Unexpected Company

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters that I am about to mangle around for my own amusement, sadly all Star Wars characters remain the property of Disney and Lucasfilm Ltd, I am merely borrowing them and make absolutely no profit from their use. As a result, I ask that you keep the legal attack dogs, also known as lawyers, firmly muzzled and leashed as I have nothing to give anyone.

Author's Note: I had the idea for this short story after thinking what if - instead of seemingly falling to the dark side like what he seems to be heading for in season three of Rebels - Ezra Bridger stayed, albeit narrowly, on the light side of the Force, survived the civil war and for a time helped Luke in his attempt to rebuild the Jedi Order. And what if he survived Kylo Ren's attack - either because he wasn't there or he overpowered the Knight of Ren who tried to kill him and escaped - on Luke's academy and went underground only to resurface to help Rey, Finn and so on during the events of The Force Awakens.

Story events begin just after Han and co arrive at Maz Kanata's castle on Takodana.

Part One

Sitting in the shadows cast by a handy support pillar Ezra Bridger quietly nursed a glass of jala juice and watched the entrance to the building. He had no idea why the Force had called him here to this place, though it was nice to see Maz again and to see that she hadn't really changed a bit since he'd last seen her nearly twenty years ago. Not that that was that surprising considering her species lived for over a thousand years, a mere two decades was nothing to someone like Maz. Just like the passage of a day was nothing really to note for a human.

A shadow fell over him and he looked up just in time to see Sabine slip into the seat next to him. She was dressed in her signature Mandalorian armour though it was not quite as colourful as it would have once been, especially during their wild teenage years when they'd fought against the Empire alongside Hera Syndulla and his late master Kanan Jarrus - or Caleb Dume depending on who you talked to - who like so many others had perished when Ben Solo turned into Kylo Ren. And proceeded to lead Snoke's Sith wannabe's the Knights of Ren in their devastating surprise attack on the New Jedi Order. Only the fact that he hadn't been there at time, instead he'd been assessing a few potential new initiates on Dandoran at the time, had prevented him suffering the same fate.

As it was one of the Knights of Ren had come after him later; only to meet his end beneath the green blade of his lightsabre as the Knight of Ren learned the hard way that it was one thing to slaughter Jedi and Padawans when you'd caught them by surprise - and when your leader had taken down all the Temples security and defence systems from the inside before revealing his true dark side colours - but it was quite another to take on a Jedi Knight when said Knight was fully aware of who and what you were. Since then he'd kept moving with the aid of the surviving crew of the Ghost, never letting the First Order know he was still alive – Kanan's Force Ghost having come to him one evening just after the disaster and telling him that it wasn't the right time for the First Order to know he still lived and that he would know when the time came. Indeed, of all the Resistance only Leia herself knew that he was still alive and had been willing to trust his word – knowing from her brother when Jedi said such things there was a good reason for it – that it wasn't time for the First Order to know he was alive.

He wondered if that was about to change though. The Force had been very insistent that he come to this planet for some reason, pestering him night after night with vision after vision of Takodana, until he'd gotten Hera to bring the Ghost here and to allow him and Sabine to descend to the surface in the Phantom. I just hope I have an answer to why the Force wanted me to come here soon, he thought.

Sabine speaking up brought him out of his thoughts. "I just checked with Zeb and Hera, everything's still normal in orbit. Anything happening here?" Sabine asked as she took off her helmet revealing colourfully dyed hair - this time a mixture of orange and blue very similar to how she'd had it coloured when they'd first met all those decades ago on Lothal.

"Nope not yet," Ezra replied with a sigh. "I still have no idea why were…" his voice trailed off as he sensed a powerful presence in the Force approaching - one that while strong felt raw and untrained. I wonder who that is, he thought.

"What is it?" Sabine asked knowing that look in Ezra's expressive blue eyes all too well, he was sensing something through the Force. Over the decades she'd known him - first as a friend and fellow rebel then as a close friend and sometimes lover, though they'd never openly committed to a relationship - she'd learned to trust that look.

"Something, or rather someone, is coming," Ezra said softly watching as the door opened and a group of people came in. Two of them were immediately familiar in the form of Han Solo and his ever faithful Wookiee companion Chewbacca. But what really caught his attention was the young woman who was following along behind him, alongside a dark skinned man in his early twenties. She practically shone in the Force, projecting an aura of great power, but one that felt raw and unfocused. In all probability the woman was unaware that she was Force sensitive though given how strong she was she'd likely used it all her life without even realising it - he had after all and never even known what he was doing or what the Force was until he met Kanan.

"Well I never thought I'd see Chewie and Han Solo again," Sabine commented, "I hear they've spent the years since Ben went all dark side smuggling. Just like Leia set about setting up and organising the Resistance. But why do I think that Han and Chewie aren't what's got your attention, Ezra?"

"Because you know me too well," Ezra replied with a rueful smile which she couldn't help but return, "it's that girl."

"What about her?" Sabine asked then answered her own question. "She's Force sensitive isn't she?"

"Very much so," Ezra confirmed with a nod "though I don't think she knows it, probably just thinks that she has good instincts or something. That's all I ever thought my connection to the Force was before I ran across you guys and Kanan told me the truth about it."

"Do you think she's what the Force has brought us here for," Sabine asked, watching as Maz led Han, Chewie along with the girl and dark skinned man to a quiet corner a small droid - a BB unit if she wasn't mistaken - following along behind. She wondered if the Force wanted Ezra to take the girl as his next padawan – something he hadn't had in years.

"Possibly," Ezra admitted while frowning at the white and orange BB unit. He could feel through the Force that there was something interesting about that BB unit, interesting and important. "Though it could also be that droid. There's something about it."

Sabine glanced at the droid and gasped. "I know that droid, it's in the latest reports we've got off Hera's contact in the Resistance," she said urgently to Ezra. "It's one of theirs, belonging to a pilot named Poe Dameron. They've been searching for it for days, so has the First Order. It apparently contains critical Intel that both want."

"Interesting," Ezra commented thoughtfully. "Alright here's what we can do. Why don't you nip outside and call Spectre Two - tell her the droid is here and to inform the Resistance. While I move over there and listen in a bit on what they're talking about."

"No problem," Sabine agreed getting up, slipping on her helmet and moving away through the thronging crowds. It didn't take her long to reach the entrance and she was about to slip outside to call up to the Ghost when she spotted a human woman in a white and black checkered cat suit speaking into a comm unit in Bothan. She listened carefully, not for the first time grateful for the advanced language classes she'd taken back on at the Academy for Young Imperials on Mandalore, and quickly realised that the woman was relaying that the droid was here to the First Order.

Oh karabast, she thought as she hurried outside to call Hera. She knew the First Order would come quickly in response to the report, especially if whatever intel the BB unit contained was as important as they'd heard it was, and that soon they'd have bucket heads - and if they were really unlucky Kylo Ren himself - here doing a very good impression of a rancor in a china shop as they tore the place apart looking for the droid.

"Spectre Five to Ghost," she said into her comm.

"Go ahead Spectre Five," Hera responded immediately, the use of their old code names telling her that this was business call instead of personal.

"Spectre Two the droid that the Resistance and the First Order are both looking for is here," Sabine told her, "contact the Resistance and let them know, and tell them to hurry up and get here as the First Order knows as well. I just overheard one of their spies telling them."

"Roger that Spectre Five. Are you and Spectre Si… I mean One heading back to the ship?" Sabine winced inside her helmet at Hera's stumble and almost reflexive calling Ezra Spectre Six. Though it had been years since Kanan's murder, and Hera had been the one to insist that Ezra take Kanan's old call sign instead of continuing to be called Spectre Six as a means of helping them move on, it was obvious at times like this that Hera still missed Kanan terribly. Hell they all did but nobody as much as Hera and Ezra, the former because she'd lost the love of her life, the latter because he'd lost his Master/Surrogate father figure.

She pushed those thoughts, and the lingering grief that came with them, aside. "Negative Spectre Two. There's something else here that Spectre Six wants to investigate first. Just keep an eye out for First Order ships and let us know if any arrive."

"Acknowledged Spectre Five. Good luck down there. Ghost out."

The moment Hera signed off, Sabine comm'd Ezra. "Spectre Five to Spectre One."

"Go ahead Spectre Five," Ezra's voice answered immediately though it was obvious he was speaking quietly. In the background she could hear Maz talking, saying something about having seen evil take many forms over her long life with the First Order being just the latest form the dark side had taken.

"Message relayed but we've got a problem."

"What is it?" Ezra asked. Quickly she explained the situation and couldn't help but smile when she heard Ezra say 'karabast' in annoyance. They'd all picked up Zeb's habit of saying that whenever something didn't go right or wasn't satisfactory. "Alright Sabine get back in here I think we're going to have to introduce ourselves to some old and new friends."

"On my way."

Ezra signed off with Sabine and from his position behind another convenient pillar listened to the one called Finn say that you couldn't fight the First Order and that all you they could do was run. Deciding that was as good a time as any to step in, though he suspected Maz had been aware of him all along but hadn't said anything as it would be just like her to do something like that, he stepped out from behind the pillar. Keeping the hood of his cloak up and obscuring his features.

"People used to say that about the Empire as well Mr Finn," he said making everyone, with the notable exception of Maz who just shot him a knowing smile confirming that she'd known he was there all along, jump in surprise. "But we fought them and won, the First Order is no different and Supreme Leader Snoke while a powerful darksider is no Emperor Palpatine. All the dark side needs to win is for good people to do nothing to stop it."

"Who are you," Finn asked turning in place to see a middle aged man of average height and with a compact but muscular build standing behind him. He was dressed in dark grey trousers with black boots, a light brown top with orange highlights here and there, and wore a hooded brownish-grey robe that covered his head and face. In a thigh holster he could see that he carried a DL-47 heavy blaster pistol just like the one Han wielded and there appeared to something else holstered on his right hip though due to the folds of the robe he couldn't see what it was.

Han was also frowning at the newcomer. His voice especially seemed familiar from somewhere but for the life of him he couldn't remember where he'd seen or heard him before. "I know you don't I?" he said feeling slightly nervous hoping that this wasn't someone else who had a bone to pick with him.

"You should do you old scoundrel," the stranger replied pulling back his hood revealing a face that Han had thought he would never see alive again. Han gaped in shock as he gazed upon the older but still very recognizable features of Ezra Bridger. Standing behind him Chewie overcame his own shock at seeing the face from the past, barked in joy and raced up pulling the Jedi Knight into a delighted hug.

"Ugh Chewie air," Ezra gagged as the Wookiee lifted him up. Chewie immediately set him down and released him barking that it was good to see him again and asking if he was here alone. "It's good to see you too, Chewie and no I'm not alone."

"I'm here as well," a female voice said as a woman in brightly coloured Mandalorian armour appeared, taking off her helmet to reveal a middle-aged woman with brightly coloured blue and orange hair. Again Han gaped while Chewie barked in joy and hugged Sabine in greeting before setting her down. "It is nice to see you too, Chewie. You too Han."

"You four know each other," Rey asked looking back and forth between Han, Chewie and the two newcomers. The man especially aroused a strange feeling in her, a feeling of strange familiarity along with a profound sense that he could be trusted.

"You could say that," Han replied shaking off his shock. "Rey, Finn first I want you to meet Sabine Wren, she was one of the best demolitionists we had back during the war to overturn the Empire. Not to mention the Rebellions resident artist."

"Hello," Sabine said in greeting.

"And this, and I really can't believe he's still alive, is Jedi Knight Ezra Bridger," Han said gesturing to Ezra, his declaration causing both Rey and Finn's jaws to metaphorically hit the floor in shock and amazement. "And speaking of that how can you be here, Ezra? I thought that…"

"... that I died with the others," Ezra finished for him. "Simple really Han I wasn't on Yavin 4 the night that Ben betrayed us and led the Knights of Ren for the first time as Kylo Ren. I was away assessing some potential new initiates on Dandoran when it happened. Oh one of the Knights found me afterwards and tried to kill me. Obviously he failed and I killed him instead. Decided to lay low with what was left of my old crew after that, until now."

"Hera and Zeb are here as well?" Han asked remembering that Kanan had been one of the Jedi killed when the Yavin 4 Temple burned.

"Aboard the Ghost in orbit with Chopper and AP-5. But much as I would love for us to stand here and play catch up all day were on the clock now," Ezra replied. "The First Order knows that you're here with this droid," he gestured to BB-8. "One of their spies saw you come in, they'll be coming."

His words had the desired effect, everyone immediately turned serious. Han and Chewie's delight at the reunion with their old friends being replaced by a focused and serious air.

"We need to get BB-8 to the Resistance," Rey said. "Can you help us?"

Ezra nodded but before he could speak a strangling outcry of death tore through his mind like a hurricane. It felt like an avalanche within the Force, the outcry of tens of millions of lives being torn from the universe in an instant making the fabric of the Living Force ripple violently with the shockwave of such wholesale death. He gasped in pain and shock, staggering as his legs suddenly lost all feeling, he would have fallen if Sabine and Chewie hadn't hurriedly caught him.

After a few seconds he felt them guiding him to a chair where he sat down, burying his head in his heads as the Force wave continued to tear at his very sanity. Finally, it began to dissipate leaving him feeling like he'd be trampled upon by a herd of banthas. He closed his eyes for a moment, taking repeated deep breaths as he released the pain and shock into the Force in the way Kanan had taught him to do decades earlier. After what seemed like an eternity he felt well enough to open his eyes to see everyone looking at him in concern, aside from Rey who was crying silently for some reason she didn't yet understand and Maz who looked every one of her thousand years at the moment.

"Are you alright Ezra," Sabine asked in alarm and concern. "What happened?"

"It was a great disturbance in the Force," Ezra explained. "Tens of millions of voices suddenly screaming in terror and just as suddenly being silenced. It was like feeling the destruction of Alderaan all over again only worse, a lot worse. Something awful has just happened."

"Starkiller Base," Finn breathed in horror as he realised what had just happened. Like all First Order stormtroopers - or former stormtrooper in his case - he knew about the monster of a weapon that the First Order had been building on and inside that planet. A weapon that made the superlasers of the Death Stars pale into insignificance in terms of its destructive power, as while the Death Stars had only been able to destroy one planet at a time the weapon being built there could destroy entire star systems of planets in an instant regardless of where they were in the galaxy. Now it appeared that not only was that weapon finished and operational but they'd gone ahead and used it on an inhabited system, a prospect that made him suddenly feel sick to his stomach.

It was in that instant that he actually truly realised just how evil the First Order was. Realise in a way that seeing his fellow troopers kill everyone in that village on the orders of Kylo Ren - or Ben if that was what Ren's real name was - hadn't. Screw running as he'd originally wanted to do, besides if Starkiller Base was fully operational then there was nowhere in the galaxy to hide anyway. The only way to truly be safe from them was to somehow destroy that monstrosity. How they could do that he really didn't know, but he knew he had a better chance with the Resistance. Plus, he knew quite a bit about Starkiller Base - including the location of the thermal oscillator that kept the dark energy that powered the weapon contained and stable in the planets hollowed out core - information the Resistance would need if they were to destroy Starkiller Base.

Information he'd give them, even though it would mean telling Rey and the others who or what he really was, or rather had been. Which could cost him the friendship he'd been starting to build with Rey as she realised he'd been lying to her about being a member of the Resistance. But if that was the price that he had to pay then so be it.

A hand being waved in front of his face brought him out of his thoughts with a jolt. "Finn you okay," Rey asked looking at him in concern. "Han asked you a question but you seemed light years away then."

"I'm fine," Finn replied. "What was the question?"

"I asked what's Starkiller Base." Han asked.

"The main staging and training area for the First Order," Finn replied. "It's also a weapon capable of destroying entire star systems of planets in one shot."

"How do you know that, from the Resistance," Rey questioned.

Finn fidgeted uncomfortably. "Well… not exactly," he said.

Ezra frowned at Finn from where he was still sitting down. He reached out with the Force and sensed a great deal of discomfort and personal shame radiating off Finn. A vision momentarily flashed across his awareness of a First Order stormtrooper with a streak of blood on his bone white helmet moving back into a First Order dropship. Turning his back on the interior of the ship the dropship was docked with he removed his helmet… revealing Finn's face.

"He's not a member of the Resistance," Ezra said abruptly startling everyone. "He's a First Order stormtrooper."

The reaction was immediate as Sabine and Han immediately drew their blasters and aimed them at Finn, Chewie doing the same with his bow caster. Finn grimaced and raised his hands in surrender. Rey gaped for a moment before looking at Finn her expression demanding that he say it wasn't true. That he was indeed the Resistance member that she'd believed him to be, a belief he'd encouraged.

"I'm not well not anymore," Finn admitted looking down. "I… I… I couldn't stay there. So I helped Poe Dameron escape, as thanks he gave me a name while piloting a TIE out of there but he insisted we go back to Jakku to get his droid because of the map it's got. As a result, the First Order shot us down." He looked at Rey. "I'm sorry I deceived you but when you asked me if I was with the Resistance as well it was just easier than explaining that I deserted the First Order.

"Besides I want to join the Resistance anyway. They're going to need what I know if they want to stop the First Order from using Starkiller Base's weapon again."

"Sabine, Han, Chewie put your weapons down he's telling the truth," Ezra said reading the truth both through the Force and from the look on Finn's face.

"What do you mean by Poe giving you a name?" Sabine asked as she returned her blasters to their holsters. Rey for her part looked away, unable to believe that Finn had been lying to her about his identity though she could kind of understand why he did. The First Order wasn't popular on Jakku and had she known who he was she would likely have beat him senseless and left him to die of exposure to the unforgiving desert sun.

At that moment she felt and heard something. A strange ethereal whistling that seemed to be coming from within her own head along with a feeling of being pulled somewhere, called. Without knowing why, she started walking away, following the feeling deeper into the castle.

Unaware of Rey's departure Finn answered Sabine's question. "I mean that I never had a name until a few days ago when I rescued Poe while Kylo Ren was in a meeting with General Hux and Captain Phasma. All my life I've just been called FN-2187. In the First Order unless you're an officer you're not a person, just a number, just another cog in the machine."

"Like the Empire only worse," Sabine said knowingly. "Alright you can come with us. And we should get going before the First Order shows up. Hey where's Rey?"

"I know where she is likely to be," Maz said knowingly. "Ezra would you come with me please. Rey might need your experience with visions if I am not mistaken."

"No problem," Ezra replied guessing that what was happening with Rey was something similar to the 'pull' in the Force he'd felt all those years ago that had led to him discovering Kanan's lightsabre and holocron aboard the Ghost. Which had honestly been what had started his long, and sometimes painful and pitfall dogged, journey from street rat to Jedi Knight. For a moment he wondered if he was kind of playing the part of Kanan this time around, with Rey playing his part. Did the Force want him to take Rey as his new padawan or was something else going on? He mentally shrugged, whatever it was planning he'd trust in the Force in the way his late master had always taught him to, after all what else was there for a Jedi to do?

"And what about the rest of us," Sabine asked.

"Return to your ships and prepare to leave." Sabine looked for a moment like she was going to argue before sighing, muttering something in Mando and slipping her helmet back on before walking away.

"Chewie take Finn to the ship," Han said to his big hair suit companion. "Get her ready for launch, I don't want any more surprises like that fuel compressor." Chewie barked in reluctant agreement and started walking away, gesturing for Finn to follow, the former stormtrooper reluctantly doing so with BB-8 bringing up the rear.

"This way," Maz said gesturing for Han and Ezra to follow her deeper into the interior of the castle. They did so and Maz led them into the underground levels, and along several darkened corridors that smelt of age and dust.

They rounded a corner and came upon Rey just as she staggered back from a room and dropped onto her backside, looking majorly freaked out. A silver lightsabre that looked familiar lying on the floor. From the look on Rey's face Ezra just knew what had happened, she'd touched the lightsabre and gotten a vision from the experience. Something he knew from experience to be quite overwhelming, especially if you weren't used to having your senses suddenly hijacked by the Force like that.

"It's jarring isn't it," he said walking up, the sound of his voice attracting Rey's attention and she locked onto him with desperate utterly freaked out eyes.

"What...what was that," she asked her voice shaking in a combination of confusion and fear.

"You had a vision," Ezra explained calmly. "When someone is as strong in the Force the merest touch of an object can sometimes trigger a very jarring vision. Especially if said object has something inside it that resonates strongly with the Force – which lightsabres do. Tell me what brought you down here? Did you feel something or hear something? Like a tone inside your mind that pulled you here to that lightsabre?"

Rey gaped. "How did you…" she started to ask.

"How did I know," Ezra finished for her with a smile, "because forty years ago the same thing happened to me. It was how I both found out that I was Force sensitive and how I met my master. Kanan's lightsabre called to me just like that lightsabre - whoever's it was before - is now calling to you. It's one of the ways the Force has of telling you that you are meant to be much more than what you currently are."

"That looks like Luke's first lightsabre," Han commented. "The one that was Vader's back when he was still Anakin Skywalker, which Obi-Wan gave him."

"It is the same one," Maz confirmed.

"How the hell did you acquire that?" Han asked. "I know I was frozen in carbonate at the time but Leia told me it was lost in the atmosphere of Bespin after Vader cut off Luke's hand."

"That is another story for another time," Maz replied before turning her attention to Rey. "Ezra is right child. That lightsabre is calling to you."

Rey shook her head as she started to climb back to her feet. "No, no I can't," she said, "I have to get back to Jakku."

Maz sighed and walked right up to Rey to look her in the eyes. "Child, deep inside you already know the truth," she said softly, gently. "Whoever you're waiting for on Jakku, they're never coming back. But if you go with Han and Ezra there is someone who still can."

"Luke," Rey breathed.

"It is time," Maz answered softly a moment before two things happened almost simultaneously. First Ezra abruptly looked up with a frown as he abruptly sensed a dark malevolence appear somewhere above them. The second was a dull thud like a door being slammed somewhere accompanied by a resonating shiver ran through the ground beneath their feet and thin glittering ribbons of disturbed dust fell from the ceiling.

"What was that?" Rey asked a moment before it happened again only more strongly this time.

"We're under attack. The First Order is here. They're certainly a lot quicker than the Imperials used to be," Ezra replied as another blast came from above them accompanied by the sound of part of the castle collapsing.

"You must go now," Maz insisted. "Pick up the lightsabre and go."

Rey hesitated for a few more moments before semi-reluctantly reaching for the dropped lightsabre. What happened next stunned her as the weapon unexpectedly shot off the floor and into her hand, making her almost drop it in surprise. Ezra also blinked then smiled. Guess that confirms it even if the vision wasn't enough. She is strongly Force sensitive, he thought.

Ray gaped. "How did…" she started to say confused and increasingly freaked out by all the strange things that had happened to her since they'd come to this planet.

"I'll explain later, Rey. Now we need to go," Ezra said a moment before a powerful blast above rocked the passage and some broken bits of stone fell. "We need to get out before this whole place comes down on top of us."

"This way," Maz said before leading the way down the corridor that was increasingly unstable as explosions and the sound of the building collapsing continued. Everyone followed closely behind her, determined to escape before they could be buried alive. They rounded the corner into the passage that led up to the stairs up to the surface, and came face to face with a squad of First Order stormtroopers coming the other way.

For a moment both groups stared at one another in surprise.

Then the First Order troops reacted by raising their blasters and opening fire. As they did so Ezra held up a hand and with a gesture executed a telekinetic technique that he and Luke had developed and taught to all their students. The barrage of blood red plasma bolts from the blasters froze in the air. A moment later Ezra gestured again adding in a refinement that he'd developed over the last few years, a refinement that sent the plasma bolts back towards the troops who'd fired them. In a testament to the training regimes of the First Order the stormtroopers instantly dove out of the way, with only two taking hits which left them lying dead on the floor with smoking fist sized holes blown into their chests.

Still evading the blasts put them out of position and gave Ezra all the time he needed to use a Force powered leap to close the distance. In the process drawing and igniting his sabre, so that when he landed amidst the troopers he was able to go straight on the attack in his preferred Ataru style. Faster than they could react his blade struck down two of them. A throw sent another flying hard into a wall where he collapsed unconscious or dead from the impact. One of the two remaining troopers opened fire with his blaster. In a blur Ezra's blade moved blocking the bolts and deflecting them right back at the trooper who collapsed, dead by his own weapons fire. In the same instant Ezra used his other hand to draw and fire his blaster, dropping the other trooper to the floor dead.

In less than ten seconds the entire squad of troopers were dead.

"Not bad," Han commented, covering up his slight surprise at both the speed and ruthless efficiency with which Ezra had cut down those troopers – who he knew from experience to be far better trained than most of their Imperial predecessors had ever been. He'd forgotten how lethal a combatant Jedi – and Ezra in particular – were. But then it had been decades since he'd last fought alongside one, not since the Battle of Jakku that led to the Empire's surrender and the signing of the Galactic Concordance.

"Thank you," Ezra replied deactivating his lightsabre and returning it to his belt. "Now let's get going before more of them show up." Or Kylo Ren does, he thought not that he was afraid of Kylo Ren at all. If anything he pitied him for falling for Snoke's lies, having touched the dark side himself a few times in the past – especially after Malachor – he knew that its power was nothing more than an illusion. It was no more powerful than the light at the end of the day, just easier and more seductive.

"Yes lets," Han agreed as they resumed their flight back to the surface. To find a small mound of loose rubble had blocked the entrance. "Oh brilliant. Ezra do you mind?"

"Not at all," Ezra replied holding a hand out as he felt the debris with his mind. It was quite loose and easy to move so with a gesture he lifted the fallen girders and medium sized blocks of stone into the air and pushing them away. Where they flattened a few unfortunate stormtroopers as they came crashing down on them. With the obstacle out of the way they stepped out of the stairwell.

And into a scene of total destruction. All around them the castle was in ruins, with the white armoured forms of First Order stormtroopers clambering all over everything. Sometimes firing blaster bolts at any of the patrons who'd escaped their blitzkrieg attack. The First Orders version of TIE fighters filled the air maintaining an aggressive patrol to deter any survivors from trying to escape via ship.

"The First Order always the perfect house guests," Ezra said with a sigh a moment before one of the troopers spotted them and opened fire. As he'd done underground he used the Force to intercept the bolt but rather than stopping it in the air, merely altered its trajectory so the lethal blast of compressed ionized tabana gas hit and killed another First Order trooper. Before the initial trooper could react he fired his own blaster at him, killing him.

Unfortunately, the exchange caught the attention of three other nearby troopers who started advancing towards them firing. Ezra evaded the bolts with ease while firing back with his pistol, one trooper going down immediately. A second joined him a second later as Han also opened fire. The third took cover behind some debris to call for backup, only for a gesture from Ezra to lift the man into the air and send him flying – screaming the whole way – into a wall.

"Where's the Falcon," Ezra asked Han.

"Just beyond the trees," Han answered.

"So's the Phantom," Ezra commented. "Okay let's get over there. Maz it might be an idea for you to come with us."

Maz shook her head. "This is my home," she said, "it's been destroyed before and I've rebuilt it. I will just do so again, don't worry about me the First Order won't get me." With that she turned and walked away, quickly disappearing amidst the mounds of smouldering rubble.

"Will she be alright," Rey asked watching the mysterious little alien woman disappear. BB8 echoing her concern with a bleep.

"Maz is a survivor she'll be okay," Han assured. "Now come on, we need to get BB8 out of here."

"I'm afraid I cannot permit that," a voice distorted by a helmets vocal processor said as Kylo Ren appeared from around a pile of debris and froze at the sight of Ezra. "I…I…impossible. You're dead."

"Afraid not," Ezra replied looking in pity at the fallen padawan. "The Knight you sent after me failed and died at my hands as he learned the hard way it's one thing to kill helpless padawans quite another to challenge a full Jedi Knight."

"Then I will succeed where he failed," Kylo growled drawing and activating his lightsabre. Ezra doing the same with his own blade.

"You'll try," he said. "Han take Rey and BB-8 back to your ship. I'll deal with Ben here."

"That is not my name," Kylo growled again before leaping forward with a yell, bringing his lightsabre blade down in a move intended to force Ezra to his knees. Only that's not what he got as Ezra danced away from the blow and brought his blade around aiming at Kylo's legs forcing Kylo to hurriedly block him before attempting a high level sweep with the blade.

Ezra ducked it and launched a medium strength Force push that caught Ren full on and sent him flying back into the broken remains of a wall. "You're going to have to do better than that if you want to kill me," Ezra told his opponent as Kylo groaned and picked himself up. "Or are you merely trying to convince yourself that you want to kill me as I can feel your turmoil, you are not yet completely lost to the darkness and Snoke's lies."

"The Supreme Leader has not lied to me, not like you Jedi," Kylo replied. "He's shown me the true strength of the Force lies in the dark."

With that he launched himself at Ezra, bringing his lightsabre up in a dazzling barrage of cuts and thrusts attempting to probe the Jedi's defences. It did him no good as Ezra blocked or parried every single blow, seemingly without effort. "You don't really believe that," Ezra said, "you cannot hide who you truly are from me Ben Solo. Come back to the light it is not too late for you."

"Ben Solo was weak, I destroyed him appealing to him will gain you nothing," Kylo snapped back as he launched into another barrage of slashes, thrusts and cuts. Again they were all effortlessly blocked and he scowled, though it naturally couldn't be seen through his helmet, as it became more and more apparent that he'd seriously underestimated his opponent who he couldn't help but think was simply playing with him like how a cat sometimes played with a mouse.

"That's what Snoke wants you to believe," Ezra answered as he continued to use Soresu to block the rage fuelled attacks of his opponent. "But it's the name of who you really are. No matter how much you want to deny it, no matter how much you call yourself Kylo Ren, you are and always will be Ben Solo."

"You waste your breath you will not seduce me with your lies," Kylo snapped. "I will not let the light seduce me like it did my grandfather."

"If that's your choice," Ezra replied before going on the offensive, raining blows down upon Kylo's defences hammering at his senses and putting the wannabe Sith Lord on the defensive. Shifting completely over into Ataru he launched a series of aggressive thrusts and strikes while blurring into motion using a mixture of jumps and leaps to evade his opponent's strikes.

It was immediately obvious that Kylo – while moderately skilled – was really not used to engaging in actual lightsabre duels. Let alone duels with someone who'd repeatedly duelled Darth Vader and survived the experience first as a padawan and then a full Jedi Knight. Not to mention duelled and defeated numerous Inquisitors over the years of the Empires reign. Ezra pressed his attack until Kylo overextended himself on one block allowing him to unleash a strong but highly focused Force push…

…sending Kylo Ren's lightsabre flying off into the distance. As the would be Sith staggered, knocked off balance by the Force push, Ezra struck again unleashing the strongest telekinetic blast that he could muster. Which sent Kylo Ren flying through the air so fast that he crashed through the remains of one wall, bowled over a pair of First Order troopers before finally slamming into the side of his own command shuttle with a loud clang that could be heard across the whole of the battlefield.

First Order troops couldn't help but stop and watch in disbelief as for a moment out of time the feared Kylo Ren was suspended there against the side of the shuttle. Then he slowly slid down the side of the shuttle to lay in an unconscious, twitching heap on the ground. For a few more moments silence reigned as the First Order forces struggled to process and understand just what it was they had just seen happen.

Then the silence was broken as a bolt of laser fire slammed into one of the TIE fighters maintaining a CAP and blew it out of the sky. More laser blasts followed as a squadron of T-70 X-Wing star fighters came screaming out of the clouds their powerful KX-12 laser cannons spitting lethal bolts of compressed hyper-charged photons blowing another two TIE's out of the sky before the First Order pilots could even begin to react.

The Resistance had arrived.

Author Notes: Well here's part one of this story finished. As I said at the start this is not going to be a very long story, I'm only planning another two or three parts at the most to cover the remaining events of The Force Awakens – which may or may not include a rematch between Kylo Ren and Ezra as Kylo is going to be extremely angry about the fact that he got beaten by Ezra and in true darksider fashion will want revenge – and maybe a small epilogue afterwards.

I hope everyone likes my take on the older and much more experienced version of Ezra. I've tried to keep him in character as much as possible while factoring in an additional thirty odd years of living and experiences both as a person and as a Jedi. I did for a while consider having Kanan still around but decided against it – though he is still there after a fashion periodically popping up as a Force Ghost to give his old padawan some advice now and again. As to how he's a Force Ghost I tend to keep to the Legends continuity with regards to Force Ghosts as it's the only way that it makes sense to me for Anakin to appear as a Force Ghost at the end of Return of the Jedi – as surviving two massacres of the Jedi would be pushing even his luck a bit too far.