Chapter 3 - Sisterly Bonding

“Guys, quiet down…there’s no way they could be twins,” Ash heard Kali, one of Echo’s friends said. “They have two different last names. And how could they have possibly not found out about each other until just know?”
“I don’t know but it’s not really our problem guys, we’ve…” Nya started to say, and then Kali interrupted her.
“Oh my Yoda guys! Morning class starts in 5 minutes! We need to get going! Come on Juno!” Kali said and grabbed Juno by the arm and started pulling her out of the battle arena.
“Whoa!” Juno yelped and followed. “See you guys at Mid-day meal!”
When Juno and Kali where out of the arena, Aero and Broze started to follow them too. Nya followed them too.
“See ya guys later! Hope you can figure things out!” Nya yelled back as she ran to class.
Ash looked back to Echo.. She had spent enough time in the mirror to tell that this girl looked exactly like her. Even her friends saw it. But she still wondered how she had gone 8 years without running into her long-lost twin sister.
“What do you go say we go talk to the Council and see if they have anything to say to us?” Echo said with a smile.
“That sounds great to me,” Ash said with a chuckle. She still didn’t believe that they could be related. Why couldn’t the Council have just told them? There are plenty of people in the Order that are related to each other. That’s why they were going to ask the Council.
Ash didn’t say anything to Echo on their way to the Council chamber. Thoughts were to busy running through her head. She could really put her questions into sentences. When they reached the chamber, they had to wait about 30 minutes, but finally the Council could see them.
When they walked into the room, Ash became more relaxed. There was so much Force-power in that room. It consisted of the most powerful Jedi in the Order. One day, she hoped to be apart of the Council. But that was just a dream.
As she and Echo walked to the center of the room, Ash felt everyone eye in the room stare at them. It was very uncomfortable.
Mace Windu spoke up first. Nobody else knew this, but he kind of scared Ash.
“What can we help you with?” Mace Windu said with his hands folded in hi lap like he usually sat.
Ash and Echo both pointed at each other.
“Explain this,” they said in unison. Ash looked at Echo. How in the world could they keep saying the same thing like this?
Master Windu looked at Yoda, and then looked back to Ash and Echo. Yoda spoke up.
“Twin sisters, you are. Failed we have of keeping this a secret from you.”
“Obviously,” Ash said under her breath. Mace looked at her.
“Sorry master,” Ash said back.
“Control yourself, you must,” Yoda said.
“Yes master,” Ash said. She had gotten in trouble by the Council many times, but every time she got in trouble, it was like getting hit it the face with a Hutt. Echo was looking at her like she had did something wrong too.
“It’s unfortunate that you learned of each others existence. But you must remember not to get attached to each other. That path of attachment can lead to the Dark Side.. If you 2 cannot master that, then I’m afraid we may have to split you up. That would be a pity, because you both are very strong in the Force.”
“Thank you, masters,” they both said, bowed, and left the Council Chamber.
“One more thing,” Master Windu said. “Ash, you will no longer go by the name of Ash Shy. Your last name is Chi, just as Echo’s.”
“Thank you, master,” then they walked out of the room.
Ash was silent. She hated having a temper. She had to let it out somehow, but sometimes it let out in front of the Council. That type of behavior could get her in a lot of trouble.
Ash started walking away from the Council Chamber and sensed someone staring at her. She turned around. Echo had stopped in front of the council door with a snug look on her face. She was smiling slightly, and her arms were crossed over her chest.
“Greetings, sis,” she said and started to walk up to Ash. “I think now that we’re sisters, we should start to learn more about each other,” she said.
“Well, I guess you seem nice enough. Why not?” Ash replied. “My name is Ash Chi, what’s yours?” Ash said.
Echo chuckled. “Echo Chi. Wow it’s such a coincidence we have the same last name,” she said smiling.
Ash laughed. Good, she thought. This girl might have a good sense of humor.
Echo took Ash up to her quarters to show her Echo’s room.. Echo opened the door and they both walked in. Ash’s mouth dropped. Her entire room was filled with mechanical equipment and machinery.
“Utinni…” Ash said, speaking in Jawaese.
“What did you say?” Echo said back, confused.
“Oh, that’s Jawa for ‘wow’ or something. A friend told it to me. He said that once when he went on mission with his master to Tatooine, there were Jawa’s everywhere and they were always yelling ‘Utinni!’ so now I say it a lot.”
“Oh, ok…so well, um…welcome to my humble little room. Sorry it’s got stuff everywhere, but I love to take stuff apart and build stuff. I even have my own swoop.”
“Seriously?” Ash said. “That’s pretty cool. So I take it you’re a pretty good pilot?”
“Well, not exactly…yet. But I hope to be one! I’ve always dreamed of flying among the stars.” Echo replied.
“Ya that would be cool,” Ash replied. “But it’s not for me. I need action. I’m an athlete. I dream of becoming one of the best lightsaber duelists in the galaxy someday. You wouldn’t believe how many lightsabers I have. That’s probably the one thing I love to build, and am good at building.”
“Really? How many do ya have?” Echo asked her.
“3 right now. I’m working on another one right now. It’s going to be a black lightsaber. I already have the handle made; I’m just waiting to find the battery pack and the crystal.”
“Oh, well I’m sure I’ve got a couple spare battery packs around somewhere,” Echo said and started looking through her piles of junk. It took a couple minutes, but she found one.
“Here,” Echo said. “Take it. I’ve got plenty more.”
“Oh thanks,” Ash replied. FINALLY, she thought to herself. Maybe this girl isn’t so bad after all!
“You wouldn’t happen to have any black lightsaber crystals would ya?” Ash asked her jokingly.
“Actually, I have a silver crystal in my desk,” she Echo said and went over to her desk and opened a dresser door. Ash looked over and saw at least 20 crystals in the cabinet.
“Whoa! Where did you get all those?” Ash asked her.
“You’d be surprised what people throw out,” Echo said smiling..
“Well, thanks again. Do you want to come see my room? No offence, but there’s not much room to do anything in here,” Ash said smiling.
“No problem just let me get my other lightsaber. I like to switch back and forth.”
Echo walked over to another dresser and opened another door. Ash followed her. Inside the cabinet were about 10 lightsabers stacked on a shelf inside the cabinet.
“No way! We have more in common than I thought!” Ash said.
“Literally!” Echo said and grabbed a lightsaber with an unusually long handle. “Ok, I’m ready,” she said and they both headed out the door. It took them probably a good 10 minutes to get to Ash’s room. Ash opened the door to her room to her sister. They walked in an Ash went and sat on her bed. Her lightsabers were sitting on shelves over-top of her bed. She also had a small obstacle course set up in one corner of her room.
“Welcome to my fortress of solitude!” Ash said to her sister.
“Wow, I can tell you like to exercise a lot!” Echo said. Ash also had bars hanging from the ceiling so she could practice swinging from one to the other.
“Ya, you don’t get these muscles from sitting around all day!” Ash said flexing an arm. Echo just laughed at her and continued around the room. He made her way to where her lightsabers where located.
“Wow,” she said pointing at the lightsabers. “Those are beautiful!”
“Thanks. It takes me awhile to come up with the ideas, but once there in my head, it come pretty easy to build them,” Ash replied.
Ash looked over the chrono in her room. They were really late to class.
“Ok, not trying to be rude, but I don’t want to be super late for class, so I kinda need to go,” Ash said.
Echo looked startled. “Oh no, that’s fine. I need to get going to! But I’ll see ya at mid-day meal right?” she said as she started walking towards the door.
“Ya that sounds good!”
Echo turned around again. “Goopta ma Bossa, friend!”
“What?” Ash said.
“Nothing, it just means may your mind not evaporate in Huttese,” Echo said back.
Ash just laughed at her as Echo left the room. Ash then grabbed her favorite lightsaber and headed to class. It was about a five minute walk. The whole way there her head was filled with questions. How could they have so much in common and never even met each other before? That was the one that confused her the most. Hopefully, she would have time later to meditate on it.
She made up an excuse so she didn’t have to participate in her classes that morning. She said she didn’t feel that good, which she didn’t. She just found out she had an identical twin sister. It felt like her mind was being tied in knot. Hopefully, her brain didn’t evaporate.
She went back to her room and ran through the obstacle course over and over, then worked on a new lightsaber design, then ran through her course again. It helped her relax. By the time she was done, she was pouring sweat, and it was also time for the mid-day meal. The entire morning had gone by so fast.
She hurried and put on a new tunic since her other one was sweaty and ran out of her room to meet her friends for mid-day meal. She was running, until she got caught by one of the teachers and was told to slow-down. She apologized and stared to slightly jog. She wanted to get to the cafeteria. She was hungry, plus she wanted to meet back up with Echo.
She burst through the cafeteria door and looked for her friends. It was pretty easy to find the person that looked just like her. She ran up to her with a huge grin on her face.

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