Authors notes: Just a bit of fun here.. something That popped into my head while thinking about the fact that in the after math of "Fire" Kanan was probably running on pure force of will alone, and when the crash hit he probably would sleep for a while. Strange things are bound to run through one's head while recovering from what happened to him.. So here is something I did just purely for fun. Some of my other fave star wars characters have guest shots ( yes I know SWTFU is now legends but I HAD to do this !) So enjoy.. pls R&R... ok to disagree with the ideas in this story but BE MATURE! NO FLAMES!
PC p.s. Kanan is a pain in the butt to write!
What might have been:
"Caleb?"
He heard someone calling that old name from so far away he wasn't sure what it was, a dream, or vision or something else entirely. He jumped a bit when something gently prodded his shoulder and he heard someone call that name a second time.
"Caleb?" another soft prod, "Caleb wake up."
He blinked open his eyes and lifted his head from his arm wondering who in the galaxy could POSSIBLY be calling him by that name. Hera would never do it. Ezra didn't know it. Ahsoka might but she had not said if she recognized him as Master Bilbala's student. No, there is no one alive that would call Kanan Jarrus by that name. So it didn't come as much of a shock as it should have, when he opened his eyes and saw a dead woman smiling down at him.
"oh no," he thought, "I DIED. I died and crossed over to the Force!"
For her part his master smiled at him and leaned back, "So fell asleep reading those old battle texts again did we my young tactician?"
He blinked up at her and rubbed his eyes, the proceeded to freeze. He looked down at him self and he was wearing the same as her. Jedi robes.
"uhhh.." He tried to answer her but nothing would come out.
"Well I'm glad I found you," She grinned at him, "Master Windu is about to have nexu babies."
Kanan opened his mouth to say something more when said second in command of the order poked his head into the reading room where he had apparently fallen asleep and demanded, "Did you FINALLY find him?"
Kanan watched as Depa turned to face her own former Master and nodded, "oh yes. Same place he always is when he's not on a mission or training his Little Genius, reading up on how to make him self a better master."
"Well," Windu nearly growled, "Get him up and get him down to the dining hall and have him separate his Padwan from Skywalker's brats! The three class prodigies are down there commiserating with one another and ten times to one I bet they are planning on taking over and reformatting the order... AGAIN. So tell him to go break it up!"
Kanan watched as the older master stormed off and his master turned to him with that impish grin she could display so well, "I am sorry for that Caleb. But he seems to think those three have it in for him after the prank with the droid the other night. Galen and Luke seemed to have been behind that one. Your Padawn was only there accidentally. Still you had better go and collect Ezra any how. You two need to get cleaned up and get ready. The Delegation from Ryloth will be here soon and Senator Syndulla will be bringing that daughter of his you like so well." She paused and winked at him, "You will want your self and your padawan to be presentable of course."
He shook his head slowly and finally managed to do something that resembled a nod. She gave him quick pat on the arm and turned and left. Kanan caught his image in one of the panels in the library that was reflective, and gaped. He was in full traditional Jedi robes but his hair wasn't slicked back in its normal pony tail. Only the top half was pulled back. The bottom hung down and fluffed out slightly. He stared for a few seconds and then turned and headed out into the temple.
Out side the place was pretty much as he had always remembered it. Hundreds of Jedi going about their business just as if the night mare of order 66 had never happened. As if there had been no genocide and he and all of the others were living the life they were meant to live all along.
He walked past the training room and there, sure enough, stood yoda with his traditional class of younglings, learning how to use their first sabers. He stopped and blinked for a second and received a few waves and a "HELLO MASTER DUME!" from all of the kids there in.
That creeped him out more than he would have liked to have admitted and so he continued on his way again. A few more moments he came around what looked like a new addition to the temple. A chapel.
Several of the younger Jedi were helping decorate the place along with a tall blond man with icy blue eyes.
"Now you have to make it perfect kids!" He called to them, "This is only the second wedding we are holding here and I want it to be the best it can be."
One of the younglings turned and grinned at him, "We will do our best Master Skywalker! We all want it to be perfect for Master Kenobi and The Dutchess!"
Kanan froze and thought for a second that he might fall through the floor when Skywalker caught sight of him and came out with a smile, "Pretty good Huh Dume?"
Kanan nodded numbly and Skywalker continued to smile at him, "Hey when we are done with Obiwan and Satine," He paused and winked at Kanan, "How about we get it ready for you and Hera. That is.. if your not terrified of Senator Syndulla."
"Ummmmm..." Kanan backed up a bit from this man as he felt his own cheeks heat up. Skywalker only smiled at him.
"Don't worry," He winked again, "No rush man. Just make sure you tell me when you are ready ok? You'd Better go on and go separate those kids before Master Windu has an embolism."
Then headed back in to continue helping the kids with the decorations.
By this point Kanan was honestly considering turning around, running back to his room, slamming the door and having a panic attack in private. There was however, another part of him that really did want to see what everyone was talking about, so he continued on to the dining hall.
On the way down he managed to notice a lot of other things. The first which was a large cadre of Lasat and a young Honor guard who grinned and waved. He waved back at this version of Zeb having NO idea how they would know each other in this life.
Next there was a large group of people in formal mandolorian armor, including Sabine, all standing around having a conversation with what looked like a large group of Twi'leks. Kanan proceeded to spot Hera in the crowd next to a large, powerful looking Twi'lek gentle man that he assumed could only be Hera's father Cham. The man gave him a dirty look, the same kind he knew he had given many guys as they had flirted with Sabine. While he caught Hera's eye and she grinned at him.
While it was nice to know that his connections to those people he cared about still existed in this world He was starting to get a VERY weirded out when he finally made it down to the dining hall.
He got there just as a brown haired girl the same age as Ezra in Jedi robes walked out in a huff.
"Boys are SO STUPID!" he turned to him and proceeded to tell him, "Your padawan Master Dume, My brother and My Father's padwan are ALL SO STUPID! IM going to find MY master Ahsoka and report you brats!"
She then proceeded to storm off and he looked in the direction she had pointed.
At the table he could see three young people in the process of having what looked like breakfast.
One was a Blond boy with Skywalker's ice blue eyes and blond hair, cut in the traditional burr cut of a padawan and sporting a braid. Next to him was an older boy with dark hair and dark eyes, looking about 18-21 who was grinning at him. Finally there sat Ezra, his own hair trimmed down other than the braid and his electric blue eyes full of mischef and fun.
"Wow your sister as a temper Luke," The dark haired older boy commented, "She's not related to My Master at all."
Ezra and Luke both grinned over that one.
"Well," the blond boy grinned, "She DOES kind have his temper."
"Your not that bad?" Ezra asked him, "ARE you?"
The blond boy grinned, "I try not to be. But he's not my Master. I'm master Kenobi's padawan." He smiled and motioned to the older boy again , "Galen Is my father's student."
The older had a mouth full of food but grinned at the younger ones.
"Wow," Ezra told them, "We missed a lot being out in the rim so long."
The older boy swallowed, "Ya but you got to take your trial of insight on Lothal! That's pretty cool. Most of us got stuck taking it on Illum. You got an actual Kaiibur crystal."
Ezra blushed, "It was pretty awesome. Such a cool little temple, its all hid under the ground and stuff, and..."
He looked up and saw me and smiled, "Hi Master!"
The other two boys looked up and smiled at him as well. He was almost about to accept this and walk over to them when everything started shifting.
That was when He realized that what He was seeing wasn't real. Maybe it was all in my head, or just wish fulfillment for Him because he had been in so much pain at the hands of the empire.
What ever it was He realized that this ideal life he was seeing, could NEVER BE.
That was when everything around me changed. his own jedi robes melted away and he was back in his normal clothes and armor.
The image of the three padawans before him , bled and ran like melting candle tallow and then reformed into reality.
The blond boy had vanished and the two young men before me were no longer the happy healthy padawans He had seen moments before. The life they SHOULD have had vanished and the reality took its place again, two orphans who had been robbed of that happiness by the Evil of a few men that should have been trying to think of others, but had only thought of them selves. Thought only of what they could gain and destroyed not just these innocent lives but more than could ever be counted.
He saw Ezra and the other young man sitting not near each other talking happily now but at opposite ends of the room, both of them brooding.
"I'm so sorry Ezra," He thought to himself , "I wish I could give you that life."
He felt someone come up behind him and turned as he once again felt the touch on his arm. There stood his master smiling up at him.
"I'm sorry Kanan," She told him, "I use your name from now because that is what fits you."
He blushed and looked away.
"Don't be," He told her, "you didn't cause this. The empire did. I just wish I could fix it. Those boys don't deserve to be Orphans or alone."
"It is wonderful you care those boys," She hugged him, "I am so proud of you. But.. you are wrong."
He blinked at her, "Master?"
"They aren't orphans any more."
She motioned back to the scene in the mess hall. The older young man looked up and finally smiled a bit as a tall imposing man with white hair and white eyes, proceeded to come in and tell him To quit moping, They'd just have to Catch "him" again. The dark eyed young man's mouth quirked up at the side and he nodded. Then got up to follow the older man.
At the same instant Hera appeared in the mess hall to get Ezra, telling him excitedly that someone had told him that I was going to wake up soon and he needed to get there.
Both of them nodded and followed the people that had come to get them with a quick glance back at each other. As if they were some how aware of what might have been but were content with what was.
"Thank you Master," Kanan told her, "I did need to see that."
"Your welcome my padawan," She gave him a hug, "Now go check on yours. he's worried sick."
the dream world finally dissolved completely and he opened his eyes to look into the worried faces of his crew.
Ezra nearly tackled him as he walked in to the room and Everyone else smiled and said that they were glad he was on the way to mending.
"Yah," He told them giving Ezra a hug back.
"Are you going to be ok?" Ezra asked him.
" I don't know," kanan sat up a little more, "Seeing what might have been is never easy. But seeing that no matter what world I'm in, that you are my student, made it worth it."
Ezra hugged him, "Thank you Kanan."
"No kid," He smiled, " thank you, for what is, what might have been and what will be."