Chapter 28

Ezra POV

Waking up with Sabine was certainly something that Ezra could get used to. He felt more relaxed than he had in a long time, and it was all because of her presence.

In the past month, Kanan had taught Ezra how to give his consciousness to the Force as he slept, allowing it to rejuvenate his body and educate his mind. One side effect of doing this was that he became incredibly aware of his surroundings as he slept, and he could feel the presence of those around him. By being in the same bed as Sabine, Ezra had been able to feel her presence most clearly, and she was incredibly comforting to him.

Smiling up at her, Ezra saw her eyes flutter open from her own sleep as she felt his slight movement, and she looked down at him to meet his eyes and return his smile.

"Good morning, handsome," she told him.

Leaning up to kiss her, Ezra responded, "Good morning, beautiful."

Just then, they heard a familiar voice say from the doorway, "Good morning, children!"

Both Ezra and Sabine froze to look towards the doorway, where they found both of their mothers standing there and watching them with smirks on their faces and their arms crossed over their chests.

In response to her mother's sudden introduction, Sabine quickly shot up in the bed, accidentally pushing Ezra off of it and onto the floor. Gasping in worry, Sabine called, "Ezra!"

Knowing that she hadn't meant to push him down, Ezra just raised a hand to show that he was okay and said, "I'm good!"

He then turned his head to face his and his girlfriend's mothers, looking at them upside-down from where he laid on his back on the floor, and announced, "Before you two get worried, there's a perfectly reasonable explanation for all this."

Bo just tried to rub the tension from her forehead with her fingers and said, "Ezra, we know that nothing happened. We just came to make sure that you're both… presentable after you two didn't come back out last night."

Frowning at them, Ezra asked, "How did you two even get on board? You need my codes to open the ramp!"

"Honestly, Ezra, it's cute that you think that some meager ramp would stop a Mandalorian mother, much less two," Ursa chided him.

Bo nodded in agreement and said, "Now, both of you, get up and get ready. We're about ready to attack the Imperial prison that we believe is holding Alrich, and Ezra, you need to lead the charge."

As Sabine got up, helping Ezra to his feet, she asked, "Couldn't we just use the cruiser and fighters to take out their defenses and then storm the place? Why would we charge?"

"Well, for one, we can't be certain that your father isn't inside one of the walkers or even at this prison," Ursa responded as she watched the two younger Mandalorians begin to put on their armor. "And second, Tiber Saxon has launched an attack heading towards our camp. When they arrive, some of us will need to be here to meet them. Tristan and I will lead the defensive position with most of our forces. Bo here will take Clan Kryze to attack an Imperial command center to hack their systems and make sure that Alrich is indeed inside the prison. If he is not, then they will find out where he has been moved to. The two of you will take the rest of Clan Wren to attack the prison and free the Count."

"Before we're even sure if he's there?" Ezra asked.

"If he is, we cannot take the chance that the Empire will attempt to move him while we were checking to find out," Bo answered.

Ursa then left the room, followed by Bo, but Ezra's mother turned before she could exit to tell them, "You'll also have Fenn Rau. And take the Jedi with you. I'm still not sure what to do with him, but I imagine that without a jetpack, he'll be most useful on rescue duty."

Ezra nodded in acceptance, and Bo exited, leaving Ezra and Sabine alone in the room.

After a moment of silence, Sabine commented, "Well. That was awkward."

"Yeah, no kidding," Ezra responded as he picked up Sabine's jetpack and attached it to her back, then turned so that she could help him with his.

"Our mothers walking in on us in a bed together? Remind me not to let that happen again until after we've said the vows," Sabine said, shaking her head as she slipped her vambraces on.

Frowning, Ezra questioned, "Sleeping together, or getting caught?"

Scoffing, Sabine said, "Obviously getting caught. I slept way too comfortably last night not to want to try that again."

"Same," Ezra responded as he donned his helmet. Suddenly, he realized another detail of the day and groaned to himself.

"What is it?" Sabine asked.

"I just remembered that I have to introduce myself to your other dad today," Ezra answered. "How many times do I have to meet your other other family members?"

"He'll love you," Sabine said, not sharing his concerns, as she took his hand and they both began to leave the ship.

"Really? I don't think we have anything in common," Ezra fretted to himself. "I mean, he likes to paint, and he's great at it. I can barely tell one end of your paint cans from the other. I like to fight with lightsabers, blasters, explosives, basically anything that can be aimed to kill. And him, he rarely even wears his armor. How am I supposed to relate to him?"

"Well, you do both love one thing very much," Sabine tried to encourage him.

Looking at her hopefully, Ezra asked, "What?"

Sabine sighed and answered, "Me."

Ezra was confused for a moment, then his mouth formed an "o" shape of realization.

He held that expression up to the time that they finally arrived next to the group of Clan Wren soldiers that they would be taking to the prison. Most of the Mandalorians that had been here had already left to intercept the Empire's troops.

Kanan was already waiting for them, and as they approached, he asked Ezra, "Enjoy your beauty rest?"

Glaring back at the Jedi but recalling the peace of his sleep last night, Ezra cheerfully answered, "Very much so."

Kanan nodded and said, "Good. You'll need it. I figured that the only way I was going to get you to take a nap was if I thoroughly exhausted you first."

Suddenly realizing that he'd been tricked, Ezra scowled and pulled off his helmet before pointing a finger in Kanan's face and saying, "Wait, so you… You were just messing with me with the training yesterday? You just wanted me to take a long nap, even when you knew that Alrich needed to be saved?"

Kanan just nodded and calmly responded, "You've been under a lot of stress lately, and you've been trying to rush this invasion. I wanted you to slow down. Besides, that wasn't the only reason. If you remember, I also had to give you your gift."

Only now remembering Kanan's gift as he mentioned it, Ezra looked down at his belt and pulled his new lightsaber hilt from it. Ezra kept both of his lightsabers on the back of his belt, where they would usually be under his cape, out of the way of his other weapons and well-hidden but still easy to grab when he needed them.

Not having shown her the new lightsaber, Ezra wasn't surprised when Sabine looked at the hilt and asked, "Wait, what? What's Kanan's gift, Ezra?"

Holding it up, Ezra answered her question by activating the lightsaber, extending the bright green blade with a low, steady humming sound in front of him. The sudden appearance of the bright beam of energy drew the attention of everyone present, ceasing all conversation, and Ezra saw all eyes being drawn to look at his new weapon.

After a moment of silence, Sabine said with admiration, "Well… It's another lightsaber. One more like Kanan's, but green."

"What happened to the Darksaber?" one of the Mandalorians in the crowd called.

Ezra drew the Darksaber from his belt as well, holding it in his left hand, and activated it as well before holding the black blade up alongside the green one. Satisfied to know that the Darksaber was still safely within their people's possession, the surrounding Mandalorians began to admire the sight of the two lightsabers side by side.

After an uncomfortable silence, Ezra deactivated both weapons before clipping them back onto his belt, saying, "Well… Shall we go?"

There was some muttering of assent as the Mandalorians broke from their moment of reverence to form into ranks.

Kanan looked around and said, "Alright, how are we getting there? I don't see any speeders here…"

Sabine smiled as she donned her helmet and told the Jedi, "Oh, we don't use speeders, Kanan."

Kanan tensed in concern and said, "You don't mean… I think I'd rather run."

"Nope!" Ezra said cheerfully as he put his own helmet back on and both he and Sabine grabbed one of Kanan's arms. "We fly!"

And with that, both young Mandalorians rocketed into the sky on their jetpacks, carrying a yelling, displeased Jedi between them, and the soldiers of Clan Wren followed after them, all of them ready to rescue the husband of their Countess.

After a short while, they finally got their first look at the Imperial prison. It was a tall rectangular tower with five levels of platforms along the sides sticking out in all four directions.

Ezra pulled down his rangefinder to scan the area around the prison and announced, "There are trenches on the front and right sides of the prison, left behind from past wars. We can use those trenches to get the drop on them without them seeing us."

Sabine turned to him and said, "We have four leader figures here. We can split up into two teams with two leaders each and flank the prison from the trenches."

Ezra nodded in agreement and contacted their group's sole Protector to say, "Rau, you take the right side trenches. Me and Sabine will take point. We're dropping you a package."

Fenn Rau's voice quickly responded, "Copy. Standing by to receive package."

Ezra looked over at Kanan and said, "Have a fun trip!"

Kanan tensed up once again and started to say, "Wait, what are you-!"

That was as far as he got before Ezra shared a nod with Sabine, and then they both dropped the Jedi, hundreds of feet above the ground. Kanan fell with a yell that slowly became more and more distant, but he only fell a few dozen meters before his hand was grabbed by Fenn Rau as he flew beneath them, and the Protector lifted him back upwards.

Clearly annoyed, Kanan looked up at Ezra and Sabine and said, "You could've warned me that you were going to do that!"

"Yeah, but that wouldn't have been as much fun," Sabine responded, and she and Ezra joined in with several more of the Mandalorians in laughing at the Jedi's expense.

Ezra then gave a small salute to Rau and said, "Good luck."

Rau returned the gesture, then flew down towards his assigned trench, followed by a little more than half of their forces. Ezra and Sabine then dived down towards their own trench, followed by the rest of the soldiers.

At their size and speed, they all managed to get into their trenches and land out of sight without raising any alarms from the Empire. Everyone began to take their positions for a charge, drawing their weapons and crouching just out of sight.

As they peeked their heads out of the trenches to survey the target, they heard Kanan's voice asking over the comms, "How sure are we that Sabine's father is in there?"

"Well, we have spies in the capital that say that he's there, and they haven't been wrong yet," Sabine answered.

There was a short silence, then Kanan said, "I don't like this. Ezra, stay on guard. I'm finding it kinda suspicious that the Empire would move Sabine's father so far from the capital."

"Alrich has many high-ranking friends, Kanan," Ezra responded. "With our new uprising on Mandalore, they probably put him out here to keep anyone from doing what we're about to do."

Rau's voice then said, "That may be true, but Kanan could be right. I'd put nothing past these Saxon clan traitors."

Looking around at the Empire's troops stationed at the prison, Ezra said, "Speaking of, I'm not seeing any Imperial Super Commandos here, but I do see some Imperial jet troopers. Rau, you may want to give Kanan a spare jetpack if he's going to fight those guys."

"I tried," Rau said. "He refused. Says he doesn't need it."

Shaking his head, Ezra muttered to himself, "Of course he did, the crazy Jedi."

Overhearing him, Sabine chuckled as she turned around to face their soldiers and told them, "Alright, let's move. Everyone, check your fire for the captive. We're going in the front door. Ezra, if you would do the honors…"

As Sabine gave him his cue, Ezra immediately climbed out of the trench and stood up tall, easily within sight of the Imperials. He began to see their soldiers lining up when they spotted him, aiming their weapons at him, and that was when Ezra drew the Darksaber from his belt and held it above himself, activating the blade.

At the sight of the Darksaber, the rest of the Mandalorians climbed out of the trench behind him, suddenly forcing the Empire to face several dozen more targets than they had expected, all of them simply appearing from nowhere. As the Imperials began to panic from facing this new, overwhelming threat, Ezra directed the Darksaber blade forward and ordered, "ATTACK!"

With a collective roar of challenge, the Mandalorians all surged forward, firing their dozens of weapons in a line of destruction towards the Imperials.

Within seconds, the Imperial lines began to fall under the onslaught of fire. Their best defenses were a series of automated cannons attached to the buildings. These cannons were Mandalorian anti-air weapons, designed to take out Mandalorians. They had three-hundred-sixty degree rotation and could angle themselves to hit targets on the ground or in the air.

As the cannons managed to hit one of their own as they tried to lift into the air on their jetpack, knocking them back to the ground with smoke trailing off their body, Ezra glared up at the mounted guns with rage and used his own jetpack to fly into the air. One of the cannons targeted him and fired, but Ezra just smacked the blast away with the Darksaber before flying in closer and slashing across the gun's barrel. Ezra then flew away to deal with the other cannons, and the one he'd cut through blew up behind him the next time it tried to fire. As Ezra dealt with the turrets, the Mandalorian forces began to push through towards the base even more easily.

Seeing the Imperial jet troopers begin to rocket down from the prison's various platforms, Ezra flew up towards one of them and slashed him across the jetpack with the Darksaber before kicking him towards another jet trooper, and then the first one's damaged jetpack exploded, killing them both.

Three more flew towards Kanan and Fenn Rau, who were leading the second charge together.

Ezra began to change course to assist them, but he heard Kanan call him off over the comms, saying, "I've got this."

Ezra watched the Jedi use the Force to leap up onto one of them, slashing his lightsaber through his jetpack in midair, then jump onto the very back jet trooper to attack him as well. The first jet trooper, now spiraling out of control, then crashed into the second one, bringing them both down as Kanan swiftly dispatched the third.

"Show-off," Ezra heard Rau say as they both admired Kanan's handiwork.

Just then, Imperial reinforcements arrived, in the form of two AT-DPs being delivered by a Gozanti cruiser.

Ezra smirked as he saw their arrival and flew down to Kanan to tell him, "Hey, Kanan! Two Imperial walkers just arrived. You and I can take them out in seconds with our lightsabers!"

Ezra then began to rush towards them, but Kanan grabbed his arm, stopping him, and said, "Even if that's so, our priority needs to be helping the people on the ground. We're not fast enough. How many of our soldiers could die before we get close enough to handle those things?"

Ezra smirked at him and said, "You may not be fast enough, but I'm fast enough for both of us!"

Kanan seemed to think it over, then nodded. Ezra quickly grabbed the Jedi's hand with his free one and flew them both into the air on his jetpack, rocketing towards the two walkers at high speed.

As they flew, Kanan yelled out, "I already know I'm gonna hate this!"

Ignoring him, Ezra dodged the incoming blasts from the two walkers before throwing Kanan onto the face of one of them. The blind Jedi managed to land balancing on top of the nose gun, then he slashed down by his feet, cutting the gun's muzzle off.

Now that it was just a walking pile of metal, Kanan turned his attention to the walker's cockpit, jumping on top of the pod before cutting the entrance hatch open. He then reached inside and pulled one Imperial pilot out, tossing him to the ground below, then did it again with a second pilot. Now that there was no one driving the walker, Kanan jumped down and used the Force to tug the walker forward by the head, tipping it over and making it crash to the ground.

Meanwhile, Ezra dived down below the fire of the other walker, flying behind it, where the AT-DP couldn't hit him in any way, then flew between its legs and used the Darksaber to cut one of the legs off. Unable to balance on a single leg, the AT-DP rocked, off-balance, and collapsed on its side in the dirt, crashing into the other fallen walker as it did so.

Ezra then hovered over to land next to Kanan, admiring their work, and said, "You know, Kanan, we make a pretty good team."

Pointing to the wreckage, Kanan responded, "I couldn't help but notice that you didn't even try to get the pilots out of your walker. They're probably dead now."

Rolling his eyes as he began to turn back to the battle, Ezra said, "Oh, right. You guys were the ones with the problem with killing, and you passed it on to Sabine. Thanks for that. Now my girlfriend needs to relearn how to fight."

"No, she doesn't," Kanan argued. "You do. I've taken plenty of lives before, Ezra, me and my whole crew have. But every life has value, and if you can save someone, you should do everything in your power to do so."

"Can we get back to the fight here?" Ezra asked impatiently.

Looking around at the still ongoing fighting, Kanan huffed angrily and said, "Fine. But we will discuss this later."

"Can't wait for that conversation," Ezra said sarcastically, then drew one of his pistols with his free hand and flew back into the battle.

Sabine POV

The fight continued to go in the favor of the Mandalorians, but the Empire seemed determined to fight to the last man. Finally, the Imperials seemed to have a stroke of luck to turn the tide of the battle.

As Sabine flew up to attack one of the jet troopers, one of the few remaining cannons managed to shoot at her. Sabine barely managed to get her energy shield up before the bolt crashed into it, and the heavy blast pushed her back and knocked her to the ground. She struggled to get back up as she heard rocket engines behind her, but then a stunning blast slammed into her. With her being a Mandalorian, it didn't quite manage to knock her unconscious, but it did cause her to fall to the ground again as her arms lost strength.

Groaning with frustration as she slowly continued struggling to get back up, she heard the sound of a gun being directed at her, then a modulated jet trooper's voice called out behind her, "Everyone, surrender! Or she dies!"

The sounds of battle all came to a halt, and Sabine doubled her efforts to get back up once more, unwilling to be the cause for their failure here.

Once again, the same jet trooper demanded, "Surrender! Now!"

Despite her tiredness, Sabine looked over her shoulder to see the Mandalorians hesitantly holstering their blasters, and Kanan deactivated his lightsaber and put his hands up. The jet trooper laughed and raised his gun away from Sabine, satisfied with their response.

However, as the other Imperials stepped forward to take the Mandalorians into custody, they were all suddenly lifted off their feet, clutching at their throats and gasping for breath desperately. Then, all at once, all of their necks were violently twisted around so that their heads were facing backwards.

Abruptly switching from pride to panic as he found himself the only living Imperial left here, the jet trooper behind Sabine pointed his rifle at her once more and tried to shoot her, this time using live fire, but his arm suddenly jerked sideways, causing his blaster bolt to hit the ground next to Sabine instead. He was then pulled into the air, his weapon ripped from his grasp, and all of his limbs were held outstretched to his side, the muscles in them groaning from the strain.

At that time, Ezra suddenly flew down on his jetpack, holding his hand out in front of himself towards the jet trooper, revealing that he was using the Force to hold him there. The Imperial was unable to even struggle as he spun around to face Ezra.

"That's my girlfriend you just tried to shoot," Ezra said threateningly.

Then, with a scream, the jet trooper was pulled towards Ezra, who activated the Darksaber in his other hand to impale the trooper as he flew by, and the scream was cut short before the body dropped to the ground lifelessly.

Finally getting back to her feet as she looked around in horror at the carnage that Ezra had inflicted for her sake, Sabine hesitantly stepped towards Ezra, who deactivated the Darksaber and grabbed her hand before leaning his head down to touch against hers.

"Don't ever scare me like that again," Ezra demanded.

Tightly grabbing his other hand that held the Darksaber, Sabine said, "I scared you? Ezra, do you know what you just-"

"I know," Ezra responded, cutting her off. "And I'm sorry you had to see that. But I don't care what happens to them as long as you are safe."

Sabine closed her eyes and considered the meaning of his words. He had no regrets for the lives he had taken for her sake, not even with how brutally he had gone about doing it. Sabine shivered to imagine what other things he would do for her sake, the things he could do with his powers.

She remembered the warning that Bo had given her, how Ezra's love could be dangerous, but until now, Sabine hadn't really understood what that meant. Still, even with what Ezra had done just now, Sabine felt no urge to leave him. If anything, she felt even more determined to be what he needed her to be, to teach him how to keep his powers in check.