Blue meets blue as my blade rises up to block its counterpart before I push the blade up and away from my chest before out fight resets.
Kanan shifts his feet slightly while I give my blade a little twirl and start anticipating his next—
Left!
With a turn of my wrist, I bat away Kanan's cut towards me before I go on the offensive and slash down at him, only for his heels to already be dug in and for him to not move an inch.
"You should—" I mutter before winding up and swinging at him again. Our blades briefly collide before mine skitters right down the length of his blade, down to the hilt before it skips and collides with—
Kanan exclaims in pain before dropping his lightsaber and starts grasping at his hand. Behind me the Force reverberates powerfully, prompting me to turn around.
Oh.
Small, rounded faces line the wall overlooking the sparring arena Kanan and I are in, as well as Cayle, Master Kenobi and Master Dooku.
He's back?
"Are you okay?" I turn back to Kanan as he's still bent over at the waist.
Kanan nods before rising back up to his full height. "Yeah, fine…the feeling will return here in a minute. You ratcheted up the intensity on that last strike."
"You were supposed to move." I explain as Kanan is eying me, expecting an answer. "But you didn't. So I had to put more on it."
Kanan's expression turns sarcastic before he smirks. "Dad strength. You'll understand when you're older."
Oh come on…
I gently shove Kanan, eliciting a laugh from him before he gestures for us to start walking towards the crowd of younglings that have gathered. The closer we get, the more I slow my approach to allow Kanan to arrive first.
Jacen's smile is clear as we stop next to the wall as multiple younglings all turn to Master Kenobi, who nods.
"Hello Master Jarrus, Hello Master Bridger."
"Hello." Kanan smiles back to the younglings. "Are we on our way back to the spires?"
Master Kenobi answers with a nod. "We are, but figured we'd stop and observe your duel. Evenly fought."
"It's always good to get in the ring and put theory into practice." Kanan tells Master Kenobi, but really more the younglings than anything.
Master Kenobi knows all of this. His sparring sessions with Master Skywalker from when he was an Apprentice and Jedi Knight are the stuff of legend.
I settle into contently listening in as Kanan and Master Kenobi banter back and forth while fiddling with my lightsaber.
Well, it's not fiddling. I'm just turning it over to keep my hands used to it.
(Flashback)
Dad flips off the video on the small, portable tablet that he's brought into our training session. "Those cadets aren't just playing with their guns boys. Do you know what they're doing?"
No.
I turn to Elias, who is standing beside me. He shakes his head, prompting Dad to explain.
"They twirl their guns, spin them, twist and turn them, to get used to the feel in their hands. Why?"
…
"Because if they drop their gun in battle? They're dead." Dad says, expression stone-faced. "They're dead boys."
This weapon is your life. He's always told me this.
For as long as I can remember.
"You're not supposed to drop your lightsaber even more then they're not supposed to drop their gun. Ever. And both of you dropped your lightsabers yesterday."
We fought. I kicked his out of his hand, then later on I dropped mine after he hit me with a table that he threw.
"Now I know that you weren't intending to do that. I've told you a million times not to lose your lightsaber. I've seen better men and women lose their lightsaber and seconds later, lose their life. And I can't let that happen to you."
"You're both too important to me. I love you. You're both extremely talented and skilled with the Force. I created you, and am molding you into two of the greatest Sith the world will ever see…you cannot lose because you simply 'dropped'—" Dad sarcastically drops his own lightsaber, only for it to pause right before it hits the ground like he's got it on marionette strings. "—your lightsaber."
Dad begins to walk away from Elias and I before barking out "Grab your lightsabers."
I quickly obey, holding my lightsaber in my right hand as Dad pulls his lightsaber back into his own hand. "Now…whenever you have a spare moment and your lightsaber is in your hand, I want you to twirl it in your hand. Get used to it, be comfortable with it. You need to know every inch of that lightsaber with every inch of your hand. It needs to be second nature because your life is second nature. Nobody thinks about breathing, walking, talking, living. Having your lightsaber in your hand needs to be the exact same way. Because if something extreme does happen?"
"Your lightsaber is attached to you and will not be very far from your body. Giving you the time, the instant you need in order to save your life."
(End Flashback)
It's not about your skills or abilities. It's about how you react in those instants. Those split second moments that all you've got is your will, your wits and your training.
As Master Kenobi begins to say his farewell to us, I roll my lightsaber over my knuckles and allow the curve of my hilt to bend over my hand and feed itself back into my hand.
Multiple younglings' attentions turn to me, including Jacen before I give them a reassuring smile and a small wave.
"Now we must be going." Master Kenobi states simply. "Help me out here, what do we say?"
One of the younglings I know, Niv'e says "Thank you for letting us watch you!"
I bow my head as Kanan does the same. "My pleasure." Kanan answers. "May the Force be with you."
"May the Force be with you, Masters." The younglings all recite back to us before Master Kenobi begins to lead them back down the corridor and towards their final lesson of the day.
The four of us, Master Dooku, Cayle, Kanan and I all watch them go before Master Dooku is the first to speak. "Master Jarrus, young Bridger."
"Master." I bow my head reverently.
Kanan does the same "Always a pleasure, Master Dooku."
"Indeed…it appears that your apprentice's dueling abilities remain in form."
Kanan takes the statement in stride. "He mentioned that he hadn't dueled or sparred in any capacity since his injury when he came for dinner this Tuesday night. So we've remedied that."
"Has he progressed any in the time since Tuesday?"
"Yes." Kanan confirms. "Granted it's only been the three days, two and a half days really. But he came here early yesterday before teaching the younglings to practice, as well as now."
I feel better. More in rhythm.
Looking back at it, fighting Cayle at Kanan's I was formulaic.
Nothing spontaneous or original, which is one of the calling cards of my Form.
"Young one?" Dooku glances at me as we begin to walk down the same corridor Master Kenobi took the younglings down.
"Physically I'm fine. No pain or swelling or any discomfort. Mentally I've been…not where I would like to be."
Dooku turns more fully towards me as Cayle looks like I've caught him off guard. "Explain."
"I fought Cayle at Kanan's. Not for long, but it was a bad duel from the mechanics of it. I was very paint by numbers, if you know what I mean."
"From A to B to C." Dooku confirms with a nod.
Cayle chooses this moment to interject. "Nothing out of the ordinary, I thought you were just slow."
"Because he was thinking." Kanan interprets.
Ehh…
I make a face. "Maybe. I wouldn't put it like that. It just was a bad fight."
"You fought a bad fight." Dooku clarifies.
"Yeah."
That's it.
"That should remedy itself with time and training. Hard work will right the wrongs." Dooku says in his customary, almost superior tone.
Took me awhile to learn that he's not actually upset. That's just his voice.
"What about the large charge on my credit card for a plane ticket to Chicago last week?" Dooku pivots.
Oh.
"I—" Cayle begins before Dooku raises his hand and silences him.
"I was asking young Bridger…"
"That was my doing." I say in Cayle's defense. "I, uhm, had a slight incident at a party that I used the card to clean up, basically."
I made the problem go away.
"Which was…?" Kanan asks.
Dooku adds "You don't know?"
"Ezra didn't say anything to me about it."
"It was very quick, over and done with thing." I hastily say. "Sabine's ex showed up at a party, pretty distraught and wanted to talk to her."
"I thought we had a track on him." Dooku turns to Kanan.
"We do." Cayle interjects once again. "That's how I found out he was here in LA. Kyle pinged me about it."
Kanan looks to me. "Sounds like he was in a bad way."
"He was." I nod. "I don't think he spent any time trying to get over her, and instead tried to get back with her. He looked the worse for it."
Poor guy.
"Where is he now?" Dooku asks Cayle.
Cayle answers "Back at Northwestern. Classes started again this week."
"So he utilized part of his spring break to chase the girl. And you sent him back." Dooku completes the picture.
"He didn't need to be hanging around here." I confirm. "If anything, he needs time and space to move on."
"And how did Miss Wren take all this?"
Well…
"We had a small fight over it." I answer with a shrug of my shoulders. "But we smoothed things over and we're fine now."
Silence falls over all of us before Dooku looks to Kanan again. "I take it there was no indication of any of this at your dinner?"
"No." Kanan shakes his head. "The two of them were as affectionate as ever, if not more so."
"Affectionate." Dooku seizes upon Kanan's word choice.
"Warm…caring. She's finally loosening up around everyone, Hera and I. The kids love her."
Cayle nods and Dooku's expression pivots to a small smile. "Glad to hear it. My meeting with the girl, she seemed to be quite likable."
I don't think there's anybody that doesn't like Sabine. There are some people she's not a fan of, but everybody at least likes Sabine.
Our contingent turns down the latest corridor, leading towards a set of stairs leading us down towards the basement.
Actually, this is more towards A's lab more than anything. This is how I go to get down there.
"Where are we going?" I ask the group.
"There's a quick meeting we need to attend, the four of us." Dooku says as the glass doors of A's lab hone into view.
"About?" I ask, then spot a familiar figure with some others, huddled in the lab.
Actually, they're all familiar.
The doors open, causing multiple of A's subordinates to turn, as well as the man himself, Hera—
"There they are. Master Dooku." A smiles cheerfully.
It's Director Kallus and Palpatine's foreign policy expert, Tommy.
"Indeed, here we are." Dooku replies as both Kallus and Tommy look to me.
"Ezra." Tommy gives me what appears to be a genuine smile while extending his hand. "Looking good."
I return the hand shake and return the smile. "Thanks. Director Kallus."
"Mr. Bridger. A pleasure to see you again."
Shaking his hand as well, I take a step back in time to catch Hera's discreet smile in my direction. Quickly and subtlety, I return it before A speaks again.
"Well, let's get right down to business, shall we?"
"Business?" I ask.
Is the surveillance program finally completed?
"The surveillance program the president requested us create for you has been finished Ezra." Kallus informs me.
"With the help of both your Research and Development head, Alexandre, as well as our FBI liaison." Tommy nods in Hera's direction.
Hera turns to both Cayle and I. "Nobody's supposed to connect all of these wires. And the last time they did, it ended up on the front page of the Washington Post, The Guardian, The New York Times..."
"Off the record?" Kallus turns to the group, but mainly eying Dooku and Kanan. "It's not the last time, and not the only time."
Great…
"If it's got a camera, a microphone and a transceiver its eyes and ears for us." Tommy reveals.
Hera in turn, frowns at Director Kallus. "That's not what I've been told."
"We're not strictly talking about pure intelligence gathering Mrs. Syndulla. We're trying to save lives and foil plots. Sometimes there's lines and red tape you have to cut in order to do that."
"Sure." Hera's tone is flat before her real opinion is voiced to me through the Force.
Yeah. Saving lives is a broad precedent.
"That debate can be saved for another time, and with another audience." Kallus keeps us all on task. "What we have here—" He points to a small USB drive. "—is a program designed specifically to interface with the US and her allies centralized defense and intelligence database. Like my colleague said, we use everything we have at our disposal in order to get the information that we need."
"That's…a lot."
Kallus nods at my observation. "It is, which is why the president is entrusting you with an entire nation's worth of secrets. I'm sure it comes as no surprise to tell you that when he brought this up on Monday at a meeting of the Joint Chiefs, there was a lot of protesting this move."
"I just want to find my brother. He's the one who offered me all this. I didn't ask for it." I remind Kallus.
Kallus nods, and Tommy seems to understand. "I know, which is a fact that assuaged some of the same inflamed parties. More than anything, they just want to know that you won't share this information with a foreign government and will lay these tools down once we have found him."
Yeah.
"Of course." I laugh. "I will."
Tommy smiles. "Good."
"I'm glad to hear it Ezra. Then let's get to work." Kallus claps me on the shoulder.
A takes the time to plug the USB into the interactive table between all of us, and within moments it lights up with a map of the entire planet.
"Now…the parts of the map that have glowing dots are areas we can access." Kallus explains.
The whole damn map looks like a glowing dot.
Pulsating, blinking at me.
Only parts of the world like North Dakota, the upper Canadian border, Sahara Desert and parts of the Middle East aren't covered.
Jeez.
"The question is." Hera speaks up. "Where to begin?"
Dooku volunteers. "The Jedi Council has reason to believe that Elias Bridger could be hiding in Southeast Asia, somewhere near the recent Trade Federation attacks have occurred."
Director Kallus and Tommy seem to consider this for a moment, then Kallus replies. "Mathematically, that would make sense."
"We also have an operative on the ground in that area, surveilling another potential ex Sith official that agrees with that sentiment." Kanan reinforces Dooku's position.
Operative. That's Aubrey.
Tommy says something I don't catch while looking to Hera.
Yup.
Aubrey's watching Gideon.
They haven't moved on him yet, probably for that very reason.
See if we can get two birds with one stone.
"—if we have cause to go after him, then we should. The public would be very glad to hear of his capture." Kallus contends.
"We don't do things for the optics of them, Director." I point out. "If the Council is hesitant on moving against him, there's probably a reason."
I don't care what the public has to say on this. They don't know what they're talking about.
We'll act on what we know and in the effort to save lives.
Kallus turns back to me. "Sitting and waiting for intel to continue bearing fruit is rarely how it works out in the real world."
Like I don't know what the real world out there is…
"Rarely, but on occasion." Tommy attempts to smooth things over.
"I take it then, by your staunch defense that you have a better ideas to where we should begin our search for Elias Bridger?" Dooku gently steers us back on track.
Kallus nods. "The President would like for us to begin here in the continental United States, then Canada. To ensure that he's not hiding out here in our own back yard like his father was."
I was too.
And you looked right over us.
"Makes sense." Kanan nods. "It'd look bad for that to occur again."
"As far as the public knows, that'd be the only time it had occurred." Kallus answers.
Hera silkily fires back. "As far as they know."
…
"Anyway…" Kallus looks back to the holographic display as A looks profoundly uncomfortable. "The president has already arranged for ourselves and Canada to be among the first nations we scour in search of Bridger's brother."
"So there's little choice in the matter." A cuts to the chase.
Both Kallus and Tommy put A directly into their sights but to his credit, A doesn't back down, instead looking only a little intimidated.
"This is a highly classified conversation." Tommy snaps at A.
Kallus adds. "you're the tech guy. Be the tech guy, and if we ask for your opinion, then give it."
"Alright…" A says, then makes a show of taking a step back.
When Kallus turns back around fully, Hera, Kanan and I all are looking at him, displeased.
If not for him you wouldn't be here…with all of his fancy, super advanced technology.
"Once we've unsuccessfully searched the continent of North America, where would we proceed then?" Dooku questions Kallus.
Kallus nods. "We would have another meeting on the matter like this one. But as I understand it, we'd proceed across the Atlantic to the United Kingdom, down to Germany and fan outward throughout Europe from there."
No mention of Asia yet…
"Before we continue, I assume there will be a tutorial about how to work…all of this?" I wave my hand at the map and its complex interface."
Tommy nods. "Yes."
"Then before we dig into that, I'm going to go grab something to drink. Anybody else?" I volunteer.
Tommy, Kanan, A and Cayle all raise their hands.
Wonderful.
"Great." I smile at them all. "Cayle, can you come give me a hand then?"
"Of course." He smiles before starting towards the door.
"be right back." I smile at Director Kallus and the others while backpedaling towards the door.
…
The glass doors open, then close as Cayle is waiting just outside them for me.
"We're not going to find him anytime soon. Are we?" I monotone out to him.
"Nope." The edge of Cayle's mouth turn down. "We appear to be more advisor than partner."
Well said.
Advisor as opposed to partner.