"Come now, Serra," Jedi Mattlemaster Cin Drallig chastised his favorite apprentice as his saber edged past her defenses, "If you are going to experiment with Ataru, you should remember not to leave yourself so open to attack. Just because you are busy jumping around doesn't mean that an opponent will allow you to land before running you through."

"I know, Master, I know," Drallig's training blade edged closer to Serra's side as she struggled to push aside the counterattack her master had been able to slip into her 'blind spot'.

"Then show me. You know how to run," The white haired Master disengaged his lightsaber and hopped backwards out of his apprentice's range, "you know how to jump," she slashed out with one blade, "you know how to slash," the strike whisked inches shy of Drallig's face, and he leveled a counter-attack towards her left flank. His blade suddenly stopped, mere inches away from her side, held back by her second blade. Drallig smiled and retreated again, making full use of the Temple's weapons room's vast size.

"It seems you have finally learned to block, as well." Cin leveled a flurry of strikes towards her at every angle. Serra instantly shifted away from the acrobatic dodges and leaps of the Ataru stance and fell into a Niman defensive stance. "You seem to have a grasp of the basics. Now get creative. A real enemy won't wait around for you to make up your mind."

"If you say so, Master." Serra caught her Master's last strike- a powerful overhead slash- on both of her blades and pushed them into the air. As the older Jedi angled his saber to prevent one of the sweeping strikes Serra had become so fond of, he felt a pound on his chest. The pound felt about like a size 9 ½ combat boot being propelled forward by a teenager with something to prove. Instead of falling flat on the floor like any other being would have, the old swordsman deactivated his saber and roller backwards with the impact, using the momentum to regain his footing. He felt a whisper in the Force as he prepared to right himself from the crouch, and he ducked backwards just in time to see a green blade split his vision in two as it zipped over his head.

"Clever, very clever." Cin righted himself in a defensive posture and looked forward, expecting to see his apprentice charging him in a follow up attack. Instead, an empty space greeted him, and only his peripheral vision saved him from taking a very embarrassing strike to the head from Serra's training blade as she attacked from the side. "Throwing one saber as a distraction, and moving to a blind spot to strike with the second. Unorthodox, effective, and decisive. We might make a Jedi Knight out of you yet."

The old master smiled at the young girl, no, not girl: woman- she had not been a girl for some time now- and shrugged her blade away from his. She reached out a hand to where her first blade had landed and deactivated against the wall. Cin, however, reached out with the Force to counter this. Using his own strength, he pulled the saber to his off hand and activated it. She almost sneered at the thought of losing her blade, even for just a moment. "You want it back?"

"That would be accurate, Master." She was obviously working hard to control her frustration with herself and her teacher.

"Then come get it." Cin Drallig settled into a Jai'Kar opening stance, blades to the side and pointed skyward, and angled his body to present as small a target as possible for his apprentice. Serra, ever stubborn, brought her blade into an overhead grip, blade pointed towards her master. She struck, and Cin countered. The two dance around in a whirl of light, exchanging several hundred slashes per minutes. "A Soresu opening stance with the aggression of Djem So? Foolish, if you ask my opinion."

"All due respect master, you did tell me to be creative in my tactics."

"That I did," Drallig parried another series of slashes with the two blades, "but you've made a fatal error: you expect the defensive tendencies of Soresu to compensate for Djem So's aggressive nature, but you are not at peace. You are trying to douse a fire by smothering it with a oil soaked blanket, occupying your attention too much on balancing the skills rather than the fight at hand. Focus on the here and now." Drallig drove the point home- literally- as he caught Serra's blade on his blades as she had done to him only minutes earlier. Instead of sweeping the blades upwards, however, he pushed them to the side and brought his knee into her side.

"Unf!" Serra rolled to the side with considerably less grace than her master had, yet she regained her footing exceptionally quickly, and just in time to lock blades with her master once more.

"I might try a different tact if I were you."

"What haven't I tried, then? I've used every form from Shii-Choo to Shien and I can't get through!" Serra's voice was cold, but not angry. She was merely immensely frustrated, but she was keeping it in check well enough for one who had every right to be fuming mad with the results of the duel thus far. Suddenly, though, realization dawned on her face. "Master?"

"Yes, Serra?"

"Might I please have my lightsaber back?"

"I thought you'd never figure it out." Both duelists disengaged from combat and the master deactivated the second blade and tossed it across the room to the student. "Diplomacy is often preferable to destruction. This is especially true in a mismatched fight, something which you may eventually find yourself in.
"Until then, if you want to try out new techniques, it is preferable to test them on a combat droid before putting them into play in the real world."

"Yes, Master. I understand."

"Good, now maybe you would like to show me that saber throw. Your technique seemed a little sloppy."

"Sloppy, Master?"

"Yes, sloppy. If I hadn't moved, you would have hit me between the eyes. Unacceptable."

Author's Note: These characters get much too little love. I might start a little series around these two eventually, but for now, this will remain a one-shot homage to two of my favorite boss characters from the Episode III game. Face it, they are bad ass.