Killing is not the Jedi way.
Funny, people who tried telling him what the Jedi way was and wasn't tended to be the ones who stood opposed to it. As though being openly happy about accepting death as a requirement of the job meant that they had any kind of moral high ground. Funny in a dark kind of way that it seemed that people who ought to know what the Jedi way was were lacking in that same department.
Part of him wanted to quip back but it was a part of him that he had learned under the watchful gaze of his Jedi Master and he had seen how that could be twisted so easily. He doubted himself and his ability to do something like that in this moment; doubted his desire to even try to.
Advancing himself, Crix could feel the Force well up within the Sith opposing himself as he prepared his Push and he knew that he could probably battle it out power for power. But he didn't want to. Didn't want to rise to the bait, to the anger that even with every breath he tried to drive from his hearts, from his blood, even if it did always linger within him.
To be a Jedi was not to have an absence of fear or anger or hatred but to rise above them.
To be a Jedi Knight was to know that and to accept it within yourself, in order to face them when they came at you during combat against the Dark.
To be a Jedi Master was to protect others against those same burdens and be a beacon of a better way.
It was supposed to be.
Lifting his left hand, he brought the Force up in front of him in a thinner shape, acting like the bow of a water-based ship to break the brunt of Xeno's Push and force it to flow around him and his narrow shield. Even as he used the Force, he connected to it and through that connection he could feel the panic, the fear and dismay of those around him. His heart ached at his young Padawan, so new to this whole side of the Galaxy, being thrust so harshly into the absolute worst of it all. He tried to reach out to her, through their budding bond as Master and Padawan, to be even just a faint hand on her shoulder during the storm.
A faint reassurance even amidst battle that he hadn't going to let her down even if she felt others already had.
Standing tall amidst the writhing emotion, he changed his footing slightly to be facing Xeno with his right hand forward, his lightsaber humming as he held it in a defensive stance. He needed to resist the urge to be baited, to let the fear and anguish for his friends get to him. Crix stared past his own blade at Xeno's eyes as the Sith taunted him once again but, curiously, refused to actually commit to an attack and allowed Crix another crucial heartbeat or two to center himself against the maelstrom of his own emotions.
"You will try."
@Scoobert