Chapter Text
Oh, we are a long way from home.
Fish in a Birdcage, "Rule #36 - Long Way From Home"
The journey to Ord Mantell's moon was a blur for Sora, his heightened state of alertness continuing until himself, Gungi, Katooni, and Zatt took their first steps onto the surface of their new home, where a young lavender Twi’lek had immediately rushed to Rafa in an embrace – the latter appearing shocked as she hesitantly returned the gesture – before she turned to them with a soft smile and asked for their names.
Given that the younglings had been sheltered by the Temple, they chose to simply offer their first names and omit any surnames. Sora, however, had been an active commander in the war; he figured that perhaps he should tweak his name to avoid attracting unwanted attention.
“I’m Roxas!” he introduced himself, extending an arm to the young Twi’lek woman.
She accepted his offer as she replied warmly, “It’s nice to meet you all – my name is Miss Yuna, and I run this kinder-block with my uncle, Mister Cid. We’ll get you settled in right away. Rafa and Trace, would you like to stay for supper?”
Trace glanced at her older sister, who shook her head apologetically as she answered, “Sorry, but we gotta rush to another job. Appreciate the offer though!”
Yuna nodded. “Feel free to reach out any time you’re in the area!” she told her friend with a smile. Rafa only offered her friend a brief nod and a wave, only giving a passing glance to the younglings. Sora himself had to bite back his goodbyes and abundant thanks, as Rafa had warned them to keep it simple. “Remember: you’re on the run now. We can’t let anyone know just how well either of us know each other,” She had warned, and so now Sora did his best to abide by her rules.
As Trace leaned in for a farewell hug from Yuna, however, she briefly locked eyes with Sora, winked, and gave him a brief thumbs up before waving goodbye and joining her sister.
Sora blinked. He wasn’t certain what that meant, but he truly hoped it meant that his request regarding the hairpin had been honored. Maybe one day I’ll find out, if I can ever see Kairi again, he thought wistfully.
After the sisters left for their ship, Yuna gestured for the younglings to follow her into the beige plastoid structure before them. As they walked along the single hallway, Yuna stopped to explain each room along the way, leaving space for them to ask questions – of which, the group asked none, only nodding and verbalizing affirmations when appropriate. Thankfully, she didn’t seem to press them to talk, nor did she pry into their backgrounds, both actions that Sora was incredibly thankful for as she finally escorted them to the bedrooms upstairs.
“We try to keep it to no more than six in a room, and thankfully a fresh one just opened up that you all can share,” Yuna was saying as she pressed a button so that a rusted metalloid door opened, groaning stiffly before reluctantly receding into the wall. The room was simple, with three bunks and a large wardrobe centered on the far wall, only parially blocking a window that oversaw the town surrounding them.
Sora turned to face the young woman with a large grin as he graciously told her, “Thank you so much! This is more than we ever could have hoped for.”
Yuna smiled and gave the boy a small nod. “It’s nothing – if there’s anything I can do to help you adjust, please let me know. Supper will be in about an hour downstairs. I’ll let you all get settled in.”
With one final kind glance at them all, she turned to leave and closed the door behind her. The four of them spread out across the room, each picking a bunk and arranging neatly folded sheets onto their newly claimed beds.
“It seems alright here,” Zatt was the first one to break the silence, smoothing the blanket on his cot.
Sora nodded in agreement, peeking his head over the wardrobe to scan outside the window. “Still, we gotta be careful,” he warned. “Can’t draw too much attention to ourselves.”
Gungi let out a growl of agreement, but Katooni frowned as she asked, “Does this mean we can’t be practicing…” her voice faded as she left many words unsaid: lightsaber forms, Force techniques, reciting Jedi history...essentially, everything the four of them had ever known. Sora winced; she made a good point – would it be safer if they never used the Force again?
Sora dropped his head to stare at his scarred wrist, which tremored slightly. He’d never considered just how dangerous the Force could be until Riku –
The battle came flashing back into his memory, causing him to stumble and clutch his wrist. Gungi, who was about the same size as Sora, was instantly behind him, extending an arm to stabilize the former padawan. Beside him, Katooni was whispering gentle placations while Zatt had retrieved a cold wet towel from the refresher. Guilt flooded Sora as he regained his wits and assured the younglings that he was alright. I’m the oldest of us and I’m doing a lousy job of holding it together, he scolded himself mentally. They’re probably looking to me to continue their training too…
“I’ll see if I can find somewhere safe,” he finally promised Katooni, but his gaze drifted to the other two younglings as well. He could see all of their eyes light up with hope, something he hadn’t seen in days. “But our first priority is getting you all to your homes. The job search starts tomorrow.”
Their expressions fell only slightly, but together they nodded and made no protest. Satisfied, Sora turned to finish making his bed when Zatt asked suddenly, “Do you know what happened to Master Junda and the others with her at all?”
Even the mention of Jedi Master's name sent a tremor running through his damaged hand so violent that he dropped his blanket on the floor. Digging his nails into his palm to steady himself, Sora turned around slowly to face the younglings once more.
Out of the corner of his eye, he caught Katooni and Gungi shooting Zatt a glare, and Sora kicked himself once more for coming unglued. They shouldn’t have to treat me so delicately. Besides, it was a long overdue question, and he knew they were curious as to what happened after he left them in the ventilation shaft.
“It...it sounded like Trilla and the other younglings were safe,” Sora finally managed, mustering the energy for a small smile. A wave of relief washed over each of their faces, and Gungi intoned just how worried he he'd been for Petro and the rest of his youngling friends.
Zatt, however, picked up on the missing name. “And Master Junda?” he probed, this time in a more cautious tone than his earlier statement.
Sora’s expression fell. It took all the effort he had to push the memories away – “Where is Master Junda?” he had begged Riku, who refused to respond with a direct answer – as he just managed to shake his head. It was enough for the three younglings to understand. Gungi bowed his head, while Katooni and Zatt’s eyes widened in shock.
Silence fell upon them, and together they stood in that hushed state for several minutes before Katooni weakly whispered, “Can...can we take a moment, for her?”
He could see the young Tholothian fighting back tears, rubbing her eyes to keep them from falling. Gungi rested a gentle paw on her shoulder, and even the even-tempered, emotionally clueless Zatt seemed rattled by Sora’s news.
“Of course we will,” Sora replied softly, sitting on the cold floor and gesturing for the younglings to join him. “She saved our lives – it’s the least we can do.”
Katooni nodded, quickly taking a seat beside Sora while Gungi and Zatt followed suit. Sora extended his arms to each of them and they eagerly obliged, forming a small circle as they clasped hands with one another.
Sora was hesitant to meditate, to allow his thoughts to go to go back to the horrors of the days prior, but with three pairs of eyes staring at him expectantly, he straightened his spine and forced himself to close his eyes and at the very least, picture Master Junda in his mind: brave, assertive, and willing to defend others with her life. She would never receive a traditional Jedi pyre, like others in the war – unless she was still alive; the clones had mentioned using her to find the others. They had taken Riku alive too, but after what Sora had done to them, to him –
A gentle squeeze on his now spasming hand brought Sora back to reality. He didn’t open his eyes, but he could feel Gungi’s gaze on him nonetheless. Sora tried to return the gesture, but with the tremors he wasn’t sure if he was able to effectively communicate that he was alright. He settled for silently focusing on steadying his shaking hand, which worked as an effective and calming distraction until he sensed someone – Yuna, most likely – approaching the door.
Just as he released his grip on the younglings and arose, a gentle knocking rang from the door. “Supper’s ready!” Yuna called. “The others are eager to meet you all, if you’re up for it.”
The four exchanged a quick look, to which Sora nodded as he approached the door. “Of course!” he answered with ease, thankful that he could muster most of his usual energy once more. “Lead the way.”
***
Oddly enough, Sora found comfort in the chaotic nature of the kinder-block’s dining room. It was about half the size of the one at the Temple, packed with approximately fifty or so other younglings of various species and ages. There was only a small kitchen with most of the countertop space occupied with large serving dishes, where the young residents were issued one plate or bowl of the dish of the day by a droid or one of the older younglings who had volunteered to help out that evening. With all the differences from the Temple, it almost made it easy to ignore the heartache for the place he called home bearable; that is, until he sat at at one of the long tables lined with benches that, while obviously cheaper and made with a pale gray plasteel, still echoed the same shape of the ones at which he had shared meals with his friends for so many years.
“I see it too,” Gungi intoned in a soft grumble to Sora as he took a seat across from himself. By the wistful expressions on Zatt and Katooni, they appeared to have the same thoughts.
Once they were all seated, Sora rested a hand on Katooni’s shoulder beside him as he told them, “Even if we’re missing so many of our friends, I’m glad that the four of us can share this meal together – like old times.”
And he was sincere about that. He could’ve been alone, isolated from the world, like so many of the other Jedi likely were – for those that survived, at least. And here he was, sharing a meal at a modest version of the Jedi Temple’s dining hall with others from Thranta Clan filled with the sound of screaming, laughing younglings making merry around them.
Katooni and Zatt both raised their heads slightly at the revelation, with Katooni whispering a faint “Thank you” to Sora.
“Thanks to all of you for helping me out and not leaving me behind!” he whispered back, gazing at each of them as he spoke. “I promise not to let you all down.”
And please, he pleased silently into the Force. If there are any survivors...please watch out for them as well.
“So you’re the newbies?”
Sora’s head swiveled in the direction of the voice that addressed them. Standing beside them at the edge of the table was someone perhaps a couple years older than Sora – Riku’s age, a pained voice whispered to Sora in the back of his mind – with bright orange hair – Like Cal’s, the voice echoed again – that was long and unruly, spiking out at every possible angle under the flipped-up welding mask strapped to his head.
Sora arose from his seat and held out a hand. “Yeah, I’m S- I’m Roxas,” he quickly corrected, mentally kicking himself for already screwing up his cover name. That was certainly going to take some practice getting used to.
The teen raised an eyebrow, but made no comment as he accepted Sora’s uninjured hand. “The name’s Neku. I’m the oldest one around here, along with Shiki.” As he said this, he gestured to the pink-haired teen working in the kitchen to serve supper alongside a droid.
Sora nodded. “Nice to meet you, Neku!” he replied with a grin before gesturing to the other younglings. Each of them stood and introduced themselves by name, although Sora had to help with Gungi’s introduction since Shyriiwook was not a commonly known language at the kinder-block.
“Great, I’ll work with Yuna to get you all assigned to the chore chart for helping out around here,” Neku told them all as they finished.
Katooni tilted her head. “What sort of chores will we be helping out with?” she asked the older boy, who began listing several menial tasks that needed to be done regularly around the block: tidying, meal prep, watching over the youngest residents…fairly standard tasks that Sora figured they’d be able to pick up on easily.
“But those shouldn’t take up a lot of time,” Neku was reassuring them. “In fact, you all will likely be in school most of the day at your age.”
“In school?” Zatt echoed. That made Sora a bit nervous – he wasn’t sure, but he suspected the four of them received a very different education than most, which would be obvious in a school setting.
Neku’s next statement assuaged some of his fears. “The Republic subsidized our schooling with an in-house educator, so the local planets and moons wouldn’t have to worry about it,” he explained. “That is, until recently. Our educator was summoned back after the whole thing crumbled, so the kinder-block is waiting for the new Empire to send a replacement.”
The Empire. Sora resisted the urge to shudder at the mention of the new government that the Martez sisters had briefly warned him about. He was still in the dark regarding what exactly happened, but he knew that the Chancellor was now the Emperor and that the clones had been ordered to kill all Jedi except Skywalker and...Riku, or perhaps any Jedi that joined him. What else had changed, and what else was in store for them?
“What about you?” Zatt questioned Neku. “You don’t go to school?”
Neku shrugged. “I aged out of what was available so I work now – same with Shiki. We’re hoping to afford a place of our own soon,” he explained. Sora perked up at Neku’s mention of work, temporarily leaving his fears of the Empire behind.
“I want to work too,” Sora declared, which Gungi echoed with a roar while Katooni and Zett nodded.
Neku raised an eyebrow. “The working age around these parts is fourteen for most near-human species,” he told them.
“I’m fourteen!” Sora lied. He tried to sound indignant to sell it, but Neku’s eyebrow only seemed to creep higher up his forehead at the Kiffar boy’s statement. Sora didn’t plan on backing down, however, and so he held the older boy’s gaze until Neku finally sighed and shook his head.
“You and the wookie might be able to get away with that claim,” he begrudgingly told Sora, “But the other two definitely won’t.”
Zatt and Katooni both opened their mouths to protest, but Sora held out a hand in a gesture for them to stay silent as he nodded to Neku. “Great, how do I get started?” he asked eagerly, to which Neku held up a hand to him.
“Woah there, don’t get too confident. I’m not gonna help you out with that unless you test out of the education program,” he told Sora, crossing his arms as he spoke. Sora wanted to protest, but he reluctantly kept his mouth shut and nodded.
Gungi leaned over the table and asked Sora, “Do we have to wait for them to find a new educator before that happens?”
Sora grimaced; the youngling had a point. He relayed the question to Neku, who made the same expression that Sora had. “I’ll talk to Yuna about it to see where that’s at,” he finally relented. “We’re hoping it won’t be long before the replacement comes in – the Empire shouldn’t be that much different than the Republic, I think.”
“You think, huh?” Sora caught Zatt mutter under his breath. The former padawan shot him a warning look, pleading him not to continue, but it was too late – Neku, who definitely heard the boy’s quip, turned to face the young nautolan. “Oh?” he asked pointedly, uncrossing his arms to rest them on his hips. “Would you care to elaborate?”
Sensing the growing tension, Katooni immediately slid in to diffuse the situation. “It’s nothing, we’re just…” She trailed off for a moment, pausing as she searched for the words to capture the horrors they’d recently experienced before she finally settled on, “the war was a lot for us, and the aftermath wasn’t pretty either.”
He had to give it to her – Katooni was able to tell the truth without giving anything away. It was a dangerous line she walked, but it was enough for Neku to drop the subject as his gaze shifted to the younger girl. He stared for only a moment before he shrugged. “Well, welcome to the club, I guess. Many of us are here because of the war one way or another.”
Neku’s nonchalantly delivered statement struck something within Sora. As he scanned the room again, taking in the number of younglings that filled the space, he realized just how little he knew about how ordinary people were affected by the war outside of recalling the protestors at Ahsoka’s trial. The few planets he visited were either uninhabited by civilians or they had been evacuated ahead of time, so it was never something he really until considered until now.
Neku broke Sora from his thoughts. “Well, whatever. It should be over now anyway.” He looked as if he was planning to leave, but before he turned completely away, he awkwardly told the four of them, “Looks like everyone’s gotten their first helping. If you’re hungry, you can go back for seconds if you want.”
And before any of them could respond, Neku walked away.
“Well, he seems nice!” Katooni chirped as she tried a spoonful of her previously untouched stew. Sora smiled and nodded, but the older boy’s quip about the war still lingered in his mind. What all had the war put him through?
***
A few restless days passed with no word on when the block would have an educator once more. When Sora could no longer take it, he went straight to Yuna after his daily chores.
“I’m sorry Roxas, but we still haven’t heard anything,” she answered the impatient boy for what was probably the fifth time that week. “We sent in another request not long ago though, so we hope they’ll follow up soon.”
But that wasn’t enough for Sora. “Can I just apply to work until I can take a placement exam?” he nearly begged the lavender Twi’lek. That earned him a frown from the young woman, who he suspected was just as skeptical as Neku had been about his false claim regarding his age. I’m not that far off from fourteen, he thought to himself indignantly.
His efforts were not in vain, however, as Yuna’s next answer proved that he had finally been chipping away at her. “I’ll see if I can find anything in what the old educator left behind,” she conceded reluctantly. “But only if I can get ahold of an exam and you pass it with flying colors will I even consider it.”
Sora wasn’t sure what could be on the exam, but he suspected that wouldn’t be an issue. “Deal,” he told her. “Thank you!”
And before she could respond, he was jogging away, eager to share his progress with the other younglings.
It wasn’t long before Yuna finally approached Sora with a old, whining datapad in her hands. “I was able to cobble something together from some old exams,” she told the boy, giving him the datapad. “It covers everything in the old Republic’s curriculum for all basic levels.”
Sora nodded as he took the datapad, but before he could turn to leave, Yuna stopped him with a gentle hand on his shoulder. “You need a proctor,” she told him, as if it was obvious, but Sora’s confused expression and tilted head must’ve clued her in that it wasn’t to him. “To make sure you aren’t cheating.”
As they walked together to a room that Sora had never been in before, he assumed that she would be the one watching him take this test; as they entered into what appeared to be a small office, however, Sora was surprised to see a burly golden Twi’lek male occupying the chair behind the simple desk, chewing on a toothpick in the side of his mouth. He spat it onto the floor, and then said in a gruff voice, “So you’re Roxas.”
Sora gulped and nodded. He supposed this was Yuna’s Uncle Cid, whom he’d heard about but hadn’t gotten around to meeting yet. The man said nothing, but he pointed to a rusted metalloid stool at the front of his desk. Sora climbed up in the chair obediently, and holding the datapad, asked the man, “So when do I start?”
Cid casually took out another toothpick from somewhere in his desk and began chewing on it, just like the last one. “The minute you walked into here,” he drawled. “Better get moving.”
The Kiffar boy hastily activated the datapad and began scrolling through and answering the questions. He had no idea how long he had to finish, but with his limited interactions with Cid, he wasn’t sure what sort of answer he’d get.
The questions themselves were quite easy; he was far from calling himself one of the “smart” Jedi, but he supposed Jedi training would be different than the standard education system, and in that moment he was glad for it. It wasn’t until he reached the end, however, that he wondered if answering them all correctly would be too suspicious. He hastily changed his answer on one of them before Cid snatched the datapad away while calling, “Time!”
Sora waited as Cid scanned the datapad, checking his answers with another datapad on his desk. Sora bounced his leg nervously as he waited for Cid’s response, which finally came as a grunt and a suspicious sounding, “Almost a perfect score, huh?”
He kicked himself mentally. Caleb would’ve known to be more strategic about how to answer this test right away, he thought miserably. The vision he had of Caleb flashed to the forefront of his mind, the padawan screaming in the background as Master Billaba told him to run, blocking the blaster fire until the clones finally pinned her down –
“Well, I guess I’ll let Yuna know to uphold her end of the bargain.” Cid’s casual response came as he set the datapad down and swiveled his chair away from Sora, breaking the boy out of the terrible memory.
“I uh, thank you sir,” he mustered the intelligence to say. “Anything else?”
“Nah, get going. I know you still have some chores to do.”
Sora didn’t need to be told twice; he leaped out of his chair, and with a final, “Thanks again!” he rushed out the door.
When suppertime rolled around, it appeared that news had gotten to Neku that Sora had been cleared to work. “Now, there’s a couple options around town,” he was telling the younger boy. “Shopkeepers are always looking for someone to help with number crunching, and I heard Cid say you were a smart one. There’s also some mechanics looking for apprentices, and there’s the droid factory a bit further north –”
“Droid factory!” There was no hesitation in Sora’s voice as he interrupted Neku. “That’s what I wanna do.”
Neku stared at the boy for a moment before he continued, “Well, as I was saying, it’s a bit further north, but that’s where I’m working these days so I can get you an in, if you’ve got the skills.”
Sora nodded vehemently. “I’ve got the skills. My...family worked with droids,” he added a bit more hesitantly.
Thankfully, Neku didn’t press for details. “Meet me at breakfast tomorrow and I’ll take you there,” he instructed Sora before leaving to fetch his own meal.
At the mention of breakfast, another memory flashed before Sora’s eyes.
“No, there is a time we can see each other,” Riku had told the young Sora confidently as he tucked him into the cot in his creche one final time before Sora graduated to a youngling clan.
“Breakfast. Go to your first breakfast time, and we can see each other again there.”
Kriff, even Neku mentioning something as innocuous as breakfast was enough to trigger a flashback; this one, however, was even worse than the others because it had once been such a happy memory for him. Forcing back tears, Sora stared down into his plate of food and tried to focus on thinking about the droid factory.
It didn’t work, and Riku’s young, hopeful baby face lingered in his mind and kept him awake through the night.
Despite the lack of sleep, Sora was ready and waiting in the dining room when Neku arrived the next morning. “You grab a bite to eat?” the older boy asked, to which Sora nodded before asking urgently, “So when do we go?”
Neku made his way to a pantry, grabbed a foodstuff bar, and unwrapped it. “Now,” he told the boy simply before taking a bite out of the bar and heading towards the exit. Sora scampered after him, and together the two exited the kinder-block.
The “bright jewel”, as the sun of the system was called, was just barely visible in the sky beside the planet they rotated around, Ord Mantell itself. He heard it was controlled primarily by crime syndicates, but surprisingly that had not carried over quite as much to its moon. It was probably since it had no notable natural resources to export that couldn’t be found elsewhere. Its plant life was nothing special, the wild animals were edible but nothing to write home about, and the rock that built up the moon was an old sediment that was provided no valuable ores. The network of towns that built up the population were not wealthy, but they had enough to get by.
As Neku and Sora trekked through the cobbled plastoid streets, passing humble, tightly-packed abodes, the two approached a town HoloNews mounted in the city’s center. Projecting out of its center was a Pantoran woman, and Sora caught her mentioning something about the senate and slowed down slightly to try to hear more.
Neku, who was now several steps in front of Sora, stopped when he noticed the younger boy was no longer with him and turned around. Sora saw in his peripherals the teen coming back to join him, watching silently for a moment before he said, “They’ve mostly just been talking about senate restructuring. Pretty boring stuff. We can stop on the way back if you want to catch more.”
Sora nodded, eyes still fixated on the reporter talking for a few seconds longer before he reluctantly averted his gaze and began following Neku once more.
Once they arrived at the factory, a burly Zabrak man oversaw Sora’s demonstration of skills. He struggled a bit with his injured hand not quite working right, either from the shaking orweakness that inhibited his grip, but he was still able to keep up with Neku on the tasks he was given. Maybe it’s better to not be super good at it, kind of like the test, he thought to himself. Don’t want to attract too much attention.
By the end of the day, he’d been given safety gear and a badge. “Payday is every fortnight,” the Zabrak man told him as he was leaving. “We’ll see you bright and early tomorrow.”
“Thanks, see you then!” Sora said with a grin, waving at the man as both he and Neku left. Neku also gave the man a half-wave, eyeing Sora briefly as they began their journey home.
“So, what are you itching to save up for?” Neku asked the younger boy.
Sora hesitated, trying to be smart and think like Caleb or Katooni before he responded: just enough of the truth without revealing too much. “Well, we figure if we can buy a few tickets, we can at least make it to Kashyyyk. Gungi has some family there still and after that...we’ll go from there.”
The older boy was silent for a while, to the point where Sora was wondering if he’d said something wrong.
“Uh, is there a problem with that?” Sora ventured to ask, the nerves eating away inside of him that he’d given too much away.
When Neku responded, they were on the edges of the kinder block’s town. “Well, maybe we should make a point to get you out and watching the HoloNews a bit more,” he said grimly. “Wookies were just recently designated as a slave species by the Empire. They plan to use them as free government labor.”
Sora’s blood ran cold. “Is...is Gungi safe here?” he probed nervously.
Neku nodded hastily. “Cid and Yuna won’t let anything happen to him, but it’s probably best he stays in the kinder-block for now. Either way, I’d reconsider going back to his home world.”
Sora exhaled slightly in relief, but that dark revelation still set him on edge. What else was the Empire planning to do?
They walked once more in silence until they reached the town square’s HoloNews. This time, a human male reporter was passing on the latest headlines.
“They’re still going on about senators?” Neku complained with a tch. “So incompetent.”
Sora, however, recognized the particular senator’s name emblazoned across the screen. Leaning in closer, he caught the final words of the reporter’s story: “...body was found shortly thereafter. Evidence was found that she was murdered by the Jedi during their insurrection against the Republic.”
Replacing the image of the reporter was an official photo of Senator Padme Amidala, her hair bound tightly in a silver headpiece and donning a deep royal purple gown, with her chin held high and a confident, steely look in her dark eyes.
A pit formed in Sora’s stomach. He knew the Jedi would never kill her - they couldn’t. Master Skywalker had even arranged for Sora's safety from Order 66 specifically to protect Senator Amidala. Guilt clawed in his stomach; what had happened to the senator?
And what happened to Kairi’s hairpin I sent to her office?
As the topic abruptly switched to suitable candidates for her replacement, Sora pulled back. “I’m getting hungry, let’s head back,” he told Neku, hoping the tension in his throat sounded light as opposed to strained.
Neku shrugged. “If you want.”
Together, they finished their journey back to the kinder-block; however, Senator Amidala’s holographic image never left Sora’s mind, which was racing for answers he wasn’t sure he’d get. He briefly wondered if he’d gotten her in trouble, but that didn’t make any sense either – wouldn’t they have gone after her as a traitor instead?
His thoughts also found their way back to Kairi. He doubted his hairpin ever made it back to her. Did she think that he was dead? And now with her beloved role model and cousin dead as well...he wanted to reach out into the Force, to seek her out and scream that he was alright – but that was no longer an option.
In the dining room of the kinder-block, the three younglings were eagerly awaiting Sora’s update on the day. Neku dropped him off at their table, and as he left to grab his own meal, Katooni leaned in excitedly. “Does that mean we can test to get jobs now too?”
The Kiffar boy shook his head. “You heard them, you’d never pass for the right age,” he told them gently. He didn’t want to admit it, but the more he thought about it, he wasn’t keen on having them run off and work either at their age either. It would definitely attract too much attention.
“But I could!” Gungi protested. Sora winced; he hated to deliver such gruesome news regarding the Empire’s new decree for wookies, but he was thankful that the youngling wouldn’t be entering the workforce early; regardless of age and species, he was still a youngling after all. And so, Sora quietly explained what he’d learned from Neku that afternoon.
Once Sora finished his updates, the three younglings remained silent. Katooni and Zatt didn’t appear thrilled, but they seemed to understand the gravity of the situation and the importance of sticking with their wookie clanmate.
Gungi, however, had his furry brows scrunched in resolve as he challenged Sora quietly, “So are you at least gonna keep our teachings going? I need to be strong if I want to reunite and help my people.”
The look on young wookie's face nearly broke Sora’s heart. “Gungi…”
Gungi’s eyes only continued to blaze with resolution as he continued. “I plan to do it regardless of what you think.”
Deep down, Sora knew he was right. He wanted to keep them safe and shelter them as long as possible, but every day he spent here was another day losing track of other Jedi whose fates remained unknown. He’d hoped returning each of the younglings to their respective families (or at least as close as he could), that perhaps they’d be safe; however, the new Empire had already sealed their fate as Jedi and now seemed bent on coming after everyone else, starting with the wookies.
He also felt a bit guilty for putting off thinking about their training due to of own personal fears. They probably feel how I felt when Riku wouldn’t trust me or let me help, he realized painfully.
“I know, and I’m sorry I haven’t made that a priority,” he sheepishly admitted, scratching the back of his neck. “I’ll do some scouting around outside now that I have a job. I promise I haven’t forgotten.”
The three younglings shared a look before Katooni faced Sora once more and nodded. “Okay, we’ll be more patient,” she reluctantly conceded.
Sora couldn’t help but smile at the Tholothian girl as he replied, “Thank you, I won’t let you down. Want to do some quiet time after this?”
It was the phrase they used for their meditation now, out of fear of using the term associated with religions like the Jedi. The three younglings eagerly nodded, and once they had finished and washed up the dishes they made their way back to their shared room and sat on a small circle on the floor, eyes closed and hearts open to the Force.
At least, for the younglings. Sora couldn’t bring himself to return to that dark, tainted place that used to be a sanctuary. He knew all that would be waiting for him were more visions of his friends suffering and the memory of the pain he had caused Riku when he lost control.
He knew he’d be seeing them soon anyway, when he closed his eyes and tried to sleep.
***
It didn’t take long for Sora to fall into a much needed, stable routine. The work at the factory consisted of long, active hours, but it was familiar work that reminded him enough of home to be somewhat comforting. His heart ached, however, every time he welded and soldered a component to a droid and turned eagerly to his side, only to see that Cal – his crechemate, his clanmate, his friend – was not beside him.
On most days he’d walk with Neku and try to get to know the quieter, older teen. He’d come to the kinder-block a few years ago, no mention of his family but he told the boy that he was originally from Onderon. He was close friends with Shiki, who had arrived around the same time as he did and worked at a local diner during the day. Together, they were hoping to save up enough to move out of the kinder-block, but they hadn’t decided where to yet.
Today, however, Neku mentioned that he’d be working late. “I’m just trying to save a little extra,” was the only explanation that Sora heard from the boy. That left him with an excellent opportunity to meander around the local town and search for potential training locations for the younglings.
It was early in the evening as Sora was heading back, and most of the shops were beginning to close their doors so families could begin suppertime meal preparations. Sora only briefly glanced at the HoloNews, which had moved on from senatorial discussions to the reformation of the military. More bad news would only sere to sour his mood, and so he quickly diverted away from the stand and down a smaller fork in the road adjacent to the one that would usually take him to the kinder block.
As he strolled along, hands resting casually behind his head, he watched the housing units grow sparser and sparser, indicating he was nearing the edge of the town. Eventually, he reached the end of the plastoid cobblestone road, which was blocked off with an electric barrier just before the road transitioned into a burgundy soil, framed by dense trees and foliage that had previously been sparsely scattered around the town’s buildings. His eyes scanned the barrier, easily finding a small opening at the corner where he could slip around it and continue down the natural path.
The path soon narrowed as the undergrowth crept inwards and the tree branches hung heavy over Sora’s head. He came to a stop once the path narrowed too much to be useful, which allowed the faint sound of running water to reach his ears. Curious, he followed the sound, pushing his way through the shrubs until a fairly large creek came into view.
It was a picturesque scene before Sora: the wind gently rustling the trees, allowing the hazy lavender evening sky to peak through their branches; the burbling of the creek as water seeped around the stones littering its path; the chirping of a bird-adjacent creature in the distance. Sora couldn’t help but shake off his large boots and gingerly step into the clear running water, sighing at the cold relief it brought after working on his feet all day. Before he knew it, he had thrown off his work coveralls and visor and plunged himself deeper into the creek. Surprised at the depth of the seemingly smaller body of water, Sora took a deep breath before entirely submerging himself underwater to glance around.
His vision wasn’t the best without any aquatic gear, but Sora was able to easily descend to the rocky floor in very little time.
This...could work, Sora pondered to himself as he floated along, running his fingers across the various seaweeds as he passed them by. Swimming in the creek would be an excellent fitness workout, a test of physical and mental stamina, and a source of concealment for Force training.
Tentatively, he closed his own eyes and focused on the distant sounds muffled by the water. It was a similar sensation to meditating, he noticed; maybe I can try to build back my confidence to medidate again.
And so, he stretched his limbs out and allowed the currents to gently carry his body, focusing only on the water until he reached his limit and had to resurface. It wasn’t quite a Jedi meditation, but it was a start.
As he made his way to the banks where his work gear lay, Sora wrung out the now soaking clothes he was wearing before collecting the rest of his gear. “Hopefully I’m not too late,” he muttered under his breath as he hurriedly threw his boots back on and jogged back to the trail.
When he reached the kinder-block, Sora opted to sneak upstairs to the living quarters, clean up in the refresher, and throw on a set of fresh clothes before running down to dinner, where most of the others were starting to finish up.
“We were starting to wonder where you were,” Zatt quipped as Sora slid onto their bench and began digging into his meal. Sora held up a finger as he wolfed down another large bite – he hadn’t realized just how hungry he was – but shot the nautolan boy a wink, piquing the other youngling’s curiosity as they eagerly waited for him to finish.
Katooni wasted no time once Sora finished his last bite. “Alright, spill!” she demanded eagerly, the other two leaning in towards the boy as she spoke.
Sora couldn’t help but chuckle at their antics. “Well, I do have some good news for you all – I found a spot!” he told them in a hushed voice, but he couldn’t help but grin as he spoke. His smile was contagious, and soon the three younglings were beaming and sharing excited looks.
“We’ll talk more upstairs,” he added. As he stood up to clear his plates, the younglings wasted no time in following suit before racing to their room.
Despite the lightness in his heart due to the progress he made and the younglings’ reactions, trepidation still lingered in the older boy. I hope I can be a good teacher to them – I’m barely a padawan myself, he thought nervously.
As if on cue, Master Yoda’s sage wisdom echoed in his ears: Do or do not. There is no try.
Well, I guess I’m doing,” Sora told himself with a heavy sigh, shaking his head to clear out the nervous thoughts. And so, as he entered their shared room following the younglings teeming with excitement, Sora put on his best smile and explained to them his idea for training in the river.