Writer's notes: Yes this fic isn't dead yet.My apologies for the extreme lateness of this chapter.  I'd like to say I'll do better in the future but god only knows. :-(

Chapter Six

Kat Rin Pryde, elderly Jedi Master Knight, marveled anew as the young girl Li flawlessly dupicated the lightsaber swing she'd just shown her. For someone who'd never even held a lightsaber before that abilitly might seem mystical, but Kat knew it was no such thing.

Li was gifted with superb reflexes and a keen mind despite -- or perhaps because of -- the unforgiving enviroment of the planet known as End's Land and its even more unforgiving and hostile residents. She'd survived on her own for years and had done it on her own terms when others would have 'gone with the flow'.

Of course Li also was gifted with the Force -- not greatly, but enought. She'd no doubt been using it unknowningly to 'assist' herself, most likely when she threw those little 'fireworks' she enjoyed using so much, among other things.

"Well done," said Kat with a smile of approval. "Now then -- do you feel it?"

"It?" came the mischievous reply.

"The Force. As you run throught these exercises you should also be reaching out to it, moving within in it and being a part of it. The Force is a part of all things and runs thought all things. Don't you feel it?"

"All I'm feeling right now is the sand that ran down into my boot."

"GROAN!"

Li snickered and Kat shook her head, unable to maintain her look of stern reproach.

Kat returned Li to the lesson at hand by showing her several different new swings which, when combined in a different order than the one she was showing them in, would produce one of the more effective lightsaber attacks taught to appretice Jedi. She was curious to see if Li would work it out.

Not that Li was now an appretice Jedi. She was far too old -- at least under the ancient Jedi training codes -- but the Jedi academies and the Jedi themselves were all but gone now.

And Kat hardly had the time to give Li even basic Jedi pretraining -- assuming the girl even wanted to be a Jedi.

But the simple act of these little lessons did help Kat center herself, clear her mind and make plans. She'd always planned better when she was doing something other than just sitting there planning.

And who knows -- perhaps from this little seed of knowledge she was planting, something unique would grow.

She could only hope.

Besides, thought Kat ruefully, given her past record on training Jedi, it might be better if she didn't keep Li under her tuterlage.

She mentally shook herself. What had happened to either Yana or Rachel could hardly be placed solely upon her or her teachings.

Rachel had been so eager to get out and save the universe... and in the end had suffered the fate so many Jedi did. Not out of foolishness or poor actions, but simply because in the end it was an impossible feat to bring an end to all evil everywhere.

A noble goal, but a doomed one.

Or a pre-doomed one.

Like Yana. Poor pre-doomed Illyana.

Kat had helped rescue her from a coven of dark Force warlocks intent on using her and her powerful talents with the Force to further their plans. And afterwards Kat had taken the young traumatized child on as her apprentice.

Over the objections of her fellow Jedi.

Who said the girl was too old, too 'injured' and too tainted by the dark side to remain true to the light. They believed that it was too dangerous to continue her training, for no good would come of it.

Kat had disagreed strongly, kept the girl and continued her training. She'd bent all her effort in trying to keep her from turning toward the dark side.

But one of the dark wizards had survived and, hidden in the shadows, had worked his evil to darken Yana's future.

Kat hadn't realized what was happening until it was too late.

And then he'd stolen her away.

Her fellow Jedi believed she'd left with him of her own will, but Kat had never believed that. After so many years together she would have bet her very soul that Yana would never turn to the dark side.

Regardless, she and the other Jedi had rushed to stop the madman's plan which, if the information they later learned was correct, involved opening a dimensional rift to some realm of ultimate evil.

Kat was never sure such a thing was possible, but the horrors that she had faced that day rivaled any she'd fought her in all her long years.

In the end they had stopped his plans and ended his evil for all time... but the cost, oh, the cost had been high.

For among the dead was Illyana.

Kat had found her body, dressed in the robes of the dark Sith, her lightsaber still blazing, lying dead before a Dark Sith altar. There hadn't been a single wound upon her, but her life was gone.

And almost worse was the realization that she would never know what had happened. Never know if Yana had truely turned to the dark side and been willingly aiding the warlock's dark scheme, or had died trying to stop it

In her heart, she would always believe the latter... but she'd never once felt her presense within the Force as she had other Jedi who'd passed beyond the veil. Even now those memories still brought pain to her soul, but she'd never given up that belief.

"Kat?"

"Huh? Oh sorry, Li -- I was just wool gathering."

"What's that?"

"It means I was lost in my thoughts. Remind me later to plug some of the holes in your education."

"Sure -- but I don't get lost in my thoughts so maybe my education is better than yours," she stated boldly, with a smile.

"Wait 'til you get older, kid."

"Hadn't planned on getting old."

"Given your tendency to aggravate people, that's a highly likely outcome."

"But enought of this," continued Kat, as she readjusted her lightsaber back to full power and put it away, then did the same with the one she'd lent to Li.

"So I'm a Jedi now?" asked Li, straight faced.

"Hardly. Now here," began Kat as she handed the girl her own airbike 'key'. "Take my bike out of the shed and give it a checkover. Once you're done with that, hook up the anti-grav carrier pod behind it."

"Why?"

"You'll see. Now shoo and let me think a moment."

Li headed out, her curiosity about whatever Kat was up to momentarily overwhelmed by her desire to ride the Jedi's far superior to her own speeder bike.

Kat watched the girl head out the door, spared a moment's prayer for the safety of her bike, then closed her eyes.

She reached out into the Force. She had come to several conclusions and decisions and, while she knew the Force couldn't tell her if they were correct, she had always done this to steady her nerves once she'd done so.

The answers she sought, the foes she must face, she wouldn't find here in her little house. The nearby star port likely held some but, either way, it was highly unlikely she'd ever come back here.

But before she left the planet know as End's Land, there was at least one last good deed she could do. But only if .....

Lockheed fluttered over to her as she held out her hands to him. Gathering him up in her arms, she murmured her request to him.

His head tilted slightly as he considered her words, then nodded his approval.

'One problem out of the way.' she thought, then winced as she heard her speeder bike roaring around the house at top speed.

"And now to one of the other ones."
 

End Chapter Six