A/N: December is upon us and here I am with another chapter as promised! Before we begin I'd like to thank all you who have given me feedback or answered my author notes I read them and I appreciate it more than you know :3 I'll take y'alls advice to heart and stop asking for y'alls advice so much ( try saying that in your head doesn't make sense does it XD )

I don't really have anything to say so I'm going to let you guys jump straight into it.

Chapter Five

Five Plus One is Seven

Nine Days after leaving Sabine

Ezra had never really thought about another member of The Ghost, sure the thought had passed through his mind, especially when they started working closer with the larger rebellion as a whole. Of course now with Faith he had plenty of time to think about it.

They were gathered in the mainroom, Zeb and Faith were in another game of Dejerik and Ezra had zoned out thinking about the differences of another crew member. Specifically a Mandalorian one. In a way it was almost like they were replacing Sabine.

Of course that wasn't their intention, and it would be a long time before Ezra saw Faith as 'family' but for now she was definitely a part of the crew.

He was ripped from his thoughts upon Hera's return as she walked through to the galley, "Well Faith, just finished up. You are officially part of The Ghost crew."

Hera had gone to talk over the decision with Sato, and while it wasn't really a necessity it was mostly for a sense of officality.

Faith allowed a smile on her face. "Thanks." She stated her attention being drawn from the game.

"We'll call you Faith, but on missions you'll be referred to as Specter Seven." Hera said, leaning against the door frame.

Faith once again smiled although it faltered briefly as she glanced around the room. She spoke with soft resignation. "Uhhh I don't mean to be rude but I only count five of you… "Ezra, Zeb, Kanan, you, and Chopper." She finished pointing at the astromech.

"Wouldn't I be Specter 6?" She asked.

Everyone was quiet for a brief moment but Hera launched into an explanation once Faith's words settled with her mind.

"Oh I nearly forgot. One of our members is away right now, she's actually a Mandolorian funny enough." Hera said, almost embarrassed she had forgotten about Sabine.

Faith nodded, understanding her eyes clearer. Kanan took over from there.

"We were a bit iffy on where to put you for sleeping conditions, it would be most ideal if you bunked with Sabine. But since she's not here we were figuring that you could have Hera's room until Sabine returns." Kanan said, turning his blind eyes towards Faith.

Ezra was grateful that Kanan shared his confidence that Sabine would return and her stay on Mandalore was indeed only temporary.

"Where will Hera sleep then? I don't want to kick her out of her room." Faith said shly.

"It's fine, I'll stay in Kanan's room for a little while. I'm up for longer and get up quicker so I won't disturb him much." They shared a brief look.

Ezra opened his mouth intent on making a joke at the two adults' expense but Kanan's glare silenced him. That didn't stop Zeb from letting out a snort of amusement, at their expense.

"That's a nice offer, I appreciate it." Faith said her smile speaking volumes.

Hera nodded, "Anytime." She began walking towards the cockpit giving Kanan a look that silently asked for him to follow.

The Jedi obliged, following Hera out of the room, Chopper bleeping as he wheeled to join them.

"Soo this Sabine, she's a Mandolorian?" Faith asked, turning back towards Ezra and Zeb.

"Yeah." Ezra responded leaning forward his attention on the two crew members in front of him.

"She's in Mandalore right now helping her clan fight back against the Empire. She- Well… It's a long story." Ezra finally decided, playing with his thumbs.

"I was unaware there were clans that fought back against the Empire, I thought all of those clans were wiped out already." Faith said her interest peaked.

"Yeah, Sabine probably should explain it if anything but she basically rescued her family from service of the Empire and their fighting back now…" Ezra said, kicking a leg at the table post absentmindedly.

"Sounds like this Sabine is an amazing person." Faith said a bit star eyed impressed by the actions of the mandalorian.

"She is." Ezra commented distantly, his mind slowly leaving the conversation. Zeb gave him a concerned glance but didn't say anything.

"What clan is she a part of?" Faith asked, still wanting to learn more.

"She's actually the daughter of Countess Wren believe it or not." Ezra said, breaking out of his mental trance.

"Whoah, Whoah, you guys aren't talking about the Sabine Wren?" Faith asked suddenly, her eyebrows raising in vivid concern.

"Uhh." Ezra shot a glance at Zeb who looked none too helpful. "Yeah that's who I'm talking about…" He finally said, looking back to faith.

Faith sat back the slightest bit shell shocked, "There are many rumours surrounding her. I didn't believe that we were talking about the same person." She spoke after a while fixing her gaze on Ezra's.

"What kind of rumors…" Ezra asked defensively, his voice on edge.

"Well I don't know… Just that she was kind of a traitor, untrustworthy, dishonorable..." Faith gazed at Ezra; she stopped talking when she saw his brow pinch in anger.

"Sabine is none of those things…" He said in defense of his closest friend, his ferocity growing.

"I-I... Sorry, I just repeated what I've heard." Faith said backing up a little at the conviction in his voice.

Ezra stood glancing back at the two of them taking a breath to calm himself. "I'll be in my bunk." he said simply spinning on his heel and walking to his room without further discussion.

Faith sat up to go, but Zeb stopped her. "I would just leave him, it's not worth it."

She hesitated for a brief moment but nodded slowly, lowering herself back into the chair. "I didn't mean to upset him…"

"He knows that." Zeb reassured her, "He just probably needs a bit."

"Are he and Sabine close?" Faith asked.

Zeb nodded, "Attached at the hip, practically her leaving has hit him harder than he likes to admit."

Faith glanced down at the floor, "I guess I'll go to Hera's room then." She stood up slowly departing from the mess hall as Zeb watched with detached interest. Silence held for a moment longer until Kanan and Hera rentered.

Both gave a brief glance towards Zeb giving him a nod before walking off to Kanan's room to get some rest themselves. Chopper rolled himself through going to his charing port beeping some insulting form of goodnight at Zeb.

The Lassat rolled his eyes and heaved himself up to walk into hsi shared room with Ezra grumbling something about useless waste baskets as the door swiftly opened and closed and a quiet calmness settled over The Ghost.

"Sabine!" Ezra yelled as he caught the Mandolorian's attention. He threw his lightsaber into the air, giving it a nudge with the force when it began to sail off course.

Sabine reached out and caught it. The brief fear in her eyes that she was going to watch her mother die, changed to fierce anger. She caught the blade igniting it and without second thought leaping through the room.

She landed behind her mother blocking Saxon's blade right before it was about to slice through the Mandalorian Countess.

Ezra let out a brief sigh of relief before ducking back behind to take shots at the last few remaining Mando's in white. He turned just in time to watch Gar Saxon and Sabine fly through the window. Fear slipped into him before he shoved it down running to the balcony door briefly aware of others behind him.

When he stared out on the lake and saw Sabine and Saxon fighting he swelled with pride that she was holding her own using his green blade, but that pride quickly turned to fear he didn't know Saxon but the man was older and possibly a better swordsman than Sabine why let her fight alone when he was standing right there.

He put his hand on the balcony to throw himself over, but he felt a hand on his shoulder pulling him back, Countess Wren looked at him with something he couldn't discern. Her even tone irked him ever so slightly.

"Mandolorian custom is that we are not to interfere!" She hissed glancing worriedly at her daughter.

Ezra was about to ignore her again but he decided to put his faith in Sabine and turned back to watch the fight, Sabine and Saxon continued. He briefly heard Kanan say something behind him but he filtered in out watching the black and green blade clash against the ice.

Gar Saxon was a good fighter and a good duelsmen but Sabine had been well trained and Ezra was more than sure that she was ready. Of course that feeling went out of his head when Garsaxon went for a stab that Sabine blocked but it left her open for attack on her side which the Imperial took without hesitation.

He proved successful slashing into Sabine's side with his Sabre; her cry of pain twisted Ezra's heart in more ways than he cared to count.

"Sabine!" He cried, his fear slipping into his voice.

Ezra wasn't about to sit down and watch Sabine die with or without Mandalorian rules. He vaulted over the ledge landing solidly on the ground and sprinting with inhuman speed across the ice. He heard behind him someone yell his name but he didn't care.

Garsaxon raised the blade to strike a killing blow but Ezra grabbed his blaster and shot right into Saxon's side. The imperial doubled over but Ezra pushed forward shoving him with the force across the ice.

"Sabine?" He repeated briefly, aware of more people coming across the ice.

"Ezra?" She croaked, glancing at him weakly.

Her wounds had suddenly seemed to multiply lightsaber cuts in places he hadn't even noticed. Damn't. If he'd been faster he could've saved her.

"Bine. Please you'll make it out of this ok I know you will." Ezra said, shaking her gently.

"Ezra…." She repeated briefly before he felt her life force start to slip.

"No, No, No, No, No, Sabine come back! Fight it!" Ezra felt Sabine's hand slip from his grasp as her body melted from his vision replacing itself with Kanan, his eyes narrowed at him in cold dissatisfaction.

"Kanan?" Before he could respond the face changed again.

Hera sat her face twisted in an expression of pain a Sabre wound through where her heart should've been.

"No…" Ezra breathed as the faces flickered through the ghost crew, Faith, then . A slow blackness taking over the planet of knrowrest as it became him and the bodies.

Finally it settled back on a pale Sabine, her eyes closed, her chest unmoving. Her voice pounding in his head.

"Ezra, why did you fail me?" She accused her face was still unmoving.

Ezra tried to speak but his words failed him as he fell back, his throat constricting further shut.

Ezra couldn't respond, but he could watch as the Darkness dragged him further from Sabine's side.

Ezra jolted up with a start from his nightmare grabbing at his chest as he nearly slammed his forehead into the roof of his and Zeb's shared room. He reached out with the force doing a somewhat meditative stance as he calmed himself exhaling in and out slowly.

"Just a Nightmare Sabine is fine, she's on Knrowrest." Ezra reassured himself, sighing briefly.

He swung his legs over the side slipping onto the floor while making as little noise as plausible.

The door slid open and he carefully picked his way through the halls of The Ghost briefly sensing the other members of the crew soundly asleep in their bunks. He nodded to himself satisfied as he quickly headed out the front hatch.

He winced as the cargo ramp hissed, touching the ground but he had to deal with it. He swiftly exited the ship. He picked his way across the landing strip and sat on a rock ledge about one yards away.

The base was relatively quiet except for the occasional rebel personnel scramble by, not that they paid Ezra any mind. He turned his eyes skyward staring at the deep black patterns dotted with white, somewhere out there Sabine was fighting a civil war.

Ezra was fighting his own war but part of him just wished they could be fighting it together like they normally would. It hadn't even been two weeks and he already let it bother him past a point he liked being bothered by.

He decided from that point forward he would put his feelings for Sabine on the sidelines. He had to focus on the here and now if he was going to make it through the coming months so he could eventually get back to her.

He let himself slip into a brief meditation sleep and slowly began to refirmalize itself with him and right when he got up to turn back to The Ghost he nearly ran into Faith who stepped back at his sudden awareness of her.

"Oh sorry…" She quickly apologized, backing up further.

"No, no, no, my fault. Did you uh need something Faith?" Ezra asked, glancing at her.

"Yeah, heard you shuffling around, it woke me up, saw that the ramp was open and decided to investigate." She said simply glancing at the beautiful landscape around her.

"Oh sorry about that, I just had a nightmare and wanted some fresh air." Ezra stated simply.

"You're fine, I get it… Bad one?" Faith asked,

"Somewhat." Ezra admitted sheepishly rubbing his arm.

"Wanna talk about it?" She hesitated quickly adding: "Only if you're comfortable of course." She said motioning to the rocks.

Ezra did partially want to go to bed but he figured that if she was willing to allow him to open up then maybe she would also be willing to slightly open up as well. That would be a nice surprise.

"I guess talking about it could help." He said taking a seat on the rock closest to him.

She gave him a warm smile and sat on one across from him giving him a nod to continue with his tale. Ezra released a sigh and retold his nightmare roughly, he left out some finer details of the battle of Knrowrest, but he for the most part hit on all the important parts.

Finally he got to the description of the black void closing in around him and she shuddered as the creepiness he had managed to describe.

"Yeah that's the jist." He finished swinging his eyes back to the sky.

"That's a lot…" She said meekly, giving him a sympathetic look.

"I don't know how to feel about it." Ezra said, kicking at the rock. "I mean part of me isn't really bothered by it, but the other part of me kind of feels as if it's the force trying to tell me something."

Ezra glanced back towards Faith. "I feel like I talked too much about mystical force, things you don't understand."

She recoiled a little and Ezra belittled himself for berating her. "It does confuse me a little but that doesn't mean I'm not willing to listen to you and try my best." She said with a soft smile.

"I appreciate it, it's kind of difficult to find someone willing to listen like you are." Ezra thanked her.

"I leaned on the streets to appreciate those who you are able to trust and do your best to keep that trust." She said simply glancing towards the ground.

"Well we took street life in two very different lights." Ezra stated simply leaning back on his rock and crossing his legs.

"How long were you on the streets for?" Ezra proceeded conversationally.

"Only for a little less than a year… After my clan got wiped out. What about you?" She said somewhat embarrassed.

"About seven years… After the Empire killed my parents…" Ezra said, glancing off towards the stars his eyes turned distant.

"Oh… I'm sorry." Faith quickly apologized.

Ezra wanted to tell her she was fine and all her apologizing was getting on his nerves but he gave her a small smile and didn't mention anything else. They sat in comfortable silence for a brief moment.

"What happened to your clan…" He asked carefully, trying to turn towards her more.

"The Empire wiped us out, all of us, I'm the last one." She said simply her turn to look in a different direction.

"I'm sorry to hear that." Ezra said, giving her an empathetic glance.

"The Protectors were supposed to be able to keep Mandalore or at least the leader of Mandalore. But we couldn't even protect ourselves." Faith said without prompting, bringing her gaze up to meet Ezra's.

Ezra wanted to say something but he couldn't bring himself to respond to Faith all his mind could wrap around was that Faith was a part of The Protectors and contrary to her statement they weren't all wiped out in fact the only other one was on Mandalore as they spoke. Ezra wanted badly to learn more but Faith suddenly stood.

"Thanks for the talk Ezra but I figure it's time we make our separate ways…" She said carefully.

Ezra wanted to tell her to wait, to tell her he knew what happened to her clan but he couldn't gather the words before she began her walk away and out of his hearing range.

Ezra squeezed his eyes shut. Faith is a Protector. Why couldn't anything in his life ever be simple?

A/N: So we now know Faith's clan! Hellooooooo this was a little shorter than I wanted and didn't get into "Through Imperial Eyes" like I wanted, but I really desired to get this out before my deadline and considering it's ten at night on Sunday I accomplished my deadline. With two hours to spare.

That being said I really have nothing else except for we actually will be getting into "Through Imperial Eyes" next week promise.

I hope this week's chapter was exciting and entertaining and I'll see you all next Sunday!

Stay Safe!