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calebdumes · 3 years

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gather ye rosebuds - chapter nine

fandom: star wars rebels

relationship: kanan jarrus/hera syndulla

word count: 6k

rating: T

summary: Now that Kanan's secret is known, Sabine is pissed and Hera has to confront some difficult feelings as they rush to stop Runa Tane before it's too late.

author’s note: happy rosebuds day (and Halloween)! I hope you don't find this update to be too spooky! thank you to all who have read and left comments/kudos/likes/reblogs/bookmarks! I hope you are liking it so far!

as always a HUGE thank you to my amazing beta and ghoulishly wonderful friend, @eleni-syndulla! I cannot thank you enough!

any and all likes, reblogs, and comments are greatly appreciated and don’t forget to…

Read on AO3

|| CHAPTER ONE || CHAPTER TWO || CHAPTER THREE || CHAPTER FOUR || CHAPTER FIVE || CHAPTER SIX || CHAPTER SEVEN || CHAPTER EIGHT || CHAPTER NINE || CHAPTER TEN || CHAPTER 11 || EPILOGUE

Ice crunched under Sabine’s boots as she stomped the perimeter around Runa Tane’s base. It was cold this far north, but she could barely feel it. Between the thick padding of her armour and the anger boiling in her veins, there wasn’t much she could feel.

Kanan had lied to her.

He was a Jedi and he had lied.

Sabine bit back a scream of frustration. They had been partners for two years and not once did he let her in on that little secret. Not once. Being a kriffing Jedi wasn’t something you just kept to yourself, at least not from your partner. She deserved to know, she had a right to know.

But no, Kanan had kept her in the dark and lied.

The sound of crunching ice stopped Sabine in her tracks, her hands falling to her blasters as she spun around. Zeb stood a few feet away, his giant paws in the air.

“You’re not gonna shoot me, are you?” he asked in his gruff voice.

“Depends,” Sabine responded, losing her grip on her blasters. “Are you going to tell me you're a Jedi too?”

“I wasn’t plannin’ on it,” Zeb said, letting his hands drop. “But even if I was, not really somethin’ worth getting shot over.”

Sabnie rolled her eyes under the cover of her helmet. “What are you doing out here?”

“Hera sent me to come check on you.”

“I don’t need looking after,” Sabine snapped, trying and failing to ignore the sharp sting that came with his words. Hera had sent him. Not Kanan. Hera.

“Not sayin’ I disagree, but you did storm out of there in a fit of rage. So you can’t blame us for being worried.”

Sabine folded her arms across her chest protectively. “Why do you care? I’m not part of your crew.”

“Doesn’t change anything,” he said, resting his hands on his hips and turning his attention to the aurora dancing on the horizon. Sabine had been so distracted by her hurt that she hadn’t noticed the hues of gold and purple flickering in a mesmerizing pattern against the black of night. She bit down on her lip as a painful realization gripped her. She could count on one hand the number of people in the galaxy that genuinely cared about her. Really, she didn’t even need all five fingers.

People just didn’t care about her, not in the long run. They only kept her around long enough to use her skills and then she was pushed aside, left to fend for herself. That was how it went at the Academy and again with Ketsu. Things had been different with Kanan. He'd seen more than just her abilities; he had seen the person she was underneath her armor. He had trusted her, cared about her – or at least she thought he did. Now, she wasn’t so sure.

She just didn’t understand why. Why didn’t he tell her he was a Jedi? It wasn’t like she would have sold him out to the Empire or even made a big deal over it. They had always had an unspoken agreement that they would never ask about each other's past, but being a Jedi? That was a hell of a thing to keep in the dark.

“He should have told me,” Sabine blurted out, grateful for the mask that covered her face, hiding the tears that had begun to sting her eyes.

“Who?” Zeb asked, looking away from the glimmering night sky.

“Kanan!” she said, her voice tight with emotion. “We’re partners! He should have told me he was a Jedi!”

Zeb gazed at her with an unreadable expression, his fingers stroking at the tuft of purple fur that hung from his chin. Sabine shifted on her feet, uncomfortable with his sudden attention. She shouldn’t have said anything. She should have just kept it all to herself. Zeb would see that she was fine and he’d go back to his crew and she could have her breakdown without any witnesses.

“You might be too young to remember the day the Empire came into power but I’m not.” he said in a low voice, his large green eyes still watching her carefully. “I remember readin’ the stories on the Holonet, sayin’ that the Jedi were traitors, and I remember what happened to them after.”

A shiver raced down Sabine’s spine at his tone. “What happened?” she asked, even though she already knew the answer. Everyone knew what happened to the Jedi – the Empire wiped them out of existence. Even still, there was a shadow in Zeb’s eyes that told her she didn’t know the whole story.

“They were murdered,” he said bluntly. “Their deaths broadcasted around the galaxy like some kind of sport. They did the same to anyone tryin’ to hide them too. No one in their right mind would claim to be a Jedi after that.”

A beat of surprise washed over her at his words but it didn’t last. Her anger had returned with a vengeance.

"So what, I'm just supposed to accept that he's a Jedi and move on? I'm supposed to just forgive him for lying to me?" She ripped off her helmet, the cold sting of the night air not even registering on her heated cheeks.

Zeb continued to stare at her with that unreadable expression. “There’s a difference between not tellin’ and lying.”

Sabine scoffed. “Is there? Because it sure doesn’t feel that way to me.”

“Have you told him everything about your past?” Zeb questioned, catching her off-guard.

She blinked at him, feeling a long forgotten fear start to seep into her blood. Of course she hadn’t told Kanan about her past. The second he found out that she used to be an Imperial cadet, he would kick her out the door. And if he ever found out what she had done there… The chill that ran down her spine had nothing to do with the cold.

“That’s what I thought,” he said when she didn’t answer. “He was just tryin’ to keep you safe. It’s what I would have done.” He clapped her on the shoulder, shaking her whole frame. “I know it hurts, but you gotta see where he’s comin’ from.”

Sabine resisted the urge to shake the Lasat off, but as much as she hated to admit it, Zeb had a point. It wasn’t exactly fair for her to demand Kanan tell her everything about his past when she wasn’t willing to do the same. It didn’t mean that it didn’t hurt – it hurt a lot, and she was still mad that he never told her – but she could begrudgingly see why.

“You know, you’re pretty insightful for a rebel,” she said eventually, turning around to face the base.

Zeb chuckled. “I’m just old.” He didn’t say anything about her obvious change in subject, he just crossed his arms and let his eyes roam over the domed top of the buildings.

From the mouth of the cave came the faint sound of crumbling rocks, the ground shaking minutely under her feet. There was no puff of black smoke or familiar taste of fire that followed the sound, so whatever had caused it wasn’t from any explosive device. Kanan must have come up with another way to keep the Empire away from the crystals Tane had been experimenting on.

It was probably some Jedi way. She didn’t know much about them, other than the Empire wiping them out of existence. Her people had their own myths and legends surrounding the Jedi and like most Mandalorian tales, it involved war. They were said to have powers, like the ability to move things with their minds, and fought with laser swords. The longer she thought about it, the more Kanan being a Jedi made sense. He was always a little bit weird, and he got those feelings from time to time. If her people’s stories had any truth to them, Kanan seemed to fit the description pretty perfectly.

“You still want to shoot him?” Zeb asked her after a moment.

“Maybe not shoot him,” she admitted. “But I’m still pissed at him.”

Zeb snorted softly with amusement. “Don’t think you’re the only one.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “Hera didn’t seem too pleased with him either.”

“Kanan said they worked a job a long time ago. He said it didn’t end well.”

“I can believe that.”

Sabine drummed her fingers on the top of her helmet, biting her lip in thought. “Do you think Hera knew?”

“What, that Kanan is a Jedi?” Zeb asked.

“Yeah.” She nodded.

Zeb seemed to ponder the question for a while, stroking at the long tuft of hair that hung from his chin. “It’s hard to say,” he said eventually. “But I wouldn’t be surprised. If anyone could figure out that your partner is a Jedi, it’d be her.”

“A Jedi, you say?” an unfamiliar male voice said from behind them. “Well now, that is interesting news.”

Sabine and Zeb spun around to face the source of the voice, her helmet crashing to her feet. She reached for her blasters as she turned but she wasn’t fast enough. The figure, hidden in the shadows of the night, fired two quick stun blasts that hit Zeb square on the chest. He fell to the ground in a tangle of limbs, unmoving.

Sabine’s heart rate spiked, fear shooting through her body. She started to pull her blasters free from their holsters when the man turned his weapon on her.

“Move, and my next shot won’t be set to stun.”

Sabine froze. The man took a step closer, the distant lights from the base illuminating his face. He was a young man, maybe a few years older than Kanan at the least, with thin blonde hair and blue eyes that were rimmed red. His face was gaunt, the waxy skin pulled tight over the sharp edge of his cheekbones and the dark circles under his eyes made them look sunken and small. He wore the uniform of an Imperial scientist but the dark grey fabric was wrinkled and his rank plaques were askew, giving him a slightly frenzied look.

“You must be Runa Tane,” she said, watching the man carefully. He was obviously quick on the trigger and light-footed to have snuck up on her; however, Sabine was fairly certain she could take him. She was a Mandalorian, after all.

Be smart about this, Sabine, she heard Kanan’s voice echo in her mind. A swift kick to his wrist followed with a jab to his stomach and punch to the head would effectively disarm the Imperial Science officer and render him useless. But then she remembered what Dhara had said. Tane was unstable. Sabine had no idea what that crystal could have done to him and with Zeb unconscious, she didn’t want to do anything that would put him in more danger.

“And you must be one of the rebels who broke into the Imperial Complex,” Tane responded with a nasally Coruscanti accent. The sound of it made the little hairs on the back of Sabine’s neck stand on end. It wasn’t like the accent most Imperials adopted when they entered the service; there was something off in his tone, something...sinister.

“Place your blasters on the ground and kick them over to me,” he ordered.

She did as she was instructed, using the time to scan Zeb's crumpled form. Some of his purple fur had started to turn red from a cut on his temple, but his chest was moving evenly with his steady breaths. Tane took another step forward to collect her weapons, keeping his eyes and blaster pointed at her the whole time. Her limbs itched for action, to take Tane down before he could hurt anyone else, but she resisted.

Get your facts, then make your move, Kanan’s voice whispered again. Act without knowing and you’ll only create more problems for yourself. Sabine ground her back teeth together. Kanan had said those words to her the first time she took a job by herself. He hadn’t tried to convince her to take him along or even tried to talk her out of it. Instead, he had just given her the activation codes to the Escape, a handful of credits, and that little bit of advice.

Because he had trusted in her and her abilities.

Kanan had always trusted her.

“Whatever you think you are going to accomplish here,” Sabine said as Tane tucked her blasters into the back of his belt, “you’re not going to get away with it. We’ll stop you.”

Tane smiled at her, his lips pulling strangely against his face, thin and menacing.

“Oh, I doubt that,” he said. “Now, take me to the Jedi.”

“I don’t know about this, Hera,” Ezra said softly, leaning into Hera’s side. Hera kept her eyes on Kanan, watching as he retrieved the pieces of his lightsaber from the table. His fingers hovered over the hilt before it rose a few inches off of the table into his waiting palm. A chill ran down Hera’s spine at the sight. She had seen him use the Force when they had first met, but the shock of not dying had muted the experience from her memory. Seeing it now made her heart flip in her chest and excitement race across her skin.

She had been a little girl when the Jedi came to Ryloth during the Separatists occupation . Like most of her people, she had spent the long months hiding deep in the caves as the battle droids infested their lands. Hunger and terror clouded most of her memories of that time, but she remembered the Jedi who had come to save them.

He had been tall, dark skinned, bald, and carried himself with an air of confidence that, to a small child, had been slightly intimidating. But he had been kind and he had cared about what was happening to her home world. What Hera remembered the most about the Jedi was the power that seemed to flow from him in unending droves.

Hera could see that same power now, reflected in Kanan. Maybe it had always been there and she had just been too blind to see it, or maybe he had been too good at hiding that side of himself, but now it was evident in every line of his body. It was impossible to look at him and not see anything other than a Jedi

“Are you sure we can trust him?” Ezra asked her, pulling her from her thoughts.

Hera tore her eyes away from Kanan to place a comforting arm around the teen’s shoulder. She could tell that Ezra was still reeling from his newly discovered Force sensitivity. Hera was too, a tight pinch of worry forming in her gut. He was just a boy, already dealing with more heartache and trauma than he deserved. He didn’t need anything else to deal with, even if it was the gift of the Force. But at the same time, she wasn’t all that surprised, because there had always been something special about Ezra.

He had always been quick on his feet and a little bit luckier than most. In many ways, he had reminded her of Kanan, the way he had moved as if there was more power in his body that he could contain, though she had tried not to dwell on that thought. There was a part of her that had always known Ezra was extraordinary and now that it was confirmed, it just made sense.

“You’ll be fine,” she told him, giving him a gentle squeeze. Ezra had a resilient spirit; she knew that in time, he’d come to accept this part of him. As for trusting Kanan, that might take longer. For everyone. From the look on Ezra’s face, it seemed he was thinking the same as well. She gave him another squeeze before letting him go.

Kanan had twisted the pieces of his lightsaber together to form one cohesive hilt and had it clipped to his belt. His strange teal eyes danced between her and Ezra, shadowed by the bruises on his skin. There was still dried blood on the sides of his face and his hair was disheveled and damp with sweat, but there was a determined set to his shoulders that hadn’t been there before.

“We won’t be long,” he said, his voice still rough around the edges. Hera nodded in acknowledgement and watched them leave. She closed her eyes as the lab door slid shut and rubbed her temples. Thousands of contradicting thoughts swirled in her mind, all screaming for her attention, each one of them leading back to one person: Kanan.

The fear she had felt when Kanan had collapsed outside of the lab shook something deep within her. It burned through whatever anger she still harbored for him, leaving nothing behind but the cold, empty feeling of terror. And when he woke, bleeding and in pain but alive, Hera could have wept in relief. She had wanted nothing more than to wrap her arms around him and feel his pulse against her skin.

Don’t tell me you were worried about me.

Hera was worried about him. Despite everything, she was terrified for him.

That fear was at war with her anger, and her anger was slowly falling victim to the love that she still felt. All of it was mixed up inside, a jumbled, confusing mess of emotions that demanded to be felt no matter how much pain it caused. She wanted to scream at him, she wanted him to leave, she wanted him to stay, she wanted to grab him by the mouth and feel his skin on hers. Goddess, she wanted, more than anything, she wanted. But she shouldn’t.

He had left her, he had cut her to the bone. Used her, lied to her, and treated what they had like it was nothing. He was cruel and callous and selfish. But he was kind and caring and selfless. He was the bane of her existence and the love of her life. Kanan was nothing and everything to her.

Hera wanted to collapse under the weight of it all but she couldn’t, not when the lives of her crew were on the line.

“Excuse me?” Dhara’s timid voice cut through Hera’s thoughts like a knife. She blinked open her eyes and turned to face the science officer. “Are you okay?” she asked.

Hera offered her a weak smile. “I’ll be fine,” she replied. “Do you need any help reworking the data?”

“I don’t think so.” Dhara walked over to the large computer terminal in the back of the lab. “It shouldn’t take me too long to make the changes.” She paused, her hand hovering over the keyboard with a stricken look on her face. “I’m sorry about what I said – I didn’t mean to expose your friend’s secret.”

Hera sighed. “It’s alright, Dhara. The truth was bound to come out one way or another.” She leaned her hip against the edge of the table, her eyes scanning over the broken fragments of glass. She didn’t see the crystal that Dhara had been experimenting on; Kanan must have taken it with him into the caves. Hera bit back a sigh of disappointment. She would have liked to see the crystal that was the cause of her latest set of problems.

It was hard to believe that a rock had been the cause of Kanan’s pain, but when it came to the Jedi she was aware that she was woefully undereducated. All that she knew came from her experience on Ryloth and through stories passed down from her father. Everything else had been burned away by the Empire.

“Did you already know?” Dhara asked as she began to work.

Hera thought back to that night on the Forager, how Kanan had stopped the catwalk from killing them both, the falling metal hovering inches above his raised hands. He hadn’t said anything then, he had just given her a playful wink before scooting out from underneath the collapsed catwalk.

“I did,” she said distantly, her mind replaying that moment over and over. She wondered, not for the first time, what would have happened if she had never witnessed Kanan’s use of the Force. Maybe things could have ended differently between them. Maybe Kanan would have seen that she wanted him just as he was, not for who he used to be or what he could do. Maybe then he would have never left.

Hera gave her head a little shake. There was no point trying to figure out what Kanan would or wouldn’t do because as soon as she thought she had him figured out, he went and did the opposite.

She thought it was money that had made Kanan agree to Sato’s offer, and once things got complicated he would leave. That was the type of person he had proven himself to be. But when Hera gave him the opportunity to go, he surprised her and stayed. More than that, he actually seemed to care. He was acting more like the man she had fallen in love with on Gorse than the bounty hunter he wanted people to see.

It was confusing and only made the swirling emotions in her mind rage that much harder. Hera glanced out the window into the darkness of night. She didn’t want this. She didn’t want to feel like this. Kanan was part of her past, an ugly, painful memory that she had done her best to move on from and she had. Or at least, she thought she had. Hera rolled her shoulders, trying to push the mass of emotions building in her chest aside. She still had a job to do.

After the mission, once Kanan was gone – again – she would deal with it.

“A Jedi,” Dhara said softly, mostly to herself as her fingers typed away at the keys. “I thought the Empire had killed them all. I wonder how he survived.” She trailed off momentarily. “Do you think he’s telling the truth about...about what I am? About why I could hear the crystal?”

“I doubt he would lie about that,” Hera said, folding her arms across her chest.

“You know, there is a legend here on Lothal,” Dhara began, still facing the computer. “About the Loth-wolves and Jedi – the People. They were considered the guardians of the planet.” She paused. “Your friend, is he – do you know if he–” Dhara asked quietly, struggling to get her words out.

“If he what, Dhara?” Hera responded gently.

“Is he one of the People?” she asked, turning to face Hera, her cheeks flushed with embarrassment.

Hera frowned. She hardly knew anything about the person he was today, let alone his past, and what she did know was slowly unravelling. Hera had no idea what planet he was from or if he had any family that lived. Everything about Kanan Jarrus was starting to become one big confusing question.

“I don’t know, Dhara,” Hera said eventually. “Kanan doesn’t like to talk much about his past.”

“You care about him though, don’t you?” Dhara asked, causing Hera to blink at the pointedness of her words. “I watched you on the cams when you were first brought in.”

Hera’s skin crawled at the thought of some unseeing person, an Imperial, watching her for any period of time without her knowledge. She had been frantic those first few hours, restrained and calling out to Kanan, not knowing if he was alive. If it hadn’t been for the light rise and fall of his chest, she would have believed he was dead.

“Well that’s unsettling,” Hera said a little breathlessly when her voice returned to her.

“I didn’t mean to pry, but I had orders.”

Hera took a measured breath, clenching her fists against her sides. “Kanan is a member of my crew,” she answered, keeping her voice as even as possible. “Of course I care about him.”

“But it’s more than that, right?” Dhara continued on. “You’re clearly in love with him, aren’t you?”

“I’m not in love with him,” Hera snapped. “He is a member of my crew. That’s all.”

“I – I’m sorry.” Dhara stuttered, her deep brown eyes growing wide before she spun back around to face her computer.

Heat blossomed across Hera’s face. Was it so obvious that a stranger could tell how she felt about Kanan? She repressed a sigh, rubbing at her eyes. Her lekku felt heavy, her body tense and worn. She was ready to be done with this job, ready to return to the life that she knew, one that was free from these conflicting emotions.

She glanced over at Dhara who was working diligently at her station, her shoulders tense and back uncomfortably straight. Hera felt a pang of guilt for snapping at her. She couldn’t even begin to imagine the fear Dhara must have felt while working for Tane and the fear she must be feeling now, knowing that she was putting her family at risk for helping them.

“I appreciate you doing this,” Hera said softly. “It takes a lot of courage to stand against the Empire like you are.”

Dhara turned to face her again, her expression hard. “I’m doing this to save my family,” she said. “I’m not a rebel like you.”

“You could be if you wanted,” Hera pointed out cautiously. It was a calculated risk, especially now, when Dhara was facing so much change and uncertainty, but it was one that Hera knew she had to take. If Dhara were to become a spy for the rebellion, she would be a powerful ally in their fight against the Empire.

And if she wasn’t willing to take that risk, if she just wanted to get her family off of Lothal, there were plenty of cells that could use her expertise.

“Right,” Dhara said with a roll of her eyes. “An Imperial joining the ranks of the rebellion. As if that could ever happen.”

“It could and it has,” Hera responded. “The rebellion is made up of people from all walks of life, former Imperials included.”

Dhara arched a brow, unconvinced.

“Tell me something, Dhara,” Hera said. “How did you end up with the Empire?”

“I told you, I went to the Young Imperials Academy.”

“There are plenty of other institutions on Lothal you could have chosen, why go there?”

Dhara looked away, biting her lip. “It was the only one my family could afford after we lost the farm, and the stipend I got for attending was enough to keep my father from working in the factories.”

Hera smiled sadly at her. She had heard this story before, a dozen times over. The Empire forced people off of their lands, leaving them with no other choice than to join their ranks, creating another cog in their endless machine. Dhara’s situtionation wasn’t unique but it was still painful to hear.

“So you joined the Empire to keep your family safe.”

“I would hardly find your rebellion to be sympathetic,” Dhara sneered weakly, her eyes glistening with tears. “I was selfish.”

“You were afraid,” Hera corrected. “You did what you thought was right at the time.”

“And look where it got me.” Dhara gestured around the small lab. “Working for a deranged scientist, and my family is no safer than they were before. I could never be part of the rebellion.”

“People are forced to make hard choices when they are afraid and sometimes, they make the wrong choice. What matters is how you choose to fix those mistakes. You can keep working for the Empire, keep living in fear, or you can fight back and start making amends.”

“What about my family?” A stray tear slipped down Dhara’s face. “I commit treason and join your rebellion, what happens to them?”

“We can keep them safe,” Hera said, walking over to the young woman. “There are places they can go where the Empire won’t be able to find them.”

“And if I don’t join, what will you do?”

Hera wrapped her arms around Dhara, pulling her into a hug. “I won’t leave them – or you – here to suffer. Even if you decide you don’t want to be a rebel, we will keep you safe.”

She let Dhara cry into her shoulder, holding her shaking form tightly in her arms. Hera’s own eyes stung with tears. Fear was a powerful weapon and the Empire could wield it well. Dhara wasn’t the only one who had been slain by it.

Kanan had been too.

The Empire had killed his people and left him in a shattered world plagued by fear. He had let it control him, dictating every decision he had made. It was fear, Hera was starting to realize, that pushed Kanan away from her. He was afraid of getting hurt again, of her getting hurt, because of what he was.

It didn’t make what he did right, not by a long shot, but Hera was starting to see why he did it.

Kanan was afraid.

“I’m sorry,” Dhara said, wiping at her tears and stepping away from Hera. “I didn’t mean to do that.”

Hera swallowed thickly. “There’s no reason to apologize.”

“I don’t know if I’m ready to join the rebellion,” she said sadly.

“You don’t have to decide right now,” Hera said. “Let’s just focus on stopping Tane.”

Dhara nodded, sniffling loudly before turning back to her station.

Hera rolled her shoulders and walked back to the table, feeling drained. She picked up the datapad that Kanan had left on the table and started to scroll through it. The line of aurebesh made no sense. Hera was in no way a scientist but there should have been bits or pieces that she could understand. It was like these notes were written in some kind of code.

“How can Tane understand this?” she asked.

Dhara’s hands stilled on the keyboard, turning her head slightly in Hera’s direction. There was a slight frown on her face.

“I’m not sure,” she replied. “Sometimes, I don’t think he does.”

“You said before that he was transferred from a project on Coruscant. Do you know what project it was?”

“I don't know what the project was called but I do know who he was working for.” Dhara said. Hera's heart leaped in her chest. Names were a valuable commodity to have in their fight against the Empire. If she couldn't get the project name, knowing the people in charge was the next best thing.

“Who?” she breathed.

“A scientist named Galen Erso and a man named Krennic.”

Neither of the names sounded familiar to Hera but she was willing to bet Fulcrum and their endless stream of contacts knew someone who could dig up information on what the two Imperials were doing. Although, if Tane was constructing a weapon based on stolen notes, it was safe to assume that they were too. Just the thought made Hera’s stomach curl in disgust.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know anything more.”

Hera gave Dhara what she hoped was an encouraging smile. “That’s plenty, thank you.”

Dhara nodded and returned to her work. Hera pulled a small data chip out of one of her pockets and inserted it into the datapad, copying the notes for Fulcrum to examine later. A low rumble filled the air, the ground shaking with some sort of impact. Hera’s attention snapped to the lab door but as soon as the sound began, it had stopped.

“Your Jedi friend must have collapsed the cave,” Dhara said with a hint of awe in her tone.

Hera hummed in agreement. She hated to admit it but collapsing the cave would only go so far. Everything they were doing wasn’t going to be enough to stop the Empire from looking deeper into what Tane was doing here. And getting Tane to admit to treason was an even bigger gamble. She knew that Kanan was set on protecting the kyber, but there was a part of Hera that was starting to think that maybe keeping the crystals secret was a lost cause.

It might be better to just blow the base and smuggle Dhara and her family off world, but this was Kanan’s plan and for now, Hera had to trust that he could make it work. If it didn’t, the Ghost had the firepower they would need to turn the base into rubble.

The files had finished downloading just as the doors to the lab slid open. Hera and Dhara both turned, expecting to see Kanan and Ezra standing in the doorway. Instead, there was a man who was holding a blaster to the side of Sabine’s head. Hera reached for her holdout blaster still on the table but froze when Sabine hissed.

The young Mandalorian was bound at the wrist, the holsters on her hips empty but seemingly unharmed. Zeb was nowhere to be found, a spike of fear piercing Hera’s heart at his absence. Sabine shook her head, silently warning her not to move. Against her better judgment, Hera listened.

“Smart move,” the man said, glaring at Hera before his pale blue eyes swept over to where Dhara stood, frozen in place. “Leonis,” he tisked. “I’m disappointed in you. Where is your loyalty?”

“Runa Tane, I presume?” Hera said, stepping between the man and Dhara. Silently, she cursed Chopper who was supposed to be monitoring incoming ships. He should have warned them of Tane’s approach. Unless Tane had somehow gotten to him too. Hera bit back another wave of fear.

“Indeed I am.” His mouth curled in an eerie smile. “No need to tell me who you are. Your young friend here has told me enough, rebel.”

“I don’t know what she’s told you but we’re not rebels. Our ship ran out of fuel–”

“Quiet!” yelled Tane. “I’m not some weak minded fool! I know exactly who you are and what you plan to do.”

“Then you know that we won’t let you get away with it.” Hera spat back.

“Yes, your friend seems to think the same, but as you can see, you are outnumbered.”

There was a click of a blaster’s safety from behind her. Hera spun on her heel to see Dhara pointing a blaster she didn’t know she had directly at Hera’s head.

“I’m sorry,” she said in a shaky voice. “But I have to protect my family.”

Hera bit back a curse and slowly raised her hands. “Dhara, remember what I said,” Hera said softly. “You have a choice here. Make the right one.”

“I believe she has,” Tane chuckled, malice dripping from every word. “Where is the Jedi?”

Hera’s blood turned to ice in her veins. “What Jedi?” she asked, looking over her shoulder at the Imperial.

“Don’t play dumb with me, tailhead,” Tane hissed, pressing the blaster end into Sabine’s head. “I know there is one here, now where is he?”

“Gone.” Hera turned around, aware that Dhara still had her weapon pointed at her. “He left.”

Tane stepped into the lab, pushing Sabine forward. “I don’t believe you.”

“He’s not here, I swear,” Hera said again, feeling her heart beat against her rib cage. Tane’s eyes flashed over Hera’s shoulder to Dhara. A pit of dread formed in her stomach.

“Is she telling the truth, Leonis?”

“He’s in the cave.”

Tane’s smile grew wider. “That wasn’t so hard, now, was it?”

Without warning, he depressed the trigger on his baster. Hera screamed as Sabine collapsed to the floor, stunned. Tane turned his blaster on Hera, halting her movement as she tried to reach Sabine. With his free hand, he pointed to the comlink on her wrist.

“Call him,” he demanded.

“You won’t win,” Hera told him. “We will beat you.”

Tane reached out, grabbing hold of her lekku and pulled hard. A spike of pain raced through her, causing her to cry out. Desperately she clawed at Tane’s hand but he didn’t release his grip. Instead, he pulled her forward, lowering his mouth so it was next to her ear cone, his breath was hot against her cheek.

“Bring me the Jedi.”

#kanera #kanan jarrus #hera syndulla #star wars rebels #star wars fanfic #rebels fanfic #swr fanfic #star wars #pretchatta #userplum #anoray #opalknight #ailtara #eries45 #shleby writes #gather ye rosebuds tag #star wars: rebels

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herasyndlla · 2 years

Note

what are your favoritest femslash ships GIMME A TOP 5 OR 10

OH FANTASTIC QUESTION

ok ok ok it won't be in any order other than how i think of them lol cause i'm too tired to rank BUT i will give you 5-10 good lady ships

• korra/asami (the legend of korra)

OF COURSE MY GIRLS ARE HERE i have been tagging them as "girlfriends" since season 1 of lok and oh that day the series finale aired and my best friend, sister, and i watched it and lost our minds. i will remember these two forever as one of the most important CANON ships of all times. do the avatars have the best relationships in all of tv? maybe so.

• adora/catra (she-ra and the princesses of power)

friends to crushes to enemies to friends to lovers? did adora and catra perfect a relationship trope? they definitely did. i loved that they had such a deep friendship but that led to all their problems which they then worked together to get through and THEN THEY GOT TO KISS!!!!!!! i just adore them so much. they're also very very important to me figuring some stuff out. just. so. good.

• nobara kugisaki/maki zenin (jujutsu kaisen)

my newest bb girls and i just want them to kiss and have eye patches together. i just love them they're both so mean and cool and i just think if jjk wants to be the best shonen series right now it should have these two girls date. just my two cents.

• beau/yasha (critical role)

okay i only watched 4 episodes of campaign 2 of critical role and i know very very very little but.... two strong gay women? now that's hot.

• clarke/anya (the 100)

IT WOULD HAVE BEEN SO GOOD. i am so angry that it could have been like IT COULD HAVE BEEN but instead we got... a different relationship that i didn't care for. ALAS. fuck that show, but i still like that ship.

• chloe/nadine (uncharted)

WOMEN. THESE WOMEN. they get a whole dlc to be cool and tough and badass and then they tag team beat the shit out of the bad guy on a train?truck? (i don't remember). naughty dogs should make another game for them where they are married and kiss a lot AND beat up awful men.

• sabine wren/ketsu onyo (star wars: rebels)

friends to... business adversaries to coworkers to.... GIRLFRIENDS????? come on star wars which is owned by disney and these two are from a kids show so there's just no way, let them date and get married and be cute and good and cool together. they got the classic "we're like sisters" which we all know is just to deter us from realizing the truth: they're lesbians.

• ahsoka tano/barriss offee (the clone wars)

girls ;_____; it sucks what happened to their friendship in the show but i can hold out hope that barriss survived the prequel era and ahsoka and her can reunite in the rebellion/post rebellion era and find peace (and... smooch).

• marcille/falin (dungeon meshi/delicious in dungeon)

ladies... has the girl you have a crush on from your school days ever get eaten by a dragon so you decide you have to do some necromancy to bring her back from the dead and then you have a bath together? these two did that. (it got messy after that alas lol also... it's not canon? but like... i can't accept it's not canon, i believe it actually is lol)

• sakura haruno/ino yamanaka (naruto)

ah back in my teen multishipper days. sakura was my favourite girl and i hated sasuke so i just wanted her to kiss any blonde possible. ino is blond. and friends to rivals in love to FALLING IN LOVE? it would have been glorious. anyway, sakura and ino should have kissed.

BONUS:

• my dnd character isobel and an npc zephyr

LISTEN i just love the development of their relationship and yes i'm bias but i will ship my girl!!!!!!

#THANK YOU GIRL FOR THIS #this was so much fun #i didn't think it would get to ten but i did it #asks #loisfreakinglane

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narkinafive · 5 years

Text

Liveblog roundup

I’ve been sleeping on zeb this whole time I really have and I APOLOGIZE

ezra legitimately does back off flirting w sabine after the episode with ketsu lmfao I’m screaming he FINALLY GETS IT

*sees ketsu* oH. OH! OK *finger guns away* fskdjskdjlfkljsdf fucking IDIOT

legit that whole episode is like someone trying to convince their ex gf out of a bad situation

i love stealth strike. i LOVE stealth strike

i legitimately could write a whole ass novel on stealth strike

ezra being in command? and competent? the imagery of jedi leading assaults down the hallway of stormtroopers? kanan starting to work through his ptsd and learning to work w rex? isb having jabba listed as one of ezra’s aliases? iconic

also

rex getting a wedgie from the trooper armor sdfdsflkjlsfkdslfdj

“i’ll tighten your face”

YOU SHOT US! i set it to stun! well you should have used kill. WHAT

dON’T YOU DhARE

another day, another tractor beam for commander sato

the single horn of the force theme when kanan and *rex are saluting each other, BRUHHHHH

the baby ithorian is so FUCKINg cute

i’m emo as always thinking about if the inquisitorius had been established any earlier they would have tried to kidnap ezra too

also this? is kidnapping. cradle robbing. baby snatching. none of which the jedi do >.>

ezra and chopper being unexpectedly good w babies makes my heart go doki doki

AHSOKA! THE! WHITE! MY WIFE! MY LOVE! THE LIGHT OF MY ENTIRE WORLD!!!!

and once again, palps’ nursery of evil was thwarted

i’m EMO miriam and ephraim were about to be executed and their last thoughts were of their son and their love for him was so strong it reverberated across the galaxy into ezra’s dreams FUCK

all that early dark side signs as he tries to convince himself that they’re out there

his quiet acceptance of their deathS

i could write a million books about this season being about trying to convince yourself that everything is ok when it really isn’t

yes i did cry when leia appeared thank you for asking

leia either has balls of steel, some serious latent force suggestion, or both to keep getting away with lying to imperials like that

also how does lieutenant lyste keep getting promoted when he keeps getting his shit pushed in by this band of fools

and again, i’m EMO thinking about how in s4 ezra knows he can’t pull his parents out bc then they’d never be locked up w ryder, and they’d never break ryder out, and their sacrifice would never (partly) inspire him to stay and help liberate the planet. fuck me. fu c k

FENN RAU IS A PUNK BITCH

i love this family!

legends of the lasat is so GOOD gimmet aht force mysticism GIVE MEEEEEEE

the force! in other cultures!! zeb charting new space!! multifunctional weapons and religious artifacts!!! byeee

n e way i love rebels shut the fucK UP

#the pre ix rewatch #i wanna watch more tonight bc the call #is one of my favsssss #and we're getting into dangerously sad territory hereee

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ct-hardcase · 6 years

Text

there are so many women in that book that I am so hyped to have information and art about, including but probably not limited to:

(under a cut because I just decided that this is going to be an appreciation post)

Aayla??? Oh my gosh? Her mentoring Ahsoka was great and I love her interactions with Bly and gosh, she is just so good. I want to know more about her, especially in new canon, and how she is as a person.

Adi? Beautiful. Gorgeous. Showstopping. She has such a great personality and she fights well and I am here for it!

AHSOKA MY MAIN LADY. She’s just grown so much and I’m so proud of her and what she was able to achieve in her life. Any content for her is splendid.

Yeaaaa Pryce! She’s so evil and fun to read about! It’d be cool for her to get featured primarily in something like she did in Thrawn ngl and I’d love to have her PoV during the finale of swr.

Ventress! She’s so flawed, but if this book gives us some details about right after she turns to the dark side, I am going to drop to the floor.

Yoooo Barriss. It has taken me all of four years to warm up to her, but now that I have, I’m looking forward to this.

Beru! She deserves it! This is the recognition that the lady who raised Luke and has managed a homestead on the harsh land of Tatooine deserves. I’m so happy for her.

CIENNA! It’s been so long! Lost Stars was I think the first expanded universe novel I read for new canon and I loved it, and I loved Cienna, so I’m looking forward to literally any canon content involving her.

Depa!! I haven’t interacted with her character in canon, but I’m doing this one rp that involves her, so more details are always good.

I don’t read any of the material involving Aphra unfortunately, but I’ve heard she’s cool and gay so I’m down to read about her.

Enfys!!! I’m dying, she’s just such a good person, a radiant force of light, a true rebel, and definitely deserves a spot here. Heart eyes all around.

HERA! PILOT OF MY H E A R T. A Rebel (TM). A good mom, a good Captain, a good person, a good character, and just all around someone who was fun to journey with through swr.

JAS??? EMARI??????? SHE’S GOT CONTENT HOLY SHIT, I love Jas so much but because she’s only shown up in Aftermath, I have not been able to yell about her as much as she deserves, and good god I’m glad to see that she’s got a spot here. She’s a badass and has a heart that she desperately tries to hide.

I really like the fanon surrounding Jessika Pava, so her page is going to be fun :D

Jocasta! Big gun, bigger library.

Jyyynnnn, yes :D

I barely know about Ketsu, but I love what I do! Here’s hoping for some new tidbits maybe in there.

L3-37, the amazing droid who deserved so much better. I expect a full essay on her campaign for droid rights and how they’re treated in the galaxy.

LEIA ORGANA HERSELF. MY PRINCESS, MY GENERAL, TOTAL BADASS. She’s great. I love her.

Luminara! She fights so pretty and her philosophy is super interesting, so I hope that this is a good resource :)

Mira Bridger! My gosh! We can find out more about Ezra’s first Rebel Mom (TM)!

Norra Wexley, I’m weeping, she’s just so good and comes back from the dead enough to rival Shaak Ti, and she’s the mom that everyone in the Aftermath Squad (TM) needed but didn’t deserve.

NUMA YES

Paige? Man, I have a thing for heavy gunners that die during their first appearance, so I’m sure to enjoy this.

Phasma!!!! She’s so evil but I love her, from Parnassos until the Dreadnaught.

YEAH QI’RA, fight for your freedom too!

Rae Sloane???? Us Aftermath fans have been BLESSED with this fine release

REY! She! Aggressive fighter, aggressive pilot, and the person that I couldn’t be happier to have as a protagonist of the sequel trilogy.

Our cute mechanic Rose Tico! I hope we learn more about her past and what she’s good at mechanic-ing!

SABINE!!! YEA MAN, GOOD REBEL, GOOD DEMOLITIONS, STOLE MY DAMN HEART, I just love Sabine so much, I’m glad she’s in this

AYO SEVENTH SISTER MADE IT IN, BE STILL MY BEATING HEART. Also, this means that there’s going to be art of her! I’m weeping, everyone.

Shaak Ti! What a Jedi, what a woman.

Shmi, who absolutely deserves this spot with all of her being. Deserves better, both by the swu and all of us.

STEELA YES I’M SO HAPPY YOU’RE HERE

SUGI!! HOLY SHIT!!! OUR KIND-HEARTED BOUNTY HUNTER QUEEN HAS GRACED US

Ursa Wren??? Gosh?? We are being showered with motherhood in this book and I am living for it

VAL, YOU DESERVED SO MUCH BETTER so I’m glad you’re here

VI????? My gosh, she’s the best, so kind-hearted, such a damn optimist!!!!

ANYWAY TL;DR I’M SUPER EXCITED AND HYPED TO READ ABOUT THESE AWESOME LADIES

#star dorks #long post #under a cut but still for those on mobile #sw spoilers

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zareleonis · 6 years

Note

Hi! I was wondering, do you ship Sabezra or find them as friends?

@thebeth02 i promised you i’d answer this I’M SORRY IT TOOK ME SO LONG (and IS so long haha)

tl;dr version is no i mostly prefer sabine and ezra as friends/siblings and i don’t HATE the concept but also i honestly think sabine is a lesbian SO YANNO ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

UNGODLY LONG VERSION:

if you asked me this circa season 1 i’d pretty firmly say no, i don’t like sabine and ezra as a couple. now i would say it’s still not really my thing but im…. more okay with the concept i guess? mostly because they BLESSEDLY dropped ezra’s SUPER AWKWARD crush on her.

like just. the scenario of “boy with crush on girl who is very clearly NOT INTERESTED” is just a huuuge turn off for me. sabine is consistently irritated with his awkward flirtations. doesn’t hate it enough to tell him to fuck off, but she either rolls her eyes or has a teasing comeback for him every time. she didn’t think of it as a serious issue so she just tried to ignore it. i don’t go for stuff where a girl is really plainly not into a boy who likes her, as sabine was. i don’t like the implications of that AT ALL.

and ezra’s crush well.. ezra’s rebel journal and bits from the rebels novelizations by michael kogge show that it was pretty heartfelt (check waaaay back in my ‘ezra and sabine’ tag). but even so, sabine’s assessement in ‘sabine’s rebel sketchbook’ of “he’s like a 14 yr old kid he’ll get over it” was Prettyyyyy accurate nonetheless.

i think his crush was a function of two things. one, the really standard situation of a teenage kid totally knocked off his feet by a SUPER COOL slightly older girl – she makes AWESOME EXPLOSIONS!! and DYES HER HAIR! and can PAINT amazingly!!! and two, ezra’s tendency at this point in his life to latch onto anyone who is nice to him and doesnt abandon him. he was a super sad and lonely kid. after his initial reservations he latched onto the entire ghost crew super quickly. same with ahsoka and rex. i think him getting a puppy dog type crush on sabine in this situation

since ezra got over that crush, i’m a lot more amenable to the IDEA of them as a couple i don’t like the idea that oooh he’s secretly still harbored those feelings the whole time. i dislike it for the same reasons i didn’t like the fact he had that crush in the first place. just that “if you wait long enough EVENTUALLY she’ll see the light” is icky to me.

BUT i think, as sabine and ezra have grown closer the mutual respect, care and admiration is all there. these kids love each other a lot, period. i can buy a scenario where Something More™ grows out of that, as long as it’s completely unrelated to ezra’s intitial crush. i like situations where two people who care for each other deeply for a long time experience a shift in their relationship where those feelings develop into a different kind of love, and they figure out where do they go from there.

ultimately though, i just love sabine and eza WAY TOO MUCH as friends/siblings to seriously entertain the pairing. i love the way they mess around and tease each other like brother and sister. i love how they fit into the little family the entire ghost team has built. it warms my heart a lot. the loving and close relationship sabine and ezra have just makes me SUPER SUPER HAPPY 😊

i think the brand of teasing that goes on between sabine and ezra fits really well for people who have a sibling relationship but not-so-much for romantic prospects. like, teasing your kid brother and bickering because as much as you love each other, you get on each other’s nerves, THAT i adore so much.

the other thing is i honestly just think sabine is WAY TOO GAY to ever like ezra That Way 😹 if there was ever a character who makes way too goddamn good a lesbian for me to pass up it’s sabine wren hahaha. my lesbian senses just Know 😜 i mean does sabine EVER look like a lesbian?? if i didn’t know better i’d even say she intentionally looks that damn gay 😹🏳️‍🌈 also sabine totally has it SUPER BAD for ketsu.

and uh (MAJOR PROJECTION TIME SORRY), i know sabine’s Issues with her family mostly stem from other stuff in canon buuuu~uut. i relate to it a lot and YES it has to do with me being gay so that resonates with me too. it’s important to me on a personal level in terms how i relate with sabine’s story, but it’s also something that could very plausibly add another REALLY interesting layer to her relationship with her family.

ANYWAYS THANK YOU FOR COMING TO MY TED TALK AND READING THIS ENTIRE STUPID THESIS ON SABINE AND EZRA. IF YOU ACTUALLY READ ALL OF THIS YOU DESERVE SOME SORT OF PRIZE

#star wars rebels #sabine wren #ezra bridger #ezra and sabine

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gondalsqueen · 6 years

Link

Chapters: 18/18 Fandom: Star Wars: Rebels Rating: Explicit Warnings: Major Character Death Relationships: Kanan Jarrus/Hera Syndulla, Ketsu Onyo/Sabine Wren, Alexsandr Kallus/Garazeb "Zeb" Orrelios Characters: Hera Syndulla, C1-10P | Chopper, Original Characters, Kanan Jarrus, Ezra Bridger, Sabine Wren, Garazeb "Zeb" Orrelios, Alexsandr Kallus, CT-7567 | Rex, Mart Mattin, Wedge Antilles, Ketsu Onyo, Jacen Syndulla, Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, Ackbar (Star Wars), Lando Calrissian, Jan Dodonna, Ahsoka Tano Additional Tags: Pregnancy, vague mentions of abortion, future character death in the background, Season/Series 04, Established Relationship, Oral Sex, Chair Sex, Table Sex, sex during pregnancy, chapter 2 has lots of sex, Secrets, the best pilot in the galaxy, flying combat, character injury, canon torture, flight of the defender, rebel assault, Jedi Night, Major character death - Freeform, Grief, Morning Sickness, Counseling, Masturbation, Dreams, Traditions, Space family, Inappropriate bets, Lothal, Shopping, down time, Space Combat, Battle of Scarif, Rogue One - Freeform, hammerhead corvette!, Yavin 4, Stardust - Freeform, Alderaan, Death Star, labor, Childbirth, domestic life, Lothwolves, Dogfight - Freeform, Hoth, did i mention babies yet?, Babies!, One baby, Work/Life Balance, Advice, Bounty Hunters, Capture, this story has it all apparently, Return of the Jedi, Second Death Star, Existential Anxiety, parenting, Breakups, wine and cheesecake, wine and cheesecake needs its own tag, battle of endor, Battle for Coruscant, forces of destiny: an imperial feast, The New Republic - Freeform, Quests, letting go, Travel, ask me no questions i'll tell you no lies, but one of these days you'll get a surprise Summary: The end. Kind of.

...

Something had happened to Ezra out there, something he wasn’t ready to talk about until after this vacation was over. None of them pried. He was...different, in a lot of ways. Grown up. He finally believed in his own adequacy. With that confidence came an edge of brooding that reminded her of Kanan, though. Hera hoped he stuck around where they could support him, whatever he was facing.

In other ways he was still their Ezra—surprisingly predictable given all the time that had passed, and still the baby of the crew until they adjusted their thinking and changed the way they treated him accordingly.

To no one’s surprise, he and Jacen got along well. Their bonding mostly consisted of wrestling, with some sword fighting and a little chase for variety. Hera could have done without the just-before-bed play that infallibly kept Jacen awake and hyper. She didn’t say anything, though, because the two of them had a lot of time to make up for.

Tonight Jacen was trying to push Ezra into Alexsandr’s small fishpond. Since Ezra vastly outweighed him he was failing, but he made up for it by practically strangling his opponent in the process — by accident, Hera was pretty sure. Really, Ezra had bought this when he picked Jacen up off the ground and threw him over his shoulder.

Oh, and that was a knee in the face.

“Ow!” Ezra protested. “Kid, you are deadly!” He twisted out from under Jacen and somehow they both ended up on their feet, facing each other. Quick as a flash, Ezra tapped Jacen’s shoulder.

“Hey!”

“Block me, then. Like this.” He showed Jacen how to bring his hands up in front of him and deflect the blows. Then he tapped Jace’s knee. “Got you! This is how you block with your feet. Try to tap my knees.”

“Your shoulders, too!”

“Sure, if you can reach.”

Hera watched her son eye a nearby boulder. She hoped he was planning to climb on it and not throw it at Ezra.

Then they both went at each other, jumping towards a shoulder or knee and dashing out again, blocking on one side and darting in on the other. Ezra went easy on Jacen, but he sped up as they played and Jace kept pace with him.

The whole thing ended when Jacen got sick of it, yelled “ATTACK!” and somersaulted across the ground towards his target. He bumped harmlessly against Ezra’s legs, but in the attempt not to step on him Ezra backpedalled and, with a whirling of arms, ended up in the water.

Hmm. Somehow they had both ended up in the water.

“Bathtime!” Hera called.

“It’s not!”

“It is, in fact, a solid hour past BEDtime.”

Ezra hit the shower in Zeb’s place while Hera scrubbed the slime off of Jacen in the Ghost’s fresher. Forty-five minutes later they’d finished showering, cleaning teeth, a snack that he didn’t ask permission to get, and teeth a second time, and they were cuddled together on Jacen’s bunk reading their nightly chapter of whatever novel Jace had picked. Since he’d gotten old enough to understand them, he’d mostly chosen from a children’s series of adventure stories about — guess what? — Jedi. Hera, remembering her own childhood, couldn’t blame him.

She read: “Shuyen closed her eyes and took a deep breath, reaching out to the Force as she fell. She could feel the air rushing past her. The wind whipped at her face roughly, but it wasn’t enough to hold her up…”

Sabine passed by the door and stopped to listen for a minute. “Are you reading Knights of the Old Republic to him?”

“Yes.”

“That’s sending mixed messages, don’t you think?”

“He likes it,” Hera told her, aware of how defensive she sounded. “It’s a good story. Who am I to tell him what to like?”

Sabine held her hands up. “Fair enough. Carry on.”

Hera finished the chapter, the Jedi who had fallen off the cliff while being chased by Sith warriors arriving unscathed back at the temple. “That’s a good stopping place for tonight,” she told Jacen, smoothing his hair back. He’d started to grow it out and they were both learning how to manage the tangles that was causing, but right now it was clean and brushed and smelled like shampoo, and she breathed in the scent gratefully.

He nestled into to her side. “Mama?”

“Yes?”

“Is Rex going to come back?”

“No, baby, Rex isn’t going to come back.”

“But Ezra came back.”

“Ezra wasn’t dead, love,” she told him gently. “Nobody comes back from the dead.” She paused for a moment to let that sink in, then continued, “I know it’s hard. It hurts for me, too.”

“I like Ezra.” He was trying to think something out. Hera waited. “But...I’d rather have Rex.”

“I can understand that.”

“But that’s mean of me, right?”

“Well…” she answered as honestly as she could. “You don’t want someone to die. You just miss the person you love. I think it’s very normal. Probably not the best idea to mention it to Ezra, though. It might hurt his feelings.”

He nodded and she tucked him into bed with a song and a kiss. “Sleep,” she told him. “You are exhausted. Go to sleep.”

“Okay,” Jacen said around a big yawn.

Sneaking out of the room a moment later she passed by the open doorway of Ezra’s bunk and caught a snatch of conversation. “...her turn for a while,” Sabine was saying. Then Ezra: “Coruscant is good place to stay, anyway. We’re going to need to talk about defenses. Maybe exploratory missions, but that might be a bad idea. IF they even decide to believe me.”

Keep moving, Hera, she told herself. She went to the cockpit to give the monitors one last check for the evening and tried to remember that Sabine and Ezra were adults and it was perfectly reasonable for them to live on whatever planet they wanted to. But maybe, maybe, maybe she’d get them back for a while. It was worth hoping.

Ezra joined her a few minutes later, a mug of warm hubba juice in each hand. “Best place to watch the sunset,” he explained. The summer sunsets on Lira San were amazing, oranges and purples breaking through the thick cloud cover. Hera swung the copilot’s seat around for him and he passed her a cup.

“Two more days and then Lothal, right?” he asked.

“If that’s still what you want.”

“Yeah. Sabine says it’s changed a lot. I can’t even remember before the Empire came anymore.”

Hera smiled. “It’s a good place. Not perfect, but Azadi made it pretty welcoming even before the Emperor fell.”

“You guys were there a lot.”

“Second home, but it will be better with you back.”

“Yeah.” He shrugged, looking like his teenage self for the moment of the gesture. “Everything’s different, but it’s really good BEING back. I’m still trying to...fit in, I guess.”

“Hey. You do fit in,” Hera told him, giving the chair a little kick to spin him towards her. “You’re one of ours. And Jace loves having you around. Chop and I are too busy to play with him as much as he’d like, and it’s been a while since we’ve had anyone else on the Ghost.”

“Yeah, Ezra Bridger, Jedi Knight, hero to six-year-olds everywhere.” He rolled his eyes.

Hera laughed. “At first that was the draw, sure. But he had a lot of...anxiety, too. He’d heard stories about you his whole life and he knew how important you were to all of us, and to have you standing before him in the flesh…” She shrugged. “But now I don’t think you’re Ezra Bridger, Jedi Knight. I think you’re his friend.”

“He’s really great, Hera. Thinks he can do anything. He...reminds me of you that way.”

She sighed. “He didn’t know you were a Jedi.”

“Okay.”

“He doesn’t know Kanan was a Jedi.”

A pause. “Okay.” Ezra didn’t push. Once he would have pushed.

“The hand game — those were forms,” Hera said. “Lightsaber forms. I’ve seen you practice them with Kanan.”

“Yeah, well…” Ezra ran his hand over the back of his hair awkwardly. “They’re kind of drilled into me, so I guess I just go there automatically when it comes to fighting. Is...that all right?”

“It’s all right,” she said, picking at the fraying edge of the seat cushion. “It’s good. There are so many things I’ve wanted to ask you about that.”

“About lightsaber forms?”

She shook her head. “Ezra, I know this seems like a subject change, but...were you happy as a child? Or were you...confused?”

“What do you mean? I had kind of a rotten childhood.”

“Before that. When you were small, with your parents, and you could do things that nobody could explain. Did it confuse you or upset you?”

He considered her words carefully. “Let me think.” After a solid minute of silence, he said, “No. I heard things sometimes that I knew were true, and my mom said they were only my imagination. I think that’s not rare for kids, though. It’s just that in my case, they actually WERE true. The rest of the time, it was just fun to run and jump off of things without worrying about how I was going to land, or to know that people were probably going to believe whatever outrageous lie I told. Stuff like that. Hera… Jacen’s definitely Force sensitive. Does he use any of those abilities?”

“Oh…” she laughed to cover her worry. “Yes.” She’d watched for signs all of his life and could give a detailed list of ‘yes’es ‘no’s and ‘maybe’s. “He’s always been good at picking up moods, but I think he’s just a smart, social kid. Sometimes he knows things that haven’t happened yet, but only in a vague way — he has a feeling that someone’s coming to visit, or he knows we’ll find something around the next corner. He can climb and jump off of anything and he somehow hasn’t broken a bone yet. I don’t mean normal child risk-taking. You saw him take a dive off the Ghost the other day. And then there are the animals that seem to follow him around like he’s some kind of magnet.”

Ezra laughed.

“...which I blame you for,” she added.

“How is that my fault?”

“I haven’t figured that out yet, but the similarity is striking.”

“I’ll take it as a compliment.”

“I don’t want him to be a Jedi,” she said more seriously. “I don’t even want him to be a half-Jedi, partially trained. The Force asks...too much. We know how that ends and I won’t give him up that way. But… if I refuse to let him train when it’s available to him, he’s just going to do it anyway, and he’ll end up doing it behind my back, without my support. Or running off.” She thought of her own childhood. “It’s not my place to hold him back if that’s what he wants.”

“Well...does he WANT to be a Jedi?”

“He’s six years old. Every six-year-old wants to be a Jedi.”

“He’d be good at it. Kind. Flexible. Reminds me of someone else I knew.”

“Me too,” she admitted. “That scares me.”

“Hmm.” Ezra thought about that. “There’s not exactly a trade school for Jedi Knights. The few of us left with any ability have no idea what we’re doing. He’ll probably end up using those talents, but using them in some other field.”

“Maybe. But I don’t want to keep him locked away from the world — locked away from himself — because I’m afraid.”

“Hera, you’re not afraid of anything.”

She sighed and stopped picking at the worn corner of the pilot’s chair so he could see her hands shaking. “That’s not true, and I have changed.”

Ezra frowned. “You want me to train him?” he asked. “Is that what this conversation is about?”

“Not...yet. Not now. But I don’t want anybody else to train him.”

“Luke Skywalker is talking about starting a school.”

“NO. I like Luke. He’s a good kid. But he doesn’t understand the dangers… He hasn’t walked that path, and he doesn’t know what it takes to guide your student safely instead of just following the rules.”

“Hera, I don’t know either.”

“That’s okay. Falling is fine as long as there’s someone to catch you. You would never let anything bad happen to him.”

“Hmph.” Ezra crossed his arms and looked out at the clouds, that stone expression on his face. “I wish I could promise that.”

...

From Lira San they traveled to Lothal. Hera let Sabine show Ezra the sights because she had something else to show Jacen.

The bombed-out Imperial hangar wasn’t hard to reach, despite being perched on one of the dolmens at the edge of Capital City. If you took a shuttle, that is. Hera parked the Phantom halfway up the mountain and made them walk the rest of the way because “it will be fun!” Forty minutes into the uphill hike, Jacen wasn’t finding it particularly fun.

“Why couldn’t we just FLY up there?” he asked, perilously close to a whine.

“Because we’re taking a nice hike together and it’s going to be more enjoyable to see if you make it there yourself than if you just fly up and park.”

Poor kid — his hair was a sweaty wreck. “To be clear,” he said. “I AM getting a real birthday party tomorrow, with friends and cake and stuff, right?”

“Padawan’s honor. Sabine even made you guys those robes and staffs so you could dress up as High Jedi. Though I still don’t know what a High Jedi is.”

“It’s like a really wise, powerful Jedi,” Jacen explained. “Kind of like a wizard.”

She raised a skeptical eyebrow.

“It’s from Rangers of the Force.”

“I didn’t know you could read books that hard.”

“I listened to it.”

“Oh. Okay. Look, we made it.” Hera climbed the short flight of steps and crawled over the rubble blocking what had once been the workers’ entrance. Then she waited for Jacen to do the same.

“Whew!”

“It’s cooler up here.” Jacen spread himself dramatically on the floor.

“Yeah, we’re out of the sun.” She handed him the canteen and waited for him to take a long drink. “You recovered?” He nodded. “Good. Come see what Sabine did.”

He saw the mural as soon as he looked up, and his reaction was everything Hera had hoped for. A shout, and he rushed up to get a closer look. “It’s you guys!”

“Yeah.”

“You look like heroes! Like you’re from a holoshow.”

“Sabine makes good art.”

His brow creased in that thinking look. “Were you heroes?”

“Yes,” Hera admitted. “We were.”

“Sabine,” he pointed. “Ezra. His head looks small in this picture. Zeb and Chop. Hey, look at these lothcats! There’s you. Where am I?”

Hera touched her mid-section in the picture, right on the buttons of her flight suit. “Here.”

“So I came with you when you were heroes?”

“Sure.”

“So I helped save Lothal?”

“Let’s say you were along for the ride.”

But now he was pointing above mural-Hera’s shoulder. “That’s Dad.”

“Yeah,” she said softly.

“I don’t think I look very much like him.”

“Well, you’re shorter.”

“Hey!”

She grinned at him, but he shook his head and said, “Uh-uh. You’re sad.”

“Only a little sad.”

“You miss him.”

“Yes,” Hera said honestly, “but that’s not why I brought you here today. I need to show you something else, something… kind of secret.”

“Okay.”

Hera took a portable projector from her bag and placed it on the floor. “Come sit by me. Seven years old is big enough to see this.” They sat cross-legged on the ground and Hera switched on the projector.

“That’s Dad!”

“Yes.”

“What’s he got?”

Kanan was fitting together two metal tubes. He gave them a practiced twist, then ignited the lightsaber.

Jacen lost it. “WHAT?! Where did he GET that?”

“Hi, kid,” Kanan said to the recorder. “Thought I’d go through a few practice drills here, in case you ever need to see them when I’m not around.” He was talking to Ezra, but Jacen didn’t know that. Hera skipped past the part where he demonstrated the basic techniques and on to the segment where he showed the moves in practice by fighting ten combat remotes, leaping into the air, twisting, deflecting shots… He was using the Ghost’s hold as his staging area, which had irritated Hera to no end at the time because those remotes were firing live blaster bolts. The flip from the ground to the platform four meters above his head was awfully impressive, though, she had to admit.

“How did he DO that?”

Another of him and Ezra training together, both blindfolded, going through forms. Hera watched Kanan’s shoulder rotate as the blade spun, the twist of hips as he altered his stance. It was so familiar and so long ago, all at the same time.

“Mama, tell me.” He knew, but he didn’t want to say it.

“He’s a Jedi, Jace. He was raised in the temple on Coruscant and sent out to fight during the Clone Wars. One of the last Jedi Knights.”

“But...” he trailed off.

“I know it’s a lot to take in. Do you want to see a little more?”

“Yes!”

She’d edited this compilation carefully so they got no footage of actual battles. Next Kanan was tossing Sabine in the air over and over, a little Sabine — she couldn’t have been more than fifteen. He’d throw her impossibly high, and then she’d twist in mid-air, draw her blasters, and fire at a target. Jacen laughed. “Ah-ha, they’re good!” Another of that terrible competition he’d had with Zeb, where Zeb picked up Imperial speeder bikes and threw them at Kanan, who caught every one in mid-air. Okay, that probably wasn’t the best thing to include. One of Hera herself cradled in Kanan’s arms, the laughter near the microphone indicating that Ezra was recording.

“Ready?” Kanan asked.

“Go,” Ezra told him.

Kanan jumped up the Ghost’s ladder one rung at a time, tilted impossibly backwards, holding her. Hera from long ago shrieked in laughter. “I get five credits when I do this, right?” Kanan asked.

“Cheating,” said Ezra’s voice.

“I did TELL you I could do it.” Thunk, up another ring. Thunk, up the next. “See, what you want to do is bend your knees…” Kanan explained, annoyingly pedantic. “Then you absorb most of the shock, especially when you have to land rough.” He rolled at the last moment, still holding Hera, and came up on his feet on the upper platform, neither of them worse for the wear.

“Hey!” Hera-from-the-vid protested. “Warn me!”

“Okay,” Kanan said. “Roll up in a ball, I’m going to toss you to Ezra now so he can practice.”

“No, no, wait!” Ezra yelled. “Wait, let me put the recorder down!” The image went sideways and the recorder died abruptly on the sound of their laughter.

Jacen was watching with a wistful, half-jealous expression. “Nobody ever told me he was a Jedi.”

“Well…” Hera considered. “What DID they tell you?”

“Zeb says he could drink a whole gallon of milk in five minutes without throwing up.”

“Yeah, only part of that is true. And don’t try it.”

“Sabine said he loved you the very most, and he’d never let anything in the whole galaxy hurt you.”

She took a deep breath, willing herself to stay calm. “That is true.”

“And that he was a really good dad and he understood when people got upset or lost their temper and he wouldn’t yell at them.”

“That’s true too.”

“But he wasn’t really Sabine’s or Ezra’s dad, right?”

“No, but he...took care of them when they were kids. Big kids. And he taught them a lot of things.”

Jacen’s eyes lit with realization. “He taught Ezra how to be a Jedi! That’s why they were doing those slow moves with the lightsabers.”

Her kid was too smart.

But now he was mulling over something else. “...He was my dad.”

“Yes.”

“He never met me.”

“Technically, no, but he knew you were on the way.”

“How?”

“You know how you can tell where animals are, even the small ones? You found Alexsandr’s baby chicks when the rest of us were looking in the wrong place.”

“Yeah.”

“That’s the Force, Jacen. He felt you like that before you were born. I’ll bet you guys had whole secret conversations, what do you think?”

Jacen shrugged, clearly pleased by the idea. “So how come you never told me he was a Jedi? And you COULD have told me, lots of times.”

There was the question she’d been waiting for. “Because it wasn’t safe, Jace. The Emperor killed all the Jedi, even the little kids. Only a few of them got away, and then they had to survive by hiding because the Emperor was still hunting.”

“But he died when I was little.”

“Yes, but being a Jedi is still not exactly safe.”

“You mean people are still hunting them?”

“No, I mean they’re still...heroes. Which is good, but it also means that bad guys don’t like them much. You have to learn to keep yourself safe when you’re a hero, and that takes time. I wanted to wait until you were big enough to understand that a little.”

“So you’re saying I shouldn’t want to be a Jedi.”

“No, that’s not what I’m saying. If you want to learn to be a Jedi when you get older, I’ll be right there with you. But I want you to understand that there’s always more to these stories than what you hear. And I don’t want you to think that fighting makes you a good person. I didn’t love your dad because he was a Jedi. I loved him because he was kind and funny and understanding, and he couldn’t bear to see anybody in pain without trying to help. And because he never gave up on people. I see a lot of those qualities in you already. You don’t need a lightsaber to be a good person.” Oh, great, now she was sad again.

And Jacen had picked up on it. “Were you scared when he died?”

“So scared. But what do we say?”

“Be afraid,” he said quietly, “but do it anyway.”

“Right.”

A wolf howled nearby, in the middle of the day.

“That’s a lothwolf?” Jacen asked.

Hera nodded. “I think they’re coming to see you. I don’t know why, though.”

“I do.”

“You do? Why?”

“They say goodbyes are over. It’s time for hellos.”

#kanera #hera syndulla #jacen syndulla #ezra bridger #fanfiction #swr spoilers #next season #revelations

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sneepity-snoop-snorpity-sneep · 6 years

Text

finally watched the finale of Rebels

GUYS THEY KILLED KANAN ARE YOU KIDDING ME I KNEW THAT SOMEBODY WAS GONNA DIE BUT I WAS NOT EXPECTING KANAN TO BE THE FIRST TO GO.

and then Hera added him to her kalikori- cue tears

Pryce needs to die

Rukh needs to go

I like how much of an art nerd Thrawn is, but he also gotta go

magic wolves

THATS A BIG WOLF

oh shit the empires got some old dude escavating the temple

holy FUCK the temple has a magic time portal HOW

old dude is starting to remind me of some of my art history professors-i’d actually like this guy if he wasn’t working for the empire.

HOLY FUCK AHSOKA!!!!! SHE LIVES!!!! HALLELUJAH MAGIC TIME PORTALS!!!!

are you kidding me you’re making me watch kanan’s death twice (poor Ezra)

palpatine get your grimy little paws away from my children

oh YES they’re bringing in all the guys! Ketsu’s here, Hondo’s here, the clone’s are here EVERYBODY’S HERE IT’S A REBEL PARTY empire SO going down

zeb and kallus are in the same room omg

but please don’t die we already lost one half of an OTP (kanera )my poor heart can’t take another hit

ryder’s a traitor???

oh nvm it was a ruse

idc how well-trained or badass of a soldier you are- you can’t take giant, horse-sized magic wolves. suffer, Pryce.

*thrawn bombs the city* and this is why I don’t like this guy

Ezra nooooooo

they’re calling a what and not a who?? what’s the what??

Gregor nooooooooooo!!!

rukh needs to go

‘ATTABOY ZEB YOU GET THAT SONUVABITCH (woah, electrocution, harsh)

*squints at palpatine* you look in suspiciously good health

oh you absolute evil fuck Ezra don’t listen to him

D O N T L I S T E N I T S A L I E

phew he didn’t do the thing (poor Ezra...again)

*palpatine goes back to looking creepy* I fucking knew it

aw yiss shields up bitch

PURRGILS. PURRGILS ARE THE WHAT. ALMIGHTY SPACE WHALES I SALUTE THEE

yessss get thrawn outta here

WAIT EZRA NOOOOOOOO ASJGILSJFLSS

Ezra’s message

*ugly crying*

V I C T O R Y

KANERA BABY (where are his lekku???)

AHSOKA (that woman is officially the Gandalf of Star Wars)

BEAUTIFUL FAMILY MURAL

EZRA LIVES???

KALLUZEB CONFIRMED

*ugly crying with background pterodactyl screeching*

#flea-bee watches the finale: a summary #star wars #sw rebels #finale #finale reaction #I'm sad #I'm relieved #I'm happy #all at the same time #how #I was so worried that more characters were gonna die the only ones confirmed to be alive at the time of rogue one were Hera and chopper #but this finale gave me all I dared not hope for #my life has been extended by at least 10 years #*melts into a puddle*#profanity

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primasveraas · 6 years

Text

Rebels Midseason Trailer Breakdown

I’ve been meaning to do this for a while, but here it finally is. With less than 2 weeks before the show starts, I have my rabid superfan analysis of the Rebels Season 4 midseason trailer. Warning: long post as I am very excited for the second half of Rebels and have an extensive knowledge of Star Wars to be applied in situations in which it may not actually be required. Thoughts below the cut:

It starts on Lothal. Everything traces back to Lothal. It’s where our story began, and ultimately, where it will end. The show and the trailer are returning to their roots, back to the messages of family, and home and growth. The trailer shows Ezra’s journey with this, again, beginning with shots and narration from seasons past. It’s a reminder of how it all started and how far he’s come.

Then, it’s Ezra’s experience with the Force. We see him on the Jedi Temple on Lothal- against the backdrop of nothingness and stars and strange white lines that he sees when he meets Yoda for the first time- similar imagery appears later on, in the new footage.

Next, Malachor.

Again, a significant event in Ezra’s life. There began his grapple with the Dark SIde- and as we see in the next shots, it’s continuation. Significant moments are shown, with he Sith Holocron as well as the Bendu, and his attempts to understand the Force, especially with his connections to animals, which, as we know from Season 4, has been important with the Loth Wolves and Loth-cats.

Not to mention we see AHSOKA! It’s been a season and a half without a mention of her, but now she’s in the trailer. It this a coincidence? I think not. It never is. Dave Filoni has promised answers and there are starting to be more and more hints of such a thing. In the flashbacks, there are two shots of her- both involving Anakin or Vader (Malachor where they fought and with the hologram she kept of him (below)).

Back to family. There’s the holo of Ezra and his parents, a shot of Rex, Gregor and Wolffe- who we see return in the new footage. As Qui-gon Jinn once said, everything happens for a reason. Every shot from past seasons is important- each reminder of what was is a hint at what will come to be.

Then SABINE WITH THE DARKSABER- a small but effective reminder of her own journey.

Hera narrates about hope, and again, the trailer returns to the main themes of the show (and Star Wars as a whole): hope and family. For four years, we have watched this small ragtag crew grow together, fight together, inspire and struggle and hope together. These fundamentals are what have made this show so good, and the trailer truly emphasizes this.

Now, is this next shot so innocent? No. Of course not. Those are convors- the birds that have, throughout both Rebels and Clone Wars, symbolized Ahsoka. As this video points out, it as always been present during times where she has had to overcome the greatest struggles in her life.

After that, on to the greater struggle and bigger picture: the fight against the Empire. Ezra and the crew’s losses and wins, their moments of inspiration and fight against the Empire. The importance of what their small team, and hope, can do.

At 1:20, there is the first new footage. Again, as always, it starts on Lothal.

We see characters, new and old! THE CLONES ARE BACK! as hinted by the previous footage. Rex is in a uniform very similar to that of the Rebels on Endor- Filoni has all but confirmed he makes it there. We can only hope.

It’s go time- the words and music carry a sense of urgency and determination.The first words spoken are Ezra’s: “We can do this together” as we again return to the theme of family and the importance of being together.

Kanan speaks next- I don’t think he’s replying to Ezra, but he says “Let’s go get Hera.” THEN HE CUTS OFF HIS HAIR I AM DEVASTATED.

I figure this happens early on, given that it looks like he’s still in the caves of the wolves. There are faint markings on the wall in the background and the knife he’s holding looks like a shard of rock.

Finally, there is Hera, in a prison uniform but looking healthy and alive. She warns the people guarding her that they’re “in terrible trouble.” She knows Kanan is coming- and he’s not messing around. The little white blur in the screencap above is a stormtrooper being thrown out of the window. When it comes to Hera, Kanan shows no mercy. Pity those who stand in between Kanan and Hera; they will never stand a chance.

So, as evidenced by all the previous times in a Lothal Jedi temple, we are probably back in one- it’s the same designs as the before, the same starry backdrop. In the top right corner, there is a drawing of a snake. This likely doesn’t have much significance, but it does remind me of the pictures in the Lothal caves. Additionally, the triangle shape looks kinda like a one-dimensional picture of a holocron, and no, I am not grasping at straws, I am just analyzing every single thing I see and hoping it means something.

And in this temple, what do we see? A convor!!!!! Hints of Ahsoka, NEW hints of Ahsoka AT LAST! Not only that, but it’s the same color convor as the one at the end of Twilight of the Apprentice, the one that appeared just before the last shot of Ahsoka Tano we have to date. Not to mention, of course, that this bird has the same color scheme as the Sister from the Mortis arc- yes, the one who gave her life for Ahsoka. She’s coming y’all. There’s no doubt about it.

Ugh, the hair. Hera hates it, and so do I. However, he does look so young. Less like a man weighed down by tragedy and war. More like the man Hera first knew, when he was more free, more innocent, more open and blatantly in love with her (not that he isn’t now). It’s a callback to what once was, to who he was as Caleb Dume, and what could have been, in simpler times, happy and free and just a man who wanted to escape his past with Hera. The young look and short hair a very effectively conveys this message, and I think they are both realizing: that they should treasure and love each other while they still have the chance, before the war prevents that from ever happening.

Back to action! Loth wolves running while a Loth-cat watches on. They have been important figures, both to the plot of the story and in Ezra’s journey with the Force. I have no doubt they’ll remain important ‘till the very last episode.

EVERYONE IS TOGETHER! The crew, Kallus, Rex and Gregor (Wolffe noticeably absent), Kallus, Hondo, Ketsu, Ryder and what looks like Governor Pryce in handcuffs. What a party. Forces are united! Everyone is brought together for the end, and the series won’t end without a proper goodbye, without doing each character justice.

Fighting on Lothal! An epic battle comes, no doubt waged by Thrawn.

Thrawn appears once in the whole trailer. This makes me wonder how big of a role he’ll play, but then again, he could just be pushed aside in the trailer to make room for the main themes of the show. Either way, it looks like he’s doing his job of making life hard for the Rebels. No matter the size of his role, there’s little doubt he’ll go down without a fight. His story will likely take a major turn, and because of the significance of his character, we’ll probably get some answers as to his fate. He’s too important to be killed off or finished in a comic or a book, so the best choice is in this show… or in whatever Filoni is working on next.

But Lothal is under attack and Thrawn’s assassin is back too. Obviously, this is not going to be an easy fight. I do believe the Rebels will win, but at what cost, I cannot say. Besides Hera, Chopper and Rex, who have been cryptically confirmed to survive to and past the Battle of Endor, I’m not certain of any character’s survival. Remembering that this is supposed to be a children’s show, I don’t think any of the Ghost Crew will die, but Kanan and Ezra are conspicuously absent from the OT, so it’s more or less a given that something will happen and they have to leave. As for the side characters like Kallus, all bets are off. Anything can happen, but I truly believe that Filoni will do his characters and their stories justice, no matter what happens.

This next really cool shot looks like it’s on an Imperial Star Destroyer or base. Judging by Ryder’s presence and the backdrop, it’s probably still on Lothal. Whatever they’re doing- looks like an infiltration mission- I hope it goes well.

MORE CALLBACKS TO THE MORTIS ARC! Ezra’s stance here immediately reminded me of when Anakin had to choose to save Ahsoka or Obi-wan on Mortis win the screencap below. I noticed the way the light permeates the floor, just like the surface of Malachor, and the golden designs on the edges look like the white designs from inside the Lothal Temple. Again, this is a significant parallel with Ezra and Anakin’s struggle with the Light and Dark side of the Force, as well as what occured on Mortis with Ahsoka.

SHEEV PALPATINE ENTERS! He says Ezra’s name; he is a threat, he is taunting him and he appears in a blaze of blue fire.

HOWEVER he’s not in the flesh!

This shot is really, really brief, but I slowed it down to see better. Ezra, while engulfed in the same blue fire, is in the Lothal temple: he’s in the stormtrooper armor from earlier, and the backdrop is the same too. It took me like 930 times watching the trailer to pick up on this. But there now is the bigger threat- the Emperor knows who Ezra is, can probably sense his past (possibly current?) struggles with the Dark Side, and wants Ezra to join him. I’m not sure if they’ll ever meet face-to-face, but it could mean that Thrawn has orders to capture, not kill Ezra.

I think this is the King of the Wolves.

Okay, I have no idea what’s actually happening here. Maybe this wolf is like the Bendu- maybe it has answers, maybe it can guide Ezra, but ultimately, I have no idea of the true significance of the wolves. We’ll have answers soon enough though. 12 days left!

Here is Rukh fighting Kanan! I think is this fairly early on as Hera is still in her prison uniform from earlier (pictured below). The weapon he is using looks like an Electrostaff, like the ones General Grievous’ guards used.

Then, there are shots of more fighting (and Hera being the best pilot in the galaxy) with everyone, from Death troopers to Hondo, Sabine has Ezra’s lightsaber, and the Imperial base flies so that’s exciting BUT THEN

THE BIGGEST AND MOST OBVIOUS REFERENCE TO MORTIS: THIS GIANT MURAL. Given the Lothal mounds behind the Father and that Ezra is still in his stormtrooper armor, this is in the Lothal temple. On the shoulder of the Sister is the Convor, with the same colors as before. I really think, besides Ahsoka, that we will get to see the bigger picture of the Force, as we have with the wolves and the Bendu, and in the Clone Wars with the Mortis arc. Again analyzing shapes, I noticed that there are a lot of circles in this design, similar to the white designs in the previous shots of Ezra in the temple. The left hands of all three figures are circled too- but with my current knowledge, I have no idea if that actually means something. Another continuation in this design is the way the light floods through the background- again, like on Malachor, on Mortis and a little like the stars in the background of the temple.

You know, I’m not sure who this is, but if you zoom in, you can see a nose sticking out from the cowl of the cloak. I’m going to say it’s Palpatine. It’s an identifiable feature.

Ezra says: “I know what we have to do know” which answers his question from the FIRST Season 4 trailer, where he was wondering what to do and how to fight. Ezra has new confidence, and I believe he found it with the Force. The majority of the preceding shots have been centered around his relationship with the Force, and his trust in in could lead to the answers he seeks; whatever they may be.

WOLVES IN THE BACKGROUND EPIC AND CONFIDENT EZRA WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

I’m still not sure. He says “One last lesson” which is really vague and there is so much we don’t know about the wolves. But I truly believe Ezra gains knowledge from the Force and the wolves; there is such great mystery here. Hopefully, all will become clear soon enough.

Then the trailer ends! Really, the overarching message seems to be of family, of hope, and of Ezra’s journey with Lothal and the Force. It’s beautifully done, and I can’t wait to see it played out in the rest of the season. Two weeks to go!

If you read this entire thing, thank you. I know it’s very long, but please discuss! I want to know your thoughts. Agree? Disagree? Let me know!

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glompcat · 6 years

Note

While you're ranking star wars things: top 5 characters you'd like to see in live action

I am ranking things in general, not only Star Wars related things!

That said:

1. Ahsoka Tano - Rosario Dawson has been rather vocal about wanting to play her sometime, and Lucasfilm REALLY should take her up on that. Also Kaeden Larte should be there too. And Miara.

2. Sabine Wren - I love Sabine so so so much, and would be overjoyed to see something focused on my favorite Mandalorian artist. I admit in part she is so high on this list because I’d want to see Tiya Sircar play her in live action as well and I have a massive crush on her, BUT STILL. (Also the rest of the surviving Rebels cast and especially Ketsu can join her)

3. Rae Sloane - Hello yes, please show me Grand Admiral THIS IS MY EMPIRE in live action, please and thanks. Seriously though, I’d love an anthology thing all about what happened when the First Order reached Wild Space and how they met Snoke and how he took command of her fleet away from her.

4. Eleodie Maracavanya. Just, Eleodie Maracavanya. Give me a movie about the Pirate Ruler of Wild Space Lucasfilm. Do it. There is so much to explore here, so many stories about what is going on for those living on the edge of space capturing ships and creating their own rules. Plus we’d get to hear all the fanboys cry about the badass pirate using zhe/zher pronouns. Seriously though, I need a movie about the Sovereign Latitudes of Maracavanya.

5. This one is hard as it is the only slot I have left and there are so so so so so many characters I want to put here. Ciena Ree. Evaan Verlaine. Shara Bey. Norra Wexley. Sana Starros. Iden Versio. But at the end of the day I know who belongs here. Chelli Lorna Aphra. We all know Doctor Aphra can carry her own story. That she is fun and there are a thousand stories to tell about her doing her Indiana Jones thing as the Murder Droids now boss her about. There are so many stories about Aphra to tell, and I am interested in consuming all of them. Plus, if we got a live action Aphra, maybe, maybe, just maybe, the artists who draw her will finally actually take note of the fact she is East Asian and stop whitewashing her (Here’s looking at you Marco Checchetto). Because holy shit that nonsense needs to STOP.

#star wars #lesbiantruckers

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ambiguityisnoonesfriend · 6 years

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Chocolate Box 2018 Letter

Dear Cupid,

I am very easy to please. All my prompts and ideas are vague suggestions. As long as the relationships I request are the focus, I’m going to be thrilled with whatever you come up with.

The Silmarillion

Nienor/Turin:

I am deeply into the tragedy of these two doomed characters. I eat up the identity porn aspect and the places where things could have gone differently. What would have happened if Niënor's enchantment was never broken? What if it was broken after their child was born? How would they have dealt with what they did and didn't know if they didn't suicide out of their problems? I am not interested in AUs where they aren’t related. I am heavily interested in AUs where everything went very differently, either in a happily ever after where they never find out (I know, I know, no one gets a HEA in the Silm and I am okay with that), or one of their near-misses of finding each other earlier on didn’t miss, or even Turin didn’t fuck up one of the several times he fucked up, and everything went in a different direction.

Star Wars Prequel Trilogy

Depa & Mace, Depa & Mace & Obi-Wan:

I am ridiculously obsessed with Depa, and her interpersonal relationships with others. Mace was her Master and her best friend once upon a time, and it's implied heavily in the Kanan comic that Obi-Wan was also good friends with her. I'd love to see more about her younger days, maybe back when she was a Padawan to one of the greatest Jedi Masters of all time, or spending time with her fellow younglings, or both. As an art prompt, I would be ecstatic for something like Little Depa in her robes beside Adult Mace with or without goofy Little Obi-Wan.

I'd also be interested in seeing her as an adult, and how that transition went with Mace from teacher and student to friend and equal. I'm open to either Legends continuity or the new continuity, and I'd be fascinated to see a reimagining of the Shatterpoint plot or fallout in the new continuity. Not the whole novel, obviously, but maybe a scene of what went differently between them to make her ending what we got in this continuity instead of the old one.

I'm more interested in the friendship aspects of these three characters but I also don't mind if it gets mildly shippy.

Star Wars Sequel Trilogy

Rey/Kylo:

I went into TLJ expecting to get nothing for this pairing except maybe one dream sequence. I came out loving them even more. I love this pairing for all the potential. They are opposites. They are exactly the same. Each is incredibly jealous of the other. They keep being drawn together like two ends of a stretched spring, and the only question is if they’ll fuck, fight to the death, or both. My fondest hope is both. I love all variations of dubcon for these two, from The Force Made Them Do It and Sex Pollen, to Forced To Work Together For Reasons. I tend to believe Finn is the most important person in Rey's life, which could be wonderfully angsty for her as she can't figure out why she's linked to Kylo instead, or a situation where Kylo is forced to save Finn to make Rey happy. Force bond sex also very welcome!

Leia & Ben, Leia & Ben & Han: The pain and the angst and the love in this broken family is the gift that keeps on tearing my heart out and I love it. Ben didn't hate Han, so what caused the rift that led to everything between/among them even before he went away with Luke? What would the final fallout be between Leia and Kylo after TLJ?

Luke/Leia: I was ready for this ship to be sunk in the movie. I was not expecting to walk out shipping it even harder. I want all the angsty history post-ROTJ. Luke Denying his feelings. Leia denying hers. The times denying those feelings failed. I ship the trio, so Han can know, or he can be in the dark, or he can participate, or he can be completely absent. Emphasis on how they know it's a bad idea but they can't not love each other, whatever twisted form that love winds up taking. Were they also Force bonded, and did this turn into Force bond sex, which might be why Luke went oh hell no later?

Star Wars Rebels:

Let me begin with saying I am deeply into "Everybody lives and everything is fine and no one has to die I can't hear you" right now as the final ending for this series. For ships, I am super committed to Kanan/Hera or else no mention of ships at all for either. For background ships, I prefer Sabine/Ketsu and Zeb/Kallus, otherwise please no other ships. Rebels specific DNW: no character death, except for what was canon in ANH (Alderaan, Obi-Wan, etc)

Kanan/Hera, Kanan/Hera & Chopper, Hera & Chopper:

It's strongly implied that Chopper was Hera's only friend before Kanan came along. She would have met him when she was around eight to ten years old, and given the timing and the history with Cham, Chopper was likely her only support when her mother died. If this were an 80s movie, the pair of them would have a heartwarming relationship where he was her cuddly friend. Instead he's an astromech who swears all the time and she's a driven, closed-off radical intent on overthrowing the government. How did they grow together, and what happened when she brought aboard an alcoholic drifter who is suddenly competing with Chopper for her attention?

Kanan & Hera & Sabine & Ezra, Hera & Sabine, Kanan & Sabine:

I appreciate the complaints about found family tropes in fanfiction, and how it's frequently substituted with a severe lack of boundaries and unrealistic closeness. That said, this show went there first from the pilot. I love the semi-functional family unit where at any one point someone might act as parent, sibling, or military direct superior. I love how Hera and Kanan are very hands-on with Ezra and very hands-off with Sabine. I'd love to see more of them interacting on this level, especially now that there's so little time left for them to just be together. The show has given us plenty of Kanan & Ezra, so more of a focus on how Kanan and Hera have parented Sabine or the two kids together is preferred. Zeb and Chopper are more than welcome to come along.

Kanan & Depa:

They had less than a year together as master and student. What would have happened without Order 66? How would their relationship have grown? What would he say to her Force ghost considering the life he's lived here and the choices he's made? How would she react, and would those reactions surprise him or put him on the defensive?

Ezra/Leia, Ezra/Luke, Ezra/Luke/Leia:

I love the idea of Ezra and Luke meeting up after the original trilogy and finding someone who understands what it's like to be them. I love the idea of Leia and Ezra dating briefly during the early Rebellion days with an emphasis on bad dates or failsex. I love the concept of the younger Rebels post ANH all living on the same bases and dating one another.

Likes: toppy women and partners who are turned on by toppy women, humor, endings with hope intact, functional relationships, dysfunctional relationships, secret relationships that aren’t really a secret, canon divergence AUs such as what if they got there five minutes sooner, porn, fluff, friends with benefits, kidfic and pregnancy including mpreg and fpreg (do not like: pregnancy or kidfic with Rey and Kylo, do love: weird preg “because aliens”)

Specific porn likes: failsex including interrupted during or instead of sex, cunnilingus, both slash and het anal, light bondage, sex pollen, aliens make them do it, the Force or similar makes them do it, mental connections during sex, mental connections as a substitute for sex, using the Force during sex including light Force choking, Force ghost sex

Specific art likes: two or three panel simple line comics, playing card or tarot card type imagery, setting a scene, magic and metaphor

Do not want: noncon (as above, yes for dubcon and sex pollen), scat, watersports, omegaverse, unrequested ships except as mentioned, non-canon AUs such as coffeeshops, Poe, DJ, Holdo, Lux, Fëanor

#chocolate box 2017

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gondalsqueen · 6 years

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Chapters: 17/18 Fandom: Star Wars: Rebels Rating: Explicit Warnings: Major Character Death Relationships: Kanan Jarrus/Hera Syndulla, Ketsu Onyo/Sabine Wren, Alexsandr Kallus/Garazeb "Zeb" Orrelios Characters: Hera Syndulla, C1-10P | Chopper, Original Characters, Kanan Jarrus, Ezra Bridger, Sabine Wren, Garazeb "Zeb" Orrelios, Alexsandr Kallus, CT-7567 | Rex, Mart Mattin, Wedge Antilles, Ketsu Onyo, Jacen Syndulla, Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, Ackbar (Star Wars), Lando Calrissian, Jan Dodonna, Ahsoka Tano Additional Tags: Pregnancy, vague mentions of abortion, future character death in the background, Season/Series 04, Established Relationship, Oral Sex, Chair Sex, Table Sex, sex during pregnancy, chapter 2 has lots of sex, Secrets, the best pilot in the galaxy, flying combat, character injury, canon torture, flight of the defender, rebel assault, Jedi Night, Major character death - Freeform, Grief, Morning Sickness, Counseling, Masturbation, Dreams, Traditions, Space family, Inappropriate bets, Lothal, Shopping, down time, Space Combat, Battle of Scarif, Rogue One - Freeform, hammerhead corvette!, Yavin 4, Stardust - Freeform, Alderaan, Death Star, labor, Childbirth, domestic life, Lothwolves, Dogfight - Freeform, Hoth, did i mention babies yet?, Babies!, One baby, Work/Life Balance, Advice, Bounty Hunters, Capture, this story has it all apparently, Return of the Jedi, Second Death Star, Existential Anxiety, parenting, Breakups, wine and cheesecake, wine and cheesecake needs its own tag, battle of endor, Battle for Coruscant, forces of destiny: an imperial feast, The New Republic - Freeform, Quests, letting go, Travel

...

Within a year, Hera and Jacen hopped back into military life. She had plenty of vacation time, so they could take off and see the galaxy whenever they liked, and having a stable place and a community was important for Jacen. Hera had had that growing up.

So she was on Coruscant, helping out with combat training, when the other shoe finally dropped. Except that it was her day off and she wasn’t training pilots, she was trying to replace a particularly disgusting air filter on outside of the Ghost while Jace ran around recklessly on top of the ship, probably learning all sorts of enriching things.

“Hey, Mama. Mo-om!”

She stared at the bolt. It was stripped smooth; that’s why she’d skipped this filter last time.

“Mom. Mom.”

“What, love?”

“I’m bored.”

“Find something to do.”

“There IS nothing to do.”

“Well, come down here then and help me.”

He considered. “Are you wiring stuff?”

“No.”

“Are you taking stuff apart?”

“Sort of. I’m replacing this disgusting air filter.”

“Ew. No thanks.” He flopped down on the ship just above her head; Hera heard the thunk. Hmm… She tried to tighten the wrench on the bolt as far as it would go and then use her body weight to push the handle down. It slipped, she scraped her knuckles, she cursed.

“Hey, Mom.”

“Hey, what?”

The naughty pause indicated that nothing good was coming “Bloodflowers are pink, your feet really stink.” He burst into giggles.

“Hmm. Did you learn that at school?”

“No, Poe told me to say it to you.”

“Why am I not surprised? Well, jacinder are blue, your feet stink too.” Maybe she could just CLEAN the filter and keep using it. ...No.

“Sunblossoms are yellow, your feet really smell-o,” he fired back almost immediately. Oh, good one, kid.

“N’Omis are purple, you’re about to get in trouble,” she told him.

“Purple and trouble don’t rhyme.”

“They do in Ryl.”

“That joke is still not funny, Mom.”

Hera grinned to herself. “Jace, you have any ideas for loosening a stripped bolt?”

“Maybe hold the wrench on with bubble gum?”

“I don’t think that’s going to work.”

“Nope, then. Let me think about it.” He ran off towards the middle of the ship. “HEY there’s really cool bugs here!”

“What kind?”

“Beetles. Blue and shiny. Huh.” Then he went silent, playing with the insects.

Hera picked up a vibrotorque and just fused the darn thing to the bolt. She could unfuse it later, but somehow this stupid air filter had to come off.

She was absorbed in her work and used to people walking back and forth across the main hangar, so she didn’t even register the footsteps until they were almost upon her. Then they stopped, and the absence of sound was unsettling. Hera looked up as their visitor cleared his throat.

She saw him with the sunlight behind him, outlining his shoulder, and the thought went through her like a shock: I know him. I know him like I know myself.

He wasn’t quite the same, though. A little broader. His hair had grown long again and his beard was bushy, and she thought, terrified: Maybe I’m seeing things. Maybe it’s not him.

Then he spoke: “Hera, you haven’t changed a bit,” and she knew for sure.

The vibrotorque hit the ground and she threw herself at him with a little moan, and he was taller than her — taller than her; she had to stand on tiptoe to put her arms around his neck and hug him. He wrapped his arms around her and squeezed too.

“What are you doing here?” Hera asked, wiping a hand over her face. She touched the lightsaber at his belt before he could answer. “You got it back.”

“Yeah, uhm...I think I’m supposed to be a...present? Or something?” He unhooked his lightsaber from his belt and ignited it experimentally for her to see. “Good as ever.”

“Wow, cool!” Oh, no. Footsteps thumping on top of the Ghost, coming their way. Jacen launched himself at them before she had time to yell a warning.

In an instant the lightsaber blade was gone, Jacen caught safely in his arms, and Hera yelling, scared witless, “How many times have I told you NOT to jump from the top of the ship?! It’s not safe!”

“It’s safe for me,” Jacen said blithely. “I never get hurt.”

“Well, this time you almost skewered yourself on a lightsaber blade!”

Jacen peered at his savior, blue eyes into blue eyes. “I’ve seen you in pictures,” he declared.

“Jacen Syndulla, meet Ezra Bridger,” Hera said. “Ezra, Jacen.”

Ezra had acted fast to catch the kid, but then he just stood bewildered, looking between Jacen and her. “Syndulla?” he asked, trying to do the mental math and failing. “Hera — did you…?”

“They didn’t tell you,” she said. Of course they didn’t. Sabine would think it was a great joke, them surprising each other like this.

Ezra shrugged.

“He’s my son.” Now understanding began to dawn on his face. “And Kanan’s.”

“He’s…” A long breath. “How — ?”

Hera inclined an eyebrow at him. The usual way, that look meant.

“I mean, I know HOW, but… Oh, good Force.” Ezra sat Jacen on his feet. “Hey, kid, let me take a look at you.”

Jacen stood dutifully and preempted the questions that he knew would come. “Yes, I’m really Twi’leki. I’m half-Twi’leki. No, I don’t have lekku. Yes, she’s really my mom. No, I’m not adopted.”

“You look just like your father.”

He grinned. “Yes, I look just like my father. Except Sabine says prettier because I look like my mom too.”

Ezra laughed. “She’s right.”

“Did Sabine come back with you?” Jacen asked the question that Hera couldn’t bring herself to voice.

“Yeah, she’s here. But she sent me on first and said I was...a present?”

“For me,” Jacen explained. “Yeah, you’re a pretty great present.”

“Ahsoka?” Hera asked softly.

He shook his head.

She swallowed down...what was that feeling? Sadness, yes, but mostly guilt. Don’t you dare come back here without them, she’d told Ahsoka. “Ezra,” she asked, hardly daring to hope. “Are you going to...stay?

“Well…” he considered. “I came to see you first, so I have to do some debriefing with Reb — ” he corrected himself, “ — with New Republic command. Things might not be as smooth flying as we think.” He frowned with the memory of something dark, but they would tackle that later. “But,” his eyes met hers again, “other than that I’m at loose ends. I just want to hang with you guys for a while, figure out where I fit in again.”

Hera nodded. Ezra and Sabine both back. The ship would be crowded again.

“Are you crying?” Ezra asked.

“No. I’ll arrange to use some vacation time and comm Lira San. We’ll go see Zeb.”

“Guess I’d better get on this briefing, then.”

“Wait — ” she caught his wrist. He’d just gotten here and she was loathe to let him go so quickly. Plus, there were six years of his life she knew nothing about, almost seven, and some important questions needed to be asked. Did you have a life out there? Did you want to come back, or was it a duty? Did you know where you were? Were you kept from us? “It’s been a long time,” she settled. “Are you — okay?”

“I am now.” He took her hand and squeezed it in both of his. “Don’t worry, Hera. I’ll be back in a few hours. I mean it this time.”

They get away from you so quickly, even when you’re holding their hands.

She nodded and let go.

“Mom?” Jacen’s voice was surprisingly subdued.

“Yes, love?”

“Are you okay?”

It was meant to be a laugh, but it came out mixed with tears. “Yeah, baby, I really am.” She looked out at the sky and thought, Thank you, Ahsoka, thank you. If I could wish for anything in the world, this would be it.

...

They parked the Ghost in Zeb and Alexsandr’s front yard and surprised them with Ezra. Hera thought Zeb was going to pass out for a minute, and then she thought Ezra was going to pass out from being squeezed too hard.

“Where in all the hells were you?!”

“Uhm...away? Later, okay?”

The first night on Lira San, they all ran Jacen ragged. Hera put him to bed a half-hour late and mostly asleep before his head hit the pillow. Then she crept back into the common area and shut the door. Zeb pounded his mug on the table and declared, “Caf, dejarik, and partying all night! Er, quiet partying so we don’t wake up the kid.”

Hera laughed and passed more mugs around. “Fire up the board, Chop.”

They played two games of dejarik and then ended up just talking, which was kind of the plan to begin with. At first it was remember-when:

“Remember when Chopper knocked Ezra off the top of the Ghost while we were ten kilometers up?”

“Remember that time Sabine attached a smoke grenade to a little mouse droid and then drove it into your dad’s team?”

“No,” Hera said. “I missed that.”

“It looked so funny,” Zeb chuckled. “Just — zhhhhoom, right at them.”

“You know,” Alexsandr put in, “to read the reports on paper, you looked like idiots who kept getting away only because every single soldier on Lothal was incompetent.”

“Yeah, that was true,” Zeb told him.

They brought up things they’d left unspoken before.

“Alexsandr, he never TOLD us that you guys were trapped under the ice together.”

“Well, not never,” Zeb protested.

“‘Oh, by the way, ISB Agent Kallus decided he’s going to be on our team now and smuggle information to us,’ is not EXACTLY breaking it smoothly,” Ezra pointed out.

“I remember you were weird when we picked you up from that planet, Zeb!” Sabine added.

“How could you tell the difference?” Ezra was jumping back into their old routines nicely.

“Hey! I’m never weird!”

Chopper defended Zeb for once — “ugly” and “weird” were two different things.

Hera just laughed at them.

“Okay,” Ezra said at around 0100. “This has been fantastic, but I want to know about all the stuff I missed.”

“Hera blew up the Death Star!” Sabine shouted.

“Shh! I did not.”

“Did too. Second Death Star.”

Chopper protested that HE had blown up the second Death Star.

“You did not!” Hera told him.

Ezra looked bewildered. “What’s a Death Star?”

They all stared at him.

“Seriously?” Zeb asked.

“Come on, guys, what’s a Death Star?”

“He’s been gone for a while,” Sabine shrugged.

“Do you even know the ending of Clone Wars 2?”

“What’s Clone Wars?”

Zeb chuckled evilly. “We’ve got the only unspoiled virgin in the galaxy here.”

“Hey! I am not — !” Ezra threw up his hands in exasperation.

It was good times. Old times.

“We can catch you up on a lot of it,” Zeb told Ezra, taking mercy. “Sabine took lots of holos.”

“And painted lots of pictures,” Hera added. “Oh, I think I have those here! You gave them to me for safekeeping, and I put them…” she considered. The top shelf on her closet, she was fairly certain.

“Did you look at the paintings?” Sabine asked.

“No, I didn’t want to invade your privacy, and I didn’t know which ones you wanted me to see.”

“Hera, you didn’t even open the package? Those were for you, especially the canvases!”

“Well, you didn’t tell me that! Wait a minute, I’ll go get them.”

She moved a bunch of stuff aside in her bunk and they were right where she’d expected, left-hand corner of the closet shelf, tied in a plain cloth. Sabine did most of her work on walls, and the portable versions — holos of the originals — fit on a few tiny datachips. Some of this was more traditional canvas work, though. Hera took it all back to the common area and handed the data chips to Sabine. “Which ones first?”

“Uhm...This one’s from right after Ezra left. Let’s start there.” Sabine handed the chip to Chopper and he put it in the dataport on the table. There they all were, looking...shocky and thin, actually. Mostly holos of her or Zeb or Chopper working, their expressions studious and absorbed as they bent over the glow of a datapad. Sabine clicked through a whole series of Hera and Chopper fixing the Ghost, literally seventy-five holos of the same thing, as if she were afraid she wouldn’t get another chance to record it. They were busy, and animated by that work, but never happy. Ezra frowned and asked no questions.

Sabine thumbed through an entire collection of Lothali murals: “Let’s just get to the people.” And then the “people” were...mostly Hera, six months pregnant, shot after shot captured at exactly the right moment to look like a portrait — half-turning to answer some question, or looking down at a cloth in her hands in the early morning light, or palm on her stomach with an expression as if she were listening to something only she could hear.

Ezra’s face took on that stone look it got when he was trying not to cry. Then he rallied and said, “I’ve missed a lot.”

“Yeah, kid, we keep telling you that.”

“These are...art,” Hera said, wondering.

“No, they’re just holos. The art is on the canvas over there. Open them up.”

So she untied the bundle, but the first painting wasn’t any of them. It was Kanan — a portrait from the waist up, the full beard and scarring across his eyes that they remembered from those last two years. Hera couldn’t see the crooked nose because he was facing the viewer, holding a green-haired baby on his shoulder who was clearly sacked out and comfortably sleeping. Kanan looked down at him, kissing the top of his head.

Nobody said anything for a long moment.

“I painted it right after Jace was born.” Sabine sounded nervous now. “But you were really exhausted, and that didn’t seem like a good time to give it to you. Then I forgot about it until I was cleaning out all my stuff before leaving with Ahsoka.”

They were all looking at Hera, and there was nowhere to hide her reaction.

“I’m… I’m sorry if it — ”

“Sabine, thank you,” Hera cut her off. She tried to keep her voice even and utterly failed. “I love it.” Then she dropped her head to the table and sobbed.

Zeb picked her up bodily and just plunked her onto his lap, and then they were all fighting teary eyes. She’d cried for Kanan — really, for herself and her own loneliness — hundreds of times over the years, but it hadn’t happened in a while. This time, it finally didn’t hurt.

She pulled herself together and they talked about Kanan until dawn.

#hera syndulla #fanfiction #next season #blue-eyed son #ask me no questions i'll tell you no lies #but one of these days you'll get a surprise

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gondalsqueen · 6 years

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Chapters: 15/17 Fandom: Star Wars: Rebels Rating: Explicit Warnings: Major Character Death Relationships: Kanan Jarrus/Hera Syndulla, Ketsu Onyo/Sabine Wren, Alexsandr Kallus/Garazeb "Zeb" Orrelios Characters: Hera Syndulla, C1-10P | Chopper, Original Characters, Kanan Jarrus, Ezra Bridger, Sabine Wren, Garazeb "Zeb" Orrelios, Alexsandr Kallus, CT-7567 | Rex, Mart Mattin, Wedge Antilles, Ketsu Onyo, Jacen Syndulla, Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, Ackbar (Star Wars), Lando Calrissian, Jan Dodonna Additional Tags: Pregnancy, vague mentions of abortion, future character death in the background, Season/Series 04, Established Relationship, Oral Sex, Chair Sex, Table Sex, sex during pregnancy, chapter 2 has lots of sex, Secrets, the best pilot in the galaxy, flying combat, character injury, canon torture, flight of the defender, rebel assault, Jedi Night, Major character death - Freeform, Grief, Morning Sickness, Counseling, Masturbation, Dreams, Traditions, Space family, Inappropriate bets, Lothal, Shopping, down time, Space Combat, Battle of Scarif, Rogue One - Freeform, hammerhead corvette!, Yavin 4, Stardust - Freeform, Alderaan, Death Star, labor, Childbirth, domestic life, Lothwolves, Dogfight - Freeform, Hoth, did i mention babies yet?, Babies!, One baby, Work/Life Balance, Advice, Bounty Hunters, Capture, this story has it all apparently, Return of the Jedi, Second Death Star, Existential Anxiety, parenting, Breakups, wine and cheesecake, wine and cheesecake needs its own tag, battle of endor, Battle for Coruscant, forces of destiny: an imperial feast, The New Republic - Freeform

... “LANDO CALRISSIAN?!” “Hera, shh!” “You want to tell me how in the seven hells LANDO CALRISSIAN ended up leading this attack, Gial?”

“You weren’t here.”

“I was coming, and you knew it!”

“And yet.”

“No, don’t feed me that ‘your dedication to the Alliance’ crap, Gial, you of all people—” “—General Syndulla, if you’ll step into the briefing room with me…” She glowered at him. Gial Ackbar nodded his head towards the room—please. “Oh, all right, fine.” Hera sighed in exasperation and let him hold the door for her. Old school Ackbar, still. “Calrissian is NOT leading the attack,” Ackbar told her as soon as the door shut. “Good.” “I am.” Hera considered. “They gave you all the cruisers?” “Yes.” She considered some more. “All right, that’s fair.”

“I’m so very glad you think so,” he told her dryly. “But if you seriously think I’m taking orders from Calrissian—” “If I tell you to, you will.” Karabast. He knew her too well. “Yes, of course I will.”

“Lando Calrissian is leading Gold, Red, Gray, and Green squadrons, and he will spearhead the run on the Death Star’s reactor.”

Hera tried not to feel cheated. Again. “He’s a good pilot, huh?”

“Yes, he is. And he has the Millenium Falcon, which is a good ship. But I want you to look at something, since you missed the briefing.” He dialed up the plans for the half-completed battle station on the table display. “Here is the run.” A dotted blue line. “Here is the target.” A green circle. “Do you see this?” “That shaft is big enough to fit two freighters, side-by-side.” “Yes.” “That target is the size of a corvette.” “Yes.” “So...we get people in there and it’s not hard.” “As you see.” “Hmm.” “We have given you a command, General. In the field, as ever.” “I’m interested.” The blue and green disappeared, and a new green spot lit the entrance to the tunnel. “This is where we begin the run on the Death Star’s reactor. If we can’t get pilots in there and keep them protected once they enter, we can’t complete the mission.” Oh. Hera tried not to grin. “You want me to guard the entrance.” “You and four squadrons. Can you do it?”

She considered. Shooting down TIE fighters was her specialty. It would be difficult not to miss any in a pitched battle, a real challenge, but she could do it. Shooting them down while staying in one area and not getting blown to bits, herself… Now that was a worthy task. “Yeah,” she said. “It’s good.” “We finally get to attack a Death Star.” “I can’t believe they named it the same thing again.” “This from a galactic empire that decided ‘Death Star’ was a good name in the first place.” “Yes, I suppose that puts it into perspective.” “Don’t you have a transport called ‘Phantom 2?’” “Let’s not quibble, Gial.”

...

Hera saw Rex off at the flight deck. “You be careful,” she told him. “Watch out for those kids, and don’t let them do anything dumb.” He hugged her so hard she thought her ribs would crack. “All I have to do is hide behind some trees, General. You keep up the fancy fighting, okay?” “Born for it.” “Yeah.” He grinned, a wry thing. “Me, too.”

Rex boarded the Tydirium and Hera watched, waiting for it to leave. “General Syndulla!” a voice called from behind her. “Hey, Hera!” Lando, of all people. “Calrissian, how did we get so lucky as to end up with you?”

He ignored her tone, as ever. “Eh, you know how it is. I’ve got some good business interests, some good friends…”

“No. Friends, you?”

“I’m as surprised as you are! Speaking of friends—” he clapped her on the shoulder— “I was sorry to hear about Kanan.” Hera blinked. That had been five years ago.Then, putting on his particular brand of smarmy sympathy, he asked her, “How has your sex life recovered?” It was so unexpected, and so Lando, that she burst out laughing. “Classified!” she told him. “And you will never have the clearance.” “Ah, well, a man can dream.”

He’d changed, but not that much. It hadn’t been a pick-up line, though—just a joke to make her feel better, something naughty and unexpected amidst a long list of sincerity and platitudes. The Tydirium’s engines hummed to life and they watched it take off, Lando uncharacteristically silent as it went.

“Your friends are in there?” Hera asked. “They are.” “Mine too.”

…

Space battles typically didn’t last long. One side blew the other up (or EVERYBODY blew up), and then it was done. Endor was the longest combat flight of Hera’s life.

The Alliance fleet jumped into...a LOT of Star Destroyers. And the Death Star itself, looming as large as a moon. She’d forgotten how big those thing were. Get in fast, she thought. Finish this job before they can scramble all of their forces. “All wings, report in,” she called. “Phoenix Squadron, standing by.”

“Orange Squadron, standing by.” “Blue Squadron, standing by.” “Yellow Squadron, standing by.”

“Phoenix and Orange,” she called. “We’re going to beeline for that Death Star. Blue, Yellow, you’re flanking. Keep Imperial fighters off all squadrons and keep us moving.”

“Copy, Phoenix Leader.”

“Commence run.” Even now alarms were sounding in all those Star Destroyers, on-duty pilots donning helmets and climbing into their fighters, the rest scrambling into their gear. They wouldn’t encounter the onslaught of TIEs for a few minutes, though. She muted the comm. “Chop, what do you read on that thing?”

He grumbled a negative.

Hera frowned. “You have NO readings? Not even static from interference?”

Nothing. That didn’t make any sense. “You’re sure you would be able to tell if they were jamming us?” Unless the Empire had invented some completely new method of scrambling signals, he could tell. Unless they... Of course they’d invented a new method. She unmuted the comm, but Lando’s voice was already calling, “Break off the attack! That shield is still up.”

“You heard him!” Hera called. “About face!” She pulled the Ghost up sharp, watching in relief as the fighters behind her followed suit. She muted the comm again. “Great, Chop. Now what?”

Ackbar’s voice, “We have enemy ships in sector 47!” Oh. That was what. “Do we have a plan for getting that shield down, or is this just for fun?” Hera asked. “Han will have that shield down. Fly pretty, Phoenix Leader.” Fly pretty. He had some nerve. But Rex was on the strike team too, after all, and she remembered throwing fighters at a blockade, trusting her own people to take care of the planetary defenses. Okay, Hera. Keep your pilots alive and buy them time to work down there. “All right, you heard him. Engage those TIE fighters. Chase them away from the cruisers. Stick with your wingman and force them to fight two-on-two. Make your skill count.” A chorus of “yes, sirs” sounded over the comm. She knew every one of those voices. “May the Force be with you,” Ackbar said. Oh, it will, Hera thought. Then five TIEs came at her all at once, and she and Mart dove right into the middle of them, rendering them unable to shoot lest they be caught in their own crossfire. Wedge Antilles led Red Squadron by moments after they’d dispatched the group, howling like a krayt dragon and having way too much fun. Hera and Mart waited until the X-wings had passed, then caught the TIES that were chasing them. Some of them, anyway. Several of the remainder peeled off and came after Phoenix Squadron. Skill, not luck, Hera reminded herself. Skill, not luck. Take it slow and wait for your chance. Don’t make stupid mistakes. You’ve got a long time. Outfly them. And then it was nothing but the melding of instinct and analysis that was combat, flying in her zone, keeping an eye all around her, keeping the other eye on the shape of the battle as a whole.

Until the Death Star started blowing things up.

“Get the cruisers out of range!” Hera screamed into the command channel. All the other squadron leaders were saying the same thing, a cacophony of voices. The fighters could avoid fixed beams like that one, but the bigger ships were toast. “Home One, get out of there!”

“Break off the attack.” Even now, Ackbar sounded steady and measured.

“We won’t get another chance,” Lando argued. “Han will have that shield down, we’ve just got to give him more time.”

He was right. Fight now or lose...just like always. “Back the cruisers out of range; the fighters will engage,” she argued. That thing could blow up a planet, huh? Let them get frustrated trying to pick off fighters one by one. Meanwhile, she could bounce TIES off the surface of the big ships for a while.

Lando was thinking the same thing. “Move in as close as you can and engage those Star Destroyers at point-blank range!” Yeah, that would work.

“Hey, Gold Leader,” she said. “You want to stay and dance?” “I knew you couldn’t resist me forever, Phoenix Leader.”

“Yeah, yeah, you keep those delusions. You’re going to need them.” She shot two TIEs out of her way and sped towards the Star Destroyers. “You take the six Destroyers on the left, Gold Leader. We’ll take the six on the right.”

“Phoenix leader, I like your style.”

“I’ve picked up one!” Dek called, panic in his voice. “He’s got a lock on me.” “Serra, get on it!” Serra shot the threatening TIE out of the air without even slowing down. A moment later she caught an ion blast right in the fuel port and exploded before she could even call for help. “Stay alive!” Hera yelled. “Your only job right now is to keep each other alive until the shield goes down!” She flew a tight loop around the Star Destroyer’s communications tower and lost the TIE fighter on her tail when it cut the corner too close and crashed against the dish. Then she and Mart ran straight at each other, picking off the fighters on the other’s tail as they went. He wiggled his s-foils as he made the close pass over her, pilot-speak for “Hi, there.” She laughed, but all this was minutiae. They’d never take out all of the TIEs, and she hadn’t gotten in any good hits on the Destroyers. Then one of Green Squadron went down, crashing into the foredeck of a Venator class ship and sending it right into a Super Star Destroyer. Not the way she wanted to take those things out.

She lost four more in quick succession, good pilots, her pilots. That was enough to spook a team, turn their luck. “You’re doing great,” she told them, voice as soothing as she could make it. “We’re hanging in there.”

Ackbar made the call—Hera and the rest of her team were too busy to notice. “The shield is down. Commence attack on the Death Star’s main reactor.” Oh, thank the Force, she thought. “You heard the Admiral,” she called. “Same plan as before. Blue Squadron, Yellow Squadron, you’re on flank. Keep us steady on the sides. Phoenix, Orange, straight through the middle. Clear out a path for the strike team.” No more playing the long game. Now it was all about speed. “Wedge, 0.7!” she warned. Her voice was beginning to go hoarse. Well, at this point, both speed and stamina. Guess you’re thankful for those double-shift practices now, kids, she thought.

“I’m going in,” Lando called. His copilot added something and Lando translated: “Here goes nothing.” Then the Falcon disappeared breakneck speed into the half-finished maintenance tunnel, two X-wings following it in.

“Close the gap,” Hera yelled. Her people moved in but those blasted TIEs were too FAST, and four of them slipped by before she could get a lock on them. She took out the fifth and sixth without wasting a shot. “Gold Leader, you’ve got four hostiles on your tail!” “You guys taking a nap out there, Phoenix Leader?” “I believe your exact words were, ‘I won’t do anything you wouldn’t do,’ so just take them out!”

This was the hard part, though. They flew a pattern, one squad guarding the entrance while everybody else kept the ships off of them, but the entire Imperial fleet was headed her way now, and Hera could tell the difference between “poor odds” and “impossible.” She was losing people left and right, trying to coordinate whose shields were maintaining and whose were gone.

“Fly really, really fast in there, Gold Leader!”

Wedge was with him. That should help. “We aren’t exactly stopping for caf, Phoenix Leader!”

She moved so quickly the only thing she remembered about this part later was trying not to die. They heard nothing from the team in the reactor for five long minutes—five minutes was a death sentence in combat terms. Then:

“We got it!” Lando’s voice was pitched so high she barely recognized it. “Phoenix Leader, we got it! Get those fighters clear, we’re coming out!”

“You heard the man, go go go go go go go!” She was expecting to lose even more on the way out, but the Imperial pilots must have gotten a clue when the Rebels started running, and it was as if everyone together had agreed to make a break for it.

She didn’t see the explosion, though the light from its blast behind her nearly blinded her and the concussion knocked the Ghost head over heels. Hera went with the roll, using her ion engines to steer away from other ships until she’d ridden the shock wave out. When she looked back, she saw nothing but glowing particles and heard nothing but a collective, triumphant roar that had her wondering if her ears had gone as well as her voice. They’d done it. They’d done it.

She didn’t learn until later that both the Emperor and Vader had died with the Death Star.

…

They worked through fifteen hours, rounding up enemy combatants and patrolling the forest moon before pilots were allowed to take shifts. During that time they acquired a hundred and seven TIE fighters and a Star Destroyer, and Hera began to fantasize about flying one of those TIEs again. Then she came off duty, landing the Ghost just beyond the Ewok village and hitting the comm button before she’d gotten on the ground.

Sabine didn’t answer. She tried a second time and got a touseled-haired version of her friend with lines from the sheet still pressed into her face. “We won we won we did it!” she shouted as soon as the image appeared. Behind her, Chopper beeped a string of expletive-laden excitement.

“What? Hera! Are you okay?”

“Yes! We won!”

“Slow down. I can’t understand you. Are you all right? What do you need?”

Hera took a deep breath. “Is Jace asleep?”

“Yeah.” “Go wake him up.”

“...Okay, but you so owe me.”

Five minutes later Sabine reappeared with a mostly asleep Jacen, who perked up when he saw her. “Hi, Mama! Hi, Chopper!”

“Okay,” Sabine said. “Go ahead.” “We destroyed the Death Star,” she said calmly and slowly.

“YEAH! “Woo!” Jace and Sabine high-fived. “The Emperor and Vader are both gone.” “Gone?” Sabine asked.

Chopper tweeted a distinct ha-ha. “D-E-A-D.”

“Dead,” Jacen translated with a disturbing level of satisfaction.

Sabine clapped her hands over her mouth in delight. “The majority of the Imperial fleet destroyed or appropriated.” A small squeak from behind Sabine’s hands. “There’s still plenty of clean-up to do, but we’re expecting a formal surrender from most of the Moffs within hours. We won, you guys. The whole war. We won.” Jacen whooped. Sabine picked him up and twirled him around, then swung him into her arms and kept spinning. “We won! We won!”

She watched them flip out for a solid two minutes and wondered how much her son was going to learn about fireworks tonight. Then they calmed enough to talk to her and Jace turned an eager face to the holocam. “Mama, can you come home now?”

She winced, but only on the inside. “Not yet, love. We’ve got to finish making things safe.”

“Well, how long is it going to take to make things safe?” “I don’t know, baby. A few weeks? We’re close now.” Not safe—she wasn’t naive enough to think that they’d fixed everything—but this triumph was more than she’d expected to see within her lifetime. She’d take it, and offer it to a four-year-old as a win.

“Hey—” Sabine attempted to distract Jacen, “—your mom just beat the Emperor. You want to help celebrate?”

“Yeah!” Walk it back, Sabine, Hera thought. He’s going to be telling everyone that I beat the Emperor from here on out. In an instant she realized: With the Emperor gone, so was the galaxy-wide ban on Jedi.

“Hey, Hera,” Sabine grinned at her. “We’re going to break the news to Lothal. It’s not classified or anything, is it?”

“Certainly not! They probably already have a report.” “Okay, then. Talk to you in the morning. WE LOVE YOU!” “We love you! I love you, Mama!” Jace chorused, all smiles. She laughed. “I love you guys, too.” “Okay, bye! LOVE YOU BYE!” “Bye, buddy.”

Hera switched off the holo, put her face in her hands and thought, I’m going to do it. I’m going to do it. I’m really going to make a better galaxy for him.

Then the comm beeped again—Han Solo—and Chopper gave her a skeptical whistle.

“Of course I’m going to give him the ration bars. I just want to make him sweat for a while first. Here, watch this.”

…

“A few weeks,” she’d told them. Hera didn’t make it back to Lothal for four months. After Endor they rode on momentum, running through Onderon, Corellia, Duros, supporting dozens of worlds in their own rebellions. Mandalore liberated itself, which had been a long time coming, anyway. Hera provided the air support for Ryloth’s Resistance, wincing in embarrassment as her father demanded to know when she was going to bring that sweet baby to see him again—right as they flew in and strafed the AT-ATs that had his forces pinned down. Then they destroyed the remainder of the Imperial fleet at Akiva. She commed Lothal whenever she could, setting aside extra time on Jacen’s birthday. When he appeared in hologram that day he was distracted, running onto camera still talking at someone over his shoulder. “Say hi to your Mom,” Sabine’s voice advised. “Hi, Mama! I’m having a party.”

“Wow! Right now?” “No, tomorrow, but you should SEE the balloons Sabine’s doing. They have these things on the inside—”

Sabine’s face appeared, cutting Jacen off. “They’re safe,” she explained hastily. Then she gave him the “shh,” look.

“Who is invited to your party?”

“My friends from school.” Jacen had long been in school on Lothal at that point, happy and popular if often in trouble with his teachers. (“Jacen is outgoing and sweet, a good friend to all,” she recited his last report to herself. “He is ahead of his age group in all academic subjects. For next quarter, we will work on listening to his teachers and making good judgments about when to exercise caution.” She could have written it herself.) “They’re all bringing me presents,” he added. Ah, the important part. “Did you get my presents?” Hera asked.

“Yeah, but I liked the tooka game and the Luke Skywalker toy better than the clothes.”

“Fair enough. Luke still your favorite?”

“Ye-eah. Me and my friends, we’re going to play Jedi today, though.” “Lothal is crazy about its Jedi,” Sabine put in quickly. I didn’t tell him anything, her tone meant. “What are you learning in school?” Hera asked.

“I learned grav-ball!” Never anything about history or engineering or math. All games and friends. She didn’t really mind that—it was so different from her own early childhood. “Oh, and I learned a song for my music program. It’s about ‘hey, little lothcat.’” He launched into it and sang the whole thing to her. “I’ll record the performance for you,” Sabine promised.

“Thanks. Hey, Jacen Syndulla,” she said.

“What?” “You are five years old today. What’s your favorite color?”

“Green! Or yellow.” “Fair enough. What’s your favorite food?” “Ice cream with meiloorun sugar sauce on top.” “What’s your favorite thing to do?”

“Watch Battle Droids and play fight with my friends. But we don’t get in trouble, Mama.” “If you say so. What do you want to be when you grow up?”

“A Jedi!” Kriff. Hera took a deep breath and told herself not to worry.

“Or a pilot or a teacher or an artist. Or maybe this guy who has a pet rancor and he goes around eating up bad guys with his rancor. And then he lets kids ride it, but it doesn’t eat them unless they’re mean.”

Whew. That was...somehow a less disturbing answer. What did her level of relief say about her parenting?

Jacen turned again and chattered with somebody off-screen. “Do I need to let you guys go?” Hera asked. “Yeah, I think so, for now,” Sabine told her. “The first cake blew u— Uhm, it didn’t turn out great. We’re going to buy a new one.” “I really will be back soon.”

“He’s happy, Hera. He misses you, and I am pissed off that I’m not in the fight on Mandalore right now, but we’re okay.” “Soon.”

“Jace, come back here and say goodbye to your mom!” “Bye, Mama!”

“Bye, love.”

After his holo disappeared she thought: I am just like my father. Then she put her head down and sobbed in guilt and self-pity. Chopper was rearranging some crates in the cargo bay, and she thought she had the cockpit to herself, so she didn’t pull herself together until she heard footsteps on the ladder. When Rex poked his head through the hatch she was still mopping her face guiltily.

“Hey— hey— General— There’s no cause for that; we’re the conquering heroes.” “I know.” “Today’s Jacen’s birthday, huh?”

She nodded, then burst out crying again in spite of herself. “I’m RUINING him, Rex.” “Hera, I don’t have a clue what you’re talking about.” “I’m not even there. He knows I’m somewhere in danger. I can’t even bother to make his school performance.” “He’s, what? Four? I’m sure there will be other school performances. I doubt his life is ruined.”

But Hera shook her head. If he stayed on Lothal, he was happy and safe in a society that adored him. And without her. When she came back she’d scoop him up and they’d be off to whatever child-unfriendly outpost came next. “I don’t want to do to him what… I don’t want him to grow up to be like me.” “That’s because you’re an idiot, General.”

She wiped the handkerchief across her face angrily. “You unhappy with the galaxy?” he asked.

She shook her head. “Everything you’ve been through? You’re still out here fighting and believing in us, still happy to be alive? We should all grow up to be like you.” “That’s...incredibly nice, Rex, but you don’t really know me.”

“With all due respect, General, maybe YOU don’t really know you.” They took Coruscant the next week with so much support from its citizens that Hera was able to leave and await a new posting.

She returned to Jacen and Sabine as a General of the New Republic.

#hera syndulla #jacen syndulla #battle of endor #fanfiction #next season #foundation

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