New fic! I thought I was on a sort of hiatus because I hadn't gotten as much feedback on my more recent stories, but nahhh.
I don't own anything Star Wars related. And of course, I got the prompt idea from the swrrequests blog: "A general Star Wars Au based off of a joke from Lego Star Wars: Freelancer Chronicles. Where in Good and Evil, Dark side and The Light is interchangeable with one's mood. Where when you're in a good mood, you and your force is good, but when you are in a bad mode, your on the dark side, and so is your force and your eyes are yellow. The rest of the galaxy thinks ALL force users are over emotional and way to sensitive. Just imagine Kanan and Ezra in that kind of AU?" I've never seen the Freelancer Chronicles, but I thought the idea was kinda fun!
Title comes from the Jedi Code!
This particular chapter is based off of the episode "Fighter Flight." Enjoy!
Kanan grins, watching Hera as she waltzes in and slumps down next to him, looking weary and tired. He gives her his best charming smile, taking his focus off of his strategy game with Chopper. Chopper waves his arms and wubs when his player smashes Kanan's, and he rolls away in victory, beeping derisively. Kanan rolls his eyes, and Hera smiles.
"I have to admit," he says, leaning back and shifting over to make some more room for her, "it's a lot more peaceful with the kids gone." He leans back, rests his head on the seat behind him, and closes his eyes.
"Yeah," Hera agrees, "but I feel a bit guilty about sending them on a-"
"A wild Meiloorun chase?" Kanan interrupts with a snort, leaning forward. He opens his mouth to rib her some more, but the comm crackles and Zeb's sheepish voice comes online.
"Specter Four to Ghost?"
Hera sighs, relieved, and Kanan shifts closer. "Ah, right on cue." She holds the comm up to her mouth and presses the button. "Go ahead, Specter Four."
"Ah, well, we've had a bit of a problem..."
Hera gives him an amused look, one he returns just as easily, a grin twitching at the corners of his lips. "I thought you might," she says. "Well, look, don't worry about the Meiloorun, just-"
"Oh!" Ezra interrupts, and Kanan leans back again, shaking his head in amusement at his newfound Padawan. "Meilooruns. Yeah, we found some, and then we lost them, and then we found them again, but we smashed them, and-"
Zeb's angry voice hisses in the background, accompanied by the shrill whine of a TIE fighter. "Just cut to the chase!"
Kanan lurches forward, snatched the comm from Hera's hand, his smile vanishing in an instant. "Wait, what am I hearing?!" he snaps, and Hera shoots him a concerned look. "It sounds like-"
"Yeah, about that," Ezra pipes up again. Zeb is silent. "See, um, well, we stole a TIE fighter."
"You WHAT?!" Kanan hisses, and his anger immediately surges out through the Force. It is all-consuming, his anger, and he feels the familiar tell-tale tingle of what is to come building in his limbs. He hears Zeb mumble something through the rush of blood pounding in his ears, and he grits his teeth. "Get rid of it, now!"
"Do we have to?" Zeb and Ezra whine, and Kanan puts his head in his hands, doing his best to calm himself down before he does something he regrets. It works for a moment, with a few steadying breaths, and he feels the tingling begin to subside.
"At least tell me you dismantled the locator beacon?" he grits out, and his anger flares again at the sound of Zeb's forced chuckle. There's no avoiding it now, and he can already sense Hera's growing wariness beside him.
"Heh, of course! We're not fools." Kanan hears him mumble instructions about the wires to Ezra where he thinks they can't hear, and he grips the table so hard his knuckles turn white. Hera rests a gentle hand in the crook of his elbow, but it's not enough to calm the roaring in his ears. He swivels his head to look at her, and she cringes back; his eyes must have already changed color, then; the edges of his vision are already beginning to blur.
"It's the red and the blue!" he snaps, lowering his gaze to the comm in front of him so he doesn't have to look at Hera.
"Right, got it!" Ezra says after the tell-tale snip of wires being cut. "Wait, I mean, got it a long time ago! You know, back when we first boarded, right away. Immediately."
"Stealing a TIE attracts unwanted attention," Kanan continues, tone ragged and harsh. "Rendezvous at Shadow Site 2. Fly straight there; do not stop, and don't do anything!"
"On our way," Zeb says, and he sounds strangely subdued. Ezra doesn't say anything.
"I will deal with you two then," Kanan hisses, and he can practically hear the audible gulps on the other end.
"Specter Four out."
The comm crackles and dies, and Kanan lowers the comm from his mouth. He passes it back to Hera and stands, hands pressed tightly to his thighs.
"Kanan," Hera says soothingly. "Everything is going to be fine."
He makes a frustrated sound in the back of his throat and paces, hands clenched tightly behind his back.
The door swings open, and Sabine pokes her head in. "I heard yelling," she says. "What's going on?"
Kanan spins around, and Sabine's eyes widen when she sees his face.
"Ooh-kay," she says, holding up her hands in defense. "Forget I said anything." She disappears from the doorway, and Kanan lets out a frustrated breath.
"I need some air," he growls. Hera shifts behind him, but she doesn't say anything. Without waiting for a response, he stalks out of the living room and down the hallway, heading for the ramp. He catches a glimpse of himself in the reflective beam of the door; his eyes are yellow and rimmed red, face pale and lined.
He narrows his eyes and continues on out the door, sure to use the Force to slam the door closed behind him with more force than necessary.
"Kanan feels... weird," Ezra says immediately after Zeb hangs up.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Zeb grunts, doing his best to try and figure out what direction they're supposed to be traveling in.
"I dunno," Ezra says, brow furrowing just a tad. "I can't describe it. It's Kanan, but at the same time it's not what he normally feels like."
Zeb opens his mouth to speak, looking troubled, but Ezra catches a glimpse of smoke funneling in the distance, and the conversation is quickly forgotten.
Zeb's been strangely quiet the entire walk back to the Ghost, looking almost... worried? It's the same look he wore when Ezra first mentioned Kanan feeling different, and he's not quite sure what exactly is the cause for so much concern.
"Kanan is going to kill us," Ezra moans, flinging himself against Zeb's shoulder. He looks up to catch his reaction, and if possible, Zeb's face seems to pale even more. "Zeb? I was kidding; Kanan's not really gonna kill us."
Zeb grunts. "Kid, don't take this the wrong way or anything, but I wouldn't be so sure."
"... What's that supposed to mean?!"
"Have you ever been around another Jedi before? Or studied them in The Clone War in school or anything?"
"... No? I thought the Empire wiped them all out. We weren't allowed to learn about them."
"Jedi are... moody. And when you get a pissed Jedi, you get a scary Jedi. And we just majorly pissed Kanan off."
Ezra gulps, a thrill of apprehension suddenly flitting down his spine. "What does that mean?"
Zeb shrugs. "I've only seen Kanan like that once. I accidentally walked in on him and Hera, uh, discussing somethin', and he got really angry, really fast."
"I think I'd be angry, too, if you walked in on me talking about something really important," Ezra says innocently, and Zeb just stares at him for a moment and shakes his head.
"Okay, first off, kid, remind me to tell Kanan to give you The Talk. And second, that wasn't all. The room turned really cold, and his eyes..." Zeb shudders, and Ezra's eyes grow wide.
"His eyes... what?"
"They turned yellow," Zeb says dramatically, and Ezra pauses for a moment before bursting out into laughter, bending over and hitting his knee.
"Yellow?" Ezra snorts. "Next time, pick a cooler color."
"Kid, I'm serious," Zeb says, looking half unhappy and half embarrassed at the laughter. "If you don't wanna believe me, fine, but it's your head on a lightsaber for it."
"Kanan wouldn't kill us," Ezra says cheerfully, flicking his hand dismissively in Zeb's direction, "even if his eyes got all yellow and cold like that."
Zeb raises an eyebrow. "And why do ya think that?"
"Because Hera wouldn't let him."
Zeb pauses for a moment and snickers, agreeing. He digs an elbow into Ezra's ribs, laughing when he whines and bats him away.
"Come on," Zeb says, mussing his hair. "We're late enough already. Let's not push it."
"They should've been here by now," Kanan growls, leaning up against the boarding ramp of the Ghost. Hera's lekku twitch in front of him, but she doesn't turn around to look. He scans the distance to the east, his stomach churning.
"Over there!" she says, pointing out into the north. Two lone figures are slowly making their way towards the ship, and Hera trots forward to meet them halfway. Kanan's not too far behind, and he stands with his arms crossed to her left.
"One fresh Meiloorun, as ordered," Zeb says to them with a grin, placing the battered fruit into Hera's outstretched hands.
"Thank you, kind sir," Hera says, a trace of sarcasm buried in the line, but Zeb's smile doesn't change, even when he knocks heavily into Ezra's shoulder.
"Team effort," he shrugs, and Ezra beams up at him.
That's certainly different, Hera notices, and a tiny pleased smile works her way up on her face.
"Forget about the fruit," Kanan snaps, waving his hand, and Zeb immediately snaps around and straightens up. "Where's the TIE fighter?" His emotions are still shielded from Ezra, but he notices the kid staring at him curiously, and he raises an eyebrow.
Zeb's smile drops, and with a groan, he looks at the ground sadly. "We crashed it."
"On purpose!" Ezra chimes in, tearing his gaze from Kanan's face long enough to look at Hera. "We didn't want it to fall back into the Empire's hands." He holds up the pilot's black helmet and shakes it gently, and Zeb twitches an ear in his direction.
Kanan sighs, nodding his head. Relief bubbles up in his chest, replacing some of the anger and worry, and his shoulders loosen up. "That's what I like to hear." Without waiting for further explanations, he turns and walks back onto the Ghost, listening to the pad of Hera's boots behind him.
He lets her pass him to go to the cockpit and ducks into the refresher, placing both hands on either side of the sink and looking into the mirror. Before his eyes, the brilliant, piercing yellow of his eyes slowly fades back into their usual green. He sighs again, rubbing a hand over his face, and expels the rest of his anger into the Force. Zeb and Ezra knock into the wall as they pass, and he can still sense a vague sense of curiosity and uneasiness building in Ezra.
Kanan groans again. The kid was curious, almost as curious as he was as a Padawan. Granted, it was endearing at times, but mostly annoying. How his master put up with him, he had no idea. But all this meant he was going to have to talk about the mood shifts, and soon, before they happened to him.
But when do things ever go according to plan?
I'm thinking this is going to be a multi-chap fic (yay!), so if you have any suggestions for chapters or specific angry!Ezra or Kanan episodes in canon, feel free to suggest them!
R&R!