A second chance

[Hidia]

Hidia sat outside the Sith Academy. She had made a point to find a spot as far away from anyone else as possible. She never liked people. Whenever possible, she tried to avoid them. And that was before she had found herself kidnapped and turned into a test subject. Now, it had been years since she had any meaningful contact with anyone.

Once she had broken free, it hadn't taken her long to make up her mind where to go. Having discovered her Force sensitivity, possibly the first good thing that ever happened to her. She knew she needed to find a place to help her learn to use it. She never considered going to the Jedi. She despised the Republic, having been exploited by criminals for years on their capital without any sign they cared in the slightest, and in turned hated the Jedi for much the same reason. Going to the Sith, then, had been the logical move. Right now, having just arrived not too long ago, all they had really done so far was give her what she assumed was the basic uniform all of their new arrivals get. Not much, but it was more then she had when she got there, and she had learned to take what she could get from life. Now, she sat outside, staring at the people training outside of the Academy, watching and observing them.

[member=Arturious Engel]

 

[Arturious Engel]

Arturious walked towards the Academy with a mix of urgency and nostalgia. He had finally come home, returned to the only place he felt both safe and wanted. The place where he had both shed blood and spilled blood. There was a sense of calm within him, one he had not felt in a long time.

Arturious was dress as he always was with his hood covering his face. As he got closer to the Academy he saw a lone figure sitting among the rocks. Drawing closer Arturious eyed the young woman curiously wondering what it was that kept her so far from the tools that all sith embraced and twisted to make them strong, made them more than what they were. He was intrigued and as he had nothing to occupy something for the moment he silently walked up behind her speaking softly.

"Tell me child why do you sit so far from a seat of power?" "A place where destinies are forged and the weak are made strong." "Do not fear the unknown but embrace it as a tool to be manipulated to your desires."


[member="Hidia"]

 

[Hidia]

Hidia glanced at the man who had come up to her. Typical, she finds the most isolated spot in the area, and still someone insists on talking to her. "I am sitting here because this place is isolated from others. I had thought no one would notice me here. I don't like being around people, you see. But I was not sitting and doing nothing at all." She pointed at the people training. "I was watching them. Seeing what they did, what mistakes they make, that sort of thing. When they finished, I intended to try to replicate what they did."

[member=arturious engel]

 

[Arturious Engel]

Arturious smiled slipping his hood down revealing a buzzed hair cut and a slight smile. Turning to her he spoke softly.


"An inquisitive eye always watching looking for a chance, looking for that one mistake that creates the opening to end a fight before it begins."


Arturious takes a seat among the rocks staying just out of reach but close enough to be able to speak with out having to yell.

"You may call me Arturious." "I am a Knight of this order." "What is your name child."


Arturious would wait just long enough for her to answer before speaking again.

"What brings you to our little slice of paradise?" "What drives you to seek out power?" "We all have our reasons." "For me it was a vow to never be a slave again, to never be a prisoner again." "To grow strong enough to defeat all those who would seek to do me harm."

Arturious smiles looking at the girl.

"What drives you little one?"

[member="Hidia"]

 

[Hidia]

"My name is Hidia." She said as she continued to watch the trainees. As he continued, asking his questions, Hidia was surprised at how much the reasons he said he joined the order matched her own. "I was a prisoner too. For the last 5 years or so. I thought for sure I was going to die there. Then I discovered I was a Force Sensitive. I broke free, killed them all. Then I came here, to learn how to use this power. This is my second chance at life, and I do not intend to waste it."

[member=Arturious Engel]

 

[Arturious Engel]

[member="Hidia"]

Arturious smiled a little at the girl.

"My parents were murdered when I was six by a gang who decided to keep me as a pet forcing me to do their bidding." "For years a was a slave until a rival gang member set me up to take a beating." "I would have died if not for a random security patrol that found me and took me to a med center."

Arturious snorted.

"Of course when I didn't die they tossed me in prison." "There I met an old man who taught me how to fight how to survive." "He showed me there was good in this wretched galaxy." "He showed me there was compassion."

Arturious paused with a smile before continuing.

"When I was finally free I got my revenge on the man who set me up."

Arturious slid a small sword from a sheath on his back and laid it down between them.

"This belonged to him." "After that I stowed away of a ship and ended up on a Sith world." "Where I trained hard to be better than what I was."

Arturious absently toyed with the necklace around his neck twirling the dragon's tooth on it.

"A few battles later I was Knighted and became a Knight a member of a new family."

Arturious stood with a smile.

"Come watching from the distance will only get you so far." "How about I show you the same compassion the old man showed me and teach you how to become more than you are."

Arturious walked a few away and turned to look back at the girl.

"Bring the sword with you."

 

[Hidia]

Hidia hesitated a moment, having clearly not expected this. She wasn't sure if this was some sort of trap, or a test, or something. She took one last glance at the trainees. He was right in saying that watching would only get her so far. He didn't seem to be lying about what he said, from what she could tell. Making her decision, she picked up the sword and followed him.

[member=Arturious Engel]

 

[Arturious Engel]

When [member="Hidia"] picked up the sword and stood Arturious turned and started towards the Academy entrance completely by passing the group of students she had been watching. As the got to the doors it seemed as if one of the Troopers guarding the door smiled even though you could not see his face as he addressed Arturious with a cheery welcome back Lord Engel.

Arturious turned slightly and nodded to the guard passing through the door way. Arturious paused just inside for a moment closing his eyes taking a deep breath and whispered. "I am home."

With out another word Arturious pushed forward past the main room, past the Archives, and past most of the larger training rooms until they came to the end of a hallway which must have been the very back of the Academy.

Arturious ran his hand over the door way with a soft smile before pushing it open and stepping through. Walking to the other end Arturious turned and faced the door, faced Hidia. The room was smaller than the other barely large enough to give 4 people room to practice. The walls were lined with weapon racks most of them filled with training sabers of various kinds. Standard single blade, double bladed staffs, even a shoto or two lined the racks.

Arturious held out a hand calling the sword Hidia held in her hand back to him with the force.

 

[Hidia]

Hidia let the weapon leave her hand, and looked over the various weapons on the wall. She had never seen this many weapons in one place before, and there were a number of weapon types she had not seen before. "I take it you want me to choose a weapon." She walked over to one of the walls, and picked up one of the weapons, testing it's weight in her hand. Deciding against it, she put it back. "Any recommendations?"

 

[Arturious Engel]

Arturious chuckled at [member="Hidia"]

"Actually no I did not want you to choose a weapon yet." "You have failed your first test young one."

Arturious put the sword back in his sheath.

"What is the first thing you do when you enter unfamiliar territory?"

 

[Hidia]

Hidia thought about her response for a moment before replying.

"Whenever I enter unfamiliar territory, I look around the area, note things like entry and exit points, people around me that could be a threat, identify things that can be used against me, or that I can use against others. It has served me well in the past."

[member=Arturious Engel]

 

[Arturious Engel]

Arturious smiled.


"Very good but you are only using your eyes, your ears, only the senses of an average person." "The force provides so much more and tells you so much more."


Arturious closed his eyes pushing out through the force to tap against Hidia's shoulder, reaching out to feel her connection in the force as he spoke.

"The force can tell you so many things that your eyes and ears would never notice." "They tell you not only about the area around you about the hidden dangers but about the person standing in front of you."

Arturious began to circle the room as he did he reached out with his hands as several objections carefully placed behind the obvious racks flew to his hands before being dropped into a circle around Hidia. A flash grenade here a small dagger there nothing that would be more than a mild annoyance for a trained Knight but could ruin an unprepared acolyte's day. When Arturious had made a full circle standing back to where he had started he opened his eyes again and looked at her.

"Long before you decide what your weapon of choice is you need to know who you are and what you hope to accomplish in your training." "Do you want to be a Master of the Dark side conjuring evil and nasty things to cursed and twist your enemy."

As Arturious spoke he project a brief glimpse of a prison cell in towards Hidia's mind as if attempting to get his point across. Letting it only linger for a moment if it worked before clearing it from her focus.

"Or do you want to live by the sword slaying your enemies with the mighty stroke of a lightsaber?"

Arturious smiled softly.

"These are the things you must decide before you ever pick up a sword."


[member="Hidia"]

 

[Hidia]

Hidia closed her eyes and considered her options. On one hand, she could learn to use the Force as her primary weapon. But she wasn't sure she was willing to rely on something she could not physically hold in her hand as her main form of attack yet. She didn't want to suddenly have it fail at a critical moment and end up defenseless as a result. On the other hand, she had been forced to use physical weapons on a number of different occasions, knifes, swords, whatever she could get her hands on, so she had experience using them to an extent. Her mind made up, she opened her eyes again and replied.

"I choose to live by the sword."

[member=Arturious Engel]

 

[Arturious Engel]

Arturious nodded.

"Fair enough I path I know well but that is simply not the end of the choices before you." "Now you have to decide in what manner you do so."

"Do you attack from stealth or do you meet your opponent head on face to face sword to sword." "Even further than that do you choose honorable combat of a duelist using no tricks but your own skill or do you walk the path of whatever it takes to win?"

Arturious smiled softly.

"There is no wrong answer but each has their own reasons for choosing the method that they do."

[member="Hidia"]

 

[Hidia]

This time Hidia did not need to do much considering before she gave her reply.

"For the first, I choose stealth. Brute force was never my strong suit, and I was often forced to rely on stealth in the past. I see no reason to change that now."

"And for the second, I do whatever it takes. I have never understood why some people are obsessed with honorable combat. Honor doesn't do you any good if you end up dead in a ditch because you refused to do what was needed."

 

[Arturious Engel]

Arturious smirked.

"I choose honorable combat." "Do you think you have what it takes to defeat me young one." "Honorable combat is not about a lack of resolve." "It is a resolve to not resort to trickery and decent to win." "It is about pushing yourself to your limits and passing them." "It is about the use of the force to not manipulate your enemy but to strengthen yourself." "Do not get confused when our enemy has no honor you do what is needed to survive."

"Form II is about nothing more than the clash of swords between to swordsman it is the basis of all of us Jedi and Sith alike who live by the sword."


Arturious motioned for the door.

"I can only teach you the Blade forms with a little bit of the more overt force techniques such as lightening, choke, and fear. If it is stealth and trickery you wish then you will have to find another to show you the path."

"You are not limited in what you can learn but there is a limit to what I can teach you." "Freedom is about having a choice." "You can stay and learn what I have to offer or you can seek out another to begin your journey to growth and self discovery."

[member="Hidia"]

 

[Hidia]

Hidia considered his words carefully. What he said sounded reasonable, and she had to admit that what he said held a certain appeal to her. Even if he could not teach her everything she wanted to know, he would still be able to provide more then she would probably be able to learn on her own. She could always find other ways to learn how to use the more stealthy powers later if she still wanted to.

"Very well. I will learn what you can teach me."

 

[Arturious Engel]

Arturious nodded.

"Good get some rest [member="Hidia"] your training starts tomorrow." "You will start with working on your ability to control the Force instead of letting it control you." "It is the foundation to everything else including Swordmanship."


Arturious dropped down sitting on his heels closing his eyes and slipping into a meditative state.

"Welcome to the Academy Acolyte Hidia."