Since her first training session with Master Hamner, Vestara had three more over the course of that week, and while Hamner told her that she was steadily improving in terms of both martial prowess and behavior with each successive session, Vestara still found herself feeling as if she wasn't living up to her new Master's expectations.
Hamner was a stern teacher, though significantly less stern than any of the Masters whom Vestara previously had, like her father or Lady Rhea. But what made training under Hamner's tutelage more difficult than the times she trained back on Kesh as a Sith apprentice was that, now, Vestara was being trained to better restrain her feelings rather than utilizing them to their fullest potential against hypothetical enemies. And that was still something that, for all of Hamner commenting on Vestara's "improvement" in her behavior, she felt as if that improvement was like wading through a knee-deep pool of mud, making each step forward feel agonizingly torturous when it could be so damn easy to take the exact same steps in seconds rather than minutes.
Combine that with the fact that Hamner instructed Vestara to study up on the history of the New Jedi Order, starting from the time that Luke Skywalker established the first Jedi Academy on Yavin 4 to the ascension of Jacen Solo as Grand Master of the Order, and Vestara was feeling none too pleased; at least she was given three weeks to prepare for that history test that Hamner promised.
So as it was now, Vestara was studying quietly, but not peacefully, in the Jedi Temple's library, going through history Holocron after history Holocron, each of which chronicled several major events of the decades that Hamner asked her to study up on. And, as fascinating as most of the history was to her, deep down, Vestara felt incredibly frustrated; sure, she did have a lot of time left to brush up on all this history, but trying to memorize all these names, dates, locations, battles, etc., made her head hurt.
It wasn't as bad on Kesh, Vestara reflected, at least not in the studying area. From the time that she was old enough to speak and stand, her parents raised her to know the basics about the ways of the Lost Tribe of the Sith, which was what helped her to better assimilate the history and culture of her own people into her mind as she underwent the conditioning that the Lost Tribe put her through. Here, however, Vestara felt as if she was out of her element now; she had been brought into this entirely new culture and, as part of her training to be a Jedi, is now essentially forced to familiarize and memorize all of this stuff as she listened to the Holocrons via the earbuds that allowed her to listen to them without disrupting the quiet of the library.
She sat at that desk, listening to yet another Holocron of information - she had lost count at this point - and had just finished listening to the events it chronicled - those being of the first half or so of the Yuuzhan Vong War - before she felt a familiar presence approach her from behind.
Vestara stopped and turned in her seat to find Ben Skywalker standing there. "Hey," he said with an easy smile.
"Hey," she returned with a similarly easy yet slightly nervous smile of her own.
He nodded at the sea of Holocrons that Vestara had assembled on the desk behind her. "I see that you're studying hard, eh?"
Vestara shrugged. "Just part of my training," she replied nonchalantly. "I mean, if I'm gonna be a Jedi, I'm gonna have to know their history, right?"
"Right," Ben returned with another nod. "But I can't help but notice you've been here for an awfully long time."
Vestara raised an eyebrow. "How would you know that?"
"I saw you enter this library about three hours ago while I was passing by," Ben answered. "Did you ever leave since you first entered?"
Vestara shook her head. "No. Just been studying here."
"Well, good for you, I'll say. Ready for a break?"
Vestara opened her mouth, about to say no, when it struck her that she did need a break. "Sounds like a good idea. Just let me put these Holocrons back to their place-"
"Don't worry about that," Ben stated quickly with a slightly upraised hand. "The librarian and his assistants will take care of that."
"Really? Back on Kesh, students were punished for just leaving texts and Holocrons on their desks, or putting them back incorrectly."
"That's not how we do it here," Ben said evenly. "It's the job of the librarian and his assistants to put books and 'crons back to where they belong. The students can go and do as they please in between classes, like lunch, for instance. Care to join me?"
Vestara hesitated. "I'd love to." Then she stood up and allowed Ben to lead her out of the library and toward the Temple's lunch hall.
There, as Ben and Vestara chatted idly over lunch, the latter asked for the former, "So, I hope you don't mind me asking, but where's your mom been lately? I haven't seen her since she and you first brought me here."
Ben looked at Vestara with mild embarrassment. "She's off to the Maw to do some soul-searching."
Vestara was afraid of asking this, but... "Was it because of what happened between her and me while the both of you were bringing me here?"
Ben sighed. "Pretty much, as both my mom and cousin told me."
"Your cousin? Oh, right, Grand Master Solo, I forgot about that."
"Yeah, I get that a lot," Ben replied. "Whenever I bring up my cousin to other people, they tend to momentarily forget that I'm related to the Grand Master of the Order. And, you know, in a way, I'm kinda happy about that."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah. I mean, it's kinda refreshing to not have people identify you as just relatives to other people who've accomplished great things, where you can kinda be your own person, you know?"
This time, Vestara didn't hesitate to ask, and grinned as she asked, "Is it because everyone identifies you as the son of Luke Skywalker?"
"There ya go," Ben replied with a casually-pointing finger at Vestara. "Of course, you don't really know who Luke Skywalker was aside from what the 'crons tell you; you just know me for me, and I kind of appreciate that."
"Actually, I don't think I really know you all that well, Ben," Vestara said. "Why don't you tell me a little bit more about yourself?"
Ben smiled and gave a small laugh. "You know, Vestara, I wish I could honestly tell you something interesting about myself that wasn't related to the Jedi Order, because all this-" he gave a small wave to their general area "-is pretty much my life. I grew up and lived here on Denon pretty much my whole life, being taught the ways of the Jedi and all that, and I pretty much do everything I can to be the best Jedi I can; I train, I study, I meditate, just like Master Hamner's teaching you to do."
"So you never go out and have fun once in a while?" Vestara asked. "Even on Kesh, where I trained hard to be a Sith, even we had some downtimes where my friends and I can just have fun." Her mood soured slightly at the reminder of the losses of people like Ahri Raas and the others she cared for.
But whether Ben chose to ignore Vestara's slight drop in mood out of respect for giving her some emotional space, or if he just outright didn't notice it even through her more noticeable Force-presence, he didn't acknowledge the former Sith's mood. "Oh, I have some fun once in a while; we have games and stuff. And not just, like, sports games, I'm also talkin' 'bout comp sims, where you get to play as Jedi during the Clone Wars and stuff; hell, you can even play as clones." His eyes widened as if in realization. "Hey? Why don't I take you back to my place so I can show you? It might help you learn a little bit about the Jedi before my dad re-established them."
Vestara shrugged. "I guess it could be interesting." With that, she and Ben finished their lunch, and they went to return to Ben's quarters.
There, they played on co-op mode for a vidsim set in the Clone Wars, in which both Ben and Vestara played as Jango Fett clone troopers that mowed down Trade Federation battle droids with their heavy repeating assault rifles.
"You know, I gotta say, Ben," Vestara said, not taking her eyes away from the game before her, "I'm not getting much in the way of education from this, but this is pretty fun, I'll admit."
Ben chuckled. "Yeah, I figured that you'd like it."
But before they could go on any further in playing the game, Ben and Vestara both stopped as they felt not only a new series of Force-presences enter the Denon system, but also a case of great distress coming from those presences.
Ben and Vestara gave each other a shared worried look before Ben shut off the game. They then rushed out of his quarters and hurried down to the Temple's main living area, where a holographic imager was showing the arrival of several Mandalorian vessels heading toward Denon.
"They don't look like an invasion force," Ben stated aloud. "So what are Mandalorians doing here?"
Not long after the mysterious Mando ships eventually landed on Denon, there came a worldwide broadcasted announcement from the helmeted visage of the legendary Boba Fett himself: "Citizens of the Alliance of the Galaxy, we, the people of Mandalore, need your help; for this galaxy now faces a threat that should concern every single one of you."
