Family by Heart - REWRITE(a Star Wars Rebels story)

Jedi Protectress

With a flick of her wrist, the piece of metal twirled momentarily before landing back in her hand. The twi'lek captain looked around the common room; Zeb, Chopper, Ezra, Sabine, Rex, and the newfound Padawan called Rae looked to her as she spoke. Ahsoka and Kanan were watching over Athena at the moment.

"This tracker was found on the Phantom, probably put on there by Jalo back on Earth," Hera looked to Rae. "Rae, Kanan said you were once Jalo's Apprentice. Do you know what his next move could be to track us down?"

The girl with dark hair suddenly seemed to turn from contempt to uncomfortable. She shifted her weight as she stood near the couch, crossing her arms across her chest as she spoke. "I...I don't really know. I wasn't even really his Apprentice. He never really had me go on any missions or anything. Once and a while I'd get to do lightsaber training, but that's it. I don't even know why the Empire ever let him take me as an Apprentice - he had abandoned his post as Second Brother years prior to that."

"You were trained in the Empire then?" Sabine asked.

Rae nodded. "I was a cadet at the Imperial Academy before I was transferred to Project Harvester."

Sabine was curious. This girl seemed so familiar. The bouncy dark hair, the golden brown skin, the bright brown eyes. "What academy did you go to?"

"Imperial Academy of Mandalore," Rae said, looking at Sabine's armor. "I'm guessing you went there too?"

She paused for a moment. "What clan are you from?"

"I'm not Mandalorian. I was just placed there based on luck. I have no home-planet since I was born in space," Rae shrugged.

Thinking of it, Sabine did remember a couple of her classmates mysteriously go missing...

"What was your name again?" Sabine asked.

"Rachelle Styles, but call me Rae," she said and looked around the group. "What about you guys? Kanan and Athena only mentioned your names a couple times."

"Ezra Bridger," the boy with dark blue hair and orange clothes waved. "Kanan's Padawan."

"Rex," the clone veteran said.

"Garazeb Orrelios, call me Zeb," the lasat greeted.

"Hera Syndulla, captain of this ship," Hera said then gestured to her astromech. "This is Chopper."

"Sabine Wren, Clan Wren of House Vizsla," the Mandalorian said.

The girl's eyes went wide with excitement. "Hey, I remember you! I was in your class!"

"Aren't you a bit younger?" Ezra asked. "You look like you're my age."

"I was born a few months after the first Empire Day anniversary," Rae explained. "But, I was bumped up a couple years in my studies at the academy. I was bumped up in the Academy by 3 years"

As she put a hand on her chin, Sabine pondered, searching for the distant memories of the Imperial Academy. A blurry picture of a little eleven-year-old girl being placed into her class of fourteen-year-olds came forth. She remembered that little girl suddenly disappearing with no explanation. She had never even given it a second thought. Then again, that's exactly what the Empire taught her to do.

"So, how exactly did you find Kanan and Athena on Earth? The planet is pretty big," Zeb asked.

She shrugged, "I guess it was just luck. They just happened to show up in Las Vegas - the city I'd been staying in for a few months."

"You wouldn't mind joining the Rebels then, would you? It would be useful to have more Jedi on our side," Rex questioned.

Rae smiled and nodded, "Yeah, I'd love to."