Saga of the Bridgers-Year 3

Prologue: Shattered souls

Three months. It had been three months since Malachor. Three months since Ahsoka died and since Kanan had been deprived of his sight by a treacherous Zabrak.

It seemed like Ezra and Jaral had moved on from the tragedy. Jaral had been at work planning various operations in the Lothal Sector that had been incredibly successful, including the raid on an imperial armored deposit on the planet Taral V. Most of them were led on the field by Ezra, who had finally accepted to be part of the fleet's hierarchy and had quickly ascended to the rank of Sergeant Major.

Ezra had saved his kyber crystal when Vader destroyed his lightsaber, and with his surprise, it had turned green not long after the return.

Both siblings had built their own lightsaber, now, both green. The hilts were conventional, this time, only hosting the plasma blade.

Yet, despite the successes, the crew of the Ghost, along with Darvos and Mira, had noticed that things were far from being the same as before Malachor.

For one, Kanan spent most of his time in meditation and was rarely seen speaking with anybody, especially the kids.

And the siblings themselves were not seen very much together, aside from the mission briefings. Sabine and Darvos met on their own to discuss the issue. They were standing not too far from the holotable, where Jaral was discussing an upcoming operation with Commander Sato.

"I don't like this. Those two have issues they don't want to talk about." Darvos said grimly.

"I know, but I doubt we can force them to resolve it." Sabine replied dejected. "How's Jaral training going?"

"As you can imagine. She only has the holocron to teach her lightsaber techniques. It's going slowly. She needs someone to teach her before she hurts herself." the young man said, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration.

"Not to mention she has her duties as Captain to slow her down." Sabine added.

"Precisely. At least in that field she seems to be going better than ever."

"I can see that. I'm honestly surprised she can come up with such detailed plans. Where does she get the intel?"

"All I know is that she has a new informant that wants to stay anonymous, and thus talks only to her." Darvos shrugged while explaining.

Sabine wrinkled at the notion. Then sighed. "If it worked so far..."

"Yeah...still, I'm worried. Jaral barely talks about Ezra, it's like she wants to forget about him."

"Same here. Usually Ezra would brag about how perfect his big sister is," Sabine said with a faint smile, but it disappeared quickly. "but now...I don't know."

"Maybe we should try to involve Mira. She's their mother, after all. She should be able to do something."

Sabine shook her head. "She has been talking with Ezra for the last few weeks, but he still won't disclose everything."

Darvos sighed. "Let's just hope this doesn't affect the entire fleet somehow."

They finished the topics and silence fell. Then, shortly after, they spotted Jaral leaving the holotable and heading for the barracks.

Jaral, on her part, could tell that Darvos and Sabine were talking about her and Ezra. Honestly, she couldn't blame them: Ezra and Jaral Bridger were the Twin Stars of the Phoenix Cell, the inseparable siblings in armor that would do anything for each other.

That impression, however, had very much faded in the eyes of many at the base. Everyone noticed that the two siblings rarely spoke or even looked at each other in the eyes. Now it looked like Jaral had simply become the brain of the Fleet and Ezra the hand that executed his sister's plans, but that's because he never showed interest for being a strategist and was instead always eager to get his hands dirty.