A Star Among Planets (Star Wars Rebels Fanfiction)

Chapter 30: Taken

Flashback

"No! No!"

Brist struggled to hold Mietro down as he tried to insert the needle into his vein. He had had this treatment a few days before, but it was extremely painful and everyday it was a challenge just to get him to sit still for it.

Brist kept pushing Mietro down, his teeth gritted in frustration "Mietro, I know that it hurts, but this is the only way right now to make sure that something like this doesn't happen again, okay?"

Mietro looked over to Brist with round eyes. "You have no idea how this feels," he mumbled as he looked away from his Master with tears in his eyes.

Brist sighed and drew back, allowing Mietro to thrash a bit as his tics took over. Brist just talked him through it. "You're right. I don't know what it's like to have tremors, or seizures, or that body attacking thing, or anything else you have, but I did grow up with a brother that had challenges of his own."

Mietro's eyes glowed in interest. "What do you mean," he asked as the hissing died down and his tail tip stopped thrashing and his ears tried to lay down.

"If you let me do your meds in this IV then I'll tell you about him, how about that," offered Brist.

Mietro gulped before nodding slowly. Brist took the needle in steady paws. Sparik had taught him the proper way to insert a needle if Mietro was unable because of his tremors or anything else. Brist stuck the top of the needle into Mietro's vein and Mietro whimpered in pain. He then placed some tape on it to hold it down. He set the rate of injection and nodded as he sat in a chair next to Mietro.

Once Mietro calmed down, Brist began. "I was born in a litter of two. It was me and my brother, Blizzard."

"Brist and Blizzard," mumbled Mietro since the medication usually made him tired, but Brist saw that he was determined to stay away. "Why didn't they name you Brisk?"

Brist purred. "They actually did. I changed it once I entered the Jedi system. Anyway, my brother's name was Blizzard. Our parents loved us very much, but we were selected as newborns, who still needed to be nursed, to become Jedi. They changed our named to Brist and Karp."

Mietro liked both of those names. "I like your brother's name. It's like the name of a wonderful fish that tastes sweet when we hunt on Naboo."

"You're rambling," chided Brist gently as he lifted a paw and tapped it gingerly against Mietro's nose. "Anyway, we were chosen and taken here. We trained with other younglings, but I noticed that Karp was falling behind. He wasn't reaching milestones and other things were happening to him. He had always been a little different, but I had tried my best to ignore it. One of the healers took him away and they diagnosed him with Down Syndrome."

Mietro hadn't met anyone with Down Syndrome before or really any disability since the Jedi frowned against physical or mental disabilities. They thought it was too challenging for them to become Jedi. Without Brist's pleading, Mietro would have never been accepted. "I want to meet your brother," wheezed Mietro as his eyes turned cloudy and his head slipped onto his shoulder tiredly.

Brist sighed heavily. "When that happened they didn't really pay attention to him. He was smart as a whip, but other things weren't coming to him. His communication and size were lacking as well so they didn't think that he could be a Jedi."

"That's awful," Mietro suddenly snapped as he perked up. Once he did he lowered back down and yawed to show his large and glinting teeth.

"I know," sympathized Brist as he touched his nose to Mietro's ear to relax him. "I was chosen as a padwan but Karp wasn't. I always went and saw him and he was always studying since athletics weren't his thing."