Hi, everyone. I originally had no plans to post tonight, but then when I reread what I had, I realized we'd come far enough to post and it was much better than I first thought. Of course, you'll be the judge of that. I'd love to hear from you! I was really busy before school ended for the summer, but now I'm hoping to have plenty of time to respond to comments. :)

Chapter 2

"No…no…no." Caleb paused in the middle of the hallway. He'd lost sight of the black jacketed form in the crowd. He turned around in a complete circle, then closed his eyes. Refusing to let panic overtake him, he drew the Force toward him and then sent his senses out once more, looking for the Luma-wing-like Force signature, and he found it. There—in the storage areas.

Caleb followed the figure into the dimly lit cargo areas. He pursued the figure through several rows of storage containers until they came to a back wall—a dead end. He was able to see more details now as he drew closer. The person was dressed in high boots, and black pants. They also wore a backpack.

The person threw a high kick at him, which grazed his cheek. Caleb returned with a punch that likewise grazed the head of his assailant. They went back and forth a moment, trading blows. Then the black dressed figure retreated a bit, sizing him up.

"Give it back, and I'll let you go." Caleb said.

In reply, the figure drew a vibro-blade and threw it.

The Force warned him ahead of time. Caleb called a saber into each hand and deflected the blade harmlessly into the wall. "Okay, so it's like that, huh? You didn't bring the right kind of blade to this fight." His crossed blue sabers glowed in the darkness as the figure continued to back away at his approach, finally hitting the wall. The hood fell back and he was surprised to see that the thief was a teal-haired girl, barely a teenager. Hunger had carved her lean face into sharp angles. Her brown eyes that had been glaring at him were now showing surprise and fear.

There was another vibro-blade in her hand but she was not using it—she was staring at his blades instead. "You're a…a kriffing Jedi?" she asked, dumbfounded.

"Yeah. Give up. There's no way you're taking the memory core."

"Frack me," she muttered, glancing from side to side, looking for an escape. Then, Caleb sensed an unusual thing. She was drawing the Force to her. The accumulated power wobbled around her as it increased. He lowered his own crouch to create a more-stable center of gravity, in case she planned to come for him. He also began to draw upon the Force as well as so to be ready. But she didn't come for him. First, she slung her vibroblade in his direction (but not directly at him, he noticed) then she sprung straight up at least twelve feet and landed, albeit shakily, on a column of suspensor crates. Then she was off racing across them.

"Karabast!" Caleb gathered himself and made the same leap and began jumping from stack of crates to stack of crates, following the teal-haired girl.

She was moving fast, but in her panic, she'd only managed to make her way deeper into the cargo area. Caleb felt her realize her mistake, and just as she was about to make a jump to curve her way back toward the exit, she misjudged and fell off a 12-foot stack of crates with a yelp.

The fall was too quick for him to stop it with the Force. He disengaged his lightsabers as he reached her row, then leaped down. She was lying on the ground motionless. Chopper's core had rolled out of her jacket and landed near his feet, so he took it. Then he knelt beside her, sensing that she'd cracked her head on one of the crates on the way down. Her hair was darkened with blood. Now that she wasn't slinging vibroblades at him, he had a chance to see that she was a little older than she looked…probably closer to his own age.

Cale? He felt Ezra reach out with the Force through their bond.

I'm here. End of the cargo bay.

In a few moments, Ezra, Zeb, and Sabine appeared at the end of the row. They came over quickly.

"She fell by accident and hit her head." Caleb said as he smoothed her hair away from the scrape in her scalp that was oozing blood. The girl groaned and her eyelashes fluttered just a little as she surfaced, then sank back down in sleep.

"This is the thief?" Zeb asked, raising an eyebrow. "She's just a kit."

"She knew how to fight," Caleb said, wiping at his face.

Ezra knelt beside the girl. His multi-colored gaze traveled over the girl's black hooded jacket with the frayed cuffs, the oversized pants with rips in her knees and the lean look of her face. She had to be a street rat, much like he'd been himself at that age. "She was probably lifting parts to sell for food." Ezra murmured, almost to himself.

"Can we…do something for her?" Sabine asked. She could feel Ezra's sadness. They'd run into orphans all over the galaxy and they always took him back to his own struggles on the streets of Lothal as a child. Sometimes the kids allowed him to buy them a meal or even a coat, but many times the kids were too suspicious of good deeds to stick around for long. He simply kept a stash of warm clothes and ration packs on the Ghost, just in case he found someone to help. It reminded Sabine of the runs the Ghost would make to Tarkintown. Ezra had never forgotten the lesson that Hera and Kanan had taught him about helping others, and she loved him for it.

"Well, we can patch her up at least." Zeb said.

"Yeah," Ezra nodded. "And maybe give her a meal, if she'll stay around that long."

Zeb gathered the half-conscious girl into his arms and carried her as they made their way back to the Ghost.

"You okay?" Sabine wrapped an arm around Caleb as they walked. He had a cut over one eye, but it wasn't bad.

"Yeah. She threw some blades at me."

Ezra raised an eyebrow at him, showing concern.

"Oh, it was okay. I deflected them. She was really surprised to see the lightsabers." Caleb brushed a hand over the hilt of his father's lightsaber at his right hip, and then his own lightsaber at his left.

"I'm glad you're okay." Ezra murmured. "You showed restraint in dealing with her, which fits in with the code. I'm proud of you."

"Guess she messed with the wrong Padawan." Sabine said, bumping his shoulder with her fist before following Zeb and Ezra back to the ship.

Phaedra woke from a dream where her mother was trying to tell her something, but she couldn't seem to hear her. Slowly by degrees she came back to herself, unsure of where she was. First there was an ache in her head, then a pain in her knee on her right side. She kept her eyes closed tightly and her breathing steady as she listened to the words around her. If they were going to turn her in, she needed to know so she could escape at the first chance.

"Medscanner says that it's only a minor head injury." There it was. The younger voice of the Force-user she'd fought with earlier. He didn't sound angry, however. He sounded concerned.

"So, what's the treatment for that?" A new voice.

"Rest, and pain medications if there's a headache," he replied, as if reading off of a screen. Well, that didn't sound like they were trying to kill her.

"Good. Check her knee."

There were some soft beeping sounds. "Dislocated kneecap."

"I think she's awake." This voice was female.

The jig was up. She opened her eyes to find she was lying on a bunk. She was on her back, and she felt a gentle touch on her knee and her shoulder, keeping her laying down. "You'll hurt yourself if you move," the man's voice instructed her.

The man looking down at her was unfamiliar. Sizing people up was second nature to a street rat like herself so she looked him over. He had black hair, and there was a scar down his face, over his eye and down his cheek. His eyes were two different shades of blue, which made her think that the injury causing the scar might have caused damage to the discolored eye. The kind look she saw in his face, however, made her feel safe enough to look at the other occupants of the room.

The Twi'lek who'd fought her was standing by her knee and there was a purple-haired woman dressed in black in the room. Then there was a tall purple alien by the door. Yeah, she was definitely outnumbered. As she surreptitiously felt her sides, she realized that her vibroblades were gone, and she was now unarmed. There was no telling where her backpack had gotten to.

She moved her leg a little and groaned. "Ah! You weren't kidding."

"Told you to stay still," the older man said. "My name's Ezra Bridger. This is Caleb, Zeb and my wife Sabine. We're here to help you. What's your name?"

All her aliases flitted through her mind and slipped through her fingers as she tried to grab onto one of them. "Phaedra Alata," she said finally, giving them her real name, and then kicking herself for it. "Um…What happened?"

"You fell while you were running away," Caleb said, "after you stole our droid's memory core."

"And after you threw a couple of vibroblades at my kit, here." The Lasat standing behind Caleb said with a slight frown as he laid a hand on Caleb's shoulder.

Phaedra winced at remembering that, and she opened her mouth to explain, but the man named Ezra drew her attention. "Okay, Phaedra, Caleb's gonna switch places with me. I want you to squeeze his hand while I slip your kneecap right back into place. It's probably gonna hurt like hell, so feel free to curse like a Hutt. It'll help." He switched places with Caleb, then began to gently manipulate Phaedra's leg.

"Hi." Now the good-looking Twi'lek was watching her. She noticed that he had little green freckles that matched his lekku, which she had to admit was attractive. "He's good at this, so you're in good hands." Caleb reached out to her and she surprised herself by taking his hand. There was just something about him that made her trust him.

"H-how do you know he's good at this?"

Caleb just smiled.

Ezra gingerly pushed the girl's cargo pants up above her rapidly swelling knee. "Wait…" she said in a trembling voice, trying to steady herself. "Give me a second."

"It'll be okay." Caleb said, reassuringly.

"So…uh…is this a good time to say I'm sorry for taking your droid's core? And hurting your cheek?" She was obviously half-teasing and half-wanting to get the apology out before they messed with her leg.

He could feel her hand trembling in his own, and he ran his thumb over the back of it. "It's gonna be okay. Just take a deep breath and hold it."

Ezra waited a moment more, then broke the kids' staring silence. "Phaedra, on 3, okay? One, two…"

On two, Ezra did something to Phae's knee that caused silver shards of pain to shoot up her leg and she yelled, "Mother-karking-son of-a-bantha!" She was squeezing Caleb's hand tightly. "Holy karking hells!"

"They never wait till three." Caleb said with a grin. "It's better that way."

Phae took a big breath and opened her eyes. She nodded as the teenage boy helped her sit up.

"I'll wrap your knee so the swelling will stay down." Ezra began to work on her knee, wrapping a pressure bandage around it.

Ezra glanced up at her several times, and she realized that he was sizing her up as much as she'd sized him up. All of a sudden, she felt self-conscious of her ripped jacket with the dirty cuffs, worn baggy pants and her old boots. She clenched her fists to hide her chewed fingernails and looked up challengingly.

"So, what's your angle?" She looked from Ezra to Sabine, then to Caleb. For now she ignored the Lasat in the room. Frankly, he was a little too intimidating to face at the moment with his comments from earlier.

"Huh?" Caleb asked.

Ezra nodded to himself and smiled slightly. "She wants to know why we helped her after she tried to steal our droid's memory core." He turned to her, fixing her with his odd stare. "There are lots of things you don't know about us, but the first thing you should know is that we don't hold grudges."

She glanced at Caleb, then looked at Ezra's waist, saw his lightsaber and her eyes narrowed. Two lightsaber-wielding Force-users. Great. "I'm just trying to…get along, okay? You looked to me like you might not miss it. My mistake. I didn't know you…could use the Force and all. My mom…" She trailed off, then shook her head. "Look. I know you're like me…too young to have been real Jedi." If the older one was a Jedi, he'd never admit to it anyway.

Ezra bowed his head as he secured the bandage. "What were you going to say about your mother?"

She looked guarded at Ezra's interest. "Um…well, it doesn't matter. She's…she died. I…probably should go. Like I said, I'm sorry. I never meant…" She trailed off, her mother's voice echoing in her mind. Sweetheart, Phae…if you ever run across another Jedi… She glanced up at Ezra nervously. No. Trusting him would be foolish. A dwarfnut idea at best. Her mother hadn't known…

"I gotta go." Abruptly, she pushed Caleb to the side and tried to stand up.

"Wait-" Caleb said. As she stood and her leg gave out, he caught her in his arms. She groaned with the pain as both Ezra and Caleb helped her back on the bed.

"You need some rest." Ezra said, taking control of the situation.

The girl hissed with pain as she rearranged her hurt leg on the bed. "Okay," she said clenching both fists.

Sabine stepped forward, taking Ezra's place at her bedside. "Phaedra, I'm going to give you this anti-inflammatory pain reliever." She showed the girl the hypospray. "It will bring down the swelling in your knee and help with the pain. It'll get you up and around quicker, which is what I think you want."

Phaedra nodded; her leg hurt too much to argue. "Okay."

"It might make you just a little sleepy, but that's okay. You can sleep." Sabine added.

Settling back against the bulkhead and pillow, the girl winced at readjusting her leg, then nodded.

"How's your head feeling?"

"I'm a little dizzy." Phaedra said. "It's sore."

"This will help with that too." Sabine estimated the girl's weight, realizing how thin she was, and gave her an adequate dosage while Ezra moved to finish wrapping her knee. "Look. Have dinner with us later." Sabine asked.

"Seriously? You're asking the thief that broke into your ship and stole your droid's memory core to dinner?" She raised an eyebrow, shaking her head. "You guys are crazy. Hey, but don't get me wrong…I like crazy, especially if there's food involved."

Sabine fluffed some pillows and helped her get comfortable.

"I know you have no reason to really trust us, but you can trust in this. We won't let any harm come to you." Ezra said.

"I still don't get it, but okay," Phaedra nodded, lying back as the medicine kicked in.

"She's stayin'. Come on Sabine, let's get dinner set-up. Caleb can watch our 'guest.' I'll come get you two when we're ready." Zeb turned to leave the Ghost's medbay and Ezra and Sabine followed.

"Hey. Um…sorry about earlier."

Caleb glanced up. Phaedra had closed her eyes for a few minutes, so he'd figured she was sleeping. He'd been in a light meditation when she spoke and it startled him. "Oh. Yeah. It's okay. It's just that Chopper's not just a droid. He's…like family, so I had to get him back."

"Family, huh?" Her eyebrow quirked up. "Had him a long time?"

"My mom had him since she was a kid." Caleb said. "Chopper flew a Y-Wing in the Clone Wars, crashed on my mom's home planet and she rebuilt him."

"Droids like that one are antiques. Maybe you should keep a better eye on him." Phae raised an eyebrow.

"Maybe." Caleb said, measuring her with his gaze.

"So. The guy…Ezra…is your father?"

Caleb shook his head. "No. He's my Jedi Master." Coming out with it felt natural. She'd seen his lightsabers after all.

She smirked and let out a laugh. "You're fracking with me. Wait, you're serious?"

He nodded.

She took stock of him, as if weighing his words. "I thought the Jedi were all dead."

"Not all of us," Caleb murmured. "You should sit back and rest."

"How's your cheek?" She asked gently, glancing over his face. She hadn't wanted to hurt him. Usually, she lifted stuff from people and never saw their faces. She tried to only take from people who looked like they could afford to lose it, and usually was so good she never had to face them. She was surprised to find that she felt remorseful to realize she'd attempted to rob such obviously good people.

He reached up to brush the spreading bruise with his fingers. "It'll be fine," he replied. "I hit you in the head…uh…before you fell so I guess we're even?"

"Sure…even," she said, smiling sleepily. She could feel the warm comfortableness of the medication soothing the throb in her head and the ache in her leg. "You're a good fighter. You'd be able to handle yourself on the street." She yawned.

He looked up at her, wondering if that was where she lived. Was she like Ezra, who had grown up with no family on his own, living on the streets of Lothal, until he met Kanan and Hera? Caleb felt sympathy for her. "Yeah. You weren't so bad yourself," he said gently. He could tell from her eyes and her Force signature that she was feeling the medication Sabine had dosed her with. She was no longer a bright flutter of a Luma-wing in the Force, full of nervous energy, but merely a soft glow. "You can sleep, if you want."

"Nope." She widened her eyes, trying to appear awake. "Gotta stay on my toes."

He took her hand again in both of his. It was clean, but callused, like his own. Her nails were short and blunt. She had strong hands that knew hard work and struggle, and he respected that. "Phaedra," he began, feeling her name on his tongue like some strange new language, "You're safe here. We won't let anything happen to you, okay? Trust me."

He saw her brown eyes, so much like Sabine's, soften and the tension in her face eased. "Okay." Her eyes fluttered. "I do believe you."

"Good." He murmured, keeping her hand enclosed between his own. "Sleep for a little bit." He waited long moments, until her breathing slowed and her eyes drifted closed. Then he placed her hand on the bed, as if it were a valuable object he'd been given, and went for the door.

"You're sure she's a Force-sensitive?" Sabine asked Ezra. Zeb had gone back to get dinner. They'd been about to order when they'd gotten Caleb's comm call.

"Yeah. I can feel it." Ezra sat down at the Dejarik table and rubbed his eyes tiredly.

"I wonder what her story is?" Sabine murmured.

"I don't know. She won't talk to us until she trusts us; that's the trick." Ezra said, yanking out his hair tie, raking a hand through his hair, then tying it back again.

"Yeah, she's a tough one no doubt." Sabine agreed thoughtfully. "She reminds you of…you, huh?"

Ezra looked up at Sabine and then back down. He sighed and took her hand in his. "Yeah. In a lot of ways."

Caleb appeared in the hallway and made his way to them. He slid into the booth beside Sabine. "Where's Zeb?" the teen asked. Ezra had the feeling that Caleb had something else on his mind and was just asking to have something to say.

Sabine answered, "He went to get dinner. We never had the chance to order. Hungry?" She tilted her head and checked out the bruise on his cheek.

"Yeah." Caleb said, glancing to Ezra. Sabine could tell that they were communicating in that silent way they had.

"Go ahead." Ezra murmured.

"She's asleep. I…uh…I think she's homeless." Caleb said, a worried expression creasing his forehead.

"Did she say that?" Ezra asked.

"No…not really. It's just…a feeling I have."

"I think you're probably right," Ezra said.

"You know from experience," Caleb replied, as Ezra looked up at him, then nodded.

"A lot of kids out there were orphaned in the chaos of the Rebellion. She could be another one." He could see the worry in Caleb's eyes and the unasked question. How do we help her? "Look. We'll do all we can for her. I sense it too."

"What?" Sabine asked.

"Something in the Force. Pulling us to Phaedra and Phaedra to us," he looked at Caleb. "Why don't we try to meditate on it?" He glanced to Sabine. "Call us when Zeb's back with dinner."

Sabine nodded. "I'll work on Chop until Zeb comes back if someone will lift him up here. I want to keep an eye on the door." She pointed in Phaedra's direction. They'd put her in Caleb's quarters.

"I'll get him." Caleb said. In a moment, he was back with the silent droid hovering through the air, setting him near the Dejarik table. Caleb smirked. "Are you sure you want to fix him, Sabine? Don't you kind of like him this way? He's a lot quieter."

Sabine began to laugh. "I won't tell him you said that."

"Thanks." Caleb said over his shoulder as he followed Ezra into his and Sabine's cabin.

They both took a seat on the oversized meditation mat as the door slid closed behind them. "Don't try too hard." Ezra encouraged. "Just open up your mind to the Force and float with it."

"Okay." Caleb nodded, allowing his eyes to drift closed and his mind to float free as the Force surged around them.

Sabine had checked the rest of Chopper's chassis for damage, but he was fine. She cleaned all the connectors on his memory core, then slipped it back in. She was leaning over Chopper, turning him back on, when she suddenly had to leap back and away from the astromech's shock prod. "Woah, Chopper! It's me! It's me!"

Chopper retracted his shock prod and began squawking angrily and rocking back and forth on his struts.

"What in the Ashla? Chop, do I need to pull your battery?" Zeb rumbled as he came into the galley and put the takeout food on the counter.

Chopper grumbled indignantly, and quieted.

"Where's everyone?" Zeb said, coming over.

"The guys are meditating and the girl, Phaedra, is sleeping. And Chopper is complaining." She gestured to their grumpy astromech who rolled off to the cockpit, grumbling the whole way.

"I'll go wake the girl. I can carry her in here to eat, if she's up for it," the Lasat said, heading that way.

He knocked, then listened. Then he knocked softly again. "We have food, kit."

"C-come in." she said.

He keyed the lock and entered, seeing the sleepy girl sitting up in bed, wide-eyed and trying to figure out what was going on. She backed up against the bulkhead as Zeb stood in the doorway. "W-where's C…Caleb?" she asked.

"He's meditating with Ezra. I'll get them in just a minute. I'm here to see if you feel up to coming to the table."

"Um…" she looked down at her leg.

"I'll carry you, kit. I know you must be hungry."

"Yeah," she whispered, her stomach growling.

Zeb came over and leaned down. "Just put an arm around my neck and I'll put an arm under your legs. Real easy carry."

She did it and let out a soft little cry when he picked her up. "Did I hurt you?" he asked, his green eyes searching her face with concern. She didn't weigh hardly anything, and he thought he'd been gentle enough.

She bit her lip and shook her head. "It's...ok. I'm good." He'd actually jostled her knee just a little, but it wasn't bad. "Don't worry."

The Lasat's fur was soft and warm under her fingers. He carried her gently into the ship's common area and set her in the booth, turned sideways with her leg propped up on the seat. "How's that?" he asked.

"Good." Phaedra said, looking around. Her stomach growled and she put a hand on it and blushed.

Sabine brought her something wrapped in a napkin. "Have a roll." She handed Phaedra a huge fluffy roll of bread bigger than anything she'd had in a long time. "Dinner will be ready in a minute. I'll go in and get Ezra and Caleb." The bread was warm and soft, like a cloud as she bit into it. She took another bite and began to chew quickly as she watched Sabine walk over to a cabin and knock. The door slid open, and from where she was sitting Phaedra could see the back of Ezra's head, and over his shoulder, Caleb's bowed head and closed eyes. Something about their posture…sitting on their heels, back straight, head bowed slightly…brought back a memory to the forefront of her mind…

"Mama…I'm bored," she whispered. Her mother had told her to always be quiet when she was meditating, but it was too quiet for Phae, except for the constant "boom, boom" of the music in the tiny apartment below. She'd tried to sit back on her own heels, be still and meditate herself, like her mother, and hope that something would happen, but nothing ever did and the novelty had worn off.

Her mother sighed deeply and opened her rich brown eyes, which regarded Phae with love. "Okay, come here, sweetheart." She held her arms open and her tiny five-year old ran to them.

"What are you trying to do?" Phae asked, leaning back in the protective circle of her mother's arms enough to run her hand over her mom's cheek. "Why do you sit still so long?"

"Because it's the only way to find out what I need to know."

"I don't understand," she said, her face crinkling up.

Her mother looked at her gently and reached out for a strand of her blond hair, twisting the spun gold in her fingers. "It's very complicated, little love." Phae sighed contentedly as her mother ran soft fingers through her hair. "Baby, I have something I have to tell you, but you can never tell anyone else. Never, Phae. It's like the Force…only you and I can talk about it."

Phae raised her head and nodded solemnly. "Does it have to do with the bad man?"

Maia nodded. "It does. I'm afraid he is coming here soon."

Phae felt her stomach clench into knots. The bad man would try to hurt them again. He'd come before, and tried to take Phae away from her Mama. But Mama had fought back with her sword. The yellow glow of it had shone in the darkness, pushing back the red of the bad man's sword. Then the bad man had fallen a long way and she and Mama had run. But now…now he was back? After falling so far? She shuddered. "I won't tell anyone, Mama." She promised, holding out her pinky. Her mom took it with her own pinky and they shook.

"Okay. Remember how I told you about the Force? How it flows through all of us, but some of us can feel it more than others?"

"Yes, Mama," she nodded.

"Well, there were some of us who were trained to feel the Force. We were called Jedi, sweetheart. Once…there were a lot of us…but there just aren't anymore. If…if something happens to me…and you ever meet another Jedi…you go to them, Phae. Tell them about me. They'll help you because you have that same gift." She cradled Phae's face in her palm, then leaned forward and kissed her on the top of her head. "Don't forget."

"I won't Mama." She was starting to cry now, big tears that rolled down her cheeks. "I won't forget."

And after that they had run. Run until they were caught by the evil Jedi.

Phae's eyes were far away when Ezra entered the room, followed by Caleb. She blinked rapidly and looked up into Ezra's bi-colored gaze.

"Are you alright?" He asked her, his voice gentle.

She nodded, taking a big shaking breath. Then her words came out all at once. "Prove to me you're a Jedi." As soon as she said it, she bit her lip as if she could take the words back. She took another bite of the fluffy roll, thinking she might not talk so much with her mouth full.

Ezra paused a moment and considered how best to respond. Apparently, there was something Phaedra was wrestling with. He pulled up a chair and sat. "What evidence do you need, Phaedra? Should I make something float through the air?"

She swallowed while shaking her head. "No. Bad Jedi can do that too."

Ezra nodded. "They can. What do you know about them?" He asked. From his vantage point, he couldn't see Sabine and Zeb out of his damaged eye, but he saw Caleb moving closer.

"They hated the real Jedi-the…the good ones. They hunted them and anyone else who could use the Force. To kill them or make them turn to the dark side."

"Phaedra. Someone tried to do this to you?"

"I'm not answering that. Prove to me that you're a Jedi first."

Ezra reached to his waist and pulled his lightsaber. He set it on the table between them and regarded it for a moment. "Do you know what this is?"

"It's a laser sword. The bad Jedi have those too."

"They were called Inquisitors." Caleb murmured, sliding into the booth across from Phaedra.

"We called them redblades too." Ezra said.

With a motion of his hand, Ezra's lightsaber rose into the air, then slowly began to come apart before their eyes, until the vibrant green of Ezra's kyber crystal lit the room. He reached up and plucked it from the air.

"A kyber is the heart of a Jedi's blade. Mine is green. My master's was blue. Dark side users have only red blades."

Phaedra's eyes were huge as she heard the soft singing sound coming from Ezra's crystal. She'd heard it only once before."Why red blades?"

"Because at heart, kybers are Light. But when a Dark one tries to twist a kyber to his use, the crystal bleeds red." Ezra's eyes reflected the green of the crystal he now held in his fingers.

"My mother's sword was a pale yellow." Phaedra said.

Ezra nodded. "So, your mother was a Jedi." It was a statement rather than a question. While Ezra waited for a reply, he reassembled his blade and let it come to rest on the table.

Phaedra nodded. "She…she was. The redblade…the Inquisitor killed her." Her voice faded to a harsh whisper.

"Oh, sweetheart." Sabine murmured. She reached over the booth and laid a hand on Phaedra's shoulder. "I'm so sorry."

She looked up, eyes wide with alarm. "My mother told me not to mention any of it to anyone, except a Jedi." She shifted her frightened eyes to Ezra. "Someone took…my mother's lightsaber. It…it was all I had of her, and I want it back. Can you help me?"

Ezra nodded immediately, and the Force seemed to echo yes, yes yes. "Phaedra Alata, we'll help you. I give you my word as a Jedi. Please…tell us about your mother…"