"Welcome back Spector 1," Hera said over the intercom, looking back as Kanan came inside, before he promptly collapsed in the seat next to her. "What's wrong love? Ezra giving you a hard time again?" she asked, but in reply Kanan placed his head in his hands, "It's like his birthday all over again, he's not really talking to anybody, and he keeps spacing out from time to time,"
"Maybe something happened on this certain day that he doesn't want to talk about," Hera suggested, but Kanan just shook his head. "If that's true, then this kids had it harder in life than all of us,
Ezra kept his head down so that none of the empire could detect him, he didn't tell the others where he was going, it was just, something that he needed to do on his own. In the far back of the city there was a run down building that no one goes near, it was boarded up and had yellow paint chipping off. Ezra walked up to it slowly and went to open the door when he heard a click behind him. "I don't care who you are, b-but if your armed, p-put down y-your weapon," A timid voice said behind him, and Ezra felt his eyes widen greatly, he turned around quickly and came face to face with a girl whose eyes he will never forget.
Her emerald green eyes that stood out against her dark skin, her green blond hair that always managed to fall in front of her freckled face. For once, he was taller than her, and Ezra actually had to look down at his childhood friend. "Rea?" he said breathlessly, looking at the girl he knew as a child in disbelief. Rea was wearing a dark blue leather tank and black cargo pants, with a long sleeve white t-shirt underneath, and hard black boots. Her hair was all in her face from the wind scattering it around, she had a hand made dart gun, a lot like the one's that she made when they were little, but a lot more complicated.
"E-Ezra?" She questioned in disbelief, and then dropped her weapon and wrap him in a warm hug, at first he hesitated, but then returned the hug. Rea had her face buried in his shoulder, and though he couldn't hear her, Ezra knew she was crying. "I heard about on the streets about a boy who joined the rebellion, and when I heard the kids description, I thought it was you, but for you to actually be here..." a loud sob escaped her lips, and Ezra knew that Rea was mad at herself for letting go that easily. All of a sudden she stopped and stepped back, looking at him in disbelief. "Oh my gosh! Your taller than me!" Rea exclaimed, in partial horror. Oh wow, he missed her reactions to small things like that, Ezra couldn't help but to chuckle.
"Don't chuckle, this is serious, I was suppose to stay taller than you!" she said, giggling while trying to look mad. They probably would've continued all day, like there was nothing else better to do but catch up, when they heard the thunderous sounds of Imperial Soldiers feet stomp on the ground. "We should go inside," Ezra said, going to open the door, "Don't, we just use this place as a trading spot now, there's a new place, lets go," she said, grabbing her dart gun and his arm and running down the alleyway to who knows where.
"Did you find him?" Kanan asked, looking around at the group from where they gathered. "Negative, we can't find him anywhere," Sabine said. "Yeah, it's like the punk disappeared," Zeb said, huffing and flopping down on the ground in exhaustion. "More like he ran off with someone," Hera said, looking pointedly in one direction, everyone followed her gaze to see Ezra and a girl running beside each other toward a back alley. "Let's go," Kanan said, running in their direction.
As they rounded the corner they found the two of them leaning heavily against a wall, Ezra was immediately alerted to their presence and looked up at them quickly. "Kid your are in so much trouble, don't you know how long we've been searching for you?" Zeb said, walking up to them, "Look guys, before you say anything," he took a deep breath, "At least let me catch my breath and explain okay? We just ran about fourteen blocks,"
"S-Seventeen a-actually," the girl beside him said, hugging her sides trying to catch her breath. "B-but if you guys are going t-to talk, here isn't the p-place, Imperial Soldiers will be here s-soon, they started their s-search early, so we could head to were I'm staying, and hash things out there," She said, her head was now bent down and her hair covered her face, making it hard to read her. Everybody looked to Kanan for his answer, he looked between the girl and Ezra, "Lead the way miss.
Rea lead the group into the middle of the fields, the grass coming up to Zeb's waist. She knelt down in the middle of the field and pushed away some loose dirt to expose a wooden door. She knocked a beat on the door and waited for a second, soon enough, the door opened for all of them. "After you, it may be a bit loud, but, it's safe from the Empire," Rea said, stepping out of the way so the others could go through. Hera and Kanan were the first to go down, and when they looked around, they felt their eyes widen slightly, "Whoa," Sabine said, looking around. The place was filled with children of different race and age, the oldest amongst them had to be at least ten years old. "Welcome to The Orphanage," Rea said, before walking in front of them, "There's a dinning room that should be empty at the end of this hallway, you guys can talk their, I'll be there soon," she then turned around and went to talk to the young children, who immediately tackled her with hugs and questions.
"An orphanage?" Hera asked once they were in the dinning room, "Care to explain?" Kanan said, leaning against the dining room walls. Ezra collapsed in one of the beat up lawn chairs that was next to the long stone slab table. "Rea is a friend of mine, we both were apart of this orphanage, though, she was practically raised in it since she was four, and I have only stayed here for two years. When I was thirteen I left because," Ezra stopped for a second, "Anyways, I haven't seen anyone since, and recently, I heard on the streets about how a few months after I left, all the older kids were taken away by the Empire, and, I've been meaning to see what happened, so I went to the old building, when I saw that it was boarded up I thought that the Empire shipped all the kids off but-"
"Th-they would've done that though," Rea interrupted, standing in the doorway of the dinning room. "I was technically o-one of the older kids, but they didn't take me, simply because my leg was b-broken at the time, they meant to give us false hope, everyone who h-had this h-happen to them before knew how it went, they would leave you alone until you were healed, then they would do exactly what they planned on doing originally," she sat down next to Ezra, "But we found this place, it's an abandon cave, and at first we all crammed into one room, but we stole a whole lot of shovels, and started digging rooms. I've been trying to watch these k-kids since," Rea never once made eye contact with anyone, and it was obvious this girl was shy.
"Anyways, that's the story, um, i-if you guys want, you can stay a night till its clear to leave the city, we have the space and food to do that," She said, looking up at them through her hair. "It will probably be a while till the search is over, so, if it isn't to much trouble-"
"It w-wont be," Rea interrupted, giving a small smile, her eyes still not meeting theirs, "Now I'll get started on din-"
"Big sis! Big sis!" A whole bunch of kids came through, about five of them were barely hauling a seventeen year old boy. "Who is that!" Rea said, rushing up to the kids, the youngest, who was about five looked up at her, "We found him wandering around the fields, look! He has a big boo, boo," the kid said, pointing at the teens side. Rea walked over to the guy and took him from the kids, barely supporting him she carried him off to the infirmary. "Do you need help Rea?" Ezra said, standing up to help, but Rea waved him away, "I got this," She said, and left, with the kids trailing behind her, till they reached the infirmary that is, Rea shoed them off then.
When she was gone Zeb walked over to Ezra, gripped his shoulder and looked him dead in the eye, "Umm Zeb what are you-"
"You like the girl don't you?" Zeb interrupted, looking at Ezra mockingly. Ezra's eyes widen a bit, "Wha-What? No, we're friends, I just, I" Cue Ezra banging his head on the table in exasperation. "That's a good enough answer for you Zeb?" Sabine said, shaking her head. "Sure, sure I guess I can always tease him later," Zeb said, throwing his hands up in defeat, and left the room to look around some, "Can't ever have any fun around here.." He grumbled as he left.
As Zeb rounded the corner he heard incoherent mumbling, the source of the mumbling was coming from one of the rooms, he looked in and saw Rea patching up the guy that they brought in, and his eyes widen as he saw her process. Her hand went out to her right and a needle with string looped in, she quickly sew up the wound and then she held her hand out again and bandages flew in her hands. Sweat was sliding down her face as she concentrated harder, soon enough, the buoys body was floating, and she could easily wrap the bandages around him. Zeb was positive that this was something Kanan was going to need to know about. He came back into the room and went straight to Kanan, "Zeb, your already done with your complaining, that was fast,"
"That's because I stumbled across som-"
"Um, you guys, I-I have some things to do, s-s could you guys follow me t-t your rooms?" Rea interrupted, shyly poking her head into the dining room, "Sur, we can plan in the morning," Hera said, standing up to follow Rea, with Sabine and Ezra in tow, Kanan looked at Zeb and gave him one of those, we'll continue this later, looks, and then the two went to follow them as well. There were two rooms, they were simple carved in domes with single gas lamp, and roll out beds on the ground. Cozy.
"I'll b-be back soon, make yourselves at home," Rea said, then she left. Sabine and Hera went into one room and the guys stayedin another, soon enough, Ezra fell asleep, and Kanan and Zeb were able to discuss Rea's use of the force. "Are you sure?" Kanan asked.
"She made the guy float, if that's not the force then please enlighten me on what is," Zeb said in a hushed tone. Kanan nodded a bit and though hard, if she really was using the force, then how? If she's been on her own since she was four, who taught about the force, and how to use it.