A/N - So, welcome to Book Four of my 'Growing up Jedi' series.

This story follows Sascha Whitestar an OC and his friends (also OCs) as he progresses as a young Padawan in the Jedi Order. You'll see familiar faces from the Star Wars pop up, but in general the story revolves around my OC characters.

For those who have read books one through three, welcome back! For those of you that are interested in catching up - well you have a lot of reading to do! You can find Book 1 and Book 2 in my profile. If you'd like to know if you can jump in and start reading right now...well you could, but you'd likely end up very confused. If you want to know if this story is worth reading then I encourage you to look at the reviews of my previous works - I may not have a huge readership, but I do have loyal fans.

This story will be updated once a week, on Sunday, usually around 10pm EST.

As you'll see we made a bit of a time skip between books 3 and 4, nothing too dramatic, but everyone's a bit older. This book will be a bit less focused on fighting, but I think you'll find Sascha's continued adventures to be interesting. We'll also be seeing some more famous characters pop up from time to time...

For now, please enjoy the first chapter of Book Four- as ever all feedback is very much appreciated.

Chapter 1: Reunions

Aurine Brynar watched as the world of Domgrin grew in the viewport of the Emerald Dream. Domgrin with its lush greenery and dual suns was an interesting looking world, even from thousands of miles away. Always torn between protecting its amazing wildlife and the tourism industry that came with it, and the rare minerals that were found within those same wilds, there were constant debates about what path the world should take.

"A beautiful world, so alive in the Force," commented her Padawan, seated in the pilot's chair beside her. Leaning back in the co-pilot's chair, she took a better look at her apprentice.

Sascha Whitestar, now nineteen, was still below average height, though a very late minor growth spurt had allowed him to overtop her by perhaps an inch. Though he was concentrated on bringing his ship in for a landing at the appointed spaceport, the features on his pale face were youthful, open, and friendly, topped by his soft brown eyes. Lithe and athletic, growing into his fully adult frame hadn't brought too many changes to him, in fact he could still easily pass for a much younger human. His dark brown hair remained medium length, in spite of the rules for Padawans strongly preferring shorter hair. The reasoning behind this was quite simple. Sascha Whitestar, simply looked awful with short hair and she did not want to walk around with an apprentice that had a permanent bad haircut. The teal and green ribbons remained subtly tied into his Padawan braid, hidden by his dark brown hair, but still visible if you looked hard enough.

A Padawan for now four years, he had grown more comfortable as a Jedi and more comfortable with himself as well. And she had seen most of it first hand. There had been hardships along the way, missions that hadn't gone perfectly, close calls that ended with one of them, or sometimes both of them in bacta tanks. There had been losses of good people, but there also had been many successes. Sascha had a knack for finding unorthodox solutions to the problems they were presented with and he was also becoming quite a good diplomat. Of course, with Sascha's patience and general amiability that shouldn't have been too hard to see coming.

Aurine knew that she was very lucky to have a Padawan like Sascha, not just because he was going to become a fine Jedi Knight, but because he was a great fit with her. Now more mature, he had less moments where she felt like she was dragging around a superpowered teenager, and more moments that showed to her that he was becoming her equal. It was also easy for Aurine to see the influence she had on Sascha. While he maintained some of his own strengths, he had also picked up some of hers, including her tactical nous.

It made her proud to see him surpass her. As Sascha brought his ship in for the landing, she got a taste of one of the ways he had surpassed her. The Emerald Dream landed with the greatest of care on the landing pad, causing nary a shudder. Although Aurine estimated herself to be quite a good pilot, she had to admit that Sascha had surpassed her, especially when piloting his own ship. This wasn't the original Emerald Dream, of course. The original ship had crash landed on Ubrora during the final battle there and had basically been unsalvagable. However, a joint effort between Ubrora and Sluis Van had seen the commissioning of a new ship called the Emerald Dream, which had been gifted to Sascha. He had accepted the new ship, grudgingly, at her insistence. She had pointed out that it would have been rude to turn down a gift, especially from a world that owed him as much of a debt as Ubrora did. And over time Sascha had come to accept this new ship and the Emerald Dream had ushered them through many hairy situations, usually with Sascha at the controls.

A small bump indicated that the ship had come to a halt on the landing pad, "Another smooth landing, apprentice."

Sascha gave her a somewhat smug look, "As if you expected something else?"

"Well, there was a bit of a crosswind from the north. I wasn't sure if you were going to compensate for it."

Sascha rolled his eyes dramatically and stood from his chair, "Please, Master. As you no doubt recall, I landed this ship during the middle of one of the worst storms in Galix V's history. I hit the middle of the landing pad even when the snow was so deep I couldn't see landing pad."

That was indeed true. She and Sascha had delivered badly needed medical supplies to the colony world of Galix V. Most pilots had turned down the supply run, despite the generous credits that were being offered. She and Sascha had done it for free. "Having one good landing doesn't mean that you can take the rest of them for granted."

He nodded in agreement, "Of course, Master. However, our guests are waiting for us, we should go meet them." Swinging her chair around, she followed her apprentice out of the cockpit. She reached into the Force for a second, trying to discern her Padawan's reaction to their guests. Sascha's reaction was muted, but she could tell that he was happy to get to see who was waiting for him at the boarding ramp. And to be honest, she was a little happy to see them as well.

Aurine watched as her charcoal robed Padawan lowered the boarding ramp that allowed two more Jedi to enter the Emerald Dream. Nara Nalto bounded up the ramp in her usual enthusiastic style, firing a friendly punch to Sascha's shoulder as she did. The purple-skinned Togruta, now nineteen as well, seemed to show the signs of age more significantly than Sascha. Her montrals were thickening and growing into the hollow horns of an adult Togruta, even though they wouldn't be fully grown for a few more years. Her purple and dark red lekku were longer now, when she stood still they fell to her chest. With a supple and lithe frame, Nara had the build of a dancer, of course her preferred dance was combat. She was about the same height as Sascha, and her gray robe was about as stylish as Jedi robes got, a concession to the young Togruta's affinity for nice clothes. As Sascha and Nara engaged in some more mock fighting, the Togruta's face was alight, her blue eyes showing her affection for her best friend.

The second Jedi clambered up the ramp more slowly, took a look at the continued playfighting that was taking place, and shook her head, "I thought that these two might grow up someday." The speaker was the newly promoted Jedi Master Tiplee. Exotic looking, the red skinned Rishati had blue lips, eyebrows and eyes. Her feathery ears extended like an exotic hairstyle that wafted lightly along with the invisible currents of wind that circled around the ship.

"There's no rule against roughhousing with friends," said Nara as she tried a speculative kick that Sascha moved out of the way of. Sascha replied with a couple of quick jabs that Nara bobbed and weaved around.

"We know that because I checked," chimed in Sascha, as he circled away and dared the Togruta to attack. The two sparred for another few seconds, neither landing as much as a glancing blow , before stepping back and bowing to each other. It was fairly obvious that neither Padawan had actually been intending to hit the other – this was playfighting, not sparring. Despite being best friends, when Sascha and Nara sparred together, they sparred as hard as any Jedi she had known.

"If you are both done," she said wearily. Both younger Jedi nodded, and she continued, "The ship needs supplies before we can head out. Sascha you know what we need, take Nara with you on the supply run."

"Can we put on our civilian clothes?" asked Nara, "my robe is in need of a rather thorough wash. I need a sanisteam too."

Aurine thought about it for a second, "If you want. Just remember to be careful."

Sascha shot her a confident look, "I'm always careful, Master."

"I don't think it was you she was worried about," replied Tiplee with a smirk towards her impetuous apprentice.

Nara at least had the good grace to look slightly ashamed. "I know you two will be fine together," she reached out and squeezed her apprentice's shoulder lightly, "You two usually are. Now go get changed and get our supplies. I want to get underway as soon as possible." The two Padawans bowed graciously and headed to their respective rooms. Nara had been aboard the Emerald Dream enough that both Nara and Tiplee had rooms that while not theirs had been used enough that their stuff tended to end up there.

Tiplee casually leaned back against the side of the ship, "You are sending the two of them off together without lecturing them? Are you feeling okay?"

"I've…grown more comfortable with the idea of letting them go on their own together."

Tiplee clucked her tongue, "Sounds like someone's finally come around to my side."

Aurine nodded easily, "I think time has shown that my fears about them being attracted to each other were unfounded."

"That is what I've been trying to get through your head for more than a year now, I guess persistence does pay off." Aurine managed a mock scowl at the Rishati, who to be honest had become a rather close friend over the missions they had shared together.

After their success on Ubrora, the Jedi Council had deigned to keep the four of them together, where it was possible. Though the missions had technically all gone to the newly promoted Jedi Master Tiplee, she had kept picking her and by extension Sascha to join her and Nara on their missions. It was not uncommon for Jedi to have almost 'sub-groups' that were kept together when given the opportunity, but Aurine had anticipated that it might be her, Sascha and Luminara. But this little group probably suited her better. Luminara was often deployed to purely diplomatic missions, while Tiplee got missions that often required a little 'Jedi diplomacy' aka lightsaber diplomacy. Those missions suited Aurine well.

Tiplee and her had become close almost by necessity. Though she had been promoted, and deservedly so, to Jedi Master, Tiplee continued to let her take the lead when the situation called for it, for that she would always be grateful. Her and Tiplee also had swapped Padawans on occasion, letting Sascha gain some experience as an aide to the diplomatically adept Rishati, while she taught Nara how to handle security for such diplomatic meetings. While she did enjoy teaching Nara on occasion, she was very happy that Sascha was her apprentice, the Togruta was just too…energetic to handle for an extended period of time. Sascha knew how to give her space when she needed it. Nara did not.

The friendship between Sascha and Nara had somewhat cooled after Ubrora, though that had certainly been for the best, and both Padawans seemed to have realized it. They were still close friends, best friends, even but they were not overly reliant on each other like they had been during that trying mission. She still sometimes questioned their friendship, but ultimately, she felt that Sascha and Nara had found acceptable boundaries for their friendship.

After a few minutes passed, the two Padawans emerged from their rooms and politely presented themselves to her and Tiplee. They had discarded their Jedi robes for generic looking beige jumpsuits that wouldn't look out of place on a hundred different worlds. "You have your lightsabers?" she asked.

Sascha and Nara both withdrew their lightsaber hilts from a pocket in their jumpsuits and presented them to their Masters. Aurine almost smiled, they were both so polite when they wanted something from her, and more than anything, just like any other teenager, they wanted to be away from their elders. She made a show of checking over Sascha's lightsaber, but she knew that it was always kept in perfect condition. Her Padawan wasn't overly fastidious or neat, but the possessions he did care about he kept in top condition.

She handed Sascha back his lightsaber, "Don't be more than two hours. Keep your comlink on at all times. If you don't pick up by the third ring, I'll be very upset."

"Yes, Master."

She grinned, "Okay, you can go now." Sascha and Nara shared a look of triumph and started towards the boarding ramp. "Oh, and Padawans," the two young Jedi stopped in their tracks, "You have my permission to have some fun."

Nara and Sascha beamed and walked down the now extended landing ramp. By the time they reached the bottom, the two Padawans were already in deep conversation with each other. She shook her head ruefully, without their robes the Padawans looked more like two college students than two of the galaxies most fearsome warriors. Perhaps that was for the best though. Sometimes even Jedi needed to be able to relax.