For anyone that doesn't know, I should probably define some of the Garduinius terms (Garduinius is one of my stories).

Ruler: sword, with hilt that looks like a ruler (hence the name)

Core: powerful presence that destroys everything for 10km around when unleashed

Kenilath: almost-human beings with perhaps Force-like abilities, stronger/faster and more volatile than humans

Castor: "beaver" in French. Also the spellcaster types in Garduinius (caster, get it?)

TYTHON

Jedi Master Melias sensed the sudden presence in the Force before he saw it, a strangely unreadable disturbance in the fabric of the universe. His Padawan Zenith Plerr, focused less on meditation than watching the mouth of the cave they were waiting in, saw her first. It was the last of his trials before he was qualified to become a full Jedi Knight, after all, and he was determined to prove himself: face the Sith apprentice that had been sent to retrieve an ancient artifact. Before Master Melias could shout a warning, Zenith was charging at the figure standing in the centre of the cavern.

She was young - too young to be on Tython for her trials, surely - dressed in simple street clothes like any other Republic citizen, but in her hands she gripped tightly an orange-bladed lightsabre.

Zenith Force-leapt at the girl with neither sound not emotion, bringing his blade up to strike. At least he had not failed completely at adhering to the ways of the Jedi, thought Master Melias grimly. Still, it was all too clear to him now. Zenith wasn't ready, wasn't anywhere close to ready for the trials. Hoping to salvage the situation, Master Melias activated his lightsabre to defend his apprentice. The strange girl's Force signature told him nothing, but it took an immense amount of skill and training to hide one's Force presence... and even more unnatural ability to appear suddenly in the cave without being detected beforehand.

Elonia Moonbeam hesitated for a moment, balking at the robed shadow leaping at her, glowing blue blade held high, from thirty metres away. To say she was surprised would have been a complete understatement. One moment she had been Core-jumping onto the roof of the Dernière Espère establishment to get a better view of the sunset, and the next had brought her into this shadowy rock cave, under attack, with a glowing, orange - was that a lightsabre? - in her hands.

At the last possible moment, Elonia brought up her blade to meet Zenith's, the lightsabres humming as they clashed. Sparks flew out as Zenith tested her strength, trying to force her sabre backward. The instincts she had honed for the two years since she'd been pulled into all the Kenilath business finally kicked in, and Elonia realised that she was stronger than her opponent. She forced his lightsabre back and Zenith made a hasty retreat - a risky move in any situation, but in this case a fatal one. With more instinct then thought, Elonia ended him with an almost graceful slash across his chest. Zenith's double-bladed lightsabre fell smoking to the ground and deactivated.
For a moment, she stood there stunned. She had almost certainly killed before, but it had never been in single combat, when she had time to mull over the result before turning to her next opponent. And, she thought, looking to the body of the robed figure on the cave floor, it had never been quite this gruesome.

Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), she was startled out of her reflection by an attack out of nowhere. Elonia dodged the strike and slipped smoothly into a defensive stance again. It seemed that she did have another enemy after all.

This man was taller than whoever had first attacked her, and wore his hood down. He held his green-bladed lightsabre confidently, seeming sure of his victory. Elonia judged that he must be at least fifty, or about a hundred if he was a Kenilath. Given the situation, she deemed that unlikely. Having gotten over her initial shock, Elonia decided that between the blue and green lightsabres, the brown robes, and the Force-leaping, her assailants must be Jedi. From what she understood, though, the Jedi were keepers of peace... so why had the first Jedi attacked her?

The older Jedi - a Jedi Master, Elonia deduced - struck again, feinting and attacking with uncanny speed and accuracy. Elonia blocked swiftly, the many hours of training coming back to her. It seemed that lightsabre combat wasn't so different from fighting with rulers. There was another advantage she had here: she wasn't quite as fast as she had been, but she was strong enough now to hold her own against the Jedi Master. Figuring that it was in her best interests to end this quickly, Elonia decided to give the Force-leaping a try. After all, weren't abilities such as Core-jumping based on the same concept?

She quickly discovered that it was actually much easier than Core-jumping, and leapt back across the cavern with minimal concentration. It seemed, then, that her abilities were far more powerful here... wherever "here" was. Elonia leapt back at the Jedi before he could make any move to pursue, lifting her blade high for a powerful strike. The energy she felt rushing through her as she jumped was exhilarating. She had never been able to move so smoothly between abilities and physical combat.

The Jedi blocked the blow, but Elonia had pushed his lightsabre downward. She pressed her advantage, forcing his blade toward him. She could see the sweat beading on his face from the strain and knew that her victory was near. He couldn't possibly hold out much longer.

"You can't win this," the Jedi said through gritted teeth. He had an annoyingly strong American accent.

"Watch me," said Elonia.

Then, suddenly, she was sent flying backwards. Elonia flipped once and landed on her feet, cursing herself for her lack of attention. Of course the Jedi Master would have Force powers like her own. Of course she couldn't rely solely on her skill with the ruler in a fight like this. She ducked as two great chunks of rock smashed together where her head has been just a moment earlier. The Jedi was far from defeated.

Taking a chance, Elonia hurled debris at the Jedi telekinetically. As expected, it worked as easily as if it had been orange. The Jedi scattered the projectiles easily and tried to smash her against a wall, but Elonia was ready. She cushioned her collision and tried to replicate her favourite ability in Star Wars, imagining her fist squeezing the Jedi's throat. She was mildly surprised and strongly amused when it worked, the Force choke lifting the Jedi Master into the air. Somehow, he broke free and threw his lightsabre at her. Elonia deflected it with a smooth flick and sent everything she had at him, trying to utterly crush him with her command of the Force.
Before the Jedi could mysteriously negate her powers, Elonia leapt at him and went fully on the offensive. Her lightsabre wove impossibly quickly through the air, faster than the Jedi Master could keep up with as the effects of the Force crush took its toll. Seizing an opportunity, Elonia struck him across the side, sending him flying. The Jedi Master landed with a grunt of pain and lay still.
Elonia collected his lightsabre with a nudge of the Force and strode to the Jedi's fallen form. Her nondescript boots crunched softly on the rubble-littered ground.

"You were saying?" she said, pointing her lightsabre at him.

The Jedi looked her in the eye. His voice was soft but calm when he spoke.

"Kill me, then, if that is your will. I'm not afraid to die."

"Well, that's stupid from any perspective," said Elonia. She considered doing so for a moment, but decided that there had been enough bloodshed for a day. Besides, she needed an explanation, which a corpse couldn't provide.

"Why did you attack me?" she demanded after a pause, finding the switch to deactivate her lightsabre after a quick search.

"You killed my apprentice," said the Jedi Master simply.

"I thought the Jedi didn't believe in vengeance and stuff."

"We also don't typically let people get away with murdering one of our order in front of our eyes. Would you?"

"I'm not a Jedi."

"I've come to the same conclusion," stated the Jedi. "But then, who are you?"

"I'll be asking the questions," said Elonia. Unfortunately, it didn't work nearly as well as on TV. Maybe the people who told her she wasn't assertive enough had a point.

"You're in no position to force me to answer," said the Jedi. "You can answer my questions and I'll answer yours, or you can kill me. As I said, stupid or not, I'm not afraid of death."

Elonia scowled.

"Fine, my name is Elonia Moonbeam. Now, why did your apprentice attack me?"

"Much better. You see, we were waiting for a Sith apprentice to arrive, and he mistook you for one."

"How do you know he was mistaken?"

"I don't. I was hoping you would clear that up."

Elonia frowned.

"Do I seem like a Sith?"

"Between the accent, orange lightsabre, Dark Side Force abilities, and emotional turmoil? The evidence is difficult to ignore."

"Wait a moment, accent?" Elonia said, surprised.

"The Imperial accent. It's a Sith characteristic, if you didn't realize."

"Huh," said Elonia, actually listening to herself speak, "I guess I do."

Somehow, it seemed that she had developed a British accent over the course of half an hour. She focused more on how she was pronouncing words and purposely spoke the way she remembered from before this whole fiasco, trying to recover her Canadian accent.

"All right. Is this better?"

The Jedi frowned, now.

"Yes, but your accent's not entirely standard Republic."

"No. You have an American accent, and I'm Canadian. People say it's the same thing, but I don't entirely think so."

She smiled slightly at the look of confusion on the Jedi Master's face.

"Now," she continued, "Who are you?"

"Jedi Master Melias Shorai," said Master Melias with the same lack of explanation.

"And your Padawan?"

"Zenith Plerr," said Master Melias quietly. "He was a good kid, you know. Not ready for his trials yet - I know that now - but he would have made a good Jedi Knight with time and training. And you ended his life so quickly..."

His voice was bitter as he finished. It was the first time Elonia had seen any emotion in him, and she considered that deviation from the Jedi Code a small victory.

"Why did you kill him?" said Master Melias. He had tried to quell any emotion, but not entirely succeeded.

"Well, he attacked me," said Elonia. "And I was pretty freaked out considering that I had just randomly appeared here. What is this place, anyways?"

"A cave in southern Tython," responded Master Melias. He seemed to have given up questioning her, but Elonia was no fool. She knew that the Jedi was healing himself for another attack, but she figured that he couldn't be that dangerous without his lightsabre.
Elonia thought quickly to what she knew about Tython, which was sadly not very much. It was the ancient homeworld of the Jedi, and now apparently the site of their temple and Council meetings. It seemed to be relatively hospitable... as long as you were on the side of the Republic, which she wasn't so certain about. She had always liked the Empire better, and doubted that she could become an emotionless Jedi.

"I'm not Sith," said Elonia finally. "Nor am I a Jedi. I'm honestly not sure what I'm doing here."

Master Melias had healed himself fully by now, but felt no inclination to fight the strange girl. He was still bitter over the death of his Padawan and his own defeat by someone so young, but it was the Jedi way to let go of those emotions for the sake of peace. It was clear to him now that this Elonia had not meant any harm, though her Force-sensitivity made her a puzzle. If she was neither Jedi nor Sith, how had she learned to wield the Force and fight... and still not have the familiarity to deactivate a lightsabre? How had she gotten that lightsabre in the first place? With anyone else, he would have simply sensed them through the Force, but somehow that path was hidden from him. Somehow, Elonia was blocking off her Force signature.

"Unblock your Force aura," said Master Melias.

"Unblock? Force aura?"

"You said that you have nothing to hide."

Elonia realized that, despite the strange feeling of being Core-less, she was still blocking mind abilities as if the Core still existed. Still, since she was not planning on staying with the Republic, revealing anything was a bad move. She would have to get on the good side of the Jedi, however, to figure out how she was going to make it to Dromund Kaas, considering that she was currently on a Republic world. The dilemma was put out of her mind, though, as she sensed a sudden presence in the cave.

The feeling was not unlike her ability previously to sense the presence of the dragon Ontario, but she realized as Master Melias spoke that it could be far more specific.

"Sith," hissed the Jedi Master, with the closest thing to malice she had heard in his voice so far.

Elonia was divided on what to do. On the one hand, it made far more sense to side with the Sith against Master Melias. She had no measure of the new adversary's power, but she knew that she could win again against Master Melias alone, and was leaning toward the faction of the Empire. On the other hand, she had no assurance that the Sith, whomever it was, would not just leave her on Tython after they defeated the Jedi... in a potentially disastrous situation.

The decision was made for her, though, as the Sith saw her talking civilly with a Jedi, on the Jedi homeworld, with no Force signature to read. Deciding that the Jedi (mostly hidden from view) was the real threat and not the apparently Force-blind girl, he chose to finish her off quickly with a stream of Force lightning.

Immediately, Elonia ignited her lightsabre and deflected the Sith lightning. She literally leapt into the offensive, throwing the Sith at a wall of the cave using the Force, while Force-leaping to her target. The Sith managed to prevent himself from hitting the wall, but barely recovered in time to block Elonia's powerful downthrust with a glowing red blade. Their lightsabres hummed through the air as the fight begun for real, weaving an intricate web of deadly light. Both Elonia and the Sith warrior preferred to fight with blade over Force power, circling around each other as they tried to take the upper hand. Elonia remembered that she still had the Jedi's lightsabre, but decided not to toss it to him unless she could not finish this on her own, which Elonia doubted. The Sith was more experienced - though not old enough to be hindered by age - but Elonia had a speed and energy that he couldn't match, and a talent for wielding the ruler.

"Who are you?" growled the Sith. His voice was deep, and upon further analysis Elonia realized that he had what she heard as a British accent.

"Here we go again," muttered Elonia, swinging at the Sith's head.

The Sith blocked the move and continued, ignoring her.

"You are Force-gifted... strongly so. But you are not emotionless like the Jedi, nor does rage fill you as the Sith."

"Oh, I'm mad alright," said Elonia. "I've been in this universe maybe an hour and so far I've been attacked by three people aligned with no fewer than two factions."

"That is emotion, but not true rage."

"Well excuse me!"

"Who are you? What are you?"

"I am your end," declared Elonia.

She swung her lightsabre as hard as she could, knocking the lightsabre from the Sith warrior's hand. It fell to the ground, smoking. The Sith tried to retrieve his weapon using the Force, but Elonia was faster. She swept it up with a practised telekinetic push, and grabbed it from the air. The Sith warrior was retreating, now, stepping away toward the entrance of the cave even as he raised his hand to Force-push Elonia back. Elonia threw her lightsabre at him, guiding it with a nudge of telekinesis. The Sith formed a barrier using the Force to knock it back, but Elonia had already activated his own blade and swung it back at him with rage-filled power. He managed to stop it using his Force barrier, but only barely. Seeing fear, now, in his red-orange eyes, Elonia forced the lightsabre towards the Sith.

"It doesn't have to be like this," said the Sith, his voice strained.

"No?" said Elonia, narrowing her eyes. "Why wouldn't it?"

"We don't have to be enemies. You could join us, become Sith. You have the potential. Spare me and kill the Jedi, and I'll take you to Dromund Kaas."

"I'm not that naive to believe the Empire would take in any random kid who defeats one of the Sith."

"I would take you as my apprentice. I promise you you'll rise in the ranks of the Sith."

"You wouldn't be much of a master, considering that I've already bested you before any real training."

It was a good enough offer, and Elonia was reasonably sure that he was telling the truth. Of course, she had very little ability to sense deception as of yet, but she knew that the Sith didn't know this. He would do almost anything to stay alive, and this was his best bet (and one that benefited him as well). Still, Elonia was hesitant to accept. She realized now that she was unusually powerful in this strange universe, even with minimal training. Starting off as an apprentice to some unknown Sith couldn't be the right way to rise in the Empire. No, she wanted to rise to the Dark Council, and not after the years upon years of power plays it would take for any other Sith. For this, she needed a bargaining chip... and something that would make the Empire take notice.

Finally, the Sith couldn't keep up his Force barrier any longer, and he stepped backwards, raising his arms in a futile attempt to defend himself - or was it to surrender? Elonia didn't care much either way. She stabbed him through the heart with his own lightsabre and left the body, stopping only to gravitate her own lightsabre back to her hand.

The Jedi Master was standing, now, finished with his attempt to conceal his healing. He had probably been watching her whole exchange with the Sith, and not interfered in any way.

"Hey," said Elonia, deactivating the Sith's lightsabre as she strode towards him, "I thought it was supposed to be an apprentice. That didn't quite look like one, eh?"

Master Melias looked thoughtful.

"Something must have tipped him off that we moved the artifact... and he came personally."

"Right. Uh, what happens now?"

"May I have my lightsabre back?"

Elonia hesitated before tossing it to him. She had made her choice... she only hoped it was the right one.