"Rise and shine!"
Athena and Ezra groaned as they groggily and regretfully opened their eyes. From their little spots in the cargo bay, they glared up to the little platform just above them.
There stood Rex, a smug smile on his face as he gripped the yellow bar in front of him.
"I should have just let that robber kill me back in Cleveland," Athena groaned, turning back around and clutching her towel-blanket closer. "I want sleep, you bastards!"
"Come on, you sissies! Time to get up and get the blood pumping," Rex cheered.
"Hera! Rex is trying to wake us up!" Ezra complained as he shouted up towards the ladder.
"Hera sent me here to get you two up. Now come on, the Empire doesn't rest and neither should you!" Rex encouraged.
"Please, I'm begging you to kill me," Athena groaned. "I have died twice before, what is once more?"
"Come on now, up and moving!" Rex said.
The two teens begrudgingly followed the clone captain's orders and got up.
They eventually found themselves sitting in the kitchen - each in a new set of clothes. Seeing that the ones they wore overnight smelt terribly musty, Hera had them change into a fresh set of clothes until their regular ones were done being washed.
Athena wore a black tank top with colorful paint splatters all over it with a pair of stretchy black pants - all loaned to her from Sabine. Ezra wore an old white shirt and grey pants now. Both had their hair freely hanging - neither in the mood to deal with it.
"Now, don't you three forget you got clean up duty today," Hera pointed at Zeb, Rae, and Sabine. "That was a mean trick you pulled on those two with the bucket. That, and you got my cargo bay wet."
"Yes, Hera…" the three echoed with regret.
Ahsoka looked to Athena. "Padawan, I was hoping to train you one-on-one after breakfast if you're feeling up to it."
Great, Athena thought, just got done with traumatizing training with Father just to wake up and do more training with Ahsoka? When exactly does she get a break?
"Yeah, sure, whatever," Athena sighed before looking down to her breakfast and taking another bite.
It was so exhausting.
All of it was so exhausting.
The Padawan eventually followed her Master out of the ship and trudged behind her as they walked into the woods.
It was a few minutes into the walk when Athena spoke.
"Ahsoka, what are we doing all the way out here?" she questioned with a sigh. "You didn't even bring the sticks."
"We're not doing lightsaber training this morning," Ahsoka glanced back to her Padawan as they continued to walk deeper into the woods.
"What are we doing then?"
The togruta stopped, looking behind the two to see the Ghost was now just out of sight. She looked down to the girl, "I want to see what exactly you can do. The Ones have been training you and you seemed to have trained yourself yesterday, so I'm not exactly sure where we stand on your Force abilities."
"Okay, what exactly do you want to see?" Athena asked, relieved she didn't have to endure lightsaber training.
"You said yesterday that you got 'stuck' on water powers and your hair turned brown and your eyes blue for a while," Ahsoka started. "What else other than water can you control?"
"Um...fire, ice, water, dirt and rocks, and air," Athena shrugged. "I kinda taught myself basic control of most of them yesterday."
"I want to see it," the togruta said. "Show me what you can do. One at a time, though. I don't want to push it just yet."
"Okay, I guess I'll do air first," Athena held her hands out. She shut her eyes and took a deep breath.
Ahsoka watched with careful eyes as tiny swirls of wind began to swirl around the girl's feet. Tiny leaves and twigs began to be taken captive in the stream of air spiraling around the girl. The swirls of air slowly climbed in height.
The teacher took a couple of steps back as she sensed the power of the girl slowly gaining traction. The leaves above their heads began to shake and the spiral of wind was as tall as Athena now.
Ahsoka's eyes went wide as she watched Athena's loose blonde hair begin to glow gold as it swirled in the wind. The girl's feet began to lift off the ground as the wind continued to gain power.
She had never seen anything like this.
Athena gulped as she felt the wind start to roar around her. Her feet continued to lift off the ground and her body felt more and more weightless with every passing moment.
"Balance…" Athena mumbled to herself. She remembered back to last night's cosmic training. How each element around her tried to tear her apart. Air, she remembered, could rip her and everyone around her to shreds if she wasn't careful.
"Ground yourself," Athena mumbled, tightly closing her eyes. "Ground. Ground. Ground."
Slowly, the winds died down and Athena's hair dimmed down to its regular blond.
Once her feet touched the ground, the girl locked her feet into the dirt and released the winds to disperse them.
Ahsoka blinked a couple of times in surprise as she watched Athena calm herself, eyes still closed.
"You learned restraint?" Ahsoka asked.
Athena opened her eyes and nodded. "Yes. Father showed me how if I am not careful, I could easily destroy myself and those around me."
"He taught you well," Ahsoka smiled.
"I still have lots to learn," Athena looked to her hands. "I still don't know how I could fight with these kinds of powers. I'm just now learning to balance them."
"Can I see what else you can do?"
Athena nodded.
The girl got in a low stance and held her fists up. Her back was rigid and her feet were firmly planted into the ground. She paced herself
Her feet moved with purpose, grounding herself with the planet around her. Her hair now a deep and rich shade of brown. Her eyes the color of moss and the bark they grew on.
Ahsoka watched with wonder as the dirt around Athena began to twist and turn like gears in a machine.
Athena turned to her left and thrusted her fist in the air. A block of dirt shot up from the ground as if to mimic the thrust of her fist. Athena twisted her hips to face the direction of the newly erect block of dirt and threw a kick up into the air. The block flew with the motion - ramming into a tree with an immense force hard enough to shake the giant made of wood.
Athena's kicking foot stomped onto the ground in front of her and the block of dirt retracted back into the planet.
The girl brought her feet together and closed her eyes tight - focusing on balancing the stability of the ground with the freedom of the air.
Her eyes and hair faded back to normal and she looked to Ahsoka.
"You saw my water powers yesterday and we worked on my fire and ice these last few weeks," Athena said. "So what now?"
"Show me those, too," Ahsoka said. "It seems you have already gained great control over your powers. I can only imagine you have improved with fire, ice, and water."
"Well, ice and water are two forms of the same element," Athena thought out loud. She looked to her right to see a ground bubble. "I guess I can try something for those two at once."
She brought her hand up and the bubble broke on its side - the water gently flowing out of the hole Athena had created. She brought the water in front of herself, about a small swimming pool's worth, and swirled it in a giant ring around herself.
Athena focused on the element of water. The flowing nature of its energy. The ability to move back and forth. The ability to adapt to its condition.
As her hair darkened to a light brown and her eyes to a blue, the girl furrowed her eyebrows with intrigue.
The water was warm.
Thinking back to it, so was that pool of water she and Ezra fell into the other day.
Wanting to turn it to ice, Athena remembered the frigidness of the frost that would cover her body and projected that into the river of water around her.
The stream of water crystallized and froze in its path. Athena's eyes widened as the ring of ice suddenly dropped and crashed onto the ground.
Ahsoka jumped back to avoid the shards of ice breaking off from the fall.
Athena sighed, her brown hair now highlighted with strips of frost white.
"Sorry, I'm not used to it yet."
"No, you're doing great," Ahsoka assured. "Come on, pick up the pieces and continue."
The girl nodded and did as instructed.
Closing her eyes, the girl brought the ring of broken ice up into the air and contemplated on how to make such a rigid form of water move better.
Break it up. Make it tiny.
Ahsoka watched as the fragments of ice slowly disintegrated and broke up into tiny flakes of white. It soon became snow.
The flakes of snow began to circle Athena like a blizzard as her hair went completely white, her eyes still shut.
"Can you turn it back to water?" Ahsoka called to the girl.
Her eyes still closed, Athena nodded. She flexed her fingers and began to morph the ring of snowflakes into a semi-solid ring of snow. It slowly began to melt as Athena remembered the balance of heat with cold.
The ring of water continued to swirl around the girl as her hair once again went to brown.
She opened her eyes and outreached her arms to each side of herself, splitting the water into two streams to fall off on to the ground.
Her hair now blonde and eyes teal, the girl looked to her Master for a nod of approval of some sort. Her breath was labored and sweat beads were forming on her forehead.
"Very impressive," Ahsoka smiled.
"I'm not sure if it's a good idea to do fire. We're surrounded by trees and I don't want the forest to go up in flames," Athena said.
Ahsoka eyed the area around them - seeing the massive amount of trees surrounding them. A fire would be devastating in such a tightly packed forest.
"Alright, how about we try the fire at camp?" Ahsoka suggested. "In the fire pit. We have a clearing of trees there and not too many flammables."
"Is it okay for the others to see my training?" Athena asked. "You said yourself we should try to keep all this under wraps as much as possible so the Empire doesn't find out."
"The others already know about your fire," Ahsoka said. She contemplated for a moment, remembering that they all had seen her ability to control water, ice, and fire. The togruta wasn't even sure what to think with that whole healing thing.
Just about how much could they even manage to keep from the others?
"We will just try to make sure the others don't know about the Ones and you," Ahsoka sighed.
The girl nodded.
Ahsoka turned back to the Ghost and began the trek back to the ship, her Padawan to follow just behind her.
"Ahsoka?"
"Yes?" Ahsoka looked over her shoulder at the girl as they continued to walk.
"The healing. I think it's because of Daughter," she said. Ahsoka was put off by the look in the girl's eyes. The uncertainty behind her certain knowledge.
Ahsoka stopped, looking at the confused girl. She looked like she had found out about something, yet struggled to believe it for herself.
"That's why I survived the gunshots," the girl said. "Because you still hold some of Daughter's essence."
"How...how did you know about that?" Ahsoka blinked in confusion. No way Athena knew about Daughter giving her last bit of life to her back on Mortis. Did they tell her about it?
"I can just feel it," the girl looked up into the trees. She pointed up at the branches.
Ahsoka followed the girl's finger and saw an old friend up in the trees.
Morai.
The name was never spoken but always known.
"Daughter's spirit projection, the convor," Athena said. "She follows you."
Ahsoka looked away from the green and white convor back to Athena. "Did Daughter tell you?"
Athena shook her head. "No. I just know."
They stood there in silence for a moment.
"I guess my mom has something to do with Daughter too - seeing that my mom appeared to me in the form of an owl on Earth," the girl gulped.
"Kanan said he saw a woman on Earth, but I saw an owl when he pointed her out," Ahsoka slowly spoke, pondering it all. "Maybe she is. The Force works in mysterious ways."
Athena looked up to Morai and spoke, "Hey, do you know my mom?"
The convor made a purr-like hoot as she looked down to the girl.
"I don't understand you," Athena said. "If you do know my mom...just tell her I said 'hi' okay?"
It hooted again.
"Thanks," Athena nodded. The convor seemed to blink in acknowledgment before flying away.
Ahsoka paused again. Never had she experienced such a feeling before. It was as if she were in front of a miniature version of the Mortis Gods once more. The girl in front of her held so much power - though not exactly sure how to utilize most of it.
"Do you think I should've sent a better message?" Athena asked, frowning with uncertainty. "I feel like my mom deserves to hear more…"
"I think she will be overjoyed if Morai gets to tell her that her daughter was thinking of her," Ahsoka assured.
Athena sighed. Ahsoka slowly saw the girl in front of her slowly morph into that of a confused teenage human rather than a vessel of a God.
"I never really cared about my mom until recently. Then, Kanan told me how she gave her life to protect me," the girl looked to the ground. "She sacrificed everything for me and I just grew up angry about her giving me up. Turns out she didn't give me up. She just gave her life up for me to live."
Ahsoka saw the saddened and confused eyes of her Padawan stick to the ground. She approached her, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder and speaking softly.
"You had no idea. It's not your fault," Ahsoka said. "Your mother would be proud to know you are training your best to bring peace to the galaxy."
The girl was quiet for a moment. She met Ahsoka's eyes and gave a weak smile.
"Come on, let's go see what you can do with fire," Ahsoka patted her shoulder.
The girl nodded and followed her Master back to camp. When they arrived, Rae was on top of the ship to greet them.
"Hey, guys!" she cheered.
"What are you doing up there?" Athena questioned, confused as to why she was on top of the light freighter.
"I gotta clean the Phantom's exhaust ports," Rae called down.
"Maybe that'll teach you not to pour water on us," Athena joked.
Rae rolled her eyes and laughed, "Aw, the look on your faces was worth it. I gotta admit, Sabine sure comes up with fun ideas."
"Don't you give me all the credit!" Sabine called with a laugh in her voice. They turned to see the Mandalorian with an arm full of fire logs. "Zeb was the one who said we should throw them back in the pool."
"Hey, what can I say?" Zeb laughed. He was on the edge of the camp, an ax in hand as he stood in front of the stump of a tree. A skinny log laid next to the stump, soon to be cut up for fire fuel.
"Rude! You're all rude!" Athena threw her arms up. "What did I do to y'all?"
"You got my towel wet yesterday!" Zeb complained.
Athena frowned in anger and turned to the pool just beyond Zeb. She brought her hand out and the pool of water once again began to swirl in a giant orb. She glared at Zeb.
"Don't test me, I'll soak you again, buddy!"
"Athena, no," Ahsoka sighed.
Athena slumped in disappointment and turned to Ahsoka with puppy eyes. "Please?"
"No, you could get the firewood wet," Ahsoka warned.
"What in the galaxy?" Sabine shrieked as she dropped the armload of wood onto the ground. Her eyes went wide as she saw the floating orb of water bend to Athena's command. "Since when could she do that?"
"She had just a cup of juice yesterday! What the heck?" Rae's eyes were wide as she looked to Ahsoka and Athena.
Athena shrugged.
"I told you!" Zeb yelled as he pointed at Rae and Sabine. "I wasn't exaggerating the story from yesterday! She created a whole geyser of the darn pool!"
"I learn quickly," Athena shrugged, dropping the orb of water back into the hole in the ground.
"Why couldn't you just control the water to go around you when we dumped it on you then?" Rae pointed out.
Athena paused for a moment, her mouth slightly agape as she tried to muster a good answer. She sighed, realizing that Rae was right.
"I'm not that smart, okay?" Athena said.
"Did Kanan inherit all the brains between you two?" Zeb joked.
"I think so," Athena chuckled and joked. "He got the brains, but I got the good looks."
Ahsoka cleared her throat to get her Padawan's attention, "Alright then. We should continue today's training."
Athena looked up to her Master. "You sure? I don't wanna burn anyone."
"We'll stand far away from the fire, okay?" Ahsoka assured. "I just want to see how much you've progressed."
Athena reluctantly nodded and followed Ahsoka into the middle of the clearing. Sabine was in the ship now - stacking the firewood with the rest of the supplies. Zeb was on the edge of the clearing, chopping up some more wood. Rae was still on top of the Ghost.
Ahsoka stood a couple of meters away from the girl, ready to jump out of the way if needed.
She shut her eyes and focused on heat. She felt the fire in her soul flicker in excitement and fill her with warmth as she brought her hands in front of herself. The flames began to dance in her palms.
Heat. Heat. Heat.
But not too much.
She focused on controlling the heat of the flames. Her mind searched around, making sure there was not too much around her before stepping into position.
She remembered those old baton twirling dance lessons. How to move her body in a rhythm.
Fire was the same.
It danced and flickered with its own motion. Making its own path.
Her heart was the rhythm of her music. The air feeding the fire acted as the symphony.
Rings of fire followed her arms as she danced with the flames, eyes shut tight.
Batons sometimes had flames. Sometimes they didn't.
She did.
Ahsoka watched with a smile of pride on her lips as Athena continued to have the rings of fire dance around her. It followed her body like a dance partner.
The flames even followed her feet as she flipped backwards and forwards.
Her eyes bronze and hair made of flames, she became one with the flames.
Zeb and Rae stopped in their tracks as they watched the fiery girl move in the wind. This kid went from barely able to light a campfire on command to this within a matter of days.
What would she look like with years of training?
Just as her feet left the ground once more in a back handspring, Athena's hands gently began to touch the grass beneath her.
It felt hot. The ground seemed to be boiling just beneath the topsoil.
She completed the back handspring and crouched down to the ground - pressing her fingers against the grass.
Thankfully Bakunyuu was moist and the ground was damp, making it hard to accidentally catch the fresh grass on fire.
Ahsoka raised her eyebrows at the girl.
"Athena, that was amazing!" Rae cheered in disbelief from the roof. "You learned to do all that already?"
"The ground…there's fire underneath," Athena murmured to herself as she touched the soil with her hands, furrowing her eyebrows in confusion.
Ahsoka was the only one who had heard her. "What? What are you talking about?"
The togruta couldn't help but to yelp in surprise as the ground just beyond Athena's hands began to ooze a bright orange liquid.
Athena's eyes widened and she looked to Ahsoka, "Don't come closer! It's lava!"
"Lava?!" Zeb and Rae yelled.
Sabine poked her head out from the Ghost's cargo bay and was wide-eyed to see Athena still one with the flames.
"There's a lava river just below us," Athena mumbled. She closed her eyes and forced the bubbles of lava to retract back into the soil. She stood up and began to run across the clearing. "There's lava all over! Just under the surface!"
"Athena!" Ahsoka yelled for the girl to slow down. Her hair was still made of flames and flickers of fire still sprouted from her arms. There was no telling what this kid was thinking when she took off running around the camp.
"Here!" Athena ran past Zeb and to the little natural ground pool just on the edge of the tree line. "That's why this water is so warm!"
Zeb looked behind him at the fiery girl, confused as ever. "What? Are you telling me you can sense where there's lava?"
She had excited and wide eyes as she cheered, "Yeah! I can feel the magma all over!"
Zeb froze there for a moment - more weirded out than usual. He called towards the ship.
"Kanan, your little sister is on fire and acting really weird!"
"I'm not weird!" Athena complained.
It was like she could see the molten river of magma run just beneath her feet. In her eyes, the magma ran in one main river right through the middle of the clearing and directly under the pool of water. Tiny branches broke off and fragmented from the main river of magma here and there.
"No wonder these ground bubbles exist!" Athena cheered. "Water from an old river must've gotten stuck in pockets of the ground and were warmed up by the magma underneath! That's why they stick up out of the ground and have bubble tops like that!"
"Wait, so you are able to tell where all the magma is?" Sabine questioned. "Isn't it dangerous if it's right under us?"
Athena laughed in joy. She was figuring things out. The fire in her soul burned so bright.
"No, these magma rivers are actually pretty dormant. They'd only cause us problems if gas gets stuck in them or the main source of the magma erupts," she gleaned with joy. She slowly began to think about it and looked to Ahsoka. "Wait. That means there's a volcano close by."
Ahsoka nodded, "Yes. Bakunyuu has a volcano-"
"Wait!" Athena interrupted her Master. The girl crouched down and touched the ground again, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. "Nine klicks northeast. That's where the main magma chamber is."
Ahsoka's eyes were large. "Uh...yeah. The town is built at the base of the volcano about nine klicks northeast. You're able to sense that?"
"Yeah!" her flame was starting to get too bright. It was about to consume her.
"Athena, shut those flames down. They're getting too much," Ahsoka said. "You're still new to this. You could get hurt."
"But I-" she began to whine.
"Athena!" Rae shouted from the roof.
The girl looked to her side and saw a patch of grass had caught on fire. She had stood too long near the grass - drying it out until it was able to catch itself on fire.
"Crap!" Athena remembered back to last night.
Everything could be burnt to ash if she did not relinquish her flames.
She quickly turned to the pool, once again picking up the water and splashing a little bucket's worth onto the fiery ground she had created. Steam and smoke smoldered off her body now as the flames died out.
She panted and heaved, her body nearly giving out.
She had gone past her limit there for a moment. That was adrenaline she was running on - not her natural strength.
The girl looked to her Master with wide eyes as she felt her knees get weak.
Zeb, just a couple of feet away, saw this and stepped towards the weary kid.
She was nearly on the ground when Zeb had to catch her and hold her up by the shoulders.
"Kid, hey, kid!" Zeb called out to the girl. Her stare was blank and her eyes glossed over. She burned to the touch. It was like holding a piece of iron that had just been heated by the flames of Hell. But, the lasat didn't let go. Something was wrong.
Smoke mixed with steam as it swirled around her body. Her blonde hair filled with ash.
"Get her in the water!" Ahsoka yelled as she dashed to them.
The togruta took hold of the girl and she and the lasat lifted her into the pool of water.
Steam simmered off the top of the water as the girl sat in the pool, face now ridden with confusion and worry.
Ahsoka and Zeb let go of her once they saw she was able to sit in the pool on her own - but kept their hands in the water for a moment to cool them off.
"What happened?" Sabine questioned, worried and confused, as she dashed towards the group.
"She overheated," Ahsoka panted, pain blistering her hands now. "She held onto the flames for too long."
"Jeez, this kid can do stuff like that?" Zeb questioned, huffing and puffing in pain as his hands slowly recovered from the heat.
"Is she okay?" Rae called. The Jedi Padawan used the Force to leap from the top of the ship and joined the others at the pool.
"Yeah…" Athena shivered. "I- I'm okay."
"We need to work on that I guess," Ahsoka chuckled as she looked at her Padawan, now kneeling at the side of the little pool. "You knowing when to let go."
Zeb looked down into the pool to see the palms of his hands begin to blister. They became red and blotchy. Ahsoka's were the same.
"That was insane!" Sabine scoffed in amazement. "You were like a walking flamethrower!"
"You were pretty impressive, I'll give you that, kid," Zeb let out a chuckle, kneeling down next to the small pool as well - trying to cool off his hands.
Athena saw this. "Here, let me-"
"Athena, don't try to go to ice just yet," Ahsoka stopped her. "You could hurt yourself. Your body is letting off steam from warm water touching you. I don't want to see what ice could do."
Ice that touches solid fire. Both always tend to crack.
"Get some rest," Zeb nodded. "We'll be just fine."
"You...didn't have to do that for me," Athena said. "You got hurt."
"It's fine," Ahsoka assured with a smile to cover the pain. "You're my Padawan. It's my job to keep you safe."
"You're a good kid, I don't want ya hurt either," Zeb assured. "So, can ya just stop catching on fire for me please?"
"I'll do my best."