Chapter 9 - Sparring
Information was its own weapon.
Hevy liked the auxillary hangar. There were no flyers here, only a fully outfitted gym. There were benches, hot showers, grav-weights, mats; even a null-ball court with the hand-size ball floating aimlessly within the containment field. The gym was both familiar and luxurious. One and Two waited at the entry. He picked up and tossed a towel to one of the benches. She had found him workout clothes; worn into soft comfort and he wondered briefly who had made them comfortable. He pulled off the shirt and placed it next to the towel.
Asajj was on the mat, warming up with a kata. For a moment he watched. Her movements were smooth, swift and precise; she was a master martial artist. Today, he thought to himself. I'll beat you today. He had been trained from birth and he was a master warrior.
There wasn't much to do in his cell and he reveled in coming to the gym, reveled in pushing his body as much as he could. He didn't quite revel in losing to her but he did enjoy the challenge she presented. He joined her on the mat, beginning his own warm-up.
"It's a beautiful ship, Asajj. Powerful." Again he saw that tiny shiver, the microscopic flinch, a swift look of pain on her face. He hadn't noticed it at first, but now he saw it whenever he used her name. At first he had simply wanted to call her Asajj because everyone else called her Ventress. Now he called her that because it brought the strange reaction
She glanced at him, acknowledging his statement, then continuted her kata.
"I can feel the vibrations when we go into hyperspace. But it isn't military, not with accomodations like this gym." Hevy ran his fingers over the covering of the mat; organic, soft in texture, durable. Not the artificial covering from Kamino.
"A donation from a weathly patron of the CIS retrofitted for battle." Asajj finished the kata, took a deep breath then began another.
"Asajj, how did I end up on your ship?"
Asajj Ventress shrugged, letting the movement flow down her body. "I was in the other tank after - an encounter." She also knew that information was a weapon. She could give him something here; it would ultimately work in her favor. "Grievous was extremely irate at Rishi's destruction and the delay it caused in the attack on Kamino." She bowed her head and lowered her eyes, looking out from the corner. It was a flirtatious gesture. They wouldn't have taught the clones courting on Kamino and there were essentially no human women to interact with them, yet he was human and the language was instinctive. He'd react, yet not understand. "You don't need to know beyond that."
She saw he was pleased to think that he had forestalled Seperatist plans, then came a sad look as he thought of fallen brothers. He was so simple to read, once she had stopped trying to find deeper currents, more intricate plans. He had several plans for escape, none fully flesh out, all possible until she had taken steps to make them ineffective. Hevy straightened, flex his arms and chest slightly then turned full body and looked at her in mild confusion. Asajj continued speaking, ignoring his reaction.
"The droids simply followed my orders and retrieved all combatants and parts. I did not realize that a clone was there and was not specific enough in my instructions to collect only droid parts. You were retrieved, damaged, but repairable. They put you in the second tank. They are used to my meditating while I am there, so did not add sleeper." She looked at him, muscular, stripped to the waist, barefooted, tattoo circling from his jaw down the back of his neck and snaking down the sides of his backbone. "I didn't realize that the tank was being used until I overheard One and Two discussing you. It was an error."
He nodded then rolled his head from side to back stretching the muscles of his neck. "Then why offer the painkiller?"
"A momentary weakness of mine. I don't hate clones except as an accessory to the Jedi."
"Teth." He replied bluntly, his face hard.
"Conceded." Asajj felt his pain for unknown brothers.
"I heard that an entire company went in and five walked out."
"It was viciously done. I did let six walk out including a captain..." She paused, not knowing how to explain what had happened, not knowing if she should tell him. It was valuable information. She turned toward him, her eyes hard, watching his reaction. "who violated a Force-based order."
Hevy's reponse was barely noticeable. "How many man had you killed? How precise was the order?" He chewed at his lip as he inspected her; he'd given her too much but he wanted her to understand the depth's of the captain's pain. Then he realized that she had given him something as well. "On Kamino, a captain is raised with his company; not given command of a company but raised with them with the expectation they are his."
Asajj nodded. "I knew that but had not considered what it meant." She was quiet for a moment. "But consider," she bent forward, touching her elbows to the floor. "Would the Jedi have sent troops if it hadn't been the child of the Hutt who controls a good portion of the trade routes? Would the Jedi have been interested if it had only been some average child of some average family with no power, no name, no money?"
Hevy thought for a moment. "But that's why you kidnapped the Huttlet. To get that reaction." He stretched. "You precipitated the whole thing because you saw the Huttlet as opportunity instead of a child. The Jedi were thinking of how you saw the Huttlet – what gambit you were trying." He looked at her expressionlessly. "You made the child a weapon. If you had taken some average child from some average family," he paused thinking of a family losing something so valuable. "That child would no longer be so average."
She liked that about him. He had said he'd tried to sleep though most of his later training discussions except heavy weapons drills, but his mind thought like a warrior. It might be raw, unformed and inexperienced, but the foundations were strong and stable. And if that were true for him, then it was true for the others. A moment's plan, more information to be gained; she would have to study battles the clones had fought. How they battled both following the detested Jedi and on their own.
He continued, a little sheepishly. "At least that's what I would have thought."
"It is war." She stood. "There are victims. Troopers and children."
Hevy shook his arms to loosen them. "Nice to know you aren't getting soft in your old age." He retorted. He watched her, calculating possible weakness and admiring her form.
The Echani fought with almost nothing on and under her kama Asajj wore a shirt and some loose pants the same as he, but the clone had sparred in all conditions of weather, terrain, and with and without armor. It was all one to him.
She bristled at his words, though he didn't know why until she muttered softly under her breath, "Old age. Come, youngster, we'll see about this 'old age'." She stood to her full height, barely a finger's width shorter than him and unclipped the long kama from around her hips tossinig it to the bench where he'd left his shirt and towel.
She was whipcord thin, all muscle and sinew except for the curves of her breast and the gentle flare of her hips. Hevy looked away for a second as unknown and unbidden thoughts came to his head. He stood for a second, confused – something in him shouting that this was all wrong – when she whirled and the back of her fist caught him on the cheek.
Now this was familiar and he didn't have to think. He'd sparred with his brothers every day of his known life. He let the power of her blow take him sideways as he dropped the upper part of his body to the floor. His legs came up and he could feel his feet brush against her shoulder as she turned, following the force of her strike. Not enough though, she was fast. He was on his feet again and brought the blade side of his hand towards the junction of neck and shoulder. A devastating blow, but she was a devastating partner. Her right arm crossed in front of her to guide his striking arm around her as she dropped down and tried to sweep his feet off the floor with her leg. He pushed back, kicking her leg away with his stronger one. They'd both be bruised tomorrow.
His other hand, fisted tight, caught her in the back, slightly above the kidney as she spiraled and he heard her grunt of pain and uncontrolled acceleration forward. She adapted the force of the blow and rolled, kicking out and catching him in the leg, just a hair from his groin, then was on her feet again. He hit the floor rolling and came up, weight on his legs and fingers barely touching the floor, facing her.
He moved in fast but she was faster and her right fisted knuckles jabbed him in his side as he came up. That was what he'd been waiting for. Hevy's left arm came down hard, tightening over hers.
"Got'cha" he gasped as his right arm swept around her back then lowered, pinning her other arm to her side. Raw muscular strength was his advantage here – his only advantage, he thought as her head butted him in the nose, breaking it. A black patina flared in his brain but passed quickly and he hadn't let go of her.
Her leg came out, snaked towards his and, for a moment, he evaded the sweep. Only for a moment, then he fell, heavily taking the blow of the floor on his side and swiftly rolled so Asajj was beneath him. She breathed hard with the exertion of trying to free herself from his arms but was unable to do so without referring to the Force and that was not Echani.
She lay there, under his muscular body, struggling until he tightened his grip substantially and her ribs ached. Any more pressure and they'd break. Blood ran from his nose onto her face and neck, warm and slick.
"Strength defeats speed," he said smiling as she ceased struggling, ceased attacking, ceased trying to escape and acknowleded her defeat.
"True enough. But what defeats strength?" She asked in her whisper harsh voice. He held her in his arms.
He looked at her, sudden confusion unfurling in his mind, pain shooting from his nose and, to a lesser extent, his ribs. Strength had always been the clones' forte, his forte. He'd been strong, working on it, he had usually won against his brothers. She felt warm in his arms. Proper. Abruptly, embarrassed for some odd reason, he released her and rolled to sit on the floor.
"Patience. Reach. Mobility. Knowledge. Toughness." He recited and she recognized it as some flash lesson. His hand went to his nose and he winced as he touched it. "Speed. Anything can be the key to victory."
She had risen gracefully from the floor and handed him his towel even as she wiped his blood off of her body with another. "And I have those."
"Only with the force." He muttered behind the towel.
Her rage bubbled to be released, but she held it back. "That was not Force enhanced. That was practice. Echani."
"Show me," he scoffed, the towel held to his nose.
Her rage boiled over. Who was this made-man to laugh at her? She grabbed her sabers, comfortable in her calloused palms and slowly crossed them in front of herself as she faced him.
Hevy paled as she brought her face and those blades close to him. He'd never heard anyone say you could smell the blades! He'd brought this on himself, but she spoke evenly now, calmly, though rage flamed in her pale eyes.
"This is the first kata of the Niman, a form of Jar Kai, double bladed fighting. This is force enhanced." She stepped back and Hevy could breathe again.
But not for long.
Asajj danced. Hevy's mouth dropped open at the magnificence of it. His eyes could barely see her movements for their swiftness, yet he could see her imaginary opponents by her moves, how she feinted here then countered a strike with both of her blades, turning again to catch the blades of an opponent. The blades dance with her, sizzling the air, sweeping quickly, then slowly.
He was quiet while they ate. And she asked him why.
"I'd never seen the force in action. Not like that. I'd seen holovids of levitation, heard that a Jedi could get inside your head and could move faster than. .. Been told…" No, best not mention that. He broke off. "I didn't believe it. Not really. I thought …," He couldn't find the words.
"Strength in some form was sufficient?" She asked softly, knowing the answer.
"Yes."
"And now you must rethink your view of the world."
He nodded softly. "Yes."
Asajj nodded. He was breaking. As a master crystal cutter, she was breaking him where she wanted.
