Chapter 2

A/N at the end.

Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars Rebels or Clone Wars

Oliver's POV:

Coruscant. The one place any rebel does not want to be anywhere close. And here we are, not only on the planet, but near the Imperial Palace, where Vader and Palps are. I could probably get away, considering that both Vader and Palps like me enough to not question why I suddenly appeared on Coruscant, as long as I don't cause any trouble. The rest of the crew however wouldn't make it, even if they aren't known to be rebels by Coruscant, Ez and Kanan would be found very quickly by Vader. Zeb's voice suddenly brings me out of my thoughts.

"Karabast! What do we do then?" Hera turns to Kanan.

"Kanan, how well do you know Coruscant?" Everyone is now looking at him, with the exception of Chopper who has decided now would be an excellent time to recharge. Wish I could do that.

"I knew it decently well, but I don't know how much has changed, and I don't really want to risk it." He answers. Fair enough, I wouldn't want to bet everything on a place that would've changed. I have been to Coruscant a few times with Boba, mainly to pick up a few legal and illegal upgrades for the Slave 1. I speak up.

"I've been here a few times with Boba, so I know my way around here." Hera nods. She turns to the damage readout. I can feel everyone else look at me.

"Do you know where we can get these parts so we can repair the hyperdrive?" She asks. I look at the list.

"Yeah, I know a few shops that sell them, but they're not exactly cheap." The reminder that we aren't exactly well off makes everyone look back down, trying to think of another way. Sabine then looks up.

"What about the black market?" I shake my head. Bad idea, the underground is the last place we, especially me, want to be.

"That's even worse. Black market sellers hyperinflate the prices for hyperdrive parts, the only reason you'd buy from them is if you want some illegal upgrades." I reply, omitting the fact that most of the underground here don't really like me. Kanan puts his hand on his chin.

"What if me and Ezra go with you to the legal shops, we could use the mind trick to slightly lower the prices." Now that could actually work.

"Depends, can you use the trick with your mental shields fully up?" Kanan looks at me like it was a stupid question. How am I supposed to know?

"Yes."

"What? It was a valid question; I don't know shit about the force." Kanan and Ezra both look at me with their eyebrows raised, damn creepy.

"You would know more if you actually bothered to actually learn about the force Ollie." Ezra tells me in a very passive-aggressive voice. Must've picked that up from Hera, or Kanan.

"I had better things to do, plus I have you two to tell me." I reply, turning back around to compile all the parts we need into a list and quickly charting a route. I can feel them both roll their eyes at me, while everyone else is amused.

"Anyway, that's not the point, if you can use the mind trick then we should be able to get a good discount on the parts. Luckily all the shops are relatively close, so we should be done rather quickly." I say, changing the subject. I turn back round, list in hand. Hera nods.

"You boys do that, we'll start repairing what we can, then hopefully we can get out of here without anyone knowing we were here." We all nod in agreement. It's a good plan.

20 minutes later

"Remember, mental shields up, and hoods up. Even if no one knows we're rebels, we should still try to be as discreet as possible." Kanan tells me and Ez as we are about to head down the ramp.

"No shit, we already know all this, why do you keep telling us?" I ask him, eager to actually go and be done as soon as possible. Kanan looks pointedly at Ezra, while Ezra looks very sheepish. What'd I miss?

"Some of us have a harder time being discreet than other." I merely raise an eyebrow.

"Just stay close behind me, you can get easily lost here very quickly. Keep comns close by and don't draw attention. Let's go." I tell them before moving quickly off the ramp.

Ezra's POV:

I thought Lothal's capital was busy, but Coruscant gives busy an entirely new meaning. There are so many people, everyone going about their day. It was incredibly loud as well, but it all seemed to quickly fade into background noise. It was hard to actually get through the crowds, but Ollie did it very easily. He slipped through like a spectre, no one paying him any mind. Me and Kanan nearly lost him till we caught up with him near a shop. By the looks of it, the shop seemed to be selling everything we needed. Oliver seemed to be talking with one of the merchants.

"Hey mas-Kanan, Ollie seems to need us." I didn't get a response.

"Kanan?" I turn to him to see him staring at a very big building. I gently tap Kanan on the arm to get his attention. He seems to break out of his trance. He looks back to me and Ollie.

"You two stay here, I need to go check something out." And before I can even reply he's gone, making his way through the crowds to the building.

"Good news, I've managed to get most of the parts here, but I need you two to use your 'negotiating' skills to give us a discount." Ollie says before looking up to only see me. He looks around before asking me.

"Where's Kanan." I shrug my shoulders.

"He was looking at that big building over there, and then he said he's going to go check it out." Ollie looks over in the direction I was pointing. He seems to ponder something. I don't know what's so special about that building, all I'm getting is a warm feeling, as well as a feeling of belonging there.

"Ez, do you feel anything strange?" He suddenly asks, eyes looking at me.

"Just a warm feeling from that building, and a general feeling of content and happiness from everyone here." He nods, as if expecting me to say that.

"Follow Kanan, I'll catch up." He tells me before also disappearing into the crowd. Why are people just disappearing on me, and why do they know something I don't? I look over to the building, might as well do what Ollie says, I've got nothing better to do. I start to make my way over to the building. As I get closer, the warm feeling gets stronger, embracing me. My instincts start to tell me to put down my mental shields, but why? I push on through the crowds to finally find myself on the entrance of the building. I catch a glimpse of Kanan walking through, but I lose him. I start to follow again before I stop. This place, it feels like home for some reason. I feel like I belong here. I see lots of people walking inside the temple, generally talking, all wearing weird robes of some kind. Who are they? They don't look like any imperial I know. I keep my hood up as I stick to the shadows and enter the building. It's huge. Mosaics dotted the floors while tapestries depicting battles and, what I assume to be history, lining the walls. I suddenly fell warm and safe; the sense of belonging is overpowering. I can only stand and take it in, my legs feel too weak to do anything else. Why am I feeling like this in an imperial building? Why isn't there any stormtroopers on patrol. I shake my head and make sure my lightsabre is still concealed. As I walk forward, I accidently bump into someone.

"Oh, I'm sorry ma'am, I didn't see you there." I say, I look to see a Chalactan woman. She was also wearing robes, but it seemed that hers were more regal than the others. She smiled.

"No worries young one, may I ask why are you here? I haven't seen you before." Shit. She looks like she could easily look through any lie, so perhaps a partial truth.

"My friend came through here earlier, but it's been some time, so I was going to go look for him." Well done Ez, that's actually believable. She nods in understanding perhaps?

"I see. I am currently due for a meeting now, you can come to observe, no one would mind. Then we can look for your friend. How does that sound?" She asks. She's actually offering to help me? Why can't all imperials be this nice?

"That sounds great, thank you ma'am." I really am thankful; I'd get so lost in here. She smiles.

"Come then, follow me." And she starts walking. I follow her through huge corridors and crowds. I see even more tapestries and mosaics depicting different things. We finally reach two massive doors after going up in an elevator. Two guards stood at either side.

"I believe the council is expecting me?" The woman asks. The guards nod and slight bow.

"Of course, Master Billaba. Please enter." She motions to follow her. Wait. Master Billaba? Wasn't that the name of Kanan's old master? I thought she died in the Purge? Also master? My mind is racing with thoughts, but they all clear when I enter the council room. There's Kanan, standing in the middle of the circular room. He looks at me in confusion.

"Ezra? What the kriff are you doing here?" I smile and walk towards him, completely forgetting about everyone else.

"What does it look like? I was following you. I was doing an alright job till I lost you, then this really nice lady helped me." I tell him, indicating the very nice maybe-imperial. I turn to see her very pale.
"C-Caleb?" She whispered. Who's Caleb? She seemed to be referring to Kanan. I look back at Kanan.

"Who's Caleb?" Kanan then refocuses on me and begins to say something. I look away and see all the people sitting in very comfy looking chairs. They are all radiating light and warmth. How can the centre of the Empire be so bright? Unless this wasn't the Empire. A hand lands on my shoulder, bringing me out of my thoughts. I refocus on Kanan.

"Yes?" I ask. I see him roll his eyes.

"I was asking about why you followed me. I told you and Oliver to stay put." He says, clearly exasperated. What did he expect though?

"And? You really expected us to stay still? Ollie told me to follow you while he went to check up on something." Kanan lets out a sigh of acceptance. He then looks back to Billaba, who clearly is too nice to be an imperial.

"Thank you master, for returning my wayward padawan to me. I hope he didn't give you any trouble." I glare at him; I never give anyone trouble. Master Billaba smiles but is still clearly shocked. Master? So, are these Jedi? That would explain why I feel warm and safe. Not to mention that everyone is really nice.

"He was no trouble at all, although I am quite curious as to how you have a padawan and have aged 20 years even though I saw you just this morning." What? I am really confused now. Kanan seems to notice my confusion. He smiles back at Master Billaba who has sat down in one of the chairs.

"I shall explain." He looks back at me.

"Ezra, this is the Jedi council." Indicating the people sitting. No shit.

"Yeah, I figured, I was more hoping for an explanation on how we managed to get here. Have we time travelled?" Several council members raised their eyebrows. Kanan just rolled his eyes. He looked back to the Council.

"This is my padawan, Ezra. As you can tell, he is quite the character." I roll my eyes. Though since he called me his padawan, that means I can put down my mental shields. Instantly there are some reactions around the room. An older man with a ginger beard speaks.

"He's very powerful with the force. I can tell you two have a deep bond." He has a really nice voice. Kanan nods.

"Yes, I have told you about our universe, we have been through a lot. Which reminds me. Where is your wayward brother?" He suddenly turns to me.

"Good question master, I have no idea." Another jedi speaks.
"Brother? I assume you are referring to the one you called Oliver?" We both nod, I answer.

"Yes, Ezra's younger brother. Like Ezra, he has the force, but not as powerful. However, Oliver is quite, unique, in how he chooses to utilise his force abilities. He is also incredibly talented in sneaking his way into various buildings. I'm sure he will reveal himself in due time." Kanan explains. Unique is one way of putting it though. I can see that several council members are intrigued by Oliver, or our description of him, it would be interesting to see them actually meet him.

"He does sound quite interesting, however, a jedi can't have two padawans." One of the Jedi masters spoke, the others nodding in agreement. A new, but familiar voice answered him.

Kanan's POV:

I still can't quite believe it. The jedi council, alive and in front of me. They could teach Ezra what I can't, Ezra can finally become a proper jedi. I look over at Ezra to see him looking happy. I reach through our bond, and he feels warm, and like he belongs. This is a home for all Jedi, even ones who never knew about them till a year ago. Master Windu had just asked about me taking on two padawans. I went to say that Oliver isn't my padawan when he answered the question himself.

"Who says I'm a padawan?" Oliver's voice echoes through the room, clearly startling a few members, as they try to locate the voice. Oliver then drops in front of me and Ezra, his hood still up. The Council is quite shocked to see him, and I can't blame them. If a figure dropped out of the shadows wearing a black trench coat, black gloves, and a hood, in front of me, I would also be shocked. I then look over to Master Yoda, to see him smiling, as if he knew Oliver was going to drop there. Then again it is Master Yoda, who knows what the grandmaster already knows. Oliver flips back his hood, revealing his messy dark mop of hair. He fixes the council with a calculating look, which unnerves a few of them.

"Obi-wan, Anakin, good to see you two again. Master Yoda." He respectfully bowed to Master Yoda, which I haven't seen him do to anyone. He looked at the rest of the council.

"The rest of you look quite good for corpses. My name is Oliver Sparrow Bridger, pleasure to make your acquaintance." Oh no, he's breaking out the fancy language, which means he's planning something. The council are at a loss on how to respond to him, and the fact he only talked respectfully to Master Yoda. Skywalker is the first to respond.

"You know who we are?" Oliver smiles, but it's more of a predatory grin.

"Of course Anakin, I know you in my universe quite well, same with Obi-wan and Master Yoda. Though I must say you look better than your counterpart, he was a lot more, charred." Anakin cringes at the thought of what our universe version of him looks like. I didn't know Oliver knew Master Kenobi and Master Yoda, only Vader, and that was through contracts. Master Windu suddenly speaks.

"Do you know who survives in your universe?" All of us are eager of the answer. Oliver never spoke of other Jedi, and I certainly don't know of any who survived. He only smiled.

"I do, but before I tell you, our ship is unfortunately in need of repairs, so we went out for parts. I believe our crew will be worried since we have been gone for some time. I was hoping we could park our ship in the hangers here for repairs." The council looked at each other and nodded.

"Allow this we will." Master Yoda replied. Oliver nodded and then looked over to me and Ezra.

"Ez, can you go and tell Hera to bring the Ghost over. The coordinates are (7,7,8,8, B)." Ezra looked unhappy.

"Why me?" Obviously, he wanted to know who survives, but Oliver is correct, we've been gone for a long time, the others would be worried. I stepped in to support Oliver.

"Oliver and I are needed here, since we both know a lot of the information the council is looking for, and Hera wouldn't believe an unknown person to park the Ghost." I explained. Ezra pouted but accepted with a sigh.

"How would I even get down there? I only reached here by following Master Billaba." Master Billaba rose.

"No worries, Ezra, I will show you where the hangers are, in the meantime you can tell me about your crew, and I'll tell you stories of when Cal-Kanan was like as a padawan." Ezra visibly perked up and went quite happily with my old master. Hopefully she won't embarrass me too much. The moment Ezra left we all looked at Oliver. He nodded and began to speak.

"Very few survived Order 66, and even fewer survived Vader hunting them down. But a few did survive, of course you know Kanan survived. Others also survived, such as Cal Kestis, Jedi Master Jaro Tapal's padawan. Cere Junda, a Jedi knight and former padawan to Eno Cordova, who is currently an archaeologist I believe in this universe. Quinlan Vos is another that is rumoured to have survived, however underworld rumours should really be taken with a grain of salt. Master Uvell also survived Order 66, unfortunately he was killed by bounty hunters working for Vader. Not many survived, but enough did to make sure the Jedi would not die out completely." We were all completely silent. I thought I was the only survivor, but now I know that others survived Order 66, only to be hunted by Vader and his lackeys. The force hummed in sadness.

"How do you know Master Uvell was killed?" Anakin asked this time, breaking the small silence. Oliver's gaze suddenly grew cold.

"Because I was the one pulled the trigger." All of us visibly recoiled, me most of all. I'm glad that Ezra went. I knew he worked for Vader, but I didn't know he hunted jedi. Some looked at Oliver in disgust, some in horror. He looked lost in his memories.

"You hunted jedi?" Master Kenobi asked what we were all thinking. This suddenly broke Oliver out of his trance. He shook his head.

"No, I didn't hunt jedi, I didn't even know Uvell was a jedi until I saw Vader paying us for the job. It was one of my earliest contracts as a bounty hunter, and I was technically an apprentice to Boba Fett. He was the one who took the contract. All I knew is that we had to bring in this person, dead or alive, unfortunately he ran, and Boba told me to kill him. So, I did." Oliver explained. Quite a few of us actually let out a sigh of relief. The hateful gazes turned to understanding. That actually makes sense, Oliver wouldn't kill jedi unless he had a very good reason to. Master Windu still looked suspicious.

"He told you to shoot and kill someone and you did it without any hesitation?" Some other members nodded in agreement to Master Windu's scepticisms. Oliver just raised an eyebrow.

"I just started out as a bounty hunter, and I was 10. Do you really think I was going to disagree with someone in full armour who could easily kill me? It was in my best interests to obey his orders." Oliver's reply made a lot of sense.

"Wait a second. You were a bounty hunter when you were only 10?" Kit Fisto asked, concern lacing his voice. I forgot about that as well. Oliver just looked at Kit Fisto in confusion.

"First, I am still a bounty hunter." I interrupt him.

"Part time remember, 60-40 between bounty hunter and rebel." Oliver thinks, then accepts my point.

"Yeah true, though the guild isn't best pleased that I am supporting the rebels. The Empire usually give them the best contracts. Either way, still a part-time bounty hunter. Secondly, Bossk offered to make me a bounty hunter in exchange for a way off Lothal and a way to make some credits for my own ship. I was 10 at that point, so I agreed, because me and Ezra needed the credits. Yes, it wasn't fair, but it was a lot better than starving to death." The council look down at this, the fact that younglings had to kill to survive is a grim reality indeed. Master Kenobi then looked up.

"Oliver, did you say your name was Oliver Sparrow?" That got quite a few reactions from a lot of jedi, most notably Anakin and Master Windu. Oliver raises an eyebrow.

"Oliver Sparrow Bridger, yes. I do prefer to go by Oliver Sparrow, considering that name technically doesn't exist, much easier for a spectre." Master Windu and Anakin look at each other. Oliver just looks at them in confusion. He shakes his head.

"Anyway, it was fun speaking to all of you, but I'm bored, so I'm going to go explore the criminal underworld and see what has changed. Kanan, get ready to catch the glass." The council barely gets time to react before he holds his wrist up and a laser starts cutting a hole into the glass between Master Windu and Master Kenobi. I quickly use the force to hole the glass as hit falls, so it doesn't fall. Oliver just runs and leaps out of the hole, earning several gasps from the council. Then we hear an engine as the Phantom with Chopper piloting it floats up. Oliver is standing inside the Phantom.

"Tell Hera I'm borrowing the Phantom. Me and Chopper should be back soon. Just tell us where we are staying." He shouts to me. I just roll my eyes; no doubt Hera is confused why Chopper took the Phantom. I pull the glass back to its original place. Oliver then uses the laser cutter again to seal up the window. The Phantom then zooms off. The council don't even get time to question me before the doors open and in come Ezra and Master Billaba, looking like they both ran here. Ezra looked around and then looked at me.

"Master, Chopper just took the Phantom, saying he's going to pick up Ollie, and now I see he wasn't lying." I nod my head.

"Unfortunately you just missed Ollie's rather dramatic exit." The council looked at me and Ezra, clearly telling us to explain why Oliver suddenly jumped out of the window, and how he managed to communicate with our team even though he was here speaking. I spoke to Ezra through our bond.

"Do you have any idea how he orchestrated this?"

"Not a clue."

"So, what do we tell the council?"

"Good question."

Blast it Oliver.

A/N: And that is the second chapter. This is quite a lot longer than the last chapter, mainly because I wanted to get things established quite quickly and lots of things had to happen. As to why Oliver just jumped out suddenly, there is a reason for it, but that will be said later. You got a glimpse of Oliver's bounty hunter outfit, but it will be elaborated on later, as well as his weapons and abilities. I really hope you all liked this chapter; I planned and rewrote it quite a few times. And for people who have read the previous version of this story, do you like the new change? I personally do, but I think that's due to my personal tastes in literature changing. Either way that's it from me. I'll see you all in the next one.

Star Wars Assassin