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Ezra’s morning had been kind of all over the place. It had started out with Sabine and him pulling off the heist they had been planning for months, which involved him being lowered through the ceiling to grab a crown. It was very epic, his theme song was on full volume in his head, and he even got to make a quip at the guard. Which, in hindsight might not have been the best idea, because said guard alerted every single one of his coworkers to chase the bandit duo into the forest. Now that wasn’t exactly a bad thing, considering Ezra could use the exercise and he got the latest addition to his wanted poster collection, now featuring the name Brom Titus alongside his five other pseudonyms much to Sabine’s bewilderment.
Sabine…who got captured because of him. They were doing what they always did to feet over a cliff—get him up first while Sabine held onto their prize—when the guards caught up to them, and she tossed up the crown before yelling for him to run. They had split up after a job enough that they had a plan for where to meet and when, but those ideas were crushed once he heard one of the guards yelling that they’d got her. So, he ran deeper and deeper into the woods, through a covered cave, and up the mysterious tower that was hidden through it.
Which in hindsight, should have raised some red flags in his mind as something he shouldn’t break into, and then maybe he wouldn’t have gotten knocked out and woken up tied to a chair with…
“Is this hair?” He frowned at the restraints, tugging at them to no avail.
“Struggling is pointless,” some voice called out, presumably the owner of the hair that was trailing up to where they were hidden in shadows. “I know why you’re here, and I also know how to defend myself.”
Ezra blinked a few times, still not able to see his apparent captor. “…What?”
There was a rustle and a thud, and after a beat the mysterious stranger stepped into the light.
Huh, she’s kinda pretty.
“Who are you, and how did you find me?” she asked, stepping forward with her frying pan positioned like a weapon, before frowning. “And why are you smiling?”
“I’m not smiling,” he scoffed, biting his lips into submission. “And if I was, it would be because I thought you were going to be working for the guard, and that would’ve meant I’d be in whole lot of trouble, but then I’d be with Sabine—”
“You’re not answering my questions,” she interrupted, her bird chirping in emphasis. “What’s your name?”
“Jabba the Hutt, and you are?”
“Kata,” she replied, her brow raised. “Is ‘the’ a middle name?”
He blinked a few times, questioning if she had lived under a rock—or maybe in a tower—her whole life. “Sure.”
“Okay then, Jabba,” she crossed her arms, likely in a failed attempt to intimidate him, “who else knows my location?”
“Uh, no one?” He snorted. “Honestly, I don’t even know where we are. I was just gallivanting through the woods when I got separated from my partner and stumbled blindly to this tower, climbed my way up and…” he paused. “Wait, did you take my satchel?”
“I did.” She smirked. “And you’ll never be able to find it.”
He took a moment to observe the surrounding tower, locking in on an object halfway across the room. “Ten credits says it’s in that pot.” There wasn’t much warning before the frying pan collided with his head, leading to him waking up an indiscernible amount of time later with a bird far too close to his face. Naturally, he screamed, and it flew back to its overly smug owner.
“Now you’ll never find it.”
“Yeah, because you’re giving me brain damage with that little frying pan of yours,” he mumbled.
“So,” Kata stepped forward, either not hearing or ignoring his comment, “why do you want my hair? Cut it, maybe? Sell it?”
“Um, the only thing I want to do with your hair is get out of it. Literally,” he added. “Like I said, I simply stumbled across your tower, and I have no idea why you have so much hair or why it’s so valuable.”
There was a pause, and she tilted her head. “Really?”
“Yes.”
“Hm.” She took a few steps away and whispered to her bird, “What do you think?”
The bird responded with some insistence about them needing a guide, though Ezra had a feeling he misheard because what could that even mean.
“Yeah, I know,” she replied, almost rolling her eyes. “But do you really think we can trust him?”
Surprisingly, the bird vouched for Ezra, leading to Kata taking a deep breath and smiling.
“I have a deal for you, Mr. Hutt.” She used her hair to yank his chair towards a different section of wall, this time partially covered by a curtain. Kata climbed up to pull it back, revealing a painting of lights of some kind. “Do you know what these are?”
It took a moment for it to click, but enough time with Sabine had led him to be proficient at deciphering meaning behind artworks. “Oh, yeah, the floating lanterns that they do for, uh, the old royal family, I think?”
“I knew Papa was wrong,” she commented to herself, to which her bird cheeped an agreement. “Well,” she turned back towards him, “tomorrow night, the sky is going to fill with these lanterns. If you are my guide, which means taking me to see them and bringing me home safely, then I’ll give you your satchel back.”
He sighed. “Look, as much as I would love to go on a sightseeing trip with you, the kingdom has had a warrant for my arrest since I was fifteen. If they find me, it’s all over for both of us.”
“I’m trying to be nice about this,” Kata grinned with a politeness that made him feel every ounce of sarcasm. “But something brought you here. It could be fate, it could be destiny—”
“It was two love struck captains,” he supplemented.
“Because of this,” she strolled forward, “I am going to trust you.”
“Strange choice.”
“And you can trust me, when I tell you,” she leaned over him, and for some reason it felt closer than they actually were, “you can tear your way through all of this tower, but unless you have my help, you will never see your satchel and what it contains ever again.”
Ezra did something unusual for him, and carefully thought through his next actions. He didn’t exactly have many options, and it wouldn’t take that long, and maybe he could scout out the castle for freeing Sabine… “Let me get this straight, if I take you to the lanterns and get you back here in one piece, I can have my satchel back, no strings attached?”
“As long as you promise to not tell anyone, yes,” she confirmed, still hovering above him.
A huff of acceptance released on its own accord as he made a final run through the pros and cons list in his head. “Okay, I’ll take you on our little trip.”
She pulled back, beaming. “Really?”
“Yeah,” he agreed, looking down to his restraints. “So long as you untie me and we figure out how to climb down.”
Her eyes danced to the bird, then back to meet Ezra’s. “Who said anything about climbing?”
It was about three minutes into round five of questioning her decision that Jabba cleared his throat, causing her to look up at him and his strangely stunning eyes.
“Hey, Kata,” he spoke softly, “are you sure you still want to do this?”
“Well, yeah.” She tucked back the hair covering her face. “I’ve been dreaming of it my whole life.”
“Right,” he nodded. “But your overprotective father wouldn’t let you go, or even leave the tower once, and now you're disobeying all those rules to follow your dreams?”
“Pretty much,” she admitted.
“You know,” he lowered himself to sit down next to her, “a little teenage rebellion is a normal part of growing up. Believe me, I would know.”
Her head titled. “You’re a rebel?”
“Oh yeah,” he confirmed. “But, if this is all too much, I won’t judge. We can just turn around, take you back to the tower, and go our separate ways.”
“No,” she sat up straighter, “I’m doing this.”
“Fine, but you’re going to need to be a little more committed about it.” His fingers tapped along the edge of his gloves while he looked at BD, who decided to hop over onto his shoulder. “You know what always helps when I’m stressed?”
“What?”
“A good meal. And,” he flashed a grin, “I know the perfect place. It’s run by my good friend Hondo—he’ll totally love you—and it’s just close enough for us to make it in time for lunch.”
She considered this, and found the idea honestly appealing. “I am getting hungry.”
“Great!” He jumped up and held out his hand for her to take, gently pulling her up to meet him. “Let’s get going.”
Perhaps taking them into a den of bounty hunters wasn’t the best idea when his wanted posters had that high of a sum attached. He and Sabine had usually been fine before, but apparently today's luck just kept on coming. So, Kata and he were hiding underneath the bar, with her hyperventilating and him keeping her hair away from the uncomfortably sticky ground.
They both jumped at a tapping on the counter above, and it was only once Hondo leaned over that Ezra’s heart started beating again. The owner flicked his eyes to the other corner of the bar, where a painted emblem lay. The duo crawled over to meet Hondo, who pulled a tap handle to reveal a secret passage.
He went between them, wrapping an arm around both. “Go out there. Follow your dream.”
Ezra nodded earnestly. “I will.”
“I was talking to the girl,” he clarified, frowning. “Your dream is so small. Why stop at a shared house? Go for a private island!”
“I like sharing with Sabine.”
“And you didn’t even mention profits!” the pirate continued. “You could be surrounded by enormous piles of—”
“Can we get going?” Kata interrupted, urgently pointing towards the passage.
“Yes,” Ezra agreed, climbing down. “Thanks Hondo, you’re the best.”
“For you my boy, I’d do anything.” He chuckled, “Especially if you bring this one again. I’ll be keeping my eye for an invitation.”
It was the wink that made Ezra decide to yank down the hatch, finishing his eyeroll before turning to an awaiting Kata. She already had a lantern lit for them, so it took no time for their little walk to begin.
“You weren’t kidding about Hondo liking me,” she commented with a giggle, her bird agreeing.
“Yeah.” He scratched the back of his neck, hoping that she didn’t put together that last comment from Hondo…or take the earlier “girlfriend” comment seriously…or hear anything the patrons said.
“He called you something else,” she broke through his thoughts, “Lando something.”
“Oh, yeah,” he chuckled nervously, not liking where this conversation was inevitably headed. “That’s just another alias I have.”
For a moment, the sound of their footsteps echoing within the cave was the only thing scoring the silence. Then, “Jabba isn’t your real name, is it?”
“No,” he admitted, something he usually didn’t need to clarify. “I never use the real one, and only Hondo even knows it.”
“And Sabine too, right?”
“Nope,” he corrected, shoving his hands into his pockets.
Her brows knit. “But I thought you loved her?”
“Of course I love her, she’s my best friend.” He pursed his lips. “But part of loving her is protecting her, and that means that she doesn’t know my name. I don’t know her surname for the same reason.”
“Right. That’s why my papa wouldn’t let me leave the tower.”
Alarm bells sounded once again in his head. “I’m not sure that's the same.”
“You wouldn’t get it,” she looked at the ground ahead. “He—”
Whatever she was going to say was cut off by the echoing of creaking. It quickly registered that it was the same hatch they went through earlier, and Ezra knew exactly who the voice that came after belonged to.
“Oh no,” he breathed, already gathering her hair. “We’ve got to run.”
Once they got out of the cave and into the sunlight, Kata had a chance to catch her breath. In her defense, she hadn’t expected this adventure to contain quite so much walking and running. Or really any running away.
“Who was yelling at us back there?” she asked, peeking to where they came.
“Co-captain of the royal guard,” Jabba dropped down to inspect a ladder, only for it to collapse in his testing, “she doesn’t like me.”
“And everyone else?”
“The rest of the royal guard, they don’t like me either.”
In their shared examination of the small canyon below, a sudden blur of color appeared onto the scene. “Who’s that?”
“Sabine!” He gave an exaggerated wave before turning to Kata with a grin. “She totally likes me.”
“There you are, you little shit!” she yelled, loud enough to be heard across the canyon.
Jabba winced. “Well, maybe not right now.”
The sound of footsteps came into clarity, announcing the arrival of both captains and four guards to boot. Kata took one look at them and their swords, shoved her frying pan into Jabba’s hands, found what was hopefully a good hold, and yelled out “Hold on,” before tossing her hair out. It did manage to grab onto a support, and she only gave BD a second to fly to it before launching herself off the cliff. She flew downwards, passing what must have been inches away from a gobsmacked Sabine before soaring back upwards, landing on some kind of drainage chute.
Only allowing herself a moment to catch her balance, she whipped around to see Jabba…sword fighting the male captain with her frying pan while the rest of the guard lay motionless on the ground. Huh. Maybe that was normal? It only lasted a minute before the captain disarmed Jabba, sending the frying pan downwards and resulting in him shrugging.
She didn’t allow him to carry out whatever he was planning as his bargaining tactic, instead tossing her hair to where he was able to wrap the end around his hand. Luckily, he had been taking notes and followed her example sailing down to the bottom of the canyon. Unlike her, however, he did not make the return accent due to Sabine grabbing him and tackling him to the ground.
Great, Kata thought as their scuffle yanked her forwards, forcing her to run along the gutter until it gave out beneath her. It was perhaps the most terrifying fall of her life, and she was certain it wasn’t going to end well until she landed on something softer than stone. That something made a grunt, and she quickly realized it was Jabba catching her and breaking her fall.
“Thank you,” she breathed.
“Of course,” he smiled, the slightest grimace sneaking through as he held his palm tightly against his chest.
The moment was broken by the sounds of cracking wood, and the trio looked up to see the dam above them breaking open. Faster than ever before, Kata got up and started to run.
“There’s a cave up ahead!” Sabine yelled over the sounds of water pouring towards them. “Help me carry all this!”
Jabba did as instructed and split the pile of Kata’s hair between them, allowing them to run just barely fast enough to outpace the flood. The sound of cracking rocks and a quickly moving shadow alerted her to the pillar threatening to fall onto them, coming down with a crash mere moments after the four of them crossed the threshold into the cave, sealing it behind them.
They scrambled further back into the cave, and Sabine yelped out, “Shit!”
The cause of her panic wasn’t exactly hard to discern once the water splashed onto their feet. A ledge of some kind was the perfect place to escape it, until the water level rose to meet them. Jabba gave both girls a glance before diving down, prompting Sabine to try and pry at the rocks surrounding them. He emerged not a moment too soon, gasping for air and rejoining them on the ledge.
“It’s pitch black, I can’t see a thing.” He brushed his hair back, allowing his vibrant eyes to be visible, despite the dimness. “Even if there was a way out, we’d never be able to find it.”
Kata readied herself to go down into the slowing waters, but the purple haired girl held her back. “He said he can’t find anything; it’s pointless. We’re all going to die here.” She slumped against the cave walls in defeat. “I kind of expected you to be here.” She nodded to who was apparently her normal partner in crime, before leaning forward to see the other occupant in the cave. “You’re new though. What even is your name?”
“Kata,” she smiled. “And you’re Sabine?”
“Yeah,” she confirmed. “How long have you known Jabba for you to pick up on that?”
There was a brief pause for Kata to do the mental math, before answering, “Since this morning.”
Sabine raised an eyebrow, and Jabba just shrugged. “We’ve been talking a lot. She’s like, my second best friend at this point.”
She sighed. “Right, I get captured for what, half an hour, and you already replace me.”
“She’s not your replacement,” he corrected earnestly. “She blackmailed me into being her tour guide, and that’s why I couldn’t break you out sooner.”
The following pause was long enough to convince Kata to chime in with, “He’s telling the truth. It’s my fault he couldn’t get you sooner.” She swallowed. “It’s my fault we’re stuck in here, too.”
“Not really,” Sabine contradicted. “At least four of us contributed to the structural integrity of the dam, and it was probably out of date any—“ She cut herself off, “In five minutes, I’ll be too dead to care, so I’m not about to spend my last moments being upset at someone. Hell, I’m not even blaming Mr. The Hutt.”
He let out a small chuckle, and Kata was going to do the same but was stopped by him saying, “You can call me Ezra.”
Sabine scoffed. “You really have to make one more alias before going out?”
“No, Ezra Bridger’s my real name,” he clarified. “If we’re really not getting out of here, then you two should know. Should have known, a while ago.”
While Sabine was busy gaping, Kata grabbed Ezra’s hand under the water. “Thank you for telling me.”
“Yeah, that means a lot.” Sabine blinked out of her daze. “But, if we’re letting out big secrets like that, then maybe I should get in on it.” She took a deep breath, before announcing, “I’m technically first in line to be a Mandalorian Countess.”
“A what!” Ezra screeched.
Kata blinked. “What’s a Mandalorian Countess?”
Ezra turned to fully face Kata, ignoring his other friend to direct his full attention on her as he explained, “It’s sort of like a queen, but one step lower. But,” he rotated back to the other direction and raised his voice, “it’s still royalty!”
“Nobility,” she amended.
“Does it matter?” He threw his hands up in defeat, the water level to the point that they barely crossed the surface. “Anyone else have any world-altering secrets that they’d like to get out?”
“I have magic hair that glows,” Kata admitted, feeling the weight of her papa’s rules on her like he was in the cave with them.
“What?” Ezra asked quietly.
“I have magic hair—” she started, before gasping with realization, “that glows! Flower gleam and glow, let your power shine,” she tucked BD away inside her top while singing as fast as she could, “make the clock reverse—”
The water finally submerged them all just after they all took in a final gasp of what air was left. Not a moment later, the light of Kata’s hair illuminated the cave, and Ezra and Sabine’s shocked expressions with it. They didn’t get to linger in their surprise for long, because she quickly redirected their attention to where the current of the water was pulling her hair toward a small crack in the rocks. All three of them swam towards it, Ezra going down to pry away at the rocks and Sabine following quickly after. Kata felt completely helpless pulling away at rocks without much progress until Sabine picked a rock to remove that caused a good chunk of the wall to get swept away with it in an instant.
The next minute was a blur, as they swam out through the current flowing out of the cave and into what turned out to be a nearby river. They broke the surface, heaving the fresh air as they stumbled onto shore. In the afternoon sun, they laid out with backs against the grass.
“We’re alive,” Kata breathed.
“Your hair glows,” Ezra said with amazement.
Sabine threw her hands up and yelled, “What the fuck!”