AN: Thank you all for those of you kind enough to leave a review. I'll do my best to touch base with each of you as this story progresses. For LethalJustice94, even though this chapter doesn't have much in the way of Ezra's temptation toward the Darkside, there's still plenty of that coming. So I hope you can enjoy this update.

Abigor27, my first repeat reviewer, I'm glad you like the story enough to come back and let me know about it with your review. Gavyn's path has a few ways to go since I have a bit more leeway with him being an OC. He's not done by a long shot, but is he a spy? We'll have to find out as the story moves along. You'll find out by the demise of Chopper base.

For the two Guest reviews, I did think about Gavyn as both the bad guy, and I did consider having him try to be a conflict in Ezra's recovery. We will find out if he is indeed a bad guy later on, but regardless of his stance, you are right that he'd ruin his chance with Sabine if he chose not to go after Ezra. I think he'd know that, since he already has shown signs of playing the slow game with her. Keep up the suggestions though, because nothing except where the story ends is written in stone.

Chapter 5: Exiting Limbo

Sabine is desperate to go after her friend with the rest of the Ghost crew.

Everything was a blur and there weren't any sounds to be heard either. He tried to speak, but his throat felt raw, dry. His whole body ached, especially when he tried to move. Even if it was for something as simple as blinking his eyes.

He was in a limbo of sorts, wanting to go back to sleep but also feeling completely restless at the same time. There were just too many unanswered questions for his mind to allow him to sleep any longer. For instance, why he was in so much pain? Where was he? Had the Empire captured him?

As he pondered over his current situation, some things began to come back to him. He recalled being shot and plummeting from a shuttle. How he survived the fall escaped him for the moment, but at least he could conclude why he was sore all over. A fall like that would definitely leave him battered and bruised.

Then some movement within the room he was in caused him to realize for the first time, that he wasn't alone. He didn't want to let anyone know that he was awake, but as the sounds of movement continued, he quickly came to the realization that he'd already given himself away when whoever else was in the room began to speak.

"…starting to wake up." He heard the gruff sounding voice saying.

He wondered who this person might be talking to and how much trouble it would be to try and escape. He'd only felt a single presence in his room up to that point. In the past, one person would be simple enough to get away from, but before had been different. He'd never felt like he'd been run over by a stampede before.

And before he could make an attempt to escape, he heard a door slide open and could feel someone else running into the room. He could tell by the gasping voice that the new company belonged to a female, but what he didn't expect was her saying his name.

"Ezra?"

Her voice instantly caused more to click in his mind, and he desperately wanted to open his eyes, but it was so very bright. When he did try to open them, pain immediately surged through his brain, causing him to pinch his eyes tightly shut and let out a small grunt, revealing his discomfort.

"Turn down the lights, Zeb." The female said, and it was then that everything clicked into place. Hera.

He immediately knew he was safe and could sense when his roommate turned down the lighting of the room, allowing him to open his eyes with a bit more ease. Initially, just as with everything else when he first woke up, his vision too was blurry, but it quickly began to clear up. Within a moment or two, Ezra was able to make out the outlines of both his roommate and the closest thing he'd had to a mother since the Empire took his parents away from him all those years ago.

He tried to say Hera's name, but his throat still betrayed him, only permitting him to open and close his mouth.

"Have some water, Ezra," Hera suggested as she sat on his bedside and held a glass with a straw up next to his lips.

Ezra took a couple of small sips before he felt like he'd had enough. He gently coughed in preparation for another attempt at speaking, but just as he was about to open his mouth again, Hera gave him a disapproving look. "Save your strength." She ordered. "You were nearly dead when we finally found you. The answers will come, but first, you need to rest."

Ezra wasn't able to stay awake much longer, especially after he failed to notice Hera had slightly increased the level of his pain medication. As soon as Ezra passed out, Hera sighed in relief. His waking up had been the first sign in quite some time that Ezra was going to be alright, and Hera had felt so guilty about his predicament.

She'd assigned the mission to Sabine and Ezra with the new recruits, and as a result, she felt responsible. This whole ordeal had been tough on both of her kids. While Ezra was injured and left behind, Sabine had been beating herself up ever since he'd been missing.

While Hera was extremely pleased that she'd been there when Ezra woke up, now that she'd thought about it, Sabine would likely be extremely upset to discover that he woke up while she wasn't there. She hadn't wanted to leave his side, and it'd been an intense argument just to get Sabine to leave Ezra in the med bay for food or to clean up a bit.

Sleep had been out of the question entirely for the Mandalorian. She may have dozed off a couple of times, but she was still in Ezra's room the entire time. As much as Hera felt that she was the blame for what happened, Sabine had felt ten times worse.

She was the mission leader, and as the lead, she was the one who had the unenviable decision to make in having to leave Ezra behind.

"What happened? Where's Ezra?"

No one answered, and she wasn't in the mood for silence. So Sabine looked directly at one of the few Rebels who still made eye contact with her. "What…Happened? Answer me Gellad."

"We…we thought he was safely on the ramp," Gellad said. "But then the Imps got a lucky shot off. It…It knocked him off balance. I tried to grab him, but he fell off the ramp before I could reach him."

"What?" Sabine asked in utter disbelief. She almost couldn't believe what she'd just been told.

"After he was shot, he fell."

Sabine stood there for a moment. Ezra had been shot? And he fell off the ship? How high up were they? Could he survive the fall? She wasn't sure, but there wasn't a single part of her that didn't want to go and save him immediately.

She sprinted back up to the cockpit, not wasting another moment. "What's our altitude?" She asked loudly in order to reach her co-pilot's ears. "We're going to the planet's surface to get our teammate."

"We were 250 feet in the air when you left the cockpit." The co-pilot announced. "I'm not sure we should return to the planet's surface. Tie fighters are already closing in fast, and I'm sure you realize, we're only in a shuttle."

The co-pilot was right. The shuttle had nearly no weapons to fight back with, and it was slow too. They'd never be able to outmaneuver the Ties, and the shields would only hold out for so long before they were all toast.

If she'd had a jetpack, there wouldn't be any hesitation at all. She'd leave the team to escape and go after Ezra herself. She still considered having them drop down low enough for her to jump off, but in looking at the scanner, she knew that wasn't an option. The co-pilot was right. The Ties were closing in too quickly, and if they didn't leave now, none of them would escape.

"I'm sorry, Ezra." She said under her breath as she directed the shuttle up toward the atmosphere. "Ni'll olaror norac par gar, Ezra. Gar ganar ner miit."

The co-pilot looked over to Sabine in confusion, not understanding what it was that she'd said, but knew better than to ask. From what they knew of Sabine, openly displaying emotion wasn't something she showed much of at all, but now it was reverberating off of her in waves.

As soon as they'd made the jump into hyperspace, Sabine could no longer hold in her frustration, yelling while she threw her helmet into a nearby wall. She began pacing back and forth in no general path or direction. Her thoughts consumed with how she was going to rescue Ezra.

She wasn't about to wait, and as soon as she could get her hands on a ship, she was going to return and find Ezra. She'd go alone to get him. After all, it was her fault that he was still there in the first place and not traveling back home with the rest of the team. Perhaps Hera would let her take the Phantom, and manage to slip in undetected.

She could only hope that Ezra would be alright. In the time she'd been around Kanan and Ezra, she'd seen them do incredible things. Things that she was sure no one else could have done. And Ezra had been willing to sacrifice himself in order to keep her safe before. The one time they came across the two inquisitors came to mind.

Ezra had destroyed the control panel to a blast door, allowing her to escape at the expense of his own capture. And he'd only grown in strength since then. The evidence with how he'd connected to the purrgil came to mind. Not even Kanan had felt their presence as quickly as Ezra did. She had to save him, no matter the cost.

With determination in her eyes, Sabine returned to the controls and opened a channel on the communicator. She was going to need a ship to be ready. "This is Spectre five, calling Spectre two. Spectre two, come in."

After a few minutes, an answer was received. "We've got you, Sabine," Hera replied. "How did the mission…"

"I need to use the Phantom as soon as we arrive, Hera." Sabine quickly said, interrupting Hera.

"What's going on Sabine? Was there an issue with the mission?"

"We lost Ezra," Sabine said, guilt-laden deeply in her voice. "I'm going back to get him, and I need to have the Phantom prepped and ready to go."

Sabine scurried back into Ezra's room. She wasn't happy about being ordered away from Ezra. She wanted to be there if anything changed in Ezra's condition. He'd been unconscious ever since they found and rescued him, and he'd been placed in a bacta tank more often than he'd been left to simply rest and recover.

When she arrived, she noticed that Zeb was no longer in the room, which only troubled her even more. The deal had been made that she would leave long enough to eat something and while she was gone, Zeb would be there until she returned.

She was about to call Zeb to rip him a new one, but then Hera's voice reached her from the corner of Ezra's room. "I told Zeb that I'd watch Ezra so that he could get something to eat before the next mission briefing," she said.

"I'm not going," Sabine responded instantly. She hadn't gone on any missions since they'd found Ezra.

"Even if I were to tell you that Ezra opened his eyes today?" Hera asked, deciding to just let Sabine know rather than dance around it.

"No, Hera, I don't want to go over this again. Until I know that…" Sabine said, going into the same argument she had before whenever someone approached her about a mission. But she stopped herself when Hera's words finally sank in. "Wait, he what?"

"It wasn't for very long, Sabine, but he did open his eyes." Hera confirmed for her.

"Oh, thank the Manda," Sabine said more to herself than out loud. "Has the medical droid come in the check on him yet?"

"I actually just notified the medical wing about Ezra's waking up." Hera explained. "The droid should be here at any time, and then we'll know more about how to manage his recovery as he starts to become more active."

With the information Hera provided, Sabine felt as though a large weight had been lifted from her shoulders. She wanted to be angry that she wasn't there to see it for herself but just couldn't bring herself to be upset. It was good news. There may have still been quite a bit of guilt weighing on her, but Ezra's waking up after five days did provide her with some much-needed relief.

She knew there would still be quite a bit of time before Ezra fully recovered, but finally receiving some progress helped restore her faith that Ezra would indeed recover. However, there was also another part of her that was skeptical and needed to see it for herself. So, she returned to her seat next to his medical bed to wait for the medical droid to arrive.

Hera had hoped the news would do more to lift Sabine's spirits, but it only seemed to serve as a temporary relief that was already fading. At least she didn't seem to be angry about not being there, and she hoped what she had to ask next wouldn't further sour Sabine's mood. "What do you want me to tell Command about when your status will change?"

Sabine thought about it for a moment, and then the only answer she found acceptable came to her. "Tell them that my status won't change until after Ezra is cleared to leave the med bay."

"I'm not sure they'll like that answer, Sabine," Hera said. "You're one of the most valuable assets to the Phoenix squadron, and your experience has already been missed. Not just with Phoenix squadron either, but with me too, Sabine."

She looked away from Ezra to give Hera her undivided attention for a moment. "I'm sorry Hera," She said. "But I just can't right now. I need to see that Ezra is going to be alright after I left him behind."

"You didn't have a choice, Sabine," Hera replied. "Every member of your team validated that you made the only choice you could. Gavyn and Valsi both let Command know that you made it clear you didn't want to leave Ezra behind, and your actions during Ezra's rescue only further proves how much the Rebellion needs you."

The shuttle hadn't even truly settled before Sabine was exiting the ramp. She wasn't about to be denied, and her hands rested on her blasters for anyone who might try and stop her or get in her way. She grimaced when she saw that Hera was waiting for her at the hangar with Zeb and Rex in tow. She didn't want them to get in her way.

"Don't try to stop me, Hera," Sabine said as she stormed in the direction of the Ghost. "I'm going back for Ezra."

"I'm not going to try and stop you," Hera said as she slid in step beside Sabine. "We're coming with you."

"I'm coming too." A voice following closely behind stated.

"I don't think that's necessary, Gavyn," Hera said over her shoulder.

"He came back to save Wini and me," Gavyn said, not giving up yet. "If it wasn't for me, he wouldn't have been in this situation."

Sabine stopped and turned around. "It's not your call," She barked. "It was my decision. I was mission lead, so it's on me, and you are going to continue following orders. You're staying here."

With that, she turned back around and boarded the Ghost, making her way to the Phantom. The other four Rebels boarded the Phantom behind her, and Chopper flew out to settle into his astromech socket, with Hera taking the controls.

In preparation, Chop already had the hyperspace coordinates at the ready for both the way to and back from the planet where Ezra was. They were soon zipping away in hyperspace, and it was then that Hera turned back to witness a fidgeting Sabine. She was almost vibrating. "We need to come up with a plan that will give us a better chance of success."

Sabine stopped what she was doing and looked at the Twi'lek. "We weren't far from the hangar bay when he fell out of the shuttle," She explained.

"We could hack into the Empire's communications," Rex suggested. "Listen in to their chatter and should be able to tell if they're still looking for him or not. If we don't hear anything after a few minutes about adjustments to search patterns or something along those lines, then it'd be reasonable to believe they already found him."

"Whether they have him or not, I just hope he's still alive," Zeb said.

"They'd better hope he's still alive," Sabine responded, her voice laced with venom. "Because if not, I'll burn the whole karking facility to the ground."

"Let's go with the mindset that Ezra did survive the fall as well as being shot." Hera's calming voice called out. "I think Rex is right. We should listen in on Imperial chatter first before moving in. That will give us a better idea of where to focus our search. If Ezra's been captured, we'll need a coordinated attack to get the jump on the Empire's forces."

"We could also see if Chop can trace the location of Ezra's comm unit," Zeb added. "Maybe we can actually catch a break for once."

"Actually, that's not a bad idea," Hera said. "Either way, our only goal is to bring Ezra home, and if we can help it, not hamper the result of Sabine's initial mission."

"At haran ti te aka," Sabine muttered.

"Sabine," Rex responded in an admonishing tone.

"No Rex." Sabine fired back. "The mission was compromised the moment we were spotted anyways. It's only a matter of time before the Empire realizes that we didn't go there to steal supplies, and then they'll look for the next most likely thing."

"Be that as it may, we're not going in there with the intention of anything aside from saving Ezra," Hera stated.

Sabine was in agreement for the most part, and stayed quiet about her intentions should their rescue mission end up not having someone to rescue. If that turned out to be the case, then the building was coming down, and anyone tied to the Empire was going to meet the business end of her blasters.

"How's he doing?" Sabine heard Gavyn say after the door opened and allowed him entry into Ezra's room.

Sabine looked up as her new friend entered the room and sighed. "Not a lot of change to this point." She answered. "The med droid's are still saying the same thing. That he should wake up any time now, but that he also still has a long way to go in his recovery."

"I'm sure he'll pull through sooner than later," Gavyn said, coming to a stop just behind Sabine's left shoulder, and looking over her to the still sleeping Jedi. "He was amazing out there."

Sabine glanced back at Gavyn for a moment, seeing complete sincerity on his face, and that gave her pause for a moment. She hadn't realized it until just then but came to the conclusion that she'd become somewhat desensitized to all of the astounding things that a Jedi could do. After all, she'd been around two of them for quite some time, and now it just seemed like an everyday thing to her. Perhaps she'd begun taking their powers for granted.

"He has his moments." She somewhat agreed, not willing to verbalize complete agreement even if that was how she truly felt.

"I'd say so," Gavyn replied. "Because of him, Wini's going to fully recover."

"How is Wini?" Sabine asked, suddenly remembering that Ezra wasn't the only one who came back injured.

"She should be able to leave the med bay in the next day or two," Gavyn informed her. "Mostly they just want to keep an eye on her. She would've left this morning if they'd let her."

"Tough girl," Sabine commented. "That's why I requested her for the mission."

"Yeah, she is." Gavyn agreed. "She's been asking about Ezra. I think she wants to thank him for pulling her out of there."

That made sense, Sabine supposed. But for some reason, there was a part of her that wanted Wini to just stay away from Ezra. She wasn't sure where that came from, and it didn't feel like she was trying to be protective of him. But this feeling inside her was there and she couldn't quite put her finger on what drove her to feel such a way.

Besides, Wini seemed like she was a good person, and Ezra had saved her life. It wasn't like Sabine to begrudge Ezra friends before, so she wondered why was now different?

"Is there something wrong with that?" Gavyn suddenly asked, drawing Sabine back from her reflective state.

"What?" She asked.

"You were scowling," Gavyn pointed out, before chuckling to himself. "If I didn't know any better, I'd think you don't want another girl in here with him."

"You don't know any better." She snapped back at him immediately. "Ezra's been a part of the Ghost crew for a while now. He's become a friend, and…I just want what's best for him. I want him to get better. That's all."

"Maybe Wini could be what's best for him?" Gavyn suggested, which only caused Sabine to scowl even more. "Or maybe not. I didn't know you felt like that about him."

"Like what?" Sabine asked.

"That you like him," Gavyn answered. "Romantically."

"I don't," Sabine responded immediately. "He's like family is all."

"I see," Gavyn said while hiding a smile from Sabine. "Well, try not to make everyone around here worry about you too. Actually eat every day. We don't need you in here next due to starving yourself."

Sabine's only response was to turn her attention back to the person lying on the medical bed. Gavyn knew better than to push or overstay his welcome, so he reluctantly headed back out, leaving the two Ghost crewmates alone.

Once the door slid shut, Sabine leaned over Ezra a bit, reaching up to put her hand against his forehead. While there were machines vigilantly checking him for his vitals, Sabine couldn't bring herself to completely trust them when simple contact confirm for her that Ezra's fever hadn't returned.

By the time they'd found him covered in mud and unconscious, infection from his wounds had already begun to spread. He was burning up, and they were forced to strip him down as soon as they got him aboard the Phantom. Unfortunately, the little ship didn't have much in the way of medical supplies, and they had to hope the chill of space would be enough to keep his body temperature down until they returned to Chopper base.

Satisfied that his temperature was normal, Sabine started to back away, but her fingers never actually left Ezra's skin. Instead, she slid them gently over his cheek, pausing slightly when they reached his twin scars, and then took them down his arm until they reached his hand. Sabine looked up at Ezra's face for any sign that her touch had stimulated any kind of response, but his face remained unchanged.

She allowed herself to sigh once again as she grasped his hand. She seemed to be sighing a lot lately, which was maddening to her. She hated feeling this way, but the only way it would improve is when Ezra did. "I don't know if you can hear me, Ezra," She said quietly. "But please wake up. I need to know that you're going to be alright." She paused for a moment, overcome emotionally to the point where she even allowed a sob to break through. "I just wish you'd give me some sign that you're going to be alright."

She remained quiet after making her plea for a few minutes, just looking at Ezra and hoping he'd open those beautiful blue eyes that she dearly missed. His eyes always had a shade of blue she still had yet to perfectly replicate, and she longed for another peek at that wonderful color.

But Ezra didn't seem to be ready for her to see his eyes just yet. Aside from the gentle rise and fall of his chest, he wasn't moving at all. Sabine closed her eyes in frustration and then loosened her hold on Ezra's hand. She began to sit back in her chair when suddenly she thought she felt one of his fingers moving in her hand just before it slid completely away.

Her eyes immediately shot open, looking directly at his hand, but she couldn't tell if he'd actually moved or not. She began to wonder if perhaps she'd conjured feeling his finger grazing her hand. She knew that she hadn't been sleeping much lately, and wondered if maybe her mind was playing tricks on her. But then she watched as one of Ezra's fingers twitched before it softly began to move against the skin on her hand. Sabine sucked in a breath as excitement consumed her.

Every time his finger moved, she allowed her eyes to move back to his, looking for when his would meet hers. It didn't take long before she saw his eyelids begin to flutter. She inched forward in her seat, anxious for the moment she was now certain would be coming at any moment. And then they opened, and she couldn't help but smile as she moved even closer to his bedside. "Welcome back."

Ezra wanted to be happy. He really did. But he felt Gavyn's presence as soon as he came into the room. That was bad enough, but then he heard what Sabine said. She didn't have any romantic feelings for him.

But he'd been training. He became stronger in every way. The Holocron told him that when he became strong, he could get the things he wanted. If that was the case, then why was Sabine claiming she didn't like him that way? He wanted to be angry, but definitely didn't want Gavyn around to see it so he remained still and quiet, hoping that nerf herder would leave sooner rather than later.

Soon enough, Gavyn did finally leave. Ezra thought about revealing that he was awake to Sabine, but in truth, he was still a little upset still by hearing Sabine's words to Gavyn. He wasn't sure that he wanted to see her or talk to her because of it either. At least not until after he had a chance to work through the emotions he was dealing with.

But then something strange happened. Sabine got out of her chair and gently placed the back of her hand against his forehead. Was she actually trying to care for him? Why was she doing that? And then when she dragged her fingers gently alongside his face, pausing over his scars before moving her hand down to his hand and grasping it.

Hadn't what she'd just done to him revealed a sign of actual affection? He was confused, and then adding to that confusion, she spoke. He could hear such emotion behind her voice. There was hurt, guilt, and something else. Finally, she actually started to cry, and that nearly broke his heart.

He knew that he could make her feel better if he just gave her a sign, but he hesitated. She'd never shown anything so close to resembling a desire of him before. There was a part of him that wanted to keep things as they were. She was with him, and needed him. He was afraid that if he woke up, it would ruin the moment, and he didn't want things to go back to normal.

But Ezra also knew that he was hurting her by staying silent. He never wanted to hurt her, and that desire was what helped him to make his decision. So, he focused on showing her that he heard her plea.

It was tough going at first. His body wasn't fully cooperating with him, but soon enough, he managed to get his finger to twitch. Hearing Sabine take in a sharp breath told him that she noticed too, but it wasn't enough. He needed her to be sure. So he continued to focus, and his fingers eventually began to obey his commands, slowly moving in a circular pattern.

Sabine's skin was soft to his touch, and he only hoped that he would get to feel more of her in time. But he also wanted to see her and knew what he needed to do. Preparing for the bright lights, he slowly opened his eyes, and once they adjusted to the light, he could see her beautiful face again.

"Welcome back," She'd said with a growing smile.

Her fingers laced with his as she smiled, and that made Ezra feel happier than he could recall being in a very long time, so he gave her a smile in return as he gently squeezed her hand. "Hi, Sabine."

AN: Well, quite a bit of emotion from our favorite Mando'a that she would typically keep under wraps, but I think she would let it out when it comes to family. BTW, I love getting the comments, so please don't be shy, even if they are constructive criticism. Aldo, I did my best to be accurate with translating it, and here are the translations for Mandalorian used in the story. Apologies for any errors as I am certainly not fluent in that language.

Ni'll olaror norac par gar: I'll come back for you

Gar ganar ner miit: You have my word

At haran ti te aka: To hell with the mission