A/N: This is the last chapter in our story. Thanks for sticking with us, for all the support and reviews!

The next story in our saga is one of our absolute favourites. It will take us about a year into the future and is called "Parents and Children". We won't say more, other than that it will be a true journey of discovery for both Raven and Eeth!

We will be taking a short break -– expect the new story in a few weeks.

-Livia&Raven

Raven might have been crazy enough to allow Tahl to get to her during chemistry, but she was not insane enough to take too long eating lunch after Eeth had told her in no uncertain terms to finish her food. Of course, he was still finished well before her. He always was.

When she was done, Raven stood and started clearing the dishes, wanting to put as much time between now and whatever horror Eeth had in store, courtesy of her seemingly endless inability to conduct herself in a way befitting her status.

Eeth wordlessly helped her clear the table. Before she could find an excuse to procrastinate further, he said, "We can wash the dishes later. Before we do, go to my cupboard and fetch me the large paddle. The second to the right."

Raven had known that this was the likely outcome, but now that her doom was imminent, she couldn't help but protest. Sure, the implement in question was not as bad as the black paddle with all the holes that she hated so much, but it was still mighty unpleasant. "No! You're not being reasonable about this. I didn't even start the fight!" she complained, feeling her face heat and frustration build.

Eeth raised his eyebrows.

"You may safely leave it to me to decide what kind of punishment you deserve," he said calmly, but with a hint of steel to his voice. "Apparently, you need a reminder of that fact. And since you did not see fit to obey my instructions, you may just fetch me the black paddle with the holes."

Raven stiffened, her nostrils flared, and her fists balled tightly at her sides. Her jaw clenched, and she was barely holding her temper at what she considered an unfair upgrade. She did for now, though, and strode off to the cupboard in a flaff. The door flew open, slamming into the wall as Raven ripped the paddle from its hanger, tearing the leather loop clean off. Raven slammed the door and then did something she had never done in Eeth's presence over punishment: she lost her shit. She took the awful thing and cracked it across her thigh in an effort at breaking it. Of course this did not work. Instead, she just bruised her thigh, so she threw the paddle at the wall, thinking that if it wasn't damaged, then at least their wall would suffer.

Eeth, however, reached out with the Force and caught the paddle before it slammed into the wall. He levitated it towards himself and examined it briefly. There was, of course, no damage other than the torn leather loop which Raven would get to mend later.

Seeing that the paddle had neither broken –in fact, Raven was quite sure her leg had come off second best in that encounter– nor had it hit the wall, pissed her off even more! Her face went pink, and her fists started shaking at her sides.

"Rein in your temper, now," Eeth ordered in a tone of voice that brooked no objection. "You know better than to give in to it. If you need help, ask for it."

Thankfully, having meltdowns and throwing fits was not something Raven often did. It just wasn't in her personality to fly off the handle. That was not to say it didn't ever happen. It certainly had happened enough lately thanks to what everyone said was puberty. She looked from Eeth to the paddle, and then the dam broke. Raven covered her face and started crying.

Eeth stepped up to Raven, handed her a handkerchief and rested a hand on her shoulder. He sent a surge of calming energy through her bond, but remained silent. He felt that Raven needed to learn to deal with her fits of temper, preferably without being put across his knee first.

"I can do it," she told him, feeling both embarrassed and cowed that Eeth needed to calm her. Raven was taking this unusually badly and having a hard time accepting guidance, even though she knew it was in her best interest.

"Then do," Eeth replied stoically. "And when you are done, come and ask for your punishment."

This was something he had never required from Raven before, but right now, he felt that some demonstration of acceptance would not go amiss.

"Ask for it?" Raven looked up at him warily, hoping he didn't mean what she thought he meant.

"You heard me," said Eeth implacably.

She had. Thus, after risking another second staring at him in disbelief, she ran for her bedroom.

Her room had never felt so uncomfortable. No matter where she tried to meditate, it was not right. Eeth had never ordered her to ask for punishment before. There was no way she was asking for something she did not want! Raven huffed, snorted and generally brooded her way through the first hour of an unsuccessful meditation. She was going to stay in her bedroom for the rest of her apprenticeship, she vowed.

Eeth could be patient when he felt it warranted. Right now, he was prepared to give Raven time. He was certainly not going to wait indefinitely; but then, he knew that Raven was hardly going to spend the rest of her apprenticeship in her bedroom, much as she might feel inclined to do so right now. Eeth left the paddle on the table and washed the dishes. Then he sat and started reading through his Council briefings.

The sound of Eeth clearing up after their meal by himself added to Raven's guilt, but she remained in her self-imposed exile, wallowing in pity for another hour or so. Finally, after two and a half hours of sulking through meditation, Raven slinked from her bedroom looking about as tragic as she ever had. Ignoring the paddle on the table, she sat in the chair beside Eeth and remained silent, her head down. Her temper had been replaced with a new dilemma: the prospect of eating so much humble pie that one would risk choking on it.

"Padawan," Eeth said quietly, raising his head from the datapad on which he was working. "I gave you explicit instructions. I have no particular desire to force you to comply with them, but I will if you find yourself unable to do so on your own."

He knew perfectly well that he was asking for a lot, which was why he did not typically do this. When he saw a need to punish his padawan, he did not set out to humiliate her any more than necessary. But today, her acceptance of a well-deserved punishment had left much to be desired. She had to learn to do better than that.

Raven met his gaze but only briefly. She had had more than enough time to come to terms with his orders, yet she hadn't managed. Raven stood and pursed her lips, remaining there for a solid minute before her fingers went to the waistband of her trousers and she wordlessly dropped the lot to her knees. Raven wasn't exactly a prideful personality, yet asking for this was really, really hard, and she stumbled over how to start. In the end, she simply picked up the paddle and held it out, hoping that her compliance and offer was enough.

Eeth shook his head, making no move to accept the paddle.

"That was not what I told you to do, and you know it," he said. There was a certain amount of compassion in his voice. He had always been a rather proud person himself, and those occasions on which his master had decided to put a dent in that pride had not exactly been easy for him to deal with. Still, in hindsight he knew that it had been necessary. He was not going to go back on his instructions.

Why she found this so horrifying, Raven didn't know. This was Eeth, her master, and she ought not to feel embarrassed about asking for punishment, but she did! It took Raven another minute before she tried again. Her mouth opened and then closed. How did one ask for something they didn't want? Her jaw squared, not in defiance but conflict, and she looked up at him.

"Padawan, if you take much longer, I will raise the number of swats," Eeth said. If this did not resolve Raven's internal conflict, he did not know what would.

"No!" Raven looked down at the paddle, then up at Eeth. This was harder than she had ever thought possible, but earning more was to be avoided at all costs. Thus, she handed him the paddle once again and this time managed to get out words. "Will you punish me for fighting with Tahl and for accepting correction poorly?" Raven thought this should cover it, not that standing there sans pants and asking for a paddling with the paddle from HELL was easy. It was not.

"Yes, I will," Eeth replied calmly, as if this was a request for handing over the salt. He accepted the paddle, slid back in his chair and said, "Get over my lap."

Somehow, Eeth's casual acceptance of her awkward request helped a little. Still, Raven practically threw herself over his lap, desperate to escape the shame she felt.

Once Raven was in position, Eeth laid the paddle onto the table and started spanking her with his hand.

Raven had been expecting the black paddle from hell. That he was spanking her first was not at all appreciated. "Master, no wait, please!" she gasped between the first half dozen swats, her hands and feet slipping on the floor as she tried to steady herself. Eeth, as usual, was making every swat count. He covered his padawan's bottom with hard and fast swats until it was dark red and she was bucking and kicking over his lap. Then he reached for the paddle and brought it down onto her bottom with quite a bit of force. It took her breath away. In fact, it wasn't until Eeth landed that damned horrid thing for the third time that Raven could draw enough breath to let out a screech; it was ear-piercingly high pitched and could have cracked glass.

Raven tried to struggle free, her hands and feet trying to gain purchase, but Eeth just put a restraining hand on her back and gave her another three. Coupled with the handspanking, he believed that half a dozen would be enough for this particular offence. Judging from Raven's reaction, he thought he was leaving an impression.

Raven was in tears by this point. She had not been able to stand this particular paddle last time either as it covered both cheeks and some of her thighs all at once, making the effect spectacular. Well, so was the capacity of her lungs, apparently. Raven lay there bawling, sucking in lungfuls of air and trying hard to recover but failing miserably. The urgency and volume behind her sobs was genuine at first, but after a while, she was starting to indulge it in an effort at making Eeth feel guilty for causing her so much pain.

Unfortunately for Raven, that had never worked before, nor was it working now. When Eeth meted out punishment, he invariably believed that it was deserved and he saw no reason whatsoever to feel guilty over it. He simply laid the paddle back onto the table and waited for Raven to calm down.

Raven switched between rubbing and bouts of crying until she eventually sobbed herself dry and fell limp. "C-can I get up please?"

"You may," replied Eeth, helping her up and handing her a handkerchief. "Have you learned anything from all this, padawan?"

"That by not coming to you for help, I lost my temper. And trying to break your paddle just meant you tried breaking it on my ass," Raven sniffed, giving him a most displeased look. Her ass ached like nothing else; even rubbing didn't help much. It was a different kind of pain from the cane. Rather than a deep cutting line of fire it was an all-over ache but it thumped with the same level of intensity and covered more ground.

"Correct," said Eeth. "We will talk more about the first part tonight, after our meditation. As for the second part: You will not ever tell me how to punish you and how not to punish you, and you will certainly not try to tamper with my spanking implements and to manipulate my options. If you do, it will just earn you a worse punishment. Is that absolutely clear?"

"Yes, master," Raven said, nodding miserably without meeting his gaze while both hands lightly massaged her ass. She hated that paddle, it was fucking horrible!

"Alright," said Eeth. "We will leave the paddle here for the moment. I want you to repair the loop later. Right now, meditate for half an hour. Then we will have a sparring session."

He was also going to perform some healing if the meditation went to his satisfaction. If not, Raven was going to have to endure the aftereffects of her punishment until dinner. But he was not about to tell her that in advance.

Raven looked at the paddle like it was a live snake. "I can't spar, it hurts too much," she complained.

"Meditate," Eeth told her firmly.

Raven wasn't stupid enough to argue this order, so she nodded once and disappeared into her bedroom to do as told. She took her mat from its place, folded it in quarters and knelt, her head banging gently into the plasterboard. All Raven wanted to do was go sit on the cold tiles in her refresher, although disobeying Eeth right now was not even worth contemplating. After a minute or two spent grumbling about having the meanest master in the Temple (she didn't really believe that but it was cathartic to cuss him out), she closed her eyes and started to do as Eeth had said.

Since Eeth sensed through their bond that Raven was complying, he left her to it. After exactly thirty minutes, he knocked on her bedroom door and entered.

"You may stop now," he told her. "Bare your bottom and lie on the bed. I will perform some healing."

Raven was grateful for the healing, and there were no complaints about this order. She lay on the bed, burying her face in the pillow as he flipped up the back of her tunic. After a moment her head turned to the side so she could speak and without the pillow muffling her voice. "Why did you humiliate me like that?" Raven was, of course, referring to Eeth making her ask for punishment she did not want.

"Padawan, you tried to start an argument about your punishment," Eeth said as he started tending to her bottom. "I will not stand for that. If you had shown a little more acceptance of your well-deserved punishment in the first place, rest assured that I would not have made you ask for it."

Raven looked over her shoulder at him, her expression pained. "I don't like that paddle, it really hurts. Anyone would try to get out of it. Didn't you ever try and get out of punishment, not even once? Ever!?"

Eeth hesitated. Much as he was loath to talk about himself, he usually tried to answer his padawan's questions honestly.

"Not exactly," he finally said slowly. "Which does not mean that I always attained the necessary level of acceptance. When I did not, I would just bear the punishment and refuse to learn anything from it. My master realised this fairly soon and found her own strategies to break through my stubbornness."

Raven could see Eeth doing that, and she envied his ability to remain stoic and in control by sheer force of will at such a young age. Raven was just not there yet; Eeth could reliably bring her unstuck using pain, and as much as she wished it were otherwise, it was an effective method of achieving discipline with her. Naturally, Raven said nothing of her thoughts. "What was the worst punishment you ever endured, and who gave it to you?" she asked, wanting to know more about the not-so-perfect side of Eeth, if only to make herself feel better about her many failings.

Eeth again thought about this question. He had been tortured during missions on several occasions but he did not think that any of these incidents qualified as "punishment" since they had been unrelated to his behaviour. That left the consequences his master had imposed, most commonly for his arrogance and thinking that he knew better than her and his teachers.

"To be honest," he said, "what left the strongest impression on me was the one time my master refused to punish me for disobeying her during a mission because she felt I was not open to accepting her correction and, more importantly, learning from it. Punishment did eventually occur, once I had come to understand why I had made the wrong choice, or at least why I had made it with the wrong attitude and for the wrong reasons. The Council put me on probation and my master caned me. But none of this hurt as much as her initial refusal to address my behaviour. It made me feel as if I was not worthy of her correction."

He abruptly screwed the jar of bacta shut and rose. This had been a way more personal conversation than he felt comfortable with!

Raven raised her eyebrows at hearing that because the idea of Eeth ever refusing to correct her had never occurred to her until this moment. She sat up, trying not to get bacta all over her coverlet, and looked at him. "That would be worse than having to ask for it," she had to admit. She forbore to ask if he would ever do that to her, if only to spare herself the answer. Sensing his discomfort, Raven changed the subject. "Would you take a look at my leg? It came off second best when I tried to break the paddle."

"Show me," said Eeth, who was relieved to be on safer ground although he took care not to let it show. He examined the spot on Raven's upper thigh and found that a big bruise was forming. He applied a very slight touch of healing energy to it, just enough to take the edge off the pain.

"I will leave the rest as an object lesson," he told Raven. "You had better not try that again."

Raven thought that was fair enough, not that she was happy about it. "Thanks," she said and stood stiffly; she'd still feel her paddling, but it wasn't going to prevent her from sitting down or completing their workout. The workout was something she was looking forward to. She hoped it would be something fun and not kata or weights.

Fortunately for Raven, Eeth rarely used workouts as a punishment unless Raven had specifically misbehaved in a way that was related to her training. That practically never happened, though. Raven was highly motivated, diligent and persevering where her physical training was concerned and Eeth wanted to reward that. Besides, tasks that required her to sit still were usually much more effective punishments for Raven than any workout could be.

Today, he led her through a round of warm-ups, worked on a new move with her for twenty minutes and then engaged her in a long free-style fight. He knew she would enjoy that, and so did he.

As was typical, Raven gave him her all and was thoroughly exhausted by the time he called their session to an end. She showered, changed into a clean uniform and met Eeth at the gym door. Raven might be having a hard time lately, but things always seemed less stressful after a workout. The smile on her face was that of pleasant exhaustion as they headed down a path that wound through some gardens with a pond on their way home. She was about to suggest that they sit and enjoy the serenity for a while when Eeth's commlink chimed in a tone that denoted the incoming message was from the Council. Raven huffed as the blue holographic figure of Mace Windu appeared, but hid her annoyance from Mace well enough.

"Eeth," said Mace. "I am sorry to disturb you but we just received notice that there has been an assassination attempt on the Chancellor of Taraeus. She has requested Jedi assistance and we are sending a team. Given the sensitivity of the issue, it would be good to have the entire Council present for their briefing. They will leave at eight. Time is of the essence."

"I will be with you shortly," said Eeth and terminated the call.

"Padawan, I am sorry, but I need to attend the briefing," he told Raven. "I will be back by the time of our evening meditation. Please take our bags home, do your homework and have dinner in the dining hall. After dinner, repair the loop of the paddle that you have torn. You will find some pieces of leather string in our sewing kit. Any questions?"

"No, master," came the predictable response. Raven did, however, frown at having to repair the loop. She did not want to do that on principle. Besides, she didn't know how to fix it, or so she told herself, thinking that it was a good enough excuse. "May the Force be with you," she said and bowed low.

Eeth returned the bow and headed off to the Council chamber. The mission briefing was complex, but since the mission team needed to leave by eight, drawing it out endlessly was, thankfully, not an option. Eeth made his way back to their quarters by a quarter to eight, carrying a wrapped sandwich that he had picked up from the dining hall.

Raven had spent what little remained of the afternoon doing her homework. Dinner was spent in the dining hall with Lakhri and Flynt. They were about to head out on a mission to some planet a bazillion light years away to escort a ship of refugees safely from their war-torn world. Of course, their actual mission mandate was far more complicated than that, but this was the gist. Raven was glad to have a chance to speak to them before they left. Having returned to their quarters, she sat on the couch and switched on the holo, which was where she was when Eeth entered..

"Good evening, padawan," Eeth said, sealing the door behind himself. As usual, the first thing he did was take off his cloak and hang it onto a hook.

Raven stood from where she had been watching a nature documentary and stretched. "Master," she greeted him through a yawn. "How did it go?"

"As well as could be expected," Eeth replied, pulling off his boots. "Have you completed your homework and eaten dinner?"

He put his boots away and carried his sandwich to the dining table. Then he went to their kitchen to wash his hands.

"Homework is done, of course," Raven said. She didn't spare him a slightly indignant look at that question. "I went to the dining hall with Lakhri and Flynt," she continued. "If I'd have known you'd have to eat sandwiches, I would have brought you something back." Raven actually felt bad for not thinking of him there. She sat back on the couch, but kept the holo on mute for the moment.

"I thought you might be busy repairing the paddle," Eeth replied, returning from the kitchen with a plate and a glass of water. He placed both on the table, sat down and asked, "I take it you have already finished doing so?"

"I didn't know how you wanted it fixed, so I left it," she told him, pretending to be engrossed in the silent holo channel. Sure, Raven thought she had given him a good enough reason, but there was always a risk when she disobeyed him, and the bottom line was that she didn't want to do it because it was too much damned humble pie!

Eeth took the sandwich out of its wrapper and placed it onto his plate. Then he shut off the holo with a wave of his hand.

"Hey! It was just at the good part," she complained.

"Padawan, come here," Eeth ordered, and the tone of his voice made clear that he was not pleased at all.

Huffing, Raven went to him, sitting opposite when he gestured to the seat and looking none too pleased herself.

"You had no call to watch the holo channel at all before having completed the task I set you," Eeth said sharply. "What do you mean, you did not know how I wanted it fixed? When I gave you my instructions, I asked if you had questions and you said no."

"I didn't think to ask then," she told him, looking away because that was a lame excuse if ever there was one. "Fine, you can show me how you want it fixed?"

"Padawan, I simply need it to have a loop so I can hang it on a hook," Eeth snapped. "That much should have been obvious. Did you even spend a second's thought on this before you decided to completely disregard my explicit instructions?"

Absolutely she had, but those thoughts had been mostly centred around how much this was hurting her pride and how to get out of it. Raven didn't dare say as much, though. Instead she jumped on the defensive. "I didn't disregard your instructions, I just didn't know how you wanted it fixed. It isn't a big deal."

Eeth took a bite of his sandwich and drank some water. Then he fixed her with a penetrating look. "You," he said sternly, "will leave it to me to decide what is a big deal and what is not. And you have not answered my question. Did you give the matter any thought? Did you as much as look at the paddle and think about how you might fix it?"

Raven's lips drew into a thin line and she started fiddling with the sewing stuff on the table. She knew she had to be very careful about how she answered this, and unfortunately, the hesitation in coming up with an answer wasn't working in her favour. "No, I just thought I'd wait for you. Why do you care so much? It's not like it's a life support unit or a busted cooler." Both of those things Raven considered urgent fixes.

"Very well, " said Eeth coolly, picking up the paddle. "Drop your pants and bend over the table. Your attitude leaves much to be desired. I will see to it that it improves before we continue the discussion."

"What! Wait, no, master, please!" Raven shot up from her chair, almost toppling it in her haste to back up. She had one hand covering her ass and the other held out in some half-ditch effort at fending him off. The padawan knew that this was only going to make it worse, but for reasons that only made sense at the moment, she had to try talking him out of this. Besides, in her opinion, no amount of attitude was worth smacking her with that horrid thing. None!

Eeth rose abruptly from his chair, made his way over to his padawan, grabbed her ear, bent her over and tucked her under his left arm. The paddle with the holes came crashing down onto her bottom with quite a bit of force. Eeth knew that this hurt plenty even through a tunic, pants and underwear.

"The argument stops here and now," he said over her wailing. "I will tell you why this is a big deal." The paddle came down a second time. "It is a big deal because I told you to do something and you did not do it, apparently for no good reason." He emphasised this statement with a third swat. "I have never stood for disobedience and will not suddenly start, whether it concerns my order to repair my paddle" – a fourth swat underlined that bit - "or my order to bend over the table." He applied a fifth swat to the tops of her thighs, which had Raven howling so loudly that she was quite certain this half of the Temple was aware of her predicament.

"Is that quite clearly understood?" he barked, bringing down the paddle again in what was the hardest swat yet and drawing fresh wailing, kicking and bucking from Raven who simply couldn't help the reaction; the pain was excruciating.

"Y-yes, master!" Raven gasped. It was the only sane response to that question, and she would honest to the Force say absolutely anything to avoid another swat.

"Good," Eeth said grimly, not making any move to release his hold on his hapless padawan. "Now will you answer my question? Did you make any effort, however small, to comply with my instruction or did you simply not feel like doing it?"

This question drew another bout of tears and she swiped at her nose. "Don't smack me," she prefaced her answer. "But… I didn't want to do it." Raven didn't want to admit to that, but he was leaving her no choice.

"Whether or not I smack you is not up to you to decide," Eeth replied sternly. "Nor have I given you any choice over repairing the paddle. You tore the loop, you fix it. This is how things work for anyone who is in my charge. So what conceivable reason could you have had for not wanting to do it?"

"I didn't want to do it because it hurt my pride having to fix the thing when I hate it," Raven confessed. A hand reached back to tug the hem of her tunic lower, further protecting her thighs, and stayed there. She couldn't reach to cover or rub her ass from this position, but she could make it clear that this was precisely what she wanted to do.

Eeth promptly pulled her tunic out of her grasp and up over her bottom. He ordered, "Take your hand away." Without waiting for compliance, he pulled her pants and underpants down to her knees. Raven panicked. "Not bare!" she cried and started struggling in earnest now, but Eeth ignored this.

"If your pride is that much of an issue, we will have to work on that," he said brusquely. "In this case, it has gained you nothing but trouble. When I give you instructions, I expect you to make your best effort to comply with them, whether they hurt your pride or not. Now tell me what you did that was wrong and why it was wrong. All of it. How many more swats I give you and how hard I make them depends entirely on whether your answer is to my satisfaction, so I suggest you do your best, for a change."

Eager not to make this any worse than it already was, Raven started talking. "I disregarded your orders to fix the paddle because it hurt my pride to do so, and that was wrong because it is my duty to obey you!" she said through tears.

"Correct," Eeth said coolly, administering another firm swat with the sole difference that this time it met bare skin and sent Raven squirming and fighting to get up. "What else?"

"Putting my pride before your orders is not very jedilike because it impedes my duty. Pride leads to the Dark Side and then I had an attitude about it when you called me on it," Raven brought out, sans grammar and in a hell of a rush. She coughed because at this point snot and tears were clogging her nose. Something in that had to save her from another swat, she hoped, because no amount of wriggling or squirming was going to help. In fact, nothing short of him actually stopping would ease the intensity of this, and even then, the pain would linger on for ages if healing wasn't offered.

"You did indeed," Eeth said grimly. "Your punishment would have been decidedly milder if you had dispensed with the attitutde. When I tell you to bend over, I mean it. I do not appreciate having to come after you, nor will that save you a single swat. On the contrary. As for your pride, your effort to protect it has not exactly worked in your favour. You had better not make that mistake again. Now let me drive the lesson home."

Ignoring Raven's protests, Eeth raised the paddle again and brought it down in a ringing swat. That raised the count to eight. Another half dozen would do nicely, he decided.

"No, NO! OWwwahhh!" Raven wailed. She didn't want him driving anything anywhere with that paddle, something that was made clear as he bought it down for the ninth time, eliciting a squeal from Raven that practically peeled the paint from the walls and set her ears ringing. Raven wasn't deliberately fighting him, but nor could it be helped. She kicked, squirmed and flailed under his arm, all to no avail. When he landed the tenth, Raven had lost all her fight, and the only thing she was managing to get out was a lot of squealing, crying and nonsensical pleading and bawling.

Unfortunately for Raven, Eeth was going for her age in swats, and as usual, he was unperturbed by her cries. By the time he had finished and released his hold on her, he was sure that she was going to think twice before ignoring his instructions again and giving him an attitude about it to boot.

"Now repair the paddle," he ordered, his voice cutting through her wails. "I will only provide healing when you are done."

Still bawling, Raven accepted the paddle and limped around the table to where the sewing kit sat, her trousers hitched up on one side so she wouldn't fall over them. Her ass thumped, ached, burned and stung all at once, quite a dossier of effects for one implement, but this was precisely why Raven hated the damned thing so much. Force, she could feel the heat radiating off her ass from ten centimetres away and knew it had to be bright red, probably still a bit white in the areas Eeth had targeted repeatedly. She didn't want to fix the thing after just having been paddled with it; it was a triple helping of humble pie! She did so, though, and did it while standing and shifting from foot to foot because there was no way Raven was sitting down.

Eeth inspected the paddle briefly and nodded.

"Alright, hang it onto its hook," he said. "Then lie on the couch. I will provide healing while you tell me whether you have learned anything from all this."

Raven put the paddle back, lay on the couch and buried her face in her hands, Eeth's handkerchief still balled in a fist. With no threat of paddles flying at her ass, she had no problem complying with this order. She did not, however, start speaking.

"Your insights," said Eeth when it looked as if Raven were going to just continue lying there, sniffling and feeling sorry for herself.

The truth was that Raven didn't want to talk about this. Why did he always want introspection after whaling on her? Sure, she understood that there was a difference between punishment and discipline and why Eeth imposed both, but why couldn't the torture end with the punishment just this one time? Raven sniffled again, the handkerchief coming up to swipe at her nose before snot could run onto the cushion.

"You were right about the meditations," she admitted. "I still need them." Raven had kind of known this anyway but had not wanted to admit it, not even to herself, let alone to Eeth. She had wanted to handle this herself without help, but that had not worked out.

"I have to say I agree," said Eeth. "The question now is, what conclusions will you draw from this? What do you intend to do about it?"

"Ask for your help," she replied. Privately, Raven didn't think her ass could take another round of Eeth's disapproval, but it was more than that. She was also making herself, and those around her, miserable.

"In what way?" Eeth asked patiently as he let a generous amount of healing energy spread into the bruised areas. "Do you want me to resume managing your meditation schedule or would you prefer to ask me to meditate with you whenever you feel the need?"

Now that Raven had not expected to hear. She twisted to face him, not bothering to hide the surprise on her face over the fact that, after everything, he was still willing to give her a choice in this. Raven wasn't sure what to say. "Uh, I don't know," was the honest answer to that.

"Then think about it," said Eeth. "You are growing up. As such, you need to learn to live with your own choices — and the consequences. But you also need to recognise when you are unable to do something on your own." He was not going to save Raven from the responsibility of finding out how much help she needed, and put this in word. This, too, was a lesson she had to learn.

Raven put her head back down and did as he had told her. She hadn't expected Eeth to give her a choice in this, and now that she had it, she wasn't sure what to do with it.

Eeth slowly and carefully worked on her bottom, spreading bacta across the area and applying Force-aided healing, perhaps more generously than he usually would. He did not speak. As far as he was concerned, Raven could have all the time she needed to think this through.

When he was finished, Raven stood and started fanning the bacta dry with her hand. Her ass still hurt, but it wasn't going to be bad enough to stop her from sleeping. She had actually spent time thinking about that and decided to go with what she considered to be the safest option, even if it wasn't her preference. "Would you take over my meditation schedule?" she asked. It had been like pulling teeth getting that out, but it would most certainly lessen the chances of another round with that paddle – a cause that Raven thought was worth any amount of humble pie.

"I will," said Eeth. "For now. Not indefinitely. At some point, you will have to manage your own schedule and take responsibility for your mental wellbeing. But it might have been too early for that. In any case, we are going to resume your lunchtime meditations for the foreseeable future."

Raven had gathered as much and she nodded. She was still feeling pretty sad and sorry for herself, but then, Raven had always had trouble letting things go. That said, there had been very few instances during her apprenticeship after which Raven had remained seriously angry with Eeth. She looked up at him, unsure what to do. It was too late to go to the lounge now, not that Raven wanted to ask after tonight's debacle. But they could meditate. Perhaps offering to do so might even prove to him that she was serious about accepting his help and was going to make more of an effort. "Can we meditate now?" she asked, trying not to sound pathetic.

"Of course, padawan," Eeth said gently. "Shall we do it here or shall we go to the observation lounge or a meditation garden?"

"The garden, definitely," Raven said. She hadn't thought of going elsewhere, and it sounded like a good idea. Then another thought occurred to her. "Could it be moving meditation?" The idea of a moving meditation in the garden seemed wonderful to her.

"Yes, of course," said Eeth. "If you feel up to it." He had provided significantly more healing than he usually did, but then, she had received two paddlings that day and would probably still be feeling them.

"I do, and then I don't have to sit. Everyone's a winner," Raven said, quoting Flynt. She was starting to regain her equilibrium and forgive Eeth.

Eeth smiled. "Alright then," he said. "Moving meditation it is."

~~~ The End ~~~