Episode 2
A/N
This chapter is super friggin long oops
Please read the a/n when you get to the end, it's kinda wordy but there's a bunch of important stuff in it c: thanks guys, and enjoy the story!
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You awoke to the sound of birds singing and the happy talking of many people. Rubbing the tired feeling out of your eyes, you got up and walked slowly towards the hallway door. When you peered through the lock out into the hall, you noticed children and teens all headed groggily in the same direction. You quickly ran to the closet, and grabbed a brush and toothbrush out of your bag. After getting ready as quickly as you could, you ran out into the hall only to run straight into someone.
You almost fell over, but the person you bumped into grabbed your arm and helped you stay standing, without even stumbling themselves. Looking up to apologize, you were stunned to notice a faint redness to his deep brown eyes and tear stains running down his face, which was surrounded by a halo of dark curls.
"Are you the new kid?" He asked, emotionless.
You nodded silently, not sure how to respond. Even at a young age, you could tell that this boy, who was maybe three or four years older than you, was very attractive.
"Well, you should watch where you're going," he said coldly, before walking around you and heading down the stairs.
Startled by his unforgiving attitude, you stood still, not sure what to do or where to go.
Before the boy was out of view, however, he shouted, "Well, are you coming, or not?" Before heading down a set of spiral stairs.
You hurried to catch up, and began to walk next to him. After a few minutes of silently navigating through confusingly similar stone corridors, you finally got sick of the silence.
"I'm sorry I ran into you earlier, I'm (y/n) (l/n)," you said, holding out your small hand to him.
He stared at it for a moment before saying, "I guess it's alright, you don't seem as annoying as the others. I'm Ben Solo." He tentatively reached out and shook your hand.
Suddenly, you weren't in the hall anymore. You were in a home, looking at presumably a mother and son, except everything seemed dark and hazy, as if it wasn't real.
"Mom, please, I don't want to be a Jedi! I want to be like dad!"
A very young Ben stood before you, pleading desperately at the knees of a woman with a braid that went across the top of her head.
"Ben, you are the nephew of Luke Skywalker, and the Grandson of Anakin Skywalker. I'm sorry, but you have to uphold the family name."
"My name's Solo, not Skywalker," Ben mumbled.
The scene changed to an even younger Ben hiding, giggling, behind a tall creature covered in brown fur. The creature smiled a bit and seemed amused at what was happening. A man in a pale shirt and brown vest was looking for him, as if they were playing hide and seek, and found him almost instantly due to the laughing.
"Ben, you can't make noise, otherwise someone could find you when you're hiding. Do you want the bad guys to find you?"
Ben stopped laughing and his face fell.
"No, dad."
"Okay, try again then, and this time, make sure that you're hidden."
In the next scene, Ben was older, maybe a year younger than you currently. Two people in brown robes were trying desperately to get him onto a ship.
"Mom! Dad! Please, don't let them take me away! I want to stay with you!" He yelled through tears as his parents watched on, not stopping anything.
"Ben, you must be trained to be a Jedi." The woman from the first vision said.
"Uncle Chewie, please! Stop them! I want to keep playing smuggler with you!"
The creature stood sadly, seeming to want to let Ben stay, but the man looked up at him and sadly shook his head.
You fell over, dizzy, feeling like you were going to vomit. You had no idea, but Ben had seen similar visions of you before you came here, in which you had to go days without the food so that your parents could eat, and you stealing an apple from a man and getting caught, followed with the man beating you until you almost died, while your parents had watched, not stepping in to help. He had seen you trying to make friends, but when you touched them, the same thing always happened. You would unintentionally read their mind and they would freak out, never talking to you again.
While you couldn't tell that he'd seen your past, he most certainly knew that you'd seen his. He jerked his hand away from yours in disgust, holding it close to his chest, as if to protect it from you.
"How dare you," he said harshly, in a low voice.
You sat dizzy, breathing heavily, trying to regain your composure.
You stood up cautiously. "I didn't mean to do that, I swear! I'm so sorry!" You said in a weak voice, shaken from what had just happened.
"You knew that's what would happen when you touch people, but you did it anyways." He said, his voice raising, and his ears getting red.
"I'm so sorry," you repeated, tears coming to your eyes.
Seeing you like this, a young girl, distraught, isolated for the same reason he had been as a kid, he sighed, feeling bad for yelling.
"It's fine, the same thing used to happen to me before I was trained. Until you can control it, try wearing gloves," Ben said in a slightly softer tone, before leading you to a large hall where the rest of the kids were gathered. He went to sit alone at a table in the back, and because you didn't know anyone else, you decided to sit with him.
Looking around the large room, you looked at the other kids. They all wore matching, tan robes, and sat at tables that were scattered around. The floor was similar to the smooth stone in your room, except it was white. There were four pillars that reached up to the high ceiling. At the back of the room stood Master Luke, supervising the children. A few people were walking around the tables and passing out bread, eggs and some strange purple juice.
You and Ben ate in silence, still uncomfortable after what had happened when you shook hands.
When everyone was finished, people began standing up, heading somewhere new. Before Ben and you could get up to follow them, Master Luke walked over and sat next to you at the table.
"I'm glad that you've met and seem to be on good terms," Luke began. "(y/n), this is the boy I was telling you about yesterday, the one with the same powers as you."
You and Ben exchanged glances before staring at the ground, both of you blushing.
"Ah," Master Luke stated slowly. "You had another incident with him, didn't you, (y/n)?"
You simply blushed harder and fiddled with the hem of your cloak. Incidents. That's what your parents had called them. At your worst, you'd been unconscious for three hours after hugging your grandfather. You hated when your parents had called them Incidents, they used the term as a demeaning insult.
Sensing your unhappiness, Master Luke quickly changed the subject.
"I've decided that what will be best for both of your training is if Ben does half of your training, (y/n)."
Ben opened his mouth, an angry look on his face, with the obvious intention to protest Master Luke's suggestion, but Luke spoke first.
"I know you don't like the suggestion, but this means that now half of the time you would be spending with me, you'll be spending anywhere you choose to teach (y/n). Her training must start this morning, Ben, I assume that you see why it's so urgent. I'm trusting you with this."
Luke got up from the table and followed the last kid other than you and Ben out of the room. You looked up at Ben, sensing that he was even more unhappy than before.
Without meeting your gaze, he gestured for you to follow him. He led you through corridors and rooms full of older kids, who were making stones float around the room, or using wooden sticks to fight. He led you out a door and you found yourself standing at the edge of an inky, velvet blue forest. You froze for a moment, looking back, before hurrying to follow the boy who will become your only friend.
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Aaah, I got so excited that people voted that I decided to publish the second chapter tonight c: it's pretty long, I hope you guys don't mind. It's not super eventful, but I had to get this stuff out of the way so we can progress. If you guys see typos, please point them out and I'll fix them (: please keep voting and such, because it makes me excited about writing and updating. I've had problems with other stories where I was excited about them at first, but then nobody voted or anything, so I just didn't think people liked them and I lost interest in them. So if you want to read more, please show your interest! C: (but to be fair it took me like 40 chapters to lose interest) I don't mean to sound needy or anything, it's just that when no one says that they want more, I slowly don't feel the need to write more. I'll start writing episode three tonight though, because it'll be more exciting lmao. Maybe I'll even publish it tomorrow. Idk I'm hype about this story cx