1 | Star Wars Rebels: Beginning Of The End (completed)

Part 28

Rebel Base, Atollon, 1753, 3279 LY

     As consciousness returned to Kanan, he felt himself on something soft. A bed, presumably in the medcenter. His head pounded in tune with his heartbeat and every muscle was sore, tired. Opening his eyes, it was still dark. His sight only returned momentarily from the light of the Force. Searching the room, he felt Hera's presence, but not Ezra's. That, he was fine with. Apparently, the Twi'lek noticed he was up and spoke softly, asking, ''How do you feel, love?''

     ''Sore,'' he muttered, being completely honest. ''Guess Ezra's okay.''

     Hera murmured, ''Yeah.'' A pause. ''What you did, healing him, was stupid. He was healing nicely on his own. When you did that, you had me worried for you.''

     Kanan sat up. ''Okay, so it might have been stupid,'' he agreed, but he knew that Hera was looking for the ''but''. And she got it. ''He would have never woken up on his own. He would have died first.''

     The Twi'lek shook her head, refusing to believe it. ''He would have woken up any time.'' Kanan answered with a shake of his own head. He'd seen this before.

     Katarina Shoshone had a secret, one Kanan had hoped that she would take to the Force when she died, as would he. It happened about a year into the Clone Wars, something that gave him nightmares for weeks. The young woman wasn't alone in her journey. She never was. Perhaps, as she said, the Force would forgive her. Perhaps, in his hopes, the Force would give her something she lost back then before the Empire. Her Padawan, Samantha Clemens. 

     It had been the Viper. Caleb hadn't known, none of them had, until Sam told him during class that she didn't feel good. He told her to go to the medcenter. There, they had found out that it was the Viper, a deadly virus that targeted Force-sensitives. The Master and Padawan shared energy (much like Ezra and Kanan), and Katarina got the sickness as well.

     Neither one of them died from the sickness itself. It had been caught in time. Katarina, nicknamed ''Kat'', had been asleep for four days. Sam had been asleep for five. Caleb remembered being in that room with Katarina and Sam. He remembered hearing Sam's heartbeat. Thump-thump. Thump-thump. Then silence. In a blink of an eye, Sam was gone.

     Blinking, Kanan banished the memory to a dark place of his mind, one of many. ''I watched someone get the Viper, completely heal, sleep for five days, and die in the blink of an eye. Strong, healthy young woman of 15. Strong heartbeat. Then nothing. No fading of heartbeat, just in the snap of a finger.'' He looked down, grief temporarily clouding his thoughts. Perhaps that's part of the reason Kat fell to the dark side. There was no one there for her, not a single Jedi. The closest person to her was dead. ''I watched it, helpless. I had nightmares of it for weeks. The screaming of: 'My Padawan's dead! She's dead!' I didn't want that for Ezra.''

     ''Perhaps,'' Hera soothed, ''it was the Viper. Perhaps it wouldn't have happened to Ezra.''

     ''And what if it would have? Do you think I would have just sat there, waiting, just to see if what had happened would happen again?'' Kanan asked, his voice raising. ''Do you think I would have wanted to do that to Ezra?'' He whispered, ''I wouldn't, Hera. Please understand.''

     Hera murmured, ''I do, Kanan. I understand.''

     After Hera had left, Kanan had fallen asleep, and woke up to footsteps. He sensed Ezra's presence, and felt that it was important somehow. So, of course, he pretended to still be asleep. The boy walked in, and leaned against the doorway. A minute later, he came into the room, sitting on a bed. 

     Finally, he actually began to speak. ''I know you can't hear me, Kanan. Probably for the best. I'm so sorry about Malachor. About, well, your eyes. You probably blame me. I would.'' A sigh. I never blamed you. ''I wish I could change the past, I really do. I miss you.''

     I never blamed you, Kanan wanted to tell him, but couldn't. He was already almost at the door. His footsteps abruptly stopped. A long moment passed, then he spoke. ''I love you, Kanan.''

     I know, Kanan thought. I love you, too.

I need ideas, my fantastic readers!

Your ideas MUST:

-connect to story and timeline

-in some way lead up to the event below

I will be ending this story with Ezra's decision to get Hondo out of prison.

For instance: It doesn't have to directly connect to Season Three. A lot of my ideas don't actually connect to Season Three, but they connect to each other and will eventually lead up to ''Steps Into Shadow''.

On other notes, did anyone notice the references to both season one and two in ''Antilles Extraction''?