The Second Fulcrum

Zeb finds out

Zeb was angry.

It had been 7 months.

7 months since Kallus's transmission had been abruptly cut off.

7 months since the nightmares began.

7 months since he had began waking up in a cold sweat.

Zeb was fairly certain that this was a Jedi thing, but neither Ezra nor Kanan had sensed anything.

Zeb never remembered his dreams, but he knew they weren't good ones. The only thing Zeb remembered was a terrified scream.

And Zeb had heard a similar scream before.

From Agent Kallus himself.

When they had been stranded together on Bahryn, the moment of impact, right before Zeb lost consciousness, a scream that he would later figure out to be Kallus's.

The nightmares had first appeared a couple of days after Thrawn attacked Attalon.

The next one, a couple of weeks later.

But as the months went by, Zeb began to fear falling asleep.

Because the nightmare kept coming. And as time ticked by, they occurred more and more frequently. Until they began occurring every time Zeb fell asleep.

The only reassurance Zeb was able to give himself was that Kallus would have to be alive in order for him to scream.

What kind of condition that scream dictated however, Zeb didn't know.

The Ghost Crew had been aware of Zeb's growing worry about something, and when he began to pester Hera about rescuing Agent Kallus, they put two and two together.

No matter how hard Zeb tried, he couldn't convince anyone that Kallus didn't sell them out.

He couldn't convince them that Kallus was a decent guy.

And he couldn't convince them to go rescue him.

In other words, Zeb thought he was a failure.

Then, a knock on his cabin door. It was quiet. The person knocking clearly didn't want to be here.

"What?"

"Zeb, could you come see this?"

It was Sabine.

Zeb debated it. Then he realised since he couldn't rescue Kallus on his own, he had to find some way to convince his friends. And sitting in his Cabin was not going to do that.

Zeb planned to stare blankly at whatever it was, but that changed when he saw everyone in the cockpit looking at him with-

Was that shame?

"What?" Zeb was beginning to feel a little uncomfortable.

Hera spoke up.

"We received a transmission from Thrawn."

And he should care about this....why?

Kanan, knowing what Zeb was thinking, responded.

"It's about Kallus."

Zeb's world flipped upside down in precisely one second.

Now it made sense.

The crew was ashamed of themselves for not believing Zeb! That rarely happened so Zeb was prepared to gloat. Then Zeb realised everyone still had a solemn look.

"We stopped it the moment we saw Kallus. We've rewinded it." Ezra explained.

"Play it."

No one moved.