Chapter 1 - Awakening

It is a time of uncertainty. Unrest grips the galaxy as the influence of the Capitol is nearly without limit. Supreme Leader Snow visits tyranny on the planets of the former Republic. However, little do the subjects of his empire know that he is also Lord Invictus and seeks his most powerful apprentice, a beacon of Good that he can turn to the Dark Side.

However a glimmer of hope shines on the remote planet of Thirteen, in the form of the New Jedi Temple. Unknown to Master Abernathy and his handful of young Padawan, their greatest trial awaits. And yet, as they struggle, a power for both good and evil, which has not been witnessed for thousands of years, will emerge from the ranks of the last of the young Jedi...

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Ignis

Member, Intergalactic Federation

Documented: Inhabited

Katniss Everdeen ran along the coal-covered road that wound a path through the Seam like a drunken serpent. She slowed her pace when one of the older women turned their cataract-glazed eyes toward her, frowning in disapproval at the speed with which the little girl hurtled toward town. Katniss walked with forced dignity until the turn in the road hid her from the woman's sight before she took up her run again, this time skipping lightly on her toes, her school bag bouncing rhythmically against the small of her back. Her father had picked blueberries from the field beyond the fence and, together with her family, had eaten them for breakfast. Her mouth was still bursting with the tart flavor and her belly was full and happy. Katniss couldn't imagine anything better.

But she knew she was wrong. There was something better. Ever since she'd started school, she'd loved it. Dad took her the first day but she'd insisted afterward was a big girl now and could go by herself, so Mom could stay home and take care of Prim.

The red brick building came into view, with an adjacent school yard bordered by a rusted fence. Her eyes fell on a group of kids throwing a ball while others squealed and dodged it. Katniss loved mat-ball and dropped her backpack on a pile of other school bags to join in. Soon, she was shouting and squealing with the group as she rounded the makeshift bases, trying to keep from getting smashed by the worn, foam ball.

She jumped up and down, laughing in delight when she saw a boy sitting on a bench, bent over his shoes. His blond hair swung as he clumsily tied the rabbit ears, double-knotting them. Katniss was actually very good at tying her shoes and took pride in the fact that they rarely came undone during the school day. As the boy straightened, Katniss' curiosity turned to horror when she saw the biggest welt she'd ever seen covering part of the boy's face. It was shiny and blue-ish, the taut skin surrounding a swollen eye.

Never one to sit on a thought for long, Katniss approached him slowly, staring at the blue-black skin. She searched her memory for the boy's name.

"Peeta?" she asked, sitting down next to him. He was in the same kindergarten class as her and sometimes, the teacher paired them together to work on their sight words. "What happened to your eye?"

He stared at the ground, shrugging. "I fell," he said simply.

Katniss was disturbed by his response but was unable to explain why she didn't like it. "You...fell? On your eye?"

"Yeah!" he said defensively, looking up at her. His left eye was swollen shut but his right eye bore into her, locking on hers. Katniss felt something hit her, so strongly, she was sure she would fall on the ground. She experienced a sudden explosion of images in her mind, at first out of sequence but then resolving into a narrative where she was the central character. She stood before a blazing oven, the heat licking at her skin, though she was nowhere indoors. Rolls lay at her feet, together with an overturned tray and soon she was down on her knees, collecting the fallen bread. In her memory, she looked up to see a woman standing over her whom she could not quite place, her face twisted in rage, rolling pin in hand. She felt the impact of the wood on the side of her face, the explosion of pain, the memory of agony. Frightened, Katniss blinked furiously, her vision clearing again and came to rest on the boy who stared strangely at her.

"You didn't fall," Katniss said quietly, shaking her head as if to rid her mind of the lingering images. She was suddenly overwhelmed with an urge to cry but she hated crying more than she hated taking medicine. It made her eyes hurt and her cheeks swollen and after, all she wanted to do was fall asleep.

Peeta's lips became a thin, hard line. The bell howled, startling them both. Without another word, Peeta rose from the bench and sprinted after the other children. Katniss watched his escape, mulling over the images she had seen until she was the last child in the play yard. Still heavy with the mystery of her visions, she picked up her lonely bag and walked unhurriedly to her homeroom.

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Outside of class, she did not speak to Peeta again for several days. Though she'd had that strange occurence, her young mind was soon captivated by her day-to-day adventures. Secrets were no mystery to her. She snuck out each day with her father to shoot a small bow and arrow in the forest, something her parents had strictly forbidden her to speak of. She wasn't sure why but she knew when Father said things in that way, she had better listen.

So Katniss stored the encounter with Peeta as one such secret, if only for herself, and moved on with things, skipping back and forth to school each day, sneaking out into the woods each afternoon and weekend, learning to hunt as well as to gather herbs. In school, she did her work, played during recess and in general lived each moment as children often do - as if that moment were the beginning and end of all things.

Mrs. Dallows, their specials teacher, clapped her hands to catch her young pupil's attention. Today's special was music, which was Katniss's absolute favorite class. She enjoyed art well enough - though not as much as some, like Peeta, who drew with his lips pinched between his teeth, duplicating whatever was in front of him - and woodwork was interesting enough, if only because Katniss sometimes got to help hold the wood while the teacher drilled holes with the electric drill. But music was the only special that made her heart flutter. It reminded her of her father, who played a small fiddle and sang every free moment he could spare, songs from the mountains, songs from his family. She thought he might actually be a giant, magical songbird, flying out each day at sunrise to warble with his fellow magical creatures in the forest before transforming back into her father and returning to live with them each day in his human guise.

With these daydream in her mind, Katniss barely heard Mrs. Dallows when she asked for a volunteer to sing the Valley Song. Without a conscious thought, Katniss's hand shot up, stretching as far as her slender limbs allowed, practically leaping out of her chair as she muttered Me! Me! Me! under her breath. With a smile, Mrs. Dallows selected her, after which Katniss jumped up and bounced to the front of the classroom. She didn't have that wariness of her peers that she would develop later in life, after time and tragedy had had their way with her. Today, the way Katniss was, she thrived on attention and loved to show off her talents.

Mrs. Dallows helped her onto the wood chair so that she was above the level of the other students. Her dress - red plaid with a white ribbon from a collection of them that her mother kept, swayed along with Katniss as Mrs. Dallows tapped out the simple notes on the piano. Katniss swallowed, looking out at her Kindergarten class, drawn in particular to one blond boy, whose eyes were as blue as Prim's favorite Sunday dress.

Katniss opened her mouth and she was suddenly with her father, when they'd gone out to search for acorns just that week. They each filled a large basket, after which they spent the better part of the afternoon at home with Prim, grinding them down to a fine powder that mother then used to make maple acorn cakes. As each note fell from her lips, almost of their own accord, she felt the joy of that day fill her up and bind itself to the song she sang.

As if in response to her own happiness, another memory broke through - and Katniss was transported by it even though she continued to sing and hear herself make the melodic sound. She saw a small but strong hand being guided by larger, calloused ones as they hovered over freshly baked sugar cookies. The smell of vanilla and sugar was overpowering as flowers graced each cookie, appearing on the one she focused on now. The small hands took a toothpick and shaped each petal - white with a purple vein along the middle. Katniss arrived to the last refrain, singing each note, immersed in a memory that was not hers yet full of a joy as palpable as the moment her father picked her up after she'd ground all the acorns in her basket. The warm hand resting over the smaller one, guiding the work on the cookie became her father's hands on her waist as he tossed her upwards. And her flight became a kiss on her head when the katniss flower on the cookie materialized with such aching perfection, she thought for sure her heart would burst from the beauty of it.

When the song ended, each child in the audience sat in awe, caught in the receding after-effects of a voice so exquisite, the world had fallen silent around them. Some sat with mouth agape, others grinning as if they, too had been transported to a moment of great joy, while Mrs. Dallows sniffed quietly, mumbling to herself as she wiped a tear from her cheek. But it was Peeta, blue eyes locked onto hers, who held her enthralled. What entered her thoughts was something akin to speech. But it was nothing but a murmur, soft and entreating, the sound never resolving into actual words. The beginnings of fear grew like an icy flame in her belly but the cooing, gentle words that were not words comforted her despite their inexplicable existence in her mind.

Katniss stepped off of the chair, looking down only to keep from falling before she captured his eyes again, as if he were a guest come for a visit and she'd been waiting a painfully long while for him to come. She made her way to her seat in the back, knowing she'd have to let her gaze fall but before she did so, she smiled. Something had happened but it did not horrify her. The only thing she could be sure of was that the hand in her memory had somehow been his.

The look on his face, a combination of awe, shock and reverence, softened when he smiled in return, with such sweetness, Katniss repressed an involuntary urge to cry and laugh and shout all at once. She was both pained and relieved when she took her place behind him, effectively ending that intense connection, the wonder and the strangeness that Katniss would dwell upon for a long time to come.

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On another day, she went out into the woods with her father to check his snares. He untied the rabbit from the wiry invention, showing Katniss how to reset it again when he was done. She'd gotten quite good at some of the basic snares but she would never be as good as her father. She was sure of it. Her father was a giant of a man who, in her mind, could do anything, and better than anyone else.

The wind was wild in the forest and though the weather was warm enough, it bore the smell of winter from the mountain peaks which were already covered in snow. The cold would arrive soon while Katniss and her father were busy building up their stores in preparation for the scarcity that tried all the residents of their small district. The government, her father said, paid them very little mind and only worried about what they produced, which was coal, giving very little to its citizens in return. They squashed their people with unrealistic production quotas and punished them with near starvation. It was cruel and wrong.

"But you should never repeat what I say in town, okay, pumpkin?" he admonished her at the end of his rant. Katniss nodded, though every word he said was etched in her mind, even if the concepts were somewhat beyond her. When she thought of the word government, she thought of Peacekeepers and the President and old men giving speeches. They were vague ideas that only made an impact on her when her father complained about them.

Katniss shivered. The sky had gone dark as clouds rolled in from the mountain valley of the north. As if reading her mind, Mr. Everdeen straightened from his work with the snares and glanced up at the sky, shaking his head. "It looks like a flash storm. We'd better head home before the lightning starts up."

Nodding, Katniss helped her father hide their bows and arrows in the trees (another of those secrets he'd asked her to keep), gripping his hand when they were done and walking as fast as they could through the undergrowth toward the direction of the Seam. The wind whipped the leaves into a frenzy, lifting Katniss's heavy braids so that the ends stung her cheeks. The tension in her father's hand made it rigid and almost painful to hold onto, which only magnified the fear that had started to unfurl in her chest. She never liked storms - the way the booming thunder was always followed by the ruthless crackling of lightning. It filled her with a terrible apprehension, never more than at that moment, as she now jogged to keep up with her father's long legs.

As Katniss focused on the ground before her, she saw it before it happened. A shattering of wood. The stench of burnt fibers. The strange, electric smell that suddenly filled the air. Hairs on her entire body stood at attention, as if each and every little strand were being pulled from her skin and scalp. And her father, two steps to her left, stood in the trajectory of a prodigious, falling pine.

It was instantaneous, the understanding that disaster was imminent. The shadow that crossed her father's forehead as he saw what she had only envisioned a few moments before. Her shout of anger, despair and something else, something so primitive and powerful, it was as if she'd channeled all the universe into a single point in the center of her small body. Hands up, a crouch like a hunter and her father, aghast as Katniss, it had to be Katniss, kept a tree that had only moments before scraped the heavens, suspended in mid-air before him. She screamed - her fear and anger fueling something more dense than the electricity released by the lightning and her father, in awe, terror and confusion, moved out from under the shadow of his death blow, the uncertainty written into every line of his tired face.

Katniss woke from her trance to see the spectacle of the tree hovering before her and, with a gasp, stepped back, letting the giant collapse before her, showering them both in needles and pine cones. She stumbled further backwards into her father's arms as she stared at her hands, the tree, the storm that was approaching them, preceded by a curtain of rain that would soon drench them in the freezing cold water of their winter mountains. Katniss looked up into her father's grey eyes, eyes she had inherited, wide with terror. He looked at her for an instant as something disconnected from him - a foreigner, an alien creature who could not possibly be related to him. The look he gave her terrified her more than what she'd just done.

But he recovered himself and clutched the little girl to his chest. Without reason or provocation, Katniss burst into tears against her father's neck. He smelled like the mines where he labored each day, and the forest where he escaped to with his daughter. He shushed and cooed her, lifting her up into his powerful arms.

"Papa?" she asked, as if he could give her the answer to this, as he had always done. He was the only one who could make everything make sense.

"It's okay. It was just…" but the confusion was written on his face. He was just as lost as she was and the feeling of being unmoored from her security was the worst feeling she had ever experienced. She needed his solidity to understand what had happened.

But instead of clarity, he held her close to him and raced, as quickly as he could, back to their small home in the poorest part of the smallest District in the great land of Panem, the only inhabited country in the entire planet of Ignis. Or so they had always been told.

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Katniss somehow returned to school the next day but instead of bouncing down the road, she dragged her legs, her feet as weighty as the great stones that separated the town center from the poor neighborhood of the Seam. Her father had set her down outside their small home after the events of the falling pine and, though the cold rain drenched them, took the moment to make her swear never to speak of what had happened in the forest.

"It's a secret, like our hunting and the bows and arrows, okay, pumpkin?" he'd said with forced playfulness, rubbing Katniss's arms almost compulsively, though the rain barrelled down on them like a hail of icy bullets. Katniss was frozen, both inside and out, and could only manage to nod, after which her father had taken her inside to change her into dry clothing.

Now, on the steps of the school house, she glanced over at the children who leapt happily about the yard, engaged in passionate play, eking every last moment of joy before they entered the school house for the serious business of learning. Katniss could not bring herself to join the other children. She remembered the look her father gave her when she'd stopped the tree from crushing them both, as if he had been seeing her for the first time, and not as his beloved daughter whom he'd loved unconditionally for her entire life. She could not compute its strangeness, nor could she have given name to the alienation that she'd felt at that moment. All she could articulate in her head, over and over, was that she was Different. Strange. Wierd. Her father's look had confirmed that.

Freak.

As she watched the children scramble inside the schoolhouse, she sensed those same blue eyes on her, staring, always staring, probably for the entire time she'd been sitting on the step, trying to avoid the rush of legs and feet as they stomped up to their classroom. She turned and confirmed that he was, indeed, watching her from across the schoolyard. It was as if he knew, he knew what she'd done. He'd seen her father's reaction and knew the emptiness she now carried inside, the emptiness that comes from being different. He knew and she could not imagine how. For reasons unknown to her, she was overcome with anger, standing with a sudden fury at his understanding. It was her secret. She shared it with her father. It was for no one else, especially not the strange, abused son of the local baker.

Katniss whirled around and stomped up the stairs behind a gaggle of students. She paused only briefly in her rage to wonder how she knew what she knew about him but she was too angry to dwell on it. Soon, the lessons of the day pushed down both her sense of strangeness and the memory of the boy, allowing her to complete the day in relative peace.

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Katniss didn't like the sound of the voices coming from the kitchen of her house. Her mother, so pretty and gentle, had a strange look on her face when she asked Katniss to watch Prim in the her small bedroom. "Be a good girl and play with your sister while your father and I speak to the nice gentleman," she'd said. But her mother's eyes were wide and her face somewhat pale and Katniss knew without a doubt that her mother was not enthusiastic about their visitor.

Katniss did what she was told, playing with Prim, who was only three years old and as small as a baby rabbit. Katniss mostly liked her sister, though sometimes, the baby wanted her big sister's toys, something Katniss didn't like all that much. Katniss didn't mind sharing with Prim but there were times that her sister had broken the things Katniss gave her to play with. But she was her little sister and mostly, Katniss enjoyed playing and taking care of the girl with blond hair and blue eyes, like her mother.

She soon forgot the adults in the other room until her father called for her. Her mother smiled at her as she walked to the kitchen and went to fetch her sister from the room so that Katniss was alone with her father and another man whom she did not recognize. He looked very similar to her father - straight black hair and eyes the color of water that had leeched coal dust from the mines, a clear, grey that seemed tired to her. He wore strange clothes - not mining clothes or a Peacekeeper uniform but more like a robe with a leather sash at the waist. Katniss drifted next to her father, who held her close.

"Katniss, this is Haymitch Abernathy. He is a teacher from a very special school. He wanted to meet you."

Katniss stared at the man, who seemed a bit older than her father. He did not scare her and she felt herself very much at ease with him. "Nice to meet you, sir," she said, just as her mother had always taught her. She offered her hand, which the older gentleman took, shaking it gently. He did not let go right away but held it as he peered into her eyes. It was a steady gaze that she could not easily break from and suddenly, she had the strangest feeling of not being alone, not just in the room, but in her head. She didn't like it, it felt like a splinter under her skin that she couldn't help but get out. She shook her head, which caused the man to blink, his eyes widening in surprise.

"The Force is strong with this one," he said in awe, letting her hand fall to her side.

"But is it absolutely necessary?" her father asked, his voice suddenly shaking.

"The alternative would be much worse. Your government is just the weakest manifestation of the problem. Lord Invictus grows stronger with each moment that passes and your daughter will no doubt be discovered."

"But she is so small…" and for the first time, she was sure her father was close to tears, which froze Katniss in place. Her father, the strongest man she'd ever met, was blinking away the moisture in his eyes and suddenly, she did not like the older man anymore.

"You have always known this was a possibility because of your own mother. The dark side was weaker than. She could remain with her family while she trained. But the young Padawans of today...they are being targeted. Hunted. Would you prefer that, Owen?"

"Maybe if she doesn't...use her powers? We are so far from the Capitol," Mr. Everdeen said, the hint of a desperate hope in his every word. She didn't like the helplessness in his voice and pressed herself into his side, letting him hold her there.

"I felt the disturbance all the way in the Jedi Temple! The girl is strong - she will not be ignored."

My mother returned with Prim, her eyes misty and red, as if she'd been crying. "We have no choice. It has to be done. I'll not have my child…" she couldn't complete the sentence, turning instead to the coal stove with Prim on her hip to pour out the tea. "It has to be done."

Mr. Everdeen nodded, turning his face away to stare at the door, his expression hidden from Katniss. When he turned back, he looked down at her with eyes wide, full of so much love, it frightened her.

"Katniss, honey, Mr. Abernathy is a teacher at a very special school. He says - and I can confirm this - that you would make an amazing candidate for this school. All those special things you do - like what happened in the forest? You will be taught to do more things than that and you will become very strong." Katniss tilted her head, trying to understand his words, a growing ache in her heart keeping her from really capturing his meaning.

"Is there a special school here, in District 12?" she asked, but her mind had always been difficult to fool and suddenly, just from the stricken expression on her father's face. She knew. She knew.

"No, pumpkin, it's not here. You might have to...go away...to study…" he choked on the last words and coughed to cover it but Katniss already knew and his attempts to soften the blow only made her more desperate.

"I don't want to go! I don't want to go anywhere! I want to stay with you!" she shouted. She wheeled on the man in the chair, the bringer of bad news, the bad luck man, to Katniss's mind. "I'm not going anywhere with you. You're a bad, bad man!" she shouted, then ran to her room, slamming the door and locking it behind her. Flinging herself onto the bed, Katniss burst into tears. She felt like her family didn't want her because she was weird. A strange girl who could stop trees from falling in mid-air. And her father had decided to send her away because of it.

After a while, Katniss heard the door of her room unlock and open. Her mattress sagged as someone sat next to her. She felt small circles on her back and accepted them, because she knew the hand that touched her and made her feel safe and at ease.

"Why don't you want me anymore?" she said with a small voice. Soon she was being scooped up as her father held her in his lap.

"I do want you. I love you so much - more than anything else in the entire world. I love you from here to the stars," he said, invoking a game they played in which they expressed their love by how far and wide it reached. To Katniss, the stars had always been the maximum distance that anyone could arrive at. "But you are special, Katniss. You're going to get stronger and then, you will become dangerous and I don't know how I'm going to protect you then." He squeezed her when he said these words. "But the school you are going to will teach you how to use your power. You will become a great warrior, just like your grandmother."

"You mean, grandma could do what I did in the forest?" Katniss asked, her eyes drying suddenly and her back straightening with something like pride.

"Yes, even though she didn't make a big deal out of it. We aren't allowed to speak of it anymore but there used to be many just like you. They defended good. They protected the people. But now…things are different..." he let the words trail off. He took a deep breath and shook off whatever sadness was encroaching on him. "You have to go and be strong now. You have to learn so that you can fight for good and protect the weak. You are special and I'm sending you with Master Abernathy, not because you are not loved but because I love you too much to risk something happening to you."

"I'll become a fighter? A warrior?" she asked and though the prospect of leaving her family terrified and saddened her, the idea of being a fighter excited a secret place in her, the one she always tried so hard to hide from everyone.

"More than a warrior, Katniss. You will become a Jedi."

A Jedi? Katniss wasn't sure what that meant but it sounded extraordinary to her. She straightened, smoothing out her little dress. She looked around her small bedroom and already felt like she was a stranger here. Her grandmother. A warrior? And now she would be one too? This knowledge brought out something familiar in her, a power that she'd known had always had sat in the middle of her chest and led her where she needed to go. Obeying it felt strangely, not as if she were leaving but as if she were coming home to something, though she could not be sure what home really was.

When they returned to the kitchen, Katniss ran to her mother and hugged her tightly. Master Abernathy nodded in approval as Katniss came to stand before him. She searched his face for something that might scare her but all she saw was a certain kindness that put her at ease. She sensed words inside of him, and, if she tried very hard, she knew could understand the words he said without him actually speaking. Something about him drew her to him and she did not shy away from it.

Jedi.

Katniss would learn to be strong.

"You are a brave little girl," the older man said, patting her head. "You already recognize the Force in me. She is remarkable, Elise."

Her mother nodded, biting her lip, perhaps to keep from crying. "I've always known that, Haymitch."

Haymitch turned his attention to Katniss, nodding again as if in approval. "You're lucky, Katniss. If you come with me, you are going to take a trip in a spacecraft. Do you know what a spacecraft is?"

Katniss nodded. "We read about them in school You mean, I'm going to go up…?"

Mr. Everdeen stepped near his daughter and knelt down before her. "Yes, child. You are going to go all the way up to the stars...and beyond."

Katniss's eyes widened while her mother turned away, gripping the edge of the stove. "I'll get to see the stars?" she asked in awe, her remaining fears dissipating in the expectation of a great adventure, the biggest one of her life.

"Yes," Haymitch said. "And you'll be happy to know that you won't be alone. There is another, a boy exactly your age from this same fistrict. He will keep you company on your journey and train together with you and the other children." Turning his eyes to Mr. Everdeen, Haymitch added. "And he is just as strong as Katniss."

Mr. Everdeen stared back at his guest and nodded, and Katniss had the feeling they were talking with their eyes, about things that no one else was supposed to know, not even her. She knew, from deep within her, that if she just tried hard enough, she'd be able to read the thoughts of those men. But she didn't know where to go or how to do it, so it eluded her and she had to be content with knowing that they were not telling everything they knew.

If she went with Master Abernathy, she would learn. She'd become strong. She would be safe and her family would be, too. She'd have company, someone she hoped would be a friend to her. Maybe it would be Violet, from her reading class, or Lars, her funny friend from science.

But Katniss already knew, before even asking the question, who her companion would be. She realized if she allowed herself, there were all kinds of things she just knew. It was a locked door to which she had simply misplaced the key. Maybe Master Abernathy could help her with that too?

She took in her father, proud but sad, her mother who could not turn around and look at her and somehow, Katniss knew that it would be hard for her mother to let her go, something that would make her unbearably sad. And yet, despite this, she turned to the man before her and put her small chin up. With a very serious voice, she said, "Okay, I'll go with you." And in that moment, tiny Katniss, with the double braids and the power to move worlds, set the gears of her destiny in motion, though to her, it was merely another game that she would play, like the ones she played on the playground of her school. The only thing missing now was her playmate, her partner.

When Haymitch brought her to the ship that would take them away, Katniss was not surprised. In fact there was something infinitely right about the moment Peeta Mellark stood from the seat where he waited for her upon entering the passenger section of the ship. It was more than inevitable when she greeted him and took the seat next to him, as if she'd had an expectation and he'd simply met it. When Haymitch powered up the vessel, they didn't speak. They already knew what they'd say to each other. Instinctively, they reached for each other's hand and held tightly as the ship broke through the trees, past the clouds and plunged them all into space, glittering with the pinpoints of stars and galaxies.

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Okay, those opening paragraphs are supposed to invoke the scrolling text at the beginning of each Star Wars movie. I'm not sure if it came off as it should but there is that.

A lot of the lore in this fic is from Star Wars: The Force Awakens but I feel like this story is really a deviation from both THG and SW universes. I ship Finn and Rey super hard but this is really not meant to reflect any of the current SW ships. Just take it for what it is!

I want to thank, first and foremost, Stacylk, who agreed to help me with this fic. From the planning to her consulting and contribution of Peeta's backstory, she's been a real motivator in getting this fic done. As soon as she is ready, she will be jumping in on some chapters. I also want to thank akai-echo, for her incredible banner and her constant support and friendship (what would I do without you?) and thegirlfromoverthepond, who preread and really knows how to keep my spirits up. You are a lovely, wonderful lady.

I'm also super thrilled that one of my all-time, favorite writers, finnicko-loves-anniec, gave these chapters a lookover. She is, in addition to being a brilliant writer of Everlark, Odesta and SW:TFA fanfiction, also my Star Wars guru. I am thrilled and grateful that she took a moment to read the chapters I've written so far and offer some feedback on important plot points. She also pointed out that, in Fate of the Jedi, there is a storyline about two lovers who are bound by the Force in a similar way as Everlark in this tale. I had not read this story but I am happy that someone else conceived of this in (what was once) canon and that I'm not coming out of left field with this. It makes the connection Katniss and Peeta share more realistic in the Star Wars: Extended Universe (it will be interesting to see what Disney does with it now).

This is one of the few fics that I've written ahead of publishing. I can't wait to share those chapters with you!

Please review!