"Sabine, I need you in the nose gun, now!" Hera ordered over the ship's com. Said girl hesitated for a moment while Anakin folded his arms. "Didn't you hear Hera?" Ezra asked, frowning at her as the ship shook again. "Didn't you hear Tseebo? He said he knows what happened to your parents." she replied. "I already know what happened. They're dead. So go!" he snapped with a glare. The Mandalorian girl hesitated and looked at him with concern before running out the door. "Sabine was just trying to help." Anakin said, glaring at him before following her out the door.
As soon as the ship entered hyperspace the crew made their way to the common room before the two older teens and Twi'lek went to fixing Chopper up. "So? Now what do we do with him?" Ezra asked, sitting at the holotable and gesturing to the Rodian. "We have a few ideas. But you're the one who has history with Tseebo. What do you think we should do?" Kanan asked as he walked up to the table and leaned on it with his hands. "Don't know. Don't much care." the kid replied, putting on his painted cadet helmet. "Ezra, you'll never advance as a Jedi if you can't be honest with yourself, at least." the older Jedi said.
"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked, sounding annoyed then standing and trying to walk away before Kanan grabbed his helmet and took it off. "It means Tseebo matters to you. You do care what happens to him." he replied, placing the helmet on the table as Ezra turned to face him. "Why should I? He did nothing to save my parents!" the kid snapped while pointing to Tseebo. "What could he have done against the entire Empire?" Kanan pointed out before Sabine stood and walked over to the Rodian.
"And besides, look at what he's done since. The Imperials encourage these implants, but they're not mandatory. Not yet. He must have volunteered. And then he uploaded their secrets and ran. Maybe he's trying to make up for letting you down. Why else would he take on the Empire alone?" Sabine asked. "Empire." the Rodian said before speaking in Huttese again. "He said the Empire can track the Ghost." she translated. "Oh, please. The Imperials can't follow us through hyperspace." Zeb said, sounding skeptical before Tseebo's cybernetics projected a hologram of a tracker.
"Imperial XX-23 S-thread tracker was developed by Sienar systems to trace ships through hyperspace to destination." the Rodian explained mechanically. "Hera, could they have tagged us with that thing?" Kanan asked. "Guess we better find out." the captain replied before she and Anakin got Chopper back to working order. The warbled in a panicky tone before Hera tried calming him down.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! Whoa, whoa, whoa. Calm down, Chop. You were just off-line for a few minutes." she reassured, sighing before the two humanoids stood. "We need you to scan the Ghost for that." Hera said while pointing at the hologram before the droid warbled a complaint. "Stop grumbling and find that tracker, you rust bucket!" Zeb said before he and droid left the room.
"So they did tag us." Sabine said as everyone minus the Rodian were now in the cockpit as Chopper showed a hologram of the ship with a small aiming reticle on the back where the shuttle was. "Yes. But the good news is the tracer's actually on the hull of the Phantom." Hera said as she pointed at it on the hologram. "How is that good news exactly?" Zeb asked. "It'll allow us to detach the Phantom and lure the Imperials away from the Ghost and Tseebo." Kanan explained before the Mandalorian girl started to protest. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! You want to detach while in hyperspace? Do you know how incredibly dangerous that is?" she asked incredulously.
"Not as dangerous as what I plan to do with the ship." he replied. "This should be good" Anakin said sarcastically. "I checked our current trajectory. If you can modify the hyperspace coordinates." the older Jedi said to Hera. "I could." she replied. "Then we can pass by the asteroid field where the old clone base is." he replied. "You mean the base with those frynocks that tried to eat us?" the merc asked. "Wait, what? Why would we want to go down there?" Ezra asked in surprise.
"He's right, Kanan. Why not just drop the Phantom into our trail and let the Imperials chase after their tracker?" the Twi'lek asked. "Because there's more than a tracker at work here. Back on Lothal, I sensed it. The Inquisitor is on our trail, and as long as Ezra and I are on board the Ghost, we're jeopardizing Tseebo's escape." the older Jedi replied as Chopper turned the hologram off. 'Good thing dad taught me how to hide my Force-signature.' "So I gotta leave the Ghost and go to this nasty-filled asteroid as a favor to Tseebo?" Ezra asked, not sounding thrilled at idea. "As a favor to all of us. And don't worry. I'll be right beside you." Kanan reassured before Ezra sighed.
"Anakin, can you help me with something?" Sabine asked him as she noticed Ezra walk into kitchen. "You're going to try convincing him to talk to Tseebo, aren't you?" he asked. "Yes." she replied as he sighed and nodded before following her. The two entered the kitchen where the kid was watching the Rodian with folded arms as they walked up to Ezra. "So your parents do you really believe they're dead?" she asked him gently. "Yes. No I- I don't know. Does it matter?" he asked, sounding annoyed. "Yeah, of course it matters. You have to talk to Tseebo before we go." she insisted. "She's right. Despite the tense relationship I have with my mom and my dad being gone right now, I'd still wanna know i there alive or not." Anakin said in agreement with her.
"Yeah well... I tried that already." the kid replied, brushing them off. "Okay, so try harder! Once Hera takes him away, you may never see Tseebo again." she reminded as Anakin sensed Kanan just outside the door. "Maybe that's for the best." the kid replied bitterly as he walked over to the door. "Wha? How can you say that?" Sabine asked in surprise before he sighed and turned to face them.
"Guys... I've been on my own since I was seven, okay? If I'd let myself believe my folks were alive, if I let myself believe they'd come back and save me, I'd never have learned how to survive." Ezra explained before the door opened to reveal Kanan. "You ready?" he asked the younger Jedi. Ezra looked at the two other teens for a second before nodding to Kanan. "Okay." the older man said before the two exited the kitchen.
Anakin had a pretty good idea the reason she was trying so hard was because it reminded her something to do with her own family. "Maybe we can try to convince him again later." he said, resting a comforting hand on her shoulder and getting a small smile in return before he went over to the cupboard and grabbed a pack of noodles while she turned her gaze to the Rodian.
'Home...' Anakin's thoughts trailed off as Hera docked the ship with his mother's CR90 corvette. "Fulcrum to Ghost. Docking complete. Heading to the airlock now." his mother's disguised voice said over the com. "Acknowledged, Fulcrum. We're ready and waiting." Hera replied. "I don't suppose Zeb and I could get to meet Fulcrum this time?" Sabine asked. "Nope. This time you stay in the cockpit." the Twi'lek replied with a smile. "That's what we did last time." the Lasat replied before Hera stopped and turned her attention to the teen male sitting in the chair behind Sabine. "Anakin-" she started before he cut her off. "No." he said simply. The Twi'lek sighed before leaving the cockpit.
A few hours later the shuttle docked and as Kanan descended the ladder, Anakin could sense something different about Ezra. 'Ah...that's what it is. He's had his first brush with the Dark Side.' "Welcome back, you two." Sabine said. "You outsmarted them again. Good job, boss." Zeb complimented as Ezra descended the ladder. "You made it." Hera said, sounding relieved as she smiled. "Was there any doubt?" the older Jedi ask, returning her smile. "Never." she replied before the kid walked over to them. "Ezra, I have something-" Hera started before Kanan cut her off. "Ezra needs a little time to himself right now." he said before the young Jedi exited the common room. Kanan sighed as he looked at Hera. "We need to talk." he said.
Anakin accompanied Sabine to the nose gun where Ezra was sitting before releasing a deep sigh. "Rough couple of days." she said. "Yeah. It's been strange." the kid agreed. "We have just what you need. It's the holo-disk from your old house. It was pretty degraded, but we cleaned it up. And we found something." she replied with a small smile as Anakin inserted a small holodisk into the console beside them before a holographic picture of a younger Ezra with his parents appeared in front of the younger teen. "Mom? Dad." he realized with a small smile. "Happy birthday, Ezra Bridger." she said before Anakin nodded and they both left him alone.
Chapter 7 done.
