Hera made it to the rendezvous point for the mission at about 6 a.m. An hour later, Kanan, Sabine, and a very grumpy Lasat were ready to board Hondo's ship.

"Be careful. You know Hondo, anything could happen," Hera said. "I'll be ready in the air when you need me."

"Where are you going?" Ezra asked, looking up at Kanan. He didn't want his friend to leave him, even if he got to stay with Hera. Kanan bent down to speak to Ezra.

"We have a mission to go to. We'll be back before you know it."

"I wanna come," Ezra said.

"Maybe next time," Hera said. "Kanan, Sabine, and Zeb need us here to pick them up when the mission goes bad."

"If, Hera. Not when," Kanan said.

"When dealing with the empire, it's definitely a 'when', love. Or that's the way it's always been for us," Hera replied. Hera and Kanan shared a look that made Zeb and Sabine look away in embarrassment at witnessing this private moment.

"Bye-bye, Kanan," Ezra said and hugged him.

"See you soon, bud." Kanan returned the hug and ruffled the boy's hair.

"Bye S'bine." Then Ezra said more shyly, "Bye Zeb."

"Good luck up here, kid." Ezra looked at Zeb, shocked that he was talking to him.

--

When the crew left, Hera and Ezra occupied the cockpit. Hera sat in the pilot seat while Ezra sat in the co-pilot seat that was way too big for him.

Hera sat down and thought about her earlier call to Fulcrum about Ezra. She had only said that they had rescued an escaped rebel minor who was running from the empire. Hera hadn't given any information of Ezra's identity or age because she wanted to make sure Ezra's current addition to the crew remained a secret. Though Ezra had just met them and was only with them for two days, she couldn't imagine him not being here. She knew Kanan, Sabine, and even Zeb were starting to think the same way.

While they were waiting, Ezra stared at all the controls in confusion.

"Um...Hera...how do you know what button to press?"

"Huh?" Hera asked, jostled from her thoughts.

"How do you know how to control the ship?"

"Well, I learned to fly back on my home planet of Ryloth. I started learning when I was a bit older than you. Would you like to learn how to fly? We have some time before we'll be needed."

"Ya!"

"Okay, come here." Ezra got up and sat down on Hera's lap as she started showing him how the different buttons worked and what she pressed to get it to go and stop. Ezra was fascinated by all of this and Hera was thrilled.

Hera had tried to teach Kanan and Zeb how to pilot, but they only learned the basis before they lost interest. And Sabine already knew how to fly a ship pretty well when she joined the crew. Now, Hera could teach Ezra all about her ship and he seemed thrilled at the attention and care from her. Hera had imagined one day teaching her children how to fly, and this might be as close as she came to having her own child. Hera started to regret her contact with Fulcrum when a transmission came in.

"Spectre two, we have the supplies and we're being tailed by stormtroopers. We need a speedy pick up," Kanan's voice came over the transmission.

"On it, Spectre one." Hera quickly buckled Ezra into a seat and took the controls. "Chopper, track their position. Ezra, hold on."

Ezra listened to Hera. Before he knew it, they were speeding off to the rescue. Ezra held the arm rests of the seat, slipping around. The seat was too big and the seat belt didn't help very much.

When they got into the atmosphere, Chopper directed Hera where to find the crew. As they got closer, Hera saw the group. They were on speeders, barely ahead of the stormtroopers behind them. Hera aimed a few shots at the approaching troopers and successfully stopped the approaching enemy. Hera then opened the ramp and told Chopper what to do. She then ran to the ramp. Ezra, not knowing what to do, followed Hera.

As the crew loaded the ship with the remaining supply crates, more imperials caught up with them. Zeb stayed out to fend off the enemy while Kanan and Sabine loaded the supplies into the ship.

"Good luck, Ghost crew!" Hondo boarded his ship and left with his share of the crates.

"Ugh, I hate that guy!" Zeb yelled as he deflected shots with his bo-rifle. "Hurry things up, I can't hold them much longer."

Hera hurried out of the ship, helping Zeb hold off the few troopers left.

"Okay, we have everything, let's go!" Kanan and Sabine shot the troopers as Hera and Zeb ran back to the ship. Chopper lifted them off the ground, but one of the troopers made a lucky shot and hit Zeb in the heel. The Lasat yelled out in pain as he started falling off the ramp. Kanan, Hera, and Sabine grabbed his arms and tried to haul him up. The troopers continued to shoot. A few shots traveled near the Lasat, Zeb lurching out of the way at the last minute.

Zeb suddenly lost his grip of the ramp and started to fall. Kanan concentrated with all his might and was able to barely hold Zeb up with the force. The troopers never stopped their shooting. Sabine shot back as Hera yelled instructions to Chopper.

Then the troopers stopped shooting. Hera, Sabine, and Zeb all looked back to see the troopers on the ground, knocked down by some force. Kanan was able to get Zeb successfully onto the ramp and Hera instructed Chopper to take off.

"Thanks, Kanan. I didn't realize you could hold me and knock down troopers at the same time."

Kanan seemed confused.

"I only held you up, I didn't knock the troopers down."

"Well it's unlikely that they all fell over simultaneously. How did that happen?" Sabine asked.

That's when the crew noticed a certain four-year-old standing slightly behind Hera. He looked at his hands, shocked.

Kanan and Hera looked at each other, shocked that the boy had shown some use of the force. Kanan bent down to talk to the boy.

"Ezra, did you knock down those stormtroopers?" Ezra met Kanan's gaze, fear in his eyes. He frowned and nodded.

"Why did you do that?"

"To...to help Zeb. I didn't mean to do it! I'm sorry."

Kanan was surprised and shocked at the boy's response.

"You have nothin' to be sorry about, kid. You saved me. Thank you." Zeb stood to rustle the boy's hair. It was the first time Zeb showed any kindness to the boy and although Ezra flinched away from the approaching hand, he found that the Lasat's touch was gentle and not meant to harm.

"But… but I used a bad power," Ezra said, looking down at the ground, ashamed.

"That's not exactly true, bud. Look," Kanan said and levitated Ezra for a second before pushing a crate over and then pulling it back up with the force. "This is called the force, and I have it, too." Ezra seemed amazed at Kanan's abilities.

The rest of the crew helped Zeb to the medbay and left the two in the cargo hold to talk about the force.

"I am what people call a Jedi, have you ever heard of that?" Kanan asked, sitting down against a wall, Ezra settling next to him.

"We are a group of people of all different species who have a strong connection to the force. And unlike the Sith, we use the force for good. And one day, if you want, you can become a Jedi, too."

"Ya, I wanna be a Jedi, like you. I don't want to use my power for bad like the bad guys said to." This proved Kanan's theory true. The empire had captured Ezra in order to train him for bad. They knew about his connection to the force and had tried to train him.

"Well, then you can become my Padawan if you want me to train you how to be a Jedi."

Ezra nodded, eagerly.

"Okay. We can start right now. First, I'm going to teach you how to meditate and connect with the force. When we do this, you have to sit quietly and allow me to connect with your force signature. I can then start to spread my influence of the good side of the force."

Kanan knew he would have to form a quick and deep connection with Ezra if he was going to successfully ward off the evils already implanted in the boy's mind. Kanan also knew that this was unwise if Ezra was going to be a temporary resident of the Ghost. But with Zeb's new kindness to Ezra and everyone else's obvious fondness for the boy, Kanan found this highly unlikely.