Voom. Voomvoom. Pzzt. Tang! Ahsla skillfully deflected the training droid's low power energy bolt shot after shot. She could sense where the training droid was and where it was going to be. She could also sense Master Janta Thysiap watching her closely. She concentrated, and deflected the next bolt into the droid's off switch. Fzzt. The droid fell to the ground in a smoking heap. Ashla smiled to herself and took off her blinders. The other students soon dismantled their droid attackers as well. As usual, Ashla was the first one done. Again. She wanted to be a Padawan so badly.
"Good job, everyone," the Cantrosian praised. "You are all progressing very quickly. Your skills with a training lightsaber and droid will soon blossom into a real fight with battle droids and your own handmade saber. But for now, it's time for the evening meal. Please put your training sabers on their correct racks, and clean up your droids." Ashla bent over and began cleaning up the still warm scrap pile. "Ashla, if yours cannot be repaired, please put it in the garbage disposal chute."
"Yes Master Janta," Ashla replied. She scraped up the rest of the droid and dumped it into the disposal. Master Thysiap beckoned with her hand for her to come over. Ashla weaved through the other exiting younglings and walked up to where she stood by the large window. "Yes Master?" Ashla asked innocently. The old, cat-like Cantrosian placed her clawed hand gently on her shoulder. Ashla knew what was coming. It was going to be another talk about how she was too eager, and too reckless, and needs to take her time. Ashla was getting tired of waiting. She was the oldest Jedi Initiate by almost a whole standard year in the entire temple. Master Janta gave her a kind and gentle look.
"You are doing very well, Ashla," she said. "You are at the top of your class in every subject. You study hard, are respectful to the masters, and have a kind heart." Ashla perked up at the praise, then stopped when she realized rebuke was coming. "But you are reckless, and cocky. Not unlike two other once-were Padawans who are famous for those traits." Ashla thought of the self-sure and almost arrogant Anakin Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano. They were known well around the Jedi Temple, even though Ahsoka was no longer a part of it. Ashla bowed her head.
"I'm sorry Master. I will try harder," Ashla said, subdued. Master Janta gave a purr-like chuckle. Ashla looked up.
"I know that look," she said, smiling a pointed tooth grin. "Don't worry, dear. When the time is right, you will be chosen by a Master. You have great potential. Come now, before we don't get anything to eat." Master and youngling walked side by side to the food hall. Before they got there, Master Janta's wrist comlink beeped. She turned and spoke into it, and then turned back to Ashla.
"I'm sorry, dear, but something has come up, and I won't be able to accompany you the rest of the way. I will be in the food hall later." Ashla nodded her head understandingly, and continued to the food hall, while Master Janta turned around and began walking towards the Jedi Council room. Ashla got her food and sat by the other younglings in her clan, Bear Clan. Most of the Bear Clan Initiates were all courageous and brave, but everyone knew that Ashla was the most headstrong out of all of them. Ashla chased her food around her plate with a utensil. She wasn't hungry.
Next to her, Mari Amithest poked her shoulder. Mari was a dark skinned human female with long, black hair, and was about a standard year younger. She was one of the headstrong and rebellious pupils, and today her hair had a streak of neon pink in it. Mari was also Ashla's best friend.
"How'd it go? You in trouble?" she teased.
"The usual," Ashla replied, still playing with her food. She mimicked Master Janta's raspy voice. "'You are too reckless, dear'. I'm so ready to be a Padawan, Mari! I don't want to be sent to a farm."
"Don't worry, Ashla," Mari put her hand on her shoulder. "I'm sure we'll be chosen soon. With all this war, more Padawans are going to be made Knights, and twice that number are going to need apprentices. Chian was chosen a month ago." Ashla smiled. Mari was always seeing the bright side of the war. Chian was a Kajain'sa'Nikto who was one of the more timid of Bear Clan. He was chosen by the lesser-known Master Juni'gee of the order, a Rodian male who was currently commanding a battalion of clones on an outer rim world. Chian was fight battle droids while Ashla was still getting scolded by MAster Janta. To make matters worse, Chian was two years younger than Ashla.
"Maybe we'll get another Bear Clan Initiate soon," Mari said eagerly. Next to Mari, Bobby spoke, his mouth full.
"Hey Ashla, are you going to eat that?" Bobby was a human who could eat loads of food and never look it. He never gained any weight. Ashla and Mari rolled their eyes and exchanged looks.
"Help yourself, Bobby," Ashla said, handing him her plate across Mari. Bobby eagerly took it and dumped its contents onto his plate. "Enjoy," she added sarcastically. Across from Bobby sat Liam, a heavy-set human male. He stared longingly at his best friend's plate. Mari noticed his gaze.
"Here," she said, pushing her half eaten plate of food towards him. He smiled and began gorging himself. Bobby and Liam were two of the more quiet Initiates of Bear Clan, but no less brave and fierce. Ashla had seen them gang up on a training simulator and beat the high score on it. It was intense. Jempa, a Whiphid male, sat across from Mari and gave a look of disgust towards Bobby and Liam. Jempa has a very sensitive diet, and only ever eats very little.
"I still not understood how one eat so much," Jempa said in his choppy, accented basic. After so many years at the Temple, he still wasn't fluent, but was speaking Basic amazingly for one of his species. J.K. Burtola glanced at him from the other side of Liam.
"Almost right, pal. But don't worry too much about it. I'm almost done with your translation droid." J.K. was a mechanical whiz. No one but the Masters knew his real name, so everyone called him either J.K. or just J. Just then, Master Janta entered the food hall and looked down at something to the side of her. Ashla noticed and pointed it out to the group. None of the others could see what she had. Master Janta saw them staring, waved, then looked back down at whatever she had. She pointed towards them, and started walking. Soon, she came around the tables and the Bear Clan could see she had two young, Twi'lek female twins, one on each side of her. they couldn't have been more than seven or eight standard years. They were a strangely pretty brown color with hazel eyes. The young girls looked bold, their chins held high and their stride purposeful. One of them was holding a long, metal staff-like rod. The group made it to their table, and Bear Clan stood respectfully.
"This is the Jedi Initiate clan Bear Clan," Master Janta said, gesturing to the standing younglings. She introduced each of them to the Twi'lek twins and then let them introduce themselves.
"Greetings," one of them said. "I am Olana and this is my sister, Alini." Alini bowed and smiled. Alini looked blankly at them. Ashla was about to say something when Alini spoke.
"I'm sorry if I've disturbed you Ashla, but I am blind." She must have sensed Ashla's curiosity. Ashla quickly went to apologize.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean-" Alini cut her off.
"It's alright, I'm used to it. Being blind has strengthened all my other senses, and Master Yoda says it makes me even stronger in the Force"
"Yes, you two are wise beyond your years," Master Janta said. "I know you all will welcome these girls into the clan and take care of them. I will be back in a half hour to take you to your rooms." And with that, she walked towards the tables where the Masters eat together. Olana guided Alini to the table and helped her sit down across from Ashla, and sat down next to her twin. They noticed now that Alini's eyes were scared and hazy. Olana looked at each of them.
"May I describe you to my sister?" she asked. They all nodded, intrigued. Olana began describing each of them to Alini.
"Ashla is an orange Togruta female with two large white patches on either eye that go up to her forehead, and she has head-tails kind of like ours, but hers are blue and white striped," Olana began. Ashla marveled at how clear she was explaining the most basic traits of herself. Alani stopped her sister.
"May I touch them? I have never seen a Togruta before." Ashla obligingly walked over and crouched in front of the seated Twi'lek. She reached out her hand and stroked Ashla's head-tails, and then followed them up to her short montrals.
"They're hollow!" she exclaimed, her blank eyes widening in surprise. Ashla laughed softly.
"Mine are still small, but once them and I grow, I will be able to use them for a sort of echo-location. Do you know what that is?"
Oh, yes," replied Alini. "Sometimes I can use echo-location with the help of the Force." She tapped her staff on the ground, and a hollow noise reverberated softly. "Master Yoda is still teaching me how, though." Ashla stood back up and walked over to her seat. Olana continued.
"And Mari is a human female, with a lovely smile and dark hair with a pink streak in it."
"She sounds very pretty," Alini said. Mari blushed. "Why is it pink?" Mari thought about how to answer for a moment.
"For distinction," she settled on. Alini nodded.
"Bobby has bright red hair like fire, and blue eyes like the sky. He has freckles across his nose and cheeks. I bet he has a sense of humor and likes to eat." Alini grinned and nodded.
"I don't like to eat," Bobby protested. "I love to eat!" Him and Liam laughed and bumped fists across the table. Olana moved on.
"J.K. has brown hair darker than our skin, and has green eyes. I'll bet by the tools on his belt he's good with machines and he seems very responsible." J.K. beamed.
"What kind of tools? Are they like the ones from our village?" Alini asked, curious. J.K. took a small hydrospanner and a little vibropick from his pouch and passed them to Alini.
"Be careful," J.K. warned. Alini studied them with her hands carefully. She pursed her lips together in confusion.
"These are so strange. What do they do?" She asked, confounded.
"Hold one of them up, and I'll tell you." Alini held up the hydrospanner. "That one's a hydrospanner. It's like an all-purpose socket wrench."
"Hydrospanner," Alini said, trying out the new word. "And this one?" she held up the vibropick.
"That is a vibropick," he said, clearly enjoying himself. "It vibrates, and I can use it to test things." Alini fingered them each again, then handed them back.
"Definitely not like the ones in our village," Olana said. "Liam seems to be good friends with Bobby, and has brown hair and eyes. He thoroughly enjoys food as well. I would guess that he is a little shy, but fierce when need be." Liam blushed.
"Jempa is a Whiphid male. He-"
"What is a Whiphid?" Alini asked, her sightless eyes troubled. Gently, and with more tenderness than Ashla would have thought possible for the Whiphid, Jempa took each of her hands in his own and placed them on his face. Alini looked surprised at the rough texture of his hairy skin on his long, snout-like face. He dropped her hands and she smiled. "Thank you," she whispered softly. She turned abruptly towards Ashla. "You may ask your question, I don't mind."
Ashla stared at her in shock and surprise. "How- Oh, nevermind. Have you always been blind?"
"No. When we still lived on Ryloth, for we were discovered as Force-sensitive at a late age, we lived in a large village. One evening, our mother and father took us to the city limits so we could play in the tall grasses growing there. We were only two or three, so we didn't fully understand what happened until now."
Olana began, "There had been few attacks on our village by the lylek, but that night, a whole pack came. They attacked ferociously, and our parents tried to fight them off, but were killed defending us. One pounced on my sister and scratched at her eyes. I got scared and unknowingly used the Force to blow them all away. They ran and the people in the village came out to see me holding Alini, her face bloodied. They separated us, and I wasn't allowed to see Alini until she was strong again." Olana paused, remembering the terrible events. Alini continued for her,
"I could only see really blurred images for a while, then it all went away. Olana was always there for me. Then I started using the Force to see. I can't see colors or faces, but I can see outlines if I concentrate hard enough. I can picture colors if I am told what they are, and I already know what Twi'leks and humans look like. Humans came to our village before the attack. A visiting Jedi Knight heard about the attack and evaluated us as Force-sensitive and took us here to the Temple. We weren't placed in an initiate clan until now because the Masters only just decided to put us in this one."
"Wow," Mari said. That's amazing!" The twins grinned. Master Janta came back to their table and smiled.
"It looks like you are getting along swimmingly! I will show you to your new quarters." Everyone followed Master Janta to the youngling dorm hall. She helped the girls get settled in to their individual dorms. When she finally left, Olana rolled up her sleeping mat, grabbed her belongings, and walked to the dorm across from her in the near darkness. She went inside without knocking and sat next to her sister.
"What do you think?" Olana asked, unrolling her bed roll next to her sister's.
"I think we'll learn a lot, but I have a strange feeling about everything here. Like something bad is going to happen."
"Me too. I feel," Olana paused, trying to think of the right word. "Apprehensive. Yes, that's it. I feel apprehensive." Alini nodded in agreement.
"What do you think of the others? Can you see anything?"
"I don't know. I haven't tried yet. Shall we do it together this time?" Alini asked.
"Yes." Olana and Alini sat across from each other with their legs folded. They shut their eyes and concentrated. They reached deep into the Force, trying to see the future. Then, a vision came.
'Darkness. Evil. Death. Hatred. The balance of the future hangs on the decisions of one man. So full of fear and anger was he, and desperate for help. Ashla. A critical decision. Jedi and younglings alike, dead. White faceless warriors, bringing death. Ashla choosing. Safe or sacrifice. Fear. Then courage. Courage like never before. But sadness. She knows what is coming. A mournful goodbye, a distraction. Masacre. Dying. Death.'
The vision ended.
"Olana," Alini said weakly, then tipped over onto her side. She curled into a ball, terrified. "Is this true? Could this happen?"
"Alini, remember what Master Yoda says," Olana said, trying to give herself and her sister courage. "'Always in motion, the future is'. That is just one future of the thousands."
"But we saw it. The Force chose to show that one to us. Are we being warned?"
"I don't know. Do you think we should tell someone?"
"No. Remember that one saying that the old woman in the village had? 'One often brings his fate upon him by trying to forestall it'. I don't think there is anything we can do." Olana took Alini's shoulders gently and guided her back to the bed roll. They laid down, and Alini fell asleep. Olana stayed awake, her mind if it did happen? Olana didn't want to lose her sister. She finally closed her eyes and drifted into an uneasy sleep.
The morning went by quickly. The twins got up early to have private lessons with Master Janta, because Master Yoda was on Kashyyyk fighting in the war. They joined the rest of Bear Clan for morning meal. After that, Bear Clan joined Clawmouse Clan for Force Studies. Each picked a partner from the opposite group and worked together to lift large and heavy metal plates using the Force. Joint lifting is very difficult, because it requires the two Jedi to be completely in sync. Ashla and her partner, a Rodian male managed to lift the heaviest one to the ceiling together. When they realized where it was, they got so excited it dropped to the ground and shattered a desk. No one was harmed. Then, Political Sciences, and History. They were required to meditate solitarily for an hour, and then the midday meal. They sat down at their normal table.
"I don't know about you guys," Mari said nervously, "But I've had a really bad feeling today. I sense danger."
"Me too," said Ashla. "I sense sadness. Do you think another Jedi got killed on the battle-field? that's always very sad."
"I feel more foreboding," said J.K. Was it just her, or did Ashla see the twins stiffen nervously?
"Anyone else?" She asked, eyeing the twins.
"No," Olana replied shortly, staring at her plate. Everyone else shook their heads. Ashla was still suspicious, but she let it go. She could always ask them later. Sooner than they knew it, it was evening. Ashla, Mari, and the twins were walking to the archives to do some studying when they saw Masters Windu, Fisto, Kolar and Tiin walking briskly towards the Temple entrance. Outside, the Temple cab waited patiently for them. Ashla and the others sensed tension between the masters and something else far away. The four younglings looked at each other. No one wanted to ask the obvious question. What was going on?
"I have a-" Mari started
"Bad feeling about this?" Ashla finished for her. Mari glared sarcastically at her, but Ashla didn't notice. "I'd feel a lot better if I knew where the boys of Bear Clan and Master Janta are. You guys?" Everyone nodded in frightened agreement. They turned and walked off towards the dorms. They found Bobby and Liam in one together meditating, and J.K. and Jempa in another working on the translation droid for Jempa. They told them what they had seen and everyone looked uneasily at each other. They decided to go and find Master Janta and to stay together. They went out into the main hallway, and the great Anakin Skywalker ran past them, almost knocking Alini over. Alini stopped and whispered,
"Olana…..Was that?"
"Yes," Olana whimpered. It was the young man they had seen in the vision. The one whose shoulders carry the balance on the galaxy.
"What is going on?" Ashla cried angrily. She turned to the twins. "There is something you're not telling us!" Mari put her arm in between Ashla and the frightened girls. She pushed Ashla a few steps backwards.
"Ashla, they are only children. You can't expect them to know what is going on."
"Mari, they know something! I just know they do." Olana spoke up.
"She's right," Olana bowed her head. "Alini and I had a vision. The temple was on fire. That Jedi holds the fate of the universe." She didn't tell Ashla about the role she played. Not yet. Ashla looked shocked.
"We need to find Master Janta. Now." They took off running towards Master Janta's favorite place to be. The Jedi Temple meditation garden.
They found her deep within the garden, near its center where it is supposed to be the most peaceful. She looked down calmly from the tree she was in.
"Good evening children. Am I late for something?" She leaped out of the tree and landed expertly in front of them in a crouch on a fours like a cat. She looked at them curiously.
"Master Janta, something terrible has happened!" Ashla exclaimed. She rapidly told her about what they had seen, with the others jumping in occasionally. When she was finished, Olana and Alini told her about the vision they had had. They left out the parts about Ashla. Master Janta looked at them worriedly, then gasped. She fell back against a nearby tree, and held a clawed hand over her rapidly beating heart.
"Master Janta!" the younglings exclaimed. They rushed to her, and she held out a hand to stop them.
"I am all right. The Masters you saw leave are dead. A Sith lord has killed them," the Younglings looked at her in horror. "I feel we are under attack. Come, we must get the other younglings to safety!" And with that, she sprang up and bolted through the garden with cat-like agility. The others had some trouble keeping up, but she waited for them and the exit. "We will start at the dorms. Ashla, I want you to sound the alarm." Ashla nodded. All younglings were taught how at a young age. Master Janta opened the door and they could hear blaster fire and lightsabers somewhere in the temple. Ashla turned left and bolted up the nearest set of stairs, and Master Janta took the others down the hall towards the dorms. Ashla pumped her arms and legs, and finally made it to the control room. She put in the password, and locked the door behind her. She then searched for the button that would set off the alarm system and open the intercom. She pressed the button, and a series of siren began to wail. She opened the intercomm and put the microphone to her mouth and said calmly,
"Attention all Jedi personal. The Temple is under attack. I repeat, the Temple is under attack. This is not a drill. Attachers: unknown. This is not a drill. Protect the younglings! Guard the nursery and the archives! The Temple is under attack!" she shut the intercomm off and flipped the repeat switch. Now her message would repeat itself every six minutes or so. She turned and was about to open the door when someone knocked on it. She froze and listened. They knocked again and spoke.
"Open up. In the name of Emperor Palpatine, open this door!" Emperor? Since when? The voice sounded oddly filtered and familiar. A clone trooper! They must have betrayed the Jedi. She looked around. There! She peeled off the wall paneling to reveal a hidden exit for emergencies. She unlocked the grated metal door with the Force, and it opened inward. It was only about one meter high and wide, so she got on her hands and knees and crawled inside. The knocking intensified. She painfully turned around and put the wall paneling back where it was. She then shut and locked the door. She heard an explosion. She turned and began crawling away, and heard blaster fire ransacking the control room. Her hands slid out from under her and she gave a small, surprised cry before biting her lip. Ashla didn't know if it would echo. No need to give herself away. She slid down a long, metal chute face first. She slid down for a while then stopped at a flat surface. She was on a metal grate. The escape tunnel must have been a part of the ventilation shafts that ran over the whole Temple.
She looked down and was amazed at her stroke of luck. She was probably six meters above the youngling dorms. It was untouched by blaster fire so far. She saw Master Janta and her friends opening doors and gathering the younger initiates together. Olana and Alini were off to the side, Olana comforting her unseeing sister. Ashla pushed on the grate and it fell to the floor with a loud Clang! Everyone froze and looked up. Ashla leaped down, and used the Force to cushion her blow.
"Good work, Ashla," Master Janta said, carrying an infant Cathar in her hands and guiding three year olds with the other. She and the others continued rousing the younglings. Olana beckoned urgently to Ashla. She weaved through the growing crowd. Olana looked terrified. "There is something we need to tell you," she whispered urgently. "You were in our vision." Ashla looked at her, not fully comprehending. "You made a choice. I can't tell what choice, but I can tell this. Be brave and have courage." Ashla felt scared, confused, and unsure. What decision?
"Thank you," she settled on. Olana nodded. Alini gasped.
"They are coming! We need to go!" Olana began leading Alini in the opposite direction. Asha called at the top of her lungs,
"Everyone, move!" she whispered to Mari, "Lead them to the Archives" and bolted up to Master Janta. "Master Janta, we need to go, now!" Blaster fire sounds started to approach. Master Janta gave the infant and the child to Ashla.
"Go," she said, drawing her lightsaber. "I will hold them off while I can. You will have more of a chance if I stay." Ashla was horrified.
"Master, no! they'll kill you! You don't stand a chance against so many troopers."
"Ha! You should have seen me fight when I was young! Top of the Padawans. Take them now, and that's an order. Don't worry about me. Get them to safety." She turned and put her hand on Ashla's shoulder. "I'm trusting you Ashla. I believe in you." Ashla was trying hard not to cry. "Go, child."
Master Janta yowled a terrifying war cry of the Cantrosians and rushed to the battle with the agility and ferocity of a being half her age. Ashla turned and led the children away. She caught up with Mari who had stopped. She could hear blaster fire coming from either of the hallway branches. She turned to Ashla.
"What do we do? We're cornered."
"We split up. Mari, take the twins and a small group and younglings ten and under to the public refreshers. You should be able to pry of the odd tile out to reveal a button. The button will open a tunnel into the sewers so you can lead them to escape. Bobby, Liam, take another group to the Archives, and seal yourselves into the Holocron vaults. There are no other ways in, but there are ways out. Take secret exit number fourteen. J.K., take as many as you can to the garage and try to commandeer a speeder to fly away. Jempa, come with me and the rest of the children to the Jedi council room. We'll seal ourselves in and hide. Good luck everyone, it's been an honor." The twins looked sadly at her. Ashla herself felt that this would be her last stand. She quickly chose the six nearest human younglings to her and ran with them and Jempa to the turbolift. She pushed the up button. Through the glass, she watched sadly as the others split up and ran in their ordered directions. Mari looked up tearfully at her, raised her hand in farewell, then picked up Anili and ran. Ashla cried out in pain when she felt Master Jempa become one with the force. The clones stormed the hallway. They looked at the quickly fleeing younglings, and chased down the largest group, J.K.'s. She heard them cry out in fear. J.K. stood in front of them and ignite his training saber. Then, the turbolift shot up and she saw no more. Jempa put his hand on her shaking shoulders.
The turbolift finally stopped at the top floor. She quickly ushered the younglings out and led them down the short hallway. Ashla opened the door and instructed them to hide behind the numerous chairs. She hid behind the nearest chair with a four-year-old boy with dark blond hair. After a while, she heard the turbolift open. She sensed a powerful presence strong in the Force. Perhaps it was a Jedi, coming to tell them the battle had been one! But she sensed something else. Malevolence, hatred, anger, fear. She recoiled from its presence. The door opened and in walked Anakin Skywalker. There was something wrong with him. His eyes were… Before she could grab him, her little hiding partner ran out in front of him.
"Master Skywalker! The Jedi Temple is under attack! What are we going to do?" The other younglings began emerging.
Darth Vader looked at him coldly and ignited his lightsaber.
Hey guys! My friend Lindsey wrote this and asked me to post it... so I did. She wants some feedback on it (good or bad) so please comment/PM me! Also, she makes this awesome stuff ( pages/Lindseys-Loops/802825826411576) and you all should totally check it out! (She didn't tell me to do that, but I am anyway :P)
Thanks everyone! :)
Kurleetop & Lindsey