Jedi Master Eeth Koth was making his way to the initiates' gym in long, purposeful strides. He had been assigned the senior initiates' advanced sparring class once again; the same class from which he had once recruited his current padawan, Raven Trebeck. There was no risk of such a thing happening now, however, for Raven, at seventeen years of age, was nowhere close to being knighted. She was old enough to leave on the occasional mission without her master's supervision, though. Currently, she was part of a team composed of several senior padawans sent to retrieve a number of infants for training at the Temple, which meant that Eeth, for the first time in several years, was actually getting to spend some time at the Temple alone and had some free time on his hands. So here he was, about to teach a class of eight initiates, all of whom were about eleven to twelve years old and had been enrolled because of their remarkable level of skill with a saber.

The door to the gym was open, and the initiates were already there; their excited chatter was loud enough to be heard at the other end of the Temple, Eeth thought.

There was reason for that chatter. By the time everyone arrived for Eeth's class, the few rumours that spread throughout crèche had morphed into terrifying accounts in which friends of friends saw him paddle his apprentice in the hallway with a huge paddle, or drag her from a landing platform by her braid. "No, really, why would anyone lie about something like that?" Lyle said.

"... A friend of mine said she saw him drag a boy out of the pool by his ear, lead him into the refreshers and whale the tar out of him. Apparently, she could hear the smacks from outside, that's how loud it was," Lily, a small humanoid girl added.

"Yeah, and I overheard someone saying that he eats children," a Clawdite boy named Drebin stated, drawing raised brows and incredulous expressions from a few of the initiates.

"I'm sure he don't eat younglings. Eesh, they was probably just joking around," Rezek, the Ishi Tibb guffawed, but, yeah, the jury was still out.

Like the others, Kade listened to these accounts with an attempt at what he hoped was bravery and was about to state that the councillor didn't scare him at all when the sound of a door slamming shut had seven pairs of eyes, and one set of eyestalks, staring as the subject of their rumour mill strode into the room.

Upon entering class, Eeth always closed the door behind himself firmly; this had the beneficial side effect of making things all the more embarrassing for potential late-comers. He made his way to the middle of the room and barked: "Silence!"

You could hear a pin drop. Lyle gasped, Lily jumped, Rezek swallowed, and Drebin changed from his usual pale green pallor to a bright purple. Kade closed his eyes for a moment, then turned casually in an effort at looking nonplussed.

"Good morning, initiates," Eeth said calmly, standing in front of the small group and folding his arms across his chest. "I am Jedi master Eeth Koth, and I will be your teacher in this cycle. All of you have been enrolled in this class because you have shown exceptional skill at lightsaber combat. I have been asked to provide you with more of a challenge than your usual classes give you, and that is what I intend to do. But first, let me see who I am dealing with."

He pulled a data pad out of his pocket and called up the names in a clipped tone, registering which of the initiates each name belonged to. Then, without losing any time, he started a warm-up routine that was more than thorough. In his experience, many of the younglings who wielded a lightsaber with particular ease tended to neglect the physical aspects of their training because it was so simple for them to beat their opponents on pure skill. One of the objectives of this thrice-weekly class, in Eeth's opinion, should be to rectify that. Building up strength and endurance were important for young Jedi, and it was also a way to see whether they possessed the perseverance necessary for the career they had chosen.

"Force, I'm gonna die," Drebin panted as he met Lily's equally exhausted gaze. They had been running around the gym for a solid five minutes now. Why they had to do this, the initiates did not know.

"Yeah, it's not like I have to run from fights," Kade added, earning himself a shove from Lyle as he tried running past him.

"Don't push in!" Lyle snapped.

"We're supposed to be running, not crawling. C'mon, Lyle, you're not still mad that I kicked your ass last match, are you?" Kade asked, a grin on his face. He knew he was good; in fact, he was the best fighter in the room outside of Eeth and everyone knew it.

Lyle just rolled his eyes. "Yeah, well, we'll see who kicks whose ass this time," he shot back as they approached the next task which looked like a bunch of skipping ropes and a place to do push-ups.

"For! Real!" Lily complained.

"If you still have enough breath for chatting, this warm-up is obviously not challenging enough," Eeth snapped. "One rope each. Come on, what are you waiting for? You know what to do with a skipping rope, don't you?"

He usually started his classes like this; he felt it was easier and, in a way, fairer to make his expectations clear from the beginning. Even if he did not lower them during the course of the class, his students would eventually feel that it was becoming easier to meet them. What he achieved, in any case, was that students took his classes seriously.

Lily grabbed the rope but not without a glare. He was a slave driver!

Kade agreed, not to mention he could count the amount of times he'd 'skipped' on his hands. Not only was it a girly exercise but it always left him feeling shell-shocked and jarred.

"This sucks!" Rezek said, having read the expression on his comrade's face with uncanny accuracy. Just then the other three caught up, and lacking the breath to complain, grabbed a rope each and started.

By the time Eeth called them to the next task, they were all starting to slow down.

Eeth barked at one of the initiates who had stopped before having been told to. Then he ordered the group to do push-ups, thirty each. These were senior initiates, after all, all of whom underwent physical training every day. He saw no need to pamper them.

"Great move," Quin, a Zabrak boy, stated sarcastically as Lyle shouldered past him, blaming him for their round of pushups.

"Yeah, real clever, shit for brains," Kade added, frowning. The last thing any of them wanted at the moment was extra work.

"Oh, the push-ups would have been in your future anyway," Eeth said dryly, overhearing Kade's remark. "How can you become a good fighter without building up muscle power? And dispense with the insults, please. Now get started if you want to do any actual sparring today."

"I'm already a good fighter. That's why I'm here," Kaden stated confidently.

"Yeah, we all are, this is just gonna make our arms too sore to hold a saber," Lily added, her small muscles already burning, and she was only half way through.

"If it is going to make your arms sore, your arms obviously are not strong enough and need more practice," Eeth said, stony-faced. "And, initiate Kaden, I am sure you have been taught that arrogance is not becoming of a Jedi. You might be a better fighter than the average initiate, but I assure you you still have much to learn. And that includes following orders without backtalk. Any further complaints, and the person who utters them can continue to do muscle-building exercises for the rest of the lesson while the others improve their saber skills. Your choice."

"Some choice…." Kaden mumbled beneath his breath, but did as he was told; there was no way he was wasting a sparring session doing push-ups and the like. And he wasn't the only one who thought like that, the entire class remained silent except for the occasional grunt of effort and groan of pain; this was hard on them but not undoable.

"Alright," Eeth said when the last of them had finished and they stood before him, all of them showing signs of physical exertion (as they should). "For a start, I want to see what each of you can do."

He positioned four of them at an even distance from each other throughout the gym and told them: "Your task is simple. You spar against whatever opponent comes to face you until they switch."

Then he told the other four: "You are going to pick an opponent each and spar against him or her until I call on you to switch. Then you move to the next opponent in a clockwise direction. Five minutes per match. Go ahead."

"Oh, yay for you," Drebin whispered teasingly, nudging Lily playfully as he noted who was standing opposite her.

The girl groaned at seeing Kade facing off against her. No one could beat him and it was exhausting trying. Sighing, she ignited her saber and, when Eeth gave the word, sprang forward; if she was going down, she was gonna do it in style.

Kade was focused and in his element. He didn't even know who was opposite him; he didn't really need to know as all he wanted to do was win, and win well.

"That's gotta be a new record," he said with a grin, having taken the girl down in the first five seconds, and was standing back waiting for her to recover. He had not hurt her, but neither had he cut her any slack; this was a fight, after all.

Eeth did not expect any of his students to cut each other 'slack' he wanted to see what they could do, and if any of them could easily beat all the others, then that was the way it was. It was quite apparent that that person was Kaden. That was not what worried Eeth. Something was ... off, he felt, something about the boy's style, or maybe his attitude. There was a lot of aggression in him, and he seemed to channel all of that into his saber. Eeth felt reminded of Mace Windu a little. The man had found a way to tame that aggression and turn it into a positive force, but the fate of his two apprentices showed that this was not an easy thing to accomplish. Eeth had seen a number of Jedi fall to the Dark Side over the years, and among them had been many accomplished fighters who had gotten carried away by ambition and overconfidence. Not showing any of his thoughts, he called the group together.

"Next exercise," he said. "You, you, you and you" - he pointed at three random initiates, plus Kaden - "will defend yourselves, but nothing more. I don't want to see any aggressive moves from you. Block all attacks as best you can, but no counter-attacks. The other four, pick a partner each and attack."

He was interested to see how Kaden was going to deal with this exercise.

Lyle grinned as he faced Kade. This was excellent; he had a chance to pay the boy back for beating him all those times and there wasn't anything Kade could do about it. Lyle darted forward fully intending to take his opponent down!

"Pfff! Crude and clumsy," Kade stated nonchalantly, sidestepping the attack. He had deliberately kept his saber down, however, when Lyle came at him with an overhead strike, he blocked with such ferocity that it almost knocked the boy off his feet. "Hey, no attacking, remember," Lyle chided.

"That wasn't attacking, that was blocking. THIS is attacking," Kade corrected, and with that, he lunged, extending the next block a few inches forward and knocking the boy's saber from his hand. "See the difference?" he asked, an edge of smugness in his tone as his opponent brushed himself off.

Before Kaden had any chance to display further smugness, Eeth's hand clamped around his ear and pulled him towards a bench. Without saying a word, Eeth bent the boy forward, pulled his pants down and brought down his paddle – which he usually had tucked into his belt – onto his bottom, hard.

"When I give instructions, initiate Kaden, I expect to be obeyed," he said icily and applied the paddle a second time with gusto. "I did not ask you to comment on your opponent's actions, and I certainly did not ask you to disarm him."

He brought down a third swat that was so hard it practically rang off the walls. "Am I getting through to you at all?" he inquired, his voice hard.

Several lightsabers stopped mid-fight as the sound of that first smack rang throughout the room. "Ouch… That's gotta hurt," Rezek winced in sympathy, his hand unconsciously moving back to cover his backside as the next swat landed.

Despite having just been knocked on his ass, Lyle too felt sympathy for the boy because, Force, that looked like it hurt like a bastard.

Kade for his part had not said a word since being dragged from the floor, if you didn't include the yelp of pain at having been taken by the ear, that was. Rezek and Lyle were correct, though, this hurt like nothing else. He grunted, hissed and by the third came up on his toes, but remained bent over, his head down, tunic flipped up and backside up. "Yes. Sir," he managed to get out through gritted teeth. He could feel three distinct patches of scalded skin starting to goose-bump as it rose into a welt. He didn't know how many more of those he could take but wasn't about to humiliate himself by begging.

The boy was nothing if not plucky, Eeth had to grant him that. Nor did he have it in for Kade; he simply felt that the boy needed to learn a lesson and learn it fast if he wanted to make it to padawanhood, let alone knighthood.

"Alright," he said perfectly calmly, putting the paddle back to its place in his belt. "Get up, pull up your pants and assume a ready stance. I will show you what I had meant for you to do. You attack, I block."

All the boy wanted to do was run to the refresher and stick his ass in the basin. However, with everyone watching he could hardly show how much it had hurt him, and it had really hurt. Instead, he steadily got to his feet, calmly pulled up his trousers and turned to face the Jedi with as much of a neutral expression as he could muster, considering. He did his best to ignore the fire blazing across his rear end and assumed a ready stance. The boy wanted to win, but he wasn't delusional; he stood no chance against Eeth and he knew that. The prospect of losing rankled but he pushed it down, and when Eeth gave the command, Kade flew at him, his attacks precise and powerful enough to knock most initiates flat.

Eeth blocked or dodged all of Kade's attacks fast and efficiently, but he did no more than that. There was no aggression in what he was doing; he limited himself to what was needed to deflect the attacks, but did not try to turn them against the boy or to get the upper hand.

The harder Kade pushed the more aggressive his attacks became until the boy was putting full force behind each blow, his frustration palpable, not that it seemed to make a scrap of difference to the councillor who continued to parry and dodge his attacks as if he were swatting off an annoying insect. This continued for a while, much to Kade's frustration, until Eeth told him to stop.

"This is what I had meant for you to do, initiate," he told him. "Now go back to your partner and do just that. The rest of you, stop gawking and resume your exercise."

Lily dropped her lightsaber and Drebin started turning purple again as Eeth's attention turned to the gawking onlookers. Needless to say the room was instantly busy once again, all except for Kade who remained in a ready position. "No, wait, I'm not ready to quit, I want to go again," he said, focusing on calming his breath and centring himself. His eyes narrowed in determination; Kade hated to lose and would fight until the end if allowed to.

"Initiate, I gave you an order, and you will not tell me 'no'," Eeth said in a dangerously low voice. "I think we will have to have a thorough discussion about appropriate behaviour in class, but not now. Your attitude has cost the class enough time already. Disignite your saber, pick a corner and put your nose into it until the class is finished. Initiate Lyle, I am going to work with you."

Lyle looked on wide-eyed. That boy was out of his mind, he thought, shaking his head and feeling a little worried; would Eeth kill him? Surely not…

"Nah, don't worry he ain't gonna die, but I don't think he's gonna be happy," Rezek commented as he led the fight past his friend. Rezek had an uncanny ability to read the thoughts and emotions of others, something his crèche master had taken a personal interest in. In fact, he was considering taking the boy on as his apprentice, not that Rezek knew anything of this, he tended to struggle when it came to predicting his own future.

"Hey, stay out of my head," Lyle grumbled good-naturedly.

Meanwhile, Kade was staring at the imposing man as if he'd just grown horns – oh, wait a minute, he already had those. Swallowing, the initiate glared at him for a moment longer before dropping his gaze, unable to maintain it without starting to fidget. Wordlessly, he thumbed the igniter on his saber and moved to the corner furthest away from the class; if he had to miss out, he wanted to be as far away from the fun as possible. This sucked, this class sucked and most of all, Eeth sucked! he thought, his frustration beginning to ebb but not before he had laid his boot into the corner, hard!

Eeth ignored that little outburst for now. Obviously, the boy had a temper. Well, that was not unusual in children; nor was it unusual for them to be frustrated with being disciplined. "Not unusual", however, did not equal "acceptable", at least not in young Jedi.

For now, Eeth had a class to teach. He assumed a ready stance opposite Lyle and motioned for him to continue the attack-and-block exercise.

Lyle blanched but assumed a ready stance as he faced off against the Jedi master, his saber raised and ready to defend; he was going to die he was sure of it.

Fortunately, and much to the boy's relief, he did indeed survive, and despite Lily earning a swat for not paying attention, the class continued without further incident.

Eeth had the initiates attack and block for a few minutes longer, having them switch sides every minute or so.

When he thought he had their measure, he started teaching them an advanced attack sequence that was not part of the standard initiates' curriculum but that all of the group were going to be able to handle. He finished the class off with a round of freestyle sparring. Seeing as they were one person short, he paired up the two - comparatively speaking - weakest students with Drebin, who was the strongest after Kaden. As usual, the initiates had great fun with this, and they all tried to make use of what he had taught them with some degree of success. None of them showed the amount of ambition and outright aggression in their fighting that Kaden did, though.

Finally, Eeth commended the class on their effort and dismissed them, instructing them to practice the newly-learned attack sequence in their free time. They would reconvene the day after tomorrow. Only when the last of them had left did he say calmly: "Initiate Kaden, come here." He was standing in the middle of the gym, arms folded across his chest, and waited for the initiate to comply.

Kade had listened to the lesson for a while before tuning out. After all, he could still win against any of them despite the new attack sequence they were learning. In fact it just made him all the more determined to prove himself; he would still beat them all and without special help from Eeth. He was still busy brooding over his exile when Eeth called his name. Suddenly he didn't feel quite as righteous as before. Swallowing his apprehension, he slowly made his way to where the man stood and mimicked his pose.

"Initiate, I would like to know whether you have any idea why this happened," Eeth said quietly. "Specifically, why did you end up having to spend much of a class you undoubtedly thought you would excel at in a corner?"

Kade shrugged. "Because you didn't want to fight me," he answered simply.

"Oh?" Eeth asked, raising his eyebrows. "And I paddled you because I gave you instructions that were impossible for you to follow? Are you sure that you cannot come up with a better answer than that if you try very hard?"

Having successfully blocked out the burn in his backside, Kade wasn't overjoyed at having it brought back to life as Eeth drew his attention to it once again. "If you did, that wasn't very fair," he replied without a hint of sarcasm, and took a moment to consider his options, none of which were appealing, given his circumstances. Decision made, he shifted his weight slightly, the only indication that he was feeling uneasy under the scrutinising glare of councillor Koth. "Because I didn't follow orders," he spoke quietly.

"That is correct," Eeth replied firmly. "You disobeyed, twice. And I think we can agree that this is entirely against your training. Now, what made it so hard for you to follow my orders?"

"Lyle was goading me, and I wanted another chance to fight you," he answered honestly.

"So, fighting whenever you feel like fighting is more important for you than following orders?" Eeth inquired. "Is that what you're saying?"

"No, I just wanted another chance, it's not like I tried attacking you," he replied evenly.

"I did not imply that you tried attacking me," Eeth said, just as evenly. "This is about your disobedience. It is also about your attitude towards sparring. You are doubtlessly very talented, but your skills are taking you into a very dangerous direction: one where the fight is a purpose in itself, and where winning is all that is important. I am not happy about your disobedience, but more importantly, I am concerned about the reasons behind it. Has your crèche master ever addressed this issue with you?"

Kade worked hard to keep his expression neutral and not reveal anything of the frustration Eeth's words evoked in him. "She has," the boy offered, however, he wasn't keen on discussing the particulars. "I'm sorry I disobeyed you, I will work harder next time," he said truthfully, and he really would try; Kade was generally a pretty good kid and didn't deliberately go out of his way to be a nuisance.

Another thing this initiate did not go out of his way to do was to give away anything of what he was thinking or feeling. Well, Eeth could sympathise with that although it did little to put his concerns to rest. But he could see no point in continuing this discussion right now; he would simply have to make his expectations clear and think further about what to do with the boy. "I am not asking you to work harder, I am asking you to follow my instructions the next time," he told Kaden. "Whether you like them or not. When I tell you to stop fighting, you do just that. When I tell you to block only, you block, and you do not try to turn it into an attack. I don't care who was goading you, you will still do as you are told. I will never let disobedience go unpunished, least of all in a sparring class. Bend over and touch your toes."

And that was exactly what he was going to work harder at doing, although as the councillor continued lecturing, the initiate decided it was best to keep his comments to himself. By the time he was done, Kade was feeling guilty and although he did not show it, the order to bend over caught him off guard. He swallowed, acutely aware of what was about to happen. If the three smacks he'd gotten earlier were anything to go by, he wasn't going to enjoy this. Working hard to keep from showing his fear, Kade took a deep breath and bent over, his palms resting on the tips of his boots.

"If you ever have to receive another paddling from me for disobedience, it is going to be on your bare bottom," Eeth informed the hapless initiate. For now, he let him keep his pants up, but compensated for this by making the swat harder than he would otherwise have and aiming it right at the undercurve of the boy's bottom where he would feel it for the rest of the day whenever he was sitting down. Five more swats followed, all equally hard and all on the same area of Kade's bottom. Eeth saw no reason to draw this out; no doubt the boy had other classes to attend. "Alright, initiate, up you get," he said, putting the paddle back into his belt.

Eeth's words did not garner a response from Kade. However, as the first smack landed on his already sensitive undercurve, the boy almost shot bolt upright. Thankfully, his pride would not allow such a display of weakness and he managed to remain in position despite having to endure what was quite possibly the hardest paddling of his young life. He gripped the tops of his boots so tightly his knuckles were white, but still Kaden endured. He let out a grunt at the third, hissed at the fourth and the last two brought tears to his eyes, not that he would allow them to fall. "Ahhh," he hissed quietly, eyes squinted closed in pain as he rose and turned to face the man. His backside was roasted and there was no way he was going to be able to sit during his next lessons without making what happened obvious to everyone; he would have to skip, there was no other choice, he thought as his eyes opened slowly to glare daggers at the man responsible. "Sorry I was disobedient," he managed to get out while gripping handfuls of tunic to keep his hands at his sides. There was no way he was going to rub or show how much it hurt, and Force did it really, really fucking hurt!

"Apology accepted," Eeth replied calmly, and then did something he very rarely did: He bend forward to come face to face with Kaden. "Initiate, you are doubtlessly feeling hard done-by," he said quietly, looking Kaden into the eyes. "However, you need to learn from this or you will end up with far more serious problems than a smarting bottom. If you are chosen as a padawan and if your goal is to become a Jedi Knight, you will eventually need to use your lightsaber for real, against living opponents. With the attitude you are currently displaying, you will end up killing needlessly, and you know what that would mean. I do not want that to happen, nor do I think you do - at least I hope you do not. Try to meditate about it." He straightened and inclined his head towards Kaden. "Off you go," he said. "I will see you the day after tomorrow."

When Eeth met his eye the boy was forced to stare at his boots for a moment lest the tears he was holding back get the jump on him; there was no way he was going to cry, no matter what the man said. Swallowing, he got himself together and managed to meet the councillor's gaze with his own determined expression. "I will," he said quietly, and bowed before calmly heading for the door. Despite his best effort to act like nothing had happened, it was still obvious that he was walking a little stiffly as he made his way towards crèche. He wasn't going to class so instead of heading to the pool where he was meant to be next, Kaden made directly for his room. Once there, he lay face down on his bed and cried, finally feeling safe enough to release the emotions Eeth had stirred up in him, which were as much a result of the man's words as they were a result of his paddle.