Earthlings 2: The Dark Age

10

(A week or so later...)

All was well at Cid's Parlor now that Cid was back in control. Well... almost.

Later that night, Noble had awoken from a nightmare, with a pink kyber crystal having appeared magically in her hand. While initially shocked at the sight, Kendall had watched her play around with the crystal for about a week before Leda convinced her to consider training the clone. While skeptical of the idea of training Palpatine's daughter, Kendall had agreed.

Now here she was, in the Marauder' s parking lot with the Bad Batch, Leda, Bolo and Ketch. Noble's neon pink lightsaber dimly glowed in the morning sky, and tomatoes covered her armor, her face, and her blindfold. Cid wouldn't have her parlor in 'shambles', so they were outside.

"Ok, this is the 20th one, you gotta block it this time," Leda called, tossing another juicy red tomato in her hand.

"You can do it, Hasty!" Bolo cheered.

"No ya can't!" Ketch gave them a thumbs down with one hand, the other holding a handful of credits. Kendall rolled her eyes. Those two always liked to bet off of one's training; they'd done so with Omega's target practice multiple times, and with Kendall's lightsaber training (with Echo and Flash shooting at her) following the escape from Fortress Inquisitorius.

The tomato was released at full speed, and ended up in Noble's hand. The clone then proceeded to hurl the fruit at Bolo and Ketch in irritation, causing the two of them to yelp.

"Watch it!" Bolo complained.

"Then SHUT UP!" Noble glared at them, lifting her blindfold fully from her eyes. "Kriffing morons..."

"Not very good at it, is she?" Wrecker whispered to Flash, who snickered. Omega watched intently, munching on a carton of Mantell Mix while occasionally dropping a kernel in Dume and Delvin's mouths.

Kendall sighed. This was gonna be harder than she thought, considering she already was wary of the task. "Noble, part of being a Jedi or a soldier is to learn to tune out distractions. Which will always persist in life."

"Apparently that's two different things if you're a Jedi," Noble muttered under her breath.

"Maybe it feels that way because if you're a Jedi, more focus is required," Kendall replied. "Concentrate with the Force, and it will guide you. It's not just a tool to stir up a storm, or to move things. It's all around you."

"It's way easier to stir up a storm than to block tomatoes while I can't- OOF!" Noble groaned, turning towards Leda. "I wasn't ready!"

"Oops..." Leda shrugged, resisting a snicker.

"You must be ready even when you're not ready," Kendall intoned. "Rarely are you ready for anything."

Noble huffed, retracting her blade before holstering her weapon and going to pet her wolf. Dume licked her face clean of tomato juice as Kendall exhaled. So this was why the Council had been so against recruiting force sensitives past 3 years old... she couldn't blame them; she remembered giving Mundi a hard time herself at age 10. But Noble was a fully grown adult. Something unheard of, she was sure.

"Master..." Leda approached her now. "To be honest, I never really got that one."

Kendall raised a brow. "Never got what-?"

"To be ready when you're not ready." Leda shifted a bit. "How's that possible...? I mean... the end of the war... this...order 66..."

That was a good point. No one had been ready the moment the clones turned their blasters on them. And yet they reacted accordingly. They'd defended themselves the best they could, though many died that night. Many was an understatement.