Ezra's Crash:

D27/1 BBY, Unknown Space

As Ezra guided the escape pod towards the planet, he could feel himself starting to crash. The last twelve hours of constantly channelling the Force into a shield was hitting him hard. With the boost from the Purrgil gone, he had nothing left to call on. In a matter of minutes he went from feeling more or less fine, to shaking like a leaf in a hurricane and feeling every ache in his body, especially the blaster burn on his shoulder. His vision went dim and he fought to stay conscious with everything he had left, so he could at least land the pod before he passed out. Ezra prayed to the Force to give him the strength to make it to the planet's surface. An image of Sabine's exotic amber eyes swam before his vision. Eyes filled with love and trust and strength. Ezra concentrated on her eyes fiercely, if he could just focus on them for one more minute...

Ezra slumped forward, eyes closing against his will.

"Ezra!" his Master's voice reverberated though his skull, making Ezra jolt back into consciousness.

Ezra glanced frantically around him. "Kanan?" he thought hopefully.

"Who else would it be?" came back the dry reply in his mind.

Just hearing Kanan in his mind gave Ezra enough of an adrenaline jolt to make him feel a little more aware. "Kanan," he breathed out loud. "I've missed you." Ezra felt a wave of comfort wash over him through his bond with Kanan.

"I know," Kanan replied. "And I'm sorry for leaving you, but you've done very well, Ezra. With the passing of this final Test, you have achieved the rank of Knight." Ezra felt a hint of humour from the ghost of his Master. "I can't dub you with a lightsabre like I was, but maybe that's a good thing. I thought the Temple Guard was going to kill me with his. Trust in the Force and know a part of me is always with you. I couldn't possibly be more proud of you, son."

"Thank you, Kanan," Ezra replied as he felt his Master's presence leave him. While he continued his flight down to the planet, he replayed Kanan's words over and over in his mind, drawing strength and courage from them. He was a Jedi Knight now. It was almost beyond belief. He'd be more ecstatic about that later when he had the energy for it. And he also realized Kanan had called him son. He'd never done that before, but it felt right. Kanan was like a father to him and Ezra didn't know how he was supposed to live with losing a second father. It was all he could do not to break down as he realized how much he'd lost and left behind with his sacrifice.

He wanted Kanan back desperately but he understood that Kanan had made an even greater sacrifice for the sake of everyone's lives on Lothal, but especially his family. Ezra would have done the same if he had to. At night, when he was unable to sleep after Kanan's death, Ezra had replayed the scene over and over in his mind and he'd realized there had been a way for everyone to survive that explosion if he'd just known about it in advance. If he'd just grabbed Kanan and Hera with the Force and dumped them on the gunship, he could have put up his own shield around the ship as Sabine flew them away. It was so simple. The fuel depot would have still been destroyed and Kanan would still be alive. It was hard for Ezra not to blame the Force for not showing him that awful moment in a vision beforehand. He'd had visions of so many other events in his life, including him and Thrawn on the Chimaera being taken away by the Purrgil, why not that one as well?

In the long week before Ezra made his own sacrifice, he'd finally understood that there had been a reason that Kanan had to die, but only the Force knew it. Now, after everything that had happened, Ezra thought that he just might know what that was. Kanan had loved exactly three people more than life itself: Hera, Ezra, and Sabine. His mate and his adopted kids. With the three of them now scattered all over the galaxy, being a presence in the Force was the only way he could watch over all of them. Ezra knew that Sabine was going to base herself out of Lothal for the foreseeable future. He'd seen it in a few visions over the last week before he left. He also knew that Hera would continue to fight for the Rebellion, at least as much as having a new baby in her life would let her. Although, he'd also seen her on Lothal with Sabine and Zeb and a small green haired boy, a white Lothwolf standing in the background, guarding his family. Ezra had cried happy tears when he first saw that image.

The heat in the pod finally made him pay attention to his surroundings again and look out the tiny window to see the white hot flames of atmospheric decent all around him. Of course the Imperial escape pod just had to be a cheaply made one. Ezra hoped it survived the landing. As the pod plummeted ever closer towards the ground, Ezra looked for a place to land and started guiding the pod towards something that might have been a small village beside the ocean, aiming for a location in the water that he should be able to swim from. Ezra figured a water landing was the safest thing he could try for at this point. Just as he thought he had the pod on a decent course, the fuel indicator started beeping frantically, saying the pod was out of fuel for the guidance thrusters. With his vision fading again, and the pod now out of fuel to slow the last of the descent, Ezra knew this was going to be a very rough landing. With nothing left for him to do but strap himself in and hope he survived, Ezra let his eyes close and called the image of Sabine's eyes back.

Her beautiful, haunting, fiery eyes were the last thing Ezra saw as his world once again faded out around him.


D165/254 BBY, Unknown Space

Padawan Tia Fisto was meditating in her quarters on the exploration ship, The Seeker, when the ship shuddered and she was tossed out of her kneeling position. She caught herself with a hand on the floor as alarms starting blaring, making her many tentacles cringe at the racket, while she felt the nauseating spinning of the ship as it fell out of hyperspace. She jumped to her feet when the ship came to a halt and ran out the door of her room, to see chaos in the hallways. She followed her bond with her Master to find him on the bridge of the large ship that held hundreds of beings.

"What happened, Master?" she asked of the pale skinned, middle aged human with the light blond hair that was getting lighter as grey crept in. His pale blue eyes met hers with a look of calm finality.

"We were hit by a pod of purrgil while in hyperspace," Jedi Master Zen Guji replied to his green skinned Nautolan padawan. "The ship has received serious damage and won't be able to jump back to hyperspace to take us home and we'll be lucky to land it one piece on the nearest planet. Fortunately, the planet we were jumping towards is only half an hour away at our current limping speed."

Tia nodded her understanding. Their risky mission to explore unknown space just became a mission to colonize a new world. She quickly mourned never seeing her friends at the Jedi temple again, but moved past it, like a good Jedi should. "What can I do to help, Master?" she asked.

Zen nodded back towards the hallway. "Go see what you can do to calm down the chaotic feelings from the rest of the crew and scientists. I can sense their panic from here. It's going to require calm minds to survive this."

Tia nodded again before spinning on the ball of her foot and dashing back the way she came, calming her mind before projecting waves of calm to everyone she passed throughout the ship. She could see her efforts working as people started walking with purpose instead of running randomly around. The crew grew more efficient in patching up what systems they could before arriving at the planet and the scientists made themselves helpful instead of hindering efforts. She came to the far end of the ship, or at least, what used to be the far end of the ship. The blast doors were closed and she was informed that they'd lost a whole section along with anyone who had been in there.

Tia sighed at the loss of life. Someday, someone needed to learn how to communicate with those purrgil so disasters like this didn't happen anymore. She thought it was a shame that no one had ever made the effort. People just accepted that the purrgil were dangerous and despised them. Surely that was not the Jedi way?

Tia made her back and forth through the ship, helping out where she could. There were a few lightly injured who'd been tossed around by the impact, but the med droid and Link, the ship's doctor, were taking care of them. She found herself helping one of the engineers trying to reroute power from the auxiliary systems to the life support as those were starting to fail. It was a good thing they didn't have far to go, because this ship was on its last gasping breath.

Time passed quickly and before she knew it, they were making their descent onto the mostly water planet with a few small continents scattered around. Someone managed to point the ship in the general direction of the nearest continent but it quickly became apparent that they were going to land in the ocean in a spectacular fashion. A call of the ship's comms to get in the escape pods sent everyone scurrying once again.

Tia made sure that everyone made it into the escape pods and were jettisoned to safety. She encountered her Master doing the same thing as they met in the middle of the ship by the last of the escape pods. They pushed the last person in and saw there was room for just one more person in the already crowded pod. Tia and her Master had a quick staring contest as they both tried to make the other take the last spot.

"Get in the pod, Tia," Zen growled.

She shook her head adamantly. "No, Master. You take it. Do you forget already what I am?"

Zen shook his head but climbed into the pod reluctantly. "You better meet us on the shore or I'm coming back out here and finding you and giving you the scolding of your life."

Tia grinned at her Master and closed the door in his face and smacking the button to eject the pod. The ship was literally shaking in its tresses as they neared the water. She ran for the nearest access hatch to the hull of the ship and climbed onto the top just as the ship hit the water with a spectacular splash. She Force jumped as far as she could away from the drowning ship and then arrowed her body into a perfect dive into the water. She popped back up to the surface and watched the ship as it sank slowly and painfully, water bubbling everywhere all around it. As it disappeared from view on the surface, she sank under the waves of the ocean and watched as it continued to sink until it hit the ocean floor a minute later with a sad sounding thud.

Tia sighed again. What a waste of a good ship. She shook her head and then turned towards land and her Master's signature, swimming under the waves easily, exalting in the temporary sense of freedom she felt being all alone in a vast ocean. She hardly ever got to swim like this living in the Temple on Coruscant. There wasn't a whole lot of water to be found on the city planet.

Tia came to an abrupt halt as she felt several Force signatures approaching. And they were true Force signatures too. Not just life signatures that most beings had. Whoever was coming her way was strong in the Force. She waited patiently as they approached at an astonishing speed. Only a few seconds later, her large brown eyes made out the shape of figures in the water. Another blink later and they were in front of her, a dozen humanoid amphibians very similar looking to her, wearing only a minimal amount of clothing for the sake of decency. They didn't have the many long tentacles that she did, but spiky ones that covered the top of their heads. Their big black eyes were very similar to hers though. A big grey skinned male at the front of the pack was clearly the leader, but Tia's eyes were drawn to the younger looking male beside him. His skin was a bluish grey but had very similar handsome features to the man she assumed was his father.

Their eyes met, and she somehow knew it was the younger one who spoke in her mind. "You are a stranger here. Did you come in the thing that crashed in the ocean?" he asked curiously.

Tia nodded and smiled at the cute teenage? boy. "Yes, and I am not alone. There are others, already on the shore. Not like me though. They need air to breath and land to live on," she thought back carefully in her mind.

"Yes, we feel their presence," a deeper voice said in her mind. The elder was speaking to her now. "We came to see what has crashed on our planet. Do you need assistance?"

Tia thought for a moment. It would be helpful if they could salvage whatever they could from the ship. She had barely completed the thought when the boy grinned at her and the rest nodded. She blinked in surprise as they swam quickly towards the ship. She quickly swam after them, curious to see what they had in mind. She was thinking they could make many trips back and forth carrying what they could. But that was not the case. They had something much different in mind.

Tia watched in awe as the amphibians spaced themselves around the ship and then seemed to concentrate as a group. The Seeker unburied its nose from the sand of the ocean floor and started moving through the depths towards land. They were using the Force to move the metal ship through the water. She swam up beside the boy and lent her concentration to the task as well, earning her another quick smile as they swam and moved the ship at the same time.

Ten minutes later, they neared the shore and the water became shallow. The ship slowly emerged from the waves and so did the amphibians, walking through the water as they moved the ship high onto the beach with their minds. It came to a gentle stop on the sand and Tia turned to find her Master and the surviving crew of The Seeker gawking at them. Her new friends came to stand at her side and behind her.

Tia grinned at her Master. "I made some new friends," she said with a nod to the teenage boy beside her.

Zen raised a sardonic brow at his padawan. "I see that," he said dryly. "I was starting to get worried when you hadn't show up yet, but I see all of my worries were for naught. This is a pleasant surprise."

Tia nodded. "Yes, I think so." She glanced at the boy beside her again. "Something tells me we are going to be very happy living here."

Zen sighed as he saw the no attachment rule sailing out the airlock. But really, who was there to care anymore? It's not like anyone else from the Order was going to show up and chastise them for breaking the rules. He glanced furtively at the gorgeous red haired female scientist who'd been making friendly advances towards him for the last year. Perhaps it was time to make a few friendly advances back.


D27/1 BBY, Cerulia

Tia looked up at the sky as a niggle in the Force whispered through her. The Jedi Master blinked in surprise at the flaming object that came hurtling down through the sky. The group of younglings around her exclaimed and gasped as they spotted it as well.

"What is it, Master Tia?" one of her great great great nephews asked.

"Is it a meteor?" another youngling asked next. She was one of Master Guji's descendants. Master Guji himself had passed on into the Force close to two hundred years ago now, but his legacy lived on. And he still came to visit them every other day or so as a ghost, which entertained the younglings to no end.

Tia shook her head as the object crashed into the ocean about a kilometre from land. "No, my younglings. I don't think so. The Force has something to say about this one. Who else feels it?"

She watched them concentrate with an amused look while she sent a mental message to her husband, King Wayve, to send someone out to rescue the escape pod as quickly as possible.

"Already on it," came back the mental reply along with a gentle burst of love.

Tia's own padawan was the first to sense what Tia did. The red haired teenage girl opened her eyes with a huge smile. "There's another Force user out there. And he's hurt, I think."

Tia nodded to Krystal. "I believe you are correct, padawan. Why don't you go help the rescue effort?"

Krystal didn't even bother to nod before she took off like a shot down the beach and started swimming through the ocean. The girl might be a human, but living with amphibians her whole life had turned her into an excellent swimmer. Having the Force to call on to boost her natural abilities didn't hurt either.

Tia and the younglings as well as most of the village, who had all sensed that something interesting was happening, all waited on the beach as the escape pod floated towards them through the air and Krystal and her boyfriend, Raign, Tia's youngest grandson who was blue skinned and long tentacled like her, walked out of the ocean with expressions of fierce concentration on their faces. They set the pod down on the beach in front of Tia like an offering.

Tia waved a hand at the pod and the door sprang open. Those close enough peered inside to see the limp form of a black haired human male lying slumped in his restraint harness. Tia undid the harness with the Force and then floated his form out through the opening and down onto the pale sand of the beach.

A descendant of the original doctor pushed his way to the front of the crowd. The hybrid called Link in honour of his ancestor touched the young man's shoulder gently as he closed his eyes and sent his Force senses through him assessingly. He looked up after a minute. "He has a bad blaster burn on the back of his shoulder but other than that he appears to be unharmed. He's just incredibly tired. There is very little energy left in him. He'll be alright with a day or two of rest."

There was a general smile of relief as Link gathered the young man up into his strong arms and carried him towards his clinic, made from salvaged ship parts, with the majority of the crowd dispersing and going back to whatever they were doing before.

"I wonder where he came from," Krystal commented to no one in particular.

Raign shrugged and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "Your guess is as good as mine," he replied in her mind.

Tia stared at the escape pod for a while. "I don't know what's been happening in the galaxy since we left, but something tells me we've missed a lot."