#by testingforgravity

“It’s you and me, remember?”

We Were Just Kids is a completed 100k+ words story featuring your favorite Clone Wars younglings. 15 years after Order 66, a supply run gone wrong lands Katooni face to face with a group of ghosts from her past, and suddenly the young pirate is confronted with a choice: keep running from the Empire, or finally draw her weapon.

The story features everyone's favorite pirate Hondo Ohnaka, a michevious cheating little droid, Order 66 flashbacks, and lots and lots of post Clone Wars angst.

Katooni couldn’t see an end to the war in sight. She wished they could all have a normal padawan experience, but normal no longer existed. These days it was do or die and Katooni had the eerie feeling, as she looked at the faces of her five closest friends, that not all of them would survive. But she wanted them too. And maybe they all could in Petro’s idea of the future. “And then,” she said, picking up the story. “I meet you all here at the temple with Master Plo. We deliver exciting news: with your capture of Grievous and our capture of Dooku, the war has come to an end. The Masters take Grievous, well... what’s left of him,” she said, looking pointedly at Zatt. “To prison. And the six of us come to this very spot to celebrate and swap stories.” Her friends clapped. Petro grinned at her. “We’re all remembered as the padawans that ended the Clone Wars,” he said. Silence settled as the end of the story hung in the air, and Katooni knew they were all returning to reality. Byph’s worried expression was back, and even Ganodi looked restless, pulling at blades of grass. Katooni knew, deep down, that worrying was pointless. Time would continue as it was determined to do. She just had to hope the six of them would be allowed to continue with it. “Hey,” she said, desperate to hold on to the optimism that was fading fast. “Let’s do it.” “Do what?” Gungi asked. Katooni smiled slightly. “Come back here,” she said. “When the war ends, we’ll all come back to this spot to celebrate. Deal?” She knew the unspoken would not go unnoticed. There was a good chance they wouldn’t all be sitting here, when the time came. But talks of the future are often exempt from the crushing weight of reality, especially those shared between children in war. And fantasizing about a life for all of them safe from this uncertainty was healthier for the mind than the alternative. They all nodded. “I’m in,” Petro said. “And I bet I’ll beat you all here.” With something as normal as a Petro challenge to cling to, the group returned to its usual dynamic, the energy from earlier resuming as if nothing had happened. Byph and Gungi reverted back to their argument about the most effective lightsaber grip, and Ganodi turned her attention back to the sky. But as Zatt punched Petro in the shoulder once again, Katooni caught the human boy’s gaze. He held it for a second, eyes softening. In an instant, Katooni knew even Petro shared her worries. But he had hope. Hope in the future. Hope in the Jedi. Hope that the war would end. Maybe hope could be enough for Katooni as well.

--We Were Just Kids, Chapter 1