Chapter 7

I'm one week and two days late, and I'm very, very sorry. I have no excuse except I entirely forgot. For compensation, here you have an extra long chapter.

The next day was Monday again. Kanan didn't really like Mondays. Still, he woke up early so he could get to the garage early. Of course, Zeb and Hera were already awake.

"Good morning, Kanan," Hera greeted him.

"Good morning, Hera," he said back. Sabine and Ezra came running down the stairs.

"Good morning, Mr. Kanan," they both said at the same time.

"Morning, kids," Kanan said. They all sat down to eat.

"Mom, isn't today the day when you can't pick us up after school?" Ezra asked after a while.

"Yes, it is," Hera said, then turned to Kanan, "I'll sound like a horrible person but could you please pick them up after school today? I have something to do for work at that time."

"No problem," Kanan said, "At what time?"

"4:15," Hera said, "and thank you."

"No problem."

"Mom, can Mr. Kanan meet my teachers?" Ezra asked. Hera looked at her plate, and then back at Ezra.

"Yeah, sure," she said.

"Great!" Ezra smiled. Kanan smiled too, but his mind was wondering what Hera was going to be doing that afternoon.

Kanan's day at the garage started just like any other day. He finally managed to figure out what was wrong with the Peugeot: everything. He kind of already knew that, since the car looked very, very old. It had one purple window, one yellowish window, one bluish window, and two greenish windows. (True story, my grandparents had a car like that. I'm still not sure why someone bought it) He kept it in the garage to have something to do in his free time.

People brought in cars, he fixed them. It was a simple process, really.

"No kids this time?" a man who was picking up his car said.

"They're at school today," Kanan said.

"Of course, of course," the man said as Kanan gave him back the keys to his car. Kanan considered telling the man that they weren't his children, but he didn't, at the end. There was no point in telling a random stranger the story of the children, especially since she didn't know it himself. A crane arrived with a car with a failing motor, and Kanan was asked to fix it. Turned out it wasn't working because the gears weren't well adjusted. Kanan set to work, and momentarily forgot all of his questions.

Later that day, Kanan decided to walk over to the coffeeshop in front of the garage and have coffee. That didn't exactly come out as planned.

When Kanan opened the door of the garage, he saw a group of people dressed in white uniforms, carrying blasters and walking in formation. Stormtroopers in Space? Now that was weird! Stormtroopers were the Empire's police, and although they weren't smart, they managed to do their job right. Before he could act surprised, Kanan noticed that there was smoke coming from behind the coffeehouse. If Kanan remembered right, there was nothing behind the coffeehouse. The stormtroopers noticed too, and started trotting towards the smoke. Whatever was there, they wanted it badly. Just then, Kanan noticed a group of people hiding on the other side of the coffeehouse. They seemed to be hiding from the stormtroopers. Kanan acted without thinking.

"Over here!" he hissed silently. They didn't seem to be listening. Kanan thought for a moment, then picked up a rock from the sidewalk. There was an old jedi trick that allowed you to throw things harder and faster. "Concentrate on your environment, pay attention to your surroundings," Master Billaba used to say. Kanan could almost see the current of wind passing right in the middle between him and the people. Then, he threw the rock, and it managed to hit one of the people on the shoulder. The person turned to look at him and Kanan very nearly choked with his breath. It was Hera!

Hera stared at him, but regained her composure faster and signaled to the others to follow her. Kanan stared at Hera. What in the kriffing world was she doing here? And why the kriff was she wearing a pilot's suit? And why the kriff was she running from the Empire? And why the kriff is she staring at me? Am I drooling?

The people followed Hera towards Kanan, who stepped aside and let them enter the garage. Kanan entered after them and closed the door.

"Wait!" Kanan called, as Hera was starting to walk away from him.

"I can explain, really, but not now. Please?" Hera said pleadingly, looking at Kanan in the eyes. Kanan nodded, though he wasn't really sure why. Just then, there was a knock on the door. All eyes fell on Kanan.

"Please, Kanan, I promise I'll tell you everything, I promise!" Hera pleaded. Kanan went to the door.

"Hide," he said, and felt all the people moving. He opened the door and left it open so he wouldn't look suspicious.

"There's been rebel activity nearby. We would like for permission to check your garage," A stormtrooper said.

"Why?" asked Kanan.

"You are not to question Empire activity," said the same stormtrooper, "Now step aside so we can check." Kanan stepped right in front of the stormtrooper. Maybe using one more jedi trick wouldn't be so bad.

"You don't need to check my garage," Kanan said, looking the stormtrooper in the eyes. There was an old technique that the jedi used to control the weak-minded. You had to stare at them, almost like you're flirting with them, and will them to obey you. Maybe Emperor Palpatine was right, the jedi did use magic tricks.

The stormtrooper stared at Kanan, confused, and then turned around and walked away, his stormtrooper buddies following. Kanan sighed, relieved. He entered back inside the garage.

"They left," he said. The rebels got out of their hiding spots and started walking towards the doors. Kanan found Hera at the end of the line.

"I… I will go pick the kids at 4:15," he said.

"Thank you," Hera said, not looking at Kanan in the eyes. Once the group left, Kanan stared at the nothingness, wondering what the kriff had happened.

I'll get answers, Kanan thought, one way or the other I'll get answers.

At around 4pm, Kanan closed the garage and drove towards the school on his pickup. He was still thinking about what had happened in the morning. Did the kids know what was going on? Did they know Hera worked with the rebels? Kanan didn't want to believe it, but a small part of him said 'Yes'.

Kanan got out of his car and got to the lobby of the school.

"I'm here to pick up Ezra, Sabine, and Zeb Syndulla," he said to the entrance lady. The lady jotted something on her notebook and let him pass. Kanan walked around lost, at first, until he remembered that Ezra had shown him his classroom the day before.

He got to the door at the same time the bell rang. Kids rushed out of the classroom faster than adults on paying day. Ezra, however, stayed behind talking to a small man with a small beard.

"Hey, kid," Kanan said.

"Mr. Kanan!" Ezra shouted, "You came, you came, you came!"

"Of course, buddy!" Kanan said, smiling.

"Mr. Kanan, meet Mr. Mike, my homeroom teacher," Ezra said and signaled to Mr. Mike.

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Kanan," said Mr. Mike.

"The pleasure's mine," Kanan said and shook his hand, "Ezra, go pack your things, please." Ezra went to one side of the room, where only a few backpacks remained. Kanan found Mr. Mike staring at him.

"You know, when Ezra first mentioned a Mr. Kanan, I thought you were the father," said the little man. Kanan couldn't hide his surprise.

"Ezra really likes you," Mr. Mike continued, "I'm pretty sure even Sabine likes you, and that's hard to achieve." Kanan chuckled.

"I don't think I've done anything," Kanan said.

"Maybe all they needed was somebody there for them," Mr. Mike shrugged. Ezra returned with a backpack around his shoulders.

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Mike," Kanan said. Mr. Mike nodded and returned to his desk. Kanan and Ezra walked back towards the corridor.

"Kid, do you know where Zeb and Sabine's classrooms are?" Kanan asked Ezra.

"Yeah. Sabine's is closer. Over here," Ezra led the way to another corridor, and then to one of the classrooms. Inside, there were at least 8 other kids running around. Sabine, however, sat on a desk far in the back, drawing something on a notebook. Kanan walked to see what she was drawing.

""Mr. Kanan, I think you think that you're the invisible man," Sabine said without raising her head and covered the drawing with her hands.

"Hey, why don't you let me see!" Kanan said, trying hard not to sound like he was whining. Apparently he didn't succeed, because the whole class turned to look at him. Sabine continued to draw on the notebook, swinging her legs back and forth on the chair.

"Mr. Kanan, meet Mr. Rau, my homeroom teacher," Sabine said before Kanan noticed a middle-aged, tall man walking towards them.

"Pleasure to meet you," Kanan said. Mr. Rau nodded, and Kanan was surprised to see him return to his seat so fast.

"Sabine, Mr. Rau is weird," Ezra said, looking at Mr. Rau's back.

"He's just Mandalorian," Kanan guessed, and looked at Sabine who shrugged and stood up, grabbing her backpack from behind the chair.

"Zeb's class is over there," Ezra led them to a class far, far away, almost at the end of the school building. Inside there were only Zeb, Kallus, and a robot-like boy with large eyes and dark hair. Zeb noticed him first.

"Hey, Mr. Kanan! This is AP-5!" he said, and gestured to the weird kid.

"My name is Arthur Perseverus the Fifth!" he said in the same tone.

"So, AP-5," Kallus said. They continued talking for a while until Ezra urged Zeb to go because he wanted to go home now. Ezra led the way outside again, and Kanan's mind went back to his earlier questions. That distracted him so much he didn't notice the stormtroopers near his car, until Ezra blocked his path and pointed at them. The stormtroopers continued walking towards the school, until they ran into Kanan and the kids.

"What brings stormtroopers here?" Kanan asked, and Ezra grabbed his hand.

"We're recruiting children to join the Imperial Academy," the lead stormtrooper said.

"Willingly?" Kanan asked.

"Of course not," Sabine murmured. Kanan was curious why she said that, but the stormtroopers didn't let him say anything.

"The Empire only wants the best for its citizens," the stormtrooper said robotically.

"Yet it kills people merciless," Ezra said angrily.

"Yet it destroys entire countries," Zeb joined in. The stormtroopers all turned to look at Kanan.

"The Empire only wants the best for its citizens," the lead stormtrooper repeated. Kanan didn't have time to stop what happened next. Zeb punched the guy right in the face, making him fall back. The stormtroopers turned on him, and he put up his arms, ready for a fight. Ezra ran hard into a stormtrooper, and the one next to him kicked him to the floor. Sabine grabbed a piece of pipe from the floor and swung it like a baseball bat at the nearest stormtrooper, who went down to the floor. She turned to the stormtrooper attacking Ezra and used the pipe tube to hit him in the head. For once, Kanan was happy that Zeb was so big. He could tower over the stormtroopers, while they couldn't quite reach him. Ezra stood up, but didn't get far when a stormtrooper kicked him hard on the leg. Sabine hit the stormtrooper so hard it hurt Kanan just from watching. A stormtrooper punched her jaw, but she didn't even flinch, and instead continued to hit the stormtroopers. Kanan knew he was supposed to do something, but he didn{t know what to do.

"Think, Kanan!" he said to himself. A crowd had gathered around. Then, he had an idea.

Kanan grabbed Zeb's arm before he finished punching, and threw it back, putting Zeb off balanced. Then, he snatched the pipe tube from Sabine's hand and pulled her back by the hoodie. When Sabine started protesting, he put a hand on her shoulder. Then, he threw the pipe to the nearest stormtrooper. The lead stormtrooper looked like he wanted to attack, but Kanan raised a hand.

"Go back to wherever you came from," he said.

"Why would we do that?" the stormtrooper said.

"Because you don't want them to know that you got beaten by kids. You can go back there and say absolutely nothing happened, or you can arrest us and risk the embarrassment of knowing that you couldn't handle three children," Kanan said. The stormtrooper thought for a moment before angrily stomping back to the stormtrooper van. His companions followed quickly, none too happy about it.

Ezra pulled at Kanan's sleeve and pointed to his pickup, and Kanan guessed he wanted to go know. Zeb and Sabine were still staring at the car.

"Zeb," Kanan called. Zeb turned to look at him, and started walking towards the pickup. Kanan pulled Sabine to the car, grabbing Ezra's hand on the way there. Just before arriving, Sabine turned around, and Kanan noticed that she had a hand over her mouth.

"You hurt?" he asked.

"No, I'm just bleeding," Sabine said.

"Yeah, that's being hurt."

"Not in Mandalore. In Mandalore you're only hurt if you can't walk," Sabine replied and climbed into the pickup. Kanan didn't know what to say, so he remained silent. Zeb sighed from time to time, looking at Ezra, who looked scared. Kanan sighed too.

Hera didn't return until late at night. Kanan only noticed because he'd intentionally stayed awake for it. He wanted to talk to Hera, but right now he decided to let her be one more night. After all, this day hadn't turned out as expected for any of them.

That was weird, wasn't it? Don't worry, answers will come next chapter :)