Star Wars: Rebels

Nursing the Flame

Hera Syndulla punched in the final preparations for landing into Ghost's navicomputer as the skies above Lothal began to slowly darken into the early stages of evening and plunge the once quiet planet and its people into yet another long night under the iron clad fist of Imperial rule.

The Twi'lek pilot was not used to having her ship all to herself; not since her time as a lone rebellious teenager had the Ghost been so silent, but on this occasion she had deemed it very necessary, as she engaged the crafts landing gear and touched down with a slight bump on the edge of the fenced off military stronghold long abandoned by the Republic which had once used it as a base of operations during the dreaded Clone Wars.

Leaving the rest of the crew behind in the comm tower in order to, "take care of something important" hadn't gone down too well. Kanan especially had been adamant that anything she had to face was equally as important to him as it was to her, but this time, the former Jedi would have to learn that not all things rebellion went through him as their de facto leader and that although he would need to eventually know the truth behind their hidden objectives, for now, she would continue to be the voice that guided them to the ending they all wanted.

The Ghost's engines hummed out of life after a long moment as Hera sunk into both her seat and her thoughts as she went over everything she had been told to do by the mysterious hooded figure that had contacted her early that same morning and woken her out what had been a pleasant slumber on a not so pleasant bunk.

"Set your ship down outside the base's boundary and walk through the west gate to the central hanger. Come alone, do not allow anyone to follow you and remain within the aforementioned building until your contact arrives. You are the rebellion; we are your guides…"

That last sentence may as well have come in a different language all together, as it seemed to be the finale to every one-sided conversation she had ever had with the shadowy people she considered to be allies in the fight against the Galactic Empire.

For years she had played the loyal follower, taking her orders without question and completing all objectives without ever asking or wanting for reward or recognition for her efforts no matter how taxing they had been.

It had almost reached a point that Hera expected never to be anything more than a follower and an agent taking instruction from holo-images, but today would change everything, today she would see the flesh and blood behind the flickering blue picture and learn if her struggle, long as it had been, was worth leaving her home all those years ago and exiling herself for the greater good of the galaxy rather than that of herself.

Shaking herself out of her thoughts and looking out the transparisteel window of her cockpit revealed the non-spectacular remains of the base she was to meet this mystery informant inside. To her knowledge, the old airfield had lost its name shortly after the war when its usefulness had come to an end years earlier, but for the seemingly lone, outside viewer, the old outpost still had some stories yet to tell.

To the untrained eye, the area looked as though it had been left untouched since that time when the fight against the Confederacy had come to an end, but to the keen eye of a pilot with the experience she had, Hera could tell that the place had seen plenty of activity in recent days, weeks and months simply by searching the dusty ground of the many refuelling stations to find only partially obscured signs of a single ships landing gear, the same kind of ship as the one she suddenly noticed sitting underneath an aged sheet of weather-proof camouflage directly behind the hanger inside which she was to meet with her contact.

A small smile spread across the Twi'lek's features as she eyed the Alderannian CR90 Corvette with both interest and amusement. The covering would fool any ships flying overhead, it may even cause any unlikely passer-by's on the ground to simply regard it as a relic from the past, but to those who knew better, the ship's presence in an old Republic base this far from its origin was anything but a regular occurrence.

Whoever she was meeting was being slightly reckless in their actions, but that was nothing new to the second in command of a group of what some would see simply as common miscreants. Hera smiled at that thought too, maybe some in the wider scope of the rebellion really were as crazy as she and the others had come to be.

"Still heart, still mind…"

She spoke the words Kanan often used in the moments before a mission as she rose from her pilot seat and sent the Ghost's systems into standby for her return. Leaving Chopper behind had been a necessity, but one she had already come to regret more than a little as the droid would usually be the one to prep her ship for take-off long before she or any of the crew would so much as step foot onto the boarding ramp after an assignment or during an escape.

The little droid had become an extension of her arm in as much as Kanan's lightsaber was to his, but this was still her ship and had been for years before Chopper had come to be in her possession. Activating the cargo bays descending cargo ramp was enough to remind her of those old times, but as the cool, early evening air glided off her soft, green skin, Hera brought herself back to reality with a quick shake of her head and started for the base's western gate with confident strides, knowing she was most likely being watched from afar as she did.

It came as no surprise to her that the doors of the hanger bay she was supposed to enter were already open as she made her way through the base's exterior and passed the hidden corvette, but what did come as a bit of a shock was just how dark the inside of the massive space seemed to be for a place a meeting of such importance was set to take place.

"Hello…?"

She tried to call out to anyone or anything that might have been using the shadowy corners as a hiding place, but all that came back to her as a response was the echo of her own voice as it bounced off the walls and faded back into the almost deafening silence that surrounded her and the few crates and fuel containers that lay in piles all over the hanger floor.

"My name is Hera Syndulla… I was told to come here by an informant."

She spoke again, resisting the urge to add the word rebel before the second last word of her statement as the urge to reach for the blaster in her ankle holster increased with each second that passed her by.

"I wouldn't…"

A voice finally broke from seemingly all around her as Hera half jumped out of her skin and spun in all directions to try and add a mouth to go along with the warning words. She fell into a battle ready stance, but once again she tried not to reach for her blaster should there be more than one person in the room ready to open fire on her should she try to brandish her weapon. She had been in enough situations like this before to suspect a trap, but at the same time, she also knew better than to take anything at face value when there were always more facts to be uncovered.

"I won't… I'm here on orders to receive new ones, nothing more."

"Nothing more…"

The voice, a female as far as Hera could tell, repeated the promise back to her as the sound of footsteps began to come from the far left of the hanger where the Twi'lek only now noticed a single beam of light coming in from a door at the back.

She cursed herself for missing the detail, even as small as it was, but she had bigger things to worry about now than being caught by the seemingly lone woman who only now came into her sight as a figure covered from head to toe in a long, tanned and hooded robe.

Even at first glance through the darkness, Hera could tell that the other woman was not human. The waist-long blue stripped lekku that looked as if burning with azure fire and tall, pointed horn-like features she knew to be montrals underneath the hood of the cloak marked the person as a Togruta, but not like any she had seen in her twenty four years of life.

The people of the planets Shili and Kiros were a mostly peaceful people, although the latter had been known to be well armed after a crisis on their world during the Clone Wars, yet still, not many of their kind ever left their homes unless they were unfortunate enough to be sold as slaves or something even worse than that.

"Who are you?"

Hera half asked the question with a hint of suspicion as she eyed the other woman keenly and watched for any signs she may be the one to pull a weapon before the Twi'lek herself had the chance.

"My name isn't important… but you can call me Fulcrum."

"Fulcrum?"

The name wasn't familiar, not like the many other codes and guises her other informants had used when contacting her and that made Hera feel slightly more uneasy than she already did.

"You're the owner of the Ghost? The ship the Jedi and his apprentice travel on?"

The woman's question burned a hole into Hera's nerves. How was this Togruta to know about Kanan and Ezra? No one had yet discovered the boy outside of her crew, while Kanan had announced himself freely during the rescue of some Wookiee captives only a few days before. Something wasn't right here, the meeting was supposed to start and end with her receiving instructions from her superiors, not lead into a line of questions she was now unwilling to answer.

"I don't know of any Jedi. My crew are agents just like me, we follow orders to the letter and do what we can for the good of the rebell…" she paused, cursing herself once again, "…for the good of the people. Nothing more."

"Nothing more…"

The woman repeated her words again as she turned away, but almost as soon as her back came into Hera's sight so too did the flash of silver fire as the piercing snap-hiss of a lightsaber sparked to life from underneath the Togruta's robe and pointed tip first directly at the pilot's exposed throat.

"I'm not you're enemy, Hera… I've been watching you for a long time, following your movements and that of your crew throughout the Lothal system. I've seen the good work you've done and the problems you've caused for the Empire, but this is a lot bigger than you may believe and I need you to be open and honest with me… I need to know we can trust you…"

Almost as soon as Fulcrum spoke her last word, so too did the shining silver blade retract back into the curved hilt from whence it came and plunged the room back into silence, say for the quick and slightly panic induced breathing of the Twi'lek who tried to keep her balance under the weight of her sudden fear.

"You're… a Jedi?"

Hera finally managed to blurt her words out as her hands instantly sprang to her throat on instinct to make sure she hadn't been cut. The shock of the threat had come and passed as quickly as the blink of an eye, but the after effects continued to haunt her until she was able to steady her breathing once again and look up to see the now fully revealed head of her would-be informant who had thrown her hood back to show off a surprisingly beautiful face.

"No… not anymore…"

Fulcrum replied to Hera's question with a hint of regret and guilt, though the Twi'lek couldn't for the universe think why. The woman was only a few years older than herself give or take, but her beauty looked marred by the stress lines underneath her eyes and on her forehead where lack of sleep seemed to be taking a toll on her even as they stood only a meter apart in the darkness of the hanger around them.

"I'm a member of the Rebel Alliance under the command of a greater governing body who shall remain nameless until further notice." Fulcrum began as she attached her lightsaber back on to her belt, revealing a second, smaller Jedi weapon already being held on her opposite hip before the long robe obscured the deadly blades once again behind its tanned fabric, "As I said, we've been watching you and your crew for a while now and we also know that recently you've come in contact with and recruited a Force sensitive boy into your ranks. It's because of this that I'm here. I've been tasked with ensuring the boy be kept out of Imperial hands and trained in the ways of the Jedi to help the Rebellion in the long term. We know all about Kanan Jarrus too, as well as his past and we feel he should be the one to train the boy, at least until more suitable arrangements can be made."

Hera blinked her eyes twice in quick succession as she allowed any and all of the information she was being fed to sink into her mind. Inwardly she was shocked that she had allowed herself to be watched so closely without even knowing that the people she was working for had their eyes on all of her companions and her ship to the point of knowing so much, too much, about them.

For years she had trained herself to be constantly aware of her surroundings for danger or unwanted surprises, but this, this was a on a whole other level of discomfort, even for someone who regularly intercepted Imperial comm-chatter without any of those none-the-wiser officers or stormtroopers even knowing she was listening to their every word. All of this just felt… wrong.

"Why are you telling me this?" Hera replied with frustration evident in her usually calm tone, "You say you've been watching, spying, on us all this time, but you wait until now to make contact? Why not call all of us here? Why not tell Kanan to train Ezra yourself? Why me?"

"Because you're the one I believe I can trust to follow protocol…" Fulcrum replied without even a moment of thought, "You're the glue that holds your people together, Hera. You're a natural leader and a great pilot, exactly the kind of person we've been looking for. I chose you because although you may not know or realise it yet, we are a lot alike… and if I can't do this, only you can…"

Hera's anger began to die down as she noticed the woman in front of her had taken a few steps forward and come within reaching distance. Within her blue eyes, the pilot failed to see even the smallest inkling of a lie. There was however an all too evident pain which instantly grabbed her attention, a longing for some long past wrong to be made right under the eyes of a world she would probably never understand as well as the Togruta obviously did.

Having been through so much herself; Hera could both sympathise and connect with Fulcrum in keeping such things locked away behind a strong face. She had spent too many dark nights crying herself to sleep inside her always cold bunk to not recognise that same hurt and frustration in the eyes of another, and though she still felt a lingering sense to remain cautious even in the face of certified safety, she allowed herself to relax, wanting to move forward and leave her worries behind, after all, there was something much bigger going on in the here and now that demanded her attention and she would not allow that information to pass her by so easily.

"What do you want me to do?"

Fulcrum smiled; the first sign of happiness Hera had noticed in the young woman since she had first laid eyes on her soft, almost fragile features minutes earlier.

"From this moment forward, you are a voice for the rebellion, just as I am." The woman replied with pride in her equally softened tone, "You will receive instructions from me and me alone for the foreseeable future and will update me on young Ezra's progress as his training begins under Kanan and the rest of your crew… You all have a part to play, but you cannot reveal that your cell is only one in a galaxy-wide effort. A time will come when we will reveal ourselves to the Empire and bring the fight to them with the might of a single, organised force, but until that day, we only ask that you continue your operations with our support and backing in return for the missions I assign to you whenever you are needed to answer the call."

Now it was Hera's turn to allow a confident grin to cross her pink lips. The backing and support of a widespread, organised rebellion…, the mere thought of it made her heart beat faster with both excitement and anticipation. For most of her life she had dreamed of this day, this moment, when she would know that hope had finally returned to a galaxy lost under the shroud of darkness created by the Empire. Now she had the chance to fight it, not alone or with her small band of fighters, but with a legion of those who sought to bring back happiness and freedom where there once was none… she smiled brighter, her father would be proud.

"You have my ship…" the Twi'lek finally replied with an outstretched offering of her hand, "All my life I've dreamed of a galaxy free from hatred and death… I won't stand by and miss the chance to be a part of the many that will someday reach that goal."

Another smile, this one much wider, took over Fulcrum's own grey lips as she grasped her new ally's hand with her own and gave it a respectful shake.

"Thank you, Hera." The Togruta spoke with a tone that conveyed her now relaxed demeanour as someone one who had had a great weight lifted free from their shoulders, "That day will come, I promise you that."

"I'll get back to my crew then… but I look forward to working with you, Fulcrum. I hope I don't let you down."

"You won't"

Fulcrum nodded a sign of both respect and admiration as she released the Twi'lek's hand and once more lifted the fabric of her hood back over her double peaked montrals before the hem shrouded the rest of her face in darkness.

"Be safe, Hera Syndulla, and May the Force be with you."

With those final words and a beaming smile of encouragement, Fulcrum once again blended into the shadows of the hanger's interior as Hera too turned to walk back through the open main doors and out toward to her awaiting ship.

From her own vantage point behind the windows of her own vessel minutes later, Ahsoka Tano smiled brightly as she watched the Ghost rise into the air and speed off into the horizon with a new found purpose and the strength of its new allies pushing it into the future.

The former Padawan for the first time in years felt hope rise up inside her heart as she took in a deep breath and readied her own ship to depart Lothal in order to return to Alderaan and give Senator Bail Organa the good news, for now the tinder of rebellion had been lit once more and would soon burn bright like the stars above. This was a new day, a new beginning and if all went to plan the flame she had started today would spread fast across the skies, starting a fire across the galaxy.

Disclaimer: Disney and Lucasfilm Limited own all Star Wars characters and concepts. I do not own the rights to any of the characters, locations or anything to do with Star Wars. Any Original Characters and or locations however are my own.

Author's Notes: Thank you all for reading, guys.

This is my first story in the new Rebels section, so I'm both a little nervous and excited to see what lies in store.

I hope you all enjoyed the story and please, feel free to leave a review and let me know your thoughts and opinions on both my work and of course on Ahsoka's return to the SW universe.

Thank you all once again and I will catch you guys next time. Cheers!