A/N: Hi all. We're about halfway through our story, phew! It's a long one. We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their reviews and feedback, and to welcome any newcomers. We hope that you're all enjoying the story so far. Kaden is entering a difficult period of his apprenticeship, which will begin playing out more in the coming chapters so there will be more corporal punishment coming up, but there will also be lots of character interaction and development. Please keep the reviews coming, we do love to hear what you guys think.


While Kaden was busy feeling sorry for himself, Flynt had problems of his own. Lakhri was more annoyed with his decisions than he had been in a very long time which didn't bode well for him.

"I allow you to go out on your own," Lakhri snapped as soon as their door had closed behind them, "and you don't make it two nights without breaking the entirely reasonable rules Drex and I set for you. What's gotten into you? Will you need a nanny next to make sure you stay in the right street and don't set fire to anything?"

"Hardly," replied Flynt, attempting to maintain his composure. "It was an error in judgement, is all," he replied coolly. He was trying to appear casual although, truth be told, he felt far from it.

Lakhri did not appreciate Flynt's effort to play it cool, and it showed. "An error in judgment," he repeated flatly, his annoyance with Flynt having reached a stage where he had gone from sarcasm and snapping to deadly calm. "That's what you think gross disobedience amounts to, do you? No reason for an apology? Well, the only thing that might pass as an error in judgment is your behaviour over this incident, which leaves a lot to be desired. And I'll address this first. Bare your bottom and bend over the chair."

Lakhri started to unbuckle his belt, the expression on his face grim. If Flynt had any sense of self-preservation, he had better do as he was told, immediately, said that expression. Lakhri might be the most easy-going of the masters on the ship but he was also the most unyielding when it came to the kind of attitude he expected a padawan to display after having been caught out in misbehaviour. Flynt knew this and it had been a long time since they had last had this kind of run-in. Apparently, he needed a reminder.

Lakhri's shift from flippant to calm caused the teen to still, and the order that preceded it had his cavalier demeanour evaporating into caution; he had not earned physical punishment in months, and he wasn't keen to break that streak. His insides froze at seeing the man unbuckle his belt. Wait, this wasn't going as he had hoped! He turned his ass away. However, if there was one thing he had learned about his master, it was that arguing punishment was to be avoided at all costs. Thus, and despite his horror, the teen pulled off his belt, whipped down his trousers and bent over the chair without protest. He grabbed the chair legs in a death grip and added: "I'm sorry." Flynt knew that stalling or, Force help him, trying to talk himself out of this would end in a far worse punishment; it was something that Raven could attest to and had warned him off doing very early on.

"No, you're not," Lakhri said curtly. "You're merely sorry to be in this position. And just to be clear: This is not your punishment for your disobedience, drinking alcohol and trying to light fires in that state. This is only for your attitude. We'll get to the rest later." While he had talked, he had doubled the belt over in his hand, and he now brought it down onto Flynt's bottom with a determination that made up for the shortness of his arms.

Okay, okay, so maybe Flynt wasn't entirely sorry over the right things here, but that didn't mean he wasn't sorry at all! He panicked; he had never taken punishment well. "Wait, what!? No, I am sorry, I mean it!" Flynt turned back to look at the man just in time to catch his arm raise. "Ahh! Fuc-nnngus!" he protested, barely catching the expletive and rising up on his toes as the pain bloomed across his ass. As a rule, Lakhri was fairly lenient when it came to his language. As long as it was situationally appropriate, he wouldn't get more than a raised brow should he drop the occasional F-bomb. Right now, while the man had his belt in his hand, he didn't think it was wise. "What do you mean, for my attitude? I apologised!" Flynt didn't want another smack like that last one, and the look on his face matched the desperate tone of his voice. Unlike Kaden who tried to tough out punishment, Flynt had never seen the point; if his master was belting him, it was supposed to hurt! He bounced around on his toes, hoping that his question would cause the man to pause long enough for the line of searing pain to ebb a little.

Lakhri knew exactly what Flynt was hoping for and he saw no point in indulging him. Without answering, he swung the belt again, and again, with just a couple of seconds' pause between them, until a dozen stripes were painted across Flynt's bottom. He had his reasons for doing this. Flynt had a tendency to downplay what he had done and look for excuses. While that might be understandable, it was also unacceptable, especially when the misbehaviour in question had actually been dangerous. Lakhri remembered an incident where, in the "Tree World" park on Coruscant, Flynt had climbed a trail he had explicitly been forbidden from climbing. His grip had slipped and he might have been seriously hurt, had Raven not stayed his fall and Eeth come to both padawans' rescue. Lakhri had been so put out by Flynt's persistent attempts to justify his actions that he had actually borrowed Eeth's cane and used it on Flynt's bottom before they had even been able to start having a reasonable conversation about the incident. Flynt seemed to have reverted back to bad habits that Lakhri had thought he had permanently cured him of, and that just would not do.

When Lakhri had completed the dozen, he said: "Don't get up just yet. You said you're sorry. Very well. Tell me what it is that you're sorry for."

Flynt wailed loudly as each lick of the belt connected with his ass, the last couple elicited something that was decidedly more roar-like. "Oww!" he complained when the man stopped. He wasn't crying but neither was he far off it. He made to stand up only to stop at the instructions. "Master, please…" His ass was killing him. It burned, stung and ached all at the same time. "I'm sorry for disobeying orders. For drinking alcohol." He paused knowing what the man wanted to hear from him. "And for my attitude."

"I don't want a generic answer, I want specifics," Lakhri said mercilessly. "What was it, exactly, that you did that was wrong, and why was it wrong?"

Flynt shifted around, trying to arrange himself over the chair back so he was more comfortable. Yeah, that wasn't going to happen; the position was uncomfortable by design. So, he was having this conversation with his bare ass waving around in the breeze. He frowned at having to state this but could see no way around it. "What do you want me to say? That, despite orders to the contrary, I left the main street with Kaden, drank alcohol, then lost control trying to light a fuse? I had no idea that one drink was going to affect me like that. I didn't do it on purpose." The more he spoke, the worse he started to feel about his answer. "I'm seventeen years old, is all… I could have been less casual about it when you called me on it, too." The latter was added on quickly, he really didn't want another round with the belt.

"True," Lakhri said grimly. "What, pray tell, does your age have to do with this?"

Flynt twisted at the waist, attempting to meet the man's gaze without moving from his position over the chair. "At seventeen years old you'd think I could handle an afterburner. Sure, it's a strong drink, but I'm not exactly made of glass here. I didn't think it was going to affect my ability to use the Force so much, otherwise I wouldn't have done it. As soon as I realised, I dragged Kaden out of there to get back to the ship." The latter was added in the hopes of earning himself some points for at least showing good sense in that area of this evening's epic clusterfuck.

"Yes, that all sounds very nice when you put it like that," Lakhri said coolly. "You forget to mention, though, that I have told you any number of times, in no uncertain terms, that alcohol impairs your Force awareness, regardless of age. And we're on a mission, not at the Temple. A mission where you might need to draw on the Force at any time and where we absolutely cannot afford any lapses. At the very least, you might have asked for permission which you knew perfectly well you would not have received. I'm just wondering what you would be telling me if someone had been hurt by your little lapse. And that was a very real possibility. You, padawan, are not taking this nearly seriously enough and that's why we're having this conversation."

And since Lakhri still happened to think his padawan ought to show a lot more contrition than he had been doing so far, he continued the conversation by raising the belt again and starting a second round of heavy-handed strokes.

Flynt sensed his arm raise again and panicked. He started talking. "I am TAKING it, Oww! Seriously! OWW!" The teen arched his back, clenched his ass and rose onto his toes with each lick. Given this was round two, his pain sensors were already heightened and it really, really fucking hurt. It also did not help that Flynt had never taken punishment well; he hated the pain and almost worse was the fact that he'd done something bad enough that Lakhri thought he needed this to learn.

Lakhri did not enjoy punishing Flynt at all. However, he was certain that it was necessary. If he kept up the flippant attitude about his mistakes, he was not going to learn from them and was going to pose a risk to himself and others during missions. Therefore, Lakhri dealt out a full second dozen strokes, and he made each one of them count. Then, he laid the belt aside and said rather brusquely: "Get up, padawan."

Midway through the second twelve, Flynt started crying. This hurt. It was meant to hurt! He wasn't a sobbing wreck, but by the time Lakhri was done with him, his face was tear-streaked, his eyes were red, and his nose was running. He stood stiffly when bade, turned, and rubbed both hands over his backside. Force did it hurt.

"Alright, that was for your attitude," said Lakhri. "If I hear one more word about how this was not such a big deal and how you thought you were old enough and it wouldn't matter, you are going to go right back over that chair. Is that clear?"

"Yes, master. Clear," Flynt replied subduedly. But other than that, and the occasional sniffle, he remained silent. He wasn't feeling at all good about this.

"Well, that's something," said Lakhri, rather wearily. "As for your actual punishment for your disobedience and for drinking alcohol when you knew full well you had no permission to do so, I'm not even going to start dealing with that tonight. I'm dead tired, and this is something that will need my full attention. We'll resume this talk tomorrow night, after dinner."

Flynt gave him a look, but before he could say anything, Lakhri cut him off.

"And before you start complaining, take a moment to think about how this might have turned out if your fire had done any real harm. Among other things, you would have Eeth after you, besides me. Now get ready for bed."

It was all Flynt could do not to try talking his way out of it, the only reason he didn't being the threat that it would land him right back over that chair. "Yes, Sir," he replied quietly. He didn't bother with his undershorts. Instead, he just pulled them off with his trousers. Both had managed to knot around his ankles as he'd shuffled and jumped around, after all.

Five minutes later, he emerged from their joint refresher, his teeth brushed, hair combed and completely stark naked. Flynt couldn't have cared less. His ass was blazing, and as he lay on his bed, tummy down, the last thing on his mind was the sight he was presenting Lakhri. They were both tired. He would come up with a way to talk his master out of another run-in tomorrow night… Yeah. Like that had ever worked.

Lakhri went into the refresher after Flynt, getting ready for bed himself. When he emerged and found Flynt lying on his bed, he asked: "Will you be able to sleep, Flynt? An honest answer, please." He did want the lesson to sink in, but he also wanted Flynt to be well-rested tomorrow morning because, punishment or not, their mission had priority.

"I'll sleep." It was true, Flynt would sleep through a nuclear bomb and possibly be out like a light the second his eyes closed. "I'm probably still going to feel it tomorrow, though. Anyway, just for the record you needn't order me to be honest. I didn't lie to you, I did something stupid, and… I disobeyed," he said and propped himself up on his elbows.

"No, you didn't tell me outright lies, but neither did you face up to the truth of what you did," Lakhri replied, sitting on the edge of Flynt's bunk.

"Didn't you ever do such a thing as a teenager?" Flynt asked in the hopes of garnering some leniency for the following day, or in the very least elicit some comradely sympathy. Flynt hated being in the bad books with his master, and he was eager to remedy this.

Lakhri thought for a moment about that question. "Rarely," he finally answered. "I had Eeth to reckon with, and drinking alcohol was not something I wanted to incur his wrath for. But I still got carried away a few times, and boy, did I regret it. As will you, I'm afraid to say."

"You're not much easier to reckon with, you know," said Flynt. "You're possibly a bit harder to push to the point, though." The latter was added as an afterthought as he knew from experience that his grandmaster gave far less warning before dealing out an ass-kicking. He dropped his gaze at the news that he was going to regret this more so on the morrow, then sighed deeply at hearing how seriously Lakhri was taking what he'd done.

Lakhri rested a hand on Flynt's shoulder. "You might feel as if I'm overreacting," he said quietly. "But what you did was a lot more dangerous than you were ready to acknowledge, and if I need to be harsh with you in order to drive that message home, I will. I don't want you to end up endangering yourself or others."

As far as Flynt was concerned, he had faced up to what he had done, although with his ass still sore, he dared not voice that thought, for now. Instead, he reached out an arm, coiled it around the smaller man and hugged him. Flynt had no hard feelings, not really; he trusted the man to do what was best for him.

Lakhri readily returned the hug. He was not pleased with Flynt's behaviour, but that did not mean he held a grudge. "Let's sleep, padawan," he said wearily. "We'll forego meditation for once. I've done enough Force work today to last me for a week. I'll ask Eeth to do some healing on your bottom tomorrow morning. I want you to be able to function; and we will all need to work hard if we want to even have a chance to be finished rounding up the goyts by tomorrow night."

Despite not wanting his grandmaster to heal him – he'd rather go with a sore ass than have to face their mission leader over such stupidity – Flynt nodded. They did have a mission to complete and that was what took priority.


Flynt woke early the next morning, slid from his bed and checked the state of his ass. Fuck. It was no longer welted, but it still hurt, not nearly as bad as last night but enough to annoy him. He pulled on his sleep pants and wandered into the kitchen.

"He put them in the freezer," Raven told him, her tone conveying the grin on her face at having caught her Jedi nephew raiding the cooler for sweets yet again.

"Argh. He sucks. Why deprive us of dessert for breakfast? Really…" Flynt wandered out to find Raven lying on the floor, one leg up over her head, butt against the wall and studying a datapad. The teenager cringed; did that girl not have a spine?

"Why indeed," Raven said, rolling to her feet, taking her data pad and pulling him into a hug. She gestured that he sit with her, raising a brow when he was reluctant.

Picking up on the unasked question in her expression Flynt said: "If I tell you about it, I don't want further crap. Deal?" Flynt bargained, lowering his ass onto the settee.

Now she was intrigued. "What did you do?"

"Like I said, I'll tell you if you promise not to give me a hard time about it."

Raven nodded, but Eeth chose that moment to enter the common room, and Raven got to her feet. "Master," she greeted him, offering a bow.

Flynt, too, was on his feet, and offered a bow. He wasn't sure if Lakhri had told Eeth the story yet. Thus, he did his best to appear neutral.

"I was about to start breakfast," Raven told Eeth, standing and stretching. She didn't want to involve Flynt and whatever it was he was about to confess to.

"Yes, go ahead and do so," said Eeth. "Presumably, Drex and Kaden will be with you shortly. Lakhri is looking after the goyts. Flynt, I need to talk to you. Come." He motioned with his head towards the cabins and turned around, clearly expecting Flynt to follow.

The two padawans exchanged looks but said nothing. Then, Flynt cleared his throat and followed Eeth out.


Earlier that morning…

Lakhri had woken up unusually early and, instead of turning over and going back to sleep as was his usual habit, had decided to get up and forego Eeth's wake-up call for once. He got dressed, dragged a comb through his hair and walked out into the corridor where he ran into Eeth.

"Aww, I had been hoping to wake you for once," he complained, his eyes twinkling.

"No such luck," Eeth said solemnly. "Besides, I was in bed early last night." Eeth would never have admitted it, but he had been quite exhausted after a day during which he had had his eyes and senses everywhere: Backing up Raven where needed, catching goyts, coordinating the teams, finding landing grounds for the shuttle and so forth. While entirely unobtrusive, his job had probably been the most mentally demanding, apart from Raven's.

"So I noticed," said Lakhri. "You didn't notice what Flynt and Kaden got up to, then; or have you already talked to Drex?"

Eeth shook his head. "Let us see if the goyts are properly fed," he said. "You can tell me then."

While they poured sacks of grains into troughs with goyts trying to climb all over them, Lakhri told Eeth the whole story.

"I was too tired and it was too late to deal with Flynt properly last night," he finished. "I'll do so tonight. I did take my belt to him, though, for trying to talk himself out of this whole affair. I promised him I'd ask you to heal him this morning so he can make himself useful."

"I will," Eeth said, the expression on his face quite grim. "And I will also tell him what I think of members of my mission team who disobey their instructions and take unnecessary risks."

"Yes, go ahead and do so," Lakhri agreed. He was confident that Eeth would not deal out any punishment without discussing it with him first; Eeth never meddled. But if he gave Flynt an earful, that would hopefully leave an impression.

"I'll finish up here," he offered, "and you talk to Flynt?"

Eeth nodded. "Alright," he said.


And that was why Eeth was now beckoning for Flynt to follow him into his cabin.

Raven watched Eeth and Flynt disappear and got busy preparing breakfast. She glanced up as Kaden entered, giving him a smile.

"Need help?" Kaden asked casually and leant on the bench.

"Sure do, you can whisk up the eggs. I'm making omelettes."

Kaden did so without comment. Drex had not gone easy on him, but the effects were no longer discernible. Still, he assumed that Flynt would have already told everyone thus he hedged: "I suppose you heard about last night?"

"Last night? Nope. Flynt started to tell me something then Eeth took him away." She met him with a probing expression. "Presumably to offer some healing given that he wouldn't sit down, and to tear him a new one over whatever it was you two did."

"Both are likely," Kaden said, frowning as some egg went up the wall.

Raven tossed him a dishcloth. "Well, is anyone going to enlighten me or what?"

Kaden gave her a sceptical look. She appeared innocuous enough, but he'd made that mistake once before and swore there was still a spot on his right ass cheek that had not fully recovered. "I'll tell you, but you're not tearing up my ass for it, that's already been done."

"Oh please, give me a break. As if I'd take it upon myself to do such a thing. Mercifully, outside of our lessons, it is the masters who deal with your ass, not me."

"Just making sure," Kaden said, dodging a playful clip to his ear and shooting her a grin at his successful evasion. Raven was fast, so dodging her was a feat in and of itself. "Just so you know, you're now safe from Eeth's paddle." He looked over at her, his expression slightly pained. "He gave it to Drex."

Raven's brows rose into her fringe. "Seriously?" It was rhetorical, so she continued. "Whatever for?"

Kaden shrugged. "Sometimes it's easy to forget, but Drex is seventy-one." He stopped whisking the eggs and met the girl with a serious expression. "Now he's acquiring implements to deal with me… I feel guilty that I keep messing up and making life hard for him." Kaden also felt like he was turning into the worst apprentice in the history of the Order. Drex had never acquired implements for his previous padawans, and even though he knew that the man's age was a significant contributing factor here, he couldn't help but feel a bit sorry for himself.

Raven let that comment linger; a little guilt wouldn't kill him, as long as it didn't turn into a self-defeating attitude.

"You think I deserve it?" Kaden pressed when the silence drew out.

"Nothing wrong with feeling a little guilt over having done something wrong. It's the regret and guilt over having caused problems that separate an evil person from a person who is good but just chose poorly. Don't dwell on it. Allow yourself to feel it, then release it into the Force. Oh, and as my master never tires of reminding me…" She bunged on a mock-Eeth tone in an effort to lighten the mood and said: "'Padawan, just do me a favour and learn from this.'"

Kaden wasn't sure how to respond to that, so he didn't. He did, however, smirk at her impersonation of Eeth. "You do that well."

Raven grinned and flipped the omelette. "Flynt does a better job. He manages to make himself look rigid, I have no idea how he replicates that."

"Speaking of Flynt, I wonder how he's doing in there with Eeth," said Kaden.

Raven noticed the wary expression Kaden was aiming at their cabin door, but said nothing of it. "He'll live, as long as he doesn't shoot his mouth off too much. Now, are you gonna tell me about what happened?"

Kaden's eyes met Raven's, and the boy's lip curled into a slight smile as he began to tell the tale.


Eeth closed the door behind themselves, folded his arms across his chest and directed his patented glare at Flynt.

"Grandmaster, please. I'm too skinny. Look, bony arms, all sinew, not nearly a worthy sacrifice for your first meal," Flynt told the man. He was attempting to lighten the situation, but with Eeth that was somewhat hit and miss.

"Stop trying to be funny," Eeth said sharply. "What you did is not funny in the least. You could have seriously hurt someone or started a major fire. I do not know if you noticed, but in contrast to Coruscant, many of the buildings here are made of wood. Not to speak of the fact that you not only went to a place where you had no business being, but also took a younger padawan along with you. Has it occurred to you that this is a real mission, with real lives at stake? These call for more responsible behaviour than you have shown."

Okay, so this morning it was going to be less hit and a lot more miss… Flynt had to fight to keep his eyes on the man, but he managed, just. He didn't like that Eeth was rubbing salt into the wound. He sighed. "Don't you think I know that?" he replied, a hint of irritation in his tone. "Yes, I made a mistake. I'm sorry. I didn't know alcohol was going to affect me like that, and before you say it, I know I shouldn't have taken Kaden into the club. Force!" He rubbed at the back of his head as he sometimes did when trying to conceal nerves. "Lakhri already tore up my ass once, and he's not done with it yet. I think that is more than enough punishment over this, don't you?" He levelled the shorter man with an expression that said he thought it did. He also left out exact details of why Lakhri wasn't yet done with him. He didn't think that stating that he'd not taken this as seriously as his master expected him to would buy him any favours from Eeth.

"I will leave it to Lakhri to decide whether you have been punished enough," Eeth snapped, his glare intensifying. "And you will leave it to me, as the head of this mission team, to tell you off when I think you deserve it. Which you do. Abundantly so. Continue to take that flippant tone with me and I will decide you deserve more than a talking-to. I know you have a tendency to let your mouth run away with you, but this is not the time and place for it."

It was at this point that Flynt lost the battle to hold Eeth's gaze. He looked down at his boots, not sure what to say to that. Well, actually he had quite a few things he could say to that, but none that wouldn't land him in deeper shit with Eeth and his master. Lakhri was already pissed over his behaviour. Folding his arms, he met the man's eye once again. "I'm sorry, Grandmaster. I'm being punished, and I won't do it again. What more do you want me to say?" He wasn't happy at being told off like a small child; it was making him feel even worse about what he'd done.

"Nothing," said Eeth curtly. "I was simply not expecting to hear you tell me that we should be done making you feel bad. You deserve to feel bad about this, and if I point that out, you would do well to accept it. Now lie on the lower bunk and bare your bottom. I will perform some healing."

Again, there were a million things Flynt wanted, and could, say to that. But thankfully for him, Lakhri had spent a lot of years conditioning those smart-ass remarks out of him. Instead, he merely said: "Yes, Sir." He walked towards the double bunk, noting that both beds had been pulled up neatly, and dropped his trousers. Flynt wasn't wearing underwear today given that he had still been sore when he had woken up. Thus, when he lay on his stomach and pulled up his tunic, his bottom was bare. His ankles hung over the bed rungs, but he was used to that.

Eeth knelt next to him and started to let healing energy flow into the punished skin. He was still tired; they all were. But they also were experienced Jedi who were well able to deal with demanding tasks. Besides, Force-aided healing had always come easy to Eeth. He could not make wounds magically disappear, but he could remove the surface damage and most of the pain.

When he was done, he rose and said: "We will have breakfast now. After breakfast, Lakhri will stay here to look after the goyts; the rest of you will come with Raven and me to catch more. After the first trip, you will stay behind with Lakhri and help him get the new arrivals settled, hopefully without escapes. We will do our utmost to finish this task by tonight, but it might not be feasible – we will see."

Flynt rose and quickly adjusted his trousers, giving his backside a cursory rub. "Yes, grandmaster. And, thanks for healing me. I'm going to need it." The statement was spoken lightly but carried an undertone of truth to it; Lakhri was probably going to nail his ass to the wall again, after all. He wasn't thrilled at being relegated to settling the goyts, and his wrinkled nose said as much. Still, he liked to work with his master, and perhaps a day of stellar behaviour would work to convince him that a second 'conversation' over yesterday was not necessary. Flynt was going to try, and if all else failed, he could always try begging. It had never worked in the past, but you had to be in it to win it, right? Right! His resolve bolstered, Flynt followed Eeth into their kitchen area where Raven was busy serving up omelettes. He smiled. Today was looking better already.