Ezra sat down as he watched the rest of the team walk off. "It's 'clean the Ghost,' lightsaber training, blaster training," he complained to Chopper, who just chirped back at him. "I kind of miss the old days when everything was simple."

The droid grumbled a bit more until his systems began beeping. Immediately, he rolled over to Ezra and told him what the alert was.

"A distress signal? From who?"

"This is the Broken Horn," a raspy voice announced, broadcasting from Chopper's speaker. "We require assistance."

"Broken Horn?" repeated Ezra. "That's Vizago's ship! Okay. Look, someone's in distress," he reasoned with the astromech, "and if there's one thing I've learned from Kanan, it's that we help people in distress."

He wasn't fooling anyone; both and Chopper knew they just wanted out of cleaning the Ghost. Nevertheless, they both ran over to the Phantom and fired up the engines.

Still, Chopper knew how mad Mom would get if she got back and they weren't there. He tried to warn Ezra but to no avail. "Well, let's go see what Vizago got himself into. I owe him a favor, and this could square us." The droid kept complaining.

"What? I know how to fly," Ezra insisted.

It was true. He did know how to fly. He just couldn't do it very well yet. Still, he managed to pull the Phantom away from the Ghost and into the sky, flying off toward the direction of the distress signal. Before long, the two of them were out of the atmosphere and exiting orbit.

And Chopper was still calling Ezra out. "No, I'm not running away from my problems. I am simply helping someone with their problems. There's a difference," he explained quite matter-of-factly, which didn't convince the droid, but he still didn't try to stop the Padawan.

The Broken Horn grew closer. "That's Vizago's ship, all right. I wonder what happened." Opening a channel, Ezra reached out first. "Vizago! Cikatro Vizago, do you read me?"

No answer came. Chopper asked if they were going to get involved.

"Well, of course, we're going to board the ship," he told him, preparing to land. A minute later, they were on board and exploring through the compartments. It wasn't a very nice ship.

"Vizago must be in trouble," Ezra reasoned. "Why else wouldn't he answer his comm?"

Chopper didn't know. People were irrational sometimes; how was a droid supposed to know? Ezra advanced further, but the door shut in Chopper's face, separating the two. It didn't sound like Ezra noticed. After a moment, Chopper figured he'd find a way around.

No lights were on in the ship, or maybe it was just a very dimly lit ship. Ezra turned a corner and bumped right into something metal, falling backward off his feet. He pulled his lightsaber out and pointed the blaster right in front of him, only to realize that the thing he had bumped into was a deactivated attack droid of some kind—a big one.

"They're shut off," he announced to no one before standing up again and putting his weapon away. Something is definitely not right, he thought. He skirted around the towering droid and kept going toward the cockpit, looking at the many other droids like the first that were also deactivated. They were lining the whole way to the cockpit, which only put Ezra more on edge.

There were some in the cockpit too, but no pilot. "Vizago? Vizago, are you here?" Ezra asked the empty and quiet room.

Or so he thought. "You're a nosy little thing, aren't you?" a female voice asked from the corner of the room, the same one that sent out the distress signal. Ezra drew his lightsaber and pointed the blaster at the person that spoke, a pale woman in dark armor with a mask on.

"Easy, kid," she reprimanded him. "Put the lightsaber away. It won't help you."

"Right, like I wou-wait," he hesitated, before pointing it at her again. "A lightsaber? This is a blaster."

The woman laughed once. "A blaster with two openings and a kyber crystal inside. A bit clunky, but effective nonetheless."

Ezra was thoroughly thrown off now, but he decided to forget about it. "Where's Vizago? This is his ship."

She tilted her head, still looking at Ezra. He couldn't see her face, though, so he had no way of knowing what was going through her head. After a moment, she answered him. "It is also his way of paying for the bounty on his head. This piece of junk no longer belongs to him."

"Bounty? You're a bounty hunter?" he asked, still not lowering his weapon. The hunter didn't seem very concerned, though.

"Good to see you were paying attention," she noticed, walking over to the controls of the ship and fiddling with one of the consoles. "You have a name, kid?"

Unsure of where this was going, Ezra decided to hide his identity. There was probably a bounty on his head too. "Lando Calrissian."

Her head snapped back toward him, and he wondered if he had just made a mistake. "Then you must have grown younger since the last time I saw you. I would have noticed if your hair was blue."

Whelp, that wasn't good. Of all the bounty hunters out there, why did he had to run into the one that knew Lando? Still, she didn't act like she wanted to kill him...yet.

"Did I also forget that you know something about mechanics?" the bounty hunter asked, gesturing to the sparking panel. "Your friend Vizago doesn't know how to take care of his ships."

"I know a thing or two, but who are you? Why should I be helping a bounty hunter?"

She pointed out the front windshield. "Because the Empire won't care who either of us are unless you can talk us out of this."

Sure enough, a Star Destroyer was on the approach. It was a way off, and probably hadn't noticed them just yet, but they would in a minute. Ezra took off his helmet and set it down as he crawled under the panel. He also brought his communicator up to his face. "Chopper, I could use your help up here."

She shook her head at the kid. While he began fiddling with the wires, she turned her attention to the communications panel. Some officer aboard that ship would broadcast any second now.

It took a moment, but they did come through. "Attention, transport. You have breached an Imperial checkpoint."

"We need to jump!" she told the child, glad she had already thought to fire up the shields. "They're beginning to fire."

"Think I got it!" Ezra grunted, and Chopper rolled into the room right on time. He didn't hesitate to plug into the port in the center of the panel. He took over and activated the hyperdrive.

"Let's hope you did!" she growled, but Ezra had pulled through. The galaxy began to blur around them, jumping away from the oncoming fire.

He turned to the bounty hunter, expecting some kind of praise, but maybe that was too much to ask. She did no such thing, just turned away and exited the bridge. "Hey, wait!" Ezra called, running after her. Chopper didn't know who the woman was, but he didn't think it was a good idea to get separated from Ezra again, so he followed.

"Wait, who are you?" Ezra asked, catching up but not getting too close. This bounty hunter was well-armed and probably didn't have a problem with killing him.

She didn't turn around to answer him. "Why should I tell you? You haven't told me the truth."

Crossing his arms, he reminded her, "I'm not a bounty hunter."

"Normally, I would argue that you could be, except you're very clearly not," she reasoned. "Even caution doesn't demand that I worry about you."

"Ouch," complained Ezra, and behind him, Chopper cackled. He decided to let it go, though. "So...who are you?"

"Ventress, if it will shut you up," she answered, mumbling the second part of the sentence. "I'm assuming you'll want off soon?"

The kid hesitated, crossing his arms. "Where's the next stop?"

"The next stop is the last stop. This ship is getting sold and scrapped as soon as we touch down, as well as everything in it."

"Just like that?"

"Just like that," she repeated, not sure how much longer she could stand to humor this kid. "Unless you want to add your little ship to the scrap pile, I suggest you fly off before I sell this piece of junk."

"Okay, okay, fine. We'll get out of your way," Ezra surrendered, but a thought struck him. "I did help you escape the Empire, though. If you're going to sell Vizago's ship, the least you could do is-"

Ventress didn't let him finish his sentence. She laughed over top of him, pausing her walk long enough to open a panel and checking the controls' status. "Don't get any funny ideas, kid. You may not look like Calrissian, but bet there is a bounty on your short rebel head. I'm doing you a favor by letting you go."

Those few sentences alone startled Ezra more than anything else that day. "I...I never said-"

"Oh, please. I know your type. Agent Kallus would be deeply appreciative if I turned you in," she informed him, glaring at him before she shut the panel again. Not that the kid could see, she was still wearing her mask. Pointing at him, she explained, "Luckily for you, I've no particular love for the Empire. I wouldn't push that luck."

He remained silent for a moment, seeming to heed the warning. Then his eyes drifted down, and he broke eye contact with Ventress. Satisfied, she kept walking, hoping the kid wouldn't follow her. She didn't him nipping at her heels for the entire trip.

"Fulcrum?"

She froze on the spot, only realizing then that she had pointed at him with her left hand, the one with Skywalker's callsign painted on her armor. Ventress hadn't anticipated that the kid would recognize it.

Turning, she lifted her mask so she could get a better look at him. Surely, her face startled the kid, but she didn't care about that. "You know Skywalker, then?" He didn't respond, but he didn't need to. It was too much of a coincidence for any other explanation.

Suddenly, she snapped her fingers and pointed at him again, this time with her other hand. "I do recognize you, Bridger. Kallus is hunting you and the rest of your rebel friends from Lothal. You and Jarrus are the Jedi I've heard so much about. Of course, you would know Skywalker."

Ezra was speechless. It seemed like this bounty hunter knew everything about him and the Rebellion in a matter of minutes. He didn't know whether he should be worried or not, but he was already thinking about grabbing his lightsaber again.

As if this situation wasn't already strange enough, Ventress sighed and looked up at the ceiling. "This is you, isn't it? This is your sick idea of a joke! Just my luck, to get stuck with another one of Skywalker's pests. I thought I was done with you lot!!!"

"Wh, who are you talking to?" he asked, although he wasn't completely sure he wanted to know.

"No one you care about," she dismissed him, still looking up. A warm draft flew through the hallway, right into Ezra's face. He blinked a few times to get the wind out of his eyes, and afterward, Ventress groaned and waved him toward her. "Well, come on. As long as you're here, you might as well make yourself useful."

She began walking away from Ezra again, but he didn't follow her right away. Leaning back, he asked Chopper, "Do you know what's going on?" The droid responded that he had no idea. "Good, just checking." With that, he ran off after the bounty hunter, wondering what he had just gotten himself into. So much for fulfilling his favor for Vizago.