Lord Darth Yoda - I think Aurine is basically at her wits end. She forgot that she was signing up for the 'drag a teenager around the galaxy club.' It's not all fun and games. Sascha is certainly in 'woe is me, I'm so alone mode' - would be nice if he realized that he is - superpowered, has several friends that care about, has his own ship, has a Master that cares about him. But no, a girl broke his heart so he's sad. It's funny because when I was a teenager I certainly had moments like that, so you can say I'm writing Sascha from my own experiences!

thejoker122- Yeah, I definitely wrote this arc when I was in a different place emotionally. The unemployed CardiacCane wrote this arc (and now the gainfully employed and happy with his life CardiacCane is editing it). That quote is a good one - but I think most athletes choose to say 'I'm going to put everything I have into this,' and then they make their sacrifices. Sascha's point would be that he never chose to be a Jedi - he was just born into it, he hasn't chosen his path in life.

A/N - So, as you might be aware, I'm pretty adverse to having actual canon characters in this work...but we are about to see an exception to this rule. This chapter will introduce Tiplee - a character that has a small role in Star Wars: The Clone Wars. She even has a canonical death (thanks, Son of Dathomir - which is a really good comic btw). I refer to her as a Rishati, even though her species isn't listed, that's because her character was modeled after concept art for an female Sith warrior. 'Sithari' is the name of the 'perfect Sith,' and I moved the letters around to create Rishati, thus honoring the legacy of the character.

For a quick browse of what she looks like you can find it here: wiki/Tiplee Tiplee is going to have a decent role in this work. I really loved the character design and am happy to be expanding on her character (even if its just in this little fic).

Anyways, please enjoy the next chapter!

Chapter 5: A Master's Gambit

The next day Aurine ate her breakfast alone in the refectory. Usually Sascha would join her, but she didn't think he'd want to leave his room today. He was supposed to give her his plan for moving forward today, but Sascha seemed to be about as out of ideas as she was. At least there would be some sort of framework in place. Maybe that would be enough to spur Sascha into making a positive change in his life.

If he didn't thought…

If Sascha didn't show signs of progress, it would hurt her beyond words, but she would report to the Reassignment Council as to his current state and how he could no longer be considered a candidate to continue his training as a Padawan. From there he would likely be assigned to one of the four Jedi Service Corps, or perhaps assigned to the archives or the library as a researcher.

If it got to that point, she decided that she would take a mission and not return to the Temple for a long time. She knew that she would want to be away from the site of her failure. The Jedi Temple had always felt like home to her, but she wasn't quite sure if it would ever feel the same anymore. Sascha was going to be the only Padawan she would ever take, she knew. She couldn't fathom ever taking another after this ordeal, she had proved that she was not a very good teacher and she didn't want to subject another apprentice to her teachings.

The worst part was that it had started out so promisingly. Her and Sascha been more than just Master and apprentice, they had been friends, and both of them had seemed to enjoy the others company. He had even saved her life on their very first mission, putting himself in the line of fire to do so. She had learned so much from teaching him, and learned even more about herself, her weaknesses became clearer and she had been feeling like she was becoming a mature young woman. All that seemed to be shattered now. She had failed as a Master, and now she just wanted to be anywhere but the Jedi Temple.

She finished her meal and went back to her room, feeling almost as depressed as her Padawan. In her room she laid on her bedroll, stared up at the ceiling, and tried to turn off her mind. It wasn't exactly blissful meditation, but turning off her mind gave her a sort of serenity that she had been lacking for a long time. Much like her Padawan, using the Force lately hadn't brought her much piece of mind.

An indeterminate amount of time later, her chime rang. Assuming that it was Luminara, who no doubt could feel her distress, she didn't bother to make herself look presentable as she went to the door. When she opened the door, she found that the Jedi standing on the other side of the door was not Luminara. Instead, it was an average sized; red-skinned humanoid with feathery hair that seemed to float with the tiny wind currents of the Temple, the hair started off the as red, but became blue at the tips. Her lips, eyes and eyebrows were varying shades of blue and she wore brown and beige Jedi robes. The Jedi Knight bowed slightly to her, "Master Brynar, may I have a moment of your time?"

"Of course, Master Tiplee," she replied politely if robotically.

Tiplee was a Rishati and twin sister to another Jedi Knight, Tiplar. She was Nara Nalto's Master, and beyond that…she knew very little about the very alien looking Tiplee. She had talked to her a few times when observing their Padawans spar together, but beyond that, she had no idea why she was here in her room.

"You must be wondering why I am here," said Tiplee, her voice lilting slightly in accented basic.

"I don't often get social calls," Aurine admitted lightly.

The red-skinned Rishati grinned slightly, "I myself do not get many social calls either, but this is not why I am here. I had an interesting conversation last night with my Padawan and she relayed the trouble that he had, and you are continuing to have with your apprentice."

"I…um…I'm not sure what you are getting at, Master Tiplee."

"May I sit?" asked the Jedi Knight. Aurine waved a hand, and the Rishati sat on the cool stone floor of her room, there simply were no chairs for either of them to sit on. Aurine remained standing, while Tiplee continued, "Nara does not talk often about her friends. Generally speaking that is because she doesn't have any. It is also because she is a very private person. But today she mentioned the trouble that you are having with your Padawan. I'd like to help."

"Help how?"

The Rishati wavered for a moment, "I think I can help him because I know what he is going through."

Aurine hadn't quite found her footing in this conversation, and she wasn't sure she was going to be finding it any time soon. "Perhaps you could explain that to me."

Tiplee nodded amiably, "As you may or may not know, I was brought to the Temple with my twin sister Tiplar. We were inseparable for most of our childhood, I had other friends, sure, but nothing like the connection I had with my sister. The hardest day of my life was when my sister and I became Padawans and she went on a mission, and for the first time in my life I was without her." The Rishati frowned at herself, "I was not alone, nor should I have perceived myself as such, but I found I could barely function without my sister. One day I was a bright young Padawan, the day after she left I was useless."

"So you see, Master Brynar, I know something about attachment, about being attached to someone that you care about more than anything. I know what it's like to have that relationship ripped away from you, like it was with Sascha and Tyra. People assume you'll get over it, but when you tie so much of your self-worth to another person, it is hard sometimes to find the person you were before. I, perhaps more than anyone in the Temple, can sympathize with what Sascha is going through."

Aurine absorbed Tiplee's speech thoughtfully. While she did know about Tiplee's sister, Tiplar, she hadn't known the exact circumstances of their relationship. She would have thought that the two sisters may have been separated once they were brought to the Temple, but apparently that was not the case. She supposed it wasn't surprising that they had developed a close emotional bond during their childhood.

"I admit that I have trouble in understanding what exactly he has gone through, to break up with someone that you loved is not something I've ever had to do." She sat across from Tiplee and folded her legs underneath her, "How did you find yourself again?"

Tiplee smiled wanly, "I was too absorbed by my own self-pity to see what I was doing. However, a good friend of mine was able to make me see differently."

Aurine shook her head in confusion, "I'm not sure where this conversation is going, so perhaps you should just get straight to it, after all, the people that know me, know that I am a direct person."

The red-skinned Jedi Knight seemed a little confounded by her hostility, her feathery hair waving with every movement that she made. Nonetheless, she continued with her story, "I believe that like myself, only a friend or outsider can shake Sascha out of his current funk."

"It's a great theory, unfortunately Sascha has gone to great lengths to shut out his friends, Tiplee."

She nodded, "Which was something I did as well."

"So how do you propose getting around that? My Padawan is pretty good at avoiding people, and he's been practicing a lot over the past little while."

"I believe the solution to that problem is to find someone who will simply ignore his efforts to isolate himself."

Aurine snorted, "Sascha's friends are all too polite and well-meaning to do that. He's managed to isolate himself so well, even his best friends have stopped trying."

"I believe that my apprentice spoke to you a while back. She very much wants the chance to help Sascha. And knowing my apprentice, she will not be put off by his attempts at pushing her away," said Tiplee. "In fact, it may encourage her further."

Aurine folded her arms across her chest, Nara Nalto was one of Sascha's newest friends, and a young Togruta that he had helped see the error of her ways as an Initiate. Now as Padawans, they had often sparred with each other. They were friends, certainly, but not at anywhere near the level of his closest friends. Nara was also quite possibly willful enough to ignore some of the unwritten rules of working with fellow Jedi. "And you think that Nara could do what his best friends could not?"

The Rishati nodded, "I do…I actually had a vision of Sascha and Nara working together, clearly this vision was supposed to take place far in the future, as both of them were much older. In this short vision, I could tell that they trusted each other, and the level of teamwork they displayed was impressive. It may have just been an impression that I got, but I sensed that their connection, their friendship was strong. I have a feeling that Nara and Sascha's destiny may be linked."

Aurine was about to interrupt, but Tiplee put a hand up to forestall the incoming comment, "Nara will succeed as a Jedi Knight with our without Sascha Whitestar, but I believe that working together, that they can be much more."

Aurine paused, trying to take stock of the conversation, "You received a vision from the Force regarding my apprentice."

"I believe so, Master Brynar. The vision did also involve Nara as well," Tiplee pointed out.

"Then why haven't I received a similar signal from the Force."

The Rishati laughed softly, "Aurine, have you considered you might not currently be the greatest conduit for the Force to flow through right now? Half the Jedi living in this wing of the Temple can sense your distress. You are out of balance."

Aurine bit her lip, Luminara had made a similar comment not too long ago, and now a total stranger was saying the same thing. "I'll admit that the situation with Sascha has had some effect on me as well," she admitted.

"They say that a good Master must be sensitive to the feelings of their apprentice," said Tiplee in a kind tone of voice.

"Though the Master should also be able to maintain a strong countenance through their darkest hours as well," Aurine remarked bitterly.

The Jedi Knight sitting across from her smiled wanly, "I wouldn't be so hard on yourself Aurine, at least you have a connection with Sascha. I'll admit that I don't understand much about my apprentice. I remember the first time I watched her spar with your Padawan. To me, sparring was always a friendly thing, something you did to improve; I would never try to hurt my opponent at all, as we are both Jedi. But I watched Nara and Sascha trading kicks and punches…it looked more like two enemies trying to settle a score with each other, than two friends trying to improve lightsaber technique. I remember that I called a halt to the session, expecting the two of them to glare balefully at each other, but they both smiled and immediately began discussing the mistakes that they made. They understood how to get the best out of each other almost implicitly, but I did not."

"Sascha does have a tendency to get physical in his sparring sessions, he takes after his Master in that way," Aurine replied drolly, certainly she had never had a problem with her Padawan coming back from sparring sessions with bruises. Bruises taught lessons and imbued toughness. The sad fact was that Jedi were often injured while fighting and learning how to maintain composure through pain was a valuable lesson.

"Nara may be my apprentice, and she does learn from me, but I'm no closer to understanding her or forming a relationship with her than I was on my first day of meeting her. I wanted to take a Padawan learner to prove my independence from my sister. After I became a Jedi Knight the Council paired me with my sister more often than I would have liked…and I found myself following old habits again, I felt I had to break the cycle. I thought the best way of doing that was to take an apprentice of my own. Do something to forge my own path."

Tiplee looked thoughtful, "I'm not sure what compelled me to pick Nara as my Padawan, certainly her strength in the Force was impressive, but everyone knew that she would be a challenging apprentice. Though thanks to your Padawan, she is much less fiery and arrogant than she used to be, but those qualities still exist in her. So she can be difficult to deal with at times. But what I sense in her more than anything is a sense of loneliness. She doesn't have a friend or confidant. She doesn't have a support system, and I firmly believe that she needs one."

"And you think Sascha could be that friend for her," Aurine surmised.

"Can you think of anyone better? They already have an existing friendship, all that would need to be done is to push them closer together."

"Which would be perfect if Sascha was his normal self. He's not."

"Yes, but they still can be pushed together. And I think that if my vision was trying to tell me anything, it's that Nara and Sascha are stronger together than they are apart. Both of them are empathic enough to want to help the other, if only they are able to see past their own problems. And I think if we both went on a mission and left them alone, they might be more inclined to help one another." The Rishati shrugged, "It's a Force vision though, I could have misinterpreted it or it could be flat out wrong. The Force rarely deals in certainties. I myself have been misled more than once by visions."

"So we shouldn't rely only on one vision then."

Tiplee nodded in assent, "I agree. But I have a plan."

Aurine felt herself smiling, "You come prepared, Master Tiplee."

"The Force provides guidance. The Jedi provides the plan."

That wasn't a quote Aurine had ever heard before. She supposed that it might have been a piece of personal wisdom, "What is your plan?"

"I've received a mission from the Council. It's an interesting enough mission – I've been assigned to oversee a dispute between the workers of Galix VI and the company that owns the asteroid, Heuristic Mining. Apparently, the dispute threatens to embroil the whole world in turmoil and it needs a steady hand to keep things from boiling over, especially after the CEO of Heuristic Mining was almost assassinated. I need someone who knows how to provide security in a situation that is hostile at best. Your name was brought up."

"By the Council?"

"Yes. Master Windu to be specific."

Aurine was surprised that anyone on the Jedi Council knew her name. The idea that she had been recommend her for a mission seemed unfathomable. Maybe she had impressed Master Windu during their last conversation? It seemed possible, though unlikely.

Still a pertinent question stuck out in her mind, "And you won't be taking Nara on this mission?"

"No. Not because it is dangerous, but because she's fallen behind in her studies." Tiplee smiled ruefully, showing white, pointed teeth, "As brilliant as she is with the Force, she tends not to be a brilliant student."

"I thought that a Padawan's studies were supposed to be done during downtime. I don't even know if Sascha has started his." Aurine remembered hating the coursework that had come with her promotion to Padawan, she had been sure that her days of a student had been behind her. Now, she considered herself to be a permanent student – one that was always learning.

"Well, I know Nara is behind on hers, and that is all that really matters for the moment," said Tiplee.

"Isn't your apprentice likely to be rather unhappy about being left behind?"

The Rishati nodded, "I think she will be less than thrilled."

"So...why are you doing it? If I may inquire," she added hastily, not wanting to offend her guest.

"Because she needs time to be able to reflect on what she is doing. She is growing into a young woman that, if given the right circumstances, will turn into an excellent Jedi Knight. But you cannot do that in one fell swoop, it needs to be a process. And helping her friend Sascha is the start of this process."

Aurine sat back, and evaluated the Jedi sitting across from her. She didn't know much about Tiplee, but she could evaluate the being sitting across from her. The red-skinned Jedi was calm and confident. Poised. And appeared to really believe that what she was offering could help her with Sascha.

"Master Tiplee, I've tried everything I can think of to assist Sascha, if you think that there is even a one-percent chance of this working, I'm onboard." She hesitated, "I think you might be right, leaving my apprentice alone might be the bit of breathing room he needs to sort himself out. One last question though – how can we know that Nara and Sascha will run into each other? Are you just going to tell Nara to find him?"

"I have an idea or two on that front," said Tiplee behind a coy smile.

Aurine generally didn't like people playing coy with her, but there was something about that smile that told her to not inquire further into Tiplee's plan. "I believe that we have a plan then."

Tiplee rose, "Excellent, I'll send you the materials about our mission and inform that Council that you'll be accompanying me. We leave tomorrow, 0600 hours."

Aurine ran through a mental checklist of how quickly she could get ready to leave the Temple. She supposed that she'd only need a few hours. She nodded curtly to her new...friend? Ally? "I will see you then."

The Rishati rose as well, "I'll see you tomorrow."

Tiplee offered a hand, and Aurine shook it. Tiplee's handshake was firm and confident, much like the Jedi Knight herself. Tiplee bowed her head slightly to her, "Thank you for listening to me. Hopefully we will return to two different, but improved Padawans."

"I hope so as well, Master Tiplee."

Sascha Whitestar was attempting to meditate in his room when he heard the door chime ring. He groaned, feeling his meditation attempt coming to a crashing halt. He lightly slapped the ground in frustration. He was supposed to be coming up with a plan to present to Master Brynar regarding his recovery, and he had about three quarters of a plan, but he was looking for the final quarter to put the whole thing together. But he hadn't found it yet.

He walked to the door, he must have looked like absolute hell, he hadn't slept well at all last night or the last few nights to be honest. He knew that he didn't always keep up his appearance at the best of times, and this was certainly not the best of times. He opened his door to see Master Brynar was outside. Sascha waved her inside, "I'm not quite done compiling my plan, but you can hear what I have so far if you want."

Aurine stayed at the doorway, "That's okay. I'm making a change of plans."

"Um, what? Why?"

"I've accepted a mission, I'll be leaving tomorrow with Master Tiplee. You will not be accompanying me," she said without preamble.

Sascha's heart dropped into his toes, being left behind while his Master went on a mission was about as clear an indication that she did not have any faith in him as there could be. While he knew that he hadn't exactly done much to prove himself to his Master recently, he hadn't been expecting such an obvious rebuke. He found himself staring at the ground and speaking, "I think that is for the best."

"When I get back…we will have a discussion as to your future within the Jedi Order." Sascha sighed heavily at the announcement that he had been expecting. Aurine continued, "I did not want to set a deadline, or to force you to do push yourself beyond what you felt you could do, but I think we both know that this situation cannot go on forever. If you truly want to remain a Jedi and my apprentice, think hard on your future Sascha. If things remain as they are…well, you know what the result will be. I will provide you updates as to when I will return."

"I understand." He scuffed his boot against the floor, "Why the sudden change of plans, Master?"

"You're the one that has always wanted time to figure out your life. Well, here you go. You have complete and utter freedom. Use it wisely."

"I will, Master."

She nodded to him, then turned sharply on her heel and left.

He watched the door close and his Master was gone. Numbly, he returned to his bedroll and sat down. Sascha Whitestar still wasn't sure how he had gotten to this point. While he had not always been a perfect apprentice, he thought he was at least showing promise. That was until Bothawui. Everything since Bothawui had seemed like a blur, and he felt like he had aged years since he had left for that mission. He had just lost so much. Tyra had seemed like the biggest loss at the time, but more and more it seemed like he had lost himself.

He shrugged, went back to his meditation, making little progress on finding himself or what he was supposed to be doing in his life.

Yet that night, for the first time in a long time, he slept peacefully, his dreams not interrupted by nightmares.