Path of the Jedi

It was a normal day on Lothal. The sun was out and the Ghost crew were taking this chance to relax. Well, except for Kanan and Ezra. Kanan explained what happened on the asteroid to Hera and then to Errol and they were shocked to hear of Ezra tapping into the Dark Side unknowingly, which showed just how powerful he is.

Either way, Kanan decided today to take Ezra to see if he's even worthy to be a Jedi. The problem is that Ezra isn't around.

"Ezra. Ezra, you in there?" He asked, knocking on the door to his and Zeb's quarters. The door opened and showed a yawning Zeb.

"Nope. No Ezras in here." He told the Jedi, looking cranky before closing the door so he can go back to sleep.

Kanan then went to find Errol, who decided to sit on the open ramp to relax with the nice breeze in the air and watched over the horizon.

"Have you seen Ezra?" Kanan asked him.

"Last time I saw him, he was leaving with Sabine for something. What it was, I don't know what." Errol informed him and Kanan sighed, seeing that Ezra would be late.

"Thanks for telling me." He said, which Errol nodded and then the older Jedi walked back into the ship, to his quarters.

After a few minutes, Errol saw Ezra running up to the Ghost.

"Kanan's been looking for you, you know?" Errol told him.

"I know, I was busy with Sabine!" Ezra replied, running past him to Kanan's quarters. Errol got up shortly after and walked towards the common room when the door to Kanan's quarters opened and Ezra and Kanan watched him from the door frame. Hera had just come up to them as well.

"I might regret this." He said to them.

"You have to do this, Kanan. After what happened on that asteroid, you have to help him." Hera assured him.

"I hope I can." He said.

"We know you can." Errol stated with a grin and placed a hand on his shoulder.

Kanan and Ezra entered the Phantom and flew to a destination on Lothal where the Force is strong.

Considering there was nothing to do and Errol took the day off from training, everyone was in the common room and were eating some food.

Zeb was eating some space waffles, Hera with a Loth-rat pie, Sabine with blue milk custard and Errol had blue milk pancakes with some sweet sand cookies, that he shares with Hera since she too enjoyed them as much as he did. Everyone was silent, enjoying their foods until Zeb groaned and leaned back.

"What's wrong, big guy?" Errol asked the Lasat before taking a bite of the pancakes.

"Why is it that those two are out on Jedi business while we are sitting here waiting for them?! Aren't there better things to then just wait all day?" Zeb complained. He clearly wanted something to do to kill boredom.

"Zeb, with what has happened lately, this is a chance for us to relax and not worry about Inquisitors, Kallus or Stormtroopers. Just relax." Hera was in her motherly mode and it was able to work as Zeb took a few deep breaths and calmed down.

"Sorry, Hera. I'm just used to some action." He apologized. She nodded in acceptance of his apology. They then went back into silence, eating their food. Errol reached for one of the cookies when Hera did as well and they both went for the same one, making their hands contact each other. They at one another and blushed, making Sabine and Zeb smirk knowingly and even giggle with Chopper warbling something that made Errol snap out of it.

"Uh…. You take it, Hera." Errol stammered and pulled his hand away. She grabbed the cookie and ate it and then Errol grabbed another and ate that one.

Shortly after they ate, the ship picked up something and Errol was the only one in the cockpit to see that it was a distress signal.

"Guys, get in here. We picked up a distress signal." He informed everyone through the PA and everyone entered the cockpit in some confusion.

"Where's it coming from?" Hera asked. Errol checked on the controls and saw where it was coming from and even what the signal said. And reading had him on edge, slightly.

"It's out in the middle of space in between Lothal and Dornea. Apparently their Hyperdrive has malfunctioned as well as their engines. They are asking for help and in exchange, they'd give us a month's worth of fuel." Errol told them all. With this information, they were a bit hesitant leaving Lothal.

"What if Ezra and Kanan come back and we're not here?" Sabine asked, speaking everyone's hesitance.

"Yeah, well those two could be gone all day. It's just one job and besides, since when do we not help people in need?" Zeb argued, wanting to do something. Errol and Hera looked at each other, having a silent conversation. They considered the fact that the two Jedi could be out all day and there's the payment and being able to help. With all that, they came to a decision.

"Might as well. What can go wrong?" Hera said and they all took their seats as Hera got the Ghost in the air and flew out of Lothal and entered the coordinates and entered Hyperspace.

After several minutes, they reached the coordinates where the distress signal came from and there, they saw a cargo ship floating in space.

"Is that it?" Sabine asked.

"It must be. It's the only ship in the area." Errol pointed out as Hera flew the ship closer.

"Unknown vessel, this is Ghost. We have received your distress signal, please respond." Hera spoke to the vessel through the comms. There was silence for a few seconds until they got a response.

"This is Harbinger, we read you loud and clear. You're really saving our asses out here." An eager voice replied. Something about the voice seemed off to Errol but he didn't know what or why.

"Understood, Harbinger. Prepare for docking." Hera told the person on the comms and so she moved the Ghost to where the airlock is on the Harbinger and they all walked to greet whoever is onboard. Zeb grabbed the tools needed to fix up the Hyperdrive and engines.

At the airlock, they are greeted with a human with a buzzcut and light brown skin, wearing overalls and a vest.

"Hello, I'm Wel Jeemnu, the captain of the ship. Come on in." The man greeted them and escorted them into the Harbinger and it all looked hospitable and nice, which rubbed Errol the wrong way. They were led to the engine room where the rest of the crew were.

There was a big and bulky Aqualish, a brown skinned Devaronian, a Quarren and a couple of other humans, one man and one woman.

"Here is my crew. This is Burg Podo." Wel introduced the Aqualish.

"Braxon." The Devaronian.

"Tomar." The Quarren.

"And these are Chaiss Tilku and Leerr Pern." The two humans.

Wel's crew nodded at the Ghost crew as a greeting.

"Hello. So what were you doing out here before the malfunction?" Hera asked in curiosity.

"We were just transporting some cargo on the way to one of the nearby systems. We need to get there soon, so can you help us?" Chaiss said.

And so they helped them with fixing the engines first but as they worked on it, Errol felt something. It was a pull from the Force and knowing that he can't just ignore it, he made sure everyone was busy to not notice him and he made his way out of the engine room.

As the young Jedi walked around the ship, following the pull, the areas of the ship became less hospitable and more dingy and dark, which meant that there's something going that Wel didn't tell them.

Eventually, the pull led him into the cargo bay, which was dimly lit but Errol can see that there some large containers stacked next to each other.

"What the hell?" He whispered as he got up to one and then he heard something. It wasn't clear or audible but it seemed to come from within the container. He leaned up to it to listen closely and then he was able to hear it clearer. A voice.

With this, Errol found the locking mechanism and with Ezra's teachings, he picked it open with ease. But then when he opened the container and saw what was in it, his eyes widened in horror and placed a hand over his mouth.

There were Twi'leks all locked up in some cages. They wore minimal clothing and were all dirty, with some looking frail. They're slaves. In front of him was a female Twi'lek and she had purple skin. She noticed Errol and backed up, whimpering in fear.

"Hey, hey, hey, don't worry. I'm not gonna hurt ya." He said to calm her down. She looked at him and knew he really meant it so she crawled closer to him.

"Who are you?" She asked him quietly.

"I'm Errol. I'm gonna get you out of here." He told her.

"How?" She asked him in disbelief.

"You'll see." He assured her before walking off to find anything to explain what's going on. He managed to find a pad that showed a manifest for these Twi'leks and they were to be sold to the Zygerrian Slave Empire. Upon seeing this, Errol grew angry as his parents told him about them when they fought against them in the Clone Wars.

Knowing that the guys wouldn't stand for this, he went for his comlink but before he could, a fist hit him hard in the head, knocking him out. Burg Podo knocked him out.

Back in the engine room, Hera started to notice that both Errol and Burg were gone. She went off to try find them, in particular Errol.

She was near the cargo bay when she heard footsteps, coming towards her. She managed to find a good hiding spot and waited to see what it was. Eventually, she saw it was Burg and over his shoulder was an unconscious Errol.

As Burg walked past her, she came out of her hiding spot and sneaked up behind the Aqualish, grabbing a random pipe and hit him, really hard in the head, making him stumble and drop Errol on the floor.

Burg turned around faced Hera and snarled at her in disgust. They then fought in the tight hallway. Burg's size was a disadvantage and Hera used that to her advantage and dodged his fists and was able to take him down fast. Her attention went to Errol, who lay there knocked out. She knelt down next to him.

"Errol. Errol, come on, wake up." She said, concerned for her friend. She even shook his body by the shoulders and then tapped him by the cheek, which worked because he was shifting and his eyes opened up.

"If only I wake up to your beautiful face every day." Errol whispered, dazed. Hera blushed in embarrassment though she couldn't help but like the compliment.

"Errol, what happened?" She asked him, fully waking him up, remembering what he found.

"There's something you need to see." He told her as she helped him up.

He took her down to the cargo bay and showed her the Twi'leks in cages.

"This crew were smuggling these people and are planning to sell them to the Zygerrian Empire." He told her and she was furious to see her people be thrown into slavery. It. Is. Personal.

"These guys have messed with the wrong crew." She hissed with a look of anger.

"Let's finish them off." Errol said in agreement and they wielded their blasters (Errol left his lightsaber on the Ghost) and charged back to the engine room where they all just finished

"Hey!" Errol shouted, getting everyone's attention and both Sabine and Zeb were shocked to see him and Hera pointing their blasters at the Harbinger crew.

"Guys, what are you doing?!" Zeb questioned. Errol and Hera stared down at the Harbinger crew, who realised they knew their cargo.

"These monsters are smuggling slaves." Errol told them and that made the Lasat and Mandalorian round on the smugglers and aim their weapons at them as well, backing up to Errol and Hera.

"You just had to take a peek, didn't you?" Wel snarled at Errol, reaching for his blaster, but realised he didn't have it with him.

"You have no idea who you've called." Hera spat at him and then Tomar pulled his blaster out, which made Errol take the first shot and shoot him right at the vitals, killing him on the spot.

Suddenly, the Ghost crew fired their blasters at once at the remaining smugglers, taking them down.

"Let's get rid of this garbage and free the slaves." Errol told everyone and so they carried the bodies, including Burg to a different airlock and jettisoned them out into space. They then went to the cargo bay and let the Twi'leks out of the cages, and all of them were grateful to them, especially the one who Errol talked to.

"Thank you. Thank you so much!" She said to him, wrapping her arms around the teen and then to the shock of him and the Ghost crew, she kissed him on the cheek. Hera immediately started getting jealous.

"Uh…. th-thank you, uh…. Wh-what is your name?" He asked, stuttering his words. Hera saw this as him getting dazed by her and grew more jealous.

"Oh, right. I'm Aola." She told him her name.

After that, they and the now freed Twi'leks fixed the whole ship up and were kind enough to give the month's worth of fuel and then they parted ways.

When the Ghost entered Hyperspace, back to Lothal, everyone was in the cockpit in silence.

"From now on, I'll just accept breaks." Zeb confessed, changing his mind after what just happened.

They eventually made it back to Lothal and landed back where they were before and as they did, Kanan informed them that they were heading back.

Kanan asked what happened, based on the expressions Hera and Errol had on their faces. They explained what happened and he and Ezra were a bit shocked to hear what they did. Ezra revealed that he now has a Kyber crystal, which means he can progress further into his Jedi training, and everyone was thrilled at this news.

A few weeks have passed and Ezra was busy making his own lightsaber. The whole crew were waiting for him in the common room. Hera, Errol and Kanan were sitting around the table, Zeb was sitting on a seat, Chopper was going around the room and Sabine was leaning against the cupboard.

"He's been working on that thing for weeks. What kind of lightsaber could he possibly build with the junk we have laying around?" Zeb questioned.

"Well, I had a few spare parts I found over the years." Kanan said.

"And I had some bits and pieces that might work, modulation circuits, an energy gate. Chopper even donated a power cell." Sabine pointed out and Chopper beeped in response.

"I gave him some additional tech. He was pretty specific about what he was looking for." Hera said.

"And I even gave him some Beskar to reinforce his lightsaber." Errol brought up and as he finished saying that, Ezra slid down the ladder with his lightsaber hilt.

Everyone got up and looked.

"I thought I'd let you check it out first." Ezra told his Master, handing the hilt to him.

Everyone examined it to see that it had some kind of handguard and had blaster parts on it, looking like a blaster.

"Well, it's different. But that seems about right for you. Go for it." Kanan said, handing the hilt back to Ezra and he ignited it to reveal a blue lightsaber blade, shining brightly in the room. Everyone smiled at the sight, knowing he accomplished part of his training at the Jedi Temple they went to on Lothal.

I need to thank PsychicTitan for the plot, character names, and the interactions between Errol and Hera in this chapter. And the cookies Errol and Hera ate are the same kind that cute little Grogu ate in The Mandalorian. And the mention of the Zygerrian Slave Empire is a nice callback to Clone Wars and even a hint for when I tackle the Clone Wars.