Star Wars Rebels - Odyssey

Chapter 1: Festive Celebrations

Ezra furtively looked around his room in the Ghost, searching for any signs of Zeb, or any other members of the crew for that matter.  After a few seconds he felt comfortable that it was empty and knelt down to get something from inside his personal safe on the ground.  He typed in the code and the door unlocked with a satisfying click.  It opened with a metal creak and Ezra turned around to check that nobody had heard.  Confident that he was safe, he looked inside the safe and took out a set of boxes wrapped in brightly coloured paper.  "Perfect" he muttered to himself as he hastily wrote labels for each of them; 'Kanan', 'Hera', 'Zeb' and 'Chopper'.  He reached the final box, a small parcel wrapped in paper that had been sprayed with paint of about every colour known to man, and wrote the label for it with a smile, 'Sabine'.  With that he stood up and carried the presents out of his room, heading towards the cockpit.

Ahead, Ezra could hear the group chatting happily as they relaxed with some luxury chocolates they'd recently stolen from an Imperial shipment headed to Coruscant.  He heard Kanan remark "you know it was a good idea to come to this snowy planet, it really sets the mood for a day of peace and quiet" and Hera reply "you can thank me later".  A chorus of laughter followed as everyone gathered round a small circular fireplace that they'd also stolen from somewhere or another.  Ezra staggered in almost dropping the gifts as he did so and Zeb immediately rushed to help him carry the boxes.  "Hey guys, you can probably guess what these are so I'll just hand them out, thanks for the help Zeb, here's yours" Ezra remarked as he passed the gifts around one by one.  For Zeb he'd bought a new Bo-Rifle guaranteed to kill enemies that little bit quicker and knock them that little bit further.  For Chopper he'd bought a ticket to the exclusive droid bar on Lothal where he could get freshened up and relax.  For Kanan he'd bought a jewel that derived from a dilute version of the nightsisters' magic to give him the gift of sight whenever he had it on his person.  For Hera he'd bought a brand new flight suit and a holo-tape he'd recorded long ago of her breaking an Imperial blockade with the prototype B-wing.  Finally, Sabine began to unwrap her present, smiling at Ezra sweetly when she saw the colour of the paper.  She pulled out the contents of the box and gave him a look of shock and awe.  Alongside a deluxe set of paints and a new spray gun was a holo-image of Sabine's parents gathered from the remnants of the Death Watch stronghold on Mandalore.  "Where, how did you get this" she asked with a stutter as a tea ran down her face.  "While we were doing that job on Dathomir a while back I hopped aboard a transport ship and went to Mandalore.  I searched the remains of the Death Watch base there in hope of finding something to give you and I found this inside a scorched storage crate.  Unfortunately I couldn't retrieve anything else but I hoped this would be a nice surprise" Ezra replied as Sabine wiped away the water from her face with a sniff.  Without saying a word, she bounded up to him and hugged hm tightly and he returned the favour with a smile.  "Thank you" she whispered, almost choking up as she looked back at the holo-image.

"Hey Ezra, you didn't think we'd not gotten you anything in return did you.  We noticed you disappearing and suspected you might be doing something so we banded together and got you something too.  Merry Christmas Ezra" Kanan said, pulling a large coloured box from behind his chair.  He passed it across to Ezra who smiled at the group ahead of him and undid the ribbons on the present.  He pulled the lid off and grinned at the parcel's contents; an old laser slingshot from his thieving days and a customised stormtrooper helmet, hand designed by Sabine.  The helmet had a similar design to Sabine's own Mandalorian one with the rebel graffiti except it was done in shades of blue here.  "Thanks everyone, this means a lot" he said whilst hugging Sabine to thank her for the helmet.  "Hey, it's Christmas guys and we're on a snowy planet.  Why're we staying inside?" Zeb asked whilst pointing outside the window. 

The cold chill of winter filled the air as the crew looked out at the blanket of snow covering everything in sight.  Ahead of them, on the horizon, stood the imposing Sparrow Mountains, the largest range on the planet.  At the base of the mountains, leading all the way to just a few metres away from where the Ghost had parked was an enormous pine forest which had been turned nearly completely white in a recent blizzard.  "Well come on, what are we waiting for? Commander Sato has given us the day to ourselves so we'd best not waste it" Hera stated as she began rolling up a large ball of snow along the ground.  Kanan quickly joined her and rolled a smaller but equally impressive boulder and used the force to lift it on top of Hera's.  Zeb and Chopper then immediately set off in search of twigs for the snowman's arms and Zeb, surprisingly, didn't moan about all the running about and instead began to enjoy himself.  Meanwhile Ezra stood wondering whether to help or not when he felt a cold ball of snow hit him right in the cheek and crumple into dust on his face.  He turned to see Sabine preparing several more snowballs and goading him by sticking her tongue out.  This he would not stand for.  He got down on his hands and knees and quickly scooped up a weapon of his own, closing his eyes and using the force to try to detect Sabine's next move.  Just in time, he rolled out of the way to avoid one of Sabine's shots and then quickly sent a snowball flying her way which proceeded to hit her in the leg.  "Oh, you're going down Ezra!" she shouted in return as she shot into the air with her jetpack sending snowballs raining down on him.  They both started laughing incessantly and collapsed into the deep snow next to one another.  The battle then ended with the two of them making snow angels in the ground side by side.  By the time they stood up, the others were adding the finishing touches to their snowman and Sabine quickly realised that there was one thing missing.  The creation had a stupid looking face with a carrot for a nose and strange looking ears poking out of its head and Sabine rushed back holding the helmet that previously belonged to Agent Kallus.  She placed the helmet on the snowman's head and nodded proudly as the others exploded in a roar of laughter.  "Nice one Sabine!" Zeb shouted.  "Looks just like him!" Hera added.  They joked around outside for hours until the planet's trio of suns all began to fall beneath the horizon in a spectacular light show.

Back inside the Ghost, the crew gathered on the bridge once more and relaxed in one another's company, exhausted from a day of fun in the snow.  Zeb was fiddling with his new rifle, trying to get the settings right whilst Chopper watched amusedly from beside him.  Meanwhile Ezra and Sabine sat in the pilot and co-pilot seats up at the front looking up at a night full of stars and chatting happily.  Kanan and Hera, however, seemed to be back in a serious mood as they spoke in a hushed tone in the cockpit's doorway.  Ezra both wanted and didn't want to know what they were talking about as it looked important but important usually involved danger and he'd enjoyed spending the day with Sabine so much he didn't want to ruin it with seriousness.  As the pair looked up at the endless void above them, they drifted off to sleep slowly falling into the realm of dreams...