So... Our worst fear happened. I'm still processing it, but I always do that via writing, so here you go.

I'll always come back.

It kept repeating in Ezra's head, like a broken holo recording. A little distorted from age, but clear enough that the words latched onto his mind like a parasite. It was ridiculous to be so preoccupied with these words. It was downright absurd. As much as he wished the words were true, he knew what he saw. He knew what he felt. He had practically heard the snap as their Force bond broke. The blowback had been so painful he ended up vomiting over the edge out the side of the ship as they fled.

I'll always come back.

In his mind's eye, he could see his master turning back to face him with a small knowing smile. But then it transformed. Kanan was wreathed in fire, his expression one of peace and resolve as he gazed back at them.

His master was gone. And he was never coming back.

Fear stirred in the bottom of his stomach, hot and agitated. He was just so lost. In the past, he would have just asked Kanan for advice, for guidance. But now he was gone, and there was nowhere left for him to go. He couldn't do this alone. He would fail. Like he always did.

"You didn't prepare me for this, Kanan…" He looked up and stared at the empty space in front of him.

I'll always come back.

The fear bubbled up and seized his throat and lungs, burning them like acid. Not this time, he thought bitterly.

"What do I do now?"

A low growl broke through his grief. He looked up toward the source of the sound, his eyes widening at the sight of the white lothwolf. It did not look happy.

He scrambled to his feet, hands out placatingly. "I guess you know about Kanan too, then…?"

The wolf snarled at him. "You…!"

A stab of pain lanced his heart at the accusation, but he ignored it as he took a step back from the giant beast. "What's wrong?"

The wolf just bared its teeth in response, stepping toward him menacingly. Guilt began to gnaw at Ezra. "There was nothing I could do!" He had to hold onto Hera. If not, she would just run into the flames too. He hadn't been able to do anything else. If he had just been stronger...

The wolf snapped its jaw at him with a ferocious bark. Ezra stepped back again only for his foot to slip, sending him falling back onto the ground. "I don't know what you want!"

Then he heard the others. Looking to either side, he spotted the black wolves growling at him. What should he do? He could sense their anger, and he didn't think he could fight all three of them. Not by himself.

So he made a decision. He ran.

Dashing for the tall grasses, he heard the lothwolves following behind him. A part of him knew he couldn't possibly outrun them, but that doesn't stop his body's desire to flee.

Sure enough, only moments later, the black wolves both ran past him, circling around to flank him. Ezra abruptly stopped in his tracks and crouched low. Maybe he could stay hidden. He was panting heavily, trying to catch his breath before the wolves make their next move. He had lost sight of them, but he knew they were still there. They must also have sunk beneath the waves of grass as well. A primal fear gripped him as he realized he's being hunted.

Run.

Turning the other way, he ran as fast as he could. He could hear them. He could hear them right behind him.

One of them headbutted Ezra's side as it ran past, throwing him off balance. Then the other shoved his other side and sent him stumbling into the ground. He rolled then landed on a hard patch of dirt. He tried to breathe, but the edges of his vision were blackening. He clenched his fist in the dirt. Not like this. It can't end like this…

Ezra was standing on the ramp of the Ghost, looking out at the plains with his arms crossed tightly across his chest.

Kanan stepped up beside him. "What's on your mind?"

"I'm not sure we should go through with this."

"Ezra, you are up to this. I know you are."

"I know that's what you wanna think, but look, as much as I wish I was like my parents, I'm not."

"... There's something else."

Ezra sighed. "My parents spoke out… and I lost them. And I don't… Ugh! I don't want to you lose you guys! Okay, not over this."

"Hey: all of us have lost things, and we will take more loses before this is over. But we can't let that stop us from taking risks. We have. To move. Forward. When the time comes… we have to be willing to sacrifice for something bigger."

"That sounds good, but it's not so easy."

Kanan sighed. "It's not easy for me, either. My master tried to show me, but… I don't think I understood it until now, trying to teach it to you. I guess you and I are learning these things together."

Still feeling unsure about this whole plan, Ezra looked over at his master, only to find that he was gone. "Kanan?" He looked around the ramp and in the Ghost's cargo hold. "Kanan?!"

He turned back to the open plains only be to be met by the lothwolf's snapping jaws.

"AH!" Ezra shoots up from the ground. "What happened?!" He wasn't in his bunk. Wherever it was, it was dark. And cool. He racked his brain for a moment before everything came flooding back.

Kanan's death. The lothwolves' anger. The chase.

Ezra got to his feet, looking around for any sign of the wolves. He let his anger and frustration take over, welcoming the reprieve from his grief. "I know you're out there! Show yourselves!"

There was no response. No low growl or rustle of grass. Just the gentle wind and the distant hoot of a bird. Ezra let out a sigh, feeling even more lost than he did before. "I better get back to base while I can…"

It was a mechanical process. One foot in front of the other. He kept his gaze low on the ground, keeping track of where each foot was falling so as not to trip. It was all he could focus on: process what he was seeing, move the right muscles accordingly, and keep moving forward. His body was exhausted, swaying back and forth. Somehow, he managed to ignore the giant hole in his mind. The aching pulsating spot where the bond with his master used to reside.

I'll always come back.

No. Don't think about it. Just keep moving forward.

At some point, Ezra does looks up and realizes that nothing looks familiar. There's a mountain in the distance that looks awfully like the Jedi Temple, but it's too small. And they're in the wrong hemisphere.

He walks up to it, putting a hand upon its surface. "I've lived on this planet my whole life, and I can still get lost?" He looked around, trying to find some landmark or feature that might be familiar. "I have no idea which way to go." He slid down to the ground, wrapping his arms around his legs. What now?

He lifted a hand and pointed at the various features on the horizon. "Lothrat… Lothcat… lothwolf… run. Pick a path and all is done." His finger landed on a distant mountain.

Doubt and fear rose up inside of him. "No." He tried again. "Lothrat, Lothcat, lothwolf, run. Pick a path and all is done."

No, that was wrong too.

Ezra kept at it. He was bound to get it right one of these times… right?

There was something warm on his face. He reached up to brush it away, but it was quickly replaced. "No…" He kept wiping. "Karabast…" He was crying. Now wasn't the time to cry. He needed to get back. He was lost, and he needed to find the right way.

I'll always come back.

The echo made it so much worse. He had no idea what to do. He curled into himself and prayed for the pain to stop. Prayed for the last twenty-four hours to have just been a dream.

Kanan turned to Ezra, his sightless eyes more or less facing him. "I'm getting a feeling building the Tie Defender isn't the worst thing the Empire is doing here. There's something else. Something more… sinister."

"Dume…"

They turned back to the wolf, as it stood and slowly stepped backwards. It faded into the wall, where there was the ancient painting of the Jedi Temple.

Ezra went up to stand next to Kanan. "So… all the paths are coming together, right?"

"Yeah… I'm just not sure we're going to like where they lead."

Ezra looked up at his master with a raised eyebrow. "Do we ever?"

Kanan chuckled. "No. And yes."

There was something warm on the back of his neck. "Kanan…?" He looked up and around…

To see an enormous lothwolf staring down at him. Larger than any lothwolf he's ever seen, with dark fur and a white symbol on its forehead. With a quick intake of breath, Ezra scrambled backward, prepared to run…

… Only to be stopped by the white lothwolf.

Apparently he was stuck. The smaller black wolves had cut off any other means of escape. He looked back up at the giant. "Who are you?"

"I. Am. Dume."

Dume. The reason the white lothwolf gave for rescuing him and Sabine. The name that Kanan said was…

Ezra stood to meet this creature. "Dume? That was my master's name… What do you want from me?"

"You. Ran."

"Uh, yeah. The wolves were chasing me!"

"Why?"

Why? How could Ezra possibly explain the mess of pain and fear that was festering inside of him? He spent a moment to reflect upon himself, and all he could see was a mess of nothingness. "I… I didn't mean to run. I just… I feel lost without my master." He fell to his knees, holding himself in some facsimile of comfort. "He was wise and brave… and he cared. He was there for me when no one else was." The emptiness in his mind pulsated stronger with pain. "There was so much more I needed to learn from him."

The wolf only uttered a single word. "Fear…"

"I am afraid, alright!" Ezra collapsed in on himself, knowing how pathetic he must seem. "I'm afraid… Everything seems so hopeless now…"

"Fight."

Ezra looked up at the wolf. He focused on the symbol on its head, taking comfort for reasons he couldn't quite explain. "How?"

"Together."

Ezra frowned. Together with his family, or with these wolves? Before he could contemplate the matter further, the white lothwolf behind him snarled. Ezra shrunk away from it, raising an arm to deflect its bite.

There was a thud, and Ezra lowered his arm. A stone tablet laid before him. It had a gold inlay depicting a series of hands, one pointing to the side, another in the shape of a fist, and the last open and facing upward. He looked up at giant wolf. "This stone… where's it from?"

"Jedi… Temple."

That was not a comforting notion. "We accidentally led the Empire to the Jedi Temple… We escaped, but they captured it!"

"Danger…" the giant lothwolf replied, answering Ezra's silent question.

"Well, then the Empire's still there!"

"Secrets… Within…"

This was getting old. "Secrets? What secrets? What else is inside the Temple?!"

"Knowledge." The wolf lowered its head so that its teeth were mere inches from Ezra's head. "Destruction."

Ezra tried to back away, but the white lothwolf was still right behind him. He was trapped. "Ahsoka said we needed to find knowledge in the Sith Temple on Malachor… but we were wrong!" He tried to move his head away, but the wolves moved in concert with him, trapping him between the two sets of gargantuan teeth. "That's when everything changed…"

"Restore… past. Redeem… future."

"How?" Ezra turned to the giant, pleading him for an answer. "How do I do this?"

The wolf looked down at him and sneered, baring its teeth as if the answer was obvious.

"Tell me!" Ezra screamed, the fear and desperation reaching its tipping point.

The wolf bared its teeth and snarled. Ezra raised his arms in defense as the giant opened its great maw, praying for a better answer. "No… No… !"

"... Kanan!" Ezra lurched forward, finding nothing but the featureless mountains he had faced before.

A dream? Was that all it was? Ezra was about to bury his face in his knees again when he spotted the stone.

It was the same from his dream. The same shape and pattern. He reached for it, confirming that it was real and not just a figment of his imagination.

The Jedi Temple was in danger. He didn't know what kind of danger, but this stone must be the key. Ezra couldn't just sit around and do nothing. If Kanan was here, he knew he would be telling him to move forward, to do everything in his power to make things right again.

I'll always come back.

And for a moment… the echo didn't feel like an empty promise.

Leave review and let me know what you thought.