IV

Kaida was relieved, and a bit shocked, when a pair of Stormtroopers—more like a flock of them, there were so many—removed her from her contraption and transported her to another cell, one of which had no contraption, but an uncomfortable-looking cot and a door. They shoved her inside. She was also surprised that she wasn't handcuffed.

She paced inside of her new home. The old one felt bigger, this one felt more cramped. She felt disconnected from the outdoors. She missed the sun, the rain, clouds, daytime, nighttime, all of it. You never realize just how important something means to you until it's taken from you.

She'd thought that a long time ago, too, but nature had not been taken from her; Ben Solo had.

~*~

"Come on, Kai!" Ben encouraged her as she rolled along the floor, feeling the sting from the practice saber he held. "We aren't learning anything if you don't get up!"

Someone's eager today, Kaida thought as she got on all fours. Her practice saber cut into the floor, leaving black marks. Ben got into a defensive position, egging her on with a look. She slowly moved on him, practice saber protective in front of her. She never wanted to make the first move; she always wanted her opponent to strike first.

Apparently, Ben felt the need to use the same method. It frustrated her a bit.

Fed up, Kaida abandoned her method, gunning for Ben, her ponytail flapping behind her. She pushed off the ground, and with a little help from the Force, flipped in the air, over Ben's head, to come down and strike him from behind. But Ben Solo was attentive, and his practice saber met hers when she landed on her feet. The two sabers sizzled and hissed as they fought for control of the match.

"Fancy move, but not effective," Ben taunted her.

Frowning, Kaida kicked out at Ben's shins, connecting. She saw him buckle, and she swung her practice saber at him, the movements almost too fast for him to comprehend. She had him on the run; he kept backing, jumping away. When he literally catapulted himself backwards, Kaida launched herself into the air. Both practice sabers connected midair, but so did their bodies.

The two fell unceremoniously hard onto the floor, practice sabers singeing their clothes and stinging their bodies. The sabers fell out of the Padawans' hands and shut off as they rolled away from their owners. Kaida felt small shocks in her chest, and she saw Ben on his side.

"You like to go extreme, don't you, Kai?" Ben teased her.

Kaida smiled. He certainly wasn't hurt too badly. "You were retreating. I wasn't going to let you back out so easily. What kind of a fighter would that make you?"

"In your eyes, I'm assuming not one at all." Ben chuckled, adjusting to sit on the floor. Kaida was already on her feet, walking towards her practice saber. Instead, she watched as it launched itself off the floor, nearly smacking her in the face, as it went past her. She turned to find it, and Ben's saber, in both of his hands.

"Lazy," Kaida quipped to her partner in training.

"No, it's smart. You just weren't thinking."

Rolling her eyes, Kaida reached out with the Force to retrieve her practice blade. It started for her, but then it stopped, being pulled on by Ben's use of the Force. Kaida's mouth pursed.

"I won't let you take it that easily from me," he challenged her.

"Always got to make things difficult, don't you?" Kaida's upper lip twitched in concentration. But she saw her saber was being lost to Ben. When she felt her concentration snap, so did the saber towards Ben's outstretched hand again.

"It's not even yours, Kai. We borrow these. Just wait until we get our own!" Kaida saw Ben's eyes light up at the prospect. She, too, began to think about the day she could build her own lightsaber. The day where she would feel one step closer to becoming a Jedi Knight.

"I want a color you don't see a lot," Kaida mused thoughtfully.

"Like what? Orange?"

"Um, no." But she did think for a moment that would be different and potentially cool. "I've always had a liking for purple."

"Well of course you'd like purple; you're a girl."

Kaida snorted. "What color would you get? Blue, because you're a boy?"

"Nah, I think I like your idea of picking a less popular color. Maybe I just might go for that orange saber."

"Why not yellow?"

"That's too bright. We already stare at the sun."

"You can't steal that idea, I thought of it first!"

"You aren't going to pick orange, so don't complain!"

Kaida pouted, but then she laughed. It got Ben to laugh as well. Though the two would sometimes bicker like siblings, sometimes even more than Kaida did with her actual brother Axel, the two Padawans found a kinship in each other.

Kaida didn't expect him to be her training partner, though. He was a good one just as he was a good friend.

~*~

"Kaida?"

Kaida stopped her pacing. The door wasn't open, but she heard someone call for her. It sounded familiar. Like...

"Axel?" She looked up and around. There was no sign of him anywhere. How was she hearing him?

"Kaida? Can you hear me?"

"Yes, yes I can!" She looked around more frantically. "How can I hear you? Were you moved, too?" She went to one wall, putting her hands to it, as though she could melt through and potentially see her twin on the other side. "Are you alright? Did they hurt you?"

"I'm alright. I'm just...I don't know, Kaida. We're in enemy territory, but he wears a familiar face."

So Ben has shown Axel, too. I guess I'm not so special. Kaida ignored that last comment in her head. "I know, he showed me too. This is where he's been, all this time, I assume." She felt her heart drop as she said the words.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be, you aren't the reason behind this. If anyone should be apologizing, it should be me. I led us on this hiding mission, and I failed us." Kaida went to her knees, sorrow filling her lungs. "Now we're captured, and we're potentially going to be killed."

"Potentially being the key word. He wants us alive for some reason."

"He wants Luke Skywalker's coordinates, Axel," Kaida said gravely. "Think about it: he has no other Jedi to try and get the information from."

"But we don't—"

"Know where he is, I know. Did he interrogate you about Luke?"

"No, he didn't."

Strange. "Did he hurt you?"

"No, he monologued to my face. I was all too happy when he left."

Kaida snorted a laugh. "Well, I hope he keeps paying me visits instead of you."

"Kaida—"

"My job is to protect you, brother. And I'm going to do that." Even if it means suffering by seeing Ben's face. Even if it means talking to a man who's completely different than when I knew him.

"We need to focus on breaking out of here."

"And we will."

"Why 'we will'?"

"We need to bide our time. I'm sure they know we want to get out of here. We can't show them how desperate we are. We want them to believe that they've got the upper hand. Once we escape, I'll make sure we do every measure to ensure we're never bothered again, ever."

Kaida heard her brother sigh from the other side of the wall. "Just don't go overboard like you tried to, Kaida. It's how we got ourselves into this—and I'm not blaming you when I say that."

"Sure you're not," Kaida half-joked.

Even making a half attempt of a joke lifted Kaida's spirits some. She was going to need it, for her sake. She wasn't sure what lay ahead, but she knew one thing was for certain.

She was going to outlast this as long as possible to give herself and her brother a fighting chance of survival.

**Aw, my little babies back when they were Padawans. Oh, the cuteness.

And then we get back to the present which isn't as cute.**