Just A Feeling

Chapter 1

Blank. Ezra's mind was blank as Kanan pulled him through that underground Sith Temple. Down a steeply sloped surface, winding through the petrified bodies of Jedi and Sith alike. Ezra's ankle rolled as his foot stepped on one of the lightsabers of the fallen, and for a second his feet gave out from under him. But Kanan kept pulling him along. Ezra could barely use his own feet let alone comprehend how everything had gone so very, very wrong in a matter of moments.

He had tried. They had gone to the temple to find answers; knowledge. And Ezra tried so hard to get them both. But he had trusted Maul. He was blinded by wanting to succeed and didn't see or didn't care that the dark side surrounded the man. And because of that, they were sitting Kiros Birds, waiting for the Sith Lord Vader to pick them off one by one. And Ezra would have been the first to go. But Ahsoka had intervened. She saved him. Again. Kanan pulled Ezra out of the temple. And as Ezra sat aboard the Phantom on their way from Malachor, he finally thought. Ahsoka Tano was dead, and it was all his fault.

And so he cried.

~<:O:>~

The Phantom landed back on Atollon. The Ghost crew was right where the three Jedi had left them. Their teammates' initially happy faces dropped when they saw the state of their friends...And noticed one was missing. The trip to the medical frigate known as Nebulon-B was short and with solemn silence after the two remaining Jedi recanted their trip to Malachor. Hera knew two things: they needed to tell the leaders of the Rebellion that the head of the Rebel intelligence network was no longer alive and she needed to get Kanan some medical attention. She knew that his eyes were probably gone, but in her heart of hearts, she hoped that he would be able to see once more.

"I am sorry," the doctor's words were serious yet soothing as she put down the scanner, "Your retinas were scorched. And they've already started to scar over. There's not much more we can do at this point." The doctor didn't say anything for a little while after that, she let the news sink in for the couple.

"I can give you some eye drops for the irritation and some bacta application for burns around the eyes so the rest doesn't scar as much. But I am afraid that's the extent of the treatment." After another moment Kanan finally cleared his throat.

"Thank you, Dr. Larte," Dr. Larte nodded. And Kanan couldn't, but Hera saw as she gave a small comforting smile before she went into one of the nearby rooms of the frigate.

"Kanan—" He cut off whatever words of sympathy she was about to say. What's done is done, there were more pressing matters to attend to now.

"When do we meet with Senator Organa and the rest of the leadership?"

~<:O:>~

That evening the Ghost Crew addressed the room of Rebellion leaders and told them that Ahsoka Tano, also known as Agent Fulcrum, was murdered at the hands of her former master. Flight Captain Larte usually enjoyed these briefings. Though she had been a captain for several years now, she was still the youngest to hold the title, and getting a seat in that important room with all those important people, made Miara feel like she'd come so far from that small farming moon she originated from. But today, Miara would have liked to have been anywhere but here.

Another member of her family was dead.

Ahsoka wasn't Mirara's family by blood, but she was by marriage and by friendship. And these days that was more than enough for her. She listened to the blind Jedi as he recounted his journey with Ahsoka and his Padawan to the Sith temple to find knowledge of the Sith Lord Miara heard dark stories about and hoped she'd never come across. But it seemed Vader and her paths crossed indirectly anyway, as she listened to how Ahsoka saved them by taking Darth Vader on herself in her final moments. Ahsoka went down fighting, but Kaeden wouldn't see it that way, at least not at first.