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XII. Training

  Unlike her classmates, Tola remained inexpressive most of the time, at least on the surface.

  Komari she was amazed at how easily she could feel the intensity of her new comrade's emotions.

  It was a strange contrast between his apparent calm and his real inner feelings.

  If he was a little apprehensive the first few days, the two girls finally adapted to each other quite quickly.

  Tola's company was strangely pleasant to her, the latter was usually as talkative as she was, which meant not at all.

  They could spend long hours practicing without saying anything or reading each other's classes without a word.

  Academically, Tola was what you could call a very good student, she knew the Jedi teachings by heart and had excellent grades in all these subjects.

  Quite the opposite of Komari who, despite her knowledge and skills as well as her eidetic memory, had a variable interest in the various subjects she followed.

  Only the courses and teachings that she liked or that interested her were worthy of interest in her eyes, the rest she abandoned either by choice, or because she couldn't understand the logic of certain things.

  As such, the teachings on morality and virtue that every initiate was obliged to follow literally passed over his head.

  Not that she doesn't understand the difference between good and evil or the gray areas that go with it.

  It was that she could not string any values to the principle of mercy, forgiveness, or humanity as taught by the order.

  No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't agree with their values and therefore preferred to answer the exams honestly.

  Tola read with an impassive face the answers made by Komari to their last exam on the subject of morality and virtues.

  No matter how impassive she was, Komari can feel her disbelief when she read her answers.

  It must be said that she had answered honestly as best she could.

  "To question number three, what is the value of a life? Did you answer, it depends? She glared at her, but he shrugged.

  "From a realistic point of view, life has no value to begin with. Then we add variables, social class, race, education, and the very value that this life creates within society. But from another point of view, as they say about Nar Shadda, life is only worth the price of the weapon that took it. ?

  Tola opened her mouth to answer him before finally closing it, she had quickly understood by dint of being around her friend that it was almost impossible to make him listen to reason about these personal values.

  "You could have at least softened your words. To one of the questions you explain that the use of violence is quite valid as a means of negotiation. ?

  "Ah, you know what they say, it's better to negotiate with a blaster in your hand than without," Komari replied, smiling at him, "and I didn't make you read my report so that you could judge my answers, but so that you could help me correct my mistakes. Why does the order make us write so much, I'm starting to have a sore hand, I've written more in six months than in eight years. she complained, shaking her hand.

  Tola rolled her eyes but obeying, only these emotions allowed Komari to know that she found some of these answers far too scandalous.

  She was right, she could have lied or softened her words.

  But if she could do bad things, she prefers to remain honest most of the time, it avoided many complications.

  An honesty can be brutal and cruel, but an honesty that is necessary in his eyes.

  It was perhaps one of her mother's few wishes that she still respected.

  Out of the corner of her eye, she could see some of the ghostly shapes that haunted her, staring at her without a word.

  Since she had arrived at the temple, the ghosts had stopped talking, but not the whispers and seeing in her head.

  She had realized a little with horror that some of these visions had stopped looping in her head, while being replaced by others as if fate had changed slightly.

  At least one of those destinies.

  These visions of the past, they always turn in his head in a blurry way, without plastering, Ice understand all the aspects.

  The best way for her to ignore her memories and visions was to immerse herself in training and studying. She yawned as she stood up, which attracted her friend's attention.

  "Did you train again last night?" asked Tola.

  One of the fluorescent green-eyed girl's routines was to spend the majority of the night repeating these movements with a sword.

  It differed from these visions, for his nights were haunted by his nightmares, Komari saw his family again and again and this time their ghost spoke to him.

  So she couldn't sleep, she didn't want to sleep, she dreaded sleeping. Until now, she had only managed to sleep four hours a night, spending the rest of her time training.

  Tola was one of the few people aware of this state of affairs, and he was grateful that he hadn't told anyone about it.

  Komari understood his lightsaber as he shook his shoulders to start warming up.

  "Come on, let's go to training."

  In sabre Tola was a completely different level than his comrades, despite the lack of regular training partners.

  Komari had been right in her analysis of her cultural heritage, she was a dignified Echani and proud fighter.

  His people were a matriarchal society from a world located in the inner rim and made up of a configuration of six worlds known as the Six Sisters.

  They were a martial people who considered the art of combat as an art of life in its own right, from the point to the spear everything was used as a weapon.

  But it was also a way for them to read feelings and communicate through their struggles, it was even said that when two lovers wanted to fall in love with each other they had to fight the fight of their lives.

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  For these reasons Tola had a lot of potential, at times she could even move faster than Plo koon, which did not fail to surprise Komari.

  And just like her, Tola didn't hesitate to go into melee combat during these fights and use the points when it was useful.

  "Your feet are badly positioned and go into her feet!!" she reminded her as she forced her to back away in a few strokes. "Your balance is bad, it affects your attacks." Komari dodged an attempted lunge followed by a shoulder blow from Tola without stopping talking.

  Tola was slightly unbalanced and tried to quickly recover by following Komari's advice, then she landed two quick blows that were parried by her opponent.

  Before she could attack, Tola raised a hand to stop the fight.

  "Wait, wait, I have to catch my breath," she asked, exhausted by the intensity of the exchange that had taken place.

  "It hasn't been very long already?" Komari wondered, barely out of breath.

  "At the level of an initiator, it's too Komari. I need a break. Tola exclaimed, dropping to the ground, covered in sweat.

  Komari realized that she was training with her friend as she did on Nar shadda away from the quieter styles of the temple.

  To him, it was an indicator of a level of training in the Jedi Order. That she could judge from these visions as far too insufficient to reassure her about the Jedi's ability to withstand a future shock.

  She had nothing against meditation or the courses taught at the temple, even if they didn't always understand them.

  The problem was that the Jedi were used to the long period of peace that had been going on since the great reforms.

  This had made them favor less aggressive and more visual weapons defending diplomacy, peace, without the sword.

  "Frankly, if you want to survive, you have to exceed the standards of the Order. The galaxy is not kind. She said, executing two perfectly mastered movements of Form I followed by a slight push of force.

  She nevertheless sensed her comrade's skepticism and explained herself.

  "There are plenty of individuals or organizations that are capable of killing Jedi. The Mandalorians, the cousins of your people, the Sunguard, the Night Sisters, independent mercenaries, or a simple asshole with a blaster who gets lucky. She enumerated before sitting next to Tola.

  In all honesty, she liked and began to get attached to Tola, for this she did not want the latter to be like the majority of Jedi too confident in her abilities.

  Yes, the galaxy was cruel, she knew it personally.

  "Where did you get your movements? It resembles form one but remains very particular. Tola asked, trying to divert the conversation.

  "These from some of the base city masters of the lower levels of Nar shadda." she received without too many details as an answer.

  In fact, Komari had compared his training duration with that of the rest of the initiates of the order. She has been training since she was four years old like the majority of initiates, with the difference that the training she had received had been much tougher than that provided by the temple.

  The various fencing masters she had met had never hesitated to hit her to make her understand her mistakes. He had put her in situations where she had to face others, the students much older and stronger than them, forcing her to draw on all her resources to get by.

  These were methods far from the standards of the temple.

  Finally, feeling sorry for her comrade, she decided to change her training to face the drones.

  Tola takes great pleasure in seeing her struggle with them.

  "Feel the Komari force, feel the moment when the shooter leaves, don't wait for it," she taunted her just before a drone hit him.

  Komari did not flinch at the weakened laser contact. The pain was nothing compared to that of a real blaster shot.

  Yet it annoyed her, she had a block concerning the interception of shots, each time these memories came back to the surface.

  She dodged the majority of shots instead of intercepting them, which was not expected by training.

  That his comrade was having fun and her difficulties was not a problem for her, but her own inability to deflect the shots was beginning to seriously annoy her. "Come on, it's not complicated, damn it!" she growled inwardly, concentrating more.

  She felt the shot go off, but at the same time ghostly screams came up and made her lose her concentration.

  The shot hits her again, she ended the training, feeling that her anger was about to explode.

  It wasn't the first time she had gotten upset about the training, nor had she been shot at by one of the drones.

  The very first time she had been shot from a blaster in training, she had to slip away to vomit in the toilet in the face of painful memories.

  The second time, she had simply reduced the training drone to parts using force.

  She was aware that getting angry about it wouldn't bring her anything, she had to take her time even if her ego took a hit.

  "If you want, we can ask Plo Koon for help when he comes back from the mission," Tola tried to reassure her, patting her on the shoulders, well aware of her blockages.

  She and the Keldor had quickly become good friends, their style being very similar, the latter's master had graciously accepted Tola in the side training he gave to Komari.

  Komari heaved another sigh, it wasn't just his training that was causing him problems.

  She had read the medical report that Yaddle had made about her, and the result had surprised him.

  It had not expected to be an unknown species. In her visions and memories of a past life, Komari Vosa was a simple human with little particularity other than her madness.

  But she had to recognize that the Komari Vosa of her past visions wasn't quite the same as her current self.

  Where she had white hair, her alter ego of the past had blonde hair.

  Where his eyes were fluorescent green, his alter ego had them blue.

  Where she had lived on Nar shadda, the other vision of the past, she had grown up in the temple.

  And yet she was certain that she was Komari Vosa, at least a different version of Komari Vosa with what seemed to be pretty much the same fate.

  The only thing that could bind them together was the seeds of madness that sprouted in their minds.

  That and what she called the "memories" of her alter ego, which were different from her visions or dreams. It was her memories without being her own, she felt the sensations at times as her alter-ego had felt them.

  One of the problems with her genetic peculiarities was that she didn't know how her body would age, or how her peculiarities would take effect.

  She dreaded having to age like Yaddle's species, that is, to be five to fifty years old.

  And from what she understood, it would take almost 10 years until she came of biological majority for all these skills and particularities to emerge. She was still physically as weak as any child.

  She felt the force approaching the weapons room they were currently using. Because of the bad relations they both had with the rest of their clan, they preferred to train away from the group in old training rooms.

  So it was rare for anyone to come and disturb them.

  She raised eyebrows as she recognized the approaching presence. Entered the Windu room with his eternal stoic look on his face.

  "Initiate Komari." was the only thing that came out of his mouth.

  "Mr. Windu," she replied in the same tone.

  Unlike many Jedi, Windu did not seem bothered by the absence of his title of master, even his emotions were calm.

  At that fateful moment, she made a great resolution to do everything in her power to crack this mask.

  "What's the value of a visit from a member of the Council?" she asked, amused to see Tola's usually expressionless face crack with a hallucinatory look at his lack of respect for a representative of order.

  "As you know, Master Dooku has gone on a mission. Unfortunately the Council had to send him on other operations that required his attention. While waiting for his return, you are entrusted to my care. ?

  This time Komari no longer held back his astonishment and amazement.

  "He entrusted you with my training? He? You? What the hell did I think you were in the cold? ?

  The Jedi Master sighed, "Listen, I'll be honest, I voted against your integration into the order. I remain convinced that you are a threat to us. ?

  At his words she smiled at him, flattered by her consideration. Komari had no doubt that he, the representative of the traditionalist wing of the order, was against an aberration like her within his organization.

  "Master Yoda advised me to train you, on the one hand to keep an eye on you, and on the other hand because it will be a good experience for me according to him."

  "Or a test," Tola said unintentionally, before putting a hand to his mouth, flabbergasted by his statement.

  Windu and Komari looked at him, raising their eyebrows, the initiate intimidated by their gaze lowered his eyes to stare at his feet.

  "Well, as our young friend Tola here said, it will be a test for both of us. I will be happy to train with him, I admit to encountering some difficulties in my training despite his help. ?

  She gave in, preferring to avoid confrontation with him. She was here to learn and don't miss any opportunity to learn.

  "I did sense your frustration," he nodded, "I think young Tola's advice is going in the right direction."

  Tola must have been far past her threshold of expression for the year, turning bright red in the face of the Jedi Master's compliments and began to stammer. This makes Komari laugh.

  "You don't have to feel embarrassed, initiate Tola, succeeding in informing is not easy," Windu blurted out.

  Then he turned his attention back to Komari, frowning.

  "When I came here, I was able to read your work in class on morals and virtue. Some of your teachers alerted me to your answers," Tola's elbow gently hits her in the ribs. A gesture that meant I told you so.

  Komari gave the Jedi Master an innocent smile.

  "Really? I don't see why I answered honestly. In a dramatic gesture, she put her hand to her heart, "Do you doubt my sincerity? ?

  Komari's antics then drew him a dark look from the Jedi Master who crossed the edges in his chest.

  "No, I doubt your motives."

  Not intimidated, Komari imitated the Jedi's gesture by crossing his arms in front of his chest.

  "Oh and what motivation would I have?" she replied, smiling. It was clear that this smile was cold and provocative.

  Ignoring the two Tola swallowed with difficulty in the face of the silent confrontation that was taking place. She was aware of the general lack of respect that her friend had for authority, but this was bordering on madness.

  Windu was an intimidating figure for the initiated, he was mostly stoic with a scowl on his face. None of the initiates of his age and even the padawan wanted to rub it so badly.

  However, before her eyes was a silent confrontation of gaze, between an initiate and a member of the Jedi Council.

  A part of her wanted to hide so as not to witness what was to follow but curiosity pushed her to stay. She would never confess to him but she was impressed by Komari's self-confidence.

  "Master, having read Komari's assignment, I can understand that it is difficult to accept, but the answer itself was free, I don't think she was at fault." But neither of them took their eyes off each other.

  "It's not the form of duty that bothers him, Tola," Komari said, his eyes still fixed on the dark-skinned Jedi, "it's on the meaning of my answers, he doesn't seem to appreciate my honesty. This is perhaps the element that bothers him the most. He knows that I answered honestly. And for him my opinions are more than dangerous. Am I wrong, Master? ?

  She pressed the word Master wryly, "He doesn't agree with the idea that you have to crush skulls in order to negotiate, that you have to threaten and kill."

  Slowly she raised the lightsaber she was carrying on her hip to everyone's eyes.

  "He doesn't agree and yet he carries a sword that allows him to negotiate, frighten and kill. In a sense, the question is rather where is the legitimate violence? And how to control or measure this violence. ?

  In fact, the Jedi did not renounce the use of violence, they even recognized its usefulness. She knew it, you just had to read their archives to understand.

  They had used violence on many occasions, the most recent and most significant events being the Mandalorian genocide, also known as Mandalorian excision or Dral'Han. A campaign of preemptive annihilation of the Mandalorians by the Jedi that had sterilized all the planets belonging to the Mandalorian people and imposed the ideology of the new Mandalorian.

  The biggest difference between it and order was that order justified all its acts of violence by questions of morality, or justified them by the question of the common good.

  "I will not discuss this point with you, initiate. And I'm not really here for that, we're going to have to review the doctrines of the Jedi Order together and instill them in you. In the voice of Master Windu, I was calm, in no way affected by Komari's words.

  "Young Tola you can arrange, I and your comrade have things to see."

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