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He jabbed his blade at my ribs but I was too skilled open handed for any easy attempts although I could tell he was warming up. I leaned back, sucking in air, causing him to miss at his full extension. He went into a combo swinging horizontally at my neck, then a sweep at my ankles, and finished upper cutting for chin. I ducked the first shot easily, then jumped slightly, to avoid overextension, and flipped backwards, pushing myself with a blast of Force to dodged the last blow. While in mid-flip I pushed off of his chest and landed the flip perfectly spreading my left hand out showing the open palm. It was time for me to become offensive.

"You are shockingly skilled young Jedi, but below my level." He said in a hissing voice.

"Silence fool," I heard from behind him, causing my heart to leap.

"Imbecile!" He roared spinning to face Shomari who was standing behind him, both blades ignited.

He struck quickly at his new opponent, but Shomari, not only had time to roll his eyes at me, but he managed to wink at Raena, impressing her to no end, and leaned to the side. Both blades quickly rose up; the one in his right hand pushed it to the side, the left hand sliced towards his neck but he stopped short. Then Shomari also was choked up into the air struggling for air like I did. He was facing my worst fear, the inability to breathe.

"Tell me, should I hack through your throat roughly, or make it quick and smooth," I asked as I laid my blade on his throat.

He dropped Shomari and swung at me. I snapped out at him before he even rose his blade close enough to me, and stabbed for his neck, managing to only singe the side. Then a blade pierced his chest from behind and I knew it was over. He collapsed to the ground as I dropped the Force shield and let Raena back in.

"Hmm…he wasn't as tough as you made him look Déshawn," Shomari said thoughtfully.

"Lucky I was here the whole time I guess," I snapped back calmly.

"Maybe I was getting the 'Jar' first," Shomari held it up in his hand.

"Shouldn't you release their souls?"

"Crazy talk, it's too unstable. Best bet now is to not shake it up," Shomari said.

A hand suddenly came from the side slapping me with stinging force as soon as I reached to take the Jar from Shomari, snapping my head back and I blinked.

"Don't EVER treat me like I'm helpless again!" Raena screeched at me. "You're a typical chauvinist!"

Shomari gave me a look and he walked ahead to whatever transportation he'd used to get to me.

"What's wrong with you?" I raised an eyebrow at her trying to not get angry.

"Because you seem to have this delusion that I can't handle myself!" She shrieked pushing me making me lean back slightly.

"You should know that I'm not like that Raena, but I had to be sure you weren't hurt before I got to really work with you on a difficult mission."

"Really?" she challenged.

"I like working with you, and I wanted to be 100 sure that we got to continue working together," I admitted.

"Oh," she looked at the ground embarrassed. "I'm s-sorry I hit you. It's just, well…you can probably guess why I th-thought you were a…"

"Chauvinist?" she winced as I reminded her of her past comments.

"Yeah." She fell silent.

"Partners?" I held out my hand.

She shocked me with a hug, "partners."

We walked up to Shomari who was waiting around the corner out of sight, with a well-suppressed smirk. He'd sensed everything through me, and was trying to keep from questioning our relationship.

"She's a cute one," Shomari said to me as she walked past us.

I shrugged nonchalantly as we headed back to the dock. Just before we walked in, Shomari stopped. Raena let out an exasperated breath.

"Oh yeah, here's some data I downloaded from their computer. Don't tell your little Council about what I did for you. Your side: He was no match for you; you disposed of him and downloaded the info. I changed the access times to match the story. If they don't go for it, say Raena did it. Whatever works, should probably say it was her," he informed us.

"Nice job," I said. "Next time could you kind of pick up the pace on the download. You know I hate suffocating."

"You had plenty of time before I finished."

"As long as you were sure."

We snuck around the wall back to where we'd parked the ship. However it was gone. I nearly cursed in my frustration.

"Careful Déshawn, despite your utter failure to do so, we still shouldn't be seen," Raena said.

I stared at her, and turned back to Shomari.

"I'll get us a better ship, don't worry about it. Pay me back later," he said.

"By rescuing you probably."

"From what? Old age?" He smirked and walked out leaving Raena to snicker at me.

About 10 Droids looked up from their work and attacked as one unit. He held his hands out and loads of tools flew, weapons fired, and bodies dismembered themselves as he killed all the Droids at once. Then the man in charge jumped down and rushed at Shomari with a blaster drawn. He held up a hand and flung the single shot aside as his weapon was melted instantly, and then the man was upon him. Shomari's hands snapped to his sides and the blades crossed each other forming a scissor across his throat.

"I'm going to need the access code to your fastest luxury ship in less time than it takes for me to toss your head back to my brother and his girlfriend, any questions?" he snarled in a dangerous tone.

"N-n-none sir."

"Good, that gives you about 3 seconds," his grip tightened.

"You pick them well," Raena complimented as we were flying back to Coruscant in the newly stolen ship.

"Thank you, it's all a matter of knowing how the mind works under pressure," Shomari bragged.

"How would that be?" Raena raised an eyebrow.

"You're under informed." Shomari laughed. "Fine I'll break it down. I asked for their best ship, in a slightly more specific way but that's trivial, so he had a few seconds before I killed him. That meant only the best could come to his mind in that amount of time; he didn't have time to lie. Unless he was exceptionally quick-witted, but in that case he wouldn't have attacked me head on and so stupidly. If you were on a game show and had a few seconds to think of the fastest hand-to-hand Jedi, I'd come to mind. Same situation, only I had to make sure he wouldn't lie."

"You know, you really got to stop acting like you're the best alive," Raena commented. "It's going to get you killed one day. I bet Déshawn is more skilled than you just because he doesn't underestimate everyone."

"Yeah right," Shomari laughed. "If we weren't family he'd be like that engineer back at the federation ship."

"Shomari you've got to stop killing people." I scolded him quietly, eyes averted.

"Déshawn, you know how I feel about this, drop the subject," Shomari walked into the back, a feeling of slight disgust hanging around him. I followed him; we had a few things to finish.

"You know Déshawn," he said when I stood next to him. "I saw my strongest pillar shake today. You know how I feel about that; don't ever let me know you're not perfect. It worries me."

"When? When I was getting abused or in…the dock room." I asked hoping he was talking about the fight.

"I wouldn't care about how you fight as long as you manage to win, with or without help," Shomari waved off my loss of orientation in the fight today. "But you thought about our parents. And that made me realize, you're the emotionally strong one, and I need you to stay that way. If you crumble, I'd lose my sanity."

"Deuce, look. When I saw that corpse today, I thought of mom. It was the same position she died in," I said. I grabbed Shomari's shoulder when he turned away at the mention of the one parent he loved. "Listen to me, it was also how she looked. I remember it from when I was 5, but it was the same weapon Lance has. We've got to find out its history if we're going to find out who killed mom."

"I thought we agreed it was Lance," Shomari asked.

"Come on Shomari, you think he's had it the whole time?" I cocked my head and snorted. "I know he's disgusting, but you've worked for him."

I sensed Raena's shock. "You would've known about it and he wouldn't be alive today."

"No…" Shomari's intelligence began to overcome his impulses; "he's gotten it recently."

"I think you need to talk to Cunae, Shomari. He would know." I told him. Then I walked back up to the co-pilots chair and sat down.

"Wow, it's weird seeing how close you two actually are," Raena said thinking out loud.

"I hate Déshawn what are you talking about? He thinks because he's a little better than me with the force he's some kind of good fighter."

"And Shomari's just ugly," I answered shortly not looking back.

Raena looked at me Shomari laughed out loud; I tried to keep a straight face.

"So Deuce are you going to stay at the Temple, or should we drop you off somewhere in the middle of the air," Raena said.

"I think I'd do better in the air, but how about I room with you?" Shomari asked.

"You wouldn't want to room with me and Déshawn so I guess it's mid-air huh?" she winked at me making my heart skipped.

"Your feelings are clear Déshawn, you've got to make sure only you know your thoughts." Shomari warned.

"C'mon Shomari you've been through this."

"Then you should know better than me Blazin." He used my nickname, which only admirers have used.

"Well worded."

"So what's the story with you two? Why do ya'll keep such distance if you're such close brothers?" Raena asked.

"I'd go crazy hanging out with this common criminal too much," I answered.

"Who's riding in the stolen vehicle?" Shomari reasoned.

"Who stole it?" I said.

"True, but it was better than walking, and way better than asking."

"You know, I think you've got a point. But 100 credits say I could've convinced them too."

"Without any mental assistance?"

"Only if Raena agreed to a few things." I answered.

"Like what?" she sounded upset.

"The mental assistance," Shomari answered for me.

She laughed as we approached the planet and she took us in for a decent.

"Yes, this will be kept under our personal guard," Mace Windu nodded to me looking intently on the Force Jar, as if it could answer everything he needed to know if he held that position long enough. "Now what of your brother Shomari?"
"I wish him to remain with me in the Temple. He is not evil, but I don't feel he should be trained anymore. At his level, however, I feel that training would be essentially meaningless to his uncaring and undisciplined manner," I earned the stares of my brother from behind me. "Only saber training can help him, and I need not remind the Masters that I'm behind him."
"True, young Padawan," Mace Windu nodded.

"Infinitely more powerful, the mind is," Yoda reminded me gaining a telepathic message from me.

"Why do you bother hanging around here? We could be somewhere making money or practicing our saber techniques."

I ignored Shomari's persistent messages until he swept out of the room in a fury at me. I shrugged him off turning towards Mace Windu.

"However your mission has failed, the Federation is leaning on us to return the Force Jar which they say was stolen by you. This won't be taken lightly and you most likely will have to answer to them personally."

"I have no object-"

"Masters forgive me!" Raena stepped forwards quickly bowing. "But Déshawn didn't do it, it was Deuce."

"True, is this?" Yoda asked me, looking past Raena who stepped back.

"Please ignore her Master Yoda. My actions alone are what took this property from the Federation," I lied slightly honest. "I felt it would be better to slow their powering process of this weapon."

"You were right, however this puts us in the line of political, and possibly actual, fire." Mace Windu scolded me.

"With all due respect Master Windu," I bowed my head slightly, "but that would seem to give us the advantage would it not?"

"Far from it," my head whipped around to face a female Jedi Master behind me to look into the wise, yet young and smooth, face of Adi Gallia. "The Jedi have dwindled to a point where even a standard army might overwhelm us, despite our heightened abilities and training."

"Then I should be allowed to handle an invasion of any type," I answered with humble cockiness.

"No doubt your abilities will grow beyond anyone in this room, but you are still far from that point," Adi Gallia's calm and knowing voice emanated irritation.

"Master Gallia, I meant to handle the negotiation angle of an invasion, although I will fight alone if asked to," I joked earning a few smiles, and a chuckle from Mace Windu.

"No doubt we may require it," Mace Windu laughed. Then his face turned serious, "however, we must keep this Jar away from Lance Kicewd at all costs."

"Go you must to Naboo and contact Senator Amidala. Seek her counsel with your new partners Shomari Jackson and Raena Colonya."

"Thank you masters," I bowed out and left the room making sure Raena came with me so that she could not discuss any more concerns with the Council behind my back.

"What was that about?" Raena yelled at me as soon as we were out of earshot heading down the wall, while Shomari went to find a practice room I planned on joining him as soon as possible. But I first had to quell Raena's anger.

"That's how it is with me and him. Have you checked my record? I've been punished for almost all of Shomari's crimes that he's committed, to nearly everyone's knowledge. Which is why I have the record and Shomari has the reputation," I said.

"Why? I mean you two are brothers, but that's no reason to." Raena sounded shocked at my seeming over protectiveness.

"Because that's how it has to be, but don't worry. He has the tougher deal if that's what you're looking for. But now I'm off to go train some more with him, are you going to accompany me?" I asked changing to a playful tone.

"Why of course, I have to see your legendary skills, and your brothers double swords," Raena answered smiling pleasantly.

"Well then milady," I said holding my arm out in escort fashion. "We should hurry before he's finished."

She wrapped her arm around mine with a laugh as we headed to the training room to find Shomari staring at his two steel blades with interest, his face analyzing them carefully.

"You know," he said slowly, in a thoughtful voice. "I should practice moving them faster by spinning the blades in my hand, while keeping in tune with my bodily momentum."

I grab my own steel sword and take the protective covering off of it and looked up at Shomari's smirk, "let's see if you can do it as easily as you said it."

"You don't want it with me now Blazin, I'm too fast if I can get this right," Shomari smirked.

I felt Raena's gleeful smile on my back as we moved to the middle of the room. I held the sword in a diagonal across my body in a protective two-hand grip on the sword. Shomari stood straight up, both points of his swords on the ground behind his legs. I knew what it was for, but the new position kind of surprised me, it sort of signaled a change of fighting style for Shomari. Knowing the difficulty of this I moved in with a downward slash at the right side Shomari's throat. With blinding speed he kicked his right blade up, bouncing it off of mine, sending vibrations up through my hand that seemed to threaten the strength of my arm. His left blade moved up to a parallel horizontal level and he swung it at my body. I shook my head knowing he'd struck wrong, by not using his new principle, and letting him know it. I snapped my body to an "attention" position with my sword impeding his progress, then answered by quickly slinging my sword straight out for his stomach. He twisted away and spun his right sword on the palm of his hand as he sliced with his left blade at me. Knowing he was setting me up, I was left with no choice but to fall into his trap, I blocked his blow easily. The second I went for his diversion, he gripped his right blade, following the momentum; it sliced in a deadly motion for my neck. I rolled my neck down, under the blade and up on a safer side, his other blade rotated smoothly with his wrist up at my chin. I flipped backwards, holding my sword tightly to my side, to avoid self-injury, and landed safely away from his smoothly quick and deadly blows, panting.

"Wow, I must be slipping, this is tough. I think spinning gave you a lot more strength." I said.

"I got close a lot," Shomari was informed me with a calm tone that indicated his current confidence.

He moved in confidently, rotating both his entire body with his swords; I ducked the first slash and rotated in a flip over the second blade. I braced my sword with my forearm to block his slice at my throat while I was in mid-air and vulnerable. Then I dropped immediately countering with several quick slices at his various limbs, which he bothered to slightly shift to dodge, but didn't involve anything as extreme as using his swords, to avoid them. I knew I'd have to improve a lot to stick with him, since I'd already been so far behind him in hand-to-hand combat. I decided to let the force take over. I swung in with a powerful slice at his body, seeing, a split second before he did it, Shomari shift backwards, I let a wall of force block his exit. His eyes got wide and one of his blades rotated up blocking the blow in a brilliant impromptu counter. Then another blade came up and rotated around my own sword twisting my arm up leaving my body wide open. My eyes got wide at having inspired such a smart move; I flipped over him before he even got to strike. In mid-air I extended my legs into his back pushing myself forward a little bit, but more importantly, kicked him forward onto his stomach. We both flipped onto our feet quickly and faced each other poised for another exchange of blows. Then I put my sword away quickly, Shomari following suit, as I sensed Adi Gallia approaching the room. The door opened to a dead, ashen-faced Adi Gallia scanning the room carefully, with both her eyes and mind. I instinctively put my Jedi robe back on and, summoning my light saber to my hand, hooked my natural weapon onto my belt and approached the beautiful Jedi Master.

"Déshawn, there's extremely urgent news you need to hear from the Jedi Council personally," she sounded monotone; oddly, menacingly, frighteningly, monotone. Her eyes seemed unfocused on anything in general, which made it hard for me to see her thoughts. Although I had an odd fear that, if allowed into her mind, I would find no thoughts.

"Okay," I said in a rarely hesitant tone. But hearing her message I could hardly be blamed.

"Alone," she turned her head in Raena's direction, stopping her movements to follow me, although her eyes still seemed everywhere but nowhere at once.

I swept out of the room smoothly following her down the hall to the, now dreaded, Council Chamber.

"Déshawn, the Federation has told us that a dead man was left in the cargo room where you two had left. And they demand you, Shomari or Raena confess to the murder," Mace Windu sounded identical to Adi Gallia, which was a contrast to his, usually comfortingly calm voice, and it worried me. "So not only have you stolen the Force Jar from them, and we learned one of the three of you killed a man and stole a luxury ship, but you also failed your mission by not only allowing your presence to be known, but not re-concealing it."

"Master Windu, my deepest apologies, but-" I began but was cut off.

"Déshawn Jackson, you are hereby expelled from the Jedi Order. We'd hoped you would show better judgment than to allow a man to be slaughtered in front of you, and to not follow orders from the council," Mace Windu sat back in his chair, his face inscrutable and similar to Adi Gallia's, but it showed more color than hers. Instead of the dead paleness, I recognized his dark skin, but his eyes seemed, not completely unfocused, but not looking at anything. It gave him the look of a man blinded who could not see any focal points.

"Master please, I-" I stopped, hopeless and ready to explode emotionally, and mentally. But reading the foolishness of my actions I turned and walked out of the room.

"Return your light saber, you must," Yoda, he sounded like he was forcing himself to sound like everyone else in the room, held his hand out keeping the doors from releasing me.

"As I was not the actual murderer," I began, fury filling my mind coursing through my veins at my sudden and, seemingly meaningless, expulsion. "I was hoping to keep a weapon to protect myself from any hostility I might meet among these worlds."

"It seems to that you're not the one who needs the protection from the world, but the world that should be armed against you," Windu said, uncharacteristically cold and, suddenly, stinging words.

My fists tightened in an obvious display of withheld, but seething wrath, "would that be a no Master?" I said without looking at him.

"Keep your protection, you may," Yoda conceded and the doors slid open, I could've sworn I saw a wink on Yoda's face, which replaced my anger with confusion.

I swept out of the room swiftly and headed down the hallway briskly. I entered my room quickly, and, after grabbing an extra cloak, some smoke and gas pellets, and spare oxygen tank, left without looking back.

Walking down the hall, I saw Raena, and almost wanted to avoid her, but I was drawn to her mentally; I had to tell her.

"So what'd they want?" She smiled, her hair bouncing in tune with her buoyant mood.

"I've…been expelled from the Jedi order." I hesitated, while wondering why I was so ashamed to tell her but would have had no problem telling my best friend.

Her eyes got big and glowed with a determination I hadn't seen for a while, "What? They can't do that!"

I cocked my head to the side, taking advantage of her guard being down, "and why does that affect you so?" I raised an eyebrow and added a smirk. "We've only done one mission together."

"Um…b-because…you're the uh…best partner I've had," she clumsily recovered stressing the word "partner."

"Is that all you, and I quote, 'could warm up' to me as?" I folded my arms.

"Fine, have it your way. Ever since I've started training, I've heard about you. First, it was as some legendary kid that was supposed to be unbelievably skilled. Then, as you got older, I heard of you as 'the brother of Deuce' and how you got harassed because of what your brother did. Then I saw you a few times, only one time I saw you in action, open-handed. And I was, impressed to say the least, because I've never seen a Jedi open-handed in battle. So when you destroyed those 12 simulation Droids without using your light saber I started to believe the stories and legends. Then, I heard we were going to be partners and was determined to stay aloof with you. But once again, it didn't work, and I was again impressed, mainly by your calmness. And now, after we've gone through the mission together, and I've seen you and your brother work together and interact, I want to become a regular part of both your lives. And now, your expulsion means that it's come to an abrupt stop." She sighed returning to the subject. "I'm going to go see if I can talk some sense into the Jedi Order."

"Wait…bad idea," I hid the fact that I saw her in the same light as she'd seen me. "You don't want to argue with them. You might end up with me, especially since you were my partner." I said.

"So I can vouch for you." She smiled a would-be-knowing smile that I knew was going to get her into trouble.

"Or blamed with me, they've already got me with my brother," I said. "Plus, something is going on, that I think Yoda needs to sort out."

"How do you know?"

"I don't know, it's not a hunch or anything, no feelings…it's just stupid, but I'm sure of it." I said not mentioning that Yoda might have winked, which he's believed to be incapable of doing. It seemed that it was the one way he could communicate to me without a telepathic message which everyone in the room would have been able to sense.

"Then, I'll be back." She started.

"Please just trust me," I grabber her arm gently. She raised an eyebrow seductively. I hesitated, determined to not become flustered like her. "I want you to become a regular part of my life to."

"So let me talk to the Council." She smiled at me, and turned.

I sighed knowing exactly what would happen.

Before she could reach the doors, Yoda walked out leading the rest of the Jedi counsel that followed him. He turned his head towards her expectantly as she approached him confidently.

"Master Yoda," she stopped when he held his hand up.

"Know, I do, your wish for Déshawn's reinstatement. And happen, it will not." He said slowly.

"But Master Yoda," she started again. But stopped in exasperation.

"Study this you must," he handed her a note, and turned following the rest of the Council, and seemed to be the only one among the elite Jedi's that was fully concious.

Raena turned and walked back to me, while I stood at a Jedi's attention, with my hands folded behind my back and feet spread shoulder-width apart.

"What does it say?" I raised an eyebrow and held out my hand.

Ignoring my attempt to take it from her she unfolded the note and began to read it quietly to both of us, "'you, along with your partners in crime, Déshawn Jackson and Shomari Jackson are hereby expelled from the Jedi order.' And look, all of their names are on it. Although I'm almost sure these aren't their signatures."

I had to agree. Every single signature, if they could be called that, was signed in the exact same handwriting. It was almost as if one person had signed all of their names for them, and carefully wrote each word exactly the same way. The signature had elaborate curling shapes and lines, with the last letters circling on like a race track, giving the appearance that someone very pompous had signed the letter.

"Why would he tell you to study it?" I asked. "It's obvious the problem with this letter."

"Yoda is a little bit smarter than that. There's some kind of clue hidden in here," Raena said her mindset shifting to a detective one.

"Well you know about hiding things right? Can't you just work in reverse?" I asked convinced that Yoda's clue was obvious. "Because I'm no good with all this finding things."

"I have no idea what I'm looking for, so I can't think of how best to hide it." She looked infinitely confused.

"Well I know who can find out what we're looking for." I smiled thinking of an old friend I'd met on one of my earlier missions.

"Shomari?" she raised her eyebrow as if to suggest he was my only source.

"He wouldn't have a clue, even he doesn't know this friend I'm thinking of."

We were in the cockpit of the luxury ship, now unrightfully ours, traveling towards the planet Naboo. My plan was to meet up with my friend and deliver the message the council gave to me earlier to Senator Amidala. I got up and walked towards the rear of the ship thinking of my first encounter with my best friend Trance, nicknamed for his unique ability to hypnotize anyone who looked him in the eyes for too long. We had been enemies believing each other were part of an enemy we mutually shared. Which was ironic, but also lucky, that neither one of us was able to use mental abilities on each other, or seriously injure the other. However, I did sustain a scar from my fight with him, along the side of my neck, from a lucky swing of his blade, that actually came from my own blunder with a counter I thought was brilliant. Until his light saber almost detached my head.

"Déshawn," I heard Raena's soft voice snap me out of my reverie. "You, um, wanna go train?"

"What?" I turned around startled at her shy tone.

"You know, with the steel swords." She started to gain more volume and confidence in her voice again.

"Oh, yeah sure. You have one?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Yup," she smiled.

Rather than question her source I smiled kindly and grabbed her hand taking her to a back room with a wide-open space, seemingly, for exercising. She unsheathed her sword and I raised an eyebrow. Letting my mind be overwhelmed by the ever-present force, I enhanced my vision until I noticed the length of the sword: which was about ¾ the size of my own.

"Hmm, that's interesting," I thought out loud.

"What is?" she asked.

"I didn't think you were the combative type." I concealed my own observations.

"Oh, I guessed it was time I expanded my horizons." She said it in a voice that indicated a quote.

"Ah, that's something I've heard before."

She smiled and held Shomari's sword in a ready position. Holding my hands behind my back I braced for her movements. Moving in smooth, deadly motions she came in. I leaned back letting the force flow through my body I saw her attacks coming a split second ahead of time. I ducked quickly under her horizontal slice. Following up in one single motion, she sliced at a downward angle towards my waist. I jumped in the air, flipping on a horizontal axis, over her blade. She gasped in an impressed voice but continued smoothly. She stabbed at my stomach the second I landed, and I had to immediately lean back as far as possible under the blade, in a limbo-like position. She saw this with an almost gleeful smile and sliced down at my stomach. I let my body drop to the ground, to increase my allotted reaction time, and rolled along the ground away from her slice. I half rolled back on my spine and kicked my legs out to hop off the ground from my back, just as she came with a low slice at my lying body. I held out a hand letting a tube of force connect with my own sword, summoning it to my hand. The blade shot out of its sheath right into my waiting hands. I raised it up, looking towards Raena with my eyes focused, dilated into a combat state so that I could observe more at once. Re-centering my mind on the force in my body, I waited for her move. She spun around slicing near my knees, and instead of just avoiding it; I took a more physical defense. I slapped her lead attack away and spun off of the reverberating force to swing towards her midsection. Sucking in air she jumped back, and I followed up with a continuous stab, that ended with her back pinned against the wall of a corner, with her breathing heavily. I stopped short of her stomach.

"Point," I smirked.

Reacting brilliantly she bent her left foot up against the wall, and pushed herself up into the air, then extending her right foot she pushed off the perpendicular wall escaping from the corner. She landed about 2 feet to my right while my mouth was gaping at her quickness through the air, and sword still extended at the wall where she used to be. Laying her blade on my throat and smiled.

"But I win."

"Hang on a second," I tossed my sword into the corner next to its sheath. Ignoring the fact her opponent wasn't likely to stop like I had been. "Why didn't you fight like that the whole time? I would've lost a lot quicker."

"Oh, because I'm not really good at thinking of slick things to do while fighting, like you and Deuce did back at the temple." Raena shrugged.

"Oh my god, you could beat anyone easily if you could move that quickly all the time. On the ground, you seem…um…" I struggled for the metaphor I was trying to find.

"Clumsy and uncoordinated?" her voice seemed braced for the worst.

"Like a large fish in shallow water." I finally found it.

"Oh," she seemed disheartened.

"It's like, you've got the basic concepts, but you don't get something about it. I think you're fighting…below your level." I couldn't find the right words to describe what I saw so clearly about her style.

"What? You're kidding?" She said.

"I'm the wrong one for you to be fighting. When you started attacking me I could see it. You're movements are smooth to a point my mother could only perfect. Like, you said you couldn't think of slick things like Deuce and I, but I think it's just because we impress you. You hear all the stories, and see their true, and forget about your own skills." I explain in a more complicated fashion than it really was.

"You've lost me."

"You fight like I would against someone who's just started saber work at the Temple, I'd fight a little slower, and with more basic counters so I didn't embarrass him completely. Except you're not doing it to avoid embarrassing or killing me, it's like…you're holding back." I was still struggling to describe it.

"Wait you mean I'm better than you?" she raised an eyebrow with a smug.

"No," her smile disappeared. "You're trying to not mess up too much I think. Like you didn't do anything brilliant to attack me until I pinned you in the corner and you needed some kind of an escape. Then you stunned me."

"Really? Can't you do that?" She said innocently, and I could tell she understood finally. But was just enjoying my compliments.

"Easily, but I wouldn't have thought of it for that application. I'd use it more to get somewhere up in the air. It's just your style." I said. "I'm a vertical fighter. You notice how much I changed my height depending on if it was to my advantage. Even when I flipped it was only up and down movement."

"Yeah, that's what I like about you're fighting. You can go up and down so quickly, it's really crazy to watch if you ever see yourself on video." She said.

"Hmm, I never thought to videotape myself." I said thoughtfully.

"Well a lot of people did," she said. "I've seen so many videos of you it's ridiculous."

"Wow, thanks I guess." I smiled.

"So what kind of fighter do you think I am?" she asked as I walked over and sheathed my sword and attached it to my belt.

"Hmm, I'd have to guess a fluent type fighter." I mused.

"Elaborate."

"Like your movements seem all as one big attack planned before hand. Like if you'd videotaped that. I only got to attack you once I interrupted your flow, and you can't really defend as one movement unless someone attacks with just one strike at a time. So you've got to find a way to keep attacking on the defense so you can get back into a rhythm. Trust me, you'll see what I mean later. Cause I'm letting you do most of the fighting from now on." I laughed at her.

"That's a nice change compared to before." She smirked.

"Look, that wasn't a thing about male vs. female. I just wasn't sure how well you fought, or how good my opponent was. So rather than risk my first real partner I decided to just take the sure path." I said in one deep breath.

"First real partner?" she raised an eyebrow, showing no response to my explanation. I took it to mean she accepted it.

"Yeah, everyone else was just somebody that I had to watch over the whole mission. Although they usually did something to help me in the end, I still found them all incompetent. But you I looked forward to working with, and still do." I said waving my hand nonchalantly.

Turning around I walked back towards the cockpit of the ship, and Raena came up wrapping her arms around my body and laying her head on my chest. We shared a seat behind Shomari, and I saw her slip Shomari his sword. The green planet of Naboo showed itself on the visual screen of the luxury pod, and we prepared for a landing, my mind already reminiscing of past times with my best friend Trance Pierson.