The Youngling stood in a ready stance, feet wide, arms loose, hilt held high as the weapon in his hands hummed with a musical tone. He was taking a short respite from the battle at hand to catch his breath. It was more for his opponent than anyone else.

Jedi could be any species, but this one happened to be human. Some would call him cute with long eyelashes and a distinctive dimple in his chin that promised to grow into a cleft when the boy hit puberty. He also possessed thick blond hair cropped close to his head and striking blue eyes.

The boy grinned. Swordsmanship was easily his favorite class. At nearly twelve he was a quick study with the blade. Modesty forbid him from admitting he was the best in his class. Lean, alert, and compactly built, his greatest assets were speed and courage; the latter often dipping into recklessness. His narrow Padawan braid hung askew as he observed his opponent. "Had enough?" he taunted playfully.

The girl that he was sparring with didn't smile back. While matched to the blond boy in age, she was not handling this as easily. The workout had left her quite winded. Despite being tied back into a half ponytail, several strands of thick, shoulder length brown hair had come loose and hung in front of her determined brown eyes. She was almost glaring at him as she leapt forward to press the attack again. "You wish," she panted, swinging for the boy's neck.

The boy frowned as he easily parried the attacks to right arm and left leg. Does she have to look so serious? They weren't really fighting, after all. They were training. Of course he knew he outmatched his opponent in skill, and that might have had her upset. His dueling partner wasn't exactly the worst...but she wasn't even average. This was a hard fight for her. He was hardly even sweating. "Come on," he urged as he jumped up to avoid the saber swinging low at his feet. "Just give up this time. I don't want to hurt you."

"You won't." grunted the girl. She wheeled to the left to avoid one slash, ducked another, and brought her blade around to try and catch the boy in his ribs.

Easily the youth parried the blow and spun around to knock the hilt out of the girl's hands and bring his saber close to her throat. "Gotcha."

The girl growled in frustration and looked about. Garris Calon, a silver-haired saber instructor, was doing nothing but leaning against the wall while the rest of the students sat cross-legged to watch. The spar didn't end until someone gave up or landed a mark of contact. No one more than Master Calon stuck so firmly to these rules. Determined not to lose again, she spotted the dropped hilt out of the corner of her eye and took a deep breath to reach for the Force.

"Give up?" The boy saw what his opponent was doing and grimaced. He knew it wasn't going to work and wanted to avoid landing a mark of contact. It was so much easier on both of them when the other student just surrendered. These were only practice sabers, but they could still leave painful burns. "Please?"

Her hilt wasn't moving fast enough to reach her fingers in time. So the girl answered by dodging to the right and ducking, reaching out with her leg to trip her opponent. She was rewarded for her ingenuity when the boy twirled his blade down and caught her on the shoulder. The girl yelped and stumbled backwards to land on her rear. The blade of blue plasma pointed square at her chest. She groaned at her defeat. "Not again."

"Victory to Skywalker," announced the instructor without ceremony. He let his arms drop and nodded to the boy. "Well done, young Luke."

Luke Skywalker acknowledged with respectful bow. "Thank you, Master Calon." He grimaced as he brought his saber up in salute before deactivating it. He hated winning like this, especially against his twin sister.

Master Calon nodded back to Luke in turn, then turned to the downed girl. "Bravely fought, Leia. Work a bit more on your footwork; be more spontaneous with your attacks."

Leia nodded miserably, hand on her shoulder. The burn stung less than her defeat at the hands of her brother did. "Yes, Master." She found Luke standing next to her and rolled her eyes. Losing to her brother was twice as embarrassing when he didn't rub it in. Anyone else couldn't resist just a little bit of gloating in defeating the daughter of the great Anakin Skywalker...though there wasn't really much to gloat about.

For Luke it brought mixed feelings. He was highly competitive and loved being the best at lightsaber practice. But beating Leia was no fun; it wasn't a challenge, and she was so stubborn that the duel never ended until the blade touched her skin. "Sorry. You okay?"Luke asked meekly as he held out his hand.

Leia rose by herself and nodded. "Of course I am. I'm just tired of losing to everyone all the time...especially you." She nudged him with her elbow and got into line to turn in the practice saber.

Luke shrugged. "I know. I wish they wouldn't match us against each other."

"I know. She isn't nearly enough of a challenge," put in Derik Andress with a wicked glint in his green eyes. The freckled redhead stood just ahead of Luke in line and threw a smirk toward the twins. "Admit it, Skywalker. That was too easy. You aren't even breathing hard."

Luke frowned. Derik was easily the tallest Youngling in Hawkbat Clan, and probably the tallest in the entire Temple...other than Sallakeff the Wookiee. Unfortunately Derik was also the one with the loudest mouth. "I just don't like fighting my sister."

"Come on. Everyone knows she's the worst saber duelist in the Temple," taunted Derik.

"She is not," glared Luke.

Leia came up from behind and crossed her arms. "Why don't you tell me what you think instead of hiding behind my brother?"

Derik shot the girl a wicked grin. "Who's hiding? You're the one who can hardly pass the afternoon workouts. And you're the slowest in telekinesis. You might as well just sign up for Agri-Corps now and get it over with."

Leia's cheeks flushed red and her eyes stung. Derik wasn't exaggerating. She did have trouble with swordsmanship and telekinesis. Being sent away from the Temple because she wasn't up to the standards was one of her greatest fears. Hands clenched into fists at her sides.

Before his sister had a chance to blow a fuse, Luke stepped in between them. "Go fuse your mouth. The Council would never do that."

"Oh, right. 'Cause the great Anakin Skywalker is the 'Chosen One'." Derik rolled his eyes. "Why not? It's the only reason you got into the Temple in the first place. Kill a Sith Lord, get a free pass for you and your kids."

An uneasy hush fell over the class as everyone turned to stare at Derik. All knew of the defeat of Darth Sidious, the departure of Anakin Skywalker, his forbidden marriage, and his subsequent readmission into the Order. It was the biggest source of controversy in the Temple. Not all agreed with the Council's decision, and some were more vocal about it than others.

Both Luke and Leia flinched at the accusation. "That is not true!" exclaimed Leia, taking a step forward with anger flashing in her brown eyes.

Luke nodded. "The Council took us because we're strong with the Force, just like every one of you."

"And don't you dare say those things about our father. He's a great Jedi!" exclaimed Leia with a reddening face.

"The greatest who ever lived," added Luke.

"He broke the old Code and left the Order," said Derik firmly, arms knotted. "Pity he did. If he hadn't, no one would have to deal with you two."

Leia and Luke were both ready to fly at the taller boy, but the firm hands of Master Calon held them back. "Enough. Anger and aggression are not of the Jedi. You must learn control. And young Andress," he added, turning to the older boy. "It is very disrespectful to speak of a Jedi Master in this way. Whether you agree with him or not, Master Skywalker is your elder, and is to be spoken of with respect."

Derik grimaced. "Yes, Master," he muttered. "I understand."

Calon nodded sharply. "I hope you do. Now, I suggest all three of you separate for the remainder of the day, or until you can learn control. Understood?"

"Yes, Master," agreed Luke and Leia in unison. Leia turned away while Luke gave a short bow. They saw Derik nod, turn in his saber, and flee the premises. They turned in their own lightsabers and left the room together. The rest of the Younglings scattered.

It would be easy to avoid Derik. He would be bunking with his clanmates and the twins wouldn't even be on Coruscant until after the weekend. Luke and Leia weren't members of any clan, but they trained most often with Hawkbat Clan, as most of them still had blood relations that they knew and remembered. The Council had thought it was where the twins would be most likely to fit in.

Luke and Leia didn't really fit in anywhere. The drastic changes to the Jedi Code had come about slowly, and most Younglings still had no contact with their birth families. And of course, there was their lineage. Being Skywalkers put more pressure on the two of them both to defy expectations and live up to their father's already legendary legacy. Neither of them felt up to the challenge.

Leia was still scowling as she marched away from the Youngling's sparring room as fast as she could. Luke had to skip to catch up.

"Hey. Don't let Derik bother you. His mouth is bigger than his brains," said Luke with a frown. A quick glance was thrown over the left shoulder to make sure said blowhard was out of earshot. Luke may have been free with his tongue, but he wasn't stupid. Derik was at least twice Luke's size.

"He's a bully," grumbled Leia, staring at the floor. "The worst part is he's right. I am the worse duelist in the Temple."

"You are not. Neeson is. He hardly even knows the basics of Form I. You could beat him any day." scoffed Luke.

"Anyone could, but that doesn't mean anything. Knowing the moves and using them against an opponent are two different things," reminded Leia with a deepening frown. "Master Calon even said to me last week that unless I improved, it might be another year or two before anyone would take me on as an apprentice."

Luke grimaced, knowing his sister was right. Leia knew Form I on an academic level that beat everyone else hollow. Her problem was applying those moves in a duel and keeping one step ahead of her opponent. All her instructors and even their father had said as much. Luke didn't want to see his sister sent to Agri-Corps any more than she did. He put a hand on her shoulder. "There's more to being a Jedi than using a lightsaber."

Leia crossed her arms. "That's easy for you to say. You're the best in our entire age group."

Blushing, the self-conscious Luke shrugged off the compliment. "Maybe...but there's so many other things that you're good at."

Leia wasn't convinced. "Like what?"

Again the boy shrugged. "You're smart. You've got the highest marks in the Temple in mathematics, history, and writing...and you can negotiate better than anyone."

Leia gave a wan smile at the compliment. Academics and mediating were certainly her strengths. Ironically she ended up in nearly as many arguments as she could break up. "Not Master Kenobi."

Luke made a face. "He's a Master. I bet when you grow up, you'll be just as good as him...maybe even better!"

Leia waved away her brother's atmospheric ideas. "I don't want to be better than Master Kenobi. I just want to be able to beat you, for a change."

Luke's mouth twitched. "Well, isn't it better losing to me than, say, Derik? I'm way easier on you than he is."

He was right, of course. Derik seemed to take pleasure in dealing as many Marks of Contact as possible before Master Calon stepped in and declared the duel over. Luke gave her a chance to fight back. "I don't want you to be easy on me," Leia snapped. "I want to actually get the upper hand and put you on the floor for once!"

The eleven year old flinched and took a step back at the coldness that had entered the room. Luke could sense his sister's anger and jealousy ready to boil over, and it frightened him. Admittedly both twins had a quick temper, but Leia's usually lasted longer and she shouted more. Lately anger had been coming more and more easily to the girl. That chill dancing on Luke's spine was the Dark Side. He shook it away and took Leia's arm. "Uh...you don't mean that, do you? You know I don't want to hurt you."

Leia's heated expression began to cool in seeing her twin brother's plaintive eyes. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I don't want to hurt you, either. I'm just so tired of you being better at everything. Being twins almost makes it worse. It's like everyone else expects us to be just as good as the other, like we're copies or something."

"I know. Just calm down, okay." Luke shuddered. "It scares me when you're angry."

Leia closed her eyes. "I don't want to be angry, it just happens."

"Seems like it's been happening a lot lately," Luke pointed out.

"I'm sorry."

"You're not getting old on me, are you?"

Leia stopped in her tracks to stare incredulously at her brother. "What? If I'm getting old, than so are you, laser brains. We're twins, remember?"

Luke blushed. "Uh...yeah, I meant...um...remember when Mom said when you're almost a teenager, things start changing? She said girls get cranky when that happens."

Heat flooded Leia's cheeks. It must have been bad if Luke thought puberty was the cause of her temper. I'm too young for that. Leia impatiently shook her head. "No. But look out; when it happens to me, it's probably going to happen to you."

Luke nodded. "Yeah, but it's not as bad with boys. We just get hair in weird places. Girls-"

Leia's face grew deep red. He's not talking about this now. There's people around! "Luke," she hissed. "Ugh. Have you packed yet?"

Luke's mischievous grin faded into his own look of embarrassment. "Not yet."

Leia's hands shifted to her hips. "Well, you'd better, because Master Towani is going to-" A look of thoughtfulness and concentration came into Leia's face as she closed her eyes. She sensed someone...there were other Jedi and Jedi in training everywhere, of course, but this presence was distinct, drawing ever closer to the twins.

Luke sensed it, too. Suddenly his eyes flew open and he grinned. "He's back!" He raced ahead to the left stair which led down into the Youngling's common area.

Leia groaned again as her brown eyes popped open. "Luke, wait...we're not supposed to run!" She took off after him anyway.