Chapter 3

A/N: So... this chapter turned out wayyy longer than I thought it would be. Is that really a bad thing though? It just means more content for you all! Anyways, I've had a few people asking if we're going to see the rest of the Bad Batch anytime soon. You'll just have to wait and see! ;)

Ezra groaned. His head throbbed, and he blinked rapidly. What happened? Where was he? Instinctively, he reached out into the hazy darkness for his lightsaber. His hand found only empty space.

"Ezra!" Came a faint voice, barely audible over the ringing in his ears. Who was that? Confusion clouded his mind as he struggled to push himself off the floor. He gasped what a hand gripped his shoulder tightly.

"Kanan!" he exclaimed, grogginess still edging the corners of his voice.

"Come on! We have to go!"

In a torrent, Ezra remembered what had happened. Oh no.

Smoke choked the hallway from the explosion, making it near impossible to see. Blasts flew in both directions, but judging from the number going the other direction, they were hopelessly outnumbered. Ezra snatched up his lightsaber, which had rolled a few feet away, and barely managed to block a blast as it flew towards him. Zeb careened past, almost knocking him and Kanan over, and Ezra noticed he held someone in his arms. His stomach dropped.

"Who—?"

Kanan grabbed his wrist and began running, dragging Ezra behind. Simultaneously blocking the volley of blaster bolts, Ezra craned his neck, trying to get a head count. It was impossible in the smoky chaos.

Unexpectedly, Kanan jerked him sideways, causing Ezra to stumble. The group found themselves huddled on either side of the hallway in two alcoves barely large enough for them. On the opposite side, Ezra could see Chopper and Zeb squeezed into the space. He gasped as he recognized Sabine cradled limply in Zeb's arms, armor scorched almost beyond recognition.

"Sabine!" he shouted, and Kanan grabbed his arm, barely stopping him from jumping out into blaster fire. It took him a moment to realize that going to her would be of no use. There wasn't anything he could do except keep the oncoming Imperials from killing them all.

Quickly, he glanced behind him. Hidden behind the same cover as him was Kanan on one side and Omega on the other.

"What do we do?" Ezra shouted over the noise. They were pinned, and Sabine was injured. It was only a matter of time before the stormtroopers overran their hiding spot. They had to do something.

Ezra felt a hand gently take his wrist. He looked to his left to find Omega watching him intently, a sort of determination in her gaze. Those eyes… there was certainly something familiar about her. He felt it in the Force.

"Take it." She pressed a metal disk into his hand.

The plans.

"But— you're coming with us, right?"

Omega looked at him with that same regretful smile, one Ezra could've sworn he had seen once before. "When you get out of here, go to these coordinates," she said, tapping them into his wrist comm. "They'll take you to my friends. They can help you decrypt the code."

"Wait—"

By now, Kanan had looked over his shoulder, aware that something was amiss. He opened his mouth to say something as well, but Omega never gave them the chance.

"Go!" she shouted and dashed out of cover, taking down three stormtroopers in rapid succession. Ezra moved to help her. There was no way he was going to leave her behind, not when she had already risked her life to give them these plans, but again he found himself being dragged away.

"Kanan!" he shouted as they turned a corner, losing sight of the standoff, "we can't leave her behind!"

Kanan's expression was pained, but he still gripped Ezra's wrist tightly, "We have to get the plans out of here. If she's right, it's the only hope the rebellion has."

Ezra stared at his master in shock. But deep down inside, he knew Kanan was right. His face fell in resignation, and he nodded. As Kanan released his arm, Ezra took one last look over his shoulder. Further down the corridor, he could still hear the blasters and smell smoke. His conscience screamed at him to go back, turn around and help her. She saved you, how can you desert her?

Fists clenched, Ezra turned around and forced himself to follow his master.

The Ghost was silent.

After they had retreated, Kanan had contacted Hera, who had brought the ship back around from where it had been powered down and hidden on the opposite side of the station. After she turned on the engines, the Empire knew where they were, but by the time they sent fighters after them, the Ghost was already entering hyperspace and had disappeared moments later.

Now, as the crew sat in silence in the lounge, Ezra had never felt worse. Several times, Zeb turned to Ezra to say something, but each time his mouth fell shut again. Even Chopper remained still and quiet, a rare occurrence for the astromech.

Almost worse than the guilt that chewed at Ezra's stomach like acid was Sabine's absence.

When they had arrived, Zeb had immediately rushed her to her room, where Hera was now taking care of her. With a reassuring smile, Hera had claimed the injury wasn't too severe, but her brow was creased slightly, and Ezra had sensed the concern hidden behind her eyes. She still hadn't returned.

How did everything go so wrong? he wondered, gut twisting painfully.

Finally, Kanan broke the heavy silence.

"Ezra. What did she tell you?"

Taking a deep breath, Ezra tried to employ some of the skills Kanan had taught him to steady himself. They only worked so well.

"She told me to find her friends, and that they could help us decode the plans." He held up his wrist comm, "she gave me some coordinates, but I don't know where they are."

His master inspected his comm and shook his head. "I don't recognize them. Wherever that is, I've never been there before."

"Can we even trust her friends?" Zeb questioned, and Ezra sent him a threatening glare. Omega had sacrificed her life to save them and the plans. How could Zeb still be reluctant to trust her after that?

The Lasat shrugged indifferently. Whether or not they could be trusted, they were still going. They had no other choice.

Before Ezra could say anything back, footsteps came down the hall, and Hera entered the room. She looked tired and stressed, but as she sat down, she seemed ready to face anything.

"Sabine's resting now. She'll be alright with some rest," she said, and turned to Kanan. "Now, what happened?" She glanced around the room. "Where's the contact?"

"She… didn't make it off," Kanan said regretfully, and Ezra winced. His master continued, "but she gave us a set of plans she stole from the Empire, plans for a weapon that they're going to use against the rebellion."

"What sort of weapon?" Hera asked, voice darkening.

Kanan shook his head, "we don't know. It's too heavily encrypted to tell. Before we left, she gave us a set of coordinates and told us there was someone there that could help us." He looked at Ezra and nodded. It was time to see where these coordinates led.

As he synced his wrist comm with the holoprojector, Ezra began hesitantly, "she said that she knew you, Hera. She told us you met on Ryloth."

Hera's eyes widened.

"Chopper recognized her, too. Her name was Omega. Did you really know each other?"

For a moment, Hera was speechless, and Ezra hoped fervently he hadn't said something wrong. Finally, her voice returned, "we did know each other. When the Empire rose, she and her friends helped me and my family escape."

Hera trailed off, and Ezra knew what was coming. "She… didn't make it off?" her voice was heavy as she asked again, hoping the answer would be different.

All Ezra could do was shake his head and apologize. Chopper, too, rolled up to Hera and quietly gave her his own apologies. When Chopper used kind words, that's when you knew things were bad.

After a few minutes of silence, Hera brushed herself off and stood in front of the holoprojector. A sort of determination found its way into her stance, and Ezra found yet another thing about his new mom to respect. And, yes, he had admitted it to himself by now that she had become something of a mother to him.

Tapping a few buttons on the projector, she brought up a map of the galaxy. Slowly, it zoomed in on the given coordinates, moving farther and farther to the edge of the map.

Finally, the picture stopped on one of the small moons of a small planet in a small system on the edge of the outer rim. Ezra wasn't surprised that he had never heard of it. It was so far out there, even the Empire would have no reason to invade.

It seemed like a promising place to hide.

"Das'tor… huh," Zeb read and crossed his arms, "why would anyone ever go way out there?"

"That's exactly what the Empire would say," Kanan said, nodding to himself, "It's small enough and remote enough that even they wouldn't be able to find an excuse to take over."

Hera set her jaw, "Zeb, do a supply check, I want the list of supplies we'll need for the next three days. Kanan, call Commander Sato. Inform him that we won't be available for a while."

The three of them started at her and Chopper cheered.

"Wait, we're going rogue?" Ezra asked, staring at her in shock. What had gotten into her? She was usually the one telling them to "be sensible," "wait for the commander's orders," "be careful or you'll get yourselves killed!"

Hera grinned mischievously, "not really. We're just taking the initiative."

Again, Chopper whooped, and flew down the hall, almost crashing into the wall in his excitement. A few seconds later, Zeb and Kanan also hurried off to start their individual tasks, leaving Ezra and Hera alone.

Still at a loss for words, Ezra followed Hera as she walked briskly into the cockpit. As soon as she sat down, Hera spoke to him without looking up from the displays, "Ezra, can you and Chopper run some diagnostics and do repairs on the Ghost?"

Ezra nodded and shot a warning look at Chopper, who was already holding a wrench above his metal head. The astromech always liked to wait until he was least expecting it to drop things on his head.

A few minutes after he began, the cockpit was silent, besides the beeping from the interface as Hera set their hyperspace course.

While he was on his back fixing some of the ship's computers, he couldn't help but wonder. Even if he had heard the story from both Omega and Hera, he still wanted to know more. They seemed to have been good friends, and both of them had mentioned others when they told them about their meeting.

Finally, Ezra's curiosity won. "Hera?"

She hummed.

"What happened on Ryloth?"

The cockpit went dead quiet. Immediately, Ezra regretted asking at all and began to apologize.

"No, no, it's alright," she reassured him, and he breathed a sigh of relief. Hera continued, "It was right after the end of the war. The Clone Wars. The Separatists had disappeared seemingly overnight, and we were told that peace had finally come to the galaxy."

Ezra shimmied out from under the maintenance hatch soon enough to see Hera shake her head, "but Ryloth wasn't safe yet. My father, he led a group of freedom fighters during the war and aided the Republic soldiers fighting for us. When the war ended, we expected that the clones would leave, but they only secured the planet even further. I was only a little girl, but even I could see that there was something wrong.

"It wasn't until I found out that my uncle was smuggling weapons back to the people that I realized that others were already fighting back. I met Omega then. She and her friends, her brothers she called them, delivered the weapons."

Ezra cocked his head, "but you said that she rescued you?"

Hera nodded, "we were on our way back to the capital when the Empire shot down our ship and arrested us. My parents came to free us, and I escaped—"

Chopper grumbled and Hera smiled at him, "yes Chopper, I escaped with your help. But they captured my parents and uncle and locked them up."

Ezra had never heard Hera talk about her parents before. It was a surprise to hear her talk so willingly about her past at all. All of them had things about themselves that they'd rather not share.

"So, I called Omega and her brothers. I asked them for help saving my parents. At first, the others were reluctant, but Omega convinced them to help. She and I attacked the nearby Imperial refinery as a diversion so the others could break my parents out of their cell."

Her smile faded, "Captain Howzer, one of the clones who fought side by side with my father during the war, distracted the other clones while they escaped. I don't know what happened to him after that.

"After we escaped, we left Ryloth. I said goodbye to Omega and haven't spoken to her since."

Chopper rumbled sadly. Again, the full weight of his guilt struck Ezra like a slap in the face. It's my fault that Hera won't ever speak to her friend again. Ezra swallowed hard. He wouldn't cry. He refused to. It's just that it seemed to him that everything that had happened was his fault. Omega was gone, Sabine was injured, and he could have stopped it all if he'd just been more careful, just watched his friends' backs just a little closer.

Hera noticed and gently laid her hands on his shoulders, "Ezra, it wasn't your fault. None of us knew the Empire was coming, and Omega knew the risks. I don't blame you, or any of the others."

Face reddened from both embarrassment and holding back tears, Ezra nodded. Neither of them said a word when Hera gestured for him to sit down in the copilot's seat.

As Ezra gazed out into the dark wash of space speckled with distant, burning stars, he took a deep breath. If Omega was right, it meant they had a long adventure ahead of them. Ezra straightened in his seat.

Whatever happened next, he would continue what she had started. The Empire would see what happened when they messed with their friends.

He would make sure of it.

A/N: Btw, just a warning, but the next few chapters might take a little longer than the previous ones. I don't have them planned out quite as well, so I guess I'm really just apologizing in advance. Anyways, I hope ya'll enjoyed the chapter! Please feel free to give me feedback! I'm always open to new ideas and suggestions.