#I need more Kallus and Ezra content okay

[hamartia-grander]

Ezra: now hold on there, "Fulcrum", if that even is your real name

Kallus: it's not, and I never said it was

[littleladymab]

the FIRST of my May the 4th celebration fics is for @pizza-snake who asked for Skybridger & “I feel like I already know you”/first kiss. I got one sentence in my head and couldn’t get it out so I had to write this one first.

+++

The table explodes in laughter, and Ezra thinks oh, this is what has been missing. Well, there are a lot of things still missing, of course, things that will never be found again. But Luke's laughter rings at the perfect pitch with Hera's and Sabine's, he gives as good as he gets from Ketsu and Zeb, and he's perfectly content with Jacen in his lap. He's at home with the Ghost crew, knees pressed to Ezra's beneath the table, shoulder jostling into him when he laughs.

And maybe Ezra's more than a little smitten.

After dinner, Luke even offers to help with the dishes, though he's promptly chased out of the kitchen because guests don't help with the dishes.

("Make him part of the family already," Sabine mutters under her breath as she passes by Ezra to go take over on dish duty. "I could use a break."

Ezra elbows her, embarrassed, and hopes that no one overheard.)

"Are you okay?" Luke asks as they sit side by side, squeezed together on the porch swing, watching Chopper and Ketsu and Jacen engage in some bizarre game of tag. "You've been quiet."

"I'm fine," Ezra says, not really certain how to explain just what exactly he is feeling -- though he's certain that Luke probably has some sort of inkling. A mix of relaxed and weirdly nervous. "Do you want to go for a walk?"

Luke cocks his head to the side, as if considering if he wants to press. But in the end, he simply slips his hand into Ezra's and says, "Sure."

They have to get up at the same time, laughing at the accidental tangle of limbs that comes with being too close together. Ezra tries to slip into the house, hoping to avoid notice and pass out the back door into the fields beyond, but no such luck.

Jacen skids to a halt and calls, "Where are you going?"

"The tower," Ezra answers for lack of any real destination in mind. It's an effort to not call it his tower, because Hera has that look in her eyes she gets when she's worried about him not feeling at home.

The boy's eyes light up at the prospect. "I want to come!" Jacen chimes, hurrying towards the stairs to the porch.

"Sorry, kid," Ezra says, trying to squash the sudden jolt of fear of needing to let Jacen tag along when really, what he wants is just a moment alone with Luke. "Jedi business."

The excuse is weak, and they both know it. Jacen takes after his father in more ways than pure rambunctious spirit, and Ezra and Luke have already talked about what it would mean to have to train him.

Jacen frowns as soon as he's on the top stair, just a few steps away from where the other two are frozen (still hand in hand) by the door. "I'm a Jedi."

"Not yet you're not," Ezra argues back. "Come back when you have a lightsaber."

From her spot in the grass, Ketsu starts laughing so hard that she chokes. "Alright, big guy," she says and gestures to Jacen to rejoin her. "Your brother wants to go play with his lightsaber."

The insinuation goes right over Jacen's head, but lands squarely on Ezra. He feels himself go hot and cold all at once.

The worst part is that he can feel Luke's shoulders shaking in silent laughter.

Ezra groans and tries to tug his hand away, but Luke doesn't let him. "Don't encourage her!"

"I'm sorry, but you walked right into that one," Luke says.

"Yeah, yeah," Ezra grumbles. "Laugh it up, Skywalker."

Still, Jacen doesn't follow after them as Ezra leads Luke into the house -- though he does give a whine in protest that Hera quickly puts an end to with a soft word. The front door swings shut behind them, and the chatter from the porch becomes muffled, replaced by the gentle clink of dishes and the hum of the washer.

Ezra glances into the kitchen as they pass and spots Sabine and Kallus performing a well-structured dance around one another as they clean the kitchen.

He leaves them be and steps out through the back door and into the plains.

Luke trails a step behind, content to be led -- hand in hand.

Sabine and Ketsu. Zeb and Kallus. Hera and Jacen.

Ezra and Luke suddenly sounds too personal, too intimate, but he can't pull his hand away.

"What's wrong?" Luke asks suddenly into the silence between them.

When Ezra turns to look, Luke's hair is bathed almost silver in the light of the moons, and his pale eyes shine like stars. He's unfairly pretty, and okay, Ezra is more than completely smitten, and they're still holding hands.

Realizing that he's only staring and not answering, he looks away quickly. "Nothing."

He doesn't have to see Luke's face to know that he knows it's a lie. Still, Luke lets it pass.

Instead, Luke moves to stand side by side with Ezra as they resume their walk. "Thank you for inviting me."

"What? Oh. I guess. I… it feels silly now to have asked you to come. You've got more important things to do."

Luke gives him a look, one that Ezra both knows and can't quite figure out. "Of course I came. You said you were feeling lonely."

Ezra fights down the blush, but doesn't stop himself from hunching his shoulders up to his ears. "I didn't say that."

"Okay, so I read between the lines. But was I wrong?"

Ezra hunches his shoulders higher. No, he thinks. Luke wasn't wrong, which is the problem. Ezra's kept the loneliness to himself, just like he doesn't call the communications tower his tower and he doesn't talk about his nightmares.

This time, it's Luke who takes the lead, pulling ahead by a step and tugging Ezra along after him. "You know, I never really noticed how alone I was until I met you."

"You?" Ezra laughs despite himself. "You're the most popular guy in the galaxy. Everyone loves you."

"That doesn't mean that I'm not alone," Luke counters. He guides them to one of the large flat rocks that pepper the plains and finally releases Ezra's hand so that he can clamber up it.

They could jump if they wanted to, land perfectly atop it while being propelled by the Force. But instead the two of them scramble up the smooth, sloped surfaces on their own. There's plenty of space up here, but Luke continues to sit shoulder to shoulder with Ezra, crammed together like they were on the porch swing.

Luke tilts his face up towards the sky, and Ezra watches without even bothering trying to disguise what he's doing. "You know, the first time I visited Lothal, I knew this place would be important to me. I didn't know why for a long time. Not until that first night I stayed up talking with you, I think."

Ezra remembers that night, remembers the song his lightsaber made and how he felt that maybe, he could finally patch up all those scattered little pieces of himself. "Were my conversational skills that life-changing?" he jokes instead, and Luke ducks his head to laugh. Ezra reaches out before he can stop himself, brushing Luke's hair away from his face.

"No," Luke says without pulling away. In fact, he leans ever so slightly into Ezra's hand, into Ezra's space, eyes and hair washed by the moon. "It was when I saw you with the two moons over your shoulder as they were starting to set we had been up that late. I don't even remember what we were talking about--"

"I can't believe you were so distracted by the moons you didn't even remember what I was saying," Ezra teases, though to be perfectly honest he can't remember what they had been talking about either. They had talked about so much that night. About the Force and being a Jedi, about loss and family and the future.

Luke is still laughing, his breath warm against Ezra's palm and wrist as he tilts his head even further into Ezra's touch. "I was so distracted by you. It was like finally finding the answer, you know? Another Jedi, another person who understood everything. And I thought oh, he has two moons, I have two suns. This is what will be important to me."

Ezra wants to joke, to say something like doesn't Tatooine have three moons?, but instead he leans in to kiss Luke.

A gasp passes between them, then a laugh, and then Luke returns the kiss like he's been lost and dehydrated in the desert and Ezra is the only respite he needs.

Luke's lips are warm -- all of him is warm, radiating heat like stone in summer, soaking in the sun's rays and pouring it back out into the cool evening. It's familiar and comfortable and makes Ezra just want to sink deeper into him.

And so he does.

It feels like tangling his fingers in starlight, golden strands washed by the moons, and he guides Luke to him, savoring the points of contact -- their fingers barely touching on the rock between them, knees pressed together and legs tangling, hips curled towards one another. Luke's arm around his waist and his hand in Luke's hair and a kiss that he never wants to come up from.

Except that he has to, eventually, and they break apart desperate for air and breathless in giddy relief. They sit like that for a moment, foreheads pressed together, hands on skin on curves of hips, the air between them charged and electric.

"This is just because you want me to do the dishes, huh?" Luke suddenly says, and Ezra starts to pull away with a groan.

"You heard that?" he asks, and Luke chases after him with a laugh. Luke's fingers are in his hair, against his cheek, turning his face back towards him.

"Might have," Luke answers cryptically, and presses another kiss to Ezra's lips. "I don't mind if that's your ulterior motive."

"It's cute that you think I have a motive beyond just wanting you." Ezra realizes that he doesn't know how to end that sentence. His want, plain and simple, has resolved itself into the shape of Luke, nothing else.

Not wanting anything from him. Just him.

Just Ezra and Luke, hand in hand, feeling for all the worlds like this is where it was always meant to lead.

[planet-crait]

A Saltier analysis of the Art of Star Wars Rebels (Part 2)

So…..after my initial post you can find here more issues with the book where pointed out to me/I just sat looking through it noticing even more issues so….consider this a part two to my original post going over even more issues I have with the Art of Star Wars Rebels. Obviously there will be salt so if you enjoyed the book a lot and don’t want that view tainted please don’t click on below the cut. Also beware major spoilers for Rebels. 

So first off we’re going to kick off with talking about some items that were very strangely missing from the book. Now full disclosure @findswoman​ really was the one who noticed this issue but it seriously deserves mention and I am stunned I missed it but, why are Loth cats and Loth Bats not ever mentioned in the book? 

Loth Cats are a near constant presence within the series, they play some minor roles even in destroying a droid and helping distract guards. Loth bats similarly inspire the gliders that the kids use to rescue Hera! Said gliders make it into the book

Why aren’t the loth bats, the inspiration for said gliders, even in the book as well?

Another potentially controversial criticism I have is for the cover for the deluxe edition itself. 

Some people may love it which is fair but personally I am not as fond of it as I am of the original cover. I get that they were trying to get a feel of the holocron in the cover but it just doesn’t vibe with me at all and I feel like they could have done something more special for the deluxe cover. 

Speaking of holocrons, they do not get a proper showcase within the art book. Here is the page where it is mentioned and notice how it talks about the map, not the holocron itself. 

Hell, you barely see it in the image in the book! Why? The holocrons are a big deal in the show, why are they not getting showcased when items that only make an appearance in one episode do? Even if other media showed off the holocrons, this is the art of Star Wars Rebels, if it was important to the show, it deserved a place in the book. Instead they waste space on things that were not important or even really shown in the show. Like Tatooine gets two full pages in the book:

Some of those images almost look like shots from Episode 4 which brings back the question of what the heck is this doing here? (Which I found myself asking way too much when looking through this book). Again this book should be a celebration of Rebels, not all of Star Wars. Those pages could have been used to show off key elements from the show that for unknown reasons got cut from the book. 

There is just a lot of what feels like filler or wasted space in the book, for example Rex, Obi-wan, Vader, Yoda, Bo-Katan and Palpatine get two pages devoted to their characters while other main characters from the show get only one page or only half a page like in Choppers case. Zeb, Kallus, and Hera also all do not get their alternate season designs shown off in the book while Kanan, Sabine and Ezra do. Hell Rex even got an extra half a page to show off designs that never made it into the show and seemingly only exists to push Filoni’s headcanon that Rex was there with Han Solo. 

Why are the main characters not allowed to be the unashamed stars of this book? Why did the editors feel the need to waste space with characters who are not the stars and have their spot to shine in other media? Original characters for this show should get full and multiple pages for their characters, not characters who have appeared in other media and probably appear in other art books. 

If other side characters like Tristen and Usra Wren or Ketsun where getting these full or two pages I wouldn’t be quiet as annoyed because they are all original characters for the show, but those characters only got half a page while again, characters from other media like Saw and Mon Motha got a full page. I will say this until I am blue in the face but the original characters created specifically for Rebels should have been the true stars of this book, instead they are getting gypped and the short end of the stick while other characters the team thinks is more popular are given the spotlight. (I am not showing the pictures because, as is, this post is getting ridiculously long but I will happily share them in a reblog if anyone wants to see this).

They even included characters who never appeared in the show in the book

This is the very definition of wasted space. This page could have been used for undercover Chopper designs or season 3 or 4 of Hera and Zeb designs or one of the many many things that never made an appearance in the book that by all accounts should have been like Kanan’s lightsaber or Zeb’s bo-rifle. Instead we get stuff of Director Krennic.

Even things that had their fair share of content, still managed to miss the mark in some cases. 

The Ghost in total has about six pages devoted to it which even includes concept art for it that was never used which is not a problem at all. In fact I love that! This is what I bought the book for, to see concepts and art for things that were at some point going to be in the show but were cut for one reason or another. The book would have benefited if it contained way more concept art for things like this like for example what Filoni imagined Lasan to look like or other concept designs for Zeb or hell talk about Kallus’s early days when he was originally a Chiss. Interesting stuff like that which wasn’t explored in the show but still exciting and interesting. 

My big issue with the Ghost sections (yes sections) is that instead of putting everything related to the Ghost together for some reason the pages are split into two different sections within the book. 

(Don’t ask my why they decided to throw concept art of the millennium falcon to go with that little tidbit instead of more concept art for the Ghost, just know this is on my shitlist too)

These are pages 48 through 51 of the book. The next time the Ghost appears is way later near the end of the book

Pages 150 and 151! Some of the split concepts for things can be explained by the fact that the book is split into several sections: Beginning, middle, and end of the show. However this does not give a satisfactory explanation as to why the Ghost’s concept art is split across two sections and not even evenly! Why not put all of the information for the Ghost all together in one section so if someone was looking for something specifically for reference or something they don’t have to look through the whole book to find it because the info is all over the place?  Directly following the later pages is the Phantom II so maybe the logic was they didn’t want to just toss the Phantom in without any other context? Which….doesn’t work cuz the Ghost honestly feels thrown in for no real reason. The Phantom II being separated from the Ghost and The Phantom would have been fine because the Phantom does come in later so it being in the section devoted to later parts of the series would have been fine. 

Of course, I can’t really say there is a section for the Phantom, that one image you saw back on page 50? That is the only reference the original Phantom ,something that was in the show for two seasons, get’s. One image and maybe a second but it feels more like an image of the back of the Ghost and not one of the Phantom. Meanwhile the Phantom II get’s two pages entirely to itself. Why the difference? Both ships were in the series for two seasons, why not some images of the inside of the Phantom or more shots from different angles? Why does only the Phantom II get these?

I really cannot fathom why they skimped out on one ship and gave two pages to another when both had equal importance. 

Now I mentioned before that the layout of the book may have influenced the decision to split the pages talking about the Ghost, but personally I am not a fan of the layout of the book. It makes things confusing and doesn’t flow well. Here is the table of contents:

At a glance this seems fine and a nice nod to the series having four seasons, but notice there are no sub categories like textbooks that have key concepts in the chapter and what page they start on. So if you wanted to focus on character models? You would still have to spend a lot of time flipping through the sections to find what you were looking for. Personally I would have rather the book be divided by content: Characters, props, and environments. That way all things that are alike would all be group together instead of broken up into four sections across the book. Of course other art books could be laid out like this and people may like this method. This particular point is a bit more nitpicky and me being a person who was far more interested in character concept art then anything else. 

I briefly touched upon this in my part one analysis of the book, but this issue rears its ugly head again in the issue of things not getting good labeling leaving the reader having to read the mini paragraphs or searching the book to figure out what it is or what is going on. 

Want to know where this is?

Or this?

Or even this?

Me too, too bad the book can’t be bothered to tell you anything about these. When I was searching for anything to tell me what these images among many others in the book where, I noticed this

Which for a bit I couldn’t figure out what  it was, notes accidentally left in? Some obscure reference to what it was supposed to be? Looking at other pages I noticed repeat notes that looked the same so I was starting to get even more confused until when looking through the cover pages, I finally spotted this:

Which okay fine they shorthanded the artists names in the credits right be the art….but then I noticed that not every piece of art in this book has any sort of credit along with the fact that quite a few have no label for what it's supposed to be. And while one could argue that those places are iconic enough to be recognized I have to disagree. Not everyone knows or follows all Star Wars Media that is a fan of the show. Not everyone has a great memory of the episodes within rebels or places that most would think are familiar. There is no reason to not put in a small label next to the artist credit so fans know what it is supposed to be. I could guess or try to look it up but I shouldn’t have to, the book should tell me what it is!

Even worse is the inconsistency on if an artist gets credit for the art they made. Like this one here:

No credit or anything, we have no clue who created this piece or why there is nothing here to indicate who did, and that is not fair to the person who created this piece. (I checked the next page as well even and there was nothing)

Also yes that image above the artist’s credit is another concept art from episode 4 which was slapped on there for who knows why. Again this should have been more art from Rebels. This is not, nor should it be, the art of Star Wars. It is the art of Star Wars Rebels. No concept art from other media has any business being in this book. 

So many aspects of this book feel rushed or slapped together with no real rhyme or reason even though it was delayed in its release and then released early! Why? It just doesn’t make any sense and isn’t fair to the fans of this show who adored it and wanted to get this book to learn more about the show that for many fans, including myself, got me into Star Wars. We deserve more respect than this. 

This book truly feels like a quick cash grab, not the thank you to the fans of the show it should have been. 

Again I cannot stress this enough, if you like the book that is fine. But you cannot blow off and ignore the voices of people who are not satisfied with this book and expected so much more from it then it gave us. 

[shadowsong26fic]

The Handler AU

As requested by @tigerkat24.

(I do also have fulltext for one scene in here, which will be posted and linked here in the near future, probably tomorrow, after I clean it up some.)

Right. So. A couple of notes before I get started:

1) This AU prominently features Lavinia, and also super self-indulgent. Gonna say that straight-out. This is me and my OC and a bunch of tropes I adore. It is not the most self-indulgent piece I’ve ever put together, but it’s probably up there. I say this because, while I am pretty much past the point as a fan/content creator/whatever where I’m ashamed of my self-indulgent BS, I understand that it might not be everyone’s cup of tea, especially when it’s as obvious as this piece is. And I like people to know at least in general terms what they’re getting into when they open a piece of mine. So, you know, bear that in mind as you move forward.

2) Because of the way I work/develop AUs/OCs/etc., there are certain personality traits/satellite characters/plot points that are common to all/most of Lavinia’s storylines (...yeah, it’s a Thing I do, with OCs yeah but also with OC-free AUs and AUs of AUs and ‘hey what if I changed this plot point here, or put OC B in this situation instead of that one, or stuck Canon D in...look, y’all have seen my Distaff variants, you know the kind of thing I’m talking about; I don’t always stop at a single layer of canon-divergence, but then there has to be a thread connecting everything, or it becomes a totally different story/character, right? ...I’m not sure I’m explaining this very well. ...anyway, back on topic). As a result, despite being an AU of a completely different AU, this outline is therefore somewhat spoilery for a future Precipice arc. I mean, I’m pretty sure I’ve hinted at where I’m going with her in the fic proper and/or bonus content, or at least I’ve tried to, (plus, I know I’ve mentioned some things here on tumblr about particular narrative/character tropes I like), so it’s probably not too surprising? Or, at least, I hope it’s not. If it is, I need to get better at foreshadowing… Anyway, it is still technically a spoiler. To the point where I considered sitting on this (and a couple related AUs) at least until a particular event from Arc Seven that makes said future storyline about as clear as it can be until it actually happens. But…I decided ehhhhhh, why not (plus this was requested). But, you know, if that is something you want to avoid, might be best not to read this outline until after Arc…nine, I think? Just as a head’s up.

3) This is essentially a Kallus-centric Rebels fic (though, as mentioned above, also prominently featuring one of my OCs). And, other than that one bit in the Valdemar AU I wrote a month or so ago, this is the first time I’ve actually written Rebels content. (…granted, I’ve plotted more things--the closely-related Pellaeon AU features Rebels stuff pretty heavily, as does the middle arc of the Valdemar AU, which started as ‘Anakin would do really well as a Herald actually’ and has now turned into a massive three-part kudzu plot of a niche crossover and I should really redo that outline properly at some point, plus a few other things…) Anyway, the point is, I’m not necessarily super familiar with the conventions/etc. of this part of the fandom, and I apologize for any off-voice bits.

Okay! Now that I have warned for spoilers, inexperience, and self-indulgent BS…welcome to the Handler AU.

Oh, one more thing I want to mention—because this is, as stated above, super self-indulgent, Kanan is still alive because I said so. He got pretty crisped in that explosion and therefore missed the final battle, but didn’t actually die.

(Imperial records may have listed him as dead for a while, because No One Could Have Survived That, but he did survive.)

(How? IDK, maybe Ezra actually was able to do something from the between-place in this version.)

(Point is, we still have Kanan.)

(Ezra and Thrawn are still on a road trip with a bunch of space whales, though.)

ANYWAY. On to the good stuff.

It all kicks off like two months after Yavin.

Some timeline notes:

Because timelining anything in Star Wars is A Project, I am making some executive decisions here.

We’re approximately a year after the Rebels series finale.

(Meaning Jacen is like 3-4 months old, depending on exactly how pregnant Hera was at the time.)

This is also about how long Zeb and Kallus have been explicitly dating.

(There was SO MUCH PINING going on for a while there.)

(But it took that long for either of them to actually do anything about it.)

(Kallus figured out pretty early on that he was interested, but didn’t really think he deserved this/had earned it yet/that Zeb could possibly be interested in him, and therefore decided to bury his feelings Like A Goddamn Professional Okay.)

(Zeb took a while longer to clue in, and then couldn’t figure out if this was just him or what--see above re: burying things; worked a little bit too well--plus he has his own issues to work through.)

(And then there were some frantic Confessions and so-glad-we’re-alive sex and…)

(Yeah, this is a thing now.)

(Exactly zero people who have spent any time with these two dorks at all are surprised.)

(As is so often the case, the last people to clue in that this was A Mutual Thing are the two idiots involved.)

(There may or may not have been a pool or three going.)

(Hera won at least one of them.)

So. Kallus has made himself useful wherever he can since openly defecting, really, but generally works analyzing intelligence reports and training field agents for potential undercover missions. Even if his specific information is getting more and more out of date (few, if any, of the codes, etc. that he knows are still valid at this point), some things aren’t going to change that quickly, and his background is useful here.

Anyway. He gets called in--

“We’ve been approached by a would-be double agent deep in Imperial territory; received three transmissions in the past few weeks. So far, everything we’ve been sent checks out/has been useful, but.”

“But you’re wondering if this agent is an ISB plant.”

“Exactly. She calls herself Vector.”

“She?”

“Yeah. The scrambler she’s using is doing its job, which means we can’t actually use a voice print to ID her, but vocal pattern analysis got us that much. And that she’s likely Coruscanti, Human, and under thirty. That’s about all we know.”

He goes over the data and the recordings from the first three contacts and nothing jumps out as a red flag/any of the tricks he’s familiar with.

On the first call, there’s some dancing around; as if Vector’s trying to make sure of who she’s talking to. What he’d expect from either a plant or a genuine defector, really. Not particularly helpful.

The other two are fairly brief/straightforward, and start the same way each time--This is Vector. I have a data file for you. Do as you like with it. Also not particularly enlightening, given the question he’s been asked to answer.

The data itself, though, is--interesting. Not easy to access, for the most part, and not necessarily all from the same source. Parts of it are the kind of thing ISB would use as bait, but just as much of it is not. Some of it provides useful context for intel the Alliance has received from other sources (some covert, some not), which is not the kind of thing an ISB plant would send.

So, he goes back to his superiors and tentatively reports Vector as probably genuine. He wants to be on hand for her next transmission, though, to be sure.

(He wonders, idly, who they had evaluate his initial transmissions like this, or if using an established codename and protocol was enough…)

(He’s Concerned it might be the second.)

(There are some worrying gaps in Rebel Intelligence’s security that he can only do so much to patch.)

Of course, there’s a slight problem with that. Vector’s transmissions haven’t exactly been regular--the second one came four days after the first, and then it was nearly two weeks to the third.

And when they do come, they’re very brief, so if Kallus is, say, busy with a training exercise on the opposite side of the base…

(Or otherwise occupied in a supply closet.)

(He does have, y’know, a life when off-duty.)

(...which is something that still sends him into weird brainspirals of “how did this happen” and “i don’t deserve this” and “when is it going to blow up in my face” on occasion, but that is a separate problem. One that he buries. Like A Goddamn Professional.)

(no that’s not a habit of his why do you ask.)

IN ANY CASE, this means that it ends up being her sixth message, close to three weeks after Kallus is initially brought in, before he’s able to listen in live.

(Transmissions four and five, after he reviews them, don’t really change his analysis, but still.)

Transmission six comes in while Kallus happens to be in the tiny corner of the current base that Intelligence has claimed.

It starts like the others did--This is Vector. I have a data file for you. Do as you like with it.

Once the file transfer initiates, he responds.

“Vector, this is Fulcrum.”

(Okay, technically, he probably should be using a different handle now, since it’s really supposed to be for field agents only and he isn’t one anymore. And there are similar shared code names for Intelligence agents primarily on base duty, or he assumes there are, but even after over a year of not using it, it’s still the first one that comes to mind. Reflexive, almost. And now it’s going to stick.)

There’s a beat of silence from the other end, and Kallus is briefly concerned that he misjudged the situation, that she’d going to panic and cut the transmission.

But, “I can’t leave the link open long,” she says.

(Part of him thinks she sounds...almost relieved? Like she’s been waiting to be challenged like this, and the longer things went on without a test, the more nervous she got.)

(He can understand that worry. That sense of just waiting for the other shoe to drop.)

(And, yes, other Rebel Intelligence agents probably could have tested her like this, and if he hadn’t been around as a resource they almost certainly would have, but given that he knows exactly what to look for, the Powers That Be had decided to leave it in his hands.)

“Of course,” he says, and asks her a few questions, rapid-fire.

(He’s less interested in the specific details of her answers--and he’s not really asking her questions about her identity--then how she approaches answering him. Not necessarily something he can explain, which is part of why he didn’t coach any of the other officers and get this taken care of on transmission four or five, but just trying to get a sense of her.)

(One thing he does is privately revise the estimate of her age--he thinks she’s younger than the previous guess, probably twenty or so. Sabine’s age, maybe, at the oldest. Which makes her even less likely to be a plant in his opinion; ISB wouldn’t put this much effort into setting up an agent that inexperienced, not on a mission this sensitive, even if she was inconceivably talented and precocious. As an in-person infiltrator, yes, absolutely; but for this many layers of intrigue...no, they’d want someone Experienced.)

She ends the transmission somewhat abruptly, after about five minutes, but he was more or less expecting that and anyway he has what he needs.

“Well?”

“She’s genuine,” he says. “I’m as sure as I can be of that.”

“Good to hear.” A pause. “...you’ve run undercover agents before, correct?”

Kallus shuts down the knee-jerk paranoid response as fast and hard as he can.

(There are almost certainly people in the Alliance who still don’t trust me but none of them are in this room. I know that. Calm down.)

“Yes, once or twice,” he says, cautiously. “For short-term assignments.”

“Congratulations. You just volunteered to be Vector’s handler.”

(Hence the name of the AU. AKA the one where Kallus adopts a baby spy who JUST HAPPENS to be Palpatine’s daughter.)

(...yeah, he didn’t really see that one coming.)

(...at some point, I should probably go through and outline Lavinia’s politics and her reasons for defecting in detail, but in the interests of focusing on Kallus’s end of things, which is much more interesting, a (hopefully) brief digression on the subject:)

(Lavinia was created and trained to be a spy/manipulator, to perform the kind of tasks and access the kind of information that Palpatine could as the avuncular Chancellor but cannot as Emperor, now that he’s thrown that mask away.)

(...apart from very specific, carefully staged moments, like with Ezra.)

(So, part of manipulating people means understanding them, which means Lavinia does a lot of research to put her targets into context, and in so doing comes across a wide variety of cultures/forms of government, at least in an academic context.)

(And that means that, once she starts thinking beyond “how can I survive until tomorrow” and starts thinking about broader impact/more long-range plans, it doesn’t take her very long to realize that her father’s government is...well, let’s call it deeply flawed.)

(What she does when she comes to that conclusion varies, depending on other circumstances--but she doesn’t necessarily defect right away. Mostly for practical reasons; in Masks!Verse, which this AU is a variant of, she has no Rebel contacts that she’s absolutely sure of.)

(Meaning, in this case, both “absolutely sure is an actual Rebel and not just sympathetic to their aims/politics” and “absolutely sure would be willing to work with me despite my parentage.”)

(And if she approaches anyone she isn’t sure of, it’ll get her or her contact or both of them killed. Defecting from a distance, while she can better protect her identity, has a much bigger risk of interception, which, again, would get her and/or her contacts and possibly a lot of other people killed. Or worse.)

(Basically, she doesn’t think defection is a viable option for her--there are some other reasons for this, but those play a distant second to these concerns.)

(But then Alderaan happens.)

(And these concerns carry a lot less weight.)

(It takes her a couple months to figure out how to make contact with Rebel Intelligence, let alone how to do it safely, but she starts working on it at that point.)

(...I think that’s the salient points here. Like I said, I have a fair bit more about Lavinia’s politics/etc. and the ways/extent to which she’s willing to defy her father in various AUs, but that’s enough for this one, I think.)

So, Kallus can’t really argue with the assignment (even if part of him kind of wants to? Not because he thinks he can’t do it, but because he’s concerned that being another deep-cover informant’s handler is going to dig up a lot of stuff he’d really, really rather keep buried.)

(Look, he feels like he’s finally found his equilibrium. He’s even, somehow, approaching happy with his life for the first time in what feels like forever which, guilt-induced brainspirals aside, he doesn’t want to give up.)

(Besides, handling Vector wouldn’t be his only responsibility, and if he does start losing that equilibrium, he’s not sure how much his other work will be affected.)

(On the other hand...)

(On the other hand, there are very few people who have done what he did and survived long enough to make it back to Rebel lines.)

(Oh, there are other deep-cover informants, sure; but the majority of them are plants inserted by Rebel Intelligence.)

(And while, even leaving aside the technicalities involved with Senator Mothma and others among the leadership who had previously served in the Imperial Senate, there are plenty of defectors--up to and including General Madine and some other persons of very high rank--for the most part, once they make that decision, defectors grab what they can and run.)

(The ones that don’t usually don’t survive as long as he did.)

(Or, alternatively, they don’t identify themselves to the Alliance or even necessarily work directly with them; they perform internal sabotage rather than espionage.)

(Those embedded defectors tend to last longer, but not by much.)

(Which means that he’s probably the only person--certainly the only available person--who has been where Vector is. Who better to help her?)

(As for his own issues...well, he is a Professional, dammit. He can damn well compartmentalize. He’s very good at that.)

(...yeah, this is kind of a running theme for him. Sometimes it’s a good thing, sometimes it’s...very much not.)

(It remains to be seen how much it’ll help or hurt when dealing with Vector.)

So, he accepts the assignment, and goes back to his quarters to tell Zeb and collect a few things--given the irregularity of Vector’s transmissions, until he can talk to her again and set up a better protocol, he’s going to basically have to camp out in Intelligence.

(Which he’s not looking forward to, but it is what it is.)

Zeb is already there when he gets back--their current shifts don’t entirely line up, which is fine; they have at least a few hours overlap most days which is better than some pairs can say.

After several minutes saying hello...

“Did I miss anything interesting?” Kallus asks.

“That Skywalker kid came by a bit ago,” Zeb tells him. “Looking for Kanan.”

Kallus blinks, halfway through fixing caf for the two of them. “...aren’t he and Hera off investigating a potential supply line?”

(Which is, of course, far below Hera’s current paygrade, but she volunteers for that kind of mission on occasion. An excuse to spend private time with her family, while still technically being useful and not taking actual time off.)

“Yep,” Zeb says. “Apparently, this is the third or fourth time something like that has happened. They keep missing each other.”

"Well, I’m sure they’ll link up sooner or later,” he says. “Especially if Skywalker’s actively looking for Kanan.”

(He hasn’t actually met Luke yet at this point, but he’s heard the rumors. He has no real doubt of this fact.)

“Yeah, probably,” Zeb says. “I think Kanan’s been trying to track him down, too. He’ll be sorry he missed him.”

(...yeah, we’re going with Anakin-and-Grievous levels of contrived coincidence to keep those two from actually meeting for a while.)

(Partly because it’s easier than figuring out all the timeline/plot implications that might have (and I’m lazy, and that is the focus of another story), but mostly because I think it’s funny.)

Kallus nods. “...did he and Hera take Jacen with them, or...?”

(He hadn’t seen any evidence the baby had been left with them, but that didn’t mean it hadn’t happened.)

But Zeb shakes his head. “Nah, Sabine has him this time. Why? Something going on?”

“I have an assignment,” Kallus tells him.

“Huh. Extraction?”

(Logical assumption--the bulk of the fieldwork he does now, all-hands-on-deck situations like Lothal aside, is extractions. Occasionally helping sell an insertion, but generally the reverse.)

“No, not this time,” he says. “The agent who reached out, the one I told you about--I’ve been assigned as her handler.”

(He has long since gotten permission to discuss at least surface generalities of his work with Zeb, and they both know where the line is.)

Zeb’s ears flick a little, and Kallus can practically see him weighing the same pros and cons that he himself did earlier--and probably several others he hadn’t thought of.

“So, I guess that means you’re camping out in intelligence for a while?”

“Unfortunately,” he says. “Of course, there is a difference between being on-call and being on duty. And my schedule technically won’t change.”

Zeb perks up at that and grins before kissing him. “Well, I’m sure I an find an excuse to be in the area. Sometimes. Just in case. You know.”

“Mm.”

Fortunately, call number seven comes less than a week later.

This is Vector. I have a data file for you. Do as you like with it.

“Vector, this is Fulcrum.”

A brief pause. “Yes.”

“I’ve been assigned as your handler.”

(He figures the best way to deal with someone who’s probably twitchy and paranoid and otherwise on high alert is to be as scrupulously honest as he can. That doesn’t mean telling her everything, of course, but it does mean being straightforward, difficult as it is, and not outright lying.)

(If he can. So far, he can.)

Another pause. “I understand.”

(She’s hard to read on this one, whether or not she finds it suspicious. She might even be relieved again, that she’ll have a set contact point, rather than a whoever’s-available sort of situation.)

“There are some protocols I’d like to establish, for further contacts.”

“I can’t call at a set time,” she says immediately. “Or at set intervals.”

"I understand,” he said. “But I’m going to give you a more specific frequency to call.”

“Yes,” she says, and that definitely has a faint note of relief.

“Can you, if nothing else, send an all-clear transmission every two weeks?” he asks. “It doesn’t need to be at a set time, but so we can gauge--” whether or not you’re alive and uncompromised “--how concerned we need to be after a long silence.”

She pauses. “...I think so. Yes. I can do that.”

(Definitely young, he thinks, maybe even younger than Ezra--would be.)

“That’s all for now,” he says. There are others he wants to establish, of course, but those are the most important and her file transfer is nearly complete. 

“I’ll be in touch,” she says; hesitates a second; “Vector out.”

(...well, she’s signing off officially now, rather than just abruptly terminating the connection. Progress. I think.)

He goes back to his quarters, and life settles into a new routine.

He keeps up his old duties--analyzing reports, training potential undercover agents, etc.--and also keeps track of Vector and her reports.

That last one proves...well, his early optimism wasn’t entirely misplaced?

Vector is very, very good at what she does. Her files are varied in their content, and sometimes not as useful as she might’ve hoped, due to timing or other resource concerns, but the quality of the work she does never comes into question.

But part of being a double agent’s handler is assessing how they’re holding up under the incredible stress of the position. And she is frustratingly vague when it comes to anything approaching anything personal about herself.

In addition, there are two additional protocols he wants to set up early on--first is a way for him to reach her.

“Just because I have access doesn’t mean I have influence,” she says. “I can’t seed disinformation for you. Not without getting caught.”

“That wasn’t what I meant.”

(Though, of course, he had considered the possibility--as well-positioned as Vector seems to be, how could he not?--but while he doesn’t completely rule out the idea, he files it away under “only as a last resort.” Better to leave her in place as long as possible.)

“But if there’s something specific we want you to keep an eye out for--or if we need to warn you about something...”

“Right,” she says. “That’s fine, then.”

The second, though...the second is where they run into real problems.

“I also want to establish an emergency signal. If you need extraction, or if you end up captured by Rebel agents.”

(He still wonders, sometimes, if staying behind when Ezra came to extract him was the right decision. It had seemed so at the time, but...)

(He’ll probably never know. And fretting about it doesn’t do any good.)

(knowing that doesn’t make it any easier to stop.)

“No,” she says.

“Vector--”

And she hangs up on him.

Exactly why she’s so reticent to establish something like that, he isn’t sure--he has some theories, but...

It’s frustrating, to be sure. Makes it harder for him to do his job.

(And it makes him worried about her--if she’s working without any kind of exit strategy, that likely means she doesn’t think such a thing will be possible. Which, on the one hand, shows her dedication to the cause, but on the other hand...on the other hand, if she thinks getting caught is inevitable, she might get sloppy with her own security and that might well turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy.)

(The other alternative, that she doesn’t trust him, or the Alliance, with her safety if things do go wrong, is...well, probably more distressing, in all honesty.)

(Though not, perhaps, altogether surprising.)

He decides to seek Kanan’s advice on the problem.

(Kanan, after all, knows best what to do with unruly teenagers.)

(...well, so does Hera, but Hera’s advice would probably be less applicable/harder to apply to his specific situation. Also, she has better things to do than help him do his job.)

(Which is the other frustrating thing, that he can’t handle this by himself.)

Kanan’s advice is pretty straightforward--be patient, and don’t push her too hard. You can’t help her if she won’t let you.

(This is part of why I wanted him still around, incidentally.)

(Because there is something utterly hilarious about Kallus going to Kanan for parenting advice.)

(And that’s exactly what he’s doing.)

(Even if he hasn’t quite figured that out yet.)

So, taking this in mind, he backs off. A little bit. Decides to start from square one, and build a rapport, and go from there to get some of the other basics that he wants established.

Standard interrogation technique, technically. Not one favored by ISB, obviously, or really encouraged, but even they knew it had its uses.

Vector is still cagey about personal details, but she does start to soften a little as several weeks go by.

He brings up the idea of an emergency code phrase again, after about two months of this kind of sporadic contact.

This time, she says she’ll think about it.

Things hold in this pattern for about a year, and then Vector makes a call, as usual.

Or, it starts like a normal call, anyway.

“You probably won’t hear from me for a while,” she says, as the file transfer is wrapping up and they’re about to sign off.

“Are you in trouble?”

“No,” she says. “Nothing like that. And nothing related to the work we’ve been doing. But things are going to be...difficult. I’m not even sure I’ll be able to get an all-clear message out for a while.”

He doesn’t like this at all. “How long?”

“A month,” she says. “Probably. Maybe a little more, maybe a little less. I’ll contact you as soon as I can safely.”

It is one of the longer months of his life.

But, as promised, the dedicated comm he has for her lights up eventually.

This is Vector. I have a data file for you.

“Vector, this is Fulcrum,” he says. “Good to hear from you again. Everything all right?”

“Yes,” she says. And she seems fine, and he breathes a quiet sigh of relief.

When he tells Zeb about it later, though, is where it gets...interesting.

“Glad to hear your kid’s okay,” he says.

“My--she’s not my child, Zeb,” Kallus says.

“Really.”

“....”

“Look, you talk about her the same way Kanan talks about Sabine, when she’s off blowing things up on Mandalore.”

“I...wait, really?”

“Yep,” Zeb says, and grins at him. “I mean, it’s not a problem. S’kind of what we do in this family, isn’t it? Take in strays. ‘Bout time you got in on it, really.”

Kallus just stares at him. “I...what.”

Zeb waves a hand in front of his face. “Alex. Babe. You all right in there?”

He shakes himself. “Yes, of course. Sorry."

“Ehh, don’t worry about it. I mean, it’d probably have been nice for the two of us to talk about kids in general before we started adopting our own strays, but--”

Really, sometimes Kallus thinks that Zeb likes the expression he makes when utterly poleaxed like that.

(He does. He thinks it’s adorable.)

(Also, Zeb figures this is a conversation they maybe should have, because they’re clearly both in this for the long haul and he saw this opening and...look, no one ever said Zeb was good at broaching delicate topics gently.)

“...do you?” Kallus asks, when he recovers. “Want children, someday?”

“I mean...yeah,” Zeb says. “If you do. I mean.”

“I hadn’t thought about it,” he confesses.

(Because long-range planning is hard; because they’re at war, because he’s still waiting for the other shoe to drop, because he doesn’t deserve any of this and planning for a future he doesn’t deserve is just--a little much for him sometimes.)

“But...yes,” Kallus says. “I think so, yes. I would like to raise children with you. Someday.”

Zeb’s response to that is positive and enthusiastic and leads to things they will definitely not be discussing with their hypothetical children ever.

It’s a month or two after that that Kallus finds out who Vector is.

(…well, for a given value of ‘finds out,’ anyway.)

He and Zeb are babysitting--Sabine is back on Mandalore; Hera is on duty; Kanan was supposed to be finally meeting Luke but there was an issue at the spaceport and he’s stranded for the next few hours.

(Like I said. Anakin-and-Grievous levels of contrived coincidence.)

Zeb has just put the kid to bed, and Kallus is watching the news.

“You’re still watching that?” he asks, nudging Kallus to make room for him on the couch and drawing him to lean on his shoulder.

“I’ve told you before, dear, knowing what the Empire is saying, no matter how different that is from what they’re doing, has its uses.”

“Especially if you know how their propaganda is constructed, I know,” Zeb says, and nuzzles his ear. “Just thought you were almost done.”

Kallus smiles faintly and leans into the caress. “I am, I promise. I’ll shut it off in a minute. I just want to--”

He pauses. Rewinds the feed. Pauses it--pre-recorded coverage of some public event the Emperor’s kid had been at, with the newscaster commenting on the progress of whatever “public works” project it was supposed to kick off.

“…what is it? Something she said?”

(...something to do with whatever this “project” is covering up?)

“Hush,” he says, fiddling with a few buttons and calling up a printed transcript and skims through it before sinking back against Zeb, letting out a breath.

“Babe?”

“I think I know who Vector is,” he says.

Zeb stares at him for a minute, then stares at the paused footage--frozen on the Princess’s face, icy and composed.

“…her?” 

“Her,” he confirms.

“Why…?”

“Little things,” he says. “The way she talks, some unique turns of phrase. And she fits the profile--young, Human, Coruscanti, close to someone powerful but essentially a civilian herself…and…when Vector disappeared on me last month, that coincided with a period where the Princess was more visible than usual.”

“Karabast,” he mutters. “When you put it like that…”

“It’s all conjecture,” Kallus points out. “I can’t prove any it. Not without digging deeper--which, if I’m right, risks compromising her cover--or asking her straight-out.”

(Which, of course, would also be a bad idea. It would probably seriously damage the trust he’s spent the past year and more building, and it might not even get him an honest answer anyway.)

“Right,” Zeb says. “…any chance someone else could put this together?”

Kallus makes a face. “Unlikely,” he says, though he doesn’t sound totally sure. “The recordings of our conversations are kept as hard copies only, for security. Not uploaded onto any networked drives. And a very small set of people have access to those copies. I doubt anyone could put it together without that access. Still…”

(Someone dedicated enough, who managed to access one of those recordings, or intercept a transmission along the way, or compromise the lines of communication from the other side…)

“Kriff,” he says. “Anything you can do about it?”

“Not really,” he says. “Other than brief Draven and keep doing what I’ve been doing.”

“Yeah,” he says, and studies the picture again; glances over at the morose look on Kallus’s face; feels his ears twitching. “Huh. Never would’ve figured the Emperor’s kriffing daughter to defect.”

Kallus jumps a little, drawn out of his thoughts, then rolls his eyes and gives Zeb a fond, exasperated smile (which was really the point, honestly; to needle him into a better mood), and rather dryly points out, “There was a time you would’ve said the same about me.”

“True,” Zeb says, and grins at him. “Guess it just goes to show, people surprise you all the time.”

“Indeed,” Kallus says, then reaches over to shut off the feed and changes the subject.

Six weeks after that, Vector goes quiet again. This time without warning.

When her two-week check-in goes by with nothing, he’s immediately concerned. She’s never missed a check-in before, not without warning. He decides to give her a day, and then ping her himself.

(He generally avoids doing that--only when he absolutely needs to speak with her about something time-sensitive that can’t wait for her to reach out.)

There’s no response to his message, either.

He reports the missed check-in, of course. Tries again the next day. And a third.

Still nothing.

(He knows a rescue won’t be authorized--technically, they don’t actually know for sure who or even where Vector is, and if his theory is correct, they cannot make a run on Coruscant for one agent, especially not one as visible as Princess Lavinia.)

(He keeps telling himself that. Over and over again. As he tries a fourth and fifth time to reach her.)

“Zeb,” he says, after a third full week has gone by since the last time he heard from her. “I need you to talk me out of doing something stupid.”

“Uh, sure, babe. What’s going on?”

He explains the situation as briefly as he can. “And I am this close to staging a half-assed unauthorized raid on Coruscant to extract her.”

“...nah, if we’re doing an unauthorized raid on Coruscant, it should be a full-assed thing.”

That...that wasn’t really the answer Kallus was looking for.

(In hindsight, he thinks, as he tries to redraw building plans from memory and plan this stupid, stupid venture, he probably should have gone to Hera if he really wanted someone to talk him down. Or possibly Kanan. ...no, Hera.)

(...it could be worse, though.)

(he could’ve tried asking Sabine.)

Fortunately, before they can actually run off and get themselves killed--

(or court-martialed)

(or in trouble with Hera)

--Kallus’ dedicated comm chimes.

“All clear,” he breathes. “That’s the all-clear. She’s...she’s alive.”

It’s nearly another week before he hears anything else, but finally a real call comes.

This is Vector. I have a data file for you. Do as you like with it.

“Vector, this is Fulcrum. Are you all right?”

(she doesn’t sound all right; it’s hard to tell through her scrambler, but she seems strained.)

“Everything’s fine,” she says. “I apologize for the delay, but things are settled now. My cover is intact.”

Which is good to know, but not what he asked.

“And what about you?” he says.

She doesn’t answer right away.

“Vector?”

“I’m here,” she says. “And everything is under control. You don’t need to worry about me. Nothing that--it wasn’t anything to do with this, I was caught on the fringes of something unrelated. It won’t interfere with my work going forward.”

Which still isn’t an answer.

(He’s pretty sure the non-answer is his answer, though. Damn it.)

(He knows the risks. Better than most. And he knows she knows them, too. It doesn’t make it any easier to hear, especially knowing that there is kriff-all he can do to help her.)

Into the silence, she says, “I’m your asset, Fulcrum. Not your friend.”

“......”

“I’m just--” She sighs. “I’m your asset. Not your friend. It’s...we should both remember that. It’s probably better, in the long run.”

And part of him is hurt; part of him is annoyed that he is being lectured on professionalism by a damned child; part of him is worried again--he did finally talk her into an emergency code phrase, in case of capture or other disaster, but here she goes again, hinting that she doesn’t have an exit strategy.

(Not like I did, either, he reminds himself. Can’t plan that far ahead. Not when you’re doing this kind of work. And even when Ezra came for me--)

(He buries it. Because he is a goddamn professional, Vector’s reproof aside.)

“It’s nothing I can’t handle,” she says. “And I’ve had worse.”

“........”

All right, that he likes even less.

“Vector--”

“I have to go,” she says. “I’ll be in touch when I have something else. And I’ll do my best to warn you if I have to disappear again. Vector out.”

And, in the interests of “good Lord this thing is close to 6k already,” we’re going to skip ahead quite a bit, about a year and a half, to just after the evacuation of Echo Base.

For the first time in a while, the whole family (minus Ezra) is back on the Ghost together.

(Kanan, Hera, Chopper, Sabine, Zeb, Kallus, Rex, and Jacen.)

(They’ve all been in touch and met up fairly frequently, but they’re no longer a discrete cell and they all have their own, often separate, duties with the wider Rebellion. So, while the circumstances leading to it are awful, it’s nice to have an opportunity like this.)

Orders are to lay low, and make their way by a prearranged roundabout route to the fleet rendezvous five days later.

The first night, they mostly spend catching up and letting Sabine fleece them all at cards.

(Except Rex. Do Not Play Sabaac With Rex.)

(They had all forgotten that rule.)

Hera is sending occasional messages back and forth to Command, to confirm/make adjustments/etc., but otherwise things are fairly quiet after the frantic rush of the evacuation itself.

(Fortunately, none of them were injured in the escape. It’s happened before, when they’ve had to leave a base in a hurry. That was a week no one wanted to repeat.)

It’s their second night of drifting, and Kallus is just starting to fall asleep (Zeb is snoring beside him; the noise honestly probably should have been annoying but is genuinely comforting at this point, to the point where he has trouble sleeping without it) when his comm beeps.

It’s Vector.

More accurately, it’s her emergency signal.

He extracts himself from the bed and slips out into the hall to talk the call.

“Fulcrum.”

“It’s Vector,” she says, unnecessarily. She’s not using her usual scrambler this time, but a more standard vocoder, probably cannibalized from a stolen helmet. She sounds drained, and slightly breathless. “I’ve been burned. I got...I got away. I had more..." She stops, clears her throat. “I got away. I was able to remove my tracker and I’m as--I’m as sure as I reasonably can be that I’ve lost anyone following me by other means. I-I pulled as much raw data as I could onto a couple of portable drives on my way out, but I’m on a...I’m on a sliced public terminal right now, I don’t want to keep the line open long enough to send them in the usual way and I...I don’t know what the protocol is now. Please advise.”

“Where are you now?” he asks. There are so many other questions he wants to ask, needs to ask, both from a personal and a professional standpoint--is she all right; how did she get caught; how did she escape; how long has she been compromised--but they can wait until she’s been located and brought in safely. He sets them all aside, and focuses.

(Like A Goddamn Professional.)

“Ixaly,” she says. “I’m on...I’m on Ixaly.”

He closes his eyes, mentally traces their route through hyperspace. Ixaly is in this sector, it shouldn’t be far...yes. If he’s counted right--they’ll be doing a navigation stop shortly, and dropping out of hyperspace. From there--a few hours to Ixaly, unless he’s completely turned around.

“There’s a cantina,” he says, “in the Diira district in Central City. The White Shale. Can you be there in six hours?”

A brief pause; he can hear her breathing. “Yes,” she says, at last. “Yes, I’ll be there.”

“That’s the fastest I can arrange a pickup,” he says. “I’m sorry.”

(If he’s right about how close they are, it might not actually take him that long, but there’s a balance between getting to her as quickly as possible and budgeting in time for something to go wrong. He doesn’t want to risk being late and having her move on because she thinks he’s not coming. He may not be able to contact her if something goes wrong; not if she’s relying on sliced public terminals to reach out to him. And he has no idea when she’ll be able to make contact again, or how long whatever data’s on her drives will stay viable...so, six hours. He’ll have to trust her to stay alive that long.)

“I’ll be there,” she promises. “White Shale cantina, Diira district, Central City, six hours.”

“Exactly. You know how to reach me if there are any problems.”

“Yes,” she says.

“It’s almost over,” he says. “You’ve done well, getting yourself this far. Just hold on for a little while longer, all right?”

“I will,” she says; takes a breath. “I’ll see you in six hours. Vector out.”

The line goes dead.

Half a heartbeat later, he feels the familiar rumble of the hyperdrive cutting out, switching over to sublight engines.

He’s in his window now, he doesn’t have time--

As he heads for the Phantom, he runs into Kanan.

“...what’s wrong?”

“Vector,” he says, clipped. “She’s had to run. She’s not far--”

“Go,” he says. “I’ll let Hera know. ...take Zeb with you. In case you need backup.”

(Which he doesn’t really need, and it might well spook his contact if he brings a team--he has run extractions like this before, after all, and Vector is particularly cagey--but he nods.)

“I will. Thank you.”

“How long do we wait before sending our own rescue party?” Kanan asks.

Kallus does some quick mental math--six hours to the meet; going by Vector’s history, she may need some convincing to come along (like I did, until it was too late; but it’s already too late for her, isn’t it?); she might be wrong about having a tail; they might run into unrelated trouble...

“I’ll send word once we leave the system. If you haven’t heard from me in twelve hours, that’s when you worry.”

“Got it,” he says, and starts off towards the cockpit to update Hera, when Kallus realizes--

“Wait,” he says.

Kanan pauses, half-turns back to him.

“I don’t know who Vector is, not for certain,” he says, “but I have considerable circumstantial evidence that she’s Princess Lavinia.”

Kanan takes that in, then nods slowly. “Right. Thanks for the head’s up. I’ll pass that along.”

“Thank you,” Kallus says again, and the two of them separate--Kallus goes to wake Zeb and then get the Phantom prepped and underway; Kanan goes to tell Hera what’s going on.

(...and corral his son.)

(Jacen has developed this habit lately of hiding on the Phantom when he thinks it’s going somewhere Interesting.)

(Which is usually whenever someone other than Mamma is driving.)

(He likes going on Adventures with his various uncles and Auntie ‘Bine, okay.)

(They go on the best Adventures.)

(But retrieving one of Kallus’s deep-cover agents whose cover was blown like a week ago at most is maaaaaaybe not the best Adventure for a three-year-old.)

Fortunately, Zeb isn’t hard to wake and grasps the situation quickly. The two of them head for the Phantom--

And find Sabine sitting there waiting for them, spinning idly in the pilot’s chair.

“...Sabine--” Zeb starts.

“Whatever it is that’s got you two running around frantically when we’re supposed to be lying low,” she says, “I wanna help. You might need backup.”

On the one hand, Kallus is pretty sure they won’t. And his prior concerns about spooking Vector if he comes in with a team still apply.

On the other hand, Sabine is one of the best people to have beside them in a crisis, if things do go all to hell. She’s creative and generally carrying an array of weapons that defies the very laws of physics.

Besides, he doesn’t have time to argue with her.

“Fine,” he says. “But you follow my lead--both of you. Neither of you has been on an extraction like this before, and this is what I do. All right?”

“All right,” Sabine says. “Who is it we’re extracting, exactly?”

“A spy, working under the code name Vector,” he says. “She’s been feeding us intel for close to three years now. Her cover was compromised, and she had to run.”

Sabine nods. “Got it,” she says.

“And, if I’m right,” he says--because if he is, Sabine will have to know before they get there, “she’s the Emperor’s daughter.”

“...all right, then,” Sabine manages, after a moment of stunned silence. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

They detach, and the Ghost disappears behind them back into hyperspace as Kallus sets a course for Ixaly.

And now, since I’m sure y’all are wondering the same thing Kallus is--i.e., how did she get caught/how did she escape--let’s backtrack and leave Kallus’s POV for another brief digression--

It all comes down to a man named Vedric Greer.

Vedric Greer is a Royal Guard. He’s been in that elite unit for over fifteen years at this point, selected more or less straight out of the Academy.

He’s been the head of Lavinia’s detail since she was twelve.

(Before that, he had a variety of assignments; he never got stuck with Vader, for which he is profoundly grateful, but he guarded a few valuable objects/locations, and he was on Tarkin’s detail for a couple of years.)

See, here’s the thing about Royal Guards. They’re put through a lot of conditioning, both physically and mentally, to become living weapons who are absolutely loyal.

And he is. Vedric Greer is an absolutely loyal man.

The thing is, to be a Royal Guard assigned to any living being other than Palpatine himself--Vader, Tarkin, Mas Amedda, Lavinia, a few others--means to be equal parts bodyguard and prison guard. Such a Guard is at least partly there to protect his principal from external threats, of course, but if said principal steps out of line or he’s given certain orders, he becomes their jailer. Or executioner. Or worse.

When he’s assigned to someone like Tarkin, of course, that isn’t much of a problem.

But a lonely, precocious twelve-year-old kid like Lavinia? Who, whatever traits she may have inherited from her father, has them tempered by an actual conscience?

...yeah, it doesn’t take a whole lot for him to bond with her, just a little.

(Throw in the fact that he has a lover, an Imperial Archivist who survived Scarif by being transferred to Coruscant days before Tarkin blew it up...well. Maybe the cracks in his armor aren’t only to do with the little girl he’s been made responsible for.)

So. Vedric Greer is a Royal Guard, and that means he is a living weapon, and absolutely loyal.

But over the past seven years--and especially the last three--maybe, just maybe, that loyalty has started to shift.

(He doesn’t even realize it, at first; and when he does notice the traces of affection, of tangential loyalty in himself...well, he reasons that Lavinia is all but an extension of her father’s will, anyway. Right? And if he conveniently fails to see certain signs...)

(Reynard, his lover, knows way before Vedric does where this is going, of course.)

And then, one morning, his orders change, and all those little things come crashing down.

(It was such a simple thing that screwed her over; Palpatine seeds bait among his minions constantly, little nuggets of information so that, if there is a high-placed leak, he can track it back to its source right away. Standard counter-intelligence, really; and everyone, everyone, is under suspicion. Everyone is tested.)

(Lavinia is normally very good at spotting this sort of thing--she has a natural aptitude for espionage, she was trained by the best, and she puts just as much effort into surviving her father and completing her mission as he did into taking over the galaxy. How else would she have lasted nineteen years as her father’s daughter--let alone three as a deep-cover Rebel spy?)

(But this time--this time she missed it. And now he knows.)

And Vedric Greer has a choice to make.

It’s surprising, in the end, how simple it is.

“My lady,” he informs her, “you are undone.”

He helps her cut out the tracking device implanted inside her ribcage (which is also fitted with a killswitch, of course, in case she ever tried to slip her leash); she asks him to come with her; he refuses.

(He is not a Rebel. He is not disloyal.)

(What he is, is her protector. What he is, is--hers.)

“I’m so sorry,” she says.

“So am I,” he says, and, “Go. I’ll buy you as much time as I can.”

“Goodbye,” she says, and disappears.

He sends a brief message to Reynard--hoping he’ll know what it means (he will; he always knew this might happen), and prepares himself to meet his death.

(Or, at least, that’s what he believes is going to happen.)

(...look, as I said before, this is Self-Indulgent BS(tm). Like I’m really gonna let Greer die. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I have no earthly idea how he survives but he does. Because this is my self-indulgent BS, dammit.)

Okay. Back to Ixaly, and the actual rescue/extraction mission.

(…by which I also mean forward, since it’s like a week later.)

Our Heroes reach Central City about an hour ahead of schedule. After a brief discussion, Sabine disappears into the district to be on-hand for immediate help, if needed; Zeb, who doesn’t blend in as well, will stay with the Phantom; Kallus of course goes to the cantina to find his contact.

He heads there more or less directly, taking in as much detail of the city and the specific neighborhood as he can.

He’s been here before, but it’s been several years; there is a garrison in place, but the occupation seems comparatively light.

Which means there’s a not-unreasonable chance that this will go smoothly.

(Of course, as soon as he thinks that, he starts coming up with all the potential problems that could still happen. For one thing, he or Vector or Sabine might be recognized…)

Security on the cantina itself; mostly local talent, just as it was on his last visit. This is a fairly middle-of-the-road place; just dishonest enough that he and Vector should blend, not so dishonest that they’re likely to get caught in the middle of any…unpleasantness. Part of why he picked this place. That, the fact that it isn’t particularly difficult to find, and is fairly close to his ideal landing site.

(Not the official port, naturally; while Kallus doesn’t doubt that they could bluff their way through, he’d rather not try it on such short notice. They’d landed the Phantom on the city outskirts, about fifteen minutes away by foot.)

In other words, things are about as well-situated as they could be, under the circumstances. He has three separate exit routes at least tentatively mapped out, of varying efficiency and difficulty.

(And, if it came down to it, Sabine or Zeb could create one for him, of course, but he’d prefer to avoid that if at all possible.)

(In any case, best to have backup plans; he’ll pick the best route of the three once he has a better idea of what Vector’s capable of at the moment.)

(He’s almost certain she’s hurt, and he doesn’t know how badly, and she’ll never actually tell him, so that’s the best he can do.)

Inside, the cantina is fairly crowded--which is a mixed blessing; on the one hand, more cover for their activities/conversation, but on the other, more people to see them.

It’s a varied crowd; mostly local shift workers, a few semi-legitimate traders and mid-level bounty hunters. Most importantly, though, there are no troopers that he can identify, even off-duty. Excellent.

He gets a drink (to blend in, primarily) and finds a table in the corner where he can keep an eye on the other patrons and watch the door without being obvious about it.

He’s not kept waiting long.

She blends in pretty well--she’s managed to dress herself in a slightly-outdated local fashion, one that helpfully comes with a cowl that doesn’t quite hide her face, but does enough to keep her mostly anonymous from a distance and make dodging any security cameras easier.

(A few other women in the cantina are dressed similarly; not many, but enough that she doesn’t really stand out.)

She doesn’t head straight for him. She weaves through the crowd for a minute, hesitates by the bar as if she’s considering something, orders a drink. Her attention drifts over the crowd; she doesn’t linger on him, but her hand twitches a little.

(Ah. She spotted him, then. Good.)

(He isn’t really surprised that she figured out which Fulcrum she was working with. And it does make things simpler--there are a few signals he could have tried, but there wasn’t time, when she called, to pick one of them and be sure.)

(An advantage, if a counter-intuitive one, to using the legacy code name with her, he supposes.)

She starts moving again; doing everything right--wandering as if she’s looking for a seat, gradually making her way to a small empty table next to his.

(The whole thing takes probably less than two minutes. It feels longer. Then again, it always does--this isn’t the first time he’s met a contact like this, and that never changes. Doesn’t matter whether he’s the first or second to arrive.)

He taps out a quick signal on his commlink--contact made, everything’s on track so far--and waits.

“I have a data file for you,” she says softly. “Several, in fact.”

He smiles faintly into his drink. “Well done.”

The way the tables are laid out, they’re sitting next to one another, both with their backs against the wall. It’s a simple matter for her to slide the two drives over to him, and just as easy for him to make them disappear.

(Leaving together discreetly will be a little harder, but he’s been doing this for quite a while. They’ll manage.)

“I have transport off-planet,” he tells her. “We should wait a few minutes, not get up right away, but it’s best if we leave sooner rather than later.”

She shakes her head. “I'm not coming with you.”

(He wishes he could say he was surprised.)

He doesn’t turn to look at her, as much as he wants to. “If you’re concerned about reprisals…”

“I’m not,” she says. “Not really. It’s just…not a good idea.”

...and in the interests of “good Lord this thing is probably pushing 10k and it’s not even the full fic it’s an outline,” I’m going to skip the rest of this conversation. Suffice to say, he’s right and she’s wrong, though she takes some convincing, but they leave the cantina together like fifteen minutes later. Also, he confirms that his theory as to her identity was correct somewhere in here.

Anyway, like I said, he talks her down, and she agrees to leave with him.

Once out of the cantina, he can get a better look at her, assess how badly she’s hurt.

(He knows she is for certain now; she’s breathing carefully, shallowly, and a little too fast--but he could only see her hands and the vague shadow of her cowl before.)

“Are you all right?” he asks; even though the answer is obvious; she’s favoring her left side and very pale.

“It’s nothing I can’t handle,” she says.

A characteristic non-answer, but a step above denial. He supposes.

“All right,” he says. “Let me know if you need help.”

(There’s not much else he can do here and now, anyway; they have some supplies back on the Ghost, and she can get proper medical attention once they rendezvous with the fleet.)

“I will,” she says, which is something at least.

They make it two blocks before they run into a squad of stormtroopers.

It’s a routine patrol; and, even with a wounded asset  to escort, it wouldn’t have been a problem under most circumstances. He could avoid the confrontation, or talk his way past.

But the squad sergeant stiffens in a particular way, staring at him.

“Karabast,” he mutters.

(You’d think, after all these years, this would stop happening so often. But, no, it’s still even odds that, out in the field, someone will recognize him.)

Lavinia takes half a step back. “I can--”

“They’re not here for you,” he tells her, then drags her behind cover a split second before the troopers start firing.

Then takes a minute to take stock.

This is...not an ideal position for a standoff. And while they might be able to fight their way through...

Best plan is to stay put, hold them off as long as they can, and call in Zeb and Sabine for backup.

Good thing I listened to Kanan, he thinks.

He takes out his sidearm, then pulls his holdout pistol from his boot and offers it to Lavinia.

But she shakes her head. “Father kept my focus narrow. I’d do more harm than good.”

“...right.”

Even less ideal. But it’s all right. He can handle this.

He takes his comm, switches it to the voice setting.

“Specter Four, this is Fulcrum. We’re going to need a slightly more dramatic exit than I planned for.”

“Copy that, Fulcrum,” Zeb says. “Could use an opening, Specter Five.”

“And to think you boys wanted to leave me behind,” Sabine says.

“Yes, yes, can we save the ‘I-told-you-sos’ until after we’re clear?” Kallus says, firing off a handful of shots to keep the squad at bay.

“She does have a point, babe.”

“Not on open comms, dear, how many times...”

(Honestly, the little bit of flirting is at this point half an inside joke, after the one time they legitimately forgot to switch channels, and half a way to quickly gauge how serious the situation actually is.)

(Plus, it’s fun. They like flirting.)

“Thirty seconds,” Sabine cuts in.

“Right,” Zeb says. “I’m headed to your position. ETA two minutes.”

“Copy. Fulcrum out.”

Two minutes, under these conditions, is a long, long time.

But, right on cue, thirty seconds later, there is a magnificent explosion, which gives them some breathing room, and then Sabine slides down the wall to land next to him.

“Not my best work,” she says critically, watching the cloud on the horizon, “but it’ll clear a path. Hi,” she adds, for Lavinia’s benefit.

“Hi,” she says, softly.

“...she doesn’t have a blaster,” Sabine says, turning almost accusingly to Kallus.

“Because I’ve never had one before,” Lavinia answers for him. “And this really doesn’t seem the time or place to learn.”

“Well, we’ll fix that later,” Sabine says.

“All right,” Lavinia says, then ducks down as Sabine positions herself better to start shooting back.

The next ninety seconds go much quicker, and then comes the welcome sound of the Phantom’s engines on approach.

It’ll have to be a quick exit, and for a split second, Kallus wonders about getting Lavinia up the ramp fast enough without Zeb actually landing--

But then he sees that Sabine has her jetpack.

(He has never been so pleased to see it in his life.)

“Take her,” he says, once the shuttle is in sight. “I’ll cover you.”

Sabine catches his drift right away, and nods. “Hold on,” she tells Lavinia, who blinks, but does.

And then they’re off.

Kallus just keeps firing at the troopers until, based on the noise it’s making, he judges that the Phantom is close enough that he can make the jump.

He’s--almost right.

He comes within half an inch of missing, then Lavinia’s hands shoot out and grab one of his wrists; Sabine grabs the other and the girls haul him on board.

“We’re good, Zeb, go!” Sabine shouts, while Lavinia drags Kallus the rest of the way in and slams the hatch shut.

We did it.

He takes a minute to catch his breath--he knows it isn’t really over; there’s still a great deal of work to do once they get back to the Ghost and then to the fleet proper.

But for now--they’re all alive, they’re all safe, they’re all at least as intact as they were when they got to Ixaly; the extraction was successful.

Kallus decides to let the rest of the problems wait, and take the win.

He picks himself up and heads to the cockpit, to give Zeb a quick hug and send word to Kanan and the others.

For all the drama and the worry when it started, today turned out to be a very good day.

And I think that’s a good stopping point, don’t you? There is definitely more, featuring (in no particular order) the worlds most #Awkward Road Trip; Kanan and Lavinia meeting; Kanan and Luke finally meeting; Zeb and Kallus adopting a kid or three; Lando; Jacen being precious; and so much more.

But, uh, see all my notes above about “how long is this thing now?!”

(And, again this isn’t even fulltext.)

(This is just the outline.)

...so, uh, yeah, if you made it this far, thank you and I hope you enjoyed my Self-Indulgent BS(tm). <333333333

[tarisilmarwen]

Cracks In The Mirror: Aftermath

( Chapter One, Two, Three, Four, Five, and Six.  On FFnet here.

This obsession of mine is finally done, holy crap.)

---

"Captain Kallus! Sir!"

Kallus turned to see a fidgety pink-skinned Theelin. "Miss Terez," he acknowledged with a nod. "What can I do for you?"

Gooti dropped her eyes, tapping her fingers together. "Um, I don't want to be a bother..." She looked back up anxiously. "Have you seen Mart anywhere?"

Sato's nephew. The sullen teenager had been scarcer than usual—at least according to Hera—since they'd joined back up with the rest of what remained of Phoenix Squadron on Yavin IV.

"I believe he was still down in the hanger," Kallus replied. A little softer he asked, "How is he?"

Gooti sighed heavily. "He's taking it pretty hard. It's not the first time he's watched someone slam into an Imperial ship to protect him."

Kallus put a hand on her shoulder. "You should talk to him." There'd been no one there for him after the death of his squadron, just a court-appointed therapist to ask him a few questions and then pronounce him fit for duty. He still remembered how lonely it felt.

"Mmm," Gooti said. Remembering something, she thumbed down the hallway over her shoulder. "Oh, and Hera said they want you out on the airfield for something," she told him.

"I'll be down in a moment." There was still something he wanted to check on. Or rather, someone.

Gooti stepped back and saluted. "Captain," she said, dismissing herself.

Kallus watched her leave, then blew out a breath, running a hand through his loose bangs.

Captain Kallus. It still felt weird rolling off people's tongues.

He headed for the medical wing. The hallways passed in a blur, the cool subterranean air light on his skin. He heard voices from inside the room, as he approached.

"And that's when Chopper sprayed him with fire retardant," Ezra relayed, finishing up some story.

"No," said Sabine. Her light laughter peeled out, echoing slightly in the long hallway.

"You should've seen it. Fur sticking up everywhere, foam dripping off him..."

Kallus paused in the doorway, looking in and observing quietly. Ezra was sitting up and looked small in the thin cotton hospital clothes they'd found for him, but seemed to be in good spirits. Sabine was seated in a chair next to the bed. She was much calmed from the last time Kallus had seen her, clinging to Ezra with her arms around his neck, berating him angrily, almost hysterically.

She leaned forward on her seat. "Tell me you painted it," she begged Ezra.

"Tried. It wasn't very good." He pinched a corner of the sheets, playing with it idly. "And anyway, I think it got left behind at Atollon. Probably spacedust by now."

"Aw man!" Sabine groaned.

"At least I hope it's spacedust and not on the Chimera. You know Thrawn just has a whole chunk of a wall you painted sitting on display in his office?" Ezra continued.

Sabine made a face. "Okay, that's creepy."

"Right?" Ezra agreed.

They made small talk for another minute or so, and then Sabine glanced up at the chronometer on the wall.

"Take it easy, okay?" she said, reaching over and squeezing his wrist. "I have to go report in, I'll be back later."

Ezra wilted slightly, his face pinching. "You promise?"

"You gonna be bored without me or something?" she teased.

He gestured around at the sparse room. "Not like I have anything else to do."

She smiled and squeezed his arm again. "Get some rest," she told him gently, moving to stand. "And Ezra?" she added.

She leaned in and wrapped him up in her arms. He returned the hug with a contented exhale, feeling her violet hair tickle his neck.

"I'm glad you're safe," Sabine whispered.

A second or two passed and then they let go, and Sabine withdrew with a smile towards the door, nodding briefly at Kallus on her way out.

Ezra's eyes followed her out, then shifted to him, and Kallus straightened before coming into the room.

"How are you feeling?" he asked.

Ezra shifted on the bed, his gaze dropping quietly. "Sore, mostly," he replied. "Tingles in my arms and legs. Headache. Occasional heart flutters and chest pain." He glanced up. "Dr. Leslynn says there's some nerve damage and burnt tissue on my organs that's going to scar."

Kallus looked Ezra over and made his own assessment as the boy listed his symptoms. The patches of allergy rash had faded to a barely-visible pink. The nastier cuts on his face had been stitched up, the others left to scab. There were a couple red marks under the bandages on his wrists, Kallus knew, from where he'd been pulling on the metal restraints. Kanan had asked him to describe Ezra's condition when they'd had a quiet moment and had been positively furious when he'd gotten to that part. It almost unnerved Kallus how much anger had been in the Jedi's face.

Ezra had regained a lot of color, though, and looked much improved from when Kallus had first peeled him off the interrogation table.

Knowing that not all scars manifested physically, however, Kallus tapped the side of his head and asked, "What about neurologically?"

Ezra stared past him, off into space, his brows pinching between his eyes. "Everything's all just kind of... fuzzy," he said. Flashes came back to him—along with phantom pain—isolated bits and pieces of the incident that were out of order; he couldn't put them into a coherent timeline. There were blank spaces that he couldn't pierce and the edges of his memory blurred around them. He shook his head. "I don't... I don't really remember anything after I talked to you on the light cruiser." He met Kallus's eyes briefly. "Not clearly anyway," he added. "It's all kind of jumbled and mixed up."

Kallus nodded. "That's normal," he assured Ezra. "Some memory loss is expected after the more aggressive interrogation techniques."

Ezra was fidgeting. "Kallus?" he said, his voice anxious. There was a distressingly large blank in his memory after his conversation with Kallus on the light cruiser, and the only thing he could remember with any clarity after that was his initial interrogation in Thrawn's office. According to his own recollection he had seemingly just appeared there, and that in combination with something from the haze of pain and fear that was his torture...

Pryce standing before him, taunting him. "What loyalty do you owe Fulcrum?" she'd said in the interrogation chamber—or had it been in Thrawn's office? "He sold you out the moment he was able to."

It had to have been a trick, had to be. But it wasn't so easy to tell what was real and what wasn't anymore. Ezra breathed in slowly.

"You didn't... rat me out, did you?" he asked.

Kallus heard the unspoken plea for reassurance and took no offense. "I didn't," he promised, watching Ezra's shoulders sag in relief. "And..." he added, to get the boy's mind off his jumbled memories, "...you returned the favor. Even under torture."

Ezra snorted. "Only because I was too drugged to think."

"Don't sell yourself short," Kallus told him. "I've seen stronger men than you break after only a few cycles. You resisted, and for that, I am grateful," he said genuinely. "I'm sure many others feel the same."

Ezra didn't look at him for a long moment, staring at the wall, a sober expression on his face.

"...But Thrawn found us anyway," he said quietly.

"I don't think anything could have prevented that," Kallus sighed. "Sooner or later that clash above Atollon was inevitable." The Grand Admiral was too clever by far, too cunning. Every move they made, he turned it against them, like a relentless chessmaster. He was certain Thrawn was already planning around their half-defeat, already envisioning new traps he could set for them. But that wasn't what the boy needed to think about right now. Kallus placed a hand on the railing at the foot of the bed, offering an encouraging smile. "But because you warned us about the tracker we weren't caught unawares. You saved a lot of lives, Ezra," he said. "You might not feel like it right now, but it's true."

Ezra sat and absorbed that, then pushed himself a little straighter on the bed. "Thank you," he said. "And for, you know, getting me out." A small smile tugged at his lips. "Guess I owe you."

"We'll call it even." Kallus glanced about the room. "Do you need anything?" he offered.

"Something to read maybe?" Ezra suggested.

Kallus chuckled. "I'll see what I can do," he promised. "In the meantime, you should take Sabine's advice and get some rest."

"That's all I've been doing!" he whined.

"Because it's all you need to do right now," Kallus said, a slight edge of exasperation creeping into his voice. Teenagers, honestly. Always so restless. "There'll be plenty of work for you to do when you're well, Ezra. Don't rush your recovery," he cautioned.

Ezra held up his hands, shaking his head. "Okay, wait." He gave Kallus a weirded-out look. "Since when am I just 'Ezra'?" he asked.

Kallus was taken aback a moment. He hadn't realized he'd been dropping Ezra's last name when talking to him, or about him. He mused on it for a few seconds.

"I suppose... since I pulled you from an Imperial interrogation chamber," he guessed. He took a step back. "I'm sorry, does it make you uncomfortable?"

The boy's face wrinkled like he was still trying to decide that. "It's just... weird," he said.

A slight awkwardness passed through the space between them, before Kallus offered, "If you like, you can call me by my first name."

Ezra narrowed his eyes skeptically at that. "Really? What is it?" he asked.

"Alexsandr."

Ezra stared at him.

"...You're joking, right?"

A bit stiffly, Kallus snipped, "I can assure you, I am not."

"Yeeeeaaah, I think I'm just gonna keep calling you Kallus," said Ezra, shaking his head. He gave the former ISB agent a cheeky grin. "Easier that way."

Kallus huffed. "Perhaps I should continue to refer to you as Padawan Jabba," he replied dryly.

"Hey, you do whatever you want," Ezra told him, holding up his hands placatingly. "You're one of us now."

There was something suddenly very tight in his throat. Kallus swallowed and coughed to clear it.

"Get some rest," he repeated, once he'd regained his composure.

Ezra rolled his eyes, slouching down on the bed in boredom. "Yeah, yeah."

Kallus resisted the urge to snicker again, moving to exit. He left Ezra to his reluctantly quiet recovery and began to navigate his way up to the surface.

***

The cool temple air gave way to warm humidity, the moisture and sunlight both hitting his face as he stepped through the opening out into the light of a new day.

Kallus breathed deeply, taking in the lush jungle moon and the background buzz and hustle of the base. It was an almost peaceful atmosphere, the pilots and technicians moving at a leisurely pace, droids rolling by in a stately procession.

He was drawn to a huddle of familiar faces gathered around a communications terminal. A sketchy blue hologram was being piped in, and a low monotone voice rang out over the airfield.

"—assured that when he is caught, the former Agent Kallus will receive the Empire's harshest death sentence," Kallus caught the recording of Thrawn saying.

Ears pricking up, he slid into place between a stoic Kanan and an amused-looking Zeb, both listening in with their arms folded.

"As for the remnants of the Rebel cell known as Phoenix Squadron," Thrawn continued, his red eyes burning with a barely-contained displeasure, "they will be swiftly tracked down and eliminated."

Zeb chuckled. "He doesn't sound happy."

"Don't laugh," Hera chided, as she came up to the huddle. "He's already making good on his threat. Two more carriers fell into an Interdictor trap along the Perlemian Trade Route." Her eyes glanced briefly towards Kallus. "Glad you could join us, Kallus," she said curtly.

He tried not to flinch at the tension vibrating around her, the carefully controlled anger emanating from her. She'd been a maelstrom of determination and passion ever since they'd landed, working harder than ever, here one moment, on the other side of the base the next.

She tossed a datapad onto the terminal. "Tanyrn Outpost. What do you know about it?" she demanded.

"That's a high-security Imperial prison," Kallus replied promptly, leaning forward slightly to look at the datapad. "Full of Rebel operatives and sympathizers. Many are being held for interrogation."

"Perfect. Then that's our next target," determined Hera.

"Hold on," Kanan cautioned, unfolding his arms to put up a hand. "Even for us that sounds a little too ambitious."

"What's wrong with that?" Hera's hand flashed out at the empty space where the hologram had been. "You heard what Thrawn said. He thinks we're beaten and scattered. So we prove him wrong."

Was there a polite way to tell his new superior that her plan seemed... unwise? "I think a retaliatory show of defiance is exactly what he's expecting," Kallus eventually decided to say. "Remember, he's been studying your tactics and strategies for months."

"You're not thinking straight," Kanan said, putting much more bluntly the sentiment Kallus had been trying for. Even with the mask covering his face they could see a stern glare from him. "You're letting what happened to Ezra—"

"You're damn right I am!" Hera shouted suddenly. Her outburst startled even her, and she bit her lip, flinching, simmering down.

She released a heavy breath. Her shoulders slumped.

"All right," she admitted. "Maybe we keep Tanyrn Outpost on the backburner for now. But it is going to happen," she insisted. Fire burned in her green eyes. "I want Thrawn to know just how much of a burr in his side Phoenix Squadron can be."

"That, I can respect," Kanan told her, nodding.

"I'm up for annoying the blue bastard," Zeb agreed, punching a fist into his palm eagerly. "Kallus?"

Their enthusiasm and passion was infectious. Kallus let himself smile.

"Let's do it."

"We're going to need more allies then," piped up the voice of General Dodonna, walking up to join them.

"You have someone in mind?" asked Hera.

He nodded, reaching for the projector controls. "Senator Mon Mothma. She's been financing several Rebel cells under the table for some time." He tuned in to a recording from the Holonet news. "And she's just had some very strong words to say about the Emperor."

They leaned in, listening intently as the voice of the senator rang out.

It wasn't long before Kallus found himself rushing to board the Ghost, heading off into deep space, to start the next round of their chess match with Thrawn.

The skirmish above Atollon was over, but the war would continue on.

It was time to get to work.

---

 One final time, chapter notes!

1. WHERE THE HELL WAS IRON SQUADRON IN "ZERO HOUR"?! WHERE WERE MY CHILDREN?! I mean I know the fandom hates them but I needed that angst in my life I needed to see Mart's reaction to his uncle's death okay? So I couldn't help putting in a little reference. It just needed to happen, trust me.

2. AU!Kallus has become remarkably good with kids, how the heck did that happen.

3. So the accelerated timeline means that Kallus gets to be there for several major Season Three events he wasn't originally part of! I will leave it up to your imaginations how some of those scenarios might play out.

4. Since I was planning to do a Maul vs. Ezra apprentice fic anyway, that's one of the ones you might get to see.

5. Mon Mothma is a badass. That is all.

Thank you for following along with me on this journey, dear readers. I appreciate all your feedback.

[littleladymab]

For the meta ask game - 3 and 20!

wah-heyyyyyY!!!!

3) What is that one scene that you’ve always wanted to write but can’t be arsed to write all of the set-up and context it would need? (consider this permission to write it and/or share it anyway)

Okay I still can't be arsed to do it because I am getting ready to play DND and I know myself, it will turn into a whole thing but there are two that I'm currently rotating in my head. One I will tell you about, because the "star wars but fantasy au" has been shoving itself into the forefront of my mind thanks to big bang group chat. Specifically!

A More Civilized Age pod brought up an AU idea that I'm absolutely obsessed with and it's "what if, after the whole 'Boba Fett tries to kill Mace Windu' arc of TCW, Bail Organa goes "what this kid needs is a positive parental influence in his life' because lord knows Aurra Sing AIN'T IT and so just in addition to an ENTIRE au in which Boba Fett grows up in the Organa household and then gets to become a protective older brother to Leia, I really wanted a conversation between him and Ahsoka. Because she was part of the team that brought him in, and while I can't remember the bulk of the conversation that I wanted, Here's Ahsoka, just 4 years older than Boba, but look at how differently their lives were shaped and altered by the existence of the Clone Wars and also the idea of being child soldiers/weapons.

Anyway, my dream is to one day write a fantasy au which will have Boba as Leia's protective older brother who will absolutely give Han shit but will absolutely side-eye Luke so hard when he finally comes into the picture but I don't have anything but the Desire and Vibes right now. Maybe for next SW Big Bang

(don't hold me to it)

20) Tell us the meta about your writing that you really want to ramble to people about (symbolism you’ve included, character or relationship development that you love, hidden references, callbacks or clues for future scenes?)

It was funny because when I was reading over these prompts originally I was like "oh no if someone asks me 20 then I'll just have to confess that I don't know what the fuck I'm doing what are THEMES" but that's kind of a lie, I just never really recognize them myself. Especially because I have....... so many different things i'm doing at any given point.

So Here's just like, a general sort of list of things I do and like about my writing! I'm not a particularly clever author, imo, I plan everything well in advance so I don't feel like there are any surprises? but also that's because i get too into what I'm doing that I can't see the forest for the trees or w/e anywho

I think one of my fav things about writing for SW is that there's so much content everywhere, that I can pull a reference from a source and add it into a fic as a throwaway reference. For Phoenix Suite, I did reference the fact that Kallus likes to wake up early because it is the quietest part of the day -- a fun little tidbit that I pulled from the jr novel adaption of the S1 finale. For far from the home I've made, I referenced the fact that in one of the Rebels comics, Kallus mentions that he arrived on Courscant for training, implying that he came from off-world (who actually knows, but I took it and ran with it). I also wanted to include the fact that Ezra was friends with someone who moved to Alderaan, but I wasn't able to fit the conversation of what happened to Alderaan into the chapter because it was already uhhh way too long.

I absolutely looooove to make the inhuman experience human emotions, while also expressing their inhumanity. I use 'inhuman' extremely loosely here, mostly for just 'anything beyond the mundane'. Far from the home I've made has Ezra being sad and scared while at the same time coming from an experience in which he sacrificed himself to save an entire planet. My place to land has Signet giving away pieces of herself in order to ensure that Echo doesn't lose their eye, though it results in both of them being half-blind for a bit. every open eye has Sasha fully ready to surrender herself to the Stranger in order to save Jon. I had an answer for Mwyr, but I forgot what it was, but that's OC content and we don't have time to unpack all of that lolol

I LOVE PEOPLE BEING A MESS. BEING AWFUL TO REMEMBER TO DO THINGS, GETTING INTO RELATIONSHIPS THEY SHOULDN'T. This adheres more to OC stuff, here's to all these normal people being normal messes, amirite???

One of my favorite uhhhh not really tropes but like, identifiable "mab" things in my writing, is I love the physicality of an intimate moment. Like, non-sexual acts of intimacy, and just residing in the physicality of it. A friend left me a comment about how they noticed it in my writing before and love it, and I've been riding that high for like, two and a half years LMAO

I also just love writing friends being friends and being in love with each other like there is nothing better to me than found family and also just a pair of friends being non-romantically in love with each other where you can look at them and go BESTIES!!!!

that's all I got time for, time for dnd, but HEY!!! Feel free to ask me more meta writing questions if you'd like, everyone :')