SWRC: Hidden Pasts (Book 2)

Chapter 3 A Padawan?!

"Master, do you realise how crazy that sounds right?!" exclaimed Neeran.
"Crazy, how is it, hmm?" asked Master Yoda.
"Ah, yeah it is," replied Neeran. "I don't care if you've all gone and involved yourselves in another bloody war, I can't take on a Padawan."
"Take a Padawan, why can't you?" asked Yoda.
"You of all people in this place should know the answer to that," replied Neeran, a little exasperated. "You know what I am, what I've been through, what happened to me. Does it still seem like a good idea now?"
"Good idea, it is. Take on a Padawan, you will."
"There's no reasoning with people nowadays," groaned Neeran. "Fine! I'll take on a Padawan for you, happy?"

Yoda simply chuckled in reply.

Neeran groaned and closed her eyes in concentration. Neeran's facial expressions became neutral as she waved her hand across the room seeking the Padawan that Master Yoda thought was in the room before her.

Only Neeran's mind went elsewhere.

A vision showed her flashes of battles with iconic Jedi Knights and Masters along with their Padawans and youngling initiates. But what stood out to her were several people who looked exactly like her and Zach and the rest of their Squad from Earth along with her Master and some other familiar figures.

And a darkly clad figure whose breathing sounded different and raspy, slaughtering Jedi.

Their screams echoed through Neeran's mind as she then saw the boy who was to be her Padawan within the Temple as clear as daylight in her mind as her eyes snapped open from the vision.

"Neeran?" asked Zach. "What's wrong?"

"I... don't know Zach," whispered Neeran. "I think I had a vision, but it made no sense."

A quizzical look was on Master Yoda's face, asking two things to Neeran in the question, 'what did you see?'

"I saw a boy who you reckon should be my Padawan," replied Neeran. "As for the vision, I don't know what it means honestly."

"The Padawan," asked Yoda, not pressing Neeran for the visions meaning at that time. "Know where he is, do you?"

"He's not in here," replied Neeran as she quickly scanned the room to see him. "Come think of it, I don't think he's even in the Temple."

"The Padawan's name, know it do you?" asked Yoda.

"Hanonai, oh no wait, Hiccup Hanonai," replied Neeran, closing her eyes for a moment to locate his conscious and his name before she replied.

"Hanonai," mused Yoda, as he thought about the name. "Transferred, he is being."

"So, he's too old to be a Padawan?" asked Neeran with a raised eyebrow.

"Thirteen tomorrow, he will be."

"Then it's a good thing I came along," replied Neeran. "It seems that you guys class someone too old when they're 13. I was way older than that when I began my training."

"You were about 15,806 Neeran," said Theta.

"Don't need to prove a point, Theta," said Neeran as he giggled and shut off.

Zach just rolled his eyes and sighed quietly behind Neeran, "There's no reasoning with you."

Neeran shot him a look before asking Master Yoda, "Where would he be?"

"Outside the Temple, Hiccup likes to be," replied Yoda as he started to walk towards the central courtyard of the Temple.
"Interesting," muttered Neeran quietly to herself.

Neeran and Zach followed Yoda out of the central halls of the Temple and out into the courtyards to find a boy around 13 beside a tree in a deep meditative trance whilst doing a single-handed handstand.
"Moving meditation," said Neeran, with some awe. "That's very rare."
"Padawan Hiccup," called Master Yoda.
The auburn-haired boy snapped his eyes open at Master Yoda's call, placed both hands down on the ground before him and somersaulting across his shoulders onto the ground, using the momentum to get up onto his feet and face Master Yoda and the strange figure standing beside him.
"Master, what do you mean?" asked the boy. "I'm not apprenticed to anyone. I'm going into the Scout Force the day after tomorrow."
"Not so, Hiccup," said Neeran. "You're now my Padawan."

The look on Hiccup's face was a mix of hopefulness that it was true and disbelief that he wasn't going to be apprenticed.

"Really, Master Yoda?" asked Hiccup with a voice that implied his doubt in what was being said and genuine truth that what was being said was actually true.

"Correct, Master Neeran is," replied Yoda with a kind smile on his face.

"Please don't call me that," groaned Neeran.

Down below, Hiccup watched as she had started casually talk with Master Yoda and wondered if she even was a Jedi and not a bounty hunter. However, the name Neeran sparked a long forgotten memory in Hiccup's mind. He couldn't quite place where he'd heard it, but sounded so very familiar to him he could have sworn that he known this person, if she could be termed that, for a very long time.

"There's a reason you wanted me to have a Padawan again, isn't there Master Yoda?" asked Neeran, breaking Hiccup out of his train of thought.

"Yes," replied Yoda. "To Ryloth, swiftly you must go. In the middle of a two-sided war, the Twi'leks are. Require your aide, Republic forces do."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" exclaimed Neeran, waving her hands in front of her. "I said I'd take on a Padawan, not enter your war!"

"A good friend of the Twi'leks, you are," answered Yoda. "Require your assistance in these battles, Masters Windu and Obi-wan do."

"Obi-wan? He's a Knight now?" asked Neeran, with a tone of genuine surprise.

"He's been a Knight for over a decade," said Hiccup, with a curious look on his face. "He's a Jedi Master now."

Neeran glanced down at the boy out of the corner of her eye, and noted his inquisitive tone and look on his face.

"That's very interesting," said Neeran, carefully.

Hiccup could tell that 'Neeran' wasn't like your ordinary kind of Jedi. There was something about the way that she carried herself that made her seem like she wasn't a Jedi, but someone of a different walk of life who just happened to be very close to the Jedi and possibly had learnt how to wield a lightsaber from another Jedi.

'Either way,' thought Hiccup. 'She still seems familiar.'

"Why are they on Ryloth of all places in the galaxy?" continued Neeran.

"Under siege, the Twi'leks are," replied Yoda. "Require assistance against their attacks, they do. Help them out, you should."

"I realise I know quite a lot about the Twi'leks, their culture and whatnot, but how is that supposed to assist me in training him?" asked Neeran indicating to herself and Hiccup.

"Assist you in strange ways, the Force can," replied Yoda knowledgably. "Trust in the Force, you shall."

"Alright," groaned Neeran, understanding what Master Yoda wanted. "I'll go to Ryloth. Satisfied?"