A few hours had passed since Kanan and Ezra had taken the Phantom to find the Jedi Temple on Lothal. The rest of the crew had been working on a few repairs and making a list of supplies they needed to stock get while they were stopped on the planet.
"Hey, Echo," Lexie slid through the cockpit door while it was still opening, "Hera, Sabine, and I are about to go to Kothal for supplies, do you wanna come?"
Echo looked over her shoulder, staring at Lexie for a moment trying to comprehend what she had said. "What?" Lexie went to repeat herself but Echo nodded. "Yeah, I'll come. I just finished the rest of the repairs we needed."
Lexie shook her head, stifling a laugh. "Zeb and Chopper are staying here so you might have to fix things when we get back."
"Grand." Echo muttered sarcastically, standing up. "They'll be okay for a few hours."
"You've jinxed us now." Lexie joked, falling into step side by side with Echo as they headed for the lounge.
The girls left the Ghost with a list of supplies they needed and with Zeb and Chopper in the lounge, surprisingly not arguing about anything. The walk to Kothal was mostly quiet as well, only a bit of conversation fell amongst the group before they were quiet again.
When they arrived in the market, there were enough people to cover them incase there were Imperial patrols coming through the town.
"Here," Hera held out the holopad with the list of things they needed, "stay together or split up?"
"Stay together." Sabine answered, though it fell on deaf ears to Hera who was looking around the market in search for something. "What is she already looking for?"
"Maybe it's a who." Lexie grinned, following the twi'lek. "Whatcha lookin' for, Hera?"
"Stuff on the list." She said vaguely, looking through the people in the market. "Y'know..."
"Jysell." Lexie whispered in a sing-song voice, laughing as she backed away from Hera when she swatted at her.
"Alectra Lunelle-" Hera started.
"Okay, okay!" Lexie raised her hands in surrender, backing away further. "The list, right, the list."
"Are you guys done?" Echo interrupted. "You're holding us up with the most uninteresting conversation you could possibly be having."
"Wow, mean." Lexie stuck her tongue out at Echo. "You're uninteresting."
Hera pushed between them, hiding the smile on her face as she went to talk to one of the shopkeepers. Sabine, Lexie, and Echo stood behind her, looking at the holopad.
Echo zoned out of the conversation Sabine and Lexie were now having in a hushed tone as she looked around the market. At another stand, two people stood having a quiet conversation while waiting for the owner of the stand to get what they had asked for.
"Echo," Sabine's hand waved in front of her face to get her attention, "c'mon."
Echo nodded slowly, still looking at the two strangers at the market stand. As she began to follow after Hera, Lexie, and Sabine, the younger of the duo turned around and Echo tripped.
Lexie spun around and caught her by the arm, making sure she didn't hit the ground. "Are you okay?"
"Lexie, Lexie," Echo regained her footing, immediately looking around, trying to find the girl who had distracted her. "That girl," she nodded to her, "tell me she doesn't look exactly like Ezra."
Lexie looked at her, cocking her head slightly to one side. "Yeah, she does." She quickly looked away when the girl glanced at them. "She's looking at us."
"I can tell." Echo kept her eyes directed at the ground. "Wait, wait, wait," she smacked Lexie's arm repeatedly until she yanked her arm away.
"Calm down!" Lexie hissed, rubbing her arm. "What?"
Echo pulled her to a random stand near enough to the two strangers that they could hear their conversation. "Just listen." Lexie fell silent, taking to looking at what the stand held to not seem suspicious.
"I don't know how much luck we're going to have, Marlise." The older one said apologetically as she handed a few credits to the stand owner.
The younger girl, Marlise, frowned. "We have to at least try, Ymra." She said pleadingly. "It's not like every other trip, there's all sorts of stuff that was different this time. The Rodian, our parents knew him and now he's safely off the planet and out of the Empire's grasp."
Lexie looked at Echo, her eyebrows raised. "The Rodian her parents knew?" She said in an undertone. "The girl who looks exactly like Ezra-"
"Excuse me," the stand owner interrupted, looking down at Echo and Lexie, "if you're going to buy something just buy it."
"Our bad." Echo said quickly, grabbing Lexie's wrist to pull her away from the stand and back to Hera and Sabine.
"What are you guys doing?" Sabine asked, turning around as they approached them again.
"There's two people back there who are definitely talking about Ezra." Echo explained, glancing over her shoulder again. The two women had now walked away from the stand. "Wait, Lexie, what are you-"
"Excuse me," Lexie tapped the older of the two on the shoulder. As she turned around, a hand went to the blaster on her hip. "Oh, no, no need," Lexie raised her arms, showing that she was unarmed, "my friend and I just couldn't help but overhear what you were talking about back there-"
"You were eavesdropping?" The young girl piped up.
"Not intentionally." Echo put in quickly as she joined Lexie. "But, the Rodian you mentioned, was his name Tseebo?"
The girl stared at them in bewilderment. "How did you-"
"Do you know an Ezra?" Echo asked, ignoring Lexie's quiet sigh of exasperation.
She stayed dead silent for a minute. "Bridger?" She finally asked, her voice shaking slightly. Her companion put a hand on her shoulder comfortingly.
"Yeah!" Echo nodded, smiling. "You know him?"
"He's my brother."
- - - - - - -
Within the following hour, the two groups became acquainted with each other. Ezra's sister, Marlise, and the woman with her, Ymra Arderne, were apart of a crew on a ship called the Omega. The present members Ghost crew were introduced to the rest of their crew as well when they all met back up together. Their crew was about the same size as the Ghost's was with seven people there. Jayson Moreno, Vayle Brekker, Perseus and Janine Vizsla, and the person that when introduced made Lexie shut down completely without any explanation, Kier Skywalker.
The Ghost crew, Marlise, and Ymra went back to the Ghost with the promise that Ezra would be returning soon. Marlise was in high spirits, not shutting up practically the entire walk to the ship. Perhaps it was to avoid the rising feeling of anxiety in her stomach, but it kept both her and Echo occupied as they were engaged in a conversation about who knew what.
When the group returned to the Ghost, they introduced Ymra and Marlise to Zeb and Chopper before crashing in the lounge to wait for Kanan and Ezra to return. It didn't take very long for them to arrive, as they had already been gone since mid morning and the sun was now setting.
There wasn't much time to prepare for them when Kanan came down the ladder from the Phantom into the lounge. He stopped as soon as he hit the ground, looking at his crew and the two extra people. "Who are-"
"Marlise!" Ezra had barely touched the ground before he was launching himself at his sister. All that had happened at the temple that day was now forgotten as he flung his arms around her and the gesture was returned.
"Wow, Kanan," Echo looked at her brother, "I didn't get that kind of reaction when we met again, you tracked me down in a wheat field."
Kanan rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I just can't catch a break." He muttered, shaking his head. "I'm not having this conversation right now, Ech."
Ezra pulled away from the hug with Marlise and looked at Kanan with a wide smile. "Kanan, this is Marlise, she's my sister."
Kanan gave her a small smile. "It's nice to meet you." He then turned to Ymra, "and you are?"
"Ymra." She answered simply. "I took Marlise in."
"Nice to meet you, too." Kanan said. "One more question, how come every time one of leaves the Ghost not on a mission, more people show up than who left."
"You started it." Lexie said quickly. "You brought Ezra back first and it was a chain reaction."
The group broke out into laughter, Kanan rolling his eyes despite the grin on his face, while Ymra suppressed her own smile, her eyes landing on a very happy Marlise and Ezra again.