Girl at War: Spark of Rebellion

9. A Master and an Apprentice

Zeb couldn't help but look at Ezri, the girl who had been sitting still the whole time. He had never seen her so stone-face cold before. She was always cheerful on ops, so to see her like this, it was a little strange. Yet, he remembered Kanan saying Ezri had gone into the vents. Of course, the kid must have heard everything Kanan said about Luminara. He couldn't help but sigh, watching the girl putting her energy slingshot on. He could have sworn he heard her swear a few times trying to fix it or trying to readjust it. However, Zeb couldn't take it anymore and huffed in frustration. As his job as the older brother of the family and his newfound role of being Ezri's friend, he was going to find out how this was eating her.

"Okay kid, that's enough," Zeb snapped, causing Ezri to look up from her Slingshot. Zeb took her wrist and readjusted her wristband until it was put into its place. "You're always cheeky and warm before we have missions, you've been brooding there for the past three hours. So come on, out with it. What's on your mind?"

Ezri raised an eyebrow. "Nothing, just thinking."

"Nothing, just thinking?" Zeb snapped. "You can't be thinking If nothing is on your mind. And I'm asking." Then he stopped and kept the "because I'm worried about you" part because he had the tough reputation to keep up.

"There's nothing to worry about. I'm fine," said Ezri. She didn't want to hear any more of it on the subject. When Hera called for then to join her at the Phantom, Ezri huffed. "Look, I'll tell you after the mission, 'kay?"

He looked at her sternly.

"Alright," said Zeb. He pointed at Ezri. "I'm going to hold you to it." Ezri nodded and walked away to join the rest of the crew.

Zeb sighed, following the kid. Who knew taking care of teenagers was going to be hard?

The world moved on for the rest of them. A few hours later, the team were heading towards the spire on Stygian Prime. Zeb, Sabine, Kanan and Ezri were sitting on four of the six seats that were in the Phantom while, as always, Hera was driving the ship. However, Chopper was ordered to stay behind, much to the droid's dismay. Honestly, he just wanted a chance to make sure that the organic beings didn't do anything stupid. It was an insult to his reputation. If they were going to need a getaway when they found Master Luminara Unduli.

Zeb, who was sitting right next to Ezri, heard Chopper grumble through his commlink, no doubt complaining about his role during this mission. The Lasat smirked in satisfaction, just glad that the Droid was now getting a taste of his own medicine

"Oh, I'm sorry, Chop," Zeb responded. "We just don't need your damaged logic circuits on this one."

Ezri just shook her head. It was quite a distraction for her because throughout most of the trip, Ezri watched Kanan, who had his eyes closed, no doubt meditating or something. Sabine was sitting next to Kanan and to Ezri, it felt that the Mandalorian girl was almost mentally telling Ezri to tell Kanan how she felt. However, she chose to ignore it. The team made it to Stygian Prime, where Hera hovered over the prison so none of the Imperials would spot them.

"Thirty seconds," Hera said. Her crew stood up from where they sat, Kanan in the lead and Ezri, Zeb and Sabine following. "Good luck."

"Luck?" Zeb looked at their Captain. " We're going to need a miracle."

Sabine smirked, holding out three thermal detonators to Zeb and Ezri. "Here are three." The Lasat and the youngest human gladly took them.

"Where did you even get half of these detonators?" Ezri wondered. Sabine shrugged.

"Because one, I'm the explosives expert, two, they're the ones I have left so make use of them, and three, the color of course," Sabine shrugged. Ezri's face fell a little, and the older human girl knew what was plaguing her, so she placed a hand on Ezri's shoulder to reassure her. Honestly, Sabine had half a mind to give a piece of it to Kanan for hurting Ezri's feelings. The girl had only been with them for a couple of weeks and Sabine just felt she needed to be there for a girl only a couple years younger than her.