Seeing some speculation on that skeleton crew show they announced back in May has got me thinking about Jacen Syndulla, and the Empire kidnapping Force sensitive kids, and wild space/the unknown regions...and now I'm thinking, wouldn't it be cool if Jacen found Ezra first?
We start out with Din Djarin, post Boba Fett show. Grogu has been kidnapped by Imperials again, so Din grabs his nearest ally - Cara Dune - and takes off after them.
(Moff Gideon is in Republic custody now. This shouldn't be happening. Why are they still after the child?)
Their hunt takes them into Wild Space, the very edges of galactic maps. And then, at a small trading outpost, they learn that the only way to go any farther is by hiring a navigator. The problem is there is only one on currently on the planet, and he's not interested in taking jobs right now.
(This is gonna get long so I'll put it under a cut)
It's not that Ezra doesn't want to go home. A part of him will always long for the peaceful grasslands of Lothal, the hum of the Ghost, the warm glow of his family - Zeb's roughhousing, Chopper's pranks, Sabine's companionship, Hera's care...
Kanan's steady hand on his shoulder, lending strength and surety to them all
...It's just that by the time he'd got off that planet and actually had access to ships and maps again, it had already been five years. He's spent more time with Thrawn and the other surviving imperials than he has with the Ghost crew.
And it had changed him.
When they escape and get some space to breathe, Ezra, still going by the alias "Kas" and sporting a wild mane and beard (not at all like any of the pictures his family has) is not recognized by Jacen. And Jacen, who has been taught not to give his last name to strangers because it could put a target on his back, certainly isn't recognized by Ezra - Ezra has no reason to even suspect he exists.
And so, once the other rescued kids are dropped off at a secret Guild station to be reunited with their families, we get a nice string of adventures and bonding on the way back to New Republic space. Including but not limited to:
Ezra teaching Jacen how to Navigate (plus a few other tricks)
Darksaber boot camp ("It's a time-honored family tradition!") where Din works through his doubts and fears and finally makes a firm resolution of what his path will be moving forward. Once the conflict within himself is resolved, the Darksaber is nearly weightless in his hands: an extension of his arm, and, in some way he can't quite explain, his soul. (I have many many thoughts about exactly what caused the disconnect between Din and the Darksaber and what it would take to fix it, but that's a post for another time) (I also prefer Sabine as wielder of the Darksaber, but I can't imagine Ezra not helping Din connect to it in this situation)
A really sweet heart-to-heart where Jacen confides in "Kas" his complicated feelings about a missing older brother he's never met, supposedly lost somewhere beyond the borders of known space
Ezra constantly thinking about how much Jacen reminds him of his space parents. He still suspects nothing.
Jacen and Grogu being Best Friends
Ezra saying that Grogu looks just like a "baby Yoda" and then having to explain that no, that's not his species, he just looks like this old Jedi master Ezra met once, and no, he can't tell them where Yoda is because they met in a vision and he's not 100% sure the guy was even alive at the time. It wouldn't be the only time someone talked to a dead person in that temple.
Jacen still suspects nothing.
Not a single person ever thinking to question whether Ezra might be a bit more than a regular Navigator
Ezra thinking that the connection he feels with Jacen means that Jacen is supposed to be his apprentice (which isn't exactly wrong), but...ten seems a little young to be involved in Ezra's line of work. He should probably discuss this with Jacen's family before mentioning it to the kid.
Cara and Din having to deal with 3x more Force Nonsense than they signed up for
Pirates
Obviously, it's all building up to the moment Ezra and Jacen realize who the other is. I've got a couple of ideas for how it could go - aside from one dropping enough hints for the other to figure it out, but that would be boring.
Scenario One
They get all the way to Ryloth (the planet Jacen was kidnapped from and the only one with a family member he's reasonably sure won't be out scouring the galaxy for him).
The ship lands. The ramp lowers. Jacen dashes outside to tackle-hug the old Twi'lek waiting at the bottom, shouting, "Grandpa!"
Ezra, standing at the top of the ramp, blinks hard. "Wait, your grandpa is Cham Syndulla!?"
As his thoughts race, adding 2+2 and getting 'Hera's never mentioned any siblings...' Cham looks up at him suspiciously.
"Do I know you?" he asks.
Ezra's mouth, completely unconnected from a brain currently wrestling with a galaxy-shaking revelation, moves of its own accord.
"Yeah, I helped blow up your house about ten years ago."
Scenario Two
Thrawn figures it out.
This one's my favorite. But I don't have enough time to write it all out right now...maybe sometime this weekend.
I just really want Ezra and Jacen to have a chance to bond without feeling pressured or obligated, guys. I have a feeling Kanan's ghost would hang very heavily over them if they knew who the other was from the start.
(And this way they get to have a few adventures, too)
They're almost back to the Outer Rim when Imperial troops find them. They're caught off guard; Din manages to escape with the kids, but Ezra and Cara are captured.
However, Din does manage one small victory: A tracker planted on the Imps' ship.
While Din tries to figure out how to proceed and Jacen panics, Ezra and Cara are taken to an Imperial base. As they're marched through the halls, Ezra casually greets all his old friends from those five years they spent stranded together.
"Hey Bakali, long time no see."
"Reyna! Love the new hairdo, very snazzy."
"Pacchus, how's your daughter? She'd be, what, seven now? Eight? Man, time sure does fly, doesn't it? Seems like just yesterday she was taking her first steps!"
None of the officers or troopers respond. Some march past as if they don't even see him; some glare. A few duck their heads guiltily and hurry by.
Cara tries not to stare. It's not that she has anything against defectors - because that's clearly what her companion is - but this is just weird.
Finally, they reach their destination: Thrawn's office, a spacious room with an expansive desk, art display, and large windows looking out onto the base and the planet's rugged landscape beyond. And a full squad of Dark Troopers, because Thrawn has dealt with Ezra before.
The two greet each other like old friends.
"Thrawn. I'd say it's been too long, but it really hasn't."
"Ezra Bridger. As flippant as ever, I see. And Cara Dune. The Alderaani shock trooper turned Marshal of Nevarro."
Cara stiffens, fists clenching in her binders.
"It was truly a tragedy, what happened to your planet. Centuries of culture and billions of lives gone in an instant...I warned the Emperor that Poject Stardust was unwise."
"Don't you dare talk to me about Alderaan, Imp!" Cara snarls, lunging forward. It takes three stormtroopers to hold her back.
Thrawn regards her with inscrutable red eyes. "My apologies," he says after a moment.
Ezra huffs. "Cut to the chase, Thrawn. What do you want? If you're after the kids, you've gotta know by now that I wouldn't tell you where they are even if I knew."
"Of course not," Thrawn replies, pacing slowly around his desk. "You hold to your morality far past the point of logic or reason - it is both your greatest strength and your greatest weakness."
"Bold words for a guy whose greatest military defeat came at the hand of one teenager."
Thrawn ignores the interjection with the grace of one who spent five years dealing with them.
"But I do wonder what choice you would make if it was not yourself at risk."
The Grand Admiral activates a holoprojector, and an image of Jacen - taken during his captivity, judging by the expression of fear masked by stubborn defiance - appears in front of them.
Ezra stiffens, eyes blowing wide. Jacen's safe, he reminds himself quickly. He got away, the Mandalorian will take care of him.
"I must admit, I was quite surprised when my informants told me you had kept one of the younglings with you instead of passing him off to the Navigators Guild with the others. It was an anomaly, and thus merited a closer look."
"Not really," Ezra said, trying to sound nonchalant, though his heart was pounding. Whatever happened, he could not let Thrawn realize that he and Jacen had a bond rapidly developing into that of Master and Padawan. "He lives in the Outer Rim, as you probably know since you're the one who had him kidnapped. I was going that way anyway. Might as well take him along."
"Perhaps," Thrawn replies. "However, as I studied this image, I could not help noticing a certain...resemblance."
With the push of a button, two more holos appear, flanking the one of Jacen.
"He looks very much like General Hera Syndulla and the late Kanan Jarrus, does he not? And he seems to be of approximately the right age to have been conceived just before Jarrus's...unfortunate demise. I wonder if he even knew."
Ezra freezes, his mind whirling. His first thought is disbelief, but the Force whispers Truth.
His ears are ringing. His brain is somehow both frozen in place and racing madly, trying to make sense of a universe wherein Hera and Kanan created a child together and that child is Jacen.
Thrawn notices.
The Grand Admiral pauses, eyebrows lifting in surprise. āYou did not know? My apologies. This must be a very distressing way to learn of the existence of yourā¦would ābrotherā be the correct term? I know you considered Jarrus and Syndulla to be something like adoptive parents.ā
At this point, Cara, who has no idea whatās going on but has heard quite enough, jumps in and starts yelling at Thrawn to leave both Ezra and Jacen alone.
Then the windows explode.
Rewind to Din Djarin, alone in uncharted space with only a magical toddler, a panicking ten year old Navigator-in-training, and a tracking beacon.
He can't run a rescue mission by himself, especially with two vulnerable kids underfoot. After some thought (not panicking, thank you very much - Mandalorians don't panic), he decides that their best chance is to hope Jacen can get them back to the Outer Rim, hunt down Bo Katan, and pray it won't be too late by the time he's found help.
But when he goes to tell Jacen the plan, he finds the kids sitting across from each other, eyes closed, utterly (unnaturally, for such energetic children) still.
This is some kind of Jedi magic, he realizes, a spark of hope igniting deep within his chest. He has no idea what they can do, he still understands almost nothing about the Force, but it's a chance.
Jacen has grown a bit resentful of Ezra Bridger.
It seems like people are always comparing him to both Ezra and his dad, neither of whom he's ever even met. And since the war ended and Sabine threw herself fully into searching for their missing family member, she's been around less and less; expeditions growing both longer and more frequent. Jacen knows he isn't the only one who worries that one day, she won't come back at all.
There's a hole in his family, and Jacen doesn't know what to do about it.
It was only natural that he start looking for someone to blame. And Ezra Bridger, his childhood hero, was the logical target.
After all, he's the one who left, the reason his sister keeps leaving, the reason Zeb wants to laugh and cry at the same time whenever Jacen teams up with Chopper to play a prank, and why Mom is always so sad whenever she sees a Loth-cat or a meiloorun or a million other little things.
Everyone keeps talking about how great it's going to be when Ezra comes home, but it's been over ten years - longer than Jacen's entire life. If he's not back by now, it's because he's either dead or he doesn't want to come home.
Jacen doesn't even want to be a Jedi anymore. All Jedi do is die or disappear and leave gaping holes in their families' lives that never go away. So he's been ignoring those little nudges, his occasional flashes of insight his family has always told him comes from the Force. He shoves them away and refuses to listen. He's going to be a pilot, like his mom. The parent who is there.
And then he'd met Kas the Navigator.
Kas had the Force, like Jacen, but he wasn't a Jedi - he used his powers to fly.
Kas used the Force to guide him through the farthest reaches of the galaxy, fighting the Empire and saving people long after the Rebel Alliance said the war was over, and he taught Jacen how to use the Force like that, too.
He was the coolest person Jacen had ever met. Within twenty-four hours of being rescued Jacen had decided that when he grows up, he wants to be just like Kas.
But it turns out that Kas the Navigator doesn't even exist.
Jacen flies through the common room, ignoring how Din and Cara look up in surprise while Grogu reaches for him in concern.
He can feel the toddler's concern. Because Kas - no, Ezra - had taught him how.
He'd shown Jacen how to break through all those walls he'd put up to keep out the Force, how to open himself up instead. And Jacen had let him, because this wasn't Jedi training, it wasn't going to end with Jacen tearing an even bigger hole into his family - it was Navigating.
But Kas the Navigator doesn't exist. Only Ezra the Jedi.
Jacen drops into the cargo hold and scrambles into a small closet, half-hidden behind a few crates. Curled up between the cleaning supplies, arms wrapped tight around his legs, he lets his head drop to rest on his knees.
It's been more than ten years, he remembers thinking. If he's not back by now, it's because he's either dead or he doesn't want to come home.
Well, Ezra wasn't dead.
Some time later - probably only a few minutes, though it feels longer - quiet footsteps track across the cargo bay, heading unerringly toward his hiding place. A pause, and then a soft knock on the door.
"Hey, kid," Ka--Ezra's low voice calls. "Can I come in?"
Jacen glances around the tiny closet. "Not enough room," he grumbles; but, after a moment of consideration, grudgingly adds, "...but you can open the door, I guess."
The door slides open. Ezra settles against a crate a few feet away, looking out across the cargo bay instead of directly at Jacen. His brow is furrowed, like he's gathering his thoughts.
Jacen wants to be mad at him. He wants to scream and rage and demand to know why Ezra had left the yawning crack in his family to gape and fester when he could have just come home. Why did he stop caring about his family, when not one of them has given up on him for even a single second?
But Ezra Bridger was also Kas the Navigator, and Kas was his friend.
A couple weeks ago, during a quiet watch when everyone else was asleep, K--Ezra had found Jacen looking out at the stars.
"Hmm, those look like heavy thoughts," he'd said, and then asked if sharing them would lighten the load.
Jacen had been wondering if Sabine was out there somewhere, still looking for their missing family member, and whether she even knew he was missing yet.
He'd ended up ranting for several minutes about his missing older brother. When he'd explained his conclusion about why he hadn't come home, K--Ezra had gone very quiet. Eventually, he'd said, so soft Jacen had to strain to hear, "Maybe he doesn't think he's ready yet. Maybe he just needs a push."
(In hindsight, the fact that Kas was actually Ezra Bridger was kind of obvious.)
Just when it looked like Ezra had figured out whatever he was going to say, Jacen cut in.
"What did you mean, when you said, 'he doesn't think he's ready yet'?"
Ezra sighed, long and slow. "It's...kinda complicated."
"Then uncomplicate it!"
And for the next half hour, Ezra did his best to do so.
-
"You're right, I should have come home sooner," Ezra concludes. "I can't even use the work I've been doing out here as an excuse - I'd probably have been at least ten times as effective if I'd just asked Hera for some backup. I just..." he broke off; the truth was, he hadn't wanted to come home and interrupt all their lives, only to shatter their newfound peace with the news of what Thrawn was up to and then leave, again.
"For what it's worth, I was planning to go see them after I got you home. I was gonna look up Cham Syndulla on Ryloth and ask him where Hera and everyone was."
He risked a glance at Jacen - Jacen Syndulla, Hera and Kanan's son, his baby brother that he didn't even know existed - the kid was deep in thought, his face all scrunched up just the way Hera's always did (how had he never realized who Jacen was? The signs were so obvious, now that he knew to look for them), but he'd uncurled some from that tight ball Ezra had found him in.
"Everyone misses you," he said finally, accusingly. "A lot. Like there's a hole in their hearts where you're supposed to be."
Ezra closed his eyes. "I know. I'm sorry."
There was a shuffle from the closet, and then a small form tucked himself against Ezra's side.
"They're gonna be really happy to have you back."
Ezra wrapped his arm around Jacen's shoulders, tugging him closer. "Me, too. Now, how about we go make something to eat before Sabine decides to cook dinner?"
The face Jacen made told Ezra instantly that Sabine's cooking skills - and her propensity for ultra spicy foods - had not changed in the ten years he'd been gone.
"Yeah," the kid said, jumping up with an almost amusing alacrity, "that's a pretty good idea."
Ezra chuckled as he followed the ten-year-old back up to the galley and common area.
They were only a few days away from the Outer Rim, now. If all went well, he would be reunited with Hera, Zeb, and Kallus within a week; two at the outside.
After ten long, hard years, he was finally going home,
