"Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt."
"Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt."
No No No No No No NO!
"Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt."
On the ONE DAY I get to sleep in?
Without opening my eyes, I pull my cell phone to me, only for it to defiantly vibrate in my hand. "Hello." I mumble out.
That didn't quite work.
"I woke you up. I'm sorry." Sabine immediately apologizes.
"Why are you up? You got back super late." I roll over to the cool side of my bed.
Much better.
"Doesn't matter. But hey, I need a favor."
"What time is it?" I groan.
It's too early for favor.
"It's 7:30. Can you get downtown by 10? I'll send you the address."
Why?
"Okay, but why?"
"It's a surprise." Sabine answers in a chipper tone.
"I thought you said it was favor."
Sabine laughs before asking "So you'll do it?"
"It's 7:30."
"Please? I'll buy breakfast." She says.
She sounds kind of desperate.
"Fine. I'll get going. You're lucky I like you." I grumble.
Sabine cheers then says "You're the best. Thank you. See you then."
I mumble out a reply, then hang up and toss my phone onto my comforter.
Why did I say yes?
I'm done with midterms. I crushed them.
All I have to do is go down to the Temple today and talk to Kanan about my classes.
Easy.
Against my better instincts, I force myself up into a seated position and rub my face, causing the two days' worth of not shaving to immediately become apparent.
Better shave too. And do something with my hair since I haven't gotten it cut. It's getting too long.
The car in front of me pulls away, allowing me to sidle up to the front door. In front of it is a long carpet as well as what looks like a valet.
Oh damn, this is that sort of place?!
"Name?" A younger man who is wearing a collared shirt and a sports coat asks.
"Uhh, Ezra."
"Last. Name?" The valet gives me an irritated look.
"Bridger. Ezra Bridger."
"Alright Mr. Bridger, here is your ticket. Thank you." He tells me while gesturing for me to get out of my car.
Alright.
I do as I'm asked, then dig into my jeans for my wallet and grab five bucks to tip with. The valet wordlessly accepts the tip, only nodding once before he and my car pull away.
Sabine, what are you getting me into…Boy am I glad I opted for a 'cooler' look.
Collared navy blue shirt, darker jeans and nice looking shoes. Hera bought them.
I actually like them too. Grey mostly, with three stripes on either side. No obnoxious or massive logos. Just shoes.
Following the carpet into the building at large, I quickly fire off a text.
"Twos, this is the place Sabine pinned, right?"
Why would she send me here. She's not all about fancy or posh. And this place looks like it belongs in a movie.
"Yes Ezra. Sabine pinned the 'Four Seasons Hotel' in Los Angeles. Would you like to read some reviews?" – Twos
"No, that's alright. Thank you." I reply, then slip my phone into my pocket.
I imagine that she invited me here for breakfast. So I guess that I'll have to find the dining room.
Shouldn't be too hard.
The concierge desk is busy with patrons as I walk through the automatic doors, then probe with the Force and take a gentle right.
This place is ridiculous!
Forget what Sabine said, I'll pay for my own breakfast.
Unlike her, I actually have the money for this. And if it's way too much, I'll talk to Master Dooku.
Knowing him, he'll jump at the opportunity to pay me back. He asked about Sabine on Monday.
Even though I don't think this is quite what he had in mind—
"Can I help you find something sir?" Another employee clad in a blazer stops and asks me.
"Yeah." I nervously smile. "I'm looking for the dining room? I got invited here for breakfast I think."
The woman nods once. "Follow me."
Okay.
I'm led through a maze of halls, all either adorned by lush green plants, marble with metallic inlay or glistening tile before I arrive at the entrance for the dining room.
"Who are you here with?" My employee asks me as two hosts are standing behind another stand.
"Sabine Wren."
One of the hosts begins to scan down a list "Wren, Wren…Ahh yes. Table Ten."
The other host scoops up a tablet. "Follow me."
"Thank you." I turn to the woman who helped me.
She smiles, nods and leaves me to follow the host.
Alright…
Following the host, we weave around a pair of tables before I look around.
I'm not entirely sure Sabine would come here for breakfast, now that I think about it. The diner just off campus we went to last month wasn't nearly this—
"Here you go sir." The host says to me, causing me to turn and see that I'm being extended a tablet.
"Thank you." I reply, then look around for.
"Ezra!" Sabine says happily, just to my right.
I turn and smile at Sabine, who moves to stand while wearing a white top with dark jeans. "Hey. What's up?"
"Thanks for coming." She beams at me, then puts her hand in the small of my back to turn me. "This is my father—"
WHAT?
"Alrich Wren." A man with a dark hair, dark eyes and a greying goatee rises and extends his hand to me. "Nice to meet you."
I'm so dead.
"Nice to meet you sir. Ezra Bridger." I manage to get out, then shake Sabine's father's hand.
SABINE!
Somehow I find my way into my seat beside Sabine and her father just before I'm asked for a drink. By the time I give the waitress my request for an orange juice, Sabine and her father are talking again.
"—applying for a full time position with HyperNautics." Her father tells her.
"His internship can't be going that badly then." Sabine smiles in her response.
Sabine's father looks noncommittal before replying "Middle management types like to look tough and talk a big game. I'm not too concerned."
"Sabine's brother Tristan has an internship currently." Her father helpfully fills me in.
"Oh. Does he like it?" I ask.
Sabine has a brother?
"Yes. He's able to put his degree to work." Mr., Wren nods before sipping his coffee.
I assume that's coffee in the coffee cup.
"Tristan went to Northwestern." Sabine explains.
"What'd he graduate with?" I ask just before my orange juice arrives.
Sabine's father answers "Electrical Engineering, specializing in nuclear power. Which is what HyperNautics is an industry leader in."
"Makes sense then." I nod.
"Not to be rude, but I believe they will be coming for the menus soon Ezra." Her father follows up. "You order off them."
"Oh, sorry." I apologize.
Her father only laughs, seemingly in a kind way before asking Sabine "Did you give him a warning at all?"
"What do you mean a warning?" Sabine asks right back.
"Sabine." Her father states simply. "You've been to one of these enough. It's not your average hotel or restaurant."
"So? Ezra's fine."
Yeah…
I scan the menu as Sabine and her father go back and forth. Choosing my normal staple of pancakes, sausages, eggs and hash browns, I then hit the green button on the bottom and set it aside.
"—you're lucky he dressed up. Otherwise he would have gotten stopped at the door."
Sabine seemingly ignores her father and smiles at me. "Yeah, speaking of which you look awesome. I like what you did with your hair."
"I need a haircut." I reply then look back to her father. "Sorry to be a bother."
"Not a bother at all. Sabine just should have given you a warning you were coming to a five star hotel."
Yeah she should have.
"It would have helped." I joke, getting her father to laugh and for Sabine to tuck her hair behind her ear. "So what do you do sir?"
Sabine's father's expression goes from kind, to disapproving as he looks to Sabine. "I thought you talked to him beforehand."
"It didn't come up. After we got back to campus I went to sleep." Sabine replies.
Uh oh.
I open my mouth to cover for her before her father turns back to me. "I'm an executive on the Walgreens Board of Governors."
"Oh wow." I blurt out. "Congratulations sir."
"Thank you." He smiles. "Currently I'm managing our global brands and marketing division. Which means I'm out of the country a fair bit. But I had a moment and wanted to see my Sabine play soccer, so I flew in yesterday."
I nod placidly as Sabine smiles just before our waitress reappears and takes our tablets, which Sabine and her father have tucked out of sight.
I'm making a mess of this. My etiquette is sticking out like a sore thumb.
"Excuse me. I'll be right back." Sabine moves to stand, then smiles at us.
"Of course dear." Her father smiles.
Sabine vanishes from sight, leaving just the two of us before her father breaks the ice. "She didn't warn you at all, did she?"
"No. No she didn't." I confess, than add a laugh on at the end.
Relax Ezra.
I move to release my tensions out into the Force before he father says "I'm sorry she did that. I only asked her to invite you after we missed you when we came down earlier in the fall."
"Yeah, sorry about that." I apologize.
Please don't bring up Sacramento, please don't bring up Sacrament—
"No need to apologize. I wouldn't have wanted to see anybody either after how Sacramento went for you."
Here we go.
Nervously, I move to grab the glass of water and sip it. "Yes sir."
"You don't have to be so nervous Ezra. I'm not upset. I'm just glad to finally meet you. I wanted to after that meeting, but you were whisked away."
I nod, not knowing what else to do.
He's going to ask questions. Questions I don't have good answers to.
The Council doesn't even believe my answers to those questions.
"Is it alright with you if I ask a few questions?"
No.
I force myself to meet his eye and nod. "Of course sir."
Sabine's father laughs before giving me a smile. "Those Jedi have you all kinds of wound up. Don't they?"
"I don't know what you mean sir." I reply, then sip my water.
"You're Lord Vader. Son of Sidious. But you're not." He states.
No you are NOT!
"Yes sir."
He can't like that.
"What happened, if you don't mind my asking?"
NO!
"I was sent on assignment in Miami. There, I saw myself becoming something I didn't like. Something I had come to suspect. So I surrendered myself to the Jedi and to law enforcement."
Those idiots didn't believe me at first. Wanted to—
No, YOU are the idiot! Given all the power in the world and—
Sabine's father makes a noncommittal noise before saying "That's precisely what I heard through some back channel digging. Did Sabine mention that she's Mandalorian?"
"Not firsthand sir."
"Through the Jedi then."
I nod. "Yes sir."
"You don't have to call me sir, son." He father tells me.
"I know you have more questions sir." I counter. "What are they?"
You LYING, submissive, subservient—
SHUT UP VADER!
"This isn't an interrogation Ezra. I believe what the Jedi and yourself said in Sacramento. You aspire for a second chance."
"I do." I nod.
Sabine father smiles before sipping his coffee once again. "Sabine really likes you. Thinks highly of you."
"Does she?"
"She does." He nods. "You're an aspiring physics major? Minor in coding?"
Oh damn. She mentioned that to them?
"Thinking about changing that." I reply. "Coding and software engineering are more up my alley I think."
"Valuable fields right there." He salutes me with his cup. "I do have a couple of harder questions. Before Sabine gets back."
"Of course sir."
He quirks his eye at me before setting his cup down again. "These…abilities that have been mentioned. Are they real?"
"Very real sir." I nod curtly.
"They seemed to view you as a walking weapon capable of leveling a building."
"Not quite that literal." I counter. "But the assessment isn't inaccurate."
"You are powerful then."
"Yes sir."
"But you choose to restrain yourself. Chose to help rather than harm."
That's less a statement, more of a question.
COWARD!
"Yes sir." I nod.
"What is this…Force?" her father asks. "We might be stumbling upon something similar in my fields of expertise."
What?!
"Pardon me sir?" I ask.
"The Force. What is it? Can you demonstrate it for me?"
I nod before—
DO IT!
Coolly, I roll my neck around before focusing my attention on the silverware in front of me, causing it to levitate silently an inch or two off the table's surface.
"Wow." Is all Sabine's father says.
"My father described it as the energy that holds the entire universe together." I explain.
"Your father." Is all he replies.
"Yes." I nod. "My father."
"Alright." Sabine suddenly reappears out of nowhere, causing me to quickly set the silverware back down. "What'd I miss?"
"I was just asking Ezra what his parents did." Her father effortlessly answers, then looks back to me. "You said your father worked in TV?"
As casually but as quickly as I can, I dart through the halls of the Jedi Temple and into the antechamber for one of the many conference rooms.
"So—" I begin as I walk in, then quickly cut myself off as Master Billaba and Kanan are in the middle of a conversation.
Immediately the Force tenses up, and Kanan turns to me with a stone-faced expression. "You're late." Master Billaba says icily.
She's angry.
"My apologies Master."
"What do your apologies do for me? For Master Jarrus, who has a great many other responsibilities outside of meeting you here today? I want an answer, young Bridger." Master Billaba demands, crossing her arms at the end.
"My apologies do nothing, Master."
"Nothing." She repeats my statements. "Nothing." Master Billaba begins to circle me, barely bothering to hide her frustration.
"Unlike some of my peers on the Council, I find myself very disappointed in your actions this semester, young Bridger. Tardiness, inadequate and unnecessary use of valuable resources. Wastes of time." She stops behind me, driving her point home even further. "You caused an incident at a state wide level, risking the very security of our ENTIRE Order and you act as if you are above the rules."
Kanan keeps his eyes averted from mine as Master Billaba continues. "Answer this for me, young Bridger. Are you above the rules?"
"No Master." I answer.
"What is your station here?"
"I have no station here, Master."
Master Billaba continues circling me, only allowing me a glimpse of her livid expression. "Indeed, you hold no station here. You are below the Masters, you are below the Knights, you are below the Padawans, you are below the Initiates, the Guards, the Younglings, Instructors, even the janitorial staff." She spits out. "In these hallowed hallways you hold no place. No honor."
"Yes Master." I nod, then let out a breath.
"Your clear disregard for others has been apparent all semester. Lacking time to hone your talents in the Jedi Arts. No effort being made to meditate or better yourself in the ways of the Force. Instead opting for a normal life, one of which you are completely undeserving." She continues.
"Tell us, why were you so unacceptably late today?"
"I received a call early this morning from Sabine, requesting me to meet her at a location." I reply briskly.
"Miss Wren." Master Billaba stops directly in front of me. "At the Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles. Am I correct?"
"Yes Master." I confirm.
"Inform us of what transpired there. The entire truth, and I recommend you stick to it." She spits out, moving to stand in front of me before scooping up a drink.
"I arrived and was shepherded to the dining area, where Sabine was waiting for me and introduced me to her father."
"Her father?" Kanan finally speaks, surprise appearing on his face.
"Yes." I nod once.
"And she made the introduction?" Master Billaba asks.
"Yes."
"Her father already knows of your status as a Sith Lord. How did he approach your meeting today?"
How do I frame this as to not set her off—
"The TRUTH…young Sith." Master Billaba booms out.
"Master." Kanan protests, only to be silenced by Master Billaba sticking out her hand.
"He seemed to have no issue with me. Mostly made small talk. Informed me of the various members of their family and what their occupations are."
"And?" She prompts me.
"We did discuss my former allegiance Master." I straighten up.
"Elaborate, please."
"He was the one to mention my former life as Vader. He mentioned Sacramento, and that he wished to make an introduction there but was unable to. It appears that he believes in my goal to make amends and in my second chance."
"He knows nothing of your stated beliefs or goals." Master Billaba counters.
"Master, he was at the meeting in Sacramento." Kanan dares to interject. "he knows what we all know, Ezra's desire to repent and make right his wrongs."
"Then he is a fool." Billaba says plainly. "Upon being given the least bit of slack on your leash, your discipline has completely failed you. Your focus has wavered and your actions have slipped. Your words are hollow and are of no use to me. Is that clear?"
"Yes Master." I nod.
"You are washing out of your position at the University. Aren't you, young Bridger."
Not exactly.
I remain silent instead of contradicting Master Billaba which causes the silence to drag on.
"Answer me." She demands.
"I do not believe that I am washing out, Master Billaba. I believe that they were only in need of two assistants in the office instead of the three they hired."
"And you have failed to prove yourself invaluable enough to demand that they keep you." She deduces. "I am disappointed."
"Yes Master." I dip my head once again.
"I am not surprised."
Keeping silent, I wait for her to continue, which indeed she does.
"How do you plan on rectifying this situation?"
"I believe that one of my friends in the athletics department will recommend that my contract be transferred, Master."
"You are delusional." She counters. "The athletics department would never take the very student who helped cause a massive incident involving almost ten of their own athletes."
When you put it like that, yeah.
Guess I am delusional.
"You are complacent. Lazy. Lackadaisical. Content when you have accomplished NOTHING. You aren't even through a full semester outside of this Temple. Whose fault is that?"
"My own, Master."
"Master Billaba." A dignified voice says firmly, near the doorway.
"I'm not done Dooku." Master Billaba doesn't take her eyes off me.
"I believe that you have gotten your point across." Master Dooku counters.
Master Billaba barely acknowledges his statement before saying "I find your lack of discipline insulting. Disgraceful. An affront to this entire Order and its ideals. Did you bring your planned schedule for the Spring semester, in the event that we allow you to continue attending?"
"Yes Master. My AI has it."
"Then you are of no more use here. Go down to the meditative chambers. Meditate on this. I expect this to take you a majority of the rest of the day. Do you have any questions?" She asks.
I shouldn't have any questions. They don't matter if I do.
"No Master, I do not." I reply, keeping my voice even.
"Goodbye then." She says, before I lower my eyes and retreat from the room.