So, obviously, I haven't posted for this story in a while and I figured I'd owe you guys some sort of explanation. One word: FINALs. They freakin' kill guys and I started losing precious writing time and though these chapters usually sit around 5,000 words they take literally FOREVER to write. Especially the closer and closer we get towards the end (and, naturally, dummy me decided it'd be smart to start another story altogether and I'm still writing Madness Breeds Agony and that has started getting INTENSE and though it's not a Rebels fic I'm super excited about it). Good news, though, finals is over so I have all of summer to wrap this story up so you guys have that to look forward to.

The dream happened again, but this time it was different. The girl and boy were older, much older, and when they looked at him it was one of fear and disgust and pity.

"I know there is good in you, father!" the boy cried even as he held his lightsaber in front of him protectively; the girl stood behind him, dark eyes wide as she looked upon the scene playing before her.

She looked considerably less convinced about the good left in him.

Not that he blamed her. Whatever reason he holds for trying to kill his children didn't matter, it was inexcusable. It made him a monster worth fearing.

He stepped forward, wheezy breathe echoing in his ears, with all the intent to kill.

"No!" he screamed but no sound came out.

Nothing changed. He was going to kill his children. He was a terrible Jedi. More so than that, he was a terrible father. Fathers shouldn't attack their children. They should love and protect them, teach them the difference between right and wrong. Good and bad.

Now he was the bad.

"Please Father!" the boy- his boy- pleaded even as the girl reached out to grasp his arm gently, "I don't want to do this! Please!"

He didn't listen.

He should've listened.

He rushed forward, arm reared back as if to strike him down. A rush a red light arced downwards, aiming for the boy's throat. There was a rush of green and the sound of lightning clashing against one another before he was shoved back. The girl was screaming her brother's name, terror etched on her gorgeous features.

When she looked at him, though, it twisted into anger and resentment and hatred. She'd never been as soft-hearted as her brother but she had always tried helping others. For that, he couldn't have been prouder. She just drew the line at people hurting her brother.

"Father, please!" the boy begged once more, voice cracking as blue eyes gazed up at him like he was still capable of giving him the world.

He pushed forward, going for the boy's neck once more and he knew that it had been a good swing. A killing move he shouldn't know how to do but was somehow executing it like it's all he's ever known how to do. It was quick too, the boy wouldn't have enough time to block and he'd-

Green caught the red, stopping it.

He blinked, taken aback, as he stared across the part where the two met. Bright blue eyes stared back, narrowed and furious and cold enough to burn. It almost seemed unnatural, coming from someone so full of hope and trust and love.

"I'm sorry father, but you give me no choice," the boy informed him and moved much faster than he ever thought possible.

It was kind of funny and really sad that the dream of him dying was the best one he's had in a while.

[ STARWARS ]

"So, your father-?"

"No."

"I was just-"

"Stop. Kanan."

Kanan puffed out his cheeks, a reaction she was finding more and more adorable the longer she's spent time with him. It was also a clear sign of his frustration, after having repeatedly been turned down by her every time he approached the topic of her dad.

Apparently he was some hero to the Jedi, which was ridiculous. Hera knew her father and knew that he wasn't a hero- not any more than she was. The only difference was that he was much more radical about his opinion, fighting for a cause that she was convinced no longer existed.

Either way, Kanan admired him; Hera really wished he wouldn't.

It's been several hours since Kanan's very close brush with death. His skin was still too pale for her liking, and the wound on his side was still extremely fresh but the man was stubborn- infuriatingly so. And ever since her 'let's go save your padawan' speech he's been more determined than ever at finding the youth.

That part he wouldn't explain.

The only thing he's let slip so far was the fact that his tormentors had started trying to break the kid, and Hera saw the boy. He was a short little thing that looked breakable. She wasn't as sure as Kanan that he hadn't been crushed already.

She didn't voice that, of course, because she didn't have a death wish. Plus, regardless of the kid's condition, she was still getting paid as long as she didn't turn her back on the man again and as long as they avoided desert planets she figured that they'd be okay.

She just wasn't expecting for Kanan to be such a fan of her father. If she had known that then she might've left him on the planet, curiosity be darned.

Who was she kidding?

She would've turned back around and rescued Kanan regardless and she couldn't explain why. She keeps telling herself that it was for Ezra and part of that was true but there was so much more. Something seemed to be drawing them together, like it had already been pre-decided for the two of them to be stuck together.

That was a scary thought, considering how much destruction the two of them have accomplished in the past couple of days.

Then again, if evil overlords would just keep their grubby little hands to themselves and not kidnap children who may or may not have the potential of destroying the entire galaxy then they would never have been the need for them to blow half the galaxy up in their pursuit. Nor would it have given them a reason to come together and work semi-together.

"So Hera," Kanan ventured, voice testing as he drew her from her thoughts, "Where exactly are we going?"

Here it was. Confession time.

Hera shrugged as she replied honestly, "I don't really know. We're running out of places that could hold any sort of lead and those places will value the price on your head much more than being honest and saving the galaxy."

"You think saving Ezra will save the galaxy?" Kanan asked, and it seemed to be the first he's considered as much.

To him Ezra was just a kid. He wasn't a weapon or some force in some forgotten prophecy. He was his padawan, and he just wanted him back.

Hera held no such sentimentally.

"I don't think that the Phantom Dealer wanted him for the sole purpose of a war. Something gave him the delusion that he'd be able to win," Hera explained, and she could practically see the wheels turning behind Kanan's vibrant gaze.

"And that something is Ezra," Kanan supplied, and it wasn't a question.

Hera nodded anyways because that's what felt appropriate. Ezra wasn't just some average kid, and whatever he can do is impressive enough for him to be that valued from the other side. Hera wasn't interested in sitting around and waiting for that reason to be revealed.

Kanan released a pent up breath, hearing it hiss between his teeth as Hera sat beside him and waited for the true nature of their predicament to sink in because regardless of what side they stand by if the Phantom Dealer got his way and washed the galaxy in his darkness then no one would be safe, and Hera rather enjoyed living.

Either way Kanan suddenly grew real quiet and still as he mulled it over in his head. Hera was getting kind of impatient too when, finally, he spoke.

"Then we need to hurry up and find him. They're already started in breaking him," Kanan informed and a rock settled in Hera's stomach.

Ezra was a child and, in her experience, children weren't hard to break. It didn't take much before they became an obedient shadow of who they formally were. It was one of the reasons armies sought out young soldiers for they were the easiest to convince to die for their purpose.

"Well… do you have any ideas then?" Hera demanded because she knew he was right and was drawing a blank on where they should actually go.

"One," Kanan admitted back to being sullen and mysterious, "and you're not going to like it very much."

[ STARWARS ]

There was always one thing Sabine had been certain of since she was a little girl- no one in the galaxy cared about something as weak and insignificant as a human orphan that should've died a long time ago on the streets. The temple hadn't wanted her, and it had only been because of the pity of a few that she had been allowed solace in such a place.

Then Ezra had come into her life, and she had allowed herself to believe that she had been wrong because if he was capable of caring so much after everything that's ever happened to him then maybe she could too; despite everything he continued to live and burn brighter than any sun she's ever encountered.

Perhaps that was what finally drew Kanan to the kid despite weeks of awkward forced encounters, or maybe it was something completely different. Something Sabine couldn't understand because she wasn't a Jedi. She wasn't special or powerful. She just was even though Ezra had convinced her that she was so much more than that.

Ezra was gone.

So was Kanan, who was more than a father-figure than her actual father had ever been despite the laws forbidding personal relationships.

And no one cared about either one of them, not in the ways they should. Kanan had been branded a traitor, and Ezra had long since been deemed a long cause and she hated that but had thought that she'd be able to do something about it.

Now she realized she couldn't. Not by herself, which was precisely how she ended up outside the room of the one person she was convinced capable of helping. Her cowardliness was just preventing her from knocking on the door.

She gritted the backs of her molars together as she mentally willed her hand to move, but it was almost like some unseen force was holding her back. She knew that was absurd, the only force that'd ever bother with her being her own will.

And then, as if in a bad movie, it slid open and Zeb blinked down at her clearly startled.

He obviously hadn't been expecting her to be standing outside his room like a lost child, and if she was honest then she really wasn't expecting for him to just suddenly appear in his doorway. He was no longer dressed in his formal clothing, though casual might have been too strong of a word. Something in the middle.

"Zeb," Sabine spoke first, and she sounded surprised.

"Sabine," Zeb replied back as something that resembled a fond smile crossed his features, a look one would give an adorable child that's wandered too far away from home.

"Uh… hey," Sabine spoke lowering her hand and feeling as awkward as Ezra always looked whenever he spoke to someone that wasn't Kanan.

"Did you need something?" Zeb asked, and his eyes were shining as he casually leaned against the doorframe and she realized he was trying to appear cool.

With that realization came the thought that he really didn't look it. Not while it appeared so forced.

She furrowed her brow, and now that the initial shock of Zeb just appearing she was able to speak in a much more casual tone as she demanded, "Early you mentioned that you think Ezra is going to be vital in a fight we're not even aware that we're getting into."

She saw Zeb swallowed, the action visible on his features as green eyes seemed to regard her a little more carefully. They weren't exactly guarded, the need to throw up such vast defenses had faded not too long after Ezra's capture.

"Correct," Zeb nodded before he asked confusedly, "Why are we bringing this up again? I already told you I don't know what could possibly make him so valuable," and then a thought crossed his features as he inquired, "Did you-"

"No," she cut him off abruptly with a firm shake of her head, "I don't know why Ezra would be valuable, but I do think he is. More so than just a tool to convince everyone else that they need to fall into another war so soon."

Zeb looked confused.

"Sabine, what's the point you're trying to make?" he queried as his face twisted up into one of intense thought, his mind rapidly flying all over the place as he tried piecing everything he knew and everything he thought he knew in a way that made sense.

It didn't make sense, Sabine knew, not when they were missing such a vital piece. Not when they had no idea on what Ezra could possibly be that would make him so wanted- so valuable. Especially not when all Sabine saw was this skinny runt of a kid with a smile way too bright for one so young.

"I'm saying that you're right," she elaborated with a furrowed gaze, "and that we can't just sit around and do nothing about it. This is no longer about rescuing Ezra or avenging the Republic. It's about the whole galaxy. The sake of everything- every single thing you love and hate- rides on who has Ezra."

Zeb's expression darkened as her words seemed to sink in as he contemplated on what she was saying. He seemed to agree as his muscles stiffened, and something in his eyes darkened. And Sabine knew she was right, had been sitting on this long enough to know she was. Now Zeb did too and an unsettling silence settled between the two of them.

The unseen war someone sparked up wasn't about a way anymore.

It was a fight for survival.

[ STARWARS ]

[There's been a slight… complication master.]

[Complication how?]

[It seems that you're not the only person interested in the boy. There's another and they've proven to be more persistent then we originally thought.]

[The Phantom Dealer? I thought you said that you'd deal with them when the time came. You reassured me as much and I trusted in your skills. Are you telling me that my trust was ill-placed?]

[Of course not master, but I sense that we're running out of time and the boy is… resilient.]

[Are you also telling me that you can't handle a mere child?]

[No.]

[Ezra Bridger is still young and everyone when pressed is capable of breaking. Find his weak spot and exploit it. I need and I need him alive. Do you understand?]

[… Of course master.]

[Good. Get it done. Contact me when you're finished and not a moment before.]

[ STARWARS ]

"No. Absolutely not."

"Well it's not like you have any better ideas. Come on Hera, please."

"No. I swore to myself the day that I left that I'd never return. Never does not mean only a couple of years, and then return the second a little boy disappears."

"We both know this isn't about just some random boy though," and he was making that face at her that made her want to simultaneously do whatever he says and punch him in the face, "and I told you, you weren't going to like it."

Hera frowned, green eyes hard as she growled lowly, "But I didn't know that you were talking about that."

The that in question was Hera's old bounty hunter mentor because everyone had someone or least they wouldn't get very far. Only Hera hated her mentor and had no such desire in going back- not even for a little boy who means so much to the man before her.

She wasn't heartless but she's pretended long enough that she was that she's capable of being callous when needed. And she certainly felt the need.

"So what then?" Kanan demanded and what little patience he's settled on since Ezra's kidnapping was slowly starting to slip.

She had seen it disappear completely back in that bar and had no such desire to see him fall that low again. She just couldn't go back to that place. He needed to understand that.

"We'll come up with another way," she tried but it sounded ridiculous even to her.

There was no other way.

Every second they spent searching was another Ezra was lost to them. It was another his captors got a chance to break him, and whatever they wanted from him certainly wasn't going to benefit her in the slightest.

So they didn't have the time to debate about this and certainly not to suddenly become picky. She just really hated that, hated it enough to rack her brain for anything. Anything at all.

"Hera, please," Kanan honest-to-goodness begged, and he sounded so lost and broken that it twisted something fierce within her chest.

That was another thing. The longer she spent hanging around Kanan the more she had started to feel. It wasn't unpleasant but she's spent most of her life not caring that it was strange and uncomfortable at the very least.

She buried her head in her hands, scrubbing her face hard enough to hurt. She didn't care about the pain, though, because she needed to think. There's always another way.

"Wait," she said suddenly, head snapping back as green settled back on Kanan and she didn't even bother suppressing the broad smile that stretched across her features then.

He looked startled.

"What?" he asked bending his head in her general direction, eyes imploring and she felt a spark of something.

"When I was first getting started I would look for jobs in some of the most… unsavory sort of places," she admitted spinning around to punch in the coordinates.

"I figured," Kanan said dryly at her shoulder, and it didn't churn her stomach as much as it first had when it became clear they were going to be stuck together for a while.

"I heard talk, chatter more than anything, about a planet known for its vase sort of knowledge," she continued.

"Oh really?" Kanan asked sarcastically and she didn't have to look to know he was raising that stupid pointed eyebrow at her, "and where would that place be?"

She shrugged as she supplied, "Malachor."

It was supposed to be a simple answer.

It certainly was never supposed to draw the reaction that it did.

"No. Absolutely not, Hera," Kanan denied almost instantly, twice as firm as Hera had been not to long before.

"What?" she asked sounding as lost and confused as she felt as she turned to stare into his suddenly hard eyes, "Why?"

Kanan paused, just glaring, before he sucked in a deep breath and moved away tensely. He looked less furious but that might be because he was just so obviously repressing it all.

"We just can't," he informed tense and definite as he kept his eyes locked onto hers, which was just not okay because he did not get to push for answers a moment ago and then decide that her ideas weren't good enough.

"We can't?" she challenged cold and angry and challenging as she narrowed her eyes on him, "Or you won't? We don't have time to be picky, Kanan. Ezra's life could be at stake."

"I know that Hera."

"Then why is it that when I suggest something you suddenly pretend like you don't? Is your opinion of me really that low?"

"Of course it isn't?" he reassured and his tone was softer than before but still hard and cold and frustratingly stubborn.

"Then what then? Do you just not care what happens to that padawan of yours?"

It was a mistake- bringing up the missing padawan- and she had known that when she said it. Her mouth was just moving faster than her brain and there wasn't enough time to have stopped herself.

There was a crack from corner and something flung from her ship and towards her head. It was only her experience and years of training that she was able to duck in time, and when she looked back up Kanan looked so different she swore she saw a Sith for the first time.

But then he blinked and it was over.

"Hera, I'm so sorry," he apologized, face warping into something sincere and sorry and it was like he couldn't believe what he had just attempted.

"Its fine," she brushed off, not looking for his concern and especially not wanting it- not after he just attempted taking her head off.

She had pushed his one button, and she had known that when she did it. If she was honest then she would've admitted that that was why she had said it. She wanted to make him angry. After all this time, she finally succeeded and it had been terrifying.

"Hera," Kanan tried anyways because as scary as that had been he was still mostly good and if she let him then he'd carry this guilt with him for the rest of his life.

The person she had been several days ago might've just let him.

"Really. I'm fine," she promised and didn't jerk away when he touched her arm, eyes checking her over for injuries.

"You sure?" Kanan pressed, eyes still too wide and skin too pale as he stared worriedly at her.

She sighed, allowing her shoulders to slump as she stared up at him and assured, "I'm sure, Kanan. I shouldn't have brought up Ezra so carelessly."

"And I shouldn't have allowed my emotions to overcome me," Kanan replied, and he still sounded angry with himself as he added spitefully, "It's not the Jedi way."

"Perhaps not," Hera responded with a tilt of her head, eyes looking up at the man before her as she set a gentle almost caring hand against his cheek and added with a soft smile, "but it makes you a man."

He frowned, eyes shifting down to the general direction of her hand before he sighed and pulled it away. He didn't let go of it, though, and for some reason that made butterflies flutter around in her stomach.

When did she revert back to being such a child?

"The reason I don't want to go to Malachor is because it is forbidden," Kanan explained softly and something in his voice sounded impossibly ancient, "It's a place for the Sith."

"It used to be," Hera corrected much kinder then before, "Rumors have it that it's abandoned now. Probably the same time the clone wars ended."

"That doesn't matter," Kanan sighed and when he released his hold on her something inside of her yearned to reach out and renew the connection.

Never once had she ever considered herself such an emotional creature until she meet this Jedi. Ironic considering she couldn't stand the guy or what he stood for whenever they had first met.

So, acting for the first time in her life on her impulse, she reached out and grabbed his hand once more. He blinked down at her like he thought she had lost her mind. Some part of her couldn't help but agree.

"Explain it to me then," she demanded green eyes focused on his teal ones stubbornly, "Make me understand because I really think that's the best place to look for any sort of trial of your padawan."

Kanan blinked, tilting his head to the side as he seemed to consider her words. He looked perplexed and she couldn't tell if that was because he didn't know the answer or if the fact that she was holding his hand.

But he did sigh, a deep straight from-the-soul sort of sigh as he supplied, "Any place of the Sith is known as being evil. I can't risk being corrupted because then I really don't have any chance of finding Ezra."

Oh.

Sometimes, she really was a fool. But, then again, so was he.

"Kanan, you're the bravest person I've ever met before. I don't think a rock floating in the middle of nothing will ever change that," she informed him, blinking up at him with bright kind eyes.

He smirked but it wasn't the confident one she had become acquainted with the past couple of days. It was full of self-doubt and inner anger.

"You do remember that I just tried killing you, right?" he asked, and he looked like he had just won the argument- like that point meant anything to her; it didn't.

"Puh lease love, it'll take more than that to get rid of me," she responded and this time it was her who smirked up at him.

Something in his eyes changed, and her mother's voice ran through her skull all of a sudden. It was one of those things she hadn't thought about in years, and the fact that it was suddenly sprouting up had her blushing like a fool.

Concern clouded Kanan's gaze suddenly as he asked, "Hera?"

Before she could reply, Chopper suddenly entered the room sprouting off quicker than she was able to interpret. He was also waving his claws in front of him madly, as if trying to get both of their attention as he sprouted off what could've been nonsense.

Then he realized the position he had interrupted them in.

That time Hera did understand what he was saying, and none of it she ever wanted to interpret for anybody. And she would've envied Kanan for his obliviousness if it wasn't for the fact that Chopper attacked him.

Granted being attacked by Chopper wasn't much more than him trying to ram over your leg as he struck your torso repeatedly. Obnoxious but not something that was all that hard to fight off.

"What's gotten into you, you bucket of bolts?" Kanan demanded as he shoved Chopper back with the heel of his boot, and he looked angry but not murderously angry.

"Chopper, slow down. What's wrong?" Hera interrupted before Chopper got a chance to answer.

He twisted his head towards her, still trying to attack Kanan, as he beeped at her. She froze suddenly, eyes shifting up to Kanan who was watching her. Teal eyes shifted from her to Chopper before back at her then as they narrowed considerably.

"What? What did he say?" Kanan demanded, but Hera ignored him for the time being because, so-help-her, if Chopper was kidding she'd dismantle him herself.

"How?" she demanded and her tone must have tipped them both off that she wasn't joking around because Chopper suddenly stopped trying to kill Kanan.

"What? What's he saying?" Kanan demanded even as Chopper answered her, ignoring Kanan's presence completely and it was kind of amazing how quickly the two could flip from one another. One second they hated each other and the next they were acting like the other didn't exist.

"He's saying he knows where Ezra is," Hera informed as she turned to the navigation to try and find the planet, "He intersected a transmission between his captors and what he assumed to be their leader. He was able to track them before they cut off."

"What? Really?" Kanan asked as he spun to stare at Chopper appraisingly.

Chopper made the closest sound to a huff that a droid was capable of. He even made a show of crossing his claws like an embarrassed child being praised by their least favorite parent.

"Yeah except I've never even heard of this place before," Hera added with a furrowed brow.

"What? Why? What's the name?" Kanan prodded and the fact that they've finally found their first real lead had him so excited it was more than kind of adorable.

She glanced back at him as she informed, "Mustafar."

From Kanan's reaction, he's very much heard of this planet as well.