Kanan was still under medic's orders to stay back, so he wasn't even on the Ghost when they took off to make the supply run. Even though it was only one person missing, the mission debrief seemed so much quieter without him.

Hera summed up their objective without her usual energy. When she finished, Chopper shut down the projection, and everyone moved to keep themselves busy until they reached their destination. Everyone except Sabine. "So...are we just going to pretend that didn't feel awkward to anyone?"

"Well, what do you want us to do about it?" Zeb growled, gesturing outside the ship. "It's not like Kanan can hop on board. We're already in hyperspace."

"Talk about it?" she suggested, throwing her arms out. Looking over at Ezra, she added, "How did it even happen? I still haven't heard anything from you."

Ezra crossed his arms and looked down. "Because it was my fault. I separated from the group, and because of that, Maul hurt Kanan."

"Maul?" Sabine asked, her eyes growing wide. "The old Sith Lord Maul?"

He nodded but continued to avoid eye contact. "You wanted to know what happened, and that was it. I didn't realize who he was or what was happening, and Kanan paid the price for it. Happy?"

No one spoke or made any attempt to respond. Turning away, Ezra walked off out of the room towards the airlock. Only when they were sure Ezra wasn't listening did anyone dare to react.

Zeb was the first one. "I thought Maul was dead! Your story always made it sound like he had been killed!" he whispered indignantly to Sabine, but she shook her head.

"I did too, but the legend only says he was taken to the Republic by General Tano. I didn't hear what happened to him afterward," she explained, crossing her arms. "I never thought he would still be alive after all this time."

"Where's General Tano when you need him?"

"Her. Ahsoka is a girl's name."

"Well, how was I supposed to know that?!?" Zeb burst out, storming off to his quarters. It was clear he would have liked to slam a door on his way out, but that was a bit difficult as all the doors on the Ghost were automatic.

Chopper grumbled in his general direction, but Hera shook her head. "He's frustrated, Sabine," she told her. "Don't take it personally. He's not mad at you."

She shook her head and stared off to the side. "I know. He's not the only one."

Hera got the message and retreated to the cockpit with Chopper. There wasn't much else to say right now anyway.

When she was finally alone, Sabine glanced down at her forearm guard where the blue chevron stripes were still painted on. Maybe Zeb did have a point. It would be nice to have someone in the Rebellion who had experience with Maul and could take care of him. What if General Tano could join and hunt him down? Sabine would even be willing to help her, in no small part because of what Maul had done to Kanan.

What if she could meet General Tano at all? She had been Sabine's idol for ages, but to meet her and maybe even fight by her side? That would be like meeting Lady Bo-Katan Kryze or some other legendary warrior from the past. Granted, not all of the historical figures of Mandalore were morally sound ones, but neither was Sabine. It would be so cool to meet another Republic-era general and see what they thought of the Empire and the Rebellion. Maybe Agent Skywalker knew General Tano since he had been a general at that time too. Maybe Rex had met her. They were Clone War veterans, after all.

Sabine looked back at the door Ezra had walked out through. One of the reasons she looked up to General Tano was because whenever she heard her story, Sabine always felt hopeful. Right now, what she and Ezra and everyone else needed was some of that hope.

~

Once the doors to the cargo hold closed behind Ezra, he felt behind them to make sure no one had followed him. The last thing he wanted right now was to talk about what had happened on Malachor.

He couldn't get over how guilty he felt for what had happened to Kanan. Not only had he voluntarily split up with his master and Master Skywalker, but he had passed on Yoda's recommendation to go to the stupid planet in the first place. If Ezra had known Yoda wasn't a Jedi, maybe he wouldn't have done such a thing, and none of this would have happened. Kanan would still be able to see, Ezra would have his own lightsaber, and everything would be fine.

Speaking of, he reached down to his belt and pulled the extra lightsaber off his belt. It had a weird attachment piece, not a clip like his had, and even that just went to show how unfamiliar the weapon felt. Ezra turned it over in his hands, examining the hilt. It had thick diagonal stripes running the whole length of the weapon and a weighted end for balance purposes, Ezra guessed. It also had a slanted elliptical opening, just like Master Skywalker's did.

I bet it's from a Jedi that died during the Jedi Purge, he thought, someone he was really close to. Maybe it was a friend or something? He held it with both hands, concentrating on the kyber crystal inside the weapon, and the same blue eyes he had seen before flashed in front of him again.

There it was, the same soul-wrenching feeling he had felt the first time. Something about this Jedi was so painful that even a momentary flash caused Ezra's breath to catch in his throat. He didn't like it, but he would have to fight with this weapon for a while, so he needed to get used to it. Climbing down to the bottom of the hold, he set the lightsaber hilt on the ground and sat cross-legged in front of it. Alright, he thought in conversation with the creator of the saber. What is it that makes you so different?

Ezra sighed and breathed deeply, sinking into meditation. He didn't do it very often and had only ever done so under the guidance of Kanan or Master Skywalker, so meditating on his own was a little weird. He didn't feel very alone, though. It was like a part of the soul of the lightsaber creator was still in the weapon and was accompanying him.

After a few moments, he saw the eyes again, but it wasn't a flash. Instead, he saw them open and blink before focusing on him. The image faded after a few seconds, but it melted into a vision:

He saw an alien girl, but Ezra had no idea what species she was. She had orange skin with white markings on her cheeks and forehead, and instead of hair, she had lekku. They weren't like Hera's, though, this girl had three of them, and they grew into two short points on the crown of her head. Not only that, but the lekku were blue and white, not green. The only reason Ezra recognized her at all was because of her eyes. This girl was the owner of the lightsaber. She had to be.

She was pretty young, too. Ezra couldn't tell for sure, but she looked younger than he was. He could tell that she was a Jedi, though. The girl wore fabric hanging from the front of her belt that had symbols similar to those he had seen in Jedi temples before. Other than that, she was wearing a burgundy top, skirt, gauntlets, and boots, with white leggings to finish the look. It looked a little weird to Ezra, but the girl made it work.

When he peered at her belt, though, the lightsaber hanging there was much different than the one he had been given. It did have the weighted end and the same attachment piece, but everything else looked different. It's a different lightsaber with the same crystal, Ezra realized, but why?

He never got an answer. The scene changed, and the girl was older now. Instead of a separate top and skirt, she wore a dress of the same color and had switched out her white leggings for grey patterned ones. The lightsaber was gone for some reason.

She was standing on a raised platform, alone. Ezra followed the direction she was looking in and saw twelve people standing above her, only one he recognized: Yoda. It looked kind of intimidating, and Ezra was glad he was only observing this memory instead of actually experiencing it.

A strong voice spoke from above them, one that sent chills down Ezra's arms. "...and thus, she will be expelled from the Jedi Order."

What? Expelled? What that even possible? Master Skywalker had said that Yoda had left the Order, but getting kicked out was a whole other thing. From below him, Ezra thought he heard Master Skywalker shout, "You can't do this!!!"

"Your Padawan status will be stripped from you," one of the other Jedi went on, ignoring Master Skywalker, "and you shall forfeit all rank and privilege within the Grand Army of the Republic. You will be turned over to the Republic Court to await your trial and whatever punishment they will set for you. Henceforth, you are banned from the Jedi Order."

Ezra had no context for what had just been said, but he saw the look on the girl's face as the platform lowered. It broke her heart that this was her fate. Whether it was a fair decision or not, Ezra didn't know, but if only for her sake, he believed it wasn't. He looked back up at the Jedi Council, set up on their high pedestals looking down on the poor girl. Yoda was among them, and he didn't seem to be fazed by how hurt the Padawan was. Almost none of them did.

The only one who seemed to care was Master Skywalker, who was standing behind her and staring at her in horror. It was clear that he didn't believe this was fair either, or he wouldn't have objected to her sentence. It wasn't enough, though. Ezra knew that he had only been made a Jedi Master in the past week or so, and this had to have happened before the Jedi Purge, dating it to at least sixteen years ago. Master Skywalker's hair gave it away if nothing else. He was only a Knight right now, and he didn't have any say in the Padawan's sentence. He couldn't protect her.

The vision ended, and Ezra's eyes shot open, slightly surprised at how bright the room was after being in his dimly lit vision. He stared back down at the lightsaber, feeling the same presence he had felt from the Padawan...or ex-Padawan, radiating from the weapon.

"No wonder I can feel so much pain," he realized, voicing his thoughts aloud. "You were expelled. I didn't even realize that could happen."

The presence seemed to fluctuate or shift. It was kind of as if the presence had a facial expression that had just changed to a sort of sad laugh.

Ezra looked around, then remembered his conversation with Master Skywalker. "No wonder he doesn't trust Yoda; he was there with you. He saw you get kicked out. Is that why...?"

Unable to speak, the Padawan couldn't answer him directly, but Ezra blinked and found himself in another vision.

"The Jedi Way?" Yoda said to another Jedi, one Ezra remembered from one of Kanan's holocrons. Ezra was pretty sure his name was Kenobi. They were in a Jedi temple, but a much bigger one than he had ever been in. Also, it was a mess. There were debris and rubble everywhere, and bodies were strewn across the foyer. With his free hand, Yoda pointed at a child lying dead next to one of the broken pillars of the front entrance of the Temple. "That is the Jedi Way. If you will not abandon it now, take you it will, as it has taken the rest of your kind."

"So this is it?" Kenobi asked, his face falling with every step Yoda took away from the temple. "All of the work you've done for the Jedi all nine-hundred years of your life is over?"

His question didn't seem to faze him. Yoda didn't turn back as he answered the Jedi Master. "Led the Jedi to this, my work has. It should never have been started, and end it while I still can, I will."

Kenobi stood and watched as the little green creature kept walking away, leaving the temple behind. Ezra didn't see where he went, but he got the message. The Jedi Purge had just happened, and Yoda was abandoning the survivors.

He opened his eyes again and breathed out, letting the words sink into his head. "Yeah, I wouldn't trust him either after that," Ezra admitted, staring at the lightsaber. "I wish I would have known. I would never have gone to Malachor if I did."

There was no response from the ex-Padawan. A thought occurred to Ezra out of the blue. "Did you ever go back? To the Order, I mean."

Negative energy pulsed from the saber. "Figured I would ask," he explained before sighing and standing up. "Look, I get that you're not a Jedi, but my lightsaber is broken, and I don't have many options right now. I don't know how much you know about me, but I have a job to do, and I need a lightsaber to do it."

The Padawan seemed to understand. An inviting aura reached out to Ezra, and he reached a hand out, pulling the weapon toward him. When his fingers brushed against the hilt, no eyes flashed in his mind. Carefully, he activated the saber and stared at the white blade.

"The color makes sense now," he noted, rotating the lightsaber so it was in front of him. "I promise, I won't use this for long. Just until I build a new one, and then I'll give this back to Master Skywalker."

No objection came from the Padawan. Adjusting his stance, Ezra gripped the lightsaber with both hands and started to run through his blocking sequences. He didn't plan to duel again anytime soon, so blocking would be enough for now. Just until he got a new lightsaber and Kanan got back to normal.

Somehow, the blade seemed a little lighter than it did an hour ago. The Padawan clearly knew a thing or two about being betrayed, about believing in Yoda and having that trust broken, and about pain. It was nice knowing that he wasn't totally alone in his emotions. There was probably more to that alien girl than Ezra knew, but having someone to relate to was a small comfort even if they were most likely dead. It was comforting enough that he could focus on training for the rest of the hyperspace jump, and by the time Hera called the crew to the cockpit, he was much calmer than he had been during the debrief.