Hi there,
So here we officially begin the Year 2 of this Saga, AKA my personal version of Rebels, which I will continue to write until Disney gives us a show where Ezra and/or Sabine will be brought back on the screen.
If you arrived here after reading the Year 1, congrats for your patience and I hope you found the story entertaining. As always, at least until I'll have to cover the story up to Season 4 of the original work, the original line of events won't be touched too much, though how the Protagonists will come to it will be different on account of their different background, not to mention there is an original character.
Now, I already received a review, but I will post the answer here just in case someone has the same doubt about the relationship between Ezra and Sabine.
I wrote that Sabine thinks that is too early to talk about marriage in the Prologue to this story. I am aware that Mandalorians consider the age of 16 the minimum to be eligible for marriage, but here are the points for which I made her think that:
1. Ezra is still 15.
2. When this story starts, they have been together for a very short time.
3. She knows that Ezra is not mandalorian and most likely doesn't have the same view as her about marriage.
4. At this point in time, Sabine still doesn't want to make their relationship public, not even to the rest to the Ghost. Jaral knows it only because she's Ezra's sister and all three of them are inseparable, so they didn't even try to hide it from her.
Of course, this situation won't last for long, but I thought that it would make sense for Sabine to believe that it is too early to think about marrying Ezra for now.
With that out of the way, let's start Year 2, hope you enjoy and May the Force be with Us all.
Chapter 1.1: The siege of Lothal – Part 1
The Specters were in the bridge of the Phoenix Home, part of a debriefing after another successful raid against imperial forces.
"Your crew's contribution to our last missions has been invaluable, Captain Syndulla." Sato said with respect and gratitude.
"Well, I'd say some of us has proven to be very much cut for the job." Hera looked with a knowing smirk toward Jaral, who just rolled her eyes.
"I'm just doing what I can, Hera." the girl almost sounded annoyed in her humility. "Besides, the last attack had been almost useless." she lamented.
"Just because we didn't find the shield generators we hoped, doesn't mean that it was useless." Ahsoka reassured her.
"She's right, sis." Ezra said with an encouraging smile and lightly punching her on the arm.
"Better luck next time."
Jaral simply smiled and took a quick look at her brother. He had definitely grown in the last year. When they left Lothal he was a scrawny 168 cm kid with a hot-headed temperament. And while the last part wasn't completely gone, he was now 174 cm where she was 176. His body had developed well-toned muscles, no doubt regular meals and training worked a miracle for that.
The scar on his left cheek was now more visible than ever, after he had taken the step of cutting his hair short just a few day before. Still, he wore that scar with pride, no doubt because Sabine had praised it.
They were all interrupted when Chopper opened the door and ran into the bridge speaking binary and waving his handlers with an air of urgency.
"What is the meaning of this?" Sato was indignant.
"An incoming transmission." said Kanan as if he couldn't care less. The Jedi was sitting on the few steps separating the floor of the room from the gangplank of the control station.
"Who from, Chop? Ah, why don't you just play it?" he asked looking away and leaning his head on a hand.
Hera cleared her throat while frowning heavily at him. Kanan didn't budge.
Then she turned to the droid. "Chopper, cloak us with a one-way transmission."
Chopper complied and a moment later, he projected the hologram of a familiar hythorian.
"Hey, it's old Jho!" Ezra said with a bit of surprise.
The hythorian was looking around confused. "I can't see you, but I can hear you, my friends. Time is short, and there's someone here desperate to speak with you. I told her I couldn't find you, but she wouldn't take no for an answer. She says she needs your help."
Jho almost seems preoccupied to present them with such a person.
"We're always eager to help someone in need." Kanan had sprung up from the steps and moved toward the hologram.
"Yeah, well, this one's different." he said, rubbing the back of his long neck, before stepping off.
The person coming next with a very anxious appearance surprised everyone.
"Minister Tua?!" Hera exclaimed.
"Auntie Maketh?" Darvos said, and this time everyone turned toward him.
Tua seemed as surprised as everybody else.
"Darvos? Is that really you?"
The young lieutenant immediately fast paced around the holo-table and went in front of the hologram, as to better distinguish who he was talking to.
"You can't be serious. That Imperial is your aunt?!" Zeb asked in disbelief and bit of resentment.
"She's my mother's younger sister." Darvos replied firmly, without even looking at him.
"Why did you call us?" he asked Tua.
"I...I need your help."
"End transmission now, Chop." Kanan ordered.
"Kanan!" Jaral recalled him, prompting Chop to listen to her.
"What do you want?" Darvos kept asking Tua without considering the rest of the bickerers.
"My life is in danger." Tua said with a low voice, as if she was worried that the Empire was spying on her at that moment, and they probably were. "I need you to give me safe passage off Lothal."
"You're not really considering…" Zeb tried to say, but Jaral glared at him with eyes so angry that it sent a shiver down his spine and stopped.
It seemed like Jaral was trusting the instinct of the lieutenant completely, though she wasn't sure why.
"I believe you, Aunt." Darvos said, straightening up and putting his head behind his back. "But what insurance can you give to my friends that this is not a trap?"
"I will trade secret Imperial information, in exchange for my life."
"You are defecting from the Empire?" Darvos seemed almost skeptical.
"Yes, I am." she admitted.
Ezra was looking at the hologram, as if to try to find something.
"She is saying the truth. I sense her...fear." he said, looking with a sympathetic face.
"Yeah. But of what?" Kanan asked in return.
There was a moment of silence, but in the end everyone looked back at Darvos, telling him that he was in charge of the negotiation.
"So what are you offering, exactly?" the lieutenant kept saying calmly.
"A list of rebel sympathizers on Lothal and other nearby systems."
Darvos brought his arms in front, posing one of them over the other and bringing a fist in front of his mouth, thinking.
"Why the Empire hasn't captured them yet, if they know about them?"
"Some have powerful friends in the Senate. Imperial Command watches them, but can do nothing. I know you need allies. Get me off Lothal, and I will give you the list."
The other bystanders were clearly split between those who wanted to give her a chance and those who wanted to shut down the communication immediately. Darvos wasn't sure if he had to proceed. Jaral gently caressed his back, soothing his doubts.
"Is that everything?" he asked in the end.
"Actually, I also have another information. I've discovered the true reason the Empire came to Lothal."
"If you're talking about the factory on the planet, we're already aware of that."
"No. There is another reason known only to a few." Tua seemed to barely move her mouth, as she was whispering very low. "And ordered by the Emperor himself." she concluded, leaving everyone appalled.
As the members of the Ghost and the officers formed smaller groups and began to discuss, Ezra and Jaral stood beside Darvos.
"For what it's worth…" Ezra said to his friend. "I believe that we should help her."
"Me too." Jaral added.
Darvos nodded to both, then turned toward Sato.
"Sir."
Everyone turned to look at him.
"We should help her." he just said.
"So do I." Kanan added, seeing as his Padawan was clearly supporting the idea.
"Me too." Ahsoka added.
Hera nodded, making sure that pretty much everyone was on board with this.
"I ask permission to lead this op, commander." Darvos added seriously.
Sato mumbled for a moment. "I believe it's worth the risk, but I don't like the idea of risking my second-in-command."
"Come on, sir, you know I can take care of myself." Darvos replied.
"And besides…" Ezra said with an optimistic smile. "We are going to watch his back."
The Specters all nodded in unison.
"Very well, then." Sato finally approved.
"Auntie…" Darvos said. "We'll get you out. Send us your coordinates."
"Thank you, Darvos." Tua said with a sigh of relief before closing the transmission.
Darvos turned around and slowly paced toward the holo-table and leaned on it, Jaral grabbed one of his hands with a discreet motion and gave him an encouraging smile.
"Well, I guess we're on our way back to Lothal." Hera commented.
"I guess we are." Kanan replied with a hint of sarcasm before heading out.
Hera followed him.
"What's wrong with you?" she said once they were in the hallway. "Do you have any idea how inappropriate that was?"
"Actually, no, I don't know." he retorted, stopping just to shrug at her.
Hera grabbed one of his shoulders.
"You can't ask Chopper to project a hologram in the middle of a secret meeting without authorization."
"Authorization, procedure! That's what's bothering me." Kanan hissed.
"All right, talk to me." Hera patiently replied.
Kanan sighed. "When this mission is done, I want us to go back on our own. Fighting alongside soldiers isn't what I signed up for."
Hera quietly pushed him aside into a communication tunnel between their hallway and another one.
"You seem to be forgetting that these soldiers helped save your life."
"And I'm grateful." he said. "But that doesn't mean that I want to join their little army." he put a hand on her shoulder. "When we started this it was 'take from the Empire and give it to the needy', a noble cause. Now we're just getting into some kind of...military thing."
"We're fighting a bigger fight, but it's still the right fight." Hera insisted.
Kanan looked the other way in a painful remembrance.
"I survived a war. I'm not ready to fight another. I saw what it did."
"To the Jedi?"
"To everyone." he concluded before going back into the hallway. Hera followed him.
Little they knew that Ezra had eavesdropped the last part from the other end of the tunnel.
Three hours later, the operation was a go.
The Phoenix cell's network of collaborators had provided the Specters and Darvos with a civilian shuttle.
Everyone took a row of seats for himself, while Chopper was at the commands.
Sabine and Zeb were among the last to get in. Ezra was about to move to invite her to seat beside him, but the girl almost dashed toward the bench behind him, sitting there.
They might have been less than a meter away, but Ezra gave her an annoyed and let-down look.
She smiled at him, but it was a guilty smile.
Ezra silently sighed and turned back. If she didn't want to make the relationship public yet, he would comply.
Which only made her feel even worse. Ezra was so devoted to make their relationship comfortable for her, and she was basically turning him down. Why? She couldn't answer, she didn't understand why she didn't want to just get out in the open. Everybody aboard the Ghost knew that Hera and Kanan had a thing going on, and while they simply didn't act on it, they certainly weren't hiding it.
Then Darvos and Jaral came aboard with their civilian clothes, holding hands and lightly smiling at each other, and now Sabine almost considered throwing herself out of the nearest airlock for the shame. Why the kriff was she trying to hide that? Sure, even Ezra wouldn't want her to cling on him all the day and rattle off cheesy sentences, but sitting next to him was completely innocent, so why hesitate?
"So, Darvos, what's the plan?" Ezra asked, interrupting Sabine's trail of thoughts.
"Aunt...Minister Tua is scheduled to leave Lothal via shuttle at 1800 to meet Governor Tarkin tomorrow. We wait at the hangar, then we take her away on said shuttle. But just in case we need a quick exit, Chopper and Zeb will stay with this one."
"Why do I get to sit here with him?" he asked in disappointment. Chopper, on the other hand, was more than happy to be out of the crossfire.
"I told you, we need someone to get us out, and your Bo-rifle is perfect to give us cover from an altitude."
"Oh, yeah...I guess." Zeb said with a bit of pride.
"Still…" Jaral added. "do you think this mission is worth the risk?"
"After all the trouble she's made for us, why should we help her?" Zeb asked again.
"Because that's what we do. We help those who can't help themselves." Ezra intervened.
That determination earned him proud smiles from Hera, Jaral and Darvos
"And as a bonus, her list will help us out." the boy added.
Only now they noticed that Chopper had already brought them into hyperspace.
"Darvos." Jaral asked. "I hope I'm not being too invasive here, but how well do you know Minister Tua? You seemed to have...respect for her."
Darvos chuckled. "Well, she's the only relative I have whom I have any respect for."
"Why don't you talk us a bit about her?" Kanan asked. "Just in case…"
"I understand your skepticism, Kanan, but let me tell you this: my aunt might be a naive person, but I know that her heart is in the right place. When I was kid, she was the only one who treated me like a person, not as a tool. She believes in the promises of the Empire, but I guess that she finally found out its real face."
"Do you feel attached to her?" Sabine asked.
"Not quite. I respect her. She might be naive but she has her own integrity. I'm pretty sure her life is indeed in danger. Problem is, we don't know if she is being manipulated…" the lieutenant assumed a worried tone.
"We'll get her out, Darvos. I promise." Jaral told him, grabbing his hand with her left and caressing his arm with the right, trying to reassure him. Darvos nodded with a bit more of confidence.
That small scene of romance only exacerbated Sabine's guilt, as she turned toward the window and bit her lip in frustration.
Around 50 minutes later, the shuttle exited the hyperspace lane over Lothal.
Chopper chittered something at the comlink.
"Shuttle 593, this is Lothal Control. You're cleared to land" a voice answered as the shuttle was passing beneath the triangular shape of a Star Destroyer.
"I didn't think I'd miss it, but I…" Ezra commented, but then stopped.
Kanan, who was sitting on the row next to him, leaned forward.
"What is it?"
"Do you feel that? I...I feel so cold…"
Kanan mumbled.
The shuttle touched down into the spaceport of the Capitol after another few minutes. As the group disembarked, Ezra looked up, seeing two Star Destroyers flying right above the city. He realized that he had never seen such a massive imperial deployment on Lothal.
Darvos had already specified all their roles, so they didn't waste a moment more. While Zeb and Chopper stayed with the civilian vehicle they came in with, the rest of the group moved toward bay 23.
They immediately noticed a squad of four stormtroopers and one commander with his orange pauldron.
"All right, someone has a plan to get in?" Darvos asked.
"Well, I still have the hologram to mask myself as that commander." Jaral said, lighting up her omni-tool. "If we can take him out of the picture I can switch places with him by the time Tua arrives."
As fate would have it, the commander was just separating from the group to take a patrol along the street.
"Well, I guess I'm gonna make a few friends." Kanan said with a smirk.
"Friends?" Hera asked skeptically, raising an eyebrow.
"It will be fun." Kanan kept going to provoke her.
"Fun?!"
"Don't worry, general Hera, I'll follow the plan." he said before going into the street, while Hera frowned behind him.
Kanan walked up to the trooper, who had just turned his back on them.
"Didn't we meet in basic training?" Kanan with a friendly tone. The trooper was taken by surprise.
"You look familiar." Kanan said, grabbing his helmet on the sides, then throwing a double hand-chop on the soldier's neck, making him faint. Then Kanan dragged him into an alley and came out of it a couple of minutes later with the armor on, just with the pauldron removed as to let Jaral take the lead on this.
"Kanan has gone bucket-head." Sabine commented in an amused surprise.
"Ok, then." Jaral simply acknowledged before activating the hologram and becoming a stormtrooper commander.
"You guys go upstairs. When Tua arrives, you drop from the top of the hangar." she said, her voice distorted by the modulator integrated in the disguising program of the omni-tool.
Darvos, Ezra, Sabine and Hera started to climb over some crates and reached the rooftops of the small houses around them. Sabine stood back, out of the hangar perimeter, while the rest of them moved over the walls of the bay.
A few minutes later, Ezra had activated his armor and was looking at the road beneath him with his integrated scope.
"There she comes...but she's got company." he said after spotting a speeder.
"What kind of company?" Darvos asked while Hera kept looking into the bay.
"Oh, our good friend Agent Kallus." Ezra said with a sassy tone.
"Obviously…" Darvos mumbled.
Then he took out his pistol, readying himself for combat. Ezra noticed that it was a very unusual weapon: an S-5, used only by the Naboo Royal Guard.
"Nice toy." he whispered. "Where did you get it?" he asked while his gaze returned on the street.
"From a trafficker called Vizago."
Ezra rolled his eyes inside his helmet.
"Of course."
The speeder stopped in front of the gates where the disguised Jaral and Kanan were standing, along with the other stormtroopers.
Tua stepped down, talking with clear anxiety. "Thank you, Agent Kallus, but there...there was no need for an escort."
"Lord Vader asked me to make sure you reached your shuttle safely." his tone couldn't have been more malicious, despite his appearance of optimism.
"I see…" Tua murmured as she walked toward the now open gates.
"We can't be too careful about security these days."
As soon as those two crossed the door to the hangar, Sabine jumped down and called. "Hey!" before she flashed out her WESTARs and started shooting, being careful not to hit anyone as she didn't know which one of the plain white stormtrooper armors was hiding Kanan.
"Minister, take cover!" Kallus said as he drew out his RK-3 pistol and he returned fire along with the stormtroopers. Sabine quickly retreated into an alley to avoid the fire, forcing the stormtroopers to start advancing toward her with suppressive fire.
Only the commander and a stormtrooper stayed with Kallus, and when the other troopers were out of the hangar, the commander pushed the button to seal the doors, and the disguise disappeared.
"Surprise." Jaral said, as even Kanan took out his helmet in front a of a momentarily dazed Kallus.
"Rebels!" the agent shouted before shooting at Jaral first, but the girl's personal shields could easily take multiple hits from a light pistol like that.
Kallus immediately realized that he wasn't damaging her so he rushed and threw himself behind a pile of crates, avoiding Jaral's return fire.
The girl and Kanan, on the other hand, went to the crates on the opposite side, near the doors, where Tua had already taken cover. Then Hera and Darvos jumped down from the wall, softening the fall bu landing on top of the pile of crates and then jumping down.
"Aunt Maketh." Darvos said, grabbing Tua on the shoulder and making her crouch.
"Darvos! I don't believe it." Tua said.
"We'll have to catch up later, run for the shuttle!" he ordered.
Tua didn't need to hear that twice and she dashed, albeit a bit clumsily, toward the open ramp of the shuttle, getting to safety.
On top of the wall, Ezra was firing down on the stormtroopers, covering Sabine while she stole the speeder and used it to lift herself up on top of the wall. The stormtroopers managed to hit an engine while she was in fly, forcing her to jump. Ezra was there to catch her and gently push her out of the way of the imperial's firing line.
The two shifted on the thick wall to look into the hangar, in time for seeing Tua getting into the shuttle.
Then, Darvos came out of the crates shouting "No, get out of there!"
A second later, the shuttle exploded, leaving everyone in disbelief.
"You did this!" Kallus screamed, firing wildly at the rebels.
Ezra and Sabine saw Darvos aiming his heavy pistol not at Kallus and then shooting. It was only then that they noticed there was a camera-droid hovering near Kallus' head. Darvos' shot hit the mark, but the damage was already done.
"Zeb, we need a pickup, now!" Sabine said in the comlink.
At that moment, the doors opened again. The stormtroopers had received reinforcements from a nearby patrol of army troopers. Luckily, Zeb and Chopper arrived a minute later. While the Lasat provided covering fire from the door of the shuttle, Chopper brought it down. Ezra and Sabine decided they could exploit their high ground and started shooting at the imperials, forcing them to focus on them and giving their friends time to escape.
When the shuttle was done recovering the squad on the ground, Chopper lifted it back up. First Sabine, then Ezra jumped to get on the ramp-door, while the troopers below shot rather fruitlessly to the belly of the vehicle.
The shuttle sped away, but it was quickly intercepted by an AT-DP, which threw two precise shots at the engines, making it plummet and crash on the ground, luckily it didn't explode.
Being the only ones with a helmet, Ezra, Jaral and Sabine quickly stood back on their foot.
"Come on. Up, everybody, we gotta move!" Sabine exclaimed as Ezra clicked the button to open the door.
The mechanism was broken however, so Ezra grabbed the near handrail and used it to keep himself balanced as he threw two strong kicks against the door, slamming it open.
The group had made their way to hide in the Bridger's house. Chopper was standing guard at the door while everybody else was gathered in the basement, listening to the HoloNet. Darvos was quietly sitting in a corner, frustrated at the fact the they failed the mission. Jaral was crouched beside him, trying to comfort him.
"A beloved citizen of Lothal, Minister Tua, has been assassinated by this band of rebels." the voice of Alton Castle, the Imperial announcer in the Lothal sector, was talking dramatically as pictures of Tua's death and of the rebels were being shown.
Hera turned it off.
"They did this to turn Lothal against us." she stated in frustration.
"So we leave the planet?" Ezra said, conscious of the situation but still pissed off.
"I don't think the Empire is leaving us much choice." Sabine said, putting a hand on his arm, to Ezra's surprise.
Then they heard Chopper chittering urgently. When Ezra climbed up he saw the droid sealing the door of the house and told him there were stormtroopers outside.
"The Imperials are coming!"
"And there is only one door, great…" Zeb commented.
"Not quite." Jaral said and she went to one of the wall at the end of the basement. She pushed a hidden button and the wall revealed a concealed door.
"Come on, everybody inside."
Ezra and Chopper reached the rest of the group and they all followed Jaral up to a secret ladder that led them all on the rooftops. Just as when everyone was finally out, they heard an explosion coming from the house. The troopers had thrown a thermal detonator in the basement, starting a fire before getting out.
"That was close." Darvos commented as they all cramped on a side of the roof.
"I didn't even remember we had a secret passage in that basement." Ezra said to Jaral, though everybody could hear them talk.
"Luckily it came back to me at the right moment." she stated simply. "So what do we do now?"
"Well, if they know about this hideout, they'll know about the others." Ezra noted.
"We can't hide, we need a ship." Darvos declared. "Jinx, what are our options?"
Sabine pressed a button on her wrist-pad and Chopper projected the map of the city, leaving Jinx to speak.
"The spaceport is locked down. We may try to reach one of the Imperial airfields, but the chances are...very slim."
Kanan gave a quick look at the map. "They probably won't look for us here." and he pointed at the Imperial Dome.
"You want to enter in the Imperial Complex? Are you crazy?" Hera asked in disbelief.
"Does anybody ever says 'yes' to that question?" he asked to everyone.
"He has a point." Sabine argued. "Deploying troops to block every city exit has spread the garrison thin. Sounds crazy but the are with the least amount of troops would be…" she pressed another button and the map zoomed in. "here, near the factories."
"Those landing pads outside the hangars might have a shuttle that we can steal." Jaral added.
"I'm already dressed for the part." Kanan said, grabbing back the stormtrooper helmet he had hanging from his belt.
"And me and Ezra still have our holograms. We can do this." Jaral said confidently.
That said, they started moving toward the complex, using the electric cables running on the rooftops to move around.
Ezra and Jaral gave a last look at their house, still burning.
"Guess there's no going back home for us, sis." Ezra noted with a dark tone.
Jaral simply sighed.
"Guys, we're sorry." Darvos said. He and Sabine looking at their respective partners.
"It's all right." Jaral simply said.
With their disguises on, Jaral and Kanan were walking beside Ezra, who was pushing a hovering cart with two crates on it. His hologram was masking him as a regular stormtrooper.
"What's inside." the stormtrooper guarding the access to the complex asked. The three stopped in their tracks.
"Power cells in need of recharge." Jaral said, as she was the one with the pauldron on.
"I have to check inside." the trooper said.
Ezra went in front of him and waved a hand to his face. "You don't need to check inside."
The trooper looked absent. "I...don't need to check inside."
"Thank you, trooper." Jaral said with a deliberately sassy tone.
The three reached an armory completely undisturbed, where they could finally hide from the troopers in the hallways.
As Ezra closed the door behind them, Hera, Sabine and Darvos came out of the first crate, relieved of breathing again.
From the second one, Zeb jumped out, exhaling dramatically.
"Zeb, will you be quiet?" Hera whispered with a severe tone.
"What? I need to breathe...have you smelled me?"
Sabine gave a quick look into the hallway before closing the door again.
"Uh, seems like it doesn't matter if you're loud. The place is desert, this was a good plan!" she said with a hint of surprise.
"Why do you sound so surprised?" Jaral asked rhetorically as she and Ezra deactivated their holograms.
Kanan frowned at them. "I really hate that you can just make it disappear while I have to try and make it fit."
"Then start stripping, and be quick about it." Ezra replied with a smirk, making everybody chuckle.
Once Kanan had got back in his green attire, they moved out. Chopper plugged into a terminal and opened the door to the first hangar they could find. Moving through different parked TIEs and walkers, Kanan finally spotted a shuttle.
"What did I tell you?" he said.
"Wasn't humility an essential part of being a Jedi?" Ezra laughed, then he moved forward. Jaral closed the line, right behind Sabine.
The mandalorian stopped midway gasping.
"Jaral, look at this." she went straight for some spherical and knurled objects.
"Shield generators! Guys!" she whispered as loud as she could.
Hera was overjoyed as well. There were six generators. Everybody took one and pushed it to the shuttle, while the siblings and Kanan stood guard.
Soon, Ezra and Kanan were looking around anxiously.
"Do you feel that?" Ezra whispered to his master. Jaral was on edge as well.
"I feel that too…" she said, earning a quick surprised look by the Jedi.
"The cold." Kanan exhaled.
Suddenly, the main gate to the covered part of the hangar opened. Right in front of the dark zone stood a tall figure clad in black armor.
A sinister mechanical breathing filled the air. Then the black figure ignited a crimson blade while a squad of stormtroopers came out running from the hangar.