A year. Almost an entire year passed with Cyla as my Jedi Master. It seemed to have flown by. It was so long ago that most of them are no more than a blur with a few memories that I faintly remember. By this point, I no longer had such long bangs on my face. Onthant and Cyla decided to give me a haircut as I clenched Strive's hand tightly and gritted my teeth as Onthant and Cyla trimmed my hair so I could actually see. Canto and Beepy thought it would be funny to take a video of this as they stood by and watched me nearly cry as I was so afraid of scissors. Cyla actually made the comment:
"You have freckles? Since when?" she asked with a smile when she cut away my bangs. "And blue eyes? How little do I know about you, my Padawan? They look just like Onthant's."
"Yeah," Onthant looked at me as he let out a half of a chuckle. "He does have pretty similar eyes."
Over this time, I also got a Padawan braid as I grew it on the side of my head. This was like gold for Onthant and Strive to have for making fun of me. They often called it girly and Cyla would always remind me to not let comments get to me and to keep a cool head.
Speaking of Cyla, she had really grown as a part of the family. Thinking of it, our family really needed her. Having a woman finally in the family really showed us how sloppy we were. She often scorned any of us who left out a dirty dish and tasked us each with cleaning around the shop. She also had us brushing our teeth, showering, and other things that I thought weren't necessary. She was good friends with Strive as he could make friends with many fairly easily, she was now on okay terms with Canto, would somewhat play into Onthant's flirting, and was almost like the motherly figure I never had before in my life. When Cyla asked when in the galaxy Onthant was shaving off his beard, he responded with a smart remark as usual.
"What? You don't think it's sexy?" he joked as he looked to my Master and rubbed his hand through his now full grown beard. "Quite dashing, isn't?"
"I will shave it off with my lightsaber if you keep referring it to as 'sexy', Onthant! " I shouted.
"Jalo!" Cyla snapped.
And for that matter, I got a lightsaber. Cyla decided I was ready to get a lightsaber quite a few months into my training and sent me to the planet of Ilum with a group of other Jedi Padawans to retrieve a crystal. The other Padawans were all younger than me as they had been entered into the Order when they were very young. My lightsaber crystal was green just like Cyla's and I built the hilt fairly successfully and with my own style as soon as I returned back to my home with my crystal in hand. It wasn't the prettiest, but I liked it and it worked just as well as Cyla's lightsaber.
But despite all this, I still resented the Order. Seeing how all those younger kids had so much training and had so much access to knowledge and education made me angry. Why couldn't I have that? Why was I such an outcast that I didn't belong in their precious Temple? Why did they have to exhaust Cyla so much by her traveling back and forth every day just because I was a little too old to train? Wouldn't it have been more useful for me to be trained in the Temple so I could learn quicker? When I expressed these things to Cyla, she reminded how I could never see my family if I were trained in the Temple. I begrudgingly accepted this fact, hating the fact that the Council was so smart but still couldn't come up with a way to make things easier on Cyla.
I guess the Council must have taken note of my improvement in Jedi training as I got my first mission on my thirteenth birthday.
That day, we did as the year before as to celebrating my birthday; except now we had Strive and Cyla added to the family and we had celebrated it in the shop. As soon I learned the Cyla forgot her birthday as she didn't celebrate in within the Jedi Order since she was seven, I insisted she celebrated too as she deserved a birthday too. She rolled her eyes as she saw I wasn't going to take no for an answer and she took on the offer to have a birthday with me. As a tradition Onthant seemed to be very fond of, my face was once again smashed into the cake once the flame was extinguished. As we wanted Cyla to be a part of the Solarburn family tradition, Onthant and I both planted her face in the remains of the cake too.
Huh...I guess I did kinda consider myself a Solarburn...Never really thought about that in ages…
Anyways, I found something a little peculiar that happened between Onthant and Cyla as soon as she lifted her face that was now covered in frosting and was laughing. Onthant wiped her face with his hand; but once she looked into his eyes, she froze. And not in a terrifying way. I think she saw something in those eyes of my brother. Something I didn't understand until much later when I shared that very same look with someone who I foolishly feel for.
She laughed so hard she almost cried as she stood there. I remembered that a moment later, Cyla and I had a little competition on which one of us could keep a straight face as we stared at each other with our faces covered with cake still and one of us would make a silly face while the other would do their best to keep a straight face. We both lost fairly quickly.
Later, Cyla told me the news on the mission that she and I were assigned. She told me it was a birthday present as she had requested a mission for the two of us rotations earlier as she knew my birthday was coming up. I was ecstatic to get my first mission. We headed out for our first mission in that evening: Cyla also having Beepy come along as she felt he would be useful. It was a retrieval mission of some information about the gang of Black Heth as the Council had intel they had planned an attack on the Jedi Temple. I was not too happy about the fact we were going to have to deal with the Black Heth. I wondered if the Council had told Cyla of my biological father having been the co-leader of the gang. I decided not to ask. I hadn't told her that I knew what she mentioned to Master Yoda about her having been a slave on Jakku before becoming a Jedi, anyway. So, I guessed it was best to keep these things to myself.
Cyla gave me a data pad of what I needed to know and the faces I needed to find before we left. I was taken aback as I viewed my information and the faces I needed to know but already knew. Cyla explained further to me on the information. A female, purple hybrid of a twi'lek and human, had brown eyes and was at the age of seventeen. She was named Miri Stocula. And then there was an adult human male with black hair that had a white stripe through his hair and had a goatee; the name was Razo Hikra who was the father of the half-twi'lek /half-human named Miri. Cyla asked if I knew them, but I immediately responded that I did not and the last name was a coincidence. That was the first time I lied to my Master. Cyla explained that she would shadow Razo while Beepy and I shadowed Miri. We arrived at a local bar that intel had told was where our targets were at. It was NO place a kid should have been at, but my Master had trust in my skills that I would be fine. The bar was filled with drunken people and women with barely any clothes that danced on tables and flirted with multiple people. The alcohol burned my nose as the aroma filled the air and you could hear music boom over the speakers as neon lights of pink and red illuminated the building's insides. I squirmed my way through the drunken crowd and noticed there were a few different types of people there are in a bar: the paranoid, the sleepy, the overly giddy, the angry ones, the flirts, and the heartbroken ones. And then there was me. As my R3 unit and I squirmed through that crowd, we scanned our surroundings for the purple twi'lek/human. I knew her alright, being her half-brother and all. But, no one knew that. No one needed to know that then. I didn't want anyone to know it then.
Suddenly, a great force jerked me backward as something was clamped onto the scruff of my neck. When I turned around I met the grey eyes speckled with brown that I hadn't seen since I had returned from the Jedi Temple back into the Under City. Beepy whirred violently with distressed signals as he saw me being so forcefully grabbed by a stranger to him.
"I had a feeling I'd bump into someone important tonight," Razo sneered. His breath reeked of alcohol; I knew that was bad news immediately. He was horrible to be around when he was drunk. As I mentioned before, there are certain people that are in a bar. And he was definitely an angry drunk. Alcohol plus him was one of the main reasons I had multiple black eyes before I met Canto and Onthant. He now had a grip on my arm as he looked at me.
"Let me go!" I yelled as wriggled my arm to release his grip. This only resulted in his grip only tightening.
"Why did you leave without a goodbye, son?Your sister Miri really misses you." he sneered in an angry tone. "What family do you have now, boy?"
"You weren't my family!" I shouted. "I have a real family now! I'm even training to be a Jedi!"
"We weren't family?!" He nearly was breaking my arm now. I looked up and saw he was angry. Really angry. The face he had every time before he did something really bad.
I got scared. I got REALLY scared. I didn't know what came over me, but I felt the Force flow through me in a quick burst. I felt my arm being released as Razo flew backward.
His back slammed into the side of the bar and the group of people near looked to me as if I had tooka ears sprouting from my head. The man I had shoved away just laughed and looked back to me.
"You really weren't lying. You are a Jedi," he laughed. His laugh was offsetting as it echoed in my head. I saw his hand creep to the blaster on his hip. My hands flew to the lightsaber of mine on my belt. A shot split the air followed by the hum of a lightsaber. The crowd inside the bar screamed as the green light appeared in the form of a sword. But, it wasn't my lightsaber and it wasn't Razo's blaster.
I looked to the other side of the bar to see Cyla with her lightsaber activated as a teenage girl was near the end of it. The teenager had a half of a blaster left in her hand as the other half was cut off. It was Miri who was at the mercy of Cyla. Razo, being the great father he was, ran in the direction of the exit and opposite direction of his daughter who was at the end of a lightsaber.
Very soon after, Miri was in handcuffs that bound her hands behind her back as Cyla kept a tight grip on the purple half-twi'lek/human. Cyla walked with her over to the exit with me and Beepy to follow. But once Miri spotted me, she spilled the beans. She started screaming at me and calling me foul names. Calling me a traitor for leaving the "family".
"Padawan, you know her?" Cyla urgently asked.
"Of course he'd know me, you stupid b****," she sneered. "He's my brother."
"Hey! You will not refer to my Master like that!" I barked. "And we're only half-siblings, you idiot!"
"Oh yeah, I forgot that your mom was no-good slu-"
"SHUT UP!" I screamed.
"Hikra!" Cyla sternly scorned at a very loud volume. "I hear one more outburst from you like that and you're grounded!"
I sighed as I bit my tongue; listening to Cyla.
"The local police are going to be here any moment to pick her up," Cyla gestured to Miri. "And when we leave, I expect some answers out of you, Padawan."
"Aw...is this your new mommy?" Miri taunted.
"Hey, at least my mom didn't kill herself," I remarked.
Cyla was soon forced to slam Miri on the ground as the twi'lek/human tried to escape from her cuffs and kill me. Cyla kept her pinned on the ground until the local Under City police droids came to pick Miri up. After Miri was taken into the custody of the police, Cyla held out a disc to me.
"I found this on her," she said. "I think it's the plans for the attack on the Temple. She was talking to a known explosives dealer when I spotted her; so it can be safe to assume that it was most likely going to be a disaster to the Jedi Temple if we didn't get these plans in time."
"So, you succeeded?" I inquired.
With a smile, Cyla placed a hand on my shoulder and said, "We succeeded. I could never do these kinds of missions without my Padawan."
"What did I do? Razo was drunk, he couldn't have been much help in planning the attack anyways," I told. "You could've done this without me."
"But, you give me confidence."
I was confused.
"Without you, Padawan, I would still feel as if I were still a Padawan learner myself. Seeing how you have grown under my tutelage, I can assure myself that I am a Jedi Knight and no longer a Padawan. Though I still have so much to learn within the Force, I know because of you that I know what I'm doing as a Jedi," she told. "Even though Razo would not have been planning the attack himself in his drunken state, he could have attacked me while I comprehend Miri. And what kind of backup would I have? And there was probably more than likely more Black Heth members in that crowd that could have also attacked me. But, seeing that we were BOTH there, they knew they couldn't take on two of us, so they didn't."
A smile grew on my face as I looked up at her. I never knew she ever doubted herself, let alone having confidence because of me. I didn't see myself as vital to the mission until she explained that to me.
As we walked through the Underworld once more, it was nighttime. Though, you couldn't tell without looking at a watch as the amount of light that reached the Slum District was always the same. Nothing. Only artificial light illuminates our world down here. I thought Cyla had forgotten about the whole "Miri is my sister and Razo is actually my father" thing as we were walking back to the apartment I shared with Onthant and Canto, but she brought it up anyways.
"So, is it true?" Cyla asked as she turned to me.
"What?"
"Miri is your sister?"
I darted my eyes down to the ground as I continued to walk beside her as I said nothing.
"Padawan," she warned.
"Fine," I huffed. "She is. Only on my dad's side."
"So you did know Razo and Miri," she concluded. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Um, I don't know. I didn't want you to think I was still working with them," I admitted with a shrug. "I ran away when I was eleven and I found Canto and Onthant a couple weeks later."
"Why did you run away?" I could tell she wasn't mad at me now. I could hear compassion in her voice.
As I sharply inhaled, I stopped walking and Cyla stopped too. I contemplated on what I should say.
"Well...I don't tell many people…"
"It's alright; I won't tell anyone," Cyla assured. "But if I'm going to train you, you need to learn that we can let our guard down around each other and not be afraid."
"Razo used to beat me," I quickly blurted out. I didn't dare to meet Cyla's eyes as I kept my vision fixated on the ground. "He used to give me black eyes and bruises all the time when he got drunk. He didn't dare to hit Miri, though. She was his favorite. He really loved her and Miri's mom. He hated my mom and the thought of me since she left me with him when I was a baby. I think she left him for a good reason, though. He never told her about him having Miri with another woman until she found out about it. After my mom left, Razo and Miri's mom got married. She was from Ryloth and she would speak in Twi'leki whenever Razo left me in her care, so I became fluent in it. She beat me too. She later committed suicide about a little before I ran away because Razo had just gotten the title of co-leader of Black Heth and he was always really stressed and drunk. Miri also joined the gang at that time since she was finally fifteen; she didn't like her daughter being in the gang. After Miri's mom died, Razo got REALLY violent at me. He almost killed me once when he had a blaster to my head as he pinned me down. Another member of the gang was able to pull him off me and saved me. I knew that he was going to kill me if I stayed any longer, so I left."
I let out a couple shaky breaths as I kept my arms crossed over my chest and clenched tightly onto my arms. I still had my eyes on the ground as Cyla stood in front of me. I felt her gloved hand being placed on my shoulder and I looked up to her. She had pity on her face with compassion mixed in. She didn't even need to say anything and yet I knew exactly what she was telling me. Tears streamed down my face as I stood there and Cyla embraced me in a tight hug. I hadn't cried like that in a good long time, let alone about all of that.I shook while I sobbed, whether it was from sadness or anger I still don't know. It was a while until I was all cried out and Cyla let me out of the tight embrace.
"Hey, you're ok," she hushed my crying. "It's ok to cry."
"But aren't Jedi supposed to not have feelings?" I sniffled.
"No, in fact, we are encouraged to listen to our feelings," Cyla told. "You must learn to listen to your emotions; they are valuable and should not be suppressed. You just need to learn to control them or they may just control you."
"Yes, Master," I nodded.
"We better get you home," Cyla smiled as she wiped away a tear. "Your dad and brother are probably worried sick about you."
As we approached the apartment building I lived in, Cyla stopped to watch me walk up to the building just as she had done every day after training. I only took a couple steps with Beepy beside me before I turned to her.
"Hey, you should spend the night," I offered. "I think the Hovertrain station is closed by this time."
She contemplated for a moment.
"Come on, you never even seen our apartment," I encouraged
With a smile, my Master agreed. She followed me and Beepy through the apartment complex to our apartment door where I could sense that Onthant was up and around. I knocked on the door and he answered.
I think Cyla nearly had a heart-attack when the door slid open and Onthant stood there with nothing on but a pair of boxers. As our home only consisted of three guys, wearing only your underwear around the apartment was completely normal. Blood rushed to Onthant's face as he stood there in front of us. I looked back and saw Cyla had frozen with her face also a crimson red. Her eyes were wide and she made sure her eyes were locked on his face and let them not dare wander anywhere else.
"Uh, uh, Cyla!" Onthant faked a nervous smile. "He-ey. What's up?"
As she shook out of her frozen state, she stuttered, "Oh, uh, well, I just brought Jalo back home. The mission went muscle good…"
I caught her glimpsing at the torso of Onthant. I hadn't noticed it too much before, but Onthant actually had a lot of muscles, even defined abs.
"He wanted me to stay overnight, but it's abbs- I mean absolutely fine if you don't want me to stay. Being a woman and all, I don't know if you'd be uncomfortable with that…"
"No-no!" he stopped her. "You're fine!C-come on in!"
I looked back at my Master and raised my eyebrow at her and had a smirk on my face. She looked down at me and gave me a warning look. We walked into the apartment and I took Cyla to see the rest of the apartment. Canto was asleep, so I only showed her the door to his room. She was taken aback once again as she saw the war-zone like room Onthant and I shared. When Cyla offered to sleep on our common room's couch, Onthant stepped in and he offered her his hammock in our room while he slept on the couch. She agreed and we all went to bed.