Chapter 17

The following weeks on Yavin continued per usual, the duos (trios) time had mostly been spent on elevating their skills through training, Shmi teaching Triz the ins and outs of ship maintenance, working on a blasted protocol droid which always seemed to have something new to break down and refuse to power up. The last thing to break down much to Shmi's ire was the droids voice modulator. That part pretty much fried itself when Shmi tried to turn the droid online and had to toss it out, to make things worse she did not have a replacement part and there were no vendors on Yavin to purchase one from.

"Blasted pile of bantha pudu," Shmi spat angrily, now slowly starting to regret not landing somewhere closer to civilization.

"Language apprentice, language," Acina chastised her student. "It does not befit one such as us to use such foul words, especially for something as menial as a broken droid."

"Are you really telling me that you never swore in your life, ever," Shmi countered her master, her annoyance still present.

"As much as I hate to admit it, there were few occasions where the circumstances forced me to use such colorful language," Acina said.

"Yeah, forced," Shmi said sarcastically, letting out a small chuckle. She turned around and started rummaging through a box of spare parts, praying to the force that she was wrong and that there was another voice modulator inside.

"Not all of us have a predisposition for swearing like a sailor my dear apprentice," Acina spoke with a hint of annoyance. "Some of us have to adhere to certain civilized standards. Not all of us can be savage brutes."

"Hey! Did you just call me..." Shmi shouted, her annoyance at her master rising.

The ghostly Sith had taken an interest in the temple they landed next to and on her behest Shmi had gone exploring the ruin on several occasions. On their last venture, Acina asked Shmi to allow her control over her body and after some back and forth, Shmi handed over the reins so to speak. Yellow eyes carefully went over the hieroglyphics on the walls of the ancient temple. So far Acina had only managed to get quick glimpses through Shmi's eyes but now she had some time to study them.

This specific dialect of the Sith language was rather old, downright ancient actually but she was able to understand a good chunk of it. There are plenty of benefits to being a scholar. Apparently, this temple was built by the Massassi in honor of some great warrior who came from far away. He used his power to take over and rule them. Acina's eyes scanned over the word which translated to blade of fire, so lightsaber. A Sith most likely, no real surprise there. The Massassi don't usually build temples in honor of Jedi. The Sith continued with her translation of the temple's writings, some details were interesting, some not so much. Finally, a small detail caught her interest, it was short, a name, the name of the man this temple was dedicated to, Exar Kun.

"Well, that is certainly an interesting revelation," Acina said intrigued, the finger of her right hand brushing over the written name.

"What is?" Shmi asked.

"I think I figured out for whom this temple was built," Acina said. Her eyes continued to go over the writings, looking for any other valuable detail.

"Care to tell me or are you going to keep me waiting," Shmi said.

"This temple was built to honor an ancient Sith lord by the name of Exar Kun. He lived thousands of years before my time and was well known for his power," Acina explained. She intended to continue with her lecture on the ancient Sith lord but a slight tremor from the ground caught her attention.

"So sith have temples built to celebrate them. I thought that was only a thing on Korriban," Shmi said.

"It depends, usually only great Sith lords get temples dedicated to them, other powerful Sith get tombs like the ones on Korriban," Acina explained and turned around, the tremor getting more noticeable.

"You see that too?" Shmi asked and Acina nodded. Moments later the ground exploded, dirt and rock flying through the air. Acina used the force to direct any debris away from her. Several holes appeared in the temple floor and out of them came shrieking insectoid creatures. Acina quickly summoned the lightsaber into her hand and activated it. The first creature that came out charged at the Sith, Acina easily dodged the attack and used her lightsaber to cut the beast's legs, leaving it shrieking in pain. Several more insectoids came out charging, and their fate ended up being similar to the first, being cut into pieces with deadly precision. She used the force to push one of the creatures into another, knocking them both down before cutting their heads off with one precise swing. Acina noticed a large group coming out of one of the holes and after lifting her arm, summoned a powerful torrent of force lighting, frying the creatures to death. The smell of burned flesh filled the air as more insectoids came crawling out of the ground. Acina kept swinging her blade, chopping the creatures to pieces but they just kept coming, the aggressive screeching never stopping. Before she knew it, Acina was surrounded by the murderous insects. Noticing this, she thought of her options. The first one was to continue to cut the beasts down one by one until they were all dead. As much as she would appreciate the practice, right now she would prefer to return to deciphering the writings on the walls, so opted for the other, quicker option.

Acina focused, called upon the force, upon her connection to the dark side. She lifted herself slightly from the ground and then blasted the targets around her with Force push, sending them through the air. She then generated a large ball of Force lightning, allowing it to expand freely until blasting the lighting in all directions. Any creature that came into contact with the lightning was instantly vaporized. Acina's feet gently met the ground, her gaze going over her handy work, there were smoldering piles of ash everywhere. Shmi could not help but feel both amazed and slightly afraid at what she had just seen.

Acina hummed with satisfaction. "I guess I'm not as rusty as I thought," Then her gaze went towards the temple entrance. "Your effort acolyte is appreciated but you would have just been caught in the crossfire if you intervened."

There, standing at the entrance with her lightsaber drawn was Triz. She had sensed something amiss and quickly made her way toward the temple. The sight that greeted her was one of pure amazement to the young girl. She watched as her mentor tore through a horde of monstrous creatures with ease. She had pulled out her lightsaber and was ready to offer any help she could until she felt something again. She felt a surge coming from her master and once she was Shmi started to float off the ground she immediately ducked behind a pillar. Not too soon either, as a moment later lighting began to dance all over the temple. Once the attack subsided Triz walked out of her hiding place only to stare at the sight in front of her. A sound of lightsabers deactivating was heard.

"I sensed a disturbance..." Triz began but did not finish. She watched as Shmi walked towards her, her stride confidant, hands placed behind her back, those strange yellow eyes boring into Triz's very soul.

"And you immediately run to aid your master. As I said, your effort is appreciated but the situation has been dealt with Your interference would have changed a little," Acina said but to Triz it was Shmi who was speaking. The teen noticed that her master's voice sounded different than usual. "You are free to return doing whatever you were doing before this interruption. I still have some writings to translate and would like the silence to do so."

Triz stared at her master for a moment until nodding. "Yes master," The teen then walked away from the temple, pondering what the elder Sith said.

The new interesting addition to their group was the strange white-furred creature that showed up out of nowhere. The first time it came all the way to their ship, then for about a week it watched them from a distance. It watched as they trained every day. The fur ball almost ran away when it first saw Shmi using force lighting one time, it was a small burst but powerful enough to scare the poor creature. She thought that she detected some small glimmer of the force coming from the creature then. Acina then explained that there were species of animals that for some reason possessed greater attunement to the force, animals like the loath wolves or the vornskr. Shmi had thought that she had scared it away but it came back the very next day. A persistent thing he turned out to be, after that he came every day, gradually getting a bit closer each time. It just stood there and watched them like it was doing now.

Shmi was standing outside, supervising a sparring match between Triz and the practice droid. Shmi thought that her student had gotten enough of the basics during their time here and got shot by practice orbs enough times that a change was needed. So in came the practice droid with its electro staff. The droid was told to go easy on Triz off course, she was still barely a novice and they did not need any pointless injuries while in the middle of a jungle world.

Triz was doing her best, repealing as many strikes as she could, those that she could not she tried to avoid, occasionally managing to attempt a strike of her own. But as much as she tried her best she still ended up on the defensive, something which brought not a small amount of exasperation. She knew that she was still new to all of this Sith stuff, to the force, to lightsabers but she wanted to learn, to make her master proud, and in her eyes, she was failing at it right now. The droid attacked with its electro staff, aiming one of its ends at Triz's left arm which she deflected, a second strike aimed at her other arm came quickly but she blocked it as well and was forced to take a step back to steady herself. She glared at the droid. Shmi could sense her student's ire, it was normal in these situations. She had been the same during the start of her training all of those months ago, she had truly come a long way. All thanks to her ghostly master and the mysterious effects of the bleeding effect.

"Hold the grip tightly, don't let his strength overwhelm you," Shmi advised as she continued to monitor the spar. Spar went on for a few more minutes before the combination of exhaustion and inexperience caused the droid to land a hit on Triz. The hit caused the teen to lose her balance and fall to the ground, the lightsaber falling next to her, the red blade retracting. "Alright, that's enough for now. Take a break and then we will do this again."

"Yes master," Triz said as she got up from the ground. Shmi could sense the girl's irritation, she had told her student that this wouldn't be easy, that learning anything takes time.

"Failure is sometimes the best teacher," Acina said in a stern tone. "It motivates us to become better than we are now."

"Any other wise words I could use?" Shmi asked.

"For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them," Acina spoke.

"Alright…" Shmi said with a bit of confusion. "Well with that done, I think I will take my turn with the droid. CB activate battle program, level ten," she commanded the droid and the machine took a stance, ready for the fight to come. Shmi pulled out and activated her lightsaber, the sound of the crimson blade vibrating was heard. She was going to practice her form IV today. A moment later the battle commenced. Shmi charged at her opponent first, striking the droid's right side with her blade. The droid reacted quickly and blocked the crimson blade with its staff. Several more quick strikes followed, each strike carefully being blocked by the machine. That did not mean that Shmi was bad, on the contrary, so far she had been on the offensive, making the droid take several steps back. She had developed her skills with the blade nicely.

The droid spun the staff and attempted his offensive, throwing several jabbing strikes in quick succession. His attempt was met with failure as each strike was parried or avoided by the Sith apprentice. Shmi leaped at the droid, aiming her blade toward his head only for the lightsaber to meet the staff in an overhead block. The droid used its strength to push her back, the Sith landing on her feet, her eyes fixed on the mechanical opponent.

She rushed at him, throwing several strikes from multiple sides with lightning speed. The blows were blocked or parried by the droid but Shmi could see that it was struggling to keep up now. Her last blow was met by a low block. The droid's red eyes met Shmis, it made a sound that almost sounded like laughter. Shmi used the force to push the droid away from her and then with a force imbued leap she found herself just behind the droid. It stabilized itself just in time to find a red blade placed dangerously close to its head. Shmi had won the dual. She pulled away her blade and let the droid turn around to face her.

"Observation: That was cheating," the droid said in a deep, artificial voice. "This was a practice dual, no force abilities are to be used."

"It's not cheating when it's a real fight, now is it?" Shmi countered, her lips curving slightly.

"Affirmative and yet this fight was for training purposes only, I implore you to stick to the guidelines set."

"Fine, fine, let's go again," Shmi said and took a stance, the droid doing the same. The two soon started another round of blade training while Triz and the white creature watched on.

Shmi and Triz sat outside of the ship, both in meditative positions. It was their last lesson of the day and they would soon retire to their quarters. Meditation was supposed to give insight, to reflect on your past and yourself, using it to help define your goals and shape who you are as a person. Triz was having a hard time concentrating, she wanted to tell her master and Shmi could feel it.

"Speak your mind, acolyte," Shmi said, her eyes remaining closed, body not moving from the meditative position. Triz was slightly caught off guard by the sudden command, sometimes she would forget that Shmi could sense her thoughts. It was honestly offsetting at times.

"I-I have a question master," Triz said, her eyes opening to look at her mentor.

"What is it?" Shmi asked.

"I know I'm making progress but it all seems so little to me. I know that I only recently started to learn from you I feel like I should be learning quicker, like I'm falling behind," Triz explained.

Shmi opened her eyes, her blue orbs finding Triz's brown ones. "And why do you feel that? Why do you think you should be quicker with your studies?"

"I-I..." Triz began but stuttered.

"Yes?" Shmi said. She could feel the emotions rising from her students.

Triz sighed and composed herself. "Seeing you in the temple, how you defeated those creatures, I'm starting to wonder if I will ever be able to reach that level. You said I would not have made any difference."

"You are doubting yourself," Shmi said, easily picking up what the teen's words meant. "There is no need to doubt yourself Triz, I know all of this is tough but I believe that you will succeed. You have made good progress with your training already. Your movements with the blade are decent, but I have noticed you try to match your opponent's strength with your own. Let's take the droid for example, you are smaller than him but physically weaker, on the other hand, that makes you a harder target to hit and what you lack in strength you can make up with speed. If something doesn't work, try something else."

"I understand master," Triz said, nodding.

"I can sense something else, is there anything else you wish to tell me?" Shmi added. Triz kept quiet for a moment, pondering if she should tell her master what was on her mind or not. In the end, she chose to trust her master.

"The gang that killed my parents, I know you killed them, I have seen it but that was not all of them. I know the name of the man who sent them there, their leader."

"And you wish to learn the ways of the Sith as quickly as possible to exact revenge on the man you deem responsible," Shmi said, it was not a question but a statement she knew to be true even without Triz saying so. The teen nodded in confirmation.

"He needs to pay, all those responsible need to pay," Triz said, her anger starting to show now.

"I understand your feelings Triz, believe me, I do, but as I have said repeatedly, learning the ways of the force takes time and effort. It's like learning to walk again. You first need to learn how to crawl, stand up, and then walk. These things can not be rushed, as much as we want. Even if your training was further along I would still not allow you to go after this man."

"And why not?" Triz said in a raised voice. For a moment she glared at Shmi before her expression softened.

"The kids growing a spine, I like it," Acina said. The ghostly Sith was showing some praise to the zabrak. "Although spine does not make up for whits."

"You have next to no experience fighting, and even if you did you know nothing about this man or what he is capable of. Do you even know where he is?" Shmi said and Triz shook her head. "There, you don't know where he is, you don't know how many men he has with him, what kind of weapons, anything. It takes more than will alone to accomplish something, it takes a plan. Remember Columex, I had a plan, I had an idea of what to do. You can't just show up somewhere, shoot up the place, and hope for the best."

"Are you seriously lecturing someone on not being hasty?" Acina asked, baffled. "You?"

"Not the time," Shmi told her ghostly master.

"Well, you do have a point. By failing to properly prepare, you are preparing to fail or in this case, die. The child is driven but lacks proper control and ability to see the bigger picture," Acina pointed out. "That can have disastrous consequences."

"I noticed that you were pushing yourself even harder than before since the incident with the lizards. I know that almost dying was a hard thing to experience, trust me I've been there. I noticed you spend more time in the cargo hold practicing your control over the force during the night and don't think I hadn't noticed you pushing yourself past the point of exhaustion on more than one occasion during lightsaber training. I allowed it because I see how determined you are and I know that prohibiting it will only serve to fuel your determination further.."

"Isn't that a good thing?" Triz said, cutting Shmi off.

"Having a strong drive to succeed is important, yet letting it blind you to other things around you will only lead to failure. You have ambition but you are still at the beginning of your journey, you will study, you will train, you will learn and once I deem you capable enough to stand on your own then you may set off on your path of avenging your family but not before. If you do, certain death awaits you. Did I make myself clear?" Shmi spoke in a stern, masterly tone.

"Yes master," Triz spoke in a voice barely above a whisper, her head bowed low. Shmi could barely hear the teen.

"What was that?" Shmi asked.

"You made yourself perfectly clear master," Triz said, now more inteligable.

"Glad to hear that," Shmi said. "I don't want you to be too reckless little one, that's my job."

Triz could not help but smile at her master's words. Shmi liked them Triz smiled, the child had spent a lot of time grieving, and it was good for her to focus on other things. Shmi could not help but ruffle the kid's hair. Somehow it all felt familiar to her.

"Come on, the sun is falling, that's enough to today. Let's grab something to eat and maybe play a game of dejarik."

"I'm going to win this time," Triz said, rising from her kneeling position. She was about to head towards the ship when she stopped and pointed towards the white-furred creature watching them from the bushes. "What will we do about him? He just keeps staring at us all day every day. It's honestly starting to creep me out a bit and it's not like he comes over for food or cuddling."

Shmi shrugged. "Honestly, I have no idea, if he continues coming every day, maybe we will keep him as a pet."

"Wonderful, that's what we truly need right now, a fur ball mascot," Acina said, not liking the idea of the creature joining the group full-time. They had enough members as it is.