Rebel Bonds - Star Wars Rebels

I

What he didn't know wouldn't hurt him, his parents figured. That's why Ezra never really understood why he wasn't allowed out of the house, sometimes not even the basement.

He'd been on Lothal his whole life, in the same city since he'd been born, and he'd been outside exactly three times since he turned five. He asked his parents day after day if he could go outside, and when the answer was the inevitable 'no', he'd ask why. 

Two years later, Ezra finally got his answer.

He was seven the day his parents were taken. They had told him to stay inside in the basement, and Tseebo, their rodian neighbor, would come get him soon. Tseebo would take care of him.

Tseebo never came.

Eventually, food ran out, and Ezra left the house. He was careful, cautious, and as he had watched people do through the window of his room, he bought what he could with the credits left in the house. Of course, that soon ran out, and Ezra figured that people would find out where he was living and get him, too. So he moved to the old tower just outside of town, finding it abandoned but perfectly livable.

It was when he first started stealing to get food that he realized he had a certain gift.

He could sense when people were around and could make some people forget he was there, if he tried hard enough. The 'sixth sense' as he called it, kept him from trouble often, so he had grown to trust it.

Two more years later with the sense growing to be more reliable than ever, he felt something... weird. It was a strange tugging in his stomach, like he was being pulled somewhere, toward something, someone.

Ezra couldn't find it in himself to ignore the tug, so into the city he went.

Once he got there, he was pretty disappointed to see that everything was normal. At least, normal for the first hour he was there. Then it got a little strange.

People wandered around buying goods like normal, but the force tugged him to the rooftops where he had the perfect view of an odd, mis-matched group signaling each other.

Ezra watched, intrigued as they slowly started to cause a distraction for something. Then, there was a droid- stealing crates!

Ezra grinned, jumping down and following the droid until he had a chance, and then he was hopping on the speeder and stealing away the rest of the crates. The droid warbled angrily, and Ezra smirked back at it.

"Too slow!" He shouted, driving away as fast as the speeder could go through the busy market streets. Then, he got to the empty roads, increasing his speed as fast as he dared to go. The droid was gaining on him then, and he noticed that there were two troopers chasing them down.

It wasn't as if Ezra had never been chased before. No, he'd been stealing from the Empire for years, and a few stormtroopers weren't going to stop him from getting away.

A crafty team, though, probably could.

"Hey, kid!"

And then Ezra found himself going on a long chase away from these people, only to end up back with them - without the custody of his crate.

---

Once Ezra was aboard, it became evident that the team wasn't really sure what to make of him. Especially the big purple one. He was awkwardly between hostile and gentle, as if he was scared to hurt Ezra. The human, the one that made the hair on Ezra's arms stand on end, was almost the same as the purple lasat. The twi-lek lady was decidedly gentle. She reminded him so much of Mira, his mother, and Ezra was almost tempted to just tell her everything and see if she would just take him in, but his common sense told him that she would leave, too.

Ezra didn't meet the last member until they were safely in space and he was falling face-first out of a vent on top of her.

"Ouch! Move, bantha butt, or we're gonna die!"

She roughly shoved him aside, her elbow digging into his stomach until he fell on the floor. She shot down a tie-fighter as Ezra stared wide-eyed at the tiny Mandalorian.

"Whoa," was all he could manage as the TIE blew up, and then they were shooting into hyperspace, stars whizzing past. The girl turned around to face him then, nothing but curious now that they weren't going to die.

"Hi! I'm Sabine. Who are you? Where did you come from?"

"I'm Ezra. 'M from Capital City. Where are you from?"

Sabine blew her brown hair out of her face. When Ezra looked a little closer, paint flecks were visible in the short locks.

"Mandalore, I-"

She stopped short, sucking in a breath as she met his eyes. His eyes were a bright neon blue, and she felt like she knew him from somewhere.

"You're the tug."

Ezra said suddenly, reaching out and poking her. A little zap went through both of them and they yelped. 

It was then that the human man came running down the chute toward them, and Ezra scrambled to hide behind Sabine who was a good three inches taller than him.

"Sabine, Ezra," he breathed, closing his eyes for a moment before opening them again.

"You bonded?"

---

Hello, y'all! I'm back!

Here is the first chapter, I hope you guys enjoy it! Thanks for sticking around! :)

-Starbird