AN: It's time for everyone's favorite snippy youngling. Please welcome Ahsoka Tano to the cast ladies and gentlemen. Sorry, I know I was promising the Green Jedi, but with all the bouncing between fics I've been doing I haven't had time to give this the forethought it really deserves and then this idea hit me and I kind of need to set this groundwork before the whole Galaxy finally sits up and takes notice of the tutorials. Honestly this is going to start off a few weeks prior to Yoda's lecture. Anyway, Ahsoka is not quite ready to cause chaos like we know she can, but in the meantime… We'll there is more than one way to mess with the Jedi, and being indirect can be oh so fun.
Also! I am happy to announce this story now has a beta reader. Everyone please welcome Functionality to the writing staff of Fencer's insanity incorporated.
{}{}{}{} Ahsoka Tano age eight. Three weeks prior to Yoda's video.
The temple was different. It had started slowly. Just quiet, tense talks. But it got worse, fast. A few days later the Masters and Knights seemed to do nothing but argue quietly. They always stopped whenever anyone who wasn't at least a Padawan got close enough to try listening.
And then the older initiates started to disappear. Not all of them. Not all the time. Just… One or two always seemed to be late to meals. Or, someone would try to ask them a question, or for help with course work. But they didn't ever seem to have time anymore. And they all seemed to be fighting with one another. Not… Not like in a saber practice where someone gets carried away. They were just… quiet, and tense, and some of them weren't talking anymore. Some people I knew who were friends just a month ago stopped talking to one another at all. It didn't make sense!
But most of all you could feel it in the Force.
Normally the temple felt like peace. Like the room of a thousand fountains. Harmony, steady motion, and life.
Now it felt… not bad, not quite. But off, definitely off. Tense. Like if someone shouted in the middle of the archives and everyone was holding their breath waiting to see what the head archivist would do to them. But… But not quite. Like, like if the archivist was taking too long and now everyone was confused and maybe a little worried?
It was hard to describe!
I'd tried asking a dozen Masters and Knights what was wrong but none of them would explain anything! But that was ok. I had a new plan now. No one my age knew what was happening. But the senior initiates seemed to know! So, if the Masters wouldn't explain things, I just needed to find an older initiate who was acting strange and get them to talk. Easy!
Kinda… finding them was easy. They weren't telling either. They told me to go away. Or that they were busy. Or not to worry about it.
Jerks. Thirteen and fourteen wasn't that much older than eight.
But there was a pattern too! Some of them felt a bit like the knights did when they sent me away. Like they weren't telling me because they thought it was the right thing to do, and some of them felt guilty. So now I had a new plan. I was going to follow some of the ones who felt guilty.
But they were really, really, sneaky.
But this time I'd thought ahead. The two senior initiates I'd tried to follow most often always got away in the same place. So today I was already hiding nearby to watch and see just how they kept getting away! It had been tricky getting into the ventilation shaft but I'd managed!
I only wish I hadn't needed to wait an hour for them to show up.
The two initiates were both human boys I'd tried following before. And for all that they were pretty good at sneaking, it was obvious they were up to something. They kept glancing over their shoulders and around corners.
"Ok, the coast is clear." One of them, with brown hair, addressed his friend.
With a nod the other boy, this one blond, lifted a floor grate and wiggled into a hidden crawl space. The other boy slipped in after him and floated the plate back into place gently with the Force.
So that was how they kept disappearing! Now I just needed to follow…. But first I needed to get out of the vent.
{}{}{}{}
I growled a little as I came to another fork in this tiny cramped crawl space. It must have been meant for some kind of maintenance droid at some point, how these two had even found it I had no idea. Glancing in both directions I followed the path where the dust had been either cleared entirely or pushed to the edges. Whatever this secret was, it had better be worth all this trouble.
Finally, I came to the end of the path and peeked up through another shifted floor tile to find… a room without any doors, and the two of them practicing unarmed fighting? But it wasn't, they weren't sparring. They were just going through a set of slow precise moves together. Which was weird, but it shouldn't count as a secret. They could have done this in any of the usual practice rooms. So why were they doing it here?
Well… there was one way to find out.
"Hey!"
The two boys yelped and spun to look at me.
"Whatcha doing?" I grinned up at the two boys.
"We're dead." The blond's leg gave out under him and he collapsed and he found himself sitting facing me.
"No, we're not." The brown haired boy snapped. "As long as she doesn't tell anyone everything will be fine." He turned and glared at me.
"I won't tell anyone you two have been sneaking off to practice strange fighting." I chirped. Both boy's relaxed immediately.
"But only if you tell me why you're doing it in secret." I grinned as the two boys looked angry and surprised. "And you have to tell me what has the temple so…" I waved my hands and searched for the right words, "on edge."
"We can't tell you that!"/"Deal."
The two spoke over each other before swinging to face one another.
"Are you crazy! She looks barely old enough to be an initiate! If one of the Masters finds out we told her it won't matter what we've been doing or how much we improve they'll kick us out for sure!"
"And they'll be doing it anyway in just a few months! You know we're never going to get picked by a Master. That's why we're doing this in the first place. We need every advantage we can get! Sure, explorer corps isn't so bad, but they'll probably split us up! Even if it is a great way to learn to pilot a ship, I don't want to stay for life if there are better options."
"And what if they decide letting her know means we aren't good enough for the explorer corps? What if they decide they need to keep a closer eye on us and we get stuck in the agri corps? I don't want to be a farmer! I hate dirt!"
"And our odds are better if they find out we've been practicing Matukai in secret?"
"Well…"
"Hey!" I glared up at the two as I pulled myself out of the crawl space. "I don't want to get anyone in trouble. And I really don't want to get someone sent to the agri corps. I just want to know why everyone is so upset! The Masters won't say anything, not the knights or padawan's either. And normally the senior initiates are happy to help with anything, but suddenly you're all busy, and fighting, and nothing feels right anymore!"
The boy with brown hair glanced down at his friend and sighed.
"She really should know… I mean she kind of took the teeth out of her threat just now, but she did try to blackmail us. She seems pretty emotional too."
"... Do you think it would make a difference?"
"She'll have a lot longer than us to either come up with a plan, or force herself into the proper mold. I mean, we didn't start to worry until after we turned twelve, right? She'll have more warning if nothing else."
"You mean more time to feel like everything is falling apart around her."
"Do you have a better idea? She's going to keep digging. She already tracked us down. Sooner or later she'll manage to eavesdrop on someone and then… At least we can show her where the vids are being hidden in the computer system. Let her make up her own mind."
"Kriff. Fine! What does it matter? We're already screwed, what's a bit more going to matter."
Yes! Finally, I was going to get some answers!
The brown haired boy called a data pad to him with the Force and waved me over as he sat down against a wall. Sitting down next to him I watched as he pulled up the Archives main page.
"The Slicer who set this up has a sense of humor. A bad one if you ask me, but whatever. You have to search for Darth Revan." I watched as the boy fit actions to words. "Once you've opened the page you have to click on the phrase 'former Jedi heretic.'"
The page was replaced by a new article talking about an ancient group of grey Jedi.
"Then you need to click on 'balance.'"
An article about slavery.
"Then, 'freedom.' Really heavy handed, but whatever. It's the only way to watch them without sneaking out of the temple. You can't tell anyone about this." He glared down at me.
"If the Masters find out about this it'll get taken down and some of us… Some people really need this. And even if they didn't it'd just be back up somewhere else in a day."
"But what is it?"
With a sigh the boy clicked on 'freedom' and a black page with a bunch of video files popped up.
"These are videos made by a former initiate who aged out. He didn't want to go into the agri corps so he took off and became a star pilot. Now he flies around the galaxy looking for Force sects and experimenting. These videos are tutorials on how to use the Force. Including lessons on how regular people can eventually connect to it as strongly as a Jedi."
I looked up at him wide eyed and he nodded with a little grin.
"That's what we're doing here. Neither of us has the strongest connection to the Force. None of the Masters or Knights want to take us as padawans because of that. We're hoping this might let us catch up and catch someone's eye. But we're pretty close to ageing out, so…" he trailed off and shrugged. "If nothing else it'll hopefully be an edge when they ship us off to the corps."
"This is why everyone is acting weird?"
"Oh yeah." The blond boy spoke up. "This isn't a big deal just yet, but it's going to be huge. People can get decent training without joining the order. They don't need to give kids to the temple for them to get training."
There was something dark, angry, in his eyes for a moment. But with a deep breath it was gone.
"No more younglings means the whole way the temple does things has to change. But more than that… the Jedi are special because of what we can do and the training we have. It's why we're important. How special are the Jedi going to be when anyone can learn to do what we can? And that's just the Light Side of the Force. The guy who made the videos says you can use the Dark Side of the Force, without falling. He's done it, which is all the proof it will take for other people to try. People are going to try that and fail, and we'll have Darksiders running around the galaxy. Even worse there are going to be people who succeed and that will mean the Masters are wrong about the nature of the Force."
"But that can't be true! The Masters can't be wrong about something that important!" I shot to my feet looking back and forth between the two boys. "The Dark Side is evil!"
The two boys looked away. And things were quiet for a few heartbeats longer than was comfortable.
"Look, we don't want to believe it either," the blond broke the silence, "and we haven't been crazy enough to test it ourselves. But the other stuff he has to teach? It works, our connections to the Force have gotten stronger."
I sat back down with a thump.
The brown haired boy scooted in front of me.
"Listen you're, what? Eight? Nine? You're not going to age out anytime soon. And I don't know how good you are, but now you know, you have options. You can ignore the vids and try to be the perfect Jedi, or you could watch them and do what we're doing to try and get an edge. But if I were you? You're still a new initiate. If you start acting like the perfect Jedi they'll probably just nod all approvingly about how mature you're becoming. What we're doing could get us kicked out of the Order if we're caught and the Masters decide they don't like it."
That… that made sense, but…
"Why do I need to act different? What's wrong with how I act?"
The two boys shared a funny look.
"You went sneaking through the temple, literally stalking us, and then blackmailed us to get your way. Then you got really emotional. None of that is really Jedi behavior."
Uhm, ok so maybe they had a point, but still.
"If you get a reputation for acting like that then you probably won't get picked as a padawan. And that means getting sent to one of the corps." The blonde boy said gently as he placed a hand on my shoulder.
I wanted to deny that. To shout about how I would to be a Jedi. But the two sad faces of the senior initiates expecting to age out soon made the words catch in my throat. And a little seed of doubt took root.
{}{}{}{} Charles Carson, Head Butler of the Serenno family mansion.
My personal office was, as always, immaculately kept and well lit. The man standing, ever so slightly rigid, across from my desk was a rather less common sight. Still, part of my duty was to listen to the staff's concerns.
"Mr. Branson, please bear in mind that I am certain the Count has no need to hear whatever political stirrings you have managed to stumble across on the forums. He does, after all, employ a number of advisors whose job it is to follow such things. That being said, are you still certain you've stumbled across something he should be made aware of?"
"Yes, Mr. Carson. This wasn't something I stumbled across on any of the political forums."
"Oh?" That at least was a novel difference, normally the young man couldn't be bothered to talk of anything else.
"Yes, sir. I, well, I know the Count has mixed feelings about the Jedi, but I've admired them since I was a boy. I tend to pay attention to a few groups and sites that track news about the Jedi."
Ah, well the Count did have a few individuals that kept an eye on such matters, but to the best of my knowledge they only kept an eye out for certain names, or any rumbles that they might try to draw him back into the fold. Perhaps young mister Branson's habit of trawling through the holonet might have actually turned up something of worth, for once. I almost wanted to ask where he found the time, but truthfully his duties were rather light, and he maintained the Count's various speeders and bikes very diligently. Though if this was something the Count would actually find worthwhile remained to be seen.
"And what precisely have the Jedi done that you feel merits the Count's attention?"
"Not the Jedi, sir. Or, not a current member at any rate. A failed initiate, actually."
"A failed initiate of the Jedi temple is someone you feel merits the Count's attention?"
"This one does, sir. John Kesel has spent his years away from the Jedi temple learning from anyone he can, and now he's taken up teaching."
My brow pinched at the unexpected answer.
"The young man has decided to open a school for Force users?"
Mr. Branson shook his head and passed me a data pad, already opened to a video sharing site. Not bothering to press play I instead read the title of the video. The words took a moment to register before I glanced up sharply to look Mr. Branson in the eye. The young man could only offer a helpless shrug.
"I took the time to watch them, sir. He claims anyone can learn to sense and use the Force. Though it's a bit more involved for people not strong enough to be recruited by the Jedi. He's not charging, and they've been spread to at least a dozen major video sharing sites. I don't know what the outcome of new Force users outside the Jedi popping up everywhere might be, but I'm pretty sure the Count will want to know."
"Indeed he will! Though he failed to leave contact details for this business of his that has taken him off world. I'll have to bring it to the Count's attention when he returns. Thank you, Mr. Branson. I'm grateful that you brought this to my attention."
"Of course, sir."
"Please, keep this to yourself for now. At least until I've spoken to the Count about it."
Mr. Branson visibly hesitated, but nodded his assent after a moment.
"As you say, sir. Do you think the Count would object if I were to, er, test the video's validity?"
"Excuse me?"
"I'd like to try following the instructions. At least the bit for developing my connection to the Force. The video's haven't been posted for very long and no one can seem to agree if they are genuine or not. I don't want to get my hopes up but…"
He shrugged awkwardly in lieu of finishing his sentence, but I understood his meaning. The childhood dream of chasing pirates across the stars while wielding a blade of contained plasma was hardly an uncommon thing. I wasn't entirely sure how the Count would react to his chauffeur gaining the power to wield the Force. On the other hand, having someone on hand who could act as proof of the videos authenticity one way or another might be prudent.
"Very well, but, don't let this interfere with your duties. And for goodness' sake don't tell any of the other staff what you are attempting."
"Yes, sir." Mr. Branson's smile was infectious, but I restrained my own response to a mere twitch of the lips.
"Off with you then, we both have more than enough to be keeping ourselves busy."
{}{}{}{} Ahsoka Tano, day after Yoda's video.
Going through my days trying to act as calm like the Masters was hard. Really hard. Especially during saber practice. It was so much fun! Or it was supposed to be. Acting calm in the middle of a sparring match was… it was throwing me off. Badly. I was losing matches, lots of them. My moves were all stiff and slow.
Doing everything calmly was like… it was almost like trying to do everything with my off hand. Not impossible, just slow and clumsy. Part of me was wondering if maybe Mr. Kesel had a point. But I kept shaking off that thought. I couldn't think that way. I needed to be the perfect padawan. If he was doing something right the Masters would have told everyone. For now, all I had to do was work to be the best Jedi I could be.
And maybe I could show a little emotion. Master Plo always seemed a little happier than the other Masters and he was still on the council. So that had to be ok, right? Just had to keep myself in check.
Sitting at a table by myself in the cafeteria I poked at my food and skimmed an article from the archives as I looked for information I needed for one of my classes. But in spite of the usual level of noise around me I still clearly heard the hissed whispers coming from two girls seated behind me.
"Raya, I know how you feel about the videos but this is important!"
"Nothing about those atrocities is important." The girl, Raya, dismissed. "I know you're smart enough to not practice any of the heretic's lessons but you'd do even better to not watch them at all."
"Raya, this wasn't one of the captain's usual videos. Grand Master Yoda sent him a recording which he played for his audience."
"Hmph. So, the Masters have finally decided to condemn his videos? Good. They should have done it sooner."
"That's just it! He didn't condemn the videos! He said changes are coming for the Order! He even said we might be taking in some of the Captain's students in a future!"
"What! That can't be true!"
"It is! I watched it myself!"
"But, but that's! We've worked our whole lives for the honor of being Jedi! How could someone self taught by that pig possibly be more worthy?!"
"I don't know." The other girl sighed. "But it's even worse than that. If we really do accept a bunch of people from outside the Order, who's going to train to face the trials?"
"... You're not implying-"
"That the already thin pool of Knights and Masters who could take us as Padawan's might get even slimmer if we have to compete with the best of the best from across the galaxy?" Her voice sounded tired, and angry. "What else am I supposed to think when I hear that?"
"Why? Why would Master Yoda do this?"
"... I don't know."
I didn't wait to hear more. I dropped what was left of my lunch into the waist and slipped through the halls searching for an empty room. With shaky hands I navigated through the series of hidden links to the place the videos were hidden within the archives database.
It was exactly like the girl described. I ignored the four people talking about Master Yoda's recording as the words and what they meant spun round and round in my head. Competing with my age mates for the interest of a Knight or Master was one thing. But to compete with the whole galaxy? Could I really do that? Did I even stand a chance?
How the kriff was I going to get someone to choose me as Padawan with that kind of competition? Was I going to end up ageing out? I slumped back against the wall and failed to meditate. My emotions were too chaotic. Finally, desperately I loaded the video that talked about moving meditation that was supposed to strengthen my connection to the Force.
I ran through the motions again and again and again. Hours later I slumped back against another wall. I was still scared and confused but it wasn't drowning out everything else anymore and I was too tired for my mind to keep running in circles. I would figure this out. One step at a time. I wasn't going to run from this challenge. My goal was the same as it had ever been. Become a Jedi. Just because things were getting even harder was no reason to give up. I just had to keep trying.