Zeb's Surprise:

D201/4 ABY, Endor Moon

Hera was probably one of the very few people who woke up at the crack of dawn. Except for the soldiers on guard duty, almost everyone else had stayed up late partying, but she had left right after Leia and Han's ceremony. The only person she had cared to celebrate with at that moment was Kanan, and boy did they ever. They were the only ones on the ship and took full advantage of that fact. Now she was eager to get on with her life and see her son again. As of midnight last night, she was officially no longer a General of the Rebel Alliance. She was still undecided about how she felt about that, but the sense of being free was definitely near the top of the list.

Before leaving, she did a thorough check to make sure she didn't have any unwanted passengers on the Ghost except for her astromech, who was charging. Chopper had made more than a few friends about his size and she didn't trust any of them not to sneak on board or for Chopper to help hide them. Gratefully not finding any stowaways, Hera flew her ship up into space and towards Home One, orbiting the moon not too far way.

After landing in her usual hangar, Hera woke up Chopper and told him go to Kallus' quarters and pack all his things, which Hera knew for a fact wasn't much. A few changes of clothes and a small collection of datapads with downloaded books was about all Kallus called his own. His two prize possessions, the meteorite from the ice moon orbiting Geonosis and his bo-rifle, had been left behind when he escaped the Empire, and may have been blown up when they destroyed the Dome on Lothal, but no one knew for sure. Ever since then, he hadn't bothered to get attached to anything else.

As Hera strode through the busy corridors of the Rebel command ship that never really went to sleep, she thought about the years since Kallus had joined their family. One of the first things Zeb had managed to extract from the weary ex Imperial was his first name, because Hera hadn't wanted to call him by his last name all the time if he was going to be part of the family. Turns out Kallus hated his first name of Alexsandr, as it was his grandfather's name on his mother's side as well, and they never got along. So Kallus it was, or Kal, if the mood was right, or your name was Zeb or Jacen.

His metamorphosis from stuffy Imperial to sort of laid back Rebel was gradual but if you thought about it from one year to the next, it was there. They'd gone on countless missions together before he took over the job of Director, and Hera had found his ability to actually follow a plan refreshing. (Not that the seat of the pants version of the rest of her family wasn't entertaining, but it sure gave her a few heart attacks over the years.) They'd done everything from steal supplies, to full on attacks, to undercover spy missions. Once, they'd even acted as couple, because Kanan couldn't exactly pull that off as a ghost, and while somewhat awkward, the laughs everyone had gotten out of it later at Kanan's grumbling had so been worth it.

Hera arrived at the busy office area that housed the Intelligence Division. A dozen harried looking slicers sat at computer terminals, hacking into Imperial secrets and comm channels. They didn't even spare her a glance as she passed by, except for one. Tseebo glanced up and then managed a quick smile. "Morning, General."

Hera smiled warmly at the neon yellow rodian. "Morning, Tseebo," she said before walking on.

She knocked once on the open doorframe of Kallus' semi private office before striding in and placing her hands on his desk, displeased with his appearance. If she had to guess, he hadn't gone to sleep since before the battle yesterday. His eyes were red rimmed, his hair stood on end, the lines in his face were glaringly obvious, and he looked much paler than normal. When he only glanced up at her with a half hearted raised brow in greeting, too absorbed in the stacks of datapads in front of him to do much else, Hera huffed. "KALLUS!" she said in her best General's voice, then smirked a little when he actually jumped a fraction.

Kallus focused bleary eyes on the light green twi'lek. "Yes, Hera?"

"Get up," she said commandingly. "You're coming with me."

"But the reports are flying in," Kallus protested. "I'm putting together a list of important Imperial locations to hit as soon as possible. Time is of the essence if we want to take advantage of the Emperor's demise. There's enough of a structure in place that the Imperial Army, at least, won't be leaderless for long."

Hera paused in her mission. That actually did sound rather important. "Is there anyone else who can do this?"

Kallus scrunched up his face, obviously reluctant to give up his project, but he nodded slowly. "Tseebo can. With his data implant, he's might even be faster at it."

Hers smiled a slow tooka smile. "Excellent. Now get up."

"But..."

Hera raised a brow.

Kallus gave her puppy eyes.

Hera crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes back.

Kallus sighed and stood up, huffing out a stunted, "Fine."

Hera gave him her sweetest smile. "Thank you." She turned and led the way out of the office and back into the organized chaos of computer land. Hera stopped by Tseebo's station and gave Kallus a nod in the slicer's direction.

Kallus just managed to stifle another sigh. "Tseebo?"

Tseebo looked up curiously. "Yes, boss?"

"You're in charge of THE LIST project until I get back."

Tseebo's already large eyes widened impossibly further and he blinked a couple times before a smile spread across his face. "Yes, sir! Ummm. How long will you be gone?"

Kallus raised a brow at Hera.

She smiled wider. "At least a week."

Kallus gave her a look that she ignored and Tseebo looked downright excited to be in charge for that long. If he did a good job over the next week, perhaps the Admiral would promote Tseebo to Director if Kallus didn't come back. But that was all up in the air at the moment. Kallus might not even want to stay with Zeb on a planet full of lasats. She certainly wouldn't blame him. (Just think of the smell.)

"No problem. Tseebo will take care of everything," the rodian said confidently.

"Excellent," Hera replied and started walking out of the big room. "Come on, Kallus," she called over her shoulder when he didn't immediately follow her.

Kallus slumped a little and followed Hera, shaking his head at himself for being such a pushover. But what was he to do? Hera was essentially the head of their family unit and he'd been conditioned to follow orders from a very young age. He couldn't find it in him to tell her no. And if he was honest with himself, he looked forward to whatever holiday or mission or whatever that she had in mind. There were only so many reports you could look at before all the words started to look the same; one big blur.

Kallus caught up to her in the hallway by lengthening his strides. "Are you at least going to let me pack my things?"

Hera shook her head. "Chopper already did that for you. He should be back on the Ghost by now."

Kallus opened his mouth to protest the breach of privacy then thought better of it. It's not like he had anything exciting or confidential to pack anyway. "Thanks," was what he eventually mumbled.

Hera grinned at him, having seen the expressions crossing his face as they walked. "You're welcome. You can sleep all the way to Lothal if you want. You're officially on vacation now. Permission granted and everything."

The thought of lying horizontal for eight hours did sound amazing. "Thank you," he said, much more sincerely this time.

Hera just smiled.

Kallus was roused from has deep slumber when the Ghost dropped out of hyperspace, the shift in momentum and the change in the sound of the engines enough to trigger an instinctual wakeup call. He blinked his sleepy eyes a couple of times until they stayed open. As his brain finally caught up to the reason why he woke up, Kallus felt a surge of energy course through him. He was on vacation! And he got to spend it with most of his family! He couldn't think of a better thought to wake up to.

Kallus surged off the top bunk in his and Zeb's cabin and sped through his morning routine, not even sure what time it was on Lothal yet, but it was morning to him. He arrived in the bridge just as Hera was landing the Ghost beside the barely recognizable comm tower that contained some of his most stressful memories as Fulcrum. He was wearing his most casual outfit and the leather jacket Zeb had given him as a 'welcome to the Rebellion' present years ago and carrying his bag over his shoulder. Rumour had it there was a room with his name on it in the mansion Sabine was building, or built, whatever. Kallus was just excited to have a real room in a real house again. He'd been eight the last time he saw a room in a house he could call his own. Then he was raised in boarding schools and Army barracks. Comparing life from before to life now just hurt, so he tried not to, but it crept past his defences anyway sometimes.

Hera rose from her chair after shutting down the Ghost and smiled at Kallus. "You look much better."

Kallus raised a brow and smiled back. "I have a vague memory of my face in the mirror before falling asleep. I have to agree with you on your assessment. I think I may be getting too old to pull all nighters two nights in a row," he said with a self depreciating shake of his head.

Hera laughed as she started climbing down the ladder to the cargo hold. "Well, the good news is that you don't look your age when you get enough sleep. You can still pass as thirty if you try," she teased as Kallus followed her down the ladder and laughed too.

"Thanks a lot, Hera. Good to know I can shave off almost twenty years just by getting a solid nap," Kallus said with a slight roll of his eyes as they walked down the ramp.

Hera grinned at him and they walked down the new path to the mansion behind the tower. Both came to a halt when the full splendour of the house was visible.

"Whoa," Kallus breathed. "Now that's a house."

Hera nodded mutely, stunned that Sabine had built something so beautiful and LARGE for them to all live in. She'd seen it in the construction stages, but it hadn't really registered just how big it was when it was just a framework of durasteel and lumber.

Inside the house, in the main living room, Jacen suddenly looked up from the board game he and Sabine were playing on the lush carpeted floor. "Mama!" he cried and bolted onto his feet and out the sliding glass doors to the courtyard in an instant with a tiny black kitten streaking in his wake.

Sabine blinked after the pair, a smile taking over her face. Hera could never surprise her son, no matter how she tried, because he always knew where she was, the same way Kanan and Ezra had always known where their family members were, back in the day. That had only disconcerted her for a month or two when Ezra had always been able to find her, back when they were little more than just tentative friends.

Sabine rose to her feet and jogged over to the big dining room where Zeb and the other lasats where gathered, playing sabacc of all things. Who knew lasats as a whole liked the game? "They're here," she said, sticking just her head in the doorway. The flurry of chaos and 'Karabasts' that ensued made her grin as she made her way back from where she came and followed the path Jacen had taken.

Jacen ran as fast as his little legs could go to his mother, who'd knelt to the ground and opened her arms as soon as she saw him. "Mama! Mama!" he called as he ran right into her arms.

Hera closed her arms around her son and hugged him tight. "Hi, baby." She rested her cheek on his soft green hair and just soaked in his little boy essence. From the energy that vibrated through him, to his familiar scent, to the warmth of his body, she would always know the feel of her son.

Jacen hugged his mama back, basking in the love that radiated from her. Eventually Jacen pulled away and turned his beaming face up to Kallus. "Uncle Kal!" he said as he jumped straight up into the man's arms.

Kallus laughed and hugged the leach that had attached itself to him before ruffling his hair. "Hey, little J. I think you grew again in the last few days. You just keep getting bigger."

Jacen grinned happily. "Great! Bigger is good. I don't like being little."

Kallus ruffled his hair again before putting him down. "Fact of life, kid. We all start out little."

Jacen pouted adorably. "Yah. I found that out." A tiny chirrup from behind Jacen made him whirl around and hold out his cupped hands. Spacey immediately jumped up into the offered platform and gave Jacen a look that clearly said he didn't appreciate being ignored. Jacen raised the kitten to his face and rubbed cheeks with him. "Sorry, buddy. But it's my mama and my uncle," he whispered to the kitten. "I missed them."

Spacey blinked, and thought acceptance through their quickly developing bond.

Jacen turned around again and held the kitten up proudly for the people in question to look at. "This is Spacey. He's VERY smart."

Hera and Kallus were in the process of appropriately admiring the black and white lothcat kitten with the ethereal silver eyes when it clearly nodded twice in response to Jacen's statement. She blinked at it and then looked at Kallus. "Did you see that?"

Kallus nodded slowly, eyes wide. "Yes. I did. First the lothwolves and now a sentient lothcat. This planet is NOT normal."

Sabine joined them at that point, overhearing Kallus' statement. "No. It's not. But it's home."

Hera smiled at Sabine in greeting. "Yes, it is." She wrapped an arm around Jacen's shoulders and hugged him into her side. The kitten jumped up onto her flight suit and climbed up to her shoulder and started purring. Hera looked sideways at the kitten in surprise and then felt the most soothing wave of peace and acceptance flow through her. With her other hand, she stroked a tentative finger over its little body and it purred louder and the sense of peace increased. Okay. There was no question about it now. The kitten was definitely part of her family now. She looked down at Jacen and said the words she never thought she would. "I like him too."

Then Hera looked back at Sabine and did a double take at the lime green hair, not having seen the real colour through a hologram over the last few comm calls. "Change it," was all but growled with a disapproving frown. It was enough to make Sabine, Jacen, and a just arriving Zeb crack up into peals of laughter.

Kallus grinned a greeting at Zeb when he stopped chuckling. Zeb clapped him on the back in their standard macho welcome. Then without a word of explanation from his friend, he found himself pushed right through what looked like a very nice house all the way to the back courtyard and past that to another ship of a design that he didn't recognize. The rest of his family trailed behind with grins on their faces that Kallus absolutely did not like the looks of. He planted his feet and stopped the forward momentum. "Alright, Garazeb," he said in a warning tone. "Explain."

Zeb started pushing Kallus again, his boots sort of skidding on the grass. "We're going on a vacation. Just you and me."

Kallus was all right with that, but he didn't like the subterfuge. "Where?" he demanded as his boots hit the edge of the ramp, giving him enough grip to stop the forward movement again.

Zeb rubbed the back of his head and looked at the ground. He really sucked at lying and Kallus could always tell when he did, so that wasn't an option. Zeb went for the truth as best as he could. "I can't tell you, Kal. It's a surprise."

Kallus studied his friend, noting the laid down ears and the pleading in his big lime green eyes. He didn't have the heart to tell him no. "Alright, Zeb. Let's go to your surprise location."

Zeb lit up immediately and jumped past Kallus to a higher point on the ramp, almost vibrating with excitement. "Great! Let's go!"

Kallus looked back at Hera, Sabine, and Jacen, who still had dopey smirks on their faces. "Aren't you going to say goodbye to the others?"

"Oh, right!" Zeb exclaimed, before jumping back down.

Zeb grabbed all three in a massive hug, lifting all their feet off the ground for a minute. "I'll miss you guys," he whispered so Kallus couldn't hear.

When Hera had her feet back on the ground, she cupped Zeb's face in her hands. "You promise to come visit, alright?" she whispered back, staring directly into his eyes.

Zeb nodded, then cleared his throat to fight back the sudden onslaught of emotion. "I'll comm you after we get there," he said in a normal voice. Zeb exchanged one last look with the suddenly sad eyes of his Ghost family before he turned and plastered a happy smile back on his face for Kallus' benefit. "Right. Goodbyes done. Now let's go."

Kallus gave Zeb an odd look for the overly emotional looking goodbye for a simple week long vacation but decided not to comment. Kallus waved goodbye to the Spectres staying behind and walked up the ramp of the strange ship behind Zeb.

The flight through hyperspace to wherever they were going took about six hours, during which time Kallus and Zeb played dejarik and sabacc and watched one of their favourite holomovies for the eleventh time. After Kallus told Zeb about the space battle over Endor and how many TIEs he'd taken out, they just spent the time talking about everything and nothing, all the while, Kallus was trying to subtly get Zeb to say something about where they were going. But Zeb was being amazingly clever and didn't let a single hint drop, which Kallus found somewhat frustrating. He also tried to extract where Zeb had gotten the new ship from, but the lasat was being tightlipped about that as well.

Thankfully, the journey came to an end so Kallus could finally get some answers.

Zeb was sitting in the pilot's chair when the ship dropped out of hyperspace in front of a very familiar imploded star cluster.

Kallus gawked at the equivalent of space suicide as Zeb pointed their ship directly towards it and typed in some more coordinates into the nav computer. "Zeeeeeeb. Why are we here?"

Zeb grinned as the lasat crafted ship jumped into hyperspace right into the imploding stars, the special shields crackling around the hull and keeping them from blowing up. "You remember when you chased us into here?"

Kallus was currently gawking at the shield that looked like it was made of lightning as they travelled through a hyperspace made of colours like he'd never seen before. It was beyond beautiful. He barely managed to say, "Yeees?"

Zeb sat back in his chair, a smug look on his face as he crossed his arms over his wide chest. "Well, we found something in here that I think you should see."

Kallus glanced at Zeb then went back to staring at the rainbow view. He suddenly realized he'd seen something just like this in a more than one of Sabine's paintings. Now he knew where she got the inspiration. "What did you find?"

Zeb glanced at the nav computer readout. "I'll tell you in seven minutes."

Kallus glared at Zeb but just got an obstinate look back, so he sighed and slouched in his chair, copying Zeb's cross-armed stance and watched the view some more in sulking silence. He was pretty sure he could get hypnotized if he watched it long enough.

Just before the seven minutes were up, Zeb addressed his friend. "Kal, can you go stand facing away from the windows and close your eyes?"

"Seriously?" Kallus asked incredulously.

"Please?" Zeb pleaded. He'd had this moment planned in his mind for what felt like eons. He wanted it to be perfect.

Kallus huffed out an, "Alright," and did as asked, not believing he was actually facing the back wall with his eyes closed. He felt ridiculous.

Zeb pressed a button on his commlink, letting Zek know it was time. He dropped the ship out of hyperspace at the far edge of the star cluster where one healthy star shone brightly and a single planet orbited it faithfully, despite the odds against it. He stopped the ship with the sun and the planet in perfect view and stood up. Walking tentatively over to Kallus, he touched him on the shoulder. "Kal? We're here." He put his paw over Kallus' eyes and turned him around so the view was just right. Zeb sucked in a big breath for courage and took his hand off Kallus' eyes. "This is Lira San, the homeworld of the lasat."

Kallus stared at the planet in disbelief that it could exist inside a star cluster, before he registered what Zeb said. He looked at his friend in shock. "You mean...?" he could barely speak.

Zeb nodded. "Yes, Kal. A whole planet of lasats. You didn't wipe us all out."

Kallus felt like he might actually cry. He blinked rapidly to stave off the onslaught. And then the bridge door opened and he saw four more lasats. Two, he recognized as the ones the Ghost crew had rescued on that fateful day so many years ago, but the other two... why did one of them look just like Zeb?

The other lasats came into the bridge as well and Zeb introduced Kallus to everyone. "Kallus, this is Chava, our wise woman, or resident Force user to put it in terms you're familiar with, and this is Gron, a retired Honor Guardsman turned scholar." He pointed to the beige and brown striped one next. "This is Rolanej Zanolios, the last surviving member of the royal family from Lasan. His personal Guardsman evacuated him from the planet at the first sign of Imperial hostility. He was just a kit then."

Nej grinned and shook the hand of the stunned Kallus.

Zeb continued on, saving the best for last. "And this... This is my little brother, Frezek, or Zek for short. Chava just found Nej and Zek on an isolated planet, hiding from the Empire, and now we're all going home."

Kallus barely registered shaking the hand of Zeb's brother, because he was still shocked at the resemblance between the two. Then he whipped his head to the side to look at Zeb. "What a minute. What do you mean WE are all going home?"

Zeb looked at Kallus with almost desperate hope in his eyes. "I'm moving to Lira San to be with my brother."

Kallus kind of sagged at the news. "I see."

"But," Zeb continued. "I was hoping you would move with me."

Kallus stopped breathing for a moment as he looked from one lasat face to another, all of whom were looking at him expectantly, with zero accusation for who he was or used to be. They were just patiently waiting to see his response. As air returned to his lungs, he felt like his whole soul had just expanded and his heart filled with joy. "Yes, Zeb. Yes."