"Uh... so what did Hera say the mission was again?" Ezra scratches the back of his head slightly embarrassed. He crouched low to the ground following Sabines lead.
"Honestly Ezra, do you ever pay attention?" Sabine shoots a glance back at him in annoyance.
"Well yeah... it's just lately these missions have been... whats the word I want to use.. boring? I mean nothing ever happens." He crosses his arms grumpily as Sabine scanned around the corner.
"That's a good thing" Sabine replies rolling her eyes. She motions her hand signaling the all clear and they both emerge into the street square. "We're out here looking for the cause of that distress singal."
"Are you serious!, again? We've been scouring these streets for days searching and we've found nothing. Not even a trace of the empire either, so why are we still sneaking about" Ezra's patience was slowly wearing thing. A week ago chopper had picked up a strange beacon on his radar as he scanned the far Northern Hemisphere on Lothal. A city lay in ruin, half buried by sand. A small reminder of the destruction the empire brought to all parts of the world. Someone out here needed their help.
"Oh yeah,.. then what do you call that?" Sabine whacked Ezra on the arm with her blaster getting his attention and directs it to a broken building straight ahead of them.
"Woah. An imperial droid. You don't think that's what's been emitting the distress signal do you?" He turns to her with a frown.
"I'm guessing, yes.. yes it is, and you know what that means..." Sabine returns his stare.
"It's probably contacting the empire" Ezra takes in a deep breath trying to focus on keeping calm.
"Probably" She says half sarcastically half annoyed. "Come on, lets hide."
"Hide?" Ezra retorts taken aback. "It's one little droid, all we have to do is destroy it and the empire won't be able to track it anymore."
"Yeah, that's only if they haven't already pinpointed it's location and they're on the way right now. If we take it out and the empire shows up, they'll know someone else is here; Us!" Sabine lectures Ezra while nodding her head towards the wall they we just hiding behind.
"Look, Hera put me in charge of this mission and I say we take it out. It's been a week and the empire hasn't shown up looking for it. We don't even know if that's what's sending out the signal anyway, might as well eliminate it from our list" He tilts his head at her, his eyebrows raised.
"Fine" she sighs "That's not a totally ridiculous plan" she crosses her arms and waits.
"Alright Droid, your reign of terror ends now" Ezra pulls his lightsaber from its holster and ignites it. His face flowed green from its powerful light as he slowly crept his way towards the droid. It's frontal camera faced away from him as if the droid was lost in some sort of trance. It hadn't moved since they spotted it. Ezra swings his lightsaber cutting the droid clean in half with one single slash. "Too easy" Ezra smirks and turns back towards Sabine who now stood with her hands on her hips, she smiled at him.
Almost immediately after a dark shadow is cast over them. They both look up to see non other than the Chimaera blackening out the sun.
"Thrawns Ship" Ezra growls through gritted teeth.
"Ezra let's go, NOW!" Sabine calls to him getting ready to take off toward there speeder bikes that were parked right outside the city.
"Leaving so soon?" A voice calls from the direction Ezra has just destroyed the droid.
Both of them stared in terror as two deep red eyes slowly glow in the darkness staring at them. Grand Admiral Thrawn emerges from the shadows a slight smile cracking on his lips. "I see my trap worked perfectly to lure your Rebels out of hiding. I knew you wouldn't be able to resist a cry for help. And Ezra my boy, so hasty so ignore your friends warning. Had you turned away and left, perhaps I would have let you go. My poor boy, your need for destruction makes me very fond of you." He makes a motion with his hand. "However I was hoping for your master to be with you as well. I guess one Jedi will have to do for now."
Before either Sabine or Ezra has time to react, storm troopers swarm the area and stun both of them.
— Thrawns Ship Prison Cell —
"Ezra... Ezra! EZRA!" Sabine nudged Ezra with her shoulder trying to wake him up.
"What happened!!" Ezra shoots up panting and frantically looking around. "Sabine, where are we?"
"Where do you thing genius, Thrawns ship" Sabine tucks her knees up to her face. "You've been out quite a while now." She sighs.
Their hands were bound by chains that connected to the wall. They had very limited motion barely able to move at all. The chains were so short they weren't even able to stand. Forced to sit on the cold linoleum floor of the Chimaera.
"That ain't so bad" he tries to reassure her. "Knowing Thrawn hell try to use us a bait to Lure Kanan In. Once they know we've been captured, they'll come rescue us." He nudges her with his elbow, a charming smile on his face.
"Ezra,... I over heard Thrawn while you were passed out. They're not using us as bait..." She grows quiet.
"Sabine, you..you're scaring me" Ezra stutters.
"Ezra,.. they're going to make an example of us. To the people of Lothal." She looks up at him with a defeated look written all over her face, and he knew exactly what she meant.
"This is all my fault" He hangs his head low his voice shaken
"No!, you can't start with that. This was neither of our fault. We didn't know" Her voice strains.
"I should have listened to you though, like Thrawn said. Maybe if we had ran..."
"If we had ran, Thrawn would have come after us anyways! Don't let him get inside your head Ezra." Sabine try's to take the guilt that she could feel eating at his heart.
He heard her, but refused to look at her or respond. He felt like a failure.
Not knowing what else she could say or do sabine fumbles with the chains around her wrist and extends her fingers out to touch his. She closes her eyes sorrowfully as Ezra's fingers close around hers tightly.
"I'm sorry Sabine".. Ezra says softly "I wasn't thinking. I just wanted to do something right for a change.. and I guess I was being a little selfish too when I took out that droid." He takes a deep breath. "I... I wanted you to be proud of me." He lifts his head up and looks at her. She glances up at him from the corner of her eye. "Ever since I met you,.. I've had these... feelings. And I know that now isn't the time to be bringing this all up.. but.. what I'm trying to say is... I really like you Sabine, I always have.. and I just wanted you to like me back..."
"Ezra..." She turns to face him fully. "Ezra, I do like you though"
"Yeah yeah, I know you like me.. that's not what I'm talking about.. I mean..." Before he can finish his sentence he gets cut off. Sabines lips pressed into his. It was a feeling he had never experience before, a feeling far beyond the force. Her lips were soft as they sank into his almost perfectly.
She pulls away and looks at him. His face was now bright red and he stared at her dumbfounded unsure of what to say.
"You look like a tomato" Sabine grins.
"Now is not the time to be making jokes!" He almost chokes on his words. "I... I don't understand WHAT just happened?" His Heart was racing wildly.
"Like I said... I like you too." She continues to grin.
"Since when?!" He was shocked. Not that it was bad, it was just surprising. He and Sabine constantly bickered back and forth and he was positive she didn't have... romantic feelings towards him.
"I dunno" she shrugs.. "I guess, always?. I just never really found the right time to bring it up.."
"And you choose now!?, if Thrawn doesn't kill me this just might" He throws his head up.
"You're kind of cute when your dramatic" She chuckles to herself. "And to be fair you never told me either, until now!"
"Hmph" He pouts. He turns to her sheepishly and gently places his forehead against hers closing his eyes. "I love you Sabine"
"Aw Well ain't that sweet!" Someone falls out from behind the cell doors.
"ZEB!?" Ezra and Sabine both call out together.
"I was going to rescue ya, but it sounds like you two might need some privacy, eh heh heh" Zeb laughs.
"Zeb quit fooling around and get them out of there now." It was Kanans voice you heard down the hall.
"Alright alright. Chopper get this door open will ya" The droid grumbles at Zebs orders but obeys. The cell door swings open and Zeb is standing there wide eyed and grinning.
"How..how'd you find us?" Ezra stuttered amazed. "And what about Thrawn?"
"Kind of hard to miss this star destroyer. It practically blocked out the whole sun, and Don't you worry about Thrawn Kid, he'll get what's coming to him, just you wait. But enough about that, time to go" Chopper quickly undoes the shackles and you follow them, Kanan right behind, to the docking bay, where the ghost was waiting.
— Back At Base —
Ezra crossed his arms half listening as Kanan laid into him with another one of his safety lectures. What little concentration that was focused on actually paying attention was lost when he see's Sabine walk out of the ghost and towards the bases cliff.
"Uh, yup got it.. thanks Kanan!" He quickly mumbles to his master before swiftly dashing off.
"What.. but I... oh forget it" Kanan smiles watching him run off. "Kids..."
"Heya Sabine" Ezra awkwardly walks up to her, his face already turning pink.
"Hey" She smiles up at him noticing his embarrassment. She found it amusing and adorable.
"Soooooooo... about earlier.. that wasn't just because we um,.. thought we were going to die... was it ?" He looks away waiting for a reply.
Sabines fingers slide between his and she pulls him in close. He nearly loses his balance as his body knocks into hers. "You know normally the guys the one who's suppose to kiss the girl first" she teases him.
"Oh,.. uh... right.." he falters growing redder in the face. "Sorry...
"I guess you'll just have to make it up to me" She gives him a playful nod.
"H..how?" Ezra stutters looking into her eyes.
She just smiles up at him lovingly letting her eyes do that talking for once.
"...Oh.." He whispers softly. He gently leans in towards her his eyes closing until his lips graze against hers. He wraps his arm around her waist and pulls her in carrying the kiss. His heart was pounding rapidly with happiness as they collided together. He finally releases her. His entire body felt like it was glowing red.
"I love you too, Ezra Bridger" Sabine smiles, solidifying his answer.