Lord Darth Yoda - Thank you for the idea, the chapter really needed something and I was totally happy to rewrite it. You are right with Yoda, he'll tell you what you need to hear and he's done this enough times that he's got it down to a science (seriously, dude's probably given that exact talk like 20 times in his life already). I also think that its basically cannon that Yoda spends a lot of his time teaching the younglings, so I'm happy to show him lend Sascha a helping hand here. And yeah, I think Sascha has been corrected on to the right path, however I don't think anyone told Nara so she's certainly going to play a role (though she probably won't have to beat him up).

thejoker122- I think that you said that better than I ever could!

SpeechBubbleMe - Thanks for taking the time to review! Please feel free to use, uh...basically anything from this fic - though if you want to shoot me a PM, please do so, I'd be happy to help out. Btw, I liked your fic - I'll be dropping by to review when I carve out the time!

A/N - Nothing from me.

Anyways, please enjoy the next chapter!

Chapter 7: Tests, Part One

Sascha Whitestar swam alone in a pool in the Room of a Thousand Fountains. He had always found that swimming was a calming exercise, it was just you, the water, and whatever arbitrary goal you were competing against, whether that was trying to swim the quickest that you could or seeing how long you could hold your breath, it was always a singularly individual pursuit.

If he had a choice, he wouldn't have been swimming alone. He had fond memories of swimming with his clanmates when he was younger, just being stupid and foolish and playful. He regretted the way he had treated his friends recently, he knew that he had probably done some minor damage to his friendship with both Doro and Trigg. He'd make it up to them, somehow. He would have done so immediately had the two Corelians not both been away from the Temple on missions. He'd found that out not because they came and told him, but because he had looked it up in the database. That stung. Usually his friends would come and see him before they left on a mission, but he really didn't blame them for not coming to see him, as he was pretty sure he had been rotten company recently.

After completing another lap, he held on to the edge of the pool, breathing hard. He considered himself a strong swimmer, but today he felt winded after completing less than his usual number of laps. He was sure that it was because he was not exactly in the best shape of his life, after more than a month of doing barely any training. He would have to work to get back into shape, there was no Force technique for that. He didn't think that he would have a problem in doing so, after all, with Master Brynar away on a mission, he had nothing but free time to exercise.

Overall, he was feeling…better. His talk with Master Yoda had helped, and helped to restore some confidence in himself. Even being away from his Master had helped a little. He knew that she wanted to give him the maximum amount of time to get back to his old self, but even that small amount of pressure had felt crushing. Still, last night he had slept peacefully again, and his morning meditations had been as normal as he could remember. He didn't think that he was close to being 'back' yet. But it seemed like he might be able to get there.

The idea of becoming a Jedi Knight didn't seem to be such a millstone anymore. He still harbored some doubts about whether he was fit to be a Jedi, but he was pretty sure that he wanted to continue his apprenticeship with Master Brynar when she returned. He would at least try. He owed himself that. He owed Master Yoda that. He owed the galaxy that.

Pulling himself out of the pool, he dried himself off and headed back to his room, intent on going to the archives and asking if he could help any of the staff. He wanted to do some productive work after being useless for so long, and nothing made him happier than researching for a fellow Jedi. Even throughout his recent ordeal, the archives had been a place that made him feel at home. He didn't have to use the Force to be helpful in the archives, he just needed his brain, and he would always trust that.

In his room, he changed out of his wet tunic, into a clean set of his Jedi robes, and was heading out the door and down the hallway when he heard a voice from behind him,"Sascha! Wait!"

He turned around to look at who was calling for him and saw that Nara Nalto was trying to flag him down. Nara was a year younger than he was, but they had become Padawans at the same time. Appearance wise, She had light-purple skin along with montrals and lekku that were a darker purple, accented with deep red markings. She wore a basic beige Jedi robe, with the sleeves cut off above the elbow. Sascha thought Nara was vaguely cute, maybe in the top half of female Jedi around their age if you sorted by attractiveness, but probably nothing beyond that. Not that he was particularly interested, of course.

But much more important than that, Nara was his friend. And she had proved it by trying to help him out when he had been depressed and withdrawn. And he needed to pay her back for that.

He stopped in his tracks and bowed to his friend, "Hi Nara."

Nara closed the distance between them and smiled at him, "Have you remembered how to smile again?"

He grinned, "I only forgot for a little while."

Nara punched him in the shoulder, not hard but with enough force behind it that he felt it, "You were acting like a real jerk for the past month, you know."

"I know."

"You hid in your room and avoided me."

"Yeah."

"Your Master and everyone is worried about you."

Sascha held his arms out towards the Togruta, "I know, Nara. I'm sorry."

Nara lightly bopped him on the head with an open palm, "I accept your apology…"

"Thanks, Nara…"

"On one condition."

"A conditional acceptance of an apology?" he asked incredulously.

Nara ignored him, "My condition is that you come follow me right now, no questions asked."

"Can I…?"

Nara shook her head vehemently, "Nope."

Sascha didn't exactly love it when surprises were sprung on him, but supposed that he owed Nara. Besides, although Nara was an impetuous scamp, he doubted very much that she wanted to get him in trouble. "Okay Nara, lead the way."

Nara nodded in approval and spun on her heel, reversing directions. Sascha scrambled to catch up to her, "So, where are we going little Togruta?"

The Togruta shoved him lightly, "Little? I'm almost as tall as you are little human."

Sascha waved a hand dismissively, "Your Montrals don't count towards your height. That'd just be cheating."

Nara laughed lightly, "My Montrals are coming in nicely I'll have you know." It was true, he had to admit, the dark purple and red Montrals on top of her head were beginning to look like the hollow horns of an adult Togruta and it made her look more like a predator the older she got.

"Okay, I admit it, we are almost the same height now, does this mean I have to stop calling you little Togruta?" he teased.

Nara chuckled, "Unless you are going to get another growth spurt, I'm afraid so."

Sascha was pretty sure that he'd, unfortunately, topped out at his below average height, "Aww rats, I'll have to come up with another pet name for you."

"Or you could…not."

The two walked in silence for a moment, until Nara broke it, "So our Masters are on a mission together."

"Yeah," he responded. "Kind of odd, as I thought that Master Tiplee worked most often with her sister, Tiplar."

"She does, but I guess she changed it up this time. Maybe if our Masters get along, they'll go on more missions together, which would mean that we could go on a mission together," Nara replied hopefully.

"I'd like that," he said honestly. Nara would be an interesting Jedi to have around on a mission. And if they were on a mission together, he would be the senior Padawan, which was not something he could say about many other Padawans. That potentially meant that he could boss Nara around "Why'd your Master leave you behind?"

Nara's buoyant confidence seemed to dissipate in an instant, "I don't want to talk about it, okay."

Sascha wondered what sort of landmine he'd inadvertently stepped on. He decided that he wouldn't probe further. As they walked to…wherever they were going, Nara appeared to recover a degree of her normal confidence, but she remained slightly closed off to him.

Sascha froze when he realized that the Togruta was leading him to one of the main sparring rooms, Nara entered and he reluctantly followed. Oblivious to his discomfort Nara spoke, "We are a bit early, but Master Drallig told me to find a partner and come to this sparring room, so I assume it will be for something interesting."

Sascha looked downwards, "Nara, I'm…in any shape to be sparring right now."

Nara glanced around to check that they were still alone, then reached out and grabbed the collar of his robe, pulling him so close to her that he could feel her breath on his face. "Listen, lasers for brains, Master Drallig told me I could choose any Padawan in the Temple to be my partner for this, and I chose you. I don't know what has been bothering you these past weeks, but there isn't another Padawan that I'd rather partner with. So are you with me? Or are you going to make me look like an idiot in front of Master Drallig?"

"Nara, I haven't practiced combat for more than a month, I'm physically out of shape – I'm not the person you want to partner with. I didn't even bring my lightsaber!"

"I know!" Nara exploded. "Do you think I'm blind? Still I want to do this with you, I thought you were my friend, Sascha. I guess those were just words. Fine, I'll do it alone like I always have." Nara released her grip on his collar and walked away, radiating pain and sadness in the Force.

Sascha could see that his friendship with Nara was imploding right in front of his eyes. While he wasn't as close with the Togruta as the friends he had grown up with, her friendship did mean something to him. He was grateful for the faith she was putting in him as well. He had always thought of himself as someone who always supported his friends, and that was all Nara was asking for here. She was not for him to be brilliant or to do something that was beyond him, just partner with her for a training exercise. He decided he at least owed her that.

"Nara…wait."

The Togruta turned to face him again, "You want to do this?"

"I'll try Nara, that's all I can promise."

Nara nodded approvingly, "That is all I'm asking for." She glanced around coyly, "But we are a few minutes early, so let's warm up first."

He bent his knees deeply, "Yeah I could use some stretching time."

"Stretching? Force, you are so boring, Sascha. Why don't we do something more interesting," Nara did a little pirouette, "Dance with me Padawan Whitestar." He hesitated, but Nara would not be deterred, she simply grabbed his hand and pulled him to the centre of the room. "Alderaanian Waltz, full tempo, let's go."

"But there is no music," Sascha protested in vain.

"You've got a datapad, find some and put it on." Sascha grumbled and found an appropriate piece of music at what he'd consider a normal tempo for an Alderaanian Waltz. Nara listened for a half-second, "That is your choice of music? It's so slow! Come on, I could dance at that tempo when I was eight, try something a bit more challenging."

"Yes, Master Nalto," he replied sarcastically.

"Master Nalto, I like the sound of that," said Nara, deliberately choosing to ignore his sarcasm.

"Blasted little Togruta," Sascha muttered under his breath.

Sascha searched his datapad chose a song called 'Whiplash' which was in a very unique time signature of 7/4. It was also incredibly up tempo.

Nara listened for a moment and then laughed, "Waltzes are supposed to be in a ¾ time signature, you doofus. Or did you fail music class?"

He feigned ignorance, "I thought you wanted a challenge?"

Nara put her index finger on her chin, "Alright then, but if you throw up on my boots I'm going to beat you senseless. My Master bought these for me."

He rolled his eyes, "What if you throw up on mine?"

"I'll clean your laundry for a week," Nara said without missing a beat.

An Alderaanian Waltz was fairly simple when you boiled it down to its roots, the two partners stood across from each other when the dance started. Males rotated to the left and females to the right and the partners were only supposed to face one another on the same beat of the music. With a 7/4 time signature, and a quick tempo, the dance for this particular song was going to be…interesting. The two Padawans raised their hands and began to dance. It was difficult to keep the right tempo and whirl quickly without either losing your balance, losing the tempo or being sick. By necessity, the two Padawans linked themselves through the Force to make it easier to coordinate. Sascha found it easy to latch on to Nara's bright presence in the Force, she was strong and confident, never seeming to hesitate for a moment. They twirled around at a blistering pace, seeing eye to eye after every beat of the song. And when each Jedi stumbled, the other quickly assisted them back to the correct tempo. After the end of the song, both Padawans had to lie down to stop the room from spinning, laughing at the absurdity of what they had just done.

Both Padawans were lying on the ground and still a bit dazed when Jedi Master Cin Drallig entered the room. Master Drallig was known as one of the best pure swordsman in the Jedi Order and he was one of the Jedi Masters that taught lightsaber combat in the Temple. Sascha himself had learned under his tutelage, though he would probably not be considered to be amongst his best students. The Jedi Master's nickname in the Temple was 'the Troll,' for his less than handsome physical features, and stern manner, yet Sascha had a profound respect for his skills and his ability to teach. Tall, with craggy features, the human was an imposing figure as he peered down at the prone Padawans.

A faint smile appeared on his face, "Good, Padawans should be meditating with every spare moment given to them."

Nara and Sascha staggered to their feet, both of them still dizzy from their dance. But they at least tried to maintain a degree of poise in front of the Jedi Master. Politely, Cin didn't seem to mind that the two Padawans were still obviously swaying on their feet, "We'll wait for the others I've invited to get here before I reveal the drill you'll be participating in." The Jedi Master paused, "Though for the sake of curiosity, I must ask what you were doing before I got here."

"We may have turned up the tempo on an Alderaanian Waltz a bit too high, and well afterwards…we needed to lie down," Nara said, the red accents on her montrals and lekku turning brighter in embarrassment as she spoke.

"Ah, to be young again," Cin muttered just loud enough that both Padawans were sure that he meant for his comment be overheard.

A minute later, after the two Jedi had recovered their equilibrium, the two Padawans and the Jedi Master were joined by four young Jedi. Sascha identified them as Initiates, none of them had a Padawan braid entwined in their hair and all of them looked to be around the age of twelve or thirteen. "You are late," Master Drallig said to the four Initiates, brooking no argument. The young Jedi all murmured an apology.

Sascha analyzed the four young Jedi. The first was human; he was tall and had mahogany coloured skin. He seemed to wear his Initiates robe with a sense of contempt, as if it was a skin he would soon shed. Next in line was an orange-skinned Elomin, his hair perfectly coiffed and his Jedi robes in immaculate condition. Sascha had to admit his ivory horns were quite striking. The third was a Trunsk, and like most of his brethren, he was a stout, fur-covered biped with a wide, tusked mouths, vestigial horns, and sharp fighting claws that gave off a fearsome appearance. The last Initiate was a slender Devaronian with light brown fur and blond hair with black streaks in it. She evaluated everyone in the room with hard blue eyes and seemed to hold herself a little apart from her fellow Initiates. An interesting collection.

Master Drallig got started right away, "Initiates, I'd like you to meet some of our newer Padawans." Cin gestured towards him, "Sascha Whitestar is the Padawan of Jedi Knight Aurine Brynar and he has performed admirably in some very difficult circumstances," Sascha bowed politely to acknowledge the praise.

Cin continued, gesturing at the Togruta, "Nara Nalto is the Padawan of Jedi Knight Tiplee and she was the winner of the most recent apprentice tournament, an honour that I know that all of you are hoping to win. Rare it is, to be so talented at so young an age." Nara bowed to the Jedi Master as well, seeming to be very pleased by the praise.

"We don't get an introduction?" commented the Elomin petulantly.

The Jedi Master rolled his eyes, "I was going to give you a more elaborate introduction, but since you cannot even wait to be praised, I'll refrain." Sascha and Nara snickered to themselves quietly. Cin Drallig was not the sort of Jedi to interrupt when he was speaking. The tall Jedi Master continued, "Padawans Whitestar and Nalto, meet Kerk, Lassiter, Quane, and Miriam," he said indicating the human, the Elomin, the Trunsk and then the Devaronian respectively.

The tall human Jedi Master stepped to the middle of the sparring room, "This drill is simple, the four Initiates will team up to face off against the two Padawans. Lightsabers set to burn, please. To keep things dynamic, if an Initiate receives a burn they will be out for 45 seconds, if a Padawan receives a burn they are out for 30 seconds, so if either side gets an advantage, they will need to work quickly to secure a victory. If either side is able to eliminate the other, they are the victors. Understood?"

All the Jedi nodded in the affirmative, and Sascha went to a nearby rack that had training lightsabers and selected one that was about the right size for his hand. A training lightsaber only had the 'burn' setting while other lightsabers had to be set to a specific setting to produce a burn on contact, rather than simply cutting as a lightsaber did at full power.

He ignited the blade so that he could readjust the yellow-hued blade to his preferred length. Generally, because he was relatively short, he liked having a slightly shorter than usual blade as well. He then rejoined Nara on one side of the sparring chamber. The two stared at their diverse opposition, and waited for the signal from Master Drallig to start. "I'm not sure I'm in the best shape to fight against four opponents," he whispered to Nara.

Nara gave him an encouraging look, "It's just four Initiates, Sascha. A couple of years ago I was on the other side of this drill, the two Padawans beat us so badly, I don't think I'll ever forget it. Follow me. Trust me."

There was a certainty, a confidence to Nara that he appreciated, and there seemed to be something about combat that the Togruta seemed to relish. "I've got your back, my friend."

"Begin," declared Master Drallig.

Kerk, the tall young human, stepped forward from the clump of Initiates, his manner suggesting nothing but arrogance, "Togruta, you won the apprentice tournament last year? I want to test myself against you. Fight me, one on one."

Sascha was about to blurt that this was hardly the intention of the drill when Nara silenced him with a look and stepped towards Kerk, "I accept, Initiate Kerk. At least I took the time to remember your name," taunted Nara.

The two circled, the Initiate's green blade striking cautiously against Nara's blue. Sascha's own weapon was still not yet turned on, he merely watched as Nara took the measure of her opponent. Kerk attacked first in an attack that was obviously well-practiced. Nara had no problem swatting it away. The two kept up their circling movement. When Kerk circled to where he would be in front of him, Sascha simply ignited the yellow blade of his training lightsaber and slashed him across the arm while he was trying to duel Nara.

The mahogany-skinned Initiate turned to him in a furor, "What was that!"

Sascha kept calm, "That's called the real world, Initiate. We were given the rules of engagement, I'm just living up to them."

Kerk deflated, "But the Padawan…gave her word as a Jedi…that it would be one versus one."

He shrugged nonchalantly, "I didn't. Better luck next time."

Instead of attacking the two Padawans as they chatted, or assuming a defensive position, the three Initiates were far too spread out as Nara and Sascha advanced on them, looking to use the advantage of taking out one Initiate for 45 seconds. Nara simply chose her next victim, in this case choosing the fierce looking Trunsk and demonstrated why she was a Padawan and he was still an Initiate. By the time his compatriots reacted, Sascha had blocked their path, while Nara polished off the defenses of the Trunsk, neatly carving her blue blade across the Trunsk's knee.

Now two versus two and with more than twenty seconds before Kerk could rejoin the fray, the two Padawans smiled and launched themselves into the fray. Nara went fully on the attack, blistering the younger Devaronian Jedi with her deadly speed. While the Togruta was putting Marian on the defensive, Sascha while Sascha simply interposed himself in between him and the remaining Initiate – the Elomin, Lassiter.

To his credit, Lassiter tried to come to the defence of the beleaguered Devaronian, who was parrying Nara's attacks just centimetres from her skin. But all Sascha needed to do was not let that happen. Even out of shape, Sascha Whitestar had the benefit of drawing of months of one on one tutoring from a Jedi Knight and such obvious mistakes in positioning and footwork were something he could exploit. The Elomin stepped forward, but Sascha simply knocked his blade out of the way before slashing him across his unprotected flank at almost the exact same moment Nara cut her blue blade across the Devaronian's wrist.

"Padawans, one. Initiates, no score," declared Nara.