One of the benefits of training every so often with Master Skywalker is that he knew drills and methods to practice that Kanan or Ezra would never have thought of. Recently, he introduced techniques to use when both of them were fighting in the same duel. It was very nice in instances like today, when they were fighting two Inquisitors at once.

"I'm thinking this planet's not gonna work out as a base after all!" Ezra called to his master while trying to keep the Seventh Sister off of him. He drew his lightsaber after shooting a few rounds and went in for another strike.

If he had time to think about it, Kanan would have been proud of how Ezra was doing. He was actually dueling now, not just deflecting blaster bolts or swinging his lightsaber aimlessly. As it was, he was slightly distracted by the Fifth Brother. "Seeing that the key part of a secret base is the secret location, no, it will not work out! Where's Chopper?"

Ezra took a few steps back, so he didn't have to talk and fight at the same time. "I signaled him. He's either lost or ignoring us."

"Oh, he's not lost," Kanan growled. They needed more time, so they had to switch the fight up. "Cross!"

Running low to the ground, Ezra let Kanan push him through the air, just like they had practiced with Master Skywalker. He spun and came crashing down on the Fifth Brother, knocking him back a meter or so. He then did the same to Kanan, sending him toward the Sister.

It was nice not to be overwhelmed by Inquisitors, for once. The Jedi were holding their own, but they knew they couldn't last forever. Kanan locked sabers with the Seventh Sister as she revealed her dangerous grin. "Such a handsome face."

Sorry, but I'm taken, he thought silently. "I don't go for crazy...anymore!"

"That's alright, I prefer brains," she taunted. One of her little probe droids crawled over her shoulder, latching onto Kanan's forehead. It tugged him backward, knocking him off balance. He managed to parry the Sister's strokes, but he kept stumbling backward.

Not far away, Ezra noticed and rolled away from the Brother. He deactivated his saber and used his blaster instead, aiming for the droid on Kanan's head. The shots that missed distracted the Sister and the shot that hit the target did so before Kanan fell off the dangerously close cliff face.

Right as he was about to refocus on his own duel, though, he went soaring through the air, right toward the cliff his master had almost fallen over. "Kanan!" he called. He would have fallen to his death if Kanan hadn't grabbed his ankle at the last second.

"I got you! I got you!" he yelled, but now the Inquisitors had them cornered. Both the Seventh Sister and the Fifth Brother brandished their weapons, and the Sister laughed. Man, that was annoying.

"Ezra, I need you up here!" he grunted.

Kanan did not get the response he wanted. "Hold on. I'm busy at the moment." He gave the kid as long as he could, but the Fifth Brother began to attack, so it was only a couple of seconds. Lifting hard, he threw Ezra up in the air and deflected strokes from the Brother.

When he came back down, Kanan caught his hand this time. "Up on three?"

"Fine. One..."

"Two..."

"Three!" "Three!"

Pulling again, Kanan threw him at the Inquisitors. Ezra attracted the Sister's attention, and Kanan was finally free enough to focus all his attention on the Brother while also getting back on his feet. They seriously needed to get off the planet, though.

Somehow, Ezra had already thought of that. "I got us a ride! Come on!" He began to retreat, running back toward the cliff.

Kanan followed him, if only a little skeptical. "I don't like this."

"Just get ready to jump!"

"Jump? You're crazy!"

Yeah, we're all crazy, Ezra argued in his head. "Now!"

For once, it was Kanan screaming as they rushed toward the ground and not his Padawan. Ezra had pulled through, though. A tibidee, of all things, flew up underneath them and caught the Jedi long before they hit the ground. Just like that, they were flying away to safety.

After the initial shock, Kanan smiled at Ezra. "This was you?"

"Yeah. Not bad, huh?"

He nodded in affirmation. Not bad at all.

The two of them flew with the tibidee and two of its buddies for a minute or so while Chopper caught up in the Phantom. He brought the shuttle in front of the Jedi and opened the hatch.

"After you," Kanan chuckled, gesturing to his apprentice. For some reason, he couldn't wipe the grin off his face.

Ezra patted his new friend. "Thanks for the lift." It wailed in response as he stood up to jump to the Phantom, and he couldn't resist a wave back at the creature as the hatch closed. Before long, the ship was exiting orbit and had jumped to hyperspace.

"That was a close one," he remarked, sitting down to catch his breath. Dueling took a lot of energy out of him.

On the other hand, Kanan didn't seem to have the same optimism. Staring at his lightsaber, he added, "Yeah, another close one."

Just as Kanan knew Ezra very well, Ezra knew enough about his master to tell that he was worried. "What's wrong?"

"Everywhere we go, we run into those guys, and I don't like it," he confessed, sitting down. "If this keeps up, we'll never be able to help the rebels establish a base. At least not as long as we're with them."

It almost sounded like Kanan thought he and Ezra were the problem. "So, what are we going to do about it?"

"I don't know. But it's endangering the whole squadron." That was something Kanan never had been and never would be comfortable with. It was the same reason he had been hesitant to go on the run with anybody: he was too high a target. If he ever endangered someone more than he protected them, it was time to leave. Yet fifteen, almost sixteen years down the road, he finally had a crew -a family- that he didn't want to leave or lose. "We're gonna need advice on this."

Luckily, Kanan had one resource he wasn't afraid to consult. Master Skywalker had told him he would advise him if he needed it. They definitely needed it right now.

~

The Ghost was waiting for the Phantom's safe return when they dropped out of hyperspace, in the middle of nowhere. Hera was the first to greet the Jedi on board. "Well, you two seem fine," she remarked, quite relieved. "How's the Phantom?"

Ezra, who climbed down after Kanan, shrugged. "I don't know. Chopper was flying."

"Oh, boy," she muttered, watching the teenager walk past.

On the couch, Zeb paused the adjustments he was making to his weapon. "So, kid, you find us a base yet?"

"No, but we did find two Inquisitors."

"Oh, that's nothing new," he groaned, returning to his work while Ezra walked off.

Hera, after watching this exchange, spoke to Kanan. "He's waiting for you. Why did you have us meet you out here away from the fleet?"

The Jedi couldn't maintain eye contact with her. "It's safer this way."

~

Ezra found the room Master Skywalker was waiting for them in, but he didn't expect to see him meditating. His eyes were closed, kneeling while a holocron projected in front of him. Not wanting to disturb him, Ezra sat down on the opposite side of the room and watched.

"...not many who agree with my school of thought, but I believe it's worth recording," an old man was saying. Ezra didn't recognize him, but his hair looked a lot like Master Skywalker's. "As time passes, I've noticed that more and more Jedi are repressing their emotions in an attempt to master them. To me, it seems almost like a form of denial. We have become so afraid of fear and anger and love that we invalidate its existence altogether. Is that not just as bad as succumbing to it?"

He watched with awe, thinking about the Jedi's words. In the recording, he seemed to be letting the question settle, so Ezra took the opportunity to ask: "Who is that?"

Anakin smiled but did not move otherwise. "Qui-Gon Jinn. He was a Jedi Master years before the Clone Wars, and he taught the Jedi that became my master. If things had gone differently, I might have been his apprentice instead."

"I argue that it is," Master Qui-Gon went on. "Even as Jedi, we are emotionally intelligent people. Our devotion to the Force does not get rid of what we feel. I cannot pretend that I have never felt anger, or fear, or love, and I find myself concerned for those who claim to."

"He kinda reminds me of you," Ezra noted, looking at Anakin. He opened his eyes and smiled before focusing on Qui-Gon's face.

"I say this for those who may find themselves struggling to master their emotions: Hear me and listen. One cannot hope to escape what they feel completely, but one is also responsible for how they react to those feelings. May your heart ache with love, may your knees shake in fear, may your voice rise in anger, but never let these things hinder your mind. Learn from your emotions, but do not let yourself become a slave to them. You are more than the decisions you make or the things you feel. Rise above them, and rest in the Force. It will guide you, as it has guided all the Jedi before you."

The holocron collapsed, and the lights in the room brightened. While his eyes adjusted, Anakin saw a glimpse of a transparent figure standing behind Ezra, just out of the Padawan's line of sight. Qui-Gon.

This wasn't the first time Anakin had seen his Force ghost. In fact, usually, Qui-Gon checked in regularly with the rebel agent. At the moment, though, it just seemed like he was dropping in to say hi. He disappeared as quickly as he had come.

Ezra, who hadn't seen the ghost of the Jedi Master, asked, "Why wasn't he your master?"

"He was killed before he had the chance to train me," Anakin explained, his voice softening. "A Sith, the first one that had been seen in centuries, beat him in a duel. It was his apprentice, my master, who killed that Sith."

"What was he talking about?" he asked, leaning forward and reaching for the holocron. "The denial, or whatever it was?"

Before he answered, Anakin swung his legs forward and leaned on his elbows. This also gave him a moment to think about what he wanted to say. "The environment Kanan and I grew up in was very... apathetic. It happened for different reasons for everyone. Some people, like Qui-Gon mentioned, were afraid that if they allowed their emotions to show, they would fall to the Dark Side. As galactic tensions grew, I think it got worse because of the Clone Wars."

"Why did the war make it worse?"

"Our friends kept dying," he answered, folding his hands. "It's the same reason we were discouraged from having attachments: the pain of loss, of death, it's very powerful. Enough to turn a Jedi to the Dark Side. Instead of taking that risk, which we were taught from childhood to avoid at all costs, it was more common to act as though we had no emotions."

"How is that even possible?" Ezra asked, confused. "No emotions? Not even the good ones?"

Anakin smiled, shrugging. "To be fair, most people were terrible at following that rule. Myself included."

It made the Padawan laugh, which encouraged Anakin. It was a lot easier to acknowledge it when someone thought it was funny. "Why didn't I know this earlier?"

"You'd have to ask Kanan for his personal reasons," he said, deflecting the answer at first. It would be a good conversation for the two of them to have. "I don't teach that doctrine because I disagree with it. In fact, I've spent the past sixteen years or so trying to undo that mentality. I've used this holocron to remind me of Master Qui-Gon's teachings."

"Well, at least now, there's no one to tell you to stop," Ezra pointed out. It was a dark joke, but Anakin could laugh at it. He agreed, quite frankly. He wished Order 66 never happened, and he never would wish for the Jedi Order's death, but he appreciated the freedom that came with its downfall.

The doors opened, and Kanan walked into the room. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything, but I think we need to talk. Remember when I talked to you about hunting down Offee?"

Standing up, Anakin nodded. "I do. Are you reconsidering it?"

"I just think it would be nice if we hunted down the Inquisitors for a change."

"I stand by what I said to you the first time: that may come at a risk," Anakin reminded him, "but I can see the appeal, especially after the stories the rest of your crew has told me."

"And there's Jadis," added Ezra. He had held up against the Inquisitors, but he knew the Sith Countess was a whole other level of danger.

Propping a hand on his hip, Kanan admitted, "I don't disagree, but the fact remains we can't protect our friends from Jadis and her Inquisitors. I can barely protect you," he said to Ezra.

The young Jedi gave him a look. "I don't need protecting."

Though Anakin might have argued otherwise, he crossed his arms and went on. "One of the advantages of having an Order of Jedi is that there was usually someone you could go to for answers. Usually. We don't exactly have a slew of Jedi Masters we can consult for guidance anymore."

Well, that wasn't completely true. Anakin's eyes flitted to the side, hoping to catch another glimpse of Qui-Gon's ghost. He might have something helpful to say, but before he could mention it, Kanan thought of something else: "Then maybe we should ask a Jedi Master."