The morning after the last Imperials surrendered on Lothal, Ezra found himself leaning on the railing of the old comm tower, watching the sun rise over Capital City. He heard a noise behind him and turned. Unsurprisingly, it was Sabine opening the lift.
"I figured I'd find you up here." She said as she walked up.
"I just wanted to be alone for a minute." Ezra replied.
"Yeah, I know." Sabine said, leaning against him. "That's why I'm up here."
Ezra laughed and put an arm around her. They stood there in silence for a few minutes, just watching the sunrise.
"So what now?" Sabine asked finally.
"Well, I guess we keep fighting." Ezra replied.
"I'm tired of fighting though." Sabine said. "I just want some peace."
"Really?" Ezra asked, a little surprised. "The big bad Mando warrior wants to settle down? I'm calling your mother."
"Watch it buddy." Sabine said, elbowing him in the stomach. "I could still kick your butt in a heartbeat. But that's not really what I mean."
"Well, what do you mean?" Ezra asked.
"I don't know." Sabine said. "Hera and Kanan are about to get married, and I just thought that, after the war, this place wouldn't be such a bad place to live."
Ezra's eyes got wide as she mentioned marriage.
"Woah, slow down Sabine." He said "Are you saying you want to…"
"Well, one day, ya dork." Sabine laughed nervously. "Right now we're both way to busy, and it's about to get a lot worse. Once the Empire finds out about these victories, they'll come back with a vengeance. We can't get distracted right now. Honestly I don't think Hera and Kanan should be doing it, but they're practically married anyway, this is just a formality."
Ezra silently let out a breath he had been holding. Thankfully, Sabine didn't catch it, and if she did, she didn't let on. As he looked out at the sunrise, he thought about what she had said. Marriage. Of course he loved her, and sure, he'd thought about it a few times. But the thought of marriage scared him a little, and he didn't know why.
Sabine was having the exact same thoughts. She knew her parents, or at least her mother, probably wouldn't approve of her marrying a Jedi. But she also knew what she wanted. That night she had kissed him on top of the Ghost on Krownest had more than confirmed it. She wanted a life and family with Ezra. Maybe not right that moment, but after the war, she just wanted to live somewhere out in the country on Lothal with Ezra, and maybe one day some kids.
She pushed the thought from her mind though. Ezra was right, there was still fighting to be done, and even though they weren't married, they had each other, and that was enough for now.
'If we could just win this stupid war.' She thought.
Weeks later
"Zeb, watch the left!" Sabine called as two TIE fighters flew past the nose gun.
"I see them!" Zeb growled, firing the top gun.
There was a flash of blue light, and an Imperial light cruiser came out of hyperspace.
"Right on time." Hera said "Brightsword, you're up."
A few moments later, a heavily modified Rebel Hammerhead class corvette came out of hyperspace behind the light cruiser. The Brightsword was the newest ship to be added to Phoenix Squad, and had one purpose: capture Imperial ships. The new ship was equipped with grappling lines and an ion weapon that shut down enemy engines. The ion cannon fired, shutting down the cruisers engines and causing it to drift. The grappling hooks fired next, sinking into the cruisers armored hull.
"Positive lock, General!" The Brightsword commander said on the comm. "Reeling her in now."
"Are your assault teams ready?" Hera asked.
"Affirmative General." The commander replied. "Patching the video feed to you now."
Sabine climbed up into the cockpit to watch the boarding teams. On the screen, she could see the video feed from a Rebel trooper's helmet cam. They breached the cruiser airlock and were met with Imperial blaster fire. There was a short firefight, and the Rebels drove the Imperials back.
"Airlock secured General." The lead trooper called. "Moving to capture the…"
The trooper was cut off by a scream somewhere off camera.
"What was that?" Hera asked.
"Contact!" Another trooper yelled, firing his blaster.
Through the screams and blaster fire, Sabine heard a familiar noise.
"Is that what I think it is?" She asked.
"A lightsaber." Kanan replied, confirming her fear.
The trooper with the camera rounded a corner and came face to face with the new enemy, or rather, three of them. They looked like a stormtrooper, with a smooth, angular helmets and dark red armor. Each one was carrying two red lightsabers. The Rebel trooper raised his blaster, but one of the new enemies swung its lightsaber high. The camera toppled to the side and rolled a little, showing the red armored feet of the enemy and the decapitated body of the Rebel trooper. Sabine put her hand over her mouth and shut off the video.
"What were those things?" She asked.
"Best guess, some new version of the Inquisitors." Kanan said. "Ezra and I will take care of this."
"I'm coming with you." Sabine said, following him.
"No, you're not." Kanan said. "I don't know what these things are capable of, or how many there are."
"I can take care of myself." Sabine protested.
"I know that." Kanan replied, putting his hand on her shoulder. "But if you get hurt, Ezra may slip up, and that will get us all killed, especially if there are more than three. Just trust me Sabine."
Sabine sighed and turned around, sitting in the copilots seat. "Fine, I'll stay." She said.
Kanan ran to the rear of the ship and found Ezra sitting in the Phantom, waiting for another target.
"What's going on out there?" He asked.
"I don't know, possibly Inquisitors." Kanan replied. "We're going over to the cruiser."
Ezra didn't hesitate, releasing the docking clamps and steering the Phantom toward the Brightsword. They docked with the corvette and headed toward the airlock where the cruiser was attached. They could hear screams and blaster fire, as well as lightsabers.
Ezra ran around the corner and activated his lightsaber. He saw one of the new troopers with its back toward him, attacking Rebel troops. He took the advantage and lunged, sinking his lightsaber hilt deep into the troopers back. It lurched forward and fell to the ground, dead. Another trooper came through the airlock door and swung at him. Ezra flipped backwards and landed next to Kanan, who also activated his lightsaber. Two more troopers stepped through the airlock, red lightsabers hissing to life.
"What are these things?" Ezra asked.
"I don't know, something dark." Kanan replied.
Two of the troopers charged, while the third hung back, looking for an opening. Ezra blocked as a trooper swung at him. Whatever they were, the troopers were well trained. He blocked three more swings, then used the Force to push the trooper off balance. Ezra charged, swinging his lightsaber in an arc across the troopers chest. The trooper stood for a moment, then fell to the ground. The trooper that had been hanging back jumped over its fallen comrade, swinging it's lightsabers downward. Ezra Force pushed it into the ceiling, then let it fall to the ground. As it fell, the trooper spun, kicking Ezra across the face.
He flew back, losing his grip on his lightsaber. As he stood to his feet, he saw his lightsaber lying on the ground near the trooper. He tried to pull it toward him, but the trooper swung it's lightsaber, cutting Ezra's in half.
"Karabast." Ezra muttered.
He heard a strange, yet familiar sound somewhere close by. He looked around and saw one of the dead troopers lightsabers sitting next to him. He grabbed it and activated it, shuddering as the red blade appeared. He blocked another swing from the trooper, and as they locked blades, he saw Kanan approaching from behind the trooper.
The trooper grunted as six inches of blue lightsaber stuck through its chest, burning the red armor. It fell to the ground as Kanan pulled his lightsaber out of its back.
"I think...that's the last of them." Kanan said, breathing hard.
Ezra gave a sigh of relief, then looked around. He found the two halves of his lightsaber and groaned.
"My crystal is busted, what am I gonna do now?" He asked.
"We'll figure that out when we get back, for now use the one you have." Kanan replied. "Come on, we need to clear the cruiser."
They rounded up another squad of Rebel troops and cleared the Imperial cruiser, room by room, corridor by corridor. They found a few stormtroopers, but no more sabertroopers, as the Rebel troops had started to call them. Once the ship was clear, they moved to the bridge and started going through data files.
"Why did we want to capture this ship again?" Ezra asked.
"It's supposed to be carrying a special cargo meant for the Emperor." Kanan replied. "Looks like whatever it is is in cargo hold 2."
They made their way to the cargo hold, activating their lightsabers as they stepped inside. The room had already been cleared, but regular soldiers still could've missed something.
"That looks like our target." Kanan said, pointing to a group of crates locked behind a ray shield. "Check the rest of the room while I get this shield down."
Ezra nodded and swept the room. Finding nothing, he returned to Kanan, who had managed to deactivate the shield.
"Alright, here goes nothing." Kanan said, pushing a button to open one of the crates.
The lid popped open, and a rack of small blue cubes rose out of the crate.
"Holocrons." Kanan said excitedly. "Jedi Holocrons. I think that's what all these crates are."
Ezra opened another crate, revealing more Holocrons. He opened a third crate and looked inside. Instead of finding Holocrons, he found a suit of sabertrooper armor, except this one was different. This armor was blue and silver, and looked like a cross between Jedi robes and the clone armor Rex wore.
"Hey, what's this?" He asked.
"That's Jedi battle armor." Kanan replied. "The Order developed it centuries ago, but that set is an updated version from late in the Clone Wars."
"I'm keeping this." Ezra said happily.
"We're keeping all of it." Kanan said. "It's Jedi relics, it's Jedi business. The Alliance has no say in it, I don't care what they think."
Ezra couldn't agree more. They closed up the crates, then called Hera to come pick them up. While they were waiting, Ezra changed into the armor he had found. He was excited to find that the armor had a built in cloak and hood.
"Where did you find that?" Sabine asked as she led a squad of Rebel troops in to help load the cargo onto the Ghost.
"In one of the crates." Ezra said. "I thought it looked good."
"Anything is better than the same orange jumpsuit." Sabine said, rolling her eyes.
They loaded the cargo onto the Ghost, then left the new Rebel crew to take over the cruiser. Later that day, Ezra was desperately trying to figure out what to do about his lightsaber. He had kept the red saber, but that was the problem. It was red. But he could still hear that strange noise that had made him see the saber in the first place. Out of ideas, he went to Kanan.
"Hey Kanan, are you still up?" Ezra asked, knocking on Kanans door.
"Yeah kid, come on in." Kanan said.
Ezra opened the door, seeing Kanan sitting on the floor, legs crossed.
"What's up?" Kanan asked.
Ezra pulled the lightsaber off his belt and tossed it to him. Kanan caught it, holding it in front of him.
"What's wrong with it?" He asked.
"Turn it on." Ezra said. "Oh." Kanan said quietly as the blade appeared. Even though he was blind, Kanan knew the blade was red.
"Yeah." Ezra said "I don't know what to do. My other crystal is busted, I can't use it again. And this one...It's like its calling to me."
"Maybe it is." Kanan said. "I had something similar happen to me when I was an apprentice. My saber was cut in half in a training accident. I didn't know what I was going to do, then I heard another crystal calling to me from the archive vault. I told Master Yoda, and he took me into the vault. I found the crystal I currently have in an old lightsaber from hundreds of years ago. I will admit though, this one is going to be different."
"Yeah, tell me about it." Ezra said.
Kanan scratched his beard, thinking for a moment. "Wait, you remember Ahsoka's lightsabers?" He asked
"The white ones?" Ezra replied. "Yeah, what about them?"
"Did she ever tell you how she got them?" Kanan asked.
"I don't think so." Ezra said "Why what's so special about them?"
"Well, I guess we never really went over it during your training, but white isn't a common lightsaber color." Kanan said. "In fact, it's not a color at all. Neither is red."
"How do you explain that then?" Ezra asked, pointing at the red lightsaber.
"Sit, and I'll show you." Kanan said.
Ezra sat as Kanan pulled out his own lightsaber. He levitated the two sabers above his hands, and used the Force to deconstruct them.
"Lightsaber crystals are nothing more than a Force attuned rock." He explained. "It's our connection to the Force that truly give a saber its color. Sith lightsabers are different. The crystal is the same, but the user poured all his hate, rage, and anger into the crystal, causing what we call bleeding. That's what causes the red."
"So what's so special about white?" Ezra asked, looking at the red crystal.
"Well, Ahsoka told me about an old Jedi method for healing a bleeding crystal." Kanan said. "It's what she did when her crystals called to her."
"So Ahsoka's crystals were red, and she fixed them?" Ezra asked.
"Yes." Kanan replied, handing him a data chip . "And you're going to do the same thing to yours. This is Ahsoka teaching me how to heal a crystal. Watch is and you'll have your new one."
Ezra took the chip and returned to his room. He watched the recording, following step by step as Ahsoka explained how to undo an unspeakable act. When he was finally finished, hours later, he looked at the crystal in front of him. Instead of a dark red, it now glowed a soft white. Ezra smiled, picking up the crystal. He spent the rest of the day sifting through the boxes they had captured. Two of them contained more lightsaber parts than he'd ever seen.
That night, Sabine found him on the floor of the cargo hold, still trying to find the right parts.
"Any luck?" She asked, sitting down next to him.
"I'm almost done, just have to find the right hilt." Ezra said.
"What about this?" Sabine asked, holding up a black hilt with silver engravings on hit.
"Wow, I didn't see that one." Ezra said, taking it. "I think this is it." He put the hilt in his bag, then stood. "Come on, I'll show you how I do it this time."
"What color will it be this time?" Sabine asked as they walked into his room. "I liked the green."
"You'll see." Ezra laughed.
He sat down at his desk and took the pieces out if his bag, laying them out across the desk. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Using the Force, he picked up the pieces, moving them into place. A few minutes went by as he lined everything up just the way he wanted it, then connected all the pieces. The completed lightsaber floated into his hand.
"You ready?" He asked.
Sabine nodded, and Ezra activated his new lightsaber. The silver blade sprung to life, and Sabine let out a small gasp.
"It's beautiful." She said, a little awe in her voice.
"You think so?" Ezra asked, smiling.
"Yep." Sabine replied, kissing him on the cheek. "Come on, let's go show the others."
The rest of the crew was, of course, impressed by the new lightsaber.
"Well, it's good you got that made when you did." Hera said. "We just got a new mission from command. Those new sabertroopers are being trained on a station above the planet Glee Anselm. Our orders are to destroy it."
"Then lets get going." Kanan said. "Glee Anselm is on the far side of the galaxy from here, so it's going to be a long flight."
Hera set the hyperdrive, and the crew settled in, preparing for the battle ahead.