I do not own Star Wars in any capacity.

Never before has a chapter been as haphazardly cobbled together as this one...

Anyway, hope you enjoy Chapter 53!

Living Arrangements

"As glad as I am that Sabine is joining us and all…" Zeb said. "Where exactly is she gonna sleep?"

Everyone else was sitting around the table in the galley while Zeb was standing to the side, leaning against the counter. With so many in their crew now, it was getting very cramped around the table at meal times. Being the biggest, Zeb figured he might as well give the others some room. The idea of being pushed in with the others made him claustrophobic anyway.

"Why can't you and Kanan share a room?" Ezra asked Hera. "It's what you've been doing for the last week anyway."

Kanan and Hera shared a look with each other. "As much as we enjoy each other's company…" Hera said, "... I need to be able to conduct business privately, without Kanan."

"And I don't relish the idea of being kicked out at odd hours of the night cycle," Kanan said dryly.

Zeb noticed how Kanan had tensed at Ezra's suggestion. While Kanan and Hera were mates, Zeb knew there was some contention between them when it came to Fulcrum and her irregular contact with them. The Jedi wasn't quite as disgruntled about the arrangement as their newcomer, but it was clear that Kanan still had his reservations.

"And no offense" Sabine said, "but I don't want to have to share a room with any of the rest of you."

No one could fault her for that. Her options were two adult men and a preadolescent boy? That couldn't be appealing to any teenager, capable warrior or not.

"Well… Kanan and I could share a room," Zeb suggested hesitantly. Not that he relished that idea. He liked Kanan and all, but the idea of sharing such a small cabin with another large man made him uncomfortable. He did enough sharing of barracks when he was a trainee in the Lasan Army, and he didn't really want to repeat the experience. And from the look on Kanan's face, he didn't seem thrilled with the idea either. But if this was their only viable option, they would just have to take one for the team.

Ezra glanced between Zeb and Kanan a couple of times, probably sensing their discomfort. "I could just go back to sleeping with Kanan."

"I don't think that's a good idea…" Hera said.

Ezra suddenly perked up, his eyes widening and shining with excitement. "Or me and Zeb could share a cabin!"

That caught Zeb off guard. "Wait what?"

"Yeah! Sabine can take my cabin and I can just sleep above Zeb!" Ezra's enthusiasm died down a little as he turned to Zeb. "Th-That is, if you didn't mind…"

All the others suddenly looked at Zeb, and he felt very much put on the spot. "Um…"

"O-Or not!" Ezra quickly added. "I-I don't mean to be weird or anything. I just thought since it's kinda weird for me to be sleeping with Kanan, and you seem uncomfortable sharing with him…"

While that was true, Zeb had to wrap his head around sharing a cabin with a child. Although Ezra wasn't that young anymore. He was only a year or two younger than Sabine, and he didn't really think of her as a child. If she had been a boy, he doubted he would have had any problems bunking with her.

"I promise I'd give you lots of space," Ezra went on, starting to wring his hands nervously. "I can leave whenever you want me to. And I'll be quiet, I'm pretty sure I don't snore, and - "

"Alright, alright…" Zeb said with a small smile. He looked at Kanan and Hera. "Are you two okay with this arrangement?"

It was a little funny how literally every single person just stared at him for a moment in shock. Even Ezra seemed surprised before he sputtered, "R-Really?!"

Kanan and Hera exchanged looks with one another before Kanan just shrugged. "If you are both honestly okay with it, it would certainly solve our problem."

Hera put a hand on Ezra's shoulder. "Are you sure you want to share a room?"

"I don't mind if Sabine needs her own room," Ezra said. "And if Zeb's okay with it, I think it'll be fun!"

"Awesome," Sabine said, clapping her hands together. "So we've figured it out!"

Zeb smiled. At the very least, this was sure to be interesting. Who knows? Maybe this would be a good chance to get closer to the kit.

Nicknames

Sabine was in her room, carefully measuring out the right quantities of paint and detonite when the door to her cabin whooshed open. "Hey!" She turned to see Chopper rolling in. "You can't just come in here unannounced!"

Chopper shrugged with his manipulators, stating that her door was unlocked and that Hera (or 'Mom' as Chopper called her) wanted to speak with her.

Sabine huffed. "Fine, just give me a minute." She started to clean up her supplies. "You know it's still a good idea to knock before just rolling in. I was working with some delicate stuff here."

Chopper rolled closer, seeing what she was doing. Bomb making… with pigments?

Sabine chuckled. "I suppose you could say I have my own signature. Explosive are useful, but why having boring old smoke and fire when you can do all sorts of stuff with the color."

Chopper made a noise that sounded an awful lot like 'waste of time', but Sabine just ignored it. Of course she knew it was unnecessary. That wasn't the point. The point was to make a statement. She was not just some ex-Imperial cadet. She was an artist who knew her way around explosives. It was like her armor or her hair. It wasn't about anyone else. It was about her.

The droid had gone off on his own little rant how stupid and pointless many of the crew members' activities were. Except Mom of course who was perfect. Sabine was slowly learning Chopper's nicknames for everyone. In the first week she had spent on the Ghost, he had avoided using any of them. Now that Sabine knew that Kanan's nickname was the Stupid Jedi, she could see why.

At least the Grumpy Oaf has been teaching the Baby Jedi dejarik. Now I have a new victim to play against~!

"Baby Jedi…" Sabine echoed. "Interesting nickname for Ezra. It's just because Kanan adopted him?"

Chopper swiveled his head towards her and firmly said No. Baby Jedi is exactly that: a baby Jedi.

Sabine could have whacked herself over the head. Of course. Why else would Kanan - a Jedi on the run from the Empire - take in a some random kid? "So Ezra's a Jedi too," she confirmed verbally.

Chopper suddenly groaned, obviously regretting what he just said. You didn't know…

Sabine scoffed. "Well it can't have been that much of a secret. Not compared to knowing about Kanan. Besides, they've been openly talking about 'training' together…" It honestly gave a lot of much needed context to some things Sabine had overheard them talking about earlier. She just couldn't believe it had taken her this long to figure it out.

With a small shake of the head, she easily shrugged it off. "Anyway, what does Hera want to talk to me about?"

The droid replied that Hera wanted to talk about an upcoming mission that would likely need some kind of bombs. That made Sabine grin. It seems the others didn't have much explosives expertise, so she was settling in nicely into her niche.

"So we've got Stupid Jedi, Mom, Grumpy Oaf, and Baby Jedi…" Sabine mused. "Have you come up with a name for me yet?"

Chopper paused in his rolling and turned to her, humming thoughtfully as he looked her up and down. Baby Mando.

"What…? I'm not a baby anything!"

Chopper rumbled in amused disagreement, citing her age and size.

"C'mon, even you must see that I'm nothing like Ezra…" Saying it like that actually gave Sabine an idea. She smirked and leaned casually against the wall. "I mean surely you're more clever than that. You can come up with a name that's not so derivative and obvious!"

The cantankerous droid insisted he was not being derivative and obvious! She was a child and a Mandalorian.

"Exactly," Sabine said. "How is that not obvious, especially when I'm always wearing my armor. At least Kanan and Ezra aren't obviously Jedi…"

With a low growl, Chopper shook as he considered it for another moment. Sparky.

Sabine raised an eyebrow. "Sparky…" she echoed. She liked the sound of that. "That's more like it, Chop."

Chopper grumbled as he rolled towards the cockpit. They had work to do, and he didn't have time for Sparky's attitude. Sabine just chuckled as she ran to catch up with him.

Art

Sabine switched out the colors in her sprayer, shaking it as she looked over her work in progress. It was based on some of Janyor of Bith's protest paintings, but she had taken his patterns and mapped them out to animals. There was a lot of promise in crossing the symbolism of animals with the directionality Janyor was known for in his line work.

Nothing had made her happier when Hera had given her permission to paint the interior of her cabin. Hera had even hinted that she would let Sabine paint certain other parts of the Ghost to give the ship a bit more life. She would be lying if she said she had been eye some certain walls, her head brimming with ideas. But first she needed to liven up her own room.

She started to highlight some of the feathery yellow lines with orange. She had to move the can fast in order to not over do the orange and drown out the yellow strokes beneath.

Once she finished, she stepped back and took another good look. She hummed and nodded with a smile.

"Looks good."

Sabine jumped and her head snapped to the doorway to see Kanan standing there. She scoffed and relaxed. "Haar'chak, you nearly gave me a heart attack!"

"Sorry," Kanan said. "Door was open." He waved his hand in front of his face. "For good reason too. There's no way these fumes are good for you…"

"I'm more than used to it at this point," Sabine said.

"That's not exactly a good thing," he said with a chuckle. He stepped inside, getting a better look at her painting. "Looks like a stylized version of a jai'galaar…"

Sabine was taken aback by that comment. "You can see that? Wait, you know what a jai'galaar is?"

"Of course. The…" Kanan paused, looking thoughtful for a moment. "Most of the clones followed Mandalorian traditions. A few of the highly honored clones had jaig eyes on their helmets."

Sabine bit her lip. She knew the clones had loose ties to Mandalore, but that was only because their template was a bounty hunter who claimed to be Mandalorian. According to her mother, Jango Fett was just a pretender with no honor.

Kanan stepped up to the painting, hovering his hand over it without touching the paint. "It's beautiful, Sabine."

"Oh, th-thanks," she said awkwardly. No one's really paid her art any attention since her father. And that was before…

She swallowed hard. Don't think about it.

"Hera says she might get you to paint some of the outside of the Ghost." He glanced at her. "Any ideas?"

"A few. Considering the nature of the work we do, we don't want to to be explicitly anti-Imperial. But I thought I could add some cross-cultural flare, emphasize the fact that we're a cobbled together crew just trying to scrape by."

"Which isn't strictly inaccurate," Kanan noted. He looked over her painting again. "I'll admit, it'd be nice to have some color in our lives."

"Yeah, you Jedi aren't exactly known for your expressionism," Sabine said dryly.

She thought Kanan might be offended by the comment, but instead he just gave a small laugh. "You're not wrong. We do have some artists in our history, but they were mostly architects who specialized in sculpture."

"So… what exactly did Jedi do in peacetime then?"

He shrugged with a wistful sigh. "Train. Travel to different systems. Even in peacetime, there were still disputes that the Republic would ask us to help settle."

As he spoke, Sabine realized that he was describing a life he never had. His life would have been dominated by the Clone Wars and the Empire. A life on the run, fighting for survival…

Of course, that described just about all of them. Or at least, it certainly described her. "I can't imagine a life without my art," Sabine said. "It's part of the reason I left the Academy…"

"They didn't want you expressing yourself?" It was a question, but Kanan said it like a statement, knowing full well what the answer was.

Sabine gave a smirk. "Their uniforms are just so dull and boring. And my hair had to be a 'natural' color. No wonder I was a terrible cadet."

Kanan chuckled. "Well, their loss. Can't say I'm upset that you're on our side." He suddenly looked up and around her cabin, his gaze zeroing in on a vent in the top corner. "We should probably increase the ventilation to your room. Especially if this is going to be a regular thing."

Sabine scoffed. "Really Kanan, I'm fine."

"Oh please." Kanan waved her off dismissively. "I'm lightheaded, and I've only been in here a few minutes. I'll be talking to Hera about it, and that's final."

Something in Sabine's chest fluttered with a mixture of indignation and warmth. While she didn't appreciate being spoken to like a child… She had to admit, it was nice to have someone who cared about something so trivial.

He put a hand on her shoulder with a smile. "Keep up the good work."

Sabine smiled as Kanan turned to walk out. "I will," she promised.

Discovery

Kanan frowned deeply as he watched Ezra slowly walk through his forms. He just didn't get it. They must have gone through these forms dozens of times now, but Ezra was still struggling to get them right. Either his footwork would go wonky or he would lose his balance. They've even stopped using the lightsaber for now. Even on training mode, it wasn't pleasant to get constantly whacked with it.

Ezra was biting his lip as he very slowly tried to step through the forms. His feet were wobbly and shaky as he moved. "S-Sorry…" he mumbled.

"Don't apologize," Kanan said tiredly. He knew his frustration had leaked through a few times. It wasn't Ezra's fault he wasn't getting this. Kanan must just be teaching it wrong. But after a few sessions, multiple different approaches, and basically zero improvement, he was at a loss. He had poured over to holocron but had not found anything useful.

Maybe he was going too fast. Maybe Ezra just wasn't ready to learn saber forms. Except these were forms that younglings at the Temple started learning by the age of five. But Ezra wasn't a typical youngling, and it was ridiculous to hold Ezra to those standards. But Kanan just didn't know what else to think. Training Ezra through meditation and other exercises seemed to go just fine. Was Kanan really just that bad of a swordsman? Or was he just a terrible teacher?

Ezra suddenly dropped out of his set, wrapping his arms across his chest and looking down dejectedly. "I think something's wrong with me…"

Kanan sighed and closed his eyes, counting to five before speaking. "It's not you, Ezra. And it's too early to get down about this yet," he told himself as much as Ezra. "We've only been running through this series for a couple weeks. You just need more practice."

Ezra looked up at Kanan through his bangs, and Kanan hated seeing the self-doubt in his eyes. "How long did it take you to learn this series?"

"I honestly don't remember. I was very young when I started to learn the forms." Kanan was still shocked that Master Nu hadn't taught Ezra any of these forms while he was on Ossus.

"What are you two up too?"

Sabine was walking down the ramp of the Ghost towards them. Kanan had been so focused on Ezra he hadn't sensed her approaching. "Just a bit of training."

Ezra turned pointedly away from Sabine, and Kanan could sense his embarrassment.

"Oh? What kind of training?" she asked, sounding genuinely interested.

Kanan glanced at Ezra, debating telling Sabine to just go away. Ezra was upset enough as it was without an audience. "Just... some basic Jedi lightsaber forms."

Sabine raised an eyebrow, glancing between the two of them. "You're teaching him saber forms?"

"Well, I'm trying to…"

"And I just suck at them," Ezra suddenly said angrily, turning back around. "No matter what I do, I can't get my legs to move right! P3 was right! I'm just slow and useless and - !"

"Stop that!" Kanan practically yelled, cutting off Ezra's spiraling. This wasn't good. They were both frustrated and tired. "Maybe we should stop for the day…"

"We've only been working for an hour," Ezra whined, his shoulders shaking. He looked on the edge of tears but kept blinking them back.

"Well then let's just take a break. Give us both a chance to settle down before we try again."

Ezra huffed but walked back to the ramp, sitting down with an explosive sigh. "I couldn't do this stuff with Master Nu either…"

Kanan sat down next to him, wrapping an arm around Ezra's stiff shoulders. "Really, Ezra, you have to stop."

"I'm sorry it's just… I want to do well! I want to be a Jedi like you, and if I can't even figure out the simplest forms, how will I ever get better?!"

"Ezra, really," Kanan said sternly. "Talking like this isn't helpful. You've made huge strides with your meditation, your shielding, your control of your kinesis… Besides, being a Jedi isn't about fighting at its core."

"I know…" Ezra said, still sounding miserable. He had his arms resting on his knees, his head hanging. "It still sucks."

Out of the corner of his eye, Kanan noticed Sabine standing by quietly, looking them both over with a small frown. A thought occurred to him. Sabine was a Mandalorian. As such, she probably was probably proficient in a variety of fighting forms, including those involving different blades. Maybe she had some insight. "Hey…"

"His tibias are twisted," Sabine stated flatly.

The sudden statement almost gave Kanan whiplash, and he failed to properly process the statement. He blinked and shook his head to set himself back straight. "What?"

Sabine pointed at Ezra's legs. "His tibias. They're twisted."

Kanan looked where Sabine was pointing. Ezra had pushed his knees out and was also staring at his legs. "What are tibias…?"

"Um…" Kanan wasn't actually sure. Something to do with Ezra's legs? The word rang a bell, but he had no idea what Sabine was talking about.

"I noticed it earlier," she went on. Waving her hand up, she beckoned Ezra. "Stand up for a sec."

Ezra glanced at Kanan with confusion, but he could only shrug in response. So Ezra did as Sabine said, looking at her expectantly.

"Okay, now move your feet so they're lined up parallel with each other. Like this." Sabine adjusted her stance to demonstrate.

He followed her lead, still obviously confused. "What are tibias?" he asked her.

"They're the bones between your knees and your feet." She pointed at Ezra's knees. "Now bend your knees."

"Um, okay…" Ezra slowly did as she said.

Kanan's eyes widened as he watched Ezra move. His knees were moving inward and pressing up against each other. Kanan was far from an expert in human anatomy but he knew that Ezra's knees should be bending straight forward.

"Not terribly unusual," Sabine said. "But that probably explains why he's been struggling so much with footwork. Usually it's fixed in infancy… even on worlds as remote as Lothal. Where was Ezra born?"

Kanan's chest burned as his anger was brought anew at Ezra's relatives. Why wasn't he surprised? Even when he was a baby, they couldn't provide him even the most basic healthcare.

Ezra stood back up straight, squirming a little under their scrutiny. "What's that mean…?"

"You're gonna need to modify the forms," Sabine said matter-of-factly. "The normal rules of foot alignment just aren't going to work for you."

Kanan was nodding, his brain already starting to whir as he thought through the different Jedi forms and how they would have to adjust. "Yeah… Actually this is great!" He smiled at Sabine. "That was incredibly insightful."

Sabine shrugged. "Saw it once in the Academy. I spent some time trying to help her work through it. Though she was eventually kicked out anyway…"

Ezra kept stepping from one foot to the other, staring at his legs. "So… you can fix me?"

"It's not about fixing you, it's about fixing the routine," Sabine said. "Your legs are just different." She looked at Kanan. "Besides, your father is the one who actually knows the Jedi forms. Now that he finally gets it, I'm sure he'll figure out what you need." Sabine started to walk back into the Ghost.

"Hey, thanks!" Ezra said. His previous negative spiral had vanished and replaced with nervous excitement.

Sabine smirked back at him. "No problem, kid."

Slingshot

Ezra bit his lip as he gently screwed the last part in place. For the eighth time.

This slingshot had been more finicky than Ezra had been anticipating. Mostly through his own mistakes. It was frustrating to say the least. Parts being overloaded because he misjudged a resistor, accidental solder bridges forming from his own clumsiness…

Ezra swallowed nervously as he looked the slingshot over. He had already wasted so many parts trying to make this. If it didn't work this time… Maybe he should just give up. Maybe he just wasn't good enough to make this sort of thing.

Taking a deep breath, he stood and carried his slingshot outside. It wasn't very dangerous, but with his mistakes so far, he couldn't be too careful. He was confident there wasn't enough power to seriously hurt anyone, but he still didn't want to accidentally stun someone. One great thing about Sabine joining the crew is that she introduced him to something called a stylus, and Ezra had taken a spare pillow (with Hera's permission) and made a target to practice on.

The slingshot should have enough power to push the pillow back with a fair amount of force without burning it. The last time he had done this test, he had accidentally shocked himself. He had made a short which numbed his arm before making his muscle convulse with pain. Of course, Kanan had been worried sick even though Ezra had been fine. If he were honest with himself, Ezra was starting to get annoyed with how protective Kanan was of him. He wasn't a little kid anymore, and it would take way more than a simple shock to make Ezra freak out.

Ezra sat the pillow on a nearby rock, adjusting it so it would balance and show the target properly. Then he ran back several meters and held his slingshot steady, pulling back the metal trigger. He grinned when the yellow strings of plasma crackled and hummed, building up energy the more he pulled.

Aiming was easy enough. If he could do it with a regular blaster and with Force-levitated rocks, this should be a piece of cake. So he let out a soft breath, aimed, and let go.

The energy pulse shot forward and hit the pillow… but instead of pushing it back, it merely dissipated over the surface.

Ezra groaned. That wasn't right. It probably meant the energy circuit wasn't tuned correctly. The plasma should have built up much more coherently when he pulled the trigger back.

He sat down on the ramp with his tools, going back to fiddling with the components. At this rate, Kanan would let him use an actual blaster before he got this kriffing thing working.

"What have you got there?"

Ezra flinched in surprise, looking up to see Sabine walking towards the Ghost. Ezra frowned. He hadn't realized she had been away from the Ghost. "Working on something…" he mumbled. "What're you doing?"

"Getting some target practice in," she said, walking towards him. "What's that you're working on?"

Ezra turned his body to keep the slingshot out of Sabine's view. "Just… a thing."

She raised an eyebrow. "A 'thing', huh?"

With a small sigh, Ezra relaxed a little and held it up. "It's a Xexto slingshot… I've been working on it for a while, but it's still not working right."

"Ah." Sabine took a step closer, bending down to look at it. "Need any help?"

"No!"

Sabine's eyes widened and she took a step back. "Okay okay, just offering…" she said, sounding peeved.

Ezra shrank on himself slightly. "S-Sorry. I just… I want to finish this on my own. Prove I'm actually good at something." He went back to tuning the energy gate without looking up to see her reaction. He could sense it just fine in the Force, her sharp signature vibrating with annoyance and confusion before softening with just a tiny bit of sympathy. Ezra hated it and wished he could tell her to stop.

"So once you get it working, how are you going to use it?"

He frowned as he glanced up at her through his hair. "What do you mean? I'm going to use it to defend myself."

"Right…" Sabine said slowly. "But how? You're just going to constantly carry it in the palm of your hand?"

"It fits in my pocket…"

"Taking it out of your pocket takes time. And in the heat of the moment, every fraction of a second counts." She frowned slightly, staring down at his slingshot thoughtfully. Then her eyes widened. "Wait here."

Ezra frowned as he watched her run into the Ghost and up the ladder towards the cabins. He had no idea what she was on about, but he went back to adjusting the energy gate. He measured the outgoing current, tracking its frequency as he slowly twisted his screwdriver. He bit his lip and held his breath as he very slowly fiddled. The energy gate was very sensitive.

He finally pulled his screwdriver away let out a breath of relief. It should be better now. Putting the pieces back together, he got up and re-aimed at the pillow. "C'mon…" he mumbled as he pulled the trigger back. It felt differently this time, so hopefully that meant the energy gate was actually on resonance. Letting out a soft exhale, he let go.

The ball of plasma shot out and hit the pillow with an audible thud, the pillow flying backwards off the rock.

Ezra grinned widely, his chest fluttering in excitement. "Yes!"

"Good job, kid."

Sabine was back on the ramp, leaning against a strut with a half-smile. "I'm not gonna lie, it's pretty impressive that you built that thing all on your own. Most just find one on the black market and buy for cheap."

Ezra blushed at the praise. It was strange to hear it from someone other than Kanan or Hera. "Th-Thanks…"

Sabine pushed off the strut and walked down the ramp towards him. She unfolded her arms and revealed what looked to be a thick fabric cylinder. "Here."

Ezra took it on impulse, staring at it for a moment before looking back up at Sabine in confusion.

"It's a cheap bracer," Sabine explained. "Most people use them for communicators, but it would make a good mount for your slingshot too. That way you always have it at the ready."

Ezra's eyes widened as he looked the cylinder - the bracer - over again in a new light. He saw now where it could be strapped down onto his arm. It was a little big for him, so he'd have to adjust the size, but then it should be easy to just glue or sew the slingshot to the top of it. He was smiling widely now with the knowledge that not only does his slingshot work, but it would actually be a viable tool for future missions.

He looked back up at Sabine, who had a small but genuine smile. A bit of amusement was rolling off of her through the Force, but it wasn't patronizing like it usually was. "I can help you with the adjustments if you need," she offered. "Maybe even spruce it up a bit for you."

Ezra's smile widened as he cradled the bracer and the slingshot to his chest. "Th-That sounds great, thanks!"

First Mission

They were on Garel, and Ezra was leaning against a stack of crates. He was trying to appear as casual as possible as he waited for Sabine to pass by and give him the intel.

This was his first real mission since the Spire where he wasn't just back up. Kanan was finally confident enough in Ezra's skills to let him actively help out. Well, that and Ezra was the only one 'qualified' enough to do this part of the job. This was a simple mission anyway. The goods were locked up in one of these hangers. Once Sabine figured out which one, Ezra would crawl through the ducts to open it from the inside.

His main qualification? Being the smallest Spectre on the Ghost by far. But Ezra would take it. It was about time he started to really help out.

Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Sabine's colorful armor. He made sure not to look directly at her as she walked by and muttered "Bay Fourteen."

With a small smirk, Ezra glanced around the cargo bay to make sure no one was watching before turning and climbing up the tall stack of abandoned storage crates. Earlier he had spotted a duct grate that would suit his purpose. Once he got to the top, he undid the latch and crawled inside the durasteel ducts. He had gone over the schematics for the duct system earlier with Sabine and Kanan, so he knew exactly where he was going. He was counting the number of intersections before turning right… and then he had to go up.

He gazed up at the grate which lead outside. Blowing out a sigh, Ezra braced his arms against the sides of the vent before kicking his feet up and slowly crawling upward. He had practiced a couple times in the vents of the Ghost. He had discovered he loved being in there. The small dark enclosure felt oddly safe. Especially he was the only one who could fit into these spaces.

Getting to the top, he pushed the grate open and crawled out onto the roof. It was not long after sunset, the sky dark purple and pink with just a few visible stars doting it. A transport ship rose from the neighboring bay, the wind whipping around wildly. Ezra gave a giggle as he was pushed back by the force of their engines.

But he had a job to do. Remember the layout of the landing bays, he ran in the direction he knew Bay Fourteen would be in. Looking over the edge of the roof, he saw a giant space between this building and the next.

With a small smirk, Ezra took a few steps back. He closed his eyes and took a moment to breathe evenly, focusing on the Force. He could do this.

He opened his eyes and ran forward. At the last step when he launched off, the Force hummed just enough to launch him across the expanse. He landed on the next building but didn't stop, the Force insisting that he had to keep moving. He scrambled forward and did another boosted jump to the next tower before doing it yet again, narrowly missing a flying hovercraft careening by.

He landed on the roof of Bay Fourteen with a small stumble, ending up on his knees. He couldn't help but laugh, adrenaline running through his blood. That had been awesome. He allowed himself a moment to just breathe and enjoy the exhilaration before he kept moving. He didn't want to keep the others waiting.

He found the grate leading into the ducts and jumped in, using his hands and feet to slow his descent. It was the exact same layout as the other bays, so it was a simple matter of backtracking his way in. Making it inside, he peaked out and saw the shipment they were looking for. He carefully pushed out of the duct before jumping down, using the Force to soften his landing. Then he ran up to the controls and hacked the lock with his multitool.

The lock beeped and the bay door rose open to reveal Kanan and Zeb. "Hey, good job, kid," Zeb said as the both of them walked in.

Ezra beamed. "It was nothing," he said, trying to sound casual. He was pretty sure there was no way he kept the excitement out of his voice, but at least he tried.

Kanan chuckled as he walked up to Ezra and put a hand on his shoulder. He didn't say anything but Ezra could feel the warmth of his pride flowing from their bond.

It may have been a small job, but he had done it well. Now he was more eager than ever to play out his role as Spectre Five.

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