[b]Rtron+Sep - Guide gives a mission. Zanna gets annoyed.[/b]

Zanna could barely maintain her dignity as she walked towards Guide's ship. Excitement bubbled up in her as if she was a young child being shown a horde of treats and toys and being told 'it is all yours.' She resisted the urge to let her excitement show to the others of the ship and to announce far and wide that essentially her dream was just about to come true and she was going to learn under Guide. If she didn't screw it up. Again. That thought dampened down her spirits. She could very easily have this opportunity slip through her fingers if she failed as miserably as she did last time. Zanna didn't think she could stand that. To be declared a complete failure by her idol would be a crushing blow. 

So by the time the Sith apprentice reached the Guide's 'quarters', her excitement had mostly died down and been replaced by determination, edged with worry. She wouldn't fail, but what if she did? What would happen? Would it be as simple as casual disdain from Guide and then she would be sent away, never to see him again? Or would it be worse? Punishment, the kind she had seen some Apprentices undergo? If so, would it be physical or mental? Would she be allowed to black out? 

Zanna realized, that if she stood there any longer, she would talk herself out of actually going through with this, and never return. Before she could stop herself, she knocked, alerting Guide to her presence.

Guide allowed Zanna into the ship and merely indicated for her to follow as he walked back to the lab. He opened the door and walked in picking up several vials and examining their contents. He wasn't exactly pleased with her last effort however he wasn't exactly disappointed either. Though the thing was he wasn't exactly going to let her try with that particular experiment again. That would just be reckless as it could cause her to create a virus that would spread through the ship and that wouldn't exactly be the best thing ever.

He picked up a vial. "This is a particularly nasty poison. Of course it isn't the best thing to put posion in foods and the only way is to use it through the air. Then of course there is the minor issue of colouring and a particular smell. If you don't inhale the entire thing then it is pointless and your victim won't die, at least not within a short period of time." He opened another chamber showing a Tusken Raider. "I've had some time to pick up some specimens from Tattooine and while Jawas aren't close enough to be a reliable test we will start with this. It will be a tough enough task to make this liquid into a gas however I do not excpect you to remove all traces off it however you may try." He placed the vial infront of her.

"Whenever you are ready."

Zanna eyed the vial, before picking it up herself. It was obvious that she was meant to use the poison on the Raider in the chamber, but first she had to turn it into a gas. Which, as Guide had said, would be a difficult task by itself. It pricked her pride that he didn't think that she could turn it all into gas, even if it might be true. She had failed the first test, and she didn't deny that. But she wouldn't fail this one. She wouldn't come close to suceeding, no. she would suceed, and not utterly ruin her chances at actually learning something from Guide. Certainly, if she didn't learn anything from him, she'd have to be responsible for her own lessons, as Nyiss wasn't likely to choose an apprentice any time soon. And she couldn't very well just let her mind dull and hope that she would still be selected. Even if it was her right as the only Pureblood Apprentice on the ship, she couldn't let a filthy human take it from her by being more skilled.

Taking a deep breath, she began. 

She managed to get rid of both the liquid form, turning it into a gas, and the smell, but she couldn't get rid of the color, try as she might. Finally, after several minutes of effort, she conceded defeat. Glancing up towards Guide, she hoped he wouldn't be able to sense her shame and embarassment, either through the Force or on her face. "I can't get rid of the color. I'm sorry." Thankfully, she managed to keep her tone neutral, even if those final two words tasted like ash in her mouth. She had never sincerely apologized to anyone, this was the first time and she didn't like it.

"I did not expect a complete success, still you have outpassed many of your would be peers." He glanced at the Tusken Raider and it collapsed on the floor, unconcious. No point in wasting good specimens who knew when it would be that he could collect more. He pressed a button on a nearby console and the Tusken Raider was taken into one of the many, small, holding cells that lay underneath his ship. Nowehere near as advanced as those aboard the Hask of course however he only had to keep a couple of humans, jawas and Tusken Raiders prisoner. He didn't really want to go bothering people going for speciments, not to mention the looks he got. Absolutely distasteful.

"You do indeed have some potential, however you must not only focus on the alchemical aspects of the Force. Nor should you focus solely upon the Dark Side of the Force. To beat ones enemy you must know ones enemy, you have Jedi aboard. I am sure many of them have tried to convert you in order for them to escape." He moved his hands behind his back in their typical position as he turned to face her. "You need to learn the ways of the light, I do not care if you trick them into believing you could turn or if you do it through intense pain. You need to learn their ways so that you can counter them. It is not enough just to know the way of the Sith you need to know the way of the Jedi too. Many Sith feel that this is unnecessary however the SIth have been defeated by the Jedi time and time again only through subtrefuge and greater numbers have we succeeded and even then sometimes we have not. By understanding them we can defeat them." He began walking out of the lab and indicated for her to follow. 

"I believe it was your failure that released some form of mutated Scurrier around the ship. Obviously this has you frustrated when you think on it. Of course in this frustration it controls you, release it. Bring me the scurrier to initiate your next lesson." He knew full well that it had been that human brat Thalia who had released the scurrier, however Zanna and Thalia had a relationship and this would show if Zanna could put her petty rivalries aside in order to complete a task.

Zanna tried not to show to much pleasure at his initial praise. It was hard, but she did manage it keep it restricted to her eyes. Even if she was in the presence of someone she [i]thought[/i] wasn't going to betray her or use her for any schemes, she couldn't show to much emotion, to much trust. Emotions were powerful, but you show to much of them, like Thallia, and you opened yourself up for more controlled people to take beat you. Or kill you, which was far more likely in the world of the Sith. So she kept some small part of her constantly on the look out, for any signs that she was about to be attacked. Not that she'd be able to do much, if anything, against Guide.

As he gave her the first task she blinked in surprise. He was...telling her to join the Jedi? Then it all clicked into place as he continued. Know your enemy. Sensible, but she'd have to find the right Jedi who would be able to teach her, and would believe that she was slowly seeing their way. Teachers in pain weren't good teachers at all.

On the second task, however, she nearly protested. It wasn't [i]her[/i] failed experiment! Why should she have to clean up some other fool's mess? But she didn't. Her next lesson depended on this task, and she wasn't going to fail from the beginning by trying to escape it. So instead, she simply said, "As you wish." With that, she was dismissed.