Ezra scowled as he watched the other rebels leave the CIS shuttle. They all came single-file, and with disciplined postures. Ketsu lead the group, nodding towards Ezra as she passed him. The teen wiped his scowl off his face, putting up the best blank face he could muster, and joined the line at the very back. The hood of his cloak was raised, concealing his features. Fighting his own trepidation, Ezra descended down the boarding ramp.
He was nervous for two reasons; one, meeting Kanan, and two, the other lightsaber hanging from his hip. The darksaber. Maul had given it to him before he left, explaining to him that to was to be a gift not only to the rebellion, but to Sabine, who would be the most likely to pry at the specifics of his cover story. More than the others, to be accurate. Kanan would be a whole other thing to deal with: if anyone was going to sniff out the emergence of Ezra's dark tendencies, it would be him.
Currently Ezra was suppressing the thin yellow rings around both of his irises; it was difficult, and Ezra knew combat could easily bring out said rings, but for the moment his eyes were pure blue. He followed the group blindly, until he sensed half a dozen force signatures behind him. They were dim; nearly void of the force. Ezra let himself be separated from the rebels he'd been following, seeing exactly what those signatures were; they were Alliance infantry, and each was armed with an E-11 blaster rifle. The teen sensed their collective mix of confusion and fear as they encircled him. With his pitch-black cloak and KIA status within the Alliance, he didn't fault them for their emotions. If anything, he welcomed them; feeding off them gave him a small amount of confidence, which he desperately needed at the moment.
Finally a trooper approached him, disbelief obvious in his eyes.
"Are you Ezra Bridger?" he asked, struggling to hide his nerves. Ezra's response was to throw back the hood of him cloak, and the soldier gave a quiet gasp. He whispered into what Ezra assumed to be a comm in his helmet before speaking to him again.
"Hand over your weapons and follow us, Admiral Sato requests an immediate meeting with you." Ezra nodded curtly, reluctantly reaching inside his cloak and handing over both his personal lightsaber and the darksaber. The Alliance troopers made a circle around him, rifles clutched in their hands to the point of whitening knuckles. Ezra, on the other hand, put up a face of neutrality, attempting to quell the parts of him that were screaming that this was a horrible idea, and that he should just take a ship and take whatever punishment Maul would have lined up for him when he got back to Dathomir. The teen continued to struggle with his emotions as he was lead to the command center of Chopper Base, his blood running cold when he saw the welcoming party he was met with: the entirety of the Ghost crew.
Admiral Sato was to their left, hands folded behind his back and a frown across his weathered face. Rex stood to the right of the Ghost crew, giving Ezra a simultaneously shocked and suspicious look. The crew members that made up the Ghost were a kaleidoscope of emotions.
All had varying degrees of shock on their faces, Sabine standing out for her seeming inability to keep her jaw from slacking. Hera's face was one of unabashed disbelief and concern; Zeb's was ditto except an unwanted grin was tugging at the edges of his face; Kanan's was identical to Hera's but soon turned analytical. Ezra didn't speak; he stared back, doing his best to quash the emotion that threatened his neutral facade. Sato looked between the Ghost crew and Ezra, finally breaking the tense silence that had developed and reigned for over two minutes.
"Ezra…" he began, falling silent almost immediately afterward. The admiral pursed his lips, finding no more eloquent way to state the obvious.
"...to put it bluntly, you have been reported dead for a year. Dead people are not supposed to reappear after they've been reported so." Ezra nodded, not having a good idea of how to respond. The tense silence from earlier returned, broken by Zeb after another minute passed.
"Kid, where the hell'ave ya been?" asked the lasat. Sato sent him a disapproving glance, but nonetheless nodded.
"I must agree, Ezra, where have you been for the past two years?" at this Ezra shook his head, putting as much diplomacy into his tone as he could find.
"I apologize, Admiral, but that information is for the Ghost crew." the teen stated. Sato's eyes turned severe and suspicious, as did Rex's, but Ezra didn't falter. Hera looked back between the three, finally approaching Sato and saying,
"Admiral, could I talk to you privately?" Sato nodded curtly, following the twi'lek to a shadowed corner of the command center. A few minutes later, he and Hera took up their previous positions. Sato spoke, face showing his dissatisfaction with the situation.
"Very well. You may tell the Ghost crew your story," he gestured for Rex and the squad of troopers to follow him. The elderly clone did, shooting Ezra one last glance before he, the troopers, and Sato headed off to another section of the base. When the admiral was finally out of earshot, Hera spoke.
"Ezra, could you explain what you've been doing for the past two years?" she asked, though Ezra identified it as a command. The matriarchal tone the twi'lek had developed when speaking to him was dripping from her words. Ezra sighed, partly out of the theatrical need but mainly out of his actual need to do so. He placed his hands on the edges of the holographic display console the command center had, taking a calming breath.
"I've spent two weeks attempting to sever my connection with Maul," he said, directing his eyes at the console he gripped. He was doing so for the same reasons he'd sighed earlier.
"The night I disappeared was when Maul attempted to take control of me for the second time," Ezra paused for effect. "the thing was, he succeeded that time." Hera and Sabine collectively gasped, Zeb did a double take, and Kanan's frown deepened. Before any of them could speak up, Ezra continued.
"He stole a ship with my body, and eventually left me in a room with a locked door, and no lightsaber; but it had a vent. I managed to squeeze through it and direct the ship to Lothal's system," Ezra paused at that point, sensing a question about to burst from Sabine. He gave the mandalorian a curt nod, and he spoke what was on her compatriots' minds.
"Why didn't you contact us? We could've helped you!" she said, a hint of anger in her tone. Ezra looked at her, raising a brow.
"Really? You think any of you could've helped me? No offense, but nobody could've helped me. I didn't contact you guys because Maul might've taken control of me and used the ship I was on to lure you guys into a trap," the teen explained, silently releasing an internal sigh of relief when Sabine fell silent. They seemed to have accepted that part. Good.
"I had to sever my connection with Maul, and I didn't anybody else dragged into it," Ezra went on, praying his reasoning would make sense. "So I went to the farthest planet I could find in explored space to do it." Kanan's head tilted to the left slightly, making Ezra's heart skip a beat. Had he finally sensed the changes in him? Maul had spent months teaching Ezra to perfect his ability to cloak himself in the force, but was Kanan strong enough to see through his illusion? Or had he finally realised he couldn't sense Ezra at all and was curious? Taking another steadying breath, Ezra pushed his emotions down and continued with his story.
"I spent two more weeks trying to break my connection with Maul; every night he'd torture me, but I always had enough fight left in me to stop him from manipulating my body. I only came back because that connection is gone." Kanan finally spoke up, making Ezra's heart begin to skyrocket. He put up his best mental barriers, and reinforced his calm façade.
"Maul already took control of you once, Ezra, and you suddenly find the energy to fight him?" the Jedi asked, crossing his arms. Ezra darkened his eyes for dramatic effect.
"You'd be surprised what a good motivator desperation is," Ezra could sense the cogs inside Kanan's head working, trying to find a flaw in what Ezra had said.
"And you kept this up for two weeks? Every night?" to that Ezra nodded, sighing as he did so.
"And you think I couldn't pull that off?" he asked accusingly. If he sounded like he was offended, Kanan would immediately try to calm him, buying Ezra time.
"...maybe. But he already knew what you were going to do and when you were going to do it. How'd you get past that?" Ezra finally looked up at his former master, darkening his eyes even more.
"Perseverance." that gave Kanan pause. But before he could ask the obvious, Zeb piped up.
"How do we even know that we're not talking to Maul anyway?" said the lasat, pointing an accusatory finger at Ezra.
"Would someone like Maul really struggle to kill an inquisitor?" that statement was more directed towards Kanan, but they rang true for every other crew member of the Ghost. All of them shook their heads, save the Jedi.
"How do we know Maul didn't throw that fight?" he asked. Ezra gave him a long, hard look.
"Because I fought him, Kanan. He wouldn't hold himself back." there wasn't any tense silence after that statement, because Ezra broke it before it could develop.
"I haven't finished my story, yet. Maul didn't know where I was until about two weeks after I fled, when he found me on the planet I'd fled to. He arrived and we dueled; I was disarmed in a minute, but I lashed out with the force before he could do anything more to me. He wasn't expecting the power I showed, and was flung back hard enough to knock him out cold." Ezra added a bit of pride to his words, hoping it would help his words be more convincing. Every member of the Ghost crew looked to Kanan, who, after a moment's mulling over of Ezra's statement, nodded.
"That sounds reasonable. Those who focus on lightsaber combat often have weak force barriers. And you're strong in the force, Ezra," the smallest of smiles tugged at the edges of Kanan's mouth at his own words, but he suppressed it. "...and you're right, too. Desperation can enhance one's force abilities…" Kanan sighed, "I have to say I can believe that." the wave of relief that spread through Ezra at that nearly got through his emotional mask. Nearly. After looking at each crew member individually, he continued.
"I was stunned, honestly. My escape of the planet is a blur, really - you know, with my adrenaline and all," said Ezra, uncertainty clawing at him. But none of the crew seemed to have anything to say back, so he went on.
"I remember and getting my lightsaber back stealing Maul's ship, then setting it to plot a course for Lothal when it hit me: Maul was knocked out! He was vulnerable! So I set a course for the nearest habitable planet and mediated. It took several hours, and attempts, but eventually I broke the bond." the non-force sensitive crew members didn't speak up, but more noteworthy to Ezra, Kanan didn't either.
"I've spent the last two years trying to locate a rebel cell without being caught," the teen continued, feeling more confident. "The cell on Sereno happened to be closest to me; so I sold Maul's ship to a smuggler who had worked with them on the condition that he'd drop me off at their base. It turned out they were being attacked the day I showed up."
"That's an awful coincidence," said Kanan. Ezra smiled a bit.
"The force works in mysterious ways, master." Ezra looked at Kanan, internally hoping the force would help him.
"I suppose so," Kanan said after what felt like an eternity. He sounded doubtful, but he'd pulled some pretty ridiculous stunts himself. His survival of Order 66 standing out as fairly miraculous. Finally, he relented.
"Your story checks out decently well," the Jedi said carefully, "but even if you're accepted back, you'll be under suspicion for the foreseeable future. Is that okay with you Ezra?" the teen nodded vigorously, allowing himself a pleased smile.
"Do you want me to go to the Ghost? I'll stay there as long as you need me too," Ezra said, straightening himself. Hera and Kanan exchanged a look, and after a few seconds they nodded, heads in sync.
"As long as you're guarded, and I escort you." Kanan said. Ezra nodded obediently, smile beginning to fade. Hera turned towards Sabine and Zeb, saying:
"You two meet up with Rex and wait there until I get back." the pair followed Hera as she headed in the direction Rex had gone, Sabine giving Ezra sideways looks. Kanan gestured silently to Ezra, who dutifully followed behind him. Stares followed the pair as they made their way to the Ghost, but Ezra ignored them. Kanan lead Ezra up the lowered boarding ramp and through the halls he'd walked two years ago.
Unbidden, a small twinge of nostalgia came to Ezra, which the teen quashed in short order. He followed Kanan until the Jedi opened the door to Hera's room. Ezra blinked.
Hera's room?
Confusion mixed with uncertainty as Kanan lead Ezra to a mat placed in the far left corner of the room, gesturing for him to sit down. The teen obeyed, dismissing the parts of him that were indignant at such treatment. He crossed his legs, still not lowering the hood of his cloak. Force, he was thankful for the garment right now.
"Stay here until either Hera or I tell you to, okay?" again, an order masked with a question. Ezra internally bristled at what he considered an insult to his intelligence, but nonetheless nodded. Kanan exited the room, leaving Ezra alone.
The teen allowed himself a calming, self-satisfied breath out. He'd done it; it wasn't official yet, but he was going to be reinstated into the Alliance. Nobody would question the wisdom of a Jedi - even discounting the fact that Kanan was the only one the Alliance had at the moment. Ezra felt a smirk tugging at the edges of his mouth: not only was he set to be reinstated with the Alliance, he'd just given a performance that would have made even the most demanding of Alderranian directors proud.
I don't have much to say - again. This chapter was a tad difficult to write, but I feel Ezra's cover story made enough sense. Anyhoo, that's all for this author's note, so: any and all reviews/follows/favorites will be duly noted. 'Till next time. - Raging Celiac