Author: Jadelyn Tate
Story: Memoirs of a Master
Pairings: RJ/OC (primary)
Disclaimer: I own Layla, Mistress Lin Ta, and this idea. I own nothing else, I do this merely for fun, not profit
Summary: RJ remembers his first student and how he ended up owning a pizza parlor.
Author Notes: I wasn't going to do this; Memoirs was supposed to be a one shot. However, the damn bunny would not leave me alone; in fact, she got friends. (scowls)

Tori Hansen frowned as she looked over and saw her newest and probably best student sitting in the pouring rain as she stared at the waterfall. Pushing away the rain before it could touch her, Tori gingerly made her way over to the purple clad woman.

"Layla, what are you doing?" Tori asked, crouching down next to her. Layla started and turned to Tori, her face blank and pale. The water sensei frowned and gingerly touched Layla's shoulder; she was startled when images flew into her mind.

A man was meditating as Layla, her form so wispy it was obvious she was astral projecting, gently caressed his face. The man's eyes snapped open when Layla's whisper reached his ears.

"Think of it as your chance to prove Mistress Lin Ta and the others wrong, my Wolf."

"Layla?" The man's voice was soft, pleading, but with an edge of disbelief.

"I'm so proud of you," Layla whispered and Tori saw the man swallow as tears come to his eyes.

"I'll prove that I was an okay Master. I'll make you proud, Layla," he whispered in the location Layla and Tori stood. Watching the scene, Tori realized how much her student cared for the man as Layla's eyes filled with water.

"You already have, my Wolf," she whispered gently before a sudden jarring broke the projection.

Tori gingerly opened her eyes and found them wet and not from the rain. Layla sat in a ball next to her, rocking back and forth and projecting such a sense of loss and sorrow that Tori didn't even hesitate to pull the girl to her. As the normally stoic girl collapsed against her in tears, Tori shed a few herself. She finally knew why Layla had requested admittance as a mixed student. She and her Master must have fallen in love and judging by what she knew of the Pui Zhuq, the Council of Master and Mistresses had forced them apart.

"I'm so sorry, Layla," Tori murmured, knowing that she probably wouldn't hear her through the rain and Layla's own sobs.

"Hey, is everything okay?" Cam asked when Tori returned to the academy with Layla sound asleep in Dustin's arms. Cam frowned when Tori put a finger to her lips and motioned for him to follow them as they made their way to Layla's room. Cam opened the door using his master key and Dustin gingerly placed her on her bed. Tori moved in and took the girls shoes, socks, and ninja top off, leaving her in her training pants and a white and purple tank top. As Tori did that, Dustin and Cam inspected the room, not having seen how the mixed student had decorated her living quarters.

Being one of the few students who lived at the academy year round, Layla's room was smaller than the dormitories, with a private bathroom. The room was exceptionally bare—the walls were white with orange trim; the bed was nearly a cot, covered with purple and white linens. Next to it was a wooden nightstand with an alarm clock and picture frame. The desk was bare but for a laptop and printer and the bookcase held one shelf of books and one shelf of pictures. The only thing of interest besides the pictures was a small shrine that was set up on a leather-bound trunk at the foot of the bed.

The shrine was small, but elaborate. Sitting in the middle of the trunk, a small miniature of the Monastery and training mats was the centerpiece. Carved wooden animals sat on each side of the training mat, facing a red, blue, yellow, and purple candle that sat in the center. Cam studied the four candles and was surprised to find that four animals were carved into them; a cheetah on the yellow, a jaguar on the blue, a tiger on the red, and a wolf on the purple. The monastery miniature was lined with a string of meditation beads. On either side of the beads were a bowl of water, a wooden fan, a small potted flower, and a gold candle. Four smaller white candles were placed at each corner of the trunk, each with a symbol of a direction on it.

"Come on, she needs to get some rest," Tori whispered and the three left. Cam and Dustin followed Tori to the commons kitchen, where they found Cam's father, Master Sensei Kanoi Watanabe, and the Air Sensei, Shane Clarke. Shane took one look at Tori and straightened.

"What's wrong?" he asked worriedly as the three took a seat. Tori sighed.

"I found out why Layla left the Monastery," she told them softly. Cam, Shane, and Dustin perked up. They were all curious about their newest student; only Kanoi knew why Layla had come to them.

"What happened?" Dustin asked, his usual carefree attitude lost behind his concern. When he'd went looking for Tori, he'd found her cradling a sobbing Layla in her arms. He hadn't made his presence known until the mixed student had fallen asleep. To make matters worse, Tori herself had slight tear stains on her cheeks. Dustin may have been an airhead but he knew Tori only cried when something was seriously wrong.

"She and her Master fell in love. Neither admitted it to the other but the Council of Masters and Mistresses figured it out. They separated them and told her Master not to contact her again. He left the monastery and is mentoring the newbie's in Ocean's Bluff," Tori explained quietly. Cam and Dustin both winced; the Wind Academy had the same policy but only for underage students. If a student was legal, the relationship was allowed; if the student wasn't legal, they student and sensei was separated. This was why Cam was allowed to date one of Shane's students while Dustin could date Marah.

The Pui Zhuq had no such leniency—Master/student relationships were forbidden no matter the student's ages. This was mostly due to the fact it normally took years for a student to reach Master status. Before Richard James, the youngest student to reach his Master status had been 36 years old—and he'd been studying since he was fifteen. Richard James had broken that record by a good fifteen years; he'd been named a Master of the Wolf at the age of 19, after studying 6 years with Master Mao.

According to what Mao had said when he'd escorted Layla to the Wind Academy a few months before, they had had four students who were fairly close to breaking Richard's record themselves—Layla, a girl named Lily, and two young men, Theo and Jarrod. Layla had been studying at the Monastery for three years, Jarrod and Lily two, Theo a year and a half. Master Mao believed these four would be the next generation of great Masters. Now, all four of those students were no longer at the Monastery. Layla was with them; Jarrod had disappeared completely after getting booted by the late Master Mao; and Theo and Lily were with another young boy in Ocean's Bluff as the newest generation of rangers.

"I always though the Monastery was way too strict," Shane shook his head. Tori and the others nodded as Kanoi gave a small smile.

"Master Mao would agree with you," he told them. "He believed that the rules were outdated and unfair. He believed their love helped strengthened their gifts and strengthened them as a team. If it had been his choice alone, they would have been left alone. That's why he spoke to me on her behalf—if she can attain the status of an Elemental Mistress, she will have the power to make changes at the Monastery."

"But she's not a Pui Zhuq student anymore—how will she be able to make changes?" Dustin asked, confused.

"She has already attained the necessary requirements to be a Mistress by their standards—by training with us, that will only be reinforced. She will take her Mistress exam at the Monastery and tested by them. When they make her a Mistress of the Claw, she and her former Master can be together and no one can object. Together, Master Mao hoped they will lead the next generation in improving the Pui Zhuq," Kanoi explained to the four surprised Sensei's.

"That's why she came here, isn't it? So she could get the experience to form closer relations between the Academy and Monastery," Cam surmised and Kanoi nodded.

"Master Mao wanted her to study at the Elemental temples and the Thunder Academy for the same reason," Kanoi agreed.

"That explains how she was astral projecting." Tori realized and the others looked at her askance.

"She can astral project?" Shane asked in shock and Tori nodded. Successful astral projection was the signal that a student was ready to be a Master or Mistress. One had to be in complete harmony with the elements and their inner beast to achieve it. Shane's eyes hardened and he looked over at Kanoi, his expression one of complete seriousness.

"So what can we do to help?"

End Notes: Thanks toOverdrive Red,Blackguard, and Tierra for the reviews of chapter 1!

I have a quick request for all the reviewers before we get to my news: Please, when/if you review, don't mention anything about JF or OO. I've seen the eps, I know what happens, but not everyone does. I dislike getting spoiled and tend to get upset when spoilers are placed in fairly open locations. For people who read the reviews to see if they should read a fic (like I tend to do), posting such /news in reviews kinda upsets people. Also? IMO, reviews should be about the fic in question, not random stuff about the season. So….please, if it's not about the fic, do not mention it.

(sighs)

Ya'll are gonna hate me.

I've decided, once again, to put the Legacy series on the back burner. I've been working on it for close to three years now with very few chapter fics in between. Most of the time I wrote one shots and such and that helped, at first. But now, honestly, it's driving me crazy. I have to force myself to write and...that's not good. As a good friend told me, "Don't try and force it. It'll hurt the fic." and I don't want to (hurt it, that is). Legacy was my first serious fic and it means a lot to me and if I screw it up, I'm not gonna be happy.

So, until further notice, there will be no more chapters of Birthright or any fics in thatuniverse. It is officially on hiatus.

Again, I apologize, but I have to work on other stuff for a while or I'm gonna go nuts.

Finally, for those of you like me…Have a good (and SAFE) Spring Break!