Chapter 3
A/N: Those reading this chapter may notice that I skipped episode three of this season, "Holocrons of Fate". Rest assured that this was an intentional decision, and it will all be explained in time. For now, just know that that episode didn't fit with this story, which will remain focused on Ezra and Sabine's story. Also, I forgot to mention before, Ezra is 19 in this story, the same age as Sabine. It's necessary for the timeline to work out. Now, on with the chapter!
Several Weeks Later
Sabine POV
Sabine stood in a line of TIE Fighter pilots in training, all of them wearing their black helmets and uniforms and facing into a hallway. Standing right across from them was an identical line of TIE pilots, causing the two lines to face each other as they stood at attention.
Between the two lines came a fully fledged Imperial TIE pilot and their current instructor, Commandant Goran, who said with an authoritative voice, "Listen up, cadets! You are here because the Empire sees in you the potential to join the ranks of its most elite pilots. Most of you will fail, as here, only the best of you will survive."
He glanced around at them for any twitching or signs of weakness, but when none of them moved, he continued, "Prepare yourselves! Your first combat training will begin at 0600. Dismissed!"
After Goran had finished giving his orders, he left the room, and the pilots relaxed and walked down the hallway in formation, pulling off their helmets. As Sabine removed her own, revealing that she had washed the dye from her hair to return it to its natural dark brown, she took the opportunity to look around, paying special attention to the eyes of the young men and women around her, looking for any signs of nervousness or dissent.
After a recent mission by the Rebellion, trying to bring relief supplies to the starving people of the planet Teralov had gone awry, losing six pilots to the Empire, the Rebels had started searching for more pilots as they began to run out.
Turning to an anonymous source, they had been informed of TIE pilots in training that supposedly wanted to defect to the Rebellion, if only they could escape. The Rebels had sent Sabine here, the Imperial pilot training outpost known as Skystrike Academy, to identify and extract these defectors, and Kanan waited with a Rebel CR90 corvette to rescue them at a moment's notice.
However, the tricky part was finding the defectors when neither they nor Sabine herself knew who they could trust here. She hoped that by getting closer to her fellow cadets, she would be able to find the defectors and extract them before the Empire had a chance to catch on. With any luck, she'd be able to be in and out of the Academy without any complications arising.
Third Person POV
After he'd welcomed the cadets, Goran was summoned to the main hangar to greet a newly arriving Imperial official, who had radioed ahead and requested to speak with him. His helmet under his arm, he stood at attention and watched the white Lambda-class shuttle enter the hangar, its wings folding up on its sides as it set down.
The ramp lowered, and Goran took note of three main figures exiting the ship, escorted by four stormtroopers. "Governor Pryce, Agent Kallus," the instructor noted for two of the three new arrivals, then looked at the third and added, "And a Mandalorian that I am not familiar with. Your new muscle, I presume, Governor?"
The trio stopped a short distance from him, and the Mandalorian, wearing white armor decorated with dark blue lines, crossed his arms and silently stared Goran down, looking quite imposing in his armor. Governor Pryce gestured to the Mandalorian and said, "Commandant, this is Captain Ezra Kryze of the Mandalorian Super Commandos. He is not my security aid, but he is rather my partner in an ongoing investigation."
The instructor frowned and said, "I see. Well, in any case, may I ask the reason for this unscheduled visit?"
"ISB has been informed that some of your cadets may be planning to defect to the rebels. You have traitors in your midst," Agent Kallus answered.
Immediately adopting a look of pride, Goran denied his claim. "Impossible. My cadets are unmatched, both in their skill and loyalty."
The Mandalorian, Captain Kryze, then stepped forward and said, "I certainly hope their loyalty is not truly without question. I'd hate to be here needlessly, as I have more pressing matters to attend to. As for their skill, I hope they possess plenty of it, because if they are traitors, they're going to need it. I haven't had a good challenge in a long time."
Goran glared into the obscuring visor of Kryze's helmet and responded, "You may inspect my cadets at your pleasure, but I will not permit you to threaten them in the meantime."
Pryce cleared her throat, causing Kryze to back away from Goran, and instructed, "Agent Kallus, let us begin our inspection of this facility."
Kallus nodded and began to walk forward, and Captain Kryze followed him. As they walked side by side, Kallus suddenly leaned over towards the Mandalorian and whispered, "You haven't had a good challenge in a long time? Then I suppose that we're not counting the Jedi a few weeks ago?"
Kryze looked at him, then scoffed with annoyance and walked ahead of the ISB Agent, who simply stood back chuckling to himself. He hadn't been able to resist teasing the young Captain, and even if he was now on the Mandalorian's bad side, he thought it was worth it for his moment of humor.
Sabine POV
Sabine walked out of a flight simulator room after a test. Technically, she had failed the test, getting her chastised by the flight trainer, Captain Skerris, but she didn't consider it a failure. Her TIE had been destroyed by a rendered model of the Ghost, which considering that the ship had been her home for the last several years of her life, had been somewhat traumatic to watch, but she had been "killed" while refusing to fire upon the model of an unarmed rebel transport, so she considered it a win.
During the test, she had also met a potential candidate for one of the defectors in the Academy. Her wingman had gone against Imperial protocol and introduced himself to her with his real name, Wedge, rather than using his assigned number, and then had refused to fire on the disabled rebel corvette, just like her, and had also gotten destroyed for it.
As Sabine left the room, she immediately looked around for Wedge, and she found him having an intense discussion with two other pilots.
With her well-trained ears, Sabine could overhear their whispered conversation. One was saying, "I told you it was too risky!" Another asked, "How are we going to get out of this?" Wedge then tried to calm them, saying, "Will you just relax? They don't know. If they did, we'd be in the brig by now." They then all walked off in different directions, and Sabine curiously followed Wedge.
She found him next resting his head on his arms on a catwalk above a TIE hangar. As she approached him, Sabine asked, "Something wrong, Wedge?"
Wedge looked at her and asked back, "What? Why do you ask?"
"Well, I just know that what we were told to do in there, firing on defenseless ships, it's not what I signed up for. And I think that you feel the same way."
Wedge looked up and said, "Yeah, I feel that way too. I was flying cargo ships when the Empire recruited me. At the time, I figured, why not? Seemed more fun than hauling spare parts around. But if this is what the Empire's becoming…"
Sabine asked him, "You ever think about getting out?"
Wedge shook his head. "It's not really possible." He then looked at her with hope in his eyes and continued, "Is it?"
"Maybe more possible than you think," Sabine told him as she walked closer to him.
"What do you mean?" Wedge asked warily.
Sabine leaned in and whispered, "My real name is Sabine Wren. I was sent in to get you out."
His eyes widening in realization, Wedge commented, "So the Rebellion did get my message."
Sabine nodded. "Yes, and we heard that there are other pilots that want out as well."
Wedge nodded in agreement, "There are. Two of them. Rake and Hobbie."
Sabine looked around once more and said, "Well, then get them ready to go. We need to leave before the Empire closes in on us."
Ezra POV
Ezra stood in the command center of Skystrike Academy when suddenly Agent Kallus entered and immediately reported to Governor Pryce, "My investigation is nearly complete, Governor, and I regret to report that I have uncovered nothing so far."
Commandant Goran looked smugly at Pryce, who simply frowned with disappointment before she turned to them and smiled. "Perhaps it's time that I took a more direct hand in this enquiry."
Finally, Goran had had enough, and protested, "Now, Governor, I am trying to train pilots here. How are they to progress if we keep them all grounded?"
Pryce just smiled and said, "Well, Commandant, perhaps getting your cadets back into space would be to our mutual advantage." She then turned to face Ezra and said, "Captain. Shadow their flight training. I want them alive." Ezra nodded in response and left the room. Meanwhile, Goran turned to the intercom and announced, "Squad 22, report to hangar 6."
Once he left the room, Ezra ran down the halls until he got to the officers' hangar, where the Absolution waited for him. He'd been asked to escort Governor Pryce to the academy, assured by Admiral Thrawn that he valued the Lothalite greatly for her loyalty and vision.
After their arrival however, Ezra had been forced to fly alone back to Pryce's Star Destroyer to get his ship, for two reasons. First, the Absolution had been keyed into his own vambrace using a secure code, preventing anyone else from lowering the ramp, and second, he refused to allow any Imperials to touch it, not even to clean. He'd taken care of this ship since he was a toddler, and he wouldn't permit anyone to mess with it. It was his last untouched reminder of his days with his clan, before the Empire ruined it all. Before his mission to chase Wren had pulled him away from everything he loved.
After this job was done, Ezra would be right back to chasing Wren, not giving it a rest until he had her in his sights once again. He still couldn't believe that he'd been so close to going home a few weeks ago, until that Jedi had showed up.
Afterwards, he'd wondered if he should've used… but no. His mother had drilled it into him deeply. He must never use the Force. Not while the Empire stood. If he did, they would stop at nothing to destroy him, or worse, his people. Still, some part of him remembered the feeling, from years and years ago. A feeling of serenity and peace in being connected to all things.
But peace wasn't for Mandalorians, and it certainly wasn't for Ezra.
Banishing these thoughts, Ezra ran into the Absolution's cockpit and started the engines, switching to the rarely used non-lethal blasts, and flew out of the hangar, the Kom'rk wings lowering to turn the ship into a more angular, faster and more maneuverable shape. Like all things Mandalorian, it was built for a fight.
He hid in the clouds, his cloaking system keeping him hidden from even the Empire's scanners, and watched as the training class of TIE Fighters flew out of the base and into low orbit. Engaging the engines, he followed them, but at a distance.
When a rebel corvette arrived, Ezra smirked to himself, already knowing that they were here for the defectors, even before he saw four TIEs break away from the rest to follow them. With his targets in sight and possessing only nullified training lasers on their fighters, Ezra fearlessly gunned his engines to close the distance between them, tapping into their Imperial comms as he did so.
He heard Pryce's voice say, "Cadets, return to base immediately. This is your only warning."
Then, he heard another female voice from one of the defecting pilots, one he almost recognized though he couldn't quite place it in the moment, respond, "Negative, Command. You're gonna have to come get us."
Taking his opportunity, Ezra locked onto one of the fighters with his disabling cannons, but just as he prepared to fire, the wings of all four TIEs fell off, cutting off their engines. Despite his surprise, Ezra chuckled as he realized that this had all been a trap set by Pryce.
Connecting to the command center, Ezra commented, "Nice touch, sabotaging the fighters, Governor. I'll admit, I'm impressed, and I'm not impressed often."
"Appreciated, Captain," Pryce responded. "Now, target that rebel corvette. Shoot to kill."
"Yes, sir," Ezra said, then switched his guns back to normal and fired on the corvette. However, what Pryce didn't know was that Ezra had a better idea than to destroy the ship.
Several of his shots landed, lighting much of the ship aflame to make it look real, yet Ezra was careful only to hit non-vital parts of the ship, yet still forcing it to run away. As it turned to flee, Ezra quickly fired a hidden tracking device that landed on the top, and then the corvette jumped away into hyperspace.
Ezra glared at where the ship had been a moment before. The Imperials would suspect that the rebels had simply escaped. He'd put on enough of a show to make it look like they had barely escaped, but Ezra still disliked how many times he'd been forced to miss just now.
Yet his hunt for Wren came first. He truthfully cared very little for the Empire or Rebellion, but this corvette might lead him to Wren's secret base, so he had no choice but to let it go. For the success of his mission, a false mark on his reputation was a small price to pay.
Sabine POV
After they'd been captured, Sabine and her three compatriots were all taken into a single cell, bound at the wrists, and forced to kneel in a group under armed guard. There was a dark-haired woman walking in front of them, holding a datapad in her hand. Sabine recognized her as Governor Pryce of Lothal, though she wasn't very familiar with her.
Looking at her datapad, Pryce read the names of the defectors. "Wedge Antilles, Ria Talla, Rake Gahree, and Derek 'Hobbie' Klivian. Quite the group. Yet I know that one of you is not who you say you are. So tell me, which one of you is the rebel agent?"
In response, all four pilots simply looked back and forth at each other, acting as though none of them knew.
Pryce stepped up to a large metal table with restraints on it and an electro-prod next to it, sparking with electricity. "Do you know what this is?" she asked, gesturing to the torture device. "It's most effective at extracting information from the noncompliant."
Looking them over shortly, she finally pointed at Wedge, and one of the four stormtroopers in the room stepped forward and roughly dragged him to his feet before pressing him against the torture table.
Unable to stand the sight of Wedge being tortured to protect her, Sabine quickly admitted, "No, wait, it's me! I'm the rebel!"
Still pressed against the table, Wedge told her, "Sabine, don't!"
Pryce's eyes widened. "Sabine? As in Sabine Wren? Well, what an unexpected treat that is." She turned to one of the stormtroopers and ordered, "Go fetch Captain Kryze. Tell him that we have Sabine Wren in custody downstairs."
At the mention of Captain Kryze, Sabine winced. She hadn't known the name of the Mandalorian hunting her, but after recalling the symbol she'd seen on his one shoulder, she'd assumed that he was a Kryze. When her TIE had been disabled in space, she'd helplessly watched a Mandalorian Kom'rk arrive from behind them to attack the Rebellion corvette, very nearly destroying it and killing Kanan in the process, who was aboard at the time. When she recognized the ship, she'd frozen in fear as she realized that the Mandalorian was here, and now he knew that she was here as well.
After the stormtrooper left the room, Pryce gestured to Wedge, Hobbie, and Rake and ordered, "Take these three to their cell while I have a chat with Sabine."
The three remaining stormtroopers all immediately obeyed, pulling the three former TIE pilots to their feet and escorting them out. Realizing that she was now alone in the room with Pryce, Sabine prepared herself for a fight, but Pryce just stood calmly and said, "So, you're the Mandalorian artist I've heard so much about." Looking her over, Pryce added, "Honestly, I don't see what all the fuss is about. Captain Kryze seems so determined to catch you, I suppose I expected more."
"You haven't seen anything from me yet," Sabine said threateningly.
Pryce raised an eyebrow. "Hmm. You know, you're completely right. Nor have I seen anything too impressive from Captain Kryze. His failure to destroy the rebel corvette earlier today has rather… hindered my belief in his capabilities. I suppose real Mandalorians just don't quite fit the legends, do they?"
Sabine chose that moment to attack, closing in and striking quickly at Pryce with an overhead blow, her wrists still cuffed together. Proving herself to be surprisingly strong and fast, Pryce moved just as quickly to intercept the blow, grabbing Sabine's wrists with both hands and pulling her in to knee the Mandalorian in the stomach.
Stepping back to catch her breath, Sabine complimented, "Not bad."
Pryce smirked back. "The Empire taught me well."
She then attempted to hit Sabine again, targeting her in the stomach, where she was already sore, but Sabine sidestepped.
Sabine then yelled out, "My clan taught me better!" and spun around to kick Pryce in the face, causing her to stumble back and get shocked into unconsciousness by the still sparking electro-prod.
Sabine then walked over to Pryce's fallen form and grabbed her pistol from the older woman's jacket, then used the electro-prod on her binders to short them out and cause them to fall off.
Stepping up to the door, Sabine opened it to reveal the Mandalorian standing on the other side, who immediately tensed up in surprise at seeing her. Remembering how fast he could move, Sabine didn't give him a chance to attack, quickly knocking him in the face with the blaster in her hand, causing him to fall down on his back with a groan and knocking his helmet off his head.
Sabine pointed her blaster at him, but hesitated as she looked at his face for the first time. He had short black hair, tanned skin, and large eyes that were shockingly blue.
It was his eyes that interested Sabine the most. Most Imperials had dark eyes, and on the rare occasion that they actually did have blue eyes, they were typically still darkened. But this man she saw before her had bright, shining blue eyes that were alight with hope, something that Sabine had only ever seen in the eyes of her fellow rebels, never an Imperial. As an artist, Sabine couldn't help but admire his eyes like they were masterfully designed paintings.
As she hesitated, the Mandalorian propped himself up on his elbows and looked up at her. For a moment, they both just stared at each other, speechless, until the Mandalorian said warily, "So… I'm just going to assume that you must be Sabine Wren."
Sabine blinked in confusion and responded, "Uh, of course I'm Sabine Wren. We've met, if you've forgotten."
The Mandalorian shook his head and said, "No, I remember. It's just… I haven't seen you without your helmet before."
Sabine slightly lowered her blaster and said, "Oh. Right. Well, same, if it makes you feel better."
She saw the Mandalorian's eyes drift into her cell, seeing Pryce unconscious on the floor, then he asked Sabine, "You did that?" Sabine nodded hesitantly, and the Mandalorian looked oddly relieved. "Oh, good. That makes my job much easier." He then stood up, seeming unconcerned about the blaster that Sabine aimed at his now unprotected face, and approached her.
Sabine tensed up, nearly pulling the trigger, but the Mandalorian simply stopped near her and muttered, "Go to Hangar 24. It's your best bet. Commandeer something that can take a hit, you'll need it. Avoid levels three through five."
He then turned, walked over and grabbed his helmet, then began to walk away like nothing had happened. Confused, Sabine called after him, "Hey! Where are you going? Aren't you supposed to… I don't know, try to kill me or something?"
The Mandalorian turned to face her, his face now one of perfect neutrality, and said, "No. I have no interest in killing you. Also, I was never here."
He then began to leave again, but Sabine ran to catch up to him. "Hold it, I still have questions!" The Mandalorian sighed and turned back to her as he put on his helmet. "What?"
Sabine paused, then asked, "Who are you? Why are you suddenly helping me? Why should I trust you?"
Standing up tall, the Mandalorian answered, "I am Ezra Kryze of House Kryze. I won't explain it all now, but I do not let you go lightly, Sabine Wren. As for trusting me… The Empire must not be allowed to capture you. Only I can do that, and I will."
And with that said, the newly identified Ezra Kryze walked away, leaving Sabine with mixed emotions. She quickly shook herself out of it to focus on the mission. She still needed to free Wedge and the others, and then escape the Academy, but she was starting to get the feeling that Kanan was right, that this Ezra Kryze had more riding on this than his reputation.
Ezra POV
Ezra watched on the Imperial cameras as Sabine Wren made her escape from Skystrike Academy in a TIE Bomber, taking her three defecting TIE pilots with her.
When TIE Captain Vult Skerris announced that the rebels had escaped, Ezra looked over at the recently recovered Governor Pryce, who seemed unable to meet his gaze. He walked silently out of the room, allowing Pryce to think that he was angry about Wren escaping them, but as he went to the Absolution and sat himself down in the pilot's chair, he smiled as he pulled up a hologram showing the location of the rebel corvette he had tracked.
Wren had escaped the Empire, but she hadn't escaped him.