Rated T for: Language, Violence, Badassery, Dark and Possibly Disturbing Situations, References to Child Abuse, Drug Use, Dark Side of the Force Use, Sociopathy and/or Ambiguous Morality, and possibly, in future chapters, Sexual Content.

Chapter One: The Kid's On His Own

"That's two against two. Kanan, you have the deciding vote."

Kanan clenched his jaw as the weight of the decision fell on his shoulders. It was times like this that he hated being a leader. Even though this was something they'd put to a vote, in the end, his was usually the final say, as it was now.

Hera was right. It was their fault the kid had gotten captured. He wouldn't have been there if they hadn't brought him. Or if he hadn't tried to save them. And he had saved them. He'd done alright for himself. Until the end when he got grabbed.

And there was more to that, Kanan knew, than the kid just falling behind. He could see it in Zeb's eyes.

But Zeb and Sabine were right too. The Empire would be waiting for them. This wouldn't be like trying to rescue Wookies from a simple transport ship. The kid was being held on a Star Destroyer. That meant hundreds of stormtroopers and dozens of TIES.

They might be able to get into the hanger unnoticed, but once they were in . . . Kanan doubted there would be any getting out.

No.

No matter how much Kanan wanted to save the kid, and how much they might owe him, it would be suicide.

Something soul crushing and dark thrummed through Kanan as he made his decision. "We can't sacrifice all our lives for the sake of one. I'm sorry. But the kid's on his own."

"We will each be challenged. Our trust, our faith, our friendships. But we must persevere. And in time a new hope will emerge. May the Force be with you. Always."

The holographic image of Obi-Wan Kenobi, whoever that bearded guy was, disappeared, leaving Ezra alone in his cell once again. But unlike before, Ezra felt a sense of something almost like serenity.

He didn't know what the Force was, but he had a general idea of what Kenobi was talking about. The pieces were kind of fitting together, in a weird way. Kenobi was obviously a Jedi. This message must have been recorded about fourteen and a half years ago. On that fateful first Empire Day.

Since Kanan had this cube and that lightsaber, then either he was a Jedi too, or he'd looted it from one.

The things that Ezra still didn't understand were how he'd been able to open the cube, and exactly what force had guided him to find it.

His brow furrowed as a thought occurred to him. Could that force have been The Force? The thing Kenobi was talking about? Could that have been how he opened the cube too? It would kind of make sense for Jedi to have their information stored in some kind of super secret way that only other people with Jedi powers could get to it.

But those were questions for another time. Now was the time to do something, Ezra's instincts were telling him. Kenobi's message might have been a bunch of crock (Trust, faith, and friendship? Seriously?) but Ezra was still in a cell and needed to get out of it. He'd just have to rely on his own wits. Persevere, yes. Wait around for a hope to emerge? Why, when he could figure something out on his own?

He needed a plan now. Something to get those bucket heads to open the door. But how? Threaten them? No, there was nothing he could hold against them that would hold weight. Trick them? Maybe . . . by making them think he'd already escaped? No, he couldn't make that work. By making them think he was sick? Or dying? That had potential. But would it be enough on its own?

A smirk crossed Ezra's face as a plan crystallized in his mind. If he could combine a few of the ideas he had that might work, he bet he could come up with a plan that would definitely work.

"Hey stormtroopers! I know you're out there! And I gotta tell you, you've just made the biggest mistake of your lives!" Ezra called to the guards who he knew were on the other side of the door. He proceeded to issue a number of over the top threats, claiming to be the heir of the empire, a prince back on Coruscant, with a powerful family, and the nephew of the emperor himself, and threatening them about what he would do to them if they didn't release him right now.

"And you bucket-heads are going to be sorry when my uncle the emperor finds out you're keeping me here against my will. I guarantee he'll make a personal example of you," Ezra shouted finally, then put the next part of his plan into action, when he broke off into a fit of coughing, choking rasps.

Moments later the doors slid open and the guards hurried in and down the cell's steps, which Ezra was crouching in the corner, right by, out of their sight.

Quick as a flash, Ezra slipped passed them and through the door. He gave them a smirk and flashed a perky little half-salute, half-wave as a parting shot. "Bye guys."

Then he locked the door behind them and was off to get his stuff back. He shouldn't have known what way to go. But somehow he did. Less than a minute later, Ezra was in some kind of supply room, full of helmets, weapons, other munitions . . . and his stuff.

Ezra quickly snatched it back then tried to figure out his next move as he geared up. But a helmet he didn't have in his collection yet caught his eye, so on instinct he snatched it too. It took him only a few seconds to figure out how to work the comlink built into the helmet, which seemed like a good thing to do since maybe he could get some information.

"The delay was insignificant. The transport ship Agent Kallus diverted will dock on Kessel within two hours. The Wookies will be offloaded to work spice mine K-77," said a voice on the comm.

Ezra perked up unintentionally at the mention of his original objective. Or those peoples' original objective. Saving the Wookies. Not that it was his problem anymore. There was only one person he was worried about saving and that was himself.

He just had to get to a lifepod before they could catch him. Or better yet, a TIE fighter. That would give him a better chance of escaping. But Ezra realized even as he thought of that plan how slim the chances of success were. He'd never flown a starship before, not even one as small as a TIE. It was likely vastly different than a speeder. More than likely he'd be blasted into a billion pieces before he could figure out the controls and get back to Lothal.

So what was he supposed to do? How was he supposed to get out of this mess?

"This is Stormtrooper LS-005, reporting for Agent Kallus," said another voice on the comm.

"Kallus here," came the agent's cold voice.

"Sir, the prisoner's gone," said LS-005.

"What? I knew the boy would act as bait but I never dreamed the rebels would be foolish enough to attack a Star Destroyer. How did they get aboard?" shouted Kallus over the comm.

Ezra knew he needed to hide. Now that the alarm had been raised it was only a matter of time before someone came in here to try and find him. He spotted a ceiling vent and started toward it, then something else caught his eyes.

The supply room wasn't just stocked with armor. It was also stocked with weapons.

Ezra wasn't armed with anything more dangerous than an energy slingshot. And his wits. A real weapon, that was what he needed, if he wanted to survive.

So he hurried over to a weapon rack and snatched up a pair of blasters. Nothing fancy. Standard sidearm issues, they looked to be. They would do.

"Sir, the rebels didn't free him," said LS-005. "He, uh – well he – you see sir –"

"What?" demanded Kallus coldly. "How did he escape?"

It was then that something occurred to Ezra. The Imperials were expecting those bastards who'd abandoned Ezra to come back. They wouldn't, of course. People didn't do that. But the Imperials thought they did, and right now, Ezra could use that.

He hit the transmit button on his helmet and pitched his voice to mimic an adult's, going roughly for what LS-005 sounded like, but not exactly. "Agent Kallus! There's a security breach in the hangar! I don't know how but the rebel ship approached without alerting our sensors!"

"Which hangar? Report!"

Which hangar? Ezra's mind stalled. How were hangars identified? By numbers? Colors? Sectors? Could he bluff? But if he got it wrong the gig was up right then and there.

Wait, he told himself. There will be an opening. You'll find it and use it.

"Repeat, which hangar has been breached?" ordered Kallus sounding even angrier.

"This is Stormtrooper LS-017 reporting from the upper hanger. No breaches here," said another voice of someone who'd clearly decided to take the initiative.

It was then that Ezra saw his opening. Sucker, he thought, smirking behind his helmet.

"What? This is LS-017. Whoever just spoke has either forgotten his number or is an imposter!" said Ezra in a tone of outrage as he did his best to mimic 017's voice.

"What? No I'm not!"

"Sir, I believe the imposter is trying to conceal the rebels in the upper hanger and sow confusion in our ranks!" Ezra barked.

Agent Kallus seemed to agree. "Order all stormtroopers to converge on the lower hangar!"

"I'm not an imposter, sir! I'm the real LS-017 and I'm at the upper hangar, and there are no intruders here!" cried the real LS-017.

"Shut up, imposter!" said Ezra.

"Agent Kallus, I must protest –"

"Shut up," snapped Kallus. "The truth will be revealed shortly."

Ezra smothered a snicker, then changed his voice again. He wasn't finished yet.

"Agent Kallus sir, this is Stormtrooper LS-123, reporting intruders in the lower hangar. Sir, I believe the upper hangar is a diversion."

"Maybe, maybe not," Kallus replied. "Squads five through eight divert to lower hangar. The rest converge as ordered.

Well, thought Ezra as he started crawling through the vent, he'd certainly stirred things up. Now he needed to figure out his next move while they were running around like crazy.

Think, he ordered himself. Where can I get that's safe, that will help me get out of here? Should he launch a lifepod as a decoy then get into a TIE fighter when they scrambled their fighters to go after it? That might work. No. They'd realize too soon that something was wrong when they had more pilots than fighters. Maybe he could hide in a TIE cockpit until that one was sent out and then he could hijack it and get the pilot to take him . . . somewhere. No, too many variables that he couldn't control there, like how long that wait might be and what planet they'd be near when it actually happened.

Think, Bridger, think! He ordered himself. He couldn't stay hidden on this ship forever. Not with so many stormtroopers on it. But it's not like there was any way to get them off.

Or was there?

Ezra's eyes gleamed as a thought occurred to him.

It was insane. It was seriously, seriously insane. But it could work.

There were still a few details he needed to work out, but he could work on that as he went. For now he needed to get to the bridge.

And he had no idea which way to go. Too bad these ventilation ducts weren't labeled with arrows. This way to the bathroom. That way to the bridge. Picking a path at random it would have to be.

There was a tugging in Ezra's mind. Like his instincts wanted him to take a right turn at the first fork he reached. Ezra went with his instincts. They'd kept him alive too many times in the past for him not too. It was only when he went against them that things went south.

Suddenly, inexplicably, Ezra felt unstoppable. Like despite how ridiculous his plan was there was no way that it wouldn't succeed. Like he was an unstoppable force and the might and legions of the empire had no chance of standing against him.

I'm drunk on imaginary power, Ezra thought, but still the feeling didn't go away. I can do this.

He didn't question his instincts when, after a hundred yards of crawling through vents, taking various turns, that feeling told him to leave the safety of the air ducts and drop down into the hall below. There was no one around. Somehow he knew there wouldn't be, but he didn't know how.

Feeling more confident with no real reason to except that things hadn't gone completely horrible so far, Ezra turned a corner and found himself in a very long, very exposed hallway. At the end of it was a pair of double doors a good deal more elaborate than anything else Ezra had seen on this burner. He had a feeling that beyond them was exactly where he wanted to be.

Faster, his instincts told him. Move now.

Ezra obeyed, breaking into a jog, then an allout sprint as he drew close enough. The doors opened before he got close enough to trigger the motion sensors. Someone was exiting the bridge. An officer, by the looks of his uniform. Excellent. He wouldn't even be plagued by that inevitable moment where the doors opened and everyone on the bridge looked up to see who the newcomer was before he could get inside.

Ezra hit the officer at his top speed, knocking the man back inside the bridge, and to the floor. He heard a clunk as the officer's head hit the floor and knew the man was unconscious.

And so he made it inside the bridge, managing to get inside before people realized that something was amiss. But now that he was in here, everyone knew something was amiss. All twelve of them. Well, eleven. The guy he'd just knocked down didn't know much of anything right now.

Before anyone had a chance to draw their weapons, Ezra started shooting, with his blasters set on stun. He'd stolen a few blasters before today, even though he didn't run around carrying them. Someone his age carrying a blaster drew too much attention. People paid more attention to armed kids than unarmed kids, so Ezra always sold the ones he stole. After testing them out of course.

So that was how he knew he was a good shot. This might have been his first time shooting at people, but people weren't that much different than rocks. Especially these people.

Within seconds, there were only two people left conscious on the bridge. Ezra himself, and the man in the pilot's seat. That man hadn't even had a chance to draw his weapon.

"Don't," Ezra told him, seeing the man was about to. He focused all his will on the command and the warning. "You won't like the consequences if you do."

The pilot lowered his hands, almost like he was in a daze and watched Ezra almost vacantly.

"Seal the bridge," Ezra ordered him. "And the blast doors. And don't try anything funny unless you want me to fill you with burn holes."

"I'm sealing the bridge and the blast doors. And I won't try anything funny," the pilot said.

The doors swooshed shut behind Ezra even though he was still in range of their motion sensors, which would have normally kept them open. Then a thicker, heavier looking pair of doors slid over them, with a fancy spinning wheely doohickie in the middle, that whirred and clicked into place, presumably meaning they were well and truly sealed in.

Good.

Ezra stepped further into the room and motioned at the pilot with one of his blasters. "Now turn around."

The pilot obeyed with jerky movements.

"Take your blaster off your belt and drop it to the floor."

Once again the pilot obeyed.

"Now kick it away."

Once that was done, keeping half an eye on the pilot, Ezra set about securing all his unconscious prisoners, stripping them of their weapons and slapping them in the restrainer cuffs that most of them wore on their belts.

And when that was done, Ezra took a moment to admire his work.

"Wow. I just captured the bridge of a Star Destroyer." He almost couldn't believe it.

Now if only the next part of his plan would go as smoothly.

"You can control the TIES from here, right?" Ezra asked the pilot. "I mean whether or not they can be released, right?"

"Well, yes. In a way. We can seal the hangar," said the pilot.

"Okay, good. Do that," ordered Ezra.

The pilot hesitated.

"I said seal the hangar," repeated Ezra, louder this time. This time the pilot did what he said. Ezra paid attention, watching how he did it. If he ever took over another Star Destroyer it might be useful to be able to do these things himself.

"All TIE fighters are grounded. The hangar is sealed, sir."

Ezra was impressed with himself. He'd hijacked a Star Destroyer and had his hostage calling him sir. Maybe it was wrong for him to be having so much fun, but . . .

"Now turn off the life support on this ship. Everywhere except the bridge."

"What?" asked the pilot looking horrified.

"Do it!"

"B-b-but!"

"Turn. Off. The. Life. Support. Now," Ezra said slowly. "Or I swear, I will kneecap you."

The pilot paled, but turned back to the consol. Ezra watched closely over his shoulder, reading the text on the screen, making sure what he was doing looked legit. And it did. The pilot clearly liked having kneecaps.

"Good job. Now was that really so hard?" Ezra asked.

"S-sir? You do know that without life support, everyone outside of the bridge will die within two hours." The pilot looked like he was about to piss himself. "S-surely you d-don't want that, sir."

"Mmmn, no, I really don't. Two hours, you said? Good, that's actually the perfect amount of time," said Ezra. "Key in coordinates for a hyperspace jump. Find a navigation route to get us to Kessel. Spice mine K-77."

"S-sir?"

"Do it!"

"Y-yes sir!"

"And while you're doing that . . ." Ezra activated the comlink in his helmet again. "Attention assholes. I would like to inform you that I have taken control of this ship. If you see that ugly flashy emergency lighting coming on, it's because I've just turned off all this ship's life support, everywhere except for the bridge, which is sealed off, by the way."

"Who is this?" demanded a familiar voice.

"Oh, hey Kallus," Ezra said. "What's the matter? You don't recognize my voice?"

"You!"

"Yup. Me. And like I said, I'm in control of your ship now, and I've just turned off your life support."

"You impudent little – you have no idea how much trouble you're in –"

"I'd be more concerned with the trouble you're in," said Ezra. "Is this really not sinking in? Life support? Gone? Does that not compute?"

"I am on my way to the bridge right now, and when I get there I am going to skin you –"

"I've locked the bridge and sealed the blast doors," said Ezra. Then he quickly added, "And if you do feel like trying to blast your way in, I think I should inform you that I've knocked out everyone on the bridge and tied them up right in front of those doors. So if you want to try to blow your way in here, which I don't think you can, but if you want to try, you'll have to blow up twelve of your own men. Isn't that kind of thing bad for moral?"

He caught the pilot looking at him and turned off his comlink for a second.

"Okay, so I lied. I haven't piled you and the unconscious guys up in front of the doors. I only just thought of that. But it's a good idea, so that's going on my to do list, which is getting shorter by the minute. How are those hyperspace coordinates coming?"

"The navigation computer is working, sir," said the pilot. "It's slightly over halfway finished plotting its route."

"Good," Ezra said. "Let me know when it's finished, but don't send us into hyperspace yet, okay?"

"Y-yes sir."

"Listen, Jabba!" Kallus was raging through the comm, "I don't know what you think to accomplish, but this only ends one way! With you dead! Surrender yourself right now and –"

"And what? You'll go easy on me when you're killing me?" asked Ezra. "Yeah right. Listen, Kallus. I have it on good authority that in two hours, you'll be out of oxygen, and you and everyone else on the other side of these blast doors will be dead. And, just to make sure you know, I've locked down the hangars. No one's getting out of here on any TIE fighters or other transport ships.

"But, beings that I'm not a crazed mass murderer, I've left you a way out," continued Ezra. "The life pods are still online, and each of them have their own life support system. I highly suggest using them to hightail it out of here like right now if you don't want to die. Because I'm about to make a jump to hyperspace, to a destination which I will not be revealing to you. But I will tell you that we will be in hyperspace for far longer than two hours. And I've heard it's really not good to launch life pods or smaller ships off larger ships when you're in hyperspace."

Ezra switched off his comm and looked at the pilot again.

"That's true, right?" he asked. "You're not supposed to launch off a ship in hyperspace?"

"That is true sir," said the pilot. "But we will not be in hyperspace for far longer than two hours. The jump time between Kessel and our current position is only an hour and forty minutes."

"It is? Huh, well I guess I lied. Get used to it," Ezra said. He'd thought they'd be two hours from Kessel since that's when that diverted ship was scheduled to arrive. But maybe this ship was faster than the transport taking them there. Or maybe the diverted ship had taken a longer way, like a detour. A puzzle for another time. What mattered now was getting all these flakking stormtroopers off his ship.

And yes. It was his ship now. Ezra was the proud new owner of the Star Destroyer, at least for the time being.

"You're bluffing," Kallus was growling at him through the comlink.

"Kallus, I busted out of my cell, made my way to the bridge undetected, and incapacitated everyone in here single handedly," Ezra said. "And seeing as I've turned off all the life support, and locked down the hangars, as I'm sure you've realized by now, do you really want to try and call my bluff? Because I promise you, I'm not bluffing."

"Do you think you can get away with this, boy? The Empire is everywhere. You'll be hunted for the rest of your days."

This was probably true. Ezra felt a thrum of worry. But only for a moment. He had already shown himself a force to be reckoned with. He would do so again when he had to.

"Right now, if I was you, I'd be more worried about simply being able to live out the rest of my days," said Ezra. "I'm serious, Kallus. I think you know I'm serious. I'm jumping to hyperspace in . . . five minutes. Anyone left on the ship after that is going to die. Order your men into the life pods."

Silence reigned on the comm.

"Sir?" said the pilot. "The . . . the navigation computer is finished calculating our route. B-b-but –"

"But what?" asked Ezra after switching his comlink off again.

"Y-you said you'd give them f-five m-minutes, s-sir."

"And five minutes I shall give them," Ezra said. "Starting now."

Then they heard Agent Kallus over the comm. "All personnel, evacuate on the life pods immediately. Make sure each pod is full before departing."

"Are there holoscreens I can watch to make sure he's doing what he says he's doing?" asked Ezra.

The pilot nodded and set about helping him bring up footage from around the ship. Ezra scrolled from one piece of footage to the next until he found a holocam that caught Agent Kallus. He wanted to make sure the man was doing what he claimed and that he wasn't trying anything funny.

But it seemed that the ISB Agent had taken Ezra's threat at face value. Good. For him. Ezra had a feeling that this man might be a thorn in his side later. But this round, at least, he had won.

Ezra watched the evacuation proceed, and life pod after life pod launched out into space. His own ship picked up their distress signals, and it was quite possible that other ships in the area were doing so as well. But none of them would get here in the scant few minutes before Ezra jumped into hyperspace. And even if they did, they would be no match for his Star Destroyer.

"Time's up," the pilot said after five minutes.

Ezra looked at the screens. There were still a few pods left to be launched and people struggling to reach them.

"We'll give them another minute," he decided.

It only took 45 seconds for the last of them to be off. Then Ezra gave the order.

"Punch it," he told his pilot, and the ship jumped into hyperspace.

When Ezra decided to jump his ship to the spice mines of Kessel, it had been a decision based on timing, not any sort of heroic motivation. He didn't know how long it would take to jump from anywhere in the galaxy to anywhere else, and had assumed, from what he heard on his helmet's comlink, that Kessel would be a two hour jump from his current position. Just enough time to make sure that anyone on the ship but not on the bridge was dead from lack of life support before he got back into normal space, where they might be able to summon people to help them, if they were still alive.

But now, he realized, after working out how much time everything had taken, he would be arriving at Kessel at almost exactly the same time as the ship bearing the Wookie prisoners. Maybe even before them.

And so now Ezra was faced with a decision that he would have preferred not to have to make.

He distracted himself from it by looting the unconscious officers on the bridge, stealing a couple fancy chronos off their wrists, and replacing his standard issue blaster pistols with some nicer, more expensive ones that handled better. He even found a nice pair of glareshades on one that could be useful. When he made his escape, on whatever planet he ultimately ditched this Star Destroyer on, he could use them as part of a disguise, like that bounty hunter Bossk had taught him not too long ago.

He also scrolled through the footage of all the cameras on the ship, making sure that there were no stragglers who'd missed the evacuation. Because he supposed that if there were, he could wait until they went unconscious, then turn the life support back on. And then go tie them up while they were still knocked out.

Ezra had never killed anyone before. Yet. He was pretty sure he was capable of it. Especially when it came to these Imperial types. But needless death, well let's just say he wasn't a fan of it. Even if it did involve these Imperial types.

Then it occurred to Ezra. He was willing to take a few risks to save any lingering Imperials on this ship, but not to save the Wookies?

Not that he owed them anything, or even knew any Wookies personally, but he heard from the people on that ship that they'd been soldiers for the Old Republic.

The Old Republic. Something his parents had been big fans of. They'd talked about it as if it had been an age of glory. Like if it had continued, things would have been better. Ezra had never known anything but life under the Empire. He'd been cursed with the misfortune of being born on the day that it was founded.

And now he'd just landed himself in a ton of trouble with it. The Empire was not going to take the theft of one of its Star Destroyers lightly, Ezra knew. He hadn't thought his plan out all the way when he put it into motion. But now that he had, well, it still wasn't like he'd had a lot of options. Even in hindsite he couldn't see another way he could have done things and gotten out of it all alive and free. Though he wasn't out of this alive and free yet. He would have to come up with the next part of his plan, and soon.

But try as he might, Ezra couldn't. Because his thoughts kept being drawn back to the Wookie prisoners, who he'd be emerging from hyperspace very close to, within the next hour. And something Ezra's father had once told him ran through his mind.

"We have to stand up for people in need. Especially those in trouble with the Empire."

Well, his parents had tried that, and look where it had gotten them. What had they really ever managed to achieve by speaking out against the Empire? Nothing good. Nothing useful. In the end, they couldn't even help themselves. They were just two civilians who didn't know when to keep their mouths shut.

But these Wookies were soldiers.

Ezra perked up as he realized that they might be useful. Maybe they were what he needed for the next part of his plan. He'd been trying to think of what to do with this ship, and where to take it all by himself, but what if he added a few more pieces to this game? Pieces that were on his side, or at least not against him, like every other one already on this holochess board was.

And suddenly, Ezra's mind became clearer. Several plans started falling into place.

Little Kitwarr was scared even before the Star Destroyer showed up. The place where he and his fellow Wookies had been taken to was like a scary manmade jungle of duracrete and pipes all built around a huge pit. The ground was dry and cracked. Nothing grew here. And the sky was a hazy, dreary yellowish.

He cried out to his father, Wulffwarro, who he'd always thought was the strongest, bravest being in the universe. His father turned and patted his head, warbling back at him not to lose hope. For a moment Kitwarr could almost believe him.

But the moment was interrupted by one of the scary stormtroopers in their stark white armor. "Keep moving!"

The stormtroopers all had guns, and Kitwarr knew they would use them if given the slightest reason. Sometimes they used them for no reason. He'd seen more than one of his father's friends fall that way since they'd been captured.

So he and his father obeyed.

Then the sky went dark.

Kitwarr cried out in fear as he looked up and saw the ship blotting out the sun, a giant wedge of darkness. His fellow Wookies were discomforted by its presence too. And even the stormtroopers seemed surprised.

"What the – were any Star Destroyers scheduled to dock here?"

"Of course not, idiot. This place isn't big enough for them to dock! There is seriously nowhere for it to land!

"Then what's it doing here?"

"Heck if I know?"

The Star Destroyer sank lower and lower until it was almost right on top of them.

"What is it doing? Is that pilot crazy? He's going to cause a cave in if he tries to land here!"

"Never mind a cave in! He's going to crush us!"

But the Star Destroyer didn't land. Instead it open fired.

The stormtroopers in front of the Wookies were the first to fall, blasted by a weapon intended to pierce starship shields, not simple combat armor. The effect wasn't pretty. Kitwarr stared in horror at the remainder of the soldiers. He hadn't liked them but he wasn't sure if they deserved that.

He howled his terror as other stormtrooper groups also went down. His father grabbed him awkwardly since his wrists were still cuffed, and tried to pull him behind some crates to take cover as death and destruction rained all around them.

None of the Wookies seemed to know what was happening. Was the Empire turning on its own stormtroopers here? Or were they just coming in and killing everyone? But if that was it, then why had none of the Wookies been hit?

Not all Wookies had made it to cover, Kitwarr saw when he peered past the crates. Several were running about frantically. But none had been hit. All around them the ground was littered with dead stormtroopers. Well, dead stormtrooper parts. But not a single dead Wookie.

Then there was a very loud THUMP! And something shook the ground. A TIE fighter. But not one in the air. It had landed on the ground near them, right near their cover. None too gently. And no one seemed to be inside.

Then there was another THUMP. Another TIE on the ground. It was like someone was using autopiloting to land them, which even Kitwarr knew was bad for the ships and should only be done in an emergency.

Which . . . this might actually be.

There was a hastily growled conversation between Wulffwarro and one of his friends, then his friend hurried toward the nearest TIE and leapt on top of it. He grabbed the hatch, looking like he was going to try to pry it open, but to Kitwarr's surprise it opened with no resistance.

His father's friend looked inside then howled back to them. The fighter was empty!

Another quickly howled conversation and Kitwarr was pulled to his feet by his father, and rushed to that TIE.

It was a cramped fit with two fullgrown Wookies and a youngling like Kitwarr, but it was nothing compared to the hardships they'd faced since being captured by the Empire.

Around them TIEs continued to almost fall out of the ship, practically crash landing with the autopilot. Kitwarr saw their fellow Wookies dashing to them as the TIE he was in rose into the sky, now piloted by his father.

At first he didn't know where they were going. When he realized they were heading for the Star Destroyer's hangar, Kitwarr first thought his father had gone crazy. But then he realized that whoever was controlling that Star Destroyer was probably on their side.

This . . . this was a rescue?

It was insane but . . . but it had worked!

Kitwarr never thought that flying a TIE into a Star Destroyer would mean freedom, but found himself howling a cheer as they flew right past the blaster cannons meant to defend the hangar and weren't blasted out of the sky.

Wulffwarro landed their TIE on the far end of the hangar to stay out of the way of the other TIEs that were still being autopiloted down to the planet's surface, and especially the ones flying back in bringing other Wookies aboard.

His father's friend warbled out an incredulous sentiment.

"This is the craziest rescue I've ever seen or heard of. And I used to fight alongside Jedi."

Wulffwarro echoed the sentiment in his own howl.

Kitwarr wanted to get out of the TIE's cockpit quickly and meet their rescuers. He wanted to thank them and see who had been on their side. But Wulffwarro kept him in the cockpit, and told him that it wasn't safe to go out now. Not with all those TIEs zipping through the hangar, when they didn't even know exactly what was going on yet.

His impatience made it seem like it took a lot longer, but it actually only took a few minutes before all the Wookies were inside the Star Destroyer and there was a thrum of energy as the hangar's shields went up. The Star Destroyer lurched slightly, like they were going up and like the pilot wasn't used to the controls. Which would make sense if the other rebels out there had just stolen this Star Destroyer.

There was another slight rumble as they started rising faster and the hangar doors were sealed before they could break away from the planet's atmosphere.

Curious, Kitwarr took a look around. There was no one else in the hangar except his fellow Wookies. He thought that one of their allies would have come down to meet them or something.

Another Wookie gave a call, pulling their attention to something. Thrown off to one side was a pile of droids with their power cells pulled out to disable them. The Empire wouldn't have done that. Someone else was definitely in control of this ship.

Ezra cried out as a blaster bolt sliced along the left side of his face. If he hadn't moved right when his instincts warned him, he would have had a hole all the way through his head.

The pilot. The fucking pilot. He'd taken his attention off the man for a few seconds, and now he was paying for it.

He lunged to the side when his instincts screamed, but was too slow. The bolt hit him in the lower side, slightly above his hip. Ezra slumped to the ground.

The pilot stood over him, holding him at blaster point and shaking. "Y-you have no idea what you've done. How much trouble you've gotten m-m-me into. Even following your orders at blaster point like I have been. I don't know if it w-will be better for me to keep you alive and hand you over to the authorities, or just kill you so I can take c-credit for your death."

Rage shot through Ezra, stronger than the pain. Rage like nothing he had ever known. This bastard, this coward was standing over him, talking about his death in terms of profit, and couldn't even speak without stuttering, he was so scared!

Ezra was not in a good position, but this wasn't over yet. He and the pilot were the only ones on the bridge now. After he turned back on the life support, he'd moved all the remaining officers into the nearest closet. Even though he was injured, it was still just him and the pilot. Ezra wasn't even unarmed. He could turn this around. He would turn this around. Again, all he had to do was wait for his opening.

Or make his opening.

Taunting was always a good strategy for forcing openings. Taunting made people careless.

So Ezra fixed the coward pilot with his worst glare, and suggested to him with as much maliciousness as he could muster, "If you're that scared of what's going to happen, why don't you just shoot yourself in the head to get out of it, coward?"

The pilot stared at him vacantly. Then, to Ezra's complete disbelief he raised his blaster to his own temple.

"I'm that scared of what's going to happen, so I'm just going to shoot myself in the head to get out of it."

Ezra's mouth hung open. His rage dissipated in a flash, replaced by confusion and incredulity. And there in the end, in that last second, the pilot's vacant look cleared up and he looked confused too. Too bad for him, he'd already put too much pressure on the trigger.

The laser bolt tore through the pilot's skull, cooking his brain, making a stream of blood and clotted, congealed gore burst out the other side of his head.

"Ahh! Shit!" Ezra screamed, feeling nausea well up in him. The pilot's brains . . . some of them had splattered on his boots. He screamed again as the corpse dropped to the deck and scrabbled backwards to get away from the grotesque thing. Body. Corpse.

Suddenly it was hard to breath. Ezra felt like he was starting to hyperventilate. What the hell had just happened? Why had the pilot killed himself just because Ezra suggested it? Was the man that stupid or that scared? And was this Ezra's fault?

That thought left Ezra feeling cold and numb. Or maybe he'd started feeling cold before that. Hard to say. Everything had happened so fast, was still happening so fast. This wasn't over yet. No.

He was still in the middle of . . . of a disaster. The Star Destroyer had just broken the atmosphere. From another computer station in the bridge, some other Imperial was trying to raise him on the comms, wanting to know what this Star Destroyer was doing in his sector. He'd been yammering for awhile, since before Ezra started blowing up stormtroopers down on Kessel, but it didn't sound like this guy had heard about it yet.

Ezra didn't know how much longer it would stay that way. He had to get them out of here now.

Shaking, but only a little, Ezra regained his feet and made his way to the navigation computer as quickly as he could. He double checked to make sure that the calculations were complete before pressing down the button that would make the jump. The stars blurred into lines, and then they were safely in hyperspace.

It was then that Ezra's stomach rebelled and he threw up all over another nearby computer. He didn't know what that one did, but hopefully nothing important. As long as it wasn't the navigation computer, which it wasn't, it would probably be fine. This ship wasn't going to be around much longer. Ezra had figured out the next part of his plan, after figuring out how to rescue the Wookies.

Oddly enough, that plan didn't involve the Wookies for it to work. He could have done it perfectly fine without them, but since he was already at Kessel, well, Ezra had gone ahead and saved them anyway.

Maybe that had been a mistake. He'd lowered his guard with that pilot because he was rescuing them. But maybe that would have inevitably happened eventually anyway. Hard to say. And right now it didn't matter.

Ezra could see his . . . guests? Crew? Passengers? Well whatever they were, they were milling about the hangar curiously. He saw them on the camera footage from the hangar. One of them had found some kind of tool that was splitting open their cuffs, freeing their arms.

They were probably wondering why no one was coming to tell them what was going on. Well, they could wait a little longer, or figure it out themselves. Ezra figured he'd earned a few minutes of rest after saving their furry asses and talking an enemy into killing himself.

He collapsed into a chair and put a hand gingerly to the wound on his side. It hurt like crazy, but it probably wasn't fatal. As long as it didn't get infected.

Ezra stripped off his vest, the top part of his coveralls, and the raggedy shirt he wore underneath it and did his best to patch himself up. He used his shirt as bandages after tearing it up. It was with some regret that he did that. He'd had that shirt a long time. It was threadbare in places now but had done a good job insulating him from the cold in the Lothal winters.

Oh well. This had to be done. Maybe he could snag another shirt before he ditched this ship. That was on his to do list anyway. Loot the barracks.

Suddenly the bridge doors swooshed open. Ezra jumped and nearly fell out of his chair. He spun around, raising one blaster, then lowered it and calmed slightly, seeing that it was just the Wookies, and not any Imperials that may have gotten aboard, or been hiding aboard the whole time.

Careless, he berated himself. He should have remembered to seal the doors again before his little assault on Kessel. He would remember next time.

One of the Wookies, a large silverback who seemed to be their leader, grunted something at Ezra after he and all the rest finished staring incredulously at the young teen who was alone on the bridge, but for a corpse that had its brains splattered out.

Ezra sighed tiredly. "I don't speak Wookie."

The Wookie grunted again.

"No, howling slower isn't going to help," Ezra said. Then he realized he was being needlessly rude. "Look, I'm sorry. We're getting off on the wrong foot. I'm just a little exhausted. You wouldn't believe the day I've had. Well, maybe you would. You just saw the last bit of shit I pulled. How'd you like that rescue, by the way?"

The silver Wookie warbled something at him that sounded like approval.

"You can understand me, right?" asked Ezra deciding he should make sure of this now.

Silver nodded.

"Okay, good. Well, the situation is this. I kinda hijacked this ship from the Empire. And by kinda I mean I escaped from the cell they tossed me into, got to the bridge while they were running around looking for me and imaginary invaders that I tricked them into thinking existed, sealed off the bridge, and turned off the rest of the ship's life support systems," explained Ezra. "Then I gave them a chance to escape in the life pods, which as far as I can tell, they all took. Everyone except the guys who were on the bridge with me, because they were knocked out. Now they're locked in a closet. Except one guy who I needed because he could pilot this thing and I couldn't two hours ago. But he tried to kill me just now, and then, well, you wouldn't believe me if I told you what happened next, but as you can see, he's dead."

Two Wookies looked up from their inspection of the corpse and warbled something that seemed to be agreement with Ezra's assessment of the guy.

"Right now we're on a course for an Outer Rim planet called Tatooine," Ezra continued. "We should get there in about three hours. I picked that place because it's far away from any major transport routes and there's nothing there to interest the Empire enough to have much more than a token presence there. I figure we can abandon ship, use the TIEs to get to a space port, and use the credits we're going to loot from the barracks to buy passage off planet, hopefully before the Empire tracks their missing Star Destroyer to Tatooine. Sound good?"

There was something the Wookies wanted to communicate to Ezra, but he couldn't understand them and they couldn't make themselves very clear with pantomiming. They tried for a few minutes, before one of them finally got the bright idea to write down what they wanted to say in Basic. They even managed to find a computer that they could type it on.

We will call allies when we exit hyperspace.

That was what Silver typed.

"You're going to call someone to pick you up you mean?" asked Ezra.

Silver nodded.

"Okay. That's cool, I guess. Probably safer if you've got someone you can trust to get you away." Ezra had identified the problem of a whole bunch of Wookies trying to get off a sparsely populated planet like Tatooine, all at once. They weren't exactly inconspicuous, even if they split up. But that hadn't been his problem so he hadn't mentioned it.

Silver nodded again and typed another message.

You are welcome with us.

Ezra eyed him warily. "IIIIIIIIIII don't think so," he said, drawing out his answer slightly in his uncertainty. "Yeah. No. Probably not a good idea."

The last time he'd gone with a crew had been disastrous. Hence the reason he was here. Things always went much better when he acted on his own. He didn't know these Wookies, and even though he'd just saved them he had no reason to trust them. And he didn't even speak their language. They could understand him, yes, but he couldn't understand them, and that was just asking for frustration and problems.

To his relief, Silver didn't push him.

If you change your mind, you will still be welcome.

"Thanks big guy," said Ezra. "But I've got other plans. You know how it is."

Silver looked like he understood. Maybe he thought Ezra had a family he was keen on getting back to. Or just on getting back to his own home. Or alternately, maybe he thought Ezra was like one of those idiots of that Ghost crew that had been out to fight the Empire, and that he had secrets to guard and places to be or something. Whatever he thought, he was probably wrong.

Because the truth was, Ezra didn't know what he was going to do after getting off Tatooine. He was torn between going back to Lothal . . . or going someplace else entirely.

Lothal was home. It was familiar. He knew the ins and outs there, how to stay safe, or safe enough, anyway. Anywhere else was unfamiliar territory. But the Empire might be looking for him on Lothal after this stunt. And he might not be able to loot enough credits to get back there anyway.

Best not to make definite plans yet, he decided. Best stay flexible.

"Well, I've got some looting to do," Ezra said. "I think I know where the barracks are, if you want to come along."

Normally he would be reluctant to share a score, but for once Ezra was literally looking at more loot than he could carry. Even if he didn't find a lot of hard currency in the stormtroopers' personal belongings, this ship was full of stuff that could be converted into credits. Weapons, helmets, tech, rations, droids (all disabled before he left hyperspace the first time, because he remembered his run in with that cocky little droid on the Ghost).

To summarize it, Ezra could afford to be generous. This had nothing to do with the fact that these Wookies had even less than he did.

Silver stopped him with a grunt and typed another message.

You are injured.

Something clenched at Ezra's chest. He forced the feeling away. These Wookies weren't really concerned about him. Not really. Not beyond the passing interest you might show because of gratitude.

He gave a careless flutter of one hand to wave away Silver's concerns. "I've been hurt worse than this. It's never stopped me from stealing from the Empire before."

Something squelched beneath Ezra's foot. He looked down and jumped back, realizing that he'd just stepped into a blob of goo that had come out of the dead pilot's skull when that lunatic shot himself in the head.

Ezra quickly back peddled and struggled to keep his stomach under control. He averted his eyes, which landed on the blaster that the pilot had used to . . .

Actually, that was a really nice blaster.

It was compact, and very concealable. Upon closer inspection, Ezra saw that it had been hidden in a sheath near the pilot's ankle, under his trouser's leg. It hadn't occurred to him to wonder how the pilot had gotten a blaster before now, but that explained it.

Ezra bit his lower lip and glanced at Silver, who was still watching him. He quickly looked away, because the look in the Wookie's eyes was compassionate, almost caring, and Ezra couldn't stand that. Not now.

So what Ezra did next was half to wipe that look out of the silver Wookie's eyes and half because, well, he really liked that concealable little blaster. But he knelt down and removed it from the pilot's stiff, dead fingers, and for good measure, stole the holster too. It was custom made for that blaster, after all, no sense in separating the set.

When he looked back up at Silver, he saw that look had faded some.

That's right, old man. I'm not some kid who shrinks away at the sight of a corpse, he thought, ignoring the fact that there was still plenty of compassion in Silver's gaze, even though some of the concern had gone out at the sight of Ezra's little bit of grave robbing.

The barracks were easy enough to find. A number of Wookies had followed Ezra there and joined him in tearing them apart, looking for credits and other useful loot.

None of the Wookies were interested in clothes, but Ezra found himself a new set, because what he had been wearing would attract too much of the wrong kind of attention, beings that there was a rather large blotch of his own blood on one side, right above one hip.

When all was said and done, Ezra was wearing a pair of black trousers made for civilians rather than soldiers, but that were still plenty durable, and utilitarian. And a little on the large side, because, surprise, surprise, everyone who'd lived on this damn ship had been bigger than Ezra. He found a brown leather belt to keep them from falling down, and transferred his shin protector/knee pad piece over, as well as his nifty new concealable blaster. He replaced his old brain-stained boots, swapping them for a pair that had belonged to an officer. They were also a little too big, but not so much that it would get in his way. In time, Ezra would grow into them. Hopefully.

He found himself a new shirt, the same color as his hair, transferred over his gloves, energy slingshot, and old short-sleeved vest, and found a new jacket that was a medium shade of brown, and cut long so that it hung nearly down to his knees. He was able to find some holsters for the other blaster pistols he'd picked up, that kept his new weapons concealed under his jacket, so he wouldn't draw too much attention. He kept his old backpack but also picked up a new side bag with a shoulder sling, for the other loot he was picking up.

That ended up getting stuffed with a small medkit, so he could tend his side better when he had a chance, some odds and ends that he could sell to a fence or pawner for a good price, ration packs from a supply room, and good number of credit chips. More credits than Ezra had ever had in his life.

Individually, these soldiers weren't swimming in credits, but there were a lot of soldiers who'd lived in those barracks, and together, their pooled wealth amounted to a small fortune.

There was some time left over after the looting was done, Ezra returned to the bridge, with the Wookies who'd gone with him. There were more Wookies at the bridge now. Ezra guessed that they hadn't all gone at first because they hadn't known what to expect, but since there was only one measly human who they could easily squash occupying the ship with them, it was deemed safe.

A very young Wookie was there now, squacking and honking to Silver when Ezra entered. By the abrupt silence that followed the swoosh of the doors after he stepped in, and all the guilty looks aimed his way, he could tell they'd been talking about him.

That was gratitude for you.

"No, no, don't stop talking on my account," Ezra said. "I don't understand what you're saying anyway."

Someone had covered the dead pilot with a sheet, assumedly stolen from the barracks. And someone else, or maybe the same Wookie had cleaned up the computer Ezra had thrown up on, probably so the room wouldn't stink. That was good, since another Wookie, or at least he hoped it was a different Wookie, had brought in some boxes of rations, presumably scrounged from a supply room. The Wookies had torn into them, and wrappers were strewn around the place.

Ezra walked up and snagged two ration packs without any invitation, strode to the captain's seat, and sank into it like he owned the ship. Which he kind of did, for the moment.

He tore into his own rations, suddenly aware of how damn hungry he was. How long had it been since he'd eaten? He couldn't remember now. Not since he'd been back at his tower, before saving that ungrateful merchant from that treason charge, before that crazy speeder chase that ended with him temporarily joining up with those idiots on that Ghost ship, then getting abandoned by them right after he saved their lives.

Ezra's eating became more savage. Table manners, what little he'd had, went out the window as he wolfed down his food. When he finished one package, he ripped the next one open with his teeth and bit into it with abandon.

He was angry at himself. And the crew of the Ghost. Even though he completely understood why they'd done what they had done, and would have probably done the same thing if he was them, he was still mad. Because, well, if he was honest, he'd liked them. Kind of. Sabine, at least. And Hera had been decent. But if he ever saw that dumb hairless Wookie again, he just might light him on fire. And as for Mr. Tough Guy . . .

For some reason that felt like the biggest betrayal, and Ezra didn't know why. It wasn't like he had any kind of bond with that scruffy ponytailed man. Maybe it was because Ezra had thought that there'd been some respect between the two of them. It wasn't everyday you met someone else with the reflexes to ride speeders like they both had. That chase had been fun.

And that guy had kind of looked out for him during part of that blown rescue op. The first part of it.

But in the end, he'd left Ezra behind, like everyone else in Ezra's life always had.

Maybe what was really bothering Ezra was that his instincts had told him that Mr. Tough Guy had been a decent guy. The kind of guy it was okay to follow. It wasn't often that his instincts were wrong, so he guessed he was feeling betrayed by his own instincts. That must have been it.

No.

Ezra realized he had just misinterpreted his instincts. It hadn't been that ponytailed man they'd guided him toward. It had been that guy's stuff. The laser sword and the cube. The cube that had told him about that Force thing. That thing Ezra wanted to learn more about.

A warble from right at his elbow got his attention. Ezra looked down and saw the Wookie kid standing there, holding a cup of water out to him.

"For me?" asked Ezra.

The Wookie cub nodded and Ezra accepted the water.

"Thanks."

The Wookie cub gave him a big grin that somehow siphoned off a little of Ezra's anger and made him see there was no point in seething over it now. He'd settle up with the crew of the Ghost the next time he saw them. And somehow, he knew that there would be a next time.

Wulffwarro worried over the human cub. Despite the small human's assurances that he was fine on his own and could take care of himself, it was quite clear that he wasn't fully grown, and his instincts as a father were telling him that the boy really wasn't alright.

It wasn't just the injury on his side, or the way he'd looked so sick when he first regarded the corpse of that other human, whose brains had been shot out. Something was clearly bothering the little human beyond all that.

Wulffwarro might never find out what, because the boy was insistent on going his own way. After they exited hyperspace, the Wookies had sent out calls to several of their allies. The closest ones were on their way to pick them up now and would be there in half an hour tops. The human boy was about to take one of the TIE fighters and leave, to head down to the surface of Tatooine. And from there he planned to get passage elsewhere.

Wulffwarro didn't know where. He wondered where the boy planned to go. Somehow he didn't think that he had a family to go to.

He wondered what the human cub had done to be captured by the Empire in the first place. No matter what it had been, he knew the Empire couldn't have known how much trouble they were bringing on board when they decided to throw him into a cell.

A single boy, stealing an entire Star Destroyer was something he had never heard of happening before. The idea was too bizarre to even think of. How the boy had even conceived that idea, Wulffwarro would never know. Though there was something about him . . .

Wulffwarro had known people capable of extraordinary things once. During the Clone Wars and at the Battle of Kasshyyk, he'd fought alongside Jedi who did so many things that should have been impossible. This boy reminded him a bit of them, though if someone said to him that this boy was training to be one, he would have been surprised. This boy was far too thin. He looked unhealthy the way people who never had enough to eat looked unhealthy. If he'd been a Jedi's protégé, most likely he would have been better fed. Likewise if he was one of Fulcrum's agents.

And though Wulffwarro did consider trying harder to convince the boy to come with him, because he knew how valuable a recruit this boy could be, he stopped himself. Something told him that pushing too hard would be a Bad Idea. Something about this boy scared him. Wulffwarro knew without a doubt that this boy was very, very dangerous.

Despite that, if the boy needed help, Wulffwarro would come, and he made sure the human cub knew that before he departed. He and all his clanmates owed this boy their lives and freedom. He owed the boy his son's life. There was a debt he could never repay.

"So long, Silver," said the human cub, after pushing a ladder up to one of the TIEs in the hangar. Then he addressed Kitwarr who'd insisted on coming down to see his new hero off as well. "You too, little one. Stay out of trouble."

Kitwarr warbled agreement. Wulffwarro privately thought that it was the little human who was more likely to get in trouble than his well behaved son. But even if he'd said so, the little human would not have understood.

So Wulfwarro reached out and placed a hand on the human cub's head instead, gently ruffling his hair, as he would have one of his own nephews, or one of the younglings of his tribe.

"Safe travels, little warrior," he said, even though he knew his words would not be understood. But he could tell that the little warrior understood the sentiment.

For a second, the little warrior's eyes shone overbright, like he might start crying from that single affectionate gesture. But he blinked quickly and gave them a smile, then put on a black pilot's helmet and quickly scaled the ladder to the top of the TIE. He gave them, and the rest of the Wookies who'd come to see him off, a grand wave then dropped down into the cockpit. Seconds later, the TIE lifted off the ground, coasted out the hangar door, and disappeared into space.

Regret briefly thrummed through Wulffwarro. Scary or not, dangerous or not, the little warrior had still been a child. And he had still saved all the Wookies. Wulffwarro wished that there had been something more he could have done for the little warrior. But he knew that short of kidnapping the boy and forcing him to come with them for his own good, there was nothing else he could have done.

So he simply wished the little warrior well. He had the feeling that they would meet again.

It was Ezra's first time piloting a TIE but he picked up the hang of it pretty quickly. It was so easy that even an Imperial could do it, after all. He'd always known it wouldn't be a problem for him.

Ezra was still undecided about whether or not to try to make it back to Lothal, but had decided his first move would be to head to a space port and take the first flight off Tatooine he could get. Or at least the first flight that wasn't to someplace ridiculously dangerous and crawling with Imperials. It would be better to be away from here by the time the Empire came looking for the remains of their Star Destroyer, which Silver had promised to set for a collision course in Tatooine's endless desert.

Once he was on another planet, Ezra decided he would lay low for awhile and think it over before making any final decision.

He entered the planet's atmosphere and fiddled with the TIE's nav computer, trying to find the coordinates of a town with a space port, but something was off with it. The TIE seemed to think it was on Lothal and was bringing up an error on the nav screen. Ezra sighed and tried to figure out how to adjust the settings to see if he could switch it to another planet.

But then, without warning, he slumped forward, overwhelmed with dizziness. The TIE was suddenly too stuffy. He gasped for air, and in panic wondered if something was wrong with the wound on his side, if it was worse than he'd thought. Then the dizziness cleared and his vision shifted.

He was somewhere else, probably lightyears from the TIE he was flying now. Another planet, one that was stark and industrial, or at least the city he was in was. Ezra ran at full speed toward the edge of the roof he'd been running across and leapt out into space. That should have been certain death. He was so high in the air, and the next building was far, too far away. And there was traffic between the two roofs, heavy traffic. Hovercars sped by, but somehow didn't hit him. He just managed to slip through the impossibly small gap between two of them, earning himself some angry honking from the drivers. His feet touched down on the opposite side's roof, already running again.

It was only then that he realized someone was right behind him, no beside him, catching up with him. A blond teenager, about his own age kept pace with him, having followed him in that impossible jump. Somehow that realization brought no surprise. It felt like this was right somehow. Like it was natural for this other teen to be at his side.

Then the scene changed.

He was in a cantina, a dark and smoky cantina. And he wasn't alone. The blond teen stood by him, and he was laughing at something Ezra had said. His blue eyes danced merrily and a boyish grin split his face. Ezra dug an elbow into his side, not too hard, just teasingly and called to the barkeep for another round of drinks.

Another shift.

He and the blond teen were standing in front of a very large group of stormtroopers, all of whom were pointing blaster rifles at them. And Ezra and his . . . friend? Associate? Ally? Well, whatever the other boy was to him, he was bickering with him. They were ignoring the stormtroopers and having their own little argument.

"I'm gonna do it," Ezra heard himself say.

"No," the other teen said, sounding harassed. "Don't do it."

"Oh come on," wheedled Ezra.

"No."

"Look at all them!"

"Ezra, just no. The situation isn't desperate enough for you to do that."

"Oh alright. We'll do it your way."

And then Ezra and the other teen both drew weapons. In his mind, Ezra did a double take at the sight of them, because bloody hell, they were cool. They had laser swords like the one Ezra had found in Mr. Tough Guy's room. Lightsabers, he'd called them. Only theirs were differently colored.

The blond boy was using a green lightsaber. And Ezra was using two lightsabers instead of one. Their blades were shorter than the blond boy's green saber, or Mr. Tough Guys's blue one, but they seemed a better length for Ezra.

And both his blades were blood red.

The stormtroopers open fired and Ezra and his companion immediately began deflecting the blaster fire back at them. Out the corner of his eye, he saw the blond boy raise the hand that wasn't holding his lightsaber, pushing his palm out toward the stormtroopers, and at that motion, the stormtroopers in front of him went flying as though they'd been pushed.

Then, one final time, the vision changed.

Ezra was still fighting but this time he was alone. He was in a place that was dark and cold, and he knew there was danger here.

Someone appeared out of the shadows and raised a blaster. Ezra didn't give them time to get off a shot. Up went his hand, like he'd seen the blond boy do in that last section of the hallucination. But instead of being pushed, the person in the shadows rose in the air, kicking their feet and clawing at their neck, like they couldn't breathe. Like they were being choked.

Ezra made a slight motion with his hand, like he was dismissing them. He heard a snap. And suddenly the struggles ceased and a corpse dropped to the floor.

Ezra strode forward with deadly purpose. Anyone who got in his way would meet the same fate. There was something he had to do, something so important. He would kill anyone who got in his way.

And right before the vision faded out, Ezra got the briefest glimpse of his own reflection, in what must have been a window. His face was older. Not too much older, he didn't look like a full grown adult yet. But he was definitely a few years older. The blaster mark that the dead pilot had given him today had left a scar. He'd picked up a second one underneath it somehow, so together the two scars looked a bit like a loth-cat's whiskers. But those were barely noticeable next to another feature. Ezra's eyes. They were no longer the heavenly blue color he'd inherited from his parents. Instead they were a sinister, glowing yellow.

"Shit!" Ezra snapped back to reality at the exact same instant his TIE crashed into a cliff wall. Something crunched. And something else shattered. Ezra's body was slammed forward, into the controls. Then everything went dark. And this time Ezra didn't dream.

Afterwards

Bossk had seen a lot of things in his time as a bounty hunter. But never before had he seen Boba Fett looking like someone had ripped the leg off a bantha and slapped him across the face with the bloody end of it. But that was how Boba looked right now, minus the blood, as the human stood there gaping at his datapad.

"What's the matter with you?" Bossk demanded, inviting himself up to Boba's table, even though the two of them weren't strictly friends. If Fett had a problem with it, they'd simply come to blows. Wasn't like that had never happened between the two of them.

He tried not to think about how, looking so stricken like that, Boba looked much younger. Bossk had known him when he'd been a youth and just getting started. But he didn't want to remember that right now. It reminded him a little too much of that kid he'd run into on Lothal last week. And he'd prefer not to think of that shorty right now.

Thankfully, Boba provided a decent distraction, sliding his datapad across the table rather than deigning to answer verbally.

Bossk made the mistake of taking a drink at the exact moment he looked at the screen. He ended up spitting the mouthful out, all over an unfortunate passerby.

The unfortunate passerby drew himself up in outrage, but then apparently recognized the two bounty hunters, shut up, and shuffled quickly away. Bossk didn't even notice. He was too busy gaping in disbelief at Fett's datapad.

"This a joke?" he asked finally.

"It's an official Imperial posting," said Boba. "It should be legit. Except it's . . ."

"Damn ridiculous."

"Exactly," Fett agreed.

"The Empire want a war with the Hutts or something? Because that's what they're going to get, putting a bounty out on Jabba the mother of all Hutts," scoffed Bossk.

"You see what the charges are?" asked Boba.

"Hijacking a Star Destroyer?" Bossk shook his head. "Like that's even possible."

Boba nodded. "Good payout though."

"If it's legit," said Bossk.

"We both know there's no way Jabba himself actually hijacked a Star Destroyer," agreed Boba.

"Not that that would matter if they've really pinned that price on him," said Bossk.

The two bounty hunters sat in silence, mulling this strange turn of events over for a few minutes.

Finally, Bossk stood. "We're going to need to recruit a few more if we want to collect any bounty on Jabba."

Boba stood too with a curt nod. Bossk knew they were both thinking the same thing.

Tatooine was about to become a blood bath.

Some Notes From The Author

This fic was written as a response to people who flamed my fic "Stray" calling it too dark, disturbing, and inappropriate amongst other things, after I posted a chapter about Ezra eating out of a garbage can. They were fine with him doing drugs in the chapter before, but apparently eating from the garbage is flame worthy. The advice that my writing mentor gave me for dealing with people like that was to retaliate with content even more extreme, working it into the best story I could possibly write.

That turned out to be really good advice, because I've had so much fun writing this chapter, and planning a storyline where Ezra ends up walking down a very dark path, at points not even realizing how far into the dark he's going, and then later, often not caring. But at the same time not giving himself over to the Dark Side completely, because he has his own reasons not to, even though those reasons aren't necessarily the right ones.

This fic's name comes from the song "aLIEz" from the Aldnoah Zero Soundtrack. Say what you will about that anime, the music they wrote for it was top of the line. And the lyrics of "aLIEz" fit how I'm trying to portray Ezra so well that in my mind, it's his theme song in this AU.

As a final note, this fic will be referencing and may contain spoilers for Ezra's Gamble, an official junior novel set shortly before Spark of Rebellion, in which Ezra met Bossk the bounty hunter. And the little Afterwards piece at the end of this chapter was not an omake, it's part of the story.

Please leave a review on your way out. Flames will be used to blow up Imperial munitions.