Juxtaposition

Zemma stood with her arms around herself and looked on as they took her friend away.

"Child," R'Ghnell put an arm across her shoulders. "She'll be all right."

Zemma tipped her head into his fatherly shoulder and tried to keep her face and mind a blank.

Just tired.

"Come with me," R'Ghnell led her to the door. "You can't stay here."

Zemma didn't look at Riddick as they passed. She wanted to, she wanted to reach out to him. She didn't see the look on his face. Behind them W'Rdah started yelling at the cleaning crew to get their sorry asses back in gear and quit their fucking gawking.

R'Ghnell led Zemma to his new suite. It was one she hadn't been in before, previously belonging to a displaced…

Dead; the nature of the beast.

…Commander she'd had little contact with. Like all the suites it had the standard oversize architecture and imposing frescos depicting war and painful death. Zemma looked at them with new eyes. R'Ghnell had, however, left on a scene depicting pink flowering trees and statues of cranes standing in stone pools with bright sunlight sparkling off the moving water. It made a peculiar juxtaposition.

He followed her eyes around the room. "It's from Earth, depicting a culture there in a region called 'Japan'. Fascinating combination of war and art going back for centuries. I'm really quite taken with it." He stepped away, leaving her in the center of the room. "When did you last eat?"

Zemma shrugged. "Late dinner last night."

"Join me for breakfast. These early morning combat assemblies you've been arranging for us the past two days have been working up my appetite."

She heard gentle humor in his voice and glanced over to see him smiling kindly.

"Do you have any preferences, Child?"

She shrugged. She didn't really feel like eating but knew she probably should. "Call me Zemma, please. Min is no longer the now."

This caused a sharp look and a raised eyebrow. "The Now?" Then he smiled as he went back to the menu and his voice was musing, "Who taught you about the Now?"

"My Ferrin," she sighed. "He taught me what he could."

"He wasn't a soldier, was he? A politician, if I remember correctly, before he became the Purifier?"

Zemma wrapped her armor around her mind, yet again, for a conversation about her father's inadequacies. "No. He wasn't a soldier before he came here. He was a tech," she said levelly.

"We elected him President, as I recall. Not that we thought very much of the position. A figurehead for technological trade negotiations." He was looking at her very carefully. She kept her face blank.

He's digging for something?

R'Ghnell was smiling as he walked towards her, a flat smile.

Now, what?

"Let's see what else he taught you," he said cheerfully as he pulled his dagger and made a passing thrust.

What the hell?

Zemma blocked his wrist and side stepped. She set into an en guarde stance. R'Ghnell smiled at her and stepped back to face her again. He didn't telegraph his next move and Zemma had to jump back. He smiled again and nodded.

"You're quick enough." He sounded pleased. He tossed the dagger to his other hand and closed on her, still smiling benignly.

What's the nature of THIS beast?

That one was a feint; she saw it coming and dodged his punch. She tried to break his hold on the dagger in his weak hand and ended up in a grapple.

Shit!

"You aren't strong enough for that move, my dear," his voice dropped to one of mild dissatisfaction. "Here," he let her go and stepped back. "Try it this way." He handed her the dagger.

Okaaaay.

She held the dagger in her strong hand and waited, still keeping her face blank. He started to move slowly when he glanced into her face and stopped to chortle.

"You have a lovely poker face, my dear, remind me to teach you the game sometime." Then he went back into position and showed her a variation of the move she had tried. "You haven't the sheer bulk to use most of the basic training your father probably taught you. It puts you at a disadvantage." He repeated the move faster and relieved her of the knife again.

"Now, do it as I showed you," he had barely finished the last word when he made the toss, feint and punch combination. She followed and managed the move but felt clumsy.

"Again." She tossed him back the knife and reset her stance.

He smiled.

"The only problem with the Now," he repeated the movement a little faster, forcing her to not think about the maneuver but only do it. "Is that if you're not busy doing something else it can weigh on your mind." They repeated the move a third time, then he attacked her barehanded.

"You can't do anything to help your pet. You mustn't dwell on it in the Now."

Zemma parried him with the dagger.

"You didn't attack." He shook his head and moved to relieve her of the dagger so fast he was nearly a blur. "You must learn to attack when the opportunity presents itself." He moved again at that blinding speed, attacking straight at her. But rather than the point of the knife he popped her in the chest with the butt of it.

That's gonna bruise.

Zemma stepped back again and tightened her jaw.

R'Ghnell smiled. "Good." Then he moved on her again, forcing her to move faster. When she was too slow he left a bruise with the butt of his dagger. When he didn't like what she did he stopped and showed her a different way and moved on again. He kept up a running conversation:

"Will I have to explain these marks to my Lord Marshal when he sees you naked again?"

Where the hell was THAT coming from?

"No." She kept her voice under control.

"Not good enough. Try it again. How long have you been fucking him?"

Zemma was too busy in the Now to blush. "What makes you think I'm fucking him?" She tried to sound amused and disdainful, while not getting another painful bruise.

"Better… He doesn't love you, you know."

Zemma didn't blink. "He's a beast, he doesn't love anyone."

"Good. What are you to him?"

"I'm just a servant."

"No. You're a soldier."

Zemma barely avoided another painful blow and attacked in the opening he left.

"Better. Who are you to the Lord Marshal?"

"Just another soldier."

"Good. You think you'll be his Lady some day?"

"I think he likes boys." Zemma added the slightly disappointed sneer of 'Monger titillation.

The door chimed for breakfast and R'Ghnell stepped back laughing.

"Very good! Nice embellishment." His eyes were twinkling. "I bet you're hungry now, eh, Zemma?"

"Yes, sir," she smiled back.