"And remember, the Force will be with you, always."
The words seemed to hang in the air as the Purrg took them aboard the Star Destroyer into hyperspace. While his body was exhausted and in pain, his mind felt at peace. He'd done everything he could, everything he was supposed to do. It was now up to Sabine, Hera, and the rest of his family to finish the mission. To free Lothal. And he trusted they would do it.
Only a moment after they'd entered hyperspace, shields activated around the bridge viewports. They cut around the tentacles of the Purrgil, preventing the air from escaping.
Ezra continued to hold Thrawn in place, and the doors behind him closed, for as long as he could. He had no idea where they were going, but he trusted the Purrgil.
The pain in his body, most of which came from his shoulder, threatened to overtake him. Before Ezra knew it, he found himself in darkness.
…
Something nudged Ezra. He moved his hand to push away whoever or whatever it was. It was probably Chopper playing a prank on him. But apparently the droid had already backed away because his hand didn't touch anything.
His bed also felt different, much harder than usual. It was almost as if he were lying on a metal floor. Reluctantly, he opened his eyes, only to find himself looking at an unfamiliar ceiling. He quickly got up and found himself on the bridge of a Star Destroyer, instead of his bed on the Ghost. Then it all came back to him: Lothal, the Emperor, Thrawn, the Purrgil...
Several officers were lying spread out across the floor, still unconscious. This included Thrawn, who looked like he had been slung up against the wall at the other end of the bridge.
Any thoughts about the Imperials disappeared as Ezra felt the nudging again, even though he could see that there was nobody near him.
Suddenly, he realized that nothing physical was nudging him. No, it was the Force. It was trying to tell him something. He closed his eyes and reached out. At first, he just felt the people on the Star Destroyer. A lot of uncertainty and fear from the handful of people who weren't knocked out. He reached out beyond the ship. The purrgil were already gone, so at first, it seemed like there was nothing.
Then it hit him. The cold, the dark side, Ezra recognized it instantly. It was like waves of pain, anger, and hatred coming from a single point just outside the Star Destroyer. There was also another feeling that Ezra couldn't quite identify.
But it didn't matter. There was something dark out there that had its sights set on the Chima. Ezra didn't waste another second. He grabbed a blaster that was lying nearby, got up, and sprinted off the bridge.
He ran through the hallways, jumping over the bodies of unconscious Imperials. He had to get out of there as soon as possible.
He could feel the dark side presence again, much closer. It felt as if it were inside the Star Destroyer now.
The Imperials began to wake up. Fortunately, for Ezra, most of them were too confused about what had happened to them and did not notice him. The few who did recognize him didn't have enough time to react.
Then suddenly, Ezra felt as if he had slammed into a barrier made of the Force. All his senses screamed danger. Only a few seconds later, he heard the familiar sound of a lightsaber coming from around the corner. "Not that way," he murmured to himself, spotting a red glow reflected on the wall in front of him.
As he started running in a different direction, the alarm went off. Moments later, he heard Thrawn's voice over the intercom. "All Imperial personnel to your battle stations. We are in the Unknown Regions and have several dangerous intruders aboard. Report to your commanders immediately for further instructions."
Ezra was pretty sure he himself was considered one of those "intruders". Whoever he'd almost run into was probably another one, as he wasn't aware of any inquisitors being on board. All the more reason to get out of here as quickly as possible.
He soon found himself near the hangar. As the doors opened, and Ezra felt a wave of relief for when he saw the Ghost standing in the hangar.
Or was it? The ship certainly looked similar to the Ghost, as it was also a VCX-100 freighter. But Ezra quickly noticed the differences. While the Ghost had a white paint job with different patches of color across it, this ship looked like it was painted much darker. Not to mention, several of the turrets that the Ghost supported were missing. As the ship had not been there when Ezra first arrived, he could only assume it was the ship from the other intruder.
Blasterfire interrupted Ezra's thoughts. He turned around to see several stormtroopers across the hangar, firing on the unknown ship. He hid behind a crate before they could notice him.
A quick look around told Ezra the shuttles were in a different hangar, and aside from the black freighter there were only TIE fighters.
And a single TIE defender.
That was Ezra's way out of there. He'd flown a defender before, and the ship had a hyperdrive. That was all he needed to get out of there.
Right as he started sneaking around the stormtroopers toward the fighter, he felt the dark presence come up behind him. It came with a wave of fear, pain, and death.
…
Later, Ezra wouldn't be able to remember how he'd gotten to the Defender and away from the damaged Star Destroyer and the dark presence. He now found himself in hyperspace aboard the Defender.
He could no longer feel the dark presence, so he allowed himself to relax for a moment.
A white dwarf ahead.
As soon as the vision appeared, Ezra instinctively pulled the handles, avoiding the obstacle ahead. "Karabast," he muttered to himself. He could almost hear Hera scold him for not putting any coordinates in the navicomputer before making the jump.
Then he remembered what Thrawn said over the intercom. He was in the Unknown Regions. He didn't have any coordinates to enter.
Well, that was just great.
Ezra's thoughts were interrupted by another vision, this time of a lone planet without any stars nearby. As his instincts reacted and he steered the ship clear of impact, pain shot through his shoulder. He grimaced. For now, there was nothing he could do about that.
As he steered clear of a dense Nebula, he thought he could hear a voice. A voice that sounded suspiciously a lot like Kanan's.
"Trust in the force."
"Yes master," he softly said. The force was what got him out here in the first place, so he would trust it to guide him further.
…
Ezra had no idea how long he'd been flying. He was tired, his shoulder felt like it was on fire, and the rest of his body ached. Images of his friends, his family, flashed through his head. At this point, his body almost automatically responded whenever he sensed danger through the Force.
Black started to creep into his sight. With everything going on, he knew he would pass out soon. And passing out while flying without a navicomputer in hyperspace was not going to end well. At the same time, he didn't want to come out of hyperspace in the middle of nowhere.
Then suddenly, he could feel the Force telling him to leave hyperspace. He reached out to the hyperspace lever, but with the tiredness he felt in his body, his hand missed. He tried again, this time more successful. He pulled the lever towards him, and saw the blue clouds of hyperspace around him convert back to darkness.
Before he could figure out where he was, he passed out.
…
"..."
There was a voice.
"..."
Another one, this one more ..female?
"...sleep."
There was the first one again. Ezra opened his eyes.
...to immediately shut them because of the bright light.
He could hear the voices again, sounding a bit more excited. He wanted to hold something between himself and the source of the light so he could at least see something, but his arm was tied down. He tried to move his leg, but couldn't do that either. It was as if something had bound him to whatever he was lying on.
A brief panic overtook him. Had he been captured by someone? Was this some weird dream? Who was he hearing? He opened his eyes again, and immediately shut them again. The blinding light was still there.
The second voice spoke again. Then the light dimmed a bit, so Ezra dared to open his eyes again.
Everything looked hazy. He could make out that he was in some sort of room and saw some figures standing near him. Were they humans? He couldn't quite tell.
The figure closest to him started speaking again, but Ezra couldn't make out what they were saying. He still tried to say something in return, but no sound came out of his mouth. The other figure now started to talk as well, and although Ezra couldn't make out what they were saying either, the voice had something familiar. He focused on the sound of the voice, trying to figure out if he had heard it before. It took so much energy that he passed out again, not aware that he muttered a single word: "Sabine?"
…
Ezra had no idea how long he was passed out, but eventually he woke up again. The room was still as bright as before, but at least it didn't look as hazy anymore. He looked around. The room was mostly white, and filled with things that looked like medical equipment, although they looked completely different from what he was used to. He tried to get up, only to find himself strapped to some sort of bed. His shoulder was covered in bandages, and didn't hurt as much as before.
Suddenly his eyes caught someone on the other side of the room. There was a girl, not much older than himself, Ezra guessed, sitting in a chair with her eyes closed.
"Hey," Ezra softly called out to her. After he got no response, he tried again, "Hey!" At first, it seemed like there was still no response, and Ezra was about to try again when the girl opened her eyes. First, she looked around warily, until her eyes caught Ezra.
"Oh, you're awake," she said, as she quickly got up and started walking towards him.
"Yeah uhm… who are you? Where am I?" Ezra blurted out the questions as the girl started untying the bands that held him stuck to the table.
"I'm Myra, you're on our exploration ship, after we found you in a wreckage in the middle of nowhere," the girl answered, looking up momentarily before returning to what she was doing.
Myra, Ezra thought to himself. It sounded so similar to his mother's name. But from the way she pronounced it he could tell it wasn't the exact same. "Nice to meet you, Myra. my name is Ezra" he said. The girl looked up.
"Nice to meet you too, Ezra," she said, putting away the bands.
"Why was I tied down?" Ezra asked, sitting up straight on the bed.
"We weren't sure what you would do when you woke up, so we tied you down as a precaution," Myra explained. "We can't have someone in your state start wandering aimlessly around the ship."
"Yeah." Ezra muttered. He doubted he would have even thought of doing that, but he understood her position.
"Plus," Myra continued, "we didn't want you to make any sudden movements in your sleep. It wouldn't be good for your shoulder."
"Thanks," Ezra said.
The girl smiled. "You're welcome." A moment later, her comlink went off. "Sorry," she apologized, "I'll be right back."
After Myra left, Ezra considered his situation. He was on some kind of ship, judging by the engine noise he could faintly hear in the background. He sensed there were several crew members onboard, although he wasn't sure exactly how many. Myra seemed nice, and he hoped the same would also be the case for the rest of the crew.
After a short while, the door opened, and an older blonde woman walked through, followed by Myra and two others. The way the woman moved vaguely reminded Ezra of Hera, whenever she was in her 'captain of the ship' mood. The woman scrutinized him for a moment. Then she spoke.
"You are Ezra?" Ezra nodded. Evidently, Myra had already told her his name. The woman continued, "My name is Samantha. I'm the captain of this ship. This is most of my crew: Adrian, Max, and Myra, who you've already met."
"Uhh, nice to meet you all," Ezra said, and then quickly added, "Thank you for the rescue."
The other crewmembers nodded in response. Ezra could feel the uncertainty in the two men, Max and Adrian, as they stood near the door. Myra, on the other hand, only seemed curious, perhaps even a little excited.
Samantha stepped closer. "So, how did you end up here?"
The directness of her question took Ezra by surprise. "Here?"
"Unconscious, in a wreck floating in the middle of nowhere," Myra elaborated, before the captain could respond. Samantha sent her a quick warning look, before turning back to Ezra.
"Well," Ezra scratched the back of his head. "It's complicated."
The captain folded her arms. "We have time."
Ezra debated with himself how much he was willing to share. So much had happened in the past few... days? weeks? How long had it been since he had that vision of Thrawn returning to Lothal? Eventually he settled on a shorter explanation. "There was a battle. I got stuck on an enemy ship, which ended up in the Unknown Regions. I escaped from them in the ship you found me in."
Samantha frowned. "Who's 'them'?"
Ezra hesitated. Could these people betray him to the Empire? Did they even know what the Empire was? The Force didn't give him any warning of danger, so he trusted he would be okay. "The Empire," he finally said.
Judging by how the men near the door stiffened, they clearly knew what the Empire was. Samantha narrowed her eyes. "We've heard of them." Caution crept into her voice. "Is it possible for them to have followed you?"
From the way she asked the question, Ezra deduced that she clearly wasn't a fan of the Empire. That made it a lot easier for him to trust them.
"I'm not sure," he finally said. "When I escaped, there was a lot of chaos, but it's still possible..." He didn't need to finish his sentence for the crew to understand what he meant.
"Max, get to the wreckage and make sure nobody can track it," Samantha ordered.
Before leaving, Max turned to Ezra. "Is there anything specific I should look for?" he asked.
Ezra thought for a moment and then said, "Make sure to disable the locator beacon. You need to cut through both the blue and red wires to ensure it can't be tracked." The man nodded and left the room, shortly followed by Adrian.
Samantha turned back to Ezra. "Anything else?" Ezra shook his head. "Alright then," her voice went a bit softer, "get some rest, Ezra." She stood up and left the room. Ezra was about to lay back down on the bed when he realized he still wasn't alone. Myra still stood in the room, watching him.
After a short silence, he finally asked, "Where are you guys taking me?"
"We're taking you with us, to our home planet," Myra replied, motioning towards his shoulder. "There's only so much we can do for your shoulder with what we have here."
"And what happens after I'm out of the hospital?"
The girl shrugged. "That will be up to you."
This confused Ezra. "What do you mean?"
Myra sat down. "Usually when stranded people arrive on our planet, they settle down somewhere and try to rebuild their lives," she explained. "However, since you arrived completely on your own, I'm not sure how it'll go for you."
"Right," Ezra murmured. It hadn't even been that long, and he already felt how much he missed his family. Myra made it sound like people who ended up here couldn't get back to the main galaxy. If that was what Lothal's freedom took, to live the rest of his life on an isolated planet without ever seeing them again, he'd gladly make that sacrifice. Still, it was hard to imagine living anywhere but on the Ghost, with Sabine's paintings, Zeb's smell, and Chopper's attempts to make his life miserable. He would definitely miss that.
His train of thought was interrupted when Myra spoke again. "You woke up earlier."
"I did?" Ezra could only vaguely remember something.
"Yeah, and right before you fell asleep, you said something."
"What did I say?"
Myra frowned. "I think it was a name. Something like 'Sabine'?"
"Oh Sabine," he briefly closed his eyes, remembering the colorful Mandalorian. "She's my friend." He remembered their conversation on the gunship. 'I know I can always count on you.' He had given her his lightsaber, trusting her to know what to do. He also hoped Chopper had given her his second message.
Myra didn't respond. She just sat in silence, lost in her own thoughts. After a while, she got up. "It'll be a while before we arrive," she said. "It's probably best if you get some more sleep until then."
"Myra?" Ezra called after her, just as she was about to open the door. "Thank you," he said, as she looked over her shoulder.
Myra gave him a small smile. "You're welcome," and then she left.
The lights also turned off, and now Ezra could feel how tired he still was. It took only a few seconds for him to fall asleep again.
Author's note: Okay so just a quick note for those of you who haven't read any of my other stories. This story is part of the same universe as my other Star Wars fic I'm working on (Ronin's path). However, there is no need to read Ronin's path before reading this, since I only started with that fic after I came up with the story for this one.
Also little fun fact for this story: I originally came up with this idea back in 2023, when we only had the trailers for the Ahsoka show. I actually published several chapters, but since I wasn't happy with them, I took them down again and decided to rewrite it from the ground up. For those who have read Ronin's path, this is the story I originally created the character of Ronin for. Which means you will get to see his original version in action (albeit under a new name).
Anyway, that's enough rambling. I hope you enjoyed the first chapter. If you have any feedback, I'd love to hear it either through a review or through a dm, or both :)