Summary: Thrawn has a vision for the future which nothing and no one will get in the way of; not himself and not Jedi Knight Ezra Bridger. But first he has to get home.

Notes: Thanks so much for your patience waiting for this next chapter. Real life has been kicking my arse. Still, onwards and upwards.

Between the Stars

The ISD-Chimaera's massive sublight engines rumbled low and steady as the ship idled in space. Grand Admiral Thrawn contemplated the awe-inspiring sight that hung outside the forward viewport as he let the familiar voices of Commodore Faro and Senior Science Officer Ash'vla move over him.

Outside the viewport, the magnetoscreens filtered out the extraordinary amounts of radiation currently bombarding the Chimaera's shields, only slightly detracting from the beauty of the view, hung a binary system of neutron stars. Twin fiery balls of pure, extremely dense energy, both of them red and black and gold, with rays of white light bursting out into space like sunbeams. Around the neutron stars swirled a mass of debris and dust, held in place by the combined gravitational pull of the twin bodies, and between them, where their mass intersected was a swirling, wreathing storm of particles – what astrophysics called a stellar wind – filled with immense energy.

At steady intervals a pulse of purse, brilliantly-bright energy, which appeared to be mostly made up of gamma radiation, burst forth from the twin neutron stars in an ever-expanding circle like ripples on still water.

It had taken several weeks to discover a star system out at the edges of charted space that met the specific requirements Thrawn was looking for. These neutron stars were the closest in mass to one another that the trio of star destroyers, with their advanced astronavigational computers and elite science officers had been able to find, and Thrawn was well please with their result.

The twins were so close to one another in mass as to be nearly indistinguishable. Good.

"Have you measured the time elapsing between gamma-ray flares?" Thrawn asked, interrupting Faro's interrogation of Ash'vla's security procedures for the upcoming test, no doubt to the later woman's relief.

"The pulsar is every 12.08 seconds," she said immediately, without the need to consult her datapad.

"And the radius of the magnetic field?"

These particular neutron stars had a powerful magnetic field and were known as magnetars. The magnetic field of such bodies, magnified by their binary orbit and overlapping gravity and mass fields, were the strongest of any known object; strong enough, in fact, to distort the very shape of atoms.

In fact, Thrawn was counting on it.

"And are you sure your calculations are accurate, Senior Science Officer Ash'vla?" Commodore Faro demanded with asperity, dark eyes boring into her subordinate with all the skepticism and suspicion of a seasoned naval officer towards a pencil-pushing academic.

"As well as can be verified, ma'am," Ash'vla said, straightening up even further but evincing no apparent annoyance or injured pride at Faro's question.

Faro frowned at this answer and Ash'vla winced and hastened to clarify at the Commodore's impatient handwave.

"Given the parameters requested by the Admiral," here she shot a quick, slightly nervous look towards Thrawn, "the lack of substantial testing in this area, and our limited timeframe, I am reasonably certain the amount of gravity and radiation in a single discharge won't just ear the ship apart."

There was a slight pause as both Faro and Thrawn digested this analysis.

"Wonderful," Faro said dryly.

"I am confident everything will work out in a satisfactory manner," Thrawn assured her. "Now, Officer Ash'vla, return to your work station and begin preparations."

"Yes, sir." Ash'vla saluted and departed.

Faro nodded to him and returned to her task of overseeing final arrangements for the Chimaera's jump into the theoretical.

Thrawn returned his gaze to the viewport, calculating possible outcomes. He had spent years discreetly accumulating research regarding possible astronavigational straight-ways, or slipstreams as his people had named the theoretical possibility; first because he had had no desire for the ISB and subsequently the Emperor to become aware of his interest, and second, because the data, although numerous, was inconclusive and very raw. Furthermore, his own basic training in Chiss astronavigation was extremely different from the ways Republic – and later Imperial – scientists worked and even described the universe.

The bulkhead doors to the Chimaera's bridge hissed open and out of the corner of his eye Thrawn saw the Jedi enter, the small figure of the girl, Evlyn, following close on his heels.

Thrawn did not turn to acknowledge the boy Jedi until he came up beside the Grand Admiral.

"What's going on?" the former Rebel asked.

At least he had the decency to keep his voice down. The crew was uneasy enough without the true purpose of their experimentation being revealed. Undoubtedly filed as deserters to the Empire by now, stuck somewhere out in uncharted space, deep within the Unknown Regions, and recently having taken on both survivors from the former Republic and, worse, a Jedi who was allowed to wander the ship at will, Thrawn was well-aware that every man and woman aboard the Chimaera was undoubtedly feeling a little…at sea.

For now, the full contingent of three imperial star destroyers, the pride of the Seventh Fleet, operated under the firm command of their captains and appeared to trust that Thrawn would get them back to Imperial space and home. He wondered with a detached sort of interest what their reactions would be when they were informed that the Grand Admiral had no intention of ever returning to the Empire.

He would need something to motivate them in their new mission.

Thrawn, hands clasped behind his back, continued to contemplate the twin neutron stars as he answered Bridger's question. "Travel through the Unknown Regions is extremely difficult due to its largely uncharted nature. However, it also presents certain other…difficulties." He turned to find the Jedi intent on his words, the girl several paces away standing quite still and staring at him with huge blue eyes.

He turned away from her again, continuing with his explanation. "There are more black holes, exploding star clusters, supernovas, rapidly expanding maws and distortions from dark matter here in the Unknown Regions than have been observed in the rest of the galaxy combined."

This didn't appear to get quite the reaction that he was hoping. He frowned in thought.

"Have you ever made the Kessel Run, Commander Bridger?" Commodore Faro asked, from her place next to the station for the aft sensor array.

Bridger shook his head, but his eyes widened. "No, but I've heard stories from…people who have."

Faro's face was grim. "Well the fate that befell those pilots who failed to stay on those charted courses will be what happens to us if we remain out here much longer."

"Kanan said that the Unknown Regions was the most astronomically active place in the galaxy." Bridger unconsciously fingered the lightsaber at his waist. "And that means unstable forces."

Thrawn inclined his head. "One of the difficulties," he continued, beginning to pace slowly up and down the length of the bridge, "is our lack of ability to simply navigate into the Chiss Ascendency's Redoubt without the assistance of -s" here he shot an ambiguous look at Bridger, " – a sky walker. And, despite your stunt in bringing us to this place, we have none aboard."

He may have trusted Lord Vader to possess the abilities of a fully-trained sky walker but then he had fought beside Anakin Skywalker and seen what the man had been capable of. He did not possess the same level of faith in Ezra Bridger, whose own master had been a mere Padawan when the Order fell. Kanan Jarrus and Ezra Bridger may have called themselves Jedi Knights. They may have possessed some skill with a lightsaber. But Thrawn could not see how they could have received the training Anakin Skywalker had, with the Order fallen and no one left to teach them.

From his own knowledge of Rebel movements, they had not spent enough time in either Ahsoka Tano's, or the elusive Obi-Wan Kenobi's, to rectify this.

He would not trust three entire star destroyers, and all their crew, to the dubious abilities of a partially-trained Jedi.

"This experiment is meant to rectify that."

Thrawn became aware that Commodore Faro had come up beside Bridger and that her lips had thinned to all but non-existence. She was resolutely staring straight ahead of her with a rather strained look upon her face. And the Jedi's blue eyes were amused.

He looked over his shoulder.

There was a shadow behind him, a small shadow and one that mimicked his every move. Evlyn, the Force-sensitive human girl they'd rescued from Outbound Flight, was slowly, and very deliberately, striding up and down the bridge in his wake, hands clasped behind her back and copying Thrawn's every tilt of the head, every inch of military posture and every pause exactly.

She noticed he had stopped and was staring at her. Thrawn raised an eyebrow and she sent him back the largest smile he had ever seen, her young face entirely innocent.

Someone in the crew pit smothered a laugh.

"Commander Bridger," he said quietly.

Bridger's eyes were still suspiciously bright. "Come here, Evlyn," he called and the girl obligingly scampered past Thrawn and took Bridger's outstretched hand.

"Admiral!" A voice called, and Thrawn, Bridger and Faro turned to see Chief Science Officer Declan powering towards them, his ungainly stride meaning that he constantly looked on the verge of over toppling. He held out a datapad towards Thrawn. "We've made our final calculations," he said excitedly.

Thrawn put a hand to his chin as he glanced over Science Officer Declan's shoulder at the fluctuation graphs. They flickered and update every .04 seconds, providing new information across his screen almost faster than he could process it.

Evlyn put a hand on her chin as well and frowned.

"Engineering?" he called, and Bridger reached out a quick hand to cover Evlyn's mouth before she could say the same thing, her tiny, childish voice an echo of the Admiral's own.

Commodore Faro turned quickly away from them and stared fixedly out the forward viewports, lips twitching.

"Holding stable, Admiral," came the Wild Space accent of Chief Engineering Officer Mackintosh, the roar of the sublight engines almost overpowering her voice. "Fuel reserves at maximum, secondary s-coils in place, tertiary coils on standby, the temporary patch on the alluvial dampeners is holding and the ion array is recognizing the cyclotron resonance 97.3% of the time."

"Very good," Thrawn said. "Time between vortex discharge?" he inquired.

"Three minutes, thirty-three seconds," someone called.

Commander Bridger's eyes still held amusement. Thrawn looked down and found Evlyn once more keeping pace with him, hands clasped behind a rigid back, stalking back and forth with a terrific scowl on her face. He did not look like that.

Thrawn could see the carefully controlled mirth on the crew members' faces, Commodore Faro's extremely neutral expression and looked back at the Jedi to find the boy watching him quietly.

He sighed and looked down at the child. She stared back with bright, awed eyes, and no sign of mockery on her face.

Still amazed by his blue skin then. He wondered what she would think when she met other Chiss in the Ascendency. She would think him special no longer.

"Little one," he said, as gentle as he knew how. "A ship's bridge is no place for a child. Please hold Commander Bridger's hand and he'll escort you back to your friends and family." He turned and then froze when he felt a small hand slip into his. He looked down and Evlyn smiled up at him, big eyes wide and hopeful. It was almost as if she was attempting to reassure him.

For a moment this human child looked so much like…

The orderly lines of his mind – the careful, painstaking work of many years – when jagged for a moment. Pain, regret, loss cut through him in a moment so visceral it felt like a physical wound.

Evly gasped, her eyes filling with tears, and Thrawn jerked his hand back from hers. Force sensitive, he reminded himself, and felt as swell of anger he tried to will away. His thoughts and feelings were his alone, not the purview of everyone in a 10-kilometer radius, Jedi or no.

"Come, Evie," Bridger said gently, drawing the child away. "I think it might be time for you to rejoin the others."

The girl went without protest.

Thrawn could feel Bridger's damnable eyes on him. His mind settled back into its usual patterns and channels. "That would be best, Commander Bridger," he said evenly, his voice as in control as always.

The girl murmured that she could find her own way, but she turned back to look at Thrawn as she passed through the bulkhead doors. Her eyes were too old for such a young face. And he had seen those eyes before.

He turned away. "Helm, bring us about 45 degrees to starboard." The nebula areola around the two class-B neutron stars flared purple and blue and gold across the forward viewports. Beautiful. But deadly. As so many beautiful things were.

As the ship moved into position, Captain Pellaeon from the ISD-Krayt hailed them. "I wish you luck, Admiral Thrawn, but I would like to express my reservations over this venture one last time," the brisk voice said over the comm system.

"Duly noted, Captain." Thrawn had always encouraged his officers to speak their minds. This was one way in which he differed from Lord Vader and most of the Imperial High Command.

"We have emergency teams on standby."

"Thank you, Captain."

Pellaeon signed off in a way that let the entire Chimaera's bridge know of his disapproval.

This would work. His calculates were correct. He remembered his last trip into the Redoubt and towards the edge of Ascendency-controlled space. Anakin Skywalker had been with him and the Chimaera then.

"Almost in position," Faro said. "Cut the sublight drives. Auxiliary power only."

No, not Anakin Skywalker. Lord Vader. The man had been adamant on the distinction for all that Thrawn sometimes saw little difference between the two – and less and less as their journey went on. They had fallen back into their old patterns so easily…

The ship gave a sudden lurch, crew members jerked off their feet and crying out in sudden alarm as a dozen sirens went off at once. Thrawn staggered, trying to catch his balance and would have fallen if the Jedi hadn't put a hand out to grab his elbow, steadying him. He nodded at the boy, sparing a brief thought for Evlyn and hoping she was firm on her feet as well.

He opened his mouth, ready to request a status report, mind already shifting through the likely variables for their failure when a strange humming sound filtered through his awareness – a sound both like and unlike the normal sublight engines of a starship idling in space.

He frowned, glancing out the side viewports.

Crew members began glancing as well and then moving over to their nearest windows, abandoning stations as they noticed the particles of light which danced around the Chimaera, encasing her. As though a prism had been struck with the sunbeam from a yellow star, bands of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet stretched aft and astern of the Chimaera for as far as the naked eye could see, with the Imperial star destroyer directly in the center of it.

"No," Bridger said quietly, directing Thrawn's attention back to him. "We're not exactly…right." He was concentrating, eyes closed and one hand outstretched as he reached out to his mysterious Force for…what?

Thrawn did not know. He shook his head. "Helm," he called, and the woman snapped to attention. "Calculate our position relative to the bands of visible light."

Thrawn could see in more spectrums than humans of course, his vision stretching into the infrared. But he could not see into the ultraviolet. He suspected, however, that for the purposes of this experiment, only the normal visible spectrum mattered. If he was wrong, he would reassess, but the most obvious solution was usually the correct one in his experience.

"If theoretically the band stretched north-south," the helm called back, fingers tapping rapidly over the keys as she input numbers, "we're pointed 2.863 degrees north, north-east of relative north."

And a straight line is the quickest route between two points, Thrawn heard a voice from his past echo once more. Perhaps it was because he was going home.

"Course correction, please," he said, activating the comm system. "All hands, brace for acceleration."

He did not look at Bridger. The Jedi could have told him to angle the ship slightly up and to the right, but Thrawn preferred exactitude and he did not especially enjoy relying on Force-users, his long association with Anakin Skywalker the sole exception.

Such reliance was what had led the Chiss Ascendency into the quagmire in which they now found themselves. Such reliance was why he now risked his ship and his crew in untested ventures into the realm of astrophysics and astronavigation.

The alarms still barred, the helm called out excitedly and Commodore Faro's voice called one final command down to engineering as the stars elongated to white comet trails around them –

– and the Chimaera jumped to hyperspace.

"So, what have we learned," Captain Pellaeon summarised later, stroking his mustache, after the shock and alarm of the Chimaera's sudden jump to lightspeed – and even more sudden re-appearance amongst the fleet some hours later – had abated.

Commodore Faro snorted. "That I'm going to get a heart attack before I'm forty," she said, eliciting some small chuckles around the room.

Ezra waited for Thrawn's anger at such levity. His experience with Imperial officers was that they didn't take kindly to any sort of jibbing from their underlings.

Thrawn, however, merely smiled politely and waited for the Chief Science Officer's report.

'Promising,' was the overall consensus. 'Needed a lot of refinement,' was a close second. 'Could end up with us torn apart, with our atoms unable to be reconstituted on the other side of the…slipstream,' was the underlying opinion of every military officer present, although voiced on this occasion by the incorrigible Commodore Faro.

Chief Science Officer Declan straightened up as though personally offended and Thrawn's smile was complicated as he said, "Assuredly not, Commodore."

Which, Ezra supposed, could be taken several different ways; one of which was that they were all going to die much sooner than expected doing whatever mysterious thing Thrawn was currently up to.

Ezra had tried everything he could think of over the past few days to get the Admiral to open up to him about the Far Outsiders, the threat that was coming from Beyond, and how the Admiral was planning on beating them, but to no avail. Thrawn was notoriously close-mouthed about anything involving a personal nature and Kanan's suspicions of the former Imperial's goals notwithstanding, Ezra didn't have a lot to go on.

The Force sang strangely in this part of the galaxy, he was now responsible for a group of Force sensitive children and hostile former Republic citizens who were resolutely anti-Jedi, he was alone, and he was surrounded by Imperials; so he was not in the best mood.

Patience, the memory of Kanan whispered to him, but it was hard to have patience when he was constantly on edge and feeling like he was rapidly running out of time.

He tried to think of what Ahsoka would do, letting Officer Declan's report of their current findings was over him; she was a spy, wasn't she? She was used to getting information from people. Would she demand answers? Sneak into Thrawn's office and look through his things? Ezra sighed internally. He simple didn't know. He hadn't seen enough of Ahsoka as Fulcrum to say. Hera would know, perhaps, but neither Hera or Ahsoka was with him now.

He wondered what they were up to, how Hera was coping without Kanan, and where Ahsoka had gone. She would have had to lay low from the Rebellion after Malachor, because Ezra had though her dead – had pulled her out of the past in the Temple on Lothal.

Ahsoka was too smart to mess with the nature of causality. She would have gotten off Malachor and disappeared until after Ezra vanished into the Unknown Regions. But how and where?

He thought of Master Obi-Wan again, sitting beside him in the middle of the Tatooine desert, night fallen and Darth Maul hunting him.

The truth is often what me make of it.

Had Ahsoka stayed with Master Kenobi that entire year?

He could picture them both, meditating together. He wondered if they had sparred. Now that was something he would have liked to see; a match between two of the best Jedi the Order had ever produced.

He hoped Ahsoka had been on Tatooine, for both her and Obi-Wan's sakes. Ahsoka had adored Master Kenobi even more than Kanan had and Ezra couldn't count the number of times he'd caught his Master watching Obi-Wan's last message to the survivors of the Purge.

Kanan had once told him that before Master Billaba took him as her Padawan, he had studied under Obi-Wan Kenobi for a while, and Ezra had no trouble believing it.

He thought of Obi-Wan's words again, about truth and our perception of it. He wondered if Thrawn's truth was in fact true or merely the Grand Admiral's perception of it, perhaps warped by time and loss and service under Palpatine.

He had a sinking feeling that he wasn't going to find out what Thrawn was truly up to until the man told him. If he told him – for he doubted even the Emperor had been able to discover the Chiss' true motives.

Thrawn would not have lasted long if he had. Palpatine didn't seem like the sort of tyrant who allowed underlings to have hidden agendas of their own.

He was shaken from his rather unproductive thoughts by the Grand Admiral saying, "Thank you for your presence at this meeting and now I need to confer with my Captains."

Pellaeon, Derros and Faro exchanged looks but the rest of the gathering got to their feet with a scraping of chairs and filed out the door.

At the last moment Ezra turned back to find Thrawn's glowing red eyes fixed on him with an unreadable expression.

He felt a prickle of unease as the door hissed shut between them.

The Imperial Grand Admiral and his officers discussed their defection from the Empire. They all knew they couldn't go back. Their failure on Lothal, their subsequent kidnapping by a rebel Jedi, a kid, precluded it. The High Command would – at best – demote them to head a survey station at the edge of Wild Space and at worst publicly execute them for being in league with a Jedi.

"Are we in agreement then?" Thrawn asked.

And only Pellaeon urged a different course.

Thrawn returned to his quarters and sat down heavily in his chair, hands steepled before him as his gaze went unfocused and he pondered the various possibilities before him.

Several paths lay before him at this moment, with only one more guaranteed than the others to produce a result favorable to his desired outcome. But it presented difficulties, some more personal than others, and Thrawn was unsure as to the wisdom of assigning importance to these difficulties. Or not.

There had been several times in the days past that he'd missed Rukh, his long-time bodyguard, and none more so than today. The Noghri had a way of cutting through the intellectual thicket Thrawn occasionally found himself in and getting to the heart of the matter.

Rukh had been assigned to protect the Grand Admiral by Lord Vader himself, who had won the allegiance of the Noghri of Honoghr in a way that Thrawn was still unclear about.

He grimaced, hands slowly massaging his temples. Anakin Skywalker yet again. He had not thought of the man so frequently since the last time they'd worked together, several months ago now, during which Lord Vader made it clear that Anakin Skywalker was dead, but he suspected his constant association with Jedi as of late was bringing the man more and more into his thoughts.

The sky was dark with a smattering of stars sprinkled upon it, like diamonds in the ruff. That had been a saying of these people which Thrawn had learned today.

Around him the tall grasses which hid he and his companion, rustled in a slight, southern breeze. Strange birds called from the trees and small animals rustled in the underbrush. Thrawn did not think there was any fauna on this world which would attempt to eat them this evening, and tried to relax.

From a distance came the sounds of merriment and the backwash of sublight engines heading up towards space. Black Spire Outpost on Batuu had a surprisingly active night life for a minor outpost at the very edge of the Republic's Outer Rim Territories.

Thrawn and Jedi General Anakin Skywalker were attempting to catch some rest before heading back to the location where the woman, Duja's, ship had been located. For some reason, the Jedi wanted to see it but Thrawn had convinced him that a journey through an unknown forest was best kept to light of day.

Now the small astromech droid which seemed to follow Skywalker everywhere was powered down beside them, and Thrawn lay comfortably on his back, but Skywalker himself was still seated, his head just visible above the grasses, arms folded across drawn-up legs as he watched the Outpost in the distance.

"What do you look for?" Thrawn asked him. There were no threats that he could see.

The Jedi started in surprise before looking down at him. There was…a smile on his face. It was the first Thrawn had seen, for the man had been frantic and on edge since the beginning of their association, concerned for the well-being of his…Padmé. The Republic Senator.

Skywalker looked around him at the darkened landscape, the sea of grasses, the towering petrified trees behind them, and the strange, chaotic, vibrant Outpost before them. "I was just thinking of what my master, Obi-Wan, would say about this place." There was a smile in his voice as well, fondness and amusement and something else there – wistfulness perhaps – that leant a thousand extra meanings to his words which Thrawn could not understand yet. Skywalker leaned back to stare up at the petrified forest at their backs, the trees a landmark for hundreds of leagues around. "He would be fascinated by everything."

The grin spread across his face. "He would probably say something pretentious like, 'See Anakin, how life springs up unexpectedly in the most surprising of places.'" His voice had taken on a posh, Republic Core accent, and Thrawn understood him to be mimicking the tones of this 'Obi-Wan.'

"Your Master?" That surprised Thrawn. He had been sure slavery was outlawed in the Republic.

"Jedi Master," Skywalker explained. "A Master of the Jedi arts. He is my teacher, my mentor. He was." He frowned a bit, but only in thought, not annoyance. "He still is," he admitted. "Obi-Wan is one of the wisest people I know."

His shoulders drooped a little. "I wish he was here right now," he admitted. "He always knows what to do."

His fears for Senator Padmé fell upon him again like a dark cloud and Thrawn knew that such fears would only muddle the Jedi General's judgment. He sought for a distraction and found it easily. "This 'Obi-Wan'," he said, his voice stumbling a bit over the unusual name. "What is he like? You fight with him in this 'Clone War'?"

The boy visibly brightened again. "Oh yes," he said quickly. "We're a team. We've gotten into the most ridiculous scrapes. You wouldn't even believe it. Once there was this time that Ventress tricked us into infiltrating this unused droid factory on Fiorn, and Obi-Wan and I got trapped in a rancor pit, as usual…"

And just like that he was off.

Thrawn learned more of Republic military strategy from listening to General Skywalker's account of his and his master's misadventures than he would have from a thousand Republic briefings and reports. He also gained a healthy respect for the talents of Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi. The man had a gift for long-term strategy.

When Skywalker was done though, Thrawn had one question. "You did not seek revenge against this Ventress for what she had done to you? Done to your Master?"

Skywalker's eyes flashed and he shifted uncomfortably in his spot among the grasses. "Revenge is not the Jedi way," he offered, but the anger in his voice made it clear that he wished to have exacted revenge against Ventress, perhaps only entirely for Obi-Wan's sake. There was an odd mix of worship, respect and…possessiveness in the boy's voice when he spoke of the older man.

"Forgive me, General Skywalker," Thrawn murmured. "I am not a Jedi, and your ways seem most unusual to me."

Skywalker's smile was complicated. "Sometimes they are strange to me too," he admitted, surprising Thrawn greatly. After a moment, the General added, "Restrictive."

Thrawn knew he was thinking of his Senator Padmé again by the way his metal hand curled into a fist. Fear for her safety was taking hold of him once more. The astromech droid beeped softly.

"So why stay?" Thrawn asked, genuinely curious but also seeking to distract the Jedi from his thoughts. From all he had read and heard, Jedi warriors had to have the deepest commitment to their Order and way of life. Yet anyone with eyes to see could tell that Anakin Skywalker had an attachment to this Republic Senator – one which had caused him to go AWOL from his duties to his Order and the Republic in order to find her.

If it wasn't duty which held Anakin Skywalker to the Jedi, then what was it?

His question seemed to have done the trick for the other man relaxed again, studying Thrawn intently in turn with bright, blue eyes. "I am a Jedi," he said simply.

Thrawn wondered if he truly believed that or if the words had become mere routine. War had a way of making even the strongest commitments fray.

Skywalker shifted again in his spot among the grasses, restless or as though small insects ran over him. "Besides," the Jedi admitted, "I could never leave Obi-Wan."

"Your Master?"

"My friend," Skywalker said firmly. The slow smile that spread across his face this time was rueful, fond and resigned all at once – as complicated as everything else about the Jedi was. Thrawn, whose people were stoic and imperturbable by nature, found the emotions chasing across the boy's face as fascinating as they were overwhelming. "And he'd never last long without me. He gets into too much trouble on his own."

The astromech droid made a rude noise to express its thoughts on this statement and Skywalker burst out laughing. "Well he does!" he protested. "No one else sees it. They think he's respectable High General and Master Kenobi – and he is – but Obi-Wan's just as reckless as me. He has no care for his own safety at all. He needs me to look after him!"

Thrawn couldn't help his own small smile. The young General sounded earnest and the strength of bond he obviously felt for this other Jedi, this Obi-Wan Kenobi, was strangely humbling. He wondered what the Jedi would say about Thrawn's own mentor, Admiral Ar'alani of the Chiss Defense Force, and knew they would probably never meet.

"I have no doubt that the two of you make a formidable team," Thrawn said, instead, and Skywalker's smile turned proud.

"Oh we do," he assured the Chiss, a threat and a promise both.

"I shall be sure not to get in your way," Thrawn murmured, watching the other man turn restless again. "Will you sleep tonight?"

Skywalker grimaced. "Can't," he admitted. "Obi-Wan would say that I'm unbalanced, and he'd probably be right." He sighed. "I suppose I'd better go meditate." He shuffled up and resettled himself some little distance from the Chiss, folding long legs under himself and resting hands on knees. Thrawn could see him take deep, even breaths as his eyes closed.

"Don't worry," Skywalker said, without even looking at Thrawn. "I'll keep watch."

For some reason, Thrawn believed him; his last sight before sleep came of the Jedi seated among the waving grasses of night-darkened Batuu as he slowly centered himself.

Thrawn found his fingers restlessly tapping against the Jedi Temple Guard's mask and made himself stop.

Ezra Bridger was not Anakin Skywalker and Thrawn's relationship with one should not affect the other. That was illogical and unhelpful in the present circumstances. He forced the past away.

He would do what must be done and face the consequences of his actions as he had always done.

Thrawn stood on the bridge and the Jedi stood beside him. The boy had his arms crossed, a frown of concentration on his face as he watched the Chimaera's crew run through one final check of all systems, and Kanan Jarrus' lightsaber hung, as always, at his belt.

Thrawn studied the weapon for a moment. It was of a cruder design than Anakin Skywalker's had been, able to be broken down and appear as no more than a handful of spare parts.

He had seen how effective in combat it was though, and for the young Caleb Dume, alone and on the run from every authority, to have created such a thing spoke of both the ingenuity and resilience which had informed his character.

He wondered if Ezra Bridger had ever learned his Master's true name.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" the Jedi murmured.

"It is the only way," Thrawn said for what felt like the tenth time. "You are too inexperienced to guide one star destroyer through hyperspace jumps unaided, let alone three, and your perrgil have not returned. We do not have the time or resources to travel through space until we happen to stumble upon a recognizable hyperspace route – let alone the danger that would present – and I do not have access to Chiss hyperspace maps and, unfortunately for us all, this is one region I have not made extensive study on."

"So this is our best shot," the Jedi summarised.

"Correct," Thrawn said. "The science is sound."

The boy still looked uneasy. "What if we hit something."

Theoretically, given the nature of this path through space, that should be impossible. The only problematic part would be exactly when – and potentially how – they could drop back into real space. The numbers added up most of the time…which wasn't reassuring to anyone.

Thrawn, however, merely said, "Unlikely."

Commodore Faro stepped up beside Thrawn. "The final checks are complete, Admiral. Captain Pellaeon and Captain Derros have also confirmed likewise."

There was trust in her face and stance – trust in him and his judgment, despite the strain in her voice. He hoped he would not let her down.

He raised her voice for the benefit of the entire crew. "Then let us begin."

Ezra could feel the moment the Chimaera slipped between. There was a sudden lurch as the ship adjusted to the transition, a rapid acceleration that felt a bit like his brain had slammed to the back of his skull and his teeth ached as he clenched them and fought a vicious feeling of disorientation…

…and then nothing.

Although the ship's gravity still worked, it felt a bit like they were floating in a void, a sort of insubstantiality to their bodies that made everyone talk louder than they meant to and place their feet more decidedly upon the floor as they walked than was strictly necessary.

Even Thrawn, usually imperturbable to the point of utter mystery, looked uncomfortable.

Perhaps it was the silence, though, that was the worst. Ezra knew the ship's engines were on, the monitors on the consoles of the bridge pinged and beeped as usual, and the intercom worked just fine – but all he could hear from outside the ship's hull was a deadly, deathly silence.

He was surprised, despite all the assurances of the Chimaera's science department, that they were still altogether aboard a ship that was recognizable as an imperial star destroyer. When Thrawn had explained that the gravity around a neutron star bent atoms well, he had expected to be torn apart at the seams.

He knew there was an explanation for why they had not been – Declan had definitely explained it to him – and that it probably had something to do with gravity – the ship's own gravity well projectors – but he couldn't remember it at the moment.

He closed his eyes and reached out for the Force, looking for the moment.

It could have been minutes or hours before he found it. "Now," he said, without opening his eyes, his voice coming from very far away.

It was in the distance that he heard Thrawn's calm, cool voice say, "Bring us about thirty degrees starboard, Commodore, and reverse thrusters."

And with a violent shudder, the Chimaera dropped back into realspace. The Krayt and the Memorium flickered into existence as well, flanking Thrawn's flagship.

The impression of the three massive ships appearing in synchronicity must have been both impressive and terrifying. The half dozen vessels ahead certainly thought so, for Ezra saw them – after a split second's hesitation – swing around to face Thrawn's warships, fighters launching to intercept, as a voice crackled over the com, sharp, peremptory and female, demanding something in a language Ezra couldn't even identify.

The sudden smile that curled the corners of the Grand Admiral's mouth was the most genuine one Ezra had ever seen from him, and the warmth that filled the man in the Force for a moment took the Jedi completely by surprise.

"Hail the approaching ships," Thrawn ordered, glowing red eyes fixed on the dark grey vessels, with their unusual placements of engines and a design that somehow reminded Ezra of the perrgil.

"Channel open, Admiral," a junior lieutenant called a moment later.

"Admiral Ar'alani," Thrawn said, in trade language of Sy Bysti. "This is Commander Mitth'raw'nuruodo, heading the Imperial Seventh Fleet. I seek an audience with the Aristocracy and I bring a gift."

There was a pause, the strange, rounded, almost-bulky ships still heading straight towards them, and the static over the com channel crackled.

"Grand Admiral Thrawn," the woman, apparently this Admiral Ar'alani, said in highly-accented Basic that was almost unintelligible. "It has been a long time. The Chiss Defense Force welcomes you home."

End Notes: This chapter was getting out of hand, so I stopped it here. I wanted to add the subsequent scenes between Thrawn and Ar'alani and then Thrawn, Ezra and the Aristocras but I guess we'll save that for next time! Stay tuned.

I hope you all enjoyed the brief sojourn into astrophysics theory at the beginning. Sorry if it was a bit much!

Yes, I'm going with the fact that Ezra being raised on Lothal, deep in the Outer Rim, means he has a passing understanding of Sy Bysti and one which was expanded upon under Kanan's tutelage. Also, Admiral Ar'alani returns!

Some familiar faces will be making an appearance soon.