Chapter 22: Contest

Connor stared blankly for a moment before he got the sense to reach his hand out in order to shake Asajj's outstretched hand. "Hello, my name is Connor", Connor introduced himself. Connor's min was still in disbelief. This was Asajj Ventress. She was one of the focal antagonists during the clone wars. Count Dooku found her here on the planet Rattatak after she had been sold as a slave. She was not a Rattataki however, she was Dathomirian, a Zabrak hybrid, which happen to look like the natives of this planet. Ventress was originally trained in the light side but turned to the dark side after her master was kill, but Connor did not know that master was Ky Narec.

"Connor, Plo Koon has been telling me all about you. You sound like quite the capable padawan.", Ky spoke directly to Connor. "Well, behind every good padawan is a great master", Connor replied. Plo Koon simply chuckled because he felt as if his padawan's growth had very little to do with him. "Well how do you feel about a little competition between out padawans?", Ky Narec put forth the suggestion. "You are well aware how the Jedi Council feels about competing between members of the Order", Plo Koon replied. "Plo, you and I both know that that is more of a guideline and that the various members of the council have broken it themselves, besides it would be interesting to see the difference between a padawan who was raised in the temple and one who wasn't.", Ky Narec stated. Plo Koon finally gave in, "Fine, a simple duel and a test to show mastery of the force and that is it".

The four Jedi made their way to a large clearing. Plo Koon and Ky Narec stood off to the side while Ventress and Connor faced each other. Connor pulled out his lightsaber and activated it, while Ventress activated her own. Connor decided to use Soresu to so that he could probe Asajj's style.

Suddenly, the fight started when Ventress attacked on the Connor went on the defensive though this was his plan. Ventress attacked and slashed at Connor relentlessly but Connor's Soresu was too adept and easily stopped each strike. "He's already reached such a level with an advanced lightsaber form", Ky Narec questioned from the side. "Not only that but he actually learned this form without any formal teaching and before he was even a padawan", Plo Koon proudly stated. Ky's eyes suddenly popped open as he got the sense that his padawan may be in danger.

The fighting continued for a couple of minutes and Connor had learned that Ventress was mainly using the basic Shii-Cho mixed in with very few Ataru moves probably taught to her by her master. The Ataru was not very well done and Connor felt that she was very new to Ataru. Connor then decided it was time to end the duel and switched to Juyo. His lightsaber suddenly became a flurry of strikes as Connor began to flail his lightsaber in a seemingly unpredictable fashion. Ventress was unable to keep up with this ferocious form of lightsaber combat and was quickly overwhelmed. The next thing she knew was that there was a blue plasma blade pointed at her neck and Connor was holding the other side of it.

"He also knows Juyo?!", Ky Narec surprisingly questioned. "He mentioned something to me about picking it up, but I didn't know that his mastery had already reached such a level". Plo Koon stood there wondering how long it would be before his padawan had surpassed even himself. Connor stretched out his hand to help Ventress off the ground. "Have you ever considered using two lightsabers?", Connor asked. "No, I haven't. Why would you suggest such a thing?", Ventress looked at Connor strangely. 'Because it's like signature Ventress'. "I just noticed how you seemed to be ambidextrous and had great control in each individual hand too", Connor lied. "Really?", Ventress replied staring at both of her hands.

"Well I think it's time we move on the mastery of the Force competition", Ky's voice brought the padawans out of their conversation. "How will this competition be conducted?", Plo Koon questioned. "Simple, I know of a location nearby with two large rocks that are about the same size; let's see which of you can hold it in the air the longest", Ky explained.

The four Jedi then made their way to the location that was mentioned. Connor saw the boulders that Ky had mentioned, and they were decently large, but Connor felt he would not have any issue lifting it. Connor and Ventress both knelt down in a meditative pose in front of their respective boulders. Connor focused on lifting the boulder, he was excited to test out his newly enhanced force abilities as he had not gotten a chance since he added those extra FPs. After a couple seconds, Connor lifted the boulder with ease and not long after Ventress lifter hers into the air as well.

After just over a minute, Ventress dropped her boulder and Connor who did not want to boast too much dropped his right afterwards. "Well, it looks like you have quite the padawan", Ky exclaimed. "To be fair, most padawans are not at this level at this age, my padawan is just a cut above the rest", Plo Koon replied. Since the mini competition was over, the master padawan duo returned to the house.

"I guess it's time we discuss out next step.", Plo Koon started the conversation, "Ky, we came here to bring you back to the Jedi Order and that is what we planned to do". "I can't leave now; I have made so much progress in bringing peace to this planet. If I left now, the warlords might go back to their barbaric ways.", Ky retorted. This left Connor and Plo Koon at an impasse they could not complete their mission without Ky. "Would it be possible for Rattatak to be brought into the Republic?", Ventress suddenly spoke up.

"Not with its current situation, proper government would have to brought to Rattatak and somebody native to the planet would have to be chosen to represent them in the Senate", Plo Koon answered. "If you would just give me more time, I could accomplish that", Ky said. Connor had an idea, but he was not sure if his master would go along with it. "Master, why don't you travel back to Coruscant to report to the council the situation and I'll stay here under the supervision of Ky Narec so he'll have an extra hand in bringing peace and order to the planet?".