A/N: PALPATINE: Did you ever heard the tragedy of the Star Wars Expanded Universe?

ANAKIN: No.

PALPATINE: I thought not. It's not a story the Empire of the Mouse would tell you. It's a Space Opera legend. The Star Wars Expanded Universe was a shared universe of space opera literature so huge and so old, its writers could use their skill to influence George Lucas to create... new stories. Its greatest writers had such knowledge of the mechanics and history of the shared universe, that they could even retcon the characters they cared about... from death.

ANAKIN: They could actually... save fan-favorite characters from death?

PALPATINE: The Expanded Universe is a pathway to many stories some consider to be Legends.

ANAKIN: What happened to it?

PALPATINE: It became so big... the only thing it was afraid of was losing its status, which eventually, of course, it did. Unfortunately, it showed its successor everything it created, and then one night, the Empire of the Mouse killed it in its sleep. Ironic. It could retcon others back from death, but not itself.

ANAKIN: Is it possible to learn these stories?

PALPATINE: Not from a mouse.

-Stolen shamelessly from an epic YouTube comment.

Disney owns Star Wars, BTW. They will soon own the planet. Resistance is futile.

Even as Obi-Wan led me to the dorms, I still struggled with the whole "sensing everyone and everything in the general vicinity all at once" thing—not to mention the fact that I was still considering the possibility that I was just dreaming. The room I was given was small and rather bare, but considering that the Jedi were essentially a monastic order, it didn't surprise me. What did surprise me was the fact that I had a room of my own at all.

"You're a good deal older than the initiates and younglings," Obi-Wan said, "So you'll be staying in here where we usually board padawans instead of the common dormitories."

I turned to him, still clutching my head at the excess psychic noise that permeated every square inch of the temple. "Did you read my mind just now?"

He smiled warmly. "I didn't need to. Your expression said enough."

I looked around the extremely spartan dwelling. The bed looked soft enough, but...

"I... I don't know if I'll be able to get any sleep at all with... everything I'm feeling. Even when you're here, there's still so much that I'm seeing and feeling that it only calms it down a little."

Kenobi stroked his beard a bit, then snapped his fingers. "I've got it. Consider this your first lesson: how to meditate. Have a seat on that rug in the middle of the room, cross-legged."

Upon sitting down as instructed, the Jedi Master followed suit, sitting directly in front of me. "Now, close your eyes, and take slow, deep breaths. In through the nose, out through the mouth."

As I did so, my mind started to clear up noticeably. That said, there was still a lot of stuff I was sensing left, and it was already threatening to overwhelm me if I let it go...

"Now, just relax and let go. Stretch out with your feelings."

"Wait, won't that make it worse?" I said, keeping my eyes closed.

I heard him chuckle. "Actually, no. There are two reasons: first, the mind WANTS to make sense of all the information you're feeling. Once you calm yourself down, allow it to try, and it should gradually adapt. The second reason is a little more complicated, but it is an essential part of being a Jedi."

"And that is?"

"The Force, young one. It is more than just information, more than simple energy. It is the very essence and fabric of all that exists, and it has a will of its own; it seeks to nurture and guide living things, to help them grow. Having a strong connection doesn't just mean you can perceive it more than others, though that is the most obvious aspect; it means that, if you let it in, if you allow it to flow through you, then the Force will show you what to do. All you need do is let go, and trust it."

I sat in silence for a few more moments, letting Obi-Wan's words sink in, considering them. Finally, I decided to try it out; at first, the same overwhelming feeling started to happen, but as I slowed my breathing again, an entirely different sensation occurred.

Now, I'm going to be honest: I've never been a spiritual person. I never really had any religious thoughts or beliefs to speak of. But after feeling the Force, remaining agnostic is virtually impossible. It's almost beyond description; there is a sense of utter vastness, like an ocean of Everything, but at the same time, there's this feeling of incredible intimacy. It's like the parent or friend you never had, you feel that no matter what, you can absolutely trust it to be there when you need it, to guide you when you're lost. There aren't any real words to do it justice. In any case, my mind stopped feeling like it was being bombarded with constant, endless information, and settled down to a quiet, barely audible buzz; still present, but not as intrusive.

I opened my eyes, and surprisingly, it didn't go out of control again. Obi-Wan himself had opened his eyes and was smirking at me, a slight chuckle to his voice. "Once again, your expression speaks volumes for you, young one."

I stood up slowly, still blown away by what I had just experienced. "Is it like that for everyone?"

He shook his head. "No. While all Jedi can feel the Force and sense its presence, some take more to that aspect than others; the fact that you can already sense so much at such a range that it overwhelmed you in that way, even though you've never trained before... that implies a certain level of inclination to sensory abilities. We will undoubtedly learn more as time goes on, though. In the meantime, feel free to look around the room, get a feel for it, then get some rest."

Somehow, I managed to get some sleep. Waking up the next morning to find myself still in my dormitory put the final nail in the whole "just a dream" theory—the sight of Ahsoka Tano carrying the one-size-fits-all robe, boots, and sash into the room only served to highlight my new reality.

"Hey, you're already up! I was about to wake you myself!"

"Yeah, I never had difficulty getting up early. House rules back in my world."

"What do you mean by 'house rules'?" said the padawan as she laid the outfit on a table. "Were you part of an order of some kind back there, too?"

I shook my head. "No. I grew up in a group home. The people who ran it were nice enough, but they had some strict rules on schedule and keeping your room clean."

"So you never knew your parents, huh?"

"Nope. Didn't really matter. All I was told was that my mother was a drug addict and had zero clue who my dad was—it could've been any one of a hundred guys she knew—so I was in the system pretty much from the start. I was lucky enough to get sent to a place that actually cared, but still, it would have been nice to have an actual family."

"Well, I better wait outside so you can get dressed," Ahsoka said, moving toward the door. "The Council's already decided on how to start your training, and Master Skywalker sent me to show you where it'll happen."

I looked over the robe and sash for a few moments; it seemed straightforward enough. Fortunately, I managed to somehow get it right the first time, though not without a few minutes of trial and error. Once dressed, I followed the padawan to the training rooms. One thing that struck me about the temple right from the moment I first set foot inside was just how massive it was; the trek to the training areas took us the distance of seven city blocks on Earth, with an elevator ride in the middle. There were in fact a number of separate training areas, all of them suited to various methods of study. The room we were headed to, according to Ahsoka, was one of many general-purpose chambers, mostly used to train general force powers and basic lightsaber forms.

When we finally reached our destination, we were greeted by Anakin, Obi-Wan, and a third Jedi, an alien I did not recognize, but whose race appeared familiar to me. It took me a few moments to remember that the species in question was called Klatoonian.

"Good morning," Anakin said, nodding to Ahsoka as well before gesturing to the alien. "This is Jedi Knight Celu Eelia; she's one of our premier sensory specialists, and she'll be helping you learn how to deal with that aspect. Obi-Wan has agreed to teach you when he can, and once you've got a handle on the basics, I'll lend Ahsoka as a training partner whenever I can spare her."

While Ahsoka grumbled something about not being a hydrospanner, I approached Eelia and bowed nervously, and received a bow in response. Unfortunately, an immediate problem popped up.

"Bo shuda. Ee coe panwa chai poonoo ding bargon."

"Uh... sorry, but I don't speak that language..."

The three Jedi and the padawan all looked at each other briefly with a rather comical expression that screamed, 'Oh, of course, we're stupid.'

"Well, then," Obi-Wan said, "we'll have to fix that, won't we? Actually, this might be a good way to train your sense abilities—using telepathy to learn the language of another individual is a rare, but useful power. Both Celu and I are skilled in it, and hopefully by the end of today's sessions we can at least get you a basic force-assisted crash course in Huttese. Before we do anything else, however, we'll go through some meditative exercises..."

With that, my training began. After the meditation and warm-up, they focused primarily on helping me recognize and feel the presence of the Force around me in various ways before coaching me on how to actually manipulate it. That in itself was a unique experience; for example, if you want to use telekinesis on an object, you perceive the flow of ambient force energies, then... well, it's complicated. Part of it feels like you're "asking" the Force to move it, but you're also kind of grabbing at the energies and pulling on them, and at the same time it feels like you're moving it directly, feeling the object as if you're already holding it in your hand. Honestly, the Force is so insanely different that accurately describing it to someone who can't feel it is next to impossible. We didn't quite reach telekinesis on that session, though I did learn how to "feel" objects through the force.

Working with Master Eelia involved Obi-Wan coaching me on recognizing a specific individual in the force, then recognizing their mind, then learning to reach out into their mind, then how to converse, then finally, how to "copy" information from their mind to yours. It took a good while, but by the end of the lesson I'd managed to have enough knowledge of Huttese to ask general questions, understand instructions and commands, greet and introduce, among other things. In the process, I also learned some of the Galactic Basic alphabet, aurebesh, along with the Huttese alphabet.

There was also some multitasking involved in my training; while going through some physical exercises (though no combat instruction—that would have to wait until I got the basics down), I learned some of the basic terminology and workings of the Order, how to use a holocron, and later on I even learned how to operate a datapad (which honestly wasn't that hard. It's not terribly different from a smartphone, really) so that I could read the holobooks I was given at the end of the session, after which I was allowed to eat lunch with the three Jedi and Ahsoka in one of the many dining halls in the temple.

The food, while decidedly not of Earth, wasn't absurdly out of this world either; I managed to find something that vaguely resembled your average rice-with-meat dish back home in both appearance and taste.

"So, Kevin. Is there anything else you can tell us about your world? Or will the Force let you?" Anakin said as he waited for his food to cool down.

"Hmm... no, I keep getting that 'bad idea' feeling. It's actually getting a lot clearer than just a feeling, though. Kind of like a whisper, or a set of images as well."

Obi-Wan looked at me with a chuckle. "Well, hopefully you'll do a better job at actually listening than my former Padawan." He ignored the groan from Anakin and the snort from Eelia. "What about you yourself? Anything you can say about that?"

Ahsoka herself had managed to avoid more than a smirk at her master's expense. "Well, he told me earlier that he was a ward of the state and grew up in some sort of group home."

I nodded. "Yeah. Like I told her, the people who ran it were nice, but there were a number of rules they insisted that everyone follow. Aside from the tech and the whole Jedi Code, the rules on keeping your room clean and wake-up times were basically the same there as they are here."

"Well, that explains why you and Ahsoka managed to be on time. You could learn something from him, Anakin."

The Chosen One rolled his eyes. "Okay, that's it. Time for some embarrassing stories about all the times where the great Obi-Wan Kenobi got in over his head and his brave former apprentice had to bail him out..."

Anakin, Celu and Obi-Wan watched as Kevin and Ahsoka traveled back to the dormitories. The rest of the day in training went much the same was as the first half; by the time it was over, Kevin had surprised all three of them more than once.

-"He really does have a close connection with the Force. His ability to feel and control it already approaches the padawan level."-

"Indeed, Celu." Kenobi replied, stroking his beard. "I pray he'll be easier on whoever chooses him than—"

"Than me? Alright, Obi-Wan, something's up. Your ratio of Skywalker jokes has definitely increased beyond the norm today."

The Jedi Master chuckled nervously. "Really?"

-"I noticed that, too,"- Celu raised an eyeridge. -"And I don't need to read minds to know what that means."-

Both Kenobi and Skywalker looked to the Klatoonian Jedi. -"Almost all of your remarks had to do specifically with Anakin's apprenticeship under you, Master Kenobi. It's not hard to see why."-

I tried to use as many canon Huttese terms as I could, but there just isn't enough out there for full conversations most of the time, so I had to make up a word and guess at the meaning of a couple of others that didn't have specific translations. And no, Kevin's lack of parents won't be a plot point. Just throwing that out there. Next chapter, plot time!