Star Wars: Darkside

Ch: 1

A white void surrounded me as Nadia and I spared for probably the hundredth time that month. I was able to keep up with her ferocity...but she also never touched her other saber meanwhile I always had to have both my sabers up to mostly defend against her single blade.

Defend.... That was all I did...all I could do. I couldn't get a single hit in on her...not even a near miss.

"Nova...use your anger...! Strike at me...!" Nadia harshly told me.

Use my anger...that wasn't the way I was taught. Ashlyn never even taught me to use it...only to balance it with the light side. She only taught me light and neutral abilities.

"No...!" I swiftly told Nadia. "I will not...I'm a Jedi, not a Sith." I've lost count of how many times I've protested this fact.

"But you can't fall to the darkness." She told me, quite harshly. "It's impossible for a Grey."

Grey...Nadia's term for a Grey Jedi as she's a Sith...not a Jedi. So she shortens it to Grey.

"Just because I can do something doesn't mean I should," I informed her, thinking about something I once heard Master Yoda say during one of my first training sessions with him. At the time...I would use the Force for nearly everything as it was the easiest and quickest option. I still rely on it for some things...but not nearly as much as I used to.

"Spoken like a true Jedi." She said, a bit mockingly. "And you are so much more than a Jedi." She locked her crimson blade with both of mine. "Shall we take this up a notch...?" With that, her green eyes flickered towards a Sith yellow. She was barely even using the Dark side...mostly relying on her training with a blade.

Her attacks grew ever more ferocious but at least she didn't use the Force...well...she did but only to enhance her physical abilities: speed, strength, agility. In no time at all, she disarmed me of my weapons and held her saber up to my neck. At least she'd pulled back...I can't quite seem to remember just how many times she'd 'killed' me with her saber...too many to count. She only seemed to pull back her last strike in our duels to not cause me to leave. She was impatient...so much so that she made Anakin seem very patient in comparison. She did not want to wait for me to get back here.

"156-0, little Padawan." She seemed to tell me my score...156 supposedly being how many times I've lost to her. I may forget...but she remembers. She keeps track...something to lure over me. "Maybe if you actually used your emotions...you might actually win. Now I do say 'might'."

"That wasn't how I was taught." I pointed out to her.

"Just like Ashlyn...." She seemed to complain before she turned back to me, a cold look in her eyes. "So unlearn everything you think you know, Padawan."

"I can't just-." I started to tell her only for her to interrupt me.

"Unlearn!" She seemed to insist, to yell. The raw emotion behind her words was deafening. With her hand that didn't hold the saber, which was still pointed at me, a slight cracking seemed to sound as purple lightning sprung to life between her fingers. Her blade was deactivated. It quickly found its place along her belt before her other hand too crackled with purple lightning.

The second the lightning jumped from her fingers, I quickly managed to place a blue barrier in front of me to catch it. Darkness, true Dark side energy, seemed to radiate from Nadia's aura. It only grew stronger as her lightning grew in power.

My barrier collapsed under its weight as the lightning crashed into me, sending me to the ground with a soft thud and a startled cry as the lightning danced across my body.

The lightning stopped yet I still laid on the ground of the void, tense as if my nerves still felt like they were being electrocuted. I heard footsteps from behind me, stopping about a foot away from me before I felt like I was being lifted with the force.

I now faced Nadia, her eyes still a menacing yellow. She looked visibly angry...no beyond angry...she was livid.

"Perhaps a change of scenery will convince you to embrace what you truly are, Padawan." She told me before the void around us started to shift to that of sand...for as long as the eye could see. It was much like the first time Ashlyn brought me to her memory of Tython but this felt different.... She released her hold on me as I dropped to the ground.

I laid there, slightly paralyzed as I could feel this overwhelming power that surrounded me. It was intoxicating...I felt a coldness to this hot desert world. It was unsettling to say the least.

"W-where are w-we...?" I strained to speak as I laid there, my mind swirling with this new energy. Never have I sensed the darkness to this extent...it was worse than Nadia's aura. A thousand times worse....

"Korriban." She told me as she faced a huge metal building that kind of resembled a pyramid that sat behind us. "The ancient home-world of the Sith and much like the Jedi home-world of Tython...or rather not seeing as how Korriban's filled with Dark side energy instead of Light."

"W-why did you bring me here...?!" I asked her, instantly not wanting to be here.

"Where are you going to learn to let loose...?!" She questioned me. "In the balance of that void...? Or here...?!"

"I'd rather not at all!" I yelled to her as I tried to push myself up...which was a struggle amongst this darkness as it kept me down. I somehow managed to sit up on my knees as my hands grasped the ground to keep myself up.

"Spoken like a true Jedi...." She seemed to angrily mutter. "Padawan...you are so much more than just a Jedi. You'll never reach your true potential if you never see that much." Her voice became more like a command as she issued an order. "Stand."

With a deep breath, I shakily stood up before I looked around. The sky was dark with thunderstorms in the distance, sand covered everything...everything other than the metal pyramid like building which looked to be a temple of some kind. Mountains made of sandstone like rocks surrounded us on all sides, we stood in a valley like area between the mountains.

My eyes scanned over to Nadia...it was like this darkness didn't affect her...not in the slight. No.... I took another look into her aura. It was like this darkness fueled her own...she was drawing upon it's power.

"You'd feel better if you drew upon the darkness." She told me, matter of factly.

"And go against everything I've ever learned...?" I questioned her.

Her eyes scanned down to my finger...to my wedding ring. It was only visible while in the force...other times I would keep it hidden on a necklace. "It would appear you've already gone against it." She stated. In the months I've known her...she's never commented on it. "Or correct me if I'm wrong...but aren't Jedi still forbidden from marriage...?"

I looked down at my wedding ring...I had no answer for her on that front. Yes, Jedi weren't allowed to marry but...I love him...another thing in which Jedi are not allowed to do. We are forbidden from attachments and yet I still had them but there was one thing I wasn't going to break...Grey Jedi or no. I wasn't going to use the Dark side...which put a constant damper on Nadia's training plans.

"So...are you...?" She asked me, more so demanded than questioned. "Or do you need some help...?" She was quite impatient.