A/N: Hi all! We hope that you've enjoyed Goyts so far. This is quite a long story to tell but, as always, we're enjoying rehashing it and sharing it with you guys. Thank you to all who reviewed and offered feedback, and welcome to any new faces. This chapter focuses quite heavily on Kaden's issues, a trend that will continue throughout this story. Our teams are about to enter the first of two new worlds, both of which will provide their own trials, adventures, joys and of course, mischief. Enjoy.


The day passed by as uneventfully as those before. There was nothing more to prepare for the mission; thus, all padawans spent their time on lessons, projects and workouts. Drex was currently "torturing" Kaden with the details of a Soresu move that he knew the boy was none too happy with. In his opinion, given Kaden's lack of enthusiasm for Soresu, the boy would do well to make a lot more out of the opportunity to learn Ataru that he had been given. Drex was just hoping Raven would finally get around to asserting her authority, or he might have to step in after all.

Raven had never been good at space travel. She was bored. She glanced up from the work Eeth had set her to see what he was doing. "Want to go join Drex and Kaden? They might like to spar with us, or we could join in their lesson," she suggested. This would serve a dual purpose for Raven. Firstly, she planned to slack off a bit, very uncharacteristic of her when it came to her physical training, but having Eeth reprimand her might just work to make Kaden feel like she wasn't given special treatment either. Far, far from it, in fact. It would be risky… Raven wasn't aware that Eeth had handed his paddle over to Drex, thus she still thought it possible that pulling this stunt on her master might very well end up in a swat or two for her effort. And secondly, it would provide a welcome change of pace.

Eeth strongly suspected that Raven was trying to get out of her work, and he did not appreciate that. "Only if you have finished writing your assessment of the taxation bill," he said evenly. "Have you?"

The teen barely refrained from groaning. The taxation bill had been one of the more horrifying duties this trip, but she had completed it all the same. "Yes, Master. Here..." Raven summoned her data pad and handed it to him. It wasn't her best effort, but, it was a taxation assessment!

Eeth hardly thought it likely that his padawan had done a great job in such a short time, and his perusal of her essay confirmed his suspicion. "You know this is not the standard of work that I expect from you and know you to be capable of when you make an effort," he said calmly and handed it back to her. "We can have a workout when you have completed this to my satisfaction. And I think we had better leave Kaden out of the equation for now. He is confused enough about your role versus his as it is."

Raven slumped at hearing this news. She found the topic incredibly boring and was not looking forward to doing it again. Her shoulders slumped a little more at hearing that they would not be involving Kaden; her idea at helping ease the tension between them flying out the waste hatch. "Please?" she tried. Upon seeing the look on his face, she turned, went back to the desk and began working without further comment.

Eeth kept his promise and had a workout with Raven before lunch. He was not opposed to working out with Drex and Kaden, as such; but he did think that the way Raven behaved, she made it far too easy for Kaden to continue considering her a fellow padawan, rather than a teacher. Anything that reinforced that misconception was bound to exacerbate her problems at this point.

Lakhri and Flynt joined them in their workout after a while, though, so it was not merely between Eeth and Raven. Eeth hoped that was going to help take Raven's mind off things.

After lunch, the whole group spent some time watching Flynt demonstrate what his robot could do and how he had achieved it, which was quite fun (even though Eeth would rather have termed it "educational").

Kaden happened to think the robot Flynt had created was remarkable, not that he stated as much. He wasn't overly talkative by nature, and the recent upheaval with Raven had caused him to withdraw a little.

"Whoa, Flynt that's awesome!" Raven exclaimed.

"I know, right! Now I just have to program it to complete chores I don't want to do and I'll be home and hosed," the teen stated.

"Wait, start it on taxation law and send it to my quarters, STAT!" Raven interjected.

Lakhri laughed. "I thought we've been through the 'great idea' of letting droids do your work for you," he said. "Eeth would be ever so thrilled."

"Indeed," said Eeth drily.

Drex grinned. Turning towards Raven, he asked: "Are you free now? If you could teach Kaden now, he could have the evening free for a change."

Eeth nodded. "The same goes for you, padawan," he said. "If you do it now, you will have some free time after dinner." After all, he thought, there was no point for either of the two padawans in running away from this. They were going to have to do it sooner or later anyway.

"No more book work? Of any sort?" Raven wagered, reserving her answer. Not that she believed she had a choice; still, she was attempting to milk it for all it was worth.

"What has that got to do with it?" asked Eeth, eyebrows raised. "I am not going to start bargaining, Padawan. I told you as it is: If you do the lesson now, you will have the time after dinner to yourself."

"If I were you," Lakhri said a little absent-mindedly while checking one of the circuits in the robot's arm, "I would take him up on that offer. There are more taxation bills in the making than that one, you know."

"Unfortunately, yes," supplied Drex. "Kaden and I have been working with one of the committees lately. I think it was the most boring work we have done so far."

"Hey, whose side are you on here anyway?" Raven said, shooting her Jedi brother a mock indignant expression. "Fancy mentioning the prospect of extra work while master is in the room. Honestly, you've lost your marbles." Raven was joking, well, mostly. Besides, when she glanced at Kaden to see how he felt about this change of routine, his pained expression had prompted her to attempt lightening the mood. "Alright then. Let's do this. Go get changed and I'll meet you there in ten minutes," she told Kaden, eliciting a groan from the boy.

"Do I have to?" Kaden sent Drex across their bond, because he wasn't rude enough to ask that aloud. Besides, he didn't actually want to hurt or insult Raven, he just didn't want to do this.

Drex was distinctly unimpressed with his padawan's attitude. It was not constructive, and it was also quite impolite of Kaden to display his lack of enthusiasm so openly in front of Raven and everyone else. He conveyed as much to Kaden through their bond; and he planned to make his displeasure even clearer later when they were on their own. Right now, he contented himself with telling his padawan through their bond: "You go now, and in good grace, or this lesson will be the least of your worries."

Raven watched Kaden's expression morph from that of pained sufferance, to surprise, then sheepish before he left the room without a word. Her instructions had not been unreasonable, after all. She frowned briefly. Then she schooled her expression and inclined her head towards Drex in silent thanks for whatever it was he had done to get the boy moving. "Maybe we can all play sim swords tonight? I know master is dying to play this again. He totally loves it!" Raven told the group. She was, of course, giving Eeth a hard time, and the grin on her face as she left to change into her workout gear said as much.

Twenty-five minutes later…

"You are not focused. Your grip is incorrect, your stance is off and you're becoming uncontrolled. C'mon, Kade, start over," Raven coached. She knew this was hard, and he had the basic technique down, but he had yet to perfect it to her standards. Of course, Raven knew there was probably more at play here than simply disliking lessons with her. She could appreciate better than most how frustrating three days stuck in a spaceship could be, especially so as a junior padawan lumped with a mountain of class work. She also knew how Eeth had tended to deal with her when she had let that frustration affect her duty…

"I am focused! I'm sick of doing this same shit over and over. I showed you I could do this yesterday, there is no need to rehash it. I'm here to learn new stuff, not stuff I learned in crèche." Kaden said petulantly, his arms folding across a broad chest.

Raven met him with a withering expression, but she did not speak. This was a tactic Eeth used on her often. However, she wasn't certain if just a 'look' from her was going to work on Kaden. It did not. There was a pregnant pause in which the atmosphere in the room grew increasingly tense… if an upgrade in the awkwardness of this whole shebang were at all possible. "Firstly, your efforts at this exercise yesterday left a lot to be desired. Secondly, I don't care how good you think you are, this is not something you learned in crèche, it is a high level Ataru sequence and one which you need to perfect in order to advance. Practice is the only way to achieve that. Thirdly," she continued, sounding a lot like Eeth, "you are here to learn, not to question my each and every instruction as you have done so far. If I say you need to work on this then that is exactly what you need to do."

"It's a waste of time, that's what it is." Kaden replied flatly. He knew that he was digging himself in a hole here, but his pride was smarting. Really smarting!

"Fine. If it is your time that bothers you so much, we'll put it to better use. Let's refocus on the physical fundamentals. Push-ups, let's go." Raven told him, her tone calm; she was not angry but neither was she pleased with him. Kaden was really starting to get on her nerves as opposed to just making her task difficult. "Now!" she barked when he did not move.

Kaden was seething. This was humiliating, absolutely humiliating! He dropped to the floor and started. Right! He could play this game, too, and better than Raven. Push-ups were not going to pose much of a problem for him in the short term, but he knew from experience that if they went on long enough, he would eventually start suffering. He was counting on outlasting her, though, because there was only so much of this she could force him to do, and he doubted she would spend the rest of their lesson on this to prove a point, as Drex might have.


Drex had sensed a lot of Kaden's rising frustration. He was alone in the galley with Eeth at this point since their trip required some manual navigation and Lakhri had made use of the opportunity to let Flynt do the piloting under his supervision.

"Your padawan is asserting herself somehow and my padawan does not like it at all," Drex told Eeth while Kaden was busy doing push-ups.

"Good," Eeth replied. "He is not supposed to. His behaviour has been quite disgraceful."


Had Raven been privy to Eeth's thoughts at that moment, she would have agreed. For now, she contented herself with teaching Kaden a lesson. She truly was tired of coddling him; friend or not, she had a job to do and he was making that near impossible. While Kaden toughed it out, Raven took a moment to release her own frustrations into the Force. She knew he was testing her and where this was likely to end up if it wasn't soon curtailed. So, she had him continue until his speed had dropped significantly and his arms were trembling under the strain. Only then did she beckon him to stand. His anger and resentment were almost palpable and barely controlled. "I am not going to continue this lesson until you have your anger under control. Let's meditate." She placed a comradely hand on his shoulder and began to gently guide him towards the bench where their bags were stowed. "I'll help you, okay." She was trying here.

"I don't need your help," Kaden retorted, shrugging her off. "You are picking on me! These lessons aren't really to teach me Ataru. They're just some bullshit farce you and Drex came up with to somehow teach me a lesson in humility. Well I don't appreciate it. If studying Ataru means putting up with this, then fuck it, I QUIT!" By the time Kaden had finished his rant, he was yelling, was right up in the girl's face and glaring down at her. He turned on his heel and strode for the door.

"Now wait just a minute! We're not done here until I say we are," she told him in a steely voice that she herself had not known she possessed until that very moment.

Kaden paused for a moment, but only for a moment, and then he continued storming out.

"Kaden! I am in charge here, not you! Unless you want to dig yourself even deeper, I advise you to do as I say," Raven spoke firmly, reaching out with the Force and closing the door, effectively blocking his exit.

Of course, Kaden could tear said door clean off its hinges and hurl it across the room if he let himself go. He turned and met her with a truly menacing glare.


"Unfortunately," said Drex drily, "Kaden's working himself into quite some temper. It might get too much for Raven to handle."

"Let her try at least," said Eeth. "Your padawan is not the only one who needs to learn."

"Oh, I know," replied Drex. "But if his anger threatens to destroy our ship or something, I will have to intervene after all."


"Seriously! Calm. Down." Raven coached, sending a wave of calm across the Force so strong that had Kaden been a simple animal he would have probably fallen asleep. Fortunately for them both, what worked on most of the animal kingdom did not hold true for the humanoid animal; they were cognitively advanced, comparatively speaking, thus it took far more skill to sway their minds.

Kaden noticed her attempt to soothe him. It worked on some level, of course; all Jedi could do this to some extent, but that she had felt it necessary just made him feel worse. He didn't actually want to lose his shit here but his pride was making that hard. He stood there staring at her for a long time, taking deep breaths and beginning an internal count. Onnnne, twoooo, thrreeee…

"Good," Raven encouraged. She turned towards the closed hatch, half expecting the rest of their team to come rushing through, but they did not. Apparently, they were letting this play out, and at this point, that was fine with her. She turned on Kaden and met him with a neutral expression. "Meditate. I am going to help you and I don't care if you want it or not," she instructed and guided him back to the bench where she rolled out a couple of mats.

So be it. If Raven wanted to play master here and force him into meditating, she was going to get what she asked for. Kaden knelt opposite her and dropped his shields. Fully. Then, he proceeded to flood her with a torrent of angst, frustration and anger that he usually tapered, even with Drex. She had it coming; it wasn't her place to instruct him in this! He was too powerful for her, and she was going to learn that the hard way.

Raven recoiled at the onslaught. She had not felt anything even remotely similar since being confronted by initiate Rayan during her first month as an apprentice, and even then, it was nothing like this. Her shields slammed up reflexively. This was not something she had ever done before. Still, she had a duty to Kaden, and so she tried to emulate Eeth's actions. She managed, but only just! Unlike Kaden, Raven didn't have an issue with her pride. It was now abundantly clear to her that she ought to have sought out Drex rather than attempting to offer assistance she was not at all qualified to give.


Drex was monitoring Kaden. He had been very close to intervening but to his surprise, Kaden seemed to calm down somehow and … meditate?

"Your padawan is helping him release his emotions into the Force," Drex told Eeth. Then he flinched. "And he's releasing all his negative emotions into the Force at once," he added. "That's quite some task your apprentice has burdened herself with."

Eeth raised his eyebrows. "Indeed," he agreed. "Well, she started it; she will have to finish it somehow or ask for help."

Drex nodded absent-mindedly. He was mainly focussing on what he sensed from Kaden, trying to make sure to shield Raven from the worst of the onslaught as discretely as he could because if he did not, what Kaden was doing could do actual damage to her. Force knew that it would have been hard for him to handle, and he had several decades of experience over Raven and shared a training bond with him! Drex suppressed the urge to storm the training room and turn Kaden over his knee right there and then for that bit of aggression. He did not, mostly because that would hardly have helped Raven's authority as a teacher. However, he was less than happy with Kaden for acting this way and he was going to make that quite clear to the boy, once the lesson was over.


Ten minutes later, Kaden opened his eyes. He wasn't entirely oblivious to the angst he had caused Raven; he had been angry and had not exactly restrained himself and in the heat of the moment he'd thought it warranted. The truth was that now he had time to get himself under control, he was feeling bad about how he had acted. There was just no way Raven was going to keep this latest mess to herself, not this time. He dropped his gaze as he knew that it would not matter if she chose to rat him out or not, Drex would have sensed him drop his shields a mile off. Fortunately for him, he had been far too angry to sense Drex intervene because if he had, the kid would be fretting over a whole lot more right now. "Look, I'll ask Drex to cancel the classes. It would be best for us both," he offered offhand, but was unable to hide the wave of guilt over what had just gone down as his shields were still partially open.

Raven was still a bit rattled, but she was Eeth's apprentice. Thus, her mind was back on the task quickly. "I don't think so. I'm not permitted to quit simply because I can't succeed easily. I'm afraid you are going to have to learn to get on with me because I will not stop teaching you until one of the masters order me to."

This took Kaden by surprise. He had expected Raven to jump at the opportunity to be rid of him, not to knock it back. He ran a hand down his face but remained silent.

Raven noticed his surprise and decided to capitalise on it. "I don't think I need to tell you that your behaviour these past three lessons started at barely acceptable and has escalated into a joke. Today you have crossed the line. So, here's what is going to happen. You are going to," she paused and glanced around the room looking for something suitable. Her gaze locked on a crate that was just the right height; yes, that would have to do. "March yourself over to that crate, drop your trousers and whatever else you got on under there and bend over. After I've made my displeasure clear, we are going to continue where we left off, and so help me, Kaden, if your behaviour does not improve drastically, I will have no problem beating your ass as a precursor to each lesson." The truth was she really WOULD have a problem doing that! But he didn't need to know it, nor did he need to see or feel how difficult this was for her. She was shielding her own angst over this from him. It was the least she could do given how this news was probably going to be received.

Holy fuck, holy, holy fuck! This was just. Not. Happening. Kaden blinked once, but continued to stare at her as if the girl had suddenly sprouted horns. "You can't. You said you wouldn't. This isn't fair." It sounded pathetic even to him! But this was not going to go down. It wasn't.

"I did. That was before you started acting like a brat! I'm in charge here, and you need to obey me. It's not like I'm asking you for a lot here." Her tone softened slightly as she attempted to level with him. "Look, do you think I like having to fight you every lesson? I'm trying to do my duty, too, and you are doing your utmost to make that hard on me, so don't talk to me about fair. C'mon, get to it. You have thirty seconds to get over there. Anytime after that, I'm going to start adding to this, and believe me, you do not want to go there." She didn't want to go there either, but again, he didn't have to know that. She removed her saber and utilities, setting them aside, and then she pulled her belt free. It was not nearly as thick or wide as Eeth's, Drex's or even Kaden's, for that matter, but she planned to make up for that.

What followed was quite possibly the most humiliating event of Kaden's life to date, or so it felt. Raven gave him no quarter. In fact, it felt like she had stripped the skin clean off his ass. He had not expected her to lay into him like that. Subsequently, Kaden found himself sniffling despite having done his very best to tough this out. Unfortunately, he wasn't without pain receptors and there was only so much he could do without drawing on the Force.


The emotions Drex sensed from his padawan changed quite drastically. He was now in significant pain. "Raven finally got around to disciplining him, it seems," Drex informed Eeth serenely.

"That is what I have been telling her to do the whole time," Eeth replied. "He has been getting out of hand."

"So he has," said Drex.

They leaned back in their chairs and waited for the lesson to finish.


Raven, for her part, was feeling wretched for having to do this. She was also feeling angry that Kade had forced her into doing it. She turned her back to give him some privacy as he got to his feet and stumbled to right his clothes. "We both have jobs to do, Kaden, please stop making me fight you to do mine. I don't want to do that ever again. I'm sure you agree." It was rhetorical so there was no surprise when Kaden failed to give her any answer.

The look on Kaden's face when he turned was unmistakably pained, but for once it wasn't simply because he was being forced to endure these lessons with Raven; his ass hurt like a motherfucker. He glanced over at the girl who was at this moment standing with her back to him, rethreading her belt. How on Hoth she had made that hurt so badly he did not know.

Raven gave him enough time to collect himself. Then she turned and put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "Come on. No need to drag it out, unless you have questions. I'll answer them, of course, but that won't get you out of the rest of this lesson, nor will it shorten it." She pointed to the spot in front of her and unclipped her saber. They still had half an hour to go and she wanted to work on landings before ending with a round of sparring.

Kaden winced. He could actually feel the welts through his pants! Yep, he wasn't going to be sitting on that any time soon. "How do you expect me to continue working now?" he asked. Sure, if this had been Drex, he'd have not even tried that angle, but this wasn't Drex.

Raven snorted. She couldn't blame him for trying it on, though. She had tried it herself once or twice, after all. "It's not my fault that you earned punishment, and neither is it going to get you out of finishing the lesson. If you want to work in comfort, don't earn punishment," she told him, sounding much like her master.

It was the sort of answer Kaden would have expected from any of his teachers, and now it dawned on him: Raven WAS actually one of his teachers. Sure, he had known that before, in theory, but he hadn't thought of the girl as a real teacher. She wasn't, not really, as she was his friend, a peer. It was only occurring to him now that despite all of this, she was, in fact, in a position of authority, not just in this room but on this mission also. Kaden nodded once and wordlessly moved to stand where bade.

The rest of the lesson went smoothly. Well, as smoothly as could be expected, considering. Naturally, Kaden's style was stiff due to the pain that must be raging across his ass. "Good job. You did that well," Raven told him when they stopped sparring to catch their breath. "Had you pushed that opening, I would have been forced to back up, giving you the upper hand and possibly a point in the process." She went to the bench where their bags were and pulled out two towels, tossing one to Kaden. Her body did not really sweat much. The same was not true for Kaden's; the boy was drenched. It did crossed her mind to offer healing. Like Eeth, Raven was quite good at Force-aided healing and could offer much more than the average field Jedi. Should she, though? Would Eeth? Hmm, he probably would but not until the evening, she mused and decided to leave that decision to Drex.

Kade caught the towel and swiped it across his face and the back of his neck. The sweat was stinging his ass and it was all he could do to keep from scratching at it constantly. When they were ready to leave, he put a hand on her shoulder, stopping her from exiting. "Are you going to tell the others about this?" By 'others' he mainly meant Flynt and Lakhri as he was quite certain that Drex and Eeth would have sensed what was going on, given that Eeth was Raven's master and Drex was his.

Thankfully, Raven caught on to his meaning and shook her head. "No. What happens in these sessions is between the two of us and our masters. I hope you realise that I can't rightly keep what goes on in here from my master, nor can you from yours. It goes without saying that I expect you to give a full and honest account of what goes on during our lessons, not just for your own benefit, but for mine also." She smiled and started to guide him towards the door. "You're not the only one learning here and if I screw something up, my master needs to know about it, too."

"Surely Eeth doesn't… Not still. You're nineteen."

"If only that line worked on him," she chortled, sounding much like Lakhri. "Thankfully, I rarely give him reason these days. Although sometimes I go through stages where I just can't seem to win a trick."

At that moment, they wandered into the galley where Eeth and Drex were sitting. Kaden lowered his gaze, clearly ashamed, and made for the cooler; his gait was obviously stiff.

Raven looked to Eeth, her expression neutral, but he would sense that she needed to talk to him, or perhaps even all of them; she wasn't sure if Drex would want details from her or not. It was all a bit awkward.

Drex waited until Kaden had taken a drink from the cooler and then said: "Please join me in our room, Padawan."

He beckoned Kaden out of the galley ahead of him.

Wordlessly, Kaden moved to obey. He knew he was in for a world-class ear-bashing, at the very least. He just hoped that the state of his ass would be taken into consideration as he might just die if the man decided to add to it.


Eeth waited until they had left and then said to Raven: "I take it you have finally called Kaden to task for his abysmal behaviour."

Raven slumped onto a stool next to him and braced her chin in her hands. "I did. I hope Drex doesn't give him any more. I was not exactly lenient. He's going to have welts for several hours at the very least. I offered no healing. I'm not sure if that was too harsh or not." The latter wasn't phrased as a question, but she had meant it to be one.

"I doubt it," said Eeth. "Unless you were beating him out of spite, which I doubt, you had every right to deal out a punishment that he would notice."

"He noticed," she replied, sounding slightly relieved that she hadn't done him any harm by not offering healing. "Also…" She lowered her gaze and started playing with the table cloth. "I almost bit off more than I could chew when I ordered him to meditate with me. I didn't realise Kaden was that powerful. Force help us if he ever turns to the Dark Side, I'd actually fear for the Order. I should have come and got you or Drex to help, that was a mistake," the teen admitted. She was still not fully recovered from the shock, but had no one to blame but herself.

Eeth nodded. "So you did learn from this," he remarked. "Drex did ask you to leave things to him that involve Kaden's temper. I can understand why you would have thought that calling in Drex might have given the wrong impression, though. And I think Drex understood it, too. He was monitoring you closely, from what I saw, but he refrained from butting in."

Raven looked up at him for the first time since slumping into the chair by his side. "I'm glad he didn't. It would make things harder," she agreed. "I won't do that again," she reconfirmed, and she meant it too. Raven knew her limitations and she wasn't ready for that level of Force work yet, not nearly. It was now abundantly clear to her why the Force had chosen a master of Drex's caliber; no inexperienced Jedi would handle Kaden, that much was certain.

Eeth nodded. "I am definitely glad you finally showed an appropriate reaction to Kaden's behaviour," he said. "Considering how much he has been pushing you, I seriously doubt that you were too harsh. I am sure Drex will let you know if you were, but I hardly consider it likely. Did the lesson go well after that?"

"As well as could be expected; the state of his backside was no doubt making that hard on him. I didn't think it was wise to offer reprieves, though. You wouldn't have if it were me." In fact, Eeth wouldn't have let her get past the first ten minutes of that very first lesson, had she been acting that way. "I'll talk to Drex later. I hope he's not pissed at me for overstepping where Kaden's temper is concerned." Well, she'd just have to cross that bridge when she came to it.

"I do not think he will be," Eeth said. "But that remains to be seen. I, for one, am not going to blame you for any of your decisions. I told you time and again that you needed to assert your authority, and you did so. Meditating with Kaden was an error in judgment, but I trust you learned from it."

Eeth was strict, but he also tried hard to be fair. He had entrusted his padawan with a large amount of responsibility, and he did not think it would be fair to now jump at her for how she had decided to handle it when she had clearly done her best. He was not sure that Drex was going to be as understanding about Kaden's behaviour, though. In his opinion, the boy had only himself to blame.