The hilt was heavy, almost too heavy to swing. The battery pack made up most of the mass down the bottom end of the metal cylinder, and the emitter and shroud balanced it out on the other end.
"You really think you can take me, Javi?" The grin behind the sickly yellow blade that came from the lightsaber hilt was impish.
"You asked me that the last time," her opponent said. "And I don't need to answer. My saber will do it for me, Apprentice Tano."
A pale green blade slid into existence at the emitter end of Javi Kardo's lightsaber. He held the blade in a two handed variant of the Makashi grip, his hilt at the level of his solar plexus, and the blade angled upwards towards his opponent.
He towered over Ahsoka by at least a head. If she stood on her toes, she might be able to graze his chin with the white and grey striped montrals on the top of her head. If she jumped, she might be able to head butt him.
"Come at me, then," she said to him, pulling her blade back to a high guard next to her head. The yellow saber blade pointed straight up to the sky.
He stopped forward with a measured pace, and when her blade remained in guard position, he reached into the Force and pushed off against the ground. He spun with great speed, trusting that he could strike Ahsoka before her guard turned into the quick 'tunic strike' that was favored by the Djem So style guard she was using.
Unlike the last time he had fought her, she stepped forward into his leaping strike. Their blades clashed, but with his inertia, he forced her blade back.
"Ow!" she yelped as Javi drove her own blade into her shoulder. "I thought I had you that time."
"Why didn't you try to strike?" Javi turned off his practice lightsaber. "I didn't think you'd just block. You know I'm stronger than you."
"Well, I had to try something new. Last time I almost hit you. Right up until the part where you got past my guard and hit me. So I was trying something new." She rubbed her shoulder. "Man, these things sting even through your tunic."
Javi did his best impression of Ahsoka's cocky grin, "I wouldn't know," he replied. "It happens to me so rarely. Seriously, though, I'm stronger. You're faster. Work with what you've got."
Ahsoka let go of the button on her practice lightsaber, and the yellow blade shrunk into nothingness. Most lightsabers created a blade of pure plasma, trapped in a force field. The practice sabers used a fraction of that amount of power, and merely filled the force field with a small trace of plasma, running through ionized gasses. They weren't nearly as bright as a normal lightsaber.
She screwed up her face in a mockery of an angry glare. "I'm going to get you one of these days, you know. You're not invincible."
"Hmm," came a voice from below the two, "Invincible no Jedi is. But especially fragile is a Jedi who doesn't root her stance. Center of gravity, important it is. Helps to brace against impact, it does."
Ahsoka nodded to the diminutive green Jedi. "Of course, Master Yoda. I'll do better next time."
"Next time? Lucky we use practice sabers, you are. Now, return to meditation. Learn from your mistakes, you must."
"It's only a little burn, I can try again," she protested.
The tiny, wrinkled Jedi pursed his green lips at her and gave another 'Hmm', this one a bit more disapproving than the last.
Ahsoka's shoulders slumped, and she used the Force to telekinetically set the practice lightsaber back into its charging port on the far side of the room. "Sorry. Do or do not. There is no try."
"Correct. Learn from your mistakes, you can. Learn from them, you must."
"Strong in the Force, she is," Yoda said.
The human stroked his beard and said, with a sonorous Coruscanti accent, "Yes, she is. Stubborn, too."
Yoda leaned on his walking stick. "Inventive, she is. Always trying new things. Remind me of someone we both know, she does."
"I don't know if I'd go that far," he replied, wincing somewhat. "She may be stubborn and curious, I doubt she has Anakin's fascination with tinkering."
"Hmm," Master Yoda replied, "Few do, Obi-Wan. Few do."
"Still," Obi-Wan continued, "I can imagine that it will be hard to find a master willing to take on a Padawan who is stubborn and unwilling to rely on her instincts. I could feel it, she wanted to strike while the Twi'lek boy spun."
"The last time they fought, the same stances they used. Knocked aside, her strike was, and knocked down by his superior mass, she was."
"Hmm," Obi-Wan said, unconsciously imitating Master Yoda. "Still, there is conflict in her that needs resolving."
"Trust her to resolve it herself, I do." He smiled, the wrinkles around his mouth deepening. "With a bit of prodding, of course."
Ahsoka practiced her moves with what the Apprentices sometimes called 'fake practice sabers'. In this case, it seemed to be an old plastic plumbing tube bolted into a weighted metal plumbing tube with a rubber grip. It wasn't quite as heavy as a real lightsaber, but the balance point was still somewhere in the hilt, so it didn't feel too different.
Every set of moves she made ended with her returning to the high guard. It wasn't her normal style. Everyone who had seen her spar knew that. She preferred a low stance, and quick movements. She could beat nearly every other Apprentice in the temple in a sparring match.
But Javi Kardo had hit his teenager growth spurt early, and put on a surprising amount of muscle and mass for a boy his age. And somehow he always managed to parlay that mass and muscle into victory.
She had originally chosen the high guard because it functioned as both a guard stance and allowed for the quick downward slash that was called a 'tunic strike' because, if done correctly, it landed a slash across the torso along the same line as the fold of a jedi tunic.
If done correctly with a real lightsaber, it could instantly kill an opponent. Even if it didn't cut all the way through, it would go through the collarbone and into the core body mass. Nothing except perhaps an exotic species that didn't keep its important organs in its center could survive that.
And if done quickly, it was nearly impossible to block or dodge. It was a one strike kill, one that depended on speed to do it properly before the enemy could strike.
Ahsoka was faster than Javi. But somehow the strategy wasn't working. He either met her blade with superior strength, or he spun and knocked it aside just enough to miss him, leaving her wide open to his counter-attack.
She found herself holding the fake practice saber high with only her right hand, and grasping an imaginary second hilt down at her waist level. She's done some Ataru two blade exercises, and read up on the Niman and Jark'kai styles.
Moving through several stances, she found that the extra options of a second blade suited her.
"I'm faster than he is," she said as she whirled around, blocking and striking with one plastic tube and one imaginary blade. "Two blades will make me twice as fast."
"Meditating, you should be," came a small voice from the doorway.
She spun around, nearly losing her grip on the fake practice saber. "Master Yoda, I didn't hear you... um... I was doing a moving meditation. Losing myself in my saber training."
"Know you too well, I do." Master Yoda limped into the room, his walking stick tapping on the hard floor of the meditation room. "Expected to find you here, I did. Well, learned something, have you?"
"I don't know. I think so. But they won't let us use two sabers in the practice arena, so I don't know if it will really help."
Yoda's face scrunched up, as if in thought. "Hmm... an untrained style you wish to use in combat against a foe you cannot defeat?"
"Well, when you put it that way it doesn't sound good. But I know I can beat him, Master. I just need to figure out how! Even with two hands, I don't have the leverage to match his strength."
"Trained you for a long time, I have," Yoda said. "Master Cal'tor, your teacher should be. But called to the war, he was. Trained you as a youngling, I did."
Ahsoka wasn't sure if she was supposed to respond, so she nodded.
"Keep count, I have not. How many times did I tell you that your instincts you should trust?"
"Many times, Master."
"Then a rematch you will have. Two lightsaber you will have as well."
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Ahsoka asked as she ignited her second blade. This one was a pale blue, and the two blades together gave her orange skin a strange greenish tint that washed out most of her color.
"I've never practiced against two lightsaber, but you've never practiced with them. I think I'll take my chances," Javi said. He raised his own lightsaber. "Are you sure you want to do this?"
"No," she replied, "But there is no try."
Once again, she lifted her saber high, pointing straight up at the sky. She crossed her left arm over her waist and pointed her second blade behind her. Both blades rested on the right side of her body, which struck Javi as odd, since she knew he would attack from his own right side.
Ahsoka knew that every student in the room who had been practicing was watching them. She didn't even need the Force to feel every eye in the room pointed at the two of them.
He pounced, just like before. Unlike before, she slashed up at him in midair with her second blade, then followed it down with her first.
Javi deflected her secondary blade and batted it aside, barely managing to free his blade to block her primary as it came down from above him. Ahsoka shifted her weight and slashed the secondary blade at his legs, but he vaulted up and over her, his blade still pressing against her primary blade so that she couldn't strike him as he flipped over her.
Still, she was quick enough to pivot and face him when he landed. She struck high and low with both blade, but he managed to swing a wild Shii-Cho style broad block and drag the low blade along with his up just in time to block the higher strike.
Gritting her teeth, Ahsoka stepped forward, giving herself a lower center of gravity, and better leverage to push against Javi.
With both blades pressed against his one, she pushed from her core, using her legs, back, and arms. With her foot so close to his own center of balance, he was forced to step back before he stumbled.
Ahsoka tried to disentangle her secondary blade to strike at him again, now that she'd pushed him back to beyond arm's reach. That was when she made a miscalculation.
The tip of the secondary blade got caught on her own blade. She'd never used two blades in combat before. This was never even a possibility before. Up until now, the only other blade to catch on was the opponent's.
She lost her grip. The secondary saber blade sputtered back into the hilt, and the hilt made a loud thump as it struck the floor. Javi pressed the advantage and stepped forward, putting his own foot as close to her center of gravity as he could without risk of her kicking it out from under him.
Ahsoka could feel every eye in the room on her. She had dropped her lightsaber! That practically went against the Jedi code. A lightsaber is an extension of the Jedi herself. An instrument of justice, forged by a Jedi. It was supposed to stay at the Jedi's side until the Jedi became one with the Force. And she had dropped her lightsaber.
It didn't even matter that it was a practice saber, and she had not yet built her own lightsaber. It was embarrassing. It was humiliating.
And she found herself stumbling back. She tried to reach out with the Force to pull the lightsaber to her hand, but she miscalculated, and it slipped past her fingers as she was pushed back.
Javi swung at her shoulder again. He wasn't aiming for the same spot, he was just trying to hit her on the side that she didn't have a blade to block with. She grabbed the hilt with two hands and swung to block. She didn't have time to react with a well placed deflection. Any attempt would just deflect it down into her hip, or worse, up into her head.
And in the middle of it all, through the crowd of students she saw Master Yoda.
She wasn't going to try to win. She was going to do it.
Their blades met, and the force fields hissed as small bits of plasma were exchanged. The strike was strong enough to make her step back. He struck again. She was fast, but off balance.
But she had to do this. One way or another.
He knew that he was knocking her further and further off balance. He knew that every time he struck this hard, she would have to step back.
Ahsoka closed her eyes. She could hear the hum of the practice saber beginning its swing. She didn't know exactly where it would strike, but she could trust the Force to guide her blade.
She could trust her feelings.
Ahsoka jumped. Not far, just enough to get off the ground. Holding the blade with two hands, she blocked. Instead of being forced back, she found herself knocked back much farther.
But now she wasn't stumbling on the ground. She landed with her legs splayed wide, but in complete control. With a burst of Force enhanced speed, she charged at Javi. His blade swung at where she was, but before he could react, she had already changed direction and darted around him.
The tip of her yellow practice saber singed the back of his tunic, right between the shoulder blades. He raised his arms and deactivated his saber. "I yield. I don't want to find out just how much those things sting."
He turned around slowly, and Ahsoka deactivated her saber. They both breathed heavily.
The crowd of students broke its silence, and a burst of speech filled the room. The two Apprentices didn't even care. Javi switched his saber to his left and held out his right, and Ahsoka clipped her saber to her belt to free her own hand to shake it.
"I didn't go easy on you," he said. "I was trying just as hard as normal."
"I know," Ahsoka replied. "You didn't make it easy."
"Are you sure?" Obi-Wan asked. "It's a big responsibility. We don't know where we'll be in a month. The Separatists are moving on Daragar, Cristophsis, and Mundi Prime."
"Trust in my feelings, I do. Trust in your former Padawan, I must. Trust in Apprentice Tano to finish her trial and construct her lightsaber, I also do. Leave for Ilum this afternoon the shuttle does."
"This should be interesting," Obi-Wan said.
This short story is an apology and thank you note to my readers, who have patiently waited for so long while this semester has sapped all of my free time and energy. In the past few days I just finished writing two ten page research papers, a four page essay, a two page essay, and my portion of what is so far a 7 page business plan for a group project. Needless to say, I'm surprised I'm still capable of writing. But this story just churned out in about an hour, so obviously I REALLY NEEDED to get some fiction out tonight before I went to bed.
Thanks for your patience, and I hope I'll have the inspiration and ideas to finish this season of Exile's Journey soon!