Writer's note:
YES! AT LAST! Chapter 11! WHOO! Once more no beta-reader, blahdy blah. Also, for some odd reason, I don't feel very... Well, proud of this chapter so... Yeah, not sure why! x.x
At least you get to read it! xD
Enjoy!
Chapter eleven: Let the bonding begin!
He flipped over and sliced one Wookiee in half with two sabers, stabbing his other two sabers into a Wookiee that stood behind him, who was ready to shoot. Quickly the Wookiees fell to the sabers of General Grievous, his monkey like reflexes helped him react quickly to those around him, and his saber techniques were un-matched to any Wookiee weapon. He was slaughtering Wookiee after Wookiee, not stopping for a break or for mercy.
He and his squad of droids had came to the battle field only moments ago, finding out that the Wookiees had called in reinforcements, making the Wookiee army out-number the droids. But with the General fighting along side the small droid army, the Wookiees were no match and fell easily. As Grievous racked up the kills, Shika was still on her first one, this Wookiee had already destroyed one of her magnaguards, and the other went missing. The Wookiee was a tough little bugger; he'd dodge her saber attacks with ease and almost got a hold of her arm if it wasn't for her Jedi reflexes. She had cut off the Wookiees finger, which only pissed him off even more than he originally was. Shika couldn't believe that fighting Wookiees was completely different from fighting droids.
The current area was at one point a forest, but the droids had removed several trees to create a clear opening for the battle to take place, making it easier to see and fight the enemy. Even though it wasn't helping, the droids were still falling rapidly due to the strength of the overly populated army of the Wookiees.
Shika thrusted her saber at the Wookiee's stomach but he easily dodged and slammed the upper torso of a busted battle droid against her, her light saber switched off and she was sent flying and crashed into several droids and the group fell over onto a dead Wookiee. She stumbled back onto her feet, only to be sent flying once more by the very same attack. She flew into the remaining area of the once large forest. She flew through several bushes and crashed into several thin logs before rolling across the ground and stopping. She slowly got back up onto her feet, groaning. How the heck did she manage to survive all of that? She lifted her head only to see the Wookiee charging at her. She once more igniting her saber and the Wookiee began swinging the droid violently around its head, Shika watched while slowly backing up. The Wookiee then brought the droid down at her head and she dodged to the side and sliced at the Wookiee's arm. She actually hit it! Its arm sliced right off.
She smiled to her current hit before being smacked upside the head by the Wookiee's other arm. She stumbled back a little, her eyes rolling, that and the several attacks before were making her dizzy. She stopped when she felt her left heel no longer touching the ground. She looked back to find herself standing at the edge of a hole, it looked like it had been cut by a light saber… Come to think of it, the whole area looks familiar. She thought before looking back to the Wookiee. It roared at her and once more whacked her, only this time it shoved her back.
"WAHHH!" She screamed as she fell back into the hole, though she quickly grabbed hold of a root that was sticking out from the ground, she held tightly onto it with one arm. She looked up to see the Wookiee was gone. She blinked for a moment… There was complete silence before seeing the return of the Wookiee, it was holding a rather large bolder with one arm. Shika's eyes grew large. The Wookiee leaned forward to throw the rock on her when Grievous shot out at the Wookiee and tackled it. The rock fell off to the side, just barely missing Shika. She watched the rock fall down into the endless darkness below her. She then heard the buzzing sounds of light sabers, followed by the painful scream of the Wookiee. Shika waited. There were no more sounds. She looked up and saw Grievous walk over to the side, he shook his head with disappointment at her before one of his light sabers switched off and hooked it to his belt, he then reached down to her with his free hand.
Shika stared for a moment before switching her saber off, she then grabbed his hand and he pulled her out of the hole and backed up a little from the hole, he then set her down in front of him.
"Is that what you call fighting?" He snapped. Shika blinked before sighing, she knew there was a catch to his friendly I saved you act. There was never one moment that he was actually nice to her." What kind of warrior are you? Falling down a hole while still on your first prey. Pathetic." Shika looked up at Grievous.
"I'm sorry, sir… I'm just not used to fighting against the Wookies." Grievous scoffed.
"Not used to it? Not used to it? What did the Jedi teach you? Certainly not how to fight!" Did Grievous even knew that Jedi were peace keepers and not warriors? Shika continued to listen to Grievous' yelling when she saw something move behind him. She attempted to look around him when Grievous grabbed her face with his free hand and forced her to look at him.
"I am tired of telling you over and over… Look at me when I'm speaking to you…" He growled. Shika attempted to look past him again.
"General, there's something-"
"Enough of this, we are returning to the battle." Grievous then let his hand slip out from her chin.
"Sir I really think you should-" He only shook his head, growling impatiently.
"I said enough! We are leav-"
"GENERAL!"
In that moment, a Wookiee shoved Grievous onto Shika. Shika gasped as the two stumbled back towards the hole. Grievous' claws dug into the ground quickly as he attempted to keep himself from falling. The Wookiee only shoved them once more; Grievous' claws slipped out from the ground from the shove, he stumbled forward. Shika attempted to push him back but he was way too heavy, the two fell back into the hole. The Wookiee only cheered in victory as he watched the two fade into the darkness below.
Grievous quickly shut off all his sabers and hooked them to his belt. Shika only held tightly onto Grievous, her eyes closed as she kept her self from screaming, she was going to die she just knew it! She then felt Grievous' hard cold metal arms tightly wrap around her and the temperature slowly dropping. Soon the two were smacked into several tree branches on the way down; Shika heard Grievous grunt as he took most of the blows, rolling over side to side, taking the branches as they fell. Shika slowly opened her eyes, she thought she saw the ground, that thought ended when Grievous slammed into a tree, causing his chest to collide with Shika's head, her eyes rolled around for a moment before she passed out.
Shika groaned as her eyes focused on the area around her. It was pitch black and freezing cold. Her head rolled to the side a bit, she was lying on her back, and whatever was under her was uncomfortable. Incredibly uncomfortable, like she was lying on a rock of some sort. She lifted her head a bit and saw Grievous' arms resting on her stomach. She gasped and sat up fully, turning around to see that she was sitting on Grievous. She quickly rolled off him, waiting for the yelling to start. And to her surprise, it didn't. She crawled closer to Grievous and saw he was unconscious; his head was rolled off to the side, his golden eyes closed. He must have taken a ton of blows to the head to actually be knocked out. She thought before she gently pushed his head.
"Grievous…" She said as her teeth chattered to the cold." General wake up." She then shoved harder. There were no signs of him waking. She then grabbed his head and lifted it towards her face, it was faint, but she heard him breathing. She set his head down gently before shoving him in the torso." Hey…" She said again. That time, he shot up and grabbed her neck, gripping it tightly. She gagged." Grievous! It's me!" She coughed. She felt his grip loosen, he then eased a bit, obviously he didn't know it was her.
"What's our current situation? Where are we?" He demanded as his eyes slowly scanned the area. Shika raised an eyebrow at him, he had been knocked unconscious but he acted like nothing had ever happened. She shifted poses before looking around the area as well.
"I'm not quite sure… I was knocked out half way down…" She answered before coughing. Grievous looked to her before getting onto his feet.
"We have to find a way back to the battle…" He informed." The droids will defiantly lose if I'm not there, and we will lose Tarfful for sure." Shika slowly got to her feet, holding her head, it was throbbing in pain. Grievous looked back at her." You have human lungs, right?" Shika looked up at him as if he were crazy.
"Yes, what kind of lungs did you think I have?"
Ignoring the answer, Grievous began walking while pulling out a light saber and igniting it, creating a tad bit of green light, just enough for them to see a little ways out." Then if I am correct, you have at least three or less hours to get out of here before your lungs freeze over. The cold air around here is not one for a weak human girl like your self to be running about." Shika blinked before following after him in a stumble.
"What about you? You have lungs!" She snapped. She then heard Grievous snicker lightly.
"Yes… But mine are protected by a pressurized synthskin gut sack that allows me to withstand even the vacuums of space. You, however, do not have a gut sack, so you will die." He sounded almost proud to have something she didn't. Shika sunk down a little, for once, she actually felt jealous of the guy." So don't go running around and talking while we're down here, we don't want Count Dooku to be upset when I bring back a frozen apprentice now do we?" He snickered again. Shika growled before coughing. He was right; she couldn't survive very long down here, not like he could. She sighed deeply and said nothing more.
The two wandered around the darkened terrain for about and hour and a half, still no sign of any type of exit. It was getting harder and harder to breathe for Shika. She let out coughs and hacks when she attempted to breathe normally, so her breathing got slower and slower. She looked to Grievous who was walking perfectly fine, no problems going on for him. She lowered her head again, her vision blurred for a second. She blinked before stumbling to the side. She suddenly felt dizzy, maybe because she was pushing herself a little too far? She coughed before falling onto her knees.
"General…" She called out weakly." I need-" She then broke out into an un-controllable cough. Grievous turned and looked at her. Pathetic. She just fell so easily. Her coughs died down slowly." I'm sorry…" She said again. Grievous rolled his eyes.
"Just rest already." He snapped. Shika looked to him before her eyes slowly lowered to the ground. She felt so tiny compared to him. He was a Droid General, he was an excellent fighter, and from what she had heard, his strategies were flawless. And she… She was just a tiny human attempting to struggle to keep up with him. Maybe she should have stayed with the Jedi and the Republic; she actually began to miss Obi-wan and Eleic, even Anakin… And Riku… And her family. Believe it or not, she was actually truly alone now. No one in the Separatists were around long enough for her to talk to them, well, in truth, she was never around long enough to talk to the Separatists to actually gain a friendship. Grievous just moved around so quickly… She did have the magnaguards… But one was already dead and the other just left her. And Grievous… He wasn't really a friend, she wasn't sure what he was. She pulled her cloak over her for warmth as she slowly regained her strength; her head was lowered, keeping her gaze away from Grievous. Every time she had looked at him in the past, he'd always return her gaze with a deadly glare.
Grievous watched her out of the corner of his eye, his own cloak draped over himself. Look at her… So small and weak, she's just a waste of my time. He thought. But he couldn't help feeling something… Pity? Sorrow? He wasn't quite sure. She did try her best to do everything she could, but trying was not an option in war, it was either you do or you die. But then again, she most likely didn't know that, she did just join the Separatist, a statement she had already pointed out. His eyes traveled away from the girl, he knew she was only interested in him for his saber skills, and who wouldn't be interested in that? He was perfect! No flaws in his movements! A perfect warrior! Everyone in the universe would most likely want to learn from him, if he ever let them live long enough… Slowly his eyes traveled back to Shika once more. She still sat there in the same position. Why wasn't she moving?
"Girl!" He snapped. Her head jerked up to him. Good, she was still alive." Why weren't you moving?" He paused. What did he just say? He just asked her a question, he normally didn't do something like that to someone lower class than him. Shika was just as surprised as he was, but she calmly replied.
"Because you don't seem to like me moving around and changing poses… You always look at me as if I'm going to spring out and attack you… So I try my best not to annoy you." Grievous stared for a moment, what was she saying? He heard what she was really saying in English but… It seemed like what she was really saying was that she was trying to impress him, maybe even get him to like her a little more. He shifted his weight onto one leg. He didn't want to carry on the conversation, so he looked away. Shika said no more, she returned her gaze to the ground.
Still, it was hard to believe the girl was trying to impress him. Wasn't she just interested in his skills? Maybe… Maybe she was actually attempting to understand him more? No, no. That couldn't be it. More importantly, why was he thinking things like this over? He hated Jedi, and she was one of the Jedi at one point, and no Jedi is worthy of his presence. He shouldn't be trying to figure out how she thinks and act, no wait, he already know she thought like any other Jedi, it's how they are raised. And that was good enough for him. Grievous allowed his eyes to once more travel to Shika; they were wasting enough time already." Get-" Before he could finish she got onto her feet. That was new… He shook his head and continued walking, Shika slowly followed behind him.
It was about a few moments later when a soft rustling was heard in the area they had currently walked into, Shika stopped as did Grievous. Their eyes traveled around the area. The rustling was heard again. Grievous lifted his ignited saber around the area, he saw nothing. Shika moved closer to Grievous and coughed into her hand. Grievous narrowed his eyes for a second… He saw nothing but the rustling was getting louder. He then snapped his head and saber up quickly to see a large spider head staring back at him, it hissed loudly. Grievous shoved Shika aside and jumped back, the spiders teeth slammed down where Grievous' head was originally at. The spider looked at Grievous and Shika, it screeched at them. The thing was enormous! Grievous pulled out his second saber, Shika went to do the same but Grievous looked to her.
"No. You stay out of this, fast pace movements will only freeze your lungs faster." He snapped before darting at the spider. Shika blinked for a moment before allowing the saber to remain in the pocket of her cloak. The spider jumped down from the tree it was hanging in onto the ground and stood taller than Grievous. It attempted to whack him, but he easily dodged to the side and brought the sabers down at its leg, the saber hit!... But did nothing. Grievous' eyes grew large; no pure flesh was ever able to withstand a saber beam. The spider then spat webbing at Grievous, and he easily dodged it. What was he going to do? Maybe he didn't hold the sabers there long enough; its legs were the side of large tree branches. Shika also watched in shock, not knowing a spider, even larger than the one Grievous was fighting, was slowly creeping down to her from above.
Grievous ducked under another attack from the spider and rolled underneath it, only to get his cloak stuck against a large web. Grievous looked back at the web and saw a large pile of eggs. Spider eggs? He thought before realizing the area they stumbled upon was most likely a nest, meaning this spider was the mother. The female spider turned to face him, Grievous growled and cut his cloak free, he then jumped up onto the spiders back, digging his claws into its back. She should fall easily, just like the last one. He though. He then twirled his sabers around to stab the spider when he heard Shika scream, his head snapped over toward her to see her fallen on her back while staring up at the bug above her. That spider, larger than the female, was most likely the father.
He jumped off the females back and onto the ground and darted towards Shika. Shika had her saber out and was swinging her saber violently at the male spider's head, it only watched, trying to get around her swinging so it could snap at her body. She did manage to cut the spider's fang, it screeched out in pain and Shika quickly crawled out from under it. She struggled to get onto her knees when Grievous ran over and jerked her up onto her feet. Shika stumbled and looked over at the male spider; it shook its head in pain before spotting the two again. It hissed loudly, almost like a roar and jumped into the air; the two looked up at it and darted opposite ways. The spider landed on the ground, making the ground quickly rumble. Grievous spun around to attack the male spider when the female smacked him aside; Grievous flew a few feet before slamming into a tree. He was getting really sick of that.
Shika coughed heavily before seeing the male spider charging at her. She then switched her saber off and jumped to the side, pressing herself against the base of a large tree. The spider charged passed her and screeched before it came to a sliding stopped and turning around quickly. Shika looked at it and gasped, she then began climbing the tree quickly. The spider screeched and charged at her again. Shika quickly grabbed a branch and pulled her self onto it, she then was eye level with the spider. She then swallowed hard and made a jump for its back, and she landed! She held onto its hairy body as it attempted to buck her off, it span around crazily. She ignited her saber and stabbed it into the back of the spider, it screeched in pain, causing it to stop bucking and start swaying side to side. Shika stood up and ignited the other end of her saber; she then began slicing away at the back of the spider.
Grievous was on his feet again, defending himself from the female spider when he notice it lose complete interest in Grievous when it heard the male spider crying in pain. It ran at the other spider. Grievous stared for a moment before realizing Shika was on the larger one's back. He narrowed his eyes and ran after the spider at a high rate of speed. Shika looked up at the female quick enough to see its leg whack her off the male. She was whacked into a tree branch, all her air was knocked from her lungs; she coughed greatly before she looked over her shoulder, now both the spiders were after her. Her eyes grew large before she let go of the branch, which the spiders ended up breaking off. Shika fell onto the ground and began running, slightly limping; the fall injured her leg a bit. She heard the spiders chasing her, she attempted to run faster but she began coughing madly, it seemed her three hours of survival were up because of her fast paced movements. She stumbled over onto the ground and coughed, the spiders approached her slowly until they saw Grievous dart passed them, and they then began picking up speed.
His two extra arms extended out and scooped Shika up in them. He then spun around quick enough to jab his two sabers into the male spider's eyes, he quickly removed them, blood splattered out everywhere as the male spiders head jerked around, painful screeches echoed throughout the darkened forest. Grievous backed up as the spider stumbled around, the female attempted to get passed the male, but its body slammed into the female. Grievous took this opportunity and looked up, he cut a hole in the ground once, and he could most certainly do it again. Then again, WHY didn't he do that in the first place? He shook that thought out of his head, now was not the time to be fooling around. He then crouched low to the grown before jumping into the air as high as he could. He got about half way up before he began falling, he quickly switched his sabers off and pointed his free arm up and his other arm reached over and pressed a button, a grappling hook shot out and stuck to the top of the area, he then pulled himself up. He heard the spiders chasing after him again. Did they ever give up?
Once reaching the top, he quickly pulled out a saber and began swinging multiple times at the thick tree branches covering them, it was about the seventh time when a bit of light began shining through, he then cut faster until the hole was big enough for him to fit through, he threw Shika out first before pulling himself out of the hole. He looked back down at the hole and saw the large bugs, he had to seal up the hole, but with what? He then took notice of a large tree; he then darted at the tree quickly and sliced it several times until it began to fall. He switched his saber off, ran back to Shika, swooped her up again and ran from the falling tree. The tree he had cut knocked over several more before covering the hole that the spiders attempted to crawl out of. The ground shook and Grievous stumbled over, he heard the screeched of the spiders before the trees all tumbled over. There was complete silence for the moment, but the silence was broke when Shika began coughing again. Grievous shuffled up and looked over at her; he saw her breathing was short. She looked back at him weakly, she looked terrified. The look she gave him actually made him tremble, as if she was going to die right there… Her eyes, they looked as though she wanted him to do something, but what? He had no idea what to do, he had no medical droids with him, nothing but his sabers, and that couldn't really heal anything, especially humanoid lungs.
"General… General I can't… I-" She coughed as she attempted to point at her chest." I can't- I can't breathe- I can't…" Shika coughed harder as her vision of Grievous began to blur, the world around her slowly turned dark. The last thing she saw was Grievous' arms reaching out to her, and then everything went black…