I Am The Master (Spencer)

[Ashin Varanin]

NABOO
Lake Country
Cardé Family Estate

Ashin and Spencer trained together in a huge field, far away from anything. Her birth mother had, of course, been aloof but circumspect, ignoring both of them.

As always.

"So you escaped Meric Nadun after fighting him as something like an equal. You've learned from Velok, Moridin, Sirella, Phylis, Kamon, and me. You've trained harder and acquired more knowledge than any Knight I've ever seen.

"You've seen the truth about your family and walked the future with me. You're functionally immune to pheromones and Sith Poison; you know the right countermoves to almost anything. You've become as powerful as some Masters.

"Well, honey, now it's time to grow a little more. Oh, we've done combat training before, but never like this. For the next month, it's going to be eight hours a day, pure physical combat. I've called in assorted combat trainers. We'll start and end with me.

"I've made sure you have the basics of Shii-Cho. You can defend yourself, to some extent. By the end of this month, you'll be something like a duellist. We both saw the same vision. We're running out of time.

"Drill with me."

Ashin moved through Shii-Cho velocities, preset series of memorized moves. Mastery of velocities allowed experimentation with timing, as with broken rhythm, and let the student begin to understand how momentum and kinetic energy travelled through the body. She had already taught Spencer the basic velocities of her preferred Form; now it was a matter of spending hours, and hours, honing it into perfection. They would do velocities together, in synchronicity.

"Who else," she said as she stepped and lunged and turned, "do you want to train you?"

 

[Allyson Locke]

Spencer followed Ashin’s movements; she was such a klutz when they had first started with the lightsaber. Spencer almost lost an eye or two maybe a couple of limbs as well. The fluid movements of the Shii-Cho Form were starting to actually come together the longer she mimicked Ashin’s movements. The girl was a quick learner and as she finished her lunge forward she drew it across the center of an invisible enemy.

A smile crossed her face despite the seriousness of the conversation and her training. The praise was welcomed and made her feel good about what she was doing. The minor confidence boost though was dashed after the next comment from Ashin. Running out of time, she knew it and she felt it just like Ashin did. They knew their vision would come to pass soon and Spencer needed to be prepared.

Unlike her previous attempts with Shii-Cho, Spencer stepped forwards with a bit more authority. There was a change in her and the change was gradual. Finishing a lunge strike, she looked towards Ashin.

“I have the force power behind me; I just need something to back up when I’m well up close and personal. I was able to keep Meric at bay, but how many times can I really do that?”

She paused for a moment and the stopped moving with her blade at her side.

“Time is running out, you feel it too?”

 

[Ashin Varanin]

"I feel it. Oh yes, I feel it. The less I use my full power, the more sensitive I seem to get."

Ashin moved through the patterns of the Shii-Cho velocity. In all honesty, it wasn't a classic velocity; few of those had survived the Great Darkness. This velocity was of her own making. It incorporated all manner of broken rhythm and refinements on the simplicity of Shii-Cho.

She was one of the few great masters of Shii-Cho. Perhaps the greatest, at almost age thirty. And she had so, so much farther to go.

Without ceremony, she spent a long time finishing the velocity, then going through it again. She slowed to a stop. "Keep going," she said, leaning against a tree. "Your head's rising and falling. Level, no matter how wide or narrow your stance. Focus on keeping your head level to conserve vertical momentum. Except in the move where you rise and come down to break the leg -- that part is special, right? Everywhere else, all the rest of the time, you're direct action, direct flow of energy.

"And while you do that...you said something about visiting your mother. What do you plan? What will you say?"

 

[Allyson Locke]

Spencer resumed the velocity as she focused making the necessary adjustments that Ashin ordered her. Taking a deep breath she monitored her motions, keeping them grounded like the form requested. Every moment was sharp and meant to hold ground as she moved forward. The blade tipped and swung upwards cutting through the invisible opponent. Each thrust and slash had a new sense of authority behind it. As Ashin spoke Spencer did her best to keep her focus, but she started to think about her talk with her mother that was coming up soon.

“Honestly I did it based on a whim. I haven’t seen her in some time and I feel I find my balance again when I see her. A humbling reminder of where I came from.”

Thrusting forward Spencer finished the velocity and started again.

“Personally I want to know why she allowed my father to impregnate her when he has other things on his mind. I can’t ask him these questions, doesn’t help he doesn’t want to see me. The way he acted at the wedding and then trying to fix everything at the end.”

As she started to get upset, the velocity started to move faster, her thrusts still strong, but had a bit more emotion behind them. Her body twisted as she cut through the air.

“I’m tired of people telling me I don’t belong somewhere.”

 

[Ashin Varanin]

Ashin sat down and rested her back against the tree. "There has been rather a lot of that lately," she said. She scrutinized the younger woman's technique, speaking offhand. "Of course, you could have it all back if you gave me up. But yes. First the Jedi, then the Echani, now perhaps the Witches, maybe the Sith not too far in the future. I think if one more person tells you that you aren't allowed to have a home, I'm going to flip a table. And by flip a table, I mean punish. And by punish, I mean...tear it down. All of it."

She rose to her feet in one convulsive, nervous movement. Her lightsabre ignited again, and she fell into the velocities alongside Spencer.

"How dare they say the law is the law. How dare they. It's derivative nonsense based on derivative nonsense -- we both know the Jedi Code is not the original, or the Sith code either. Every far-flung clan rewrote and amended the Book of the Law -- I had friends from Dathomir as a girl. Everything changed according to the time, the clan, the continent. There are a hundred versions of the Book of the Law, and all of them are different, sometimes quite substantially." She swung her blade viciously through the velocity. "That's about as firm and unyielding as your father's brain. Or his ethics."

 

[Allyson Locke]

Spencer paused for a moment as she had to refocus her mind, Ashin’s emotions flared for a moment. The Empath could handle her lover’s emotions fine, but when it surfaced quickly she was thrown off. Falling back into step with Ashin she listened to what the woman had to say and her own surge of emotions flared as she heard the alternative to get all of this back. Her head snapped and she fell out of rhythm.

“Give up the one person who’s been there through everything to get back a father who’s busy with his own life, a clan that can’t adapt to the changing world, an Order that didn’t want me, and an Empire who I was only there for one person and I had to hide from. Totally would all that over you.”

Shaking her head she paused and found the rhythm again. Seemed Ashin didn’t like her father much more now that she did before. At times she wondered if it was a good idea for Kamon to come into her life, she had survived without him for 18 years, what would change now that he was there. She should be used to not having him around, but it still hurt.

“I’m not going to worry about Kamon anymore. He has what he wants; a wife and then he’ll have kids and be there for them. He’ll forget about Aston and I – we survived without him before and we’ll do it again.”

 

[Ashin Varanin]

"You call him Kamon now. I can't be anything but impressed. You are...so much more than you were on that starliner. You were a seed, and now you're, well-" She glanced at the tree. "Now you're shelter to me. Just as much as this place.

"I'll tell you again, though, just so I know you're sure. Just to make me feel better. You could leave me, and the Order would take you back. The Echani would take you back. The Witches would take you back. You would have three homes; instead, you have none, and that's because of me. I don't feel guilty for that; that's your choice to make. I just want you to be aware that you haven't fully burned your bridges. You deserve to know your options."

She left the velocity again and, once more, leaned against the tree. "Your motions are good, but you need your perception - the Force, the corner of your eye, both or either -- to precede your turns, or else you're just rotating into someone's attack."

 

[Allyson Locke]

“He doesn't deserve me calling him father; my brother can call him whatever he wants…that’s his prerogative.”

Spencer closed her eyes for a minute expanding her awareness with her aura. She had to do so, even though there was no one around her she had to feel her surroundings. If she didn’t she knew she would be finished if someone came from her side and the velocities would mean nothing. A breeze flowed through the grassy hill they trained on and she felt it around her. Stepping her eyes opened, she turned her body striking another invisible foe at her side. The blade twisted coming upwards slicing the foe through the leg and up. She finished the velocity and then stood admiring her lover as the woman returned to the shade under the tree.

“I know I didn’t burn the bridges, but they have. They do not understand change and how it would help them. If you don’t change and adapt to time then time will skip you. I’ve changed and I do my best to remain fluid with the force.”

Clipping her saber to her side after she deactivated it, her hands moved to the back of her head as she took in a deep breath. The air on Naboo was unlike anything she had ever experienced. It reminded her of her childhood, but cleaner. The planet was easy to fall in love with. Taking a breather she walked over to Ashin and stood before the woman.

“It’s how when you showed me to bend fate, the music it continues no matter what I do or what anyone else does. The music changes harmony to whoever is listening, but for my home. Ashin, I’ve come to learn that my home is where ever you are. I know you like to remind me, but I enjoy reminding you that you are my home.”

 

[Ashin Varanin]

Ashin wriggled against the tree, using the bark to scratch between her shoulderblades.

"You'll always have me, no question about that. Place is...less relevant.

"I've been thinking, though, about the future we saw. We might have been planning a campaign, but we might also have been...well, running. The more I think about it, the more I feel we need to be ready for anything. The Kaiburr Crystal is still safe, and the Temple of Pomojema on Mimban is still hidden, so we have a backup plan -- but the Temple of Pomojema will never be our home. Not unless a starfleet pushes us there, and even then, no fleet could survive at Mimban against a Force Storm -- not after I amplified it with the Kaiburr.

"What we need is, well, a place like this. A peaceful place, a sanctum. We may just need to spend more time on Naboo. Maybe get to know my birth mother and her family, beyond merely their polite toleration. We could find you a place here."

 

[Allyson Locke]

Spencer sat down before Ashin as she remembered the future that they had seen. It became a warning and that warning was something that Spencer continuously thought about. Her eyes becoming more alert along with the Force, searching for whomever decided to cut her off from the happiness she had found. Nervous fingers found their way to the necklace she was given when they first entered the Empire, it was more than just protection now a days. The hand fell and she nodded remembering the power of the Kaiburr Crystal.

“Ashin, I would really like to stay here as long as we can. If we can establish ourselves here…I’d really like it.”

The girl laid back and looked up at the sky, this planet was amazing. The bright colors and the life that she could feel from the planet, everything was perfect. Spencer felt at peace here and she sighed with a smile.

“I want this to be my home…with you of course.”

 

[Ashin Varanin]

"I've always loved Naboo. Of all the places my deadbeat birth mother could have been from, I'm glad it was this world." Ashin scootched away from the tree and lay down beside Spencer, for a breather from their training.

"I'm not sure I'm comfortable with the idea of having a home. It's been taken from me, every time, or I've had to sacrifice it. But now, maybe, I've sacrificed enough, and maybe I'm strong enough not to lose it. You and me could build a house here someday, far away from the Empire. I could be one of those Emperors that communicates entirely through holocomm. Nobody would have to know. I've delegated enough..."

She laced her fingers behind her head.

"I'm already doing that, the holocomm thing -- that's the only way I can afford to be here. And everyone thinks I'm somewhere in the Empire.

"I'm getting tired, Spencer. We're so close to the Republic, so, so close...but I'm tired."

 

[Allyson Locke]

Spencer propped herself up on her side as she looked at Ashin. She could feel it; the woman stretched herself far and wide. Spencer knew this better than anyone; she was the closet to the Empress. Reaching out with her other hand, she ran the back of her fingers against the woman’s face. There was so much battle that she had seen, Spencer had only witnessed a few. Sitting up, she moved her body enough and pulled Ashin into her lap. Looking down at the woman’s face she smiled and played with her hair gently.

“We are close, but for now just rest and focus on what’s around us. The Empress needs a break from time to time. It’s why I’m here. I’m a bit stronger now I can help and take on some of the burden.”

Her eyes leaving Ashin as she looked out towards the hills and the land that belonged to Ashin’s birth mother. It was interesting how you can always learn something new about someone. Thinking of the woman, made her think of her own mother. She had grown up on Dathomir which as much as it felt like home – it wasn’t like Naboo. Sighing softly, Spencer leaned down and kissed Ashin’s forehead softly.

“Either way, when you have someone fighting for the same home as you, it’s that much stronger. We’ve both lost homes, but I will gladly fight for a home with you.”

 

[Ashin Varanin]

Ashin made no response; the Empress of a quarter of the galaxy snored gently.

When she awoke, after perhaps ten minutes of resting in Spencer's lap, her head was clear.

"I had a dream," she said, eyes flashing. "I dreamed about a throne. Your throne. Not the Obsidian Throne on Dromund Kaas, but another. As if the moment was strong enough to throw my mind back to now, flow-walking. We were so tired and so happy. And I think we were safe."

 

[Allyson Locke]

Spencer chuckled softly as she noticed Ashin had fallen asleep. A hand continued to run through the woman’s hair, while Spencer closed her eyes also. Naboo was so peaceful and serene it was hard to imagine a war was at their feet. This moment of peace was more precious than anything. Ashin woke up and Spencer hung her head slightly as she slept quietly.

“Huh?”

Hazel eyes fluttered open as she looked down into Ashin’s abnormal piercing blues. There was something different and it took a moment for Ashin’s dream to sink in.

“A throne? My throne? I’m not royalty Ashin, I mean if you want to think the daughter of a Clan mother as royalty or something. I’m assuming you couldn’t make out where the throne was…it’s a very interesting dream compared to where we found ourselves when we flow-walked…”

A smile crossed her face as she took her gaze off of Ashin. Safety would mean it might have happened after their vision. Sighing with relief she looked back down.

“Hopefully if your dream is a vision then…I hope it happens after our previous vision…or maybe I did something when we bent fate”

 

[Ashin Varanin]

"I never thought of that, honey. That's the thing with Jukre tuning -- you never entirely know what's going to happen, you're just...massaging fate towards harmony. Clipping the sharps and the flats, clearing out the discord in one way or another. It's an imperfect metaphor, but..."

She sat up a bit, and rolled over to prop herself up and look Spencer in the face.

"...but I'm tired of thinking about every possible future. Let's take a moment in the present. No, not for that -- not until we've put in a few more hours' training." She stood and helped Spencer up. "Come on. Avicus DuSang wants the privilege of training you, and we need to get your Shii-Cho in shape."

 

[Allyson Locke]

Spencer stood up and shook her arms out. She frowned slightly as she missed Ashin's touch, they had both been busy especially with the relation of the vision. The man's name made Spencer shiver. She had heard rumors, but she knew she should welcome the training.

"Alright I think I'm starting to get the hang of it... Still I prefer to use my strength which is the force... "

Spencer brought up her saber and held it vertical in front of her. Picking up where she left off in the velocity, her fingers tighten pressing into the hilt.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

"Oh, we'll never make you a master duellist. People would complain that you're just too good at everything. Honestly, you're throwing around master-level energy manipulation and emotional effects, binding shades, battle meditating, stopping spears with Force bubbles -- you have the skillset of a Master already, and teaching you any more techniques would just overload you and prevent you from gaining real mastery of the techniques you already have. That's the downside to knowing everything. But we can absolutely-"

She grimaced.

"You know what? I'm tired of talking like an Empress. I want to talk like a person, and I fell out of the habit. The stuff you know will serve you well, forever, but now's the time to focus on really solidifying the things you know.

"It's time for your Master trials. You're going to need to do four things for me, in any order you choose, in any time frame you choose.

"@[member="Kiyala Demont"] is a Witch of Dathomir and a member of our Empire. But she also serves Reyven Samoth and the Lost Tribe, almost certainly while spying on them for her own training. Rather than treat her as a traitor, I want you to seek her out and solidify her allegiance to the Empire. I want you to find out everything she knows about the Witches and the Lost Tribe. Everything. Either by gaining her full confidence, or draining knowledge from her mind, or by using leverage -- I leave the method entirely up to you.

"@[member="Feena"], a member of the Jedi Council, is marrying a man who's known to my contacts in Hutt Space. I believe @[member="Keter"] may be a crime lord. I need you to find proof of this somehow. I won't tell you what to do with that proof, but I do need you to do something with it, and I'll be watching closely to see what you do.

"@[member="Rach Kol-Rekali"] is a Master, an assassin, and the husband of the current Mandalore. Bring me proof of his defeat.

"And then, of course, you'll have to fight me. That's necessary. Unavoidable, even."

 

[Allyson Locke]

Spencer stopped the velocities as she tilted her head towards Ashin. The woman was tired and when she rambled off the Empath's skill set, Spencer blinked. She had not realized she had learned so much in this amount of time. The saber deactivated as she needed to focus on what Ashin - no her Master was asking of her. Their relationship was an odd one and Spencer at time had trouble distinguishing the different aspects of Ashin in her life. Though now, with this tone she knew it was her Master speaking to her, not her lover, friend or Empress. It was the woman who taught her to survive.

"Each of these is going to take time, but why these special tasks may I ask. I can understanding proving myself in battle against a Master...but the others?"

All of the tasks sat alright inside of her. She was confident in her abilities to fight and to gather information. It was what she had done all her life. It was the last task that seemed to be unsettling, the fight against the one person that could read her like a book. Spencer shifted her feet for a moment as she thought of a way to discuss the last task.

"Why do I have to fight you?"

Well there goes any thought of beating around the bush gone. Straight to the point - that was Spencer.

 

[Ashin Varanin]

"Don't get caught up in thinking like our friends in the Empire, lover. Combat skill is not the mark of a Master. The mark of a Master is balancing that skill with the wisdom, cunning and judgment to win fights before they happen, to plan fights, to manipulate events without violence, to put everything in a proper place. The tasks I've put to you are tests of judgment, planning and insight. You can be master of a room; you're strong enough for that. I want to make you master of the galaxy. Everything I've built -- someday, you'll rule it. And when you do, I want to know, for myself, that you can stand up against anything and anyone, and I'm the toughest combatant I know. I need to know your skill for myself."