Hands On Training

[Vash Windrider]

Vash Windrider stood on the presipis of a clif that overlooked a large canyon valley. One of many that lined this planet. This one rested in an area between the temple and burial grounds of the native pure bloods. To the naked eye this planet was a wasteland of red rock and biting heat. To him it was a place of rebirth, now just for himself but for his would be apprentice. A young and powerful rogue force user he found on Nar Shaadda.

As the stood the dark side washed over him like an ocean. Waves of power that moved back and forth, rising, falling, evening crashing around him. Pulling at him. Where he was simply one of the Exiled at the end of the hundred year darkness. Now he was Sith, now he would give all of himself to the dark side and all that it would offer to him. Along the way he would teach Aris the same, to open to the dark side, to turn her fear into power.

Vash felt his apprentice near. "Thank you for meeting me." He said simply as he continued to stare down into the abyss of the shadow filled canyons. "Today we will began your training. To control your connection. You are no youngling, so we will have to try something.....different." He continued with a much more amused tone. "Stand here with me and open yourself to the force"


@Aris the Witch

 

[Aris the Witch]

Korriban. An ugly place. Deserts as far as the eye could see. A harsh environment for any living here, and a curse for those born there. Only a fool would come to such a place intentionally. But here is where darkness thrived. Here is a place where the maliced and broken would come to seek refuge. Here is where the Exiles called home. Vash Windrider was no exception. He had come to this planet to seek out those other Exile and learn the ways of the Dark. This is where he brought Aris.

If there was one thing Aris liked of Korriban it was the vastness of it. Not another soul around for miles. No random thoughts for her to pick up and plague her senses with. Here she could think and not be disturbed. The only person by her side was the man she had chosen to call Master; and her, his apprentice. Due to being a Jedi, he could close off his mind so even side by side she could not read his thoughts. She enjoyed that quiet.

"Thank you for meeting me."

Aris was not one for many words. As she came to stand beside her master she would bow her head to him. A greeting. An understanding. An appreciation. She could convey all these things to him with a simple gesture and a tone to her eyes. So why add further repetition by saying it aloud? It was redundant. Aris gave him that nod and then moved to stand beside him. She looked over the cliff and then backed up and kept her eyes down on solid land.

She was wearing a new outfit she'd been fortunate enough to receive while in the care of Vash. It was much in the same look as how he'd met her, and she kept to the same fashion. Purple always did look best on her. Her torso was made of a light fabric to keep out sand and hold in heat, and the chest plate over the bra held her womanhood in place while also protecting the vital organs inside. Her shirt exposed the shoulders but they too were covered by the protective pads and then her sleeves came down to her wrists. She had a utility belt around her waist that came with one's usual provisions, but was bare of weapons. Not that he didn't trust her to have them, she just didn't own any. There might be a time in the future where she'd make a saber as he had, but she did not foresee this in any of the nearing future. Her legs then would be tight fitting pants that were made of a similar fabric just a little more flexible and clingy. These were tucked into knee and shin guards along with strong boots meant for tough terrain and travel.

"Today we will began your training. To control your connection. You are no youngling, so we will have to try something.....different. Stand here with me and open yourself to the force"

The Force. That was what he'd called her gift. She'd heard the word before. Her previous master -well, owner- worshiped Jedi. He collected their knowledge and sought to learn their secrets. They knew The Ways Of The Force as he would tell her. This is what brought Aris to him. She was a Force user. But she never knew how to use it. He made her adapt to her powers in simply reading minds. Learning to read a bluff or a lie. He used her to gamble. A total waste of her power. That's what Vash said to her.

But what was the Force? Vash tried explaining it to her. It was the living things around her. It was....she didn't understand the rest. Language was so hard for her. That was another reason she never spoke to people. She didn't really know how. Still, she knew she should try. Aris closed her eyes and tried to expand on what she already knew. And that meant reading the voice of those around her. She at first found the aura of Vash and tried to touch on it, but just as soon as she had she felt something else. She could hear another voice. It was foreign to her, both in familiarity but also in language. It wasn't in common tongue. Aris retreated from Vash and instead focused on this other essence. It was everywhere, and yet nowhere at the same time.

"Who......is you?" she would ask this mysterious entity.

 

[Vash Windrider]

Vash allowed himself to grin as he could feel the Aris open up to the force. Admittedly not having a clue as to what was going on in her mind or how she felt she was speaking with the force but pleased with her efforts all the same. He would spend the next few minutes trying to express to her all that was the force, what it was, how they were connected etc. The words were hollow to him. It tasted of the way that Jedi would teach. The thought of that enraged him for a moment. But he would soon refocus on his young naive apprentice.

Vash pushed into Aris' mind. Forcefully and intrusive. Like a rude neighbor who assumes he can walk into your house when he chooses. His words would echo in her mind. "Listen to me. Push everything else out until all you can hear and feel is me. There is nothing else but me. FOCUS." He knew, hell he expected her to fight. To attempt to shove him out with her own abilities which were considerable, given her lack of training. IF she fought him however she would be punished with a strike of force lighting. Not lethal by any mean but painful all the same. A Short burst to break her concentration on defending herself from him. He would repeat the action until she stopped fighting him out and instead did as she was told and closed her mind to all but him.

"Now, reach out. Like you did on Nar Shaddaa, find an object. Feel it in the force and take hold of it. Lift it, like a feather. Then crush it." He put infuses on the crushing part.



@EmilyHuene

 

[Aris the Witch]

Aris listened to the instruction of her master as best as she could. He didn't seem all that thrilled to be explaining to her the ways of the Force. Or what it was, per se. He seemed, almost angered by what he was telling her. Was she imagining it? Maybe she was feeding off of his emotions because it even started to make her angry. He'd then start to push himself into her mind and she fought back slightly as she felt like he was smothering her.

"Listen to me. Push everything else out until all you can hear and feel is me. There is nothing else but me. FOCUS."

But she didn't like him in her head. It felt so wrong. So intrusive. She pushed back trying to give herself some breathing room -as it were. What he did now caused her to lose all of her concentration as his lightning coursed through her. She let out a pained scream and fell to her hands and knees. It wasn't long, but even a few seconds of it was more than she could take. She looked at him in confusion. Why had he hurt her?

She then felt him push into her mind again and she pushed back, trying to understand what he was trying to do. Again she was met with his lightning and now fell to her side and cried out in agony once again. She twitched as it stopped and Aris felt like her muscles were on fire. His mental hold on her was just too strong and she couldn't fight back. She lie there not moving and not fighting back. She let him in, again showing him all the memories he wished to take from her. He'd see her being brought as a young child -no more than four- into a blurry version of her master's home. She couldn't maintain the memory for long as it was just an image of her, but she remembered how purple everything looked.

Vash would see the master, a younger version of himself, reach out and take the girl by hand, pulling her away from whomever brought her here. Aris did not know. She was too young. The memory faded and switched to a different one now. Aris was a few years older and sitting on her bed. She had her collar around her neck and was looking at herself in a hand-mirror. The collar was new to her. And she treated it like some decoration. Again she was too young to realize what was happening to her. All she knew what the collar took away the voices.

Aris was now back in reality and she had opened up to Vash. She could feel him looking over her. Guiding her. She knew what she had to do. She understood why he had lashed out at her. The Force, the Darkness all around her was quiet. She no longer heard the echoes of the ancient voices. All she heard was Vash. He was her new collar. He would take away her voices.

"Now, reach out. Like you did on Nar Shaddaa, find an object. Feel it in the force and take hold of it. Lift it, like a feather. Then crush it."

Aris turned her head away from him and opened her eyes. She branched out with her senses, testing the waters and seeing what was around them. She could feel Vash standing near her. She could feel the earth and the rocks. Then she felt another life force. Aris turned her attention to a tiny mouse-looking creature. It was scurrying between some of the large rocks. Raising her hand toward it she felt herself grab it, but her hand was nowhere near the vermin. Fear took hold of the rat and it began to fight her. The Darkness in the air around her began to fuel her aggression. She would not let it escape.

Lifting her hand so to did the vermin's feet come off the ground. It kicked and flailed trying to escape its captor but no physical force was there to pull from. The Dark continued to inspire her. It all seemed so natural. She barely had to lift a finger. Her hands closed tightly around its frame and she could feel its ribs breaking and the air in its lungs emptying into nothing. Tiny cracks were heard as she broke its frame and the life blinked out of existence. Done with the deed, she then let go of the body and it fell to the sand.

Still on the ground, Aris turned her head back to her master and looked up at him seeking approval. She probably looked foolish lying there like she was sun bathing. And he was sure to scold her for it. One way or another she'd get back to her feet after this and brush herself off.

 

[Vash Windrider]

Vash stood before Aris and watched. He could feel the force within her. He could feel the emotion and power swell within her. It was the first step. He took great pride then when she fed off the hate and darkness all around them and crushed the tiny rodent as she was instructed. He was impressed, not angry. Vash lifted his hand to his apprentice to help her to her feet.

"Now that you have opened yourself to the dark side, and your emotions. Let us continue your journey." He continue to speak into her mind. He did so with ease now and without hesitation. The Sith then turned from her after getting to her feet and simply leaped from the cliff's edge. Aris would only see him jump. No net, no jet boots. Just off. Vash plummeted to the floor of the great divide. At the last moment he would use the force to push a cushion of energy between himself on the sandy rock floor.

"Down here, my apprentice." He called to her from the safety of his new position.

 

[Aris the Witch]

"Now that you have opened yourself to the dark side, and your emotions. Let us continue your journey."

Feeling him in her mind was still unwelcome, but she did not resist him. She would nod in response and follow him over to the cliff's edge. She didn't dare go as close as he for she'd already looked down and did not like what she saw the first time. Perhaps some fear of heights was brewing inside her? Or maybe it was just this place preying on her fears. She looked over to him as he then suddenly jumped over the edge. Her eyes went wide and she reached out for him as she cried his name, but he was gone. She dared herself to take another step to the edge and then peered down.

"Down here, my apprentice."

Aris looked over the edge and saw her master was unharmed. He'd landed on two feet and didn't seem to have any trouble in doing so. She backed up slightly and a piece of rock under her feet broke away and she watched it fall down to the depths. Aris gulped. She would have to do as he did. She knew this already. She could feel the Force still swaying about her. She trusted in it as it spoke to her. So many had jumped from this cliff throughout the ages. She was just another jumper.

Her heart raced and her breathing picked up as she mentally counted herself down to the final push. With a shriek she jumped over the edge and screamed the whole way down. Somehow, the Force knew what to do and instructed her how to use It to slow herself. She reached out and just like she had with the rodent slowed her fall. But that didn't stop her enough from hitting the ground hard and rolling over herself before finally stopping. She groaned loudly from the discomfort, but luckily nothing had broken.

"Owie..." she'd now say when he moved over to her.

 

[Vash Windrider]

Vash looked on with folded arms and a sense of disbelief in his new apprentice. He was rushing her, maybe even toying with her a little. His Master after all was a war. A never ending one it seemed. So here he was, watching his would be apprentice plummet to the sandy rock floor. He was impressed, until the thud sound. He gave a deep and irritated sigh and leaned his head down to touch the bridge of his nose into three fingers that pressed hard. He was rushing her.

Well, either way it would be amusing to watch. But she might surprise him. Vash would raise his head from his hand and tuck it back while he walked over to her. "You'll get it next time", he said. More an order then a message of reassurance. To push the point across he would once again reach out his hand and focus the force into a shower of lighting to would consume Aris' body. It was just enough to make his point and he would allow her to fall to the sand.

"Now, get up and let us continue."

 

[Aris the Witch]

"You'll get it next time"

"Next time," she repeated with a smile.

But that smile faded just as quick as his hand pointed to her and another rush of lightning overtook her. Aris screamed and curled into herself. The pain hurt so much. She couldn't control her body; it just clenched and pulsed on its own. When it ended she felt like she'd just ran a marathon. Everything hurt. Everything burned.

"Now, get up and let us continue."

"Why?!" she'd cry and untuck her legs from her chest. "I jump! Why pain! I jump! I jump!"

 

[Vash Windrider]

"Because you are weak. You must learn to trust in your power. In the force. In the dark side" he spoke calmly but with passion. The dark side carrying his words into her mind to take seed and grow. "I saved you from your life of slavery. Do not waste my kindness. If you can not learn to use the force, you can not join the ranks of the Sith and you will be of no further use to me." He continued.

To continue the mind games he would then reach out to her and offer his hand to raise her to her feet. He would send feelings of forgiveness and understanding through the force. Once she took it he would help her to her feet and then turn, returning his attention to the canyon they were now in. The battle for Korriban was long over and the sands had claimed much of the dead but the souls and the dark side still resonated here. "Now stand with me apprentice. Reach out again, feel the battle before. The lives taken, the ripples of death within the force. Embrace it. The passion and fear of war, of battle. It feeds the dark side and thus powers your abilities."

 

[Aris the Witch]

"Because you are weak. You must learn to trust in your power. In the force. In the dark side"

In a slightly defeated gesture she lowered her head. He was upset with her. His tone did not express as such but his words did. They meant bad things. She was weak. Aris knew what that word meant. Weak. All her life she'd been weak. All her life she'd been nothing but a trophy. But she never had any grievances with it. Why was it upsetting her now?

"I saved you from your life of slavery. Do not waste my kindness. If you can not learn to use the force, you can not join the ranks of the Sith and you will be of no further use to me."

"Forgive," she would ask of him. "Forgive."

And to which it seemed like he did. He held his hand out once more and the meek female took it without alarm. She dared herself to look up at him, hoping for his approval. Something in the way he was watching her made her feel like she could do better. She wanted to be better. For him. She would feel then his emotional push into her brain and accepted the feelings. His praise was all she wanted then, and holding his hand for that brief moment gave her that. A certain warmth she'd felt before for him returned, but it was gone just as quick.

"Now stand with me apprentice. Reach out again, feel the battle before. The lives taken, the ripples of death within the force. Embrace it. The passion and fear of war, of battle. It feeds the dark side and thus powers your abilities."

Closing her eyes to focus she did as she was told. Connecting to the Force was so easy now that she understood what exactly it was. The Darkside met her halfway and guided her, no; more or less pulled her into it. She was drowning in its aura and didn't seem to care. This is what he wanted. The Dark side would rebuild her. It would sculpt her into the sorceress he wanted her to be. She could feel the essence she first encounter, the collective lives of those lost before their time. Anger. Pain. Fear. All powerful emotions she could relate to and embrace. They gave her power. They gave her focus.

 

[Vash Windrider]

Forgive, she begged. But there was nothing to forgive, truthfully nothing for the young woman to apologize for. This was a twisted game he was playing and she was merely another piece on the bored for him to use to his strategy. As this fledgling Empire grew so did the possibilities within it. Whispers of the new Lords looking to fill their ranks were abound and Vash was setting his sites on the one called The Eternal. A powerful assassin and force user and one that the former Shadow could see himself learning the most from as this Empire swallowed worlds. Vash also knew that he could not make moves without reassurances, without reinforcement. Without pawns.

He returned his attention to her as Aris took his hand a rose to him. He could feel the strength of her ability within the force even now, wild and primal. He thought on that as Aris did as instructed and opened herself to the dark side of took it all in. Her lack of combat prowess could be fixed in time but her lack of control over the force took the greatest priority. A focused sorceress would prove to be her best but he doubted she would rise to the power and ability of one such as the Empress. What would fit this wild child better and also augment his own goals.

A twisted and sinister smile would appear across his face as the force revealed to him a place known to him from his days as a Jedi Shadow. A place both primitive and powerful. That was perhaps a steeped in dark side energy as Sith Space itself. "Dathomir."

 

[Aris the Witch]

Aris continued to amass herself within the Dark side until her master told her to stop. She already felt like she was drowning in its wake. It had taken hold of her and she'd surrendered to it per her masters will. It warped her mind and fed her ambitions of power. Her fears grew within her and then were replaced by cold emotion. She could not show fear. She would show her enemies fear. All would come to fear Aris. She would be a powerful tool of the Darkness and with it no one would ever challenge her.

She turned to Vash, and raised her hands to him like she might throw lightning -thought she knew not how- as he had done to her, "Power....More. Need more."

 

[Vash Windrider]

"Soon, there are other pieces in motion. For now let us finish your first training session. Sith and Pure Blood alike have been seen death and returned to the force here. Use the force to reach out and find a weapon from this battle. " Vash requested calmly. This was his plan all along to guide her to finding a weapon with the force, a saber would of been his preference but he would allow his apprentice to make her own choice and claim for herself what ever called to her.

 

[Aris the Witch]

"Soon, there are other pieces in motion. For now let us finish your first training session. Sith and Pure Blood alike have been seen death and returned to the force here. Use the force to reach out and find a weapon from this battle."

"Wea-pon?" she'd repeat, testing the word.

Aris didn't know what it meant. But it was obvious once she glanced at his hip where his own weapon lie. Seeing the lightsaber on his belt she knew that was what he was referring to. He'd threatened with it when they first met. She remembered it well. How afraid she was. This is the tool he wanted her to have.

There could have been any weapon in the verse she could have chosen, but nothing seemed a better fit than a lightsaber. A Sith's weapon. She never imagined herself having a sword. Nor a blaster either. Weapons were not her cup of tea. Then again, she didn't really have any practice in fighting anyways. Still, the notion of having one felt foreign and she wasn't sure how she felt about that.

The other reason she searched for one of the laser blades was simply because that's what she thought it was called. Weapon. She needed one just like his. Coming back with anything less would surely result in another hail of lightning. So Aris reached out in her new found aura and walked out onto the sandy, desert plane. The wind blew around her and tiny rocks were picked up in the gust as well. She felt all. She heard all. The echoes of the past showed mirage images in her minds eye. She could are the fighting. The civil distrust between clans. Aris could see blades clashing back and forth and the weapons being lost to time. How long had these blades been lost under the sand? Would any of them still work?

Then an image came to her. Past? Present? Future? She knew not. But there were warriors in red all marching across the cracked ground. They wielded blades that sprouted from both ends. Staffs. Somehow she knew it was meant for her. Aris stopped and knelt down as she watched the leader of this group kneeling before her. The bodies behind him were decaying rapidly and turning to skeletons. His own was starting to age just not as quickly. Aris watched the mirage falling and him dropping the saber as his body fell victim to whatever Evil had afflicted him.

Using the Force she ripped open the ground and red sand and earth and rock blew around her in a tornado of furry. She reached down and picked up this lost saber and gripped the warm metal hilt in her hand. She felt the man's Force aura as he died and left this earthly body. The whirlwind would now die out and the rocks fell back to the ground and cluttered away. Aris stood and turned toward her master she'd left behind on the base of the cliff. She would return to him with this weapon. She would return to him a Sith.

Walking up to him now she thrust her hand out in demonstration that she had done as he asked. "Weapon."

 

[Vash Windrider]

Vash gave a nod of acceptance as the young woman managed to find a weapon in such a short time. It was not one she made herself but there would be time for that later. She needed something to work with now and a twin bladed staff weapon would do fine, as long as she didn't hack her legs off. So ended the lesson thus far. She was in touch with the force and her gift with it. He also managed to open her to the darkness and lust for power within her.

" Very good apprentice. You will now take these skills and weapon and practice."


/End Thread.