Proving Myself Worthy of an Apprentice

[Paige Argous]

@[member="Ronnie Vexis"] @Drayus Siodmak

​

"Bring me the lightsaber of a Jedi Padawan. Intact.... bonus points if you come back with a head." Paega's master's instructions could not have possibly have been more clear. It was a task to prove that she was worthy to be trained as a Sith Apprentice. Paega was determined to accomplish the task, because for a Sith, failure never was an option.

The blonde Sith Apprentice's hands grasp on the vibroblade that her master had given her tightened as the transport she was onboard landed at the station. So this was the Galactic City. The gleaming capital city and planet of the mighty Republic. The air here was much more polluted than back home in Korriban. Still, the urban activity of people busily walking around everywhere as well as ships and speeders flying by everywhere was rather fascinating. Paega shook her head, remembering that she couldn't afford to get distracted by anything. She had a mission to accomplish, and her task was anything but pleasant.

As Paega walked down the streets of the city, she wondered how in the world she would be able to find a Jedi Padawan anywhere. While she was thinking this, a pair of hands suddenly snatched her out of the street and dragged her into a dark alley nearby. More annoyed then scared, she turned to face whom had dragged her into the dark alley. The owner of the pair of hands turned out to be a Rodian pirate, who was threateningly pointing his vibroblade at her. The next moment, Paega was walking back out onto the streets, now with a pair of vibrobaldes on her, leaving behind an unconscious Rodian pirate behind.

Realizing that she would have to be a bit more anonymous, Paega pulled up the hood of her robe so that it now covered most of her blonde hair and face, leaving only her nose and mouth visible. She pocketed her vibroblades carefully in her pockets, and began her hunt for a Jedi Padawan.

 

[Marcus Itera]

It was night time. Dark, cool, and reverberating with life as dozens of speeders zoomed overhead and multitudes of pedestrians populated the congested streets. The brown-clad Padawan sucked in a deep intake of fresh, moist air, a thin smile plastered to his face. It felt good to relax every once in a while, which was what the 17 year old was doing. Just taking it easy and making his rounds near the Temple district. A light breeze ruffled his hair as the tall figure made its way down the street, cobalt eyes gleaming with interest as he gazed through shop windows. Ronnie's arms swayed lightly with his motion, giving the young man an elegant demeanor.

With his legs growing weary, he took the opportunity to snag a sandwich from a nearby vendor before plopping down on a bench to enjoy his meal. He took a few bites, savoring the taste of the well-made sandwich with its thin strips of nerf steak coupled with a helping of vegetables and sauces. However, his eyes soon found themselves traveling down to his legs when he barely caught a piece of steak that dropped from the bread. Icy blue eyes lingered for a moment, shifted to fall upon the metallic hilt resting on his belt. Another smile broke across his face as he cherished the memory of creating his saber with Master Leyla, its gleaming lime-green blade the very definition of serenity and peace. He gave the hilt a loving pat and continued his joyous consumption of food.

@[member="Paega Anginous"]

 

[Paige Argous]

@[member="Ronnie Vexis"]

She looked everywhere. In the street that she was in, at least. And there were no signs of Jedi whatsoever. Then a better idea of tracking down a Jedi reached her mind. After getting directions from the local citizens, Paega made her way towards the Jedi Temple district. It was an obviousely a better choice, as it would be more likely that Jedi would be hang around their home base. Although it did increase Paega's chance of getting caught or noticed by them, this would give her a much better opportunity to catch a Jedi and to accomplish her task more easily.

Her opportunity presented itself about ten minutes into her search in the Temple district. A young man, seemingly around Paega's own age, was sitting on a bench eating a rather delicious looking sandwich. If that had been all there was to the man, Paega wouldn't have cared. But for one heartbeat moment, something flashed on the young man's belt. Paega had enough training in the Korriban Academy to immiediately tell that the silver flashing could've only meant one thing: it was a hilt of a lightsaber, meaning that the young man was a Jedi. She grinned at herself, unable to believe her luck.

As she approached the bench though, the blonde Sith realized that her task wasn't going to be easy. There were law enforcement here about, not to mention the fact that it was the Jedi who had a lightsaber, while she was only armed with a pair of vibroblades. Vibroblades were dangerou weapons, but now Paega doubted that it could be very effective against a lightsaber. Paege then decided to go far a slightly different approach. She had to make sure that she found herself alone with the Jedi Apprentice, and that she had a better chance of taking the Jedi's lightsaber.

Paega slowly removed her hood, exposing her face and blonde hair. After going over her plan one last time, she made her way towards the Jedi Apprentice, putting on a grin on her face as she did so. "Hello there! Where did you get that sandwich? That looks so delicious, and I'm starving right now!" she told the Jedi Apprentice, walking over and suddenly sitting down next to the young man. There would be almost nothing that could give away Paega's identity as Sith, not to mention her weapons were stored deep inside her clothes. She tried her best to look friendy to the guy. As crazy as it was, the first part of her plan would involve some flirting. It may have been the last thing she wanted to do with the Jedi, but she had no choice. Again, she was determined to show her master that she was worthy and could easily complete assigned tasks.

 

[Marcus Itera]

Almost less than half of the sandwich remained, the rest of it resting in the stomach of a satisfied young Jedi Padawan. He held the surviving part of the tasty meal near his mouth, halting midway to focus on something. Cobalt irises twinkled as a blonde haired girl strode over, a smile on her face as she quickened her pace to hurry up and reach her destination. Apparently Ronnie was her destination, given her recent outburst and the taking of residence right beside him. Ronnie swallowed the lump in his throat, cautiously averting his eyes downwards in hope of concealing the spreading shade of pink that hued his cheeks. She was quite possibly the prettiest girl he'd ever laid eyes upon, so he straightened his posture slightly and kept his eyes low, praying that the dim lighting would hide his cheeks.

Right, she asked about the sandwich. "O-over there." His voice was barely a whisper, quickly emphasized by the tilting of his head in the vendor's direction. However, his spoken words gave him enough confidence to finally raise his gaze to meet hers. Ronnie could feel his heartbeat pounding in his ears, the organ pumping blood through his veins. He blinked, glancing down and noticed his right hand had dropped calmly to rest beside his saber. The young man hastily rose his gaze once again to cover up his recent discovery of his cautiousness. He was naturally cautious around everyone, be it friend or foe, it was the main reason he kept to himself. He found it rather had that such a gorgeous girl would come to cause him harm, but left his hand next to the saber.

He swallowed once again, pushing the thoughts of her appearance out of his mind. It wasn't the Jedi way to be distracted by such things, love and other strong emotions were the undoing of Jedi. As such, he steeled his mentality against her for the time being, a rather crude barricade, though. But there was something odd about her, just the way she moved and acted seemed off. But the Jedi Padawan mentally shrugged and put the thought aside as he took another bite of his sandwich, turning himself forward to continue his meal before heading back to the Temple for some much needed sleep. He was exhausted, he'd been learning advanced techniques of Shii-Cho, the basic combat art taught to Jedi.

Still, he couldn't help but sink back into thinking about the girl next to him.

@[member="Paega Anginous"]

 

[Paige Argous]

@[member="Ronnie Vexis"]

The thing was that whenever Paega started conversations with most men, they either tended to rather creepily stare at her intently, or to avert looking at her directly. This particular Jedi Apprentice had gone with the latter action. "Darn it, I don't think I have any credits on me...." she exclaimed, pretending to sound very frustrated. While she said this, Paega took advantage of the moment by using to glance at the guy's lightsaber, noting that despite him being focused largely on her, the Jedi seemed to have taken the caution by having one of his hands right next to his lightsaber.

Paega nodded thankfully as the young man pointed her in the direction of the vendor. The blonde girl then pretended to sigh heavily as she pretended to check all her pockets, making sure carefully while she didn't let the Jedi see any of her hidden vibroblades, that the guy would easily get the impression that she didn't have any money on her at the moment.

The female apprentice then went on with the next phase of her plan. She pretended to have just noticed the silver gleam of the lightsaber in his belt. "Hey, I hate to ask you this, but you seem to have some credits on you, and I think I left my wallet at home. I'm really starving right now... would you mind giving me some money to pay for a sandwich? I can always find ways to... pay you back." she commented almost casually while at the same time looking hungry, her bright green eyes intently staring at the young Jedi.

 

[Marcus Itera]

That lump in his throat burned, the butterflies in his stomach churned. His face was already probably a bright pink hue, no doubt obvious to the naked eye even in the dim lighting. His palms were getting sweaty, his slim fingers trembling slightly as he inched his hand towards his saber. Soft flesh met phrik alloy as he gripped the hilt of it, hoping to comfort himself and ease his nervousness. Ronnie's other hand held the remaining piece of the sandwich, still almost intact besides several bite marks from it. The young Jedi Padawan heaved a sigh and raised his gaze to meet hers, profoundly pushing his occupied hand towards her.

"Here, you can have this. You probably need it more than me." He attempted a small grin, flashing his finely set teeth. "I don't have any money on me either, sorry."

@[member="Paega Anginous"]

 

[Paige Argous]

@[member="Ronnie Vexis"]

Paega gave the Jedi a broad girlish grin. "Thank you so much! That's very nice of you." she purred, gladly accepting the offered sandwich. The blonde apprentice then proceeded to devour the sandwich. It really didn't take too much effort to hungrily eat the rest of the sandwich on her part, as she was genuinely hungry. The sandwich tasted pretty good, and Paega almost felt bad that she would have to do what she had to do on him. Still, Paega was determined to see to it that she successfully completed the task, and that would involve hurting this young man.

After she gulped down what remained of the sandwich, Paega suddenly grabbed the Jedi Apprentice's unoccupied hand that had previousely held the sandwich, and pullinghim to his feet. "That was really delicious! Here, let me do something in exchange for you letting me have your sandwich." she said, and started leading him by the hand to a nearby unoccupied dark alley. "My name is Paega, by the way." she informed him, her bright green eyes glinting in the fading sunlight in what could've been interpreted as childish excitement, before leading him into the shadow-filled alley.

 

[Marcus Itera]

The smile faded into nervousness as her soft fingers made contact with his as she took the sandwich from him. His gaze shot down once again, a sigh passing his lips as he strained to get rid of the pink on his cheeks. With nothing else to occupy his empty hand, he curled in into a ball, allowing it to rest upon his lap while his other hand clutched the hilt of the saber to aid in easing the butterflies swirling around in his gut. Ronnie soon found himself rising once again to settle his cobalt eyes on the slender figure of the the girl named Paega.

"Y-you're welcome." He paused. "My name's Ronnie."

The words barely sputtered out of his mouth before he found himself yanked up onto his feet, his hand in Paega's. She was stronger than she look as she tugged the Jedi Padawan across the courtyard, nearing an alleyway that seemed too suspicious than average. Still, he kept his other hand hanging low near his saber as he matched her speed to make it to the dark corridor. He didn't really enjoy that fact of repayment, it wasn't the way Jedi acted, but she had already yanked him up with no room for complaint.

"What do you mean?"

@Paega Anginous

 

[Paige Argous]

@[member="Ronnie Vexis"]

"I guess you'll just have to find out..." said Paega in almost a hushed whisper, before leading the Jedi Apprentice, named Ronnie according to the apprentice himself, further into the dark alley.

The male apprentice probably would not simply expect what would come next. In the darkness, Paega had her left hand grab a vibroblade from inside her pocket, while her right hand held onto Ronnie's hands. The alley that they were in was far away enough from the street so that it was almost impossible for any pedestrians walking out in the streets to notice she and the apprentice covered by the shadow in the alley.

The blonde girl gave the boy one last smile, before suddenly she pulled back her right hand that had been holding hands with the Jedi Apprentice. Suddenly, with that same hand, Paega balled it into a fist then sent a furious punch towards the apprentice's guts. "Jedi scum..." she murmured softly, her green eyes now glinting almost maliciously as she gazed at the Jedi's reaction to her rather unexpected gut-punch.

 

[Marcus Itera]

Ronnie still trailed the girl into the alleyway, the suspicion of the act tucked into the front of his mind. However, he had not considered the intention to be ill, but rather something else. Something a little...flirtatious. Ronnie gave his head a little shake, trying to twirl those improper thoughts from his mind as he blushed even harder upon reaching the alleyway. To his surprise, she still held his hand in hers, giving off the appearance of a couple sneaking off to have youthful fun in an isolated space. Ronnie swallowed, praying his Jedi indoctrination would kick in even harder if this girl tried anything like that. He hoped he had the willpower to restrain himself.

And lo, he needed not that form of willpower.

Her soft voice rang in his ears, clashing against the dark look she gave him as she dropped her hand from his. Her hand only retracted back to swing at his gut with full momentum behind it. Cobalt eyes widened as her fist made contact with his abdomen, releasing air as the wind was knocked out of him. Ronnie's hands went to his gut and the saber, stumbling backwards against the wall.

"What the-" His words were laced with the pain of a sucker punch.

Weakness was not a word people used when describing Ronnie. Rather the opposite: strong. He was quite possibly the Order's best bladesman in the Padawan ranks, flaunting his easy mastery of Shii-Cho and showing a natural calling for Soresu. He was almost as good with sabers as he was with martial skills. Even the Masters surprised him with words of praise and encouragement when he quickly mastered Teras Kasi. And as with any good martial fighter, he recovered from the blow fairly quickly and stabilized himself.

"What are you doing?!"

@Paega Anginous

 

[Paige Argous]

@[member="Ronnie Vexis"]

This Jedi Apprentice was a rather strong one, Paega had to admit. There were a few people in the Galaxy that Paega knew or even heard of that could recover so quickly from a sucker punch, especially an unexpected one.

Instead of responding to the Jedi's question, Paega literally just lept into action. She had to be carefully, she knew that. She was only armed with a pair of vibroblades, while her opponent had a lightsaber. This obviousely gave her opponent a much greater advantage, but that didn't matter. Paega would fight until that weapon was hers, or she would die trying. Failure remained as not an option.

Paega lept into the air, before coming down with a kick toward's the Jedi Apprentice's face. She would not pause to see what effect the kick had on the Jedi, but rather jumped from side to side in a combat stance, making rapid punches towards the young Jedi's head.

 

[Marcus Itera]

A split second was all the Padawan needed to draw his saber from his belt, thumbing the activation stud to liven the scenery with a lime-green glow. His blue eyes clashed with the hue emitting from the blade, surprise and shock rolling through the icy blue irises as he glared at the girl before him. Ronnie's glare widened into surprise as Paega leapt into the air, her right foot swinging out in an arc to catch him across the face. It was an arced attack, easily predictable in its momentum, giving the Padawan an opening to drop down, keeping his saber low as well as to not harm her.

"Stop! I don't want to hurt you!" He pleaded, his breath running ragged already.

His words seemed to have no effect as she kept up her relentless pursuit of violence by jabbing repeatedly at his head. The Padawan dropped his thumb a fraction, tuning the saber's intensity down by a large margin, bringing the effectiveness of it down to a training saber's stun. With knowledge that he wouldn't hurt her too bad, he swung out in a standard Shii-Cho down and up fake move, slashing it across at the last moment to catch her across her forearms with a forest-green blade that would produce more than a big bruise.

@Paega Anginous

 

[Paige Argous]

(I apologize for the late reply!)

@[member="Ronnie Vexis"]

He didn't want to hurt her. How cute, Paega thought. She might've actually believed the Jedi Apprentice's words, but her train of thoughts were rather cut short when the Jedi Apprentice's lime lightsaber almost amputated her arms off. It would've done exactly just that if it hadn't been for the fact that the Jedi's saber intensity by a large margin. In middle of one of her dozen of furious punches, the blade made its appearence. While she had undergone heavy physcial training, and had learned to effectively dodge both lightsaber attacks and blaster fire alike, this particular blade attack caught her very off-guard. The best she could do was shift her position by bending her knees, the Jedi's blade missing her arm but managing to slightly hit her shoulder instead.

Being even slightly hit however, did not prevent Paega from immiediately fall down on her knees and gasping in pain, grasping an angry bruise that now marked the part of her shoulder that the blade had hit. She slowly stood up, not looking very happy. "Oh, you don't want to hurt me? Well, you know what, you might feel that way, but just know that I honestly have no problem with hurting you." she gasped out.

As soon as she gasped out her words, Paega jumped backwards, landing several feet away from the Jedi Apprentice's lightsaber attack radius. Suddenly, she let her emotions of hate and anger control her next attack. Paega let loose a Force Push, right at the Jedi Apprentice. She hadn't been good with the particular move back in the Sith Academy, but now, with her bruise further fueling her hatred towards the Jedi, she was able to summon by the most powerful Force Push she had ever accomplished. At that point in combat, Paega had only one interest: to make her opponent at the very least unable to use his lightsaber in combat. The lightsaber gave her opponent an obviously massive advantage, and Paega had to get rid of her opponent's advantage.