A/N: Buckle in, folks! We're getting dramatic tonight. So much regret. So much angst. But don't worry, we'll be back to our regularly scheduled mindless action scenes before you know it!

Star Wars Rebels: The Boy From Lothal

Chapter Four

Those Who Waited

By RocketTortoise

"We long to experience the grandest of lives and places. The measure of their magnificence is how small we are within them."

- Matt Louis McCullough, Magnificent Mansions

Kaeden can see the shuttle coming from a mile away. Even when it is only a tiny dot on the horizon in the night sky, the trail of smoke being left behind makes the ship hard to miss.

Kaeden stands at the bottom of the entrance ramp to their own ship. A stretcher hovers beside her, shaking as if it is trembling to jump into action. JB-13 whirrs nervously on her other side, fidgeting from side to side as the shuttle approaches from the distance.

By now, the ship is close enough where Kaeden can hear it, the churn of its engines and the creaking of the hull.

Kaeden shudders when she sees the Imperial Grey of the shuttle's paint job. Even all these years later and the Empire defeated, there is still something about seeing Imperial symbols like this shuttle that makes her feel like a teenager watching the fields of Raada burn all over again. But Kaeden forces her mind to stay in the present. She has a job to do.

The shuttle slows to a hover rather abruptly, a piece of metal flying off its hull and clanging against the cockpit of their ship. Kaeden can hear a sharp 'Oi!' coming from Miara inside. As the shuttle brings itself to the ground and settles, Kaeden pushes the stretcher forward towards the rear of the shuttle.

The rear doors lower and Ahsoka Tano emerges, carrying the limp body of Sabine Wren in her arms. Kaeden locks eyes with Ahsoka and gestures towards the stretcher. "Lay her down. Gently."

Ahsoka nods and complies, placing Sabine softly on the stretcher. The stretcher dips slightly with the added weight, but it keeps well off the ground and stays perfectly level.

Kaeden pulls a handheld scanner from her belt and activates it, a series of blue lights on the device sparking to life. She holds the scanner out over Sabine's torso and begins scanning. A soft blue light is projected onto Sabine as it analyzes her. Thankfully, the scanner can see through the Mandalorian's beskar armour and in a moment, information is transmitted directly into Kaeden's glasses and is displayed on her heads-up display.

"We've got severe fractures in both her left humerus and her left radius," Kaeden reports. She nudges and stretcher and it begins drifting towards the ship, Ahsoka following close behind. "Her right shoulder is partially dislocated but her left shoulder is completely dislocated. I'm seeing chipping on the left side of her pelvic bone and both her patella have suffered significant damage." Kaeden holds the scanner over Sabine's head. "She may have a concussion as well. I'm not seeing any damage to her internal organs and her vitals look stable so I think we can rule out the worst case scenario."

Kaeden turns towards Ahsoka. "What happened out there? How did she end up like this?"

Ahsoka exhales, "I'm not sure. We were attacked by three fighters and Sabine left the ship to engage them. We were separated when she got those injuries."

Kaeden looks at Ahsoka with slight confusion on her face. "Then how did you pick her up? She should have been barely able to move with these injuries."

"She kept fighting until the last fighter was destroyed. She collapsed just as she got back to the ship."

Kaeden pauses for a moment as they reach the bottom of the ramp. The moment passes quickly though as her attention returns to the task at hand. "Let's get her in the bacta pod." She readjusts the stretcher onto the ramp and sends it forward.

They take Sabine into the medical bay on the ship. The space is narrow and dull but it is completely sanitary. Every morning, Kaeden tirelessly disinfects the med bay to have it always up to her standards in case of emergency. Screens and medical devices line the walls, blinking to life as Kaeden and her patient enter.

Kaeden can hear Ahsoka talking to Miara just outside the medical bay. "Take JB-13 and sweep the shuttle for trackers before looking through the engine." Ahsoka orders. "We don't need any surprises while we have our tails between our legs."

"Yes, Captain." Miara replies before slipping outside. Kaeden can just hear her call, "You're with me, Jaybee, " to the little astromech droid before she races out of hearing range.

"Ahsoka," Kaeden calls. "We need to get Sabine out of her armour. You know the drill."

"Yes, ma'am." Ahsoka replies as she steps into the medical bay, a hint of mockery in her tone. She outstretches both of her arms and gently lifts Sabine off of the stretcher using the Force.

As Ahsoka holds her there, Kaeden quickly works on removing Sabine's armour. First removing Sabine's helmet, Kaeden makes her way through the numerous latches and straps that holds Sabine's beskar armour together. Whoever designed the Mandalorian's armour clearly did not put a high emphasis on speedy removals. Mandalorians' armour is equivalent to their identities, to their lives. Warfare isn't just a way of life for the Mandalorians, it is their religion. Kaeden knows that for Mandalorians, removing one's armour is a heavy decision no matter the scenario because it means leaving one vulnerable to attack so removing one's armour should be just as difficult as making the decision to remove it. But druk, did that make removing Sabine's armour difficult for the very non-Mandalorian medical officer.

Finally, the last piece of armour is off, leaving Sabine in her black bodysuit that she wears underneath her armour. Kaeden drops Sabine's chest plate into a crate and beckons Ahsoka to let her down. Ahsoka slowly lowers her arms, placing Sabine back onto the stretcher as gently as she had lifted her. Ahsoka tries to sneakily wipe a bead of sweat off her brow which Kaeden pretends not to notice.

Kaeden presses a series of buttons on the medical bay terminal and the ship begins to rumble. The wall beside the terminal opens up, revealing an open bacta pod which slowly slides out into the medical bay. Kaeden pulls a series of straps across Sabine's torso and limbs, fixing Sabine into place on the levitating stretcher.

Kaeden hits a button on the stretcher and it begins to move, sliding to a marked position in front of the bacta tank. It pauses for a few seconds before the repulsors activate. The stretcher turns vertical and drifts within the bacta pods open glass panels. It connects itself with the back of the pod, the straps holding Sabine up off the floor.

Kaeden steps up to Sabine and grabs a breather from above the pod. She places it over Sabine's nose and mouth and steps away. She presses a few buttons on the terminal and the glass panels shut. The bacta fluid begins pouring into the pod, slowly filling it up around Sabine. When the pod is completely filled, the straps detach and Sabine is let go. However, rather than sinking or floating to the top, Sabine just hovers motionless, like she is floating in space. It looks peaceful.

Kaeden turns to a monitor displaying Sabine's vital signs. In the corner of her eye, she can see Ahsoka leaning against the door frame, staring intently at Sabine in the bacta pod.

"Everything looks stable," Kaeden states. She can see the Togrutan's shoulders relax but Ahsoka's gaze on the bacta pod is unwavering. "She should wake up in a few hours, but we should keep her in the bacta for at least a couple of days."

"She won't like that." Ahsoka remarks.

Kaeden sighs, "She never does."

Kaeden leans back against the ships wall and crosses her arms. She takes a long look at the unconscious Mandalorian, who twitches as the bacta fluid gets to work repairing her body. She can feel the frown grow on her face. "You're worried because you know something is going on with her, right?"

Ahsoka sighs and slowly pulls her gaze off of Sabine. "What do you mean?"

Kaeden meets her gaze, "We've been all together for over a year now. Four hundred and thirty-two days, to be specific. Do you know how many times I've had to tend to Sabine in this medical bay, patching blaster wounds and broken bones? Twenty-two times." Kaeden picks up her datapad which holds Sabine's medical records. "Nine blaster shots to non-critical areas. Two more to the body with one of them being perilously close to being fatal."

Kaeden swipes her finger along the screen, scrolling down. "Stab wound to the thigh, a broken femur, two fractured collarbones, two spinal contusions, a fractured skull and two, well, now three concussions." Kaeden lays the datapad back onto a table. "And don't forget the third-degree burns on her right shoulder that still haven't healed completely."

Ahsoka winces, probably thinking back to the rhydonium explosion six months ago that had left Sabine in the bacta pod for almost a week. Sabine had caught the edge of the explosion but still suffered burns all across the backside of her body, anywhere that wasn't covered by her beskar armour. While most of the burns healed with time and bacta, her right shoulder never fully recovered.

Kaeden's eyes drop and she sighs. "Look, you've known her longer than I have but even I can tell something is going on with her. I know how capable she is but if she keeps sustaining injuries at this rate, there are going to be severe consequences."

Kaeden can see Ahsoka eyes drift back to the bacta pod. "Bacta fluid isn't some miracle drug that can be abused over and over again with this regularity. Eventually, her body just isn't going to react to the bacta fluid and recovery times will increase exponentially. Her bones are already becoming more brittle from the repeated recovery acceleration." Kaeden walks up to the bacta tank and presses her hand against the glass. "If she doesn't take better care of herself, forget fighting. She'll be lucky if she is able to walk when she reaches her thirties."

Ahsoka's face darkens but she doesn't say anything. Kaeden tries to make eye contact with the Togrutan but she looks to be somewhere else, deep in thought. "Sabine was close with Bridger, right?" Kaeden asks.

Ahsoka's eyes focus, and she nods, "Extremely so. At least, from what I've heard." Perhaps seeing confusion of Kaeden's face, Ahsoka elaborates. "They weren't particularly close the last time I saw the two of them together. But then I missed those two years when I was pulled forward in time by Ezra during my fight with Vader on Malachor."

"Oh right, of course." Kaeden breathed, realization flooding her. Ahsoka had given her the rundown on those few years before the Civil War but now the puzzle pieces fit together.

"The next time I saw Sabine, Ezra was gone, and it would be another five years before I saw her again on Lothal." Ahsoka crosses her arms and frowns. "To be honest, I can't really claim to know her much better than you do. She doesn't exactly open herself up to me." She looks at Sabine. "But I can sense some of what she is feeling. Fear, guilt... self-loathing."

Kaeden turns towards the bacta pod and stares at the girl inside. She hesitates for a moment before saying, "We've been together for over a year but we still don't really know each other at all, do we?"

There is a long pause before Ahsoka mutters, "Yeah."

Kaeden can hear Ahsoka turn and walk away, her heavy boots thumping against the ship's metal floor. Kaeden turns her head back in Ahsoka's direction but she has already stepped out of the ship and disappeared.

Kaeden sighs and presses her forehead against the bacta pod. The glass is warm from the bacta fluid but it does nothing to bring up her mood.

Kaeden had only been a teenager when she first met Ahsoka on the moon of Raada. Back then, Kaeden was a farmer, orphaned and working the fields from the age of fourteen to make sure that she and Miara had food on the table and beds to sleep in.

Kaeden had taken to Ahsoka almost immediately. She was beautiful, strong and intelligent, everything that Kaeden had aspired herself to be, and she had an air of mystery and worldliness to her, like she had so many stories to tell if Kaeden could only convince her to tell them. Kaeden had quickly found Ahsoka constantly creeping to the forefront of her thoughts as she worked the fields, and found that she was all she could think about when she lay in bed, trying to gfet to sleep. But those innocent days didn't last for long.

Because, outside of Kaeden's knowledge at the time, Ahsoka was a Jedi, or a former Jedi, living in hiding from the Empire. And with the arrival of a Jedi, the Empire and their Inquisitors inevitably followed. Ahsoka left the moon to lure the Empire away but the Inquisitor was more ruthless than perhaps Ahsoka had realized. Raada burned, the fields destroyed and the people either dead or forced from their homes, but just when all seemed lost, Ahsoka returned, when she could have easily just left them to their fates and find a new moon to hide on. Unarmed, she defeated the Inquisitor and helped the people escape from the Empire's clutches.

Ahsoka was magnificent in Kaeden's eyes. Only a few years older than herself but Ahsoka was her hero, her everything.

But when the Rebellion came calling, offering weapons and pilot training, Kaeden couldn't accept. The burning of Raada had left her with scars that she couldn't overcome. She had watched the Inquisitor slaughter so many of the people she had cared about. She had been tortured, twice. The thought of entering another battlefield made her legs tremble and her head spiral. As much as it made her feel ashamed at the time, she just couldn't.

So, she received medical training and served aboard the Rebel Frigate Treygon III throughout more or less the entirety of the Rebellion's effort against the Empire. Back then, the Rebellion was nothing more than Senator Bail Organa and a few ships. Kaeden watched from the sidelines as the Rebellion grew from an unrealistic fantasy to a very real force that could overthrow the Empire.

But Kaeden wasn't ashamed of the work she did for the Rebellion. She saved a lot of lives on the operating table, especially once the Galactic Civil War began. She eventually rose to one of the Senior Medical Officers and was on the Treygon III at the Battle of Endor. She watched as the second Death Star was destroyed, taking the Emperor with it. She did her job, and she is still proud of how far she had come from farming in the fields on Raada.

But every once in a while, as she slept in her bunk on the Treygon, she would dream of travelling the stars, going where she wanted, not just following wherever the medical frigate was needed next.

She dreamed of visiting uncharted planets, exploring untouched worlds and seeing things that no one had seen before.

She dreamed of watching supernovas explode, a star that had burned for billions of years detonate into a wild eruption of heat and energy that she could sit and watch while sipping on a cold beverage.

She dreamed of her Jedi protector, standing by her side with lightsabers in hand, as they go on adventures across the galaxy, going wherever the wind takes them.

But then she would wake up and remember everything that she had to do when morning came. There was no space for a teenage crush in her very adult life.

And that was how twenty-two years passed. Kaeden didn't see Ahsoka once during those twenty-two years. There were times when Kaeden heard that a Togrutan Jedi had arrived at the Rebellion fleet for a few days, but Kaeden never went to see her, telling herself that they were both busy and she should focus on her duties for the Rebellion. She had important things to do.

And it wasn't like Ahsoka ever sought her out either.

Kaeden sighs and steps away from the bacta tank. She takes one last glance at the monitor to check Sabine's vitals. Everything still looks normal, so Kaeden starts walking towards the door. If anything happens that requires Kaeden's attention, she will be paged through the HUD in her glasses so she is free to leave the medical bay and walk around.

Kaeden exits the medical bay and enters the cockpit. With Miara busy with their newly acquired shuttle, the cockpit is currently empty. Kaeden takes a seat in the pilot's chair and swivels around. Even while the ship is offline, several buttons on the dashboard still flash with light and many of the sensor screens are still active.

Kaeden leans back in the chair and stares out the front window. In front of her, the planet's rough dirt disappears, falling by the wayside into a bottomless abyss. The night sky seems to expand, swallowing everything up and filling Kaeden's view with countless stars that sparkle through space.

Kaeden can almost feel her hands on the wheel, the ship shaking as she flies it through a swarm of TIE fighters. Kaeden banks and rolls to keep the ship from being eviscerated by one of the many green lasers that fly by much too close for comfort. She can hear Ahsoka in her ear, calling out every time she takes out a TIE fighter on the guns. Kaeden can feel her blood boil and the adrenaline well up inside her.

But then Kaeden opens her eyes. The ground is still there. Ahsoka is still outside, looking through the shuttle with Miara and JB-13. And Kaeden still has no idea how to fly this ship. No idea what any of the buttons and levers are supposed to do.

And no idea what she is even doing all the way out here.

Ahsoka steps out of the ship and immediately is overwhelmed by a coarse chill swept in with night winds. Ahsoka is used to adapting to temperatures from all the years traveling from planet to planet with her Master but there is something about tonight's cold air that rattles her to the bone.

Ahsoka closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. When her eyes open, she forces all of her negative thoughts to the back of her mind and begins walking down the entrance ramp.

She walks over to the stolen shuttle where Miara is picking her way through the shuttle's undercarriage. Ahsoka can feel the lingering heat radiating from the shuttle's engine. The heat has been seemingly enough to keep Miara warm without any extra layers of clothing, even though it had been some time since the shuttle had landed. Ahsoka can feel a twinge of jealousy as she shivers from the cold night air.

"How are we looking?" Ahsoka asks, resting one hand on the side of the shuttle.

Without a pause from her work, Miara replies, "Well, Jaybee didn't find any trackers or anything that could give away our position. I thought that whoever owns this ship might still have one of the old Imperial trackers that are installed in all of these tin cans but it looks like they ripped it out when they redecorated."

"Lucky for us." Ahsoka says. "They put a lot of effort into trying to get this shuttle back so I'm surprised there aren't any sort of trackers."

"I guess they really didn't want anyone knowing where this ship goes."

Ahsoka thinks for a moment, her hand rubbing her chin before calling out, "Hey, Jaybee!"

The droid comes racing down the shuttle's entrance ramp, making a sharp right turn before screeching to a halt in front of Ahsoka. Ahsoka crouches down and places her hands on her knees. "I want to know who exactly we just robbed and what this ship is for, can you splice into the shuttle's computer and see what you can find out?"

The droid stares at Ahsoka for a moment before spinning in a circle with a whirl of beeps. Ahsoka sighs and tilts her head, "Yeah, I know their languages are difficult. Just find what you can and download it. If anything seems interesting, we'll get Kaeden to have a look at it."

JB-13 nods its head and races back into the shuttle. Ahsoka shakes her head at the droids hyperactivity and turns back to Miara. But before she can say anything, Miara interjects.

"You're going to ask about the engine now, yeah?"

Ahsoka places a hand on her hip and sighs, "Well, maybe I just wanted to ask how you were feeling."

Miara slides out from under the shuttle and stares at Ahsoka for a second before continuing on like Ahsoka hadn't said anything. "The engine is still the same Imperial Flex core that it came out of the factory in, but it looks like they've added a fuel converter that makes their own fuel compatible with the Imperial engine."

"Any idea how it works?" Ahsoka asks.

"Not really," Miara replies, "It's hard to tell from down here." Miara turns on a small flashlight and waves it into the ships undercarriage like she is pointing to something even though Ahsoka can't see.

Ahsoka lies down onto her back and shuffles under the shuttle to get a look. Miara spins the flashlight in a little circle to direct Ahsoka's attention. "You can see it in there, attached to the engine's fuel intake."

Ahsoka peers through the jungle of metal to where Miara is pointing. Ahsoka had become a mechanic during those first few years since she left the Jedi Order so she knew her way around a ship and could have found the engine without Miara's help but the light does help Ahsoka find the fuel converter immediately.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Miara opines. "So small and functional." Ahsoka can't help but agree. The converter is much smaller than what Ahsoka had assumed it would be. It was so small that whoever fitted it could attach it to the engine without having to significantly redesign the rest of the undercarriage to make it fit. Part of the fuel line appears have been cut to connect to the converter, but the converter itself fit perfectly with the rest of the equipment, like it had always meant to be there.

"Do you think we could use this converter ourselves?" Ahsoka asks.

Miara thinks for a second before answering, "I don't know. I would have to pull it out and figure out how it works before I can give you a definitive answer on that."

Ahsoka pulls herself out from under the shuttle and dusts herself off, "Then you better get on it. Pull the converter and scrap the shuttle for any parts that may be useful. I want to get out of here at first light before we run into any unsavoury types looking for the shuttle."

"So much for my beauty sleep," Miara groans before sliding back under the shuttle to get to work on taking apart the shuttle's engine.

Ahsoka is about to head back to the ship when she hears JB-13's whirls and beeps coming from the shuttle, calling for Ahsoka to come see something. Ahsoka jogs up the ramp and into the shuttle, where JB-13 is plugged into the shuttle's astromech terminal in the cockpit.

"What's going on, Jaybee?" Ahsoka asks.

The droid whirls, its tone frantic and its head unit fidgeting nervously.

"What kind of data can get you this worked up? I'll call Kaeden to bring the translator." But before Ahsoka can raise Kaeden on her comm link, the droid beeps at Ahsoka even more frantically.

"Okay, okay! Calm down." Ahsoka says. "If it's that urgent, show it to me."

JB-13 turns its head unit towards Ahsoka and a holo-projection begins displaying. In a moment, Ahsoka can feel her breath catching in her throat and her eyes widening. Without thinking, Ahsoka raises her wrist in front of her mouth and barks into her comm link, "Kaeden, I need you in the shuttle right now! Bring the translator."

If Kaeden replies, Ahsoka does not hear it because her attention is completely fixed on JB-13's holo-projection.

When Ahsoka and her crew arrived in the Unknown Regions three months ago, one of their first priorities was to decipher the languages that are spoken by the Unknown Regions inhabitants. Without any understanding of what is being said or written around them, finding Ezra Bridger would be like they were stumbling around in the dark.

Anticipating this, when Kaeden joined the crew, she brought an advanced translation tool that she used to communicate with patients that she did not understand. The translator, incorporated into her glasses, is capable of translating speech in real time and displaying it for her to understand. It also can translate her words into alien language and display it for her to speak. However, with completely unknown languages needing to be translated, it has been taking quite some time for the translator to decipher the native languages of the Unknown Regions.

Fortunately, most of the inhabited planets that they had visited used one common language along with their native languages, like how the rest of the galaxy uses Basic as the universal language for communication.

And one of the first things Ahsoka had Kaeden do when they first encountered these new languages was to figure out what particular keywords may look like. Words with importance to their mission and were unlikely to just be thrown about in trivial situations. Words that the crew would each memorize in case they come across them while eavesdropping or while trawling through data like this.

Ahsoka can hear Kaeden running up the ramp into the shuttle and turns to look at her. "Ahsoka," Kaeden starts, "I brought the translator like you asked. What's goi—" Her voice trails off as she looks at JB-13's holo-projection and realizes what is being displayed.

Ahsoka turns back to the projection and stares at the data once more, double- and triple-checking that her eyes aren't playing tricks on her. But Kaeden's reaction is all she needs to know she isn't mistaken, that they were looking at the one word they had been eluding them for months. The one word that had been so far out of their grasps that Ahsoka was sure that each of the crew, in their most private of moments, had quietly doubted they would ever find.

Bridger.

A/N: I've been trying to come up with a name for Ahsoka and the crew's ship but I've been completely blanking. If anyone has any ideas for ship names, feel free to leave a comment with a review or PM it to me! I've been thinking it would be nice if Ahsoka named the ship after something special to her, like naming it after Anakin somehow or something else from her past but I've been struggling for the past three chapters lol. I can't keep calling it 'the ship' forever!