The Artist and the Jedi - Sabezra Oneshots

A Walk in the Woods

Meanwhile, several miles back on the forest floor, Zeb slowly pulled himself up from the dirt. A plethora of twigs and branches were caught in his fur, and he groaned in pain as every bone in his body seemed to ache at once.
"Karrabast...what the kriff just happened?" he questioned groggily, rubbing his head as he stood to his feet. He glanced around, noticing the unconscious forms of Hera and Kanan on the ground nearby and quickly moving to help. Kanan coughed, sitting up before Zeb reached him. The Jedi stared around with a frown, trying to recollect what had just happened.
"Wh-where are we?" he asked aloud, scratching his head in confusion.
"Who cares? It's hot and we kriffing crashed...you good?" Zeb responded gruffly, offering Kanan a hand to stand up. The Jedi gratefully accepted the help, and nodded his head slowly.
"If we crashed, then where's the Phantom?" he asked suspiciously as his brain shook off the fall.
"It's gone...along with Sabine and Ezra. We've got to find them now...it'll soon be nightfall and imperials will be swarming these hills in less than an hour" Hera stated, having stood up without anybody's help. The Twi-Lek shook her head, inwardly angry with herself for letting the mission go so wrong. She knew she shouldn't blame herself, but she couldn't help it. This was her operation, and her plan, and now all that mattered was getting the family safely back together.
"Either of you remember which way we were headed?" Zeb asked.
"East, and if the sun is setting then we need to go away from it. With a bit of luck, we'll find the crash site...and the kids along with it" Hera answered, priming her blaster pistol with determination. She was now fuelled by far more than a simple mission.

In the dark of the forest, as the sun sank below the horizon and the night-time beasts began to howl, Ezra sat atop the Phantom thoughtfully. In a miraculous feat, he had managed to land that damaged rust bucket on a small hill, overlooking the lowland forests below. At the very least, they would have fair warning if the imperials were approaching. The padawan wanted to start on repairs, that way they could go looking for the rest of the crew and get off this hellhole. But he was no mechanic, he could make simple fixes but nothing special. Sabine would be able to do it, but she was still unconscious from the attack. Ezra had tried his best to make her comfortable, propping her in a resting position and carefully laying a blanket that he'd found on board over her. He didn't know what else to do other than stay here and wait for her to wake, protecting her all the while. With a frustrated sigh, the padawan slid off the roof of the Phantom and re-entered the passenger bay, shaking his head at the sight of its heavy damage. Large gaping holes had been blown open in the hull, and now it seemed that the front windows were completely smashed. The engines would probably work, but the fuel line had been sliced open by a laser bolt, almost completely draining the tank. Of course, the first thing Ezra had thought to do was contact Chopper on the Ghost, but the comms array had also been damaged beyond repair and that rusted astromech had been ordered to maintain radio silence and await orders. It certainly seemed as if everything was working against him right now.

Suddenly, he heard a soft groan nearby and his hand reached for his lightsaber. But within a second he realised it was not an animal, it was Sabine, waking up and rubbing her head with pain.
"Sabine! Thank the force, you're okay. How do you feel?" he asked, instantly moving to help her sit upright.
"Ugh...not good. My head's killing me...wait, is this a bandage?" Sabine asked curiously as her hands fumbled around a rudimentary dressing on her head.
"Uh yeah...I'm no doctor, but you were bleeding pretty badly and I figured I had to try something" Ezra replied, scratching the back of his neck nervously. Sabine smiled, that boy never stopped caring, did he?
"What...what actually happened?" she asked, her memory of the mission was fuzzy at best.
"Imperial anti-air batteries shot us out of the sky. The others were pulled out of the passenger bay...I managed to land us up here before the thrusters gave up" the padawan explained in response, causing Sabine to grin a little.
"I guess those flying lessons really helped, huh?" she commented, and Ezra smiled in return.
"Guess so. Listen, I know you're hurt, but I've got to ask a favour. I haven't seen or heard anything from the crew, and I'm scared for them. I don't know where to start in terms of repairs here, but you do. Do you think you can help?" Ezra asked, feeling guilty that he was asking her to work just a minute after she'd woken up from a concussion. Mandalorians were tough, but that didn't change the fact that Ezra hated having to do this.
"Come on, Ez. I could have lost an arm and I'd still help find the others, you really think a bump on the head is gonna stop me? Get your welding goggles and let's fix this hunk of junk" Sabine replied enthusiastically. And so they got to work, with Ezra handling the manual labour while Sabine advised and stopped him from killing himself with the machinery. They had to be careful, welders gave off a bright light and these woods were still under imperial control after all. But about an hour after Sabine had awoken, a booming thunderstorm had entered the night, with flashes of lightning and rumbles of thunder echoing through the sky. After a while, the pair began to theorise that the heavy rainfall had discouraged the bucket heads from doing their patrols tonight. On such a remote facility, imperial rules probably weren't followed quite as strictly.