A/N: Okay everyone. Please don't hate me for what you're about to read. I got the idea based on a CANON comment made by Leia in 34 ABY when the Rebel Files were recovered. Leia says, "The Hera Syndulla? If only they had known where she'd end up." No matter how much I tried, I couldn't stop thinking of the following. So I wrote it. And now I'm posting with a cringe on my face.
I'm so very sorry. (You might want to get a box of Kleenex.)
Hera's Daring Sacrifice:
D134/20 ABY, Space
Kanan followed his sense of Hera to a shuttle zipping through hyperspace. He found her stuffed in a crate unceremoniously, still unconscious, but otherwise unhurt. He was just about to lift her out of the crate when a warning from the Force made him whirl around instead. A black clad man with a helmet covering his entire head faced him, radiating the Dark Side. The cold hate hit Kanan in a wave, almost knocking him back a step.
Jykto sneered under his helmet at the ghost. "I've been waiting for you to show up. We know you protect this female, but this time, I think you might just want to leave her where she is." He held up a detonator for the ghost to see. "If you move her, I'll blow this shuttle up and she'll die. So will I, but hey, it's worth the gamble and to see the expression on your face right now."
Kanan was almost shaking with the rage that swept through him before he gave it to the Force and made himself calm down. He schooled his expression into a neutral one. "Fine, I won't move her, but you can't make me leave her. Eventually you'll arrive at wherever you're going and I doubt you'll leave her in a crate in this shuttle indefinitely. I can wait."
Jykto laughed coldly. "You'll wait in vain, Jedi. My Master has plans and that doesn't include your interference." He turned on his heel with a swirl of his ankle length duster and went back to the cockpit of the small shuttle, showing how much he didn't care about the presence of a ghost. "Oh, and don't try to wake her up either," he called across the short distance. "That would make my thumb very twitchy."
Kanan glared at the back of the man's helmet, being very un Jedi for the moment and wishing he'd drop dead. With a sigh, he turned back to Hera's prone form and arranged her limbs into a more comfortable position and then whispered a hand down one of her lekku in apology for not being able to rescue her then and there. He just couldn't risk her life in case the man wasn't bluffing about blowing up the shuttle. Closing his eyes, he settled into a meditation pose on the floor beside the crate and prepared to outwait the other man.
Three hours after departing Lothal, the Mandalorian ship full of Jedi arrived at Rim 3. Kanan hadn't come back yet, which they had various theories about, but because of Jacen, it didn't matter. (And they almost left him behind!) Chopper met them with the Ghost up in space and Jacen pointed the way towards his mother, concentrating on a star map and pointing to coordinates about a half hour jump from Rim 3.
Sabine called the reinforcements waiting for word from her, most of which were already well on their way to Rim 3, and gave them the new coordinates. With a lot of comming between various factions, they got everyone's estimated time of arrival and coordinated a joint attack on the enemy for two hours from now. Anyone who wasn't going to make it by then could just join in whenever they arrived. (It never hurt to have reinforcements arrive later.) In the meantime, Sabine's little group of Jedi were going to go rescue Hera.
Jykto had arrived at Snoke's command ship, the Supremacy, more than two and half hours ago, but he waited patiently just outside the mega class Star Dreadnaught, just for the fun of confounding the Jedi ghost. He also kept the twi'lek asleep, because he really didn't want to hear any sort of sappy conversation between the two.
Jykto had already informed his Master that the trap had been successful and that the ghost had shown up as expected. Now they were waiting for the inevitable rescue party to arrive. Snoke was confident the infamous Finder would have no problem locating his mother.
Now the Darksider sat, basically slumped in his chair, figuratively twiddling his thumbs and staring out the window absently at the fleet of more than fifty Star Destroyers or ships of a similar size that Snoke had accumulated over the last hundred years while he waited patiently for the right time to take over the galaxy.
He sat up abruptly when a Kom'rk class Mando ship appeared out of hyperspace, followed a second later by the twi'lek's freighter. No one shot at them as they were under orders for them to be allowed through. Snoke wanted to personally see whoever had come for the twi'lek and he didn't want the Finder harmed in a senseless space battle.
Kanan opened his eyes when the Darksider muttered, "Show time," and the shuttle moved again, aiming for a hangar. He rose to his feet and glanced at Hera, reassured to see her still sleeping peacefully. Kanan had felt Ezra, Jacen, and the others arrive. Now he just needed to protect Hera until they could come and get her. If Kanan could, he'd zip her through space the same way he did, but he couldn't. Sigh.
Jykto turned his head and smirked under his helmet at the ghost. "Tell your friends to come on in, if they dare. But you're not welcome."
"What?" Kanan exclaimed just before the shuttle flew into the hangar. His eyes widened in surprise and then fear as he felt an impenetrable shield of Dark energy surrounding the dreadnaught. Before he even really had a chance to react, as the shuttle passed through the Dark Force made shield, Kanan was shoved out of the shuttle and left floating in space, muttering curses to himself. Now he knew why they hadn't entered the ship until Ezra had arrived. That shield would have taken a great deal of power to put up, and they wouldn't have wanted to do it any earlier than necessary.
Kanan turned and zipped into the Lothhawk, where the other Jedi and Sabine were having a rather heated discussion about what to do now. Despite having the vague idea that Snoke would have a fleet, they hadn't really expected to see so many enemy ships. They also didn't know what to make of the fact that the enemy was just letting them sit there without firing at them.
"Enough!" Kanan said loudly. He didn't have much patience right now, with Hera in danger and him not able to do anything about it.
The group turned to Kanan, looks of relief crossing many of their faces to see him. He was bombarded by questions, but Jacen's, "Is Mom okay?" was the only one he bothered to answer.
Kanan put a comforting hand on his son's shoulder. "She's fine. For now." He looked everyone in the eyes seriously. From Ezra, to Sabine, to Ahsoka, to Rowan, to Raign, to Krystal, to Mara Jade, and finally, Luke. "I don't know what's waiting for you on that ship, but I'm sure it's not good. They're expecting you to just fly in there and surrender yourselves or something. That's an awful lot to ask, and I can't help you. There's some sort of shield that won't let me through. I don't know where Snoke learned how to do that or even how he knows that I exist, but he's well prepared." Kanan sighed as he looked at Sabine again. "I know I can't stop you, but I don't think you should go in there."
Sabine sucked in a breath, feeling hurt, before Ezra touched her back in comfort.
Kanan continued, sorrow in his eyes for everything that was happening. "I know you're the best hand to hand fighter we have, Sabine, but you don't stand a chance against Darksiders. These people are VERY strong and I'm sure they won't hesitate to choke you to death before you could even fire off a few shots."
Sabine shook her head in denial at having to stay behind, but she knew Kanan was right. She turned woebegone eyes up at Ezra and got a hug to comfort her.
"He's right, cyar'ika," Ezra whispered into her hair. "Just think of the kids at the very least. If something happens to me, they won't be left alone."
Sabine exhaled shakily as she came to terms with that scary possibility and gripped Ezra's shirt tightly. She rested her forehead on his chest for a moment, eyes closed as she got control of her emotions. She heaved a sigh and looked up, "Okay, I'll transfer over to the Ghost." She stared at her husband with an almost glaring look. "But you better come back to me, you hear me?"
Ezra nodded solemnly once, royal blue eyes just as miserable as hers. "I promise to do everything I can to see you again at the end of this."
Sabine pulled his head down for a mouth smashing kiss and then jammed her helmet on her head and marched out of the bridge, heading for the escape pod.
Ezra stared after her retreating form with his heart in his eyes for a moment before visibly shaking himself back into fight mode. "Right. Let's go get Hera." He moved to take the pilot's chair, but was stopped by Rowan and Jacen.
"Wait." Jacen said. "I'm tracking where they're taking her." His lips curled up in humourless smile. "I say we surprise them by not flying right into a hangar where they're expecting us to go."
Rowan smiled grimly too. "We'll make our own hangar."
Ezra looked from his knighted padawan to his little brother and a real smile started to form on his face. "You two are amazing, you know that?"
The two youngest Jedi grinned back. "We know," they said in unison.
Jykto tossed the twi'lek over his shoulder and strode out of the shuttle. He passed a dozen Knights of Ren and a couple hundred troopers before he even left the hangar. The Jedi scum were in for a nasty surprise when they landed. The Knights and the troopers had orders to capture the green haired Finder and to kill the others on sight.
The Master of the Knights strode through hallways, effortlessly carrying his burden, aiming for his Master's throne room. Striding in confidently, Jykto dumped the sleeping twi'lek on the floor in front of his Master and let go of his hold on her mind, allowing her to wake up. He knelt down in front of Snoke, who reclined on his throne negligently. "Your prize, My Lord."
Snoke sat up slightly and twitched his misshapen face into something that might be called a smile if you were very generous. "Very good, Apprentice. Everything is going exactly as I have foreseen."
Hera moaned and rubbed her temple where a pounding headache was making itself known. She sat up and looked around her, trying to figure out where she was and what had happened. She saw a vast open room surrounded by a lot of windows and imposing looking men dressed in red ringing the edges of the room. Hera turned around a little and saw the man in black, causing her memories to rush back. She gasped and glared. "What did you do to me?" she accused the man, who was now wearing a helmet, but she recognized the clothes. "And where am I?"
"You are my guest," a raspy voice said behind her mockingly.
Hera whirled around and rose to her feet at the same time, reaching for her nonexistent blaster as chills swept through her. She took in the horrible looking man with the chilling ice blue eyes and sucked in a breath of pure fear. There was something about him that made her break out in gooseflesh and her lekku practically cringed right off her head. She backed away a few steps until an invisible hand grabbed her and held her still. "You must be Snoke," she choked out through her fear constricted throat.
Snoke inclined his head regally. "You would be correct, but I would prefer that you address me as Supreme Leader. We wouldn't want to be disrespectful, now would we?"
Hera felt her head being turned for her in a negative shake, and that almost completely freaked her out. She understood in that moment that she was just a doll to these people. They could snap her in two at any moment if they wanted to, so why hadn't they?
And then she understood, as a familiar silver, orange, and blue ship appeared at the window in her peripheral vision.
She was bait. For her son. For her family.
Kriff.
And a whole lot more swear words that she may have picked up over the years but was too ladylike to say out loud.
"Excellent," Snoke purred chillingly. "The rest of the party has arrived. Although I'm not sure what they think they're going to do from there."
Hera raised a brow and smirked knowingly. Snoke had underestimated her family if he didn't understand what was about to happen. She most certainly wasn't going to enlighten him.
Ezra parked the Lothhawk just outside the transparisteel windows of the throne room, having a perfect view of Hera standing tensely in front of an ancient and grotesque looking man on the throne. He sighed in relief to see her unhurt still.
Rowan immediately went to work, closing his eyes as he got a feeling for the massive ship in front of them. Before he started moving things around, he triggered the emergency shield in the event of a broken window. Rowan smirked a little as he did a little more than break a window. He literally dismantled the window frames and tossed the transparisteel sections and the durasteel frames out into space, leaving a more than large enough hole for Ezra to fly the Lothhawk through.
Ahsoka, Jacen, and the rest were already standing at the top of the ramp, waiting for them to land and the ramp to descend, ready to fight.
Kanan was once again pushed out of a ship as it passed through the anti ghost shield that was still as strong as ever. He cursed and waited, pressing himself as close to the shield as he could stand. It had to drop eventually. A shield like this just took too much power. All he needed was the maker of the shield to be distracted for a moment.
Ezra landed the ship and then he and Rowan dashed out of the bridge.
When Jykto saw the ship at the window, he immediately summoned the rest of the Knights of Ren to the throne room. He spared a moment to give the Jedi credit for doing the unexpected. He even raised a brow in surprise when the windows were literally dismantled as opposed to the shots he would have anticipated. Shots would have just bounced off the shields, but there was nothing to stop a slow moving ship from flying right through an empty space. Clever.
Snoke watched dispassionately as seven Jedi ignored the long ramp of their ship and jumped down to the floor, lightsabres and Kyberswords drawn. The staff in the togrutan's hand was a surprise, but he dismissed it as inconsequential. He'd already heard about the swords via his spies. Snoke increased his hold on the twi'lek and lifted her high off the floor, gently squeezing her slender throat. "Stop," he commanded. "Or she dies."
Ezra, Jacen, and the others froze, eyes darting from Hera's gasping form to Snoke.
Kriff that, Ahsoka thought. She concentrated the Force through her staff and shot a bolt of white energy at the Dark Side monster.
Snoke just barely threw himself out of the path of the energy bolt that shattered his throne into thousands of pieces, in the process letting go of the twi'lek to save himself.
As Hera fell back to the floor with a strangled cry, all hell broke loose.
The Red Guards rushed forward to attack the Jedi. Jykto leapt at the group, red lightsabre brandished high. The Knights of Ren rushed into the room and joined the quickly spreading battle. Lightsabres, swords, light staff, force pikes, vibro-voulges, electro-bisentos, and Bilari electro-chain whips flashed and swung and smashed against each other in a cacophony of noise and movement. It was seven Jedi against eight Elite Praetorian guards and thirteen Knights of Ren.
Theoretically, Snoke's people should have won rather easily. But as Snoke watched from where he'd thrown himself behind the dais, it just wasn't so. The guards fell first, one after another, as the Jedi picked off his elite, but not Force sensitive, guard. Then Knights started falling as well. It was almost inconceivable. Somewhere in his stunned brain, Snoke remembered to keep up his anti ghost shield. His spies had seen more than one ghost mingling with this group of Jedi, and Snoke knew very well how powerful a ghost had to be to manifest in the land of the living. He didn't want any of them to mess this up any worse, so he drew even more energy from his Apprentices and even tapped into the life forces of the thousands of officers and soldiers that lived on the ship to make his shield even stronger.
Ignored by the combatants, Hera crept across the floor on her stomach, clenching her teeth against the pain of the broken ankle she'd gotten from the fall, her eyes fixated on her new mission in life. Her gaze shifted from the fallen lightsabre to Snoke, who was cowering behind his ruined throne and back again. She very carefully kept her mind blank and her shields slammed closed, having learned her lesson the hard way.
She rolled to the side as she almost got stepped on and then continued onwards, getting ever closer to her goal. She smiled grimly in triumph when her fingers wrapped around the hilt of the lightsabre, ignoring the fallen body of a black clad man that lay beside it. Now all she had to do was get to her target.
She continued sliding, still unobserved, around the other the side of the raised dais the ruined throne sat on, carefully pushing debris out of her path. And then, for the first time in her life, Hera turned on a lightsabre. She plunged the glowing red blade through the side of the, (sneer), Supreme Leader, just as he registered her presence. A lightsabre she hadn't even known he had appeared in his hand from inside his sleeve and plunged into Hera's chest in return.
They stared at each other in equal amounts of shock and hate as it registered that they'd killed each other. Hera's wrist tilted, cutting Snoke in half and she dropped the lightsabre before she too slumped to the ground.
Kanan could only watch as his beautiful, courageous, STUPID Hera surprised the enemy and paid for it with her life. He'd thrown himself against the shield repeatedly until he hurt. He'd screamed at her, both out loud and in her mind, but she'd shut him out. She'd shut everyone out. On purpose. So no one would realize her intention and stop her. As her appropriated lightsabre pierced Snoke, the shield FINALLY fell and Kanan rushed to Hera's side.
As soon as Sabine docked the escape pod with the Ghost, she dashed into the bridge and gave Chopper a quick once over, taking in the broken strut and the somewhat crushed in casing. She patted his dome fondly as he beeped forlornly at her. "You're okay, Chop. We'll get you fixed up in no time when we get home."
Sabine moved to the pilot's chair and took over flying the ship, manoeuvring it so that it was as close to the new hangar that Rowan had made as she dared. She'd grinned when Ezra had commed her with their plan. Now, except for where the Lothhawk blocked her view, she got to watch all the action happen through her trusty helmet. As enemy after enemy fell to the weapons of her family and friends, Sabine's smirk grew. Try and steal their Hera, would they? Hah!
It took her a few minutes to notice that Hera was moving across the floor slowly but surely. At first Sabine thought Hera was just trying to get out of the way of the fighting, but then she saw her pick up a lightsabre. Sabine's heart near stopped as she figured out what Hera was doing.
"Kriffidy, kriff kriff," she muttered. She didn't dare call to Ezra or any of the others because they were all in the midst of intense one on one battles right now and they did NOT need to be distracted. Quickly manoeuvring the Ghost so that the empty docking door was just inside the large hole made by Rowan, Sabine yelled at Chopper to keep the Ghost there while she ran out of the bridge and down the hallway. She skidded around the corner and down the sloping hall to the docking door and smacked the button, cursing at the door when it didn't open fast enough. She slipped through the opening as soon it was wide enough and jumped down to the floor of the throne room.
Sabine choked on a sob as she saw that she was already too late.
Hera was draped over Kanan's arms and everyone was flocking around them. Sabine just knew that Hera wasn't going to make it. As she ran up to the kneeling figures, throwing herself down beside Ezra, she tossed off her helmet and angrily swiped at the tears that were blinding her.
Hera stared out the window into empty space, unable to move. The hole through her chest had severed her spine, burnt through the tops of both her lungs, and seared her now struggling heart. Oddly enough, it didn't hurt. But the echoing screams of, "MOM!" and "HERA!" that rang through her ears did.
As tears fell from her eyes, Kanan appeared beside her and gathered her up into his arms so she could look on his beloved, anguished face. He had silver ghost tears streaming down his cheeks as he cupped her face. "Hera. Oh Force. Hera. Why did you do it?" he sobbed.
Jacen literally ran away from the knight he'd been fighting, not caring about him anymore as he felt the bond with his mother start to flutter. He'd looked over and seen her lying on the floor behind the dais, the cut in half body of Snoke lying beside her. Jacen had screamed in agony and now he was kneeling beside her and his father, tears falling unheeded on her still form that seemed to drape over Kanan's lap bonelessly. "Mom. Why?" he barely choked out.
Hera's eyes flicked over the nearly identical faces of her two beautiful men and she mustered a shaky smile as her breath stuttered in and out and her fluttering heartbeat pounded like a dying echo in her ears. "To keep you safe," she whispered as she focused on her beloved son. "To keep the galaxy safe." Hera turned her eyes to her husband and she smiled just a little wider. "Now I can always be with you, love."
Kanan nodded and smiled through his tears, putting on a brave face as their eyes locked. He barely registered the presence of the rest of his family arriving and kneeling beside him as the light in her beautiful emerald eyes faded away and her heart gave up the fight. Kanan gulped back another sob and gently handed her body to his son. He touched his head gently until Jacen met his eyes. "It's okay," Kanan said softly. "She's going to a really nice place now. I think she might even love it."
Jacen nodded mutely, unable to speak through the tears lodged in his throat.
Kanan gave him a shaky smile. "I'll come see you tomorrow. I'm sorry." With one last loving touch to Jacen's green hair, Kanan disappeared.
Jacen choked on a sob and kissed his mother's forehead and closed her sightless eyes, then hugged her body to his chest as the arms of his family surrounded him in support, the echoes of sorrow resounding through the Force.
Jykto gaped in astonishment when the Finder abandoned their fight and literally screamed as he ran across the room. Then he felt the bond with his Master snap and shatter. Jykto staggered and stared wide eyed at the two halves of his Master's body and the people gathering around the fallen twi'lek that had apparently killed his Master.
Recovering his composure out of sheer determination, he glanced around and saw that he was the last Knight standing as the last of his brothers fell to the fiercely glowing dark red sword of an amphibian Jedi. Knowing this was probably his only chance to escape, he ignored the pain in his leg that had a hole burnt through the thigh and dashed across the room almost faster than the eye could see to the hidden door that led to Snoke's personal shuttle.
Thirty seconds later, he was swiftly starting the Lambda shuttle with his remaining left hand. He flew out of the dreadnaught and punched in the coordinates for his hideout. Jykto slumped into the pilot's chair as the shuttle jumped into hyperspace. He glanced over at his right shoulder that no longer had an arm attached to it dispassionately. He'd always thought a prosthetic limb was a cool look for a Darksider. Now he'd have an excellent reason to sport one. Jykto snorted at himself for his somewhat delirious thinking and closed his eyes as he leaned his head back.
Only one thought was clear in his mind; the Jedi would pay for what they had done to his Master and his brothers.
Ahsoka was the first to move past the grief as she'd had the most experience by far with dealing with loss. (Countless clone brothers and fellow Jedi, her Master, her Grandmaster, her Order, basically her entire way of life.) She sniffed as she rose to her feet and touched the shoulders of Rowan, Luke, Mara Jade, Raign, and Krystal. When they looked up at her with grief stricken eyes, she nodded off to the side, indicating they should join her. She left Ezra and Sabine to comfort Jacen for now. He needed them.
As the others all joined her on the other side of the room, Ahsoka looked at them very seriously. "We're taking this ship. I don't know about you, but I feel the need to do something productive while we wait another hour for the majority of our allies to arrive." She smiled grimly when the others nodded eagerly.
"Just tell us what to do," Luke said.
So she did.
Ahsoka and Rowan took command of the bridge. Luke and Mara Jade took control of the engine and weapons sections. And Raign and Krystal protected the massive shield generators. Any troopers or officers that protested the takeover found themselves quickly knocked out or executed, no match for six pissed off Jedi who weren't afraid to channel just a hint of the Dark Side when the need arose.
Sabine and Ezra followed Jacen in solemn silence as he carried Hera's body to her room on the Ghost and laid her down gently, arranging her limbs carefully so she looked like she was sleeping peacefully with her hands folded over the hole in her chest.
Ezra wrapped Sabine in his arms and rested his chin on her head as she buried her face in his jacket and fought back even more tears as Chopper limped into the room and wailed, doing everything but crying real tears as he got as close to Hera's bunk as he could and touched her body with a tentative manipulator.
Jacen hugged the droid, wishing Spacey was here to hug too. But he'd left in such a rush, the big lothcat hadn't even had a chance to follow him. Jacen's tears slowed and his breathing steadied just a little as he felt the comforting brush of Skye's mind against his, lending her support as best as she could from so far away. It felt like her arms had wrapped around him, and that helped immeasurably.
Ezra put a hand on Jacen's shoulder for a minute and then led Sabine out of the cabin. They still had a mission to complete and Hera would be terribly mad at them if they didn't get their heads back in the game. He paused after Hera's door closed behind them and held Sabine by the shoulders for a moment as they looked at each other in complete understanding of their shared grief. Ezra smiled a watery, shaky smile and wiped the tear tracks off of Sabine's cheeks. "You okay?"
Sabine nodded bravely. "You?"
Ezra nodded just as bravely.
They both knew they were lying.
Sabine heaved a sigh and glanced at Hera's door once more. "Okay. Let's go see what Ahsoka's been up to. If I know her, she's done all the fun stuff already."
Ezra laughed darkly once, because Sabine was right, and they made their way back into the throne room. Sabine detoured to pick up her helmet and then they went looking for their fearless leader.
They found her in the bridge just starting a broadcast to Snoke's entire fleet. The bridge was littered with bodies and a few smart souls who'd immediately surrendered, and where now basically cowering against a wall. (None of them were high ranking officers.)
"This is Ahsoka Tano, Grand Master of the New Jedi Order. We have taken control of your command ship and your leaders are all deceased. This will be your only warning to surrender or we will destroy you. You have five minutes to decide and send you surrender notifications to me. Any ships that have not done so within that timeframe will wish they had." Ahsoka smiled in a chilling fashion as hundreds of ships appeared out of hyperspace, surrounding the enemy fleet. "If you were thinking about running for it, look out your windows. Our allies have arrived and are eager for a fight. If you're wondering, you're looking at the New Republic's 2nd fleet under the command of Admiral Solo. The Chiss fleet, under the command of Grand Admiral Thrawn. The Mandalorian fleet, under the command of the Mand'alor, Bo-Katan Kryze. And finally, the infamous Lothal Defenders, under the command of Admiral Ketsu Onyo, guaranteed to wipe the floor with your small fighters. And, just for the fun of it, the New Republic's 1st fleet is on its way as well. Your five minutes starts now."
They didn't have to wait five minutes for every single ship in Snoke's fleet to surrender. And Sabine had been looking forward to seeing some of them explode too.
Lothrats.
Hera opened her eyes to find herself lying on her bunk in the Ghost. She turned her head and smiled at Kanan, who lay beside her, looking at her with a much too serious and sad face. She cupped his face in her hands, thrilling at how real he felt now, and kissed him soft and sweet until he responded and opened with a groan, the kiss turning passionate and almost desperate in seconds.
They pulled back a few life reaffirming minutes later, and pressed their foreheads together as they gazed into each other's eyes lovingly. She breathed in deeply and pulled back, looking around at her cabin curiously. "Why does this look like the Ghost?"
Kanan smiled and kissed the top of her head, hugging her close in unimaginable joy. "Because it is, darling. The Afterlife can be whatever you want it to be, look however you want it to look. I thought you might like to live on a copy of our home and fly around through space. If not, just tell me and we can think up something else together."
Hera shook her head quickly and buried her fingers in his hair. "No. No. It's perfect. You always did know me so well." She kissed a path along his jaw and stopped at his mouth, whispering against his lips. "You're perfect. I love you, Kanan."
Kanan grinned and rolled her underneath of him, bracing his hands on either side of her head. "I love you too, Hera," he whispered back.
Then he proceeded to show her how very very much that was.