Author declaration: I do not own Star Wrs or any of it's characters.

Chapter One:Prologue

The republic cruiser came out from lightspeed overlooking the capital world. The ship was returning from the skirmishes the Republic was having with the mandalorian clans around the Outher Rim. There were scars and marks from turbolaser fire all over the hull. The captain took a look at his first leutenant and told her:

-"Notify Master Kavar that we have reached Coruscant and we will be docking in a few minutes, also he can open a private channel with the Jedi Temple if he wishes to contact them!"

The leutenant noded and activated the ship's intercom:

-"Master Kavar, we have reached Coruscant and we will be docking in a few minutes, the captain also said that if you have urgent business with the Jedi you can use a private channel to contact them!"

-"Appreciated Leutenant!"-said a figure of a man in his late thirties on the small holoprojector. The man was covered with a light robe and people could barely see his ightsabers strapped on both of his sides. He noded to her and turned his attention towards the Captain: -"Captain, I would like you to secure a transport when we reach the surface! And I won't be coming with you to see high command, I will make my report and I would appreciated it if you deliver it for me to the admiralty!"-he finished.

The captain raised an eyebrow but didn't comment on this sudden notification:

-"Of course Master Kavar! Now like my leutenant said, I remember that the Jedi Council had something important to discuss with you, otherwise I doubt that they would have send another Master to take your place, so if you wish to use a secure and private frequency it will be so!"

The Jedi master bowed lightly and dissappeared from the holoprojector. The leutenant turned her head around to look at the captain. His expression had turned dark and concentrated.

-"Sir! Do you think the Mandalorians are preparing for a full scale invasion and war with us?"-she asked concerned. So far the Mandalorian Clans were raiding small planets and colonies outside republic space, but they were geting closer and closer each time. High command and the Senate were not taking any action, but everyone in the fleet that was stationed along the borders was starting to see a pattern in their attacks and movement. Some of the smaller patrol fleets were already having constant dog fights with them for the past few months. Also rumors of their brutality and effective colonisations and occupations of the nonrepublic worlds near the borders they have been attacking the past few years were already spreading towars the core worlds and the people were geting restless.

The captain blinked coming out of his stupor and looked at her:

-"I do not think it leutenant, I know it!"-he said. -"When they attack I just hope we are ready for them, I fought in the last war with this Exar Kun or whatever his name was, and if they are as half as dangerous as his followers were, we may not make it this time. I just hate it how scared High Command is! They do not want to admit that there may be another war, and so soon after the last one, don't get me whrong, I too am praying that this is nothing serious but still, it won't do us any harm to reinforce our borders with a few hundred thousand dreadnoughts!"

The leutenant's eyes popped wide open:

-"But sir! It will be suicide to attack the Republic, we must be outnumbering their fleet around fifteen to one."-she said unbelivingly.

The Captain let out a small unamused laugh:

-"Girl, we may have the numbers but they have expirience. The mandalorians fight almost from birth. I hate to say it but our army is filled with greenhorns and people without any actual combat experience. The mandies on the other hand live for the fight, it's their religion, and beeing at war with the Outher Rim worlds for the past twenty years is just adding to their might. Noo! If they go to war there is eighty percent chance they will win it if we don't start preparing when we still have the chance!"-he finished.

The whole crew on the deck was silent, noone thought the Caprain a coward for speaking that way, they had all fought under his command and in all their skirmishes with pirates and even a few small battles with the mandalorians since Master Kavar had taken charge of the fleet the cruiser was assigned to, they were one of the few ships which had suffered minimum casualties in these fights. If he said things were looking grim, then they were all in big trouble. The ship started entering the atmosphere of the planet-city which was the capital world of the Republic and everyone returned to momitoring their stations.

Meanwhile in Master Kavvar's bunk:

Kavar turned off his holocomunicator and used the private and secured line the captain had given him to contact the Jedi Temple on the large holoprojector in his room. He used a direct connection with the Jedi Council and not five seconds later five figures seated in comfortable chairs positioned in a circle in a large room appeared before him. There were two humans a bald male around his fifties and a middle aged female, a female togruta he did not recognise, one male twi'lek and a male zabrak.

-"Good day Masters!"- he greeted them with a respectfull bow. He took a long look at each one of them: -"I see the that the empty council seat has finaly been filled."-he noded towards the togruta, she noded in return. -"I must say that I was very surprised when your summons reached me, it was a good coincidence that I was already on my way back when I met the courier."

-"We both know there is no such thing as luck or coincidences, there is only the Force, and it seems like she thinks as us if you were finaly returning from your "Adventures!" -said the bald human.

-"I see you are in high spirits just as ever Master Lamar!" -Kavar said with a small grin. The bald master looked like a thunderstorm and was about to say something when the twi'lek intervined:

-"Please excuse him Kavar, master Vrook has been under a lot of pressure lately, one of our padawans on Dantoine is showing learning abilities and power in the force we have not seen ever since Exar Kun and Ulic Quel'Droma, he even may have more potential than either one of them."- the news surprised him a big deal.

-"Please continue Master Zhar! You peaked my curiosity!"- he said. But the twi'lek waved a hand and continued:

-"I am sorry but this is not something we must discuss over the holocomunicator. We have contacted you because we have a small, or big , proglem with another padawan here on Coruscant."-the twi'lek said and the other masters shared sneaky looks among each other, which didn't escape Kavar the slightest.

-"Oh? What kind of problem?"-he asked warily. The masters were acting too secretivly even by his standarts, it was the first time he had seen them so cryptic while talking to another Council member. He was surprised when the togruta master spoke - he had almost forgoten she was there:

-"It conserns a padawan that you brought for training a few years ago, we require your presence in the Jedi Temple, only then we will speak more about this topic." -Then the holo-connection was cut off. Kavar blinked twice not sure what had jsut happened. Then he heard trough the ship's comlink that they were about to dock, and headed towars the airlocks with the rest of the crew which were heading towars some well deserved shore-leave.

After an hour and a half, in the Jedi Temple:

Kavar felt strange. Not because he had been away a long time, but because the young jedis were looking at him with strange expresions, "almost with admiration" he thought. The masters were even stranger, some were giving him displeased looks, others approving. It felt like they knew something he himself didn't know. He decided that it wasn't something he needed to waste his time with and hurryed towars the lifts leading to the council room. On his way he passed a large training room and suddenly stoped. There were two masters in the room, a kiffar and a bith, along with them were seven padawans(judging by their robes). A ravenhaired girl with a ponytail around her fifteens was fighting a miraluka boy with training sabers. The girl was attacking her opponent with fast vertical and horisontal swipes. "Hmm basic attacks with the Shii-Cho"-he thought. She continued with a flurry of more aggresive swings from all sides and made him pull back a litle from his position. All of a sudden she lunged her sword at his wrists and the boy barely reacted in time and jumped backwards away from her. Kavar was startled -"That was Cho-Sun"- this girl had potential, even some of the older masters couldn't execute properly this move after such a fierce flurry of blows she had performed a second ago. The girl took a deep breath and moved her right leg in-front of her, then she grabed her sword with both hands and raised it verticaly at the same height as left shoulder - blade pointing forward- a small grin appearing on her face, while her concentration remaining unwavering. Kavar's eyes almost popped out from their orbits. "I can not belive my eyes, did this young padawan just took the Juyo stance?" -he was baffled noticing that the masters were surprised to say the least just as him. He decided that this fight was going to be worth watching until the end. He also noticed that the padawan's position wasn't very good. -"Well, atleast she won't be taking the title of best swordmaster in the order today". It seemed that this padawan was not very expirienced in Juyo, maybe she had started practicing it a few weeks ago, or even less, it was certain that she wasn't learning it from a master because beside him the only other master in the order that was fluent in Juyo was Zek-Kai Ell, and he was training padawans on Corelia for a couple of years now. And Zek-Kai Ell hadn't even mastered the form compleately, unlike Kavar who was one of the few in the order that had ever mastered it. The jedi didn't use this form mostly because of the danger it posed on the wielder. The miraluka padawan was confused by her deminior -and no wonder, Juyo was a master-level combat form which even most masters never tried teaching their padawans. He took a Soresu defensive form and moved closer to her. "That was a mistake. Soresu provides superb deffence but only when you have atleast a hint for your opponent's attack patterns"-Kavar though, but he coudn't blame the boy. When faced with an unknown, most people used their favorite and best trained techniques. In the boy's case that must have been the Soresu. Just then the miraluka padawan reached her saber range and the girl lashed towards him with a series of chaotic swings. The boy found himself unable to cope with her fast and erratic swinging and soon began to sweat and breathe more heavily with each strike he blocked. Begining to fall back more and more. Kavar noticed that the ponitailed padawan was geting tired even faster than her opponent. Then suddenly the girl made a barrel-roll over him, deciding to finish this as quickly as possible, landing behind him and hiting him in the back ending the duel. The other padawans started cheering and applauding her, while the masters seemed very displeased. The girl had great potential. With a proper teacher she could become a great swordmaster -Kavar thought. The strange thing was that he almost didn't sense any use of the Force coming from her during the battle, and that was curious because mastering Juyo required stong concentration and focus in It. Finaly he decided that this was his que to leave. Kavar didn't want to make the other council members wait for him any longer, and being glad that he was able to see something interesting today he headed towards the lifts. Activativating the lift, he leaned on his back and started admiring the scene. Countless speeders and transport ships were buzzing over the never-sleeping world that was Coruscant. He even spotted in low orbit a few departing battleships. Having spent a whole year in the outer rims he had forgotten the feeling of being swarmed by all the life-force on this planet, the hurricane of neverending life. He reached the top part of the temple and headed towards the council room. When he entered it he was greeted only by Zhar, Vrook and the togruta-the new council member. Kavar bowed to them and they nodded in return. Then he took his seat in the room:

-"Now Masters! What is this problematic padawan you spoke of? And this other student on Dantoine? And don't tell me you had send for me only because of a few padawans! I know you must have questions about my confrontations with the Mandalorians in the outer rim worlds. Now noone can spy on us so we can speak freely."-he finished. The masters shared a look and then Vrook spoke:

-"The problematic padawan we spoke of is Meetra Surik, the very same you brough from the outer rim ten years ago." - Kavar raised a brow. :-"We do not know what to think about her. Her connection in the force is below avarage. She is impulsive and seems only to care about battle involved subjects. She has been with a few masters so far, but all of them do not wish to continue her training. The worst thing is that the padawans at her age are trying to act like her. She meets with new faces and they become friends almost instantly. Even some of the knights are interested in her training duels and divert from their duties to watch her fight, and even sparr with her. But that is not the bigest problem. As I said -she lacks mind discipline and always fails at the more advanced force techniques we try to teach her. She doesn't go without attention anywhere she goes. So we have decided that since you were the one that brought her in the order you should try teaching her in our ways." -Kavar was speechless. He raised a hand and tried speaking but Zhar stoped him:

-"Now Master Kavar, please atleast consider this! You are the only council member, heck even as a regular master that hasn't chosen a padawn for himself. It is true that we allow and even encourage the padawans to study with many and different masters but you do not accept even temporary students anymore. And given your talents in combat, and interest in participating in battle conflicts, we belive you may be the perfect teacher for her."-he said with a calm voice.

Kavar was at a loss. It was true that he had never taken a padawan for more than a few months, and the reacent years even for that long. Starting thinking about his options he took a quick look at the Jedi Masters which were staring at him with steel determination. It seemed that they were not going to relent in this matter:

-"Can you show me this padawan? I remember the name but I do not recall her."-he asked them, giving up. The togruta noded and clicked a button. A ravenhaired girl with long hair around her fifteens appeared on the holoscreen. Kavar was surprised to see that it was the verry smae girl he had watched spar in the training room a few minutes ago.

-"This is her?" -he asked. The masters noded. -"Interesting!? I think the force is realy at work here this day." -he said not very loud.

-"What do you mean by that Master Kavar?" -asked Vrook sharply.

-"I just watched this girl duel with an miralukan padawan in training room 523, she was very good, actualy I wanted to ask you about her, of course I had no idea that she will be the topic of our conversation, but I have to ask who is teachign her saber forms? She performed an expert Shii-Cho form than many of the masters i know would have a hard time replicating."-he asked.

-"Her instuctors are the same ones that teach the other padawans. Knights mostly and from time to time masters teach them. Why do you ask?"-Zhar asked and Kavar felt a small feeling of curiosity arising in him.

-"Because she wielded that form perfectly, like a master! And she finished her opponent with a verry sloppy and begginer style Juyo-but Juyo non-the-less!"-he told them. The masters shared fast looks amongs them. -"And if I am not mistaken the only masters who wield that form are Me and Zek-Kai Ell, and he has been far away unless he returned and started training this girl?"

The masters swinged their heads in denial.

-"Are you saying that this padawan, who is by your coments very weak in the force, and has no proper master in combat, is using one of the most advanced and hard to use saber techniques in both Jedi and Sith teachings? Only by watching or reading somewhere about it?" -Kavar was compleately baffled for a second time in one day.

-"We were not aware that she had started practicing advanced combat training."-the togruta spoke. -"Are you certain she was using Juyo? Padawan Surik's connection to the force is very weak."-It seemed the new council member belived that Kavar had just mistaken her moves for Juyo.

-"If Master Kavar is saying that the padawan is using Juyo, then she is using it. After all Kavar is the only jedi from our generation and even for the past fifty generations that has mastered the form almost pefectly. Even master Zek-Kai Ell is no match for him in lightsaber combat and probably even Ulic if he was still alive."- said Zhar. Kavar felt that the new council member was impressed and admired her control for not showing it on her face. -"So! She managed to beat a miraluka padawan with a form she has been studying maximum a week or two? Very impressive indeed, and another reason we belive you will be the perfect teacher for her Master Kavar!" -finished Zhar.

-"The other council members are not present at the moment as you can see but be assured they are all on the same opinion as us. Also we belive that it will be better if you come with your new apprantice on Dantoine." -added Vrook. Kavar turned sharply towars him:

-"Dantoine? Why should we go to Dantoine?" -he asked surprised by the statement Vrook had made.

-"The enclave on Dantoine is much more smaller than this temple, and we belive that the peace and quiet of the farm-planet will do her good. And may even help her improve her meditation." -answered Vrook: -"Me and Zhar must also return to the enclave. We will be traveling with a young jedi knight which is going to work under master Dorak, so we will all be traveling together" -he added.

Kavar calculated the events of this day in his head a few times, then noded to the other masters:

-"I accept this position, but on one condition! I will not be her formal master. If she wishes it so, she will be able choose a master and the other way around, if there is a master that chooses her as his padawan i will not stop him or her." -he said and waited for their answer. The masters were silent for a few moments, then they all shared a look and Vrook spoke:

-"Understood. We leave in two days. You will have time to make your acquaintance with the girl."

-"Then that's finished! Now can you tell me why everyone in the temple is giving me strange looks? Some of the masters were even giving me the "evil eye" if i may say so."-Kavar asked.

Zhar laughed out-loud:

-"Well Master Kavar! You have become quite the legend in the jedi and republic eyes. Your adventures against the pirates in the outer rim are quite popular, and not to speak about your few encounters with the Mandalorian clans. Most of the masters do not approve of your actions because the padawans and many more knights are always discussing your battle prowess and they do not like it. They call you a warmonegerer."-he said with a thin smile on his lips.

-"Aah, so that is what this was all about. But joke aside, I truly belive the Republic will have a big problem if the Mandalorian clans invade its space. I fought with a few mandalorians and I must say that they are exeptional warriors and they never back down. They fight to the last man standing. And I have heard a few unsettling rumors about their leader and his Neo-Crusaders. They even call him Mandalore the Ultimate."-started Kavar but Vrook raised a hand:

-"You will have a chance to speak of your endeavours in the outer rim tomorow. For now this meeting is adjurned. Go rest Master Kavar, tomorow we will have more time to speak about more serious matters."

-"About that padawan you were talking about? The one on Dantoine?"-he asked.

-"Yes, he is just eighteen years old but we are thinking of sending him on his knight trials next year."-said Zhar and Kavar felt that Zhar was genuinely proud of this padawan. And he must be, if they were considering him for knighthood when he was barely eighteen years old. -"But we will speak of this tomorow. Have a good day Master Kavar!"-he finished standing up and dissappearing in one of the doors in the walls. The other masters followed him and left Kavar alone with his thoughts.

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I am curenlty looking for beta readers and editors! If anyone has an interest - you can contact me trough the email posted in my profile.