Star Wars Rebels is owned by Disney and I make no profit of this use of their intellectual property.

Well first season ended on a high note didn't it. My big shock was the Inquisitor dieing. How do you kill the villein in the first season?

Oh and Ahsoka's alive and was Fulcrum this whole time. Which to me wasn't so much a season ending surprise but something was totally expected. Honesty I would have been more shocked if Fulcrum turned out to be anyone but Ahsoka.

Super happy that she's in the show no doubt about that.

Also are Ezra's scars permanent or will they heal? I wrote this chapter without mentioning them but I might add then later. Scars add to the image of a damaged person and believe Ezra will get damaged in this story, a lot. (Like as in Skywalker family reunion damaged)

Forewarning this will not be fluffy and or lovely like Blind Trust if you were a fan of that. Also depending on how badly my 'Mr Hyde' impulses takes over later chapter may bump this to an M.

Journey Into Darkness.

By Slayzer

-The Ghost-

"I told you that I'm good to go." Ezra said definitely with red eyes while he held back a coughing fit.

Kanan raised an eyebrow at his clearly sick padawan and could already see the argument they'll have in making the boy realize this fact. "And I'm telling you this is not a discussion Ezra. Your staying here on Lothal until you recover."

"But you'll need me out there I just know it!"

Zeb gave a short barked of a laugh. "Right, when we need someone to sneeze on a stormtrooper you'll be right there for us."

Ezra glared bitterly at his roommate, an effect that was greatly ruined by his puffy red eyes. "Okay so maybe I can't help but I still want to go."

Sabine shot that down as only a mandalorian could, with cold practical logic. "You'll only make yourself and us miserable if you came along as you are now. I don't understand why you don't just stay on Lothal? You'll get better faster at home then in the Ghost."

As sickly as Ezra was Sabine's words got a rise out of him and his fist slammed on to the checkered holoprojector table. "No your the ones that don't understand! This ship is my...!" Ezra stop just as he was about to say something he couldn't take back.

It was too late however and everyone could fill in that blank easily.

This ship had become Ezra's home and it's crew his family.

A profound silence fell upon the room. Everyone just thought that Ezra was being unreasonably and stubborn but they didn't think about why he was like that.

When they thought they were reassuring Ezra that everything would be fine without him and that he should stay home he heard was that he wasn't needed and that he should just go away. Kanan, Zeb and Sabine suddenly felt like heels at realizing how they must have sounded to Ezra.

The young padawan hung his head and felt foolish. "You know what, never mind just forget I said anything."

That was when Ezra felt Hera's arms warp around him as the twi'lek pilot hugged him. "Forgive us Ezra. We didn't mean to sound like you weren't welcome here. We'd never say that to you."

Zeb cleared his throat. "Yeah kid, I mean it'll be great to have the room to me self for a change but half of it's still yours."

Sabine but a paint speckled gloved hand on Ezra's shoulders. "Even if your not a part of the mission your always a part of the team, got that Specter Six."

Kanan waited until Hera had let got of Ezra before playfully ruffing up the boy's unruly blueish black hair. "I'm not abandoning you Ezra."

Ezra felt his face flush more from the embarrassment he was feeling then the sickness. "No, I'm not feeling left out or left behind or anything like that. I was just thinking what will you guys do without my charming self. But it would also be nice to have a break from Kanan's Jedi training. " Ezra said dismissively with the handsome but conniving smile that he was known for. The effect was ruined by him suddenly sneezing violently into his arm.

Sabine rolled her eyes but couldn't keep the small smile of her lips. 'If only Ezra would grow up a little and stop trying to acting cool and just be himself...' the young mandalorian girl quickly killed that thought before it could form.

She was sure Kanan hadn't taught Ezra to read minds but still you can't be too careful.

Kanan shook his head weary at his padawan's words about getting out of training. "Your not on this mission but your still in training. While recovering I expect you to work on the Force meditation technique I showed you."

Ezra sighed as he grabbed his backpack and was about to head out. He lost his balances for a moment on his unsteady legs. Zeb's big pawed hand shot out and help stabilize the boy. "Maybe we should just take you back to your tower, kid."

Kanan agreed with the lasat. "Hera take us to Ezra's tower."

The twi'lek however moved to the kitchen not the cockpit. "Sorry love but could you fly the ship. I have something else I need to do."

"Something more important then flying your own ship?" Kanan asked a little surprised by Hera's action.

Hera just waved over her shoulder. "You'll see."

-Ezra's Tower-

The rust spotted door opened with out complaint as Ezra showed Kanan and Hera into the only home the boy had know for almost half his life. "We'll here I am. Home sweet home."

"Ezra..." Kanan started to say as he put his hand on his padwan's back. "This is were you sleep but it's not your home anymore. You said as much yourself didn't you?"

"Yeah, well thanks for seeing me back to where I sleep then. I guess you should get going on that mission." Ezra said trying to get away from his teacher.

Kanan didn't move to leave and in fact walked thought to door with Ezra. "We have plenty of time to make the rendezvous. I just need to make sure your taken care of till we get back."

"Just because I'm sick doesn't mean I need to be tucked in."

"No, but the kid wants to be tucked all the same." Zeb's said as he and Hera followed Kanan inside.

Hera nudged Zeb in the ribs with an elbow. "Come on Zeb, you know that if Kanan doesn't get to fuss over Ezra now he'll just wear groves in the deck-plating pacing once we're gone."

"True!" Zeb said with a gruff laugh as he busied himself looking over Ezra's collection of Stormtrooper helmets.

Jedi master and padawan shared a glace as if to say 'what good friends we have'. Kanan then help Ezra out of his jumpsuit and into some night cloths. Then he tucked the boy under the covers of his bed.

Hera walked over and handed Ezra a large thermos. "Here's some nutritious and delicious homemade soup to help you get back on your feet."

"Nutritious and delicious?" Ezra asked a little unsure of Hera's cooking skill being that he'd never seen her cook once.

Hera caught the dubious look Ezra gave her. "And what's that look for?"

Kanan shot Ezra a reassuring smile. "Don't worry kid, Hera doesn't look it but she's almost as good a cook as she is a pilot."

Ezra took the thermos from Hera and thought about the last time someone made him homemade soup. It must have been his mother, Mira when he was a little boy. This all felt odd to Ezra who had been so use to being on his own but it also made him feel warm inside.

Ezra was soon distracted by Zeb rapping his knuckles on one of Ezra's stolen trooper helmets. "What do you do with all of these?"

"I collect them."

"And then?"

"And then nothing. I just collect them."

Zeb shrugged his massive shoulders. "Well anything you want me to pick up for you while were busting up another Imperial supply ship."

"When your knocking out bucket-heads if you see a scout trooper helmet, that's the kind with the visor, snag it for me will you."

"Sure thing kid. I'll even try not to dent it." Zeb said with a small smile.

Ezra couldn't help but smile as the crew had come to see that he would be okay until they returned. Then out of the corner of his eye he saw a flash of color by the doorway that could only be the galaxy's most colorful mandalorian.

"Sabine, your not painting my tower!" Ezra hollered out the door.

Sabine ducked her head inside somewhat shocked that she was found out. "How did you know I wanted... uh, I mean what gave you that idea?"

The yelling gave Ezra a coughing fit and he need a minute before he could answer her. "While the tower is rusty and in need of paint job I'm not letting you turn my hideout into one of your public art projects."

"Oh come on, It wouldn't even take me that long. I just need to whip up a few dozen paint bombs and then just give me an hour or two to place them in the right places and then Boom! Your rusty old tower becomes a landmark."

Ezra seemed to think about it for a moment. "Well I guess if the tower was painted a nice shade of orange it make a nice binding contrast with the blue sky and amber fields."

Sabine's eyes lit up at the artistic possibility that Ezra was describing. Seeing this Ezra smirked and then crushed her dreams. "But I'll only let you do it the day after Hera let's you paint the outside of the Ghost."

Sabine's hopes were dashed as she turned her pleading soft brown eyes to Hera.

"Which will be the day after never." The twi'lek said having none of it as this was a discussion the two had many times.

Sabine sighed in defeat before pleading with her crew mates. "Must you all restrain my artistic vision?"

Ezra, Hera, Kanan and Zeb all shared a knowing look. They could all picture what Sabine's unbridled artistic aspirations would unleash on their living space. The four answered Sabine at once and with one word. "Yes!"

Sabine huffed and tried to look upset but she couldn't fool anyone. It wasn't just trust binding her to the crew of the Ghost anymore. The powerful feelings they all shared went much deeper.

In every way but blood they were family.

"Get well soon Ezra or I'll paint over you helmets while your gone."

Ezra coughed into his hand before giving Sabine a kind smile. "That just might be kind of awesome."

'Leave it to Ezra to be my most ardent art supporter.' Sabine thought to herself but didn't realize that she was smiling.

Hera cleared her throat and got everyone's attention. "Now that we've all seen to Ezra I think we should go and let him rest."

Zeb and Sabine nodded and let Hera usher them out of the room. Kanan took one last moment with his padawan. "Remember, bed rest and Force meditation only. I don't want you getting into trouble without me."

"So dose this mean I can get into trouble when you get back?"

Kanan couldn't keep a smile from spoiling his stern expression. There was more then a little truth to his padawan's cheek. "Just take care of yourself and I'll be back before you know it."

"Kanan?" Ezra asked before his master could walk out the door.

"Yes."

"You be sure to take care of yourself as well, alright."

"I will Ezra, now get some sleep."

With that Kanan walked out of Ezra's room and closed the door behind him.

-Outer Space-

The Ghost ran silent while it waited for an Imperial transport to jump out of hyper space. Fulcrum had given then Intel on the transport's rout and cargo. She also made it clear that it would be in the Rebel's best interest to see that it doesn't reach Lothal.

So the Ghost and her crew waited like patient hunters.

Just then a lone Imperial transport jump out of hyper space for a moment to reset it's jump coordinates.

"Okay, people. Just like we always do." Kanan said as he detracted the Phantom from the Ghost.

Sabine and Zeb took their positions manning the Ghost's defensive turrets while Hera piloted the ship.

The rebels would ambush and then disable the transport ship before raiding it.

Hera watched from the helm as Kanan set up for a run at the transport. She looked to Chopper who was on damage control. "Start jamming any transmissions that ship sends out. We can't have them calling in back up."

Chopper bleeped from where he was plugged into the ship's computers.

Hera looked at the Imperial ship with a start. "What do you mean there not transmitting anything? They must have seen us by now so why wouldn't they call for help? Unless they were expecting us."

Hera mashed the com button. "Specter Two to Specter One abort the mission! I repeat abort!"

An Imperial frigate exited hype space just above the Ghost and quickly lunched a dozen TIE fighters. The frigate must have been waiting with it's fighters prepped and ready to lunch. This whole mission was an elaborate trap and the rebels fell right into it.

The hunters were now the hunted as TIE fighters swarmed around the Ghost and Phantom.

Hera's flying and the expert shooting from the last and mandalorain kept the fighters off them. The Empire may have sprung it's trap but the rebels were determined to fight their way out of it.

Kanan brought the Phantom around and shot down a TIE that was making a strafing run at the Ghost. Two TIE fighters were on his own tail however and he was having trouble shaking them.

"Specter One to Ghost, I'll hold them off while you make the jump to hyper space!"

Hera flipped the Ghost around to dodge enemy fire. "Not happening Specter One! I can't lose you after getting you back Kanan."

Sabine couldn't help but smiled as she call up to the bridge. "I know your worried Hera but don't break communication protocol. After all I don't think you want the Empire to know how much really you love Kanan."

Zeb barked out a gruff laugh at Sabine's comment. "Too late, I think the whole galaxy already knows about those two."

Even the desperate fight for their lives you could trust Sabine's gallows humor came through and lighten the mood.

Hera was too busy make sure they all didn't get killed to respond to her crew's joke. Chopper however never having a care of what was appropriate even at the best of times bleeped a reply at Sabine.

"What dose me and Ezra have to do with anything?!" Sabine's yelled at the droid as her face blushed red. Even in the ship's forward gun she could clearly hear both Zeb and Chopper's amusement.

Kanan's voice come over the comlink. "Cut the chatter and get ready I'm coming in for docking." For the smaller Phantom to dock with it's large mothership both would have to be moving at slow and even speed. With still half dozen TIE fighters buzzing around that was almost suicidal.

However he knew that they weren't going to leave him again and with a little luck a few less TIEs they could make it work. Kanan spun the Phantom around and let the Ghost's tractorbeam pull the ship into it's magnetic holds.

But before the little ship was secure a trio of TIE fighters made a run at the Phantom. There blasters making short work of it's deflectors and severely damaging the ships power core. The Ghost's emergency safety protocols kicked in and it prepared to jettison the little ship before it blew.

Part of the protocol was that airlock was sealed so Kanan couldn't get out of the doomed Phantom.

"Sabine!" Hera yelled as she was too busy getting the navigation computer to plug in jump coordinates for 'Anywhere but here' to go help Kanan.

"On it." Sabine climbed up the ladder to the bridge and rushed past Hera. She ran down the hallway and past ladder the roof turret where Zeb kept blasting away at TIE fighters. Sabine quickly override the lock out protocols and got the hatchway open.

Kanan staggered out of the smoke fulled shuttle and almost collapsed into the hallway. The hatchway sealed shut behind him as the Ghost prepared to detach the Phantom before it blow up.

In the cockpit Hera saw the navigation computer light up green and was about it punch it to hyper space.

Then like the falling of guillotine blade the Star Destroyer "Lawbringer" exited hyper space in front of the little ship. Hera had to swerve away from the massive ship as it opened up with a hail of blaster fire.

-Lawbringer Bridge-

Agent Kallus smirked as his well laid trap was sprung on those Rebel scum. Boxed in by TIE fighters and blocked by his Star Destroyer they had no hope of escape. His confident smile ran from his face however at the approach of the Sith Lord.

"I want them alive Agent. Their no good to me dead." The dreaded Sith Lord commanded.

Kallus took the order to heart like his life depended on it because with Vader it just might. "Order all gunner crews to target the Rebel ship's propulsion systems only."

"Sir!" A lieutenant at his sensor station called out. "I'm reading a charge in the enemy's hyper drive."

"Stop them!" Kallus yelled losing his impeccable cool for a moment.

-Back on the Ghost-

Chopper got the Navigation computer to input some jump coordinates in record time.

"Good work Chopper!" Hera said as she readied to herself and her crew out of danger. She looked up just in time to see a stray TIE fighter on a collision course with the Ghost. Even with her skills she couldn't avoid the in coming TIE.

The TIE fighter impacted on the Ghost's cockpit and blew out Hera's control panel. Sparks and fire splashed across Hera's green face as she was thrown back into her chair. Spiderweb cracks appeared in the canopy as atmosphere bleed from the ship.

Even dazed and wounded Hera Syndulla manged to looked over her shoulder at Kanan, at her Jedi. She smiled warmly at him and said. "Love..."

It was her final word before the doorway sealed off the cockpit to prevent the ship from venting air into space.

"So that's it then. Well it's been a pleasure working with you Boss." Zeb said from his place behind a turret and shooting down another TIE Fighter. The loss of a few fighters wouldn't mean much to the Empire but let it be said that Garazeb Orrelios went down fighting to the bitter end.

Kanan then heard singing.

He turned to find Sabine singing some old Mandorain warrior dirge that must have as old as the Republic had once been. Even with what little Mando Kanan knew he could tell it was a song about Honor, Glory, Loss and Love.

Tears ran down Sabine's face as she sang but neither the tears nor the song where for herself.

Sabine Wren was singing and shedding tears for Ezra.

Kanan Jarrus took a deep breath, a breath he knew would be his last, and reached out through the Force. In this his last moments he was more at one with the Force then ever before and he used it to touch Ezra's mind.

"Trust in the Force, Ezra. Always." It was Kanan's last and most important lesson for his young Padawan.

Then light, sound in furry enveloped the Ghost and they were gone.

-Lawbringer Bridge-

Kallus watched with and odd mix of stratification and horror as the Ghost was vaporized into glowing red molecules before the cold void of space cold then to nothing. When a ship that size suffers a hyper drive failure in the middle of a jump it leaves nothing behind nothing larger the super heated dust spread over several light years.

The whole bridge was silent except for the ominous robotic breathing of the Sith Lord.

Vader walked up to the forward window and seemed to contemplate something. After a several tense moments he turned to face Kallus. "Return to Lothal and prepare a report for the Grand Moff about this encounter."

Kallus bowed his head grateful that he was momentary spared from the Dark Lord's wraith. "At once my Lord."

Vader paid the I.S.B agent no mind as he walked away. The rebels were no more and his lead to Fulcrum, no, his lead to who he believed was his old padawan was lost with them.

'The bond between master and apprentice is a strong thing.' The Sith Lord thought to himself.

Vader consider that and the tremble in the Force he felt at the Ghost's last moments.

The dark side may yet still have a purpose waiting for Vader on Lothal.

Perhaps even a grief stricken Padawan ready to embrace the dark side and willing to become a tool to use in his gambit against his master.

Time would tell.

-Lothal Ezra's Tower-

Ezra had just finished the last of the soup that Hera made for him and he was feeling much better. He sat with his legs folded in a lotus position as he meditated like his master had show him.

Meditation not being Ezra's favorite Jedi activity but after saving Kanan he had learned the value of it and patients.

Just then a great wave of sorrow and lost washed over Ezra and he felt...

He felt his loved ones taken from him, again.

'Trust in the Force, Ezra. Always.' It was almost like Kanan was in the room with him.

Ezra looked up and saw that he was alone and he knew.

He was alone.

-end-

Okay, first thing Vader isn't stupid and he knows or he feels in the part of him that still Anakin that Ahsoka is alive. He would know her well enough to that she wouldn't take the Empire's rule hiding out quietly. Vader better then anyone knows that Anakin Skywalker didn't train Ahsoka Tano to be like that.

So do I think Vader knows the Fulcrum is Ahoska?

No.

Do I think the Vader suspects that Fulcrum is Ahoska?

Absolutely.

I guess I should talk about how and why I killed the crew.

I wanted to take time to have everyone face that moment of their death with something from inside themselves. I hope the emotion I gave them made up for a less then stellar space battle.

Honesty I was going to make this a one shot of the 'Ezra get's sick' plot thread and have him be smoother in space family fluff.

Then I had the thought of 'What if they died when Ezra wasn't with them?' And 'What if that pushed him over to the dark side?'

So are they "really" dead?

It's not like the Ghost made a last moment jump just as the Phantom's engines blew up. That would then fool the Empire into thinking it was The Ghost that was destroyed while it was really the Phantom. Keeping in mind that there wasn't even enough debris to fill a coffee cup how could they be sure. Also it's not like Chopper didn't get a death scene because the trusty astromech was working hard to save them all at the last minute.

Really would I do something like that?

Just so I could to set up a tragic reunion later with the Ghost Crew and an Ezra who has sworn himself fully to the New Order and The Dark Side?

Well I like to think I'm capable of anything so you'll just have to read on to find out.

Next chapter.

Ezra forsakes his master's Jedi teaching and the ideals of the rebellion for revenge.

Thank you for reading and please leave a review or a PM telling me what you thought.