Pre-story AN: I am so, so , so, so sorry for making you all wait so long. Suffice to say life decided to see how many curve balls it could throw at me and it's taken me a while to learn how to juggle them all. Anyway, here are the next few chapters, more will be coming and the wait won't be anywhere near so long. Thanks for your patience!

Breaking Ranks: Breaking Free

'Test my true capacity my ssa,' Ezra thought furiously as he jumped to avoid another shot from Oleg. 'This whole nmad thing is rigged!'

Grabbing onto the underside rungs of a platform, Ezra swung himself around in time to catch a short ride up. Above him, Ezra could just make out the sneers on Aresko and Grint's faces as they watched. Ezra glared at them.

Between the increased speed and fewer number of platforms, this challenge was proving harder than the others, but the increased level of difficulty wasn't what had Ezra's temper flaring. It was that they weren't even trying to hide the fact they wanted him to fail, especially as his opponents were the best of his squad and Ezra had been the only one denied a blaster.*

They claimed it was because he had done so well and that being unarmed would force him to prove himself and 'test his true capacity in the face of greater adversity.' Ezra gritted his teeth and fought not to show them a certain few hand signs he'd picked up on the streets.

"Come on, keep up!" Ezra shouted at Zare and Kell, enjoying the annoyed scowls that crossed Aresko and Grint's faces. Despite the blatant sabotage, Ezra was still in the lead.

Ezra clambered onto another platform and looked down. Zare was a platform below him, but Jai was almost a third of the way down. Oleg was still below Jai so everything was looking good, at least until Oleg decided to target someone other than Ezra.

"Jai, look out!" Ezra shouted, dropping down.

He'd only meant to knock Jai out of the way, but was too slow and ended up taking the shot instead. Ezra fell, crashing onto a platform with a teeth jarring thud, unable to land properly due to the mild electrocution.

"Dev!" Jai shouted.

"Keep going!" Ezra gasped out, pushing himself up. "And somebody shoot him!"

Zare, who'd paused at the commotion, was more than happy to send a couple shots at Oleg. Unfortunately, Oleg proved as difficult to hit as he was to like, but Zare was able to stall him for a few seconds.

Ezra used Zare's distraction to get directly beneath Oleg's platform and grab one of the underhanging bars. He yanked with just enough Force to tip the platform and cause Oleg to fall.

'Revenge might not be the Jedi way, but it's definitely the street rat way,' Ezra thought smugly as he dashed the rest of the way up. 'And oh so satisfying.'

"Kell, Leonis, and Morgan again," Aresko said sourly. "Though it seems Morgan is not as perfect as we thought."

Ezra very carefully kept his mouth shut and focused on the Walker that was to be their escape.

The three boys climbed into the machine and Jai immediately dropped into the only passenger seat, hands twitching nervously.

"Relax," Ezra muttered as Zare distracted the driver and slipped him the man's rifle.

"So how fast can this thing go?" Ezra asked, letting his own nervous excitement leak through to add a bit of realism.

"Not very," came the trooper's amused answer.

"Well, that's not fun," Ezra grumbled, winking at Zare's questioning look. People were less likely to suspect an excited, easy-going kid than a tense, serious one.

A loud explosion shook the Walker.

"What was that?" the stormtrooper demanded.

"Nothing you need to worry about," Ezra answered breezily, firing the rifle and knocking the man unconscious.**

"We're under attack," Aresko's voice announced over the comm. "Repeat, we're under attack. Lower the blast doors!"

"Do something!" Jai shouted as the doors began closing in front of them.

"Time to see how fast this thing can go," Ezra muttered, pushing the machine to maximum.

The heavy trod was teeth rattling, but true to its name the Walker only moved at a fast walk.

"We're not going to make it," Zare said hoarsely, eyeing the rapidly closing door.

"Yes, we are," Ezra corrected through gritted teeth. "Hold onto something!"

Ezra cut the power to one leg and wrenched the other around, forcing the Walker into a mockery of a pirouette. The machine jerked around, throwing Zare and Jai against the far side, and wobbled dangerously. With a squealing crunch of crushed metal and several cries of pain and surprise the Walker fell, hitting the ground and rolling under the doors.

Jai pealed himself off the driver's chair with a moan, ribs throbbing painfully.

"Everybody still alive?"

"Yeah," Ezra replied with a wince, crawling out from under the controls, a hand hovering between a split lip and a blackening eye. "Zare?"

A soft groan answered him, and Ezra and Jai looked over to see Zare's hand twitching under the stormtrooper's body.

"Hang on, we gotcha!" Jai grunted as he and Ezra rolled the man off their friend.

"Nmad he weighs a ton," Ezra huffed.

Zare glared at him and limped over to the ceiling hatch which was now acting like a wall.

"Are you going to help me or not?" Zare snapped.

"Glad you're all right too," Ezra muttered sarcastically, but moved to help.

The hatch opened in time for them to see Sabine downing the last of a few troopers.

"You guys ok?" She asked, helping them out.

"Yeah," Jai mumbled. "Let's just get out of here."

Sabine nodded and turned to lead them away, Jai trailing behind her.

"I'm staying," Zare said, picking up the discarded blaster, expression grim like he expected a fight.

Ezra stared at him, eyeing the resolve on Zare's face.

"Your sister." It wasn't a question but Zare nodded anyway.

"It's the only way I'll ever find her."

Ezra nodded his understanding.

"We got bucket heads in bound!" Sabine yelled.

"I'll keep in touch," Ezra promised. He turned to run when an idea struck him and he spun back around.

"If you ever get in trouble contact Senator Organa and tell him you're a friend of Ezra Bridger. He should be able to help. But only in emergencies!" Ezra said swiftly, before sprinting off after the others.

"Of course he knows a senator," Zare muttered, shaking his head and sending a few shots in their general direction. Footsteps sounded behind him and Zare lowered the rifle. Aresko and Grint eyed him for a moment before leading him inside for questioning. Zare followed obediently, weaving together a story that cast him as a hero.

It took Zeb almost 30 minutes to shake off their pursuers, the whole while the ride to the Ghost was silent and tense. Zeb and Sabine unsure what to make of the unexpected addition, Jai too wary of them to do anything other than stare, and Ezra too tired from the weeks of stress to bother trying to put anyone at ease.

It was Chopper who broke the gloomy atmosphere. The droid grumbled and clanked until Sabine finally caved and agreed to start removing the black paint.

"So now what?" Jai asked quietly.

"Now we meet up with the others–"

"Others?"

"Just two more," Ezra said, giving Jai's shoulder a reassuring pat. "They're the ones in charge and they'll be able to hide you and your mom."

Jai grimaced but didn't voice his doubt.

"Don't worry, they're nice and I can guarantee they smell better then Grint," Ezra promised with a grin.

"That's not saying much," Jai snorted, shaking his head, "considering he smelled like month old bantha droppings."

"Well, if half of your crazy theories about him are true. . ." Ezra trailed off suggestively and the rest of the trip past as the two boys, with the occasionally input or question from Zeb and Sabine, came up with more and more unlikely guesses as to Grints' ancestry.

"We're here," Zeb grunted and Jai immediately fell silent.

Vague introductions were made and Hera stepped forward.

"Jai, we'll take you to your mother," she began gently, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. "But you'll both have to go into hiding."

"Yeah, from the Empire," Jai said scathingly. "No problem."

"We'll help with that two," Hera promised, leading Jai into the ship.

Ezra sighed and shook his head as the others disappeared into the Ghost. He looked up when Kanan approached and the two blinked at each other.

"So how was it, kid?" The man's tone was light, but his expression was unreadable and Ezra glanced away.

"Forgot what it was like to be on my own," he answered casually.

Kanan's lips quirked, but the move seemed a bit forced.

"You miss it?"

The tone was still light, but there was an edge to it Ezra couldn't identify. Shoving aside his unease, Ezra rolled back on his heels, falling into his easy going persona.

"No grumpy robots, no smelly Lasats," Ezra answered flippantly, giving Kanan a slight smirk, before swallowing and admitting the truth. "It's good to be back."

Kanan chuckled, the tension he'd been carrying since the kid left finally leaving him.

"At ease, cadet," he teased, heading back into the ship.

"Sir, yes, sir," came the impish reply.

"I'd have sent you there sooner, if I'd known you'd come back with manners," Kanan shouted over his shoulder.

"Don't worry, I'll get rid of them soon," Ezra said happily as he sped past Kanan.

"Brat," Kanan muttered, shaking his head fondly. "Welcome home, kid."

Author's Notes:

* I didn't see Ezra with a blaster, and couldn't think of any other reason why he wouldn't have one, unless he'd dropped it - which i find unlikely - or was denied one. If Ezra did have one, let me know and I'll rewrite this.

** Ok, yes, technically the stormtrooper should be dead as we have no way of knowing if the blaster rifles have anything like a 'stun' setting, BUT! In the show Jai shoots Oleg, and given this is a kid's show and Disney. . .it just seemed really dark to have one kid casually off another one. That, and there was no sign Oleg had been shot, no marks, no stains on his clothing. . He just shouted, groaned a bit and then stopped moving. I find it likely that there is a 'stun' or paralysis option, which if you think about it, explains why there are different colored lights coming form the rifle/pistols: the rebels general fire red/orange shots, and the troopers generally use green. Now, given that in a later show (I think it's Call to Action) we learn that the rebels never/rarely leave any casualties, SO! We can assume that the red shots are stun/paralysis which makes sense since in Breaking Ranks a red shot is fired at Oleg (and the random stormtrooper) and we're (I am) opperating under the assumption that they were't killed.

BAM! Total nerd moment! Geek out my fellow nerds and Star Wars lovers and let your minds be blown, while i stuff my inner nerd back in its Nerd Corner.