Chapter 23

Ezra and Sabine are both enjoying their time away from the Rebellion in peace and quiet, though they both are itching to get back to the fight. They don't like sitting out and doing nothing, but they kind of don't have a choice. However, something happens and they meet a strange figure who keeps saying something about stopping an event that could take the lives of everybody in the Ghost crew except for Sabine.

...

"Ezra..." Sabine purrs as she cuddles close to her riduur. (Riduur - [REE-door] - partner, spouse, husband, wife)

"Hm?"

"I can't stand this anymore."

"I know what you mean."

They would do anything to get back to the fighting. That and there's Lothal to liberate as well. The Rebellion promised they wouldn't do anything for Lothal until Ezra was back in service. And as for Sabine, she refuses to stay behind. She was always grateful for what Ezra did for her and her people, and she wants to return the favor in the same way.

"I can't believe it's been six months!" Ezra says.

Sabine nods into his chest, "Six months, one week, 12 hours, 32 minutes and 24... 25 seconds and counting."

Ezra laughs, "Are you keeping the time on this?"

Sabine lifts her head to stare at him, "Yes I am. You have a problem with that?"

Ezra smiles, "Of course not... Dear."

Sabine's heart still flutters at that last part.

As Sabine stared into Ezra's eyes, and he into hers, they suddenly heard something like a bunch of electricity and a loud crash from inside the kitchen. Ezra quickly jumped up and ran into the kitchen, his lightsaber ready as Sabine stood behind him, blasters ready in case Ezra was pushed back.

"Who are you?" he asked, his voice taking an authoritative tone. He pointed his lightsaber at the intruder.

Sabine looked between Ezra and the intruder, who stood up and raised his hands in the air. Nothing happened for what felt like several hours, the only sound heard was the familiar hum of Ezra's emerald blade.

"Please, I'm not here to hurt you!" the intruder said, still not letting her hands fall.

"Who are you?" Ezra asked firmly.

"I'm sorry, but I can't tell you that."

"And why not?"

"I... I just can't. I'm not supposed to."

"Can you tell us where you came from?" Sabine asked, still not taking her blasters off the intruder.

The intruder only sighed, "I'm from the future... 16 years from the future to be exact..."

"Ezra?" Sabine asked, looking over to the Jedi.

His eyes were closed for a moment, but he finally opened them and extinguished his blade and set his lightsaber back on his belt.

"She's telling the truth," he said in almost disbelief.

"I'm sorry, she?" Sabine asked.

The intruder removed the helmet she was wearing and revealed long blue hair, but her eyes remained relatively covered, like a veil.

"I... I knew you both very well in the future..." she said quietly.

"Sabine," Ezra said, motioning for her to put her blasters away.

"Would you like a drink?" he asked then.

Whoever the intruder was, she nodded, "Yes please."

Good manners, Sabine mentally noted.

The intruder looked at Sabine, smiled and nodded, "Yes. It was something my parents always taught me to have when I'm around others."

Sabine's eyes grew wide and she quickly looked over to Ezra, who seemed unnaturally calm.

"I'd like to speak to my wife privately, if you may," Ezra said to the intruder.

"Of course," she only replied. "I'll be sitting right over here."

Ezra brought Sabine into the next room and shut the door.

"Ezra, what's going on? She seemed to read my thoughts!"

"Sabine, this might sound crazy, but she seems familiar. I can't explain how but not only is she Force sensitive, but her signature is familiar," Ezra explained.

"What do you mean?"

"Like I said, I don't know."

"Are you saying we can trust her?" Sabine asked.

"I'm not sure what I'm saying!" Ezra replied.

After another minute of quiet arguing, Sabine finally gave in and allowed the somehow 'familiar' intruder to stay for a while. Ezra and Sabine both returned to the room and found their guest sitting right where she said she'd be.

"If you can't give us your name exactly," Ezra began, "what should we call you?"

"It's not my real name, but you can just call me Mari," she replied.

"Alright, Mari," Sabine began, "Why are you here anyway?"

"I'm here..." she hesitated. "I'm here to save you..."

"Save us? From what?" Ezra asked.

"Believe me, it took a long time for me to find the exact start of your future events," Mari said, "But you two get involved in something around now that eventually..."

She began to choke up, "Eventually... gets everybody killed."

"WHAT?" Ezra and Sabine shouted.

"W-What do you mean?" Ezra stammered.

"I can't say. But you guys cannot leave this moon. No matter what! For the sake of your lives you can NOT leave this moon! Not yet anyway..." Mari said and she sounded serious.

"What about that Death Star thing?" Sabine said. "What if they find us here? I mean, they already have the princess."

"I know... I've heard and read the history books," Mari said. "I can't tell you what will happen, but you have to trust me. You can not tell anybody this either. This is only for you two! When the Death Star comes you can't leave."

"Did you say 'when'?" Ezra asked.

"I-I mean if... my bad," Mari said.

"Take that veil off will you?" Sabine requested.

Mari hesitated, but took off the veil.

Good thing I saw that coming. This contact lens is really going to help, Mari thought as she took off the veil, revealing two black eyes.

"Black eyes?" Sabine asked.

"They're not real. I'm wearing special contact lenses that help conceal anything that would tip you off to who I really am, and I can't allow that," Mari explained. "There is actually something I can tell you, related to my warning however..."

"Alright?"

"About two days from now, something horrible will happen. As you might be guessing I can't go into any specific details... Only that something terrible WILL happen."

"Go on," Ezra said, sensing there was more to this.

"Not too long afterwards, from the timeframe I came from, you and Sabine both leave Yavin, knowing something will happen here, too. At first it was a good idea, but 16 years after you leave Yavin... an imperialistic force attacks you, Sabine, your friends and family... and your child..."

This wasn't sounding good at all.

"Me and your daughter were the only ones who escaped alive," Mari said, though unknown to even Ezra, as Mari was trained to lock down her thoughts, there was only one survivor. Their daughter.

"So... you're saying the Empire killed everybody except you and our daughter?" Sabine asked.

Mari nodded sadly. "Something like that... yeah."

Dad... Mom... Mari thought to herself.

"So what does leaving Yavin have to do with these events?" Ezra asked.

"You two run into trouble not long after you leave. And that trouble started long before now, but this encounter lead to a terrible grudge that ended everyone's lives. I was still on the run before I found something that led me back here. If you stay here, that encounter won't happen," Mari explained.

"What do you mean trouble starting long before now?" Sabine asked.

"You... I mean, your daughter told me about this one rogue rebel... Delphine Katz."

"Delphine? She's still alive after all?" Sabine asked.

"Yeah. You know she's hard to take out," Mari said.

"So she's responsible for... our deaths?" Ezra asked.

"I'm afraid so. Run into her and you both fight a terrible battle. 16 years later she comes back from hiding and... You didn't stand a chance. You never saw it coming," Mari said, tears beginning to fall from her eyes, her voice breaking.

A lump formed in Sabine's throat and in Ezra's. This was hard to process.

"We need to go find her and take her out," Ezra said.

"NO! If you go after her she'll get away! This is what I'm trying to prevent!" Mari shouted. "Please! I can't lose you again!"

The outburst silenced both the Mandalorian and the Jedi. They both looked at each other, their thoughts in conflict. They would do anything to get Delphine off their backs and now they know she is indeed still alive. But the tone of their guest is stopping them from heading out. She really is serious and Ezra can sense it.

"Alright. What do you want us to do then?" Ezra asked.

"Just stay here. There's something coming within a few days, I don't really know exactly when, but don't leave until it's over," Mari said, relieved that they are agreeing to stay in their cabin.

"We can go visit our base right?" Sabine asked.

"Yes, just... don't leave the moon. I don't know what could happen if you do," Mari said.

"Going back in time... changing history and potentially fate... it's not right," Ezra said.

"I couldn't agree more," Sabine said. "But I wouldn't want that kind of fate. If we end up leaving out daughter on her own like that..."

Ezra looked at Sabine.

"I don't want that to happen. If our daughter died you would do the same thing, Ezra," she said.

"I know..."

"I'm sorry if I ruined your time off," Mari apologized.

"No... You didn't ruin anything. You just warned us what could have happened, that's all," Sabine said.

"Thank you... I-I should get back to my time before anybody realizes I'm gone," Mari said, then she bowed.

"It was nice to meet you, Mari," Ezra said.

Moments later, the time traveler stepped through the time portal (or whatever it was in the last episodes of SWR) and returned to her time.

She could see changes in her universe immediately and she just about died from being overjoyed.

She ran all the way to the hangars and found the Starbird sitting in all it's magnificent glory, the paint still looking fresh from the day Sabine first painted it. She ran up the boarding ramp and found Ezra sitting at the controls.

"DAD!" she cried, hugging her dad and almost throwing him off his seat.

"Woah!" the older Ezra cried. "What... What's all this about?"

"Ezra? Honey, what's going on in here?" Sabine asked as she walked into the cockpit, just to catch her daughter in a big hug.

"Mom!"

Sabine looked over to Ezra, who was equally confused but not at all against this strange outburst.

"Mira, what's going on? What's this about?" Sabine asked as she chuckled.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," Mira said.

(The trick is, Mira couldn't think of a cover name for whenever she went back in time, so she switched the I and the A in her name to cover it. An old trick, but apparently still rather effective at some times.)

...

Back in the original timeline, Ezra and Sabine were talking about what just happened when they heard a chime at their door.

"I'll get it," Sabine offered, but Ezra placed his hands on her shoulders and pushed her back into the chair.

"No, you just stay right here," he said.

"Ezra," Sabine began but Ezra didn't want to hear it.

"Sabine, just rest. 6 months pregnant, you need all the energy you can get."

Sabine stared up at his eyes and eventually nodded, "Fine, I'll stay here."

Ezra kissed the top of her head and walked off to the front door. When he opened it, he was happy to see his unit standing outside.

"Hey Boss," Coren said. "How's everything over here?"

"Quiet. A little too quiet but it works," Ezra said. "Please come on in, everyone."

As everybody walked inside, Max playfully punched Ezra's shoulder, "You lucky Jedi, getting days off now while we're stuck with all the work."

"Blame Sabine for that, not me," Ezra replied.

"I heard that!" Sabine shouted from the other room.

Everybody laughed as Sabine entered the room.

"It's good to see you guys," she said.

"The feeling is mutual. However you know we're here for that weekly checkup," Keith said.

"That and we wanted to come here," Jax added.

"Whether you're here for the checkup or on your own will it doesn't matter. You're still here either way," Ezra said with a smile.

"He's right," Max agreed.

"Of course you agree," Keith said, causing everybody to laugh again.

"How about a drink guys?" Ezra offered. "It's quite a ways from Command."

"We really shouldn't but one drink wouldn't hurt," Jill said.

Ezra led everybody to the kitchen and opened the doors to the glasses. Using the Force, he pulled a bottle of Mandalorian Wine that Sabine received from her family to his hand and poured everybody a small glass.

"Show off," Sabine snickered.

Ezra handed everybody, except Sabine, a glass and they all seemed pretty happy.

"Mandalorian wine?" Keith asked. "Where'd you get this?"

"Did you forget that he's married to a Mandalorian?" Coren asked Keith then.

"Maybe a little. Sorry," Keith said. Fresh out of the Trials earlier that year, Keith was no more and no less 18 years by now.

"He's been nervous since he was assigned to a squad of 20 year olds," Jax whispered to Ezra.

Ezra, Jax, and Coren went to the other room to speak while Sabine caught up with Max and Jill, while also helping Keith with the perimeter scanners.

"How has he been holding up so far?" Ezra asked Jax and Coren.

"He's been doing good. Finishing his training relatively quick, but he tends to forget things. He's not like your average Mando," Coren said.

"He tends to forget things just as quickly, but we don't blame him. He seems to remember combat scenarios and everything like that, but when it comes to stuff like this... That's a different story," Jax added.

"The war over on Mandalore is that bad, huh?" Ezra asked.

"You have no idea. Last we heard there's been multiple units from Clan Saxon constantly harassing our forces, which are already stretched thin," Jax said.

"I wish I could help," Ezra said.

"You've helped us enough, boss," Coren said. "Let us worry about the rest. We may be stretched thin, but we have better warriors."

"I suppose there's no arguing against that," Ezra said, taking a sip from his drink.

He noticed Jax and Coren staring at him in disbelief.

"What?"

"You're not Mandalorian, but you just drank that like one!"

Ezra grinned, "Living with a Mandalorian has its perks."

Jax and Coren both grinned as well and raised their glasses.

"To the Commander!"

"No, to all Mandalorians," Ezra said.

"I'll drink to that," Coren said as the three all downed their drinks.

...

"You doing alright?" Max asked Sabine.

"Hm? Oh... yeah I'm fine. Just a little tired is all," Sabine answered.

"I bet. 6 months pregnant will do that to you," Jill said.

"6 months with a Mando Jedi baby? Oh yeah definitely," Sabine joked, sharing a laugh with everybody.

Keith was busy recalibrating the sensors and just about finished. "It's very quiet over here."

"That's exactly what I said," Sabine said. "I'd prefer staying in my quarters, but then there'd be Rebels running in and out of my room."

"Well you and Ezra also wanted a vacation for your child," Jill said.

"I know and I don't regret a single moment of it," Sabine smiled.

"You are a lucky Mando, Sabine," Max said. "Most women would kill to have Ezra if they really knew him."

"He wouldn't agree," Sabine said.

"What do you mean?" Keith asked.

"I mean he used to live in a radio tower after his parents were taken away. We found him when he was 14, just a few days afterwards was his birthday... he used to hate his birthday," Sabine said, looking sad.

"What why?" Jill asked.

"Empire Day," Sabine answered.

"Really? That must be really hard on him," Max said.

"It was. But I gave him something that changed his perspective a bit. He's happy with the family he has now."

"What did you give him?" Max asked.

"It was an old holodisk that had a photo of his parents. We found it in the basement of his old home and I brought aboard the Ghost to clean it up. He looks at that picture often at night, but instead feeling sad, he just has this smile on his face..."

"I've asked him why he's up so late and he just shrugs, gives me a kiss and goes back to sleep." Sabine thought with a smile.

A couple hours later, Ezra's squad was recalled to the base for debriefing, so Ezra and Sabine were once again alone. Ezra collapsed against the sofa and Sabine curled up next to him, still relatively exhausted from their earlier encounter with Mari (Future Mira)

"You still tired?" Ezra asked.

"Mmmhmm," she replied sleepily, her eyes now closed.

He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her closer. She responded by snuggling as close as she could.

"I've been thinking a lot about what Mari said earlier," She finally said then, breaking the silence.

"I know. I have, too."

"Do you really think she was telling the truth?" she asked.

"It's hard to tell. She's been trained in the ways of the Force," Ezra said. "Her mental barrier was strong, but I was able to pick out a few things."

He looked down at Sabine, who still had her eyes closed.

"I think we should follow that warning she gave us. I sense something big is about to happen."

"You mean in relation to Mari's warning?" Sabine asked, now opening her eyes to look up at Ezra.

Ezra nodded grimly.

...

Just about two days later, Ezra was standing in the kitchen, trying to make some waffles when he felt a strange feeling.

Sabine was in the living room, sitting on the sofa, just relaxing while the warm sun filtered through the windows.

"Is life going to be like this after we defeat the Empire?" Sabine asked out loud, trying to get Ezra's attention.

"I... I guess so. Yet again, by the time the war's over we'll have our daughter with us so it should still be exciting," Ezra called back.

Sabine smiled, "Yeah I guess so. Maybe even have more kids..."

She heard a crash from the kitchen and Ezra screaming as if he hurt himself.

"Ezra?!" Sabine shouted, jumping to her feet and running into the kitchen. She found Ezra leaning his back against the counter, his breathing hard and his hands on his head. She couldn't see his eyes.

"Ezra? What's wrong? Was it something I said?" she asked frantically.

She removed his hands and gasped. His eyes shone with horror, and pain.

"No... Oh no... Nonono..." he said.

"Ezra! I'm here! I'm right here," Sabine said, trying her best to stay calm.

"Sabine... Something... something happened," Ezra said, the pain showing on his face now.

"W-What happened? Tell me, what happened?"

"Screaming... It's like... millions of people..." he shakily explained.

Sabine held him in her arms as he sobbed into her shoulder, and even her child was kicking like crazy as if she wanted out now. But the pain she was feeling from her child, was nothing compared to the pain Ezra was feeling now.