"Master Katarn, is it all right if I ask you a question?"

Kyle chuckled. "It still feels weird for me to be called a master, Jania. But go ahead and ask."

"It is your rank," the young Jedi apprentice replied. "But I was wondering… what is the Dark Side, to you?"

She frowned at the parts of her training lightsaber, before starting to put them back together as she talked. "I've heard about it from other people before, but never you, and you've got… a reputation, I guess. As being able to do things that most people would consider, uh… Dark."

"I'm not surprised they think that," Kyle said. "And they're not wrong… but it's not a complete picture, either."

Kyle sat down, next to the teenaged apprentice, and took out his custom pistol. He laid it on the table, next to Jania's lightsaber, and began taking it apart to clean it.

"This is a blaster," he said. "And it's a high powered one, which doesn't have a stun setting. What does that tell you about it?"

Jania's sure hands slowed, and she frowned as she thought about the question – sacrificing the speed at which she was working on her 'saber.

"I don't know," she admitted. "Or… I've got an idea, but I'm not sure if it's right."

She looked at the weapon, thinking.

"It's dangerous?" she said. "I know you've done a lot of good things with it, and with other guns too. But… I think I see what you're getting at."

"Oh?" Kyle asked, cleaning the accumulator ring with a vibrotool. "Do tell."

"The bits of the Force that are… Dark, I guess… are dangerous, because they're weapons," she said. "Is that it?"

"That's getting there, but it's more complicated than that – and more simple, at the same time," Kyle replied. "Throwing out a jet of lightning with the Force, that's not something you can do if you're not willing to hurt someone… but the same is true of swiping at someone with a lightsaber, really. Or shooting someone with a high powered blaster, like this one. The Force is…"

Kyle stopped, for a moment, looking for the word.

"It's deep," he decided. "Or, it's complicated. It's vast. There's no limit to what the Force is capable of, and someone who's strong in the Force can do a lot… but they're the person who's actually doing it. And the reasons you have, they matter – they matter every bit as much as what you're doing, possibly even more."

Jania frowned, thinking about that.

"So… the same thing could be a Dark Side act if you did it for the wrong reasons?" she asked. "I guess that… makes sense, I think."

"Part of it is that whether something is a Light or Dark act isn't really something you can game," Kyle said. "Not doing something because it's too close to the Dark Side – that's a perfectly sensible decision to make. But doing something a certain way because it lets you get what you want while still not being Dark… that's trickier. And if you're trying to rationalize it to yourself, all too often that means you're lying to yourself."

He was silent for a long moment, and Jania finished putting her lightsaber back together. It activated properly, and she moved it in an arc, then switched it off again with a frown.

"I think I seated one of the power cells wrong," she said, picking up a tool again. "But, Master – uh, Kyle? Do you have an example?"

"That's what I was thinking about," Kyle explained. "It's been said that hatred is the path to the Dark Side, and it is in some ways, but so is… spite. And so is not caring if something is good or bad. There is no rule… but the closest I've come up with is that, if you're being honest with yourself, and if you're trying to avoid being Dark, that's usually a good start."

He shrugged. "There's a reason why, so often, the thing that starts a journey to the Dark Side is something that seems more important than sticking to the moral code you had before… and what completes a journey to the Dark Side is choosing to complete a journey to the Dark Side. But I'm not exactly great at the philosophical side of things… I'm just a guy with a lightsaber."

"I think you're more than that, Master," Jania told him, reseating the power cells and replacing the casing. This time it met with her satisfaction, and she stood up.

"Is there anything I can do if someone attacks me with one of those, though?" she asked. "Like Force Lightning."

"First step, don't be intimidated," Kyle advised. "Like I was getting at, a lot of the Force is about perception – if you manage to stay focused and keep your centre, even if what you're doing is running for cover, you'll be able to fight it off, deflect it or endure it, a lot better than if you panic."

He picked up his pistol, holstering it. "Want to give that a try? Yes or no is fine."

AN:

Some Kyle-themed musings on the Dark Side, from his very unusual and lightning-shooting perspective.