The New Girl from Earth - REWRITE (a Star Wars Rebel story)

Flames of Sorrow

After miles of running in the lush woods, they finally stopped. Out of breath and energy, they couldn't run anymore. The sun was beginning to set and they were too tired to go on too much further.

They found a small cave - no more than a couple meters wide and a few meters deep. It was a little cold and moist, but that came as a relief for their overheated bodies.

Athena couldn't decipher where on Earth they were - just somewhere with an American base and lots of woods.

The two collected some wood, using Kanan's lightsaber as an extremely efficient axe. One swipe and the skinny tree came down. He cut the main trunk into logs and they hauled the wood into the cave to keep it dry. Gray clouds loomed overhead.

After a few unsuccessful punches of tiny fire, Athena was furious enough to were a large flame shot out of her fist - igniting the pile of wood on fire.

She chuckled and looked to Kanan, "I guess my flames not working made them work. Ironic."

"Please remind me to never piss you off," Kanan joked.

Figuring they'd have to spend the night there, they collected piles of leaves to lie down - making make-shift beds for them to sleep on.

The work took a while, but it made it worth it. They got to rest for a moment.

It was dark now, rain drizzling from the clouds. The woods were giving off that familiar smell of Earth. It got cold. A frigid wind coming in from the North made it bone-chilling cold. The fire glowed a bright orange and yellow.

As Athena poked the crackling fire with her stick, her knees to her chest, she looked up to Kanan. His face mostly engulfed by the orange glow of the fire. He was silent. All she could hear was the rain beat down on the Earth and its plants. The deafening emptiness of the cave echoed in her head.

She glanced down to look at her shadow. It was dark again, smiling that familiar devilish smile - the smile feeling a little more welcoming and enticing than before. She could feel it sucking the warmth away from her body.

It got her thinking about this Abeloth person. Though that shadow had felt like her only friend many times in her life, being away from it gave her some perspective. It truly was an unwelcome guest tied to her body at every step - feeding her feelings of dread and despair at every moment.

"Do you think we could be Jalo's kids? Or at least relatives?" she didn't want to talk about it, but she had nothing else to say. "He- he knew our mother and he knew about us being siblings."

"I don't know," Kanan sighed. "I never knew a thing about my birth family before. It doesn't matter now."

She casted her eyes back down to the fire. The girl never knew nor really cared about her biological family prior to two weeks ago. Before that there was no hope. No hope of knowing her parents. But now...did she want the truth? Did she want the confirmation that that man was her father? The man that kidnapped them and hurt Ezra and Ahsoka?

Kanan saw the downcast eyes of the girl and spoke again. "I think you're gonna be the only biological family I'll care about. You are a great kid, Athena. I'm glad to have you as a relative. I know we haven't discussed the whole related thing much, but I want you to know that I still care about you."

"You're just saying that," she grumbled, she stabbed at the flames. "We almost got killed."

"You get used to it," Kanan chuckled. "Trust me, in our little crew, plans almost never go right. We're people. We make mistakes."

"I did nothing but drag you into trouble. You were able to hide from the Empire for so long and the second I come along, you get sucked back into the black hole that is my life." she grumbled. That shadow kept poking her. And poking. And poking. She furrowed her eyebrow as she poked the fire with a harsher stab.