**Chapter 498**
**To Heal a Twi'lek**
**Part 1**
**Lantilles – Jedi Training Base**
**Dagon POV**
The newly established Jedi training base on Lantilles was finally starting to feel like something real. What began as me throwing the girls into the hangar bay with clones firing stun bolts at them until they collapsed had evolved into something more structured. Advanced training probes recovered from the Scimitator — the same ones Sidious once used to train Darth Maul — combined with ancient combat droids salvaged from Malachor I and V, created a surprisingly effective regimen for building Force-sensitive warriors.
I stood in the center of the main training hall, arms crossed, watching Aayla Secura approach. She moved like a ghost of her former self — shoulders slightly hunched, lekku hanging limp, eyes dull.
Ahsoka stood nearby, clearly worried. "You sure this is a good idea, Master?"
The other girls murmured similar concerns. Shin, Erictia, Zule, Flare, Kayla, Stella, and Visenya all watched with varying degrees of hesitation.
I gave them a small, reassuring nod. "This training is designed to build patience by frustrating the opponent. It's how dark siders often break Jedi — playing on emotions, goading them into reckless action. 'Come on, strike me down and take your rightful place as my apprentice,' that sort of thing." I smirked. "Since Jedi are taught to suppress their emotions like good little drones, this should be… enlightening."
Ahsoka still looked uneasy. "Just… don't break her more than she already is."
"I won't," I promised quietly. "She needs to feel something real again. Even if it's anger."
**Part 2**
Aayla finally entered the training circle. She stopped a few meters away, staring at the setup I had prepared: several buckets filled with expired milk, five floating red balloons tethered in the air, and me standing casually with no weapon in hand.
"What is this?" she asked, her voice flat and tired.
I tossed her lightsaber toward her. She caught it on pure reflex.
"I'm going to motivate you," I said simply. "Get you back to the Aayla Secura who survived everything the galaxy threw at her. We have twenty-four hours before we deploy. Best we start now."
Aayla stared at the lightsaber in her hand like it belonged to a stranger. "I don't want to be a Jedi anymore."
I didn't flinch. "That's fine. Then fight me as Aayla Secura — not the Order's perfect Knight."
Before she could respond, I gathered the spoiled milk using the Force, shaping it into several floating spheres, and flung the first one at her. It splattered across her chest and shoulder with a wet smack.
Aayla recoiled, eyes widening in disgust and shock. "What—? Why?!"
I smiled faintly. "Because anger is better than nothing."
I showed her the five red balloons hovering in the air. "Pop one and you win. Lightsaber, Force, whatever you want. I'll only defend myself with the Force. Should be easy, right?"
I vanished in a blur, appearing directly behind her. My fingers gently brushed the back of her lekku in a slow, deliberate caress. Aayla gasped sharply, a involuntary moan slipping out before she could stop it. Her whole body shuddered.
I stepped back just as another milk sphere smacked her square in the back.
She spun around, eyes blazing with sudden fury. "Stop it!"
"Make me," I replied calmly, already preparing the next attack.
**Part 3**
The girls watched intently from the benches surrounding the training circle. Ahsoka leaned forward, elbows on her knees. Zule had a hand over her mouth, torn between concern and amusement. Shin's expression was focused, analyzing every move.
Aayla lunged at me, lightsaber ignited in a brilliant blue arc. I sidestepped effortlessly, using the Force to redirect her momentum while sending another milk projectile at her face. She blocked it with her blade, but the sour liquid still splashed across her cheek and lekku.
I appeared behind her again, fingers tracing another gentle line along the sensitive underside of her lekku. "You're holding back," I whispered near her ear. "Let it out."
Aayla snarled and spun, her blade coming dangerously close. I deflected it with a telekinetic push, then flung two more milk spheres in quick succession. One caught her in the stomach, the other splattered across her breasts, soaking through her training tunic.
She was breathing hard now, eyes burning with a mixture of rage, humiliation, and something deeper — long-suppressed pain finally cracking through the surface.
"Why are you doing this?!" she shouted, voice breaking.
"Because you're not dead yet," I answered, voice steady but firm. "And I refuse to let you bury yourself while you're still breathing."
Aayla screamed — raw, furious, and heartbroken — and charged again. This time there was real fire in her strikes.
From the sidelines, Ahsoka whispered, "He's pushing her… but he's also catching her."
Shin nodded slowly. "That's how he healed all of us, too."
I continued the brutal, strangely intimate training — dodging, taunting with gentle touches to her lekku, and pelting her with spoiled milk whenever she hesitated. Each strike she made grew stronger. Each frustrated cry carried more of her buried pain.
She wasn't healed yet.
But for the first time since the betrayal, Aayla Secura was finally fighting.