"Bakunyuu, huh?" Sabine asked, looking over the datapad in her hands. She sat in her painted seat in the cockpit of the Ghost as Hera navigated the stars. "Never heard of it. What kind of planet is it?"
Pressing a few buttons over her head, Hera put the ship in auto-pilot. The captain turned to the Mandalorian. "It's a small planet in the Outer Rim. It's mostly a farming planet with very minimal Imperial presence. We'll lay low there for now, especially considering the fact we have three Jedi Padawans and two Jedi teachers with us."
"Was it the greatest idea to put all the Jedi in the same basket?" Athena questioned, sitting in the chair next to Sabine, elbows on her knees as she was hunched over in boredom. "I mean, aren't we five the last of them? Why are all of us in the same group?"
Kanan paused for a moment, sitting in the co-pilot seat next to Hera. He never considered Athena's point - all of the Jedi being in one place.
"Well, you all will be pretty hidden on this planet as long as you don't draw attention to yourselves," Hera said. "Ezra, Rae, Kanan, and Ahsoka all have records on them from the Empire, but the Empire doesn't know about you. You're gonna have to try and keep it that way for now."
"Yes, they do. They hunted my mother down on Earth to try and find me," Athena pointed out, seemingly numb to the idea of her mother being dead. It was so nonchalant.
"Well, you were an infant and they never even got to see you then," Kanan said. "They have no clue what you look like or what you can do. Best to keep it that way."
A skeptical frown formed in the corner of Athena's mouth as she sat and pondered there. She jumped a little as Ezra spoke up behind her, leaning his arms on the top of her seat. She forgot he was even there.
"So...did you guys find out anything else about your mom?" Ezra questioned.
"She was a Jedi Knight who was killed on Earth," Kanan admitted. "I'm not sure how she could have had me, though, seeing in the old Jedi Order forbade relationships."
"Maybe she quit," Athena shrugged.
"Maybe…" Kanan pondered. But why was he given to the Jedi Order, then? If his mother had quit, it would be highly unusual for her to give her son to the Order she had left.
"How long until we reach this planet?" Athena questioned.
"About an hour or so," Hera said. "We'll set up camp a little ways away from their capital city so we can get supplies when need be."
Athena stood and began to walk out of the cockpit as she gave a wave, "Alright, wake me up when we're there. I'm tired."
Before she knew it, Athena was lying on her back in the common room being shaken awake. She groaned and opened her eyes, unsure on who was waking her up and for what: the Mortis Gods for training, the Ghost crew to announce their arrival on Bakunyuu, or maybe someone on Earth waking her up from this hellish fever dream.
When she finally was able to decipher the face above hers as Rae, Athena figured out quickly where she was. She sat up and yawned, not as grateful as she should have been for that hour of pure rest on the common room's couch. The Jedi Padawan with dark hair explained to Athena that they were at their destination and they had nothing to do for the moment.
Athena smacked her lips times as she groggily listened to the girl, eyes half-open.
"Your hair is a terrible mess," Rae pointed out Athena's rat nest of a ponytail. She must've tangled it by accident in her sleep.
"Mmm…" Athena picked up her ponytail and looked at the matted mass of blonde hair - like a Barbie's head after being in the hands of a four-year-old. "Happens. I'll fix it later."
"Want me to help? I have some knowledge on messy hair," Rae gestured to her semi-bouncy hair.
The girl paused, scanning her eyes over this other girl. She wore armor now, bright purple plates contrasting with the dark grey fabric underneath. She wore a chest plate, an elbow pad on each arm, and two small plates on her shoulders - all purple. Looking a little closer, Athena could see the black underneath the scrapes on the armor plates, meaning she must've painted all those things purple herself. Two silver cylinders dangled off her purple belt.
Athena didn't know why this girl gave her such a sense of deja vu. Maybe because she had somewhat similar armor to Sabine. Maybe it was because she had a couple freckles on her nose. Maybe it was her bubbly personality.
Figuring this girl would be living with them from this point on, Athena gave her the benefit of the doubt and dug her hairbrush out to hand to her.
It was strange. Back when Athena Jarrus was Abigail Foster, the foster kid, she would never let kids her age and older get near her hair. She would never sleep in someone else's room - especially if they were a boy, let alone a full-grown man. She would never show her tears. She would never willingly call someone 'Mom' or 'Dad'. She would never hold them like there were tomorrow.
It was like she had built up all these walls since she was a baby and this family knew exactly what tools to bring them down.
The rest of the crew already had two weeks with Athena while Rae was brand new to her. Yet, she still brought the same feeling of comfort to Athena. Since she was a young girl, Athena could just tell who to trust and who not to trust. It was a gut feeling. Though that gut feeling sometimes turned out to be wrong, never had that gut feeling been so strong for these guys. Every bone in her body was telling her to trust these guys.
She wasn't even really paying attention now as Rae brushed her hair, having taken out the ponytail already.
After a while, Rae asked, "Hey, want me to braid it?"
"Yeah, sure," Athena nodded. She smiled a little, her back to Rae, thinking how ironic it was that, even in a different galaxy, braiding was a way for people to bond.
Then, Sabine walked in. "Are you guys braiding hair?"
"Yeah," Rae answered. "Wanna join?"
Sabine chuckled, finding the situation somewhat ridiculous yet pure. She didn't know Rae all that much and she had only known Athena for a couple of weeks and here she was, being offered to join their braiding session.
She obliged. Since Rae stood by the end of the couch and near the door, Athena with her back facing her as she sat sideways on the couch, Sabine stood behind Rae and began to work on a few braids in Rae's wavy hair.
Not too long after, Ezra walked in. It wasn't surprising to Sabine, seeing that there were now three teenage girls on this ship, he was bound to be found near at least one in an attempt to flirt.
"Make any stupid comments, and I'll shoot you here and now," Sabine warned the boy from Lothal.
"Well hello to you too, Sabine," Ezra chuckled. "What are you guys even doing? Braiding each other's hair?"
"Got a problem with it?" Sabine glared.
Athena shifted her eyes over to Ezra, trying her best not to turn too much as Rae continued to braid her hair. She joked, "You got long enough hair, want me to braid it?"
Ezra shrugged with a smile, "Ey, why not?"
He walked around Sabine and over to the couch where Athena sat. He sat with his back to her and soon felt her hands go through his hair. Having never had anyone touch, let alone braid his hair, he was startled. He froze and gulped a little. He didn't understand why girls liked touching each others' hair. It felt weird.
He felt every tug and twist in his hair - her fingers sectioning and parting his hair. He winced when she began to tug on his hair to put it in a braid.
Athena laughed, "You never had your hair braided, eh?"
"You guys willingly have your hair yanked out like this? Why?!" Ezra whined as he gripped the legs of his pants in pain.
Rae chuckled, "You build a tolerance. Heck, you got straight hair - you have nothing to complain about."
The door to the common room once again swished open and in came Kanan, his eyes scanning the datapad in his hand - Chopper right behind him. "Alright, guys, there's a small storm system moving through, so I guess we'll wait until tomorrow to go into town and check this place out..." he trailed off as he looked up, seeing the train of humans braiding each other's hair.
Sabine, being right in front of the door and Kanan, spoke first, "It's a girl thing."
"Then why am I in it?" Ezra complained.
"You volunteered," Rae pointed out.
"Probably as a lame attempt to get close to Athena," Sabine jabbed.
Kanan stood there, confused. Chopper wasted no time in laughing it up as he rolled into the common room, making sure to store this moment in his memory bank in case he wanted to humiliate Ezra later.
"Kanan, wanna join?" Athena glanced at her brother. "I'll braid your hair once I'm done with Ezra, he's got short hair."
"Really- I..what are you guys doing this for?" Kanan questioned.
"Bonding," Athena said. "I used to do this with my younger foster siblings on Earth. It's a fun way to bond."
"I am in pain," Ezra spoke up.
"Then why did you agree?" Athena said.
Kanan sighed, "Maybe later."
"Come on, Kanan," Sabine encouraged with a chuckle. "Bond with your little sister."
"Come on! Sibling bonding!" Athena jokingly cheered.
He let out a large sigh, "I say we had enough sibling bonding on Earth with you conning everyone as I had to stop you from going overboard."
"But we lived!" Athena laughed.
"Barely," Kanan responded.
Athena finished up the small, wide braid on the top of Ezra's head and smiled in accomplishment. She didn't tie it with a band, letting it loosely set on his skull, eventually unraveling and return back to normal after a while.
Ezra stood and patted his head, feeling the braid through his hair.
Kanan obliged to the girls' wish and sat in front of Athena to get his hair braided. She took out his hair tie and began to part his hair. Coming up with a funny idea, she parted his hair exactly down the middle and braided each half - ending up with double dutch pigtails at the very end.
Just as she was finishing his second braid, Hera walked in, surprised at multiple things. And, of course, Rex, Ahsoka, and Zeb were right behind her.
Kanan slumped his shoulders in defeat as he knew he would be hearing about this for the next coming weeks. Especially from Zeb and Rex.
"Having fun, luv?" Hera chuckled as she walked into the common room.
Zeb couldn't hold back his howls of laughter as he saw Ezra's braided hair and Kanan's pigtails. The lasat grabbed the boy and gave him a teasing noogy on top of his head and braid, much to Ezra's dismay. "Aw, you look so pretty, Ezra!"
"Zeb!" Ezra complained, swatting his hands away. When he was free, he patted the top of his head to feel the now messy braid falling apart.
Rex chortled, "Hey, I think those braids look great on you, Kanan!"
"Shut it." Kanan snapped.
Ahsoka looked at her Padawan, "Why do I feel like this is all your doing?"
"She started it," Athena gestured to Rae. "Sabine joined, then I braided Ezra's hair and then I braided Kanan's." she took her own hair tie off her wrist to finish off her brother's second pigtail.
"Hey, it makes us bond," Rae said as she finished the one long braid going down Athena's back.
"What are you guys in here for, anyway?" Kanan asked, standing up now as he faced Hera.
"Was gonna grab some food from the kitchen, but this is kinda cute to watch," Hera smiled at Kanan.
Sabine finished Rae's two pigtail braids and took a step away. "We got enough food for today, but we're gonna need to go shopping here soon. How many credits do we have?"
"About enough for the time we're here," Ahsoka answered.
"I can always go pickpocketing," Athena suggested.
"Athena, no." Kanan glared.
"Athena yes," the girl retaliated with a cocky smile.
Kanan let out a large sigh as he pinched the bridge of his nose with his fingers as a sign of frustration, "You really need to gain some morals."
"She'll learn, Kanan," Ahsoka assured. "If anything, at least she'll be a good beautician." she joked as she gestured to Kanan's pigtails.
"Are we going to have any Jedi training today?" Ezra asked. "We don't have anything to do today, so I figured we could do some sparring today."
Ahsoka nodded, "Alright, I guess we could do that. Maybe some group training would be good for you three?" Ahsoka looked to Kanan for confirmation.
The male Jedi nodded, "Yeah, I guess that'll be good. Gauging what their abilities are compared to one another and going off that."
"Didn't y'all make me use a broomstick against an Inquisitor?" Athena remarked.
Hera let out a sigh, "Yes, and we realized our mistakes."
"Hey, technically you still won," Rex pointed out. "Kanan said you turned Second Brother into a popsicle with ya ice powers."
"You have ice powers?!" Rae was wide-eyed. "I thought you only had fire and stuff!"
Athena nodded, "Yeah, I guess I can do a lot of stuff. Now that I'm training...I- uh- maybe I'll find out more elements I can control." For some reason, the words felt like they were clogging up in her throat as she said them. It was like she had to restrain the words. As if the words "Gods of Mortis" and the "Ones" were being censored. She glanced over to Ahsoka who was giving her a stare that explained this feeling. The togruta's blue eyes were sending her a message clear as day: Don't mention them. Don't talk about them.
"Well, we can do some sparring in the cargo bay," Kanan broke the momentary silence that held Athena by the throat. Ezra and Rae quickly followed Kanan out of the common room, Ahsoka and Athena trailing behind the three.
As the other three descended the ladder that led to the lower parts of the ship, Ahsoka put a hand on Athena's shoulder, momentarily keeping them both in the cockpit.
Athena nervously turned to Ahsoka, heart in her throat. It felt so serious for some reason. As if she had just broken an unknown rule.
"Padawan, I need to talk with you for a moment"
"I didn't say anything wrong, did I?"
Ahsoka shook her head, "No, but I need to warn you about something. You know the Empire is very powerful and will do anything to hunt down Jedi for their powers-" she paused, thinking how to compose her sentences. "-and they'd do anything for power."
"Yeah, what about it?" Athena was confused.
"...Well, you being connected to the Ones would make you a very large target for the Empire. They would hunt you down even more viciously than they have for me, Kanan, and Ezra if they found out," Ahsoka gave an assuring squeeze on the girl's shoulder. "In times of war, sometimes secrets are necessary so your enemy doesn't know more than they should. Sometimes these secrets are even kept to a very small group of people within the Rebellion."
Athena had a feeling where this was going, but it wasn't crystal clear to her yet.
"So, I guess what I'm saying is that maybe we should keep the whole Ones thing between you, Kanan, and myself in order to reduce the risk of the Empire finding out."
"But, the others wouldn't tell, would they?"
"Well...in war, enemies sometimes capture each other and try to get information out of them," Ahsoka explained. "It would be best if we just kept this information between us three to minimize risk."
Athena couldn't help but be confused. Even though Ahsoka was explaining the concept of war to her as if she were a young child, it was still baffling to Athena that this family could keep secrets from each other - she didn't comprehend the extent of this war.
"Keeping secrets in the name of the Rebellion is not a new concept - even in this crew," Ahsoka explained. "When Kanan was captured and interrogated by the Empire, the only thing that saved multiple Rebel lives would be the fact he didn't know anything that would be of much use to the Empire."
"Captured? Interrogated?" Athena knitted her eyebrows in confusion. "Jalo didn't interrogate us."
"No, before. A little while ago, Kanan was captured and interrogated by the Empire - trying to pry any information out of him they could. Hera thankfully never told him much of the Rebellion's secrets, so the Rebellion was safe for the moment," Ahsoka said. "That's why we need to keep your connection to the Ones on a need-to-know basis. That means no one else needs to know about it other than me and Kanan since you already told us."
"Oh…"
"And to be even safer, you probably shouldn't even disclose anything to me or Kanan that could possibly put you and the others in danger if the Empire were to ever get the information out of us," Ahsoka stated. "Only tell us things that are crucial to know - that way we minimize the risk of the Empire knowing more than they should."
Thinking back to it, Athena remembered Jalo's little speech to Kanan:
"The old saying 'Mustafar is where Jedi go to die' is true...but misleading. You don't die, just your soul does ...The Mustafar system is where they make new Inquisitors. Your sister here - they've wanted her to be their newest little Inquisitor since her birth. Heck, maybe even something more!"
They were going to make Kanan a Jedi-hunter against his will - probably via torture. If that weren't frightening enough, they wanted to make her something more?
Thinking of it, they did have Rae as an Inquisitor trainee against her will…
What exactly was this Empire capable of?
And if they found out that she was being trained by the Ones...what exactly would they do to capture her? Who would they kill to get to her?
"You understand, right?" Ahsoka softly asked. She knew this had to be jarring to the girl - to keep such a big secret to herself.
Athena nodded, "Yeah. I understand."
But, she didn't. She thought she understood what a war was. She thought she understood what was needed out of its soldiers. She thought she knew how to survive an Empire hunting down her kind.
Oh, how wrong she was.
