That night when Zar fell asleep, he didn't wake up for a very long time, and when he did wake up he felt very groggy.

"Oh… by the force… what happened last night?"

Zar got up, surprisingly there didn't appear to be anyone on the ship but himself.

"Kita? Cera? Gan? Anybody?"

Zar looked outside. The ship had landed on some strange planet he had never seen before. There was nothing but wasteland as far as he could see.

"Good morning Zar."

Zar ignited his lightsaber and spun around.

"Oh… Master, it's only you. Where is everybody?"

"On another planet entirely."

"What?"

"One of the holocrons my late master left behind for us contained a star map, it revealed several planets that aren't on any of the charts. So it's probably safe to assume that the empire doesn't know about them. Kita and the others are on one of these planets making a new home for us. We are on another planet for your training."

"Training for what?"

"Your trials."

Zar's heart skipped a beat.

"You… you… you think I'm ready to take the Jedi Trials?"

"No not yet… but that's why we're here Zar. To prepare you for the trials."

"What about Cera and Gan? Are they not ready?"

"Kita maybe a Jedi Knight, but she can't take care of Kamilla and my son, and make a new home for us all by herself. And your training has taken priority."

"Priority? What do you…"

Zar already knew the answer to his question before he finished it. He looked at his left hand, the organic one, and remembered what had happened the other day.

"Kita is afraid for you Zar. She's afraid that you have begun down the same dark path as Darth Vader."

Zar was about to deny it, but Chad had said that Kita herself feared for it.

"The Jedi Trials will put your skill, flesh, courage, and spirit to the test Zar, and through my tutelage you will learn what Darth Vader never learned, but I warn you, it will take dedication and time… Are you ready to begin?"

"Let's get started."

Chad took Zar outside to a small cave. There was a small room on the inside that he had prepared for their training.

"For the last thirteen years Zar we have been living in exile, and I taught you and the others the basic skills you needed to survive. Training for the Jedi Trials is a lot more difficult than that. From now on whenever you're not eating or sleeping you will be training with me. This training will be your whole life, until I tell you otherwise there is nothing outside of it. Do you understand that?"

Normally Zar would have answered the question right away. But given the circumstances he wondered if this was a trick question.

"Yes, master."

"The first trial a Jedi must pass is the Trial of Skill."

Chad drew his lightsaber and activated it.

"Remember Zar that a lightsaber is just a tool that Jedi uses, and a tool is only as good as the Jedi who wields it. In the hands of a true Jedi Master anything can be an effective weapon. Now draw and attack."

"Are… you sure master?"

"I said attack."

Zar drew his lightsaber and charged, with one single strike his master disarmed him.

"As you can see my young Padawan, we've got a long way to go."

Zar spent the next couple weeks exactly the way his master said he would. Every moment he didn't spend eating or sleeping he spent training. Zar spared with training droids and performed various exercises, whenever he was finished with them his master either said; do is again or do it better. Some of the holocrons that Chad's master had left behind contained information about the lightsaber combat forms, which Zar studied to help mend his fractured variant of Juyo.

"You seek to be as skilled as Master Windu Zar, but you must know that the reason he was such a skilled master of Form VII was because he had mastered control. Control of his feelings, control of his passion, control of his anger, control of his fear. If you are to master Juyo then you must learn control."

"But aren't you a celebrated practitioner of Form V master? Is that not why the rest of the Jedi Order nicknamed you 'The Dragon'? What do you know of Juyo?"

"I trust you remember Jedi Master Cin Drallig?"

"Of course."

"Cin Drallig was a master of almost all forms of lightsaber combat. He understood that predictability is a weakness your enemies will not go unpunished, so by mastering many forms of combat, you become unpredictable and can gain an advantage over your adversary."

"But that didn't save him when he fought Vader."

"Cin Drallig was good, but as Master Qui-Gon Jinn once said, there is always a bigger fish."

"What?"

"It means no matter how hard you train, there is someone better than you. Of course when he said it he was referring to an actual fish."

"How would you know that?"

"Master Kenobi told me."

As time progressed Chad could see that Zar didn't know what he meant when he told Zar there was to be nothing outside his training. One day he violently beat Zar to the ground when they were sparing.

"Your thoughts betray you Zar. You attention is focused elsewhere, on her."

Zar was on the verge of tears.

"Master, I've known Kita since we were five years old. We've never been apart. Why did you separate us? I didn't even get a chance to say goodbye."

"Kita isn't here, you are to focus your attention on the here and now."

"That doesn't answer my question."

"I've separated you so you can learn what Vader never learned."

"And what is that?"

"To let go of everything you fear to lose. Kita above all other things."

"You hypocrite!"

Zar charged at his master and attempted to slash him with his lightsaber. But Chad blocked all of his blows and knocked Zar back down again.

"I thought I told you, never attack in anger. I'm not condoning what you feel Zar, I'm just saying that nothing is forever. We lose the ones we love, that is something you can't change."

"You've seen how I fought to save her. I just need to make sure that her death doesn't happen."

"Not let it happen? Anything can happen. She could be taken from you at any time, and you wouldn't get the chance to say goodbye. That is how I live, I protect my family unafraid of the thought of losing them, but always prepared to accept it should I fail, otherwise your attachment will turn to greed, and your greed will take control, just as it did to Anakin Skywalker. You've almost lost Kita twice already, and I can see you weren't ready to lose her. And what would Kita think I've you ended up like Vader."

Zar couldn't find the right words to express what he was feeling.

"Now… for Kita's sake, you will learn more than just the skills, courage, and discipline necessary to be a full Jedi Knight, you will train yourself to let go. You seemed to have learned very little from losing your arm to Vader, so this separation from Kita will be your Trial of the Flesh."

(To be continued)

Can Zar learn what Anakin Skywalker never learned?

To let go of everything he fears to lose?

Does he have what it takes to pass the trials and overcome the darkness?

Stay tuned