Anni turned around and her parents followed her nervously. Anni crossed her arms over her chest and walked into the meeting room. She shut the door once her parents got in there and turned to look at them.
She only just realized then that she had completely left Ryder outside the door. She sighed and shook her head before standing up straight.
"What are you angry about now?" Ben asked her.
"The Jedi order!?" She furrowed her brows before stepping forwards. She noticed the two seemed confused. "The new one you want to start?"
"Oh-" Rey muttered before giving a look to Ben. "Your father doesn't a hundred percent agree with it either. I'm not sure that I do but we don't have much of a choice. We can't just do this alone this time. We can't risk losing more people."
"So you want to train a bunch of kids based on ol-" Anni was cut short by her father.
"You haven't even heard the whole story yet, An. How about you wait a second and let us explain before you go off on another tangent on how you think you know more than us?" Ben snapped suddenly. Rey gave him a look and he nervously looked back at Anni.
"We're not... Going by all the old rules." Rey explained. "You wouldn't wake up in enough time for us to talk to you about all of this. We had to go to Naboo on an immediate mission. But, our mission wasn't connected to the Jedi order."
Anni sighed and shook her head. "Then why did you go to Naboo?" Anni asked her parents. Ben looked at Rey for a second before deciding to speak.
"There were things left in the palace that your great grandmother left for my mother. Gowns, jewelery, and a few tokens. The people of Naboo noticed that a necklace she was gifted to by my grandfather was missing. We had to explain where it went. Then there was a celebration for the descendents of Amidala coming back and it was a whole... Trip. You would have come with but, you were knocked out."
Rey suddenly hit his arm. "Which is your fault, may I remind you."
Ben just chuckled and looked down at his shoes.
"So, the Jedi order? You plan on just teaching kids, and for what?" Anni asked and watched as Rey turned to look out the window for just a second.
"Well, we need more force users in the future. We both thought about what you said, Anni. We believe we need to make everything right. There can't be just Jedi and Sith anymore." Ben told her and looked over at Rey. "I'll tell you," he looked back at Anni. "I know how you feel. I agree with you, but right now we need to have a divide between the good and bad. When there is war, there is a divide and your brother wouldn't come with us. This only makes it harder to keep the peace and balance."
"But Kai and I are the balance." Anni told him. "From what I've seen of your lives and my ancestors lives... It's all been leading up to you two. Dyads in the force having the most powerful twins in the Galaxy? I'm not sure you'll be able to create a new group of peacekeeping Jedi without Kai and I fully on board." Anni said truthfully.
Rey looked over at Anni. "Are you fully on board? We need to keep training you obviously but... You'll be able to teach the young ones the basics."
Ben suddenly joined in, "And you have training now on the dark and light. It'll help you differentiate the two better and how to utilize them. So, peace can be made. You have to just trust us. We haven't been the best parents, but we only want the best for you two. Honestly. You know that."
Anni watched her parents before walking over to them. She looked at her mom and then to her dad. She looked into their eyes and she could just feel their pain. They were heartbroken over Kai, but their minds had to be elsewhere. Anni knew that to be fact.
"Can we keep trying to bring Kai home? We know he wants something similar to us. I bet we'll force connect sooner or later... I can talk with him." Anni told her parents.
Rey nodded. "That's fine, you'll be going back with us tomorrow to a few different planets. We've had people contact the resistance about their children possibly being able to be a part of the group."
Anni nodded in understanding. Ben looked over at Rey for a second before sighing.
"Alright, how about you go talk to Ryder again? He's been terribly worried over you. That's probably why he relayed the information wrong." Ben told Anni before motioning for Rey to leave.
Rey turned back around just as she was about to walk out of the meeting room. "Don't forget. Training before we leave tomorrow. I want you to show us what you learned from your brother." She said suddenly. "Just so we know..."
Anni just gave her a thumbs up before watching Ryder step in.
"Wanna go get dinner, An?" Ryder asked Anni and she just nodded happily. "I've missed you." Ryder said as Anni walked over and grabbed his hand.
-
Anni accidentally woke up the next morning. Well, she knew it was coming. Especially when she made the decision that trying to sneak back to her bedroom so late in the night all frazzled would have been a dead giveaway of Ryder and Anni's antics.
Ryder knew a lot more than Anni did, Anni wasn't going to lie. She didn't know much about relationships and sexuality.
She learned quite a bit that night.
Anni rushed out of Ryder's room after getting redressed in her pajamas. She ran down the hall to her room and jumped inside. She squealed as she tried to run around and find her training gear.
She heard a knocking on the door and it was obvious it was her dad being a little annoyed with how late she was. "Anni Solo! Open this door for me! You've got it locked!"
"I'm changing, father!" Anni yelled back as she pulled on her usual outfit.
"Well, we don't have much time. We're gonna run the training course together so let's go! You're so slow..." Ben complained and Anni couldn't help but to laugh at herself.
She suddenly opened the door as she was clipping her lightsaber to her belt. She looked at her dad who was wearing Jedi robes which was a little unusual to her.
Anni just shrugged and walked with her dad out into the woods. The two of them had set up a training course where the two of them fight against each other in order to get the red flag that's tied up somewhere through the woods.
Anni sighed as they arrived the starting area. Anni breathed out shakily as her dad stood in front of her.
"Now, you'll get a few seconds head start. I know where the flag is but you won't, so I'll keep following you even if you go the wrong way. I'll be doing unexpected things to see how well your reaction time is, as well. Are you ready?" Ben asked Anni and put a hand on her arm. She nodded to herself, she had barely said a word to her father.
She couldn't help but feel nervous because of what had happened the night before.
"Go."
Anni turned and ran quickly through the woods. She wished she knew where the flag was because it would be so much easier to find it. She breathed out shakily before turning around to see her dad was now chasing after her.
Ben forgot to tell Anni that he had his lightsaber and a blaster. A blaster shot ran right past her ear. She yelped before taking a left down a small clear path. Then she started to go off the path to try and make her dad miss the shots instead of having to use her lightsaber to block.
They kept running before Anni finally saw a red flag dangling a few yards ahead of her.
Anni then suddenly felt the urge to turn in her tracks. Her feet slid and she turned to see her dad running very fast at her with a lightsaber. Anni quickly pulled hers out and blocked his hit.
Ben was surprisingly more aggressive with his blows than he usually was. Anni grunted as she kept swinging and blocking.
Then, she noticed she had been backing up. The only issue was that the red flag was quite high up on a branch in the tree. She was closer now but she didn't know how to fight off her dad.
Suddenly, his lightsaber hit a tree beside her and cut it in half. Anni yelled suddenly, as instinct came in. She shot her hand out and her dad went flying back against a tree. Anni turned and went to try and climb the tree to get the flag.
Then, a blaster shot hit her right in the leg. She yelled before turning to see her dad was getting up again. He went to shoot again and Anni blocked it using her lightsaber. Then, she started running full speed at him. She blocked his shots with her lightsaber before watching as he moved from the tree. Anni jumped and used her foot to kick off of the tree. She went through the air and over to the other tree. She grabbed onto the tree branch and used her lightsabers to cut off the red ribbon on the branch.
Then, she jumped down and watched as her dad started walking over to her. He was obviously hurt, but so was Anni.
She extinguished her saber before walking over to her dad. Her breathing was heavy and she had sweat dripping down her forehead. She held out the hand with the red ribbon for Ben to take.
Ben went to take it, but Anni snatched it away quickly and laughed at him. She did a little shrug before starting to walk back towards the main base.
"You did well today." Ben said and started to follow her.
"I know. Sometimes I think you underestimate me." Anni joked.