The meeting was finally over. Draven's men were now monitoring Imperial transmissions for even a hint of commotion on Scarif. Hera decided that she should probably get some rest for the upcoming battle, but as she was heading to her quarters she ran into Zeb. After they were done talking, Hera knew relaxing would have to wait. She needed to find Sabine.

It all made sense now. Why they were talking and why Sabine got so angry. Why Ezra looked upset. Sabine wouldn't let him go. She should've seen it. Those two had been together for almost a year now, and Hera could still remember how hard it was for Sabine to let someone into her life like that. It took a long time to just gain her trust, but to open herself up to love took even longer. After a couple minutes searching, Hera finally found them by the Hanger in a makeshift workshop Sabine had made. They were cuddling on the floor leaning against a wall and Sabine's eyes were closed. Hera coughed to get their attention, and Sabine's eyes slowly flipped open.

"Oh hey Hera," Sabine said with a small yawn.

"We need to talk," Hera said. As Ezra started to get up Hera clarified, "Not you Ezra. Just me and Sabine."

Ezra and Sabine shared a look, one Hera couldn't place. Then Sabine got up and she and Hera walked far enough into the hanger so that no one would hear their conversation. "Hera is everything alright?" Sabine asked. Hera stayed silent for a moment then said, "Sabine do you trust the Rebellion?" "With my life," she said almost immediately. "But not with Ezra's?" Hera stated more as a fact than a question.

After a moment Sabine said, "No, not with Ezra's." "Why?"

"You know why!" Sabine snapped.

"Sabine you know I care for Ezra as much as you do, but he's a soldier of the Rebellion. And the Rebellion needs him. While he's here on Yavin he could be on Scarif saving lives. I understand why you didn't want him to go with Jyn and Cassian, but he'll be safe with me in the fleet. I promise."

"You know I trust you Hera, but I don't believe even you can make it out of this. Knowing the Empire, they'll do their hardest to make sure there isn't a single survivor. I understand our duty to the Rebellion, but I won't let Ezra give his life on a suicide mission. He means too much to me. And he's already been too hurt. The Rebellion can't help a Jedi like him. It can't protect him. Like when he went to Malachor. The Rebellion didn't help him then and he's haunted by the results. He still blames himself for what happened to Ahsoka and I can still see that that Sith holocron really hurt him. I won't let that happen to him again."

"And it won't. Sabine, what happened on Malachor will never happen again. You have to believe me on that. And losing Ahsoka was a tragedy. But it's a tragedy happening right now that you and Ezra can help fix. You can save countless lives by helping stop the Death Star. You know better than anyone how terrible the Empire's weapons can be. This is our chance to make sure that their greatest weapon can't hurt anyone ever again."

"I want to believe you. But I can't. Even if the mission succeeds, there will still be massive casualties. I won't let Ezra be one of them. I'd try to convince you not to go either if I actually thought you'd stay behind."

Hera would have responded, but at that moment her comm started to go off. Not breaking eye contact, she lifted it from her belt and spoke into it, "This is General Syndulla."

"General Syndulla, this is Admiral Raddus. We have intercepted Imperial Transmissions from Scarif and are about to begin our assault."

"Copy that, Admiral. I'm on my way."

"Goodbye, Hera. I hope not for the last time," Sabine said with a sad look in her eye.

"It won't be. I'll contact you when we get to Ukio. I promise we'll all make it back, safe and sound." She said it with enough confidence that Sabine almost believed it.

Ezra and Sabine saw them off, both with a horrible feeling that they'd never see each other again. Even though Ezra was worried, he could tell Sabine was even worse. She hid it well, so well no one could see it, no one but him. He knew she believed she was losing her family all over again, like after what happened on Mandalore. Ezra knew he had to do something. "Sabine," he said with no response. She was deep in thought. "Sabine," he said again waking her from her reverie. "Y-Yeah, Ezra." "Sabine, let's go to our place in the woods," he said with as much enthusiasm as he could muster. "It'll get our minds off things, and we can spend some time alone together." Sabine, in desperate need of a distraction said, "You're right, Ezra. I've been so preoccupied lately. For the rest of today, it's just you and me."

Meanwhile on the Ghost

"Zeb, have you checked final calculations," Hera asked with a steady tone in her voice, despite the dark atmosphere. For everyone in this fleet, except maybe Captain Rex, this was the most dangerous mission they've ever faced. They all knew they may not come back alive.

"Yup,"Zeb said, "those Imperials won't even know what hit 'em."

"Alright everyone we'll be exiting hyperspace soon, so be ready. This'll be the fight of our lives," Hera said.

"Let's just hope it won't be our last," Zeb said.

"It won't be. Whatever else happens, we'll make it back," Hera replied.

"If I know the Empire," Kallus said, "they'll have a massive fleet waiting for us. Too massive. Our job isn't to win this battle, only to get the plans and get out."

"Right. And to do that we need to watch each other's backs. We need to defend the fleet to make sure Princess Organa can escape with the Death Star plans. While she heads back to Tatooine to lose the Imperials, the remainder of the fleet will rendezvous on an old Confederate base on Ukio," Rex stated. "With any luck, we'll all be on Yavin in a week with the schematics for the Empire's greatest weapon."

"But since when do we have luck?" Zeb asked sarcastically.

As they approached Scarif Hera said, "Alright everyone we're about to exit hyperspace, get to your battle stations." Then as they exited hyperspace, the first battle of the Galactic Civil War began.

Author's Note:

So hi again. Another day, another chapter. How'd this one go? I've been trying to make them longer, but I'm not sure how much I succeeded. So yeah, I'm planning to get to the real meat of the story soon. I basically view all of what I've done so far as setup, so that should be exciting. Also a shoutout for ODST Ezra B who gave a suggestion for the end of this fic and an ODST/Rebels crossover. Anyway get hyped because soon, things are gonna get a lot more painful for the Ghost. Suggestions always welcome.

Edit: Ok so umm. I'm not writing an ODST/Rebels crossover. Because A) I know next to nothing about ODST stuff and B) making fanfictions is one thing but crossovers are another entirely. There's no way I'd be able to write a crossover well.