Disclaimer: I don't own anything Star Wars

There is an explanation of how my calendar works in the 'Everyone' story if you're curious.

To be very clear; this is not a romance story between Zeb and Kallus. This is a story of the kind of hard earned, soul deep, friendship that lasts a lifetime. Any lemons that occur in the story will be between either male and a female of some sort.

Flame of Hope – Opposing Sides

Prologue:

D365/2 BBY, The Chimaera, above Atallon

"Governor! We have a problem!"

Kallus smirked in his mind as the comms buzzed loudly with chatter about the loss of the Interdictor. Stars, he wished he could see Thrawn's face when he found out that a few Mandalorians had taken out one of his prized gravity well ships. Too bad he was down on the surface of the planet right now and missing all the action up here. Kallus sent another prayer to the stars that the Ghost crew would pull off another miraculous escape.

He wanted to see Thrawn's normally expressionless face react to that occurrence as well.

Seeing Pryce on the verge of a panic attack was a pretty close second, though, in terms of satisfying things to see.

Her shoulders couldn't possibly get any tenser as she whirled on the poor Lieutenant who'd bravely tried to tell the Governor the bad news that everyone had already heard. "I don't want to hear it!" she all but yelled as she spun around to glare at the officer who Kallus thought was named Praterson or something like that. (At least, that's what he thought he heard when Thrawn had left and quietly told the man to keep an eye on Pryce.) Her fists were clenched in fists at the small of her back as she maintained a false air of military command, but her anger and frustration at the potentially battle turning loss of the Interdictor were quite obvious to see. "Just... stop them," she snarled as she returned to looking out at the space battle. "Nothing gets through."

Kallus wished he could see that Interdictor going up in flames, but it was off to the side and out of his line of sight from his current position suspended between two stormtroopers. He let them hold even more of his weight just because he could.

Unable to resist the opportunity to taunt the woman he had taken an instant dislike to when they first met (and his opinion had never improved with the years of forced acquaintance), Kallus opened his mouth. "Thrawn is not going to be happy with you making a mess of his fleet."

Oh, he had to work hard to not snicker in glee as she whirled back around with a murderous glare for him. She knew the truth of his statement and was more than willing to take out her sense of impending doom on him. "Throw this traitor out the airlock," Pryce practically growled with a dismissive gesture. (Kallus wondered how long she'd been wanting to say those words in regards to him, but he figured it was probably since he turned down her not so subtle hints of fishing for a romantic encounter with him. The very thought of it still gave him the creeps; if ever there was a human female that reminded him of a black widow spider, it was Arihnda Pryce.)

The troopers holding him up seemed a bit surprised at her spiteful command, since that was against Thrawn's direct orders, but he wasn't here, so they shrugged and turned with him, forcing him to walk on his fractured leg.

Kallus didn't have to work too hard to make his injury look as debilitating as possible as he did little happy dances on the inside as he finally saw his chance to escape.

Pryce had made another mistake.

Thrawn was going to eat her alive when he got back.

What he wouldn't give to be a fly on the wall for that one, too.

The stormtroopers drag marched him out of the bridge and down the hallway to the nearest lift. They pushed him roughly to the back and then stepped in as well, turning to face the door, leaving their backs to him.

Kallus smirked at the idiotic mistake. They deserved what they were about to get.

As the lift started zipping downwards, Kallus took his cuffed hands and slammed the helmet of the trooper on the left forward into the wall of the lift, ignoring the shriek from his cracked ribs. Idiot number one immediately slumped to the floor as his partner looked down in surprise. Kallus treated idiot number two to the same treatment, putting all of his body weight into it. The man grunted audibly as his helmet struck the wall, and then he too was down on the floor.

That was too easy. Didn't the Academies teach them anything useful these days?

Kallus carefully knelt down on his good knee, his bad leg sticking out awkwardly as he searched his guards for the handcuff key. Grunting in triumph when he found it in the belt of idiot number one, he quickly unlocked his cuffs.

For amusements sake, he snapped the handcuffs on one of each of the idiots' wrists and pocketed the key. He then snatched up a blaster and stunned them, just to make sure they stayed out. (He didn't need the ship going on alert while he made his way through it.) Unfortunately, he couldn't keep the blaster, because it was clearly stormtrooper issue and to be seen carrying one of them would raise suspicions.

By the time the lift doors opened, he was back on his feet and rubbing at his raw wrists with a grimace. (Being hung by the handcuffs was no picnic.)

Kallus rode his adrenaline high to get him beyond the pain as he walked like he belonged (with only a hint of a limp) through the hallways and down another lift to the nearest escape pod bay. He may have gotten one or two astonished glances at his rather beat up appearance, but Kallus just ignored them.

For some reason that he could only think was Thrawn's cautious and incredibly talented foreplanning, there were two guards on the door to the escape pod bay.

And they knew he wasn't supposed to be free.

"Hey! How did you..."

Kallus grabbed the trooper by his chest armour and literally threw him into the other trooper. (Because of his bad leg, he couldn't do anything fancy, but his arms still worked, and he outmuscled these badly trained morons any day.) As they fell over each other, trying to maintain their balance, Kallus snatched the blaster right out of one's hands and shot them booth, not even bothering to check if it was set on stun first.

As the blue laser light emerged from the blaster, he mentally shrugged.

Guess it wasn't their day to die.

Kallus tossed the blaster onto the slumped over body of the guard and made his way into the pod bay. He took the first one in the line, really not caring to walk any further.

Sinking into the chair in blessed relief, he flicked switches and was ejected out into space in thirty seconds flat.

Then, praying for another miracle, Kallus sent his spatial coordinates to the Ghost, hoping the crew was actually able to come get him and that they got the message before someone on a Star Destroyer intercepted it and sent a fleet of TIEs to come finish him off.

The Ghost

"Hera. Hera are you alright? What was that about lightning?" Ezra's voice crackled over the comm and then became clearer as the comm computers finished rebooting after they had shorted out when Kanan's 'friend' struck them for the second time.

"We're fine. And I'll tell you later," Hera said with another glare at Kanan.

Zeb stifled a chuckle as his friend winced. For a blind man, he was incredibly perceptive to Hera's moods.

"How's it going on your end?" Hera asked the comm.

"Well, we took out the Interdictor," Ezra said triumphantly. "You're all clear." Zeb wasn't the only one who sagged slightly in relief as they (and what was left of the Phoenix and Dodonna's fleet) cleared Atollon's atmosphere.

"That's the first good news I've gotten today." Hera said in relief as she tamped down on the urge to rejoice; they weren't out of this disaster yet.

"Meet me at point eight seven. We'll lead the way."

As Hera flew towards the fleet of Star Destroyers and the thousands of TIEs that were waiting for them like hungry predators, Zeb had the random thought that Ezra was sounding more grown up every day. The brat that used to occasionally drive him up the wall was long gone. Off to the right of the line of Star Destroyers, Zeb could see a ball of light that he assumed was the downed Interdictor. The sight of anything Imperial going up in flames was always worth an internal happy dance.

"Copy that." Hera flicked off the comm and then proceeded to do a whole lot of fancy flying as she drew within weapons range of the enemy blockade. From his seat behind Hera, Zeb could see the tension in her lekku as she concentrated and flicked switches. "I'm diverting everything I can to the shields. We're just going to run right through them."

"What? We're not going to shoot back at them?" Zeb asked incredulously.

"Not this time, Zeb. We have a big enough target on our hull. We have a whole ship full of survivors and injured. I'm not taking any unnecessary risks."

Zeb had to agree that that made sense; even if it was a little disappointing.

He liked shooting at Imps.

Hera flicked the comm again and sent out a broadcast to their fleet. "This is Phoenix Leader. Raise your shields to maximum and scatter. Give them more targets to chase. We have a route out at point eight seven. The red and black Gauntlet is the point ship. Follow it if you don't see me."

A series of 'Copies' filled the comm for half a minute and then the cockpit went silent as Zeb and Kanan left Hera to concentrate on what she was doing, her eyes constantly flicking from the view in front of her to the monitor showing where other ships were in relation to her.

For about the five millionth time since he'd met her, Zeb admired Hera's flying skills. She dodged her freighter around squads of TIEs and skimmed along the lengths of Star Destroyers to confuse sensors as easily as she took in air to breathe. Zeb could see Kanan following their flight with closed eyes, head turning this way and that as he 'sensed' (or whatever he did) the ships around them. Every thirty seconds or so, Kanan would turn his head and 'look' at Hera, and the corner of his mouth would flicker up for a second, before his face would settle back into serious.

Kanan had once told Zeb that watching Hera fly via Force Sight was one of his greatest pleasures, saying something about how she glowed like an angel. Zeb had zero Force sensitively, but even he could agree with that statement; Hera truly was meant to fly.

When they were about halfway through the blockade of Star Destroyers, the comm chimed with an incoming call. Hera answered it automatically even as she said, "We've got an incoming transmission."

A hologram of the fulcrum symbol popped up and Zeb nearly jumped out of his seat in surprise and relief. (The background worry that had been plaguing him for most of the day about Kallus' wellbeing after that cut off transmission was finally set to rest.) "It's Kallus! He's sending coordinates," Zeb said with excitement as he read what appeared on the computer screen.

Hera immediately started scanning the vicinity of the coordinates on the other monitor. "There's an escape pod on my scope."

"We have to get him!" Zeb exclaimed.

"Of course we have to get him," Hera said reassuringly. "I've already adjusted my course." She flicked the comm again. "This is Phoenix Leader again. I need anyone available to concentrate all fire on the Star Destroyer at point six two and fast."

"I'm on it," Wedge's voice came back over the comm quickly followed by half a dozen more.

"Me too," Ezra joined in. "And the rest of the Mando fighters are coming with me. They're more than happy to have a specific target to shoot at. But, I have to say, they seem like they're having the time of their life taking out a multitude of TIEs. The Empire didn't need all those TIEs anyway."

Zeb snorted under his breath. He's pretty sure Kanan rolled his eyes. Hera shook her head, sending her lekku swaying against the back of her chair.

Ezra's voice continued over the comm. "Not that I'm questioning orders, but Sabine and I are kind of curious over here about the change of plan."

"I need the distraction," Hera explained, much to Zeb's relief. (He had been very curious too.) "I'm going to pick up our intrepid Fulcrum agent before someone else uses him for target practice."

"Gotcha," Ezra said. "Glad to hear it. I'll keep an eye out for you."

"Thanks." Hera said as a tiny dot floating under a Star Destroyer came into view. She opened a return comm call to the frequency that had contacted her a couple of minutes ago. "This is Ghost. I'm going to open my cargo bay doors. I need you to fly in as I pass."

"Understood," came back the unmistakable clipped tone belonging to Kallus.

Zeb nearly sagged in his chair before he sat bolt upright again in trepidation about the risky manoeuvre they were asking Kallus to do.

Hera switched to the shipwide comm. "Heads up to anybody down in the cargo bay. In ten seconds, I'm opening the floor and raising the shield. We're picking up an escape pod on the fly and this might get messy. I highly recommend moving your feet NOW! Oh. And hang on to something!"

Zeb's sensitive hearing immediately picked up the sound of scrambling feet as people rushed to crowd under the platform or move down the ramp and get off the cargo bay floor. One person even scrambled up the ladder, turning out to be Rex.

"Who're we picking up?" Rex asked curiously as he grabbed onto the back of a chair so he wasn't thrown off his feet as Hera tipped the Ghost over onto its side. A second later, a loud crash was heard from below, indicating the escape pod had made it into the hold, but had hit a wall.

"Got him," Hera said smugly. Hera immediately hit the button to close the floor and another clang was heard as the pod settled on the decking not so gently. Zeb winced in sympathy as Hera muttered curses under her breath about damages to her ship.

"Got who?" Rex asked again, looking at Zeb.

"Kallus," Zeb replied with a grin as Ezra's ghastly coloured ship appeared in front of them and Hera immediately fell in behind the Gauntlet as they resumed their journey to the escape point.

Hera addressed the comm again. "I'm on your six, Gauntlet. Phoenix Squadron; let's get out of here!"

"Roger, Phoenix Leader. Right behind you," Wedge said cheerfully. "Your target was taken care of," he added matter of factly as they flew past a Star Destroyer in the process of blowing itself up.

Zeb smirked as he crossed his arms over his chest smugly.

Take that, Imperial scum.

When Kallus got the return comm call from Captain Syndulla, he nearly turned into a puddle of relief to know that she, at least, had escaped Thrawn's ground attack.

He only had a couple of seconds to rejoice at that little victory when he saw the Ghost approaching and immediately started piloting towards it with little bursts of the thrusters.

He clenched his jaw in concentration and then immediately relaxed it as it protested the abuse. The momentary distraction made him have to adjust course again as the freighter flew closer and closer.

And then suddenly the Ghost was sideways beside him and he was inside it. He almost fell out of his chair as his pod hit the inside wall of the cargo bay but he braced himself just in time. He regained control of the pod and hovered it inside the hold until he saw a corner of the open floor closing. After a couple seconds, he felt it was safe to land the pod.

He turned off the thrusters.

The pod fell like a rock down to the decking.

Kallus' teeth snapped together from the jarring force.

He groaned in agony, but powered down the pod anyway because he could now see a crowd of people squashed together in front of him, staring at him with wide eyes.

Forcing himself to his feet despite the desperate urge to simply sit there and pass out, Kallus limped to the back of the pod and hit the button to open the door. A white haired and bearded man that Kallus recognized from holos as General Dodonna of the Rebellion was waiting at the front of the crowd. He raised a bushy eyebrow at Kallus as he emerged, taking in Kallus grey Imperial uniform.

"And who are you?" Dodonna said curiously, holding up a hand to stop some blue uniformed Rebels behind him from advancing on Kallus with raised blasters. (Probably Dodonna's guards.)

"Fulcrum agent fifty-eight, Lothal sector," Kallus replied briskly, undeterred by the hostility shown to him by the Rebel guards.

Dodonna smiled widely. "Agent Kallus! Nice to finally put a face to the voice." He winced slightly. "Well, sort of. Glad to see you made it out, if not necessarily in the best of shape." He paused again for an awkward moment before saying, "Thanks for the warning this morning."

Kallus nodded once, not really wanting credit for something that hadn't actually been beneficial to the Rebels.

They just didn't know it yet.

"Come on, Kallus. Let's go join Captain Syndulla. I want to see what's happening and you can't see poodoo from down here. Not sure how, but I got stuck with the task of taking roll call." Dodonna raised a data pad in demonstration as he pushed through the crowd towards the engine compartment, indicating that Kallus should follow him. Kallus reluctantly did so. He'd rather sit down right where he was, to be honest. But this was technically his commanding officer now, so he sucked up the pain and followed.

Kallus raised a brow when they ended up at a ladder and Dodonna started climbing. Wouldn't it have been faster to take the other ladder up to the cockpit? Kallus glanced back through the open engine compartment door and immediately understood; his escape pod was wedged right up against said ladder.

Scrubbing a weary hand over the less injured side of his face, Kallus grabbed the ladder and started climbing.

They emerged in a hallway. Dodonna walked through a door and jogged down another hallway, looking amazingly spy for an older man. Somehow, Kallus managed to keep up, reluctant to call further attention to his injuries. Dodonna opened another door and they were in the cockpit.

Kallus glanced at the occupants in further relief to see them alive and well; seeing Captain Syndulla flying, the Jedi in the co-pilot seat, Zeb behind Syndulla, and the old clone standing behind the last chair. He wondered where the cheeky Jedi boy and the Mando girl were, but had to assume they were safe enough, since none of the people in the cockpit seemed like they were grieving. (He knew the youngest Spectres were practically family to the older Spectres.) Kallus met the clone's eyes for a second just before the Ghost launched into hyperspace.

Kallus exhaled quietly as the realization that he had actually escaped sunk in. "Thank the stars," he mumbled nearly soundlessly under his breath. He wondered if this was all just a dream and he was actually still hanging by his handcuffs in the Chimaera, passed out. Putting some weight down on his bad leg, Kallus grimaced and decided that, nope, this was probably reality.

Zeb had heard them come in, of course, but it took him a moment to realize who exactly it was that had joined them. Hearing Kallus' voice, he spun his chair around. He sucked in a breath and rose to his feet in an instant, taking a step towards Kallus before pausing awkwardly. The human looked absolutely awful. His face was covered in abrasions and his left eye was nearly swollen shut and surrounded by dark blue and purple bruising. He had an arm across his torso, as if he was holding his ribs together, and he wasn't putting any weight on his right leg at all.

Karabast.

As the last of the adrenaline from his escape abandoned him, Kallus sagged back against the wall beside the door, using it to hold him up. He smiled abashedly at Zeb's wide eyed and concerned look, shrugging slightly, and ignoring the pain of his split lip.

Kallus found himself to now be the center of attention as everyone in the cockpit turned to look at him, Captain Syndulla and the blind Jedi rising from their chairs and adopting concerned looks as well. He gave the green twi'lek a grateful and respectful nod. "Thank you for the pick up."

"It was the least we could do," Syndulla said softly. "If you hadn't warned us..." Her voice trailed off, not wanting to even think about how much worse it could have been if they hadn't had those few minutes of preparation time.

"I had to try," Kallus said, straightening off the wall determinedly; not wanting to be seen as weak as he felt.

"We're very grateful," Syndulla said. "I'm just glad we finally got you out of there. You never should have stayed behind when Ezra went to get you. Look what they did to you."

"You're right, but not because of the beating." Kallus sighed as he geared himself up for the admission to follow. "It's my fault they found your Base. Thrawn must have seen through my deceptions and he tracked my warning transmission." Kallus looked down at the floor, ashamed. "I am sorry. Your loses are all on my head."

"Kallus..." Zeb whined, ears flat to his head, unable to see the other male beat himself up over something he really didn't have that much control over.

Kallus flicked his eyes up at the lasat, grimacing as he shook his head, guilt overwhelming him as the full realization of everything that had occurred this day could have been avoided if he'd just gone with the Jedi boy when asked to.

Kallus didn't see it, but there wasn't a single person in the cockpit who wasn't looking at him with sympathy. Even General Dodonna couldn't bring himself to blame the Fulcrum agent for the destruction of most of his fleet.

"Kallus..." Booted feet appearing in his line of sight and a hand on his shoulder had Kallus looking up again at the old General in surprise. The white bearded man shook his head at him, his wise, long suffering blue eyes meeting Kallus' steadily. "You can't flog yourself over things you can't undo. Nor should you take the blame for something that may have happened anyway. We all know that Thrawn is a cunning bastard and was most likely going to find Chopper Base sooner or later. You did your job the best way you knew how and your dedication to the Rebellion in the dangerous setting of spying on Thrawn is to be commended."

Kallus didn't exactly feel better, but a modicum of the weight on his shoulders lifted. He nodded his head once in acknowledgment.

Zeb smiled in relief that someone had put Kallus straight. He stepped forward again and grasped Kallus' shoulder in a warm grip, grinning a little at the other male's surprise. "Hey. It looks like I finally get to say this." He paused for a dramatic beat and then said with a wide grin, "I told you so." (Referring to their long talk on the ice moon.) "And welcome to the Rebellion, Kallus."

Kallus snorted in amusement and found himself smiling in return as more welcomes joined Zeb's and warm smiles were given to him, people crowding around him.

Two years ago, Kallus would have called this a scene from a nightmare. But now... Now it almost felt like a dream come true.

He felt accepted and truly wanted for the first time in too many years to even contemplate.

Once he got past the irony of who exactly his new friends were, it felt bloody nice.

A/N: I just turned 2 minutes of t.v show into 4000+ words! Go me! :D I think it turned out all right.

There is more already written about Zeb's and Kallus' story in the 'Everyone' mega story. You can find it there if you don't want to wait ages to find out their future. (It's roughly canon, so it's not going to be much of surprise.)

A/N: Thank you all soooooo much for reading my stories! Every fav, follow, or nice review makes me want to write that much more for you. :D :D :D :D :D

It would mean the world to me if you would like my Facebook page and say hi! I'm hoping it will be a place for people to share fan art and other fan related thoughts. I'll also be posting teasers for my new chapters. Just type in 'Thelonerebel's Stories into your Facebook search bar and you should find me. :D I'm also looking for an artist who would like to draw cover images for my stories because I can't draw people to save me life. lol.