Chapter 6 – Lessons

-September 27, 2002; Stark Mansion; Malibu, California; Planet Earth-

Satine stood on the private beach attached to the mansion her father owned and smiled gently to herself as she watched the sun rise. She was sweating profusely from training in Form II. Her master had introduced the second form of lightsaber combat – named Makashi, and Satine had found this form rather interesting. She felt her movements of Form I was fluid enough for her to move on but Form II was harder than the first. Satine's dirty blonde hair was in a messy yet small ponytail with her longer padawan braid pinned over the crown of her head like a headband. At almost 10 years of age, Satine had not learned very much when it came to what the bands in her braid meant, but she knew once she was done with her high school level work, her training would intensify. As of right now, her braid had a yellow band at the top symbolizing she became a padawan before the age of 13. The next band about two and a half inches down the braid was another yellow band symbolizing her work with weaponry and combat as she was learning the lightsaber combat forms. The third band she had on her braid was a blue band. The blue band stood for mechanics. She had earned this band when she had been able to deconstruct an engine and completely rebuild it with The Force with a blindfold on. Her master had been satisfied when she named every piece, but Satine had wanted to take it apart and put it back together as another test. She had about an inch of hair left over as she hadn't learned much else because Fury was having her focus on studying the holocrons as she did not have access to the vast knowledge that had once been available in the Jedi Temple.

The young Stark heiress turned as she heard movement behind her and saw her father with a large water bottle and an apple for her to snack on. "Dad," she greeted with a smile and happily caught the apple as he tossed it to her. Taking a large bite out of the fruit, Satine felt an odd breeze behind her and turned to see what she felt. However, the almost 10 year old saw nothing. That made her frown. Her master had spoken to her about the Living Force, but he had only ever briefly mentioned it and had never gone into detail about the concept. The dirty blonde haired girl looked at the sand and blinked while going still. Why did she see foot impressions in the sand? Was she going crazy? The young padawan blinked again, and the impressions vanished leaving the sand smooth. Satine swallowed thickly before shaking her head to herself while concluding that she was indeed going crazy. "Hey, Dad? I have a question…" She trailed off biting her lip lightly while looking at her father. "Do you think that I am doing the right thing learning how to wield the Force?"

Tony looked at his young daughter before sighing and placing an arm around her shoulders and pulling her close into a rare yet genuine side hug. "Satine, there are times we don't know if what we are doing is right, but what I can tell you…is that if you feel passionate about something even if you don't know if it is right or not, don't give up halfway through," Tony told Satine softly kissing her temple lightly. "Now, what do you say to going to get some ice cream? We can go to Venice and walk around for a while, while trying to be inconspicuous? We can go shopping if you want to." Tony studied his daughter for a moment. "Or…if you don't want to do that, we can work on the classic car I found at the junkyard the other day and try to work to restore it."

Satine brightened at the thought of working on a new car. "Can we work on the car, Papa?" she asked brightly, beaming happily. A faint blush dusted her cheeks as she heard her father chuckle in amusement. She preferred working on cars and other mechanical things than being around crowds of people she didn't know. She was glad that her father never forced her to go to the galas and parties that he and Pepper had always been invited to. Maybe when she was older, Satine would end up going on behalf of her father, because she knew that he always snuck away within the first two hours. Satine didn't blame her father because based on what Pepper had told her and what her father told her, the galas and parties were always super boring and never had anything exciting happen during them. The young padawan followed her father into the garage of the mansion and eagerly began helping her father break down the different pieces of the car. Satine hummed faintly vaguely hearing her father put on music in the background. He had an interesting taste in music…as did her master, but she never judged them on that. The dirty blonde hair girl went still as she saw one of the pieces she was organizing move on its own before she felt it. There was a Force Signature that she didn't recognize around her, but the odd thing was that it didn't feel dark or evil in any way. In fact, the signature she felt around her felt comforting towards her as if it was familiar with her in some way. Shaking her head, Satine focused on organizing the pieces of the car and using the Force if she had to move a particularly heavy piece of metal.

"Sir, it appears that Ms. Potts in on her way down with Rhodes," J.A.R.V.I.S. said as he snapped the two Starks out of their concentration.

Satine swallowed as she stopped using the Force to move things around because her father, her master, and herself were not ready to tell Pepper, Uncle Rhodey, and Happy about her abilities just yet. Satine knew they would learn about them eventually, but she had no idea when they would learn about them because her powers were nothing like no one had ever seen before. She was scared they would begin to fear her and the abilities that she had.

"Fear leads to the Dark Side," a soft voice whispered in her ear as Satine shivered from a sudden breeze that vanished as soon as Satine turned towards the door just to see Pepper and her uncle walk in. Satine plastered on a smile the convinced both Pepper and Rhodey, but not her father. She knew full well that she would be interrogated by him later on.

"Tony did you forget about the board meeting you have in an hour?" Pepper asked holding her PDA and notepad while raising an eyebrow at the billionaire. She sighed heavily seeing his eyes go wide for a moment. "I see you did not. You need to shower and change for it. Rhodey will be watching Satine while we are gone. This meeting is expected to last a while." Pepper looked up to see Satine staring wide eyed at her father as if they shared some kind of secret. A frown crossed her lips. Looks like this have been going on between them for a while, and she didn't know why they were reacting this way.

Satine swallowed thickly before going to the table to send a message to her master asking what she should do because she needed to another round of practice with her Form II katas. Maybe she would be able to work on finishing her school work today…or at least a good chunk of it so she wouldn't have to worry as much. The young padawan looked at her father for a long moment before giving a nod to him telling him that she would be okay.

Tony came over to his daughter and hugged her tightly before kissing the crown of her head slightly. "I'll be back soon, okay?"

"Be safe," Satine told him in response before feeling him pull away and walk out of the lab with Pepper. Satine went to her small desk and had JARVIS pull up her school work to get ahead more than she already was. As of right now, she was in the middle of her 8th grade work…which was far too easy for Satine in her honest opinion. Satine shook her head slightly as she had JARVIS put on her school work playlist before diving into the work as Rhodey slowly explored the lab.

-5 months later; February 16, 2003; Stark Industries Penthouse; Washington D.C.; Planet Earth-

Satine had finished the rest of her 8th grade school work in the last five months and even started the course work for her freshman year of high school. Her 10th birthday had flown by far too quickly…as had the anniversary of her mother's death, but her training was progressing at a rate that her master was shocked at. Satine finished her fourth holocron and was taking a temporary break from studying material to focus on her katas for Form II. She was extremely comfortable with the second form now, but she was nervous as her master wanted to teach her his specialty instead of going in numerical order. Her master was one of the only practitioners of the Vapaad version of Form VII. While Satine knew that Form II was not for her, she also had a feeling she wouldn't be very successful with Vapaad because she has seen how her master fights. Currently, Satine was coming down from the fourth floor to the kitchen to get some water and a snack. Her senses buzzed as she suddenly became tense while placing her hand on the lightsaber she used for practice. Someone was in the penthouse without her or her master's permission. Why hadn't JARVIS alerted her or her master about the two people? Had JARVIS somehow been disabled in the penthouse? Had they somehow bypassed the security protocols? Satine narrowed her eyes as she gripped the hilt of her saber tightly as she waited for the elevator to open. The 10 year old frowned seeing the glimpse of two people sitting on one of the couches. She quickly kneeled and silently walked around the large island in the kitchen while slowly pulling her saber from her hilt. She looked up at the counter to see if there was anything she could use to cause a distraction with. Satine silently inhaled before lifting her hand slightly and slowly used the Force to move something on one of the small end tables causing it to fall onto the ground. She hid back down as the two people jumped up hearing something break. Satine waited for them to move before she moved and stood behind the two adults and ignited the green saber behind them. "Who are you?" she demanded glaring at them.

The male and female that had broken into Stark's penthouse both turned and froze seeing the light sword behind held by a child. The male – who was the most familiar with children – held up his hands. "Why don't you put the light sword down?" he asked hoping she would listen to him.

Satine narrowed her eyes even more. She didn't want to kill anyone or even harm others, but if she had to, she would hurt them to make sure they knew she wasn't just some kid. "I will not ask a third time. Who are you? How did you get past the security protocols set in place? Fury did not inform me or was informed by my father anyone was going to be stopping by."

The man looked at the woman with red hair frowning. They both were thinking the same things. How did this kid know Fury? Who the hell was this kid's father? What was she holding exactly? The man looked back at the kid. "Look, kid. Just put the light sword down," he said again.

"She has every right to point that at you," Fury's voice sounded in the doorway as he narrowed his eyes at the two agents before him. "Why are you both here?" he asked frowning.

"Coulson sent us because he is tied up with other things," the female answered.

"He could have called," Fury snapped at her. He looked at Satine and sighed heavily. "Put the saber away. How was your run through today?" he asked his padawan.

Satine straightened and deactivated her lightsaber before clipping it to her belt. She gave a slight bow to her master before answering him. "Better today than yesterday. I was able to successfully do six run throughs blindfolded. I do have reservations about moving on, but that is only because I do not know how well I will do with that specific form. I have a feeling that I will like Form VI the best, but I have yet to try the other forms. My opinion is only based on what I have read about the theory of the other forms."

Fury was silent for a moment before he nodded. "Alright. First thing tomorrow morning, we will begin on Vapaad. For now, you are free to do what you wish for the evening. However, you must be the one to tell your father you broke his favorite vase," he said with a slight smirk.

Satine groaned just like a child would and pouted as she went to the fridge to get her water and her snack. She watched the two agents as she nibbled on some of her pineapple that she had in the fridge master master practically scolded them like children as well.

"Why would you two break into one of Stark's homes?!" Fury asked the two agents in front of him.

"Pierce wanted to know where you go whenever you aren't in the office. He went to Coulson who came to us. Who's the kid?" the male asked frowning.

"I'm Tony's daughter," Satine answered simply as she walked out of the common area while the two agents went wide eyed in shock.