Five years passed from the time Han and I had taken Jun home with us until his masters arrived. Jun was newly fourteen and I was midway through my thirteenth year.
Ben was placed under the training of Jacen (unbeknownst to us already flirting with the dark side), and Luke had decided to let Jun train me in combat and war, and me to train Jun in the ways of our culture, education, and meditation/finer points of being a Jedi.
Jun was six feet tall and still growing. He was beefy and muscular, and frightening to behold (to an outsider). He was strong and tough.
What I lacked in height and strength, I made up for in brains and wits.
We never imagined his masters would wait a whole five years to come for him.
I was walking the roof on guard duty that night.
It was customary for cargo ships and transport freighters to come and go at all hours, but never battleships. I knew it was them when I saw the ships.
I ran and hit the silent alarm.
Luke came up the stairs and stood behind me. The ship hovered at a height where dropping trained troops would be no problem. Jun and Luke's family had joined us on the roof.
"That's them," Jun confirmed.
Luke ordered me to sound the evacuation alarm. I was right under a set of speakers, and the alarm was a high pitch whine.
The first to disembark was our longtime pal, Boba Fett.
We all bolted down the stairs and toward the park that had been where the buildings had been.
"Jun, you're going to come back to the Hutts!" Fett's cold voice echoed. I fought with my hands to keep my magnets attached.
"Not today, Fett!" Jun exclaimed, his eyes once a solid blue, faded to a terrifying yellow.
"Dead or alive-," Boba began his catchphrase.
"I get paid either way," I finished.
"You'll pay for your insolence, young one. Guards, no mercy for the youngling!"
I was insulted. I was too old to be called that at thirteen.
Another ship dropped into the atmosphere. And another. And Another.
An entire fleet was arriving.
Thankfully, ships were also going- the civilians.
A larger battlefront was opening.
A final ship descended at the front of the pack, bearing Korribani Sith insignia.
Not Luke's Sith allies, but new, harsher symbols.
The man who owned this ship is the one who ordered the engineering of Jun. This guy had Jun raised by the Hutts, bounty hunters, sith…not to mention various other associates and lest we forget the guy himself.
If Han and I had known that Korriban had been involved, I don't know if we would have taken him.
This guy…Lord Skanato, was a real piece of work. He was tall and had the build of a wookiee. He had a full beard that was wild and thick, but not his whole face was covered in hair. His eyes were the color of the reddest roses that grew around the Imperial Palace. His skin was a pasty white, nearly translucent, and looked to be knocking on death's door. He was neither old nor young, neither fat nor thin, and his full story remains a mystery.
He disembarked slowly, graceful even, for someone his size.
"Jun, come with me, boy!" Skanato yelled. His cold voice chilled my blood.
"No!" Jun barely managed to yell back.
"You are my property, boy. I kept you in fine working order."
"You treated me worse than an animal. You taught me only pain, misery, violence, and destruction. They have taught me how to help others, joy, and kindness. Their punishments are not beatings and scars, but questioning and thought. They gradually work on skills, not immediately exposure, and fighting for survival. They have shown me true friendship and loyalty."
"I can see that we will have to fight over the boy, Skywalker. You and that puny ginger girl against me," Skanato ordered loudly. Then, he smiled. He had teeth like a shark, crooked and sharp.
Luke and I stepped forward as requested. Skanato's ship landed completely and two gunmen came outside.
One of the gunmen was in leather and was obviously in mid-plastic surgery operations to look like a Zabrak. He was later identified as Vlad Belladonna.
We stood before Skanato, wary.
Luke meditated while we waited, and I cracked my knuckles and neck. I was determined to not let this man take my friend. Jun was my best friend (besides Nanette, of course). We had a special bond. I looked back at Jun. His yellow eyes were an even darker yellow, and his glare seemed to bore into Skanato's soul.
Skanato drew a three-bladed sword and approached us.
I activated both blades on my lightsaber, taking no chances.
He laughed from his throat. "Ambitious little wad of scum, aren't we?"
"I don't know. You may just be tame."
"Insolence," he said as he managed to slap me across the face. I used this opportunity to strike at his leg. He blocked it.
"Knowledge is power," Luke said gently, but he did not intervene.
I tried again and again to land a blow on this jerk. I wanted to protect Jun, and that's what I was going to do. I was angry with Luke, now, for treating this like a test.
Obviously, I didn't last long. Skanato cut me in the right side and leg. The gashes were deep, almost down to the bone, and blood poured through my fingers and splattered on the ground. I fell over, and Skanato plunged the blade clean through my thigh. I yelled in unbridled agony.
Jun's former master pointed the blade at my face, the point directly in front of my nose.
"I won't kill you. It would be a waste…a beautiful waste," Skanato said as he put a bare hand into the growing pool of blood. He then brought the blood soaked hand to his lips and licked the sticky liquid off of his fingers.
My stomach churned and I felt weak. I tore my magnets off and receivers before I laid down flat on the ground. I couldn't hold the two wounds I had, let alone all three, so I just held my side.
Luke stepped in to face Skanato. I tried to watch and keep my mind focused. Jun came over with Han and tried to staunch some of the bleeding, but it kept coming.
Luke and Skanato were an even match, and my vision was failing, and I needed to rest.
Han urged me not to fall asleep, but I was so tired.
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Before they died, I interviewed Luke, Han, and Leia, and with their help, I developed the following sequence of events.
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Luke and Skanato went in circles for many minutes, never gaining or losing ground.
Skanato won, disarming Luke, but before he could deliver the final blow, Jun entered the fight, blocking the effort. Jun's blade was locked with his former master's just above Luke's body.
Jun's eyes were a deadly onyx and he was completely unresponsive to voice. At the time, we only had theories as to what happened. He was like a man possessed.
"Now you come to defend your friend?"
Jun made no reply.
Luke crawled away to my body (apparently to check in with his friends to make sure I was still alive).
The third arch of the battle began, this one between the master and the former student.
This fight was one of brute strength and deliberate strokes from both men. Jun was barely stronger than Skanato, due to the possession.
While their fighting started gracefully, Jun's moves became more erratic and forceful- strokes of pure brawn.
Jun overpowered Skanato and disarmed him. Jun, aside from his lightsaber, had a knife. Using the Force to lift and immobilize his former master, Jun used his other hand and plunged the blade deep into Skanato's chest. Then, he pulled the blade down. Guts and organs spilled out onto the grass.
Jun did not stop there. He kept slashing at Skanato, mutilating the corpse until it was unrecognizable.
And he still wasn't finished.
One ship escaped with a small group. This got Jun's attention. The other ships were not so lucky. In his fit, he pulled most of the remaining ships to the ground with the Force with loud, echoing crashes.
His "work" completed, Jun collapsed, landing on his face.
Luke referred to Jun's state as Force Rage. When he was in a Rage, nothing could be done to stop it. We just had to let it run its course.
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When Jun awoke, the adults were afraid of what he could be and what would happen. These worries were for naught, because Jun was himself. He had no memory of the outburst, and it was only an hour or two later.
I on the other hand…when Jun woke up, I was still in surgery. I remained there for a few more hours. In addition to the vein and vessel repairs, I had to have a skin graft on my leg. Apparently, the tip of the sword had been dipped in acid, which had eaten away a good chunk of the epidermis on my thigh.
In total, I was unconscious for nearly two days.
Luke stayed by my side. He said I talked quite a bit and asked for my daddy. He also said I sat up and begged (he said with weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth even) to see Jun.
Luke was worried by this reaction. Even though I was so young, this…bond scared him. I'm sure it was because he believed I was in love with Jun. I wasn't- I may have thought that I was, but I wasn't.
When I finally came out of the fog, both Luke and Jun were there. Luke had a busted hand and Jun's nose was taped. I tried to take a deep breath, but I couldn't because the stitches pulled to hurting, so I stopped.
Jun took my hand.
"Feel okay?" Jun asked.
"Yeah. I hurt, but I'm okay."
"I owe you an apology, Asenath," Luke said.
I then remembered I was angry with him, but I couldn't muster the emotion.
"It's fine."
"Not really. You believed I was testing you. I wasn't testing you."
"He was testing me," Jun admitted quietly.
"Luke, even though he called me out, I didn't have to approach and engage. I chose to engage him. I needed to. Jun, you must have done well," I tried to shift the attention.
"Well…" Jun said. I suddenly felt weaker.
"What?"
"Jun, just turn on the HoloNet News. She'll see it sooner or later," Luke said.
"Jedi Gone Wild? Is Jun Fett really on our side? More at eleven," the reporter said with a still of Jun's back and ship over his shoulder.
"'Jedi Gone Wild?'" I repeated, puzzled.
Luke spoke slowly, choosing each word deliberately. "After you passed out, chaos abounded in Jedi Land. Jun quite literally beat the stuffing out of Skanato."
"Ouch…but he's dead, right?" I asked.
"Yes. Plus, hundreds were killed when Jun pulled down the ships. Not civilians, but the Sith and foot soldiers on the ships."
"I don't remember a thing," Jun muttered.
"You really did all that?" I asked.
"Don't remember. To me, it's a huge blank in my head."
"He did. I was there. He was covered in blood. He looked alright, but he was behaving like a maniac. He did save has a gold star for loyalty," Luke murmured at last.
"You can't just let the news say that then," I groaned as I shifted my hips.
"I've been trying to stop them," Luke said.
"She's getting too excited, Luke. We should go," Jun said gently.
Luke quickly agreed.
"Come back later?" I asked.
"We will," Luke assured me.
I laid back down in my sheets and smiled.
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I couldn't sleep, so I thought.
Luke, Jun, and I were a lot alike.
All three of us were tri-lingual (Basic, sign, and Huttese), all three of our births were traumatic in some way, and all three of us were on the Jedi path.
Two had Skywalker DNA.
Two of us had connections to Tatooine.
Two of us were raised with violence as a factor.
I kept these things in my heart.