17 ABY, The Jedi Temple at Ossus

Ben itched his scalp. It was a warm day with little breeze and his head was irritated by having his thick hair pulled back from his face. He thought it might be the worst thing about the training - the need to have his hair tied with a leather string at the nape of his neck. Actually, no, was it worse than the sunrise wake up calls?

There were five other younglings sitting with him, creating a semi-circle facing towards the man teaching them in an excitable voice. His uncle, Luke. Some started to call him the "Last Jedi", but now there were seven of them. Well, six of them were not even at padawan level yet, but they would be. Ben planned on being there within 5 years and he knew he could do it. He knew that he had a better grasp of the force than any of the others beside him, as impressive as they were. He had the Skywalker blood himself, his own mother trained in the ways of the force before she had him and here was his uncle teaching him everything he knew.

"Luke!" came a voice from behind the trees. Luke turned, as did all of the younglings around him. Ben's mother appeared, her hair pulled back in an elaborate braid and her green cloak wrapped tight around her shoulders. It wasn't cold, but his mother hated to be weighed down by unnecessary fabric. She caught his eye and tried to hide a small smile that played on her lips. He smiled back, but said nothing. That was the rule - when Ben was training, Leia was no more his mother than she was the mother of the young girl standing beside her. And the young girl standing beside her looked absolutely nothing like Leia.

Ben estimated she was about 10 years old, the same age he had been when his father had finally relented and let him join Luke at the Temple. She was small - his mother wasn't tall, but this girl only just passed her elbows - and slight, with bony shoulders sticking out from her muddy linen tunic. Her knotted hair was brilliant white, so bright it almost blinded them in the afternoon sun, but chopped in such a blunt fashion it barely touched her shoulders. That wasn't the most shocking thing about her, though. Despite being young, she sported dark brown markings up her forearms. The geometric patterns of the Hemmori people. Ben knew they were inked when a child reached ten, so his estimation at her age was about right.

"Ah," Luke dropped his arms from his demonstration and turned back to the younglings. "This is our newest student, Io." Leia bent and whispered something in Io's ear, and she nodded in response before picking her way carefully across the long grass towards Luke. "You join us at an excellent time," he said, smiling as she reached them. "We were just learning about the boundaries of the force.". Io said nothing in response, but looked wide-eyed at the children on the floor before her. "Take a seat, Io," Luke gestured towards Ben. "Once we've finished, we will have lunch."

Io dutifully took a seat next to Ben, crossing her legs in the same fashion as him. Up close, he could see the tattoos had been poked dot by tiny dot. It must have taken hours. She picked at a rogue thread on her boots, but looked up at Luke already enrapt.

28 ABY - The Jedi Temple at Ossuss

"You need to use the force as much when you're using your sabre as when you're not," Io said, twirling her purple lightsaber around her wrist. Ben wiped the back of his hand across his forehead as he powered-off the blade. "And you need to use the force when you're not using a sabre," he countered. She smirked. The two of them were now twenty two years old - Ben had discovered shortly after her arrival that she was two years older than she looked, and although they had grown up together she remained a whole foot shorter than him and skinny as a rake. Her hair was still blunt, knotty and white, but now she pulled the front sections away from her face. She still had the triangular tattoos of Hemmorah down her arms and across her chest, but he had grown so used to them he didn't notice them. They had become sparring buddies after Io quickly proved her affinity with a lightsaber where Ben struggled, and Ben had helped her with her force meditations in exchange for her duels. Of course, that was Io's idea; Ben never admitted he needed help.

He sat on the fallen trunk beside them and loosened off his hair. "It's going to be dinner soon," he said, looking to the suns setting behind the trees. "We should probably head back.". Io powered off her own blade and kicked at the dirt under her feet, following his gaze towards what of the horizon could be seen between the thick branches of the forest. In almost perfect synchronicity they holstered their weapons and took off in the direction of the Temple building. Sensing Ben was thinking deeply about something she couldn't read, she caught his attention. "Your strength is in your height," she said. "Your lunge is twice the size of mine, you need to lean into that." Ben nodded, but didn't respond. She knew her slight stature made her faster, more agile, but he needed to stop trying to match her there. He needed to know how to maximise his own strengths. He remained silent, not looking at her nor moving his eyes from the Temple in the distance. She stopped. It took a few paces for him to realise. He stopped, too, and turned. "What is it?" he asked. She frowned at him. "You're thinking about the artefacts, aren't you?".

Ben had spent more and more time away from the Temple with his uncle and Lor Sen Takka, hoping to piece together the lost history of the Jedi. Whilst they were gone, Io had taken to leading the next class of younglings in their first lightsaber lessons. Every time Ben returned, he seemed surlier than before. She had initially put it down to disagreements between Uncle and Nephew, and Ben had spoken to her before about how Luke wished to keep things from them all. Ben saw it as knowledge they could all achieve; for Luke, it was something they had to earn. "It's fine," Ben said, smiling limply at her and waiting for her to reach him. "I'm just hungry.".

When they arrived at the Temple, the other padawans and younglings were already eating. The food was never grand, but it was always delicious, cooked out in the open and freshly caught. The Temple students always sat together around the fire, with Luke if he was there, and shared the food between them. It was almost an idyllic scene, the rain only ever falling overnight and therefore allowing them this simple luxury of time together daily. Io took a seat next to Voe, one of the other padawan females. Ben chose not to sit with them - Voe and he had always had a frosty relationship - and instead he sat with Hennix and Tai, who had joined the Temple within a few months of himself. "How is Lor Sen?" Hennix asked, his mouth full of warm meat. Juice dripped onto the grass underneath him. Ben took a portion for himself and dug in, nodding. "He's good.". Tai noted the short response and looked sideways at Hennix, who returned the sentiment. Both of them had noted that the more Ben spent away from the Temple, the more distant he grew from the rest of them. The only person who spent much time with him these days was Io. They both knew that officially, Io was the one he told his secrets to. What Ben didn't know was that everyone else could see these secrets written all over his face. Hennix, Tai and Ben had been close friends during their first year at the Temple, and whilst Ben still saw his mother and father on occasion the others were beginning to forget what their families looked like. For them, the Temple was family, and Ben was like their older brother. When Io joined, and then Voe, things changed. Voe made no secret of finding Ben surly at best and arrogant at worst, whilst Io saw only the good in him. Despite their disagreements on Ben's character, Io and Voe maintained a friendship solidified in their own shared experience of joining the Temple, just as Hennix and Tai had. Ben and Io, however, had a different relationship. Ben's weakness was his skills with a lightsaber, something Hennix often joked was down to his "gangly limbs", whilst Io could not maintain focus for more than a few minutes during force mediations. Between them, they had an unspoken acceptance of each others' failings which bonded them unlike the others.

"You know, Hennix, Voe and I are leaving in two days," Tai said, reaching for a warm grainloaf. "We've got some Senate business. Apparently we will find out more when we're there." Ben took the bait, turning to him and frowning as he ran his tongue over his teeth to dislodge some meat shreds. "Sounds mysterious," he stated, taking another bite. "Probably some corruption that nobody wants anybody to know about."

"But which everyone always does know about," Hennix laughed. "I swear politicians never learn." Ben nodded, swallowing his mouthful. If only they knew…