SERENO

Count Dooku's Palace

Ventress had her head bowed in a kneeling position in front of Count Dooku and Tol Skorr, behind her stood other acolytes in black robes behind her.

"You failed to turn the boy and we lost our indoctrination base, what do you have to say for this Ventress?" Count Dooku asked, looking out his window before turning around.

"Time was against my Master, the Bounty Hunter foolishly led the Jedi to us, forcing me to use the indoctrination mask against the boy." She said up to him.

Dooku glared down on her before Tol Skorr spoke "Mylord if I may, Lady Ventress attempts to turn the boy were more direct than my own but that may work to our advantage." Tol said in her defense.

"Explain?" Dooku asked.

"The Council will surely have caught on to our plan to turn the boy, we can use that fear to better serve our purposes." Tol Skorr said, smiling.

CORUSCANT JEDI TEMPLE

Medical Wing

Leo was being examined by one of the Jedi healers who was scanning him with a device for monitoring vitals. Leo was sporting his new long sleeved robe similar to Master Kenobi's but green in color with a black sash around his waist to match his pants. The Jedi healer looked up at him "Well Padawan Rock once again you astonish me with your lack of premature steps not to get yourself killed."

"Does that mean I can leave?" Leo asked her.

"Almost, just a few short medical questions we need to clear up, any shortness of breath?" She asked him.

"No." Leo answered as she took out a flashlight and beamed it into both his emerald eyes "Any shaking in the hands?"

Leo raised both his fingerless gloved hands "Not that I'm aware of."

"How are you sleeping?" She asked.

"Like a baby." Leo replied as she put the flashlight away "Alright Padawan, I'm clearing you of medical but the Masters will still want to speak with you."

Leo looked up at her "When?"

"When they deem it ready, now go." She said turning around walking back toward one of the counters.

The padawan got off the medical beg and exited the room and just as he walked out he noticed two jedi Sentinels standing guard at the doors. He tried not to pay them any mind but he could feel their gaze on him as he walked down the hallway when he turned he quickly rushed back to see the two sentinels leave their post as if they'd been put there specifically to watch him. Leo couldn't help but grip the corner of the wall tight watching them leave "What are you looking at?"

"GYAH!" Leo jumped spinning around to see Ahsoka smiling behind him "Nothing I just-" "Getting out of the medical wing again, tell me Leo who's been captured more you or me?" She asked him.

"Are we keeping score?" Leo asked her before the two of them began to walk together. She gave him a wink and smile to confirm it "Well I think we're about even." He said as they descended down a grand staircase.

They walked in silence for a few moments before Leo spoke up "Have you seen General Skywalker today?" He asked.

"Skyguy off on some mission with Senator Amidalla." Ahsoka told him "Again, you'd think they were married?" Leo said, making Ahsoka laugh.

Her laughter rose "Could you imagine if they had kids?" She asked him.

Leo smiled "Did the younglings we rescue get home safe?"

"Hmhmm all of them, including you." She said suddenly grabbing him by the neck and putting him into a headlock "Leo Rock, Captured, tortured and freed once more to fight for the Jedi and the Republic." She said rubbing her knuckles into his red hair.

"Quit it, quit it, quit it." Leo tried to break free but the torgurtan was too strong as they spun around before Leo stuck his leg out behind her leg. Ahsoka fell backward dragging Leo onto the floor with him, in another second Leo was on top of her before she flipped him bending his arm behind his back "Say it, say it?" She asked.

Leo groaned as she twisted his arm "Neve-" Leo was about to retort when he looked up just as Ahsoka did to see a familiar face. Selene, Cin Dralligs padawan stood over the two of them at a lost for words "Sparring again Padawans?" She asked bending over and offering them a hand

Both of them untangled and got up without saying a word to her before Ahsoka spoke "Selene." It was a cold greeting one that still hung fresh from their last encounter with the raven haired padawan.

"Still mad about the lunch room fight?" She asked.

Neither of them answered to show they still were "Okaaaaaay well I'm sorry about that my Master says I can be a bit…. prideful?" She asked, hoping the humility would show in her apology.

"Really only a bit?" Ahsoka asked her.

"Thank you for the apology." Leo said, taking Ahsoka by surprise and more so Selene.

But both women looked at one another still unhappy seeing the other before Selene spoke again "I heard that Master Skywalker was on a solo mission, I wanted to see if you'd care to join me and a few other padawans this afternoon?"

"For what?" Ahsoka asked.

"Guess you'll have to follow to find out?" Selene said with a wink and a smile before she turned around. Skywalker's padawans looked into each other's eyes before they reluctantly followed her.

Meanwhile up above on one of the higher walkways Jedi Masters kept a vigil on their students, Masters Yoda, Windu, Drallig, Kenobi, Secura and Vos were gathered around one another in a private discussion not on official council hours "The healers cleared him physically but I still wonder about the mental aspect?" Drallig asked.

"The mind can only take so much especially at the hands of sith torture." Obi-Wan said, stroking his beard.

"Yet the boy has shown remarkable resolve in the face of the darkness?" Windu added stoically.

Many heads turned to him "That's high praise coming from you Master Windu?" Cin said, smiling, loosening some of the tension.

"Vigilant we must be, seek to turn young Leo to the Dark Side, the Sith, much fear and pain I sense in the boy." Master Yoda said the only one not smiling.

"Master Vos, to Hoth how did you go?" Yoda asked him, Vos blushed a bit his famous reputation of being a great tracker getting called into question "Still figuring that out myself considering…?"

"Considering Mustafar is the complete opposite of Hoth?" Windu asked him "Well only by a little?" Vos said sheepishly poking his fingers together, sweating a bit "Ones covered in ice the other is covered in lava?" Windu asked him and Vos stayed quiet.

Yoda looked up at the masters then "Answer to the Council Master Krell must evade this council he has for long enough."

"I'll leave for his fleet immediately, Pong and I have a history. It will serve best if this order comes from me." Master Windu said, stepping forward.

"Safe travels Master Windu." Cin Drallig told him before they all dispersed "A moment of your time Master Drallig." Master Yoda called out before he left.

"Yes Master?" Cin asked him, "Have need of your Padawan, I do?"

Meanwhile, Leo and Ahsoka had followed Celeste to one of the abandoned wings of the temple that was under disrepair, taped off by yellow hololines. The floors and walls were all but cracked, with metal support beams put in to hold up the crumbling walls and ceiling.

"This place is blocked off?" Ahsoka said as Selene snuck under the laser "Yeah it is." She said going on ahead, Leo and Ahsoka followed her into the ruins of the temple passing over walk-in boards and over a large gap when they started to hear music. The three of them followed the music before coming into a large open room set up with lanterns on the ceiling and music blaring around a group of older Padawan gathered around a calamari padawan with white robes holding a bottle.

In fact most of the padawans had bottles of wine filling the air with the smell of alcohol "What… what is this?" Ahsoka asked Selene.

"Nahdar Vebbs last day as a padawan." Selene said as the other padawans poured wine on to his head and toasted around him "The Masters have deemed he's ready to take the trials."

"Knighthood, wow?" Ahsoka said as Selene walked over to a large ice bucket of bottles, she picked two of the smaller ones out and walked over to the two "Here from the stores of the Masters Wine cellar." Selene said, offering them the bottles.

The two of them took the glass with it freezing their fingers to the touch "Cheers." Selene said, summoning a bottle with the force "Wait a second."

"Hey Nahdar!" Selene called out to the calamari boy in the back, he heard her and approached them "Say hello to Ahsoka and Leo, the two padawans I told you about."

"Oh these are them well if anyone- hic can tell Selene's ego to pissssss off a friend of mine." He said his speech was slurred and he had hiccups escaping his fish lips left and right.

"Ahsoka here was able to take out an entire Separatist fleet and Leo here has bested two Sith Acolytes first Jedi since Master Kenobi on Naboo." Selene said, getting the ears and attention of the other older padawans who started to encircle Leo and Ahsoka.

Both padawans felt the spotlight cast on them suddenly "Wow and entire fleet…. your Skywalker's Padawans he's amazing…. two Sith incredible?"

The questions bombarded them like gungan throwing ion grenades before Selene pushed the crowd back "Whoa, whoa who's party is this theres or Nahdars come on get him another drink." Selene said pushing them away and driving there attention back to the guest of honor.

"Sorry about that most of these Padawans have never touched a bottle of wine, which i why you two should start early when its your Padawan Send off." Selene said drinking her bottle, Leo and Ahsoka gave each other a wary glance before they sipped the wine.

Both of their faces turned green for a moment but swallowed "Oh that's disgusting." Ahsoka said, spitting out what was left in her mouth "Nasty but… sweet?" Leo said looking into the bottle.

"That's because you always go looking for nastys." Ahsoka said.

Selene cocked a brow "If reputations could talk they'd say you go after the biggest baddest droids on the battlefield Ahsoka."

"I don't mean to brag but yes." Ahsoka said with a cocksure grin.

"No joke, Ahsoka's fearless General Skywalker says it all the time." Leo said taking another drink starting to feel the wine loosen him up and ease whatever aches he still had.

Selene nodded "I know I said some things about him. I was out of line, friends?" Selene asked holding her hand out to Ahsoka "We'll see." Ahsoka said.

"By the way Leo, I heard a rumor you were on Hoth some time ago that is true?" Drallig's padawan asked him.

Leo glanced up at her as he was looking over at Nahdar who was chugging wine with the other boys "What?" He asked, forgetting the question.

"Hoth, big white ball of ice Tan tans and Wampas, you were there right?" She asked him.

Leo looked at her a bit confused then at Ahsoka "Don't look at me?"

"Y-yeah before the war started Master Krell trained me there, we spent weeks in the cold meditating and training before one day he left me there for a month."

"A month!" Selene said "It wasn't that bad he left me in wampa territory so there was plenty of food." Leo said casually.

"Food- you ate wampa meat?" Selene asked him.

Leo nodded like it was no big deal "Maybe if the tantans didn't smell so bad."

Ahsoka and Selene laughed before someone burst into the chamber "Sentinels, scatter!" One of the padawans yelled.

"Oh come on not again, I thought I paid them off." Selene snapped drinking the rest of her bottle as the party went into pandemonium. The padawans scattered as the music and lights vanished, people pumped into one another when the lights went out.

"You paid off the Temple Guard?" Ahsoka asked Selene following her to the back of the room where a fallen statue was.

"Box tickets to the opera, they take those masks off every once in a while you know now help me move this." Selene pushed the statue to the side and a secret opening behind it. The three of them slipped inside as other padawans filed out into other escape routes just as Sentinels burst three escaped padawans moved into the secret passageway using their lightsabers to light their way.

Selene scoffed as she walked down the secret passage "Stars I was hoping this would help us bury the hatchet." She groaned.

"You went out of the way to throw a party to say your sorry?" Ahsoka asked her.

"Well I was kind of a jerk to you all." Selene mumbled walking up to a metal part in the ruined hallway with a vent on the floor "It was really more for Nahdars sake but we older padawans like to invite younger ones to keep things fresh."

She turned her lightsaber off as Leo's and Ahsoka's kept a light above her "Here we are." She pried the vent off and slipped inside with Leo and Ahsoka following him.

"Anyway, follow this corridor and you'll come out near the Padawan Dorms, I'm going to circle back to try and smooth this all over with the Sentinels." Selene said before she headed down the opposite way.

"Hey Selene!" Ahsoka yelled after her.

The raven haired padawan turned around "Yeah?"

"Thanks this was fun." Ahsoka said before she gave a wink and a smile walking off.

Eventually Leo and Ahsoka were back in the dormitories "That was fun." Leo said, walking to the boys side.

"Wasn't it, I think I'm going to turn in that wine that made me sleepy?" Ahsoka said.

"Right behind you." Leo said waving her goodnight.

Leo returned to his dormitory and looked out across the night sky of Coruscant leaning on the window with one arm he smiled.

Are you ready to begin?

The voice of the red kyber crystal called up to Leo from his nightstand, he knelt down and picked it up "Show me." Leo felt the crystal's power slip into his mind before he felt the visions take hold.

Leo looked to see the Sith Spirit covered in scars and wounds aboard an ancient starship. He was flying through hyperspace wrapping up a scar on his arm in a pilot's chair before he turned around in his chair and looked back at Leo.

"So when you betrayed the Jedi you ran?" Leo asked him.

The sith smiled before spitting on the floor "They betrayed us."

"When the sith were still a power in the galaxy it was us the young who fought them, leading the charge against our ancient enemies I fought in a hundred battles, a hundred victories." The sith said holding up his lightsaber.

"And for what?" The Sith asked "A title of something I already knew, Master when I was already the Master of myself and my own power." The sith spirit said to him turning the lightsaber on.

The Sith Spirit looked at the red blade "Do you know Sith doesn't mean dark or evil, it means perfection."

Leo didn't say a word at first "That's what you see yourself as, Perfect?" Leo asked him.

Turning off the lightsaber the spirit smiled again "It's what I wanted to be."

"My master trained me to be the best swordsman of the order, to train until my bones broke, filled my head with dreams of serving the order and fulfilling my destiny." The sith said.

Silence took hold of the vision, neither Leo or the Sith spirit spoke until finally the spirit sighed "Do you know what I learned after I embraced the dark side."

"What?" Leo asked.

"It's incredibly lonely."

KNOCK KNOCK

"Padawan Rock, your presence is requested by Master Yoda." A voice of a jedi on the other end of the door. Leo jumped up from the floor where he'd been sitting holding the crystal in his hand.

Leo dropped the crystal and stood up "Y-yes be right there."

Leo grabbed his lightsaber and walked to the door looking back at the crystals then heading out. The padawan found Master Yoda in an empty chamber at the heart of the temple sitting in meditation. The room was dimly lit as it was still late at night when Leo sat down across from Master Yoda legs crossed instead of kneeling like some Jed I did, "Couldn't wait till morning huh Master Yoda?"

Master Yoda opened his eyes unamused "Apologize Master, please forgive my disrespect."

"Disrespect none taken, the touch of Skywalker I sense in you." Master Yoda said to Leo "Genera- Master Skywalker is a great jedi, I've learned much from him and Ahsoka." Leo replied.

"And much from your enemies hmmm?" Yoda asked him.

Leo felt himself going pale, worried if they had discovered the crystal "The Sith, what say you of them?"

"They are… fierce." Leo replied as Yoda gazed at him with big eyes and the force surrounding them both "Fear them do you?" Yoda asked him.

"... yes." Leo replied looking at the floor as Yoda nodded "Hmmm good."

"Good?" Leo asked him "Without fear, no courage is there hmmm?" Yoda asked him.

Leo avoided looking at the master "I wasn't courageous against the Sith I fought, I just didn't want to die Master."

"A natural part of life death is, for Jedi there is no death." Master Yoda said getting Leo to glare at him, "I don't know if everyone shares that view, Master, I watched people die, I felt their force fade into nothing."

"Fear that you do, becoming nothing?" Yoda asked him.

Leo didn't answer him; he only squeezed the black cloth around his robes. "Why am I here Master?"

"Why?" Yoda asked back "The doctor said I was fine, I'm ready and fit for battle there has to be some reason you woke me up in the middle of the night I'd Just like to know why?" Leo almost snapped.

Yoda sighed closing his eyes "Fear I sense in you, much anger too Padawan, clouds the mind anger does."

"I don't know about that?" Leo grumbled "Hmm a Jedi Master are you?" Yoda asked him giggling, showing he wasn't offended by Leo's insolence but more amused "... no Master, but I'm getting stronger."

The jedi master nodded "Strong you are Padawan, strong are all jedi but where to draw that strength?"

"Anger, pain, fear use these emotions a jedi does not." Master Yoda said making Leo slowly bow and shake his head feeling Yoda was looking right into him "M-maybe I'm not like other jedi, maybe I can control these emotions?" Leo stammered.

Yoda shook his head "Control them no jedi can, control you they can turn these emotions inward, unconquerable enemies they will be."

"Why then do you set this task before you?" Yoda asked him.

"... I seek to become a stronger Master." Leo told him honestly "Strength, another word for power that is?" Yoda asked him "Then I seek power to protect those who can't protect themselves when the time comes." Leo said, getting Yoda's attention.

"Admiral to dedicate oneself to become better it is, wary of pride and vanity you must me in these coming days Leo Rock." Yoda said getting up "In this quest you have undertaken to become stronger, be vigilant, surround yourself with those closest to you, do not forget them you must and do not forget who you are." Leo felt the soft touch of Yoda's hand on his red hair, Leo looked up at him to see no look of fear or disapproval from Master Yoda.

He only felt patience, compassion, tolerance and understanding. "Thank you Master Yoda I won't forget this… may I return to my room?"

"No, wait here your Master returns soon he will be." Master Yoda said walking to the door. Leo sat there waiting more confused than he had been, his mind moved to speaking more about this with General Skywalker when he arrived. As the door opened Leo smiled and got up "Welcome back General." He said turning around and his smile immediately disappeared.

"A less than appropriate response Padawan, you've been rather busy stirring up a great deal of trouble in my absence." Said Leo's rightful Master, Jedi General Pong Krell walked in sternly glaring at him, where if this had been the day he first left Leo would have turned his gaze away but he looked up at the big besalisk man. Leo stood up straight hands behind his back "Forgive me Master I thought you were General Skywalker."

Krell gave a displeased grin "Ah yes Skywalker, Skywalker he's been bombarding me with reports of your accolades and misadventures, shot down by droids, assisting anti republic insurgents and how could you let yourself be captured?" Krell said starting to walk around him Leo started to squeeze his wrist tightly behind his back.

"I'm sure if you read General Skywalkers reports that's not all you've read- Sir?" Leo said his best trying not to growl up at him.

Krell hummed scratching his large neck "Yes, there were other things the Sith Acolytes, notable counts of bravery but I am your master not Skywalker."

"Could have fooled me." "WHAT WAS THAT PADAWAN!" Krell roared coming around towering over him, his four arms raised slightly up at Leo. The besalisk's yell was so strong it blew back some of Leo's hair but Leo was unfazed, Krell saw this and smiled. His smile arose into a chuckle.

"Is this truly the same Padawan that stands before me?" Krell asked closing his eyes and waved his hand over him "I can feel doubt has become resolved, the fear of failure replaced with a desire for… power."

Krell lowered his arms still towering over him "Tell me Padawan, do you feel powerful?"

Raising his head slowly Leo could feel the kyber crystal calling to him from his room "I feel only the force Master."

"You will have to show me how much more powerful you've become, follow we are leaving."

"Leaving where?" Leo asked following him, Krell didn't turn around only expecting Leo to follow "Where this war began, Geonosis."