Anatomy of a Warrior (Kes'La Bardo)

[Je'gan Olra'en]

Je'gan sat under a tree, flipping a long steel dirk back and forth in his hands. He'd asked Kes to be his first apprentice, and she'd accepted. Now he was just waiting for her to show up...

Beside the tree were a selection of small stone cubes, each perhaps the size of his clenched fist and each made of a different kind of rock. A lightsaber was nestled beside them, even though he fully expected Kes to bring Kurai along.

TK...telepathy...lightsaber...colour shifting. The list ran through his head once, as he verified that the materials he had would suffice for basic instruction in all of those. Not that anything to do with the mind needed props...

"Kes, Kes, Kes," he mumbled, flipping the dirk straight up to hit a branch above him with a hollow thunk. "Where are you, Kes..."

[Kes'La Bardo]

Of all times to be late! Kes'la grumbled to herself as she ran towards the training grounds.

The new Apprentice had gotten Je'gan's message after she had heard he had been Knighted. What a proud moment that must have been, she could only imagine! But, as she had just been exiting the dining hall to go meet with her new Master someone wasn't paying attention and ran right into her with a full tray of dinner. Spilling it's contents all over her neatly pressed tunic and pants as well as her boots.

Kes had to run all the way back to her room after giving the younger Sith a piece of her mind and change her clothes.

By now, she was really late as she entered the training grounds and caught up to Je'gan.

Kes knew the ettique and bowed immediately and noticed a splatter of missed ketchup or something on her boot. "Sorry, Je.." She corrected herself. "Master, I ran into a bit of trouble before coming here...or rather, it ran into me."

[Je'gan Olra'en]

"You're not that late," Je'gan replied mildly, reaching up and taking the dirk by the hilt. A full third of the eighteen-inch blade was embedded in the wood, and provided a steady enough handhold that he could - and did - pull himself up by it.

"In fact," he continued as he came to his feet and dusted off his hands against each other, "seeing as it's lesson one, and as I don't doubt you took the time to rectify the situation with whoever you ran into, there's no reason why we can't just ignore it and move on.

"Show me watcha got. Telekinesis." He pointed at the row of stone blocks negligently, keeping a careful mental 'eye' on Kes.

[Kes'La Bardo]

Kes nodded. "Alright."

The apprentice closed her eyes and allowed her anger and hate begin to rise within her. She could feel the Force and all it's power begin to flow within her. She remembered her pebble-rising experience and drew on more angering thoughts and memories that would bring her a step closer to raising one of those blocks.

She opened her eyes and stared at one of the blocks, it moved slightly. Kes kept in mind, it was heavier than the small pebble.

She tried again, it moved again, but that was about the extent of it. With an exhale, she let go of it. "What am I doing wrong?" She asked with an exasperated sigh.

[Je'gan Olra'en]

"First of all, focus, but not at the exclusion of all else. That's a fast way to get killed. Focus on your surroundings, and see the rock as part of the world. That should help.

"Second, you're overthinking. Your memories are all well and good, but you need to shift your mind from the memories to the feelings, and ignore the details. You're already doing this, but a little work on it might not go amiss.

"There's a possibility, though, that you're simply not cut out for telekinesis. Me, for example. I'm a Sith Knight, and this is about the extent of what I can do in that regard." He levitated the densest of the blocks away from them, gestured, and the thing exploded violently, showering the two Sith in pebbles.

"If that's the case, do what you can in terms of telekinesis and then move on."

[Kes'La Bardo]

Kes listened to him carefully and nodded.

The display of the exploding rock really got her attention.

Kes wanted to get this and get it right. She turned back to the rocks and took a deep breath and began to concentrate.

Focus. Kes'la took in everything around her, around the rock and concentrated deeper. She allowed the memories to come to her, but did as Je'gan instructed. She let go of the detail and focused on the feelings behind them.

The rock shifted.

Kes steadied her gaze, it shifted again and moved a moment later.

The apprentice delved deeper into her thoughts, feelings and she watched as the rock began to lift into the air. It levitated about a foot and then fell.

Kes let out an exhausted sigh. "I did it!" She beamed.

[Je'gan Olra'en]

"Well done, well done. Hmm..." Je'gan was lost in thought, staring at the formerly flying rock.

"You know what," he said finally, "we're going to press our luck.

"That rock's got faultlines; many rocks do. It's something you can sense, if you try hard enough. If there aren't any, you can do this without'em, but it's far more difficult and requires substantially more power.

"Feel the faultline. Stretch out along it with your feelings, and then channel energy into it." If Kes' anger was strong enough, the rock would explode. If it was merely a normal, human level of anger, at this stage of the game the rock should just come apart at the faultlines and split into two - no, three - pieces.

[Kes'La Bardo]

Kes'la held much of her anger and hatred at bay, it was hidden deeply within her. Building up as days went by, thinking of her revenge to the Jedi for what pain and agony they had caused her when they had taken the lives of her mother and sister.

The rage brewed inside her like a relentless storm, waiting for the right moment, the right time. But, she could tap into this energy, draw on it if she needed and this was one of those times.

Kes nodded at her master and looked at the rock, she though of how angry she had been on the very day she found out the deaths of her family. The anger boiled in her, enraged her!!

The Sith apprentice centered that hatred towards that rock, every ounce of anger she could fathom went into it.

[Je'gan Olra'en]

With a concussive boom, the rock flew thirty feet into the air, scattering chips and dust across the two Sith.

"And that," Je'gan said quietly after a moment, "was one of the best first tries I've ever seen. Truly excellent power. All you need to work on is aim; while you made it explode-" He cut off in time to snap out a hand and blind-catch the remains of the stone.

"While you made it explode, as you can see there's still some left. A little more control, that's it.

"You've used anger to fuel physical feats. Let's see how you do mentally. Attack my mind, if you would be so kind.

"Take your shields and make a tunnel from them to mine. If you can't find your shields, don't worry. Imagine them there."

And that should be all she really needed.

[Kes'La Bardo]

Kes had thought of the day that drunk driver had hit Jacali, she had willed that speeder to keep coming, to barrel down on it's victim, the little boy was just a decoy for her real target.

Kes did things without giving much thought of how or why she did it, she just did it.

"Alright." She nodded as she stepped back. With a deep breath the Sith Apprentice touched the Force.

It was strong feeling within her. Kes' fire began to grow as she imagined her invisible shields going for Je'gan's mind a if it were Jacali's.

The little tramp would pay! She shot a Force attack to him that would cause a headache, an excruiating one. That was, if it worked.

[Je'gan Olra'en]

It was a strong opening move for a beginner, driven by a considerable amount of hatred, and it managed to create a solid dent in his shields. Flickers of a headache began to manifest themselves...but the pain soon faded as he brought his shielding up a notch and struck back with imaginary whips that lashed the surface of Kes' mind, bringing a terrible pain with them. Like her attack had been, it was best as a distraction and as a shield-breacher, and unless she was a masochist the pain would get her distracted.

And that would reduce the integrity of her shields. A twofold test, this: would the shields buckle to distraction; and if so, how fast could she bring them back up?

[Kes'La Bardo]

No sooner had she shot her attack, one came back a strong one. It nailed her hard, broke right through the shields she had.

The pain was intense, as she gripped the sides of her head for a moment and gitted her teeth. A few moments later, she focused a good portion of her energy on shields that she set up in her mind.

The pain became less, but was still there. She let her anger flow and shot him another attack, this time...she sent a wave of darkness at him, to blind him temporarily. Colors were her element, she wanted to penetrate his sight.

[Je'gan Olra'en]

And it worked, half because it was actually a very good beginner attack, and half because Je'gan let it.

"Success with a single attack," the blinded Sith stated calmly, "doesn't necessarily mean victory. For example, my danger-sense is acute enough at this intimate a range that I can feel attacks coming.

"Plus I can still strike back."

He resorted to an actual attack: a regenerating stream of imagined blades, tiny and triangular, aimed at her motor control.

[Kes'La Bardo]

Kes didn't know how to defend on this attack, her shields were up, but his wave of tiny blades broke through.

"Arrrrrgh!" She groaned as the invisible blades hit her with quite an impact. She hit her knees and grabbed the sides of her head as she struggled against the pain to stop it.

[Je'gan Olra'en]

"Once a breach in created in a shield," Je'gan remarked, "there are all sorts of interesting things you can do. For example, I don't need to bother with anything quite so cumbersome as that attack. I can go straight to the pain centres of your brain to knock the rest of your shields down, or go farther and simply break you." His mental influence squeezed the pain centres of Kes' brain briefly, then he withdrew to allow her to rebuild her shielding.

[Kes'La Bardo]

The Sith apprentice regained her composure. "How can I repell that and make my shields stronger?"

[Je'gan Olra'en]

"Shutting someone out of your mind is tricky and time-consuming, but it's worth it. Once they're out, you can rebuild your shields easily enough. Shields, you see, are made mostly of willpower and focus. This is in some ways cheating, but I've found that daily meditation helps a lot in building your focus. I know your aversion to anything Jedi, and I sympathize...but in this one area they've definitely gotten the right idea.

"Do you want me to re-enter your mind so we can practice shutting out?"

[Kes'La Bardo]

"I've never meditated in my life." She answered with a raised eyebrow. "Yes, let's try it again." Kes took a deep breath and was ready.

[Je'gan Olra'en]

Kes' willpower was strong; Je'gan knew this. Even so, it came as a bit of a surprise to discover how far her shields had regenerated in the past minute or so. He automatically stepped up the attack he'd had planned to something more like what he'd used earlier, in purpose if not in form: a beam, not unlike a true laser, formed of pure malice. If that wasn't the weapon of a Sith, nothing was.

[Kes'La Bardo]

Kes'la imagined her mind being surrounded by a durasteel wall. She felt his attack, not nearly like the first time though. She applied more pressure to her wall, but had to concentrate hard.

This wasn't easy by any means, but Kes'la didn't give up.

[Je'gan Olra'en]

"Very good," he said approvingly. "But look at the way my attack is set up. I'm going to burn through at one point in a moment or so, and that won't be a pleasant experience. Focus on making your shields thicker at that one point, and if I move my attack - like so - just follow with the bulge in the shields."

[Kes'La Bardo]

Kes was driven with desire to learn. She focused her energy more on the places her master was attacking, but she was also beginning to tire with all the mental focusing.

[Je'gan Olra'en]

"Endurance will come with time, and with practice. Right now, Kes, congratulations. You're now a better mentalist than ninety-five percent of living Force-wielders I'm aware of.

"One last thing before I let you go for the morning. Attack me again."

[Kes'La Bardo]

Kes was happy to hear the praise from her master that she was doing well. But, she was also very tired, but she would do as he asked.

"Thank you, Master." She answered and then closed her eyes and drew on every bit of anger and hatred that she could fathom to shoot one last attack of pain on him.

[Je'gan Olra'en]

"A simple principle, Kes. When one has nothing to lose, when one has nothing more to give...one can attain personal perfection."

The attack hit hard. Je'gan let it bite into his shields and pierce them, allowing the pain to generate anger and power in the Dark Side. He slammed a shield between Kes and the Force, then let it dissipate.

"Very good, Kes. Very good indeed. Get some rest. Your next training session is at nineteen hundred...you up to it?"

[Kes'La Bardo]

Opening her eyes, she gave him a tired smile. "Yes, Master. I'll be ready." She answered and gave him a bow.

[Je'gan Olra'en]

"Go, go." Je'gan waved his hand dismissively. "You're dead tired. See you in twelve hours."

[Kes'La Bardo]

"I'll see ya then, Master." She said as she turned and headed out. Straight to her room was where she was headed to collapse and sleep.

[Je'gan Olra'en]

Twelve hours later...

Je'gan was sitting in the exact spot he'd been waiting for Kes this morning. To tell the truth, he'd let himself doze off briefly during his readings, a fact he attributed more to a heavy lunch than to the fight Kes had put up. As a result of this lapse, he was rather rejuvenated, and hoped Kes was too; he had some more interesting things to show her.

[Kes'La Bardo]

Kes was not late this time, in fact she was a few minutes early. She entered the training grounds refreshed and ready to go.

"Good evening, Master." She greeted him with a smile and a bow.

[Je'gan Olra'en]

"Evening.

"How much have you retained of what I taught you this morning?"

[Kes'La Bardo]

"Hopefully, most of it, Master. I'm a quick learner." She answered.

[Je'gan Olra'en]

"Then show me!"

[Kes'La Bardo]

Kes stepped back and took herself into the Darkside of the Force. Her anger and hatred rose quickly, almost instantly. With one thought, she imagined a fireball of pure hatred and rammed it into his mind against his shields and then she rammed another.

[Je'gan Olra'en]

Powerful...no finesse, but powerful nonetheless. Very visceral, instinctive tactics.

He took both blows hard, shields dropping in that area and letting part of the second fireball get through. Against the pain and the mental numbness, he rebuilt his shields and reinforced them, then blasted Kes with the battle version of the blade-stream attack he'd used on her earlier. On a rough guess, he'd say the sensation was comparable to getting sandblasted with throwing knives.

And if her sheilds were breached by it, contact with her mind would hurt that much.

[Kes'La Bardo]

Kes had been ready for it, she knew that in some way he would attack her back...she was right. The blast he sent her, hit her shields with full force. They nearly crumbled, but she wasn't going to let that happen. She enhanced her shielding even more so, but it was still hard.

She added invisible supports where he was hitting the most.

[Je'gan Olra'en]

Je'gan grunted and split his assault to focus on three separate spots in her shielding.

[Kes'La Bardo]

Kes started breathing heavily as she put her hands on her head to keep her focus. She knew the pain that would be inflicted on her if she let his attack win.

"Ughhhh." She groaned as his attack began to burn three holes in different parts of his sheilds. She drew herself into the Force deeper.

His earlier teaching came to her. Focus on making your shields thicker at that one point, and if I move my attack - like so - just follow with the bulge in the shields.

Kes did just that, she imagined herself spliting her blocking mechanisms into three different places and made her blocks stronger. Though, she had been refreshed, she wasn't going to be able to take much more. It was draining.

Kes had to think of something, but she was doing so much already...could she throw another fireball his way, while concentrating on the shields? The Apprentice had to give it a shot or else she was going to feel a spear through her head shortly.

Kes grunted and thought of all her anger towards the Jedi, it multiplied and seemed to mutate as it grew and grew and with one last hatred thought she drove it into her master's shields.

[Je'gan Olra'en]

The attack hit hard, forcing his attention away from the streams of blades. They flickered, and he merged them into one again, blasting away with renewed strength while trying to rebuild his shields.

[Kes'La Bardo]

Kes concentrated harder and reformed her block, then blasted another fireball at Je'gan's mental shields.

[Je'gan Olra'en]

He cut his assault as his shields collapsed, turning into an acerbic gel that absorbed the attack rather than stand against it directly - acerbic because with an attack went something of a presence...and he was imbuing the gel with enough positive emotions to poison most Sith, as well as a set of nasty compulsions that would anchor the emotions firmly to Kes' psyche.

And if that didn't work, well, it was a distraction. A set of five hate-beams arranged in a rough pentagon lanced out at her.

[Kes'La Bardo]

"Ugh!!" Kes squeezed her eyes shut as he beamed her with the emotions. She struggled with it, cried out and then something within her became unleashed. The pure darkness of hatred and malice formed all around her, cocooned her, protected her. As if pure hell itself came alive.

[Je'gan Olra'en]

"YES!"

The roar came exultant from Je'gan's throat as he threw up his fists over his head. The beams fractured, splinters of murky red flying every which way, and melting on contact with the shroud around Kes.

"Now I can teach you true power!"

He summoned his full abilities and hit her with a clear, focused and strategic series of blows to vital areas of her mind; motor control, focus and even sanity were primary targets.

[Kes'La Bardo]

On her knees, with her eyes barely open the hellish shroud surrounding her vitality, absorbing every ounce of energy that was thrown at her. Kes stood as if in a strange trance of malice and unknown hatred. The shroud opened up as if great wings around her, great wings where terror and nightmares evolved.

Kes was no longer in control at that moment as her arms flew up and she threw a wave of darkness at her master, ready to penetrate his very soul.

[Je'gan Olra'en]

'Twould work on anyone but a Sith, darlin. His voice penetrated her head, kept from assault-level Force Scream only by the barest margin of 'volume'.

Although communication and attacks qualified as very different things, he was able to twist the channel to begin implanting compulsions - compulsions that focused on nonviolence at the moment; compulsions that called in seductive voices to save Hell for those who deserved it; compulsions that fogged her mind. Tough, while maintaining the attack, but not impossible. The remains of earlier compulsions she'd rammed herself into via the last fireball gave him a foundation to work on.

[Kes'La Bardo]

Just as the hellish darkness appeared, it faded back into Kes' essense, leaving the young girl open and defenseless.

A look of stunned shock came over her features as she took the mental hit. She screamed and grabbed the sides of her head in agony.

A moment later, Kes' hit the ground unconscious.

[Je'gan Olra'en]

Instantly, Je'gan cut the attacks and unwove the compulsions.

"Careful, girl," he mumbled, kneeling over her still form and trying with his limited Sense abilities to get an idea of how badly she had been hurt. "Power like that takes it's toll." He clucked to himself as he realized that she'd been knocked out. Gathering her up in his arms to cart off to her quarters, he made a mental note to reinforce the lesson to that effect that she'd just learned.

[Kes'La Bardo]

The apprentice had no way of knowing how long she'd been out or even what had happened as she groaned. Kes moved her head and groaned again, her head hurt.

She opened her eyes and saw Je'gan sitting in a chair nearby...in her quarters. Kes blinked and looked over at him. "What happened, Master?"

[Je'gan Olra'en]

"Too much power, as you might have guessed."

He folded over a corner of the book and locked eyes with his apprentice, a smirk dangling from the corner of his mouth.

"That was some seriously dangerous stuff you were messing with. Any idea what happened to start it off?"

He leaned forward.

"And could you duplicate it?"

[Kes'La Bardo]

"That has only happened one other time and that was the night my mom and sister were killed. I went on a rampage, A'jorrah couldn't even stop me. I barely remember anything of that night, except that I killed...many." She sighed. "The next morning I woke up in an alley covered in blood."

[Je'gan Olra'en]

"Hmm...no link..." Abruptly, he realized his gaze had drifted off to the side, and snapped it back to Kes' face. "Sorry, just talking to myself. There isn't much of a link there, unless this rage is just a normal function of your connection to the Dark Side.

"In which case, things get fun."

[Kes'La Bardo]

"I can't control it, Master. It's like...a demon. I don't understand what made it appear, especially on you. I would never willingly attack that way, but it's like the darkness takes over and I'm in this strange fog and I have no real idea of what's going on." Kes didn't like what she couldn't understand.

[Je'gan Olra'en]

"Rage," he muttered, standing convulsively and beginning to pace. Now he recognized the signs. Fascinating.

"Congratulations, Kes. You're well on your way to being a true Sith."

[Kes'La Bardo]

He was congratulating her, when she figured he would've or perhaps, should've been mad. Or so she thought.

"That is my destiny, Master. I want to make you proud." She told him as she sat up and nearly wished she hadn't, it really made her head hurt.

[Je'gan Olra'en]

"Here..."

He wove a pattern into her mind, one that dulled pain. As with so many things nowadays, tricky but not impossible.

"Worry about making me proud once you've finished worrying about taking care of your own health. An absolute rage like what you were just using is all well and good...but you absolutely must practice with it. Otherwise this'll happen every time you go to fight someone."

[Kes'La Bardo]

Je'gan took away the pain, she let him and nodded. "Thanks." She paused for a moment. "To allow that to happen in a true fight, would not be good."

She thought about things for a few minutes. "But, how do I learn control when I can't really sense what's going on around me. Whatever this absolute rage is, it takes over and it's almost like I'm under it's spell, until it's done doing whatever it wants. It's rather mind-blowing for me."

[Je'gan Olra'en]

"Well...that's where mental discipline comes in." He winced visibly. "Of the Jedi variety. Now, Darksiders have discipline, but it takes a while before they stop just acting rashly with their power. Jedi-style meditation, while not exactly comfortable, is a bit more reliable overall. That is, if you want to thoroughly refine your rage. It's a potent weapon uncontrolled, and nobody would fault you for acting mainly on instinct."

[Kes'La Bardo]

"But, I should still work to get it controlled."

[Je'gan Olra'en]

"I'd do it," he said simply, and left it at that. A moment later, he cleared his throat and spoke.

"How would you feel about going on a training mission in a month or two?"

[Kes'La Bardo]

Kes' attention perked. "Sure, Master. That would be awesome. Do I get to ask what it entails?"

[Je'gan Olra'en]

"Well, there are a few elements to what I have in mind. Some of it's easy for a Darksider. You get to destroy things, kill people who get in your way, wind up against a foe worthy of you, and practice your skills.

"And there's the other half, too. This part isn't so easy. Cooperation, accepting responsability for command, taking orders from others you've never met. Call it an exercise in self-control and mental resilience.

"As for that foe..." He chuckled. "Well, maybe more than one. Suffice it to say you'd have your hands full."

[Kes'La Bardo]

"Sounds like an excruiatingly, brutal challange. One I'm up for," she said as a smile appeared on her lips. "Count me in, Master."

[Je'gan Olra'en]

"Excellent."

He pursed his lips.

"Anything you'd like to go over, or do I leave you to your rest? Any questions? Thoughts?"

[Kes'La Bardo]

"I want to learn how to control this absolute rage. I want to learn to control it to my advantage and be able to strike it out at my enemies." She looked him in the eyes.

"I need to learn."

[Je'gan Olra'en]

"Wipe your schedule, Kes. Combat training, reading, everything. Out the window. Whenever you feel ready, we start with Meditation and Calm One-Oh-One."

[Kes'La Bardo]

"Then, how about tomorrow, mid-morning? I want to work on getting this down, Master."

[Je'gan Olra'en]

"Works just fine for me. Be sure to do some mental warmups before you come, though. Mental math, complicated visualizations, anything that feels like a stretch. Computing ten factorial usually works for me, but it's pretty much up to you."

[Kes'La Bardo]

Kes'la nodded. "Very well, I'll do that and I'll be ready." She assured him.

[Je'gan Olra'en]

"I'll see you then."

OOC/ Next training thread to come once I can get some motivation going.