(A/N)- I may or may not have mentioned that I'm a complete sucker for "found families/badass crews protecting their youngest/most vulnerable members" so really, it was only a matter of time before a Rebels version squeezed out of me.

Each chapter (excluding this one and the last one) will focus on a different character. Most of these are set early Season One, though a couple will creep into Season Two. Enjoy, dear readers!

Disclaimer: Yeah, no, I don't think so. Disney owns all rights and trademarks here.

Chapter 1

Blaster fire pinged over Kanan's head as he yelled into the comlink. "Spectre 2, I need an ETA on that pickup!" he said, firing back at the Stormtroopers.

"Less than a minute, Spectre 1," Hera replied. "I'm almost on top of you."

Indeed, above the din of battle and the rattling and clacking beneath their feet, Kanan could hear a familiar distant whine growing ever-louder. He turned and planted his feet a moment to steady his aim, letting Zeb and Sabine pass by him, both firing into the squadron of troopers pursuing them.

"Approaching your coordinates," came Hera's voice again. "I can set down on the field."

"Scratch that," Kanan said. "We're mobile. You're gonna have to match speed and scoop us up."

By "mobile", Kanan meant "currently running along the top of a hover train". Hera would want to hear the story later. Right now, they had to focus on getting their crew to safety.

It was time to pull out his lightsaber.

Both parts came off his belt and clipped together neatly, the blade igniting with a hiss. A few of the Stormtroopers gave a pause, as they always did whenever Kanan revealed himself as a Jedi, but they quickly got over their hesitation and resumed their charge. Kanan deflected blaster bolts back at them, felling at least two with direct hits.

Another trooper seized up, yellow electricity arcing through his body, and dropped to his knees stunned. Two others had to grab hold of him so he didn't slide off the train.

Kanan glanced over at the one responsible for the stun pellet, the newest addition to their crew, Ezra Bridger. The teen was furiously loading and reloading his energy slingshot, yanking back the crackling strings with a practiced ease.

He was so focused he was backing up dangerously close to the gap between the next car and theirs. Kanan touched his shoulder gently to call his attention to it, his hand on the kid's back as Ezra turned and leapt over the empty space.

"Kanan, we're running out of train!" the boy said worriedly, resuming position and once again laying into the pursuing troopers with his slingshot.

"Hera's incoming!" Kanan yelled. "Keep going!"

Sabine ahead of them fired at a trooper that was getting too close, then caught sight of something in her helmet's sharpened vision. "More bad news!" she called out. "Look!"

She pointed. Coming alongside the train was an Imperial ground transport, bursting with Stormtroopers, led by a gray-clad ISB agent in a familiar helmet.

"Oh wonderful," Zeb growled, voice dripping with sarcasm, gripping his bo-rifle's hilt tighter. "Agent Kallus is here."

"That's just what we needed," Kanan groaned.

With just a quick glance at each other and without needing to say anything, the two older men moved to close ranks and block the troopers' light of sight to the younger Spectres, Zeb very deliberately stepping in front of Ezra. The Lasat squeezed his rifle and didn't even wait for Kallus to disembark from the ground transport before firing in his direction. No way he was letting that blasted Imperial get his hands on the kid this time.

A shadow fell across their heads. They glanced up briefly to see the Ghost dropping towards them, moving up to hover above the last front two cars of the train and hold there, the ramp lowering and light spilling out from the cargo bay.

"Ride's here!" Sabine chirped with a grin, stowing her blasters and making a run for it.

She hopped up on the ramp, followed by Ezra and Zeb. Kanan waited a moment after them, deflecting a couple last shots as he backed up, then jumped up onto the ramp himself. Blaster bolts followed on his heels. Ezra lingered on the ramp, covering his retreat, while Sabine waited just inside the door, ready to hit the button to close it up behind him.

The warning in the Force had Kanan whipping around, almost in tandem with Sabine's shout of, "Look out!"

Blaster bolts sprayed across the ramp, pinging into the cargo hold, all around their heads.

One sparked right under Ezra's feet, upsetting his footing.

He teetered off the edge of the ramp with a yelp, falling clean off.

"Ezra!" Kanan and Sabine yelled almost at the same time.

"Kid!" Zeb cried a split-second later.

A palpable panic seized them. Kanan and Zeb both rushed to the end of the ramp to look down, while Sabine stepped away from the controls, yanking out one of her blasters and shooting fervently into the crowd of advancing troopers atop the train.

Fortunately Ezra had hit the top of the last car and not gone rolling off. Not-so-fortunately he was dazed from the landing, and the Stormtroopers were almost on him.

"Hera, stay put! Don't peel off yet!" Kanan shouted into the comlink. Zeb had already jumped down at once, and Kanan was right after him, lightsaber raised and spinning, a blur of motion.

"Kanan?" came Hera's voice, anxious, full of worry. "What happened? What's going on?"

"Ezra's down," Kanan explained, Force-pushing a trooper that had made it to Ezra—and was starting to drag him up by the arm—backwards, breaking his hold and making him stumble. Zeb and Sabine finished the job moments later, Zeb smacking an arm into the man's chest to knock him aside and Sabine's shots putting him down between the cars.

Zeb made it to Ezra's side as Kanan ran up to guard them, helping the boy up.

"I'm okay..." Ezra groaned, rubbing his head.

"Hurry!" Sabine called down to them, frantically. Kallus was closing in, pushing through the midst of his troopers towards Kanan.

Zeb didn't hesitate, physically lifting Ezra onto the Ghost's ramp and pushing the boy ahead of him. Kanan glanced back over his shoulder to make sure they were both safely inside, before gathering the Force to himself and letting it explode, pushing the advancing troopers hard.

They yelled and flailed as they went flying, crashing into each other. Kallus was knocked back into a knot of his own men and wound up dangling off the side of a car, clinging to a handhold for dear life.

Kanan shouted for Hera to take off and leapt onto the ramp, making it into the hold in three bounds. Sabine punched the door control before he was even fully inside, and it sealed up behind them, the Ghost roaring away triumphantly.

For several moments after their escape, though, the room seemed to hold its breath.

Ezra rubbed down his arm, brushing unseen dirt away and looking slightly uncomfortable. "Not that I don't appreciate the save," he said, "but I could've totally handled that."

Zeb grinned, holstering his bo rifle in its spot on his back. "Sure, kid," he said, humoring him.

Ezra caught the underlying sarcasm and made a face, about to insist very strongly that yes he could have gotten himself out of the situation, but was interrupted from that by Kanan, who took him by the shoulders.

"Are you hurt?" Kanan asked.

"No," Ezra replied, simmering down a little.

He felt Sabine's hand ghosting by his shoulder. "You sure?" she pressed him. "You took a pretty hard tumble back there." Her tone was playful but there was an anxious light behind her eyes.

The teen turned his head, flushing slightly. "Maybe a few bruises from when I landed," he admitted.

"Let me see," Kanan decided, reaching for Ezra's arm.

Ezra shrugged him off. "It's nothing, Kanan, really. You don't have to fuss over me."

Kanan pursed his lips with reluctance, but after looking Ezra over with his eyes one last time reassured himself that the boy wasn't hurt, and backed off.

Ezra was about to breathe a sigh of relief—honestly, everyone always hovered so damn close whenever anything remotely bad happened to him—but then they heard the hiss and snap of a door opening and a flutter at the upper railing.

"Are you all right?" came the sound of Hera's voice, worried and full of motherly concern. She'd slid down the ladder and appeared at his side within seconds, touching his face and shoulders, checking him over. "Chopper said you fell off the ramp. Is anything broken?"

The teen bit back an exhale of exasperation, keenly aware of Sabine and Zeb holding in muffled laughter behind him.

"I'm fine, Hera," he said. Again with the fussing. He didn't get it. He really didn't. "Nothing's broken. I barely even got bruised. I promise." He stepped back, batting away her hands. "Really, why is everyone making such a big deal out of it?" he grumbled.

"Ya fell onto a moving hover train, kid," Zeb piped up, shifting a cargo crate slightly so he could lean back onto it, folding his powerful arms. "That could've ended very badly."

"Kanan falls off things all the time and no one bats an eyelash," Ezra pointed out. "Sabine almost got caught in one of her own explosions last week and all you guys did was scold her and tell her to be more careful next time. Why is it whenever I get in a tight pinch, you all rush to the rescue?" he complained, crossing his arms with a glower.

Sabine reached over, mussing up his hair affectionately. "'cause you're the baby, Ezra, and we have to protect you," she cooed.

Ezra mumbled something under his breath, looking at the floor in awkward embarrassment.

Hera smiled gently and pushed a strand of Ezra's hair away from his face. "We just want to make sure you're okay, Ezra," she told him. She didn't voice her other thought—that maybe the crew all still felt a little bit guilty for leaving him behind at the beginning. "You haven't been with us very long so you're not as experienced at this kind of thing as we are."

At that, he lifted up his face and grinned. "Hey, I've been running away from Stormtroopers since I was seven. I think I do okay."

Unvoiced tension seemed to ease out of the atmosphere. Kanan felt his posture relaxing, and stepped over to take Hera by the waist and guide her towards the door. "All right, enough chit chat. If you're sure you're okay, I'll see you up in the turret for some target practice."

Ezra lit up excitedly, trotting after the two like a kid on the heels of his parents. "So when do I get to learn that neat Force trick you used back there?" he asked eagerly.

"Patience."