Confronting Fear

Training

Such a lonely day
And it's mine
The most loneliest day of my life

Lonely Day - System of A Down

Ben's arm wrenched in its shoulder socket as he blocked a heavy downward strike from Ushar's war club. As he done so many times before, he grounded himself in the pain, using it to feed his counterattack. With a long stride to the left he moved around to strike at Ushar's knees, only to be thwarted when Vicrul swung his vibro-scythe at Ben's midsection, requiring him to either jump back or be cut in half.

Using his long legs and the Force he launched his self-upwards, forcing Vicrul to skid to a halt in order to miss slicing Ushar. Ben landed behind Vicrul, his strike glancing off his lightsaber resistant armor.

He parried back against both Ushar and Vicrul, swinging his saber in a wide arc. Both Knights dodged easily infuriating Ben even more. His Darkness was loose and it wanted blood. Ben could barely see through the haze in front of his eyes, letting himself become lost in it.

Leia.

While draining, the meeting had gone better than he expected but her impending death weighed heavily on his conscience. For years he had hated her, but despite that, he had never wished her dead. It was a cruelty that just as it seemed he might be able to mend that relationship, to see if Rey was right that Leia had never stopped loving him, she'd be snatched away before long. It was better to keep her at arm's length, the inevitable would hurt less that way.

Then there was Rey, once again looking far too chummy with Dameron for his liking. The logical side of his brain told him it was a simple gesture of comfort between two friends. The Dark whispered of deeds far more sinister, what she might have been doing during the last week. This coupled with her sudden need to run off to the middle of nowhere raised his hackles. Rey was his and if anyone, Dameron or otherwise dared to touch her, there'd be Hell to pay.

With a battle roar that had been known to send his enemies running over each other to get out of his way, he lunged at the pair, his saber moving faster than any normal reflexes would allow. Only Vicrul and Ushar's own experience with the Force saved them from certain doom.

Ushar's screams as Ben's saber made contact with his thigh broke through the Dark haze in his mind. Ben's wrist flicked backwards at the last second. Ushar collapsed under the weight of his leg.

"FUCK KYLO!"

Ben and Vicrul rushed over to examine the leg. Due to Ben's quick reverse, it was simply a nasty slice instead of a severed leg, the tissue instantly cauterized by the heat of the blade.

As Ben and Vicrul helped Ushar to a bench off the main training floor he let off an impressive list of curses in at least three different languages.

Ben retrieved a medpack from a shelf on the wall, hidden amongst a pile of vibro-knives. Ushar called Ben multiple names as he unloaded a syringe of bacta into the flesh around the wound.

"You should have moved faster." Vicrul informed him dryly.

Ben grinned darkly behind his mask. As soon as he'd landed, he'd summoned these two to the Knight's training room for a practice round. If he didn't burn off some of his rage this way he'd have to find another and he'd made Rey a vague promise at some point that he'd try to kill fewer of his minions in the future. It was also a good way to begin to mend the rift amongst them.

To say that he'd been enraged after the incident on Bracca was an understatement, though deep down he knew he had none to blame but himself. He didn't even know which Knight was responsible as Kuruk had fired an exploding round the same time Cardo lobbed a grenade, either or both of which could have caused the rain of shrapnel that had torn Rey apart. He'd immediately assigned them both to a mission on Nal Hutta just to get them away from him before he killed them both. He'd deliberately been avoiding the other four but that needed to end, now more than ever.