Revisiting the Past

[Lilaena De'Ville]

"Yes," she replied, "I spent many years myself in training with the Jedi." De'Ville left out the part where she had thought herself a Jedi until Callidus had opened her eyes. "Their methods are not without merit, they are just... weak."

She beckoned to Akasha, and they began walking again, leaving the beasts to rot in the heat. Soon enough the carnivorous beetles and carrion birds would arrive, not to mention the plants that thrived on meat. "To maintain your cover you must keep your anger and your thoughts under control. But if you use their tactics and your emotion at the same time, you will uncover a great deal of power that the Jedi could only dream of."

[Akasha Khan]

That was enough to spark Akasha's interest. She easily matched her master's pace, one paw resting on the hilt of her staff.

"I suppose I'll just have to pretend I was dropped in the jungle to learn from wild beasts," she said airily.

She hunted her master's face for any trace of a smile. Then she remembered who her master was.

"Ah..." Akasha cleared her throat lightly. "I am honored that you chose me for this mission, Master. I swear I will not disappoint you."

[Lilaena De'Ville]

"See that you do not," she replied icily. Unspoken consequences of failure hung in the air between them, and the felinoid's ears laid back a bit.

After walking in silence for a few minutes, De'Ville turned her helmeted head back towards her apprentice. "Show me your fire ball. You have been practicing, yes?"

[Akasha Khan]

"Of course," Akasha said, affronted. She held out a paw in front of her and focused on a tiny point of concentrated hatred. She'd found it helped to imagine Trakkin's head floating there.

A tiny spark flamed to life and began to grow, much more slowly than Lilaena's moments ago, and it took a visible effort for Akasha to keep it from flaring up and dissipating the way fire wanted to, but in moments she had a spinning ball of plasma a little smaller than her heart.

Akasha's ears ticked at the sound of vibrating wings, and, with a sweep of her paw, she sent the ball of Destruction crashing into a half-meter-long dragonfly. The insect exploded and fluttered back to the forest floor in a shower of gooey exoskeleton fragments.

Power. It was a paltry display compared to what her master could do, but even a small taste was enough to make Akasha's blood race. She smiled at the thought of turning that power against Trakkin, Jaarhu, and everyone else who had ever tried to make her their slave.

The fact that she was technically still a slave was only a minor obstacle. What mattered was that she finally had a chance to prove herself.