Disclaimer: I don't own anything Star Wars.
There's an explanation of how the calendar works in the 'Everyone' story, if you're curious.
Flame of Hope – Ephraim & Mira
Prologue:
D219/16 BBY, Lothal
"Don wanna go bed!" the small boy dressed in nexu covered pajamas wailed as Mira chased him around the house.
Mira paused to blow a lavender lock of hair off her face that had escaped from what was once a neat bun piled on top of her head. (Bath time and wrestling Ezra into his pajamas were responsible for her new disheveled look.) Her hands came to rest on her hips as she glared after the retreating back of her astonishingly fast three and a half year old son, who was now disappearing from sight around a corner of the hallway. "Ezra Bridger! You stop Force Running this instant!"
"No! No! No!" was accompanied by the sound of little hit feet pounding up the stairs.
"Ephraim! He's coming your way!" she called to her husband over their mental bond, carefully making sure that Ezra didn't intercept the thought.
"Gotcha!" Ephraim crowed from the next floor as Mira jogged up the stairs. That was quickly followed by an, "Owwww!" and a crash. "Kriffing hell!"
Mira winced in sympathy as her husband's mental curse filled her mind and she rounded the top of the stairs to see him rubbing the back of his head with not a single blue haired menace in sight. There was, however, a broken crystal vase spilling flowers and water onto the floor.
"Oh, Raimy," Mira sighed as she carefully skirted the mess so she didn't get any broken glass in her feet. "This is getting out of hand."
Ephraim looked down at his beautiful wife, frown and worry lines sinking into her otherwise flawless skin, and sighed. "I know, Mira. He's never been violent before. And his control of the Force is getting much too good for this nightly chase nonsense to continue." He glanced at the side table the vase used to be on, a couple of metres down the hall from where he was standing to emphasize his point.
"I think it's the nightmares," Mira said as she reached up and touched the back of Ephraim's head. She closed her eyes as she focused on the location of the pain, the delicate throbbing and rising heat of the injury making its presence known to her sensitive fingertips. After concentrating the Force on the injury for a few seconds, soothing the hurt away, she opened her eyes and brushed her fingers along Ephraim's bearded jaw in a quick caress, before focusing her eyes down the hallway, sending out her senses to find the little hellion that had taken over the body of her sweet natured son.
"I'm pretty sure he unlocked the door to the roof and flew up there to his favourite hiding spot," Ephraim said resignedly, noticing where Mira's focus was now. "I'll go get him."
Mira raised a lavender eyebrow and gave him a sceptical look. "Alone?"
He shot her a smirk over his shoulder as he walked down the hallway of bedrooms. "Where's he going to go from there? Unless he's taught himself to Force jump, too."
"Don't give him any ideas!" Mira called, shaking her head, making the loose lock of hair fall over her eyes again. She shoved it back and then turned her attention to the mess on the floor with a sigh; she'd really liked that vase.
"Not trying to," Ephraim muttered as he arrived at the stairwell to the roof and found the door open, just as he'd suspected.
His son was too clever by half when it came to manipulating things with the Force. The lock button was definitely above Ezra's normal reach, so that left only one option; Ezra was using the Force. Again. How was he supposed to teach him that using his power was something that had to be hidden? It was getting to the point where they were afraid to take Ezra out in public for fear he would do something that would give himself away as a Force user.
The results of that would be catastrophic in this new galaxy that despised Jedi and hunted them for a hefty profit.
The idea of punishing his son for using his talent was abhorrent to Ephraim. And Ezra was still too young to understand the real concept of having to keep a secret. Force knows, they'd tried, but to Ezra, a secret was a game, and not to be taken seriously.
How do you make a three year old understand that it would mean all of their lives if he were to float a toy in public?
Ephraim was starting to think that Mira's idea of moving to the country and starting a farm was going to become a necessity sooner than later. The idea of giving up their well paying jobs for the gamble of a new profession didn't sit well, though.
Ephraim heaved a sigh as he walked through another open door and emerged onto the flat roof of their house, which was surrounded by a low wall. The twilight sky flickered with a few brave stars in one direction and glowed orange on the horizon in the other. He immediately turned to the right and walked to the garden that sprouted many green things for Mira's loving hands. Almost half the roof was taken over now by the rows of pots that contained flowers or trees or vegetables.
Ephraim smiled as he saw the first little tree that had come to live up here once it was too big to stay in the house. It was now in a massive pot and it was anything but a little twig now.
And that's where he found his son. At the base of the tree, buried amongst the willowy branches, Ezra was curled around his knees, sobbing softly. The wild white lothcat that had taken to visiting their house ever since Ezra was born was snuggled up to his side, purring comfortingly.
"Ezra," Ephraim said quietly, chest tight with emotion, as he knelt down in front of the tree's ceramic pot and the lothcat dashed away to sit on the edge of the roof wall, tail twitching with annoyance that another human had shown up. (The tooka had only ever let Ezra touch it and was strangely immune to mind control.)
"M sowwy, Daddy," came from the muffled depths of his arms, Ezra not moving his head at all.
"It's okay, buddy. I'm not mad at you. Please come out."
Ezra peeked up at him, big blue eyes swimming with tears. Ephraim held his arms out and Ezra immediately launched himself into them, wrapping little arms around his neck, crying harder.
Ephraim held him and rocked him, making hushing sounds as he ran a soothing hand over the wild dark blue hair that stuck up in a dozen different directions.
Ezra's sobs eventually quieted to mere hiccups and then even those died away. Ezra pulled back a little, standing on Ephraim's thighs with his bare feet. "M sowwy," he said again solemnly, meeting Ephraim's eyes shyly. "Didn mean to hurt you."
Ephraim hugged him as he rose to his feet, carrying his son back to the stairs, and brushing off a few clinging wood chips curtesy of the pot from the seat of his pajamas. "I know, little buddy. I know. Mommy made it better. Don't worry."
Even as Ezra's body went limp with exhaustion, he said, "Thas good. I jus don wanna go bed."
Ephraim kissed the top of his head and closed his eyes in defeat for a moment before walking down the stairs, closing and locking the doors behind him with a quick wave of his hand. "Do you want to sleep with us tonight?"
Ezra lit up along their bond, sending Ephraim a wave of relief. "Yes, pwease."
Ephraim met Mira's eyes as she closed the door to the closet, presumably putting away the broom and dustpan after sweeping up the glass, since the mess on the floor was gone. Knowing her, the water and flowers were already in a new vase somewhere in the house. She met him halfway and put a hand on Ezra, kissing his tear streaked cheek. "I'll go make us some popcorn and we can watch a movie until you're sleepy, okay baby?"
Ezra beamed a happy smile at her, his earlier sorrow forgotten. "Yay! Lillest Wolfy?"
Mira smiled while inwardly cringing at the thought of seeing Ezra's current favourite movie for the thirty-ninth time. "Yes, baby. We can watch 'The Littlest Lothwolf'."
Mira met Ephraim's eyes and they shared a mental eye roll before she ran her hand over Ezra's hair one more time and then turned for the stairs.
Ephraim carried Ezra into the master bedroom and got him settled in the middle of the big bed, propped up by a pillow. He then called up the movie in question and started it playing on the large holoscreen on the wall opposite of the bed.
Ezra squeaked with happiness when he saw the lothwolf puppy appear on the screen, bouncing up and down on the bed a couple of times.
Ephraim watched him with a fond smile, ignoring the movie because he honestly wouldn't mind if he never saw it again even though he used to think it was pretty good. "I'm just going to go help Mommy for a couple minutes. You okay in here if I go?"
Ezra waved him off absently, eyes glued to the holoscreen.
Ephraim felt so loved in that moment.
Not.
Laughing softly to himself, he made his way downstairs. He found Mira staring at the food heater blankly as it turned a bag of little seed kernels into fluffy white goodness.
He wrapped his arms around her middle from behind and rested his chin on her shoulder. "I guess we're not snuggling tonight, either," he said forlornly, only half joking.
Mira glanced around at him wryly as she wrapped her arms around his. "I'm pretty sure I'm starting to forget what 'snuggling' feels like, it's been so long since Ezra hasn't ended up in our bed."
Ephraim gave her a mock hurt look. "What, that hurried fumble in the shower this morning doesn't count?"
Mira giggled, kissing the large nose that was right beside her cheek. "Hmmmm. That one's up for debate." She squeezed his hand as her expression fell back into serious. "I've been thinking..."
"Do I want to know?" Ephraim asked carefully when she paused and looked hesitant.
Mira sighed and turned around in his arms as they both ignored the chiming of the food heater, letting them know their snack was ready. She looked up into his stunning royal blue eyes that still made her heart and stomach flutter and said, "I think we should try and connect to Ezra when he starts dreaming. I want to know what's making him wake up every night in a sweat and screaming 'bad fire' over and over."
Ephraim nodded and leaned his forehead into hers, closing his eyes for a second as he breathed deeply. "All right. It's terribly invasive, but hopefully it will give us some answers."
"I don't see any other way," Mira said softly as she pulled out of his arms and grabbed the hot bag out of the food heater, and then poured it into the waiting bowl.
Ephraim filled three glasses with water and followed his wife up the stairs.
They found Ezra curled on his side under the covers, already sound asleep, lulled by the comforting sound of the movie. They quietly put the bowl and glasses on the bedside tables and then Ephraim turned the volume down on the movie to barely audible. They took turns using the refresher and changing into pajamas suitable for having a guest in their bed and then slid under the covers on either side of Ezra.
Ezra snuggled into Mira's side with a mumbled, "Mommy," and she wrapped an arm around him. Ephraim wrapped an arm around them both, kissed her softly, and then they settled back against the pillows to wait for the inevitable nightmares to arrive.
In the meantime, Ephraim changed the movie with the remote to something they hadn't seen four million times (in this case, a weekly t.v. show about a bumbling female bounty hunter that somehow manages to catch her prey out of sheer luck by the end of every episode), and turned the volume up slightly, not wanting to wake up Ezra. Mira put the popcorn bowl in Ephraim's lap and floated a glass of water over to her side of the bed, taking a sip before placing it on her nightstand.
They enjoyed their show while they kept a mental feel on Ezra's sleeping emotions, eating all the popcorn before the hour long show was two thirds done.
The show was down to the final chase scene when Ezra started to mumble in his sleep, turning over restlessly, shivering, and frowning.
Ephraim immediately paused the show and put a hand on Ezra's head beside Mira's as he closed his eyes, diving deeply into Ezra's consciousness.
Mira's was already there, her breathing falling into synch with her son's rapidly increasing breaths. What she saw in Ezra's mind broke her heart.
He was shivering, the winter rain cutting through his clothes to the skin beneath as he huddled in an alleyway. His ribs hurt with every shuddering breath from where the rodian had kicked him when he tried to steal a loaf of bread from the display case. His tears mingled with the rain as they streaked down his face, his stomach hurting from hunger almost as much as the ache in heart. "Where are you, Mommy?"
"Fly faster, Hera! He's fading!" He looks at the back of a green twi-lek's head as he clutches a man with a brown ponytail and a green shirt in his lap, blood covering them both.
He pauses on a rooftop, gazing back at their home with mournful eyes. Flames crackle through the windows and smoke billows into the evening sky. "Goodbye," he whispers.
A grey skinned pau'an male with red tattoos and Sith eyes knelt before a holo projection of the most feared man in the galaxy; Darth Vader.
"We are on route to Mustafar, My Lord. And I have found out who the wannabe Jedi really is. The padawan of Master Billaba survived, despite the reports otherwise."
The masked hologram seemed to grow in size and intensity. "He may live for now, but not for long. I look forward to your arrival. Make sure he's still breathing when you get here."
"Yes, My Lord," the pau'an said as he bowed his head humbly.
A girl with white and purple hair, dressed in colourful Mandalorian armour, kicks the brown haired man from the earlier vision off a rock ledge that looks kind of like the seats of an amphitheatre. She leapt down after him and raised a black lightsabre over her head. The man, lying on the ground, raised his hand to shield his eyes.
But the dark light of her lightsabre illuminated him. His eyes were blurred, and there was a scar across his face.
He couldn't possibly see the anguish on the girl's face as she stood over him with a lightsabre raised to kill.
He watches the brown haired man hold back an epic explosion with a Force shield while standing on top of a large round surface. The name, 'Kanan' rings through the crackling air in a female's voice. A green twi'lek in an orange prisoner outfit is thrown into his arms and then he sees those blurry eyes turn teal green again for one last second before the man is engulfed in the flames.
He screams on the inside as the woman in his arms shakes with heart wrenching tears.
"Ezra Bridger. Mine at last," a creepy voice says from inside a portal.
"Run!" a female says commandingly.
He does.
The blue flames follow.
They catch him, burning through the armour on his leg.
"He's coming through," he cries as he's dragged down the invisible path, hands clawing for purchase on the ground that isn't really there.
Evil laughter fills his mind.
The flames chase him again.
Mira's eyes popped open as Ezra woke up screaming. Tears roll down her cheeks as she gathered him into her arms and rocks him as her son sobs, "Bad fire. Bad fire," over and over.
"Shhhh. Shhhhh," she breaths. "Mommy's here. Nothing can hurt you. Mommy's here." Her eyes meet Ephraim's as he hovered over them, his hands on Ezra's back and her shoulder, sending both of them waves of comfort over their bond even as tears shimmered in his own eyes.
Mira couldn't take the fear radiating from her son anymore, now that she understood these weren't just normal nightmares of scary bogeymen. Gathering the Force around her, she closed her eyes and laid a hand on Ezra's head, diving into his mind again. "Forget the nightmares," she whispered to him. And he did, his mind calming instantly. "Sleep," she adds.
He does, his little body going limp in her arms. Mira hugs him tighter.
"Force, Mira, what are we going to do?" Ephraim whispered helplessly. "Did you see all that? Alone, like he'd been abandoned or something by us. That ponytailed man that showed up a lot. Darth Vader. The World Between Worlds. Palpatine doing Sith alchemy." Ephraim shuddered. "Is that our son's future? Is that what he sees every night?"
Mira nodded reluctantly. "That and probably much more. Our son is a Force Seer. Maybe one of the most powerful ones ever born. He's too young to deal with those kinds of visions. Too young by far." Mira trembled as she hugged her son, her purple eyes still welling with tears as a new resolve took over her. "You're not going to like this but I know what to do for him."
Ephraim didn't like the tone of her voice. It sounded much too resigned for his liking. "What?"
Mira breathed deeply as she settled within herself, knowing this was the only way. The tears dried and she met Ephraim's eyes again. "I'm going to suppress his connection to the Force."
"Mira! You can't! He's already too attached to it and dependant on it."
"I can. And I will. You can't stop me, Ephraim. Ezra can't live like this. The visions will just increase in strength and frequency to the point where he gets them at any time during the day. I've seen this before and the child was left alone to train as usual. She went insane until we completely wiped her memory and permanently cut off her connection to the Force."
"Oh, Mira." Ephraim didn't know what else to say. He didn't want his son to lose his connection to the Force, but at the same time, it would make a lot of their current problems much better. He hung his head, not able to look at her anymore as he felt ashamed at that last thought. "Just... do it."
Mira raised a hand from Ezra's back and touched Ephraim's chin, making him look up at her again, thinking he couldn't bear to look at her because of what she was going to do their son. "I'm sorry, Raimy."
"I know," he whispered back. "So am I." He leaned forward and kissed her forehead, which she took as a sign of permission.
Mira closed her eyes again and sent her consciousness back into Ezra's sleeping mind. She travelled through his brain until she found the section that interacted with the midi-chlorians and made it inactive. The Force whispered a sense of confusion to her that settled as she told it that Ezra just wasn't ready for that kind of connection yet and that they could have him back when he was older. And then she went through all of his memories and erased anything that had to do with his Force powers or their own. And then, as the final straw that nearly broke her, she cut his bond to them so that it was nothing more than the most fragile of strings. He would probably be able to still sense if they were alive, but he wouldn't be able to hear their thoughts anymore or sense where they were.
Now that she had effectively removed her son of one of his senses, Mira opened her eyes again. "It's done. The suppression should hold until he's a teenager, at the very least, and trickle back to him in stages so he won't be overwhelmed."
Ephraim gave her a wan smile. "I understand why you had to do it, but I feel like a very bad parent right now."
Mira returned his sad smile as she lay Ezra back down under the covers and tucked him back in. "So do I. And there's something else I bet you haven't thought of yet."
Ephraim raised a brow as they settled down around their son, neither willing to leave him right now even though it was nowhere near their normal bedtime. "What's that?"
Mira gave him her best serious look. "We have to stop using the Force, too, or he'll remember what he's missing."
Ephraim sagged into the bed, staring up at the ceiling in disbelief. "Kriff, that's going to suck."
Mira snorted at that colossal understatement. "Like the vacuum of space, dear."
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
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