Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars (unforunately), and I'm just using this to have a little fun. No Republic credits are being made.

Setting: About 4 years pre-TPM, Jedi Temple

Characters: All originals! (They are MINE!) The primary character here is Keldu Lujac at age 12, before she became a Knight and part of the elite "Kindred Knights". For full understanding, I suggest you read "The Kindred Knights: Book One: The Dark Rivals".

A/N: Be on the lookout for more Kindred Knights stories after these!

Foresight

Concentration. Focus. Determination.

Mind honed to the state of Jedi combat, Keldu Lujac ran and leapt, pushing off as hard as she could. She leapt high into the air, far above any mere human's limits. In mid-descent, she rolled left, coming down a meter to the side of her original course.

The move would foil nearly any opponent.

Her foot shot out towards her opponent, a Temple Training droid, in a powerful kick that would most likely dislodge its head.

But the droid was not fooled by Keldu's roll, it saw the kick coming and it shifted so Keldu's kick would miss by centimeters.

Keldu saw this and corrected her descent. She used the droid's own movement against it, catching it between her foot and her singing blue training saber.

This time, her foot connected and the droid's neck snapped, sending the head skidding across the floor and crashing into the wall. The humming blue training saber raked across the droid's armored surface, heating it up but not breaching it.

Keldu landed soundlessly in a defensive crouch, but it was pointless, because the droid's body crumpled and hit the floor with a sharp thud. And from the wall where the head lay, its metallic voice grated, "Damage assessed: vocalators dying, secondary power conductor destroyed, control relay damaged, photo…" There was a gurgle and an electronic hiss and the droid fell silent.

Keldu let out a deep sigh as she stood up straight. This was not the first time this had happed, and she'd been warned often that she needed to be more careful.

"Ooh, that doesn't sound good," a voice called from the practice room's doorway.

Keldu whirled around toward the voice, training saber held in a defensive position. She wasn't afraid of intruders, the Temple was too well guarded for that, but if it was that nagging Opanal Cyr again, she was willing to strike with her saber.

But she only saw the short form of Melyn Oncol, another Jedi student like herself and a friend of hers besides.

He strode to and picked up the droid's disconnected head. "Weren't you warned about this, Keldu?"

"Yes," Keldu said with a sigh, powering down her saber. "But I'll just get that Nerca Beyul up on level 47 to fix it before they even know I did it."

Melyn nodded. "I see. 'Get Beyul to fix it'," he said, quoting a popular saying among the Jedi students between eight and twelve these days. "Hey, don't put your saber up."

Keldu cocked an eyebrow. "Why? You want a piece of me?"

He dropped the droid's head and drew his own training saber. "As a matter of fact, I do."

Keldu let her own blade ignite again. "Why?"

"For old time's sake." And then he lunged.

Seeing this coming as one would see an airspeeder flying idly toward you, Keldu smoothly side-stepped and parried.

"Can't we do this later? I need to get that droid to Beyul. And soon, before someone discovers it's gone, or before Beyul leaves for a mission."

Melyn sliced high and she blocked easily. "Sorry, but I won't have time later."

He pushed and she stepped back from the lock, whirling to bring her blade in a sweeping arc at him. His golden blade met it.

"I know you're running out of time, but you can postpone your busy schedule for one training saber battle." Yes, Melyn Oncol, one year Keldu's elder, was coming upon his thirteenth birthday. If he didn't find a Master willing to take him on as a Padawan Learner in the week remaining before his birthday, he'd be expelled from the Jedi Order and be set to work for the Agricultural Corps.

Keldu launched an intricate and precise set of maneuvers against Melyn. He parried and blocked with some difficulty. Then he swept at Keldu, and again their sabers locked.

"No, Keldu, I can't," he answered. "I can't. Really, I don't have the time: the Council has already secured my flight to an AgriCorp world at the end of the week. They said, 'Do not take it as an offense, but we do believe that you are not suited for any Master here. If this had been a few years past or a few years back, it would be different. There is nothing we can do.' It's really too late."

Stunned, Keldu released her pressure on the humming blue saber and stepped back from Melyn's sudden sweep. "It is?"

He nodded.

Too astonished for speech, Keldu poured herself into the fight instead. And the battle grew more intense, until Keldu felt herself completely one with the Force, and until she did not control her movements at all. No, she was not controlling them at all: the Force was.

She'd only achieved this status three other times in her twelve years, and each time was more wondrous than the last.

And then there was a slight mistake in Melyn's blocking. Seeing it with her enhanced eyes the moment it appeared, Keldu seized the opening and touched her saber to his neck, winning the fight.

"You win," Melyn said, panting. "My last saber fight and I lose." His golden training saber disappeared into his hilt and he ran his hands across its contours. "I never got further than a training saber. I would've loved to build a real lightsaber first."

Keldu powered down her own training saber. "You still might."

He looked angrily into her face. "No, it's too late! I already told you that!"

"But what about Nomi Sunrider? She wasn't apprenticed until she was fourteen, and she became a legend."

Melyn sighed. "But that was hundreds of years ago."

Keldu was getting frustrated. "So? What about that Obi-Wan Kenobi? I heard he was actually sent to an AgriCorps world after his birthday and still he wound up with a Master, and a great one."

"He was just lucky."

"Luck is simply a fool's term for purposed coincidence."

Exasperated, Melyn cried, "You don't understand!" He hung his saber on his belt and gestured with his hands angrily. "But how could you?" His voice was a harsh whisper. "You've been accepted. More than one Master wanted you. You got your choice of many great Masters!"

And Keldu could not deny it; she was uncannily popular with the Masters. A total of seven had proposed apprenticeship to her over the past three months, something that had happened few times in the thousand years the Jedi Order had had this system. Indeed, she'd had her choice, and eventually she'd settled on Master Éowilmathiel, a very accomplished but quite young Bothan Jedi Knight.

"Why couldn't even one…" Melyn began, but he cut off. He turned and ran out before Keldu could say anything in her defense or otherwise. She knew there was no point in going after him.

With a sigh, deep and heartfelt, she picked up the droid and walked out into the corridor. She'd get to him later.

But deep in her gut, Keldu had a feeling that Melyn Oncol was not something in her future.

And Keldu Lujac saw Melyn Oncol one last time, many, many years later.

Keldu was on level 47, taking the droid to Nerca Beyul, when she began to feel a little strange. Suddenly, her vision of the student-filled corridor vanished. She gasped and dropped the droid in her hands as her knees buckled.

She was engulfed by a vision.

Dark and frightening was the world around her, for nothing existed around her but darkness, not utter, but complete.

There is no fear, Keldu found herself thinking repeatedly. There is no fear.

Pain poured through her feet up to her ankles. She looked down to see her feet disappearing into a swirling dark deeper than that around her. It was like a tiny black hole, slowly sucking her inward into its nothingness.

She was up to her knees in seconds.

Keldu tried to step out of the hole, but she found she could not move any bit of her that was already in the depths.

Frantically, she glanced about, but nothing was there, only the blackness. Reflexively, she tried to call out "Help!" only to find she had no voice.

Panic slid in.

She sank in up to her waist.

Panic pounded her defenses.

She grabbed for the hole's edges with flailing hands. She felt nothing.

Panic overran her defenses completely.

And then Keldu saw something: a white speck in the distance, coming her way. Could it be a savior?

She tried to call out again, but still no voice emerged. Turning her head, she could see three more specks, all headed her way.

She waved her hands high over her head, but she guessed that they knew exactly where she was.

Keldu's shoulders passed into the black hole's depths.

Realization struck like a starfighter flying at hyperspeed.

They were too far away. They'd never get there in time.

In up to her neck, she cried out this time and the tiniest squeak was audible. "Help!"

Her head went under and she became oddly calm. She closed her eyes. I wonder what death feels like. Of course, she knew this was still a vision.

She felt many things grab her arms—which had remained outside of the black hole—and suddenly she was lifted out of the black hole and over its edge. She was once more on solid ground.

Keldu opened her eyes to see four glowing white figures kneeling around her. The white specks. Heavenly yet ghostly, they were women of probably twenty years, each with long billowing hair and their faces seemed vaguely familiar… They appeared human despite their ghostliness and something about them made Keldu's mind register them as Jedi.

Their mouths moved in soundless words with a message Keldu knew was important.

She could make out none of it.

And then abruptly, the vision faded and Keldu's sight was occupied by two young female Jedi.

The one older dark-eyed, golden-haired girl she recognized as Nerca Beyul, the mechanic-minded Padawan she'd been taking the droid to. Nerca Beyul was Keldu's elder by a year—a Padawan for two years full already—and she'd seen her many, many times in her life… But something about her now…

However, Keldu did not recognize the other student. She looked a little younger than Keldu herself, probably about eleven. Light brown hair hung over her shoulders—without a Padawan braid—and the shade of her eyes was not much different. Her face was round, but not fat and it seemed to be covered by concern.

Then they parted and another young Jedi girl appeared between them and just in front of Keldu. Somewhere around thirteen she looked, lean, freckled and curly-haired. In these soft brown curls hung a Padawan braid, laced with ribbons of many colors. "How are you?" she said in a sing-song voice to Keldu.

"Fine," Keldu replied, but her voice cracked. "Who are you?"

The Padawan smiled. "Of course you'd want to know. I'm Oliso Dofer, as you can tell I'm a Padawan Learner, being considered for healer training."

"Oh." A healer?

"I called her in, Padawan Lujac," Nerca Beyul said. "I thought you might be hurt."

"Not physically."

"Internal healing isn't really an expertise of mine…" Dofer said.

"I don't think I really need any help." Keldu tried to get up. It was a struggle, but she made it. "I just had a vision."

For the first time, the younger student spoke up. "Without having to look for it?"

"Er, well, yes," Keldu answered. "By the way, who are you?"

"Lexoc Jogri," the young student answered. "I just saw you collapse, so I thought I'd help."

"Thanks, but no thanks." Keldu looked around for the droid. "Where's the droid?"

A young Padawan strode up to Keldu, the droid in her hands. Jesbra Pupal, most popular student in the Temple these days, handed the droid over to Keldu. "Here."

"Thank you," Keldu said, taking the droid. She then handed the droid over to Nerca Beyul. "Here, I was actually on my way to bring this to you. I thought that maybe you could fix it."

Beyul accepted it and ran it over in her hands. "Yes, I can. How soon?"

"As soon as possible," Keldu answered. "I've been told to be careful about not breaking any more."

Beyul arched an eyebrow. "You mentioned that the last two times."

Keldu smiled faintly, slightly embarrassed.

About an hour later, after parting with the students (Nerca Beyul with the Temple training droids) and contacting her Master, Keldu sat with Éowilmathiel in a small Jedi conference room.

"And these creatures saved you?" he asked, hairy brows lifting.

"Yes, Master."

"How?"

"They grabbed me by the arms and hauled me out." This had been going on for nigh a half-hour. "Unscathed."

"Completely?"

Keldu nodded.

"Hmm." Master Éowilmathiel made a deep purring sound in his throat. "Well, did they look in the least familiar?"

A frown crossed Keldu's mouth. "Actually, yes. Quite familiar."

"How so?"

She had to think about that one. Why were they so familiar? She turned herself inward and brought up the memory.

Nothing.

Then the memory of Nerca Beyul, Lexoc Jogri, Oliso Dofer and Jesbra Pupal standing around her came. She tried pushing it away, but it stuck.

And revelation struck.

Opening her eyes, Keldu gulped. "Actually, Master, I think I know who they were."

Her master's eyes looked like they were about to shoot off his head. "Continue!"

"Um, well, I think they may be the Padawans Nerca Beyul, Oliso Dofer and Jesbra Pupal, and the student Lexoc Jogri. Many years in the future of course, but them nonetheless."

THE END

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