Hello everyone! So, going into this story, I feel like I should give a little background. Many, MANY years ago, when I was first discovering fanfiction, I ran across a Toy Story fic, The Velveteen Rabbit Theory by raspberryseedz that introduced the idea: what if the events of Toy Story were all part of a very realistic virtual reality game and Buzz (Mark, in the real world) was trying to find the other players of the game in real life in hopes of finding his friends and family. When I tell you that that concept has lived rent free in my brain for eleven years and the fact that it was never finished still haunts me to this day... So finally. FINALLY. I have been able to pay an homage to that brilliant story idea and world building with my own Rebels take on the narrative and it grew into a novel-length masterpiece (or dumpster fire, depending on how you ask.) Anyways. Enough with the intro-I just wanted to make sure I gave credit to the story that inspired this all. I can't wait to take you all on this journey with me! Please enjoy!

Zeb looks out over Lira San, his arm wrapped around his mate, Alex's, shoulders. Finally, after all this time, after everything they'd been through together, they were here. They were somewhere safe, with the threat of the Empire far, far away. They were somewhere they could settle down and make a life together-make a home. The Ghost had been their home-Zeb's home, at least-for a long, long time, but after what had happened to Kanan and then Ezra, it was hard for it to feel like home when a quarter of their family was missing. It had been time to go somewhere they could get a fresh start, without painful daily reminders of their loss. So, as soon as they could leave without feeling like they were abandoning the whole galaxy, and with Hera's blessing, Zeb had taken Alex to come live here, on a safe planet surrounded by his people. Hera and Jacen would come to visit frequently, and he'd heard that Sabine and Ahsoka were going to go search for Ezra. No one and nothing could fill the hole that Kanan's death had left in their hearts, but Zeb supposed that, in as kriffed up a state as the war had left the galaxy, being here with Alex and with the faint hope that Sabine might be able to eventually bring Ezra home, was about the closest thing to a happy ending as he could hope for.

He feels Alex gently tugging on the collar of his jumpsuit, a playful look on his face as he brings their lips closer together. Zeb was more than happy to give Alex exactly what he wanted, and his eyelids were just fluttering shut in anticipation of their kiss when a loud beeping sound suddenly fills his ears.

"What is that?" Alex cries, instantly jerking away from him.

"I don't know! An attack?" Zeb's heart was pounding in his chest. No, they were supposed to finally be safe! But instead of missiles or blaster fire or even an explosion like he'd been expecting, the world around him, including Alex, started to fade away.

"Zeb!" Alex cries, sounding panicked, and Zeb looked down with a start to realize that his own body was starting to fade as well.

"Alex!" Zeb shouts, reaching a hand out to Alex, but before he could reach him the world goes pitch black.

He faintly hears a calm voice in his ear saying, "Simulation complete", and then his eyes snap open to find himself in some sort of dark pod-like space, his arms and lens strapped down, tubes running from his body. What the kriff was going on?

He was on the verge of panicking and trying to break out of this thing, whatever it was, when with a soft "hiss" the front of the pod opens to reveal a woman dressed in a white lab coat, her long dark hair pulled back into several complicated braids.

"Mr. Orelios, welcome back," the woman says cheerfully. "I trust your experience with the game was pleasant?"

What in the name of Ashla was she talking about? Zeb had no idea who this woman was, but there was something oddly familiar about her… Then his eyes fall on the blue and white scarf around her neck and something clicks.

"Ahsoka?" he gasps out.

"I'm Dr. Tano, yes, but I'm assuming that you're referring to my avatar in the game," the woman answers with a patient smile. "Ahsoka was mostly an NPC character with a very impressive AI program based off of the character that you probably know from Clone Wars, but I did enter the simulation as her a few times just to help keep the story on track and guide you and the other players through your adventure."

A game? What did she mean, a game? Zeb feverishly wonders, only to freeze as he looks down and sees that his own body looked very, very wrong-instead of being covered in short purple fur, his limbs had the fleshy smoothness of a human's. In fact everything about him looked human and very non-Lasat. How was that possible?

And then slowly, slowly memories start to drift back to him. He remembers signing up for the chance to be a beta tester for what had been advertised to be a new, fully immersive virtual reality Star Wars experience. He remembers getting the call that he'd won, remembers the taxi driver coming to pick him up and bringing him to the facility where the game was being tested. He remembers meeting Dr. Tano and her explaining that, to allow for the most game play time and most immersive game play, he'd be put to sleep and linked up to a VR chamber for two days, in which time he'd be free to interact with the game and other gamers however and as much as he wished to as the avatar that he'd designed for himself. There would be some general structured storyline that he would follow, but there would be a lot of free will which was part of what made the game so revolutionary. As someone who'd loved Star Wars since his grandad had shown the movies to him as a kid, it had sounded like a fun way to spend a weekend when he'd agreed to it.

A weekend… Zeb shivers, and not just because of the icy temperature of the room. How could it have only been a weekend? He knew that the brain processed things faster when sleeping, per Dr. Tano's pre-game briefing, but it felt like he'd spent a lifetime in there-had even had a whole other life in there. His body felt strange and almost wrong, and as helped unhook him from the various tubes that had kept him alive over the weekend the reflection that he saw in what he guessed was a one-way glass window at the far end of the room was almost unrecognizable.

Once he was finally fully unhooked, Dr. Tano made him sit in a chair across from her at a small table and answer a seemingly endless stream of questions about his experience with the game, particularly how realistic it had felt.

"Like I told yeh," he says for what felt like the hundredth time, "I had no idea I was in a game, everything felt completely real, like I'd lived there my whole life!" And, in some ways, about half of his brain was still stuck on the idea that he had lived there, that everything he'd experienced was real.

"And the storyline made sense? Nothing seemed forced?" Dr. Tano presses.

"Well, most of it was fine," Zeb answers, trying to sort through what felt like years of memories. "Expect right at the end, Kanan's death didn't seem…. Necessary? He should have easily been able to save himself as well as us. Well, not easily, but it was possible. And then Ezra told me about going to the temple and saving Ahsoka-well, I guess maybe you? And either the program or you told him that he couldn't save Kanan the same way for some reason?"

"Well, yes, I'll make a note of that." Dr. Tano lets out a rather uncomfortable sounding cough and then stands up, not bothering to clarify and suddenly seeming less eager to hear anything else that he had to say. "I'll be in touch if I have any more questions, but for now here is a list of some after-care instructions-ease yourself back into solid foods, best to stick with liquids and soft foods for now after being on a feeding tube for two days. A taxi is waiting outside to drive you home. Thank you for helping us test the game and make it the best experience possible."

"You're welcome," Zeb mumbles. Part of him was ready to go home and be alone with his thoughts, to try to sleep this off (if that was possible, and if he could even sleep after sleeping-at least physically-for two days straight.) What he really wanted was to be back on the Ghost, with his family and his mate. But none of it was real, was it? None of them even existed; just like his avatar, they were just bits of data…

Wait. Wait just a minute. True, the avatars were just data. But he, the player, was a real person, who really experienced those things, even if it was a virtual experience. And Dr. Tano had mentioned him interacting with the other players in the game-even she herself had been in the game as Ahsoka. So if they were real, maybe the rest of the crew, especially Alex-!

"Can I meet the other players?" Zeb blurts out.

"What?" Dr. Tano looks up from her clipboard, seeming surprised.

"The other players-can I meet them?" Zeb repeats. "I-I'd like to talk to them, about their experiences in the game…?"

"I'm sorry, but the privacy agreements you all signed before testing the game prevent me from giving you any of their information, or from arranging a meeting," Dr. Tano answers, shaking her head.

"But if you could just ask them, tell them that I want to meet them-" Zeb starts to protest.

"Your ride is waiting for you, Mr. Orelios," Dr. Tano says a bit sharply, gesturing to the door. Her message was clear-the game was officially over.

Feeling like he was somehow leaving a part of himself here, Zeb leaves through the indicated door and follows a series of signs back to the main entrance of the building. He couldn't help but examine every person that he passed in the halls, looking for any sign of a familiar face, especially Alex's. But he had no success, and he had to wonder if he'd be able to recognize any of the crew when he himself was so unrecognizable from his avatar. His heart ached with the realization that he would probably never see any of them again. He rationally knew that it had just been a game-that the adopted family that they'd formed; the man that he'd fallen in love with; any of his life over there, really, had never and would never be real. But that didn't take away how much losing them all hurt, like someone had reached into his chest and torn out a chunk of his heart, leaving a raw, gaping hole that he had no idea to fix.

Well, he had some idea how to fix it. More of a bandaid on the pain than a solution, really, but some of his grandad's vintage whiskey would at least numb the pain a bit. He was glad he'd had the foresight to have the driver pick him up and drop him off at the house his grandparents had left to him when they'd passed almost ten years ago. Usually he just kipped on an army cot in the back room of his woodworking shop in town-the big house was too quiet and empty with just him in it, which was why he mostly put it to use renting it out to tourists, especially in the summer season. But no one was renting it at the moment, and he needed somewhere that felt safe and secure, even if it was the house where his birth parents had dropped him off and then fucked off to gods knew where, leaving him with his grandparents.

Still, he thinks as the taxi driver drops him off at the front drive and he makes his way into the dark, mostly abandoned house, he'd had a pretty good life with his grandparents, all things considered. His grandad had been a woodcarver-had taught him almost everything he knew about the craft, and it was his shop that Zeb now ran with his own carvings. His gran had been a professional seamstress, and had taught Zeb her craft as well, something which surprised most people when they saw Zeb's 6'7" form carefully mending a hole in a garment or stitching a loose button back onto a shirt. Both his grandparents had also been active in the local Ren faire, so Zeb had spent a good many years as a child happily running around the woods when the faire was held, learning everything from sword fighting to how to help a knight put on full plate armor to how to properly speak Old English.

It had been a great way to grow up, despite his absentee parents-his gran and grandad were all he'd needed. But then had come the cancer diagnosis… It had been swift and brutal: one day Gran had been working on a new dress for a court lady, healthy as ever, and two months later, she was gone. His grandad hadn't been able to cope, and while the formal cause of death had been declared heart failure by the doctor, Zeb knew that his grandad had died of a broken heart. And there he was, left alone with a house and a shop that he somehow had to keep going-to do what he had to in order to keep their memories from fading completely. Their friends had still often come by the shop for visits and to ask how he was doing, to make sure that he was alright, but one by one they'd slowly started disappearing as well. That's why Zeb had cut himself off from making emotional connections: he couldn't stand the thought of losing anyone else. So he worked in the shop, he went to the gym, and that was about it. He avoided making friends-at the gym he constantly kept his earbuds in to avoid interactions with others, and most of his customers at the shop were tourists who would only be in town for a few days, a couple weeks at most, which suited him just fine.

So the fact that he had unintentionally opened himself back up again-that he'd not only been allowed to form a new family but to fall in love-only to have everyone ripped away from him and be told that because of some stupid rules he could never see them again? That was not sitting well with him. In fact, the longer he thought about it the angrier he got. But he'd learned too well from his grandad, who'd helped him master the temper that had made him something of an outcast at school as a child (despised by the teachers who wrote him off as a "problem child", ridiculed by his classmates who took great enjoyment in teasing and prodding him until he "went off" so that they could report him to the teachers), to let his anger get the better of him. His grandad had taught him to pick his battles, and to know when a fight required a full frontal attack or when careful planning and finesse was needed. And Zeb could clearly see that Dr. Tano-Ahsoka-was going to be a formidable adversary who would require quite a bit of finesse. So tonight he would have some whiskey, clear his head, and try to get some sleep. Then tomorrow he would start trying to plan how to face this particular battle.

Unfortunately, as it turned out, all the finesse in the world wasn't having much of an effect on Dr. Tano's iron will. No amount of explaining, reasoning, begging, pleading, or even bribing would soften it. If anything, the harder he tried the more she resisted. It got to the point where she wouldn't see him anymore: anytime he went to the facility he was told that she wasn't there or was in a "meeting" that wouldn't let out until after the facility was closed. He was beginning to get the feeling he was pushing her to her limits and it wasn't going to be long before he got himself banned from the premises. But how could he not keep trying to find his family and the love of his life until there wasn't any hope left?

It was a Friday afternoon when Zeb decided to give it one final try. He left his shop in the capable hands of one of his few employees for the remainder of the afternoon and then drove his decidedly weathered but extremely reliable pickup truck down to the facility.

"No, not you again!" the receptionist groans as he walks in the door. "You need to leave, we've been instructed to call security if you don't stop coming here and harassing us!"

"I'm sorry, I promise I'm not trying to harass you!" Zeb apologizes. "I'm just desperate, I need to find-!"

"You need to find your 'family', I know," the receptionist groans. "Mr. Orelios, you need to understand that what you experienced, even though it may have felt very realistic, was not real. None of it actually happened. You are not a giant alien cat-"

"You think I don't fucking know that by now?"

"-and those people you met are not your family!"

"You don't know what you're talking about," Zeb growls, trying very hard to keep his temper under control.

"Look, if you don't leave I'm really going to have to call security," the receptionist says, reaching for the phone, only to let out a groan as Zeb hears the automatic doors behind him "swish" open. "Oh no, not you again! Both of you, out, or I'll call security!"

Wait, who else was she planning to call security on? On instinct, Zeb turns around to look at the person who'd just walked in. He feels his heart miss a beat, because he was pretty sure he was looking at a ghost-if ghosts wore ratty old sweaters with elbow patches, that is. But despite the drastic difference in apparel from his avatar, there was no mistaking that face, especially those piercing blue eyes.

"Kanan?" Zeb whispers, barely able to believe what he was seeing.

"Yes?" the other man looks him up and down warily. "Do I know you?"

"It's me, Zeb!" Zeb answers, silently praying to whatever gods were out there (or Ashla, although he wasn't sure if that worked in this world) that Kanan would recognize him-he had to recognize him!

"Zeb?" Kanan repeats, blinking in surprise but understanding seeming to be dawning on him. "Holy shit-you're Zeb?"

"Yes!" Zeb cries.

"Oh my god…" Kanan breathes. "Y-You're here-you're really here! I've been trying for weeks to find any of you!"

"Me too!" Zeb cries, and in spite of himself he felt tears pricking his eyes. Finally, finally he'd found at least one member of his crew-his family.

"Erhem." The receptionist clears her throat to remind them that she was still there-she couldn't let them have even one moment, could she? "Look, I'm sure this is all very sweet that you've found each other, or whatever, but you need to leave. Now."

"Not just yet." Finding Kanan had stiffened Zeb's resolve, and it had given him a new idea. If Kanan had been looking for him, what if the others had too? "Look, I'll go, and I promise I'll stop bothering you, but only if you promise that you'll give my contact information to any of the others if they're looking for me. I'll sign whatever release forms I have to in order for it to make your boss happy, but that's my deal."

The receptionist seems to be considering this. "You promise you won't come back here again?"

"Never."

"...Fine. Whatever. If you'll stop harassing me, I'll do it."

"Thank you!" Zeb beams at her-finally, a victory! Maybe not a big victory, but he'd take what he could get.

"Can I make the same deal with you?" Kanan quickly asks the receptionist.

"If it will finally get you off of my back too, fine, yes!"

"Thank you!"

"Don't suppose we can get you to tell us if any of the others have been looking for us?" Zeb hedges.

"No. Out." The receptionist points to the door, and Zeb decides to stop pushing his luck-he'll just have to be content with today's small victory, at least for now.

Both he and Kanan were silent as they leave the facility, but as soon as they were out of sight of the doors, Kanan turned to Zeb, and Zeb was surprised to see that it looks like he was holding back tears-maybe as surprised that he found he was doing the same.

"God," Kanan whispers. "Sorry, I know that this is probably really weird since technically we've never met before-"

"No, Kanan, it's fine!" Zeb hurries to reassure him. "Believe me, I am… I can't really even describe what I'm feeling right now, I've been trying to find any of you for so long, any sign that I wasn't going crazy… But now I've finally found you, and I…"

His voice cracks, making him trail off-no, he wouldn't break down and cry, even though the last time he'd seen Kanan was when he'd died.

Kanan somehow seemed to understand, suddenly wrapping his arms around Zeb, and Zeb hugs him tightly back, needing the comfort and physical reassurance that this was real-that Kanan was really real-and that maybe this meant he would be able to find the others (especially Alex.)

"So-guess we'd probably get out of here before the receptionist realizes that we're still out here and really calls security on us," Kanan says with a slightly wet-sounding chuckle when he finally pulls away. "I drove here, did you?"

"Yeah, I did," Zeb agrees, reluctant to let go of Kanan but knowing that he had a good point. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, if not I was going to offer you a ride, but as it is I don't want you to leave your car here, so do you maybe want to pick somewhere to meet up and we'll drive over separately?" Kanan asks, sounding a bit hesitant. "I totally understand if you have plans, or if this is too weird for you-"

"What? No! I mean, no it's not weird, but yes, I'd love to meet up somewhere so we can talk about all of this," Zeb hurriedly reassures him. "If anything I feel like I could use a stiff drink to help me process all of this. You?"

Kanan looks a bit uncomfortable. "As much as I could absolutely use a drink right now, I've been trying not to drink since I've been back, and I don't really want to break my streak at this point… If you want to go to a bar or somewhere, though, I don't mind at all, I can get something non-alcoholic!"

Zeb silently curses himself-karabast, he should have remembered from the game that Kanan didn't drink! Of course he didn't have any idea how much of the game persona was real and what wasn't, but still!

"No way, we're not going anywhere that's going to be a temptation for you, that was my fault for suggesting it, I should have known better," Zeb says firmly. "I am happy going anywhere! Did you have someplace in mind?"

"Thank you for understanding." Kanan gives him a grateful smile. "As for places to go… There is a pretty nice place near the college where I teach that makes some great ramen-it's not too far from here, if you might be interested?"

Wait, in real life Kanan was a college professor? That was slightly surprising, although, in some weird way, it also kind of made sense…

Realizing that Kanan was waiting for a reply, Zeb quickly answers, "Yeah, that sounds great! Let me give you my number, and you can text me the address?"

"Works for me!" Kanan agrees, and they quickly exchange numbers.

"All right, see you in a bit," Kanan says once they've both walked back to their respective vehicles which, by some weird twist of fate, they'd managed to park almost right next to each other.

"See you," Zeb agrees. He could tell both of them were a bit worried about leaving the other one-worried that if they let the other one leave this would all turn out to be a dream or some horrible prank. But they couldn't very well leave their vehicles here, so Zeb forces himself to believe that things would be alright-that he'd go to the address Kanan had texted him and that Kanan would be there to meet him. He had to be. He didn't have it in him to be disappointed or abandoned again.