A/N: Hello again readers! Thank you for all those you already sent their love to this story and to those you went back and read some of my earlier Star Wars work (I apologize per advance for these people: my English was appalling at that time and I am going to revise them all so it doesn't make my eyes bleed anymore... XD ). Here is the next chapter, and I hope you like it as well! :D
Disclaimer: I do not own Star Wars or any of its characters. I only own my OCs Cas Andé, Tani Kenobi, Niobé Skywalker and Sehr, as well as the plot surrounding them.
3. The flight
On the following day, the day the Skywalkers left D'Qar, Cas stood in front of her mirror, fingers playing with her braid as she tried for the umpteenth time to grasp the implications of what she and Tani had planned.
Before they left Naboo, before they joined the Resistance, Cas had had no wish to become a Jedi Knight at all. Her experience in the Temple had traumatized her to the point where she had almost shut herself entirely from the Force. But since then, she had managed to meditate, to see through her visions of the past to interpret them, and she had found herself wishing for more. More control, more peace, more…something.
She'd have never thought this day would come, but now, she was staring at her reflexion, and she liked was she was seeing.
It had been agreed that Luke, Tani and Niobé would leave quietly, without a fuss, while most of the base was still asleep. Their leaving – or 'cowardly escape' as some already called it – had been formally announced, but there was no need for grand gestures when the hour was dark. For the flight of three Force-sensitives was not a great day for the Resistance.
Cas let her hair down as she joined the small group gathered outside to see the family off. The same people who had been there during that informal dinner that had been so tiresome.
Poe stood next to Chewbacca and C-3PO, staring at Leia as she embraced her sister-in-law, then niece, her brother settling for a kiss on the hand before he unceremoniously boarded the shuttle they'd use to return to whatever planet he had chosen to live on.
Cas was grateful that Poe could not see her Jedi braid and that Rey, who stood on her right, did not yet know the meaning of it, for the secret needed to be kept until later that day. She intended to make quite the entrance in the com room.
Tani came to embrace her, and Cas clung to her like a new-born babe to its mother. Tani reached for her mind and soothed her fears, reminding her that they'd keep in contact through the Force, and moved on to say goodbye to Rey.
Cas saw the glint of something passing from Tani's hand to the scavenger's, but she pretended to have seen nothing, just as she pretended she did not see Poe and Niobé's tight embrace.
When the shuttle rose into the air and Tani's gentle Force-caress left Cas' cheek, it was as if a great weight had simultaneously left her shoulders and settled on them. She turned from the scene, grabbing Rey's hand to pull her inside and towards the infirmary.
Finn was still unconscious, but his constants were good, and he was no longer in any danger. Any day now, he'd wake up and be fit as he had been before being almost strangled to death. Cas shook herself off the reminder of that scene, and off the anger it evoked in her.
"What has my mother given you?" she asked Rey as soon as the door slid shut behind them both.
The younger girl's hazel eyes widened. "How did you-?"
"I saw it. What was it?"
Rey reached into her pocket and took a small watch-like device that emitted a soft blue glow. "She told me," by her tone, Cas understood that they had conversed silently, "that I could use it to follow them, in case they don't go back to Ahch-To. She wants me to force Master Skywalker to train me."
"She does?" Cas was surprised, but after thinking about it, not so much. Rey hadn't had the fifteen years of pre-training she had had, and her powers were even rougher than Cas'. The girl needed a teacher, and Leia could not teach her what she needed to know.
"Do you think I should do it?" Rey was looking at Finn's peaceful face, and Cas placed a hand on her arm.
"What do you feel you have to do, Rey? That's the most important thing."
Rey stared at her dead-on, her own reflexion playing in Cas' purple orbs. "I…feel I should follow."
"Then do. General Organa won't be against it, I know it." It was a certainty that came out of nowhere, but a certainty all the same.
Rey smiled, an innocent, cute grin that made her look like a child she was no more, and she outstretched a hand to Cas. "Friends then?"
Cas chuckled, and shook her hand firmly. "Friends. Of course."
It was near midday when Cas strode inside the com room, hair pulled back as much as she could to display her Padawan braid. She could not bring herself to wear anything close to the boring tunics the Jedi wore as 'uniforms', but this at least was enough to show who she had become.
Leia was absent, as was C-3PO and R2-D2, as they were seeing Rey off – if she remembered correctly, the blue droid was to accompany her and Chewbacca to try and convince Luke to stop being stubborn. The chain of command was therefore assumed by Lieutenant Connix, who Cas knew a bit; Poe, who was talking with said Lieutenant; General Ematt, an old man who looked frail but who was all but; Major Brance, a nice piece of male specimen Cas had noticed upon her arrival on D'Qar; and Commander D'Acy, who was the one to notice her presence.
"Miss Andé? Can we help you?" the woman asked, and her question spread curiosity in the other Resistance members who then looked at Cas as well.
She steeled herself and tried to stand taller and straighter. This was it. She could not falter. "It's Padawan Andé, actually." She gestured to her braid, noticing only a couple of people's widened eyes. "My Master and I said our vows before she left with her husband and daughter."
There was no question as to who was her Master, although Cas could see that Poe and Kaydel were surprised to hear her say that instead of 'mother'. She jutted her chin up and waited for D'Acy's answer.
She didn't have to wait long. "So you are now a Jedi?"
"I am. I came here to warn you in advance, in case there are modifications to be made." Cas was enjoying this. D'Acy was now her subordinate, as were most of the people present, except General Amatt who was now her equal in rank. Everyone seemed to grasp the concept as she spoke next. "However, as I am relatively new to command, General Organa will tutor me in the art of leadership. You have nothing to fear from me. I promise that any decision I make will be thoroughly analysed first."
D'Acy moved aside, and Amatt stepped forward, as was the protocol when addressing someone of high rank. "Do you wish for new quarters then, Padawan Andé?" There wasn't an inch of disrespect in the old man's voice, and Cas realised that he must have seen the Empire's fall, and that he was probably one of those who had hoped for Luke Skywalker to be a Jedi back in the day.
She shook her head. "The quarters you've assigned me are perfectly adequate. I don't expect to be treated like a star that I am not. Jedi are humble, or so I was told," she tried the quip of humour, but everyone was still too stunned to laugh at it. "I will come back when General Organa is present. You may carry on with what you were doing."
She had no right to order Amatt around, but he still nodded calmly and turned back to his conversation with Major Brance.
Cas turned and noticed Poe's stunned stance, and the way he was eyeing the door as if aching to fly from the room. She smiled to herself and said "Commander Dameron! I'd like to talk to you alone, if you have time."
Even if he didn't have time, he was obligated to talk to her alone. It was kind of thrilling. And also a small revenge of the distress she had felt for days while witnessing him being cosy with Niobé.
He nodded once, and followed her out into the corridor.
"Can I help you with anything, ma'am?" he asked with teeth gritted, and Cas raised a brow.
"There's no need to be so formal with me now that we're out of there Poe," she said, being so bold as to gently touch his arm. "I'm still the same woman I was this morning." He looked at her with a look that translated his doubt, and she chuckled. "Ma braided my hair to make sure I was not pushed aside if anything important happened. I had no rank and was only admitted in the com room because I was her daughter. Now I'd have been no one, and she decided she didn't want that."
Poe remained silent for a second, no doubt processing what she had been saying, then smiled, something that Cas hadn't seen directed at her in days. "So you didn't trick us from day one, is that what you're saying?"
Cas was stunned and gasped. "How could you even think that?"
"Well, I don't know you that well, Padawan Andé," he said with that alluring smirk of his.
She was tempted to forget all about the previous days then. "You have been taking me on three dates so far, Commander."
"Were they dates though?"
She laughed. Damn she had missed him. "Anyway, I wanted to ask you if we could resume our piloting lessons. Now that I am a 'proper' Padawan, I'm expected to know how to pilot and now get killed."
He grinned. "I'd be delighted."
She grinned back, Niobé Skywalker and any jealousy Cas had felt long gone.