New Power

Ch 10

Cain slowly looked around the training room. He had come early to get to know whoever was teaching him, but no one was there. The room itself was huge, training sabers made of wood lined the walls in racks and there were countless spherical droids that Cain was yet to know what the purpose of.

"Looks like I'm your teacher," a very familiar voice said behind him. Cain turned around. Anakin stood behind him with his arms crossed and a smirk on his face. He wasn't wearing his usual black Jedi robes, but rather a black t-shirt and grey sweatpants. "You can take that bucket off. You won't be able to breathe with it on."

Cain rolled his eyes and removed his helmet. "Is anyone able to see in here?" Cain asked.

"Nope. I made sure all doors were locked before I came in here, and the only glass is the roof."

"Good. Now, where do we start?"

"With Form 1." Anakin Force-Pulled two wooden training sabers to him and then threw one at Cain.

"Alright, so you'll need to copy my movements. Ready position." Anakin said and stood in a general ready position. Cain stood in front of him, giving them space and copied Anakin's stance.
"This form favours a direct approach to combat. However, it utilises parries after every attack and returning to a defensive stance. You don't want to overdo or underdo the offense and defense as it will throw the balance of the attacks off. Now, parry." Anakin swung his practise saber at Cain's head and he barely managed to parry it. The sheer force of the blow left Cain's arms feeling akin to jelly.

"The attacking motions of this form consists of direct attacks to the opponent. What I had demonstrated before was one such attack. To strike multiple opponents, the form favours wide sweeping attacks. Had this have been ten thousand years ago, this would have seemed foolish and impractical with a regular metal blade. However, with a lightsaber does not face the issues of a regular blade and can damage all of its opponents." Anakin lowered his practise saber and swept wide at Cain. He jumped back to dodge it.

"This is a very traditional form. It is still used all over the galaxy by countless warriors. Meaning it is one of the most used ones, so you will need to know how to counter it." Anakin readied his blade. "Now, parry." The blows came fast and Cain found the third attack knocking him down. He rubbed his side and stood back up. Anakin chuckled. "Those hits are going to need some getting used to."

Anakin made a quick succession of attacks, which Cain all blocked miraculously but with not much elegance. Anakin stood in a defensive stance and readied himself for Cain's attacks. Cain took the cue and attampted to break through Anakin's defence, only to realise he needed to step back and ready himself for his opponent's attacks.

"Good, you're getting the hang of it." Anakin praised as a rattle came from the main entrance of the training grounds. Anakin motioned Cain to put his helmet back on and he unlocked the door. Ahsoka was standing there.

"Hello Master, I wanted to know how Cain was going," she said and looked behind Anakin to Cain. Cain made a little wave at her.

"Alright, come in."

Cain took his helmet off again and clutched the training saber in a ready position. Anakin did a little twirl and made seemingly impossible attacks to block. Cain managed to block every one of them.

"Good, you are starting to use the Force to aid you in combat. Or defence at this point," Anakin applauded. "The Force is something you need in combat, especially as a Force-sensitive being. Utilise the Force. It is there for you to use. But be careful and don't overextert yourself. It hurts badly and we'll have to bring you to the medbay and sign it off as something else."

"I'll try my best," Cain confirmed.

"Do or no not, there is no try. As Master Yoda says." Anakin swung wide at Cain. Cain didn't try to block it as time seemed to slow down around him. He figured he must be passively using the Force, but how he did not know. Cain lunged forward and mustered up his strength to Force-Push Anakin. Anakin barely had time to register it as he went flying into the wall, straight past Ahsoka. He groaned as he stood up and rubbed his lower back and the back of his head.

"Good job, but ow," Anakin said and winced as he went over a particularly now-sensitive part of his head. Ahsoka stared at Cain as he dropped to the ground. His head suddenly throbbed and he was shaking uncontrollably.

"Anakin!" Ahsoka shouted, getting his attention. They rushed over to Cain as his vision was fading in and out. He was going to pass out, he knew it. He overexterted himself, just as Anakin had warned only moments ago. Cain attempted a laugh at the thought but it came out as a cough. Next thing he knew, he had passed out in Ahsoka's arms.

~~~~<+>~~~~

Cain awoke with a start. He groaned at the bright light of the medbay and turned over in the bed so he was face down. Wait. Face down? He could feel the pillow case against his skin. He turned over and sat up panicked. He took another look at his surroundings. Yes, it was the medbay. However there was no one in it apart from Kix, Ahsoka and Anakin. The two Jedi were busy talking to the medic, probably about what he had fainted from and who he was. Cain laid back down and closed his eyes. His head still throbbed from the overextertion and found that bright light made it worse. Luckily the shaking had subsided.

Anakin noticed Cain was awake.

"What did I tell you?" He said and poked Cain in the arm. Apparently, his armour had been stripped off him. He didn't noticed as he almost always wore it. Cain looked over to Kix uncertainly. "He won't say anything. We were lucky to find the medbay empty. I would've had to bring you to my quarters if it wasn't. How do you feel?"

"Terrible. My head hurts and bright light is making it worse," Cain replied. "How do you do it?"

"Do what?"

"Use the Force all of the time. I passed out from a push."

"Practise. It's not easy at first, but you kind of, I guess, build up a tolerance."

"That's handy to know."

"Don't be such a pessimist. You have a talent for it."

Cain lowered his voice. "Because I'm Obi-Wan's brother?"

"No. Because you have a natural talent. It's so obvious in you that, when you were passed out, Ahsoka said she saw promise in your abilities. Look, you already grasped Form 1 really fast."

"Heh, thanks."

"And look! You bruised me with that push!" Anakin lifted his shirt to reveal a bacta patch that wasn't quite covering a huge bruise.

"I am so sorry." Cain immediately felt responsible for his action.
Anakin laughed. "Don't worry. This is what comes with training. For both the master and apprentice."

"Master?"

"Yes?"

Cain laughed and almost immediately regretted it. Apparently the hit Anakin had landed on him was really starting to hurt. "You're so funny."

Anakin heard the sarcasm rolling off of his words like a tidal wave. "It's my specialty."