The rail cart slowed to a stop.
Ahsoka found herself (for the umpteenth time recently?) in a well-lit chamber, large enough to hold a sizeable transport ship, but the only thing in this room was the end of the rail line, which curved into a loop, allowing the self-propelled cart to return back along the same path.
"Well, well, well, same scenery," the Togruta sighed, adjusting her oxygen mask and leaping lightly to hover above the surface.
The gravity inside the asteroid, which had become both a home and a training center for her (no-no-no, don't even think about the Jedi Temple where she grew up and honed her skills), was significantly weaker than in the residential section.
Because, of course, no one had installed artificial gravity generators here.
She reached the bottom of the cavern, bent her legs to absorb the weak impact against the surface, and launched herself several meters upward, then looked around, making sure she saw no enemies, before letting gravity reclaim its hold on her body.
Ahsoka landed smoothly on the cave floor, turned toward the dark corner of the hall where, just a few meters from the curved section of the rail, there was a huge rounded slab of rock.
"Master!" she called, knowing full well Vectivus would hear her. "I'm ready."
A man stepped out from behind the slab.
This time he was tall and lean, clad in a black traveler's cloak with gold trim, resembling a Jedi cloak but made of expensive silk.
A lightsaber hung from his belt, its hilt also featuring a black-and-gold color scheme.
Gloves covered his hands, and his face was hidden in the deep shadow of the hood, where only his eyes were visible — glowing molten gold.
He stopped right at the edge of the slab, a few meters from Ahsoka, and gave a ceremonial bow.
"I suppose I should stop being surprised at how many faces you have by now, Master, shouldn't I?" Ahsoka voiced the rhetorical question.
Another of Vectivus's phantoms looked at her dismissively.
"And why should I take you seriously?" he asked.
The hooded man's words came out as a whisper.
But Ahsoka heard them.
"Here come the philosophical arguments and debates again," the Togruta thought sadly. "And I came here for a fight!"
"What do you mean?" the girl asked.
"I am the master," Vectivus reminded her. "You are a Jedi Knight. I am stronger than you. Why should I waste my time fighting such a worthless being?"
"Well, that was just rude and ill-mannered," Ahsoka narrowed her eyes, throwing her blade at the figure.
The glowing lightsaber shot through the spot where the figure had just been.
Obedient to her mental command, the hilt returned to her palm.
And the figure reappeared in the same place.
"Nice to be a phantom," Ahsoka commented. "Intangible means you can't get hurt."
"I am a phantom," Vectivus agreed. "I am not here. And I am here. Right here, in front of you."
"I noticed," Ahsoka twirled the weapon in her hand, then pressed the activation button on her lightsaber with her right thumb. "Well, I think now I should cut you in half."
"Not afraid?" the phantom asked.
"What do I have to be afraid of you for?" the Togruta asked with a mocking laugh, taking a quick sliding step forward and to the right, then forward and to the left, and then she pressed the tip of her blade right against the neck of the ghostly entity.
"You promised to teach me," she reminded him, leaning down slightly. "But so far, all you've taught me is to get irritated and reinforced my skills. Tell me, oh Master, how exactly is this going to help me destroy an entity that can live after death?"
"To kill, you first need to understand if you are truly ready to do it," the phantom said. "What will stop you from making the killing blow? What will change your mind? What makes you vulnerable?"
"And do you have any other ideas why I've been stuck on this Force-forsaken chunk of rock for a month now, listening to a phantom of a long-dead Sith Master about his great art?" Ahsoka inquired. "Is that how you Sith fool simpletons? You promise power, but in reality — empty promises and a waste of personal time?"
Vectivus did not respond to the barb.
The gleam of the Sith's orange-gold eyes vanished — and then, like a ghost, the "mentor" himself disappeared.
But from behind where he had stood, a faint rustling sound came, and another figure stepped into the open.
This opponent was tall, moderately built, dressed in black.
From his movements, Ahsoka could tell the enemy was well-proportioned, and therefore strong and fast.
He wore black trousers, a tunic, boots, and gloves, and held a deactivated lightsaber in his hand.
But unlike Vectivus's last image, this figure had no hood, and his facial features were visible even in the dim cave lighting.
And that face…
"Not very polite of you, Master," Ahsoka muttered, watching as the phantom of Obi-Wan Kenobi, smoothing his goatee with his thumb and forefinger, his golden eyes flashing, assumed the classic combat stance of Form III, Soresu.
The Togruta switched her own blade to a reverse grip — one that orthodox Jedi viewed so skeptically — and grinned, looking straight into the eyes of the apparition.
"I know people who would pay a pretty sum to see this fight in person," she said.
The phantom did not reply.
Without further thought, Ahsoka launched her attack.
* * *
Vex was cleaning her blaster and pretending the clash of lightsabers didn't concern her at all.
The crimson and violet blades crashed against each other with unprecedented fury, turning the silence of the training hall into the roar of a battle she couldn't even keep track of.
So the Twi'lek girl stopped paying attention to the sparring pair (though it had ceased to look like a training session an hour ago).
She minded her own business and ignored the beings who were clearly trying to kill each other.
"Clean my rifle too while you're at it," a pale-skinned bitch with an arrogant look and a mane of red hair at the back of her head dropped heavily down next to her. "Try to be useful for once, girl."
She languidly threw her legs up onto the service table, then shoved the elegant stock of her favorite toy right in front of Vex.
A "Night Sting" sniper rifle.
"Orra, may a rancor nest in your nostrils, Sing," Vex said, plastering on the smile Reyn called "downright infuriating," and shot the Dark Councilor a look that, unfortunately, due to nature's whims, couldn't kill. "I'm about to shove that antenna sticking out of your head deeper into your skull. Get your legs and your rifle off my workspace right now."
"And you make me, girl," Sing said haughtily. "I could break you a dozen ways."
The Twi'lek girl was about to offer a few choice words in return when she felt a heavy, slightly damp but strong hand land on her shoulder.
It suddenly felt cozier, somehow.
And the sniper's eyes lit up with a dreamy gleam that almost made the lekku girl vomit.
"Find yourself another target for your mockery, Orra," Reyn said quietly but authoritatively.
Vex glanced at the man standing beside him.
Tall and powerfully built, he was stripped to the waist, revealing his rippling muscles, from which rivulets of sweat streamed down.
His hair was wet and plastered to his head, and he still had his lightsaber hilt clenched in his hand, indicating a recently finished workout.
"Obscuro," Orra raised her legs with filigree precision, showing off their length, then rose from the chair with the grace of a sewer gizka. "I see you're already done. Any interest in some intensive cardio training? You'll get a massage too..."
"I'll scratch your eyes out, grandma," Vex promised, trying to get up, but Reyn held her in place with his hand.
Without even applying much effort.
"I have my own training program, Orra," the former Inquisitor stated. "Neither you, nor anyone else except Maul," he nodded toward the red-haired girl fighting and the Zabrak cyborg, "can help me."
"Oh, I wouldn't be so sure," Sing continued in an oily, flirty tone. "After all, I was once a Padawan of the Jedi Order..."
"I think I can guess why you were expelled," Vex said vindictively, glaring at her rival.
"Bitch," Orra snapped at her.
"Old hag," Vex smiled back with an insult.
"Your skills won't help me," Obscuro replied just as calmly. "In the Inquisitorius, I killed Padawans and even Jedi Knights by the dozen. I don't think you want my circuits to overload during training and my blade to slice you into little pieces."
A mask of contempt and wounded pride appeared on Sing's face.
Silently grabbing her rifle, she quickly strode away.
"That's it, you gr..." Vex rubbed her hands together in satisfaction. "Ow!"
The last was directed at the light cuff on the back of the head that Reyn had "rewarded" her with.
"What did I do?" the girl said indignantly.
"You fell for the provocation," Reyn explained, grabbing a towel and wiping the sweat from his torso.
The girl tried with all her might to look away…
And lost the battle between reason and animal instinct.
"You're my partner," Reyn reminded her. "Everyone here," he jabbed a finger at his own chest, "me," he jerked his head toward the fighters, "Maul," then jerked his head and chin toward the departed Sing, "are beings with a dark past. For us, provocations are a way of understanding the enemy. Orra is testing your strength. She's a loner. Maul, before he found a student, was also a loner. Orra feels uncomfortable right now when everyone else works in pairs. So she's acting out, trying to sow discord. That's the way of the Dark Side — divide your enemies and destroy them one by one."
"And I thought we were all on the same side," Vex snorted.
"But that doesn't mean we're not rivals," Reyn stated. "We carry out one will, one set of orders. But our interpersonal relationships are our own problem. Thrawn doesn't actually care if we hold hands and dance around a training holocron, or if we fight to the death between lessons."
"I can only imagine what Fodeum's like in this atmosphere," the Twi'lek girl shuddered, thinking of the friend she hadn't seen in a long time.
"He's a Jensaarai," Reyn reminded her. "They have a different philosophy, not like the Shadow Guard. They protect, while we destroy. They search, while we make people lost."
"Okay, stop with that philosophical crap, alright?" the girl waved her hands. "My ears are about to fall off."
"You don't have ears," Reyn reminded her.
"Oh, gods!" Vex's eyes went wide. "What?! They already fell off?! It's all that Force's fault! I told you, don't overload my girly brain with stories about how many sides this mysterious invisible thing has..."
The rest of her feigned frightened sentence was drowned out by the former Inquisitor's booming laughter.
Vex couldn't help it and joined in the fun.
It wasn't often that this gloomy maniac with a lightsaber (whom you sometimes just wanted to devour, leaving not a crumb) had a laugh.
She had to seize the moment.
They laughed so loudly that the fighting pair started looking at them like they were crazy.
"Hey, you two!" a shout came from the red-haired woman, who had broken off the duel and was almost out of breath from exertion. "Get the hell out of the hall, you're interfering with training!"
"Don't be sour, float in the air," Vex stuck out her tongue at the red-haired rude woman, grabbed Reyn's hand, and dragged him out of the hall, to the sound of the resumed battle. "Why is she so angry?"
"We're interfering with her and Maul's fight," Obscuro explained. "From the intensity of her training, I gathered she intends to finish it as quickly as possible and leave us."
"And I thought that redhead was one of you," Vex shared her thoughts.
"No," Reyn answered. "She's something like one of Thrawn's special agents. I don't even know her name."
"Well, from the way she's pounding Maul, and the way he's answering, they clearly know each other," Vex drawled, cheerfully waving at the gloomy Stryn as he came out of the recently built holocron practice room.
The former geologist, neatly trimmed, dressed in the characteristic clothes of the Black Guard but without the sealed helmet, gave a friendly nod to the girl, then headed toward the training hall.
"None of us here concern ourselves with the past of anyone who visits our base," Reyn reminded her. "And honestly, I don't give a damn who she is. Even if she's the reincarnation of Darth Vader herself."
"She's pretty," Vex said slowly, casting a sidelong glance at Reyn.
He tripped over nothing and looked at the girl in surprise.
They stared at each other for a few seconds, and then the former Inquisitor laughed again.
But more quietly.
"You learn fast," he said. "But no, you guessed wrong. She means nothing to me."
"And Sing?"
"And Orra," Reyn assured her. "I have you, and that's enough."
"You've become so boring," Vex made a sour face. "Not like all normal Twi'leks, talking about polygamy and stuff..."
"There's nothing about polygamy in your people's culture," Reyn noted dryly.
"So you checked, did you!" Vex flared up, planting her hands on her hips. "No, look at this Ceranean who thinks he knows it all!"
"Woman, what's wrong with you?!" Reyn exclaimed in amazement.
Vex shrugged as if nothing had happened.
"Just bored," she explained. "We're stuck here, no killings, no explosions... And you promised me a wild youth!"
"Let's not invent problems on the fly, okay?" Reyn asked her. "While we have time, let's just be together and enjoy each other's company?"
"Whatever you say," Vex sighed, starting to pat the pockets of her jumpsuit.
"What are you looking for?" Reyn asked gallantly.
"Your huge ego and my pat... Ow!" the girl yelped, clutching the spot below her back where a white-blue lightning bolt had stung her. "What are you shocking me for?"
Obscuro cracked his neck, letting another discharge run along his fingers.
"You'd better run, I think," he advised, resuming his usual expression: a mix of arrogance and controlled rage. "You obviously can't be reasoned with nicely."
"I'm so scared, so scared, so scared!" Vex rolled her eyes and grinned, then darted down the corridor, dodging Force Lightning bolts.