Rollan. Skyka's homeworld. She might know what it had been like before the Sith had come there, and after they were gone; Aerek had only seen during. He'd insisted that he was far enough along in his training to be useful, and had won an argument with his Master for the first time in his life. Sometimes he wished that he had not.
On Rollan, he'd he had faced someone weilding the Dark Side of the force in battle for the first time -- and Aerek had no illusions about that fight; he had survived because of little more than luck.
...
"Where did you steal that lightsaber, boy?" The Sith had said to him. The Sith should have known he was from off-world; humans just didn't get to be his size on a light-gravity world like Rollan. A Republic soldier would have used his blaster; he'd know better than to try an unfamiliar weapon. The only other offworlders on the planet were Jedi or allies of the Sith. And so with one question Aerek had immediately understood that no matter how much power he had, the Sith he faced was a fool who enjoyed taunting his enemies.
And so he'd spent a few passes pretending less skill than he had, attempting to gauge the true skill level of his opponent. And for all his foolishness, it was clear that the man knew how to fight; his experience clearly more than made up for what he lost in size and strength to Aerek. In a fair fight, he would probably lose.
He'd shifted to a more defensive stance, and called upon the Force to help him focus his attacks. He'd had only one chance. He'd taken it. His lightsaber had found a hole in his defenses. And the Sith had died.
His master did not catch up with him until much later; they had been separated, and Nolem had been concentrating on the true Sith Masters on the world -- Aerek had later learned the Sith he faced was just an apprentice, if one farther along than he was.
"I didn't understand what you meant before today, master." He'd said, afterward.
"About what?" The older Jedi had said, though he had had the same conversation with many Padawan over the years.
"When that Sith was taunting me, there was something telling me to give my anger, that it would give me the power I needed to win. That was the Dark Side, wasn't it?"
"One manifestation of it. You didn't give in. There just might be a Jedi burried under all those muscles of yours."
"I hope so, Master."
...
"Is there anything that connects these fallen Jedi to Rollan, or are we just taking a shot in the dark?" Aerek asked. He'd been strangely serious since this discussion started; normally he'd join in any levity, no matter how inapproriate the context, but for some reason he just couldn't find the way to today.
