Bridger hadn't left the cockpit in the time it took for Ventress to lock up Vizago. In fact, he was curled up in the copilot's chair with his knees drawn to his chest. "Sorry about your bounty."

"That's why I have the ship," she reminded him, setting the spare blaster on the console and sinking into the other seat. "Besides, this is much more entertaining anyway."

"You're not an Inquisitor, are you?" he asked a bit quietly, looking over at her.

She didn't mean to laugh (not that time) but in all fairness, she wasn't laughing at the kid. "If the Empire knew where I was, I'd be dead. Dooku would cut off my head before he made me an Inquisitor."

"You know the Emperor?"

"More than I wish I did," she growled, pulling out one of her lightsabers and turning it over in her hands. "Steer clear of him, kid. Him and all his little pets."

Bridger snorted. "I'm trying. If they'd stop hunting me down, it would be a lot easier."

Ever the realist, she didn't try to encourage him. "Get used to it. You're in this mess now, and there's no quitting once you start. You can run as far as you want, but the past has a habit of catching up sooner or later."

It certainly was beginning to look that way to Ezra. Somewhere in the back of his head, he had told himself that eventually, things would begin to revert to the way he was used to living, but it just seemed to keep getting stranger and less familiar. On the other hand, so much was changing all the time that he was beginning to grow accustomed to chaos. He was beginning to develop a 'get-ready-for-anything' mentality.

Speaking of anything... "You're not a Jedi either, are you?"

"Haven't been since I was a child, about your age, I'd guess," she remembered, glancing over at him. "Just a Force-wielding bounty hunter."

"Just a Force-wielding bounty hunter? No wonder you know Master Skywalker," he realized, sitting up properly. "Is that why he trusts you?"

No, it absolutely wasn't, but it made Ventress think about something she hadn't considered before. "Actually, I'm not sure he trusts me at all."

"But you said you were his contact. If you're giving him information, or resources, or whatever else you give him, then he has to trust you, right?"

"Did you trust Vizago when he helped save your friend?"

The kid looked annoyed at the reminder, but he silently conceded.

Looking back at her lightsaber, she continued. "In nearly twenty years, I've never given Skywalker a reason to trust me. What we do is business, but my side of the deal comes with a little bit of revenge. Every bit of information that helps the Rebellion hurts the Empire."

"And that's why you're willing to help me?"

"'Not kill you' is closer to the mark," she warned him, pointing the lightsaber hilt in his direction, "but yes."

Bridger shrugged, having started to get used to her cold treatment. "Well... thanks. It's nice to know that there are some good bounty hunters out there."

She raised a thin eyebrow at him. "Don't mistake 'reasonable' for 'good.' I assure you, there isn't any 'good' out here."

"Come on, none at all?"

"No."

It didn't seem to get through to the kid, he was too used to her now. "Whatever you say."

She shook her head, putting the lightsaber back away. "You don't even realize. Your kind never do."

"My kind?"

"The good ones," she clarified, her voice dropping. "They either die good, or live long enough to see themselves lose faith in goodness."

For once, the kid didn't ask about what she said. He did keep staring at her, though, as she expected. As it turned out, Skywalker wasn't the only one who could teach a lesson these days. "The good ones don't want anything except to help. Maybe they pick a place to focus on, maybe it's for the greater good. They help and they help, and then they take it too far. They help so much that it kills them."

"You mean like a sacrifice?"

"Sometimes," she answered, staring out of the cockpit windshield. "Sometimes it's an accident, sometimes it's a mistake. Doesn't matter, they still end up dead at the end of the day. Then what?"

Looking around, Ezra offered his guess. "They made the galaxy a better place, didn't they?"

Her beady eyes focused on him. "How are they supposed to keep doing that once they're dead? If they made the galaxy so good, what happens when they're gone? Was it not better off while they were still alive?"

"They were doing the right thing!"

"And who's going to do it now? The next person in line? For how long, until they die too? Or do they survive long enough to live for something else?"

Ezra tried not to take it personally, there was no way this bounty hunter he had never met knew about his parents or him, but trying didn't change the fact that he hadn't seen his parents in over eight years. He was 'the next person in line,' he had literally made his own Bridger Transmission. Was Ventress talking about him?

She didn't seem to be paying attention to him at the moment, if she was. Instead she examined her hand. "The good ones die, Bridger. Every time. They help and they give until they give too much, and they don't ever realize that the good they do dies with them."

"It doesn't," he argued, fighting to keep his voice even. "They give to other people, and those people carry on the cause they were fighting for."

"Everyone has a cause, doesn't mean they're all worth dying for."

"What if that cause is helping people? What if dying for the cause makes it stronger? Is that good enough to die for?"

"Would you die for it?"

"...yeah."

"Then you're one of the good ones," she determined, not moving her gaze from her hand. "A bit rough around the edges, but you're getting there. I'll check back in with you in a few years. Let's see what happens to you."

Ezra wasn't sure if he liked the sound of that, but Ventress didn't sound malicious or threatening at all. If anything, she sounded...sad, or disappointed. It only added to her confusing character. He wasn't sure if he was ever going to figure this person out, and he wasn't sure he wanted to.

Silence passed over them for a moment or two, until Chopper beeped from behind Ezra, warning Ventress that they were almost at their destination. Sitting forward in her seat, she manipulated the controls and made the jump out of hyperspace. Ezra looked on and saw a planet he didn't recognize.

"What is this place?"

"Nowhere notable," she explained, "but there's a successful junkyard down on the surface and they'll pay a pretty price for this ship. You'll want to get the shield generators and your ship out of here before that happens."

He stared at her, stunned. "I thought you said not to get any ideas."

Grinning smugly, she engaged the engines and clarified. "I said that because I was supposed to deliver those to Skywalker. Seeing as you're knee-deep in the Rebellion, though, there's no point in wasting fuel when I can just send them with you."

Ezra punched the air, celebrating the surprise victory. Hera was going to be much happier about this when she heard he had squared his deal with Vizago and found power generators. "What about Vizago? Are you going to take him to Lothal?"

"Ha! Not a chance," she laughed, flicking a switch on the dash. "If he's such a successful crime lord, then he'll have no problem getting home by himself."

"He's not going to be happy to hear that."

"Good, that means more entertainment for me," she said, dismissing the fact. "You and your droid better start loading those generators now."

Beckoning for the astromech to follow him, the Padawan left the room and darted off toward the storage space he had been in earlier. Ventress spared a grin before lowering her mask again. She'd schedule to pick up her payment from Skywalker later. Besides, he was probably running around the middle of nowhere right now anyway, and if she didn't have the generators with her, he was less likely to ask how she had gotten them.

~

Ezra was loading the last generator into the Phantom when Ventress walked by with Vizago in tow. Literally, she was dragging him by the horn. It was kind of refreshing to see someone shoving him around, for once.

"How am I supposed to get to Lothal from here?" he demanded, doing his best to walk despite doubling over. "There's not going to be a ship for hire out here!"

"Then you better make a few calls," Ventress suggested, opening the ramp door and throwing him out. Vizago stumbled and barely managed to stay on his feet. "Not my problem."

He turned to Ezra. "You got room in your ship, right?"

Shrugging, Ezra leaned against the wall. "Sorry, but I'm not headed to Lothal, and I'm late as it is. Good luck finding a ride, though."

Furious, he stomped off with hunched shoulders, massaging the horn Ventress had abused in order to get him out. Chopper giggled from beside Ezra, and Ventress lifted her mask up so he could see her smiling. "Good riddance."

"Thanks again for the generators," Ezra told her, pointing back to the Phantom. "I'll tell Master Skywalker they came from you."

"Fine, but tell him I'm coming for my credits eventually," she added, before turning and pointing a finger at him. "Remember, if anyone else asks, I'm a contact of Fulcrum. I don't want wrapped up in your Rebellion drama. I've got my own to deal with."

Ezra nodded, finally knowing better than to ask what kind of drama she was referring to. He turned around and began to climb into the Phantom, then paused. "One more question."

She groaned but didn't refuse. "What?"

"How do you get a yellow lightsaber? I thought they could only be blue or red."

Ventress shook her head and rubbed her forehead. "Go ask Skywalker, I'm not going to explain that to you."

Whelp, he wasn't going to get an answer. Instead, he got into his ship and climbed around the power generators that were taking up all the extra room. Chopper had to take his position imbeded into the hull of the ship rather than riding in the cabin with Ezra, as he had on the way here. There just wasn't room anymore.

As the kid fired up the engines and took off, Ventress watched for another minute longer, wondering if he would be alive the next time she made contact with his section of rebels. When the ship had disappeared into the sky, she looked up again. "At least you weren't so nosy," she complained before lowering her mask again and leaving to speak with the owner of the junkyard.

~

The entire Ghost crew was waiting for Ezra when he touched back down with the Phantom, and none of them looked too happy. Well, Zeb looked a little happy, but that was because he knew Ezra and Chopper were about to get it.

"There better be a VERY good explanation as to where you've been, Ezra Bridger," Hera threatened, arms crossed and eyes blazing. If Ezra wasn't so sure he was going to make up for it with his next few sentences, he'd be more scared of Hera than he was of Offee.

"How's this for an explanation: Not only did I manage to repay Vizago for his favor, but I ran into one of Fulcrum's contacts, and you'll never guess what they delivered," he told them, showing them around to the entrance to the Phantom. No one really believed him until they saw the entire cabin occupied by power generators.

Hera's anger dissipated in seconds. "But...how'd you get so many? And how did Vizago get wrapped up in all this?"

Scratching his head, he admitted, "Something about a business deal, I guess. I don't know, the contact didn't explain very much. But I'm off the hook with Vizago, so we don't need to worry about him anymore."

It was enough to make her happy. She turned to Rex. "Contact Commander Sato. Tell him Ezra Bridger found his generators."

"And here I thought she was gonna pummel you once you got back," Zeb admitted, admiring the loot. "Turns out you actually pulled through."

"He has his moments," Sabine agreed, heading back to the Ghost. Ezra realized he had left some equipment on top of the ship and hoped nobody would remember that he was supposed to clean it while he had been away. Hopefully his accomplishments would make up for it.

While everyone else went back on board, Kanan walked up to his apprentice. "So, you went for a little spin?"

"I was just trying to figure things out."

"And did you?

Ezra looked at the generators, thinking back to his conversation with Ventress. "We're doing the right thing, aren't we? We're fighting for something good?"

He didn't know where this had come from, but Kanan could tell that something had happened out there that made Ezra wonder and maybe even doubt. "Why do you ask?"

"Just something the contact said."

Sighing, he looked at the generators too. "Sometimes, it's easy to lose track of what it's all for, but the work we're doing, even the small things, it's helping people out there. These generators are going to help the people on Rinn survive. Maybe it doesn't directly damage the Empire, but it'll make a world of difference to those people. Do you think that's good?"

His apprentice nodded, smiling a little bit. "Yeah, it's good."

Kanan rested a hand on Ezra's shoulder. "Come on, let's load these onto the Ghost. They aren't going to do anyone any good if they're crammed into the Phantom."