#you KNOW hera had baby jacen practicing it | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

bedlamsbard · 4 years

Text

Part 6 of the other side AU concept! This should be seven parts total, but part 7 is likely to be delayed again due to a deadline and some health problems.

Previous: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5

About 5.9K below the break.

***

“I’ve changed my mind,” Hera said, her voice so small that she could hardly hear herself. “I don’t want to do this. We should fly off and be pirates instead.”

Her hands were shaking so badly on the control yoke that the Ghost was in danger of beginning to wobble. After a moment’s hesitation, she glanced at Kanan to make sure that he had his hands on the co-pilot’s controls, then took her hands off the yoke and fisted them in her lap. She knew Kanan. He would be able to fly straight even with the galaxy crumbling around him, which at the moment Hera felt it was. She could usually fly no matter what; apparently this was the exception to that rule.

The steadily growing shapes that hung in space before them weren’t the Free Ryloth fleet. It was the Syndulla family yacht, the Syndulla’s Gamble, and her aunt Sinthya’s ship the Sandfly, the latter standing a little off the from the Gamble so as to have a better firing solution on the approaching Ghost. She wondered if that had been her father’s idea or her aunt (actually her mother’s cousin) Sinthya’s.

The comm unit on the dashboard crackled expectantly. Hera stared at it, half-expecting it to spit at her.

“I don’t think they’ll want to listen to me,” Kanan said apologetically. He spoke Twi’leki fluently, but had the strongest Coruscant accent in it that Hera had ever heard.

Hera supposed that she could get up and go and fetch the other Hera out of her cabin, but that wasn’t exactly a solution. Wincing, she reached for the comm. “This is Ghost.”

She didn’t recognize the voice that responded, though she suspected it was a cousin of some sort. “This is Syndulla’s Gamble, Ghost. We’re prepared for you to dock at our port airlock. Is that acceptable for your vessel?”

Hera swallowed. “Yes, that’s acceptable. We’ll dock shortly.”

“Acknowledged.”

She ran through a mental registry of which relative that could possibly have been and came up short, mostly through her own faulty memory of her extended family. There were a lot of people who had been lost at the colony, too, and while she was vaguely aware that a few had made it back to the fleet she had absolutely no idea who they were. Besides her mother, of course. Agent Beneke had made sure that she had known that, even though he had kept everything else about Free Ryloth from her.

The Syndulla’s Gamble was twice again the size of the Ghost, a healthily-sized yacht that Hera’s great-grandfather had purchased new from a Corellian shipmaker. It grew steadily in the Ghost’s viewport as they approached; she stared at its half-familiar lines, her gaze marking out the places on the hull where armor plating had been put on or where carbon scoring marked laserfire sustained sometime in the recent past, not to mention the additional quadlasers that hadn’t been there seven years ago, the last time she had seen the Gamble. The changes gave her an odd feeling that she couldn’t quite identify. The ship was still elegant despite the extra weaponry, but…different.

“Do you want to take her in?” Kanan asked her quietly. “I can if you don’t want to.”

“I’ll do it,” Hera said shakily. She put her hands on the control yoke again, maneuvering the Ghost until the two ships’ airlocks matched. They were both Corellian, if not from the same manufacturer, so their airlocks were compatible; Hera didn’t have to worry about running a pressure tunnel between the two ships. She kept her gaze on the control panel until it signaled that the airlocks were locked together and that pressure and atmosphere between the two ships was stable.

“Better stay up here in case – just in case,” she told Chopper. She tried to get up without taking her safety straps off and was immediately jerked back down; Kanan quirked a worried eyebrow at her and Hera grimaced back, undoing the buckle. “Don’t look at me like that.”

“Are you all right?”

“What convinced you?” Hera grumbled. She checked the set of her blaster in its holster just for the sake of having something to do with her hands, even though the chances of having to use it were low. Possible, depending on how this ended up going, but low.

Kanan put a hand on her wrist to stop her before they left the cockpit. Hera paused, looking up at him, and he dropped his head to kiss her briefly. “It will be all right,” he told her gently.

She put her arms around him and leaned her forehead against his shoulder, suddenly so tired it was hard to think. “I don’t want to do this,” she whispered to him. “I want my mother, but I don’t want to do this.”

And she wanted the other Hera to see her mother too, even if she didn’t know how to explain that to Kanan, or have any idea how she was going to explain it to Alecto Syndulla, for that matter. If her mother even wanted her. Despite the conversation she had had via comm call, she still couldn’t bring herself to believe it, not after six years.

“I know,” Kanan said. “But we’re here.”

Hera nodded glumly. She let herself stay where she was for a few more moments, then pulled away from Kanan and wiped the back of her hand over her eyes. She wasn’t crying, but she could feel the beginnings of tears threatening to start.

Kanan pressed a kiss to her forehead. They left the cockpit together, heading towards the airlock and leaving Chopper to grumble behind them; he didn’t like being left behind. Hera braced herself as they approached the hatch; she was breathing shallowly, and she was holding onto Kanan’s hand so firmly it had to hurt him. He didn’t complain, just glanced at her to make sure she was all right.

Hera gave him a shaky smile before reaching for the hatch control. She had to fight the urge to shut her eyes as it slid open.

Her parents were on the other side.

Hera had had only the vaguest idea of what she was going to say when she saw them, but all of it went out of her head. She started to cry in near-silent gasping sobs.

Her mother was there before Kanan could do more than shift in reaction. She took Hera in her arms and pulled her close, murmuring, “It’s all right, baby, it’s all right, I’m here, you’re here, it’s all right. We’ll be all right now.”

“Hera. Hera, baby, wake up.”

Hera woke with a start, wincing at the crook in her neck even before she had fully regained consciousness. She had fallen asleep at the table in her temporary cabin, reading through ISB files on a borrowed datapad. It was hard to tell how many of them would still be relevant to her present day and a few of them referred to programs that she was almost certain didn’t exist in her own time, but no information was ever wasted.

“I’m awake,” she said, almost slurring the words. She spoke in Twi’leki, responding in the same language she had been spoken to in. “I’m –” She finally succeeded in raising her head from her folded arms and saw the woman leaning over her. “Mama?”

Alecto Syndulla smiled at her.

Hera scrambled to her feet and flung her arms around her mother’s neck. “Mama!”

Alecto took a staggered step back, but put her arms around Hera and hugged her back, then cupped her hands around Hera’s face and said, “Look at you!”

Hera beamed at her, tears pricking at the corners of her eyes. Her brain caught up with the rest of her belatedly and she said, “You – you know I’m not her –”

“I know,” Alecto said calmly. “She explained. But I know my daughter.”

Hera hugged her again, overcome. “Mama, I – Mama –”

Kanan made a faintly interrogative inquiry from the bunk, sounding like he was still mostly asleep. Hera glanced up at him, feeling a wave of tenderness overwhelm her because he was here, he was here, and her mother was here, and she hadn’t thought she would have either ever again.

“Go back to sleep, love,” she told him. “It’s all right. I’ll introduce you later.”

Alecto drew her out of the cabin into the hallway, hugged her again, then held her at arm’s length as she looked Hera up and down. Hera held still, beaming at her, then fumbled her holoprojector out of her pocket.

“Mama – Mama, can I show you – this is my son, this is Jacen –”

Alecto wore the same poleaxed expression that Bail Organa had when he had seen Leia and her son, Hera was bemused to note. She could practically see the words but why does he have hair? floating behind her mother’s eyes, before Alecto flicked a quick glance at the cabin door and the sleeping human inside, and her expression softened. She put an arm around Hera’s shoulders and smiled.

“He looks like a good boy,” she said. “How old is he?”

“He’s five. He’ll be six in a few months. He’s on Ryloth with Daddy –” She stopped abruptly, her exhausted brain catching up with what she knew about the differences between her own universe and this one. “Daddy – Father – he didn’t leave Ryloth.”

For a moment her mother didn’t say anything, her gaze fixed on the hologram. Hera let herself just look at her mother – a tall, handsome Twi’lek woman about her own height, her green skin a few shades darker than Hera’s own. There was a scar tracing its way from the edge of her cap to her jaw that Hera’s mother hadn’t had, and the laugh lines at the corners of her eyes were deeper than they had been.

“Mama,” she said, small-voiced. “You –” No, not her. Hera squeezed her eyes shut, then opened them again and forced herself to say, “My mother died when I was thirteen, in the riots in Lessu. Father said an Imperial sniper shot her, when Moff Mors sent in stormtroopers to deal with the protests. I remember when Daddy and Uncle Themarsa brought her back to the townhouse, after – after.”

Alecto looked at her, her gaze sad, then reached up to pull down the shoulder of her shirt, revealing the puckered scar tissue from an old blaster wound.

Hera had helped her aunt Clotho wash her mother’s body afterwards, preparing her to lie in state as befit a curiate patrician, though they had never been able to hold the usual public ceremony since the Empire had locked down Lessu. The laser blast that had killed her mother had been only a few inches down and to the left of Alecto’s scar.

“Father sent me back to the villa with the cousins,” Hera went on. “He got very distant after that – he wasn’t at the villa often. That’s when he was forming Free Ryloth – I found that out later, when I was sixteen. We had a huge fight about it.”

Her mother looked up at her, her eyes hurt. “After I was hurt, Cham sent everyone away to the colony,” she said. “The Empire wiped it out a year later.”

Hera stared at her. “Is that it?” she said. “Is that – is that the difference? You – my mother – dying? Is that all it is? And – and this happened, just because – is that it?”

Alecto reached out and pulled her into an embrace. “Our lives are our own, baby,” she said gently. “We can’t make sense of the past any more than we can change it.”

But we can, Hera thought; Kanan was still asleep in the other room. Though she supposed that that wasn’t quite changing the past, just taking something out of it; her own life wouldn’t be changed at all when she returned to her timeline. Unless they had all miscalculated, and reaching back to take Kanan out of that moment had had a ripple effect forwards, one that she hadn’t realized yet because she wasn’t there –

She shuddered.

Her mother mistook it and hugged her again. “It’s all right, baby,” she said. She cupped a hand around Hera’s face and smiled at her. “I’m glad I got to meet you. Tell me about yourself – about your life, and your boy. How old are you?”

“I’m thirty-three,” Hera said. She faltered for a moment, because she wasn’t more than ten years younger than her mother had been when she had died, but went on, “I’m thirty-three, and I’m a general in the Rebel Alliance – it might be the New Republic Navy now, if the council has already ratified the constitution.”

She smiled at her mother’s soft exclamation, and gave a brief overview of her life since the age of thirteen. She glossed over Kanan’s death, since that was a little more explanation than she wanted to give at the moment, though when she mentioned him her mother said tentatively, “He’s your son’s father?”

“Yes,” Hera said.

“He seems like a nice young man,” her mother said, which puzzled Hera for a moment until she realized that Alecto probably meant the other Kanan.

“Well, I think so,” Hera said.

Her mother put an arm around her shoulders and said, “Let’s go see your father.”

“He’s not –” Her mother was dead in her own timeline, but Cham Syndulla was very much alive, and Hera had talked to him as recently as three days ago. It was all too easy for Hera to take this Alecto Syndulla as her own mother; her mother had died when she was thirteen and Alecto hadn’t seen her daughter since Hera – the other Hera – was fourteen. Hera knew her father.

She took a breath, uncomfortable under her mother’s – under Alecto’s – curious expression, and said, “He isn’t my father, not really.”

A tiny line knit between Alecto’s brows, but all she said was, “Let’s go see him.”

Hera followed her down the corridor into the common room, where she found the other Hera and Kanan along with Cham Syndulla and, to Hera’s surprise, her aunt Clotho and cousin Doriah. All looked a little startled to see her, their gazes flicking back and forth between her and the younger Hera. The other woman looked desperately uncomfortable, and a little relieved to see Hera.

Cham looked exactly the same as her father had when Hera had spoken to him; past a certain point male Twi’leks didn’t show their age much, and Hera would have had to put both men side by side to make out the differences. He got up and came over to her as Hera stared at him, saying, “Daughter –”

Hera opened her mouth, closed it, opened it again, and finally managed to say, “Hello, Father.”

For a moment, Cham hesitated, then he put his hands on her shoulders. “Hera,” he said.

She looked past him just in time to see the brief flash of hurt cross the other Hera’s face.

“I’m Hera,” she said quickly. “But I’m a different Hera, from somewhere – somewhen else. I’m thirty-three years old, I’m a general in the Rebel Alliance, and I have a five-year-old son.”

Cham’s jaw dropped. His gaze went to Kanan, sitting beside the other Hera, and Hera had to stifle sudden laughter.

“Yes,” she said, “but mine, I mean, the Kanan from my universe.”

Cham’s expression did something complicated that might have made more sense if Hera could see his lekku, which she couldn’t from this angle; Doriah’s face went outraged but his mother laid a hand on his arm before he could say anything.

“Come and sit down,” Cham said finally.

Hera looked at the expression on the other Hera’s face and hesitated. “I should stay with Kanan –” she said.

The girl shook her head slightly, her expression a little desperate. Hera bit her lip, then sat down at her mother’s urging. She gave them all another brief precis of her life to date, taking out her holoprojector again to show Cham, Aunt Clotho, and Doriah Jacen. Doriah just looked upset, which puzzled Hera, but she didn’t want to ask why in front of anyone else.

Seeing Doriah was something of a shock. She and her cousin had quarreled before she had left Ryloth fifteen years ago; he had been killed while she had been offworld, so they had never gotten a chance to reconcile. They had been close as children – Hera was only six months older – but had spent the latter part of their teens fighting until Hera had finally left Ryloth. Never being able to make up with him was one of the great regrets of Hera’s life.

She happened to be looking at Kanan at the exact moment when he grimaced suddenly, squeezing his eyes shut as his hands went white-knuckled on his knees. The other Hera shot him an anxious look as he got to his feet, muttering an excuse before he went out into the galley. Hera heard the hatch beyond that slide open and then closed again as he went into the back of the ship.

Kanan staggered into the engine room, which was about as far as he could get from the rest of the ship without flushing himself out the airlock, and dropped to the floor beside the hyperdrive. He pressed the heels of his hands into his forehead, wincing, and tried to concentrate on the ache that caused instead of anything else.

No, he mouthed. No, no, no –

The airlock was sounding better and better with every passing moment.

Distantly, as if from a long ways away, he heard the engine room hatch slide open. Kanan winced, trying to get himself together enough to tell whoever it was – probably Hera, maybe Chopper – to go away, but couldn’t get the words to come.

Warm hands touched his wrists. Kanan flinched, but didn’t pull away; the Hunter had trained that out of him early on.

“It’s me,” the other Kanan said, the words accompanied by a light touch of the Force that seared Kanan’s abused mind like acid. This time he did flinch away, and felt his counterpart pull back – in the Force, at least; he didn’t release his light grip on Kanan’s wrists.

Kanan opened his mouth to tell him that he should probably go away and couldn’t remember how to speak.

“Hey,” the other man said, his voice very gentle. “Hey, come on, look at me.”

He couldn’t do that. Kanan had to tell him that he couldn’t do that, because he knew that if he opened his eyes, it wouldn’t just be him looking out.

“Listen to me,” the other Kanan said, “I will not let him touch you. You have my word as a Jedi Knight. I just need you to look at me.”

He knew.

He knew, and the rush of shame that went through Kanan made him dizzy. He could feel the pressure against his mind increase; it was so overwhelming that he almost lost his sense of awareness of the blazing presence beside him.

“I will not let him hurt you or anyone else on this ship,” the other Kanan said forcefully. “I can stop you if I have to. You can tell that for yourself if you reach out.”

He shook his head, willing the other man to understand. If he opened himself up enough to do that, it would give the Hunter space to slip in, and it wouldn’t be him the other Kanan had to deal with it, it would be the Hunter. He couldn’t let the Hunter know.

“Kid, listen to me,” the other Kanan said. “I can help you. Just listen to me. Listen to the sound of my voice. Do you hear me?”

After a long moment, Kanan managed to nod, just slightly. He wasn’t certain that the other Kanan could actually see the gesture, but he said, “Good. I’m going to reach out again. If it hurts you, I’ll stop. Do you understand?”

He jerked his chin in something that might have been construed as a nod. He still flinched when he felt the gentle touch of the other man’s mind against his, but didn’t kick him out this time. The Hunter’s awareness of the intruder flared, then retreated in confusion.

“It’s all right,” the other Kanan murmured, the words seemingly to be half spoken and half in his mind. “He can’t tell us apart.”

Kanan whimpered softly in the back of his throat, like the hound he had been named for. The words came slowly – still to his mind, not to his lips. You’re a Jedi. I’m not. He’ll know –

“Not from this distance, and not without knowing that I’m here at all,” the other Kanan said. “Breathe with me.”

Long months of obedience drilled into him, sometimes bloodily, meant Kanan fell easily into the pattern. It was easier with the other Kanan than it had been with the Hunter, as easy as it had been with Depa Billaba. With the Hunter it hadn’t been difficult – it had been easier than Kanan had liked – but his emotions had gotten into the way, fear and pain making him shy away until the Hunter had trained that out of him.

It felt like a long time before the Hunter’s presence receded from his mind. It wasn’t gone entirely – it never would but, not until the Hunter was dead and maybe not even dead; sometimes Kanan thought he could still feel Depa Billaba watching him – but the unrelenting pressure had faded enough that Kanan could think again. He took his hands away from his face, wincing when he realized he had been pressing them against his forehead so hard that his wrists ached, and saw the other Kanan crouched in front of him. The older man’s face was serious, his brows narrowed in concern. He was barefoot, his hair tousled as if he had just gotten out of bed.

Kanan looked at him and then away. He slumped back against the hyperdrive, all the strength gone out of him, because he knew.

“It isn’t your fault,” the other man said. His voice was a little lighter than Kanan had expected, familiar but not exactly identical to his own. Age, maybe, or what the Crucible had done to him.

Kanan put a hand over his face. It took him a moment to find the words, searching tiredly for them in what remained of his mind. “You didn’t.”

They were still attuned to each other, so he felt the faint buzz of the other man’s brief startlement. “It never came up,” he said.

“She said –” Kanan hesitated over the words again, then just let them spill out, knowing that the Jedi would be able to take any stumbling block from his mind. “She said he had you.”

He felt rather than saw the other Kanan’s sudden understanding, his face still turned away. “He didn’t have me for that long,” he said, his voice gentle. “We never got that far. Hera and the rest of my team broke me out first.”

Lucky, Kanan thought without saying as much, though he felt the other Kanan flinch slightly as he sensed it. He still woke up screaming two nights out of every five, and only slept through one of the other three, even with Hera in bed beside him. He had mostly stopped waking her up on the nights that didn’t involve screaming.

“She said you killed him,” he said instead.

“I defeated him,” the other Kanan said carefully. “He killed himself.”

Kanan rubbed his hands over his face, trying to get his head around that and failing. What he wanted to say was why did he hurt me and not you?, but he couldn’t bring himself to ask that question. Instead he just said wearily, “How did you know?”

His counterpart hesitated. Kanan felt suddenly sick, but couldn’t make himself look away from the other man as he said, “I felt him calling you. It woke me up.”

Kanan folded his hands over the back of his skull and bent his head down over his knees, breathing hard.

The other Kanan leaned forward and put a hand on his knee. He said softly, “Yes, I can feel that bond – there’s a resonance between us, do you feel it? An echo.”

Kanan wet his lips. He didn’t bother looking up, but he was too well-trained to avoid a response to a direct question. Touching the Force made him flinch a little – he was over-sensitive to it at the moment, between what he had done to bring the other Kanan here and fighting the Hunter’s attempt to drag him back to Mustafar – but he didn’t let himself stop this time. He felt the echo between himself and the other man without having to search for it, the Force rippling between them.

“Yes,” he said; he could sense the tie between himself and the Hunter reflecting back on the other Kanan. He had a tie of his own too, similar but not identical to Kanan’s, and much weaker. He hadn’t been the Hunter’s Hound, but there had been something there, the seed of something more that had never come to fruition.

“Did he tell you?” he had to ask.

“Tell me what?”

“When I was – when we were, I guess, you and I both – at the Temple – you know he was a Guard?”

“Yes,” the other man said. “I know he was a Temple Guard, back when he was a Jedi Knight.”

“He wanted – me,” Kanan said jerkily, “– as a padawan, I mean, back when – but if he left the Guard, he would be deployed, and he didn’t want that, and he didn’t want to take a padawan into the war. Especially because I was so young. So he thought no one else would either. He didn’t tell anyone, though, so when Master Billaba – he thought she had stolen his padawan.” He put his forehead down against his knees, breathing hard.

The Hunter had never told him this directly. He had told another Inquisitor, one of the other former Jedi, on one of the few occasions when Kanan had been injured badly enough fighting with other trainees to end up in the Crucible’s medbay. Both of them had thought he was asleep.

“He thought the Force had given me back to him,” Kanan said, the words a little muffled. “And maybe he was right, because he had me.”

He felt the other Kanan’s flinch and couldn’t tell if his murmured words were out loud or only in his mind. That explains the connection I felt…

The next thing he said was definitely out loud. “The Force is possibility, not ultimate truth. Just because something could have happened doesn’t mean it’s fated to. You and I are proof of that.”

Kanan looked up at him. The other man’s face was calm, without the slightly fanatic cast to it that he remembered from a few Knights back at the Temple. Only the scar that cut across his eyes was unfamiliar; except for the difference in scars, Kanan could have been looking into a mirror.

He looked down again. “But he found you anyway.”

“It’s a smaller galaxy than you’d think,” the other man said gently.

Kanan lifted a shoulder in a shrug. The two of them sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes as he got himself back under control, a little comforted by the presence of the other Jedi here – the Force could always tell, and there was something solidly reassuring about him that Kanan hadn’t thought he would ever feel again.

“Thanks,” he made himself say eventually. “I just – thanks.”

The other man nodded matter-of-factly. “What did he want?”

Kanan bit his lip. “He likes to pull my leash,” he said eventually, thinking. “I think it was just that – I don’t think he’s realized we’re gone yet. I mean, he might now,” he had to add. He rubbed both hands back over his short-cropped hair, one thumb brushing his notched ear – the Hunter had taken a slice out of it when he had shaved Kanan’s head, his first day at the Crucible.

He glanced up at the other man and said haltingly, “He saw me a week ago – I was back at Mustafar to check in. He was never happy about me going back to Hera, but it was out of his hands.”

The other man was quiet, waiting with patient calm like a master waiting for his padawan to figure out a problem. Exactly like, in fact, so much so that Kanan shivered and looked at him from under his lashes, distracted from his own misery. He remembered abruptly what Hera had said when she had first arrived.

“You have an apprentice,” he said. “A padawan.”

The other Kanan raised his head. For a moment grief flashed across both his face and the Force, fresh enough to make Kanan wince. He knew without having to ask that Hera had brought news that the other man hadn’t wanted to hear, bad news.

All he said was, “Yes. His name is Ezra.”

Kanan couldn’t imagine trusting himself enough to train an apprentice. He wasn’t aware of saying as much out loud, but the other Kanan said quietly, “Yeah, I felt that way too for a long time. But the Force wants what it wants, and it will always have its way.” He lifted a shoulder in a shrug.

“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Kanan said quietly.

The other man raised his head and considered him, the Force heavy behind those disconcerting white eyes.

I hope I don’t – Kanan thought, then choked it back. You never did know, and wondering on it was as good as asking the Force for it.

“I think you’d do all right,” the other man said. He smiled at Kanan. “You’ll know when the time comes.”

Hera sat with her family – with the other Hera Syndulla’s family – which was the most disconcerting thing she had ever done, and she included getting Kanan back in that. She knew her family, and knew that her mother had been dead twenty years and her cousin eleven. She had spoken to her father and her aunt recently enough that she was aware of a kind of double-vision, remembering Clotho and Cham as she had last seen them only a few days before. It was obvious that they were all responding a little better to her than to the other Hera, probably because she was what they had always hoped for and the other woman was so visibly uncomfortable.

Hera finally got up. “I should get some rest,” she said, making her goodbyes to the clearly reluctant Alecto and to Cham, who looked just as disconcerted as she felt.

She hadn’t gone more than three paces down the corridor before the door slid open and shut again behind her. Hera turned to see the other Hera there, the girl’s face pale.

“You don’t have to leave,” she said.

“Hera, they’re your family. Not mine. Mine are back waiting for me on Ryloth.” Or dead, but she didn’t want to say those words out loud. Instead, she just said, “You should be with your family. They love you.”

The girl’s gaze flashed sideways, so quickly that Hera might have missed it if she hadn’t been watching for it. She was quiet for what felt like a long time before she said, “I didn’t want to contact them. Not yet. I mean, I – I wanted my mother, and when you said – I wanted my mother. But I didn’t want to come here. I don’t…they want someone I’m not, not anymore.” She took a shaky breath.

“They’re your family,” Hera said again. The words came out more hesitantly than she had intended; she knew all about not wanting to face her own family, but her situation had been completely different than the other woman’s.

The other Hera lifted a shoulder in a helpless shrug. “I know that. I do. But I just…I haven’t told you everything, you know?”

Hera nodded cautiously.

“You said your mother was dead,” the girl said slowly. “I…I wanted you to see her.” She gave Hera a slightly frantic look. “I thought…as long as you were here, you deserved that.”

“Oh,” Hera said softly. “I – thank you. I didn’t realize that.” She put her hands on the other woman’s shoulders. They were the same height, though Hera actually had a slightly higher heel on her boots than the other woman. “I know it’s hard,” she said, “but you should go be with your family. I don’t –” She hesitated, trying to think of a good way to say what she meant. “I don’t want them to get so focused on me that they forget about you.”

The girl glanced down, which Hera took to mean she had noticed that too. “They’re not going to stay much longer,” she said eventually. “I mean – they’ll probably be here for another rotation or so, but we aren’t going to keep the ships linked all the time. And I’m not going back to the fleet with them, not…not yet. Maybe later, but not yet. I just – and Kanan can’t.”

When Hera frowned, she clarified, “He’s afraid that the Inquisition will come after him, and he doesn’t want civilians in the crossfire. And – I’ve seen what the Inquisition does. I don’t want them near my family either.”

Hera nodded slowly. “I understand.” She hugged the other woman quickly. “Go be with them. I do want to rest.”

The girl gave her a shaky smile. “All right.”

Hera watched her go back into the common room, then rubbed a hand over her face and went back into her borrowed cabin – she almost went into her own cabin first, then had to backtrack to the other door. She had expected to find Kanan still asleep in the bunk and froze when she realized he wasn’t there.

She stood there, staring at the empty bunk and feeling her heart beat rapidly in panic. He was here, she thought frantically. He was really here, I didn’t imagine him, I couldn’t have imagined him –

She didn’t know how long she stood there, starting to hyperventilate and too terrified to move, when the door slid open behind her. Hera spun to find Kanan standing there. He was in shirtsleeves and bare feet, his expression exhausted.

“Hey.”

She flung herself into his arms without pausing to make sure he was ready for her. He took one staggered step backwards, then put his arms around her. “I’m all right,” he told her softly. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

Hera held him close, breathing hard. “I wasn’t scared,” she started to say, then shook her head. “Fine, I was. Where were you?”

He turned his head a little, making sure that the door had closed behind him, and then said, “The Grand Inquisitor took a swipe at the kid, and I caught the edge of it.”

Hera looked up at him in alarm. “Are you all right? Is he?”

“I’m all right. He –” Kanan hesitated, then went on, “He will be, I think, but I wasn’t expecting that. It woke me up.” His shoulders slumped, and he rubbed a hand over his face. “That was tiring.”

“Well, you can go back to sleep,” Hera offered.

“I’m still a little wired,” he said, then winked solemnly at her. “Want to make out until I fall over again?”

Hera flushed and punched him gently in the chest, then leaned up and pressed her lips to his. “Yes,” she said against his mouth, putting her arms around his neck. “I’d like that.”

#cut scenes and concept writing #other side au tag #as always comments are appreciated #especially since I have to go to the doctor and I need something to look forward to

41 notes · View notes

kylermalloy · 5 years

Text

my Thoughts on rebels

Now I don’t have any hot takes or any controversial opinions to put out here. Rebels is a simple show with a simple plot. There’s not a whole lot to analyze, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to enjoy. Sometimes all you need is a straightforward concept with lovable characters. So let me proceed to squeal about Dave Filoni’s second masterpiece, Rebels.

Spoilers abound!

Before I say anything else...

THEY HAD A BABY I haven’t stopped squealing.

Zeb Okay I’ll start with Zeb, for no particular reason. He was the only main character I hadn’t really heard about or seen much of before I started watching. In the first few scenes with him, I was afraid he’d become his stereotype—the thuggish gorilla who argues all the time, disobeys orders, messes up plans, and borderline betrays his friends. I was so pleasantly surprised when none of that happened. Maybe by virtue of being a kids’ show, these characters don’t have *edgy* or twisted nuances. Zeb is fiercely loyal. He likes smashing heads in and gets grumbly sometimes, but he’s never a hindrance. He’s not just “the muscle”; his ingenuity saves the day on more than one occasion. If anything, his nuances take him the other way—he’s incredibly sensitive and childlike in some ways. Being one of the last of his kind is a major plot point of several episodes, which brings so much depth to him and his psyche. It also informs SO MUCH on his relationship with Kallus. Speaking of...

Kallus I never, ever expected Kallus to be anything more than a season-long plot device. The fact that he stuck around and went through actual character development?? Amazing. The episode where he and Zeb are stranded together is gold. He’s got a sense of honor even as he works for the Empire, sparing the rebels as Zeb spared him. He develops a new set of ideals thanks to our heroes, and he begins to question and regret the things he’s done for the Empire—ethnic cleansing of Zeb’s Lasat people included. And that last scene of them in the epilogue? I’m not gonna lie, it was a bit shippy.

KANERA I know while the show was airing, fans were constantly asking when Kanan and Hera were going to get together. But for me, they seemed to be married from the first episode. Hera calling Kanan “love” and teasing him? Kanan constantly worrying after Hera while simultaneously believing in her ability to do...absolutely everything? Their parenting of Ezra, Sabine, Chopper, and even Zeb? Explicitly referring to them as “the kids” and themselves as “Mom and Dad”? Yeah, they’re married. And let’s not underplay their strengths as individual characters. Kanan—or Caleb—is exactly what you would expect of a Jedi whose training is only halfway complete. He’s cool and awesome, but also riddled with self-doubt and uncertainty. And Hera is the mature voice of reason this merry band of children so desperately needs—except of course when she’s the one rushing headlong into danger, whether to get a fighter prototype or to steal a family heirloom or to save a couple pilots in a suicidally risky move. She’s a perfect blend of mature reason and headstrong determination that makes a true rebel. (Wait a minute...she’s totally Katara! Maybe that’s why I love her so much.)

Now back to them as a couple! Most of the show did nothing to advance their relationship—further reinforcing my headcanon that things were always happening between them behind the scenes. Even though they became official canon in the last season, the appearance of their kid in the epilogue proves I was right—based only on what we saw, there was no time for them to make a baby. Of COURSE there were things going on behind the scenes. 😏 (I found the interview that explains exactly where Jacen came from, and I was equal parts ecstatic and freaked out.)

Did I mention THEY HAD A BABY???

Ezra So apparently there are people in the Star Wars fandom who hate Ezra? I guess I shouldn’t be surprised; Star Wars fans hate everything. Except the OT. If you hate the OT you’re a heathen. I can’t really think of a solid reason why people hate Ezra, except for the fact that he seems to be a Luke Skywalker analog. He’s a poor kid with Force sensitivities who gets adopted by a Jedi and becomes a venerated leader of the Rebellion. He also finds an oddball group of friends he comes to call family but eventually bids them farewell after the death of his mentor. They’re not carbon copies, of course—Luke’s an optimistic idealist; Ezra’s a cynic. Luke whines; Ezra snarks. Luke blows up the Death Star and defeats Vader; Ezra completes a series of far more complicated missions and defeats Inquisitors and Thrawn. Again by virtue of him being the star of a tv show instead of just three feature length movies, he gets a lot more time to have his adventures. Maybe there’s some resentment over him getting more screentime than Luke? Maybe it’s because I’m just Not a Luke Skywalker stan. I like him fine, but I don’t hold him up as some perfect saintlike hero. (I didn’t have any problems with his TLJ characterization.) The people who do need to rewatch the OT they hold so dear. Luke’s a beautiful drama queen and you all should love him for that. But I’m here to talk about Ezra! Listen, this child is a disaster and a half—just like Luke, just like Anakin, just like young Obi-Wan. There is nothing to not like about him—except that he reminds you of your favorite characters but he’s not them.

Clone Wars characters I initially started watching this show solely for the characters I already knew from Clone Wars. Ahsoka Tano has been my girl ever since I started watching Clone Wars, and I didn’t even consider watching Rebels until I knew they had undone her death. (If there was just ONE character they could needlessly save via time travel, they picked the right one.) At any rate, she’s perfect in this show. She’s more grown-up, more mature, but still retains that *young and plucky* spirit. (For the record, I usually hate the *plucky* characters. Somehow, she works for me. Maybe it’s because she doesn’t really do that annoying cocky smirk thing.)

But it’s not just Ahsoka. Rex survived! I’m so glad at least one clone (two? Wolffe?) made it out of the war okay. And he’s great here. His constant snarking with Kanan reminded me so much of his banter with Anakin (and I’m sure it reminded him of that too ;-; ) His presence on Rebels isn’t strictly necessary, narratively speaking, but it’s just a nice tie-in to the world we got used to in Clone Wars. It reminds us that this world with the Empire was once the world of the Republic, and there are still clones out there—even if there’s no place for them in this new order. This of course reinforces the tragic narrative of clones as sentient beings created for nothing but combat. And again, I commend both shows for making me feel that narrative so deeply!

Hondo and Maul were two of my favorite antagonists from Clone Wars, so seeing their multiple appearances here filled me with joy. Hondo cracked me up, as usual, and Maul’s farewell was touching and heartbreaking. I almost wish he were still around! There’s still his duel with Ahsoka in season 7 of Clone Wars... 👀 Honestly what surprised me most about those two were the way they were both presented as protagonists. Hondo especially, and Maul does become an antagonist again. But it really speaks to the way all paradigms in the galaxy have shifted after the Republic became the Empire. In Clone Wars, Hondo was portrayed as an annoying hindrance to our heroes. Now with the Empire as an adversary to our main characters, Hondo is an ally. An untrustworthy one of course, mostly in it for the money, but his interests usually lie with helping our heroes, not hurting them. Besides, nothing tops his relationship with Ezra. Their first meeting had me in fits: “You lied to me?? I KNEW I liked you!” (Also I forgot to mention the running gag of Ezra introducing himself as Jabba the Hutt? Genius. And hilarious, since some people actually believe him at first)

THEY HAD A BABY!!!

Thrawn I need to see this guy again. Whether in a continuation where we learn what happened to him and Ezra, or some other moment in time where we see him younger, rising through the ranks of the Empire full of ambition and ideas. He’s quietly menacing, always confident and meticulous. He does a great job of making the rebels feel helpless in their fight, needling their pressure points and taunting them—but he never makes the conflict personal to him. He always remains detached, just a guy doing his duty. He’s just there to pick up interesting art pieces. I love the way he’s acted—always quiet, cultured, practically whispering. I didn’t know he was voiced by Lars Mikkelson until after I watched, but that was a perfect choice. I found the Inquisitors a little flat as villains (antagonists, whatever) and the other Empire ministers and governors not very threatening. Thrawn was the perfect balance (lol) between interesting and a genuine threat.

MANDALORE For all of Sabine’s merits as a character, I love her most in the Mandalorian arcs. The episode where she comes into her power and wields the darksaber is one of my favorites. She’s not a traditional stern, stoic Mandalorian character. She’s a free spirit, incredibly creative and intellectual. Yet she’s also afraid of her mind and what she could create—for years she created weapons for the Empire to feed her hubris. Maybe that’s why she mainly sticks to painting throughout the series. :) Anyway. I look forward to the follow-up detailing her adventures with Ahsoka.

Chopper I rolled my eyes so hard when I first saw Chopper. Everything from his name to his design screamed “kiddie version of R2D2” and I was fully prepared to hate him. I don’t. He’s just like R2, in that every sentence he says sounds like it’s punctuated with about ten different swearwords. It’s hilarious seeing such a cute character being so surly and even threatening on occasions! Chopper kicks some serious butt. He even comes with a tragic backstory!

Lastly, I don’t think I’ve mentioned...

THEY HAD A BABY AND HE’S ADORABLE

#star wars #rebels #mymeta #ish #kylerrambles #zeb orrelios #kallus #kanera #kanan jarrus #hera syndulla #ezra bridger #jacen syndulla #ahsoka tano #rex #hondo ohnaka #darth maul #grand admiral thrawn #sabine wren #chopper

70 notes · View notes

anoray · 7 years

Text

Spectre One Rising

So many kickbutt writers out there have come up with engrossing and emotionally involving AU versions of SWR to deal with the heartbreak that is Season 4 concerning Cowboy Jedi Kanan and the good ship Kanera. Thank you and please don’t stop!

You inspired me to come up with a (I hope) fun way to bring back Kanan while keeping it as canon-y as I can and trying not to cheapen the beautiful things about the sacrifice Kanan made.

It’s a little long (12,000+), sorry, but that’s what it took to get all my fixits in ;) It starts with Kanan on his ever famous exploding fuel pod, then picks up from there. Features lots of Ezra, too, and appearances by Thrawn, with a quasi-epilogue featuring Hera, Jacen and Sabine.

I’ve written other stuff, but confess this is my first attempt at fanfic. My appreciation in advance to any who make it through. I read on AO3, but don’t have my own account (yet?) so just posting this baby here. Did not have a beta reader, so when you catch quibbles, thanks for sharing!

I do hope we’ll get a canon story with Kanan coming back one day very soon!

Kanan 1 BBY

Kanan braced himself on the shuddering metal of the exploding fuel pod, allowing the Force to flow through him as never before. The engulfing flames raged, slamming into the immense shield of energy Kanan wielded to protect the Imperial gunship hovering behind him. That gunship carried everyone that mattered most to him in the galaxy. Hera. Ezra. Sabine. You will live.

Kanan filled with an almost ecstatic certainty that eradicated the last shreds of self-doubt he’d harbored for so long. He felt no pain. No fear. This is my moment. This is where I am needed most. Kanan pushed even harder at the relentless inferno, wringing out precious seconds to ensure his family’s escape to safety.

“Kanan!” His focus split as Hera rushed up behind him. Kanan instinctively reached back, lifting Hera into a Force embrace. Turning slowly to face the woman he would die for, Kanan realized his only regret was the shock and horror she radiated, the grief she and the others would suffer. If only Hera knew what was crystal clear to him. His death had a greater purpose. Lothal’s rising sun would illuminate irreparable damage to Thrawn’s TIE Defender program. Hera’s mission would be complete.

Holding Hera aloft, Kanan reveled in her unique Force signature. Her inner and outer beauty had always shone brightest to him no matter the source of his vision. Kanan hoped she’d finally come to understand she had been his life’s mission from the moment they’d met on Gorse. All he could do was envelop her with the love he felt, grateful for the years they’d shared. In that moment, Kanan sensed a second, subtle Force signature pulsing within Hera’s body. Hera will bear our child!

Indescribable joy ignited Kanan from the inside out. Oh, if only he could stay! Every part of him longed to be a father, a husband, to protect his entire Ghost family for their future to come. But his future…that remained to be seen. Ignoring his thudding heart, Kanan hurled Hera into the safety of Ezra’s arms.

Now the Force crested within him, a rising tidal wave. As the energy surged ever higher, Kanan felt thirty years of body aches and old scars diminish. At the same time, the miracle of sight returned to his formerly blinded eyes, an unexpected gift of color and light from the Force.

Kanan’s eyes drank in Hera’s loveliness like sweet nectar. Her eyes widened farther in stunned surprise—she’d realized Kanan could see her! I love you, Hera. Kanan’s gaze shifted to include Ezra. You’ve got this from here, kid. I know you can do it. So much more to say to them both, but his time had run out. With a final look at Hera, Kanan Force-shoved the gunship away with all his might.

Kanan projected his consciousness outward milliseconds before the fireball engulfed his body. Soaring upward, Kanan saw the gunship zoom safely away as the fuel pods ignited in a chain reaction of bright, white Light—

Ezra 4 ABY

A knock. “Master Ezra, are you all right?” A louder knock.

Ezra rose groggily from the none too cozy floor of his cabin aboard the Chimaera. His mind was still emblazoned with the image of Kanan’s milky, blinded eyes brightening to vivid teal. My master saw me in the end.

“Master Ezra?” His droid, PZ-5 stepped through the now open doorway. Her reflective visor and droning voice somehow emulated concern. “I heard your cries outside in the corridor.”

“I’m fine, PeeZee. It was…another one of those visions.” Ezra shakily waved her outstretched hand away, wondering not for the first time how a tactical droid who looked so much like AP-5 could possess such a different demeanor. Maybe it was a lucky combination of the droid parts he’d salvaged on Thrawn’s purrgil-wrecked Star Destroyer to repair her. Ezra doubted Chopper would have been impressed with his handiwork, but he might have gotten a thumbs up from Sabine. Ezra’s heart thumped wistfully.

“The one about your former master, Kanan Jarrus?”

Ezra tucked away thoughts of Sabine and his Ghost family as he shuffled unsteadily toward his bunk. It did him no good to wallow in homesickness like a puffer pig. “Yeah, and the images get clearer each time. But I feel like I’m missing some important detail.”

PZ cocked her head. “But, if I may say so, what is the point of revisiting your master’s demise after these many years? Surely that is only painful and changes nothing you both endured.”

Ezra’s knees buckled right before he slumped onto the stiff mattress. He had no answer for the droid. Yet. What he did know was the visions about Kanan began tormenting him shortly after he’d sensed the death of the Emperor in the Force. That stunning revelation struck Ezra about five years after the purrgil joined Ezra in his determined battle to liberate Lothal by demolishing Thrawn’s blockade.

While aboard the Chimaera as Thrawn’s now escaped prisoner, Ezra silently asked the Force sensitive creatures for one last favor. Take me where I’m needed most, a place where I no longer endanger my family. The purrgil lit up for hyperspace flight—and transported the entire Star Destroyer to the farthest reaches of Wild Space. Setting the badly damaged vessel adrift in the atmosphere of an uncharted planet, the purrgil vanished.

Ezra felt abandoned, a lone, injured Jedi among enraged Imperials without even his lightsaber by his side. He struggled to understand why the purrgil dumped him at the farthest edge of the galaxy, forced into an alliance with an equally reluctant and disadvantaged Thrawn for mutual survival. Ezra reached out to the Force with a heavy heart. Was my sacrifice made in vain? As if in answer, things immediately got worse.

The scouting parties sent to the scattering of planetary communities in search of aid found only the remains of tens of thousands of inhabitants, all massacred over a standard year ago. Any survivors must have abandoned their world. Or--more likely—been taken as slaves. Shivers ran up Ezra’s spine as he explored war torn streets and realized any structure or object that could be associated with a spiritual, artistic or cultural purpose lay in savage ruins. In contrast, technological and industrial elements stood untouched, as if they were beneath the notice of those who had decimated the population. Ezra shared in the Imperials’ constant apprehension. Was something far worse following behind, on its way to swoop in and claim its tribute?

Thrawn strategically used the precarious situation to his starship’s advantage. For several months, Ezra and the crew scavenged supplies and materials to make the Chimaera space worthy again. Very early on, Ezra and the others became too exhausted and overworked to spare much thought on the potential of impending doom. Once the Star Destroyer was finally space bound, progress was painfully slow. Without star maps to navigate the maze of destructive anomalies—and lacking reliable sources of food and fuel--the Chimaera limped forward system by system toward the Unknown Regions.

By necessity, the ship’s course settings also became more furtive. The few habitable worlds they encountered all had the same thing in common: the annihilation of their population, and demolition of all religious and cultural artifacts. Ezra’s heart twisted for the innocent dead, and harbored concern for the vulnerable Chimaera. Every time Ezra attempted to gain some sense of the mysterious attackers through the Force, he hit a blank wall. The Grand Admiral seemed to find Ezra’s lack of perceptive success intriguing.

Meanwhile, Thrawn’s cold red eyes missed nothing as his crew collected grim evidence of a new and significant threat to the known galaxy. Ezra loathed Thrawn for all the suffering he’d inflicted on his Ghost family and the Rebellion. Yet, Ezra developed a grudging respect for the way Thrawn galvanized his initially shell-shocked crew to restore and maintain Imperial order and discipline. Ezra covertly gleaned much about the Grand Admiral, who was systematically transforming his purrgil-induced defeat into a surveillance mission vital to the Empire. Ezra had no doubt Thrawn envisioned a triumphant return with priceless data on the hostiles and star maps of the Wild regions to bestow upon Palpatine. Although…Ezra increasingly sensed Thrawn’s loyalty belonged to the Chiss Ascendancy alone.

Ever practical, Thrawn elevated Ezra to spearhead missions to scavenge supplies and fuel from each corpse-filled settlement to sustain the Chimaera. Unlike the Imperials, Ezra was hardened by extreme and lean conditions under the Rebellion. Ezra found himself even relishing the dangerous work at times. He knew full well his success in bringing back his scouting parties alive earned him Thrawn’s increasing trust as well as greater tolerance from the crew. But with PZ-5 his only genuine friend on the Chimaera, Ezra’s loneliness and homesickness for his Ghost family remained a daily battle.

About three months after the Chimaera was again space bound, Ezra’s Jedi abilities earned him something more than trust from the Grand Admiral. During a mission debriefing in Thrawn’s office, Ezra’s jaw almost dropped when the Chiss opened a locked drawer and withdrew…a lightsaber? No—Ezra’s heart lurched. From what little Kanan had shared of being made a Knight during his Jedi Temple vision, this was a Temple Guard’s lightsaber pike.

“You did especially well today, Commander Bridger. Your…communication with the reptilian creatures prevented several troopers from being devoured.” Thrawn calmly held the beautifully designed hilt out toward Ezra.

“All those big lizards wanted was a fair share of grain in the silos.” Ezra did not reach for the pike. He eyed Thrawn accusingly. “You’ve had this all along?”

Thrawn nodded. “It is one of the many Jedi artifacts I’ve collected, along with the mask that accompanied it.”

“And you’re giving it to me now?” Ezra resisted the urge to snatch the pike from Thrawn’s blue hand and bash him over the head with it.

“You once advised me that the Force is not a weapon. That it is something I would never understand. Perhaps you are right, Commander. However, what I have come to understand is that a Jedi like you without his lightsaber is…far less efficient in the field.”

Eyes narrowed, Ezra took the hilt away. He immediately felt the minute vibration from the crystal within. Igniting the pike, Ezra’s whole sense of being lit up with the bright, yellow blades. I’s been so long since I’ve held a lightsaber. Recalling the red blades of Maul and the Inquisitors, Ezra gently twirled the humming pike, careful not to slice Thrawn’s desk—or Thrawn--in half. “I’ve never trained with a double-bladed weapon.”

“Then there is no time like the present.” With an aloof gesture, Thrawn dismissed Ezra. Ezra rotated the blades a few times on his way to the door, then switched the pike off to hang it on his belt.

“I’ll put this to good use.” Ezra was not about to thank Thrawn. The Temple Guard’s pike never belonged with the arrogant Chiss in the first place. Thrawn’s crimson eyes gleamed back at him, clearly neither expecting--nor wanting--gratitude.

“Indeed you will, Commander.”

For this moment and countless reasons, Ezra never told Thrawn the Emperor was dead. He’d kept the news even from PZ-5. The day the Force had shifted profoundly, Ezra and PZ-5 were using one of the Chimaera’s remaining Lambda class shuttles to orbit the latest decimated planet. As usual, Ezra reached out with the Force to sense any dangers before landing. Ezra felt himself abruptly sucked into an abnormally deep trance. His skin beaded with sweat as if a fever had broken within him. The Emperor has fallen. Astonished, Ezra probed harder for details--and gagged, recoiling from what burned like ichor spewing from a ruptured, deeply infected wound.

Ezra felt caught in an ocean of Force energy settling itself after the passage of a raging storm. As the Dark receded, Ezra found himself encountering a subtle ripple of Light. Who is that? The Force signature felt vaguely familiar, but it was not Ahsoka Tano or Obi-wan Kenobi. It felt nothing like Kanan. His former master’s Force signature carried undertones of an elemental, primal energy. Whoever this sparkling ripple was, their Force signature pulsed as a faint beacon to the known galaxy. Ezra’s heart bounded. He’d rushed through the mission, countering PZ-5’s inquiries and concerns with rote responses. Back in his cabin, one thought flared over and over.

With the Emperor dead, I can safely reach out to Sabine! It’s time for her to find me! To Ezra’s surprise, the Force met this thought with firm resistance. You are not done here. Too eager for home to be easily deterred, Ezra called out furtively to the purrgil for hours. Silence. Apparently, they agreed with the Force. That night, visions of Kanan’s death started ripping Ezra’s heart open again and again. PZ-5 had found Ezra passed out in the corner of his cabin and refused to leave until he told her what happened.

“Master Ezra?”

Dragged from his river of past thoughts, Ezra opened his eyes--to find PZ-5’s gleaming visor looming over his face. “Agh!” The equally startled droid staggered back.

“I’m sorry, sir. I’ve been relaying details concerning our mission to Ja’Ghar and it appeared you fell asleep.” PZ-5’s head angled in a frustrated pose. “Did you hear a single word I said?”

“Uh, no. Could you repeat, please?” Ezra rubbed his aching forehead. Was the droid shaking her finger at him?

“I must first express how increasingly debilitating these episodes have become. In fact, I should escort you to the—”

“You know what would really clear my head, PeeZee? A strong cup of caf.” This was their longstanding code for: I need you to go spy on what’s going on out there. PZ-5 shifted into an anticipatory stance.

“Oh. Of course, Master Ezra. Would you care for any additives?” How nosy would you like me to be? If droids had dreams, Ezra had a strong suspicion PZ’s would consist of her running amok as an intimidating KX-security unit.

“Just an extra shot, please.” Check on the Big Blue Guy if you can. “Oh, and inventory the shuttle, make sure those supplies I asked for are on board. We should be coming up on the Ja’Ghar system anytime now.”

“That’s precisely what I was attempting to tell you.” With an exasperated gesture, the droid stepped out, the door shutting behind her. Ezra rubbed his chin, smiling. My goatee could sure use a trim. His smile faltered; Hera had loved to tweak Kanan’s beard.

Is your master truly dead?

Ezra stiffened. That voice had resonated through what Ezra half-jokingly referred to as his “nature channel,” the Force frequency he used most often to commune with wildlife. The voice was familiar, but he couldn’t place it. Hearing nothing more, Ezra sighed out a shaky breath. Why is all this happening? What does it mean? Maybe PZ-5 was right. The visions were digging up Ezra’s long buried feelings of guilt. Yes, Ezra had let Kanan go…but some core part of himself still felt a vitally important task regarding his master remained undone.

Interwoven with all his emotional baggage, Ezra sensed an underlying, expanding imbalance in the Force. With the Emperor gone, new evils were undoubtedly emerging from their shadows to fill the vacuum. Already here in Wild Space, they faced a merciless horde butchering its way into the galaxy. The Light desperately needed every Jedi it could muster against the encroaching Dark. If only Kanan was still alive to help Ezra tip the scales. But Kanan was gone.

Thrawn 4 ABY

Grand Admiral Thrawn paced the Chimaera’s bridge, overseeing his skeletal crew, each member grown long accustomed to working multiple positions efficiently. His red eyes turned to the viewscreen…and flinched almost imperceptibly as he recalled vast, swarming tentacles shattering through the permasteel glass. I see your defeat. Like many arms surrounding you in a cold embrace. Not for the first time, Thrawn speculated what had become of the Bendu and how the creature had predicted his situation.

Thrawn did not berate himself for being outmaneuvered by a sky full of berserk purrgil. He doubted any tactical officer in the Empire could have predicted such a peculiar, supernatural assault. Thrawn did acknowledge, however, that he’d underestimated young Ezra Bridger. He would not make that mistake again. When so many of the Chimaera’s crew clamored for the Jedi’s blood in payment for their exile to Wild Space, Thrawn logically reminded them that Bridger was, in fact, the only one among them capable of recalling the purrgil for a hastier return.

Thrawn ferreted out soon enough that the unpredictable creatures had abandoned Bridger, apparently indefinitely. But Thrawn kept that to himself. By this time, he had (at least temporarily) set aside his disdain for Bridger’s Jedi witchery; it had proven far too useful time and again, especially with navigation around volatile anomalies, and warnings of impending danger. Bridger’s Force sensitivity and unique ability to communicate with planetary fauna remained crucial to gleaning what little information was available on each war struck world they explored. Thrawn was not easily shaken, but he did admit to himself the absence of sentient life in this sector was…disturbing.

Whoever or whatever this menace was, Thrawn noted certain intriguing similarities with the Yuuzhan Vong, merciless invaders who threatened the Unknown Regions and the Chiss Ascendency. The Vong despised mechanical technology; instead, they developed genetically engineered and organic technological innovations for their civilizations. When Bridger noted he felt nothing from the Force concerning the menace here in Wild Space, Thrawn pondered. He was aware Jedi records revealed the Vong had no Force signature, and the Jedi could only indirectly attack using their Force skills.

Yet, Thrawn’s gut told him that the menace here in Wild Space was something other. This invading horde did not pillage, or loot. There was no evidence yet of escaped prisoners or slaves. What this menace did with incredible precision was terminate sentient organics. As an art connoisseur, Thrawn found the horde’s defacement of cultural, artistic and spiritual constructs a puzzling affront to his sensibilities. Yet, by leaving the technologies of these worlds untouched, invaders apparently considered these achievements feeble and completely beneath them. Thrawn’s intuition hinted at a menace inorganic in nature, but he required physical evidence to prove his theory. If this did turn out to be the truth, Thrawn contemplated what might occur if the Yuuzhan Vong and this mysterious adversary met head to head. Who might be the victor? Or, better yet, no victor at all.

Regardless, it appeared fortuitous the purrgil had unwittingly provided Thrawn with an early warning signal for the known galaxy. And he had every intention that the Chimaera would deliver her message.

“Sir, we have reached Ja’Ghar, but are now receiving an unidentified transmission from a beacon in Kkantu, the planetary system beyond.” The officer looked up at Thrawn, eyes round with puzzlement. “Grand Admiral…it is a Republic code from the Clone Wars era.”

Thrawn ceased pacing as he processed the startling information. “Very good. Instruct Commander Bridger to disembark on his mission here. Set a course for the beacon. Bridger will rendezvous with the Chimaera at those coordinates once his mission is complete.”

“Aye, sir.”

Kanan 1 BBY

Kanan emerged from the incandescent light of the explosion, completely disoriented. Slowly, he realized he was within the dim and empty mountain cave on Lothal. Kanan felt weightless yet sensed an indefinable mass to his energy field. He also tingled with anticipation. Kanan’s visions prior to Hera’s rescue had hinted he might temporarily retain his own consciousness to help guide Ezra through the next step in protecting Lothal. But the Force had made no promises, not by a long shot.

Kanan wondered how long his individuality would stay intact. As if invited by his thoughts, a distant tug pulled insistently at Kanan. This way. Curiously, Kanan immediately felt himself held in place by an opposing tug. The overall sensation was indescribable; like being caught in a web, yet actually being a part of the web itself.

Apprehensive that his consciousness might meld into the Cosmic Force at any moment, Kanan focused on finding Hera and the others. I’ll at least check on them, offer any comfort I’m allowed. Just thinking of Hera caused Kanan’s energy to vibrate intently, which helped him ignore the insistent tug. Good. He’d be thrilled to keep Hera planted in his mind for as long as this took.

Moving his energy mass took some practice. Rotating slowly, Kanan noticed his mask and shorn hair on the alter. Looking up, his gaze was captured by an array of mysterious, ancient hieroglyphs along the cave’s back wall. The walls are telling a story. Kanan recalled Ezra’s voice from the past. There are people coming from the sky. I think they’re Jedi.

Drifting closer, Kanan realized a cluster of three figures clearly represented members of the Jedi High Council. Ezra might have recognized Yoda, but he wouldn’t have known Ki-Adi-Mundi and Mace Windu. The three Jedi reached for a baby, who was surrounded by a halo of powerful Force lines. Kanan felt an electric shock of sudden awareness. That child is me.

YES. CALEB DUME.

The affirmation pulsed through Kanan. The intensity reminded Kanan of Bendu, the way that Force entity’s voice permeated Kanan right down his molecules. Kanan tried to speak aloud—but he had no mouth. His consciousness reached out. Who are you?

I AM DUME.

That declaration sent imagery flooding through Kanan’s senses. He reeled, overwhelmed by this ancient, elemental Force entity. Dume had to be at least as old as Lothal itself. Kanan struggled to understand Dume’s inhuman thoughts, feeling like an ant trying to converse with a god. Hey, Dume, you’re going to have to keep it very simple.

I JOINED WITH YOU. FOR LOTHAL.

Memories inundated Kanan, all out of order: He was a youngling training in the Coruscant Temple, he kissed Hera heatedly in the cockpit of the Ghost, he drunkenly beat the crap out of a loudmouth smuggler, he ran in shame while his master, Depa Billaba, died to save him. Kanan clashed lightsabers with Darth Vader, he consoled Ezra after Malachor. The final memory was of his parents, apparently simple farmers who handed him off tearfully to the three Jedi masters. But why, Dume, why join with me?

Dume blasted Kanan’s consciousness with multiple layers of communication. Kanan stumbled through this maze of inhuman thought and managed to absorb the key points: Dume, a planetary guardian, sensed the Force growing increasingly out of balance long before the Clone Wars. Lothal’s potential to be demolished was very high. Yet the ancients had prophesized the birth of a Force-sensitive child whose energy signature could safely blend with Dume’s embedded presence. This combined being would protect Lothal.

Drawn to Caleb’s unique and powerful Force signature, the High Council members gained his parents’ blessing and took Caleb to the Coruscant Temple for Jedi training.

Embedded within Caleb, Dume gained direct access to the Jedi and its failing war with the Dark. After Order 66, Kanan’s innate strength of will, backed by Dume’s powerful presence, enabled him to survive the purge that thousands of Jedi did not. Even during Kanan’s darkest years, Dume absorbed crucial knowledge through his underground existence as a smuggler. As Kanan realized his destiny had always been intertwined with Lothal, his consciousness lightened. He also understood more than ever that meeting and falling in love with Hera Syndulla had turned the tide. With Hera as his compass, and Dume at his back, Kanan slowly reclaimed his life’s purpose.

As if called by his thoughts, Hera shuffled into the cave, clutching the Kalikori tightly to her chest. “Why did I take so long to tell him?”

Kanan had never seen her look so broken. Hera. As she wept over his death, blaming herself for it, Kanan desperately tried to envelop her in a tangible embrace, to assure her it had all been his choice. But she couldn’t feel or hear him. What is the point of my consciousness being intact if I can’t even help the woman I love? Dume didn’t answer. Perhaps the entity considered heartbreak a petty, private matter.

It was Chopper—Chopper!-- who comforted Hera when Kanan could not. Kanan felt deep relief he hadn’t reduced the murderous droid to scrap metal all those times it seemed like such a perfect idea. Those early years of shock prods, binary insults, and brutal knee bruises were a small price to pay to both see and sense Hera’s grief ease a little.

And when Chopper suggested the idea of adding Kanan to Hera’s Kalikori, Kanan wished he could hug the stumpy astromech and apologize (sincerely this time) for letting Zeb gamble him away to Lando.

Hera’s grief-filled eyes warmed and softened. “No one deserves that honor more than Kanan.” Those tender words ignited a cascade of joy throughout Kanan’s entire being. Hera was going to make him part of her Ryloth family tree? Her husband. This is what he’d pushed for, what she’d resisted so long because of the war. He knew Hera loved him, everything she shared inside and outside of their intimate moments made her love clear as day. But she had refused to confirm her feelings during any talk of a their long-term future. Kanan understood now that his usually steadfast Hera had been terrified of losing him the way she’d lost others dear to her heart. She’d finally made clear her love and desire for a future together with Kanan—then watched as an inferno consumed him.

Kanan enfolded his beloved—his wife--into his energy and made a vow. For whatever time the Cosmic Force grants me, Hera, I will remain to watch over you and our child.

But when Kanan attempted to follow Hera out of the cave, everything abruptly shifted to a purplish, interdimensional night. It was becoming infuriatingly clear to Kanan that he was as embedded with Dume as Dume was with him. On one hand, this symbiotic relationship kept Kanan’s consciousness from dissipating into the Cosmic Force. On the other hand, Kanan felt like a tick clinging to a Bantha—limited to whatever the mighty Dume wanted to do and see.

Speaking of that, what Kanan saw now was a truly enormous Loth-wolf. Oh, so this how you choose to appear to mere mortals? And is that my shoulder pauldron emblem on your forehead?

“Kanan?” Looking down, Kanan was alarmed to see Ezra entrapped by the trio of smaller Loth-wolves.

YOUR APPRENTICE. PROTECT TEMPLE.

The second mission! Consumed with concern for Hera, Kanan had neglected Ezra’s urgent task. His padawan looked so tiny and vulnerable under Dume’s divine-like scrutiny. Kanan rushed protectively toward the teen, but it was like slogging through space waffle syrup. Can’t you see? You’re all just scaring him! Let me talk to Ezra.

WE TALK TOGETHER.

What? How was he supposed to talk in tandem with a giant spirit wolf? With no instructions offered—and apparently no choice--Kanan projected his will through Dume as powerfully as possible, his intent to create words the kid could understand. I’m here, Ezra. I’ll guide you the best I’m allowed through what is to come. What emerged:

I AM DUME.

Ezra looked perplexed. Kanan felt the same. Great. The ensuing conversation pretty much went downhill from there. Kanan knew Ezra had the inner strength and cunning to carry out the mission, the grief-stricken kid just needed a little reassurance. Instead, he was berated for being afraid. Kanan focused harder, imagining himself moving Dume’s jaws to speak the right words. I know you can do this, Ezra. You’re strong in the Force, able to channel Light and Dark like no Jedi I’ve ever known. It’s why this task fell to you. Dume rumbled:

FIGHT. TOGETHER.

Ugh! It was the space waffle syrup all over again. Again and again, Kanan blasted his will through Dume like a foghorn, trying to relay both compassion and the scant details that had been imparted to Kanan previously by the white Loth-wolf. The Jedi Temple is in terrible danger from the Emperor, Ezra. You must move quickly, keep its secrets safe or no one in the galaxy will be safe. Everything boomed out of Dume’s razor-toothed jaws in cryptic fashion.

KNOWLEDGE. DESTRUCTION.

Kanan didn’t blame Ezra one bit for eyeing the keystone the wolves gave him with befuddlement, but Dume’s frustration built to dangerous levels. Hey, you’re not exactly making it easy for him! Ignoring Dume’s exasperated sigh, Kanan made a final effort.

RESTORE PAST. REDEEM FUTURE.

Ezra’s ensuing pleas for help were the last straw. Dume growled and rumbled ominously. Don’t hurt him! But the gigantic wolf snapped his jaws over Ezra, and everything shifted to blackness.

Well, that went well. Kanan floated in the murk, sensing Dume fume all around him. Kanan discovered he retained his own formidable sulking skills. Dume and Bendu might be godlike Force entities, but they sure shared a short fuse. Who knows? Maybe Dume and Bendu were ancient pals—and the reason why Bendu hadn’t blown him out of Attolon’s sky. As far as his puny human mind was concerned, both entities seemed to lack a bit of common sense in some areas. Soooo, now what? In case you’re interested, I have some suggestions that might actually work.

As if in response, Kanan now found himself afloat alongside the white Loth-wolf who had guided him to destroy the TIE Defender program’s fuel supply. The grasslands rippled under the early morning sun. Following the wolf’s intent gaze, Kanan could see Hera, Ezra, Sabine and Zeb studying the Temple keystone. Kanan felt himself vibrating with relief to see his apprentice so full of purpose again. Looks like Dume and I got through to you after all. And there was Sabine, head bent closely over the keystone. Kanan’s energy brightened. Those two were an unstoppable team.

When Ezra called the Loth-wolves for a Force-assisted ride to the Temple, Kanan managed to flow alongside the group. His journey with Hera, Ezra, Sabine and Chopper was bittersweet. Everyone Kanan cared most about was so close, yet so far away. Every attempt to touch or communicate directly always hit a barrier like unbreakable glass. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could endure it.

Ezra 4 ABY

Ezra looked out at the starfield, enjoying his temporary freedom from Thrawn. It was just PZ-5 with him on the shuttle to Ja’Ghar. So much the better. From the moment he’d found mention of the system in the remnants of information culled during missions on the other destroyed worlds, he’d felt an irresistible pull to explore it.

Based on the symbols and language decoded by PZ-5 and one of the remaining protocol droids onboard the Chimera, Ja’Ghar appeared to be a religious epicenter for this sector in Wild Space. Thrawn agreed it was important to investigate the planet for any clues it might still hold on the attacking force.

As a spiritual hub, Ezra and Thrawn both concurred the attackers had most likely devastated the planet’s artifacts and buildings…but they could have overlooked something vital. Ezra couldn’t shake the feeling there was something crucially important awaiting his discovery.

“I’ve laid in the coordinates for our landing, Master Ezra.” PZ-5’s metal hands moved smoothly over the controls.

“Thanks, PeeZee. Stand by, I’m going to proceed with my Jedi witchery.” Ezra winked at the droid before closing his eyes. Reaching out, he probed for any dangers or other potential circumstances in their path. Almost immediately, he felt a tug toward a different region of the blue-green world below them. Eyes still closed, Ezra let his hands take hold of the shuttle’s controls.

“Sir, why are you entering different coordinates?” By her tone, Ezra knew PZ-5 had her head cocked at a puzzled angle.

“I’m picking up on a powerful energy signature. In that region of waterfalls.” Ezra shivered, felt his consciousness slipping a bit. He focused harder, retaining control. “Just trust me on this, okay?”

“Well…” The droid reacted as Ezra abruptly slumped. “Master Ezra, are you all right?”

“Just…stay…on…course…” Ezra’s voice faded as a deep trance took him over.

Ezra knew he was in a dream-like vision, but everything felt intensely real. He floated in a purple black sky, staring up at a familiar, almost absurdly giant Loth-wolf. Dume’s dagger-like teeth flashed as he spoke.

RESTORE PAST. REDEEM FUTURE.

Ezra frowned, puzzled. But I’ve already done what you asked. I opened the Gate to the World Between Worlds. I rescued Ahsoka Tano from Vader. I helped destroy the Jedi Temple to keep its power and secrets from the Emperor.

AGAIN.

What? How? The Temple is gone. Who are you, anyway? You have my master’s name, but you’re not really him. Are you?

CALEB DUME.

Ezra recoiled as fire and heat suddenly raged around him. Not again! But he was back inside the Imperial gunship gripping Hera. Both of them stared incredulously while Kanan’s milky, blind eyes brightened back into teal. It’s as if the Force itself is looking at me through his eyes. Then Kanan flung the gunship to safety as he vanished silently into the enormous blast.

The scene suddenly shifted. Ezra lay inside the Imperial drill vehicle, feeling the Jedi Temple shuddering into destruction around them. Bright white light as the Force intensified with unfathomable power. And Kanan’s calm, assuring voice…The Force will be with you. Always. It reminded Ezra of the time his blind master saw him through a similar massive explosion of Force energies generated by the colliding Sith and Jedi holocrons.

Bright light dissolved into chilly dawn. Ezra and a sorrowful Hera faced barren ground where the great Temple once stood. In the distance, the white Loth-wolf stared at Ezra, as if waiting for a signal. Goodbye, Kanan.

“Master Ezra? Can you hear me?” Ezra’s eyes popped open to find PZ-5 propping him up in his pilot seat. “Oh, there you are, sir.” Warm sunlight filtered in through the viewscreen. Ezra looked rapidly around, relieved to see the shuttle safely landed.

“How long was I out, PeeZee?” Breathe. Just breathe. Ezra calmed his pumping heart. An intense wave of longing to be back on the Ghost with Kanan, Hera, Sabine, Zeb—even Chopper—nearly overwhelmed him. He took another deep breath. Relax. When the time is right, Ahsoka will find me. Sabine will find me.

“Only for a few minutes, sir. You made an interesting comment at the end of your trance.”

“I did?” Ezra hadn’t realized he talked aloud during the visions.

“Yes. You said, ‘I know what to do now.’ What did you mean by that?” The droid watched Ezra jump out of the pilot seat, then trailed behind him on their way to the shuttle’s ramp.

“I don’t know, PeeZee. But I think I’m about to find out.”

Emerging from the shuttle, Ezra found himself surrounded by mystical, temperate woods. The tall, slender trees encircled a beautiful body of water that was fed by a magnificent waterfall at one end. Foaming water cascaded down a jagged cliff, creating a spray of mist below.

The plunging water cut deeply through the upper outcroppings of rock. The effect resembled towers of a primitive temple jutting skyward. Keeping the hilt of his lightsaber pike handy, Ezra explored the area, pondering overgrown vegetation that covered a variety of strange shaped lumps under leafy vines and moss. He approached the largest lump, an angled semicircle that directly faced the waterfall.

“I think there’s some kind of monument under here.” Ezra gestured for PZ-5 to help him tear away the clinging vines. Their efforts revealed a tableau carved into a thick block of stone. Ezra’s eyes locked on the glyphs and primal images, excitement rising as he recognized geometric art, kindred in design to the cave paintings he’d seen on Lothal. “PeeZee, what do you make of all this?”

“It appears the overgrowth disguised a ceremonial site from the invaders, Master Ezra. “These other hidden structures are assembled in a pattern to emphasize this particular tableau.”

“But what do these carvings look like to you?” Ezra needed to make sure he wasn’t imagining things he wanted to see.

“Processing, sir.” The tableau’s most prominent series of carvings depicted four different symbols set equally apart along a deep, circular groove. The droid focused silently a moment, scanning internal records for any matches. “It appears to resemble points on a compass.”

“That’s exactly what I thought.” Ezra touched each symbol in turn: a square, a sail-shaped triangle, a bowl-shaped semi-circle, and a set of three very slender rectangles, the center one tallest. PZ-5 cocked her head, observing.

“Sir, based on my data for comparisons, those carvings align with multiple cultural references to the four elements.”

Ezra’s eyes narrowed. Yes, of course. “Let me guess. The square is earth, the bowl is water, the triangle is air…that leaves these rectangles for fire.” He turned his gaze to the small lake with its foaming waterfall. His heart beat faster. “Looks like we’re at the water point.”

“It is a logical deduction, Master Ezra.” PZ-5 gestured at the center of the compass. Inside, a carved glyph combined all four elemental shapes within a series of interlocking circles. “This infers a central connection between all four points.”

I’ve been led to a Temple that might connect to the World Between Worlds! Ezra sensed the truth of this resonate deeply within him. Restore the past. Redeem the future. He focused hard on the other three points, then placed his hand on the square. Earth. Ezra could almost see and feel an endless sea of grassy plains, whimsical stone mountains protruding into a soft sky. Lothal is—was—the earth Temple.

The pounding beat of the waterfall resonated in Ezra’s ears like a never-ending drum. Maybe the vegetation wasn’t the only thing hiding something important from the attackers. But if that’s the water Temple, how do I get inside?

Reaching out through the Force, Ezra felt his hand drawn to the center of the tableau’s compass. He held it there and closed his eyes. Opening his mind fully, Ezra felt the Force flow strongly through him, surging outward in an energetic wave, directly at the plunging waterfall.

Something deep within the rocky cliffs groaned, stone slowly grinding on stone. The roaring of the waterfall altered with it. Ezra opened his eyes wide, both astonished and gratified at the sight of the waterfall parting like foaming curtains. The waters churned and plummeted now to either side of a deep and gaping hole in the cliff face, diverted by some unseen mechanism Ezra had activated through the Force.

PZ-5’s blank face somehow managed to look stunned. “Sir…it’s a cave.” Ezra gazed at the dripping, jagged entrance above them. It resembled nothing other than the gaping maw of a huge, wolf-like creature. Stone stairs cut into the cliff face led upward into its darkness.

Ezra’s stomach knotted with eagerness, and a hint of foreboding. This time, I’m going in prepared.

Thrawn 4 ABY

Thrawn waited patiently while his orders were carried out to the letter. The Chimaera’s tractor beam hauled in a small, derelict asteroid, then anchored it in place near the outer hull of the starship’s main cargo hold. The unimpressive hunk of rock had been hurtling through the outer regions of a system known as Kkantu according to the surviving records of its massacred inhabitants.

The retrieval team carefully extracted the Republic era beacon found lodged in the asteroid, sterilizing the slim device before bringing it aboard the Star Destroyer. The team deposited the beacon in Thrawn’s office, then reluctantly departed. Thrawn had no intentions of allowing anyone else to view the beacon’s data before he analyzed it first.

Thrawn found the decryption code easily enough. After all, the Republic had become the Empire, so retained prior codes within the Imperial database, whether or not they were still actively used. Curious to see if this message in a bottle would prove worthy of its retrieval, Thrawn activated the data cube.

The holographic image of an aging Clone War trooper took shape. Thrawn couldn’t see much of the clone’s surroundings, but he appeared to be piloting a fighter craft of unknown alien design.

“My original designation was CC-5675. I am a defector of the Grand Army of the Republic. My chosen name is Sulis. I leave this message as an urgent warning for the Senate and the Jedi--or whatever entity may now oversee the civilized galaxy.” The clone paused, gathering his thoughts. “It is imperative that the Senate heed my words. Do not disregard me because I chose to leave a war that killed so many of my brothers and held no desirable future for any brothers who might survive.”

Thrawn studied the clone’s heavily bearded face and pain-filled eyes. This soldier had sacrificed honor and duty to eke out a bleak existence in Wild Space. In his last moments, the clone clearly sought to redeem himself.

“Those Separatist clankers we fought by the thousands are a pitiful lot in comparison to the horde raging through these systems. I don’t know much yet, except they came from outside our galaxy. I suspect these artificial creatures wiped out whoever was foolish enough to create them in the first place. What I do know is they are like no enemy I’ve ever faced. Their only cause seems to be exterminating us organics like we’re a virus to be cleansed from our own galaxy.”

Sulis paused to alter his craft’s course. “I’m no Jedi like my former general, but my wife, H’ida…was a Force-sensitive healer. She got part of a message to me before…before they massacred her and the entire settlement while I was off planet to trade wares.”

The clone wiped his eyes with his blocky hands. “She said they seemed to despise the living for being part of the Force. It’s something they have no ability to understand or connect with--so they destroy what they can’t have.”

Sulis pressed various buttons, arming his guns. In the tense silence, Thrawn’s mind filtered and stored every bit of information with growing excitement. I was right. It is not the Yuuzhan Vong.

Sulis spoke again, his voice hard. “The worst part of her message was…these butchering clankers are only clearing the way for more of their kind.”

The clone increasing his craft’s speed. Thrawn absorbed the ominous words. If this were indeed true, the threat was dire for any system this vanguard targeted. Thrawn’s thoughts were disrupted as the clone shifted his holo recorder’s direction. The image now revealed what lay outside CC-5675’s viewscreen. Thrawn’s body stiffened.

A countless multitude of huge, metallic forms careened directly forward. But these were not starships. These streamlined entities were inorganic individuals: coldly glowing eyes topped their menacing, humanoid shapes. Every appendage bristled with weaponry. High intensity energy beams lashed the alien craft mercilessly.

CC-5675’s voice rose in volume. “I’m not going to make it back to Coruscant, obviously! But I’ll take out every bastard clanker I can!” Accompanied by the clone trooper’s war cry, the small craft dove headlong into a dense cluster of the terrifying assailants. The holographic image abruptly died out.

Thrawn stared at the empty air, brooding. He slowly realized his fists were clenched so tightly, he’d left nail marks in his blue palms. Thrawn focused, relaxing his body and mind, allowing his calculations to flow. One thing was clear. He had no doubt the Vong and this vanguard would take immense pleasure in decimating each other. However, it was far too risky to lure the vanguard toward the Unknown Regions. He would have to find a way to lure the Vong to Wild Space. Not only would his strategy remove the immediate threat to the Chiss Ascendancy, but the Vong would throw themselves against the vanguard…and whatever was following in the vanguard’s wake.

We must reconnect with the inner galaxy at all costs. Too much was at stake.

Kanan 1 BBY

Kanan now hovered in the dark night some distance from the Jedi Temple, sickened by the sight of its precious arts and knowledge laid out on the ground like butchered meat from a kill.

Yet, he was more concerned about Hera. She was uncharacteristically fragile, so fearful of losing Ezra and Sabine to the Emperor she wanted to abort the mission. Instinctively, Kanan reached out to lend his strength and support. For the first time, Hera’s hand reached upward, her fingers intertwining with his. She can feel my presence! Every part of Kanan radiated his confidence, his love. Hera, I’m here with you. I know the kids can do this. Have faith. Under his touch, Hera relaxed.

Kanan watched alongside Hera and Zeb while Ezra and Sabine stealthily examined the magnificent Temple painting to decipher it and open the Gate. Sabine’s capture by the minister was a very dicey moment, but Ezra managed to enter the portal. Kanan attempted to follow—and was yanked back by Dume like a Loth-kitten by its neck.

STAY.

Ow. Fine. Kanan’s prior visions had been hazy about what lay in store for his padawan, but he’d guided Ezra on this mission knowing inside the Temple existed a chance to save Ahsoka from Vader on Malachor. If rescued, Ahsoka would be a powerful ally to help protect Ezra and the Temple against the Emperor. She’s certainly more skilled at combat than me.

For now, Kanan contented himself with supporting Hera and Zeb’s rescue of Sabine. Not that those two need much help. In typical Ghost family style, Sabine escaped from the minister with Hera and Zeb in the nick of time to help Ezra close the Gate. It was unclear what happened with Ahsoka, but Kanan felt only gratitude for Ezra’s safe return. Kanan both sensed and shared Ezra’s deep regret the Temple must be destroyed, but it was the only way to keep power hungry Palpatine out of the Temple’s pathways through time and space. As the Temple’s energy exploded around them, Kanan called upon Dume to help him shield his family. The Imperials…well, they weren’t so lucky.

Before Ezra lost consciousness, Kanan channeled love, strength and calm to boy who’d long ago become far more than a padawan to him. The Force will be with you. Always.

And rejoiced to know Ezra heard him.

Ezra 4 ABY

Carefully treading the last treacherous step, Ezra entered the cave, his movements hampered by his heavy stormtrooper armor and helmet. Behind him, PZ-5 carried a pack filled with bacta wraps.

Moisture pitter-pattered everywhere, fed by the mist from the waterfall’s parted curtain outside. “Look, PeeZee.” Ezra walked toward the back of the dark cave where deep carvings in the rock glowed with the eerie light of phosphorous microorganisms. He removed his helmet, eyes glittering with excitement.

The array of primal, geometric shapes created three large, bipedal figures, all wearing headdresses decorated in an alien, amphibious style. The hand on the female figure to the left was open to the sky. The tallest, central figure faced forward, his webbed hands stretched out to either side. The figure to the right pointed his closed fist at the ground.

Ezra’s breath escaped him. “It is a Gate.” PZ-5 eyed the stone carvings blankly.

“A gate, sir? I see a wall.” Ezra grinned at the droid.

“Let’s see which one of us is right.” Ezra stood next to the female figure, then placed his gloved hand on the softly glowing stone hand that stretched upward to the sky.

The bioluminescence intensified, outlining all the figures with eerie light. Ezra moved away, watching intently while the female lowered her hand and faced the central figure. He raised his outstretched arms high overhead. Ezra heard faint voices speaking in a language he couldn’t understand. Outside, the roar of the waterfall shifted in tone.

On the right side of the cave, a paper-thin sheet of water cascaded from the ceiling mere inches from the wall, creating a continuous, transparent curtain. The water at the bottom flowed along the stone floor to spill out the cave entrance. In the cave wall behind the sheet of water, phosphorous light grew brighter and brighter. It formed the shape of a serpentine, amphibious creature with wolf-like jaws.

Ezra and PZ-5 watched in fascination while the glowing creature circled faster and faster. Its arc of light reflected in the water’s transparent curtain. Finally, the creature’s wolf-jaws clamped down on its own tail, creating a wavering, glowing circle within the thin sheet of watery curtain.

“I…I don’t understand,” droned PZ-5. “Is it a gate, or isn’t it?”

“It’s a portal, PeeZee, to a place I don’t really have time to explain right now. What I do need you to understand is this: If I don’t come out of there within three Lothalian rotations, you’re to use the shuttle’s cannons and destroy this cave and everything around it.”

The droid practically staggered. “What? But why, Master Ezra?”

“Because Thrawn and his Imperial cronies can’t know about this place. Once I’m gone, what you’re going to do first is secretly record all the symbols in this cave and the ones outside with the tableau. Then you’ll take the shuttle to our original coordinates and complete the mission. If Thrawn calls in, you tell him everything is fine, and we’ll rejoin the Chimaera shortly. Got that?”

“But…I…yes…”

“And if I don’t come out in three rotations, you’ll tell him I attempted to Force connect with some very large Ja’Ghar carnivores, only I must have insulted them because I wound up as dinner.”

“What large carnivores, exactly, sir?”

“Trust me, they’re out there.” He patted his pike hilt. “Be glad you’re a droid.” Ezra took the big pack away from PZ-5 and hoisted it onto his back.

“I still don’t understand why you must enter this portal, sir.”

“PeeZee, this is a mission I was given about five years ago, but I couldn’t complete it then. It wasn’t the right time. But now I think the Force has given me a second chance. If I don’t try, I’m not sure I can live with myself.” Ezra smiled softly at PZ-5. “Hey, don’t look so glum. I made it back the last time I did this on Lothal.”

“I…will miss you if you don’t return, Master Ezra.”

Ezra fondly patted the droid’s shoulder. “You’ve been a trusted friend to me, PeeZee. As a friend, I hope you’ll do me one more favor.”

“I would be honored.”

“If anyone can get the Chimaera back home, it’s Grand Admiral Thrawn. But if I’m no longer aboard, it’s urgent that you find my friends, Ahsoka Tano and Sabine Wren. Tell them all the times we’ve shared together, everything we’ve discovered about the invaders. But the most important thing you must tell Ahsoka and Sabine is that I found this Temple. Show them your secret recordings. Tell them I did it for Kanan. And Hera. Only they can safely know, and only they will understand. Do you promise?”

PZ-5 nodded solemnly. “I promise, Master Ezra.” Ezra nodded solemnly in return.

“Thank you, my friend.” Ezra’s face lit up with a smile. “Remember, I plan to be back. For now, enjoy playing spy droid. I know how much you like it.”

PZ-5 waggled a finger at him. “I cannot argue with you on that point.”

Ezra put his helmet back on, settled his pack. He gently pushed his gloved hand through the sheet of water, felt the portal give under his touch. “See you soon, PeeZee.” And then Ezra slipped through the glowing circle…and vanished.

PZ-5 stared, processing. “It is indeed a gate.” The swirling serpentine figure slowed to a stop but stayed aglow. “Very well. Now commencing recordings and Lothalian rotation countdown.”

Inside the portal, Ezra found himself in an interdimensional place almost identical to the one he’d explored in the Lothal Temple. Both strange and familiar voices echoed around him while he walked the twisting pathways. There were differences. The pathways rose and fell much more steeply, more frequently circling upside down. Ezra had no trouble falling off, everything around him shifted to his own perspective. The portals were more primitive in design, some vaguely disturbing. Other dimly lit portals made Ezra’s skin crawl as he walked by.

How do I find the portal to Kanan? He’d been avoiding this question as he’d grabbed his various supplies from the shuttle for the pack. The Daughter’s bird had guided him to Ahsoka. The portal to Kanan before had only been a trap set by the Emperor, one that Ezra had barely avoided thanks to Ahsoka’s intervention. Well, now the Emperor’s dead. He can’t try that again.

Ezra searched the surrounding starfield, searching for the Wolf constellation. He was surprised to find it in the “sky” much farther back. He didn’t recall seeing it earlier. He turned back, walking faster. At least it will be closer to my exit. Ezra listened more carefully, ears tuned to the distinctive sound of Kanan among the echoing voices. And then Ezra heard it, deep and soft.

Nobody ever pays enough attention to the world around them.

The voice came from a portal with artwork on top that reminded Ezra of the Lothalian cave paintings. It was a small figure, likely a child, surrounded by radiating lines. The circle of the portal itself depicted the open jaws of a very large wolf. Okay, I get it, this has to be the one. But something inside him now hesitated to proceed. Ezra knew Kanan’s sacrifice would be worthless if he was pulled away before the gunship was hurled to safety. Everyone on board would die in the explosion, and Ezra wouldn’t even exist to be here now. And if Kanan didn’t die, his spirit--his will--wouldn’t have been able to guide Ezra via Dume through those three days to ensure the Jedi Temple disappeared from the Emperor. I told PeeZee I know what to do now. But do I really? Was it the Force at work here, or his own wishful thinking for a second chance?

The future, by its nature, can be changed.

Ezra froze. He recognized that immortal voice. It was the Son from the Gate. It had been this same voice who asked Ezra not so long ago: Is your master truly dead? But, if the Son was guiding him now instead of the Daughter…was it a good thing? The Son represented the Dark side. And yet…if the Force was balanced between Light and Dark, and needed both to exist…was the Dark innately evil? After all, the Son spoke through his “nature channel.” In Ezra’s experience, most of nature and its animals, including more sentient creatures like the Loth-wolves and purrgil, did not seem to exist for one side of the Force over another. If they were part of the balance, didn’t it stand to reason he must be tapping into both Light and Dark to communicate with them?

Is your master truly dead? The voice and its question echoed again around Ezra. But what Ezra sensed was the Light had opened a portal on Lothal…and now the Dark wanted its turn here on Ja’Ghar. A balance. If this meant Kanan could be saved like Ahsoka, so be it. And with that thought, Ezra’s mind cleared, and he realized that he had known all along exactly what to do. Ezra set down his pack, opening it to pull out the bacta wraps. He adjusted his helmet, gloves, and armor, making sure everything was secure.

He stood before the portal, reaching out calmly with his mind. If this is the will of the Force, you will open.

The circular wolf mouth began to glow, brighter and brighter. Inside the portal, intense heat and flames. And just visible through the inferno, Ezra could see Kanan from behind. His master had already turned his face toward the gunship, one hand stretched to hold back Hera, the other splayed before Ezra to keep the intense fire at bay.

Ezra didn’t need to see Kanan’s face. This scene was burned into his memory forever. In just a moment, the Force would fill Kanan so completely, its healing energy would regenerate his milky eyes to blue-green. That healing power should protect Kanan enough from what Ezra was about to do. But he had to wait, just a moment longer…wait for Kanan to turn completely… to shove away the gunship. And in that next fraction of a second, if Kanan slumped, it meant he’d projected his consciousness outward before the explosion could ignite his body with agony…Yes! There he goes--NOW!!!

Ezra grabbed Kanan through the portal, the intense, raging inferno searing his gloves and armor. Ignoring the pain, Ezra yanked Kanan’s inert body back into the interdimensional realm, out of time and space. Heat and light and fire blasted, then the portal closed. Ezra fought unconsciousness, calling upon the Force for strength. With shaking hands, Ezra lay Kanan on the pathway, then clumsily cocooned Kanan’s singed body in bacta wraps. Gently wrapping Kanan’s head and scorched fringes of hair, Ezra managed a weak smile. “Good thing you already shaved most of that off.”

Ezra dragged off his helmet, grimacing at the agony in his hands. He slowly peeled off his damaged gloves and armor, relieved to find none of it melted to his skin. Wrapping the remaining bacta wraps around his lower arms and hands, Ezra sank back with a shaky sigh. He let the soothing mixture ease the worst of the pain. Kanan remained unmoving next to him, the slow rise and fall of his chest the only proof he was still alive.

Ezra unwrapped the fingers of his right hand to carefully open the lid of Kanan’s nearest eye. Vivid teal stared back at him. Ezra felt tears well, and he gently closed Kanan’s lid. He rewrapped his hand, then completely broke down into sobs of relief. A nagging part of his mind reminded him: Kanan still needs his essence back. What if he can’t find his body? Ezra shoved that away, giving thanks to the Force for his success so far. He whispered a thank you to the Son as well.

Ezra realized he had no way of knowing how much time was passing in the outside world. Perhaps it had been one Lothalian rotation already. And he needed to get Kanan into a bacta tank as soon as possible. Then, scattered through the intermittent voices always echoing in the World Between Worlds, Ezra suddenly heard Zeb say, “What do you mean gone?”

Listen. Ezra emptied his mind, reaching out. “I thought we had more time.” Hera.

And then it was Sabine, “I agree with you, but only because we can’t let that thing track us back to our base.”

“It talks with its eyes.” Zeb again.

And so their voices periodically faded in and out, giving Ezra clues as to how much time was passing. It also reminded him how greatly he missed them all. With a weary start, he realized he better move Kanan to the Ja’Gharian portal before time ran out and PZ-5 blew the cave apart.

Ezra’s hands had recovered enough to heave Kanan up. He dragged Kanan by walking backward; it was ungainly, hard work, with Kanan’s bootheels trailing behind on the twisting pathways. Right now, I sure wish you were a lot shorter, Master. Ezra stopped for a rest every now and again, listening intently for the voice clues. When the Ja’Gharian portal came into view, Ezra hauled Kanan with renewed energy.

Several steps away from the portal, he heard Sabine say, “That one! The Son!” Ezra frantically pulled Kanan along. It was almost the third dawn on Lothal, and Ezra’s time was running out.

“The Force will be with you. Always.” Kanan. Time was speeding up! Ezra winced in pain, fumbling as he almost dropped Kanan.

“He’s gone now, isn’t he? I mean, really gone.” Hera’s sad, resigned voice echoed around him. Ezra toppled backwards through the portal, yanking Kanan along with him. As the duo hit the cold and wet stone floor…the cave began to shake. Recharged by the sheet of chilly water, Ezra blinked upwards to see the circling serpentine creature slow and dim as the bioluminescence in the cave wall behind died out. The cave shuddered harder.

“No, PeeZee, not yet!” But Ezra’s commlink had been fried with his armor. The sheet of water cut off like a closed faucet. Desperate, Ezra Force-pushed Kanan’s body along the slippery wet floor as gently as he could. “Sorry, Kanan!” Ezra stumbled toward the cave entrance, shouting wildly. He stuck his head out of the entrance, the bright sunshine hurting his eyes. “PeeZee, stop!!” Except, there was no attacking shuttle outside. Ezra saw the Lambda parked at a distance, the engines starting to fire. Ezra waved his arms desperately…and sagged with relief as PZ-5 waved back from the cockpit.

But the shaking was still intensifying. All the figures on the back wall went ominously dark. Why is this happening? I didn’t close the Gate. And then it hit him. I pulled Kanan out of a different portal. Ahsoka hadn’t come with Ezra back on Lothal for her own reasons. Well, a little heads up from the Son would have been nice! Too late for that now. The groan of rock sliding on rock disrupted his thoughts. The waterfall curtains started to cascade inward. Ezra grabbed Kanan--and jumped off the cliff, splashing into the foaming water below. Still underwater, he dragged Kanan along, headed for the surface as far as possible from the incoming torrent. Ezra broke the surface, gasping for air.

“Master Ezra! Are you all right?” PZ-5 had hustled to the shoreline. Ezra plowed through the water, keeping Kanan’s head above water. I sure hope he’s still breathing. How ironic to save his master from fire only to drown him instead! Behind them, the jagged spires of the Temple collapsed inward, chunks flying. Ezra Force-blocked a few smaller particles that plummeted directly at them. By then, PZ-5 reached out and Ezra shoved Kanan into her arms. “PeeZee—meet Kanan Jarrus!” The perplexed droid goggled, managing a nod.

“We must get up the ramp immediately, sir!” Ezra PZ-5 propped the blissfully unconscious Jedi master between them. Several of the bantha wraps hung loose, fluttering as the trio escaped up the ramp of the shuttle.

Inside the cockpit, Ezra leapt into the pilot seat, launching the shuttle skyward in a steep turn just as the Ja’Ghar Temple blew its top like a water-filled volcano. The shuttle barely missed the tremendous flood of water and rocky debris. It soared up and away, spattered with mud and droplets.

Kanan 1 BBY

Kanan hovered, watching Ezra and Hera where they stood in the distance, surrounded by barren, beautiful landscape where the Jedi Temple once stood. Next to Kanan, shrouded in the misty light, was the white Loth-wolf. It glanced from Kanan to the others, silently waiting. For what?

Feeling uneasy, Kanan tried to move closer to embrace the two, but the relentless tugging increased dramatically. And there was no responding anchor against it from Dume.

WE MUST GO.

No! Let me stay. They could finally feel me, hear me.

STAY AND VANISH. OR GO TOGETHER.

And then, with an undertone of respect: YOUR CHOICE.

All this time since the explosion, Kanan had felt himself pushed and pulled, fighting upstream to accomplish what his will had desired. Yet, here his family was. Safe. And he sensed Hera and the others were going to be okay…or as okay as any war would ever let a family be.

Dume said it was his choice, but Kanan decided it would be their choice. Like the white wolf, he waited. In the distance, Hera gently touched her shoulder. “He’s gone now, isn’t he? I mean, really gone.” Kanan twisted inward, barely hearing anything again until Ezra’s voice cut through with its reluctant resignation.

“Goodbye, Kanan.”

Kanan hung there in the dawn’s light for a moment. He expected to feel sorrow wash over him, but their ultimate acceptance eased an inner ache he didn’t even know he’d had. Did he really want to remain here, not even a ghost of himself? If they could accept his departure, so could he.

Whatever Dume or the Cosmic Force now needed of him--if anything--he would do it. His time here was complete, and Kanan let go with simple gratitude for all the love he’d been able to share with those whose time had not yet come.

Beside him, the white Loth-wolf melted away into the rising sun. And Kanan’s consciousness abruptly tumbled and spun, released from Lothal to spin faster and faster into a blazing kaleidoscope of time and space---

--Bright light, so bright it hurt to look. Kanan squinted, his eyes desperately working to focus. He was floating, floating in…a bacta tank? He convulsed reflexively, sucked air through the respirator, almost gasping as his startled heart kicked into overdrive. Through the thick liquid, he could hear alarms sounding. Suddenly, intense blue eyes pressed up to the tank wall. A young man with dark hair, a goatee, and a growing smile on his face. Ezra.

“Kanan?” Ezra’s eyes widened and he placed both hands on the permasteel glass, the closest thing to a hug he could give. Ezra’s thoughts were written all over his face: Kanan is…Kanan!

Feeling trapped in the tank, Kanan called upon the Force to center himself with peace and calm. It wasn’t easy. Intense emotions seared through him like the inferno that had taken—nearly taken—his life. Kanan had presumed all along it was the Cosmic Force tugging away on him, but it had turned out to be his own not-so-dead body. Leave it to Dume to keep him in the dark about the Force granting him a second chance. Then again, maybe Dume hadn’t wanted to raise false hopes. Ezra had succeeded despite almost impossible odds.

Kanan would be with Hera again. And he’d be staying on that Kalikori. He would finally meet their child, be a father. Kanan was returning to everyone and everything he loved. On top of all these miracles, he’d been restored the gift of sight. Salty tears blended with the fluid surrounding him. And then the med droid injected a solution, sinking Kanan into a deep healing sleep.

Ezra and Thrawn 4 ABY

Thrawn paced his office, striving for calm, but these were certainly the most unusual of circumstances.

“Commander Bridger, how does a Jedi Knight who died five years ago—in an explosion that derailed my TIE Defender program, I might add--wind up in my ship’s bacta tank out on the edges of Wild Space?” Before Ezra could speak, Thrawn snapped out, “And why should I let him stay in it?”

Thrawn’s eyes flamed so red, Ezra almost expected them to catch fire. Ezra folded his arms, finding himself abnormally peaceful.

“I actually have a question for your first, Grand Admiral. Do you ever wonder why the purrgil dumped us out here together?”

“What does that have to do with my inquiry? You know full well you deceived those weak-minded creatures into doing your Rebel warfare. “

“I had zero mind control over them or where they brought us. I’m sure you’ve noticed they haven’t come back.” Now Thrawn’s glare turned icy. Ezra shrugged his shoulders.

“So here we are…by the will of the Force, not so conveniently discovering a huge threat to the galaxy.” Ezra held up his hand to hold off a retort from Thrawn. “And also through the will of the Force, a ‘poorly trained child’—that would be me--pulled Kanan through time and space thanks to a convenient space anomaly right where where PZ-5 and I happened to be.”

Thrawn stopped pacing. “I don’t believe a word of your ‘space anomaly’ explanation, Bridger. It is absolutely ludicrous and entirely undocumented.”

“Fine. Then I’ll stop talking about it. You can’t deny my master is here and very much alive. It seems very obvious to me the Force thinks the galaxy—and you—need Kanan and me back together. Don’t tell me you can’t find an efficient use for two Jedi in those big plans you’re cooking up to wow the Chiss Ascendancy.”

Thrawn’s eyes penetrated Ezra for a very long moment. Ezra could almost see the wheels within wheels turning.

“Oh, indeed I can.” Thrawn’s lips curved ever so slightly. “And I will.” He gestured at the door. Dismissed.

Ezra turned to leave, then a thought occurred to him. “You don’t happen to have any other lightsa—” Thrawn cut in smooth as silk.

“Kanan Jarrus will have to earn it first.”

Ezra departed, feeling a bit less peaceful. Perhaps substantially less peaceful.

Kanan 4 ABY

Kanan rested quietly in the medical bay, still adjusting to not being dead while savoring the visual details of everything around him. Even the bossy XT-92 med droid didn’t annoy him too much. Some areas of his skin needed further healing, but most had returned to its light russet brown color.

Closing his eyes, he could still tune in his highly developed Force-sight. He’d need to actively use it to make sure his advanced abilities didn’t weaken. He looked up as Ezra came in, clutching a cup of caf. “Sorry…I’d get you some, but that hovering droid won’t allow it.”

“I think saving my life today pretty much makes up for it.” Kanan’s mouth quirked.

Ezra plopped down next to Kanan’s bed with a sigh, his blue eyes darkened with shadows. “Yeah, well, I’m not so sure I’ve done you any favors, Kanan. We’re stuck out here with Thrawn, one step behind a new enemy that could shred this ship like a rabid Loth-wolf.“

“Ezra. Being here--even for a moment--to see the man you’ve become…it’s worth any danger.”

Ezra ducked his head, cheeks flushed. Kanan gripped Ezra’s forearm, feeling the Force resonate between them. “Always remember. We are the balance, Ezra. We are supposed to be here now. Where Lothal needs us most.”

Ezra lifted his gaze back to Kanan, brightening again. “Yes, Master.”

Kanan’s lips curved. “You know, I’d say you’ve grown waaay past the apprentice stage.”

“Are you saying…you’re no longer my Master?” Ezra’s brow furrowed.

“More like I’m sensing the Force reunited us to become a new kind of team. We’ll just have to figure it out as we go along—like we’ve always done.”

Ezra’s thoughtful expression eased into a teasing smile. “Well, don’t get too bossy about it. You’re not all that much older than me anymore.” Ezra’s grin widened. “I just realized—won’t you be a little younger than Hera now?”

Hera. Kanan’s heart swelled with an almost unbearable longing to hold her--and their five-year-old!--tightly in his arms and never let go. He forced the lump in his throat down with a laugh. “And I look forward to reminding her of that every day.”

Ezra’s grin slipped away. “I wish I could tell you when we’ll make it home.” The unspoken if we’ll make it home hung silently between the two Jedi.

Kanan sighed deeply, then his somber expression shifted into his signature smirk. “Hey, at least it’ll give me time to grow my hair out.”

Lothal 4 ABY

Jacen Syndulla skipped along the beach, trailing behind his mother and Aunt Sabine. The sea lapped gently against the sand and stonier outcroppings. Jacen zigzagged among scattered debris washed up by yesterday’s unusually fierce storm, searching for pirate treasures hidden in the kelp and rocks. Hondo will be so jealous! The breeze blew Jacen’s bright green bangs into his eyes and he flipped his hair aside with a grin. Although sometimes he wished he had long, curving lekku like Grandfather Cham, Jacen felt nothing but pride whenever anyone said he looked like his father. I’m the son of a Jedi Knight.

“Jacen, don’t run off too far,” Mama called out. She and Aunt Sabine stood looking back at a gleaming, spiral form that stretched into the blue sky. Mama had explained Aunt Sabine worked with others on the City Council to build a memorial to Lothal’s freedom from the Empire. They’d come for a few rotations to join other family and friends for the grand opening. Jacen liked any excuse to visit Aunt Sabine. She told great stories about all her explosive adventures. Plus, there was supposed to be a huge party.

“Okay, Mama!” Jacen really did mean to obey her this time, but then he saw huge Loth-wolf prints in the damp sand. He knew immediately those led to something exciting. Making sure Mama’s pretty face was turned away, Jacen dashed off. Oh, yeah, he’d have plenty to tell Hondo later today.

Jacen followed the tracks around a mound of sea-rusted permasteel. I bet this is from the dome that got blown up in the sky. That was one of his favorite stories, especially when Uncle Zeb told it. But right now, he was more interested in the pit the Loth-wolf had dug. Avoiding all the piled-up sand, Jacen slipped into the damp hole. And landed on a storage container. It was pretty banged up, but still shut tight. I wonder what’s inside? Jacen lay his hand against the lock. He closed his eyes…and reached out with his mind to open it.

Huddled together in private conversation, Hera and Sabine didn’t see the feisty five-year-old disappear behind the washed-up wreckage. “Truthfully, I’m not sure what to do, Sabine. Just the other day, Jacen managed to lock Zeb and Kallus in the cargo hold. About five minutes after I left.”

Sabine stifled a smile. “I’m pretty sure Chopper played a role in that.” Hera managed a wan chuckle.

“But he’s always knowing things he shouldn’t, getting into places and things that should be beyond him.”

Sabine gestured at the Liberation of Lothal spire. “You have to admit, his parents happen to be well known troublemakers.” The two women shared a wry grin before Hera’s expression tightened again.

“I know. But now that’s Jacen’s getting older, the safest thing seems to send him to stay with the other Force sensitive younglings. He could learn from Luke…but then I’d hardly see him.” Hera’s graceful hands clenched. “I’m just not ready for that.”

Sabine eyed Hera with concern. “Are Jacen’s Force abilities becoming a danger to himself or others?” Hera sighed.

“He got teased again the other day for not looking Twi’lek enough. Jacen didn’t hurt the boy…but he did Force push the toy they were arguing about hard enough to stick in the wall.” Hera’s lekku slumped. “If only Kanan or Ezra were here to teach him.”

“Hera, there may be other options.” Sabine tried to contain her excitement. “I haven’t had a chance to tell you yet. Ahsoka Tano is returning soon.”

“Ahsoka’s coming back? That’s, that’s…welcome news” Hera smiled, recalling the Togruta with both fond and bitter memories. “But she’s not a Jedi anymore, is she?”

Sabine planted her hands on her hips. “Hera, she’s a Force wielder…Surely, she can at least offer some useful advice about Jacen.” Sabine did not add before Ahsoka and I go looking for Ezra. She would share that significant news with Hera and the others later.

“Yes, of course, you’re right, Sabine.” Hera squeezed Sabine’s shoulder. “Speaking of my son, where did that little Loth-rat go?” Hera and Sabine scanned around, calling out Jacen’s name. Hera now spied the Loth-wolf paw prints leading away. “Jacen!”

Distant movement caught Sabine’s eye and she pointed. “There he is, he just jumped on top of that wreckage.” She and Hera rushed toward Jacen, relief on their faces.

Hera beckoned imperiously. “Jacen Caleb Syndulla, you get down from there before you fall through!”

Jacen waved back from his precarious perch with a gap-toothed grin. Then, he ignited the lightsaber upraised in his hand. The brilliant blue blade stopped Hera and Sabine in their tracks. “Is that Kanan’s…?” Sabine’s voice choked up.

Hera’s own voice tried to scream, cry and laugh at the same time. “Jacen?!” Her legs unfroze, and she raced across the last of the sand just as Jacen jumped down with a flourish of the humming blade.

He switched off the lightsaber, placing it obediently in Hera’s commanding hand. “Better put it somewhere safe, Mama.” Jacen looked off into a distance only he could see and smiled. “I think Daddy’s going to need it back.”

sdlocked0 Tabl

#kanan jarrus #kanera #thrawn #ezra bridger #hera syndulla #jacen syndulla #bring back kanan #I was compelled to do this hope it makes someone out there feel happy

210 notes · View notes

0tterp0p · 6 years

Note

opinions on the rebels finale?

Oh… I think I might be in the vast, vast, vast minority here but um. (I didn’t love it). I got a little worked up about it, actually, at the time. It’s taken me a while to come down, and now I’m better but like. The storytelling was just ??????

I think mostly I actually had a problem with this whole last season, really. There were so many things I was hoping for, and things that I was hoping would give massive emotional payoff that just…. didn’t happen. I did expect a lot of it, and should have perhaps tempered my expectations for a show that only had limited time to tell the story it wanted to tell. But. I was disappointed and confused.

I’m going to try to keep this short. (It didn’t work.) (I may still be a little baffled.)

1. The introduction of time portals came far too late in SW canon to make sense. And they only used the device once, so it didn’t even feel real - it felt like a convenient plot device to save Ahsoka, and then they didn’t address it again. It would be one thing if the show continued on afterwards and they played with the concept a little bit, but they introduced the portals.... and then the show ended. Which is a problem because it introduced too many wild cards too late in the game. When you’re wrapping up, you should have established the rules of your universe long before that or else it introduces too many questions that you can’t answer in the short amount of time you have left.

2. Kanan. So... Kanan’s a furry now? Or like. He has this connection to Lothal that is stronger than Ezra’s connection to Lothal? Where did that come from? Why? I dunno. I know they were trying to go for the fact that Kanan had accepted his Jedi-ness and like became a true Jedi there at the end, but the buildup and payoff just wasn’t there. Why is Lothal so connected to Kanan? Why is HE the one to protect the time portals in wolf form? And if so, why didn’t he die in a way that was related to THAT? Why is Kanan important in the space portal thing at all especially when space portals were not even established prior to the episode before he died? What I’m saying is I wanted a more consistent narrative with him, and actual plot seeding. The portals, the wolves, the dying and then suddenly becoming a Force Wolf with different goals than when he was a man - it was all very quick. And confusing. Also the way he died was dumb. And then they just??? FORGOT ABOUT HIM in the last episode. WHAT EVEN WAS THE POINT.

Also what was with that hair.

3. Ahsoka got like really fatalistic even for a former Jedi. You can’t save your master, Ahsoka - okay, sure. But that doesn’t mean you can turn a blind eye to what your master is doing and has done. It doesn’t mean that you can just walk away. Maybe you should go have words with him for exploding a planet that one time. The genocide doesn’t bother you? Shouldn’t you, like, you know, stick around to HELP the rebels or something? Because you’re a really powerful person and can DO something about all this? Is it really all that wise and strong to accept your limitations but then not take the next logical step and ask yourself ‘okay, but what CAN I do?’ I’m just saying the Ahsoka I knew from Clone Wars would not have just accepted that she couldn’t save her master, as if she weren’t still intimately connected with the whole situation. As if she could just walk away. As if she could EVER walk away from that situation. AND I’d say it’s wrong to walk away. No, she may not be the one to save Anakin, but she can try to help the people that he’s hurting. She can still fight back against him, because what he is doing? Is WRONG. It’s your responsibility to stand up and do something about it.

Maybe you can argue that Ahsoka was just biding her time and playing the long game here, but I don’t know.. That seems very cold. It’s very Gandalf/Dumbledore of her. People ARE DYING by your former master’s hand and you’re going to go on a side quest to find a space whale? What even?

4. Kanan and Hera/Where did Jacen Syndulla come from? (No, I’m not asking how babies are made. Well. Actually, maybe I am. THIS baby anyway.) In previous seasons, I loved how mature Kanan and Hera’s relationship was - how much they trusted each other and understood each other, and most of all, how much they respected each other - were gentle with each other, and were never, ever possessive of each other. I thought they were the antithesis to Anakin/Padme, which became obsessive/possessive love in the end (on Anakin’s part). Kanan and Hera seemed like truly selfless, comfortable, and equal love. The love that comes from becoming friends - deep, true friends where you know the other’s soul and they know yours, and you always want what is best for the other, and what is best for you both. So to have Hera come to the realization that she loves Kanan in a romantic way at the very, very end? It seemed so cheap. So gimmicky. Like they were trying to make Kanan’s death sadder. Like they were trying to punch Hera in the gut. But you know what’s really sad and gutpunching? Losing the person who has been your partner, best friend, and lover for the past 10 years. That’s heartbreaking. Why couldn’t they have let it been that? Or let Kanan and Hera’s love for each other go unspoken - private between the two of them, like it had been prior to this point in the series. Something that we see only in how anguished Hera is at losing him. That would have felt more real and true to these two characters than what we got - which was a very rushed, very forced death and resolution.

Also, on a more practical note, since Hera just came to this realization like 5 minutes before Kanan died - when exactly was Jacen conceived? No, I’m serious, TELL ME WHEN, WITH TIME STAMPS. Did they slip out for a quickie mid-escape?? Does Kanan’s Force Ghost know how to get it on? When Hera left to lead the assault on Lothal, did they go into her ship for the most awkward banging ever? Is Disney going by like, what you think as a child, and that if two people love each other, then magically a baby suddenly appears when they kiss?

Like, with KANAN I’d be willing to accept that they had sex without ever talking about how they felt about each other, but Hera??? She’s too emotionally intelligent for that. WHEN DID THEY BANG? I’m dying to know. I’m welcoming theories, actually. My top one is that Twi’leks actually conceive through kissing. Please send more.

Also Hera is pregnant when her lover dies? I’m rolling my eyes so hard they’re in danger of ejecting themselves from my face.

5. Optimism/Pessimism. Okay, I really get that they wanted to end the show on a positive, hopeful note. But I’d say that they did that at the cost of their characters and the SW universe. It was an ending that did not mesh with the rest of canon. It just didn’t make sense. If, for example, Ahsoka were alive and kicking, wouldn’t she be like the sliiiiightest bit interested in this hotshot kid who blew up the Death Star whose last name is SKYWALKER? Wouldn’t she want to HELP SAID KID? Wouldn’t she want to KNOW MORE ABOUT HIM? WHERE WAS SHE?

Anyway, this ending left too many holes to be compliant with canon and characters. Ahsoka needed to die. The rebels needed to lose. But I’d also argue that doesn’t mean that it had to be an ending without hope. I would be very interested in seeing a dark end to this series but having the rebels carry on anyway - that hope exists even in the darkest of times. That even when you lose, you still have family, you still have each other, and you still have you, yourself, and you can keep fighting, because it’s the right thing to do. Other people need you, and if you reach out, even with the risk of loss, you can make a difference. Care about your surroundings aggressively, even when you fail. That’s very powerful, and ultimately very uplifting - but it’s not something that I saw from this ending.

6. SPACE WHALES ARE SILLY.

I do, however, think it is absolutely HILARIOUS that Thrawn and Ezra are stuck with each other. Silver lining.

#kanansponytail #star wars rebels #I'm a little mean in this so be warned #I went off

31 notes · View notes

gondalsqueen · 6 years

Link

Chapters: 18/18 Fandom: Star Wars: Rebels Rating: Explicit Warnings: Major Character Death Relationships: Kanan Jarrus/Hera Syndulla, Ketsu Onyo/Sabine Wren, Alexsandr Kallus/Garazeb "Zeb" Orrelios Characters: Hera Syndulla, C1-10P | Chopper, Original Characters, Kanan Jarrus, Ezra Bridger, Sabine Wren, Garazeb "Zeb" Orrelios, Alexsandr Kallus, CT-7567 | Rex, Mart Mattin, Wedge Antilles, Ketsu Onyo, Jacen Syndulla, Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, Ackbar (Star Wars), Lando Calrissian, Jan Dodonna, Ahsoka Tano Additional Tags: Pregnancy, vague mentions of abortion, future character death in the background, Season/Series 04, Established Relationship, Oral Sex, Chair Sex, Table Sex, sex during pregnancy, chapter 2 has lots of sex, Secrets, the best pilot in the galaxy, flying combat, character injury, canon torture, flight of the defender, rebel assault, Jedi Night, Major character death - Freeform, Grief, Morning Sickness, Counseling, Masturbation, Dreams, Traditions, Space family, Inappropriate bets, Lothal, Shopping, down time, Space Combat, Battle of Scarif, Rogue One - Freeform, hammerhead corvette!, Yavin 4, Stardust - Freeform, Alderaan, Death Star, labor, Childbirth, domestic life, Lothwolves, Dogfight - Freeform, Hoth, did i mention babies yet?, Babies!, One baby, Work/Life Balance, Advice, Bounty Hunters, Capture, this story has it all apparently, Return of the Jedi, Second Death Star, Existential Anxiety, parenting, Breakups, wine and cheesecake, wine and cheesecake needs its own tag, battle of endor, Battle for Coruscant, forces of destiny: an imperial feast, The New Republic - Freeform, Quests, letting go, Travel, ask me no questions i'll tell you no lies, but one of these days you'll get a surprise Summary: The end. Kind of.

...

Something had happened to Ezra out there, something he wasn’t ready to talk about until after this vacation was over. None of them pried. He was...different, in a lot of ways. Grown up. He finally believed in his own adequacy. With that confidence came an edge of brooding that reminded her of Kanan, though. Hera hoped he stuck around where they could support him, whatever he was facing.

In other ways he was still their Ezra—surprisingly predictable given all the time that had passed, and still the baby of the crew until they adjusted their thinking and changed the way they treated him accordingly.

To no one’s surprise, he and Jacen got along well. Their bonding mostly consisted of wrestling, with some sword fighting and a little chase for variety. Hera could have done without the just-before-bed play that infallibly kept Jacen awake and hyper. She didn’t say anything, though, because the two of them had a lot of time to make up for.

Tonight Jacen was trying to push Ezra into Alexsandr’s small fishpond. Since Ezra vastly outweighed him he was failing, but he made up for it by practically strangling his opponent in the process — by accident, Hera was pretty sure. Really, Ezra had bought this when he picked Jacen up off the ground and threw him over his shoulder.

Oh, and that was a knee in the face.

“Ow!” Ezra protested. “Kid, you are deadly!” He twisted out from under Jacen and somehow they both ended up on their feet, facing each other. Quick as a flash, Ezra tapped Jacen’s shoulder.

“Hey!”

“Block me, then. Like this.” He showed Jacen how to bring his hands up in front of him and deflect the blows. Then he tapped Jace’s knee. “Got you! This is how you block with your feet. Try to tap my knees.”

“Your shoulders, too!”

“Sure, if you can reach.”

Hera watched her son eye a nearby boulder. She hoped he was planning to climb on it and not throw it at Ezra.

Then they both went at each other, jumping towards a shoulder or knee and dashing out again, blocking on one side and darting in on the other. Ezra went easy on Jacen, but he sped up as they played and Jace kept pace with him.

The whole thing ended when Jacen got sick of it, yelled “ATTACK!” and somersaulted across the ground towards his target. He bumped harmlessly against Ezra’s legs, but in the attempt not to step on him Ezra backpedalled and, with a whirling of arms, ended up in the water.

Hmm. Somehow they had both ended up in the water.

“Bathtime!” Hera called.

“It’s not!”

“It is, in fact, a solid hour past BEDtime.”

Ezra hit the shower in Zeb’s place while Hera scrubbed the slime off of Jacen in the Ghost’s fresher. Forty-five minutes later they’d finished showering, cleaning teeth, a snack that he didn’t ask permission to get, and teeth a second time, and they were cuddled together on Jacen’s bunk reading their nightly chapter of whatever novel Jace had picked. Since he’d gotten old enough to understand them, he’d mostly chosen from a children’s series of adventure stories about — guess what? — Jedi. Hera, remembering her own childhood, couldn’t blame him.

She read: “Shuyen closed her eyes and took a deep breath, reaching out to the Force as she fell. She could feel the air rushing past her. The wind whipped at her face roughly, but it wasn’t enough to hold her up…”

Sabine passed by the door and stopped to listen for a minute. “Are you reading Knights of the Old Republic to him?”

“Yes.”

“That’s sending mixed messages, don’t you think?”

“He likes it,” Hera told her, aware of how defensive she sounded. “It’s a good story. Who am I to tell him what to like?”

Sabine held her hands up. “Fair enough. Carry on.”

Hera finished the chapter, the Jedi who had fallen off the cliff while being chased by Sith warriors arriving unscathed back at the temple. “That’s a good stopping place for tonight,” she told Jacen, smoothing his hair back. He’d started to grow it out and they were both learning how to manage the tangles that was causing, but right now it was clean and brushed and smelled like shampoo, and she breathed in the scent gratefully.

He nestled into to her side. “Mama?”

“Yes?”

“Is Rex going to come back?”

“No, baby, Rex isn’t going to come back.”

“But Ezra came back.”

“Ezra wasn’t dead, love,” she told him gently. “Nobody comes back from the dead.” She paused for a moment to let that sink in, then continued, “I know it’s hard. It hurts for me, too.”

“I like Ezra.” He was trying to think something out. Hera waited. “But...I’d rather have Rex.”

“I can understand that.”

“But that’s mean of me, right?”

“Well…” she answered as honestly as she could. “You don’t want someone to die. You just miss the person you love. I think it’s very normal. Probably not the best idea to mention it to Ezra, though. It might hurt his feelings.”

He nodded and she tucked him into bed with a song and a kiss. “Sleep,” she told him. “You are exhausted. Go to sleep.”

“Okay,” Jacen said around a big yawn.

Sneaking out of the room a moment later she passed by the open doorway of Ezra’s bunk and caught a snatch of conversation. “...her turn for a while,” Sabine was saying. Then Ezra: “Coruscant is good place to stay, anyway. We’re going to need to talk about defenses. Maybe exploratory missions, but that might be a bad idea. IF they even decide to believe me.”

Keep moving, Hera, she told herself. She went to the cockpit to give the monitors one last check for the evening and tried to remember that Sabine and Ezra were adults and it was perfectly reasonable for them to live on whatever planet they wanted to. But maybe, maybe, maybe she’d get them back for a while. It was worth hoping.

Ezra joined her a few minutes later, a mug of warm hubba juice in each hand. “Best place to watch the sunset,” he explained. The summer sunsets on Lira San were amazing, oranges and purples breaking through the thick cloud cover. Hera swung the copilot’s seat around for him and he passed her a cup.

“Two more days and then Lothal, right?” he asked.

“If that’s still what you want.”

“Yeah. Sabine says it’s changed a lot. I can’t even remember before the Empire came anymore.”

Hera smiled. “It’s a good place. Not perfect, but Azadi made it pretty welcoming even before the Emperor fell.”

“You guys were there a lot.”

“Second home, but it will be better with you back.”

“Yeah.” He shrugged, looking like his teenage self for the moment of the gesture. “Everything’s different, but it’s really good BEING back. I’m still trying to...fit in, I guess.”

“Hey. You do fit in,” Hera told him, giving the chair a little kick to spin him towards her. “You’re one of ours. And Jace loves having you around. Chop and I are too busy to play with him as much as he’d like, and it’s been a while since we’ve had anyone else on the Ghost.”

“Yeah, Ezra Bridger, Jedi Knight, hero to six-year-olds everywhere.” He rolled his eyes.

Hera laughed. “At first that was the draw, sure. But he had a lot of...anxiety, too. He’d heard stories about you his whole life and he knew how important you were to all of us, and to have you standing before him in the flesh…” She shrugged. “But now I don’t think you’re Ezra Bridger, Jedi Knight. I think you’re his friend.”

“He’s really great, Hera. Thinks he can do anything. He...reminds me of you that way.”

She sighed. “He didn’t know you were a Jedi.”

“Okay.”

“He doesn’t know Kanan was a Jedi.”

A pause. “Okay.” Ezra didn’t push. Once he would have pushed.

“The hand game — those were forms,” Hera said. “Lightsaber forms. I’ve seen you practice them with Kanan.”

“Yeah, well…” Ezra ran his hand over the back of his hair awkwardly. “They’re kind of drilled into me, so I guess I just go there automatically when it comes to fighting. Is...that all right?”

“It’s all right,” she said, picking at the fraying edge of the seat cushion. “It’s good. There are so many things I’ve wanted to ask you about that.”

“About lightsaber forms?”

She shook her head. “Ezra, I know this seems like a subject change, but...were you happy as a child? Or were you...confused?”

“What do you mean? I had kind of a rotten childhood.”

“Before that. When you were small, with your parents, and you could do things that nobody could explain. Did it confuse you or upset you?”

He considered her words carefully. “Let me think.” After a solid minute of silence, he said, “No. I heard things sometimes that I knew were true, and my mom said they were only my imagination. I think that’s not rare for kids, though. It’s just that in my case, they actually WERE true. The rest of the time, it was just fun to run and jump off of things without worrying about how I was going to land, or to know that people were probably going to believe whatever outrageous lie I told. Stuff like that. Hera… Jacen’s definitely Force sensitive. Does he use any of those abilities?”

“Oh…” she laughed to cover her worry. “Yes.” She’d watched for signs all of his life and could give a detailed list of ‘yes’es ‘no’s and ‘maybe’s. “He’s always been good at picking up moods, but I think he’s just a smart, social kid. Sometimes he knows things that haven’t happened yet, but only in a vague way — he has a feeling that someone’s coming to visit, or he knows we’ll find something around the next corner. He can climb and jump off of anything and he somehow hasn’t broken a bone yet. I don’t mean normal child risk-taking. You saw him take a dive off the Ghost the other day. And then there are the animals that seem to follow him around like he’s some kind of magnet.”

Ezra laughed.

“...which I blame you for,” she added.

“How is that my fault?”

“I haven’t figured that out yet, but the similarity is striking.”

“I’ll take it as a compliment.”

“I don’t want him to be a Jedi,” she said more seriously. “I don’t even want him to be a half-Jedi, partially trained. The Force asks...too much. We know how that ends and I won’t give him up that way. But… if I refuse to let him train when it’s available to him, he’s just going to do it anyway, and he’ll end up doing it behind my back, without my support. Or running off.” She thought of her own childhood. “It’s not my place to hold him back if that’s what he wants.”

“Well...does he WANT to be a Jedi?”

“He’s six years old. Every six-year-old wants to be a Jedi.”

“He’d be good at it. Kind. Flexible. Reminds me of someone else I knew.”

“Me too,” she admitted. “That scares me.”

“Hmm.” Ezra thought about that. “There’s not exactly a trade school for Jedi Knights. The few of us left with any ability have no idea what we’re doing. He’ll probably end up using those talents, but using them in some other field.”

“Maybe. But I don’t want to keep him locked away from the world — locked away from himself — because I’m afraid.”

“Hera, you’re not afraid of anything.”

She sighed and stopped picking at the worn corner of the pilot’s chair so he could see her hands shaking. “That’s not true, and I have changed.”

Ezra frowned. “You want me to train him?” he asked. “Is that what this conversation is about?”

“Not...yet. Not now. But I don’t want anybody else to train him.”

“Luke Skywalker is talking about starting a school.”

“NO. I like Luke. He’s a good kid. But he doesn’t understand the dangers… He hasn’t walked that path, and he doesn’t know what it takes to guide your student safely instead of just following the rules.”

“Hera, I don’t know either.”

“That’s okay. Falling is fine as long as there’s someone to catch you. You would never let anything bad happen to him.”

“Hmph.” Ezra crossed his arms and looked out at the clouds, that stone expression on his face. “I wish I could promise that.”

...

From Lira San they traveled to Lothal. Hera let Sabine show Ezra the sights because she had something else to show Jacen.

The bombed-out Imperial hangar wasn’t hard to reach, despite being perched on one of the dolmens at the edge of Capital City. If you took a shuttle, that is. Hera parked the Phantom halfway up the mountain and made them walk the rest of the way because “it will be fun!” Forty minutes into the uphill hike, Jacen wasn’t finding it particularly fun.

“Why couldn’t we just FLY up there?” he asked, perilously close to a whine.

“Because we’re taking a nice hike together and it’s going to be more enjoyable to see if you make it there yourself than if you just fly up and park.”

Poor kid — his hair was a sweaty wreck. “To be clear,” he said. “I AM getting a real birthday party tomorrow, with friends and cake and stuff, right?”

“Padawan’s honor. Sabine even made you guys those robes and staffs so you could dress up as High Jedi. Though I still don’t know what a High Jedi is.”

“It’s like a really wise, powerful Jedi,” Jacen explained. “Kind of like a wizard.”

She raised a skeptical eyebrow.

“It’s from Rangers of the Force.”

“I didn’t know you could read books that hard.”

“I listened to it.”

“Oh. Okay. Look, we made it.” Hera climbed the short flight of steps and crawled over the rubble blocking what had once been the workers’ entrance. Then she waited for Jacen to do the same.

“Whew!”

“It’s cooler up here.” Jacen spread himself dramatically on the floor.

“Yeah, we’re out of the sun.” She handed him the canteen and waited for him to take a long drink. “You recovered?” He nodded. “Good. Come see what Sabine did.”

He saw the mural as soon as he looked up, and his reaction was everything Hera had hoped for. A shout, and he rushed up to get a closer look. “It’s you guys!”

“Yeah.”

“You look like heroes! Like you’re from a holoshow.”

“Sabine makes good art.”

His brow creased in that thinking look. “Were you heroes?”

“Yes,” Hera admitted. “We were.”

“Sabine,” he pointed. “Ezra. His head looks small in this picture. Zeb and Chop. Hey, look at these lothcats! There’s you. Where am I?”

Hera touched her mid-section in the picture, right on the buttons of her flight suit. “Here.”

“So I came with you when you were heroes?”

“Sure.”

“So I helped save Lothal?”

“Let’s say you were along for the ride.”

But now he was pointing above mural-Hera’s shoulder. “That’s Dad.”

“Yeah,” she said softly.

“I don’t think I look very much like him.”

“Well, you’re shorter.”

“Hey!”

She grinned at him, but he shook his head and said, “Uh-uh. You’re sad.”

“Only a little sad.”

“You miss him.”

“Yes,” Hera said honestly, “but that’s not why I brought you here today. I need to show you something else, something… kind of secret.”

“Okay.”

Hera took a portable projector from her bag and placed it on the floor. “Come sit by me. Seven years old is big enough to see this.” They sat cross-legged on the ground and Hera switched on the projector.

“That’s Dad!”

“Yes.”

“What’s he got?”

Kanan was fitting together two metal tubes. He gave them a practiced twist, then ignited the lightsaber.

Jacen lost it. “WHAT?! Where did he GET that?”

“Hi, kid,” Kanan said to the recorder. “Thought I’d go through a few practice drills here, in case you ever need to see them when I’m not around.” He was talking to Ezra, but Jacen didn’t know that. Hera skipped past the part where he demonstrated the basic techniques and on to the segment where he showed the moves in practice by fighting ten combat remotes, leaping into the air, twisting, deflecting shots… He was using the Ghost’s hold as his staging area, which had irritated Hera to no end at the time because those remotes were firing live blaster bolts. The flip from the ground to the platform four meters above his head was awfully impressive, though, she had to admit.

“How did he DO that?”

Another of him and Ezra training together, both blindfolded, going through forms. Hera watched Kanan’s shoulder rotate as the blade spun, the twist of hips as he altered his stance. It was so familiar and so long ago, all at the same time.

“Mama, tell me.” He knew, but he didn’t want to say it.

“He’s a Jedi, Jace. He was raised in the temple on Coruscant and sent out to fight during the Clone Wars. One of the last Jedi Knights.”

“But...” he trailed off.

“I know it’s a lot to take in. Do you want to see a little more?”

“Yes!”

She’d edited this compilation carefully so they got no footage of actual battles. Next Kanan was tossing Sabine in the air over and over, a little Sabine — she couldn’t have been more than fifteen. He’d throw her impossibly high, and then she’d twist in mid-air, draw her blasters, and fire at a target. Jacen laughed. “Ah-ha, they’re good!” Another of that terrible competition he’d had with Zeb, where Zeb picked up Imperial speeder bikes and threw them at Kanan, who caught every one in mid-air. Okay, that probably wasn’t the best thing to include. One of Hera herself cradled in Kanan’s arms, the laughter near the microphone indicating that Ezra was recording.

“Ready?” Kanan asked.

“Go,” Ezra told him.

Kanan jumped up the Ghost’s ladder one rung at a time, tilted impossibly backwards, holding her. Hera from long ago shrieked in laughter. “I get five credits when I do this, right?” Kanan asked.

“Cheating,” said Ezra’s voice.

“I did TELL you I could do it.” Thunk, up another ring. Thunk, up the next. “See, what you want to do is bend your knees…” Kanan explained, annoyingly pedantic. “Then you absorb most of the shock, especially when you have to land rough.” He rolled at the last moment, still holding Hera, and came up on his feet on the upper platform, neither of them worse for the wear.

“Hey!” Hera-from-the-vid protested. “Warn me!”

“Okay,” Kanan said. “Roll up in a ball, I’m going to toss you to Ezra now so he can practice.”

“No, no, wait!” Ezra yelled. “Wait, let me put the recorder down!” The image went sideways and the recorder died abruptly on the sound of their laughter.

Jacen was watching with a wistful, half-jealous expression. “Nobody ever told me he was a Jedi.”

“Well…” Hera considered. “What DID they tell you?”

“Zeb says he could drink a whole gallon of milk in five minutes without throwing up.”

“Yeah, only part of that is true. And don’t try it.”

“Sabine said he loved you the very most, and he’d never let anything in the whole galaxy hurt you.”

She took a deep breath, willing herself to stay calm. “That is true.”

“And that he was a really good dad and he understood when people got upset or lost their temper and he wouldn’t yell at them.”

“That’s true too.”

“But he wasn’t really Sabine’s or Ezra’s dad, right?”

“No, but he...took care of them when they were kids. Big kids. And he taught them a lot of things.”

Jacen’s eyes lit with realization. “He taught Ezra how to be a Jedi! That’s why they were doing those slow moves with the lightsabers.”

Her kid was too smart.

But now he was mulling over something else. “...He was my dad.”

“Yes.”

“He never met me.”

“Technically, no, but he knew you were on the way.”

“How?”

“You know how you can tell where animals are, even the small ones? You found Alexsandr’s baby chicks when the rest of us were looking in the wrong place.”

“Yeah.”

“That’s the Force, Jacen. He felt you like that before you were born. I’ll bet you guys had whole secret conversations, what do you think?”

Jacen shrugged, clearly pleased by the idea. “So how come you never told me he was a Jedi? And you COULD have told me, lots of times.”

There was the question she’d been waiting for. “Because it wasn’t safe, Jace. The Emperor killed all the Jedi, even the little kids. Only a few of them got away, and then they had to survive by hiding because the Emperor was still hunting.”

“But he died when I was little.”

“Yes, but being a Jedi is still not exactly safe.”

“You mean people are still hunting them?”

“No, I mean they’re still...heroes. Which is good, but it also means that bad guys don’t like them much. You have to learn to keep yourself safe when you’re a hero, and that takes time. I wanted to wait until you were big enough to understand that a little.”

“So you’re saying I shouldn’t want to be a Jedi.”

“No, that’s not what I’m saying. If you want to learn to be a Jedi when you get older, I’ll be right there with you. But I want you to understand that there’s always more to these stories than what you hear. And I don’t want you to think that fighting makes you a good person. I didn’t love your dad because he was a Jedi. I loved him because he was kind and funny and understanding, and he couldn’t bear to see anybody in pain without trying to help. And because he never gave up on people. I see a lot of those qualities in you already. You don’t need a lightsaber to be a good person.” Oh, great, now she was sad again.

And Jacen had picked up on it. “Were you scared when he died?”

“So scared. But what do we say?”

“Be afraid,” he said quietly, “but do it anyway.”

“Right.”

A wolf howled nearby, in the middle of the day.

“That’s a lothwolf?” Jacen asked.

Hera nodded. “I think they’re coming to see you. I don’t know why, though.”

“I do.”

“You do? Why?”

“They say goodbyes are over. It’s time for hellos.”

#kanera #hera syndulla #jacen syndulla #ezra bridger #fanfiction #swr spoilers #next season #revelations

31 notes · View notes