To Be the Best, You Must Beat the Best - 10.242

[Draiya Naaianeya]

The target remotes hovered in the training grounds. The occasional hiss from a repulsor changing trajectory sounded like the hiss of an asp, poisonous and coiled with potential energy. Draiya's dark eyes traced the movements of each one. Serious as a gunslinger, she watched them path and patrol, waiting for her to step into their attack range. She would not be undone by these machines. She'd worked too hard to hone her skills, becoming a precise instrument of impeccable performance. She was faster and stronger. Her wits were sharper and more focused. Every challenge that she'd faced, she'd overcome by her absolute determination to triumph, and there may well have been one hundred droids available for her. Bring them all on!

The Syragori padawan dropped into a crouch. Each of her hands held one of her shoto lightsabers. The blades were as yet extinguished. They would soon have their chance to shine, as would she. The near-perpetual frown she wore turned into a confident smirk. She'd seen through her opponent. The weakness she'd need to taste sweet victory once more.

"Verry well. Let's begin."

Draiya dashed, trailing her sabers behind them as the twin green blades sparked to life. Two droids began to track in her direction, peppering her trajectory with stun bolt fire. Too slow, rivet-heads, she thought. She paced them, daring them to take an unimpeded shot as she suddenly banked and rolled into an athletic slide, hurling her saber over her as the satisfying squelch of plasma meeting metal filled her ears. Immediately hitting the brakes, Draiya crouched as she waited for her thrown saber to drop behind her into her waiting hand. The other droids fired, a fusilade of bolts peppering against her defensive stance. One droid remote was hit, falling to the ground in a screech of frazzled electronics. Draiya coiled like a panther, pouncing another as she leapt in the air, a bisecting double slash from her saber shredding the remote in her path into slag. The final remote remained. Draiya rose to her full height, extending only one blade to simply deflect it's shots into the dirt. She extinguished the saber behind her back.

"It's overr! You've lost!"

The savage-faced Syragori spit into the dirt even as she swatted away a blast casually.

"Stupid machine. I'm Draiya Naaianeya. You'll have to do betterr than that!"

She waited for it to challenge her. When it was clear there was no more challenge to be had, she shook her head.

"Well then, it's just not fun anymorre, is it? I hope they arre able to find all yourr parrts out herre after I'm done with you!"

Her off-hand gripped her saber tightly, and she smiled at the sensation of a fist forming against durasteel.

"Alrright, I hope you'rre rready! Herre it comes!"

Another pitiable blast was snapped away by Draiya's lightsaber, and the Padawan pounced, leaping high above where the droid hovered. She twisted her body against her upward motion, the sunlight glinting off her deactivated lightsaber as she grasped it in a fist, raining down on the target remote with a Valkyrie's cry.

"AAAAIIIIIIIII!!!!!"

Knuckles slammed against durasteel and composite, sending the target remote hurtling to the ground. What had been started by the punch was finished by the force of impact with the ground, the casing of the droid splitting apart, sending mechanical innards across the training grounds.

Draiya walked to where her last opponent fell, the sunlight hiding behind her looming silhouette. She gazed down at the droid's visual receptor, and crossed her arms.

"Pitiful."

[Abarai Loki]

"Indeed."

Loki was standing on the periphery of the training grounds, where the apparatus was stored. In the shade of a rippling orange canopy, he had watched as the padawan dismantled the trio of remotes with no shortage of gusto. One of the smoking husks had tumbled to a stop at his feet; it was kicked aside as he closed the distance between himself and the young Syragori.

"A Jedi training with remotes is like an eagle practicing to fly. Droids," he said, with distaste, kicking another piece of scrap, "Pose no threat to even the most novice of initiates. For a padawan to be wasting valuable training time on such trifles is obscene. Draiya Naaiyaneya, is it your intention to languish in mediocrity or have your powers already peaked?"

[Draiya Naaianeya]

The very timbre of Loki's chastisements brought Draiya to a halt. She clipped her shoto sabers to her belt, squared her feet shoulder length apart, and tucked her hands clasped behind her back. It didn't matter that the remotes had been set to their maximum difficulty. It didn't matter that she was training against more than were recommended for Learners. He could see through it all and knew that she was operating under her potential. It was a grave offense.

Draiya's serious eyes were turned directly ahead and didn't dare track to Loki's own admonishing gaze. She set her jaw tightly.

"Therre's no excuse, Masterr Loki. These drroids werre no challenge to me."

And that was her frustration. She wanted challenge. She wanted the next test. To see if she had what was necessary to clear the next bar. It hadn't come from Drax or Chen or anyone in her immediate training circle. She'd felt the thrill of apex against Akasha only to have flown too close to the sun and come back to earth again.

"I am an extension of my blades. They arre only as sharrp as I am."

Draiya had been no stranger to Abarai Loki's harsh martial judgment before. She'd made the stew run to Miwu Shanma. She'd cleaned the eopie pens. She'd carried the Rock. If he placed her in the crucible yet again, she'd give up the slag of her imperfection to be forged into even harder metal. But she wanted more than that. She wanted to be the student without peer. The undisputed best Abarai Loki could rally to his disposal. There should never be any doubt!

Her chest raised and lowered as she took deep breaths in and out of her nose, awaiting his further dressing-down.

[Abarai Loki]

"Then your blades are truly dull."

Not a beat had been missed. Draiya was unflinching in the face of his reprimands. Lesser padawans - of which, there were many - would have scoffed or objected or wilted or blushed. If there was one thing that could be said of Draiya Naaianeya, it was that, despite her shortcomings, she would not have been out of place with him and his brother on Maridun. And that was a rare thing. He circled her once and stopped, staring, inches from her face.

"Padawan, why do you want to be a Jedi?"

[Draiya Naaianeya]

"Because verry few can!"

Draiya's answer was a roar from her fixed and fierce expression. She had innate skill, talent, and drive. Anything else she chose to do, anything else seemed to be less than her calling. She felt the force. It worked through her. By degrees, it drew her into perfection for a higher purpose. Guardians of peace and justice in a galaxy that was short on both commodities. To be anything less than the maximum was not only to insult herself, it was to insult everyone.

The Syragori's hands tensed into fists behind her. Abarai Loki was a paragon of martial virtues. The wisdom he had in his few years was a beautiful treasure. If there were ever to be two Jedi of his caliber, what wrongs would go long without being righted?

"Because...I can."

[Abarai Loki]

"I'll be the judge of that!" Loki snapped.

There was talent and there was belief - two of the three pillars of perfect training - but it was the third pillar that it was the most difficult to build without: discipline. Pickings were slim amongst the Jedi ranks, and the standards were low; disappointment was everywhere. For the longest time, Loki thought himself alone in his commitment to the cause, he considered himself an anomaly, a glitch. Could it be that he was about to be proven wrong?

He stepped back and opened his hand, "Give me your weapons."

[Draiya Naaianeya]

Steel found it's way into Draiya's expression at Loki's challenge. Then judge me! She relished the challenge. The metrics upon which he found so many other padawans wanting. Draiya knew that she would rise above the pale. Who else took their obligations more seriously? Who else was the earliest to rise, the longest to subject themselves to the rigors of training? Whether it be by the mettle of the sparring ring or by the rigors of the mind instilled by her master, Serena?

Two hands moved as one, and Draiya removed her shoto sabers from their perches on her belt. Each was held before Loki for full inspection. To find a fault in either was to find a fault in her.

[Abarai Loki]

Loki's hand remained open, and empty.

"I said give me your weapons."

[Draiya Naaianeya]

Instinctively, Draiya's hands tightened on her shoto blades. Her expression was conflicted and roiled in introspective doubt.

"What you ask, Masterr Loki...this means to surrrenderr."

Something deep within her held her fast to where she stood, and her dark eyes moved to her blades. Did he mean to make her so small?

"These arre the weapons of a Jedi."

[Abarai Loki]

"But you are not a Jedi yet."

His eyes narrowed in a challenge, daring the padawan to suggest otherwise. She was reluctant to part with her lightsabers, even for an instant - it was a feeling with which Loki could sympathise. Her moment of hesitation made him reconsider his approach.

"Draiya Naaianeya, do you trust me?"

[Draiya Naaianeya]

Her knuckles seemed to blanch on the blade grips. They shook almost imperceptibly as she met Loki's eyes unblinking. Of course I trust you, you're my teacher. Still, there were things that had been instilled in her that made this so difficult.

She suddenly adjusted the hold on her blades, turning the emitters towards her so that the grips of each were placed in Loki's hands. She drew her hands back behind her, trusting that Loki would injure anything other than her pride.

[Abarai Loki]

Once the exchange was done, Loki's gaze lingered on Draiya; for him, sensing feelings was difficult enough, let alone translating them, but he was convinced that, in that moment, there was not a drop of resentment towards him - and, from a padawan, that was refreshing. Had the tables been turned, and someone demanded of him his Jedi weapon, that person would've found themselves short a hand. This was implicit trust. It was important.

"You claim these weapons are an extension of yourself? That is untrue. Can you give me your arms so easily? What about your legs?" He searched her face for clues, waiting for her resolve to come crashing down about her feet. "I have said it before: there is no greater warrior than a Jedi who is one with his weapon. It is not enough for you to recite these teachings. You must live them."

He clipped Draiya's lightsabers to his belt.

"When your friends ask you where your lightsabers are, you will tell them that you are unworthy of your Jedi weapons. This is not a punishment. It is your first step towards becoming a true warrior. Do you understand?"

[Halajiin Rabeak]

"Dick!"

The word echoed from the mostly-built structures, and Hal smiled as he pulled his paws away from his muzzle where they had acted as a megaphone.

I wonder what sandwhiches that crazy deli guy, has, today?

That in mind, the yellow-furred continued his walk on his shortcut by the training grounds.

[Draiya Naaianeya]

Despite her best efforts, Draiya gasped. Breath caught in her lungs, she grit her teeth as she watched Loki abscond with her lightsabers - the symbol of her commitment to the Jedi arts. Blood rushed to her ears and she could scarcely hear Hal's admonishments in the distance as her world fell apart around her. She'd trusted him to be everything she knew he was. Harsh yet fair. She did not yet comprehend how harsh Abarai Loki could be. He'd taken her everything!

Behind her back, the nails of her balled fists bit into the flesh of her hands. How could she be so disgraced?? Cast so far down beyond her peers? The bedrock her foundations were built upon quaked, and he was asking her to start anew.

"Unworrthy."

She whispered the word, the air that seized in her lungs before coming out as a rattle. Blood ran from her palms down her knuckles and she felt no sting so exquisite as the one Loki had delivered.

"What must I do?"

This was not her destiny. She would tear down a mountain if only he'd ask it of her. Her lower lip quivered, and she bit down on it in resolve to show him her steel.

"What must I do?"

[Abarai Loki]

Loki closed his eyes, as if removing the sight of the smug Nehantite could blink him from existance altogether. He didn't understand. None of them understood - except, perhaps, Draiya. He heard her pained words and turned on her his cool cutting gaze.

"It is quite simple. You must take back what is yours."

And with that, Loki turned, affording Draiya one last glimpse of her lightsabers, before he started to walk away.

[Draiya Naaianeya]

He turned his back to her, bringing to full fruition her shame. Draiya's eyes held a wild desperation as she at last brought her hands in front of her. Her fists opened, and she stared down at where nails had bit into her palm, the blood she'd drawn had filled into the hairline creases in her palm lines. Draiya could feel hot tears trying to form in her eyes and she blinked hard to dispel them. She'd rather die than show how deeply she'd been wounded! Eyes screwed tight, then opened once again. Gone was the vulnerability. Burned away to leave resolve in her intense brown eyes, staring down into bloody hands that became fists once again.

"Not one morre second..."

Her voice rattled as steam between clenched teeth. Draiya burned a hole through the small of Loki's back with her eyes. You must take back what is yours. Her muscles felt like durasteel cables, taut and ready.

"I will not spend one morre second in disgrrace!"

Draiya coiled and sprang. Lithe as a nexu, she sailed over Abarai's head, twisting about mid-air to right herself to face the gauntlet that had been thrown down. Impacting the ground, she dropped low into a three-point stance, propped by a fist driven against the packed dirt below. Looking up at Loki, she drew up into a fighting stance, fists slowly coming to bear as she popped her knuckles.

"Abarrai Loki, I will take back what is mine...now!"

Her feet dug in. Her shoulders squared.

[Abarai Loki]

Halted in his tracks, Loki considered Draiya, head-to-toe, with heavy eyes - indifference he had honed to a fine art. An eyebrow ticked upwards.

"By talking?"

[Draiya Naaianeya]

Draiya's features fixed in stone. She'd said everything to Abarai Loki that she intended to say. She watched his eyebrow tick upwards in mockery. Her eyes fixed to his lips as they began to move. The only thing that would stay her hand were the words of surrender she absolutely knew he would never utter.

"By tal-"

Time ran thick and slow as intent flashed in the Syragori's suddenly widened, wild eyes. Her speed was the wind, unhindered and sudden. Her power was thunder heralded by lightning. All of her defiance, focused into a fist, thrown by every ounce of speed, strength, guile, and will. It sailed so true...straight at the mouth that had cast her into dishonor.

"KYIAA!!!"

But Master Loki was fast. Faster still. In her heightened awareness at the cusp of the force's empowerment, she could see his head move just so. The displaced air of her near hit pressed thick and cold against the fire in her closed hand. In barely a moment - hardly a blink - Draiya's inertia carried her past her mark. She could still see his lips forming a taunt....

"...llllkiiiiiiiiing."

They moved glacially even as his eyes tracked her in passing. Draiya's eyes fixed on her mark in that frozen moment. Intent and hungry.

Time exploded into the present once more as the hurricane unleashed. Draiya, undaunted, returned another strike upon another, pushing the brink of her ability to settle accounts the only way they could be settled, by feat of strength and force of will.

[Abarai Loki]

Left and right, Loki was pelted with fists like rocks. Draiya advanced in a ferocious passion, grunting and hissing at every near miss - how much she wished to do him harm. If he retreated a step, she advanced two at speed; her boots scraped mercilessly at the baked earth, kicking up a cloud about her knees. He pivoted another wayward blow, and redirected another. And when the opportunity was ripe, he aimed a lazy kick at her rear.

[Draiya Naaianeya]

Every ounce of energy Draiya poured into her attacks. Speed, precision, and strength. All that the Syragori knew from her Jedi training was thrown into Loki's crucible as the heat of battle burned away what was false and collected the truth. An open hand sailed temptingly over where his face should have been. A spinning kick met with leverage to redirect her avalanche elsewhere. Every rebound an attack. Every miss an opportunity to strike true. Draiya chased her dishonor as doggedly as starving hounds took to a rabbit. Her cheeks and ears stung flush with indignation. Teeth pressed and bared in a war grimace. At the crescendo of her prideful outburst...

...he toyed with her.

This was his answer? A half-interested punt to send her off-balance. Draiya scrabbled head-forward and off center, regrouping in a furious shuffling of feet. Her dark eyes cast back at him in outrage. A sudden burst of speed and she launched herself back at him once more, calling his name with her waiting fist.

"SHWAAA!!!"

[Abarai Loki]

What was, once, a fascinating experiment, was fast becoming an exercise in tedium. Draiya howled, stumbled, roared, and missed. And with every unsuccessful blow, her pattern unravelled itself threadbare. Loki's curiosity diminished into boredom. Indeed, he despaired to see her charge blindly once again, bellowing like some wounded creature. And like a wounded creature, he thought, perhaps the decent thing to do was to put her out of her misery. His decision was made: he would end it with one stroke.

Hurling herself into the fray, with more openings than a Zeltron bordello, Draiya offered her defeat gift-wrapped. All it took was a slight shift in his weight and a dagger chop to her abdomen that would make her pop like a balloon. It wasn't until he watched his hand slice cleanly through her belly and out through her back, that he realised the severity of his mistake.

[Draiya Naaianeya]

"KWAA!!"

As the Padawan Loki sought to put out of the fight vanished into mist before his eyes, his eyes tracked just to his right in time to see Draiya's boot heel explode into his vision, throwing the cool and collected Jedi Knight to the ground with the force of a crashing starfighter.

Draiya pounced at once, hitting the ground running from her flying kick as she dove for her lightsabers that were so temptingly within her reach.

[Abarai Loki]

Upon meeting the floor, Loki rolled away enough to put an arm's length between him and his unrelenting attacker; an arm's length was all he needed. He reached out and opened his hand, there was a rushing sound, and Draiya was tossed away like a discarded doll.

He rose and spat blood onto the ground. His cheek stung; he rolled his tongue around to probe the spot where his tooth had pierced flesh. The coppery tang renewed and he spat again, annoyed. In breaking her pattern, Draiya had revealed her hand all too soon. What a disappointment.

"Draiya Naaianeya, you have abandoned the path of the warrior for the tricks of a coward. If you are intent on hiding behind fantasy, then what need have you for a real Jedi weapon, when an imaginary one will do?"

[Draiya Naaianeya]

Draiya's right hand splayed yearning fingers wide, mere inches from her prize and victory when the tempest came. Instantly her momentum was checked in a shock of Force energy. The Syragori's eyes widened as she careened away, falling back heels over head to the ground. Instinct kicked in, and the padawan tucked her chin against her collarbone, taking the brunt of the fall across her shoulder as her legs tucked tightly until at last she sprang from her tumble, stubborn boots chewing the earth as her fingers did likewise. Her dark tunic now tinged earthen shades by the dust, Draiya righted herself to stand as she watched Abarai Loki become human for the first time in her tenure among the Jedi. As her hands parted the ground, her left grabbed a handful of dirt up in a fist.

So...you do bleed after all.

Draiya's dour frown reversed itself into a confident smile. Wild streaks of black hair whipped free from her now-disheveled ponytail, lashing at the sides of her face as she stared down her opponent. Standing tall, she pointed an accusing right index finger at Abarai.

"A warrriorr's earrs sufferr no excuses, Abarrai Loki! I will show you how rreal yourr defeat will be!"

The Syragori padawan's heart shook in her chest. She could see her victory - how attainable it could be! This was beyond the time she'd sparred with Master Wei. Then, her opponent had modestly settled for a draw to spare Draiya her dignity. Today against Abarai Loki, however, there would be no such quarter. He would face her on equal footing. Honor demanded it!

Draiya drew again into a crouch, coiling to strike. Her right hand drew wide, curled fingers into something resembling a nexu's paw.

"The next worrds you say to me will be yourr surrrenderr!"

A burst of speed rocketed Draiya forward to once again press her assault. Before she overtook the Jedi Knight, Draiya pivoted on a heel, spinning as she threw the handful of dust in her left hand against the ground. The earthen spall loosed in a spray, then suddenly multiplied unnaturally into the whirling vortex of a sandstorm that obscured Draiya and Loki alike as it consumed them both.

[Abarai Loki]

While Draiya smiled and boasted, Loki could almost hear himself in her words. It was stomach-turning; first, because such confidence on a padawan was an ill fit, and secondly, because it had taken him a lifetime to grow into it. Now he found himself wondering if he wore it well at all. Either way, it was clear that a lesson in humility was sorely needed, perhaps for them both.

He watched Draiya strike a pose that had almost certainly been practised in front of a mirror. Her words were nought but the buzz of a fly in need of swatting. Again, she charged at speed. He relaxed; the pounding of footsteps retreated into the distance and the whirling of wind fell placid about his ears. When he saw Draiya turn and unleash a torrent of dust, he closed his eyes and waited.

[Draiya Naaianeya]

Through the maelstrom, the nexu's paw cut loose, raining down fierce intent upon the Jedi Knight's head. Draiya's unseen eyes watched through the storm through which only she could divine clarity. He'd not moved an inch. Her confidence shook, even as she committed in full to her savage strike.

[Abarai Loki]

First, he felt the tickle of displaced air brush his cheek; next, fingertips, pressing against his jaw and neck, lightly at first, indenting flesh, and then, as the pressure reached his jawbone, five distinct pinpricks of pain blossoming upon his skin. That was when he moved. The pain diminished as he pulled away, but before losing contact entirely, he reached out. As clear as day, Draiya's nexu claw took shape in his mind's eye; with a slight turn of the hip and a gesture, he watched as her strike was deflected safely away.

Eyes firmly shut, he capitalised on his advantage by seizing her wrist with one hand, and using the other to redirect her momentum with a simple throw.

[Draiya Naaianeya]

Draiya felt the point of contact, sure of her success. However, Loki was a lightning rod to her thunderbolt. Unmoving in the face of Draiya's power, he redirected it effortlessly. The sandstorm of perception evaporated as the Syragori padawan was hurled free from the point of contact with emphatic force. With little time to correct her trajectory, she planted head-first on the ground, stars exploding in her vision.

"Ghhk..."

Slow to rise, Draiya pulled herself up from the ground as a dribble of crimson dripped down from a split over her left eyebrow. Still foggy, she ran a hand over her face, tracing a bloody smear down past her cheek as she stood, stalking towards the Knight once more with purpose.

[Abarai Loki]

Loki turned to face Draiya and opened his eyes. He would afford her this one chance to recover and to make the right decision. After that, it was as the expression goes: all bets were off.

"Draiya Naaianeya, will you continue to tarnish your name with this childish make-believe or are you ready to wear the big girl pants?"

[Draiya Naaianeya]

Even now, he refused to take her seriously! Refused to respect her warrior's pride! Blood dripped anew lazily from her laceration, falling down her cheek in an unbroken line of crimson. Draiya's unblinking eyes studied Loki for what seemed an eternity. Eventually, her tightly balled fists relaxed, fingers falling loose at her sides. The only thing that moved on the Syragori aside from her wildly-whipping hair was the steady and deep up and down rise of her chest.

[Abarai Loki]

Moments passed in silence, pronouncing a marked change in tactic from the young Syragori. It was a change for the better. What Master Laran would have thought upon discovering her padawan in a bacta tank, Loki could only imagine. He also wondered, as he watched her, what thoughts passed through that hot head of hers. Could it be that she thought she could win? Did she understand at all?

"Padawan, you appear to be operating under the illusion that I am testing your combat prowess. You are mistaken."

[Draiya Naaianeya]

What else could this be but a test? He'd made his challenge clear to her! Draiya knew the terms of winning back her lightsabers and restoring her honor. What would surrender do other than cement the lie in his head that she some pitiable child?

No.

Determination set on Draiya's bloodied face.

You're wrong. Every challenge is a test. And I will pass each one!

The Syragori's left hand slowly raised as she watched the Jedi Knight stare her down. She reached out with her senses, drawn to the brilliance of his life energy and it's splendor. She could feel his resolve, his cool discipline that made him so unflappable.

I will take what you hold most dear.

Her left thumb pressed into her cheekbone, smearing into the blood as her index and middle fingers traced along her brow, setting suddenly as her eyes closed. Her right hand reached toward Loki as Draiya temporarily abandoned the corporeal battlefield to challenge the Jedi Knight at the very gates of his stronghold. The fortress of his mind rested on a high cliff, surrounded by the stormy sea. Those seas drew out, and roared forth with a vengeance as a tsunami with a tiger's head began to swell to a crest, thundering over the ramparts.

YOU HAVE LOST THIS FIGHT

YOUR STRENGTH WILL LEAVE YOU

YOUR ATTACKS WILL MISS YOUR MARK

YOUR RESOLVE WILL FAIL YOU

In the real world, Draiya's body tensed as her face strained with effort. Hands shaking, she grit her teeth and redoubled her mental assault on Loki with all her might.

[Abarai Loki]

What started out as a generous reprieve was fast becoming a selfish indulgence. It was bad enough that Draiya was willing to draw out the interlude to the point that Loki was becoming bored, but that she saw fit to ignore him altogether was too much. He would end this farce without incident.

He took a step forward. Stones crunched underfoot. The wind whirled and the dust danced. Draiya was a statue. He could see from the way she stood, her muscles were coiled like vipers, ready to strike. She had become so strong; barely recognisable as the once wide-eyed boisterous tomboy who was the first to volunteer, the first to fight. There was a fire in her eyes and grit in her gut. She watched him take another step, glaring, in silent defiance. Her move would come.

When Loki moved to take another step, his leg was leaden. It was an effort to advance; his co-ordination was sluggish and his footing uncertain. He clenched his fists, ready to fight, only to find his fingers numb. He sucked a breath through his teeth. He was tired. His limbs turned to stone. His head started to swim. He was in no condition to fight. What was he thinking?

[Draiya Naaianeya]

Every ounce of focus was poured in. Draiya let her breath out in a keening strain, bombarding Loki's mind with her iron will. Inch by inch, she undermined her enemy, robbing him of the bedrock which he stood so firmly atop. The Syragori could feel the Jedi Knight waver.

NOW

"KYAAAAI!!!"

Coiled with purpose, Draiya went kinetic, the toes of her boots chewing up sun-baked earth in a spray as her eyes flashed open. Flying on the razor's edge of her limits, the Padawan suffered no mistake. She felt the heartbeat of the striking moment through the force like a live wire, following it true to her target. Lithe muscles drew tight as durasteel cable as Draiya pulled back her right hand in poetic efficiency of motion.

Her righteous intent made pure into energy, Draiya sailed home her fist without compromise.

She would give Loki everything.

[Abarai Loki]

Under the influence of Draiya's power, Loki's mind was an echo chamber, where no coherent thought could be heard or articulated. In a heady fog he was bound, held inert, and oblivious to the oncoming threat. There was, however, a voice. Faint at first, as if sounding in some distant valley, it provided him with something to focus on, when all other things proved beyond purchase. On the periphery of his senses, he could feel it probing like fingers upon domed glass. He listened intently as it neared, until the voice took shape and character. It was a battle cry.

The cry pierced the haze and rang like bell - like a call-to-arms. Pushed beyond its elastic limit, the bubble burst, and that which was in plain sight was obfuscated no more. Comprehension flooded in like ice water, sweeping the cobwebs from his mind, and with comprehension, there came outrage.

Draiya crashed down like wave. He stood like a mountain. Wrist bones clacked as the attack was swept aside, and while his inside hand defended, its partner followed in tandem: fingers straight and tight, he formed of his hand a knife edge to be cracked like a whip across the padawan's face.

[Draiya Naaianeya]

IMPOSSIBLE

Draiya's vision flashed white a heartbeat before victory. Her world turned on the wrong axis, altering her reality in the viscous slow beat of a lapsing moment. Loki's strike met her face with the added potency of her own motion, sending the Padawan pinwheeling off her feet as a ribbon of blood spun from her mouth violently propelled by centrifugal force. The strike was devastating, and the Syragori Padawan spilled across the earth in an uncoordinated tumble of arms and legs. Everything was heavy in the dull throbbing seconds that she came to a rest and the earth seemed to continue moving. Lying sprawled on her back amid her now fully-undone hair, Draiya spit thick traces of blood that pooled on the dusty soil.

The Padawan's eyes found the Knight, even as she struggled to reorient herself in the world. Clumsy hands reached and clawed for the ground. Heavy feet drew in for purchase. Blood carelessly swallowed was expelled in a choking cough to drip down her chin. The focus that had drawn so sharp in her brown eyes was, for a few brief seconds, lost. Her hands formed fists as if discovering them for the first time. They clenched, relaxed, and then drew tight once more as the Syragori swallowed every ounce of pain and disorder Loki unleashed upon her into a well.

She would not be defeated.

Slowly, Draiya rose again.

[Abarai Loki]

A second blow returned the Syragori to the dust. The time for mercy was over.

"So begins your education. Draiya Naaianeya, do you know why you fail?"

Taking a handful of matted hair, he pulled so he could see her face. Between their eyes there was an ocean of indifference. When she failed to answer, he raised a knee to her chin. The old steps were the easiest to retrace.

[Draiya Naaianeya]

Draiya's world exploded yet again, perspective thrown into a vortex of pain and motion as her head rocked back from the shot. More blood flecked the ground below along with a tooth sent free from the force of impact.

She should have fallen. Someone weaker or more prudent might have listened to gravity and inertia, and taken the hint to stay on the ground. The Syragori's feet shuffled back a dozen strides to keep abreast of her teetering head. Impossibly, Draiya kept her feet. Her form was gone. All of her will was poured into the simple defiant act of not going down. Her shoulders skewed, her head bobbed low. When Draiya raised her eyes to meet Loki again her blood-spattered face looked dogged but exhausted.

She shook her head to Loki. Not because she didn't know the answer, but because she refused to acknowledge the question.

She hadn't failed. She wouldn't fail.

A shaky step edged forward. Hands came up into guard sluggishly. A punch was thrown well off the mark. Slow and imprecise.

But Draiya still fought. He couldn't take that away from her.

[Ndonsa]

Ndonsa motioned to Drax, letting him set up again with the staff while she waited patiently for him to attack. Sometimes the young ones needed extra help, and, while she was no a lightsaber instructor, Ndonsa was able to teach staff and spear techniques. She argued that it made the padawans more experienced fighters if they were not slaves to one type of weapon.

A swell of emotion and the odor of blood in the air caught her attention, and Drax nearly took her head off with a wild swing. She caught the staff across the side of her muzzle, and lights exploded in her sight as she stumbled. His hoots of triumph turned quickly to concern, but she waved him off. Ndonsa wiped at her nose, a smear of blood matting the fur of her arm, and looked across the training area to where two other people were sparring. Or...were they?

She jogged toward them, Drax following hesitantly, just in time to see Loki smash Draiya's face with his knee.

[Abarai Loki]

The punch was sidestepped and Draiya was sent staggering away with a light push.

"You fail because the size of your ego exceeds the reach of your arm. How can you expect to surpass your limits when you deny their existance? You have armoured yourself in ignorance - see how easily it is pierced."

To emphasise his point, Loki avoided another sluggish blow and drew his finger across Draiya's abdomen; with a second step, he was behind her and prodded her in the back; his final step afforded him a clean slice at her throat. He retreated to delay the padawan's advance.

"Killing blows, all of them. Draiya Naaianeya, you are beaten. Accept it."

[Draiya Naaianeya]

The truth was laid bare in terms of life and death, and even through her grit and pride she heard his words. Draiya's exhausted form wavered on her feet as she struggled to keep her head. Another thread of blood dripped down her chin.

She was beaten.

The Syragori stared down at her useless hands. For all her vim, for all her determination, she'd landed them on the Jedi Knight once. The magnitude of her defeat grew beyond the constraints of comprehension.

She never stood a chance.

Then was this it? Draiya's honor could not be restored. She'd held nothing back with nothing to show for her effort. Her lightsabers were his, and she was as he had claimed her to be. Unfit for the name. Nevertheless, what little she had left would be scattered in the dust if the word surrender parted her lips. Draiya's dark eyes looked almost pleadingly at Loki to search behind them for his comprehension and understanding. He couldn't ask her to say that. He wouldn't dare!

"You can beat me, Masterr Loki."

Her feet parted again into combat stance, or all she could muster against him.

"I rrefuse...to beat myself."

No surrender.

Please give me speed and agility and guide my hand true.

With everything she had left, Draiya moved for the twin shoto sabers held on Loki's belt.

[Abarai Loki]

So be it. Loki exhaled a breath he had not realised he'd been holding, and with it he expelled his doubt. What he did was for Draiya's benefit. This, he told himself, as he took her by the hand and pulled. It was his mantra as he watched her tumble lifelessly through the air, with only a flicker of surprise left in her eyes. And as he pressed her face into the dirt with his knee, they were the words that honed his resolve to a razor's edge.

In an imperceptible moment of hesitation, he waited. Beneath him, Draiya's body was crumpled and limp. There was a pitiful wheeze: perhaps the sound of a last gasp of defiance coming to an end.

And then, a twitch. It started at the shoulder and travelled like an electric current; Loki felt the muscles swell beneath his fingers, and took action. With the precision of a surgeon and the seasoned familiarity of a carpenter, he adjusted his grip on Draiya's arm, and leaned until he heard a decisive crack.

[Draiya Naaianeya]

"GYAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!"

Draiya screamed, the dam of her discipline broken open as hot tears finally ran free on her face. With no means to resist and in the face of her final trauma, the proud fighter that had stood her ground against Abarai Loki was left shrieking and crying on the ground. Draiya drew breath in raggedly only to force it out again in keening agony. Her nose wet and strung down to the ground below as she realized that he'd finally taken everything.

She'd never said surrender, but the warrior that was Draiya Naaianeya had been replaced by a vulnerable and agonized young girl.

Loki stood up, and Draiya tried to will her broken arm into compliance. New pain she'd never comprehended roiled her and her legs curled to her chest as she wailed.

[Ndonsa]

"Get Master Laran," Ndonsa gave Drax a shove, and he ran off, black eyes wide. She focused, and shoved, hitting Loki as he straightened and sending him skidding backwards, away from the wailing child.

"She has had enough," she said firmly, kneeling beside Draiya and helping her into a sitting position.

[Abarai Loki]

When Draiya screamed, Loki experienced a sudden and vivid sensation of falling. His insides turned, even as he rose. The breath that ought to have been so calm and controlled, was lodged in his throat. His resolve turned to water. Had he been reduced to atoms, when struck by a wave of kinetic energy, it would've came as no surprise.

He tumbled in the dirt, scrabbling for purchase on something. Perhaps the world was falling away. Once righted, he felt the screams pierce him anew like so many poisoned arrows. Fear was in his blood, pounding like a drum, even as he scrambled to his feet. It was only then that he noticed Ndonsa, who had stepped in to assist Draiya. The fear evaporated. She was going to ruin everything!

Steeling himself, Loki advanced, fighting against a torrent of emotional turmoil. He could feel it throbbing beneath his skin, raw, like an exposed wound. It was Draiya - he could feel her pain. It was astonishing, and terrible, and unlike anything he had ever experienced. In breaking her armour, it seemed he had also been stripped of his. He would to commit to it, this crucible, and see it to the end. It was the least she deserved.

"Draiya Naaianeya, you have found your limit." He took a knee beside her, "And that is the beginning."

[Draiya Naaianeya]

Draiya's cries reached their apex and steadily lost their energy as her anguish burned out all the energy she had left to give. Tears ran against smeared blood as she cradled her broken arm with her good one. The eyes that had stared Loki down with a predator's narrow intensity were now those of frightened prey, wide and ever-looking between tears squeezed from her eyelids squeezing shut.

Loki's words came to her, and Draiya's rattled whimpers stilled in her chest. Though her lips trembled and her tears rolled, the last thing Loki saw before the Syragori passed out was the intensity once again.

[Ndonsa]

"The limit of her bones, you mean." Ndonsa eyed the knight, her eyes a dark shade of pink. "Where is the wisdom in this?"

[Abarai Loki]

From the embers of defeat, the warrior's steel was reforged, and it met his gaze like blade. But it was gone too soon, as Draiya succumbed to the sum of her efforts. Ndonsa was sounding her objections but her objections could be damned - he had been vindicated with a single glance.

"There are more pressing matters than attempting to divine the wisdom of my actions."

A training staff soared from the weapon rack and clapped against his palm. It was snapped over his knee and measured against Draiya's arm. Next to go was a piece of his sleeve.

"Once the arm is secure, she can be transported to the hospital."

[Ndonsa]

Ndonsa waved him off, taking the cloth and lightly pressing her fingers against the arm to locate the break. She straightened the arm with a quick motion, the broken ends of bone meeting each other, and then began wrapping the fabric around the wood and arm to secure it. "'Turbulant emotions like that are not welcome amongst the Jedi,'" she quoted, looking at Abarai Loki pointedly. Draiya had been anything but calm, and he had not corrected her.

A new sound caught her attention, and she looked to the side. "Her master comes."

[Serena Laran]

Drax had burst into the medical center, kazooing faster than usual, and his translator unit had had trouble parsing the language. Or perhaps Drax simply was too excited and his words were running into each other. Regardless, it had taken a few minutes to figure out what he was trying to tell her. And now she was hurrying to the training grounds, the worried Rodian padawan at her heels.

Abarai Loki and Ndonsa, the tribal mongoose, were bent over a small figure on the ground. Serena got a sense of intense disapproval rolling off of the Kufu as she drew closer. "What has happened here?"

[Abarai Loki]

"A lesson," Loki rose to meet Serena, "Draiya requires medical attention."

[Ndonsa]

Ndonsa stepped back, allowing the healer to look over the unconscious girl. She folded her arms over her breasts, rustling the mass of necklaces she wore. "This was no training accident. He broke her arm with purpose."

[Serena Laran]

Serena bent over Draiya, quickly accessing her condition. A concussion, missing tooth, contusions, abrasions, and the broken arm. She laid her hand on top of the splint; it had been set skillfully, but would require further stabilization. "What kind of lessons are you teaching the padawans that ends with you breaking their bones, Knight Loki?"

She looked up at him sternly, and then turned to Ndonsa. "Please run to the medical center and bring the droid Matea and a stretcher." The mongoose straightened, and then turned and ran. Drax hung back, unsure of what he should do.

[Abarai Loki]

The signs weren't difficult to read from both of the women; it came as small surprise that they were unhappy with what he'd done. It mattered not: if Draiya learned from the experience, she may well enjoy a long life. If not, she would become fodderat the hands of some nameless stormtrooper, and he would have no business teaching ever again. He would weather the repercussions with dignity.

"Draiya has an inflated impression of her own capabilities. I have revealed where her limitations lie. It was not my original intention to inflict damage of this extent, but it seems the padawan's potential is surpassed only by her ego. It is a lesson hard learned."

[Serena Laran]

"And you imagine that this is something I was not aware of?" Serena arched an eyebrow at Abarai. "The next time you wish to inflict a lesson of this magnitude on my padawan, don't."

[Abarai Loki]

There was nothing more to be said on the matter. Though, he had not heard the last of this, of that he was certain. His gaze returned to Draiya, who remained blissfully ignorant of her injuries. Bones would mend and wounds would heal. The real ailment, however, was much more difficult to cure. His medicine had been administered. The rest was up to Draiya.