Chapter 4

Sabine POV

As the rebels arrived on Atollon, having just returned from their mission to Skystrike Academy, Sabine immediately took her three new pilots to the command center. Waiting for them was Hera and Commander Sato. Sato was the foremost leader of this rebel cell, part of the council for their galaxy-wide group, the Alliance to Restore the Republic, or simply the Rebellion.

All four of them still in their TIE pilot uniforms, Sabine brought her pilots forward and introduced them. "Commander Sato, allow me to introduce Lieutenants Wedge Antilles, Rake Gahree, and… Hobbie. Formerly of the Galactic Empire."

Wedge added in, "Commander, we heard you're looking for some good pilots."

Sato nodded in satisfaction as he looked over the three new recruits and responded, "Indeed we are. Welcome to the Rebellion." He stepped forward with his arm outstretched to shake each of their hands in thanks, but suddenly a rebel soldier ran in and said, "Sir, we found a tracker on the returning corvette."

"Blast it!" Sato growled. "The Empire has found us! Have you begun evacuation protocol?"

The soldier stepped closer and said, "Not yet, sir, but I'm not sure it's necessary. The tracker we found wasn't an Imperial model. We think it may be a bounty hunter."

Her eyes filling with dread, Sabine said, "Let's hope it's just a bounty hunter and not who I think it is."

She ran off towards the corvette, Hera following close behind her, but before they could even see it, there was a distant boom as a ship exited hyperspace, and shortly after, all the rebels looked up to see a Mandalorian Kom'rk fly overhead, passing over the base and flying towards the distant hills.

Sabine turned to Hera and said, "It's him. The Mandalorian that kidnapped me, he's here."

Pulling up handheld comm to her mouth, Hera contacted Sato at the command center. "Commander, we've got an intruder in the north, Imperial. One hostile confirmed, but once he's confirmed that we're here he'll probably call for reinforcements."

"Our scans indicate that no call for backup has been sent yet," Sato's voice responded. "Perhaps we can prevent him from contacting the Empire, allowing us to keep this base. It was quite difficult to find, after all."

Hera turned to Sabine and asked, "What do you think? Should we fight him or run?"

Sabine thought it over, then said into her own comm, "Commander, put out the order to surround the hostile but do not engage. I think I can keep him from calling for backup, but we should stay ready. Call in everyone we have, and tell them to expect the target to be heavily armed."

Sabine then ran towards the Ghost, where she knew that Kanan had gone to meditate.

She heard Sato's voice ringing through the base over the surrounding speakers, and Rebel soldiers were rushing about, grabbing rifles and piling onto troop transports that then carried them towards the edge of the northern base perimeter.

Just as Sabine reached the ship, Kanan ran down the ramp and not so much asked as stated, "The Mandalorian's here." Sabine nodded, and they both ran to board one of the speeders before it could leave towards the Mandalorian's ship.

Ezra POV

Ezra landed the Absolution about a hundred meters outside the perimeter of the rebel base, imagining that they wouldn't take kindly to him landing within their encampment.

Looking outside the viewport of his cockpit, he had to admit that the rebels had chosen their base well. This planet had no settlements and only hostile fauna natives, large white crawlers called krykna with many legs and bad attitudes. It was hot and dry. No one would want to live here, but if you could do it, no one was likely to come looking. Even if they did, the planet was covered in enormous rocky coral formations that provided cover in all areas.

The chances of finding anything on this planet, at least before the crawlers got you, were astronomical. He had to commend the rebels for their efforts. They had successfully found the worst place to hide out, which coincidentally made it the best place.

Ezra stepped out of the Absolution, the ramp lowering itself as he stepped onto it, and looked around with amusement to see that the rebels had come to welcome him.

Numerous speeders flew over the hills, each of them carrying about half a dozen rebel soldiers seated on the back, and each one of them armed. The speeders kept coming, and upon seeing him split up to form a large semicircle, boxing him in. Dozens of speeders came to a stop as they fully surrounded him about fifty meters away, then the soldiers sitting on the back quickly jumped down and ran forward, aiming their blasters at him.

Despite knowing that he was badly outnumbered, Ezra ignored the dozens of weapons directed at him and watched as one of the speeders dropped off a few soldiers before driving up to Ezra himself, who recognized both Wren, still in her Skystrike uniform, and the Jedi, Kanan.

The pilot of the speeder stopped to allow Wren and Kanan to disembark, then sped back up to the top of the hill with the other bikes, though Ezra noticed that the driver stayed ready to quickly extract them at any point.

Smirking, Ezra stepped towards Wren and immediately heard the clicking of many guns all around him, no doubt preparing to fire at him if he made a single threatening move.

Holding his hands up to show that he held no weapons, Ezra called out, "Everyone relax! I just want to talk!"

There was a moment of silence, then Wren stepped towards him and asked, "Are you here for the Empire?"

Ezra shook his head. "I am not here for them, nor do they know where I am."

"Then why are you here?"

"You know why," Ezra told her seriously.

Looking into her eyes, Ezra found himself thinking back to when he first saw her face back at the Academy. He'd been elated to be told that Wren had been captured, then worried that it had been the Empire who'd captured her. He hadn't wanted to, but he'd determined that he would have to help her escape them so that he could catch her again himself.

He'd opened her cell with the intention to kill her guards, and Pryce too, but then he'd seen her standing on the other side of the door… and he'd frozen. After years hunting her, he'd prepared himself for every possibility, every circumstance… except for one.

When he'd seen her, his mind, well-trained to make split-second decisions, had instantly determined who she was, and the fact that she was escaping. But he'd never expected her to be so beautiful, and he'd reacted to that shock in a way that still confused him.

Having only ever seen her helmet, he'd been able to imagine that she was simply faceless, just another target like he'd taken out a hundred times before. Truthfully, her armor had rather surprised him, as he hadn't expected it to be so colorful and expressive, never having seen Mandalorian armor designed to be anything more than intimidating and invoking of their house, but seeing her face changed something for him.

He didn't know what it was, but when he'd first seen her, he'd gotten lost in her brown eyes, her fair, tanned skin. Even her hair, so dark brown that it was almost black, had interested him for reasons he didn't understand. When she'd hit him in the face, he'd been in a state of unexplainable bliss, falling to the floor with a smile on his face.

When he'd gotten back up, he'd been mentally chiding himself, not understanding what was happening to him, and been quick to put his helmet back on to hide his confused emotions behind a mask of neutrality.

And now, it was happening again, though he still couldn't figure out why.

Wren sighed at him. "Let me guess, you want to take me prisoner and bring me back to Mandalore. And I suppose that because of what happened at the Academy I should let you?"

Next to her, Kanan asked, "Wait, what happened at the Academy?"

Wren folded her arms, glaring at Ezra, and responded, "Well, after he nearly killed you but apparently just tracked your ship, Ezra here gave me information I used to make my escape."

Kanan frowned. "Ezra?"

"Oh, yeah, and he also introduced himself," Wren continued. "Kanan Jarrus, meet Captain Ezra Kryze."

Kanan quickly extended a hand to the young Mandalorian, saying, "It's nice to meet you. Officially. So you helped Sabine escape from the Empire?"

Wren rolled her eyes, and Ezra shook Kanan's hand. "I did, but I have no interest in fighting for you, if that's what you're getting at. I have other responsibilities already. Speaking of, I'm here to fulfill one now, so if you'd permit me to take Sabine here for a little while-"

Suddenly, from the surrounding ring of rebels, a voice called, "NO!"

Ezra watched as a green-skinned Twi'lek walked out of the crowd, fearlessly approaching him, and poked him in the chest. "If you or your people want to hurt Sabine, you're gonna get more than you bargained for."

Ezra stared into the Twi'lek's determined eyes before saying, "Captain Hera Syndulla of the Ghost, I presume. Well, don't worry, Captain, I have no intention of harming Sabine in any way."

Hera looked at Sabine, then turned back to Ezra and said, "Sabine told us that your people want to punish her for crimes you feel she's committed. And Mandalore is controlled by the Empire, who we don't exactly trust."

"Correction, Mandalore is controlled by Governor Gar Saxon, a puppet of the Empire," Ezra pointed out. The rebels seemed surprised to hear the venom in his voice as he spoke of his boss with anger.

He continued, "Saxon thinks that I'll bring Sabine to him in Sundari, but I see a better path. I intend to bring her back to her clan on Krownest, and they will be in charge of her trial. With Saxon, she has no hope. With her mother Ursa, her chances are slightly better."

Kanan frowned. "Slightly?"

"Mandalorians aren't known to be forgiving, and I shamed my family when I left," Wren explained.

Hera seemed to think it over, then told Sabine, "I think you should."

Hearing that, Wren reeled back in shock and said panickedly, "What? No! Hera, you don't understand, I can't!"

Hera tried to reason with her, "Sabine, I know you're scared, but you can do this. You've been hiding from your people for years. It's time you stopped. Besides, we could really use some Mandalorian allies. And maybe you'll find the family you lost along with it."

"Or they could kill me, Hera!" Wren argued. "You don't understand! My family are Mandalorians! Mandalorians kill threats, and I proved myself to be a threat."

Hera put a hand on Sabine's shoulder. "They won't hurt you, and if they tried, we'll be there with you as well."

Deciding to interject, Ezra put up a finger and said, "About that… it's probably best that you don't go with her. In fact… I can't allow you to go."

Hera and Sabine glared at him and Kanan asked, "Why not? If she's being put on trial, she deserves to have a supporting voice."

Grimacing under his helmet, Ezra told them, "Like she said, Mandalorians aren't very accepting individuals. Your presence might… aggravate them, and any sort of fight starts on Krownest, Gar Saxon will be there soon, and he'll be bringing the might of the Empire with him. Miss Wren's mother is an old friend of my own, and I won't let you bring the Empire to her doorstep."

They thought it over, and Wren finally nodded. "He's right. You too, Hera. This is a family matter, and it's long past due. I'll go with him. Let me just get my things."

She began to slowly trudge back towards the rebel base, easily passing between the firing line of rebel soldiers with her head hung low.

Somewhat suspicious, Ezra asked the two remaining people in front of him, "She's not going to try to escape, is she?"

Hera spun around and glared at him with loathing and yelled, "Is that all you care about? When you're about to escort her to her death, you're worried that she's going to try to run away?"

She leaned in dangerously close to him, and Ezra refused to back down but silently prayed that she wouldn't try to attack him.

Kanan placed a hand on Hera's shoulder and said, "He's not trying to be rude. He's just scared."

Immediately, Ezra perked up and defended, "Hey, listen, Jedi! I'm not scared of anything!"

Kanan turned and looked directly at him, making Ezra feel uncomfortable as the blind man's mask met his visor and he got the feeling that the man could indeed see him, but with more than eyes, the disguising faceplate of his helmet being rendered useless. "Yes, you are," Kanan stated with certainty. "You're scared that she's going to leave, and you'll have to continue your hunt. You've worked hard, sacrificed everything to find her, and now you can't bear the thought that she'll get away."

Ezra felt like he'd been slapped as the Jedi managed to perfectly sum up his feelings. He took an involuntary step back and growled, "You- I don't know what you're talking about. Tell Wren that I'll be waiting for her on my ship."

He turned to get back on board the Absolution, but stopped as a hand suddenly grabbed his arm. Clenching his other hand into a fist, Ezra turned, ready for a fight, but stopped as he saw Hera looking at him with pleading eyes. She told him, "Please, just… Take care of Sabine. Please. She has more than one mother, and I just… need to know that I'll see her again."

Ezra paused for a moment, then responded, "I spent years searching for her. She won't get away from me now, and I promise, I will protect her with my life."

Hera finally nodded with satisfaction and released his arm, allowing Ezra to board his ship.

Third Person POV

As Ezra got back on his ship, Hera asked Kanan, "What happens if she doesn't come back?"

Kanan folded his arms across his chest and responded, "Well, Ezra promised that he would protect her, and I believe him. Vows are important to Mandalorians, not to be taken lightly, and they have honor. If he says that he'll die before he lets Sabine get hurt, I believe that that's exactly what'll happen."

"How can you trust him, especially with Sabine?" Hera asked. "He wears Imperial armor. And their symbol."

Kanan began to walk away while answering, "If what I'm feeling is correct, he's even less happy about that than you are."

Hera processed that statement as she gave Ezra's ship one last wary look, then began to walk away as well, beginning to order the rebel soldiers back to the base.

A/N: I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! I know that it was mostly Ezra's perspective with very little Sabine, and the next chapter will likely be just the opposite. Thanks for reading!