Ezra stirred woozily; his eyes heavy. His breathing came hard, reliving what he'd been forced to see atop that fuel pod. Sleep had claimed him, but it hadn't been easy. Sleeping wasn't easy now…ever since Kanan had sacrificed himself for his family. Force-pushing Hera into his arms as he'd heard his stunned wife groan in shocked disbelief. The vicious fire danced before his eyes even now as he lay in Sabine's arms. Its angry heat seared his flesh, watching his doomed master swallowed up by its fury.
They'd flown away, to safety, too numb to realize what the Jedi, torn between staying or fleeing with them, had really done.
Faintly, Ezra heard his wife murmur, "You're awake."
He nodded against her drowsy form, his head flush with her face. "Kind of…" Distinctly, Ezra had heard the groggy residue of tears she'd shed before managing to fall asleep, finally, straining her voice. "I don't think I'll be able to go back to sleep."
"I can't say I'll be able to either," Sabine whispered, shivering against her husband, "but I want to. I want to fall asleep again. Like I've fallen into a pit, and when I wake up, I'll rejoice that this was all just one awful, ugly dream…"
Words that Kanan had spoken prior to their going to Hera's rescue hit Ezra hard. His mind winced.
'Hera's going to be fine. So…what are we waiting for? Let's go get my sweetheart.'
Fresh tears began welling up in Ezra's eyes. The pounding of his heart filled his ears. The look in Jarrus' eyes haunted his impressionable padawan. Why Kanan had done what he'd done, clashed with the stinging hurt his sacrifice was causing them.
Hera wore the look of the terminally defeated. Zeb was going around like a testy Lasat possessed, snapping at and bumping against any and all in his path.
Sabine held her grieving husband tighter, hearing his soft sobs and feeling the depth of his hurt mingled with her own. "You said that Hera couldn't die. I never, not once, ever thought that…that Kanan would. I can't believe he's gone."
A change tackled Ezra, coming over him quickly, causing his entire train of thought and tone to shift. "I'm, now I know this is going to sound off, but…I'm not so sure he really is, Sabi."
"W-what…do you mean?" she demanded, leaning off of him so she could grill Ezra with blatant disbelief in her eyes.
Gripping both of her arms with gentle, yet firm hands, he divulged, "I'm wide awake and it's from the dream I just had."
"Tell me," Sabine insisted, tugging at Ezra's arms. Her eyes bored into Ezra's in their semi-lit chamber adorned with Sabine's diverse creativity.
"Caleb Dume and the Loth-wolf are one. It's complicated."
"When is Jedi stuff ever easy?" Sabine said, not meaning to sound glib. "Kanan tried making it understandable, though. Well, at least when he thought he should."
"All will be revealed, somehow, in the Jedi Temple. We have to trust the Force…and each other…and, Sabi, it's this feeling the dream filled me with. This feeling that we haven't seen the last of him. He knew what he was doing on Lothal. Like he's known what's needed to be done all along. There's reason to hope, and Kanan found a way to let us know that."
Sabine lunged at Ezra with all of her might, which was considerable, and flattened him. She flung her arms around his neck, teeming with verve, kissing him everywhere her lips fit. Breathlessly, she told him, "We've got to tell Hera about this right now!"
"Yeah, but dream Kanan made me promise that he'll tell her himself. When he's with her again."
Sabine did a double take. "He'll be with her again?"
"Uh huh. He promised…"
"I can't wait to see how," Sabine said under her breath, anxious for that reality.
"I have a feeling we won't have to wait long," Ezra speculated.
The young married couple, with contented smiles on their unlined faces eagerly fell back to sleep, burning with hope that the Kanan, who was willing to grace Ezra's subconscious, would do it again. Maybe this time, he'd make things a bit clearer now that he knew getting his family back on track was his new mission.