after all of this. They just outed themselves, and they've gotta be wondering if that was the reason for everything. Maybe we should give them some time to think things over, you know, have a little less… pressure."

"Which means not you, Stark." Natasha smirked at Tony's expression.

"First, I'm going to find out everything I can about them, using SHIELD resources. No contact until we know what's likely to blow up in our face. Then, presuming that we don't find anything out, we contact them with a message, asking them to come talk to us. No pressure. No going behind my back," Fury said.

"And what then?" Tony asked.

"Find out why they're here, and if they can help us while we help them."

Ezra and Sabine had taken Janice for a walk, after calling her father and some of her friends. Janice was shaken, but the other two wanted to make certain nobody was following them. Two bus rides later, they got off in a part of the city Sabine and Ezra had never been to before. A little walk took them to a small park, where they sat down, Sabine and Ezra looking around to see if they were being followed.

"Those guys, they had—"

"Blasters," Ezra nodded. "But they were really bad with them. Worse than stormtrooper bad."

Sabine nodded. "And no plan. I bet they were just a gang that picked them up off the street after the fight."

"You did this… A lot where you came from?" Janice asked.

"Well… usually we were the ones grabbing stuff," Ezra said. "But yeah. I—" He fell silent.

"Ezra?" Sabine asked.

"I… feel something." Ezra stood up. "It's… Like nothing I ever felt before." He turned to Janice. "What's down there?"

"I dunno. I've never been to this part of town before. I mean, probably just houses, or maybe a shop. Why?"

"I think we should check it out," Ezra said.

"Ezra, we're not…"

"We can just walk by."

"Fine…"

With that, the three got up and turned right, walking down Bleecker St.

Chapter Text

The house looked just like any other house, but the Force was just… Thrumming around it.

"This is it." Ezra stared.

"What?" Janice asked. "It's just a house…"

"Ezra has a way of seeing things," Sabine said. "But shouldn't we—Ezra? Ezra!"

But Ezra ignored them, and walked into the house. The door opening as he came to it, and closing behind him. Sabine charged the door, Janice behind her, and then they were pushing it open…

And Sabine was alone. In a hallway. No sign of Janice.

No sign of the door.

Sabine glared at it, clenched her fists, and headed down the hallway, checking the doors on each side. Locked.

And as strong as Imperial blast doors.

"Hello?" Ezra asked. He was standing in a foyer, a broad stairway rising up to the second floor.

The place actually looked…Bigger.

Like the temple on Lothal. Ezra closed his eyes, reached out…

"Hello."

He spun around, jumping back and staring at the small, bald woman who had somehow just appeared behind him.

"May I help you?" she asked.

"This place, it's…" Ezra swallowed. "Are you a Jedi, or a Sith?"

"I don't believe I've ever heard anyone say those words here," the woman said. "Some call me the Ancient One. I'm a teacher and guardian, though not of the arts you use."

"You don't use the Force?"

"What is that?"

"It's…" Ezra tried to think of what Kanan had said. "An energy, it binds the universe, binds everything."

"Well, then, I do use it, but not in the same way you do." The woman smiled. "That's our hubris, isn't it, to look at the universe, at how we interact with it, and say: this must be the only way."

"I, um…"

"Come along, I'm brewing tea, and I think we can chat."

"My friends, they'll—"

"They're being taken care of, don't worry."

Sabine kept walking. How could this house be so big? She'd lost track of the twists and turns.

"I'm not liking this…" She said. "I—"

She heard a whispering voice that sounded familiar up ahead. Is that… Mother?

Sabine started running, and then came to a dead halt, staring at the open door. In it, a younger version of her was talking to her mother.

"We can fight! We can stand up—"

"Really. We can fight, against the weapons you created, Sabine Wren. The weapons you gave the Empire to use against Mandalore?"

"Mama—"

"Clan Wren will submit itself to the Empire, and pay whatever price Gar Saxon demands. But as for you, Sabine Wren, I think we have had quite enough of your… help." The screen went dark and the younger Sabine slid off the chair, ending up on the floor, sobbing with her head in her hands.

"I didn't—" Sabine took a deep breath and spoke to her younger self. "I didn't mean to, they tricked me, I can fix it… Just listen—We can do—" the crying girl didn't seem to notice her, and the screen didn't come on, with her mother. If it would just turn on, she could talk to her, and they would understand—

A hand touched her shoulder, and she shrieked, spinning around to face a man who somehow was now safely far out of reach.

"Parts of this house can be… uncomfortable when it chooses to test a guest," he said. "I am Wong." Behind him, Janice waved timidly. "Maybe we should go and wait for your young companion," he said.

Sabine nodded. She swallowed once, and then brushed the moisture from her cheeks. We should go. I don't know if I trust him. But something caused her to just follow the man. She glanced back more than once, but there was only the closed door now. She could fight, she could demand…

But he didn't feel like he was dangerous. There was something about this place. Something unnerving… But not dangerous.

And Sabine didn't want to be running through this house alone. Not anymore.

"So you want to go home," The Ancient One said.

"Yes." Ezra sipped the tea. It tasted just like the way his mother had made it. "When we managed to deactivate the Imperial experiment, there was an explosion, and well, we ended up here."

"You saved many," the woman said.

"It may not have worked," Ezra said. "I mean, build a gateway from one planet to another, from the surface?"

"It worked well enough to bring you here," she said. Then she sighed. "Ezra, I can take you to where you were born, but not your home. When I touched you, I saw that much."

"Take us back to Lothal? How would that not be my home?"

"Are you willing to risk it? The impact of what you will see?"

"I'm not afraid," Ezra said.

"Fear may not be the worst that you must endure." She stood up. "This house, and those like it, are placed on nexuses of reality, part of the wards that defend Earth. But one with a proper knowledge can use them to travel across the universe, to galaxies whose light has not even reached Earth yet."

"Can…could you teach me?" Ezra asked.

She smiled. "Maybe, but I think your paths to wisdom go along a different route. But one day, you may learn, from myself… or another."

"Kanan says I'm a fast learner."

"And you have also been hurt, have you not?"

"I…" Something about her reminded Ezra of Yoda. "Yes."

"And have you ever felt the desire to show those who hurt you what it feels like?"

"I… Yes, but I try not to. It's the path to the Dark Side, but Kanan, he never did, and he was hurt worse than me. Zeb, Hera, Sabine, they've all been hurt, but they don't let it make them… into who they fight."

"You have good friends, Ezra Bridger. You are a good man, for not one in a hundred would have resisted that temptation. Which is why I am sorry to do this to you." She gestured. "Your home."

Ezra walked through the gleaming portal. And there it was. Lothal. He could smell the air. The grass, it was…

Wait. Something was different. He was on a plain, and down there, he could see from the mountains should be the…

Where's the city? Where's the tower? Ezra turned and looked to where the tower was, but it was gone. All of the structures were. It was like people had never lived here.

"What—this is… how can this be?" then he saw a Loth-wolf. The big animal stared at Ezra, before it chuffed and took off. But it looked…

Different. Longer, slimmer, the eyes a little further back, the teeth more prominent.

"It's…how is it different!"

"Evolution, I would expect.

Ezra blinked. "But that… Hera told me how some animals can change when they go to other worlds, but it takes…"

"Thousands of years, yes. Maybe millions. This is Lothal, today, Ezra."

"They're all—but where are the people?" Ezra asked.

"Reach out with the Force."

Ezra closed his eyes. "It's… the world is empty—no, it's… waiting. Waiting for…" He looked up. "Someone else. Nobody has been here, not for a long time."

"Everything changes, and even galaxies have their own lifecycle. Species grow up, then transcend, or grow old and die, but very few stay as they are forever. The history of your people, of the bright republics and dark empires that flourished here… Has been fulfilled." She held out her hands, and Ezra found himself taking them, like a small child. "There was no tragedy here, Ezra. Your fellows, and their children, and children's children, lived long, full lives, until one generation chose to take the next step. And when that happens, it is often like a fire, spreading through the galaxy, as those teeming trillions shed their mortal form for… Well, for something else."

"They're gone…" Ezra pulled his hand from her, stumbling back. "All of them. Kanan, Hera… Zeb… Chopper… All gone." His voice broke. "We can… if we can come here, we can…"

"No. Your past is far too distant in time to journey to." She shook her head. "And I think you have a destiny here, in this time."

"Then why did you bring me here?"

"To test you." The Ancient One stared. "And you are not ready."

"I—" Ezra fell silent.

"So much has been placed on your shoulders. This, right now, right here, would destroy you. Would destroy Sabine, for much she desired to say will now go unsaid forever." She smiled, a sad expression. "One day, Ezra, you will see this again, perhaps with with me, perhaps with another. But not today. For here, alone in this world, you and Sabine stand upon sand and this would wash you away. You must wait until you stand upon the granite that friends and loved ones bring."

Ezra sniffled. "Well, I hate to tell you this, but I can't exactly—"

"Forget?" She tilted her head and reached out and touched Ezra's forehead. "That's the easiest part."

"So an hour walking around and I didn't find anything," Ezra said. "I'm sorry, guys."

"Well, it got us away from the museum, and I'm comfortably certain nobody was tracking us," Sabine said.

"Uncle Michael has sent like ten texts," Janice mentioned. "I think he's going past worried and getting annoyed." She stretched her legs. "Hey, I think that exercise is doing me good. I'm not as tired."

They were all sitting at a little cafe, the sun slowly going down. Here, there wasn't any hint of the chaos earlier in the day, people coming home from work, or just enjoying the end of the day.

"Yeah," Sabine said. She stared at her tea. "Excuse me," she said to the waiter. "I've never had tea like this, it's just like home… do you?"

"Oh," the waiter said, "a nice lady who lives up the street gave us the recipe this morning. "It's really popular," he added. "So don't worry about missing it. We'll have it here all the time."

"I won't…" Sabine said.

Ezra nodded. The drinks on Earth were nice, but somehow… this did remind him of Lothal, and for a moment, he heard the wind rushing through the grass of home, remembered running through it as a child.

But then the moment passed, and it was just the early evening wind blowing through the street.

"We'd better go," he said. The others agreed, and they got up to walk home, never noticing the woman sitting by the corner of the cafe.

"Go well, Sabine and Ezra," she said. "And may you find good ground to stand upon."

Chapter Text

The explanation for why they didn't immediately come home didn't sit that well with Michael.

"So you thought it was a honey trap and just wanted to wander around New York?"

"Yeah, to see if anyone was following us," Ezra said.

Michael sighed. "Kid, that's Iron Man. Otherwise known as Tony Stark. He's not going to be flying around over the streets seeing if he can find you. Fine. You protected Janice and well, we've got other things to talk about." He picked up a yellow gun-like object. "Ever seen this before?"

Sabine shook her head. "No… It's…" She took it from Michael, then frowned, keeping the muzzle away from anyone in the room. "No."  She handed it back to Michael. "I've never seen anything like it."

"It's a taser."

"A what?"

"Watch," Michael said. He gestured, and Mark set up a little target. "Ready—fire."

There was a soft bang, and two dart-tipped wires shot out, hitting the target. "It puts out a shock, locks your body up. It's the best less-than-lethal gun on the market."

Sabine stared, disbelief on her face. "You… use this, really? It only has one shot!"

"There are some that have two," Mark said.

Ezra stared at his lightsaber. "I…"

"Yeah, that's what we thought of this. So, Kids, how'd you like to go into legal business with me? Because the thing that keeps a lot of people from buying guns, is that guns can kill. Make a mistake and you go up for murder, and the government can make it really hard for someone to be armed in their own self-defense."

Ezra glanced at Sabine. That was one of the first things the Empire did in a lot of places.

"Can you do it?" he asked.

"I can try," Sabine said. "Stunners are old, old technology, so… Maybe?"

"I set up a workshop for you out back." Michael said. "And before that, you mentioned that your jet pack runs on fuel and you don't have a lot of it, right?"

"Yes," Sabine said.

"I may have something else for you as well," Michael said. "You don't say a lot about where you came from, but if trouble follows you, well… Let me show you."

Out back, there was a large building. Michael had told them that the guy who owned the mansion had once been an auto-freak, and had loaded it with cars.

Now it was full of equipment. Sabine walked in and frowned. "I've never used any of this." She sighed. "It'll take me a while to learn my way around it, but… making a stunner shouldn't be hard. It's the power that is going to be the problem."

"Well, we won't be able to use it for every stunner, but at least for you, we've solved the power problem. Mark?"

Michael's assistant grinned and walked over to a table with a sheet on it. He pulled the sheet off to reveal the remains of…

A droid? Ezra thought.

"About a year ago, there was a real dust-up at the Stark Expo. Some lunatic set off a bunch of robots. Now the thing is, people… sometimes stuff falls off of the back of a truck. You know…"

"Smuggling," Ezra said. "We know."

"Hah! I bet you do. Well, this here is the remains of a Hammer Drone. Nobody could make it work, but I thought of you, and… Yeah, picked it up from the guy."

"How much?" Sabine asked.

"100,000 dollars. Like I said, it didn't work, and he can't exactly sell it on the open market."

"So how did you know him?" Sabine said.

"Oh, we'd done some gambling, I… may have helped him get out of the house before his girlfriend's husband came home, and I also…"

"Lando," Sabine and Ezra chorused. "We get it."

Sabine walked forward and stared  at it, running her fingers over the parts. "This is weird. You don't even have repulsor lift systems in use but some of this is…" She shook her head. "I'm going to have to study this… and this…" She reached down and pulled up the disk-like object. "This is hooked into the power systems but…"

"Oh yeah, that's an Arc Reactor. That's actually the part that I was happiest to get. Stark spent a lot of time collecting those from the Hammer bots, and his lawyers land on anyone who tries to use them without authorization, like the wrath of God."

"Typical," Sabine muttered. "These conduits…" She shook her head. "I'm going to have to study this. I don't want to blow myself up, but I have some ideas…"

"Stunner first, if you don't mind, I'm not made of money."

"Right," Sabine nodded.

"Also, if anyone asks when you go back to school, Ezra had a prototype."

"School?" Sabine asked. She gestured at the equipment. "What about this? I can't—"

"Sure you can," Ezra said. "School's sort of fun. Besides, if someone was looking for us, wouldn't it be suspicious if we stopped going to school?"

"I… Okay." Sabine glared at the suit. "But this… I mean, I need to know." She turned to Michael. "I need you to get me out of math, science, and history, and put me in some kind of study hall."

"What, why?"

"Because I know better math than they do, I can't talk to anyone about our science, and history I don't need. But I need to study this."

"So much for teaching you tennis," Janice said in a resigned tone.

The next week the school was buzzing. Ezra explained that he'd been given a prototype Taser because he'd been threatened before. For a while, Sabine was bothered by guys who asked her if she was okay, or told her how they could have handled things better.

"She's really getting annoyed," Janice mentioned.

"Yeah, it's… Well, she'd probably like to show them why telling a Mandalorian you can protect them is a big insult."

Fortunately, Sabine was more interested in her work. She had paper notepads, that she brought from home, and would spend time in the corner of the study hall she was assigned to, supposedly because she needed some remedial work, reading and writing, carefully positioned so that nobody could see her work.

"What are we looking at, Stark?" Fury asked. The microcameras had been seeded through the school the night after they'd confirmed the two were going there.

"Well, the kid? He fits in. In fact, the way he helped that girl with her papers, and told off that one bully—you sure he's not an alternate universe you, Cap?" Tony asked.

"Fairly certain," Steve said.

"Now the girl is interesting," Tony said. "Look at these pictures." Several blown up pictures showed the notepad, the computer building a composite, and editing Sabine's head out of it.

"That's the writing on the cache we found," Fury said.

"Right, but look at what she's doing—We've been watching for a week, and she keeps working on this. Looks like some kind of energy projector, but the design keeps evolving."

"What do you mean?" Steve asked.

Tony gestured at the image. "She's not someone who found something and is copying it—she's an engineer. She's refining the paper design."

"And from the sound of her voice, getting annoyed," Bruce said. "But I think her tech is limited in some respects. She didn't think of microcams."

"Most kids don't assume they're going to be spied on in school," Steve said, an edge to his voice.

Fury shook his head. Captain America had not been happy to find out about modern surveillance technology.

"No," Fury replied. "They are. She's watching and putting herself in a position where people can't see what she's working on, but I see what Bruce means. She's not used to how small we can make these sensors. Or she knows, but hasn't internalized it."

"So what do we do?" Tony asked. "Just let little Miss Raygun design her blaster? If she's designing it, she's going to build it."

"And she could be building something else, they have that back building that she goes to." Bruce added.

"The only thing they've done is fight the Chitauri, escort a girl home, and then fight some robbers," Steve said. "How about we just go and visit them?" He looked around. "We know that they're connected to the package, and they went to go see it, but we don't know why. Maybe those things are money. Maybe they're information. Maybe they're just pictures from home. But not everyone from beyond Earth is an enemy."

"You have an infinite capacity for optimism," Tony said.

"Well, I come from a naive generation," Steve replied.

"Do you think you can talk to them?" Fury asked.

"I think it won't hurt."

Fury frowned, then nodded. "I'll set it up. But we won't be able to do that right now, I've got some things you need to deal with, Captain."

"More important than this?"

"The world doesn't stop just because we want it to. And for that matter, some of our analysts agree—giving them time to get settled might make them more likely to listen to us. I don't always go for the hard sell."

"So Fury's looking at these kids."

"Yes. We've got data on them, but they're a blank. Just appeared during the attack on New York. Fury thinks they may have come through another gateway, but since Thor isn't here, they don't have anyone to ask."

"Why should we care?" Pierce asked. He looked out over the skyline of New York, buildings still being repaired from the invasion.

"Evidence indicates that the girl is a high level combatant, and the boy has… unusual skills. We're not entirely certain about their extent, but…" the image played, showing the display being held, "that kind of ability, in a covert agent…"

"We have a hundred high-level combatants," Pierce said. "And this isn't the kind of thing that's worth deploying SHIELD assets or our other arms to deal with." The call was secured, but saying HYDRA aloud was just terrible tradecraft.

"We won't. Fury's already tracked them to their home—he's a small-time smuggler and crimelord."

"And?"

"And they're illegal immigrants, working with a known criminal, even if the DA hasn't been able to pin anything on him. Whisper in the right ears, and we can drop a SWAT team on them. I have a team that can take them into custody, with everyone being read in on the organization, so we can get what we need. It's a win-win. If they give up, Fury will bring them in. If they fight, we can see how good they are, and depending on whether or not they kill anyone, we can pull them out of Fury's reach and indoctrinate them both, the same way we handled the Soldier. Even if they don't kill anyone, there's no way Fury lets them run free, so we still get influence over them."

Pierce tapped the desk, thinking hard.

"No." He finally said. "Not yet, and nothing that complex. I want to see what they're going to do over the next month or so. There's nothing keeping us from pulling the trigger later, after all."

"And Fury?"

"If we decide to go forward, our only point of contact will be turning the New York authorities loose on them. After that, let Fury handle it. If he brings them in, we have our own people who can… talk to them, without ever letting on that they're not part of SHIELD."

"Cautious for you."

"We were just invaded by aliens. Everyone's at high alert, and I'm juggling a lot of balls in the air as it is. One point of contact, an anonymous tip, is something that even Fury won't pick up on. But the more clever we get, the more strings there are for someone to start tugging on." He shrugged. "Keep it simple and keep it quiet for now."

"Yes, sir."

The phone went dead. Pierce frowned, staring at the city. The damaged buildings were a sign of the rot at the core of the nation, of the world. They'd been weak and vulnerable.

Mankind needed a strong hand to guide them. An organization unafraid to do what needed to be done.

Hail Hydra, Pierce thought, and then went back to his paperwork.

Chapter Text

Three weeks, Ezra thought. Three weeks since the fight at the museum. They'd been interviewed by the police, and didn't that bring back bad memories of the ISB. But nobody had twigged on to them.

Oh, and Sabine had wrecked the school driver's ed car. She was sitting, head bent over her workbench, grumping about that.

"Don't worry," Janice said, looking nervous. "Everyone, um, hits the curb doing 30."

"Everybody does, in a world where you use repulsors instead of rubber wheels," Sabine said. She did something with her soldering iron and then grinned. "And it's done."

Ezra looked over where he'd been working on the power coupling. "You sure?" he asked. All three looked over at the soot stains on the far wall, and the five new fire extinguishers Michael had put in the room.

"Yes," Sabine said. She hefted the stunner. "Let's show Michael."

"And your suit," Janice said.

"That's for me," Sabine grinned. She glanced over at the suit, the gray armor decorated with complex abstract designs.

Ezra nodded. Replicating the power source wasn't something she'd managed to do, not yet. It required some kind of material that she couldn't figure out. But she'd been able to strip the drone and repurpose its reactor. Now, there was an open frame that would lock around Sabine's armor, adding weapons, thrust and shields without hurting her mobility.

Not only that, but the reactor had enough power to call up shields larger than they'd used back home. Granted, Sabine hadn't been able to fix the problem with the arc reactor overheating, but as long as you didn't fly and shoot everything off, that wasn't a problem.

These people are weird. Tech like that, and they ran around with slugthrowers.

"So show me what you have," Michael said.

"Right," Sabine held up the heavy weapon. It looked like a short-barreled shotgun, with a thick cable running back to a power pack. "You don't have any power sources that work well enough, so this only gives 10 shots, and it only has a range of about 30 meters." She shrugged. "I tried to make it as small as I could but this is the best I could do."

"Ten shots, thirty meters range?" Mark said. "Kid, you just became our accountant's favorite person. He paused. "But how fast can it fire?"

Sabine grinned and then raised the gun and pulled the trigger as fast as she could. Blue rings shot out, one after the other.

"Holy…" Michael stared. "I think you just put every less-lethal alternative out of business. What about danger?"

"Well," Sabine said. "If you shoot someone when they're on a wall, they can fall and die. Other than that, the stunners have a limit on how much they can do. Shooting a person 10 times just makes them sleep a little longer." She felt pride at the way they were looking at her.

And then she remembered the last time she'd felt that pride—when her tutor at the Imperial Academy had called her in to talk with the ordinance director on how best to make her dream Mandalore's nightmare.

"How soon can we start production?" Michael asked.

"I have the plans." Sabine nodded. "You just have to…" She frowned. "Talk to the patent office?" It felt strange, talking about something like a stunner, like it was some new development.

But this world was so young. There had been stunners in the galaxy for longer than Earth had possessed cities.

"Yeah, we'll file those right away. Great Job."

"Hands off the school," Chief Landon muttered. "Hands off the fucking house." Michael was flaunting his new business, with a pair of illegal aliens going to school, and his every attempt to act on the information was being stonewalled. Bringing in equipment. Talking to patent attorneys. He bet he had grabbed some fucking alien tech and was going to pretend that he had invented it.

The only thing he'd invented were new ways to smuggle a few million dollars' worth of black market smokes into the state.

Well he wasn't going to stand for that. Someone wanted Michael protected, they could fuck right off, especially with his information that SHIELD was pulling strings. Having anonymous sources was great, even if they wanted him to hold off for a while. Well fuck them too.

"You know," Landon said to his deputy chief. "The presence of these kids could imply a trafficking operation, and given the danger to them…"

"A no-knock warrant?"

"Yep, get Judge Conners. All you have to do is wave law and order in his face, and maybe show that the kids ain't white, and he'll sign it in an instant." Landon didn't understand people like that—a crook was a crook, didn't matter what color their skin was, but it paid to know what judges would give you an auto-sign off.

"You know, it could be dangerous," the deputy chief said. "And with all the people talking about how we dropped the ball with the Chitauri…"

Right. Landon thought. There had been cops and national guard troops on the ground, and more than a few had died in the line of duty—but to hear everyone talk, they'd been out getting donuts while the city was invaded. Nobody bothered to think about what it took for some guy who wasn't a god or wrapped up in enough firepower to sink a battleship to go up against aliens with a 9mm sidearm.

"Yeah… Full hostile entry. Flashbangs, ram Old Bessie through their front gate, helicopters, the whole thing. Minimum notification required by law. Scare the shit out of them. Maybe bring some news people who are on our side for the good PR."

"Oh, and make certain to get a bunch of boxes," Landon said. A real search warrant would take days to clear, but people loved seeing boxes of paperwork coming out of a house. The fact that they'd taken the boxes in and just brought them out filled with nothing but newspapers never really got talked about.

"Right," his deputy said.

"But keep this quiet. I don't want to find out that SHIELD is going to come sweeping in because they've decided they get to tell everyone in the nation to do."

"Will do, Boss. Friday sound good?"

"Perfect. It'll be a great way to start off the weekend. We'll be on every Saturday news program."

Chapter Text

It happened on a Friday.

As usual, Sabine was finished with her homework. Janice and Ezra just felt a little annoyed.

Okay, maybe it's because she got out of History. Ezra was having issues with history. On the other—

Suddenly, the Force just screamed out a warning. Ezra stopped.

"Janice, get your dad," he said.

"What's—"

"Something's coming. Sabine, is your armor ready?"

"Yeah."

"Get it." Ezra turned to Janice. "We need to talk to your dad."

"Right," Janice said. They ran to Michael's office.

"I'm telling you, Hank, this is a deal you don't want to miss out on. I saw it, and it works and—hang on." Michael looked up as Ezra and Janice came running in, and then frowned as he saw Ezra holding his lightsaber. "I'll get back to you."

"Something's coming. Something bad," Ezra said. "You need to leave with Janice. Now."

"Do you know what it is?" Michael asked, already getting up.

"No."

Michael had seen the kid levitate a car. If he said something bad was coming, something bad was coming. "Janice, here are some preloaded debit cards. Go with them."

"Unc—"

"Don't argue. If—"

"Boss, someone hit the Ga—"

And then the windows shattered. Ezra's sword ignited as he swept Janice behind him, but other windows were shattering. And through them came flash bangs.

For the rest of his life, Michael wondered if he could have avoided the disaster. If he'd known they were cops and not someone deciding to hit him because of the business, he might not have done what he had done. If he remembered that nobody else knew about the stunner, he might not have done what he did.

But in the flashings and explosions of the grenades, he grabbed the prototype and opened up, the blue flashes barely visible to his dazzled eyes. He was shooting blind, but he knew which way the windows were. They hit the first bodies coming in through the window, and they dropped like sacks.

This is going well, Landon thought. The gate was smashed, his people were in, already with some of the bodyguard on their bellies, getting cuffed. There was even a news crew there to watch as the traffickers were arrested, and the people in the front had shouted "police" as they kicked the door down so they were covered legally. He didn't know what the team on the side was—

"OFFICERS DOWN! MULTIPLE OFFICERS DOWN! THEY'VE GOT CHITARUI GUNS!" And on the heels of that, the sound of gunfire started to rise from the house.

Inside, it was chaos. Blocking a bullet was a little harder than a blaster, and you couldn't redirect them, but Ezra managed to protect himself. But Mr. Michael fell back, dropping the stunner, scarlet blooming on his shoulder.

"Uncle Michael!"

"Kid, get out of here, take Janice—" he fell behind the desk as another volley of slugthrowers rang out.

Ezra struck out with the force, sending the stormtroopers flying out of the window. Then he grabbed Janice and pulled her after him.

"Uncle Michael!"

"We can't help him if we're dead." Ezra grabbed his communicator. "Sabine! We're heading to the garage, I need you to distract—WHA!" he dodged back as a volley of fire almost got him and Janice, and then raised his saber, switching to stun bolts. They couldn't get stopped here, and by the time the stormtroopers were awake, they'd be long gone. "I need a distraction!"

"Oh, you've got that," Sabine said.

We were stupid. Everything had looked so nice that they'd forgotten. The Empire liked to act like this, too—until it was time to show its real face. Sabine felt the outer armor lock around her body, her helmet linking with the systems on the armor.

I really wish I'd had time to test this. But no time like the present. She looked up at the door, men using some kind of sledgehammer on it.

"Ok, let me help you," she said, and triggered her repulsor.

The door exploded as she shot out.

"Ezra, I'll clear a path!"

Then she was rising up, and the targeting systems were coming alive. She looked at the big armored vehicle sitting in front. It was blocking the way.

Sabine targeted it, and blew it onto it's side with a full-power repulsor blast from the rings around her hands. That way, if she had to, she could use both her repulsors and her blasters. She would have preferred to use missiles, but she only had a few of those.

And then Ezra came roaring out of the smoke on a scarlet bike, Janice clinging to his back. He got close to the cars blocking his way and then they were just shoved aside by the force.

"Ezra!" Sabine said. "Head to Manhattan."

"What?" Ezra said. "Sabine—"

"They came for us, we have to recover the holocrons and go. If this Stark had the fakes, I bet he's keeping the real ones in his tower."

"Right."

"Where are we going to go?" Janice whimpered. "Why did the cops…"

"That's what they do," Ezra said. "We'll keep you safe, don't worry."

"What the hell happened?" Fury snarled as he stormed into the command center.

"Cops pulled a no-knock warrant," Maria Hill said, turning to face him. "They kept it on the QT."

"Pulling up a video," someone called, and Fury swore as the devastation was shown. Police cars were on their sides, burning, what looked like an armored car had been tossed past the gates.

"This is American News, live. We've been informed that what was thought to have been a human trafficking operation was actually a front for a terrorist organization using alien-derived weaponry!" The reporter gestured, and suddenly the video showed cops falling to blue flashes, and a figure unleashing repulsor bolts on vehicles.

"Well now we know what she was doing when she wasn't working on a blaster," Tony said. "Suiting up."

"We've just received information about the two terrorists who attacked so many of the nation's finest." A pair of images appeared. One of Ezra Bridger looking… well, nervous as several girls surrounded him, and the other of Sabine Wren, leaning against a locker, talking to Ezra.

"They should be considered armed and extremely dangerous, and the police have assured us that they will be brought to justice!"

"Damn. It." Fury shook his head. "How many dead?"

"None, sir. In fact a lot of the ones listed as being down appear to have been just stunned. No other injuries, just like they were knocked out. That's where the first reports of deaths came from. Other injuries include broken bones, burns…but no dead." Hill shook her head. "I think they were lucky. Those two were prioritizing getting out, rather than racking up a body count."

"Somehow, I don't feel lucky," Fury said. "Stark, try to avoid a fight."

"This is the girl with enough firepower to blow up a tank, heading into the most heavily populated city in America? I just wanted to be certain."

"Tony, they're not acting like crooks," Steve said. "They could have done a lot more. I think they're scared, and they don't have a plan. If we can talk them down…"

"Big if, Cap," Tony said. "Right, I'm in the air. JARVIS, give me a track on Tinkerbelle."

"Coming up, sir."

"Sabine, how can we get there?" Ezra asked. "That's the first place I'd protect."

"I don't know!" Sabine said. "But we— Oh, no."

"What is it?"

"Iron Man."

"Karabast!" Ezra burst out. "We have to—" then suddenly, directly in front of them, there were cars, dozens of police cars, men getting out. Ezra turned right, then left, trusting in the Force, and ended up in what looked like an old office building of some kind, smashing through the front in a shower of safety glass. He let the bike slide, leaping free with Janice in his arms.

"Ezra, we have to surrender, we can explai—"

Ezra cut her off. "Janice, if we surrender we die. That's how these people act! They were friendly to you because you didn't matter, but look what they did! They didn't ask to come in. They started shooting, even though we hadn't hurt any of them." Ezra took a breath. "I'll hold them off. You have money. You need to take it, and when I open a way, run, get out of this city. Don't look back."

"But Ezra, you don't un—"

"Promise me!"

"I… I promise."

Ezra shook his head. "I'm sorry. It would have been better for you if we'd never been here." He took a deep, shuddering breath. "I guess that's how it is for a lot of my friends."

No way Ezra can get away with him in the air. Sabine knew that. She'd seen pictures of what he did during the invasion.

So as the form rocketed towards her, she did what she had to do.

Did what she would do for her friends, and they would do for her.

Put herself in the way of those who would hurt them.

And with that, she launched her rockets at the armored Avenger.

The only way he was getting to Ezra was if Sabine Wren was dead.

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

Nick Fury was not happy.

No, Nick Fury was beyond angry. He'd wrapped his way back to calm. Sure, the kids were with a criminal, but mostly a non-violent criminal. They'd already saved lives, and beyond that, were… going to school. Learning the terrain.

So they had been put down lower on the list of fires SHIELD had to put out. Some of the analysts had actually said it would be a good idea. Let them get more assimilated, get to know more people, then come in with a soft debrief and maybe, depending, a job offer.

Or just give their current guardian a warning about involving them in the criminal underworld and go from there. They wouldn't be the first aliens who just wanted to live their lives on Earth in quiet anonymity.

And now… This.

"Explain to me," Fury said. "Why you felt the need to attack an estate, after we requested that you not get involved, without giving advance warning?"

"You're taking the word of a criminal over us?"

"I am taking the word of a man who was shot in the shoulder, after using a less-lethal stunner, and who was in a room that my people agree had flash-bangs detonate in it, probably not moments before the team entered." Fury took a calming breath. "My people are very good at forensic analysis, and you are very lucky that those two teens were getting their friend out instead of sticking around to fight."

"What would you have done, then?"

"Nothing, I would have done nothing, until we were ready, and then…" Fury leaned forward, looming over the police chief. "I would have called them and asked them to meet us at a neutral location."

"We were worried about—"

"What? That they might be at school? Yes, we've been observing them, and you could have served the warrant here while they were gone. You wanted a PR event." Fury swept out one hand to indicate the road leading up to the estate. It was now jammed with news trucks, ranging from the Times to CNN. One reporter was filming a report in front of the wrecked armored car. "Congratulations. You have your PR event." He spun off and walked away.

"How bad is it?" he asked Maria Hill.

"We've managed to convince the news media to avoid putting their names all over the news, since they're both juveniles…" Hill shook her head. "But every kid they talked to at the school knows who they are, and it's blowing up across social media right now. No way to stop it, not without looking even worse than we do." She paused. "Of course, a lot is going to depend on whether or not we're still talking about two kids by tomorrow."

"Right." Fury shook his head.

"Forensics is going over the workshop. They're confirming what the owner said. Other than personal weapons, they were only working on stunner designs for their host. And his paperwork was all for things like patent rules and loans. He even had an application for a booth at the National Law Enforcement Organizations Convention."

"Damn. It."

Sabine saw flashes. She hurt, and the darkness kept pulling her down. She kept trying to get up. Fight. She had to stop them. Had to protect Ezra and Janice.

There were words around her. Flashes of light.

CODE BLUE, CODE BLUE.

"Right, you'll be okay. You'll be okay. Get ready to move her…" Pain as she was moved to some other bed.

"Get that crap off of her!" There were hands, stripping her. Taking her armor. Sometimes the Empire did that. A way to show what they could do to you. She wouldn't let them. She struggled up from the darkness and raised a hand to stop them. It flopped around, and then they were taking her clothes off.

"Right, get the…" Sabine faded out again and then someone was putting a mask over her face. She fought her way back again, tried to push it off, but someone pushed her hand away. She screamed. They were pressing her down, holding her. Fight. She had to fight. She arched her back, and then her scream turned into a gurgle.

"You'll be fine, honey. Honey, listen to me. I know it hurts, I know you're scared, but you have to let us help you." Was that Ezra? No. She'd gotten Ezra away.

The light hurt… Why was Kanan here? They'd left him at the base when they'd gone—

A high-pitched wailing sound rose up in the room, and Sabine fell into a soft darkness, the pain going away as she heard someone shout out, voice sounding a little bit like Hera's when they ran into a bunch of TIEs.

"She's crashing!"

When Natasha made it to the hospital, she was confronted by the odd sight of a teenaged girl assaulting Iron Man. Fury had called out everyone, now that the teens' identity was out. Clint was on his way, and there were more SHIELD troops around the hospital than there were at the helicarrier.

None of which changed the surreal nature of Iron Man, standing, not even raising his hands to hold her off, as the blond teen slapped him across the face.

Granted, not unusual for Tony Stark, but generally with older women, and never in his Iron Man persona.

"You killed her!" The girl said through her tears.

"Janice," the shorter teen said as he took her by her arms and led her away. "Sabine isn't dead. Remember what Steve Rodgers said. This was… This was a mistake."

And that grabbed Natasha's attention. The kid wasn't in shock or posturing, but he was showing a…

Calm. One that she'd never seen in any of the surveillance videos of his. Interesting. But first, she needed to get information.

"What happened?" She asked Tony, as the teen led the sobbing girl away.

"Oh, normal thing. Cops jump the gun, teenage girl gets into a suit of powered armor, we have a duel, and… I managed to chase her into a solid concrete wall at one hundred miles…" Tony's face was pale, and he was brushing his armor with his hands.

No. The blood on his armor. Natasha hissed. That was a large amount of blood.

"I know what a piece of crap Hammertech systems are, and I still chased her. I could have just waited for the goddamned reactor to blow while I could still catch her in the air, not chase her down to the deck."

"You didn't have a choice, Tony," Natasha said.

"Yeah, you know, we say that a lot. When I was making weapons, I said it every day to some bleeding heart liberal. I didn't have a choice. If I didn't make them someone else would. When we do something that ends up with a bunch of dead kids, we say we didn't have a choice. And everyone nods along, and we go back to our jobs… until the next time we didn't have a choice. Maybe I should have tried to think of something better. Maybe, if we didn't keep telling ourselves we didn't have a choice, there would be a few less bodies."

"She was in a power suit in New York."

"And maybe if I had backed off, like Cap had, she wouldn't be in surgery with a 30 percent chance of making it through the next two hours!" Tony's fist lashed out, and put a hole in the plaster wall of the waiting room. Natasha put her hand on his arm.

"Might want to watch that. Lots of things here don't like getting punched."

"Yeah. Sorry! Just a little structural integrity test!" he said, louder.

Nobody laughed.

The time passed. Right now would be the best time to interview Ezra, normally, but Natasha didn't think he'd fall prey to that. He still had that sense of calm. He was comforting Janice, holding her while she alternately sobbed and ranted.

Her father was coming, but there were… Issues, Fury had said. The locals were digging their heels in on him, trying to recover something based on his position as a dangerous cigarette smuggler.

Natasha got the impression that Fury was about to drop Banner on their heads and see how they liked playing with the Big Guy.

But for now, the order was for a soft touch, to try and recover some of this disaster.

"He's a soldier," Steve said as he handed her a cup of coffee.

"How did he get so calm?"

"Some kind of meditative exercise," Steve said. "I talked to him over the phone and when I got there in person… the panic, the anger… It was…" he shrugged. "Gone. That's a pretty rare skill."

"Yeah. Tony's beating himself up."

"He couldn't have done anything else. I had Ezra in an isolated building. No danger to civilians. I could wait. Tony didn't have that luxury."

"Tell him that." Natasha shook her head. After all. Tony's never killed a kid on purpose. That wasn't something she could say.

She hadn't been kidding when she'd told Loki she had a lot of red in her book, after all.

Three hours later, a doctor came out. "Who is her guardian?" he asked.

"That would be me," Fury said from where he'd just walked in through the door. "Unless you have an FTL drive, that is."

"Right. Well," the doctor stared at Iron Man for a moment. "Good news, you didn't succeed in killing her. Bad news…" he shrugged. "She's in extremely critical condition. Eight broken ribs, broken leg, though that's pretty minor, a punctured lung, damage to the kidneys…" he sighed. "We're still uncertain about those. She may need a transplant or dialysis in the future, but we won't know until the other stuff gets fixed. The internal bleeding almost killed her. Good news, she evidently knew how to fall, or had something shielding her head. She had a heavy concussion, but that was it. She crashed three times, but we managed to bring her back. We can't do anything else, not right now."

"Is she going to live?" Ezra asked, and for all his calm, he sounded much younger than he was.

"I—"

"The truth, Doctor," Fury said.

"I can't give percentages. This isn't like gambling. I can say that if she makes it through tonight, her chances are much better to make it through tomorrow."

"I want to sit with her," Ezra said.

"Young man, that's… she's not…" The doctor shook his head. "She's in bad shape. Are you sure you can handle it?"

"Yes," a new voice spoke. Captain America looked down at Ezra. "He can. If you're worried, I'll sit with him."

"I… Yes, Captain America. Just… she looks bad."

"Can I…" Janice asked in a weak voice. Ezra turned and took her by the hands. "Remember how annoyed Sabine was when she ate that food that didn't agree with her and had to…"

"Puke in the bathroom?" Janice said, giggling, even as tears came down her face.

"She really doesn't like a lot of people seeing her when she's… not on her feet. I'll watch her, and when she wakes up, you can talk to her."

"Tha—thank you." Janice threw her arms around Ezra, sniffling. "I'm sorry. You being with us has been horr—"

"No, it hasn't. You're a friend. And this happens when you protect people. But it's what we do."

With that, he and Steve followed the Doctor out, leaving the rest standing in the room.

Waiting.

Chapter Text

When Ezra stepped into the room, the first thing he was aware of was an odd hissing sound.

Like Darth Vader. He shivered, then looked down at Sabine. There was a tube in her mouth, another one in her nose, and her face was puffy, black and blue. Most of her body was invisible under the bedsheets, save for a leg that was elevated. One arm was visible, but there were tubes and sensors all over it, while several of her fingers were splinted.

She looked… Small. And she didn't even have any privacy. On the Ghost, everyone knew that sometimes Sabine just closed her door and wanted to be left alone. Here, there was a big glass front to the room, letting the nurses and doctors look in, along with a nurse in a chair by her, glancing up to check the displays.

"She would hate this," Ezra said.

Captain America—Steve Rodgers, nodded. "Most people who fight like she did do." He held out a chair for Ezra. "You want me to stick around, or go?"

"I… you're probably busy."

"Not too busy for this."

"Right." Ezra reached out and touched Sabine. She didn't respond. Suddenly, he had to tell this man. All they knew about her was that they'd hidden and had been fighting. But that wasn't all to tell about Sabine.

"I was a thief," Ezra said. "After the Empire took my parents, I just… did what I needed to do to survive. It was just me. I mean, if nobody cared about me, why should I care about anyone else? And then I saw them, stealing stuff. Hera, Chopper, Kanan, Zeb… Sabine." He patted her hand. "But they weren't just stealing it. They were giving it to the people the Empire had kicked off their land, the people who didn't have anything. And I helped, them, and it felt… Good. Better than just staying alive for one more day. And we made friends… and lost them, and fought the Empire. That's why Sabine and I are here." Ezra stared at her partially visible face. "The Empire, they were making a system, a way to travel in hyperspace, only from planet to planet. They could have put soldiers anywhere, attacked people in their homes… And we blew it up. But before…" He laughed. "I was dangling, and told her to let go, and she told me nobody got to sacrifice themselves and she wasn't leaving me behind. And she didn't." He shook his head. "And I can't help her. We had a few bacta bandages, but they wouldn't do anything about wounds like this, and you don't have bacta," Ezra said.

"Tony might be able to figure something out." Steve nodded. "But not fast enough to help her through tonight. We just have to wait. Wait and hope."

Ezra waited. He didn't know how to heal her. Not with the Force. But he just held her hand.

Doctors came in, talked. Looked grimly at the monitors. The nurse was replaced by two nurses. Finally, Ezra didn't know how much time had passed, the supervising doctor came in.

"She's…" He looked at Steve. "We're going to have to open her up again if she keeps declining. We missed some of the internal bleeding and there may be other factors. But if we have to operate…" He looked to Ezra. "Mr. Bridger, I've been told that you are the closest thing Ms. Wren has to a next of kin here. I don't want to frighten you, but… If you think she would desire it, we have clergy here..."

"I…" Ezra shook his head. "I don't think she is that religious."

"Very well. Understand that they will be available to you. Captain Rodgers, we're giving her another hour, but after that…"

"I understand."

I can't lose her. I can't! Ezra felt the panic rising up. I have to do something.

But what could he do? He couldn't heal her. Even Kanan couldn't do that. He…

No. Ezra stopped. He'd done this once before. Succumbed to the fear and anger, listened to the Dark Side. Let it dominate him.

He closed his eyes. He could feel Sabine, fading before him. The doctors struggling to save her. He felt their fear, their determination. The hospital. The city.

My fear does not rule me. The Force is my ally.

He would stay with Sabine, until the end. He would not leave her. He could do… What he could do.

"I know, Ezra."

Ezra's eyes opened, and there…

"Kanan?"

Rodgers looked to the corner and blinked. "Who?"

"He can't see me," Kanan said. He wasn't wearing his old clothes, but a robe, and he had a beard that looked more white than brown…

And Ezra could see lines on his face.

"Kanan I…"

"You don't think I'd abandon my Padawan. Zeb and Hera say hi." He paused. "I just needed to wait until you could hear me."

"Can I—Can you teach me to heal her?"

"Heal? No. Not completely. But I can help you give her your strength." He put out his hands over Ezra's. "Feel her. Call to her."

"I…" Ezra closed his eyes. Sabine was fading, but the Force was mighty. He felt Kanan, helping him channel the power into her body. It wasn't like magic. Bones didn't knit and she didn't open her eyes, but Ezra could feel her body growing stronger as he continued channeling the force.

He kept going, but spoke as he did. "Kanan, can you help us? I don't know—"

"I'm sorry, Ezra. Our time—the time of the Jedi of old, is over. What you do, what you create in this new world… Is up to you." Kanan stared down at Ezra and smiled. "I have faith in you. And it's time. You've done all you can do."

"Kanan I—"

"The Force will be with you, Ezra. Always." And then Kanan was fading, but Ezra felt the room swirl around him as Captain America caught him.

Kanan…

"Well, he did something, but it took a lot out of him," Steve said. "And he talked to an invisible person, but I don't know if that was just part of it, or if he was desperate to talk to someone. They've had a hard life."

"He saved her life," Fury said. "And that's another thing that is going to make them valuable."

"She still looks like shit," Tony said.

"The doctors agree that she was dying last night, and isn't dying this morning. During the three hours he was with her, her internal bleeding stopped and there's a sign that they're getting kidney function back. It's interesting that the things most likely to kill her were cured. Especially since the kid isn't a doctor."

"So going forward, what do we do?" Steve asked. "They need a home, they need security, and they—"

"Don't need to play soldier anymore," Tony said.

Steve shook his head, looking out of the office Fury had taken over. "Ezra's been on his own since he was ten and the "Empire" took his parents. They've been running combat ops for who knows how long. I don't think you're going to be able to hand them off to a middle-class family in the Bronx with Birthday parties at Mike's and curfews." He held Tony's eyes. "It's not fair, but they're adults in every way that matters."

"But not, fortunately, the legal way," Fury said. "I need you to hold off your attack dogs, Stark, because this could go badly for them."

"You mean, them having to watch the people who almost killed them getting fired?"

"No, I mean the people who have the legal authority to do so, deciding to hit them with enough felonies to keep them in prison for the rest of their lives, just to piss us off, or try to cover up their own failings. It may not seem that way, but I cannot simply order a state DA to not file charges, and there's pressure to hit them with the whole book. The public is on the edge about people like you. Sure you saved New York, but the Hulk also tore up Harlem. If we turn this into a public battle—well, no matter who wins, those two will lose." Fury turned and touched a button, and suddenly a mustached man was shouting.

"And I saw that, and who cares what their reasons were. People like that, the kind of entitled teens who would raise a hand against our police, deserve to stay in prison until they can collect social security!" Fury muted the speaker.

Steve snorted. "The Daily Bugle? That's a rag, only real rags are more useful."

"And I'd like to keep it from becoming more than a rag," Fury said. "And showing that there are no legal consequences could get a lot of people on the 'lock them up' side."

"So what's the plan?" Steve asked.

"We negotiate down. Keep the attack dogs in reserve, while SHIELD points out that the kids didn't get any actual warning and are refugees from the kind of government that would put them on edge. Ezra's actions really helped there—the moment people stopped shooting and started talking, he surrendered. Peacefully."

"Play up the traumatized teens?" Tony nodded. "Could work."

"Pierce and his allies are putting pressure on the AG to not push for any time. Pierce's a good man—he knows what's at stake. If I can convince them to plead guilty to a minor charge, that shows that they're willing to accept the law—and it neutralizes people like that." Fury pointed to the silent image on the set.

Tony sighed. "You know, sometimes you have to wish all problems could be solved by hitting them."

"I know the feeling," Steve said.

"As for talking to the law, well, it's going to be a one-man band for a while," Tony said. "Sabine isn't going to be talking to anyone, and yes, Cap, thank you for that notification, I have the… Bacta at the tower. I've got people coming in, but from first glance… It looks promising. Very promising." He paused. "Fury, whatever legal magic you're doing, make certain it doesn't include any future fines for the kids. I'm setting up a holding company for any other developments that might rise from what they brought, that they'll be part owners of."

"Are you going to tell them?" Steve asked.

"I figured I'd just hand them their first check and let all the zeros do the talking." Tony said.

When Sabine was being checked on, Ezra was taken to another room. There was a woman standing who held out her hand. "Hello, Mr. Bridger, my name is Agatha Chait and I've been appointed as your Attorney."

"Uh…what are you going to do?"

"I'm the person who has been selected to represent you. Mr. Stark hired me, and well, from the precis, I have some work cut out for me. The good news is that the DA has agreed that so long as you remain in the hospital, or with SHIELD no further measures will be required."

"That's, um, good." Ezra was shaking his head.

"Is there a problem?"

"It's just that… nobody ever got a lawyer back home. The Empire just decided what they wanted to do and whether or not they were guilty."

She nodded. "Hold on that. I want you to talk about that during our interview."

"Why?"

"Let's just say that it sets us up for a very good defense."

With that, two men entered the room, both of them frowning. Ezra didn't get any hostility to him, just that they didn't like the situation.

"Detective Wilks, Detective Polk, we're ready to begin."

The first thing they did was read off a note to Ezra. If he said anything it could be used against him. He had a right to a lawyer. He had a right to stop talking.

Ezra couldn't keep a snort in on that one.

"Mr. Bridger?"

"You'd let me stop talking. Right."

"Mr. Bridger, that's an absolute. If you turned to us and told us no more, we'd have to leave."

"I'd like to ask my client a question. Mr. Bridger, what would happen if you asserted your right to silence in the Empire?"

Ezra winced. "They might shoot you, or just beat you up. I mean, if some stormtroopers got angry, they might shoot you. If you mouthed off or refused to talk to a higher officer or a governor, they'd probably get your family. That's what they did to Jess, he didn't want to talk to them so they…" Ezra looked down. "Said there were rebels at his farm and bombed the family. They all died, but we weren't using their farm. They knew it!"

They kept talking, and the officers asked questions. Ezra didn't know why, but Ms. Chait kept steering things back to what the Empire would have done. How the Empire worked.

For some reason both officers turned a little green when he talked about what they'd done with Master Luminara Unduli.

"Wait, they kept her mummy in the cell?"

"Yeah."

And she also kept coming back to whether or not Ezra had heard any kind of warning. If he knew that they were police officers when they first entered the building. And every time, Ezra shook his head.

Finally after almost an hour, it was over, and Ezra was heading back to sit by Sabine. But he glanced at Ms. Chait. "What was that about?"

"Well, 90 percent of law happens outside the courtroom. This is about setting up the ground, and hinting to the DA that he doesn't want to push a case where you're going to hear about a young man and woman, who were fleeing from an… Absolutely monstrous regime, only to think that the police are behaving exactly like it, because they didn't do their due diligence about warning you it was in fact a legal raid."

"Wait, you mean what I say might matter?" Ezra asked. "I—we thought that was all just propaganda."

Ms. Chait shook her head. "Yeah, it does matter. Our system isn't perfect, not by a long shot, but compared to where you came from? I think you lucked out."

Chapter Text

Where am I? It doesn't feel like the Ghost.

Sabine tried to look around. The room was unfamiliar, beeping instruments in it. There was something down her throat. Then everything started to come back. The fight, the flight the…

She blinked.

How did I get here? But they had something down her throat. Things were stuck in her. They were doing—

She started thrashing against the bonds that were holding her down.

"Ma'am? Ma'am, don't struggle!"

Sabine cursed them through the tube in her mouth. They had her. What if they—

Someone else ran into the room. Her eyes widened.

Ezra? They captured you too? Sabine felt tears come to her eyes. She'd failed. She hadn't even given them…

"Sabine, it's okay. You're not a prisoner, this is a hospital."

Sabine relaxed. She felt weak. So terribly weak. As weak as she had been when she'd caught Corusan Flu when she'd been little. She remembered hating how she just lay in bed, barely able to move, not as strong as her mother, but how both her mother and father had been with her, feeding her broth until she could eat again.

Mother had just said that even Mandalore The Great had gotten sick.

That had been before… Sabine felt so weak.

"Sabine," Ezra said. "You're okay."

"I'll be the judge of that, if you don't mind, Mr. Bridger." Another man leaned down and nodded. "Ms. Wren, since you're conscious we're going to remove the breathing tube. We'll leave the feeding tube in until we're certain you won't need it. This is going to be a little uncomfortable, I'm afraid."

And it was. Sabine hacked and gargled, and when she talked, her voice was a raspy whisper.

"Where is this?" She tried to remember. She'd checked out some of the prisons in case they had to… "Riker's Island?"

"Told you," Ezra said to the doctor.

He sighed. "No, Ms. Wren, this is not a prison, but a hospital."

"Then why…" Sabine coughed, hating the way her voice sounded. "Why are my hands tied."

"You kept trying to pull out your lines," The doctor said.

"And trying to punch the nurse," Ezra said.

"So, if you promise to do neither…"

"Yes," Sabine said.

Moments later, her hands were untied…and she realized she could barely move them. "How long?"

"A week. But you'll be in that bed for a while longer."

Not if I have anything to say about it.

"Now, Mr. Bridger, please don't prompt her for these answers. Can you give me your full name, Ms. Wren?"

"Sabine Wren."

"How did you end up here?"

"I…" Sabine frowned. "I was flying and… Fighting, but…" How did she end up here? She started to worry. What did they do to me? Why can't I—

"That's fine, Ms. Wren, you flew into a wall, and that kind of injury commonly leads to short-term and temporary memory loss. Where have you been staying?" The doctor's voice was soothing.

"With Michael."

"Do you remember the address and phone number?"

Sabine rolled her eyes. Given how much it had been drilled into her, she should. She repeated both.

"Good." More questions followed until finally the doctor stopped.

"Well, we'll have to run you through an MRI and other tests, but it looks to me like you're suffering no serious cognitive damage.

"Good, let me up." Sabine glared around the room.

"Sabine…" Ezra stared at her. "No Bacta, remember?"

"You're healing has been accelerated due to the use of… certain, ah, mental techniques, and I can't believe that is what happened, but well, we've already had an alien invasion—but you were still very severely injured. At the minimum, you'll be in this bed for a while longer, and then you'll go into physical therapy. But you have to be realistic about your recovery times."

Sabine glared. "I am going to be realistic. I'm going to be out of this bed, and out of it soon."

"Well, I can see you're going to be a perfect patient, but better that than someone telling me that they've decided to accept fate." He nodded at Ezra. "You're still going to be under observation. I put too many stitches in you to have you die on me now, but you two kids probably have some catching up to do. I'll give you about ten minutes."

"Ezra, what happened?"

"You fought Iron Man and then the arc reactor failed as you were trying to lose him."

"I…" Sabine winced. "Can't remember." And she hated that.

"Yeah, Tony feels bad about that."

"Wait, Tony? Iron Man—" then Sabine's voice cut off as she looked beyond Ezra. There were… Teddy bears in her room? "Ezra, why… where did this come from?"

"School, friends…"

"But I barely knew anyone."

"Yeah, but remember when you helped them do the mural?"

Sabine rolled her eyes. Of course she did. The thing they were planning was… Terrible. No creativity to it at all.

"Yes."

"People remember, and also…" Ezra pointed to a picture of the school and the sign in front…

"Home of the alien badasses?" Sabine blinked. "Ezra, we were trying to keep that secret. How many people know?!"

"Well… All of them."

Sabine swore. Loudly.

"So, Dr. Cho, what do you think?"

"It's engineered," Dr. Cho said. She'd been brought all the way from Seoul to look at some bandages, but any annoyance had been lost in the amazement of what she saw. "There's a bacteria there, combined with two other components that help form a substrate around which rapid regeneration can occur. She gestured at the images being projected into the air. "But look at this."

"What am I looking at?" Tony asked. "I'm more a tech guy."

"The DNA of the bacteria. But there's far more than any bacteria would need."

"So, a human model to work from?"

Dr. Cho shook her head. "No. That would be far too simple. It spins out, expands, and incorporates the DNA of the host, so that it knows exactly what to do."

"Huh," Tony said. "So don't dunk in the bacta with your pet."

"That…" Cho frowned. "You know I don't know what would happen, but this, combined with the cradle I've been working with—it could make long-term traumatic injuries a thing of the past.

"I'm assuming you're not saying we've found the fountain of youth," Bruce said.

"No. If I'm right, this would have issues with age-related issues, hereditary conditions, some forms of cancer, maybe radiation if it chose to pattern off the wrong cells. But even so, this is just incredible."

"Right, blank check, how long before you could be ready for a human trial?" Tony asked.

"I'm not certain. Is there…"

"Yes, and I'm comfortably certain she's the type to start throwing bedpans if we don't get her up and walking, and walking soon."

"Won't let you…" the girl's voice was bubbling, red froth on her lips. "Won't let you hurt them. Won't let you take them." There was blood all over her, and she was walking on a broken leg, with a shard of bone poking through her skin. Tony Stark's sensors were as well-designed as the rest of his suit, showing the girl in all her broken glory. She fired, but it was clear that her eyes were barely seeing the world around her.

"Won't… I'll stop you." She reached down with her free hand, several of her fingers bending the wrong way, and pulled a little broken cylinder out. "Ezra? Ezra… this is Sabine… I don't think… I don't think I can meet you. Ezra? Ezra… Can you hear me? You need to go…" She staggered, the gun falling from her hands.

Steve had seen it before, but it didn't get any easier. I can do this all day…

"We've seen this before, but I don't understand…" the New York Attorney General glanced over at Steve.

"Well, since you'll see him as an expert witness, I figured you'd want to get to know him before you know, he's on the stand on our side." Ms. Chait was smirking. "I know you, Stan, and you ran on law and order, and with the dead cops and firefighters from the Chitauri attack, you don't want to be seen as going against our boys in blue. But this time, our boys in blue fucked up by the numbers. In the past, they've served three search warrants on that property, none of them with a forced entry. In no case, was there any attempt to delay them. This was a PR stunt, someone fucked up with the warning, and bad luck, you happened to hit the house where two alien resistance fighters with PTSD were staying." She smiled, an expression not unlike that of a shark. "So, Captain America, in your professional opinion, is that the actions of a juvenile delinquent?"

"No. She's there for her people. The only reason she didn't keep shooting was that she…"

"Almost died in Iron Man's arms." Chait nodded. "Factually? Yeah, you've got 'em dead to rights on assaulting LEOs. If a jury votes on the facts, they're toast. But juries don't always vote on the facts, and even if they do, they take in mitigating factors, such as the fact that at the time, the kids didn't know they were LEOs."

"That's been used to justify a single shot from a homeowner, not a running gunfight through Manhattan. Once they saw the police, who were clearly identified in the front yard, they can't use the ignorance defense. Also, she knew who Iron Man was. A panic defense doesn't work when someone's trading quips and throwing glitter bombs!" He took a deep breath, "And the officers had no idea what the stunners were and went off of the assumption that they had multiple police down, perhaps dead."

"You're right, of course, had they knocked on the door, nobody would have been shot, so… We're back here. Now, I'd have to defend their actions based on the idea that their fear was, given their condition, reasonable. Have you ever heard of Rabbi Katz? Nice man, has a big doorbell asking people to always ring it. Graduate of Dachau, Class of 45."

Steve winced at the flippant tone.

"I don't see…"

"He'll be on my witness list. Explaining how even today, sixty-seven years later, he uses a doorbell because a knock on the door, let alone someone kicking the door in, causes a panic attack. Not a good look, having a Holocaust survivor on the stand talking about the NYPD, is there? And that doesn't even count the federal 1983 lawsuit, violating Sabine Wren and Ezra Bridger's rights under cover of law." Chait leaned back. "And all the time, every case of excessive force, every time someone got hit on a bad warrant is coming up in the news, while a pair of, if I do say so myself, photogenic teens, are on the front page." She shook her head. "Look, Stan, you didn't sign off on this warrant. When you got up that morning, I doubt you expected to hear about a running battle in Midtown, but now here the shit show is, in your hands. If you don't press charges, you lose. If you do? You lose."

"So what are you suggesting?"

"An adjournment in contemplation of dismissal," Chait said.

"A what?" Steve asked.

"Right, after your time. Long story short, the case is adjourned, and if the defendants keep their noses clean for six months, it goes away—it's dismissed. Everyone gets what they want, and you can focus on dealing with the other shitshows this created."

The AG leaned back. "It's a thought, but I have conditions."

"Conditions?" Chait asked. "After I give you this gift?"

"Heh. You just spent half this meeting telling me how those two kids are suffering from the kind of trauma that made them jump to 'fight and run' as a first option. They also managed to give the Avengers a run for their money. I want proof of adequate psychological services for the two of them, and someone from CPS will be checking in regularly. The last thing we need is someone triggering them in the middle of Times Square."

"Sabine Wren is only a year or so, at most, from 18, so we were thinking of emancipat—"

"Sabine Wren was so FOB that she believed a white collar criminal. Again, you just got finished defending their actions based in part on their naivety about how things work here. That's not a good look for turning around and saying they can go wandering around without any kind of supervision. So, we'll go for this, based on first of all, the determination that you have found them an acceptable guardian."

Not Tony Stark, Steve thought. If anything, Sabine and Ezra would probably make good guardians for him.

And only a year or so, more like a guide or big brother than a parent… Steve grinned. He wondered how Fury would respond if he dropped this on him. Pity Thor wasn't… No, that would probably fall into the Tony Stark category of bad idea. It—wait, why were Chait and the AG looking at him…

Chapter Text

Michael figured that he'd be talking to the DA. It was an occupational hazard.

Nick Fury? No, he hadn't. Nick Fury was sort of above his paygrade.

"You have provided me with a headache, something I have more than enough of," Fury said, sitting in the office they'd called Michael to. He was out of jail, and the DA hadn't filed charges yet.

And he hadn't been allowed to visit the Kids.

"Yeah, I get that," Michael said. "Everyone knows about the kids."

"Oh yes, you can say they do." Fury twitched and touched a button and an image came up. A jerky cell phone. "This wasn't uploaded until now, because the kid thought they were secret agents. Then of course everything blew up and a junior high school student decided to fight the evil forces of SHIELD. It was the top trending video as of this morning."

It was a school bus, kids in it. Screaming kids, as Chitauri flew overhead. A car in front of the bus exploded.

"Okay everyone you'll be alright!" the bus driver was crying as she tried to get the bus around a wrecked car, and then something just slammed onto the front of the bus.

The kids were screaming, the camera going everywhich way, and Michael felt his stomach clench. Even knowing how it turned out… They're fucking kids, why are you going after them…

The Chitarui soldier ripped the front windshield off and—then bolts of energy struck it from the side. Sabine opening up with her guns. Another soldier raised its gun at her, but then it was pushed across the road as Ezra leaped at it, blocking a bolt of energy before slicing it in half. Then they were at the door, the kids still screaming. Sabine was pointing, jabbering in her language, but making shoving gestures to a parking garage on the side. Then Janice appeared.

"They want you to go this way, hurry!"

Michael felt pride in his niece. She wasn't any fighter, but she didn't let herself just panic. The kids were piling out, running in a panicked tide and behind them, Ezra and Sabine backed up, covering them with blaster bolts and light-saber slashes.

Then, just as they reached the garage and got the kids under cover, the Chitauri all fell.

Fury turned the monitor off. "There's a little more, but you get the gist."

"Bet the cops aren't happy about almost killing them."

"Oh, they have many, many things to be unhappy about. But we're not talking about them." Fury reached under the tabled and pulled out the stunner prototype. "Stark is interested in building this for us, and I want you to be a partner."

"Why?"

"Stark can be unreliable. People wonder if he'll turn around and decide that stunners are too close to guns for his taste. And, it also solves another problem you have given me. The kids like you."

"Can't imagine why…" Michael muttered. "I almost got them killed."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, figured, you know, don't have to lie but the kids might be more… likely to stick around and help if I shade the truth about the cops. Didn't expect a no-knock raid and then I turned around and started blazing away with the stunner."

"Well, neither one holds it against you."

"Hmph. Should. Hell of a way to repay someone for saving your niece. I saw the pictures." Michael sighed. "So what's the price?"

"Well, you get out of the cigarette business, for one thing. And stay on the straight and narrow." Fury glanced at him. "And, if the DA withdraws any charges against you, you withdraw any potential lawsuits, and avoid giving interviews."

"Cops must be happy about that."

"Oh, they're not. But my job doesn't mean keeping everyone happy. What we need here is a truce."

Michael frowned. "Kids are that important to you."

"Oh, don't mistake me for a good Samaritan." Fury said. "That stunner? That is the least of what we can glean from them, and I need them both well disposed to us. That means taking care of their friends."

"Will Janice still be able to see them?"

"Cutting them off from the single friend they have wouldn't make them happy with me." Fury paused.

"Well, you gave me a deal I can't refuse," Michael said. He chuckled. "And I say that in the sense of a deal that only an idiot would refuse."

A week had gone by, and Sabine Wren was done with the bed. It was a very nice bed. Tony Stark had actually had it moved in. Some kind of stimulus package kept her muscles tensing and relaxing during certain periods, which made the doctors very happy.

Whee for them. Ezra hadn't been able to heal her, not like the stories said, but he'd… helped, a lot. The doctors had been impressed. The feeding tube was out, most of the rest of the tubes were out. The doctors were very happy and she'd been moved from the CCU unit to a ICU bed, one where she didn't have a ton of sensors on her, just a nurse checking her.

Also, there was a police officer on the otherside of the hallway. At first, Sabine had wondered if they thought she was that much of a danger…

And then Ezra had looked around nervously and mentioned that it wasn't for her. Someone had managed to convince an intern to take pictures of her when she was unconscious. He'd shown her the paper.

ALIEN PRINCESS NEAR DEATH!!

Underneath the headline was a picture of her in the bed, unconscious. She had a ridiculous black stripe across her eyes that did nothing to disguise who she was, especially since right under that, there was a picture of her with Ezra and Janice. Sabine had been smiling in that one.

"Mr. Stark turned his lawyers loose on the guy. He'd also given some of your records… About…" Ezra turned a little pink "Whether or not you'd been pregnant. Ms. Chait said something about… HIPPA?" Ezra shrugged. "I never thought a lawyer could be that scary. But now they're making certain none of your attendants take out a cell phone."

But now here she was. In bed, alone. The officer was dozing, it was getting dark outside and Sabine…

Had to piss.

She could hit the button and have a nurse come in and help her.

No. She was going to walk to the bathroom, alone. She wasn't going to be pushed there in a wheelchair or have a nurse help her piss while she was in bed.

She got out of bed, her legs feeling wobbly. The cast on her broken leg ached and itched. She might have to keep it on for weeks. Bacta. They don't have bacta. Such a little thing, that a warrior of Mandalore never really had considered.

Sabine wondered how many people here died for the lack of Bacta.

One step. Two steps. She walked slowly, focusing on making her legs do what she wanted them to do, her light robe actually feeling heavy on her frame.

Three steps. She was quivering.

No. I'm not going to let them find me in a puddle of my own urine.

Another step. And now her legs were just screaming. She would—

She tripped on a chair leg and started falling forward, and then someone grabbed her, stopping her fall.

"So, ah, Tinkerbell, don't they have call buttons where you come from?"

Sabine looked up. Tony Stark. He didn't look quite as impressive as he had in the suit.

"I hate that."

"Yeah, well, I have to agree. Doctors, never really liked them."

How do I…

"Tony?" A shorter woman next to Stark broke in. "I think she wants to use the bathroom."

"What—oh, right, um, this is Pepper, Sabine, she can, you know, I'll just stay out here."

Sabine thought about saying she could do it, but… She let the woman help her.

"He seemed a lot more eloquent in his armor." Sabine said.

"That's Tony."

Later, after certain functions were taken care of, and after the embarrassed police officer had been woken up and a nurse had clucked over her and agreed, that yes, she could sit in a chair, if she promised to never try to rise up from it without a nurse or doctor watching, Sabine sat in the chair.

She'd never been happier to actually be sitting.

"So, I've been here a few times, but you were sleeping or with Ezra. Cute friend, you two make a nice couple. You know, after this, if you want, you could take a vacation. I have an estate or two—"

"Tony." Pepper looked at him.

"Right. Is the bed fine? I was thinking of setting up with servo arms, maybe an integral AI to—"

"Tony!" Pepper said. She looked at Sabine. "He rambles when he's trying to get to a point he doesn't want to."

"Right…" Tony took a deep breath. "What I'm here for is to apologize for almost murdering you."

Sabine blinked. "But you didn't?"

"You being here…" Tony gestured around the room. "Seems to say the other thing."

"But we were fighting. Of course, you were doing your best. So was I." Sabine sighed. "Ezra and I weren't used to… Well, the Empire was different." Then she looked up. "But if you feel sorry, maybe you can answer a question."

"What? Who's paying for this? Don't worry about it. Where—"

"How did you keep your arc reactor from overheating?" Sabine shook her head. "I knew it was overheating, but I couldn't figure out what to do about it. I didn't have enough parts to make another one, and…" She shrugged. "You didn't seem to have any problems."

Tony looked taken aback for a moment. Then he nodded. "That's because you were using Hammertech. They got the design for the reactors, but they used the cheapest possible components in their drones."

"Tell me about it," Sabine said. "Whoever made that drone, the tolerances, the materials…" She made a disgusted sound. "Some of it was worse than stormtrooper armor."

"Yeah, well… Justin Hammer. What can I say?" Tony pulled out a phone and a hologram appeared. "See, the problem with overheating is that you have to pull the heat away the right way. I had to figure it out because well, reasons. But Hammer figured since they were drones they didn't care…"

Pepper rolled her eyes. Trust Tony to go through twenty different drafts of "I'm sorry and will make it better" and forget about it the moment Sabine brought up an engineering problem…

She leaned back as the two people forgot all about the hospital as they talked about heat distribution and quality control, now and then bemoaning people who just didn't get it.

Chapter Text

Sabine spent the next several days just…

Well, being miserable. She wasn't allowed to walk, her physical therapy wasn't long enough, and watching the vids was just…

"What's wrong?" Ezra asked. He was sitting by her, looking protective. Which was another thing. She didn't mind Ezra looking protective, but she hated the fact that he needed to look protective. Janice was in the next chair over. They still hadn't let her see Michael, although Ezra had seen him.

"I'm in this bed," Sabine said.

"You want us to try the wheel—"

"No! I don't want the wheelchair, or the chair, or the bed. I want to be walking. I was walking this morning, so they don't have to keep saying I need to rest." Sabine glared at the floor, then swung her feet over the edge of the bed. She took a breath and then stood up, legs wobbly.

"We're going for a walk," Sabine said. Ezra glanced at Janice, and they nodded. Janice grabbed the wheelchair. Sabine stared at her, but Janice stared back.

"Spotter," she said. "And you know the doctors are going to drag you back here."

"Then I'll have some exercise," Sabine gritted out and started limping out of her room. Maybe this time she'd get past the nurse's station. She'd been hurt, she wasn't dead.

She got to the door. The police officer was gone, which made Sabine very happy. They'd moved him to the elevator after she'd had some…

Well, she'd had some bad dreams when the last thing she saw was an armed guard watching her.

They didn't make it very far before she heard a nurse calling her name.

"Ms. Wren!"

Oh, no. They'd stick her back in that chair, and was there anything more humiliating than that she didn't know what it was.

Well, she didn't know what it was now that they'd taken the catheter out.

This time—The ding of the elevator interrupted her thoughts.

"Ms. Wren, so good of you to meet me halfway. We're going on a trip."

Nick Fury. Next to him was Captain America.

It took a little longer than that. Sabine had to get some more clothes, Fury talked to the doctors, and Steve Rogers signed some things. Ezra and Sabine glanced at each other.

Do they think I need Captain America to keep me from running off?

Next to them, Janice was looking back and forth at Fury and Rogers. "Ohmigod, ohmigod…" She kept repeating.

But not long after that, Sabine found herself in a wheelchair, Ezra pushing it, as they came out to the parking garage. There were a dozen men in dark clothing stationed around the big van. It took Sabine a few minutes, but she managed to walk herself, thank you very much, over to the van and sit in the big passenger compartment as everyone else got in. A guard in a dark suit with sunglasses took the wheelchair and racked it.

The van pulled out, a dark car in front and behind it. Fury stared at them for a moment, then nodded. "Normally, I'm supposed to sugar coat things for someone of your young years. I'm not very good at it, which is why I don't do schools. Also, you've been fighting a war since you were a lot younger, according to Mr. Bridger, so you probably are used to bad news. We've managed to get a deal for you. One that involves no prison, and puts you under SHIELD's supervision, with civilian housing, to let you get acclimated to your new home."

"And in return, we work for you," Sabine said. She knew how this went. "Maybe, once I'm on my feet, fight for you."

"That's not the deal. Not at all." Rogers glanced over at Fury. "Once you've hit the age of majority, if you never want to talk to SHIELD again, or move to some other part of the nation or world, that's up to you. It's just that, well, the New York Child Services Department thinks that you wouldn't be suited to normal foster homes."

"Fighting Captain America and Iron Man does that," Fury said. "You may have had provocation, but you're used to fighting, and that's not how we commonly do things here, at least not freelance."

"Why can't they stay—" Janice squeaked when Fury glanced at her.

"Your friends are public," Captain America said. "There's some concern about security."

Sabine didn't know about that. They were sounding like there were deals underneath the surface.

"Who do we stay with?" Ezra asked.

"Well, if you say yes. Me."

"You'd be staying with… Captain America?" Janice just stared.

"Janice?" Sabine said.

"What?"

"Breathe before you pass out." Sabine frowned. "So why now? It's not like you need to worry about this, given…" Sabine gestured at herself.

"Now that's where you're wrong," Fury said with a smile. "Not all of my surprises are unpleasant. And we're here," he said as the van entered the parking bay of the Avenger's Tower.

"Hail the victorious heroes," Tony said as the door opened. He smiled. "Ready for your herbal bath?"

"What?"

"Your bacta treatment," A shorter woman said. "Mr. Stark, Dr. Banner, and I were working on adding it to some of our own treatments."

"Herbal Bath, please, and we make no representation about it's healing capabilities or that it is FDA approved."

Ezra glanced at Sabine and she shrugged. Ezra looked back at the table. "That doesn't look like a bacta tank."

"You use tanks, interesting," the woman said. "Oh, pardon me, I'm Dr. Cho. But we're using a combination of something I was working on, a regeneration cradle and your bacta. I have to thank you, the existence of that compound cut years off of our research."

"Just as long as it cuts months off of my recovery," Sabine said. "When do we go?"

"Now, if you want," Cho said, smiling. "I have a few nurses here to help you undress and the cradle can be set to opaque. This is just a prototype—in fact when I get back home I'm going to have to make some changes in our final model in response to this."

Sabine didn't care. She stripped and let the nurses position her on the bed. Dozens of little mechanical arms came out, some of them playing a bacta mist over her body, others scanning her. The myriad aches she'd felt started to go away, but then Sabine started at the pricks in her broken leg and along her ribs.

"Don't worry. That's just the cradle systems printing artificial bone cells around the break while injecting bacta to speed the healing. By tomorrow, your bones will be stronger than they were before the break. But you'll be walking around in thirty minutes or less."

"You improved it?" Sabine asked.

"Sort of had to," Bruce said. "It's not an easy material to produce, at least not right now."

"Oh ye of little faith," Tony said. "Two years from now, every clinic in America is going to have a StarkTech bacta dispenser. Every ER will have a full immersion bed. A year after that, it'll be every clinic and ER in the world. Built at cost, and don't worry, you two are rich."

"Wait, rich?" Ezra stared. Why did he always feel a little run over around Mr. Stark? "I don't think we should sell that. We didn't make it."

"You're not. But I figured you deserved it, and well, it's just money." Tony gestured at Sabine and the bed. "That is changing the world. It'll be nice for people to see the Stark name on something that doesn't explode." He paused and tossed a can of soda to Ezra, then another to Janice who was just staring poleaxed. "But… Now that I've got you where I want you, I bet Fury already told you about the plan. And well, Cap you make a great apple pie, but…" Tony gestured around. "Four floors of labs, fully reconfigurable workshops, olympic swimming and gym facilities, two luxury suites…"

"Stark, if I wanted someone to watch you, I wouldn't ask them," Fury said.

"Watch me?" Tony gestured at Sabine. "She made a stun pistol, re-purposing half of the components to replace what she didn't have. Something that could be mass-produced. If everyone knew that, there'd be people with sacks full of money lining up in front of her room."

"Or the Ten Rings, and since you have declined to have SHIELD fully vet the tower…" Fury shrugged.

"Mr. Stark, don't take this wrong, but I think it might be better if we stay with Mr. Rog—"

"Steve," Captain America said.

"Right," Ezra said. "Steve. He…" He paused. "You know a little bit about the force."

"Space-wizard with glowy sword, right."

"Yeah, but it's… Steve said some things my mentor, Kanan said, and it helped me." Ezra didn't know how to say this, because it had been a long time since two people had wanted them. "I think I need… That's where I need to be."

"Well, can't beat that. Okay, but I read the papers. High school? Nick, really?" He glanced over at Sabine. "Tinkerbelle with a kick, how much of school did you need?"

"Your science instruction is terrible, I know better math, and I'm fast at languages." Sabine shook her head. "So not much?"

"See, let them stay with Cap, but there's no need to waste their days at school. Come here, they can work here, and I have tutors for anything they need. Bruce and I can work with them."

"I'm afraid that the New York Department for Children's Services doesn't agree, Stark."

"You have legions of assassins and a flying battleship, and you're telling me you're afraid of a city department?"

"That would be a yes," Fury said.

"It isn't just about education," Steve said. "Ezra and Sabine have already made connections. Trust me, that's more important than the education, especially when you're… away from home."

"What, I didn't go to school until college, it's made me the man I am," Tony said.

"Okay, argument over," Bruce called from his corner of the room. "School it is."

"Backstabber." Then everyone fell silent as there was a subdued sound from the bed.

"It's done," Dr. Cho said.

"Wait, you're kidding me." Sabine blinked. "That was faster than bacta."

"As I said, it's a combination of two sciences. I don't doubt it won't be the first time, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. Let me help you up and get dressed—" There was a squawk as Tony tossed something over the partition. "There you go, it's a present." He turned to Steve and shook his head. "I'm sorry Captain, but you forced my hand."

Moments later, Sabine came out from behind the partition, wearing clothes, including a sweater.

"Shots fired," Bruce called.

Steve just rolled his eyes.

Ezra wondered what the issue was, as Sabine stood there, her sweater emblazoned with a symbol and the letters USAF under it.

Chapter Text

Steve wasn't certain about this. He really wasn't. They'd spent some time at the tower, picking up all of Sabine and Ezra's luggage that had been delivered from their old residence.

All two bags worth. Janice had rolled her eyes and said neither one had any dress sense.

Steve had shared a look with Banner. No, neither one could risk having more than they could carry.

And Sabine's armor, sans Hammer additions. She lifted the helmet up in front of her and then pressed her forehead to it, reverently.

"Had it a long time?" Steve asked.

Sabine looked at him. "Our armor—It's what it is to be a Mandalorian. This armor is over five hundred years old. I modified it, but the base… It'll outlive me. One day I'll Hand it down to a fa—to someone else."

"Well, I can think of some additions," Tony said. "Something a little better than Hammer junk.

Steve winced. Sometimes Tony could be amazingly ignorant about how other people thought.

But Sabine didn't seem to be that upset. "No big plates," she said. "That's why I cut the armor down. Most of my fellows use full armor, but it's… awkward."

"So, going for the high speed look," Tony said. "You know, I've been working on a fast deploy—"

"Why don't we table that for after we get settled?" Steve said. He knew that look on Tony's face and Sabine had a scarily similar look on her face. If they started they wouldn't get them out until the end of the week, if they were lucky.

"First there's something else," Fury said. "You were, I believe, going for the Tower to get your care package, and being that it is yours…"

"Right," Tony said. "JARVIS, bring it out." Moments later, a skeletal bot walked out, holding a large crate. "We weren't able to get any information out of them, so if they have your little black books, don't worry."

"They wouldn't…" Ezra said. He stared at the books. "A history of the Galactic Civil War?"

"Principles of Hyperspace engineering," Sabine said, holding another one. "I think these were in case…"

"Something happened to the holocrons." Ezra nodded. He picked up another book, a heavy one, and stared at it. "This is…" he opened the pages.

"Microforms," Tony said. "You need a microscope to read them, but they're the same language as the other books. Open the first few pages." Ezra nodded, and stared at the normal sized diagrams and words.

"How to build a reader," Sabine said. "And… this is a primer. Science, technology…"

"Someone was very concerned with making certain you had what you needed," Fury said.

"Anything that looked… Personal?" Sabine asked.

Steve shook his head. "No. They might have been afraid that if the wrong people found it, they could use it against you. But there might be other containers we haven't found yet."

Sabine and Ezra glanced at each other, then shook there heads.

They know that's not likely to be the case, Steve thought.

"And those, I could not open up," Tony said.

"That's because they're holocrons. You need to be a Jedi—or force aware for some of them to work…" Ezra held up one. "And some of them just need a Jedi to unlock, but after that, they'll talk to anyone." He reached out and frowned. "This one," Ezra said. "This is the first."

He it up, and the edges shifted and changed, moving away from the core.

"Okay, if Pinhead shows up, I'm getting my armor," Tony said.

Moments later, light flared and…

"Kanan?" Ezra asked.

"Ezra, I'm glad to see you…"

"Some kind of simulated personality…" Tony was murmuring.

"I don't know where you ended up, but we're working on getting you back. I made this holocron as quickly as I could, in case you need more training where you are. But before I say anything else—you and Sabine did it. The facility was destroyed and the Empire wasn't able to get the information off site, so they lost it all. The slaves you freed also got off. They told us how you went back once you fought your way out of the slave quarters. Rex and Hera got them to safe houses where the Empire can't find them, and some of the them joined the Rebellion. You did good."

"Told you it was a good plan," Ezra said, his voice oddly stuffy.

"Ezra, 'let's charge in and blow the place up' isn't a good plan!" Sabine said.

"Then why did you go with it?"

"It was… the least bad plan we had?"

"Also, Zeb and Hera told me to tell you two that it was a terrible plan. But I suppose you didn't have a choice."

"See?" Ezra said. Sabine rolled her suspiciously bright eyes.

"But we're still working. We haven't given up on you. Now, to occupy your time, Ezra, there's some exercises I want you to…" Ezra pulled his hand back and the holocron went back to its neutral form. He looked at the others. "I suppose these are other training, and this one…" he paused. "Looks like a pure data holocron. Kanan told me about this. Sometimes the Jedi kept technical information in it, and I think I can unlock it…"

"If you can't, is there a… mail order course I can take."

"Nope, just learn from the Master," Sabine said.

Ezra stared. "Yeah… That might not be a good idea. I'm barely a Jedi myself."

"I reiterate, locking them both in my tower of doom while I learn the forbidden knowledge of alien tech might be the best idea." Sabine and Ezra just stared at Tony.

"How about if I help JARVIS learn galactic basic?" Sabine asked.

"In a day?" Steve asked.

"Well, he was designed by Mr. Stark," Sabine said, and now she had a smirk on her face.

She's avoiding talking about the holocrons, they're both avoiding. Steve frowned. The fact that their friends hadn't rescued them, not yet…

"I believe, Jarvis, that you have been challenged."

"I will endeavor to meet your expectations, sir."

In the end, they didn't get out for two days.

But for now, Steve followed Fury down to the bay, leaving Sabine and Ezra deep in conversation with Bruce, Jarvis, and Tony. Surprisingly, their friend was also contributing, evidently being something of a multi-linguist.

Well, we're already dealing with her uncle.

"They didn't look at the other holocrons," Steve said when they hit the elevator.

"Nobody likes hearing bad news," Fury quietly said. "And you know that there's no rescue coming."

"What makes you say that?"

"If you were about to help someone stranded on a desert island for a month, would you send them a physics textbook?" Fury asked.

"Well, if they were Tony…"

"Point. But that wasn't for them, that was for us. That was a way to give Sabine and Ezra something to trade. You don't do that if you think they're coming back any time soon."

"And the first holocron…"

"Recorded while they still had hope. And if they're telepathically controlled, maybe Ezra didn't want to hear the news, not yet, no matter what he thought consciously."

"It's going to be bad for them," Steve said. "I know why—I went into the ice, and came out, but I still had some people. I could still… recognize America. How am I qualified to handle this? They've lost everything."

"You talked the kid down. You understand what it's like to give everything up." Fury smiled. "And at the end of the day? You're not afraid to tell your bosses to go to hell if they're doing the wrong thing." He paused. "Given how valuable those kids might end up being… That may be your biggest qualification."

Chapter Text

When they finally got out of the tower, Steve was willing to bet that Tony was going to be a regular guest at the apartment. Fury was a little annoyed, but Sabine seemed to trust Tony with the information, more than she did SHIELD.

Well, it isn't much of a surprise. Just a little read of that book about the Galactic Civil War showed why. Ezra and Sabine had both fallen silent when it had gotten to a world named Alderaan, and had decided not to read any further.

Dictators. Always the same. Steve expected that Fury would have some people going over that book. But he could already tell what the broad strokes were.

But Steve also figured that as smart as Sabine was, she didn't fully realize what she was handing over. To her and Ezra, hyperdrives and repulsors were things you bought at the local store, or stole from the street, but nothing secret.

It'd be like Steve trying to keep a jeep secret during the war.

"So," he said. "This place probably isn't as good as your previous place. There's SHIELD security, but they keep it on the down low."

"That's fine," Sabine said. "We don't need much room."

Steve nodded. They had a room apiece and the rest of the floor had enough room for common space. It's like the war again, only this time he wasn't bunking with a bunch of soldiers.

And they're not soldiers. Not right now. Part of this is to show them that they don't have to be soldiers anymore. Not if they don't want to.

Not what a lot of people assumed about him, he knew, but coming back to find out that huge armies weren't something you called up when you needed any more, but were a fact of life…

America had been in a lot of conflicts since the War, and Steve sometimes wondered how many of them were because the president always had that tool at his fingertips.

But then they were pulling up to the brownstone, and it was time for the grand tour.

What the hell am I doing? Steve asked himself for the hundredth time.

Ezra got out of the car, staring up at the multi-story structure. It was so strange that he didn't see any cermacrete buildings. Back home, they were almost universal, since you could pour and set it so easily.

But here they were. "I get the top bunk."

"I've got a room for both of you," Steve said.

"That's good," Sabine said. "Ezra snores."

"I do not."

"Then what was that sound I kept hearing on the Ghost?"

"Chopper," Ezra said, and then shook his head. Sabine smiled and headed in. She'd been really happy now that she could walk and run again, even if she was going to have to exer…

Great. Dawn sessions again. Kanan hadn't been the only person to drag Ezra out of a comfortable bed, and why did you need to work out at dawn!

Steve guided them up the stairs, and then showed them in, handing Ezra and Sabine a key. "The lock looks normal, but it has a transponder in it, so if you lose it, Fury will growl," Steve said.

"Don't worry, he's not a wookie," Ezra said. "But we won't lose them."

Their rooms were, well nearly as big as the ones they'd had with Michael. Sabine claimed the one facing the dawn, and Ezra was happy enough take the other one. If Sabine didn't drag him out, he didn't want the sun doing the job for him.

Next came the tour of the kitchen. Ezra tried not to bring up what was clearly on Sabine's mind. If you didn't have to cook why not just order out? That way you avoided the never ending fight they'd had on the Ghost about dishes.

Still, he wouldn't mind those arguments, not now.

"So," Steve finally said. "What's your schedule? SHIELD is sending a car for you at six for school, sometime's I'm out before then, but I usually jog early, so don't mind me. I'm also required to remind you that Tony Stark could set up a school system for you that would work at any time."

Ezra shook his head. "Janice would howl, and we promised to watch her."

Steve frowned. "You think she needs protection?"

"No… but we did promise," Sabine said.

"You may… Have some problems at school. Trust me, being popular isn't always easy."

Ezra shook his head. "Hey, we've had bounty hunters and the Empire after us. How bad could it be?"

Steve didn't try to make them talk. Ezra wondered if he'd had friends who had lived in close quarters, because he seemed to understand that sometimes, you just wanted to settle down.

Like Hera and Kanan.

Ezra wondered if the pang he felt would ever go away. Probably not. Not until they got back, even if everyone would be a little older.

But once they had a meal, and Ezra had to admit that while it wasn't the same as Lothal's dishes, Pizza wasn't bad at all, they talked a little bit about the neighborhood. Steve warned them about Ms. Stacy's deadly dogs who would swarm out and attack anyone who insulted them—and who might, if you let them just hang on to you, break skin in a week or so.

But eventually they took to bed. Ezra heard Sabine in her own room, going through some katas. She'd probably put her armor back on, getting used to the weight.

Ezra had one thing. His first holocron. The rest were in the tower, but he'd argued that he needed one, and if the apartment was secure enough for Captain America…

He called it, the image appearing.

"New situations can be dangerous." Anakin Skywalker was standing, looking out at him. "You have to be flexible, but not so flexible that you forget who you are. You have to trust in your friends, but remember, you are there to protect them as well…"

Ezra leaned back and focused on the lesson as the night wore on.

When Steve slipped out for his morning jog, he stopped. Sabine Wren was waiting for him.

"You jog?"

"Normally I do stationary exercises," Sabine said, wearing Tony's gift and some shorts. "Not much room on a ship, but I've been in a bed way too long."

Oh boy, Steve didn't think she'd handle the 'pace yourself' lecture. One reason he jogged alone a lot was to avoid people who tried to keep up. They couldn't, any more than they would have been able to keep up with Tony in a suit. But because he didn't look that much different from any big guy, there were people always trying to show that all you needed was determination.

But they started off, and Sabine kept up with him. Okay, Steve was letting her keep up with him, and…

She's glaring.

"That's not how fast you normally jog."

"Right," Steve said. Hell, he'd been pissed off when people had tried to patronize him back before the Serum, when this part of town was the bad neighborhood.

For an instant, Steve's memories were superimposed over the modern buildings. Dirty streets, stray dogs, laundry hung on lines…

And then it was back to hybrid cars, ornamental trees in planters, and a mother walking her kids to school. But now Steve was moving at his normal pace, and Sabine was keeping up.

For a little while. According to Tony and Bruce, Sabine and Ezra had slightly denser musculature and bone structure than Earth humans. Bruce had started talking about the possibility of genetic engineering in the past, and Tony just suggested they were selecting for people who took suicidal chances and yet didn't die.

But the fact was, she couldn't keep up. She started falling behind. Steve slowed up.

"Don't!" Sabine gasped out. "I'll catch up. Don't you slow up on my behalf." She put on a burst of speed.

Right. On the other hand, she didn't need to know how far he jogged in the morning. Just in case Steve had to slow up to keep from being the one who managed to kill Sabine Wren.

When Steve stopped at the end, Sabine was staggering and sat down on the steps up to the apartment.

"Sorry," Steve said. "You know what the people say—it's not the man, it's the serum."

"Karabast!" Sabine burst out between wheezes. "You were pushing yourself. I could see that. The serum wouldn't help a lazy person."

"You have experience with that?" Steve asked.

"My people—the Mandalorians, fought the Jedi, and one of the big things we would say is that the Jedi were lazy. They had unfair powers." Sabine shook her head. "Then I saw Kanan, and he trained as hard as we did to learn those powers, especially once he… Came out."

"He was in hiding."

"Yah. He was…I think ten when Order 66 came down, and his master was killed."

"That was the order that ended the Republic." A ten-year-old was fighting. Steve didn't say anything else, but the Republic may have been better than the Empire, but he'd have some things to say to the people who thought a child too young to shave was someone you wanted to throw into combat.

"Yeah. He trained. A lot. As much as any Mando. He saved us."

"Oh, hi, guys." Ezra poked his head out of the door, looking like he'd just showered. "If you want, I think I figured out how to microwave the breakfast biscuits."

"As hard as the Mandalorians?" Steve asked.

"Kanan trained as hard as a Mandalorian. Ezra, I think, needs some morning exercise."

"I am, I'm meditating."

"I was there when you tried that on Kanan, Ezra," Sabine said as she got up. Steve held up his hand, and she took it, getting to her feet. "Didn't work then, won't work now. Hope you like jogging tomorrow."

Steve couldn't help it. He laughed at the betrayed look on Ezra's face.

Sabine leaned against the car door as they were driven to school. Part of her itched to drive herself, but she didn't have a license yet. And the agent driving the car wasn't talkative.

"Wonder what things are going to be like?" Ezra asked.

"Some people will be interested," Sabine said. "But all that happened a few weeks ago, so…"

There was a sound from the driver. A muffled snort.

And then they were pulling into the school. Sabine stared.

There were news vehicles out there. Reporters. A positive mob of kids, holding up cameras, at the car.

But it happened weeks ago, Sabine thought. We didn't get this much publicity until we blew up Tarkin's star destroyer! As the car pulled up, Sabine felt an unpleasant fluttering sensation in her belly that had nothing to do with her jog or injuries. It stopped, and she and Ezra looked at each other, before they opened the doors and confronted the mob.