Darkness Within [Caydren]

[Grawn]

Ziost could be in some ways, compared to Korriban. It was barren but it lacked the red landscape of Korriban, having ice and cold in place of it. However, the landscape was of little importance to Grawn Ianie. No, its connection to the dark side was its most valued attribute. The planet was rumored to be a focal point of the dark side, a Force nexus, and thus the Sith believe it to be a proper first to teach his new apprentice, Caydren Caldrin.

Now, the Assassin couldn't say he held an affection for the sixteen year old. No, Grawn didn't care for him on that sort of level. There relationship wasn't of a father to son variant but one of mere convienence. If Caydren was to succeed in his training and become something of use to the Order, it would look good on Grawn's part.

Stepping off the ramp of his ship, Red Fury, the cold landscape gripped him like a hand seeking to squeeze the life from him. With a mere thought, he forced the cold away from his body and replaced it with a luke warmness. His hood was drawn as he looked around the forest they were in the clearing of. He noticed the lack of fauna noise, as if the forest was dead and all that inhabited it was the echoes of past events that even he could not read clearly.

His masked visage turned to regard his apprentice, looking for any hints of doubt or fear in the teenagers form.

"If you have any second thoughts on what training I am about to put you through here today, say so now. This won't be a walk in the park, boy", Grawn said as he turned to face the dark forest once again, waiting for Caydren's reply.

[Cadyren]

Cadyren followed his master out of the ship, wearing a long sleeved white tunic with long brown leggings as well as a dark cloak so that he would have some protection from the cold. It did little to help however, and the young boy from Tatooine shivered as he walked into the opening. He drew upon his training as a Jedi to ignore the cold, not using the Force or anything, just ignoring it. He managed to ignore the cold for the most part, but opccationally he would rub his arms to get some warmth back into them.

He could sense the Dark Side around him, and this time he ignored his Jedi insticts to shield his mind from its influence, and he thrust his consiousness into the Darkness, reveling in its power. He wondered if he would be able to control the power around him, maniulate it to do his will. He didn't try though, as he had no idea how he would.As he thought he looked around at the trees, which were things he had seen rarely, even as a Jedi. Most of his missions had been on industrial worlds were theire was little flora or none at all, and he found the tree's quite interesting.

He turned his focus on his master as the man spoke to him, shaking his head, he had chosen his path, he would learn from Grawn as much as he could, no matter what torment he would go through. I'm ready master.

[Grawn]

Upon receiving the confirmation, he turned to Cadyren.

"Today, I will be training you in the art of Stealth. Nothing is sweeter then dispatching an opponent without him aware of his fate," the Sith opened his palm and took the lightsaber from Cadyren's belt and twirled it with the Force in his open palm.

"The exercise is simple. You will run into the forest and you will have a ten minute headstart," Grawn said, a slow wicked smile growing on his masked face as he felt the boy grow curious.

"I will be hunting you. You must use the Force and the dark side to mask your presence from me. If I find you, I kill you," Grawn said, masking his mind to make his thoughts unreadable to Cadyren. He wouldn't truly kill the boy, though he would probably strike at him to renew motivation for escape.

"You must avoid and evade me at all costs if you value your life. This will improve dexterity and make you think on your feet. Your lightsaber is taken for the mere fact that sometimes you will not have it to take down a foe, thus the thinking part".

Clipping Cadyren's lightsaber to his belt, he pulled a watch from his cloak and hit the switch from a countdown of ten minutes. Looking away from the watch to Cadyren, he chuckled.

"Good luck, my apprentice. Hopefully that title will stick by the end of two hours. Now go," was the final words he said to his apprentice as he put the watch back in his cloak and folded his arms.

[Cadyren]

(Sorry if the post doesn't make sense, I'm trying to look at this from the point of view of someone who doen't know about the Art of Small and all that, so instead of doing that he's kinda trying to make his Force presense bigger so that its harder to pinpoint his location, i have no idea if this is plausible or not so if you think it isn't i'll happily change my post)

Cadyren could understand why his master wished to teach him in the art of stealth, it was something he had never really been introduced into and he would need to understand it if he were to become an Assassin. He looked at his suroundings once again as he tried to figure out was his task was to be, the planet seemed desolate and he was unsure as to who he would have to avoid or stalk. As the master tolf him that he was to hide from him, and that failure meant death, Cadyren became worried. How was he a young boy who had just started his training as an Assassin supposed to aoid Grawn, who was by far more skilled and would probably kill him in the span of fifteen minutes, and that was including the ten minute headstart Cadyren would recieve.

Cadyren looked at his Lightsaber which was now at Grawn's belt, knowing that if their ever were a time he would need his Lightaber it would be now, as he had never fought someone as skilled as Grawn by himself in his lifetime, and probably never would if Grawn seriously meant that he would kill Cadyren if he found him. He didn't make a move to take his Lightsaber back however, knowing that it would be futile to even try to reach out with the Force and take the Lightsaber from Grawn.

Cadyren began to wonder if Grawn had never even considered having him become his apprentice, he just wanted to have some fun killing a young initiate because he was bored or something. As Grawn turned the clock on Cadyren called upon the Force, powering his body with it before running into the forest with a speed that one would think a human of his muscle mass was incapable of. He wantd to get some distance from him and grawn before he attempted to figure out how to hide himself iin the Force. As he ran he heard his master say that hopefully he would still be Grawn's apprentice in two hours, so Cadyren assumed that was how long he had to survive in order to not be slaughtered. Not that it really mattered however, as he would probably die long before then. Stop thinking that, it doesn't matter what the odds are, you have to survive. You need to become more powerful so that no one can ever take away whats yours again.

Cadyren stopped running long before he grew tired, it would be foolish of him to do so. He couldn't let himself become tired when Grawn would soon come and try to kill him, plus he needed to find out how to use the Force in order to hide himself. He began to look back at all his knowelege of the Force, trying to find something that would help him manipulate the Force so that he could hide. Cadyren did have some skill in sensing people and other things in the Force, so maybe he could find a way to use that knowelege to figure how to make it so others couldn't sense him. It made atleast a little bit of sense. He reached out for a moment as he sensed the Dark side all around him, trying to figure out what someone would have to do in order to block another person from sensing that presense all around them. He was puzzled by his inability to figure it out.

THINK. You have to think if your going to even hope to survive. There has to be some way for you to figure out how to manipulate the Force to hide yourself from someone. You can move objects with your mind, make yourself even more physicaly capable then you already are, even sense other people in the Force as well, but you can't figure out how to hide from someone doing the same thing?

Cadyren began to pace back and forth wodnering how much time he had left until Grawn came after him, he thought for a moment that he should keep trying to get as much distanmce from Grawn as possible, but he knew it wouldn't matter if he didn't figure out how to use the Force to mask his presense. He eventually stopped his pacing as he came up with an idea. He sat down crosslegged as he opened himself to the dark presense around him once again, but instead of letting its power flow into him he thrust his force Presense into the darkness, hoping that in doing so his Force presense would be stretched and harder to find. As he did this he felt distant from his body, though he was still in perfect control of it and held no fear of losing it. as he began to try and make his force Presense one with the Dark side around him he hoped that it would make it at least somewhat harder for Grawn to find him.

[Grawn]

The ten minutes went by fast. The buzzing that came from his robe as Grawn stood silent like a stone golem, his arms crossed, broke his concentration. His yellow eyes opened and the watch flew from his cloak. The noise was silenced as the Sith flicked his finger and it was crushed, dropping to the forest floor with a thump.

The boy had gotten far but not far enough for Grawn to lose his presence. It was like a faint light in a dark tunnel to his Force aura vision and he took after it with break neck speed. The dark side super charged his leg muscles, every rapid footfall brought him closer to his apprentice. He would need to make the facade convincing, to the point that he might have to intentionally cut the boy. It all depended on his drive to survive.

That drive served Grawn well and he meant to instill it in Caydren before this day was done. Survival was a key element in stealth. To evade your foe and to strike seemingly from no where. To sneak away when needed and reappear at bad times to throw your opponent off-guard.

Now, Grawn was well aware the predicament he put his new apprentice in. The boy had no formal training in the way of stealth and thus, the task to actually hide himself with the dark side and to defend himself from his Master who for all he knew, was trying to kill him. It was the perfect ploy.

And as he ran towards the light, the darkness becoming lit as he advanced toward the boy, it began to dim.

"I'll be damned", the Sith muttered, a hint of satisfaction coming to him as he realized his apprentice was trying harder then hell to hide himself. Self preservation did that to a man, made his adrenaline flow like a river and make him do things he would think otherwise impossible.

But it wasn't quite enough. Not yet anyway. He was on the right track but it would require extensive training to completely mask himself. This session wasn't going to focus exclusively on stealth, for it would require quick reflexes and speed to master the art of the assassin. The Sith hopped on a tree limb that overlooked a small clearing where his apprentice sat.

He noted the way the boy tried to cloak himself, putting all of his focus into it. Grawn would congratulate Caydren later, as he saw the boy was hazy to look upon, like a trick of light to tired eyes. But the Sith's eyes were far from dull and he sensed this was his apprentice. His clever, clever apprentice.

"Not bad, lets see how well you dodge!" the Assassin challenged as he dropped from the limb, lightly hitting the ground, bending his knees to absorb the shock. He was up instantly and bolted toward Caydren, not drawing his lightsabers yet.

He would see how well the boy was at hand to hand combat first. If he chose to engage him that was. The cybernetic arm gave him an advantage in this regard but it was a small one against a trained Force user. Grawn went in with his fists flying, not in a wild berserk fashion but controlled. It would certainly put his apprentice on guard as the Sith continued with his routine, adding a few kicks and jabs, strikes and lunges to the combo.

[Cadyren]

Cadyren was so engrossed in tryng to make hismelf hidden that he didn't notice Grawn until he landed on a tree right next to him. Cadyren reach for his Lightsaber, but then rememebred that Grawn had taken it from him. If only I had another Lightsaber. Cadyren thought as he got to his feet, expecting grawn to pull out his Lightsabers and strike him down. Oddly enough Grawn just fropped to the ground and attempted to engage him in unarmed combat, something that Cadryen was not skilled in.

Cadyren had ben a decent unarmed fighter when he was a youngling, however his old Jedi Master had never really given him any more instruction and he had made little to no effort at retaining the skill that he did have in unarmed combat, resulting in him being horrible at it. He managed to dodge the first punch Grawn made at him, but the second hit him straight in the chest and sent him stumbling back. Why is he just toying with me? H should just kill me already. Is this amusing to him? Taking some young Initiate as his apprentice then telling him he'll kill him if he can't complete a task that for him is nearly impossible?

Cadyren grew angry as he thought about how unfair it was that he would probably die on this desolate planet, that he would now die because he was to weak to protect himself, that he never would get to live a good life. If I'm going to die i'm atleast going to give this guy a few bruises.

Drawing upon his anger and the Force Cadyren created a blast of Force energy directed at Grawn, he ahd no idea how powerful the blast was, and still doubted that it would do anything to the trained Assassin, but he had to atleast try, he wouldn't just lay down and die. Cadyren was not that kind of person, he would never give up and surrender, however he wasn't stupid enough to keep on fighting if their was an oppurtunity. Unfortunetly their was no way to escape unless he somehow managed to outrun Grawn and steal the ship they had traveled to the planet on. Looking back on this experience he would think that he should have spent his ten minutes doing flight checks and leaving the planet, not running away.

[Grawn]

The blast was to be expected, the boys anxiety and confusion over his methods warranted it. Just as he felt the Force flow to Caydrens hands like a whirlpool, Grawn raised his arms in a X in front of him. The Force sent him backwards, but he kept his balance as he felt himself fly backwards. Breaking the cross with his arms, his body turning over so the ground became his sky, his hand caught the ground and he sent a push of his own into the ground.

Flying up, he went back so his feet slammed into a tree. Gripping a branch, he hung there for a moment and observed his apprentice. Yes, the boy had potential with the Force. He had no doubt he would have been a excellent prophet.

"Very good, but the object is to flee. I am the hunter and you are the prey. How long do you believe you can hold against me toe to toe? A few minutes? Are your reflexes so great that you can escape every swing I bring to you? I doubt it", the Sith scolded at Caydren, letting go and dropping to the ground.

The Force came to his call instantly as he rose his hand, the power swirling around his arm and into his palm as he drew it back and sent it toward Caydren. The power surged out like a tide, Grawn giving a Force Push of his own.

"Two hours, Caydren. Its only been half an hour. Call the dark side to you, remove yourself from my sight. It is possible. Use the darkness in your heart to come out and hide you from your foes! From me! You were close, dear boy, just a little more", Grawn said as he drew from his belt Caydrens lightsaber. It would add a bit of insult to the routine if the boy believed he would be killed on his own blade.

The brilliant emerald plasma ignited into existence. The grip was alien to his hand but it was a minor problem. Twirling it in his hand, getting use to it, he pointed the green blade at Caydren.

"Do or die, boy. These are your options!" the Sith roared in false anger as he charged toward his apprentice. If the boy proved unable to hide himself without extensive training, not just on a 'need to' basis, Grawn would move on to something else. But he had confidence in Caydren, a rare quality for someone who didn't care for the company of others.

Prove me right, Caydren, Grawn thought as he honed in on the boy.

[Cadyren]

Cadyren was surprised that Grawn had allowed himself to be thrown back by the blast, he was sure that if he tried Grawn would be able to stop the wave of energy with ease. He watched as Grawn used the Force to send himself upward and onto a tree branch. Still playing with his prey I see, if he keeps messing around with me I might just live the full two hours.

He listened to Grawn as he told him that he was doing it wrong, that he should flee and not try to fight, that he would surely die if he attempted to fight Grawn toe to toe. He knew this was true, but he figured that he was going to die anyway and that he rather go down swinging then running like a coward. As the Froce push hit him Cadyren instinctively made a barrier with the Force to try and stop hismelf from being thrown backwards, but failed and was sent back into a tree, his breath being knocked from his lungs. His head also banged against the trunk and he was a little dazed for a moment but he shook his head and could think clearly again.

He was confused by what Gawn said next, still giving him advice on how to hide himself in the Force by using the Dark side, so he was actually trying to teach him how to hide, but still saying that he was going to kill him was a little much wasn't it? Was eh using that as motivation or was Grawn just giving him a second chance to get away? Deciding that it wouldn't be wise to find out Cadyren got to his feet and was about to starting running when he saw that Grawn was using his Lightsaber to attack him. He was angered that he might be killed by the very weapon that he had created but he couldn't dwell on that, if he did he might be angered into attacking Grawn again, and that would be suicide. He turned and began to run from Grawn, searching through his mind for every moment in his life he was angry or upset, letting the emotions grow within him as he prepared to make another attempt on hiding himself in the Force.

He looked behind him and saw that Grawn was charging at him with the green Lightsaber in hand, and quickly rolled to the side, still continuing to allow the Dark energy to grow within himself. He jumped into a group of trees in hopes of hiding from Grawn's view as he attempted to use his power to hide hismelf from being sensed in the Force once again. He was worried it would be even less effective as he also had to focus on running as well as hiding himself, but it would have to do.

[Grawn]

Smart boy the Sith said as he slowed himself down, giving Caydren a bigger distance. As the boy continued to run, his presence in Grawns radar began to diminsh and he could only beam with pride. While the boy was probably unaware, this method of teaching almost always brought results.

Deactivating Caydren's lightsaber, Grawn concealed his own presence and ran after his apprentice. He was far more trained, do so to avoid hungry tunkata did that to a man, as the Force increased the power in his legs. He was impressed with Caydren thus far but the boy wasn't quite good enough to be able to pull off entirely wiping out his own presence from sense.

Grawn never really expected him to. But the boy knew where to begin and his life being threatened had allowed that. Soundlessly, he caught him to Caydren and created a barrier in the Force in front of him. The barrier stopped him cold, knocking him on his rump, giving Grawn ample time to appear in front of him.

"End of the road," the Sith said menancingly, not quite ready to drop the act, at least for a moment more. Quickly grabbing Caydren by the neck, he hoisted him up from the ground and off his feet. Even though the two were nearly the same height, Grawns Force enhanced strength made it so his apprentice's feet didn't touch the ground.

"You did well for a start, that is for sure", Grawn complimented, bringing Caydrens face to his mask. Then a chuckle came from him and he let go.

"Well enough that I will spare you", he added quickly. He didn't want to let Caydren believe he wouldn't kill him for not performing up to par, otherwise the tactic would prove useless the next time.

"You have learned what is needed to hide. But there is so much more to be taught before the day is through," Grawn continued, taking Caydren's lightsaber from his belt and holding on to it. Regarding the lightsaber for a moment, Grawn extended his hand toward Caydren and opening his palm, waiting for the apprentice to retrieve his weapon.

He would allow what had just happened to soak in first before continuing. Grawn needed to gauge the boy on his response to such shadowy tactics if he was to continue with them.

[Cadyren]

Cadyren ran, that and trying to conceal himself were the only thoughts running through his head. If he didn't focus on avoiding Grawn he might die, it seems that Grawn was at least able to excuse failure once, if he was capable of more then that Cadyren was unsure, and he honestly didn't want to find out himself. So he ran, believing his life was on the line. This helped him focus as well, the fear that failure meant death.

He was running full force when all of the sudden he ran into an invisible wall, smashing his face into it before falling backwards and onto the ground, unable to stop hismelf from yelling in pain and surprise. As he lay on the ground a moment, dazed, he could feel blood begining to ooze out of his nose from slamming it into the strange invisible wall. He took a moment to make sure his nose wasn't borken before remembering that he had to get moving, but before he could get himself to his feet he heard the voice of the Assassin and was picked up into the air.

Cadyren stared into Grawn's one visible eye with a look of angered defeat, looking like he wished to attack Grawn but knew that it would be useless, and he would just have to accept his fate. He was suprised however when Grawn said that he had done well, and was trying to figure out if Grawn was just mocking him or actually complimenting him. When the Sith chuckeld and let him go he looked at Grawn with confusion, trying to figure out what game he was playing, was he lying about killing him completely or did he really perform well enough to be spared? Cadyren wasn't sure he wanted to find out, but he wouldn't quit and seek out a new master, on his first lesson he was alreayd starting to learn how to become an Assassin and he wasn't going to run off like a little girl just because his life would be at stake for him to get this kind of training.

Cadyren wiped the blood from his upper lip as he took his Lightsaber back from Grawn, happy to have the weapon back in his hands once again. He looked it over, he smiled like he had found a friend that he hadn't seen in years before putting the Lightsaber back on his belt.

Happy that his weapon was returned to him Cadyren was curious at to what the next step in his training would be. He wondered if perhaps he would begin working on his Lightsaber skills, or maybe some practice with his Force abilities. Perhaps he might be trained in how to properly assassinate someone, he knew how most nonForce sensitive assassins would usualy snipe their target but he wasn't sure if that was something a Sith assassin would do, perhaps kill him in his sleep or something. Pushing these thoughts from his mind he waited for what he was to do next.