Chapter Text
The Third Earth night was quiet. The mutants were sleeping off the effects from the warrior maidens' arrows and the ThunderCats hadn't seen Mumm-Ra since they met the Berbles. It looked like their first night in the Cat's Lair would be quiet. Or so they thought. No sooner had they all turned in for the night did the alarms begin to sound.
"What is it?" Wily Kat asked as Panthro pulled the image up.
"It's some kind of ship," the panther said.
"Do you recognize it?" Lion-O asked.
"Can’t place it. It’s a single man craft though.”
He, Tygra, and Cheetara did kind of recognize the ship. It looked like one used by the Galactic Republic. Thundera had a treaty of sorts with the Republic. Thundera kept the mutants from attacking the Republic and informed the Jedi if any Sith showed up in their space and the Republic kept the slave traders away from Thundera and the Jedi didn’t seek younglings out among the Thundarian population enabling cats like Cheetara and Tygra to grow up with their families. There had been talk of Thundera joining the Republic before it was destroyed. The image became a little more clearer.
“It looks like…an ETA-2,” Tygra said.
“A what?” Kit asked.
“A starfighter from the Galactic Republic,” Cheetara said.
“But what’s it doing out here?” Snarf said. “We’re not in Republic space.”
“What ever it’s doing here, it’s going to crash,” Lion-O said.
Tracking the ship, they were able to determine that it would crash somewhere between the Cat’s Lair and the Treetop Kingdom. It actually crashed just outside the warrior maidens’ forest just as the ThunderCats arrived. Nada and Willa met them and they discovered a still form lying unconscious by the wreckage.
“It’s a young boy,” Cheetara said as she knelt beside him and checked him over for injuries.
“He doesn’t look like he’s more that fifteen,” Nada said.
“What will you do with him?” Willa asked.
“We’ll take him back to Cat’s Lair. We can treat his injuries there,” Tygra said picking the boy up.
“You two get going,” Lion-O said to the tiger and cheetah. “We’ll stay here and get this wreckage cleaned up. We’ll bring what we can back to the Lair.”
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“The poor thing,” Cheetara said. “It looks like he’s been through a lot.”
“Judging by the braid, he’s a Jedi Padawan,” Tygra said. “I wonder where his teacher is.”
“You don’t think that they died in the crash.”
“No. It was a single man ship. There must be another ship out there.”
The boy opened his eyes and looked at the two ThunderCats. Instinctively, he reached out with the Force to help him decide if he could trust them.
“You’re both like me,” he said before falling back to sleep.
“How’s the boy?” Panthro asked when the others got back.
“He’s sleeping,” Cheetara said. “I don’t know what he’s been trough, but it couldn’t have been good.”
“He’s a Jedi Padawan, I’m sure of it,” Tygra said.
“What’s a Jedi Padawan?” Kat asked.
“They’re apprentices to Jedi Knights. They’re also referred to as Padawan Learners or simply Padawans.”
“What’s a Jedi Knight?” Kit asked.
“They’re induvials trained to use the Force,” Cheetara said.
“So what’s the Force?”
“It’s hard to explain,” Snarf said, “but basically it’s an energy field that all living things have.”
“Is it alright if we talk with him?” Kat asked
“Let him rest,” Cheetara said. “He needs it so he can heal.”
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“He fell back to sleep,” Cheetara said.
She, Tygra, Panthro, and Lion-O were taking turns checking in on their guest.
“Did he tell you anything?” Lion-O asked.
He had already told Tygra that his name was Kanan Jarrus and that he had just turned fifteen but he wouldn’t talk to Lion-O and Panthro.
“He confirmed that he’s a Jedi Padawan and his master’s name is Depa Billaba,” Cheetara said.
“That should make it easier to find her,” Panthro said.
Cheetara shook her head.
“He said she died a year ago,” she said.
“He’s opening up to both of you more than the rest of us,” Snarf said.
“He says we’re like him,” Tygra said.