Ten Years

A few days have passed since Khan's return. Most of his time was spent training and reviewing everything he learned from Revan. At other times, he trained with Belia and worked on his research. Testing shield production and studying the force on animals. 

It took Belia five days of constant meditation to purify her kyber crystal. Her blade turned silver-white from crimson red.

Until the day the training droids were finally completed. Six droids, each designed for a specific style. The sixth form of lightsaber combat was left out due to its resemblance to other styles and its reliance on the force.

Habitat led them to a circular battle arena surrounded by the six droids, each of which held a lightsaber. Next to the droids were a series of circular drones with built-in training blasters.

"Master, these are the droids you wanted. Each designed after a thorough examination of the lightsaber forms. They're a subroutine of my programming, made to learn as they fight." Habitat turned around and began introducing her creations.

The droids built for form one and two looked no different than normal white-plated droids. The only exception was the extra mobility in their wrist and shoulders.

The droid built for form three had sensors all over its head, giving it extra viewing angles. The droid for form four had inverted knee joints, giving the droid an increased jumping power and speed.

The fifth droid was noticeably bigger than the others and its arms looked full of power. The final droid had two joints on its arm, allowing it a wider range of motion and unpredictable strikes.

"Nice job Habitat, let me see how good these droids are." Khan unhooked the lightsaber from his waist and walked to the center of the circle with a smirk.

"Select training program." A drone flew over and a holographic display appeared in the air. On it were a series of options. One could pick a single style, multiple styles, or all at the same time.

They could also select blaster fire or no blaster fire, as well as the number of droids to shoot.

Since it was his first time, he simply selected form one and no blaster fire. The eyes of the form one droid lit up, its head twisted and it walked into the center of the ring.

The droid didn't say anything as it grabbed its hilt with both hands and ignited the blade. Its legs bent and its body turned at an angle, completely taking on a fighting stance.

"Oh? It really looks like it knows what it's doing." Khan ignited his blade and rushed forward with force speed.

His body turned into a blur as he swiped at the droid with his blade. The droid arched his blade down and blocked the strike before Khan could fully swing and reach the maximum power of the strike.

The droid rotated the blade and deflected Khan's blade upward. In one fluid motion, the blade spun back around and hit his wrist.

The blade burnt slightly but the impact caused him to drop his lightsaber. In the next moment, the droid stepped forward and hit his inner thigh, causing him to stagger. Before he knew it, the blade was resting at his neck.

"Khan, I didn't think you'd lose so fast." Belia looked at him with mocking eyes.

Khan took a deep breath and stepped back. His fingers opened and his lightsaber flew to his hand. "Again."

This time he didn't rush forward, he stepped toward the droid with both hands on the blade and performed a simple slash.

The droid blocked his blow and tried to retaliate but Khan didn't press the attack and chose to defend. The two continued trading blows and defending. The hum of their lightsabers seemed to be the only noise in the world.

The flash of red and blue constantly colliding. Khan used force precognition but the droid improved with every strike, learning his movement patterns as they fought.

This forced him to improve with every swing and block, if he couldn't they would stalemate until the droid won.

Khan kept losing and repeating until his body was full of burns and bruises. Eventually, he got faster and more precise as he got used to using the force in lightsaber combat.

He blocked the incoming strike, before the droid could pull back, he spun his blade. The blade spun and sliced through the droid's shoulder. Khan stepped in and rotated, slicing through the droid's waist.

The metal parts fell to the ground with a clang. Applause sounded from the side of the field. He turned his head to see Belia clapping.

"It's already dark?" His eyes widened when he turned his head, this whole time he'd been focused on his duels with the droid.

"You've been fighting that droid for hours." Belia looked at the scraped droid. "Why'd you have to destroy it?"

"It's fine, I predicted this would happen." Habitat pointed at the droid. Spider bots came forward and detached the stub of its cut arm and waist before attaching new parts. They then took the damaged parts to a factory for processing.

The droid stood back up with its lightsaber in hand.

Khan shook his head and extinguished his blade. "You try Belia."

Khan stepped to the side and made way for Belia.

"Finally it's my turn. Watch and learn." Belia stepped into the ring and drew her saber.

The droid scanned Belia and returned to the form it first used to face Khan. 

"The droids have different profiles for different opponents." Habitat turned to Khan to explain when she saw the curiosity in his eyes.

Khan watched as the two clashed, the result no different than the first time he locked blades. "What's the upper limit?"

Habitat shook its head. "Machines can only move so fast, eventually they won't be able to keep up. No matter how technically skilled they are, You'd have to find a way to artificially increase the difficulty."

Khan's eyes flickered for a moment, a new idea popped into his head. "Machines are limited, but what about flesh?"

His mind raced as he thought of his nanofluid. Once he learned sith magic and alchemy, he can enhance the fluid and create non-force sensitive Sith Assassins. If he combined it with Mechu-deru he could make them completely obedient.

You only get one chance to bind the fluid to your cells, so he had to wait for the right metal. Belia will be focused on the light side, so he can't put sith alchemy inside her body.

"Flesh?" Habitat looked at him strangely. "Cyborgs would actually be worse. You can't replace parts if they're damaged as easily, they'd just die or fully become machines."

"That's not entirely true." The corners of his lips rose. The nanofluid would just be the first step, all it does is enhance cell strength. "What if we installed cybernetics inside their bodies like muscle weave. If we attached it to their muscles and joints it would constantly increase their power as they grew stronger."

"There's a limit, it'll eventually tear their bodies apart. Flesh is too fragile." Habitat disagreed after running a few calculations.

Khan didn't correct her, he was running his own calculations in his head. Belia and himself didn't need the cybernetic implants, they could enhance their bodies with the force. That already put enough strain on their physiques.

In order to continue his research on nanofluids, he must first enhance his research on midi-chlorians. It wouldn't be a joke if his nanofluid stripped his force sensitivity.

Habitat returned her gaze to Belia when Khan didn't respond. She had no idea of the existence of nanofluid.

With the practice droids completed, Khan and Belia added lightsaber practice to their daily schedule. Between training the force, researching shield technology, and practicing saber combat his days were full.

The ship continued its construction bit by bit and time continued to pass. Before they knew it, ten years had passed.

Khan stood in a large metal room, surrounded by three training droids and a large number of blaster drones. He donned durasteel battle armor with a black armorweave hooded cloak and waistcoat.

The drones flew in circles and fired nonstop but his blade spun around his body like a deflector shield, knocking back blaster fire and disabling drones.

The droids launched at him from three sides. One on the left and right while the other leaped into the air.

Khan deflected two bolts at the droids approaching from the side and stopped their advance as they had to defend. He transitioned right into an upward swing to block the droid slashing down.

The power behind the blow pushed the droid back into the air. His wrist spun and he sliced the droid in half, just in time to deflect another bolt coming towards his back.

The other two droids couldn't approach as he constantly deflected blast bolts towards them. Seeing this, he rushed towards one of the droids and slashed out. The droid defended the blow but his onslaught was relentless. After three strikes he broke the droid's stance and sliced it in half.

This allowed the other droid to rush towards him. Before it took two steps a spinning blade flew past it, slicing it in two. The blade spun around the room and took out all the drones before returning to Khan's hand.

All that was left were piles of scrap on the floor and three lightsabers. 

"Khan, all systems have been checked. Prometheus is ready to take off." Belia's voice came over an intercom in the room.

"Good, I'm heading to the bridge now." Khan extinguished his blade and attached the hilt to his waist. When he turned to leave the room, hatches opened on the walls and floor and spider repair bots came to fix the damage.

Outside the training room was a corridor with five other doors on the side just like the one behind him. Walking down the white hall he arrived at a large lobby area, to his right were three elevators, in front of him was a hall towards the cafeteria, and the left led towards the hanger area.

Khan walked straight to the middle of the three elevators that opened the moment he arrived. The inside doesn't have any buttons, completely controlled by Habitat. The ship had three decks and a raised bridge. He's currently located at the bottom deck.

The second deck has forty crew suites of moderate size, each with four separate rooms inside. This allowed for a hundred and sixty future personnel to live comfortably. The third deck is divided into a large lab and bigger condos for Belia and himself.

When the elevator door opened he saw Belia and Habitat sitting at a table. Belia is equipped in a full black armorweave suit with a long waistcoat and hood. Habitat's body has completely changed, already on her eighth version.

Her face looked no different than a human, with bright purple hair and glowing purple eyes. Her body was mostly made up of mechanical fibers wound up to look like exposed muscle. Her joints, chest, and abdomen are the only places with armor plates.

The bridge was simple, what looked like glass windows surrounded the whole room, but it was nothing more than a display from the sensors outside.

The room had no consoles or controls, just a large hexagonal table. Khan moved towards his throne and sat down.

"Because we're still in the unknown region, I need you and Belia to help me navigate out. No point in crashing now right?" Habitat turned towards Khan as he sat down.

"I told her I could do it myself, but she insisted that the odds were against me." Belia shrugged her shoulders, not caring that her abilities were doubted.

A large hologram showing the entire galaxy was projected over the table. With star maps gathered from dozens of ships, the entire map was filled. Some of these planets have even been lost to the republic or not discovered yet; Khan spent some time adding what he knew from memory.

Khan's eyes scanned the map before finding his target. "If we go north we have to pass through Chiss space, since I don't have a death wish, we go south."

His hand raised and he pointed towards an area at the bottom of the map. "Our first destination to break out of the unknown region is Rattatak."

When his words fell, the repulsorlifts turned to full power. The dagger-shaped ship that hovered above the ground began lifting into space for the first time.