RUHLSAR000 Here! With the promised Jacen fic. I have three things I want to hit but other than that I have no plan. So, I am taking requests. Remember, no updates next week though.

Jacen looks up from the few dozen Loth-cats he was playing with as an unknown ship descends on to the plain near the Ghost. It isn't Correllian for sure. It looked almost like a Corvette, but Jacen has never seen one like that before. And it's old, older than the Ghost. Beaten up worse, too. It looks like it's been through a star cluster, then an asteroid field and then been eaten.

Various windows are crack. The port side lower level is completely gone. It's a miracle that thing is still flying. Still, it's getting way to close to the Ghost for comfort. If it's a threat he has to protect his momma. After all, he is a Jedi. Or he is going to be one. When he convinces his momma. Not if.

So, he closes his eyes and focuses. There are three beings on the ship, he thinks. None are openly hostile. One is achingly familiar, but he can't quite place it. Another feels like the oceans, calm and inviting but can change to deadly in an instance and endlessly deep. That one acknowledges his presence with mild curiosity but only at a passing. The last… Jacen pauses trying to decipher it. It is kind and warm and it feels like a hug.

Jacen jumps as the presence registers his prob. While Jacen doesn't feel like his mind is being grabbed, he doesn't think it is anyway, he does feel like he is being examined as well. Jacen pulls back and the presence allows him to, seemingly amused. And isn't that disconcerting? He is only able to pull away because the presence lets him. If the presence had wanted to, they could have broken into his mind and wrecked him. But… they don't, content to send what Jacen can only describe as a smile through the Force as he pulls back.

Jacen takes a deep breath at the exertion. Give him a ship and he'll use the Force to fly it out of Shantipole, but this stuff, connecting to living stuff, isn't his strong point. Still, he knows they aren't a threat and now he is curious. Two of them are exceedingly powerful in the Force and that is highly unusual right now. As such, he grabs Chopper and runs towards the landing site.

As he comes on up to the ships, he sees his momma all but tackle a hobo in a brown poncho who looks like he was lucky enough to find a shower in that last twenty-four hours, though he still needed to find a barber. His beard is decently maintained if not overly long. His hair is equally long going to his mid-shoulders and is tieback in a pony-tail. His mother's hug startles a strange bird off his shoulder. He honestly looks like a wreck but there's an overlying joy that is infection even at a distance like a weight he's been carrying for a long time has just been lifted.

Jacen peals his attention away to look at the other two people. There is a Torgurta, too. She's old like older than his momma and dressed in white. Jacen knows, immediately, this is the ocean presence, calm, mature and wise. Just being in her presences makes Jacen want to mind his manners. Then there is colorful Mandalorian- Wait!

Jacen does a double take before his mouth turns into a big grin and he breaks out into a run, "SABINE!" He crashes happily into his sister in all but blood's legs. She had left two years ago to find something and hopefully, now she's back for good. She catches him in a big hug. "Hey Buddy, you've gotten so big." Her grip is tight but her focus is on the hobo. Everyone's attention is on the hobo. Well, except for one person.

The hobo is staring at Jacen. "Um… Hi, Mr. Hobo." Jacen says, curiously. His mother looks utterly embarrassed. Jacen looks at her, confused. Did he say-

The man barks out a warm laugh, a twinkle in his startlingly blue eyes. "Well, he's not exactly wrong. I have been playing the part of a hermit for seven years." He shoots a playful look at Sabine.

"Hey, next time you want a pick-up be more specific when you say you're counting on me." Sabine shoves his shoulder, happily. And suddenly, the man seems a lot younger.

"And you do need to shave," Hera smirks, rubbing a hand through his beard. Jacen tilts his head. Who is- A strange thought hit his head. Is this his father? Jacen wonders. He's not good with ages but this man had to be old enough. He is an adult, after all.

Jacen has always wonders but he never knew how to ask where his father was now. His momma always just said he is one with the Force when it comes up. And Sabine would say he's marching far away. So is it possible…

The man raises an eyebrow. "Ezra, this is my son, Jacen Syndulla." Hera smiles. She said, "my" not "our" son, Jacen realizes and then he registers the name. Ezra. The brother he never knew. Jacen had always thought he was off with his father. So, why was he here? Why was he playing a hermit? And where was his father?

Ezra smiles at him kneeling down to Jacen's eye level. Now, Jacen is used to being loved, he is often smothered in it. From his momma, Chopper, Rex, his uncles, Sabine, etc. But the sheer amount of love in this man's eyes, a stranger's eyes, is startling. "Hey Jacen, I am Ezra Bridger. It's nice to finally meet you. I'd like to stay with you and your mom for a while if that's okay?"

"Yeah, sure," Jacen nods still not entirely sure what to make of him. Ezra smirks at him before ruffling his hair. Hera smiles leading them into the Ghost.

"I'm about to start dinner. You can put your things in your room." Hera says, with a smile.

"Thanks, Hera," Ezra says, heading down the hall. Jacen sneakily (Everyone knows) follows him. He watches Ezra place his knapsack down in a cabinet. Ezra straightens, suddenly. "You know, when your father offered to let me join the Ghost crew he did the exact same thing."

"Huh?" Jacen says.

Ezra turns around leaning against a cabinet, smirking. His bird fluttering down to Zeb's old bed. "Lurk mysteriously in my doorway." He moves over to the lower bunk and sits. The bird jumps into his lap. "Sit. You have questions?"

"Yeah," Jacen nods plopping down next to him. After a moment, he asks, "Where's my dad?"

Ezra stiffens, surprise radiating off him. "Your mom hasn't told you…"

"All she has ever said is 'he is with the Force', which doesn't make any sense cause the Force isn't a place. But she always looks so sad... And no one ever gives me an answer." Jacen huffs. He feels Ezra reach out gently to the bird's mind and after a moment it lands in his lap, looking up at him with big eyes before snuggling into him.

"That's Tia. She's what's known as a porg. I spent four years stranded on her home island. She kinda adopted me." Ezra smiles weakly before taking a deep breath. He places a hand on his shoulder and Jacen knows immediately something is wrong. "Jacen, what do you know about the Force?"

"It's there. Always there. It surrounds us. And lets a few of us do amazing things." Jacen says. "I'd know more if Momma let me go to Skywalker's Jedi school…"

"The Force is an energy that binds the galaxy together. It is all around and when we are born it becomes a part of us." Ezra smiles sadly. "And when we die the Force within us returns the Force outside us."

Jacen goes very still before looking up at Ezra, begging him to say his conclusion is wrong. "So, Dad is… dead?" Ezra nods sadly. Jacen takes a ragged breath. "You know, I think a part of me knowed. He'd be here if he… But still... I just wanted to meet him."

"Jacen, close your eye," Ezra says, taking his hands. "Now reach out with your mind tell me what do you feel?"

"Warmth, cold, kind, mean," Jacen says, extending his sense over the fields.

"And between it all." Ezra smiles.

"I don't know. No, I know. I just can't…" Jacen says.

"A Force?" Ezra offers, and Jacen answers with a nod. Ezra returns the nod, though Jacen's eyes are still closed. "The Force is eternal, Jacen. The Living Force joins the Cosmic Force and the Cosmic joins the Living. Nothing is ever truly gone. Your father is here. His being is in the Force, and the Force is always with you. So, he is and always will be with you."

Jacen without warning launches himself into Ezra. Tia squawks startled. Jacen has no idea how long the two stay like that but eventually his momma calls them for dinner.

Dinner turns out to be a livelier affair than Jacen has ever experienced and it's fun. So much that Jacen is way too excited to sleep when bedtime finally comes along.

Instead, Jacen lets his curiosity get the better of him. He crawls into the vent and to the common area vent. "Jacen's strong with the Force." He hears Ezra's voice.

"You are not going to convince me to let him go to Skywalker's Jedi Academy," Hera says firmly taking a swig of her kaff.

"Wasn't my intention," Ezra says. "But he does need a teacher, Hera."

"No, he doesn't. There are dozens of Force-sensitive who never get training. And I am not losing anyone else because it's where they needed to be'." Hera huffs, but she sounds sad.

Ezra sighs, taking her hand, "Hera, you know that's not how it works. We are drawn to those place, Force-sensitive or not."

"I can't lose him too!" Hera snaps.

Ezra looks at her sadly, "Hera, you won't always be there to protect him. As cheesy as it is to say, you can only prepare him to be ready to face the world how he wants to."

"So, what do you suggest, I send him off, only seeing him a few times a year." Hera slams down her mug on the table. And Jacen must admit that sound horrible. He hadn't thought about that. All he had been thinking about was getting a connection to his dad. But, he couldn't sacrifice his connection with his momma…

"No, this family has been too divided as it is," Ezra says firmly taking her hands.

"Then, what do you suggest." Hera sighs.

Ezra takes a deep breath, "Let me train him. I'm going to be around until I figure out what I am doing now that the war is over. We'll start with basic meditation techniques and self-defense. The stuff he should learn, whether he becomes a Jedi or not. He can decide his path when he is older."

Hera sighs, "You know you sound so much like him right now. We'll talk to Jacen about it in the morning. Okay? He should have some say in this."

"Something tells me he will be on board with it," Ezra smirks looking up at the vents. Jacen shrinks away from the light.

"And that's what worries me." Hera sighs. "Promise me, you will look after my son."

"I promise, Hera. After all, he is my little brother." Ezra smirks.

Hera sighs, "And take care of yourself as well."

So, what did you think? Any requests?