Out of all the things that could have happened after Lothal, this was not what Ezra expected.

The Chimera broke apart in hyperspace, the purrgil's vice-like grip putting enough strain for pieces of the ship to fall off and out of hyperspace. By the time they finally crashed, at least according to Thrawn, the bridge had long since been evacuated, and the narrow support of lifts and private rooms had been destroyed, sending only the upper section to the planet below.

Ezra remembered almost none of it, just a feeling of exhaustion worse than anything he had ever felt before, and losing control over the remaining purrgil. He found out later that he had somehow shielded the remainder of the ship as they plummeted, and as it carved a long, black scar into the jungle below. Thrawn said Ezra collapsed almost immediately after the ship ground to a stop, although by then, 'ship' was a relative term.

When he woke up, allegedly hours later, Thrawn was sitting on the ground next to him, just staring out at the jungle through the shattered viewport. Neither were seriously injured, Ezra had his blaster graze, and Thrawn likely had broken ribs and maybe a broken ankle. Ezra couldn't be sure, he wouldn't let him check. He did, however, offer to bandage Ezra's graze, which he reluctantly accepted

They checked over the ship, in hopes of supplies or survivors, and found few of the former, and none of the latter. There were no bodies, however. Ezra thought it meant the evacuation had been successful, but Thrawn thought they had been sucked out into space.

The planet was mostly forest, and on it, they found next to nothing. No signs of civilization, current or past, no intelligent species, not even any major predators. Just fuzzy, Loth-cat sized lizards that gave Ezra a headache when he spent too long around them, and trees, for as far as they knew about.

Their relationship was awkward in the beginning, to say the least, but as the days dragged on, and the hope of rescue dwindled, they began to warm up to each other, although warm with Thrawn was a relative term. He was constantly poking around through the woods,as if he could make something other than lizards appear by effort alone. Ezra would come with him sometimes, and ask questions. Sometimes out of genuine curiosity, and sometimes just to bother him. It didn't seem like Thrawn could really tell the difference anyway.

Thrawn proved to be an excellent survivalist, and seemed to forget about the Rebellion almost instantly, both massive surprises for Ezra, and better than he could say about himself. If they had been stranded on a planet like Lothal, then he might have been useful, but for now, he had to rely on Thrawn's strangely extensive knowledge.

On day eighty-seven, not that he was counting, Ezra was sitting outside on a fallen tree, watching the early morning sky. He had slept terribly, it had rained all night, and the roof of the cabin he was sleeping in had chosen then to start leaking. So at first, when he saw the ship circling high above, barely more than a dot in the sky, he thought he might have been seeing things. Thrawn was in the wreck, rifling around through the more damaged areas for something or other, and barely in earshot, but as the ship drew closer, it didn't stop Ezra from yelling for him.

He didn't wait to see if Thrawn had heard him, he ran for the ship before it had even set down. Ezra reached the ramp just as it opened, revealing a group of four humans, likely smugglers, if their ship and blasters were anything to go off of. One of them, a man with long, dark hair with flecks of grey, and a beard to match, pointed at the swatch of destruction cut by the Chimera and asked, "That you?"

Ezra's gaze drifted to the wreck and back, "You could say that."

The man raised an eyebrow, "Well, it's visible from space. Anyone else make it out?"

"Yeah, one more, He's in the wreck somewhere. Do you have any idea what planet this is?"

The man hesitated, and turned back to his ship, "Hey, Ghent, where are we?"

One of the four stopped and looked, a young man with blue hair holding a datapad, "Uh, I don't know."

The other two set down the buckets they were moving, until a burly, blond man said, "It wasn't named on the star charts."

The leader turned back to Ezra as they continued, "I guess you get to name it."

Ezra was thinking of a comeback, when a distinctive presence brushed up against his senses, Thrawn's unique mind bordering on the edge of his own.

His hair had gotten long over the last three months, Ezra had offered to cut it with his lightsaber, which hadn't gone over well, and by now, was almost constantly in his face. Even now, with shaggy hair and wearing a tank top, he still carried the air of a Grand Admiral. The smuggler said, "I take it this is the other survivor?"

"Yep, this is Thrawn," he said, throwing his arm over his shoulder, which Thrawn reluctantly accepted, "and I'm Ezra."

"Talon Karrde, the blue-haired one is Ghent, the blond is Aves, and Chin is here somewhere."

Ezra nodded along, knowing damn well he wouldn't remember. Karrde continued, "We're here for some rare lizards, called ysalamir. Seen any?"

"How many do you want? They're everywhere."

"Great. Now, I'd bet you two need a ride, so if you're interested, you're welcome to get settled while my crew and I ysalamir hunt."

Thrawn beat him to answering, "Thank you for the offer, we will be but a moment."

Karrde seemed slightly taken aback, proof he was a real person, but recovered quickly enough that few would even notice, nodded, and set off to join his crew.

Thrawn was right, it took them almost no time at all to gather their things and load it onto Karrde's ship, and most of that time was walking back and forth. They didn't have much, some spare clothes, a vibroknife or two, some bacta patches, some uncharged blasters, Thrawn's extensive collection of stims, and a broken datapad he never let Ezra near.

As soon as they were inside, Ezra flopped down on the couch, beyond relieved to sit on something comfortable for a change. Thrawn did the same, albeit far more gracefully, although Ezra could tell he felt the same. He sat forward, leaning on his knees, and in his usual cool voice, said, "I do not trust these smugglers."

Ezra gestured to the wall, "Me neither, but are you seeing any better options?"

Thrawn's eyes narrowed, "Did I suggest refusing?"

"Pretty much," Ezra protested

He continued to glare.

"Alright, whatever. I'll have them drop us off at the nearest spaceport, you can go back to the Empire or wherever you're from, I'll hitch a ride back to Lothal, and it'll be over."

Thrawn was exceptionally difficult to read with the Force, even when they weren't near the lizards. His mind tended to be such a strange flurry of thoughts that even when Ezra could sense it, he couldn't understand it. However, through all the obstacles, he could sense Thrawn's disagreement loud and clear. Ezra stood, not wanting to hear any of Thrawn's upcoming lecture. He said, "I'm gonna go explore."

He spent most of the next hour doing just that, and not finding anything of interest. The ship wasn't much larger than the Ghost, and certainly wasn't as nice. He found a mostly empty cargo hold, save for some plastoid frames,which looked like they were for growing plants, and a few rooms that looked occupied, one that didn't, and a simple pilot's cabin.

Karrde, if that actually was his name, came back only a moment after Ezra had finished exploring, a whole bucket of the lizards in his arms, with his crew right behind him. Ezra watched them dip into the storage room, and only one came back out immediately, likely for more lizards.

Thrawn had already found somewhere to disappear to, something he had proven to be great at while stranded. Ezra followed Karrde into the cargo hold, where he was trying to get a lizard to latch onto one of the frames. Leaning in the doorway, he asked, "Want any help with that?"

Karrde briefly looked up, "Yeah, c'mere and help me stick this guy on here."

Ezra crouched beside him, and watched as he tried to convince it to hold on. Without looking up, Karrde said, "I'm not insane, I swear. The frames have a reason."

"I was starting to wonder." He paused to let him explain, and after a long moment, promoted, "Why?"

Karrde tapped the creature's hand, per lack of a better word, and when Ezra leaned in close, he saw four, thin, nearly transparent claws, sprouting from the end of each tiny digit. He said, "They suck nutrients from their native trees with these, so they need to attach to these replacement trees, or they won't last long. And you gotta be careful, the claws are pretty easy to break."

"Seems like a lot of trouble for a lizard."

"They're ysalamiri."

"Same difference."

Karrde paused, which Ezra thought meant he was thinking of a comeback, until he followed his gaze, and saw him staring at the lizard. Ezra focused on it, as it sank it's little claws into the plastoid frame. Karrde said, "The deal with these things is that they're supposed to repel the Force."

Ezra crossed his arms, "That's impossible."

Karrde shrugged, "It's the rumor at least, and really, I don't care if it's true or not. Lots of rich idiots will pay up for 'em."

Avers, if Ezra remembered right, returned with another entire bucket of the things. He set it down beside them and left again, as Ezra and Karrde both picked one up and gently pressed it to the frame. Karrde asked, almost too casually, "Where are you trying to get to?"

"Lothal."

Karrde nearly dropped his lizard. It was subtle, and he played it off like a twitch of his hand, but Ezra caught it anyway. Unable to keep the worry out of his voice, he asked, "Did something happen to it?"

"Yeah, they overthrew the local Imperials."

"Is that a bad thing?"

"For the residents? Probably not, but for my crew and I? Absolutely. As soon as you go there now, you've taken a side, and that's one thing I can't do."

"But, you can't just stay neutral, that's basically siding with the Empire. "

He scoffed, "Really? Watch me."

Avoiding his eyes, Ezra picked up another lizard. Karrde huffed, "Look, kid, I don't have the time to fight an unwinnable battle."

He looked up at Karrde, lips twisted into a scowl, "We won on Lothal."

"It's one backwater world. How do you think that'll last?" He sighed, dropping his hands as the lizard attached, "You were a Rebel, right?"

Ezra grumbled, "Good guess."

"That's all fine, but there's almost no way you're getting back to that planet. You couldn't pay me enough to do it."

He snapped, "Then I'll just find someone who will."

"You can't just hitch a ride there, even if you, by some miracle, can find someone who will take you, they won't do it for free, so unless you crashed with maybe twenty thousand credits, you're out of luck."

Ezra stood quickly, glaring, Karrde not backing down. He said, vaguely gesturing with a lizard, "If you really want, I'll drop you at the nearest spaceport, but you'll probably just get stranded again. And don't think you can steal a ship from these people, they aren't the Empire."

He turned on his heel and stomped off, knowing full well he was acting like a child, and angry. Angry about crashing, angry about Lothal, and most of all, angry that he knew Karrde was right. Few smugglers would pick up marooned strangers, so he couldn't be saying it out of spite. To come so close, only to find out that he might never make it back, seemed cruel, even for the Force.

Without thinking, his legs took him to the empty quarters he found while exploring. The automatic doors opened with a soft whoosh, and found the room to no longer be empty. The lights were off, but a faint, red glow confirmed what he expected. Thrawn was sitting cross-legged on the lower bunk, staring at the wall and tapping a rhythmic pattern on the bed. Ezra asked, "Can I turn the light on?"

"Yes."

He flicked the switch, and moved to lean against the wall, closer to the bunk. He said, "Karrde thinks I can't get to Lothal, says it's a no-go for everyone but rebels."

"It is wise to cordon off the planet."

"That's great," Ezra spat, "but now I can't get home."

Thrawn's eyes narrowed, his only obvious expression so far, "Neither can I."

Ezra, embarrassingly, realized he hadn't even considered that. He only knew Thrawn was from the unknown regions, and he shot down any attempt to learn more. He continued, "Travel through the Chaos to my homeworld requires a navigator, or at minimum, a navicomputer with an accurate enough map to travel jump-by-jump."

Given that Ezra had barely heard of either of those things, Thrawn didn't need to finish. Ezra said, "I guess we're both still stranded."

-Bonus

Maybe an hour or so later, he would have to get used to running off a chrono again, Ezra had built up the courage to talk to Karrde again. He pulled him aside from the common room, and they stepped into one of the secluded, side halls. Ezra began, "I'm sorry for snapping at you, it was just, not what I wanted to hear."

He waved the apology off, "No hard feelings, I wouldn't like it either."

He nodded, "I also wanted to accept your offer from earlier, to join your crew."

Karrde smiled, barely more than an upturn of the lip, "I was hoping you would say that. Your blue friend too?"

Thrawn had suggested it, "Yeah."

"You're welcome to keep the room. I think you two will fit in just fine." He stuck out his hand, which Ezra promptly accepted, "Welcome to the gang."