Chapter 3: Stuck in the Past

"Alright everyone," Rex announced to the group of rebels in front of him. "For the afternoon portion of this rotation, we'll be pairing off and working on hand to hand combat. I want to see the strengths and weaknesses from each of you. Then we'll be better able to determine where you will be best suited. Dismissed."

Sabine and Ezra glanced at each other for a moment, both with the same question on their minds. "Hey, Rex," Sabine called out for the both of them and grabbing the Rebel Commander's attention. "Is there something else we maybe should do instead of being tested again? I mean, you've already seen the both of us a handful of times, and should already know where we fit in."

Rex stopped in front of the two teens, his arms behind his back. "I do have something in mind for the two of you." He said, cracking a half-smile. "I'm going to have you both there as a sort of litmus test for the other recruits. With the two of you sparring against the other recruits, we'll be able to get a better idea of whether they are better equipped for missions that involve evasion from combat where applicable, or a more straight forward approach."

"What do you mean?" Ezra asked.

"Well Ezra, what I mean is that with Sabine's training as a Mandalorian along with her brief stint with the Imperial Academy, she's better equipped for brute force when it comes to hand to hand combat. While you, on the other hand, with having minimal training in that sort of combat, you're better equipped to evade than taking on an enemy head-on."

"Hey!" Ezra yelled, quickly becoming angry by the slight of his fighting ability. He'd been training harder than anyone ever since the incident on Malachor. He had grown stronger every day, and not only with his Force powers. He could also feel his physical strength growing as he continued to grow. He'd only been trying to survive before, but ever since he'd joined the Ghost crew, he'd been learning hand to hand combat as fast as he could, and he was leaps and bounds ahead of where he used to be.

"I didn't mean for you to take it personally, Ezra." Rex said, backpedaling slightly after realizing he'd upset the boy. "Your fighting style is just different, but that's not a bad thing."

"But are you really going to be able to gauge these new recruits against us if we're all going to be paired off?" Sabine asked.

"We will be pairing off." Rex confirmed. "Four pairs of two, but we won't be specifically maintaining the pairs the whole time. There will be rotations going on where each of the individuals will end up facing off against you, Sabine, and you Ezra before the end of the night. Plus, we'll only go until someone gains control over their opponent. That way, hopefully no one will get too tired everyone's faced off against each other. We'll also be utilizing some protective gear to help mitigate any possible injury."

Not feeling that Rex's explanation made it any better, Ezra stormed off with a huff. He didn't believe he needed to sit there and be torn down. He'd already done so much in the name of the Rebellion, and as such deserved some respect. He knew that he could fight, and even more so now than before. He'd already been in a number of fights and always came out on top. It was just that before, he'd always preferred to avoid a fight if possible. After all, it was always better to outwit the bucket heads than take them head-on because where there was one bucket head, more were surely close by. Now though, he knew he could take the Empire's soldiers head-on, and Rex was just speaking nonsense. Well, he was certainly going straighten out Rex's misconception when he returned for the hand to hand sparring session, and Rex would be apologizing by day's end.

Sabine on the other hand, immediately knew where she wanted to go. A good meal would go a long way before that afternoon's training session, and so she made her way straight to the mess hall. While the available options were typically slim, what was available was still delicious. Plus, she appreciated how Chopper base was always stocked with caf at the ready.

Setting down her tray, Sabine was about to dive in when she was interrupted by someone clearing their throat across from her seat. "Excuse me." They said. "You're Sabine? Sabine Wren, right?"

Sabine internally sighed before looking up. So much for enjoying her meal in solitude, she figured. At least until she could successfully rebuff yet another attempted advance toward her. And to think she was actually looking forward to the rest of the day. "Yeah, the last time I checked."

"I, I'm sorry to bother you during your lunch," The young man started before having to swallow a nervous lump in his throat. "But I've been wanting to kind of expand my knowledge, specifically with other forms of firepower."

"And who told you to come to me?" She asked, trying to move the conversation along. Why couldn't this guy just hit on her like the others and get it over with? That was the only downfall of the Rebellion's continued growth for Sabine. New recruits meant new guys who would find her attractive and think they had a chance even when they didn't. She wasn't in the Rebellion to find romance, she was there to help overthrow the Empire.

"Well, you see…." By the Manda, and now he was starting to fumble through simple speech. At the rate this guy was going, she'd be lucky if her lunch was still warm. She then set her silverware down and met this guy in the eyes, and while she was frustrated with this guy, at least he wasn't too bad to look at. And when she did make eye contact, that seemed to urge the guy on. "I was told that when it came to explosives, you were the person to talk to."

"Don't you think that blaster knowledge should come first?"

She was hoping that she could temper this guy and send him to someone else, but her suggestion only seemed to make his confidence grow, as a half-smile sprouted on his face, and he sat down across from her. "Nah." He quickly responded. "I've got that more than covered on my own."

"That's a pretty bold statement."

"I don't think so. Not if you consider that blasters have been a part of my family's history for generations." He answered. "As a matter of fact, if I didn't know pretty much everything there is to know about all kinds of blasters, I'd probably get disowned."

"Seriously?" Sabine asked in mild surprise at such a statement.

"Well yeah. Back on my homeworld, my family is well known for our collection of blasters. We even have a few from back in the Old Republic days, and some that are still capable of being fired."

Sabine had to admit, this guy had managed to pique her interest a little with his family's supposed history. And, so far, he hadn't come across as trying to flirt with her, which was another plus in his case. "So, you should know enough about blasters then, but why the interest in explosives….umm, I'm sorry. I guess I never caught your name."

"It's Gavyn." The boy answered. "Gavyn Tanau. And as for why do I want to learn about explosives? It's more like a logical next step for me to expand my knowledge as much as I can. Then when I do start going out on missions, I can be of more help in any given situation."

"Fair enough." Sabine replied, buying his justification for the moment, and then an idea to test him a little on his story came to mind. "I'll make you a deal. If you will help me with inventorying a few crates of blasters that arrived this morning, once we're done, I'll certainly give you some good input on explosives that will help make you dangerous."

"Great!" Gavyn excitedly responded before coming back down from the initial high of knowing he was going to learn from the best explosives expert the Rebellion had to offer. "But I should let you get to your lunch. I'm sure that you're hungry and I've monopolized enough of your time. And, sorry again for interrupting your lunch."

Sabine was hungry and did want to eat her lunch. But as Gavyn started to rise from his seat, she decided it wouldn't hurt to have some company. Besides, she was honestly interested in hearing about some of this blaster collection Gavyn claimed his family had, and especially if it turned out to be true. "Wait." She said, getting him to stop in his tracks. "Why not stay here and eat with me? We can head over to the cargo area after we're done eating and get a jump on those crates."

Gavyn smiled in appreciation at being invited to stay and have lunch with Sabine. Before he worked up the nerve to approach her, he'd been told by more than a few other Rebels that she was unapproachable. No one had seemed to break through to her yet. But he thought that all one needed was to have a common interest with her to help jumpstart a conversation. Just like anyone, she had her interests, and likely just wasn't the type to mince words. She was likely just an introvert.

Gavyn and Sabine ate in companionable silence for the most part, but she did occasionally make a few comments here and there around weapons, and the shipment they were going to inventory shortly. As she finished her meal, Sabine had to admit that she did enjoy Gavyn's company. Nothing in their conversations felt forced, and best of all, there were no lame pickup lines to ward off. She even found that she was quickly becoming cautiously optimistic that Gavyn could become a good friend to talk to.

Wanting to get a jump on things, they both took their trays back to the cleaning area and then headed off to start the identification and designation for the Rebellion's new weapons. Sabine knew that it couldn't wait much longer or AP-5 would get ahold of them, and then she'd never know what all they received. While AP's inventorying was indeed accurate, it was also infuriating when it concerned any kind of battle strategy organization.

But while Sabine and her new acquaintance were headed for the yet to be inventoried crates, another person was standing stock still in the line to receive their food. And he actually hadn't moved an inch from the very moment his eyes first came across the Mandalorian with her new "friend", who just happened to be following her like a lost baby domesticated Loth-cat.

He probably would have remained in that position were it not for the hungry Lasat directly behind him in line. An elbow to the side and the grumbling of his roommates' stomach was enough to get him to move forward in line once again, but as he did, his hands began to clench into tight fists, and he started grinding his teeth as well.

And those two things didn't go unnoticed, as Zeb was easily able to follow Ezra's line of sight. It didn't take but an instant for him to decide to pick on the kid a bit, just like always whenever an opportunity presented itself. "Looks like you might have a little competition there, kid." He prodded. "Not too hard to understand why she'd be interested. Even I can see why she'd think that guy is easy on the eyes."

"I'm not that bad looking." Ezra argued.

"Unless you compare yourself to him that is." Zeb continued with a chuckle. "You'll definitely have your work cut out for you if she's interested in that guy."

"Whatever." Ezra grumbled. He thought about saying something more but knew that would only encourage Zeb to keep going. He'd already heard more than enough from Zeb, so he stepped out of the waiting line, spouting off an excuse of "I'm not really hungry" before stomping off.

Zeb initially raised a hand to stop Ezra, realizing that he might have pushed things a little too far for the kid. He'd known for some time that the subject of any kind of romance with Sabine was always a sensitive issue for Ezra, but he'd always given him a hard time before and Ezra took it well. The only difference he could think of in this instance was that another there was another prospective suitor, and he looked like he might be making progress.

He didn't really think anything of it though until after Ezra stormed off. That was the first hint of Sabine showing any potential interest in someone, and he knew that Ezra always had not so subtly hoped it would be him one day. So, the knowledge that it might not be would certainly be disheartening, to say the least. Zeb figured he would have to make it up to the kid in some way for adding to that heartache, even if it wasn't intentional.

Ezra went straight to his quarters on the Ghost, knowing that Zeb wouldn't leave the mess hall before he finished his meal, which meant he'd have some privacy. It would give him enough time to get in a little time with the Sith Holocron before meeting back up with Rex for the group sparring session. He didn't waste any time, reaching out to the Holocron, causing it to float in the air before opening up.

"It's not fair!" He yelled in frustration. "After all I've done, she still only sees me as a sidekick! She's even giving that new guy a chance while I get nothing."

"Your friend believes you are not strong enough." The Holocron replied. "If you show her your full power, she can become yours. Displaying power will attract others to you."

"What should I do?"

Sabine's mood quickly went south as soon as she cracked open the first crate of weapons the Rebellion received. She didn't do anything to hide her disappointment either as she tossed the lid to the crate off to the side in disgust. "This is just our luck."

"I'll say." Gavyn agreed. "I thought the crate supposed to have KX-60 blasters, but these are ACP Repeaters. They're not a very reliable weapon. They even had to have extinguishers built into them for when they inevitably overheat. These aren't going to do much good for the Rebellion."

"Exactly," Sabine responded. "I'd even settle for some E-11 blasters that the bucket heads use over these."

"These are just Trandoshan trash." Gavyn said. "We'd be lucky to break even if we tried to sell it to them, but I think that would be our best bet. If we have to use these against the Empire, all it's going to take is getting pinned down during battle, and sooner or later, these blasters will fail on us. We might as well surrender instantly if we have to rely on these."

"Let's just hope the rest of these crates don't have any more of these blasters or this will be the quickest inventorying I've ever done." Sabine said. "I'll just put the lid back on, and order for these to be returned."

But fortunately for the Rebellion and Sabine's peace of mind, the remaining two crates did have KX-60 blasters that she was hoping for. While KX-60 blasters were standard issue in essence, at the very least they wouldn't sporadically overheat and fail on the Rebels during combat.

Gavyn seemed to know quite a bit about all of the intricacies of the KX-60, and he was more than willing to share his knowledge with Sabine. While he hadn't really told her anything that she didn't already know, she did take comfort in the fact that he had backed up his claim of being somewhat of a blaster expert.

They even took a couple of the rifles with them to a firing range, and the entire time he regaled her with stories about his family and how they'd acquired some of the more valuable pieces of their blaster collection. The most impressive to her was when he mentioned his family having a P-7 Military Enforcer and an A-60 Elite Stealth Saboteur, but she had to wonder if perhaps he was being completely honest when he said that both weapons were still in full working order. After all, these weapons were used during the times of the Old Republic or during the Cold and Galactic Wars.

The only time that she felt his intentions might not have been completely innocent was when he briefly invaded her personal space when she took her turn firing one of the new rifles. That was when Gavyn moved in directly behind her and physically adjusted her stance a bit. But as soon as he did, he then backed away, allowing her to fire again. To her surprise, the changes he made to her stance did increase her accuracy quite a bit.

It was then that Sabine decided she should take him aside and begin showing him some things about explosives. Gavyn absolutely lit up when she began explaining some of her more unique designs and how she assembled her miracles. He absolutely soaked up everything she had to share with gusto and was anxious to learn more from her whenever she had the time.

The only downside to her new enjoyable company was that it seemed to make time fly for them. She'd barely been able to get through the basics before they had to head back to the training room for Rex's next round of training. Since they were already together anyways, Gavyn and Sabine chose to head to the training session together, walking side by side.

When they reached the training area, Sabine quickly noticed that they were the last to arrive, and Rex made it known that he was aware of it too as he shouted over the other training Rebels. "Glad you two decided to show up."

Sabine ducked her head a bit upon the subtle verbal lashing. Normally she was the first to arrive for any training session, and she was certain Rex's verbal reprimand wouldn't be the last she heard of it either. For the moment though, Rex seemed to let it go as he quickly paired everyone up before moving onto the first pairing of Ezra against Lissa Manall.

The sparring session started off slowly as the two circled each other at first, but soon enough Lissa moved in with a swinging hook that Ezra easily parried before stepping forward and throwing a stinging open-handed strike to her body. His strike sent Lissa stumbling back while simultaneously trying to regain her breath, but Ezra didn't seem to be in a charitable mood. He immediately moved in, and before she knew what happened, Lissa was thrown unceremoniously to the floor with a thud that ended Ezra on top of her, pinning her down.

"That's the match," Rex called out. "Good job Ezra. Nice aggressiveness. And Lissa, the reason I put you up against Ezra was so you could see that charging in won't always give you an advantage. By charging in the way you did, you left yourself vulnerable, and Ezra took advantage of that with his counter. You have to have a plan, and keep your guard up at all times."

"Understood, thank you, sir." Lissa said as Ezra offered a hand to help her to her feet.

"Alright, let's start with the next pair." Rex called out before assigning Sabine to go up against Cerra Haruss.

And that was how the evening progressed. Rex would select a pair of Rebels to spar, and he would observe until there was a clear-cut winner. Both Ezra and Sabine had faced off against the girls, with Wini Shif putting up the best fight against Sabine and Cerra giving Ezra the most trouble. They'd both also faced off against one of the young men as well. Sabine once again made short work of her opponent in besting Orar Aver, but Ezra also performed admirably against his opponent in Valsi Dara.

Ezra and Sabine were able to get some rest between each of their sparring matches when the new recruits faced off against each other as well. They had whittled down to the last of the few pairings when Rex called for Ezra to face off against Sabine's new friend, Gavyn Tanau. Gavyn had fared well against Sabine for a while before she found an opening to exploit, which brought their match to an abrupt halt. To his credit though, it was one of the longest sparring sessions Sabine experienced that evening.

But now it was Ezra's turn as he and Gavyn waited for Rex to announce the beginning of their match. As soon as Rex said "Go!", Ezra instantly leapt forward with an unrelenting attack. Initially, he had to block a counter from Gavyn, but that didn't deter his aggression at all as he began to break through Gavyn's defenses with an alternating attack. He started off with body shots but then add in a sporadic uppercut or a hook to the head. And just when Gavyn was beginning to successfully block Ezra's attack was when Ezra changed tactics again, going to more kicks and knee strikes.

It felt longer, but in reality, Ezra dropped Gavyn to the ground in just under two minutes. That wasn't enough for Ezra though. He wanted to show everyone that he wasn't weak when it came to fighting. He wanted to show Sabine that he was strong. So he chased after Gavyn to the ground, quickly getting into full control before he began to drop razor-sharp elbows right past Gavyn's defenses.

After the third elbow directly to Gavyn's head, Rex stepped in to pull Ezra off before he did some real damage. Unfortunately for him, as soon as he did grab hold of the young Jedi, he was met with a punch to the face.

Ezra instantly realized his mistake and backed down immediately after he made contact with Rex's face. "I…I'm sorry Rex." He said. "I didn't hear you say it was over."

Rex dusted himself off and rubbed his cheek with one hand. It was a good, powerful shot that he ate from Ezra, and while a part of him was upset, there was another part of him that was actually proud of the power behind Ezra's blow. But still, there was the issue of Ezra taking things too far. "I think that's enough for this evening." He said, dismissing most of the group. "Tanau, get yourself to the med bay and make sure you weren't seriously hurt. Ezra, you need to come with me."

As Ezra quickly followed Rex out of the training area, Sabine crouched down next to Gavyn, who was still trying to pick himself up off the ground. "You alright?" She asked while extending a hand.

Gavyn groaned a little as he got into a seated position. "Yeah." He eventually said. "I'll live."

"Yeah, sorry about that." Sabine said. "Ezra was a little more aggressive than I've ever seen him before."

"Heh, I'll say." Gavyn agreed. "I don't know what happened. It was like he was all over the place. I couldn't even land a single shot against him."

"Yeah, I'm not sure what happened there either. I mean, you definitely did better against everyone else. Maybe he just saw something in your defense to take advantage of." Sabine said. "Anyways, we'd better get you to the med bay. Even with gloves and protective gear, it looks like Ezra did a number on you."

"What happened back there, Ezra?" Rex asked as soon as they were out of earshot of the others. "I already saw what everyone could do against Sabine's fighting style, and I wanted to see how they did against yours. But what you did out there this evening wasn't your fighting style at all, and especially so against Tanau."

"Maybe that is my fighting style now, Rex." Ezra fired back. "I'm not the same little kid anymore, and I'm getting tired of being treated like I am. Rebel Command noticed enough to let me take the lead on some missions, so why can't you?"

"I know you've grown Ezra," Rex argued. "We've all seen how hard you've worked, and the fruits of that labor. But your greatest strength in combat is still evasion. It's your natural ability. You've always had a knack for it, and while it's always a good idea to turn weaknesses into strengths, it's just as vital to continue building upon your strengths as well."

"And you could've really hurt Gavyn today." Rex explained. "I don't know what came over you, but you need to get a grip on it. Pronto."

With that, Rex dismissed Ezra, leaving him absolutely steaming in the hall. What was it with everyone lately? Why did they all have to constantly question his abilities? And whenever he tries to prove to them just how wrong they are about him or his abilities, then they're telling him that he's taking things too far, or he's taking too many chances on missions. Why did his every step forward in gaining power seem to not go the way he wanted? He was better, older, more experienced, and stronger than he'd ever been. His friends needed to accept it as truth because it was true, and they needed to open their eyes.

A/N: Apologies for the longer than expected wait on the latest chapter, but I was struggling to squeeze everything into this chapter that I had in my outline for it. I suppose sometimes that just doesn't work out. I'll try to get the next installment done a little quicker than this time, but I want to make sure I'm okay with how the chapter flows before I submit it. Thank you so very much for the kind words. Keep them coming.