Chapter Text
The courtyard was beautiful in an ethereal way. The plants were almost like ice, crystalline and fragile-seeming. Ezra had been instructed not to touch them, so he refrained. It was tempting, though.
The cross breeze caught him by surprise and he shivered. The interior of the building was supposedly warm by Chiss standards, or so he'd been told. To Ezra, it even seemed comfortable now, compared to the outside.
Not far from him, inspecting the scrolling face of a frost-colored tree, stood Thrawn. "They are treating you well?" He asked without turning to face the younger Jedi.
"Well enough," Ezra shrugged.
He'd spent the last five days being interrogated by miscellaneous Chiss officers. They were polite, though he could tell they weren't entirely thrilled about a human in their midst. They were exceedingly interested in the extent of his abilities as a Jedi, though, and each person who had spoken to him had been accompanied by a young girl - a different one, each time - who Ezra could feel within the living Force.
As for Thrawn, he had acted as Ezra's translator upon their initial arrival. Not long after, they'd been separated. Apparently Thrawn was to be debriefed while he was subjected to questioning. The Chiss, to their credit, hadn't treated Ezra like a prisoner so far, but he wasn't stupid. This was the Unknown Regions. He had no idea where he was or where to go even if he did manage to get his hands on a ship. Hyperspace lanes didn't exist out here. He couldn't just plug in coordinates for Lothal and go home...
Besides: Thrawn had asked him to consider helping the Chiss. Thrawn, Ezra marveled, who never asked his enemies for anything. They hadn't killed each other, despite everything leading to their arrival… wherever this was, exactly. In fact, Ezra got the feeling that Thrawn just might respect him. At least, maybe a little. And even if he didn't, it didn't mean every Chiss had to answer for his transgressions. So, Ezra had agreed to hear them out. He hadn't agreed to the lengthy interrogation, but supposed he should have expected as much.
"The language barrier has not been too difficult to navigate?"
"I mean, they probably would do better with you as a translator," He supposed. For sake of keeping things civil, Ezra let his snide remark about how he wouldn't entirely trust Thrawn to translate for him anyway dissipate on his tongue. "I think they understood most of what I said."
Thrawn nodded, but said nothing else.
The wind picked up again. He pulled his jacket - made of an unknown, thin black material that seemed sturdy but didn't do much against the cold - tighter around himself.
"How do you people - er, the Chiss," Ezra corrected, he was trying to be polite, "Deal with this?" He asked, doing his best not to tremble. "It's freezing out here."
There was no sound but the wind for a while. It figured that Thrawn would stop answering once it suited him, but then again, he didn't have to. Someone else did.
"Didn't do a very good job of warnin' me about it either," They said. Their Basic was accentuated, but not like the Chiss. It sounded familiar. The tone was inviting, as if the speaker were smiling as he elaborated, "The cold."
Ezra didn't turn around just yet. He reached out with the Force, trying to anticipate if this was some kind of test. He flinched in surprise, suddenly realizing that the man behind him wasn't Chiss at all! He wasn't even Force sensitive. Ezra couldn't believe it, having to whirl around to see it with his own two eyes.
"You're… human?!"
The man laughed. It was warm. It reminded Ezra of sunshine. "I am," He said, and the Wild Space twang seemed so much more pronounced now that Ezra had a face to match against the sound.
Ezra inspected the man who stood across the small courtyard in one of the arching entryways. The man was older than him. His hair was the color of Lothalian sand, dark brown with the faintest glint of lighter pieces, blonde and tan. There might have been some hints of gray in there, but not in any real pattern. His eyes crinkled at the outer corners, just a little. Based on that, he presumed the man to be close to twice his own age, somewhere between late thirties to mid forties.
More than that, he felt something shift beside him in the Force. The man didn't even look at Thrawn, though, so the strange lurch, like a dissonant chord plucked on a harp, made little sense. Nothing had happened. Thrawn hadn’t so much as moved, and the newcomer’s gaze still rested intently on Ezra. "If you can believe it, it's almost the end of spring.” Apologetically, he continued, “Though, it's not much warmer here in the summer."
The young Jedi resisted pulling a face, instead looking to Thrawn. Thrawn, who was now staring at the older human so intensely that Ezra thought for a moment he might be in shock. Still no eye contact though, the guy seemed content to ignore him. Snidely, Ezra felt a perverse pleasure at that. The man had an easy confidence about him from his bright brown eyes and a comfortable posture in his all black uniform. He looked at home here, though this - much less anywhere even close to here - could hardly be the man’s homeworld.
"So are you the next one to question me?" Ezra asked. Thrawn finally peeled his stare from the other man to regard him with no shortage of unimpressed and well contained distaste. Whatever uneasy feeling - Ezra couldn’t believe that it was the Force reacting to Thrawn, the man was always stone faced and in control even when his life was in jeopardy - had passed.
"No, that won't be necessary. I was asked to walk you both back to the meeting room. I believe they've decided what to do with you."
-/
The panel was made up of a well rounded group. Military officers, a syndic from one of the more prominent ruling families, even someone who appeared to be a clinician of some sort. At the center sat Admiral Ar'alani, her lips pressed thin and her expression somber as she prepared to deliver the assembled council’s ruling.
For Thrawn and Ezra, it could mean anything. Thrawn did not expect bad news, for he had not gotten the sense that they were particularly angry. Wary, perhaps. The door remained open a moment longer than necessary, making him wonder if Vanto's lingering would break the silence, his commanding officer issuing a sharp reprimand.
It did not. Small, near silent footsteps became audible as a young girl he believed he recognized - a Navigator, Thrawn suspected by her age and uniform - stepped in and moved to stand beside Ezra Bridger, seated to his left. The door closed behind them and there was no further sound to indicate that Vanto remained behind them, permitted to listen. He must have slipped out as the solemn young woman entered.
The seat beside Ar'alani - to her left and his right - remained empty, yet the navigator did not move from her location next to Ezra.
“I will translate for you, Ezra Bridger,” The girl said in softly accented but obviously fluent Basic. Thrawn remained unmoving, but his mind rushed to consider the possibilities that arose just from the girl’s statement.
Ezra’s shoulders rose sharply and he turned his eyes to the young Chiss. “You? But during the-”
Ar’alani called them to order, interrupting the young Jedi with the raise of her hand, palm out. “We do not… lay our cards out all at once,” She also spoke in Basic, though it was far more accented. She looked over Thrawn’s head at the door for a moment with purpose. Switching to Cheunh, her voice instantly became more refined, elegant and sharp with the expectation of being listened to. Ezra sneaked a look at Thrawn as she spoke. He was coiled tightly in anticipation, very obviously preparing to realign whatever his plans were with what the panel had decided.
“This panel has come to a decision regarding what to do with you, Mitth’raw’nuruodo, as well as the Human Skywalker, Ezra Bridger.” The Navigator spoke softly to Ezra in Basic, her voice a gentle chime, almost an echo. Thrawn could only make out his posture from the corner of his eye, but the young Human was rigid and at attention. Despite what his translator said to him, his eyes returned to and remained trained on the Chiss Admiral as she spoke. “It was not an easy deliberation. Your actions under the employ of the Galactic Empire are…” She trailed off. “Concerning.”
Thrawn did not interrupt, but the question burned in his eyes.
The Chiss woman narrowed her bright red gaze upon him further. “We recognize that it is not easy to navigate serving both sides,” She said, with some degree of consideration. “There are expectations that must be met. However,” Her eyes cut to Ezra. He did not shy from it, continuing to meet her head on. “You ordered an assault on civilians, not to mention what your Emperor requested for you to do to the sky-walker...” She looked up toward the door again. Ezra followed her gaze, confusion written into his face, but whatever he saw did not draw a reaction. “It is one of our highest crimes. For all that you have questioned in your service to the Empire, all that you have undermined in what you’ve sworn was your dedication to the greater good,” She frowned. “That you would be capable of this-”
“You take him at his word?”
Ezra’s face was blank, and he did not argue. Perhaps it was because of the young woman speaking softly into his ear in Basic, but perhaps it was due to him being aware of a detail Thrawn does not.
“I did not need his word,” Ar’alani admitted. “You have spoken for yourself. Any incrimination is your own.”
“I have spoken nothing but the truth.”
“And so has the Sky-walker.” She leaned forward ever so slightly, addressing Thrawn directly. “What do you think of your actions, Mitth’raw’nuruodo? Do you believe them to bring honor to the Ascendancy?”
He refrained from speaking, even as the rest of the room waited for him to answer.
Ar’alani seemed to look through him, both appraising and cool. “You are not a fool. There could have been another way.”
“Not to stop the alternative project being developed by the Empire.”
“Your mission,” Ar’alani snapped, “Was not to save the Galactic Empire from its Emperor’s wiles, just as it was not to act as an accomplice to their utter destruction of the remaining Jedi. Your mission was to determine if the Galactic Empire was strong enough to be our allies in the wars to come.”
“It is not,” Thrawn said.
“We are aware,” She replied, almost hostile. “And so remains what to do with you.” She steepled her fingers in front of her, elbows on the dark table. “Do you have an opinion of that?”
“I am a warrior,” Thrawn answered. “First and foremost, as I had hoped to have demonstrated,” It was as much of a defense as he allowed himself, “I serve the Ascendency above all else. My service to the Galactic Empire was meant to help cultivate meaningful relations in the future with a secure government. I carried out the orders I was assigned to that end.”
“The Emperor did not ask you to fire on the innocent beings of Lothal.”
“The Emperor implored me to do whatever it took, as I have said.” His words remained measured and careful, even weight distributed throughout.
The Navigator’s puzzlement stole over her face halfway through her words. “The Emperor-” She looked to the door behind both men. "Tacahn?”
“'Implored,'” Came the reply in a steely Wild Space lilt.
Thrawn flinched microscopically. Patient eyes were drawn to him like predators scenting blood. Except for Ezra, whose facial features shifted from surprise to very obvious concern, the disgraced former Grand Admiral was met with no sympathy.
“Ivant,” Ar’alani motioned to the still vacant chair beside her as if bored. “If you would.”
His footsteps were even and militaristic. His shoulders rolled fluidly as he did, back and down, posture strong and unyielding. He did not look infuriated or angry, there was no facial heat, no obvious tells. He was completely impassive, utterly blank, and that, to Thrawn, was arguably more damning than the complete opposite.
To the older of the humans present, the Admiral asked, “Would you have obeyed him if he gave you this order?”
“He knows I would not,” Said Ivant, meeting Thrawn’s gaze for the first time in a very, very long while. His eyes were hard. He was entirely unreadable.
Thrawn had never seen Eli Vanto like this before.
“This council has considered many arrangements,” Ar’alani said, then paused. Thrawn’s expression remained blank, frighteningly so. It drew the attention of the Navigator until the human made an insinuating nod, reminding the girl to translate, that she’d been lost in her thoughts for too long. “No being in our midst would take orders from another who does not show his dedication to the Ascendency’s best interests, much less its core values.” She rose from her seat, looming above the former Grand Admiral, “Which is why you will not be in command. This council demands that you assist the Human Skywalker Ezra Bridger to assimilate into the Ascendency’s ranks as he has agreed to remain with us at this juncture. You will teach him our language and translate for him until he displays mastery, and correct any other deficiencies identified. You will share in his successes and in his failures, and be responsible for them as if he is an extension of your own being.”
Still, Thrawn did not react. His words betrayed no emotion. “Am I correct to assume this task will continue indefinitely?”
“A smaller committee will oversee your progress. Ezra Bridger.” Her next words are in heavily accented, but still understandable Basic, “You will report to Captain Ivant of the Warship Compass.” Ar’alani nodded and Ivant rose, earning Thrawn’s attention the entire way. “The Navigators have been looking forward to meeting you.”
“We believe,” Ivant said evenly, in a command tone that had the warmth behind it his eyes lacked, “That you will be of great help to our Skywalker Program.”
“You may go, Jedi Bridger” Ar’alani said, dismissing him. “There is one other item that we must address with Mitth’raw’nuruodo.”
“Come,” The Navigator motioned for him to rise so Ezra did. “You will collect your things and I will take you to the shuttle.”
Ezra regarded the committee. “Shouldn’t my…” He struggled to parse the right designation, “My attaché stay with me?”
The Navigator translated, struggling similarly with the term. Ivant corrected her kindly, taking over. His reply came, once again, in Basic. “If you do not trust the Navigator, I will accompany you myself.”
“No,” Ezra said, holding up both hands. “I just-”
“You need not worry about me,” Thrawn interjected tersely and there, finally, was some of that tension.
“You’re kind of making that difficult,” Ezra murmured back, trying and failing not to be overheard. “You’re acting strangely, even for you.”
“Navigator Un’hee,” Ivant said, switching back to Cheunh and politely ignoring whatever exchange was occurring between Ezra and Thrawn. “Please retrieve Syndic Mitth’ras’safis. Give him my regards as well as my apologies that I will not be able to meet him personally.”
“Yes Captain,” The Navigator snapped to attention, quick to follow orders.
“Bridger,” Ivant cast his gaze from the Jedi to the door closing silently behind the Navigator. “With me.”
“You could ask to be dismissed, Captain.”
“You’d prefer me to be long gone before Thrass arrives,” Ivant said. No one bothered to contest it. “This is enough of a farce already.”
“So it is,” Ar’alani supposed. In any other situation, she might be amused. “Go.”
He inclined his head to her respectfully, stepping around the rest of the silent council.
“Admiral.”
She did not smile, but it was apparent that his actions met with her approval. "Captain."
Ezra looked to Thrawn one last time. “You’re sure.”
“Listen to our commanding officer,” Thrawn instructed. Whatever Ezra was apparently reading off him through the Force must have conflicted with his words, forcing the Chiss to continue. “Apparently I am to meet with my brother.”