Chapter 10
I didn't go to hard on myself and was only slightly sore when I awoke the next morning. Walking towards the central chamber I saw that our new recruits weren't in their rooms. I silently hoped that the training room wouldn't be to crowded to use. As my body started to wake up and my senses heightened I noticed Master Donnavin had all the children outside. I saw the door was open when I reached the central chamber. Master Donnavin had them all running up the hill, shooting one with a light blast of lightning whenever they slackened or slowed. I wasn't sure what he was doing, physical conditioning hadn't started for me until last year; Master Donnavin told me when I first got here if I started when I was too young it would irreparably damage my body. I didn't particularly care though, I was just glad the training room was empty for me. I wanted to exercised that trick I had tried during the raid. Detonating a grenade in mid air. I had our reflex training machine shoot balls at me at a good speed and tried to hit them with lightning while they were in the air. It wasn't easy, sometimes I couldn't channel the lightning quick enough, sometimes I missed, and sometimes the bolt came out too big which wasted energy. Between all these things I could only hit the ball about half the time without the aid of the dark side.
All the children came in about an hour later, panting heavily and followed closely by Master Donnavin.
"You can sit if you'd like." He said simply, at this the children all collapsed on the floor and lied practically motionless. Master Donnavin lowered himself to a crouch in front of them. "Sit up straight and pay attention." He demanded, they all pulled themselves to an upright position. "I will now explain the force to you, as connected to it as you all are I'm sure you've felt it before. Some of you may have even consciously used it. The ability to use the force is like a hound, a loyal, dependable hound. He will always be by your side, helping you in everything you do, especially when you desperately need its aid, like when fighting. If you exercise this hound you can use it better and on command. This is what you all have felt, this is the force. Now as a sith, you will use the dark side. The dark side is like a giant, ferocious wolf. This wolf does not care about you, he will only help you if you make him, and as long as you do make him, he will try to consume you. You must constantly be on your guard around this beast, but if you can master him, you will wield strength much greater then the hound."
I had stopped my training to listen. I remember hearing this story myself a long time ago during my first months here. If I recall I was given this metaphor when I asked the difference between the force and the dark side. Only a couple of the children looked like they understood what Master Donnavin was saying, of course I didn't really understand until I started actually using it either. My thoughts were interrupted as one of the children spoke.
"Master Donnavin?" He began shakily.
"Yes?" He said with the faintest hint of aggression in his tone. The child swallowed before speaking.
"I-I-I'm hungry." He stuttered out in an apologetic tone. Master Donnavin offered a short nod before he replied.
"As is everyone else I'm sure, which brings us to our next lesson. I already explained to you through the sith code that peace is a lie; the reason for this is quite simple, almost everyone watches out for their own needs first, and sometimes their isn't enough of what's needed for everyone. To illustrate this point we are going to have an interactive lesson." The word interactive was said with that morbid humor that Master Donnavin sometimes spoke with, even I shuddered. "Five of you will be allowed to eat today. To decide which five will eat and which five will not, you will be partnered with another student whom you will spar with. You may choose your partner, and you may decide on rules before hand; but I will not enforce any rules except one. Once you have knocked another child to the ground, you may have your food." His eyes glanced over the children, already some of them were getting the hard, determined stare of a sith.
"Begin." He said simply, as soon as the word left his mouth the children erupted into a mob of unorganized violence. They fought like animals, they were bighting and pulling hair and gouging at eyes. As the fight captured my attention I felt a warm wind blowing from the center of the group as if it were a large heater. Two kids, the rodian was one of them, hesitated to fight, they seemed to be trying to set up rules with each other before they were both attacked from behind and quickly pushed to the ground. The rodian followed his attacker out of the chaos and ran up to Master Donnavin, who had just handed the two aggressors their ration bars.
"Did you see that?!" He whined out in an angry voice, arm pointing accusingly at the two boys who were nervously waiting for Master Donnavin's reaction.
"Yes." Master Donnavin replied in a completely apathetic tone, still watching the brawl.
"T-T-That's not fair!" He said louder, his tone demanding that something be done. Master Donnavin slowly brought his gaze to the child.
"No, it's not. Fighting rarely is, and people rarely are. This is a lesson you must learn, the galaxy is not fair." He replied in a calm, instructional tone. The child didn't seem to like this answer, he had tears in his eyes as he squealed out.
"WELL IT SHOULD BE!" Master Donnavin raised an eyebrow and stared a moment before replying. He seemed intrigued by this boy.
"If you really think that then try to make it fair. Is that what you want, to make the galaxy fair?" The rodian stuttered a moment before nodding. Master Donnavin smiled,
"That's a wonderful goal, but you're not nearly strong enough to do so, you best train hard." The boy swallowed hard and then spoke again.
"You'll let me try to make things fair?" Master Donnavin nodded. The rodian stood still a moment in thought, then without warning he charged the boy who had pushed him down earlier and tackled him to the floor. The boy was caught off guard and utterly failed to defend himself; the rodian punched him twice in the face then picked up his ration bar. The boy just lied their on the floor groaning as the rodian stood up and turned his attention to the other boy. This one was ready for him and didn't go down as easy, as they started fighting I stole a quick glance at Master Donnavin but as expected I couldn't see any expression on his face. Still, the fact that he wasn't doing anything to stop this spectacle was interesting. It seemed he was going to let his new students do as they pleased with each other. I shouldn't be surprised, that's how he did it with the rest of us.
After the brawl Master Donnavin took the children into the training room and told me to train somewhere else, that was fine with me, I had worked my body enough for the day. I went back to my room to fetch a tome I had been reading by Darth Rivan, it had instructions and advice for advanced lightning attacks. As I passed through the main chamber heading for the basement I saw several dummies had been set up in the main room, one for each child. The children all stood at attention in front of them listening to Master Donnavin explain how to channel the dark side into raw, physical power. Master Donnavin didn't acknowledge me as I walked through but some of the children stole a glance at me when I opened the latch and descended the stairs. I ignited the torch that was hanging on the wall with a quick zap of lightening and sat down to read, I liked reading down here, mostly just because of the isolation. Occasionally when I'm thinking deeply or, much more rarely, not at all, I hear incoherent whispers in my ear; but Master Donnavin told me not to worry about it. On the edge of my hearing I could faintly hear the kids smacking their dummies upstairs but I didn't dwell on the noise, I had my own training to focus on.
I spent the rest of the day reading and meditating, I emerged from the trap door and took a brief look around. It seemed they had changed to a different exercise, each of them had been trying to levitate a small, rubber ball. I only saw a couple of them doing it for more than a few seconds. As I walked through the chamber one of the students, a skinny boy with a small, shaved head tried one more time without even managing to slow the balls fall. He let out a high-pitched whine that made me glance at him, our eyes met and he spoke.
"What am I doing wrong?" Being that I didn't know or particularly care I didn't answer, as I kept walking he yelled after me. "HEY!" This made me think briefly about punishing the child but my thoughts were interrupted by Master Donnavins voice.
"Marcus, come here for a moment." He said calmly, of course I obeyed, I noticed him beckon the other child over as I approached. He stood silently for a moment with both of us facing him, all the children had paused their exercise to watch us. "Marcus, kill this child." He said simply, I immediately began suffocating the child with a force grip, lifting him slightly off the floor to give a better view to the other children. I didn't bother protesting or hesitating, Master Donnavin knew I desperately didn't want to do this, and likewise he knew that I would regardless if he demanded it. As I choked the boy Master Donnavin began speaking loudly to the other children.
"I feel that I must note of this, your fellow students do not care about you and you are not entitled to their help. You merely share space a building with them. As you can see, they will kill you without a thought if given a reason. Do not bother them or interfere with their training, they will do the same for you. That, is all they owe you." With that Master Donnavin released my grip on the boy, and nodded for me to leave. I was greatly relieved that he didn't make me go through with it; I was even more relieved that I was under no obligation to help these children, as Master Donnavin said, I merely had to share a building with them.
I don't know if I already mentioned this but I revised all my earlier chapters, that's part of the reason this post took so long. I think I made them a lot better but as always I'd love feedback. Thanks for reading, nice to know my work is half decent.