"That Day"
Chapter Two
Summary of Chapter Two: After Ezra wakes up from another dream, or memory, he realizes that it's "That Day." The day his parents were taken into custody. The day he lost his sister. The day the Emperor Proclaimed the Clone Wars to be over and recognized the Galactic Republic into the First Galactic Empire via the Declaration of a New Order*. And, of course, the day he was born. Since the Ghost is currently in space, he goes to the nose gun to think. Soon, Hera calls the crew to the main room because of a mission. Kanan, after wishing Ezra a happy birthday, much to the boy's displeasure, explains the mission using a holo-disk. When Sabine is transferring a file about the mission to a holo-projector, Ezra notices something... odd.
*Thank you Wookiepedia.
oOo
It was early in the morning and Ezra was currently sitting in the nose gun. He didn't know why, but seeing space always calmed him. All the stars, planets... He sometimes dreamed that, one day, he would be the one to see them all(1). The planets, of course. Travel the space and see them all... That was his dream. Not counting the dream to get rid of the Empire and restore peace in the universe.
He sighed. That would probably never happen.
He went back to thinking about today.
This was his second birthday with the crew.
'Hopefully they won't remember. I don't think I'm in the mood for them to give me their pitying looks like last year. I had enough of that on the streets.'
His thought went to his family.
Ezra sighed. He missed his family, there was no denying it. Any rational person would. But they wouldn't come back. They were dead. He was forced to live with that fact every day.
'Not all of them,' A voice in his head said.
He shook his head. Sure, he didn't know what happened to his sister, but there was a very slim chance she was alive or not an Imperial soldier. He didn't know what planet his father sent her to in the pod (to this day, he was still confused about how it got there), so he couldn't be sure if the planet was "collected" by the Empire or not.
Another possibility was that the pod could crash or ran out of fuel. Those chances were very high.
Or that the pod blew up. The planet, or more likely the people on it, could've thought that the pod was a threat. Or the people on the planet were cannibals. Or the planet was deserted. Or maybe his father just sent her to another place on Lothal. Maybe Tarkin Town? No, it couldn't have been Tarkin Town. That would mean she either died in the fire or was taken captive.
Or, assuming she wasn't on Lothal, the planet blew up. It could've been destroyed by the Empire, just like Lasan.
'Maybe it was Lasan!'
Okay, that was taking it a little too far. But still, the possibilities of what happened to that pod were endless.
Ezra sighed and rubbed his head at the temples. He was starting to have a headache from this.
"Everyone, report to the main room. Ahsoka has given us a new mission," Ezra heard Hera's voice through the comm, shaking him from his thought and making him jump. He must have been here a long time.
'Another mission? But we just came from one!' Ezra thought. It was true, they just finished a mission with the Phoenix Squadron, which then headed back to the Headquarters. The Ghost needed to refuel, so they stopped at a nearby planet. They were headed to Headquarters right now, but it took them longer than they thought (Five or so hours), since the Ghost was damaged and it was not save to travel through hyperspace.
'At least I will get my mind off things,' He thought.
Ezra stood up and headed out the door. Unfortunately, he got lost in thought again and bumped into the ladder.
"Ow," he said, rubbing his sore nose.
He then made his way to the Main Room, this time paying attention to where he was going.
oOo
"But Hera! We just went on a mission. I'm sorry, I got nothing against Ahsoka, she's my friend, but she needs to buy a dictionary and look up the word 'rest' in it! Can't someone else do it? It's not like we're the only people in the Rebel Alliance! I mean, have you seen the headquarters?!" Sabine's voice was heard through the whole ship.
"She's got a point you know. I mean, what did they do before we knew about the Alliance?" Zeb asked, also rather loudly.
Ezra walked through the doorway, raising a brow. Sabine was standing in front of the table, arms in the air like she just didn't care, looking at Hera. The Twi'lek was at the other side of the table, leaning back, brows furrowed, arms crossed. Zeb was standing at the other doorway, arms crossed. Kanan was absent.
Unfortunately for Ezra, Sabine noticed him.
"Ezra! You agree with me too, right? We can't just keep doing missions after missions! I mean, I haven't painted anything in almost two days. Two. Days!"
"Uh... We did have about a six-hour break, but... sure, I agree with you," Ezra replied, giving Sabine a goofy smile. Even though he didn't had a crush on her anymore, he would still do anything for her. (2) Plus, he thought she would calm down if he agreed. But it was mostly the first thing.
Hera sighed and muttered a greeting, which Ezra returned with a soft, fake smile. Zeb nodded at him, also in form of a greeting.
'Good, they don't seem to know that it's Empire Day. Now I just have to hope that Kanan doesn-'
"There you are, Ezra! Happy Birthday!"
'Karabast.'
Kanan appeared at the other side of Ezra and put a hand on his shoulder. "Sorry I didn't get you anything. The missions seem like they're multiplying by the second and I didn't really have the time, which you probably know, since you're also going on the missions and all that, which reminds me that I need to talk to Ahsoka about that, and what is going on with Sabine? " he said, looking at Sabine weirdly and taking a large gulp of air. Ezra couldn't help but chuckle. Ever since he and Hera got together(3), he's been so... full of energy and happiness, despite the situation with the Empire. It was nice to see someone happy in these times. Well, not including Sabine of course. She's always happy.
"I just think that we should get more rest between our missions! Is that so much to ask? Is it? IS IT?!" Sabine yelled, slamming her hands at the table.
Well, not at this moment.
Hera looked at her with concerned eyes, "Sabine, are you feeling alright?"
"'Feeling alright?!' No I'm not feeling alright! I haven't painted in two whole days! Two. Whole. Days," Sabine complained.
Ezra shook his head. He still didn't understand why he had a crush on her. Sure, she was pretty, but when he got to know her personality? Yeesh.
He suddenly realized that he didn't give Kanan an answer.
Ezra cleared his throat. "Uh, thanks. It's okay. Last year was the first year someone gave me a gift for my birthday since my parents di- got arrested," he almost forgot he didn't tell them his parents died. "And I don't really know what's wrong with Sabine. She probably breathed in too much paint fumes," he added with a chuckle.
Kanan gave a soft laugh. "Yeah, that's probably it." He then looked at Ezra with concern in his eyes, "Are you okay?"
"Me? Of course! I'm always okay," he gave a fake smile.
Kanan didn't seem convinced, but he let it go. Another new good thing about him.
They were silent for a few seconds, watching the argument in front of them.
"So... 16, huh?" Kanan broke the silence.
"Yeah...," Ezra replied, not really paying attention due to being lost in thought once again.
"...So... what do you want to do to... you know... celebrate it?"
Ezra snapped back to the real world and gave Kanan a confused look that Kanan chuckled at.
"Look, I know you usually don't celebrate things, but you're 16 now! That has to be a reason enough to celebrate, right?" Kanan said.
Ezra looked at him for a few more seconds, then looked away and shook his head.
"Today isn't a day to celebrate. There's nothing to celebrate or be happy about," Ezra argued.
"What do you mean? You were born today. That's a big reason to celebrate," Kanan countered, smiling.
Ezra shook his head again. He seemed to do that a lot lately.
"Today is the day the Empire was born. Today is the day my parents were captured. Today is the day I first used the dark side of the Force. Today is not a day to celebrate."
Kanan looked at him in concern and sadness. There was silence once again, before Kanan looked away and broke it once again by saying, "Wow. Way to kill the mood."
Ezra gave a small smile.
They returned their attention to the argument, just as Hera put her head in her hands. "Sabine, could you just sit down? I really am not in the mood to listen to your problems."
Sabine looked as if she was going to argue again, but Kanan, who finally decided to break the argument up, put a hand on her shoulder, almost scaring the life out of her. She then sat down, far away from Hera, after seeing the look on his face.
"Alright," Kanan started, getting everyone's attention and going into "Leader mode." He stood in the middle of the room, his hands folded behind his back. "I know that we just came from a mission and that we are all tired, even though we had time to rest. B-"
"Not all of us. Some of us had to repair and clean their weapons," Kanan was cut off by Sabine's muttering, to which he replied by sending a glare in her direction.
"As I was saying," He started again, "I know we are all tired, but we should be already used to this after almost three quarters of a year of being with the Alliance."
"Now, our next mission is to-," Kanan was cut off again when Zeb raised his hand.
He sighed. "Yes, Zeb?"
"How can we go on another mission if the Ghost is damaged?"
"Good question. The Ghost isn't as damaged as we thought it was. We just can't go into hyperspace now.(4) Now, that won't be a problem, since the planet we need to go to is not very far from here, hence the reason why we have to do it. We could get there in about an hour or so.(5) Now. The actual mission is to rescue a senator, who is scheduled to an execution for tomorrow, from the imperial prison on the planet. Hera, the holodisk, please."
Hera handed Kanan a holo-disk.
"Thanks," he said and sent her a smile, which she returned.
Sabine raise her hand.
"Yes, Sabine?"
"What planet is it?" She asked.
"Jakku" Kanan replied.
Sabine nodded in acknowledgment.
"Okay," he continued as he turned the holo-disk on. A list of pictures and information was projected. "On this holo-disk is a list of all the people in the prison. There is a lot of them, as you can see. Anyway, Sabine, could you transfer all of it to the holo-projector(6) in the table? It shows the image bigger, plus we might need the list in the future, so it's better to have it saved there. And it's easier to find the senator's picture." Kanan asked, or rather ordered, Sabine.
Sabine stood up, grabbed the holo-disk from Kanan and placed it on the table. She then turned on the holo-projector and started to somehow transfer the images and lists.
Ezra scanned the projected images. The list was being transferred by each image of each 'criminal.' Each of them took about a minute to transfer. He mentally groaned. This was going to take a long time. He slid down the wall he was leaning against, sitting on the floor. No one noticed him. Zeb and Chopper were arguing. Sabine was transferring the images, mumbling something about 'Not getting enough free-time' and 'Having to do all the work.' Kanan and Hera were just staring at one another, holding hands, now sitting next to each other, making Ezra want to gag. Thank the Force they had the decency not tokiss in public.
His eyes landed on the images once again, looking at each face carefully. He was sure none of the people there have done any crimes. Sure, some of them looked like criminals, but Ezra wasn't the one to "judge a book by it's cover," being judged himself by everyone on the street. So he still thought the people were innocent. They might've stolen something or something similar to that, but he was sure they were only doing it to survive. Just like him.
These thought were flying around his head, when everything seemed to abruptly stop. Ezra stared at the face projected in front of him, thinking he was hallucinating. He was sure he looked like an idiot, with his eyes open wide and his mouth hanging open. But he didn't care. All that mattered was the face being projected.
It was an image of a little girl, about 7 years old, with long, raven blue hair and electric blue eyes. You could see the resemblance between her and Ezra, but a normal person would brush it off. However, Ezra knew better. His eyes landed on the neck of the girl and on the birthmark he knew too well. It was an image of a dove. He knew, because he had the same one on his neck. He just hid it with the collar of his jumpsuit. A normal person would look at this girl and be feeling sad or angry because of the brutality of the Empire. How can someone arrest a child? But not Ezra. Ezra, when he saw this girl, was feeling happy. And confused. But mostly he was feeling hopeful.
But all that went away when the image change into the image of a 79 year old man.
"Ezra!" Kanan's voice shook him from his thoughts and he looked at said man.
"I asked if you were okay? First I felt a rush of happiness and confusion coming from you through the Force and then a rush of sadness... You learned to control that, so... are you okay?" He asked again.
Ezra shook his head and rushed over to Sabine.
"Go back," He said to her.
"Um...," She started.
"Now!" He yelled at her, an angry look in his eyes. The rest of the crew looked at him, also shocked. He didn't care.
Sabine looked at him, shocked and a little hurt at his outburst.
His eyes softened. "Please," he said more quietly, feeling guilty for yelling at her.
Sabine's face changed from shocked to confused to sincere. "How much back to you want me to go?"
Ezra looked at the image the holo-disk was projecting now, grateful that she understood. There was now an image of a young, male adult with piercing and tattoos all over his face.
"About two pictures, I think," he said.
Sabine started typing something and in a few seconds, the girl appeared again. Ezra looked at the girl once again, but this time for only a few seconds. He looked at the information next to her. It said:
Name: Unknown
Age:Approximately seven years old
Planet:Kashyyyk
Cell: 1287
Detention Block: BC-78
Ezra scanned the words about ten times, making sure he remembered them, and then ran out of the room.
oOo
Ezra sped to his room. He still couldn't believe he had his own room on the Ghost. He got it when he and Zeb were fighting.
Flashback
"Come here, you little Runt!" Zeb yelled as he sped through the halls, chasing a certain 15-year-old through the halls of the Ghost.
"Haha! You'll never catch me!" Ezra yelled back over his shoulder at Zeb.
Unfortunately, or rather fortunately for Ezra, that angered the Lasat even more. Ezra decided to trick him by using Zeb's momentum against him and stopped before a wall. Just before the Lasat could grab him, he ducked and ran to the left. He heard a 'Bang!' and looked over his shoulder, just to see Zeb fall on his back side from hitting the wall.
Ezra laughed and was about to comment on this, before he suddenly also hit a wall. However, instead of bouncing back from the wall, he... fell through it?
"Ah!" he yelped before hitting the ground.
Ezra started coughing from inhaling dust and used his elbow to cover his mouth. He then stood up, dusting himself off.
"What just happened?!" He said, a little panic in his voice. He looked around himself, but could barely see a thing. He was about to use his lightsaber for light, and possible protection, when he heard snickering behind him. Ezra whipped around and saw a medium-sized hole. He gave the hole a confused look before going closer to it.
"Boo!" Zeb yelled, jumping out at Ezra and tackling him.
"Zeb! You freaking idiot!" Ezra yelled as he tried to get up from under the Lasat, but to no avail.
Zeb got up, holding his stomach and laughing like a maniac. "You-You should have seen your f-face! Priceless!"
"Shut up," Ezra growled as he stood up, dusting himself off once again.
Suddenly they heard running footsteps. Zeb stopped laughing and shared a worried look with Ezra, who put a finger to his mouth, indicating silence. He then peeked through the hole in the wall and saw a pair of turquoise eyes glaring back at him.
"Uh...," He gave a nervous laugh. "Heeey, Hera... What's up?"
"What. Did. You. Do?!" She yelled. Both Ezra and Zeb flinched.
"Well, um, you see... It's Zeb's fault!" Ezra exclaimed, pointing at Zeb.
Flashback End
Long story short, after doing some exploring, it turned out that there was another room on the Ghost. After doing some renovating and after a lot of begging from Ezra, he finally had his own room. He still had to do a ton of chores for running around the Ghost and destroying a wall, but it was worth it.
Ezra entered the room. The bed was similar to the one in Sabine's room, with a table on the bottom and the bed on the top. There was also a black-wood cabinet with some tools on it. Other than that, there was a door to the bathroom(7) and some of Sabine's artwork.
The boy went to the table under the bed and looked through the stack of papers that was on it. It was mostly notes about some of his inventions. He found a blank piece of line-paper and wrote this down:
1287
BC-78
KASHYYYK
He then took the paper and put it inside his pocket.
oOo
(1) *Cough* Reference *Cough*
(2) Cue the "Aww"s
(3) Yes, I did the thing. I mean, after seeing Kanan's and Hera's reunion in "Fire Across the Galaxy," I had to. Also, is that the longest run-on sentence ever or what?
(4) I... don't know if that's a thing, but it is in this story. So deal with it.
(5) I don't know how time or travel in space works, so I'll just write a random number or whatever.
(6) Don't know if that's a thing. Pretty sure it is.
(7) I decided that everyone has their own bathroom on the Ghost. For obvious reasons.
So. Season two, huh? Wow. I-I have no words on Siege of Lothal. Just... wow. I mean, Darth Vader knows about Ahsoka! And I'm pretty sure she knows who Darth Vader is! I man, just look at her face at the end. And why would she scream "No!"? God, I can't wait for them to meet. Can't. Wait. The only bad thing is that the episode felt a little bit rushed. And that we have to wait until FALL for a new episode. What is it with shows and making the fans wait, like, 10 months for each episode? *Cough* Gravity Falls *Cough* *Clears Throat* Ugh. I should get something for that cough... Anyway, I also think that they should have burned Tarkin Town with the citizens inside it instead of taking them captive. Kind of like they did to Luke's Aunt and Uncle, you know? *Sighs* Anyway, I guess I did have some words on Siege of Lothal. Also, I think I'm using the word "Anyway" too much...
Anyway, I think I will be rewriting my other story "Star Wars Rebels: Call to Action." Let me know what you guys think.
Also, I forgot to put a "WARNING: SAD STUFF AHEAD" on the last chapter, so here it is. Sorry it's a tiny-bit late.
Anyway... Bye!
Ps: Sorry I made Sabine a little "Cray-Cray" in this chapter thingy.
Pps/Pss(?): Sorry I didn't update anything sooner; My computer had a virus on it and it had to be repaired. Sadly, I lost most of my stuff. Now, that wouldn't be so bad, since I had most of it on my phone too, but my phone also lost most of my stuff. Long story. The point is, I lost the stories I wrote and my ideas for fanfictions. So... yeah.
PPPS/PSSS: I NEED A NAME FOR EZRA'S SISTER! ANY IDEAS?