Chapter 16: End of the Road

Ezra's P.O.V

I leaned into Trenick further, pressing my blade against his. "I will not let you win, Bridger!" Trenick said, force pushing me away from him, me going into a wall near the entrance to the room where we were fighting. The impact was bad, and I groaned in pain as I attempted to get myself up. But I couldn't, and I felt like I was done for.

"This is the end of you, Ezra Bridger. Such as shame that you will be joining Ian." Trenick said, walking towards with his spinning function active. "No!" Kanan yelled out, the blind jedi stepping in, engaging Trenick. Both of them were in a blade lock, until Trenick kicked Kanan, and sent my master flying into a wall. "Now you'll join both Ian and your master. He's done for, and he will not help you out. You are beaten, Ezra, you may as well submit yourself to your death." Trenick told me, his spinning function picking up with its speed as he walked closer and closer to me.

"Trenick!" I heard Alex call out to him, in which Trenick turned around. Alex was in pain as he covered up his wound with his left hand, using explosive rounds in his right wrist blaster, firing at Trenick. Trenick seemed to deflect them, but at the same time the explosive rounds managed to deal some damage to him. Alex kept walking towards him, still firing his wrist blaster, until he got close enough to Trenick. The dark sider was down on his knee, grunting, and Alex aimed his wrist blaster at him. "This ends right now." the 2nd Lothalian member of the Ghost crew said, pointing the wrist blaster at Trenick's head. "Not for me, but for you!" Trenick retorted, about to activate his saber from me sensing his action coming.

Luckily, I managed to regain myself, and I used the force, picked up Trenick, in which I saved Alex's life, but Trenick was able to break himself free of my force hold, and he and Alex were engaged, red blades locked against a metal one.

Alex and Trenick were going at it hard, blades crackling. Suddenly, with one swift motion with his inquisitor lightsaber, Trenick managed to destroy Alex's blade, Alex on the ground and Trenick aiming the tip of his saber at him. "And now, prepare to join Ian, and eventually your friend, in death!" Trenick said, about to deliver the killing blow. I force jumped myself, heading straight for Trenick. It has come down to this, and now the man who killed my cousin was going to die. "Trenick!" I heard Kanan call out to the dark sider, giving me the perfect opportunity to kill him.

Trenick turned to Kanan, his back facing me, and the second I landed, I jabbed my saber into Trenick's back, my green blade impaling him through the torso, the dark sider dropping the inquisitor lightsaber. Trenick started breathing heavily, and he looked down at my blade. "This was for Jacob." I said to him, while he still had some life left in him. "You will never take anyone from me ever again." Trenick breathed even more heavily now, and then when I pulled my lightsaber out of him, he fell down, lifeless. My cousin has been avenged, and I killed a dark sider for the first time in my life. It was a hard moment, and I felt the dark side evolving even more within me after I delivered the kill to him, the dark side building up in me more and more as I looked down at his body. I hate everything about Trenick, and that was all that was in my mind when I kept on looking down at his body.

"Ezra." Kanan said, walking up to me. "I killed him." I responded, facing my master, feeling nervous about what he'll say. "I shouldn't have wanted revenge, and look where it got me." "Ezra, I know the feeling that you're going through, I could sense it in you." Kanan said. "I know. I can't believe I killed him thou-"

Just as I was talking, we felt the ship buck hard, alarms going off everywhere. "What's happening?" I inquired. "Sounds like we'd better get off of here. Come on, help Alex up." Kanan instructed me. As I reached my hand out for my old friend, he took my hand, I pulled him up, and now the three of us were on the move.

"Specter 7 to any Specters, can you read me?" Alex radioed into his commlink. "Alex, we here you. Make your way to the Ghost now, the ship is gonna blow in a few minutes." we heard Hera. "Where is it, Specter 2?" I asked her. "Activating beacon. And hurry, Trenick's men are attempting to take us out." the twi'lek pilot replied. "What did you do, and what about the Earthlings?" Kanan asked her. "We went for the core room and took out the core of the ship, and the Earthlings that were with us are K.I.A. Just hurry, Kanan. The sooner you three get here, the sooner we can leave this place." she told us. "On our way." I replied, feeling the ship buck hard again.

As we made our way over the Ghost, we kept on feeling the ship buck and shake constantly, even debris falling near us at multiple points. Eventually, we found the others at the Ghost, Zeb and Sabine engaging Trenick's men. Kanan, Alex, and I helped the Mandalorian and lasat with Trenick's men, fighting our way to the Ghost. Just as I took out one of the last few of Trenick's guys, the ship shook violently again. "On board now, you three." Sabine told us, all of us heading into the Ghost.

When I got onboard, we got moving, moving away from Trenick's ship, which was about to blow up at any second now. As we moved away from it, Trenick's ship blew up, a big explosion of oranges and reds lighting up black space.

"Let's go home, gang." Hera said, and then we got into the star cluster, heading back home. As we were traveling through the cluster, I was too upset over Jacob's death, spending a large amount of the trip back to our galaxy in my room. Zeb even came in at multiple points and offered to talk to me like a big brother, but I turned him down, and I turned the others down.

Alongside the aftermath of Malachor, this was also one of those big moments with the Ghost crew. In some ways, I could relate to this a lot like the aftermath of Malachor. I didn't talk much to my friends, I mostly stayed in my room, and I felt guilty over Jacob's death. He sacrificed himself for me, but I should have taken the lightning from Trenick, not my own cousin who gave his own life for me to stop the one who drained his lightning into him! Even when we got back to Atollon hours later, I still refused to talk and leave my room, still feeling grievous about the death of my cousin. He was a member of my actual family, not some family figure like the crew are, and now he's dead. And when we went to bed, all I could do was rest now, and hopefully things would get better. Zeb even decided to move back to our room when Kanan decided that he was good enough to move back from Hera's room to his old room, and that somewhat made me feel slightly better since my older brotherly figure was with me, and all I really needed was just family to help me get through this. I got through Malachor eventually, and I could get through this.

Months later

During the Antilles Extraction (After the imperials make short work of that rebel cruiser in the beginning)

I've come to accept the fact that Jacob's gone a few weeks ago(Sometime before both Steps into Shadow and Holocrons of Fate), and that I couldn't do anything to bring him back. Now that what happened above Earth was now the past, I got back into focusing on the rebellion.

I was sitting in my room now, just thinking about Jacob and how awesome of a person he was. I got a knock at the door later. "Enter." I said, the door sliding open, revealing Alex.

Ever since Earth, he had a new gear change. He's also had this gear when we rescued Hondo, retrieved the Y-wings, and when Kanan rescued him and the others when Maul took them hostage.

He ditched his black combat armor since what happened above Earth for a green combat jacket, which he has black arm and elbow pads on it, a black t shirt, a black blaster proof vest(which wasn't Mandalorian) above his shirt, including a dark colored bandana with the Phoenix Cell symbol on it in white around his neck, dark blue jeans with black knee pads, black combat boots, black fingerless gloves, and he was wearing a plain black cap on his head. In terms of his weapons, he still has his signature wrist blasters that he's had since he first joined the Ghost crew on his wrists, a DL-18 blaster pistol in a holster, an instead of a sword, he now carries an A280c rifle with a strap on his back, abandoning the use of swords ever since what happened in the end with Trenick. He also has a utility belt with thermal detonators, a spare commlink, and even a device that he uses to hack our way into places. He's quite techy after all. He also had his beard shaved since Earth.

"Ezra," he said. "We're needed at the briefing table. Everybody else is going, and we should too." "I'm coming, Alex." I said, heading towards the exit of my room.

However, before I walked out, I ran back inside for a quick second, and came up to a photo that was taken of me and Jacob during our drive on Earth. As I looked at it, I smiled, thinking of all the good times I've had with my cousin. "Ezra, come out. We're waiting for you." I heard Sabine call out. "I'm coming now." I called out. Before I did, I looked at it more, and as I think about the good times we've had as cousins, all I could say was that there was no one I'd rather have as a cousin, other than my super amazing one:

Ian "Jacob Louis" Bridger.