Kissed by Fire: Cal Kestis

Chapter 26

Cal could feel Y/n's emotions through the veil of the tomb around him. It felt like nothing, not even this vile place, could block her from him. Although it certainly tried. As he reached out a hand to the door, he felt the power of the tomb, just like every other before. Except this time, when he used the Force, nothing happened. The blue glow he had seen disappeared as soon as it had appeared before him. He sighed, turning to look back at Y/n as he said, "Whatever that was... it's gone."

Except when he turned around, she wasn't there.

"Y/n?" he called out, and noticed that BD had disappeared too. He hoped it wasn't another Haxion Brood situation, they but had been the only ones in the tomb, and the door was still closed to his exit. "BD? Y/n?!" he called once more. "Where are you??" His only response was his own echo.

He looked down to the ground, gazing in confusion at the blue meditation circle that had arisen from the stone floor. It's the tomb he thought to himself. It was the only explanation for this turn it presented him with. He was the Jedi. It was him that needed to go through the trials. Kneeling down, he felt the Force calming his senses and swirling around him as he fell into the familiar meditation.

Cal awoke from meditation in his room, the metal walls and yellow blanketed cot all too familiar to the young thirteen year old. He stood up, and looked at the time. He knew if he was late for training again, Master Tapal would make him scrub the floors. He opened the door in front of him to see the familiar walls of the ship he and his master were stationed on. Running through the halls, he stopped when he saw a clone trooper standing near the doors.

"Hey, Cal," the trooper said, and Cal grinned at the familiar paint. All the troopers customized their armor almost as soon as they left Kamino. The yellow paint was the symbol of Jaro Tapal's unit, but rest of it was whatever the clone deemed himself to be. "You ready for a rematch later?"

"Yeah, anytime!" Cal excitedly said, grinning at the thought. He loved testing his abilities with the clones.

"Sounds good. On your way to training?" the trooper asked him.

"Always," Cal shrugged.

The trooper nodded, saying, "Alright then, I'll see you later."

"Bye!"

Cal approached the next crossroads on the ship, seeing a GONK droid and a couple of troopers hanging around the area. He overheard them as they spoke. "I heard we're getting new orders soon."

"Finally," replied another trooper. "I'm ready to be gone from this dump."

"We're leaving Bracca?" Cal joined the conversation.

"Possibly," one of the troopers said, and Cal grinned. He wanted off of this space junk pile since they had arrived.

"Don't get his hopes up with second-hand gossip," the other trooper scolded the first.

Cal let out a little laugh, saying, "It's okay. I'll believe it once Master Tapal says so."

"Speaking of your Master..." the first trooper said pointedly, reminding Cal of the reason for his journey.

"Oh, yeah. I better go."

He went to sprint towards the training bay, but one of the troopers laughed at his hurry and said, "You're in a rush!"

"Master Tapal's called me for training," Cal informed the trooper with a smile.

"You got this, kid," the trooper assured him, and gave the Padawan a crisp high five for good luck before Cal passed him and entered the training room.