Chapter 3: Just A Dream

While the ship refueled, Hera and the others formed a plan of action to find the two lost Spectres. She currently had a large map of the ocean projected on screen covering the majority of the small room they had convened in.

"With currents and our projected area of entrance, we're looking at a 500 mile range they could be in and it's getting larger by the hour." Sabine stated the information she had gathered. The Mandalorian was concerned about her friends. The planet's ocean was not a safe area, there were too many changing factors that could easily kill a human, even a Jedi. Her thoughts resting on Ezra.

Sabine knew of his swimming skills, or rather the lack of them. She had witnessed them first hand on Lothal about a month ago.

"So, why don't you and I go grab a bite to eat. We still have plenty of time before we have to be back at the ship, and you rarely ever open up. It would be the perfect time." The younger teenager asked as they walked. Hera had sent them on a supply run and slight recon mission to gather some local intel.

The two were currently walking along the giant city pond that spanned the Western region of the city. Ezra used to walk it all the time with his parents, sometimes throwing credits in and making a wish.

"How about not?" Sabine stated flatly as she continued walking. Ezra was looking down at the water and saw a really cool flower that he wanted to show her. The lily was really rare to see on Lothal and was endangered.

"Hey Sabine!" The male teenager grabbed the Mando's arm to stop her so he could show her knowing she liked pretty things. Her reflexes took over as she pushed Ezra away from her and into the pond.

She heard the splash. She kept walking assuming that he would just stand up and catch up with his pride damaged like always. The splashing didn't stop though.

Sabine turned back to see Ezra struggling to stay above the surface of the water. Ponds weren't supposed to be deep. She quickly dashed back and jumped over the small barrier jumping in the water. Grabbing him by the collar and dragging him to a shallow area.

"Why didn't you tell me you couldn't swim? I wouldn't have pushed you." She said breathing hard having to take her helmet off to release a buildup of water. She was scared knowing that Ezra could have died, but she wrote it off as frustration. She wouldn't let herself admit that she had feelings for him, that would ruin the game of chase they continually played.

"Why should I tell you? You shouldn't have pushed me! I was trying to show you this!" The youth said bitterly standing up coughing up more water. His hands were trembling but he reached down and grabbed the water flower throwing it at her getting out of the water and starting to walk back.

Sabine looked at the beautiful flower that had practically been trampled. It was a beautiful orange and purple, her favorite colors.

"Ezra I…" She started only to be interrupted by a transmission from Kanan telling them to hurry up and get back to the ship.

"On our way Spectre 1." Said a very disgruntled teen. Nothing made it sound like they were in danger so he let it drop.

"That's if they survived. They must've fallen at least 20,000 feet if not more. No organic could survive that." Zeb said sadly breaking Sabine from her thoughts.

"They survived…I know they did. Kanan wouldn't let anything happen to Ezra and surely he could have manipulated the force somehow to aid them." The Twi-lek urged, to silence any doubts, mainly her own. She was scared that they wouldn't find them, or worse they would but not alive. She started to feel nauseous but pushed the thoughts aside.

"By the time we can get back out there the range will have expanded another 1000 square miles. The currents on this planet are extremely fast and the tides violently shift with the Moon and Suns' rotations." The Mando continued.

"Some vacation area. They make this place seem like a paradise, when in actuality it's a warzone waiting to happen with the elements" The Lesat said; he held no amusement for the situation.

"There are high swells and high levels of bacteria counts in the water." Sabine added, but she knew that Hera had this information.

"That and the temperature drops below freezing at night. It's already freezing and the last sun hasn't set yet." Zeb chimed in.

"How long will it take us to scan the search area allotting for the currents?" Hera said, continuing to look at the map.

Sabine started to type in a lot of information talking to herself quietly before she came up with her answer.

"With how fast the currents are, calculating direction changes, our trajectories, speed and refueling times….100 hours approximately as long as we follow the paths I lay out exactly and so long as we don't back track." The girls voice sounded less hopeful than what Hera wanted.

She understood why. She doubted that even Kanan could stay floating above the surface for that amount of time without fatigue or hypothermia setting in.

"What about feral creatures? And have we checked to make sure that somehow Imperials haven't found them?" Having them imprisoned gave a little light to the situation, rescue missions seemed to be their growing specialty.

"No, no recent intakes." Sabine confirmed before all of them sighed at once.

"Alright then we set out at dawn after the ship is refueled and stick to the paths, And the plan. If we haven't found them in 100 hours…we have to call the search off." Hera stood and walked out. Her last words made the sick feeling come back full force. She blamed herself for not being a good enough pilot. They should have been able to lose or take the TIEs out faster than that. She walked to her cabin and shut the door.

Kanan was floating in the ocean. The youth had lost consciousness but was still floating calmly on his back. He felt something and looked behind him seeing the Ghost floating in the water. Swimming over there he forcefully opened the hatch. The ship was half filled with water, but it was crimson.

The Jedi jumped in immediately falling waist deep in the red, copper scented water. It was ice cold causing Kanan to shiver.

"Hera? Sabine?" He called looking around. He opened the door to Ezra's cabin. Zeb was laying lifeless with multiple stab wounds from none other than a bow rifle. Kanan backed away wondering what had happened.

"Caleb" A ghostly voice called out from a distance. Kanan tried to find it. He stumbled into the cockpit seeing a larger massacre. Both the ship's females had been assassinated in horrific manners, their blood mixing with the water turning it the dark red that it was.

"No…" Kanan said his eyes filled with pain. He backed away.

"Hera…Sabine…Zeb…" He felt himself back into a warm, living body. The air had gotten cold; he could feel his body responding starting to shut down. He turned around.

"Caleb…" Master Depa was standing in front of him. She had a malicious smirk covering her face.

"Where's your student Caleb? You failed to protect him." Kanan's eyes widened. He took off past her and climbed out of the ship. On the top of the ship was his student's lifeless body, blood seeping around his body.

"No!" Kanan called out. He felt his master behind him and turned as he heard the sound of a light saber. His master had transformed into the Inquisitor. He reached for his lightsaber to find it gone.

"You're pathetic Caleb Dume, always running from everything." The Inquisitor advanced on him. Kanan backed away.

"No…I..."

"You failed to protect those that you cared about." He continued lighting the second blade of his weapon.

"No…"

"You let your master die." Kanan had backed up hitting the limp, pale body of his student.

"No...!"

"and your friends die." Kanan tried to look away, the bodies of his friends had appeared on the ship. He stared at them silently.

"There's nothing left for you." Kanan fell to his knees, his emotions threatening to take over, tears threatening to spill.

With one sweeping motion, the Inquisitor struck.

Kanan woke with a start, sitting straight up from his already half sitting position that he had been in. He struggled to get his breathing under control as he looked around the darkened area with a keen, yet unfocused eye. He shut his eyes and inhaled deeply before exhaling to release his emotions. It was just a dream.

His eyes opened again and landed on the padawan. Seeing that Ezra was still breathing, if not a little ragged, just sleeping, the older male relaxed letting out another deep breath. He got up and added more wood to the dying fire to build it back up.

With the clothing dry, he gently dressed himself before going back into the shelter, starting to dress his charge. He noticed that, aside from his sickly breathing patterns, Ezra was running a fever. Kanan gently tried to wake up the sleeping male.

Deep blue eyes fluttered opened weakly looking up at Kanan. They were glazed and unfocused.

"hugnn…." Was all his got out as he started to cough violently before ridding the contents of his stomach and partially his lungs of the water that had forced its way in. Kanan had just finished getting Ezra's pants on and had managed to get him outside of the shelter before he did, letting him purge his body. After his body let up, Ezra slumped heavily against Kanan, shivering again, his breath coming out in small gasps as if struggling to breath.

Kanan struggled slightly to get the top half of Ezra's jumpsuit on to help get him warmer. He was exhausted, and Ezra wasn't being much help. The Jedi hadn't slept much that night because of the nightmares and making sure they remained safe and warm from the fire.

Kanan grew more concerned; he could feel the pain and sickness coming from the teenager. His leg was looking even worse as a deeper infection set in.

"I'm sorry Ezra…" Was all he said, feeling guilty that he hadn't listened when Ezra had tried to tell him how he felt about training.

In response, Ezra coughed, a little more water coming up, barely missing his mentor. Kanan was concerned that his body wasn't digesting the water that he had swallowed yesterday; something wasn't functioning internally and he wondered if it was a side effect of the bacteria.

"Ezra needs water…He needs to stay hydrated. There's no water here that he can drink. Maybe there's something he can eat that will help though…" Kanan was in survival mode, but not for him, for teen in his lap. Kanan was physically fine, still a little tired but fine.

He shifted the youth and got him settled on the makeshift bed again before he stood. Ezra whimpered looking up at him with glassy eyes; he didn't want to move and thought that Kanan was going to tell him to get up and do something.

"It's okay Kid." Kanan knelt next to him on one knee placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. Kanan checked his fever again. It was high.

"I'm going to go look around a little while. Stay here and try and sleep. I'll be close by if you need me." Ezra nodded and shut his eyes almost immediately asleep again. Kanan stood and looked around before picking a direction and taking it.

Kanan kept his guard up as he explored, he stopped upon finding a fruit tree, with produced fruit high up that he actually recognized as edible. He couldn't remember the name though. It resembled a real-world green coconut.

Using the force, he easily scaled the tree and took three fruits before jumping and landing gracefully in the sand. He made his way back to camp quickly, but not before scanning the skies for any signs of Hera.

When he arrived, Ezra was in the midst of a nightmare. He gently woke up Ezra sending him calming waves through the force to help him settle down faster.

"It was just a nightmare." He gently told him. Ezra calmed down still half asleep as Kanan propped him up against one of the large rocks currently being used as a shelter.

Ezra hurt all over, he couldn't move his leg and his lungs felt like he was drowning all over again. He barely registered the sound of Kanan using his lightsaber to cut open one of the hard skinned fruits. Soon the scent of something extremely sweet was brought up to his face.

Ezra looked away as the smell made him want to hurl the bile that was rising in his stomach.

"Come on kid...you need some kind of fluid and this will give you some strength. It's good for you." Kanan tried a few more times before giving up when Ezra almost gagged after he had finally managed to get some into his mouth.

Ezra didn't want anything in his stomach, the water that had been involuntarily swallowed had been enough to last him the rest of his life.

"Maybe later then…" Kanan sighed before he drank a little of the fruit's interior liquid himself, putting it off to the side and getting Ezra settled flat again.

Kanan felt his student's head, frowning. His fever had gotten worse in just the little time he had gone, where was Hera?

Kanan hesitated before getting settled next to Ezra. If he had another nightmare, Kanan would be ready.

Somewhere, he felt Hera flying close by. He had no way to reach her though, he sighed.

Hera had completed 14 hours of trajectories and there had been no sign of her boys. With the gravitation being a little more than normal, the ship was running out of fuel much faster than anticipated. Soon she was returning for more after marking her location on the map.