#swrrequests

Based on this prompt at SWR Requests

Kanan and Ezra are stranded on a Force null planet, leaving Kanan totally truly blind. In addition, Ezra’s legs were hurt or lost or paralyzed in a fight, leaving him unable to walk. Kanan has to carry him while Ezra directs him and tries to ignore the horrible pain. Bonus for Ezra and Kanan both trying to ignore their own pain and fear because they think the other has it worse right now.

I may not have stuck to the prompt entirely, because Ezra isn’t in any pain, he’s just a little inconvenienced.  But it’s something like the prompt, I guess!

Ezra groaned as he brought a hand to his throbbing head and massaged his brow.  His whole body felt sluggish and uncooperative, aftereffects of the stunner blasts that had brought him down.  He peeled open an eye and looked around apprehensively.

To his relief, he found himself not in a cell or interrogation chamber onboard an imperial ship, but lying on the ground, in approximately the same place that they had been ambushed, among leaves so dry they were turning to powder.  Staring upward, as his position, lying on his back, made it easy to do, he could see tall trees and lush greenery stretching as far as the eye could see.

Among the leaves, birds tweeted and the occasional small furry animal scampered from branch to branch.  Higher still, what he could see of the sky beyond the leafy canopy was a brilliant blue.  The air smelled fresh and unpolluted, natural, filtered by the vegetation around them rather than the air recycling units onboard the Ghost.

But something felt… strange.  Off, somehow, as though there were something missing.  He couldn’t quite put his finger on what it might be.

He raised a hand to his throbbing head and massaged his brow.  “Well, I’ve woken up in less pleasant places after a stun blast.”

The leaves rustled a little to his left.  He forced his other eye to open and adjusted his position slightly, so that he could glance over.  He found Kanan sitting a short distance away, back against the trunk of a large, ancient tree.  He hadn’t responded to Ezra’s words.

“Kanan?” he tried speaking a little louder.

Kanan flinched.  Only a little, but it was unmistakable.  As though Ezra had startled him.  He recovered quickly and turned his head in his direction.  “You’re up.”  He smiled, sort of.  “Took you long enough.”

“Yeah, um…” Something was wrong.  It bothered him that he still couldn't tell exactly what it was, but something about this whole situation was off slightly.  “Those stun blasters pack a punch.  And I think I took three of them at the same time.”

Kanan nodded, looking unconvinced. “Three?  Sure you did.”

"I did!" Ezra adjusted his position on the floor, forcing his protesting, uncooperative muscles to lift him to his feet.  He failed.  His arms just about managed to force him into a sitting position.  He wobbled and almost fell forward, managing to save himself seconds before he landed on his face.  His legs tingled so hard it almost hurt.  Experimentally, he tried to bend his knee.  It twitched, just slightly, but otherwise remained completely still.

A kind of vague panic began to gnaw at his relief at finding himself not to be a prisoner of the Empire.  He rubbed at his leg, kneading the flesh of his thigh as hard as he could manage.  He was relieved to discover that he could feel the pressure.  The muscles of his arms responded sluggishly too, though nothing like his legs, which refused to respond to any command at all.

I found a tiny ficlet on Ao3 with this concept.  As I thought about it more, the concept is fascinating - what would happen to someone already more vulnerable due due to his species on the street?

Would this result in a more hardened Ezra, or a more obviously broken one?  One even more convinced you can’t change things, one who just wants to run until he finds somewhere without prejudice?  

Since Ezra doesn’t know it in the season 2 opener, but does by the time they go to Ryloth.  

How would Kanan discuss the morality of changing someone’s thoughts?  Would Ezra be scared of this responsibility?  Who would they test it on, since everyone in the Ghost crew’s got rather strong wills?

From A New Dawn:

The only getaway existed at the far rear of the ship, down one of the branching aisles of the cargo hold. And there, at the far end, standing amid the shelves of secured baradium-357 canisters, waited the person he wanted to see.

“Cozy back here,” Kanan said. “We could send out for flatcakes.”

“Very funny.” Hera held the smile for only a moment.

Ezra is comatose and the only way to pull him out if it is for Kanan to use the force and enter his mind.

Kanan has been blind for almost a year. Upon entering his padawan’s mind, he actually finds himself needing to adjust to all the visual stimulation, but it’s very welcome. He’s also stunned to see how much Ezra’s grown up in such a short amount of time - in his mind’s eye he’s still the blueberry with the floppy hair and feet that don’t touch the ground when sitting on those shipping containers.

(Maybe Kanan also gets to have a surreal moment where he “sees” himself as he is now - through Ezra’s memory of him - and gets to check out the scar over his blinded eyes and that ‘beard of sorrow’ in a mirror in the dream.)

Ezra the Stormtrooper AU

This was my inspiration:

Kanan's gone bucket head. 

I don't believe it.

I'm kinda jealous. I only have the helmet.

(The Siege of Lothal)

 So, in this AU, he gets the whole outfit.  :p

What if, after the Bridgers were arrested, Ezra was taken in and processed by the Empire's version of the Dept. of Children and Families and not left to fend for himself on the streets?  What if some Imperial officer took a shine to young Ezra and encouraged him to make something out of himself...?  (Maybe a young Agent Kallus, perhaps?)  So Ezra ends up going through that training program at the Lothal Imperial Academy (Season 1 episode: Breaking Ranks) for real.  And, yeah, it had it’s problems, but the Empire kept him clothed and fed and...  During his time on the inside, Ezra learned that not everyone working for the Empire is evil.  Some imperials actually want to do some good for the world.  

Ezra never ends up on the Grand Inquisitor’s radar because Kanan never does his 22 pick-up (because the Ghost crew didn’t have Ezra to tell them the wookies were being taken to the Spice Mines of Kessel...  Hence that whole chain of events that led to Kanan revealing himself never happened) (A Spark of Rebellion).  So, Kanan never ends up on the Empire’s radar as a Jedi, so the Inquisitor’s attention is turned to other things.  Force-sensitives aren’t really on anyone’s mind.  Ezra’s just pretty impressive, but...  much like Kanan in A New Dawn, he’s learned to be careful not to be too impressive.  Not that Ezra is aware that he’s force-sensitive...  He just knows he has some sort of edge that is best kept hidden.