Chapter 17

Sabine POV

The next day, Sabine was discharged from the medical wing early in the morning and discovered that Ezra had not come out of his room to eat breakfast with the rest of his clan.

Realizing that her work was not yet done, Sabine immediately took her breakfast tray and walked back to his room. Luckily, when she opened the door, she saw that Ezra at least had the lights on. Progress, she decided.

She then sat down at the foot of Ezra's bed and shook him awake. He stirred in his sleep and sat up to rub his eyes back to wakefulness. Meanwhile, Sabine began to eat her breakfast, and suddenly Ezra realized who was in his room. With a yelp, he quickly yanked his blankets up to cover his chest and exclaimed, "Sabine! I didn't… Why are you here?"

Sabine looked at him in amusement and said, "Calm down, Ez. You're fully clothed, you can drop the blanket. As for why I'm here, you weren't at breakfast, so I came to visit."

Ezra sat up and nervously said, "Sabine… I don't think I should be around the rest of my clan right now. In fact, I should probably leave. Like I said last night, I'm not going to be a warrior anymore, so-"

"No," Sabine said simply as she took another bite of her breakfast.

Ezra frowned and said, "'No?' What do you mean, 'No?'"

"You're not done being a warrior, and you're not going anywhere," Sabine declared with finality.

Ezra shook his head. "Look, Sabine. What happened yesterday, it can't happen again."

"It won't," Sabine said with certainty. She then held up a piece of her breakfast for him and offered, "Toast?"

Ezra stared at her, dumbfounded, as she handed him her toast without him even answering, then stood up to leave. "You will join me for a spar today," Sabine said as she walked towards the door. "You will bring your armor and weapons."

Ezra processed this statement and sat up, saying, "But… what happened yesterday… and your hand!" But Sabine had already left, the door closing behind her.

She walked across the hall and entered her own room, then began to attach the pieces of her armor and grab her weapons. The last piece she picked up was the Darksaber, which she attached to her belt after a moment's hesitation. She then walked outside and went out to the field where they had all sparred yesterday. When she arrived, she went to the spot of ground where she had nearly died yesterday, and stood there to wait for Ezra.

However, before Ezra arrived, his mother did. She walked up from behind Sabine to stand next to her and said, "You know, death has a way of changing our perspectives. Whether it be our own or someone else's. Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Sabine answered.

Bo nodded at her but said, "That's what a Mandalorian says when they're not fine. You should be resting."

Sabine shook her head. "I can't rest right now. Ezra needs me."

Bo glanced sideways at her and said, "When my son came home and told us that you had been accepted back into your clan, many of my clan did not believe it. Some, including myself, even considered going to war with your family. My son defended your honor fiercely. And yesterday, when he almost… when you were hurt, he panicked. Seven years ago, I sent him on a mission that he might never have returned from, yet his eyes held no fear. I have seen many things in my years, Sabine Wren, but I have never seen my son scared. So tell me, who are you to him? What are your intentions towards my son?"

Sabine opened her mouth to answer, though she was unsure how, but suddenly she looked up at the sound of engines above them, and Ezra landed right between them, floating down on his jetpack. He reached up and pulled off his helmet, tucking it under his arm, and said, "Sabine, I don't know how you plan to do this. You can't fight with your hand in that condition."

Sabine glanced at Bo, then looked back to Ezra and said, "Actually, Ezra, I'm not planning on fighting. I just needed to get you out here so I could show you this."

Sabine then pulled the Darksaber from her belt and activated it. She was careful to make no threatening move towards Ezra, simply holding the jet-black blade up for him to see, but suddenly, all around them, as soon as the black blade had activated, every Mandalorian present drew their weapons and pointed them at Ezra, clearly concerned about how he might react. Even Bo put her hands on her pistols, setting them to stun, but didn't draw them yet.

Sabine remained calm and watched Ezra's face. As he looked at the weapon, he scowled in anger and Sabine could see his eyes flicker to yellow for a moment before they returned to their normal, unique shade of bright blue.

Sabine couldn't help but wonder how his eyes could change colors like that. Perhaps he wasn't fully human. She still didn't know who or what his father is or had been, but perhaps he was a Togruta or something like that, some species that could change their eye color to see in the dark. Yet the yellow was unnerving to Sabine, who had only ever seen enemies with that eye color. The Grand Inquisitor, the Seventh Sister, and even Maul all had yellow eyes. She didn't like making that comparison with Ezra.

As she saw her friend glaring at the weapon as dozens of blasters pointed at him, Sabine called out, "Everyone drop your weapons! He hasn't attacked yet, meaning he's under control!"

The surrounding Mandalorians looked around before hesitantly lowering their weapons, but very few holstered them. Sabine supposed that she couldn't really blame them, but she needed Ezra calm for this, so she tried to shift his attention solely to her.

"Ezra, look at me," Sabine said.

It took a moment, but Ezra managed to pull his gaze off the Darksaber to instead look at her, his glare immediately lessening some. Sabine stepped closer to him and said, "I know what you think this weapon did to you, Ezra, and I'm sorry for that. But it wasn't this. It was Maul. A weapon is not responsible for what it is used for."

She deactivated the Darksaber and turned to address the group and said, "I came by this blade by chance, but I didn't win it! But yesterday, I was defeated, and the Darksaber was taken from me. Would this not then make it belong to the one who defeated me?"

Next to her, Sabine saw Bo-Katan tense up as she realized what was happening, but Axe Woves answered. "It would!"

Sabine turned back to Ezra and held the hilt out towards him. Ezra looked down at it and said, "Sabine… I can't."

"Yes, you can," Sabine responded. "You have to, so you can move on. And we have a war to win. We'll need you to do what none of the rest of us can."

Ezra glanced up at her face and argued, "You're asking me to be some kind of Jedi. To lead our people with this blade. I'm no leader. I can't… lead our people to war. I was just preparing them for it."

Suddenly, Lady Kryze stepped forward and said, "Meaning you were more of a leader than any of the rest of us. The kind of leader that Mandalore could use right about now. In the past, I've seen what a Mandalorian and a Jedi can do together. It's the perfect duo. Perhaps now is the time… for us to have a Mandalorian Jedi again."

Ezra looked at his mother, clearly affected by her vocal encouragement, and finally reached out to grab the Darksaber hilt with a shaking hand. He took it from her and held it up, then activated it. The blade dipped for a moment, which Sabine frowned at. Judging by Ezra's expression, Sabine would think that it was unnaturally heavy for him, yet it had felt almost weightless to her.

Ezra lowered it down to hang by his side, his face still seeming uncertain. Then, his face turned to one of grim determination, and Ezra announced, loud enough for everyone to hear him, "I accept this sword. The sword that killed my mother. I accept it as penance for her sacrifice, and now it will strike down those who would threaten Mandalore, just as her killer did."

Suddenly, the blade seemed much lighter in Ezra's hand, and he raised it triumphantly above his head. The entire crowd of Mandalorians cheered at the sight, some of them firing weapons into the sky in celebration, knowing that they now had someone who could lead their kind to freedom from the tyranny of the Empire.

Sabine smiled at her friend, then sank to one knee and bowed her head in a show of subservience. Behind her, Lady Kryze did the same, and then everyone else followed their example, following the Mandalorian custom of kneeling before the Darksaber, but immediately Ezra deactivated his new weapon and stammered out, "Hey, wait a minute now! I appreciate it, guys, but please don't bow! This is awkward enough as it is!"

Sabine chuckled at his joke and accepted Ezra's hand when he offered it to her to help pull her back to her feet. He offered a hand to his mother as well, but she waved it off gently.

"No thank you, my son," she said. "But if I may borrow you for a moment, I wish to speak with you privately."

Ezra seemed confused but nodded and gestured towards the Absolution. Sabine gave him a concerned look, but Ezra just shrugged at her and followed after his mother dutifully.

Ezra POV

Inside the Absolution, Bo walked into the cockpit and waited for Ezra to enter before she closed the door behind them, clearly wanting complete privacy. Ezra sank down into the pilot's chair and spun around to face his mother, who sat in the co-pilot's seat, but did not face him yet, simply leaning back in thought.

After a brief moment of silence, Bo said, "Ezra, we need to talk about Wren."

Ezra leaned forward and said, "Alright. What is it?"

Bo hesitated for another moment, then said, "She seems to know everything about you. When you're around her, you seem even more comfortable than you do with me, and I don't like it. You've barely known her, really known her, for a few months. Before that, she was your prey, your enemy, and now you act like she's your best friend. And now I find out that you even told her about your mother? I need to know what she did that made you open up to her like this."

Ezra remained silent for a moment, then met his mother's gaze and said, "I trust her."

Bo shook her head. "So I've seen, Ezra, but what I don't understand is why. I knew her mother, and I respected her, but even Ursa's judgment is not without question. Sabine Wren was Dar'manda for seven years, and it's not wrong to assume-"

"So was I, Mom!" Ezra yelled out angrily, cutting her off.

She looked at him in shock and said, "That was a simple misunderstanding, Ezra."

"And so was hers!" Ezra countered. "Like I told you, she was saving us! All Mandalorians! She's saved my life several times. I spent years studying her, and I know her better than anyone, but you think I forgave her before I found out what she'd done? No. I knew every detail of her life, yet I still didn't know who she was until much later, and now that I do, I trust her. You should too."

Bo stayed sitting calmly in her chair through Ezra's rant, and at the end she narrowed her eyes at him. "What did she do to you? You've never defended anyone… anything this fiercely, and this is the second time you've reacted this way when someone questioned Sabine Wren's integrity. What did she do to my son?"

Ezra paused for a moment, then apologetically said, "I… I'm sorry, Mother. It's not her fault. I just… I don't know what came over me."

"She has a certain level of influence over you that I'm not comfortable with, Ezra," Bo said with a frown. "I can't tell what she's after from you, but I can tell she wants something. Yesterday, she woke up after your… incident, and she immediately proceeded to fight her way to your room, ignoring her own injuries to check on you. She wants something, and she needs you to get it. Our fortune, perhaps? Kryze is by far the wealthiest of the clans, but she is the heir to the Wren fortune, which is nothing to scoff at either."

Ezra shook his head and said with certainty, "No, she's not after money. I've studied her. She doesn't care about riches. She likes explosives, paint, meiloorun fruits…"

"All of which she could buy with our money," Bo argued. "If she were simply to win your favor and marry you-"

At that, all activity in Ezra's brain came to a screeching halt, and he cut her off by saying, "Wait, what?"

Bo looked at him distractedly and said, "By marrying you, the heir to Clan Kryze, she could come to possess our resources herself through your bond. It wouldn't be too difficult for her either, I imagine. She's bright, strong, creative, and a relatively pretty young girl-"

"Beautiful," Ezra cut her off again subconsciously, then reared back in shock at his own correction.

His mother looked at him with concern, then her eyes widened. "Oh, no. Ezra, what do you… feel when you look at Sabine?"

Ezra frowned. "Actually, I was talking to Trev about that just yesterday. I get some sort of tingling in my stomach, sort of like I'm sick, but it feels oddly… fine. Good, even. It happens every time I see her, but sometimes, like yesterday when I was watching her fight, it gets even more intense. Trev said that he knew the feeling, but hasn't felt it in awhile. I wanted him to explain it to me, but I got pulled into the fight before he could."

Bo looked down and cursed to herself. "Dank farrik. Ezra, that's not good."

Ezra's spine tingled and he asked, "It's some life-threatening disease, isn't it?"

Bo shook her head as she looked up at him and said, "Worse. You like her, Ezra."

"Yeah, what about it?" Ezra asked, waiting for her to get to the point.

She grabbed his arm and said, "No, Ezra. You like her."

Ezra just continued to stare at his mother for a moment, but then it finally dawned on him what she meant. A look of realization appeared on his face, and then it turned to a wide grin of pure joy. "You mean… I might love her? That's… that's…"

"Terrible," his mother finished for him. "Ezra, she's a former traitor! I had planned to find you the most suitable mate there was! You have developed feelings for a former enemy and an outcast! You can't be alright with this!"

Ezra just smiled at her and laughed with giddy joy. "No, Mother," he corrected her, "I have developed feelings for Sabine Wren, the most beautiful woman in the galaxy. I am absolutely great with this!"

He stood up from his chair and began to run out of the room, but then a horrible thought came to him. It drained all the sudden, newfound excitement out of him, causing him to freeze in place and slowly turn back to his mother. "But what if… she doesn't feel that way about me?" he asked with worry.

His mother sighed at him sadly and said, "I don't think you should pursue this crush of yours, Ezra. But if you must…"

She took a deep breath and continued, "Mandalorians face countless enemies throughout their lifetimes, yet our most dangerous enemy has always been the same. Ourselves. This is the one thing that we share with every other creature in the galaxy. Our self-doubt, our hesitation, our fear, they all can destroy us and leave us helpless to fight back, because they make us think that we don't want to. But your trial, my son, you will have to face it eventually, whether you are destined to win or lose. So if you must enter that battle, I can only advise you to do so in the way of the warrior: by seizing control of it and creating our own path."

Ezra stared at her for a moment, then commented, "You know Kanan Jarrus, that Jedi I mentioned? I think you guys would get along great. You both give lessons through long, inspiring speeches."

Bo snorted in amusement and ordered him, "Go."

Ezra didn't need to be told twice. Despite the joke he had made about his mother's speech, he had understood it well enough. She was telling him that he needed to take control of his fear and decide his own fate, rather than waiting and letting his fear control him.

And that was exactly what he intended to do.

He ran out of his ship and looked around for Sabine. Not seeing her anywhere, he went over to one of the soldiers who was doing target practice and said, "Hey, have you seen-" He didn't even finish his question before the soldier recognized his voice and immediately pointed him towards the other end of the field.

Ezra thanked him and swiftly ran off in the direction he'd been instructed to go. Sure enough, he found Sabine there. Just as he'd suspected, she'd been quick to return to work, using her one good hand to load rockets into jetpacks. Ezra approached her and called out, "Sabine!"

She turned and smiled at him, then climbed back to her feet and said, "Hey, Ez. What did your mom want to talk about?"

Unfortunately, at the sight of her smile, Ezra once again found himself tongue-tied. He put his hands on her shoulders and tried to speak, but the words he wanted to say eluded him, and he struggled to say, "I- Let's not talk about that now. I have something to… to tell you."

She looked at his hands firmly holding her in place, then looked back up at him in confusion and said, "O…kay. What is it?"

Ezra opened his mouth to speak, but her shining brown eyes distracted him, and he only managed to stammer out, "When I… when someone finds something, that thing can be really… good. Amazing, actually. And I… think I found something. And it was really cool. I feel really weird, and it's… just amazing. At first, I didn't get it, but then I did, and it was-"

"Ezra," Sabine cut him off. "Are you alright?"

He nodded his head, grinning madly at her, and continued, "Yes! I'm actually better than alright! I mean, I feel really sick, but in a good way! And I… I'm not making any sense, am I?"

Sabine shook her head at him, a concerned expression on her face, and Ezra sighed. "I'm sorry, I don't know how to do this," he said apologetically.

He took a deep breath and said, "Sabine. If I, hypothetically, liked you, as more than a friend, how would you react? If I knew that we've only known each other for a few months, but I thought-"

He suddenly caught sight of her injured wrist and reached out to carefully hold it, examining the damage. "Oh, Sabine. Did I do that? I am so-"

"Ezra!" Sabine loudly cut him off, pulling her wrist out of his hand roughly. "That is not the place to stop!"

Ezra's eyes widened in realization, and he quickly amended, "Right, right! As I was saying, if I cared more about you than I… even knew what to do with. And I didn't realize it for a long time, but now… Hypothetically, if I asked you, would you feel the same way?"

Sabine remained silent for a moment, breathing hard, then asked, "Are you… asking me to marry you, Ezra?"

Desperately hoping, Ezra got down on one knee and answered, "Hypothetically."

Sabine looked down at him, gulping nervously, then said, "If that was what you were asking me, then I hypothetically would say… I feel the same way about you. And… Do you want me to be honest?"

Ezra took her hands in his, elation rising in his chest from her reciprocated feelings, and said, "I hope you always feel like you can be honest with me."

Sabine looked at him nervously and said, "Much as part of me wants to tell you 'yes', I don't know if I'm ready for marriage. But I think we could try… dating, maybe?"

Ezra frowned. "Dating? Like what Kanan and Hera do?"

Sabine nodded hesitantly and asked, "Would that be… alright?"

Ezra paused for a moment, then smiled and got back to his feet, leaning his head against hers in the Keldabe kiss and said, "That sounds wonderful."

Sabine smiled back at him and closed her eyes as she leaned into him.

Then, from behind them came a loud noise, and Ezra and Sabine quickly broke apart, both of them placing their hands on their pistols as they turned to face their attackers.

But it wasn't an attack. It was a group of Mandalorians, all lined up, clapping and cheering for the end of the show.

After a moment, Axe Woves, who stood at the front of the crowd, finished clapping and said with a smile, "That… that was beautiful, you two."

"How long have you all been watching?" Ezra demanded.

"Almost the entire time, and can I just say, your initial performance was absolutely agonizing to watch, Kryze," Axe answered, followed by a number of chuckles from the crowd.

"We didn't think you'd be able to pull it off," Koska commented.

Ezra angrily huffed out, "Is there no privacy on this planet?"

Axe shook his head. "None at all. If we didn't know everything that happens here, this wouldn't be a very good base, would it? But don't worry. It's better for a Mandalorian to stake his or her claim on a mate in public."

Ezra blushed and began, "I wasn't staking a claim on someone-"

"Yes, you were," Sabine corrected him, then grabbed his hand and said, "And so was I. And that's just fine. Stop letting them tease you, Ez."

Ezra glared back at his clan members, then ultimately just sighed and turned back to Sabine. "Alright, but can we take this somewhere more private? I'm going to need some explanation on this whole… new relationship of ours before we go any further."

Sabine smiled and began to pull him away, throwing a threatening glare over her shoulder when the other Mandalorians tried to follow them, and they instantly backed off. "Don't worry, Ezra. We'll be figuring this out together."

A/N: Long chapter, I know, but hopefully you all enjoyed it. Lots of fun stuff to pack into a single chapter, but whatever. The biggest thing though, I think, is the start of the romance! Now, as I mentioned at the beginning of this story, I have no idea what I'm doing with the romance, so please tell me what you all think. If it's bad at any point, please tell me (in a calm, reasonable way) and I will be happy to consider your points. If you have tips or suggestions, please feel free to share them with me. Thanks!