Quick Author Note: The theme song for this chapter, and indeed for most scenes where Ezra and Luke are hanging out together, is Renegades by X Ambassadors. So if you like listening to music while you're reading, this song is recommended. : D


Chapter Two: Living Like We're Renegades

Luke Skywalker threw a rock at the canyon wall. He wanted to scream in frustration. Life was just not fair.

He wasn't supposed to be here all alone. It made him look like a friendless loser. But he guessed that was what he was, now that all his friends had left Tatooine and gone off to greener pastures.

The Imperial Academy. That was where they'd all gone. And in three years, Luke would be there too.

Three.

Whole.

Years.

That was like forever!

It just wasn't fair.

Luke threw another rock into the chasm and watched it clatter to the ground. That was what passed as fun on Tatooine these days, he supposed. He'd come there planning on racing his speeder through Beggar's Canyon, but there wasn't much point when there was no one left to race against. The rock he'd been watching reached the bottom of the canyon. But the sound of rocks falling continued.

He wasn't there alone.

Luke tensed, now on alert. There had been no word of Tusken Raiders in the vicinity lately, but that didn't mean one, or two, or more hadn't slipped through. He knew all too well how savage those monsters could be.

But even though he was alert, and even though he knew what might be out there, for some reason Luke didn't feel afraid. It was more like he'd been waiting for someone, but hadn't known it yet. So it was with more curiosity than anything else that he started looking around, trying to find the source of the noises.

It didn't take him long. It was only a few moments before he came into view, rising over the ridge on the same side of the canyon Luke was on.

He was a teenager, about the same age as Luke, maybe a little younger, because he was definitely a little shorter, and a lot skinnier. And he definitely wasn't from around here. His clothes weren't made for the heat of Tatooine's twin suns. They looked kind of military, but at the same time not, if that made sense. The backpack he was wearing definitely wasn't military, but he carried another bag slung over one shoulder that looked like it might be military issue. And if Luke wasn't mistaken, that was an Imperial pilot's helmet he had tucked under his arm.

Without warning, the stranger's legs buckled under him. He plummeted down the ridge, crying out in pain just as Luke cried out a warning and rushed forward.

"Ouch. Shit. Damn it," the strange teen growled, rolling so he was sitting up, and covering his face with one hand. "Araugh!

"Are you okay?" asked Luke, skidding to a stop right before him.

The other boy jumped and looked up at him startled. His eyes went round with confusion as he stared up at Luke for several moments, like he was trying to figure something out. Then he offered a tentative. "Hello?"

"Hello," Luke returned uncertainly, and asked again, "Are you okay?"

"What? Oh, yeah," the stranger said. "I'm just a little banged up."

Looking closer, Luke could see that was true. He had a burn mark on one cheek that looked fresh, and a bruise on the other cheek. From the way he was kind of cringing in on himself, Luke guessed he had a lot of other bruises too.

Looking even closer, Luke saw that the helmet the teen was carrying was actually dented over one of the cheeks. The one that would have been covering the teen's bruised cheek, if he'd been wearing the helmet when whatever happened to dent it happened. One of the eye pieces was cracked too.

"What happened?" asked Luke, kneeling down, trying to get a better idea of the extent of the teen's injuries.

"Believe me," the teen said, "you wouldn't believe me if I told you. And I'm too tired to come up with a convincing lie right now."

Luke blinked. "Okay. Er . . . do you need a doctor?"

"No, I'm alright. It's nothing life threatening," the teen said. He stared up at Luke, like he was debating something, then seemed to come to a conclusion, and he took a deep breath. "I'm Ezra, by the way. Ezra Bridger." And he held out one hand.

Luke took it, and shook it twice, then, even though he didn't think it was Ezra's intention for him to do what he did next, pulled Ezra to his feet. "Luke Skywalker. Pleased to meet you."

"You say that now," Ezra said teasingly and gave a pained sounding laugh.

"You . . . look like you're in a lot of pain," observed Luke. "Are you sure you don't need a doctor?"

"I'm sure."

"Or if it's the fees you're worried about, I could have my aunt take a look at you. She wouldn't charge anything. She'd not a trainer medic or anything, but she used to patch me and my friends up when we took a spill off our speeders."

Ezra looked at him a little incredulously then shook his head. Then he swayed dizzily. Luke grabbed his shoulder for support.

"No. I'm alright. I don't need a doctor or anything. But . . . is that your speeder there?"

"Huh?" Luke glanced at it. "Yeah. If you won't see a doctor, is there somewhere I can give you a lift to?"

"Maybe. Do you happen to know where the nearest spaceport is?"

Luke frowned. "You're out of luck. It's about fifty miles from here. Mos Eisley."

"Any chance I could get a lift there?" Ezra asked. "I can pay."

Luke's first instinct was to refuse. His uncle and aunt would be so mad at him if they found out he'd gone as far away as Mos Eisley without their permission. But on the other hand, Mos Eisley wasn't as far away as, say, the Imperial Academy where all Luke's friends had jetted off to while he had to wait around here another three years.

So spitefulness played a part in Luke's decision. But also because he didn't want to turn Ezra down. The smaller teen was clearly injured. Maybe not critically, but he was in a lot of pain, and wasn't dressed right for Tatooine. Luke didn't want to think about what kind of shape he'd be in if he actually tried walking to Mos Eisley.

Besides, there was something about Ezra. He was interesting. And he was an enigma. Luke bet that on the ride he could convince Ezra to tell him his story of how he'd ended up here. More than that, though, Luke felt almost like Ezra was a long lost friend. Almost like he knew him somehow, even though he knew that was ridiculous. The fact still remained that Ezra felt familiar.

"I can give you a lift if you pay for the fuel," said Luke. "There's not enough in the tank to make it there, so we better stop in Anchorhead."

"And where's that?"

"Just a few miles from here," said Luke. "You're really not from around here, are you?"

"Nope."

"Well, where are you planning on heading after I get you to the spaceport?"

"Anywhere but here," Ezra raid.

Luke paused. "You don't know where you're going?"

Ezra shook his head again, then grabbed his temple, once again regretting it. "Gotta remember to stop doing that. And no. I have no idea where I'm going next. I've just got to get off this planet as quickly as possible."

"Why?" asked Luke, stooping to pick up Ezra's helmet, which had fallen during his initial tumble down the ridge. Meanwhile Ezra picked up his side bag.

"I pissed the wrong people off, then left a trail leading 'em right here to me," said Ezra. "It's better if I'm gone before they can even show up looking for me."

"Oh." Luke's eyes went wider as something occurred to him. "Are you one of those rebels we've been hearing about on the holonews?"

"What?"

"You are, aren't you?" Luke grinned. "You're on the run from the Empire!"

He could tell by Ezra's expression that he'd got it in one. And it was so obvious now that he'd figured it out. Ezra's quasi-military style of dressing. The pilot helmet, obviously stolen from the Empire and reappropriated. And that special something in his bearing, like he was a fighter.

"I am on the run from the Empire," admitted Ezra, collapsing into the passenger seat of Luke's speeder. "But I'm not a rebel."

"What do you mean?" asked Luke. He didn't see how you could be one but not the other.

"I mean I think the Empire sucks and all, but I'm not part of some team fighting against it. I've met some of them. They're jerks," said Ezra. He suddenly looked bitter and muttered something.

"What?" asked Luke.

"I said they left me behind," Ezra said moodily. "I was helping some of them with something, as a one time thing, mind, you, I wasn't signing on with them. And they got in trouble, so I stupidly stuck my neck out for them and tried to help 'em. And I did help them. I saved a couple of their lives. And then I fell behind because one of them shoved me backwards, literally right into an ISB agent's hands, and they left me behind."

Luke felt a thrum of empathy. He knew exactly how it felt to be left behind. Well, maybe not in the hands of the Empire, but being left behind never felt good, no matter how it was done. And he felt disappointment about how those rebels had treated Ezra. But he had the feeling there was more to Ezra than just that.

"How'd you escape?" he wanted to know.

Ezra shook his head. "I told you, you won't believe me. I barely believe it myself and I lived through it."

"Oh come on," pressed Luke. "Tell me." He hopped into the driver's seat of his speeder. "I promise I'll believe you."

"You really won't."

"Please?" Luke begged.

Ezra considered a second then sighed. "After we get the fuel. I'll tell you on the way to the spaceport. I'm going to try to stay out of sight while you're getting the fuel. I don't want anyone remembering seeing you with a stranger later, if the Empire comes asking around. I don't want to get you in trouble."


Ezra got into the back of Luke's speeder before they drove into Anchorhead. Luke bought the fuel with the credit chips Ezra handed him. Ezra was careful to use smaller denominations so it wouldn't look suspicious if Luke needed change for a credit chip that was too big. He knew how things worked and was aware that a kid using a large denomination credit chip attracted attention. After they got out of town, Ezra climbed back into the passenger seat, gingerly minding all his various bruises.

Crashing that TIE fighter had done him no favors. He ached all over now, and had more bruises than he could count. It was entirely possible that he'd cracked a few ribs too. But that wouldn't be the first time. He'd live.

Luke listened with incredulity as Ezra recounted the day he'd had, starting from when he was thrown into that cell. He left out a couple things, like how the holocron he'd stolen from Mr. Tough Guy had opened up and that Kenobi guy's image had spoken to him. And the strange feelings he had that had guided his movements. Also, the part about how he'd suggested the pilot blow his own brains out, to which the pilot complied. Ezra was still a little freaked out about that. Instead he just said that he shot the pilot. It was close enough to the truth.

"Wow," Luke said, eyes shining when he was finished. "That's amazing. You're amazing."

"What's amazing is that you believed a word of it," said Ezra.

"It does sound unbelievable. But I don't think you're lying," said Luke. "There's something about you, I can't explain it, but I trust you."

Ordinarily, that would have earned Luke a scornful look and a missing wallet. But Ezra was too tired and sore to do any pickpocketing right now. Besides, he'd be lying if he said he didn't have that same feeling about Luke. It was stupid, he knew. Trusting someone he'd only just met. But his instincts were telling him that he could. The same kind of instinct that had gotten him out of that whole captured by the Empire mess alive, only just today.

Ezra was strongly beginning to suspect that those instincts were that Force thing Kenobi had been talking about. And maybe some of the other stuff he'd done or had happen to him too.

Like how he could jump so high. He knew it wasn't normal for a human to be able to leap higher than their own height, yet Ezra had on numerous occasions leapt double or triple his own height, sometimes even higher, like with the crate that morning.

And that weird vision thing he'd had right before he crashed the TIE. A key point in him deciding to tell Luke anything (aside from necessity, because he'd been walking for over an hour and Luke was the first damn person he'd seen on this rock) was that the blond teen in his vision had been Luke. And he hadn't even met Luke at the time of having that vision. He didn't completely understand it. But it seemed pretty damn likely to him that the Force was trying to tell him he could trust Luke.

And maybe . . . that they were going to be friends.

It had been a long time since Ezra had a friend. Moreena Krai and Ferpil Walladay had been the closest he'd had, since he lost his parents. Moreena had been his friend before his parents were taken away. She'd been the only friend from back then who stuck with him, until the day she moved to Alderaan. And Ferpil had taught him everything he knew about thieving and conning, given him work at his pawn shop, looked after him when he had no reason to. Without him, Ezra never would have learned how to survive.

Then that Imperial bastard had gone and murdered him.

Ezra's blood still boiled when he thought about that. Suddenly he didn't feel bad at all about convincing that dumb pilot to kill himself. The galaxy would be better off if all the Imperials just killed themselves.

Maybe those stupid rebels had the right idea about messing with the Empire. Not that Ezra planned on joining up with their cause or anything, because let's face it. There wasn't a damn thing about any of them that he could trust. But sticking another pin into the Empire's side, and driving them up more walls with his own brand of lunacy, well maybe Ezra would try some of that again in the future. It could be fun.

Maybe Luke could come along for the ride. His mind flashed back to that scene from his vision, where he and Luke had both pulled out lightsabers in tandem, then proceeded to beat the ever living daylights out of several squads of stormtroopers.

Suddenly, and completely unexpectedly, Ezra found himself desperately wanting that scene to come true. That one and all the others. Racing across rooftops, diving through heavy traffic. And joking and drinking in a cantina together. That last one, where Ezra had the yellow eyes, well, he didn't even know how someone went about doing that to their eyes. Maybe he got alien retinas transplanted into his own? Or some kind of animal? To see better in the dark maybe? Or to replace parts of his eyes that got damaged somehow? That would take money, but, as he already knew, stealing from the Empire could be a profitable venture. Well, whatever. He was sure there would be a good reason for him to get surgery on his eyes if that ever happened. And the memory of the power he'd had in that last part of his vision . . .

Just the idea of the kind of power he'd seen himself and Luke using all throughout his vision was intoxicating. If that was the kind of power the Force could give him, Ezra needed to find out more about it.

But how?

A Jedi could teach him. But the problem with that line of thinking was that the Empire had killed all the Jedi. Maybe a couple had survived, but they would only have been able to do so by hiding.

Briefly, Ezra wondered if Mr. Tough Guy could possibly have been a Jedi. But he stopped wondering because even if he had been, that didn't matter. Going to see that guy about it wasn't an option. Ezra wouldn't have trusted him. And Mr. Tough Guy wouldn't have been very happy with him after he suggested to Muscles the Hairless Wookiee that he should take a long walk out of a short airlock, the way he'd suggested to the idiot pilot that he should shoot himself in the head.

So what then? How to find out about this Force thing?

The holonet was out. The Empire had scrubbed tons of information from it, blotting out large chunks of the past, the Old Republic, and probably everything to do with the Jedi.

Maybe Ezra could get more information off the holocron if he tried fiddling with it again.

Maybe there were other holocrons or things like them out there.

Ezra sat up straighter as he realized that was the answer. The Empire had only wiped information about the Jedi off the holonet, and taken it out of any public archive. But they couldn't wipe all records of them out of peoples' private collections. There were bound to be datapads and hard copies of holo-recordings still out there. Old tech, pre-Empire stuff. The kind of stuff you'd find in pawnshops or junk shops.

"Do you know what you're going to do once you get off world?" asked Luke, breaking the silence that had drifted between the two. "Are you going to try to make your way back to your home world?"

"I don't know yet," said Ezra. Then, even though he knew it was selfish, he couldn't resist asking, "What about you?"

"What do you mean? What about me?" Luke asked.

"You plan on staying on this rock your whole life?" Ezra asked. "I've only been here a couple hours, so I obviously haven't seen everything yet, but to me it seems like there's not a lot here. Ever thought of leaving?"

"Only every day," said Luke. Suddenly he looked bitter.

"What's keeping you?" asked Ezra. "Family?"

"Yeah. My aunt and uncle," said Luke. "Mainly my uncle. All my friends have gone off to the Imperial Academy. I wanted to go with them. Not because I like the Empire, but because that would be my only way off this planet. We always talked about running off from the academy and joining up with the rebels. My friends are probably doing that right now. But my uncle won't let me go. He says in three years he'll let me, but I know he's just going to put it off again."

Ezra stared at the blur of the horizon. An aunt and an uncle, huh? Which most likely meant no parents. Ezra wasn't going to ask, though, because that was one of those questions he hated answering himself.

"If you got a chance to leave, would you?" asked Ezra.

"What, you mean like run away?" asked Luke. "I've thought about it. But where would I go? And how would I get by? I've got no money."

"Hm. Yeah. I know how that is," said Ezra. Not that he'd ever really seriously considered leaving Lothal before today. Moreena had broached the subject to him in their last conversation before she left for Alderaan. But even though Lothal hadn't been perfect, it was all he'd ever known. And it was where he could survive using what he knew. He'd had no reason to really want to leave.

Now he didn't have a whole lot of reasons to want to go back. And for once he had money, and lots of it. He had more than enough to get himself off world. More than enough to get him and Luke both off world several times over.

But the question was whether or not he should suggest that.

There were a million reasons not to. Not least among them that Ezra had no tangible reason to trust Luke beyond his instincts, and that Luke had no reason at all to trust Ezra. An offer like the one Ezra wanted to make to him should have set off warning bells in any intelligent person. But Ezra was actually half afraid they wouldn't in Luke. The other teen seemed nice enough, but at the same time naïve. He'd been way too trusting of Ezra so far, and never shown even a shade of suspicion. That was worrying in its own way.

Ezra tried to feel for his instincts, looking for answers there, but none came. If the Force was what was responsible for them, it was being silent now.

I'll wait then, Ezra decided. There was no need to rush this. Maybe Luke would even breach the subject himself if he framed the conversation right.

He felt a rush of guilt at the idea of manipulating his new acquaintance. Encouraging a kid to run away from home, even using an invisible hand, wasn't exactly a good thing. Normally Ezra wouldn't have even considered it because normally there wouldn't be any benefit for him to do that. But if Luke was going to become a friend to him, like in his vision, wasn't that all the more reason not to try to make him run away from home and leave his family behind? That wasn't exactly in Luke's best interest.

Honestly, Ezra didn't know what he was going to do. And the time for him to make a decision was growing shorter every minute.

"Hey, question," said Ezra, to distract himself from his approaching time limit. "Are there a lot of junk shops, and pawn shops, and places like that in Mos Eisley?"

"Yeah," said Luke. "But you might find more in Mos Espa. But that's even further away. Like a full day's trip."

"What's Mos Espa like?"

"Mm, it's pretty decrepit and getting worse all the time. It used to be a thriving space port that hosted big pod races every year before the Empire put a token presence on Tatooine and decided to ban them. Now their only business is in junk trading, and Tusken Raiders are thick in that area, so it's sinking into decay."

"So there's a lot of pre-Empire stuff there?" asked Ezra.

Luke looked at him sideways. "Are you looking for something in particular?"

"Some stuff in particular, but I don't really know what," Ezra answered.

Luke smiled. "You're a weird guy, Ezra."

"Yep."

Ezra smiled too. So, he had a reason to come back to Tatooine. A legitimate one. What better place to look for old tech than a decaying city whose main trade was the junk business? He couldn't go now, obviously. He knew how things worked. The Empire was going to swarm this planet and try to smoke him out.

He'd seen it happen a few times on Lothal, when there were fugitives from the Empire that they really wanted found. They'd tighten their grip on this planet and all its small settlements, shut down everything they could, and stop all off world traffic, until they either caught Ezra, or decided that he'd slipped through their greedy, sweaty fingers.

Generally that only took about two weeks. Ezra decided it would be better to play it safe and stay away for four. He'd change his appearance a little, maybe dye his unusual blue hair to a more common shade like brown or black, then head back to Tatooine, to Mos Espa. And sometime when he was back on this rock he could swing by and visit Luke.

That was as much of a plan as Ezra thought would be good to make now. Who knew what would happen between now and then?


Luke would have taken him directly to the space port. Ezra had him park his speeder near a cantina then dragged him inside instead.

"Space ports aren't where transactions are made," Ezra said. He may never have been off Lothal before, but he knew his way around several of the space ports there, and a great many more cantinas. "Pilots don't hang out in their ships after they dock, unless they're sleeping or running maintenance."

"Are you sure we should be in here?" asked Luke quietly. "It looks kind of dangerous here."

Despite the band playing a jaunty tune off to the side, Luke's words were true. This cantina was the kind of place that literally screamed bad element. As far as Ezra could tell it was the middle of the afternoon in this time zone, but the cantina had a bustling business. Spacers from a couple dozen different races were all mixed together, and every one of them looked like they'd be willing to crush someone's throat for a dare, without even getting drunk first.

"It is dangerous in here," Ezra said, "but you don't have to come if you don't want."

"Are you kidding? This is the most fun I've had since all my friends left," said Luke.

"Stick with me, kid, and we'll have lots more fun times." The words were out of Ezra's mouth before he could stop to think about them.

"Yeah. That'll be real easy since you're leaving too," huffed Luke, sounding suddenly bitter.

"I'm thinking about coming back," Ezra admitted. He was careful to keep his voice low, but knew that it could very well be a futile effort. In a place like this, there was always someone with ears that were good enough to hear even the softest whispers. But no matter how good they were, they couldn't hear everything. The trick was to speak softly, but not like you had something to hide.

"Coming back? Why? When?" Luke's expression went from surprised and happy to sour. "In like five years?"

"More like five weeks max," Ezra said, "as long as things are going alright and settle down enough."

"Why?"

"To look through junk," Ezra said. "For that in particular stuff I didn't tell you about."

"I could come with you," Luke immediately volunteered. "When you come back, that is. I know my way around Mos Espa. Well, I haven't been there in a few harvests, but I used to go there with my uncle to get deals on farming equipment. I could help you with whatever you're looking for."

"I'll take you up on that," Ezra said. "But for now I gotta find a way off this rock."

Luke suddenly looked downcast.

"I'm not brushing you off, Luke," said Ezra, seeing this.

"Yeah you are. I know a brush off when I hear one. If you really had any intention of doing that, you'd be asking how to find me again when you come back," said Luke.

"I already know how to find you."

"Oh really? News flash, I don't live at Beggar's Canyon. And I don't go there every day. So if camping out there was your plan –"

"It wasn't," said Ezra. "Look, I know your name, I know the closest town to where you live, and I know what your family does for a living. And I know how to talk to people to get them to tell me what I want. If you believed the story I told you about how my day's gone so far, you know how resourceful I can be."

"Oh. Right." Luke seemed a bit mollified then looked a little embarrassed.

Ezra led them over to the bar and ordered drinks, then slipped the barkeep a couple extra credits for information. "I'm looking for passage off this rock. Private transport if possible, for my cousin and me. Doesn't have to be anything fancy, just fast. Know anyone?"

Luke looked confused and opened his mouth. Ezra elbowed him to keep quiet.

This was not that scene from his vision playing out, he knew. This wasn't even the same cantina. And he and Luke weren't the kind of friends that they'd been in his vision, yet. Luke was still too damn naïve for one thing. He was cautiously sipping the drink Ezra ordered for him, like he'd never had alcohol before. Ezra kind of wanted to face palm, but knew even that would attract attention.

The barkeep pointed out a few pilots. Smugglers, mostly by the looks of them. One in particular caught Ezra's eye. Mainly because he was keeping company with a Wookiee, but also because he was only a few years older than Ezra himself.

Oh, that right there is trouble, Ezra thought, deliberately heading toward one of the other pilots the barkeep recommended. Because anytime now the Empire's airwaves would be abuzz with news of escaped Wookiees, and the teenager who freed them and jacked a Star Destroyer. I best stay far, far away from those two.

"Why did you tell him that?" asked Luke.

Ezra blinked and his mind had to backtrack. "That you're my cousin? Cover story."

"That you were looking for passage for me too?"

Ezra smirked. "I thought you wanted off this rock."

"Yeah, I do, but – but I don't – I can't just –"

"Relax," said Ezra. "Seriously. You get flustered, people notice. People notice, you get problems. And I told him I was looking for passage for both of us because if someone comes around asking, two teenage cousins trying to book passage will throw them off my trail. One teenager trying to buy passage for himself alone, not so much."

"Oh. I get it now."

Yeah, Luke had a lot to learn.

But something else was nagging Ezra now, every step they drew further away from the teenage pilot and his Wookiee friend. That something being Ezra's annoying conscience. Every step further away from them seemed a little heavier, until Ezra realized that this was going to weigh on him until he did something.

"Damn me," he muttered.

"What?" asked Luke as he changed directions. "What?"

"Something I gotta do," Ezra said. "Stupid though it is."

Luke followed him, looking bewildered. Nothing new about that, it seemed to be Luke's default setting. The teenage pilot looked up, a little bit curious, and a little bit annoyed when Ezra stopped right by his table and leaned in.

"What do you want?" he asked.

"A quick word," Ezra said. "Luke, sit down and drink your drink. Act like we're discussing business. And try to look like this isn't your first time drinking alcohol. Stop making that face."

"This stuff doesn't taste as good as I thought it would," muttered Luke, but he obeyed Ezra.

"What's going on?" the teenage pilot asked again. He moved slightly in his seat and Ezra could tell he had a blaster pointed at him under the table.

"I wanted to offer a quick warning about something I just heard," said Ezra, looking between the pilot and the Wookiee. "Earlier today, an Imperial Star Destroyer got hijacked and was used to rescue a couple dozen Wookiee slaves from the spice mines of Kessel. Latest news was that the Star Destroyer ended up in this system and that the Wookiees and the hijackers split up into smaller groups and scattered."

"And we care about this . . . why?" asked the pilot, but it was clear he had at least an inkling. He struck Ezra as the kind of guy who knew his way around a place like this.

"Word has it that one of those hijackers, the one who caused the most problems, was a teenager," Ezra said.

"I don't know anything about that," the pilot said. He glared at Ezra like he was thinking of shooting him, which, Ezra had to admit, would be a reasonable thing for him to do. For all this guy knew, Ezra could be a snitch, or this could be some lame attempt at blackmail. Or even just a distraction while a couple real bounty hunters got ready to close in.

"I don't care. Whether you're a hijacker with an escaped Wookiee or not, it's no difference to me. I just thought I'd pass along the warning," said Ezra. "Because if it's true, and the Empire's about to start squeezing this planet, I thought you could use a heads up. No one deserves to have something like that sprung on them with no warning."

The pilot stared hard at him. Ezra met his eyes and stared right back. At last the pilot nodded and Ezra could tell he believed him. More than that, he was going to take the warning to heart.

"Well then, I guess we best make ourselves scarce in these parts for awhile," the pilot said. He stood. "Come on, Chewie."

The Wookie warbled something. Then they left without another word.

"You're welcome," Luke said as they brushed passed them.

Ezra huffed out a short laugh and stood too. "Alright. Now that that's taken care of, let's –"

Something was about to happen. Ezra sensed it coming, just like he'd sensed the Star Destroyer earlier that day before it came out of hyperspace.

But before he could move, before he could do anything, Luke had already tackled him to the floor, beneath the table.

Less than a second after they hit the ground, the cantina wall exploded. Ezra felt the heat of flames nearby, and heard the rain of debris crashing down all around them. Dust hung heavily in the air.

A smirk pulled at Ezra's mouth. "Good reflexes," he remarked to Luke, who was still wincing against the noise.

In his mind, his thoughts were moving faster. Luke had sensed the explosion before Ezra had. Ezra wasn't surprised. To him that was proof that Luke had this Force thing too. His vision had showed him as much, but he still was glad to get confirmation with his own eyes.

Now if he just knew what the hell was happening here. Surely the Empire hadn't taken to blowing out cantina walls when they could more easily flood a place with stormtroopers to arrest someone. So what did that leave?

"Are you alright?" asked Luke, wide eyed now, looking even more bewildered than he had anytime previously since they'd met.

"I'm fine," said Ezra. "You?"

"I think so. What's going on?"

They stood up from behind the safety of the table that had shielded them to behold a scene of carnage.

One of the cantina's walls had been blasted out, leaving a gaping hole. The explosion had taken out a wide radius around it. Bodies lay strewn all between the blasted out wall and the bar, some just injured, others clearly dead, some even cooked through and through. Ezra and Luke were the only two people between the blast and the bar to have come through unscathed. Even people further away than the bar had taken injuries.

The pilot and his Wookiee friend had been far enough that they didn't get hit. Ezra saw them over near the entrance, staring at the mess with the same shock Ezra himself was feeling. They locked eyes, and Ezra could see the pilot was debating coming back to help.

"Idiot!" Ezra mouthed to him, not speaking the words aloud, but trusting that the pilot would get the gist, if not the whole meaning by lip reading. "Get out of here!"

For a second the pilot looked torn, and Ezra realized that he had found a kindred spirit who knew that the smart thing to do was to take care of himself, but who was also plagued by a conscience. Then the pilot broke eye contact and grabbed his friend, hustling him out of the cantina.

Ezra felt a thrum of approval and a little regret, knowing they'd probably never meet again. Too bad. But right now he had bigger things to worry about. For right at that moment, a familiar Trandoshan was flung through the hole in the cantina wall and crashed to the floor, skidding into a corpse and then a broken table.

"Bossk?"

"What?" asked Luke. "What's going – there's a fight outside?"

Ezra saw then that was true. He'd been captivated by the destruction but now that he was past that, he saw that there was a fight going on outside. Blast fire and flames were clashing. And that still didn't explain why a bounty hunter had just come flying in.

A really unsavory looking alien of a species Ezra didn't recognize stepped through the blasted wall and aimed a really big blaster rifle at the downed Trandoshan. Ezra reacted without thinking. One of his new blasters was in his hand before he knew it. The bolt he shot hit the unknown alien in the chest. It dropped its gun and went down without a sound.

"Ezra!" Luke sounded shocked.

"Stay back," ordered Ezra. "And stay down!"

Then he himself darted out from behind the safety of their table. It didn't occur to him until he reached Bossk's side that this was a horrible idea, and that he had absolutely no reason to be doing this. When it did occur to him, Ezra grit his teeth in frustration. But he was already there, so . . .

"Bossk! Mr. Bossk! Hey! Wake up!" Ezra slapped the Trandoshan's face, trying to rouse him.

Groggily, Bossk opened his eyes. He looked at Ezra in confusion. "Shorty? What are you doing here?"

"Trying to save your sorry ass, apparently!" snapped Ezra. "Now get up!"

Before Bossk could, someone else barreled through the blasted out wall, hovering several feet above the ground on a jetpack. He'd backed in, and was firing out the wall, covering his retreat, but quickly turned, took in the sight of Ezra crouching over Bossk, and aimed his blasters at him.

Ezra's blaster came up to, but he didn't fire. Yet. Even though he had blasters aimed at him, his instincts told him not to. Their standoff lasted only a second. It seemed a lot longer.

Then Bossk was yanking Ezra around like he had in their last little misadventure, back on Lothal, pulling him out of the line of fire without really putting himself at risk.

"Don't shoot this one, Boba," Bossk said. "He's a little useful."

More people were coming in through the blasted wall. More bounty hunters, Ezra realized. A couple droids, another human, and one other alien. All of them guns blazing.

"Hey Mr. Bossk. Mind telling me why your friends are shooting up the street and blowing up cantinas?" asked Ezra.

"Shorty," said Bossk, ill temperedly, "I don't even have time to explain why I don't have time to explain. Now come on!"

Ezra hesitated. Luke was suddenly by his side.

"Ezra, we need to get out of here," he said frantically.

Then Ezra felt it. And he agreed. More trouble was on the way if they stayed here. His instincts were screaming it. "Alright. Let's go."

Bossk gave Luke a dubious look, taking in the local attire, and how young he was, and clearly wondering who the hell this was, but it seemed he didn't have time to ask questions either. He practically manhandled Ezra to the door, even though Ezra would have come without being dragged and he was sure Bossk knew it. They made it out of the cantina.

And stepped into another war zone.

"Wh-what's going on?" Luke asked.

"We'll ask Mr. Bossk sometime after he has time to explain why he doesn't have time to explain," said Ezra. "But for now, let's just take a guess and say there's a riot going on."

It looked like a battle in the streets, being waged between mercenaries. Some of them might have been bounty hunters like Bossk and the crew he seemed to be with. Others looked like street thugs and gangsters.

"Bossk, what're you bringing kids with us for?" demanded one of Bossk's friends.

"Shut up, Dengar! Like I already told Boba, Shorty here's useful! And since we're in a bit of a bind, I thought we could use another useful person about now!" hissed Bossk.

"Well that explains Blue but not Blondie," said Dengar.

"He's with me," said Ezra, meeting Dengar's gaze, even though the man was far older and a lot more muscular than him, and probably knew about a billion ways to kill him. "Now are we going to keep falling back, which is what you lot seemed to be doing, or is there another plan of action we're going to take?"

"We're falling back," said Boba, sounding annoyed with all of them. "Keep moving!"

"Stay close," Ezra said, reaching out to grab Luke, to keep him moving with them. He pulled out his other blaster and pressed it into Luke's hand.

"My uncle's going to kill me," Luke muttered, a bit hysterically as he followed.

"Focus on staying alive until then at least," suggested Ezra.

"We're really bringing along kids who are afraid of getting in trouble with their parents?" muttered Dengar.

They got into a fire fight before anyone sniped out anymore remarks. A pathetic little ambush was waiting for them right as they rounded a corner. Ezra was already firing as he turned that corner. So was another of the bounty hunters, the alien who looked like he was probably a Gand by his armor. Boba was the next to start shooting. It didn't take them long to clear out the minor road block.

"I don't want to hear any more about the kids unless they're causing problems," Boba snapped, kicking aside a corpse as they continued on their way. "They pull their weight, they can stay. They fall behind, they get left behind. Them and anyone else who falls behind."

What Boba said clearly carried weight with this group. No one argued. Not, Ezra thought, that anyone who had just seen his shooting would have had anything to argue about anyway. Seeing that had probably been a major part of what caused Boba to give this verdict.

"Why are we going with them again?" Luke asked softly, sticking even closer to Ezra.

"Because there's a riot going on," Ezra said, even though he didn't think anyone should need to be reminded of that when they were in the middle of it.

"We should ditch them," Luke whispered. "Get back to my speeder and get the heck out of here!"

Ezra gave him a sidelong look. "Ever been in a riot before?"

"What? Well, no, but –"

"I have. So believe me when I say they're dangerous. Anyone might attack anyone else for any reason. Or no reason. All rationality flies out the window. There's looting, and arson everywhere. Streets are blocked off, speeders wrecked. Or blown up. You wouldn't make it out of the city on your speeder," said Ezra softly. "The safest thing we can do right now is stick with them."

Actually, if Ezra had been alone, he'd have had a second option. He was confident in his ability to survive a riot on his own. He just had to run and hide the way only a loth-rat could. Even in an unfamiliar city like this, there were plenty of scalable walls and buildings, roofs to escape to, alley ways with nooks and crannies to hide in until things boiled over.

But Luke would never survive this on his own. Ezra would bet his last credit on that. Luke had good instincts. He'd seen as much already in their brief time together. And he probably had the Force on his side too. But Luke had grown up on a farm, doing honest work, with his family. He didn't know how to survive when everyone was trying to kill everyone else.

And Ezra was not going to leave him to die. So their best bet was to stick with this very dangerous group of thugs who were better at killing people than the average thug on these streets.

It quickly became clear that they were carving their way to the space port. That was a very good way to go, in Ezra's opinion. He might not even have to pay for passage off this rock. Though getting Luke back would be a headache. Well, they could worry about that on the next rock. What mattered now was surviving by getting out of this mess.


At the entrance of the space port they got into another fire fight, this one more intense than any of the smaller skirmishes they'd been in on the way.

Luke couldn't help feeling like he was in over his head. He stuck as close to Ezra as he could, set the blaster Ezra had given him to stun, and fired off a bunch of bolts, but didn't think he hit much. He couldn't concentrate enough to aim. There was so much chaos all around them. He didn't even know why these people were shooting at them, and had the feeling those people didn't even know themselves.

Ezra though, he was amazing. Luke had known that from the story he'd told, which he had believed entirely, because if he was going to lie, he'd have at least made up a realistic story. But seeing Ezra in action was something else entirely.

The term calm under fire came to mind. It seemed like every shot he made dropped an enemy. He didn't fire wildly, like most of the ones against them and even some of their bounty hunter allies were doing. Even though chaos rained all around them, Ezra picked his shots coolly, and ducked at all the right times.

Suddenly, Luke saw a muscle in Ezra's face tense, and then he shouted out, "Sniper! On the roof!" He switched his aim upward, but his shot ended up being one of his rare misses, glancing off a piece of the stone roofing that the Rodian on the roof was hiding behind.

The Rodian got off a shot before Luke or any of the bounty hunters could manage one. And he'd clearly decided to target the person who had so far been the biggest threat to him. If Ezra hadn't moved, he would have taken a blaster bolt straight to his chest.

"Blue, take down the sniper!" Boba snapped out. "Everyone else focus on the meat on the ground!"

"Easier said than done," growled Ezra, firing off another shot. But the sniper had taken cover.

Luke's instincts suddenly went on high alert. "Look out!" he shouted, without knowing why.

Then, something went lolling out from behind the stone crenel that the Rodian sniper was hiding behind. Instantly, Luke knew that was the source of his worries, but he didn't even know what it was. In a glimpse he saw that it was round and blinking with a tiny red light.

"I see it!" Ezra shouted in answer, then took aim.

His next shot hit the round thing, which exploded in a burst of flame twelve feet in diameter.

Luke paled. The Rodian had thrown a detonator at them? If it had reached them it would have killed them all. "N-nice shot," he managed to say.

"Yeah. Well not as nice as this one. Hold this."

Ezra shoved his side bag into Luke's arms. Then suddenly Ezra was up and running.

"Hey! Shorty!" shouted Bossk as Ezra charged through their enemies' blaster fire, somehow managing to not get hit. There weren't as many people barring their entrance from the spaceport left. But those left were all firing wildly. Yet somehow Ezra didn't get hit. It was like he knew where the blasts were going to be and found a safe path through them.

Then, putting on a burst of speed, he leapt into the air. It was like he had taken flight. In a single bound, Ezra soared all the way up to the rooftop, did a single front flip, then landed right behind the crenel, light as a loth-cat on his feet. He raised his blaster and fired once.

Luke didn't see exactly what happened. The stone crenel was in his way. But from the blood splatter he saw burst out from behind the crenel, he knew Ezra had shot the Rodian in the head point blank.

Ezra then knelt and disappeared behind the stone for a moment. Then a moment later he stood and strode to the edge of the roof. In his hand, he held something round and blinking. He waited several seconds, as the blinking of the light accelerated. Then he knelt at the roof's edge and tossed the detonator beneath the roof, angling it toward the rioters. It exploded right when it had dropped to the level their faces were at and leveled them all.

"See, what did I tell you? Shorty's a little useful, at least," Bossk said, looking smug.

"Zussack thinks he's a bit more than that," said the Gand bounty hunter in their group. Something about his tone made Luke feel nervous on his friend's behalf, like the Gand had just figured something out about Ezra.

Hopefully not what the first half of Ezra's day had been spent doing.

"Blue, can you fly a ship or man a ship's gun station?" demanded Boba as they moved forward and reached Ezra.

"I can fly and shoot," Luke said quickly, eager to contribute and annoyed that the bounty hunter leader hadn't asked him, completely discounting him. He might not have been as useful as Ezra so far but that was no reason to ignore him!

"I can shoot," Ezra said. "And fly in a pinch. But Luke's a much better pilot than me."

Luke gave him a grateful look, but Ezra wasn't looking in his direction. He was staring confidently at Boba's face, right at the visor his eyes were behind, the nearest thing to meeting his eyes that he could. No one looking at him could tell that he'd never seen Luke fly a ship before. But even still, he wasn't exactly lying. Luke was an excellent pilot.

"You two, come with me and Bossk. Everyone else, to Dengar's ship," Boba ordered. "We'll meet up at the palace."

"Palace?" Luke asked, not really expecting an answer. He still didn't really know what was going on, or why everyone was trying to kill them and the bounty hunters. Though to be fair to the bounty hunters, it did seem more like everyone was trying to kill everyone else, including the bounty hunters. Not just exclusively targeting them.

"I'm sure we'll figure it out soon enough," said Ezra. "Maybe on the ship Bossk will have time to explain. Or at least explain why he doesn't have time to explain."

"Shorty, don't make me smack that smirk off your face," Bossk warned.

"You have time to smack me but not explain what's going on? Priorities, Mr. Bossk," Ezra teased. "Do you have them?"

More might have been said, except at that moment Ezra shot right over Bossk's shoulder, taking down another rioter with a slug shooter who'd been taking aim at them.

"Move out," ordered Boba, leading the way for their group.

"Are we going to your ship, Mr. Bossk? Don't forget to disarm your ship's weapons system so it doesn't kill us," said Ezra. Luke really wondered how Ezra had met this bounty hunter. He had the feeling the story was just as crazy as his Star Destroyer hijacking one. Well, not just as. But maybe almost that crazy.

"Don't worry, shorty. You're useful enough to keep alive for now," Bossk said, shoving him forward.

"You ok, Luke?" asked Ezra as they hurried to the ship, not meeting anymore opposition.

"Yeah. Still confused and not sure what we're doing, but I haven't been shot yet," said Luke.

"Well, that's something," Ezra said, slapping his shoulder as they hurried forward.

They reached a bay holding a ship called the Hound's Tooth, which turned out to be their destination. Ezra hung back warily until Boba moved toward the ship, gave Luke a warning look, then cautiously advanced too. After a few steps, he apparently decided that the defense system had been deactivated and he nodded to Luke who boarded the ship right behind him.

"Bossk, get us in the air!" Boba ordered, and the Trandoshan hastily hurried to the cockpit.

"So . . . is there time for an explanation about what's going on right now?" asked Ezra. "Or do you guys even know?"

"Oh, we know what's going on," chortled Bossk as he powered up his ship. "The Empire's put a bounty on Jabba's head and we mean to collect it."

"Unfortunately Jabba wants to keep his head," Boba said. "And it looks like he's mobilized every bit of scum working for him in the city. Then there's plenty of people in this cesspool that don't need an excuse to bring chaos."

"Are you serious?" demanded Luke.

"What do you think all that bantha crap down there was, kid?" demanded Boba.

"No, not the part about him mobilizing his goons, and a bunch of other criminals joining in," said Luke. "The part about the Empire putting a bounty on his head! You're talking about Jabba the Hutt, right?"

"You know of another Jabba worth talking about?" Boba asked dryly.

"No, but – but – what did he do?" Luke wanted to know.

"Well, the original bounty notice said he hijacked a Star Destroyer," said Bossk, and he laughed. "The updated one said he went and freed a bunch of slaves from a spice mine. Now that is a riot."

Luke's jaw hung slack. He turned and stared incredulously at Ezra. Ezra shook his head frantically, trying to urge him to stay silent. Luke just stared at him and tried to figure out how the heck Jabba the Hutt had ended up taking the blame for Ezra's crimes.

"We were scouting out the city, taking stock of the situation, but it looks like Jabba got tipped off long before we got here," said Boba.

"Which means he'll have retreated to his palace, like a wamp-rat running back to its den at the sight of a bigger rat," Bossk said. "We're heading there now to storm the place."

Luke gritted his teeth and looked at Ezra again.

Ezra looked uncertain, but when he saw Luke looking to him for guidance, or assurance, or just something, even Luke wasn't sure what, Ezra spoke up. "So we're along . . . for moral support? Or because you need mascots?"

"You're here for air support," Boba said. "Blue on guns. Blondie at the helm. Bossk and I will be going in, along with some of the team on the other ship. They'll sort out who they send and who stays. You get us close and provide cover fire while we get into the building. Then you hang close, shoot down anyone who's shooting at you, be ready to help us make a quick getaway, and do whatever else we tell you if we give you orders on the comms."

"And don't even think about making off with my ship," growled Bossk. "Or I'll hunt you down and skin you."

Ezra guffawed. "What, you mean you don't trust me, Mr. Bossk? After all we've been through?"

"That's exactly why I don't trust you, Shorty," Bossk said, but Luke could see he didn't really mean it. It looked more like he was warning them not to steal his ship as a formality than out of any real worry.

"Hey, I wasn't the one who screwed you over in the end," said Ezra. "I'm the one who should be suspicious. Speaking of which. What's in this for us?"

"You'll get a cut of the bounty," Boba said.

"How big a cut?" Ezra demanded.

"Ten percent."

"Each?" Ezra asked, eyes narrowed.

"No. The two of you together."

"Each."

"No." Boba sounded very annoyed now. "You're the rookies here. You've done the least amount of work on this op anyway. Ten percent of the bounty, shared by the two of you. No more."

"One thing more," said Ezra. "Passage off this rock once the job is done. For both of us."

"Passage to where?" asked Bossk. "You want to go home to –"

"No," Ezra cut him off. "Or if you're going there, fine. Anywhere that the Empire isn't going to be cracking down on for rioting is fine. We'd rather not stay here while the Empire is slapping down curfews and keeping a sharp eye on everything."

"Deal," Boba said.

Luke shifted uncomfortably. "I don't want –"

"Don't worry," Ezra said. "If we end up on another rock that doesn't even have decent caf, we'll just jump to another. Trust me on this, Luke."

"Alright," said Luke, hoping he wouldn't regret it. And that he had correctly interpreted Ezra's meaning, that he was lying for their cover story, and Luke wouldn't have to leave the planet. He was already going to be in so much trouble with his uncle for just happening to come to Mos Eisley when there was a riot going on. But for some reason, he didn't actually regret that.

The experience so far had been surreal, but at the same time, exhilarating. He didn't know how much he liked battle, but he couldn't say he hadn't enjoyed fighting by Ezra's side. It felt almost like he belonged there at Ezra's side. Like they were meant to meet. Meet and become friends.

He had to admit to himself that he didn't want their adventure to end here. And he didn't think it was going to. Because one thing was for sure. After living through this, there was no way he could slip back into the life of moisture farming and waiting around for three years to get off this rock.

"Give Blondie an overview of the controls, Bossk," Boba said. "I'll show Blue the gunner station."

"We have names you know," Luke couldn't help snapping. "And they aren't Blondie and Blue."

"Then show us why your names are worth remembering, Blondie," Boba shot back. "Impress us."

Luke gritted his teeth and moved to look over Bossk's shoulders at the control. He'd show these stupid bounty hunters. He was the best damn pilot in the Outer Rim. He'd show these guys exactly what he could do.


I hope you enjoyed Chapter 2! I'll try to be faster about writing and posting the next one. I've got winter break coming up so I'll have more free time. :)

Thank you for all your reviews so far! I don't want to give away too much of what I have plotted for this fic, but I do want to respond to a few of you guys, so you know I am reading all your reviews and appreciating them. : D

Specter14: Ezra is going to run into the crew of the Ghost again, but not for a few more chapters. They aren't aware that he was behind that crazy Star Destroyer hijacking yet. They'll find out someday but probably not in their next meeting. Because they're a little busy trying not to die and won't have time to swap stories then. : p

Trypy: Thank you very much. :) And Ezra really is not happy at all with the crew of the Ghost. He's not actively out for reveange against them at this time, but he sees them more as enemies than allies, and wouldn't mind getting even with them if the opportunity presents itself. Kanan would be wise to be scared.

Fadinglight13: I'm glad you approve of Ezra and Luke being bros. :D I think they'll balance each other out well. Luke's a little naïve, where Ezra knows far too much. Ezra has good in him, but has a hard time letting it show. Luke is unwavering in trying to do what's right and brings out the best in Ezra, even if only in quick glimpses. Ezra has the potential to go very dark, but Luke will be what anchors him. In return, Ezra will keep Luke alive and stand between him and any threat, no matter how powerful it may be.

RadicalCat: I agree with what you said about Ezra in Ezra's Gamble. That was what I was aiming for when I wrote him. I think that the crew of the Ghost has changed him, and that without them he would have become someone very different. That different person is who I'm trying to write him as now.

Sunlight Sonata: That's the version of the song I prefer too, and yes, the lyrics are very foreshadowing for my fic, especially in the long term. You're right to find those lines chilling, lol. I loved your description of dark!Ezra, btw.

Destiny: Challenge accepted.

Please leave a review on your way out. Flames are insignificant next to the power of the Force.