"Don't make friends who are comfortable to be with. Make friends who will force you to lever yourself up." — Thomas J. Watson

I don't own Star Wars or its characters, but I only own Nadia Aomori, her family and my other OCs.

Enjoy!

Threads of Destiny

Chapter 1: A New Home

Nadia wore a white simple dress as laid on a bed with bandages wrapped in her arms and legs to covered her first-degree burns that needed to be healed.

However, her ruby red eyes expressed utter grief, loss and anger.

Although seriously burnt, Nadia managed to escape her home by jumping out of a window with RG-G1 and cushioning herself on snow.

Her family were less fortunate, and Nadia was forced to leave them to be incinerated within the fire that destroyed their home.

As she cried outside her burning house, some nearby townsfolk found Nadia and escorted her away from the scene to send her to the hospital.

What was actually left for her now?

Everything important to her was now gone.

Her parents.

Her older brother.

Her sister-in-law.

And…her unborn nephew/niece.

Now she had no where and nothing to live for.

RG-G1 beeped quietly as he slowly made his way towards Nadia.

The droid handed his friend a glass of water with his little hand which she took and slowly started drinking.

Nadia silently thanked RG-G1 before handing the glass cup back to him.

Suddenly, the door of her hospital room burst opened and Valerie rushed inside.

"Nadia!"Valerie cried out.

Valerie rushed over to her granddaughter and embraced her in a hug.

"Thank goodness, you are safe."Valerie sobbed as she stroked Nadia's raven black hair. "I thought I lost you too."

Nadia didn't say anything as a couple of tears emerged slowly from her eyes as her hands moved to hug her grandmother back.

There was silent for a moment before Nadia spoke up.

"Grandma, everyone…is gone."Nadia cried softly.

RG-G1 let out a sad beep.

Valerie forced a small smile on her face as she gently held Nadia's face.

"At least, I still have you."Valerie commented.

Two weeks later after her burns were healed, Nadia got out from the hospital and attended her family's funeral with her grandmother and all those close to the Horn family. Including Hal and his mother, Scerra.

Though went to live with her grandmother in Coronet City, the ten year old had now psychological guilt of being the sole saviour of that dreadful night while her family burned to death. Even though Nadia slowly began showing signs of recovery and began speaking more.

As a couple of weeks passed, Valerie could no longer support Nadia as she was growing old and wanted her to continue her training to be a Jedi like Rostek and Freya wanted her to.

Then a surprising visitor came to Valerie's home one day.

It was Shaak Ti.

A female Togruta, who was a Jedi Master and member of the High Council on Coruscant.

And thus, a new chapter in Nadia's life began.

Almost every person and species in the galaxy knew what Jedi were.

Jedi were guardians of peace and justice in the Galactic Republic.

The Jedi's commitment to peace and democracy brought them into conflict with an order of dark side wielders known as the Sith, who sought power and dominion over the galaxy. Emerging victorious from their wars with the ancient Sith, the Jedi carried on in their duty as peacekeepers for over a millennium

Following nearly a thousand years of peace, the Jedi Order was threatened by a new darkness. The future became even more clouded than was usual, the High Council could not predict events or sense disturbances as it once could. It was during this time of uneasiness in the ranks of the Order that the Temple became prone to attack.

At the moment, most of the Jedi Knights were having lunch in the refectories of the Jedi Temple that were Jedi-run dining halls consisting of kitchens, eating areas, and gardens. Located on several different levels of the Temple, the refectories varied in size and function, with some serving only specific meals. Each refectory's kitchen had direct access to the foods stored within the Temple's storage level.

The refectories consisted of a kitchen and dining hall, and were serviced by supplies and ingredients from the Temple's Storage Level and the kitchen gardens. Like most of the Temple these chambers were, while designed for beauty, maintained a sense of utilitarian purpose and were connected to the service corridors.

Each dining hall was filled with long, trestle tables that were flanked by benches; holodisplays were hung along the pillared walls to show news from across the galaxy.

Refuse stations were located around the room for the return of dishes and utensils, and the disposal of any waste. The halls were maintained by refectory droids capable of analysing the content of the food trays. Hovering around the rooms, the droids would clear away any spills or forgotten dishes and dispose of any undesired waste.

In addition to the large dining halls, smaller breakfast rooms were in use around the structure for use by youngling clans during their early years of training. Small intimate chambers, Jedi Masters would visit the rooftop chambers and talk to the extremely young children. Transparisteel windows along the walls could rise into the ceiling to let in fresh air on nice days, giving the younglings a chance to experience a cool breeze while they ate in the safety of the Temple.

The kitchens were large, capable of servicing over a hundred Jedi at a time. Large stoves and ovens lined the walls and preparation areas had datascreens from which supplies could be summoned from the Storage Level. Airlifts from the Storage Level would jettison up requested ingredients for use in certain recipes.

Among the younglings that were eating in the Jedi Temple's refectories was Ahsoka Tano.

She was a female Torguta and a member of the Bear Clan.

After picking up her lunch tray, Ahsoka looked around for a place to sit.

The young Torguta girl made her way to the eating area that was only for the younglings.

All the younglings seemed to be eating and talking together.

But her curiosity went to a female figure, who was sitting in a trestle table by herself and poking her fork on the food of her tray.

The other younglings seemed to be together, but that girl seemed to be the only one by herself.

How come nobody was noticing her?

Ahsoka made her way to the girl, who kept poking her food with her fork.

The girl was human with fair yet pale, ruby red eyes and black raven hair that was a bit curly and stopped at the end of her shoulders. Her clothing was the cream coloured Jedi ropes with a deep silver belt and dark brown boots.

"Hi."Ahsoka greeted.

The raven haired girl looked up to her with a somewhat blunt expression.

"Mind if I sit here?"Ahsoka asked.

"Sure."the girl said bluntly.

Ahsoka sat down to start eating her lunch while the girl kept forking her food.

For a moment there was a slight silence before Ahsoka broke it.

"My name is Ahsoka Tano."Ahsoka said with a smile, offering hand out. "What's your name?"

A small smile appeared on the raven haired girl's face.

"Nadia."the girl answered. "Nadia Aomori."

Ahsoka and Nadia shook hands with each other.

"Are you new here to the Temple?"Ahsoka asked. "I haven't seen you before."

"I've been here almost two weeks after Master Shaak Ti found me at my grandmother's house on my homeplanet of Corellia."Nadia declared with a slight frown. "How come you haven't notice me in the first place?"

Ahsoka gives Nadia an embarrassed smile.

"Sorry. I guess I was busy with my training."Ahsoka remarked. "I'm in the Bear Clan. What about you?"

"The Heliost Clan."Nadia replied. "But I prefer to study and be on my own most of the times."

Ahsoka nodded as she took another bite from her lunch as Nadia continued fiddling with hers.

"Is the food not to your liking?"Ahsoka asked.

"Where I come from, we prefer our meals with flavours than it being dull and flavourless."Nadia said distastefully. "How can you eat something like this?"

Ahsoka instructs Nadia to lend her ear to whisper something at her.

"To be honest, I don't like the food in the temple either."Ahsoka whispered. "I crave better things to eat like Shili cheese dogs."

Nadia gets an idea as she instructs Ahsoka to lend her ear while glancing around to make sure nobody was listening to them.

"How about we sneak out and eat something together?"Nadia suggested.

"I don't think we're allowed to do that."Ahsoka declared quietly. "We'll get in trouble."

"Don't worry about that."Nadia assured with a silent smirk. "We can just head out in the entrance of the temple's hangar. I promise we won't get spotted."

Ahsoka smiled. "Okay."

And that's what the two girls ended up doing.

They carefully sneaked out of the Jedi Temple from its hangar without anyone noticing and went out to buy snacks with Nadia using the credits that her grandmother secretly gave her before she left.

Once returning to the Jedi Temple, Nadia and Ahsoka began eating their bought goods in their private chamber to satisfy their stomachs.

RG-G1 let out a low yet grumpy beep as he cleared up the empty packets and wrappers in Nadia's room.

"Don't worry, G-G."Nadia remarked. "I'll make sure to help you clear up."

RG-G1 rolled away a bit as Ahsoka smiled at Nadia.

"Your droid is pretty cool, Nadia."Ahsoka commented. "Did you make him by yourself?"

"Sort of."Nadia answered. "But it was my older brother who powered him up for me."

An uneasy and painful feeling started growing inside Nadia's heart at remembering her older brother and one of the last memories of him which quickly caused her to wipe away the tears that were threatening to come out of her eyes.

"Are you okay, Nadia?"Ahsoka asked in concern.

"Yeah."Nadia replied with a bright yet fake smile. "Just kind of homesick I guess."

Ahsoka silently took a sip from her blue milkshake as Nadia quietly slurped up the noodles in her bowl.

She then spoke to her again.

"So, Nadia, have you made any friends when you first came here?"Ahsoka asked.

"No, not really. I had more friends back on my homeplanet."Nadia answered honestly as she placed her bowl down. "The kids were more fun and exciting. But here, the Jedi are more timid and really…"

"Boring?"Ahsoka guessed.

"Yeah."Nadia answered with a slight chuckle.

"Well, I'm kind of lonely too."Ahsoka admitted. "I don't have someone in particular that I hang out a lot with either. Even though, I've been here longer. How about we become best friends and hang out together whenever we finish our training lessons and need help on our studies?"

A soft smile sprung on Nadia's face at Ahsoka's request.

Having a best friend would be nice.

It would definitely help her feel more warm and welcomed in the Jedi Temple than continuing always isolating herself like an outcast.

As well as ignoring the distrust that some of the members of the Jedi Council were having about her due to her connection to Darth Nihilus.

"Sure."Nadia responded kindly. "That would be awesome. Thanks."

From that day, Nadia and Ahsoka became best friends forever.

And nothing would ever change that.

Not even the nightmare of reality.

Next chapter we will see Nadia and Ahsoka bonding more before heading to the Clone Wars and become padawans. See you all in the next chapter!