THE MASTER’S TEACHINGS

"Ignite the blade." Leena calmly ordered as the apprentice did as she was told. Having her dual-lightsaber lit up, the change of crystal color has rather taken her by surprise. From yellow to red, would be more convincing for those Sith Lords around them – publicly showing allegiance as they lurk in the shadows for their true purpose. But it wasn't just the crystal that was changed, but also the lightsaber itself.

"It's… heavier than I thought." Jaesa admitted as she began to lightly swing the blade. Quinn came back from the bridge to find the Twi'lek seated on the couch, watching the two Force-users carefully and 2V on standby in case anyone gets hurt – or something is sliced up.

"Energy constantly flows through the crystal. You're not fighting with a simple blade as much as you're directing a current of power." The Master began her lesson. She wore rather simple robes, red showing the red hues of the Empire. No armor on her body at all, as much as she wanted to relax – she couldn't. "Your thoughts, your actions become energy. They flow through the crystal as well and become part of the blade."

From that moment, Leena ignited her lightsaber. The one she took from Naga Sadow's temple. It wasn't so long ago that she was an apprentice just like Jaesa. She only ignited one, with her other hand folded behind her back – the apprentice could sense what her Master feels. She was calm and confident.

Leena spoke. "The blades will be drawn together. Block high!" Vette jumped from the surprise attack Leena launched on her apprentice. Jaesa was lucky enough to block it faster than she expected. Her heart began to beat faster in nervousness, and at the same time, she couldn't remember any other Jedi who could match this kind of reflex – all but one.

A Jedi Knight named Tyrral, who like her current Master, can wield two lightsabers. The former Padawan knew that Leena was still holding back at this state – what more if she gave it her all? "There's a strong pull, can you feel it?"

Jaesa nodded as the two of them held their lightsabers high, none of them taking a step back. "That lightsaber is old, heavy, and yet powerful. Respect its strength. Block low!" Leena took another swing as Jaesa held her position strong. Remembering the forms as were taught to her, she was holding well.

"High!" With all those years being with Leena Sern, Vette narrowed her eyes as she quietly observed with the Captain. This wasn't even a quarter of what the Sith could do. "Middle! High! Low! Middle!" And with every dictation she made, Jaesa seemed to be slowly getting used to the idea of having lightsaber combat lessons from Lord Sern.

"Good." Leena praised. "Let's work on a series." Pulling their blades apart, each of them had a respectable distance from one another.

"Remember the forms that were taught to you." Leena didn't seem to need to teach the girl the basic forms. The Jedi weren't completely ignorant. "Ready position. I'll start slow, but I need you to keep your guard up."

Jaesa nodded, the Master nodded in return.

Vette knew the look in those eyes. Seems like the Sith Lord was not planning to hold back. Her hand was still folded behind her but, this was Leena – a woman who was brutally trained for combat. She did what she said, she started slow. With each dictation, Jaesa was managing to hold up. "One, two, three, four, five, six."

After the first round, she began to move a tad faster. There was nothing more in the ship than the sound of Leena's voice and the lightsabers being in odds with one another. "One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six." And faster. "One! Two! Three! Four! Five! Six!" On the last count, the apprentice fell, the lightsaber automatically turned off and the Master having her lightsaber pointed at the girl.

"You're making it easy on me, Jaesa." She spoke in a stern tone. "Ready position."

The other two companions continued to watch. Trying to analyze how each of them moved differently, which areas they manage to lack, their best attributes. Leena didn't seem to be the kind of person who would simply let a single student off the hook for a small mistake. And yet, she also didn't seem to be the one who would punish another so severely.

When Leena raised her lightsaber, it was even faster than the third set. "One! Two! Three! Four! Five! Six! One! Two! Three! Four! Five! Six!"

Jaesa was slightly pushed back by the level of strength Leena had on her. Regardless of the speed going faster, the Master was getting stronger by every swing she gives. The apprentice would gaze down on the blade that was given to her. "It feels lighter."

"Good." Leena nodded. "You're connecting with it. It's becoming a part of you. But you cannot only rely on the blade, neither can you rely on the Force vice versa. You must use everything you have learned in a collaborative effort. Now, ready position."

The apprentice took a deep breath as their blades began to clash. The difference was that Leena was no longer counting out loud.

One.

Two.

Three – the lightsaber was already gone from Jaesa's hands. "You have to do better than that, Jedi."

She is definitely like Master Tyrral. The apprentice closed her eyes, taking another deep breath. Reaching out to the lightsaber, allowing the Force to let it come to her. From the moment she touched the blade, she immediately ignited it and charged towards her Master. She was no longer holding back, as she was at her best performance – keeping up with her new Master in terms of lightsaber combat.

Vette smiled. As much as she wants to congratulate the apprentice, the Twi'lek had a very good idea of what Leena was looking from Jaesa. The apprentice is still young, but the potential was there – and Leena could see it as much as Baras saw it in her when she was in the academy.

Leena could feel it again. The pull to the light – she had hatred and anger, but she doesn't utilize it very well. Thoughts can betray her, there was good inside of her – some can argue that it conflicted but Leena knew very well that everyone in the galaxy will always have conflict. She waged war with the past and it leaves its scars. In battle, the words are swept away giving way to actions, mercy, sacrifice, anger, fear – pure expressions of emotions.

She walks through a thin line between the light and the dark. A struggle in which not all practitioners could master. Revanites argue that they study both the light and the dark side while maintaining the ideals of the Empire at heart, but Lord Sern was more concerned about the corruption inside of the individual. How both the light and the dark side can be misinterpreted and mishandle to the point of imbalance and destruction from within.

There were shadows inside of her mind. She was raised to believe in the ways of the Empire, how passion can be strengthened, and grant her power, a connection to the Force that no one can ever imagine. But the Force is also a dangerous weapon to almost anyone – in which that it can destroy a person and even their identity. Baras was correct to take her on – she had this raw, untamed power that could have the galaxy bow before her whenever she wishes.

Something truly special was inside of her. The dragon that was once asleep woke up in the surge of power back on Tatooine. The communion of two sides of the Force, difficult to maintain, one could say that she's even struggling.

She couldn't argue that fear leads to the dark side. In which fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, and hate leads to suffering.

Fear was inside of her, but it wasn't as strong as what the Force had in store for her. It was never enough.

Leena was meditating inside of her quarters. Allowing the darkness and the silence to embrace her within the void of the Force. She felt something different – a different kind of warmth, to the point where it felt like a burn, a wave of pain being welcomed to her spectrum of emotion. A different dragon was surrounding her as if she was prey.

The pain of millions of life forms being slaughtered – it was a horrifying experience.

Jaesa sat up from her bed, taking deep breaths as she looked around rather horrified. The lights were turned on and Vette rushed to the side of the young apprentice. From the expression of her face, it was as if she saw a massacre.

There was a disturbance in the Force.

The Twi'lek stepped outside to get some water for the apprentice, but instead, she saw Quinn starring at the HoloNet to find a planet being burned down. The planet Uphrades. It was a genocide committed by a Dark Lord of the Sith, and under his belt were Imperial warships – the planet was trapped inside an energy field. Reports have stated that some starships tried to flee, but their engines failed before they could even leave the atmosphere.

No one escaped. Every ship that tried crashed onto the surface. Flames consumed the planet. Everything turned to smoke and ash in seconds. As an Imperial soldier himself, even the Captain was horrified of the monstrosity.

Vette didn't even need reports to know that whatever caused the genocide, was indeed a superweapon.

Despite the pain she was feeling, the Sith Lord maintained her focus on her meditation. The pull from the Force felt rather stronger than she expected. She was feeling some sort of heavy burden on her chest, Leena was beginning to hear voices but it wasn't strong enough to see whatever there was on the other side. But Lord Sern was certain, whoever this person is – he was not Cyrus.

"Angral's jamming our transmissions. He's coming for us." A female voice spoke with concern.

Then she heard a droid. "T7 = find computer access // Tyrral + Kira = disable Desolator weapon + defeat Darth Angral. T7 = calculate 1 = percent chance total success."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence T7. Be careful out there."

"The Force = be with Tyrral + T7 too." Leena was struggling to keep the connection when she opened her eyes. She could no longer hear the voices. Unlike Cyrus, her feeling towards this was rather troublesome and painful. She could feel the fear inside of him, the pain, and even the anger.

Leena recognized his voice. He was the Jedi that Cyrus argued with.

Darth Angral was the man who attacked Baras not too long ago. Leena thought to herself as she stood up and lay down on the bed. The genocide has placed a wound on the Force. Lord Sern knew that there would be some who would mourn for such a tragedy and there would be some who would be inspired to sow chaos across the galaxy.

Tyrral is his name. Leena stood up, wearing her robes as she left her quarters to find Jaesa seated by the couch drinking water that was provided by Vette. The Twi'lek turned around to see the Sith, she smiled, and yet it vanished from the moment she had eye contact with her long-time friend.

The Twi'lek left without saying a word, knowing that she couldn't understand what they would talk about. Nor did she want to understand.

The apprentice looked up, watching her Master sit down beside her with a troublesome expression on her face. Jaesa could sense what Leena was feeling, she was troubled – but she knew that her Master would never even consider opening up to her. She was surrounded by walls, forced to reckon with the darkness, embracing it along with the silence that comes with it. The dark was generous after all.

"Did you feel it?" The apprentice asked quietly. Feeling the pain through her heart, through her soul – she reluctantly turned to her Master, looking for an answer. Leena was aware that she was afraid.

"Everyone felt that." Leena gave a satisfactory answer. "There are places in the galaxy that are strong with the Force. Light, dark, they are born in places teeming with life and in places that are filled with death. Worlds in which their surfaces are graveyards who screams echo through the Force."

"How…" The apprentice trailed. Trying to think for herself without this overwhelming emotion. "…How could someone… how could someone do such a thing? A whole… planet… burned into ashes…"

"It is possible for war, for men to give birth to such places, to leave wounds on the galaxy itself. What we heard was the echo of the present, and it will travel for a long time. No one wishes to hear the screams of the past nor its sounds, no one wants to hear them – that is the nature of echoes. And when there is a wound in the Force, it rarely leaves the life around it untouched."

There was something in her tone. Her intentions are not knowable to the apprentice. Leena warned. "Be mindful of the living Force, Jaesa."

The apprentice couldn't help but think that her Master has been rather distant. She wasn't the Leena Sern that Vette would smile and laugh about whenever she would tell the stories. Perhaps she was becoming more aware of the power she possessed and has started to plot against her own Master. The Sith Lord was nothing more than a puzzle towards the apprentice.

The Force binds all things. The smallest push, the smallest touch sends echoes throughout life. The acts of cruelty that Leena commits have all serve repercussions more than she knew, or can see that cruelty leads to suffering, and when one suffers it is the way of life to spread suffering. The suffering within builds until its sound is all one can hear, and when kindness is offered it is punished.

And greater darkness has been served. From one act can come tremendous power when the echo has traveled as far as it can.

Distrust is an effective shield and should be carried always. Leena looked around to find no one else but Jaesa still in distress beside her. She heard a familiar voice.

It was Arrun's voice. Your mind is not worst than the others that are so open and yet so trusting – but you're still living in fear. You were careful around Darth Occlus, very trusting towards the Twi'lek, demonstrated dominance to your Captain, and reluctantly teaching this new apprentice. You took her under your wing with no hesitation, why hesitate now?

She grew more confused. Arrun has been dead for a while now.

"Master, are you alright?" The apprentice asked in concern. Leena ran her fingers through her white hair, messing it up with such a troublesome mind. Jaesa gently placed her hand onto her Master's shoulder.

You must pass on what you have learned. Your strength. What you have mastered, the importance of weakness – failure most importantly. Never underestimate how failure can be the greatest teacher compared to other Masters in the galaxy.

"I must rest." The Master insisted as she stood up. "You should too, Jaesa. Your first real mission with me is on Taris, and that planet is crawling with Republic and Jedi scum."

Watching her Master leave, she saw it. The spark of hatred and despise through her voice when she spoke of the Republic as well as the Jedi. She showed mercy to Nomen Karr and those before him, Master Yonlach as well, and yet – it was no ordinary hatred she sensed.

It was a grudge.