chapter 26

A master's master

An: Sorry I know it has been forever since I updated this story but life got in the way. I will try to send chapters weekly from now on but know if I don't the chapters will come.

Kpov

"Ezra,Ezra its alright now, I am here" I said guiding my shaking padawan through the door and watching that door fade away, freeing Ezra of that pain. Well not completely but enough that he could breathe again without that pain in his mind.

"Kanan d...did you recognize the jedi from the memory?please tell me you did and you know where he is?I would like to thank him for what he did for me and the others that day"said Ezra slowly recovering from his nightmare.

"I did, I only met him once when I was a youngling, before I even became a padawan myself, but I will never forget him. Anyway his name is Ephaan Kenzon, he left the jedi order before order 66 went down but he was a jedi knight before that and while I might not know where he is or if he is alive right now, Hera's contact might. If not I am sure I can find away to find out what happened to him because you are not the only one who wants to thank him, I want to thank him too for bringing you into my life" I told him.

"I hope he is alright where ever he is, as well as all those kids that escaped with me" Ezra said pushing me away a little now that his shivering had stopped.

"Trust me when I say that I believe he and those kids are safe and that you will find them one day, whether you are with us or not" I said.

"Why am I going somewhere?"he asked.

"No not at all, its just if you are on a solo mission like you did at the imperial academy, you might come across him and I am sure you don't want to be around us all the time especially Zeb" I reassured him, while trying to make a joke of it, I didn't want to remind him that at any moment during a mission we might be on, it might just be our last.

"I understand master. What is your memory that you are going to share with me?" Ezra asked trying to get away from the thought of one of us leaving him.

"I am going to show you my worst memory. It is only fair since you showed me yours" I said and then lead him to my own chained door.

My wolf and the chains disappear at my touch and then I felt something lift a little from me, Something that had hurt me for a long time. I might not be able to explain my actions or feelings about what happened that day but somehow I knew that Ezra would not mind what I was like only that I am here with him now, so I opened the door and walked through.

The effect on Ezra and I was immediate, Ezra was just about glued to my side, his fear from his time here, just like I had feelings about it too but they had changed, I was conflicted. While I still hated and feared this memory because of what happened. I also know that if it hadn't happened I wouldn't have met the ghost crew or maybe not even Ezra. Well maybe I would have met Ezra because I believed they would have bought him to the jedi temple on coruscant but I don't think I would have been his master and that would have been a shame.

"Ezra remember this is not your Kaller nor is it mine any more. This is a past that I am sharing with you. Only you. Hera is the only other person on this crew that knows anything about my past, well at least this part of my past" I said turning the boy around so we could look each other in the eye. Well sort of as I was still head and shoulders above him.

"I get that but doesn't stop me feeling what I feel about this place" he answered looking away from me.

"Son look at me" I said and when he did I continued "I am not asking you to stop feeling what you feel for this place only to understand my feelings on this place. What it meant to me when I was your age and what happened to me here, to understand why I was like I was when I first started training you. I don't think either of us will ever like this planet and while its not the planets fault nor its people, it will always be something in us that will always put us on edge when ever we are on this planet".

"I understand Dad" he replied.

And I could feel he did, his body position that tense, ready to run look that he gets sometimes or even when he wraps his arms around his body, this we all knew was to stop himself from feeling pain and when we kept going through the start of the memory he stayed close to my side he wasn't fearful of what this place meant to him or even to me.

"Whoa that was a bit hit" Ezra said as we watched the battle happen all around us, "you took down that droid like it was nothing".

"Well those droids are nothing like what we have now, whether they are easier or harder who can say but they still go down the same" I replied watching as the clones, I and my master battled more and more droids with ease.

"Remember the basics, Caleb Dume" said my master.

Ezra looked a little confused then he remembered that I had told him that I had changed my name for my own safety as well as the others that I cared about and something told me that Ezra was still dealing with the fact that I had at one time a master too. I mean he knew I had, had one but to see her that was another thing.

"Assume a defensive pose, form three" she said getting into the position herself.

Young me answered "yes master" in much the same way Ezra answered me sometimes.

"She has more control over you than I think you have over me" Ezra said as we watched Depa Billaba call out an all forces attack.

"Well when you have a master like that you do what you are told, more often than not it will save your life and that is something I am trying to get through to you. Ezra am I doing a good job on this or am I failing?" I enquired.

"I think you are most of the time but of course being me not all of it is going to sink in, sorry" Ezra answered looking back to where we were fighting, only I find that it was over and he had to ask "do major battles always end that quickly?".

"No they usually go on for weeks at a time or even longer. It all depends on who they are fighting and how important the thing they are fighting over is" I answered looking at the small group walking up to the main building that was close to the battle.

"Do you know who you're addressing?" the young me practically growled out at the tall snake man.

"General what's - your - name?" was his answer.

"Master Depa Billaba, a member of the jedi high council"young me yelled out at him.

"Whoa I knew you said you were just like me but I hadn't realized how much. Are all padawans that way? or is it just you and me? you know it doesn't matter. Why did your master not do anything?" Ezra said watching young me and Depa walking away.

You know I never got an answer to that...I guess she just thought that the fight wasn't worth it, that Kallerians think that way about all other species besides their own. I don't like to ask but did you ever meet any Kallerians while you were a slave here Ezra?"I asked.

Ezra just watched the training young me was doing with my master before answering "no" his voice short and clipped said more than his answer did but I didn't press him on it knowing one day he would tell me. I could see him smiling and I asked what he was smiling about, his answer was that he liked my master, that she had a way of dealing with troubling kids.

"Yeah I am sure she would have straightened you out in a second or at least given me tips on how to do it myself" I answered thinking about all she said and did that day, I continued "a lot of things that happened during that war shouldn't have happened and my master was right when she said that the jedi order made a crucial error in taking military titles".

"What do you mean?" Ezra asked now, his eyes on me and not on the memory that was happening around him.

"Jedi knights and masters, even padawans once they are far enough in their training are leaders of armies but should not have a role or rank in the army. For that type of leadership jedi of all types are not suited for. We are better as solo or duo fighters" I answered him turning back to the memory.

"What are they laughing at?" Ezra said looking at the clone trooper nearly falling over with how hard he was laughing.

"Well at the temple on coruscant I was famous, if not infamous for asking too many questions, something you seemed to have pick up on" I answered, rubbing his head in much same way that the trooper was rubbing mine.

"Well if I ask questions, it is only to better understand why that action was made but maybe that is why I am alive" he said moving out from my reach, which allowed me to see my master give me the holocron. The same holocron that Ezra had once tried to steal. I sighed, because I knew what was coming now and that was starting to get me nervous about what was just about to happen. It was going to change my life and a lot of lives in a big way in a few minutes.

Ezra turned and his eyes widened when we both heard the comlink say "execute order 66" and I just grabbed the kid. Not because he would be in danger but because I needed something to hold on to as my world at the time came crashing all around me. I just closed my eyes but that could not block the sound or smell of laser fire.

Suddenly there was a flash and another memory was played, young me's memory I guessed. The memory was of what was happening in the universe right now as Depa Billaba touched young me's arm. All over the galaxy, clones were turning on the jedi and killing them.

Ezra screamed, braking the second memory flash and freezing my own. I held him and reminded him that it was only a memory of a vision not a vision that was happening now.

"I know that but how could they do that to people they know?" Ezra said as the memory starts moving forward again.

"Clone troopers as I found out sometime later had chips in their heads stopping them from acting how they would normally. Making them act like good soldiers that follow orders"I said turning back to the battle and watching as more troopers lose their heads under my master's saber.

"So if they didn't have the chips or if something happened to it so it didn't work?"Ezra started to say before I interrupted his train of thought "then those jedi would have been safe but I don't know if any of those clone troopers found their chips until after"I finished sighing a little as we watch both young me and Billaba fight together for what I knew now as the last time.

"Widen the perimeter, surround them" said one of the clone troopers.

"What about the crossfire?" asked another only to have the other clone answer him "what scares you more? crossfire or the jedi?".

"Caleb we cannot win this battle, you must run" said my master.

"Even now I don't know if I made the right choice, but she did it for me, so I could survive. My life meant more to her than her own. Do you understand what I am telling you Ezra?" I said looking at him in the eyes so that I did have to watch my master being killed again or let my padawan see it too, knowing that one day that it might be my fate to die for Ezra.

"I do but don't you think I would do the same if you were in trouble" Ezra said turning away from me and watching as young me disappearing into the forest.

"You know how to disappear like that?" Ezra said surprised as young me popped up from where he was hiding after the clones past.

" That's no different to what we do now or what you have done in the past" I replied.

"And they really thought the jedi order betrayed the republic? how stupid were they, how could they ever think we would do that?" Ezra said as we watched my younger self get on a transport.

"A person no, people yes. People follow strong leaders. I think that is why the jedi were made leaders in the first place now that I think about it"I started to say before Ezra finished it "and that's why the empire fooled so many in the galaxy".

"Not only that padawan Ezra" said a voice that was coming from back near the door.

"M...m...master?"

An: again sorry for the very late chapter, hope that made up for it.