Now that the history lesson was over, they needed to focus on the actual mission. The hyperspace jump was already halfway over and they still needed to debrief. Hera led them all into the common room and Anakin inserted a drive into the projector.

"Our target is an Imperial outpost," he began as the schematics for the base materialized in front of them. "There's nothing overly special about it. It's a nuisance, but it's not overly important to the Empire. A hit here will only attract so much attention."

"Why target it, then?" Sabine asked, folding her hands under her chin. Hera shot her a look for interrupting, but Anakin didn't seem bothered by the question.

In fact, he had already on answering it. "Two reasons. One: a lot of information flows through here. Inventory logs, shipment coordinates and times, personnel reports, regional mandates, if there are any. Cells like you operating in this system receive their missions from intel like this."

That alone seemed to satisfy Sabine. It was also good to know where he had been getting the intel he had been feeding them this whole time from. Ezra had another inquiry. "Why this outpost?"

"That would be the second reason," he went on. "It's not far from Lothal. After your stunt above Mustafar, I wouldn't be surprised if the Empire targets the system in order to retaliate at you. I'm hoping that news about Offee, or any other new Imperial agents, will be in here."

"You don't think she's going to be at the base, do you?" Zeb ventured cautiously.

"I doubt it," Anakin assured him. "She's too important to hang around a dinky little outpost, and the Empire doesn't have a reason to suspect an attack there."

Ezra breathed a little easier. If everything he had said earlier was true, he didn't think he was ready for a showdown with a real-life Sith. He barely survived his encounters with the Inquisitor.

Beside him, Kanan crossed his arms. "So, what's your plan?"

To everyone's surprise, Anakin raised his hands in surrender. "Hey, this is your crew, not mine. I told you, I'm just a stowaway."

"A stowaway with a lightsaber."

"Fair, but I'm still not in charge. If you want to get technical, Hera outranks me in the Rebellion."

Even Hera herself looked a little surprised at that. "Seriously?"

Anakin nodded. "Agents aren't a part of the rank hierarchy, so I'm told."

"Then how come everyone listens to you?"

He shrugged. Seven witty responses flew through his head, but he opted not to say any of them. Anakin had gotten better about his professionalism on the job over the years. There were only four people he would choose to get sarcastic with on mission anymore and none of them were here.

Everyone turned to Hera. After studying the layout of the base, she decided, "It looks like sneaking in on foot is going to be the best option. It's not tall enough do a drop-off. Chopper, it looks like you're flying the Ghost on this one."

The astromech saluted her and grunted. It wasn't often that Mom let him fly alone.

"We'll split up into two groups, then," she went on. "One group can come in from the North entrance and go for the main computer. Copy everything you can in five minutes, then make your exit. The other group will serve as a distraction unless you had other plans," she offered to Anakin.

"I'd like to take out the security footage, if at all possible," he suggested. "As Fulcrum, I'm supposed to keep a low profile. We can still make that a distraction, though."

Kanan glanced at Ezra for a moment before putting in his two cents. "Why don't you take Ezra, and probably Sabine, too? The three of you could probably be pretty distracting."

Looking to both teenagers, Anakin nodded and saw their eyes light up a little bit. "Sounds good. You three will get the data, then?"

"No problem," Kanan assured him. "Just keep them off our backs."

"Our best chance is probably this southwest corner," Sabine pointed out. "It's a ways away from the surveillance center, but if we're trying to create a distraction, it will give us plenty of bucketheads to fight through."

Anakin hid a smirk at the term 'bucketheads'. It was definitely the type of nickname a teenager was capable of coming up with. Personally, he had been calling them 'ripoffs', but only to himself and Artoo. Not for the first time, he found himself wondering what Rex and the other defective clones were up to these days, as well as where they were hiding out at.

"Just create enough noise that we can get in quietly," Hera instructed them. "We'll grab the intel and Chopper will pick us up when we're ready."

That sounded good to the crew, so most of them dispersed to prepare for the infultration. Sabine, though, stopped to chat with Skywalker. "Are we going to see some kind of ancient Jedi wizardry from you?"

"And attract unwanted attention?" He raised his arms and backed up. "I'm good, I'll stick to a blaster. Ezra can take care of the light show."

The Padawan froze when he heard that, and when Skywalker walked out of the room, Sabine nudged him. "No pressure."

Ezra shot her a glare. "Easy for you to say, you're not a Jedi."

"Nope! You won't catch me holding a lightsaber," she claimed, grinning. "It'll be good for you to show off to Skywalker, though, won't it?"

"Show off what? I've seen him train before, there's nothing I can do that'll impress him."

"Well, you gotta start somewhere," she reminded him, shrugging as she walked away.

From the next room, Anakin hid a smile. Teenagers were his favorite. Younger kids weren't his forte, but teens? He could work with them all day. It was not difficult for him to channel his inner fifteen-year-old and relate to the puberty-inspired emotions they exhibited so regularly. There had been more than a few teenagers to come through the Rebellion in the past few years, and they all seemed to connect really well with him.

He just hated that they were here. Kids shouldn't have to fight for freedom, and even younger teenagers ought to be allowed to live their lives away from battlefields. Of all the things that had been lost with the fall of the Jedi Order, Anakin was glad this was one of them. No more ordering brand-new Padawans to the front of a battallion. At least anyone who was here fought willingly instead of reasons like 'duty' or 'obligation'. For some time now, he had been advocating to ensure that anyone who was deployed within the Rebellion had to be at least sixteen. So far, nothing had been done about it.

Not for lack of trying, he knew second-hand how busy they were with the Imperial Senate. Padme was loyaly consistent about bringing it up regularly on his behalf, but they dealt with so many other problems that it was usually at the bottom of the list. More than once, he had seen a bright-eyed kid go off on a mission and not come back. Sometimes, even if they did return alive, it wasn't always in one piece. A missing limb, impaired senses, or even a broken soul. Despite the fact that mental trauma left no physical scar, Anakin had watched the deaths of fellow rebels destroy the spirits of far too many people, and by too many he meant more than none. The teenagers who fit this category, Anakin made sure to keep in touch with. He couldn't undo what they had seen but damn it, he wasn't going to let them lose themselves over it.

He trusted Hera's judgement, and he knew she wouldn't have brought on Sabine or Ezra if she didn't think they were up for it. Though not all of Sabine's story was known to him, Anakin expected to see a lot of skill from her during the mission. He had also caught glimpses of Ezra's training, and soon he would see how that training played out in battle. As glad as he was that they could take care of themselves, he also wondered what kind of toll it had taken on them already.

Asking so soon would be inappropriate, but he couldn't help but think about it. He had seen so many bright eyes dim in his life, including his own. There were moments when they would light up again, very specific moments, but they usually didn't happen out here. That happened in safe places, away from battle and injustice and fear. If he could make every place as safe as that, Anakin would do it in a heartbeat. He couldn't do it by himself, though, so he had joined the Rebellion.

Honestly, he imagined that every adult in the Rebellion had some variant of the same thought at one time or another. They fought the Empire now, but they weren't trying to save it for themselves. Their time would likely pass long after this war was over, but it was kids like Sabine and Ezra and Luke and Leia who might live to see justice be restored in their prime. Anakin would defend and strike and struggle as long as he needed to, but he wasn't doing it for himself, not really. He was doing it for every child out in the universe that still had hope, that still had joy.