Jo: A Youth Wars Prequel

"Jonan, it's time." Jedi Master Luke Skywalker called after the youngling.

"Coming master!" Jonan called, chasing after his teacher.

Jo followed Luke outside to the rocky terrain and the cloudy sky. "I'm here, master."

After a moment, Luke invited, "Sit."

Jo sat down, his legs crossed, and Luke mirrored him, sitting only a foot away.

"Jonan, do you know why I called you here alone?"

Jo thought for a moment, "Uuuuh, becasue of my, my, power?"

Luke chuckled at Jo's stutter. "Yes, young one. You and I have both been curious of your power. Its strength and capacity. Raw strength like yours is rare, and can lead down a dark path."

"The dark side?"

"Correct."

"But, um, didn't you sense, um, isn-doesn't-"

"Yes, I know. Ben is the same, yet he is different. He is more unstsable; he's anxious to know of his grandfather, my father."

"Who is your father?"

Luke thought for a moment.

"My father fought back in the Clone Wars, as a student of Obi Wan Kenobi. After the war ended, my father was murdered by the Emperor's right hand man, Darth Vader."

"Oh I remember now; you told me this a while ago."

Luke slightly grinned. Children like Jo always cheered him up.

"Master Luke? Do you think something like that will happen to us?"

"I don't know, Jonan. There is a conflict within Ben, and I hope we can take it out of him."

"How do you do that?"

"The force will help us, Jo."

Jo arrived back in the temple after his session with Luke, and he was greeted not-so-pleasantly.

"Well if it isn't the teacher's pet." Youngling Arek said.

"Ah, shaddup. I'm not the animal, here." Jo shot back at the Trandoshan.

Arek hissed and stepped forward to strike, but young Ben Solo stepped in between.

"Oh what are you going to do?" Arek asked, hissing.

Ben grabbed his tongue, mid-hiss and squeezed with two fingers. Arek started groaning in pain and shaking. Arek shouted "Okay, okay." as well as he could without his tongue, and Ben let go. Arek recoiled and held his tongue.

"You really need to stop." Ben said. Arek just hissed aggresively and walked off.

"Um, th-thanks." Jo mumbled.

"Jonan," Ben said. "Luke isn't telling the whole truth."

"What do you mean, Ben?"

"Darth Vader is my grandfather."

"Really? Wait, but Master Luke said he killed your grandfather. That doesn't make sense."

"It's hard to explain, but it's true."

"Master Luke doesn't lie."

"I didn't say he was lying, I just said he isn't telling all the truth."

...

"Huh?"

"Arrgh, it's hard to explain."

"Maybe because it isn't true."

"It is true."

"No it's not!"

"Yes it-"

"If it's true, then prove it."

"Oh I will. I will."

"Ben!" Luke shouted. The two younglings jolted and acknowledged him. Luke kneeled to Jo's level and looked at him straight in his eyes. "Jonan, what did he tell you?"

Jo stuttered, trying to find an answer. "What did he tell you?"

"He said that Darth Vader was your grand- your father."

Luke immediately stood and turned to Ben. "What have you done?"

"I'm revealing the truth." Ben replied.

"That's not for you to decide, Ben. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Uncle Luke." Ben murmured.

"Now return to your quarters for meditation. We'll discuss this later, Ben."

"Yes Master Luke." Jo and Ben said in unison.

Jo returned to his room to meditate, and sat down. He closed his eyes and drew all focus to the force. He somehow couldn't get his mind off of what Ben told him. That and what Luke told him didn't add up to the youngster. He had only heard of Darth Vader, and neither knew what he looked like, nor knew of, well, him. He pretty much just knew his name, and that he supposedly killed Ben's grandfather.

Then he drifted into a medative sleep.

He woke to someone screaming his name. He opened his eyes and saw the building going down in flames. Suddenly terrified, he called out to the voice, or more specifically, "Master Luke!" He heard no reply. Starting to cry, he shouted again. "Master Luke!" He looked around, coughing. He saw almost nothing, then everything in his vision went to black as the last thing he saw was a serrated red blade going down his body.

"Jo!"

"Jo!"

"Snap out of it!"

Jo snapped back to reality as his fellow doctor Kell Loren, called for his assistance. "Ah, sorry! What?"

"Forceps please."

Jo handed Kell the forceps. Jo and some other neurosurgeons had been assigned to help a severely wounded soldier, who had a chunck of his right leg blown off, and a fracture around his ribs.

"We just might have to give this guy a prosthetic by the way his tibia and fibula are looking. The interosseous membrane is severed; even if we repaired it the best we could, then there's a chance this guy might not be able to walk again." Kell said as he gently removed some damaged skin and tissue from his leg. "Now the bipolar ones, Jo." Jo handed him the bipolar forceps, and Kell slowly reached inside and ever-so-gently pulled out a tiny portion of metal from the injury, and placed it in a tin plate.

"Darin," Jo whispered. "Update on his blood flow."

"Nothing has changed." Darin Guga whispered back as he kept his eyes on the screen showing his blood status.

"Should we give this guy a cast?" Jo asked.

"I don't know. We may have to use bone fracture repair." Kell answered.

"Is it that bad?"

"Are you talking about the leg or his rib injury?"

"Leg. We don't put casts on ribs."

"Good point. Didn't catch that."

"Guys, less talking, more working." Darin said.

"Anyway, his ribs... look sustainable. He may have to be out of the field for a little bit. His leg... may have to be worked on some more, but right now," Kell looked at the room's electronic clock, "I am needed elsewhere."

And at that moment, another neurosurgeon entered the room to take his place. "I'm here. Go on ahead." Kell exited the room, then the neurosurgeon asked, "What do we got?"

"Sustainable rib injury, and a severed leg. We might give this guy a robotic leg, judging by the state of his tibia and fibula."

"What do we need to do?"

"You," Jo said, handing him the retractors, "Will succor the leg injury, while I get the machine ready for the mechanical leg."

"Got it."

"I'll be back in a flash."

Jo rushed out and entered a room, where doctors were disinfecting a medical table. Droids were present, organizing prosthetic limb parts. "Hey, we got a Resistance soldier in need of a prosthetic right shin and foot. He's going to be brought here shortly; have the place ready."

"Already ready."

Jo rushed back to the room, and quickly said, "Get him on the stretcher." Then pulled the foldable stretcher off the wall, unfolded it until it clicked, then they all professionally slided the soldier onto the stretcher. They then rushed him over to the prosthetics room for the upgrade. Jo put all he had into the force to keep the leg injury from worsening if moved. He couldn't do much with the little training he had. Jo sighed when the soldier was successfully placed on the table and connected to medical tubes.

A doctor informed Jo, " You've done your part her, we'll take it from here."

"Alright." Jo said as the three sighed and left.

Darin joined Jo on a bench outside the room. "Jo. What happened?"

"What do you mean?"

"You zoned out during the operation; we could've lost him. What happened?"

"I really don't know; whatever happened wasn't intentional."

"You talking about-" Darin looked around, "The force?" He finished, leaning in and whispering quietly.

"Why are you whispering? This isn't the Empire."

"I just didn- no, don't get off topic. Jo, we really needed you at that moment. He was dangerously close to death."

Shocked, Jo quietly hissed, "Seriously?" Darin just nodded.

"Like I said, he was dangerously close to death, and you were zoned out. This is something we really can't have. If someone was to die, our business's popularity would plummet; we've been known to cure pretty much anything that comes our way."

"I get the picture, Darin."

"Now, you know I know, nothing, about the force, but you need to control that thing- whatever happened."

"And you know I have very little knowledge of the force. I do know that the force is the most powerful thing in existence, so if it wants me to see something, it makes sure of it."

"See something? Like a vision?"

"...Kind of."

"Something like a vision?"

"More of a flashback."

"Oh. Your past?"

"Well," Darin thought for a second. 'I'm gonna sound so stupid if he doesn't understand.' "What of your past did the force want you to see?"

"Huh?"

'Let's try that again.' "Do you think something of your past is going to come to light?"

"Come to light? Highly unlikely."

"Jo! Darin!" A doctor called from down the hall.

"Duty calls." Jo said, standing up and slowly running across the hall with Darin.

After a long, exhausting day's work, Jo and Kell arrived home and started settling.

"How was work on your end, Kell?" Jo asked, plopping down on the couch. Their house/apartment was very high class; being doctors, they got paid handsomely. Their floor was a delicate red cherry wood, their wooden furniture made of similar material. Their soft furniture (their couch) was made of a smooth leather. They had a stone fireplace in case of a blackout, a glass table in between that and the couch. A basic, rich man's apartment.

"Not really much different, kid. Newly injured people come in, and we save them. It's the same ol' same old thing."

...

"You okay?"

Kell sighed, "Jo, what's the first thing you remember?"

"Coming out of the womb."

...

"I'm kidding."

"Oh gosh." Kell exhaled loudly.

"Yeah no. I just remember training with Luke Skywalker." Jo's face went slightly downcast.

"You know, when I picked you up from the wreckage, when I saw you the way you were, I thought you were done for. The point is: every severely injured soldier that comes in reminds me of you when I found you. Even though we don't get them so often, it still wrenches me up inside." Kell tried finding understandable words for Jo.

"But you keep at it, because you know you can save them?" Jo inquired, in a statement-like tone.

"Yeah. I guess."

Jo smiled a bit. "You've been like a father to me, Kell; a friend, too. Throughout my li- throughout most of my life, you've given me everything I could've asked for. A home, meals, heck, even something of a family. I couldn't be more grateful."

'Strong words from a pre-teen.' Kell thought. "Oh but you could be."

"What?"

"When I found you, I thought you were dead; you were cut almost in half, but I then saw you move. Flinch. I thought I was getting messed up, but I had to be sure, so I grabbed a stethoscope, and thank the fore you were alive. I couldn't pass the opportunity up to save you, to, to maybe have a son."

"I remember, early on in my career, you telling me-"

"She passed on."

...

"W-wha-h- How long has it been?" Jo asked.

"It's been less than a decade."

"How come you never said anything?"

"I didn't want the pity and sorrow to get in anyone's way."

"You know that's not likely. We put priority over pity." Jo said with a silly tone. Kell laughed a bit, looking like he coughed.

"You were always good at bringing up the mood."

"It's just a part of me."

Kell nodded his head to the side in agreement. "Well it's not late. We should be hitting the hay."

"Aight. Night."

"Goodnight Jo."