When they were back at the ship, Lakhri said: "I'm gonna start with teaching Kaden Ataru. I think it's going to take us ninety minutes or so. Flynt, you can join us afterwards for a sparring session. Until then, continue your project report. Kaden, I'll see you in the small cargo hold in ten minutes."

He started the lesson with a fairly thorough warm-up – after all, he had been Eeth's apprentice, so being thorough was what he had always been used to. Then he ran Kaden through some basic attack sequences and noted that Raven had done good work, plus it was obvious that the boy had excellent Soresu skills to start with. "Let's work on disarming your opponent," he finally said. "Before we start on that, though, the slash that Raven started teaching you needs some more precision."

In the Temple, they had various kinds of targets specifically manufactured for lightsaber practice; here, they had to improvise. Lakhri positioned a crate in the middle of the room, stood a bottle he had brought on it and laid a ball on top of the bottleneck.

"Execute the slash and try to hit the ball, but not the bottle," he said. "Only when you've got that down, I'll let you try disarming me."

Their warm-up was tough, far tougher than anything Kade had expected, especially from Lakhri, even if Flynt and Raven had occasionally regaled him with horror stories about Eeth's and Lakhri's early days. The boy kept up, though, if only because Drex didn't exactly go easy on him either. Despite knowing that Raven, too, was Eeth's apprentice, she had been the least lethal in this respect so far, but he knew why; they had issues… Issues that had led to the most disastrous mission he'd been on to date. Her words echoed in his head: 'You're blowing this, Kaden. Pull yourself together. You're pissing everyone off.' He shook his head in an effort to refocus but not before the ball went flying, and it was not from his saber. Wordlessly and without waiting for a response he glanced left and summoned the ball to his palm. He set it back on the bottle's neck and ignored the fact that it was now completely flattened on one side.

Lakhri frowned. Losing control like that was not something he would have expected from a padawan as old as Kaden. "Do you need to meditate in order to find your focus?" he inquired. "Because if you can't reliably limit your use of the Force to your saber, I'd rather not let you spar against Flynt later."

It was a fair enough statement. Kade closed his eyes and tried to concentrate on anything other than Raven's classes, his horrendous failures and this clusterfuck of a mission. When he opened his eyes, they were focused on the ball. He looked left and down to meet the small man's gaze. "No, I don't. I have a lot on my mind. I don't usually." It was more than Kaden would typically give away to someone he wasn't well-acquainted with but he actually liked Lakhri and although his apprentice was a tad on the eccentric side, he couldn't help but like his style. Something in that confession helped rid him of his current woes and his face softened. He raised his saber and started on the exercise.

Lakhri watched him. Predictably, Kade ended up either missing the ball or sending the bottle flying. Since his saber was at its lowest setting, this did not do any damage, and it was no more than Lakhri had expected. After all, Raven had told him that she had only just started teaching Kaden this move and it was not one that was part of a Soresu repertoire either. Achieving the necessary precision always took some time and practice. "It might work better if you closed your eyes and focused on the Force," he told Kaden. "At least it did for me when I learned this."

Kaden was disappointed. Apparently, his Ataru skills had dwindled to the point where he could no longer hit a fucking ball on a bottle. The boy held his disappointment and the subsequent frustration this caused in check, though, and followed Lakhri's lead. They worked at this for a long time. He would get it once, and then his next effort would miss. It was something he really was going to have to work on, not that he liked admitting as much. Secretly, he blamed three years of Soresu for his lack of ability in his natural style. Although he didn't resent Drex for this, it did grate on him.

Of course, Kaden's Soresu training had nothing to do with this; it was simply a complicated move. Lakhri did not remember how old he had been exactly when he had learned it, but it had definitely been some time after he had become Eeth's padawan and thus not something taught to beginners. Lakhri's control of the Force had always been very good, but despite that, he had needed quite a bit of practice before he had been able to execute this move with the degree of precision that Eeth wanted to see, which was necessary to reliably disarm one's opponent. Flynt, who was not a natural with his saber although he was not half bad either, had needed at least two weeks or so to master it, as far as Lakhri recalled.

"Alright, you're making progress," he finally said after half an hour or so. "Don't use it in a real fight yet, though. You're not quite where you need to be – which is entirely normal. I bet even Eeth needed to practice it for more than a day or two until he got it right. Let's do some freestyle sparring."

'You call that progress?' Kade thought. Hearing that Eeth only took 'more than a day or two' when he himself felt this might take him forever made him feel inadequate. He squashed it, though, as the thought of freestyle sparring now had his full attention. He nodded in deference to Lakhir's instructions not to use the move. Then, out of habit, he adopted a Soresu back stance, only to correct himself and step forward into Ataru. It felt like putting on a comfortable pair of pyjamas to him. The style called to him, even if it could be dangerous.

They had about twenty minutes left, and Lakhri intended to use them for a sparring match. This was what padawans usually enjoyed most, especially after having been forced to work on tedious details. Besides, it would give him a better idea of Kaden's sparring style, which would be helpful when he later supervised the match with Flynt.

Despite this being a freestyle sparring match, he gave Kaden continuous advice, especially regarding his Ataru moves. "Don't forget your defences," he said, coming in low and forcing Kaden to back up against the wall. "Your Soresu is good. Use it when you need to."

"I do," came the clipped reply as he shifted sideways into a strong Soresu stance in order to circumvent being pinned to the wall; Lakhri was simple everywhere all at once! Determined to prove himself capable, Kaden shifted from that defensive stance the second he had an opening and threw a sequence that was half his and half Raven's at the small master. It was powerful, but not to the extent that it signalled a loss of control on his part.

Kaden was good, but Lakhri was more experienced, plus he had excellent Force awareness. He sensed what Kaden was about to do before it happened and managed to be somewhere else by the time it did, coming at Kaden from behind. "Shall I show you how to prevent that?" he asked conversationally while nonchalantly disarming Kaden. "Because in a real fight, you'd probably be dead now."

Kaden frowned, looking across the room as his lightsaber clattered to the metal floor and slid into the wall. He had begun to get used to that sight. Although it irked the kid no end, Drex's zero-tolerance policy had him drawing deep breaths at the first sign of frustration. He summoned his weapon and squared his jaw. One second he had been lined up and the next, his saber was gone! "Now how did you do that?" he asked. "Did you use Force-enhanced speed?" If he had, then that level of control was out of his league right now, well out; but it wouldn't be forever, he knew that.

"No, but I used the Force to increase my momentum," replied Lakhri. "Just as in Force-enhanced jumps. You should be able to do this. More importantly, though, I anticipated your move. And I have a bit of practice at turning my opponents' attacks against them. The same momentum that brought you forward made it easier for me to get in your back. I'll show you. I'll also show you what you can do to prevent it."

He demonstrated the move to Kaden and showed him where he had left an opening. "We can work more on that tomorrow," he said. "Right now, let's continue our match."

Again Kaden frowned, but this time it was as a result of Lakhri's response to his question: momentum, speed, one was the act, the other a measurement. They both reliably resulted in the same outcome, in his opinion: a fast movement using the Force. Still, he wasn't about to argue the point and remained silently curious as he watched Lakhri demonstrate. Then, he attempted to reciprocate. It was not something that took him long to pick up, but to master? That might take a bit of time. The boy huffed, lowering his saber and nodding at the man's instruction to continue their match.

Lakhri went a bit easier on Kaden now, still giving him the occasional bit of advice and adapting his own moves to Kaden's level of skill. After all, he was not out to frustrate the boy.

They fought on, Kaden doing his best to use his newly acquired Ataru skills while keeping his teacher off him. He was faster than Raven, albeit less agile, and he was far more relentless. He was everywhere and all at once!

It might be counterintuitive, but when sparring with his students, Lakhri possibly went less easy on them than Eeth. Maybe it was because he himself had always had to fight against his physical limitations. In any case, he thought he would be doing no one a favour if he went too easy on them because in real life, nobody would do so either.

'Easy' was indeed not something Kaden attributed to the match with Lakhri. He was forced into adopting Soresu for the most part as keeping the man at bay was proving a task in and of itself. Finding an opening to attack? Pff, yeah, he was having the same problem he had with Raven and despite trying to power his way through, it wasn't very effective; Lakhri was just too fast and Raven was just too agile.

Finally, Lakhri called the match to a halt and said: "Let's take a break. I'll get Flynt. Then the two of you can go against each other."

The boy deactivated his weapon, clipped it to his belt and dropped to one knee in order to catch his breath. It also left him at eye level with Lakhri. He nodded once in response to the man's words. He was looking forward to sparring with Flynt. The older teenager was far from a weapon enthusiast; it ought to be a whitewash on his part, something Kaden could use right now.

He took the opportunity of Lakhri's absence to run through some of the moves he'd learned over his lessons with Raven. She really was quite an energetic fighter and that style would work into his own well.

Lakhri went to check on Flynt's progress and fetch him. "Come on, you need a workout," he said with a smile. "Sparring against Kaden will be just the thing to prevent you from getting rusty."

Flynt sensed the man coming and he turned as the door opened, pad in hand and stylus poised. "Sparring against Kaden will be just the thing I need to prevent me from reaching my eighteenth birthday," the teenager quipped, but it was half-hearted. He didn't fear Kaden at all. He was, however, aware that with his arm the way it was, he wasn't going to provide much of a challenge, something which he conveyed to Lakhri as they made their way back.

Flynt wasn't half as bad as he thought he was, and Lakhri told him as much. "Talk about physical limitations," he scoffed. "If you think you have physical limitations, what do you think I have?"

"A lifetime to get used to said limitations?" the teen replied, giving a cheesy grin, but there was a hint of seriousness buried in his tone.

Lakhri rolled his eyes. "You're going to be knighted long before that and you'll be expected to pull your weight then. You're good, and as I've told you before, you could be loads better if you had more of an interest in lightsaber combat. True, you're not a natural like Kaden, but you're two years older than him, and I should hope that you've been trained quite thoroughly."

"Sure I have." Flynt made air quotes: "Keep calm. He'll go for my weak side, so don't let him, and, keep my defences up and wait for the opening."

Lakhri grinned. "I see that you won't need me for much longer," he said. "Good. Now, one thing you're much better at than Kaden is keeping your cool. Try to make use of that. Kaden is far from invincible. He does have his weaknesses. And you know enough to hold your own, really."

"The problem with that is to use Kaden's weaknesses against him would mean I'd have to goad him into losing his temper. I'm not sure that's in his best interest, especially given that Drex seems to have been coming down on him hard lately," Flynt said, pausing before entering the training room.

"Well, no, you had better not goad him," Lakhri conceded. He knew that even without being goaded, though, Kaden tended to become frustrated with opponents who held out too long. And if that happened, that wasn't Flynt's fault.

They entered the room to find Kaden running through a high-level Ataru move with mixed success. "Heya, Kade. Looks like you need to put some more height into that jump, otherwise, you're gonna land on your face when you try to move into the part that comes next," Flynt observed.

Kaden landed in a low crouch, saber poised and looked up at Flynt. He stood, deactivated his saber and shrugged. "I don't know the part that comes next."

"Well, in order to learn the part that comes next, you'll need some serious high-level Force control,"Lakhri told Kaden. "Raven or I can teach you, but Drex would have to help. We can talk to him tonight. Flynt, warm up for a bit. Then the two of you can get started."

Flynt started on a kata. It was a basic Ataru sequence that he'd learned in his first few years in junior crèche; simple but effective.

"Why would Drex need to help?" Kaden asked, swiping a hand across his forehead. He wasn't saying it aloud, but the inference was that he'd rather be under his master's supervision as little as possible at the moment.

"Because," Lakhri replied, "he shares a training bond with you, he knows where you are and what you can do where Force work is concerned, and I assume he also knows how to teach you most effectively. And whether it's advisable to teach you at all, at this stage."

Personally, Lakhri did not see why not, but he knew that Kaden had issues and that Drex had his own approach to dealing with them. He'd rather not interfere.

Kaden waved the idea off. "Forget it then, it's no big deal. I'll just keep with this one. Like Flynt so aptly pointed out, it needs work anyway," he explained.

Lakhri raised his eyebrows. "I think," he said pointedly, "you had better leave it to your teachers to decide what makes sense teaching you and what doesn't. And that move will be of little use to you if you have no clue how to follow up on it. So, either be ready to learn the whole thing or drop it entirely – if that decision was up to you, that is. Which, I'm afraid, it isn't."

He saw that Flynt had finished running through his kata for the second time and said: "Alright, get started you two."

Kaden muttered something about the lack of control over his own life being nothing new, and turned to face Flynt, saber in hand.

Lakhri raised a brow at Kaden's remark. "No, it isn't anything new, I'd assume," he said. "You're aware that you're a Jedi padawan and all that, right? What did you expect your life would be at age fifteen? Fighting Sith Lords all on your own? Sorry to disappoint you, but it hasn't worked that way for any of us, and it won't for you either. Now get started."

Flynt raised a brow also but said nothing. Instead, he rolled his neck, circled his arms a couple of times and pulled his weapon as instructed. He wasn't big on fighting, he never had been. Still, the teen could hold his own, as Lakhri had pointed out. Although it wasn't going to be a stellar effort thanks to the unfamiliar arm, he'd give it a shot.

Kaden made to retort but was cut off by Flynt who came at him hard and fast. The boy might not have believed it, but Flynt was doing him a favour here. Continuing to talk back to Lakhri was not in his best interest, thus he took yet another decision from the kid and forced him to shut up.

Okay, so that was the last thing Kaden expected from the placid, wise-cracking Flynt. His saber was up immediately, his stance by default Soresu. And it was a good thing, too, as an attack like that had been something he'd have expected from Raven, not Flynt.

Lakhri had been told time and again by Eeth that he underestimated himself, and it had been true. It seemed as if Flynt was similar to him in that regard. Despite not being a natural, Flynt was agile, observant and intelligent, he was good at manipulating the Force, and he had received a thorough training; he was not half as bad as he thought he was. Lakhri thought he could be even better if he had more self-confidence and – well, more of an interest in sparring.

The two padawans fought for fifteen minutes, the advantage shifting between the two in equal measures. They were both enjoying the match; Flynt because he was improving the control over his mechanical arm and Kaden because, well, it was fighting and he enjoyed all things fighting.

Kaden tried to force Flynt into more aggressive attack and defence manoeuvres but was failing to do so; the teen was not buying into it.

Flynt wasn't buying into it because he a) wasn't an aggressive personality, and b) he'd been expecting it. Just as he had expected Kaden to focus on his weak side, which he also did. He used both of those things to his advantage, feigning more feebleness in his mechanical arm than was strictly true and lulling Kaden into a false sense of security. Then, he struck. He shifted his saber into his mechanical arm, a move that was so fast and unexpected that Kaden didn't have a chance to respond, and brought it up into the hilt of the boy's lightsaber, knocking it from his grip.

Kaden was shocked into silence; that move had truly taken him off guard. The second's hesitation he took to process his shock saw Flynt's saber at his throat.

Lakhri noted with some satisfaction that his pep talk seemed to have done some good. Flynt wasn't superior in technique or strength; Kaden was stronger than him both physically and in the Force. But Flynt had more experience and his calmer nature often worked to his advantage in fights even when he was technically weaker than his opponent. Just like Drex, it prevented him from easily giving up or being provoked into leaving openings. He sent a surge of approval through their bond when Flynt scored a point. His padawan had previously been wary of using his mechanical arm since he had not been sure of it, but he had gained a lot more control of it during this mission, and Lakhri was glad that Flynt had shown enough confidence to make use of that fact.

"You are exhausting yourself, Kaden," he called at the teenage boy. "Don't go in that fast. Especially not right after having lost a point. Flynt would have to be stupid not to expect it."

And expect it he did. Flynt continued to bat away the boy's attacks and noticed that the more nonplussed he seemed by Kaden's efforts, the more ferocious they became.

The approval across their bond was met with a tiny smile that only Lakhri would have detected. He was doing well here, better than he had expected considering his arm and the strength and skill of his opponent.

Kaden took that advice and pulled back a little. Eventually, he did take a point. It was a bold move, too, hard, fast and devastating. He had been aiming to disarm the older teen. However, he had foolishly waited until Flynt changed hands again and aimed the attack at his mechanical arm. That had been a mistake. The arm might be 'weaker', but it was only a notional weakness. The actual strength in that hand was that of a robotic arm and many times superior to a human's. Thus, Flynt kept a hold of his lightsaber, despite losing the point. Emboldened, Kaden stepped it up again, and again he took a point. He was getting more confident, more aggressive and more ferocious. The boy knew what was happening: he was starting to let the power take over and he was drawing on the aggression rather than channel it into the Force. He held his saber to the side in the universal signal to stop.

Flynt did so immediately, withdrawing his attack and holding his own blade in the same position. He looked to Lakhri for instructions.

"I have to either stop or switch to Soresu," Kaden told Lakhri in a clipped tone. He was clearly annoyed at having to give up his opportunity to continue this fight. Then again, where it was going had no pleasant end.

Lakhri was close to stopping the fight himself when Kaden asked for a break. He was rather positively surprised by the request. "Switch to Soresu, then," he said. "Flynt has little experience sparring against opponents who use Soresu. It will do him some good." He smiled at Kaden. "And well done," he added. "Both of you, actually."

"Piffle," Flynt said in response to the 'it will do him some good' comment. He wasn't exactly bone tired, but he had fought hard against Kaden. Still, he obeyed without protest. He didn't mind doing all the attacking; it would mean he could focus on his left arm. He swapped his saber to his mechanical arm and waited until Kaden was ready.

The look on Kaden's face was a mix between tragic and resignation; he was pissed at himself, pissed that he had to lose his opportunity to fight and pissed at the universe in general. Lakhri's praise, however, had that feeling ebb a little. He looked over at the man, his saber still down and to the side, thus ensuring Flynt could not attack him yet. "Could we just stop instead?" He wasn't going to say it, but he didn't want to waste his time doing Soresu during what was meant to be an Ataru lesson. He could do Soresu until it came out his ears. Ataru – well, he wasn't allowed to do that without supervision.

Flynt mentally face-palmed at the egocentric nature of young teenagers. But again, he said nothing and just stood waiting.

Lakhri raised his eyebrows, again. It seemed to happen rather a lot lately. "I said," he told Kaden, "switch to Soresu. I didn't give you any options, so I don't know what you're waiting for."

"I was waiting for you to reconsider. I hoped you might. That's why I asked," the boy said honestly. "I hardly ever get a chance to work on Ataru. I have the rest of my apprenticeship to work on Soresu, is all." He kept his saber down, which meant Flynt was still standing there waiting.

"You said yourself that you'd better stop using Ataru for the moment," Lakhri said sharply. "And this is a workout for Flynt as much as for you, so, no, I'm not going to reconsider. Now kindly get started." For anyone who knew Lakhri, it was clear that he was getting exasperated and slightly annoyed.

Flynt gave the boy a meaningful look and stepped forward; he didn't attack, though, as Kaden's saber was still down. "Come on, I've heard your defences are pretty good. Let's see what you got."

Kaden's frown shifted from Lakhri to Flynt, ignoring the teen's advance for a moment. He looked back over at the small Jedi master. "Yes, but I meant that I needed to stop 'fighting' Ataru, not practicing it altogether. There are other things we can do," he clarified. "Fine, then. Whatever." And with that the boy raised his guard.

A split-second later Flynt was on him like white on rice. He knew that although his master was harder to push to the point than many others, when someone pushed him there, the repercussions were dire; he'd rather spare Kaden that experience.

Lakhri folded his arms across his chest. He did not appreciate a "whatever" response, just as little as Eeth did, and he was going to make that clear to Kaden when the lesson was over. Right now, the two padawans had finally started to fight and he did not want to interrupt the match.

Kaden's Soresu was good; so much so that Flynt was not able to score a point even though Lakhri gave him the occasional bit of advice. He made a mental note to start teaching Flynt how to deal with defensive opponents. Not now, though; there was no point in forcing Kaden to take the offensive again.

Finally, he called the match to a halt. "Good match, both of you," he said. "Flynt, take a shower. Kaden, stay here for a moment. I need to talk to you. Oh, and give me back your saber, please."

When Lakhri called the match to an end, Flynt was feeling pleasantly tired out. He had made a bit of progress with his robotic arm this mission and that was continuing to improve. The teenager gave the two a mock-salute, turned on his heel and sauntered off to do as told.

Meanwhile, Kaden was nowhere near as taxed as his padawan peer. He was no longer sweating and looked entirely bored to death with the way the last part of that lesson had gone. His frown only deepened when the man requested his lightsaber. It was almost too humiliating an order to comply with, then again the alternative was having Drex find out, and that was to be avoided at all cost, even his pride. Jedi weren't meant to have pride, he silently scolded himself as he handed his weapon over, gaze lowered and head down. It was clear that he found this incredibly humiliating and was working to keep his frustration at bay. "What do you want to talk about?" he asked, arms crossed about his chest.

"I don't know if Drex is taking any 'fine, whatever' responses from you," Lakhri said. "I don't. When I tell you to do something, you don't take an attitude with me, nor do you ask me to reconsider for no good reason. The next time you feel like not complying with my orders or giving me that kind of reply, get ready to have your ass kicked. And this is the last warning you're gonna get. Am I clear on that?" This was actually a pretty drastic lecture, by Lakhri's standards, but he had a feeling that with Kaden, it was better to leave no room for ambiguity.

"Firstly," Kaden stated, "I had a reason, I don't usually do things without one. I wanted you to reconsider having me spar using Soresu and continue instead with something Ataru orientated. This was meant to be an Ataru lesson." He gave the man a deadpan look and chose not to comment on Drex's expectations regarding his attitude. He simply gave a nod in response to his 'am I clear.'

"Funny," said Lakhri. "I don't recall having asked you for your opinion. Just for the record, having a reason is not the same as having a good reason. And I'm sure that somewhere deep down, you know that talking back is not in your best interest. Better cut it now and say something along the lines of 'Yes, Lakhri, sorry, Lakhri' because I'm really not all that happy with your attitude, as you might have gathered."

"It felt like a good reason to me," Kaden said quietly, trying not to let his displeasure at this encounter win over here. The man's comments grated. He looked down at the small master, frowned, but dropped his arms to his sides. "Yes, Lakhri," came the clipped response. "May I go, please?"

It had not escaped Lakhri's notice that Kaden had failed to apologise. The boy did indeed have pride issues, and Lakhri felt that Drex was rather doing him a favour by driving the issue home. He also felt that he'd better do the same so as not to undermine Drex's efforts.

"I haven't heard an apology yet," he said. "And I'm running out of patience, I'm afraid. Bend over and touch your toes."

The expression on Kaden's face went from a frown to surprise in a heartbeat. He looked at Lakhri, his expression bordering on outright incredulity. "Surely not…" he said. He blinked once, his eyebrows still raised in shock. Then, he shook his head, thinking this was ludicrous, and bent over, his hands gripping the tops of his boots. If the man was trying to humiliate him, he'd endured a lot worse, and he almost said as much.

Even if Flynt had not told Lakhri that Kaden was not taking him seriously, it would not exactly have been hard to pick up from the boy's behaviour. Lakhri decided to disabuse him of that notion. He was not going to use his hand because his arm was short and the swats he could dish out that way were not going to leave enough of an impression. Nor was he the type to carry a paddle around with him, as Eeth did. In the rare instances that Flynt needed to learn a lesson, he either took him home or he did what he started to do now, which was opening the clasp of his belt. He had no intention of making this an excruciatingly painful punishment; first, Kaden's offense had not been all that grave, and second, Lakhri would leave such things to Drex. He did, however, intend to make sure that Kaden knew he meant business. He doubled the belt over and brought it down on the seat of Kaden's pants with medium force. "You do not pull an attitude when I'm teaching you," he told Kaden and let a second stroke follow. "And when I call you on it," he continued, "you don't talk back. You apologise." He dealt out stroke number three.

Even as he stared down at his boots, Kaden did not truly believe this was actually going to happen. Surely this must be some sort of test. A mistake perhaps? Lakhri was trying to scare him or teach him some kind of token object lesson. Yes, that had to be it. There were two reasons he thought this. Firstly, there was no way Lakhri, being as small as he was, would be able to cause him much in the way of physical pain, at least not without… The boy's thoughts froze before he could progress to the second reason as the sound of a belt being unbuckled and several of the attachments placed aside drew his immediate attention. If Raven was able to hurt him as much as she had with a belt, Lakhri, having more than double her muscle mass, was going to be capable of putting some hurt into this. He almost went back to his reasoning of how this couldn't be happening, but by now he had turned to see what the man was doing, all guesswork abandoned.

The smack that followed had him screwing up his face, but that was the extent of it. Yes, it had hurt, as did the next two, although not nearly as badly as he had experienced. He gritted his teeth and focused on keeping his position and remaining silent.

Lakhri kept the first half dozen fairly moderate, all of which were endured by Kaden in his typical silent and stoic fashion. For the second half dozen, Lakhri considerably upped the ante. He wanted this to be something that Kaden would not want to repeat. This change in pace was rewarded by several yelps from the boy.

Just to make sure that Kaden got his message, Lakhri meted out two additional strokes after having completed the dozen, making these two truly spectacular. "The next time you feel like giving me an attitude," Lakhri said conversationally, starting to reattach his and Kaden's lightsaber and a few other utilities, "you will get a lot more strokes like these two. Are you ready to apologise now?"

Kaden didn't hear much of what Lakhri was saying. The blood was pounding in his ears, and his eyes were squinted shut tightly against the pain. Those last two had been worse than the first six combined. Apologise. He had caught that, and as the pain started to subside, he cleared his throat. "Yes, Lakhri, sorry Lakhri," he ground out, his hands now back on his boots. Although he wasn't crying, his voice sounded strained.

"See, if you had said that right away, you could have saved yourself that belting," Lakhri said quite kindly, closing the buckle of his belt. "I suppose your pride got in the way. Not a good thing for a Jedi padawan to indulge, I'm sorry to inform you. You can get up now. And remember: the next time you feel like giving me an attitude, those last two are what I'm going to start out with." He gave Kaden a grin that showed him he held no grudge and motioned for him to get out of the cargo hold.

When Lakhri next spoke the boy's head had cleared a bit, and he was able to make out each word, not that it was of comfort since hearing about his pride getting in the way yet again was not welcome news. He stood, stiffly, when bade and looked down at the diminutive Jedi master. His ass hurt but not enough to make him unable to keep from the childish act of rubbing. He responded to the grin with a grimace of pain and left the cargo hold without further comment.

He was striding for his private refresher, both hands thrust down the back of his trousers, when Flynt exited his room, freshly showered and smiling as he usually did. Kaden pulled his hands from his ass so fast that anyone watching would think they were on fire. It wasn't enough to fool Flynt, though.

"Lakhri isn't big on dishing out the ultimate smackdown on round one. You'll live this time," Flynt said cheerfully and clapped him on the shoulder.

"I don't want to talk about it," Kaden said quietly and pushed the teen's hand off his shoulder. A second later the door to his cabin slammed shut, and Flynt almost flinched at the ferocity behind it.

"Dare I ask?" Flynt said upon entering the cargo hold, meeting his master's gaze.

Lakhri shrugged. "I was only going to give him a talking-to," he said. "Instead of apologising, though, he decided to pull an attitude. Not his brightest idea. And since it seems to be a constant issue with him, and one that Drex is working on, I thought I'd help Drex along."

Flynt raised a brow but otherwise didn't comment. Instead, he led the man into a conversation about the possibility of finding some sort of thrilling nightlife on this planet.

Kaden, in the meantime, showered and changed. By the time he exited the showers, he had recovered somewhat. Unwilling to face Lakhri again, the boy took his datapad and threw himself on his bunk. Classwork wasn't the most thrilling of chores, but it sure as hell felt better than reemerging at the moment.


Raven, Eeth and Drex tracked the goyts who had quickly scattered all over the woods. Eeth sometimes flew the speeder where Raven told him; at other times, they made their way through the undergrowth. The goyts seemed to be eating everything that could neither escape fast enough nor was out of their reach.

"I sincerely hope they won't destroy all plant life on this island within years," said Eeth. "The birds will not mind; they can cross over to the mainland. The goyts cannot. I think they should be monitored."

"As do I," Raven agreed upon seeing how fast they were hoeing into the ecosystem. "The flora here is meant to regenerate at a fast pace, and we have yet to see how introducing the Force-sensitive goyts to Force-sensitive plants pans out. I'm hoping that whatever happens, the end result is maintaining a symbiotic relationship. I'd hate to have to relocate them again." She looked up at Eeth. "Do you think the Council would send another team out for this same population again?"

"That depends on their Force abilities," Eeth replied. "We are meant to stay here for a while and observe. If everything seems fine by tomorrow morning, we can release the rest of the goyts, and then we will essentially stay for as long as you need to find out all that you can."

"More opportunity for Kaden to work with Lakhri, then," Drex said wryly. "I hope he isn't too much of a handful."

"If he is, Lakhri is perfectly capable of handling him," Eeth said. "He has a lot of experience teaching, and he has yet to allow a student to walk all over him."

"Small wonder, with you as a teacher," Drex said with a smile.

Raven agreed with Drex's summation, but she was still thinking about what Eeth had said. "I've no idea how long it will take to get enough information on the goyts' habits here to ascertain if they'll manage to survive without killing the environment. They shouldn't, but that's just an educated guess on my part. It might be better to have droids come in to monitor them over a period of time," she told him.

"That was not what I meant," Eeth replied. "I meant assessing their Force abilities more closely. We know the basics, but since their rescue was imperative, we did not have the time to observe how they draw on the Force, at least not in a natural environment. The Jedi Council will want a full description. I hate to point it out, but with millions of possibly endangered species across the galaxy, the Council will only allocate resources to monitoring them if they consider their use of the Force remarkable enough."

"Well, I don't need to tell you how I feel about that decision..." Regardless, she would do her job, and she did. Raven left Eeth and Drex and went to collect recording devices. This was going to be quite a task.


It was late that afternoon when Drex, Eeth and Raven returned to the ship.

Kaden was still holed up in his room, not coming out for anyone or anything, while Lakhri had allowed Flynt to explore the forest for the afternoon. Flynt returned just as Raven was unloading her equipment, aided by Eeth. "How'd it go? Are we going to release the hounds?" Flynt asked, rounding on his Jedi aunt.

"I think so, yes, they're adapting well so far. What the Force is that smeared on your tunic?"

Flynt shrugged. "Some sort of berry. It tastes a lot like chocolate, but with the consistency of wax. The oddest thing. I brought some back. Oh! And some of these." Flynt removed about ten wild onions and as many tubers from his pack, looking very proud of his bounty. "I'll take them in." And with that he disappeared inside to show off his prize to Lakhri; they both had an appreciation for food, after all. He tossed them down on the sink where Lakhri was beginning to get things ready to prepare dinner. "Check it out," he said proudly, upending his pack in the sink, clods of dirt, grass, bugs and all.

Lakhri quickly stepped aside to prevent dirt from getting all over his tunic. "Thanks," he said, peering into the sink. "I'll try to use this to spice up our spaceship stew. Could you check whether Eeth needs help? I bet he's exhausted but won't admit it."

"Sure. What's a little goyt shit between friends," Flynt replied and left to do as instructed.

Drex, in the meanwhile, slowly made his way inside. He found Lakhri in the galley preparing dinner. "How did the lesson go?" he asked, sitting on a chair and starting to pull off his boots.

"Well," said Lakhri, "it went alright for the most part. But your padawan isn't too happy with me, to put it mildly. One might also say he's sulking."

"He does that, yes," said Drex. "Why is he sulking?"

Lakhri paused for a moment to wash the biggest clots of dirt off the wild onions that Flynt had found. "After our lesson, I let him spar against Flynt," he said when the water had stopped running. "He couldn't overpower Flynt as easily as he had thought and his attacks got more aggressive. Eventually, he told us he had to stop using Ataru, so he would either have to stop fighting or use Soresu. I thought it was a good opportunity for Flynt to practice fighting against an opponent who uses Soresu, but Kaden had apparently hoped for me to either stop the match or teach him some more Ataru individually. I told him to follow my orders and explained that this was for Flynt's benefit, too. He had to be asked several times to continue sparring and gave me a bit of an attitude. When I told him off for this after the match, he kept talking back, plus his pride got in the way of an apology, so I ended up taking my belt to him. Not that harshly, for the most part; but the last two I gave him were meant to convince him to take me seriously. I don't know if it worked, but he did apologise. Since then he's been in his room."

"Thank you," said Drex. "I'm glad you handled it that way. Lenience has never worked well for Kaden. He's always had issues with his pride, but they got much worse lately. I've completely stopped tolerating any of it. It might help if he realises that others feel the same way about his behaviour."

"I hope so," said Lakhri. "He's not a bad kid at all. He's actually done a lot of hard work during this mission; I was quite impressed."

"Yes, that part went well," said Drex with a smile and rose. "I will look after him now."

"Alright," said Lakhri. He wiped off his hands, detached Kaden's saber from his belt and handed it to Drex, who accepted it and clipped it to his own belt.

Boots in hand, Drex made his way to their cabin, knocked briefly and entered. "Hello padawan," he said calmly. "How was your day?"

"Since I sensed your presence here ten minutes ago, and given that Lakhri has yet to leave the ship despite sending Flynt off, I gather you already know how the class went," said Kaden. "The rest of my day I spent doing as you said." He wasn't being disrespectful, just honest, and his tone conveyed as much as he held up his datapad with earphones attached for the man to take.

"That's good," said Drex, accepting the data pad and earphones and sitting down on the lower bunk. He did not put on the earphones, however. "From what I heard," he said, "the lesson actually went alright. And I'm very pleased you called for a stop to your Ataru match by yourself. And yet, you managed to get into trouble once again. Is it possible that your problem with your Ataru lessons is not so much the person who's teaching you, but yourself?"

"No," Kade replied curtly. "In this instance, it was a case of me wanting to learn what I was there to learn. Instead, Lakhri was using me to train his own apprentice." The boy shifted on the bed a bit. The belting he'd caught did not rate as memorable, but those last two stripes had left a couple of serious welts, the pain from which could still be felt. "As I tried explaining to Lakhri, I have all the time in the world to do Soresu. You rarely let me do anything else, and those few times that I am allowed to do Ataru I really want to do ATARU. Why is that so hard for everyone to understand?" He was getting annoyed now, and being annoyed with Drex while the man was riding him over his attitude was not advisable. He sighed. "It's not disrespect, master, it's just the truth," the boy said before Drex could fling that one at him.

"Alright, so this is how you feel," said Drex. "Specifically, you seem to feel that your desires should be more important than what your teacher thinks you should do or what others need. If you cannot see why this might be the thing that gets you into trouble time and again, you're in for a rough ride. I hate to break it to you, but not everything is about what you want, and I'm sure if you made an effort, you would see that, rather than sulking about how unfair everyone is being." He rose from his bed. "Let's go outside and meditate," he said, foregoing his need for a shower for the moment. "It should help you gain a better perspective on things."

"Everyone IS unfair," Kade muttered as he rose and followed the man. He wasn't fazed by meditating. If it helped him feel less frustrated over things, then so be it. "You can shower if you want. I can do this by myself. You can trust me to do as you say," Kaden offered, while kneeling where Drex bade.

"It would be so nice," said Drex with a highly unusual degree of sarcasm, "if you could for once manage to just follow a simple instruction and keep your comments to yourself. At least occasionally. It can't be that hard to do. I know what I'm doing, even if you don't." He had picked a shady spot next to a creek for them and now knelt down opposite Kaden. "Now stop sulking and link with me, padawan," he said quietly.

That comment hit the boy like a tonne of bricks. For once? And, what? He had wanted to be thoughtful. Okay, so he had also suspected Drex didn't trust him to be alone. He opened his mouth to say as much only to realise that he'd only be proving him right if he did. At a loss for what to do he did the only thing that wasn't going to cause him further grief: namely, he linked with Drex.

The second he did, Drex was met with a torrent of his emotions. Unlike when he'd hit Raven, though, he tapered the flood as he usually did. The first thing to come out was the guilt he still felt over doing that to Raven; it was quickly felt and released into the Force. The rest came in spits and starts. There was his irritation over Drex's zero-tolerance policy, then his gratitude for the fact that the man cared enough to not give up on him. Then there was his general frustration at being such an irascible personality of late. He hated that about himself. Finally, they came to this afternoon's lesson with Lakhri. Kaden shared how he felt, then tried to absorb what Drex was conveying. Had he put his desires above Lakhri's instructions? Well, yes. But that was because they were meant to be doing Ataru! It took another ten or fifteen minutes before the boy returned to that thought, and again he was met with a similar question. Was it his place to question superior Jedi? Well, no, but… Kaden frowned, but acquiesced, having gotten the point.

Drex made the meditation longer than usual. It was clear that Kaden was struggling with himself, with the demands of his vocation, and possibly with his hormones. When he finally stopped, it was dusk and a goyt family was sniffing at his sleeve, trying to find out if it was edible. Apparently, the rest of the team had changed the original plan to wait until tomorrow morning and had released the rest of the goyts who had become increasingly difficult to keep from becoming bored, especially the males.

"Let's go back to the ship," Drex said to Kaden. "And for the Force's sake, try to keep it together for the rest of this mission. None of us actually likes having to discipline you. Believe me, we could all do without it."

"You're not the only one," Kaden replied quietly, forbearing to rub at the two stripes that had blazed across his ass for the last few hours. They had faded considerably by now, however. He followed his master into the ship without further comment. He really was trying to improve his attitude.

When they arrived, they found Flynt helping Lakhri set the table. Raven was sprawled out on the couch, her eyes closed. This mission had been hard on her, and it was starting to show.

Kaden turned to Drex, looked down at his master's belt where his lightsaber hung, and he too closed his eyes. Typically, it took the boy a few days to stop sulking when Drex confiscated his weapon. This time, acceptance was happening a lot faster. His eyes opened again. Rather than obsidian, they were a honey brown, and rather than brooding, his expression was one of resignation. He turned towards their cabin, knowing that Drex needed a shower and not particularly wanting to stay here with the others.

Drex stopped him by resting a hand on Kaden's shoulder. He sent him a surge of approval and affection through their bond. "Help Lakhri and Flynt set the table, please," he said quietly. "I'll be with you in a moment." Just as he left, Eeth entered, freshly showered and, as usual, immaculately dressed. He nodded at Kaden, glanced at Raven and sat down next to the couch, resting a gentle hand on her forehead. He could do nothing against the fatigue, but at least he could ease her headache somewhat.

Everyone was genuinely glad that Lakhri had prepared a rich and filling meal of local tubers, mushrooms and vegetables. On top of it, Lakhri unwrapped a pre-packaged cake that he had bought on Barslaa.

"All of you are free after dinner," Eeth said to the apprentices, having checked this with Drex and Lakhri first. "You have worked hard. Raven most of all, but that goes for the other two as well."

"Free, as in free to do whatever we want?" Kaden questioned, looking towards Drex.

"I'd say that's within reason," Raven supplied. She was looking much better for the hour or so of rest she had gotten that afternoon, and had regained the usual healthy pink tinge to her pale complexion.

Flynt was about to make a joke about the definition of 'within reason' when he thought better of it. Lakhri's words on his developing status and his responsibility, especially so as a role model for the younger members of their team, had not fallen on deaf ears. "Two words: Sim Swords," he told them, pointing two mechanical fingers at first Raven, then Kaden before digging into his second piece of cake. It was delicious.

"You versus me, then Kaden fights the loser. Unless, of course, we can convince Master or Lakhri to join in?" Raven proposed, looking from her Jedi brother to Eeth, a grin on her face. She was enjoying the opportunity to relax for a while without the stress of responsibility. This mission had been an eye-opener for the teenager in more ways than one. She had always known that Eeth's job was demanding, but having been personally responsible to such a large extent to the success of their mission had been a first for her. Raven looked up at Eeth and gave him a small smile of gratitude that was probably lost on him.

Eeth was perceptive, though; he noticed the smile and, vaguely guessing its meaning, returned it briefly.

"I'll take the burden off Eeth and join you," said Lakhri. "Force forbid he should have to play and have fun!"

"Indeed," said Eeth drily. "Thank you for sacrificing yourself, Lakhri – although Raven tends to find my approach to these inane games funny, for whatever reason. I would be willing to play a round or two if you would like me to, padawan." He had no interest whatsoever in holo games, but he was aware that Raven liked him to play; and he really felt that she had outdone herself during this mission and deserved to be indulged.

"The fact that you refer to them as 'inane' is a case in point," Raven shot back, a huge smile on her face.

"Don't be so hard on them. Games have feelings, too, you know," Flynt said as if personally offended by Eeth's lack of enthusiasm. He wasn't, of course; he was just being a smartass and enjoying the banter.

… Ten minutes later, Eeth, Lakhri, Raven, Flynt and Kaden were holed up in their small living area. Eeth had been coerced into going against Lakhri first as the three apprentices had been eager to watch the outcome.

"My credits are on Lakhri," said Flynt. "He's had more practice."

While Raven contemplated the merits of both masters, Kaden announced that he agreed with Flynt.

"True, but you've seen Master on these things, he's brutal. He did a fatality on his first round of Kombat II," Raven said, still deep in thought over her choice of winner.

The three apprentices continued quietly making wagers between them until the game finally loaded.

Eeth did not play often, but he had indulged Raven occasionally. Therefore, by now he knew how these things worked. Wanting to get this behind himself as quickly as possible, he launched into a ferocious attack. Lakhri, however, was ready for this and used Eeth's momentum trying to propel him out of the game's range, which would mean an automatic loss. Eeth had not reckoned with this, but managed to make a backflip just in time. Unfortunately, the game had trouble processing the move at which it was performed. The hologram players flickered and vanished. "See?" Eeth said disdainfully. "This is why it is inane."

"Well, it isn't designed for Jedi speed," Lakhri conceded. "Plus, it's an outdated version. Flynt has a vamped-up version at the Temple that's quite fun. C'mon, let's start again."

This time around, Eeth flattened Lakhri within minutes. In the next round, however, Lakhri managed to provoke Eeth into a move that the game did not accept and to instantly "kill" him.

"Alright, that is enough for me for tonight," said Eeth. He intended to seek out Drex and keep him company.

The three padawans let out a sigh of relief as none wanted to forfeit a two-point disadvantage in their match as per the wager.

"C'mon, grandmaster, you should fight the winner of our match," Flynt said as he stepped up to Lakhri, ready to beat the tar out of his master. Well, he was going to try, in any case.

"I only promised you a round or two," Eeth pointed out. "Besides, I want Drex's advice on a diplomatic matter the Council contacted me about today, and he is sitting in the galley by himself. If you absolutely insist, I can come back later."

There were few things that Drex could not do on account of his blindness, and hologames were among them. Drex did not mind being alone; he was wearing his headphones and listening to a seriously complicated piece of electronic music. Nevertheless, he was pleased when he sensed Eeth enter.

The night off was much needed and appreciated by all three apprentices. Raven decided it was the most fun watching Flynt and Kaden since they had started competing to see which of them could get the most gruesome finishing move. So far, though, that honour was Lakhri's who had managed to somehow neatly cleave Kaden in half; the hologram made Raven wince but the two boys thought it was awesome. Lakhri didn't seem fazed, in any case, and played another few rounds before going to join Eeth and Drex. Raven peeled off next. She wasn't as worn out as she had been earlier but was looking forward to bed all the same. This left Flynt and Kaden to play on, and they did, right up until Drex stuck his head in to call Kaden away.

As much as he wanted to protest, the boy didn't. He'd had a fun evening and wasn't about to spoil it by pissing off Drex. Besides, he figured he'd pissed him off enough for one day and was honestly surprised not to be dragged over the coals for what happened during his lesson with Lakhri. Well, by now, the two welts he'd gotten had completely faded and all that remained was the beginning of a shallow bruise. He could imagine that copping more than two smacks like those would well and truly leave an impression, although – and despite Flynt's warning not to test him – he wasn't entirely certain Lakhri was serious about his threat.

All in all, it had been an enjoyable evening for everyone. Drex hoped that Kaden had loosened up a little and was ready to resume his lesson with Lakhri with less of an attitude tomorrow. The only ones who were going to be really busy were Eeth and Raven because Raven was going to monitor the goyts' use of the Force and Eeth was going to accompany her and note down her findings. As for the rest, they were free to work out, study, collect food, swim or even cross over to the mainland. They could all use the downtime.