Hey everyone! Sorry for such a long wait. I know my updates have been really slow lately, but I have a feeling this chapter will be worth it. ;D I can't wait to see what you guys think! And may the force be with you, always!

Q/A's and Reactions:

SOSI M4G1C- Aw, thank you! That's so kind of you to say! :D

SWFangirl- Trust me, this chapter is worth it. *Chuckles evilly* Muahhahaahhahahh! XD

Guest- Of course, it's just I've got a lot of family related problems going on at the moment, and finding time to sit down and write is proving difficult. But I still hope the quality of these chapters make up for the lack of quantity. :D

GJAM- Totally! Just you wait and see! ;D

Alex Jarrus- Turquoise… awesome! Aqua is my favourite colour! So I totally admire your decision! ;D

Azulablue92- Wait until the end of this chapter. ;D

Paint the Fangirling Uniwolf (who is no longer connected to her sanity)- YES! That trailer was amazing! The one thing I always think is: "EZRA NO! YOU CAN'T GO TO THE DARKSIDE! NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" XD

Rebel Spectre 6- Sure! I'd love to! That's actually quite honouring for me to hear that. *Blushes* Thank you!

DevilSPR- *Thinks about the Legacy episode and Ezra's parents* WWWHHHHHYYYYYYYY!? D'X

Fantasie Adventura Dreamwriter- Yeah. Those two are the most adorable father/son duo! :D

Midnight Luna- *Rubs hands together* Don't worry. I have some great plans for the lost chapters, and this story's future. ;D

Jedi Jelsa777- Yeah, they're pretty cute aren't they? :D

Disneyandwildkrattfangirl- Wow dude! Those are great ideas! And I get your little hint. ;D If I find some time, I might write it into a oneshot. :D And sure dude! Go ahead. :D

Guest- True. And that will be adjusted in this chapter. ;D

Sakura245- I know right! That trailer had me on the edge of my seat the whole time! :D

Violetta Haven- Aw, thank you! I hope this chapter is worth the wait then! :D

Guest- Yes! That episode was amazing! One of my favourites! ;D

JML- I did, thank you for asking. :D I hope you enjoy this chapter!

ElsaSkywalker- Everyone will be begging for more by the end of this chapter. ;) Just you see…

Chapter 9: Touch

Kanan's POV

"Hey Ezra," I called, knocking on his door gently. "There's something I want to show you."

A few moments later, the door slid open and relieved a wide eyed, frazzled teen. His hair was all scruffy, and he swayed slightly, before shaking his head rapidly and glancing up at me. "S-Sorry," he stammered, cheeks glowing red.

I raised a brow inquisitively. "What happened to you?"

He chuckled sarcastically, glancing over his shoulder and yelling "Because someone thought it'd be fun to give me a noogie!"

"You deserved it kid," Zeb remarked from inside. "I told you not to touch my beard."

"Hey! I was curious!" Ezra defended, folding his arms in a huff.

I cracked a small smile, before gently guiding Ezra from under the frame and closing the door. The boy attempted to straighten out his mop of hair, until finally giving up and groaning in defeat when a few locks wouldn't go the right way. I smiled sympathetically, proceeding to comb my fingers through his hair before shifting it to the right position. "How's that?" I asked.

Ezra patted his head softly, even pulling a few strands from his fringe down into view. Finally, he replied with satisfaction "Much better. Thank you."

I went to pull my hand away when I suddenly hesitated. Taking a step closer, I craned my neck to see Ezra's wound in the hopes that it had healed over by now. But what I saw only sent a deep line of dread throughout my body. The scar was red, and slightly swollen. I frowned deeply. "Does it hurt Ezra?" I pried, treading my fingers gently over the inflamed skin.

"Only a little," he answered, reluctantly pulling away. "But it's fine... Now what did you want to show me?"

I stared at him suspiciously for a moment and mentally noted to check up on that later. But, shifting my attention back to the original subject, I waved him over as I headed from the cargo bay. Hera was waiting there, doing some routine checks on some crates when we descended. "Hello boys," she greeted with a smile.

"Hi Hera," Ezra replied joyfully as I went over and activated the ramp. The large steel door hissed and lowered to the brown, earthy ground. Ezra, who had just came up beside me, stared at this new feature cautiously. Ever since the accident, the teen had been restricted to the Rebel medbay and Ghost, so he had never actually experienced anything outside of metal hallways and synthetic light sources.

Slowly, Ezra proceeded down the ramp, his eyes wary and posture tense. I made no attempt to follow him at first. As long as he was in eye range, there shouldn't be any complications.

The boy finally made it to the bottom of the ramp, where a slight breeze threaded through his raven locks softly. He inhaled a deep, long breath, before releasing it and saying "This place smells different."

Eventually, I took my place by his side, just casually leaning against the pole as support. Ezra glanced around with mild curiosity at Lothal's grassy plains, his keen, electric eyes taking in every detail, every movement, every feature of this new location. "This… is Lothal, right?" he suddenly asked, though his gaze was not taken away from the scenery.

I nodded. "Yes."

He glanced down, and his eyes suddenly widened. I followed his stare as he bent on his knees, watching something intently in the dirt. He had not yet stepped onto the ground yet, and was still perched cautiously at the very edge of the ramp. Ezra reached down, scooped up a hand full of dirt and inspected it up close. His eyes beamed with pure glee as he smiled and patted the dirt back into its place.

Suddenly, Ezra shifted to a sitting position, and hastily pulled his boots and gloves off. I just watched him, my head tilted curiously as he pushed himself back onto his feet. He stepped forward, and his foot made contact with the soft dirt. Ezra grinned from ear to ear, a shudder running up his spine as he marvelled in the strange sensation. "It's not like the Ghost…" he murmured. "…This is hard… and soft…"

"It's dirt," I stated.

He smiled. "Yeah, I know. It just… feels great," he said sheepishly.

My brows furrowed. "So you remember all of this?"

"Well… yes and no," he replied. "I remember the sights, and the names, but the feeling… the touch, the smell, the taste… It's like I'm reliving it all over again."

He began to walk forward, leaving his boots and gloves back on the ramp as he further explored the land. But when he saw the grass swaying gently at the edge of the clearing, he gasped and suddenly bolted forward with a mighty leap. I chased after him, worried something was wrong, but only to find him rolling around in the grass, laughing his head off like a lunatic. He sat up, grasping handfuls of the yellow, tall blades and rubbing it against his cheek. "The grass! It feels amazing!" he exclaimed.

Though I wouldn't call Lothal's dry and course grass the best thing I had ever seen, I still wasn't about to pull Ezra from this precious moment.

Whatever memories he could retrieve were better than no memories at all. Or at least… that's what Hera said. Personally, I'd prefer if the already disoriented teen wasn't matched with another traumatic memory from his past, but Hera said it was bound to happen at some point.

So sighing, I took a moment to appreciate Ezra's bright and energetic attitude. Right now, he had pushed himself back onto his feet and was now prancing around the grass with pure awe and delight. He would stop and occasionally watch something, like an insect or a bird swooping by before it disappeared into the forest beside us. He climbed to the top of a small slope, just glancing around at our location with wide, ecstatic eyes.

Hera had chosen wisely at where to hunker down for a while, because we had both agreed that landing near a civilised area would be a dangerous, almost suicide move. The Empire was still crawling through the streets of Capital City, and citizens were well aware of our previous doings, as well as the massive price tag on our heads.

So, Hera had found a quiet place, with lots of dense vegetation to cover for the Ghost. The place was peaceful, and would hopefully be a way for Ezra to resurface memories without having to go through a nightmare to see them anymore.

He seemed happy enough. In fact, I hadn't seen him like this for… well… ever. Before his amnesia, he had just been snarky, quick witted, smart and agile. After his amnesia, he had been acting like a frightened child with a side of curiosity. So this was a different sight completely.

We had been on Lothal for a few days now, allowing Ezra some more time to settle into the Ghost before introducing him to a bigger world. And he had obviously snapped out of a small phase. Of course, I still ordered him to sleep in my cabin at night, so that if there were any nightmares I'd literally be one bunk away, but he was definitely improving. He seemed to absorb information like a sponge, and his curious nature was slowly outweighing his fear now. He was completely confident within the Ghost's interior and his previous fearful nature was beginning to fade. But, he'd still seem to go vacant when talking about anything before his amnesia. Whenever one of the crew mentioned something he used to like, or something he used to do, the boy would visibly flinch, his skin going pale. Though I still couldn't figure out why.

But, improvement was improvement. And any kind was a wave of relief for me.

I turned around as Hera descended down the ramp, glancing at me with a small smile. "Where's Ezra?" she called.

"Just up that hill," I replied, gesturing to behind me.

She tilted her head, confused, and shoot me a puzzled look. "Are you sure about that?" she remarked.

My eyes widened, and I twisted on my heel to see that Ezra was no longer a top the hill. In fact, he wasn't in view at all. Without hesitation, I sprinted up the slope and reached out to Ezra subconsciously through the force. But he didn't seem to be in any pain or state of fear, from what I could sense. As I scrambled to the lip of the hill, I quickly scanned the surrounding area and saw the boy huddled a little bit away, down past the slope. He was bending next to a river that wound in and out of the nearby forest, the water crystal clear.

I sighed in relief, before sliding down the loose dirt and slowly making my way towards the teen. When I finally stood beside him, he didn't tear his gaze away from his reflection, his expression focused and unreadable. I lowered myself to sit next to him on the damp soil, just watching him as an eerie silence descended upon us. He gently tapped the surface of the water with his finger, sending a ripple and shudder through the image. "I don't recognise him," he mumbled.

I perked up, asking "Excuse me?"

"I mean, I know it's me… but it still doesn't feel like it," he muttered, heavily slumping down onto his rump and folding his legs, his hands resting between them lazily.

I sighed, gently sliding my arm around his shoulder and assuring "It's all going to work out. I'm sure of it."

He glanced up at me, his blue gaze unusually stagnant and stern. "I'm not," he said with an uncertain tone, shifting his gaze back to the water.

I inhaled sharply and pressed my lips into a thin line. There was no reply. Just a deadly silence as I retracted my arm from his shoulder. We just sat there for what felt like centuries, doing nothing in particular, when Ezra suddenly perked up, his attention caught by something across the river. I followed his gaze, but saw nothing besides the gently sway of forest leaves and shifting of grass. But Ezra's gaze was fierce, like a predator with prey, and his whole body seemed to tense. "Ezra," I started. "What is-"

And suddenly, he was off. As quick as a bullet, as swift as an arrow, he was over the river in one massive leap, stumbling at first, before catching himself and bolting into the thick undergrowth. "Ezra!" I called, jumping to my feet and bolting after him.

It had all happened so quick that he had a pretty good head start, and when I made it to the other side I actually had no clue which direction he'd run off to. "Ezra! Ezra!" I called desperately, my voice absorbed by the dense trees and soft breeze. But there was no reply. Not the slightest sound. The concern was creeping in, the protective fear rising in my chest. And that's when I began to panic.

"EZRA!"

Ezra's POV

I knew I had seen it. I just knew.

Up ahead, there light bounced off the glinting object once again as it gliding gracefully between trees and bushes.

But I was in hot pursuit. For some reason, I really wanted to know what it was. My heart beat was fast, my strides faster as the pumping blood in my ears drowned out the distant calling of my name. The scenery seemed to be rushing past me as I sprinted across the soft ground, so fast and light it felt like I was being propelled by the wind itself.

Until suddenly, my rhythmic running ended abruptly as my foot snagged on a root. I tumbled face first into the dirt and did a few spins, before crashing past a line of hedges and into a small clearing. It wasn't that big, and there was a few trees to the sides with the sun beaming down from above. Greenery surrounded all edges, but my gaze was focused on one thing. The floating, metal disk thing that stared at me with multiple red eyes. Long arms were placed at its sides, some with sharp instruments, others with clamp like hands. Little lights flashed on its head, and it seemed to speak in a robotic language I couldn't understand.

I pushed myself up onto my feet, but the moment I did, the strange object let out a loud, distressing alarm, causing me to stumble back into the closest tree. It raised one of its metal arms, followed by two loud bangs. It took me a long moment to realise what'd happened. Firstly, I had just felt the impact as my shoulder jerked backwards with incredible force. Glancing down at my arm, I saw a reasonable sized crater in my shoulder. I just stared at it for a long moment as red liquid began staining my shirt, oozing from the puncture in my flesh quite rapidly. I remember reaching up and touching my blood with curiosity, finding it both smooth, yet sticky.

And then the pain came.

A fiery, hot feeling shot up through my limb, and I released an agonising scream. It felt as if my entire arm was being torn from the socket. I collapsed onto my knees as my legs buckled, clutching onto the wound with excruciating pain.

There was a snap from above, and I glanced up just in time to see a large branch fall right on top of me.

Then everything went black, and cold…