Chapter 10
Ventress knelt beside Bane's inanimate body and sobbed. Suddenly, she felt his body vibrating and backed away from it as if it were cursed. She looked up at his face and realized he was…laughing. Shocked beyond words she simply stared as her husband rolled side to side on the floor. He laughed for another minute and sat up and wiped his eyes. Bane said, "You should've seen your face…Are you alright?" Ventress pulled back her hand and with all the strength in it brought it down toward his face. He blocked the slap with the force and said, "Ventress?" She tried to hit him again and again but each blow glanced off due to the force. Ventress yelled, "YOU!!" she could say no more. Bane raised an eyebrow and said, "It was a joke Ventress. Your daughter and Anakin were in on it." Ventress looked out of the doorway to find Anakin and Via rent with silent giggles. Ventress gaped and let out a sigh of relief. She put a hand to her forehead and then blasted Bane back into the wall. She said, "That's for scaring the SHIT out of me!" Bane stood up and brushed off his robes and said, "Er…yes. Anyway, let's get on with the training. I'll get your real lightsaber Via." Ventress looked at her daughter questioningly and Via said, "That was a fake lightsaber. It had no power crystal in it and when I activated it the blade went through Dad but caused no damage." Bane returned a second later, winked at his wife and handed Via her true lightsaber. The girl grasped it, pointed it upward and activated it. The snap-hiss of the blade and its pink glow filled the room. Anakin said, "Come Via. We will test you."
Anakin and Via walked into the large training room. Via said, "Ooh. Look, training droids." Anakin said, "Yes. Actually they look like the old separatist droids…" Bane said, "Some of them are." Anakin nodded and activated four battle droids. These skinny droids held one plaster and commonly said, "Roger Roger." Anakin said, "Destroy them any way you wish." Via nodded and activated her lightsaber. Everyone expected her to swing wildly at them, as young apprentices usually do, but they were extremely surprised. Via gracefully began to spin the lightsaber about her body and walked toward the droids. They started firing but she easily blocked the blasts. She came to the first droid and she separated it's head from it's body. The second droid stepped forward and she quickly cut it's arms, legs, and then head. She threw her lightsaber and it slammed so hard through the third droid that it exploded and the fourth droid was ripped in two by the spinning blade. Via caught the lightsaber and deactivated it. Bane and Ventress stood, dumbstruck. Anakin smiled and said, "Very good Via!" Via said, "I don't know how I did that to tell you the truth. I just did it." Ventress said, "Amazing! I have never seen a novice handle a lightsaber that way. That was nearly Form 5." Anakin said, "Indeed. I'd like to see one more thing Via. Use the force to move those concrete blocks form here to where the last droid fell." Via nodded and concentrated the blocks rose steadily into the air and zoomed over to the droid and they landed in a neat pile. Anakin said, "I thought so…" Bane said, "Yes…" Ventress said, "What?" and Via said, "Tell me!" Anakin said, "Via, you have an amazing control of the force for one so young. To test your abilities, I challenge you to a duel."