[center][b]Aria Blair Dantooine[/b][/center] [i]The high grass of Dantooine burned with the touch of sunlight, long blades glowing with an orange blaze that seemed to extend eternally over the planet’s horizon. A silhouetted figure stood within the circle of light as though she were apart of the fiery star itself. Her outline dark, looking out off in the distance as her hand fell to touch the tips of grass and her fingers danced through the moving life. Footsteps shuffled, and she turned her head. “Beautiful, isn’t it?” The man behind her said. Rodian, young, eyes full of a yearning – like they would always have childlike awe expressed for a new sight. Aria envied him for that. “This place is so unlike Coruscant. I’ve seen the Room of a Thousand Fountains, the silver light of the water in starlight is surreal… Like a dream. The city hums with life, and roars with machinery. This place is different. Dantooine seems more to me like home, even if I don’t know where I’m from. A home for anyone who is tired and weary, they can come here and look out at these fields with the wind singing in their ears. Coruscant is chaos compared to here.” Aria turned to face the Rodian, though her face was still darkened by the bright sky flame behind her. To the Rodian, it looked as though she was the center of that burning sphere, detached from the life around her. “What are you doing following me Tyrok?” “I like Dantooine too, but once it’s dark it’s dangerous. Kath hounds can be unpredictable. But, even still, you’re more unpredictable than them.” Aria laughed. “Worried I’m going to get myself in trouble?” “You can’t worry about what you already know. Come on, let’s get back.” Tyrok waited for Aria to follow him, but the subtle glint in her gaze made him uneasy. He used the force to dig past the surface of her thoughts. With her, nothing was as it seemed. “Don’t. Aria, don’t. Aria, no!” In a roar of laughter, Aria took off running out into the open fields of Dantooine. The field ablaze with sunlight waved and swirled around her, revolving with her movements. Tyrok couldn’t help but grin as he charged after her. She was fast, but… Aria paused at the precipice of a cliff and glanced down at the cool stream of deep water coursing below. Tyrok watched her carefully. “Did you have your fun? Vrook’s going to whip us both if we don’t make it back for evening meditation.” “Vrook’s an old grump, and he’s boring. You’re not boring, are you Tyrok?” Damn her, Tyrok thought. His anger stirred, answering her challenge by lunging to grab her robes. Tyrok was too slow. Aria leapt off of the cliff and landed with a splash, submerged in the water below. With a gasp of air she resurfaced, giggling and smirking up at him. “Always one step slower than me. Do get faster, would you please? It’s lonely down here.” Tyrok grunted, reluctantly taking off his thick outer robe and tossing it to the ground. Aria whistled. “Take it off!” The Rodian blushed, but a human wouldn’t recognize it. “Aria, this isn’t proper!” “Oh, I get it. Do you need to go back and get verbal permission from a master, is that it? I can wait here if you’re scared.” Tyrok sighed, reluctantly lunging off into the stream much to Aria’s delight. When he came up, a splash smacked him in the face. He was swimming with pure evil, that was what it was. His head turned and the look on his face gave Aria pause. “Tyrok, no. No, no no no!” She took off swimming as he came after her, but the moment she made it to dry land she was tackled to the ground. Aria squealed and laughed as the two of them rolled around in the fields until she was looking up at him. The sun had gone down, and there was nothing but the starry expanse above them both. They both breathed, silent, looking at each other. Tyrok leaned his head in. Aria closed her eyes. Nothing came, and she opened them to see Tyrok pulling away. “This isn’t right, the Jedi Code says this is for-“ Aria grabbed him by his soaking, dripping under robe. “Shut up and kiss me.” Right as Aria tugged him down, there was a sudden growl and something rammed right into Tyrok. His screams were bloodcurdling as Aria jumped up in shock to see a Kath hound atop of her friend. Her lightsaber instinctively ignited. “Tyrok!” Aria cut her blade clean into the hound’s neck, sending it crumpling to the grass. Blood stained the long blades as the violet plasma ate away the darkness. She looked at Tyrok. It was too late. Blood bubbled from his torn throat, and the last things she heard from him was a long gurgling before the sigh that lasted what seemed like years. Aria fell onto her knees, closing Tyrok’s eyes for the last time. Aria wept. Hours went by until the tears were gone. Emptiness and quiet filled with a clattering of rage, an inner storm unrelenting. There is no emotion. There is no emotion. There is no—Aria screamed. For but a moment, there was peace in her as she glanced down at Tyrok. She gave him a parting kiss before standing amidst the night’s darkness. She found the Kath hound pack that night. Shrieks of pain and misery flowed in discordant songs of a murderous symphony. Kath pups, tiny little pups with innocent and cute eyes looked up in terror at the violet sword that came for them. They could not run. So, as the final strokes came down to claim them; they screamed. And they screamed. And they screamed. And they screamed.[/i] ---- This was the end of the duel. Zhar felt positively certain Ken was going to end things soon, despite Aria’s usage of Juyo. He remained quiet, pensive. The day’s training exercise was a success in pulling the best Aria had to offer, and with her age to force Ken into using Jar’Kai. It was a first step into forcing his padawan onto the path of becoming the Jedi he believed she could be. Perhaps, the leader of their order; she could become the voice for the light side of the force. Aria was caught within the whirlwind of two sabers. Caught off guard and cornered. Surprised by the sudden change in tactic, it seemed the young padawan retreated back into her old strategy. Defense, and defense only without any true hope of winning despite what was an impressive wall. She heard the roar of energy, the beat of her heart, and with the heat pouring down on her she couldn’t find the peace of the force. Aria closed her eyes. Roaring turned into a growl. Zhar felt something. Something different. There was a ripple in the force, a sudden swirling within and around Aria. It was overwhelming, like he was submerged within the blackness several miles under the ocean. No noise but the deafening current of water. Aria had invited them into the endless abyss of her life stream, the reservoir of her force power. It was quiet. There were echoes, unintelligible noises invading Zhar’s mind. He could not make them out; he could not hear the screams. Death. And then the seemingly quiet peace turned into a violent storm. Aria’s eyes opened. She shrieked with rage and returned Ken’s attack. Unlike the furious assault of Alek, hers was far more focused. The golden fire of her saber did not dance through the air, it seared through it. Suddenly, her hand shot out and another training saber found its way to her hand. Yellow and blue, dual wielded blades. The way she held them, the way she struck, it was like Aria was fighting amidst a war. Transported to a place far different than the dueling room. Two sides of Aria, the tranquility of Dantooine farm fields… and something incomprehensible. The way she handled two sabers looked natural, the conflicting sides of herself worked in a beautifully chaotic harmony. She spun, slashing down with one blade before twirling with the next. A half step, then a pirouette followed by an acrobatic flip. Blades thrummed, blades roared. [i]The kath pups screamed, and they kept screaming. Tyrok’s lifeless face looked up at her. She saw the burning planet. Feline faces screaming. People, dead. Blood. The dark figure again. “Rise. This is who you are. There is but one path you must follow, and it is made by you. Cut the path with your blade, and others will follow.” Aria stood amongst a thousand corpses, her violet saber ablaze. Jedi, Republic soldiers, Mandalorians, and bodies in gray metallic uniforms she didn’t recognize. “The dead will pile eternal, unless you say different. Choose the many, over the few. You are war…. You are war…” The kath pups screamed.[/i] Aria hurled her sabers away. “No!” She screamed out and put her hands to her face, crumping to her knees. “I won’t. I won’t do it!” Aria shook her head back and forth as tears streamed down her face. [center][b]Anna Sparvic Coruscant[/b][/center] With the growing peace within the core of the galaxy, and a birth of a golden age within the Jedi and the Republic together: there simply weren’t many battles. Despite Anna’s own dreams of heroism and serving true to Republic ideals, she hoped the Mandalorian threat proved to be nothing more than exactly that: a threat. She wanted, for the General’s own sake, for there to be no war. Heroism may have been plentiful in the short war with Exar Kun, but the battles were devastating to say the least. A plop pulled her away from her thoughts as a cafeteria worker spooned out a blob of gray… whatever it was, onto her plate. She pulled along a glass of water, soup, and a piece of fruit over to the table. “Don’t be too fooled by the food here Xeviiy, it’s not as bad as it looks.” She eyed Leon for a second with a smirk. “I know what Leon’s going to say, but I swear it’s not. It has everything necessary for the body. It’s why the soldiers around here stay fit, even though I’m pretty sure certain XOs sneak in forbidden sweets every now and then.” Anna spooned up some of the gray blob and ate up. The grimace on her face betrayed her speech. “I’m really looking forward to you dropping Leon on his ass. No offense of course, sir.” She teased. Having Xeviiy around was a nice change. “You better eat up, sir. No sweets otherwise the rookie here might show you a thing or two. I know I haven’t sparred with you personally yet, but that’s about to change since… you know, I won’t be doing your paperwork.”