AN: If you're brand new, welcome! Continue on.
If you followed me from "It Begins Something Like This" This chapter isn't necessary unless you need a re-cap; the newest update for you is chapter 7.
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Chapter 1: Awaiting Arms
Parenthood was every joy and sorrow that it had ever been rumored to be. Leia had never been a warrior, never been trained to explicate the power that no doubt existed in the bloodlines in her veins. Instead she'd been a leader.
And leadership, she'd quickly found, was remarkably like motherhood.
So, with all the love she had, and a lot of love she didn't know she was capable of, Leia had become a Mother.
"Mother...?"
She closed her eyes briefly to the outside world, examining the one that was held within herself instead. She'd absorbed motherhood with the same level-headed immovable dedication that she'd plunged into for most of her life. And now... was she letting it go?
"I'm sorry Ben..." The smile returned to her face in the perceived memory of how happy the boy would be at the news. She turned to him with this smile and a hand that stretched to the side of his face. His face, already like his father's... and probably like his grandfather's. But there was also hers.
She hoped it was enough.
She put a gentle hand to the same face that was reflected in her heart, attempting to sooth the anxious expression her son so often wore. This furthered her strength and her hand then went to his thick hair. His nightmares, his eating habits, his tantrums... He needed this.
"Do you remember talking about the Jedi Academy?"
His eyes, so deep and cautious, seemed to harden with a very un-childlike interest.
"Uncle Luke has made his decision to start it... and I am giving you the choice to join him."
It was then that she finally saw that naive glimmer enter Ben's eyes, his full mouth upturning in some weary wonder. Was his mother truly giving him this opportunity? What he'd begged for? What he'd read about? What he'd dreamed about? But no, something was missing...
"Where's Dad?"
The tell-tale sign of Leia's stubbornness was her lips folding into a compressed line. "Your father... has gone to see Luke. He wants to oversee preparations." The truth that both mother and son knew was that Han would be much more unwilling to let his son go. What only mother knew was the arguments and the set up cot outside in the Millennium Falcon.
"It's up to you, Ben..."
She'd half-expected him to jump at the chance, but instead, he'd turned inward as he so often did this past few months. Luke himself had been unsure of gathering up force fledglings for education. Without a larger threat of pressing darkness it seemed preemptive and unnecessary to take children from their homes. That was until he'd seen Ben almost strangle Loth-cat with only the Force that had come from his six-year-old body. That night the family had come over with a hush. Luke retreated to the guest bedroom and disappeared long before anyone else had woken up. The next they heard from him was the letter detailing updates of the new Jedi Academy. Ben had put the post up in his room, happily observing the process. Though she doubted that he understood it was launched partially for him, she would completely denounce the notion as crazy.
Ben seemed far too perceptive for her to denounce him for anything. At the moment, his eyes had drifted somewhere to her collarbone, unseeing and assessing whatever pro-con list that existed in his head.
"...Should I go?"
She smiled at him then, leaning down to face him in the opportunity for a hug. For once, he actually chose to oblige her. She easily fit her arms around him, rubbing his back with a reassuring kiss to his cheek. She suddenly wished he was small enough to enfold into her arms in a sweet bundle that was willing to be taken care of. Instead of this lengthy seven-year-old who had spoken of darkness in his dreams and carried it around in his eyes.
"I will miss you terribly."
...
Age was irrelevant. They put you in with other people who were at your age of development with the Force. But this is not something that could be determined by the simple question directed to each Padawan. Instead, they roughed them in makeshift groups in order to test their measure. What this meant, however, was up to the interpretation of the students. There were three in the group besides himself, and Ben was fighting not to stare at any of them. He was the youngest of the group which consisted of those who had been endowed with the strongest bloodlines of the twenty five students who were now enrolled in Luke Skywalker's academy.
At first, he'd been relieved by the warmth of his Uncle's welcome but this relief stagnated and turned cold at the realization that this was how Luke was going to greet all of his new students. Once again, Ben was not special. He was only special in his dreams, idolized and greater than those around him. Those like the students he currently sat with.
"All I'm saying is that at least one of us is bound to go bad..." One of the students whispered conspiratorially to the other. "My mom thinks so too, she said that if Skywalker wasn't the best then she wouldn't have chanced it."
"Well if I had to put my bets on anyone it'd be that one over there." The other boy said this with his eyes stubbornly lowered but his mouth quirked in a guilty smile. The first boy who spoke, however, had none of that composure and his head swiveled around, settling on Ben for only a second before attempting to further identify who the other boy was talking about. Ben's heart contracted in a familiar anxiety, his hands already itching in preparation to defend himself from any perceived or intended slight from the others.
"No, no, the one sitting over by the rocks. The weird one. The girl."
Suddenly not knowing what to do with his temporary adrenaline build up, Ben forgot his composure and furrowed his attention over to who he now knew they were talking about. Where before he felt insulted that they were talking about him, he now felt slighted that he wasn't the topic of their conversation. With more venom than was necessary Ben finally chipped in.
"No way. She looks like some little weakling."
The subject of conversation appeared more oblivious; despite the fact the entire group had now turned their head to her at least once. There weren't many girls that were sent away to the training camp. And she was one of the few that looked all human, like Ben. Well, maybe all human, she had sharp looking teeth and strangely light eyes. But that doesn't necessarily determine a different species.
"All right men..."
The figure clothed in gray acknowledged him with that sunshine-better-days kind of smile, but did the same to the rest of the students seated on the sand.
"And lady..."
His Uncle amended his statement with a polite nod to his head. Ben's eyes scanned his visage briefly before retreating to the even more familiar figure of his father. Against his wishes a smile touched his mouth at their proximity.
"Tell me. Are we ready to begin?"
...
The tests were difficult. And different for each individual. This meant that even the last person to be tested would not get the chance to prepare themselves for what they knew was coming. At the end, it was only Ben and the girl left to be tested. Luke led them to the edge of the shore.
Already Ben began to stir restlessly with something more than apprehension at being tested. His fear of the water was not based on anything rational but it was potent enough for him to not want to take a bath. So the sight of a sea, even a calm one that sweetly lapped at the shoes of Master Skywalker, was filling him with a dread far beyond what he was ready for her. The girl next to him appeared unfazed by the water but kept glancing over to his face. His Uncle, too, watched him carefully. His face was more guarded now, prepared to be the more distant Master compared to a beloved Uncle. Attempting to appear nonchalant he let his attention wander sporadically to find his father who was now absent. His fear turned cold in his stomach, recognizing the absence with a twinge of betrayal that he always felt.
"Ben."
Luke's voice brought him back to the dreaded task at hand.
"Is there a problem?"
There was no sarcasm or mockery. Ben could have taken this moment to tell his Uncle what exactly he thought of being lead to the water- tell him of the gnawing fear that coated his stomach and contracted his throat. Ben could have said that, but that would have made him a very different young man compared to the one that stood attempting not to tremble in the sand. Finally, the boy shook his head, wishing the girl would look somewhere else with her ever-too-light gaze. At his denial, Master Skywalker moved into the ocean with measured steps, sinking along with his nephew's stomach. He brought out his bionic hand, extended in invitation.
Despite his sweating palms and the fact he could barely hear any direction over the pounding in his head; the boy followed his uncle with a chin held high, now chest deep in the water he dreaded. The fear had cascaded now into conscious thoughts. He thought of what was in the water, what could be in the water, the instability, the hazard. And meanwhile it pushed sweetly on him as if to tempt his opinion to change or to at least wipe away the sweat that was not solely from the hot day.
"Put your head under the water until I tell you to raise it."
His Uncle's piercing gaze held no room for debate and Ben thought that he'd just been delivered a death-blow. The thought of relinquishing his placement into the full control of the ocean was much too like the context of his nightmares. Cruel voices came from the dark along with chilly visions of a hauntingly tall creature wearing a mask of metal. But instead of being the child that he knew he still looked like, the boy lowered his head obligingly. Once under the water the pounding in his ears became overwhelming. The anxiety that seemed to be an ever present enemy crashed over him much harder than the calm waves around him. Under the water he felt his Force respond to his fear and he tamped down his instincts to do what his Master was telling him. To complete his task. He couldn't help but be filled with an impotent rage, certain that his Uncle knew of his fear and meant to exploit him. Well he'd show him.
Unbeknownst to him, Luke's gaze didn't waver from his submerged nephew even as the seconds ticked past.
The girl, however, stirred restlessly at the shore. Finally, she released a breath she didn't know she'd been holding in empathy for the submerged boy. Her classmate; not someone she knew or should care about but it was impossible not to especially when Ben had been under the water for almost a minute. Even without seeing him she still felt his fear screaming, could feel his limbs twitching.
"Isn't... isn't that enough?" Her voice was high and sudden with no bit of her concern hidden but Luke did not even look to her as he responded.
"This is a test." The voice was calm and did nothing to sway the mounting adrenaline that coursed through her veins.
"But... but he's not coming up... What are you trying to do...?"
This time, the Master did not respond. Her wide eyes watched as he put a hand over the boys' head. At first, the girl's fears were assuaged but then heightened to an immediate fever pitch when she realized he was only keeping his nephew under the water. Ben, too, had hopefully perked up at the hand on his head but soon let out an involuntary sob under the water once he realized that his Uncle's hand was meant to stay there. The physical strength it was taking to even stay under the water was causing his small form to twitch, his face screwed up. But it was the strength of his fear that caused him to shake harder, he had never felt so alone, so vulnerable to the dark. His Force rose up at his fingertips to protect him from an enemy that wasn't there and still he tamped it down. He could hear the muffled voices above the water and he would not fail.
"Stop... Stop... Stop it!" What started off as a protest was now working it's way into a full tantrum. Her fingers twitched in panic, feeling his fear ebbing was now a symptom of his fading consciousness. "Let him up!"
At the Master's further lack of action, the girl's legs took her steps toward the water as her hands extended toward the pair. Unthinking, only feeling her objective.
"Let him up!"
The voice had all the power that the Force had provided her with, but instead of jerking up his hand, Luke instead felt his nephew entire body jerk away from him and flip over toward the air. She dragged him with her will alone; her Force was more like thunder as if she'd broken the sound barrier through the water. Ben's half-conscious mind knew to gasp for air despite lacking full awareness. His eyes were unfocused. If the girl seemed shocked by her strength, she didn't show it. Already she was scrambling over the boy she didn't know with a wide panicked expression that then turned to weariness as her Master approached.
"Enwa..." He intoned, now standing over the pair. She hadn't heard him slosh gently through the water, and her gaze was bordering chaotic in its paranoia of his sudden proximity. His nephew was gasping for air and slowly coming to. "You passed."
It was now two bewildered expressions that faced him and he smiled at them warmly. Taking his cloak that was discarded at the edge of the shore; he draped it over both of them. They were dwarfed by it now, but for a second he saw what they would become. And soon, they would outgrow that space where they unconsciously huddled together now.
"Those above us do not always have our best interest in mind. It is up to us to determine how we are being treated as well as how others are being treated."
He put his bionic hand on Enwa's shoulder; her weariness was fading with a dawning expression of comprehension. Ben, meanwhile, had frozen at the words despite the warm hand that his Uncle now rested on his shoulder as well.
"Real strength also relies in our heart, and sometimes we must listen. We must communicate our needs to work together."
He looked meaningfully toward Ben who had now cast his gaze down in shame, his teeth gritted together and his eyes dangerous.
"This is a lesson that both of you would do well to remember."
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