Chapter 5

Ezra POV

After he'd started up his ship, Ezra leaned back in his chair and waited impatiently for Wren to join him.

He waited for a full hour before he began to get worried. She should've been here by now. Despite Captain Syndulla's apparent lack of doubt, he still wasn't sure that he could trust Wren to willingly come with him. Maybe she'd changed her mind, gotten cold feet.

Grumbling to himself, Ezra stood up and began to exit the ship. As he opened the door to the hold, he was surprised to find Wren already sitting in one of the deployment bay seats, just as she had been when he'd first captured her weeks ago. She'd grabbed her armor and weapons from the rebel base, but he could see all of her weapons hung up on a rack at the end of the room. She'd even used a pair of binders to cuff herself to the seat.

When she saw him, she gestured to the binders and said, "I thought this would make you feel safer."

Ezra sighed as he approached her and removed the binders from her wrist, then turned to enter the cockpit again, and waved for her to follow him, not looking back to see if she'd obeyed.

Shortly after he got back in the pilot's seat, he spun around to see Wren enter the cockpit, leaning against the doorframe. "Trying to keep a closer eye on me this time? Worried that a Jedi will damage your ship to save me again?" she asked teasingly.

Ezra patted the seat next to him and said, "Well, there is that, but also you're not a prisoner this time. I'd prefer it if you didn't think of me as your captor, but more like your escort."

Wren hesitated for a moment, then went back into the hold.

Ezra's heart fell with disappointment, and he began to engage the liftoff sequence, but then Sabine came back in, clipping her belt on, and sat in the co-pilot's seat next to him. "Sorry, had to get my weapons," Wren explained as she clipped herself into the seat, "But thank you."

"Don't mention it," Ezra responded as he raised the ship into the air, ignoring the way that her willingness to join him in the cockpit gave him a feeling like relief, no doubt because he really was worried about her escaping again.

They exited Atollon's atmosphere and Ezra set the coordinates for their next destination.

As Sabine looked at it, she asked, "Are you sure you put in the right coordinates? This says that we're heading to a planet called Beyrov."

Ezra just nodded. "It's right. We have to make a stop before we go to Krownest."

Sabine seemed confused and commented, "I've never heard of Beyrov before."

"I wouldn't expect you to," Ezra responded. "It was uninhabited until it was used as a resting point during the most recent spat between the Mandalorians and the Jedi, about fifty years before the fall of the Republic. Very few beings know about it, probably not even Gar Saxon or the Empire, which makes it the perfect place for us to get some work done."

Sabine POV

Sabine felt quite confused by Ezra's vague explanation of why they were going to Beyrov, but it seemed acceptable.

As they jumped into hyperspace, Ezra engaged her in small talk. "So, what've you been doing all these years? I still know so little about your story."

"I've been fighting the Empire," Sabine answered, glad that Ezra's Imperial symbol was on the shoulder facing away from her so that she didn't get tempted to look at it as she spoke.

Ezra scoffed. "You spent all these years chasing that same impossible thing? You really think that a few rebels can topple the Empire?"

"It's not about what we believe," Sabine defended. "It's about our hope that we can at least make a difference."

Ezra looked over at her and said, "Sorry, but I'll take a good blaster over hope any day. Or a sword. Or a detonator. Or-"

"Well, I'm not willing to just stare up at the Imperial flag every day when I can do something about it, like burn it down," Sabine cut him off. "Besides, at least I'm not alone. Where was the rest of your clan while you were hunting me?"

Ezra abruptly looked away, focusing on his ship's controls, and responded, "Not important."

Sabine could sense that he was hiding something and prepared to press him for it, but Ezra quickly changed the subject. "So, Captain Syndulla seemed quite protective of you. She called herself… your mother?"

Blushing, Sabine said, "Well, she's basically my mother. She and Kanan found me and took me in. Since then, they've been like my parents."

Ezra nodded and asked, "But are they… together?"

"Yes, but they keep things pretty calm between them," Sabine answered. "They never let their feelings compromise the mission. They care about each other, but they don't get too attached. The Jedi taught 'no emotions or attachments', but Kanan switched it around for himself, where he can feel love, just can't let it control him."

Ezra nodded again, but Sabine couldn't really tell how he felt about what she was saying, not with his helmet covering his expression. She wanted to ask him if he'd take it off, part of her also just wanting to see his face again, espcially those bafflingly blue eyes, but she was worried about overstepping her boundaries, and Ezra changed the subject again. "What about this… Kanan Jarrus? He's blind, but he doesn't seem like it. He's a Jedi, but he's not like I'd expected. And most of all, how did he get the jaig eyes on his mask? Did you give them to him?"

Sabine scoffed. "I'm Mandalorian royalty, but I don't think I'm worthy of giving out Mandalorian honors. Besides, the paint job isn't clean enough for my style. No, Captain Rex gave them to him."

"Why? He better have earned them."

"Oh, he did," Sabine confirmed. "He earned them just after he lost his sight. He-"

Just then, Sabine was cut off as the ship's warning system beeped at them, and Ezra pulled the lever to drop them out of hyperspace. "Well, you'll have to tell me the story later," Ezra told her. "We're here. Welcome to Beyrov."

Ezra pulled his ship, which he told her was named the Absolution, in to land on Beyrov's surface. He told her that he needed to do something and that if she wanted, she could wait on the ship for him to return, but she chose to go with him, curious as to what he was here for.

Seeing Ezra pressurize his helmet, Sabine followed suit before the ramp lowered. As they exited the ship down the ramp, Sabine's first impression of the planet was how dark it was. They both had to attach flashlights to the sides of their helmets to see very far, but Ezra seemed to know his way around, indicating to Sabine that he'd been to this planet several times in the past. He easily led her up a rough, rocky path. It was rather steep, which caused Sabine to think to herself how unfair it was that Ezra had a jetpack and she didn't, though she was consoled by the fact that he didn't try to use it and leave her behind.

They continued on for several more minutes until Ezra suddenly stopped in front of a cliff wall. "Dead end," Sabine observed. "Did we take a wrong turn somewhere?"

Ezra shook his head and stepped closer to the wall. "We are in exactly the right place," he said, then suddenly reached out with one hand and pressed a certain stone in on the wall, causing a small, perfectly concealed door to pop open right next to them, a small sliver of light spilling out of it.

Amazed that someone had designed and disguised the door so well, to fit in with the cliff, Sabine stepped in through the doorway first, closely followed by Ezra, who closed the door behind him. The light assaulted their eyes and they both turned off their flashlights before Sabine asked Ezra, "Is the air on Beyrov safe to breathe? I've kept my helmet pressurized the whole time we've been here."

Ezra tilted his head and seemed to think about it, then shrugged and said, "Well, only one way to find out."

Then, to Sabine's horror, Ezra reached up and removed his helmet, then immediately dropped his helmet and he clutched at his throat, eyes wide as he coughed and gasped for air. Panicked, Sabine ran towards him as he collapsed on his face, his body going limp. She grabbed his helmet and put it back on his head, then held him up as he lay limply on the ground. "Come on, come on," Sabine said as she waited for him to recover.

Then, she noticed that his body was shaking. She placed a hand on his chest as she tried to determine the source, assuming that it was a reaction to the poisonous air, then froze as she realized that it was suppressed laughter.

Scowling, Sabine dropped Ezra to the ground, and he could no longer contain his mirth. He cracked up loudly at his own joke, and Sabine told him angrily, "That was not funny! I thought you were really dying!"

Ezra continued to laugh, then pulled off his helmet once again to smile widely at her. "Oh, come on. You have to admit that that was kind of funny."

Sabine continued to glare at him, then sighed and said, "Ezra Kryze, I can already tell that you're going to be the death of me."

Ezra let out one last chuckle of amusement, then told Sabine, "To answer your question, the air outside is poisonous, but the air in here is breathable and recycled."

Sabine sighed in relief and pulled off her own helmet, saying, "Thank the Manda. If I had to spend more time breathing in pressurized helmet-air… What?"

As she'd been talking, she'd noticed that Ezra was staring at her, all traces of humor gone. Waving a hand over his face, Sabine asked, "Ezra? You alright?"

Ezra blinked a few times, seeming to regain his senses, then gestured at her head and commented, "Your, uh, hair looks different."

Sabine grabbed a lock of her hair to look at it, then realized what he meant. When she'd gone to get her things back on Atollon, she'd also taken a moment to re-dye her hair back to what it'd been before, a platinum blonde with purple tips. Smirking at Ezra, she said in a teasing voice, "Yes, Ezra. That's because I dyed it."

Ezra stared at her for another moment, then commented in an offhand sort of way, "It looks good."

Sabine smiled at him, always appreciating a compliment to her art, and Ezra began to slowly walk down the hall. "I'll just be… doing my thing down here," he said as he entered one of the rooms, finally looking away from her. Sabine shook her head at Ezra's antics as she followed him into the room.

Inside, she could see a large, circular metal vat set over a large blue flame in the center of the room, and Ezra was in one corner stripping off all of his armor, leaving him in only his skintight black flightsuit. As he removed them, he set each piece on a large square plate next to him.

Looking around, Sabine asked, "What is this place?"

Ezra removed his vambraces and jetpack and set them on the ground rather than in the plate with everything else, then responded, "This was an old Mandalorian war forge. There are molds here that can forge the kind of armor we typically use today, so long as it is supplied with pure beskar. We need such a forge for me to recreate my armor, but first I need to know that you're committed to this." Ezra then walked over to the wall and picked up a paint stripper, holding it over his pile of armor but not using it.

Confused by all that information, Sabine asked, "Wait, what? Why are you melting your armor?"

Looking down, Ezra explained, "I've unwillingly worn Imperial armor for years. To chase after you, I joined the Empire and watched as they reforged my ancestral armor into something I hated, then put their blasted symbol on me, and I wore it for years. Before we go to Mandalore, I need to get my armor back to normal."

Shocked, Sabine asked, "You joined the Empire… for me?"

Ezra nodded sadly, and Sabine hesitated for a moment, touched by his sacrifice, then nodded with determination. "Yes. I'm committed."

Ezra smiled at her, then began to strip the paint from his armor pieces, and Sabine noticed that he removed the Empire's symbol first, perhaps just subconsciously. She watched for a little while, then got bored and grabbed another paint stripper to help him. Working together, they quickly removed all paint from the armor.

Ezra wiped his brow and handed his paint stripper back to Sabine, asking her, "Here, Wren, could you put these back on the wall?"

Sabine nodded an affirmative and grabbed his device before bringing them both back to the wall to hang them up. When she turned around again, she saw that Ezra had removed his shirt, revealing his lean, chiseled body. For reasons she didn't understand, her heart began to beat a little faster as she saw that, but she quickly shook her head to snap herself out of it.

She was probably just reacting to the way he looked like he'd been masterfully carved from stone, the artist in her observing that he'd been built beautifully. He wasn't too muscular, definitely not as large as most adult Mandalorians she'd seen, but he was well-defined and, in Sabine's opinion, just the right amount of muscle. Like her, he was also well-tanned, his regular use of full-body armor not preventing him from letting the sun touch the skin below his head.

Ezra inserted a long metal rod into the side of the plate, which once again held all of his armor pieces, and used it to lift the plate up and lower it over the blazing furnace, which immediately began to melt the beskar down. While it did so, Ezra moved to the opposite wall and began to line up the molds, selecting the ones that would make his armor just the way he wanted it.

Sabine simply watched this part for a while, not wanting to disturb him. To Mandalorians, taking care of their armor was like taking care of a loved one. It was part of them, and Sabine couldn't imagine what he was feeling as he finally got to reshape it to his preference after years of waiting. He seemed completely focused on his work, no doubt having dreamed of this moment for a long time.

While she waited for him to finish, Sabine set her helmet down on one of the tables and quietly left the room, wanting to explore the base.

The halls were made of roughly cut stone, and Sabine had a feeling that the Mandalorians had used explosives to cut much of it out. Despite the fact that this had clearly only been intended as a temporary stopping point, as Sabine explored she found several living quarters, mostly soldier barracks, their stacks of beds left dusty and forgotten. She also found a small cafeteria, but the room felt very hollow when it was empty and drowned in darkness like it was now.

Shortly later, Sabine found a downward sloping hallway. She went down it, and at the bottom was a large room that was covered in a thick blanket of darkness. She could still see, but this room was by far the darkest one she'd come across.

Suddenly hearing a soft sound off to her side, Sabine spun around to find the source, but she saw nothing. Hearing another noise, once again behind her, she looked over her shoulder and saw glowing yellow eyes and sharp white teeth directed towards her, just a few meters away, coming from a creature that crouched low and growled loudly at her.

Quickly drawing her pistols from her hips, Sabine fired at the dark creature. Within a few shots, it went down, but the red light of her blaster bolts revealed several more such creatures in the room all around her, which began to run towards her, snarling.

Sabine aimed both of her pistols in opposite directions, shooting as many of them as she could, but they slowly began to get closer and closer with every one that she managed to stop.

Just then, Ezra ran into the room, wearing only his flight suit and carrying his own pair of pistols. He fought his way to her, then pressed his back against hers as he began to help her hold off the waves of creatures, but their numbers seemed endless.

"I leave you alone for two seconds and look what you manage to get into!" Ezra yelled over the sound of blaster fire.

Sabine rolled her eyes and told him, "I know these creatures. I've encountered them before."

Ezra nodded. "Yeah, me too. Fyrnocks. Not friendly, but can't go in the sun and they're afraid of light, which would explain why they're down here. We need to move towards the exit!"

Staying close together, they both began to move towards the door, their four blasters helping them to keep the fyrnocks back long enough for them to reach it.

Once they were through the door, Ezra quickly closed it behind them, but it quickly began to dent as several large forms threw themselves against it. "That won't hold them long," Sabine warned.

Ezra nodded and said, "Well, then we'd better make ourselves scarce."

They ran back up the hallway, still hearing yowling and bangs of metal behind them, and Sabine began to run towards the exit but stopped as she saw Ezra go back into the forge room.

Following him, Sabine told him, "Ezra! You'll have to grab your things later, we need to go! The fyrnocks will be here any second!"

To her shock, she saw that he'd already finished reforging his armor and was now waiting for certain parts to finish up inside a line of automatic painting machines.

Stepping forward to grab his arm, Sabine said again, "Ezra, we'll come back for it! We need to get back to the ship!"

Ezra shook her off. "No! If we're coming back, I at least need my vambraces. We'll never be able to fight our way through all of them without a few tricks up our sleeves. Besides, if we get pinned down out there, I'll need my helmet to breathe."

At that moment, they heard several growls from behind them and turned to see at least a dozen fyrnocks entering the room. Directing her pistols at them, Sabine told Ezra, "Well, I guess we're fighting in here then."

Within a few seconds, once they had an overwhelming number advantage, the first fyrnock ran forward and pounced towards Sabine.

Letting out a roar of challenge, Ezra charged forward and intercepted it midair, smacking it across the face and sending it flying into the blue flames of the beskar forge, where it let out a pitiful whine as it was instantly burned alive.

The others jumped on Ezra before he could recover himself, and Sabine heard him let out a yell of pain from under the pile of dark bodies.

Knowing how badly injured Ezra could be getting without his armor, Sabine quickly aimed her blasters and began to shoot the ones on top of the pile, not wanting to shoot low and risk hitting Ezra, but at least she could make it easier for him.

Just then, the first paint machine behind Sabine let out a pleasant ding. Turning around to face it, Sabine opened the chamber and pulled out one of Ezra's vambraces. Recognizing one of the tools on it as a repulsor, Sabine put it on her arm, aimed it at the pile of fyrnocks, and fired.

The resulting blast emitted from the vambrace launched the entire group, including Ezra, who looked like he'd been through a battle with a dozen swordsmen. Cuts covered his body, ripping through his flight suit in dozens of places, but at least he was alive. He'd dropped his pistols, but once he felt the fyrnocks get off him he groaned and quickly reached down to his boot to pull out a knife, though he looked like he could barely hold it.

Sabine put on the other vambrace and ran forward to stand over him protectively, placing a hand on his own that held the knife, and said, "Woah, slow down there. You're in no condition to be fighting."

Ezra looked at her like he wanted to argue, but then winced and nodded with tired acceptance. He groaned out, "The repulsor… needs to recharge." He then reached up, grabbing both of her wrists, and pressed a button on both vambraces.

Instantly, a small blade popped out of the wrist of the one on the right and the left one emitted a personal combat energy shield, and Ezra fell down onto the ground limply.

Sabine looked down at her new weapons, then glared at the recovering fyrnocks with determination. If there was one thing a Mandalorian knew how to do, it was to hold their ground. Sabine had never trained with these weapons before, but she was determined to keep these creatures away from Ezra until he could get some medical attention.

The fyrnocks looked at her warily, surrounding her, then one by one they began to pounce. The first one to arrive, Sabine brought up her shield, and the fyrnock crashed into it, burning its skin, and Sabine tossed it over her shoulder. Sabine ducked as another one jumped overhead, then used her right hand to punch it in the stomach while it was in the air, and the blade from her vambrace pierced its skin and went into its heart. She then raised her shield to stop the charge of another one while she stabbed out with her opposite hand at another.

They began to blur together as Sabine stood in place, continually holding them back.

Eventually, Sabine cut off one's clawed hand, but it used its other limbs to smack her aside, then leaned down to sniff at Ezra's fallen form. Too far away to stab it, Sabine retracted the blade from her right vambrace and instead drew her pistol before shooting the fyrnock in between the eyes.

Another one ran at Ezra and Sabine deactivated her shield to instead fire a grappling line from the vambrace that wrapped around its legs, and Sabine pulled the line tight, tripping the creature before it could reach her wounded friend.

By now, the fyrnocks realized that their numbers were quickly dropping, and they began to run away. As they were running out the door, Sabine saw Ezra pull himself into a sitting position and throw his knife at one of them, catching it in the spine and dropping it to the ground.

Sabine scowled at the way that he had aggravated his injuries just to make sure he got one of the creatures, and just then she heard a snarling sound above her. Spinning around, she saw one last fyrnock that had jumped on top of the forge, and it had already jumped down at her, not giving her enough time to react. Sabine tensed up for the impact of the large creature falling on her, closing her eyes in anticipation, but she was surprised when it didn't come.

Opening her eyes, she saw the fyrnock frozen in midair, looking down in confusion as gravity eluded it, its legs waving helplessly in the air as if it were swimming.

Looking around in shock, Sabine saw Ezra, still laying on the ground several feet away from her, but his arm was outstretched towards the beast and his eyes were closed tight with anticipation. He suddenly gripped his hand tightly into a fist, and Sabine flinched upon hearing the neck of the fyrnock snap before its body dropped to the ground.

Shortly after, Ezra himself collapsed in exhaustion, and Sabine ran to kneel by him, checking his fading pulse, still in shock from whatever had just happened.