Coriolan Kallus.

Ezra was still trying to get used to hearing Kallus' first name. She was also trying to get used to how sweet he had been, because if she hadn't seen it for herself, she wouldn't have believed it.

She also finally met his father.

Drayt Kallus was a man that Ezra would have disliked upon first meeting. He was harsh on his son, and she could see instantly how and which traits Kallus had adopted. He was a military man, who made sure to teach his son every value that had been imparted upon himself, even if it meant smacking his son around when he disapproved of something.

It made Ezra want to take Kallus and run away (which caught her off guard, especially given who she was thinking of).

On the other hand, Kallus didn't know who his mother was or what she was like. The one time he'd dared to ask, in front of Ezra too, it had turned out really bad for the poor kid.

"Don't ask," Drayt had hissed at his son. "And don't ever ask about her again!"

His hand snapped towards Kallus' face, smashing against it with a force that caused him to hit the ground harshly. It made Ezra bristle and march towards Kallus, intent on shielding him until she remembered that she was invisible and in his memories. There wasn't anything she could do and this had already come to pass.

Still...

"You're an asshole," she hissed out, glaring heatedly at Drayt Kallus angrily.

And time passed, where she watched similar incidents and feeling helpless, knowing there was nothing she could do. Kallus, who she had reluctantly come to adore as a sweet, considering child that was kind and often worried about others, began to change through the years as his father molded his son into something different. Kallus' father disapproved of such weakness and sought to stomp it out, and soon enough Kallus began to adapt. Ezra watched Kallus change, learning to become impassive (she saw that face one too many times) and to hide his emotions (but he'd been such an open child...).

Nana had come and gone, leaving behind Kallus. Kallus, who soon became alone with no one else but his father.

At night, Kallus would lay in bed and Ezra would lie down next to him, lightly brushing the young boy's hair back. He'd sleep with tears in his eyes and Ezra would just stay there, even though she knew it was all just memories and there was nothing she could really do. But she still ended up trying, and tried not to think of how no good it was.

Because it really wasn't any fair.

~*~*~

Ezra was a bit of a lonely child sometimes, Kallus noticed. Despite her happy exterior, sometimes the little girl would quietly play by herself in her home. She didn't have any friends, and didn't seem to go out of the house much.

The worse part was that her family, who she loved and would always be around as much as possible, were doing those broadcasts much more frequently now.

It wouldn't be long until they left her behind.

Another effect of her parents focusing on those broadcasts so much was that it left Ezra alone much more often. So she was playing and just being around only herself, and it was no wonder how she would become so lonely sometimes.

Kallus found her endearing though, and wished he wasn't there and watching all this.

"Loth-kitty!" Ezra giggled and scooped up the stray she'd found just outside her home.

"Miaow~" the small Loth-cat squirmed in the little girl's arms.

"Don't play with it," Kallus told her, even though he knew he couldn't be heard. "It could have flees or rabies."

But it went on deaf ears, like he knew it would, and instead Ezra snuggled up against it.

"Mama and Papa, they're recording again," Ezra told it quietly, and Kallus stiffened up. "They're always in that little room and they don't have time for me anymore," she ended sadly.

"They're doing something important," Kallus found himself saying, found himself trying to reassure and comfort her. "They're doing something they feel is important for you and to teach you what is right and to do the right thing."

"I feel so lonely," Ezra continued, oblivious to his murmurings. "I want to cook with Mama in the kitchen and play with Papa in the rain, like we used to. But they don't have time for me anymore."

"Even when they're not with you, their time is always for you and about you," Kallus whispered, watching the little girl start to cry on the Loth-cat.

He walked closer and knelt down, hesitantly reaching out. His hand faltered before he rubbed her head, knowing she probably couldn't feel the gesture.

~*~*~

Kanan frowned as he sat on the chair in the infirmary, watching the two bodies on the separate beds. Kallus and Ezra seemed fine for the moment, but none of them could figure out what was wrong or why they were like this in the first place.

"It just makes no sense," he muttered to himself.

"Nothing really makes sense anymore," Hera walked into the infirmary, giving him a tired smile. "How're they?"

"Stable," Kanan answered, trying not to sound frustrated.

"But?" Hera prodded, knowing something was on Kanan's mind.

"I just don't understand what happened," Kanan admitted. "Or why they're like this."

"So nothing in your Jedi history can compare?" Hera tried to be helpful.

Kanan opened his mouth to answer in the negative, but he closed it and thought on that more closely. There was...

He stood up and walked closer to the two, trying to corroborate the theory he now had. He looked over Kallus, noted the bloodstains on the man's uniform and on his skin. Then he looked over at Ezra, seeing nothing too injurious on her. He placed a hand first on her and then on Kallus.

"He was injured. Too injured," he talked aloud. "Ezra looks fine..."

He could feel his bond with Ezra steady, but something was heavily 'laying' on it, making it lethargic and almost dense-feeling. Like an extra weight had settled on or around it...

Kanan hesitantly felt Kallus, and reached out and felt a ghost of a bond –not connecting him to the ISB Agent, but like a translucent transference of a bond that he was feeling kind of like through second-hand. It wasn't his bond to Kallus...it was Ezra's that he was feeling because of his own bond to her...

He started cursing, causing Hera to look at him in surprise and apprehension.

"Did you think of something, Kanan?"

"A long time ago, in one of the Great Sith Wars," Kanan started with a flat tone, "there was a Jedi Knight named Bastila Shan. She and some others attacked and infiltrated a ship that belonged to Darth Revan, a Sith Lord that was heading the war. He was betrayed by another Sith and ended up close to death, and Shan ended up saving his life and accidentally forming a Force bond."

"Which is what you think –" Hera quickly understood.

"What happened," he finished the train of thought unhappily. "Ezra and Kallus had been running in the same direction. One of the explosions must've really hurt Kallus to the point that he was near death. Ezra ended up saving him for Force knows why, and ended up creating some sort of Force bond between them. Now they're connected and for some reason, also both knocked out and not waking up anytime soon. That I still have no explanation for."

"We'll figure it out," Hera told him softly, placing a hand on his shoulder. "We always do."

Kanan sighed, nodding reluctantly.

"In the meantime, I think we should get the others together and tell them what's happened," Hera suggested. "Make sure everyone knows and if they might come up with any ideas as to what happened for them to still be unconscious, or maybe suggestions as to how to get them to wake up."

"Yeah, okay," he muttered.

The two had better be okay and wake up soon, preferably Ezra. And plus, she had a lot of explaining to do.

~*~*~

Ezra watched Kallus sit at his desk in his room, his face unemotional and making him look much more older than the child he was supposed to be.

"You should be playing," she told him.

His hand swiped across the tablet.

"Being stuck here, being alone...it sucks and you're too young to act like the adult you," Ezra's voice began to become desperate.

Kallus' eyes didn't move from the tablet, nor had his whole body really changed much from the position it had been since he had been sat down at that desk by his father an hour ago.

"You could go read outside," she tried to suggest. "Find some kids and read to them...read under a tree, in the park...Don't just sit and read in this room...Galaxy above, this isn't even a room! It's not a real room! Where are the toys? The pictures, the colors? It doesn't even look like an adult's room! It's just bland and bare and-and unlived in!"

It was driving her crazy. The room was so lifeless and Kallus was becoming more and more lifeless under the influence of his father. She wanted to shake him harshly and stop him from changing from the little boy that she had really come to like, the little boy that had helped out that little girl with the broken doll.

This? This wasn't Kallus. Not the Kallus he should have been. This was just his father and his father's words and his father's lectures and his father's fists –

"Kallus," she stood next to the young boy. "Do you remember when we first met?" she asked suddenly. "Do you remember what I said to you? And what you had said to me? And even at the end, there was a glimpse of the considerate you, the little boy who was sweet, when you went to put your hand on me and instead changed your mind and brushed something off my shoulder. I saw that. I didn't have lint or anything there, but you had your hand already reaching out and it was too late to pull it back without pointing out the move. And even then, it still turned out to be strangely a considerate move of you, 'brushing off lint.' You screwed up looking impassive then, and I can see that this kid is still there."

But he didn't heed her words, bronze eyes fully focused on the tablet he was holding.

"Please," she croaked out, sniffing slightly as she rubbed her eyes.

She didn't want to view his memories anymore.

~*~*~

"Ezra? Darling, we need to talk to you."

Dread filled Kallus at those words, and instinctively he knew just what was going to be said and just what was going to happen soon. For the past week, he'd watched Ezra and with her as her parents argued late in the night, thinking she was asleep when she really wasn't. Now it had all culminated to this point, and Kallus knew that what was to be said had been for her ears only, and he shouldn't be there or hear any of this.

But there he was, and he stayed rooted to the spot as Mira and Ephraim sat their daughter down in front of them, and began explaining what they'd been doing, what the Empire was doing to the people of Lothal and all over the galaxy, what they were fighting for and what they were trying and hoping to teach her and instill in her. Most of all, they explained how they had crossed too many lines and that soon they might be taken away.

But Ezra just started crying and clutching onto them. "I don't care!" she wailed. "I just want you to stay with me! Who cares about the people and the Empire! I just want Mama and Papa!"

"I love you, Loth-catling," Ephraim held onto her, brushing her hair back. "But you must listen carefully. Remember what we are fighting and that what we fight most of all for is you. Your right to live and be free and to choose your life and will. We want you to live a full, happy life –a life of your own and not be forced under the will of the Empire."

Kallus felt himself freeze, wondering if there were secondary meanings to what Ephraim was saying to his daughter, if he and Mira had indeed known that Ezra was Force-sensitive and could have and might've been taken by the Empire had that been found out...

"My sweet, beautiful daughter," Mira kissed Ezra's forehead. "Don't you ever forget how much we love you. We love you so much."

Banging on the door startled all of them, even Kallus who had been watching the scene intently.

"Open up! We're here for Ephraim and Mira Bridger!"

Ezra's parents looked at each other fearfully, before Ephraim took his daughter and carried her over to a closet. He opened it quickly and set his daughter inside, kneeling down so he could face his daughter.

"My beautiful girl," he murmured. "Grow up strong and don't be afraid. Keep that huge, loving heart of yours."

He kissed her nose and then pulled her in for a tight hug, but all too soon he was pulling away and closing the closet as the banging on the door grew louder and more frequent. Mira opened it and Stormtroopers flooded into the small home's living room, putting handcuffs onto Mira and Ephraim and then harshly dragging them out of the house.

Kallus stood with Ezra in the dark closet, keeping quiet as she stifled her sobs and was left alone with the ghostly spectre.