With a flick of her wrist, the piece of metal twirled momentarily before landing back in her hand. The twi'lek captain looked around the common room; Zeb, Chopper, Ezra, Sabine, Rex, and the newfound Padawan called Rae looked to her as she spoke. Ahsoka and Kanan were watching over Athena at the moment.
"This tracker was found on the Phantom, probably put on there by Jalo back on Earth," Hera looked to Rae. "Rae, Kanan said you were once Jalo's Apprentice. Do you know what his next move could be to track us down?"
The girl with dark hair suddenly seemed to turn from contempt to uncomfortable. She shifted her weight as she stood near the couch, crossing her arms across her chest as she spoke. "I...I don't really know. I wasn't even really his Apprentice. He never really had me go on any missions or anything. Once and a while I'd get to do lightsaber training, but that's it. I don't even know why the Empire ever let him take me as an Apprentice - he had abandoned his post as Second Brother years prior to that."
"You were trained in the Empire then?" Sabine asked.
Rae nodded. "I was a cadet at the Imperial Academy before I was transferred to Project Harvester."
Sabine was curious. This girl seemed so familiar. The bouncy dark hair, the golden brown skin, the bright brown eyes. "What academy did you go to?"
"Imperial Academy of Mandalore," Rae said, looking at Sabine's armor. "I'm guessing you went there too?"
She paused for a moment. "What clan are you from?"
"I'm not Mandalorian. I was just placed there based on luck. I have no home-planet since I was born in space," Rae shrugged.
Thinking of it, Sabine did remember a couple of her classmates mysteriously go missing...
"What was your name again?" Sabine asked.
"Rachelle Styles, but call me Rae," she said and looked around the group. "What about you guys? Kanan and Athena only mentioned your names a couple times."
"Ezra Bridger," the boy with dark blue hair and orange clothes waved. "Kanan's Padawan."
"Rex," the clone veteran said.
"Garazeb Orrelios, call me Zeb," the lasat greeted.
"Hera Syndulla, captain of this ship," Hera said then gestured to her astromech. "This is Chopper."
"Sabine Wren, Clan Wren of House Vizsla," the Mandalorian said.
The girl's eyes went wide with excitement. "Hey, I remember you! I was in your class!"
"Aren't you a bit younger?" Ezra asked. "You look like you're my age."
"I was born a few months after the first Empire Day anniversary," Rae explained. "But, I was bumped up a couple years in my studies at the academy. I was bumped up in the Academy by 3 years"
As she put a hand on her chin, Sabine pondered, searching for the distant memories of the Imperial Academy. A blurry picture of a little eleven-year-old girl being placed into her class of fourteen-year-olds came forth. She remembered that little girl suddenly disappearing with no explanation. She had never even given it a second thought. Then again, that's exactly what the Empire taught her to do.
"So, how exactly did you find Kanan and Athena on Earth? The planet is pretty big," Zeb asked.
She shrugged, "I guess it was just luck. They just happened to show up in Las Vegas - the city I'd been staying in for a few months."
"You wouldn't mind joining the Rebels then, would you? It would be useful to have more Jedi on our side," Rex questioned.
Rae smiled and nodded, "Yeah, I'd love to."
"I just realized we never really asked if Athena wanted to be a Rebel," Ezra commented with a chuckle. "We kinda just kidnapped her, then Jalo kidnapped her and Kanan, and then we kidnapped her again."
"Hey, this last time wasn't kidnapping," Sabine pointed out. "She just happened to be passed out again."
Just as Hera was about to speak, the door just beyond her opened. Kanan walked into the common room, offering a small smile.
"How is she?" Hera asked.
"She's awake, just dazed," Kanan said, relief in his voice. Though, despite this relieved feeling, he still seemed a little shaken up. Something wasn't sitting right with him and Hera could tell.
"Is she okay, then?" Hera asked.
He gave a small nod, "Should be."
It was late at night now on the Ghost. Sabine decided to give Rae her lower bunk, now converted from a Dejarik table to a second bed. Just about everyone was asleep now. All except for Ahsoka and Kanan.
Kanan sat on his meditation seat as Ahsoka held Athena on the bottom bunk. The girl laid her head on her Master's lap and hugged her arm in a tight embrace as if she were cuddling a stuffed toy. Ahsoka smiled as she sat there, softly petting the girl's messy blonde hair. Kanan looked over to them every once in and awhile, smiling a little at the sight.
"She's just about asleep," Ahsoka spoke in a whisper. The girl on her lap wavering between awake and asleep. She had been by the girl's side almost the entire time, Athena being too weak and dazed to get up yet.
"That's good," Kanan said. "Do you think they'll actually start training her?"
"It's hard to tell," Ahsoka sighed, almost in defeat. "I guess the only way to know is to ask her in the morning."
"It's going to be rough for her if she has to train as a Jedi in this world and then be trained by the Ones when she sleeps. She'll get no rest," Kanan said, looking at the beaten and battered girl in Ahsoka's lap. She looked like she had gone through Hell and back. Knotted hair with mud and leaves still stuck in it, sand sprinkled across her skin, singe marks lining the bottom of the white dress she'd borrowed from Rae, and her limbs limp from exhaustion. "She's already so tired."
"Maybe we can ease off her Jedi training in this world if the Ones really do train her," Ahsoka suggested, petting the girl's hair. "Though, it'll be best if we don't tell the others about this whole Ones thing. Who knows what the Empire will do to get ahold of someone who was trained by them?"
"Good idea," Kanan nodded.
"Well, she's just about asleep now," Ahsoka looked down to the motionless girl then up at Kanan. "I should be going. Do you think she can sleep in your cabin tonight?"
He nodded his head, "Yeah. It should be fine."
Ahsoka slowly slid her arm out of her Padawan's grasp, gently picked her head up, and laid it down on her pillow. The togruta stood and looked back to see the girl's arms form an X across her chest as if hugging herself in an embrace - looking for something to grab onto.
Kanan and Ahsoka shared a look and he stood. He grabbed his own pillow from his top bunk and placed it in the girl's arms. Immediately, she grabbed it and held it in a tight embrace as if she were a child with her precious stuffed toy. Thinking of it, Kanan figured the girl probably never had someone to comfort her so she may have found comfort in gripping onto something when she slept.
Ahsoka gave a small wave before she left. Kanan turned and climbed up the ladder to his top bunk, laying on his back. He let out a sigh. Apprehensive relief. That's what he felt. He was happy to be home so soon - the shadows of the weeks he spent in Imperial custody still haunting him every so often. He felt fortunate. There was no telling what Jalo could've done to him and Athena. What could've gone wrong on Earth. Yet, there was so much he was unsure about. The Ones...Athena...
But, they were back home.
He stretched out his hand and used the Force to shut the lights off, feeling the weight of his eyelids now. It was much better to be in his bunk with no pillow than it was to be in that cave on Earth.
Though he could feel the heaviness of his head and eyelids pulling him into the depths of sleep, Kanan couldn't help but hear a distant echo in his head. A hoot. A hoot that slowly became a voice.
A voice calling out something he could barely remember.
"Caleb...Caleb..."
The voice was so familiar. It was like something buried deep within his memories. Deeper than he could physically dig.
He finally let go of consciousness and closed his eyes, floating off into the world of dreams. It was like he let go of his body.
Is this a vision? he wondered.
Slowly, a dark figure manifested in front of him. A dark figure with a red sword. He froze when he recognized the Sith Lord from Lothal. The machine with no remorse. Though, the Sith wasn't looking at him - rather, just beyond him.
Kanan turned to see a woman. A woman with brown hair and green eyes. She held a green lightsaber and stood in a classic ready-position. The same woman who was once an owl - or maybe an owl who was once a woman.
She was fierce. Her eyes narrowed, her stance strong, her hands tightly gripping the hilt of her lightsaber. She wore a brown cloak as the rain pounded on them both. She panted, as if having gone through a battle not too long before this one. It was dark.
"I will ask you one more time." The chilling voice of Vader still sent shivers down Kanan's spine. "Where is the child?"
"You'll never find her," the woman barked. Her voice was so familiar. "I won't let you take any more of my family!"
"You are no match for the Empire."
"You underestimate the strength of a mother protecting her children," she growled. "You will never find my Syla. I may have failed to protect my son and my Padawan, but I will die before I let you lay a hand on my daughter."
"Mom..." Kanan didn't know why he mumbled that. It was as if it was forced out of him.
"Then you will die."
The red clashed with green in a great show of power from both sides. Kanan was wide-eyed to see the woman only use one hand in her strike and blocks. Her footwork graceful, her strikes calculated. Form II, Makashi. An older form of lightsaber combat that was both offensive and defensive, relying on balance and outsmarting the opponent.
His mother really was a Jedi.
Despite the overwhelming amount of strength of the Sith Lord, Cyla Dume managed to hold her ground. With one strike more effective than the others, she found her opening and pushed him back with the Force - sending him flying a few meters.
He managed to halt the momentum of the push, landing to where his knees were bent to absorb the force. His menacing eyes glared at her.
The masked man stood, his arm outstretched, and his fist half-clenched. Suddenly, Cyla dropped her lightsaber and began to struggle for air, her feet dangling now as she grasped for her throat.
"Tell me," he said once more. "Where is the child?"
"You'll - you'll never find her," Cyla gagged as her face began to turn blue. "You'll never find Syla."
He struck her down with his red blade and her last breath was released.
She fell on the ground and into the muddy grass as the rain continued to pound on the Earth.
Kanan jerked awake, sitting up in a flash, his breathing labored.
His mother was a Jedi.
She was killed by Darth Vader. Protecting Athena.