"No, it will not." Ezra's voice may have been filled with ferocity, but Obi-Wan's tone is a quiet certainty. No, the Empire will not stand; there are threads working against it already.

Some of those threads are bright and loud, fierce and brave; those people that stand strong and unyielding against atrocity. (Tala is the whisper through his mind and he lets himself remember that moment when she gave everything she was and is and could be to the cause.)

And some are quiet and strong, like iron weathering a storm. Some are gentle and compassionate, with no way of knowing that they will shape the future of the galaxy. (Luke, Leia -- and he sees them in his mind's eye, bright and hopeful.)

All these people together, known and unknown to him -- they are why he is so certain.

"No, it cannot," he says again.