(this is a mild spoiler if you haven't read the story Truth Within, found on our profile)
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This is written by Momo. Obviously I don't own Starwars. I also don't own Sakajin (that would be the lovely Suki). However, I do own 4J :D Yay. This oneshot is based off of Truth Within, please read that first. This takes place a little while after 4J is hooked up to Sakajin.
Sakajin bit her lip nervously, sitting on the ground in front of her master in shock. "You want me to d-do w-what?" She asked meekly, having just received instructions from 4J.
With a robotic sigh, 4J repeated," You need to access the sartorius cable, Saka. More specifically, where it meets the abductor longus cable."
Her ears flattened in tentative fear as she heard the commands restated. Zap had gave her a whole speech on both of those (muscles for her, having organic legs and all) areas after she managed to hurt both of them in one day (training with Grievous of course). "B-but... Um, I don't know where they are..." She trailed quietly. Sometimes she wished she was a better liar. That was certain to just infuriate General Grievous.
The cyborg growled and snarled under his breath," Just get on with it female. I don't like this any better then you do." Actually, he liked it much worse. This was about as bad as the whole Sakajin being his mechanic got. It was embarrassing and unfortunately, completely necessary. He was debating whether he rather have this or brain surgery.
Moving her hand, 4J gestured to the inner thigh, about to trace a diagonal line right across- Sakajin quickly pulled her hand back and admitted," I- I know where... b-but..." Her modesty made her cheeks glow crimson and her meekness intensify beyond the impossible.
"It's been a long time since I've had anything there you should be embarrassed about, woman, so stop dragging this out!" He snapped, pounding the desk he sat next to. The instruments on it rattled, conveying exactly how he felt. He was accepting help from a woman of no status who also happened to be close to him. It was the worst possible combination ever, coupled with the fact it was for that area.
Sakajin wasn't surprised by the loud outburst at all, but when she looked up into his eyes, her breath caught. "I sorry, sir," She quickly apologized. The girl felt guilty, had her unwillingness to just do the procedure been selfish? In his eyes, she saw hidden shame and embarrassment, trying so hard to be concealed with annoyance or anger. This was difficult for him, more so than for her, she realized.
Propping his arm on the desk so it held his head in manner that covered his eyes, he muttered," It's fine. Just do your job." His voice was cutting and supposed to come off as angered, but to his apprentice, it showed how uncomfortable he was.
"O-of course," She replied, adjusting her sitting so she was at a better angle to work.
"Gooood, now that we got that out of the way," 4J said, moving her hand to grab a tool.
She looked curiously at what he grabbed, still not completely used to how much control he seemed to have while doing maintenance on his patient. It wouldn't last long, just short bursts, but it still was weird feeling.
4J began explaining step by step, starting with dissembling the leg and where it connected to the body. Her nimble fingers made quick work of disconnecting and reconnecting many small cords and other various mechanical pathways. It seemed to last for over half an hour, every once in a while stopping for a few minutes, 4J asking for Grievous to try and move various artificial muscles and try to figure out possible ways to fix the problem.
The whole time, Sakajin tried to think of what she was doing as merely working on a machine and take out the emotional element. There was no need to make it harder for either of them. While she had done minor work a few other times and just awkwardly tried to talk to him then, never had any of the jobs been to this level, and never to this level of unease.
Something about that also managed to make things a tad more awkward then she expected though, since she got the feeling 4J and Grievous would usually be talking like nothing was happening if it wasn't for her being here.
4J suddenly spoke up, more for Saka's benefit then Grievy's," The cable we're about to adjust is going to hurt a lot. It will send an incomprehensible signal of pain originating from your lower left arm, Grievy."
"What? Why my-" General Grievous choke off his question, his upper body collapsing and gripping the desk with both hands as abrupt excruciating waves of agony jolted through him. The worst part was that the pain had no 'type'. It wasn't abrasive or a laceration, it wasn't burning or severe cold. It wasn't anything except mixed transmissions that were too garbled to make sense of. A very low, and almost inaudible, growl came from him as he resisted the pain.
Sakajin gasped in sudden agony, almost dropping what was in her hands to grab at her chest. Oh by the force, it hurt, it hurt, it hurt. Tears sprung to her eyes as she felt through the force what Grievous was feeling.
"Q-quickly, quickly, reattach it to the main cable but three centimeters to the left of where- Oooowww! Saka, hurry~!" He cried out at the unanticipated sensation of racking pain. "Of where, where it was, three centi..."
Everyone sighed in relief as the pain stopped when it was plugged into the proper place. Sakajin fell backwards to a more comfortable position, her breathing ragged and tears streaming down her cheeks. She looked up at her mentor, her eyes instantly drawn to the deep claw indents in the solid metal desk.
Her gaze traveled to his eyes, surprised and suddenly bashful as she saw his eyes were already trained on her. The niterran couldn't quite make out what emotion or thought was behind his eyes, or very well emotions and thoughts since Grievous always bottled everything to the point of every emotion just being on tap.
Averting her gaze, she was glad when 4J spoke up. Until she heard what he had to say. "W-What the hell was that? Wh-what...? It- it hurt, it... 0.000 1.000 0.000 2 0.035 0.999 0.035 4 0.070 0.998 0.070 6 0.105 0.995 0.105 8 0.139 0.990 0.141 10 0.174 0.985 0.176 12 0.208 0.978 0.213 14 0.242 0.970 0.249 16 0.276 0.961 0.287 ..." He began generating sines, cosines, and tangents of angles trying desperately to distract himself from the lingering ghost of pain.
Sakajin worriedly tried to soothe her friend," 4J, it'll be fine, It wont last, don't worry. The pain's already fade-"
"Don't bother," Grievous mumbled," That's just karma letting him taste his own medicine."
Shock at his callous words caused her to look up surprised.
"He's inflicted that level of pain many times, the only difference being with out a warning," He explained. He did care for 4J, that much he couldn't deny (to himself and sort of Sakajin, he would deny it vehemently to anyone else) but he also couldn't deny how he got sadistic pleasure out of the droid's pain. After how long his medical droid tormented him with unbearable pain (completely forgetting of course that (most) of it was needed so that he could still function) every chance he saw the droid share Sakajin's pain, and apparently his, he got a secret kick out of it.
"O-oh, I see," Was all she could muster, still getting over the pain herself. She must of used the force, that much was obvious, but how and why, she didn't know. She hadn't ever felt his pain projected unto her before, not like that. Sakajin wiped her tears with her sleeve, just now remembering to not appear weak. Curiously, her master hadn't commented on it. She counted herself lucky and left it at that.
Grievous stared down at his pupil, noticing how she was trying to pull herself together and not appear like she just went through unspeakable trauma. Though if 4J was any indication and she had truly felt what he felt, he wouldn't blame her for her apparent weakness. Coughing first, he hesitantly said," Sakajin. You... never mind..."
He had used her name, she realized, looking up at him with inquisitiveness.
He cursed under his breath in Kaleesh as he realized that just made her curious. Looking away awkwardly, he mumbled lousily," You can... can cry, or whatever... " His deep voice cracked as he had to cough.
"Um, thank you," she breathed, astonished that he had given her permission to be the one thing he always seemed to hate the most.
"...140 0.643 -0.766 -0.839 142 0.616 -0.788 -0.781 144 0.588 -0.809 -0.727 146 0.559 -0.829 -0.675 148 0.530 -0.848 -0.625 150 0.500 -0.866 -0.577..."
Sakajin smiled softly, still drying her tears, but this time because she no longer felt the gripping pain and accompanying sadness. General Grievous rolled his eyes. Sure, he actually permits her to cry when she's hurting and he gets a smile out of her instead.
"180 0.000 -1.000 0.000," 4J finally ran out of numbers, and slowed down a second long enough to realize the pain no longer was affecting him.
"O-okay, let's um, continue," The droid said in the smallest voice Sakajin remembered hearing from the eccentric and well-passed-outspoken droid.
She lifted herself so that she was back into a working stance, cheeks heating up again as she reached her hands directly towards where they had left off. With 4J's assistance, she was soon returning to the norm that had been set up by the previous thirty minutes, without any sudden waves of pain though, thank the force.
"Whew, I think we finally nailed down the complication," 4J said as reassurance for both. "Saka, see the light cord that is connected to the last route that we patched? Disconnect that and use the hypocompression-wrench to unwind the convolutions," he began, then continuing with taking the cord fully apart then putting it back together and patching up the synthetic nerves they had been toying with the whole time.
"Take that for a test drive, and I think you'll find it works perfectly, Grievy," the droid piped up cheerfully. Sakajin stood up wearily, her legs sore from being in the same cramped position for so long, and mentally tired from the pressure of the whole 'If I screw up, my life could very well be ended'.
"Leave," Grievous instructed, standing up as well, thankful that he didn't fall back down from another system failure. And leave 4J behind... He had so much on his mind. So much he wish he could share with someone. Definitely not anyone. Sakajin especially couldn't be his listening ear.
"Y-yes, sir," She obediently replied, bowing her head slightly and exiting his room sadly. She... She had thought that it would end differently. He had been kind, well in his own way, and she had just thought... She shook her head to clear it of those naïve thoughts. She had to give him time, he couldn't go from misanthropic loner to social butterfly overnight, she didn't want him too anyways. She liked how he was now. She just wished it included a little less pain and that he would open up to her a little more.