A/N: This story was written as a prequel novel to promote a new Star Wars fan film coming out on YouTube called "The Age of the Empire", which will be wrapping production very soon. Please 'like' us on Facebook to get the news first when it drops. Trailer coming soon!

Thanks for reading, and hope you enjoy.

Chapter 1: The Initiate

~RR~

She remembered the darkness. In all its sullenness, it's hopelessness. She could feel the presence of death, even though she could not see it. She felt ashamed of hiding, when she didn't check to see if the others were right behind her.

Zera was told to hide, so she did.

The dirt was cold around her, but soft. It was all she could feel under her hand. The dust reached her nose, but she dared not allow a sneeze until she was sure. Even after the silence overtook her ears, she couldn't bring herself to leave her hiding place.

She was told to hide. It was the last thing they had said.

A part of her couldn't accept that they were gone. Her tribe was all she had known. Their culture, their traditions, their honor. Parents, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, cousins… Slaughtered in a single night, in a matter of hours. They were not trained fighters, they were a spiritual race, in tune with their planet and its nature. They were considered savage, expendable… merely animals.

Then the ships descended and they were all taken as slaves or murdered.

They told her to hide, so she did. She now realized, as the stranger came for her in the cave with the sound of clinking chains in his hands, that it was all useless. They found her anyway.

~RR~

He remembered the rain.

Tallen's home planet was a never-ending onslaught of thunderstorms. Cold and chilling to the bone, making his mother's shawl soaked and dripping on him as he walked close behind her. He remembered the stone road, carved into a perfect path into the night. He remembered his huge, bearded father, and the grim and stoic look in his face.

They had been rich once, one of the wealthiest families on the planet. It was a life that seemed so far behind now. On the day they had lost everything, his mother had grabbed him by the shoulders and stared him right in the eye with a serious promise.

"Everything will be fine," she assured him. "Just so long as we are together, we will be okay. We are what's important. Not anything else this world can offer matters. Love, and the people who love you- it's all you can take with you when you die. You and I. Remember that."

He never forgot a word.

They had gone out for dinner that night, something they hadn't been able to afford for a very long time. His parents had claimed that it was a special occasion for it, but wouldn't say what the occasion was, just looked grimly at one another as they made shallow conversation.

When they neared the end of the long walk back home, Tallen saw the tall, dark, slender figure at their door before his parents did. He immediately sensed to distrust him, to be on alert, his hair prickling at the back of his neck.

There was always rain, but this night was different. The rain was heavier, the thunder louder.

"Who is that?" Tallen asked pointing to the slender figure waiting for them at the top of the stairs. His mother seemed distraught at once.

"Forren, he's so early, can't he come back later?" she asked his father, but she seemed to already know his answer.

"Remember what I told you, Elda," his father had spoken with a hiss of authority to his mother. "Be cold."

"Mom?" Tallen looked up to his mother for answers, but they wouldn't come. "What's going on? Who is that?"

The alien started to walk toward him eerily slow, the rubber texture of his skin reflecting against the lighting flashes. Tallen's mother dropped to one knee and unwrapped her shawl from around herself, putting it onto his shoulders for warmth.

"Isn't it wonderful, Tallen?" his mother feigned happiness, even though tears poured from her eyes. "You've been accepted into the Jedi Academy, isn't that amazing? You are very lucky…"

"Are you coming too?" Tallen asked with all of a child's naivety. His mother shook her head, her eyes filling with tears.

"No, I'm afraid you'll have to go alone."

"I don't want to go," Tallen replied without hesitation. "I want to stay with you and dad."

His mother put a hand to her mouth to ease her crying, but his father grabbed her before she could make it in for a hug.

"Elda, please, for the good of the boy," his father scolded. His mother straightened and took a deep, brave breath.

"Tallen," his mother wiped her tears away with her sleeve. "The truth of it is, we can't afford to keep you anymore."

"I find a way to work! I'll do extra chores! I'll do anything, just don't make me leave you!"

"The decision has been made," his father informed him. "Eventually you will understand what an honor this is."

"I don't care about honor!"

"You don't have a choice, Tallen," his father replied sullenly, dragging his mother away as she sobbed openly. "We should have given you up years ago when they first discovered it. You were never really ours."

His father nodded at the slender green alien, and its slimy fingers took the signal touched Tallen's shoulder. Tallen felt his heart surge with fear and dismay.

"No! I don't want to go!" Tallen insisted, screaming back to his parents who were entering the house without looking back. He was already being dragged away into a waiting convoy. "I don't want to GO! NO! LET GO OF ME! I DON'T WANT TO GO!"

Through his terror, something else burned in his chest. He felt the energy swell and churn inside of him, screaming to be let out.

With a jerk of his head back, Tallen yelled out with all his might, letting the power out of him, pushing the alien back along with everything else within a five meter radius. It felt good, like he had been building up to this moment his entire life, just waiting to be freed.

It was the last thought he had before the stun ray hit him in the back.

~RR~

Zera had trouble sleeping when they first brought her to the academy. The beds were too soft, as she was used to sleeping on the floor, usually with one eye open for intruders in her room. It was going to take a while to convince herself that there would be no late-night visitors to cause her harm any longer.

Just as she just about convinced herself of this, she bolted upright when her heard a strange sound in the darkness, of footsteps outside her door. Being naturally curious and not thinking much of the consequences at her young age, she darted from her bed to go investigate. From her window, she could see a small boy about her age darting across the courtyard, carrying a pack on his arm. She watched as he ran full speed to the front gates, then slamming against the door with all his might. He tried to push, he tried to pull, she even thought she saw a little bit of energy burst from his fingers to aid his task, but no luck, the door was solid against a 7 year old youngling.

The next night, the boy came with a tool, trying to pick the lock of the door, still without success.

The third night, he had made a rope from bedding and tried his best to hook it around a tree sticking out over the wall. The branches crumbled under his weight, when could manage to hook anything after a thousand attempts.

Finally giving up, the boy crumbled to the floor, leaning his head on the massive wooden gate and allowing himself to cry.

Zera gathered her robes at once, and snuck out to meet the fellow student at the gate. She knew him immediately, his face familiar when he had been recruited, when they brought him to the main hall kicking and screaming, not long after they had introduced her to the Council herself.

"Tallen?" Zera knelt down about a meter away from him, in case he proved as violent as he had been earlier. The boy looked up to her with anger in his eyes. Zera frowned, commiserating with him.

"I miss my family as well," she admitted, sensing his grief.

"They take you away from them too?" Tallen asked. Zera shook her head.

"No. They're dead."

Zera inched closer, and Tallen recoiled suspiciously. Slowly, Zera reached out to him, laying her hand over his warmly.

"Maybe we can be each other's family now."

Tallen looked to her with surprise, but after a moment, let a small, encouraged grin break through.

~RR~

Zera fiddled with her Padawan braid in her fingers, curious at its strange presence in her hair. It would take some getting used to, as would everything in this strange place they called the Jedi temple. Young students of all species had been with her, as they were inducted into the academy. Strangers would come to her and shake her hand, congratulating her on scoring such an amazing teacher as Master Windu. Everyone seemed to revere him, to know his name. It was strange to think of a time she did not, and she didn't know why that dire night was springing to mind in this very moment.

Only two were allowed to enter the inner temple that day. She was grateful to be one of them, as several dozens of other children were turned away. After the Initiate Trials, she had been finally chosen to be a Padawan Learner.

Zera turned to the other chosen Padawan, who had been adopted by a Master Koon. The boy wasn't much taller than herself, his hair dark as the night, with sharp facial structure and eyes the color of an ocean. He seemed very serious, perhaps even angered.

"I was supposed to learn under Master Windu," he hissed at her out of the corner of his mouth. "I had been working toward this moment for years, and you came along and ruined it."

Zera didn't know how to respond, and was taken aback for a moment. She peered at him with curiousness.

"Calm yourself, Padawan," she replied calmly. "Perhaps you just did not prove yourself worthy."

They glared at one another before the boy's smile broke through, and she returned it in kind. Suddenly he burst into laughter, grabbing at her in a firm embrace, fondly teetering upon one another in the moment.

"It's so good to see you, Zera!" he huffed excitedly, patting her shoulder. "Seems like an eternity since I last saw you!"

"Tallen, it's been a month! I should've have known I'd see you here today too!" Zera replied, rubbing his back. "And here I thought I'd finally be rid of you!"

"I guess we're just destined not to be apart!" Tallen joked, hitting her arm good-naturedly.

As their Masters and the rest of the Council entered the room to formally sanction their transition into their new roles as Padawan Learners, Tallen came close to her and held her by the shoulders, showing the Council their unified front.

Master Windu stood before them, hands folded in front of himself. Zera was inwardly grateful that he not only found her to be a faithful student, but that he had rescued her from a life of slavery when she was only 7 years old. She had spent her whole life being grateful to him, and hoping to live up to the standard he set.

"It seems the strangest thing," Master Windu mused. "You both come from opposite ends of the star system, yet were enrolled on the same day, happened into the same clan, assigned to same dorm floor, and now this."

Tallen shook her excitedly, and she couldn't hold back her proud grin.

"A rare gift, you have been granted," Master Yoda agreed. "To have a friend you can trust! Use it to your advantage, you should, when the rank of Master, you are granted."

"For now," Master Windu went on. "You must say goodbye at last to one another, and hand yourself over to your new Masters, and remember to not bring any attachments with you."

Zera quickly stepped away from Tallen's reach, not wanting to give a bad impression to their new Masters. Even if their attachment was purely platonic, the Masters may still see it as a potential downfall, thus a potential weakness. Tallen seemed a little confused, but let it go.

"Get a good night's rest Padawans," Master Koon instructed. "For your training begins at dawn. Maybe the Force be with you."

The pair nodded, and took a final glance at one another. They had said their goodbyes already before even being selected, it seemed strange to do them again. Zera held out her hand politely, and Tallen sneered at it with distaste. He took the hint, though, and shook her hand back.

"Until we meet again, Vox," he threw in. Zera nodded agreeably.

~RR~

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Signed,
-RedRogue