Chapter 1

Her first day at the Jedi Academy. No matter the events previous in her life, the events that transpired to bring her there...she was there.
It felt absolutely unlike any home she had been to. Still, it was where she wanted, needed to be.
The Great Temple - the main structure of the Jedi Academy - was huge, imposing, threatening...though she knew it was not meant to seem the latter two.

She stepped out from the hangar area and to the 'Meditation Room'; as it said on the PADD she had with her, A place to chill out. Practise skills, talk, drink at the bar...

When she arrived there she couldn't help herself; she stared avidly at the large, relatively dimly-lit room with stone walls and peeks of moss in some of the higher cracks between them, a bar lining one of the sides, small tables clustered over the other side and a large space between the two - assumedly for practising skills.

It was empty at that time; she looked around again then left quietly.



About an hour later another girl, but this one younger - about fourteen years old - made the same journey to the Meditation room.
After taking in the sights like the girl-woman before her, she set herself down at the bar and helped herself to a stiff drink.

A day or so passed, without the two new Padawan meeting each other; the first girl explored the upper reaches and balconies of the Great Temple whereas the second preferred the privacy of her own thoughts.
On the fourth day, however, they met.

The first, older girl-woman entered the Meditation Room without noticing the second, and activated her lightsaber. She jumped at the snap-hiss and stared at the purple, shimmering blade for a second before waving it about. It was obviously one of the first times she had held it activated.
Not wanting to decapitate herself and thus prematurely end her career as a Jedi, she deactivated it quickly and stared longingly into space.

"I need a Master."

The second girl rose from a table in the corner and smiled carefully.
"Greetings," The first said.

"Hello...I'm Chnei Thmel." Her yellow/black eyes flickered down to the lightsaber and back up. "Where do I get a lightsaber from? Since you seem to have gotten one already, and it might pass some time when I'm very bored and you're all busy or something..."

"Erm...I'm Eland Losid." She smiled. "I think there's a storeroom, you can get one there...but I got mine before I came. I made it..." she admitted a little bashfully, "I thought it would be good training...get me in the mood or something." She blushed and gestured at the bar. "Here, let me get us some lomin-ale."

Chapter 2

Eland and Chnei, having found the Temple to have a depressing lack of Masters of even Knights available, had been assigned to Tarne Womarg’s Training Ground...whoever Tarne Womarg was. The place was nice enough...a large stonewalled dome, the floor sometimes permacrete, sometimes sandy, with patches of grass and rocks spotted around it. There was an alcove filled with different types of battle droids, a small hovercraft at one held, and a stream that run quickly through the middle and out through a small grating.

But it was devoid of life. Of their Masters, anyway, and that's what mattered.
They rightfully assumed that the droids were for them, but did not want to do anything with them and consequently hurt themselves. Staying in this rut for a few long days, it was only when a third Padawan joined them that they were jolted out of their ennui.

The young man - looking about twenty-one - strode into the training ground and set his chin confidently. He said, "I come seeking the Great Jedi Master Womarg. I have been sent here to train, my name is Jo'tra Gibúr."
Eland and Chnei looked at each other, then back at the headstrong Padawan. And laughed. "You'll be disappointed," Chnei said, "Because we've not seen anyone who would train us."

"Looks like you're in it with us," Eland said and offered him a friendly smile.
"That sounds...good," Jo'tra replied and smiled back, though slightly less confidently than he had been speaking before.
That was the three.


A day or two after, even though Jo'tra wasn't around at the time, Chnei and Eland mustered up the courage to train using one of the droids. The fact that Chnei had recently acquired her first lightsaber, with a blue blade, helped immensely.

"Right, Eland, we have to fight these?" Chnei shifted her grip on the lightsaber then activated it. She could feel herself start to panic, and breathed slowly to calm herself, even if only slightly.

"Panic is of the dark side," Eland murmured, trying to sound knowledgeable. "They wouldn't let us die in our first training session, would they! Would they?" However morbid this was, it helped and the two of them were facing the droid, both relatively calm.

Chnei watched the droid intently, trying to sense when it would fire, then found herself relying on her eyes too much. She shut her eyes, waving the lightsaber around in a very impractical, unsafe and uneventful way. When the droid fired it missed them both.

This continued until Chnei got hit in the arm, but it just stung a bit so she opened her eyes. She got better at deflecting the shots, and Eland did too, but her progress was negligible when she tried to deflect the shots back in any specific direction - such as where the floating droid was.

"I keep on deflecting the shots to where it was, rather than where it IS..."
Jo'tra entered at that moment, and grinned almost ferally. He activated his lightsaber - yellow in colour - and without further ado went into a defensive stance, swishing his standard brown robes, a few paces away from Chnei and Eland.

The young girl had noticed that Eland was over by the alcove of other droids. "Eland, what are you doing!"

"Pause the droid!" She called back.

Jo'tra did so before Chnei had a chance, then the two of them went over to Eland.

She smiled up at them and held up a small cube, glowing green.
"Is that a holocron?" Jo'tra asked.

"I don't think so but it's something similar." Eland pressed a button and a hologram was projected out of the cube. It was a small, old-looking woman, wearing Jedi robes.

"I am Master Tarne Womarg...apologies that I cannot be with you but here I have many suggestions and the like that will help you. Anyone can access it at their leisure. May the Force be with you."

The woman disappeared, to be replaced by a list of titles. Quickly Eland had found a suitable helpful suggestion for the three of them: "Feel the force and use it to slow down your perspective...you will be faster...it will make battle easier."

Eland went first, and managed to deflect an energy bolt close enough back along its original path the droid was sent spinning backwards. "Did you see that, wasn't that fun?" She said to her colleagues, grinning, and then got shot in the backside.

"Ahh, shoot...take this!" She threw her lightsaber at the droid, trying to control it with using the Force, and it was probably coincidence that the droid was cloven almost perfectly in two...probably because the lightsaber then fell to the ground and gashed a neat hole in a permacrete part of the floor.
She fetched her lightsaber, shut it off, and rushed out of the training ground. Her two comrades looked at each other.

"How are we going to train now?" Jo'tra frowned, and laughed softly.



In the Meditation Room, Eland hung low for a while, not wishing to incur the wrath of any Masters that suddenly showed themselves...
...Whilst Jo'tra and Chnei were battling another droid - one that had escaped Eland.

Chnei had almost twisted her ankle from stepping in the hole that Eland had left, and was now being backed up dangerously close to the brook. As Jo'tra managed to press against the droid, she fumbled, got hit and ended up in the water.

"Man, now I'm WET!"

Jo'tra helped her up and smiled. "Do you want to duel?"

Chapter 3

After Chnei had crushed the apprehension at duelling a person, rather than a droid, they had started. Jo'tra made the first strike, which Chnei blocked easily, but his second she barely dodged.

The smell of singed hair about her, she stepped backwards and tried to become freer with the 'sabre, flexed her wrist. Well, I must have had some talent or something or they wouldn't have let me in, she reasoned with her pessimistic side.

The fight went relatively well - with neither becoming a clear victor but with Chnei asking Jo'tra to help her with her "clumsy and messy" defence.
They trained and Chnei did improve, noticeably so. They both went into meditation, and Jo'tra was first out - he practised, pushing himself, with a droid at higher difficulty levels - doubling it again and again. And he was succeeding, showing considerable skill and control.
Then, he went back into a healing, meditative trance.


When Eland entered the Training Grounds, the signs of recent training was obvious enough. She activated another droid, one that hadn't been dismembered, and - being careful to stay far away from her two fellow Padawan - activated it.

Of twelve bolts, she parried the first ten shots, was his in the shoulder by the eleventh and missed the last.

"What's that smell?"

Her cloak was on fire?

Whilst trying to bat it out with one hand, the droid approached quickly. She couldn't parry the shots, so whipped the cloak off - leaving her wearing a short dark tunic and leggings, with a leather belt - and tangled the droid up in it. She snap-kicked it; it started to malfunction and fire randomly.

She balled her right hand, placed it in her left, and elbowed the droid as hard she could. Using the Force, she slammed it against the wall hard enough for it to fragment into many pieces...and dent the wall.

"Not again..."

She was interrupted by Jo'tra spinning to his feet and saying hello.
Activating another droid, she brought her lightsaber to her hand with the force and set the difficulty to an even higher level.

Jo'tra smiley. "Training is always fun," then he activated three more droids...all with the same, very high difficulty.

He drew the Force in around himself, leapt behind one of the fast-firing droids and it was destroyed by two of the others; they had tracked his position and ended up firing on one of their own. "That's one down," he called to Eland, and only then did he draw out and activate his lightsaber.

Parrying the shots fired at her, Eland managed to shut down another using the force. She smiled to herself...Such is the way of the Force...no destruction...rather pleased that she finally hadn't taken a droid out of commission...permanently.

Jo'tra, meanwhile, had taken out the third remote droid, deflecting it's own shots back to it, but for the final one he did not have time to bring about his lightsaber to defend himself and was struck repeatedly.

He absorbed most of the energy and funnelled it into telekinesis, and the droid crumpled in on itself; within a few seconds of deactivating his lightsaber and nodding respect to Eland, he collapsed into a trance of exhaustion. She placed a hand on his shoulder, then made her way out.


A few hours later Chnei woke herself, then saw Jo'tra - who still looked exhausted. She found a small, hollowed out flat stone and filled it with the clear bright water from the brook and took it to him. "Here," she said, as he roused himself to look at her.

"Thanks...How long have I been out of it?" He asked, sipping at the water.
"Only a few hours, I think." Chnei watched him finish, then helped him up. "You must be exhausted, let's go for a walk somewhere."

"Where shall we go?"

"Outside...the forests."

"That's sounds good," he replied, and the two of them went outside. It was the end of twilight, the sun having set and the moon itself slipping into the shadow of the gas giant that it orbited.

So it was cold, yes, and dark. Night-orchids were opening, and various nocturnal creatures were just stirring; the two Padawan could hear the yammerings and whoops that signalled their awakening for a night's prowl. Purple-boled Massassi trees, looking dark and kingly, swayed gently in the night breeze, allowing the sweet scent of the air to percolate through to the clearing.

"It's so different here," Jo'tra said wonderingly.

"Indeed..." Chnei breathed in and sighed. "Very quiet and tranquil."
"So quiet I could just meditate."

"Yes, I agree." With that he sat down facing the forest, a safe distance away from the edge, giving in to the tiredness that ate at him, and went into a rejuvenating trance.

Chnei returned back to the Temple with a shiver, wrapping her robes around her, and then felt someone's telepathic summons.

Chapter 4

Eland had run, yes run, to the Council Chamber, when she had recieved the telepathic summons from a Master unknown. The prospect of meeting the Masters, finally, after about a week of what she optimistically called training...
It wasn't just that though; the idea that finally the Masters wanted her there was exciting in of itself.

She ground to a halt and entered the Chamber tentatively. "Um, I sensed the summons."

Then she looked around the room. In it there were two Jedi, a human man - tall, dark and rough looking, veritably adorned with battle-scars and recent-looking wounds, and with a false left leg. He was, at that moment, holding a small, short smoking stick and shaking his head at a strange female...she looked like some kind of Werecat in more-human form, feline in her movements and her mannerisms.

The woman looked over to Eland. "Well done," she said. "What rank are you?" Then almost to herself, or to the man: "We'll need all Jedi soon."
"Um, I'm a Padawan, Ma'am," Eland replied, trying to stop her voice from wavering. "But I've been doing okay in training. Although I keep on destroying everything."

The man put the smoking stick into his mouth and sucked in; Eland recognised it as a cigarra, or deathstick as they were more commonly known. "As soon as Puppet gets here I'll tell you something which is going to unsettle you," he said, breathing out white smoke. "Steel yourself."

"What manner of thing do you mean?" Eland asked timidly.

The cat-woman frowned at the man. "Those are really bad for you...not to mention you're giving us all second hand smoke." She leant back slightly. "We've been into the unexplored regions of space, and discovered some nasty things. So we're going to need to organise ourselves really well." She offered them drinks; Eland was too tense to drink and the man - Annat, she called him - refused, holding up a hip flask from which he drank.

"What's your name, Padawan? I'm technically a Padawan too"

"I'm Eland Losid...Jo'tra Gibur, and Chnei Thmel are new here too. So, what's going on?"

"Could you wake me when Puppet comes in?" The woman sighed, and Eland's guess that she was a Werecat was proved right when she transformed into full feline shape and curled up in an alcove.

Annat, still swigging from his flask and sucking on the cigarra, said to Eland, "Patience youngling, all will become clear soon enough. I am Annat Tayswi, Jedi Knight. But I assume you'd know that, I'm fairly famous in these parts..."
Even though she had never heard of him, Eland was prevented from responding by a man entering. His head was shaken clean, save for a black topknot, and he was tall and lithe in his robes. He nodded to those present, sat down cross-legged on the floor, then fixed his gaze on Annat. After a pause the man stubbed out his cigarra and nodded back, and Eland realised that they had been telepathically communicating, using the Force.

"Greetings, I am Ma'rol Mannen," the new man said to Eland and Chnei, and they nodded back.

"When will we begin discussions?" Chnei asked.

"Shortly. But we must wait for Puppet."

"If we are expecting some form of confrontation then might I advise you all turn the shields on for your ships, that way we have the option of evacuation."
Eland looked, and felt, alarmed. "I don't have a ship yet."
Annat was looking at Ma'rol, looked fairly smug as he replied, "Don't worry, we have time. Someone managed to blow up a cargo ship full of enemy troops."
A hologram was suddenly projected into the room, this time of a female human Jedi wearing slightly rumpled robes and smoothing her hair, scowling irritably. "Okay I'm here via hologram, will someone tell me what's so blasted important - d'you know what the time difference is from Naboo?"

Annat stretched easily in his seat, and smiled, "Sorry Co’bal, there'll be a delay till Puppet shuffles in."

Chnei rushed in, blushing deeply and excused herself. She went down and sat by Eland, who offered her a sympathetic smile.

A few seconds passed then a small, green creature in mini-robes shuffled in, leaning heavily on a small stick. He...if it was, indeed, a he...floated himself over to a seat that was considerably smaller than the other six in the room, and sat down. He nodded to everyone, pausing with Eland and looking enigmatically at her.

She felt a rush of respect and admiration for the small green man, and bowed to him even as Annat strode to the centre of the room and bowed to the wizened Jedi Master.

"Master Puppet, if I may, I have an announcement to make."

He simply looked at Annat, whilst a medical droid entered. It - rather camply, now that Eland thought of it - started trying to tend to Annat's wounds.
The man cleared his throat, and looked around at all assembled. "These are dangerous times. I have just returned from the Unknown Regions of this galaxy. There I confronted the Rodian Keezo, who told me this." Eland felt confusion at the mention of this Keezo, but stayed quiet.

"He and the Hooded One are creating an army of beings," he continued, "whose Force ability is heightened to dangerously powerful levels with which to wage war against us and the Republic. We must face this threat as it could lead to the destruction of us all."



Piercing the others with a challenging gaze, he offhandedly pulled out his lightsaber and decapitated the medical droid. "That is so irritating...any questions?"

Eland looked at the floor self-consciously. "I have a question...who is the Hooded One?"

"The Dark Lord of the Sith youngling, and a dangerous foe," Annat said.
The holo-image of the slightly dishevelled Jedi on Naboo smiled. "Okay, I take it it's all hands on deck...I'll leave Naboo and be there by tomorrow morning. Co’bal out." Then, the image winked out and the droid scuttled to the side.
Ma'rol was still sitting Zen-like on the floor. "Master Puppet, I wish to be placed in charge of Yavin's defences. I believe I can better benefit the Academy this way, and will allow the other Knights to investigate this dark army without further worrying about the safety of Yavin."

Eland's confidence had grown slightly, as she found it hard to be intimidated by the threat of the Hooded One - she may have been too young to defend herself properly but conversely was too new to properly understand the danger of the Hooded One. "So, um...do you - we - have a protocol for this kind of thing? What are we going to do about defending ourselves?"
Annat smoothly skipped over her question. "I second that plan. And if there are no further questions as to the nature of our foe, I will be leaving Yavin..."
When Ma'rol turned to Annat and answered him, it was obvious to Eland that her question was going to go unanswered...she leant forward and tried to understand what was going on around her, whilst from Chnei she felt a small, tightly-contained burst of annoyance that quickly shut down. When she tried to catch her eye, Chnei avoided eye contact.

"Thank you Annat, I will forward any details of plans to you, if master puppet wishes for me to take this task."

Puppet bored metaphorical holes into Ma'rol, and shifted his grip on his staff. "Ma'rol, your original defence plan was not designed for this kind of foe, but from a military assault. Rectified this will need to be." As Eland reeled slightly from the assault on her grammar, and Ma'rol bowed, he continued. "Annat, how ready is the Sith Lord? What kind of foe is this army? Brought back have you, a sample for study? Tracked the Rodian have you?" He gazed keenly at the man. "Know where they are?"

Annat pursed his lips. "I don't know how close they are to an assault but I destroyed a cargo ship full of troops, so it should set them back a while.
"The troops are humanoids, degenerated to an animal like state with Force powers, particularly lightning. As time goes on they become more powerful but less co-ordinated. I killed one by defending until such a point that it's intelligence diminished, and then hacked it in half with my lightsaber. As Keezo depressurised his ship, I was unable to recover any subjects for study."
Ma'rol looked thoughtful. "I could use a sample of this foe if you could obtain one...if you had to defend it until it was worn out then I will need a sample to devise a strategy..."

Eland felt Chnei stiffen in frustration, and she felt it too - most of what the Knights were talking about, they had absolutely no idea. But still, Eland supposed, they were the Knights and Masters, they knew what they were doing.

"…He is too dangerous to roam the galaxy," Annat was just saying.
"Mmmmm...Say would you that the Rodian knows of this effect to his minions? Natural were they?"

"They were organic, if that's what you mean. They were not all his troops though...he is preying on innocent ship's crews in the Unknown Regions."
Chnei quietly murmured "Minions?" but went unnoticed.

Puppet stroked his chin enigmatically. "Hunting the apprentice you are...what of the Master?"

Eland couldn't keep quiet anymore. "How could this Keezo make people follow him?"

"You will learn how to control minor actions in time younglings, but the dark forces have this power finely honed to the point where entire systems will follow them devoutly." Ma'rol's eyes were hooded slightly.

"Master, you know I would be unable to defeat the Hooded One. If we remove Keezo first, then we will be able to take him on." Annat turned his attention to Eland. "Youngling, these beings are dominated by Keezo's force of will, they are little more than slaves."

"That way, Annat," Puppet croaked, "You remove the pawn but keep the master in the game...work better without a Master? Or without an Apprentice?"

Ma'rol shook his head. "But Master, if we strike the head his minions will splinter and form groups of there own. And the Hooded One is beyond even Annat's powers and won't so readily commit to a fight.

"A sample of this dark army is all I'm interested in Annat. I can't plan a defence unless I know my foe."

Annat seemed to agree with Ma'rol as he spoke to Master Puppet. "You cannot seriously expect any of us here to take on the Hooded One. It is madness! If we take out Keezo then we will gain an ever so slightly advantage over the Hooded One as he will be working alone and had his plans ruined." He looked down. "If you instruct me to find the Master then I shall, and I will triumph only if the Force so wills it."

"Surely...surely there isn't any point in trying to destroy a foe that is too powerful?" Eland asked, feeling rather god about siding with two, count it TWO Knights. "Shouldn't we try to make the Hooded One less powerful first?"
"Wise the youngling is..." Puppet nodded, then added, "Then Annat must enlighten us into how the Rodian is getting dark Force slaves."

"Tobru will find you a sample, Ma’rol," Annat said as Eland blushed away. "I have to keep tabs on this army, strike at it when and where I can, try and disrupt the chain of command. I'll be operating away from Yavin for a very long time..."

"I disagree Annat. Let Tobru finish her training so that she can fight alongside you more effectively. I need that sample, you can get it before you tackle Keezo." Ma'rol shifted on the floor.

"Right, then I will be off to find what I can. I don't know when I'll be able to report back. If an attack is launched you can be assured that I will harry the attacking forces to the last."

Puppet nodded to Annat and the man took his leave, nodded and strode out.
"The apprentice would fight with his Master, a Master alone is a better target."
Chnei added to the discussion for the first time, breaking her silence. "And depending on the master, he could be worse with an apprentice than without one. He would not have to train the apprentice and would be able to put all his energies into defeating us. On the flipside, of course, is that he could become slightly less powerful with all his energies going to train a new apprentice."

"I hadn't thought of that," Eland offered to her when it became obvious that the more senior Jedi weren't paying attention.

Master Puppet was meanwhile sighing. "Impertinent Annat. Leaves he does, before he can hear any changes to choices he has already made..."
Ma'rol smiled while managing to look serious. "He will be okay Master. If he follows his mind and not his heart then you have nothing to worry about." The smile lit his eyes some as he said, "How is Anoon's trial coming along Master?"

"Ambitious, Anoon is. Taken your traits she has."

He smiled proudly in response. "I trust that was a compliment. I will need some assistance in modifying the Academy slightly; I have no idea how these things will react under fire, but it's worth a try f they're humanoid."
"Then, a benefit Co’bal's mercenary past will be to you Ma'rol."
"I was thinking of setting up hidden braziers and utilising a technique I have developed, although it does drain me I believe it would see off most attackers."

The discussion continued, with Eland and Chnei getting more and more thoroughly lost, dazed and confused. When Eland turned to the younger girl and suggested, whispering, that they go back the grounds and duel, she readily agreed.

"If you still need us, Eland and I will be in the Training Grounds," Chnei said and the two of them left

Chapter 5

Chnei activated her lightsaber and smiled at Eland. "Shall we duel? Just, try not to break anything..."

"Hey," she replied good-naturedly, "I just got carried away." She activated her purple lightsaber, and went into a battle-ready stance...the lightsaber parallel to the ground, the hilt held at her right ear and the blade pointing assuredly at Chnei.

"Cool stance...you attack first. Warm-up."

Eland nodded thanks, grinning, and moved in. She slashed with the lightsaber towards Chnei's head in a feint, and twisted her wrists round to flick at her legs instead. Chnei raised her 'lightsaber up above her head, then flipped over Eland to dodge the blow to her feet.

Without giving Chnei time to recover Eland bent her knees and sunk almost to the floor, then spun around with her leg out, so it was about to connect with her ankles.

A blue lightsaber almost cut off Eland's foot, however, and Chnei said "Good try, but to crouch and spin takes so long it was obvious what you were trying to do."

She got up, almost retorting angrily, then breathed deeply. The irritation, anger, that had flushed her face faded quickly and she readied the lightsaber. "Shall I attack again?"
"Sure."

Eland reached into her memory, trying to think of...that was it! A move she had read in a book once, one that she was sure Chnei wouldn't be able to defend from easily...she gathered the Force into her leg muscles and sprang up over Chnei's head, bashing her lightsaber to the side whilst doing so, and as she landed she elbowed Chnei in the neck.

She fell to the ground as Eland spun round to face her.

"Nice move..." Chnei grunted out and struggled to get up.
"Want any help there?"

She collapsed again, coughing, obviously in pain. Eland knelt by her, using Jedi pain-deadening techniques and massage on her neck, her eyes wide. "Sorry, I didn't mean to hit you that hard!"

"I'm fine, I'm fine...I'm okay." Chnei got up and shook herself a bit, loosening her muscles, and got her lightsaber from where it had dropped. She activated it, but it sputtered once, twice, thrice and went out. "Eland? I think it's broken..."

"What? It can't be broken..." Eland insisted and took the lightsaber from her hands. "Now, I looked in the Jedi Holocron and their - our - database about the construction of lightsabers, and I know quite a lot about them." She unscrewed the pommel of the offending lightsaber and took the hilt apart before Chnei could protest, and did the same to her own to compare the two. Looking contemplatively at them both for a few minutes, ignoring Chnei, she muttered to herself until she said louder, "I think I know what's happened. It looks like one of the crystals fused. This" - she took and held up a smoky stone from Chnei's lightsaber - "gem must've had imperfections in it or something. But don't worry! I found a Corusca gem in my wanderings a couple of days ago, on the roof of the Temple. Did you know that they are formed only in the atmosphere of Yavin?" She took out a brilliantly lustrous gem, blueish but glowing with different opal-line colours. "I can install it, if you want."
Chnei took her lightsaber, and the gem, and clicked the crystal into place. She took the pommel of the lightsaber and screwed it back on, ignoring Eland, who was getting more and more excited. She activated it and it stayed lit! It was a slightly different blue; slightly more coruscated, but was working! "Oh thank you, Eland, the Masters would have been so annoyed with me!"

Eland bowed, smiling deviously. "Glad I was of service! Now, if you'll excuse me...I'm going to be sore tomorrow. I'll be off to my bedchambers."



The next day, Chnei woke early and came into the Training Grounds before anyone else. She looked around her at the chaos that she and her two fellow Padawan had caused and felt more than a little annoyed that none of the Masters or Knights felt that they needed help. A Holocron full of cryptic hints was all well and good for killing time, she thought, but they had no idea whether they were doing anything right.

The irritation was building up...who did they think they were, these Masters, not bothering to help younglings with their growth in the Force...

Jo'tra entered and she quickly smoothed out her feelings. He cringed, noticing the mess as well, and started clearing up the fragments of droid that had been scattered around with their 'training'.

They worked in silence for a minute or so, until Jo'tra stretched and cracked his knuckles. "I think I'll practise levitation today...good job we have all this junk." He sat down and closed his eyes while Chnei hung back and watched him, opening his mind to the outside. Using the Force, he tried to feel everything around him. "Everything is in the Force, and the Force is in everything," He chanted quietly, and started to feel the plants and wildlife outside of the dome. Opening his mind even more, the Force flowed through him and he could discern the smaller creatures, microorganisms. "The life on this planet is so wonderful and different to anything I ever felt before..."
He reached out with the Force, and, trying to not move his hand he touched a nearby small rock. He investigated it, becoming familiar with its contours and composition, everything about it.

Taking a deep breath, he tried to pick it up.

It stayed on the ground, but parts of droids and other stones all around him were smoothly rising off the ground.

Opening his eyes, he frowned. That isn't what I meant to do. The parts hanging in the air came crashing down, and he closed his eyes once more. Determinedly, he shut off his mind to all the other things around him, let the Force flow as much as possible through him, and focussed his will on the rock. It became clear, sharp, in his mind's eye, and jumped into his hand. "Yes," he murmured triumphantly, a smile growing on his face.

He became aware of the fact that Eland had entered slowly, trying not to disturb him, and that Chnei had left.

"Eland...it's nice to see you." He stood up, his facing making a mask of concentration, and different sized rocks lifted into the air. "Have you ever studied the planetary orbits in this system? They're very interesting." The rocks started orbiting around a larger piece of droid, symbolising each satellite in the system.

She smiled. "Tell me about it."

"Well the most important thing you have to remember is that we are on this moon, orbiting this gas giant." He pointed at the two rocks in question. "And at the same time going around this sun."

"So the gravitational forces exerted on this moon must be quite, uh, interesting, no?"

"Yes, I'm surprised the whole thing is habitable."

Eland grinned, looking devious again. "It would be even less habitable, if say, this happened..." Another small rock, controlled by her, smashed dramatically into the rock that represented Yavin IV.

"Hey!" Jo'tra breathed, letting the Force flow through him, forgetting his annoyance. "Yes, it would be less habitable."

"And imagine if it were a binary star..." She mischievously levitated another rock and started it spinning quickly around the 'sun', and Jo'tra closed his eyes. The rocks continued to orbit as he drew his lightsaber, the yellow blade shooting out.

Eland's lightsaber was also drawn, and she had dropped a small, mossy stone down the back of Jo'tra's neck. She grinned at him aggravatingly; he flushed and slashed at her.

Blocking it, she kicked at his side with the opposite leg, but he grabbed her and flipped her over. She threw her lightsaber in the air to prevent her getting stuck on it, landed in a handstand then flipped back to standing. She caught the weapon and brought it down towards Jo'tra's head.

He blocked it in turn and rolled backwards, and had his eyes closed when Eland used the Force to throw dust and small rock-chips into his eyes. She had jump-kicked at him but he had merely stepped out of the way, then slashed down her back.

It took an agonising second for her to realise that whilst she hadn't felt the cut of the lightsaber, she did feel the Training Ground's cool air circulating..."You cut my robe!" She banished the irritation she felt, and used all of her Force reserves to send Jo'tra flying into the nearby brook. She grabbed his lightsaber with the Force and sent it spinning in another direction, a few metres away. It clattered, deactivated, on the floor.

"Now I'm wet!" He said and leapt out of the water. He threw off his cloak and made a mad dash for his lightsaber. Eland picked up his cloak, and with the other hand, using the Force to guide it, threw her lightsaber into a tight spin towards him.

He sensed the disturbance in the air that the 'lightsaber caused, Force-pulled his lightsaber to him and activated it, and brought it up to deflect the other lightsaber. "You forget that I don't use my eyes to see."

Meanwhile Eland had run after him, and wrapped the wet robe around his legs. Praying that she'd finally get him down, she pulled hard, whilst bringing her lightsaber to her hands. He used the momentum to do a backwards somersault, cutting the robes apart with the yellow glimmering blade, and landed gracefully in an attack stance. He looked hardly flushed at all, no sign of their sparring.

Frustration ate away at Eland. "How am I going to floor you!"

"Anger is of the Dark Side..." And with that he tried to cleave her in half. She blocked him, and then head butted him, connecting solidly with his forehead. She jumped back warily as he staggered in pain. "Ouch, that hurt."

Moving in with the lightsaber, wasting no time in victory dances, she slashed upwards in a cut that would bisect Jo'tra, lengthways. She had also called two more stones to her aid, bigger and pointy ones, and Force-threw them at his head.

Jo'tra pushed Eland out of range and brought his lightsaber to bear, destroying the two projectiles. "You want to play that game?" He asked her mischievously, and activated three droids with the Force. "Level TWENTY," he told them.

"Are you sure?" Eland fingered her lightsaber nervously as the droids shuddered to life, one remote sphere, and two ground-based ones with dual-blasters.

"Yes, it will be fine..." He pointed languidly at one of the bigger droids and it exploded. A devilish grin grew on his face as he slashed at Eland on the diagonal.

She somersaulted over him, leaving him exposed to a droid's attack - and it started to fire. She swung round to slice open his shoulders, but he blocked her, and dove for the floor - pulling her with him.
Slightly breathless from the impact on the floor, he said, "We don't want you to get hit now do we?"

"Well, hello Jo'tra," Eland said, one eyebrow raising. "Thank you for your concern..." Still on the floor, Jo'tra covering her, she concentrated on the droid threatening to fire. It exploded impressively and she laughed. "I did it!"
There was one more though, and Jo'tra jumped to his feet to defend them from it. It was charging to fire, Eland could tell, but Jo'tra didn't raise his lightsaber; he braced himself and all the bolts hit him. He didn't seem to be affected...then the droid suddenly compacted into a small ball of metal and he slumped down to his knees. "I should stop doing that," he muttered, his eyes squeezed shut, the pressure leaking tears out down the sides of his face.
"That was brilliant, Jo'tra," Eland said proudly; it had been a wonderful display of skill. "Though you should be careful."

"Thanks. I think I should go into a healing trance now." She agreed with him and they both sat cross-legged, ruins of droids around them, in tranquil meditation.

Chapter 6

It was almost a week later when a woman came into the Training Grounds. She looked a bit tired but determined nonetheless. She was slim, not as tall as Jo'tra but taller than the female Padawan, and the coffee-brown plait that was tied over one shoulder reached almost to her waist.

"I am Anoon Br'kil, and I am a Knight here...I am to take over all of your training, as your Master, until such times that Master Womarg returns...there should be five of you in all, but I believe two have sill to arrive." She cast her violet eyes around the room with interest. "What have you been up to?"
Jo'tra, the only Padawan present, smiled uneasily. "Well, we've been training against droids but I think we blew too many up...I have also learnt to some degree the usage of telekinesis and absorbing energy...we have also all sparred with each other."

Anoon raised one eyebrow. "So you have learned how to make a mess, now you can learn how to tidy it up...and then tell me what you think you have learned from it, youngling."

Scratching his head, Jo'tra shrugged. "How do you want me to go about this?"
She refused to budge. "However you think should do it, it's your choice that determines your fate. It is better to make the mistakes now then when your life or that of others depends on your decision."

Jo'tra closed his eyes and reached out to a large chunk of a droid with his mind. He levitated it, said to Anoon, "I'm doing it Master," then the chunk dropped towards her head.

The droid part stopped before hitting her head, and drifted back to the floor. "Now try that again youngling, only without the Force." She allowed a small measure of irritation to show in her voice.

"Okay, I'll try it again," Jo'tra said, and droid pieces of various sizes started to orbit his head. "Where do you want them?"

"Padawan, I did ask for it to be done without the Force."

Jo'tra cringed, and quickly piled all the pieces by Anoon's feet, sans Force.
"Now, youngling...in one neat pile would be good...then you may tell me what you think you've learnt." She looked at him inscrutably.

Jo'tra took a deep breath and thought for a moment. "That the Force is not a tool that we should use for our own gains...that we do the desires of the Force and not the other way around? That I should get off my lazy backside, and do thing for myself...learn patience."

She smiled. "Well done youngling, you learn quickly."

Jo'tra heard footsteps behind him, from the entrance to the Training Grounds. He turned and saw a stranger, in traditional Jedi garb. It was another human, a man, with light brownish hair and quick eyes hidden behind eyeglasses. "Greetings, Master, I am Sc'har Pe-wal, here as you requested." He looked around the dome with interest.

"Youngling," Anoon said, smiling, "you have arrived."

"Yes Master...shall we begin my training?"

Another person entered just after him, a humanoid male. He bowed to Anoon and the two Padawan. "Master Anoon, I have returned to complete my training. What are your instructions?"

Anoon looked slightly dazed at the prospect of training five Padawan of different levels, but coped quickly. "Okay, you're going to have to introduce yourselves...Jo'tra, you learn well but don't let what you think you know cloud the situations you find yourself in."

He nodded and carried on piling the training-rubble into a neat pile.

The three men all introduced themselves - the humanoid being 'Ancha Theri', already a Jedi, honing his skills to take the trials and become a Knight - as Anoon had very recently done.

"Ancha, I am unsure as to what you have already been taught...once I am sure of your skills I will recommend you to take the trials. Sc'har, do you have a lightsaber?"

Sc'har nodded in the affirmative, and Anoon rubbed her hands together. "It's a good sign you come prepared, Sc'har."

"Master Anoon," Ancha said, "Master Womarg believed I was almost ready for the Trials. I was in a final duel with a 'super' droid when I left. However if you wish to assess my skills for yourself I am ready for your test."

She smiled back at him. "So you are well on your path...the droid may be the best choice with all the Padawan here and seeing a more experienced Jedi may be advantageous to their learning...however, I am worried that they may get ambitious..." She thought to herself for a second. "Younglings make sure there is nothing lying in the middle of the room, then go sit by the side please."
The two, Jo'tra and Sc'har, quickly moved the pile over to the side then seated themselves down against the wall.

Anoon activated a yet-to-be-destroyed droid and withdrew herself as Ancha activated his red lightsaber and took up a defensive posture. He prepared for its attack, sinking himself into the Force and feeling it speed his reaction times and reflexes.

The droid broke down before it got close.

Anoon sighed and shook her head. "Second-rate equipment..." she muttered derisively, before lugging it over to the corner, strengthening herself with the Force. "Right...so, do either of you Padawan want to spar with Ancha?"
Jo'tra shook his head. "No Master, for the time being I am content with observation."

Sc'har stood, smiling a little hesitantly. "Ancha...fancy sparring my friend?"
Keeping his defensive stance at the ready, Ancha nodded slowly. "You attack, I'll defend..."



The next day Chnei entered the Training Grounds to find an unfamiliar woman there, and a man who described himself as Ancha Theri. The woman nodded at Chnei and introduced herself… "I am Anoon, and it seems I have to take over the role as your training master until such times as Master Womarg returns."

Sc'har entered, rubbing his strained shoulder - from the fight the day before - and bowed slightly stiffly to Anoon. "You spar well, youngling," She said to him, "I am impressed with your early skills."

He smiled. "Thank you Master...I have been practising ever since I was young, with wooden swords."

Anoon looked upon her Padawan with the glint of pride in her startlingly hued eyes. "The path to becoming a Knight is not an easy one. It is full of choices and you must begin to shape your path now younglings. I am pleased with this early show of skill, but there are those who will have different skills and different talents; you must never look down on them or see yourself as superior to them because of what you do now. Every Jedi is equal in either skill, aptitude, force of mind or another skill that is equally as important to help them down their paths."

Jo'tra had entered during her speech, and listened; when she finished he bowed to her. "Master Anoon, what will be today's lesson?"

A Knight that Chnei recognised as Ma'rol Mannan entered and bowed graciously, and seated himself. He was watching Anoon with an intersected expression.

She smiled at Ma'rol, and turned back to her Padawan. "Well youngling, that all depends on what you must learn today." Levitating a small sphere from the assorted droid parts, she continued, "Tell me, does this mean anything to you?"

Jo'tra nodded easily. "That the whole is better than the sum of its parts, by only our own Force we aren't that powerful but the droid is made up of many parts that make it work well, like the Force."

"Which part is important in the droid?"

"Well," Jo'tra continued, "Every part is important as the last, it doesn't matter - if the smallest part is left out it will cease to function properly, some would say the power core but if the mechanisms aren't working properly then you can simple burn out the core. Every part matters."

The sphere spun languidly in the air and settled amongst its counterparts.
"What about life forms that mean only to harm?"

Without even batting an eyelid he could respond. "They are as much a part of the force as the rest of us and if they die then it affects the force, so we must always do our best to resolve the situation without the use of force. By diplomacy the lightsaber is more of a symbol than a weapon, so we shouldn't use it unless all other forms of reasoning have been used."

She nodded absentmindedly, looking at the quiet Knight sitting in the corner. Ma'rol stood and folded his arms loosely across his chest; Anoon stood quickly after. She smiled at him. "A sparring match," she said to the gathered Padawan, "Between Master Ma'rol and myself...there is much you can learn, younglings."

As the present Padawan sat down quickly, Eland entered and nodded quickly to the others. She sat down with her friends, and watched the man as he took off his Jedi robes, wearing only official Jedi fighting pants underneath - made of a plain soft cloth, simple trousers that went down to his knees. He nodded to them. "My name is Ma'rol Mannan. I am a Knight of our order, and Anoon is...was, my Padawan. You will learn a lot from her younglings. Now, if you will, Anoon?"

Anoon smiled at him warmly and removed her dark cape, revealing simple robes underneath. She held her lightsaber loosely in one hand and bowed to Ma'rol. She activated it and they smiled at each other.

Back-flipping quickly and landing a metre or two away, Ma'rol waved his ex-Padawan forward but she looked at him with one raised eyebrow. He smiled at her, gestured again, and she shrugged - it seemed to Jo'tra that she had been wondering about his lack of a lightsaber. Indeed now she activated her lightsaber, the silver blade springing to life, and spun forwards toward him in a rapid attack. Ma'rol went down under the attack, balancing on one hand, and launched a swipe at Anoon's legs with his own.

To avoid being brought down to the ground Anoon flipped away from him, and by the time she had landed Ma'rol was up standing, back in his original defensive posture. "It was not long ago a move like that had me on the ground...I remember your lessons well, Ma'rol. Though I do not know what good they will do me here." Anoon smiled, spun the blade hilt over tip a few times then advanced slowly.

"I'm just going through the moves, Anoon..." Ma'rol jumped backwards and pressed himself against the far wall with the Force, a metre and a half off the ground, and addressed the assembled Padawan. "Any move can get anyone younglings...It is using them correctly that will catch even a knight off guard. The right move at the right time is everything. Remember that."

"I suspect there are lessons even you need to learn, Master," Jo'tra said, looking wholly unconvinced.

"The key to being a Jedi, a good one that is, is never stop learning."

"And never underestimate your opponent," Anoon finished off, and swung her lightsaber at Ma'rol.

He slid up the wall some, narrowly avoiding her lightsaber, and pushed himself away, landing a good half-dozen metres away. Pulling with the Force and a motion of his hands, he swept her lightsaber arm to one side and ran towards her. She threw her lightsaber into her other hand and smiled. "I can defend with both hands, Ma'rol."

"I know..." To counteract the lightsaber Anoon was spinning at him, he gathered the Force into a veritable wall with which the blade connected. Anoon drew back sharply and he dropped to his hands again, swinging round to connect with Anoon's knees. She somersaulted away and swung the lightsaber down at him, and he immobilised it with a gesture when it was inches away from his face, and smiled.

Anoon deactivated her lightsaber and offered him her hand; he took it and helped himself up off the floor. After bowing to Anoon he addressed the Padawan again. "The most powerful weapon you will ever have at your disposal will be the Force. It is in all of you to do what we have just done, but learning to control such powers is what matters also. That is why you don't just become a knight. Ancha here has been trained to understand the subtleties of the force, and is soon to take the trials as both Anoon and I have."

Five lightsabers, all belonging to the students, unclipped themselves from their owners' belts and hovered activated in the air. "These will give you the focus to learn to control the power. But they are not the power." The lightsabers spun quickly, deactivated and fell to the floor by their respective owners.

"That was impressive," Eland said, and gulped quietly.

"Any questions, younglings?" Ma'rol said as he pulled his robes on again.
"Yeah," Jo'tra raised his hand and nodded, "How much do we have to learn before like you I become a Knight?"

Ma'rol shook his head slightly and sighed. "There is no fixed amount or written level. Master Puppet tests you in the trials when your master has deemed you ready. You will progress to jedi level when you have mastered the lightsaber as Ancha has."

"What if we fail?" Eland looked up at them from her seat on the floor, trying to hide her fear in - most unsuitable for a Jedi, she thought.

"There is no failure," Ancha said from beside her, "Only more to learn."
"But what if we fail to learn, or learn the wrong things? Is turning to the Dark side not considered failure?" Obsessed with failure? That's me... Eland frowned slightly to clear her head and bit her lip, waiting for an answer.

"In Darkness there is always light and in light there is always darkness; you cannot have the one without the other. They are both paths to a goal but the Dark side is not as easy as it seems. Do not be tempted by offers of power." on said and looked over at Ma'rol, who was nodding sagely.

To Eland it seemed the older Knight had sensed her doubt, her worry. He said to all of them, "There are doubts in all your minds, but as Knights Anoon and I can stand tall and say you will find a way through. Anoon here had doubts. But as Master Puppet has said on many occasions, do not think about the "what if ’s.” Believe, know, and do. Do not feel anger or jealousy, because they are doubts in your mind. Clear those emotions from you and focus on your purpose. That is your path. All you all have to do younglings is walk it."