Hi all! This takes place after the Heroes of Mandalore special in Eps. 1 and 2 of Season 4, in an AU where the war still hasn't intensified to such a harsh point and things are still relatively calm. I'm not too experienced as a writer, so if you find any logic or grammar errors, please feel free to call them out. I need all the help I can get xD.

Note: Chapters are read best with 3/4 boundaries and an expanded view. Just a little tip.

Anyways, here you are!

"After him!"

The sound of stormtroopers chasing him filled Ezra with adrenaline. He had been running like this for what seemed like hours.

Well, of course, that was only because of the nauseating smell emanating from Zeb. In the years they had known each other, Ezra had never gone one day without catching a whiff of the foul stench that plagued the Lasat day and night.

The cool breeze and the smell of food coming from the streets below them was relaxing, although whenever they looked down to locate the source they were greeted with blaster shots.

"Would've been a great day to lie down and listen to some music..." Zeb groaned as he turned to his right to shoot at the troopers on the streets. As his shots continued to scrape the dust beneath the troopers' feet, one started to laugh.

"Hah, he missed! The rebel missed!" the trooper said, before getting blown away by a rather colorful explosive.

Sabine rode up beside the pair, taking off her helmet and smirking at Zeb.

"You know, I'm seriously beginning to think you are one of those bucketheads 'cuz of the way you shoot sometimes."

"Yeah, buckethead!" Ezra repeated, earning a jab in response.

A stern voice called through the three's wrist-coms. "Stop fooling around, kids. I can sense TIEs coming your way." Kanan said.

"We'll come pick you up once those TIEs are out. We can't risk the Ghost, her shields are too damaged!" Hera added, turning the ship around and heading towards the mountains. They watched as the ship faded off into the horizon, then turned back around to face the oncoming hostiles.

"Well, looks like we're on our own," said Ezra, readying his lightsaber.

The screeching sound of the 2 TIE Fighters rang in their ears as they flew past, blowing dust across Lothal's Capital City. "Hey, that doesn't seem too bad!" he said, before getting knocked off the building by the blasts of a TIE Defender. Sabine rolled her eyes. "Way to go, hotshot..." she said, as she put on her helmet and took off.

"Karrabast," Zeb muttered, changing his bo-rifle to staff form. He grunted as he jumped into the air and latched onto the wing of a TIE with the staff. "Don't take too long, kid!" he yelled, before getting pulled away with the fighter.

"Ow.." Ezra groaned, rubbing his head as he stood up and dusted himself off. "Wish I still had one of those jetpacks..." he said, before jumping up to another rooftop and closing his eyes.

"Fighter 2, get behind me. I'm blasting the caps off these mountains." The sound of huge boulders crashing into each other could be heard as the mountainous landscape was reduced to rubble. As the TIEs came out of the settling dust, something stirred on the leading TIE's wing.

"Hold on, Fighter 6. Circle right. The Lasat's on your left wing." said the pilot.

"Roger that, Fighter 2. Can you shoot at him from your position?" asked the leading pilot. No response came. "Fighter 2, do you copy?" Still no response. "Fighter 2, what's your status?"

"Sorry, but uh, Fighter 2's taking a nap right now. Maybe you should, too~!" Sabine responded in a cocky, teasing tone. "Huh?" were the pilot's last words, before he got knocked unconscious by Zeb. His body was grabbed and thrown to the floor, and the Lasat took over the controls. "Hehehe..." Zeb chuckled, maneuvering the TIE around in order to play ping-pong with the pilot's limp body.

"Nice going, Zeb."

"What else didja expect?"

Sabine grunted as her ship was suddenly bombarded by the Defender. "What's with Ezra? He's taking too long!" she said, struggling to control the TIE.

"Give him some time, Sabine. He needs to focus." came Kanan's voice.

"Well if he doesn't focus faster we're both gonna turn to dust!" snapped Zeb, spinning around to cover Sabine as she took the lead.

Focus. Remember what Master Yoda said.

Ezra stood deathly still as he tried to seek out the Defender's pilot with the Force. The surrounding citizens that were now coming out to watch were somehow distracting him. He had missed being with his people, and the constant flow of missions from the Rebellion had kept the crew extremely busy the past few months.

Now that he was back, memories of his experiences on Lothal constantly attacked his conscience and made him lose focus.

Ezra shook his head in frustration, trying to find something to focus on. Then he remembered the first time he received a birthday present - Sabine's gift on his 14th birthday. The holodisc she gave him had contained a picture of him and his parents, an image that had immediately calmed him down.

Finally focused, Ezra closed his eyes once more. Breathing slowly, he sought out the mind of the Defender's pilot and took hold of it.

"Ugh.." Sabine's body slammed from side to side as she struggled to keep the TIE steady.

"He should be here any minute now. I can sense him," assured Kanan.

Sabine yelped as one of the TIE's wings came off. "Ezra, get over here, now!" she screamed into the wrist-com, panicking at the sight of the Defender moving up in front of her.

"Hey, Sabine!" Ezra said, waving as he popped out of the hatch on the Defender. Sabine sighed in relief, jumping out of her TIE and into his.

She closed the hatch, opening up one of the folded seats on the walls and sitting down. "That was too close, Ezra. What took you so long?" she asked, as she took off her helmet. Ezra scratched his head, grinning sheepishly. "Sorry. It's just, it's been a while since we've been back here, and I got distracted," he said meekly.

She smiled sympathetically, giving him a short hug. "Don't worry. Trust your people like I do mine. They'll be fine. Besides, they have Ryder, right?" she said, giving him a playful punch. "Come on, we gotta get back to Hera," she said as she took the controls.

Ezra smiled, mentally slapping himself for getting too distracted. "Right."

Noticing a set of stormtrooper pilot armor, Sabine raised her eyebrows. "Ezra?"

"Yeah?"

"..Where's the pilot..?"

Ezra grinned, scratching the back of his head. "Ah, don't worry. I uh, took care of him."

Sabine narrowed her eyes, but then dismissed it. "Alright," she said, shrugging as she turned back around.

Sitting back down on the wall bench, Ezra tried his best to stop laughing out loud.

Kanan and Hera stood by the bay door as they watched the three land their TIEs and come inside.

"Good job, kids. You got the objective?" Hera said, outstretching her hand.

"You betcha." Ezra grinned, placing the droid part in her hand.

Chopper, who had been lazing around on the ship during the mission, beeped happily, waving his arms around. Hera took hold of the part and installed it on the droid's headpiece.

"Happy, Chop?" Hera said, crossing her arms. Chopper beeped happily in response.

"Hey, how about we go to my room and give you a new paintjob?" Sabine teased, chasing after the droid with paint cans in her hands.

Zeb groaned, shaking his head and stretching. "Still can't believe we did all this for a stupid transmitter..."

Meanwhile..

The pilot awoke in a dark, rather stinky pit. He looked around him, seeing nothing but black.

"Hello?" his voice echoed, as he tried to get up. His hands squashed something furry, and he yelped in response. I don't have my armor, he realized, shaking in fear.

All of a sudden, light shone upon his exposed body. "Ah! A citizen! Get me out of this hole right now, darn you! I am an Imperial Elite! I will not stand for this tomfoolery!" he yelled, furious.

The light dimmed down to reveal the face of a beaten-up scavenger. "Ah, wel, henlo dere, misters Impal. Dun wory, well be the beast of fwends.." he said, extending his grimy hand towards the face of the pilot.

And screams of agony resounded across the pit of..well...hell, I suppose.

That was the first chapter! I'm still working on my sentence structure and pacing, and there're probably a lot of grammatical errors, so forgive me. I'll try to improve as I go along, so for now, this is the best I can do. I'll try posting new chapters every week or so, although that might not be true at all, taking evidence from my past series xD.

Anyways, thanks for reading, and stay tuned for more!