Spirit of Home

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This morning is just like every other morning on this stupid rock. I wake up with a crick in my neck and a growl from my stomach. Food on this planet is limited to berries and a strangely cute bird, and bedding options include rocks, dirt, or sand.

My daily routine is simple and monotonous. I pick whatever berries I can find at the top of the cliffs which usually takes all morning. Then, I run through some practice forms using a stick which usually makes me homesick for my lightsaber. By the afternoon, I head down to the beach to cool off and eat dinner before making my final journey to the giant tree-temple.

Today, my food gathering skills fail me, and the sun is hot and high before I have enough to satisfy my needs. Thoughts from my conversation with Master Kenobi still circle in my head as I drag a half-empty basket back to my hut.

The end of the Jedi is near.

That feels so strange. Kanan always warned me that we were the last of the galaxy's defenses, but... when I'm gone, that's it.

Is that a bad thing?

I set my basket down and rest my weight against a mossy rock disturbing a flock of the native birds as I do. Maybe it is time for things to change, I think as I move into a meditative sit. Kanan always sat like this when things required deep thought.

Kanan...

I take a deep breath.

I need your guidance.

As I focus my energy into the force, something strange happens. Usually, the only reaction I get from the force is an empty signal, almost as if the balancing nature of the planet absorbs the energy and directs it elsewhere. Today, I feel something returning to me the way satellites bounce signals back to the surface. 

Kanan, are you there?

But there's no response.

My eyes open in frustration, but I'm immediately caught off guard by the midday sunlight. When I finally adjust, my eyes land on a faint streak in the clouds above.

I feel my heart rate picking up. I could be imagining things, but that looks a lot like the burn trails of a ship entering atmosphere. That could be the Ghost. That could be Sabine and Hera and Zeb and Chopper. It might even be Ahsoka or Rex or Hondo.

It could be my family.

The trail gets bigger and closer until I'm sure it's not my imagination. There is a ship, and it's headed straight for the island. I squint and cup my hands over my eyes. Everything in me waits to see the beat-up hull of the Ghost.

A little closer. I will the ship into viewing range and gasp.

It's them.

I waste no time. My feet start running before I can tell them to go. There's a single open range big enough for landing the Ghost, and I head straight there.

Wind carries saltwater over the cliffs and into my eyes. My lungs burn with the strain of my run. Blood pulses through my temples as pure, ecstatic joy spreads like a wide fire in my veins.

Just, as I thought, the Ghost begins to descend onto the grassy flat, and I stop short of the bay doors. Not even the force could calm me now as the sound of hydraulics fills the air.

It's my family. It's my home.

As the doors open, I catch sight of Zeb's purple head first, then Hera's pilot's goggles, then Ahsoka's blue and white tendrils, and Sabine, and Chopper, and...

"Ezra."

But that can't be.

"Kanan?" my voice shakes with uncertainty.

The man dips his head in a nod. His face is badly scarred, and the visible portions of his body are marked by heavy burns. Would a force ghost look so damaged? This has to be Kanan, alive somehow. That explains why he never visited. He's not gone.

I break into a run without hesitation nearly tripping over the loading platform as it lowers. I don't know what to believe until I hit him with full force. Real, living arms circle me in a hug. There's deep rolling laughter in his chest, and he smells just like I remember, like Hera but a little dustier.

"How?" I pull back to look at him. "You were..."

A new hand appears on my arm as Hera speaks up, "There is a lot that we can talk about later, but right now, you owe everyone a massive hug. Starting with me." She smiles, and I didn't realize how much I missed that smile or her mothering tone.

"Group hug!" I hear Zeb shout before I'm engulfed.



Happy Friday! I'm so excited! This is the over-half-way mark, so congrats to you guys for sticking in there. Ezra is your prize! Also, my quarantine will be up by Monday, so my next post will be as a free woman. Big relief. 

Also, thanks to this long period of boredom, I have started a new project! It's in the very rough beginnings, and I have NO idea when it's going to be completed. All that I can tell you is the name drop will be at the end of this fic, and I'm not even thinking about publishing until after this is all posted.

Still, be excited. Be very excited :)

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