Ages-
Sabine- 19
Ezra-18
Kanan-42 (My reasoning for this is because in this AU, he was a Jedi knight when order 66 was issued)
Hera- 30
Zeb-39
Galen-20
Juno-21
Kota-55
Hey Guys it's me again so here is Chapter two of this story hope you guys enjoy it.
Tython next day 04:50
Ezra laid awake in his bed his bags packed and ready to go. He glanced over to see his brother curled up on the ground with his blanket, he looked a lot like he did when they were back on the super star destroyer that Vader commanded. Only something was wrong. Galen wasn't moving. No subtle moves to indicate that he was breathing, that is when he saw a small pool of blood around him. And his saber a few feet away. Then he heard it. The unmistakeable breathing of his former master.
"You will not succeed." Vader said with a dangerous tone. "You will always fail, you are a tool. A weapon to be discarded when you are no longer of use."
"Impossible! How did you get here? What's wrong with Galen? Where's Juno? And Proxy?" Ezra said.
"They were weak. They did not accept my offer of mercy. They chose their own fates." Vader said with no hint of sorrow.
"Ezra, now is the time for you to decide. Do you join me your master? Or do you stay with the pathetic weakling you have the audacity to call brother?" He continued.
"I. Will. Never. Join. You. Again." Ezra said, seething with anger. He reached out and called his lightsabers to his hands. The blue and red blades ignited as he assumed the battle stance of Djem So. He quickly, with reflexes faster than a human eye could process, brought his blades down on Vader. But Vader was ready, he countered the blades with his own red blade and in a lightning fast movement brought his hand out and grabbed Ezra and slammed him against the wall. As Ezra lay there he looked over at Galen, suddenly his eyes opened and he spoke.
"Brother. Help. Me " Galen said in a pained tone. But Ezra didn't believe it. He got up to strike at Vader trying harder now that he knew Galen was still somewhat alive. Then Vader grabbed him in a force choke and brought him forward quickly and ran his saber through Ezra's chest.
Ezra woke to Galen beside him, telling him it will be okay and just wake up.
"I saw him, it was so real. I could smell your wounds, I heard your voice, and I could feel your pain." Ezra choked out in a sob. He reached out and gathered Galen into a fierce hug.
"I'm sorry, but I have to know that you are alive." Ezra continued. And Galen just sat there and let Ezra let it out. Galen had always been better about handling his emotions, he guessed it was due to his training starting when he was so young. But that didn't mean he didn't have breakdowns. Many a night Juno would wake him up from similar nightmares and comfort him as he either had a vivid dream of her and Ezra's death or reliving some of his past sins, while he could do nothing to stop it.
"It's okay brother, I get the same night terrors also." Galen said in a hushed tone. Then a comm device on his belt started to beep. He picked it up and was greeted by Proxy's voice.
"Morning master, while I was recharging a call came in from General Kota." The holo-droid said. "He says it is most urgent."
"On my way Proxy, better wake Juno while you are waiting I will take the call in the shadow." Galen said.
"Actually Mrs, Eclipse is already awake and is just loading the last of your's and her's luggage into the ship. Master." Proxy responded.
"Okay. Ezra and I will be there shortly." Galen finished the call and looked at Ezra who was still clinging to him.
"It's okay Ezra. He isn't here, he can't hurt you anymore." Galen soothed out as Ezra's sobs quieted down.
"I think that Vader knows that we are coming out of hiding." Ezra blurted out. "Maybe we shouldn't go. Maybe we should stay."
"We can't, it is the will of the force that we go, we won't disobey it's will." Galen said back. "Besides Vader isn't so bad. We lived with the guy for years. We know his weaknesses, and we have faced and beat him and the emperor."
"I know, but, do you think that we will face him again? And if we do, will we be strong enough to defeat him?" Ezra asked.
"As long as we are brothers we can defeat him." Galen responded.
Tython 4 BBY 05:10
Galen and Ezra walked up to the Rogue Shadow, Ezra glanced and saw that Galen had a nervous look on his face but he wasn't sure if it was because he thought that Juno was still pissed or because he would be speaking to Kota again. Last time they had a sort of falling out due to Galen not wanting to join the rebellion but they have spoke a few times since then so he hoped it wouldn't be so bad.
They approached the bridge of the shadow and saw Juno decked out in her uniform, a traditional black pilot's outfit along with a simple black cap on her head as she got ready to go.
"Kota's been getting impatient, I was about to send Proxy after you two and drag you guys here." Juno said with a hint of annoyance, General Kota could get on one's nerves easily when he was forced to wait.
"Sorry Juno, we were just finishing up getting things together." Galen said as he kissed her cheek. He turned to Proxy and spoke.
" Go ahead and patch the General through Proxy," Galen stated to the holo-droid.
"Right away master." Proxy said. As he began to light up and was soon replaced with the visage of Rahm Kota, Former Jedi Master and General in service to the Grand Army of the Republic.
"Nice to see you boy." The gruff man said as came through, "Could've kept me waiting longer you know."
"Good to see you to Master," Galen said as he bowed in respect. Even though Kota never officially took Galen on as padawan he still was the closest thing to a father figure Galen had. So he paid him the respect of calling him master.
"What seems to be the issue Master?" Galen continued, "I mean I know you wanted us to join the fight sooner but whenever you called it was only to check up on us and ask if I had changed my mind."
"Well I am hoping you have," The aging master replied. "One of the best rebel cells has lost its five star fighters, they were heading to go after Grand Moff Tarkin. See if they could capture him and use him as bait to see if they could capture some high ranking imperials."
"You and I both know that is a foolhardy plan, General." Galen replied. "The empire would rather let one of their own die than save them."
"I know, and I tried to warn them but they couldn't be swayed. The Jedi they have leading them is really headstrong, kinda reminds me of you." Kota said.
"Well where do we need to go? And who are we looking for?" Ezra cut in. having shaken off his previous doubts about joining the rebellion."
"You will be meeting up with a man by the name of Commander Sato, he will brief you more from there. I am also transmitting the code clearance so they don't shoot you out of the sky."
"Pffft. I doubt that they have any pilots who can outfly me." Juno interjected.
"I don't know, supposedly this rebel pilot from this crew is one of their best. Keep in touch. Unfortunately I won't be able to join you as Mon Mothma is having a hard time with the imperials in our sector so I will be unavailable." Kota finished up. "Kota signing off."
Almost instantly Proxy dropped back down from the transmission and wobbled a little bit.
"I think my coordination and balancing circuits are out of alignment again master. Permission to go fix them?" Proxy asked.
"Sure thing Proxy, go right ahead." Galen said. He watched Proxy go. He turned around and looked at Ezra, "Why don't you go wait for me in the sparring room, I will be there shortly. We need to be in top shape to fight the imperials."
"Of course brother." Ezra said as he turned and left.
Galen turned to face his wife. He knew she was still upset about the night before but he didn't know just how upset she was.
"Sorry we kept you waiting." Galen said in a hushed tone.
"And what was so important that you wouldn't come right away?" Juno said with an edge in her voice.
"Ezra had a nightmare, took me a while to calm him down." Galen said.
"That bad, I seem to recall it taking me just a few moments to calm you down from some of the more terrible nightmares that you would have." She said, the edge completely gone, instead replaced with sorrow. Those nightmares were something that she constantly had to be on guard for. The first few months of her time on Tython and subsequent marriage to Galen were some of the worst nights of her life. Galen would suddenly lash out in his sleep, one time he even fired force lightning from his hands, thankfully it only hit a wall, and was weak enough that it only left a small scorch mark.
"Why did it take so long?" She followed up.
"This is going to sound sappy but, it's because you are my wife. We share a bond, that although it is far younger than my bond with Ezra, it is stronger, and deeper." Galen replied. "It means that just your presence can calm me better than even Ezra. I can calm Ezra down but it still takes time."
"What was the nightmare about?" She questioned further.
"I didn't get specifics, all I know is that he saw Vader in the dream. And I think he might have seen the rest of us perish." Galen said.
"Do you think that it's a sign?" Juno asked.
"I don't know, dreams and visions tend to be a bit elusive, even some of the most powerful sith and jedi could misread a dream or vision." He said with a sigh, "I better go and practice with Ezra, and sorry again, about last night, I shouldn't have been such an ass."
"You're right. You shouldn't have been such an ass. But I forgive you." Juno said.
Galen left after she said that, knowing that she could pilot the ship through hyperspace to the rendezvous in her sleep. Instead he thumbed the saber at his belt. Him and Ezra needed to train to be in top condition for the upcoming trials they would face.
Aboard the Rogue Shadow, 5 minutes earlier.
Ezra came upon the training room in the ship that he and his brother used to use to take on targets for Vader. Later on in his training he had his own starfighter that he would use but unfortunately it was destroyed when they left Vader and rescued the senators. He went to the center of the room and knelt down on the mats to begin meditating to help pass the time. As he tried to connect and become submerged into the light side of the force he felt the normal resistance to him becoming one with it. When he probed deeper Ezra found that he was missing something, what that thing is he didn't know. All that he knew is that it was hindering his growth in the force.
He felt his brother's presence enter the room and heard his paces get closer to him.
*pop-hiss*
Galens blade sprung to life and began a strong downward arc at his back, only to be met by the strong defense of the soresu fighting style. Both brother's looked each other in the eye the quietly disengaged and backed up. Each bowing to the other they then assumed their favoured fighting start stances.
At first neither made a move. Then suddenly Ezra shot forward like a viper and began an aggressive Juyo attack only to have Galen fall back on the soresu defense, then quickly transition to djem so's hard counterattack forcing Ezra to backpedal and take up a niman defense while throwing out bolts of force lightning and force pushes aimed at his brother. Galen jumped and dodged around the force pushes and deflected the lightning with his single blue blade. He still prefered the single blade versus the Jar-kai variants that Ezra employed. Choosing instead to master throwing off opponents with integrated force based attacks. And one such attack would prove to be useful as he dodged Ezra's blade he saw an opening using a force push to gain some distance he then charged his blade with force lightning, not enough to cause any real harm, but enough to definitely cause some pain. Only Ezra saw this coming and jumped over Galens swipe he then wound up behind Galen and threw a blast of force lightning at him. Catching him off guard it paralyzed him and knocked him to the ground Ezra came up and laid his saber, set to a lower setting so as not to accidentally hurt his brother, across his neck and he proclaimed himself the winner.
"Hingabe, ich habe gewonnen" (Surrender, I have won) Ezra declared.
"Du hast Glück gehabt, ich hätte diese Explosion mit meinem Säbel abgelenkt."(You got lucky, I should have deflected that blast with my saber.) Galen retorted.
"Yeah, yeah. It's always luck when I win, yet it almost is always skill, when you win." Ezra complained.
"That's because I am older, therefore wiser, kleiner bruder." (Little brother) Galen shot back.
"Oh you are gonna pull the wise card on me Großer bruder,(Big brother) and who was the one that had to sleep on my floor last night because they pissed off Juno?" Ezra replied.
"Fine, you win," Galen relented with a smile, he glance at the clock and saw that it was 08:30, "Wow. we spent a lot longer training than I thought. I guess time flies when you are having fun. But I better go make some breakfast for Juno and I, you want some?"
"Nah, I am going to practice with proxy for a little while," Ezra said.
"Okay, I will send him back here as soon as he gets done repairing himself." Galen said.
Ezra watched him turn and go. He then sat down and assumed his meditative stance, focusing again on the lightside of the force, trying to master connecting to it was difficult. Despite having received minor training with it from Master Kota, and from Galen, he still felt as if his training was not complete. Maybe when this mission was done he could contact Kota and see if he would allow him to learn under him in the ways of the lightside.
Ezra heard the door open behind him and turned to see proxy walking in.
"The master has said that you request to train with me?" Proxy questioned.
"Yes, I wish to face your Obi-Wan Kenobi training module, set to full strength." Ezra replied.
"Very well then." The holo-droid responded and lit up to assume the identity of the soresu Master.
Somewhere in the outer rim 08:50
"Where is this contact that Bail Organa said would be so useful in the rescue of the Ghost crew?" Commander Sato barked.
"According to Senator Organa he made contact with the group's liaison roughly three standard hours ago sir." A lieutenant responded. "Do you want me to call and ask when we should expect them to arrive?"
"No, that is of no need. I just wish that they would hurry, we are sitting ducks out here in this area, the empire could happen upon us at any moment." Sato replied. "I just hope that the Ghost crew can survive until this team can arrive."
"Senator's Organa, Mothma, and Bel Ilbus all speak very highly of this team, supposedly they even gave Vader a run for his money once." Another lieutenant responded.
"Well, I will be the judge of their effectiveness, if they ever arrive." Sato said in annoyance.
Coruscant Royal Palace 09:50
"You have felt it?" Palpatine asked.
"I have my master, they have come out of hiding." Vader responded
"Then you know that they cannot be allowed to join the rebels, their power together could constitute our demise." Palpatine said.
"The younger one, Bridger, he is weak, without his brother he would fall right back into our hands." Vader spoke, his mechanised voice box making his very presence seem daunting.
"Yesss," The Emperor stated, "We shall use him to become the stumbling block of this rebellion."
"I shall deal with them myself." Vader proclaimed
"No, for we have not seen them in a few years, let us go and send in the best that the inquisition has to offer, I have foreseen that they will be rescuing the captured Ghost crew above the Kashyyyk system." Palpatine responded. He still remembered the power that the two former apprentices could muster, "Best to test them with disposable rabble of those weakling inquisitors than for them to destroy you."
"As you wish my master, I will send the new grand inquisitor and the first brother and sister to dispatch of them." Vader finished.
"Very well, you are dismissed." Palpatine said with a wave of his hand he turned his throne around to admire the Coruscant skyline.