A/N Set in the same universe as my one shot "Your Reputation Proceeds You". This fanfic has taken me years to write as Hondo is one of my favourite characters and it was hard to write about his funeral. But I wanted to do his character justice and I couldn't think of a fic that means so much to me to be more fitting to post for May the Fourth.

When Ezra first got the invitation, he thought it was a joke. The legendary Hondo Ohnaka couldn't be dead. It didn't make any sense. The pirate had survived the clone wars, the rebellion and two Sith lords if his tales were to be believed. Honda had often bragged to Ezra about his plans to go out in a blaze of glory. Losing him to old age had seemed out of character for the infamous weequay. Yet the piece of flimsy in Ezra's hand told him otherwise.

Ezra noticed that wasn't he the only one who clutched to their piece of flismi with an expression of disbelief, as he arrived at the remains of old camp on the planet Florrum. Honda had often claimed to know everyone and their mother in the galaxy. Still Ezra was surprised to see the amount of people who had congregated there. He was even more surprised when he discovered that he recognised quite a few of the faces.

"Luke!" Ezra cried, when he spotted the blonde haired young man. Luke motioned for him to come over with a wave his dark cloak. Recently, Ezra had been avoiding the fellow jedi as every time they spoke, Luke tried to convince him to become a teacher at his new school. But Ezra wasn't ready. Responsibility had never been his strongest attribute and he barely had any formal training to teach in the first place. Plus the fate of his mentor all those years ago, still haunted him. He did not want any protégé to go through what he once had. However, Ezra knew that Luke was too kind souled to ask anything of him at a funeral, so he wasted no time in heading over to ho him. There he also found Han and Chewie, the former dressed in the nicest suit Ezra had ever seen him in.

"I'm assuming you guys knew Hondo as well then?" Ezra asked.

"Did I know him?" Han scoffed. "That nerfhearder stole my ship!"

But Ezra could see the sadness in the former smuggler's eyes that revealed he wasn't as angry at the as he claimed to be.

"What about you? Ezra asked, turning to Luke.

Luke shook his head. "No but Old Ben did. He wanted me to come in his place so that he could pay his respects through me. And to claim the fifty credits Hondo owed him."

Before Ezra could ask how Obi-Wan could ask Luke to come when he was dead, an old serving droid appeared from within the cavern of the camp.

"Welcome to the funeral of the greatest pirate to ever grace the galaxy. Please walk this way."

Ezra followed the droid deeper into the cavern with a roll of his eyes. Luke, Han and the others weren't far behind him. Eventually they came to a large opening where holes in the roof illuminated the room. An ornate coffin bedazzled with an almost tacky number of jewels, was at the centre on top of a mound of treasure. A grand painting of the pirate when he was in his prime stood in a gold casting to the left and a small stage was positioned at the right.

Ezra almost expected Hondo to jump out of the coffin with a laugh, holding his gun high as he announced he had tricked them all into coming here so that he could hold them for ransom. But as the minutes passed while the guests pilled into the room, there were no such surprises. And Ezra was suddenly hit with an almost overwhelming weight of acceptance that Honda was actually dead.

Once all the guests were inside, a woman walked onto the stage. She was short with bright orange skin and round eyes that bulged with all the wisdom held inside them,

"Hondo, you gave the best lay out of any being I've ever been with." The woman stated.

Beside Ezra, Han started choking on air. As Chewie smacked his friend on the back, Ezra continued to listen.

"I remember when you first came into my tavern, a scrapy young thing of nineteen who had just escaped enslavement of the Hutts. The first time I laid eyes on you, I knew that there was something special underneath that leathery yet silky skin."

Ezra heard Han choke again.

"So, I directed you to a group of weequays from similar situation, leant you a ship, and sent you on your way. I lost track of the number of times we ended up crossing paths over the years. And for every time I wanted to give you a kick in the arse, there was another that I wanted to hold you close against my heart. In my thousands of years, I have seen many loved ones pass, but you Hondo, were the only one I though I could spend eternity with."

The woman took a long look at the coffin, no doubt imagining what could have been before walking off the stage. Another woman soon took her place. This time, she was a Tholothian, whose dark mottled skin was covered by a strikingly red coat. At her presence, the force seemed to wrap around her, as though she was a black hole. Ezra shared a look with Luke and knew that the fellow jedi had felt it too. Whoever this woman was, she had blocked out the force. And only someone who was once a force wielder would have the power to do that.

"Hondo," She started, staring out into the crowd with a hardened gaze. "You might not have been a good person. But you were good to me. You gave me the closest thing to a family that I ever had. Even before I lost everything. You took me in when I had nowhere else to go. You might not have taught me how to be good, but you did teach me how to survive. If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be alive right now. I owe you everything. Which you already knew because you used to remind me every day. Now you will never know how truly grateful I am for that. And I know you told me never to call you father. But you also told me never to listen to anyone with authority. So, I am going to call you, my father. Because you were. You were my dad and I loved you so much!"

By the end of her speech, tears had begun to spill out of those once hardened eyes. It was as though decades of built-up walls had crumbled before them. The empty void surrounding her suddenly filled. Ezra was nearly stumbled over at the intensity of emotions flooded out of her back into the force. It was only Luke's hand pressed against the small of his back in a grounding presence that kept him from falling over. After exchanging a thankful nod, Ezra turned his attention back to the stage to see that the woman had gone.

In her place, stood a man with a face so similar to Rex's that it hurt to look at him, walked onto the stage. Besides the fact that he was obviously a clone, Ezra didn't know who the man was. It was rare to find any clones still alive now, let alone one looking that young. Although Han and Luke seemed to be aware of who he was if the way the pair stiffened was anything to go by.

"Hondo, you taught me what it meant to be honourable. Which was ironic considering you were the least honourable person in the galaxy. You were the only person I refused to kill."

With that, the man walked off without another word. Apparently that last line was all he needed to say. Judging by the looks of shocked respect on his friends' faces, Ezra guessed it was.

No one immediately took over his place on the stage. Whilst Ezra wondered who would be next, or if that had been the final speech, the droid from earlier appeared next to him.

"Hondo Ohnaka wished for you to be the last to speak." The droid told him.

"Me?" Ezra asked in shock. "Why?"

"Because you were his favourite."

Ezra couldn't deny that he felt touched. Especially after seeing how many people the pirate had cared for.

"But I haven't prepared anything." He told the droid.

"Hondo assured me that as a Jedi you would be more than capable of making up speeches on the fly."

Unable to argue with that, Ezra slowly made his way to the stage. Looking out at the sea of faces, Ezra could see tears in all of them. He even spotted them in the corner of Han's. Although the pirate was gone, Ezra could feel his presence in the people in the crowd, in the way had had shaped each of them into the people they were today. Ezra took a deep breathe, controlling is voice before his sorrow threatened to take his voice away. "I'm not sure why Hondo asked me to be the last to talk at his funeral. I didn't know him as well as a lot of you did. But I could have. If I had met him even just a year earlier, I probably would have joined his crew."

Ezra glanced at the painting beside him. Even though the picture was old and captured a younger version of the pirate, that gleam for adventure in those painted eyes was instantly recognisable. It reminded Ezra that despite what the pirate may have claimed, he wasn't always in it for the money. Most of the time, he acted out of a thrill of living.

"I sometimes wonder what kind of person I would have become if I had followed you down that path. I thought I might have become bad but now listening to the tales of the people who you loved and who loved you in return, I know now that I would have become a good person. Not perfect but good. The galaxy will be a dimmer place without the light you brought to it."

Ezra walked back over to the others, wiping away the tears he hadn't been able to hold back. Han clasped him on the shoulder and Chewie gave his hair a comforting pet. As soon as the pair released him, Luke didn't hesitate to hold him in a hug, wrapping the surrounding force with a wave of comfort.

"You did great." Luke assured him. Ezra gave a squeeze of thanks before pulling back so that he could look the man in his round blue eyes.

"I've been thinking about your offer." Ezra said cautiously, unable to stop the words now that they were out of his mouth. "And I've decided that I would like to come teach at your school. If you'll still have me that is?"

"Of course! This is perfect! I just picked up a new student who you can teach! You are going to love this kid's Dad. You still have a thing for Mandalorians right?" Luke exclaimed, beaming like the ray of sunshine he was. "What changed your mind?"

"Hondo." Ezra told him. "Seeing all the people he had impacted. I want to be able to help those that need someone too look out for them, like he did for me. Plus if Hondo can be a good mentor, then anyone can."

"He would have been proud of you." Luke told him. Ezra allowed himself to believe those words.

Around them, guests started to mill out or reclaim their debts that the droid was distributing. Once Luke had collected his credits and they had dragged Han away from a potential altercation with the clone, the group headed out of the carven into the brightness of the planets' sun, Ezra looked back at the painting of the former pirate. In the glint of the sun, Ezra would later swear he thought he saw the picture smirk in a line of bright blue light.

A/N In case it wasn't obvious, the Tholthian is Katooni and the clone is Boba.