Learning To Fly

[Connor Harrison]

For a few moments, Joon stared at Stephanie. It would be easier to gouge her sparkling eyes out. But, then, where would be the fun in that. The thirst for understanding and knowledge was rampant in the clone, and she had to know more.

”If you tell anyone of this, or if you betray my trust in anyway, I will not stop until I have taken your life. Do you understand me.”

It wasn’t a threat. It was a promise.

Joon closed her eyes, trying to calm herself.

”Tell me. Tell me then how love can be a strength and not a weakness.”

[member="Stephanie Brown"]

 

[Eli-Mae Forrest]

"I understand." The young girl looked at the woman with new eyes, she was really open to learning wasnt she? Stephanie would step towards the woman and begin to speak "love can do many things, it can make us strong when we are weak, it can also bring us back from the edge. It can also give you more power than you can imagine, per the sith code peace is a lie there is only passion, so by that, the more passion you have the more power you also have." She said her silver tongue weaving the words

[member="Joon"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

Eyes narrowed, and Joon took a step back.

”I told you. I am not a Sith. I am beyond the Sith. I am something more. I am Jedi and Sith. A Force warrior with no loyalty to one person bar my Empire. I will do and have what I want, but I know my enemy. The Light and those who stand with the Jedi Knights. They took everything from me, and so I will take everything from them one piece at a time.”

She looked at Stephanie.

”Just remember who the Apprentice is here, little bird. Don’t try to soar before you can fly in the darkness just yet.”

She shifted her stance.

”So. Love can save you and bring you back from the edge? Have you experienced love before? If so, why are you here now, because it didn’t save you. Did it. Jedi.”

Her fingers flexed in and out of fists.

[member="Stephanie Brown"]

 

[Eli-Mae Forrest]

"I understand, and I have not experienced love before, I have come close and it is always my quest to find it. If you open your heart you will gain more power and strength because there will be two of us together in this galaxy instead of one of us alone, and I am no Jedi" She said gently trying to help the situation

[member="Joon"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

Her head lowered. There had been one….one who cared, and showed compassion after Ayra….but she had never been seen since a year or so ago. That hurt. All the good things seemed to leave bigger wounds for Joon to hide.

There was little else in the galaxy.

She looked up at Stephanie and saw the confidence still there.

She stepped forward and felt sick, but still went on. Reaching up, she placed her fingers on the girls lips and closed her eyes, and leaned in as her lips touched her fingers. She moved the digits down, and her lips met Stephanie’s.

It was awkward and devoid of anything – what even did love feel like – and her eyes opened, and she pulled back and shook her head, more confused than before.

”I can’t. It’s impossible…I…stop your games, Stephanie.”

She even called her by her name this time.

[member="Stephanie Brown"]

 

[Eli-Mae Forrest]

"Im not playing games, you must not try too hard, just when the moment is right make a move." She said knowing the kiss wasnt full of passion

[member="Joon"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

It was hard for Joon to feel she was being lectured to. She shook her head and pointed to the door.

”Out. We’ve got training to do. You can’t waste time here. Come on.”

She stayed there, finger pointed, and looking at the stubborn apprentice.

”Move!”

[member="Stephanie Brown"]

 

[Eli-Mae Forrest]

Stephanie would move slowly out the door and down the hall back to the training room

[member="Joon"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

Joon shook her head as she followed Stephanie. She didn't speak much when she was spoken down to. It was a trait she'd need to change; not slinking away from authority or uncertainty. All the while her eyes never left her frame as she tried to work her out.

Maybe now her concentration would be focused, or not.

”Swordplay. A lightsaber or not, the blade requires more skill than you showed me earlier. Take one from the wall.”

Joon already had taken hers on the way in and rested the thin point on the floor.

”The Force will guide your moves and enhance your overall awareness if you understand and let it.”

[member="Stephanie Brown"]

 

[Eli-Mae Forrest]

Stephanie would walk over and reluctantly take the sword off of the wall, it was a strange feeling having this sword in her hand. It was so different from her own Beskad which she had not seen since she arrived here, that worried her she had never gone without for so long since she had made it. But none-the-less she would take the sword and get a feel for the weight and balance of it. she would begin to warm up using her own techniques then attack with a barrage of full body attacks used to find the weak point

[member="Joon"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

Rolling on one foot to the other, Joon waited and watched. While Stephanie prepared herself, Joon's head was full of thoughts of the past and present. Memories had been brought up, feelings awoken, curiosity spiked.

The girl attacked and took her by surprise for a moment, and the clone was on the defensive, but moved fast and with purpose.

Using deflection and movement, she span and ducked and countered Stephanie's attacks as she expelled energy.

”Don't waste energy in attack! Let the Force help you see ahead - to enhance your body. You're wasting it on attacking.”

Coming up the side of the girl, Joon shoulder barged her sideways and swung out with her blade to slice her arm if it connected.

[member="Stephanie Brown"]

 

[Eli-Mae Forrest]

As Stephanie was shoulder checked she would bring her blade up and counter the woman's attempt to slice her arm. She would then use the force to find a weakness as well as what Joon would do if she did. She saw this and swung using the force to speed up the blade, if it connected it would hurt badly.

[member="Joon"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

Joon's blade clashed, and she growled in frustration.

Then, however, that word agin - love - and that feeling - care - was in her thoughts. What if it was true? What if she felt it for...

She had been distracted, and Stephanie swung the blade and it slashed Joon across her collarbone, inches from her neck.

Letting out a cry of pain, she gripped the open wound and crouched, glaring up with dark corrupt eyes at the apprentice. She launched the blade into the far wall and it stuck there, wobbling with the amount of force that had projected it there.

Working through the pain, Joon was angry - more than angry - at herself for letting such a mistake happen, and a near fatal one.

”Well done,” she hissed.

The girl had done what Joon was taught; exploiting a weakness and using the Force as a distraction.

Blood seeped through her fingers and she winced, starting to use the Force to clot her blood as she muttered to herself, kneeling on the ground.

[member="Stephanie Brown"]

 

[Eli-Mae Forrest]

Stephanie felt accomplished, she would head over to the wall and pluck her masters sword out of the wall and place it back in its spot. She would then come over to her master and say "When will I get my beskad back?" She asked trying not to show weakness or compassion for fear of being rejected.

[member="Joon"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

Standing, Joon held her hand to her neck and watched Stephanie.

”You have it back when you're ready for it, and when I say so. I'm going to my room. That's enough for today.”

Joon turned and left the training room, and then smiled to herself as she walked through the wings to the second floor of the Bastion, with her room directly above Stephanie's near enough.

She entered her quarters and pulled apart her vest, tossing it down and stood before a large window, topless with blood streaking down her like a warrior. She breathed and looked out over Ziost, and the construction going on to their Empire's base of operations.

A bowl of fruit rested on a table beside the window, and she fingered a few figs and popped them in her mouth.

A lot had happened today in a short space of time. Memories. Emotions. Anger. Pain. Confusion. All down to the new apprentice.

Her bathroom, small and cozy, would be the best place to run hot water and clean and dress her gash...after she had taken in the view and composed herself.

[member="Stephanie Brown"]

 

[Eli-Mae Forrest]

Stephanie wasn't happy with that answer, who was she to say when Steph got the blade she spent her hard earned money and so much blood sweat and tears on. She would have her sword back one way or another, she would slink back to her room and try to think of a plan, she knew now that she could best her in sword combat. That could be an advantage but also Joon could best her in the force.

[member="Joon"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

Joon crushed the fruit in her hand and scowled.

”Come to my quarters at once. Girl.”

She spoke aloud, but conveyed it to the aura of the girl below her in her smaller, far less elegant cell. Joon didn’t move as she looked out across Ziost, topless or not, it didn’t matter. It was flesh – that was all. Clothes were just a way of fitting in.

The girl needed to know her place.

[member="Stephanie Brown"]

 

[Eli-Mae Forrest]

Stephanie would hear her master and she would immediately head up to her master's far more elegant room. All the way she would not think at all, she needed to keep her mind calm. If she was to be punished she would take it like a winner, she would knock on the door and grin when she was summoned to enter she would enter still grinning

[member="Joon"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

That confidence was still there. Confidence had a way of blossoming two ways. Into something good, or something bad. Right now, Stephanie was on the edge of bad.

”Wipe that grin off your face,” she hissed.

Joon turned to face Stephanie full on and walked forward a few steps.

”You need to learn your place. You need to learn respect. I brought you here when I could have killed you, and you walk around grinning like you're eclipsing me?”

She bore her teeth in a snarl.

”Does something amuse you, little girl?”

[member="Stephanie Brown"]

 

[Eli-Mae Forrest]

Stephanie would look at her master, she had taken her in and made her what she was. She at least owed her the respect to stop smiling, she would look up at her master very respectfully, she thought on her actions and found herself bowing on one knee before her master. Apologetically she would look up from one knee ready for punishment

[member="Joon"]