Droids in Distress: Just Like Old Times

"I don't have a shot!" Kanan shouted, trying and failing to take down the small swarm of TIE fighters.

"Chopper, do you have the coordinates?" The droid answered Hera with a grumble.

"What did he say?" Zeb asked.

"He said 'Hello, hyperspace.'" Hera answered, launching the ship into hyperspace.

"That's not what he said," Zeb grumbled. Ezra rolled his eyes as he watched the stars blur into steaks of light.

"Told you we'd get away."

Ezra and Sabine spun their chairs around to face Kanan as he entered the cockpit.

"With the shipment," Sabine corrected. "You said we'd get away with the shipment."

"Kanan, we're low on everything." Hera said.

"Food."

"Explosives."

"Fuel. We need to make some money, or we might as well put the Ghost in storage." There was a grim silence as Hera finished.

"There's always Vizago's job," Kanan suggested.

"So we're arms dealers again?" Zeb asked stiffly.

"Mmm, more like arms redistributors."

"Come on," Zeb scoffed. "We don't even know what kind of weapons we're talking about here."

Ezra rolled his eyes and leaned forward. "Hey, if it puts food on the table and frees up some time for – oh, I don't know – Jedi training, then I'm in."

Kanan pushed him back into his chair, noting that while Ezra tensed he didn't flinch* away again, and turned to Hera. "You game?"

"Say I am. What then?"

"I already know the mission," he told with a grin. "Let's head to the spaceport."

Kanan outlined the plan as they traveled and Ezra scowled. He did not like his part, and as he boarded the shuttle and Chopper zipped past him he scowled harder.

'At least I won't have to act,' he thought grumpily, smacking Chopper as he sat down.

"This way, Mr. Wabo. We have seats in the front." Ezra caught Zeb's eye as the Imperial woman lead the way to a pair seats directly in front of Zeb and Sabine. The alien she was escorting began speaking and the woman sighed. "Where is that translator?"

"Coming Minister," a robotic voice called. "Come along R2."

Ezra stiffened at the sight of a bronze, humanoid shaped droid with a silver leg followed by blue astromech. His vision swam and the sound of distant voices echoed in his ears. A sharp gab from Chopper brought him back to reality. Holding the aggravating, orange rust bucket at bay with one hand, Ezra watched Kanan jump aboard at the last second and make his way to the seat directly behind him.

Once they were a few minutes into their flight Chopped backed off, contenting himself with seeing how many times he could poke Ezra before he got a reaction. Ezra glared at him but held his temper until a soft kick to the back of his chair told him to move the plan along.

"Will you cut it out!" He exploded, pushing Chopper away. "You have plenty of room! Stop crowding me."

Chopper grumbled back and jabbed him with an electrified probe. Yelping, Ezra was thrown back.

"Kid, how 'bout you get that rust bucket under control?" Kanan growled, standing up to glare down at the kid on the floor. Chopper rounded on him, taser extended, and Kanan was quick to jerk back out of his reach.

"Mind your own business!" Ezra snapped back, climbing to his feet. His efforts were rewarded with another semi-painful shock. Kanan stood again.

"Hey, pilot. Isn't there some rule against droids in the passenger area?"

Ezra moved his glare from Chopper and Kanan to the robotic pilot which let out a wheezy sigh.

"I am sorry, sir. Your astromech must proceed to the back on the craft."

"Hey, if my astromech's banished, then those two astromechs are banished too." Ezra jabbed his finger at the two droids by the minister. The larger of the two droids in question twitched.

"Astromech? Me? I have never been so insulted. I'll have you know that I am a protocol droid fluent in over six million forms –"

"Pilot," the minister cut in. "These two droid are with me, and I am on Imperial business."

"Sorry, ma'am, but these are Imperial regulations."

"Even their robots don't like them," Ezra snickered quietly as the robo-pilot turned back to the controls.

Kanan's lips twitched at the comment and he sat back down. Ezra flopped down in front of him as the minister's droids made their way back.

"Secret mission?" Ezra's ears pricked and he glanced sideways at the 'protocol droid.' "What secret mission?"

The blue astromech beeped an answer and Ezra cursed his inability to speak droid. There was just something about those two. They were important, he was certain of it, but as for why?

He frowned and rubbed his temple, before shrugging and putting it out of his mind. He'd think about it later.

Kanan kept one eye on Zeb and Sabine as they worked over the Imperial minister and the other on Ezra. The kid had been rubbing his head and frowning and Kanan had felt something from him, a brief flash of anxiety and confusion. He'd worried for a moment that Chopper had gone overboard and hurt Ezra, but whatever the problem was it didn't seem to be bothering him anymore.

As he watched Ezra moved over to the window and looked out, hat pushed back slightly and a look of wide-eyed excitement on his face as he watched space flash by. Lips twitching in a small smile, Kanan relaxed ever so slightly as the ship flew on.

Ezra continued to stare at everything as the ship docked and he disembarked, though he did make sure to wander out of the way as he did, pulling Chopper with him and pretending to be fixing him up as the bay emptied.

Sabine strolled casually by.

"Bay 7," she said softly, placing her helmet on her head.

"'Bout as good as I'm gonna get," he told Chopper, standing up and patting the droid on its 'head.' "Go stretch your wheels while I look for my luggage."

Chopper whirred and snapped at him, but left anyway and Ezra darted off, hopping up a stack of crates until he reached a vent and crawling inside.

'Just like old times,' he thought sourly and pulled out his com.

"Kanan, I thought you were gonna teach me Jedi stuff," he complained as he crawled along. "So far, all I'm doing is thieving, and I already knew how to do that."

"Just get to Bay 7, open the door, and we all get paid."

"So we steal to stay alive. See? Told you I already knew this. Could probably even give you some pointers," he added. There was a long sigh and Ezra knew he was trying the man's patience, but after two weeks of sitting around waiting for something, anything, he was willing to start being annoying.

Climbing onto the roof of whatever bay they had landed in, Ezra looked around. It was an eerily impressive view and he whistled lowly as he kicked the vent shut and headed in the direction of Bay 7.

He stopped at the edge of the building and grimaced. Bay 7 was in sight right in front of him, but the fastest and most direct route would involve jumping some very long distances over a very long way down.

"They have no idea how lucky they are I've done tihs like this before," he muttered crossly, backing up for a running start. Taking a deep breath and feeling that person's reassuring presence, he leapt.

The first jump wasn't bad, the distance was short and the target was below him so he didn't have to jump up, which was always harder. Rolling to lessen the impact Ezra let his momentum carry him through the next hurdle. Another fairly short jump, but the landing area was narrow and slanted, easy to slip off of and nothing to grab a hold of. But he'd had worse odd, way worse. He sized up the next jump and hesitated. The distance was farther and he would be jumping to higher ground.

A small shuttle streaked by, fast enough to rock him a little and he scowled after it. His eyes followed the long roof back to his feet and an idea hit him. Nodding, he ran a few feet to his right, turned, and sprinted back, letting gravity pull him slightly down the side. A faint whistling rang in his ears and he jumped. Pin wheeling his arms as he started to slip, he regained his balance and made the final leap to the roof of Bay 7.

'Never thought I'd miss ventilation,' he thought dryly as he slipped down the vertical shaft.

"Ok. I'm in Bay 7," he informed the others a few minutes later, climbing out of the vent and looking around. A couple of crates sat in the center but nothing nearby to shorten the fall.

"Jump and fall. Jump and fall." He muttered, using the grill to lower himself as much as possible. "What do they think I'm made of? Rubber?"

He fell, tucking himself into a ball as he did. He hit the ground and rolled all the way to the door, bleeding of the momentum. It was a trick he'd learned a long time ago to lessen the impact of falls, and one he'd learned the hard way.

He tapped at the bay's key pad and absently rubbed his right knee, fingers bumping against armor. The scavenged piece of armor he wore was more than just a bit of extra protection; it acted as a brace for the knee he'd badly dislocated several years ago, before he'd learned how to fall properly.

The bay door rose.

"Well, kid," Zeb said, clapping sarcastically. "You pulled it off."

"Was there ever any doubt?" Ezra asked with a smirk.

"Yes," came the swift reply from not only Zeb but Sabine as well. Ezra scowled at them as they walked past.

'I guess I'll just have to prove myself then. As they say: never doubt a thief's skill, it only makes you a target.' He followed after them, resisting the urge to grin evilly. Behind him he heard the sound of a ship landing and glanced back to see the Ghost docking in the neighboring bay.

"Do we know what exactly Vizago has a stealing yet?" Hera asked, voice floating over the com.

Zeb lifted the lid off a crate and jerked back with a gasp. "Karabast."

Ezra winced as a wave of almost tangible fear edged with pain and sorrow slammed into him. A scream, long and terrible, began to ring in his ears.

"Whoa. They're T-7 ion disruptors," Sabine told them, picking one up. "These were banned by the Senate. You can short-circuit an entire ship with these."

"That's not why they were banned," Zeb whispered hoarsely and Ezra flinched slightly as a sharp spike of sorrow shot through him.

Kanan grabbed the disruptor from Sabine and dropped it back into the crate, slamming the lid back on. The sound chased the scream from Ezra's head.

"Get 'em aboard before company comes," Kanan ordered and Ezra groaned internally. He didn't want those things anywhere near him; not with the way Zeb was feeling about them, and not after the scream.

"Fo rehtom teews. . ." He cursed softly and activated the anti-grav. Sabine took over and started pushing the carrier toward the Ghost.

Chopper's familiar grumble came over the com.

"Well, stall them," Hera's voice snapped back. At Chopper's angry reply Ezra grabbed his com.

"Just tell them you lost me or need help or something. Don't just pick a fight!**" He advised as he and Zeb pushed the second load of crates toward the ship.

"Hurry!" Kanan called. "We're running out of–"

"Times up!" Ezra cried as a group of troopers came into view, blasters raised. "We're busted."

Author's Notes:

* I may have forgotten to mention, but.. About the flinching thing: Ezra has been on his own for years, the only time he's really come in contact with people is when he's stealing or conning them given that I find it hard to believe that he had any positive contact. I see him having been hit/abused/smacked around by a lot of people, so I think it's natural for him to have developed an instinctive reaction like flinching whenever someone raises a hand around him. So it's going to take some time for him to get used to casual touches, like Kanan playful shoving him back. I have Kanan note this because it will affect their relationship later.

** Ezra knows how to con and trick people, so knowing how to distract them is almost second nature for him at this point. Ezra also knows Chopper well enough at this point to know he will probably just pick a fight (like he did in the show), so to buy more time he gave Chopper an angel to work. It didn't buy a lot of time, but it did by enough to get them some. If you noticed, I had Ezra take a little more time in planning and executing his jumps which cost the group time, time I had Chopper get back with Ezra's distraction.