Author's Note: Has this concept been done to death? Sort of. Definitely not in long form non-fluff form. But mostly this is just me going 'there is no way that character looks younger than 18 or 19 when he's introduced, he's just a sheltered rich kid is all' and wanting to do some cool exploration of the Mandalorians after Book of Boba Fett episodes and with Kenobi coming up we hit this hybrid idea. We will be focusing on Canon, however where gaps exist non-contradictory Legends material will be pulled in. Also, uggh Korkie may have one of the worst names of any character that gets seriously taken screentime in the entire franchise. So yeah Korkie's character model slowly changing to look both younger and less like Obi-Wan when I did my Mandalorian Culture Episodes rewatch triggered this.
Chapter 1: Begun, the Clone Wars Has
For all that his master was one of the most brilliant lightsaber specialists in the Jedi Order and had trained him well, Korkie knew he was out of his depth as the barrage of laser fire began to entrap him and his fellow Jedi within the center of the arena. Yanking one of the new hulking B2 units towards him he deftly carved his blue energy blade through both of its arms, eliminating its ability to fight back, before thrusting into the center processing unit and pushing it away once more with the Force.
And yet, for all he knew he was out of his depth, he was thriving. Something in his blood screamed for more. For better. Numbers were not a proper challenge, merely an annoying statistic. He wanted better opponents.
Centering himself within the Force he once more purged himself of the bloodlust of his people. A practice which had been drilled into him over the years by his master, Keelyvine Reus, a former apprentice of the apparently now fallen Count Dooku he could see up in the spectator box coldly watching the battle unfold.
As he embraced it and purged his uncontrolled impulses he felt the Force scream in warning, throwing himself backwards he saw it, the rocket of yet another B2 hurtling towards his position, without time to throw up a Force Push to divert it.
Suddenly a field of debris, broken droid parts and the like, scattered into the path of the rocket, causing it to explode early. As he landed Korkie glanced over to see his master's hand casually catching her second lightsaber she had thrown up into the air to complete the Force Push maneuver to save his life. Green robes fluttering and equally green eyes narrowed in focus she didn't even acknowledge the act.
Typical, he thought to himself, his master was a cold and diligent woman, but a Force-blessed amazing fighter, for which he was currently very grateful as he survived the continued assault and was pushed back further towards the center of the arena with the rest of the Jedi.
He had only recently begun to reveal the secrets of the hidden aggressive and combat potential of Niman, a prerequisite form for his master's own mastery of Jar-Kai, and he had already seen many casual wielders of his form perish in this combat as they failed to truly channel its full capabilities.
Seeing Knight Sar Labooda fall to a barrage of B2 blasters out of the corner of his eye he realized that he and his Teras Kasi instructor, Joclad Donva, were the only two Jedi actively using Form VI still alive.
Whirling in a mixture of a Niman defensive technique and Dancing Dragonsnake from Teras Kasi, Korkie deflected three blaster bolts and decided that if he got out of this fight alive he would fully master Niman, Teras Kasi, and move on to finally succeeding his Master as a Jar-Kai initiate.
Ducking under the blaster arm of one of the advancing B2s he whirled his lightsaber in his right hand to deflect the bolt of yet another droid and his left hand shot up in a vicious strike, Teras Kasi was known for its practitioners being able to hit with the force of a low grade blaster bolt without the Force, adding Force Strength enhancement to the strike and his blow to the droid's joint blew its arm clean off, spinning into the distance.
"Hmm? Where'd my arm go? His lightsaber was over ther-" The droid didn't get to finish its statement before a backhanded swing of his saber silenced it forever.
However, they had been backed fully into the center of the arena at this point. There was truly no escape as they were fully encircled.
"Master Windu…" The traitorous former Jedi, Count Dooku, said from the stands, "You have fought gallantly. Worthy of recognition in the archives of the Jedi Order. Now…it is finished. Surrender old friend, you have lost."
"I will not give you the satisfaction of Jedi hostages!" Master Windu called back, falling into a defensive stance, the rest of the Jedi, including Korkie, followed.
"Hmm…so be it…"
It was at that moment, their possible execution hanging in the air, that the Force provided succor to the Jedi.
Or so it seemed at the time. Many years later Korkie would look back at Grand Master Yoda's timely arrival with the multitudes of clones as the end of the Order, not its saving grace.
A few days later found Korkie deep in meditation in the Jedi Archives back on Coruscant. His stern-faced master found him sitting there, eyes closed, maps, holos, and multiple datapads strewn across the table in front of him.
"I suppose your hobby has now become an asset, Padawan." She stated calmly, "Your fascination with history, tactics, and esoteric combat techniques was a concern in the past, I thought perhaps your heritage was calling you too strongly. Now, perhaps, it was simply the Force putting your heritage to use for the Order."
His eyes snapped open, "That is the conclusion I have come to as well, Master. I think…I have discovered an interesting ability based on that."
One of her immaculately shaped eyebrows arched in a mix of interest and skepticism, "Oh?"
Pulling up a holonews article on the datapad in front of him he projected an image of the article for his master to look at.
"Terrorists Strike: Antar 4 In Chaos!" was the title.
"I pulled up historical conflict accounts, recent event articles, and a bunch of maps of known Separatist, Republic, and Neutral systems and mediated on the information while searching deep for any pre-existing knowledge I had that might be useful. The Force guided me to my knowledge of the Mandalorian Civil War and the rise of the New Mandalorians. This leads me to believe that the Separatist sympathizers on Antar 4 will shortly move into full revolt. Based on the maps and looking at how useful a stronghold on the edge of the Inner Rime would be for their war effort I also believe that the Separatist High Command will be sending supporting troops as well."
Tilting her head and leaning closer to scrutinize the article, Knight Keelyvine Reuss eventually nodded her head.
"Yes, Padawan. I do believe you could be onto something. I will pass this along to the Council. Perhaps if something comes of these…analysis sessions of yours we will assess the potential of teaching others this method. It would be beneficial for our less combat inclined acolytes to be kept out of the line of fire, and this would be the perfect reason to do so. It's almost like Master Windu's Shatterpoint technique, but simply applied to cause and effect. Interesting. However this is not why I interrupted your meditations, while intelligence is gathered and deployments are planned we will be participating in a series of training exercises with the Temple's new clone garrison and other knights and padawans who lack tactical experience."
Korkie nodded slowly, "I suppose with our history of already having a few conflict related missions our main purpose is to learn to work with the clones ourselves and also help these knights and padawans get used to combat situations?"
"Precisely, as well as Master Yorinobu and his padawan Fumiko will be the other experienced pair with us."
Master Yorinobu was one of the few practitioners of Makashi left in the Order after Dooku's defection. Korkie knew that working with him and his padawan would be interesting to say the least. He was fairly certain Fumiko was two or so years younger than him, but Yorinobu had picked her as his padawan at a young age due to her showing promise in the utilization of Force Speed, a technique he apparently utilized to dizzying effect with Form II.
Korkie had even sparred with her once or twice in recent years, as they had become two of the padawans in the top tiers of combat ability. With Anakin Skywalker still being a frustrating wall neither could surpass. Though in fairness, even most knights struggled against Skywalker in lightsaber combat. And after he lasted longer than his own master in a duel with Count Dooku it seemed rather likely he would be knighted imminently.
Still, having a padawan who was less than a year older than him and who had been training for half the time best him in combat over and over was not a fun feeling for Korkie.
Korkie tried to be a serious and dedicated padawan, but simmering under the surface he always had this burning ambition inside that caused him to throw himself into his studies with abandon, and sometimes it would push him beyond the standard serenity a Jedi was supposed to portray.
Which was why when each master and padawan pair participating in the exercise were given a squad of clone troopers with blasters set to stun and told to win a four way game of twisted capture the flag he gave the entire exercise his all. In spite of the inherent morbid humor of the situation.