Chapter Two: The Calling
Five years.
Five long years have passed since the Purge began.
Cal and Kairi were the lucky ones to escape and hide in time when Order 66 happened.
The two stayed together no matter what cost.
The first few days were horrible for them. Cal and Kairi were having a hard time trying to survive by finding a place to stay and even have warm food since they were still young with no money.
But somehow, luck came back into their lives when a friendly Abednedo named Prauf looked after Cal and Kairi, knowing he couldn't let the two starve to death.
As they grew, Cal managed to get a job working at the scrapyard and Kairi attended school at her age before she was able to get a job. Following the rules of being in a galaxy where Jedi are now known as traitors, Cal and Kairi are keeping their old lives as Jedi in the past… until this very day.
It was morning time on Bracca as rain was still pouring down as always on the planet which it was usual to have on a planet which is now being controlled by the Empire.
"Kairi, where did you put my poncho?" Cal asked.
But he didn't get an answer from her.
"Kairi, did you hear me?" Cal asked, knowing he can hear a long whistling noise going off coming from the kitchen.
He walked into the living room/kitchen area as he noticed that Kairi had folded up his work poncho along with his face mask and headphones on the couch.
Once he had his headphones around his neck and his face mask inside of his belt bag, Cal turned his face towards the kitchen to see the long black haired teen in the middle of it.
16 year old Kairi Jabami was standing in the kitchen in her own trance when she didn't realized that her morning tea was ready. As Kairi was zoning out, Cal walked into the kitchen while putting on his brown glove after realizing that she wasn't her usual self.
"Kairi?" Cal called out as Kairi didn't respond by using her voice, until she lightly started using her pointer finger to tap against her leggings, hoping she could feel herself.
Cal moved closer as Kairi started moving her silver eyes from the teapot to Cal's lunch that she was just in the middle of making.
Hearing her own heartbeat and feeling Cal shaking her shoulder, Kairi finally snapped out of her trance with a frightening gasp and turned around to face the taller person.
"Were you listening to me?" Cal asked.
"Uh…" Kairi muttered as she was trying to lie to Cal. Knowing that she was in and out of her trance, Kairi didn't hear what he told her at first, so she had to answer back. "Yeah, sure." She lied, without looking at Cal before heading to the counter and went back to finishing Cal's lunch.
"You've been spacing out recently. Is everything alright? Ever since the bar incident, you've been more distant. And even around Prauf." Cal asked, before removing the kettle from the stove and placing it down on the counter.
"Sorry. I just… didn't get much sleep last night." Kairi stated, before resting her elbows on the counter while using her left hand to rub her tired eyes.
Cal gently rested his hands on Kairi's shoulder before leading her out of the kitchen and made her sit down on the couch.
"You sit down and let me take care of making my lunch, okay? And you have to get ready for work as well." Cal responded before he went back into the kitchen as Kairi rested her back into the couch while watching the 19 year old behind the counter.
"Actually, I'm coming in during the afternoon after your lunch break. Ever since that incident, my boss wanted me to have some time off to calm down. I barely broke an expensive bottle which could have come out of my paycheck." Kairi explained, as Cal was pouring the morning tea into a cup before coming back with it.
"Just be careful, okay? We nearly exposed ourselves to the Empire when it happened." Cal responded, before Kairi took the cup out of his hand.
Kairi nodded before she started sipping her cup.
"Cal?" Kairi called his name, as he was looking up at her silver eyes. "Sometimes, I wonder… what would happen if the Empire found us? I know we could get killed but… I can't do anything to fight back. My connection to the Force is probably cut off." She explained.
"Kairi, we can't worry about it. We have to accept the present today. We can't go back and fix everything. Even though we're in hiding, it would take a miracle for someone to say that they want all Jedi to come out of hiding. For now, we are okay. We have to stay like this." Cal explained, as he sat down next to her while Kairi was looking at the warm liquid of her tea, staring at her own reflection.
"But Cal… is there more to life than being on Bracca?" Kairi explained, as Cal remembered seeing the 16 year old reading a book about the galaxy's planets. He always knew Kairi loved to explore and have fun when they were just Younglings back on Coruscant, but she was more of an adventurous/troublemaking type than having the quiet personality today.
"Kairi, you might as well forget it. If we leave, the Empire will find us. And I can't allow that to happen." Cal responded as he rejected Kairi's question, before he stood up and looked back at her who still had her eyes on her own reflection.
"Okay." Kairi whispered as it was audible for Cal to hear.
Kairi gently placed down her tea on the table, before she started to lay down on the couch, resting her hands underneath her head. Cal watched as she closed her eyes, before hearing her sobbing in her sleep until he moved closer with his knees on the floor where he was in front of Kairi's face.
"I never wanted to make you cry, Kairi. But things are different now. We both have jobs to support ourselves. A roof over our heads and even each other. I'm still keeping my promise to Master Sotah no matter what." Cal thought to himself, before moving some of Kairi's long black hair back behind her and covering her up with a blanket that was over the couch.
Kairi kept one eye open as he watched Cal finish making his lunch before he left the apartment without saying another word, but he started looking back at her when he walked out the door.
Sitting back up, Kairi wiped away her tears before pouring out her lukewarm tea down the sink and decided to go take a shower.
Underneath the showerhead with her hands aganist the wall, Kairi was staring at the hot water going down the drain where her petite feet were before she started washing her hair with shampoo.
"I'm just a poor wayfaring stranger. Traveling through this world of woe…" Kairi started to sing, before she heard a whispering voice calling her name, which made her jump in fright.
Quickly covering her small chest with her arms, Kairi turned around to make sure that there weren't any peep holes or anything that the neighboring rooms of the apartment were seeing her in the shower.
It left a shiver down her spine as she turned back around and continued to shampoo her long black hair without saying another word.
"Like what's going on? First, me having nightmares and now I'm hearing voices?" Kairi thought to herself while washing the suds out of her hair, before taking a quick shower.
Getting out of the shower, Kairi used her towel to dry herself off before wrapping herself with it.
"Another day on his garbage filled planet with scrap metal and ship parts." Kairi thought to herself while putting her long black hair into a loose bun. Looking down at the bathroom counter, Kairi looked down at the makeup set that her coworkers got for her since her birthday was last month. On her right, she can see a half empty bottle of vitatmin stims that Cal bought for her. "Even though I'm underweight and short doesn't mean Cal didn't have to buy me these. But it's awfully nice of him since he's watching over me." She responded, before jabbing one stim into her shoulder and letting it drop into the sink.
After feeling the effects of her vitamin stim, Kairi managed to calm down before she decided to do her hair. Wiping away the shower steam off the mirror, Kairi looked up and saw a woman who was taller than her with long silver hair, but her face was blurry too, as the 16 year old screamed out in fright.
"What was that?!" Kairi yelled, after she fell onto the floor.
She gently stood up before looking back at the mirror to see that the long silver haired woman disappeared.
"Okay… I must be going crazy." Kairi whispered to herself, before having her hands on the counter.
When she left the bathroom after putting on her bartender clothes, Kairi decided to go into her bedroom and lay down on the bed. She had the time to herself before she had to go take in an afternoon and late shift at the bar which was nearby the scrapyard that Cal and Prauf worked at.
Getting her journal from her nightstand, Kairi decided to read through it, since she has been keeping a record of what had happened to her and Cal's life on Bracca.
"It's only been a week since the bar incident. A drunk worker asked me to come over to his house because I was attractive to him. But I didn't want to, because he gave me the creeps. When Cal and Prauf stepped in to save me, I felt okay at first, before he tried to get me to leave with him, putting his hands around me, claiming that I was his. Until Cal punched him. I didn't know he would go that far to stop him. But then Stormtroopers came in, that's when it got scary to me. I told them calmly that everything was alright before they checked my ID. I thought I was going to be discovered right there and now. And they left as soon as they took the drunk scrapyard worker out of the bar. I still didn't feel alright after that. I even ignore Cal and Prauf touching me to help me calm down… Maybe I am a coward."
"Here's today…" Kairi whispered, before writing down today's journal entry.
"That woman showed up again. But this time as a ghost. Has the apartment been haunted? I asked Prauf yesterday about it, and he said that nothing shouldn't be happen there. I mean, he did recommend this place for us. Anyway, I managed to see what she looked like. Long silver hair. A grey sleeveless top with a blue belt, black leggings and even brown boots. Could she be a Jedi? I don't really know her. But why is she haunting me?"
Kairi closed her journal, before she decided to take a nap.
With her hands resting on her stomach and her silver eyes looking up at the ceiling, Kairi gently closed her eyes and felt the world around her went into silence.
Kairi felt someone's hand touching her face, before feeling a thumb touching her bottom lip, until she swatted it away and opened her eyes to see Cal who was sitting down at the foot of the bed.
"Cal? Aren't you supposed to be at work?" Kairi asked, but Cal didn't respond.
He stood up from Kairi's bed and left the bedroom.
"Cal? Where are you going?" Kairi asked once more, before following him.
Closing the door to her bedroom, Kairi turned around to see Cal, but it was his Padawan self when he was 14 years old.
"Cal? How… How did you?" Kairi started to ask, before she got down on one knee so she could look at him.
"Trust me, Kairi." Young Cal responded.
Kairi was about to say something, before seeing a Younger Kairi running through herself and grabbed Young Cal's hand, seeing smiles on both of their faces along with laughter.
She immediately followed their younger selves as she watched them jump onto the couch and ran around the living room, before they headed outside of the apartment.
Once Kairi made it outside, she realized that she wasn't in the hallways of the apartment building, but in the hallway of a ship.
"But… how?" Kairi asked herself, before she decided to go down the hallway of the ship. She can tell that this was surreal to her as she heard clone troopers having a normal conversation, but as she walked closer to the sealed doors, the hallway began to expand.
She stood there in shock, before hearing a baby crying from out of nowhere until she started jogging towards the sound which was coming from behind the sealed doors.
An alarm was raised as Kairi began to look around to see the flashing red lights and the sound of it.
"We have to protect the little one and his wife at all costs."
"That's what the orders are?"
"His Padawan made its way onto the ship. And now he is showing a different side of him. That's what General Sotah explained."
"The little one and his wife? I thought Jedi are not supposed to have attachments." Kairi responded after she heard the voices of the clone troopers, until she finally made it to the sealed off door.
Once she gently touched it, Kairi can feel shivers running down her spine as she felt something around her that made her different.
"Its… it's the Force." Kairi whispered before looking down at her hands.
Suddenly, the sealed off doors opened as Kairi jumped back in shock before backing away from it when she saw the same woman from her nightmares and from the mirror.
She had her hand reaching out for Kairi to show that she doesn't mean any harm to her, before the 16 year old gently placed her own hand onto hers. To her surprise, Kairi can feel the ghost's hand as she helps her stand.
But she can feel her own body not moving, like she was using the Force by touching the 16 year old to make her stay still.
"Padawan of General Rin Sotah… Listen to me. The past is never what it seems. Your eyes have been blinded for so long… The truth is in the Force." The woman responded as she had an accent, before she lightly touched Kairi's forehead where her purple forehead symbol, causing her to roll her eyes back…
Kairi woke up as she fell down onto the bed along with a few of the furniture turned sideways or upside down when they were once floating.
Breathing in and out slowly, Kairi looked around as she sat up in the bed.
"What happened?" Kairi asked herself, before she felt her right hand gripping onto something long and metal like.
Slowly looking down, Kairi can see a lightsaber on her right hand as it had bandages wrapped around the cushion grip and the color was like a titanium color.
"A lightsaber…" Kairi whispered, before she turned it one to see that it illuminated a green glow. "It's hers. She was a force wielder." She whispered once more while staring at it.