Anabeth: Spark Of Change

Chapter 11 - Training

Throughout the course of the next two weeks Anabeth and Windu spent most of their time training and meditating. Ana worked hard to keep up to the standard her Master was setting for her to hopefully proof that she wasn't a waste of time. This included things like learning how to fly fighters, brushing up on her force abilities and, what Ana found most annoying, meditation and lectures on why and how to keep her emotions in check. The Master and Padawan spent many hours in the training room, working on Anabeth's lightsaber Forms, sometimes even together with Master Billaba and Caleb.

Whenever Windu had Council meetings to attend Ana would go to the library to catch up on all sorts of studies or attend one of Cin Drallig's classes to sparr with other Padawans her age. To no one's surprise Ana had trouble getting along with many of the other Padawans who simply didn't know how to deal with someone like her. Thankfully, Master Drallig always kept an extra close eye on Anabeth when she was in class in order to keep her out of harms way. He had quickly taken a special liking to the girl that didn't go unnoticed by her classmates.

Ana also soon learned that beeing apprentice to a Master that was on the Council had many unexpected advantages. She more or less knew many of the Master somewhat personally, knew about the newest troup deployments and got to attend the most interesting briefings. Surely, any Padawan would have loved to swap places with her if it wasn't for the fact that Windu and Anabeth still had a difficult and fragile relationship.

"Blade up!" Windu reminded Ana in a somewhat annoyed voice. "The blade is up!" the girl shot back at him as Windu charged at her. The two of them were once again sparring and as always curious Padawans had gathered in the spectator booth to watch their duel. Windu pretended to go for her torso before he quickly changed and swung his blade towards Ana's head. The girl had no trouble blocking it as she moved her right foot slightly forward.

This movement however, presented an opening for Windu who used his own foot to sweep Ana off her legs. The girl fell backwards, hitting the floor with a painful grunt as her Master pointed his purple blade at her triumphantly. "You're blade wasn't up or I wouldn't have been able to do that" he lectured her. Anabeth sighed in defeat as Windu deactivated his lightsaber, clipping it to his belt before offering Ana a hand and helping her to her feet again.

Even during Ana's short time at the Temple it had quickly become clear that Anabeth was pretty useless at lightsaber combat. Sure, she could deflect blaster shots with ease and even beat most of the other Padawans in a duel, but that was only due to the fact that she had a far greater knowledge of the seven Forms of lightsaber combat than the other Padawans and thereby knew about the weaknesses of each From and how to exploit them. The second she went up against more skilled lightsaber duelists like Windu or Drallig she would instantly loose. Ana obviously lacked the talent for lightsaber combat most other Jedi with such a high midichlorian count had.

"I know Master, but can't we just move on to Form seven? You're going to have to teach me Vapad at some and realistically speaking, I'd stand a better chance with it" Anabeth grew frustarted about beeing stuck on the Djem So variation of Form five. "We'll move on to that soon, once I deem you ready to do so. Because, realitically speaking, Vapad is still the most dangerous Form there is and you will need to be able to use more than one lightsaber Form" Mace explained to her.

"Fine by me I guess" the girl accepted her Master's words, summoning her training saber that she had dropped during her fall back to her had. "When do I get my own lightsaber anyway?" she asked as she handed the training weapon over to Windu. "Once I decide that you are ready to go to Illum..." the Jedi Master was interrupted by Ana's protest "I am ready to go to Illum". "You didn't let me finish. You get your own lightsaber once I decide that you are ready to go to Illum with a Youngling Clan" Windu finished his sentence.