"Did you name one of the characters after the talk show "Jimmy Kimmel Live"?"

Not intentionally. I was going more for the last name's meaning more so than Jimmy Kimmel. But what happened was when I was naming her character the name randomly popped into my head and I was like "Do I know that name? What does that name mean?" and looked it up and I liked the meaning and went with it.

In hindsight I might have had Jimmy Kimmel's show name somewhere in the back of my head at the time of naming her character. But I never go back and change character names. I mean, I named Jacob "Jacob Faagon" because it sounds like me in my Boston accent saying "far gone", and I knew he was going to break so he would be "too far gone" for anyone to save… so I'm not exactly winning on the creative scale. But thank you for asking!

Note: I do not own Star Wars or any of its characters. Within this story there will be original characters, but everything else is owned by Lucasfilm and Disney.

Kanan's eyes opened widely as Ezra's words echoed through his head. When the echoing was gone, all could be heard was silence and Kanan's deep breathing as Sabine piloted the ship and Zeb moved over and placed a hand on his shoulder, "Kanan, are you alright? You look like you saw a ghost."

Kanan stood up from where he had chosen to sit and he walked over to the front of the Phantom, "Whatever is going on, Ezra is in so much distress he is rejecting a connection through the Force. And I sensed something dark…"
"The Inquisitor maybe?"
"If the Inquisitor has him then I am not surprised, but we're going to have to find Ezra ourselves. I can tell you for a fact that he's on this planet."

Sabine shot Kanan a look and said, "Even if we narrowed down where he is, we still have an entire planet we have to search through without being detected."
"And on top of it we don't know how long Ezra might have…" Kanan noted crossing his arms and looking out the window. They were trying to keep as discrete as possible but it was very hard due to the fact they had to keep the lights on when Sabine was driving. After a point Kanan said, "I'll take over again, but we'll need to find a way to get Ezra's location."
"If the Empire likes doing anything, it's logging their information even if it's discreet. If we can get to some sort of base on the planet maybe I can sneak in and-"

"Why don't we just ask that guy?" Zeb said pointing to a stormtrooper just as Kanan shut off the lights and then Zeb said, "U-um… well we can't see him now."
"No I see who you're talking about but we better hope he somehow didn't notice us."

Suddenly there was blaster fire, probably more blaster fire than one trooper could produce at once so there must have been more and Kanan sighed, "He noticed us."

"Dev. Dev!"

Ezra's eyes opened, hours later, and his body felt horribly sore and his mind felt exhausted. Hovering over him in his room was Dhara. Ezra looked around dazed and said, "I… I need more sleep… please…"
"You're late waking up and if you don't get to classes in time they're going to make you feel worse… did they end up trying to break you last night?" Dhara asked looking worried and helping Ezra up.

"Yeah, they did. But something wasn't right."
"What wasn't right?" Dhara asked prodding a bit and Ezra not knowing much better said, "I feel like… I feel they were way too good at it. They made me feel like Ka… my master was there in my head. And I don't mean an impression, like, as if they got him for real… like. I felt like his genuine concern was there with me…"
"Don't get yourself excited, they are intentionally doing that to make you feel like you have a chance. There is no way your master could have spoken to you from here… I'm sure it was another one of their tricks, Ezra."

Ezra felt an anger growing inside him, at the fact that they could create an impression so well and twist him like that. He was growing more hate towards these people, and he didn't want to hold that back. But something out of her sentence made him think for a moment.

"What… did you just call me?" Ezra said looking at Dhara. He thought he heard her say Ezra, but he never told her his name. But he sat there confused for a moment and Dhara seemed to look at him confused and said, "I called you Dev… come on." She helped Ezra up fully and said, "We need to get to class."

Ezra followed Dhara, not really wanting to, but he did it anyway out of obligation, but he wished Dhara had at least given him a medpack or something to help ease the pain.

He did not have anything with Knives today, but he did notice Hevel had been showing up to a lot of his classes, and this got him confused. Didn't they say Hevel was a class-four? But he didn't make mention of it since he was barely making it through the day anyway.

In one class, they were practicing their ability to use the Force in a more direct manner, and Ezra was avoiding using his powers directly. As he attempted to do that one more time Hevel walked behind him and said, "You do know that if they catch you not taking this seriously you will be punished. Yes?"

Ezra turned to Hevel and said, "I don't want to do this. This is wrong." Ezra turned back towards what he was avoiding. In a cell was a prisoner who had a rag over their head, Ezra did not know who they were, but he was being told to use them to test his powers. They reminded him he could kill if he wished, but Ezra didn't even want to harm them. Hevel crossed his arms and said, "You could at least torture them and keep them alive."
"I won't, they don't deserve this."

Hevel walked closer to the prisoner and said, "This person was accused of committing crimes against the Empire. They were given a fair trial and they were sentenced to death. But we took them instead and said if they survived five days of our training, they would be spared. For all of the lives this person took, you are willing to claim they are not worthy of death or at the very least suffering?"

"I have no reason to help the Empire with their jobs when I don't agree with them to begin with." Ezra replied. Hevel let out a sigh and said, "We all have our jobs to do, Dev Morgan. But this terrorist destroyed an imperial base and killed over fifty men and women all in the name of rebellion. Many children were left without families, many lives were never lived to their fullest, and many spouses lost the love of their life. They are men and women who are attempting to make a living in this galaxy, and when they are attacked without being provoked. It is wrong. Shouldn't you understand that? Do you think over fifty people just doing their jobs deserve to die?"

Ezra looked between the prisoner and Hevel, "No… but…"
"But?"

Ezra straightened himself up and said, "How do you know if the Empire wronged them or not? What if their family or friends died because of the Empire attacking them unprovoked?"
"So you think it is okay to take a life for a life? That doesn't sound very Jedi-like." Hevel said smirking a little.

Ezra stared at them for a while before saying, "I'm not saying that, I'm just trying to-"
"Justify the actions of one side while victimizing another? Dev. You can lie to yourself all you want but the strongest message rebels like you leave to the majority is that you are willing to kill anyone who may be associated with the Empire. Even if that person was drafted into being a Stormtrooper at a young age. Even if that person is only doing their job to put food on the table. At most, this person may have lost their family, five or six people in the wrong manner, but their friends who fought with them, they may have been killing others too and the Empire was concerned for their safety."

Ezra shook his head and said, "The Empire-"
"Does its job. You have some sort of idolization for rebellion when you do not seem to understand the damage it costs. Every time you destroy a base or ships, steal shipments, you don't make it harder on the people running. You make it harder on the every man."
"But what the Empire does is wrong. It oppresses people."
"We are giving you the opportunity right now to openly understand and grow your powers under the permission of the Empire."
"You are forcing me to turn to the dark side. That isn't giving me a choice."
"This is not the issue right now, Dev. The issue right now is that we have a prisoner who does not understand the consequences of looking at both sides."

Ezra looked at the prisoner as Hevel came close to him and said, "We spared you having to see their face. Justify your actions in your mind like you justify your actions with the rebels. Look at them and tell yourself that what you are doing is just. When someone kills so many people with no valid reason other than revenge, isn't that wrong?"
"I… guess you're right."
"So accept that, and give them the punishment they deserve for that." Hevel helped Ezra raise his arm and then let go of it, "Death or torture? Think of them as if they're someone from the Empire who deserves their punishment if it makes it easier."

Ezra closed his eyes and felt a hum that was almost familiar to him, but there was something different about it. And Ezra didn't open his eyes as he reached through the Force. He felt like he was tightening against something, and he heard screaming. He then suddenly felt flashes through his head.

Ezra saw this person's story, how they had a family. They were a man with a wife and two kids. But then Stormtroopers entered his home and ransacked the place. When they were about to break a precious item to his wife, she ran over and tried to stop them from doing that, and his wife began to struggle with them until they executed her right there and the husband shouted no.

It flashed again, and he was at the bar with his friends who were helping console him, and the Empire appeared on TV and Ezra felt that same hatred the man felt.

The scene flashed again and the man and his friends went over to a couple Stormtroopers and pulled them to the side, and the man got into a struggle with the Stormtroopers and killed one.

It flashed again to the Empire invading his home once more, taking his children away screaming as he swore he'd get them back. The scene flashed to more Stormtroopers shooting at him as he threw bombs at them and ran.

In another flash, the man's friends told him to stop, that he was going too far and that he needed to turn him in. But the man swore he wouldn't stop until the Empire was destroyed. He began planning something big, something drastic.

In a flash, the man was on Coruscant, and he brought a bag into a building for the training of Imperial agents. He ran out as soon as he dropped the bag and an explosion occurred, the man had an evil smile on his face, and he grabbed another bag from his ship and went to find another base to do the same thing.

He did do wrong… he went too far… he didn't stop.

Ezra heard the man screaming and Ezra couldn't open his eyes as his hand tightened more.

Don't feel bad… he deserves to be punished this way... Hevel was right…

The screaming only intensified and Ezra felt like it was just easier to keep going, to do more, because he could do more. Ezra saw the look of fear on people's faces at the trials the man went through, the looks of children crying because they lost their parents. That connected with him personally. But Ezra wasn't trying to tell himself it was the Empire's fault. He was trying to tell himself this is why this man deserved punishment… this is why this man deserved to…

Ezra's connection to this man's mind was gone, it faded until all he could see was black, and there was silence. And Ezra felt cold in a familiar way that he did before. But he knew he was awake, but he feared what he'd see when he opened his eyes.

And when Ezra finally did open his eyes, he saw the stillness of the man, and he felt he went too far. But he suddenly felt a wave of relief and Hevel injected something into his arm that made all of the torture from the other day, and past few days fade away. And it was the best he had felt, and he wasn't sure why he was getting a positive feeling from this.

He just killed a man.

"You did a good thing Dev, the man was dangerous and deserved his execution."

I just killed a man with the Force.

"Do not feel bad, you should feel good, you finally understand what is necessary to do for the good of everyone, and that is why you were just rewarded."

Ezra didn't want to admit he felt good, he wanted to deny that, it felt like nothing to him to end that man's life. He wanted to embrace that. But he wanted to scream as well. But instead he stood in silence.