Ugg...Sorry for the wait...Alota things happened in July, like: I was in Kentucky working for people who needed help with other peeps my age, and it kept me away from writing. Plus, I had a significant lack of inspiration...Thus the short chapter...
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Oh my good golly gosh! I haven't expressed my gratitude for your feedback in quite a while...Thank you all for your positive and encouraging reviews! I would respond to all of them personally, but I can never find the time to do so. Anyway, thanks! Keep 'em comin'!
Chapter 29~Within the Barriers of Professionalism
General Grievous knew it was going to be a long day as soon as he disembarked from his transport with two of his bodyguards behind him. For one thing, he didn't like the looks of the natives even upon the first glance, with their short stature and large black eyes. They parted for him, gangly arms writhing in anxiety. Grievous swung around to one in pure vehemence when he heard it refer to him as 'Devil Eyes', glowering at it furiously.
"What did you call me?" He demanded. The little creature shrank back and stumbled to retain balance. Grievous stopped short of strangling it when the faint, metallic tone of the bodyguard on his right notified him of something. He snapped back up, attentive to the piece of information. Turning his head ever so slightly, he became all the more unhappy.
Asajj Ventress stood there, arms crossed with impatience, with a few of the locals hiding behind her. She raised an eyebrow and shook her head. "You are antisocial..."
"Do you really expect me to tolerate being insulted by one I do not even know?!"
"Yes...Devil Eyes." Ventress countered with an obnoxious smile.
Grievous stalked past her towards the impermanent accumulation of technology, where countless battle droids worked to get everything operating satisfactorily.
"Yes, go to your own kind! You fit in much better with the droids!"
He stopped dead. Jolting once, he spun himself around, stabbed a finger in her direction, and hissed: "You know I would very much like to kill you now...You also know I have my orders...But I am sure that I could modify them should I be pressed to do so. If I were you...I would not allow sleep to imprison me this night..."
With her cold gaze lowered, Grievous couldn't tell what she was thinking, but was sure it was somewhere between dread and a fight to the death. "Nothing to say? Excellent."
And with a little jerk of his head, he and his bodyguards moved on.
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Regardless of earlier orders to prevent her from obtaining them, Athela managed to reclaim all of the weapons she originally had on her person when she had first come aboard Grievous's ship. It would have been impossible to acquire such a vast collection of styles on her own, of which included mostly commissioned models, which was why she was thankful she had taken on her father's occupation as a weapon crafter. If only she had known who he was; had been...
The poor man had been murdered when she had barely been able to walk, along with her mother and nearly all her brothers and sisters. How she had lived was unfathomable to most, but she knew all too well it had been the survival skills of her only other living sibling, who was well older than she and knew what they were doing. But since she had heard that starvation had claimed that only other relative's life, a year or so before coming onto this death trap, she knew that there would be no one to help her this time.
Along with this notion, she knew she would never complete her original task, and proving all those people wrong who told her there was no chance that she would succeed. Sighing in a disheartened manner, she wondered if she would ever see her homeworld again. She missed it, along with her son, who had been practically the only one who had given her any encouragement on the matter of her leaving to find...whatever she was trying to find.
If there was any chance...
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Night came, and to the surprise of many, the demon eyed foreigner accepted a more private place to unwind. Grievous, however, proved these assumptions false when he unemotionally drove away those few who were brave enough to be his "escorts". Frustrated with these creatures already, he stepped inside the house-like building and looked around. The place was tastefully furnished with everything that a normal mortal needed to be satisfied...and no droids. Just once, Grievous didn't have to worry about droids. He had cut all communications, so he was virtually alone, except for the two guard droids at the entrance, but they were quiet enough.
But of course, nothing stayed so good for him often, and then was no exception.
There was a furious knocking on the door.
"What?!" He grated out.
"Tell your guards to let me go!" The familiar voice screeched.
"No, I think that I will just let them tear you apart and save me the trouble."
"I have information that will please you! For once I'm attempting to put you in a good mood and you want to kill me?!"
"Nothing that you say will put me in higher spirits than if you say you are leaving."
"General!"
She sounds like a child... "Very well..." He cleared the distance between where he was standing and where the door was in a few steps, and opened it. Ventress fell in to her knees and glared up at him.
"Thanks for being so cooperative directly." She sneered, rubbing the place on her arm that the droids had grasped. Grievous looked down on her like he did just before he killed someone, and didn't move. Not having room to stand, she snapped at him, "Move!"
He wasn't going to, but he wanted her to leave as quickly as possible. Wordlessly, he took one pace backward. "Now then, what was so important that you had to go and disrupt the peace?"
"We received a message just moments ago from the other side of this planet. Two Jedi by the names of Ural Namashi and Volcom Micao claim that they know of your existence."
"How is that possible? They were not given the opportunity to
"The message did not specify that. But say that if you accept their request that they will not reveal it to their Council."
"Blackmail? What makes them think something so infantile will cause me to acquiesce?"
"They said that you would say that..." Ventress looked at him strangely, and went on. "They say that they are on this planet for the same reasons we are, and have an offer for us."
"Us meaning me."
"Well...yes..." She cleared her throat. "You both want the allegiance of the native species, and in order to determine that, Master Namashi's proposition was that, since he somehow knows of your expertise in one on one battling, that you formally battle him. Simply, the winner leaves with the planet's support...and their life."
Grievous, for an instance, contemplated the offer. On one hand, being known by all wasn't so bad. And on the other, he did love a fight. But what if he should lose? He would fail and die. Not exactly what he had in mind for the rest of his life... Of course, if he refused, they would think him a coward, and he would never hear the end of it from the commander. Unresolved, he nodded hesitantly, and said at last, "I do not like being made a fool by my enemies...Tomorrow..." His voice grew more confident then. "...will be their last. Both of them."
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I dunno...This whole chapter seems rather shallow...Maybe it's just me...
Note: I don't know when the next update will be. But, I'm not giving up on this!
