Jacen Syndulla sat in a Mos Eisley cantina in one of the booths, sipping his drink. His feet kicked up, he stared at the boy in front of him. Slightly tan skin, about nineteen years of age. He had green hair. They were playing Pazaak with each other.
"It's funny you think you can beat your old man at this game." Jacen said with a grin, looking at the boy. "Your move Korbin."
Korbin Syndulla smirked as he set down a +2 card, surprising his father, finishing the game. "You wanna repeat that, pops?" He asked.
Jacen watched, bewildered for a moment before he chuckled.
To his right, he noticed a group of five people enter. All dressed darkly, even though their faces were revealed. No scary robes, more like black leather jackets and pants, blasters strapped to their sides, and as Jacen looked even closer, he realized, they had lightsabers.. They were led by a tall, pale, blonde woman. "Barkeep." She said sternly.
The Aqualish barkeep turned towards her. He murmured something that sounded disrespectful.
"How dare you…" Said a smaller girl next to the tall woman, she was smaller, hazel colored hair with dark brown eyes. She seemed to reach for her own lightsaber.
"Calm yourself, Vestara." Said the older woman.
"Master Rhea, he disrespected you." She replied.
"We are in this man's establishment, Rhea, he can do as he pleases." The woman known as Reha said. She would turn back to the Barkeep, giving him a slightly mischievous grin.
"Now, sir, could you tell me where I could find the Skywalker ranch?" Her hand slightly waved on her side. Something which Jacen saw, especially after seeing the lightsabers and hearing the name Skywalker mentioned.
The Aqualish Barkeep seemed to respond with instructions. "Thank you." She replied, and with that, the group exited.
"Hey, kid. We gotta go." Jacen said to Korbin.
Ben Skywalker awoke in the night, he was feeling cold. As he looked around his bedroom, he didn't feel right. As he woke up, BB-8 rolled up to him.
"I had the weirdest dream, BB-8." He said, sitting up on his bed. "What time is it?"
BB-8 responded with a sound.
"Midnight?" Ben replied. "Any news from mom and dad?" BB-8 replied with a negatory sound. "Welp, might as well get some blue milk before I go back to sleep."
Ben's mouth moved to the side, slightly disappointed before he stood up. He got up, ready to go to the kitchen for his treat, followed by the small droid. However, as he walked, something felt different. As if something was calling out to him.
Child…
He looked around. "Hello?" He called out.
Child… You're in danger…
"Who's there?" He called out again. BB-8 made a sound of confusion, looking up at the young boy. The voice of an old man ringing in his ears.
Listen to the force, my boy…
The confusion was on the small boy's face, brushing his eyes as he scratched the back of his curly haired head. Then for a moment, he began to feel it, as he closed his eyes once again, deciding to listen to the voice. However, this wasn't the feeling he expected. He felt darkness, it was drawing nearer.
Then he felt a hand on his shoulder, turning around, he saw Kanan.
"What are you doing awake?" He asked his younger brother scoldingly. Before Ben could even answer, the sound of a lightsaber turned on. They both looked at each other, confused. It didn't sound like it came from inside the house, but just right outside it.
"What was that?" Ben asked.
Then the sound of another one turned on, and another one.
"Why are you two up and making so much noise?" Aayla said, coming from around the corner. Two more lightsabers fired up. Before they could even answer her, they saw her freeze, as if something was holding her down.
"Aayla?" Kanan asked. The door flew open, crashing with the might of the force. In came the pale blonde woman known as Rhea, along with her follower Vestara. Behind them were two men, one human and one a species Kanan hadn't ever seen before, with light purple skin, and a woman, a red twi'lek with dark marks around her body.
Kanan stepped in front of Ben, protecting his little brother against the five red lightsaber wielding intruders. He'd heard of Red Lightsabers, he'd never seen them in person. His heart began to beat.
Ben knew now what it was he was hearing. A warning against these people, but from who?
Aayla who seemed stuck, gritted her teeth and fought out of the force grip on her. "Oh my, such resistance!" Rhea said, rather amused. "You must be the babies? Now where are mummy and daddy dearest?"
"Who are you?" Kanan asked, backing up as they neared him. Aayla joined her brother in protecting their youngest. "And what do you want?" She asked.
"I'm merely someone here to continue the cycle of the Force." Replied Rhea. "I am everything you're not ready to face. I am Sith."
"In your dreams, our mother killed the last Sith." Rey replied.
"Your mother killed a pretender, an imposter!" Rhea snapped as she replied. "That would-be Sith knew nothing. I am the True Sith."
As she spoke, Ben, behind his siblings would turn his head towards the kitchen. He would focus intensely, all types of silverware, plates, and cups would begin to float.
"Right now you sound kind of like a grumpy old lady." Aayla replied.
Vestara would grit her teeth and raise her lightsaber, as she did, Ben sent all of the floating things flying straight towards the group of so called "True Sith". As they were distracted, some getting hit or some getting dodged, Ben particularly being pleased at hitting Vestara in the face with a plate.
The three Skywalker siblings ran towards the other side, Kanan without hesitation pushed his fist out and with a strong gust of Force power tore a wall down, allowing them to exit their house.
"After them!" Rhea commanded. Her and Vestara ran towards the giant hole Kanan Skywalker had just created, while the two men and the female Twi'lek ran towards the entrance they entered from.
Attempting to corner them in the courtyard, Kanan used the Force to steal a blaster from one of the purple skinned male. He shot at them, but they deflected the blast like it was nothing.
"Looks like there's little left for you to do." Rhea said. "It seems your parents are not here."
"Your head would be rolling on our floor right now if they were." Aayla replied. As they spoke, Ben continued to hear voices, this time, the pull coming from somewhere in the walls of the dugout of their homestead. He listened around.
"Perhaps so," Replied Rhea. "But they're not here to protect you."
"What makes you think we need protection?" Said Kanan, shooting at Rhea, who deflected it with no difficulty.
"Please spare me the fake bravery, child." Rhea said. They continued speaking, unaware of little Ben in the back, focusing on what it was in the walls calling to him. The force was strong with him. There began a small shaking in the sandy and rocky walls.
"Darth Xal, if you and your apprentice Raas would do the honors?" Asked Rhea.
The man, a dark skinned man, long dreaded hair, muscular and with bright orange eyes, stepped forward. The younger purple man stepped forward with him. They raised their lightsabers as they began to near the siblings. Kanan continued to shoot but to no avail.
Suddenly, something would burst out of the wall. Sand and rocks flying every as everyone put their hands up for cover.
Kanan turned around to see that Ben had caused it. He wasn't going to complain, considering that it had just saved them from certain death.
As Kanan looked up, he noticed something out of the ordinary had fallen out of the sandy walls of the dugout. Looking to the ground, he saw a silver hilt, the bottom of it having a number of small black vertical lines. There was an uneven line going through the hilt, as if the hilt had once been cut and repaired, put back together.
As Aayla rubbed the dust out of her eyes, she would see something herself. Another silver hilt, with a smaller interior cylinder of gold. The top of the hilt having a skinny neck design.
The older siblings looked at each other as they realized what these things were. Lightsabers.
Putting their hands out, each of them summoned the lightsabers towards them. Ben watched them, stepping slightly back, still feeling the pull of the Force to take him somewhere.
Kanan and Aayla ignited each lightsaber, both of them emitting a bright blue blade as the Sith stared them down.
"Well," Rhea said. "It seems this will be more fun than anticipated."
Without warning, Vestara would dash, with superhuman speed and slash as Aayla, who would lock the hit. Vestara seemed only a couple years older than her, maybe a year older than Kanan.
However, Aayla was her mother's daughter, just the sheer determination to protect her younger brother was giving her the bravery to go toe to toe with the young Sith girl. "Your form is not bad, I see your mother has taught you well."
"Let me show you just how well she taught me." Aayla would say. Rey and Finn had begun training her when she had turned nine. The same ages they had begun training Kanan and Ben. They had a process for it, when she had begun, it had been a lot of meditation. Combat training was small but sure.
She favored more the use of Niman, something her mother also did. Her father prefered the use of Soresu and Shien, considering he was out in the battlefields frontlines more often than not. Ben hadn't really received any other training than the basic Shii-Cho. Kanan, however, had been shown to be a skilled combatant at a young age, being able to go toe to toe with his mother and father for a bit before, he was interested in the form Jedi Master Mace Windu had once created, Vapaad.
The purple skinned apprentice jumped at Kanan, and after a few saber clashes, the eldest Skywalker sibling kicked the apprentice known as Raas in the stomach, and knee'd him in the head, effectively taking him down.
Darth Xal, was a lot harder to fight. Kanan aggressively attacked him, and Xal easily dodged it. The Red Twi'lek jumped to join in, but was sent flying back with Ben's use of the force.
Meanwhile, Vestara and Aayla were engaged in a more evened battle between two gifted young women. Aayla used the force in her fighting, managing to occasionally throw a rock to distract the Sith Apprentice, or using it to flip around.
"You've found a worthy opponent, my apprentice." Rhea would say, watching from behind. "It is only respectful that you show her no mercy."
"Yes, my master." Said Vestara. She fought aggressively, finally knocking Aayla to the ground. With one hit, she slashed the young girls hand clean off.
Aayla yelped in pain, which got the attention of her older brother Kanan, who was struggling against Xal.
Sliding out of the fight, he felt a rush of anger swarm over him. "NO!" He shouted. Just before Vestara would plunge her blade straight through his sister, Kanan's hand lept out and Vestara's eyes widened.
Her face was panicked, as if she was being suffocated. That was because she was. Rhea watched Kanan do so, seeing the anger grow in his eyes.
"Oh my," She smiled, putting a hand out meaning to keep Xal, Raas, and the Red Twi'Lek at bay. "Such anger."
Meanwhile, Ben Skywalker had snuck out of the dugout while his siblings had been fighting, following the voice that had continued to call to him. The ship… He heard. He saw it, the black Freighter, one of a model he had never seen before. He assumed it was the ship the Sith had arrived in.
As he entered, he saw nothing out of the ordinary. Other than that it was dark inside, only light by the various computers and stations. However, he followed the voice past some slight corridors, to the center of the ship.
There, he saw a figure, hung inside a cage by his wrists and legs. He was hung by some sort of blue energy field, it was cutting off his ability to escape using the Force. Ben's eyes widened as the fear pumped in his heart.
As he got closer, he realized that it was an old man, who looked stronger than most old men he knew, hanging. A long beard and long white hair, he seemed in pain. "It's you." Ben said.
The man was silent for a second. "What's your name, kid?" He said. "The Force is strong in you."
"Ben Skywalker." He said. The old man chuckled.
"Ben… My name is Ezra. Ezra Bridger." He told him. "And if you let me out, I can help you."
"How can I trust you?"
"Search your feelings, you know it to be true." He said. Ben watched the man for a moment.
That was when he heard Aayla's piercing scream.
"They're not gonna last much longer, I can help." Ezra said to him. Ben watched for a moment, hesitating, before he looked around at the controls, finding the button and pressing it. The old man would fall to his knees, standing up.
He put his hand down, focusing. Within seconds a lightsaber hilt came from a hidden compartment in the ship and into his hands. "Oh how I missed you, baby." He smirked, emitting a green blade.
"Follow me." He said to the smaller boy, winking at him.
Meanwhile, Kanan held Vestara's life in his grip, the sight of his newly-handless sister on the ground, red blade inches from her heart.
"The dark side is strong with you, my boy." She grinned.
"K-Kanan!" Aayla called out to him, shaking her head. "Don't do it!"
Kanan grit his teeth, and in one move, he threw the girl into the wall, and used the force to call the lightsaber Aayla had been using to his free hand, facing down the three remaining Siths.
That was until a figure jumped in front of him, the old man, greenblade out.
"How did he-" Xal said before looking up to see Ben Skywalker with a mischievous grin, looking down at them.
"Get your sister and go." He said.
"Kanan!" The eldest brother turned to see his brother giving him a thumbs up.
"We have help on the way." Ezra told Kanan.
"Wh- Help? Who are you?"
"No time."
Within seconds, the sight of a VCX-100 Light freighter appeared above them, shooting at the ship the Sith had arrived in. The cargo door opened, and there stood Jacen Syndulla, the man Kanan had earlier.
"Hey, kid!" He called out. "Need any help?"
"Go, I'll hold them off." Ezra said, facing down the Sith.
"Take him down, but don't kill him, we need him." Rhea commanded. They all attacked at the same time, and Ezra held them off. He was an older man, but as Kanan watched, he could see that he was skilled, as well as strong in the Force. He blocked a couple moves and in one fail swoop, he slashed straight through the red Twi'lek, killing her.
Xal and Rhea attacked, both powerful. Whilst he did that, Kanan helped Aayla up, handing her the lightsaber she had picked up with her free hand. They ran out of the dugout, following Ben up into the ship. Ezra dodged a couple of hits from the Sith before pushing them back with the force. Turning and giving one giant force leap onto the entrance of the Ghost.
"Korbin, kick it!" Jacen exclaimed. However, the ship began to shake as it was kept in place in the air. As Ezra looked back he saw that the Sith were attempting to hold onto the ship using the force.
"Hey, kid!" He called over to Kanan. "Some help?"
Kanan walked over. "What do I do?"
"Don't get angry, don't think about how scared you are to lose your family." He said, looking at him straight in the eyes. "But think about how much you love, think about how much you want to protect them."
Kanan looked at him, bewildered for a moment. He walked over, following Ezra's movement, pushing back against the Sith, hoping to break the pull. And in following his instructions, he found strength, pushing back against the man.
And then suddenly, the Sith fell back and the Ghost was freed, making for a course straight out of Tatooine.