Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars Rebels or its characters.

Ezra's Ark

In the depths of space, a large spacecraft flew through the different sectors, on a mission of mercy. Its inhabitants consisted of thousands of animals, wild and domesticated, several thousand plants and slabs of meat for their food, a cantankerous mech droid, and two sentient Rebels from a familiar spaceship called the Ghost.

The animals had mostly been gathered from wild worlds enslaved by the Empire, like Kashyyyk, Utapau, and Naboo, as well as neutral worlds like Tatooine, and they were found locked in pens owned by the Empire, where the Imperials had unpleasant intentions with the beasts and birds. Kanan Jarrus had heard that the animals were going to be used as pawns of the dark side of the Force, for the Force could either sooth an animal and make it someone's friend, or control its will and its instincts to do dirty work for the Sith or Dark Jedi.

And the two Rebels in this ark were Hera Syndulla, normally the pilot of the Ghost, and Kanan's new apprentice, Ezra Bridger. Hera was, of course, flying the ship, while Ezra had to babysit the animals, which meant feeding them, guarding them, and tending to their "business."

Ezra heard Hera's voice calling over the intercom. "How's it going back there, Ezra?" she asked. "Are the animals behaving themselves?"

Ezra groaned. "Yeah, they're fine, if you could call messy and mad fine. You wouldn't believe what the anoobas have been doing. By the Force, they're so vicious, I'm afraid to go near them! The banthas and the rontos are bad-tempered, too, and I recall an eopie spat in my face once! Are you sure this is such a good idea, Hera?"

Hera sighed. "Of course it's a good idea, Ezra! We can't let the Empire use these animals to experiment on with the dark side that Kanan talks to us about all the time. How would you like it if you were a beast under the tight control of an evil side of the Force all the time? The best someone like Kanan could do for you is to put you out of your misery by killing you."

Ezra rolled his eyes. "I figured that, Hera," he said. "I mean, why do I have to do it? I would think that Zeb would be more fit for this job. After all, he does look kind of like a beast himself."

"Ezra!" said Hera sternly. "You're lucky Zeb didn't hear you say that! How dare you compare an alien to a beast! That's what the Imperials do, in their alien-hating Empire. Animals are one thing, while aliens are another. They shouldn't be likened to each other."

"Yeah, you're right," said Ezra, "Sorry, Hera. But you still haven't answered my question."

"Because Kanan wants to teach you a little more about responsibility, why else?" said Hera, "If you can be responsible with these animals, maybe he'll be more willing to trust you with heavier subjects and more vital missions, and he might have a stronger faith in your ability to learn about the Force."

Ezra sighed. "Well, if you put it that way, then fine, I'll get back to work, no matter how much of a bother it gets."

"Good idea, Ezra," said Hera, "Because right now, I have to concentrate on flying this ark of ours, as well as keep an eye out for Imperials and other troublemakers. See you in a little while. Hera out."

As the intercom went dead, Ezra muttered to himself. "Of course, that doesn't mean that I know now how to handle the blasted anoobas."

Something butted him from behind. He turned around and saw Chopper facing him, squawking and jabbering for him to figure out how to talk to the animals.

"Oh fine, Chopper," he said submissively, "I'll work harder this time." He brought over some fresh meat and tossed it to an anooba. The beast eagerly devoured the meat, but not before several more came and fought over the prize feast. Ezra shuddered at the sight of these canines in a feeding frenzy. He decided it was time to move on.

He provided some seeds to some nuna birds that originally came from a farm on Tatooine. Now these were more his kind of creatures. They were curious and stupid, but they also were small, harmless, and tasty. He remembered eating some nuna and cheese sandwiches back home while his parents were alive and he was a younger boy. They were surely delectable animals, unlike those disgusting anoobas and other Tatooine animals.

"Nice to see you guys are enjoying yourselves," he said kindly, "It's only a shame that it's likely someone will eat you someday."

A nuna looked up at him and squeaked a little squeak, like it was trying to be his friend. The "swamp turkey," as it was also known, sure knew how to be cute, too.

For some reason, he felt semi-comfortable with the varactyls of Utapau, too. He sensed that their connection with the Force was a little stronger than that of some other animals, and Kanan had told him a story recently about how Obi-Wan Kenobi tamed and used a varactyl named Boga on Utapau near the end of the Clone Wars, during his pursuit of the dreaded General Grievous. Dactillions were common in the ark, too, and countless various creatures from Kashyyyk were kept there, also.

Suddenly, an alarm went off in the ark. Ezra snapped out of his thoughts and realized that they must be under attack. Hera called him over the intercom again.

"Ezra!" she said, "We're about to be boarded by space pirates! I don't know who they are or what they want, but I'm willing to bet that they don't have good intentions with the animals. I'll try to hold them off, but if they get past me, I want you to use everything in your power to stop them. Got it?"

"Uh, got it, Hera," said Ezra, and he almost dropped his animal feed in his surprise order to get ready to fight.

In the higher levels of the ship, Hera drew a blaster and got ready to fend off the pirates, if necessary. One of the hatches opened, and a pirate captain stood there. He was a Nikto, the same race as Jabba the Hutt's favorite guards in his entourage. This can't be good, thought Hera.

"Ooh, a Twi'lek!" he said, "Looks like Jabba will pay us double for getting him a new Twi'lek dancing girl!" He slavered slightly.

Hera stood her ground. "This is a mission of mercy, captain," she said firmly, "I have precious cargo here which must be delivered to the neutral world of Ord Cestus as quickly as possible. If you have any business being here, I suggest you state it now, or leave at once, or I will be forced to fight you."

The pirates laughed. "Jabba caught wind of your taking some animals away from Imperial storehouses on Tatooine, little lady," said the captain, "And now he wants them for himself. Jabba would love to have more beasts to guard his palace, as well as to devour his enemies and others who displease him. And in case you didn't notice, there are six of us, and only one of you, so I'd suggest you give yourself up while you can. I'm sure mighty Jabba will know how to take good care of you." He grinned a toothy grin.

Hera squinted at him. "I'm not for sale," she said coldly, "I have better things to do than wear a skimpy costume and dance for a vile Hutt. Either I defeat you, or you kill me. That's the way it is."

"I don't see how you can worm your way out of it, babe," said the captain, and he stepped aside to reveal a pirate carrying an electro-net gun. "Let her have it, Noma."

"Yes, Captain Strok," said Noma, and he fired the gun, shocking Hera into unconsciousness.

"Now, let's check out that cargo, and then we'll take it and our extra prize to Jabba," said Strok.

The pirates moved into the hull of the ship, and they were soon moving into the lower levels, where the animals were.

"Whoa!" said one of the pirates. "Talk about a lot of animals! Jabba will really pay us big for this!"

Chopper suddenly charged them from out of nowhere, shocking a few of the pirates with his appendages. The pirates hopped about in pain and surprise. But then Noma fired the electro-net again, this time at Chopper. The droid made a characteristic mech droid scream, and passed out on the floor.

"One feisty droid," remarked Strok, "Maybe we should take him to Jabba too, and have him re-programmed to serve on his sail barge."

The pirates snickered together.

"Oh well," said Strok, "Let's get these animals out and into our ship. It'll take some time, but fortunately, we have plenty of it, so let's get to work!"

"Not if I can help it!" shouted Ezra from his hiding place, as he leapt up and began to shoot his electric wrist-sling at them.

Some of the pirates got shocked once again, but only one was shocked directly enough to fall out of commission for a while. Captain Strok fired back at him with his blaster, while Noma looked for an opportunity to shoot him with the electro-net gun.

Ezra used the Force to grab the fallen pirate's blaster, and used it to fire back at them with greater firepower. But these pirates were certainly good fighters. They were very good at dodging laser blasts, and he only managed to shoot one of them in the foot, literally. It could've helped a little, if he had a lightsaber handy, but Kanan elected to keep his, so Ezra was out of luck there.

But then, he felt a strange impulse, which seemed to be coming from the Force. It was telling him that there was another way to stop these pirates, and that it was the way that the Force wanted him to do it. He looked around, seeing that all the animals were angered by the intrusion of the pirates, and were clamoring to get out of their cages. The pirates, expecting the animals to do this, ignored them. It was then that Ezra learned a form of Force power that could help in battle, and it was similar to battle meditation.

Ezra stopped firing and concentrated on the Force. Then he used it to reach into the minds of the animals. Gradually, each beast and bird began to calm down and seemed to gain a feeling of knowledge, and duty, as Ezra communicated to them what he wanted them to do. Curiously, even the animals he found hard to get along with, like the anoobas, complied with his commands just as well as the others.

The pirates were a little confused as to the calm of the animals and Ezra ceasing to fight back. Strok was about to shrug and mock Ezra for giving up so easily, when suddenly…

…The cages' doors began to open slowly, one by one, freeing the animals to go wherever they wanted. Then Ezra put the power of anger into the creatures, and they came out of their cages to attack the pirates. The anoobas easily pounced on Noma, breaking his electro-net gun, and mauling Noma to death. They did the same to another pirate. Then they began to squabble over the meat they had just earned. The nunas and other farm animals attacked another pirate and bowled him over, and one of the nunas pecked his eyes out and regurgitated them back up. A bantha stomped on the stunned pirate, squashing him. A dactillion scared the fifth pirate into death by shock, and some Kashyyyk beasts began to play with his body, pulling arms out of their sockets.

Captain Strok just barely avoided most of these surprise attacks, and managed to edge forward in an attempt to stop Ezra. He was almost upon the boy, when Ezra sensed him approaching, and knocked him down with a kick. Then Ezra quickly regained his beast control trick, and a handsome varactyl pounced on the captain, devouring him slowly.

"Gotcha!" said Ezra.

With all the pirates dead, Ezra then realized that the animals had to be brought under some sort of control as quickly as possible. He raised his hands, sending waves of calm through the Force into their angered minds. The creatures began to respect him, and then they walked back to their cages and allowed themselves to be put back inside. However, before it was all finished, an anooba and the varactyl came to him and snuffled him with their noses. He was surprised that the wild, crazy anoobas would want to make friends with him, or that any animal would want to do so, but he accepted their gestures of friendship, and soon they went back into their cages, too.

He heard a voice say from above, "That was very impressive, Ezra." He looked up and saw Hera standing on an upper walkway with Chopper.

"Uh, it was nothing, really," said Ezra. "I guess the Force must've taught me how to talk to the animals, that's all."

"Well, it certainly worked on stopping those pirates," she said, "Kanan is going to be pleased to learn of this. Not the pirate attack, of course, but your newfound Force ability with taming animals. I've never seen such a trick in action before."

"Well, you know," said Ezra, "I think two of the animals especially appreciate what we did together, that anooba and that varactyl. So I think I'm going to give them names, even if we never see each other again after we drop them off. The anooba is going to be called Gorgo, and the varactyl will be Valen. I don't know why, I guess those names just sound good to me."

"Well, we're getting close to Ord Cestus now, Ezra," said Hera, "Kanan and the others will want to meet us there, and to help us clean out these bodies and the remains of the anooba meals. I'll prepare us for landing."

"Thanks, Hera," said Ezra.

A little while later, the ark spacecraft had landed on the outskirts of a city on the planet Ord Cestus. Some Cestians were herding the animals into moving truck speeders to be taken to their destination. Kanan was congratulating Ezra on his job with the animals in the ark when the pirates invaded.

"I guess Jabba is going to be short a few more of his scum and villainy," remarked Zeb, "But I still can't believe you actually did such a thing, Ezra."

"Yes," said Sabine, "Hera, are you sure he isn't bluffing? I mean, the animals could have found another way out."

"I can't imagine how," said Hera, "But I witnessed the end of it with my own eyes, and so did Chopper, and you know we'd never lie to you."

"I believe it too," said Kanan, "I don't know how he learned it, but Ezra has just learned the animal friendship trick that many Jedi can do to calm and control animals in a fight."

"So that's what I learned," said Ezra. "It certainly makes sense, seeing as some of the animals actually did become my friends while we fought those pirates. Tell me sir," he asked a Cestian who was now responsible for the animals' welfare, "Are you sure these creatures will be safe from the Empire in your animal sanctuary?"

"No problem, young man," said the smiling zookeeper, "True, the Empire sometimes does visit and terrorize this star system, but they no longer have any legal means to take these particular animals back for their own wicked purposes, especially since few Imperials can recognize all of them as stolen animals."

"That's good to hear," said Ezra. "Well, I'll miss you guys," he said to the animals as they left, "Especially you, Gorgo and Valen. It was nice making a friendly acquaintance with you."

Gorgo the anooba gave a parting growl that Ezra interpreted as a feral farewell, and Valen the varactyl sang some sort of squawking song in varactyl speech.

"It's sad, you know, that I can't keep all the friends I make, you know," said Ezra sadly. "It's bad enough that I lost my family. I don't want to lose more friends, either."

"Ezra," said Kanan, "That's part of life. Friends stick together as much as they can, but eventually, we have to say goodbye to our friends, because they have to die, or because they have to move on to another place. Like those animals, which are moving on to the safety of a privately owned animal sanctuary. And even though the six of us will stick together as much as we can, someday one or more of us might die, and you'll have to deal with loss again." Seeing Ezra looking even sadder, Kanan added, "But it isn't something to worry about too badly, either. There's a quote from the Jedi Code about life and death: 'There is no death, there is the Force.' That means that we all live on in the Force because nothing truly perishes eternally, and we will all be with each other when we're all dead."

Ezra looked at Kanan, and he smiled very slowly. Evidently, he was glad to learn about that, even if he didn't fully understand it yet.

"Uh, thanks, Kanan," said Ezra, "I'll need to know more about that, but it still means a lot to me, even if I can't feel the concept yet."

The crew of the Ghost (except for cantankerous, grouchy Chopper) got together and hugged warmly. The galaxy and its evil inhabitants couldn't tear apart people who were friends to the end. Nonetheless, Ezra still missed his non-sentient charges, and hoped by the Force that they would be all right.