Star Wars: The Lord in Exile

Brothers of the Broken Horn

The Spectres and Rex were currently hiding on the world of Garel. Naomi had defected to the rebel fleet mere days ago and the situation was still tense. Ships flew above the city and in the hangar the Ghost was hiding in, Ezra was practicing his shooting with Rex and Naomi, using a Stormtrooper helmet Chopper. Many rebels still were untrustful of Naomi, Zeb being one of them. So the girl was assigned to the Spectres and even had a tracking device in the form of a bracelet on her. She did complain about it as she had given a great deal of information to the rebels, though the spy in her understood the need for it. It would take time before she was fully accepted into the fleet or the Spectres. Naomi watched as Ezra shot, and missed the helmet multiple times.

"Aim, then fire." the clone advised.

The boy stopped shooting and turned back to the clone. "Rex, I bet sometimes even you miss."

"Yeah... but this is just bad aim in general." Naomi chuckled. "Here, let me help."

The girl knelt down to Ezra's level and adjusted his grip on the clone wars era rifle. Ezra felt flustered by how close Naomi was but he kept his cool. Neither had talked much about Naomi's escape, while she expressed sorrow for tricking the boy not much was said. She'd say she was thankful to Ezra for showing her the truth and he'd say he was glad to have her on the team. Though beyond that they didn't talk about the kiss, Ezra thought about trying but decided it was too awkward.

"Keep your body firm and steady." she instructed. "Focus... breathe slowly and always pull the trigger on empty lungs."

Ezra followed her advice and let out one shot, hitting the helmet head on. He smirked and looked back at Rex and Naomi, who both smiled at him. Kanan then walked up to his padawan and looked annoyed that Rex's teachings were cutting into Ezra's Jedi training, and how distracted both his pupils were getting around certain people.

"Nice shot." the brown haired man complimented. "But you're missing Jedi training. Which is now. Remember?"

Ezra sighed and lowered the blaster. "You know, I can't be in two places at once."

"As a soldier, you're gonna have to learn to prioritize." Rex advised.

"Well, he's not a soldier. He's a Jedi."

"Are they always like this?" the Naboo girl whispered to Ezra.

"Yeah." the boy scoffed before muttering "What if I don't want to be either?"

A tense silence passed between them, Chopper beeped in surprise as he dropped the helmet in his pincers. Naomi looked in between the three men, getting the sense there was a lot of information that she was missing about the situation. Not wanting to get in the way, she awkwardly adjusted her white tunic and took a few steps backwards towards the Ghost.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Kanan asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Hey, practice squad," Sabine called out, running down the Ghost's ramp. "Hera called a meeting. Attendance is mandatory."

Ezra handed the blaster back to Rex and went off to the ship. While the astromech and the teenagers got moving, the two clone wars veterans remained behind momentarily.

"So, what's bothering him?" Rex asked.

"No idea. This is new."

Inside the common area, the team were discussing with Commander Sato about a current crisis a far-off world was facing. Naomi had seen more to the rebels than the Empire showed, internalizing their true nature compared to what she was taught to expect from groups like them. As it stood, she had no regrets about joining the rebellion besides missing her family greatly. Besides Ezra, Aurelian seemed most glad Naomi had joined because he finally had someone else who was knowledgeable in similar fields to talk to. She was the only one to actually challenge him at strategy games. Unfortunately he lost some respect for her when he learned she disliked politics.