Chapter 4
Writing the last one was way funnier than the previous two. This one is sad again.
This takes place after the S3 episode "Ghosts of Geonosis".
Rex walked towards Zeb's room with a sad expression on his face. Being the only survivor AGAIN had to be killing him. The problem was, he didn't know what to say.
The door opened when Rex stood at the door. Zeb was lying on his bunk, his arms crossed and his eyes closed.
"You wake me up and I'll destroy you," he said.
"I don't think you mean that," Rex said. Zeb didn't even open his eyes.
"Leave me alone," he muttered. Rex didn't want to leave without helping him, but he did because he understood feeling like that. He left and wondered what Zeb was going to do.
Zeb was destroyed. He had survived. AGAIN. But all his family had died. AGAIN.
Zeb was broken. His new family was all he had left. All he cared about. He didn't care about the rebellion. He only wanted to keep them safe.
Even after all his fights with Ezra, he loved him. Even after all his banter with Sabine, he loved her. Even after all his disagreements with Chopper, he still loved him. He loved Kanan even when he hid he was a jedi. He loved Hera even when she bossed him around. Now they were dead.
Dead.
All dead.
Not gone, dead.
Zeb wished he was too. He'd suffered enough.
He remembered the day he'd met them. He'd been running from the Empire for a long time when he had completely fallen into their trap and gotten hit by the explosion. The building collapsed on top of him. Zeb thought he was dying. But then he heard voices and saw a man with a goatee point a flashlight at him just before passing out. When he woke up, he was on the Ghost. Hera and Kanan introduced themselves, and he asked why they had saved him. They said that they'd thought it was the right thing to do. He hadn't believed them back then.
Zeb remembered the days they'd met the kids. Hera and Kanan had found Sabine nearly dead, left behind by a 'friend'. The moment she woke up, she ran around the ship as if she didn't have a broken arm and a sprained ankle. She'd rushed into the cockpit and given Zeb the scare of his life. Zeb nearly laughed as he remembered that Kanan had to shock her so she would calm down. Poor kid didn't trust them for weeks after that.
The one he most remembered was Ezra. He'd stolen their already stolen boxes. Zeb had put him in the little room on the living room, from where he'd entered the ventilation ducts and moved around the ship. He hadn't known before, but he'd gotten Kanan's holocron. Zeb still felt bad for leaving him behind that day, but at least they'd come back from him. Even if Zeb voted no.
Why did they have to die? Sabine and Ezra, so young that even Kallus called them kids. Hera and Kanan, the leaders who were secretly in love with each other but told no one. Even Chopper, the annoying droid who no one understood. They were family. And they were dead.
I will leave, he told himself, I will disappear. I can't go through that again.
And Zeb left the rebellion, with the memory of his lost family on his mind. With the memory of what could've been, but was no more.