Chapter 4

The rest of my sleep was content and dreamless, I awoke with a start as there was a pound on the archway of my room. I jolted awake to see the scarred man standing there, his gaze was that of mild annoyance. I just stared at him not bothering trying to hide my fear.

"Its dawn, get dressed, eat something and come to the central chamber. Quickly." He said simply. I jumped out of the bed and noticed a robe had been set out on my counter.

"Yes Master..." I trailed off realizing I didn't know his name, although I doubt that is what caused his eyes to light up in shock, and a hint of fear I think. He pointed a hand at me viciously.

"Donavin is master here, not me!" His hand moved to the large knife on his belt and my eyes widened in fear.

"I'm sorry!" I yelped out but I don't think he even heard me. Before pulling out his knife he seemed to think for a moment. I practically gasped in relief when he let go of the hilt.

"It's fine, just don't let it happen again or we'll both be in trouble" He said with a small smirk.

"What should I address you as?"

"Lynn is fine, we're actually equals in terms of rank." Me, an equal with him? I began laughing, he joined in and we both started laughing harder. It wasn't that funny. I don't know why I was laughing like this and I sure as hell didn't know why he was laughing with me. After a couple minutes the laughter died down and the serious expression returned to his face.

"You should hurry." he said before leaving the room. I quickly followed his instructions, I had worn my trench coat for so long it felt like a second skin. Taking it off felt wierd but I didn't waste time dwelling on this. I had a good idea what would happen if I kept Master Donavin waiting. I ran into the central chamber to find Lynn and Madarra sitting cross-legged opposite to Master Donavin who was doing the same. I reduced my pace to a fast walk and took a seat in the same manner.

"Because there is a novice among us training will be different today: Lynn, I think your capable of training yourself." his tone had a hint of questioning to it so he responded.

"Yes master, thank you master." as he said this he bowed his head low before standing. Oddly he wasn't going into the training room like I assumed he would but instead gripped a small handle on the floor I hadn't noticed until now. Before it opened I saw what appeared to be a blue spark fly from it, then he lifted the latch up and descended a flight of stairs. I stayed at attention and watched all this out of the corner of my eye. Master Donavin spoke again.

"Madarra, you can work on personal projects or train yourself, I don't care which." He said with a voice that seemed genuinely apathetic.

"Yes master" she replied with the faintest hint of frustrated embarrassment in her voice. He didn't acknowledge this, he simply turned to me.

"Marcus, come with me." He said standing.

"Yes master." I said following the pattern and rising along with him. He led to the large stone doors that I assumed led to the surface, as he pulled them they groaned against the floor and the inner chamber was flooded with a dull light. As we stepped outside I noticed a table full of tools, some large machine and three big cages containing some raging animals. To be accurate two of the animals were raging and the third while being just as threatening looking, more so even do to the unnaturally large claws, was cowering from Donnavin as we walked by.

We began walking across the desolate landscape, after about a mile we stopped. We were walking uphill and the robes that had been set out for me while fitting perfectly weighed almost twice as much as my old coat, I was greatly relieved when we reached our destination. Donnavin gave a mocking laugh at my heavy breathing.

"Sit if you have to." I thought about standing just to be defiant but I decided against it when I remembered I would have to walk back to the tomb. My legs screamed relief when I collapsed to my knees. He waited for my breathing to quiet before speaking.

"Tell me boy, do you know the sith code?"

"Yes." I replied, Madarra had told me it earlier when explaining what the sith were. Seeming not to care about my response he began reciting it.

"Peace is a lie, there is only passion.

Through passion, I gain strength.

Through strength, I gain power.

Through power, I gain victory.

Through victory, my chains are broken.

The Force shall free me." He ended filled with enthusiasm. His eyes were lit up with a great passion as he finished speaking, then he snapped back and looked at me.

"Now tell me my new pupil, do you understand the code?" he said with the faintest amount of humor. Not wanting to appear stupid or trap myself I answered cautiously.

"I think so."

"Regardless we will go over it in detail. The first line tells us that we are inherently dominating and violent; this is to be embraced, not suppressed. To be peacefull it to deny who we are. Passion is whatever drives us; the dark side allows us to channel our passion into strength. The strength granted us by the dark side allows us to conquer our enemies and seize control over others, or in the case of a large sith order, it allows one to rise through the ranks. This is the meaning of gaining power through strength. Now when a sith wants power just for power's sake this is where they end. Also often is that a sith has a very large goal that they never achieve, for example a thousand sith soldiers might all might have the desire to destroy the jedi order. None of them actually achieve this, but throughout there battles they do kill great many jedi and therefore feel the satisfaction of completing there goal, achieving victory. However they stop at that step-" he paused to look me in the eye, I assumed this next part was very important. "-do not think these people are worse than those who go all the way, in fact a sith order could not function unless the majority of people had goals of these sorts. Those who do go farther are the ones whose passion burns with a specific, achievable goal; when they achieve victory, complete their goal, the hold that it had over them is broken, giving them closure and freedom from the task that tormented them. Understand?" It was a lot to take in but I think I grasped what he was saying.

"Yes master." I replied again.

"Good, think about these words, your goal, and were you fit in to this. For the remainderof your training today you will meditate on the force and on the dark side. Follow me." We began walking once again in complete silence, I knew I had to think about something other then my fatigue or I wouldn't make it back. I thought of my dream and it troubled me; the way I screamed at those figures who I've always held so much love for. Maybe that love was fake, I'm certainly having a hard time feeling it now. I was so deep in thought I almost bumped straight into Master Donavins back as he stopped.

"Boy, my power over the force gives me power over the mind, as such I can look into yours very easily. Would you like me to explain why you felt the way you did?" I stayed silent for a moment, taken aback by the thought this man could look into my mind.

"I suppose so..." I said quietly when the silence got to long.

"You see, the dark side is not a benevolent force, it will corrupt you if you let it. I don't know the deepest layers of your thought but I think it very unlikely that your really hate your mother and father. The dark side is very powerful in this place and as such it is probably influencing your vulnerable mind." he paused. "We walk a very fine line boy, as long as you use it the dark side will always try to control you; but to be a true sith, you must control it."

"How?" I said curious.

"You just need to push the thoughts from your mind. You need hatred and anger to use the dark side; but rather than focusing them towards your parents focus on something worth hating."

"Such as?" I asked not thinking of anything in particular I hated, although I was filled with it.

"The most obvious thing to hate is your enemy, in this case the empire; but you can channel it to anything you want." I was beginning to understand, although I still couldn't think of anything in particular to hate. I closed my eyes, concentrated hard and tried to hate the empire. I suppose if they ran things better the slums where I grew up might not have been as bad. Maybe there would be less crime and the butcher shop never would have got robbed, then I wouldn't have had to strangle that man and make Mary afraid of me. Maybe if they ran things better the rebellion wouldn't cause so much trouble, there wouldn't be a threat of war, and I wouldn't have such a need to be powerful. I wouldn't have had to leave Mary if not for their incompetence! Hell maybe I could have been put in an orphanage somewhere and never had to grow up in that shit hole in the first place! Come to think of it, there were plenty of reasons to hate the empire. I pushed this hatred down deep inside of me and felt a cold chill wash over me; this one came from me though, not Master Donnavin. I shuddered out a breath and looked up at Master Donavin. He wore a satisfied smile.

Then without another word we continued walking back to the tomb. As we entered through the front door he stopped in front of the latch to the basement.

"The bodies of many powerful sith are down there, the dark side is strong in the air, that is where you will meditate. I want you to try to channel the dark side, learn to use the power of this place." He reached to open it and then, as if an afterthought he turned back to me. "Oh, and while your down there if you hear anyone speaking to you, leave immediately." he then proceeded to open the latch and call down assertively.

"Lynn! I wish for the novice to use this room, go train someplace else." I walked closer until I stood opposite to the descending stairs, I was surprised when I saw Lynn as he ascended. Low on his right arm there was a fresh cut.

"Lynn, what the hell happened?" I said looking at it, curious. I'm sure he wasn't cut when I saw him this morning. Lynn's stopped in his track and his eyes lit up as if to threaten me, or warn me. I heard Donavin emit a low, disapproving growl but I foolishly ignored it and turned to him. Speaking hot-headedly.

"Seriously, in the time it took me to walk from my room to the central chamber what could he have possibly do-" he cut me off in a quiet, dominating voice.

"Lift your arm." he said and I felt my blood chill, I considered groveling but I didn't think that would work, I also considered refusing but I had a strong hunch it would only be worse if I did. So, using all of my willpower, I lifted my arm and pulled back my sleeve, closing my eyes tightly. I heard the slice before I felt it, once again the pain flooded me and I bit down trying not to cry out. He leaned down and spoke in my ear.

"You, do not ever get to question the actions I deem necessary as master of this acadamy, understand?" His voice was forceful and had only a slight edge of anger in it. When I nodded a felt a puncture and opened my eyes to see he had given me some kind of stim.

"That will keep you from bleeding out, go do as I told you." he said nodding towards the latch. Once again all I could manage was a weak nod before walking down into what felt like an abyss. As I passed Lynn, who had continued walking, he shot me a look as if to call me an idiot. As he reached the top of the stairs I heard Master speak again.

"You may heal your arm now Lynn." he said without emotion.

"Yes Master, thank you Master." I heard the soft glow as I descended. The pain in my stomach that I had all but forgot about doubled as I walked down into the dark room, before the latch was closed I think I saw a ring to hold torches but there was nothing in it; as the door closed what little light was in this place left. I sat down cross legged and waited for my eyes to adjust, but they didn't. This was perfect darkness. It felt like I was the only thing that existed it in a endless sea of black.

Not sure what else to do I put my undivided attention on the pain in my stomach, as I focused I first noticed it hurt more but also that I could vaguely feel something indescribable. I tried to grasp this feeling but couldn't, like a memory you can't quite remember. I knew it was there but trying to force it was fruitless. Not knowing what else to try I focused harder on the pain I felt, then harder, then harder still over a long course of time. Letting myself get used to the harsher pain and then increasing it again. I did this until I was legitimately worried more pain would kill me. Once I had the pain as great as I could make it I focused once again on the vauge feeling. I had felt it getting stronger in proportion to my pain but trying to identify it took all my focus, so I had waited until I got the pain as great as I could bare. This time when I focused I felt a chill come over me, in an odd way it felt good; the cold, this new feeling, even the pain.

When I focused again it was if a new set of eyes opened, I could feel the others around me, upstairs Madarra was working on some droid, Master Donavin sitting in the library, three animals outside, one of them dreaming he was running through a jungle. I'm not sure how I could tell what the animal was dreaming. I remembered Donavin said he could look into my mind and thought that maybe that's what I was doing. Suddenly an idea came to me, I honed in on where Lynn was, as I assumed he was in the training room, running laps at a dead sprint. Much easier than the first time I heard his mental screaming. Concentrating I found the first layer of his mind, he was speaking to himself it seemed, pushing a little harder I heard what he was saying.

"DONT STOP RUNNING! YOUR STILL WEAK! YOUR STILL WEAK!" It seemed like he was trying to drown some other thought out so I tried to look deeper in his mind. All there was on the next level was pain, he was unbelievably sore and tired, he was desperately wanting to stop. It was almost amusing that this was how he trained but I decided to stop prying into his or anyone elses mind. I pulled back and immediately found that I had a splitting head ache. With this taking my attention I let some of the pain in the air slip away from me. I was suddenly flooded with light and turned to see Master Donavin there smiling.

"Don't get to excited its much harder to do when not being aided by the power of this place." he said but his tone was proud. "Try to channel the dark side again, but this time let it out." It took me a minute to get the pain flowing again, I didn't go as far as I did last time, I don't think I could survive it again so soon. As soon as I felt the chill again I channeled it into my hand, not quite sure how I was doing it. I let out a roar and punched the stone wall, leaving a small crater. I never knew exerting force felt so good, I felt giddy.

"Impressive, I think you will proggress very quickly here." He said simply and matter of factly.