Star Wars Rebels - Lost

Chapter One: Visions in the Night

           

Sabine woke with a start.  Her breaths were rapid and her forehead was drenched in sweat as she sat up, still wrapped in the soft covers of her bed.  The blood rushed to her head, and it took her a few seconds to figure out what had happened.  She scanned her surroundings, and even in the dull light of the night she could tell that she was in her room on Lothal, inside an apartments within one of the many high-rises.  Through the open door of her bedroom, she could see into the living area and out at the distant view of Capital City outside her window.  The night was long, and sky cars whizzed past outside, the vague sounds of their engines engulfing the silence.  The Mandalorian had experienced another nightmare, it was not the first. 

For the past two weeks, Sabine had been unable to get to sleep without experiencing bad dreams, and they were always the same.  For some unknown reason, they all centred on a particular person, someone she had lost years ago.  But it made no sense to her, why was she getting these dreams now? He had long since been lost, with no sign of his return, and even now it stung to think of him.  Sabine tried to empty her mind of the nightmare, tossing the covers away and swinging her legs over the side of the bed in a swift movement.  She reached towards a nearby nightstand and retrieved a glass of water, gulping it down while closing her eyes.

It was strange though, all of the dreams focused around the final events in the Battle for Lothal.  She had repeatedly seen the arrival of the purgills, watched as Thrawn's star destroyer disappeared into nothingness and witnessed her friend's hologram message after the battle was over.  But at the end of every nightmare, she would hear a voice.  Ezra's voice.  He would only say one thing, the same thing every time.  He would say:
"Sabine..."

The Mandalorian took a deep breath and shook her head, placing the glass back on her nightstand and slowly standing up.  She knew she would not sleep again tonight.  With slow and heavy steps, she left her bedroom and entered the main living chamber, gently pressing a button on the wall which caused the blinds on the windows to disperse.  After all those years of seeing Lothal under the Empire's grip, she still could not get used to seeing it prospering, free.  Ezra would be proud.  Never had Sabine met another like Ezra, so immature and childish, with his goofy grin, but then so passionate about those he cared for.  By the end, he truly did embody a Jedi. 

Sabine glanced around at her dark apartment, and could not help but smile contentedly.  Her new home was certainly luxurious, and she had her old friend, Hera Syndulla, to thank for that.  Hera, being a general of the Rebellion, had a large amount of influence within the Alliance, and when Sabine had said that she wanted to remain on Lothal and look after the planet that Ezra loved so much, the pilot was sure to make sure that she was comfortable.  But all of that comfort still couldn't result in a good night's sleep.  Only one thing ever managed to take her mind off night terrors, some midnight training in the open air.  But she could not go outside in her current outfit, a thin black bodysuit that stretched perfectly around her thin body.  She had to get changed.

With a tired yawn, Sabine entered the apartment's bathroom, her eyes wincing as the bright white lights automatically activated with a glare.  She really needed to deactivate that motion sensor, it was starting to get on her nerves.  A full length mirror stood before her, and she stared at herself for a moment, taking in her appearance.  She had, once again, changed her looks following the Rebellion's victory at the Battle of Endor.  Now she had very shortly trimmed hair with a dark purple colour, she felt like a change of style as well as colour would give her a breath of fresh air.  And she was always one to experiment.  After a few seconds of standing idly, lost in her own thoughts, Sabine shook herself free and reached her hand into the shower bay, twisting it on.  A cold shower would wake her up enough to do some training.