Darkness Within and Without

[Barringer]

Voren Arelis finger-combed his short hair as he paced down the temple corridors. He had been summoned to Master Odok's quarters. Although not Voren's master — Voren's master, Dao Tokare, died just prior to the Treaty of Coruscant — Kooth Odok had instructed him in lightsaber technique in the capacity of the blademaster of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. After its destruction and Master Tokare's death, Odok wanted to take Voren as his padawan to complete his trained; he thought of Voren as the most innately gifted lightsaber duelist he had ever seen, and that he was wasted as Tokare's padawan.

However, he was unable to do so because he already had a padawan: Kerra Averia. As things stood, Voren was in a waiting pattern. Many Jedi were still reporting to the temple on Tython, some missing deep in Sith territory, others willingly chosing to remain abroad and refusing to answer to the high council. The high council was hesitant to assign him a master, and no master expressed any interest in taking him on as a padawan besides Odok. Sometimes, Voren suspected that Odok was purposely scaring other masters away so that he would be able to take Voren on as his apprentice when he was able. He seemed to be trying to rush Kerra into knighthood, and Voren didn't think that it was fair to Kerra.

Voren entered Odok's quarters, and had a flicker of disappointment in that Kerra wasn't there. If Odok picked up on this, he said nothing. He stood with his back turned away from the entrance, wearing a black cloak. A Zabrak, he was slightly taller than Voren. He began speaking as soon as he entered. "I'll cut the pleasantries short, Voren. As you're aware, I've had my hands tied in regard to any sort of plan to strike back at the Sith without violating the treaty, per the ruling made by the high council, in their infinite wisdom," he said.

"I know, master." Voren figured this would be another half-baked plot by Odok to exact petty revenge that wouldn't going anywhere. Voren hadn't been old enough to fight in the war, but since it had ended Odok had enlisted his aid on several missions, all of which Voren felt he was ready. But he wondered if that was even a consideration of Odok's.

"My intel has reported that the Sith have begun experiments in a laboratory on Korriban. Experiments to recreate the terrentateks," Odok let the word hang in the air for a moment. "I think it's clear that this time the imminent threat is enough for action. You aren't to speak of this to anyone except Kerra and myself. She's agreed to this mission, and I'm hoping that you will too. I could use your talents."

"Of course I will, master," was all Voren could reply. He knew Odok was involving his padawan, Kerra, in order to stuncuff Voren into coming along. The mission sounded sufficiently dangerous that only full knights and masters should be involved. He hoped that Odok misinterpreted his stifled anger as being toward the Sith.

Odok gestured to the table beside Voren. "Your robes and lightsaber for the mission. I recommend taking it to the practice room and becoming accustomed to the grip. We can't risk restarting the war, so we've got to look like Sith, in case we leave any witnesses behind."

Voren picked up the lightsaber. It was somewhat similar to his own, though definitely a Sith construct. It had a black handgrip around the base, extending a hand and a half up the cylinder, and the blade emitter was shrouded. The finish was a dark gunmetal. He thumbed the activator switch, and a blade of rubicund fire sprang forth into existence. Voren twisted his wrist, testing the balance. The grip felt more ergonomic than his own. During the war, Voren never had the opportunity to ritualistically build his own lightsaber on Ilum during the war, and his lack of a master prevented him from doing so now that the war was over.

"A perfectly authentic Sith lightsaber, recovered during the war. Become accustomed to it, and meet me here at 2200. You're dismissed." Voren shut off the blade and hooked it to his belt next to his Jedi lightsaber and silently left, and stalked off toward Odok's private lightsaber training room. Voren was beginning to chafe under Odok's tutelage, being his apprentice in all but name, with all of the detriment but none of the benefit that came with it. The past three years he had been forced to almost exclusively focus upon lightsaber technique at the expense of all other areas of being a Jedi: studying the code, diplomacy, and the Force itself.

Kerra was in training room when Voren entered, practicing against several training remotes with a ruby bladed lightsaber of her own. She had dyed her hair black, presumably for the mission. This wasn't uncommon for her to do, though Voren had never seen her dye it black. It framed her finely chiseled face nicely, and contrasted with her aquamarine eyes.

"I doubt the Sith are going to be shooting at us with blasters," Voren teased as he set to programming the parameters of a combat-trainer droid. Kerra made a face at him, and resumed her training with the remotes, alternating her grip on the lightsaber between a regular grip and a reverse grip. Voren watched for a moment, admiring her slender and lithe body.

He turned around and focused his attention on the combat-trainer droid. He unclipped the Sith lightsaber from his belt and thumbed it on. The droid immediately sprung to life, a yellow lightsaber of its own activating. The five remotes that were networked with it rose behind it. The droid adopted an opening stance, holding the blade above its head, while the droids slowly floated to surround Voren. The droid attacked in sync with all five remotes firing. Voren had vacated the space they were targeting before they fired, and parried the droid's blow.

During his brief apprenticeship, Master Tokare had instructed him in Niman, the sixth classic Jedi lightsaber form, known as the Diplomat's form since it required less training to achieve mastery, permitting a Jedi to focus upon diplomacy and other areas. It had many detractors, among them Master Odok. Voren didn't agree, though acquiesed to that viewpoint within Odok's presence. The form itself was a distillation of the other practical forms, and Voren felt that true mastery of it would make one a formidable duelist. Nonetheless, Odok had been training him in all the forms since the end of the war, something which Voren secretly believed had aided him in his study of Niman. He didn't wish to limit himself with a single philosophy with regard to combat, but at the same time tired of the burden Odok had placed upon him of learning all the forms.

Voren took the offensive against the droid with a staccato sequence of strikes, utterly disregarding the remotes and focusing upon the droid. He vaguely felt five separate stinging sensations, two on his back, one on his chest, and one each on an arm and a leg, but his focus was such that he was utterly detached from the pain. It was as though he saw someone else being struck by five bolts. His final thrust at the end of his sequence found purchase on the droid's chest. The red beam sunk less than a centimeter into its armor plating before both it, the droid, and the five remotes all seemed to shut off simultaneously.

Voren cast off his dark cloak and noticed that it had four burn holes in it. Someone had set the remotes to a higher intensity beam than was standard. He turned around to see that Kerra was watching him, stifling her laughter, and immediately knew who that someone was. Realizing he had an audience, with a quick gesture, he reactivated the droid and its remotes, along with the other two stored along the wall. Three yellow blades activated simultaneously, and fifteen remotes began randomly dispersing across the room, some moving slow, some moving fast, some moving sporadically. The three droids surrounded Voren, their programming allowing them to work together against a single target. Voren's Jedi lightsaber unclipped from his belt and floated into his off-hand. It activated, and green-white fire shot out behind Voren. He whirled into action, and several stun bolts struck the space he occupied just after he moved. Green blade parried yellow blade and red blade took the droid's head off, or rather, would have had it not shut off immediately after contacting the droid's neck.

The droid shut down, and the red blade quickly spurted back to life in time to parry a strike while Voren flourished the green blade, catching several stun blasts along its path and absorbing them. He parried another strike, and batting away the droid's blade and creating an opening, he was suddenly overcome with a sharp burning pain in his lower right side. The droid in front of him, as well as the one that had stabbed him, shut off and moved back to their respective slots in the wall and the remotes floated back to their droids. Voren dropped to his knees, clutching his side. The two lightsabers clattered to the ground next to him, deactivated. His youthful attempt to show off had backfired on him.

Kerra was at his side immediately, helping him up, but he realized that the burning feeling of embarrassment hurt more than the wound. He forced a grin as he slowly stood up, and checked his side. The robes were burnt in a small circle, and the skin beneath was slightly welted.

"Are you okay?" Kerra asked in her huskey, yet dulcet voice as she placed her hand to the wound and it felt as though she were applying salve to it.

"Thanks," he stammered. This response surprised Voren. Kerra was a few years his senior, and he was no stranger to embarrassing himself in front of her. He figured he would be used to it by now.