Disclaimer: I do not own star wars rebels. Just the modifications made.
"Not too good at following directions, huh?" Sabine queried as Ezra strolled into the break room.
"Nope, not really. You?" He retorted, hoping she did not notice the cube he was trying to hide.
OK, rewind a bit. So Ezra felt that unusual feeling again (seems to be happening a lot today, eh?). He still wasn't sure what it was. Sure, it did save his bacon several times recently, but it also landed him, on a ship, with a bunch of briggans, which happened to include a mandalorean, an oversized purple monong, and a murderous droid. Ezra, letting his curiosity get the better of him, went back onto the ship to find the source.
And of course, though nobody in this galaxy knew what it was, Murphy's law just had to act (Murphy, you sneaky son of a bantha, messing in other galaxies). Following the "feeling", Ezra found himself breaking into a crew quarter.
"Okay? Where is it coming from?" He mumbled to himself, shutting his eyes and trying to focus on this 'feeling'. Again, he could hear the faint sound associated with this "feeling". It was almost like...singing? And this time it came from a drawer under the bunk. Curious, he slowly pulled it open to reveal…
An ornate cube, albeit quite vintage and, if he were to be honest with himself, mildly beautiful. He could feel this 'feeling' radiating off of it. He stashed it away, making a mental note to examine it more closely later on. He was about to leave, but he paused. He could still feel that 'feeling', but this time it was stronger. And it seemed to come from the drawer. "Well, that's weird," he mumbled, "There isn't anything else in-nevermind," He gave the drawer a strong tug, revealing a hidden compartment. He could make out that this object was some kind of gadget from the part that was jutting out, though it wasn't like anything he had seen. Before he could inspect it any further, he heard the doors slide open and a voice saying, "Anything interesting?"
Turns out, it was Kanan's cabin. And though he didn't show it, Ezra was pretty certain he was seething with anger. He had just severely pissed off two of the 'pirates', one of them being the leader and the other a humongous brute of a monong. Not good odds for his survival. And if he isn't careful, he'll get caught by another carrying an ornate cube, most likely pissing her off. Galaxy life 101: never piss off a mandalorean
Sabine huffed at his response. "Never been my specialty,"
"Who are you people?" Ezra blurted out. "You don't exactly seem like pirates or thieves. Hell, you even helped an entire settlement. And that wasn't the first time, was it?" The images of the starving and displaced residents were still fresh in his mind.
"We're not exactly anything," she replied, "I guess you can say we're a crew, a team. In some ways, family, I guess,"
"Family, huh?" Ezra mumbled
Sabine's eyes widened. Shit. How could she forget? She didn't mean to tug at a nerve. Family was no doubt a touchy subject with this kid. How could she be so tactless?
"Hey," she said, getting Ezra to look up, "I lost my real family to the empire too. I know what it's like to have nobody look out for you. Nobody to stand by you. I know that feeling of anguish, pain and sorrow. But you can't just sit around and wallow in despair. You don't have to move on, but sometimes you just have to accept what happened and strive on. I know it sounds cliché, but don't let it get you down. Don't give up hope,"
The kid's mood, Ezra, Sabine reminded herself, appeared to lighten a bit at her words. Just then, the door slid open and wouldn't ya know it, zeb lumbers through with chopper right behind him.
"Kanan wants us in the common room," He states, glaring at Ezra (who remained unfazed), "He tries anything, sound the alarm," he added to the droid, "Or shoot him,"
"Whomp whomp whoooommmpp," chopper shot back with obvious sass, sarcasm and impertinence. Y'know, droid stuff. Not that the Lasat could understand.
"Yeah, whatever. Now shush!" He growled, before walking out. Ezra, meanwhile, had a small smile, being able to roughly understand the droid's insult, again due to his many years on the streets. His smile faded as he thought back to that day 8 years ago. His mind traveled to the short conversation with Sabine and her words of encouragement. Sure, they were a little cliché, but somehow, he could tell that she really meant what she said. Pulling himself back out of his thoughts, he noticed Sabine about to leave, the lasat probably having already left
"Hey," he said. Sabine halted, turning her head ever so slightly, and peering out of the corner of her eyes. Beautiful Ezra absentmindedly thought, before shutting that away. "Thanks," He managed to get out.
"No problem," Sabine replied, turning around and walking out of the room, a small genuine smile plastered on her face (Though Ezra can't exactly see it). Ezra meanwhile, found himself genuinely smiling as well, something which the senile droid took note of.
"Whomp," Chopper grunted, bumping into Ezra, "Whomp whomp whomp, whomp whomp whoooommmpp," roughly translated as "Hey, what are you smiling at, you meatbag?"
Ezra proceeded to glare at the rustbucket. "Shut it, you rusty glob of grease,"
"Whomp whomp whomp whomp waa whomp" (Don't even think about it, you accident. She wants nothing to do with you)
"Who are you calling an accident?"
"Waa waa whomp wa whomp whomp. Waa-waaa whomp. Whomp whomp whaa waaa whomp," (You obviously. Why else would they abandon you and leave you on the streets? Looking at you now, they probably made the right choice)
"You wanna repeat that, greasecan?"
"Whomp whomp whomp whomp whomp. Whomp, whomp whaa waa whomp whoomp" (you heard me, accident. What are you deaf AND stupid?)
"My parents did not abandon me, you greasecan! Shut it!"
"Whoomp, waa whomp whomp whomp-whomp. Whoompp, whomp?" (Yeah they did. And what're you gonna do about it?)
"How about I shoot you?" Ezra shot back, grabbing one of his parent's old pistols. (He valued his life and got rid of the stolen blaster). Before he could unholster it however, chopper whipped out his taser and shocked Ezra, before grabbing his blaster and charging out of the room. Ezra swore. "GET BACK HERE, YOU RUSTBUCKET!"
Chopper merely laughed and took off. Ezra followed suit, grabbing a wrench on the way. He charged through a doorway where he presumed the droid escaped through.
Only to find it empty. Cursing to himself, he made to leave, before halting. He could hear voices coming from the other side of one door. Intrigued, he walked over and leaned against the other door.
"...acquired the flight plans of an imperial transport carrying wookies,"
"Many of these wookies were soldiers for the old republic. They were some of the best,"
"I owe those walking carpets. They saved some of my people,"
"Mine too,"
"We only have a tight window to save 'em. They're being taken to an unknown slave labour camp. Once they reach, we won't be able to find them. I have a plan, but-"
"WHOMP WHOMP!"
THAT LITTLE SHIT! Ezra spun around to find the old astromech right behind him. Chopper spun and made for the exit, but Ezra pounced on him, wrestling his blaster from the droid. Chopper zapped him again in response. To which Ezra, disregarding the inevitable pain, gave chopper a hard kick. He felt his foot ache, but looked on in satisfaction as chopper was lifted off its legs and actually flew across the room. His satisfaction turned to dread, though, as at that moment the door slid open to reveal Kanan. Well, whatever kanan was expecting to find, it certainly wasn't an oversized 100 kilogram greasecan delivered through airmail.
"Chopper! Are you OK?" Hera rushed over to check on her droid, ignoring a whimpering Kanan.
"I get crushed by a 100 kilogram lump of scrap and you worry about the droid?" He groaned, wincing as his ear got tugged by an irate Hera.
"Chopper is an invaluable member of this crew and he has feelings. He's not a lump of scrap. Besides, you're a grown man. You've faced worse that this. Stop whining," she admonished, before fussing over the c1 unit.
Ezra grimaced. Great he thought Now I actually hurt another. I'm not getting off alive, am I? His thoughts were cut short by a sudden burst of laughter. He looked around to see Zeb laughing his purple lasat ass off. "That was brilliant, kid!" He said, gasping for breath. Sabine too looked quite amused.
Chopper grunted and went off in a stream of code. "He says you were eavesdropping on our conversation, and that you chased him around and kicked him,"
"Firstly, he stole one of my WESTARs and zapped me before running off. Secondly, I got curious. The walls aren't exactly soundproof anyway,"
Chopper grumbled. "Whomp waa-whoommmpp" (Can we get rid of this meatbag?)
"No we can't!" Defended Sabine, who blushed upon realising how aggressive she sounded before hastily suppressing it, "He knows too much"
"Either way, we don't have time to send him home. We need to leave. And I'll be watching him for now," Hera declared, dragging Ezra by the ear to the cockpit
"What, hey! OW!"
"That's for kicking my droid," Hera said with a grin
"We'll be arriving shortly spectre 1. You guys ready?"
"Ready as we'll ever be spectre 2,"
"May this op not go sideways" Hera added after closing the com channel.
He and Hera were in the cockpit staring out into hyperspace. Sabine, Kanan, Zeb and Chopper were standing by the airlock. Apparently the plan involved fooling the imps into thinking that a certain Lasat was a "rare, hairless, purple wookie", at least from what Ezra gathered. Crazy crew, crazy plan Ezra thought to himself, OK, maybe SHE'S not THAT crazy he added, thinking about a certain mandalorean with beautiful hair and armor. Get your head straight, Bridger! He scolded himself, before shutting that thought away.
"This is crazy," he voiced out, "I don't mind sticking it to the empire, but not this far. Who does these kind of things?"
"We do," Hera replied nonchalantly, pressing a few buttons on the console. The ship slowly pulled out of hyperspace. And lo and behold, in front of them lay a great, ugly, grey piece of space junk the empire calls a transport.
Hera opened the comm channel. "Imperial Transport 651, this is starbird coming inbound,"
"Starbird, Imperial 651. State your business,"
"Bounty. We captured an additional wookie and have orders to hand him over to y'all,"
"We have no such orders!" Several TIEs detached from the transport and flew over to them
"That's fine," Hera calmly and smoothly replied, "We've already been paid by Governor Tarkin. Y'all don't want the oversized monong, I'll jettison it here, and leave y'all to answer to your superiors why the Empire has one less 'worker'"
Silence. Eerie silence. Then,
"Permission to dock granted. Bay 5,"
"Not bad," Ezra remarked
"Not like the imps use their hollow brains. If they have any," Hera replied with a grin
"True, true,"
The common chimed and Kanan's voice filtered through. "No troopers so far. Security's quite soft-" His voice was cut off by a large amount of static.
"Spectre 1, come in," Hera spoke, "Spectre 4? Spectre 5 do you read? Ughh, comms are down," she paused "No wait, not down. Jammed,"
Suddenly, Ezra got that feeling. This time it was warning him. "Something's coming," he muttered, before glancing at the direction the feeling was coming from.
On cue, a massive ship dropped out of hyperspace. Though, this was no freighter, transport or frigate. It was an Imperial Star Destroyer.
"That's an ISD! This was a set up!" Ezra yelled.
"It's definitely looking that way," Hera replied, "Look, I need you to get on that transport and warn them!"
"What about you?" Ezra shot back. "Why don't you go?"
Hera frowned at his statement. "I need to prep the ghost for departure and light speed. Now go hurry!" Ezra hesitated. Hera rolled her eyes. "Look, we may seem like strangers to you, but our crew boarded that ship to rescue imperial slaves. They don't know that it's a trap! If all you care about is yourself, than you're life is worthless. Kanan and the others risk their lives to help those in need. He helped YOU. Please, return the favor and warn them!"
Ezra thought about it for a few more seconds before sighing. "Alright! I can't believe I'm doing this though!" He yelled before running out of the cockpit
Hera smiled. "I can"
Ezra rounded a corner and ran down the corridor. He could faintly hear voices in the distance. Said voices grew louder and louder as he approached another corner.
"Just set the detonator and get the carpets outta here," Found them!
"Charges armed," Ezra rounded the corner and wouldn't ya know it, there was kanan and the purple monong.
"Things seem to be going better than the last op-"
"It's a trap!" Ezra yelled, "Don't open that door!"
Kanan and Zeb didn't seem to get the message, as they both turned and glared at Ezra. Oh boy. "Karabast! The damn streetrat's blowing another op!" Zeb yelled in frustration
"You just don't get it, do you? Stay on the damn ship with Hera! You're going to get everyone killed!"
Ezra stopped, contemplating whether he should actually help them. " Alright fine," He finally said, turning around and walking back around the corner, "Hera just wanted to let you know that there's an ISD on top of us, and there boarding parties are on the way!" He yelled, still walking casually back the way he came. OK, in 3, 2, 1-
"SAY WHAT?" Ezra could only chuckle at their response. Blasterfire could be heard, an explosion and the sound of 2 men running for their lives.
"Believe me now?" Ezra gloated once they caught up to him. "We need to warn Sabine and that scrapheap, but the comms are jammed,"
"If everything works out, they'll follow the plan," Kanan said
Yeah, 'cause this was part of your master plan the whole time A squadron of Imps appeared in front of them. Ah shit, here we go again he thought, pulling out the WESTAR and aiming it at the oncoming imps, who in turn raised their rifles.
"Don't stop!" He heard Kanan yell. Are you actually craz-? "Push off, NOW!"
Instantly, the lights flickered yellow and the A-grav went offline. Oh shit Ezra cursed inwardly, hastily pushing off as he was lifted off the ground. Wasting no time, he took advantage of the troopers disoriented and confused state, firing at anything that had glistening white, paper-thin armor. He counted at least 5 hits as they glided through, elbowing the ISB officer as he passed him.
"You OK kid?" Kanan yelled back.
Ezra snorted. "No shit, I'm fine,". He rolled onto his back and craned his neck to face the imps, who by now had regained their balance and were trying to pursue them. It was almost comical. He fired 2 more shots at the ISB officer, barely missing him.
Then the A-grav went back online. SHIT Ezra thought, collapsing onto the cold metal floor. He got up and ran, wanting to get as far away from the imps as possible before they regain their bearings. They reached the airlock. And there was Sabine and Chopper waiting for them. " Where are the wookies?" Sabine asked bewilderedly.
"No wookies. Man the nose gun. Tell Hera to get ready to take off,"
"Uh, right," Sabine said, still confused, before dashing off to the nose gun. Ezra found himself watching her before she disappeared around a corner through the airlock. Kanan and chopper followed suit. Ezra was about to follow, when a hand grabbed his shoulder and Zeb pushed him backwards.
Into the ISB Officer. Who grabbed him.
…...WHAT THE FU-
"Kid, get away from him!" Zeb yelled, realising his mistake. He raised his rifle at the 2 of them.
"I'm trying, damn it!" Ezra shot back, managing to clear the officer just enough for zeb to shoot. Just then 2 stormtroopers ran in front and opened fire on Zeb. Zeb hesitated and fired at the troopers instead. The ISB officer, having had enough of Ezra's struggling, kicked his legs and pinned Ezra to the floor. Ezra looked up to see Zeb retreat back into the airlock.
No
"Sorry kid-"
Please
"-you did good,". The airlock slid shut. Ezra cursed. He craned his neck around just in time to see the ISB officer deliver him a hard punch. Ezra felt his head bang against the metal floor, before passing out.
"There, airlock shut!" Sabine heard Hera say. They were in the cockpit. Well technically Hera was. She was below it in the nose gun. "Chopper, jam their tractor beam!" She added, taking off.
She almost laughed at the droid's compliance. Usually, Chopper would, to put it mildly, act like a little shit. But whenever Hera is ordering him around in dangerous situations, he would comply. Just then, the comms chimed. "Attention, rebel vessel! Surrender or be destroyed. This if your first and final warning!"
She and Hera both chuckled. "Blow it out your exhaust vent," Hera said, "Literally. Sabine, if you may,"
That was her cue. Sabine pulled out a detonator and presses it. She could feel the ghost rock from the explosion. But she couldn't see it. "Ah, I can't see it from here. How'd it look?"
"Gorgeous, Sabine," came Kanan's response as the ship entered hyperspace, "As always,"
"The whole thing was a set up," Kanan explained once everyone was in the cockpit.
"You think Vizago was in on it?" Sabine queried. Vizago may be paying them, but that doesn't mean he isn't scheming at times.
"Well, he'd sell his mom to some Jawas for some credits, but we're a source of income. Odds are that he didn't know," Hera replied. "Ezra did alright,"
"Yeah, he did quite well," Kanan replied. "Where is he?"
"Uhhmm, I thought he was with you?" Zeb said, hoping they would believe that and drop the matter.
He was wrong. They all turned around in unison and stared at him, Kanan and Hera giving him a curious look whilst Sabine stared at him horrified.
"Zeb?" Sabine asked, "What did you do to him?"
"I didn't do anything," Zeb yelled, "That ISB agent grabbed him-"
" WHAT?!"
"The kid got grabbed, OK?"
"Garazeb Orrelios!" Crud. Hera's definitely mad now
"Come on Hera! We were dumping him afterwards anyway! This saves us fuel. Besides, they'll go easy on him. He's just a kid.
Kanan and Hera seemed a little resigned at his words. They were still worried though. But not as much as Sabine. She glared at Zeb for a few more minutes, before sighing and turning away, her concern and anxiety clearly displayed on her face.
Ugh, where am I? Ezra thought. He felt his head ache, as if he was hit by a speeder. He opened his eyes. What he saw stunned him. He was inside an Imperial detention cell. Ezra groaned as the realisation hit him. They abandoned me. I helped them out and they abandoned me. Just then, the cell's doors slid open and in strolled the ISB officer. He grinded his teeth and scowled at him.
" Nice to see you're awake," the officer said. "I'm Agent Kallus of the Imperial Security Bureau. And you are?"
Ezra snorted. "What do you want me to say? Guv'nor Tarkin? Look I only met them today, so I can't really tell you anything. So beat it,"
"Oh, don't worry. We don't want information. We want to use you as bait," Kallus replied
Ezra laughed, "Yeah, like that would work. You're not that bright for an ISB officer, are you? I'm nothing to them. They won't come back for me,"
Kallus said nothing for a few seconds, before turning around and motioning for the 2 guards. "Search him,"
They snatched Ezra's bag and WESTAR, before kicking him in the shin and butting his head with their rifles. They turned and left, leaving Ezra alone in the gloomy and dark cell.
Ezra swore. "'Return the favour and warn them'," he repeated mockingly. "Yeah, and a lot of good that did," He reached into his pocket and extracted the same box from earlier. "And of course, the only thing I have left is a damn box!" He grumbled, trying and failing to pry it open. Frustrated he chucked the cube to the other side of the room. He felt really tempted to punch the wall until his hands bled, but he stopped himself. He needed to calm down if he were to escape. Giving the cube one last glare, he sat back down on the cold, hard bed and shut his eyes, trying to think of a plan. He cleared his mind of his frustration, not noticing the clicking noises made by the corners of the box. The corners shifted, before the "box" lifted itself up into the air and hovered, the corners spreading out away from the "box". The box glowed, before projecting a holographic image of a cloaked man. Ezra, noticing the unusual glow, opened one eye. Both his eyes widened in fascination, awe and curiosity at the holograph, which began to speak.
" This is Master Obi-Wan Kenobi. I regret to inform you that both the Jedi Order, and The Republic, have fallen, with the dark shadow of The Empire rising to take their place. This message is a warning and a reminder to all surviving Jedi: Trust in the force,"
*A/N: Wow, it takes forever just to cover one episode. I'll upload the next chapter in a few days. Sorry this took so long. For those of you who are still reading this story after the long wait, thank you for your patience and I hope y'all enjoy. Cheers!
Oh, and this chapter and the last one were partly inspired by the fanfic "A British Rebel" by stevebond1990.
