Chapter 4: Rematch

Again, huge thanks to my betas for doing their thing :D

-x-

Amber-yellow eyes snapped open, quickly focusing on the person in front of him.

"You need to get up," Saril said as he straightened up.

Rathe's cheeks darkened in embarrassment as he quickly rose to his feet. As he rose, he found that his ribs had been healed some as they merely throbbed in pain rather than screamed as they had earlier. Looking around, the Sith boy felt utterly surprised when he saw the sun had not only finished rising but was halfway up into the sky. How had he not noticed the time passing? Or the air getting hotter around him? Had he been concentrating that much he hadn't seen anything else? His face flushed as he thought of how humiliating it would have been if someone other than Saril, had roused him.

"Thanks," he muttered to Saril moving to where the students were lining up, falling in line behind the other newcomers. The Chiss boy merely nodded as Instructor Akiva walked to stand in front of the students.

"You older students are aware of what you're going to be doing next so you can go on ahead while I instruct the new students further." The redheaded man said, gesturing for the older students to move on.

Rathe watched curiously as the students moved to an area that was partially walled off with half walls, making it so they could still see the students but they were still somewhat separated from everyone. Inside the area were several bags which the students hefted over their shoulders and began making walking lunges around the area.

"Strength," Rathe's eyes snapped back to the redheaded instructor. "Strength is the single greatest attribute a Sith Warrior can possess. While many of you may have other attributes that can enhance your strength, like mastery of the force, cunning, high endurance or speed, at your core, your strength will be what serves you the best. Those of you who survive here will go on to be the fists and blades of the empire, enforcing our domination across the galaxy." The scarred man's eyes hardened as he looked at the children around him. "If the empire were to fall it would be because we warriors failed in our duty to the Emperor. For without us, the Inquisitors wouldn't have muscle to protect them from injury, the Imperial Agents wouldn't have any but bounty hunters and hired thugs to cause Republic eyes to shift so they can go about their duty unhindered, and Bounty Hunters would lack anyone to keep them in line or prevent them from switching sides. So, it's imperative that each warrior who comes out of this facility has the strength to do their duty and uphold the responsibility entrusted to them. It is thus our duty as instructors, to make sure you all acquire that strength."

Trevin turned, so he was half facing the area the older students were and extended a hand. From the other side of the wall, several short but somewhat thick pipes with handles rose and were pulled over to where the children were by the redheaded instructor.

"Each of you needs to take two of these." The instructor said as he lowered the pipes to the ground. At once, all thirty children moved forward and took two of the tubes as instructed.

Rathe experimentally rotated his hands to the right and left as he peered curiously down at the metallic objects in his hands. While the handles made it easy for them to carry the pipes, they weren't all that necessary in his opinion as the pipes felt rather light. Much lighter than what he'd expected to feel after the Instructor had given them that speech about strength. A few faint murmurings around him let him know he wasn't the only one who was questioning the lack of weight.

"Now, that all of you have your pipes I want you all to line up in a single-file line." With a few grumbles, the students lined up once more, with Rathe and Saril finding spots in the middle of the line. "You are all going to walk around the perimeter of this facility carrying these until I tell you to stop and if any of you stops for any reason, you must immediately walk to the back of the line and continue walking along the perimeter."

Rathe's eyes followed Trevin's finger as he used it to point out the path they'd be walking, a track that not only was entirely in the sun but also ran around the edge of where the older students were doing their perimeter walking.

"Now, get to it."

The students all began moving as Trevin and Akiva moved into the shade of a nearby building where they could readily observe both sets of students.

Though the sun blazing above made him rather hot and sweaty, Rathe was not all that affected by the exercise. The moment the students were out of the instructor's hearing range, Rathe could hear some students murmuring questions about why were the instructors so easy on them now when they had been so tough on them the past eighteen hours? Soon the murmurs turned from complaints to some of the male students bragging about how they would be able to do this while running the entire time. This boasting, in turn, turned into the boys trying to verbally one-up each other until finally one of the boys broke off from the rest of the group and began jogging around the perimeter. Wary glances made their way to the instructors, looking for any hint of disapproval. When there was no further berating of the boy, others began moving at a faster pace until half of the children were jogging around the perimeter. Rathe was half tempted to join them, but as his body was still aching, he was more than willing to take it easy.

As he lapped the courtyard for the second time, Rathe noticed something: the students who had been jogging were slowing down. As they carried on, the number of students jogging continued to decrease until they were all walking at the same pace as everyone else. Rathe glanced at Seki with a raised eyebrow. The Rattataki girl didn't respond verbally. Instead, she over exaggeratedly rolled her shoulders. Frowning, Rathe mimicked the action and realized there was a bit of tension in his shoulders. After a few more laps, the discomfort that had started in his shoulders had spread down along the length of his arms, as well as along his back, abdomen, and legs. The further down the discomfort went the more painful it became until every muscle hurt. Fighting back a grimace, Rathe continued on, doing his best to ignore the pain even as some of the children around him started slowing down.

"Ozaur get back to the end of the line!"

Rathe looked over his shoulder at the sound of Instructor Trevin's command, raising his eyebrow slightly as he caught sight of a purple-skinned Twi'lek boy bending over to pick up the pipes he'd set down.

"Remember, none of you are to stop moving until Instructor Akiva says or I say so."

The group of children continued walking around the perimeter, gradually slowing down with each pass. Despite the burning in his body, Rathe stubbornly continued even as his breathing began to come quicker. Rathe was saved from feeling embarrassed by the fact that everyone around him, including Saril and Seki, was breathing heavily. Gradually, some of the children began lagging far behind the group falling further and further behind with each lap of the courtyard. Rathe lost track of where they were as he turned his focus solely towards the back of the girl in front of him as he continued onwards. His focus broke when the human in front of him stumbled and fell to the ground. Rathe was just barely able to keep from walking over him as Rathe and several children around him slowed down to a stop.

"Why have you all stopped? I don't recall telling you; you could stop." Trevin called out.

The children briefly looked at each other in confusion. One of the students had fallen, was that not reason enough to stop?

"All of you get to the back of the line!"

Apparently not. With a bit of confusion and hesitancy, the children all moved to the back of the line, which happened to be behind one of the stragglers who had been too far behind to be slowed up by the boy falling.

As they passed the boy, who had yet to stand back up, Rathe noticed Instructor Akiva and Trevin discussing something for a moment before the Twi'lek woman began making her way over. He kept his eye trained on the purple-skinned woman as she knelt by the fallen child and checked his pulse. After a moment, Akiva drew her hand back and struck the child across the face. When that didn't rouse the boy, she hit him a second and third time until finally, the boy awoke.

"Get up and get to the back of the line!" Rathe heard the instructor say as he stood.

The boy responded with something Rathe could not hear, but when Instructor Akiva began laughing a laugh that made ice run down his spine, he knew it had not been anything good.

"You can't because you're too thirsty and tired?" Akiva said amused when she stopped laughing. "A true Sith would never be trounced this easily." She gave a cold smile. "But then again you're not a true Sith are you?" She turned, so she was looking at the students still moving about the courtyard. "None of you are true Sith! Not even those of you who have been here for years. You are not Sith until you leave this place and believe me, a good number of you won't be leaving this place alive. You, new students, look at him," Akiva pointed at the student. "This boy will be one of the first of your group to die." She continued ignoring the fallen boy's look of horror. "This one who thought he could easily finish this exercise in the beginning but now says it's too hard for him to finish will die, and no one will mourn him. Just like what will happen for the rest of you." She spat at the boy who was now struggling to get back on to his feet before moving back off to the side where Trevin still stood.

Hours dragged on in silence as Rathe determinedly continued on. By now, none of the children were making any noise aside from the heavy breathing coming from their mouths and their feet hitting the sand. Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Instructor Trevin looked up at the sun and called out.

"Okay, you all can stop moving."

With a collective groan, all the students dropped the bars they'd been carrying as they came to a stop, some collapsing onto the ground. Though Rathe felt the urge to follow their lead, he kept himself from doing so as he noticed the older students pointing and laughing at the ones who'd fallen to the ground. Amongst them stood Kasal, who was giving the younger students a superior look, when the human's eyes locked with Rathe's the human's superior look transformed into a mocking smirk. Rathe's amber-gold eyes narrowed at the other boy as he curled his hands into fists, ignoring the twinges of pain the action caused.

"Don't get too comfortable," Instructor Akiva said, drawing Rathe's attention away from Kasal.

A frown appeared on his face as he noted Instructor Uthyn exit one of the buildings and made his way over to his fellow instructors. Up until that moment, Rathe had not given much thought to where the fat bastard was, only vaguely noting that he had been nowhere in sight during the duration of the training exercises. Now, though, the Sith boy was extremely curious as to exactly where the large human had been, and why he was only now appearing. "Form a single file line as you did earlier to receive your water."

Wearily, the students moved into a single file line as instructed, though Rathe kept his eyes on Instructor Uthyn as the large human continued on his way, eventually coming to a stop next to the well Trevin had been standing by earlier. An uneasy feeling rose within the Sith boy as he realized the human who seemed to hate him would oversee handing cups of water out to the students. The uneasy feeling grew as the line began moving forward and the Instructor showed his sadistic side by making it difficult for the exhausted new students to get theirs by holding it out of their reach or "accidentally" spilling some of the water thus giving that child half or less of a cup of water. Neither instructor showed anything but cool disinterest as their larger counterpart tormented the children.

Much faster than he had thought possible, Rathe found himself standing in front of Instructor Uthyn. The uneasy feeling grew exponentially as he saw the fat man's lips twist into a cruel smirk.

"Well, well, if it isn't sleeping beauty himself."

The Pureblood boy's cheeks flushed with embarrassment as he was reminded of passing out after his fight the previous day.

"I do hope that you'll be less rude this evening and will be able to refrain from falling asleep during training. Or has living life as the son of the great captain Amevar Dresal rendered you incapable of being anything less than a spoiled, self-obsessed brat?"

Quiet murmuring behind him let Rathe know the other students had heard Uthyn say his father's name, though the other two instructors didn't seem at all surprised about who his father was. Rathe's cheeks burned a darker shade of red in a combination of anger and humiliation as the instructor revealed his inability, so far, to live up to being Amevar Dresal's son.

"Then, again your brother didn't do much better."

The Sith boy was half tempted to just leave the line and join the students who had already received their water, but his parched throat prevented him from doing so.

"Enough Uthyn," both Rathe and the large human looked at the redheaded instructor who had spoken. "Get the line moving again, so they don't get any time to rest." Trevin gestured towards the students who had already had their water.

"Yeah, yeah," Instructor Uthyn grumbled, clearly unhappy to have his fun cut short, holding out a cup for Rathe. Predictably, as Rathe moved to take it, the fat instructor moved the bowl out of his reach. Unpredictably, when the Sith boy made a second attempt, Uthyn let go of the bowl right as Rathe's fingers brushed against it. The Sith boy fumbled with the container, and with the greatest of luck managed to do just that, after spilling half or more of the contents. Quickly swallowing the remaining water, Rathe didn't trust the instructor not to attempt to flat out knock it out of his hands, the Sith boy gave the cup back and moved over to where the other children who had already received water stood.

"What was all that about?" Seki asked as Rathe came to a stop where she and Saril were standing.

"I have no idea," Rathe admitted honestly, with a faint shrug. "I really don't!" He continued when Saril gave him a disbelieving look.

"Now, that everyone has had their second and final cup of water for the day, we will now move onto the final exercise of the day: your sparring matches." Instructor Trevin said gesturing towards the building they had sparred in the previous day.

A few of the children made noises of surprise and displeasure at the thought of sparring with someone yet again, Rathe himself felt some disbelief at the idea as the muscles in his arms and legs, as well as the rest of his body, were still strained and taut from the day's exercise.

"Come; let us see who will win their rations this evening."

At the reminder that winning their match was the only way to receive their rations, the children became slightly more enthusiastic as they began quickly walking towards the building. Much like the previous day, the room was stifling hot and the air humid, making it slightly harder to breathe.

"Once again," Instructor Akiva began as she and the other two instructors made their way to the center of the room while the students formed a ring around the sparring area. "We will call two of your names and whoever is called must fight no matter what and if any of you attempt to get out of it or refuse to fight both of you will go without rations for the night."

Rathe's lower lip was caught between his teeth as he worried for a moment about possibly going up against Saril or Seki, he would do his best to fight them, but he would worry about losing his newly formed ties if he beat them.

If? Rathe shook his head at the doubt in his mind.

"The first opponents of the day will be," Instructor Uthyn began, pulling Rathe out of his thoughts. "Kasal Traael."

Rathe's eyes narrowed faintly as the fat instructor's eyes landed on him. He wasn't going to pull the same thing, twice was he?

"And our resident sleeping beauty."

The Sith boy clenched his jaw at the mocking name the instructor had given him, but dutifully made his way out into the middle of the ring.

"This will be over quick," Kasal said cockily as they picked up their practice blades and turned to face each other.

"Don't count on it," Rathe hissed back as he glared at the older human.

"FIGHT!" Uthyn bellowed, cutting through their conversation.

Unlike the previous day, Rathe did not charge forward immediately. Instead, he fell into a guarded stance and watched the other boy. Kasal paced back and forth a few times, feigning a few attacks to draw Rathe out of his position.

"You want to be that way? Fine."

The dark-skinned human went on the attack with a lunge that Rathe was able to block but was forced to take a step back from. He was further pushed back as the older boy unleashed a flurry of attacks the Pureblood boy failed to block or parry most of. The attack abruptly came to an end after Rathe awkwardly blocked an attack aimed at his legs. Breathing heavily, Rathe began moving into a defensive position when he was knocked back by an invisible force. He was so thrown by the force attack, that Kasal was able to rush towards him and drive his shoulder into Rathe's stomach.

Crying out in plain, Rathe fell back onto the ground. Kasal pinned him there by straddling his waist and began repeatedly punching Rathe in the face. With blood streaming down his face, Rathe let go of his practice blade and used both hands to grab onto Kasal's wrist. With a snarl, the Pureblooded boy yanked the human's fist down to the ground next to Rathe's head and slammed his forehead into Kasal's face. A dark smile appeared on Rathe's face as he felt the cartilage of Kasal's nose give way and heard the dark-skinned boy let out a grunt of pain. The smile disappeared as Kasal reeled back and raked the fingers of his free hand across Rathe's face. Rathe let go of the human's wrist, and the two broke apart as Rathe clutched at his face where Kasal's blunt nails left welts across Rathe's cheeks. Scrambling up onto his feet, Rathe picked his practice blade back up and lunged at Kasal, but the other boy was able to block the attack quickly.

Snarling in frustration, Rathe quickly takes two steps to the side in an attempt to create an opening by attacking Kasal from the side. But, the older, more experienced, fighter thwarts this plan before it even begins by going on the attack again. This time, the human boy zigzagged in his attacks forcing Rathe to take one backward step after another until his back crashed into one of the students standing on the edge of the fighting area. A pair of hands slammed into Rathe's back, and he found himself being shoved forward. Instead of fighting to regain his balance or remain on his feet, Rathe used the momentum from the shove to tuck himself into a roll and rolled around Kasal. Quickly springing up, Rathe turned back towards his opponent, who had spun around, and attempted to use his opponent's strategy against him. Lunging at Kasal from the right with an attack aimed at his feet and when it was blocked, attacked from the left and then from the right again. While the attacks did put Kasal on the defense, they did not force him to move back like Rathe had been forced to do. Frustrated that the offense was not working like he had thought it would, the Sith boy attempted a downward strike that would have struck Kasal's arm. But the human moved out of the way and repaid Rathe for his carelessness with a blow to his shoulder that caused the entire length of his arm to tingle.

Rathe let out another hiss, shaking his arm for a moment to try to make the tingling stop. He glared at the other boy who was pacing back and forth, feeling very much like he was a mouse being toyed with by a cat. As Kasal charged forward to press the attack once more, Rathe charged forward as well, their blades crashing together as they met halfway. The two boys' blades clashed together time after time as they attacked and defended themselves against attack, the clash coming to an end when instead of blocking an attack Kasal simply moved back a step causing Rathe to stumble forward. Using the Sith boy's stumble to his advantage, Kasal brought his knee up and slammed it into the red-skinned boy's injured ribs forcing all the air in Rathe's lungs to come rushing out. Rathe gasped for breath as he attempted to get back on to his feet only to be knocked to the ground when the pommel of Kasal's practice sword slammed into the back of the red-skinned boy's head. Still, gasping for air, and flushed from embarrassment and anger, Rathe attempted to get up once more, only to stop when the tip of the other boy's practice sword pressed against the side of his neck.

"It looks like Kasal will be receiving rations this evening as well." The practice blade was removed from Rathe's neck as Instructor Uthyn spoke.

Gritting his teeth, Rathe struggled to his feet as pain radiated from his ribs and tossed his practice blade towards Instructor Trevin. Rathe limped his way over towards Saril and Seki as the next two names were called. Rathe paid no attention to the next few fights has he worked to get his breathing and pain under control. His attention was drawn back to the fighting when Saril was called to fight against a Twi'lek girl. Saril dominated the entirety of the fight and was declared the winner in nearly half the time of Rathe's own battle. Either his new ally was much stronger and was a much better fighter than he had previously thought, or the Twi'lek girl was just that much weaker than the Chiss boy.

"Sorry," Saril said apologetically, as he rejoined Rathe and Seki.

"Don't be; you earned yours just like Kasal earned his. I'll work twice as hard to win tomorrow's bout."

Despite his bravado, Rathe had a feeling he would be going up against Kasal again so it was probable he would go for a third night without rations. He had to win the next fight no matter what. Otherwise, he would wind up starving like Uthyn was no doubt hoping for. His hands curled into fists as he glared at the human who was currently chatting with his three lackeys.

His amber-yellow eyes were torn away from the human as he heard Seki's name being called to fight against a taller human. Despite a strong start, Seki was no match against her opponent's higher strength and speed.

"You did well out there. Considering," Saril said as Rathe gave her a sympathetic look.

"Not well enough." She ground out before falling silent, maintaining her silence throughout the remaining fights.

"All right, that's the last fight of the night." Instructor Uthyn announced as the final two fighters made their way out of the ring. "I want you all to line up like you did last night: winners with Instructor Akiva and losers with Instructor Trevin."

Silently, Rathe and Seki moved to Trevin's line while Saril moved to Akiva's line. Once all the losers of the day had lined up, the red-headed instructor began leading them outside while the Twi'lek instructor started handing out rations to the winners.