After they were fueled up and in hyperspace, Sabine walked around to the other side of the single bike they still had to find her Jedi companion sitting against the side of the frame. Removing the clunky stormtrooper helmet, she knelt in front of him. "You okay?" She asked, a genuine tone of concern in her voice. The boy coughed, and she felt a painful twinge shoot through her chest as he opened his eyes to look at her.
"I'm fine," He replied, trying hard for a painful smile. "You really need to work on giving people a heads up."
Sabine looked him over. Other than the fact that the cheap plasteel was scorched black and the protective undersuit was torn in a few places, he looked okay. "Can you stand?" She said tentatively, still unsure of Ezra's condition.
The boy nodded and tried to pull himself up, but only stood up about three-quarters of the way before he stopped and coughed again. "Okay, maybe not," He replied, sitting back down. Sabine watched his arm drift down to his chest and hold it, breathing deeply. Sabine bit her lip as she thought.
"Chopper, bring me the medical kit! I need your help!" She shouted up to the cockpit. A few seconds later, the old droid wheeled back to them and made an inquisitorial beep. Sabine turned back to Ezra. "I'm going to need you to lie down so I can get that armor off, okay?"
Ezra coughed. "I'm okay, Sabine. I just… I just need a minute," He interjected. Sabine looked away from Chopper and to the Jedi.
"Ezra, I just nearly killed you with a hand grenade at point-blank range. Lie down. Now," She commanded. Though she could see the resentful look on his face, he complied, and she unstrapped the light plating from his upper body. After there were no large obstructions(such as stormtrooper armor) Sabine pulled out a small, pen-like tool and twisted the top. A green field of energy appeared in a flat cone. Holding it so that it encompassed Ezra's entire torso, she moved it slowly down from his head to his waist, then back up. The beam shut off and the pen gave a beep. Sabine then handed it to Chopper, who quickly processed the data and produced a hologram of Ezra with glowing red marks indicating injuries.
"Since when did you become a field doctor?" He asked, looking up at the ceiling.
"First aid in the field was an elective at the Imperial Academy on Mandalore. I took it, but I never thought I'd need to use it. Then I joined the rebellion," She explained, reading the descriptions of the indicated injuries.
"Well, seeing as you're the resident medic at the moment, how bad is it?"
"You have two broken ribs and a third that's fractured. Some mild bruising-"
"I wouldn't call it mild."
"-a few hairline cuts along your arms from shrapnel, and your left shoulder is sprained."
"I didn't need a medical scan to tell you that."
"Yeah, well, I trust the hologram more than I trust you, so…"
"You basically just said you trust Chopper more than me."
"I do. But just because I trust him more doesn't mean I actually trust either of you."
Ezra smiled wryly, sitting up slowly. Sabine felt a look of concern cross her face for a second, before quickly wiping it away with a more playful one. "Well, my official statement is you'll live," she said, lightly punching him in his good shoulder.
"Ow! Hey!" He responded.
"I thought that was your good shoulder?" She asked, laughing in spite of his reaction.
"Just because it's my good shoulder doesn't say that that isn't painful or annoying," Ezra explained, slowly pulling himself up while using Chopper as support.
"Just because you're injured doesn't mean I'm not going to mess with you," She shot back playfully.
"Need I remind you it was you who chose to throw a detonator into the mix?"
Sabine stopped. Though she made an effort not to show it, it was her fault he had gotten hurt. Had she not jumped to her instant backup(blowing stuff up), Ezra would most likely be just fine. She could've gotten Ezra killed, which, though she wasn't entirely sure why, was a thought that terrified her. Though she had only known Ezra for a few years, she couldn't imagine life without him in it, at least from time to time. Had she been the one responsible for removing him from the equation, she would never forgive herself. How could she? She would've killed him, albeit unintentionally. Killed her own-
No. Stop it. That thought process leads nowhere productive. She said to herself. She realized she had been staring at the wall, shaking her head and looking back up. Ezra raised an eyebrow, no doubt having sensed something along the lines of guilt from her. As much as she'd like to think so, she knew it was really hard to mask her emotions around Ezra. Yet another thought that scared her, and this time, she had no clue why she couldn't mask them in the first place.
"You good, Sabine?" He asked. Sabine looked up at his eyes, then quickly away.
"Yeah. Yeah, I'm good," She replied, giving herself a hug.
"You sure?" He pressed further.
"Yes, I'm sure," She snapped, instantly feeling regret for the way she said it. She never got a chance to retract the statement. Chopper gave a surprised beep from under Ezra's hand, and they both turned to him.
"What is it, Chop?" Ezra said. Sabine could hear the pain in his voice, again striking a chord in her heart that twanged with guilt.
"Woop… woop woo woo wop woop woo?" The droid responded in a confused tone.
"'We have an incoming transmission?'" Sabine translated. She and Ezra made eye contact before they made their way slowly up to the bridge. Ezra gratefully took his seat at the command deck, still wearing the protective underclothing from the burnt-out Scout armor. Sabine remained standing as she put the transmission through. A young man appeared, around Ahsoka's age the last they saw her. He wore very practical protective clothing, and a blaster hung at his side.
"Ah, I'm glad you decided to pick up. Looks like Saw's recommendation paid off," The man said, looking at the both of them.
"Who are you?" Sabine asked, keeping her voice flat. She wasn't sure who this man was, though by the way he was dressed, she could make a conjecture that he was on their side.
"My name is Lux Bonteri. Both Ahsoka and Saw are… acquainted with me, is the best way to phrase it," The man replied.
"Bonteri… you were the Senator of Onderon, right?" Ezra interjected. Lux turned to him.
"I should've expected you to know. Yes, I was the Senator of Onderon during the Clone War. Before that, it was my mother. I fought alongside Saw and Ahsoka to free Onderon from the Separatists," He elaborated. A look of concern crossed his face. "Tell me… how is Ahsoka?"
Ezra and Sabine exchanged a look. Ezra hesitantly replied, "I'm sorry, it isn't common knowledge. My master, Ahsoka, and I confronted Vader on the Sith world of Malachor. She saved us, but she didn't make it out."
The former Senator looked down at the ground. "I am… I am saddened to hear that. I was hoping that she was still around," Lux responded. After a moment, he recomposed himself. "Though I wish it were so, that isn't the only reason I had to get the information from Saw to contact you."
"If that's not the reason, then what is?" Sabine asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Saw told me you guys were after Project Stardust. He's shared the same goal for years."
"Yeah, I know that. And I had an idea that Saw would figure out we were trying to track this thing down," Ezra commented. "But our only reasonably pursuable lead just burned out, so we don't know what to do next."
"That's just it. Years ago, Saw met a Jedi that mentioned a remote world that the Empire was excavating, and they weren't digging for metal. Saw never ended up going to check it out, but once he figured out you two were on the case too, he wanted me to relay the message," Lux explained.
"Why not just have Saw tell us that himself?" Sabine said suspiciously.
"You know Saw. He never sends a transmission unless he's making a statement. And he prefers to be in the action non-stop."
Again, Sabine exchanged a silent debate with Ezra. "Well, that does sound like Saw.." She admitted.
"What's this world called?" Ezra asked, looking back to the Senator.
"It's called Zeffo. You'll find it at these coordinates in the Outer Rim," Said the ex-Senator as he pressed an unseen button to send a data package to them. "Good luck you two. And may the Force be with you."
"You too," Ezra replied, and the transmission ended. Sabine sighed.
"I don't like this," She stated.
"I couldn't sense any sort of malintent. From what I can tell, he isn't Force-sensitive either," Ezra replied, holding himself awkwardly in his copilot's chair. "Though I don't know for sure, it seems like he was upset to hear that Ahsoka died. Also, he claims Saw trusts him, which is a very hard feat to accomplish."
"That we can agree upon," Sabine said, putting her hand out in a thinking gesture.
"I believe this guy, Sabine. I say we follow this lead."
Sabine clenched her fist in frustration. "I want to believe him too, but this is thirdhand account information that is already vague in itself. We don't even know this Lux guy, and he just sent us an out-of-the-blue transmission with coordinated to a strange world that we know next to nothing about. The only things we maybe know are that this planet once drew the interest of the Jedi and the Empire excavated it, which, now that I said it out loud, sounds like a promising lead… And then there's the potential of you getting injured, again, which is both bad for the mission and something I don't want to happen-" She realized she was pacing as she ranted and stopped, looking up at Ezra to see a quizzical face being returned. "What?"
"Something you don't want to happen?" He repeated, and she fought a sudden fire in her cheeks. That's not what I meant! She shouted internally, though now that it occurred to her she really didn't want that to happen.
"You know what I mean, Ezra," she replied cooly, finally managing to douse the embers in her face.
"Do I?" He asked again. Much to her resentment, the flames reared once again. Dammit, why is this such a struggle?! She screamed at herself.
"Yes, you do," She said sharply, and the boy's eyes fell down to his feet as if having taken a sudden interest in the dust and soot had left. Instantly she felt a pang of guilt, but once again, never got the chance to apologize.
"Do you have a better option? One where we figure out precisely what this thing is?" Ezra interjected. Sabine's inner conflict stopped, one side having struck the final blow.
"I really hate it when you unload a can of stupidly correct Jedi logic on me, you know that?"
"I have picked up on it, yeah. So, yay or nay on Lux's lead?" The Jedi asked, knowing he had already won. Though Sabine hated it, she knew he had won too.
"I'm gonna regret this, but Chopper, set a course for the coordinates Lux sent," She ordered. Chopper beeped what she could understand as 'I have a bad feeling about this', but wheeled over to the console and changed the course of the hyperspace route. Sabine nodded in approval, before seeing Ezra try to stand up alone. She quickly walked over to him and forced him back into his seat. "Just because we're going where you wanted to does not mean I'm not going to patch you back up first."
"Sabine..." Ezra complained.
"I'm going to go get out of this cracked-up excuse for armor, and when I get back, you had better not have moved from that chair. Clear?" She commanded.
"Yes, ma'am," Ezra replied in a mocking manner.
"Good. Chopper! Watch him and make sure he doesn't move."
"Okay, really?"
"What? I told you I trust him more than I trust you."
"I didn't think you meant that literally."
Sabine shrugged as she walked back to her quarters. "Then you thought wrong."
A few minutes later, Sabine returned to the room in her typical Mandalorian armor and a medical kit in hand. "Alright, I'm guessing that you don't want me to actually try to fix everything," She said to him as she unfolded the kit.
"Good guess," Ezra replied. Though it was annoying that she insisted on patching him back up, he did find this behavior curious. Sabine had never shown this level of concern before this mission, and certainly not when he had just joined the crew. This was something different. Something new. And it was always accompanied by that same warm feeling he had sensed on Bracca.
Sabine pulled a small syringe out of the medical pack with a blue, semi-transparent fluid in it. "Well, this thing here is the alternative," She explained, inspecting the needle. "It's a somewhat concentrated blend of bacta and a few other healing stimulants. It should accelerate the healing process. I think."
"'You think'?" He asked, slightly concerned about the unorthodox phrasing.
"If Hera put it in here for us to use, I trust her choice to put it in here for us to use. Do you?" Sabine inquired, walking over to him with the device in hand. Taking that factor into consideration, it did make him feel better about it. Besides, this was his alternative to having Sabine individually clean up every wound. She circled around to his good shoulder. "Hold still." He heard, and he felt a quick stab of pain in his arm. As soon as it was there it was gone, and a small tingling was the only thing it left behind.
Sabine walked back over to the medkit and picked up a minor first-aid package. Ezra watched her look it over for a second before tossing it in his direction and closing up the larger kit. Ezra awkwardly caught it and examined it for a second. "What do you want me to do with this?"
"Well, I can't force you to put yourself back together. But I can provide you with the means to do so. At least that way I can blame the injuries you still have on you."
"I don't blame you for thinking fast, Sabine. Had you not done that, I'm not sure what would've happened next," He said, trying to stand and finding that he could. The bacta injection was working.
"You might not blame me, but I do. If I had just shot them instead, then-" Sabine began, but Ezra stopped her and put a hand on her shoulder.
"Then there was a high chance you might've hit me instead," He finished for her. "Sabine, everyone regrets their actions when they put other people in danger. I know because I've done it. You remember Reklam Station. I still wish I had done something different."
"That doesn't help," She said, her eyes on the floor. Ezra drifted closer to her, his hand sliding down her arm until it reached hers. Sabine looked up at him.
"You can't change the past, Sabine. It's better to live and learn than regret," He said. She looked down again and nodded slowly.
"I know, it's just… I don't want you to get hurt," She replied slowly.
Ezra glanced at their intertwined hands. She hadn't pulled away. "You could never hurt me," He heard himself say. And he meant it. It sounded strange, like trying food from a strange world. But, just as you might decide you liked the flavor, he could tell by the small smile she wore that it wasn't a lie. That thought made him smile, and he looked away and out into the blurred blue light of hyperspace. It gently swayed back and forth, pulling them to their destination light-years away.
"You want to play a game?" Ezra asked rather randomly. Sabine looked up, a new cheerful light in her eyes.
"Sure, though if it's sabacc or dejarik, you're in for a beating," She bantered playfully poking him in the chest.
"Actually I was thinking something that I hadn't played before," Ezra replied, letting go of Sabine's hand. He walked over to the extendable dejarik table in between their seats, pulling it out from under the console and powering it on. The tiny little figures popped into existence, but Ezra quickly pressed a few more keys on the side to bring up a different projection. This one caught Sabine's eye.
"Cubikahd? You're really asking for it," She stated, making her way over to her seat.
"It looks interesting, and I've never played. I hope you don't mind," Ezra said, taking his own seat and wincing only slightly.
"I don't mind at all, it's just usually not played by non-Mandalorians," She responded, eyeing the cube-shaped hologram. "Do you know the rules?"
"Only sort of. You're given four knives and you can move them around the different squares on the cube, right?"
"Yeah. All sides of the cube are playable, except the bottom. You capture your opponent's pieces when the piece can't move forward without running into another blade," Sabine explained. "It's a simple concept, but hard to master."
"Well, let's give it a go then," Ezra decided. Sabine pressed a key on her side, and eight knives appeared around the sides, four red and four blue.
"Blade to cube face 3," The Mando ordered confidently, and the hologram sifted to display the knife stabbed into the indicated spot. Ezra didn't think about his first move very much, as he was just trying to get a feel for the game.
"Blade to cube row 1," He said, and the blue projection embedded itself in the next row over.
"Do you think your luck with sabacc will carry over?" Sabine taunted. Ezra responded by kicking his feet up on the console and leaning back.
"Of course," He said.
"Hmm. We'll see about that. Blade to cube row 6," She commanded, shifting the position of one of her blades once again.
And so it went. Sabine won the first round relatively quickly, as Ezra had no experience in the strategy of the game. The same thing happened with the next two, though each time he was able to last a little bit longer than he had previously. Thanks to his many encounters with the Grand Admiral Thrawn, his strategy was to learn from his enemies in these games. Soon enough, he had put Sabine in several tough spots, even capturing a few pieces on occasion. But it was still somewhat futile, as Sabien was able to pull out a move he hadn't seen coming nearly every time. So he switched to another tactic he had picked up from Thrawn: distraction. Keep her busy worried about something other than his actual plan.
"Good game," He said as his last piece turned from blue to red, showing the Mando's victory. "I nearly had to this time."
"If I'm being honest, you weren't even close," Sabine replied frankly.
"I see. Well, you must be getting bored of beating me every time-" Ezra began
"I'd hardly call myself bored right now."
"-so for this next round, I'll throw in a little something extra," He finished, and sabine looked up.
"Oh?" She asked. Perfect. Ezra thought. He had her attention.
"For every game after this, if I lose, I have to answer any question you ask me completely honest. But if I win, you have answer any question I ask completely honest. Deal?" He elaborated.
"Ooh, you're gonna regret this. Deal," Sabine responded.
"We'll see," Ezra said. Though he hadn't noticed anything changing superficially, now there were stakes for losing. Stakes that would create a concern. Perhaps even make it easier for both of them to make a mistake in an attempt to win. He did have to admit, he was susceptible to this weakness too, but that was a risk worth taking.
The game ensued, and at first, it appeared as though Sabine was going to win again. She had chased each of Ezra's pieces to the edges of each side of the cube, completely one-on-one. A few moves after, they had both lost two of their blades, and Ezra found himself pinned down on the edge between two different sides of the cube. Two of his pieces were not quite back to back, instead being diagonal to one another. On the face behind it, one of Sabine's blades was bearing down on each of them. To anyone other than himself and maybe Chopper, it looked as though Sabine had his two blades down and out. But that was the genius of Ezra's plan, and whether his mind-game tactic had worked or not, Sabine didn't see it coming.
"Any last words, Padawan? Or would you rather I ask my question now?" Sabine taunted playfully, an air of confidence in her voice.
"I do have a few last words actually," Ezra replied in the same manner, making Sabine glance down at the board. "Blade to cube row 6."
Sabine's eyes went wide as one of her blades turned blue, leaving her last red blade alone, and by game rules he had picked up, that meant he had won. "Any last words or should I ask my question now?" Ezra teased, and Sabine rolled her eyes.
"Well, I guess you got me. What's your question?" She asked.
"Hmm… there are a multitude of things I could ask aren't there?" He ribbed. "What to ask, what to ask…"
"You're enjoying this aren't you?" Sabine interjected.
Ezra laughed. "Immensely."
Sabine sighed. "You're gonna ask me something stupid, aren't you?"
"Now why would you think that?"
"I'm not sure how I couldn't. You're probably going to ask me something like who I like or whatever."
"Well, who do you like?" He asked, settling on a question.
"You're kidding, right?" She responded.
"No, seriously. Who do you like?" He repeated. Now he was curious. She had just tried to dodge the question.
"The same person I always have," She said elusively, avoiding eye contact.
"And who's that?" He pressed further, but Sabine put up her finger.
"That's not how it works Ezra, you only get one question."
"Oh come on, you can't just say something like that and leave it hanging! I'm curious now!"
"Well, you'll have to quell your curiosity later, because unless my ears deceive me, we're about to arrive," Sabine finalized. Now that Ezra listened, he could hear the hyperspace disengage alert beeping in the background. Ezra stowed the dejarik table as they dropped out of lightspeed, and Zeffo loomed before them.
"You know I'm going to figure it out eventually now, right?" He said, feeling slighted. He should've been more specific with the terms of the game.
"Oh, I know. But that moment won't be coming soon. Now turn on the scanners. We need to find whatever Project Auger is."
That's chapter 12. I know, I know. It's a bit of a slow chapter, but it's getting better, and soon. It's also a bit shorter, but I didn't want to force too much into the story at once, you know? It's better to have it short and sweet than long and drawn out. Also, Cubikahd? It had almost no description anywhere, so I took what I could find combined with overanalyzing the singular appearance in the TV show to try and accurately describe, as Dave Filoni puts it, "stabble". Anyway, most of you can see where this is going. Stay tuned, and there will be more soon!