Fixing Our Broken Pieces || The Bad Batch

Prologue P3: It's the leaving that's hard

"Orla?" Caleb waited for Orla to exit those court doors. He stopped caring who had been arrested or what was going to happen, he just couldn't wait to see his older sister. To walk with her, head high through those doors, and escort the criminal out of the temple. He hoped he could be of such importance to the Jedi as he saw her. Too bad she didn't see it like that.

Orla was last to walk through the door, she seemed distraught and taken back by the little padawan calling her name.

"Oh Caleb it's you," she continued walking, staring in front, tense, walking as if she was chasing after someone.

"What's wrong, why are you acting psycho?"

She relaxed, took off her mask, and smiled, maybe even quietly laughed but she still didn't seem normal.

"Sorry, just... Well someone just said something to me that surprised me, and scared me a little."

"Scared you? Like what?"

Something Orla hated most about Anakin was how popular he was. Not just to the Jedi but the whole galaxy. Everyone who met him saw him as a hero and she never understood why. Why was he so highlighted, he was arrogant, selfish, inconsiderate, and annoying. How could anyone see him as anything but a nuisance, a child who can't follow the most straightforward instruction? She knew how much Caleb idolized him "one of the best Jedi in the order" he would say.

"I have dreamed of being a Jedi master from the moment I walked in those doors. To become someone with great power and wisdom and pass it down to someone else. Then I can go explore the galaxy and put my years of training to use. Now I have that dream, I'm a Jedi master, but that's it. I have no padawan, I have been to less than 10 planets my whole life and all I do is guard a building that is already filled with the most powerful Jedi, so I question every day why am I even trying. That dream was granted so quickly that in a way the fantasizing was snatched away so fast and I was hit with the reality that that's not every Jedi's life. I hate it, I hate that he has everything I don't have. A padawan, a purpose, a master who pays attention to him, respect from everyone he meets. And the one thing I have that he doesn't, I don't even care about anymore. I feel like I'm in prison, that if I don't get out of here I'm gonna live the rest of my life protecting something that I don't care about anymore. Something that other people don't care about either."

Caleb knew she was talking about Anakin. She rolled her eyes even by the mention of his last name. One time he said how he was one of the best Jedi and she tried to keep her smile but her insides were burning up. Until now he never asked what was her problem with him, assuming it was because they were rivals when they were both padawans and how irritating she found him but he never thought it was because she was jealous of him. Even though he thought she was a much better Jedi.

"Caleb I can't stay here anymore."

"What?" Where did this come from?

"I just need to figure out what I want to do with this, what kind of Jedi I wanna be. I don't want to guard for the rest of my life and I don't want to live in a temple for the rest of my life and take orders from the council for the rest of my life. I can't do it."

Caleb's Jedi experience was completely different from hers. Being involved in the war meant no two days were the same and he could imagine that doing the same thing every day would drive someone mad.

This galaxy wasn't made for us she thought.

"Ok," he did try to cover up his disappointment but it still had the sound of his heart completely shattering. His sister, his role model, and his only family were leaving and he may never see her again. It's not fair, why couldn't the council have given her a seat on the council then she could work with the war and go to other planets and help people as she wanted?