Before the Saga Chosen (Evil, Unfinished)

Title: Chosen
Author: Kit'
Genre: Angst, Drama, Humour
Timeline: Before the Saga
Characters: Namia Zahalin, Master Samukay, Tara Tarindae, Master Davin Dor (OCs)
Synopsis: Being chosen as a padawan is one of the most stressful things that can happen in a young Jedi's life. These are the stories of how padwans were picked by their masters, or in some cases, how the Masters were picked by the padawans.

Notes: Written for Evil Author's Day. This is unfinished. I had grand plans of having a bunch of different one-shots of different padawans being chosen but that has all fallen by the way-side.

Part of me things that this would be a great collaborative story idea. Where people could write and contribute their own snapshots about how apprentices were chosen (doesn't have to be Jedi) across a different time lines and planets.

The plot bunny is free to use/take.

 

To Battle - Namia Zahalin and Master Gerald Samukay

Namia bowed to her opponent and then smiled holding her lightsaber in front of her. Rolling it in one hand she made sure her grip was loose.

“Begin.” The Initiate Master yelled. Namia watched the other boy’s saber spring to life and felt the hum of her own training saber. One day she would have one of her own, not just some crummy, half rate lightsaber that all the initiates used.

It would be beautiful. A shiny handle with black buttons and a-

Namia's thoughts were interrupted as her opponent’s blade made contact with her own. The two lightsabers ground together, for a second before the young initiates backed away from each other. They circled warily, trying to remember the precise steps they’d been shown in class that morning.

It would have a silvery-green blade she decided as she parried the next shot.

The other initiate tried to lead with the same series of attacking strokes they’d been shown in class that day. Namia found that she had to concentrate on where she was putting her feet and try to feel where he was going to attack next. It was hard work and she found herself frowning as she almost overbalanced trying to do both.

It would have been easier, she decided, if the Force decided to cooperate for once. For her, The Force didn’t come easily or reliably like it seemed to come to the knights or even the older padawans. Instead it came in bursts, some of them clear and often painful. There were days when she felt nothing at all, and others when the onslaught of noise and life and emotion made her feel like she was drowning.


She rocked back on her heels as his blue lightsaber almost brushed her shoulder. .


Namia frowned as she felt the Force stir. She had been catching enough glimpses to keep her on her feet, but this felt like the beginning of one of her ‘episodes’.

The loss in concentration cost her the bout as the other Initiate side-stepped an over-extended thrust. She stumbled, losing her balance and, taking advantage of the opening, he brought his saber down quickly.

The blade kissed the side of her neck, making her lose her balance. She landed face-flat on the floor in an awkward tangle of robes and limbs.

The other initiates burst into giggles. Even with her face pressed hard into the training mat, Namia winced. There would definitely not be any silver and black training saber in her future.

“Keep your mind centered on the here and now.” Master Ishwan reminded her as Namia slowly rose to her feet. Her face flamed with heat again and she made a study of the floor as she took her seat on the edge of the group. A few of the other students looked her way.

“No-one would pick you as a padawan,” one whispered. “you’re too clumsy.”

“Even a baby can fight better than that,” his friend added. Namia’s blush grew more intense. She could feel tears pricking at the corners of her eyes. Her mouth twitching, she turned her face towards the door so that the others couldn’t see that she couldn’t control her emotions either.

That had been a mistake. There were a few Masters at the edge of the door watching the initiates intently and talking to each other. The Force flared again loud and clear and she winced as she felt the layers of emotion rippling off each person. She screwed up her eyes and clenched her hands in an effort to make the rolling waves of emotions go away. This was the worst time to have an episode. The Masters were probably here to watch the initiates in class and to maybe choose a padawan. If she had one of her episodes now, any chance of her being picked would vanish. If it hadn’t already been squashed by her humiliating display on the floor, then it would definitely be annihilated by this.

The waves of emotions and noise broke over her as the lesson progressed. The Masters were easy to pick out. Their own emotions burbled along, calm and quiet like a stream on a sunny day, but the initiates’ ones were loud torrents that crashed around her making her squirm back into her seat. She couldn’t understand how no-one else could notice the way that the Force moved around them. Namia desperately wanted to put her hands over her ears, but she knew that wouldn’t help. There was nothing to do except sit still, silent and small until the Force subsided.

Eventually Master Ishwan called an end to the lesson. Namia winced as the initiates streamed past her, the sounds of their voices and their excited, cheeriness about the next lesson was almost overwhelming. She waited until most of the class had left and then slipped behind a stack of mats near the door. She breathed a sigh of relief when she realised that Master Ishwan wasn’t looking for her.

Resting her head against the cool foam, she tried desperately to ignore the spinning emotions and feelings that whirled through the Force with the change of class. Things people had done or were about to do were magnified and Namia didn’t feel brave enough to face the halls with their chattering students and silent Masters. She could ‘feel’ everything in the Temple, the rushing students, the meditations of Masters and even the trees and birds in the Temple gardens. It formed a sort of Force ‘noise’ that crashed down on Namia making it hard to hear anything else.

A spear of pain cut through her head and she winced.

She covered her face with her hands, hoping that the temporary darkness would be enough to stop the headache that always accompanied the end of one of her episodes. It didn’t. Instead the waves of emotions that she could feel were slowly replaced with waves of pain. They rippled through her head increasing in intensity as her ability to touch the Force slowly ebbed away.

Even with her head throbbing, she could hear the footsteps of an approaching Jedi. She curled herself into a smaller ball, hoping that she would be overlooked. The footsteps stopped and she could hear faint rustling as someone knelt down beside her.

“Hello?” A deep voice asked. Namia glanced up, wincing a little as she did so. “Are you okay?” he continued. He had dark brown hair, cut short and he had deep brown eyes. Namia couldn’t guess his age. Everyone looked older than she did.

“I’m fine.” Namia said softly, wincing again at the sound. The Jedi frowned at her and raised a hand to forehead as if taking at her temperature. At the same time he sent a pulse of Force towards her. She should have felt a small flow like running water, but in her current state it felt more like a tidal wave. For a few seconds the world went black and grey and she gripped the edge of the closest mat hard to make sure she didn’t fall over. She was not going to faint in front of this knight, not for anything.

“I’m fine. I just have a headache,” she murmured when the world righted itself again. She hated telling lies, but she hadn’t told anyone about her ‘episodes’ since she was seven. Anyway, she told herself, she was telling the truth in a sense, she did have a headache.

‘I see,” the older Jedi didn’t say anything more. He studied her for a moment before, his brown eyes serious and then he gave her a smile that had Namia smiling wanly in return. “Who is your master?” the older Jedi asked. Namia’s smile faltered.

“I don’t have one,” she said shrugging slightly, “I’m only an initiate.”

“Really?” His eyebrows shot up, “I thought...oh never mind, let's get you to the healer’s.”

She shook her head. “Not the healers please. I just need to go back to the dorms. I’ll be okay in a bit.”

He looked doubtfully at her.

“I promise,” she tried knowing she didn’t sound convincing.

“I’ll give you a minute to see if you get better and then I’ll choose,” he offered.

They stayed there for a few seconds in silence. Namia thought as furiously as the pain would allow. She didn’t want to go to the Healers ward. Healer Leona would ask too many questions and if Master An-Paj was there he would want to run some sort of test. Gerald had given her an out though. She tried to think of something to ask to show that she was okay. Her brain scrambled for an answer but all she could think of was one question.

“What’s your name?”

The force-sensitivity was receding fast now, leaving her shaky. She knew that the headache would soon turn into a migraine. She smiled at him, trying not to show how much her head was starting to hurt.

“Oh.” He seemed surprised, “I’m Gerald.” He only gave her only his first name and Namia assumed he was one of the older padawans. He checked the corridors and then came back over.

“It’s relatively clear out there,” he said quietly. “I think we could get you back to the dorms without too much noise or interruption.”

Namia climbed slowly to her feet, feeling the world spin around her. She reached out a hand to grab a mat, but Gerald grabbed her shoulders.

“How about I give you a lift?” he offered quietly. “That way I know you won’t fall over.” When she didn’t respond he added, “I’ll try to be quick, that way none of your friends will see you.”

Namia nodded deciding that getting back to the quiet darkness of the dorms fast was far more important than her friends seeing her. Gerald smiled and picked her up gently before making his way out of the door and down the hall.

*

As he carried her along, Gerald hummed to himself, unconscious of the pain it was causing his smaller charge.

“Please, you shouldn’t do that,” Namia said firmly.

“Why not?” Gerald asked looking down at her, “oh your head. I’m sorry.”

“No,” Namia whispered and then paused, “well yes. Sorry.”

For a few seconds the older Jedi looked rather put out. He didn’t say anything for a long time and Namia felt like she had been rude in some way. Finally just as she was about to apologise again he smiled. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking.”

“Gerald? I haven’t seen you in ages! What are you doing down here?” Master Liliath’s voice came loudly out of one of the rooms as they entered the initiates’ dorm area. Namia winced again, fighting down a bubble of nausea. She looked up to see Gerald smile grow broader. The pounding of her head was getting worse now. It felt like someone had clamped a band of metal around her head and was slowly crushing it. She felt sick.

“Oh Namia,” the Initiate Master said as she came to the door. “What’s the matter?”

“I’m afraid Namia feels sick,” Gerald whispered, noticing Namia cringe at the loud noises. Master Liliath nodded silently and led them towards Namia’s room.

The sunshine that streamed through the Initiate dorm windows hurt her eyes. She screwed them shut, but it only made it worse. A wave of nausea swept over Namia and she dug her nails into her palms to stop herself from being sick.

“Just in here.” Master Liliath said opening a door.

There was another wave of nausea.

“Put me down please,” she whispered, “I think I’m going to be sick.”

The next second her premonition came true and she was sick all over herself and a rather mortified Gerald. He looked like he wanted to drop her right where she was, but then his features softened and he hugged her closer. Namia’s face flamed and her eyes closed in embarrassment and pain.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

“It’s nothing, in fact I should be used to it by now,” came Gerald’s whispered reply as he sat her down in her darkened room. Master Liliath bustled away and returned with a fresh tunic for Namia and a towel for Gerald. Namia barely noticed the way that the Creche Master was flirting with the young man. The two adults departed and Namia crept into the bathroom screwing her eyes up in pain as the door hushed quietly open.

She stood in the shower long enough to feel clean and fresh and then slowly got changed, every movement hurt. The Force-sensitivity was returning again. She collapsed onto the bed, not even pulling the sheets back. There was a tiny tap at the door and then it opened. Even without opening her eyes, she could feel the emotions of the two adults at the door burbling along in the undercurrent of the Force. She could also feel how much Master Liliath liked Gerald which made her nose scrunch in confusion. He might be near his trials but surely Master Liliath was too old for him.

‘Bye Namia,” Gerald whispered softly.

“Bye Gerald,” Namia whispered back, “thank you.”

She felt his smile through the Force and then fell into an exhausted sleep.

She didn’t see Gerald’s smile turn into a thoughtful look and she didn’t hear the questions he piled onto Knight Liliath as the two adults made their way back towards the Initiate Teacher’s break room.

 

Oh Kit. I have a deep fondness for this type of thing, because I love reading about how Obi-Wan was never picked by Qui-Gon LOL until they sorta had it bonked into their heads that they belonged together. I've always been fascinated by (even though it was never written per se) how Jaina Solo wound up with Mara Jade as her mentor. This is an awesome idea!

Poor Namia, her Force empathy is on overdrive. Someone just needs to teach her selective shielding.

 

I can't see why we couldn't make that all happen. I mean the possibilities are endless and the fics themselves wouldn't clutter up the board if they were all in one place. I also liked the Qui-Gon/Obi-wan relationship build up in the JA series (even though sometimes the writing wasn't all that crash hot).

Yeah, the little empath has a lot to learn. I keep thinking I should do one of the fanon entries for the resource board with all the different ways to 'see' the Force and the predictions about what kind of Jedi they would become. A little bit like phrenology for a Force User (but without the inherent problems of phrenology!)

 

This is the second and, unfortunately, the last one.

Lesson Learnt - Tara Tarindae and Jedi Knight Davin Dor

Davin Dor strode briskly through the temple gardens, a drink in one hand, the latest trashy romance novel in the other. Somehow he’d made it to the arboretum without bumping into anyone. He had managed to time it just right. The normally busy halls had been quiet when he’d crept from the archive. He was glad of it. If he’d had to talk to anyone on his way to the arboretum he’d probably have melted down in tears. Three weeks of report writing had tired even his normally jovial nature to the point of snapping. He rounded the corner and sighed, his favourite tree was taken.

A small girl, wearing the normal mud brown and sand grey of the initiates, was sitting cross legged under his Arboray tree, her face a picture of deep concentration. Even her hands were folded neatly on top of each knee, in a perfect copy of the pictures used in Jedi texts. This wasn’t the first day that Davin had come down to find this little girl sitting under this tree. He didn’t blame her. The Arboray’s grooved trunk was comfortable to lounge against and the dappled light from its many hanging branches made it the perfect spot on a sunny afternoon. It had been his spot since he was a teen and, even though he knew attachment wasn’t part of the Jedi code, he was very attached to his tree.

He focussed again on the girl beneath the tree.

She was so perfectly still and sitting in the same pose that it almost didn’t look real. In fact he was beginning to think that she wasn’t real at all, just a new garden ornament of Master Quillan’s.

Swallowing his annoyance, Davin went to walk out of the garden. As he turned, a twig snapped under his foot and the girl's eyes flew open. She looked guiltily up at the Jedi Knight before her, her long, loose and slightly frizzy brown curls bobbing as she did so.

“Youngling,” Davin said, using his “serious knight” voice as An-Lin liked to call it. He nodded his head briefly as a kind of greeting. The child squirmed. He knew that sort of squirm. She obviously knew she was doing something wrong and had just been caught.

“Sorry,” she whispered. She stood and brushed the front of her pants off before picking up the data pad that had been lying beside her. With a shudder, Davin realized it was a shiny new copy of Twenty-seven rules of the Jedi Order. He had a strong dislike of that book. Most probably from having it waved under his nose every second day while a master lectured him on which one of the twenty-seven rules he had broken that time. Last time he had counted, he had broken a total of twenty-six of the rules. Some of them multiple times.

He realized the girl had been blabbering on at him and he hadn’t been listening. He drew his attention back to the here and now.

“I’m sorry…I was…I was meditating,” she stammered.

“Meditating?” Davin raised an eyebrow inquisitively.

“Master Yoda said that you have to meditate to become a Jedi Knight. So I was.”

He nodded slightly in acknowledgement. “What else did Master Yoda say?”

“Well, he said that you need to let go because holding onto things was a path to the Darkside. He also said that…”

It’s a wonder she managed to get Master Yoda to be so eloquent, Davin thought as the girl began to prattle on again. He listened, nodding his head a couple of times and then bent down putting his drink and data pad on the grass and picking up a stone from the path. Slowly, he began to polish the side of the rock against his pants. As the girl kept talking, Davin kept polishing only stopping every now and again to look at it. Finally the initiate stopped and there was an odd pause where Davin stared hard at the surface of the rock he had been cleaning.

“What are you doing?” She asked curiously.

“I’m making a mirror.” Davin replied straight faced and serious.

“You can’t make a mirror from polishing a rock.” The girl's face was scornful.

“And you won’t become a Jedi from meditating all day,” Davin replied back just as scornfully. The girl pouted and stared at the ground, her soft brown curls framing her face.

“Master Yoda said…” she began again.

“Stop.” Davin held up the stone. He was beginning to think that Master Yoda had a lot to answer for if all initiates were like this. “Listen, all the Jedi order wants from you is what you think up here.” He pointed to her head. “Temper that by what you feel in here,” he said pointing to her heart. “You need to be educated and you need to be focused but you always have to follow your conscience. Following what you know is the right path, that’s what makes a Jedi.”

Davin poked at the girl’s database unable to bring himself to touch the reviled book. “And if you have to circumvent the rules to do so, then so be it.”

“You mean break the rules?” the girl said unconvinced. “A Jedi shouldn’t break the rules. That’s rule Number One.”

Davin had to resist rolling his eyes at the little rules lawyer that stood in front of him.

“No, I said circumvent, there is a difference,” he said patiently, “sometimes it takes someone their entire life to work that out.”

The girl looked up at him, her green eyes confused. Davin smiled, at her and tossed the stone up in the air and caught it again. The girl opened her mouth, but a voice from up the path stopped her from speaking.

“Tara!” The voice sounded annoyed. A young crèche knight stormed up the path towards them, her arms crossed over her chest. Tara shrank looking chastised. “Tara Tarindae, you should have been in class. We’ve talked about that before. You won’t become a Jedi if you don’t know anything.”

“Ahh, rule number six. So you already break rules.” Davin smiled at Tara, oddly triumphant in his victory over the tiny, brown-haired initiate. She glared back at him, her eyes alight with indignation. Tara grasped her data pad tighter as the crèche knight approached.

“I’m sorry if she was disturbing you,” the knight apologized to Davin. He shrugged.

“She was teaching me about how to become a Jedi.” Davin smiled at the young knight and then at Tara. The crèche knight harrumphed and began leading Tara away by the elbow.

“Hey Tara!” Davin yelled as she was led away. She turned and he threw the rock gently towards her. She caught it and looked at him with puzzled eyes, an expression that was beginning to become a bit too familiar. “Think about what I said, and, when you make that rock into a mirror, come back and tell me how.”

She nodded and trudged off after the crèche Master.

As they rounded the corner, Davin gave a weary sigh, took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose before sinking down against the familiar bark of the tree. He took a sip of his drink, still marveling at the turn of events and opened the holo novel. A wry smile lit his features as a stray thought flitted across his mind.

Mirror rock. As if that would ever happen.

***********

Three weeks later

***********

Davin Dor smiled to himself as he nestled back against the tree. He was exhausted but at least the report for the senate was in on time and his book on the Narvian customs was coming along nicely. Taking off his glasses, he closed his eyes and rested his head back against the tree reveling in the warmth of the flickering sunshine on his face. It had been three weeks since the incident with Tara and, although he had kept his eye out for the little initiate, he hadn’t seen her.

Davin let the warmth wash over him and tried to resist the urge to fall asleep. He knew he shouldn’t. He knew that the data pad was waiting for him at home and that as part of completing his trials he had also sworn to finish writing that sith spawned thing, but leaning against the tree it was almost too hard not to just relax and go to sleep.

Just as Davin was drifting off there was the crunch of booted feet on gravel. He hoped they weren’t looking for him. The last thing he wanted was to be found by a knight with an errand in the archive or a broken data pad.

The crunching noise stopped just in front of him and Davin sighed. It was a knight and a broken data pad, he just knew it. Davin groaned and went to pick up his glasses.

Just as his fingertips brushed the ground, a blinding light flashed across the back of his eyelids, turning his world into a swirling distorted pattern of red dots. Davin screwed his eyes up tight, trying to stop whatever it was. The light flashed again rather erratically until it finally settled on his right eye.

Shading his eyes with one hand, Davin searched frantically for his glasses with his other. Finally he grasped them and he slipped them on. Hand still shading his face, he opened his eyes and spent a few bewildering moments blinking furiously to combat the little red dots that were threatening to blind him. Finally the young Jedi Knight could mostly see again.

Releasing his anger at the practical joker to the Force before he did something stupid, Davin looked around. Tara stood in the path, bouncing slightly on her toes, her face an odd mixture of triumph, studiousness and excitement.

“Davin Dor,” she intoned seriously, “first year knight of the Jedi Temple, studied under Master An-Lin Nikkia. Spent most of his padawanship on the outer rim studying the Nyriaan peoples. Was thought by some to be unsuitable for knightship due to the limited amount of time he spent within the Jedi Temple and worse his seeming inability to attend classes when he was here. Also has a bad reputation for breaking the rules, and a fondness for liquor and spicy food.” There was a slight grin on her face as she finished. It was a grin that Davin didn’t much like.

“Who told you that.” Davin growled unbecomingly.

“It’s amazing what you can find out from asking,” Tara replied, the grin still firmly in place. “I wouldn’t have guessed that you would be responsible for that dint in the archive wall. That made for quite an interesting story. Master Yoda said…”

“Are you here for a reason?” Davin snapped trying to push away his irritation but not quite succeeding. He didn’t want anyone to talk about the ‘library incident’, especially Master Yoda.

“I was thinking about what you said and I realized that you’re right. You don’t become a Jedi by meditation alone. You don’t become a Jedi by thought alone. You don’t become a Jedi because of your grip on the Living Force, because of your focus on the here and now. You become a Jedi because of your compassion for others and because you realise that there is a greater good outside of yourself.”

“You grasped all that in three weeks by yourself?” Davin asked incredulously.

“No, I researched it in the library and then made up my own mind.” Tara’s voice sounded like she was trying to explain something simple to a three year old initiate who was at least one bantha short of a herd. She threw what she had been holding to Davin, who caught it easily. He stared at it for a moment not comprehending what it was.

“It’s a rock.” He said softly, not quite grasping the meaning.

“It’s also a mirror,” Tara replied. “If you turn it over you can see yourself. It makes you look weird but it works.”

Davin turned the rock over in his hands. It had been cut smoothly down the middle, revealing oddly formed blue and white crystals. Holding it up to his face he realized he could actually see himself in the stone.

“It’s not the rock I gave you,” he said accusingly. She shrugged, an eloquent gesture.

“I circumvented the rules,” she said smiling, "I saw it in the archive and I asked to borrow it."

For the first time in many weeks Davin laughed, a throaty chuckle escaping from his throat. He had been bested at his own game by someone barely old enough to tie her own bootlace.

“So Mistress Knight, what else do you want?” he asked smiling. There was a long pause in which he got the idea she was summoning the courage to ask something momentous.

“Well, I know that you don’t have a padawan,” she began.

“No, I don’t. What does that have to do with the price of Lepana fruit on Belsavis?”

“I just thought…I thought….” she tried again, stumbling over her words. “I thought since I won your challenge that you might take me as your….as your…as your padawan.” She finally blurted out.

Tara took a huge breath at the last word, her eyes boring into him. Davin was amused at her forwardness. Closing his eyes he concentrated on the Force letting it fill him to the core. Releasing his emotions, he centered himself.

He didn’t feel ready for a padawan, but somehow this felt like it was the right thing to do. Davin opened his eyes and smiled at her, confident in his own decision. Despite his choice, he couldn’t resist teasing her one more time.

“What made you think that I’d choose you?” he asked. “What if I had another initiate in mind?”

The girl wavered and for a moment looked like she was on the verge of tears. She swallowed a few times, before answering in a tremulous voice.

“But Master Yoda said…”

Yes, Davin decided. That small green Master had a lot to answer for.

 

Tara is endearing and unique as an initiate too, I see.

 

Sometimes the Master chooses the Apprentice, and sometimes the Apprentice chooses the Master. And sometimes they choose each other.

 

Definitely. She's adorable whatever the age, although I don't know if you'd want to say that to her when she's an adult

Yep. I think Samukay chose Namia and Tara chose Davin (although he would say it was mutual ) . If I get the inspiration then I might also do Qui-Gon, Mace and Taeyn too - and at least one of them is a mutual choosing

Yeah, Namia's definitely an empath. I figured that would work best with her constant desire to be next to people and all of her paramours. It's the emotions that attract her and her ability to see them and to a lesser extent manipulate them which makes her such a good politician and diplomat for the Jedi to have. Luckily Gerald is her teacher as that's kind of how he sees the world too.

I kind of want to hear about the story of you and your husband...although with a big warning so I can make sure I'm not eating at the time. I've been thrown up on plenty by my own kids (and once by a student at school) but luckily never by my husband.

Definitely. Tara starts off as a stickler for the rules although she likes to see how far she can bend them within the confines of the rule itself. Davin is far more spirit of the law rules rather than the rule itself. Spirit because as far as he sees it, most of the Jedi rules are so old and archaic they should be dead and buried with the Jedi who created them.

Definitely. Theirs is probably the most enduring Master/padawan relationship of the lot. I've dragged them from a different universe that I used to write in and there was always a lot of love and affection between them even after Tara was knighted. She never really strayed far from his side even when she could have.

I'm glad you all enjoyed them! Thank you guys so much for reading them!

 

Hum, reminds me a bit of the (Kyber) crystal choosing the Jedi.

Anyway, great peeks into the daily temple life and how choosing is done. In one way or the other!