The room Julian, Ezra, and Sabine were currently beginning to explore was a strange one. It wasn't explicitly off limits seeing as how there was no way to get to it except through maintenance shafts and vents. Of course, with a little coaxing (and with much huffing and pouting from Ezra) getting into the skeleton of Cloud City was quite easy.

"What is this place?" Ezra questioned aloud, the orange and blue lights of the circular chamber reflecting off his deep blue eyes.

A plume of smoke fizzed from the ceiling as Sabine examined a control panel, "Well, the entire room is centered around that point right there," she said, pointing out a circle in the dead center of the rounded platform they were standing on.

Julian snorted, "Could've fooled me."

Sabine gave him a glare, "Well that's what it's telling me!"

Ezra ignored their argument and slowly ascended some stairs to another platform. However, once he reached the top he stopped suddenly.

The force was positively buzzing around him, flowing around him frantically, like a bat out of hell. Taking a deep breath and closing his eyes, Ezra decided to investigate.

As soon as he began to wade into the force, it smashed into him, tearing away his mental barriers with ease. With a gasp of shock, Ezra felt his body fall as a vision overtook his entire being.

Smoke swirling around the circular room.

The cold mechanical breathing of the Sith Lord Kanan and he had encountered.

A young man whose face was blurred and distorted.

Flashes of red and blue.

All too easy…

Ezra.

Ezra!

EZRA!

EZRA!

Ezra gasped for air as the force pushed him out of the vision and back into reality.

"Ezra! Are you ok?!" he heard a muffled voice say.

Groggily, Ezra slowly began to regain his senses.

He was being shook by someone, two of their hands were on his shoulders.

As his vision came into focus he saw Sabine, her face taking up half his vision.

She had a concerned expression on her face, her mouth slightly open in panic and her eyes searching his face with worry.

He groaned again, trying to shake the last bits of blurriness out of his eyes.

"Ezra?" asked Sabine again, getting more worried with his lack of responses.

Oh right, he didn't answer her when she asked if he was ok.

"Man, what a nice sight to wake up too," he complimented weakly.

Sabine's eyebrows raised slightly, and she gave him a look.

"Are you ever serious?"

Ezra chuckled, "Sometimes," he forced out before groaning again.

"Seriously, are you ok?" she asked, concern in her eyes again.

She really does care about me.

"Yeah, I'm good," he reassured her, this time with the same seriousness in his tone of voice.

"What happened kid?" he heard another voice ask.

Ezra looked up to see Julian, his strange rifle raised and at the ready, ready to fight off anything that might assail the group.

"I had some kind of, vision," he said.

"A vision?"

He nodded, "Yeah, but it was really blurry. I couldn't make out anything," he looked at Sabine pointedly, "Except for that Sith Lord that we encountered on Lothal, I heard his breathing!"

Julian immediately whirled around, his rifle searching for a target to engage.

Sabine meanwhile tightened her grip on Ezra's shoulders, "You saw him, here?! Is he on Cloud City now?!'

Ezra shook his head, "No, no. He's not here now. The vision the forced showed me was from the future, I think a very long time into the future."

At that note, Julian, and Sabine both relaxed a little.

"What do you think it means?" Sabine asked.

Ezra rubbed his temples, "I don't know Sabine. Whatever it means, I think something big is going to happen here. But the force wasn't very inviting when it showed me the vision. It felt like it was trying to tell me that we won't have anything to do with it."

Like we don't belong here.

"What do you mean?" Julian questioned.

Ezra pointed to the very edge of the circular platform below, "I can feel the force ebbing and flowing down there too, but its different, uninviting," he shrugged hopelessly, "Like I said, I feel like we aren't welcome here."

"Then we better get out of here," said Julian, adjusting the stock on his gun.

"Agreed," said Ezra, as Sabine helped him up and the trio left the way they came in.

Kanan felt the disturbance in the force the moment it occurred.

He was also very keenly aware that his troublemaking Padawan was currently in the center of it.

He sent a note of concern in the force to his young student and immediately got a reply of confirmation.

They were alright.

Frowning, Kanan sent a wave of disapproval through the force to Ezra.

Your blue haired butt is in trouble when you get back.

Ezra's force signature did the force's version of a gulp, and Kanan could already imagine the kid giving him a weak grin as he struggled to come up for an excuse for whatever mischief he had caused.

He sighed audibly, catching Hera's attention.

The whole group was currently situated around a table, eating. Baron Raynor had insisted that they try the cuisine. He was acting awful buddy-buddy around the crew, something that Lando had pointed out.

Raynor simply gave Calrissian a smarmy grin and said, "It's the least I can do. Not only as a host, but before you lose everything in this upcoming match!"

This comment eventually turned into another proverbial dick-measuring contest between the two of them and Kanan had rolled his eyes so far back into his head he felt like they would never resurface.

"Something wrong Kanan?" Hera whispered to him.

"Oh, nothing much," he replied sarcastically, "Just seems that my young Padawan has decided to disobey our orders again."

"Are they ok?" asked Hera.

Kanan nodded, "Yeah, they are. There was a disturbance a second ago, but Ezra and the others are ok."

"So how in trouble are they?"

"Very."

Hera let a sly grin cross her face, "He kinda reminds me of someone that I used to know."

Kanan raised an eyebrow at her, "Who might that be?"

Hera in turn raised her eyebrow, not breaking his gaze.

Oh, she means me.

"Now I really don't know who you're talking about."

"Uh huh. Right."

Baron Raynor suddenly stood up, "Alright! Are we all finished here? I am itching to show you the casino!"

"Casino?" asked Lando.

"Where we will be competing, of course!"

Zeb stood up and stretched, "Well, might as well see the place I suppose."

Raynor clapped his hands together, "Perfect! Follow me then!"

He turned and walked out the door, dragging Lando and the Specters along with him.

The Casino in question was massive.

It was a gamblers paradise; slot machines galore and tables with various gambling activities littering the expanse of the place.

Chandeliers hung from the ceiling and the walls had a wooden finish with gold furnishings. The carpets were a lively velvet and various other expensive looking decorations everywhere one could look.

There were hundreds of people littered about the place, many playing the machines, some milling about near the back of the room, nursing drinks. Still, even more were huddled around the tables watching matches.

One of the tables was practically shaking with excitement as two gamblers faced one another. One of them rolled a cube and the crowd watched with baited breath as the cube rolled and landed on blue. The table immediately exploded into cries of joy and outrage as the gamblers either won, or lost money.

A bald man wearing a kind of headset walked up to the group and began attempting to talk to Baron Raynor.

"Ah, I almost forgot to mention, this is my second in command, Lobot," Raynor said, gesturing to the man in question.

Lobot let a small trace of annoyance cross over his face after being interrupted, but he quickly pushed it down and made his face neutral again.

He nodded at the Ghost crew in greeting and began speaking to Raynor again.

But before Lobot could even begin, Raynor turned away as a loud bell sounded off.

One of the patrons of the casino was shouting in excitement as he won a jackpot.

Raynor motioned for his blue uniformed guards to come with him and he stepped away to approach the patron.

"Hello citizen, I could not help, but overhear of your win!" he greeted the excited man.

The man looked confused, but still pleased with his victory, "Oh, um, yes Baron."

Raynor, still grinning, "How about you let my guards escort you to your winnings?'

The man's expression changed entirely, and confusion crossed over his face, "But don't I collect my winnings over there?" he said, motioning to the back of the room.

Raynor did not reply as his blue guards suddenly and roughly seized the man by the arms.

"Hey, what're you doing?!"

The man continued yelling as he was forcibly removed from the premises.

Raynor walked to the machine and reset it, clearing away the man's earnings.

The Ghost crew looked on in shock, even Lando looked disturbed.

"What the hell was that about?" Kanan hissed to Lando.

Lando shrugged his shoulders with a shaken look.

His question was actually answered by Lobot.

"That man was lucky the Baron was in a good mood," Lobot whispered to them, "He'll just be in a cell for a few days."

"A few days? For what?!" whispered Zeb, shocked.

"The Baron doesn't like people showing him up, and in his mind, any kind of success, especially in regard to gambling," Lobot leaned in closer to Calrissian, "For what it's worth Calrissian, I hope you win and kick his maniacal ass out of this city."

"Don't worry friend, I will," Lando grinned at Kanan, who in turn pretended like the man didn't exist.

Hera smirked at Kanan and nudged him, "Who knew helping out Lando would turn into a humanitarian mission?"

Kanan sighed, "I've got a bad feeling about this."

"Ok, now this is something else."

Ezra, Sabine, and Julian had emerged into the outside world a few minutes ago. After seeing large crowds of people rushing to get somewhere.

Following the flow of the crowd, the trio were shocked to find something they had yet to encounter in their adventures.

An amusement park.

"What is this place?" Ezra questioned.

"Looks like some kind of amusement park." Sabine stated.

Ezra looked at her with a quizzical eyebrow raised, "What's an amusement park?"

Sabine looked back him with pity, "You've never gone to one of these places?"

Ezra shook his head, his wild blue hair whipping all about the place.

"Well, it's supposed to be-

"It's a bloody nightmare," Julian interrupted her, "I mean look how chaotic it is. Look at all the children!"

A group of screaming kids ran by, followed closely by their parents.

Julian shuddered, "Horrifying."

"You sound like you've been to plenty of these before."

Julian hesitated, "I had… a son."

Ezra and Sabine glanced at each other.

Had?

"Right," said Sabine slowly, "Well, since Ezra has never done anything like this before, we might as well show him."

Julian snorted, "I doubt they'll let us in with our weapons on us."

"Can't you just do that active camo thing with out weapons or whatever?" asked Ezra.

Julian sighed, "Fine, give me your blasters and lightsaber."

Having properly concealed their weapons, the trio made their way into the park.

Thousands of people of all different kinds of species were running around the many attractions present.

Ezra and Sabine were currently looking at a map intently, searching for a ride to go on first.

"This one right here looks fun," said Ezra, pointing at a symbol on a map.

Sabine smacked her forehead, "Ezra, that's a food stand."

"Oh."

The crowd that flowed around them gave the trio a look or two, but considering the many exotic species and costumes that were already present they didn't look too out of place.

"This whole city is one gigantic tourist trap."

Julian nearly did a double take at the sound of his AI's voice.

The AI was often times silent, mostly because he was constantly documenting everything that occurred, taking in every detail to send back to command on Reach. Because while Julian was an agent assisting rebels, he was also an explorer in a way. All the new species and environments were also being documented and sent back to scientists to observe. Physical samples were not required thankfully.

The only times Lincoln spoke to Julian anymore were in instances when command wanted to talk to him, or when the AI was bored.

"Command wants to talk to you, something about new developments."

Julian grit his teeth, "Not a good time Lincoln."

"Well, it can't wait, and you know it."

Julian groaned in exasperation, "Yeah, you're right, I'm gonna need to get these two here occupied with something then, they'll notice I've muted them in a minute or two and then they'll start asking questions."

A moment of pause from Lincoln.

"I've highlighted something for you on your HUD," he finally said, a hint of amusement in his synthetic voice.

Julian followed his line of sight to where the marker landed.

Right on an attraction called "Tunnel of Love."

"Lincoln, you evil bastard," he grinned, "Wasn't the real Abraham Lincoln a wise, kind soul?"

"Lincoln had a bit of a mean streak," the AI responded.

Unmuting his helmet, he listened in on the conversation his two charges were currently having.

"What's a rollercoaster?"

"Something that you won't be able to handle."

"Hey! You don't know that!"

Julian clapped his hands together, getting their attention, "Alright you two, since you still haven't decided, Uncle Julian will be deciding for you."

Leaving little room for argument, he pushed them in the right direction.

As soon as the logo of the building was in sight, Sabine immediately gaped and attempted to resist.

"Tunnel of Love? Oh, absolutely not," she seethed furiously.

"Come on you two, it'll be fun!" he insisted, his amusement growing larger.

"For the love of-

"Hello there!" one of the overly excited employees greeted them, eyeing Sabine, and Ezra.

Julian pushed the two forward, "These two lovebirds right here are looking for a good time together."

The employee clasped her hands together, "Perfect, we have just the thing for you two!" She motioned to the entrance.

Sabine forced a fake smile on her face, refusing to go now would draw pointless attention to themselves, "Can't wait for this!" she exclaimed, whilst giving Julian a very rude hand gesture behind her back."

"Oh, my goodness, you two are adorable!" the woman gushed as Ezra timidly offered Sabine his arm, afraid she might rip it off.

"Have fun you too!" called out Julian, nearly cackling with amusement.

The two attentively stepped into the two-seater ride car. Ezra's face was a myriad of red, while Sabine attempted to fake happiness, though the look in her eyes meant certain murder.

As soon as the two were out of sight, Julian muted his helmet again.

"Lincoln, I'm ready."

"Establishing a secure connection."

A beep and a hiss was heard and Admiral Runion's voice came through.

"Julian, can you hear me?"

"Yes sir, I can," he replied.

"Good, high command wants to know of your progress so far, give me a condensed version here while your AI sends the specifics."

"Well, we have finally managed to find a good location for the base," said Julian, "It's on a planet called Bespin, a tourist and mining location for tibanna called Cloud City."

"Let me check my records for that…yep, that's a bloody city in the clouds alright. How is the location?"

"No Imperial presence whatsoever, the tibanna extracts are so valuable to the Empire that they let the city have fairly high autonomy, so long as the gas flows and is sold at low prices exclusively to the Empire."

"Any local authorities?"

"Just the local government under the direct control of a Baron. The current Baron is a bit of an asshole sir, pardon the vulgarity."

"Don't worry about it son, is he in the process of being… removed?"

"You're aren't going to believe this, but the only chance we have of getting a friendly installed in this government is through a gambling game."

Runion snorted, "I don't doubt it Spartan, just get the job done."

"Working on it sir."

"Right, well, command has another project for you, just something to keep an eye on."

"What might that be?" asked Julian.

"We are currently looking for political and military prisoners that the Empire might have locked up. ONI has a few leads here and there, but our list is far from complete. You might want to ask that Fulcrum lady if she knows anyone that might be suitable for rescue."

"As soon as we get this base secure and ready I will be on it," Julian agreed, "Anything else?"

Runion hesitated, "Well, there might be one actually. I've been hearing rumors swirling around the spooks about our Thrawn character."

"Thrawn? Isn't he the reason we are in this mess to begin with?" asked Julian.

"Pretty much. Now I haven't confirmed the rumors, but I've heard that Thrawn nearly discovered our cleanup operation on Utapau."

Julian's eyes widened beneath his helmet, "You can't be serious, how?"

"One of our bombs didn't go of correctly and the bastard noticed it somehow," Runion explained, "I don't know how in the hell that would have been possible, but somehow he did it."

"But you said these rumors might be untrue," pointed out Julian.

Runion let out a huff of air, "They just might be, however, considering the fact that ONI has ignored all my requests for clarification, I'm beginning to believe that they are deliberately hiding information from us."

"You don't mean-

"Yes, it's a common problem with these spook types," Runion grumbled, "Only they and them alone have the ability to save the universe or so they believe."

Julian shook his head, "Just like the last war."

"Indeed. Julian be careful out there, this Thrawn character is an enigma and we know absolutely nothing about him. His files are completely empty, which I suspect was done purposely by the Empire. Whoever he is, he's clearly intelligent and very dangerous."

"Maybe Fulcrum knows about him, her organization has been gathering intelligence for far longer than we have. Maybe we are missing something?"

"Maybe, maybe. Just be cautious, if he pops up somewhere for whatever reason, try to take him alive. ONI would love to pick his brain a little. But if he can't be caught, do not hesitate to take the killing shot."

"Understood sir."

"Very well then Spartan, I'll leave you to it then. Runion out."

A/N: Another small piece of Julian's backstory coming out. I also like the idea of Ezra and Sabine just doing normal things that a kid might do. You have to remember that they are still very young, especially for how often they fight. Though I don't think they were quite expecting what Julian gave them, eh?

I now finally have free time to work on this story and my new one I just put up on my account, hope you all like.