Dark Apprentice Chronicles-pt1

Starting

Ciara Moonstone, most talented student of her class and the youngest ever light saber master scratched her leg idly as she meditated. She knew Master Yoda would not be pleased that she had distracted herself, but she had other things to think about. Ciara was small for her age, only five foot two with long straight brown hair and deep green eyes. Dressed in a tight-fitting black Jedi outfit, you could easily pick her out from a crowd of other fourteen year olds.

‘Clouds the mind distraction does young padawan’ Master Yoda’s voice echoed in her head. Smiling in spite of herself she thought back;

‘But Master, if there are no distractions, how will I live?’ He chuckled.

‘Enough for today that is Ciara, stretch and go you can’

‘Thank you master’

Doing as he said, she stood and loosened her stiff legs and arms. A few feet away, Master Yoda repositioned a six year old in the proper position for mind meditation. Waiting for him to finish, she bowed to the small green creature.

“Done well today you have Padawan Ciara. Go now to the Archives and study your history. Sure to read more fact than fiction young one. Your mind to wander more wants us not.”

Bowing to him, she left the room. Making her way down the winding hallways to the Archives she began to play a game with herself. It was easy to make up a game when you were bored, and she was tired out from five hours of pure meditating. So, she began to only step on the green tiles of the smooth checkered floor, dodging cracks and other persons as she went.

However, if she had paid more attention, she would have noticed a bearded man with a thoughtful look on his face come straight at her. Unfortunately, either of them had not a clue the either one was there until Ciara crashed headlong into the Jedi’s muscular body.

“I-I’m so sorry sir I didn’t mean…..” she mumbled her face turning red.

“No, it is my mistake. I was not paying attention padawan, please,” he said offering her a callused hand. “Let me help you up.” As he pulled her to her feet, she caught a flash of a light saber beneath his brown robes.

“May I ask where you are headed Padawan?” he asked.

“To the Archives Master Jedi; Master Yoda said I must catch up on my history.” To her surprise he laughed.

“Yoda still lecturing then is he? Well, since we are both heading the same way, might you accompany me?” the Jedi Master asked. She anxiously bobbed her head. Walking next to him, she felt nervous.

“Excuse me Master Jedi, what is your name?” Ciara asked timidly.

“Obi-Wan-Kenobi young one, what is yours?” She was so shocked, that she had to work at not screaming in delight.

“Ciara Moonstone Master Obi-Wan; I am so happy to meet you at last! I have heard about you from the others, but I never thought that you’d actually come to see my age padawans!” Realizing that she was ranting, she clamped her mouth shut. Obi-Wan smiled as she blushed.

“I’ve heard of you, special they say. Once you pass the exams you’ll be the youngest master in history, am I right?"

She nodded dumbly. No body knew about her examination except Master Windu, Master Yoda, and the rest of the Council. But of corse! She told herself. He’s on there too, how could I be so stupid! Realizing he was speaking again she pulled herself back to the present.

“Hmm?” she asked.

“I asked what type of histories you were studying Padawan Ciara.”

“Oh, I study mostly the history of the Jedi, like how we were formed, who we let in etc. But I am also assigned to learn about the history of each major planet in our system. To tell you the truth Master, I like reading their legends more than their history. But I know it is important so I do it anyway.”

“Tell me Ciara,” he said as the entered the Archive Library. “Is there a specific story that you’re interested in?”

“Oh yes Master! I can show it to you if you like.” She said walking over to a section of the library with Obi-Wan by her side.

“I’d like that. It has been a long time since I have talked to anyone your age you know. My own padawan grew up long ago.”

“I’ve heard of him Master Obi-Wan. Anakin Skywalker, youngest to be on the Council of the Jedi; am I right?” she asked taking a file from the shelf.

“You know, I was surprised when Master Yoda told me that I wouldn’t be getting a Master because my abilities had to be treated with care. All I really wanted was a Master who understands me or even a Master at all. Here it is.” She said inserting the chip into a computer and settling down next to him.

“Ahh!” he said. “This is one of the greatest romance stories of our time; I have never had a chance to read it though.” Ciara beamed him.

“It’s about a Sith Lady falling in love with a Jedi.

It starts when they are both on the same mission, but meet accidentally. When their feelings and truths surface, they try to find ways to meet in secret, where they could express their feelings for each other.

But soon, the Sith’s master found out and destroyed her, but not before she bore a child to the Jedi. He took that child far off, to a secluded place where no one would find out his secret. What he didn’t know was the child’s mother taught the Sith lore to it while it slept.

When the father found out, he was so distraught that he decided to add his own teaching to the child. He died of an unknown cause and left his child on its own a year later. No one knows what happened to the child and there was no indication that this actually happened, so they said it was a myth. Too bad, I would have liked to learn something about that Jedi.” She said in one steady flow.

“Well you know Ciara; myths have to come from somewhere. So who says it wasn’t real?” he tousled her hair. She grinned sheepishly at him. It was so easy to talk to this man, would anything ever be hard with him? Her comax beeped and shed pressed the button to answer it.

“Ciara here,”

“Ciara, we’ve got some trouble down here with the Gungan’s animals. Could you come and help?”

“Sure Ben, what’s the problem?”

“Well, they…Ahh! Gerrof me you beast! Look, just come before they kill us!” The call ended.

“No comaxes in the library Ciara, you should know better!” the librarian hissed as she passed.

“Sorry- Master Obi-Wan, if you’ll excuse me?” He nodded, still looking at the screen. Leaving the Archives she made her way quickly down the hall and slid down the banister to the level where all the animals were kept. Sure enough, pandemonium met her eyes and ears as she landed.

According to the frightened trainee who came to her, hey had just opened the gate to have the animals run outside and they went berserk. Sighing, she focused a trickle her energy on the animals frightened minds and gently pushed out.

But there was something else there; something different that she had never felt before. It quickly overpowered her and her energy blasted out of her focus in one giant wave. The instant shift in the force was clear, even to the ones who it wasn’t aimed at or had never felt it before. But one individual was particularly affected, even though he sat miles away, on the balcony of his city home. His name was Anakin Skywalker.

Anakin had never felt such change in all his life. The pulling of the force seemed to be tugging on every fiber of his being, begging him to join with whoever created the stream. Then all the sudden, it stopped.

“Is something wrong Anakin?” His wife Padme asked coming out from their living room. He smiled at her.

“It’s nothing.” Padme had long curly brown hair that fell just past her shoulders in a beautiful cascade. Her brown eyes shimmered in the ivory skin of her thin face. She wore a loose fitting light blue sleeveless nightgown that fell to her feet.

Anakin was muscular from all his training with wavy brown hair that just brushed his shoulders. His lightly tanned face held knowing brown eyes and a strong masculine chin. She shook her head, not fooled.

“Did you feel something, like a tugging inside?” she asked sitting beside him.
“Yes, it was the force being disturbed by immense power. I don’t know who-” but he was cut off by the beeping of their holo deck. The voice of Mace Windu crackled over the com.

“Calling all council members for an emergency meeting, you are needed now.” The transmission ended. Anakin looked apologetically at Padme. She gave him an understanding look and kissed his cheek.

“Go, they need you.” He nodded and stood, his black Jedi garb flowing around him. Getting in his cruiser, Padme leaned on a pillar and watched him buckle in.
“Don’t be gone too long Annie.” She said.

“I’ll try not to Padme. I love you.” He said taking off. Watching him go, Padme sighed.

“I love you too Anakin and I always will.”


*****
Standing in the centre of the ring of council members, Ciara looked down.
“Ciara Moonstone, have you the knowledge of what you have done?” Master Yoda asked from his seat.

“Yes Master, I do.”

“And..?”

“I realize that my actions were reckless and that I could have hurt someone from the amount of force that I used. I should have been more careful.”

“Careful yes, but did you know how much force you would have normally used?” Master Windu asked.

“Very little Master. But, I just don’t know what happened, one moment I was using only a trickle of my force the next, it blasted through me. It was almost like it had been waiting for me to do a less time consuming action.”

Anakin marveled at the fluency and confidence in which this girl spoke. She was sure of herself among all of these Masters, ready for anything that might be thrown at her. But in her mind, the slightest bit of disdain slipped for only a moment before once again hiding behind a mask of waiting.

“You said you saw a vision when this happened, can you tell us what it was? Do not lie to us Padawan Moonstone, or we will know.” Her green eyes became pale for a second as she began to remember.

“At first glance, I thought it was an animal. But as it shifted, I saw it was a woman painted in black marks on her face and arms. Her skin was paler then anything I’d ever seen, almost like a ghost. She wore this black dress that was slashed at the arms and flew out at the bottom like she was floating. Her hair was the color of her dress except it was limp on her shoulders. She flew up to me and blew some silver substance from her hand into my face then disappeared, almost dissolved into thin air. That’s all I can remember Master.” She said; her eyes back to normal.

The Council members glanced at each other before Master Windu spoke.

“Ciara, you have shown a feat of incredible power from the force that most of us wouldn’t dream of. Therefore, your Masters test will be postponed and you assigned to a full Master until we are sure what happened.”

“But Master…” she began but quickly clamped her mouth shut. She had to take her punishment as it was, the council was more powerful then just her alone.
“Any opposed?” Master Windu asked. No one raised their hand.

“Very well then, Ciara you will be assigned to-”

“Excuse me Windu,” Master Obi-Wan said standing. “If it is alright with you, I would like to take charge of Padawan Ciara during her probation, we have met before and I feel she would be more comfortable around someone she has already knows.”

“Very well then, you may take her.” Ciara bowed to the council members and left the room.

Sighing she leaned against the wall a few corridors away. A hand snaked out from behind her, turned her around and gripped her in a hard bear hug.

She smiled and sniffed in the sent of honey from her companion. Pulling away from him, she glanced around and pulled him into a vacant room. Daniel Strongroot hugged her again with the biggest grin on his face.

“Dan,” she said pulling away from him. “That was dangerous, someone could have seen you. Jedi aren’t supposed to be so closely attached to each other.”
“I know, but we can risk it for awhile.”

“Why are you here anyway? I thought you were down in the training building.”

“Ciara, I have some news.” He said sitting in a vacant chair. Daniel was strong muscled with messy blonde hair and bright blue eyes that stood out in his light skin. A year older than herself, he was only two inches taller than her and at average level.

“What is it?” she asked fearfully.

“The council is sending me and my Master to the Wookies along with Master Yoda for the rest of the year. I’m sorry, but duty to the Republic comes before my heart’s desire.” Ciara bit her lip; she knew something like this would happen since they had first met.

“When are you leaving?”

“Soon in at least seven hours.” He said standing and hugging her tightly from behind. A single tear streaked down her face. Facing him, she kissed him long and hard. When they broke apart, she reached up and cut a lock of hair from her long braid with the force.

“Take this with you, to remember me by.”

“Ciara….” He began. She put a finger to his lips and smiled.

“Goodbye Dan, I will never forget you.” And with that she turned and walked out the door, without even a glance back. Little did she know that this was the first of many wounds that would try her pledge to the Jedi Order.