Hadrian stood in the middle of the same Council room once more. Not even fifteen days passed since his promotion to title of Battlemaster. He couldn't help but feel somewhat bored as he waited for the announcement.

His mind was on the weapons he made not long ago. Two lightsabers, one bright gold and one dark purple. They were very strong focuses, not on the Elder Wand's level but clearly stronger than any normal focus he could've had. It was a testament to their mysterious origin, one which he couldn't wait to start searching.

He turned his attention back to the room.

Whispering and talking ended a few minutes of waiting. The council members that didn't have frequent contact with him looked like they were forced to eat something that didn't agree with them. Whatever the conclusion was, they definitely did not agree with it.

"Battlemaster Hadrian, this council declares your Knight Trials successfully ended. As decreed before, passing the trial promoted you to a Master. While the Council would've liked to wait for you to gain some experience, your promotion won't be challenged. As of this moment, you're a Jedi Master. An appropriate attire has been made available for you." Grandmaster declared formally.

There was a resigned air of acceptance of his promotion. Except for Master Alyssa, who was sitting with proud happiness on her face, the council members did not seem too happy. The experience and age issue went much deeper than he thought at first.

He nodded in lieu of answering.

Grandmaster accepted his gesture as it meant and continued. "Your first mission is to write or record your Form, as was down by the previous Battlemasters. You may use either a normal console, a video recording or a Holocron. The decision is yours, however, a Holocron would be much helpful."

This was a surprise to the others as well, as they turned to Grandmaster in interest. The gleams of curiosity about his Form was shining through their eyes.

"I will be writing the form. Do be warned, however, it is a much difficult form. Even if I was personally teaching there wouldn't be a high percentage of success, let alone learning from a book." Hadrian said, staring pointedly at the Grandmaster. The greed was apparent in the eyes of most Initiates and Knights. Even some Masters wanted his style.

He expected an amount of interest in his Form with the show of superiority he demonstrated in the Tournament, but the downright greedy fascination of nearly everyone was above his expectations.

He had no wish of giving his hard work easily to outsiders as well.

Not to mention most Jedi didn't have the required amount of magical power and control.

Apparently, the Grandmaster understood what he meant and didn't pursue the subject. "I understand. After your recordings are finished, you're free to leave the Temple. Dismissed."

"May I leave as well, Grandmaster?" Alyssa asked right after his dismissal. She stared the eyes of Grandmaster, and a silent conversation went between their eyes as Grandmaster contemplated the request.

Whatever Grandmaster saw was enough to convince him, as he acceded the request with a slight nod. "You may."

She quickly made her way to the door and made a follow me gesture to Hadrian.

"Ungrateful little shits," Alyssa muttered under her breath, her eye twitching in obvious annoyance.

She was walking fast enough that Hadrian needed to use some magical reinforcement to keep up with her. Her robes whirled in the wind as she sped past the halls.

"Master Alyssa?" Hadrian asked, curious what made calm Master so annoyed that forced her to curse.

"Those Masters in the Council. They didn't want to make you a Master, because you were so young." She answered tersely. She was still fuming from the conversation she had with the council a few hours before.

"What? Wasn't it them that said I was going to be promoted if I managed to pass the exams?" Hadrian asked in shock, his eyes opening slightly.

What the hell, they were going to go back on their word? Yes, expecting it to go without any issue was a bit too much, but in his defence, he was sure that the word of Grandmaster would be enough to counter pretty much anything.

"Those Masters," She said the word with a sneer that reminded Hadrian of Malfoy, "didn't expect you to pass the exam they made deliberately difficult."

"Ah, so that was the reason why Master on Ilum was ordered to not accept me before I finished the Trial." He said in understanding. He didn't expect it to be changed because they didn't want him to pass. The actions reminded him of Dumbledore. Manipulating the situation because they knew the best was a slippery slope in his opinion.

"Yes, I learned after the change was made. According to the all-knowing Masters, you needed to learn some humility before being allowed to become a Master." She hissed angrily. "They just didn't want to lose control of you."

"Control of me?" Hadrian stared at Alyssa. "What do you mean they didn't want to lose control of me?"

She gave Hadrian a contemplative look. "How much do you know about the title of Battlemaster?"

"Not much. I didn't have time to visit the archives after I was given the title." He shrugged. The Trials age too much of his time, even if he wanted to know more about it.

"There is something you need to know, then. Title of Battlemaster cannot be taken back and it is a Master level title, meaning every Battlemaster is also a Jedi Master -"

"And since it cannot be taken back, my promotion to being a Jedi Master can also not be taken back." Hadrian finished her words.

Holy shit. That was actually amazing, and a little terrifying. How could the Council make such an oversight, Hadrian didn't know. A Battlemaster could do anything and still remain a Jedi Master... No wonder the Council didn't want the title given to him. Not only they lost the ability to threaten him with demotion or exile, but he was also a nine year old in their eyes. A mature one, yes, but a nine-year-old regardless.

If he was in the Council, he would've tried to cling any kind of check and control mechanism as well.

"Oh..." He trailed in wonder.

"Yes oh," Alyssa repeated knowingly. "You should understand why they were vary of giving the title."

After reaching Alyssa's personal room, she pointed a chair for Hadrian to sit. She was searching for a recording given to her together with Hadrian years ago, with a note to give him when he was mature enough.

He may not be old enough for many, but he was mature enough. To top it off, he was just promoted to one of the highest positions in the galaxy. If that didn't show enough proof of his maturity, then she didn't know what did.

She sent a fleeting glance to Hadrian. He was sitting straight, looking somewhat bored but his eyes showed curiosity about her actions. After all, she invited him without informing him of why.

As she searched, the pile of random objects slowly occupied the middle of her room. Just as she was about to start searching another room, her hand hit her objective. "Finally!" She muttered, taking the crib.

The recording was inside the crib, where she left after handing him to Fosterers in what felt like a lifetime ago.

She handed the recording to Hadrian. "This recording came with you, to be handed to you in due time. It is probably from your family, but I don't know what is inside the recording."

Hadrian slowly grasped the disk, his expression equal parts excited and reverent. "This is from my family...?" He repeated.

Most probably, she laughed at his expression, her eyes filled with mirth. Seeing him like this reminded her of his age. No matter how mature he acted, he was still a child.

"Go on, watch it in your room." She urged.

Hadrian bolted without even giving her another look.

As he rushed to his room, Hadrian could still hear the following laughter from Alyssa. He knew he acted ridiculous just then, but he couldn't help his excitement.

He was waiting for this moment for years.

The recording wasn't filled with somewhat cryptic teachings about changing something to another, resizing, colouring etc...

Basically, a combined, mysterious transfiguration and charms lesson that was filled with spiritual and emotional bullshit.

It was a family secret - their personal magic.

In single whoop, this recording allowed him to refer Magic with its proper name citing it his only familial connection, together with his other magical skills.

It was a genius move on his part, he couldn't help but congratulate his smarts. Not being able to use charms made daily tasks way too hard, especially cleaning his room by hand after getting used to doing it with a wave of his hand.

Now, he could use the same explanation for his new skills. Either they were from his family inheritance, or he discovered them from the aforementioned inheritance.

He even had an excuse to not teach this stuff to others. They were his family's and they were going to stay that way. No Council was going to force him otherwise.

Especially considering the huge amount of damage a person could do with these abilities, there was no reason to tempt fate.

He opened the door of his room and froze. Sitting on his bed, was his best friend Aristana, staring at the door in emotion between happy and angry.

"Oh shit," Hadrian muttered. He had totally forgotten about her.

He slowly entered the room and put the disk to his table. Pulling a chair he sat in front of the bed. He was honestly nervous.

"Long time no see." Said Aristana flatly, staring him down.

Hadrian winced. The greeting was so much of a departure from her usually bubbly way of talking that he honestly felt the discomfort deep in his bones.

"I'm sorry?" He offered weakly.

"So you are."

How a twelve-year-old girl could cut him with her words so easily he had no idea, but there it was.

"I really am. I know I was supposed to meet up with you after the tournament, but the Council informed me of the Trials and I went on to prepare for them." Hadrian explained apologetically.

"So you couldn't even find time to send a message?"

The truth was, in his excitement he forgot all about her. Nevertheless, he obviously couldn't say that. It would only serve to make her even angrier. "Err..."

"Do you have any idea how worried I was? I haven't talked with you for two days then a Master came and told me you were sent to Ilum for your Trial. Ilum! Knights thrice your age died there!" Her voice slowly picked up, and near the end, she was shouting.

Her upset was breaking Hadrian's heart. She was near tears. "I didn't want to worry you." He muttered as he hugged the young girl. "I won't do it again, okay?"

His words had for some reason the opposite reaction. She burst into tears and hugged him with an amount of strength that was not normal for a twelve-year-old, even a magically enhanced one.

He heard her talking between sobs. "You're... leaving... me." It was hard to understand exactly what she was saying, but he got the gist of it.

She was afraid that he was going to leave now that he was a Master. Rather, he was going to leave without her. She didn't want to lose her best and, because of her association with him, her only friend. She was afraid of being alone.

"I am not going anywhere." He muttered to her ear, as he drew circles on her back. It worked, somewhat, as she stopped crying a few minutes later.

"Promise?" She asked him somewhat childishly.

"I promise." He answered in the most solemn voice he could muster.

The silence fell upon the room, only interrupted with Aristana's infrequent sniffs. Hadrian thought upon his decision once more. Seeing her afraid of his leaving showed how dependent she became of him, slowly. He was not going to leave her behind, and this was the best way to ensure it.

"Do you want to become my Padawan?" He asked, hating how his voice sounded weak and unsure.

She simply stared at him blankly.

"I know I am not the most knowledgeable of Master's, neither the best one, but I thought how we couldn't stay together if you had another Master and how I didn't want a Padawan anytime soon, I thought -"

She cut his ramblings with an excited jump to his embrace. "Yes yes yes!"

Her excitement was contagious, and soon Hadrian started laughing. He didn't know how deeply concerned whether she was going to accept his offer or not. With his nerves leaving, he couldn't help his laughter.

Soon, he noticed Aristana still didn't leave his embrace and took the chance to tickle her. Although Chiss physiology was quite different than humans, they were, inexplicably, ticklish even more than an average human.

It soon devolved into a tickling war, and Hadrian was actually happy that he at least got to chance to live the childhood he missed.

After calming down, Aristana informed him of her desire to join the Trials nevertheless. Because of his instructions, and her genius the council had given her permission to enter the Trials a year earlier, so there were around eleven standard months left.

Her decision helped Hadrian too, as he needed to stay and write his own form. A quite time intensive mission, taking at least nine months. It left around two months for Aristana's Trials, which could be used as free time.

Naga Sadow went over the military statistics once more, taking notes at the side as he did. The total number of ships the Empire owned was rising constantly, as the shipyards on Korriban built more and more.

He couldn't help but feel that Empire was weakening overall, however. Although the number of soldiers and ships went up, they were not controlled by a single person. Sure, technically Dark Lord could command everything inside his Empire, but reality did not allow that.

Everyone, including Naga Sadow, had a private force only at their beck and call. Naga Sadow would give control of his military immediately if it was required of him, but Dark Lord appeared to be content with what he had.

There was no desire to conquer, or even simply go to war in the old Dark Lord anymore. It was treason to even think so, but for Naga Sadow, the Dark Lord was getting weaker and weaker as the time passed. It was still the Lord's personal strength that held him back from making a move.

He had no wish of watching the Empire he loved crumble because of some fool's lack of vision.

The Council he just attended showed how the highest members of Aristocracy weren't happy with the power they had within the Empire, but none of them wished to attack outside when they could exploit weaknesses of the other aristocrats.

Even his mentor Simus was not helping him in the Council. How could they not the increasing weakness of the Empire?

Getting the approval of the Council in an honest way had become impossible, the Dark Lord didn't even let the topic open. It was time for making all of them see what he was seeing. In the visions, the Force had shown the destruction of his Empire, and they dared to ignore them!

Ludo Kressh listened to that damned Naga Sadow's words during the council once more. The mentally challenged man was going to ruin them all with his obsession with their ancestors' enemies.

His actions were pushing the country to destruction. They were not ready for any kind of war, let alone against a Republic 18.000 years older than their Empire! Honestly, how that idiot couldn't see the difficulty it would prove?

They didn't even have a hyperspace route to follow, let alone any kind of information on the technology levels. Their whole technology came from their ancestors when they were elevating primitive Sith.

Who knew what kind of technology the Republic achieved with their galaxy-spanning resources in the last two thousand years, when they were bickering between them instead of focusing on elevating the Empire.

On top of that, the soldiers didn't believe the existence of the Republic, let alone thought them as an enemy. If they were to order the army to fight mythical enemies, there would be either revolts or a massive amount of desertion.

No matter what Naga Sadow thought, the Empire didn't need any more enemies. They first needed to crush any and all dissenters, returning the Empire to its height. First look inwards, before turning their eyes outwards, his mentor always instructed him, and it never let him down. It wasn't going to now.

Since Naga Sadow couldn't stop his yammering, and the Great Marka Ragnos didn't have time to handle him, perhaps he could arrange something.

Yes, an assassination perhaps. That could work...

If someone wants to beta the story, I'd be grateful.