Author's Notes: Chapter 2, here we go. I'd like to start off by thanking the 200 or so people who read Chapter 1, I'm new to this whole fanfiction thing and it's honestly mind-blowing to think that over 200 people have read something I wrote, seriously, thank you all, I mean it.

I should probably go ahead and explain what exactly "Displaced" is, and why the first few chapters are labelled as such. Star Wars: Ascendancy is my attempt to make a sequel to Rebels, but it's also a much darker story than Rebels, with a vastly different tone, it's a story where Thrawn, caught between his dual allegiances, is forced to make difficult and often ruthless decision, and Ezra is pushed to his absolute limits as he descends further and further into the Unknown Regions, it won't be overly grimdark, there will be moments of levity, 'breaks' where the intensity is turned down and the characters are allowed to relax, but there will be moments intense enough that the 'breaks' are appreciated just as much by the audience as they are by the characters in the story...

It would've been jarring to simply jump from one to the other, so I came up with Displaced. Displaced is the transition, the "Ground Zeroes" to Ascendancy's "Phantom Pain", where Rebels becomes Ascendancy, so to speak. The fairly binary good vs evil morality of Rebels melts into the murky gray area of Ascendancy and the tone darkens and becomes more serious. It's the link between the two stories, the chain that connects them, which is why it picks up immediately after the Chimaera leaves Lothal. Once Ezra and Thrawn reach the Chiss Ascendancy, that's where Displaced ends, and the real story begins...

Oh, and I may have hid a slight dig at Admiral Holdo somewhere in Thrawn's dialogue, so maybe see if you can find that...

Now, the journey continues. Without further ado, Displaced: Chapter 2:

It had been a long, gruelling month since the fleet had arrived in the Unknown Regions, as well as Ezra's first encounter with the "Far Outsiders" as Thrawn called them. Days and days of constant short, frequent hyperspace jumps, with Ezra constantly adjusting paths, routes, navigating around a myriad of obstacles. The mental fatigue had begun to take it's toll on the Jedi, and the only thing that kept him going at this point was the safety of Lothal. The constant sensor sweeps and brief escapes had begun to drain the crew as well and with the Chiss Ascendancy being the only safe port they knew of it was their only drive to keep going if only to get out from under the pursuit.

At times, Ezra honestly wished he had just died in the battle of Lothal, going down saving his friends would've been much more preferable of an outcome than the slow grind he'd had to trudge through these past few weeks. The Imperials had provided him with private quarters, so that he could rest as much as possible between the taxing stretches of hyperspace navigation, though Ezra wasn't a fan of the room. It was cold, sterile, lifeless. He missed being able to lie down and stare up at one of Sabine's various drawings or artwork on the ceiling, he never thought he'd miss that one drawing she did of when his bunk fell on Zeb, but as it turned anything beat the lifeless sterility of a blank Imperial ceiling. There were objections to him getting the privacy, a lot of personnel were annoyed that this Rebel scum was getting private quarters all to himself, but others understood said scum was their best chance of survival whether they liked it or not.

There were times where this all felt like a bad dream, where he thought he'd go to sleep, only to wake up back in his bunk on the Ghost and be greeted with the sound of Zeb's snoring beneath him, and then he would get up and walk out into the hallway to be greeted by the other Spectres just waiting there for him with smiles on their faces…

But no, every time he went to sleep, staring up at that gray ceiling and closing his eyes, he was awoken hours later by his sleep alarm, a comm call from Commodore Faro, or a report from Communication Officer Lomar. One time he slept so hard that knocking on his door was a Stormtrooper telling him he was needed on the bridge for more navigation.

The first thing he was going to do when this was all over, was find the Spectres, and give all of them a hug. Yes, even Chopper.

The Imperials didn't like having him around, anybody with a brain could figure that out. Every time he'd go to get something to eat (and Imperial Rations tasted terrible, he thought), or just go for a walk around the Chimaera, the Imperials at best ignored him and at worst shot him an angry look or glare, some of them deliberately antagonised him, some of them just ignored him, he'd often overhear some of them talking about how they had friends on the smaller ships, the cruisers and fighters that had been destroyed by the Purrgil, and he honestly didn't know how to feel about that. Ezra was stuck on a warship filled with hundreds of people who absolutely despised him and everything he stood for, and the only reason he wasn't dead was because they needed him to survive. His only hope was that their survival instincts would win out over their anger at him. One would assume that logically that would be the case. But two weeks in Ezra was shaken by an incident where a Cadet, not much older than him in fact, had snapped under the pressure, lashing out at him in a physical assault. Blaming him for them being stuck out here and tried to beat Ezra down in the hallway. Fortunately Ezra had the Force, and was able to simply force push the Cadet backwards before two Stormtroopers restrained him, but it still wasn't easy to watch someone crack under an incredibly stressful situation, even if they were an Imperial, and Ezra found himself constantly looking over his shoulder, making sure some Imperial didn't decide to plunge something sharp into his back.

Another particularly awkward situation occurred one day when he walked by the locked door to the room with the ruins of the Jedi Temple, only to find the three Royal Guards the Emperor had sent after him standing guard by it. After having a giant pile of rubble thrown at them they'd been in the Medical Bay for a week, with the other injured crew, why they stood guard there. Ezra had no idea, perhaps they just had nothing better to do, but he smiled awkwardly at the faceless, unmoving Guards as he sped up his pace hoping to put distance between them before turning the next corner. He'd notice them from time to time, once he saw one leaving Thrawn's office and every time he did cross paths with them they barely even acknowledged his existence, which was probably for the better.

The Far Outsiders were still tracking them, Thrawn was convinced of that. He refused to give details, only dropping vague hints about how the Chiss have fought with them for centuries, and how dangerous and evil they are. At first Ezra was skeptical, but the fleet knew better than to question the Grand Admiral. Every so often, Thrawn was proven right, and another bioship would show up on the edge of their sensors for the briefest of moments. Like a looming shadow it was always there, watching them. Ezra had felt its presence once or twice when it got near, catching glimpses of it in his mind, the ship itself reaching out to him. It felt more like a living creature than any sort of vessel he had ever encountered, before he lost it to the darkness of space as he opened his eyes and gazed out the window in a futile attempt to see what was hunting them. The scouting vessels would briefly circle their ships, like a Veermok circling it's prey, before disappearing from his senses. What type of creature could make such a ship? When he looked at those ships, what was staring back at him exactly? All the while, Thrawn observed them in turn, making sure not to let the Far Outsiders know they knew they were being watched. Though why exactly Thrawn was observing them so closely, and what he hoped to gain by doing so, was a mystery to everybody except himself. The only hints of what was running through the Grand Admiral's mind was the occasional inquiry as to why exactly they hadn't attacked yet, the rare remark that this was exceptionally unusual behaviour for the Far Outsiders…

Commodore Faro was far too busy to concern herself with what the Grand Admiral was thinking, not a day rolled by where she didn't walk onto the bridge looking exhausted. For a full month now, she had been trying to hold the Chimaera together and keep morale steady while Thrawn commanded the Fleet. Apparently some of personnel figured being out of Imperial Space was an excuse to break protocol. The Stormtroopers, the Emperor's elite shock troops, were reduced to spending most of their time making sure nobody stole rations. More than once Faro had found an officer falling asleep at their post, but after the first week or so, she'd just given up on even trying to reprimand them, just waking them and moving on. If she was being entirely honest with herself, she'd probably be doing the same thing in their position.

Surprisingly enough however, out of all the personnel aboard the Chimaera, Faro was by far the most civil towards Ezra. Not friendly, civil. She barely even acknowledged his existence, minding her own business whenever they were in the same room. To be honest though, Ezra couldn't figure out if she genuinely was trying to maintain civility or if she was just too tired to be angry at him.

Ezra had also been observing Thrawn, the Grand Admiral who just a month ago had been his mortal enemy, and as he did something interesting happened. Ezra's view of the Admiral had begun to adjust somewhat.

Oh Ezra still didn't like him (He doubted he could ever 'like' a person who did even half the things Thrawn did) but the more he observed Thrawn the more his view on Thrawn began to become more... 'favourable' wasn't the right term, no... 'fair' would probably be the best word to describe it.

Ezra had always thought of Thrawn as just another ruthless Imperial out for blood, smarter than the average Imp, for sure, but just as cut-throat. However, over the past few weeks Ezra noticed something, Thrawn displayed a trait that he had never seen from any other Imperial: genuine care for the well being of his crew. It was subtle, but Thrawn never acted overly hostile or talked down to any of his officers. He showed understanding of the toll Ezra's ploy had taken on them all, and even when they messed up or made a mistake, he would reprimand them yes, but he would explain in clear, concise language what they did wrong, why it was wrong and how to correct it. If a subordinate asked a question or expressed a concern, he would explain it in full, addressing their concerns. It made a welcome change from the usual displays of Imperial arrogance he'd seen over the years.

And it got results, Thrawn's unorthodox way of command worked, in fact it was probably the only reason why the Chimaera hadn't descended into complete anarchy. Many of the crew of the Chimaera just went along with Thrawn's orders without question, because they had learned to trust his intellect, and figured that he knew what he was doing, the crew seemed to serve him not out of fear, but out of genuine loyalty. Morale was surprisingly high in the Chimaera considering it's dire circumstances, oh there were lapses, and the crew was clearly under a lot of stress which weighed them down, but they wanted to get home, they had a clear, set goal that they wanted to accomplish, and they had the determination to do it.

And he didn't know how to feel about it, but Ezra realised, for the first time, that the Empire were people too, that the people serving the Empire were more than just bucketheads for him to knock unconscious and steal their armour and uniforms. It felt weird, being this close to the enemy, he didn't think he'd ever get used to it. They weren't just faceless Imps to him anymore, they were actual people, fearing for their lives in a desperate situation, and trusting their Grand Admiral to get them home safely.

It felt wrong, it felt bizarre for him to actually have some sympathy for Imperials. He just couldn't understand how a man willing to annihilate an entire planet was capable of this.

"The way you do things here is a lot different from most Imperial ships I've seen." Ezra said one day. Thrawn was standing over near a terminal, discussing something with Faro and Communications Officer Lomar when Ezra spoke. Faro and Lomar kept working at whatever they were doing. The Chimaera's crew still didn't like him, or having him around, or having to work with him.

"My methods of command are simply those I have deemed most effective," Thrawn distanced himself from the terminal and walked over to Ezra, who was seated towards the back of the bridge. "I find that my crew responds well to it."

"Yeah, but... this is not like how most Imperials I've met do things." Ezra said, spinning his chair around idly, from side to side, almost out of habit or a desire to test the hinges. "Most captains I've met have just been very... I don't know, 'FIRE RIGHT NOW! DON'T QUESTION MY ORDERS! MOVE OFFICER! GET THE REBEL SCUM ARRGGH! I'M THE CAPTAIN AROUND HERE!" Ezra said in his best mocking impression of a typical arrogant Imperial Officer, flailing his arms and legs as he swiveled in his chair, it was an archetype he had become far too familiar with over the years. Faro gave a slight wince from the command walkway and most around the communication consoles looked up from their stations from that remark then returned to their work.

"I am not most Imperials, I have found in my experience condescension and arrogance are a swift method to loss of faith and low morale in subordinates, which leads to loss of productivity and efficiency, which reduces the overall effectiveness of the individual, the ship, the fleet, and by extension the entire Imperial military itself." Thrawn explained. "And in particularly dire instances, such as the situation we find ourselves in now, dismissing your crew's concerns and fears can even be a fast path to mutiny." He sat down in a chair opposite to Ezra, his glowing red eyes focusing on the Jedi, then lowering in contemplation. "Though... I will admit that I firmly believe if all Imperial officials commanded as I do the Empire would be a far more efficient fighting force, more than a match for the Rebellion."

"Huh, well, I didn't think we'd ever agree on something," Ezra said, casually dismissing Thrawn's remark. Now was not the time, and he would've been lying to himself if he didn't admit that Imperial incompetence had been one of the Phoenix Cell's best assets over the years, "You're right, you aren't most Imperials," he remarked before shifting in his chair slightly, leaning forward. "Why do you work for them anyway? Why did you leave the Chiss Ascendancy?"

"I told you before, the Chiss felt that the Empire would be a useful ally to help deal with hostile forces in the Unknown Regions." Thrawn said, leaning back and clasping his hands together, "the forces I described pose just as much a threat to the Empire as they do to the Ascendancy, and it was decided that if the Empire could be convinced of the mutual threat that they posed, their vast war machine could be turned against the potential invaders."

"And you didn't think to ask the Rebellion?" Ezra asked.

Thrawn let out a sigh, "Your idealism is admirable but such high minded attitudes are simply unfeasible in reality. The Rebellion did not exist at that point, and even if it did the Chiss would not bother with such a meager force." Ezra seemed annoyed at his casual dismissal of the Rebellion. "It is simple numbers, the Empire has the means to fight our enemies, the Rebellion does not. The Chiss have no interest in your conflict, only our own preservation."

"That seems pretty selfish to be honest. So you're just going to let all those innocent people suffer?"

"You would have the Chiss Ascendancy wage a needless and unnecessary war against a vastly more powerful enemy over a conflict they have nothing to gain from?"

"Gah, no, that's not what I..." Ezra sighed as his face found it's way down to his hands, after rubbing them across face for a minute he looked back up. "What about Lothal? You keep saying you want to save people but, a month ago you opened fire on hundreds of innocent people, and started talking about how you were going to destroy the entire planet."

"I have nothing against Lothal or it's people, my bombardment of the planet was nothing personal. It was merely a tactical decision to draw you out." Thrawn explained, "and besides, Lothal's destruction is inevitable now, the Emperor will no doubt be angered by the events there, the loss of the Seventh Fleet and his favourite Grand Admiral, and he will make sure to use the planet as an example of what happens to those who defy him. I bear no hatred or ill-will towards your planet, but had I not destroyed Lothal, the Emperor would have sent somebody else to do it. Somebody far less remorseful than I, somebody unable to appreciate Lothal's people and culture and mourn for it's loss..."

Of course what Ezra didn't know was that Director Krennic's 'Stardust' project was nearing completion. Soon the Death Star, the Emperor's technological terror, would be operational. The Emperor had already picked out a list of planets that would be the first to feel it's wrath, planets he wanted gone, and Lothal was probably fairly high up on that list. It was unfortunate, Thrawn thought, but even had he not bombarded the planet, Lothal's destruction was inevitable, the Emperor himself had demanded it. During his visit to Coruscant, while meeting with the Emperor to discuss the TIE Defender project, Palpatine had angrily stormed in at some point, and demanded Thrawn return to Lothal and destroy the planet immediately. Thrawn was unsure as to exactly why the Emperor had ordered the obliteration of the planet, but it wasn't hard for him to deduce that something had happened to anger him, something had changed, his plans had been interrupted somehow, and Thrawn's disappearance was not going to deter the Emperor, especially with the Death Star so close to completion...

But Ezra didn't need to know that for now. It was a good thing he never stopped to ask exactly why there was a protocol to evacuate all Imperial personnel from the planet…

"My friends will make sure that doesn't happen." Ezra said, almost insulted at Thrawn's sympathy, not caring if it was fake or genuine.

"We shall see."

Ezra was honestly confused, he could tell Thrawn genuinely took no pleasure in destroying Lothal, not even the satisfaction of victory of the Rebels could make up for the displeasure of having to destroy an entire planet. And yet he was still absolutely willing to do it.

"But why? Why just destroy Lothal? Is that really worth it? Is destroying Lothal really worth stopping whatever these Far Outsiders are?"

"As I said when we started our journey, Bridger, if it means saving the galaxy, yes." Thrawn's demeanour darkened, as he recalled his knowledge of the Far Outsiders, he had had far too much experience fighting them back when he was part of the Expansionary Defence Fleet. "Once again it is simple numbers. If I destroy Lothal and stamp out the Rebellion, the Empire has a fighting chance, if I don't, the Empire becomes fractured, weakened, and the Far Outsiders win and reach Lothal, and destroy it anyway." Thrawn's eyes narrowed, his expression darkened further.

"And believe me when I say my bombardment of the planet was practically a mercy compared to what the Far Outsiders would do to Lothal."

Ezra didn't understand yet, but he would, Thrawn knew he would. Ezra hadn't seen the aftermath of their attacks like he had during his time in the Expansionary Defence Force. The cruelty and brutality, vast fields of dead, corpses strung up in massive spectacles of violence, suffering and death. Entire populations butchered slowly and painfully to honour dark gods, their faces twisted into expressions of pure agony, a testament to the unimaginable tortures that had drained the life from them at an agonisingly slow pace.

Thrawn would've gladly obliterated Lothal ten times over if that meant that it's populations would never have to suffer such a fate. Nothing, nobody, not even the Rebels deserved to die in such a manner.

"If the Far Outsiders have their way, the entire Galaxy will burn, the Chiss Ascendancy, the Empire, your Rebellion, Lothal, and billions if not trillions of other planets and systems. They will march across all of known space, trampling anything and everything they find into the ground. Lothal, Ryloth, Mandalore, and many others would have their entire populations slaughtered slowly and painfully, and those they don't kill would be dragged off to a fate far worse than mere death. The Far Outsiders are a people who crave death and destruction. They revere pain and suffering, they see agony as a gift to be spread to all the peoples of the universe, and they are unrelenting zealots who will stop at nothing to achieve their goals."

Ezra looked away as he really thought about everything the Grand Admiral had just said. Ezra would've never admitted it, but the Admiral... kind of had a point. He still didn't agree with him. The Admiral was far too ruthless for his liking, but his arguments were logical, if ruthlessly detached, and they made sense on some level. Thrawn was never going to turn Ezra away from the Rebels, but, as much as Ezra didn't want to admit it, he had a point.

And these 'Far Outsiders' as he called them. Were they really as much of a threat to the Galaxy as Thrawn made them out to be? Were they really this brutal? Vicious? Bloodthirsty? Were they really worse than the Empire? He'd never even considered the idea there could be something out there worse than the Empire, he'd spent far too long fighting them.

"You do not have to agree with my methods, Bridger," Thrawn said, looking out over the Chimaera's bridge, "but everything I've done I have done to protect my home. Surely, you of all people can understand that?"

Ezra looked like he was about to respond when Faro interjected.

"Grand Admiral, Sensor Officer Hammerly has something to report sir" Thrawn and Ezra walked over to a station where her and Lomar were standing. "Admiral," Lomar began "As we were scanning this system in the direction that we had picked up distant comm trafic, very faint due to the distance but the signals soon became active enough for us to pinpoint and our sensors managed to identify an inhabited world." Hammerly took over turning on the display screen and showing the planet in question. "We've done our best to pick out the best spot for your ships to drop nearby and being a threat assessment with your permission Sir. If we can bargain with them perhaps we could secure resources to help with the more stagnant repair jobs. If not it's one more point of interest to add to our growing database sir."

"Do you have any thoughts Commander Faro?" Faro considered the options. It had been awhile since they had last attempted securing any material or first contact procedures. With the state of the crew if they could find a safe port it might ease the strain everyone was feeling. Including herself.

"I believe it is at least worth a closer look Admiral. With your permission I'll have the Chimaera ready to get under way"

"Very well. Signal Captain Pellaeon. Inform him that we will be temporarily leaving the fleet. He is to hold position until we return, and if we do not, to continue heading toward Chiss space."

After an hour of readying the ship then reassuring Captain Pellaeon and the other ships captains that they would return Commodore Faro ordered the Chimaera to follow the course and make the jump.

They re-entered realspace at the edge of the system and began long range scans. Ahead of them as was a lush green planet. The sensors had noted it was in an industrial age. A promising world, with vibrant blue oceans glistening on the surface.

It would've been beautiful if it wasn't being assaulted by a gargantuan fleet.

"Sir, Comm/scan reports thirty seven unidentified ships, large variance in sizes, mostly warships and transports and they're all focused on that planet." a sensor officer reported. Faro's heart skipped a beat, before she took a closer look at the fleet in front of them and realised these ships weren't organic. These weren't bioships, she thought with a sense of relief as she looked out the bridge viewport. They were technological in design, meaning they hadn't just run into a Far Outsider fleet. "What is this? Have we just walked in on some kind of war?"

"No, it is a raid," Thrawn told her grimly, "I recognise those ships, these are the Vagaari, nomadic slavers who wander the Unknown Regions." Faro looked out onto the fleet of enemy ships. They were all focused around the planet, hammering it's defenses and sending transports down to the surface. No doubt to capture the native population.

"And this, this is them raiding for slaves."

Here we go, I'm sure the Outbound Flight fans reading this are probably happy to see the Vagaari again, and we've got more hinting towards the "Far Outsiders", whose identity you've probably already figured out by this point, oh their reveal is coming, and it's going to be grand...

I wanted to get more into Ezra's psyche in this chapter, as well as the psyche of the Chimaera's crew. This is one half Ezra's story after all, and to be honest, I always felt Rebels wasted him. I felt there was a lot more they could've done with Ezra Bridger as a character, a lot of places they could've explored but just didn't (Dave, I love you, but I'm still mad you didn't do anything with that Sith Holocron...). It's a big part of the reason I wanted to write Ascendancy, to really truly develop Ezra into the character he can be, and give him the spotlight he deserved.

The other character I wanted to 'fix' was, of course, my favourite Grand Admiral, Thrawn. It sort of bothered me how Thrawn was willing to destroy Lothal. Thrawn is ruthless, definitely, but he's not bloodthirsty (and don't worry, he will get pretty ruthless later on...). So similarly to how Zahn fixed the "Batonn casualties" line in the canon Thrawn book I decided to take a jab at fixing the Lothal bit myself. The more I thought about it, the more I liked the explanation I gave just there. The timing just lines up really well, Thrawn would've been on Coruscant while Palpatine was accessing the World Between Worlds, and I can definitely see Sheev just getting pissed after the gate closes and deciding "Screw it, Thrawn go and murder the entire planet" out of mere spite. Actually, it's probably also why he moved the temple to the Chimaera. Point is, there's a lot of evidence Lothal was marked, and I wanted to touch on that.

Hope you all enjoyed it, as usual please give me feedback, good or bad, though if bad please do be constructive. Next chapter is a confrontation with the Vagaari, as Ezra comes face to face with their despicable tactics...