AN: I do not own Star Wars or Star Wars the Old Republic. I own only the OC and plot. General trigger warnings just in case!

"aaaa"-talking out loud. "aaaa" (bold and italics)-talking through a holo or com. 'aaaaa'-inner thoughts. "aaaaa"-talking through a Bond or talking during a Force Vision. aaaa-Force Vision. "aaaa" (bold)-talking in another language. ("aaa") (bold, italics, and parentheses)-talking through a holo or com in another language

Sorry for the delay in posting everyone! As I mentioned though I am back in school and working so my current schedule is making it tricky to get chapters written up and posted. Also I found this chapter a little bit harder to get done than the other ones.

Trigger warning for violence. Nothing is graphic, I just want to be safe.

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Chapter Five: It Begins

The morning felt off.

It had started when Silas had awoken with a jolt well before he needed to be up. Fear and pain raced through his body hot, sharp, and quick. It lingered, but not to a point where it physically affected him. But it made him feel uneasy. Silas had laid in his bed, rolling over what happened in his mind when he felt and heard Esther in her room begin to cry.

His little girl had been curled up into a shaking, sobbing ball when he entered her room. Esther had the heels of her hands pressed into her sockets as if she was trying to physically remove something from her head by rubbing it away. She was pressing them down hard enough that Nandi was at her side, rocking back and forth in distress. Silas sat down on her bed and pulled Esther into his arms. He gently removed the hands from her sockets, holding them in one hand while rubbing her back with the other. He took a moment to study the minimal damage she had done to herself.

"Was it another nightmare?" he asked her quietly. It wouldn't be the first one she had ever had. She generally had a couple each month and she always seemed to have one in the weeks after Theron left. Silas felt more than saw Esther nod as she snuggled closer to him. "Want to tell me what you saw this time?'

"Fire," was Esther's whispered answer. "I saw fire raining down from the sky and monsters chasing people." That was apparently all that Ester felt like sharing because she stopped talking. Silas knew better than to push her. Instead he squeezed his arms around her and glanced at the chrono on the wall.

"How about we see if we can get some more sleep? We still have a couple hours til we need to get up. And you need all the sleep you can get," he pointed out as he tickled under her chin. "Today is a big day for you after all." He and the Green Council had located a Miraluka tutor who was willing to move to Corellia and teach Ester. She was leaps and bounds ahead of other Force Users in her classes. It all meant that Esther was growing up and he wasn't sure he was ready.

But Silas didn't give voice to his thoughts. Instead he tucked Ester back under her covers as Nandi returned to standby mode and rested on his daughter's bed. Watching her fall back to sleep before he too followed her.

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Theron yawned. A jaw-cracking yawn that didn't push him further into wakefulness. Instead, it just made him want to turn over on his pallet, hitch his blanket up higher, and go back to sleep. He was a growing boy after all. So he did exactly that. Theron rolled over, hitched his blanket up, and…

"Up Theron! Up!" Zho yanked the blanket off Theron. Then he used the Force to dump Theron from his pallet to the floor. The boy pulled a face, wincing dramatically as he stood and rubbed his tailbone.

"No fair Master Zho! You know I can't use the Force like that." Zho smirked at his student as Theron pouted. "Besides, I'm a growing boy! I need all the sleep and food I can get." That remark had the Jedi Master lifting an eyebrow. During their last visit to Corellia, he and Silas had caught Nandi a few times smuggling snacks and sweets to the children. When confronted, the droid had something similar about growing boys needing food and added that Nandi had not wanted to leave Esther out of the goodies. A close inspection revealed that someone had sliced into the droid's programing and made a few changes. Esther had only just started to learn about slicing. But Theron…

Zho crossed his arms and stared at Theron who began to wiggle under the knowing eyes. "So that was you who sliced into poor Nandi and reprogrammed…"

Something burning and sharp stabbed through Zho. He grunted, bending over. It was gone as quickly as it had come.

"Master?" Zho rose up with another grunt and looked at his student. Theron was pale and his eyes were wide. He realized that whatever he had felt had been such a strong echo within the Force that Theron, who wasn't able to use the Force all the time, had felt it. And that worried Zho. "Master, what was that?"

"Nothing good" was the almost shaky answer. He shook his head, clearing it for the moment. "We need to get to the main hall!"

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Something was wrong. Esther wasn't sure what, but it was. She had gotten a little bit more sleep after Papa had come in, but it hadn't been easy or restful. The images from her earlier nightmare had crept their way back in, fading in and out. When it was time to finally be up for the day, Papa had washed her face, cleaned the little scratches around her sockets, then helped Nandi make her favorite breakfast of pancakes with jogan fruit syrup and blue milk to wash it down.

Nandi hovered, watching and coaxing her to eat her meal. Esther did, but kept her eyes on Papa. He had settled down next to her, his portable viewscreen in hand as he sipped his caf. He was worried and the Force was worried. Esther hadn't told him about the pain she had felt, and was still feeling a little. It wasn't her pain or Theron's, but an echo from a lot of people within the Force. It scared her, but she didn't want to say anything…

"Damn!" Esther jumped as Silas swore, dropping the viewscreen to the table and jumping up from his seat.

"Papa?"

"I need to contact the Council…" Silas' voice faded as he began the same hunt he did every morning looking for his com. Only now there was more urgency to it. With her paper distracted, Esther slid from her seat and picked up the viewscreen. Her eyes widened in horror.

The images were live according to the small label in the corner. Live images of Coruscant, the massive city planet and capital of the Republic. Only now, it was burning and breaking.

Star destroyers from the Sith Empire filled the sky, their cannons and turrets firing lasers onto whichever target was nearest to them. Smaller fighters were darting in and out, around the tall buildings. They were chasing after the ships trying to flee or fight back, taking hits at what the destroyers couldn't. Sometimes the fighters even flew low over the walkways, sending the panicking civilians into further waves of panic as pieces of buildings fell around them. They were running, running away from Imperial troopers and Sith. Some of the Sith wore masks that looked to Esther like they had been ripped from horror stories and nightmares.

Her steady breathing started to become slightly choked as she realized that the red pools on the ground were blood. That those were limbs and bodies dotting the walkways. That people were stepping or tripping over them as they ran while the few fighters for the Republic were forced to work around them.

Esther's heart dropped when she noticed that most of them were aliens like her.

"Papa…" Silas looked up, com finally in hand as Esther held the viewscreen back out to him. "I saw this…"

The raining fire.

The monsters chasing people.

It was her nightmare come to life.

Silas set the com down and took the viewscreen from Esther before setting it next to the com. Then he fell to his knees and hugged her as tight as he could. Esther clung to him, crying again.

And on the viewscreen the Jedi Temple burned.

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On the viewscreen the Jedi Temple burned.

Theron watched it as Zho spoke with other Masters and Knights, trying to make sense of why and how the attack had happened. Coruscant was their capital world, it was a core world. It was where the Jedi Order was based, where the government met. It was probably the best defended and safest out of all the Republic worlds, so how were the Sith able to attack and bring it to its knees?

The answer was clear as soon as the question was asked. The Sith were able to attack because most of Coruscant's defenders were gone. The Emperor had reached out and asked for peace talks to take place between the Empire and Republic. Those peace talks were currently happening on Alderaan. Anyone who was anyone with any ties to the government were there. Including Theron's mother which had made him very relieved for a moment.

For just a moment.

For soon the thoughts crept into his mind, dark and choking. If the Sith Empire were able to attack Coruscant, what was to stop them from attacking other Republic core worlds? Worlds that the Sith could use to fuel their war machine and launch attacks into the very heart of the Republic. Worlds like Corellia. Corellia with its shipyards and factories would be a jewel in the Empire's crown if they were able to take it.

Corellia, where Esther lived. Esther, who was an alien.

Theron clenched his fists. The Empire made no secret that aliens were not welcomed as more than slaves with very few exceptions. Those aliens who were Force Users, those who could be more useful alive and not working back-breaking labor as slaves. If the Sith took Corellia, then Esther would be in danger as a Green Jedi, as a Force User, as a Miraluka. The Sith could enslave her or haul her away and put her through Sith training. Doing their best to corrupt her, break her, kill her if she didn't break.

No!

Theron clenched his fists tighter and gritted his teeth. No! That wasn't going to happen. The Empire wouldn't get their hands on Esther. He would train as hard as he could, learn everything he could so that when he was grown-up he would fight with Esther. They would fight side-by-side so he could protect her and together they would destroy the Sith Empire.

That was the vow Theron made.

The temple burned.

Coruscant burned.

Theron burned.