The boy sat in mommy's lap, where it was always nice and warm.

Except, this time it wasn't.

His mother was afraid. She did not show it through the way she played with him, but he could feel it.

He had seen his father appear in blue on the table, talking in an urgent voice. Afterwards, mommy had started to become afraid.

Her tension rose as there was a knock on the door. His mother rose, now holding him in her arms, and walked to the door.

On the other side of the door was a strange man, wearing weird brown clothes. He had a weird feel to him. He bowed, and then said something. Mommy responded.

The man said something again. The boy noticed as mommy became angry. He couldn't understand what was said, but if it made mommy angry, then it was a bad thing.

The boy became angry himself. Angry at the bad man for making his mommy angry. Angry at the bad man for saying bad things.

He focussed on the bad man. How did he not get angry? Normally when mommy was angry at someone, they were angry back. Only this man wasn't. He felt only calm. For some reason this made the boy even more angry.

Who was this bad man, anyway? Who was it that thought they could make mommy angry? He studied the bad man intensely. And suddenly, he felt the answer.

He pointed an accusing finger at the man, interrupting whatever the adults were talking about.

"Jedi bad."

…

Ronin fought back tears as he tried to suppress the memory of his parents. Anything involving them was nowadays a painful memory, but the one of his mother preventing the man from taking him, who he later learned was a Jedi, cut deeper than most.

He opened his eyes, and looked at Ahsoka, who was sitting in her meditative stance opposite to him. She was breathing slowly, in and out. Looking at it now, Ronin could see how that would help someone calm down and "center themselves" as she had explained to him earlier.

But it didn't work for him. Every time he allowed himself to relax, to calm down, it was like his memories took over. And his anger as well. Which certainly did not help in any way.

Not to mention, the position in which he was meditating wasn't exactly comfortable.

Right as he closed his eyes again, Ahsoka spoke. "You're troubled."

Ronin nodded. He wasn't sure if she saw it, but she probably didn't need to.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

As usual, Ronin's first instinct was not to answer. But, like with Ezra earlier, something told him he wouldn't have to worry. That he could trust her. So he let himself go.

"They... they killed them, my parents, just because they wanted to protect me! And Goose as well! I couldn't help him." His voice grew angry. "And they didn't even care!"

"Goose was your friend, right?" Ahsoka quietly asked after a moment. Ronin just nodded. "I know how you feel," she continued. "I lost my best friend too, years ago."

That got Ronin curious, and he forgot his anger for a moment. "Did your friend die too?"

"No," Ahsoka shook her head, "She betrayed me. Made people blame me for something I didn't do." She remained calm, and her voice held nothing but sadness. "We made amends many years later, but that didn't make it feel any better at the time."

Ronin wasn't sure how to respond, so he didn't. They sat in silence for a few more minutes, until Ahsoka spoke again. "And what about your parents?"

Ronin told her the same thing he had told Ezra, about how they were killed by the empire. "I'm sorry to hear that," she said once he was finished.

"I still don't entirely understand," Ronin said. "Why they came for us."

"They probably came for you because of your Force sensitivity," Ahsoka explained. "You were lucky to escape."

"And my parents paid the price," Ronin murmured bitterly.

Ahsoka nodded sympathetically. "They did." After a while, she added, "The alternative would have been much worse. You would've been taken and brainwashed into serving the emperor."

The look in Ronin's eyes hardened. "So you're saying the emperor is responsible for their deaths."

"If you want to put it that way, in a way, yes."

They sat in silence for a while longer. Ahsoka watched as Ronin started to feel a new emotion: hatred. After a while, he managed to calm down, and Ahsoka decided to change the subject. "How about we try something else?" she said, standing up. "Let's try levitating those cups over there."

As Ronin stood up to follow her instructions, he could still feel his hatred. Hatred towards the empire, which had already been there, and towards the emperor, who was responsible for everything.

There was someone at the door. Akiris knew they were here for her, even before they knocked. When her mom got up, she tried to pull her back.

But her three-year-old hands were unable to stop the adult from walking to the door, so she used a trick. One she knew nobody else could do.

Right as her mom was about to open the door, her hand froze in the air. She managed to look back at her daughter, who was holding her hand up like she was pulling something up and frantically shaking her head. She spat a few words. Akiris didn't understand most of them, but the ones that she did, along with the anger she could feel radiating from her mom, were enough for her to let go. Her mom turned back to the door. It opened to reveal another figure. A figure with green skin and brown robes. The figure spoke to her mom, and the young Mikkian knew it was about her.

After a short while, her mother turned back towards her, a sad smile on her face. She picked Akiris up and held her close to the green being.

Akiris didn't like the being. She hoped her mother would put her down. Instead, her mother handed her over to the stranger, and she could somehow feel that the stranger had no intention of giving her back. Her mother said something to her, and the tone was gentle, not like any way she'd talked to her before.

Suddenly, the realization hit the young girl. Her mother was giving her up! A pang of betrayal shot through her, and she started screaming. The green being spoke to her in a soothing tone, but she didn't listen. She just continued to scream, angry at her mother. The being holding her spoke once more briefly to the blue-skinned Mikkian before turning away. Akiris continued to scream in anger, at her mom, until long after they'd gotten out of sight.

…

Beep, beep, beep.

The Fourteenth Sister opened her eyes to see what had disturbed her meditation. Her comlink was beeping. With a sigh, she stood up and answered it. "Inquisitor here."

"We have arrived back at the academy, ma'am," the captain's voice replied.

"Thank you, Captain," she responded, before turning the device off again. Deciding she had done enough meditation for now, she opened the security footage from the shuttle and started to watch.

The footage started with one of the cadets, the now dead one, beginning the startup sequence. After a moment, the cadet ran outside again, having grabbed a blaster from the shuttle's supplies. The inquisitor had already seen what had happened outside from the hangar cam, and watched as moments later the other boy dragged his friend's body back inside. The sequence of the shuttle escaping the academy held nothing of interest, other than the boy not putting in any coordinates for the jump, and she watched as the boy went back to his friend after he'd jumped to hyperspace. He sat next to him for a while, before he screamed, and everything went flying, and cracks formed in the wall.

It wasn't possible to sense the Force through a recording, but the inquisitor could still almost feel the dark side dripping from it. Afterwards, the boy knelt down again and did not move. He stayed like that for a long time.

The inquisitor was just starting to contemplate whether it was worth watching all this nothingness, when a vibration seemed to go through the ship in the recording.

She watched as a man, followed by a younger boy, stepped into the room. The man had wrapped his hand around a cylindrical object as he stepped closer to the cadet. It took the inquisitor only a moment to realize what the object was, and she immediately paused the feed.

It was a lightsaber. Was this a Jedi? Or some mercenary who had somehow gotten his hands on such a weapon? She turned the recording back on and watched as the man and the boy walked towards the cadet. The man took his comlink and said something into it, while the boy tried to get a response out of the cadet. The inquisitor didn't pay much attention to the boy; she mainly focused on the man, who seemed vaguely familiar, but she couldn't tell why.

She was surprised when two others, a Mandalorian and a Lasat, entered the room. It was especially unexpected to see the Lasat. The fourteenth sister herself had been to their home world and seen the destruction firsthand, and knew there were only a few, if any at all, left in the galaxy. It would certainly help her with her search though. Because really, how many lightsaber wielders were there running around the galaxy with a Lasat and a Mandalorian? She made a mental note to look into that later.

The rest of the recording wasn't much to look at. The small crew took the cadet with them and left. The remainder of the footage was just the inside of the shuttle, so the inquisitor shut it off. Instead, she opened both the Inquisitorius and the Imperial databases. She had to see if she could find anything on this potential Jedi.

Ahsoka watched as Ronin tried to lift the cup with the Force. He'd managed to move it several times, but hadn't been able to actually levitate it. He seemed distracted. Of course, Ahsoka knew what was distracting him. Their talk from earlier made it pretty clear.

Suddenly, the cup flew up and smashed into the wall, breaking into pieces. Ahsoka would have praised Ronin if it hadn't been for the sudden spike of hatred she had felt through the Force at the same time. Instead, she watched him with worry.

The sound of the cup smashing into pieces also seemed to bring Ronin back from some kind of trance he'd been in. He noticed the smashed cup, and then looked at Ahsoka. "Did I-?"

Ahsoka nodded. "You did." She took a moment before continuing, "you'll have to be more careful next time. Don't use your anger to give you power."

Ronin looked perplexed, "but it was the only way I was able to do it."

"I understand," Ashoka said, "but using the force in that way is very dangerous. It can corrupt you, and causes more problems than it solves."

Ronin lowered his head. "I'm sorry."

"You don't have to be," Ahsoka said sympathetically. "You've been through a lot, so it's completely understandable that you're struggling with your emotions. You must learn to control them."

Ronin nodded. "I'll try."

Ahsoka was half tempted to quote Master Yoda on trying, but decided against it. Instead, she placed another cup down. "Continue practicing," she said, "I'll be right back."

Leaving Ronin to practice on his own, Ahsoka set out to search for Kanan. She found him meditating in his room on the Ghost.

"Kanan," she greeted.

"Ahsoka," he greeted back, as he stood up from the floor where he'd been meditating. "How can I help you?"

Ahsoka quickly explained how she had been training Ronin and how he had used the dark side. "Did you ever have this with Ezra?" she finished.

Kanan thought deeply before answering. "About a year ago, Ezra also experienced the dark side during a mission. It made me realize his potential was growing faster than I could teach him. So I took him to find a Jedi Temple to test him. To see if he was truly meant to be a Jedi."

Ahsoka nodded thoughtfully. "Perhaps I should do the same with Ronin. Maybe it will help him find balance, even if he doesn't want to be a Jedi."

...

Author's note: Sorry for the long wait since the last chapter, I've been quite busy. Next chapter will be one I've really been looking forward to writing, so hopefully it won't take as long.

Also for those if you who are wondering what a Mikkian is, it's the same species as Tiplar and Tiplee. The fourteenth sister/Akiris looks pretty similar to Tiplee, for reference.