The crew decided to fuel up and get some supplies after dropping the Wookies off. It was a horribly hot day on the planet they stopped at and the crowds were horrible. The crew decided to split up to get the shopping done faster.
When they finished their list, Hera and Sabine made their way out of the crowds and back toward the ships. After twenty minutes back at the ship, Hera started to worry. It was getting hotter and hotter here and she didn't want any of the boys to get sun or heat sickness.
"Spectre 2 to 1. Come in."
"Spectre 1 here, what's up?"
"What's your ETA?"
"Probably another 15 minutes. We're having trouble finding the meloruns you asked for."
"Forget those. Why don't you hurry back, I don't want Spectre 6 out in this heat anymore."
There was silence on the other end.
"Then take him into the ship…" Kanan answered, unsure why Hera was keeping Ezra outside when it was this hot.
"I will when you bring him back." There was another long pause. Hera started to worry. "Kanan?"
"We don't have Ezra. I thought he went with you. Zeb says he saw him go with you and Sabine." Kanan started to panic. Zeb, who was with him, started to look around for the young boy, but it was impossible in this crowd.
"No, I thought he was going with you!" Hera started to panic. She looked at Sabine, who was listening in on the conversation and they jumped up and made their way back into the crowds of the market, worried for their youngest Spectre.
"We are coming back out. Where's the last place you saw him?" Hera asked.
"When we split up. Did you tell him to come with us?"
"I didn't tell him anything, I thought you already did," Hera replied. Sabine interrupted.
"It doesn't matter who told him what, it only matters that he's gone. Where did we split up?"
"Back at the ship parts," Hera said.
"Then let's follow our path back to there and meet in the middle. If he's lost, he can't have gotten too far. Ask around and see if anyone has seen him." When Zeb and Kanan agreed, the crew set off to retrace their steps.
Ezra looked up and realized he didn't know where any of the crew was. He had been following the crew, very bored and sweaty from shopping. He hadn't been paying attention until some people pushed past each other, jostling him to a side street. At first, Ezra called out for Kanan or Hera, but he couldn't find them in the crowd. They wouldn't just leave him, right? They would wait to find him before moving onto the next area. But the crowd around the street cleared for a second and Ezra realized that his crew was nowhere in sight.
Ezra told himself he had been alone before and would be fine, but he was too scared to do anything right now. Dozens of tall people in a mix of species pushed themselves toward their next location. Ezra didn't want to fight through the crowd, so he sat down where he was and tried not to cry. Why did the crew leave him?
He listened to the strange conversations going on between people as he sat with his head in his hands, hoping one of his crew members would come and find him.
"I won't give you anymore!" Ezra looked up at a familiar voice. It hadn't been one of the crew's voices, but Ezra had definitely heard the voice before.
"Well how about I pay half now and pay you back later?" Ezra jumped up and saw a man bartering with a shop owner. Ezra had seen and heard him before, but not in person, just over holograms. Ezra considered if it was safe to go up to the man. But as Ezra stared around for his crew and the heat on the planet increased, Ezra knew this was his only hope.
Ezra cautiously made his way to the man, who was still bartering over crates. Ezra walked up to the man and poked his leg. The man gave Ezra a questioning look before bending down to talk to the young boy.
The shop owner got impatient and looked at the man.
"Hondo?"
"Yes, yes give me a minute." Hondo waved his hand at the man so he could hear the child. "What is it, kid?"
"Um… I don't know where my friends are and I think you know them."
"And who are your friends?"
"The...The rebels." The man bent down further, listening to the boy.
"Hera Syndulla and them?" Ezra nodded, excited that the man knew his crew.
"Yes, what about them."
"Can you help me find them?" Hondo considered this offer. He didn't know that this boy was part of the crew, but he did know that people loved their children. He assumed that if he helped the boy find the rebels, the rebels would definitely be in his debt.
"Okay, just let me finish bartering." Ezra sighed with relief, knowing that he would be with his friends - family - once again.
"RUN!" Hondo was suddenly pulling Ezra up and around a corner, dragging a stolen crate behind him. Ezra ran as fast as he could, but Hondo was much faster. Hondo noticed the boy lagging and picked him up, set him on the crate, and ran toward his ship. Ezra held onto the stolen crate as the two barreled through the crowd toward a spacecraft.
The ship was as small as the Phantom and Ezra watched out the window at the approaching man who had been bartering with Hondo.
Hondo started up the engines and shot into space, leaving the planet's surface far below him. Ezra suddenly realized what was happening.
"No! My family's down there!"
"No worries, young… what is your name?"
"Dev," Ezra lied, still unsure about the man.
"No worries, Dev. I will contact your crew for a rendezvous point." The young boy didn't respond, still worried. "Who are you, anyway? Didn't know the Ghost crew had a child. You definitely aren't a Twi-lek or Lasat, so you must be one of the human's kids. Are you the Jedi's kid? Or maybe the Mandalorian's brother?"
Ezra didn't know how to respond to this. He did somewhat consider Kanan his father and Sabine his sister, but they weren't really. Ezra just shook his head.
"No? Just a stray then?... Well, whoever you are, let's get you back to your crew... unless of course you want to join mine."
"Do you even have a crew?" Ezra looked around and didn't see anyone.
"Well, I used to, but they seem to...uh...quit on me."
Hera was frantic. She and Sabine had no luck finding Ezra. When they met up, they found out Kanan and Zeb had the same amount of success.
"He could be anywhere. Where do you think he would go?" Hera asked.
"I don't know. We should have given him a com link to contact us." Kanan couldn't help but feel responsible. Now Ezra was wandering around the streets alone.
"Hold up. Ezra could be making his way back to the ship right now."
"I left Chopper there just in case. But does Ezra even know where we landed?"
"I don't know, but…" Kanan was interrupted by a beeping on Hera's comlink.
"Chopper, what is it?" Hera asked. "Incoming transition? I'm a little busy...What?...Fine, send it through." Hera held out her arm as her wrist-com turned into a holo-image. The rest of the crew gathered around to listen, understanding at least a little of what Chopper had been beeping.
A hologram of Hondo appeared.
"Hello, Ghost crew. One of your crew has lost his way and decided to ask me to help him find you. Sadly, I have had to depart from the planet and cannot come back quite yet. If you would like your member, please follow these coordinates. And don't forget to bring some credits, I do not take care of children for free. Oh, and don't worry, Dev will be safe with me for the time being." Hondo's message ended.
"Him? How come he has Ezra?" Kanan asked. He knew that the whole crew shared his dislike of Hondo. They were only acquainted with him for jobs.
"I'm assuming Ezra recognized him because we have worked with him before. He probably asked for help. That was a smart thing to do," Hera tried to explain and console herself at the same time. "Now we need to get back to the ship so we can get Ezra."
"We have to ask Hondo to let us talk to him. Ezra's probably really scared. He might think that we left him on purpose," Sabine said as the crew hurried through the streets and back to their ship.
"We can once we get back to the ship. Hondo's most likely up to something illegal since he's had some trouble that made him leave," Hera said.
"I don't want Ezra mixed up with that trouble," Kanan said.
"None of us do, but the bes' we can hope for is that Hondo treats the kid better than he treats the members of his crew." The whole crew met each other's eyes and ran a little faster toward the ship.
