Star Wars: A New Era.Part 1: Memory Games

Chapter 1: A Puzzle of a Memory

Ben woke up and noticed the Jedi robes that were laid in the chair that Dan had sat in the day before, so he got up quickly and changed into them the fastest he could. Once that was done, he rushed to the training grounds. Despite having zero clues about where it would be, he was able to find it in a matter of minutes. When he arrived, he saw Dan standing gazing up at the twin suns through the lack of roof in the Jedi temple that faced the entrance to the temple. Ben ran over to the older male, but didn't get any words out of his mouth before a lightsaber was pushed into his hands.

"Here, take this," Dan said as he shoved said lightsaber into the younger's hands, "Let's see what you remember."

Dan walked over to a pillar and placed an old Imperial Stormtrooper helmet on top. He then pulled out a blaster and aimed it at Ben.

"Deflect the blaster bolts back at the helmet." Dan instructed, earning a semi-confused look from Ben.

But, without another warning, Dan fired a blaster bolt, causing Ben to fumble to get the lightsaber to ignite, but he quickly found the ignition switch. He activated the lightsaber just in time to deflect the blast away from his body, but not at the helmet. This time, Dan fired twice, and Ben deflected them both, but, once again, missed the helmet by a long shot with the first and managed to barely miss with the second. The next series was a set of four bolts. The padawan deflected and missed with the first, dodged the second, deflected and missed with the third, and then he froze before he could do anything with the fourth. The last blaster bolt knocked the lightsaber out of his hands and he fell back. Dan raced over to see what happened, but Ben didn't respond.

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When Ben opened his eyes, he was on the same training ground that he was when he blacked out, but he was much younger. He assumed, based off of his appearance, that he was probably around eight or nine years old. He was using a much different lightsaber than the one he borrowed from Dan, which was green, but the one he had then was blue. It was a much lighter saber and he was more familiar with it. He didn't get a good look at the hilt, but the blade intrigued him. There was a man who was a blur in the distance, around his thirties, firing blaster bolts at him. Ben used the saber almost effortlessly to deflect a set of sixteen blaster bolts, and all sixteen hit a stormtrooper helmet. The lightsaber was a blur as he carefully deflected each bolt. He never got a good look at the lightsaber hilt but the feel of it was unlike the other saber by a longshot.

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The dream faded as fast as it had come, but Ben could still remember it. Dan was shaking him, trying to get the padawan to awaken. Once he had the strength, he sat up and put his hand on his forehead as he pondered what he had just seen.

"What happened?" Dan asked in a worried tone.

"My training..." Ben began sounding as shocked as he looked, "I-I remember all of it."

"Do you remember the lightsaber form you were trained for?" Dan's voice had changed from a worried tone to a more curious one.

"Form three: Soresu. The most defensive of the seven forms of lightsaber combat." The younger replied surely, remembering what he had been doing during the memory vividly.

"Good." The Jedi smiled and nodded before he spoke. "Are you well enough to try again?"

"I think so, yeah." Ben said with a nod.

Dan grabbed Ben's hands and helped him up his feet. Once up, he picked up the lightsaber and ignited the blade, standing in the opening stance for Soresu when he was ready. His weight shifted onto his dominant leg, which was his right, with the blade held parallel to his non-dominant hand, which was the left. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath in order to help clear his mind of any distractions. He was able to hear each click of the trigger and the charge of each blaster bolt. It was as if the entire world slowed down. A series of eight blaster bolts surged forward. Ben gracefully deflected each laser and every one successfully burnt a hole through the white material.