Ezra's Sacrifice:

D26/1 BBY, Imperial Dome

Ezra glanced up at the vent high above his head that Chopper had opened for him, resigned that it had come to this. He hoped Hera would forgive him for slipping away, but she just wasn't ready to let him go. Not after losing Kanan already. Hera had been walking a very fine line of surviving or shattering into pieces. Ezra prayed that what he was about to do didn't push her over the edge. The rest of their family would take care of her though, and the new life she carried. She hadn't told anyone yet, but Ezra was pretty sure she knew. And he was almost positive that Kanan had known. If Ezra could sense the new Force signature, there was no way that Kanan hadn't. Kanan saw everything.

Ezra focused on Sabine, the woman who was his everything. The driving force of his life for the last four years. Everything he'd ever done in those years was to either impress her or protect her and Kanan and the rest of his family. Ezra's eyes met Sabine's and he felt his chest tighten with regret. For leaving her behind. For not getting to say a proper goodbye. For putting the care of his planet and his future in her hands. With everything he had, he sent her his love through the Force, hoping she would be able to feel it surround and embrace her. He felt her love and acceptance for what he was about to do in return, her beautiful amber eyes speaking all the words that they wished they could say. She turned away and drew the attention of the others to the far side of the room, leaving Ezra to make his escape unhindered. Ezra memorized her face one more time, then leapt up into the vent soundlessly.

As he forced his body through the air ducts, he thought this had better be the last time he ever had to do this. He was definitely getting too big to fit through these things easily. He dropped down into the hallway just outside the command centre door, glancing at it longingly, his whole being wanted so badly to go back in there and stay with his family. To wrap Sabine in his arms and kiss her for a year without stopping. But he couldn't. That path led to the end of his planet eventually. Thrawn would win, not today, because the purrgil would still come and take away Thrawn's entire fleet, but without Ezra there, Thrawn would escape the purrgil too quickly and come back and destroy the entire planet in retaliation. Ezra couldn't let that happen.

He jogged down the hallway towards the exit but came to a skidding halt at the junction of hallways. His head whipped towards the hallway that led further into Headquarters. Eyes widening in surprise, he followed the faint but heartbreakingly familiar song of the kyber crystal in Kanan's lightsabre. Knowing there wasn't time for this, he did it anyway. There was no way he was letting Kanan's lightsabre get destroyed when the Imperial Dome got blown to bits. Running as fast as he could, he dashed to Governor Pryce's office. Opening the door with the Force, he ran to her desk and pulled the lightsabre out of a drawer. Then he booted it back to the landing pad. Putting everything into it, he threw the lightsabre off the Dome as far as he could, giving it an extra shove with the Force. He was trusting in the Force to take care of it, and that it would end up in the hands of someone who needed it. He jumped into a gunship, one of the ones they had stolen from Pryce earlier in the day, and flew towards his fate.

Down in an alley of Capital City, a white lothcat watched the object fall from the sky. With a graceful leap, he caught it out of the air in his mouth. Proud of his accomplishment, the lothcat's tail flagged happily as he trotted through the city, careful of the random burning bits. A few minutes later, he reached the grasslands that surrounded the city. There he was met by a giant white lothwolf with a symbol on its forehead, staring up at the sky longingly. The lothcat dropped the lightsabre at the feet of the one called Dume with a chirp in greeting. Dume dropped his nose down to the ground and the lothcat rubbed his body along his muzzle, purring loudly. With a wolfy smile, Dume picked up the lightsabre. The lothcat jumped up onto the top of Dume's head and grinned in delight at his new vantage point. Dume turned back towards the grass. Within a few steps, he had disappeared from sight.

As Ezra took his final trip off his planet and up into Thrawn's Star Destroyer, the Chimaera, Ezra's brain whirled with all the plans he had made for this moment, looking for anything that he had missed, but he couldn't think of anything. He had Ahsoka's promise to come find him. Chopper had his lightsabre to give to Sabine when she needed it, and had the message he'd recorded for his family to play for them after he was gone. Mart knew what he needed to do to signal the purrgils that it was time to make their move. The day he met them replayed in his mind. What he had thought was just another large animal had actually turned out to be an incredibly intelligent sentient species who talked through telepathy, a secret that Ezra had kept for them as per their wishes. The purrgil's words had haunted him for years. ONE DAY, YOUNG JEDI, YOU WILL NEED OUR HELP, AND WE WILL BE THERE. In repayment for saving one of their main sources of food, the purrgil had told Ezra how to call them. They would be waiting nearby when the time came. At the time, Ezra had no clue what they were talking about, but now he understood.

As he thought of Mart, he remembered the surge of panic he'd felt from the younger teenager, before he went blank. Ezra had frantically sent his thoughts to the lothwolf alpha and got a sense of reassurance in return from him. Ezra's heart had beat in time with the lothwolf's as he felt it protect Mart and chase away the threat. Ezra would forever be grateful to the lothwolves for helping him and their planet when they were needed the most. He would miss them until he got back. But he felt comforted by the knowledge that they would take care of the planet, and more importantly, keep an eye on his family and Sabine while he was gone.

Landing in the hanger of the Chimaera, Ezra was handcuffed, searched and removed of everything from his utility belt, and led to Thrawn's office. The blue Chiss Imperial taunted Ezra about the destruction of his home planet and his friends, especially mentioning Sabine. The man did know how to find the biggest weakness of his opponents, Ezra would give him that. Grand Admiral Thrawn didn't show much on his face, but Ezra could feel the satisfaction radiating off of him. Thrawn was in for the surprise of his life very soon. He might think he had finally won the war against the Rebels of Phoenix Squadron, but Ezra knew differently.

When Thrawn led him deep into the Star Destroyer, Ezra expected to be thrown into a holding cell, while they travelled to wherever the person of power Thrawn taunted him with was. He did not expect to be escorted to a giant room with a piece of the Jedi Temple in it. Or to see a holo image of Emperor Palpatine. This, he did not see coming. Thrawn left him in the company of the Emperor with a final shot of inner glee sent Ezra's way.

Thrawn was positive that Ezra was not going to survive this encounter. He'd already figured out long ago that the Emperor was actually a Force user of the Dark Side, his logical mind putting the pieces together easily. How else could he command Darth Vader and the Inquisitors? The Bridger boy didn't stand a chance against such a powerful adversary, even with the Emperor's physical body on the other side of the Galaxy.

Ezra met the eyes of the Emperor distrustfully, feeling the familiar cold that comes with the presence of the Dark Side. He didn't know how that was possible, since he was talking to a hologram, but he trusted his senses. The Emperor was not to be trusted. Despite his amiable appearance, The Emperor's voice sent shivers down Ezra's spine. He was sure he'd heard it before, from the Sith with the flames of ice, in the gateway in the world between worlds. The same gateway that Kanan had appeared in, he suddenly realized. Had that been a trap all along? Whatever the Emperor had to offer now was most likely a trap as well. It had to be.

When the hologram gestured Ezra into the piece of the Jedi Temple, Ezra reluctantly went, playing along for now. Having his parents appear in the gateway was a shock he hadn't been prepared to deal with. His heart broke to see them again. To hear their voices call his name for dinner, just like they used to when he was little. Ezra was startled from his memories when his handcuffs fell off, feeling a brush of the Dark Force. He turned back to look at the Emperor in surprise. He had just done that from across the Galaxy. That was NOT a good thing. Palpatine gestured to the control for the gateway, trying to get Ezra to open the door. Ezra was tempted, really really tempted, for a moment, to just throw it all away and go back to the happy life he had with his parents, but a mental image of Sabine stopped him. He would never see her again if he did that. And that was something he just couldn't live with. He already knew his current path would take him far away from her for more years than he cared to think about, but he would see her again, eventually.

Ezra returned his attention to the image of his parents. As he stood in front of the gateway, it was like they could see him too. He reached for them, his whole being longing for this to be real. But he knew it couldn't be. To take this route, to walk into a trap, would doom everything he loved and fought for. With his heart in pieces once again, he let his parents go, the way he'd let Kanan go when faced with the same decision. He understood why Kanan had given up his life for his family. They were worth it. And now he was doing the same, in a smaller degree. He was giving up his own life, for now, to save a whole planet. His planet. Ezra closed his eyes for a moment and said goodbye to his parents one more time. As his eyes opened, he swore he saw their images smile at him proudly. Sucking in a breath for courage, he gathered the Force inside him and threw it out all around him in a shockwave, bringing what was left of the Temple crashing to the ground.

As Ezra ran for his life, Temple crumbling around him, he heard his parents say, "We love you, Ezra," giving him the strength to continue with his plan and the knowledge that he had done the right thing. He ran right through the holo image of the Emperor, diving clear of the falling rocks. An image that was flickering between the grandfatherly looking man, to the real evil of the Sith Lord he had encountered before, confirming Ezra's suspicions. The Galaxy was ruled by the most Evil man alive.

Ezra stood and faced the image of the Sith Lord, ready for whatever came next. With his mask of respectability gone, he radiated the Dark Side, making Ezra feel like he'd just been thrown out into the cold abyss of space. And this was just from across the Galaxy. What would it feel like to actually be in his presence? He hoped he never had to find out.

The door opened behind him and in ran three men dressed entirely in red. A uniform Ezra had never seen before. Bringing with them another wave of icy cold. The Sith Lord looked at his minions and said, "Destroy him," in a voice worthy of nightmares for years to come. Ezra faced the men in red and Force pushed them, but only one of them even moved. They were very strong in the Dark side. They pointed their staffs at him, lifting Ezra off the ground, sending currents of electricity through his body. Ezra fought through the pain. He wasn't going to let it end like this. With determination forged in steel, he called on his connection to the Force and grabbed one of the bigger pieces of the Temple and threw it at the men in red, and the troopers who had joined them, shooting with their usual thankfully appalling aim, taking out two of them. That caused just enough of a distraction for Ezra to fight free of the hold they had on him. Using every ounce of Force energy he could gather, he picked up half of the rocks from the temple and threw all of them at his opponents at once, burying them.

Ezra leapt over the pile of rocks to the sound of the Sith Lord screaming, "Noooo!" Ezra didn't have time to savour his victory. Everything was going to happen very quickly now. Spotting a blaster that had been thrown free of the rocks, he grabbed it and ran. He had a long way to go to get to the bridge of the Star Destroyer, and that's where he needed to be in just a few minutes time. Ezra ruthlessly gunned down any trooper or officer that got in his way, a faint niggle of remorse playing at the back of his mind, but he ignored it. This was war, and his planet and family were at stake.

Just before he walked into the bridge, Ezra felt his connection to the Purrgil snap into place. "WE ARE HERE. WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE US TO DO?" The voice echoed through his head, making him wince.

"Can you take all of the Imperial ships away? As far away from this Galaxy as possible?" Ezra asked in his mind.

"THIS WE CAN DO. PREPARE YOURSELF, FOR THE JOURNEY WILL BE LONG."

"Thank you," Ezra replied as he entered the bridge of the Chimaera.

Ezra shot the guards on either side of the door. Pointing the blaster at Thrawn, he was surprised to feel a hint of sadness along with reluctant admiration coming from the man. He wondered what could have caused that. What Ezra did know is that he could also feel the waves of relief coming from his planet. He knew he could count on his family to protect it. And getting the shield up, despite all the odds against it was exactly the kind of the thing they excelled at. "It looks like you lose, Thrawn."

"A momentary setback," the Chiss said, gathering his determination back together, brain whirling with how to change the tide of the battle back into his favour. He still had his entire fleet in orbit after all, and there was just one boy and a small handful of rebels between him and victory. There was no way he could lose this war.

When the boy said, "We'll see," with an air of knowing something that Thrawn did not, he wondered at what else the rebels could possibly have in reserve. To his knowledge, absolutely nothing they did could change their fate. Thrawn should have heeded his own words about the Force being an enigma, for what came next, he never could have anticipated.

One of the officers informed Thrawn of the disappearance of his entire fleet. His planetary blockade taken out in an instant. Thrawn watched in disbelief as hundreds of Purrgils appeared in the smoky atmosphere of Lothal, ramming through TIEs like they were nothing, taking huge chunks out of his Star Destroyers like they were made of sand instead of the strongest metal available. Thrawn stood in a faceoff with the Bridger padawan, blasters pointed at each other, watching the Purrgils with wary eyes. "Whatever happens next, happens to both of us," he told the boy.

"That's the idea," Bridger said, not displaying even the tiniest hint of trepidation at their impending doom. Thrawn couldn't help but feel a small degree of pride in the boy for how much he had matured in the last couple of years. Thrawn wasn't one to begrudge a person their due. It just made it all the sweeter when he defeated them.

"ARE YOU READY?" a Purrgil asked Ezra as it flew past the windows of the bridge.

"Yes," Ezra answered. "Take us away."

"AND THIS BLUE ONE? YOUR OPPONENT?"

"Hold him for me, would you? He is the one we need to watch out for."

"I WILL DO MY BEST."

Tentacles burst through the windows, grabbing officers and throwing them out before returning and wrapping around the framework. Tentacles reached for Thrawn, which he shot at uselessly. Ezra Force pushed Thrawn into the tentacles grasp.

Sabine's voice came from his wrist comm. "Ezra! Ezra! Can you hear me? The Purrgils. Is this you?"

Ezra pushed the button to answer her back, rejoicing in the sound of her voice, getting to hear it one more time. "Yah. Pretty good, hunh?"

"Well, you could have told the rest of us," she said back admonishingly.

Ezra felt a little disappointed that she didn't seem impressed. But what else was he really expecting? She was a genius Mandalorian. A few purrgils were not going to make her swoon. "I wanted it to be a surprise," he said.

A blaster shot from behind him made him whirl around. Troopers were coming through the door. He Forced pushed them and shot his blaster at them, before a screaming pain hit him in the back of his left shoulder. In his moment of inattention, Thrawn had escaped the purrgil's tentacles and shot him. Ezra whirled back around and with his good arm threw the blaster out of Thrawn's hand and out one of the broken windows. Then he tossed him back into the Purrgil's grasp, thinking to it, "Please don't let him go again."

"I SAID I WOULD DO MY BEST, BUT HE SHOT ME. A LOT."

"I feel your pain. Thank you for trying," Ezra thought.

Ezra sensed the door behind him opening again. Whirling, he closed it with the Force and held it, stopping the next wave of troopers from entering. Ezra watched with resignation as more tentacles wrapped around the bridge, starting their glowing pattern that indicated a jump to hyperspace. This was really happening. It felt like a nightmare, but was all too real.

"Ezra! Ezra get out of there right now! That's an order!" Hera's voice said from his wrist.

With a grimace of pain, Ezra lifted his arm. "Hera, I have to see this through to the end." Raising his arm higher, despite the pain, Ezra opened his connection to the Force as wide as it would go. Gathering the Force into a shield, he surrounded the bridge with it. And held it there. He would hold it for as long as he had to, feeling the Force send him a helpful boost to dull the pain and bolster his strength.

"Ezra, please!" Sabine cried. "Get out of there!"

His heart broke into millions of tiny pieces as he felt Sabine's and Hera's anguish and in a much smaller degree Zeb's and the rest of his friends he was leaving behind. "I'm sorry. I can't do that," he replied. "It's up to all of you now." The bridge lit up with a blinding glow as the purrgils' lights prepared to throw them into hyperspace. "And remember. The Force will be with you. Always."

Down on the planet, Dume howled at the sky, his pack of lothwolves echoing his cry. At their feet were dozens of lothcats, all whimpering with sadness.

Thrawn stared at the Jedi boy in astonishment as the ship was surrounded by the blue and white glow of hyperspace. They should be dead right now, but instead he was wrapped in the arms of a beast, travelling through the cold of space with nothing between him and death but the willpower of one boy. He laughed silently as he recalled the words of the strange creature on the planet Atollon. His defeat was exactly as predicted and he never saw it coming. How ironic.

Thrawn addressed the boy who had his eyes closed and a look of utter serenity on his face as he held his arms to the front and back, holding a Force shield around the room. "You won't be able to do that forever."

Without moving or opening his eyes, he replied "I can hold it for as long as I have to. The Force is with me."

Accepting that as truth for now, Thrawn said nothing else. He just watched the boy curiously as the hours ticked by, every once in a while trying to wiggle free of the tentacles holding him tight, to no avail. After what had to be at least six hours like that, Thrawn could see the boy beginning to tire. With their lives on the line, he decided perhaps he could help the situation by giving the boy something else to think about. "Why go this route, Bridger? Why not just have them kill me from afar and you could have stayed safe with your girl and your family?"

Ezra's brow furrowed as his grip on the Force shield slipped momentarily. With renewed determination he concentrated harder while answering Thrawn. "Because that is not the Jedi way. I saw many paths before me. Many of them led to your death. Many of them led to the death of my planet and everything I love. This was the only path that led to your defeat and kept my planet alive. The Empire will fall eventually without you there to mastermind the attacks on the Rebellion. You are too smart to be allowed to continue fighting for the Empire. But I do not want to kill you either. I know there were many times when you could have killed us, but you let us go repeatedly. I am simply returning the favour by removing you from the game. I remove myself as well, but the Rebellion will succeed without me, for I am not the only Jedi left. There are more who will see the Emperor fall."

Thrawn blinked in surprise at the speech. "Thank you, I suppose, for the compliment. But I will still defeat you in the end. You are tiring. I can see it. And when you have exhausted yourself, your control over these animals will falter and I shall get free and turn the shields on. I can survive the cold of space for a minute if I have to."

"WE CAN HELP YOU, IF YOU NEED IT. OUR STRENGTH SHALL BE YOURS. OH, AND FEEL FREE TO TELL THE BLUE ONE THAT WE ARE NOT ANIMALS. PERHAPS IT IS TIME TO GET THE RESPECT WE DESERVE."

"I would appreciate that very much." Ezra grinned as he felt a surge of strength through the Force. He opened his eyes and smirked into Thrawn's red ones. "Sorry Thrawn, but your ride isn't over yet. Oh, and by the way. The purrgil want me to tell you that I'm not controlling them at all. They're sapient beings, just like you and I." Ezra enjoyed watching Thrawn's eyes widen in shock and his jaw drop just a little. That was the biggest reaction he'd ever seen from the mostly emotionless man. It also shut him up, for Thrawn didn't say another word for the next six hours, allowing Ezra to go into a meditative state while the purrgil took him and Thrawn's entire fleet deep into the unknown regions of space.

"WE ARE APPROACHING A PLANET THAT I THINK WOULD SUIT YOU, UNTIL YOUR FAMILY FINDS YOU AGAIN. IT HAS MANY BEINGS ON IT LIKE YOU. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO GET OFF THE SHIP, YOU SHOULD DO IT NOW. WE WILL GO AS FAR AS WE CAN WITH THE BLUE ONE AND HIS FOLLOWERS."

Ezra smiled to himself as he thanked the purrgil. Opening his eyes, he looked at Thrawn, who also seemed to be asleep or meditating, still held tight in the grip of the purrgil's glowing tentacles. "I'd like to say it's been a blast knowing you, but that would be lying. So I won't. Instead, I wish you luck with wherever you end up. Since you said you can survive the cold for a minute or two, the purrgil won't let you go until I have left the ship."

Thrawn opened his eyes, and watched the boy walk backwards towards the door, carefully stepping over the bodies of the ones he'd shot earlier, hands still outstretched. With a flick of his fingers, he opened the door behind him and dropped the Force shield with his hand. The boy gave him a haughty salute and dashed out through the door, slamming it closed behind him. Thrawn sucked in a deep breath as the icy cold of space immediately surrounded him, hate and admiration at war within him for the boy who actually managed to defeat him.

Ezra ran through the Star Destroyer to the nearest escape pod, grateful for the instinct that had made him memorize the floorplans of the ship. He passed by many Imperials who all just stared at him in shock. None of them tried to stop him. The word had spread through the ship that the Jedi boy was holding the bridge together with the Force. Every single one of them was afraid of his power. They knew what a powerful Force user could do; Darth Vader had made sure of that. A few brave souls thought about going into the bridge to try and help the Grand Admiral, but hesitated, not really wanting to die.

Jumping into an escape pod, Ezra told the purrgil he could let Thrawn go now, and thanked them one more time. Ezra launched the pod and prepared himself for the sickening ride that would follow. He'd done this once before, in the Phantom with Kanan. This time wasn't any better. After a minute of spinning through space helplessly, as he felt all of his organs rearrange themselves multiple times, the pod finally popped into real space. Taking a minute to let the nausea pass, Ezra sat with eyes closed and thanked the Force that was over. His mission was complete. His family and his planet was safe. Opening his eyes, Ezra looked at the mostly blue planet with a few small continents scattered on it. This was going to be his new home for a while.

With a mental picture of Sabine is his mind, he flew the pod towards the planet.