Chapter 10

Ezra POV

A few days after they returned from Concord Dawn, Kanan asked Ezra to come visit him in his quarters. Having nothing better to do, Ezra decided to see what the Jedi wanted.

Over the last few days, he'd spent most of his time helping around the base any way he could as he waited for Sabine to finish cleaning up his armor and ship. She'd told him that she was nearly finished, so he expected that he could be ready to leave at any time.

Until that time came, he'd spent his large amounts of free time helping to do whatever he could to help the rebels. He still didn't care for their cause, but he appreciated them for trying to fight the Empire, though he'd already calculated that they stood no chance after he got a good look at all of their weapons and gear. Even with other Rebel divisions spread throughout the galaxy, they simply didn't have the numbers or armament to win this fight, but he still did everything in his power to help them.

He opened the door to Kanan's room and found the bearded Jedi meditating, his back to the right wall as he kneeled on the floor with his hands on his legs. He'd removed his mask, revealing a long red burn mark that went across his eyes, but the eyes themselves were closed.

When the door opened, Kanan said, "Ezra. Thank you for coming. Please, come in."

He didn't move any part of his body as he spoke except for his mouth, and Ezra wondered how he even knew that it was him. Probably just a lucky guess following his request earlier this morning.

Ezra entered, the door closing behind him, and stood in front of Kanan. "What did you want to speak about?" Ezra asked.

Kanan spoke slowly as he responded, "I know that you're planning to leave here once your ship is cleaned, but-"

"I have responsibilities back home, Kanan," Ezra cut him off. "I can't abandon my people to join your group of rebels. I've been away too long already."

"And I respect that," Kanan responded calmly. "But you have much more to offer than a few extra guns. In you I sense the potential to help Mandalore and us as well. You're just not using it."

Ezra narrowed his eyes at the Jedi, then sighed. "This is about the Force, isn't it?" Kanan simply nodded in response, and Ezra defended, "Kanan, you don't understand. Yes, I have powers. I can move things with my mind. So what? My vambraces were made to combat such abilities, and they don't attract the attention of the Empire."

"When did you last use them in a fight?" Kanan asked.

Ezra began to answer, insisting that he hadn't done it since he was a toddler, but then remembered what had happened on Beyrov. Sighing again, he answered truthfully, "About a week ago. I used them to save Sabine from a fyrnock."

Kanan chuckled and opened his eyes, revealing clouded white orbs, saying, "Well, there you go. The Force is more than a weapon, Ezra. It's a tool that can be used to save lives. One of many in your arsenal, it seems, but you haven't trained yourself to use this one."

Ezra rolled his eyes. "I've never really needed it. When I saved Sabine, I didn't have my vambraces with me, or I wouldn't have done it."

"Exactly!" Kanan exclaimed. "You didn't have your vambraces, but the Force is always with you. And if you combined those two abilities? You'd become much more powerful, easily a big threat to the Empire, which would help both your people and ours."

Ezra shook his head. "I'm not a Jedi, Kanan. Being a Mandalorian will always come first for me, and I don't need to be like my… like you."

Kanan tilted his head as he noted Ezra's hesitation. "'Don't need to be like your…' what?" he asked, curious.

Ezra shook his head and began to walk out of the room. "Nothing. I just… slipped for a minute. Don't talk to me about your Jedi stuff anymore, okay?"

Before the door closed behind him, Ezra saw Kanan lower his head in disappointment, but quickly tried to put it out of his mind. Yet some part of him considered a certain piece of what Kanan had said, about him using his powers to help his people.

For his entire life, he'd kept his powers hidden away, but… he wasn't a kid anymore. He wasn't scared of the Empire coming for him. He'd opened himself up to the Force twice in the past week, and both times it had felt… right. And if Kanan was right about the Force being another weapon, one that he's had all this time but had been wasting, then maybe it was time for him to learn how to use it. Just to fight the Empire. For his people.

In his mind, he determined that he would begin to train himself with the Force once he got home. He knew that there was a fight with the Empire coming, and he wanted to bring every weapon he had when the time came.

As he exited the Ghost, Ezra ran into Sabine. Looking up and seeing that it was him, Sabine said, "Oh! Ezra, I was just looking for you."

As distressed and distracted as Ezra was, his spirits immediately lifted upon seeing Sabine like always. He still didn't understand why, but the feeling was certainly pleasant. Smiling at her, Ezra said, "Hey, Sabine. What's up?"

Sabine smiled back. "It's done!"

Ezra's expression shifted to shock as he asked, "Wait, my ship? It's cleaned?"

"And your armor," Sabine added proudly.

Even more happy to hear that, Ezra looked towards the Absolution with a wide grin on his face. "Can I…"

"Go for it," Sabine told him, "But I have to watch."

Smiling the whole way, Ezra quickly strode past Sabine and entered his ship. He first went to the cockpit, which was perfectly spotless. All of his controls had been thoroughly cleaned, and the viewport seemed clearer than it had in years. He moved forward to sit in the pilot's chair, spinning around in it to look at every angle of the cockpit.

Sabine leaned against the door frame, smiling at him as he examined the space with clear satisfaction.

He then stood up and excitedly walked down the hall. After seeing how well the cockpit had been cleaned, he was excited to see his armor. Knowing how Sabine liked to go the extra mile, he wouldn't be surprised if she'd already restored his old paint job to the armor without him asking her.

He walked into his quarters and immediately moved to his armor cabinet before he opened it to see his most beloved possession, eager to put it on once more. As he opened the door, however, his smile immediately fell.

Sabine had indeed repainted his armor, but… She'd done far more than he could have imagined. His cape, the inner part of his bodysuit, and a certain part of the helmet had maintained the blue of his clan, but almost every other part of the armor had been changed, and there wasn't a single space on it that wasn't painted in some way.

Most alarmingly, Sabine had taken the liberty of making his armor's primary color choice his favorite shade of orange, and lined it with yellow. His right shoulder pad was still his clan's bright blue and sported their symbol, but the other shoulder was now the same orange and yellow of most of the protective plates and had the design of a red circle with a familiar orange symbol on it.

He turned and looked at the matching symbol on one side of Sabine's chestplate, and she nodded in understanding. "My starbird. The Wren Phoenix crest," she explained proudly.

Ezra wasn't quite so pleased. He turned to look in sustained horror at his armor, his eyes flicking back and forth over it as though he could make it change with his mere will.

Covering his mouth with his hand to stifle a gasp, Ezra asked, "Why is it so… bright?!" He was stuck between feelings of outrage, amazement, and panic. To see his armor so… colorful nearly brought him to tears as so many jumbled feelings rushed through him that he couldn't quite process them all. Perhaps the worst part of it all was that it looked great. Incredible, even. But Ezra didn't know how to decorate his armor so expressively, nor did he understand exactly what had happened that had landed him in this situation.

Behind him, Sabine shyly said, "I, uh, thought you could stand to stick out a bit more. And you mentioned that orange was your favorite color, so I just… Well, do you like it?"

Ezra didn't know if he liked it. Some part of him hated it, some loved it, and the rest… didn't know what it thought. Sighing, Ezra said, "It's so… So…" He trailed off as he noticed a detail on the helmet. Picking it up, Ezra inspected the newest addition to his armor: Two orange jaig eyes on the forehead.

Turning to Sabine and gesturing at the eyes, Ezra said, "I… I can't wear these. I don't deserve them."

Sabine glanced at the eyes herself for a moment, then looked back at him with a firm glare and said, "Yes, you do."

Ezra just stared at her for a moment, then cleared his throat as he picked up the pieces of the armor and took them towards the refresher. "I'll just… put these on," he said awkwardly as he closed the door behind him.

Sabine POV

Sitting on the bed and fidgeting nervously, Sabine waited for Ezra to exit the refresher.

She'd tried to remain confident as she showed Ezra what she'd done to his armor, but internally she'd been terrified that he wouldn't like it. Maybe he still wouldn't. When he'd first seen it and frozen in shock, she too had frozen, but in fear. She was worried that she'd gone too far. He had told her, after all, that he didn't want to be another one of her art projects, and while she'd tried to keep her work on his armor completely professional, she was concerned that he had been completely serious, that he would be angry at her for desecrating his armor. After all, a Mandalorian's armor was a big part of their life, and while she wouldn't have been offended if he'd insisted that she remove her work, she didn't think that she could bear it if he'd gotten angry at her. But she wasn't in the clear just yet.

Finally, Ezra exited the refresher wearing his full gear, and Sabine gasped in awe at the sight that greeted her. As good as the armor had looked in individual pieces, it looked so much better when it was being worn as a set. The whole look worked better than Sabine had dared to imagine. She'd even done some light painting on his vambraces and guns, keeping the whole aesthetic intact. Even the blue cape managed to blend in nicely with the rest. He looked, in a word, majestic.

Ezra stepped into the room and spread his arms, just as he had when he'd first shown her the newly reforged armor, and hesitantly asked, "How do I look?"

Sabine remained silent for a moment before she found her voice again and said, "I hope you're comfortable in that thing, because I never want to see it come off."

"Aw, not even to catch a glimpse of the manly bod underneath?" Ezra teased sarcastically.

Sabine just rolled her eyes at him, although she thought to herself that it wasn't actually a bad idea. Suddenly, she remembered the next part of his plan and looked down sadly. "So… I guess you're going to be leaving now?" she asked him.

Ezra stopped looking over his armor as he seemed to process the same thing, then pulled off his helmet. "I have to. I'm sorry."

Sabine nodded sadly and pulled her legs up to sit cross-legged on the bed.

Ezra let out a deep breath and moved to sit down next to her. He paused for a moment, then said, "Sabine… I've got to admit, when I first met you, I thought you were a Mandalorian with no honor."

"Right back at you," Sabine said teasingly, trying to disguise the hurt in her voice behind a mask of humor.

Ezra rolled his eyes and continued, "But in the short time I've known you, you've shown me that I was wrong, and I'm proud to call you my friend. I can tell that you're protective of your family, and you tried to help Mandalore, not destroy it. You never stopped fighting, either. You left Mandalore, but you didn't stop fighting for us. You tried to fight the Empire for us. But we've still got a fight on our hands, back home. Mandalore needs me, and I… I need to be there for them. If you need to go bring down the Empire, do it. But I need to be there."

Sabine held back tears forming in her eyes and admitted, "I don't want you to go. I haven't had a friend my age in a long time."

Ezra smiled back at her. "To be honest, I don't want to go either. I wish that either I could stay or that you would come with me, but we're on different paths. But we'll see each other again. Anytime you need me, just call and I'll be there. Besides, I still need to get you your own vambraces."

Sabine gave a dry chuckle in response to his attempt at humor at a time like this. Turning to face him, she said, "And I'll be there when you need me. Assuming that I'm not busy."

Ezra laughed back at her own joke, then stood and offered her a hand. She took it, and he pulled her to her feet before he grabbed her arm at the wrist and shook her hand in the typical Mandalorian way. "It's been an honor. Ret'urcye mhi, Sabine Wren."

"I certainly hope so, Ezra Kryze."

A/N: Let the tears roll! Or not. I have no idea how emotional this farewell really is, but I hope that it's satisfactory. But fear not! This is far from the last chapter, and our favorite awkward not-couple will be reunited in a couple chapters! Also, for those of you that refuse to Google it, ret'urcye mhi is a Mandalorian farewell phrase meaning, "Maybe we'll meet again." Also, I will be placing an image of Ezra's painted armor as the cover for this story for your viewing. Please leave a review if you enjoyed, with constructive criticism or even just your thoughts! It makes my day every time I receive one! Thanks for reading!