"NOT GOOD! REX!" Ezra frantically pushed buttons and messed with wires under the dashboard of the cramped cockpit. As he spoke the ship slowly gained more speed as it was pulled towards the planet below. As it got bigger, Ezra noticed the surface with dry rocky land and small oceans surrounded by land completely, almost like massive lakes.
"THIS SHIP ISN'T GOING TO WORK! LET'S GET TO THE BACK! WE NEED TO BRACE OURSELVES AND THE OTHERS FOR THE IMPACT! QUICK!" Even if he was screaming Rex didn't seem to panic, still he rushed out into the main area of the gunship, the two unconscious women on the floor.
The ship shook rapidly as flames built up around it, gaining more and more speed as it descended onto the surface, towards the edge of a small city. Not close but at least within walking distance. soon they were travelling at the same speed as if the thrusters were active. Straight towards the ground. Ezra and Rex stumbled around the cabin trying to prepare for the impact.
"This is really going to hurt let's hope the plan works" Ezra spoke with unnerving calmness, prying open ever so slightly one of the side doors of the LAAT, the flames bursting in Ezra taking the brunt of the heat, his shirt and pants charring.
"WHAT PLAN?! KID SHUT THAT BEFORE YOU FRY US ALL!" Rex was about to run to pull Ezra back, the boy now leaning out ever so slightly, screaming in agony as the flames burnt at his left arm and body, slowly the flames were pushed around the boy the ship ever so slightly slowing.
Screaming out as if he was being crushed by a mountain Ezra continued to strain himself pushing out with both his hands almost falling out if not for Rex grabbing the boy. Slowing the ship just enough it crashed into the ground with a loud bang, the cockpit exploding into flame and smoke, sparks flying.
Rex grabbed at his head, aching he stumbled up, leaning against the wall of the gunship he saw Hera and Sabine both slammed against the back of the ship, only. Rex couldn't see the doors, just a solid platform. Coughing and wheezing he looked up, to see the half-mangled door above him, he was trapped in the ship with the other two. Ezra on the other hand was missing or at least not in the grey metal ship.
"That kid better be alright, or I'll kill him!" Rex muttered, leaning against the metal roof and sliding down till he was sitting against it, light shining through the small gap in the broken door above, it was mangled beyond use.
"Kanan… calm down, it'll be okay" The female ex-officer spoke with shocking calmness after what had just occurred, sitting on the leather couch of the Ghost's common room, Kanan pacing back and forth in front.
Zeb and Ahsoka stepped in from the cockpit, Chopper rolling behind them. Zeb tiredly stumbled to the seat slumping down into it, his pointy purple ears drooping down slightly. Ahsoka meanwhile simply stared at Kanan and then Kristina.
"How? HOW CAN I BE CALM!? I LEFT HER THERE! SHE WAS TRAPPED THERE! IF THE FLAME DIDN'T GET HER THEN THE EMPIRE DID! H-HOW… H-How can I be… c-calm… she's dead… be-because of me… Because of us!" Kanan slowly went from shouting to muttering as he sobbed, hiding his eyes behind his right hand.
"Kanan… There was nothin' we could do… the flames and troopers cut us off, we wouldn't have been able to save 'er if we were caught" Zeb's voice was broken and quiet, laced with defeat. Kristina looked at the two thinking for a moment. Kristina closed her eyes for a second, images flashing in her mind, the flames, blaster fire, explosions.
"If we wait a day the empire would have cleared out completely, there wasn't much there… we could go back, or turn back right now, but…" Kristina spoke softly to the two men, waiting for confirmation.
"That's a good idea, I'd doubt they would still be there, most of their resources would be directed at hunting the survivors… like us" Ahsoka joined in the conversation stroking her chin.
"I say we go back now!" Kanan spoke up immediately.
"If we wait just a day the security will be less intense" Kristina argued with Kanan, neither Zeb nor Ahsoka joining in.
After a long back and forth Kristina finally won. With a frown, she stood up walking towards the cabins. "Tomorrow we will depart and I promise it'll be fine"
The wind quietly whistled against cold rocky land. Small patches of grass scattered around the tundra, and they were swaying in the wind. And in the middle of a patch of grass, a young boy, shoulder length raven blue hair, and bruises on his face, was clad in black variants of the old Jedi tunics and cloth pants, long black leather boots, torn and scuffed up, his left foot sticking out the front of the boot, charred holes in the shirt as well as massive ripped segments, mainly his entire left sleeve was missing. Gently the boy's finger twitched. With a cough, the boy used his arms to push himself off the ground stumbling to his feet and taking a couple of steps before being taken over by a coughing fit, with the result being a loud cough that launched blood up. Looking around as best he could the boy saw a burnt and crashed LAAT gunship, it was grey under all the charred metal, and more importantly, a wing was snapped off the ship was on its side.
Ezra stumbled forward, using his left hand and tracing his middle and index finger across his left cheek, Ezra felt the two small scars, then across his right eye, from eyebrow to the lower outer corner of his eye. Groaning he stepped towards the ship, climbing atop it.
Ezra saw the mangled grey sliding metal door, it was all twisted and stuck in the frame, a tiny gap near the front side of the doorway. Ezra leant down sticking his head in and spinning around, he saw the old clone sleeping, small bits of blood in his white beard. The unconscious Twi-lek with the bandage over her head and the Mandalorian were both at the back of the ship.
"OI! REX! Come on we got work to do" Startling awake the clone jumped to his feet looking up at the boy.
"Well get the bloody door open, will you?" Rex watched idly as the boy's head disappeared outside the ship, and then with a loud creak and crash the door was ripped off the hinge flying into the horizon.
With a smirk, Ezra brushed his hands together laughing. Leaping gracefully into the ship he picked up the Twi-lek jumping back out the ship, before a moment later jumping back into the ship, this time his left leg collapsed and the boy fell to the ground groaning.
Rex laughed for a moment before helping the boy up. The two dragged the Mandalorian girl out of the ship her brightly painted armour covered in dirt and ash. Before the two joined the women on the ground. the world around went black.
Ezra awoke to the sound of beeps, constant and consistent in length. As the world brightened to a white blur. Blinking repeatedly Ezra could see a white tiled ceiling. Looking around the room he saw a few medical beds with small bedside tables and plastic chairs next to the bed, each bed had a green plastic sheet neatly tucked in, Ezra was the only person in a medical bed, no one else in the room, the white walls barely broken apart by a green stripe matching the colour of the bedsheets. The room had no walls, and you would think that it was its own secluded location in space and time if not for the grey metal sliding door. Pulling the sheet off himself Ezra sat on the edge of the bed. Looking at himself, he wasn't in his charred wrecked Jedi robes. Ezra was wearing an aqua patient gown. Standing on the right side of the bed he looked around, noticing a set of orange clothes, atop the shirt was a pair of brown pants. On the ground next to the clothes are a pair of plastic armour boots like the material used by Rex's armour. Taking off the hospital gown he grabs the pants sliding into them, looking at his naked chest he noticed all the scars or well lack thereof. One or two minor scars, but his body was healed, furthermore, he realised he was looking at the clothes through the corner of his eye, his right eye! Ezra laughed.
Picking up the shirt he noticed a yellow strip going down the middle of the front and around the bottom of the shirt. Along with that was a cream plastic shoulder guard attached to the shirt, a much more vibrant yellow collar that extended far up the neck above the armour plate. Two darker orange rectangles on either side of the centre yellow line down the shirt. Ezra walked out of the room, the bright warm sunlight blinding him for only a moment, as his eyes were adjusting, he heard an almost forgotten sound, water running, birds singing, and in that moment, he inhaled lifting slightly, and with a smile he stepped out, looking around he saw the luscious green grass that gently swayed as if they were dancing, beautiful flowers, and strong trees. Looking even further he noticed a small stream ending in a lake, the water was clear like glass, and next to the large clear lake stood a few trees, sitting under a tree reading from an old book was a young woman, dressed in a grey body glove with brightly coloured metal armour atop it, painting with pinks and oranges, sprinkles of purple thrown in also for good measure. Resting next to her she had a metal helmet with a Y-shaped visor on it painted as brightly as the rest of her armour. Her hair was just down to her neck and died vibrant pink like a gradient from white at her roots to rose pink at her tips. As he stepped towards her, he saw a Jedi in a green sweater, and green metal armour on his right arm and shoulder, he had brown hair tucked back in a ponytail. Stepping closer he saw his parents, and suddenly, gasped for air as they all turned to look at him, their smiles sticking, Ezra grabbed at his throat falling to his knees, using his left hand to stop himself from falling to the ground, and almost immediately after that he fell to the ground spitting up blood, and the beautiful grass and dirt bellow him turned to a hard stone floor.
Standing up Ezra looked around, he was still wearing the same outfit as when was wherever he was. The building was dimly lit and had cream stone walls; the building reminded him of all those buildings on his home world of Lothal. There was an old couch and two beds. On the beds were the female Twi'lek and Mandalorian girl. Rex was on the couch, his armour off except for his lower half, bandages around his chest. In flashes, Ezra started to remember what happened.
Awaking as the sun sets, he manages to flag down a small truck travelling down the road towards the city, with great exertion Ezra drags the three unconscious rebels onto the back of the truck jumping on with them. and as the wind sends shivers down his spine, the truck rushes off towards the capital city.
"So, what brings you to Takobo city?" the driver asks,
"The war, drove us off our home, just had to steal a ship we got shot down"
Kanan and Kristina sat in silence in the common room, everyone else in the cockpit.
Both stared directly ahead, not daring to cut the silence. Then out of the cockpit, Zeb stepped awkwardly and the blue and white streaks turned to black nothingness, faint shimmers of stars in the distance.
"We're landing now"
And as the Ghost landed, the ramp slid down, and the group walked out, the smell of rotting and charred meat. Ash and smoke were all still fresh, looking around the golden grass was either grey with ash or charred black, and the half-made buildings crumbled and burnt.
Kanan rushed over to the medical building, the white paint covered by ash and blood, as he stepped towards the door, he saw the roof and walls, all caved in, trying his hardest he pulled as much of the rubble away, Zeb rushed to help, followed by Kristina and Ahsoka.
Kanan slowed with swiping away rubble, noticing Hera's goggles crushed under the rubble.
Picking them up he felt time slow to a halt. Stumbling backwards he kicked a small piece of debris, as it hurtled through the air Kanan screamed out of frustration until his lungs nearly exploded gripping the goggles as he fell to his knees, sobbing softly.
Kristina looked around, seeing a small patch of grass partially spared from the charred look around it. A puddle of dried blood in the middle of the grass. images of the attack flashed through her head, dragging Kanan back into the ship, watching as Ezra fell to the ground coughing, unable to get to him. Completely Useless.
"E-Ezra…" Kristina spoke softly, kneeling next to the blood puddle touching it, looking around she noticed an odd sight, blood trailed off to a large patch of unburnt but dug-up dirt and rock. A stagged set of footprints followed the blood.
"EZRA MADE IT OUT!" Kristina cheered as she tracked the blood. As if the events were happening in front of her, Kristina saw what happened, seeing Ezra struggling and stumbling as if he was dragging something, stopping next to an old LAAT gunship, the one Red was working on in his spare time.
"What?" Kanan looked up with despair in his eyes.
"Ezra… he passed out there, the blood puddle. No body in sight, the tracks they lead here, a ship was here, he got out!" Kristina sighed preparing to continue her thought. 'Of course, he did… His luck just never runs out' Kanan mutter in response,
Kristina stopped in her tracks spinning on her heels to face the Jedi, with a stare that could cut Beskar Kristina walked over, picking up the Jedi knight by the collar of his sweater.
"He has been through hell and back, give him a break!" pausing for a moment she turned around before spinning back her fist swinging then colliding hard with Kanan's cheek. The Jedi lying on the ground. "Ezra got Hera out, or Sabine, Rex must have been with him."