Chapter 27

A month and a half. That's the approximate amount of time since the Battle of Yavin. Sabine's just in the middle of her eighth month now, since she was 6 months during the fighting. Moral has skyrocketed and dozens of more beings joined our ranks every day; maybe more than dozens actually. My Mando unit began helping out with training new recruits, handing them whatever uniforms we could get, and even more training. I was promoted to Lieutenant General not long after Yavin when we had a missing strike team over some unnamed planet. I was tasked with finding them and bringing them home. During that mission, however, we encountered yet another Inquisitor, though I have grown quite powerful since the last time I fought one. I didn't kill him, but I was able to overpower him and push him back. I only focused on keeping him distracted while everybody boarded their ships and escaped.

Hera became the official fleet tactician of the Rebellion. Since she has a kid of her own, Mothma ordered her to stay out of direct fighter combat. Of course, Hera was none too happy about that, but she also understood the reasoning and agreed to be "stuck in a bridge" as she calls it.

I was growing more nervous by the day and everybody knew why. I felt at ease whenever I helped Kanan train Luke because I had time to meditate and let all my worries out into the Force.

Ezra was just staring out into space while Sabine slept in the next room. She's been really tired lately and Ezra's been doing everything he could to keep her comfortable. His Mando unit usually visits once a day since they're so busy training new recruits.

He heard a chime at his door.

"Come in," Ezra said.

The door opened and Kanan was standing there. He seemed serious about something.

"Kanan? I thought you were helping Luke," Ezra said.

"Command received a scrambled transmission. It only repeated a set of numbers we believe are coordinates," Kanan replied. "I want to check it out."

"And you want me to come with you," Ezra said finishing Kanan's thought.

"Yes. I sense there's something to this message."

Ezra was quiet for a moment as he looked at the locked bedroom door. She always locks it.

Kanan sensed Ezra's worry and placed a hand on his shoulder. "She'll be alright. I've requested either Max or Katherine to care for her while you're with me."

Ezra nodded, "I know but... I want to be here when it comes."

"I understand that."

Ezra finally agreed to follow Kanan.

"Hey!"

Ezra turned to his right and found Katherine running over to them. "Sorry I was held up at several doors."

"Security still doesn't know you?" Ezra joked.

"I'm not here often enough. They don't recognize me at all," Katherine said.

"It's because you're always sneaking around Imperial complexes and outposts," Ezra said.

"I've already been briefed. Your ship is prepped. I'll take good care of Sabine, don't worry."

"Thank you."

Ezra pulled the ship out of hyperspace right in front of a ship that looked a lot like a vertical stabilizer fin. He tried to make contact, but there wasn't any indication there was anybody aboard.

"Let's approach with caution," Kanan suggested.

"I was just thinking that. T6 keep the engines running while we're gone," Ezra said.

"Don't dock. There could be explosives on board," Kanan warned. "We must think of every possibility."

"You're right," Ezra said. "We'll need to jump to it then."

Ezra went to the back of his ship and put on his Mandalorian armor. He kept it on an armor stand his team built, specially designed for the Jedi to swiftly equip himself. While he was doing that, Kanan was putting on a regular space suit and met Ezra at the airlock.

"You ready?" Kanan asked.

"Always," Ezra said, making sure his voice changer was active to protect his identity; just a precaution he thought of.

"That's new," Kanan said.

"No, I just don't use it often."

They reported clear to T6, who opened the airlock and the two Jedi were sucked into space towards the unknown spacecraft.

The found the airlock and managed to open the door to get inside. Kanan took off his helmet but Ezra decided to stay the part of a Mandalorian. Technically he is one now, so he can't get in trouble for impersonating one. His lightsaber was packed away in a specially designed backpack his team made for him. It's similar to a normal pack, but there's a compartment that stores his lightsaber and it can only be opened through the Force. Once the compartment's hatch is opened, the lightsaber is magnetically launched into the air, enabling Ezra to pull it into his hands. The whole maneuver takes about a second if done properly and if the launch settings are correct. There's different power levels to the magnetic catapult that launches the saber.

"I sense a presence in the cockpit," Kanan said.

Ezra nodded, turning on the flashlight on his helmet and drawing his two WESTAR-35 blaster pistols. His loadout is his armor, the two pistols, his lightsaber, and his DL-44 heavy blaster pistol as a backup in case his WESTARs are either lost or destroyed.

He led the way to the cockpit and breached the door, nearly dropping his weapons at what he found.

"Ahsoka!"

Ezra knelt down next to a seemingly unconscious Ahsoka Tano. Kanan ran inside the cockpit and got the power running.

"T6 get the Starbird docked," Ezra ordered.

The ship shuddered moments later as the modified Kom'rk fighter docked with the strange ship.

"Ezra, help me get her to the Starbird. I sense a danger nearby," Kanan said. Ezra nodded and Kanan carried Ahsoka out of the cockpit and into the Starbird.

Ezra followed close behind, making sure they weren't being followed. He could sense something coming and he didn't like it. He shut the airlock and ran into the cockpit.

"T6 is there something nearby?" he asked.

The droid beeped and spun his dome. Ezra was about to relax when the scanners beeped a couple times. He checked the scopes and there was information about a ship that just appeared from hyperspace nearby and was charging weapons.

"Kanan, you might want to hang on to something!" Ezra shouted as he jumped into the pilot's chair and undocked from the vertical ship. There was a blast that threw the Starbird away from the vessel and Ezra watched as the attacking ship destroyed it. "T6 calculate a series of random jumps. Whoever these guys are we can't let them find our base!"

T6 beeped and plugged into the console via droid socket and began the calculations.

The Kom'rk fighter shook as another blast nearly hit them. Kanan ran into the cockpit then.

"Ahsoka's strapped down. What's going on?"

"Somebody's saying hi!" Ezra replied as he threw the Starbird into a barrel roll.

"We should scan the ship, get some information out of it," Kanan said.

"Fortunately we've added combat scanners!" Ezra realized. "T6 can you multitask between hyperspace and scanners?"

The droid beeped. Of course.

"Do it! We need information about these guys!"

The scanner console lit up. "No time to look at it, we need to get out of here!" Ezra said. "Shields are failing!"

"You have those routes?"

T6 beeped again and Ezra routed auxiliary power to the hyperdrive, allowing them to jump to lightspeed.

"Primary power is restored to the hyperdrive. Whatever that ship was it was trying to drain our power as well," Ezra said. He and Kanan were in the small kitchen in the Starbird. "T6 is trying to decrypt the information."

"Alright," Kanan said.

"How's Ahsoka?"

"She's still unconscious, but stable. I had to activate the medical droid to be sure," Kanan replied just before he took a sip of caf. It was his fourth cup of the drink.

"You've been drinking a lot of caf, Master. At this rate the tanks would be empty," Ezra laughed.

"You'd understand once you have a 1 year old kid walking around all day and most of the night," Kanan said. "What's our ETA with the others?"

"About 30 minutes now. We're on our last jump. We lost them," Ezra said as he filled up his second cup of caf. "I reported everything to Command already. They're ready and waiting for the scanned information."

T6 rolled in then and beeped happily.

"Thank you, T6. You should get some rest, you've done a lot," Ezra said.

The droid rolled off to an astromech socket to charge his power cells.

"Tower to Starbird, you are clear to dock, Bay 3," the flight controller said.

"Acknowledged, Tower. I've got the ball," Ezra said before cutting comms with the flight tower.

It's ironic since it's not in a tower, but more of the command center.

Ezra landed the Starbird in his designated bay and he was met by engineering crews, guards, and medics.

The engineers requested the status of the ship and Ezra explained it to them. They got to work immediately. The guards were waiting on Ezra to get to the command center and the medics retrieved Ahsoka and took her to the med bay.

"What is it you have?" Hera asked after Ezra entered the command center.

"A ship I've never seen before attacked us. I have the information right here," Ezra said as he plugged a data chip into the holotable and the hostile vessel appeared.

"Oh no... this is not good," Hera said.

"Why not? What is it?" Ezra asked.

"Even though you are a Jedi, you are lucky to have made it out. Have you ever heard of Inferno Squad?" Wedge asked.

"No... should I be worried?"

"Very. These guys are the special forces of the Empire. They are a very new group, but among the most dangerous. Their ship is a Raider II-class corvette," Hera said.

"How do we know it's Inferno Squad?" somebody asked. "I mean there's several of these corvettes out there."

"Look at the schematics and the emblems. It's got Inferno's insignia on it," Wedge pointed out, magnifying the hull to a specific point.

"Ok then... They didn't track you, right?"

"No, I had T6 scan the entire ship. We're clear," Ezra replied.

"Good. The last thing we want is Inferno Squad showing up at our doorstep," Hera said. "It's a good thing you avoided direct combat."

"We were on the defensive for all of it," Kanan said.

"I tried to fire back, but we were taking too much fire," Ezra added.

"It was best that you didn't fire on them. It wouldn't do much," Hera said.

"You don't know my ship just like I don't know the Ghost," Ezra said.

"Really now?" Hera remarked.

"Sabine helped me upgrade it. I think I would know my ship," Ezra replied.

"I suppose," Hera said.

Katherine burst into the room then, her face pale. "Ezra!"

Everybody turned to her.

"Kath? What's wrong?" Ezra asked.

"It's Sabine... She... The baby..." she said breathlessly.

Ezra paled and looked to Hera.

"Go, she needs you."

Ezra followed Katherine to the medical bay and she started explaining everything while they ran.

"She went into labor not long after you left. As soon as I heard you returned I ran here."

"How long has it been?" Ezra asked.

"Long enough..."

They heard a loud scream just down the corridor and Ezra sped up, outrunning Katherine completely.

He ran into the room and saw a lot of doctors and medical droids. One of the medics saw Ezra approaching and talked to him.

"Lieutenant General?"

"How is she?" he asked.

A tired smile formed on the medics face. "She's doing very well, though she needs rest."

Ezra heard a very faint whimper from the other side of the room.

"Is that... Is that her?"

"If you mean the baby, yes it is. Congratulations, sir. Before you ask, yes you can see her. Both of them actually."

The medic led Ezra to a medical bed where a very tired Sabine was laying. She was holding something in her arms.

"Sabine!" Ezra exclaimed.

Sabine looked up and beamed at him. "Ezra..."

Ezra ran up to her and placed his hand on her cheek. She leaned into his hand and looked down at their new daughter.

"She looks like you, Bine," Ezra said.

"She's got your hair color," Sabine pointed out.

The newborn coughed and gurgled a bit.

"Hello ad'ika," Sabine cooed in a tired voice.

"Who knew a Jedi and a Mandalorian would have a child," Katherine said. She saw the whole thing and was smiling.

"Technically, Ezra is also a Mandalorian. Maybe not by blood, but blood is not what makes somebody a Mandalorian," Sabine said.

"What do you mean technically?" Katherine asked.

"I've never officially spoke the rites to become an official Mandalorian, but her clan have accepted me as their own," Ezra said. "It's kind of difficult to explain."

"Fair enough," Katherine said.

"You want to hold her?" Sabine asked her then.

"No no, I'm not good with children..." Katherine objected. "You two can keep her."

"I'm afraid she would need to rest. You may return later if you would like," a doctor said to Katherine. She then turned towards Sabine, "Have you two decided of a name yet?"

Ezra and Sabine smiled, "We had one a long time ago. Her name is Mira Wren Bridger."

"Sticking with the father's surname I see."

Sabine yawned a bit, her head falling into Ezra's hand, but her eyes remained on her newborn daughter. "She really is beautiful, isn't she?"

"Just like her mother," Ezra said, kissing Sabine on the top of her head.

Mira curled up against Sabine and seemed to fall asleep.

"I guess she's tired, too," Ezra said.

"We both are very tired," Sabine confirmed.

The two new parents continued to cuddle with their newborn child, even after visiting hours. Ezra wouldn't take no for an answer so the med staff gave up and allowed him to stay.

"They did what now?" Ezra asked in shock.

Sabine hadn't been cleared from the infirmary just yet so she wasn't in the command center.

"They wiped out the rest of Saw's people," Hera said.

"When we said you were lucky to survive yesterday, we were not kidding," Wedge said. "Even I wouldn't want to go head to head with those guys."

"Can they defeat a Jedi?"

"We're not sure. They're not Inquisitors, though it would be likely they have had some training on dealing with one," Hera said.

"Either way, they're dangerous, even for you and Kanan," Zeb said.

"What happened to Saw? Was he killed by Inferno Squad, too?" Ezra asked then.

Hera looked down, "No. Remember Jedha City?"

"Yeah, that was destroyed in some accident... no, that would have been the Imperials whitewashing the holos," Ezra said.

"He died before the battle at Scarif. Jedha City was destroyed by the Death Star, via what we believe as a single reactor ignition."

"So the planet is still there, just not really habitable anymore," Wedge said.

Ezra sat down in a chair, completely shocked.

"That's what I felt before Alderaan..." he said.

"The Death Star is gone. We don't have to worry about it anymore," Hera said.

Ezra nodded.

"That's enough bad news for now," Hera concluded. "Congratulations about your new daughter, Ezra."

That brightened Ezra's mood a bit, "Thanks... I might need some help with parenting actually."

Later that day, Ezra was visiting Sabine and Mira in the infirmary. Everything went so well they are scheduled to be released the next day. Sabine was watching Ezra slowly pace with Mira in his arms. He was singing some Lothal lullaby he learned while he was living on the streets; or more accurately that radio tower. That also reminded Sabine to tell Ezra something as well.

"We could have gone there," she said.

"Hm?"

"Lothal... We've liberated it, haven't we?" Sabine asked.

"Yeah. Ryder's been sending written reports every month about the planet's status. His team actually did it!"

"It's a shame we couldn't be there, though," Sabine said. "I know how badly you wanted to free them."

"I really didn't care who freed my people, as long as they're free again," Ezra said with a small smile. He held his index finger for Mira to hold onto, but her eyes haven't opened yet. "You know... she's never opened her eyes yet."

Sabine sighed, "I know. It's driving me crazy."

"Patience cyar'ika, just give Mira some time," Ezra chuckled.

"Easy for you to say," Sabine said. "You're the Jedi here, you're trained to be patient."

Ezra smiled, "That's true."

Mira's eyelids twitched and Ezra walked over to Sabine.

"I think she's trying to open her eyes," he whispered.

Sabine seemed to wake up as she and Ezra watched their daughter open her eyes for the first time.

Mira blinked a few times before fully opening her eyes and staring at Ezra and Sabine. She opened her eyes wide in wonder.

"By the Force..." Ezra muttered in disbelief, but not at all upset; not in a million years.

"She's got... two eye colors..." Sabine said.

Her right eye was blue like Ezra, and her left was brown like Sabine.

"That's incredible," Ezra said.

Mira was smiling happily and she squealed, reaching up to grab something.

"Aww..." Sabine purred. She reached out to take Mira's hand, her tiny fingers wrapping around Sabine's index finger. "I can't believe we did it."

"What have I been saying the past 8 months?" he joked. They were both tearing up, this was just a perfect moment for the two new parents.

"Just wait until she starts walking," Kanan said.

"How long have you been there?" Ezra asked, slightly startled.

"Just a few seconds ago," he replied. "I can sense she's stronger in the Force than most non-Force sensitive children."

"I guessed that months ago," Ezra said. "It's entirely possible she's sensitive."

"It's going to be difficult. I suggest we keep her hidden from the Empire," Kanan said.

Ezra and Sabine nodded, "I guess you're right. If they find out about her... Who knows what they'd do."

"It's getting late. You should get some rest, Sabine," Kanan said then.

Sabine looked up at Ezra, "You staying again or are you going to go to our room?"

"What if I wanted to stay here?" Ezra asked her.

Sabine stared at him, "I don't want you to be uncomfortable here. Just go, I'll be fine."

Ezra looked down at the small child in his arms, and she at him. Mira tilted her head to the side curiously as she reached up with her right hand and poked Ezra's scarred cheek. He smiled and poked her cheek in return, making her squirm a bit.

"Ezra..." Sabine said then. He carefully placed Mira into her arms and Mira squealed quietly when she saw her mother.

"I'm here, ad'ika," Sabine cooed. "Daddy has to go now. He'll be back tomorrow. As for us, we have to get to sleep."

Mira seemed to understand because right as Sabine stopped talking, she yawned and her eyelids drooped a bit. She rested her head on Sabine's chest, but didn't take her eyes off Ezra, though they were half closed now.

Ezra kissed the top of Mira's head softly, then kissed Sabine on the cheek. "Sleep well you two. I'll catch you first thing in the morning."

Sabine smiled and gently pulled Ezra in for another kiss. Afterwards he left the infirmary and went to his own room. A medic walked by to check on Sabine.

"How is everything, tonight? Are you comfortable?"

"Yes, thank you," Sabine replied.

The medic smiled, "It's amazing how well the baby is doing. There weren't any complications."

"We learned something new about her," Sabine said.

"Oh? What's that?"

"She has two different eye colors. Her right eye is blue, but her left is brown," Sabine said.

"That's incredible!" the medic said. "Half Jedi, half Mandalorian, plus two different eye colors. She really is a rare breed isn't she?"

Sabine laughed, "She really is."

"Ok, well I was just checking up on you. I'll let you get to sleep."

Sabine nodded as the medic left. She turned the lights down to 10% to keep the room dark, but not enough to frighten the newborn Mira.