A/N: The next two chapters are for my 2020 FFN reward winner, Ramage. Thank you for all the PM support and being such a great friend. Here's the beginning of your story and I hope it gets voted for often so that we see the end of it before my fingers are too old and broken to type. (I recently discovered that I can't cross them anymore. eep!) :P

The Mandalorian Jedi's Prologue:

Mira Wren-Bridger might not have been the firstborn in her family, but she was the first official Mandalorian Jedi to be born in over a thousand years.

You see, her older brother, Caleb, had no desire to become a Mandalorian. Aside from learning to wield the Force to the best of his talented ability, the only thing that his entire world revolved around was his bonded mate, who was born only one day after he was. Minxha Bonteri and Caleb grew up together and were as inseparable as their parents allowed them to get.

Mira, on the other hand, had no one aside from her parents. As she grew up, it felt like she was surrounded by example after example of the nearly sickening loving sweetness that came with a Force bonded couple. Hell, even Din and Omera were Force bonded, and they weren't even Jedi.

So the girl clung to what she did have; the ways of her parents.

Her father, Ezra Bridger, was officially made a Jedi Master by the time she was ten, and she wanted to be just like him. He was kind, friendly, caring, and humble (most of the time), yet still was a fiercely protective parent and spouse who could fight with the best of them and win if he felt like it.

She also wanted to be just like her mother, Sabine Wren. Mira thought her mom was a badass warrior, through and through, and wanted a set of armour just like hers, beautiful paint job and everything. Mira tried to do the artist thing too, but she was as hopeless at drawing as Ezra was, so she gave up on that fairly quickly and left it to her mother and older brother to make things pretty. (Caleb inherited the artist gene, and he doodled on occasion, but he wasn't interested in making art full-time either.)

The only part of Sabine's artistic side that Mira seemed to inherit was her dramatic flair in regards to outfits and hair. The girl loved colour and wore a variety of it every day, not to mention dying her long midnight blue locks in new shades of the rainbow on a regular basis.

Like all Mandos, Mira started training with weapons at an early age, along with learning hand-to-hand, acrobatic, and jetpack flight skills. Her Jedi lessons also started early, what with her showing off her powers by the age of two to everyone she met, and they didn't differ that much from the Mando lessons. They did focus more on control through meditation, but she still learned how to handle a lightsabre, hand-to-hand, body control, and to channel her energy into something useful and good.

Mira was blessed with two families who adored her; her Jedi/Ghost family, and her Mando family on Krownest. She might not have found her soulmate practically right off the bat like most of the other Jedi kids on Lothal, but she wasn't lacking in affection by any means. Her notoriously tough-shelled grandmother, Ursa Wren, even cracked real smiles around the girl and personally saw to most of her training in the traditional Mandalorian ways. Which meant that Ursa actually visited Lothal more than once a year like she had before Mira was born, and that she 'stole' her granddaughter for weeks at a time between Sabine's visits to Krownest.

Mira had a bunch of Mando cousins on Krownest to play with, including her uncle Tristan's three kids, so she was never lacking in companionship on the winter planet either.

On her twelfth birthday (as was tradition), Ursa presented Mira with her very own set of Beskar armour, which had once belonged to her great-grandmother on her father's side of the family. She was thrilled to death with the freshly-reforged-to-fit-her armour, and designs for painting the shiny silver metal started whirling through her mind almost immediately. Between the ages of twelve and sixteen, her armour underwent a multitude of new paint jobs, each one matching her current hair style. She never did anything as fancy as what was painted on her mother's armour, but Mira was proud of whatever she did accomplish, usually sticking to only two or three colours and following the lines of the armour in pleasing patterns.

She never told anyone this, but more often than not, she drew her inspiration for the colours and patterns for her armour from holo recordings of starfighter races, picking whichever ship struck her fancy and copying it to some degree.

She also never told anyone how much she loved watching the thrilling and dangerous races. She liked to try and guess who the winner was going to be just from looking at the pilots before the race even started. Facial expressions and body language could tell so much about a being's state of mind and level of determination. She was usually right.

She came by her fascination with flying fairly, though, thanks to her Grandma Hera, who could fly anything, and her Auntie Ketsu, who took her up in her TIE Defender for a ride when Mira was still an infant, combining babysitting duty with her patrol of Lothal space. The Defender went ZZOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM, and that was it, Mira was hooked on speed.

She begged her parents and Hera for flying lessons before she could even talk properly. But her mental shouts of, 'Wanna fly!' were clear enough as far as she was concerned.

Eventually (when she was big enough) they caved and she was taught to fly, and another present she received at twelve years old was her own Defender so that she could take turns on the planetary patrols too. If she made a side-trip or two playing with the clouds on the way too and from space, no one ever called her on it.

Her last important present that year was a trip to Cerulia with her family, where she not only picked a Kyber crystal to build her own lightsabre with, she also chose a much bigger one that would grow and shape into her very own Kyber Sword. Within days of bonding with her, both crystals took on a blue shade so dark, it looked black at first. She thought it was awesome. So did her parents. Auntie Soka looked at her with worry furrowing the white markings above her eyes for a few minutes before she shrugged, smiled, and said, 'Must be a Mandalorian thing. You're still firmly in the Light side, so I guess I have nothing to worry about.'

It hadn't even occurred to Mira to associate the dark colour with the Dark Side until then. She let that bother her for all of a minute before she shrugged it off too and decided that the midnight blue meant she was special, not prone to evil. Besides, the Cerulians made their Kyber Swords literally any shade of the rainbow that struck their fancy, even red, and they weren't Darksiders by any stretch of the imagination.

Her twelfth birthday was easily the best one of her life so far. And she doubted any birthday in the future would top it.

Of course, now that she had armour and was considered mature enough to fly on her own, Mira also firmly believed that she was old enough to start going on missions for the New Jedi Order.

She understood that she was too young to fight the final battle with the Yuuzhan Vong back in 15 BBY, when she was only seven. But she felt that she was certainly old enough five years later to help look for new Force sensitives with her cousin Jacen, or go on peacekeeping missions with her father or Auntie Soka.

They turned her down, frustrating her to no end, saying she could start going on missions when she was old enough to be a Padawan at fourteen. Being a Mandalorian, she wanted to break something from frustration. But because she was a Jedi too, Mira refrained and instead focused her energy on training harder. (Much to the dismay of anyone who found themselves roped into sparring with her.)

Her wonderful twelfth year turned into a nightmare when Hera was stolen and subsequently murdered. It was one of the times when she desperately wished she was allowed to go with the adults, because she would always wonder if they'd had just one more person, one more Jedi on the rescue team, would they have been able to save Hera?

Mira wasn't the only one of the children and teenagers left behind who thought that. Basically, they all did. Even Skye was left behind, and she was sixteen and fully capable of kicking ass with her Kyber sword. Not to mention she would have wanted to save Jacen's mother more than anyone, thanks to their soulmate bond.

Stupid, overprotective parents.

Din might have been the most disappointed that he hadn't been called on to help, never one to turn down a good fight (which is why he was one of her favourite sparring partners), but she could understand the reasoning behind that one as well; in their haste to charge to the rescue, Ezra and Ahsoka had forgotten that they had other allies that were just as effective at batting Force users.

The students of the Jedi school and everyone in Spectre House walked around like zombies for days afterwards, utterly heartbroken at the loss of someone who was essentially the core of their family. Even Mira's father turned into a shade of his former cheerful self, looking drawn and troubled. Mira got it. She did. As their strongest Seer by far, Ezra was probably kicking himself to death for not foreseeing the events to come.

Eventually they all returned to life as normal, just with a Hera sized hole in their hearts. Even Jacen picked up the broken pieces of his psyche (with a little help from Skye) and returned to his self appointed task of searching the galaxy for others like them. The first time he flew off in the Ghost without Hera, Mira had to put her helmet on to hide the tears streaming down her face. At least she wasn't the only one.

Two more years went by in something of a blur as Mira's life revolved around school, training, watching races on the holonet while wishing she was as free as those pilots were (especially the always smiling and super cute Poe Dameron who Ben Solo claimed was his best friend), and her evening and weekend patrols in her Defender.

Jacen and Skye got married the day the Cerulian princess turned eighteen, pretty much eloping and then telling everyone after the fact. (Skye's parents weren't impressed.) When the couple returned from their month-long honeymoon, Jacen surprised Mira by asking her to be his Padawan.

Despite the fact that they'd never formed a nearly instant and strong Master/Padawan bond like some others when first meeting (like Ahsoka and Skye, Mara Jade and Ben, and Luke with Grogu), she accepted eagerly, knowing that meant she'd finally get to see more of the galaxy. As far as Mira was concerned, her familial bond with her young uncle was more than good enough. Not to mention the fact there weren't that many adult Jedi in comparison to the number of children that were joining the school thanks to Jacen's efforts, so she couldn't afford to get picky if she wanted a Master who wasn't her own father. (She'd never have any fun if that happened.)

Besides, Jacen shared her love of flying, so they understood each other quite well. And Mira and Skye were like sisters, so living on the Ghost with her would never be a hardship. Chopper (who'd attached himself to Jacen like superglue after Hera's death), on the other hand…

Mira's life from fourteen to eighteen years old was filled with adventure and new experiences that she'd forever be grateful for, loving the stark contrast to her mostly sheltered life on Lothal and Krownest. During the first two years of that time, she scanned the faces and Force signatures of every young male she met, hoping against hope to finally stumble upon her soulmate. But none of them ever sparked to life any true interest in her. Some were cute, some were even drool-worthy, but none made her Force senses tingle with awareness like they should have if they were destined to be her cyar'ika.

And then what she was looking for went and showed up on Lothal when she was sixteen and actually home to celebrate Caleb and Minxha's week-long nineteenth birthday and wedding celebrations.

Ben's imaginary celebrity best friend they loved to tease him about turned out to actually be real, much to everyone's amazement, when the nearly legendary Poe Dameron flew in at random, not even knowing that he was sort of crashing a family event.

And Mira nearly passed out from the shock of having a new Force bond snap into place as soon as she'd seen the handsome pilot in person. Not because the bond was all that strong to start with, not with him being a non-Force sensitive and completely oblivious to what had happened, but because she forgot to breathe as she gawked at him with open wonder.

The only reason Dameron didn't catch her with her mouth agape and a stupid expression on her face was because Ben was introducing him to his uncle Luke, Mara Jade, the twins, Padmer and Anika, and his very young soulmate, Rey, at the time.

Her mother, however, did.

Sabine was clearly not impressed that Mira was fawning over a man in his early twenties. Because when it was time for Mira's turn for an introduction, her mother kept it almost rudely short and the death glares she was giving Dameron for trying to smile at her for three whole seconds was downright embarrassing.

The poor man might have been appropriately intimidated by her mother, but Mira wasn't. Poe Dameron stayed for a week, hanging out with Ben and following the recently promoted Knight around as he taught classes to the younglings, tinkered on ships, or just hung out with the Skywalkers, with a nine year old Rey hanging on every story coming out of their mouths like they were gods.

During that time, Mira wasn't much better than Rey, but she was decidedly more subtle about it. Using one of her talents that allowed her to blend in with the shadows and effectively disappear that Ahsoka had taught her, Mira pretty much stalked Poe whenever she could get away with it and not get caught by her elder Jedi. Or her parents. (Sabine had clued Ezra in to the fact that their daughter was all but actually drooling over an older guy, and he hadn't been too pleased about it despite the fact that age gap relationships abounded all over the New Order.)

Mira decided that she was infatuated with Poe's smile. Turned on by his dashing and darkly handsome good looks. Melted for his unabashed affection for his rollie droid. Impressed by his generous nature when he surprised Ben's entire family to a night at the theatre and an expensive dinner afterward. Inspired by how he treated the adults with respect and the children with warm affection. Surprised but appreciative that he seemed to have a basic understanding of the Force but wasn't stupidly agog over it like many who encounter a Jedi and their powers. And so in awe of his skills as a pilot, considering he wasn't Force sensitive in the least to give him a little extra edge over his competition. (Much like Hera had been.)

In short, Mira found herself falling in love with Poe as their Force bond strengthened without the poor man even knowing it. Waiting two more years before she could pursue and claim him for herself was going to be torture, but probably a good exercise in patience. (She didn't want her mother to actually murder him, after all, or for him to get thrown in a cell for fraternizing with a minor.)

Fortunately, her Master was very sympathetic to her plight – having done the waiting game himself – and helped her with her meditation and giving her lots of distractions to keep her occupied for the next two years as they continued their quest across the galaxy while secretly watching Poe's races in person whenever they could and on the holonet when they couldn't.

Mira was always afraid that Poe would find another girl while she finished growing up, but he never did as far as she could tell. There was never anything in the news of him hooking up with any of his many fans, and when she did catch a glimpse of him in person, there was never anyone with him but BB-8.

And then there was the dreams…

Hoooooo boy, were there dreams. Mira had never really experienced desire until the dreams of her and Poe doing intimate things started. But after that, she swore she was going to just jump him as soon as she could get away with it and hope he didn't mind too much.

But first, she had to finish her Jedi training.

Jacen was a great Master, and their lessons were occasionally – okay more like frequently - even supplemented by a surprise visit from his father. Kanan's Force ghost was incredibly wise, and with his added input, he probably did more towards tempering Mira's instinctive need to fight first and ask questions later than anything else ever had. By the time she was eighteen, Mira was ready to take her trials to become a Knight. Which meant travelling via lothwolf into the Lothal Temple that was now underground and inaccessible any other way.

Long story short, she passed, but she emerged from the Temple with a new purpose thanks to a very real vision of the Knight of Ren who'd taken Hera and the knowledge that he was still alive and up to no good.

There was no way she was going to ignore that vision, or be able to live with herself if she didn't personally do something about what she'd seen. So with yet another farewell to her concerned but sort of understanding parents, Mira set out in her eighteenth birthday present from her grandmother to go claim her beloved soulmate and set out on a new mission; one that would hopefully save the galaxy yet again from someone even worse than Snoke.

The day after she left, the Jedi school was almost blown sky-high, with only a strong sense of danger setting nearly everyone on edge having them search the school from top to bottom until the explosives were found.

And that was only the first of many attempts to destroy the New Order, inspiring Mira's quest to new levels of urgency.