A Slightly Different Path

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters that I am about to mangle around, all Star Wars Rebels characters remain the property of Disney and Lucasfilm Ltd. I am merely borrowing them and make no profit from their use. So please keep the lawyers firmly on a leash.

Chapter Four

Elsewhere on Lothal

A Short Time Later

Kanan Jarrus kept his expression calm and impassive as Cikatro Vizago carefully inspected the consignment of EM-11 blaster rifles that they'd been contracted to acquire for him. The olive green skinned Devaronian, founder and head of the infamous Outer Rim crime syndicate the Brotherhood of the Broken Horn, appeared to be quite satisfied with the merchandise as he carefully sighted down the barrel of one of the rifles. Kanan had to admit that the EM-11 was an impressive and powerful weapon, one that was lethal in the hands of someone who knew what they were doing and who – unlike most storm troopers – was actually able to shoot straight. As such they would fetch a good price from Vizago that would ensure the Ghost continued to have plenty of fuel and that they'd be able to top up their food stocks, something that was especially necessary now that Ezra was joining them.

For a moment Kanan's thoughts turned to his new padawan. He had to admit that, despite his few lingering doubts about the idea that even the conversation with the Force ghost of his old master couldn't completely erase, it actually felt good to know he was there. Well would be there, once they'd had chance to meditate together and begin forming the proper telepathic bond between a Jedi and their apprentice. Right now though Ezra wasn't here, Sabine having taken him in the Phantom back to wherever he'd been living to pick up some of his personal belongings. They should have reached it by now, he thought recalling Ezra telling them that he lived in the old Republic communications tower outside the capital – a tower rendered redundant when the Imperials took over and built a newer, more powerful tower on the opposite side of the city.

He had to wonder what belongings Ezra was after. He just hoped it wasn't anything too bulky as they only had a limited amount of storage space for personal items on the Ghost. As it was Ezra would be bunking with Zeb, something the Lasat wasn't happy about but would go along with as Kanan had already made it clear – with appropriate backup from Hera – to him that Ezra would be staying with them. Knowing better than to argue with them, he knew he wouldn't win, Zeb had reluctantly gone along with it.

Vizago putting the rifle he'd been inspecting back in the crate brought his attention back to the here and now. "I take it there were no problems acquiring these lovely ladies," Vizago asked as he almost lovingly caressed the rifles with one hand.

"Nothing we couldn't handle, Vizago. Your intel was spot on this time," Kanan replied and it was true that Ezra's interference was nothing that they couldn't handle.

Though knowing more about the kid's capabilities now he realized that Ezra had merely been testing them in the market place. No doubt wanting to find out more about them all, and himself in particular, and could have made the mission far more challenging had he wished to do so.

Had he really been intent on stealing the cargo from them then things could have gone very differently. Especially given how advanced his telekinetic abilities seemed to be; it would have been incredibly easy for Ezra to have blocked their path with any of a number of items that had been filling the streets. Plus given how he seemed to be able to hide himself from Kanan's own Force probes – something he made a mental note to speak with him about later as that kind of Force stealth was impressive in any Jedi let alone someone so young – finding him again would have been extremely difficult. Not impossible, just very difficult as it would have required him to tap into his Jedi abilities far more than he was generally comfortable with these days – hiding them as much as possible was what had kept him alive for the last fifteen years after all.

Though that's going to have to change now that I've taken Ezra as an apprentice, he thought knowing he would have to really stop hiding what he could do – nobody on the Ghost, not even Hera, had ever seen what he was fully capable of though they were all aware that he was a Jedi – in order to successfully train Ezra in the ways of the Force. Especially if Master Billaba was right and Ezra was important to the future of the Jedi.

"We got the shipment away from the Empire," Hera added from beside him, breaking him out of his thoughts. "That's all that matters."

Vizago rolled his eyes as he made a hand gesture prompting one of his droids to come over holding a box of small gold bars. "No business is all that matters but I'm glad that there is no one on your crew who seems to know that," he replied as he took some of the bars from the box and started putting them in Kanan's waiting hand. He stopped after three bars.

"Keep going," Kanan prompted him, while they all had little interest in making money beyond what was necessary to feed themselves, acquire supplies and maintain the Ghost he wasn't about to let the Devaronian short change them. Something he knew Vizago was well aware of as he'd never succeeded in short changing them in the past, long experience with his type over the last fifteen years – and a little occasional help from the Force – always letting Kanan know when he was trying it. As it was the gold he'd already given would be barely enough to fully fuel the ship and acquire additional food supplies.

"I could," Vizago replied, "or I could trade the rest of the bounty for another piece of intel. Something you've been begging me for."

"The Wookiee's," Here asked, referring to a small group of Wookiee's captured by the Empire who'd once been Republic soldiers, and who refused to acknowledge the Empire as the new government in the galaxy.

"The Wookiee's," Vizago confirmed with a smile. "So what do you say?"

"Alright," Kanan said after a moment closing his fist around the gold, catching the look Hera was sending him, a look that said they needed this intelligence. "But this had better be worth it, Vizago," he warned.

"Trust me it will be," Vizago answered as he gave the box back to the droid and gestured for another to come forward with a pad containing the details. A pad that he handed to Kanan who immediately scanned it, noting it was the flight plan of an Imperial cargo transport carrying the Wookiee's that would be passing through the outer edge of the Lothalan system in another few hours while the crew plotted their next hyperspace jump.

After a moment he handed it to Hera who carefully glanced over it before looking at Vizago. "Thank you," she said, "you have no idea what this means."

"Oh I think I do," Vizago replied, he wasn't entirely without intelligence resources after all and was well aware that the Ghost crew had at least some affiliation with the slowly growing and spreading rebel movements against the Empire. Something he had little problem with as Imperial shipping and customs regulations were even more restrictive than the Republics had been, which really affected his business. Thus anything that hurt the Empire, even in a small way, was fine with him. Who knew in time, and if the rebellions continued to grow as they surely would unless the impossible happened and the Empire did a one eighty in their approach to ruling the galaxy, they might even come to him for weapons which could earn a tidy profit.

Without waiting for a reply he turned away and started issuing orders to his droids to begin loading the crates onto their transport. Accepting the dismissal for what it was Kanan turned and nodded at Hera and they began making their way back to the Ghost, pausing just long enough to collect Zeb from where he'd been waiting in the wings constantly watching for any sign of betrayal from the crime lord.

In mere seconds they were back aboard the ship. "I'll call Sabine and get her to meet us in orbit," Hera said as she hit the control to close the ramp. "Kanan start working on a plan to rescue the Wookiee's, Zeb get all our weapons ready – just in case."

"On it Hera," Zeb replied immediately heading off towards the armoury, while Kanan merely nodded and headed straight to the common room to begin working on the details of the plan to save the captives from whatever dire fate the Empire had in mind for them. Knowing they'd do their part Hera made her way straight to the bridge to call Sabine.

I just hope she and Ezra are done by now, she thought.

Ezra's Tower

A Few Minutes Earlier

"This is where you live?" Sabine asked as Ezra easily opened the door to the room at the very top of the tower. A room that in the towers previous existence would have housed the main holo-net transmitter array and all its support equipment, but which had been left as a large empty space when the Imperials decommissioned the tower.

"Yes home sweet home it's not much but its dry," Ezra replied as he flicked on the lights and led the way inside. Sabine followed and looked around in curiosity, noting that the room was actually quite barren in appearance. Off to the right was a camp bed and a blanket both of which had obviously seen better days. To the left the room was dominated by a long narrow table that snaked along the wall all the way to a wall made of stacked boxes with a moth eaten curtained door off to one side. She guessed the refresher – or whatever passed for one – was beyond there.

The table itself was divided up into three distinct areas. The area closest to the door was set up as a kitchen with a two hob stove on the top and a crude fridge. A simple plastic bowl served as a sink. The next area was obviously a work area as it was covered with bits and pieces of electronics, some of whom she recognised, some she didn't. The final area seemed to be displaying a number of Imperial helmets, among them a TIE pilot's helmet. Additional helmets were mounted on simple shelves attached to the walls. The final feature of the room was a cushioned rectangular matt. The matt was almost identical to the one in Kanan's quarters and she guessed that Ezra used it for the same purpose Kanan did – to sit on while meditating.

"You so need some colour in here," she said only just resisting the impulse to get out her paint gun and start drawing some of her signature starbirds on the dull brown walls. Ezra merely chuckled as he went over to the part of the desk that served as his work area and started picking up a few of the boxes.

"Sabine if you look under the bed there is a box can you get it out for me," he asked as he whipped off his backpack and carefully started putting the few things he was picking up in there.

"Sure," Sabine replied moving over to the bed and looking underneath and sure enough in there was a simple metal box about a foot square. She carefully got it out, noting it was surprisingly heavy as well as seeing faded Jedi Order and Old Republic symbols on it. "What's in here it's surprisingly heavy," she commented as she put it down on the bed.

"Open it and look if you want," Ezra answered, "just don't take anything out as I want to bring it along."

Curiosity getting the better of her Sabine did as he said. And blinked when she saw the contents included a small holo projector, with a number of holo disks in a contained next to it. They looked pretty sophisticated and very high spec, albeit somewhat older in design to the ones she'd seen but she guessed they were Jedi or Old Republic in origin explaining the age.

Though what especially grabbed her attention was first the holster holding a small blaster pistol of Hapen design. She easily recognised it from her courses back at the Mandalore branch of the Academy for Young Imperials. As such she knew that like all Hapen weapons it would be both powerful and accurate. She just had to wonder how Ezra had it as Hapen weapons weren't exactly easy to come by one the galactic market; the matriarchal Hapens didn't generally export their weapons as widely as others, like Corellians, did. After a moment she guessed that Ezra's mother had probably been a Hapen, it would certainly explain why his very distinctive eyes were such an unusual shade of blue.

Looking away from the blaster pistol Sabine blinked when she saw the incomplete lightsabre sitting in the case with a number of tools. It was a very different design to any lightsabre that she'd ever seen before with the top having a cross guard above the control panel giving it a distinct T-shape. Looking at it more closely she was surprised to note that it looked like the weapon could come apart into two or more pieces – just like Kanan's could. She cautiously picked it up noting that its weight was wrong, the top was heavy – indicating there was a kyber crystal present to generate the plasma that formed the blade – but the lower hilt below the controls was far too light. A glance showed why, as there didn't appear to be a power cell present.

"I've been building it for months," Ezra abruptly said from behind her making her jump. "I just need a power cell to finish it."

"You've been making this?" she asked turning to look at Ezra even as she put the lightsabre back in the box. "Why? You already have a lightsabre. And what's with the odd design?"

"Dad was something of a Jedi history buff, the cross-guard is a very old design for a lightsabre. I liked looking at some holo's of that design that he had so I decided to make mine a cross guard. As for why I made it, dad's doesn't fit me properly as I said on the Ghost," Ezra replied, "I can't hold it properly, the balance and so on is all wrong for me, as such while I can use it I'm not very good with it. Thankfully like most Sentinels dad had a second lightsabre – that was damaged before I was born – that I could get most of the parts from, especially the kyber crystal."

"But not the power cell. I take it that was the part that was damaged."

Ezra nodded. "Sliced in two," he replied. "While there are a few shops on Lothal that sell the right type of cell they're all owned by the Empire so I'd have to get one off the black market and that costs."

Sabine frowned but nodded in understanding. The Empire restricted all the technologies that could be used in the creation and maintenance of lightsabres and other higher powered energy weapons. It was one of the ways the Imperials ensured that nobody could acquire the weapons needed to stand against them and their cruel rule of the galaxy. It was one of the reasons they had to deal with Vizago as often as they did.

"Well that won't do. I think we've got a few compatible power cells on the Ghost," she mused, "I'll have a look when we get back to the ship."

"Really!" Ezra exclaimed eyes widening in shock and sudden hope. When Sabine nodded back he smiled. "Thanks, Sabine."

"Your welcome," Sabine replied smiling back. He has a nice smile, she thought a moment before her comm unit bleeped.

"Spectre Two to Spectre Five," Hera's voice said from the unit on her right arm.

"Spectre Five here, Hera," Sabine acknowledged into the unit, but not before handing Ezra the box who immediately closed it before slipping it into his backpack.

"Sabine are you and Ezra done."

"I think so let me check," Sabine replied throwing a questioning look at Ezra who nodded back indicating that he had everything he wanted, even as he went and rolled up his meditation mat to bring it with him. "Yeah we're done why?"

"Meet us in orbit as soon as you can," Hera replied "we've got another mission."

"We'll be right there. Spectre Five out."

"Time to go," Ezra asked as Sabine lowered the comm link.

"Time to go," she confirmed.

"Alright lead on then," Ezra replied with a smile. Sabine couldn't help but smile back before turning and leading the way back out of the room. Ezra followed a few paces behind her though he paused just long enough to take one final look around committing the image of the place that had been his home and sanctuary to memory. Then, without looking back, left the room and the years of loneliness – with only the Force and occasional loth-cats for company – behind him.

It was time to see just what destiny had in store for him.

The Ghost

Lothal Orbit, A Short Time Later

"So that's the intel we've got on the Wookiee's," Kanan finished telling the rest of the Ghost crew, including his new padawan, putting the data pad that Vizago had given him down on the table.

"Sounds like it will be quite easy to spring them since the Empire is only using one ship to transport them with minimal escort," Sabine commented with a smile on her face at the typical overconfidence of the Imperials.

"And I've worked out a plan on how to do just that," Kanan replied and began to carefully outline the plan that he'd come up with.

Sitting next to Sabine Ezra tried to listen to what his new master was saying but found that for some reason he was unable to. Instead he felt his attention being constantly drawn to the pad. Confused and a little concerned he carefully reached out and picked up the pad…

…and his world went white.

A tall fit man, with mutton chop sideburns in an unfamiliar but definitely Imperial uniform stood on the bridge of a star destroyer a number of other Imperials in officer uniforms.

"We'll delay the transport carrying the Wookiee slaves to Spice Mine K7 on Kessel for three hours," the Imperial was saying. "While that's delayed we'll leak information on when we were originally planning to transport the Wookiee's to a contact we know to have links with the black market. From there it should reach the Rebels. When they board the transport to 'rescue' the slaves we'll be waiting to detain their boarding party while the Lawgiver detains their mothership."

"What if the Rebels don't take the bait Agent Kallus?" one of the other Imperials said.

Kallus smirked back. "Oh they will," he said confidently, "I've dealt with rabble like this before, they won't be able to resist attempting to rescue the slaves. They're so foolishly idealistic like that. The delay to the transport plans should be insignificant."

Kanan and Zeb were running down a corridor on an Imperial ship. Arriving at the cargo bay they used a small charge to breach the door and enter… only to run into a wall of stun blasts that dropped them both unconscious to the deck as the storm troopers waiting for them opened fire to disable.

Simultaneously a dozen more troopers boarded through the portside airlock and entered the auxiliary control room where Sabine and Chopper were manipulating the systems. The troopers immediately dropping Sabine with another volley of stun blasts before changing settings and blasting Chopper to scrap at point blank range.

The Ghost attempting to break away and escape only to be hit by a bolt from an ion cannon rendering her dead in space and allowing the star destroyer to grab the suddenly helpless ship in a tractor beam and pull them aboard.

Ezra dropped the pad and reeled back as if burned as the sudden onslaught of visions ended. He closed his eyes and buried his head in his hands shivering with reaction. Damn I hate it when this happens, he thought as his stomach felt like it had suddenly been twisted into a knot making him feel like he wanted to throw up. After a moment he felt a hand – that was too big to be Sabine's – touch his shoulder.

"Ezra listen to me. Take a few deep breaths and let them out slowly, with each breath feel the nausea fade," Kanan's voice said softly

Deciding to follow the older, and thus much more experienced, Jedi's advice Ezra did as he was instructed and immediately began to feel better. After a few moments he felt well enough to drop his hands down, open his eyes and look up to find Kanan standing over him, with the rest of the crew looking at him in concern. "I'm okay," he said. "I hate it when that happens."

"Yes it can be jarring when that happens," Kanan agreed knowing full well what had happened, it had happened to him before as well. In fact, it happened to most Jedi a few times in their lives. It was part of the price they all paid for being gifted with the Force in the first place.

"What is it? What happened?" Sabine asked.

"A vision from the Force," Kanan answered before turning his full attention to Ezra. "What did you see," he asked gently.

"It's a trap," Ezra replied pointing at the pad. "Someone called Agent Kallus deliberately leaked that information to draw us into a trap. There are no Wookiee's on that transport – only storm troopers waiting in ambush. A star destroyer will then show up and disable this ship with an ion cannon blast. The real transport has been delayed for three hours, though I also saw where it's going has anyone ever heard of the spice mines of Kessel?"

The rest of the crew exchanged concerned glances. "It's infamous," Sabine said at last, "slaves taken there rarely last more than a month at the most. For Wookiee's born in the forest it's a certain death sentence."

"Then we better go save them," Ezra replied. "The mine they're taking them to is K7."

"What are we going to do about that transport?" Zeb asked hoping that he would get a chance to bash some bucket heads, he so loved the feel of their helmets against his fists as he knocked them senseless. "Should we just go to Kessel straight off."

"No," Kanan said after a few moments of thinking about it. "No we don't want to tip the Empire off that we're onto their little deception. We'll play along for now and deal with this Agent Kallus' trap in the best way to deal with such things."

"Which is," Zeb asked.

"We spring it and turn it right back on the Imperials. Once that's been done we can head to Kessel and save the Wookiee's."

"I like it," Hera replied. "So what do you have in mind love?"

Kanan grinned and began carefully outlining his revised plan of attack.

Authors Notes: This chapter turned out to be quite a bit shorter than I expected it to be but then that's often the case with chapters like this which are basically bridging and background filling chapters. I hope everyone likes my idea that Ezra had a vision from touching the pad warning them about Kallus planned ambush on the freighter instead of what happened in the canon show. I thought it a good way to get around having to somehow work in scenes from Spark of Rebellion that are unnecessary in this AU. I also hope you like Kanan's very Obi-Wan approach to dealing with a trap – to spring it and use it to your advantage.

Finally I hoped everyone's okay with my decision to give Ezra a cross-guard sabre similar to Kylo Ren's though naturally it's not red as he's not a Sith or Sith-wannabe like Kylo Ren/Ben Solo is, plus the crystal being undamaged means the blade will be more stable. For a while I was tempted to go with the hybrid sabre/blaster design of canon but ultimately decided against it as for the first seven years of his life – before his parents were taken to prison – Ezra was raised in a quasi-Jedi fashion by his former Jedi father and thus wouldn't think to build a lightsabre that's also a blaster. Instead for long range fire he'll use his mother's blaster pistol as in the background for this story she was a) Hapen and b) a field combat medic which is how she met Ephraim Bridger in the first place.