Ghosts

Chapter Five: A New Threat

"Are you sure they're in here?" Ezra asked, opening another storage crate and searching through its contents.

"They have to be." Kara responded from where she knelt, rifling through the compartment under her bed.

The pair were on Kara's ship, sitting in her quarters as they looked through various compartments and crates for spare energy bolts. The ship was docked with the Rebel Command ship, traveling through hyperspace, as it often was in order to evade discovery by any Imperial ships. Kara and Ezra had chosen to spend their time on her ship rather than the command ship. Kara preferred the quiet, and Ezra would do anything to avoid Kanan's judgemental stares as they walked the halls talking.

Kara and Ezra had done a lot more talking since their mission to Tatooine. Ezra noticed his friend was much more relaxed around him, much more comfortable. She hadn't been that comfortable with him since the first night of their reunion, when Ezra had awoken to find his old friend. Now, she was much easier to joke around with, and the two had talked for hours and exhausted hundreds of topics in the last week since their reunion, and, while they hadn't yet, Ezra knew he'd be able to confide in her about his feelings about the fate of his parents, as well as fate of hers.

"Why do you need these bolts anyway?" Ezra asked, shutting the bin and placing it on the floor beside him. "Can't you just buy new ones?"

"Trust me, if you knew how much they cost, you wouldn't be saying that." Kara responded, shutting the compartment she'd been searching. "Finding the energy bolts for my blasters is a pain, and if I buy new ones and then find the ones we're looking for, I'll be out almost 300 credits. So, unless you want to pay for them, keep looking." She added jokingly, giving her friend a playfully threatening look.

"Okay, okay, I'm looking." Ezra laughed, pushing the crates he already searched through out of the way, and was about to grab another when something else caught his attention.

It was the tiniest reflection of light against metal, but to Ezra, it was as if someone had shone a beacon on the wall compartment just ahead. The compartment was easy to miss, most likely meant to be concealed. It wasn't large by any means; in fact, it was rather small, no bigger than the length of his elbow to his fingertips, and maybe only a few inches wider. Ezra could sense that it wasn't deep, either.

As Ezra kneeled before it, the rest of the world around him faded away, his entire mind focused on the compartment before him. He didn't know what he was feeling, but it was almost like a pull. Like something in there was calling to him. His fingers traced the edges, searching for the button to open it-

A hand came down on his shoulder, jerking Ezra out of his trance back into the real world. Ezra looked up, seeing Kara crouching beside him. "Earth to Bridger," she said, opening her palm to reveal the missing power cells. "I found them. Come on, we should probably head back."

"Yeah, okay." Ezra nodded, taking one last glance at the compartment before standing and making his way out of the room.

With his back turned, Ezra didn't see Kara open the compartment and secure its contents on the back of her belt, where it was out of sight.

---

It took Ezra and Kara about 5 minutes of walking the halls of Rebel Command to run into Kanan and Ahsoka.

"There you are." Ahsoka smiled at the pair. "I had a feeling we'd find you two."

"You were looking for us?" Ezra asked, glancing between his master and the Togruta.

"We were looking for you." Kanan corrected, placing a hand on his Padawan's shoulder. "However, we've found that it's hard to find either of you on your own these days." He added, and Ezra averted his gaze, feeling heat rush to his face. He tried to will it away.