16 The Fires of Ryloth [Continued 2]

Part 4

Republic Cruiser Requiem, Task Force "Retribution" Flagship; Hyperspace

She was bored. Reeealy bored!

All the channels the small holoprojector in her room could get were showing the same things, again and again! Or they were speculating about the consequences of the attacks on Coruscant.

She knew more about the CIS operation on the planet than the reporters anyway. So she had to speak with those folks from Republic Intelligence for days!

What was wrong with them anyway?! She told them the truth as she knew it the first time! And the second, and the third... She lost count how many time she had to repeat it! But they continued asking the same questions, day after day, until she was tempted to Force Choke them to death! That would at least be interesting... Riiight?!

The blue skinned woman pouted. If this was it, living was overrated!

The bland routine was driving her insane.

Where was that man, the one who saved her, anyway?! He promised that he'll talk with her soon. She had met him for a couple of minutes after she awoke. Then he somehow managed to persuaded her to speak with those people from Republic Intelligence and then disappeared. Men!

She glanced at the image shown by the holoprojector. It showed the domed building she thought was the Republic's Senate and dozens of small specks swarming it. Ah. It was showing how the clones assaulting it. Again.

Her head whipped around and her mismatched eyes stared at the sealed door which slid into the walls with a quiet hiss.

"Hi! We finally have some time to catch up!" said the man who had saved her, and then sent her to this hellish boredom!

She felt his presence in the Force. It called to something dark deep inside her. She heard a seductive whisper before everything went red. She smiled, relishing in the feeling of power coursing through her very being. A growl escaped her lips before she sent a telekinetic push his way.

=RK=

Republic Cruiser Requiem, Task Force "Retribution" Flagship; Hyperspace; twenty minutes earlier

I smirked at Jaybo who waited impatiently next to the workbench over which I was working. The kid wanted some "serious" training. So I decided to oblige him.

The last component of the device I was finishing slid in place with a quiet click.

"Its done." I declared cheerfully.

I used telekinesis to levitate the short cylinder, made of dull gray metal to the expectant hands of the kid.

"A lightsaber?! Cool!" he exclaimed and grabbed it from my intangible grasp.

Jaybo wasted no time in pressing the weapon's activation button. A vibrant, azure blade came to life with the characteristic snap-hiss of a lightsaber. He stared at it and his brilliant smile fell. Jaybo pouted at me.

"Its blue!" he stated the obvious. "You are a Sith, right?! And I'm supposed to be your apprentice! So why is it blue?!" he asked in accusing tone.

I grinned at the kid like the proverbial Chestire cat.

"You see, my young apprentice, while I may be a Sith, you are not. Not yet at any rate. Two things must happen first, for you to be one." I started lecturing my student. "First, you have to want to be a Sith, and frankly you don't know enough yet to make an educated decision. When the time comes that you know the basics, you'll have to make a choice."

Jaybo frowned at me. Obviously this was not what he expected. Tough. I had no intention of wasting him by taking the fastest and easiest path that usually ended with just another brute, someone who was little more than disposable shock trooper. That was not the kind of Sith I needed for the Order I intended to build.

"You are damn persistent with sending me back to school!" Jaybo grumbled.

I chuckled. Oh, he had no idea!

"Second, you have to earn the right to be called a Sith. But that is a topic for a later time. Now, you wanted some "serious" training, as you put it, didn't you? Oh, my foolish, young apprentice. You'll learn to be careful what you wish for. Sometimes it comes true!" I gave him an evil smile with accompanying chuckle which made him take a hasty step back.

I used the Force to manipulate the contents of couple of lockers which were hugging the wall behind Jaybo. Their doors snapped open and six fist sized spheres flew out. They had small red blisters spread evenly over their surface.

"Uh, oh." muttered my apprentice.

The spheres darted forward and surrounded Jaybo, floating about a meter and a half over the floor.

"The average Jedi starts training with one of these toys. I naturally expect better of you." my smile grew wider.

One of the balls sent a tiny, red bolt of energy at Jaybo who jumped out of the way, letting the attack to harmlessly splash on the ground.

"I've shown you how to access the Force. Let it flow through you, then use it to enhance your perception and reflexes. Soon enough you would be consistently seeing the attacks a moment before they occur. When you reach that stage, what you need to do is train your body to be able to keep up."

"Ouch!" exclaimed Jaybo after he was not fast enough in avoiding the next attack.

"Tsk. You have a training saber now, kid. Use it."

He tried to parry the next attack, but missed, and started waving around his left hand which was stinging from the hit.

"It hurts!" he grumbled.

"It will keep you motivated to get the hang of it faster. Besides you have stage two to look up to!" I quipped.

"Do I even want to know!?" he exclaimed.

This time two of the spheres shot at him. Jaybo sidestepped one bolt and managed to interpose the blade of the training lightsaber in the path of the other attack, deflecting it at the ceiling. It was crude, but worked.

"That's the spirit!" I cheered him. "Just remember, next you'll have to do it with your eyes closed." I smirked.

"What?!" Jaybo exclaimed, loosing his concentration. "Argh! Delkatar, you bastard!" he shouted when three bolts struck him simultaneously.

"Have fun kid!"

I left the grumbling Jaybo to his fate and headed for a meeting I've postponed for more than long enough.

=RK=

Perhaps I should have made the time to visit my guest earlier. Much earlier.

I could feel her frustration and boredom. Not a good combination for a Force Adept, especially one whose training I suspected to be a hack job. Oh, boy. I had my work cut out for me.

I nodded to the squad of clones guarding the room of the woman I saved and waited while they executed a security scan. They all knew better than becoming sloppy. I made sure of that.

I really should have met her earlier. For the past week or so since she awoke, the Chiss female was known only as Azure, the code name given to her by RI. Not terribly original. She needed a real name.

At least she had managed to control herself and the agents who interrogated her made it out of those interviews unscathed.

Perhaps it was time for me to get myself a personal staff. There was only one of me and an eternally increasing mountain of paperwork that had to be done in order for my fleet to keep running. That was before the conception of Operation "Retribution". Now, despite Piett being back from Naboo and doing excellent job as my aide, I was simply swamped. Even getting Veers to help didn't improve the situation.

I lamented the days of the Empire when I could simply dump most of that never sufficiently damned paperwork on my minions. I frowned. That thought just reminded me that I didn't have minions anymore.

Whose idea was that I should become a Republic general anyway?! I wanted to have a "chat" with the bastard. Oh right, it was my idea.

The scan was complete and the leader of the guard detachment nodded me to proceed.

The door slid open, revealing a spartan compartment. It had a small bed with a standard mattress, no particularly comfortable one at that, a desk which slid into the wall and a small stool. In the far end of the room, a holoprojector was tuned to a channel showing images of the Assault on the Senate.

The Chiss woman was sitting on the bed. The moment I entered, her head snapped my way and she stared at me.

"Hi! We finally have some time to catch up!" I greeted her with a nervous smile on my face.

I felt a tug through the Force, as if a void within me had become a bit less... It was hard to put the sensation into words. It was like the feeling of a Force bond forming. Yet it was so much more and at the same time... less.

I felt the Dark Side trying to possess her, her spiking anger. The woman liked the sweet sensation of the energies running through her body.

Then she attacked.

I retaliated with stream of telekinetic energy which met her onslaught. Our attacks canceled each other, producing a wave of displaced air in the process. It battered us in the form of a short lived, but strong wind.

That didn't deter her. She snarled and jumped at me.

"Sir!" exclaimed one of the clones behind me. I could hear the clicks of disengaging safeties.

"I'll deal with the lady. Do not engage unless she attacks you." I ordered.

If she was thinking coherently and had the necessary training to back up her ferocity, the Chiss woman could have been dangerous in hand to hand combat. As she was, she proved to be little more than a berserker who had slipped under the influence of the Dark Side.

That was what made it so dangerous. One moment the woman was simply frustrated. In the next she had lost it. Not that it was surprising. I should have expected something like this. After all, the woman was supposed to be a one shot, disposable weapon. The people who made her what she was didn't care for long term consequences. She was supposed to be dead by now.

It felt strange. As if I knew her every action before she tried to execute it. It was easy to counter her uncoordinated attacks.

I used the back of my right hand to slap aside a wild swing before delivering a Force enhanced palm strike at her solar plexus. At the same time, my left hand caught her other fist which tried to give me an impressive shiner.

I used telekinesis to roughly pick up the gasping woman and slammed her in the far wall. She wheezed as the little air left in her lungs was forcibly pushed out. I felt the uncontrolled rage leaving her body as fast as it had overtaken her faculties and let the dazed woman to slide to the floor.

"The emergency is over boys. The lady will behave from now on. Won't you, my dear?" I asked her.

"Yeah..." she wheezed.

I could sense the fight draining out of her. She was more confused than anything else.

The sergeant in charge of the squad shook his head. He was apparently not convinced. Can't blame him for doing his job.

"You liked the rush of power." I stated.

During our short lived skirmish, I could sense that she enjoyed the feeling of the Dark Side flowing through her. Hell, I usually loved the rush of the Dark Side when I used it too. But that was not the point right now. I knew what I was doing. She didn't.

She studied me for a moment before nodding.

"We will have to work on this temper of yours." I grumbled.

She blinked at me in confusion. There was an innocence in her eyes that one would not expect from the woman who led the attack on the Jedi Temple. Not to mention that before my arrival she did a reasonably good job.

Thanks to our new connection, which I was shielding from my side so she wouldn't be able to take a stroll through my mind, I was able to see the truth of the matter. She was not faking it. Part of her really was just an innocent little girl. One that had a strong connection with the Force and an affinity to the Dark Side to booth.

"What am I to do with you?" I wondered aloud.

Being a babysitter was definitely not on my schedule for the foreseeable future.

She simply stared at me, but remained silent.

After her little temper tantrum, it was clear that ignoring her was not an option. At least not a good one. She needed training, and I needed to make sure that she wouldn't be bored for long. Idle hands and all that.

I gave her a reassuring smile. I should have listened to my own advice. At one point I wanted an apprentice, and now I had my hands full with a pair of them.

"Please sit on the bed. The floor has to be cold." I spoke softly to the girl in a woman's body.

She sprang to her feet and jumped on the hard mattress. Good enough.

"You know, we can't continue calling you Azure. Or hey you."

Her mismatched eyes stared at me. She simply didn't care one way or another.

"How do you want to be known from now on?"

She shrugged, as if it was not important. I could clearly sense her confusion. She was wondering what all that fuss was about.

I once again had the sudden need to strangle the people who had made her the way she was today.

"Aria." I suddenly stated. The name just came to me out of the blue, yet it somehow felt right. It... suited her.

"Aria Astra." I said a bit louder. "How do you like it?"

"Its just a name." she shrugged.

She pursed her lips in thought and nodded.

"It will do." she said in a calm tone, one you would use to discuss the weather.

Despite her outwards indifference, she liked the name. It resonated with something deep within her.

That was something to pursue at later date. When she trusted me more. I decided to change the topic.

"Aria, would you like to tell me what were you taught about the force?"

She bit her lower lip and mumbled something unintelligible.

"Uh huh. A bit louder please."

"Just how to grasp it. To let the Dark Side flow through me."

"Ah." was my intelligent response. This was going to be a very long day.

I could glimpse through our bond that this was more or less the truth. It raised my opinion about her potential even further. With that kind of "knowledge" that she had been given prior to her one way mission to the Temple, she should not have been able to use the Force in the way she actually did.

A very long day indeed, however I just knew that it would be worth it in the end.