Rebellion's Lost Hope:

D363/1 BBY, Yavin 4

"I'm coming," Hera grumbled to no one in particular as they called her name over the loudspeakers again. Why Rebel Command couldn't have said whatever they needed to her while she was already in their vicinity was a mystery to her. Didn't they realize she was the size of a nerf and that it took forever to waddle everywhere? It wasn't even half an hour ago when she'd left with the rest of the crowd after the disheartening meeting about the Death Star plans that Jyn Erso was so passionate about. And now here she was again, making her way through the busy landing area just outside the temple, going back the way she came from.

Less than half an hour later, she was grumbling again as she made her way back to her ship. Why did everyone think she was useless just because she was carrying another life? It's not like her brain and reflexes were any slower. There was no reason she couldn't fly her ship. No reason at all.

So she did. Against orders.

A few hours later, Hera was wishing she'd obeyed the Senator. She gritted her teeth as the pain came again, ignoring it as best as possible as she chased down a TIE for someone on the guns to hopefully shoot. When that TIE exploded, Hera pointed the Ghost towards the next one. Again, the pain tore through her, as she held the scream back behind her clenched teeth. When it eased, she glared at her massive stomach. "You've picked a terrible time to come into the world, my little miracle. But should I really have expected anything less from a Spectre?"

Hera toughed it out through the entire battle over Scarif, determined to not let her Rebellion down, but the instant the Ghost was back in hyperspace on the way back to Yavin 4, she let all of the pain out in an agonized scream while mentally cursing Kanan's hide for doing this to her.

Hearing Hera's scream, Zeb climbed up the ladder from the nose gun and stared at Hera in astonishment. Seeing her sweating, pale face, and the grimace of pain, he uttered, "Karabast!" and quickly commed the rest of the ship. "Does anyone know how to deliever a baby? Because the kit's coming, ummm, right now by the looks of it."

All Zeb received was some very uncomfortable sounding shabla's from Rex and Wolffe.

Hera glared at Zeb. "Just get me to the med bay, you idiot," she ground out through clenched teeth.

Zeb jumped and rushed over to her, gently picking her up in his arms. Hera groaned into his chest as another contraction ripped through her. She had no idea this was going to be this painful. If Kanan were here right now, she might just be inclined to rip off a certain appendage that he was rather fond of. Maybe then he'd have a small appreciation of her agony.

Four excruciating hours later, Hera held her new son in her arms, eyes drinking in his incredible features. He had Kanan's skin colour, except for the tips of his pointy male Twi'lek ears, which were tinged green. And he had hair! Beautiful, soft, dark green hair, that Hera just knew Kanan would have loved. (Green was his favourite colour after all.) The baby opened his eyes and Hera gasped in astonishment. She'd been expecting his eyes to be either emerald green like hers or teal green like Kanan's, but they weren't. The eyes that looked back her made her heart break just a little, for they were her little brother's dark blue eyes. The same colour as her grandmother's.

Hera had been flirting with the idea of calling her son Caleb, but now she knew that he was meant to have a different name.

"Hello, Jacen," she murmured to her tiny son. "I wish your daddy could see how perfect you are." Hera smiled wider as the faint brush of Kanan's fingers rested on her shoulder. "Never mind, sweetie. Your daddy's here. And he loves you too."

Hera inhaled in surprise when she felt a ghostly kiss press against her temple. That was new. And amazing. "I love you, Kanan," she whispered to the air as she was suddenly reminded of his promise to love her even after the end of his days. It looked like that promise would remain unbroken. "And I take back all the awful things I thought or screamed about you over the last six or seven hours. I'm pretty sure I would never unman you," she teased the presence she knew was there. "Jacen was worth it. Thank you, Kanan." A happy tear rolled down her cheek, quickly joined by another and another.

She felt the ghost kiss again, this time on her cheek, kissing the tear tracks. Hera smiled as she stared down at her son, his blue eyes looking back at her, but sometimes shifting off to the side, like he was looking at someone else too. She wondered if he could see Kanan, and suddenly she wished she was Force sensitive as well. She'd give almost anything to see Kanan again.

Sabine returned to the Lothhawk which was parked in the field near Ezra's tower, finally finished her jobs for the day. Training, repairs and new construction was still in full swing on Lothal, but no longer at the frantic pace it was at the beginning. Sabine was actually keeping an almost normal schedule of a ten hour work day; a huge improvement in her opinion.

She almost called to Ketsu that she was home, but remembered at the last millisecond that Ketsu had officially moved in with Joshua yesterday. Sabine knew it was coming, with Ketsu coming back to the ship less and less over the months, but it still felt like a bit of a shock. The Lothhawk seemed so empty now. Although, as she looked around her, she had to smile. The hallways were covered in her paintings and everything was about as bright as it could get. For some reason that she didn't really want to think about, lothcats and wolves seemed to be everywhere in her paintings, sneaking their way in when she wasn't paying attention to what she was doing. She just knew that Ezra would love it. She'd even made sure that the colour orange was fairly dominant, knowing how much he loved that colour. And for her own pleasure, there just so happened to be a lot of royal blue as well, reflecting Ezra's eyes wherever she walked in the ship.

Her next major project was going to be the outside of the ship. Despite wanting to paint it for what felt like forever, she'd never really had the time. She was tired of the ghastly red and black paint scheme that reminded her of Maul every time she looked at it. Ketsu and Joshua had promised to come over on their next free day and they would help her with the Lothhawk's new paint job. Sabine was thinking the ship would look perfect in shades of silver, orange and blue.

The construction on Ezra's communications tower was just starting and could take awhile, since it wasn't a priority. They now had a brand new tower on the other side of the city for long range communications and Ezra's old tower had been retired for the moment. Although, with the rate that the population of Lothal was growing, a second tower would be needed sooner than later. Somehow, word had flown through the galaxy that Lothal was a haven from the Empire, and refugees from other planets had started to flood the once burnt and smouldering planet. After a long winter and rainy spring season, the grass had grown back in greener than Sabine had ever seen it. The sky was blue again, with only normal fluffy white clouds to block the sun. Lothal was beautiful and full of hope.

After a quick trip to the galley, Sabine dropped into the pilot's chair and propped her tired feet on the consul while she absently chewed her way through a tasteless ready to eat meal. She liked it here, because she could look out over the grasslands and see the slowly expanding Capital City and the waving green grass stretching out for kilometres around it. And if she was lucky, sometimes the lothwolves would be hanging around and playing like puppies in the grass, usually with a lothcat or two trying to ride their backs at the same time. Sabine hadn't been much of an animal person until she met Ezra and moved to Lothal. But somehow, these animals had endeared themselves to her, and she looked forward to watching them play. Every once in a while, when she was feeling particularly lonely, she'd even let a lothcat in the ship and let its purring send her to sleep with a smile on her face as the warm body curled into her side.

A blinking light on the consul eventually caught her attention, making her sit up and put the last half of her meal to the side. Excitement coursed through her. It was the comm, signalling she had a message from Yavin, since only the Rebellion used this comm channel for her now. She hit a button and listened with wide eyes to Zeb's somewhat flustered sounding voice.

"Hey, Sabine. So I know this probably isn't a surprise, since we've been waiting for her to pop for weeks, but Hera just had the kit. It's a boy. And the cutest kit you've ever seen. We were fighting a battle over Scarif when the kit decided to show up. Hera, of course, just kept flying until the battle was over." Sabine heard the sound of a huge huffed sigh and she could practically hear his eyes rolling around in his head. "You should have heard her scream at Kanan when she didn't have something else to focus on anymore. I think his ghost, if there really is such a thing, probably ran across the galaxy and hid." Sabine laughed at that image while Zeb's voice continued. "Anyway, just thought you'd want to know so you could come visit the new addition to the family. Comm us back when you get this."

Sabine immediately commed them back, noting the time stamp on the message from five hours ago. She was only a little disappointed when Rex was the one to answer, his image appearing in the holo. She liked Rex, but she'd been hoping for Zeb again.

"Sabine," he said in greeting with a strained smile, making her wonder what could possibly be wrong. Had something gone wrong with the baby? "Glad you got back to us."

"What's going on?" Sabine demanded. "What's wrong?"

Rex tried to visibly put on a sabacc face, but Sabine wasn't falling for it. "Nothing is... wrong," he said hesitantly. "Hera and the boy are doing fine. In fact, she wants to talk to you. Just give me a second to transfer you to a portable device."

Rex's image shimmered for a moment and then she saw him clearly again, and she could see that he was walking briskly. "I'm taking you to the med facilities in the base," he explained. Of course. Hera and the baby wouldn't be on the Ghost right now. Sabine was surprised she didn't realize that sooner. That explained why Rex had answered and not Zeb. Zeb would be with Hera in the base. Rex said nothing else, not even small talk, worrying Sabine even further. He was usually a pretty happy and talkative guy, and they always found something to chat about, usually battle or weapons related. He wasn't even trying today, so Sabine just kept quiet as well. There was obviously something going on with the Rebellion that only Hera could tell her.

Rex made it to the medical area of the base in only a couple of minutes, people apparently scurrying out of his way when he scowled at them. That brought a small smile to Sabine's lips. He might be a bit older and more relaxed now, but he was still a Captain at heart and there was no changing the respect he demanded from others just by how he carried himself. He would always have that military training in him, whether he liked it or not.

Rex strode into Hera's private room and handed the holo device to her, leaving Sabine with a dizzying view of random things for a second. Then Hera's face and upper torso appeared. She looked tired, radiant, and worried all at the same time. That was a hard one to pull off, but Hera was doing it.

"Hey, Hera." Sabine said softly. "How are you?"

Hera's eyes softened and she glanced down at the top of something that Sabine could just see in the image. "I'm fine," she said. "And so is Jacen. You want to see him?"

Sabine nodded eagerly. "Yes, please."

Hera handed the device to someone and she got a bigger picture of Hera and the baby in her arms. Hera turned him so his little face was towards the device and Sabine examined the tiny hybrid closely. "He's adorable, Hera. The green hair is... unexpected, but perfect in my opinion."

Hera beamed down at her son. "Yes, it is. Kanan's hair and my colour, more or less." She sighed sappily. "Perfect." Hera made a gesture, and the holo device was returned to her hand and only Hera was visible again. "I know you were probably thinking about jumping into space and flying over to see us right away," Hera continued, her face returning to serious, "But there's been a... development."

"What is it, Hera?" Sabine asked, because she'd been thinking that exact thing.

Hera shook her head. Sabine could see she was deciding what she could say. "I shouldn't be telling you this, because most of it is classified for just Command right now, and you're not technically a Rebel anymore, but I'm going to tell you anyway." Hera took a deep breath for courage. "The Empire has a super weapon called the Death Star. It's the size of a small moon and it obliterated both Jedha City and the Imperial Base on Scarif along with kilometres of surrounding countryside. I think this is why the Empire never bothered with Lothal again after sending only two ships to investigate. They've been working on something much bigger and deadlier than a fleet of Star Destroyers." Hera's eyes pleaded with Sabine. "You have to be prepared for them to show up sooner or later. We're assuming the Empire is close to finding Yavin 4 and that we're their next target but you could be next just as easily. I advise evacuating Lothal. Not even your Defenders are going to be able to slow this thing down."

Sabine could barely breathe as she listened to Hera. This was TERRIBLE. All of her hard work might be wasted. "There has to be a way to take it out," Sabine said. "Everything has a weakness somewhere."

Hera's eyes filled with tears. "That's what we were trying to do on Scarif. Get the plans so we could find the weakness. But they've been lost, along with half the fleet and a lot of good Rebels like Cassian. And the Princess. She's missing as well. It was a disaster, Sabine. None of us have much hope right now. This Rebellion might be over. We're already evacuating non essential personnel off of Yavin. I'm staying for the time being, but you can believe I'll be up in the Ghost the instant we have confirmation that the Death Star is approaching." Hera stopped, seeming at loss for further words.

"Oh, Hera," Sabine said sadly. "Is this the end then?"

Hera looked back at her with determination shining in her misty eyes. "For the Rebellion, maybe. For us? Never. The Spectres never give up." She glanced down at her new son again, her face setting into lines of a ferociousness that would send most running in terror. "And we have a new Spectre to protect. I will do whatever it takes to make sure that Kanan's son will always be safe and happy."

Sabine returned Hera's look of determination. "So will I, Hera. So will I. We've lost enough Spectres already."

After ending the call sometime later with Hera, Sabine immediately commed Ryder. They discussed emergency plans for moving the citizens of Capital City into the mountains of Lothal where they would be hidden and protected. It would be nice to just pack everyone onto a ship and fly off to a quiet corner of space somewhere, but the planet just didn't have enough large transports to even come close to being able to move everyone. They thought it was better to just get everyone out of the cities, since those would be the first targets of the Death Star.

The next morning, mandatory evacuations began, planet wide.

Cerulia

Ezra was training a new group of adult Cerulians the sabre forms (the volunteers far exceeding Master Tia's time to teach them all), when the wave of fear, pain, and grief washed over him. Ezra whimpered and fell to his knees in the sand, distantly hearing cries from many others as he tried to deal with the overwhelming agony the Force was feeling. It was all he could do to stay conscious as his vision darkened and nausea struck him. He breathed through it, calling on some of his meditation techniques until the worst of it passed.

Finally feeling like he might survive, Ezra looked up and down the beach, seeing dozens of people in the exact same state as him; on their knees in the sand, or even worse, lying down and looking like they collapsed like that, apparently not conscious.

The first person he looked for was Master Guji, who had been teaching another group of teenagers just down the beach. If anyone knew what had just happened, it would be the Force Ghost. But Master Guji was gone, so Ezra looked for Master Tia. He immediately ran to where she lay as she was one of the unconscious ones.

Tia was surrounded by her concerned younglings, who apparently hadn't been affected anywhere near as bad as the adults. They looked pale but not in pain like some of the others. Krystal came staggering over as well and the younglings made room for them by Tia's head. Krystal tugged Tia's head into her lap, looking very worried. "Master?" she whispered.

Link came jogging down the beach from his clinic, looking just as sick as everyone else, but rushing to help anyway. He spotted their little group and made for them first. Link sank to his knees as well, holding his hands over Tia's head and closing his eyes as he concentrated. A few moments later, he huffed a relieved sigh. "She's okay. Just knocked out. She should come around in a minute." Link looked up and down the beach at all of the ill looking Cerulians and humans. "What was that? I've never felt anything like it. It was terrible, like someone just stabbed the Force and ripped out its heart."

"Close enough," Master Guji said as he reappeared, his image looking drawn and much fainter than normal. "The Empire that Ezra told you about just destroyed the planet Alderaan."

Everyone in hearing distance, both audible or mental, paled further. "A whole planet? At once?" Krystal whispered, shocked.

"How?" Ezra asked at the same time.

Master Guji nodded sadly. "Yes, the whole planet at once. Every single life was extinguished. They did it with some sort of super weapon that focuses the power of Kyber crystals."

Ezra bowed his head in sorrow. It all made sense now. The two massive Kyber crystals that they stopped the Empire from getting, and the construction spheres over Geonosis and then the extermination of the race to hide what they'd been building. His thoughts went to the Princess and Senator Organa, wondering if they'd been on the planet when it happened. "I should be there, helping the Rebellion," Ezra said, eyes filling with misery and guilt.

Master Guji shook his head. "No, Ezra, I don't think so. Your place is here for the time being. The Force has a plan for you and you are fulfilling it by helping to teach these people. They will have their own fight to win one day. Besides, the galaxy needs Jedi again and this is the fastest way to do it."

Ezra sighed and nodded once. There was no way for him to get home anyway. Not until Ahsoka found him.

Master Tia moaned a little and opened her eyes wider than he'd ever seen them as she sat up quickly, looking around her for a threat to defend herself against.

"Easy, Tia," her old Master said. "Everything is alright."

Tia visibly relaxed. She looked at Link, and Ezra knew he was giving her a quick mental summary of what had happened. Only a minute later, she looked towards the ocean, relaxing further.

The King emerged from the sea at that moment, his own concerned expression smoothing out as he saw for himself that his Queen was alright. Wayve's eyes settled on Ezra. "This Emperor of yours does not deserve to rule if he sanctions the extermination of an entire planet. He must be brought down. I will do it myself if he still rules when your starship arrives."

Ezra nodded respectfully to the very powerful King. "I hope that doesn't become necessary, Wayve," Ezra thought back.

Lothal

They were only about a quarter of the way through the evacuations when Sabine received another harried call from Kallus, since Hera was locked in a meeting, despite being a new mother. After hearing the devastating news about Alderaan, she cancelled the evacuations and sent everyone back home. There was no point hiding in the caves if the Death Star could wipe out a planet in one shot. Sabine despaired, knowing there was no hope for anyone with a weapon like that stalking known Rebel worlds. It was just a matter of time now for Lothal and Yavin 4.

The Empire had won.

For the first time, Sabine was happy that Ezra wasn't here. Wherever he was in Wild Space, at least he was safe from the wrath of the Emperor.