I don't own the idea of Star Wars... but the story and characters were my creation... yada yada yada

Episode I: Introductions

Chapter 1
Jedi Knight

The transport ship illuminated itself in orange glow as it fell rapidly into the upper atmosphere of Yavin IV, igniting the air particles it came into contact with. Taric Nopling watched as the ship, undoubtedly laden with the attendees for the day's ceremonies, descended into the misted landing pad in the jungle just a fifteen-minute walk from Taric's twelfth story Jedi Apartment. He had chosen the highest apartment he could because it reminded him of his childhood home on Kashyyyk, where he could never see the forest floor. True, most of the mist burned off by midday, but the mornings were usually cold and misty enough to make him feel right at home. He ran his fingers through his soft and smooth inky black hair and sighed. Finally. Today. Finally, it was here.

A knock came at the door. Taric shook himself from his thoughts and walked to the door, not even feeling the spring in his step. Nothing could bring him down today. Nothing.

He pushed the pad on the door and it slid open. There, in front of him stood Graden Invitil, his Ulcitian best friend, clad in her nice dress clothes. Of course, to Ulcitians, "nice dress clothes" meant most revealing.

She hugged him intensely. "Congratulations! I knew you could do it!"

"Well," Taric gasped for air. "It's not like you won't be able to make it either. But we've both known this day was coming for almost a month, so why the sudden outburst?"

"It's just a good day," She sighed and released him. "I don't think anything could go wrong on a day like this, and besides, it means we don't have to study or train or anything. Aside from the weather, I think it's going to turn out fantastic!"

Ulcitians. Always complaining about the weather. Why couldn't such a neat species live on the outer rim, where stars weren't so plentiful? Ulcitia was the furthest planet out in a binary star system in the deep core, so that Ulcitians always had a problem with the temperature. Days like these, where Taric could feel the chill from the outside's fog without even leaving his apartment, came often to the misty jungles of Yavin IV, and these were the days when Graden complained the most about the coldness of the morning.

Taric stepped aside, allowing Graden into his room. The Jedi Council had a very lenient policy about cross-sex apartments, following the institutional code of the new Jedi Council based on the old Academy of Luke Skywalker. According to the even more liberal policies of current Jedi Master and great great grandson of Luke, Cade Skywalker, last living descendant of the Skywalker line, the Council encouraged students to experience emotions to their full and to court others.

"Doesn't that seem like a path to temptation?" Taric had asked Master Skywalker one day while in the halls. "I mean, let's say that two people start courting, but say that one person completely falls for another, yet the other doesn't truly like their significant other that way. Isn't that setting the first up to a state of depression and hurt, which would make it easier for him or her to fall to the Dark Side?"

Master Skywalker smiled at him. "That is a good point, Taric, but you forget about Darth Stendalus."

"Darth Stendalus?" Taric asked him, cocking his head to one side in confusion. What did the most reviled Sith Lord of the era have to do with temptation?

"He was the Sith Lord who fell after the massacre at the Battle of Dantooine a decade ago," Master Skywalker explained. "He was an interesting case. The same sort of thing happened to him in his early days at the Academy back on Mon Calamari, but when he broke apart from his partner, he did not feel sad or remorseful, but instead relished in the thought of more people with whom to couple and then destroy emotionally. He grew mad with his powers of seduction and pulled in more and more females to serve him as their master. This, ultimately, led to his downfall as he actually grew into love with another and it weakened him in the Dark Side of the Force so that when his partner realized the evil he threatened to the dying Republic, she sacrificed her life to kill Stendalus and destroy his fleet."

"But isn't that incentive for us not to court our fellow padawans?"

Master Skywalker chuckled and shook his head. "No. No, Taric, you miss my point. I'm trying to tell you that courting is a wonderful thing, and that, if experienced in the right context can not only make you feel those emotions key to the use of the Light Side of the Force, but also gives you emotional strength to withstand the temptations of the Dark Side. We encourage you to make friends with all those around you, and because the Order's library is neither the place nor ideal setting for a meeting of potentially in love padawans we open up the apartments and residencies to you because we trust you."

Taric sat down on his bed and looked at Graden, who had taken her usual seat on the window, gazing down onto the dewy morning.

"I can't wait until I become a Jedi Knight," She mused wistfully.

"I'm sure it's not all it's cracked up to be," Taric shrugged, trying his best to take his best friend's mind off the day's events. "How much longer? Do you know?"

"About an hour," Graden sighed, twitching her pointy ears in foreboding anticipation to stepping into the cold morning air again. "Why can't we just do it in here? Or have a larger, completely indoor complex? Or at least move to Tatooine, where it's warm?"

"Because it's tradition. Because it's tradition. And everything happens on Tatooine, in case you didn't notice. Look at the rise and fall of the Galactic Empire one hundred and seventy five years ago," Taric quipped. "We don't really need to move simply because the weather isn't good, Graden. Few planets do have a decent enough climate to support the incredibly picky Ulcitian physiology. Be thankful Master Cade didn't decide to create the new Academy on Hoth. I'd never hear the end of it from you."

Graden shivered noticeably. "You say Hoth again and I'll fight you right here. You might be graduating today, but that doesn't mean I'm letting you off easy. I can take you."

"Uh-huh," Taric raised his eyebrow in doubt.

"You doubt?" Graden raised her voice and stood up, flicking her robe aside, revealing her lightsaber. "How can you doubt me? You're not a Jedi Knight yet."

"I'm close enough," Taric smiled dreamily and flopped back on the bed. "Just be glad for me, Grades. Pretty soon I'll be able to go on missions for the Order and not have to drag along Master Lectris. It'll be fantastic, and I can bring along high-level Padawans like you to help me complete them."

"Oh, what good would I do on a mission?" Graden raised her eyebrows and hand, looking over Taric's shoulder to the fruit bowl on his counter. She flicked her wrist and it flew towards her gently, as though escorted on a cloud of air while she walked towards Taric's couch and flopped down on it.

"Remember those stories about only using the Force when you absolutely needed it?" Taric reminisced from his History of the Force class from several years ago.

Graden chuckled. "Yeah, two centuries ago, when those people in their high and mighty thrones on the most powerful planet in the galaxy mandated that people should be incredibly careful and sparse in their use of the Force."

"Then the original Master Skywalker came along and told us to use the Force to help us," Taric finished the story as Graden began conducting the fruit out of the bowl with her other hand, playing with it as she would with a few balls in an intense juggling act.

He watched her mastery of the Force, slightly envious. He couldn't do that. She was a padawan and he was almost a knight and still he couldn't quite master the Force as most other Padawans could. He could do what she was doing with one or two fruits at the most, but that meant using both hands, one for each fruit. He couldn't be like Graden and play with five fruits at once with one hand and keep the glass bowl levitated with the other. Still, Graden was like Master Lectris: always incredibly adept and intuitive when using the Force, but only so-so with a lightsaber.

Taric's lightsaber skills, however, were unparalleled among any of the padawans and about half of the Jedi Knights. He had developed his own style of agility and power that he called his own and had even used it once just a matter of weeks ago against Master Lectris.

They rounded each other slowly, circling, one foot over the other. Taric wouldn't pull out his saber and attack first. That was dishonorable. He wouldn't do that. Some might call it weakness, but Taric called it his strength; attacking an unarmed person wasn't a fair tactic, and he had told Master Lectris this from the start.

"Sometimes you might have to instigate the attack," Master Lectris said, still circling and keeping his hands to his side, just in case. "You never know when someone will attack you!"

He sprinted forward, not drawing his lightsaber. Taric panicked. He placed his hand on his lightsaber, not wanting to trust his aim with the Force and unclip it from his belt. Master Lectris still sprinted towards him, quickly. Taric looked left and right. What would his Master do? Punch him? His feet shifted, ready for whatever Master Lectris was planning. Master Lectris drew back his hand as he approached, still accelerating and prepared to throw his entire weight into his punch.

A punch? Master Lectris had never prepared him for this! He threw up one hand for what he hoped was a block. Then, at nearly the last second, the fist opened and his lightsaber leapt into his hand and crackled to life emitting its fatal green glow, pointing directly at Taric's face. Taric ducked to the right and Master Lectris's saber sent a jet of heat in its wake. Taric whipped out his own and clicked it on, clashing it on Master Lectris's with an instant, ephemeral flash and taking him by surprise long enough to bring both saber's down to hip level. They made eye contact, Master Lectris smiling at Taric. They twirled their lightsabers around, releasing them. Master Lectris jumped back and held his saber at the ready position.

"Good," he smirked. "Someone like me can't afford to go head to head with such an adept with a saber. I have to use every power I have to my advantage in order to win, even if it might involve a sneak attack."

"You could have killed me," Taric huffed in disbelief. Was Master Lectris prepared to really have stuck his lightsaber through his face just like that?

Master Lectris chuckled. "No, no, Taric. I would never hurt you with my lightsaber, you have to understand that. I knew that you would react. Your years on Kashyyyk tracking and hunting with your father have given you fantastic reflexes. Are you ready?"

"Are you going to try and kill me again?" Taric asked slightly apprehensively.

Master Lectris laughed. "No, no Taric. I said I would never hurt you and I never will. Are you ready?"

Taric held out his lightsaber, ready, the blade's green rim giving off more light than its blue core. "When you are."

Master Lectris ran toward him again, faster than before. Taric blocked his strike deftly, and then prepared for his Master's signature return by switching his blocking high from right to left. Their lightsabers crackled together again, but this time, something caught Taric in the stomach and he flew backwards, hit the ground and somersaulted, landing on his feet, and slid back, his feet kicking up the dirt of the training room and his left hand sliding him to a stop as his right arm flew out, lightsaber pointing backwards towards the wall.

"What was that?" Taric asked, out of breath. "You didn't say we could use the Force."

"You're already fighting with the Force, Taric," Master Lectris told him. "You picking up the lightsaber and fighting me with your speed and agility is already using the Force. And besides, I told you that if I'm a Sith Knight I have no choice but to use Force powers if I want to win. I want to win, so I'm going to press my advantages to their full."

"But you know I can't match you in the use of my Force powers!"

"Exactly, Taric. It's called pressing my advantages."

They charged each other this time, Taric prepared for Master Lectris's use of the Force. They returned the same exchange as before, but Taric used his left hand to block any opportunity for Master Lectris to move him.

"Good, Taric! Good!" Master Lectris shouted over their rapid exchange of blows.

Within a minute, the skirmish had turned in favor of Taric, who, no longer hampered by being on the defensive, began to move his lightsaber as fast as he could, forcing his shoulders and entire upper body into each attack. Master Lectris returned each of Taric's rapid hits strike for strike, but grew slower with each attack, his strength waning from the power of Taric's assaults. Without warning, Master Lectris threw his lightsaber down to the floor and held his hands up just in front of his chest. Taric stopped his attack just next to Master Lectris's left cheek.

Master Lectris smirked again, and pulled his hands inward towards him and flipped backwards, kicking Taric over himself and back towards the far wall.

Taric spiraled into the air, trying to keep his spinning vision on Master Lectris who picked up his lightsaber again and followed Taric's path, sprinting to where Taric would land and stood, saber out, ready to strike Taric. Taric, in frenzy, threw out his left hand and attempted to push Master Lectris back towards the wall.

Because of his constantly spinning motion, however, Master Lectris lost his balance and slid forward slightly, giving Taric just enough time for him to land on the ground. Still dizzy from the spinning, he looked up for the green glow of Master Lectris's saber.

He caught it after a second, but watched as it grew closer, leaving streaks of green behind it as Master Lectris twirled it single-handedly in a blocking motion in front of him. He closed his eyes and cleared his mind, tapping into the Force, trying to sense Master Lectris's position amid the swirling green.

He snapped his eyes open and twirled around, high blocking Master Lectris's pre-emptive strike against him. Their lightsabers cracked together, hissing.

Master Lectris smiled and pulled away, clicking his lightsaber and shutting it off. "Good. I didn't think you'd catch that move."

"It was a good trick," Taric nodded, as he clicked his own lightsaber off and clipped it on his belt. "I've never seen anything like that." He wiped his sopping brow of sweat.

"Thanks," Master Lectris nodded, humbly. "But there is a reason I asked you to come in here today for this training session."

"What? Why?"

"Because this is the last training session we will have as Master and student. I've been promoted to the Jedi Council to serve as a full time Jedi Master in addition to my duties as personal counselor to Master Skywalker."

"That's wonderful!" Taric smiled, jubilantly. "Congratulations!" Taric's face dropped as he realized the implications of Master Lectris's actions. "But then who will train me?"

"That's the other thing I wanted to talk to you about," Master Lectris smiled, unable to contain his pride. "I've asked the Council to allow you to take the final tests before becoming a Jedi Knight."

Taric's jaw dropped. "You're kidding."

"Never," Master Lectris smiled, beaming with pride. "I think you're ready, especially after today."

"Thank you, Master!" Taric smiled and laughed. "It's an honor."

"No, Taric," Master Lectris nodded to him. "The honor is mine."