Disclaimer: See page before, none of this is mine.
The next morning Karineli woke early. It was harder than usual, Yavin 4's days were slightly different from imperial standard. She pulled on her clothes and stepped out of her room. Now all she had to do was find the eating area. Karineli glanced into Merik's room as she walked past, but his door was still shut. She shook her head, wondering if anyone here got up at a reasonable time.
It didn't take her long. She touched the necklace her father had given her. The room was mostly empty, only a few other humans and aliens were scattered around the room in small groups. Karineli took a tray, collecting her food. She picked a table as far from the other trainees as she could.
Today would be interesting. She wasn't sure about the others, or what they would do today, but she knew that she would at least do well at hand to hand. Kanrineli had heard some of the other trainees talking about that. Luke had started the training after the dark Jedi's last attack. He hoped to give them skills to defend themselves, besides the ones with their light sabers.
By the time Karineli had finished eating sunlight was streaming through the large open windows in the room and many of the tables with filled with young sentiments. No one had sat near her. A few had looked at her, but had moved on. Merik appeared yawning slumped down beside her.
"How do you people get up so early?" he stretched. Karineli regarded him steadily and he laughed. "After breakfast we get to start learning." Merik grimaced and dug into his breakfast.
Karineli and Merik joined a group of trainees in a grassy field. Their instructor was a young man you had just returned from a trip off Yavin 4. He was completing his training and gaining the off world experience he would need. Now that he had returned Luke had asked he help to train the new students. He had a lot of experience in hand to hand.
"I want everyone to pair off, we'll do a simple round first so I can pair you by experience." He moved through the group, pairing everyone randomly. Meric faced a tall girl with waist length blond hair. Karineli saw him swallow hard. She couldn't blame him. The girl looked like she knew what she was doing.
She was paired with a chubby boy with bright red hair. He balled his hands up in fists and put on what he obviously thought was a ferocious expression. Karineli sighed and relaxed into a fighting position.
"Go!" The boy lunged for her fists swinging blindly. Karineli sidestepped him easily, pulled her elbow back cracking the back of his head. The boy stumbled forward and fell onto his knees. She spun around pressing her knee into the small of his back. The boy struggled for a moment and relaxed. The rest of the trainees were still struggling, but the winner was pretty much obvious. Meric it seemed had managed to subdue the girl much to her anger. She was still struggling, even though he was sitting on her.
"That was very good. Better luck next time Garig." The older boy stood over her shoulder, "You might want to let him up now." Karineli moved off the boy. He scrambled to his feet, brushing his clothes off.
"Wow! How did you do that? You were so fast!" She didn't think that deserved a response.
"We'll try this again." This time he carefully paired them up. Karineli frowned, she didn't have a partner. "Before we start I'm going to give you a demonstration…Karineli is going to help me. First this is how you begin; don't charge straight at your partner. It is often a good idea to let them come first, this way it gives you an indication of their technique, or lack there of.
"Let's begin." Karineli waited, but decided that he must have been trying to use his own advice. Karineli was amused. She could use that. Not only that he didn't seem to take her that seriously. It was most likely her height. Like her father Karineli was short and compact. She moved in leading to the left. She swung her fist up and felt it connect with his jaw. He began to move to intercept what would come next in her line of attack. Karineli whipped around catching him in the small of his back with her foot and the back of his head with the flat of her hand. He fell forward, but managed to turn it into a roll as he swept her legs from under her. She lunged to the side, somersaulting back into position as he tried to regain his footing. Karineli had time to punch him under the chin and slam her knee into his stomach. This time he fell down and stayed down gasping for breath. She stood back. He was better than anyone else she had seen here so far.
"Where…where did you…learn that?" His eyes were wide with surprise, and a newfound respect.
"I learned from my father, he isn't anyone you'd know." She turned away and walked over to Merik.
"That was awesome! Can you help me with this?" Merik smiled ruefully. He was good, but couldn't even attempt taking their instructor on. "After we're done with this? Master Luke wants to talk to us later this afternoon but we'll have some free time before then." Karineli nodded. It would be nice to have an ally here. She would be careful though.
They went through exercises that she could have done in her sleep. She hoped this training would be something more, or this would be too safe of a hiding place, whatever her father thought. When they had finished Meric appeared next to her sporting a few new bruises, though not as many as his opponents.
"Here, I'll show you what you did wrong."
"I would appreciate it, I don't think I want to do this again." He rubbed one of his bruises.
"Imitate what I do." By the time they were done, Meric had improved considerably. They had to hurry to arrive where they were supposed to meet with the others. Luke raised an eyebrow when Karineli and Meric arrived. She returned it levelly and he smiled.
"I would like you to sit down." There were only two other students there, a bothan, and another human. "I'm going to show you the beginnings of how to use the force. I must remind you that there are two sides to the force, the dark, and the light. Never take the easy path, and always use what you learn for good. I'm going to see if you have done anything so far and show a few exercises you should practice. First, empty your minds. Feel the Force. Now, I want you to reach out and try to touch me with it. See if you can touch my mind. Meric, you try it first." They waited a long moment until Luke nodded. "That was a good attempt, Karineli?" She thought she understood what Luke meant about the force. She reached for it carefully. Now all she had to do was to connect with this Jedi. Karineli pushed down her revulsion and reached out again. This time she touched something. She relized it was Luke, and this was something different than anything she had ever experienced. She was horrified at how close she was to the Jedi. Karineli heard Luke gasp and her hold on it broke. She let it go willingly.
Luke looked straight into her eyes as if he could see something there, "Karinlei, I will want to speak to you when we're done." The others did the same and Luke congratulated each of them. Then he gave them the exercise they would begin to practice. Each of them was given a leaf. Their task was to make it rise into the air. None of them had managed to do it. Meric later claimed his had wiggled, but everyone else thought it was the wind.
Meric lingered after they finished, but Luke asked him to catch up to the others. "Karineli, what was that when you touched me? I sensed something, and it wasn't happiness." He looked almost sad.
"It is family business, not yours."
"It affects the Force and you, Karineli, I need to know what it was." They had another staring match. Karineli couldn't help but think that these were going to become a common occurrence here. Eventually she decided it was pointless and it wouldn't hurt to explain a little, not to mention the fact that he didn't seem to be ready to give up anytime soon.
"I can't stand to touch you, a Jedi."
He looked confused, "What is wrong with the Jedi? What did I feel from you?"
"Pain."
"How is that possible? The Jedi are here to protect peace and justice."
"Not everyone got justice. The Jedi are murders. There is no honor or justice in murder." Luke watched her. He could see something in her eyes, not anger, just hurt. "You have seen what your lightsabers can do to people, so have I. Justice is harsh, they could not accept that, so they warped it. Those who didn't fit their sense of justice were killed." Karineli spun around and walked quickly back into the temple. She could remember the times she had helped her father with lightsaber wounds, and she could remember the times when he was dreaming or delusional, and what he said about the Jedi.
"Wait Karineli!" Luke came after her. He put his hands on her shoulders as if to hold her there. "Those thoughts lead to the dark side. If you will let me I could show you the good the Jedi can do in our galaxy. I can show you the value of the light side."
She stood there for a moment then nodded. Maybe he could show her. She knew much about the galaxy and the way it worked. Sometimes it was painful. This though could make it less so, if it was true. Karineli pulled out of his grasp and continued down the hall. She would give him his chance.
Luke sighed as he watched her disappear into the temple. It was easy to see the family resemblence. He rubbed his temples. Whatever she had done, it hurt. He didn't know why she called the Jedi murderers, but there was so much about the Jedi he didn't know. This was going to be more of a challenge than he had planed. At least it didn't have anger or any taint of shadow, just pain, maybe even pain they could cure; if they could reach her. Maybe Tionne could help him.
She looked up when Luke walked in, frowning at his expression.
"Tionne did you ever here of the Jedi doing wrong? Murdering?"
"Some that fell to the dark side, but a true Jedi? There were battles but not murders. Why?"
"Fetts."
"I warned you from the start. What happened?"
"I gave Karineli some of her first Force experiences today. Including her first attempt at touching another's mind. The results were interesting."
"She didn't hurt you did she?"
"No, but when she touched me, I felt pain, and horror at touching a Jedi. She said they didn't fight for true justice. Karineli called it 'family business.' I don't know how we'd ever find out what she's referring to. So much was lost under the Empire. There was so much pain. I think we'll be fine but even so…"
"What about the father? Could this have to do with him?"
"Oh, I'm certain it does, but do you want to ask him?" Tionne shook her head smiling, then turned her attention to other things. She would check, life here was never boring.
*~*~*~*~*~*
Thanks to Falconwind for the spelling tip. I will fix that! :)
