"I'm scared," Lena whispered to her master, almost exactly a year after her training had begun.
Giving Lena's hand a squeeze that made her pupil's heart hiccup as they stood outside the opening to a gigantic cave the student had never seen before, Kara smiled at her student.
"Anxiety can be overwhelming," she acknowledged. "But your focus determines your reality."
"What do you mean?" Lena questioned.
"Focus your thoughts. Your feelings of unease tell you that your life is out of balance."
"Focus them on what?"
"Reframe the thoughts that fuel your fear," Kara told her. "A moment of calm reflection can be helpful."
Gently pulling Lena to the side to allow a few other Jedi to pass them and enter the hall, Kara looked into the padawan's eyes.
"How?" Lena whispered, voice shaking. "What if I fail—"
"What if you don't?" Kara challenged. "What if you prove yourself to be a Jedi Knight as you've always dreamed you would be?"
"I'm not ready," the student blurted.
"Lena. Move beyond your negative thoughts. Think. Picture your success. Let the Force flow through you and trust it to bring you where you need to be. Remember to breathe. Remember what I have taught you. Trust yourself. Trust the Force."
"But—"
"I believe in you, Lena. It is time."
Drawing in a steadying breath – just as her master had taught her – encouraged by Kara's words, Lena stepped into the cave.
Using her purple-bladed lightsaber to illuminate the darkness of the cave, Lena followed several twists and turns deeper and deeper into the darkness until she found an large opening, where a small starfighter awaited her, door open and welcoming.
Trust the Force, her master's words rang in her head, urging her forward into the cockpit of the ship.
Inside, she fired up the controls and piloted the starfighter out of the cave. Thankfully, given that she had no idea where she was supposed to be going and had just been traveling straight at a steady pace, it didn't take long to find what she knew had been waiting for her: four ships on her radar: two friend and two foe.
Each of the two shuttles was moving towards her, and behind them, Lena could see two enemy ships quickly approaching, their guns locked onto their targets, ready to fire in a moment. Looking down at her controls just briefly to engage all firepower, she noticed the flashing red warning, indicating low fuel. In fact, it indicated that she was using the last of the reserves. She had just moments left to utilize the remaining resources and fire on the enemy ships in order to defend the shuttles.
But wait...
Lena's heart sank, thumping in her chest like heavy rubber training bullets bouncing off the side of a building. There was only fuel and time to save one shuttle. One would have to be sacrificed if she was to rescue either.
Just as she was about to turn her guns on the ship behind the shuttle to the left of her vision, an incoming transmission displayed before her from the shuttle on the right.
Lena heard the sound before she could process the image before her.
"Lena!" the voice cried. "Please—"
The padawan knew the voice all too well. So well, in fact, that her heart sank further at the sound.
"Sam," she breathed, staring.
"Please, hurry! There's no time!"
"Sam, I—" Lena tried, entranced by the image of her former lover before her, pleading for her help.
The padawan's attention was quickly torn away by another incoming transmission, this time one that indicated the other ship was filled with numerous generals and influential world leaders, those poised to protect the galaxy.
"I love you, Lena," Sam's hologram told her sadly, and as Lena's heart slammed in her chest like a caged animal, her instincts drove her to act.
Turning the guns to toward the ship on the right and firing repeatedly, ultimately rescuing the shuttle where Sam was a passenger, Lena allowed her emotions to fuel her action. As her trial simulation faded away - despite feeling very much like reality - a satisfied smile spread over her lips.
"How'd I do?" the hopeful Padawan asked her master, upon Kara's reappearance before her as the last of the trial simulation faded away.
Kara found her heart aching as she asked her pupil, "How do you feel you did?"
"I acted on instinct, just as you taught me, and I made the correct decision under pressure," Lena told her confidently, glowing with pride.
The Jedi paused, expression stoic as she examined her student.
"You did not trust your instincts," she finally challenged, tone calm and level. "You trusted your emotions." At the look of horror and disbelief on the brunette's face, Kara continued to explain, "The ship on the right held someone you cared for. Someone you care for still. The ship on the left held a group of men and women who would ensure the safety and prosperity of the galaxy. You must trust the Force to guide you and see the larger reality as a whole. Because of your choice, society would have collapsed. You have let your emotions blind you, Lena."
Eyes flashing dark with rage, Lena shouted, "You would have done the same for someone you loved!"
"The wants and desires of one do not outweigh the good of the many."
"Tell me you would have chosen differently!" the Padawan screamed, taking a bold step forward. "Tell the truth!"
Kara felt herself fall into a distant memory, one that showed her the last impactful parting of her life.
"I love you, Kara!" a young woman pleaded with her. "Don't do this! Don't leave me! The Jedi will rise on their own! They don't need you!"
"This is my path," Kara had calmly told her lover, her expression stony and cold. "I must."
Despite the distracting sensation of a deep pit of doubt forming in her stomach at the memory of a long forsaken love, Kara kept her resolve and began to reply, "The needs of the many—"
"You LIE!" the brunette roared, seeing the briefest of hesitations before her master's reply. "You—!"
Kara's next thought, at the accusation of a lie, was of herself on the starship, with her Padawan in the shuttle. Roles reversed, would she have made a different choice?
The Jedi spent the briefest moment wondering at the possibility, but thinking as quickly as the movement of a hummingbird's wings and remaining as calm as still water, Kara firmly asserted her decision, telling her pupil, "You are not ready to be a Jedi Knight."
"YOU trained me!" Lena howled, shoving her master backwards.
Kara held her footing but leaned away, avoiding Lena's swinging fist.
"This is YOUR doing!" the fuming brunette continued her rant, her fist swinging and just barely missing her teacher's cheek. "You were supposed to be my master! Any failure of mine is only a reflection of your teaching!" When Kara slowly opened her mouth to speak, Lena blurted, "IT'S NOT FAIR! I EARNED THIS!"
Drawing a calm breath, Kara's level voice asserted, "I have passed my judgment."
"Who are you to judge me?" Lena growled, her hand snapping to her side.
A shove Kara could have imagined. Even an angry fist. But when Lena's hand fell to her lightsaber, Kara felt no element of shock or surprise. Instead, she felt only sorrow and disappointment.
"Do not do this," Kara solemnly implored her pupil.
Fueled by anger, rage, and hatred for the system she felt had failed her, as well as her master who had not given her the blessing of accomplishing her rite of passage, Lena extended the bright purple blade of her saber and swung hard, using her emotions to fuel her attack.
Leaning back effortlessly out of the way of the blade, Kara dodged the assault, drawing her own weapon on instinct, though her heart pleaded with her to do anything but. Lena continued to swing, blow after blow now landing against the blade of Kara's blue lightsaber, and with every swing, to Kara's horror, the Padawan's blade deepened in color.
Knowing in her own heart that her words had failed her - and her pupil - and that there was nothing left to say to Lena to turn her heart back to the Light, Kara forced herself to trust the Force, continually blocking each attack as it came, until finally...
Lena let out a curdling scream, swinging her saber down from above her master's head, and as it collided with Kara's experienced blade, the final transformation was made. The blade had faded from a bright, hopeful purple into a deep, blood red.
Lena had corrupted her saber's Kyber crystal with her own hate.
Heart full of sorrow, but trusting the Force, Kara retracted her blade and extended her hand, sending her student flying backwards against the outer wall of the cave. As her head hit the stone, Lena's consciousness faded to black.