(Sabine Wren POV) – 8:40 AM
With nobody in front of me, I pull open the auditorium doors—
DAMMIT! He's not here…
The auditorium only has one other person in it as I nosily make my way across the back row then down to the row where Matt, Ezra, and I always sit.
I guess it makes sense that he's not here early. This is about to be the worst place on USC's campus at 9:01 AM.
Wish he had though.
I'm glad we talked though. On Saturday, at the beachside party after USC beat the crap out of Utah.
I remember seeing him awhile after I'd already left the Phi Kap house and heard Matt was trying to pry Ezra out of whatever 'Remote Learning' the Jedi had him doing after Wednesday.
I remember we talked about…
…
…
About…
…
…
I don't remember it as well as I'd like to. I had a couple of light drinks at the house before Uber-ing to the beach and had three drinks there, stressing and waiting for Matt and Ezra to finally show up.
Then…
…
I remember his main concern was telling me that we were okay and that he wasn't mad.
I remember him thinking that everything got out of control. Neither of us meant to yell, and that he forgave me.
Outside of that…
I don't remember anything.
I wish I'd talked to him about what Mom told me on Thursday after practice. She…
Well, she yelled at me a lot.
Ezra, because I'm sure he didn't know what else to do, told the Jedi his car door broke. They looked at everything, apparently looked at security footage inside Ezra's car that the Jedi installed 'for his protection' and found out that I kicked it.
Which I definitely shouldn't have done. I hadn't even gotten to my room fuming before I wished I hadn't kicked that door.
So on top of Mom having my head for that, she then explained that Dooku had been the one to tell her and expected her to pay for Ezra's door.
All the money I saved up this summer from doing camps and stuff?
All gone, off to pay for damages to Ezra's car.
But there is some good news at least.
At the end of that call, she did mention that she didn't just talk to Dooku, she talked to Ezra and the Masters helping him look for the beskar.
Doing the real, boots on the groundwork.
Apparently, the Jedi can do something correctly and got one of Maul's associates to confess the location of the beskar.
Liuzhou, China.
I did some like wiki-research into it and it looks like a rather plain city in the southern half of China.
Weird that it's there and not in some commerce and trading hub like Hong Kong or Beijing or Shanghai. But it's also been weird that whoever stole it, has kept it.
Which…Mom yelled at me again for. Because apparently, that's something the Jedi and Mand'alor himself have been worried about.
Mom said that he thinks that Maul's people could be interested in the true owner of the beskar. Because Ezra wasn't Mandalorian.
And I yelled at Ezra for protecting me. Mom said that it's apparently an actual order he got, from the Jedi.
To protect me.
"Excuse me." I hear a masculine voice grumble before I peer up and see—
Aww, it's Matt.
"Hi, morning." I fake smile at Matt to disguise my disappointment.
Matt returns the smile before motioning for me to get up. "Can you pop up for me please?"
"Yeah, why…?" I ask while getting up and—"Hey!"
Matt sits down in the middle seat of our row. "I'm sitting here today."
"Why?"
"This is going to be bad enough when Paulisson comes in. It doesn't need you and Ezra fighting on top of it. I'll sit in my normal spot on Wednesday—"
"I won't be here on Wednesday!"
We're flying out Wednesday morning for Seattle! We're playing UW and WSU Thursday/Friday, then again Saturday/Sunday before flying back here.
And that week hardly even counts! Fall Break starts that Wednesday!
Matt doesn't seem to care, giving me only a shrug before moving to start setting up to take notes. Leaving me, just standing with my back to the stairs.
Ezra talked to him. He's mad at me too.
"Are you mad at me too?" I ask Matt.
"No." he smiles. "I'm just not getting in between you two. I'm your friend, and Ezra's my friend."
"But he talks to you though."
He doesn't seem to want to talk to me anymore.
Seeing as it took over 20+ texts to hear the words "remote learning" from Hera and Matt had to drag him to that party and come talk to me.
Shut up Sabine…that's not what's important right now.
"Yeah? He talks to everyone. He's Ezra."
He is very friendly and approachable.
"Then what'd he say to you? Did he tell you what 'remote learning' is?"
Matt smiles. "Ezra didn't explain that to you?"
"No." I shake my head."
"He said worked for the Jedi at their Temple or whatever both days. Problem was, since his car was busted, he had to ride in and keep track of those two kids."
Jacen and Mira…
"That's not work!" I laugh as well as Matt does.
"He said it was." Matt counters. "EB said that his actual name is worn out until, well, today actually."
Mira must have said his name ten billion times.
"Speaking of, hey. Let me get out of your way—" Matt glances up just before I turn.
EZRA!
"Hey, excuse me." Ezra says to me while simultaneously squeezing by—
"Hi—"
Ezra slips past Matt before taking the seat on the wall. "You're late."
"Sorry." Ezra laughs just before the zipper of his backpack loudly opens. "The concept of time isn't something we understand. So no, I don't gotta go."
I laugh along with Matt as I reach blindly for my bag before Ezra smirks—
"Aww. I hope we didn't cry."
"Mira didn't. I did though." Ezra cracks before I snort through my nose.
EZRA!
Matt and Ezra both laugh along with me and Ezra—"But yeah. Made it. We'll be fine…"
He made eye contact for a split second…then broke it off.
"I don't know about that one, Chief." Matt side-eyes Ezra.
"There's a curve." Ezra says before setting his sunglasses onto Matt's notebook. Matt helpfully goes to try them on as Ezra keeps talking. "And there are three other—tests." Ezra takes his sunglasses back and clips them to his shirt.
"But if we bombed this one—" I start.
Because I know I failed.
I got through about twenty or so questions, after having an absolute PANIC ATTACK when I saw the open-ended questions before Ezra finished his test and turned it in.
And I swear he took half my brain with him.
I know I failed. I bombed that so badly.
"Then next time study harder. Clean slate, it's like it never happened. You've got four shots to make three." Ezra looks to Matt. "It's going to be okay."
"It's gonna be okay…for you." I quip at Ezra.
He's the genius over here.
"I—"
What the hell happened to his hand?
Ezra turns away from me, leaving the knuckles on his left hand visible to me.
"Ezra, what—"
"Good morning class!"
PAULISSON!
DAMMIT!
What the hell did Ezra do to his hands? If his right one looks anything like his left, it—
"I'm going to make today's clicker question short, sweet, and to the point…Today's clicker question…AND BE HONEST…"
The bulb of the projector for the PowerPoint slowly heats up before the screen shows the question.
'Did you study?'
Yes.
I used Ezra's guide and Ezra's flashcards. I should have looked at the whole thing way before the weekend before but…
I got lucky. Ezra…
Is Ezra and incredible and had already completed the entire freaking thing, even thinking to make up flashcards for us. Which seriously was the most brilliant, thoughtful, and sweet thing to do.
"Three…two…And the results!" Paulisson calls out before the normal bar graph pops up, this time with only two options.
'Yes 75%
No 25%'
"Now I do have to confess something to you all. I'm surprised that 75 percent of you would say that you studied for this test. Because if I would have guessed at the results of this poll on Saturday morning as I'm enjoying my morning coffee? I would have expected the results to be flipped."
Oh no.
"I…in my nineteen years teaching college-level Biology here at USC and various universities across the country have never had an entire class perform so poorly on my first exam. Which surprises me. I'm giving you the guide to the test, on the first day that we begin covering the material!" Paulisson exclaims before composing himself. "ALL YOU GOTTA DO…is fill it out and study it!"
…
The auditorium is silent before Paulisson goes on. "Look at this…" He hits a key then waits for the next slide to load, which is a graph of test scores on an X/Y plane.
The vast majority of the class is in the 40/50s range. With just a few people above seventy and only one dot above eighty.
Wait, that—
"What you're looking at…is every single test grade, plotted out. Now all of you are down here—" he motions towards the '40s with the mouse. "—ain't getting up very high. Because only one person here, who, let me check…is here today, shocker, got an A. That person…shouldn't have to listen to me lecture the rest of you on the importance of studying!"
"Now…I'm going to give my wonderful TA's time here to pass out your tests along with the newest guide for the second test of the semester. Which…just warning you now, is two weeks after Fall Break."
An audible groan goes through the auditorium as along most of the walls, by the doors, TA's in polos mostly begin noisily walking around, passing out papers.
"How…who can get an A on that test?!" Matt asks weakly.
I don't know.
That curve…
There is no curve.
The person who probably could have gotten an A keeps talking to Matt.
But I doubt he did. He told me over lunch of five or six examples of questions he wasn't 100% sure on.
"Bridger—Saracen—Wren—" A male TA with powerful cologne appears, hands out three stacks of paper then is gone in a flash.
Unit Two Study Guide…Another one.
Go to hell DJ Khaled.
Peeling back the study guide, I catch a glimpse of my graded test—
45.
+8
53.
Sabine you di'kut.
The red spiky number stares at me before I hear Matt groan. "—feels about right."
Mom's going to kill me.
She wasn't thrilled with my grade in Mathematic Computation last fall, but they let it go because it was my first semester of school.
Last fall was a complete debacle. The only good to come out of it was the first thing I did. Meeting Ezra.
Turning to my right, I catch Ezra thumbing through the study guide with his hands in his lap.
I don't see his test and what he got…move your hands up Ezra!
"Alright!" Paulisson calls out, silencing the murmurings of the classroom. "You can continue processing your grades after our time has concluded. Unfortunately, we have way too much material to cover today and that was before I started grading."
The projected slide changes and Paulisson's notes PowerPoint appears. Immediately the room scurries to grab their notebook and their notes.
Way ahead of you guys.
"Sorry." I hear Matt say just before ducking down to grab something out of his bag.
"You're fine." I reply, then see Ezra.
Ezra's already got his printed-out notes ready to go, even using his phone as a paperweight to keep everything in place.
Just like always.
Except that instead of idly flipping through his phone, Ezra's rolling his pen over his fingers while blankly looking ahead.
At least this pen's not trying to take off this time…
I wish you'd talk to me.
I—
"Okay!" Paulisson calls out, and I jump out of my skin before Paulisson begins lecturing at his usual, frantic pace.
(Ezra Bridger POV) – Monday, After Biology
"I'm sorry I'm late." I proclaim as I hustle into the holo room.
Both Cayle and Aubrey turn, mid-conversation before a cry for me splits the air and all of us smile. "We missed what you probably got snagged up in. Eight lanes whittled down to four?" Cayle says to me.
"Three when somebody's back rear tire goes flat." I quip, then turn and greet Mira.
I missed you too.
"This is why I don't have a car." Aubrey remarks.
Cayle counters with "You live in a city with large-scale mass transit that's entrenched in the culture. He has to have a car here."
"I live in four cities, all of which fit those criteria." She corrects Cayle, then fully turns and smiles at me. "Hey you."
"Hey." I return the smile while adjusting Mira in my arms.
"So has boy genius—" Aubrey stops, mid-sentence to laugh as Mira is still squirming in my arms. "—kept you up to date with my intel?"
"No, but I saw it all this weekend." I tell Aubrey then train my sights on Mira. "Fine. You wanna move? You stand. Here ya go."
Setting Mira on her feet beside me, she instantly wails and clambers for me to pick her up again before Cayle moving towards her distracts her. "Thank you for keeping such a tight eye on him."
"She won't listen to me." Cayle looks at me. "But I think the Council will agree that she's deserves something extra.
"I'm through." Aubrey dismisses the idea out of hand.
The Chinese tracked the car that took him when he got operated on to a two-bedroom apartment that lies above a woodwork restoration business.
And we've watched it ever since.
Cayle makes a dismissive noise while Mira darts around the back of the holo playfully. "And I'm not the only one." Aubrey quips.
What are you—
Reflexively, I probe out into the Force and pick up Aubrey—
She means my hands.
You and Sabine. Both with the hands.
Tucking them out of view, I look to Cayle before I hear "Cayle said that the Council decided not to force Vader out late Wednesday night, early Thursday morning."
"I'm sure the Council would love hearing that a high-paid independent contractor now knows the schedule we're going to release Vader at."
Cayle.
"I'm not…" Aubrey trails off before—
OW!
"She does have him in a bad mood." Aubrey looks to Cayle.
She…
Is probably somebody I shouldn't be thinking as much about as I do.
She's in a relationship. One she's very happy to be in.
And very happy to let him do her dirty work for her.
Good.
After Liuzhou, I'm not doing it anymore.
Cayle looks between Aubrey and me for a moment before explaining "He's seen her since then. How'd that go, by the way?"
"Fine." Leaving it at that, I begin logging into the UI that'll grant me access to the Temple's data archives.
"Is she in that class too?" Aubrey asks.
Cayle presumably nods before continuing to question me. "What'd you get on that test?"
The Force ripples with realization before Aubrey turns to face me. "92."
"That's really good!" Aubrey cheers as Cayle laughs darkly.
"An eight-point curve…oh people had to be SO mad!"
I can't help but laugh along with them as I finally get logged in and start navigating over to where we're beginning to formulate plans for Liuzhou. "Most of the class was in the '40-'50s range."
"That's not going to do anything for them." Cayle shakes his head.
"I told them, there are three more chances to fix it."
Four tests, plus daily attendance. But that can't count for more than 10% of the overall grade.
"This is why I'm too dumb to go back to school." Aubrey proclaims before taking over the reins from me.
"No, you're not." I instantly counter her.
We were the two smartest in our sixth-grade class. Sat side by side as much as we could.
Ms. Clark stopped calling on either one of us in history class.
"Lemme guess." Aubrey proclaims as flies begin whizzing around everywhere. "The grading system is super wack with only the tests mattering. Cayle told me about that guide you spent the month before working on. All that for what'd you say, a 92? Yeah, I'll pass."
Cayle looks to me with a 'Well then' expression before Aubrey finally finds what she's been looking for. "There it is…you'd said you'd looked at it?" She eyes me.
"Yeah."
Aubrey smiles then throws something up onto the holo. "Good. Tell him about the idea you had on the plane."
What idea you had on the plane?
I turn to Cayle in time for him to begin. "It's…kind of an idea. I threw out a line downstairs to A about going back in the Liuzhou footage and heatmapping Elias backward."
On the days before we knew where Elias was…
"You're a genius." I counter. "Work it backwards."
Why did I not immediately think of that?!
"See if what we know about his schedule lines up long term. Maybe, maybe not."
We know he's in and out multiple times a day, starting at around seven or eight local time with a trip to the market.
"Better than going off an assumption." Aubrey throws on top.
"Lemme guess." I look from Cayle to the file Aubrey's pulled up detailing the current troop estimates we'll need for this to work. "He said he'd have to clear it with the Council."
"You already know it." Cayle's voice has his laugh already in it.
Aubrey, meanwhile, looks back at me. "What do you think of their current plan?"
"I like the use of resources." I answer evenly.
Two full platoons, around fifty to sixty soldiers in total not counting local Chinese forces that will be on standby in case things get weird.
"I thought for sure that you'd hate it. They've got you split off." Aubrey frowns.
Cayle's with the first group, which is the main force. They're going for Gideon and Rax and everyone else they can find.
As they do that, I'm on my own from the moment I touch down in Liuzhou until I get to Elias' apartment.
That's my main objective.
Secure Elias' apartment and await further instructions.
"I'm just playing my part."
Aubrey gives me a dark, disbelieving look. "Maul would love to hear you say that."
"Maul's got bigger worries right now." I remind her. "Are you current on intel?"
"I heard you beat the truth out of his brother the day after it happened." Aubrey turns the tables on me.
Dammit.
"I did it to bottle up Vader. I never said I was proud of it."
"Are you sure?" Aubrey pops off. "Or did you want to do it? Because he said that you knew that Savage was already afraid of you. You knew you already had leverage."
"If I wanted to use that leverage, I would have moved on him before now." I point out to Aubrey.
I interrogated him for two hours once the Council let me in the room with him.
And I didn't do anything.
Aubrey eyeballs me for a minute before she continues her point. "You got the question to the test right, but did it wrong."
"I did it to bottle up Vader!"
Between Sabine yelling at me, my car's alarm going off, Twos trying to contact the Temple about the damage to the car, and Vader trying to take control, I don't even remember 90% of it.
I don't remember getting to the Temple, or how I convinced Savage's guards to let me take him to Maul.
I'm just glad Vader didn't beat me.
"I thought you had better methods of stress relief for him." Aubrey looks to Cayle.
"It's not his fault." I cut Aubrey's advance off.
I know I shouldn't have done it. I…wasn't in complete control of myself.
I'm glad some good came out of it. Maul had enough compassion to confirm that he trained Elias in Liuzhou and that he does have the beskar before I beat Savage to death with my fists.
Even still, six broken ribs, four lost teeth, fractured one arm, the other leg…
…
I wish it wasn't as nice to have a good outlet for my fury with Sabine.
Which is why…
I have to learn to let her go.
"He learned his lesson." Cayle meets Aubrey halfway. "Savage'll be fine in a month, Ezra's hands will heal before he goes to China and in the meantime, we helped things with the Mandalorians."
They're very happy to know where the beskar is now.
Even if they are upset we can't get a visual of it.
Aubrey considers what Cayle has to say before looking to me, then back to the intel. "I'm fine with my role in the plan…serving as local comms support as well as helping you get to the apartment." Aubrey says to me.
"I had another idea by the way." Cayle volunteers.
Without skipping a beat, Aubrey says "He's full of them."
"I fly over to China commercial, a day or two ahead of time to a different city, take the train to Liuzhou. There I'll crash with Aubrey—"
No.
"—get a feel for the city, the military base that's there for the Vietnam border, maybe put a friendly face to a name before we poke the Sith Lord with the stick? What do you say?"
I say you haven't spoken to your Master about it.
And I know why you want to crash with Aubrey.
"She doesn't have the space." I counter Cayle.
Aubrey interjects herself. "Excuse me, you know nothing about my apartments. Any…of them. He'll be fine."
"I'll sleep on the floor. You know I'm low maintenance." Cayle tells me. "And this way we'll get me to Liuzhou discreetly, without raising anybody's attention."
"You don't think the Council will have a better plan?"
"They'll want to stow me away on the big plane with all the troops and gear and shit!" Cayle pops up in his seat. "And I don't want to have to deal with everything that comes with that."
Cayle's done a few military operations, all but one ransom threats having to deal with ships and international waters. He told me that you can catch the enlisted soldiers in groups, huddled together talking.
No wonder about.
And they'll have to be briefed that I'm involved. So…
"Okay, now I see your point." I admit.
I won't have to deal with any of that. If everything goes to plan, I won't be on the ground in Liuzhou for a total of more than six hours.
Aubrey smiles at the sight of me giving into Cayle, and I respond by waving out at her. Aubrey lets out another laugh, then turns to nothing and says "Ezra's being silly. Go get Ezra."
Mira immediately calls out my name, then sprints full speed around the high-set table and crashes into me for a hug. "Bah-Bwah!"
"Yes! Hi." I smile at her, only for Mira to reach out and grab me before putting her head on my chest and saying something garbled that I manage to catch.
I love you.
(A/N: Dedication for this chapter, and ultimately this story goes to my Grandmother, who passed at 94 in between 106 & 107. Thank you for your corner, thoughts, and for reading. See you for 108)