Chapter Text
The clashing of sabers echoes through the training room. Two young Padawans are in a friendly sparing session, they exchange swipes, swings, and parries. One of the Padawans, Jade Claymore, is a fiercely loyal and dedicated girl who seeks to become a Jedi Knight, even a master in the long future, so she could spread peace through the galaxy. The other, Kit Tanthalos, an ambitious, adventurous, and of Royal descent, aimed to become a Jedi to travel the galaxy with Jade, and have wild adventures along the way. Their spar ends when Jade back's Kit into a wall, with a hard swing she disarms Kit, and with a shift forward and her saber up against Kit’s neck, trapping her against the wall.
Tension fills the air as they stare at one another breathily. They’re so close to one another that it becomes difficult for Kit to focus. She takes a glance down at Jade’s lips, not able to stop herself, she looks back up to Jade’s eyes in time to see Jade glancing down at hers. She knows they both want to, they both feel it, and Kit would’ve done it long ago if their code hadn't forbidden them. Kit wasn’t much for that rule, she thinks the rule is stupid, but Kit also knew that Jade did. Jade cared about the rules, and she wouldn’t risk getting kicked out of the Jedi Program because she broke a rule.
So, she’s not surprised that Jade turns away with pinched brows, she’s not. It does hurt though; every time Jade had turned away from her it hurt. But she doesn’t voice it, doesn’t even show it on her face, she’s been taught to push away those thoughts, lock them away, since she was no older than four, when her parents had given her up to the Jedi Program. That’s what she does, and she pretends that Jade’s constant rejection doesn’t break her heart. Instead, she focuses on the now and making what they have now enough as she takes over the silence with a declaration
“I almost had you that time,” she says with cockiness, as she pushes herself from the wall to retrieve her lightsaber
“Next time I’ll be the victor, just you watch,” she says with a smirk
“Your arrogance truly amazes me Kit” Jade says with a shake of her head and a smile
“It’s not arrogance Jade, it’s called confidence, there’s a difference” she jokes back with a cock of her eyebrow
“Oh, sorry my bad princess, I’m so glad you told me” Jade retorts back
“I told you to quit calling me that, I’m not a princess” She grumbles with a scowl- or that’s what she thinks, it looks more like a pout- and crosses her arms. Ever since she had told a week ago that her mom used to be a queen of her home planet, Jade hadn't stopped calling her princess. She doesn't mind the nickname coming from Jade, she does however mind how it brings memories of her family and she wasn't even allowed to see them anymore. The Council had deemed her too attached to them and had made her sever her contact with them for the rest of time training as a Padawan. One reason she didn't particularly like the Council.
Jade must have taken her annoyance and silence with the nickname as her being seriously upset about it because she looks at her with guilty-looking eyes and asks “Does it bother you, if it does, I’ll stop”
“No... “She answers embarrassingly quick
“I... I mean it's fine if YOU call me that, you have the best friend pass, but don’t let anyone else hear you call me that, because so help me if that douche Derek even dares call me that I'm going to punch him in his stupid face” she continued
“And then I would get kicked out by the council and I would be exiled and I wouldn’t get to see you ever again” She finished, Jade seemed to relax at her rambling, and replies with a roll of her eyes
“I doubt that you'd be kicked out for punching a knob head who could use a knock on the head, maybe a sentence to play with the Younglings for a whole week though” Jade jokes not yet catching that Kit was starting to spiral
“Uh yeah, they would, for me anyways, have you seen how they look at me every time one of them walks by. they look at me like I’m one of their enemies... like I’m some kind of monster” Kit mutters with her breathing increasing by the second
“Or like there's something wrong with me"
“Maybe there is something wrong with me, everyone else seems to think so” She whispers, as her thoughts sour, she turns to look out the large window that overlooked the Temple to calm her racing mind
“I don’t think so...” Jade spoke, snapping her attention back to her best friend
“I think they and everyone who thinks that are blind and foolish. You’re the kindest, bravest, and toughest person here I know Kit” Jade tells her as she gently grasps her face in her hand
She leans into the touch and takes Jade's wrist in her hands, and focuses on the soothing circles Jade traces on her cheeks, letting her bring her mind back from the spiral she felt herself falling into.
“And if they can’t see that now, we’ll show them. We’ll become the best Jedi Knights... No, Jedi Masters... We’ll be the best Jedi Masters they’ve ever seen” Jade declared to her
She lets out a breath she hadn’t known she had been holding and nods, looking back up to her best friend's eyes with a new resolve in them. They stand there in each other’s space, in each other's touch until they hear the door to the room opens and her master walks in.
“Oh, perfect just the two people I’ve been looking for, Jade, Ballantine sent me to tell you that he needs you for something. Says it’s important,” he tells them, Jade turns and nods to Willow in acknowledgment
Then turns back to her and whispers “I’ll see you later?” Only when she nods that Jade releases her from her grasp and makes her way out.
“Now, I don’t recall the doctor's order being to go push yourself in a sparring match” he sassed
“I’m fine Master Willow, it just aches a little. Plus, it wasn’t me that asked to spar, Jade wanted to get more practice since Ballantine had cut theirs's short” she sassed back
“Hmm, fine I guess I can’t exactly fault you for trying to help a fellow Padawan, but you're done for the day, you hear, no more sparring or physically straining activities for the rest of the day. Now go on get”
“Okay, fine” she groans while trudging out of the room. She heads to her room deciding to catch up on sleep
+
Willow watches as his young Padawan limped out as fast as she could out of the room. He makes his way toward the window; he stares out of it to take in the sight of the Temples' massive size. His mind wanders back to his Padawan. He was troubled, he could feel the darkness in his young Padawan growing more and more as the days passed, had sensed it ever since she was just a youngling in training. It reminds him of Sorsha. Sorsha had been born into one of the galaxy's most feared Siths. She had been sent to kill and destroy his home planet when he was just a Padawan. He had been able to talk her out of it when he had sensed her fight with the light in her. Over a couple of days, he had been able to turn her into the light and help defeat her mother.
He had sensed the same conflict with the dark in youngling Kit, who had been given to them after Sorsha had passed. He had promised her that he would guide Kit in the light as he'd done for her, help her fight off the darkness that her blood bound to Kit. He had agreed not knowing just how much darkness Kit possessed. She had only been three years of age when Kit was brought to them by a grieving Madmartigan. He knew giving up Kit was the hardest thing Madmartigan did, he had just lost his wife recently and was now losing his daughter too it broke him. Willow hadn't imagined just how much darkness Kit had. She had been only three and was already in so much conflict within herself. It had only grown as time passed and he was starting to fear that he had failed. To add to that her Padawan was starting to form a connection with Padawan Jade, and that was bad.
He was no fool, he could see that the two Padawans had grown an attachment towards one another. And while he wasn’t too strict on the no emotional attachment rule like the council was, he would be a hypocrite if he said he wasn’t attached emotionally to a person. His daughter Mims and Best friend Silas were two people he felt strongly for these two were different. Or at least his Padawan was, they clung to each other, were each other’s rock, each other support, and that was troubling.
Not because it went against the Jedi Code, but because he feared how young Kit was going to handle when Jade eventually left for her trials. He was sure it brings more conflict to her mind, making the darkness in her grow large enough Kit into complete darkness. Feared that it would lead her down the dark future he saw. He often had visions of what might be of his young Padawan’s future, or future’s.
Two future splits into two different paths. One showed him a bright future, one where she spread peace and hope to a broken galaxy. One that showed her uniting those that had been at war with one another, and living a long prosperous life. The other was of darkness, destruction, and chaos. It showed she would destroy thousands of worlds and bring darkness to the galaxy as well as the Force. He fears he won't be enough to stop the darkness from taking his apprentice, but he kept hope alive in him that he could prevent the dark future from happening.
He sits with crossed legs in front of the window, placed his hand's palms up on each knee, and closed his eyes as he attempted to calm his troubled mind. He taps into the force and for a good while his mind calms as he connects with the force. His mind lets go of all the troubling thoughts and puts peace in his mind for a good while. But then he sensed great darkness, it was coming, coming to the Temple with evil intent. He snaps out of his meditation and scrabbles up to his feet to go and try to warm the Council of the attack, but it seems he had sensed the dark presence too late as he hears the sound of blasters being fired and shouts filling the temple. He draws his lightsaber and checks to see what was happening, he is met with chaos. An army of troopers dressed in all red suits fired upon Jedis and Padawans alike. The Jedis and apprentices block and deflected the on-slaughter of lasers that the troopers fired from their blasters. His thoughts go back to his Padawan, and he yells out as he runs through the Temple looking for Kit.
+
When Kit had made it to her room, she takes a seat on the edge of her bed and loosen the straps on her boots. She takes her left foot out first to check on the ankle she had injured. She sees that the purple bruise around her ankle was starting to puff up again. Definitely not a good sign she thinks. She probably should’ve listened to Willow and the doctor on taking it easy. But she can’t do anything about it now, she rewraps her ankle so she doesn’t have to look at the ugly purple-blue bruise any longer. She takes her other foot out of her boot and places herself properly on the bed.
She stares up at the tan-colored celling and ponders back to the question that itched her thoughts more often than she would admit, why were The High Council so intent on seeing her fail? She looks back at all the times she’d ever done anything bad to cause the Council to hate her so much. She comes up with nothing of sorts, only recalling that the members of The High Council had always kept their distance from her, and their sneers when she looked their way. She would look away most of the time holding her tongue with a bite so that she didn’t give them a reason to hate her even more than do now. She can’t help but think that it had something to do with her, no matter how much she wants to believe Jade’s word that she's not the problem. She can’t stop her mind from connecting it with why her father and brother had given her away to the Jedi...
No, she thinks and stops the train of thought just before it could send her down a spiral, she closes her eyes and takes deep breaths in like Willow had taught when she caught herself overthinking, she focused on Jade’s soothing words again, and she replays it and pictures being in Jade's hands once more. She replays the promise of a future adventure that she would share with Jade when they become Jedis.
She hadn’t wanted to be a Jedi at first, she had a hard time with pretty much all of her classes when she was a Jedi Youngling, only barely passing by the assignments they had been given, and the other kids use to bully her about it, always laughing at her and taunt her when she had a hard time when her scores were low. For a while, she hated the idea of being a Jedi because of it, and that coupled with the fact she would have rather been with her dad and brother out adventuring and exploring the different worlds, like in the stories she remembers him telling. It was only when Jade had joined their Youngling class that she hated it less. They had become quick friends after Jade had told off one of the kid’s that always taunted her about her low scores, and they had become inseparable from that moment. She lets the memories of her past drift her into a peaceful slumber, and only waking when she hears a pained scream echo from down the hall.
She bolts up as she registers it, she shoves her foot into her boots and quickly straps them. She grabs her saber from the nightstand and ignites it as she runs out of her room ready to strike. But when she steps outside, there was nothing, no one or thing, it was strangely dark which should be impossible because it was only a little after midday and the roof was made of glass. Still, she keeps her saber up and drawn in a double grip as she trudged down the hallway. But she abruptly stops when she hears a scream, this one louder than the previous one, coming from the direction of the hallway across. It's where the Jedi Younglin’s training rooms are she thought. She contemplates what she should do, her training and gut told her that she should find her Master, but her heart and emotions told her to go and save the younglings. Her heart wins out when she hears another cry come from the room.
She sprints down the hall, making sure to put little weight on her right foot's heels- as not to damage her ankle more- and into the room as fast as she could with her saber drawn at her side. She’s too late, when she skids to a stop inside the room she’s met with the sight of dead Jedi Younglings, her breath rises as she looks at the lifeless eyes of one of the Jedi Younglings, she often talked with during her free time. She had started to care for the Youngling, she had seen a little of herself in her, tears gathering at the thought. A voice snaps her attention off of the child, it’s distorted and cracked tells her
“I’ve been waiting for you Young Tanthalos”
She turns sharply towards the voice with her lightsaber held up. The voice comes from an old wrinkled woman with short hair, wielding a big scar that runs from the top right side of her face towards the left side of her mouth. But the scar and wrinkles aren’t what catch her attention. No, her focus goes immediately to the bright yellow-orange irises that surrounds her dark black pupil's. A shiver runs through her as she meets the blazing yellow-orange eyes, A Sith. She’s facing a Sith she realizes. She charges at the withered old lady with a yell. She attacked with all her strength in her swings, grief-stricken and angry at the woman for what she had done to the young children. The old woman easily blocks her swing with their red saber, but she doesn’t stop her attack, she gets more aggressive, striking, swiping, swing at the old woman, forcing the withered woman to back up with every block and deflect until her back hits the wall of the room. With her right hand, she swings her lightsaber for the woman's chest for a critical blow, but she’s stopped mid-swing, the woman having used force to block her swing. She gets no time to react or break out of the hold when the glowing red lightsaber slices her through her forearm.
She howls in pain a second later as the pain starts to set in through her whole body. The woman doesn't give her the luxury to nurse her arm because not a second later she's then sent her flying across the room and against the wall. Her saber slips from her hand as she collides with the wall with a painful thud, she struggles against the hold to no avail.
Suddenly she yanked from the wall and is dragged to the middle of the room, she hovers helplessly above the ground by a couple of inches as the withered old Sith meets her in the middle.
“So much hate, anger but you hold back. It makes you weak Young Tanthalos” The withered woman tells her
“What do you want from me, why did you do this” She growls out to the withered woman, ignoring the comment
“I want nothing but to offer you answers young child” The Sith woman replies,
“I know you seek answers to why the Jedi High Council wants nothing to do with you. I know you seek answers on what your future holds, and for freedom from the Jedi. I can give that to you Padawan” The woman tells her while she paced around her
She sizes her struggle against the offering, and for a second, she contemplates taking the offer, the temptation of answers almost getting to her. But she curses at herself for even thinking that and retorts back to the woman
“You can shove that offer up your ass as if I’d take anything from someone like you”
The Sith woman just lets out a dark chuckle as she stops right in front of Kit.
“You and I are more similar than you know young one, I was once in your position, a Jedi in training “
“You and I are nothing alike, I would never turn to the Dark side” She growls out
“In time you’ll see child... For now, I can give you something to think about”
Kit’s head snaps back as she feels an unbearable pain shoot through her head as she sees a vision of a future, a future of loss, betrayal, and pain. Then a future of destruction and darkness follows. She fights against it, denying it, but it only causes more pain to erupt through her head, so much pain that causes her to let out an agonizing scream and then passes out.
+
Jade was still in shock at what had just happened. She thought when Ballantine had called for her that it would just be a last minuet lesson he so often gave her, but she had been proven to be wrong when instead of training, they had met with The Council to set a date for her Trials.
She still hasn't been able fully processes all her feelings about the news yet, she was excited, scared, and sad all at the same. It was always almost a dream come true. But a big difference between this and her dream were that in her dreams she always shared her adventures with Kit. That thought conflicted her, she knew logically the chance she and Kit would be sent off to the trials together was slim to none, and she had seen it coming. Had prepared herself even for this.
That wasn’t what she had trouble swallowing, no, it was how Kit would react that worried her. Kit would be happy for her, but she also knew that Kit didn’t handle people leaving her all too well. Many times she'd been the one to comfort Kit when she had a nightmare about her dad and brother. She had seen firsthand how badly Kit handled the thought of being abandoned by her family.
Jade recalls the nights when they were still younglings Kit had often come knocking at her room crying about a bad dream, she had told her about her family abandoning her. And the thought of her inflicting the same kind of damage as that saddened her, she didn’t want that to happen. She had to find a perfect place, and time to tell Kit about it.
She paced in her room as she thought of ways to tell Kit when she hears the chaos start. She steps out of her room and is met with a laser blast speeding toward her, on instinct she grabs her lightsaber quickly and deflects the beam of light. Not even a second later two more blasts come at her, and she deflects them just as easily as the first one. Then she attacks the red armor troopers that had sent the blast and defeat's both with one fell swoop of her saber to their chest. They crumble to the floor, Ballantine comes barreling down the hall and skids to a stop next to her
“I have to go and help the others fight off the troopers, you go and get the Younglings to safety”
She nods as they split ways once more, she makes a beeline for the Youngling's dorms, and curses as she sees that only a handful of Jedi Younglings are in their rooms, which means that most of the children were at training still. She curses at the situation but doesn’t dwell on it any longer, instead gathers the young students behind her as they enter the hallway. She leads them down the hall to where the safe bunkers are. She tells them to stay put and to keep the doors shut no matter what. they all looked at her frightened but nod anyway. She nods back before she shut the bunker's doors.
She clears the halls for any troopers who might find the bunker and slices them down. Once she’s sure she’s cleared all the lurking troopers near the bunker she swiftly makes her way across the Temple deflecting and slicing down anything that got in her way. Her gut drops when she enters the halls where the older younglings train at. It was quiet, too quiet. A shiver runs down her spine, she feels like there’s someone glaring at her from behind her. But when she turns, she sees nothing but the door that she just came from. She shakes it off as nerves and continues her way to the first room. She quietly prepares herself to charge at the troopers or whatever enemy was in the room. Her breath ceases when she enters and finds no enemy, what she sees instead are the young Jedi initiates dead lying on their own cut off limps.
Visions of her past flash through her head, the memory of her mom lying in her own pool of blood with a dozen other passengers, and her eyes fill with tears. She backs away from the room and shakes herself from the vision. She runs from room to room hoping to find any survivors, each room she finds nothing but dead children, each room but the last room at the end of the corridor. Her eyes sweep around the room to see the same sickening sight as the other rooms, or that’s what she had thought until her eyes land on a figure she knows very well. Her eyes sweep around the room to see the same sickening sight as the other rooms, or that’s what she had thought until her eyes land on a figure she knows very well. Kit lays face down in the middle of the room, pale and unmoving. Jade's breath catches as her eyes catches Kit's arms, gone is her right hand, sliced just below her elbow. Her heart kicks into overdrive as fear passes through her.
“No... no no no Kit” She shouts as she sprints to Kit
She drops her saber as she skids to Kit. She hooks one arm under Kit’s armpits and pulls her body into hers, Kit's head bobs and falls to the side into her neck. Jade hooks her right arm around Kit's neck pressing Kit closer into her, She feels Kit's pulse beat faintly, and she lets out a choked sob, not able to hold it back any longer, as she feels relief flood through when she feels a heartbeat pulsing.
“You're okay, it’s alright you're okay” She chokes out to herself mostly, as she takes Kit into an embrace
Jade holds onto Kit and doesn’t let go; afraid that if she does she'd lose Kit. She hooks one of her arms under Kit's knees and carries Kit in her arms ready to rush her to the medical bay when the door opens to Willow and Ballantine. Willow pales as his eyes land on her standing with Kit in her arms. Willow gives her an approving nod and lets her through. As she sprints down the long hallways of the Temple, all she can think of is how scared she feels. She hasn't felt this terrified since she had lost her mom in the attack. Jade had sworn to herself that she wouldn’t let herself feel that scared she built up a wall so she wouldn’t ever feel as scared and hopeless as when she held onto her mother as she took her last breath. Yet somehow, Kit had managed to slip through the walls, making her feel so scared to have lost her. The thought of living without Kit terrifies her.
+
The two Jedi Masters took one look around the room, the sight sickens them. A grim look washes both of them as the weight of the situation finally dawns on them
“You know how this looks right,” Ballantine asked him
“The Council isn’t gonna like this. They’re gonna pin this on her” Ballantine continues with a waver to his voice
“Yeah…” Willow answers
“What are we going to do…” Ballantine asked, it was met with a moment of silence
“I don’t know Ballantine…. I don’t know” he whispered in reply. Because he doesn’t. For once he's lost on what to do.
The rest of the day passed, and the Temple was eerily quiet as they all mourn the many lost lives of Jedi, Padawans, and Younglings. At the stroke of midnight, he gets summoned by The High Council. He lets out a tired sigh and prepares himself for the long night of arguing with The Council, no doubt about the future of his Padawan.