"Focus. Let the Force guide you."
Ezra closed his eyes and held out his hand. Keeping Kanan's words in his mind, he focused on lifting the Stormtrooper helmet off the ground.
The warm sun lit up Lothal's prairies, casting a warm glow on the Jedi and his Padawan. It was pretty quiet aside from a few birds and the odd loth-cat. The Ghost crew were enjoying a day off, which was quite a rare event ever since they started fighting the Empire.
The fields were peaceful, the long grass swaying in the gentle breeze. There wasn't much noise, wasn't much happening - a perfect day for Jedi training.
Well, it would've been if Zeb and Chopper had stopped moving the helmet every time Ezra wasn't looking.
"I can't do it," Ezra opened his eyes and sighed in defeat. He looked at the helmet - or, at least, where it used to be.
"Hey, where did it go?" he said, turning his head to look at Kanan. Kanan shrugged, a grin plastered on his face.
"Hey, Mr Jedi."
Wack. Zeb threw the helmet at the back of Ezra's head, the impact nearly knocking the Padawan off his feet.
"Hey!" Ezra shouted and glared at the laughing Laset. Chopper beeped mockingly and span around in triumph. "Kanan, this is not fair," Ezra groaned.
"Life is rarely fair. This is actually good for you," Kanan smiled. "Life will throw some pretty rough things at you. You've got to learn how to deal with it. It can be tricky, but you can let the Force guide you."
"Or you don't have to use the Force and you can just look with your eyes," Zeb said, high-fiving Chopper. "I get along just fine without it."
"Well, are you as powerful as a Jedi?" Ezra challenged. "Because I don't think so. Jedi are the most powerful people in the universe because they use the Force. Right, Kanan?" He looked up at his master.
"We use the Force to help people, Ezra, not to win competitions over who's more powerful," Kanan explained cautiously.
"Right, right, of course," Ezra nodded, turning back to the Laset. "But still, I bet I could take you down." He put his hands on his hips proudly and smirked at Zeb.
"Don't push it, kid," Zeb said, his yellow eyes glowing with warning. "I'm more powerful than you think. I can beat an over-confident kid any day."
"I seriously doubt it," Ezra teased.
"Ezra," Kanan warned, putting a hand on his shoulder.
"Fine!" Zeb said, walking up to him and putting a finger to his chest. "Let's see who is really more powerful. No lightsabers, no bo-rifles, just your Force against my strength."
"Oh, it's on."
• • •
"Welcome, ladies and gents, to a little obstacle course that I whipped up myself," Sabine announced proudly to Hera and Kanan, moving her hands dramatically as she did so. "Two stubborn boys will go head-to-head in a battle of strength and skill."
"This ought to be good," Hera chuckled to a grinning Kanan.
Ezra looked ahead at the obstacle course Sabine had built on the fields near their ship. When he and Zeb asked her to come up with something for their dual, she had been really excited and got to work straight away. She'd really outdone herself this time.
It was a three-part obstacle course that challenged both Ezra and Zeb. They had nothing but blasters and their wit to get through it.
The course was quite incredible - scattered with Stormtroopers painted on crates, life-size dummies of Imperial officials, bombs...
"Wait, BOMBS?" Ezra exclaimed.
"What's the matter, kid? You want to back out?" Zeb teased.
"No, I'm just questioning the safety of this course, that's all," Ezra said and looked out over the course worriedly. "But Hera and Kanan seem alright with it, so I'm sure it's fine."
"Wasn't Kanan the one who made you do a handstand upside down on the Ghost while it was in flight?" Zeb asked.
"Karabast," Ezra whispered.
"On your marks, get set," Sabine said, "GO!"
Ezra pushed the floor away from his feet and broke into a sprint. Adrenaline pumped through his veins and only one thought played in his head: "I have to beat Zeb".
He made his way to the first obstacle: shooting the Stormtroopers. His fingers tightened around the trigger of his blaster as the crates came into sight. He had just held it up to shoot right at their spray-painted faces when a laser came flying past his head.
"What the--"
He saw Chopper perched on top of a crate, buzzing mockingly while firing at him.
"Chopper!" Ezra shouted as he dodged a bullet. "Seriously?! That was nearly my ear!"
A flash of purple zoomed past him. "See you later, Jedi," Zeb laughed.
"Chopper, why aren't you shooting at him?" Ezra pointed at the Lasat who was already nearly on to the next obstacle. Chopper just beeped and continued shooting. Ezra huffed and pulled the gun out of Chopper's hand using the Force, leaving the droid confused and annoyed. Chopper threw up his metal arms in frustration. "Sorry Chop, but you were getting really annoying," Ezra rolled his eyes and shot at the rest of the crates.
Once he'd shot them all, Ezra followed closely behind Zeb as he ran up onto the roof of the Ghost - the second obstacle. Sabine was waiting for them on top of the ship. A mischievous smile made its way across her face as she waved a remote in her hand.
"Good luck, boys!" she grinned.
"Wait, what--"
Ezra didn't get to finish his sentence. Sabine pushed the button on the remote and boom. "Smoke bomb," Ezra coughed, looking around at the thick dark blue smoke that surrounded him.
Although he couldn't see him, Ezra could hear Zeb's blaster firing just in front of him. What is he firing at? he thought. Right on cue, two tall figures emerged from the smoke. Oh, that's what.
The Inquistor and Agent Kallus -- or, rather, their life-sized dummies -- rushed towards him. Sabine had painted them well and found a way to make them move on rails, but they had no weapons. This'll be easy, Ezra thought.
Nope. It was not easy.
The dummies came at him at full speed. He tried to shoot at them with both his and Chopper's blasters but they would not stop. They crashed into him, making him fall backwards.
Right off the Ghost.
Ezra felt his stomach drop as he no longer felt the ground beneath his feet. The Ghost was quite tall, and to fall from her roof would most certainly mean an injury.
A yelp escaped his mouth. Through the heavy smoke he could just see the edge of the ship's roof. He used all his strength to throw his arms up ... and grab onto it just in time. He breathed a sigh of relief. "Deadly dummies," he muttered to himself. "Sabine, I will get you back for this."
Pulling himself up onto the roof again, he looked around for the figures. They were nowhere in sight.
For a second he thought this fight might be over, until he heard the sound of something running on rails. His head turned quickly to see the figures rushing towards him again, this time from opposite sides. He couldn't shoot them. That wouldn't work.
"I'll just have to outsmart them," he grinned. He jumped up into the air as high as he could and the dummies crashed into each other. They took a moment to recover, but soon they were after Ezra again.
"Why do you want to push me off the edge so badly?!" he yelled at them and sprinted across the roof of the Ghost.
He could hear Zeb's gun going off not far away. He ran towards the sound, his brain quickly registering a plan.
He smirked. Yup, Zeb was going to hate him for this.
Pretty soon he could see Zeb trying to shoot three fake Stormtroopers through the smoke. He was muttering something about giving Sabine a taste of her own medicine when the race was over.
Ezra couldn't stop his body even if he wanted to. His brain had already made up its mind and it didn't need the boy's permission. He ran towards Zeb, jumped on top of him and then jumped off the roof, hoping and praying that his senses had been right. And they were.
Ezra had feeling that the safest way off the roof was here. The Force had not failed him again - Sabine had piled some crates on top of each other to make a stairway down to the ground. "And Zeb said that you don't need the Force," he chuckled. He looked behind him to see the two figures crash into Zeb. He jumped to the floor, ready to take off.
"EZRA!"
"You're welcome!" he snickered and ran off to the next obstacle.
The end of the course was in sight. He could see Sabine and Chopper at the finish line. All that lay before him and victory was 100 metres of hurdles.
The boxes weren't that hard to jump over. The were relatively small, but there were lots of them.
And perhaps Ezra underestimated that. He got through half of it okay, but when he saw Zeb catching up behind him, the next thing he saw was the ground.
Ezra looked up with a dust-covered face to see Zeb flying past him. A shooting pain rung through his head like a bell. He groaned in pain, scrambling to his feet as quickly as humanly possible.
Everything went in slow motion from that point onwards. The final dive towards the finish line. Ezra could see Chopper waving the flag, feel himself passing Zeb and hear his heartbeat in his ears.
And suddenly, he'd won.
And he was on the ground. On his butt. In front of Sabine.
He looked up at her and gave her an awkward smile. She rolled her eyes and helped him to his feet.
Zeb looked at him in shock. "How did you jump that far?"
"What?" Ezra said. His head was still spinning from the fall.
"You just jumped at least five metres!" Sabine exclaimed.
"I-I don't know," Ezra said.
"You're growing more and more powerful every day, Ezra," Kanan said, clapping slowly as he walked up to them with Hera.
"That was an amazing effort from both of you," Hera said. "And you too, Sabine. I don't know how you managed to put all this together."
Sabine bowed dramatically.
"You deserved to win, kid," Zeb grinned. "You outsmarted me in that fog and still managed to catch up after you tripped." He patted him on the back.
"Hmm." Kanan thought for a moment. "Maybe this is actually a good way to train you. You showed incredible skill today. I might have to include this in your training."
"NO!" Ezra exclaimed. He looked around at their confused faces. "Don't get me wrong, it was fun and all, but if you make Chopper shoot at me one more time, I might not be so lucky."
Kanan laughed and Chopper pumped his fists in the air.
"I think I need to lie down now," Ezra said, rubbing his head.
"Uh-uh-uh," Kanan shook his head. "You still haven't lifted that Stormtrooper helmet off the ground."
"Jedi training?" Ezra groaned.
"Jedi training," Kanan smiled.
• • •
Hellooooo! *waves hands in the air like a crazy person*
For those of you who don't know me, my name is Hannah, but I go by the name Tarwa in my Lord of the Rings fanfics. Some of you might know me from my boredom book. :)
Okay, first of all: ew. What even was that chapter? It was awful. Well, at least it got the book going, right?
Anyway, I hope that you enjoy these crazy chapters with some of my most favourite characters in my weird fangirl universe!
I'll try to keep most things canon, but there are some things that I'll struggle to keep canon because my feels won't let me (*cough*KANERA*cough*). But I'll certainly try! ;)
ALSO - guess who just watched The Force Awakens!
(I'll give you a hint: it's me.)
I cried when Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill came into view. It was beautiful. Oh, and we can't forget Chewie, 3PO and R2, can we? And BB8 was awesome sauce too.
Am I the only one who heard the Star Wars Rebels jingle in one of the battle scenes? Because I'm 99.9999% sure I heard it!
Anyway, I'll stop now.
Have a great day and may the Force be with you, my young Padawans. ;)