Reunited:

Sabine abandoned her chair as soon as she saw the bundled figure standing in the halo of an overhead light on the snow-covered landing pad, snatching up her helmet from the floor beside her out of habit and running towards the back of the ship and the exit.

"Sabine!" Ahsoka yelled while still landing the ship. "Put your coat on at least!"

Sabine ignored her, the possible cold of outside the last thing on her mind. All she could think was, Ezra, Ezra, Ezra. I'm finally going to see Ezra again!

Somehow, she made herself wait for the shuttle to actually touch the ground before she hit the release button on the ramp, but it was only by a fraction of a second. And then she had to wait what felt like about three years for the ramp's hydraulics to actually finish lowering it.

And then, finally, finally, she could see him, and she nearly froze, her limbs moving in near slow motion as she descended the ramp, eyes only on his figure.

What she could see of it, anyway. He was covered up in a really thick navy blue winter coat with a furry hood pulled over his head.

At first glance, he seemed taller than she remembered, and that was confirmed as she stopped at eye height with him, while still standing on the ramp. His shoulders looked broader under the coat. His calves thicker with muscle under his black trousers. His face was more chiselled and looked all man and no longer the boy she'd known. He'd kept it clean-shaven, much to her relief (she'd never been a fan of beards), showing off the hard line of his jaw. His lips were soft looking and parted on a caught inhale. His nose, long and proud. Cheekbones you could practically cut yourself on. High forehead with a longish lock of midnight blue hair peeking out from the hood. Stars, he's practically holomovie handsome now!

And his eyes. Those one-of-a-kind sapphire blue eyes framed by pretty black lashes. They were drinking her in like he'd never stop.

She didn't want him to stop.

They stared at each other without making a sound for endless seconds of frozen time. She didn't feel the subzero wind freezing the skin of her face and fingers. (Her bodysuit was spaceworthy, so the rest of her was okay.) Didn't hear the sound of it rustling the snow-covered trees. Didn't hear Ahsoka and Rex approaching the ramp behind her.

Her whole world was Ezra's eyes.

And then he whispered her name.

"Sabine."

And she thought, Kriff it, as she dropped her helmet in the snow and launched herself at him, nearly sending them both to the ground as he stumbled backwards, hands coming up hastily to catch her.

Sabine hugged his neck tight as his arms tightened almost painfully around her back, and she mumbled into his coat. "Ezra. Shab, I missed you, Ez. It's been so long. So very very long."

He curled around her and buried his face in her shoulder, breathing in her familiar scent of paint, dye, generic soap, and warm female. "Force, Sabie, has it ever. I missed you too," he mumbled back. "So very very much. I'm sorry. So sorry. I didn't think we'd be apart this long. Didn't think it would end up this way."

Sabine sucked in a breath and pulled back a bit, looking up at him with a hint of tears held stubbornly back in her eyes. "I know you did what you had to, and it possibly saved the entire Rebellion…" she pulled back an arm and punched him as hard as she could in the shoulder, "…but why didn't you tell me what the plan was! I thought I lost you forever! We all did, until Chopper played your message."

Ezra rubbed at his shoulder, grimacing more from the pain of her accusation than from her hit (which hurt enough, even with his thick coat on). "I… I don't really have a good reason for that, other than I was afraid it wouldn't work, that the Purrgil wouldn't show up like they said they would. I'm sorry I caused you pain."

She stared at him for a moment before huffing out a sigh. "Whatever. It's done." She stepped forward again and wrapped her arms around his waist, unconsciously burying them under the back of this coat and gripping a soft tunic as her fingers protested the cold. As she snuggled her face into his chest she realized where her hands had ended up and found that she liked them there very much, unclenching her fingers to press against the hard muscles of his back.

Knowing that was as close as she was ever going to get to saying she forgave him for being an idiot, Ezra exhaled in relief and wrapped her small but powerful form back into his embrace, resting his cheek against her soft hair. Home. Sabine was the feeling of home that he'd never quite been able to find here on Csilla or on the Chimaera, no matter how many years he spent on them.

He closed his eyes and just savoured the moment for a while, until a softly cleared throat had his eyes popping open and a rueful grin curving his mouth upwards.

Ahsoka was standing at the base of the ramp, bundled from pointy montrals to booted feet, with a second winter coat folded over her arm and spare mittens in her own mittened hands. She had an eyebrow marking raised in amusement and her mouth quirked up in a knowing smirk. Beside her, also bundled up, was a grinning man holding Sabine's helmet that Ezra almost didn't recognize, until he met the golden brown eyes and read his Force signature. Rex?! He looks at least a decade younger than the last time I saw him! In fact, he looks about the same age as Ahsoka now; mid-forties at most. They must have finally found a cure for his rapid aging gene. I'm sure they're happy about that. Now they have decades left together instead of just a handful of years.

Ezra reluctantly grabbed Sabine's shoulders and pushed her back a step, mourning the loss of her little hands against his back, even if there was still a barrier of fabric between them, nodding his head at Ahsoka. "You should put your coat on before your ears freeze."

Sabine blinked, and just like that, she finally registered just how kriffing cold it was. It was even worse than Hoth, and she'd thought that was bad. She was reaching for her coat in an instant as a full body shiver ran down her spine. "Right. Coat. Good idea."

Ahsoka handed her the thick mittens as soon as Sabine was zipped into her coat while actually looking at the young man whose cheekbones were still faintly flushed red. "It's good to see you looking well, Ezra, and even more grown up than the last time."

Ezra grinned. "You too, Ahsoka. I hope we don't skip yet another handful of years between visits this time. That would be an awful habit to get into."

"It would."

Ezra turned his gaze to Rex next. "And you, Rex. You look great! Unlike the rest of us, time looks like it's going backwards on you!"

Rex chuckled, handing Sabine her helmet when she held a hand out for it. "Only to this point. I should start aging forwards again normally now, if the Kaminoans did their research right. I would hate to get even younger and leave my Soka looking the older one; something tells me she wouldn't like that very much."

The girls laughed as Ahsoka elbowed him in the ribs gently. "You're probably right, Rexi." The Togruta focused on Ezra again as her face settled back into serious. "Should we bring our bags or leave them here?"

Ezra only had to think about that for a millisecond. "Bring your bags. You can stay with me for a few days in the nice warm city, as long as you're not in a hurry to get back home?"

Ahsoka laughed, shaking her head as she turned and started back up the ramp. "This ship has basically been our home for seven years. We always welcome the chance to sleep elsewhere."

Ezra winced as he followed behind the trio into a ship even smaller than the Ghost, knowing he was the reason they'd been living in it for so long. "Right. Well, I have a huge apartment and I'm sure you'll enjoy the space to stretch your legs."

Sabine paused until Ezra stepped beside her and bumped his shoulder with hers, grinning up at him. "You have no idea."

Once they'd grabbed their things, Ezra herded them all onto a hovering speeder that was basically just a platform with rails to hang on to, and then they were off, zipping through a white and blue world.

Vanto had been right about the temperature; Sabine's face felt like a block of ice from the wind-chill in about thirty seconds.

Ezra drove their transport through a naturally zigzagging pathway that led between towering mountains and soon descended into a steep and narrow canyon.

There were gun turrets mounted at the top of the walls that automatically followed their progress.

Sabine approved of the security measures.

At the end of the canyon, Ezra came to a stop at what looked like a solid wall of blue tinted ice. He talked into a comm unit on his wrist in the Chiss language that she vowed to learn as soon as possible and then waved at a tiny security camera mounted at the top of the ice in thanks when the wall of ice folded down to the ground, exposing a long, well lit tunnel that angled downwards.

Ezra drove into the noticeably warmer tunnel and stopped again beside a metal door cut into the rock. As Sabine pushed her hood off her head, he shrugged out of his winter coat and tossed it to a Chiss guard dressed in a white uniform and armed to the teeth who stepped out of the door. Ezra called out what she assumed to be a thank you to the guard, who caught the coat with a grin and gave Ezra a jaunty salute.

Sabine spent a good second just absorbing how incredible Ezra looked in his own white uniform jacket that showed off his broad shoulders, muscled chest, and narrow waist to absolute perfection. A black leather belt holding a blaster and a lightsabre, just like before, was wrapped around his waist. And his midnight blue hair was cut somewhere between the too short version he'd left with and the too shaggy version she'd first met him with, leaving him with soft waves on his head. It was perfect. He was perfect. Whoa. Her hormones started jumping around in her stomach like a flock of butterflies had taken up residence.

The guard nodded his chin at Sabine, and said something else that she added to her growing list of memorized Chiss words for later translation. The way Ezra blushed and nodded, she assumed the guard was asking if Sabine was Ezra's 'Kickass Invisible Girlfriend'.

The guard laughed approvingly, sweeping his gaze over Ahsoka and Rex as well in curiosity, and then stepped back into the room. Sabine just caught sight of another dozen or so guards dressed exactly the same as the first one, sitting around a big table and playing cards of some sort.

"They take their security seriously here," Sabine said approvingly as Ezra drove on.

He glanced down at her, wearing that dopey grin that she loved and had missed so much. "Yes, they do. I thought you'd approve. They have enemies, which, if they ever made it here, would happily obliterate the entire population."

"Vanto told us a bit."

"Ah. Good. Then maybe you partially understand why I haven't made my way home yet on my own?"

"Partially. Vanto also said something about children?" She tried to keep the accusation out of her tone, she really did. But judging by the way he slid his eyes away and slumped slightly, she knew she failed.

Ezra swallowed thickly, wishing she hadn't brought that up already, feeling like their reunion was already ruined. "Those… Kriff. I don't even know how to explain. It's easier to show you."

Sabine raised a purple dyed eyebrow. "All right. I know this is a little forward, but please just answer me this; are you in a committed relationship with someone?"

Ezra's head turned back towards her so fast, he almost gave himself whiplash. "No!" he said emphatically, eyes wide and sincere. "I'm not. I never have been." Seeing the relief in her eyes, feeling it in her signature, he glanced over his shoulder at Ahsoka and Rex, who were blatantly eavesdropping, and deciding that he didn't care; he quietly added, "I've been waiting for you."

Sabine's breath caught, and as she stared up into those blue, blue eyes that had always shown his feelings so plainly, she couldn't help the words that escaped her mouth. "So have I."

It felt like his heart screeched to a stop and then jolted back into motion double time. One hundred percent of his attention now on her, he whispered, "Really?"

Sabine glanced at the wall they were heading right for where the tunnel curved to the right and casually added her hand to the steering yoke, turning the speeder for him before they crashed. "Really."

Ezra blinked himself back to awareness of what he was supposed to be doing as the edge of the speeder scraped the wall with a shower of sparks. "Fragging moron. Drive first, do a happy dance and kiss the girl later," he muttered to himself under his breath.

Everyone heard him, of course, sending the other occupants of the speeder into peals of laughter as he drove with ears turning red from embarrassment.

By the end of the three minute speeder ride, everyone else had shed their winter wear to avoid overheating, and Ezra had prompted Rex into filling in the silence by asking him about how the war with the Empire was going.

Rex had only just finished talking about the battle above Yavin when they arrived at the end of the tunnel.

Ezra brought his speeder to a stop and turned around to gawk at Rex. "Hang on. Did you just say that a moon sized, planet destroying, super weapon was brought down by a single shot to an exhaust pipe by the son of Anakin Skywalker?"

Rex chuckled. "Yeah. I did. My General's son is so much like him, it almost hurts to look at him sometimes."

Ezra shook his head. "Force, you better save the rest for when I'm sitting down. I don't want to accidentally run over someone."

"We have a lot of stories to exchange, Ezra," Ahsoka said kindly. "Taking us to your home first sounds like a good place to start."

"Right." Ezra turned back around and drove out of the tunnel, into an absolutely massive cavern that had an underground river running through the middle of it and an entire city built around it, with picturesque bridges crossing the river at intervals. The light source appeared to come from the ceiling of the cavern, and looked like it might be the reflected light of the sun, if the glint of a mirror was anything to go by. The city streets were filled with blue skinned people of all ages, most of which waved cheerily at Ezra and looked at Sabine, Ahsoka, and Rex curiously as he drove them past houses and shops along the main road that ran beside the river. There were only a few other speeders on the streets, all of which were loaded with goods, indicating to Sabine that this was a culture that didn't mind getting a little exercise to move from one place to another.

Ezra came to a stop almost at the end of the cavern and indicated a huge set of steps that led up to ornamentally carved doors set in the rock wall, a guard in white standing on either side. "Over there is the House Palace. We'll head there later for dinner. The leaders of the Chiss want to meet you all."

"Will Thrawn be there?" Sabine asked.

"Yes. He's on the War Council."

"I take it he's not our enemy anymore?"

Ezra snorted softly as he turned the speeder to the right down a smaller side road. "Technically, he never was. He was playing the Empire the whole time he worked for them, as possibly one of the best undercover spies of all time, I think."

"Hunh. Not sure if my opinion is just going to up and change just like that, but I'll keep an open mind."

Ezra glanced at her, smiling softly. "That's all I ask. About everything."

"Okay." She touched his bare hand with her own, letting him know that she got the point. She wouldn't judge him for the children until she knew the story, which she had a feeling was going to be a lot more interesting than him accidentally knocking up a few girls in a moment of mindless passion.

After giving her a questioning glance asking for permission, he turned his hand over and laced his fingers through hers as he drove the last little bit of their journey. Sabine's heart stuttered at how right that felt. She squeezed his fingers to let him know that she approved of the gesture.

Ezra drove the speeder sled up to another set of big doors set in a cavern wall and came to a stop behind a few more already parked along the wall. "This is me," he said encouraging everyone to jump out. He snatched up Sabine's bag before she could, leaving her to carry only her helmet and winter coat, which earned him a mock scowl.

Ezra just grinned at her and then led the way up the steps. Sabine helped Ahsoka with her bags instead.

As Ezra approached, the doors slid open for him automatically and he led them down another short tunnel carved out of rock which opened up to another cavern not quite as big as the first. It was also teaming with people and buildings. "This is actually the science center," he said as he led them out into the mini city, "But I have an apartment in this area, as do most of the scientists and their subjects."

Sabine came to a dead halt, inspiring Ezra to stop and look back at her, and Ahsoka to almost run into her back. "Ezra, are you saying that you're a science experiment?"

He raised a brow. "What. You don't think I could be a scientist?"

She just gave him a deeper frown.

He sighed. "Never could get anything past you. Yes, technically, I'm a science experiment."

"WHY?"

"Because I can still use the Force, and none of their people can past the age of ten. They want to know why."

That inspired gawking looks from everyone.

Ezra grinned. "It's all right. I don't mind helping them out... Now." He held his hand out for her but she pretended not to see it, still miffed. Ezra rolled his eyes, knowing her moods, and said, "Come. We'll drop off your stuff and I'll show you what I'm talking about."

"Oh, you better," Sabine muttered, not pleased that Ezra was being used as a guinea pig for these people.

Ezra led them to a tall building that butted up against the cavern wall and went all the way to the ceiling. They rode a turbolift all the way to the top floor. The doors opened up to a huge apartment, as Ezra had said it would be. The open concept space appeared to take up the entire floor of the building and had glass windows all along two of the four walls, looking out over the city and giving a view of another piece of the river and a small greenery filled park that they hadn't seen from the entrance of the cavern.

Sabine walked to the center of the big living space and dropped her things and Ahsoka's second bag on a couch. She turned in a circle, jaw practically hanging down to her neck. "Ezra. This is kriffing nice! An apartment like this on Mandalore would cost a fortune!"

Ezra shrugged, dropping her bag beside Ahsoka's, the couch quickly becoming piled with winter wear and bags. "One of the perks of being a science experiment and a General in the Chiss/Human Army; the apartment comes with the job. And I make a decent wage that I basically just use to buy food and presents, so I've got quite a bit saved up."

"Presents for your kids?" Sabine couldn't help asking.

"Sabine!" Ahsoka scolded softly.

Ezra raised a hand. "No. It's okay. She has a right to ask. Yes, presents for my kids." He held his hand out to Sabine invitingly again (not one to give up). "Come. I think you should meet them before this gets any more awkward."

Despite her misgivings about his children, Sabine took his hand and laced her fingers through his again, letting the contact sooth away her worries. Holding his hand felt like the most natural thing in the galaxy, and, not for the first time, she mentally scolded herself for not moving their friendship to the next level long before he'd left with the Purrgil and Thrawn. So many years wasted. Maybe he would have found a different way to win if I'd been his girl back then. Or maybe it was the only way and it would have hurt even more when he left.

She would never know the answer. And maybe it was better that way.

Sabine let him led her back into the lift, where Ahsoka and Rex joined them, also holding hands and looking amused by their younger counterparts' journey into the realm of romanticism. They travelled downwards and then back out into the reflected light of day, and then walked down the road to another big building that took up the entire height of the cavern.

"This is the Ozyly-Esehembo building, or Force Central, as I like to call it," Ezra said as he led them inside into a typical lobby looking area. He merely waved at the Chiss receptionist and continued on down a hallway, stopping at another turbolift and stepping in.

"What does ozyly-esehembo mean?" Sabine asked as they rose up a few floors, determined to start learning the language.

Ezra huffed with amusement. He looked at Ahsoka, who was all but leaning against Rex. "You're going to love this. Ozyly-Esehembo literally translates to Sky Walker."

The Togrutan's sky blue eyes widened to nearly impossible proportions. "What?! As in Anakin?"

Ezra shook his head as the lift came to a stop and the doors opened, but no one moved to disembark yet. "No it's just a coincidence. Their Force users are called Sky Walkers because they used to use them to navigate through hyperspace, not having enough navi computers to supply all of their ships."

"But you just said none of them kept their Force powers past the age of ten," Sabine protested.

He smiled grimly. "I did. They were using younglings to do an adult's job. I've tried the navigating thing, and it's incredibly draining. And that was only for a couple of hours. I don't know how the children did it."

"Please tell me the children aren't used like that anymore," Ahsoka all but begged.

"They're not. I put a stop to that right away, encouraging them to steal more Imperial ships to make up the difference. I thought at first that the children were losing their Force abilities after the age of ten because they were burnt out, but that's not it, cause it's still happening."

"Strange," Ahsoka said, head tilting slightly as she thought. "I've never heard of that happening to any other people on such a uniform scale. The occasional person, yes, and usually from burnout, like you speculated. I wonder what's causing it? Something in their genetics?"

"That is the current theory." Ezra stepped out of the elevator, still holding Sabine by the hand, and into a big open space filled with children, most of them girls, and demonstrating Force abilities as they played various games. A few supervising adults watched over them and made notes on datapads. He squeezed Sabine's hand and then let it go. "And that's where I come in."

Ezra hadn't been in the room for more than two seconds before one of the blue skinned boys noticed him and cried, "Dad!" in Cheunh.

Within moments, he was surrounded by the only five boys in the room, all the same age of approximately six years old, all identical with young versions of Ezra's face (if he were blue skinned), and sporting his sapphire eyes, unlike all the other Chiss, who had red eyes. It was hard to tell if their dark blue hair came from Ezra, or their Chiss half, because the Chiss also sported various shades of blue hair. (In that aspect, Ezra fit right in.)

It didn't take a genius to figure out that they were partial clones of Ezra. And Sabine actually was a certified genius. The only question Sabine had left was whether or not Ezra's genetic template had been taken from him willingly or not.

She was guessing not. I think he would have come home to me if they hadn't done this to him. But I understand why they did, if they're trying to make a Chiss who can keep their Force powers. Doesn't mean I like it, but I can understand.

Ezra laughed as the boys tackled him down to the ground and swarmed over him, hugging every part they could get their short arms around. "Boys! I was just here a few hours ago! You couldn't possible miss me this much already?" he said in Basic, even as he hugged them back en masse.

"But, you're gone so often, Daddy," the one clinging to his neck replied in the same language, easily taking the hint to talk in the planet's newly official second language.

"Yeah. We have to hug you whenever we get the chance," another added.

"To make up for the missing times," a third said.

Ezra carefully finagled his way into a kneeling position amongst the small herd of boys and they all automatically settled into a copying pose, reminding her of how Kanan used to sit when he was meditating. Ezra stroked a large hand over each of their messy heads in turn. "Remember what I said about finding me in the Force?"

The boys all nodded in sync.

"Well, that works for hugs too. You can send me a mental hug anytime you want. I promise I'll feel it and send you one back as long as I'm not so busy fighting or something that I have to have all of my concentration on something very important, okay?"

"Okay, Daddy," they chorused.

"Why don't we practice now?"

They nodded eagerly, and then as a unit, squinched their eyes shut.

Ezra beamed at them, shot a look of sheer pride at Sabine, and then closed his own eyes, hands settling on his knees.

Sabine's heart melted in her chest, seeing how much he loved the boys. She looked over at Ahsoka, who was wiping a tear off the corner of her eye, and mouthed, "Frag,"

"I know," Ahsoka mouthed back.

He's never going to leave them, Sabine thought. Not permanently.

The question is, am I willing to stay here with him?

She looked down at her handsome, softly smiling man, surrounded by little copies of himself, and the answer was almost instantly, YES!

He's worth it.

Besides… He's fighting a war. I can't let him do that by himself anymore.

Sabine was smiling at him with calm acceptance radiating from her signature when Ezra opened his eyes a few minutes later, sending any remaining doubts he'd had about waiting for her fleeing from his mind. He knew, just from looking at her, that she'd made up her mind about what she intended to do. Now all he had to do was get her alone so that they could iron out the details.