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witchyclispe · 5 years

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Master of Balance

Posted on ao3 too! Check it out there!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/22412821/chapters/55004956

BLOOD AND MURDER WARNING! Please be cautious if those themes bother you!

Chapter Two

Life is Short

The next few years would grow to be increasingly chaotic for the poor old mechanic . He had certainly not expected it would be so hard to raise another human being but damn had he been wrong. Although Ziorah was a fairly easy girl to raise , she was a very odd child. Always so curious and rambunctious. Percival loved her more than absolutely anything and would give anything to see that adorable little girl smile or hear her giggling.

Percival smiled looking into his living room to see his now 7 year old daughter playing with her "auntie 'thala" as she liked to call her. Arthala had helped him quite a bit with raising the small girl, often times watching her as he went to work out in the garage . Thought the sneaky thing would somehow get past the 7 foot beast of a woman to watch her father working on the old and brand new ships .

The old man was always happy to have Ziorah help him with his work and could see a great deal of mechanical potential in her , which filled him with so much pride you'd think the man might explode when she first completely repaired a set of blasters he kept lying around. The little girl was only 7 for God's sake!

When the little girl noticed her father in the room she jumped off of her aunties shoulders and ran over to him laughing and smiling " Daddy!!! Auntie 'thala brought me a gift!!" Bending down, he picked up Ziorah and let her settle in his arms. " Oh a gift? What was it my little moon?" , Percival asked with mild curiosity. "She brought me old parts! I can add them to my collection Dad!!", Ziorah said with the purest smile .

"Very cool my love. Did you thank your auntie?", " Uhuh! Then me and auntie started playing! She let me ride her shoulders! " she said pointing towards the woman who stood back in their living room. " Zio is getting' fasta old man. We might need to start tyin' her down!", Arthala said with a loud laugh , placing her hands on her hips . "No! You'll never catch me auntie!" , the girl said climbing out of her adoptive fathers arms. "Alright alright you two, lets not start a race while we're inside , ok?" , Percival said with a chuckle.

" oh wait! Daddy, auntie! I want to show you a magic trick!" , Ziorah shouted tugging on the bottom of her father's shirt and pulling him into the living room. "Since when can you do magic little moon?" , the old man asked quizzically, sitting on his sofa as Arthala say next to him. "Since a few days ago! It happened when I was sleeping and I want to show you guys!", the 7 year old girl said very excitedly . "Well then show us Zio!" , Arthala exclaimed just as excitedly. Ziorah quickly nodded and stood in the middle of the room and shut her eyes tightly , raising her hands in front of her .

Slowly but surely the table that sat beside the couch started to rise into the air. The light and pens that had sat on top of it now floating with the small table. Percival's mouth opened to say something but he was too shocked to even speak . Arthala's mouth hung open in the same gesture of pure shock and bewilderment. Carefully Zio's eyes opened and she looked directly at the table as she brought it back to the ground .

Once everything had been placed back exactly where it had been , Ziorah dropped her arms and looked at the shocked expressions of her father and aunt. "See! I can do magic!", she said whilst her father found his voice again " Ziorah that… that was-" , "Amazin'! Fantastic!! Ya did great dear!" , Arthalas loud voice cut him off as she stood up to hug her niece, all the while Percival just looked at his daughter in awe .

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"Alright my little magician , time for bed .", Percival spoke picking up his half awake and yawning daughter. " Ok daddy. Night night auntie!" , Zio said waving to her aunt. Arthala smiled waving back to the sleepy little girl telling her to sleep well as Percival walked towards the small bedroom he had made for Ziorah just after he first took her in. Placing her down on the small bed , Percival helped to tuck her under the covers. "Daddy I heard the boy again today. " Ziorah spoke out as she sat back into her pillows . " oh? And what did he say today little moon?" , the old man asked as he sat on the side of his daughter's bed.

He had known about the voice Ziorah had been hearing since she could first understand what it was. He often would hear her talking to no one in the middle of the night though it often seemed only like a one sided conversation . She liked to call the voice "the boy " due to never knowing its real name and hating to just call it a voice. "It's a real person daddy i know it is. " she had once told him . To say Percival wanted to believe her would be a stretch . No one sane was known to hear voices and it worried him that she could , that was until today though.

"She's force sensitive Arthala! That's how she was able to move the table! I can't believe I never saw it until now! " , the old man said to his friend as he stood in the kitchen making dinner for the three of them. "Force sensitives are a rare thing now aren't they ,old man? I know ya believe in that mumbo jumbo but ya can't really think its real Perc." , Arthala said leaning on the counter top . "I was brought up believing in it . So was my father and his father before him! Force sensitives are known throughout the galaxy , 'Thala . Only certain people can even pick up on the force , and even fewer can control it! Don't you remember the stories of the Jedi Order? Luke Skywalker?!", Percival stated. He was excited yet scared for his adoptive daughter. Rysheladon wasn't exactly the best place for force users . If you were found to be connected to it they would either kill you, or use you as a slave to the royal family . It usually ended up being the first option due to how much the royal family hated force users of any kind.

Percival suddenly stopped what he was doing and turned towards his large friend and in a quiet yet stern tone he spoke to her. " We can't let anyone know of this Arthala. It could get her killed , I'd never be able to handle that. If anyone ever finds out she- she could be taken away and put into slavery…. 'Thala that little girl means more to me than anything in the entire galaxy i-i cant let that happen." , the old man stuttered out . " I promise you Percival . That will never, never , happen to her. We will teach her to control it and not to suppress it so she will never accidentally hurt herself or someone else. " , at that Percival nodded . That evening a silent bond had been formed between them. No one would ever know of Ziorah's connection to the force except for them.

They would make damn sure of that .

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"The boy is always so nice daddy… I wish he could hear me like i hear him " , Ziorah said with a yawn as she laid down into her fluffy pillows . " I know my love. Maybe one day he'll hear you and you can both talk to each other. Maybe even face to face. " , Percival said kissing his daughters forehead and standing up from his spot beside her bed . "I hope he likes me…like i like him ." , he heard her say as he walked to the doorway . "I'm willing to bet he'll love you more than anything little moon. Now go to sleep so you can help me tomorrow in the shop . " , he said with a smile as he quietly turning off her small lamp light . " Alright daddy, i love you . " , " I love you too my little moon , sleep well. "

As he shut the door to his daughters room, Percival sighed . As if it were a silent prayer, he whispered into the dark hallway , " oh force, please protect my daughter. Let her grow to be a beautiful young woman, she's already far smarter than I could ever be, strong too . Let her always be strong ."

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Today would be a day of celebration, it would be the 11th birthday of a lovely little girl . Ziorah Casamorsa , adoptive daughter of the legendary mechanic Percival Casamorsa .

Percival was quickly preparing his home for the arrival of his daughter coming home from school and 'spiritual training' at her aunties. Even though in his old age he should definitely not be hanging streamers of stars around his living room, Percival didn't care one bit. Just because he's 72 doesn't mean he can't decorate for his baby girls birthday . Ziorah would be home soon with her aunt and he would wait to surprise her with the slightly deformed birthday cake he had made .

There was a loud knocking at his front door which almost startled him enough to make him fall off the small ladder he was standing on . " Guess they're really early today. " , he said to himself as he carefully stepped off of the ladder and walked over to the front door of his home . As he unlatched the lock and opened it his smile quickly fell from his face.

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" I'm so excited to see dad 'thala! He said he got a really cool new jet turbine that i could help him work on tonight!" , the 11 year old Ziorah said looking up to her aunt as she held her vastly larger hand . " I see little one , ya always like helpin' with those old ships. Ya got quite the talent for mechanic work Zio." , Athala smiled towards the little girl. " They aren't old! Just rustic Thala." , Ziorah said as they walked arrived to Percival's home .

The house , though very old looking, was nice . It was fairly small on the outside and all you could see was the large garage that could only hold about 10-20 small ships at a time. Some of them stationed outside and around the plot of land near the home. The house was colored in different shades of brown and blue . The door was made of metal to keep out what seemed like the never ending cold weather that Rysheladon experienced . Though today something seemed very off at the house she grew up in, or at least it did to Ziorah.

Ziorah came to a complete stop and let go of her aunts hand, "Auntie, something is wrong. " , the little girl spoke out almost in a monotone voice . "What'dya mean dear? Nothin' looks wrong" , the beast of a woman said coming to a stop with her niece . Arthala crouched down beside Ziorah as the girl looked towards the house with an unreadable expression. Suddenly Ziorah ran towards the house, much faster than even Arthala could keep up with . Ziorah has only gotten faster as shes grown so suprisingly outrunning her beast of an aunt was nothing to her .

The moment Ziorah came to stand at her front door and as she opened it she could almost feel the force leave her small body.

Blood.

So much blood.

Ziorahs eyes widen as she followed the path with her eyes to three figures standing over something. "Shit, we cut him too much now he's just going to bleed out.", one of the men said loud enough that Ziorah could hear it.

Arthala finally caught up to Ziorah and saw the horror of the 3 strangers standing over Percivals limp and bloody body. "WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU DONE!?" , Arthala all but roared to the three men now grabbing their attention. Arthala started to walk through the door when very suddenly everything inside the house and even outside the house started floating. Arthala could feel power radiating behind her .

As she looked back , she saw Ziorah with a stone cold expression upon her young face. Tear tracks down her cheeks that were red from the cold outside. Suddenly Arthala could hear gasps coming from the three strangers as she saw them being choked from some invisible hand .

"You hurt my daddy. " , Ziorahs almost dead voice said as she walked into the room looking at the men as they all were gasping for breath . " Zio no! Your powers! " , Arthala called out to her . " Little one let me handle them, please! Take care of your father!" , Arthala all but yelled to her niece .

The men all fell down as Ziorah heard her aunt call to her. Arthala , with quick movements, grabbed all three of the men and started to hold them down and cut off their breathing supply again . Zio hurried to her father's side , taking off her jackets to apply some sort of pressure to the wounds that littered his abdomen.

In a choked whisper, Percival spoke to his daughter ,"lit-little… m-moon… I-I am sorry…. To-t-to leave you… " . "Daddy please don't say that! Y-you'll be ok! I'll fix you! P-please dad!" , ziorah yelled to him, even more tears running down her cheeks . "M-my strong girl… m-my little g-girl… a-always be ...s-str-strong…." , the old man said as he laid his blood covered hand over top his daughters . With his last breath he said he loved her as the light was leaving his eyes. Ziorah broke down crying harder into her father's chest .

Arthala felt the pain and change in the force around them as Percival died. It had stopped her from choking one of the men for one a few seconds , but a few seconds was all he needed to pull the knife out of one of his pockets and stab Arthala in the chest. She roared in pain as he got the jump on her and turned to stab her many more times in the chest , nicking multiple organs until he was again being held up by his throat in the air .

" YOU KEEP HURTING MY FAMILY SO NOW YOU DIE." , Ziorah screamed. There was a very loud crunching sound of bones being crushed as a strangled yell of pain came from the man who had just been stabbing her aunt. Once she had felt his force leave his body she knew he was dead and dropped his lifeless body to the blood soaked ground .

Next she moved her hand and bent the other 2 men's neck in a funny way. She felt their force leave them as she ran over to her aunt who was now bleeding out like her father. " Auntie you can't leave me too! Y-you can't!" , the little girl yelled to her aunt as she held her hands over the two major wounds that was on Arthala's stomach. "Z-Zio.. Ya w-will be fi-fine without me… l-like ya fa-father said.. y-ya are strong. B-but ya n-need to watch y-ya po-powers . Bad people.. Bad people could hurt ya i-if they k-knew…. " Arthala told the girl as she gasped for breath. "P-promise t-to keep t-them a s-secret little o-one…" , the beastly woman asked the shaking girl whose hands were now covered in a dark blue, almost purple blood. "I-i promise aunt 'thala… I p-promise.." , Ziorah stuttering slightly .

With that, Arthala smiled and closed her eyes as she gave out one last breath. Ziorah felt uncontrollable emotions seep through her . Everything that had just been suspended into the air now flew and hit any surface . Thinks shattering , lights flickering , and Windows exploding with the pain that Zio was feeling . The only family she had ever known was now dead . Crying until she couldn't cry anymore over the dead body of her aunt she realized something .

She was now alone and there was no one in the galaxy who could help her .

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The small girl sat had prepared a burial ritual that her aunt taught her. "Its meant to honor the ones who've passed , little one. " her auntie had told her.

The ritual was used for force users of old , those who lived to protect others in selflessness. The tribe had been taught these rituals and passed them down through generations, even though the ways of the force was extremely illegal on Rysheladon. Kathelenites were rumored to have been very spiritually strong and that the universe had granted them stronger force abilities than most normal force users. Thats why Ziorahs father wanted her to train with them, to help control the powers that grew so strong after such a short period of time.

The tribe which was called 'Sehashka' was all of Arthala's family, and they all treated Ziorah as one of their own . That included her father of course since he knew them all very well after years of friendship with Arthala. Percival often made tech to help conceal their homes that resided up high in Rysheladons famously tall trees. The tribe had created a village hidden from most of the civilians, they had built homes up as high as they could using rope bridges and other more technical methods with the help of Ziorahs fathers mechanical abilities.

Ziorah enjoyed climbing up the trees to train with the Kathelenites, she felt at home with them just like she did with her own father. They taught her about everything. Knowledge of the universe, and more importantly knowledge of her force abilities. She hoped that after the loss of one of their own, maybe there was a possibility she could hide with them since the officers would surely be looking for the culprit of those mens murder as well as her own family.

Ziorah would think more about that later though. A more important task was at hand.

She quietly trudged through the woods, picking up broken branches from around her home. In a large pile of twigs and branches laid the two wrapped up bodies of the two people Ziorah cared for most . One she had a good enough pile of wood, she walked towards a small patch of not yet bloomed flowers.

Focusing her energy solely on the small light purple and pale blue flowers , she out stretched her hand to lay just above them. Slowly the flowers bloomed and grew to be taller than where her hand hovered above the ground. She opened her emerald eyes and picked the flowers making her way back towards the pile of wood. Placing an equal amount of flowers over her father's and aunts heart before she backed away. She quickly lit a match and dropped it onto the pile of wood .

She sat for a while, just watching the fire grow and engulf the bodies of her loved ones. Tears falling down her now rosy cheeks from the cold elements. Ziorah just sat with her eyes closed in a sitting position , meditating. Arthala and her tribe of other kathelenites had taught her to meditate. It soothes the heart and brings peace to even the uneasiest of souls.

Ziorahs soul was definitely uneasy right now.

She just wanted to think of something happy . Anything that might make her saddened heart feel like it wasn't constricting with every breath. To take her mind off of all the pain she felt. Taking a deep breath she tried again to focus on meditating and not the events that had happened a few hours earlier. She was about to just give up and stop meditating when she heard someone. She heard the voice of someone she knew very well .

"Why are you crying?", a boy with shoulder length, almost pitch black hair . He was 11, the same age as Zio. His birthday even the same as hers.

Ziorah opened her tear filled eyes and looked to the young boy. He wasn't wearing any of the proper clothes to keep out the cold weather, in fact he was wearing a long sleeved , slightly baggy tunic. She tilted her head at the boy and wiped some of the tears off her cheeks when the boy continued to speak.

"I'm Ben.. Who are you?" , Ben stepped closer to Ziorah, only being a few feet away now. Ziorah looked towards Ben with a small smile, "I'm… I-I'm Ziorah...you're the boy I hear at night, aren't you?", she said, her voice slightly somber. She heard Ben gasp to himself as he sat down across from her, mimicking her cross-legged sitting position. "You're the girl… the girl I always hear…" , the look of shock on Ben's face soon grew to a smile . One so blinding that Ziorah felt her cheeks heat up .

"I've been hoping that the force would connect us for so long. I always listened to you when I trained with Master Luke. He thought I was just hearing things… I knew you weren't just a voice!", Ben sounded so happy that it was practically radiating off of him. This made Ziorah smile, tears that were still in her eyes falling over her cheeks. She was relieved that the boy was in fact real and not a figment of her childlike imagination.

Her tears caught Ben's attention, his happy smile changed into a look of concern. "Ziorah...Why are you so sad? You look like you've been crying for a while." , the boy said . Ziorah only gave a small smile and looked down to her shaking hands that she held in her lap. "Something happened… some...s-something bad. ", she whispered, almost too quietly for Ben to hear . "I.. I can feel your heartache… what happened? You can tell me… we're friends after-all, aren't we?" , Ben said moving his head so he could look up at Ziorah.

When their eyes connected it was as if the entire universe was blocked out. That sense of peace Ziorah was looking for earlier finally came. She could not only feel her heart and her emotions, but she could feel Ben's, and Ben could feel hers. As Ziorah looked up to see him better she noticed how close together they were, Ben must've noticed too since he slowly reached his right hand up to wipe away a few tears that she had shed.

As his hand touched her cheek it felt as if the nerves in his hand were tingling . Ziorah could feel it too, it was comforting. "You… you promise you won't be scared?", she said in a shaky voice , leaning into the feeling of his hand . "Promise.", Ben nodded with a small smile towards her.

"Today… 3 men came to my home… and they killed my family. And I… I-I got so angry… that I… choked them… killed them… I couldn't control my powers it was like something took control of me. " , she said not making eye contact with Ben , she was too afraid to see his reaction . She had known Ben her entire life but never seen or talked to him until today and what a day today was….

Ben ,with the same smile that he had before started to speak to her in a kind tone."They weren't good people Ziorah… and you couldn't control yourself. Sometimes I can't control the force and it'll make me do things I never meant to do. It takes time... and practice to control it. That's why I'm training to become a Jedi! To help protect people." Ziorah nodded and sniffled a little as she wiped away the remaining tears from her eyes. "Thank you , Ben. That makes me feel so much better..", she said. "Good. A smile suits you much better than tears.", he said laughing a little.

That night she sat and smiled. Laughed her heart out until she forgot about the days events. T hough she would never truly forget, it was good to have a distraction.

The boy who could make her smile, and the girl who felt joy return to her soul.

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