A/N: No, I have not gained the rights to Star Wars since my last story. I know, it surprised me too! Anyway, as usual, I only own the Original Content. Everything else belongs to Disney. Also, I will continue writing in the form that is becoming my personal favorite, certain character's perspectives from a third person POV, unless stated otherwise. Now, with that said, on with the story!
Chapter 1
Third Person POV
As a white shuttle touched down on a landing pad at the Imperial Palace on the planet of Coruscant, a dozen pike-wielding guards in long red robes that covered their entire bodies walked forward to stand in two identical lines on either side of the walkway leading from the platform into the building. They all took their positions just in time for the ramp of the ship to quickly lower itself, followed by the arrival of a dark figure.
At a glance, the figure seemed to be some sort of advanced droid, an extremely humanoid one that was apparently rather important given the way that it was decked out in the finest leathers and fabrics, including a long, flowing cape.
However, given time, one would begin to notice the loud, repetitive hissing sound that came from the droid's face, different from the sound of any mechanics they had seen before, and may eventually realize why that was. It was because it was not mechanics making that noise, it was the sound of labored breathing being filtered through a helmet. This figure was no droid at all, but was actually a man in a suit that covered every inch of his body for reasons one could only guess at. But most importantly was this man's name, a name that was feared across the entire galaxy, mostly by beings who had never even seen its bearer: Vader.
Whether due to that same fear or a legitimate sense of respect (or perhaps a combination of both) that they all possessed, every member of the Galactic Empire had the tendency and the expectation to salute and/or bow when Lord Vader approached, save only for the red robed guards currently on the walkway with him. These particular soldiers, the Emperor's hand-picked elite guardsmen, were completely and singly loyal to the Emperor himself, obeying none other, and thus were the only ones in the Empire who could survive refusing to show Lord Vader the usual respect, except of course for the Emperor himself and his trusted second-in-command, Grand Moff Wilhuff Tarkin.
For as powerful as he was, able to kill just about all of them with barely a thought if he chose to, Vader was ultimately just a servant, the Emperor's personal weapon of mass destruction, a tool to be used as the Emperor wished. Lord Vader possessed some of the greatest might and authority in the galaxy, yet he was still just a slave.
Ignoring the silent, faceless guards standing at attention on either side of him, Vader strode purposefully up towards the Imperial Palace, his every footfall seeming to carry a great weight with it, and not just the literal weight of his mostly-robotic body. The red-robed guards surrounding him could literally feel some sort of waves rolling off the man, as though despite the fact that he wasn't allowed to harm them, his very presence threatened to crush them all as an invisible weight settled on them, and a chill penetrated through their long robes as he passed them by without a glance.
Vader took the steps leading up to the palace two at a time, not wanting to waste any time and his prosthetic legs being more than up to the challenge despite the fact that there were several flights that needed to be climbed before one reached the entrance hall. When he finally did arrive, there were more armed guards of the same sort as outside lining the pillars leading into the building's throne room, all of which Vader ignored as well, focusing only on his objective, his master.
As he stepped through into the palace, he felt a strong wave of Force power wash over him, specifically the Dark Side, the power that Vader drew on to strengthen himself. Unbeknownst to most of the galaxy, the Emperor drew upon the Dark Side as well, granting him powers very similar to Vader's own. Many years ago, even though they shared the same power, Vader had been far stronger than his master, but those days were long gone now that Vader had lost most of his natural body, forever imprisoning him under the control of the Emperor.
As such, his hatred for his master had grown exponentially over the years, and the Emperor knew it, but they both knew that Vader could do nothing about it. Whatever chance he'd once had at being the most powerful being in the galaxy was now gone, at least until the Emperor died, but with the full resources of the galaxy at his disposal and the Dark Side at his beck and call to strengthen him, Emperor Palpatine may not end up dying a natural death for many years, and when he did, it would most likely be drawn out, finally leading to a peaceful passing while all the galaxy mourned his loss, whether they wanted to or not.
The thought infuriated Vader, a rage which he converted back into increasing his own power in the Dark Side, but as always, it was never enough to once again make him the even-more-powerful Sith Lord he'd once been.
Burying his anger deep within himself as he finally arrived before the throne of Emperor Palpatine, Vader got down on one knee and bowed his head low as he spoke, his voice modulator distorting his words as he asked, "What is thy bidding, my master?"
Seated on the throne in front of Vader, Emperor Palpatine wore a long black cloak and a hood, beneath which one could vaguely see a scarred and wrinkled face and eyes that were oddly a bright yellow, highly uncommon for humans, though they had been known to be seen fairly often with other species, such as Zabraks or Kages.
Looking down from his raised seat upon his darkness-cloaked servant, Palpatine gave a small smile and responded in a croaking but firm voice, "Now, Lord Vader, why should I need a reason to speak to my old friend?"
Fully aware that Palpatine was toying with him but being unable to do anything about it, Vader simply bit his tongue before saying, "You summoned me. I live to serve you, Master."
The Emperor's smile grew wider at that and he told Vader, "Yes. And as long as you serve me, you shall continue to live. Never forget that a life is only of worth so long as it is of use, Lord Vader."
"Yes, Master," Vader accepted simply, mentally setting aside the veiled threat as he really just wanted to hear the reason he'd been brought here at the moment so he could leave and get back to his work as soon as possible.
Normally, Palpatine wouldn't have bothered to summon Vader all the way back to Coruscant for a talk. He simply would've contacted Vader on his ship. If Vader had been brought here, he knew that whatever announcement had to be made, it must be important, and perhaps also the sort of thing that Palpatine wasn't willing to risk putting in a transmission. If that was the case, then they were most likely discussing a rare threat to the Empire that had arisen, the sort of thing that Vader would gladly welcome as an excuse to eliminate someone. Unfortunately, Palpatine was perhaps the only person in the Empire from whom Vader could not simply pry their thoughts from their mind, meaning that he had no choice but to sit here and listen to the Emperor teasing him until Palpatine finally shared the information he was currently withholding.
Fortunately, Vader had learned over the years the best ways to make someone move on, and one of the methods he most commonly employed, particularly with his master, was simply not to rise to the bait. By giving Palpatine what he wanted, Vader saved time by preventing the old man from having his fun and thus making him sooner get to the matter at hand.
Being able to read minds himself as well, this method didn't always work with Palpatine, but on certain occasions, it would. And thankfully, this seemed to be one of those such occasions, as Palpatine simply gave Vader one last disappointed look before he leaned back in his throne and announced, "I just received word, my apprentice, and I thought you should know. We've lost contact with all Imperial forces on the planet Lothal. Grand Admiral Thrawn was sent there to quell a number of insurgents reported there… But he too has not been responding to our communications. Neither he nor any of the rest of the Seventh Fleet. And so, I've regretfully come to the conclusion that Admiral Thrawn and his forces… have all perished."
Vader looked up in surprise. He'd first met Admiral Thrawn long ago, in another life, during the Clone Wars on a mission to the planet Batuu, and his impression of the Chiss had been that he was clever to an extremely dangerous degree, with a cunning and shrewd mind well-versed in tactical analysis. Thrawn had single-handedly turned the Empire's famed Seventh Fleet into its most effective and dangerous group of ships in the entire Imperial Navy. And Palpatine was claiming that the entire fleet had somehow been destroyed? Vader would've been less shocked to hear that his master's secret Stardust project had been discovered and obliterated by rebels.
Speaking hesitantly, Vader asked, "How? How could this happen?"
"Shortly before Admiral Thrawn's arrival at Lothal, Acting Governor Megus reported that he had crushed the remaining rebels on the planet and even had confirmed the death of the Jedi Knight known as Kanan Jarrus," Palpatine explained, a scowl on his face as he looked away from Vader, clearly even more displeased by the news than Vader was. "The only explanation I can see is that Megus must have been wrong."
Insulted by the thought, Vader bowed his head again and asked, "Forgive me, Master, but do you really believe that a few rebels or even a lone Jedi could have defeated Thrawn and his fleet?"
There was silence for a moment, then Palpatine quietly answered, "I don't know."
Above all else, that simple admission shocked Vader down to his core, making him look up at the Emperor in confusion. He had expected Palpatine to give a straightforward and definitive answer, perhaps a detailed account of how the rebels or the Jedi could have accomplished this feat. He had also somewhat expected that Palpatine would punish him for daring to ask such a foolish, blunt question. But never in a million years would Vader have expected to hear these three simple words so willingly spoken by his master.
After a short period of complete silence, during which Vader stared uncomprehendingly at the old man sitting above him, Vader repeated with disbelief, "You… don't know?"
"Yes, that's what I said!" Palpatine yelled abruptly, slamming a fist down on the armrest of his throne and making Vader lean back slightly in worry, never having seen his master like this. Palpatine then continued somewhat manically, "No, Lord Vader, I don't believe that a few rebels could've done this! Admiral Thrawn has single-handedly dismantled entire armies without lifting a finger on his own, and with far less resources than a fleet of Star Destroyers at his command! And he wouldn't have dared to fail to regain control over a planet like Lothal, one he knows has long been under my watchful gaze! But I also know for a fact that this was not the work of a Jedi! Can't you feel it?"
Vader remained frozen a moment longer, but then recognized the prompt of the question he'd just been asked and lowered his head and closed his eyes, extending his senses in the Force and focusing on the events that had transpired on Lothal. As he began to feel the Force currently surrounding that area of space, Vader quickly caught on to what his master had been talking about.
Opening his eyes again, Vader reported, "The Force feels… different. It's not light, it's not dark. It's not even particularly strong. It's no Jedi or Sith, but it is… different."
"That's what concerns me," Palpatine explained, more calm now as he leaned back in his seat and rested body once more. "Whatever we're dealing with, it's a rogue element. Like nothing we've ever encountered before. Jedi we know how to deal with, we've been doing it for nearly two decades. Wannabe Sith are mere pretenders that pose little threat to either of us or our machinations. Pirates, rebels, insurgents, smugglers, and all their like are familiar to us as well, no real danger whatsoever. Even Mandalorians are simple enough. I've sent a ship to deal with their little insurrection on Mandalore. But this… This is something new. Not a Fallen or Gray Jedi. Not a lost Inquisitor. Not a Force-user in hiding or a powerful youngling. Whatever it is, it doesn't make particularly large ripples in the Force, but it's powerful nonetheless, made all the more so by its ability to hide from us."
"It will not be a match for us, Master," Vader reassured Palpatine. "Once we locate it, we will easily eliminate it."
"Your pride will be your downfall, Lord Vader," Palpatine shot back, clearly not quite comforted. "The Sith did not rise to ruling the galaxy by being reckless, and I will not lose my hard-earned Empire because you thought to change that. The Jedi may have been our oldest and most dangerous rivals, but they are not the only threat to our power. This new threat could be something even worse, something capable of at least taking everything away from us before we can end them."
"Even if it's not a Jedi, I will find it quickly and destroy it," Vader announced confidently, internally thinking that it would also be a good opportunity for him to avenge Thrawn. Vader hadn't allowed himself to get close to anyone in many years, but Thrawn had once been a good friend and had always been a helpful ally. If he had indeed been killed, Vader had an obligation to slay Thrawn's killer, out of respect for the fallen admiral if nothing else.
However, Palpatine shook his head and said, "We must be more wary, my apprentice. Think. If this threat truly defeated Thrawn, perhaps it is no Jedi, but they must be clever. Thrawn was perhaps the smartest single being either of us have ever met. The force that defeated him must be equally smart. We cannot afford to be incautious now, for the only thing we know about our new enemy is that they must certainly be among the most intelligent, gifted, and competent people in the galaxy."
Ezra POV
"EZRA KRYZE, IF YOU KILL US ALL, I'LL KILL YOU!" yelled Zeb's gruff voice from inside the Ghost, the ship of the rebel group known as the Spectres.
Speed-walking across the Mandalorian base and looking around every corner, Ezra idly called back, "It's not my fault! I just… misplaced them!"
Walking right by his side, Captain Hera Syndulla of the Ghost crew told him, "Ezra, I don't think anyone just 'misplaces' enough explosive power to destroy the entire building."
Shrugging, Ezra said thoughtfully, "I mean, I can think of one."
Scoffing, Hera muttered to herself, "Yeah, and one's too many. Having two of you is really pushing things."
Ezra ignored her, however, as a small white astromech with an orange top, C1-10P, otherwise known as Chopper or just "Chop", rolled up to him. Kneeling down in front of the droid, Ezra asked, "Hey, Chop, do you find it?"
Chopper beeped something at him in Binary, and Ezra translated it in his head before he smiled hopefully and responded, "No, we haven't checked the crates by the exit yet. Did you see something over there?"
Chopper clunked out something else, and Ezra's face immediately fell with disappointment before he angrily asked, "Then why did you even ask me?!"
Starting to actually get worried, Ezra didn't wait for a response before he stood up and shoved Chopper aside so he could walk past him and resume his search, but suddenly jumped up in surprise when he felt Chopper drive into him from behind, nearly knocking his legs out from under him. Just managing to regain his balance, Ezra spun around to glare at Chopper while pulling one of his pistols from its holster at his belt, exclaiming, "Why, you little-!", but Chopper had already turned around and was wheeling away at full speed, letting out a quiet mechanical scream as he tried to avoid getting stunned.
Having seen the whole thing, Hera quickly called after him, "Chopper, no messing around right now! At least wait to hit Ezra until after we've stopped him from killing us!"
"Hey, I thought we agreed that it wasn't my fault!" Ezra protested.
"No, you said it wasn't your fault. We ignored you," said Captain Rex, otherwise known as retired Clone Captain 7567, as he walked by and checked under the wing of a Talon fighter.
Throwing his hands up in exasperation, Ezra asked, "Is anyone still on my side?"
"I'm not so certain that you require support, Captain Kryze," said former Imperial Security Bureau (ISB) Agent Alexsandr Kallus as he walked back into the hangar from an adjacent room. "After all, though many of us don't want to admit it, you've done more damage to the Empire in the last few months than most of us combined have done in years."
"Alexsandr, you can continue singing Ezra's praises after we've dealt with the current death threat, okay?" responded Hera, though Ezra thought he did sense a small amount of grudging acknowledgement coming from her.
Setting that thought aside and returning to the matter at hand, Ezra looked throughout the room and called out desperately, "Does anyone see anything out of place? Anything at all?"
"I found it!" came another voice from behind Ezra, and he turned around to see his Jedi friend, Kanan Jarrus, walking into the room pushing a mag-lev cart carrying numerous large crates in front of him.
Letting out a deep breath of relief as he now knew that not only would he avoid being skinned alive by his rebel family but might just avoid an even worse fate from a few other people he'd been worried about being late to meet, Ezra smugly turned to face his companions as they all approached Kanan and told them, "You guys just got out-searched by a guy who's still learning how to use his eyes."
Quickly pulling Ezra aside, Zeb told him, "He out-searched you too, don't forget. And this is still your fault."
Ezra opened his mouth to argue, but then decided that he didn't have time for a confrontation and just closed his mouth again in silent acceptance. Annoyingly, Zeb took it as a personal victory and grinned as he walked away from Ezra while chuckling, "Yeah, that's what I thought."
Hearing that made Ezra want to defend his position even more, but he was really determined to make his appointment which he was already running behind for, so he just bit his tongue and followed after the large Lasat to approach Kanan.
When they all arrived, Rex folded his arms over his chest and told Kanan, "Good work, Kanan. Where'd you find them in the end?"
"Apparently Ezra decided that they belonged in one of the pilots' sleeping quarters," Kanan said, throwing Ezra a critical look.
As the rest of his friends stared him down in the same way, Ezra thought back on it and recalled, "Oh, yeah! He asked me to bring them to him, but I couldn't find him by his ship, so I just left them where I thought he'd find them pretty quick."
"Ezra, you can't just leave armed proton torpedoes in someone's bedroom!" Hera chastised him hysterically, though her reaction was understandable as she knew better than anyone here the power of those particular bombs.
Putting up his hands in surrender, Ezra said, "Well, in my defense, I was kinda in a bit of a rush! Speaking of, has anyone seen my vambraces?"
Zeb began to let out a groan at the thought of another wild search so soon after the conclusion of the last one, but Kanan spared him the concern as he informed Ezra, "You switched them with your shin guards."
Looking down at his legs, Ezra could see his armed Mandalorian vambraces covering the lower half of his legs, which he supposed should have been an obvious place to look as his forearms were indeed currently covered with his white-painted shin guards. Tilting his head in thought, Ezra said, "Huh. Well, that explains why they were so hard to get on this morning."
Captain Rex sighed as he heard that, then shook his head as he walked away saying, "If this kid is the galaxy's best hope, we're all doomed."
Looking at Ezra more sympathetically, Kallus warned him, "You'll want to hurry and fix that, Kryze. We all have somewhere we need to be in less than an hour, and I imagine that you in particular don't want to miss it."
Walking over to a crate lying nearby and sitting down on it as he began trying to tug his wrist vambrace off of his ankle, Ezra sarcastically replied, "Really, Kallus? I had no idea."
"You know, Ezra, with everyone you invited, it really would be rude for you to be late," Kanan teased with a smirk.
Glaring up at the Jedi, Ezra reminded him, "I think you mean everyone you invited. You and Hera were the ones who wanted to make a big ceremony out of this, not me."
"Either way, we should all finish getting ready," Hera added, then morbidly added, "Hopefully we've now met our daily quota for near-death experiences, because we have a wedding to get ready for."
Sabine POV
"Yes, Lady Kryze. The situation in the hangar has been taken care of," reported the voice of a soldier from Clan Kryze over the clan's private communications network.
"Very good, Therel," Lady Bo-Katan Kryze, Ezra's adopted mother, responded, then asked, "And I take it that the culprit behind the bombs has been captured?"
There was a short pause at that, and then Therel repeated hesitantly, "Er… Yep, the situation's been taken care of. Over and out, My Lady."
As the line disconnected, Bo looked down at her comlink in confusion, clearly having found the end of the conversation to be a bit odd, but then she just shook her head and pocketed the device, deciding to trust her people to handle whatever was going on back at the landing pad.
As she did so, Sabine Wren smirked to herself and smugly said, "See? I told you Ezra would handle the problem soon enough."
"I did not question my son's capabilities," Bo reminded her soon-to-be daughter-in-law. "I'm just not comfortable when the only information I've been given involving a problem on the other side of the city is that there's a bomb."
"Besides, Sabine, for all you know, maybe Captain Kryze got cold feet. Ezra could've been the reason the bomb was missing in the first place," Sabine's brother Tristan joked from where he stood, leaning against the wall by the back door.
Not looking at him as she stayed focused on her work, Sabine argued, "Funny, Tristan, but I think he's smarter than that. I'll admit that he doesn't like crowds much, but Ezra knows that if he tried to back out on the day of our wedding, getting himself blown up wouldn't save him from me."
Hearing that, Tristan quietly chuckled to himself but wisely didn't say anything that might risk incurring the wrath of his elder sister upon himself.
Meanwhile, the two Wren siblings' mother, the Countess Ursa Wren, was standing above where Sabine kneeled on the ground, looking disapprovingly at Sabine's work as she complained, "Sabine, why are you going to all this trouble to paint your armor like this? Aren't you planning to strip all this off and repaint it later today? We're already going to be late as it is!"
"I only ever do my best work, especially for Ezra," Sabine defended as she continued her careful painting. "Besides, Mother, I wouldn't worry about the time. Knowing our usual luck, I counted on something unexpected happening and told the guests to get here ten minutes later than the time I told Ezra to be there. And to bring a datapad just in case."
Sitting in front of Sabine and using a heater to dry Sabine's paint faster, Sabine and Tristan's father Alrich chuckled to himself and said, "Always so ahead of the curve, that's our Sabine. Leave the girl alone, Ursa. Sabine wants to look nice for her special day, and who are we to deprive her of the chance to amaze her future mate? Besides, this is probably the only time we'll get to see our daughter dress herself in floral patterns rather than graffiti art."
Scowling as she looked at the thousands of tiny red and purple flowers flowing around the edges of Sabine's white-painted armor, Ursa shot back, "I might actually prefer the graffiti. It may not be our clan's colors, but loudness is certainly more Mandalorian than flowers."
"Hey, you have it easy," Sabine argued. "I had to repaint Ezra's armor yesterday. Do you have any idea how hard that was for me?"
"Yes," Tristan quickly answered. "We could hear you having a breakdown in the other room. We wanted to go make sure you were okay, but Dad told us that you were just grieving for your lost child. Then he had to explain that he was talking about your art because Ezra nearly died choking on his lunch. Kind of funny, isn't it? Of all the people to try killing Ezra, the one who came closest to managing it wasn't even a fighter."
"Yes, Tristan, thank you for putting that unwelcome thought in your sister's head just before she gets married," Alrich grumbled sarcastically while Sabine looked up in concern.
Seeing Sabine's expression, Bo placed a comforting hand on Sabine's shoulder and assured her, "Ezra was fine. Just startled. Though I suppose I should ask… He seemed perfectly willing to believe that you might be… expecting. You two haven't been-?"
She trailed off there as she and Sabine's own mother both silently looked at her somewhat suspiciously, and Sabine blushed at what they were implying before she responded, "What? No! We wouldn't do… anything like that until at least after we were married! And in the middle of this war with the Empire? I don't think so!"
Looking relieved, Bo stood back up and took her hand from Sabine's shoulder as she said, "Well, alright. I believe you, Sabine. And for what it's worth, I think you're making the right choice to wait."
Looking not quite so convinced as Bo, Ursa asked, "But if that's true, why did Ezra not seem certain? Don't get me wrong, I'd be happier to hear the news than anyone (as long as I was told straightaway), but it's not like Ezra has any doubts about Sabine's devotion to him. Why would he even think that Sabine might be pregnant?"
"Because he's Ezra," Tristan answered insightfully, and all the women in the room shared a glance with one another before giving nods of sad acknowledgement.
They all knew that Ezra was undoubtedly the strongest Mandalorian alive, always good to have by your side in a fight, especially seeing as he'd put himself through more grueling training than any Mandalorian in known history, but for all his knowledge of combat, he was significantly less experienced in dealing with people. Most of the last seven years of his life had been spent almost entirely alone, and had been left a bit socially starved by the experience. In short, he could be a bit… awkward at times.
As they were all thinking that over, Alrich finally broke the silence by shrugging and saying, "All I know is when you and Ezra do decide to, shall we say, expand your clan, I expect to be the first one to hold my new grandchildren, Sabine."
Smiling to herself, Sabine opened her mouth to agree to what she knew was only a half-joking comment by her father, but then Ursa abruptly cut her off by saying angrily, "Alrich! What are you talking about? If they bring their children to our home, don't you think the mistress of the house should get to hold them first?"
"Oh, I don't know, my love," Alrich responded with a pleasant smile. "I think certain exceptions from tradition can be made for family, can't they?"
"Absolutely not!" Ursa insisted. "In fact, I think that especially when it comes to family, the Countess should have-"
"Aaaand done!" Sabine announced, cutting off her parents' argument as she finally put the finishing touches on her armor.
Out of the corner of her eye, Sabine could see Tristan and Bo look at her as her words silenced her parents so that they could look at her finished work, the former giving her a discreet thumbs-up while the latter silently mouthed, "Thank you." Clearly, none of them had been looking forward to listening to the Count and Countess Wren arguing, especially about something so trivial and frankly uncomfortable for Sabine to be thinking about at the moment.
Sabine was sure that strange as he could be at times, Ezra would eventually make a great father, and she had hopes that she would be a good parent as well, hopefully at least a bit less critical than her own mom, though she'd never express such a thought out loud. But even if she planned on one day "expanding her clan", that day was not going to be today, or any time while the Empire continued standing, not if she could help it.
And so, having been quick to change the subject, Sabine backed away from her armor so everyone present could clearly see the completed project.
Sabine's father was the first to speak, saying, "Well, Sabine, I can see that I would've been wrong if I'd helped you as I asked to. Your own work is a testament to your dedication. Well done."
"It looks great, Sabine," Tristan said much more simply, not being quite as knowledgeable about art as Alrich was.
"I'm sure Ezra will love it," Bo added her own praise.
Ursa was quiet for a few seconds longer, simply staring at Sabine's work with her expression unreadable.
After a moment of silence, Sabine looked at her mother somewhat worriedly and asked, "Uh, mom? Do you have an opinion?"
Sabine's voice seemed to finally break Ursa out of whatever trance she was in, and she looked over at her daughter with a sad smile on her face and said, "Yes, it looks amazing, Sabine. I just… Every Mandalorian parent must wonder if they will get to see the day their own children get married. Not so long ago, I doubted that I would get to see it with you. But then along came Ezra Kryze…"
Smiling to herself with both pride and amusement at her mom's words, Sabine responded, "Yeah, that sentence pretty much sums up the last year for all of us, huh?"
Meeting Sabine's eyes, Ursa finished, "Well, the both of you went through a lot to get here today. And maybe it's not quite traditional for Mandalorians to do it like this… but I suppose you two have never really been much for tradition, have you? So let's do this thing! To victory or death!"
"Ah, yes, the war cry opening. Classic way to start a wedding," Alrich joked.
Line Break
The idea for this kind of wedding ceremony had been suggested by Kanan and Hera. To the surprise of no one, they had looked at quite a few different options for weddings several years ago. What was a surprise was when they announced that they had already gone through with one of them.
Apparently, they'd gotten married a few days before the Ghost crew had gone to Lothal most recently to deal with the TIE Defender project. From what they'd now told their friends and family, it had been a mix of a conventional human wedding and a Twi'lek wedding, and had been a small event including just the two of them and Hera's dad. They hadn't even brought Chopper, wanting to keep it under wraps at the time to keep from distracting anyone from the mission.
And then they apparently decided that Ezra and Sabine would be the perfect test group for something similar but involving a larger audience, even though that sort of scene was incredibly uncommon for Mandalorians.
Like all things Mandalorian, standard Mandalorian weddings were designed with combat applications in mind. Typically, they would involve a pair of betrothed mates simply exchanging a simple vow, reciting a few words that they were expected to memorize beforehand, and then it was done.
The idea was that you were supposed to be able to marry the one you loved even if you were in the middle of a heated war zone, and rightly so. Many times, the vows had been exchanged with the final breaths of dying soldiers, all to ensure that they would remain bound to their mates throughout eternity in a way that not even death could destroy.
Personally, Sabine found that idea quite beautiful and romantic, but apparently it hadn't been quite enough for her sometimes-overbearing foster parents. Kanan and Hera had insisted that they wanted only the best for Sabine and Ezra and had given them the rather unwanted input that they both felt that the younger Mandalorian couple should try a bigger event rather than what they had originally planned, inviting everyone they knew for a very formal ceremony instead of a quiet exchanging of vows with only Sabine's two immediate families and Ezra's mom and maybe his best friend, Trev Pattol, in attendance.
Perhaps the wise choice for Sabine and Ezra would've been to tell Kanan and Hera that they would unfortunately have to decline their offer, but that's not what they'd done in the end. As it turned out, for all the backbone they could show when faced with their enemies, Sabine and Ezra were both rather quick to give in to the demands of their loved ones, sharing a mutual dislike for disappointing people.
So that was why Sabine was here now, her gut tingling uncomfortably as she and her biological father (whom Kanan had insisted should be the one to escort her) rode in an elevator up to the top of a building in the Mandalorian capital city of Sundari, to a rooftop garden where Sabine knew hundreds of people, Rebels and Mandalorians combined, were gathered to share this moment with her.
But honestly, given how she didn't really much enjoy being in the spotlight, even with the promises she'd made to all the people waiting for her, Sabine would probably be running away from this place right now, choosing to have a last-minute change of plans and simply exchange the vows with Ezra in private later in the day, if not for one simple fact; that she knew that though he was feeling similarly to Sabine, Ezra was also up there right now, waiting for her anxiously but keeping himself in place through the same methods Sabine was employing.
So long as they kept their thoughts focused on each other, neither of them were going anywhere, and they would have their chance for privacy later. Perhaps a small moment of peace before they returned to the war. A war which itself may soon be over, with a little luck and a lot of Ezra, the Rebellion's new secret weapon. And then, Sabine and Ezra would have the slightly more complicated task of trying to establish actual lives.
But Sabine was getting a bit ahead of herself. She needed to focus on what was happening now. After all, she knew she would want to remember this day.
As the elevator finally arrived at the toplevel of the building, the doors opened and Sabine quickly took in the scene before her. The audience all stood up when she arrived and turned to face her, all of them wearing their finest apparel as a sign of respect and signifying their understanding of the importance of the event.
Most of the Mandalorians present had never attended an event like this and were simply humoring the requests of two of their much-respected people, but they had all clearly shined up their armor, each of them having polished it and given it a fresh paint job, as far as Sabine could tell at a glance.
Captain Rex and his two fellow clones, Commanders Wolffe and Gregor, had also worn their old Clone armor, freshly painted and bearing their full symbols and honors in an imitation of the Mandalorians around them, which was the first time that Sabine had ever seen any of them wear their full armor and the only time that she'd seen Gregor wearing any.
Sabine also quickly spotted her Rebel family, standing in the front row with Ursa and Tritan sitting by them and easily located by Zeb standing tall over everyone else, wearing his freshly-cleaned uniform from his days as the Captain of the Honor Guard of the Royal House of Lasan.
They all looked back at Sabine with pride and emotion on their faces, but Sabine had eyes for only one person at the moment. The crowd had been split down the middle, leaving a narrow path leading from the elevator straight to the other end of the plant-decorated rooftop, where Sabine could see Ezra standing there waiting for her, smiling at her with his helmet under his arm, his white armor and cape shining brightly with his friend Trev standing behind him, also looking happy for his friend's good fortune.
Returning Ezra's smile, Sabine subconsciously took her dad's arm as they'd rehearsed and allowed him to escort her forward, her eyes staying locked onto Ezra's the whole way until she finally arrived in front of him. When that time came, Sabine turned to face her father for a moment as Alrich leaned in and placed a kiss on her cheek before he stepped back and went to sit by his wife.
Sabine then turned back to Ezra and matched his expression of pure joy as Trev stepped up to stand by their sides and announced to the audience, "Okay… Well, we're all here. And apparently if this was a normal wedding, I'd be expected to 'officiate' something here… But this isn't a normal wedding. It's a Mandalorian wedding, and this whole ceremony we've all spent the last few days preparing for is really pretty much just a formality… So it's good to know that our efforts are being appreciated."
At that, the audience let out a collective laugh, all of them clearly glad to be done with the preparations phase of the wedding. After a moment, Trev smirked and held up a hand to quiet them down, then added, "Seriously, though, I thought it was all worth it. A little unorthodox for our people, maybe, but then, so are these two people whose union we've all gathered to oversee. I don't know about all of you, but in my eyes, both Ezra Kryze and Sabine Wren are two of my closest friends, and I think they deserve every happiness. So everything we did, getting ready for today… I would do it again in a heartbeat for these two. They've been a blessing to me, and I'm happy to return the favor in any way I can."
There was a general murmur of agreement and some nodding of heads, but Sabine and Ezra paid little attention to any of it. They weren't here for approval, after all.
Seeing that and having said his piece, Trev decided to stop delaying the main event and patted Ezra on the shoulder firmly once before he stepped back and finally said, "Sabine, Ezra… you know what to do."
His blue eyes gleaming charmingly, Ezra took Sabine's hands in his own and started them off by beginning, "Mhi solus tome, mhi solus-"
But that was as far as he got before an alarm suddenly began to sound, causing both Sabine and Ezra to look down and let out a sigh of annoyance, though it wasn't exactly one of surprise. Truth be told, Sabine had been expecting their bad luck to hold, even under conditions such as this. If Ezra and Kanan's "Force" thing was truly alive and controlled everything in the galaxy as Kanan claimed it did, Sabine figured that it apparently didn't like her or her fellow Rebels very much, a fate that Ezra had sadly joined in on by joining their crew.
Standing up in the crowd, one of the Mandaorians present looked at his datapad and announced, "It's the proximity alarm! Imperial Troop Transports incoming!"
Evidently outraged by the interruption, all three of Ezra and Sabine's mothers stood up and spoke as one, ordering, "To the ships!" They then all exchanged glances with one another, noting the awkwardness of the moment, before Bo-Katan turned back to the crowd and spoke alone this time, declaring in her role as official Mand'alor, "Everyone, get ready to repel an attack! No mercy! We're going to crush these Imperial invaders, and then we're going to finish this wedding even if the rest of the galaxy tries to stop us!"
With a cheer/battle cry from all the assembled warriors, everyone jumped to their feet and drew their weapons eagerly as they prepared for a fight. Some of them began launching into the air on their jetpacks, heading towards either the vehicle hangars or the city's only entrance and exit, all of them determined to cut off the approaching Imperials.
However, many of them remained behind as they heard the sound of powerful engines firing above and looked up to see multiple Imperial transports coming in for a landing, some of them having clearly already entered the city, meaning that there must be quite a few of them on the way for any ships to have actually gotten this far.
Looking up at the transports with his expression set with determination, Kanan stood up and drew his lightsaber from his belt as he said, "Eyes up, people! We've got company!"
At his words, the rest of the remaining guests all rallied behind the Jedi Knight and drew their own weapons and charged towards the Imperial stormtrooper force that began disembarking from their transports as soon as they landed on the roof.
Blaster fire began flying all across the rooftop, quickly destroying the set of the wedding that had so recently looked so neat and tidy. Chairs were quickly upturned or simply pulled from their positions so they could be used as weapons between the Imperials and their opposing forces. The flower bushes were all set aflame and the skies were filled with crashing ships as jetpacking Mandalorians engaged the Imperial transports before they could successfully land.
Yet through all this, Sabine and Ezra didn't move from where they stood, still just facing one another and holding hands between them.
Without even needing to think or comment about it, Ezra easily pulled Sabine's hands so she tilted slightly sideways, and as a blaster bolt flew harmlessly past her from behind, Ezra asked, "Why does this always happen?"
"I know, right?" Sabine asked back, amazed as always by how Ezra was thinking so similarly to how she was, but needing to speak a bit louder to be heard over all the yelling going on around them. "I mean, you'd think we'd earned just one day of quiet."
"Totally," Ezra agreed with a nod.
Looking down sadly, Sabine said, "Why do I get the feeling that something's always going to try to get in the way of this?"
She then idly reached out with one arm and used the energy shield on her left vambrace to absorb a blaster bolt that nearly hit Ezra in the side as he shrugged at her and said, "Well… I mean, we kept our promise to Hera and Kanan. We could just finish this ourselves."
Tilting her head in confusion, Sabine asked, "Right now? But… Ezra, I don't know if you noticed, but most of our guests had to leave early."
Smiling at her, Ezra responded, "I think most of them will be alright with it. And as for our moms? I think they might actually be glad it happened this way. After all, they weren't too fond of the idea of this ceremony in the first place. They said it took too much of the 'Mandalorian' part out of it, and what's more Mandalorian than getting married in the middle of all this?"
Looking around finally at the battlefield that their makeshift marriage observance had deteriorated into, Sabien thought it over for a moment, then looked back at Ezra and shrugged carelessly as she told him, "Well… Sure, why not?"
"We may as well teach the galaxy a lesson for trying to mess with us, right?" Ezra asked with a pleased grin.
Chuckling to herself quietly, Sabine shook her head and said, "Oh, you'll be the death of me, Ezra Kryze. I'm looking forward to it. Mhi solus tome, mhi solus dar'tome, mhi me'dinui an, mhi ba'juri verde."
Raising an eyebrow at her, Ezra smirked and noted, "You said it first. I wanted to say it first."
"You tried," Sabine reminded him. "I decided not to give you another chance to steal it from me. Now it's your turn."
Without hesitation, Ezra immediately recited, "Mhi solus tome, mhi solus dar'tome, mhi me'dinui an, mhi ba'juri verde."
And just like that, it was done. Sabine and Ezra were married, despite the galaxy's best efforts. It didn't really change anything around or inside them physically, and the only congratulations they received was the crackling flames of the vine-covered arch above their heads burning with a sound to vaguely imitate applause, but as Ezra smiled at Sabine and pulled her into a deep kiss, their first one as riduurs, Sabine didn't think that she had ever felt more content.
When they finally pulled apart after several long seconds, Ezra smiled down at Sabine and said, "Well, now that we've officially defied fate, should we maybe get involved in the fight now?"
The surrounding war having been completely driven out of Sabine's mind for a moment, she looked around to see the remaining Imperial forces and sighed as she responded, "Yeah, we probably should. You have your lightsaber?"
Keeping his eyes on her, Ezra reached behind his back and pulled out his lightsaber from underneath his cape and held it out towards her as he answered, "Kanan would never let me leave home without it. You?"
Reaching around to the back of her own belt, Sabine brought forth the ancient, Mandalorian-designed, unique lightsaber that Ezra had gifted her some time back, the Darksaber, and responded, "You know me. Naturally, I come to my own wedding heavily armed."
As the two of them turned and stood side by side to face the remaining stormtroopers approaching them, activating their lightsabers in sync and taking up defensive stances, Ezra told her, "You know, Wren, if you keep doing stuff like that, I might just have to fall in love with you."
"Oh, I think we're both too late for that one," Sabine returned knowingly with a smirk.
And with that said, the two newlyweds surged forward and began to tear into the ranks of the Imperial soldiers, their respective green and black-bladed lightsabers making short work of the plastoid-covered soldiers. When they felt that even the lightsabers weren't doing quite enough, they switched freely to using other tools like the ones on their vambraces or the dual pistols that they each wore at their hips.
Ezra Kryze and Sabine Wren were each a powerful force of nature on their own, but they could also work as a team like few others were capable of, and when they did, there wasn't much that could stand in their way.
Ezra lunged forward and stabbed one stormtrooper in the stomach, then reached out one hand and used the Force to lift another soldier off his feet before throwing him unwillingly towards Sabine, who shot him out of the air as he approached, then ducked under his falling body and sliced the end off another stormtrooper's blaster rifle with her lightsaber. Sabine then hit him in the head with her pistol, making him spin around, and Sabine then stepped forward and grabbed the trooper around the neck and used him as a human shield with the blade of the Darksaber held close to his face as she approached his fellow stormtroopers while continuing to shoot at them over the man's shoulder. Meanwhile, Ezra was being a show-off like usual, using the Force to aid his already-exceptional aim to ensure that he could hit any target he aimed at while seldom needing to even glance at it.
However, by the time Ezra and Sabine had joined the fight, the Imperials' numbers were already starting to dwindle. Ezra and Sabine easily fought their way over to the rest of their group, and as they helped Kanan and the shield-wielding Mandalorians to form a defensive line around their people, Ezra asked his sometimes-Jedi-master, "So, Kanan, is this how you imagined your weekend going?"
"Oddly enough, it's not far off," Kanan responded, sounding completely serious.
Looking around with an analytical gaze, Sabine could see many of their own people lying wounded on the ground around them. She didn't know how many might be dead, but the Imperials' numbers had overwhelmed quite a few of them. Gesturing towards the fallen bodies, Sabine said, "We need to finish this fast. Some of these people are going to need medical attention."
"As you wish, my lady," Ezra acknowledged, then abruptly broke free from the defensive circle and jumped towards the Imperials, worrying Sabine for a moment before he crashed into the stormtroopers and immediately began tearing into them with ruthless efficiency. He sliced one down with his lightsaber, then directed his gun in the opposite direction and shot another in the face without even looking. He then thrust his hand out towards another group of them and used the Force to push over half a dozen Imperial soldiers off the edge of the roof, sending them falling to their deaths with screams of fear.
Like usual, Ezra became the primary driving force in the absolute decimation of their enemies while the rest of them could only assist him from time to time, taking occasional potshots at stormtroopers who'd become distracted by the Mandalorian whirlwind of destruction approaching them. Much as Sabine loved when Ezra did things like this, she'd be lying if she said that she didn't sometimes feel jealous of it. Ezra could be a one-man army when he wanted to, and Sabine imagined that it would be hard for anyone to see such a thing while being unable to replicate the results he achieved.
But then again, she wasn't exactly something to scoff at by herself. If Ezra was the most dangerous Mandalorian in modern times, then Sabine was certainly a close second.
However, even Ezra wasn't quite invincible, as Sabine had been painfully reminded on several occasions, and she recalled that fact now especially, as she looked up and noticed a few Imperial rocket troopers began descending from above on their jetpacks and Sabine could see a couple of them aim their guns at Ezra from the air.
Despite having seen Ezra handle worse odds in the past, Sabine still panicked upon seeing her new husband in danger and aimed one of her guns upwards as she called out in warning, "Ezra!"
However, before either the rocket troopers or Sabine could fire a shot, both of the jumptroopers who'd been aiming at Ezra were both thrown back and pushed out of the air, as though by an invisible wall.
Having heard Sabine's warning, Ezra looked up just in time to see this happen, then returned his attention to the fight while calling behind himself, "Thanks, Kanan!"
However, Kanan simply frowned and called back, "It wasn't me!"
Ezra looked back at him in confusion, but couldn't dwell on it for long as he needed to quickly raise his lightsaber to block an incoming blaster bolt. Sabine was also confused, but she decided that they would have to talk about what had happened later and simply directed her blasters forward and resumed shooting as many stormtroopers as she could.
After Ezra finally plunged his lightsaber through the last Imperial's chest, he wiped his brow as they all lowered their weapons hesitantly and commented, "Whew. Well, I thought that was a very exciting wedding, everyone. Now, once everyone gets back, we'll break for dinner."
However, it sadly wouldn't be quite that simple. As Ezra was talking, Sabine picked up the sound of a faint beeping coming from the bodies near them. Wary of some sort of trap, she quickly turned and began trying to locate the sound of the noise, and soon found it to be coming from the bodies of one of the fallen stormtroopers, who had apparently been a commander as signified by the orange pauldron on his shoulder.
Leaning down, Sabine searched the body until she found what was making the noise, some sort of recording device. Picking it up, she called her friends over to her, saying, "Hey, guys! You may want to look at this."
Intrigued, Ezra and the rest of Sabine's remaining allies walked over to her to see what she'd found and Sabine pressed the button on top of the device to play whatever sort of message it contained.
Once it was activated, the device immediately projected a small hologram of a man standing on top of it. The man had dark hair and a thin mustache above his lips, and wore black armor with a matching cape, though with red on the inside of it.
Though the recording could not see to whom it was speaking, the man looked up and said, "My name is Moff Gideon. If you are watching this, then your Mandalorian forces have now defeated my own. This result is expected, of course. Your people's exploits are legendary, after all, and if only a small portion of them are true, then these stormtroopers will be little challenge to your soldiers. However, I want you to know that this first wave was only a small taste of the power I currently command. But now that you've been made more-or-less aware of the threat you now face, I present you with a choice. The Emperor himself has sent me here and given me permission to rain down the full might of the Empire on Mandalore and wipe out every last one of your people. If you wish to stop that, then I suggest that you send me a negotiator. Someone who can make decisions on behalf of all of Mandalore. I hear you have a new leader, Lady Bo-Katan Kryze. She would do nicely. So here is my ultimatum: send your leader to me within the next half hour, alone, or I will be forced to bombard your world until there is nothing more than glass and ash left in its place."
And with that threat, the message ended, Gideon's hologram flickering out of existence. Everyone present stared silently at where it had been for a moment, then Ezra let out a deep sigh and said, "Well, I guess dinner will have to wait. I'll be right back."
Without any further explanation, Ezra turned to leave, but Sabine guessed where he was going and reached out to quickly grab his arm before he could go anywhere and told him, "Ezra, you can't just go fight this Gideon guy. The number of transports and troops he sent our way suggests that he has at least a couple Star Destroyers with him, and he says he has a lot more."
Shrugging, Ezra looked back at Sabine and told her, "So? Whatever he has, I've dealt with bigger."
"We need to be smart about this, Ez, or we might not have a planet left to fight for by the time you get up there," Sabine tried to convince him. "You can't just go up there guns blazing. He said he wanted to talk to our leader. That means he's willing to negotiate. So you should fill in for your mom and go offer to talk to him. Then, if you can stall him for a little while, we'll call in our reinforcements so we can destroy them and still keep the planet safe from attack."
Ezra stared Sabine down for a few seconds, clearly not too fond of the plan and trying to have a silent argument with her, but when Sabine's gaze didn't waver, he finally bowed his head in defeat and said, "Fine."
As Trev then walked forward holding Ezra's helmet out to him, Ezra took it and slowly lowered it onto his shaking head as he walked away muttering to himself, "So much for my days of sharing tables with Imperials being over."
Before he could finish his departure, however, Kanan stepped forward and told him, "And when you get back, Ezra, we need to talk."
Sabine didn't know what Kanan was talking about, but she thought she saw Kanan's eyes drift over to look at her piercingly for a barely-perceptible moment, making her feel somewhat uncomfortable.
Whether or not Ezra knew more about what Kanan wanted to discuss, however, Sabine didn't get to find out just then, as Ezra simply nodded to Kanan before he jumped off the side of the building and activated his jetpack to fly towards the city's exit.
A/N: After several months, here it is! The sequel to Seeking Justice! Now, as I mentioned at the end of the last story, this story takes place after my equivalent of the Rebels show's ending, meaning that we won't be following a script this time, not whatsoever. I'm also writing this story at the same time as another one, Common Thread. As such, I'll try to keep updates consistent for both stories, every couple weeks or so most likely, but if it doesn't work out all the time, please be patient with me. Also, I've developed the habit of writing longer chapters instead of more chapters, so don't be surprised if this story is significantly shorter than the last one, but fear not. The length should still be considerable, as I have a fair few ideas for this story in mind. Anyway, enjoy this opening teaser chapter for now, leave a comment with thoughts/suggestions/concerns if you enjoyed, and thanks for reading!