Chapter Text
“Whatever happens next, happens to both of us.”
Grand Admiral Thrawn uttered the words as spectacular, colorful explosions lit up the sky outside the viewport of the Chimaera Star Destroyer. Ezra Bridger stared him down, their blasters trained directly on each other. Giant purrgil swarmed the fleet, and one passed closely by, blocking the sun and darkening the whole bridge as it gazed at Thrawn with one wizened blue eye that seemed to say, I know more than you do.
“That’s the idea,” Ezra replied. He’d seen this outcome in his meditations. A strong possibility but not certain, presented to him among countless other possibilities. But it was the one that made the most sense now, and became ever-clearer as his actions stacked upon each other and solidified his fate.
Thrawn’s eyes narrowed at him, right before the shattering of the transparisteel viewport broke his stare. And just like that, the tension between the two of them crumbled. Purrgil tentacles flailed about chaotically and the air filled with the cacophony of laser fire and shouting. Thrawn and his Stormtroopers shot at the intrusions, but most of the troopers were quickly knocked out or killed.
Thrawn dodged the swipe of one, shot at others, and then ran towards the exit. But Ezra still stood in his way, and immediately threw out a hand and shoved him back with the Force into the embrace of multiple purrgil tentacles.
“Ezra! Ezra, can you hear me? The purrgil, is it you?” Sabine’s voice rang out from Ezra’s wrist comm. He quickly tapped the answer button so he could respond.
“Yeah! Pretty good, huh?”
”Well, you could’ve told the rest of us.” She sounded exasperated, like always when Ezra pulled some sort of stunt. He could almost see her eye-roll.
“I wanted it to be a surprise,” Ezra said, smiling a little. Keeping up the banter with his family in the face of chaos and terror was easy at this point.
Suddenly, the blast door behind him swooped open with an electronic whir, and Ezra spun around to shove a few incoming Stormtroopers back through the opening with the Force. He grasped the heavy blaster he’d stolen earlier in both his gloved hands and shot down the rest.
A quick, burning pain ripped through his left shoulder blade, causing him to stumble and cry out. Ezra whirled around to see that Thrawn had escaped his binds and was stepping towards him, arm extended out with blaster still in hand as he followed through with the shot. A quick fling of the Force with Ezra’s good arm knocked the small blaster pistol out of the Grand Admiral’s hand, and another shove knocked him back toward the viewport.
With his arm still extended, Ezra called upon the Force to encourage the purrgil to wrap their tentacles around Thrawn once more. A grimace pulled on the Imperial’s blue lips as his arms were snugly trapped against his sides this time.
The blast door whirred open again, a handful of Stormtroopers immediately advancing with blasters drawn. Ezra grit his teeth as he spun around again, shoving them back and closing the door with the Force. His injured arm hung painfully at his side while he suspended his good arm to keep the door shut. He turned his head back towards Thrawn, who was being lifted up off the floor by the tentacles.
Ezra heard the distant sound of metallic creaking and clanking as he sensed the larger of the purrgils latching on to the front of the Chimaera. He took a deep, grounding breath. This was it.
Hera’s voice frantically shouted at him from his comm. ”Ezra! Ezra, get out of there right now! That’s an order!”
Right arm still extended behind him, Ezra raised his left wrist closer to his face so she could hear him clearly. “Hera, I have to see this through to the end.”
Grimacing through the pain in his shoulder, he extended his injured arm towards the front of the ship. He called upon the Force more strongly, telling the purrgil that it was finally time. His arms were extended in opposite directions now, and he couldn’t help but remember that this was exactly how Kanan had been standing moments before he’d sacrificed himself. Like Master, like Padawan.
Ezra’s focus split into multiple tasks: holding the door closed behind him, funneling his will to the purrgil through the Force, and maintaining an air pressure bubble around himself and the rest of the bridge. It hurt. It hurt both physically and mentally. But he pushed through it. This had to be done.
Shards of transparisteel defied gravity throughout the room as Ezra held the bubble, and the bioluminescent arrows along the tentacles all around them began to oscillate in preparation for the jump to hyperspace.
”Ezra, please! Get out of there!” Sabine’s voice this time, tinny and desperate.
He paused, further collecting himself. “I can’t do that.”
As if to punctuate his statement, Ezra threw out another wave of his will through the Force towards the purrgil. The one holding on to Thrawn tightened its grip even further, the room now almost full of glowing tentacles. The Grand Admiral craned his neck against his restraints to look out the viewport. He actually seemed kind of frightened and uncertain for the first time that Ezra had ever seen.
“It’s up to all of you, now,” Ezra told his family, trying to project his calmness and resolution at the people he loved. He held firm, refusing to choke up. He would not cry. This was what he was meant to do.
Outside, the purrgil in the air in front of the Chimaera disappeared in their jump to hyperspace with a distant boom. Ezra’s heart pounded in anticipation. Reality started to bend, and the view of the clouds warped.
Ezra breathed.
“And remember: the Force will be with you. Always.”
He didn’t close his eyes against the blinding light as the purrgil pulled the ship and all its contents out of Lothal’s atmosphere with a deafening thunderclap.