Star Wars Rebels: A Second Chance

Chapter 1: Counting on You

Steaming hot water flowed down Sabine's tanned and scarred skin as she attempted to wake up with another morning shower. You don't fight a war for over five years and not show signs of it. Sabine used to be able to tell the story of each scar she had, small or big, but after years of fighting, she got so many she forgot half of the stories.

It was already another one of those mornings. She had awoken again in the middle of the night drenched in sweat with her heart pounding against her chest. 4 am shown on the clock beside her bed with no remedy to fall back asleep. For the past few weeks, she had been getting horrible nightmares over and over again, similar to the ones she got when everything happened. All those years ago.

Just after the battle of Lothal, after the losses of both Ezra and Kanan, Sabine fell into a state of depression. With the promise to keep Lothal safe, she stayed there alone for all those years, waiting for something to happen. The only thing was, nothing ever happened, and the Empire never came. With no one around, all Sabine had was her mind. And her mind was her biggest enemy at that point. Sabine hated the fact that the strong Mandalorian ways she had always known had been quite possibly destroyed in the few weeks following the battle. She found that grief was more powerful than any sense of pride she ever had. Losing Kanan was rough; he was practically her father. Though not by, he was everything she could have asked for a father. He was always there looking out for her, protecting, and having his best interests for her at heart. She couldn't get past the fact that he was really gone at first, but after a while, she finally accepted it. She understood that Kanan would never be back. Ezra on the other hand was a completely different story. After the battle, she never learned to accept it like Kanan's death. She saw Kanan die in front of her own eyes on those tanks that night. She knew he was gone without a doubt. But Ezra gave her a small sense of hope. Yes, she saw the Chimaera go into hyperspace, but she also saw his recording. His recording in which he told her he was counting on her.

In the following months after the battle, Sabine kept getting nightmares about all of those losses she endured, and how the family she had would never be the same again. Those finally went away after a while until a few weeks ago. The day had been completely normal like every other day. She began it by showering each morning before a hot cup of caf. She would then leave for the plains in which she would still do target practice every morning. Then she'd spend each day either talking with Hera about the progress of everything in the galaxy or just reading up on something. Sabine came home that night from the market to the tower which Ezra used to call home in which she called home as well. She awoke at 4 am drenched in sweat after the nightmare that night, and it continued for two weeks straight, including tonight.

In those nightmares, she saw one thing constantly, she saw an image of Kanan dead laying right beside Ezra who was in the process of dying with him stating that she could have saved them, and then he would give his final breath. The nightmare would send chills down her spine as she heard their voices in her head each night. Though she knew in her heart that Kanan and Ezra would never have felt that way, she couldn't help but believe that she could have helped both times. 

Sabine finally snapped out of her thoughts in the shower which had now made her skin red from standing in the hot water for so long. She knew Ezra needed her, and she knew deep down inside she needed him. Without him, she was empty, no fun in life, no excitement. She had no life in her eyes anymore, nothing that made her want to be a better person, just a shell of who she once was. Maybe these dreams were just the force telling her to go find him. Maybe Ezra's message about him counting on Sabine didn't mean for her to protect Lothal, but maybe it was to bring him home.

She finally realized it, though she wish she had sooner. Her job wasn't to watch after his planet, he was counting on her to find him. Now fully awake and motivated, Sabine shut off the water, got dressed in her usual, which consisted of her bodysuit and armor, and headed outside onto the railing of the balcony. She was just about to leave until she saw her view of Lothal. She was thankful for the planet and all it had given her. It had given her the best friend she could have ever asked for in life and the thousand memories that followed. But as she looked out at the horizon she knew that she wouldn't be satisfied until Ezra could see his newly restored home. His entire life he watched the empire tighten its grip on his planet and on his people. It would only be right if he got to see his home finally free from the bondage of the empire. 

Sabine headed down the turbo lift and onto her speeder as she zoomed off towards the spot where she had spent many hours at. It was the place where she painted her mural of her family right after the battle of Lothal. Though she would never see them completely together again, she hoped that she could at least get as much back as possible. Sabine had only been staring at it for a few minutes after she had gotten there before she heard a ship land at the entrance. Though to be quite honest she somewhat ignored the sound, she grew curious as to who was behind her. There stood the tall and wise Togruta Jedi that Sabine had not seen in years. Ahsoka moved towards the inside of the ship as Sabine followed her, taking in her final breath of the fresh Lothalian air. Before stepping on board, Sabine turned around for a look at her family again before she set off for her journey, wherever it may take her. Sabine really wondered how she was here now and not dead but she understood it was a story for later, right now, the main focus was getting started. Walking into the ship, Sabine recognized it from the past, the Mandalorian ship called the Gauntlet, once owned by the cowardly Darth Maul. Sabine had so many questions running through her head, how was Ahsoka alive, how did she get this ship, how did she find her, and how did she know to meet now. She figured this was just the force working in mysterious ways as Kanan and Ezra had always said.

"I have a lead on where to find him", Ahsoka plainly blurted out as she started to fiddle with several of the controls.

Sabine couldn't imagine in a million years that there would be a lead in order to find him. She always stressed about how he was going to get rescued when there was really nowhere to start. The Chimaera jumped into hyperspace towards the unknown regions. If there was anything about the unknown regions that Sabine knew, it's that there was little known about it.

Ahsoka continued explaining before Sabine could even get a word out. "Throughout my time as a Padawan on Coruscant, there was construction going on near the senate office building that I saw every day. Each day I tried to guess what was being created, well seeing as how I haven't been back since the end of the Clone Wars, I never found out what it was. Until now."

Sabine was no expert on coruscant either as she had only been there once. Despite this, she had no clues as to what it could be. "So what is it?" She replied as she looked around the cockpit of the vessel before she sat down to take off.

"Galactic Records Center is what it's called. And I did some asking around and found out it holds the history of nearly everything in the galaxy in the last 1000 years."

Sabine gave a puzzled expression as she stopped to set her helmet down on the table beside the controls. "So how does the records center help find Ezra in the unknown regions? There's no possible way it knows anything of that area."

Ahsoka smirked cockily as she knew that this next fact would blow Sabine's mind. To be fair, it blew Ahsoka's mind also when she first heard of it. As the Gauntlet's engines started to roar and the ship lifted off the Lothalian land, Ahsoka answered. "Well, the records center also holds data on star charts from the last 100 years. Every single vessel to ever travel through the galaxy has been tracked through the records center, Including that ship that Ezra was on."

She couldn't believe it, Sabine was finally going to be able to see Ezra again. As she sat there with her mouth hanging and her amber eyes opened wide, Sabine was in disbelief. She was rendered speechless as they lifted off through the atmosphere and into space. She never responded but couldn't stop smiling for a while. Millions of thoughts ran through her head about her reunion with Ezra. She was again snapped out of thought by Ashoka speaking loudly over the hyperdrive unit kicking on.

"Well, here goes nothing, step one in finding Ezra Bridger." She stated as she punches in the coordinates.

"We're coming Ezra Bridger." Sabine said under her breath with a small smile. And in the next instant, the blue and white trails of hyperspace filled their eyes as they set course for Coruscant.