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Percy's day until now was, to put it bluntly, pretty screwed up. He had gotten kicked out of yet another school, which per se wasn't that bad, but he had been sure he would see his best and to be honest only friend, Grover, a whole lot less, granted that the contact didn't end completely. But then he had appeared in the middle of a thunder storm at the small vacation home, he and his mother had planned to stay in for a few days, without his pants. And to top it all, instead of normal legs he had the hind legs of a goat.
He hadn't understood anything of what Grover was going on about, but apparently his mother had. She had anything but dragged him into the car and then raced along the roads towards tip of Long Island, why was a puzzle to him. Their drive then came to and abrupt end when the most enormous lightning, Percy had ever seen, struck the road right in front of them and left a huge crater (he was sure he had seen a hooded figure standing inside the crater).
The following car crash had knocked Grover out cold, so he and his mother had been dragging him through a muddy field to an even muddier hill, not that Percy knew where they had been going he simply followed his mother's lead. And to add insult to injury when they were struggling to get up the rise of terrain, which resulted in several faceplants into the dirt, a freaking minotaur appeared. Percy was sure he was hallucinating at this point, maybe he had hit his head harder than he thought during the crash.
But the weirdest thing wasn't even the minotaur, it was the fact that his mother was seemingly prepared for this to happen. So he didn't even question it when she told him how to dodge a charging man-cow-hybrid. The only problem was, even though Percy managed to avoid the beast's attack, his mother wasn't so lucky. The monster’s gigantic hand found purchase on her neck and picked her up like a puppy. The minotaur began to squeeze is fingers tighter around her neck but shortly before he would have inevitable snapped it, Percy's mother vanished in a flicker of golden light.
Now he was standing there, in the rain, on a muddy ridge, his mother gone and his best friend unconscious laying next to him in the dirt. And with a minotaur, who obviously learned how to counter his evasive manoeuvre, charging right at him. So Percy did the only logical thing and prepared him self for an immensely painful and to his way to short live. But he wouldn't go down without a fight, he had to at least save his friend somehow. He grabbed a reasonably big branch laying near him and got ready to strike. But before the minotaur got even close to him, a scream akin to a battle cry emanated from somewhere to his left and suddenly the monster flew to the side as if it had been hit by an invisible truck.
○○○○○○○Being a Sith Lord came with the ever present risk of being challenged for supremacy, be it through a direct duel or more subtle methods be it poisoned food, a bomb in the refresher or a nerve gas grenade hauled into the bridge of your flagship. Which meant for staying alive one had to always expected the unexpected and prepare for every eventuality.
And Revan had become exceptionally good at being prepared, so she felt quite confident exploring yet another ancient rakatan facilities on her own, partly due to the fact that she didn't want to share all of it's secrets with her apprentice, who in her opinion had became to drawn to the dark side.
Strolling through the dimly lit halls, she wondered why the rakatas had build so much of their structures out of this dark grey stone like metal. Yes it was somehow self-repairing, keeping the buildings functional even after 30 000 years, a secret she yet had to un cover, but with their technological advances they could have made it a little more appealing to the eye. A part of her even tried to understand why she was even thinking about the interior while slaughtering her way through the endless tunnels, leaving a trail of droid parts in her wake.
Maybe it was because of this boredom but she didn't notice the hidden switch, she stepped on. What she did notice however were the torrents of energy that coursed through her body. It felt a bit like the one time she had electrocuted herself as she had accidentally touched her lightsabre's energy-cell, but a thousand times worse. Everything went white before her eyes and suddenly, with a deafening boom it was over.
It took Revan a moment or two to get to her bearings, white spots were still dancing before her eyes and her head felt like an angry rancor was trying to claw his way through her forehead, but at least she was alive. Since she felt no immediate danger, she spent a few minutes force healing her self, because no matter where she was and judging by the crater she was kneeling in she had made quite an entrance, it wouldn't help if she fainted after five minutes from the pain still lingering in her body.
After she was somewhat functional again, she let her senses wander further, checking the surrounding area for potential threats or maybe even allies through the force. What she found was in equal measure interesting, strange and worrisome. She was no longer on the ice ball of a planet, she had found the ruins on, in her close proximity were just a few fields and a small forest. What made it weird was that the force was awfully quiet. It wasn't like there weren't any force signatures, she could feel the life around her. It felt like no one was using the force here, which left two options, either she landed at the far edge of the galaxy away from any other force sensitive or she wasn't in her galaxy at all. Both of which possibilities were equally frightening.
What made her forget that thought and spur her into movement something that felt akin to a terentatek in the force, who was attacking two humans and something she couldn't really place, it felt somewhat human but could also be an animal or a plant, weird. Revan got up and, with the help of her force enhanced speed, sprinted towards the fight.
○○○○○○○A snap hiss tore Percy’s attention away from the momentarily airborne minotaur, that now lay crumbled against a tree, to the other side of the hill. There stood, clad in black robes, a what he presumed human, only illuminate by the two glowing staffs in their hands, one a vibrant purple, the other deep crimson and the moonlight.
While he was staring at the newcomer, the minotaur had regained his footing and charged at his new enemy. Percy wanted to scream ‘watch out!’ but before he could even open his mouth, the mysterious person also charged, swinging the glowing staffs as they passed the minotaur and with a dull thud one of the beast's arms hit the ground, expertly severed at the shoulder. The monster released a pained roar and before he could turn around one of the glowing swords, Percy was very sure they were swords, came searing through the air, cutting its head clean of. But interestingly enough it flew back into the warrior's hand, right when the minotaur first fell to his knees and then collapsed to the ground.
When Percy looked back at the warrior, the glowing swords had vanished. Only now he noticed the sinister looking red and black trimmed mask adorning the other ones face, who was closing in on him. Instinctively he slowly backed away, his opposite, obviously noticing his distress, lifted one gloved hand towards their head and gracefully removed the mask and hood.
The mask revealed a blonde woman, Percy wasn't sure why he had expected a man, he blamed it on the armour and the general lack of proper lightening. She was about foot taller than him and looked like she was in her early twenties. Her violet eyes were captivating, he had never seen something like that before, this couldn't be a normal colour (maybe contact lenses?). Percy was so transfixed on her eyes, it took him a moment to realise, that her lips were moving. Shit, she said something to me! He thought, but instead of any coherent reply, he blurted out, “What?”
He could swear, he saw a small smile tuck at the woman's lips before she said, “I asked, if you are unharmed. Did you get hurt?”
“I-I'm okay,” answered, “ but my friend, Grover, he hit his head before and is still unconscious.”
Revan turned in Grover's direction, asking, “The one laying over there? He isn't human is he, I have never seen anyone like him before...”
“Yeah, ... he said he is a satyr, I think? I never thought they were real ... heh but I thought the same about minotaurs.” Revan gave him a puzzled look, “Minotaurs?”
“Yeah, minotaurs, like the one you just eliminated?!”
“Interesting, I thought it to be some distant relative to the terentatek.”
Now it was Percy’s turn to be perplexed, “Terenta... What on earth is that?”
“A terentatek,” Revan explained, “a result of ancient Sith alchemy and dark side energies. Pretty tough beasts, almost completely immune to force attacks.” The confused look on Percy's face only increased, which gave her the idea, that possibly this planet knew nothing of the force, and even less about Jedi or Sith, so she decided to drop the topic. “Anyway may I take a look at you friend? I should be able to help him.”
“Yes of cause, thank you,” he replied, “oh and I'm Percy Jackson by the way.”
During the few steps towards Percy's friend, Revan weighted her options, before answering, “my name is Shala, Shala Khan.”
She kneeled down next to Grover, putting her hand to his forehead and channelled the force to assess his status. “It's just a small concussion, that should be easy,” she murmured and began to channel more energy into her hand.
Percy watched in awe as Shala’s hand began do glow with a faint green hue, that soon enveloped Grover’s entire body. Seconds later his eyes snapped open and he sat up. He looked around frantically, “Percy! The minotaur... what ...,” his eyes found Revan, “who is this? What happened? I just remember a flash of light.”
“Her name is Shala Khan, she killed the minotaur and saved us,” Percy gestured towards where the minotaur’s head still lay in the grass. Grover looked at the severed head and stared at Revan in utter disbelief, “You killed a minotaur on your own? With out a weapon?”
“No, she fought with two glowing swords, by the way, what where these and where are they know,” Percy inquired, looking expectantly at Revan. Reluctantly she pulled one of the hilt off her waist. “This is a lightsabre,” she explained, activating it and with the same snap-hiss Percy heard before, the violet blade extended from the hilt, “it is basically super heated plasma, shaped by a containment field. It is capable of cutting through almost anything.”
Grover looked at her with blatant fear, “I-I should bring you to Chiron, into the camp. A-and take the head with you, it is yours now.”
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
After a brief discussion, about why anybody would want to keep the severed head of a smelling beast; Percy really couldn't understand why Grover was so hell bend on Shala keeping that thing as a trophy of sort and he was pretty sure she just relented for the sake of moving on, they were making their way down the muddy hill towards the camp as Grover called it. For someone seeing them it must be an interesting sight, he mused, a half-human half-goat ... being, a boy in dirty clothes and an armoured woman dragging a giant skull behind her. Well, that last part would mostly be disturbing if you think about it.He was soon dragged out of his thoughts as they approached a several story tall house. If this seriously was some kind of summer camp, it would probably be the main building he assumed. Grover all but jumped up the few steps to the porch and started knocking on the door like a maniac.“Chiron!” he yelled, his voice higher than usual, “Chiron we have a problem!”A few moments later the door gave way to a massive body, covered partially in short white fur and .... a pyjama?“Grover, what are you doing here? Do you know how late...”“Mister Brunner?!” Percy exclaimed, what was his former teacher doing here and why was he half man half horse? This felt more and more like an incredibly strange dream.“Percy, what...,” he began, but paused when he obviously noticed the person standing behind Percy, holding a minotaurs head. “Who is your masked friend?”Percy turned around, he hadn't noticed that Shala had put on her mask again until now. He was about to tell Mr. Brunner/Chiron her name and that she had saved him and Grover, but before he had the chance to open his mouth, she began to speak, her voice distorted by something in her mask.“I'm Darth Revan, former high General of the Galactic Republics army and now dark Lord of the Sith empire,” she proclaimed and then added, “I don't know how I ended up on this planet, but I would be thankful if you could provide some intel of where I am here.”Many emotions flash across Mr. Brunners face, surprise and confusion being the most prominent but he managed to compose himself quickly. “I ... see,” he said, while suppressing a yawn, the tiredness take a hold of him, “It seems like we have a lot to discuss, but I suggest we do that tomorrow. Grover, would you please show them the guestroom.” ○○○○○○○ Shortly after, Revan lay on a bed, starring at the ceiling planning her next steps, now that she had time to think. She was still wearing her armour and mask, which had become some sort of habit as she very rarely took them of. Part of her wondered when she stopped being bothered by the weight and slight restriction of movement.Across the room, she could hear Percy fidgeting with his pillow. Reaching out with the force she felt his nervousness, he wasn't exactly afraid of her but still wary, as well as grief clawing at his heart.“Percy?” she called out softly, “I know something is bothering you, do want to talk?”“I...I miss my mom,” he pressed out, “She wanted to protect me and then .... I couldn't do anything to help her, the minotaur...”“Percy. Percy it's okay.” Revan had crossed the room an was now kneeling beside Percys bed. “It is not your fault.”“But I should have..”“Your mother gave her life for you, Percy. If you had tried to help her, you would now most likely both be dead.” It wasn't Revans intention to sound so hard, but she knew from experience what blaming yourself for someone else's decision could to somebody. “It is okay to grief, it is okay to weep. But if you want to honour her sacrifice, you have to be strong and look forward.”Even in darkness of the bedroom, only illuminated by the dim moon light, she could see the tears streaming down his face. With a few moves, she took of her chest plate and mask, before pulling Percy into an embrace. They stayed like this for a long time, Percy silently crying into Revans shoulder, while she whispered comforting words to him. When he finally calmed down, she pulls him away to face her, asking, “Better?” To which he only managed a weak nod. “Shala, can I ask you something?”“Yes?”“Why have you told them, you are called Revan instead of Shala Khan?” Percy inquired.Revan had known, this question would come up, but had hoped it wouldn't be so soon. It wasn't something she liked talking about. She sighed inwardly before answering, “Shala Khan is ... was, the person I've been before I went to war against my own people. I became the Revanchist, because it made the decisions I faced easier. I ....”“And why haven't you introduced yourself to me as Revan?She chuckled at that, a good question. Why hadn't she, it would have been the rational thing to do. She wouldn't have to deal with her resurfacing past now. “I think out of sentimentality,” she admitted, “you reminded me of a good friend I once had.”“Oh,” Percy paused for a moment, “you said you don't know how you ended up in this planet, does that mean you are an alien?”Revan smiled at the change of topic. “If ‘alien’ implies, I've nit been born on this planet, then yes, you could call me an alien. But I'm still very much a human like you.”“Then where do you come from?”“That is a little bit difficult to explain. I don't even know if I'm in the same galaxy. The only thing I can tell you, is that I was exploring an ancient ruin, where I somehow activated a trap of sort, which was incredibly painful by the way, and suddenly I was here.”Percy's head tilted a little to the side, as he gave Revan a quizzical look.“I would love to discuss this further, but I think you should go to sleep now, I get the feeling tomorrow is gonna be a long day.”“But..”“No buts, you need to rest,” Revan gave Percy a little nudge, that made him flop onto his bed, “Tomorrow, I'm going to answer your questions.”Begrudgingly Percy crawled under the blanket and a little later, he was sound asleep. Revan, who was still fully awake, waited for a few more minutes, before she encased herself in a bubble of force energy to prevent any noise from disturbing Percy and than activated the emergency communicator in her mask.For what felt like an eternity the power indicator only blinked, while Revan prayed for it to connect. Finally, the device came to life and a mechanical voice spoke, “Greeting: Hello Master, do you require something terminated.”She almost laughed at her droids slightly homicidal behaviour, “No HK, I don't need somebody terminated. In fact, the opposite, I need you for a rescue mission.”“Irritated Statement: But master, I'm an assassin droid, I was made to rid yourself of annoying meatbags, not to rescue them.”“HK, you are not supposed to rescue anybody, I want you to rescue me!”“Confused reply: I don't quite understand master.”“Just connect yourself to a navigation computer and activate the tracking devise of this communicator. ““As you wish, Master"The line went silent for several minutes before her droid spoke up again, “Query: Master, are you trying to play a joke on me? According to the tracker your communicator is deep in the unknown regions.”That was a problem, the unknown regions were, at least in theory, mostly charted. But only going as far as knowing the approximate positions of the bigger star systems. Many systems were still lying under the radar, like the Lehon system, she had only discovered through the rakatan star maps. And reliable hyper lanes are virtually none existent.“HK, if you were to take one of the long-range scout shuttles, how long would it take for you to get here?”“Approximation: Depending on various factors, between three weeks and six months, Master. But how did you get there, Master.”“I wish I knew that, HK,” Revan laughed bitterly, “apparently it's not innocuous to explore rakatan temples. You can get teleported around the galaxy.”The droid made a wheezing noise, the closest he could come to a sigh, “Master, sometimes I question your mental functionality.”“Just get into a shuttle and come pick me up, you useless bucket of bolts!”Another sigh, “You are a very harsh Master.”“Yeah and you will have to live with it,” Revan said, before ending the transmission.Great, seems like I will be stuck on this planet for a while, she thought, might as well learn something about the society here. She pulled a holopad out of a pouch and began searching the frequencies. There had to be some kind of information network on this planet....
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
The next morning, Percy got rather rudely awakened by an obnoxiously loud knocking on the door. Still half asleep he shuffled across the room and was greeted with Grover starring at him. His friend cleared his throat, trying (and failing) to not appear skittish. “Hey Percy, slept well?”, he asked, obviously wanting to sound upbeat, “Chiron wants to speak with you and your friend about, ... well about everything.” He glanced around Percy into the still darkened room, “uhm, where is she?”Up until now, Percy hadn't given the room any thought, mostly due to him still haven't been fully awake. As he turned around, he noticed the room was indeed empty, bar a pile of neatly folded black clothes lying on the second bed. “I, .... I don't know,” Percy stated.“That is strange,” Grover admitted, “the window is closed, so had to go out through the hall, which should have been noticed by somebody. Anyway, she will probably won't be too far away, since she left some of her things here. Now we should get you to Chiron, so he can bring you up to speed.”Percy nodded absentmindedly and began following Grover through the big house. As they made their way along the hallways, he noted with bemusement that a distinctive, black fur covered head was lying on the floor not far away from his and Shala’s temporary room. He remembered, that when they had entered the room, the head had been missing, but he had been too tired to really care at that time.He almost bumped into Grover, as his friend had come to a stop in front of a door. He knocked against the old wood panel, which was soon followed by a muffled ‘Come in’ from the other side.They entered a room that looked almost exactly like Mr. Brunner’s office back at Yancy, full of books and with various parts of Greek and roman armour together with swords strewn about.This time Mr. Brunner was sitting in his wheelchair like he normally did, no sign of him being half stallion. Had he imagined the sight from last night? It was definitely possible with his hyperactive brain, Grover losing his pants and the appearance of a bloody minotaur.“Ah good morning Perseus,” he said, “please, take a seat. I expect you have a lot of questions.” ○○○○○○○
Percy POV
My head felt like it would burst any second now after my conversation with Chiron (it was strange calling him by his real name after using his pseudonym for almost a year). I wasn’t really focusing on any particular place or thing Luke, the son of Hermes, showed me on the trip through Camp Halfblood. His mention of a lake piqued my interest, maybe I could go for a swim, water always helped me clear my mind. But he was already leading me elsewhere, away from the shore.As we walked away from the twelve cabins (apparently each was dedicated to one of the Olympic gods) I felt a prickling sensation in my neck, like somebody was staring at me, but every time I turned around, there was nobody there.“What comes next may be one of my favourite places in camp, Percy,” Luke said with a mischievous grin, pointing towards a ring of wooden palisades with a gate in them, “the arena.”“What do you need an arena for?” I asked and almost instantly regretted the question, seeing Luke’s incredulous look directed at me. But it soon was replaced by look of understanding, he probably had been in the same situation as me.“Well, we need a place for training, Percy. As Chiron said, we are here to learn how to survive in the outside world. Which means we have to learn how to defend ourselves against monsters. And in the arena, we teach sword fighting. As to why looks like it does,” he sheepishly rubbed his neck, “I guess tradition?” Chuckling awkwardly, he turned around and headed towards the entrance.Once we rounded the palisades, I heard loud clacking sounds like wood clashing against steel from within a circle of gruff looking teenagers.“Seems like Ares’ and Hephaistos’ cabins have already started with sparing sessions,” Luke said in a hushed whisper, “come on, maybe we can...”He was interrupted by a scream of pain, when one of the onlookers stumbled backward as another person; I deduced he was one of the persons sparring by the sword that flew from his hand, crashed into him. The resulting breach in the circle revealed a woman clad in black and bronze armour with long blonde hair kept in a high ponytail and ... violet eyes? Revan?! She had a wooden staff in her hands, approximately her height in length, which she lazily twirled around herself.My eyes flicked back to what I assumed had been her opponent, who still lay on the floor, groaning and my jaw dropped. The guy was huge, at least two meters tall if I had to guess and with enough muscles that I could have hid behind him two times. How on earth had she thrown him that far?! But before I could continue thinking about that, my attention was brought back to my saviour from last night, when Shala slammed the staff into the ground, looking around the group, with a challenging glint in her eyes and asked, "So, who is next?"Her question was met with silence, until, behind me, Luke cleared his throat, "I guess that would be me."Luke stepped forward into the makeshift ring and drew his sword. "But I would prefer if you also fight with a blade, so we are on even ground."Shrugging Shala discarded her staff and pulled two knifes from the scabbards on her thighs. The weapons were easily as long as my forearm, their blades a deep shade of red almost black with a single line of gold running along the back of the knife. She had grabbed both of them in reverse and brought her fists up to her face like a boxer ready for a fight.For a moment, I was sure I saw a bloodthirsty grind flash across Shala's face, but as soon as I blinked, it was gone. I looked back at Luke who rotated his sword around his hand and then began slowly moving to his left. Shala, who mirrored his movement, and him began circling each other. Until on some invisible cue Luke charged forward with his blade raised for an overhead swing, which Shala easily dodged by sidestepping to the right, followed by bringing up her left knife and redirected his strike into the ground. The retaliation in form of her second blade only missed its target by a hair's breadth as Luke had to jump back in order to keep his throat in one piece. Leaving no time for him to breathe her left knife came up in a low slashing move aimed at his hip, only to be blocked by Luke's sword in the last second. However, the other weapon already came down towards his right shoulder, forcing Luke to crouch low but not without nicking his sword arm.By now my eyes were transfixed on the whirlwind of motion, Shala had become. She kept him on the back foot never allowing Luke to adjust to the assault. For every slash or stab he managed to block, two more broke through his defences. Still, I got the feeling she was just toying with him, as if she was pulling her punches. I had noticed several moments (even thought a tiny voice in the back of my head questioned how I even noticed them in the first place) where Shala could just have extended her arm little more or just continued through with her strike and in turn she would either have had her weapon in a fatal position and the fight would have been over (obviously halting before anybody got actually killed) or she would simply have disarmed Luke.Instead, she seemed to falter in her attacks, just a little. Luke, who obviously caught the change of pace, brought his sword around for a sideways blow. I don't know how I knew it, but I saw he was over extending himself with the attack and just as the thought struck me, I noticed the smirk on Shala's lips. In the next moment she dove below his swipe, extended her right leg in front of Luke's and in one smooth motion, delivered a hard-downward blow with her elbow, hitting Luke between his shoulder blades and sending him face first into the ground. A series of gasps came from the bystanders as Luke went down and before anyone could even blink Shala was on him, pressing one knee into his back and her knife onto his neck.A pregnant silence fell onto the arena; I didn't even notice the breath I was holding before Luke managed to press out, "I yield!"
----- CHAPTER BREAK -----
Sitting on the mossy remains of an old pine tree, Percy winced as Shala’s glowing fingers touched the cut on his shoulder. Even thought it had been hours since she had demonstrated her skill with a blade against Luke; hours since she had dragged him along into the forest, insisting on training him; earning him a multitude of gashes, each of which she healed shortly after, the feeling of his skin and flesh stitching itself back together still made him nauseous. However, at the same time his body was flooded with a deeply warm feeling, bringing forth some of his most pleasant memories, mostly of his mom; and every time, these memories brought back his resolve. Even if he was still coming to grasps with the whole concept of the Greek gods being real, if there really was an underworld we would bring his mom back, no matter the cost.“There, good as new,” Shala said as she retreated her hand and stood up, “shall we continue?”Percy also got back onto his feet, grabbing the training sword they had snatched from the arena with both hands and moved into the opening stance of what Shala had called Form I or Shii-Cho. She had told him that even though it was a style of lightsabre combat, it was derived from techniques used with normal blades and as such would still be applicable for him and provide a solid base for his fighting.Focusing on the blade Shala is idly twirling in her hand, he could faintly make out the red specks of his blood on the shining metal; each one the result of a mistake he made. Mistakes she had rigorously punished. Pain is the best teacher, she had said and Percy had to admit she was right. Within hours she trained him to a point where we would last more than only the first five seconds after the initial strike. In fact, in the last round he had lasted almost as long as Luke in the first fight he had witnessed, before Shala had broken through his defense and nicked his shoulder. Although he was sure, she was not going all out against him.On the other hand, if it had not been for her healing powers, Percy would long have succumbed to blood loss. Especially, after one failed attempt of deflecting one of her strikes had led to him redirecting Shala’s blade straight through his thigh. Even not counting any accidents, the training was brutal. Each and every time he missed a block or didn’t dodge fast enough, Shala wouldn’t stop her strike but go through with it. Not all the way, she didn’t intend to kill Percy after all, but he would feel the mistake. His clothes had suffered a lot of holes and cuts already and were soaked with blood and sweat, clinging to his body.Pushing all of this aside, he lunged at Shala with an overhead strike. Who, in turn side stepped to the right, catching his blade on her own and pushing it down into the dirt, forcing Percy into an awkward roll as not to impale himself on his swords handle. He winced as his shoulder impacted the hard forest floor, but he went with his momentum and jumped back to his feet. Luckily, he still had his sword in hand, which he quickly raised to block Shala’s retaliating swing aimed at his side. Right as the weapons made contact, Percy yanked his sword upwards, dragging Shala’s blade along on his cross guard.Unfortunately, she reacted faster than he did; using the vertical momentum, she spun the blade in her hand, grabbing it in reverse and stabbed downwards. Only his frantic jump back saved Percy from ending up as a shish kebab. He didn’t have time to contemplate that though, because Shala had already flipped her sword into a normal grip again, bringing it around in an upward slash, which he only barely managed to block, the tip still catching his shirt, leaving another hole.But instead of going for a follow-up swing, she lowered her blade, giving Percy a moment to catch his breath. And there was it again, that subconscious feeling of being watched. He turned around, only to be met with the empty forest. Suddenly Shala whirled around, hauling her sword into a nearby tree, where it impacted with a dull ‘tschuck’ followed by, curiously, a startled yelp.“Are you going to show yourself now?” Shala bellowed into the forest, while pulling one of her knifes out of its sheath, “otherwise the next one will not miss?”“NO! Wait!” a panicked voice screamed, vaguely coming out from the direction of the tree still holding Shala’s sword. Then, the air next to the tree began to shimmer until it finally revealed a girl around Percy’s age with long blond curls and storm grey eyes, clutching a New York Yankee’s cap to her chest. “How did … how did you know I was there?”“Simple”, Shala replied, her voice losing some of edge it had seconds before, “you may be able to make yourself invisible but you are not very good at hiding your presence. I could still feel you.”“F-feel me?!” the girl almost squeaked, “but you aren’t a goddess, are you?”“Not that I’m aware of, no”, she chuckled, “although, people have occasionally accused me of being a monster, I guess that comes with the job, but that’s beside the point. Now, care to explain who you are and why you were sneaking up on us?”“Annabeth, I’m … Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena”, the blonde, Annabeth, answered, still apprehensive; “I saw your duel with Luke and wanted to know who you are, how you got so strong.”Shala smiled at the admission and beckoned Annabeth over to them. “Curiosity I can accept as a reason. However, you should be careful with who you sneak up on“, she admonished. “As for your question about the ‘how’, my mother started training me at the age of four, which gives me 18 years of experience in melee combat.”“Your mother gave weapons to a four year old?” both Annabeth and Percy exclaimed in shock, to which Shala only shrugged. “My people are a warrior culture, it is pretty normal for children to learn to fight at an early age. Though, as a clan leader, my mother had a special interest in giving me as much training as early as possible.”“But that is all I’m gonna answer for now”, she said, grinning mischievously, already feeling the frustration bubbling in Annabeth’s veins. “If you want to know more, you’ll have to work for it. Are you up for a little game, Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena?”○○○○○○○The ‘game’ turned out to be another round of sparring, this time between Annabeth and Revan, who had discarded the sword in favour of one of her knifes, to even the playing field. Needless to say, that Annabeth, even though she held up better than Percy did due to her years of training at camp, still had no chance against the seasoned fighter. She ended up in the same bruised and bloodied state as him by the end of it. But at least she managed to impress Revan, when she slipped her dagger through her opponent’s defences, forcing Revan to jump back.Right now, she was sitting next to Percy on the old tree stump as her wounds closed under the touch of the other woman’s hand, violet eyes meeting steel grey ones. “You have handled yourself really well Annabeth. Your skill with the dagger is impressive, especially for your age.” She turned towards Percy, “The same goes for you Percy, you are learning quickly and have improved greatly in the last few hours, considering you have never held a sword before. However, there is one thing I noticed that is holding both of you back. You are hesitating, are afraid to completely commit to your moves.”Reaching behind her back, Revan unclasped her armor’s chest plate and put it aside. “Hesitation is dangerous in a fight. I learned this the hard way”, she said, pulling up her top and revealing her toned stomach.Percy went red in an instant and tried to cover his eyes, also he was quite obviously peeking through his fingers, while Annabeth gaped at her. She was fucking ripped. But what caught Annabeth’s eye even more was the nasty looking, jagged scar, running along Revan’s left side, from the hip almost up to her ribcage. Without realizing it, Annabeth leaned forward and slowly ran her hand along the pale red tissue. “How … how did this happen?”“I’ve done a bit of research last night”, she began, looking up to the sky, “the galaxy … it is not as empty as you might think. I am still not entirely sure how I got here but I’m not from this planet. My birth planet is called Mandalore, a planet located in the outer fringes of the galaxy, home to a proud warrior society. Then, four years ago, their leader, Mandalore the Ultimate, led them into war with the galactic republic, in his mad search of conquest. I fought on the side of the republic and was later promoted to high general.”“In the last battle, we boarded their flagship and I faced off against Mandalore in a duel. It was a brutal, exhausting fight but in the end, I prevailed. The galaxy’s most dangerous man was laying before me, the man who had slaughtered billions in the name of a twisted sense of glory, the man who murdered my mother because she opposed his methods and I had my blade at his throat. But … I hesitated … because he was also my father.”Revan didn’t even noticed the shocked exclamations of both Annabeth and Percy, her eyes were glazed over and she was back on the bridge of the Conqueror.“This hesitation, this moment of weakness was all he needed. I reacted a moment to slow and before I could end him, he had thrust his beskad through a slit in my armor. What happened after that, I cannot remember. When the rest of the boarding team reached the bridge, they found me half dead, leaning against a bulk head, next to the charred remains of Mandalore.”