#paternal thrawn

[purringysalamiri]

paternal thrawn content my love

[aburningconstellation]

a parallel i’ve been thinking a lot about lately is the “needed a parent, but ended up with an older sibling” dynamic that exists between anakin, qui gon, & obi wan and che’ri, thrawn, & thalias

anakin & che’ri both didn’t have a strong paternal figure when they were really little, but found one when they were like 9/10, in qui gon & thrawn respectively. but then those people were taken from them all too soon (by either death or exile) and the person that was left, obi wan & thalias, still cared for their young charges a great deal & would do anything they could to protect & support them, but both of them are still growing up too and will never be able to replicate that parent/child dynamic & exist more as siblings. we get to see more of that play out with anakin & obi wan since we get to see them at various stages of life and only have earlier stages of life of che’ri & thalias in canon right now

all of these relationships are so much more complex than just this, but this has really been activating my “it’s like poetry, it rhymes” senses this week

[thedistantstorm]

You know, just in case you need a paternal, protective Samakro in your life.

[contentment-of-cats]

Thrawn and Thysa from the Care story universe.

They. Put. Him. Out.

Thrawn was lifted off his feet, carted in a state of shock and disbelief into the hallway and set on his heels.

Moreover, there was a fingerwagging lecture about this being in a situation he can't control and to let the obstetrical medics do their job. Thysa was doing just fine, Thrawn's opinion to the contrary, and their child was likewise doing just fine. However, said child was comfy in her human mother's warmth and dilatory enough about entering into the greater universe that induction of labor had been considered but ultimately unneeded. He was readmitted to the birthing room after a promise to 'behave' was extracted and deemed sincere.

Thysa was (in his opinion) too pale and (also in his opinion) sweating enough to concern one with dehydration, and additionally gave off distress indicators nerve block or no nerve block. The contractions were horrifying in terms of intensity and duration. Even at full dilation, there wasn't enough progress and as the Chiss medic said, even a small Chiss baby was a large one for a rather small human.

Also - broad shoulders.

Thrawn fed his po'sa ice chips and from time to time had his fingers crushed when the nerve blocks wore off. There was discussion of a surgical extraction until the shoulder could be tuned and his (their) daughter arrived in the universe like a nightmelon seed being spat out. It was distressing that both were removed from him, and Thrawn got to experience fatherhood hormones at full full blast. His Thysa and Ava were returned to him just short of painting the room with someone's blood, one exhausted and one ferociously hungry. He bundled them into their bed, back turned to the unwanted crowd of Chiss and Humans, and slipped Ava into Thysa's arms where she rooted and then settled.

A father. At his age.

Thysa treated him tenderly, worried (for him?!), but willing to be soothed to sleep with purring. A glance at his daughter made him wonder that anyone survived being so small, so helpless.

If anyone gave his wife and child so much as a hard look, he'd fracture them in so many places that they'd need an MSE droid to sweep up the bits.

And with that, Thrawn slept.

~

Ba'kif had a Thrawn-shaped headache again for the first time in years. It did not improve with age.

Surely he misunderstood what Kres'ten'tarthi just said.

"Firstborn."

"Firstborn." Stent was far too cheerful. "There are no Imperial recruiting stations out this far, so as the Human females' contraceptive devices failed over time..."

The mother was Human. The term moactan teel existed for a reason. And Thrawn, always paternal to young ones, was getting the fatherhood hormones right in the teeth.

"Has there been bloodshed?"

"Human mothers can be as fearsome as nightdragons-"

"I meant Thrawn."

Stent's answer was to lead him to Ar'alani, and then lead them both to Thrawn. The Human mothers, it was explained, denned for three months - an effective fourth trimester - before becoming social again. It dovetailed nicely with Chiss fatherhood hormones that drove protecting and nurturing po'sa and infant. The suite of rooms was expansive, bright, and airy - the mothering room was small, gently lit, and warm. He could see the white back of Thrawn's tunic and smell the sweet musk particular to humans with the milk-fed scent of a newborn child.

And heard a soft 'hrrrrrrrrr' as Thrawn turned his head, red eyes squeezed to glowing slits.

Ba'kif had been a hormone-addled new father, true, but Thrawn's manners were absent. Chiss males needed three to six months of newborn leave for a reason. Mindful that those shoulders were still broad and muscled, Ba'kif stopped a respectful distance away - and stopped Ar'alani with an outstretched arm. The mother, a black-haired and night-orchid colored human peeked unblinking just past Thrawn's shoulder.

The hrrrr-growl continued. Lip lifting to show sharp eyeteeth.

Ar'alani decided to break the stalemate by moving quickly on Ba'kif's right. Thrawn's eyes darted to her momentarily and that's all Ba'kif needed to step up and scruff Thrawn like an unruly pusheen.

The Human then became stabby.

The baby wrapped close to her body did not unlatch.

And Thrawn bit him.

Hard.

Ar'alani - wary of a stabby Human - got Thrawn off his arm and coaxed the Human into removing the knife. The little mother had plenty to say in fluent Rentor dialect and the insults were positively baroque. Thrawn kept himself between his po'sa and Ba'kif and Ar'alani as Ba'kif was treated with bac'tah.

"-and you left him there for FIVE YEARS, so fuck off and keep fucking off until you leave orbit, continue fucking off out of the system, then proceed to fuck off right to the galactic boundary and into the dark of intergalactic space."

Can't say that they don't know where they stood with this one.

~

Ava lay warm and snug in the vik'kiki wrap - skin to skin with Thysa, boob and milk in reach. Her spouse still occasionally growled at Ar'alani and Ba'kif, and Thysa was Not Having Anyone's Shit Today. Yes, they all understood that the exile was a ruse for an intel insertion, but five years waiting for it to happen was fucking heartless. They deserved to lose him and the Empire - which in the end didn't deserve him either - got him.

A quick check showed her a sleepy, milk-fat baby, deep blue with warmth. Thrawn told her that Chiss infants put on a thick coat of baby fat, the start of thermogenic fat that will keep them warm, but right now she can't regulate her temperature. Ava needed close warmth and lots of milk. As loath as Thysa was to let Ava away from her, she needed a shower.

"Can you take her? There's milk packs if she wakes up." Thrawn touched his forehead to hers, then she slipped the wrap over his head and transferred the baby, "And if they lay a finger on my child, I will go full Wookiee."

"Understood."

Thysa left him the knife and surrendered to the planetary luxury of hot water. Her insides still felt strange, her belly pooched out, and using the tubes was a whole different dimension, but the hot water beat down and she washed until every muscle was loose and lush. She left her hair loose and damp, pulled back in a tail, then put on a clean gown. The scents of food wafted in, and suddenly Thysa was ravenous. All she'd done was eat, sleep, and nurse for the past three days. Thrawn barely let her out of bed and catered to every whim.

Thrawn lay on the bed, Ava on his chest, coaxing her to accept a milk pack. Soft cranky noises meant she wanted the fresh stuff but she settled sleepily as Thrawn purred. They'd been afraid, at first, that so many evolutionary changes meant that Thysa's pregnancy wouldn't be viable. Every time Ava beat the odds. Ba'kif and Ar'alani had moved back to the window seat and that was just fine with Thysa. Unbuttoning the front of her gown she reclaimed the little guzzler from Thrawn and was immediately latched.

~

Ar'alani knew this Human from her time on the Chimaera and from the unfortunate second meeting where Pyrondi fired on her ship. Ar'alani hadn't noticed anything between her and Thrawn at first, but by the time the Steadfast encountered the Seventh, they were established and Thrawn was not returning to the Ascendancy, but chose to remain with his Humans. She'd gone back for Ba'kif and others who might convince him - to no avail. There was even less chance of Thrawn's return - none, exactly - now that he had a mate and child.

Ba'kif seemed to have hit on a strategy of Knowing About Infants, and when Ava glutted herself on milk and expressed displeasure with the result Ba'kif intervened. Of course, when one's placid newborn wailed like an incursion alarm, it ran into the sleep-deprived, hormone-addled brains of new parents and addled them further. Ba'kif simply scooped the infant up after Thrawn failed to reason with her put her over one shoulder and in a few pats-

Oh. Ugh.

Ba'kif wore an outsize amount of white slime as he cleaned up the ch'ithsin'bo hsiro in'a  and issued an order. "Sleep. I will not leave the room with Mitth'ava'thysa. When you wake and eat, we will talk."

"He's not going back, and if he is we're all coming with him." Thysa was defiant.

Ba'kif nodded. settling into an oddly made chair with curved runners and setting it in motion. "When you wake. Sleep."

Thrawn took his mate into his arms, and they murmured to one another in that other language before curling up with one another. ar'alani stretched out in the window seat and let her own exhaustion weigh down her eyelids. Thrawn was their last thread of hope.

[a-random-pillow]

Ezra being Thrawn's kid is comedy gold

I don't know how this would happen, I am pretty sure Thrawn is either Ace or Gay but he someone gets a child. Maybe Ezra is a spliced clone by someone with Kamino tech? Who knows but for this run let's say he's created naturally.

Thrawn doesn't know he has a kid, he is off living in blissful ignorance (At least in this part of his live)

Meanwhile Ezra gets adopted by the Bridgers who don't question why their child's eyes glow in the dark or why he describes people as 'glowing'. Ezra lucked out genetically, at least if he wants to pass for human.

Away Ezra's parents would leave a note in there secret rebel basement explaining that he is adopted but they wouldn't get to tell him themselves cause they get caugth and dragged for by the empire.

Ezra becomes a street rat and is a menace, then gets adopted by the ghost crew. It takes around a week for them to relise Ezra isn't human, Kannan walks into the living room in the middle of the nigth to see two glowing blue eyes looking back at him form the darkness. Ezra for his part hasn't realized he isn't human, that was an interesting conversation to have.

They find the note Ezra's parents left and a new side objective has been added find out what Ezra is. Months later and they have come up with pretty much nothing and it's mildly concerning to everyone having Ezra be an unknown alien. What if these aliens get sick if they eat these one spefic food? Or have a weird life-span?

So Thrawn gets called to deal with the Ghost Crew, he starts doing research and realizes Ezra isn't human. 1. his eyes glow 2. he doesn't think humas come in blue. He starts doing research to figure out exactly what Ezra is and nothing matches. So he decides just to steal some of the child's DNA to figure out who he is.

It isn't hard to get some blood or hair, they are in war after all. So he dose and the child matches with no species in the imperial data base, he realizes the child's parent(s) must have been form the unknown regions. Then he starts running a through the races he knows form the unknown regions that he know and oh no the one that matches the best is Chiss.

So he runs the test and expects it will confirm Ezra is a chiss not that he is his son!

100% chance of paternity

Thrawn wants to call Vanto, he wants to call him and ask him how to navigate this social situation but he can't. He doesn't know what his next move is, he has to re-work many of his plans now. Thrawn no matter how calm he seems feels plenty of emotions. right now as he sits in his grand admiral chair, '100% chance of paternity' flashing in front of him feels truants of emotion washing through him. Joy, Thrawn had always liked the idea of having a child to teach and pass down his knowledge to. Anger at himself for being so stupide to not follow up with the woman after that nigth. Overwhelming Sadness for not being able to raise his child. Fear since his child had been on the battle field since he was 14. He had to make a plan.

Whenever Thrawn shows up he tries to separate Ezra form the group, 1. so he can see what Ezra can do on his own 2. Maybe he can get a chance to talk to his baby boy?

Whenever Ezra get's caputred Thrawn runs full tilit down the halls to get to his cell.

"I JUST SAW GRAND ADMIRAL THRAWN RUNNING???? ARE WE GOING TO DIE??"

"Oh no chill, Ezra Bridger has just been captured... keep an extra eye open for anything weird the other rebels will becoming soon"

Meanwhile Thrawn is being very socially acward

"... What is your favoirte color?"

"Why are you asking that?!"

Ezra has zero clue what Thrawn is plotting and it's very concerning. Months after Thrawn met Ezra in person Thrawn would try and tell him that he is is father but the rebles or whoever never faill to interute him.

"Ezra I need to tell you-" gets force thrown into a wall by Kannan

"Ezra I am your-" Gets knocked over by Zeb

"Please Ezra wait! I need to tell you that I am your fath-" Gets zapped by Chopper

Thrawn has a secret photo album in his office drawer, it has pictures of Thrass, Eli and Ezra in it. It's one of his most prized positions. Hopefully Ms. Price doesn't find it ;)

Meanwhile the Ghost Crew are trying to think of what Thrawn's plan is. They have no clue why he seems so obsessed with Ezra, he never meantions Ezra being a Jedi or really anything. He normally just tries to asks get to know you questions.

During Imperial Eyes when Thrawn realizes Ezra is on the ship in disguse and calls the blueberry into his art room. It's extreamly acward with Thrawn trying to enage Ezra in a converation about art while Ezra is trying to figure out a way out of the converation without blowing his cover.

Thrawn finaly manges to tell Ezra that he is his father

"I am aware that you are Ezra, but I don't want you to panic I won't hand you over. This room is completely secure no one can hear us here. There is something very important I have been trying to tell you for months which is that I am your biological father... Yes I know it is shocking, I was a wreck myself after I found out. I didn't know about you if I did I would have been there, I always wanted a child... Ezra Bridger we are from a people known as the Chiss in unknown space, their is an enemy out there far worse then the empire and my mission was the secure a treaty with the empire to help stop this threat."

Thrawn explains more and pretty much tells Ezra his whole life story. Ezra is silent throughout this, the force is telling him that everything Thrawn is saying is true but he doesn't know what to do. At the end Thrawn tells Ezra that he certine the Emperor will kill him after he takes out this rebel cell because Thrawn had to prioritize the Chiss over the Empire. He offers deal; Ezra comes with Thrawn back to the Assdency and Thrawn makes a plan to make sure the empire will leave Lothal alone.

"So everyone in the Phoenix Squadron gets out mostly un-harmed, Lothal becomes free and I follow you to this Chiss Assdency?"

"Pericely"

Eventually Ezra would accept the deal which would began the Father Son Bounding which is them plotting how to fake there deaths and make the Empire leave them alone. Ezra finds Thrawn collection of glasses hilarious and Thrawn gets to take lots of pictures with Ezra. They meet on many different planets so it doesn't seem to suspicious. Ezra starts picking up some of Thrawn's habits like saying Perhaps all the godamm time. Thrawn also starts teaching Ezra Chiss customs and how to speak Chunn.

Ms. Price is snooping and finds Thrawn's photo album and is very confused because okay Thrawn was very close to Eli and she assumes the other chiss is one of his friends or something but why is the rebel in the book!

Thrawn gets confronted on this and lies to her that Ezra has become a spy for the empire. Governor Price wants to child to say it in person so now Thrawn and Ezra have a big problem. Ezra looks for some information that looks very important but isn't. He finds some details on a mission that is coming up that involves high-jacking a old republic base and steals some of that information.

Ms. Price fully believes that Ezra is now a spy and the reason Ezra and Thrawn are so close is because Thrawn chose Ezra has his new student. Thrawn and Ezra have built themselves a castle of lies that could come falling down at any moment. Ezra has to keep lying to the ghost crew about where he runs off to and Thrawn has to do the same with the empire.

Kannan won't die because Thrawn and Ezra would have the whole Siege of Lothal planned out. Thrawn had gotten a tracker so the Assdency could find them after the Purgail power jump. They both had a packed bag stored in the office for the trip. Most of the seventh fleet crew was on the ground and fighting the rebels.

"Are you ready?"

"Perhaps" says Ezra with a cheeky smile, Thrawn rolls his eyes

"Yeah, I'm ready" said Ezra the joking tone lost

"Perhaps we should make the jump then"

[empress-violetlight]

🖊+an OC

Okay, since I've been given a choice, I'm going to go with Xelarra and Thrawn's son, Shran

(Wish I had a better picture of him. This one is years old, but still, you can tell he's his father's son)

Full name: Mitth'shra'nuruodo. His core name translates to "gift" in Old Chenuh.

birth year: 9 ABY

Race: Chiss (duh)

Place of birth: Nirauan -- the Hand of Thrawn fortress. Empire of the Hand, Unknown Regions, the Galaxy Far Far Away

Family: Mitth'raw'nuruodo - Thrawn (father), Lexx'elarra'nuruodo - Xelarra (mother), Mitth'andor'randeth - Andorra (older sister). Mara Jade (older adopted sister), Mitth'ras'safris - Thrass (paternal uncle). Considers the Fel family his honourary uncle, aunt and cousins, and Admiral Gilad Pellaeon his honourary grandfather.

***

Shran was born in 9 ABY, at the very end of his father's campaign as portrayed in Timothy Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy ("Heir to the Empire", "Dark Force Rising", and "The Last Command"). Xelarra would not allow Thrawn to leave for his campaign until he fulfilled a promise to her -- she wanted another baby. Shran was born almost immediately after his father's death at the Battle of Bilbringi, and never even had the chance to meet him. ("Penelope" Chapter 2), narrowly avoiding a Noghri attempt on his and his mother's lives. A heartbroken Xelarra named him, modifying usual Chiss naming conventions, in honour of his father's sacrifice -- Thrawn's last gift to his wife was their baby boy.

Though his life began with loss, Shran grew up surrounded by loved ones. His older sister Andorra adored him, often babysitting, and close family friends, the human Fel family, often cared for him alongside their own six children, with Syal Fel often joking that "one more doesn't make much of a difference at this point", and Shran became particularly close to Jagged Fel, two years his senior, who would be his lifelong best friend, and Cherith Fel, a year his junior. Xelarra lavished attention and care on her son, despite her position as Planetary governor of Nirauan (and would tell off any who dared to criticize her attending her family duties), and later, as Empress of the Hand.

Despite his happy childhood, Shran still felt the shadow of his legendary father, and strived to differentiate himself from the expectations that shadow cast. Instead of joining the Imperial Naval Academy as a mid-ager as almost everyone expected him to, Shran instead joined the Empire of the Hand's Explorer program. A passion project that Thrawn dreamed of, but never lived to see its fruition, the Explorers would chart and extensively study new planets and solar systems in the Unknown Regions and other outer reaches of the Galaxy relatively peacefully (their ships only being lightly armed -- enough to deter criminals), learning all they could and discovering unexpected secrets. You could say they "seek out new life and new civilizations". Normally, Explorer Cadets would have two years of classroom study, followed by two years of field placement before graduating to the rank of ensign. After learning that Thrawn had graduated in only 3 years instead of the usual 4 from the Chiss Expansionary Defence Fleet academy, Shran saw that as a challenge. He beat his father's record, graduating in only two years.

As an ensign, at 14 years old, Shran's first assignment was the RRS (Royal Research Ship) Stargazer, commanded by the Chiss Captain Kalemi, a former Rogue Phalanx warrior and mathematics expert. She had previously worked with Xelarra on a black ops mission, and Xelarra pulled some strings in the background to get Shran assigned to her old associate's ship. As a command-track ensign, Shran was expected to familiarize himself with all Explorer specialties, and he took to the challenge with his characteristic humour and enthuiasm. He was instrumental in helping Mara Jade rediscover her connection with the Empire of the Hand (upcoming fic, "Daughter of the Empire").

The Empire of the Hand's forces managed to find Vector Prime, forcing the Yuuzhan Vong to pick a different way into the Galaxy, delaying the onslaught of the Yuuzhan Vong War by 3 years (28 ABY instead of 25 ABY). By the time Shran was 19 at the beginning of the war, he had risen to First Officer of the Stargazer. Not long into the War itself, he'd be given command of his own ship, the RRS Intrepid, as the Explorers were reassigned to scout and Vong research duties. Despite the Intrepid's official role, he often finds himself at the centre of new developments during the war, like the intact capture of a coral skipper, proving the Explorer program as a whole's continued importance.

***

Personality:

In stark contrast to usual Chiss stoicism, Shran comes across as outgoing to the point of obnoxiousness, and has an air of not taking anything seriously. This is all an act, however, one made to make people underestimate him. Beneath the mask lies an intellect just as cool, calculating, and frighteningly intelligent as his parents'. He has a talent for noticing that which others miss, and finding insight in unexpected places. He has no patience with stupidity, and has no qualms about telling others to their faces if he finds a system or belief idiotic (such as almost everything about the Jedi, or the Chiss Ascendency's Ruling Family system). He's extremely loyal to his family, friends and crewmates. Anyone who threatens them will see his easygoing facade crack, and will learn first hand how dangerous the Son of Thrawn really is.

[brackishtakes]

Snipped from someone’s post to avoid dragging them personally.  But oh my word.  Have you ever seen takes that are so carefully thought out and so blatantly WRONG.

Kanan?  Attractive?  Don’t make me laugh.  Especially when posed against the insult that Carth isn’t at all attractive.

MACE WINDU PATERNAL??

Maul AND Krennic are in the “unattractive” category and the taste is off the charts bad.  Basically the whole right column tells me that OP is a coward who doesn’t like villains.

How is Dooku attractive in a dad way... move him over

HOW IS THRAWN ATTRACTIVE IN A DAD WAY

HOW YOUNG IS OP

I don’t like Kallus being where he is but I’m too distraught over everything else to tell you where he needs to be.  I need my fainting couch and my smelling salts.  Put the men away

[shadowsong26fic]

The Family of Spies AU

AKA ‘Shadowsong should not have unsupervised access to multiple fandoms at once: Exhibit A.’

I kid. Mostly.

Anyway, it’s that time again--time for an AU Outline! It feels like forever since I’ve done one of these. …and by ‘forever’ I mean the last one was the SPN/Person of Interest crossover back in January.

This one is, uh, also a fairly niche crossover. It’s inspired and helped along by @tigerkat, who introduced me to one of the two fandoms and whose Star Wars OCs I’m borrowing to make it work. (Also, one or two bits in here are more or less lifted from our IM conversations on the subject

Basically, the short version is, I’ve been watching Nikita, and TigerKat and I have put together this whole extended family for Kallus and Zeb and one thing led to another, wires got crossed in my brain, and here we are.

Welcome to my Star Wars/Nikita fusion.

So, first, some relevant background:

In everything TigerKat and I developed, Alex and Zeb end up collecting/adopting four kids. (TigerKat, feel free to correct me on any details that are Off in any way!)

First kid they adopt is Mirah, shortly after the events of ANH.

Mirah is Human, and around three or four at this point; her parents were part of an extremely pacifist sect, of the kind where even defending yourself against someone trying to kill you is Not Okay. The sect was wiped out (probably not by the Empire, last I heard?) and Mirah was the only survivor; she watched her parents died right in front of her. Alex ended up there on an unrelated mission, and brought the little girl back to base.

Turns out, she’d gotten Attached and would not sleep without him close by.

(I mean. He’d gotten Attached as well but there is a Conversation to be had here, and he and Zeb haven’t actually had it yet, so…yeah.)

So, that’s how they get Kid #1.

Mirah later grows up to be essentially a mob boss/puts together a semi-legal syndicate. She doesn’t have a whole lot of faith in the law.

Second kid is Orryn, something like a year or two later, I think?

Orryn is a Donogh (species name subject to change; they’re basically like human-sized rabbit hobbits), and four or five years older than Mirah. His father and older brother were killed when he was born, and his mother eventually found her way to the Rebels after that. Donoghs tend to have very large families, so the fact that he’s an only child is a little Weird.

His mom is a friend of theirs, and when she dies, Alex and Zeb take Orryn in as well.

He is very Soft, both physically and metaphorically (like I said, rabbit hobbits), and like the sweetest kid you’ll ever meet.

(Mirah learns very quickly to weaponize her brother’s Sad Eyes. She’s very good at getting what she wants.)

The other three kids all end up taking Zeb’s last name; Orryn keeps his original one (his people are matriarchal and matrilineal).

He grows up to be a mechanic, and has a more typical family for his species with nine kids.

Third is Shamie, who’s roughly halfway between Mirah and Orryn; they get adopted a month or so before ESB.

I’ve written about them here; but the most important bits--

They’re Human, agender, and a former street thief/pickpocket. They help Zeb out when a mission goes sideways after his local contact fails to show up, and Zeb decides to keep them, because he really can’t leave them there for a long list of reasons. They’d been on their own for close to a year at that point, and were roughly eight or nine.

(The conversation where Zeb checks in with Alex about this is very entertaining, because he texts to confirm that a third kid is okay in the middle of a firefight. Alex is less than thrilled.)

Shamie and Mirah are basically platonic soulmates. There’s just a sort of click when the two of them meet.

They grow up to be a priest of a sun/fire deity.

Fourth is Hanula, better known as Hanny.

She’s a Lasat baby who they adopt a few months after Endor, after Zeb mentions to the elders on Lira San that he and Alex have been considering a fourth kid, maybe starting with an infant this time, and maybe someone of his own species this time…

Some time not too long after that, Hanula is placed in his arms and he’s told ‘good luck.’

She’s stabby, as in she likes to Stab Things as a baby (usually with, like, a fork), which later gets translated into cooking--she ends up as a Chef.

While she does turn up, of course, she’s not super relevant for this crossover, but she’s Delightful so I thought I’d share anyway XD

(There’s also Alex’s sister and her sons, plus, uh, the various grandchildren, but they’re also not super relevant to the crossover. I can share details about them if anyone’s curious, though.)

As a note, I’ve only seen like half a season of Nikita at this point; so while we’re starting from the same basic premise, I don’t really expect this to converge with actual future plot points like at all. So.

Also, as a result of that, this outline will probably also take on a certain resemblance to Alias and/or other similar Spy Dramas.

Anyway. So. Let’s get this show on the road.

Kallus takes on Nikita’s role in this--Death Faked For You; trained to be a super spysassin by a Shady Black Ops Group from his late teens/early twenties. Much like Nikita in her canon, he meets someone while on an extended cover assignment and falls in love.

Division is less than thrilled with this, and so arrange orders Zeb’s death.

(Obviously, this doesn’t take, because I am Not About That. But Kallus genuinely believes Zeb is dead, which is what pushes him to break free, much like Nikita’s reaction to Daniel’s murder.)

(Zeb also thinks Kallus is dead; he, of course, got picked up by the Ghost crew, but more about him later.)

Mirah will take on Alex’s role (which is why I started referring to Kallus that way, even though in my head and in this outline up to this point he’s mostly Alex XD).

Probably a blend of the two backgrounds--her parents/the sect she grew up in were taken out by Division; probably with the cover story that they were a Dangerous Cult, but the exact reason was more likely Profit or something. Since they mostly weren’t? At least not in the ‘need to be dismantled’ sort of way.

Kallus, like Nikita, was on hand and made sure that the little girl survived, but wouldn’t/couldn’t follow up since he was still a mostly-loyal Division agent at that point. He tracks her down after he breaks free, and they start working together.

She eventually talks him into the idea of her infiltrating Division, as that will better suit their plans to dismantle the organization.

(…really, most of this early part is not super different from Nikita and Alex. Mostly summarizing for anyone reading this who’s unfamiliar with the show.)

Shamie is an older/prior recruit; they’ve been here a few months. Their marksmanship is pretty much bottom of the barrel, so far as the current crop of recruits go, and their hacking skills could use some work, but they’re one of the best at hand-to-hand/other close-quarters combat, and they’re probably top third with explosives and other detail work. And they’re generally a pretty phlegmatic person. Not many of the other recruits keep cool under pressure as well as they do.

They’re probably fairly close to being evaluated and promoted to full Agent status when Mirah is brought in.

The two of them, as in their normal lives/timeline, immediately click. Mirah reports back to Kallus, confirming her infiltration was successful, and also mentioning Shamie.

“Remember what I told you about making friends,” Kallus warns her. “Losing them will be hard. And you can’t know how loyal this person is to Division. Be very careful.”

Mirah internally rolls her eyes, because she’s not dumb, she knows that.

A few more quick parallels, for the Higher Ups at Division:

Arindha Pryce stands in for Percy.

She just has the right blend of Genuine Competence buried under Not As Good As She Thinks She Is to match up with him.

Founding member and leader of Division.

Thrawn stands in for Amanda.

Like, okay. The two of them, for a variety of reasons, have vastly different management styles.

But in terms of his actual skillset and the role Amanda plays, at least on paper? Which is to say, supervising training/constructing covers/monitoring recruits and agents and their mental states?

(Plus, the whole…resident torturer/interrogator/etc. thing…)

Yeah, he could pull that off.

Pellaeon stands in for Michael.

Because I love him.

Also the Vastly Different Dynamic between the Head of Division, the Whatever Amanda’s Actual Job Title Is, and the 2iC/Head Field Operative with these three as opposed to Percy, Amanda, and Michael entertains me.

(Pellaeon is more loyal to Thrawn than Pryce, but only if it came down to an Actual Contest between the two of them would that ever be relevant. He’s extremely competent, but occasionally a little too involved with the recruits, in a fairly paternal sense. Especially since he’s probably a good twenty years older than Michael. But I digress.)

So, Mirah is successfully inserted. That goes pretty much the same as in Nikita canon, completely with Kallus making a splashy return to Division’s radars.

(Probably not at Zeb’s grave, though; if Zeb even has an actual grave.)

She starts interacting with other recruits, including Shamie. The two of them click pretty quickly, all things considered, but given the circumstances…yeah, they keep a certain level of distance, at least for now.

…well, at least on the surface, anyway. Mirah is even more determined to burn Division to the ground if they breathe harm in Shamie’s direction.

(For their part, Shamie may or may not start to notice a few anomalies, but they keep that knowledge to themself for now.)

For a few months, it’s pretty much the pattern the early S1 episodes have--Mirah will get details on an official Division op, pass them along to Kallus, he’ll be on hand to foil it. She gets activated briefly once or twice, but is mostly just working as a regular recruit for her cover.

Plus, you know, evading Thrawn’s suspicions; all that good stuff.

Pellaeon does take a liking to her--she reminds him of Kallus, who was one of the better recruits, and he keeps an eye out for her, much like Michael does for Alex in canon.

Shamie gets activated for their final evaluation/first kill mission about two or three months after Mirah gets recruited. They succeed, but some of the aftermath/followup confirms their previous suspicions about Mirah, and they’re left sort of struggling with what to do about it.

On the one hand, they’re a fairly loyal Division agent at this point, and what Mirah’s doing is probably going to get a lot of their fellow agents, maybe even some recruits, killed. And they know that probably some of what’s been reported as Kallus’s activities is exaggerated, or at least spun to make him look Evil and Division look better, but they know there’s a grain of truth to it.

On the other...they spent a few years, as a child, working for a thief-runner/gang. This was…not a good situation. Gotta keep the baby thieves in line. And they’ve seen other recruits get canceled before. As much as they don’t necessarily want to go against their superiors in Division (again, gotta keep the baby thieves in line; they know what the consequences of that would be), they also know that that loyalty does not go both ways. They are expendable. All of the recruits and agents are.

And they like Mirah. And if they don’t look out for each other…well, who will?

Besides. It’s not like they have any actual proof. Bringing this to Pellaeon, who likes Mirah, or Thrawn, who likes no one--let alone Pryce--seems like it’ll backfire.

So, they stay quiet about what they’ve guessed, and wait, and watch, and work.

Things change when Orryn is recruited.

Mirah and Shamie both take one look at this sweet, gentle boy and have the same thought--he won’t last. He’ll be cancelled within a month. Maybe sooner.

Pryce questions the choice of bringing him in, too; it was Thrawn’s idea. No, he’ll never make field agent, but the boy’s good with mechanics, and computers. If he can survive the training process, they can put him to use there.

Sort of considering him for Birkhoff’s role.

Shamie, even as a full agent, doesn’t have the access or the tools they need to spring Orryn, as much as they want to.

But Mirah--Mirah has Kallus, and a way to contact him.

“This isn’t about my friend. This is about a sweet kid, too sweet for Division, who will be killed or broken if we don’t do something,” she says. “And isn’t that part of what we’re doing here? Trying to make sure that doesn’t happen to anyone else?”

Kallus is torn. Because, on the one hand, she’s absolutely right--it’s why he was reluctant to send her in undercover (oh, yes, the thought had occurred to him) until she suggested it.

But on the other hand, getting a recruit out of Division without compromising Mirah’s emergency exfiltration strategy is going to be Hard. And as much as he wants to help this kid, he also wants to help/protect the one he has already.

He tells Mirah, eventually, that he can’t promise anything, but he’ll start working on a plan.

Mirah…

Remember what I said earlier, about Mirah tending to get what she wants?

Mirah gets to work on her end. The way she sees it, if she figures out a way to get Orryn outside somehow, whether it’s getting him temporarily activated like she was that one time, or some other excuse, then Kallus won’t have a problem rescuing him.

Of course, she’s just a recruit herself, and she can’t muck around with that without compromising her cover. She’s half-tempted to just shove Orryn out her escape tunnel, her own exit be damned, but Kallus specifically told her not to do that, so she holds back.

The opportunity comes when one of Mirah’s prior breaches is discovered, two or three weeks after Orryn’s brought in.

Possibly the shell program she and Kallus have been using to talk; possibly something else and she didn’t cover her tracks quite well enough (i.e., breaking into Pryce’s office). No one’s tied it to her, not yet, but things are Tense.

Kallus asks Mirah if she needs an extraction, and she again brings up Orryn. “I’m good,” she says. “But the sweet kid I was telling you about…”

“We talked about this,��� he says. “And I am working on it, I promise.”

But before either of them can do anything, Orryn ends up at the wrong place at the wrong time, and one of the guards is convinced he’s the mole.

Thrawn points out that this doesn’t make much sense--the serious breaches started well before Orryn was brought in.

Pryce agrees, but insists on letting the situation run its course, to see if it can flush out the real mole.

And Mirah has a Thing about people she’s attached herself to getting hurt.

Mirah manages to somehow get Orryn out of wherever he’s being held. She sends a quick message to Kallus--“Sweet Kid coming out, they think he’s me”--and takes him to the exit tunnel.

They are pursued, of course. By the overzealous guard--and by Shamie.

Mirah gets Orryn into the tunnel and prepares to stand her ground.

Shamie catches up first.

And handles the situation Very Differently from the way Thom does in Nikita canon.

“I’m not turning you in,” they say. “You got Orryn out?”

“Yeah.”

They nod. “Good. Okay. They think he’s the mole, but they’re gonna realize someone helped him escape, unless--”

And then the guard catches up.

There is a Fight. The guard manages to shoot Shamie (not seriously; through-and-through in the upper arm), who tosses Mirah their gun, and she fires back, putting two in his chest.

“…we can work with this,” Mirah says, pressing her hands onto where Shamie’s bleeding. “If we…if we stage it so he pointed the finger at Orryn to cover his own crimes…”

“You have any evidence we can plant on him?” Shamie says. “M’good at that. Planting evidence.”

“Yeah,” she says. She has a key card, and a few other bits and pieces. Shamie, hands shaking slightly, positions them appropriately. “And Orryn…”

“Was also a plant,” Shamie decides. “Sent in when the guard’s cover got shaky, to extract him. But he managed to get away in the confusion. We underestimated him.”

Mirah thinks about this for a minute, then nods. “I think I can sell that,” she says, as more guards start heading their way.

“Good,” Shamie says. “…talk later.”

Mirah nods, and Shamie blacks out, leaving her to spin the lies they need to survive this.

A few hours later, Mirah touches base with Kallus to confirm Orryn got out safely, and to inform him he has another inside agent.

So, the situation has improved somewhat! Unfortunately, it’s also been damaged--since the shell program was found, Kallus and Mirah don’t have secure communications. That first message she got out, about Orryn and Shamie? Yeah, she can’t use that route again, or she’ll establish a pattern.

On the other hand, Shamie is a full agent, which means they have an apartment and the freedom to move around and set an in-person meet. Which Kallus wants anyway, to evaluate Mirah’s friend.

(And, if they check out, to spoof their tracker and give them freedom of movement. Always a plus.)

So, Shamie and Kallus use another one-off communicator to set an in-person meeting, so they can talk.

“You did help Mirah and Orryn,” Kallus acknowledges, after they’ve run through their prearranged confirmation signals. “That counts for something.”

“But you think it could just be me establishing a cover,” Shamie said.

“The thought occurred.”

Shamie doesn’t say anything right away. “I hear all kinds of things about you,” they finally say. “Some of it seems true. Some of it seems exaggerated. I know you’re Division’s enemy, but that…” They shrug. “I trust Mirah. And she trusts you. That’s good enough for me.”

“And Division?”

“I know how gangs work,” they say, flatly. “I used to work for one--they ran a bunch of kids, pickpocketing. Thing about gangs is, most of them do some good in their community--take care of external threats, or whatever. That’s how almost every gang started, anyway. Division may have more money and fancier gadgets and a bigger community, but they work the same way. And most gangs, even if they keep helping their communities sometimes…somewhere along the line, it turns out to be about profit and power more than anything else. But that’s not the issue. The issue is…you can tell, when a gang’s leadership, the loyalty they demand from their members…you can tell when they reciprocate.”

“And Thrawn and Pellaeon and Pryce don’t,” Kallus says.

“Pryce for sure,” they say. “Pellaeon does, but he’s more loyal to Thrawn than the rest of us. Thrawn…is harder to read.”

Kallus considers that for a moment. “You know, what we’re doing--it’s dangerous. I can’t protect you. I burned my one extraction route getting Orryn out.”

“All of my choices are dangerous,” Shamie says. “But like I said. I trust Mirah. She trusts you. I don’t trust Division.”

Another moment of silence. “Here’s our communication protocol,” Kallus finally says. Because Mirah trusts them. And I trust Mirah. If I don’t trust her--what am I even doing here.

Shamie also, as it turns out, has valuable information Mirah didn’t have access to. While not as successful as Kallus, there’s another group working to take Division down; getting involved and throwing off some of their ops.

“Should we reach out to them?” Mirah asks, when this filters back to her.

“No,” Kallus decides. “Most likely, they’re another mercenary group. Trying to be another Division, another Gogol, and take out the competition. There’s a slim chance that they’re actually on the level, but if they’re not…Best to stick to ourselves and avoid drawing in any outsiders.”

The kids agree, because he’s the expert, and drop the subject.

He does, however, ask Shamie to keep tabs on this other group as best they can without compromising their cover. Which should be easy enough.

(Of course, Shamie can only tell him as much as Division knows about them, which isn’t much. They’re a small group, probably a five- or six-person team, and they tend to ghost in and out of situations without leaving much evidence behind…)

The other new advantage they have is Orryn.

Remember why Thrawn wanted him recruited? He’s good with tech and gadgets?

Orryn gets a look at Kallus’s setup, particularly when he’s trying to figure out how to re-establish communications with Shamie and Mirah.

“I can fix that,” he offers.

Kallus blinks. “Plan was, establish an identity and get you out of the country, into hiding,” he says. “Which I will do, I’m working on it, but--”

“Division hurt me, too,” Orryn says. “And Mirah and Shamie are in trouble, and so are you. I want to help.”

Kallus eyes him. He knows, just as clearly as Mirah and Shamie did, that he cannot take this kid into combat. On the other hand…he would’ve been recruited for a reason. And Kallus is well-trained and skilled, but there might be something to said for raw talent and an expert touch.

“All right,” he finally says. “We’ll prep an exfil for you, just in case, but it’ll be some time for me to put it together anyway. We’ll see how things go.”

Orryn nods, and gets to work.

And so pass the next few months, with Mirah working her way up towards qualifying and passing the information she has access to, and Shamie and Orryn supporting Kallus in the field.

Eventually, Mirah goes on her qualifying evaluation, and passes with flying colors. She’s an interesting counterpart to Shamie--she’s a sharpshooter and just as deadly as they are in hand-to-hand, but she doesn’t work as well with the explosives and so on.

Meanwhile, Shamie is a very tactile person--if it’s a hands-on task, especially one that requires a lot of detail work (such as setting up a bomb), there are very few people who can match them. But they have issues with distance kills and with the computer stuff.

Mirah is set up in her apartment, not too close to Shamie, but enough that they can meet. They’re in the same city.

The two of them, on their own, are pretty terrifying assassins.

Shamie is fairly innocuous-looking; dark hair, dark eyes, skinny, blends into a crowd. They’re also the most chill/calm person in the known universe, so people tend to gravitate to them in a crisis. And they’re kind. Genuinely kind, in a way that invites people’s trust.

This is what makes them an excellent priest in another life. And in this one…Beware The Nice Ones is a trope for a reason.

Mirah, on the other hand, is much more overtly intimidating. Unless she’s making an active effort to pretend otherwise, she exudes Danger. She is ruthless and practical.

She is also extremely skilled, good at manipulating people, and very hard to convince to back down.

Now imagine the two of them working together.

Unstoppable and terrifying.

And Division (and Kallus) are both aware of this.

So, they actually end up partnering quite a lot.

The four of them are circling closer and closer to closing in on Pryce and taking her out permanently--Thrawn as well, and Pellaeon as a third priority, but Pryce is their top target--when things Change again.

Mirah and Shamie are put on a wetworks op that requires a team. Probably similar to that one prince dude and the museum.

They feed Kallus the intel, as always, and he comes up with a plan to foil it.

But there are a couple of issues.

He needs Orryn for this op, for one thing. And not just as background, on-site.

When he scouts around to do his own prepwork, there are some technobabble things he need handled, but they need to be within range. Twenty yards, twenty-five on the outside.

So, his first priority--well, maybe not first, but certainly Up There--is to plan out Orryn’s escape route if things go wrong.

The second issue is that Shamie thinks this might be another mission the Unknown Third Party may also crash. Since they still don’t have a lot of intel, that’s potentially another five or six people coming in.

And that’s if they’re correct in that it’s the mystery team, and not Gogol or someone already on the radar.

But the opportunity to interfere with Division and save a life or two is too good to pass up, despite these problems. Kallus plans his counter-mission, and they get to work.

Phase One of the mission goes fairly well. Shamie does confirm a third party is involved, but at first, their presence doesn’t cause too much difficulty for either Our Heroes or Division.

Shamie gets the assassination target pinned down somewhere Kallus and Orryn can extract them; Kallus gets the victim to the prepared escape route, and then returns to deal with the secondary objective; the one that required Orryn--some sort of hacking/virus/Planting Evidence type thing.

Well.

So my Art Skillz are far from up to par, but here’s a general overview of the layout of the scene where they do:

...so I can’t figure out how to make tumblr embed it without throwing off all the rest of my formatting so, click the link.

Where things go wrong is when Kallus gets a good look at the closest member of Team Unknown.

Who is very, startlingly, distractingly Familiar.

And he does the worst possible thing he can do in this situation.

He freezes.

Naturally, another member of the Division team sees the opportunity and takes it.

He gets hit three times in that second--chest, abdomen, upper thigh. Serious injuries.

Mirah immediately runs to him, laying down cover/suppression fire at her supposed Fellow Division Agents.

(…yeah, remember that whole bit about her parents dying in front of her? She’s. Uh. She’s come to view Kallus as a second father. This is Not Okay.)

Shamie follows, of course; she gets to Kallus.

They hesitate for half a second. “…get him out of here. I can handle this. Go.”

Mirah nods and drags Kallus back to the van--

--only to find that Orryn has been taken.

She can’t--she can only be in one place at a time. She’s good, but she’s not that good. And Kallus, her teacher, her unofficially-accidentally-adopted dad, is dying in front of her.

She gets into the driver’s seat and books it.

Shamie fires after her, but…well, marksmanship has never been their strong suit, so they fail to stop her.

This is basically Mirah’s worst nightmare made real.

Her dad is dying.

Her brother is missing.

Her other sibling is trapped and about to be probably tortured.

She is holding together by a thread and the only thing keeping her going is if she falls apart now, Kallus will die.

Okay. Time to do something about that. She can’t do much, but she can do even less about the other things, so. Time to do something.

She gets a tourniquet on his leg, pressure dressings on the other wounds, but she’s pretty sure his lung’s collapsed and she doesn’t know how much other internal damage there is. Her training in field medicine/dressings Will Not Cut It on this one.

Now, Kallus has a contingency--he always has contingencies, he loves contingencies--but Mirah doesn’t know his medical contingency and he’s too unconscious and bleeding-out to tell her.

She can’t take him into an emergency room, obviously, but there’s an urgent care center close by. And Orryn’s stuff is still in the van. Which means she can hack into their records find out who’s coming off shift--because there will be someone coming off shift--and stick a gun in their face.

Which is exactly what she does.

She drags the doctor into the van and points her at Kallus.

“Fix him,” she snaps, but she stops pointing the gun at her at this point--she needs her attention elsewhere to drive and fend off Division agents in pursuit, among other things, and surely this doctor will be overcome by that whole Need To Heal thing. Hippocratic oath. Whatever.

Doctor stares at him. “He needs a hospital, I can’t--” Even as she moves towards him.

(Because there’s that whole Need To Heal thing. Hippocratic oath. Whatever.)

Mirah starts the car. “I’m not gonna tell you again.” She tosses the doctor their first aid kit--which is pretty Extensive. Not on the level of the one at the safehouse, but still impressive. “Anything you need that’s not in there, I’ll get at a pharmacy. Now. Do your damn job or I swear to God.”

The doctor looks at Mirah one last time, then turns her attention to Kallus, and opens the kit.

“Good,” Mirah says.

(And then, while the doctor is stabilizing her dad, as soon as she can pull over for a second, she gets rid of her tracker. She has the standard one, in her thigh.)

(And probably kills a Division agent or two pursuing them along the way…)

When the doctor has finished patching Kallus up as best she can with the supplies on hand and what Mirah stole from a convenient pharmacy, she says, “He really should be in a hospital. He needs a transfusion, and should be on IV antibiotics. And I think there was damage to his femur I couldn’t fix without imaging.”

“I’ll take that under advisement,” Mirah says. Note to self: rob a blood bank. And a hospital. Saline won’t cut it. I wonder how hard X-ray machines are to steal…

“I’m guessing you know how to change the dressings, and how often to do it,” the doctor says.

“Obviously,” Mirah says. She grabs a handful of money, and shoves it at the doctor--she did her job, she should be paid for it; people should always be Appropriately Compensated for the things they do and in this case that means actual money--as well as the badge she’d pulled out of the doctor’s purse. “You can go. Oh, and, Doctor Sloane? This never happened. You never saw us.”

“Right,” she says.

“Because if you say anything,” Mirah says, “I will hunt you down and kill you. Clear?”

“…crystal,” she says, and takes the money and walks away.

Mirah takes a few more distracting turns (with a couple pit stops for those last few Necessary Supplies), a very roundabout route, and eventually makes it to the safehouse. She gets Kallus set up as comfortably as she can, under the circumstances, on one of the beds, manages to take thirty seconds to check for any messages from Shamie or Orryn, and then curls up in a corner and just…melts down.

Like I said Mirah’s Worst Nightmare.

Let’s check back in with Shamie, who is about to have an extremely rough several days.

Because they get to go spend some Quality Time with Thrawn in full interrogator mode.

And they get the works--torture, hallucinogens, manipulation, everything. To figure out how much they know about Mirah’s compromised loyalties, back to Orryn and everything.

When that comes up, they repeat their older story--that they spotted Mirah pursuing Orryn and the guard, and followed. They got there, there was shooting, and they were sure it was Orryn, or the guard, but maybe it was Mirah. They know she killed the guard, and Orryn was never good at combat skills, just tech…

After somewhere between three days and a week of this, Thrawn can’t get Shamie to admit anything incriminating, and leaves them in a cell to report back to Pryce.

“I would estimate there’s somewhere between a twenty and fifty percent chance that Mirah managed to turn them,” he says.

“So, we cancel them,” Pryce says.

“We could,” Thrawn says. “But that is not my recommendation.”

“Oh?”

“I recommend surveillance,” he says. “My prior sessions with Shamie indicate that they’ve had very little human connection or affection in their life. Even we, for all we provide them, have a tendency to view our recruits more as tools than as individuals. It is absolutely within their makeup to latch on to the first person to treat them and value them as an individual. Which may mean they joined Mirah and Alexsandr’s crusade--or may mean that affection blinded them to things they should have seen in Mirah. If the former, they will lie low for a while, but eventually grow complacent and reach out to their partners. If the latter, they will redouble their efforts to prove their loyalty. And their skillset is not one we can replicate at this time--there’s one recruit showing a certain promise, but they’re very new, at least a year away from graduation. Assuming that particular recruit actually lives up to their potential.”

“So,” Pellaeon cuts in, “letting Shamie live, either way, we gain something valuable.”

“Precisely,” Thrawn says.

Pryce considers for a moment. “Very well, I’ll bow to your expertise. Shamie can return to their prior status. Add more cameras to their apartment before sending them home. And I want to upgrade their tracker.”

“I agree,” Thrawn says. “This would be an excellent time to test out the kill chip program.”

So, Shamie is kept in medical for another day, to have the surgery for the new implant and patch up some of the more significant damage from their interrogation.

They use one of the Contingencies to send a quick message to Mirah and Kallus, confirming they’re alive, and that they have a new tracker and may not be able to keep in regular contact for a while.

So! Let’s see what became of Orryn in the meantime, shall we?

And to do that, we actually have to jump back five years, to the night that made Kallus leave Division and vow to bring them down.

Zeb was military, special ops. He met Kallus when the latter was living on extended cover, and Zeb was about to get out.

They met in some kind of dojo/gym/whatever, and had one of Those sparring matches.

(You know the ones I mean. Where it’s like 30% fight and 70% foreplay?)

They danced around the issue for a while; Zeb knew Kallus works for the government somehow, and is pretty sure he’s either CIA or NSA under some kind of NOC (non-official cover). Eventually, though, they get together.

They have about six months, with Kallus staving off Division as best he can, and Zeb going through the process of finishing out his military service/resigning his commission--as soon as he wraps up one last investigation--and then he proposes.

And, yeah, he thought about waiting until he was completely out, but then he figured--there’s only so much time in a life, and why waste it?

Kallus is getting everything together so the two of them can disappear, when the Cleaner comes.

I’m…not sure exactly how this all works, so we’ll handwave all this. Basically, each walks away thinking the other is dead, and can credibly believe this without a body.

I think probably Kallus saw Zeb go over a cliff or something after getting shot, and Zeb found a whole heck of a lot of blood when he climbed back up to where he’d fallen from, and figured it was Alex’s.

Ooooh, better idea--while he’s climbing back up to help Alex--he thinks this attack has to do with him. With that last investigation, which was actually into some kind of Hinky thing that was either Division or Gogol…

And now the building is on fire. And Alex was still in there.

He tries to run in, but the building is too unstable, and the entrance collapses in front of him. Burying Alex--or whatever’s left of him--completely.

Kanan finds Zeb kneeling in front of the rubble, and takes him home.

He and Hera patch Zeb up, and basically explain what they do--which is something to do with trying to uncover groups like Division; essentially terrorist/assassination/murder-for-hire organizations that operate under a thin veneer of government officiality.

“Modern-day privateers,” Hera says. “Only we’re not at war, and these people commit atrocities at least as awful as the ones they’re supposedly trying to avert.”

“We work in secret,” Kanan adds. “Because when we try to work out in the open…”

(Yeah, this is how Depa died in this AU. She started this operation, possibly with Cham Syndulla, and things went Badly.)

“We think you caught on to the operations of one of the groups we’re trying to identify,” Hera said. “We don’t have a name for them, but they’re US-based, with ties all over the world.”

“Most of…most of what I had on ‘em was in the house,” Zeb says.

“So, we start again,” Kanan says.

“But…at this point, Zeb, you’re legally dead,” Hera says. “We all are. You won’t have the access to intel that you used to.”

“I don’t care,” Zeb says. They killed my fiancé. What does it matter if they killed me, too? “I wanna bring them down.”

Kanan smiles, and offers him a hand. “Welcome to the Ghost Crew.”

So, for the next two years or so, the Ghost Crew, along with Zeb, does more or less the same thing Kallus has been doing--try to suss out Division operations and interfere with them as best they can.

Of course, they don’t have insider information.

They don’t even know the name of the organization they’re hunting.

Plus, Division isn’t their only target, even if it’s the one Zeb’s most interested in. They also interfere with Gogol when they catch on to their missions, and a few other organizations throughout the world.

So there’s only so much they can do, and while they are certainly a nuisance to Pryce et al, they don’t have the same level of impact that Kallus does when he comes out swinging.

Naturally, things shift a little when a mission goes slightly less than as planned.

It’s mostly under control--it was primarily surveillance at that point; Zeb was in a restaurant scoping out their target. Unfortunately, one of said target’s bodyguards ID’d him; maybe not specifically as Ghost Crew but certainly as a Threat to their principal.

That’s about when the shooting started.

Zeb can’t get to the front door; the bodyguards now actively trying to both kill him and extract their principal are in his way; so he heads for the kitchen instead.

Yeah, he could try to pursue and complete his objective, except it was a capture mission, not a kill, and he can’t get through that many guards and get out with the target. Not by himself.

He yells at the staff to get down and stay down, and most of them listen. There’s a couple of cooks, a waiter who was grabbing a couple plates to run out, and a kid washing dishes.

Of course, Zeb loses his footing somewhere along the line and skids. He recovers fast, but the closest guy chasing him did not have that problem and is too damn close for--

--or Bad Guy could get smacked in the face with a soapy cast-iron skillet, courtesy of Dish Washing Kid.

Split second to consider the consequences, but there are two other shooters in pursuit; so Zeb does the sensible thing and grabs the kid so she doesn’t get hurt, and finally makes it to the exit. Steals the first convenient car he sees, and books it.

Once he’s pretty sure they’ve lost pursuit, he turns to the kid, who’s--shit, he’s not good at guessing kids’ ages. Maybe twelve? Shit--anyway, an actual kid, which complicates things.

“Uh. Sorry about back there,” he says. “Listen, I’ll take you back to your parents in a couple hours, after the heat’s died down, I promise.” Pretty sure the bad guys aren’t gonna hunt you down if they couldn’t grab you right then and there…

“Foster parents,” she corrects. “They’re okay, I guess, but it’s not like they actually pay attention to me. They own the restaurant.”

“I should still get you back to them,” he says. “Better for you in the long run, kid.”

“Hanny,” she says. “My name’s Hanny.” She looks at him expectantly, but he doesn’t respond in kind.

“Right,” he says instead. “In the meantime, uh…” He pulls off--they need to switch cars anyway--and takes a second to text Hera.

“So I accidentally kidnapped someone.”

“…accidentally.”

“Yeah, there was shooting, had to run through the kitchen, she hit a guy with a frying pan, couldn’t leave her there.”

“Right,” she responds, after a few seconds where he can practically hear her rolling her eyes. “How much of a fuss is she making?”

“Uh. None at all, actually.”

“All right. Bring her here, we’ll figure out how to handle this later.”

“Thanks, I owe you another one.”

He gets Hanny back to the safehouse he and the Ghost Crew are currently using.

Hera glowers at him for a minute, then makes sure Hanny is settled in an inner room before going out to have A Word.

“Zeb? That’s a child. An actual child.”

“Yeah, I know,” Zeb says. “Still couldn’t exactly leave her there. I’ll take her back to her parents…well, foster parents…”

“Our rule is, we don’t hurt kids!” Hera says.

“Does she look hurt?” Zeb says. “Look, this wasn’t my fault. I went through the kitchen, she got involved all on her own. Not like I told her to bash the guy over the head with a skillet!”

“I know,” Hera says, and takes a breath. “I know, sorry. I shouldn’t’ve snapped at you. But you need to take her back sooner than later. Tonight, if you can.”

Zeb nods. “Uh. Soon as I get her to actually tell me who her parents are. She said they own the restaurant, but…”

“Yeah, you probably don’t want to go back there.” She considers a minute. “I’ll see what I can dig up, get you an address.”

“Good,” he says.

“Why can’t I stay here?” Hanny asks, from the door.

“…because you’ve got parents--”

“Foster parents.”

“Who are probably worried about you,” he finishes.

Hanny snorts. “No, they’re not. They’ve got six of us, and mostly use the money they get from the state to keep their shitty restaurant afloat. They won’t miss me.”

“That’s a shitty situation, I get it,” Zeb says. “It’s still better than staying here.”

“Why?” she demands.

“Because I’m legally dead, for one thing,” he says.

“But you’re not actually dead,” she points out.

“I also do a lot of really dangerous things,” he says. “What you saw in that kitchen back there? Ordinary Tuesday for me.” Which is, yeah, a bit of an exaggeration, but…

She rolls her eyes. “Not like I’m asking to come into another shootout with you. Just stay with you instead of the Smiths.”

“Why do you want to stay with him?” Hera cuts in. “And ‘because he’s not the Smiths’ isn’t a good enough answer.”

Hanny chews that over for a minute. “I like him,” she says. “He actually gives a damn about something other than his stupid restaurant, or self-image, or whatever. And he apologized for kidnapping me, which is sort of weird, but nice, I guess? I don’t know, I just do.”

“…that whole bit about doing dangerous things,” Zeb says. “I can’t really look after you.”

She rolls her eyes again. “I’ve been looking after myself for ages anyway. Besides. I’m seventeen.”

He and Hera stare at her.

“…would you believe fifteen?”

Zeb’s less sure about that one, but the look on Hera’s face is answer enough.

“Okay, thirteen, but still. Plus, I cook. I’m really good at it, too. Especially when I have access to decent knives. I’m guessing that’s not a problem here?”

Well, okay, it’s not like they have a lot of kitchen knives floating around, but he could--

…shit.

Zeb turns to Hera. “…sorta running out of counter-arguments here…”

Hera looks from him, to Hanny, and back again. “…fine. I’ll babysit when you’re out in the field.”

Jumping back to the present!

So, Zeb doesn’t actually spot Kallus at this point.

Or, rather, he sees that another party is involved, and does out of the corner of his eye spot the guy going down and then Division agents running at him, but not enough to actually identify him.

He alerts his team to the presence of the Third Party--who they’ve been aware of, since Kallus and his team went active a few months ago.

(It was Sabine’s idea to nickname the team Fulcrum. Since they seem to be a pressure point that really gets to the Shadow Agency they’re chasing, and might be enough pressure to move the lever and make actual progress…)

(Look, it made sense in her head at the time, whether or not the others bought the reasoning, and it stuck.)

Of course, they’re not sure if Team Fulcrum is actually on their side, or just looking to cause Generalized Chaos. Or take Shadow Agency down to take its place. After all, they seem to have an almost personal vendetta against the Shadow Agency and some of the tactics they’ve used…

Ezra and Kanan slip around to the Fulcrum van, and find Orryn inside. They see this sweet kid, assume he’s a hostage, and extract him. There’s no way their team will get through the firefight between Division, Mirah, and the reinforcements intact, so Kanan calls Zeb back, they get Orryn into their vehicle, and they go.

They get Orryn back to their base, and he makes it Very Clear that he was not, in fact, a hostage.

“The people that had you in that van--”

“Were not Division,” he says. “They’re the ones who rescued me from Division, after I was recruited.”

“…I’m sorry,” Hera says. “We made a mistake. Division--they’re the government agents who were attacking that building back there?”

Orryn blinks. “…you didn’t know that?”

“We’ve never had a name for them,” Kanan says. “Maybe we should start from the beginning. I’m Kanan, this is Ezra, Hera, Zeb, Sabine.”

“Orryn,” he says. “…you’re trying to bring Division down, too?”

“Damn right we are,” Zeb says.

“…okay,” he says, and fills them in on what he knows.

Which is, comparatively, not all that much. He didn’t see too much of the internal structure--he wasn’t there for long enough--but they have names and so on to attach to them.

He tells them how Division recruits people in their late teens/early twenties, and trains them as assassins. He tells them how Mirah went in as a double agent, and she and Shamie and Kallus broke him out. He tells them how they tried to get him into hiding, but he offered to stay and help with their tech, which is what led them here.

(He doesn’t, of course, know Kallus’s real/full name--not something shared readily; and even if it was, that might not be the full name Zeb knew him under, so Zeb remains in the dark.)

(Part of why Orryn’s being so open about this is because he’s gotten a pretty good idea of the kind of team Hera and Kanan are running here; he also…it’s something to focus on other than the Very Strong Probability that Kallus is dead, likely Mirah with him, and Shamie, and…)

(On the other hand, if his new family is somehow still alive, they could use all the help they can get. And maybe Kallus would’ve been more cautious, and Mirah would’ve been more suspicious, and Shamie would’ve held back a little more, but Orryn knows how hard this fight will be, and how much they need genuine allies. And so he makes the first move/takes a leap of faith.)

So, to sum up the last few sections before we move on, here’s where we stand after the FUBAR mission where Kallus finds out Zeb is still alive:

Kallus has been badly hurt--near-fatally--and is more or less out of commission for the foreseeable future; not to mention whatever long-term/permanent damage he might have sustained.

Mirah’s cover is blown, and while she pulled herself together after her meltdown once Kallus was safe, she’s still teetering a little on the edge, especially as more and more time goes by without hearing from either of her siblings.

Shamie is fighting desperately to maintain their cover, still deep in Division, but now with little to no support.

Orryn is with Zeb and the Ghost Crew, with no idea if any of his family is still alive, and missing a few Key Pieces of Information that might help smooth things over.

(Yeah, this day went Super Well for everyone.)

After a couple days, though, a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel--Kallus wakes up.

Okay, technically, he’s sort of half-woken up a couple times, but this is the first time he’s been lucid enough to actually process being awake and/or interact with Mirah.

She sees him trying to sit up and is instantly there.

“Stay down, you’re hurt.”

He sinks back without too much argument, and she takes a second to make sure he’s really awake, really back with her, and then, as people with her particular personality and background are likely to do, covers up her fear with “How dare you.”

“Mirah…”

“You got yourself shot! You froze!”

“I know, I--”

And then the look on her face, she’s clearly just barely holding back from bursting into tears (which, she’s done enough of that over the past three days damn it) and he just…wordlessly holds out his arms, offering a hug.

Very, very carefully, she curls up next to him and clings, and she does burst into tears at that point, and stays there until she’s cried herself out.

“…sorry,” she says, when she gets her breath back.

“It’s fine,” he assures her. “And…so am I. For scaring you.”

She nods. “I know it wasn’t on purpose.”

He laughs a little, which is a mistake, because that hurts, but manages to get out, “when I get shot on purpose, it’s generally not this…bad.”

“I know,” she says, then hesitates before blurting out, “Iloveyou.”

He’s taken a little bit by surprise--he was her handler as much as her friend, and that’s not exactly conducive to…but he can’t deny that he’s come to think of her as a favorite niece, or maybe even a daughter, and…

Between being caught off guard, and the pain, and the bloodloss, and the drugs she’s probably got him on, he can’t find the words to respond.

So, of course, she tries to backtrack.

He cuts her off, “love you, too, Mirochka.”

(LOOK fandom has decided he’s a Space Russian ANYWAY so for this AU either one or both of his parents was a first-generation Russian immigrant so FAKE RUSSIAN DIMINUTIVES FOR EVERYONE. Also it makes me smile. So there.)

She brightens and clings again. Very, very carefully.

But he can already feel the room start to spin and blur at the edges. “Probably gonna pass out again. Don’t be afraid.”

“Okay,” she says. “Just don’t die.”

“Of course not,” he says, already fading. “Still have work to do.”

“Yeah, well, you’re not allowed to die when we’re done, either.”

“Right,” he manages to say, before he’s out again.

The next time he’s fully conscious and lucid is just after Shamie finally managed to send word they’re alive.

Which is, naturally, his first thought. To ask about Shamie and Orryn.

Mirah tells him--Shamie’s at least alive and free enough to make contact, but Orryn is still missing.

Kallus, at this point, is half-convinced he hallucinated Zeb--it would make more sense, obviously; Zeb is dead, he knows that, he saw him die, and yet…

On the other hand, he finds himself desperately hoping it wasn’t a hallucination, for more than just his personal needs. If Zeb has Orryn, then he knows Orryn is safe.

“I tried to get him,” Mirah says.

“I know,” he says. “It wasn’t your fault. None of this was.” It was mine.

“What happened?” she asks, and the question had to come sometime, but he’s not sure he can explain. Not sure he should, as on-edge as she is already.

But she’s asking, so he does the best he can.

“I thought I saw…someone,” he says.

“…interesting pause there…”

“A ghost.”

“…cryptic. Are you gonna keep doing that, or…?”

He looks away. He can’t bring himself to say his name. “It couldn’t have been…I know it couldn’t have been, but I saw him, I was sure, and for a moment, I…I lost control. Again.”

I let you all down.

“…again?”

He struggles for a moment, then says, “I told you, before you went into Division…I told you why I left, didn’t I?”

It takes her a minute to get it. “…oh.”

“I only…I only saw him for a moment, and I may have been seeing things.” He takes a shallow, shaky breath, and blinks rapidly for a moment. “But if it was real, and Orryn’s with him, then he’s safe. I am certain of that.”

Mirah nods. “Then I’ll go find out.”

“Be careful,” Kallus cautions. “Division will be out in force, looking for you. And Shamie can’t--they have to keep their head down. Even if they’ve managed to satisfy Thrawn for now--” He starts to get up, because he needs to hit the ground running on this one, pain and shakiness be damned--

“Don’t you dare,” Mirah snaps, pushing him back. “I’ll be careful. Trust me. Papa.”

“I do,” he says; his head is spinning again and he’s gone chalk-white. “Just…don’t get overconfident.”

“I won’t,” she promises. “Go back to sleep. I’ll text every hour.”

“Please,” he says.

“I will,” she promises, and by the time she’s out the door he’s unconscious again.

Of course, by the time she gets back, he’s somehow managed to muster the strength to get himself over to the computer.

“What did I say?” she says, annoyed.

“I did sleep, for a while,” he says. A little breathless, but he’s still conscious, and it doesn’t look like he’s torn any of his stitches, which is probably a goddamn miracle.

(Of course, they are long overdue a miracle or two.)

“I found footage of the incident,” he says. “Target had security cameras all over. I wanted to see if…see if I could track Orryn that way.”

“And?”

He shakes his head. “But I can be sure Division didn’t take him. I accounted for all of them.”

“That’s good.”

“Yes,” he says, then hesitates. “Nothing more from Shamie, which…I don’t know. You find anything?”

“Maybe,” she says, and hands him a blurry photo, of Orryn--with Zeb.

The world spins around him again, just like it did back in that firefight, because there’s no mistaking it this time.

Mirah mistakes his reaction for him being about to pass out again; he vaguely hears her mention going to kidnap Dr. Sloane again; he cuts her off.

“No, it’s…it’s him.”

“Oh!” She considers for a moment. “Good. I’ll go get him.”

He nods; he can feel his heart beating erratically and knows he should probably do something about that--relaxation exercise, get horizontal, something--but first thing’s first. “Tell…no.” He can’t think of a good verbal code, but he has something even better.

Using the chair to hold himself up and keeping as much weight off his injured leg as possible, he starts over to the wall.

“Let me--” Mirah starts.

“Wall safe,” he says. “Keep forgetting to program your fingerprints.”

She makes a face. “And you’ll go to bed as soon as you get whatever it is?”

“Yes, fine,” he says. He makes it to the safe, and opens it, pulling out a fist-sized stone and handing it to her. “Show…show him this. He’ll know you’ve seen me.”

“I will. Now, bed.”

“Right,” he says. But his head is spinning and it seems so very far away right now. I possibly overdid it. “I’m just going to…sit here for a moment first. Catch my breath.”

“Fine,” she says. “I’ll be back soon.”

“I know.”

There is, of course, a slight problem with sending the meteorite instead of some kind of verbal message. One that, if Kallus had been firing on all cylinders, so to speak, he would’ve figured out.

A verbal message can’t be pulled off a dead body, after all.

…yeah, Zeb pulls a gun on Mirah when she shows up.

She restrains herself from responding the way all her training has told her to respond to a gun in her face, because she knows how important Zeb is to Kallus. “Rude,” she says instead.

Zeb snarls at her. “Where the hell did you get that.”

“From Papa,” Mirah says, like it should be obvious. “Are you going to let me in?”

Papa? Zeb had never imagined the monsters that killed Alexsandr--who did the kind of things Orryn described--would have children. “…no,” he says. “You’re going to take me to Papa.”

It’s the best, most solid lead he’s had in forever, more concrete than Orryn in terms of tracing back to the specific people who killed his fiancé, he finally has an actual agent, a string to pull to unravel Division and end them.

“Well, yeah,” Mirah says, because that is the plan. But not right now.”

Zeb glares at her. “No. Now.”

Mirah sighs. “ORRYN!”

Orryn, who heard the commotion and was already on his way, joins Zeb at the door. “She’s okay, Zeb. Really. This is Mirah, I told you about her?”

Zeb is…not at all sure what to make of all this. But he lets her in while he tries to figure it out.

(Keeping her covered with the gun, of course. As much as he can when the first thing she does is wrap Orryn in a flying tackle hug.)

“I’m so glad you’re okay,” Orryn says, clinging back so hard. “I was worried.”

“You were worried!” Mirah says. “You know what you’re supposed to do in a firefight! Keep your head down, and wait for Papa to come get you!”

“I know,” Orryn says. “But I saw him go down, and then…” I got grabbed, there wasn’t a whole lot I could do.

Mirah nods. “I already yelled at him about that.”

Which is not what Orryn would’ve done, but he knows his sister, so he’s not surprised. “And…and Shamie, are they with you? Are they okay?”

“They’re alive,” Mirah says. “They got in touch. But they’re still undercover. We’re working on it.”

“Touching as this reunion is,” Zeb interrupts, “you need to tell me where the hell you got that rock.”

“I already told you.”

“Not enough.”

“Well, then ask,” Mirah says. “I don’t know what you know.”

“Who the hell is Papa, and how the hell did he get that meteorite?” Zeb asks.

“No idea where he got it,” she says, which is true. “He just told me to give it to you.”

Zeb stares at her, for a long moment. “What the hell kind of sick joke--”

“What?” Mirah says. “Explain, because I have no idea what the hell you mean.”

“He’s taunting me,” Zeb says, flatly. “Whoever he is.” ...on the other hand, that means I’m close…or they know I have Orryn. He frowns, then shakes his head. “But to use this to lure me out…”

Now it’s her turn to stare. “Lure you? You’re the one who demanded I take you places!”

“Because you turn up, out of the blue, on my damn doorstep, holding that!”

“Because Papa told me to!” she says. “What’s so important about it, anyway?!”

“It’s something I gave to--” He stops. “Your people, Division, they took it off him after they killed him. I’ve spent the last five years trying to track down the bastards who did it.”

And SUDDENLY EVERYTHING IS CLEAR.

“You didn’t see him,” Mirah realizes.

“…what.”

“Okay,” she says. “We can go see Papa now. But leave your gun behind, he’s been shot enough this week.”

“No, seriously, what the hell,” Zeb says. “Saw who?”

“Papa,” she says. Obviously.

“You still haven’t told me who that is!”

“Because I love him, but he’s sometimes a secretive jerk and I don’t know his full name and that’s embarrassing, okay?”

Zeb just stares at her for a moment.

Mirah sighs, exasperated. “Orryn, do you know Papa’s full name? I don’t have any pictures, and I don’t want to wake him up by calling.”

Orryn shakes his head. “Never had that much access to Division’s computers, and you know he doesn’t talk about that stuff. …Shamie might know, but…”

“I’ll text,” she decides. “They won’t get it until it’s safe.”

“Like hell I’m waiting for that,” Zeb says. “Take me to him. Now.” “First, leave the gun behind,” Mirah says, and there is No Room For Argument in her face or her tone.

Zeb considers this for a moment.

He’s dealing with one guy who’s apparently been shot all to hell, and one baby agent…he’s got the raw physical strength to overpower her if it comes to that. Besides, she didn’t say anything about other weapons.

“Fine,” he says, and ostentatiously puts both the gun he already had out and the backup from his boot on the table.

“Thank you,” she says. “Orryn, you coming?”

Orryn hesitates for a second. “…someone should probably stay with Hanny.”

“Who’s Hanny?”

“My kid,” Zeb says. “…kinda. Long story. Can we go?”

“Sure,” Mirah says. “Hanny can come, too.”

“Hell no,” Zeb says. “I don’t bring her into potential danger if I can avoid it.”

“If you say so,” Mirah says. “Just a suggestion.”

So, Orryn and Hanny stay back at Zeb’s place. Mirah texts Kallus to let him know they’re coming.

He. Uh. Wakes up on the floor by the wall safe when his phone buzzes. Never quite made it back to bed…oops.

Part of him thinks he should probably correct that, but on the other hand, standing up sounds like Work right now. He’ll just…wait here. Gather his strength.

Oh, right, I should text back. “Fine, see you soon.”

As they approach, Mirah once again warns Zeb that Kallus has been shot, so he is not allowed to get him worked up or let him out of bed.

“Yeah, you mentioned.”

“It bears repeating,” she says. “And he is not allowed to die.”

“Copy that,” Zeb says, though he makes no promises. Whoever Papa is, he had Alexsandr’s meteorite, which means he Knows Something about the people who killed him.

She opens the door to the safehouse. “PAPA YOU HAD BETTER BE IN BED.”

…well, at least he hasn’t moved from where she left him last?

Mirah gives him her best Aggrieved and Disappointed Face.

“…I think I fell asleep here,” he says, wearily.

And then Zeb has a Moment.

Because he couldn’t quite see Mirah’s papa from this angle.

But he knows that voice.

“Did I or did I not tell you to go back to bed,” Mirah says, but she knows it’s gonna be a lost cause for at least a few minutes. “…I’ll lecture you later.”

“Alex?” Zeb says. Whispers. It takes him a few seconds to actually get the name out and it comes out strangled and disbelieving.

And even though he already knew Zeb was alive, he’d seen him in person and then the picture, something about it…he’s here now, it’s real--

Fortunately, before Alex can try to get up, Zeb is right there.

“You were…you were dead, I thought--”

For his part, Kallus cannot form words right now. He just reaches up, hand shaking, to touch Zeb’s face.

(Mirah, in the background, discreetly texts her siblings with an update.)

(Orryn, upon reading the text, asks Hanny if she’s ever seen The Parent Trap.)

(“Because I think your spy dad and my spy dad used to be together. Wanna go join them?”)

(Hanny doesn’t need to be asked twice.)

Zeb, at that point, just scoops Kallus up and, very gently, puts him back in the bed.

“Oh, good,” Mirah says. “Now we need to keep him there.”

“No arguments here,” Zeb says.

And this had better not be a dream, he adds, in the privacy of his own mind.

Of course, there’s a lot more catching up to do from there, and a creepy organization of spysassins to take down, but I think we got enough here for one outline, lol. XD Future developments, of course, involve Team Fulcrum (who keep the nickname because Why Not) teaming up with the Ghost Crew to actually take down Division and shoot Pryce in the face; getting Shamie’s kill switch removed; and then…whatever adventures the Family of Spies might have in the future. Maybe head down to Miami, run into another team of former spies. Or up to Boston, run across a team of thieves…

The point is, they’ve found each other again. The rest…well, the rest is just Details.

[thedistantstorm]

Project Compass 03

Read Along on AO3 Here

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This time: Thrawn is visited by Vah'nya and exchanges a handful of words with Eli.

Next time: Ezra doesn’t feel like he’s made a very good impression on the Chiss. Thrawn doesn’t really make him feel better. Vah’nya and Ivant discuss Un’hee.

-/

Thrawn was not used to having time. At least, not true free time. Sure, he indulged his love of art within the scope of his duties, but rarely did he do something just because he could. In fact, in his later years with the Empire, he rarely did anything but work. Leave was unnecessary, and he found he gained more enjoyment from fulfilling the tasks required of him while mentoring others along the way.

Briefly, his mind struck up the image of Karyn Faro. He wondered not for the first time what she made of the news, how she had so narrowly avoided sharing the fate of the Seventh Fleet. Ezra’s actions - the Revels' last ditch effort - had still managed to kill tens of thousands of Imperial troops. The survivors had all gone different ways, trying to get a lock on civilization. Thrawn had managed to convince Ezra to stick with him, though it was likely more so that Thrawn had been open about his lack of inclination to kill the young Jedi than any true kinship at the start, while the majority of his officers had at least considered murdering him in his sleep.

Now, he woke up expecting to be in his too small room aboard the Chimaera, not in comfortable lodgings amongst his own people. And despite it, he was not sure what to do with himself. Things here had changed. There had been a tension in the lines of the panel members’ faces indicative of strife. Which meant it was bad, if he was able to see it on the faces of Chiss politicians.

Not to mention that somehow, in the span of the not-quite two years since he’d parted with the Steadfast after their encounter with the Grysks, Eli Vanto had earned another promotion - and a large one, at that. Was he also tangled up in the politics of whatever was happening with the Aristocra? He did not act like it.

But then again, Thrawn was not entirely sure which side of him was the act, if any of it was. Originally, he’d come across as warm and nearly paternal toward Ezra during their first interaction. Human. Then, he’d become… stoic. Emotionless. Practically Chiss-like. It was impressive, Thrawn could admit, though he couldn’t help but remember the coldness of Vanto’s eyes, how he’d made direct eye contact with Thrawn and spoke evenly, no hint of anger and yet a solid weight behind his words that gave the seasoned military-man pause.

Something in Thrawn’s loins had shifted with those words. Eli Vanto was telling him, without saying explicitly so, that he had betrayed his principles. The cost of such a choice was loyalty. Loyalty between them that had been built upon time and effort, that had been forged both by time and hardship. Anger would have made Thrawn more comfortable than hard eyes and durasteel words. This was an unknown he knew nothing about how to deal with, much less if it could be dealt with at all.

Yet, he stood by his actions. At the time, over Lothal, he had done what he had to. It was a regrettable course of action, one he would have to live with for the rest of his life. But he had been trying to salvage the broken scraps of the TIE Defender Program, trying to piece back together what Arindha broke. It had been pointless, in the end. He’d known the Defender Project would be shut down before he went back to Coruscant that last time. Still, he had wanted to try and press forward. He was single-minded, determined to make things work. If he could not salvage that project, there had to be something he could do to get the Emperor’s favor. The Emperor hadn’t kept Thrawn in the confines of his upper echelon without a reason. Surely Thrawn could have found some way to turn Emperor Palpatine’s use of him into a mutually beneficial situation.

Now, he’d never know. The Ascendancy had intercepted his signals after roughly a year of being able to establish a stable frequency with the adequate trajectory. They’d managed a safe, covert extraction - not that there had been much to extract from, the remaining soldiers on the jungle planet would likely remain there for the rest of their natural lives by choice. Thrawn had relinquished his command of them early on, when it became clear that they were stranded in deep Wild Space and there would be no rescue. By the time he and Ezra had left, there was no one remaining to care.

His entire career with the Empire, more than a decade of his life, had been gone in an instant. To show for it, he had hardly anything at all. He’d brought the Ascendancy no honor, guaranteed them no support or security for his actions. His mission, overall, had been a failure.

And his assignment, now, meant that the Chiss felt him to be either a liability or-

A buzz of the intercom stole into his thoughts. Extracting himself from the chair he’d been sitting in, Thrawn crossed the small room to tap the console beside the door. “Commander Mitth’raw’nuruodo,” A woman greeted him. Her voice was familiar.

“Navigator Vah’nya,” He replied in kind, letting his thoughts slip into the depths of his mind. “Come in.” He keyed access for her to the suite and opened the door that linked his quarters to the shared living space. Vah’nya carried two trays with a delicate ease, setting them at the low table before selecting a side of the couch in the space for herself.

She’d grown a little more since he had last seen her, her features a little more weathered, a touch more severe. “I had suspected you would be on the Steadfast with Admiral Ar’alani,” He said, sitting a respectable distance away. He did not move toward the second tray even as she picked up a steaming mug of tea from hers.

She smiled at him. It was a touch unusual, the delicate look on the serious Chiss. “My path has taken me down a different road,” She mused thoughtfully. “Please, eat. I waited for you in the mess hall, but in hindsight I should not have expected you there.” He listened, helping himself to some of the warm bread and rosy jam placed on his tray. “I have time before I begin instructing my younger sisters,” She said, “And I had hoped to see how you were settling in.”

“Your concern is appreciated, Navigator Vah’nya,” He paused, frowning. “You are still-”

Vah’nya nodded. “Yes, I am still a Navigator despite my old age.” Another smile, more rueful this time. He noted that her expressions were significantly less guarded on her face, though she held herself stiffly. “You are not settling in easily,” She commented. “The ozyly-esehembo, he is your assignment, I heard.”

“I suspect,” Thrawn met her gaze, “You knew that without having to be told.”

“Un’hee does not hold back much, but I suspect she would if Captain Ivant asked her to.” Thrawn does not react to the name, though Vah’nya seems to pause on it for a second too long, testing him. “Nevertheless,” She conceded gracefully, tilting her head, “I was informed by the Captain himself. I oversee the Navigators aboard this vessel.”

“You are a part of the project the Admiral mentioned during our hearing.”

“I am,” Vah’nya acknowledged. “I will be evaluating your ward this afternoon.”

“Bridger is not my ward.”

“You are tied to him indefinitely, and he is far younger than you,” She pressed, before segueing just as Thrawn parsed a response. “Finish eating. I will take you around the ship and fill you in on the goings on. I do not think the Jedi,” Her accent curled strangely over the title, “Will remember half of what Ivant tells him.”

The Compass is small. Compact, but not claustrophobic. There were around three hundred staff (including the officers) and a troop of less than twenty fledgling Navigators aboard. It was a far cry from the Chimaera, an Imperial Star Destroyer, and far older than his last vessel. He considered it the equivalent to an Imperial cruiser by comparison. Despite this, the ship was outfitted with new technologies and had dedicated facilities to the training and upkeep of the young Navigators being trained.

Vah’nya introduced him to most of the crew members with whom she suspected he would work in close quarters. She even took the liberty of contacting the bridge crew in advance to make sure the Captain was out before taking him up to introduce him to the rest of the officers.

“I am sure you realize,” She said, “That I am not acting in an official capacity. I am not sure what your role with Ezra’Bridger will entail, but knowledge is something that makes me feel more secure now.” She rubbed her arms, voice holding something dark and hidden. Something had happened to her, Thrawn suspected. He filed it away for later consideration.

“It is a wise strategy,” Thrawn agreed. Their backs were to the bridge now. Vah’nya was explaining their patrol mission, scouting along the edges of the Unknown Regions. The chance of combat was low, and the traffic was significantly non-existent and thereby safe enough to allow newly identified Navigators to test their abilities in the field. Thrawn nearly welcomed routine military procedure.

The Navigator took him back down to the eighth deck, where his quarters were. She waited for Thrawn to let them in and shut the door quietly behind her. "I should not tell you this," She said softly, not moving from the doorway. "But I do not believe Eli will."

"Do not incriminate yourself," Thrawn retorted, his command voice smooth and dangerous despite it’s recent lack of use. He had sensed an undercurrent of something going on throughout their interaction, as though Vah'nya had been trying to decide whether or not to tell him something. "If I should not know it, do not tell me."

"It is nothing of consequence to our objective," Vah'nya responded. "I have told you next to nothing about our project," She reminded him. "This is more…"

"I did see him during the hearing," Thrawn admitted, though he did not appreciate the subtle twist of the conversation towards matters personal instead of professional. His reply was opinion, not fact. "He was unimpressed."

"There is more than meets the eye," She supposed, gaze flickering to him. "You understand?"

"I am deserving of his ire." Thrawn looked out into space through the tiny window. "More than anyone else's," He added, quieter.

"You feel sorry for yourself," She pushed. Her assertiveness was new and likely brought out by her current assignment. "It is not a good look on you, Commander Mitth'raw'nuruodo."

He did not glare, but the glow of his eyes, the way he positioned himself seemed to focus on her with elevated intensity.

She produced a data card from her pocket. "This should help to close the gap in your knowledge of the Ascendancy," She said, stepping closer to drop it on the low table.

"And the project?"

Vah’nya’s eyes narrowed, and her mouth twisted in a way that suggested displeasure. "I am not at liberty to discuss it. And I would warn you not to use your Jedi to glean the information from my sisters. Captain Eli’van’to will not take kindly to such games." She warmed. "But what I wished to tell you was-"

The door to the suite opened behind Vah'nya's back. In a covert and practiced move, Thrawn slipped the data card into his pocket, head tilted in a cool greeting Ezra.

Except, lingering in the doorway behind the young Jedi, was a second human, dressed in a Captain's uniform. "Oh," Ezra said in Basic, rubbing the back of his head. "I-"

"Senior Navigator," Captain Ivant said. His wood-brown gaze shifted to Thrawn. "Commander Mitth'raw'nuruodo." He nodded to them both, cordially. The fierce coldness Thrawn had experienced the previous day was gone, and in its place was a cool confidence. He had the airs of someone knowledgeable and approachable. Worthy of command. Ivant did not seem to linger on Thrawn for more than the greeting, though. He shared a look with Vah’nya before asking, "I trust you have settled in alright?"

It took a moment for Thrawn to realize he'd been addressed, but military procedure was deeply ingrained. "Yes, Captain," He said.

"Good," He said in Cheunh. To Vah'nya, he quirked an eyebrow, then drew their attention to the two completed meal trays. "Take them back to the mess," He instructed her. "The Commander and his charge will not have time, and it is on the way to your seminar."

"Now?"

"Yes, Vah'nya." His Cheunh was melodic, almost, with the inflection many of the Navigators and officers used, rather than the flat language used by most subordinates. Thrawn had expected nothing less, but it was impressive to hear all the same. At least, in this, he had not been mistaken. Eli Vanto had lived up to what Thrawn had seen in him. Perhaps he could find something positive in that. "I will discuss this with you later." The heat that didn't color his face in infrared splotches came out in his voice.

Vah'nya sighed. "Yes, Sir." She scuttled around Thrawn to collect the trays.

"Thank you," Thrawn bid her as she passed him a second time to leave. "The tour of the ship was most useful."

Vah'nya nodded, suspecting that was the least of which he was thankful for. She had served with many leaders, and none of them had ever handled idle time well. "You are welcome, Thrawn." She stopped in the doorway to regard Ezra and her superior. "Captain," She nodded.

"Navigator."

The Chiss woman left, leaving Ezra to look between Ivant and Thrawn. "The data card she gifted you should have plenty of art on it," Eli said. "Ar'alani compares her love of music to it frequently."

"It is similar," Thrawn agreed, but there was an edge of caution in his voice.

He wondered if Vah'nya had been sent to collect information, rather than visiting him of her own devices. Vanto did not project any malice or anger, though his emotionless state yesterday had given a lasting and uncanny impression of it. Today, he was cool, calm, and kind, though no less in control. Intensity lingered about him. Confidence was reflected in his movements and stance. It was an interesting catalog that Thrawn would pick apart when he had time for reflection. He knew, deep down, Eli Vanto was furious with him, to a point that he'd forsaken his emotions to make the point known. He had seen humans react that way before. It made an excellent point, as Thrawn so clearly experienced first hand.

Because of all of his transgressions and the wrongs he'd done, perhaps his most severe crime was he had taken this man's life and molded it in the interest of others (though to a lesser degree, for the man himself). Thrawn gave him a task that would cast him out of the Empire, and then he himself had failed. Eli Vanto, in the wake of Thrawn's own life, had always been collateral damage. And Vanto knew it, too. From the first.

Now, Thrawn’s failure meant there was no going back.

Captain Ivant spoke into his thoughts. "I know. You'll glean more from inspecting recent pop culture pieces from Csilla than from reading texts. That's why I had asked her to compile it for you in addition to the official reports."

Vanto had to know. There was no way for him not to understand the political ramifications of Thrawn’s actions. And yet, this. He’d asked her to do this? Eli was kind, he had always been the first to want to help. It was what started their uncanny relationship, and had helped forge them into an impeccable team. What was he playing at? What angle was he manipulating? What did he see? Thrawn needed to know.

It was nearly too late. "If anything stands out to you, or you want clarification, don't hesitate to ask," Vanto said in Basic. He turned to leave. "My door is always open."

"You did not want her to visit, and yet you gave her the data card to give to me," Thrawn pressed him in Cheunh. It was a test. A thinly veiled jab at Vanto’s temper, but Thrawn was shaken by the need to know how deep beneath the surface his new superior officer's anger was. Would this be enough to stoke its flames?

The human cast a glance over his shoulder, one dark eye catching Thrawn's. "I believe she was trying to prevent us from experiencing an uncomfortable moment," He replied in kind. His voice betrayed nothing.

Thrawn continued, "Surely you could have sent another."

"Sometimes it is far easier to permit a situation to unfold rather than allow it to run rampant behind one’s back." His lip twitched into a half-smile, but it was crossed with some faint emotion Thrawn couldn’t place. Sadness, perhaps? He wasn't sure, but something about the way Vanto regarded him bothered Thrawn immensely. He wasn't used to, nor did he like the sensation. Vanto dismissed him politely all the same. "Good afternoon, Commander Mitth'raw'nuruodo."

With a click of the door's hydraulics, he was gone. Thrawn stared after him. Something in the way the Captain spoke, an inflection in his tone, the slightest dilation of his eyes was a clue, and yet none of the tell-tale facial heat or reddening of his ears had indicated embarrassment or rage.

It was not sadness, Thrawn realized suddenly. It was disappointment. And it stung like an open wound in a place behind Thrawn’s ribcage and oozed unpleasantly into his core. He blinked at the closed door for a moment, trying to push the feeling down and away. It lingered.

"Uh," Ezra nudged at something invisible with the toe of his boot. He looked at Thrawn sheepishly. "You alright?"

"Why do you ask me that?" Thrawn did not mean to snap at the young man, but Ezra didn't seem to take offense.

"I can feel your sadness," Ezra said softly. "And I can pretty much never feel your feelings through the Force. It's like… like you've lost something," He rambled, "I just-"

"I am fine, Ezra."

Ezra closed his mouth. Thrawn only ever called Ezra by his given name when he really wanted the young Jedi to shut up. And usually, Ezra knew, that meant he was right about whatever he'd been saying to the Chiss. Whatever was happening in that big blue head right about now, Ezra assumed Thrawn had far more questions than answers.

[jukeboxbutton]

Chapter Twenty-Nine

A Conflicted New Home

Previous Chapter

Ship: Kylo Ren x Reader

Rating: M

Kylo’s POV

His senses were delirious with adrenaline as he looked around, ground shaking and rebel pilots scrambling for their jets. Behind him, more of his men descended from the aircraft, their weapons poised in their hands and ready for combat. Each of them wore a mask similar to his, it’s black metal dented and scratched with sparring trials meant to train for this day.

“Kill every rebel on base you see,” Kylo commanded, his head turned to speak to those behind him. “But take the young women hostage until we find her.”

Someone cocked their weapon.

He paused, “And if you happen upon Luke Skywalker, bring him to me. I will finish him.”

* * * * 

Your POV

Your body was completely ridged with fear and shock. You took a step backward, your mouth suddenly dry as you watched Kylo’s men descend upon the Rebel base. One yielded a lightsaber that looked as though it were just a flame, bursting through the dark sky as he punctured the chest of a resistance fighter. Another threw an orb at the ground, its contents exploding and shaking the earth beneath you.

You fell backward on a stone and onto the hard gravel, losing your balance. You held your stomach as you attempted to scramble yourself up. Someone took you under your armpit and pulled you up. You tried to run with them, but your legs felt like they had weakened and cemented to the ground.

“You have to walk, Miss [y/l/n],” Kavis, your patient was standing beside you, your ears ringing as he tugged at your arm. His eyes pleaded with you, “I don’t think I can carry you!”

Before you could take another step, a silver speck of light sliced through the air and caught Kavis just above his stomach. His grip let go as he fell backward, groping at his wound. His had pulled back, covered in crimson. His face was suddenly ashen. Your hand trembled as you touched your lips, shock overwhelming you to tears.

A hand was on your mouth, pulling you backward. You grasped at your stomach, protecting it as your heels dragged on the gravel towards the ship.

You screamed behind the hand that dragged you, pleading with them to let you go as you elbowed then and flailed your limbs. They had the wrong person! You weren’t the one they were looking for. You were being dragged back into a life you didn’t want. Surely Ren would find you now and he would discover you were pregnant. You suddenly had an overwhelming awareness that you didn’t want him in this baby’s life. You were going to fight to protect this child.

You struggled, breaking away and falling to your knees, struggling to stand up with the uneven weight of your belly giving you unbalance.

“Not today,” he grabbed your wrist, pulling you back. You didn’t have the strength you used to. This hasn’t been the easiest pregnancy, taking every ounce of energy your body produced. As the result, you felt your muscles weaken against the man's grip.

Without warning, you felt a pinch at your neck and the world fell away.  

* * * * Your body ached. Your neck was sore as you blinked your eyes, trying to focus in the dimly lit room. You looked up, realizing your wrists were chained behind you. Around you, the rebel women of the base were in the same situation as yourself. You could barely see a few feet in front of you. One woman was awake, her sniffles of anger barely audible over the sound of the already hazy fluorescent light above flickering on and off.

“Where am I...?” You managed.

Your question was not answered. You attempted to move but soon realized the metal around your hands were the same as you had one the previous ship you were on with Kylo. Immediately, you knew where you were and the memories of what happened flooded back. Instead of fear washing over you, you felt malice consume you. You gritted your teeth, wishing death upon these men.

How could he do this? How could he be so senseless? Only here for power and nothing more.

Had you done nothing to help him? To reinforce to him that this was not the right path he should be traveling on?

You wondered how the General was combating this war on her turf. Was the base prepared for such an ambush?

It was only on occasion that you let yourself think of how this baby would grow up. Would he be like his father? Or would the Light is his grandparents oust the impulsive and reckless tendencies of his paternity?

More women began to rouse, looking around and crying out as their bones compressed with each movement, tiny shocks electrifying them from the shackles.

The door at the other side of the room slid opened and you gritted your teeth harder with anticipated anger. Two stormtroopers entered, weapons at a ready. You looked up, grateful it wasn’t him. You couldn’t bear another interaction with him. And to see him like this, deeper into the darkness than when you had left him, only caused you more anger that he hadn’t listened.

But then there he was behind theme his face bare just as it had been 6 months ago. The scar on his cheek that you had helped nurse was now covered with a silver bandage. He stopped in the middle of the room.

Your baby kicked you in the rib and you lurched forward. You froze in shock, it was the first time you had felt him kick. The metal on your wrists tightened, but you said nothing to draw attention to yourself. You bowed your head, hiding.

“Do you see her, Master Ren?” A stormtrooper inquired, looking about.

The door opened again and a putrid looking man in a gold robe entered. His face was scarred and mangled, looking as if someone had burned him and left him to die at one point in his life. You remembered him and a chill ran down your spine, the taste of fear in the back of your throat. You swallowed and glanced up. He sneered at the group, shuffling his feet behind Ren. Kylo didn’t move but stood ridged, his hands folded at the small of his back and his gaze straight ahead.

“She’s not here,” Snoke observed, his voice raspy and harsh.

“Correct,” Ren said, his throat hoarse suddenly.

“Thrawn predicted this would happen,” Snoke gazed around. You remained with your head bowed. “Your men are worthless. Just as you are, Ren.”

You glanced up, watching Snoke step forward and taking a fighter pilot’s face in his hand, gripping it hard. He stared deeply at her, his revulsion apparent. He pushed her against the wall, her head banging against the metal with a thud as she could do nothing to resist.

“Rebel scum,” Snoke murmured, kicking her foot. The woman spit at his feet and he ignored her. Snoke walked passed Ren, his golden garb billowing behind him. Ren turned to follow. With your head down, you could see Kylo’s black boots two feet before you as you glanced up. You could audibly hear Ren swallow. Could he sense you here?

“What should we do with them, Master Ren?” The stormtrooper inquired.

Snoke interrupted, “kill them.” Your ears picked up the sound of Ren’s leather gloves twisting behind his back. “I don’t want to look at them.”

You lurched forward again, this time with a growing sense of nausea and frustration overcoming you. Again, you were here. How did you keep ending up in front of death’s door like this? You rose to your feet as the stormtroopers charged their weapons, cocking them with an echo that bounced off the cement walls. Memories of what had happened on your last ship with Ren manifested themselves in beads of sweat dripping down your back.

One by one, the women stood, unable to move excessively with the shackles locked tightly around their wrists. Death by firing squad, their circumstances showed. Yet, none of them would let them win. Snoke disappeared behind the shifting doors. You swallowed, watching his back as he took a step out into the corridor. Another kick. The door closed.

Without notice, one of the women charged towards the Stormtrooper, nailing their helmet with the side of a fist and pushing them to the wall.

A surprise blast ricocheted off the ceiling and struck another trooper. Other woman protested and tried to fight back. You turned your gaze back to the ground. The stormtrooper yelled for everyone to get back against the wall, kicking them in the stomach to keep them away from their weapons. A blaster went off, striking an engine mechanic in the pelvis. She doubled over.

You couldn’t give up this easily. Not like this.  You couldn’t let these other innocent women die. You couldn’t let your baby die, regardless of its paternity.

Without fully comprehending what your body was doing, you charged forward, head first towards the stormtroopers as their fingers squeezed the triggers. You didn’t know what you were doing. You were being foolish and reckless, but your instincts told you that you had to do something.  Shots rang out as you rammed your shoulder into the harsh metal armor of the trooper, pushing them against one another. The metal scraped your shoulder, ripping your shirt open.

Then darkness.

A tiny click echoed in your ears and your wrists were free. You felt a grasp around your upper arm as your body was yanked from the scene and the shackles dropped to the ground. Commotion still went on behind you. The last glimpse you had as the lights flickered on was of the others realizing they were free too.

* * * * * * 

A/N:

I’m going to try and finish this story soon. :) Thank you for reading <3

~ T

@shirukitsune

[rex-ol-boy]

Do you think Thrawn will want to introduce Ezra to Eli?

I haven’t seen the episodes in Rebels with Thrawn and Ezra so I honestly don’t know However Thrawn and his mentor/paternal relationship with Eli is the best fucking thing. I’d die for Eli Vanto and I’d die for Thrawn teaching Eli and loving him like a son.

[nightsofreylo]

I have a question about Whom Hades Seized, how do the names of the Knights of Ren work? When you join are you assigned a name based off of your gift(s) or is it selected from a list or do you take the name of one that died/retired?

My answer turned into a short essay? Oops.

Knights whose given birth names are already in High Basic are not renamed. Hecate, Thanatos, and Dion were all born to Imperial/First Order parents, so their parents would have given them High Basic names from the beginning. Morpheus also named Phobetor in High Basic, even though it was not his first language. For those whose birth names were originally in other languages, their name would be transliterated and sometimes shortened into High Basic (not translated!). So Strei-kai-loro became Kylo. Morpheus, Nyx, and Pasithea all changed their birth names into the High Basic ones they use now.

The knights’ familial names are dropped and replaced with the title “Ren.” It is essentially a symbolic marker that they have joined the Knights. For example, Hecate was born “Hecate Soteria,” but when she joined the Knights, she became “Hecate Ren.”

There is no concept of retirement for the knights. They keep the title “Ren” until death. It is very rare, but knights may choose to leave, or they could commit some grievous wrong and be banished from the knights. In those cases, they would not be permitted to keep the title.

The normal naming rules don’t apply to the King of the Dead. Kylo retains all of his names and titles at once, both on the maternal and paternal sides. That would include the title “Ren.” You might have noticed that Thrawn didn’t quite understand this, because the ways of the knights are fairly hidden and they stay out of court politics. It is a common misconception that Kylo, like the rest of the Knights, dropped his family names to take the title “Ren.” Which would have made the blood rite impossible, since it requires one person to confer a family name onto the other person. 

[rebelsofshield]

Star Wars Rebels: “Kindred”-Review

A character driven and structurally unique episode that is sure to please fans of makes for the best installment yet for this season in “Kindred.”

(Review Contains Spoilers)

As the scattered Lothal rebellion searches for the hidden pieces of the TIE Defender stolen by Sabine and Ezra, the Empire dispatches a new agent of theirs to capture and detain the crew of the Ghost. Meanwhile, the planet of Lothal reveals new secrets and potential clues to the true purpose of the Empire’s interest in the planet.

Bookended by episodes with distinct and easily broken-down snatch and grab goals, “Kindred” comes as an odd change of pace. Writers Dave Filoni and Henry Gilroy have scripted an episode that itself almost feels episodic with three distinct stories occupying a twenty two minute time frame. As a result, there doesn’t feel to be much of a clear narrative thrust outside of the Lothal rebellions efforts to escape the Empire and on initial viewing the result may feel disjointed. However, “Kindred” instead serves a subtler purpose in both character and greater seasonal, even series, plot structure and does so through a series of standout moments.

“Kindred” opens and closes on Kanan Jarrus. The cowboy Jedi turned blind mentor in the Force has been present throughout Rebels’ fourth season so far, but outside of his more prominent relationship with Hera (trust me we are getting to that later), Kanan hasn’t had much of a clear arc this season to this point. Filoni and Gilroy smartly bookend “Kindred’s” narrative by bringing into context Kanan’s connection to Lothal and in a larger sense his purpose as a man and a Jedi. Rebels has been pushing Kanan into a more spiritual realm in his further education in the Force and that continues here. The Lothwolves specifically specify that he is the key to their mysterious goal, and oddly enough not Ezra despite his famous connection to nature and wild life. (It is possible that this is a massive bait and switch. Maybe the Wolves recognizes Kanan as a Jedi but Ezra is actually the one who holds the key to Lothal’s future?) To what end this may lead is still a mystery, but it creates a narrative that smartly both highlights growing questions while providing a hint towards purpose. By “Kindred’s” end there is a sense of eerie dread but also one of direction as we head towards a conclusion. “All the paths are coming together,” and they all seem centered on Caleb Dume.

Smartly, Filoni and Gilroy utilize this moment of purpose to both test and highlight the relationship between Hera and Kanan to a greater degree than ever before in the series. Rebels throughout this season so far has made an extra point in finally ending the seasons long tap dance around the nature of the connection between The Ghost’s resident maternal and paternal figures. While I fully expected FIloni and crew to tease out the “almost kiss” running gag until the last possible moment, “Kindred” puts a surprising, and welcome, end to the toe dipping and plunges headlong in. The kiss makes for one of many standout moments in “Kindred,” but it is ultimately the one that carries the most emotional weight and is likely to be the scene that stands out in fan’s heads. It helps in that this moment feels earned not only due to literal years of buildup but also owes much of its success to Freddie Prinze Jr.’s and Vanessa Marshall’s strong voicework and palpable chemistry. Smartly, Filoni and Gilroy use a moment of potential prolonged separation to drive the couple together. Circumstances force action not only in their mission but in their personal lives as well. Both are committed to something larger and it may be some time before they see each other again.

In similar fashion, seeing Hera flee through the Imperial blockade while Kanan and the rest of the team hold off encroaching Imperial forces is a suitably thrilling moment. Also, how cool was that effect of Hera jumping her ship through the gap in the Imperial space station?

Outside of the Ghost Crew, “Kindred” also marks the long awaited debut of Thrawn’s assassin and Expanded Universe/Legends alumni, Rukh, voiced in a creepy but heavily modified performance by Warwick Davis. While he differs heavily from an incarnation that fans may be familiar with, Rukh makes for a suitably memorable and unnerving physical threat for the heroic ensemble. It fills a void for the general villain dynamic this season as Thrawn, Pryce, and the rest of the Imperial threat pose more of an administrative and overarching challenge rather than an immediate visual one. The introduction of Rukh is a smart solution to this conundrum and the creative team have done a strong job in the on screen realization of the character, leaning into his odd and animalistic traits. While his appearance here makes for a strong debut, his subsequent removal from the plotting of the episode as it moves out of its first act feels a tad disjointed and adds to the sometimes meandering nature of the script.

Luckily though, the disjointed and character-moment-focused script culminates into a beautiful and stunning sequence as the crew of the Ghost follow a pack of Lothwolves into the heart of planet. Director Sergio Paez lets loose in this sequence allowing “Kindred” to flow unrestrained into the surreal and mystical. With some truly stellar art design and animation and yet another killer musical score by Kevin Kiner, this walkabout sequence through and out of Lothal’s core is an episodic highlight that makes for one hell of a climax.

Rebels smartly keeps the Lothwolves in balance as a force that is beyond the full understanding as of yet for the viewers or the characters. They are presented as something ancient and influential but not necessarily benign. Filoni and Gilroy’s script smartly utilizes the creatures as a force of help and guidance but never shies away from the fact that they are potentially dangerous and warrant respect and caution. Their connection to the planet as a whole hints at a larger narrative going forward that is beyond intriguing. What exactly is the history between the Jedi and Lothal? One of the cave drawings appears to show Yoda, or another member of his still unnamed species, so that appears to be a hint towards something. I am excited to see where this plot may lead. Rebels has always excelled at the stranger more Force driven aspects of the Star Wars universe and further development into this is beyond exciting.

“Kindred” is a standout for fans of the series. It rewardingly plays off years of character dynamics while remaining and exciting and intriguing episode in its own right. It feels like the sort of episode you would expect to see in this series’ final season.

Score: A-

[egregiousderp]

Ooooh. Anakin actually has a really lovely relationship with Ahsoka~

I mean. He’s honestly the first Jedi in who knows how many generations who had a good and long enough relationship with his mother to remember her vividly and love her. Not to mention he has a broad spectrum of beings he accepts as living beings and/or equals. (Broad enough to include droids even at a time when droids are being fought against, I mean.)

I mean. Anakin consistently goes out of his way to make sure in a system that otherwise enforces absolute Padawan loyalty to their master (a la Obi-Wan supporting Qui-Gon even as his master essentially dumps him for a nine year old boy he just met) Ahsoka not only is allowed to question and reason with his decisions, but also that she has people to look up to as mentors other than him.

One of those people is Padmé.

And between you and me, I pity anyone who tries to police Padmé’s dress sense.

But Anakin’s position with authority figures and his own thirst to prove himself (possibly stemming from his slavery, yes, I could see that) definitely has an impact on how permissive he is with Ahsoka and how ready he is with his praise of her, I think, yes?

Pellaeon on the other hand belongs to that old Republic pre-Empire thinking where the structure is more important than the individual. He’s...more similar to Obi-Wan in that thinking if you want to think of it that way. Where Obi-Wan is devoted to the Jedi (who are a political power as well as a religion) Pellaeon is devoted first to the Old Republic, and later to the Empire. Old EU had him remaining devoted even after the fall of the Empire. By five years after the fall of the second Death Star he supposedly has about fifty years of experience in the military. He’s a career military leader with a serious love of order and regulation.

He’s not...depicted as a particularly malignant figure, to his credit, and here at least isn’t exhibiting the soft Speciesism he shows in opening scenes with Thrawn, which probably says that comes later, and from the atmosphere of Speciesism that was a part of the EU Empire.

(Since I don’t know who’s reading this and Star Wars has a lot of lovely new fans: EU Empire was notoriously all white human men. Thrawn was significant because he was the ONLY non-human in a position of high leadership in the entire fleet and he was basically exiled to frontier missions and only given rank because Palpatine himself liked him. Thrawn, after the fall of the Empire, was Pellaeon’s direct superior and initially that was very uncomfortable for Pellaeon but he was professional about it, with a gradual shift to genuine admiration over the course of about three books to the point oldfans tend to refer to Pellaeon as being kind of the Watson to Thrawn’s Holmes.)

Where Anakin has a complex relationship to authority, Pellaeon is more a straight “Rules Are Absolute” kind of character.

I have no idea if he actually DID meet with Anakin in this book but it probably would have been excellent.

Anakin frustrated Yularen at first I mean, and Pellaeon is even more like...THAT than Yularen if you get my drift?

Also: Ahsoka as an adult would have been treated very differently by Pellaeon. Her age is part of the reason he’s speaking up like this at all because he’s ordinarily very respectful of rank. As an adult, and a Jedi she would have had more authority to make her own decision.

The gentle paternal patriarchal tone with a hint of “because I said so” and the undertone of “because this is how it has always been” is Pellaeon to a tee. He’s supposed to be the kind of man who’s been military for so long he no longer knows how to live without it.

While Anakin has been molded by a single mother and a man not much older than him desperately trying to live up to a mantle of responsibilities.

Anakin has that moral complexity where he simultaneously doesn’t respect an authoritative system that lives off “because I said so” but is also impatient enough to think sometimes it’s the only thing that works.

So it’s like...if he came down on Ahsoka over dress code and she fight back or refused to change, Anakin kind of smiles and accepts it?

Whether or not his background as a slave means his response to authority—when backed by force—is to submit would be an interesting angle to work off though, and you could probably find text support for it.

Pellaeon is mostly bluster I mean. That’s...the impression I have of him at least from the now-redacted sources of EU. He’s the sort of person who relies on the structure behind him to grant him his authority, not direct force, and would give his all to that structure out of loyalty and duty. (Again: kind of similar to Obi-Wan in that but as a slightly crotchety old military coot. I always pictured him as an older, heavier southern kind of gentleman as a kid.)

Anakin kind of goes with a cause but expects things to bend to his will until he encounters a will that doesn’t bend to him and then he submits?

That’s my impression at least.

Those two would be excellent character foils. An interaction with the two of them would have been fascinating. Especially with Ahsoka in the mix to back up or be backed up by her master.

The single best scene in The Clone Wars: No Prisoners - Pellaeon schools Ahsoka about a proper attire. I’m crying. Because he totally would do this.