A/N: Hello everybody, I'm going to try and not post Author's notes that much, but I did want to let you guys know a couple things as this kicks off. If you see conversations in italics they are either happening over a commlink or in a different language. If it's in a different language it will most likely be said somehow. Also, Emily's armor is painted with the white and red Clan Vizla colors, and Ezra's is nice and shiny like our favorite Mando Din Djarin. I decided to give you guys the actual first chapter instead of just the prologue, and future chapters will be posted once a week on Sunday.
Day 210, 5 BBY
Ezra Bridger sat meditating in the tower he shared with his sister. He was reminiscing on the past seven months since his birthday.
Not much interesting had happened. Emily had been teaching him the more advanced Mandalorian fighting techniques and he had been learning about the force from the text and holocrons.
He had discovered meditating was quite easy and actually came quite natural to him. The hardest part about it was focusing on the simple task for a fair bit of time.
The holocrons had shown him some basic abilities to strengthen his connection to the force, including levitation, pushing, and pulling. There were a few more advanced abilities that he had not moved onto yet, and apparently there were rare abilities that not everybody had.
Ezra hadn't discovered any himself, but there were some that were quite interesting. It said you weren't likely to discover these abilities until you were at least adept in force usage.
He had opened the Jedi and grey holocrons, but had stayed away from the Sith holocron for the time being. Inside of his book it said a force user could easily lose themselves in darkness if consumed by their emotions.
And Ezra did not want that.
Other than that the holocrons and book had shown him the basics of lightsaber combat. It took him six months to become proficient in form I, which was the beginner form of lightsaber combat. Since then he had mainly been using the Kata's as a way to relax himself and submerge in the force, but soon he would need to pick a form to study and master.
Form II, known as Makashi, was a precision based form that focused on preventing disarmament. The only recent master of this form was Count Dooku, a Sith during the Clone Wars.
Form III, known as Soresu, was a defensive form focused on deflecting blaster bolts. It relied on an impenetrable defense. The most recent master of this form was Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, a Jedi Master during the Clone Wars.
Form IV, known as Ataru, was an offensive form relying on the use of the force to bolster ones agility. The most notable master of this form was Grandmaster Yoda, the grandmaster of the Jedi Order during the Clone Wars.
Form V, known as Shien and Djem So, had two different variants. Both had the same premise: Using your opponents offense against them. Shien was focused on blocking blaster bolts and sending them back to the shooter. Djem So put emphasis on counterattacks and using an opponents momentum against them. Anakin Skywalker was the most notable user of this form during the Clone Wars.
Form VI, known as Niman, was best used with a double bladed lightsaber. It combined the previous forms into one to be overall good at offense and defense against blasters and lightsabers. It didn't stand out in any areas, but it also didn't have any notable weaknesses. Darth Maul, a Sith during the Clone Wars was the most notable user of this form in recent history.
Form VII, known as Juyo, was banned by the Jedi, as it used ones emotions to increase the strength, speed, and agility of attacks. Mace Windu created a variation that used an opponents darkness and emotions against them, naming it Vapaad.
Ezra honestly didn't know which one he should pick. They all seemed good, but some had blaring weaknesses. Niman seemed to be the best choice, but was also incredibly hard to master.
So, Ezra did what he did best. He improvised.
He had read about a form of lightsaber combat called Jar 'kai. The premise was to fight using two lightsabers instead of just one, so why not combine some of it?
For the last month he has been collecting spare parts and thrown out junk from vendors that thought it was useless. Emily would kill him if she found out he had technically stolen some of the stuff, but what she didn't know wouldn't hurt her.
Yesterday he had finally picked up the last pieces he needed to make his own lightsaber.
Technically he didn't have his own crystal, but the two blue crystals in Master Satele's lightsaber called to him, and absolutely sung to him as if he was supposed to take them.
So, that's exactly what he did.
Coming out of his meditation he moved over to the small workbench where he had the parts, Satele's lightsaber, and crystals. He quickly set into a deep meditation where he could feel the force flowing through him easily. He pictured what he wanted the lightsaber to become in his head, and soon the parts started to move as well.
After about an hour Ezra came out of his meditation and observed the new saber in front of him. It had the outside hilt of Satele's lightsaber, but the inside mechanics were completely different.
He ignited both sides of the lightsaber making sure they worked before twisting the hilt. Once he twisted, the hilt came apart in the middle giving him two identical single blade lightsabers. Now he had the option of fighting with one lightsaber, two lightsabers, or a double bladed lightsaber.
He put the two separate lightsabers into hidden slots on his armor that he could easily access, and set out to find his sister.
On the way to the door he stopped by his bed to grab his helmet and blasters. He was already wearing the rest of his armor and his vambraces.
He hadn't painted the armor in any traditional clan colors since he and his sister technically weren't part of a clan, but he actually quite enjoyed the silver color.
Walking out the door with his helmet in hand, he saw his sister lounging by the railing checking a datapad.
"Hey Em, what are you doing?"
Emily turned around and gave him a side hug as he came up next to her, "Nothing much, just checking some imperial trade routes. Apparently, they have a shipment of weapons coming in today."
Ezra smirked at that, "Sounds like we have a shipment of weapons coming in today."
Emily glared at him for a second, "I know that smirk. No, this shipment is big. We aren't risking it."
Ezra pouted before doing his best puppy dog eyes.
Emily's glare softened for a second, "I'm trying to keep us safe Ezra, and you're making that really hard right now."
"Come on just trust me on this one." Ezra pleaded.
Emily narrowed her eyes at him, "Do you remember the last time I trusted you with something like this?"
Ezra's eyes widened in realization, "It won't end like that this time!"
"No, no, no, no. We are not hitting that shipment and that is final."
Ezra's shoulders drooped before he remembered what he came out here for.
He quickly set his helmet down and turned back to Emily, "Hey guess what?"
"What?"
He pulled out both sabers, "Check this out!"
Igniting both sabers, he attached them back together, "It was the best I could figure out."
Emily stared in shock as he deactivated them, then quickly got a proud smile on her face and hugged Ezra tight.
"I knew you could do it! I'm so proud of you!"
Ezra smiled at the praise from his big sister. It wasn't often that she handed out compliments, and growing up the way they did, he didn't really have anybody that checked off the parent box.
They broke the hug but the smile remained on Ezra's face, "Thanks Em, that means a lot coming from you."
Emily kept smiling at him, "I've seen how much work you've been putting into this training. Give it a few years, and I bet you'll be one of the best Jedi out there."
Ezra laughed at that statement, "Well, there aren't really many to go around right now, but I'll take it anyways."
Before Emily could clarify what she meant they both saw a massive shadow pass over them. Looking up they saw the hulking figure of a star destroyer headed towards Capital City.
Emily looked quite shocked, "The manifests said nothing about a Star Destroyer!"
Ezra just smirked, "Looks like we do have something to check out after all."
Emily groaned as she realized her brother was right.
"Fine, we can check out what requires a star destroyer to be here, but we don't engage! Our anonymity is what keeps us alive."
They both put their helmets on and raced to the bottom of the tower where two speeder bikes lay waiting for them.
"I'm serious Ezra, do not engage."
"I know, if we see something worth it can we snag it?"
Emily groaned at how shortsighted her brother was, "Only if I give the go ahead."
"Deal!"
In reality Ezra was not planning on waiting for his sisters go ahead if an opportunity presented itself.
They both threw on cloaks to slightly conceal their armor before taking off towards the city.
As they neared the city Ezra veered off to get closer towards the buildings he would use as a vantage point. As he climbed to the top of the building he saw his sister helping one of the merchants that had been harassed by the Empire.
He got eyes on the shipment that the Empire was moving, but couldn't find anything out of the ordinary that would require a star destroyer. As he was searching for more information he heard a singing in the back of his head.
"What could that be?" he muttered to himself.
He tried to pinpoint the location of where the ringing was coming from. It pointed him in the direction of a man wearing dark green and brown who had a nerf tail and one of his arms was heavily armored.
Was this the force trying to tell him something?
As the man turned around to stare at Ezra, he quickly dropped down behind the ledge in order to not get spotted.
'Something's up.' he thought to himself. 'And whatever it is, I don't like it.'
"Bluebird to mother hen, be advised I think something's about to happen in the main market square."
"I told you to stop with these nicknames Ezra. Our frequency is encoded, nobody can hear us. What's up at the market square?"
"Come on, I like the code name. And there's just something telling me something is about to happen. I think it's the force hinting at something."
"Alright, keep eyes on what's going on, but DO NOT ENGAGE!"
"Alright Alright, stay frosty. Bluebird out."
Ezra chuckled to himself as he cut the comm. He definitely had plans of engaging, and it may earn him an earful from Emily, but that is perfectly acceptable when it comes with this kind of payout.
Deciding to go back to watching the interesting man, he noticed a couple new people. One was a Lasat trying hard to blend in, but failing. The other was a mandalorian? Sure enough there stood a mandalorian in colorful armor not even trying to blend in.
Typical mandalorian.
The man started moving down the street, tapping on his holster twice. Did he think that was inconspicuous? It wasn't. The lasat responded to the signal by crossing the street before the man moved onto the mandalorian. They once again signaled each other and the mandalorian walked off towards the imperial patrol.
She tossed something on the closest bike and walked off again.
"What is she..."
Ezra's thoughts were interrupted by a massive explosion coming from the bike.
'So it was a detonator.' Ezra thought to himself.
He heard one of the officers shouting to get the supplies out of the square and decided to give chase.
Running across the rooftops Ezra noticed the man from the square cut off the imperial bikes with his own land speeder. He watched as the man jumped off shooting down two troopers before the Lasat from earlier came from behind.
The Lasat made quick work of the remaining troopers, "Hey Emily, act now, apologize later!"
Ezra didn't give Emily a chance to respond before jumping down onto one of the bikes, "Thanks for doing the heavy lifting!"
He gave a two finger salute, launched the bike into reverse, and took off down the streets.
"Ezra Osirius Bridger. What. Did. YOU. DO?!"
Ezra cringed, he was going to have to deal with a mad older sister later on. Luckily he was kind of focused on the here and now a little to much.
As he kept on speeding through the city he sensed a new presence that had a lot of hostility. And as if to answer the force's call the mandalorian girl from earlier somehow lands on the back of the speeder.
Ezra turns around just in time to notice a very intimidating mandalorian blaster staring him in the face. Now Ezra knew his beskar was strong, but was not in the mood to test it against other mandalorian tech right now.
Luckily Ezra had an edge. He activated his whistling birds causing four seeker projectiles to fly out and hit the uninvited passenger. She fell off with an audible grunt, and Ezra couldn't help but smirk a bit at it.
Moving past the next checkpoint Ezra finally burst through the gates to the city. He was speeding down the road when all of a sudden his bike was hit by a stray blaster bolt. Ezra's bike jolted and he ended up jumping into oncoming traffic.
Looking back he notices the Lasat dropping back and the man speeding up.
As the man speeds up he manages to jump across in front of Ezra. This causes Ezra to skid to a stop in front of him, "Who are you?"
The man puts on a smug face, "I'm the guy that was stealing those crates."
Ezra crosses his arms indignantly, "Hey, I stole this is stuff -whatever it is, fair and square!"
"And you made it pretty far, but I've got plans for those crates. So today's not your day."
Ezra looks up to see a TIE approaching, "Mmm, day's not over."
With that Ezra throws a mocking wave behind him and take off towards the tower.
He decides that maybe after fifteen minutes of waiting he should answer the call from Emily. Before doing that, however, he quickly turns the volume down to about twenty five percent in his helmet.
Flipping the communicator on Ezra is instantly met with a stream of Mando'a, "EZRA OSIRIUS BRIDGER YOU ARE IN SO MUCH TROUBLE! HEAD BACK TO THE TOWER RIGHT THIS INSTANT! NO BUTS!"
Ezra was not looking forward to that, but wasn't able to reminisce on it to much as he heard a sound he didn't want to hear. TIE Fighters.
As the TIE's started shooting at him he managed to swerve and avoid the blasts due to the force's warnings.
Eventually he turned around to try and return fire, but as he did so the TIE managed to sneak a lucky shot in and hit his engines. The bike sputtered out of control and Ezra had to jump off to save himself.
"Emily, my bike has been hit. Sending coordinates now, I might need backup!"
"Alright, I'm on my way. Hang in, Ez!"
Ezra looked up to see the TIE coming in for another run. He was about to dodge out of the way when the TIE was suddenly blown out of the sky. He looked around confused before spotting a ship and the man from earlier standing on its ramp, "Hey kid! You need a ride?"
Ezra looked back at the crates, then at the man. He ran back to the crates, stacked one on top of the other and started pushing them back to the ship.
The man looked on in horror, "Leave the crates, there are more TIE's coming!"
Ezra being ever so stubborn was not leaving the crates. And instead managed to jump up to the ship's ramp, which was easily eight to ten meters off the ground.
The man let out a subtle woah as he pulled Ezra in.
They each pushed a crate up into the loading bay and Ezra got a good look at the Lasat and Mandalorian from earlier.
One thought was rushing through Ezra's head at this point, 'Emily is going to kill me.'