CHAPTER TWO: PADAWANS?


AN: Who said anything about padawans…?


A round room, a holotable in the middle, six consoles against the walls, and a stair with exactly ten steps, the briefing room hadn't changed a bit.

The grey room was filled with a blue glow, Masters Yoda, Mace Windu and Obi-Wan Kenobi were listening to a report on the outer rim sieges.

"Saleucami has been won, the battles have stopped yesterday, Felucia however, Knight Aayla Secura and Knight Barriss Offee have landed there, the battle has just started, so far, not much progress, the triad of evil has proven rather… resistant," the Jedi in the hologram said.

"What about Mygeeto?" Mace asked with a grim face.

"Well, Master Windu, we don't know much about the siege on Mygeeto, they're being jammed most of the time…" The Jedi sighed.

"Very well, tell us what you can then," Obi-Wan said sighing.

"The siege has started, the energy collector has been shut down and Master Ki-Adi Mundi has over half of the planet covered, but the crystal buildings are still full of droids, they're still being hit hard every day,".

"Then we'll have to trust in Master Mundi's ability to handle this on his own, as he requested, we will not send any reinforcements," Master Windu said.

"Requested that, master Mundi had?" Yoda asked suddenly.

"Yes, Master Yoda, he knows any reinforcements will be ambushed upon arrival, he told me,".

"Informed of that, I was not," Yoda closed his eyes a bit and thought.

"But Master, I left a datapad with it in your room," the Jedi said confused.

"I had not seen, but in my room since yesterday morning I have not been," Yoda explained and the Jedi in the hologram nodded understanding.

"Very well then, thank you for your report," Obi-Wan said and made slight bow.

The Jedi nodded and bowed, then the hologram faded away into nothing.

"In the meantime, there is another case we should discuss," Obi-Wan said to Yoda.

"Yes, right you are Obi-Wan, new light this development shines, but proceed carefully we should,".

Mace had no idea where the two were talking about, and he wasn't even going to try getting past their mental shields to see what they were thinking.

"Ehm, excuse me, I don't think I follow you," Mace tried.

The pointed ears of Yoda raised a bit and Yoda looked asking at Obi-Wan.

"Master Windu, what I'm about to tell you must stay a secret," Obi-Wan said serious.

"You can trust me," Mace replied with a little bit curiosity leaking through the emotionless face he always seemed to have.

"Palpatine is Sidious, the Chancellor is the Sith Lord," Obi-Wan whispered sad.

"What?" Mace suppressed a scream.

"Know, no one can, only us six,".

"Us six?".

"Master Yoda, you, senator Amidala, Jayce Adar, Ahsoka Tano and me," Obi-Wan explained.

"What do they have to do with it?" Mace was getting more confused every second.

"Go to my room we should, a sensitive subject this is," Yoda said and placed his gimer stick on the red carpet in the hall, making a short bonk sound.


"… So- eh- but- eh-" Mace couldn't find a word to say, not that any word in his vocabulary would fit.

"True it is Master Windu, but act hastily, we must not, other factors, revealed they have been," Yoda said and looked at Master Windu with an do-you-understand-what-I-am-saying? Look.

"We have proof, recordings from Artoo Deetoo's databanks, it is all true," Obi-Wan said, glad it wasn't him sitting there anymore.

"Master Obi-Wan, train with your padawan you should, so should Anakin Skywalker," Yoda said out of the blue.

"Why?, Master…".

"See that, you will soon enough," Yoda's green lips curled a bit, it was a smile, an undeniably playful smile.

"Yes Master," Obi-Wan stood up and bowed, then left the room.

"Master Windu, understand you do, that an unbelievable opportunity given to us, the Force has?".

"Yes Master Yoda, I do,".

"Waste it, we must not, much experience young Adar and Tano have gained, defeated Grievous Jayce has, in his former, hmm… life, turned young Tano back to the light, he has too, young Tano survived the attack on this temple, held her own against a turned Anakin, she even has," Yoda told proud, proud that the order still had humble Jedi.

"That's huge, wait, Master Yoda, did you let Obi-Wan train with Jayce to…?" Mace said realizing.

"Yes Master Windu, yes, I did…" Yoda smiled.


Obi-Wan and Jayce stood facing each other in the sparring room.

"Ready Master?" Jayce asked and activated his lightsaber, a blue beam rose up before him, in a perfectly to the book Shien stance.

"Always Jayce," Obi-Wan replied smiling and activated his own lightsaber, also a blue one.

"Let's go," Jayce said and stepped forward.

Obi-Wan waited uncertain for a moment, did he have to attack first?

"C'mon, your move," Jayce said.

Obi-Wan walked towards Jayce and slashed vertically down.

Jayce blocked easily and attacked with one of those quick and deadly slashes Shien stood known for.

Obi-Wan parried, yes, he thought, Jayce has learned, but I can still beat him.

Actually, Obi-Wan was doing it with ease, he was slightly disappointed, though Jayce had grown in Shien, he was still a bit lash, and he was wrongly using Ataru as support for Shien, and he'd thought he knew his padawan, apparently not.

Again a quick Shien slash, easily parried, Obi-Wan didn't even have to fall back to Soresu, like he'd done sparring with Anakin these days.

For a minute, Obi-Wan considered going into the attack himself, the he did it, Ataru, like Qui-Gon Jinn, his Master always used, until, at Theed, his Master had died, because Ataru's open swings, it had left Qui-Gon vulnerable to the Zabrak's quick and deadly double bladed lightsaber.

But, at the very moment Obi-Wan pressed the attack, in a pause where he started, the balance shifted.

Obi-Wan's blue blade came towards Jayce, it seemed, for Jayce's Shien, impossible.

The two blue blades locked.

What?

Again he swung his blade towards Jayce, again the two blue lightsabers twirled and locked in a flash, this wasn't Shien...

This is Soresu! Obi-Wan thought bewildered, he realized he'd simply been suckered, Shien had been a ruse to draw him out, and now he was paying for falling for the ruse.

I can still push him back, Obi-Wan thought, since Soresu, which was also his own favorite style, meant giving ground, and tiring the opponent out.

No, it didn't go that way, the blades twirled all around them, yet Jayce didn't give any ground.

Blast!

Obi-Wan barely parried a blow that came from Jayce's blue blade, which was already blocking Obi-Wan's rapid Ataru counterstrikes.

That was Djem So! He'd been waiting, Jayce had been lying in wait for that moment where Obi-Wan struggled a bit, then he'd struck, like a Kashyyyk slashing spider waiting in the darkness for it's prey.

Jayce had first suckered him, turning out to be Soresu specialist after a Shien ruse, then, when he'd found a way to break Jayce, he'd again outsmarted him, with Djem So, like Anakin was specialized in. Djem so was attacking, Soresu was defense, and the two opposites had been perfectly molten together by Jayce, no more Shii-Cho, but pure styles.

Funny actually, since Shien and Djem So are seen as the same style, form V, but there is a difference: Djem So was an 'enhancement' on Soresu, and thus very defensive based, yet attacking to create an opening yourself, while Shien was aggressive, based on quickly attacking less than finding an opening, Shien was for the impatient, usually dark Jedi or Sith used it.

Obi-Wan smiled, he was proud of his padawan, being able to not only outsmart him and outfight him, but also doing it with relative ease, well, ease, okay, he could do it.

Sokan, Obi-Wan realized, since they were in an open space with no obstacles, Jayce used wide slashes to gain strength, that was the one thing that kept Jayce back, and why he used Soresu, his physical strength, Obi-Wan was physically stronger than him.

Their battle continued, padawans and masters alike had gathered around the sparring mat.

How many times did it happen that the apprentice was actually winning?

Starters, Obi-Wan thought as he dealt an easily parried blow, I thought we were going to train, not have a full scale duel…

Obi-Wan started pushing Jayce back, relying on his physical strength and ability to combine Soresu and Ataru into one style.

Master Kenobi is winning, most of the audience thought then, but Jayce wasn't out of tricks yet.

Rules of sparring are simple, you have to stay on the mat, your lightsaber must be set to the lowest power- pulse- and energy- level.

And Jayce was almost standing next to the mat, he wasn't going to let that happen though, all his senses were at fighting Obi-Wan, and the Force was guiding him in doing so.

He leapt over Obi-Wan and blocked a slash on the way, then he landed behind Obi-Wan and their blades locked.

"You're good you know that?" Obi-Wan said to him while the two blades were perfectly crossed and crackling.

"That's funny, so are you," Jayce replied and pushed his blade forward, he was losing, why?, he was tired, Obi-Wan had caught him sparring with Cin Drallig, the temple's blade master, and that was pretty hard, though not so hard as fighting Obi-Wan.

Then it happened, the conclusion of the most interesting thing that had happened in the temple since Cad Bane had visited.

Obi-Wan and Jayce both thrusting their sabers forward, at the exact same time.

Both sabers found themselves sizzling against the robes of the enemy, not piercing it, because they couldn't, this was training after all.

"What an end, we'd both be dead if this were real," Obi-Wan said with a smile growing on his face.

"Oh boy," Jayce said chuckling.


"Why didn't you do that when we were sparring?" Cin Drallig said applauding and walked towards Jayce, then patted him on his shoulder.

"Because I wanted to save my energy," Jayce said and sighed when he extinguished his blue blade.

"Well, 'my young padawan', for once, it seems I have much to learn, you've grown considerably, not just mastering Soresu, but also Djem So, I'm impressed, I really am," Obi-Wan said smiling and patted Jayce on his shoulder.

Jayce wiped the sweat from his forehead and looked around, finally noticing the audience of Masters and padawans.

Then Ahsoka and Anakin came towards them.

"Wow, we were done way quicker," Anakin said, broadly smiling.

"He started punching and kicking at the end-" don't you just hate it when your Master is the Chosen One? She said without a sound to Jayce.

"Jayce, I can't say for sure, but I'll mention your name for being knighted," Obi-Wan said.

"So will I for you snips," Anakin added.

"And I thought we already were knighted Ahsoka, guess we'll have to do the whole thing again," Jayce whispered smiling to Ahsoka, just loud enough for only her to hear it.

"Shush," Obi-Wan whispered warning.


Obi-Wan sat in the lazy chair during a council meeting, listening to the arguing that was happening now, until Yoda cut it.

They went over to a new topic, knighting, who was to be knighted?

"May I suggest-" Obi-Wan swallowed "We let padawans Tano and Adar skip the trials, and promote them to knights,".

It was silent, not often would a master offer his own padawan, that would be unfair to other padawans, like the master's padawan had privileges over the others.

"A good idea, that is, the war, trial enough for them it was," Yoda said nodding.

"I agree," Mace said, while all the other members in the council watched the three.

They did not understand, hadn't Tano and Adar disobeyed orders? They had seen how mad Obi-Wan had been at first, when he found out.

The Force told them it was true though, so they all raised their hands, it was unanimous.

Mace didn't even have to count, he nodded.

"They will be knighted, any others?".


Ahsoka and Jayce stood face to face with their masters, why they didn't need a knighting ceremony, or didn't want, Anakin didn't know, but he was happy that Ahsoka was knighted.


AN: so, did you like the fight?

I had to let Mace Windu know, he's part of that third, Obi-Wan, Yoda and Mace, I just had to.

Anyway I hope you liked this chapter, please Review it, and Enjoy!