Over the next week or so, I took to haunting the sparring chambers in the Temple. I'd been stuck in the same place for weeks on end before, or at least, I think I had. However, this time, it wasn't my choice and that's what made it so unbearable starting on the second day. Hence, the habit of hanging out in the closest thing to my greatest addiction, the dueling rings.
Honestly, all I really wanted was a good duel. I'd take any partner I could get to relieve this boredom that I was suffering. Unfortunately, there were no takers. The Padawans were intimidated by me, the Knights themselves were distracted and didn't come into the sparring rooms all that often and the Masters were too busy.
So, instead of dueling as I wished, I watched the older Padawans. There were two Padawans who had horrible stances and even worse grips. If they went into the trials and the real world fighting like that, they were sure to meet a quick and painful demise. I finally could not take it any longer, so I finally approached them.
"Your forms are awful." Blunt and to the point, that's me. The two combatants stopped the duel and stared at me. Their incredulous faces reflected how amazed they were at my audacity.
"Here, I'll show you." Before they could react, I changed their grips and started bumping their legs into place with my feet and hips. "There, do you see how much easier it is to defend now? You, do you see how much easier it is to attack and keep a good hold on your lightsaber?" Their shocked faces just stared at me mutely.
"Can you even speak? What are they teaching you nowadays? Look, I'll show you." I grabbed the defender's saber and moved into place as I grabbed the attacker's saber and moved. A light finally dawned for them and they tested out the stance and grip. I stepped back from the swirling lightsabers.
"Thank you, Master. It is much easier to maintain a steady grasp on the lightsaber." I rolled my eyes at being called master.
"I'm no Master, but you're welcome. Keep going. I'll stop you if you mess up again." Sure enough, they quickly went back to their original grips and awkward stances.
"No! Here, fight me and I'll show you why you're holding the saber completely wrong."
"But there are two of us and only one of you. That is not honorable." The Padawans shook their heads.
"I'm a higher rank; we'll pretend that makes two of me. Come on, I'll show you. Anyone have a saber I can borrow?" One of the nearby students tossed me their saber. The two students I was helping exchanged glances and started to advance. The rest of the sparring students stopped their duels and started watching us. With their clumsy movements and loose grips, I disarmed the two with a quick flick of my saber.
"Now, do you see why you need to hold your lightsaber differently?" They nodded. Thus began my days of instructing in the sparring room. I quickly gathered a student following for extra instruction. The weeks passed as the group grew. The group itself was fluid; sometimes a student only came for one move or another. Others, like my first two, showed up almost every day.
As I continued my career as an unofficial instructor, my boredom was starting to relieve itself. I finally had a purpose during my confinement. I enjoyed the company of the students. They were quick and eager to learn. At the end of each lesson, I agreed to spar, all at once, with any that would be willing to try. Most days I won, but victory was harder and harder to achieve as the students learned.
It was during one of these pick-up mock fights that I was disarmed by a student I hadn't seen since I forced his confrontation with his father. Dustil Onasi stood before me, twirling my lightsaber in his hand as he swung his towards my neck. With a quick shift of my hips, I ducked below the swing and grabbed his wrist. I twisted it backwards until it wouldn't go any further without breaking. At that point, Dustil had two choices; he could let go of the lightsaber or I could break his wrist. He smartly let go of his lightsaber and I was armed once more. We continued exchanging blows until finally, he yielded with a smile. This wasn't an expression I really expected to see on his face, especially not after the last time we both were armed.
We stood and panted as we contemplated each other. The room seemed to disappear as I studied the young man in front of me. The sound of applause distracted me and I comically bowed to the room.
"Thank you all! That concludes Revan's Amazing Battle Reenactments! We will have another show tomorrow, same time, same place!" The students trickled out of the room. Dustil made no move towards the door. He was staring at me and I admit freely that it was very unnerving. After the last student left, I spoke.
"You've improved." A simple statement, neither offensive nor defensive, I wasn't sure where we stood at this point. I'd only met him three times, once when Carth and I confronted him, once when he tried to kill me and once when I broke his assumptions.
"I've been watching you." Another innocuous statement, this time lobbed into the conversation by Dustil.
"Know thy enemy, I understand." Oops, now I was going on the offensive by being mildly offensive to him. Carth would probably be displeased. Then again, Carth hadn't been bothered to come visit me for over a week. That encounter had only lasted a few hours before he left again. We were on rocky ground, just like normal for us. I really didn't need Dustil blowing up and tattling to daddy to push us over the edge.
"You are a very good teacher. I watch your moves and try to emulate them as much as possible. Your lightsabers seem to be extensions of your hands. It is beauty in motion, deadly beauty, but beauty nonetheless." Did this mean I was still his enemy or was I an instructor?
"When you've been in as many battles as I have with the caliber of opponents that I have, you'll understand where those skills come from. Hell, lightsabers are about the only thing I'm skilled at." I sat down on the bench where I reviewed the students on the first day of my impromptu teaching.
"That's why I've been coming and learning. I, well, I admire you." That sounded painful to admit, I laughed to myself.
"So that I understand, you wanted to kill me and now you admire me? Are you trying to distract me from the weapon you're aiming at my heart or back?"
"Father and I have talked, a lot." Dustil paused and I wondered what they talked about. I wished Carth would talk to me. I needed out of the Temple if I was jealous of a spoiled Padawan.
"You're ok with me being around now? No longer want to kill me? You have the mysterious Jedi-speak down but you'll find I'm not into that."
"No, you're much blunter." I smiled at that. I could do Jedi-speak with the best of them. I chose not to, I'd been misled by it too many times to use it on anyone and everyone. Dustil continued, "You told me before that I needed to improve my techniques. I'd like you to instruct me."
"You, Dustil Onasi, victim extraordinaire, want me, Darth Revan, to teach you? Teach you what, Dustil?"
"I…you're making this tougher than it needs to be. I want to learn how to use a lightsaber, you're the best here. If you don't want to teach me, fine, I'll find someone else." I was going through serious Carth withdrawal if I actually missed the Onasi impatience like this. Well, if I couldn't bait Carth, I'd bait the next best thing.
"You're showing a disturbing lack of patience, Padawan. I'm simply trying to gauge your true motive behind the request."
"I thought you didn't do mysterious Jedi-speak." I was really missing Carth. I wondered if Dustil realized how much of his father he had in him.
"Very good, Dustil, you scored a direct hit. Sure, I'll teach you. Why not, after all it's not like I don't have anything else to be doing."
"Don't blow a gasket showing the excitement at the prospect, Revan."
With those fated words, I started tutoring Dustil. Another few weeks passed as I continued working with the group of students after their other classes and Dustil into the evening hours. No one spoke to me about it, but, at one point, I did see Master Kavar standing at the back of the room smiling. Each of the students improved, including my first two pupils.
No one improved more than Dustil, however. To my surprise, as we trained, we grew closer. We spoke about generalities, his classes, Force powers, Force stances, dorm bunks. The conversations evolved into deeper and more personal topics; Selene, his mother, the quest for the Star Forge, how I turned Yuthura Ban towards the light. We were learning about each other and I didn't realize it until he burst out with a startling statement.
"Why are you ignoring my father?" He distracted me from blocking his sweep and the training lightsaber flew through my body, effectively killing me.
"What are you talking about?" We started again. As we thrust and parried, ducked and jumped, we'd reached the point that the sabers blurred into a colorful lightshow.
"You don't call him, you don't seek him out. What happened?" I blocked a particularly brutal move towards my head. As I countered with a chop at his knees, I took a moment to think about what he said.
"We comm each other. I can't seek him out, I'm forbidden from leaving the Temple, remember?" Dustil blocked my move and spun away. With a particularly inventive roll, his saber turned towards my stomach. Our lightsabers crackled where they met, sending up sparks.
"You don't comm each other, he comms you. You've hurt him, Revan." I stood and forgot to defend myself as Dustil's saber severed me in half. Thankfully, with the training blades, everything stayed attached. "You didn't realize, did you? He thinks he's intruding, he thinks you're turning into Bastila. He thinks you don't care."
"I have to fix this." Dustil nodded. I smiled at him and without thinking, hugged him. He stood stiffly in my arms until he awkwardly returned the embrace. "Thank you."
"You're welcome." As we broke apart, we heard an awkward cough from the doorway. I turned to see a padawan standing in the doorway.
"Jedi Revan, your presence is required in the Council Chambers." I nodded my thanks to the padawan as he backed out of the room.
"We'll pick this up later, Dustil. I've been summoned." Dustil inclined his head and I made my way out to the Council Chambers.
When I entered, I noticed that the entire Council was arrayed around the room. I stopped at the threshold until I was gestured forward. I suddenly wished I'd changed my tattered robes into something a bit more presentable.
"Jedi Knight Revan, do you have any idea why you've been summoned?" A Master I didn't recognize addressed me.
"No, Honored Masters, I am unaware of why you would require my presence."
"We have heard rumors of your exploits in the sparring rooms." Another Master, this one female with shocking white-blond hair addressed me.
"Are you talking about my advice sessions?"
"Our sources inform us that these are, for all intents and purposes, training sessions. You are not an authorized instructor." Her voice was cold. For a moment, I wondered what I did to her to make her hate me. Then I realized that I didn't care, as long as she didn't act on that hate to harm me.
"I wouldn't dream of instructing sub-par students on necessary techniques. These are pick-up fights. I'm sure you've heard that I've encouraged a roomful of students to attack me at once."
"Jedi Revan, we ask that you keep a respectful tone to your voice."
"I'll be respectful when I deem it warranted. I am helping padawans that need the extra training. If the Council has an issue with this, then perhaps the Council needs to readjust their priorities. If this is all I'm here for, I have much more important things to take care of." I turned as if to exit the room but heard someone clapping behind me.
"Girl, I knew you would make me proud. Atris, she just told you! I told you she deserved the promotion, hoo-boy, it's about time people realize that just because I'm old, I know a thing or two." Jolee's voice broke my concentration and I started to laugh. My laughter stopped abruptly when I realized what he'd said. What promotion?
"Jedi Knight Revan, please come to the center of the room." Master Vandar spoke to me. I walked to the center of the room and the lights dimmed. A flare of lightsabers surrounded me. For a moment, I thought the Council was going to execute me. Then, Master Vandar's voice broke through the darkness.
"Jedi Knight Revan, please kneel." I knelt. "We hereby honor you with the title of Master Jedi. Please repeat the Code of the Jedi." I recited the Code as I knelt within the circle of multi-hued lightsabers. I was in a bit of a shell-shocked state. The rest of the ceremony passed in a blur.
I stayed kneeling until I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was attached to Jolee. He pulled me to my feet.
"Padawan, please enter." The door to the Council Chambers opened and Dustil Onasi stepped through.
"Please tell the Council about your interactions with Master Revan." Dustil recounted how I forced him to realize that he was hurting his father, how I trained him in the lightsaber during our sparring sessions. He finished by recounting some of the conversations we'd had about our pasts and how I showed him what it meant to be a Jedi.
"Padawan, you do not have a Master, correct?" Dustil nodded.
"Master Revan, would you be willing to formerly take on the responsibilities of training Padawan Onasi?" I was still shocked from the promotion so all I could do was nod.
Sorry for the delay all. I volunteered to beta some stories and between that and RL, stories went a bit crazy. There is another chapter that will be uploaded shortly, just have to beta my own stuff yet. I haven't forgotten Carth and his promise of a few weeks, you'll see it in the next chapter.
Thanks to all those that review, you're the best!