Chapter Note: this will only be half of her dark side training. The next half will be the next chapter.

Chapter 4: Seeking the Dark Side

She walked until she came to the doors of the great temple. The Jedi were unable to stop her from continuing out of the temple, she had reversed the technique of a force barrier, which surrounded oneself in the force, but she had used it to hold them in their places. She walked up to the doors and flung them open, then walked out across the planets' surface. Tython was mostly inhabited by humans, but she had sensed others that were bending the force to a darker more primitive will than the lightside teachings. Through her special force sight she saw these people even before the Jedi had. She used the force again to speed her running, but still it would take many hours for her to get to where she saw the dark energy built up. Her long brown hair whipped wildly behind her as she ran across the plains of Tython.

She felt the dark energy becoming stronger with each passing step. By the time she reached her destination, it was nightfall and the darksiders' campfires were lit. She slowly walked into the light of the fire where the Dark Jedi sat meditating. They all knew she was there but did not cease their meditations. Finally one of them stood up and said "We sense the path you seek, you have seen the weakness and arrogance in the ways of the lightside; but still you hold their teachings in your heart. Your wound is still fresh upon you, your anger and frustration may yet pass, and because of this you cannot join us in our upcoming attack on their forces."

"If you see that much in me then you also see that I am a Miralukan. My people are born without eyes and for this reason we conceal our faces, but even before either side discovered power we used it to grant us a sight beyond yours. I dare any of you to test my potential, to see what power I already posses from the foolish ways of the lightside, and then let me expand that power with the ways of the darkside. Teach me, and I will not fail."

"If you wish do die that badly then come and face a beast it takes up to three of our weakest soldiers to destroy. If you succeed I will be slightly more inclined to instruct you. We have captured this from a foreign planet, far beyond the reaches of Tython, it is known as a Rancor. Come Jedi see if you can match some of our power." As he said this a huge green beast was pulled out of the nearby woods by several Dark Jedi beast masters. Luna did not let them see the fear that was consuming her, but she knew they could sense it. Luna pulled her light saber out of her hilt and force jumped over to the Rancor. She took several wild slashes at its legs then jumped on its knees and began to climb it. The Rancor swung its massive arm at her, trying to crush her against himself.

She force jumped over the incoming hand and force pushed the hand to make it fly harder into the beast's side. Its long nails drove down through its flesh, revealing a large portion of a bone from its rib cage. The creature removed its hand from its side and gave a horrible yell. Luna had landed safely on the ground when she jumped over the beasts hand and she now was again ascending it to where the hole had been made. Once she got to the wound she climbed inside and stabbed the Rancor's rib bone with her lightsaber. She twisted it and pushed it up and down until a large part of it was completely severed. She raised her hands and used the force to keep the rib from collapsing into the gut of the Rancor. She concentrated hard and spun the rib around into the Rancor's lung, puncturing it and sending it out through its back. The Rancor fell and Luna walked out of it the deep gash that she had been standing in with confidence. She turned to the one who had tested her and said, "Maybe next time you want to test someone you should bring a challenge for them."

The Dark Jedi considered for a moment and then said "You have a unique power in the force that I have never before heard of. If you accept me as you superior I will teach you. Our code is- passion_ strength_ power_ victory- you have already taken the first steps. Your passion is that you are prideful, this grants you an angry strength, but these are only the first steps. I will instruct you to make your pride an unholy fire that burns within you, your anger will be turned to hate of anyone who dares defy you or your people, this hate will give you power beyond knowledge of the lightsiders, and your power will lead you to victory. It will take many months for me to train you, but when I am done you will be more powerful than even me." She knelt before him as he spoke to her, and when he said that she would be even more powerful then him, she planned to strike him down when her training was over.

Her first lesson would be of inflicting pain, making others suffer and drawing the force that they expelled from themselves through their fear and pain. They brought out a small, tamed boma beast and her torture it, and its pain emitted energy that added to the darkside of the force. First she grabbed each of its teeth and ripped them out. Next she cut out its tongue and then finally she crushed it to the floor with the force. The power coming from this creatures fear sent waves through the force, and these waves contributed to the power of the darkside. She worked and tried to draw from that power and it readily came to her. Though its energy came to her, the great power did not immediately follow. After her lesson in pain that night she went to the campfire and sat down to meditate with the others.

The next day was combat training, which Luna was especially skilled at. But the rules of this training were unlike those of the Jedi. The victor was made to torture their fallen enemy, and this lead to Luna torturing everyone in the Dark Jedi army. Her favorite method became burning rocks in a fire and placing it on the bare skin of the fallen enemy. Killing techniques were not allowed because they did not wish to lose or seriously injure any of their forces, they needed all of them for their upcoming assault on the Jedi. This combat training turned into lightsaber duels in a week's time. She learned how to let the force guide her movements with the lightsaber. Lightsaber fighting among the Dark Jedi was a ferocious thing, and yet there was certain elegance to the technique. After her training with the lightsaber began and she started using the darkside to control her movements, she was given two new lightsabers, both of which were a deep red.

Her first duel with these was a true testament to how quick she learned. She was facing another among the troops who carried two lightsabers. She slashed high at her opponent with the saber in her left hand, aiming for his neck, and swung with the other aiming for his legs. He fell to the ground in order to avoid the blows, and then he threw his legs up and used his hands to push himself upward with the force. She took her left saber and made slash crossing downward and took another. He reactivated his lightsabers and deflected the blows, just letting them slide off his sabers, letting his slip out from between the two sabers. He somersaulted in the air as he was falling so that he landed facing her. She rushed in and hit him across the face with the hilt of her saber as he landed, then took her other saber and sliced one of his in half.

She took the saber that she had used to destroy her enemy's weapon and threw it into the air over her head. The saber she had used the hilt of to smash across his face she still held at his throat. She took the hand that had just thrown the now descending lightsaber and placed it on the handle of the lightsaber that was at his throat. She then released with the other hand and caught her other lightsaber, she slashed at his other saber's hilt slicing it in half just like she had done to his other lightsaber. Now she brought both of her sabers together at his neck and the duel was ended.

After this she learned to use the dark force power called force slow. This made the dueling partner's movements much slower than they initially were, making them more predictable and easier to dodge. She used this in another training duel against an opponent who had been told not to use the move himself, as none of the enemy lightsiders had the ability to use this. She concentrated and made him so slow that as he came in for his first swing with his saber, she dropped her own sabers, reached out and grabbed his wrist. She pinched a nerve in his wrist that made him release his grip on his weapon. She then kicked him in the gut and punched him across the face as he went down. This was an effective weapon but also one that would be hard to use against an enemy Jedi. This was because the lightsiders knew how to shield there minds, which is what this power targeted, from such works.

Every night the darksiders would sit around the fire and meditate for two hours before going to their own tents. Now that she was a Dark Jedi she had abandoned her Jedi robes for the clothes of the other female dark siders. Her pants were now made of black, tight-fitting leather. Her top matched except for at her shoulders which were covered by a metallic plate. She had heavy black boots that were pointed at the ends. This outfit completely covered her body, which she appreciated, but it was still very tight which made it feel like it was just her bare skin. She still had a veil to cover her eyes but the one she had as a child she had outgrown long ago. Now she had a less royal looking veil over her that was a very plain purple. She cut her hair to a little bit past her shoulders.

Even though she now followed dark teachings, she knew that the light and the dark balanced each other out, and so she made it a point to still maintain the powers she learned as a Jedi. Still she had not learned all she could of the dark side of the force, and her time available before the planned attack against the Jedi was coming to a close. She had to learn and master a new power every day for the next week if she was going to learn all her teacher had to offer before the great clash between the two sides of the force. First she learned the power the Dark siders called dominate mind. This was the next in line because the power slow targeted the minds control over the bodies' reflexes, so this was like taking a step further in that lesson. Dominate mind allowed a dark sider to force weak minded people to do his or her own will, without them knowing they were ever being forced to. Several of the humans from a town not far were the Dark Jedi's camp was were taken so that she could practice affecting their wills. The first man, a man by the name of Jaren, was the weakest minded of them all and she made him forget that he had any family and then made him return to his village. Next was a woman named Lara, Luna had a particular disgust for her because she was a waiter from the cantina, which to Luna meant she was no better than a slave.

She made this woman believe herself to be low and downtrodden and not worthy of anything she had accomplished, that she had no future other than serving the wills of others forever. These things, along with what she did to four others only came after a few hours of trying to do it. But the fifth and final of the people captured she merely looked at him, spoke her will, and he had no choice but to obey.