In earnest, Ezra shut his eyes, trying to blot out the sound of everything distracting. In the center of his mind, vivid images and pleasing nuances of Sabine filled it. When he opened his eyes, he stared up at what he could see of the stars. He could make out several of the brighter ones. He concentrated on those that were dimmer. He wanted to see if increased concentration might heighten their brightness.

Yet another of his mentor's broadening-awareness exercises.

Suddenly then, something akin to an eruption, the presentiment of Sabine getting burned, flared, seizing his receptive mind. Shaking his head, as though trying to dismantle cobwebs, he slammed his eyes shut. He felt her pain, embraced it, tried to soothe her hurt. The injury had happened over a day ago. That had been the day she'd tongue-lashed Kanan with the vehemence of a Wampa devouring prey.

Ezra pulled himself up from the sand, oversewn by somber shadows, that was still warm from the day's scorching sun. Questions burned him from within. Questions he wished he had answers for nagging him to distraction.

What more could he teach her?

Did Sabine even want him teaching her anything?

She caught on quickly, but was innate ability enough? She wasn't a Force-user by any stretch of the usage. Granted, the vambraces gave her some leverage, but still…

Suddenly, without warning, the spirited voice of his beloved startled him.

"What are you thinking about?" Sabine asked with her head listing to one side. She walked up to Ezra and rested her head against his chest. The contact calmed him. She couldn't sleep, and upon discovering that she was all alone in their bed, she hadn't been able to lie there, fidgeting in the dark, wondering where he was. Since her Darksaber training had begun, she hadn't been the easiest person to live with; she'd be the first to acknowledge that. She feared her shrewish, sour behavior had turned her into someone Ezra chose not to be around.

As she kept telling herself.

She began tracing lazy circles over his heart, waiting for him to answer. Willing him to reply, hoping against hope that her attitude and actions of late hadn't driven a wedge between them, she began, "I know…I know…I haven't been the nicest person lately. I've said things I really didn't mean, and…the things I finally had to admit rushed out of me like torrents. The Empire wants to destroy worlds. And they have…mine."

Ezra sighed against her heavily, his lips finding the crown of her head, kissing it. "I've been thinking about my family."

Sabine clicked her tongue. "Oh…" The question hovered on her tongue, then leapt from it. "The one you lost? Or, this one that's adopted you?"

"This one, and you and me." He got very quiet and so still, Sabine got more than a little concern, surmising that he'd gone deep inside himself, much further away from her than he ever had before.

Meditative, something a Jedi draws insight from.

"Ezra…?"

The silence was deafening as the brightly shining moon high above blanketed the silhouetted couple in silvery, gossamer moonlight. A gentle breeze, coming faintly from the south, ruffled Sabine's two-toned locks, which Ezra frivolously fingered.

"Sabine, I know what you're thinking."

"It's getting that easy to do now."

Ezra said apologetically, "I didn't mean it like that."

She nodded, not doubting him for a moment. With that last practice battle she'd engaged in with Kanan, she had felt Ezra lending his abilities to the little raw talent she had. It had almost been as though he'd fought alongside her, guiding her hand, willing her to succeed as well as confessing what she'd held back, even from him, all this time.

The painful truth that cut deeper than any two-edged vibroblade, giving no quarter.

Her family had disowned her all because she loved them more than she loved herself. She had thought that by putting their interests ahead of herself, she could've saved them. She hadn't considered how the Empire had poisoned their minds, turning them against her. Could she make them see that by their having put faith in the Empire, they had been used as pawns and cruelly tricked?

She said, "I'll follow you too, Ezra…anywhere. Anywhere you say, not just because I love you, and you're my husband. Because I know as sure as we're here together like this, no matter what, you'll always have my back."

Quiet no longer, he was impelled to blurt, "Like you'll always have mine."

Sabine brushed her lips against his. "I love you so, so much, Ezra. I've never known such unquestioning devotion."

"Sabine, I…I…"

"What, Ez?"

"I…" He took a terribly long deep breath. "When you had the stick, thinking that you still needed to practice with it, because you thought you still weren't ready to train with the Darksaber…the way you held that old stick, looking the way you did with it in your hands that were, I saw them, shaking a little. I…it was all I could do not to rush to you, with tears in my eyes, and take you in my arms, and have you promise me…" His voice choked with emotion, Ezra buried his face in Sabine's glossy hair. His arms around her were like a vise.

Softly, she mumbled, "You wanted me to promise you what, Ez?"

"That we'd always be strong—together! You and me, unbeatable, unstoppable, because that's what our love makes us." The intensity of the feeling he'd forced into his words made his head, along with Sabine's, spin. In a voice softer than he'd ever spoken, he asked, "Sabi, seeing you like that…I fell in love with you all over again. I know how I can be…just, don't…ever give up on me…" With bated breath, and trying not to sound as pathetic and desperate as he imagined he would, he implored, "Always be my family, Sabi. Never feel I'm not worth anything to you."

The gentle breeze picked up, turning a tad cooler against the skin of their faces. Sabine, with tears brimming in her eyes, dug her hands into Ezra's sides. "You and me; it's guaranteed. Ez, I'll always mean that."

She unclipped the Darksaber from her belt, giving him a knowing look.

"Let's go," she commanded, all too eager to ignite the enigmatic blade, as though it called to her that there wasn't a moment to waste.

"Right now?" His voice rose an octave. Somehow, he'd hoped all of this had been leading up to a spectacular erotic romp in the privacy of their artistically-embellished quarters.

Nodding, with glints of 'first things first' in her no-nonsense eyes, Sabine insisted, "I need all the practice I can get if I'm gonna convince anybody else, other than you and Fenn Rau that I'm worth following."