A/N: I know what you're thinking. "Wow, two chapters in one day again! You're the best, Sky!" Yes, yes, I know. I'm also incredibly humble. Don't forget humble. Anyway, I felt that the last chapter didn't have quite enough action, so I decided to give you this one as well. Enjoy!

Chapter 37

Sabine POV

After quite the adventure involving their crew getting chased through the sewers by Imperial probe droids and stormtroopers, the Spectres had found a trail made up of Sabine's starbird symbols painted on the walls, and it had led them right to a hatch from which Ryder had been able to extract them.

Most of them had been relieved to find Ryder after all their painstaking searching, but Ezra had been an exception. First, he had ruined the moment by insisting that they go back and eliminate the remaining stormtroopers to cover their tracks, but Kanan had shot him down by saying that first, they didn't like to kill people if they could avoid it, and second, Ezra didn't have his armor and would most likely just get himself killed in the effort.

Then, that particular comment had reminded Ezra that he was indeed still missing his armor, and he had strode past Ryder without even an introduction and demanded that they go get their things back immediately. Knowing that their disguises were useless by now, no one had argued with him, and they had all quickly gone to the rendezvous point to pick up the supply drop sent to Lothal by the Rebellion, which had contained all the rest of their personal belongings that they hadn't been able to bring in with Chopper.

Though she'd acted more patient about it, Sabine felt just as relieved as Ezra when she was able to get her armor back on. It just felt wrong for a Mandalorian to not be wearing it. Still, she had decided to keep her Ezra-themed civilian disguise among her extra clothing, if only for sentimental reasons.

The next day, however, she and Ezra were sent on a mission to do reconnaissance on the airfield where the Empire's latest prototype TIE Defender was supposed to be getting tested. They were staying low, lying down on top of a hill about a hundred yards away from the airfield and using their rangefinders to scan the area, but they had yet to see any sign of the new Defender itself after hours of watching.

"I see plenty of Interceptors, but that's nothing new," Sabine admitted grumpily, then turned to her side and asked, "What about you?"

However, she was surprised to see that Ezra was no longer next to her, and she looked behind herself to see Ezra on his feet, aggressively shooing away a couple of Loth-cats that tried to rub up against his legs, purring and meowing at him. Despite Ezra's best efforts, they just kept coming back towards him, taking turns in climbing on him.

"Get out of here!" Ezra yelled at them as he finally got fed up and threw his helmet at them, effectively scaring them both away for a few seconds.

He turned and saw Sabine staring at him in wonder and he just shrugged and said, "What? They kept crawling all over me while I was trying to watch the airfield! It's impossible to work with a bunch of furballs covering you!"

Sabine just smirked to herself and said, "I guess they like you."

"I'm flattered, but no thanks," Ezra said grumpily.

"If it makes you feel better, they're not the only ones," Sabine told him, and he smiled at her with appreciation.

Just then, they heard an unfamiliar howling sound. It was similar to that of a TIE Fighter, but much quieter and more smooth-sounding. Looking behind them, Sabine saw a small shape coming towards them from above, moving extremely fast.

"Ezra, get down!" she ordered, and Ezra immediately jumped to hit the floor.

The approaching ship flew over them so fast that the wind knocked Sabine's helmet off of her head, and then the ship looped back around the surrounding mountain range once before landing at the airfield. Slowly lifting their heads, both Sabine and Ezra looked down at the airfield to see that the ship that had passed over them was indeed the prototype TIE Defender that they were here to see.

Being the only one whose helmet was within reach, Sabine quickly grabbed her helmet from off the ground in front of her and put it back on her head before pulling down her rangefinder and zooming in on the new Defender. On the outside, it looked almost exactly like the Defenders she had already encountered except for lines of red along the three wings, but the real difference was evidently the unseen features, as they could tell from its simple flyby.

"Holy kriff, that thing can move!" Ezra commented under his breath.

Sabine was in agreement, but she stayed focused on the mission, using her camera to record what she was seeing. She shifted her view over to where the pilot of the Defender was exiting his ship, and she told Ezra, "I recognize that pilot! Vult Skerris. He was a flight instructor at Skystrike."

Ezra nodded and said, "I was briefed on him, but I never met him. He's one of the Empire's top pilots. Thrawn was reviewing him as a candidate for his Defender program. Governor Pryce was sent to Skystrike to evaluate him under the guise of helping Agent Kallus with an ISB investigation, and I went with her for security. I guess Skerris made the cut. How wonderful. Well, we got the video images we came for. We should head back."

Noticing that he looked disappointed at their uneventful mission, Sabine gave him a look and said, "Or… we could do more than get pictures. It'd be better if we got the flight data recorder."

Freezing in his tracks and giving her a small smirk, Ezra asked, "You mean… from inside the ship?"

"It would tell us the ship's range, top speed, shield array, weapon payload, everything there is to know," Sabine encouraged.

Ezra turned back to her and said innocently, "I suppose it would be… irresponsible of us not to do everything we can to help the Rebellion. Alright, you've twisted my arm. I suppose, if we must, let's go get it. But, without a ship, how are we going to get it to Rebel Command?"

"If we managed to get our hands on hard evidence, finding a way to transport it off-world is what I would call a good problem," Sabine responded, and Ezra nodded in agreement.

Ezra POV

Ezra then turned to go grab his helmet off the ground and said, "Fair enough. I'm ready whenever you are."

He brought up his helmet and began to lower it onto his head, but suddenly a small ball of fur fell out of it onto his head, where it yowled in fear and clawed its way off of him. Ezra let out a yell of surprise as he doubled over from the sudden pain in his head, then he looked up to meet the eyes of the Loth-cat that had just fallen out of his helmet, which now sat on the ground next to him and meowed at him innocently.

Scowling, Ezra pulled out one of his pistols and shot the ground next to the feline creature, and it yowled in fright once again before running away into the grass.

When he turned back to Sabine, she was smiling at him, and she asked, "So… you're ready, are you?"

Continuing to glare unhappily, Ezra donned his helmet and pointed a finger at Sabine before saying, "We will never speak of this again."

Smirking, Sabine turned back around and responded, "Well, I'm sure you won't, but I make no promises."

She then began to run towards the airfield, leaving Ezra no choice but to follow her and leave his troubles behind for now. They stayed low to avoid being seen by any patrols, but still moved quickly. Although they had brought their jetpacks, they wouldn't be able to use them unless they were seen. Lothal didn't have a deployment of rocket troopers like places such as Mandalore did, so any Imperials that recognized the sound of a jetpack would instantly know that it wasn't one of theirs.

They crouched low behind stacked crates on the tarmac, crates that most likely held either munitions or food to be piled up like this all the way out here. They managed to sneak up all the way towards the new Defender until they were only about a dozen yards away from it, but then they were forced to stop at the sight of two stormtroopers standing protectively in front of the prototype.

Sabine examined the problem and whispered to Ezra, "This is no good. We need to find a way around the guards."

Ezra raised an eyebrow and pulled out his two pistols and said, "I can think of a few things."

Sabine just shook her head and said, "Preferably something a bit quieter. We don't want the whole base to know we're here. What we need is for them to leave their posts."

Ezra sadly holstered his pistols and tried to think of a better way to handle this situation, but he was broken from his thoughts by a surprising sight. The two Loth-cats from before had apparently followed them, as they were now prancing out from behind the crates to walk towards the stormtrooper guards.

"Uh, Sabine?" Ezra said, getting her attention, and he pointed towards the Loth-cats.

As they watched, the two stormtroopers looked down at the two small creatures and seemed to be annoyed by their presence. One tried to shoot one of the cats but only succeeded in hitting the ground beneath it. Given that not even a stormtrooper should be able to miss such a shot, Ezra assumed that he was simply trying to scare them off.

Unfortunately for him, he only succeeded in making it angry, and it reared back, hissing at him. The cat suddenly jumped up onto the stormtrooper's head, hissing and clawing at his helmet and knocking him onto the ground. The other stormtrooper just laughed at his friend's misfortune, but he quickly stopped as the second Loth-cat jumped onto his own head, causing him to stumble around as he struggled to pry it off. Eventually, his blindness and lack of balance caused him to trip over his fallen friend and fall down on top of him, which prompted both Loth-cats to finally release their victims and run away. Now thoroughly annoyed, the two stormtroopers stood back up and angrily began to chase after the Loth-cats, determined to defend their wounded pride.

After they were both out of sight, Ezra said, "Well… that worked."

Sabine nodded in agreement and told Ezra, "Alright, you keep watch, I'm going to head inside and get the flight data recorder. With any luck, I'll be in and out before anyone notices us."

She then took off, climbing into the Defender at record speed to immediately set to work. Meanwhile, Ezra took his position within a grouping of crates and kept himself hidden while still remaining watchful.

However, after a few seconds of complete unnerving silence, Ezra began to become tense. "Couldn't you just copy the data?" Ezra asked Sabine over the comms.

Sabine's voice responded, "No, it's faster to take the whole thing. Haven't you ever done something like this?"

Shrugging even though he knew Sabine couldn't see it, Ezra answered, "Not really. I'm typically the muscle, not the brains. Mechanics aren't really my thing. I can drive vehicles or destroy them, take your pick."

Suddenly, the sight of an approaching Lambda-class Imperial shuttle drew Ezra's attention. Pulling up his comm unit once more, Ezra said, "Hurry, Sabine. A shuttle just arrived, and Skerris is going to greet whoever's on it. If I had to guess, I'd say that this is probably whoever's now in charge of the TIE Defender project. They'll be wanting a demonstration with the ship."

He didn't receive a response from Sabine, so he instead focused on who was now arriving on the shuttle. Whoever it was would most likely be his new primary target if they wanted to slow the Defenders' production. Pulling down his rangefinder as the shuttle's ramp lowered, Ezra zoomed in on the new arrival… and froze as he recognized them.

Escorted by two Death Troopers, the new Imperial arrival had a creaseless white uniform and light blue skin with red eyes, making him instantly recognizable from any distance. "Oh, you gotta be kidding me," Ezra muttered to himself as he laid eyes on Grand Admiral Thrawn once again, a man he had believed to be dead for months.

As Thrawn exited the shuttle and began to walk towards the Defender with Skerris falling in line next to him, thoughts were running quickly through Ezra's mind. How could Thrawn be alive, after all this time? How could he not have known about it? He'd monitored Imperial transmissions for months, especially those from the remaining Imperial portion of the Seventh Fleet, which was all currently in the sky above Lothal, but there hadn't been one word suggesting that Thrawn was still alive or had ever escaped Atollon. For so long, Ezra had believed that he had been victorious over Thrawn, and to now see that he had believed falsely brought him great levels of both anger and disappointment.

Still, remaining focused on his mission, Ezra contacted Sabine and warned, "Sabine, Thrawn's here. He survived Atollon and he's here to examine the new Defender."

Sounding frustrated, Sabine responded, "I've almost got it. Just… stall them!"

Disbelievingly, Ezra asked, "Stall them how? It's Thrawn!"

"I'm confident you'll think of something!"

Ezra cast his thoughts about and tried to think of something that would keep them hidden while at the same time slowing Thrawn down, but suddenly he heard a familiar sound behind himself. It was the sound of a blaster being raised, and Ezra didn't think as he suddenly spun around and drew one of his pistols all in one move before shooting behind himself, hitting the TIE pilot that had been behind him in the chest.

Unfortunately, Ezra's victory was short-lived, as the sound of his blast drew the attention of the dozens of other Imperials around him on the base. So much for stealth, Ezra thought to himself as he drew his second pistol and began to blast around himself in all directions, using what little element of surprise he had left to catch the Imperials off-guard, taking out half a dozen of them before anyone even started to shoot back.

Once they did, he jumped behind the stacks of crates and began to dodge enemy fire from all directions, firing back when he could but mostly focusing on avoiding getting hit. His armor could handle quite a lot, but he still didn't like to try his luck. His armor didn't protect every part of his body, and his Mandalorian training combined with his Force abilities meant that he could avoid just about everything anyway.

He vaulted over one crate while turning his body horizontally to avoid a blast that went right over his head, then threw back his arm and blasted in the direction of the shooter without even looking, using the Force to guide his exceptional aim and hearing a satisfying yell as his blast hit the shooter in the chest.

He then ducked behind the crate he'd jumped over, pressing his back against it, and saw Thrawn looking at him from across the airstrip, with nothing between them. Thrawn seemed as calm as ever despite the disruption of his plans for the day, completely unfazed by the sudden firefight in the area.

Trying to make him break face, Ezra just waved at him casually, saying, "Hey!" as he ignored the blasts flying over his head, as though he was just greeting an old friend (which he kind of was, in a way). However, his efforts failed to surprise Thrawn enough, and the Chiss Admiral simply said, "Fascinating," as he admired Ezra's combative efforts.

Several stormtroopers suddenly emerged from around the corner to pin Ezra down, and he stood up to jump backwards over the crate, using his jetpack to fly a few feet into the air, and fired a miniature rocket from his left vambrace, which caused a small explosion beneath him that created a crater in the ground and knocked a few stormtroopers down. How many were dead or just unconscious, Ezra neither knew nor cared.

He lowered back to the ground and ducked around one pile of crates before running into another stormtrooper. The Imperial soldier attempted to raise his blaster as he saw Ezra, but Ezra quickly closed the distance between them and roundhouse kicked him sideways into the stack of two crates next to him, which shook under the amount of force, and Ezra then grabbed the man's helmeted head before slamming it into the top crate once again, knocking him unconscious while also knocking the crate down to fall on another stormtrooper that was running by.

With that crate out of the way, Ezra then used the Force to sense the location of another stormtrooper on the other side of the wall and fired one of his pistols through the hole to hit the man without even needing to see him.

After all this had been done, Ezra stood still in place and used his powers to sense around himself for other targets, but was surprised to feel none. All of the stormtroopers were either dead or unconscious.

Hearing a slow clapping, Ezra looked around the crates to see Thrawn giving him what seemed to be sincere applause. "Most impressive display, Mandalorian," Thrawn complimented.

Ezra remained frozen for a moment, then suddenly activated his jetpack and flew over the crates and towards Thrawn, firing his pistols with deadly precision, aimed to hit the soldiers on either side of the Admiral. One Death Trooper received the full blast to the face, but the other one just barely managed to dodge before returning fire at Ezra. Ezra dodged in midair and instead opted to fire at Thrawn this time.

As expected, the Death Trooper did his job perfectly and jumped in front of the blast without hesitation, taking the blast so that Thrawn could survive, but as the trooper fell, Thrawn suddenly raised his own blaster pistol and fired once at Ezra before he could react.

Although his helmet protected him, the blast slammed into Ezra's head with great enough force that his head fell backwards and he was forced to deactivate his jetpack and return to ground.

When he landed, he quickly shook his head to recover himself, then holstered his pistols and charged towards Thrawn on foot. Thrawn stood his ground and fired once more at Ezra, with spectacular aim that would've hit him in the shoulder between the plates of his armor, but this time Ezra was quick enough to raise his vambrace to deflect the blast, and then he was close enough to engage Thrawn in close-quarters combat.

Ezra threw one punch after another, but Thrawn blocked each hit carefully, not once even attempting to fight back, just narrowing his eyes and watching Ezra's movements with a calculating eye. Ezra had sparred with Thrawn in hand-to-hand before, and he was familiar with the Chiss's considerable level of skill.

He liked to train himself with Imperial assassin droids, keeping his body strong and quick, and Ezra was annoyed to admit that he would give many of the best Mandalorians a run for their money in a fight. However, Ezra had always managed to eventually overpower Thrawn in the past, prompting the Admiral to humbly request private lessons from him.

One of the more annoying things about Thrawn was that Ezra actually respected him. He was a man of efficiency and principles. They had only worked together for a little over a month before Ezra left the Empire after Skystrike, but they had spent a lot of time learning to trust one another and work together, and they'd found that they had quite a bit in common.

On Atollon, Ezra had almost been relieved to order the orbital bombardment rather than having to kill Thrawn personally. He didn't imagine that any of his current friends would really understand it, not even Sabine, but he actually liked Thrawn. He might even say that they were friends.

However, he knew his duty, and he wasn't going to let Thrawn continue to serve the Empire, helping them to win battles and stay in power. Ezra knew that unless Thrawn was stopped, it would only be a matter of time before his Defenders were deployed against Mandalore, once again enslaving Ezra's people under the rule of the Empire, and he wouldn't let that happen.

Finally, Thrawn decided to do an attack of his own, and he pushed both of Ezra's arms to his sides with one quick move, then heave-kicked him in the chest, knocking him back. Ezra stumbled back a few steps before he stopped himself and planted himself in place with his hands held up in a combat-ready stance.

Thrawn did the same, but when Ezra didn't move, he relaxed his stance and instead unzipped his jacket before taking it off and throwing it behind himself, leaving him wearing a black undershirt that didn't restrict his movements, the same shirt he would always wear when Ezra sparred with him in the past.

He then retook his combat stance and began to circle around with Ezra while asking, "Tell me, Mandalorian, what did you hope to gain by attacking this airfield? Someone of your evident combative intelligence should surely know that I can have reinforcements arriving within minutes. Mandalorians are famous for their preparation. However, I must warn you that I have experience fighting your particular combat style, and have even studied it myself."

"I'm not like most Mandalorians," Ezra responded, but then quickly realized his mistake in answering.

Thrawn tilted his head and said, "Indeed not, Captain Kryze. I wondered when, or if, I would hear that voice again. Judging by your armor's appearance, let me see if I have this correctly. You caught Miss Wren, but became her friend and spared her life. You then joined her Rebellion and came to the aid of the Rebels over Atollon, taking command of my ships and ordering the bombardment that decimated my forces. How am I doing so far?"

"Well, actually the whole 'joining the Rebellion' thing came after Atollon, but close enough," Ezra responded as he jumped towards Thrawn and began to engage him in combat once again.

Thrawn blocked his first few punches and said, "I had wondered how someone could've disappeared with my entire fleet. I should've suspected you. If anyone could've accomplished such a feat, it would be you. The Emperor was most disappointed not only in my loss, but in the fact that I couldn't tell him what had gone wrong."

"Speaking of, aren't you dead?" Ezra asked as he kicked low to try to trip Thrawn, but Thrawn simply raised his one foot to avoid it and continued fighting.

The Admiral nodded and said, "Officially, yes. There are advantages to being dead, as you know. Your enemies tend not to expect an attack from someone they buried."

Ezra nodded in acknowledgement and said, "Well, I should commend you. Even I was fooled, and I took every precaution. However, I should also apologize for ruining your grand deception now."

Thrawn dodged Ezra's next punch before grabbing his arm and pulling it forward before throwing Ezra past him with his own momentum, then said, "A mere prelude, I'm afraid. To unveil my deception, you would have to walk out of here alive."

With that said, Thrawn suddenly rolled away from Ezra to give himself some distance, then drew his pistol from his hip once again and directed it at Ezra, but Ezra was faster in raising his own arm and firing one of his paralyzing darts into Thrawn's arm that held his pistol, causing it to lose strength just as he fired, making his shot miss as the arm went completely limp.

However, Thrawn quickly dropped the pistol from his limp hand and caught it in his free one before aiming it at Ezra again and firing, but Ezra just raised his left vambrace to absorb the blast in his energy shield, then ran forward, smacking Thrawn's blaster aside before grabbing both of his shoulders and headbutting the Admiral hard with his helmet, instantly knocking him unconscious.

As Thawn lay unmoving on the ground, Ezra stood above him, panting hard, and said, "Not to brag, but I'm kinda liking my chances."

He then grabbed Thrawn around the waist and began to carry him back towards the Defender Elite, grabbing Thrawn's jacket as he went. He brought the Admiral with him as he climbed inside, then lowered him to the ground and put binders on him.

He then turned to Sabine, who was on the ground looking through some sort of internal circuitry, and asked, "I guess you didn't feel like helping?"

Sabine just shrugged and said, "I considered it, but then I saw you take out everyone on the base and decided that you were probably fine. Good thing too, because we can take this Defender out of here, and I located and deactivated the ship's transponder before I also discovered that it had a kill switch, like what they did to ground me at Skystrike. If I hadn't found that in time, they could've disabled our ship automatically from a distance. And better yet, I found out that this thing has a navicomputer, which means-"

"Which means it has a hyperdrive, which means we can come and go off Lothal," Ezra said with a grin. He then jumped into the pilot's seat, removing his helmet, and said, "All right, I forgive you. But I'm flying."

Sabine didn't argue with him, but as she stood up, she looked down at Thrawn's unconscious form and said, "Why'd you bring him? I figured that if you beat him, you'd just kill him."

Raising an eyebrow at her, he asked, "Am I just the bloodthirsty one now?" Intentionally deciding to make his question a bit more ironic, Ezra lifted the Defender Elite into the air and began to use its guns to destroy the Imperial airfield, obliterating their Interceptors and Thrawn's shuttle in a matter of seconds.

Rolling her eyes, Sabine said, "You know what I mean. You have very few issues killing your enemies, unlike most of us. And besides, you thought you'd already killed this one. No harm in finishing the job, so why didn't you?"

Ezra looked back at Thrawn and considered Sabine's point. Admittedly, she was correct. He had instinctively chosen not to kill Thrawn, maybe because of their friendship, but he couldn't exactly tell his Rebel friends that he had a soft spot for their enemy.

Quickly thinking up an idea, Ezra smirked and said, "Well, because he's the key to the success of the next phase of our mission. We've successfully stopped the Empire's newest Defender model, but I think we can do more while we're on Lothal. With Thrawn's help, we're going to infiltrate and destroy their Defender factory."

Smiling as she leaned against his chair, Sabine asked, "Well, why didn't you say so?"

Ezra returned her smile as he pushed the controls forward, wanting to test out this thing's acceleration that they saw before.