Disclaimer: Lucasfilm, Bioware, Disney, et al. and whoever they sell the rights to next own Star Wars and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. I write this for fun and not for any monetary gain.


Chapter 6: Lightsaber Training

"So, how was the training today?" Bastila asked a few days later.

Revan almost pouted. "I spent the whole day practicing blaster deflection with those toy droids while blindfolded. I mastered that technique when I was five!" he complained. "I could have destroyed all the training droids in five seconds in twenty different spectacular ways, but no, I had to endure it."

He closed his eyes and imagined frying the droids with Force Lightning, crushing the droids outright with the Force, throwing his lightsaber in a perfect arc slicing through all the droids, as well as a bunch of other ways, while projecting the mental image to Bastila. Finally, he commented, "That was therapeutic. At least they finally agreed that my technique is good enough, so I don't have to do it again."

"Oh, poor youngling," his apprentice joked, patting his head as an adult would do to a child. It was rather awkward—although Bastila's 1.75 m height was considered tall by human female standards, she was still a bit shorter than him. He responded by pushing her into the wall and holding her spread eagle with the Force.

"I bet a youngling can't do this," he teased back.

"Well, Master, why don't you teach me a thing or two about lightsabers, if you are so good at it?" she quipped, though she actually hoped to learn a few things from him.

"Okay, let's go to the cargo hold. It's not that big, but the handicap applies to us both. Let's try to not destroy the Ebon Hawk in the process…" he suggested.

Soon, they found themselves facing each other in the cargo hold. Bastila ignited her saberstaff and the dull yellow of the lightsaber in training mode soon illuminated her face. Revan ignited his salvaged blue blade, and before she could tell him she was ready, he already started moving.

He exploded into action, and she was barely able to parry his attacks with both of her blades. She knew better to complain, for when they were younger, he did the same, reasoning that the Sith would never wait for the enemy to get ready. It was rather ironic that both of them were now Sith, but neither of them would squander the element of surprise in a fight. She yielded some ground to buy herself some breathing space and unleashed a powerful Force wave to throw him back. It only halted his advance. She charged at him, using both ends of her saberstaff to strike at him again and again, although he either dodged or blocked her every hit. Suddenly, he jumped back into offence, and with a strong hit to force her saberstaff out of the way, struck her neck, but without applying any real force. She yelped in surprise from the burn. In a real fight, she would have lost her head and her life. Her Master turned off his lightsaber. Waving his hand, he quickly healed her.

"You fought well, Bastila, but you did not use your emotions. It is much harder to win a fight when you are not determined to win," he observed.

"Well, Master, how should I use emotions in a fight like this? I don't think I can maintain the mental gymnastics of hating someone else while fighting you in a controlled manner, especially as I am afraid of hurting you in the heat of the moment. It is not something the Jedi ever taught," she complained. "All they taught me was that emotions would make my attacks sloppier and more unfocused and, of course, turn me to the Dark Side—as if it's the most awful thing possible."

"The solution is, of course, to channel emotions that are relevant to the fight," he answered. "In a real fight, the determination to win, to survive the battle, is probably the most important emotion to have. During the Mandalorian wars, every one of my soldiers knew the enemy would show no mercy nor accept surrender, and so they fought to the bitter end for survival. They knew that the same would happen to their loved ones, and so they fought fiercely to defend them. They threw themselves completely into winning the war, and we won as a result. They would never have won had they fought with the passionless serenity of the Jedi, nor with their utter indifference to death, nor with the complete shunning of attachment.

"For practice fights though, it's similar: you have to really want to win, even if you would survive either way. There are many ways you can justify this to yourself: you can tell yourself the practice is for when you need to fight your real enemies, or perhaps you simply want to win a fight against me and that's an achievement in and of itself. In either case, your determination to win will drive you forward, even when you are tired and exhausted. If you enjoy fighting and find it exhilarating, all the better. If you hate your opponent and it makes you more determined to win, even better. However, you should avoid frustration, as it makes your attacks sloppier, since after a point, you are just lashing out wildly. You should be in control," the Sith Master explained.

"So the Sith idea of anger and hate making you stronger is actually true… Why is it that in stories, they always tell their Jedi opponents that? Would they not want their opponents to weaken?" his apprentice wondered.

"Well, the Jedi are usually too indoctrinated to actually believe that. But they are sentient beings, and they will feel the emotion when the Sith make them angry. Being Jedi, they refuse to acknowledge the emotions as a natural part of life, so they try to suppress it. That costs them their concentration, and the distraction makes it much easier to score a hit," he explained.

"And so it appears that the slightest temptation to feel emotions could defeat a Jedi, and they try even harder to ignore emotions, making the weakness all the more exploitable," the apprentice continued in comprehension. "And the Jedi are too indoctrinated to even consider any other possibility."

"Yes, precisely. Another thing the Jedi are too focused on is doing things the 'proper' way. Innovations, by their very nature, differ from the existing norm, and as a result, the Jedi rarely innovate. Instead of thoroughly testing out new ideas to see if they work better, Jedi Masters penalize people for deviating from their teachings, because they obviously knew better." The Sith Lord struggled to keep the bitterness out of his voice. "Lightsabers have changed a lot since they were first invented. In the ancient times, the blade took many seconds to appear, so turning off your blade during combat would leave you completely defenceless. Now, they turn on and off pretty quickly. While feature parity with the Sith has forced the Jedi to adopt fast ignition—after all, they wouldn't want to be stabbed while their blade is busy trying to appear, no matter how deluded they are—they never truly exploit this useful ability. Can you imagine some ways to use this?"

"If your blade gets stuck, you can just turn it off and back on instead of trying to pull it out?" she proposed.

"That seems obvious," he agreed. "The other thing you could do is penetrate your opponent's defences, but keep in mind it does render you defenceless in the split second when the blade is off. If your opponent moves quickly to exploit this weakness, you have nothing with which to block them, so the risks may not be worth it…"

"So what good is it then?" she wondered, pausing to think. "I suppose against non-Force users wielding vibroblades, that could be a reasonable trick?"

"It definitely helped against the Mandalorians," he confirmed. "Still, this normally is pretty niche and wouldn't apply in our practice fights, but the nature of your weapon makes it truly shine."

"What do you mean?" she frowned. "Because I have two blades and can turn them on and off at will?"

"Exactly! You can have the second blade appear only when needed, allowing you the full range of motion normally available to a single blade, while retaining the advantages of the second blade. And of course, you could ignite the other blade when your opponent expects it the least. Surprise is always a good thing to have in your arsenal. But remember, if you do it too often—at least when someone lives to tell the tale—it won't be a surprise anymore."

After thinking over his lesson for a few minutes, Bastila nodded in understanding. Then, turning on one blade only, she started examining her new range of motion. It was as wide as a single-bladed lightsaber, but the extended length of the hilt allowed her hands to be farther apart, providing more leverage. This made it much easier for her to push against another object with the blade, such as another lightsaber, giving her a crucial advantage. Feeling satisfied, she charged at her Master, this time determined to win—or at least show him she had improved. Despite her efforts, he was still able to block her attacks without much difficulty. When they entered a saberlock, she forced the locked blades to her side with her mechanical advantage, turning on her second blade to impale Revan. He barely dodged out of the way. Bastila felt rather proud of herself and turned off the second blade. However, the Sith Master easily freed his blade by turning it off, reigniting it while pointed straight at her.

"Ouch!" she shouted, flinching away from the sudden heat. Channelling the Force, she healed herself. "I should have kept the second blade on and spun it to deflect you," she thought out loud before interrupting herself. "No wait, your blade was long enough to hit me upon ignition. Best thing to do is to get out of the way and keep up the offensive."

"Good…" he praised. "You are thinking. Let's try again."

Soon, they found themselves in a saberlock once again. She tried to push him again, but it did not budge this time. She frowned. Suddenly, a burst of strength appeared out of nowhere. Despite trying her best, he pushed her blade into her arm, generating another scream of pain.

"How did you do that?" the apprentice asked, shocked to the core. Her Master had easily overpowered her despite her best efforts with Force-enhanced strength and mechanical advantage. There was no struggle: he had easily pushed her own blade into her arm when he decided to do so. If it was through sheer strength, then she had no hopes of being remotely his equal in combat. "With my longer handle, I have an advantage over you. How did you push so hard?"

"Notice how when you lock blades with lightsabers and vibroblades, you are applying force only at one end. The force you are applying generates a massive amount of torque, which has to be cancelled by your other hand applying a force in the opposite direction. You are basically wasting your strength. Think of it as holding a hammer horizontally at the very end of the handle. It is very difficult compared to holding it at the centre of gravity or with one hand on each end," the Sith Master explained. "While the greater separation of your hands allows you to cancel out the torque more easily, this is nothing compared to being able to apply a forward force on the other end of the blade. When doing a 'saberlock' with a non-vibro sword, you would push the other end."

"That makes a great deal of sense… if only you could touch the other end of the lightsaber without burning your hand off…" Bastila pondered. "I suppose you could try making cortosis gloves, but you clearly aren't doing that… I see, you must have pushed it with the Force. How is it that you were able to do so without removing either hand?"

"Ultimately, telekinesis comes from your ability to concentrate and will things to move the way you want them to," Revan lectured. "Surely you have heard stories of telekinesis performed with hands tied behind the back, so why not while holding your lightsaber?"

"I never thought of it that way…" she confessed. After a few moments of thought, she asked, "Would it make sense to push lightsabers when you swing them too?"

"Sometimes," he answered. He was very pleased with her for coming up with ideas so quickly. "Lightsabers are awful at holding momentum and translational kinetic energy due to their lack of mass. They are also awful at holding rotational energy, due to the concentration of the little mass it has in the handle, close to the axis of rotation when swinging. If you remember from our physics classes, the moment of inertia is much greater when the mass is farther away from the axis of rotation, and both rotational energy and momentum are directly proportional to the moment of inertia."

"I see," his apprentice noted. "So having mass further away from the handle—as you would with vibroblades—makes a swing carry far more energy and momentum, and thus far harder to stop… But normally, this doesn't matter for lightsabers because they cut through everything, and you are at no disadvantage against other lightsabers. Unless of course, you are dealing with weapons with cortosis woven into them!" she exclaimed excitedly. "Then, your blades can slam into each other with full force, and then the momentum and energy really matters. Is that how Mandalorians managed to hold their ground against Jedi?"

"Yes…" Revan sighed. "Lightsabers, unfortunately, aren't the pinnacle of weapons engineering," he admitted. "They are awesome, sure, they can cut through almost everything, and the ability to block blaster shots is very useful, but they too have their weaknesses. The Jedi are too proud to ever admit that, of course. So are most Sith, for that matter. But in the end, the laws of physics reign supreme." He shook his head. "Still, I can't shake the feeling that the Jedi would outlaw vibroblades if they got their way, rather than changing their own technique…"

"But you still use lightsabers instead of vibroblades, so you must have a workaround for this issue," she observed, for otherwise he would have kept lightsabers as merely ceremonial weapons to claim the legacy of the ancient Sith. "Is that what I suggested, using a Force push to increase the force of impact?"

"You got it," he confirmed, "but you shouldn't do it with every hit, since it would tire you out prematurely. You should only do it when it would make a difference. With some ingenuity, the 'fatal flaw' of lightsabers could be turned into its key strength, actually—ultimately, with the push trick, to hit just as hard with a blade with mass, you would be doing the same amount of work. However, when feinting or otherwise swing it around, you expend almost no energy due to the massless blade."

"I see… Is this a secret like your… surprises?" she asked.

"Yes, but don't avoid the technique. Without explicit explanation, all your opponent will think is that you are 'strong in the Force' and can hit hard."

"Wouldn't it have helped a lot during the Mandalorian wars though, to have your followers know about it?" she inquired.

"It would have," he admitted with a sigh, "if only I had realized it before the very end. So many lives would have been saved if I had just been thinking earlier… To think, I had this knowledge all along, and I never thought to apply it." His voice was filled with regret.

"I have the same knowledge you do, Master," his apprentice noted. "And I too never applied it to this… We both wield a lightsaber every day, and we both did well in physics class, but we somehow never connected the dots for so long."

"We were foolish, but then so was everyone else." He shook his head. "I suppose it was only obvious in hindsight, but it doesn't make me feel any less bad about myself. Ah well, it did prove useful against Mandalore himself, so it was not pointless. To be honest, it was the only reason why I lived to tell the tale when everyone before me had failed."

"And what about the Republic?"

"It wasn't useful against the Republic," he replied, disgust clear in his voice. "The vast majority of Republic soldiers do not receive cortosis weapons in order to save money, since they believe only Force users can fight other Force users. As a result, even if they have cortosis, they don't know how to use it effectively."

"I am not sure why I am surprised," Bastila sighed at the Senate's indifference to the lives of those who defended them. "What about the Jedi?"

"Against the Jedi, the Sith are at no disadvantage here, and we are already winning, so I kept it a secret," he explained. "It just wasn't worth the risk of the Jedi finding out, actually adopting it in their desperation, and massacring my soldiers."

"That makes sense. I suppose the key lesson here is that I should always be thinking creatively about fighting," she concluded.

"Yes, fighting intelligently is important," her Master agreed. "The truth is, while years of practice with the lightsaber forms will make you very good at combat, creative tactics can surprise even the most experienced fighter. For example, in our earlier spar, I was surprised by your second blade, even knowing it was there and told you to use it that way, because my experience worked against me. I saw one blade, I acted as if I was fighting a single blade."

"I understand. But you couldn't just fight without any lightsaber form, could you? There is very little time to react in a battle, so you need instinctive and well-practiced moves to stand any chance against a challenging opponent," she reasoned.

"Very true," he agreed. "What form do you prefer to use these days?"

"That hasn't changed. The Jedi would only let me practice Form III and IV. I always wanted to learn Form VII, seeing how awesome you were in action with it, but the Jedi Masters would never let me."

"Well, I suppose you are in luck, Bastila." The Sith Lord leaned towards her conspiratorially, "I have long speculated that the Form VII the Jedi taught was incomplete, and that there was more to it. I believe I told you this." At her nod, he continued. "After I left, I realized that there was a certain pattern to the movements, and yet all the moves seemed tailored to counter the other six forms. I began to suspect the standard moves were generated algorithmically, and so I tried to discover the algorithm to be able to counter any possible form. I once entertained the idea of publishing my discoveries when I became a Jedi Master, but that's unlikely to happen now. My suspicions were proven correct."

"What did you find?" Bastila asked.

"I found proof in the tomb of Marka Ragnos on an inscription. His ancestor had invented a new lightsaber form, the seventh form to be invented, which he called Vaapad. It was more of an algorithm to generate moves that would exploit weaknesses in the opponent's form. The Jedi Council, in their infinite wisdom, had deemed it too dangerous and refused to allow him to publish it or teach it to anyone. So, he dumbed down the form by using the algorithm to generate countermoves for the other six forms and taught those instead under the name Juyo.

"Still, the Ragnos ancestor was resentful that the Jedi tried to curtail his creation, eventually leaving the Order for the old Sith Empire, passing his invention down the generations. It was Marka Ragnos who truly mastered it and used it to become the Dark Lord of the Sith. He also enchanted his legendary gauntlets with it, guiding its wearer to fight with greater ability. In his tomb, I found the gauntlets, along with an inscription of 'the true form of his great forefather' containing the details. I studied and blended it with the fruits of my own reverse engineering," Revan elaborated. "I suspect it is probably the most powerful lightsaber combat technique currently known, and once mastered, can defeat a Juyo practitioner with relative ease."

"Well, since you are the Master, why don't you teach me the true form?" asked the apprentice eagerly.

"I will teach you, Bastila. But understand, you are the only one I'll teach for now. I have taught no one else. Even though I regularly experimented with the form in combat, few lived to tell the tale. Not even Malak knew the true form, and that shall work to our advantage."

"You went to Korriban with Malak, didn't you, Master? How come he doesn't know?" she wondered, having learned that information in the briefing the Jedi had given her, listing all known locations that he had been to and those that had gone with him.

"For all his physical strengths, that man is no scholar," he explained. "Whereas I might record the inscriptions found in a tomb in an ancient and forgotten language for study later with old dictionaries and grammar books, Malak thought that was simply a waste of time. He was much more interested in the legendary gauntlets. He put them back in disgust after he convinced himself that using those was an insult to his lightsaber skills. To him, it seemed like training wheels. They are still in that tomb, as far as I know."

"I see, Master. Can you teach me now?" Bastila looked as if she was ready to kneel down and beg in her eagerness.

"First, you must understand the true nature of Form VII. There are no standard moves for the form like the others. In many ways, the form is a complete violation of the Jedi Code. The true form makes use of all the emotions we talked about to channel the Dark Side and make the entire thing possible. Otherwise you'll never be able to react fast enough for this form, especially since you need to actually think—instead of relying on pure instinct like most of your opponents. It also depends on chaotic and aggressive movements to overwhelm the enemy with unpredictable strikes. Despite the aggressive offence tactics, it is rather unlike Form IV, lacking the flashiness and standard, predictable movements.

"The key to the true form is exploiting all weaknesses, while giving yourself the manoeuvrability to dodge, redirect, or block attacks, though the latter is to be avoided to save your strength. At its core, the form is more of a state of mind and a general strategy than a set of movements like the other forms. The moves evolve based on how your opponent fights, tailoring itself against them. Due to the ever-evolving nature of the form, your moves are decided as late as possible, using all the information you have available, both the past and the future through the Force. Combined with the lack of any predefined moves, you negate a Force-sensitive opponent of their biggest advantage in combat—their precognition. A Jedi might say 'the future is always in motion,' and by deciding as late as possible we'd be keeping the future in motion for the opponent as long as possible. You can see the clear advantages of being able to predict your enemy's next move while they remain blind to yours." Really, this was because until a decision had been made, the Force would present all possibilities through foresight, fluctuating based on changing likelihood. To the novice Force user, "motion" was the best description for such a thing, and this was how it was often taught.

"Form VII is not built to require a lot of Force-powered acrobatics or anything similarly wasteful. Instead, only enhanced speed and strength is used. This leaves you plenty of opportunity to use the Force in combat in other ways. One of my favourite things to do in combat is reading the opponent's mind. If there are no good mind shields, it is almost trivial to find weaknesses before they even appear, piercing the haze of foresight, making the fight completely a joke."

Bastila recalled how her Master single-handedly defeated most of the strike team on his old flagship. Against the heavily-armoured elite Republic soldiers and the knights, he had literally held his blood red lightsaber in one hand, casually blocked every attack, and took down each enemy with a single, well-placed hit. At the same time, he used his other hand to execute Force-based attacks to keep her and the Jedi Masters at bay. She now realized that he had done it through mind reading. She took some time to digest the lecture, before finally nodding in understanding.

For the next hour, she tried all the forms she knew against Revan, who defeated her again and again. Soon, she started blending the forms she knew and making up new moves, but he was always able to find a weakness and exploit it. However, the apprentice was able to get a general idea of how exploiting weaknesses worked.

When the hour was up, they switched roles. He simulated Form IV, the form weakest in defence, while guiding her through the process of discovery. At the end of the hour, she was able to derive most of the Juyo moves that countered this lightsaber form.

"You have done well, my apprentice," the Sith Lord complimented her.

"Thank you, Master." I could never get tired of his compliments, she thought to herself.


A/N: The mechanical advantage issue explains why the best melee weapon in the game is actually the Baragwin assault blade, a fancy vibroblade bought from Yavin Station, beating out even the most upgraded lightsabers. Equipping Canderous with one allows him to easily fight all the lightsaber-wielding opponents. If Revan, someone who has defeated numerous expert vibroblade users, is still using lightsabers, he must have a trick that makes lightsabers more powerful.