Mira sat in the training arena of the Sith Temple, concentrating. It had been some time since she had trained under Necros in the old clearing, and in the meantime she'd been training herself. Much of what she had learned at the Academy, and under Master Horn, did not need to be forsaken, since such powers could be used by the Dark Side as well as the Light. Currently she was attempting to jump from the floor to the ceiling using the Dark Side rather than the Light. It was somewhat difficult - like a right-hander trying to write left-handed.

After a moment, she leapt again, using anger to propel herself upward. This time she managed to tap the ceiling before turning into a flip and landing back on the floor in a crouch. Her dark hair wrapped around her body, and between that and the black rancor-hide jumpsuit she looked like the fabled cat woman of Taris. Pleased with herself, she stood and composed herself before moving into her next exercises.

Before she could do so, though, she felt a presence approaching. Since leaving Dathomir, she had been regaining her ability to pick out Force signatures. It wasn't perfect, but she knew she had felt this one before. At the training, yes, but before that as well. She wondered when as she turned and saw Ithron approaching.

Ithron frowned, unsure as to what to make of the Sith Apprentice in the training area. Since his experiences training under Darth Necros, Ithron had been spending time in the Temple, honing his skills. He trained in the early morning, and was usually the only one there. This time though, it appeared that he did not have the Temple entirely to himself. Torches burned on the walls, even though the morning's first light was creeping through the stone windows.

Ithron knew the apprentice was Mira. He had been watching her during training, for two reasons. The first was because of her skill and dexterity, and watching her fight was a welcome break from the rest of the Sith, and the second...

The second, dear Mira, thought Ithron. Is that you fight like me. You fight like a Jedi. Why is that?

Ithron knew that strapped to his belt was his training sabre. That sabre had been through a lot with him, and until the time came for him to construct his own, Ithron was more than happy to trust his fate to the crude weapon. Mira though, she had style - and her own sabre. Perhaps the time had come to see what she was good for.

"Good morning." said Ithron. His face was happy, but his eyes were focussed on the younger girl in front of him. As he spoke, his left hand moved his robe aside, and touched against his lightsabre.

Reaching out with the Force, Ithron could sense the girl, he could sense her power. He could also sense her coldness. His own passion kept him going - but he could sense none of that in her. Either she bottled it up deeply....or...she didn't use it?

"Tell me. Are you a Jedi?" Ithron's sabre was out of his belt, and was being turned over in his hands. His eyes were still looking intently at Mira.

Mira saw the implied threat in the man's movements, the subtle movement of his robe, the hand barely brushing the training saber, but all the while her eyes never left Ithron's. His greeting was answered simply by a narrowing of her cold, blue eyes, her face sending the message that she did not wish to be bothered. In truth, Mira did wish to see him fight and especially wished to assert her dominance over the proud, angry man. But she would never make the first move. Trickery and deceit were her strong points, not power or aggression. Though she didn't know it, Mira was already following the path of the Assassin, not the warrior.

She felt his Force brush, searching for her weak points. Though she couldn't read his mind, she guessed his thoughts. You wonder where my passion, my anger is, she silently spoke to herself. Yours is so evident, so clear, so easily manipulated. So foolish. Mine is not. I am the shadow, the skygge, the one who waits patiently for your guard to fall. I am the one who uses my anger only when necessary, my passion only to kill. I am in control, and you...you are my pawn.

She had no robes to brush aside. The rancor-hide suit was skin tight, emphasizing her athletic build, distracting would-be opponents, but also giving her full freedom of movement. Her lightsaber hung at her side, still for the moment. She would let him move first. That was her way.

"Are you a Jedi?" he asked. This question called for a response. The saber was now in the man's hand, ready to be used. Am I a Jedi? she thought. I was. A year ago. Is this your weak point, apprentice? Is your hatred of Jedi such that you would attack me? Shall I force you to consume yourself with rage, then strike you down?

"Am I a Jedi?" she replied sarcastically. "If I were, what would I be doing among all you Sith?" She snorted derisively. "You must be as stupid as you look." The last barb was intended to anger him, to push him to the breaking point. She reached out and felt his anger level rise, yet she stood there, passively, waiting.

He did not strike, though, not yet. Something more was needed. "You are strong," she commented. "If I told you I was a Jedi, would you strike me down? I believe you would, without thought, without consideration. You are foolish."

That was enough provocation. Ithron rushed, saber igniting as he did so, but Mira was no longer there. She had anticipated his attack and rolled to the right. She was once again on her feet, saber out, green-white energy cutting through the air. Raising her hands to her ear, she pointed the saber directly at Ithron's heart and dialed it down to its lowest setting. "Training setting only, eh? Come, let's do this."

You must be as stupid as you look, said Mira.

"Better than looking smarter than you actually are," he muttered. And it'd be no bad thing at all to take you down a few pegs, Apprentice Mira.

Igniting his saber, he jumped forward. He knew already that he wouldn't rush her - she was too fast for that - but he was damned sure that he'd rattle her into responding. And respond she did, rolling to the right and coming up ready to fight.

Tossing the sabre from his left to his right hand, he saw it crackle in front of him and felt its strength. Looking away from the girl, he turned the setting down. "As you wish."

She was attractive, he'd say that for her. It was quite possible that she was the most attractive young woman he'd seen for a long while - and yet Ithron was certainly not stupid enough to be caught staring. He wondered briefly how many prospective gentlemen partners of hers had been given a sharp lesson in pain for not understanding the word "No".

As strongly as she had guessed his thoughts, he guessed hers. You think you can use me. You think you're smarter than everyone else, just because you prefer subtlety to strength. Well don't forget, the most delicate tool is the first to snap.

Stepping forward, Ithron tried an experimental swing of the sabre. Aiming for her torso, he swung hard with his right hand, aiming for the girl's shoulder. Almost instantly, she had parried and moved herself away, leaving Ithron's sabre a distance away from his body, and allowing her to mount an attack herself. As her sabre swung towards him, Ithron parried and stepped backwards.

The game's afoot, he thought.

Mira had parried his initial strike with little effort. Her blade had already been in position, in fact, confirming her notion that he was not yet angry enough to forget himself. A little more anger and frustration, she thought as she backed away, forcing him to follow. Her blade out of position, she struck quickly, a feint and cut that nearly made it past Ithron's parry. But he managed to block in time, stepping out of the way of a follow-up blow.

So he wants to play, thought Mira. Well, tricks always were my style. Returning her saber to its initial position, her hand found the second dial on the hilt. This dial, when turned, would swap the emerald-colored stone for a Hurrikan gem and double the length of the blade. She had beaten opponents several times with that trick, since dual-phase lightsabers were rare.

Ithron took a step forward, and Mira's hand moved. In less than a thousanth of a second, the gems swapped. The emerald blade turned a deep violet and shot out towards her opponent, forcing him to duck and bat the blade aside. With him off balance, she spun, once again swapping the gems and swinging for his unprotected back. The green-white blade came within an inch of striking him before he managed to turn an parry.

Ithron returned her courtesy with a downward power strike, which Mira caught and shunted aside with her own weapon. She was being proven correct; this apprentice did rely on strength. In such a contest Mira was at a disadvantage in a way; her only Master had been Corran Horn, renowned for his inability at telekinesis. As such, he had not instructed her in Form IV combat, the dextrous nature of which would fit her opponent perfectly. So, she thought, time for a lesson in Form I.

While Form I of lightsaber combat was the most basic form, and the one that all apprentices were required to learn, it was also an extremely unpredicatble form. Based on ancient swordfighting techniques, a Form I Master could fight through most duelist's defenses. Mira was by no means a Master, but she did have some knowledge of the Form.

Her next three strikes were rapid-fire - a low cut, which was parried, then a downward slash combined with a backhand roll intended to slice through her opponent's shoulder. Ithron parried the second but barely managed to avoid the third. Mira then stepped back out of range, returning her saber to Position One and eyeing her opponent, waiting for his next move.

(OOC: I guess we can leave this as a generic duel set at any point in the training then, yeah? I'm certainly not going to fish around Ithron's timeline just to figure out where this should go.)

IC:

He could sense her mind. He could almost hear it working. She was cold, and analytic; her thoughts betrayed her actions. After her first strikes, he found that there was a deformation in the Force wherever she was going to strike. He could easily then parry her strikes. Smiling inwardly, he remembered that he had been very much the same only a short time ago. He had learned to let go - it was time she learned the same, and it would be a valuable lesson.

You're a smart kid, Mira, he thought. But you need to let go. You'll learn fast.

Then came the three rapid strikes. Ithron parried, but barely, and returned to his starting position. He lunged, but she ducked to her right, and then to her left, bringing her saber up across Ithron's side. It cut a tear through the fabric of his black tunic but missed the skin by microns. On instinct, in the moment after her strike, Ithron summoned his strength and performed a Force Push.

Mira flew backward, but Ithron fell to the floor. The effort of pushing another Force User had winded him badly and caused his saber to land, inactive, a few feet away. He panted and caught his breath and was still kneeling when Mira was standing.

(OOC: Sure - this will have to be before Mira's other duel thread with Kurt, but that's not set either.)

Mira ducked around Ithron's lunge, using footwork to throw him off-balance. Her slash missed, though, and moments later she felt herself being thrown backwards. She knew immediately what had happened but had no time to react before she hit the wall.

Falling to the floor, she lay there for a moment, dazed. Her saber lay next to her, inactive. As she gathered her thoughts, she realized her vulnerability and lept to her feet, grabbing her weapon as she did so.

That was when she realized her mistake. Slamming one's head into a brick wall and then onto a wooden floor is not generally helpful, and even after a few minutes rest will leave one with a splitting headache. Mira had only been down a few seconds, and now the pain shot through her head like a blaster bolt.

She managed to keep from screaming, but she did hunch over and squeeze her eyes shut. As she did so, she released herself a bit, allowing anger and hatred to begin to worm their way into her brain. She was angry at Ithron for slamming her into the wall, and angry at herself for allowing him to do so. As she released, her pain subsided. In this way she learned the extremely useful technique of using the Force to minimize pain. It would return with force later, but for now she was at least able to stand and fight.

Rising once more, she faced Ithron, who was still kneeling by his saber. "You're using yourself up," she commented, igniting her saber once more. She took a step forward. "Well, are you done, or do you still have some fight left in you?"

Unsteadily standing, Ithron had got his breath back.

Pushing the mind and body to the extreme is what it's about, remember? he thought to himself and he took some deep breaths.

Concentrating on his own condition, he didn't see the pain Mira was in. He wondered why she didn't attack.

"Well, are you done, or do you still have some fight left in you?"

Grinning, he retrieved his sabre and activated it again. She was focussing on using her mind to control her own body - he could tell from the way the Force seemed to curl inwards around her. Perhaps one day she would become a master in that particular field. But for now, she was still an apprentice, and was still vulnerable.

"You bet I have." He liked the girl. She had spirit, which was more than could be said for some apprentices he had met.

The two circled, both making feints that the other didn't fall for. Closing his eyes briefly, Ithron allowed himself to feel the flow of the Force over him. He didn't like to have to do this, but it was a skill he needed to learn. He focussed on the rage inside him, and the anger. Instead of carefully controlling it heal himself as Mira had, or push his opponent back as he had done before, this time he allowed it to fill him.

He felt the red rage fill his limbs, he saw his sabre glow brighter, he felt his feet lighten as if the mere forces of gravity were insignificant next to the power of his anger and rage.

Images filled his mind - images from his past - His mother crying, his hearing about the destruction of his home planet, his annoyance at Necros from brief periods during training and the moment he left the Jedi Academy....

Leaping forwards, he hacked and slashed with his sabre. He had no hopes or long term strategy. He didn't use the Force to predict Mira's response - he had no concious control of his actions. Instinct and the Force were doing this.

A proficient Force user would perhaps have made short work of Ithron, but Mira wasn't proficient yet. The sudden onslaught seemed to take her off guard. For now, Ithron had the advantage. He was half a head taller and had a greater physical strength.

As he hacked at the girl, he felt the rage draining his energy. His mind started to return....

Ithron's attack came in a blur, the red of his saber slicing through the air almost too fast for the eye to see. Mira gave ground before him, strategically retreating in order to avoid his powerful strikes. Her mind was alert by now, though, and she noticed one major flaw in his attack. He was strong, but he had no strategy. He was thinking about his present strike, not where his blade would go next.

That made him dangerous, certainly. He was fighting as one who had no experience, which was often the worst type of person to fight. His wild swings were barely blocked, and they forced Mira back. However, she was giving more ground than she needed to, forcing him to advance and tiring him more quickly than he would have been if she had stood her ground. As he came, she shunted aside his strikes, waiting for the right moment.

Thin it came. He swung wildly, putting all his strength beind his strike, but Mira was no longer there. She had ducked under his blow, simultaneously pivoting and throwing out her foot in a Force-augmented side-kick. She connected with Ithron's stomach, sending him stumbling backwards.

She didn't follow up her attack, though, as his advance had tired her as well. Instead, she took the opportunity to catch her breath. "I know what your problem is. You have anger, and that's good, but you're letting your anger control you. You should control it instead, and channel it all into that one strike that will win you a fight rather than into every blow."

Ithron heard. Or more precisely, the words bounced into Ithron's ears, but his brain still wasn't in a state to receive them. As he fell backwards, his ability to reason came back, almost in a jolt.

That was great! he was thinking. Instead of being tired, he almost felt revitalised. His muscles ached, but just as water flowing through a pipe doesn't use the energy of the pipe, neither had his own energy been drained. He had been merely letting the Force work through him, gently infusing it with his own rage.

Smiling, he stood and swung his sabre a few times, before deactivating it. Still smiling, he allowed his mind to relax and forced himself to fade into the background. During his encounters with Master Jas, Ithron had watched him fade himself away. Having practiced that same skill, knowing he would need it for his first mission which rumour said might be soon, he decided to use it now - his "ace" as it were.

Still in the room and yet undetectable to Mira, he focused all his energies on hiding himself and smoothing the Force over to make himself impossible to detect. He saw the girl blink and used the opportunity to roll to his right. She heard him and sliced her sabre in a controlled blow but by that time, he had gone. He could sense her confusion - nay, he could see it in her eyes. He carefully stepped away from her.

A sound came from outside and for a moment Ithron became aware of the danger of someone else joining the duel. He could only mask himself from one person, and even then, not completely. Another person would be able to see him as easily as he could see Mira now...

He made his way to the side of the room and gently loosened an extinguished torch in its housing.

"Mira..." he spoke softly as she turned around trying to find or even sense her opponent. "You seem to have the wrong idea about me." He circled round in step with her, masking his footsteps by hers, as he attempted to get behind her. "I'm not all about strength..."

His concentration slipped for a moment, and she turned. Her eyes staring straight at him with a knowing look as she stepped forwards. The moment passed, and Ithron faded once more. He could see how much she was using the Force rather than her own martial instincts...she was skilled - that much was true, but she was young.

"...I can be subtle as well, you know."

Both duellists were refreshed now, but Mira was uncertain where Ithron had knowledge. Having been an apprentice for a mere number of days or weeks longer had given Ithron an advantage - all his skills were just that much more honed.

Perhaps this place rubs off on you after a while, he thought glancing at the walls.

Now behind her, he stalked forwards warily. He saw Mira twitch as he approached her. Quite possibly she knew he was there. He didn't care any more. With a gesture of his hand, he had revealed his plans. The torch from the wall came flying at Mira's side due to a carefully timed and long planned Force Pull. Now, working on the assumption that he was fully visible to Mira, and with his sabre activated, Ithron awaited Mira's return.

Fold or raise, Mira? Which is it to be? he thought, silently praying that the duel would be over before she got seriously hurt. He knew that the more hard-pressed she was, the more likely she was to cause him serious harm.