Anakin Skywalker couldn't quite believe what he was hearing.
His ears were actively listening, and his brain was registering the words. That didn't mean he was actually understanding them however or dealing with the implications of said words. Even his eyes were struggling to take them in at times, and on top of it all the force seemed to sing around all three of these Jedi Knights.
"Our mother is actually a Skywalker, though she hasn't gone by that name in a long time."
Anakin wasn't alone, in fact he was far from alone, he had more family out there. He had three members of his family right in front of him! They might not have the Skywalker name, but the force had assured him that they were part of Clan Skywalker. They said that their mother was a Skywalker, maybe not in name but definitely by blood, and that meant that there were more Skywalkers out there.
Solo was their father's name. It was unfamiliar to Anakin, and by the three Knights' own admissions, he'd probably not know of the man. He was apparently simple baseline human, with no connection to the force. Not force null, but he didn't have a significant amount of midi-chlorians to ever use it.
Their mother was the complete opposite, however.
"She's not a Jedi Master like Uncle Luke, but that had more to do with her starting her training pretty late in life, even by Jedi standards."
Anakin looked towards the… man who bore his name. The fact that all three of them were older than himself was rather strange, but it also gratifying in a way. There were more Skywalker Jedi Knights out there, even if they didn't bear the Skywalker name, they were still Jedi Knights all the same.
"How come you guys aren't in the Temple registry? I know I checked it for any other Skywalkers the first chance I got?" Anakin asked.
The three siblings all looked at one another for a moment. Jaina was the eldest of the three of them and obviously the most experienced with the use of the force. She kind of felt like Obi-Wan in some ways with how she was usually controlled in the emotional sense. Jacen felt more outgoing, and he was apparently really good in lightsaber combat, much like Anakin himself was. And the final sibling, also named Anakin, felt like a mix of both of them. He wasn't as controlled like Jaina, but he also wasn't as skilled as Jacen, instead he was somewhere in the middle.
"That's because we're not part of the Jedi Order on Coruscant." Jaina answered.
"What? Then how are you even Jedi Knights?"
"There is more than one Jedi Order Anakin." Jaina explained, and Anakin felt like an idiot.
He did know that there were other Orders throughout the galaxy. The Corellian Order came to mind as one such Order that was not directly linked to the Jedi Order on Coruscant. He couldn't even name the others, but he knew that they must exist, and the Solos must be from one such order.
"And my relatives? They're also part of this other Order?"
There was a momentary pause and both twins' eyes snapped towards one another for a moment.
"Yes, they are." Jaina said.
"I… didn't know." Anakin admitted.
"Maybe it was just a simple case of miscommunication." Anakin Solo offered. "The galaxy is a big place after all, and we have been rather out of touch with everyone else for quite some time now."
"But now we're here and reunited with you, our long lost… cousin." Jacen said.
Jaina gave her brother a look that Anakin Skywalker completely missed, himself being too engrossed in the idea of cousins and more family.
"Maybe if we can get back into contact with Uncle Luke, we can have one big family reunion." Anakin Solo offered.
"That's if he remembered to keep his commlink on him, as well as… other circumstances." Jacen said.
"Maybe the force will guide him to it then." Jaina offered.
"Doesn't seem like the force has our best interests at heart."
"We've been reunited with our lost cousin. Seems like the force is looking out for us." Anakin Solo said.
Jacen simply made a face at that.
The ship that they were traveling on jolted to a halt rather abruptly and all four of them looked around for a moment. Right! They had originally come here with the purpose of investigating a Sith Temple, and after bringing their new passengers back on board, they had decided to fly back to the rest of the fleet. They must have arrived already.
"Come on guys, I have a padawan you have to meet!" Anakin Skywalker said as he stood up.
He rushed out the room and missed the exchange of looks that the three Solo siblings gave each other.
Jaina Solo didn't know exactly what to expect when the ship's ramp lowered, and the doors opened.
Obviously, she had learned about the Clone Wars from the surviving records that the Empire had left and those smuggled records from Republic worlds that didn't fully submit to the Imperials. There were also a handful of very old clone troopers who had survived all of the Clone Wars as well as the entirety of the Imperial era and into the New Republic. Their stories had helped establish the basis for many histories about the wars and they all seemed to hold the Jedi in high regard.
Meeting clone troopers who were in their prime was a little jarring.
Jaina knew that they were all clones of the same mandalorian template, it was in their title after all, but seeing them at this age made it all the more apparent. The clone troopers she personally knew all looked very different, sometimes due to their very advanced age and other times because of numerous scars that shaped their faces to be almost unrecognizable as a clone. The clones she knew were also all hard and serious men who were either commanders or highly trained soldiers, the so-called ARC Troopers, and not the regular clones that were sometimes referred to.
She now understood why all the clones that had survived up to the New Republic era were who they were.
The clone troopers around her were all young men and almost all of them were just regular soldiers. They had no specialization nor additional training that marked them as different from the man next to them. They were the grunts, the rank and file, the… expendable.
They were clone troopers and each of them rang out differently in the force.
"Make sure to keep the force-suppressant cuffs on his wrists and ankles. Don't touch any of it, and if you have to, only remove his gag." Jaina advised the men in plastoid armor painted gold and white.
The men sounded off an affirmative as they escorted the prisoner down the ramp. The man was glaring daggers at her and even with the force-suppressants on him, Jaina could feel some of that anger coming from him. She made sure to stare right back at the man and placed a hand on the hilt of his lightsaber that currently sat clipped to her utility belt. The Sith Lord's eyes snapped to her hand and then back at her with renewed irritation.
Oh, he didn't like that at all.
Jaina let a small smirk grace her lips as she watched the prisoner being escorted away.
Curiously enough, the bled kyber crystal in the Sith Lord's blade responded to that, and it wasn't a bad response. It didn't lash out at Jaina so much as it prodded at her and the un-bled kyber crystal of her personal lightsaber. She didn't expect it to do that, though maybe it was just another weird force thing that has happened, gods knew that a lot of force shenanigans were to blame for their current predicament.
For now, she decided to leave investigating the lightsaber for another time.
"It's a lot cleaner than I expected." Jacen said from behind her.
She realized that it indeed was a lot cleaner after she gave the hanger bay another look. The ray shields at their back were the only things that separated the ship's interior from the cold expanse of space. The ship that they had arrived on was no more than a shuttle craft, something that looked unfamiliar to the New Republic ships that she was used to. The technology was dated by her standards, but to these people it was probably the height of technological advancement.
That was something else she was going to have to get used to.
"I had a very similar reaction when I first stepped foot into the main hangar bay." Master Kenobi said from behind them.
The three Jedi Knights of House Solo turned to watch as Obi-Wan Kenobi descended the ramp and walked over to them with a smile on his face. The Jedi Master had a very well-maintained beard and a combination of robes and armor that looked very familiar in a sense. In fact, Jaina was pretty sure she had seen it when Ben Kenobi's force ghost decided to grace their presence every once in a while.
Seeing it in real life on the actual living and breathing man was different, but it also wasn't that shocking.
It did however point out the very large difference between what Master Kenobi was wearing and what Jaina and her siblings were wearing.
Jaina wasn't wearing Jedi robes per say as she was wearing full body armor with a jedi like robe thrown on as an afterthought. The brutal years of the Yuuzhan Vong War had forced them all to make sacrifices and changes, and one change meant abandoning the near armor-less uniform of the Jedi. Uncle Luke didn't like it, but after multiple instances where armor saved the lives of not only himself but also others, he had to admit that it was necessary. This armor had saved her brother's life after all. Jaina felt that it was even more necessary after her uncle bestowed that damn title on her.
Sword of the Jedi.
She didn't truly know what she was meant to be with a title like that. Was she supposed to be some pure epitome of the Jedi values? Clearly her uncle had chosen the wrong person for that. Jaina wasn't a model Jedi, and the fact that she wore her armor proved that point to a certain degree. The Battle Armor as it was called hadn't been in use since the Clone Wars, and before that it hadn't been around since the Ruusan Reformation. Jedi weren't supposed to wear armor, yet it felt right. What use was having a lightsaber if one couldn't protect the rest of their body?
It also had the benefit of making it so that Jaina and her little brothers fit in amongst the Jedi of the Clone Wars. Being pulled by the force into an era warfare meant that they wouldn't look strange or out of place at all. They would fit right in.
"Its impressive." Jaina said as she looked around. "Very organized."
"Cody holds his men to a very high standard." Master Kenobi said.
Jaina could understand that. The Marshal Commander was a very by the book kind of person. It was almost as if regulations flowed through his veins, and the fact that the man had what she was informed as the "regulation haircut" was just the cherry on top of that proverbial cake.
"It's no Imperial II, but it's nice." Jacen sent through the twin bond.
Jaina sent a glance at her twin brother and only got a shrug in return. His words were true, this ship was not an Imperial II-class Star Destroyer, and there were many things left to be desired by this craft. Still, it was the height of shipbuilding that the Galactic Republic had at this moment and being from the future did mean that she was more often than not going to see the flaws in this era's technology.
"I would like to be informed when you plan to interrogate the prisoner, Master Kenobi." Jaina said. There was still something that didn't feel quite right to her about the Sith Lord, and a part of her needed to find out just what that was.
"Of course, Knight Solo." Master Kenobi said with a slightly nod of the head.
Soon enough the Jedi Master turned High General was summoned away by some matter relating to his army of clone troopers. The three Solos watched him go and were then left in the awkward position of not knowing where to go. Skywalker had run off to get his padawan and Kenobi was pulled away, so here they were.
"I will say, fighting droids must be easier than what we had to go through." Anakin said.
"I thought you were sick of war?" Jacen asked.
"We're all in this together though, and if the force brought the rest of our family here, then we can all work together to prevent Sidious from taking full control of the Republic and establishing his Empire." Anakin explained.
"That's assuming that the force brought them here, and if we can convince the Jedi of this era to believe us." Jaina said.
"Well, it can't be that hard, right?" Jacen asked.
Jaina just gave her twin a frown and got another shrug in return.
Force help her.