Quick Author Note: Sorry for taking so long to get an update. Classes have been brutal this semester. But the end is in sight!

On another note, the theme song for this chapter is "This Game." Specifically the LeeandLie English cover of it. Check it out on YouTube. :)

Chapter 5: This Game

They landed at the Mos Espa spaceport late that night, and paid the port fees for a week's stay. Ezra wasn't sure how long they'd be there, but a week seemed reasonable. And Luke said that the city was having some trouble with Sand People, who sounded like big trouble, so it was safer to dock in the city than outside the city's outskirts, even if they could have parked there for free. There was no need to tempt fate when they didn't have to, and it clearly made Luke feel better to not be risking a confrontation with those Sand People.

They flipped a coin to see which of them would get the top bunk, at Ezra's insistence, even though Luke offered just to take the bottom bunk, since Ezra had been using the top one until now. Ezra ended up winning the coin toss, but if he'd lost he would have been a good sport about it. He liked Luke. He wanted things to be fair between them.

Sharing the small cabin was odd. Ezra couldn't remember the last time he'd slept so close to another person. He guessed it must have been back when his parents were still alive and he sometimes slipped into bed with them after a nightmare. Ezra was a little worried that he would have a hard time sleeping with someone else right below him, since his time on the streets had ingrained it in him that someone that close while he was completely vulnerable was a Very Bad Thing. His worries turned out not to be completely unfounded. He did have trouble drifting off, but once he fell asleep, he stayed asleep. So it seemed that his subconscious mind had accepted Luke sharing his sleeping space, at least.

They woke up early so that they could modify the Heavenly Blue's weapons system, incorporating the TIE's weaponry which Ezra had scavenged. He and Luke discussed it briefly before deciding to keep the meteor chaser under the pilot's control, and installing the TIE's canon so that it was under the copilot's control and could swivel to target enemies either in front of them or to the rear.

"It's the strangest thing," Luke remarked as they worked. "It's like something similar used to be right here but was taken out. All the framework, the wirework, it's all here, just waiting for a weapon to be hooked up to."

"It's nice when it's easy," said Ezra. And it really was. It took them far less time than he'd expected. They were finished before the junk shops even opened.

"So, what exactly are we looking for again?" asked Luke as they ate breakfast.

"Pre-Empire stuff," answered Ezra. "Datapads or anything else that might have anything about the Jedi on it. And any of these components."

He activated the holocron and had it bring up a hologram of the harder to find parts that were needed to build a lightsaber.

"That one right there will be the most difficult," Ezra said, tapping the picture that hung in the air. "It's called a kyber crystal. They're used to power lightsabers –"

"Lightsabers? We're making lightsabers?" Luke's face lit up.

"We're getting lightsabers somehow," said Ezra. "I've seen it. But I've always found that if you want something to happen, you have to make it happen. So instead of just sitting around, assuming that someday they'll come to us, we're going to start looking for what we need to make them."

"Sounds good," said Luke. "Are we looking for anything else?"

Ezra shrugged. "If there is anything else, I think we'll know it when we see it. Or rather when we feel it. I plan on relying on the Force to help us find what we need. I'm not sure how well that will work. But if that doesn't work, we can always try looking for things the old fashioned way."

"By digging through piles and piles of junk?" Luke shuddered. "Let's hope that the Force is on our side today."

At first it didn't seem like it was. When Ezra and Luke got started, they made their way through the town, past junk shop after junk shop, pausing in front of each building for a few moments, trying to feel if this one held what they were looking for. And every time, after a few moments, they would look at each other and see it in the other's eyes that he hadn't felt anything either. Then they would move on.

Ezra could tell that Luke didn't have a lot of faith in this approach. The slightly taller teen didn't complain or anything. In fact, he wanted it to work. He just didn't think it would. Ezra wasn't sure if he was able to tell all that, just by reading Luke's body language, or if he was feeling it in the Force. Maybe it was a bit of both.

He, however, had a feeling that this approach was going to work. It was just another version of falling back to relying on his instincts, something he'd been doing for years, without ever even knowing that there was some greater power lending him luck and guiding him. This method had served him well time after time. And his instincts were telling him that it was going to work for him now.

But by the time lunch rolled around, and they still hadn't gone into a single store, Ezra had to admit it was taking longer than he thought it would.

"Should we buy something to eat?" Luke asked. "Maybe go back to that soup shack we passed a little while back and take a break? And maybe after that start browsing through some of the shops even if they don't feel right?"

Ezra hadn't really been planning on eating lunch. Even though he currently had enough money and food for three meals a day, it was in his nature to save whatever he could. Honestly, to him, eating two meals a day, like he'd been doing since Alderaan felt a little wrong. Like he was being wasteful.

"Let's keep going a little longer," said Ezra, to put off having to decide whether to have a meal or skip it. He wouldn't ask Luke to skip it, but if he tried to, he knew they'd have an awkward conversation. Maybe it would be easier just to eat a lunch today. Something small. Or something that he could save part of and eat that as his dinner. "We can stop at the next food place we come to."

But as fate would have it, the thought of lunch was soon the last thing on either teen's mind.

They passed four more junk shops. But at the fourth one, they paused, as they had in front of every other one.

And that was when Ezra felt it. And heard it. There was a tugging at the edge of his mind, pulling him into the shop. And he heard that sound, that smooth, high pitched tone that he had come to realize was associated with the Force. His eyes snapped to Luke's and he could see immediately that Luke felt it too.

Grins lit both their faces and they spoke to each other in unison. "This one."

The shop didn't look promising. It was dark and grungy. Scraps and piles of broken stuff were stacked haphazardly on counters, in corners, and from floor to ceiling in some places. It kind of formed walls, or at least barricades. On a world with heavy Imperial influence, it probably would have been deemed a safety hazard, and the shop owner would have been fined or forced to shut down when the Empire confiscated all his assets.

"Hello?" Luke called as they made their way amongst the junk. "Anyone here?"

Ezra made a slight face at the idea of relying on a shopkeeper for help. Any shopkeeper, let alone one who left his wares piled all about like this. His interactions with shop owners in the past had always been rather unpleasant. And he had the feeling that they weren't going to get better anytime soon.

"I'm here! In the back! If you want help you come here to me!" called a rude, obnoxious voice, causing Luke and Ezra to trade glances again.

Ezra shrugged. Luke looked a little uncertain but nodded and started in the direction of the voice. Ezra followed. His instincts weren't warning him of any danger. And he couldn't pinpoint what the Force had drawn them to. In fact, checking out whoever had been speaking seemed like the right move.

He had second thoughts, however, when they found the speaker. It was an alien of some bizarre type that Ezra had never seen before. It was short and squat. So stout that it looked like its wings wouldn't support it. Its skin was a dusty blue, underneath a layer of grime. And it was staring at Luke like it had just seen a ghost.

"Ani?" the alien asked. "Little Ani?"

Luke glanced back at Ezra uncertainly.

"No. No, of course, you're not him," the alien said, as he realized his mistake. You're far too young. Far too young to be Anakin."

"Anakin?" Luke suddenly straightened up. "You mean Anakin Skywalker? You knew my father?"

The alien looked surprised. "A father? Anakin? Anakin could not be your father. He was a Jedi."

"What?" Luke and Ezra asked together.

The alien started muttering to himself. Ezra got the feeling that this guy might not be entirely all there in the head.

"He did have that woman though. Maybe. Maybe he was a Jedi and a father. I never really bought into the Jedi being the saints people used to think they were. But they didn't deserve that. Little Ani didn't deserve that."

"That," Ezra realized, was probably the complete and utter annihilation that the Empire had delivered to the Jedi Order. The details might not be part of any public record, but people knew it all the same. The Jedi had been the Empire's first victims.

"You're saying my father was a Jedi?" demanded Luke, striding forward. "What – what are you saying? He wasn't a Jedi. He was a pilot."

"No. He was a Jedi. It was a Jedi that took him away, and he was a Jedi when he came back," said the alien, like he was looking for a fight.

"You're not making any sense!"

Luke was not much of a smooth talker. But Ezra had known that already. It looked like he would have to intervene here.

"Hey, Mr . . . uh, I didn't catch your name . . ." Ezra prompted before Luke could get too red in the face.

"Watto," the alien said, scowling slightly at Ezra.

"Nice to meet you," Ezra said. "I'm Ezra. And this is Luke Skywalker. Anakin Skywalker's son."

"Your mother had to be that woman. The brown haired one who came with the Jedi," said Watto, looking sharply back at Luke.

"So you knew my mother too?" Luke asked. "What was her name?"

"How can I be bothered to learn the names of everyone who marries one of my ex-slaves?"

Luke went rigid. Ezra felt . . . something. Waves of disbelief and anger rolling off his friend.

"What?" asked Luke. "What?"

Ezra grabbed his arm to steady him. He didn't think Luke was going to do something wild like attack Watto, but he didn't want to take the risk.

"Hey, look . . . we might not even be talking about the same Anakin Skywalker here –"

"How many Anakin Skywalkers could there possibly have been?" demanded Luke.

"Yeah, well . . . why don't we just hear what this guy has to say?" Ezra said. He was pretty sure they were talking about the same Anakin too, and had just thrown that suggestion out there to try to put some distance between Luke and the idea that his father might have been a slave. He couldn't even imagine a bombshell like that being dropped on him. If he'd found out that one of his parents had been a slave, and suddenly found himself face to face with their former owner, he'd have probably already been plotting the slave owner's demise.

And if Luke wanted to kill this guy, Ezra would help him. But once this grimy little alien was dead, any information he might have would be lost to them. He tried to will Luke into understanding this, wordlessly. And to his surprise, it kind of seemed to work. Luke stopped radiating anger and disbelief, and sort of broadcasted back to Ezra reluctant understanding.

"You're right. Yeah. We'll listen," said Luke.

"And you'll tell us, right?" Ezra asked Watto. He tried to put some emphasis behind that request.

Watto scowled at him. "You. You are definitely his sons. Don't bother trying to Jedi mind trick me into telling you everything. I'm a Toydarian. Mind tricks don't work on me."

Luke and Ezra both tensed. And Ezra started to think maybe they'd have to kill this guy after all. If he knew they were Force sensitives, and thought they were Jedi, that made him a danger to them.

"Okay," said Ezra. "No mind tricks then. How about money?"

Watto looked both interested and confused. "Money?"

"How much is it worth? Everything you know about Anakin Skywalker?"

Watto seemed internally conflicted with himself for a minute. He opened his mouth and closed it several times, before finally deciding. "No money. Not just for a story. Not to Ani's sons."

Ezra didn't bother correcting his misconception, and hoped that Luke knew better than to either. When you were trying to persuade someone, it never paid to call them out over the little things they got wrong.

"After the story though, maybe we'll do business," said Watto. "I have a few things. Things I set aside to sell to Ani next time he came back. But that was before. Before the Empire. But I kept them, still. In case he came by needing them."

Ezra felt a thrum of interest at the mention of those things, even though he didn't know what they were. He'd been starting to think that the Force had drawn him and Luke here just to hear what Watto had to say. But now it seemed it was also possible he might have some Jedi artifacts to sell them too.

So, Ezra and Luke sat through Watto's story. A story that started when he won two slaves, mother and son, named Shmi and Anakin Skywalker, in a bet on a podrace.

Watto told them about "their father" in great detail. How he'd been a good boy. (A good slave.) Hardworking and useful. Very good with tools, and droids, and building. And at podracing. His reflexes had been phenomenal. He was one of the rare humans capable of podracing. And he'd been the first human ever to with the Boonta Eve Race, winning his freedom in the process, because that Jedi had come snooping about, and convinced Watto to bet Anakin's freedom against a ship.

Anakin had gone after that. Left Tatooine, leaving his mother behind, and running off to the stars with the Jedi, a brown haired girl, some sort of idiotic alien, and an R2 droid. Years later he came back, nearly full grown, with the same human girl by his side, looking for his mother, who Watto had sold to a moisture farmer named Lars who freed her and married her. Then let her get captured by the much feared Sand People, Ezra had heard tell of. Anakin had arrived in time to reclaim her body before the Tusken Raiders could dispose of it. Then he left again, before her funeral, and Watto had never seen him again.

He'd kept track of him though. The Clone Wars began, and Anakin Skywalker was constantly in the news. Until the war ended and the Jedi were declared traitors, and a blanket order for their execution was issued.

Watto hovered over to some sort of lock box that was stuck haphazardly in a huge pile of junk, and banged on its side, making the door spring open.

"I came to acquire these sometime after Shmi died. I held on to them, thinking I could sell them to Anakin when he came back again. They belonged to Jedi, so the Jedi might pay a high price to get them back, no? But then the Jedi were no more, but I held them still. If Anakin came back, he might have need for them himself."

Watto pulled a beat up leather bag out of the lock box and thumped it down on the sole square foot of free counter space. Then he upended it.

Ezra's eyes lit up. And he knew Luke's were doing the same beside him. He could actually feel Luke's excitement, cutting through the shock and numbness that had descended on him as he heard Watto's story. His anger had disappeared as the tale wore on, probably because he'd come to the same conclusion that Ezra had about Watto. The alien might have been a slave owner, and probably had a mountain of faults. But he had genuinely liked Anakin. Possibly even cared for him. And proof of this lay on the counter before them.

Lightsabers.

Not one, but two of them. They had to be worth a fortune on the black market, whether they worked or not. But Watto had been holding onto them, keeping them in reserve for Anakin in case he ever came back.

There were a few other things there too. A datapad, another holocron, and some other small piece of equipment that Ezra didn't recognize. All three of those items had the emblem of the Jedi Order emblazoned on them, advertizing their origins or former owners. But the lightsabers were clearly the queens of the collection.

"Do they both work?" Ezra asked.

Watto nodded. "Test them and see."

The two teens both reached out to take one. Ezra glanced toward the door, making sure no one else had entered the junk shop, then locked eyes with Luke. His friend was grinning in anticipation.

There was no spoken signal between the two, but they both powered up the lightsabers in unison.

Luke's glowed green, just like in Ezra's vision. And Ezra's, well, he'd expected it to be red, like what he'd seen. But instead it was blue. Like Mr. Tough Guy's lightsaber had been, Ezra thought with a little bit of distaste.

But still, a lightsaber was a lightsaber. He couldn't dislike, even if it did bear some resemblance to the weapon of someone he didn't like.

"These are so cool," said Luke, staring at his in awe.

Ezra agreed. But he knew better than to voice as much. At least before settling on a price for them. He powered down his lightsaber and looked at Watto.

"How much?" he asked. "For the lot of it?"

Watto looked back and forth between Luke and Ezra several times. His gaze lingered longer on Luke, and the childlike joy on the blond teen's face as he stared at his lightsaber like a kid with a new toy. Then, finally, the Toydarian named a number.

A very reasonable number.

Normally Ezra would have haggled a little. That's how transactions like this usually worked. But not this time. Because the price Watto was giving them was far, far below what he could ask for even one of the lightsabers on the black market. Trying to get him to go lower would have been wrong.

So Ezra nodded once then started counting out the money. He placed it down on the counter next to Watto for the Toydarian to double check. But he wasn't entirely surprised when the Toydarian simply swept the credits into a drawer without bothering to recount them.

"Wow. I just can't get over this," said Luke. "I mean, I've never had anything this awesome before. And it's mine now? For real?"

"For real," said Ezra, smiling softly. "But you should probably turn it off now. You can play with it more on the ship."

"Oh. Sorry." Luke powered his lightsaber down. Then he looked at Watto. And it seemed he knew too, that Watto had practically given them these weapons. And that he'd been saving them for Anakin all these years. "Thank you, Watto. Really and truly. Thank you."

Watto waved away his thanks and hovered away, clearly dismissing them. From his expression, Ezra got the idea that the Toydarian wanted to be alone now. "Listen to your brother. He's got a better head on his shoulders than you."

Ezra smirked and elbowed Luke. Luke scowled, but it was obvious he was glad that the mood had been lightened.

"Come on, little brother," said Ezra. "Time to go. You were hungry before we got here. I bet you're starving now."

"Yeah," said Luke, and he laughed slightly. Probably to cover up the fact that he was only half a step away from crying. He needed some time to think about all he'd just learned, Ezra knew. Judging by all the emotions that were pouring off him, Luke didn't even know how to feel about this.

They started to walk toward the exit. But then something stopped Ezra.

It was like fingertips at the edge of his mind. A dark but soothing lure, leading him back the way he'd come.

"Ezra?" asked Luke, confused when Ezra stopped following him.

"One second," said Ezra. He didn't bother wondering why Luke didn't feel this thing that was calling out to him. Luke was hardly in a state of mind where he could concentrate.

The tugging led him toward the corner of the room, toward a huge pile of junk. His instincts told him to reach into it. So Ezra did, sliding his hand in the crevice between an old radiator and what seemed to be half a pressurizer. His fingers closed around something hard and smooth, and about the size of his fist. Carefully, Ezra pulled his hand out of the pile and took a look at what he'd found.

It looked like a holocron, he saw immediately. But instead of being a cube, this one was a pyramid. And it was shaded black and red.

"How much for this?" he called out to Watto.

"That? It's junk. Doesn't do anything," said Watto. "You can have it for fifteen credits."

Again, Ezra held off on haggling. He counted out the money and left it on the counter. Then he and Luke left the shop.

"You okay?"

Luke looked down from his perch on top of the Heavenly Blue. Ezra was looking up at him, trying not to look concerned, and mostly succeeding. But Luke could feel it. Ezra was a little worried about him.

And Luke had to admit he had a reason to be. He felt a little guilty as he realized that of course his behavior would affect his new friend.

After they left the junk shop, Ezra and Luke had found a cantina to eat lunch in. Luke hadn't said much while they waited for their food. He'd been lost in his thoughts. There had been so much to take in. He'd learned more about his father in half an hour, from a complete stranger, than his uncle had ever told him, in all the years Luke lived with him. And not everything he'd learned had been good. But when it was all said and done, and Luke finally figured out how he was feeling, he could honestly say that he'd never been more proud to be the son of Anakin Skywalker.

And he'd never hated the Empire more than he did right now.

His father had clawed his way up from nothing to become a Jedi Knight. Then he'd been killed. Most likely on the day the Empire was founded.

If that was true, his father had died the day before Luke was born.

"I'm okay," said Luke, starting slightly when he realized that Ezra had leapt up beside him. "I was just thinking things over."

Ezra nodded carefully. "It was a lot to take in."

"I got answers to questions I didn't even know to ask," said Luke. "But now I have lots more questions and no way to get answers."

Ezra didn't respond to that. Then again, there was really no way to respond to that.

"I think the Empire killed my father," said Luke.

"Probably," said Ezra. His tone of voice let Luke know that he'd been thinking this over too. It wasn't really too difficult to work out. Anakin Skywalker had been a Jedi. The Empire killed all the Jedi. And his uncle had always said his father died near the end of the Clone Wars. That could have been a lie through and through, except Watto had been keeping track of Anakin. And he made it sound like Anakin had been alive right up until the Republic died and the Empire rose.

"So, I guess we have that in common," Luke said bitterly.

"We have a lot in common," said Ezra. "Including our reasons to hate the Empire. And our means to fight it."

Luke looked at him and felt a thrum of agony in his chest. "Let's get out of here, Ezra."

Ezra looked at him with a vaguely curious expression, clearly waiting for Luke to elaborate. So Luke did.

"Let's get the hell of this rock," Luke said. "I'm so sick of this damn planet. All this sand and nothingness. I want to get out of here and start doing something to make a difference. And I want to do it now."

They'd paid port fees for the whole week. And their original plan had been to stay in town awhile, looking through the city's junk shops for other useful things. But Ezra didn't say a word about any of that.

Instead he stood and held out a hand to Luke, an offer to help him up. Luke took it and let Ezra haul him to his feet. And together they jumped off the side of the ship, and landed on the spaceport floor below them.

They entered their ship and made a beeline to the cockpit. Luke slumped down in the pilot seat, while Ezra took the copilot's chair. They didn't speak a word as Luke did the preflight checks then took off, raising the ship out of the spaceport, above the planet, then finally out of Tatooine's atmosphere.

Space stretched out in front of them, and Luke felt a thrill just thinking about it. He was finally leaving Tatooine. He was finally free. He was off on an adventure with his new best friend, and they were going to make the Empire pay.

But . . . Luke had no idea where to start. Or where they were going for that matter.

"Um, where to?" he asked Ezra, finally breaking the silence.

"Well," said Ezra. "How do you feel about going to Lothal?"

Kanan stared wearily at the two droids that had somehow gotten aboard their ship in all the confusion. An annoying gold protocol droid, and an old astromech. Great. Just what they needed.

"Karabast! We lost the Disruptors but we picked up these two hunks of junk?" raged Zeb. "Blast it all!"

"Take it easy, Zeb," said Sabine. "At least we all made it out in one piece."

Though that had been a near thing, and they all knew it. Getting into the bay where the mysterious cargo Fulcrum had told them needed to be grabbed had been impossible to do by stealth. For their team, anyway. So Sabine had rigged some explosives to blow the doors out, and they'd tried for a smash and grab. But they hadn't had enough time. Minister Tua had figured out that them sending her to the wrong bay had been a distraction too quickly, and rushed back to the right one. And hearing the explosion had brought more troops and guards running. The job had gone south, and they'd had to run, leaving behind all of the crates. And from what Sabine had heard, they were planning on using those old T-7s as prototypes, and starting new manufacture of them on Lothal.

All in all, that chalked this mission up to a colossal failure. Which was exactly what they needed, what with moral aboard the Ghost being as low as it was these days.

They weren't in the middle of a losing streak, just to be clear. They had more successes than failures lately. And they'd had a lot of missions lately, with really good intel. The jobs had been coming nonstop since that other Rebel cell stole that Star Destroyer, and with it, the priceless cache of information it contained. For the first time in memory, the Ghost's coffers were full. And then some. Just last week they'd buried a couple crates of emergency supplies in case the time ever came that they were in need of it. That cache had included fuel, power cells, blasters, and a whole lot of credit chips.

But even with all their successes, the mood on the Ghost had not reflected it. Because, Kanan realized, even though they won all these small battles, it felt like they lost all the ones that really mattered. Like not saving the Wookiees. Losing the kid. And now losing these Ion Disruptors.

The astromech droid suddenly started beeping. Kanan's binary left something to be desired, but he was able to make out a few words, like "owner" and "reward."

"The little guy says that he's very important to his owner, who he's sure will pay handsomely to get them back," Sabine translated.

Kanan gave a huff of exasperation as Zeb stormed out of the cargo hold. More credits. That for once they didn't need. They wouldn't turn them down, obviously, but . . . well Kanan didn't know.

"Get his owner's contact information," Kanan ordered. "We'll run a check on him before we make any final decisions. And in the meantime, put a couple restraining bolts on those droids."

He needed to report their failure to Hera, who would in turn have to relay it to Fulcrum.

Ezra didn't know how much he'd missed Lothal until he saw it again, when the Heavenly Blue broke out of hyperspace right above the planet. The golden green and blue planet, swirling with white clouds brought a smile to his face.

"There it is," he told Luke. "My home planet."

"It's pretty," said Luke, looking like he really meant it. "Very green."

That wasn't exactly true. The grass on Lothal was more yellowish-brown than green, and the view from space reflected this. But he guessed that to someone whose entire planet consisted of a desert wasteland, Lothal did look pretty lush.

"And, we're here to mess with the Empire?" Luke asked. "Or because you had some stuff to take care of here?"

Ezra gave him a look. "We're here to mess with the Empire. I didn't leave anything behind on this planet. Nothing I couldn't walk away from. Or that didn't already walk away from me."

"Right. Sorry," Luke said quickly.

Ezra slapped his shoulder. And vaguely wondered when he'd gotten into the habit of touching other people to convey something. "Don't be sorry. We're not here to be sorry. We're here to take revenge on the Empire. For what it's done to both our families."

"Right," said Luke again.

"And we're here specifically because I'm familiar with the planet," said Ezra. "And the Empire's workings here. There's all kinds of places to sabotage and cause them trouble: the Imperial academy, their mining operations, their Capital City headquarters – whoa, look out!"

Luke had felt it too. Something they couldn't see yet, but something that they needed to move to get away from. Even as Ezra spoke, the other teen had grabbed the controls and jetted forward.

Right as another ship appeared out of hyperspace, right on top of their previous position.

Luke laughed a little in exhaultation. "That was close."

"No kidding," said Ezra. "Good thing we're both Force sensitive. Very good thing. Or else we'd probably both be dead right now."

A button on the dashboard lit up. The comms.

"They're trying to contact us," said Ezra.

"Probably to apologize," said Luke, and seemed oblivious to the look of disbelief Ezra sent his way. He went to answer. Ezra stopped him.

"Voice only," Ezra said. Something still didn't feel quite right to him. Besides, whoever was on that ship didn't need to know what they looked like.

"Ok," said Luke. Then he answered the holocall being made to them, after setting it so that the people they were communicating with could only hear them, but not see them.

The same could not be said for the other party though. A screen on the dashboard showed the people hailing them. Who included one Minister Tua, with that stupid hat on her head, and an irate look on her face.

"Unidentified starship," Tua said crossly. "Identify yourself immediately or be fired upon."

"What the heck?" asked Luke. "We didn't do anything! You guys were the ones who almost crashed into us."

"They don't care," muttered Ezra, soft enough that hopefully the comm didn't pick that up. "They're Imperials."

"Identify yourself immediately or be fired upon!" Tua repeated. "By order of the Empire!"

"This is starship –" Luke started.

"Don't tell them the ship's real name!" Ezra hissed.

"Starship . . . A New Hope," stuttered out Luke. "Please hold your fire."

"So that we can shoot first," muttered Ezra, as he began powering up the weapons system.

"State your business in this quadrant," Tua ordered.

"I – er – we –" Luke struggled to come up with a legitimate excuse for them being there. "Uh, smuggling."

Ezra's head snapped up and he stared at him incredulously.

Tua's reaction was quite similar. "What?"

"No! I mean, that's not why we're here. I, uh, was joking!"

"Starship A New Hope, you will power down and prepare for docking immediately," said Tua. "If you resist –"

"Enough talk!" snarled Ezra, as he finished targeting the Imperial ship and started firing.

"What are you doing?" asked Luke, looking shell shocked.

"What we came here to do," Ezra said, and flipped the comms off, because their conversation was no longer any of the Imperials' business. "Now are you going to take evasive action, or would you prefer to just sit here until they start returning fire?"

That woke Luke up. He swung the ship around, getting behind it, since it seemed to have much less firepower in the rear. Ezra continued firing, taking out the Imperial ships communications relay so it couldn't call for backup, then switching to the engines.

"We're going to have to build something to scramble this ship's signature, down on Lothal," said Ezra, remembering how that Rebel ship had that capability. "And maybe get some stealth tech while we're at it."

"Let's survive this first," said Luke. "Then we can discuss modifications to your ship."

"Our ship," Ezra corrected. "But you're right. Settle this first. Celebrate next. And modify our ship after that."

"Yep. Priorities," laughed Luke.

The other ship had started trying to return fire. But the Heavenly Blue was so nimble, and Luke was so much better a pilot that their shots weren't getting anywhere near the agile little asteroid dodger. Ezra continued firing. And seconds later the Imperial ship's engines were offline.

"Booyah!" Ezra shouted, pumping his fist. "Alright, let's leave these mother fraggers to sort their problems out on their own, and let's go out for drinks."

"Eh, I'm not really a big fan of alcohol," said Luke.

"Fine then. Let's go out for milkshakes – whoa! Whoa! Luke!"

"I feel it!" Luke gunned the engine and the Heavenly Blue jetted backwards, away from the Imperial spacecraft, as fast as it could. Something was wrong, and Luke, like Ezra, could tell that they had to get away from it immediately. And Luke, being the amazing pilot he was, realized in that split second that there was no time to turn around. And luckily for them, the Heavenly Blue could fly backwards just as fast as it could fly forwards. And because of this, they were treated to the sight of the Imperial ship exploding spectacularly, in a golden hued rainbow of colors.

"Ooh, shiny," said Ezra, his eyes glued to the explosion. This was like no explosion he'd ever seen before or heard of. There was fire, yes, but more than that, there was this iridescence to the explosion. And Ezra didn't know what caused it. But he had the feeling that they'd just blown up something really important.

Good.

He glanced over at Luke to see how his friend was taking this. And while the Luke he knew yesterday might have been upset by them killing these Imperials, the Luke of today, the one who knew that the Empire had probably killed his father, seemed perfectly fine with it.

"Well, it's a start," said Luke.

"Yeah," Ezra agreed.

"So," said Luke, swinging the ship around so they could descend down toward Lothal. "Milkshakes?"

Ezra nodded. "Milkshakes."

Afterwards

"That's very generous, sir," said the Rebel when Bail finished counting out the credit chips that were to be the rebel's reward money for returning C3-P0 and R2-D2.

"I'm very fond of these droids," Bail said, turning his warm gaze onto them. He could tell that the mission had been a failure. He'd known from the moment he saw them, and R2 had been dejected. Having those T7 Ion Disruptors in mass production would mean big trouble. But it was out of his hands now. And he was sure it wasn't this Rebel's fault that he'd failed, anymore than it was R2-D2's fault. Sometimes you did all you could and you still couldn't win. Especially when you were going up against the Empire.

"Then I'm glad we could return them," the Rebel said, and gave R2 a slight pat on the top of his dome. He looked like he was trying to stay positive, but the weight of his failure was heavy on his mind.

"The simplest gesture of kindness," Bail said knowingly, and hoping to put his mind at a bit more ease, "can fill a galaxy with hope."

He saw the Rebel's eyes widen in recognition. "Isn't that . . . a Jedi saying?"

Bail smiled and patted his shoulder, dismissing him, albeit politely. "Safe travels, my friend."

The former-Jedi turned Rebel looked puzzled for only a moment more, then returned Bail's parting words. "Safe travels."

Once the Rebel was gone, Bail looked at C3-P0. With R2, he could take things like confidentiality for granted, but with C3-P0, he still had to ask. "You didn't tell them my name?"

The protocol droid issued a firm denial, then issued some mild complaints, followed by a request to be allowed to shut down after this harrowing ordeal. Bail granted his request. And when he was gone, turned to R2.

"It's not your fault, old friend. I'm sure you did everything you could."

R2-D2 beeped dejectedly. Bail patted him comfortingly.

"It's alright. The T7's haven't gone into production yet. There's still time to put together a sabotage mission," Bail said. "Did you record everything you saw?"

R2 beeped an affirmative.

"Good," Bail said. "Come on. To my quarters. I'll start reviewing your footage to see if there's anything that might be useful to forward to Fulcrum. We know she's not going to give up on getting those T7's out of circulation."

When they arrived at Bail's quarters, however, they found that viewing the footage would have to wait. An incoming call had Bail's eyes widening when he saw who it was from. Moments later, a hologram of someone Bail had not seen in nearly fifteen years appeared in the air.

"Old friend," Bail said, trying not to stare. He barely recognized the man.

"Senator Organa," said Obi-wan Kenobi. "I have bad news. Luke has gone missing."

"What? Missing? How?"

"I don't know," Obi-wan said. His distress was evident despite his attempts to hide it. "I can no longer sense his presence here on Tatooine. Which I can only conclude means that he is no longer on Tatooine. His aunt and uncle are frantic. They believe he's run away to join the Rebels. Do you know anything? Have you heard anything from any of your sources?"

An image of a blue haired, blue eyed teenager flashed through Bail's mind. Renegade One, or Ezra Bridger, as he'd introduced himself to Ahsoka. He was about the right age. He was Force sensitive. And the name he gave Ahsoka could have been fake.

"How long has he been missing?" Bail asked.

"Only a day," Obi-wan said. "But he could be anywhere in the galaxy by now."

That made it much more unlikely that Luke was Renegade One. Bail was glad. He liked Renegade One. He really did. But if Renegade One had been Luke, then there would have been trouble, and lot's of it. Because Renegade One was flashy. The kind of person who drew attention. Dangerous attention. And if a certain Sith Lord ever found out that he had a child then it would be that much easier for him to find out he had two.

"It takes time before I learn of new additions to any of our cells," said Bail. "Recruitment has been up lately. People have started to see that the Empire is not invincible. Many are eager to join the cause."

"I understand your position," said Obi-wan. "But I need to find Luke as quickly as possible. Please do what you can to check, and see if there's any word of him. Keep in mind that he might be using an assumed name."

Bail felt a thrum of annoyance. He fought it down. Obi-wan didn't mean to offer him insult, he realized. The older man was just worried about his charge. And with good reason.

"This would go faster if I could take the matter to Ahsoka," Bail said. But he already knew what Obi-wan was going to say to that.

"No," Obi-wan said. "Absolutely not."

"Ahsoka is the most trustworthy person I know," Bail said. "Trust me, Obi-wan. She has means of searching far beyond mine, and not only with the Force. Her contacts amongst the Rebel cells outnumber my own by far."

He didn't reveal to Obi-wan that Ahsoka was the leading of the fledgling rebellion. That was Ahsoka's secret, and one that he intended to guard with his life. If Obi-wan didn't trust Ahsoka enough to reveal to her Darth Vader's true identity, or the fact that he had children, then the old Jedi didn't deserve to be trusted with Fulcrum's secret identity. Even though these were secrets Bail hated keeping from his friends, he kept them anyway, rather than betray their trust.

"The answer is still no," said Obi-wan. "It's not that I don't trust Ahsoka. I would trust her with my life. But there was a time when I would have trusted Anakin with my life. When she meets him again, and I believe it is the will of the Force that she inevitably will, I don't know what will happen. I want to believe that she would never turn to the Dark side. But even if that's right, it doesn't mean she wouldn't betray Leia and Luke unintentionally."

Bail sighed. "I understand. I'll do what I can, Obi-wan. I'll message you back when I have something to report."

Obi-wan bowed his head. "Thank you. And may the Force be with you."

"May the Force be with you," Bail returned before ending the transmission. Then he kicked the wall as hard as he could.

Obi-wan had one job. One job. Watch Luke. It shouldn't have been too hard. They were on a desert planet, in the Outer Rim, with minimal Imperial presence. But somehow Obi-wan had lost Luke.

His comm started blinking again, and for a second, Bail thought Obi-wan had called him back. But then he realized that it was someone else. Ahsoka.

Bail sighed again. He would have preferred to have time to go through R2's footage, and try to find something they could use against the Empire before reporting the mission's failure to her. But she was calling him now, and he certainly wasn't going to ignore her.

"Fulcrum," he greeted her. "I'm afraid I have some bad news. The mission failed. And the Distruptors ended up in the hands of the Empire."

But Ahsoka was smiling. "I actually have more current news for you, Senator," she said. "The Imperial ship carrying the T7 Ion disruptors has been destroyed."

Bail blinked. Then smiled, as one thing to worry about was lifted from his mind. "This is indeed good news."

"Oh, it gets better," said Ahsoka, and her smile was pure mischief. "You remember Renegade One?"

"Of course," said Bail. Then he realized. "Don't tell me he was the one?"

"Yep." Ahsoka grinned, looking very pleased with herself. "He's gotten himself a first mate. And they were in Lothal airspace today, when the ship carrying the Disruptors emerged from hyperspace, right on top of them."

Bail winced a little. That was always a risk when hyperspace traveling. It happened so rarely that people didn't think about it much, but there was always that slight chance that you could emerge from hyperspace, right into a wreck. Or someone could emerge just in time to wreck into you.

"The Imperials started giving them a hard time. The Heavenly Blue gave them a hard time back. Then they fired on the Imperial ship and blew it up."

"Well. That is . . . fortunate," said Bail.

"Yes. It all worked out in the end," said Ahsoka.

"I guess even we get lucky sometimes," Bail said.

"Sometimes being lucky is better than being good," said Ahsoka. "Though in this case I think it was a little of both. Or simply the will of the Force. I'm not going to be picky about it."

"I should think not," Bail laughed.

"I thought I should inform you of that development immediately," said Ahsoka. "So that you wouldn't spend all evening beating yourself up over it. I'll let you go now. Unless you have anything else to report to me?"

"No," Bail lied. "Nothing to report."

Ahsoka nodded. "Fulcrum out."

Bail smiled as her image disappeared. The news she'd delivered had indeed been good. One less thing to worry about.

Now he just had to figure out how to make some discreet inquiries about newly joined up, teenage Rebels, who might be Luke.

Omake: In an open air café on Lothal.

"Cheers."

"Cheers."

Ezra and Luke clinked their glasses together, then both took long sips of their milkshakes.

"This is a really good milkshake," said Luke after a few beats of silence.

"Yeah. It really is. You're not allowed on the comms anymore, by the way," Ezra said.

"What?" Luke looked indignant.

"Ok, you can be on the comms. But not when lying is required," compromised Ezra. "From now on I'll be doing all the lying. Especially to Imperials."

Luke looked a little sulky. "I didn't do that bad . . ."

"Uh, yeah, you did," said Ezra. "Telling them that we were smuggling? Stuttering like you couldn't come up with a good lie? And what was with that fake name you made up for our ship?"

"There's nothing wrong with 'A New Hope,'" insisted Luke.

"Dude, that sounds like the kind of name you give something after the fact," said Ezra. "Like something you tag on, after everyone's already started calling it something else. Because it's lame!"

"It's not lame!"

"And it was too long," said Ezra. "Ships usually have one or two word names."

"I'll keep that in mind," said Luke. "But it's not like we'd ever use that name again. After we give a fake name to the Empire we can't use it again anyway, right? So no harm done, really."

Ezra smirked. "No harm done to us at least. That Imperial ship though, is another story."

Luke scoffed. "No one cares about them. Besides, they were asking for it. And like you said, taking down the Empire's what we came here to do. That seemed as good as any place to start."

Ezra shrugged. "Fair enough. But I'm still going to be the official liar in our team. At least until you can learn to lie better."

"Fair enough," echoed Luke. "I'll take notes."

"Alright then." Ezra took another long sip of his milkshake.

Luke did the same.

"Dammit, this is really good."

Author Note: Once again, sorry for taking so long to get an update. I've been really busy lately. Thank you for being patient, and really thank you for all the great reviews. :)

Watto may seem a little out of character from how he is in the movies, but I'm drawing from the comics for his character development. There's a really great storyline in them about what happened with Watto and Shmi after Anakin left. You can find a summary of it on Wookieepedia, under the Watto entry, but the short of it is, after Anakin left in The Phantom Menace, Watto realized that the kid had pretty much been his best friend, and started to change in some ways because of it.

Next Chapter: Ezra and the Ghost crew meet again. And it's not pretty.

Please leave a review on your way out. : )