Redemption

OPALINE STONE: THE BEGINNING

[pre-phantom menace] 

[this is where it all began] 

10 year old Opal Stone peered up at her parents through a mass of blonde hair, her eyes fixated on the lightsabers clipped at their belts. She had been taught about the Jedi since she was old enough to comprehend speech, and it was a weapon she only yearned to hold one day. "We will begin to train the girl here with the other younglings. This is only because she is your daughter, Lorelei." An older man, one with dark skin and kind eyes replied. "You two will report to the transport to begin our next search for the Sith Lord. We will destroy the Sith once and for all."

Opal's parents, Lorelei and Parker Stone, knelt down beside their daughter and smiled softly. "Don't be scared, Opal." Her mother said quietly, cupping her daughters pale cheek in her hand. "What do Mommy and Daddy always tell you?"

​ "That a Jedi is supposed to be brave." Opal replied weakly. Her eyes widened as her father reached into the pocket of his robes and produced a key that unlocked the door to the closet in their apartment in Coruscant. The one she was never allowed into because it was a secret. "Are you going to die Daddy?"

Parker Stone stared down at his little girl with sad eyes, shaking his head firmly. "We'll be back before you know it, O." He mused as he lightly nudged her side. The little girl wrapped her thin arms around her father as he turned towards Mace Windu. "Do you see the nice man right there?"

"The one with the purple lightsaber?" The Master Jedi grinned at the little girl, his fingers curling around the sword as an explosion of purple light brightened up the room. "He's so cool!"

​ "He's going to teach you how to be a Jedi." Lorelei said softly, running her fingers through her daughters long blonde hair. "So you call him Master Windu, do you understand?" A-Kia-D'Mundi motioned to his wrist, silently announcing it was their time to depart from the Temple. "Stay with Master Windu and Yoda, Opal. They will teach you what you need to know."

​The two parents eyed their daughter as Mace wrapped his arms around her shoulders, flashing a kind smile. "I love you!" She exclaimed, waving frantically as they disappeared from the room, the doors sliding shut behind them. She didn't need to hear it from their lips to know they loved her too. "So, you are my new Master?"

"Meet the other younglings, you are going." Yoda said softly, leading the young girl through the Jedi Temple to the small room where he led the classes for the Younglings. She had always been excited to learn because she wanted to be strong just like her mother, and brave just like her father. "Children, this is Opal Stone. Be your new classmate, she will."

Opal studied the other children with narrowed eyes until she saw a boy in the corner of the room. He was tall, with strawberry blonde hair and blue eyes, and appeared to be at least two years older then she was. He had an aura of power that none of the other children possessed. "Hello." She greeted. "I'm Opal."

12 year old Obi Wan Kenobi smiled softly at the girl as she approached him. She was peculiar, with her wide doe eyes and her toothy grin, massive blonde curls pulled back into a ponytail high on her head. In the time he'd spent training in the Jedi Temple, she had been one of very few children willing to approach him. "I'm Obi Wan. It's nice to meet you."

"I can feel your power, Obi Wan." She murmured quietly, ignoring the scornful stares from the other children. "Are you powerful?"

"I want to be. I want to be a Jedi." He quirked an eyebrow at her as onyx eyes drifted up and down his body "Do you think I'm powerful?"

​She pursed her lips before lifting her head to look at him, given that he was a good two to three inches taller then she was. "You want to know what I think?" Opal asked. "I think you're magnificent."

That was how it all began. In a training room of the Jedi Temple, where the boy everyone ignored and the girl who wanted to be powerful crossed paths.

The first time Opal cried in front of anyone who wasn't her parents was when she received word of Parker and Lorelei being declared dead after less then a week since departing for their mission. She had been called into the Council session in the midst of training, adorned in newly acquired Jedi robes and brown boots.

"Young Stone, can you come in here?" Yoda had taken interest in Kenobi and Stone, since the two of them were nearly inseparable whenever they were training together. Obi Wan taught her how to be stronger, and Opal taught him how to be more humble and how to have more compassion for people. Obi Wan stood closely behind Opal as she entered the Council room with her head held high. "Have some news on your parents, we do."

Given that he was much further ahead in his training, Obi could feel the guilt that radiated through each member of the Jedi Council. What he didn't understand was why he felt so little grief. "Are they coming back?!" Opal cried out happily, turning her head to beam at him. "Will they be a part of my training as well?"

When no one replied, her smile died as quick as it had been born.

​Mace Windu bowed his head and shook it. "Opal, your parents were killed in a fight during their mission, and were unable to be revived. We lost them both. I'm so sorry honey." She ran over Master Yoda's words from earlier that day in her head as anger overtook her, and everything around the room began to shake.

Fear and anger are both a path to the dark side. Control these, you must.

Her master watched intently as the daughter to two of their best Jedi shook visibly with grief and anger, brown eyes flashing as they shot open to gaze back at him. Before Opal could form a coherent sentence to convey her emotions, Obi Wan stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her. She visibly sank into his embrace as he held her against his chest.

"Will you take care of the girl, young Kenobi?"

Opal wept silently against his chest, her fingers curled into the fabric of his Jedi robe so tightly that they had begun to turn white. "Yes, Master Yoda." Obi Wan replied, staring down at the girl he cared for clutching him like her life line. "Always."

And through the years, Opal Stone grew into a woman of unspeakable power, the anger she held for the murders of her parents shoved to the back of her mind as she became the woman she was destined to be; one made of chaos, a tempest, the spark to light the fire. As Mace Windu trained her, he could see the perfect mix of Stone blood in the daughter of Parker and Lorelei.

It wasn't until she was reunited with her uncle, Qui Gon Jinn, that she saw the man Obi-Wan Kenobi was becoming through his training and through the words they'd exchanged together as children. Even all these years later, after at least ten years of being apart, he was still magnificent.