Chapter 41: A Fine Start
The apprentice was waiting for her master that first morning.
Avaryss sought out Zay before the sun had even rose. The dark lord was surprised to find the girl dressed and awake, though, hadn't she been anticipating her master's whims for months during their exile.
She merely nodded as the girl rose to meet her, bowing her head in submission.
"I'm ready to begin my training, master."
The girl smiled.
"Command me."
Avaryss smirked.
"Follow," she said, leading the girl out of survivor base out into the cold morning air. You could see their breath as they stepped out onto the plains.
Avaryss looked around, remembering the path she had taken yesterday. The course she had made up to test her new student.
They stood there for several minutes, Zay shivering slightly.
"What now, master?"
Avaryss looked over and smirked.
"We run," she purred, "Follow."
She took off, using her full speed, with the Force she could have been gone from view in seconds, yet she paused, on the edge of the camp, close enough for the girl to see her, but nothing more.
"Follow," she called back, using the Force to enhance her voice, ensuring the girl would hear.
"Keep up, or be left behind."
Zay started, her limp not as bad as normal, the repairs to her foot seemed to help.
The master led the way, as was proper.
The student was to keep up, or be left behind with the rest of the mundanes.
That was the way of the dark side.
The way of the Sith.
As they ran, Avaryss found herself thinking about the past. She thought of her own training, and those that she had surpassed. She could not help but wonder how Zay would have done in the academy system.
Not that that mattered now, the academies were shut down, the Zakuul had made sure of that. Korriban had been sacked, twice. The students that would have attended Lord's Reach and Butcher's Clearing had been pressed into service, pressed, and mostly destroyed by the invaders. The Fury academies…Avaryss wasn't sure of there final fate. Abandoned, perhaps, that or converted to uses that didn't include the training of young Sith.
Not that it mattered at that moment, all that mattered was her student. The girl that would learn at her feet, learning free of the academies and their overseers.
Would she be able to keep up, the first time running on the course was never easy, she knew that, she had run the Fury 9 course hundreds of times.
This world was not Fury, but Zay would still be challenged.
Too challenged, or would she succeed?
It was possible, if Zay used the dark side to fuel her, drew on her aggressive feelings.
Do not push her too far too fast.
Again Darth Feer's voice echoed in her thoughts.
This is the girl's first time running the course.
Do not expect perfection, not yet.
Avaryss nodded.
In this, the annoying voice in her head was correct.
Zay was starting from scratch, just as a foolish angry girl named Keera Lylos had done almost a decade ago.
Zay deserved the same chance that Keera had.
In preparation for this morning, Avaryss had explored a three-kilometer path around the base, trying to recreate a training course similar to the one she had run on Fury 9. This world may not have been as chaotic as that blasted rock, but there were rocks to climb and uneven paths to test her student's resolve.
The road to the Sith was not easy. Avaryss could not make it so, and wouldn't.
Zay had to find her own way, to be strong.
The girl needed to embrace the dark side.
The dark lord stayed just in view of her new apprentice, motioning her forward. Shouting back to use her feelings to draw on the power of the dark side, to keep up, and grow stronger.
Zay followed, staying just within view of her master, even here Avaryss could feel the girl thinking of the recent past, remembering her victims, and what they had made her to, drawing on that resentment, and guilt, putting the blame where it needed to go.
…those who blocked a young Sith on her journey were the real reason that Zay now suffered.
The mundane, the family that offered to help her, the smuggler she had tricked had deserved their end.
The weak deserved their fate.
Her young apprentice kept up well during that first kilometer. Soon, Avaryss realized, the girl's limited control of the Force would come into play, exhaustion would set in. She knew about that too.
She remembered her first run on the course back on Fury. Many of her fellows had died that day, falling and failing to rise, others lost in lava flows and steam vents. She had survived that first journey, and when she had made it back to the academy, she had fallen to her knees out of breath, not sure if what she desired was worth it. Reminding herself in that moment that it had to be done, if revenge was to be hers.
She was curious to see if Zay would prove as resilient, hate was an excellent motivator, an enemy was an excellent motivator.
Darth Feer, his destruction, had driven Avaryss to rise.
She wanted to see what motivation now drove her new apprentice.
Guilt was a strong emotion, it could turn into hate if properly nurtured, she would do her best to do just that for Zay.
Better she directed her hate at others. Her master was the source of her power. The font of wisdom, so to speak.
To her…she should remain loyal.
As Zay grew close again, Avaryss began to move onto the next stop point, no sooner would the girl reach where she was, then she would see her master gone, and realize she had to run harder, faster.
The frustration that that would bring was useful. She…she…
Avaryss blinked.
Wha…what?
She tried to move her legs, but…
Uh?
She was in no hurry, let the girl catch up. Besides, she was singing again…it would be nice to hear it up close. Memories of falling asleep to the girl's songs on Ambria were pleasant memories. Agony kissing her. The two of them slipping into a sweet dreamless sleep together. Not as sweet as Fenn's kisses, perhaps, but still nice. They…they…were…
Avaryss blinked. She felt the darkness gathering within, bringing with it suspicion, suspicion and anger. Suddenly, realizing what was happening! Recognizing what was going on!
Zay was only a few feet from her now, not running, but walking, her voice raised in song. She…
NO!
Avaryss snarled, a wave of dark side energy rippled out from her.
The wave struck her new apprentice, not enough to hurt her, but it did push back, causing her to fall back on her rear end.
Zay yelped, her song dying in her lips.
The sense of contentment faded. Avaryss felt her full faculties return.
She looked down on her student.
She was NOT happy.
No, she was not happy at all.
Zay!
"Ow, my butt," Zay whined.
Avaryss stalked over to her, the girl looked up and gulped.
Her emotions so close to the surface that it was easy for her master to weave a threatening illusion around herself. The image that Zay remembered from the night they had first met.
A shadow in the night, a shadow with a red metal featureless face. The girl's distorted reflection staring back at her.
To an unprepared child, it had been terrifying.
She still carried that fear, and it was that, that Avaryss now drew from, touched the girl's mind.
She stood over her apprentice. Saying nothing, just glaring down.
"Master," Zay asked, "Is…is something wrong?"
The dark lord glared down at her.
"You were in my mind."
"I…I…um…was just singing, it helps to keep me motivated. You remember."
Avaryss did remember, but that didn't change what she knew to be true.
"You…were…in…my…mind."
She had caught the girl trying to manipulate her, to manipulate her training.
The little mudcrutch whelp!
That was NOT how this worked.
"Punish the girl, child," Feer crowed in the back of her mind.
"Make her suffer for her impudence."
The dark lord couldn't deny it, she was…tempted.
So many spells to choose from, so many delicious horrors to inflict.
Zay, perhaps sensing what her master was thinking, had several options, she could continue to deny it, or beg for forgiveness.
Those were the only two options that Avaryss saw. Zay, however, chose a different one.
She glared defiantly up at her master.
"I just wanted to slow you down. I'm not as fast as you."
Avaryss sneered.
"The Force will…"
"I can't call on it like you can! I don't know enough yet! You are supposed to be my teacher, aren't you?"
Avaryss continued to look down upon her student.
What punishment was deserved here, on the girl's first day, no less.
She has to learn, Feer whispered in her mind again.
Make her suffer.
That is what Darth Feer would have done, she didn't doubt that. He had punished her many times, leaving her writhing in pain, unconscious on the floor, or even curled up in a fetal ball, lost in her own nightmares, left for days as she struggled, trying to find her way out of her own mind.
Zay continued to stare up at her, finally she sighed and shook her head resigned to her fate.
If you are going to beat me, beat me," she said sullenly, "It won't be the first time I've endure one."
That made the dark lord pause.
Zay rarely talked about her history, how her former master treated her.
She found herself thinking about Ankar Duma, the treasure hunter that had been Zay's owner. She had met the man through Darth Nox, a fellow council member. He had lauded the man's skills for finding Sith artifacts, and returning them to the empire for a profit.
Nox had not told her the man used children to infiltrate the various Sith vaults and tombs he had found. She guessed that he had not cared.
Avaryss did not target children. If they were killed as collateral damage, that was one thing, but…
…Well…she was not a monster.
Lacking that knowledge, she had hired Ankar Duma. She had tasked him with finding her a vault belonging to Darth Hecaetus, the information within it was necessary for the completion of her plan.
It had taken him almost a month to find what she sought, but the item was not the only thing he offered her the day she had gone to Bogden to claim it.
He had also offered her the truth about her fellow councilors, with a strong dose of stupidity and betrayal on the side.
Rather than providing her with what she asked for, the man tried to change the deal. He wanted compensation for his lost slaves. He also insisted that she not take the data crystal now. Once he deciphered it, he would send her half of what was stored on the crystal, for the originally agreed payment. And, once that payment had cleared, he would send the rest, for an equal sum. A fee for not telling him about the dangers that his slaves had faced.
Basically, the fool was asking her to pay twice.
She considered retaliating right then and there, but he cautioned her against any aggressive moves. He had many friends on the council, powerful friends. Friends that knew who she really was.
She had asked him to elaborate, and he had, at great length.
It was during this meeting that she learned that her fellow Sith were talking out of turn about her, talking behind her back.
They saw her as a thug, powerful and wealthy, yes, but still just a thug. They viewed her as an up-jumped peasant. She was just a farm girl to them, a farm girl who had cowardly poisoned a powerful scion of the Sith during her student years.
Fehl. It always comes back to Fehl, she had thought at the time.
Regardless, she understood, now she knew how her fellow councilors saw her. She was unworthy of the place she had taken from her betters.
She…was nothing.
They were grateful she got rid of Darth Feer, of course, but those with "superior" breeding on the council knew what she was, and had been telling others about it as well. She was a weapon, nothing more, with limited cunning and political clout.
In that moment, she decided to make an example of Ankar Duma. She incinerated him with a Sith spell, damn the consequences, and double damn his friends.
Yet, even in that, she was vexed.
The item she had come to claim was gone, taken by one of Ankar's last surviving slaves. A girl that had fled into the night.
Zay.
That is how they had met.
Avaryss had chased her through the street, drawn to the artifact by the pull of the dark side. She had finally found it and Zay surrounded by four toughs. Avaryss had not been in the mood to deal with mundane street trash. She destroyed them with the Force. They had not deserved the martial dignity of dying at her lightsaber.
Twelve-year-old Zay had stood before her, barely able to stand on her painfully mutating foot, cradling the crystal in her arms. The girl likely didn't know what she had taken it, only that she had been compelled to.
Even then, the dark side had called to her.
The girl's courage had impressed her, so, she had claimed her along with the artifact, and the rest…was history.
Now here they were, no longer owner and servant, but teacher and student.
Zay lowered her head, waiting for the first blow.
It never came.
The dark lord let the illusion drop, again she was simply Avaryss dressed in the garb of one of Survivor Squad.
Darth Feer would have punished Zay for her actions, but she…
…she was NOT Darth Feer.
She kneeled down before her apprentice.
"Why would I beat you?" she asked.
"I used the Force against you," Zay reminded her.
"True, you used subtlety and cunning to slow me down. No permanent damage was done, so I see no reason to punish you, though…I do offer some advice, a lesson if you will."
Zay perked up at that.
"What is it, master?"
"Choose your targets more carefully. Not all Sith would be as understanding as I am. Had I had the ability to pull that on my master, and he caught me...ooh. He would have punished me severely."
"How?
Avaryss shivered.
"He trapped me in a nightmare once. He was not a brilliant Sith Sorcerer, but he knew some terrible curses."
She shook her head.
"My master was…a curious being. He told me he desired for me to let go of the hate I had for him, but at every turn he sought to embarrass and degrade me. He reveled in my suffering. He enjoyed my punishments, my pain."
Zay blinked.
"Why…why did you serve him then?"
"He knew more that I did. He had power and prestige that I desired. His secrets and position were worth the suffering I endured. The hate he cultivated made me strong. Strong enough to eventually surpass and destroy him."
The dark lord rose.
Hate is only one road to power. That was the one true lesson that Darth Feer taught me, but that is not a lesson you need to learn from me, is it, Zay?"
Avaryss grinned.
"Life taught you to hate long before we ever met, didn't it?"
The girl nodded, she rose to her feet, rubbing her backside.
"I suppose that it did, master."
The dark lord nodded.
"I don't want you to hate me, acolyte. I want you to be in awe of me. I wield great power, power that I'm willing to share with you."
Again, she saw it, that hungry look in Zay's eyes. The girl craved the secrets of the Sith. She desired to be strong, to stand among the strong, the elite.
To be…a Sith.
"I will never harm you for showing initiative. You will suffer under my tutelage, but that pain will be for the purpose of survival. It will serve your training, for learning purposes. I will never hurt you to make myself feel better or for my own entertainment. Such petty cruelty is the domain of sadists and fool."
"Like Darth Feer," the girl said.
"Exactly," Avaryss smirked.
She could imagine her master glaring at her from beyond the void, but again Avaryss ignored him.
The dead were dead, after all.
She had nothing more to fear from him.
Avaryss chuckled and turned away.
"Come, apprentice, we still have a ways to go."
She took off again, but this time, at a slower pace.
She did this as a reward, the girl had revealed yet another power to her, another tool her master could control and turn towards the conquest of this wretched galaxy.
Zay followed eagerly, her hunger to be what her master was driving her forward.
"Yes, my master," she murmured.
"I'll follow you into hell."
No, Avaryss thought.
We will bring hell to this galaxy, we will ignite an inferno, and when it was done.
I…will rule over the ashes.
The day of vengeance…the day of the Sith…would finally come.
IOI
"Focus, Temmin."
The boy missed a clumsy strike, a strike he shouldn't have made at this stage of his training. Fenn kicked him in the stomach causing all the air to go whooshing out of him.
The padawan lay on the ground, coughing and sputtering. He looked up at his master.
Fenn looked down upon him, an arched look on his face.
Care to explain, it seemed to say.
The boy looked up sheepishly.
"Sorry, master."
Fenn shook his head.
He wasn't angry he wasn't even surprised.
The boy was distracted, and he knew why.
He glanced across the field.
Avaryss and Agony paced around in a circle, shouting out numbers, and in the center stood the object of his young student's distraction.
Zay.
The girl had just begun her saber training. The two Sith and their student had emerged half an hour after Fenn and Temm, and since they had, the boy had not been able to focus, not at all.
Fenn watched the girl. She held a training sword in her right hand, she wove the blade in the simple motions of Shi Cho, the most basic, and first stage of lightsaber combat.
"Five, three, six, two, five six," shouted Lord Agony.
The girl carved the air with her saber, it swished back and forth.
Avaryss shook her head.
"You're off balance." She said, gesturing with her pinky.
A gentle force push struck the girl, she squeaked and fell over. Unable to remain upright. She ended up flat on her back.
"Ow," she murmured.
"Up, girl," Avaryss shouted.
"Again."
Zay rose and returned to a ready position.
Avaryss nodded, and shouted out the commands.
"Two, five, six, one, three, six, five, two."
Swish, swish went Zay's training blade.
"Your feet are out of position," Agony hissed.
She raised a hand.
Again, Zay wobbled and fell over.
"Ow," she muttered.
"Up girl, again," Agony shouted.
Zay got up, and returned to the ready stance.
Fenn looked at his student, the concern in the half-blood's eyes.
He chuckled.
In this he was glad that Avy had not been raised at the temple with him.
How would he have reacted if he saw her falling down again and again. Being unable to help her.
Fenn pursed his lips.
He had heard from Roxxi, she had caught the two of them kissing out on the plains.
He had spoken to Temmin about that, warned him about the dangers of attachment. The boy said he understood, but…
Saying the words and dealing with the emotions behind them were two entirely different things.
Zay fell again.
"Ow."
Fenn looked down at Temmin, the boy looked back, looking concerned.
The young Jedi chuckled.
"I guess I'm not getting any work out of you until we check on her, am I?"
The boy blushed.
"Sorry, master."
"Come on," he said gesturing his padawan forward.
"Let's see if we can offer some moral support."
IOI
"Ow."
Avaryss looked down at her apprentice, evaluating her technique, or lack thereof.
Curious.
Even in failure, there were kernels of truth and wisdom to be harnessed. Seeing Zay, the way she handled the saber, how her feet worked, it was giving her master ideas of what didn't work, and thereby allowed her to think of what might.
"Five, six, two, three, two, one six."
Swish, swish, swish, swish, swish…
"Move your feet."
"Six, four, two…"
"Over lunge," Avaryss said.
She pushed out with the Force.
The girl staggered and landed on her back.
"Ow."
"Up girl, Agony shouted.
"Again."
Zay rose, and found the ready position again.
Her eyes widened when she looked over her master's shoulder.
Fenn and Temmin stood before them.
"How are the saber drills coming," Fenn asked.
Zay gave a hopeless chuckle.
"I stink." She said.
Fenn smiled.
"A hot shower will help with that," the Jedi quipped.
"Ha Ha," the girl replied.
"Again," Agony ordered, "Strike with malice, and precision."
Avaryss stood next to her dream friend, she was frowning.
"Her foot is hindering her progress. The shi cho is difficult for her, Makashi would be almost impossible."
He nodded thoughtfully.
"Have you thought about Form six, Niman?"
Avaryss tilted her head slightly.
"Hm."
"The style has no real weakness," he said.
"And no real strengths either." She reminded him.
"True, but it is a style favored by those drawing heavily on the Force. It would help compensate for her foot."
Avaryss nodded thoughtfully.
She had known going in that Zay's skill with a blade would require her to be creative.
Agony had offered to teach the girl a modified version of Ataru, the style used by her Sith marauder mother. Zay would need to work on building up her muscles a bit to use it, but…it would be possible.
It was worth thinking about, at least.
Avaryss watched as the girl ran through the basic sequences of Shi Cho once again. She stared not at her masters or the Fenn…
She stared at Temmin; the half-blood smiled at her.
She smiled back.
Avaryss attempted a Force push, to knock her down again.
Zay sensed it, and pirouetted around it, using the energy to throw a kick in the air.
She brought her blade around in the ready position.
Her master nodded.
"Good," Avaryss said, surprised.
"Nice one, Zay," Temm shouted.
Thanks," she said, a slight blush on her cheeks.
"Focus," Agony reminded her.
"Right."
Six, four, three, two, three, six three, six, one."
"Over lunge," Avaryss growled.
Agony tried a Force push.
Zay whirled, sensing it raising her hand.
She blocked it…mostly.
Though she stumbled back, losing her footing.
She came down on her rear.
"Ow."
"Up girl," Agony shouted, "Again."
"Up girl," Zay muttered.
"What was that?"
"Nothing," Zay added quickly.
Avaryss closed her eyes, she sighed, feeling the heat of the girl's frustration, her anger.
Good.
She managed four more sequences before she got caught by a push from her master.
She fell again.
"Ow."
Zay looked up at Fenn.
"See, I stink."
He gave her an encouraging smile.
"From a certain point of view, from another, you could say that this is your first time with the Shi Cho, and it will take time to pair the Force with your muscles, and your blade."
"Control does not come overnight," Avaryss added, "It took me several months of training at Fury 9 before the Force truly became my ally."
"You will get it, Zay," Temm said, "I…we believe in you."
She nodded and rose to her feet.
"Trust in the Force," the padawan said.
Avaryss nodded.
Trust in the Force was important, but so was trusting in one's emotions. Anger, lust, fury, desire, for love or revenge, it didn't matter which.
She smiled.
She had not asked for Temm and Fenn's aid, but she as grateful.
The girl didn't want to fail before the boy she liked. Avaryss was not above using that.
Incentive was a wonderful thing, for her it had been revenge on the man who killed her family.
For Zay, let it be the thought of being the equal of the young man she desired, and when she caught up to him, when he realized what she had become.
He might try to stop her. If that happened, the girl would have to deal with him. If he chose the Jedi over her…
A hint of a smile played across the dark lord's lips.
She didn't want the girl' hate, she had not lied about that, but…
If she hated everything else, and was loyal only to her master.
That…could be worth its weight in beskar steel.
Zay swung her blade back and forth.
"Off balance," she purred.
Again, a Force push, and again the girl fell.
"Ow."
She looked at her master.
I hate you, the look said, not the eternal type of hate, perhaps, but it was strong…useful.
A good start, Avaryss thought.
Swish.
Swish.
Swish.
"Over lunge."
Force push.
Fall.
"Ow."
The dark lord almost laughed.
A most excellent beginning.