The Darkness Within

Chapter 8

At the age of five, a man clothed in white appeared at the door of my house. I lived alone with my mother and I did not know who my father was. The man and my mother talked for several hours and remember being awoken at about midnight, my mother handed me a bag and said go. I did not know that I had the power to use the Force. My mother however knew it very well. When I was a toddler I apparently lifted my favorite toy from a high shelf and made it come to me.
I found out that the man's name was Luke. He would train me for the next fourteen years of my life. I think that I have hated him for taking me from my mother. At the same time, I have hated my mother for letting him take me.
In my early years of training, I did very well. Master Luke often told me that I was very skilled and would be a great Jedi one day. He was always kind to me, but I would only reply with a nod. I admit I was barely civil to him. I was not well liked by the other trainees. I would often sit alone on a dirt mound by the discarded remains of maintenance droids. Some students envied my abilities, they all had their own groups. I shared a room with a girl my age, but we never spoke. She was born on a faraway planet and we didn't speak the same language. I longed for the day when my training would be complete and I could leave. I would trade the freedoms I have now for those old times of loneliness.
When I turned thirteen Master Luke had me fight with a boy a year older than me. He used his abilities to manipulate the mind, but somehow I got past that and gave him a deep scar on his side. He was rarely bested and my ability to beat him perplexed him, so we became friends. He talked to me and I realized that he was the boy who would come demolish the broken droids. When he turned eighteen he got his own apartment, in the student building, and I would go there instead of the dirt hill. Often he would come in and be drenched in sweat, he'd go take a shower and I could almost swear that I hear him crying. He never asked me how I was, he would always read my thoughts or emotions. He taught me to read minds. There were days when I strictly forbid him to read my thoughts. Sometimes he listened sometimes not. I remember two distinct times that he read my mind and actually reacted. Once when I was a teenager walking down a hall and a visiting boy my age smirked at me and raised his eyebrow I thought him rather attractive, Ben had glared at him and almost knocked him down. The second time was when I sat in his apartment and I thought he wasn't there. I had overheard other girls talking about me, calling me names that I couldn't bear the thought of. I was crying and a thought, not my own, appeared in my mind. "They are wrong." Ben came and sat next to me on the couch and what shocked me most, he hugged me. He held me until I was able to stop the tears and the dark thoughts. "Do not ever think that you are like that. They are jealous bitches." When that moment ended he asked me to leave. That was just after his nineteenth birthday. And just before it all happened.
Someone... Something came and killed everyone. Every child, every living breathing thing. I felt so much sadness and pain, I have cried over the dead bodies of my fellow students and mourned the loss of those who hated me. I lived with Maz, and now I am here with Tekka and the believers of the Force. I hope that nothing worse happens.
Jano finished her writing and reread four times. It wasn't long. It could have been longer. She would write more later.

The day Jano returned to the camp, a pilot showed up. He was apparently part of the Resistance. His name was Poe Dameron.

Lor Saan came to Jano during her practicing, as Poe's x-wing landed just outside the village. "Jano, our guest has just arrived, at present, I cannot talk with him. Things are far too busy today, so many things must be tense to by... Well myself. Please show him around for the day, entertain him. I will catch up with you later tonight." He waddled off and Jano glared at the ship. He had better not be an ass.. she thought twirling her blade.

"Hello." She said extending a hand after he had disembarked. "Name's Jano."

"Poe," the pilot shook out his black curls as he took off his helmet. "Poe Dameron. I'm here to see Lor Saan Tekka."

"Yes. I know." Jano said rolling her eyes. "Tekka is very busy today and I'm supposed to show you around."

"Ahh. Okay." Poe said glancing back at his ship. He seems familiar, I wonder why... "Hey! BB-8! Don't take all day."

"BB-8?"

"My pal." A small orange and white robot rolled up to the pair.

"He's a fun looking fella. Wish I had one." Jano said with a smirk.

"Well, he's my lifelong traveling buddy."

"I could use one of them too."

"Really? You travel much?" Poe asked running a hand through his hair.

"Oh yeah, I haven't been here long, only a couple of weeks. I thought I would be able to learn a lot here but they can't teach me much else, it's just the peace that's keeping me now."

"So you aren't a believer in the Force?"

"I'm a believer alright! In fact, I'm a user of it." Jano grinned motioning to her lightsaber.

"Woah a saber! I've never seen one in person before. Mind if I touch it?" Poe's fingers brushed the handle.

"Be my guest." Poe took the saber and began fiddling with it. "How the hell do you turn it on?"

Jano used the Force to turn it on and Poe almost stabbed himself in the face. "This is great! I wonder how hard it is to harness this type of tech."

"Couldn't be too hard, that was made by a seventeen year old." Jano shrugged.

"You made this at seventeen? You must be some kind of genius." He grinned at her and spun the saber.

"I didn't make it. A close friend did, before the invasion."

"Invasion? Do you mean when the Jedi training center got destroyed?" Poe looked puzzled. Of course, that's what I mean. Jano thought as she nodded her head. "That wasn't an invasion. It was a Jedi that turned on the rest of you. Or at least that's the only story I've heard."

Jano stepped back and sat down hard. "W-what?"

"You didn't know?" He said sitting down next to her after closing the saber.

"No... I didn't. Who would do that?"