Chapter 2

Ezra POV

On the planet Yarma, Ezra flew down on his jetpack to land on the roof of the starfighter reclamation plant, Reklam Station.

He had flown ahead of the rest of the Empire on his personal ship to intercept the rebels before they could attempt an escape. He looked down at the conveyor line of decommissioned Y-Wing starfighters, looking for any sight of the rebels, specifically Wren.

His helmet had a sensor, but he adamantly refused to use it, preferring the antenna rangefinder that he was used to having on his helmet. Subconsciously, Ezra could feel himself trying to convince himself that he was uncomfortable in his Imperial standard armor, but his efforts were all in vain. After all, this armor was still his own, merely shaped in a way that he didn't like, and Mandalorian armor felt like a second skin to the wearer that it was designed for. He tried to relieve his concerns by mentally telling himself that he would be able to quit the Empire and reshape his armor back to his own liking after he'd caught Wren.

The Empire believed that he served them out of a sense of loyalty. Even Gar Saxon believed that. They all thought that he had left his clan, abandoned his mother and his principles out of some sense of loyalty to Saxon and the Empire, but Ezra had fooled them all. In reality, he was simply working his way up through the Empire, using them to achieve his own ends, and all while waiting for this day. Even his own clan didn't know the truth of his ruse, except for his mother. Most of Clan Kryze considered Ezra a traitor. They'd had to believe that his betrayal was real for this to work, but after he'd captured Wren, he'd be able to go home.

Looking down at the platform, he spotted two of the known rebels. He had been briefed on both of them, as they were known associates of Miss Wren. They were the Lasat known as Garazeb Orrellios and Clone Trooper 7567, better known as Captain Rex, a decommissioned Clone soldier from the old Republic. The latter was only recognizable from this distance due to his distinctive 501st Legion armor.

Orrelios was hanging onto the back of a Y-Wing as an Imperial dismantler droid attempted to throw him over the edge, and Captain Rex was desperately trying to fight the large droid off with the use of a large claw machine. However, Ezra just growled with frustration as he realized that Wren wasn't with them.

Using his wrist comm to contact Governor Pryce's Star Destroyer as he drew one of his pistols from its holster, Ezra asked, "Admiral Thrawn. I have identified two rebels at Reklam Station, CT-7567 and Garazeb Orrelios. I can take them out from here."

Immediately, Thrawn's voice responded, "Negative, Captain. Leave them for now and locate any other rebels at the plant. It is not just the two of them attacking this target, and I suspect that at least one of the others will be the Mandalorian."

Excitedly, Ezra deactivated his comm and jumped off the roof, engaging his jetpack as he fell. If there was one part of his Imperial uniform that he truly liked, it was the jetpack. Imperial Super Commandos were each equipped with a unique model of prototype jetpack that was faster and quieter than any previous model. They were also more sleek, could carry more fuel, and even had a compact launcher for up to three rockets. As Ezra jumped off the roof, his jetpack made barely a sound, letting him slowly glide downwards towards the ground.

Turning around as he flew, Ezra stopped in front of the window to the control room, wanting to alleviate any concerns that the Imperials inside would have when they saw him.

However, when he looked into the window, he was surprised to see Sabine Wren standing there, surrounded by the bodies of stormtroopers and aiming a pistol at an Imperial officer in a black uniform.

Ezra couldn't believe that after all this time, his prey was right in front of him! Not wasting a moment, Ezra flew away from the window, then spun around and grabbed a device from his belt.

Sabine POV

Sabine pointed one of her pistols at Commander Brom Titus, an officer that she had last seen as an Admiral at the helm of an experimental Imperial ship, a gravity well projector known as an Interdictor. Now, he had clearly been demoted to this recycling station, no doubt because Sabine and her team had destroyed his ship. However, he seemed to hold a grudge for that, as he adamantly refused to unlock the Y-Wings below, though Titus had told her that they could be forcefully released if she cut the power to the station.

Sabine was considering if they could make it out in time if she did actually cut the power to the floating station, but then her attention was drawn to a sudden thud against the window in front of her.

Looking over Titus's shoulder, her eyes widened as she saw a small metal device stuck to the window outside, quickly recognizing it as an explosive. Surging forward to push Titus down, Sabine yelled, "Look out!" Just then, the detonator exploded, destroying the window and sending Sabine flying.

She began to pull herself to her feet, hearing a faint ringing in her ears, but she stopped as she felt the familiar barrel of a blaster pressed against the side of her neck, between the protective plates of her armor, causing her to freeze.

Looking up in fear, Sabine saw a young man, no older than herself, wearing smooth white armor with lines of dark blue drawn across it, but it wasn't stormtrooper armor. Despite its unfamiliar design, Sabine could instantly tell that it was a Mandalorian. The blaster aimed pressed to her neck was a Westar-35, just like her own pistols, and he had another holstered at his opposite hip. Looking at his wrists, Sabine saw that he wore fully equipped Mandalorian vambraces, rare tools that Sabine didn't even have the beginnings of. She couldn't see it, but if she had to guess she would assume that he was also equipped with a jetpack on his back.

The Mandalorian spoke, his voice modulated by his helmet. "Sabine Wren. For your crimes of dishonor and betrayal against your own people, I place you under arrest in the name of all Mandalorians. You will be taken to the capital city of Sundari, where the clan leaders will decide-"

Sabine didn't let him finish, snapping one arm up faster than he could see to knock away his blaster, then quickly stood up and grabbed the Mandalorian's shoulders before headbutting him. His head fell back with shock and pain, and Sabine ignored the pain in her own head to turn and run out of the room. As she ran, she felt something pierce one of her legs, and it instantly went numb, but she couldn't afford to stop, so she simply dragged her limp leg and hopped into the elevator.

Once she was in the elevator heading back to the ground, she reached down and pulled the paralyzing dart from her leg, tossing it aside.

Pulling up her wrist comm, Sabine contacted the rest of her team and told them, "I'm going to need a few minutes, I'm dealing with some stuff up here. Take the Y-Wings and get out of here."

Rex's voice came back and said, "We are not leaving you behind."

Sabine yelled back, "You need to get those bombers to the Rebellion. Now get out of here, that's an order! I'll take the Phantom." The Phantom was the small shuttle that they had brought to the station, and now it would be Sabine's only means of escape.

However, just then, the elevator doors opened to reveal the Mandalorian attacker, and before Sabine could react, his wrist shot up towards her and she felt three more darts hitting her between the armor plates, one on her remaining leg and one other in each of her shoulders.

Sabine's eyes went wide with shock before all three of her remaining limbs lost all strength, and she fell limply forward. The Mandalorian quickly ducked down to grab her around the waist before she could hit the ground and lifted her onto his shoulder.

Ezra POV

Ezra let out a deep sigh of relief as he carried Miss Wren out of Reklam Station. He had thought that the detonator would've shell-shocked her enough that she would go down easily, but he should've known better. After she attacked him when he thought that she was at her weakest, he'd chided silently himself for underestimating her. She was a Mandalorian, after all, and he should've expected that she would not be defeated so easily. That was why he hadn't stunned her with his blaster, after all, knowing that a Mandalorian wouldn't remain stunned for long, fighting to regain consciousness. He'd desperately hit one of her legs with a paralyzing dart, determined to at least slow her down, but then he'd been forced to use his jetpack to get to the bottom of the elevator before her, flying out the destroyed window.

Now though, he was satisfied to finally have captured her, rendering her helpless by making all four of her limbs useless for an hour with his darts. Of course, with a Mandalorian, he wouldn't be surprised if it only lasted half that, but that would still be plenty of time to get her to his Kom'rk and properly restrain her.

As he exited the building, he saw the other rebels escaping with four Y-Wings, but he deemed them insignificant. He had accomplished his own objective, and that was all he cared about. Besides, Thrawn would be here soon, and he would easily take care of them.

Ezra secured Wren on his shoulder before he activated his jetpack, flying up to his personal Gauntlet ship, which floated in the air, cloaked from sight in the fog, right above the station.

The ship had served him well through the years, one of his last gifts from his mother. He called it the Absolution. As he neared the ship, he pressed a button on his left vambrace, and a hatch on the ventral side of the ship opened. Inside was a deployment bay, where 24 chairs were lined up back to back, designed to release two dozen jetpack-wearing Mandalorians into battle at once, but it worked just as well for Ezra alone to fly in and out of the ship.

Ezra entered the ship, closing the floor beneath him, and lowered Wren into one of the deployment seats, then pulled two pairs of binders from his belt and locked her arms onto the armrests.

As he did so, Wren muttered with a woozy voice through her helmet, her voice affected by her body's fatigue and numbness, "Please… don't do this. I can't go back there. I can't face them."

Ezra checked her restraints to ensure that they were secure, then responded, "You betrayed your own people. You brought shame to your clan. Your family. Because of it, I have not seen my family in many years. They think that I am a traitor. I have no mercy to give you, Sabine Wren."

Sabine POV

Barely able to stay awake, much less comprehend all of what he was saying, Sabine's eyes drifted tiredly, and her artistic eyes noted the designs on the Mandalorian's armor. Most of it was abstract, but she recognized the two symbols on his shoulders. On one shoulder was the symbol of the Empire and the other had the symbol of Clan Kryze, but Sabine felt too tired to comment on it.

The Mandalorian, finally satisfied that she was secure, stood up straight and left the room, heading towards the cockpit, and the door closed behind him.

Sabine wanted to attempt escape, desperate not to return to Mandalore, but she couldn't move. Her restraints were completely unnecessary, as despite her best efforts, she couldn't feel her limbs. She hated the feeling. For a Mandalorian to be rendered incapable of moving was pure torture. It went against their very nature, as when they couldn't move, they couldn't fight. Never before had Sabine felt so helpless, and she had a feeling that if not for the paralyzing drugs keeping her disoriented, she would be in a full-blown panic.

Hearing the engines fire, Sabine just lowered her head and tried to resign herself to her fate, unable to do more.

Just then, a blue beam of light pierced the ground in front of her. Too tired to hope, Sabine didn't even react, not even as the beam of energy began to move around, cutting a circle out of the floor.

Once it had completed a full circle, the ground was pushed up and to the side, followed by the head of a bearded man coming up through it, holding the hilt of a lightsaber in his hand, which emitted the blue blade of energy. He wore a green shirt and a half-mask over his eyes, which should've rendered him blind, but Sabine knew that beneath the mask he was blind already.

Still out of it, Sabine chuckled to herself and weakly muttered, "Kanan! Yay, I'm saved!"

Frowning in her direction, Kanan muttered to himself, "Uh-oh. Sabine, what'd they do to you?"

Sabine shrugged and whispered, "I got poked by some darts, and now I'm feeling really tired. I think I need a nap. Wake me up in five minutes." After she said this, Sabine's head fell back in her chair and she began snoring, but Kanan quickly climbed out of the hole and gently slapped her cheek until she woke back up.

Using his lightsaber, he cut the binders off of Sabine's wrists, then picked her up. "You can have a nap on the Ghost," Kanan told her as he gently lowered her into the hole. "Right now, it's time to go."

Just after Kanan had finished lowering Sabine through the hole and into the hall of another ship, a blaster bolt hit the wall right next to his head. He tilted his head towards the source of the shot, and though Sabine knew that he couldn't see who fired, they both heard the voice of the Imperial Mandalorian say, "Hey, old guy! Haven't you ever heard that it's rude to make a move on another guy's girl?"

Kanan stood up tall and ignited his lightsaber once again. "Sorry, but I don't think you're her type," Kanan argued.

Ezra POV

At the sight of the lightsaber, Ezra narrowed his eyes and began to charge up the repulsor on his right vambrace. "Jedi," he growled with caution. However, noting that the bearded man had a mask over his eyes, he realized that the Jedi was blind, and thus easier to catch off guard.

He heard Wren's voice mumble from outside, "Kanan, his vambraces are designed to fight Jedi," but she was too late.

Ezra raised his vambrace and fired his repulsor at the Jedi, this… Kanan, but surprisingly he dodged the blast of force, ducking under it, and thrust out his hand towards Ezra, who then felt like his repulsor blast had been redirected at him. With a yell, he was thrown backwards and he crashed into the wall.

When he looked back up, he saw Kanan towering over him, the tip of his lightsaber directed at Ezra's throat, but Ezra refused to back down, determined to die with honor.

Then, the Jedi tilted his head in confusion, as though he was hearing something unfamiliar from far away, then he looked back at Ezra and commented with a frown, "You're like me." And then, for reasons that Ezra didn't understand, Kanan deactivated his lightsaber and ran back to the hole in the ground.

Grunting with pain, Ezra raised one of his blasters to point at the back of the Jedi as he left, but then he hesitated. He refused to shoot an enemy in the back. Especially one that was blind. Especially one that had just honorably spared his own life.

Yet the Jedi looked back at him, as though he could sense the blaster aimed at him, and that was when Ezra noticed that the Jedi's mask had a design on it, a design he recognized. The Jedi's mask had jaig eyes drawn on them, a Mandalorian symbol of extreme bravery, an honor that was usually reserved only for Mandalorians themselves, and could only be given by a Mandalorian. Ezra had once worn them himself on his helmet, given to him by his mother, but he had stopped wearing them after he joined the Empire, considering himself unworthy and unwilling to let the Empire employ any Mandalorian with such a high honor. If this Jedi wore them, he had certainly done something deserving, or else Wren and Clone Captain Rex would certainly have killed him by now.

Ezra simply lowered his blaster, now unwilling to kill the Jedi, and he saw the Jedi nod in satisfaction, as though he could tell what decision Ezra had made despite his blindness.

Kanan then jumped out of the hole and Ezra heard an airlock door shut, and then a ship flew away from his own, causing Ezra to throw his head against the wall and groan, realizing that he'd just lost his prey. However, he would have other chances to get her, and he fully intended to. But for now, he needed to fix an annoying hole in the bottom of his ship.

Line Break

Back on Governor Pryce's Star Destroyer, Ezra walked into the situation room and immediately announced, "The rebels have a Jedi."

Admiral Thrawn smiled, looking up from his starmap, and said, "Ah. Perfect. Kanan Jarrus has returned to action."

"I thought that Lord Vader said he killed the rebels' Jedi?" Ezra asked.

Thrawn shook his head. "No, Captain. He said that he was no longer a threat. It would help you to pay attention to the details."

Ezra folded his arms and argued, "Well, how's this for details? I had Wren in my custody, and then this Jedi, supposedly no longer a threat, attacked my ship and nearly pushed me through a wall before stealing my prisoner."

Thrawn seemed completely unconcerned, calmly saying, "You will corner Wren again, Captain. Just as we will have another opportunity to destroy the other rebels that were here today."

Ezra looked around the table and asked, "Wait, you didn't stop the other rebels? They got the Y-Wings? You had one job and three Star Destroyers to accomplish it with! If you couldn't stop them, you should've let me take the shot back on the station!"

Thrawn looked at him and calmly explained, "We could've stopped them, if we'd wanted to, but I told our forces to pull back. Their acquisition of the bombers is inconsequential. It is to our benefit to let them think that they have achieved a victory today."

Ezra sighed and asked, "But why? You allowed the rebels to escape with weapons that they will no doubt use against the Empire."

"Because the first law of nature for any living thing is survival, and make no mistake, their rebellion has indeed become a living thing," Thrawn answered. "If we make them bleed today, they will just draw back and hide again, sheltering themselves to ensure that they do not die. The only way to make sure that they stay dead is to draw out the head and cut it off."

Ezra still looked confused, so Thrawn sighed and said, "You may not understand all of my methods now, but rest assured, I have a much larger target in mind than a few ships. Do you know why my flagship is called the Chimaera?"

Ezra shook his head, interested, and Thrawn continued, "I named my ship after a mythical beast that attacks from in front, above, and behind. My methods are similar, attacking at precise points from multiple angles at once, so just when you think you are safe, you are not. My enemies see what I want them to see, forcing them to miss the bigger picture, and today I wanted my enemies to see that they are winning."

Ezra still wasn't sure that he understood, but he'd just been told that he probably wouldn't, so he simply nodded and said as he exited the room, "Very well. As you say, Grand Admiral. You may do as you wish with your rebels, but if you'll excuse me, I need to get back to hunting my target."

Sabine POV

Sabine woke up on a cot, not wearing her armor, and immediately tried to remember where she was. She didn't remember falling asleep, but she remembered… being captured. Drugged. Immobile. Helpless. An Imperial Mandalorian had caught her and was bringing her… to Mandalore.

Sabine's eyes suddenly shot wide open, and she jumped up to her feet. She ran to the door of the room and opened it, not questioning why she hadn't been restrained or why the door was kept unlocked.

As she tried to get out the door, she ran into a tall man, and she threw punches into his gut, desperate to escape. She was grabbed by the wrists, one held by the man and the other by someone else, a female who suddenly called out, "Whoa, Sabine, easy!"

The man she had run into chuckled at her, and Sabine's eyes filled with rage before she grabbed the man and judo flipped him over her shoulder and onto his back, with him emitting a grunt of surprise and pain. She held his arm in place and twisted it painfully as she glared at his face, but then she gasped and released him. "Kanan?"

The blind Jedi and Sabine's surrogate dad chuckled and held onto his arm, still sore from Sabine's attack, and said, "Good morning to you too. Enjoy your sleep?"

The lights in the room turned on, and Sabine looked on in deepening horror to see that the room was her own quarters at Chopper Base, the rebel headquarters on the planet Atollon. The woman that was also in the room was Hera, her Twi'lek surrogate mother.

Sabine instantly drew back from both of them and apologized, "I'm so sorry, I didn't know it was you! I thought-" Sabine didn't finish, unable to voice what she'd thought, that she was back on Mandalore, about to be forced before her real mother, Ursa Wren, and all the rest of her family for trial.

Kanan stood up and placed a calming hand on Sabine's shoulder, still laughing. "It's okay, Sabine. But, we do need to talk about that."

Sabine lowered her gaze and nodded mutely. The three of them walked to sit on Sabine's cot, and Hera started, "Sabine, that ship we saved you from was a Mandalorian model, awfully similar to the ones we saw on Concord Dawn. We need to know… Why were your own people trying to capture you?"

Sabine looked down at the floor and answered, "I… I'm not on great terms with my family, as you know. What you don't know is why. Years ago, when I blew up the Imperial Academy on Mandalore… My family took most of the blame for it. I ran away, abandoned them, and now I'm considered a disgrace to my people, a black mark on my family's reputation. Dar'manda, they call me. It means I am no longer considered one of them.

"Dishonor is one of the greatest crimes on Mandalore, right up there with cowardice. The Mandalorian that attacked me, he was wearing an Imperial insignia, but I think that he was there on behalf of Mandalore. He wanted to bring me to the capital city of Sundari to face punishment."

Kanan quickly told her, "Well, we're not going to let that happen. But if this guy's Imperial, I imagine we haven't seen the last of him."

Sabine nodded in agreement. "Not because he's Imperial, but because he's Mandalorian. He won't stop hunting me."

Kanan nodded back and said, "Yeah, I already figured that part. But when I fought him, I could sense… desperation from him. I think he really needs Sabine for something. It's more than business for him, he has a personal stake in this as well."

Sabine looked confused, and Hera told Kanan, "Tell her what else you sensed. She needs to know in case she runs into him again."

Kanan sighed and told Sabine, "I also felt… I think he's like me. I think he's Force-sensitive."

Sabine's eyes widened, and Kanan continued, "If he is, he's got a good handle on it, which would explain how he's managed to be in the Empire without becoming an Inquisitor. He didn't exhibit any instinct to use the Force during our fight, not even once."

"He doesn't need to," Sabine quickly deduced. "I remember fighting him myself, he was really good. He hit me with four darts, all of them between the plates of my armor. My guess is that he trained exceptionally well so that he never feels like he needs his powers to bail him out."

Kanan looked away and quietly said to himself, "Wow. Can you imagine what he could do if he were on our side? We could really use someone like him."

"Hey! You already have a Mando, and I'm not so bad myself!" Sabine told him indignantly.

Kanan held up his hands defensively and responded, "I know, I know! I didn't mean anything against you, Sabine, but… there's only ever been one Mandalorian Jedi in history, and he was a force to be reckoned with. If we had something like that…"

Hera quickly cut him off, seeing Sabine looking uncomfortable, and said, "We'll have to table this discussion for another time. For now, Sabine, you should try to get some more rest, make sure the paralyzer in your system has worn off completely."

She and Kanan stood up and exited the room, turning off the lights as they went, and left Sabine alone in her room to sleep.

A/N: Hope you all are enjoyng so far! I'll try to keep the updates frequent, but be sure to let me know what you think! Your reviews help me with the writing, so please feel free to tell me your thoughts or suggestions, as well as ask any questions you may have!