Usual I have no rights and that they belong to Disney, EA, and Bioware.
I would like to note that none of these stories are required reading for the main line story but are cannon to this fanfic universe, unless otherwise stated in the specific chapter.
Master and Apprentice
The clashing and hum of practice blades fills the Iron Chamber as Hermina goes at a group of battle droids with a training saber under the eye of Darth Ferrus. The Dark Lord himself looks upon his new apprentice with a hardened and an irritated glare. She moves between opponents with a tactical rhythm but launches attacks with halfhearted commitment. She's easily repulsed by the droids' electro-staves and overwhelmed before blasting them away with biotics in frustration. As she readies herself for another round, the droids back off.
"I can keep going!" she snaps at Ferrus.
The Dark Lord says nothing to her as he takes out his own crimson blade. Her eyes sharpen at him, memories of the first time she battled against that lightsaber rushing through her mind. With a battlecry, she launches herself at her master in an aggressive advance. She strikes quick and consistent, with each move transitioning to the next one in an instant. Still, the Dark Lord blocks her at every interval, his speed and reflexes leagues above hers. Angered by the lack of advance, Hermina launches a Force Push at him, which he withstands and counters with his own. The turian woman flies back and crashes into a wall before falling to the ground and dropping her weapon.
She groans as she struggles back to her feet as The Dark Lord takes a deep breath, "You're not improving."
She snarls at his callus remark, "I've been going through your hellish training day-in and day-out. I've done everything you've told me to!"
"I never said you didn't," Ferrus retorts, "It's not faulty training, it has everything to do with all that misplaced hatred you carry."
"Excuse me?!" she growls, "You said hate was a good thing! That's one of the concepts you've drilled into me for the last few months!"
"Yes," Ferrus rolls his eyes, "But all the hatred you seem to want to throw my way isn't enough because you fail to see how misguided it is."
"I do hate you!" Hermina interjects.
"Why?" he sneers at her.
"Why? Why!" she snarls as The Force stirs, "You murdered hundreds of my people."
"Thousands, actually," Ferrus corrects her, stoking her rising anger, "Yet so did many other Sith Lords and you don't seem to want to hate them nearly as much. Tempestus killed close to a million of your troops and many more innocents than I with his Force Storm and your hatred of him doesn't come close to me. So, I don't believe you, and I suspect that you don't believe that either."
"You massacred everyone in my cabal!"
Ferrus snorts at that, "You were an outcast, even with them. You hated that you were forced into that role, you hated that even they treated you like an outsider, and you can't even give me half of their real names if I had my blade to your throat even with The Force aiding you. Try again."
She grinds her mandibles together as she comes up with her next excuse, "I failed my duty because of you."
Ferrus says nothing for a moment, "Good, progress, though still incorrect. You did your duty until you were no longer physically able to. That's not why you hate me though, it is something deeper. Is it because you lived when so many of your people died, or is it because whether or not you lived or died didn't make a single damned difference in the end?"
"Shut Up!" a blast of telekinesis forces the Dark Lord back a bit.
A satisfactory smirk pops onto Ferrus' face for a moment before sobering up, "Why are you here, exactly?"
Her eyes turn feral at him, "Are you serious?!"
Ferrus continues, "As much as you want to say you're trapped, we both know you could attempt to leave at any time, yet you've not once tried to escape. If you truly hated me, you wouldn't do everything I ask of you as a part of your training. You've put more resolve into learning how to utilize The Force to kill me than you ever did in you training with biotics."
"Stay out of my mind!"
"Make me!" Ferrus snarls back, "And your petulance only proves my point. You hate my actions, not me, because they've shown you the truth. You are Weak!"
"I'm not weak!"
"Then how haven't you killed me yet?" Ferrus counters, "Why are you not the one parading through the streets in triumph as your people's greatest defender? You were a Blackwatch cabal soldier, one of the most powerful warriors of the entire Turian Hierarchy, and you lost. You direct your hatred at me because you can't admit that what you truly hate is how weak you are. That is why you are failing in your progress, you spend so much of your energy spiting me, that you fail to fully commit your will to destroying your own weaknesses. You may get that paltry boost when fighting me, but against anything else, you fail spectacularly. Admit it; you are Weak!"
Hermina trembles with rage at the Dark Lord's words. She gathers her wherewithal in a desperate attempt to tell him off. Yet, as she opens her mouth, she can't. Her rage filled breathing hitches and for the first time, she realizes she's crying as the tears drip to the floor.
"I'm not… I'm not…" Hermina tries to deny but eventually she admits the truth, "I'm weak… I'm weak. I'm weak. I'm so weak!"
She drops back to her knees as her face falls into her hands. Her cries echo through the chamber, repeating the words 'I'm weak' between broken hitches of breathing. Unfazed, Ferrus stands above her, looking down with his same hardened expression. When the worst of it passes and she stops lamenting about her own inability, he speaks again.
"I was weak, once."
Hermina looks up at him, her eyes still watery, and he continues, "I was a buck-private stuck on a planet far from home that my people had barely landed on years prior and got powers I could barely control. I hated it. I hated it with every fiber of my being. Once I came to terms with my weaknesses, I made a choice; to destroy them and to become the strongest Sith in the galaxy. Right now, I offer this same choice to you, Hermina. Do you want to be weak?"
She clenches her fists, "No…"
Ferrus nods his head and kneels down to her level, "Being weak is nothing to be ashamed of, staying weak is. You are as strong as you make yourself. If you don't want to be weak, then you must dedicate yourself to being stronger and want it more than anything else in the galaxy. I can help you reach that power, but you must be the one to crave it."
Hermina takes several breaths to steady herself as Ferrus reaches his hand to her, "It will be arduous and hard fought, but if you can endure everything that I can throw at you, you will be the strongest turian the galaxy has ever seen."
She stares at his hand for a moment before wiping her eyes clear, resolve boiling beneath them. She grasps his hand, and he rises to his feet, pulling her up with him. She summons back her practice saber but he gestures to put it away.
"You've trained enough with combat drills; a strong mind is what is needed to help you progress. You did want to learn to shut me out, didn't you?"
Hermina attaches the blade to her belt and bows, "Yes, Master. And… I'm sorry."
"Don't be," he replies, "After I'm through with you, remorse will be a feeling long forgotten."