(A/N)- HOW 'BOUT THEM SEASON FOUR TRAILERS, EH?

Oh gosh I'm so nervous. I'm not ready for my babies to grow up and make important life-changing decisions.

PLEASE BE KIND TO MY CHILDREN, FILONI.

In any case, here is the final chapter! I hope all of you have had as much fun on this ride as I have. (Now maybe I can actually focus on my other work for a change, lol.)

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Still not owning Rebels here. Darn.

Aftermath

"Captain Kallus! Sir!"

Kallus turned to see a fidgety pink-skinned Theelin. "Miss Terez," he acknowledged with a nod. "What can I do for you?"

Gooti dropped her eyes, tapping her fingers together. "Um, I don't want to be a bother..." She looked back up anxiously. "Have you seen Mart anywhere?"

Sato's nephew. The sullen teenager had been scarcer than usual—at least according to Hera—since they'd joined back up with the rest of what remained of Phoenix Squadron on Yavin IV.

"I believe he was still down in the hanger," Kallus replied. A little softer he asked, "How is he?"

Gooti sighed heavily. "He's taking it pretty hard. It's not the first time he's watched someone slam into an Imperial ship to protect him."

Kallus put a hand on her shoulder. "You should talk to him." There'd been no one there for him after the death of his squadron, just a court-appointed therapist to ask him a few questions and then pronounce him fit for duty. He still remembered how lonely it felt.

"Mmm," Gooti said. Remembering something, she thumbed down the hallway over her shoulder. "Oh, and Hera said they want you out on the airfield for something," she told him.

"I'll be down in a moment." There was still something he wanted to check on. Or rather, someone.

Gooti stepped back and saluted. "Captain," she said, dismissing herself.

Kallus watched her leave, then blew out a breath, running a hand through his loose bangs.

Captain Kallus. It still felt weird rolling off people's tongues.

He headed for the medical wing. The hallways passed in a blur, the cool subterranean air light on his skin. He heard voices from inside the room, as he approached.

"And that's when Chopper sprayed him with fire retardant," Ezra relayed, finishing up some story.

"No," said Sabine. Her light laughter peeled out, echoing slightly in the long hallway.

"You should've seen it. Fur sticking up everywhere, foam dripping off him..."

Kallus paused in the doorway, looking in and observing quietly. Ezra was sitting up and looked small in the thin cotton hospital clothes they'd found for him, but seemed to be in good spirits. Sabine was seated in a chair next to the bed. She was much calmed from the last time Kallus had seen her, clinging to Ezra with her arms around his neck, berating him angrily, almost hysterically.

She leaned forward on her seat. "Tell me you painted it," she begged Ezra.

"Tried. It wasn't very good." He pinched a corner of the sheets, playing with it idly. "And anyway, I think it got left behind at Atollon. Probably spacedust by now."

"Aw man!" Sabine groaned.

"At least I hope it's spacedust and not on the Chimaera. You know Thrawn just has a whole chunk of a wall you painted sitting on display in his office?" Ezra continued.

Sabine made a face. "Okay, that's creepy."

"Right?" Ezra agreed.

They made small talk for another minute or so, and then Sabine glanced up at the chronometer on the wall.

"Take it easy, okay?" she said, reaching over and squeezing his wrist. "I have to go report in, I'll be back later."

Ezra wilted slightly, his face pinching. "You promise?"

"You gonna be bored without me or something?" she teased.

He gestured around at the sparse room. "Not like I have anything else to do."

She smiled and squeezed his arm again. "Get some rest," she told him gently, moving to stand. "And Ezra?" she added.

She leaned in and wrapped him up in her arms. He returned the hug with a contented exhale, feeling her violet hair tickle his neck.

"I'm glad you're safe," Sabine whispered.

A second or two passed and then they let go, and Sabine withdrew with a smile towards the door, nodding briefly at Kallus on her way out.

Ezra's eyes followed her out, then shifted to him, and Kallus straightened before coming into the room.

"How are you feeling?" he asked.

Ezra shifted on the bed, his gaze dropping quietly. "Sore, mostly," he replied. "Tingles in my arms and legs. Headache. Occasional heart flutters and chest pain." He glanced up. "Dr. Leslynn says there's some nerve damage and burnt tissue on my organs that's going to scar."

Kallus looked Ezra over and made his own assessment as the boy listed his symptoms. The patches of allergy rash had faded to a barely-visible pink. The nastier cuts on his face had been stitched up, the others left to scab. There were a couple red marks under the bandages on his wrists, Kallus knew, from where he'd been pulling on the metal restraints. Kanan had asked him to describe Ezra's condition when they'd had a quiet moment and had been positively furious when he'd gotten to that part. It almost unnerved Kallus how much anger had been in the Jedi's face.

Ezra had regained a lot of color, though, and looked much improved from when Kallus had first peeled him off the interrogation table.

Knowing that not all scars manifested physically, however, Kallus tapped the side of his head and asked, "What about neurologically?"

Ezra stared past him, off into space, his brows pinching between his eyes. "Everything's all just kind of... fuzzy," he said. Flashes came back to him—along with phantom pain—isolated bits and pieces of the incident that were out of order; he couldn't put them into a coherent timeline. There were blank spaces that he couldn't pierce and the edges of his memory blurred around them. He shook his head. "I don't... I don't really remember anything after I talked to you on the light cruiser." He met Kallus's eyes briefly. "Not clearly anyway," he added. "It's all kind of jumbled and mixed up."

Kallus nodded. "That's normal," he assured Ezra. "Some memory loss is expected after the more aggressive interrogation techniques."

Ezra was fidgeting. "Kallus?" he said, his voice anxious. There was a distressingly large blank in his memory after his conversation with Kallus on the light cruiser, and the only thing he could remember with any clarity after that was his initial interrogation in Thrawn's office. According to his own recollection he had seemingly just appeared there, and that in combination with something from the haze of pain and fear that was his torture...

Pryce standing before him, taunting him. "What loyalty do you owe Fulcrum?" she'd said in the interrogation chamber—or had it been in Thrawn's office? "He sold you out the moment he was able to."

It had to have been a trick, had to be. But it wasn't so easy to tell what was real and what wasn't anymore. Ezra breathed in slowly.

"You didn't... rat me out, did you?" he asked.

Kallus heard the unspoken plea for reassurance and took no offense. "I didn't," he promised, watching Ezra's shoulders sag in relief. "And..." he added, to get the boy's mind off his jumbled memories, "...you returned the favor. Even under torture."

Ezra snorted. "Only because I was too drugged to think."

"Don't sell yourself short," Kallus told him. "I've seen stronger men than you break after only a few cycles. You resisted, and for that, I am grateful," he said genuinely. "I'm sure many others feel the same."

Ezra didn't look at him for a long moment, staring at the wall, a sober expression on his face.

"...But Thrawn found us anyway," he said quietly.

"I don't think anything could have prevented that," Kallus sighed. "Sooner or later that clash above Atollon was inevitable." The Grand Admiral was too clever by far, too cunning. Every move they made, he turned it against them, like a relentless chessmaster. He was certain Thrawn was already planning around their half-defeat, already envisioning new traps he could set for them. But that wasn't what the boy needed to think about right now. Kallus placed a hand on the railing at the foot of the bed, offering an encouraging smile. "But because you warned us about the tracker we weren't caught unawares. You saved a lot of lives, Ezra," he said. "You might not feel like it right now, but it's true."

Ezra sat and absorbed that, then pushed himself a little straighter on the bed. "Thank you," he said. "And for, you know, getting me out." A small smile tugged at his lips. "Guess I owe you."

"We'll call it even." Kallus glanced about the room. "Do you need anything?" he offered.

"Something to read maybe?" Ezra suggested.

Kallus chuckled. "I'll see what I can do," he promised. "In the meantime, you should take Sabine's advice and get some rest."

"That's all I've been doing!" he whined.

"Because it's all you need to do right now," Kallus said, a slight edge of exasperation creeping into his voice. Teenagers, honestly. Always so restless. "There'll be plenty of work for you to do when you're well, Ezra. Don't rush your recovery," he cautioned.

Ezra held up his hands, shaking his head. "Okay, wait." He gave Kallus a weirded-out look. "Since when am I just 'Ezra'?" he asked.

Kallus was taken aback a moment. He hadn't realized he'd been dropping Ezra's last name when talking to him, or about him. He mused on it for a few seconds.

"I suppose... since I pulled you from an Imperial interrogation chamber," he guessed. He took a step back. "I'm sorry, does it make you uncomfortable?"

The boy's face wrinkled like he was still trying to decide that. "It's just... weird," he said.

A slight awkwardness passed through the space between them, before Kallus offered, "If you like, you can call me by my first name."

Ezra narrowed his eyes skeptically at that. "Really? What is it?" he asked.

"Alexsandr."

Ezra stared at him.

"...You're joking, right?"

A bit stiffly, Kallus snipped, "I can assure you, I am not."

"Yeeeeaaah, I think I'm just gonna keep calling you Kallus," said Ezra, shaking his head. He gave the former ISB agent a cheeky grin. "Easier that way."

Kallus huffed. "Perhaps I should continue to refer to you as Padawan Jabba," he replied dryly.

"Hey, you do whatever you want," Ezra told him, holding up his hands placatingly. "You're one of us now."

There was something suddenly very tight in his throat. Kallus swallowed and coughed to clear it.

"Get some rest," he repeated, once he'd regained his composure.

Ezra rolled his eyes, slouching down on the bed in boredom. "Yeah, yeah."

Kallus resisted the urge to snicker again, moving to exit. He left Ezra to his reluctantly quiet recovery and began to navigate his way up to the surface.

-SWR-

The cool temple air gave way to warm humidity, the moisture and sunlight both hitting his face as he stepped through the opening out into the light of a new day.

Kallus breathed deeply, taking in the lush jungle moon and the background buzz and hustle of the base. It was an almost peaceful atmosphere, the pilots and technicians moving at a leisurely pace, droids rolling by in a stately procession.

He was drawn to a huddle of familiar faces gathered around a communications terminal. A sketchy blue hologram was being piped in, and a low monotone voice rang out over the airfield.

"—assured that when he is caught, the former Agent Kallus will receive the Empire's harshest death sentence," Kallus caught the recording of Thrawn saying.

Ears pricking up, he slid into place between a stoic Kanan and an amused-looking Zeb, both listening in with their arms folded.

"As for the remnants of the Rebel cell known as Phoenix Squadron," Thrawn continued, his red eyes burning with a barely-contained displeasure, "they will be swiftly tracked down and eliminated."

Zeb chuckled. "He doesn't sound happy."

"Don't laugh," Hera chided, as she came up to the huddle. "He's already making good on his threat. Two more carriers fell into an Interdictor trap along the Perlemian Trade Route." Her eyes glanced briefly towards Kallus. "Glad you could join us, Kallus," she said curtly.

He tried not to flinch at the tension vibrating around her, the carefully controlled anger emanating from her. She'd been a maelstrom of determination and passion ever since they'd landed, working harder than ever, here one moment, on the other side of the base the next.

She tossed a datapad onto the terminal. "Tanyrn Outpost. What do you know about it?" she demanded.

"That's a high-security Imperial prison," Kallus replied promptly, leaning forward slightly to look at the datapad. "Full of Rebel operatives and sympathizers. Many are being held for interrogation."

"Perfect. Then that's our next target," determined Hera.

"Hold on," Kanan cautioned, unfolding his arms to put up a hand. "Even for us that sounds a little too ambitious."

"What's wrong with that?" Hera's hand flashed out at the empty space where the hologram had been. "You heard what Thrawn said. He thinks we're beaten and scattered. So we prove him wrong."

Was there a polite way to tell his new superior that her plan seemed... unwise? "I think a retaliatory show of defiance is exactly what he's expecting," Kallus eventually decided to say. "Remember, he's been studying your tactics and strategies for months."

"You're not thinking straight," Kanan said, putting much more bluntly the sentiment Kallus had been trying for. Even with the mask covering his face they could see a stern glare from him. "You're letting what happened to Ezra—"

"You're damn right I am!" Hera shouted suddenly. Her outburst startled even her, and she bit her lip, flinching, simmering down.

She released a heavy breath. Her shoulders slumped.

"All right," she admitted. "Maybe we keep Tanyrn Outpost on the backburner for now. But it is going to happen," she insisted. Fire burned in her green eyes. "I want Thrawn to know just how much of a burr in his side Phoenix Squadron can be."

"That, I can respect," Kanan told her, nodding.

"I'm up for annoying the blue bastard," Zeb agreed, punching a fist into his palm eagerly. "Kallus?"

Their enthusiasm and passion was infectious. Kallus let himself smile.

"Let's do it."

"We're going to need more allies then," piped up the voice of General Dodonna, walking up to join them.

"You have someone in mind?" asked Hera.

He nodded, reaching for the projector controls. "Senator Mon Mothma. She's been financing several Rebel cells under the table for some time." He tuned in to a recording from the Holonet news. "And she's just had some very strong words to say about the Emperor."

They leaned in, listening intently as the voice of the senator rang out.

It wasn't long before Kallus found himself rushing to board the Ghost, heading off into deep space, to start the next round of their chess match with Thrawn.

The skirmish above Atollon was over, but the war would continue on.

It was time to get to work.

(A/N)- One final time, chapter notes!

1. WHERE THE HELL WAS IRON SQUADRON IN "ZERO HOUR"?! WHERE WERE MY CHILDREN?! I mean I know the fandom hates them but I needed that angst in my life I needed to see Mart's reaction to his uncle's death okay? So I couldn't help putting in a little reference. It just needed to happen, trust me.

2. AU!Kallus has become remarkably good with kids, how the heck did that happen.

3. So the accelerated timeline means that Kallus gets to be there for several major Season Three events he wasn't originally part of! I will leave it up to your imaginations how some of those scenarios might play out.

4. Since I was planning to do a Maul vs. Ezra apprentice fic anyway, that's one of the ones you might get to see.

5. Mon Mothma is a badass. That is all.

Thank you for following along with me on this journey, dear readers. I appreciate all your feedback.