A/N: If this story seems familiar, that's because it is. I have rewritten it and started over, but some scenes are pretty much the same, just no longer in 1st person. There have been a few big changes in character development, though, so giving it a thorough re-read is recommended. :D
Disclaimer: I don't own anything Star Wars
There is an explanation of how the calendar works in the original 'Flame of Hope' if you're curious.
Star Wars Apparitions
Transported:
D15/1 BBY, Lothal
The mountain above them shook, sending small rocks raining over them. The hard floor of the cave beneath their feet trembled. The lothwolves growled, radiating displeasure. The Force around Kanan rippled with the echoes of the bombs exploding above ground.
Kanan let the Force guide his balance as he flowed with the movements of the ground. He frowned as most of his companions were jostled, their signatures turning murky from fear.
"The Empire's bombing the mountains!" Ryder cried out, his signature falling against a wall for support as the floor shook harder than before.
The only other person down in the cave with Kanan who wasn't near to panicking was his Padawan. Ezra was concentrating on the lothwolf with the brightest signature. He could feel the strength of the connection Ezra had with the wolf and was once again impressed by how far the boy had progressed in his level of maturity in the Force. The angsty teen who couldn't even settle down enough to connect to a simple lothcat was long gone. Now Ezra was essentially at the level of a Master when it came to Animal Bonding and it was easily his strongest Force ability. Kanan was no slouch when it came to bonding with animals, but it wasn't his main gift.
Before he'd been blinded by Maul, Kanan had believed his strongest ability was his Force Jump, but now... Now he knew better. He'd needed to lose his sight to discover that his real gift was his ability to use Force Sight. He'd learned a lot more about himself, his family, and those around him than he'd ever thought to know once he opened himself up to the Force and actually paid attention to what was going on around him. But even though he was grateful to the Force for blessing him as it had, there would always be a part of him that wanted to see again for real.
That was the part of him that whimpered at the loss of seeing his precious Hera. The part that knew it was missing seeing the kids grow up into adults. The part that cringed every time Sabine made a new painting and everyone else showered her with praise and he had to stand back and stay silent because even the strongest Force Sight wasn't intricate enough to convey the colour and depth she put into her paintings. He could generally get a sense of the image in her paintings if it was of an actual object like the Ghost, the same way he could pick up Aurebesh markings, but if it was an abstract, he got nothing and it had been painful to admit.
Now, he watched as Sabine hovered behind Ezra as close as she dared get to the lothwolf that towered over them. Her emotions were reaching for Ezra in search of comfort even if her body wasn't quite willing to go that far. In the underground cave that Kanan assumed was dark, he doubted that anyone else saw Ezra reach back and brush a hand over her forearm for a second, but Kanan most certainly caught the movement. He also noticed how she instantly calmed with his reassurance. Those two were about as bonded as they could get without actually merging their signatures in the most intimate way possible. (And Kanan had a feeling that wasn't too far off now that someone had finally admitted they had feelings for the other and got the ball rolling.) He and Hera had a bet going to see how long it would take for the kids to admit to the rest of them that they weren't just best friends anymore.
Even as Ezra was soothing his not so secret girlfriend, he was also having a conversation with the lead wolf. "We've got to get out of here," he told it out loud, probably for the benefit of the others, since Kanan could sense that Ezra and the wolf were now having a much more elaborate and silent conversation.
As the mountain above them growled like deadly thunder once again, the wolf turned and held its tail up for Ezra to grab. Ezra did, after a moment's hesitation. "Everyone join hands," he called.
Sabine's hand practically flew into Ezra's and undoubtedly with a bone crunching grip. "Ezra!" she called on a rising note as the cave rumbled and then cracked loudly as fractures shot along the rock walls.
"The cave is going to collapse!" Zeb all but yelled as he lunged forward and grabbed onto Sabine's free hand.
Kanan pulled Ryder away from a wall just as a large section of the ceiling of the cave above him collapsed right he'd been standing. The man was in such shock that he barely noticed as Kanan pushed him towards Zeb and the lasat grabbed Ryder's hand. "There's no way out of here," Ryder mumbled despairingly even as the little train of trapped Rebels started moving as the lothwolf pulled them along.
Kanan quickly grabbed Ryder's free hand and immediately got his fingers squashed. He did his best to send Ryder a wave of calm even as he said, "That we know of. Have faith in Ezra and the wolves."
Ryder snorted under his breath, but his signature calmed a little and the grip on Kanan's hand eased to bearable.
After a few hesitantly placed steps from those in front of him, Kanan sucked in a breath as a small glint of brilliant light appeared in the Force. That glint swiftly grew to the point that he had to focus elsewhere or be in danger of ending up mentally blind from the swirling maelstrom of light. He thought he saw one of the two darker wolves disappear within it and Kanan realized it must be a portal of some kind.
A Force portal.
He'd never heard of such a thing, but somehow, he wasn't surprised. Ezra's lothwolves were more than a little too strong in the Force to be normal beasts and their convenient timing for showing up on a planet that Kanan had been wandering around on for years without a hint of their presence could not be a coincidence.
Within moments of the portal opening, Kanan felt a wave of SOMETHING sweep over the others and all of their signatures went into almost a sleep state, but they were still walking. Ryder's grip loosened even more on his hand, but kept hold lightly. Kanan couldn't help but worry about why the wolves hadn't put him in a trance too. What did they want with him? Why did they keep calling him by his old name? They had seemed particularly determined to make sure he was going on this journey with them. Now he wondered why.
Kanan found out soon enough.
The line of wolves and people walked through the portal, which was once a solid rock wall. One of the wolves stepped through last and the portal closed behind it. Kanan focused behind him and couldn't 'see' the blinding light anymore; just a very large and intimidating signature of a wolf that growled softly at him to keep moving.
'I get it,' he thought to the wolf. 'You don't have to be rude about it.'
The wolf huffed out a canine laugh.
Kanan couldn't see what they were walking on now, but it didn't feel like rock or dirt or even duracrete. The ground beneath them didn't feel like anything he'd ever felt before but he imagined it would be similar to the sensation of walking on water, if that were even possible.
The space around Kanan felt vast and limitless; empty but full at the same time in the most confusing fashion. There were random streaks of light energy crisscrossing and swooping all around him. He finally figured out they were walking on one of the streaks of light after maybe a minute of marching. There were also circles of still energy to the sides of the streaks of light. Kanan concluded those might be more portals.
To say he was feeling pretty much flabbergasted and mind blown would be an understatement.
He wished Ezra was awake so he could describe what he saw, but Kanan could feel how quiet his padawan's mind was. There was no way he was actually registering any of this.
Suddenly, Kanan felt very large teeth grab the back of his shirt near the collar. The last wolf had been practically breathing down his neck, but he hadn't felt any real menace from it, leaving him very surprised by the sudden attack.
The wolf picked Kanan up, making him lose the loose grip he had on Ryder's hand, and he threw the Jedi over the edge of the streak of light they were walking on. He swallowed the urge to scream as he fell, determinedly holding onto clear thinking out of training alone. Kanan fell a few more metres before he spotted another streak of light and just managed to catch the edge of it with one hand. He hung for a moment, suspended by his fingertips and caught his breath before he pulled himself up onto the pathway and flopped down onto his back.
As he calmed his racing heart, Kanan sought out the signatures of the others, but they were gone.
He had been thrown into this pit of endlessness and left behind.
On purpose.
Despair overwhelmed him for a minute or two as morbid thoughts flooded him. He would never see Hera again. He would never see the child he'd just discovered that she carried this very morning. He would never see Ezra again. Or Sabine or Zeb. He would never feel a sun on his face again. Feel the wind or the grass. Feel Hera's soft weight in his arms. Never eat space waffles again with his favourite yogan flavoured syrup. He would die in here. Alone.
Kanan gave himself a mental slap.
There was no need for dramatics just yet. The wolves must have had a reason for this. He just had to figure it out.
He got down on his knees in the pose that instantly gave him a sense of comfort and familiarity and cleared his mind. It was time for some serious meditation.
The Force would help him. It always did, when he let it.
Ezra didn't know he'd been asleep until he woke up in the dark with the white lothcat standing on his chest and licking his face with its rough tongue. Chuckling, Ezra scratched it behind the ear, making it purr in pleasure, as he sat up and looked around.
He was lying on a rocky section in the mountains which were tipped with snow, the white easy to see against the star speckled sky.
Wait.
Snow?
Stars?
Ezra could have sworn he was just in a warm section of Lothal before they went into the caves. And it had been midmorning at the latest. His eyes widened as he realized there should be more people here, wherever HERE was.
Sabine! Where was Sabine?!
Closing his eyes, he reached for their bond, then sighed in relief as he sensed her very near. Ezra sprang to his feet, which dislodged the lothcat that give him a very disgusted look. He relaxed as he saw a glimpse of her on the other side of a boulder only a few metres away. Her colourful armour was muted in the dark, but still stood out against the deep colours of the rocks. Bounding over to her, Ezra knelt beside her and pulled her upper body into his lap and across one arm, then tugged off her helmet.
She looked so peaceful in her sleep it was almost a shame to wake her, but he did anyway because something wasn't right. Aside from the time and location change, the Force didn't feel right, if that made sense. It felt kind of like it was calling out for help, its cries increasing in intensity as he focused on it for half a moment. Very strange indeed.
Ezra stroked the back of a finger over her soft cheek, wondering if there was time to pull his gloves off and indulge in the sensual pleasure that was her, but deciding against it. She hmmmmed ever so softly, the hint of a smile curving her lips upward. He did allow himself to indulge in something that he hadn't yet had the opportunity to try, since their changed relationship was only half a month in the making; Ezra curled downwards and pressed his mouth to hers ever so gently, kissing her awake.
She hmmmed in pleasure as she woke, her lips pressing back against his and her arm snaking around his neck and pulling him down just a little closer. Ezra decided he liked kissing her awake very much indeed and hoped to do so a thousand more times in the future. That would be easier if they didn't have to keep their relationship a secret, but Sabine was afraid her family would hunt him down and eviscerate him in his sleep or something like that if they found out. He'd decided to indulge her for now, but Ezra wanted the whole shebang, marriage, kids, and all; there was no way they were going to keep this secret for long. Besides, he had the feeling that Kanan already knew; it was practically impossible to keep secrets from his Master now.
Their sweet kiss went from loving to passionate in an instant when her tongue demanded entry. Ezra get lost in the still new sensations of such overwhelming desire for a minute or so, but that sense of urgency from the Force eventually made itself known again and stopped him from getting carried away. Ezra reluctantly pulled back. Sabine automatically tried to follow until her eyes opened and she smiled at him with a flash of teeth in the dark for half an instant before she registered that it was nighttime and cold enough to see their panting breaths in the moonlight. She immediately scrambled off his lap, jumped to her feet, and looked around in a state of battle readiness, her hands on her blasters and tension radiating from her.
Ezra had seen this from her before when they were on long stakeout missions and she'd been startled awake by something when it was his turn to keep watch. (Usually him accidentally making some sort of noise.) Sabine was always ready for anything and you didn't want to get on her bad side by waking her up unless there was a good reason. She was also very good at putting a bruise on his arm if she thought for even an instant he'd done it on purpose. (He might have, once or twice when he was bored out of his mind.) Either way, he now knew he could kiss her awake and very much like the consequences.
Ezra rose to his feet as well, at about half the speed, and stood beside her. He put a hand on the small of her back, still thrilling that he now had the privilege to do such things, and siphoned off a bit of her adrenaline high through their bond and gave it to the Force. Sabine turned her head and looked up at him as her muscles relaxed a tiny fraction under his hand but her hands stayed on her blasters. "Where the kriff are we?"
"I don't know," Ezra replied with a shrug, looking apologetic that he couldn't answer her question.
"And where are the others?" she said, shrugging off his hand and walking back to her helmet and plunking it back on her head, indicating she wasn't comfortable with the situation and was still prepared for war.
"I'm here," Zeb's voice called from behind a small cone shaped mountain just before he appeared, lugging a still out of it Ryder over his shoulder. He more or less flopped the man on the ground in front of them, which was enough to wake up the older man.
Ryder's eyes popped open and he sat up, looking around wildly with comically wide eyes. "Where the kriff are we?" he demanded.
Ezra chuckled quietly to himself. "That does appear to be the question of the hour, doesn't it?" And that's when he noticed they were still one short. "You didn't see Kanan anywhere, did you?" he demanded of Zeb.
Zeb shook his head slowly, ears flattening in worry. "Kanan!" he called out loud enough to wake the dead, turning around in a circle as if that would make their fearless leader appear.
"Where's Kanan?" Sabine said worriedly, looking at Ezra expectantly.
Ezra closed his eyes and reached for his bond with Kanan. And stretched even further. It took every ounce of concentration he had to find the tiny flicker that was Kanan within him. It was so faint, so far away, but still there. This was even worse than when he was on the other side of the galaxy when they ran separate missions. But Ezra knew Kanan had been on Lothal with them not even... Actually, he didn't know when that was anymore. Everything was so confusing.
He opened his eyes to see everyone peering at him with hopeful looks. "Did you find him?" Zeb asked. On a normal day, this request would be well within his capabilities. But today was not normal.
Ezra shook his head in remorse. "I don't know where he is. He's alive, but very very far away. Like, other side of the galaxy far away. Or further."
"Kriff," and, "Karabast," came from Sabine and Zeb at the same time. Ezra nodded in agreement.
"How did this even happen?" Ryder asked.
"I don't know that either. The wolves did something, I guess." Ezra said with another shrug.
Speaking of animals, he noticed that the white lothcat had made itself scarce once again. he also noticed the white outline of the alpha lothwolf standing on an outcropping of rock about half a kilometre away. Ezra got the impression he was only seeing him now because he wanted him to.
A sense of anger swirled through him that he had to fight to push away. Without a word to the others, Ezra took off running towards the wolf, bounding across the distance in a handful of Force assisted leaps.
"Ezra! Where...?" Sabine called after him before her voice faded away as she also spotted his target. Ezra didn't bother to answer, just assumed they would follow him at their own pace.
When he was close enough, he skidded to a stop and glared at the wolf, still fighting with his anger but controlling it, barely. Ezra glared at the wolf. "What did you do to Kanan?!" he demanded.
The lothwolf didn't bother to answer, just stared at Ezra with those glowing gold eyes for a moment before he turned his head and looked off in the distance. Frustrated, Ezra followed his gaze and stopped breathing as he finally understood why the Force was crying.
The Empire had found the Jedi Temple and they were tearing it apart, floodlights illuminating their camp and what was left of the mountain Temple. There were blocks of stone lined up in rows as they systematically shaved the Temple down one layer at a time. The inner doors had sealed themselves off, but it wouldn't be long before they managed to dig right past them with the massive machines he could see parked under the lights. "No." Ezra breathed out, eyes stinging from sudden tears. "Force, no." He blinked the tears back and looked at the wolf again. "Where is Kanan?" he asked again, in a quieter, much more resigned tone.
The wolf huffed a wolfy sigh and looked at the Temple again.
"He's in there? But I don't feel him nearby. Are you sure?"
The wolf glared at Ezra like he was asking a stupid question.
Ezra supposed he was. If anyone knew where Kanan was, it would be the wolf that had dropped him off somewhere else. "Sorry," he apologized softly.
The wolf actually rolled its eyes at him and opened its mouth in something resembling a smirk.
Sabine and the others came running up at this point, finally catching up. They skidded to a stop as well as they saw the Imperial encampment off in the distance. "What the karabast?!" Zeb exclaimed.
"Is that the Temple?" Sabine asked quietly, coming to stand beside Ezra and lend as much support as she could, knowing he would need it. She was more than smart enough to figure out the puzzle pieces of what she was looking at even though she'd never seen the Jedi Temple before.
"Yeah. What's left of it," Ezra said morosely. "And according to Wolfy here, Kanan's in there."
"How did he...?" She started to say, and then stopped herself with a shake of the head. "That doesn't matter. It's obvious what we were brought here for; we have to stop them and find Kanan."
Ezra smiled at his girl thankfully, so grateful she was the no nonsense type whose mission in life seemed to be figuring out how to get things done in the fastest, most efficient way possibly. (And if it involved blowing up whatever was in her way, all the better.) "That's exactly what I was thinking."
'Wolfy' (who had chuffed in amusement when Ezra called him that) picked up what he thought was just another large rock in his sharp teeth and carried it over to Ezra, dropping it within a fraction of his toes, then looked from it to Ezra and back again meaningfully. "LISTEN," he very clearly rumbled out in his deep voice.
"Holy poodoo," Ryder breathed, the only one left who wasn't somewhat inured to the strange and unbelievable that happened around Kanan and Ezra on a regular basis. "It talks!"
Ezra smirked. "I did say so this morning when I explained how Sabine and I ended up back at camp. It's not my fault no one but Kanan believed me."
"I think I might have to start," Ryder muttered.
Ryder and the others, who had all scrambled back when the wolf approached, all crept forward again and stared down at the rock as Sabine shone a light on it. But it wasn't a rock, it was actually a piece of a stone tablet or something with many patterns and symbols on it.
"What is this?" Ezra asked the lothwolf before looking up, but he was gone. Just like that. Without a sound or even a whisper of air. Freaky.
"Where'd he go?" Zeb essentially whined, looking rather scared for a massive male being.
"Don't know," Ezra shrugged slightly. "But I don't sense him anymore, so he's probably gone for now. On the other hand..." he added, unable to resist the temptation of messing with Zeb a little. "...he might be circling around so he can pounce on you from behind."
Zeb whirled, his bo-rifle appearing in his hands in an instant as he peered into the dark around them, ears flat to his head and a hint of growl rumbling from him.
Ezra held back the chuckles for as long as he could, but they emerged eventually anyway, which made Sabine laugh too. Ryder didn't seem as inclined towards humour and just shook his head at him like he was a naughty child. That just made Ezra grin at the much older man cheekily.
Zeb whirled back around and snarled at Ezra as he realized he'd been pranked. "I oughta shoot you just because."
The boy held his arms out in an 'I'm unarmed' motion. "Be my guest. But you get to tell Kanan and Hera why I'm out of commission."
Zeb grumbled to himself as he slid his rifle to his back again, giving Ezra a dirty look that translated to, 'I'll get you later, you brat'.
Ezra smirked and gave him his own, 'bring it, furball' look. They'd perfected these looks years ago and no longer needed the words that used to go with them, and they still worked great. It was nice having an older brother / uncle type person to bug.
Apparently ready for a change of subject, Zeb nudged the tablet with a foot. "So what's this?"
They all looked at their resident genius; the one and only Sabine Wren. (Hopefully soon to be Wren-Bridger, if Ezra had any say in it.)
She huffed, and Ezra was almost certain she was rolling her eyes at them under her helmet. With a sigh, she pulled her helmet off as she knelt in front of the tablet, running a hand through the dark silk of her hair absently to straighten it in an automatic gesture. She placed her helmet down beside her and then traced the symbols that swirled over the tablet and three differently configured hands.
"I wish he'd told you what these symbols mean before taking off," she said with an air of exasperation. "I've never seen anything like them before. But, maybe, if I can get close to the Temple and see more to compare them to, I can figure out what they mean."
"Then that's what we'll do," Ezra said eagerly. "We have to get in there anyway to get Kanan."
"Do you really think going down there is a good idea?" Ryder said, attempting to be the voice of reason. "Even though it's night, I see enough people wandering around that there's no way you're going to be able to just sneak in."
"I wasn't planning on sneaking," Ezra said smugly as he watched a couple of specs that quickly grew into scout troopers do a perimeter sweep of the area on their bikes. Walking up to the edge of the cliff they were standing on, he kept an eye on their progress as he continued to talk. "I was thinking of walking right in like we belong." And with that, Ezra dove off the edge, arms spread and a grin on his face as the wind whipped past.
