#where the hell was Jacen Syndulla??? | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

writingforfun0714 · 9 months

Text

Hi all

I’ve seen Ahsoka eps 1+2 twice now and I’d like to share my thoughts on the show.

Warnings: Spoilers for Ahsoka ep1 and ep2, not a fic, contains thoughts/personal opinions and guessing ages

Here’s what I like about the show in general: I like it, and wanna see where it goes.

Overall I’m interested. While I don’t think the show is bad, I definitely don’t think it’s the best show I’ve ever seen. The effects were decent and I loved the sets. I also loved the scores of music—though I don’t think I’ve ever hated the sound design/music for any SW show. The mural looked a little different from Rebels’ version but personally I still think it’s good, though I was hoping for more shots of the whole mural instead of mostly closeups of Ezra. I also liked the costume designs but the only change I would make would be having Ahsoka show up in white robes at the end of ep2 to match Rebels’ finale. I loved that when Sabine’s not wearing her Mando armor, she wears things almost identical to Hera and had a similar hair-cutting scene to Kanan 😍

Now for the story. I think the main story of finding Thrawn+Ezra is great. It’s something I’ve wanted since Rebels’ finale. I also love the new characters introduced. Baylan Skoll, his apprentice Shin (Hati?) stole the show anytime they were on screen. I love everything about them so far. Their personalities, their costume designs (Baylan wears all black while Shin wears more neutral colors and still has her padawan braid) and especially Shin’s unspoken body language has been amazing. I’m super curious about their dynamic, since it seems like any time Shin is unsure, she looks to Baylan. I’m wondering, since Ahsoka and Anakin had a sibling dynamic going on, if they’ll go opposite and make Baylan and Shin have a more father/daughter type of relationship cuz I’ll be honest and say when I first saw them, I immediately thought of Silco/Jinx from Netflix’s Arcane.

I also liked Morgan Elsbeth. I wasn’t sure about her in Mando and because she wasn’t super important like Moff Gideon or something, I didn’t really give her a lot of thought. But I liked her revealing to be related to the Night Sisters and I loved the Night Sisters Temple. I’m also interested in Inquisitor Marrok. I definitely think Marrok is Starkiller but we’ll have to wait and see.

I loved seeing familiar characters as well. Of course Hera, Chopper and Huyang were confirmed to come back from the trailer so I knew I’d love seeing them, but I was pleasantly caught off guard by Ryder Azadhi aka CLANCY BROWN, and Jai Kell. I loved that they got who they could to come back for their characters (Clancy Brown, David Tennant, Lars Mikkelsen). I loved Huyang’s scenes as well and I know some people were on the fence about MEW as Hera, but I actually liked her (though we gotta talk about THOSE CONTACTS). That being said Vanessa Marshall is still Hera to me. Her voice, her character in Rebels, will always be Hera.

AND CHOPPER!!! Need I say more?❤️

Now for what I didn’t like. These will be more specific instances/scenes compared to the show in general since, as stated above, I do like the show.

Of course I noticed the ‘Former Jedi Knight’ in the opening crawl. She was never knighted, just like Luke in the OT.

There is one part I didn’t mention above. Ahsoka and Sabine’s relationship. I get that it’s the first 2 episodes. However, I think it’s really jarring to go from Ahsoka and Sabine being friends in the Rebels’ finale to look for Ezra+Thrawn now to cold and snippy with each other, especially given that Sabine is supposed to be like 30?? And Ahsoka at like 45-47? There was no indication of what happened between them for most of ep1, just that SOMETHING happened between the two until it’s revealed that Ahsoka walked away from Sabine, like she did with Anakin. But this also plays into another problem I have with Sabine. She is Mandalorian and was not force sensitive in Rebels. She had a whole arc about reclaiming her culture and training with the Dark Saber w/ Kanan. There was no need to make her a Jedi. Not only does that disrespect Sabine’s character, it also disrespects the Jedi. The Jedi were originally a religion that was meant to be a safe place for select few across the galaxy born with the connection to the Force. It’s not something to ‘train/work towards’.

Yes, Ahsoka ‘is not a Jedi’ however times when being referred to as one, she does not refute it or say otherwise like she did in Rebels. It seemed out of character for her.

I know some people love the idea of ordinary people/beings being able to train hard enough to gain a connection to the Force, but I personally think that Jedi are those born with the ability. Huyang even says that she sucked as a Padawan.

I also know that Dave Felony has a habit of changing canon but that’s no excuse for poor writing. In fact, I believe he’s been at the head of Star Wars for so long that he’s just gone unchecked about what makes a good story.

Aside from those aspects of the show, I enjoyed it and am interested to see where it goes nonetheless. If you made it this far, thanks for your time.

-Maisy❤️

3 notes · View notes

eagna-eilis · 9 months

Text

I'm finally enjoying Ahsoka!

This recent episode really did it for me, not sure why. If it had not I wouldn't have enjoyed the ending reveal.

Some thoughts...

- I really ship Lil Blondey with Sabine. Maybe it's because their combined eyeshadow game could take over the galaxy. Maybe it's just how queer-coded Live Action Sabine feels to me. Maybe it's because the red bladed baddie chased the gun shooting goody through a forest and in my mind that's where the best SW romances start

- Hera Syndulla continuing her habit of bringing children into space battles. 10/10 Space Mom.

- I enjoy the emphasis on Sabine and Ezra as siblings. No shade to my lovely Sabezra shipping pals, but he always felt to me like her annoying little brother that she'd do anything for.

- the map is serving so much KOTOR. Anything that has KOTOR vibes makes me happy. I don't even care that it's a map quest, I just love the aesthetic very much.

- if anything bad happens to a single green hair on my little petal Jacen's head there will be hell to pay. I love him. Not as much as I love Grogu and loth cats but I love him. I want to ruffle his green mop.

- 'mom... I have a bad feeling...' said with such earnestness, omg, my sweet boy. I'm sad Kanan never met him.

- Rosario seems to have finally found her rhythm with the character. When she picks up the map ball gadget and lets out a cry, it sounds more like emotional anguish than pain. It feels like a reaction to the mention of Anakin, and I enjoyed this choice very much.

- Lil Blondey saying 'you have no power' to Sabine before Sabine clocks her one with a Mando dart is awesome. 'No power? Really? Try MY ENTIRE CULTURAL HERITAGE for power!!'

- Ahsoka fucking up on Sabine during the Night of a Thousand Tears is also a great development. Feels right. Not sure why.

- The World Between Worlds looks very beautiful in live action. It would look even more beautiful on a cinema screen with a confused dark-haired man waking up there to be told by the ghosts of his ancestors that he has to go back to the realm of the living, JUST SAYING.

- Hayden keeps getting better looking as he gets older, so the de-ageing is a bit whatever, but OMG THERE HE IS. HAYDEN AS ANAKIN. I don't fancy him, I never did, but I have such intense affection for his face. Seeing Hayden age is like seeing Anakin age the way he might have if not for Palpatine, which is why I'm kinda meh on running him through the computers to smooth him out. But I also really love his voice, I always did, I just feel such love for the slight hint of Canada in the second vowel sound of Ahsoka's name when he says it. I am delighted that Hayden is getting to do more with his character than his oft-mocked work in the PT.

- Seeing Anakin in the WBW just makes me wish he was in TROS.

- CARSON TEVA IS HERE. Idk why, maybe it's just he has such a kind face and amiable demeanor but I'm always pleased to see him.

- I'm still kinda sad that the show is suggesting that Sabine doesn't see Hera as her family. Hera half raised Sabine. Her attitude of 'Guess I'm just adopting two teenagers and a furry purple dude' is just very inspirational to me as somebody who doesn't want to biologically reproduce or do parenthood in a traditional way, and I would really like to see Hera's open-hearted and loving nature get the respect it deserves.

-I'm glad we haven't gotten Thrawn at all. You know why? I don't actually care about him. I have no attachment to the old EU, and I have never rated my Star Wars based on how 'awesome' or 'badass' it is, because I don't have a penis for a brain. When he does show up it will have maximum impact and I appreciate this.

#ahsoka series #ahsoka spoilers

2 notes · View notes

aly-en-art · 6 years

Photo

I’ve been rewatching lot of Rebels episodes...ugh</3

14 notes · View notes

somethingusefulfromflorida · 2 years

Text

I totally forgot that Kanan and Hera had a son in Rebels. Where the hell was that little mutant during the Mandalorian? Luke and Leia KNEW Hera, she was a general by the time Rogue One happened, a big name in the rebellion, so why didn't Luke train her son after the war? The Mandalorian takes place five or six years after ROTJ, and Luke says Baby Yoda would have been his first pupil, but there was a son of a Jedi RIGHT THERE THE WHOLE TIME! He'd be the perfect Padawan, but it's like all the producers forgot he existed! You see him for like two seconds at the end of Rebels, and then he's gone. For fuck's sake, he's named after Jacen Solo from Legends! That should carry the same significance as mentioning "the Whills" in Rogue One or "Starkiller" in the Force Awakens. Jacen Solo was a major character, basically Kylo Ren without being a whiny bitch, but Jacen Syndulla is just a pointless reference for diehard fans to point and say "I remember that name!" It would be like if the old woman who talks to Rey at the end of Rise of Skywalker was named Mara Jade.

"That's Mara Jade?!?"

"Well no, she's not THE Mara Jade, but it's a reference to her!"

"Why?"

"Because people liked Mara Jade."

"We didn't like her for her NAME, we liked her because she was an interesting character. She was a Sith turned Jedi, she was the right hand of the Emperor and ended up marrying Luke Skywalker! Did this old lady do any of those things?"

"No. Give us more money."

#jacen syndulla #hera syndulla #kanan jarrus #star wars #star wars rebels #the mandolarian #book of boba fett #luke skywalker #jacen solo #star wars legends #legends #mara jade

46 notes · View notes

ladywren7 · 4 years

Text

OKAY!

So surprisingly I didn't get lazy and now I'm posting my theories so before I start,

🚨WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE NEWEST EPISODE OF THE MANDALORIAN🚨

Ok so now that we got that done I wanna share my questions and theories!

Idk where to even start so I'm just gonna start at a random part.

So! We got AHSOKAAA!!! And tbh her montrals a.k.a. her headpiece (idk if I spelled the name right sorry) were a little smaller than I expected but they probably had to make them smaller so the actor could move around more easily

Anyways I thought she was AMAZING and did an awesome job, now I'm just gonna list some questions to discuss bc I'm disorganized AF

(Not a question but) The child's real name was revealed!

Why didn't Ahsoka correct Mando when he called her "Jedi"?

THRAWN

Where the hell is Thrawn and Ezra?! Have they been found yet? Has just Thrawn been found yet?

Where is Sabine?

Did Ahsoka and Sabine split up to search better?

If Thrawn isn't found then how can he have other people working under him? (I feel like he's hiding and of course doesn't want to be found)

In the unknown regions did he and Ezra spilt up? Just left each other and went off on their own?

Is Ezra DEAD? Is Thrawn dead? Is SABINE dead?

Whos gonna hear baby yoda's call through the force?

Ezra? Cal? Luke? JACEN SYNDULLA?!

Rebels Sequel?

Live action Sabine and Thrawn?

Still waiting for Boba Fett!!

In conclusion, Ahsoka raised so many questions. Like slow down queen we still have questions from the Bo-Katan episode!!

PT. 2?

#star wars rebels #star wars #swr #ezra bridger #ahsoka tano #boba fett #the madalorian spoilers #the mandalorian #the child #questions #sabine wren #grand admiral thrawn #jacen syndulla

41 notes · View notes

badassladyjedisociety · 5 years

Text

Rhee & Liddy’s Excellent Adventure

Welcome to our Badass Lady Jedi Society!

@shesasurvivor & I started plotting up these fics after I was turned on to Rebels (RIP) and she told me the stories she used to write as a teen based on the Expanded Universe (also RIP). It started as a fun project between the two of us—we’re occasional writers from THG community who wanted to stretch our fic muscles again. But as we watched male writers continue to dominate the Star Wars franchise and as the character deaths kept racking up, we both longed for for a return to high-risk but low-stakes Star Wars. That is, plenty of adventure without everyone having to nobly sacrifice themselves in the name of real-world edginess. Finally, @shesasurvivor said “Hell, we should just write it.”

So here’s what you can expect from us:

Semi-regular updates maybe? We both work, we both have lives, and we’re both nit picky when it comes to our writing, so sometimes it takes us a while to get the ball rolling. But we want these stories to feel more like a series and less like a movie, so expect drops to be more episodic in nature with some fun filler episodes!

Kids of Canon Characters. Okay first of all there was Jaina and Jacen Solo, Ben Skywalker, then Ben Solo and (the hastily plotted) Jacen Syndulla, so we’re not exactly in uncharted territory! But aside from loving the canon characters, we want to explore what it really means to be a Legacy Jedi. In the Old Republic, Force-sensitive children rarely knew their parents. We want to explore the weight of being the child of rebellion heroes and Jedi in ways the old EU might have missed.

More mash-ups than a season two episode of glee. We’re grabbing from everything here. This is a story where Han lives, Jaina Solo trained with Poe Dameron, Jyn Erso ran a spy op with Sabine Wren. We’re combining “canon” and “legends” into something new we hope you’ll enjoy.

Badass lady Jedi. The boys have had more than their shot. It’s Ladies Night every night on Ahch-To.

Sabers up, ladies.

4 notes · View notes

iidigestive-readerii · 5 years

Text

Star Wars and I read too much crack au today - this is the result

Luke explaining his family to someone in a galaxy where everything ended up FINE: My parents, Padmé Amidala Naberrie-Skywalker and Anakin Skywalker. This is my BESTEST Uncle Obi-Wan, who's Dad's brother, boyfriend thing. Basically my second Dad. He killed the same Sith Lord TWICE. This is Satine, Obi's - wife? Girlfriend? We don't really know but she's amazing! - and Korkie, THE BESTEST COUSIN EVER.

Person: *whispers* what the hell?...

Luke: This is Quinlan, Rex, and Cody, Obi-Wan's boyfriends that are DEFINITELY trying not to kill each other or my dad - oh, and there's my auntie 'Soka, she's AWESOME. She's the youngest Jedi Master and Council member EVER. How wizard is that? Oh, and this is Leia, my amazing and beautiful sister who accidentally on purpose kissed me to prove a point to her boyfriend - oh my God, you HAVE to meet Han! He's so cool! He told me to go to Hell once and I think I swooned! Then there's the GAR, who are basically my uncle's - yes, all of them.

Person: ummm

Luke: here's Mace Windu (drags Mace out of nowhere) he's like my grumpy grandpa no one knew they needed!

Mace: Skywalker, what the fuck?

Luke: and here's Bant and Garen and Aayla and Kit and (names half the Jedi Order besides Yoda)

Person: *slowly dying*

Luke: and this (pulls Mara in front of him) is my wife Mara Jade -

Person: oh thank God. Nice to -

Luke: then here's Ezra, my boyfriend - oh look, there's Uncle Hondo! Hi Uncle Hondo *whispers* second dad's boyfriend. Oh my God, there's Jacen Syndulla-Dume! Hey Jacen! Come meet - oh, you should meet Hera and Caleb and Bail (continues to chatter for a solid ten minutes about his AMAZING and AWESOME family that in no way is messed up, how dare you think that)

#star wars and...#ii digestive reader ii #star wars #au #oh geez

23 notes · View notes

gondalsqueen · 6 years

Link

Chapters: 17/18 Fandom: Star Wars: Rebels Rating: Explicit Warnings: Major Character Death Relationships: Kanan Jarrus/Hera Syndulla, Ketsu Onyo/Sabine Wren, Alexsandr Kallus/Garazeb "Zeb" Orrelios Characters: Hera Syndulla, C1-10P | Chopper, Original Characters, Kanan Jarrus, Ezra Bridger, Sabine Wren, Garazeb "Zeb" Orrelios, Alexsandr Kallus, CT-7567 | Rex, Mart Mattin, Wedge Antilles, Ketsu Onyo, Jacen Syndulla, Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, Ackbar (Star Wars), Lando Calrissian, Jan Dodonna, Ahsoka Tano Additional Tags: Pregnancy, vague mentions of abortion, future character death in the background, Season/Series 04, Established Relationship, Oral Sex, Chair Sex, Table Sex, sex during pregnancy, chapter 2 has lots of sex, Secrets, the best pilot in the galaxy, flying combat, character injury, canon torture, flight of the defender, rebel assault, Jedi Night, Major character death - Freeform, Grief, Morning Sickness, Counseling, Masturbation, Dreams, Traditions, Space family, Inappropriate bets, Lothal, Shopping, down time, Space Combat, Battle of Scarif, Rogue One - Freeform, hammerhead corvette!, Yavin 4, Stardust - Freeform, Alderaan, Death Star, labor, Childbirth, domestic life, Lothwolves, Dogfight - Freeform, Hoth, did i mention babies yet?, Babies!, One baby, Work/Life Balance, Advice, Bounty Hunters, Capture, this story has it all apparently, Return of the Jedi, Second Death Star, Existential Anxiety, parenting, Breakups, wine and cheesecake, wine and cheesecake needs its own tag, battle of endor, Battle for Coruscant, forces of destiny: an imperial feast, The New Republic - Freeform, Quests, letting go, Travel

...

Within a year, Hera and Jacen hopped back into military life. She had plenty of vacation time, so they could take off and see the galaxy whenever they liked, and having a stable place and a community was important for Jacen. Hera had had that growing up.

So she was on Coruscant, helping out with combat training, when the other shoe finally dropped. Except that it was her day off and she wasn’t training pilots, she was trying to replace a particularly disgusting air filter on outside of the Ghost while Jace ran around recklessly on top of the ship, probably learning all sorts of enriching things.

“Hey, Mama. Mo-om!”

She stared at the bolt. It was stripped smooth; that’s why she’d skipped this filter last time.

“Mom. Mom.”

“What, love?”

“I’m bored.”

“Find something to do.”

“There IS nothing to do.”

“Well, come down here then and help me.”

He considered. “Are you wiring stuff?”

“No.”

“Are you taking stuff apart?”

“Sort of. I’m replacing this disgusting air filter.”

“Ew. No thanks.” He flopped down on the ship just above her head; Hera heard the thunk. Hmm… She tried to tighten the wrench on the bolt as far as it would go and then use her body weight to push the handle down. It slipped, she scraped her knuckles, she cursed.

“Hey, Mom.”

“Hey, what?”

The naughty pause indicated that nothing good was coming “Bloodflowers are pink, your feet really stink.” He burst into giggles.

“Hmm. Did you learn that at school?”

“No, Poe told me to say it to you.”

“Why am I not surprised? Well, jacinder are blue, your feet stink too.” Maybe she could just CLEAN the filter and keep using it. ...No.

“Sunblossoms are yellow, your feet really smell-o,” he fired back almost immediately. Oh, good one, kid.

“N’Omis are purple, you’re about to get in trouble,” she told him.

“Purple and trouble don’t rhyme.”

“They do in Ryl.”

“That joke is still not funny, Mom.”

Hera grinned to herself. “Jace, you have any ideas for loosening a stripped bolt?”

“Maybe hold the wrench on with bubble gum?”

“I don’t think that’s going to work.”

“Nope, then. Let me think about it.” He ran off towards the middle of the ship. “HEY there’s really cool bugs here!”

“What kind?”

“Beetles. Blue and shiny. Huh.” Then he went silent, playing with the insects.

Hera picked up a vibrotorque and just fused the darn thing to the bolt. She could unfuse it later, but somehow this stupid air filter had to come off.

She was absorbed in her work and used to people walking back and forth across the main hangar, so she didn’t even register the footsteps until they were almost upon her. Then they stopped, and the absence of sound was unsettling. Hera looked up as their visitor cleared his throat.

She saw him with the sunlight behind him, outlining his shoulder, and the thought went through her like a shock: I know him. I know him like I know myself.

He wasn’t quite the same, though. A little broader. His hair had grown long again and his beard was bushy, and she thought, terrified: Maybe I’m seeing things. Maybe it’s not him.

Then he spoke: “Hera, you haven’t changed a bit,” and she knew for sure.

The vibrotorque hit the ground and she threw herself at him with a little moan, and he was taller than her — taller than her; she had to stand on tiptoe to put her arms around his neck and hug him. He wrapped his arms around her and squeezed too.

“What are you doing here?” Hera asked, wiping a hand over her face. She touched the lightsaber at his belt before he could answer. “You got it back.”

“Yeah, uhm...I think I’m supposed to be a...present? Or something?” He unhooked his lightsaber from his belt and ignited it experimentally for her to see. “Good as ever.”

“Wow, cool!” Oh, no. Footsteps thumping on top of the Ghost, coming their way. Jacen launched himself at them before she had time to yell a warning.

In an instant the lightsaber blade was gone, Jacen caught safely in his arms, and Hera yelling, scared witless, “How many times have I told you NOT to jump from the top of the ship?! It’s not safe!”

“It’s safe for me,” Jacen said blithely. “I never get hurt.”

“Well, this time you almost skewered yourself on a lightsaber blade!”

Jacen peered at his savior, blue eyes into blue eyes. “I’ve seen you in pictures,” he declared.

“Jacen Syndulla, meet Ezra Bridger,” Hera said. “Ezra, Jacen.”

Ezra had acted fast to catch the kid, but then he just stood bewildered, looking between Jacen and her. “Syndulla?” he asked, trying to do the mental math and failing. “Hera — did you…?”

“They didn’t tell you,” she said. Of course they didn’t. Sabine would think it was a great joke, them surprising each other like this.

Ezra shrugged.

“He’s my son.” Now understanding began to dawn on his face. “And Kanan’s.”

“He’s…” A long breath. “How — ?”

Hera inclined an eyebrow at him. The usual way, that look meant.

“I mean, I know HOW, but… Oh, good Force.” Ezra sat Jacen on his feet. “Hey, kid, let me take a look at you.”

Jacen stood dutifully and preempted the questions that he knew would come. “Yes, I’m really Twi’leki. I’m half-Twi’leki. No, I don’t have lekku. Yes, she’s really my mom. No, I’m not adopted.”

“You look just like your father.”

He grinned. “Yes, I look just like my father. Except Sabine says prettier because I look like my mom too.”

Ezra laughed. “She’s right.”

“Did Sabine come back with you?” Jacen asked the question that Hera couldn’t bring herself to voice.

“Yeah, she’s here. But she sent me on first and said I was...a present?”

“For me,” Jacen explained. “Yeah, you’re a pretty great present.”

“Ahsoka?” Hera asked softly.

He shook his head.

She swallowed down...what was that feeling? Sadness, yes, but mostly guilt. Don’t you dare come back here without them, she’d told Ahsoka. “Ezra,” she asked, hardly daring to hope. “Are you going to...stay?

“Well…” he considered. “I came to see you first, so I have to do some debriefing with Reb — ” he corrected himself, “ — with New Republic command. Things might not be as smooth flying as we think.” He frowned with the memory of something dark, but they would tackle that later. “But,” his eyes met hers again, “other than that I’m at loose ends. I just want to hang with you guys for a while, figure out where I fit in again.”

Hera nodded. Ezra and Sabine both back. The ship would be crowded again.

“Are you crying?” Ezra asked.

“No. I’ll arrange to use some vacation time and comm Lira San. We’ll go see Zeb.”

“Guess I’d better get on this briefing, then.”

“Wait — ” she caught his wrist. He’d just gotten here and she was loathe to let him go so quickly. Plus, there were six years of his life she knew nothing about, almost seven, and some important questions needed to be asked. Did you have a life out there? Did you want to come back, or was it a duty? Did you know where you were? Were you kept from us? “It’s been a long time,” she settled. “Are you — okay?”

“I am now.” He took her hand and squeezed it in both of his. “Don’t worry, Hera. I’ll be back in a few hours. I mean it this time.”

They get away from you so quickly, even when you’re holding their hands.

She nodded and let go.

“Mom?” Jacen’s voice was surprisingly subdued.

“Yes, love?”

“Are you okay?”

It was meant to be a laugh, but it came out mixed with tears. “Yeah, baby, I really am.” She looked out at the sky and thought, Thank you, Ahsoka, thank you. If I could wish for anything in the world, this would be it.

...

They parked the Ghost in Zeb and Alexsandr’s front yard and surprised them with Ezra. Hera thought Zeb was going to pass out for a minute, and then she thought Ezra was going to pass out from being squeezed too hard.

“Where in all the hells were you?!”

“Uhm...away? Later, okay?”

The first night on Lira San, they all ran Jacen ragged. Hera put him to bed a half-hour late and mostly asleep before his head hit the pillow. Then she crept back into the common area and shut the door. Zeb pounded his mug on the table and declared, “Caf, dejarik, and partying all night! Er, quiet partying so we don’t wake up the kid.”

Hera laughed and passed more mugs around. “Fire up the board, Chop.”

They played two games of dejarik and then ended up just talking, which was kind of the plan to begin with. At first it was remember-when:

“Remember when Chopper knocked Ezra off the top of the Ghost while we were ten kilometers up?”

“Remember that time Sabine attached a smoke grenade to a little mouse droid and then drove it into your dad’s team?”

“No,” Hera said. “I missed that.”

“It looked so funny,” Zeb chuckled. “Just — zhhhhoom, right at them.”

“You know,” Alexsandr put in, “to read the reports on paper, you looked like idiots who kept getting away only because every single soldier on Lothal was incompetent.”

“Yeah, that was true,” Zeb told him.

They brought up things they’d left unspoken before.

“Alexsandr, he never TOLD us that you guys were trapped under the ice together.”

“Well, not never,” Zeb protested.

“‘Oh, by the way, ISB Agent Kallus decided he’s going to be on our team now and smuggle information to us,’ is not EXACTLY breaking it smoothly,” Ezra pointed out.

“I remember you were weird when we picked you up from that planet, Zeb!” Sabine added.

“How could you tell the difference?” Ezra was jumping back into their old routines nicely.

“Hey! I’m never weird!”

Chopper defended Zeb for once — “ugly” and “weird” were two different things.

Hera just laughed at them.

“Okay,” Ezra said at around 0100. “This has been fantastic, but I want to know about all the stuff I missed.”

“Hera blew up the Death Star!” Sabine shouted.

“Shh! I did not.”

“Did too. Second Death Star.”

Chopper protested that HE had blown up the second Death Star.

“You did not!” Hera told him.

Ezra looked bewildered. “What’s a Death Star?”

They all stared at him.

“Seriously?” Zeb asked.

“Come on, guys, what’s a Death Star?”

“He’s been gone for a while,” Sabine shrugged.

“Do you even know the ending of Clone Wars 2?”

“What’s Clone Wars?”

Zeb chuckled evilly. “We’ve got the only unspoiled virgin in the galaxy here.”

“Hey! I am not — !” Ezra threw up his hands in exasperation.

It was good times. Old times.

“We can catch you up on a lot of it,” Zeb told Ezra, taking mercy. “Sabine took lots of holos.”

“And painted lots of pictures,” Hera added. “Oh, I think I have those here! You gave them to me for safekeeping, and I put them…” she considered. The top shelf on her closet, she was fairly certain.

“Did you look at the paintings?” Sabine asked.

“No, I didn’t want to invade your privacy, and I didn’t know which ones you wanted me to see.”

“Hera, you didn’t even open the package? Those were for you, especially the canvases!”

“Well, you didn’t tell me that! Wait a minute, I’ll go get them.”

She moved a bunch of stuff aside in her bunk and they were right where she’d expected, left-hand corner of the closet shelf, tied in a plain cloth. Sabine did most of her work on walls, and the portable versions — holos of the originals — fit on a few tiny datachips. Some of this was more traditional canvas work, though. Hera took it all back to the common area and handed the data chips to Sabine. “Which ones first?”

“Uhm...This one’s from right after Ezra left. Let’s start there.” Sabine handed the chip to Chopper and he put it in the dataport on the table. There they all were, looking...shocky and thin, actually. Mostly holos of her or Zeb or Chopper working, their expressions studious and absorbed as they bent over the glow of a datapad. Sabine clicked through a whole series of Hera and Chopper fixing the Ghost, literally seventy-five holos of the same thing, as if she were afraid she wouldn’t get another chance to record it. They were busy, and animated by that work, but never happy. Ezra frowned and asked no questions.

Sabine thumbed through an entire collection of Lothali murals: “Let’s just get to the people.” And then the “people” were...mostly Hera, six months pregnant, shot after shot captured at exactly the right moment to look like a portrait — half-turning to answer some question, or looking down at a cloth in her hands in the early morning light, or palm on her stomach with an expression as if she were listening to something only she could hear.

Ezra’s face took on that stone look it got when he was trying not to cry. Then he rallied and said, “I’ve missed a lot.”

“Yeah, kid, we keep telling you that.”

“These are...art,” Hera said, wondering.

“No, they’re just holos. The art is on the canvas over there. Open them up.”

So she untied the bundle, but the first painting wasn’t any of them. It was Kanan — a portrait from the waist up, the full beard and scarring across his eyes that they remembered from those last two years. Hera couldn’t see the crooked nose because he was facing the viewer, holding a green-haired baby on his shoulder who was clearly sacked out and comfortably sleeping. Kanan looked down at him, kissing the top of his head.

Nobody said anything for a long moment.

“I painted it right after Jace was born.” Sabine sounded nervous now. “But you were really exhausted, and that didn’t seem like a good time to give it to you. Then I forgot about it until I was cleaning out all my stuff before leaving with Ahsoka.”

They were all looking at Hera, and there was nowhere to hide her reaction.

“I’m… I’m sorry if it — ”

“Sabine, thank you,” Hera cut her off. She tried to keep her voice even and utterly failed. “I love it.” Then she dropped her head to the table and sobbed.

Zeb picked her up bodily and just plunked her onto his lap, and then they were all fighting teary eyes. She’d cried for Kanan — really, for herself and her own loneliness — hundreds of times over the years, but it hadn’t happened in a while. This time, it finally didn’t hurt.

She pulled herself together and they talked about Kanan until dawn.

#hera syndulla #fanfiction #next season #blue-eyed son #ask me no questions i'll tell you no lies #but one of these days you'll get a surprise

21 notes · View notes

gondalsqueen · 6 years

Link

Chapters: 15/17 Fandom: Star Wars: Rebels Rating: Explicit Warnings: Major Character Death Relationships: Kanan Jarrus/Hera Syndulla, Ketsu Onyo/Sabine Wren, Alexsandr Kallus/Garazeb "Zeb" Orrelios Characters: Hera Syndulla, C1-10P | Chopper, Original Characters, Kanan Jarrus, Ezra Bridger, Sabine Wren, Garazeb "Zeb" Orrelios, Alexsandr Kallus, CT-7567 | Rex, Mart Mattin, Wedge Antilles, Ketsu Onyo, Jacen Syndulla, Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, Ackbar (Star Wars), Lando Calrissian, Jan Dodonna Additional Tags: Pregnancy, vague mentions of abortion, future character death in the background, Season/Series 04, Established Relationship, Oral Sex, Chair Sex, Table Sex, sex during pregnancy, chapter 2 has lots of sex, Secrets, the best pilot in the galaxy, flying combat, character injury, canon torture, flight of the defender, rebel assault, Jedi Night, Major character death - Freeform, Grief, Morning Sickness, Counseling, Masturbation, Dreams, Traditions, Space family, Inappropriate bets, Lothal, Shopping, down time, Space Combat, Battle of Scarif, Rogue One - Freeform, hammerhead corvette!, Yavin 4, Stardust - Freeform, Alderaan, Death Star, labor, Childbirth, domestic life, Lothwolves, Dogfight - Freeform, Hoth, did i mention babies yet?, Babies!, One baby, Work/Life Balance, Advice, Bounty Hunters, Capture, this story has it all apparently, Return of the Jedi, Second Death Star, Existential Anxiety, parenting, Breakups, wine and cheesecake, wine and cheesecake needs its own tag, battle of endor, Battle for Coruscant, forces of destiny: an imperial feast, The New Republic - Freeform

... “LANDO CALRISSIAN?!” “Hera, shh!” “You want to tell me how in the seven hells LANDO CALRISSIAN ended up leading this attack, Gial?”

“You weren’t here.”

“I was coming, and you knew it!”

“And yet.”

“No, don’t feed me that ‘your dedication to the Alliance’ crap, Gial, you of all people—” “—General Syndulla, if you’ll step into the briefing room with me…” She glowered at him. Gial Ackbar nodded his head towards the room—please. “Oh, all right, fine.” Hera sighed in exasperation and let him hold the door for her. Old school Ackbar, still. “Calrissian is NOT leading the attack,” Ackbar told her as soon as the door shut. “Good.” “I am.” Hera considered. “They gave you all the cruisers?” “Yes.” She considered some more. “All right, that’s fair.”

“I’m so very glad you think so,” he told her dryly. “But if you seriously think I’m taking orders from Calrissian—” “If I tell you to, you will.” Karabast. He knew her too well. “Yes, of course I will.”

“Lando Calrissian is leading Gold, Red, Gray, and Green squadrons, and he will spearhead the run on the Death Star’s reactor.”

Hera tried not to feel cheated. Again. “He’s a good pilot, huh?”

“Yes, he is. And he has the Millenium Falcon, which is a good ship. But I want you to look at something, since you missed the briefing.” He dialed up the plans for the half-completed battle station on the table display. “Here is the run.” A dotted blue line. “Here is the target.” A green circle. “Do you see this?” “That shaft is big enough to fit two freighters, side-by-side.” “Yes.” “That target is the size of a corvette.” “Yes.” “So...we get people in there and it’s not hard.” “As you see.” “Hmm.” “We have given you a command, General. In the field, as ever.” “I’m interested.” The blue and green disappeared, and a new green spot lit the entrance to the tunnel. “This is where we begin the run on the Death Star’s reactor. If we can’t get pilots in there and keep them protected once they enter, we can’t complete the mission.” Oh. Hera tried not to grin. “You want me to guard the entrance.” “You and four squadrons. Can you do it?”

She considered. Shooting down TIE fighters was her specialty. It would be difficult not to miss any in a pitched battle, a real challenge, but she could do it. Shooting them down while staying in one area and not getting blown to bits, herself… Now that was a worthy task. “Yeah,” she said. “It’s good.” “We finally get to attack a Death Star.” “I can’t believe they named it the same thing again.” “This from a galactic empire that decided ‘Death Star’ was a good name in the first place.” “Yes, I suppose that puts it into perspective.” “Don’t you have a transport called ‘Phantom 2?’” “Let’s not quibble, Gial.”

...

Hera saw Rex off at the flight deck. “You be careful,” she told him. “Watch out for those kids, and don’t let them do anything dumb.” He hugged her so hard she thought her ribs would crack. “All I have to do is hide behind some trees, General. You keep up the fancy fighting, okay?” “Born for it.” “Yeah.” He grinned, a wry thing. “Me, too.”

Rex boarded the Tydirium and Hera watched, waiting for it to leave. “General Syndulla!” a voice called from behind her. “Hey, Hera!” Lando, of all people. “Calrissian, how did we get so lucky as to end up with you?”

He ignored her tone, as ever. “Eh, you know how it is. I’ve got some good business interests, some good friends…”

“No. Friends, you?”

“I’m as surprised as you are! Speaking of friends—” he clapped her on the shoulder— “I was sorry to hear about Kanan.” Hera blinked. That had been five years ago.Then, putting on his particular brand of smarmy sympathy, he asked her, “How has your sex life recovered?” It was so unexpected, and so Lando, that she burst out laughing. “Classified!” she told him. “And you will never have the clearance.” “Ah, well, a man can dream.”

He’d changed, but not that much. It hadn’t been a pick-up line, though—just a joke to make her feel better, something naughty and unexpected amidst a long list of sincerity and platitudes. The Tydirium’s engines hummed to life and they watched it take off, Lando uncharacteristically silent as it went.

“Your friends are in there?” Hera asked. “They are.” “Mine too.”

…

Space battles typically didn’t last long. One side blew the other up (or EVERYBODY blew up), and then it was done. Endor was the longest combat flight of Hera’s life.

The Alliance fleet jumped into...a LOT of Star Destroyers. And the Death Star itself, looming as large as a moon. She’d forgotten how big those thing were. Get in fast, she thought. Finish this job before they can scramble all of their forces. “All wings, report in,” she called. “Phoenix Squadron, standing by.”

“Orange Squadron, standing by.” “Blue Squadron, standing by.” “Yellow Squadron, standing by.”

“Phoenix and Orange,” she called. “We’re going to beeline for that Death Star. Blue, Yellow, you’re flanking. Keep Imperial fighters off all squadrons and keep us moving.”

“Copy, Phoenix Leader.”

“Commence run.” Even now alarms were sounding in all those Star Destroyers, on-duty pilots donning helmets and climbing into their fighters, the rest scrambling into their gear. They wouldn’t encounter the onslaught of TIEs for a few minutes, though. She muted the comm. “Chop, what do you read on that thing?”

He grumbled a negative.

Hera frowned. “You have NO readings? Not even static from interference?”

Nothing. That didn’t make any sense. “You’re sure you would be able to tell if they were jamming us?” Unless the Empire had invented some completely new method of scrambling signals, he could tell. Unless they... Of course they’d invented a new method. She unmuted the comm, but Lando’s voice was already calling, “Break off the attack! That shield is still up.”

“You heard him!” Hera called. “About face!” She pulled the Ghost up sharp, watching in relief as the fighters behind her followed suit. She muted the comm again. “Great, Chop. Now what?”

Ackbar’s voice, “We have enemy ships in sector 47!” Oh. That was what. “Do we have a plan for getting that shield down, or is this just for fun?” Hera asked. “Han will have that shield down. Fly pretty, Phoenix Leader.” Fly pretty. He had some nerve. But Rex was on the strike team too, after all, and she remembered throwing fighters at a blockade, trusting her own people to take care of the planetary defenses. Okay, Hera. Keep your pilots alive and buy them time to work down there. “All right, you heard him. Engage those TIE fighters. Chase them away from the cruisers. Stick with your wingman and force them to fight two-on-two. Make your skill count.” A chorus of “yes, sirs” sounded over the comm. She knew every one of those voices. “May the Force be with you,” Ackbar said. Oh, it will, Hera thought. Then five TIEs came at her all at once, and she and Mart dove right into the middle of them, rendering them unable to shoot lest they be caught in their own crossfire. Wedge Antilles led Red Squadron by moments after they’d dispatched the group, howling like a krayt dragon and having way too much fun. Hera and Mart waited until the X-wings had passed, then caught the TIES that were chasing them. Some of them, anyway. Several of the remainder peeled off and came after Phoenix Squadron. Skill, not luck, Hera reminded herself. Skill, not luck. Take it slow and wait for your chance. Don’t make stupid mistakes. You’ve got a long time. Outfly them. And then it was nothing but the melding of instinct and analysis that was combat, flying in her zone, keeping an eye all around her, keeping the other eye on the shape of the battle as a whole.

Until the Death Star started blowing things up.

“Get the cruisers out of range!” Hera screamed into the command channel. All the other squadron leaders were saying the same thing, a cacophony of voices. The fighters could avoid fixed beams like that one, but the bigger ships were toast. “Home One, get out of there!”

“Break off the attack.” Even now, Ackbar sounded steady and measured.

“We won’t get another chance,” Lando argued. “Han will have that shield down, we’ve just got to give him more time.”

He was right. Fight now or lose...just like always. “Back the cruisers out of range; the fighters will engage,” she argued. That thing could blow up a planet, huh? Let them get frustrated trying to pick off fighters one by one. Meanwhile, she could bounce TIES off the surface of the big ships for a while.

Lando was thinking the same thing. “Move in as close as you can and engage those Star Destroyers at point-blank range!” Yeah, that would work.

“Hey, Gold Leader,” she said. “You want to stay and dance?” “I knew you couldn’t resist me forever, Phoenix Leader.”

“Yeah, yeah, you keep those delusions. You’re going to need them.” She shot two TIEs out of her way and sped towards the Star Destroyers. “You take the six Destroyers on the left, Gold Leader. We’ll take the six on the right.”

“Phoenix leader, I like your style.”

“I’ve picked up one!” Dek called, panic in his voice. “He’s got a lock on me.” “Serra, get on it!” Serra shot the threatening TIE out of the air without even slowing down. A moment later she caught an ion blast right in the fuel port and exploded before she could even call for help. “Stay alive!” Hera yelled. “Your only job right now is to keep each other alive until the shield goes down!” She flew a tight loop around the Star Destroyer’s communications tower and lost the TIE fighter on her tail when it cut the corner too close and crashed against the dish. Then she and Mart ran straight at each other, picking off the fighters on the other’s tail as they went. He wiggled his s-foils as he made the close pass over her, pilot-speak for “Hi, there.” She laughed, but all this was minutiae. They’d never take out all of the TIEs, and she hadn’t gotten in any good hits on the Destroyers. Then one of Green Squadron went down, crashing into the foredeck of a Venator class ship and sending it right into a Super Star Destroyer. Not the way she wanted to take those things out.

She lost four more in quick succession, good pilots, her pilots. That was enough to spook a team, turn their luck. “You’re doing great,” she told them, voice as soothing as she could make it. “We’re hanging in there.”

Ackbar made the call—Hera and the rest of her team were too busy to notice. “The shield is down. Commence attack on the Death Star’s main reactor.” Oh, thank the Force, she thought. “You heard the Admiral,” she called. “Same plan as before. Blue Squadron, Yellow Squadron, you’re on flank. Keep us steady on the sides. Phoenix, Orange, straight through the middle. Clear out a path for the strike team.” No more playing the long game. Now it was all about speed. “Wedge, 0.7!” she warned. Her voice was beginning to go hoarse. Well, at this point, both speed and stamina. Guess you’re thankful for those double-shift practices now, kids, she thought.

“I’m going in,” Lando called. His copilot added something and Lando translated: “Here goes nothing.” Then the Falcon disappeared breakneck speed into the half-finished maintenance tunnel, two X-wings following it in.

“Close the gap,” Hera yelled. Her people moved in but those blasted TIEs were too FAST, and four of them slipped by before she could get a lock on them. She took out the fifth and sixth without wasting a shot. “Gold Leader, you’ve got four hostiles on your tail!” “You guys taking a nap out there, Phoenix Leader?” “I believe your exact words were, ‘I won’t do anything you wouldn’t do,’ so just take them out!”

This was the hard part, though. They flew a pattern, one squad guarding the entrance while everybody else kept the ships off of them, but the entire Imperial fleet was headed her way now, and Hera could tell the difference between “poor odds” and “impossible.” She was losing people left and right, trying to coordinate whose shields were maintaining and whose were gone.

“Fly really, really fast in there, Gold Leader!”

Wedge was with him. That should help. “We aren’t exactly stopping for caf, Phoenix Leader!”

She moved so quickly the only thing she remembered about this part later was trying not to die. They heard nothing from the team in the reactor for five long minutes—five minutes was a death sentence in combat terms. Then:

“We got it!” Lando’s voice was pitched so high she barely recognized it. “Phoenix Leader, we got it! Get those fighters clear, we’re coming out!”

“You heard the man, go go go go go go go!” She was expecting to lose even more on the way out, but the Imperial pilots must have gotten a clue when the Rebels started running, and it was as if everyone together had agreed to make a break for it.

She didn’t see the explosion, though the light from its blast behind her nearly blinded her and the concussion knocked the Ghost head over heels. Hera went with the roll, using her ion engines to steer away from other ships until she’d ridden the shock wave out. When she looked back, she saw nothing but glowing particles and heard nothing but a collective, triumphant roar that had her wondering if her ears had gone as well as her voice. They’d done it. They’d done it.

She didn’t learn until later that both the Emperor and Vader had died with the Death Star.

…

They worked through fifteen hours, rounding up enemy combatants and patrolling the forest moon before pilots were allowed to take shifts. During that time they acquired a hundred and seven TIE fighters and a Star Destroyer, and Hera began to fantasize about flying one of those TIEs again. Then she came off duty, landing the Ghost just beyond the Ewok village and hitting the comm button before she’d gotten on the ground.

Sabine didn’t answer. She tried a second time and got a touseled-haired version of her friend with lines from the sheet still pressed into her face. “We won we won we did it!” she shouted as soon as the image appeared. Behind her, Chopper beeped a string of expletive-laden excitement.

“What? Hera! Are you okay?”

“Yes! We won!”

“Slow down. I can’t understand you. Are you all right? What do you need?”

Hera took a deep breath. “Is Jace asleep?”

“Yeah.” “Go wake him up.”

“...Okay, but you so owe me.”

Five minutes later Sabine reappeared with a mostly asleep Jacen, who perked up when he saw her. “Hi, Mama! Hi, Chopper!”

“Okay,” Sabine said. “Go ahead.” “We destroyed the Death Star,” she said calmly and slowly.

“YEAH! “Woo!” Jace and Sabine high-fived. “The Emperor and Vader are both gone.” “Gone?” Sabine asked.

Chopper tweeted a distinct ha-ha. “D-E-A-D.”

“Dead,” Jacen translated with a disturbing level of satisfaction.

Sabine clapped her hands over her mouth in delight. “The majority of the Imperial fleet destroyed or appropriated.” A small squeak from behind Sabine’s hands. “There’s still plenty of clean-up to do, but we’re expecting a formal surrender from most of the Moffs within hours. We won, you guys. The whole war. We won.” Jacen whooped. Sabine picked him up and twirled him around, then swung him into her arms and kept spinning. “We won! We won!”

She watched them flip out for a solid two minutes and wondered how much her son was going to learn about fireworks tonight. Then they calmed enough to talk to her and Jace turned an eager face to the holocam. “Mama, can you come home now?”

She winced, but only on the inside. “Not yet, love. We’ve got to finish making things safe.”

“Well, how long is it going to take to make things safe?” “I don’t know, baby. A few weeks? We’re close now.” Not safe—she wasn’t naive enough to think that they’d fixed everything—but this triumph was more than she’d expected to see within her lifetime. She’d take it, and offer it to a four-year-old as a win.

“Hey—” Sabine attempted to distract Jacen, “—your mom just beat the Emperor. You want to help celebrate?”

“Yeah!” Walk it back, Sabine, Hera thought. He’s going to be telling everyone that I beat the Emperor from here on out. In an instant she realized: With the Emperor gone, so was the galaxy-wide ban on Jedi.

“Hey, Hera,” Sabine grinned at her. “We’re going to break the news to Lothal. It’s not classified or anything, is it?”

“Certainly not! They probably already have a report.” “Okay, then. Talk to you in the morning. WE LOVE YOU!” “We love you! I love you, Mama!” Jace chorused, all smiles. She laughed. “I love you guys, too.” “Okay, bye! LOVE YOU BYE!” “Bye, buddy.”

Hera switched off the holo, put her face in her hands and thought, I’m going to do it. I’m going to do it. I’m really going to make a better galaxy for him.

Then the comm beeped again—Han Solo—and Chopper gave her a skeptical whistle.

“Of course I’m going to give him the ration bars. I just want to make him sweat for a while first. Here, watch this.”

…

“A few weeks,” she’d told them. Hera didn’t make it back to Lothal for four months. After Endor they rode on momentum, running through Onderon, Corellia, Duros, supporting dozens of worlds in their own rebellions. Mandalore liberated itself, which had been a long time coming, anyway. Hera provided the air support for Ryloth’s Resistance, wincing in embarrassment as her father demanded to know when she was going to bring that sweet baby to see him again—right as they flew in and strafed the AT-ATs that had his forces pinned down. Then they destroyed the remainder of the Imperial fleet at Akiva. She commed Lothal whenever she could, setting aside extra time on Jacen’s birthday. When he appeared in hologram that day he was distracted, running onto camera still talking at someone over his shoulder. “Say hi to your Mom,” Sabine’s voice advised. “Hi, Mama! I’m having a party.”

“Wow! Right now?” “No, tomorrow, but you should SEE the balloons Sabine’s doing. They have these things on the inside—”

Sabine’s face appeared, cutting Jacen off. “They’re safe,” she explained hastily. Then she gave him the “shh,” look.

“Who is invited to your party?”

“My friends from school.” Jacen had long been in school on Lothal at that point, happy and popular if often in trouble with his teachers. (“Jacen is outgoing and sweet, a good friend to all,” she recited his last report to herself. “He is ahead of his age group in all academic subjects. For next quarter, we will work on listening to his teachers and making good judgments about when to exercise caution.” She could have written it herself.) “They’re all bringing me presents,” he added. Ah, the important part. “Did you get my presents?” Hera asked.

“Yeah, but I liked the tooka game and the Luke Skywalker toy better than the clothes.”

“Fair enough. Luke still your favorite?”

“Ye-eah. Me and my friends, we’re going to play Jedi today, though.” “Lothal is crazy about its Jedi,” Sabine put in quickly. I didn’t tell him anything, her tone meant. “What are you learning in school?” Hera asked.

“I learned grav-ball!” Never anything about history or engineering or math. All games and friends. She didn’t really mind that—it was so different from her own early childhood. “Oh, and I learned a song for my music program. It’s about ‘hey, little lothcat.’” He launched into it and sang the whole thing to her. “I’ll record the performance for you,” Sabine promised.

“Thanks. Hey, Jacen Syndulla,” she said.

“What?” “You are five years old today. What’s your favorite color?”

“Green! Or yellow.” “Fair enough. What’s your favorite food?” “Ice cream with meiloorun sugar sauce on top.” “What’s your favorite thing to do?”

“Watch Battle Droids and play fight with my friends. But we don’t get in trouble, Mama.” “If you say so. What do you want to be when you grow up?”

“A Jedi!” Kriff. Hera took a deep breath and told herself not to worry.

“Or a pilot or a teacher or an artist. Or maybe this guy who has a pet rancor and he goes around eating up bad guys with his rancor. And then he lets kids ride it, but it doesn’t eat them unless they’re mean.”

Whew. That was...somehow a less disturbing answer. What did her level of relief say about her parenting?

Jacen turned again and chattered with somebody off-screen. “Do I need to let you guys go?” Hera asked. “Yeah, I think so, for now,” Sabine told her. “The first cake blew u— Uhm, it didn’t turn out great. We’re going to buy a new one.” “I really will be back soon.”

“He’s happy, Hera. He misses you, and I am pissed off that I’m not in the fight on Mandalore right now, but we’re okay.” “Soon.”

“Jace, come back here and say goodbye to your mom!” “Bye, Mama!”

“Bye, love.”

After his holo disappeared she thought: I am just like my father. Then she put her head down and sobbed in guilt and self-pity. Chopper was rearranging some crates in the cargo bay, and she thought she had the cockpit to herself, so she didn’t pull herself together until she heard footsteps on the ladder. When Rex poked his head through the hatch she was still mopping her face guiltily.

“Hey— hey— General— There’s no cause for that; we’re the conquering heroes.” “I know.” “Today’s Jacen’s birthday, huh?”

She nodded, then burst out crying again in spite of herself. “I’m RUINING him, Rex.” “Hera, I don’t have a clue what you’re talking about.” “I’m not even there. He knows I’m somewhere in danger. I can’t even bother to make his school performance.” “He’s, what? Four? I’m sure there will be other school performances. I doubt his life is ruined.”

But Hera shook her head. If he stayed on Lothal, he was happy and safe in a society that adored him. And without her. When she came back she’d scoop him up and they’d be off to whatever child-unfriendly outpost came next. “I don’t want to do to him what… I don’t want him to grow up to be like me.” “That’s because you’re an idiot, General.”

She wiped the handkerchief across her face angrily. “You unhappy with the galaxy?” he asked.

She shook her head. “Everything you’ve been through? You’re still out here fighting and believing in us, still happy to be alive? We should all grow up to be like you.” “That’s...incredibly nice, Rex, but you don’t really know me.”

“With all due respect, General, maybe YOU don’t really know you.” They took Coruscant the next week with so much support from its citizens that Hera was able to leave and await a new posting.

She returned to Jacen and Sabine as a General of the New Republic.

#hera syndulla #jacen syndulla #battle of endor #fanfiction #next season #foundation

18 notes · View notes