Ahsoka's Origins
Chapter 6
The Academy
Ahsoka's head popped off her pillow early the morning that she started with the Jedi Academy. She had a big smile on her face and she had her schedule on hand. The first thing she was to do was go gather up what things she needed which included a little pocket droid to keep her notes and other information on. It's ID number was PD806 but she referred to it as PD8.
"PD8, where is the breakfast hall?" Ahsoka asked.
"Take a left turn outside of the youngling quarters and head down the corridor then take a right turn when the hallway comes to a T, walk down that hallway until you come to the second hallway that takes you to the right. Take that hallway and make a left turn down the hallway right next to Count Dooku's office, which will take you to an escalator. Take the up escalator and take the first hallway to the left after you get off the escalator. Once you do that, you can't miss it." PD8 responded.
"Woa, sorry I asked. There's no way I'd remember all that." Ahsoka said outloud.
"No worries. You can handle it. If you need me to map it out for you, just ask." PD8 informed her.
Ahsoka shoved PD8 back into her pack. She was all set to go. So she did the first thing that PD8 told her to do. Once she got outside of the youngling quarters, she looked around for a familiar face, meaning Klayna's. But she had no luck at spotting her. "I'll see her soon I'm sure." Ahsoka said to reassure herself.
There were people all over the place, Jedi Masters, Jedi Knights, other younglings and some padawans as well. Also there were people there cleaning the trash bins and wiping down walls and windows. Ahsoka felt overwhelmed but excited. She continued to make her way toward the mess hall to finally get something to eat.
"PD8, what is the café serving?" Ahsoka asked.
"Youngling café is serving fantafruit bowls with Bantha brats, or Nod eggs with a side order of googie (Which is like biscuits and gravy)."
As she was getting closer to the mess hall she could smell the brats and the googie, it smelled so good and she had never had either of those things before. She was used to eating whatever meat dishes came from her home world, not that she really remembered much of that.
She finally found the mess hall which was crowded with younglings and other Jedi figures. There were Moder droids walking around which were walking up to younglings and telling them when their trainings were and where they were. All Ahsoka could hear was the rumbling of people talking and feet moving and of course over it all, were those stupid Moder droids.
A moder droid immediately walked up to Ahsoka and scanned her. "Your next training starts in 15 standard minutes." The droid stated.
"I know that!" Ahsoka responded.
The droid just looked at her for a moment. "Your next training starts in 14 standard minutes."
Ahsoka rolled her eyes and got in line to get some Bantha Brats. She also got some googie to go with the brats.
Ahsoka was 11 standard minutes late for her first training which was just a simple orientation.
"Ahh, Ahsoka Tano. How nice of you to join the rest of us. Gibber is still running late I take it." Oppo stated.
"Sorry Master." Ahsoka apologized.
"No worries my dear, it's typical of younglings on the first day in the academy but I trust that you won't be late tomorrow." Oppo declared.
"No sir." Ahsoka said with a bit of embarrassment.
"Hey Ahsoka, you made it!" came a voice just in the seat left to Ahsoka's. It was Klayna.
Seeing Klayna's face made Ahsoka feel a little bit better, plus the fact that there was still someone later than her.
"Again, my name is Master Oppo Rancisis and I will be your Jedi instructor until you are granted the rank of Padawan or killed I guess which I certainly hope that doesn't happen to any of you."
Ahsoka leaned over to Klayna. "That's very reassuring." She joked causing Klayna to laugh.
Oppo stopped talking for a brief moment and then after Klayna stopped laughing, he resumed his instruction. "Now, although I am considered to be fair, I am also going to be hard on each of you. I will not hesitate to discipline as needed. To walk the path of the Jedi, one's spirit must be strong. That requires discipline. Now I am handing you all…"
Then the door slid open and Gibber finally walked in. "I'm so sorry sir. I'm late." Gibber said with a panicked voice.
"Ah yes I noticed that ol' boy here you go, you can sit right here in front." Oppo said mostly teasing the poor Bith.
"Now I am going to hand out your books, now keep in mind that these texts are sacred and must be treated as such. They cover the history of the Jedi spanning all the way back to the Knights of the Old Republic days all the way up to the Crystal Recovery on Jedha. They cover important Jedi leaders and how they impacted how things are run in the order to this very day and they also cover some of the most evil Sith Lords of all time. There will be plenty of historical learnings that you will cover over the next few years that come from these books. This information is not to be taken lightly.
As Oppo was getting ready to pass out the next set of texts, Pet, a young Nikto male rose his hand.
"Yes Pet, what's your question?"
"Do you think that the Sith that was killed a few months ago will ever be included in these sacred texts?"
Oppo was one of few who believed that Darth Maul was not dead but he wasn't going to get started on the current problems and knowledge of the Sith as not to frighten the younglings who hadn't had much understanding of Jedi matters just as Ahsoka, and also Decan who came from a rather secluded area of the galaxy as well. He and Ahsoka both were the more naïve of the class. Everyone had heard about how Master Qui-Gon Jinn had died and how it was handled in the moments of Obi-wan Kenobi allegedly finishing off the Sith that took Master Qui-Gon's life.
"It is very possible that the Sith known as Darth Maul will go down in history for besting a Jedi Master and mastering the double bladed lightsaber however, his reign was very short lived thanks to the efforts of Obi-wan Kenobi. For the time being there's no need to concern yourselves with the current rumors of the Sith. Leave that up to the Order itself." Oppo responded. "Any other questions before we proceed?" no one else had any questions and so Oppo handed out the rest of the books that dealt with trainings on things like controlling the force, meditation, and lightsaber combat. "This last book here you won't need for a couple years still." Oppo mentioned hoping to stir curiosity in the young minds.
"What is that book?" Gibber asked.
"That my boy, is a book on how to construct your first lightsaber." Oppo said as he showed the first few pages of the book to the class who looked at the book with mesmerized eyes. Oppo then slammed the book shut. "But, you don't need it right now."
Oppo placed the book back in the cabinet. "Now, one of the main thoughts and rules of the Jedi order is learning to let go of attachments. This is something that may take you a lifetime to master, but it is important that you do not ignore this rule or else it could lead to dark places."
Ahsoka was already struggling with this idea that attachments she needed to let go of. She had very little recollection of her parents and she already greatly missed Plo Koon although she knew that she'd see him around and that she couldn't live with him forever. She was eager to learn how all of this worked.
"Now, you know one of the most important rules of the Jedi, we shall take a tour of the temple." Oppo said.
"Master?" came the voice of one youngling.
"Oh, yes Lagure."
"I thought Jedi were supposed to love people." Lagure asked.
"Well, yes, we are supposed to love in the way that we protect the lives of innocence and the lives of each other. The lives of the Jedi should be held sacred to anyone who calls themselves a Jedi. Forming a type of intimate attachment that could cloud the judgment is something to be aware of."
Lagure was still somewhat confused, after all he was only 6 years old and wasn't able to fully understand this type or rule. He knew what it was like to live with his parents for the entire first 5 years of his life. Someone in his position would find it harder to let go of those attachments.
Oppo took the class on a tour of the Jedi temple. He showed them where the council room was and where a great deal of the meetings take place. He showed them where the holographic maps were and he gave them a short rundown of how they worked. He showed them where the youngling training areas were for lightsaber dueling and force training.
"It looks like we're in a bit of luck. Today we get the fortune of seeing Master Yoda instruct some older younglings about focus." Oppo mentioned as the small group walked past the remote training room.
"Ahh, come in younglings, observe you will." Yoda said.
The group walked into the training room.
Ahsoka noticed the younglings had some sort of helmets on that obstructed their vision. There were also remote bots hovering around them and the younglings were deflecting laser bolts with their lightsabers.
"Focus you must and feel the remote you must, in order to master this training." Yoda said.
"But Master, we don't have lightsabers yet." Pet complained.
Oppo just lauged. "Oh my boy, so eager to get a lightsaber."
"Patience you must have youngling. Construct your own lightsaber, you will. For this training, supplied, lightsabers are." Yoda said.
The look on Pet's face was a look of disappointment since he was so eager to hold his very own lightsaber.
"Of course you won't do anything with a lightsaber at all until next year. You must learn how to control the force before you can even think about holding the weapon of a true Jedi." Oppo stated.
The tour took up a great portion of the day. By the time the class got back to their class room, it was lunch time so Oppo dismissed them for a standard hour.
"Klayna! Wait up!" Ahsoka called as she ran to catch up with her friend.
"Hey Ahsoka. What did you think about all of that? A bit overwhelming right?" Klayna asked.
"No, well; yes quite a bit. I wonder why Pet is so eager to get his own lightsaber."
"Who knows, I think it's just well known that Jedi have them and come on… who wouldn't want to use one on those training droids." Klayna mentioned.
"Well, let's get some lunch. I'm starved after watching those younglings deflect those laser shots." Ahsoka said.
So the two girls hopped in the lunch line to get their food. They sat down together at a table towards the north wall of the café.
Ahsoka pulled out her pocket droid out of her pack to show Klayna. "This is so cool!"
Shortly after she pulled the pocket droid out of her pack, a moder droid came up and scanned both girls. "Next training in 20 standard minutes." The droid told them.
"Go away!" Klayna yelled.
The droid turned around and rolled away.
"Those things are stupid." Klayna said to Ahsoka.
"I know, I had one come up to me this morning." Ahsoka said.
Ahsoka opened up her pocket droid and turned it's hover mode on. The droid hovered above the two girls the whole lunch period and they were mesmerized by it. Neither of them had ever owned a droid before, even a simple pocket droid.
Then Klayna pulled out hers. "Mine is yellow which is my favorite color!" Klayna declared with excitement.
While the girls were talking about their pocket droids, Decan came to their table. "Umm hey, have you guys seen a rogue pocket droid?" he asked the two girls.
The two girls looked at each other, and then back at Decan. "Sorry but no." Klayna said. "Hey, what's your name again?"
"I'm Decan, I was retrieved from Alderann." The young human boy said.
Ahsoka held out her hand for a handshake. "I'm Ahsoka, and this is Klayna!"
Decan smiled at them both. "Can I sit with you guys? Lagure and Gibber already went back to the class room."
"Of course you can!" Klayna exclaimed as she scooted her stuff over to make room for him to sit down.
Before Decan could sit down, a moder droid came up and scanned him. "Next training in 15 minutes."
With all his might, Decan pushed the little rolling droid away from the table. "Those things are so annoying."
"I really think we are supposed to learn patience from them or something." Klayna mentioned.
Both Ahsoka and Decan just laughed. They soon got their stuff put away and headed back to their trainings together.