Star Wars Rebels: Come In, Spectre Six

Part Five

"...I've been okay," Ezra said. "The Force has shown me so much over these past few years, but I do not know anything about the outside world."

Ahsoka closed her eyes. "Something is off about him..."

Sabine nodded and continued to listen. "I found someone... very... powerful. Very great in... knowledge... of the Force. They've kept me safe. Secure. They taught me things that expanded my understanding of the universe. Its ways: good and evil, light and dark, I understand it all."

Ahsoka shook her head. He wasn't making any sense.

"My eyes have been opened to many things," Ezra continued, "and I would like to stay with my new teacher and discover everything. So, if Sabine Wren is listening, I'm calling off your mission--"

"Mission?" Sabine stood.

"--And I do not need to be found. Thank you for everything. But I would like to stay here. Alone and safe... with just my teachings... and my anger. Goodbye, my friends. Thank you for all that you've done for me."

The enhancer beeped, signaling the message's conclusion. Ahsoka shook her head again, trying to piece together the things Ezra said and making nothing of it. Sabine stared out into space with glassy eyes, clearly realizing that the last few months of her life had been for nothing. She'd spent all this time trying to find her friend, just to find out he didn't want to be found.

* * * * *

Since Sabine decided to disappear in her loft and punch her anger to oblivion, Ahsoka hid in her own loft, meditating on the words Ezra spoke:

Knowledge. Power. Safe. Secure. Understanding. Teacher. Anger.

Anger.

Anger.

He couldn't have found a Sith, could he? Out there, in the Unknown Regions, maybe? But Ezra was smarter than turning to the Dark Side. He was smarter than following a Sith, especially after the Darth Maul incident. He had already known good and evil before he disappeared.

So what could have changed his perspective? Why does he want to stay lost?

None of the pieces fit together. Ahsoka thought of Ezra as a puzzle, trying to fit itself together to make a picture in her head of what might have convinced him of such nonsense. But all she could make of it were jagged ends and missing pieces. Nothing made sense and nothing would. Not until they found Ezra.

A blue glow filled the room. Her Master's presence filled her head, buzzing and spinning in her mind until she was convinced to turn around. She smiled when she saw him, knowing that something was, indeed, wrong with Ezra and that she was going to embark on one last journey with her Jedi Master before she moved on... before the Temple, the Jedi, and her teachings finally became part of her past and not a ghost that haunted her present.

"Hey, Skyguy."

"Snips."

"We have a lot to discuss."

Ahsoka explained to him about the enhancer, the message, and what Ezra said. She was almost positive he already knew, but she was mainly explaining it to herself to start wrapping her head around it. She still couldn't believe the turn of events and was thankful he quietly listened to her. 

When she was done, Anakin nodded. There was an awkward silence that he broke with only a word: "Well?"

"Well what?" Ahsoka asked.

"What are you going to do?"

"Isn't that why you're here?"

"I'm here to help you, Ahsoka," Anakin smiled, "not give you all the answers."

"But there are no answers!" Ahsoka disputed. She shook her head. "It's all a jumbled mess."

"That may be what it looks like," Anakin implied, "but what does it feel like? Look at the pieces. Not through your understanding, but the Force. What do you see?"

Ahsoka closed her eyes. She reached through the Force with her consciousness; not seeing, but feeling her way through light and dark.

Balance.

She could feel the dead's presence: Obi-Wan, Yoda, Anakin, Kanan, even some others she'd never met. She could feel the living: Luke, Sabine, General Organa...

Ezra.

That was who she was looking for.

She pressed further into her subconscious. But not just her own: Ezra's.

She pushed further and further until there was no light; until there were no others.

Just Ahsoka and Ezra.

Ezra's large black subconscious worried Ahsoka. She'd only felt a mind this dark once before: behind a mask as black as night and made purely of fear. She was the only light in the dark, empty space. When Ezra sensed her presence, he appeared about ten feet in front of her. Not in his grown-up form, the way Ahsoka would have expected him to appear. He appeared as the small, fun-loving, troublemaking boy she'd met on General Organa's ship all those years ago.

He was trying to let her guard down.

"We all thought you were dead," Ezra said. "In the Sith Temple. All those years ago."

"Surprise," Ahsoka said sarcastically. "I'm back."

"And you shouldn't have come," he taunted. "I'm not the scared boy from Lothal that I used to be. The Purrgil brought me to my destiny. And we have a lot in store for the galaxy. Our plan won't fail this time."

She thought she saw a hint of a smile on his face when suddenly she woke up.