Chapter 7: Two Months Later

Training to be a Sith was not what Keera expected.

She had thought it would be like military training, expected that. The Sith were the rulers of the Empire after all, answerable only to the Emperor and the Dark Council. The Moffs and overseers obeyed them and if they did not they answer for it, so she had expected something…more. She expected them to prepare their future leaders better. She had thought there would be a more regimental training for those that were expected to wield so much power.

Strangely that was not the case at all.

This training was nothing like the military.

Her father had told her enough stories about his training to know what to expect if it was. The army did not simply empower you, it molded you, changed you to fit what it needed. They looked to maximize your strength and remove or minimize your weaknesses, and when you emerged, you would be fit to serve where ever your commanders saw fit. You came out ready to fight and or die protecting the man or woman next to you.

Sith training was nothing like that.

It was…to put it simply…confusing as it was ruthless.

There was no real organized training plan on Fury 9, no classes in the traditional sense. Aside from a daily run on the course, a Sith hopeful was granted a surprising amount of freedom. You set your own schedule, and could deviate as you saw fit. You could train as hard or as easily as you desired. The only limit to their study was the one they placed on themselves. Ambition was not only prized, it was encouraged. Laziness was not tolerated however. If you showed no improvement, or desire to improve, you could be either exiled from the academy, or used in a demonstration by one of the masters, demonstrations that usually ended with fatal results for the slothful hopeful. As for the overseers themselves, they held one meeting a day. One hour with Overseer Phylon and one with Overseer Adaz. It was during these meetings, and only during them, when the hopefuls could get true Force training from the masters. Phylon taught force skills, how to lift, push and pull things with the Force. Adaz taught lightsaber training, its forms and tactics, and these meetings were open to all. It was the only time that their teachers joined them in the main training area, the only true place to get to interact with them. If a student wished any one on one time with their teachers, it was possible, but only if you impressed one of the overseers enough to think you were worth their time.

Keera frowned.

So far she had had little luck garnering any attention from the masters. She was just one of many lowly Hopefuls. She had had no luck rediscovering the power she had used the night her family had died. As a result her training had faltered. Phylon despised her…just as he despised all of rest; he saw her being beneath him, dirt beneath his nails. Adaz remained aloof and indifferent. She found no help there. She supposed that could have turned to her squad leader for help, but she felt that might be a bad idea.

Considering how he had looked at her on that first day, and continued to look at her as time went on, she thought it a smart idea not to approach him.

That hungry look in his eyes, it made he uncomfortable and not in a good way, just thinking about it now made her shiver.

She suspected that if she did go to him for help, he would ask something of her, something that she was not prepared to give, at least, not yet…

Unacceptable, she would not do it.

She was not ready to surrender that part of herself yet.

So she kept to herself, content to try to make her way here on her own.

It was the best and likely safest, possible choice.

The first week had seen their numbers dwindle quickly. The ten training groups were soon reduced to six, with the last two having two extra students as the numbers no longer allowed for another group. Some of these died on the course, others disappeared, perhaps they had fled, tried to find a way off planet.

"Any Hopeful is welcome to leave at any time," Phylon had chortled when asked about desertion, "Of course, if you do, you need to spend your nights outside, this academy is for Hopefuls."

The rotund alien grinned savagely.

"I'm sure the cold night air will be just delightful."

Keera, not wishing to test that herself, remained silent. If anyone was foolish enough to try and desert, that was their business.

She had her own goals, and they did not involve freezing to death.

The first month had passed quickly enough. When she wasn't in the training rooms she was in the academy library reading. She had hoped to find training manuals among the many books and papers stored here, there were none. What she did find was histories, takes told by great lords of the Empire, their accomplishments and desires. Useless in the grand scheme of things, perhaps, but at the same time provided some insight, words of wisdom from those that had brought the Empire to this part, who carried out their glorious Emperor's will.

Keera read them every night, seeking to absorb even the smallest detail on those pages. It might not have been the same as learning from one of the overseers, but it was learning.

She would stay there for hours, until the lights in the academy begin to dim.

There was no night inside the mountain, no morning either, but it came regardless.

With a weary sigh, she returned to her quarters. Returned and tried to find her rest.

She had no worry of disturbing a roommate. The students all had private rooms, but that was more about safety than comfort.

Having so many students of the dark side under the same roof, was risky business. There were so many powerful emotions raging here, anger and hate chief among them. Rivalries were the norm, so having one's own room with a strong lockable door cut down on…"accidental" deaths among the student population.

It was against the rules to kill a fellow student, or rather to get caught killing a fellow student. Deaths were investigated, but without a witness the masters would usually let such death's pass.

Their duty was to the living not the dead.

You died, you were of no use. You were forgotten, part of the past.

The Empire chose to focus on the now.

At night she would return to her room and lock the door behind her. She would slip out of her training clothes and collapse on the bed. Yet, she did not sleep, she did not want to, in truth she had come to fear it.

Sleep brought no rest, only nightmares.

She fought against, struggling to stay awake, but in the end, that battle always ended in defeat. When she closed her eyes, nightmares were there to greet her. Sometimes she dreamed of being trapped in the farm with her sisters and mother trying to find a way out while everything burned around her. Other times she dreamed that it was she that was the enforcer; that she had been sent to slay her family, that she was the one who plunged a red lightsaber through her father's chest.

That dream was the worst. She could smell the smoke, feel the heat from the fire behind her, when father was impaled she could smell the stench of burning cloth and meat.

She would find herself staring into his eyes, unable to look away. Eyes that had always looked upon her with love now looked with shock and disbelief.

"Blossom," he would murmur, "Why?"

In the dream she would turn off the lightsaber and he would fall…and fall… and fall.

She would wake then, sitting up in bed, barely stifling a scream, her heart pounding in her ears, bile rising in her throat.

She awoke feeling lost, completely and utterly lost.

What am I doing here? She thought to herself.

What was I thinking?

The icy fingers of fear wrapped around her heart. Panic threatened to overwhelm her.

It took all her self-control to remain where she was, to stay calm, at least on the outside.

Inside her mind, a storm was raging, a storm that would likely never end.

Unable to sleep, unable to escape, she would climb out of bed and kneel on the hard cold floor. She slowed her breathing, and focused on meditation. It was not as restful as sleep, but at least it seemed to keep her going.

She needed that right now.

The morning would bring another day of harsh treatment, and dangerous lessons.

I need to do something she thought. She needed to advance, so far no one had noticed her weakness, her inability to find what had brought her here in the first place, when they did…

…she did not like to think about what would happen then.

I need to do something soon.

IOI

Mornings found her in the mess hall, carrying her tray of food to one of the empty tables. Any exhaustion she might have felt held at bay by her mediations from the night before, that and her will.

She refused to show any weakness.

No one could know how conflicted she was.

She did not fraternize with her fellow hopefuls. She kept her distance. Given their training it was safer not to let someone get too close.

The other hopefuls were many things, but what they would never be was friends.

The students here were not…the most stable of beings. In fact she feared that some were psychotic. She had seen ample enough evidence for that during the group training sessions. For now, she simply sat, sat and listened, during both the training sessions, and during meals. She listened to the plots and tales of the trysts that happened when the lights went out at night, those and promises of death and blood. Alliances among the students formed and fell apart just as quickly. Most of these alliances were meant to protect from the squad leaders or other hopefuls, and all had the potential to end in violence.

The mere realization was enough to make Keera shake her head.

All the more reason to go it alone, she thought.

Far better to be on my own than be dragged down when some idiot ally's plot gets discovered.

She knew how many of the other students saw her; they thought her arrogant, that she felt that she was better than them. Some might have even been plotting to see her removed, viewing her distance as a slight.

I need to be careful, she realized.

Death is never far away in a place like this.

She did not seek to walk eagerly to its embrace.

IOI

"Lock your wrists, Hopeful," Adaz snarled, "Take a blow like that, and you will not need to worry about your opponent, your own blade will end up going through your chest.

Keera nodded and dropped into the ready position, her training saber humming on its lowest possible setting. The training blades used by the Sith Academy where basically glorified stun sticks. Their weight and heft meant to simulate what it would feel like to be holding an actual lightsaber. A strike to a limb on one of the lower settings made said limb go numb for half an hour at least.

At maximum, the blades could kill, the jolt powerful enough to stop a person's heart, that or completely overload their nervous system.

Keera never raised her sword's setting that high, there was already enough ways to die here. She did not need her sword to another.

The Overseer grasped her arm and helped her find the proper grip. Once she was ready, he stepped back and watched her, her training saber swished back and forth as she performed the sequence he had just taught them.

Adaz did not leave until he was satisfied she had corrected her mistake. When he was, he nodded, and moved on down the line, correcting the next student who needed his guidance.

Unlike his fellow overseer, Adaz did not shirk his responsibility to his students. As a master of blade combat he took it as point of pride that the students left here able to defend themselves with a lightsaber.

"If you're going to die for the Empire, you at least should die well," he told them, "If it is your destiny to fall in battle, you will damn well know enough to take at least a few Jedi with you."

Keera worked her way through the new sequence of moves and did not stop until she felt completely comfortable with them. When she was confident that she could repeat them, from muscle memory alone, she began to work in the moves she had learned in previous lessons, trying to incorporate them into her own fighting style.

Each sequence gives me more options with a blade, she thought to herself, and each new set of options makes me better.

Or so Overseer Adaz said.

She fell back then, spinning her blade defensively, imagining that she was under fire from enemy blasters.

In combat, such moves would shield her against such an attack. Adaz called it Form III, or Soresu, sometimes called the defender's style.

He thought it would serve her best in her training.

She remembered standing in the training room early in her first month here, Adaz walked around her, watching as she performed the basic faints, parries, and strikes of lightsaber combat. She was a fast learner, and quickly grasped the basics.

Now that he had seen what she could do, he offered her his recommendations if any.

He did that with each student, and when they finished, he informed them what style he thought would serve them best in their training. They could ignore him if they chose, but few did.

Adaz was not the type of Sith that you ignored.

"You don't have the size to bully someone on the battlefield, girl," he had told Keera, "Soresu for you, I think. Once you have mastered it, I would suggest studying Shien and Makashi."

The blade master nodded grimly.

"Yes, he said, "I think those three will serve you best."

She had nodded, but still felt a bit confused.

"Soresu is not the most aggressive of forms, overseer," she had said, "I don't see myself besting many enemies with it."

From the look on his face, she thought he was about to yell at her, for daring to question his suggestion, but after a moment, his expression turned thoughtful.

Perhaps he was surprised that she recognized Form III for what it was. Of course, few students spent as much time in the library than her.

One of the first papers she had read there was about lightsaber combat, and its various forms.

Her knowledge impressed him, she felt; at least, she thought it did.

"That is true," he agreed, "But as I said, you do not have the size or the strength to meet an enemy with brute force. Soresu will allow you to weave an almost perfect defense. Your enemy will attack, but find himself blocked by a wall of ruby light."

The blade master smirked.

"Most Jedi and their Republic lap dogs are unprepared for a long fight. They seek to end a battle with a single stroke or a quick blaster shot. You deny them that; you make them play your game. They will start to get frustrated. For a Jedi, that means his grip on the light may flicker, and then…"

Adaz shivered in anticipation.

"In that moment, they are yours, and then all that is left is for you to close in…and make the kill."

Keera considered that, what it meant, at the time she had not fully grasped what he was telling her, now almost two months later, she finally did...

The thought made her smile.

The thought of controlling the battlefield in such a way excited her.

Perhaps her journey was not so pointless after all.

Now as she practiced the newest sequence, working it in with the rest of her move, she felt a sense of surety wash over her.

Usually Adaz had to stay longer with her, helping her get her sequences just right.

Today, he was keeping his distance, watching her, watching her succeed.

It gave her a sense of purpose, she did not wish to mess up. She wanted to show him that he had not wasted his time with her.

She wanted to prove that she was worthy, and she did not care who knew it.

In that moment she let everything go, lost herself in a moment of pure moving mediation, nothing existed but her and the blade; it was part of her arm, part of her. Everything else went away, her fear, her doubt, her exhaustion, it all melted away with the twirling, humming sword, and when it did, something new rushed in to take its place.

Something powerful.

Ten weeks of fear and frustration were burned away in that moment. The insecurities of a farm girl from Oridanna faded, replaced by a new emotion, pure black, inescapable rage, that and white hot hate.

Hate for Darth Feer.

Hate for Ro and his father.

Hate for the people of Oridanna that did nothing but bow down to the man who murdered her family.

Hate for the other Hopefuls, the scum that whispered and plotted behind her back.

Hate for Adaz and Phylon, who did nothing to aid her, to help her join the ranks of the Sith.

And then in that one singular moment, that moment of perfect dark clarity, she found what she was looking for.

Keera Lylos gasped in surprise.

In that moment she finally felt the dark side of the Force for the first time. She did not simply brush against it as she had in the past. No…this was sharper, clearer.

She felt the dark side's call, and this time she did not back away. She let it in, and in that moment, everything changed.

It was…glorious.

Her senses spread out for the first time, it was as if she had been born blind and deaf, and finally had found a way to hear and see. When she opened her eyes, she saw things with crystal clarity. She could feel the dark emotions of her fellow Hopefuls churning around her. She could sense the gentle hum of the rock beneath her, so many had studied the dark side here, it had left its mark, and now, she was a part of it.

It was magnificent.

She brought her blade down and around, imagining the head of Darth Feer being bent before her. The blade came down hard, so hard that it sparked when it touched the stone floor.

Finally, out of breath, but feeling exalted, she paused. She glanced around her; most of her fellow students were watching her.

Had they felt the change? Did they sense that she had finally made the connection she sought?

Did it really matter?

Did they matter anymore?

After two months lost in darkness, her eyes had finally adjusted, she had finally adjusted.

She could finally see.

It was the sweetest relief.

She saw Overseer Adaz staring at her, his had stroking his chin thoughtfully, and that was not all.

She glanced up noticing for the first time the walkways that crisscrossed above the training area. Overseer Phylon was there, he gave her a curious look.

She grinned fiercely at him.

I can sense you now, you arrogant bloat, she thought.

Try saying I'm worthless now.

Phylon said nothing; he nodded, turned, and walked away.

That night, over dinner, she received a letter from him.

He was offering her a chance to train with him, to explore the mysteries of the Force.

She grinned.

Finally, she thought.

Now…it begins.