Zeb watched the door to the airlock shut, a hollow pit growing in his stomach. As soon as the door had closed, Hera disengaged the airlock with a triumphant "We're outta here!" Despite the pilot's relief, Zeb groaned and sat down with is back to the door as a single feeling burned in his chest:
Failure
The kid had looked at him, blue eyes begging the Lasat to help him, instead, he'd walked away. Sheathing his AB-75 bo-rifle, Zeb cradled his head in his massive hands as guilt washed over him full force. The teen had no doubt gone against every instinct he had to warn them, even though he didn't know them. Hera would NOT be happy about this. She'd probably been the one to talk the kid into warning them in the first place, otherwise the youth no doubt would've high tailed on outta there at the first sign of trouble.
As the Ghost raced away from the Star Destroyer, Zeb lifted his head and climbed to his feet. 'The kid'll be fine.' he thought, attempting to reassure himself 'The Empire'll go easy on him.' Even as he thought this, however, a small voice nagged at him from the back of his mind; 'Then why are you so upset?' As Sabine demanded to know how her most recent explosion had looked over the comm, Zeb headed to the cockpit.
Why was he so upset? It wasn't like he'd had a choice. There'd been no way for him to save the upstart, not with the stormtroopers shooting at him, and no way to attack them with that ISB agent holding Ezra in the line of fire. It wouldn't have been possible, so why was it bothering him so much? The kid was an annoying little thief, and he had no ties to the crew in any way.
Despite all the reasons why he shouldn't, Zeb felt guilt burn in his chest as they left the kid behind.
A/N: Surprise! My gift to you :) I was planning on leaving this at just Ezra's thoughts, but this burned in the back of my mind, demanding to be written. So here you go, a peek at Zeb's side of things. Thank you all SO much for all the positive feedback I've gotten, I wasn't sure how this would be received, it's not exactly up to my usual emotional standards. I don't own the characters or the story. Reviews are love!