Duel for his Fate

He trudged along the tunnels, eager to find anything that awaited him. It seemed almost an eternity since his last battle. He had found himself remembering his first encounter with Dooku very puzzling as he became a gift for the Sith Lord.

At that point, Grievous had been adorned with nothing—but a mere generic droid face and plate. But Dooku had looked past it and seen potential. Grievous was a warrior borne of combat, power and most of all, hatred. He deserved his title as General of the Separatist Army. He had defeated Dooku's disciple Ventress and the cold, brutish hunter Durge for that title. After that, Grievous carved his faceplate to those similar of the Kaleesh tribal bone mask, and created a new cape for himself. He earned it and he would prove his worth to Dooku by presenting the lightsabers of the Jedi who now made their way towards him. The Foundry lay in his path—as did the way to his shuttle.

But before he could kill anyone, he would have to adhere to his Master's orders, without anyone noticing his presence. He still had much work to do, before he could ever announce his presence. And that time would draw near very, very soon.

He stopped as he heard footsteps—a lot of them—racing towards his own location. He looked around and realized that the same trick would not work twice. He would have to announce his presence shortly. He removed his remaining sword and lowered his body, preparing to pounce right into action at the first sign of his victims.

"We've encountered nothing so far, General," said a voice—a clone voice—that seemed to be addressing someone in charge.

"How do you know?" The other voice replied. Clearly, it was a Jedi—with the tone of the voice.

Grievous prepared himself and waited, eagerly anticipating the havoc he'd commit.

"The blaster markings are those of a DC-17 Rifle, sir. Alpha Squad sure left their markings—and kills. They're by far the best of us here on Geonosis, sir."

"You mean 'were.' Alpha Squad has gone missing and I doubt that whatever they faced was something more than just deadly."

"The Geonosians have made freaks of nature, sir," the voice replied.

Grievous' eyes took on a darker tone at the reply of the clone. You will pay for that one, Clone

Suddenly the shuffling of feet and voices stopped.

"I feel…something," the Jedi spoke.

"What is it, sir?"

"It's elusive, almost as if it has no appearance, yet has some semblance of familiarity to me."

"We'll tread cautiously, sir," the clone replied as he began to issue orders to his commandoes. The sound of shuffling footsteps began once more.

One of the commandoes turned the corner of the dark corner to see nothing. He checked the area a few more times, panning around the natural corridor, illuminating it to see nothing. "It's all clear," he began as he turned to nod to his companions.

Grievous pounced.

The commando who had spoken briefly crashed into the wall as blood spurted from his throat.

In that instant, Grievous heard the sound of lightsabers igniting. He would have grinned. He activated his electrostaff, slamming one end of the weapon into the chest plate of another clone, causing the clone to scream as he was sent away with a jolt of deadly electricity. The next instant, Grievous whirred his sword through another clone—slicing him cleanly in half.

He dropped his sword instantaneously as he watched an emerald glow slice at it. He now wielded the electrostaff with both of his hands, expertly dodging the blows of the lightsaber and smashing one end of the staff into the helmet of the last clone—effectively eliminating Beta Squad. He leapt back and brought the weapon at a defensive stance as he watched the three Jedi glance at one another and then focus on him.

They stood there, a human male with long, dark hair; a rodian and an ithorian.

"You won't live to survive, Jedi," Grievous taunted, laughing as the Jedi came at him, deftly parrying each blow.

In a blur, the Rodian locked his blade on the staff, as Grievous sent the Ithorian flying away, crashing into the human.

Grievous enjoyed what came next: he let one of his hands go and he whirred the staff—something he was beginning to enjoy a bit too much—and took pleasure in watching it disable the lightsaber and smash one lit end onto the Rodian's snout, electrocuting the Jedi where he stood.

The Jedi were dismayed by the sudden turn of events and pressed on, as they leapt high into the air, the human facing the back of Grievous while the Ithorian fought the cybernetic monstrosity head-on.

The Kaleesh warrior brought his foot out and kicked out at the Ithorian, his claws tearing a three pronged hole in the Jedi's chest. He spun about, whirring his blade and shoved the human away as he retreated towards the wounded Ithorian, picking up the lightsaber with his foot and igniting the emerald blade. Grievous enjoyed walking over the Jedi as the blade cleanly sliced its face in two.

"You monster!" The human screamed as Grievous could only laugh. The human reached out into the Force and shoved Grievous back, only to be rewarded with Grievous standing his ground.

"Your vaunted Force is of no use to you here, Jedi," Grievous spoke, his mechanical voice revealing the promise of pain.

The sound of both lightsabers thrumming was all that filled the deathly silence.

In an instant, Grievous and the Jedi struck out at each other, as Grievous whirred his staff in one hand, while he slashed and parried with the emerald lightsaber in one hand.

The Jedi managed to hold his own as his own emerald lightsaber crackled against the spinning staff and the other lightsaber.

Grievous admired the skill and bravery of this one, but he knew it was only short-lived. He brought his staff closer towards the Jedi as his foot grabbed hold of the corpse of the Rodian Jedi. Spinning himself around, he slashed to the left with the lightsaber in his hand as he sent the body of the Jedi flying towards the one he now faced.

The Jedi's resolve impressed Grievous even more as he sliced through the body and cast it away from him.

"Most impressive," Grievous said as he stared at the Jedi. "But you must realize that your struggle is futile—you shall be dead soon enough."

"I don't think so," the dark haired human spoke callously.

Grievous sent the staff flying towards the human as he kicked out, knocking the Jedi back. He took this time as a measure of his victory as his free fist slammed into the ribcage of the man, causing the human to scream out in pain and cough blood.

Grievous could only laugh as the Jedi rose shakily. "Foolish Jedi, you are done for."

"Only in your mind, creature," the human spat back.

"No, my name is Grievous," the cyborg replied as his lightsaber arced high and low, before it whirred into a deadly lacerating light that somehow seemed more appropriate and all the more enjoyable to the General.

The Jedi parried the blade, strike for strike, only to find himself backed in a corner.

With a flick of his wrist, Grievous sliced through the Jedi's wrist, causing the man to fall and whimper at the pain. How pathetic, he thought to himself. I would have though you a more worthy adversary. He deactivated the blade, which prompted the man to look up at the cyborg.

Grievous brought his foot up and snapped the man's neck.

He looked down at the lightsaber covered by the fist and he picked it up, removing the hand and dropping it while he inspected the blade. They were very curious trophies indeed. They each had a bit of a personality etched into them, causing the General to enjoy the prospect of taking them as trophies—or gifts he could present to Dooku as a way of proving his skills. He holstered both pommels to where his swords used to be. He would find a way to add more to his new 'collection' of lightsabers. But for now, they would stay where they were.

Grievous looked at the Rodian's lightsaber hilt and noticed its uncultured grip and obvious design for a Rodian. He picked the weapon up and thumbed the activation plate.

Nothing happened.

He thumbed it again and again, pressing each activation plate he found on the lightsaber.

Again, nothing happened.

It then occurred to him that his electrostaff had crashed against it before it went into the Rodian's face. The lightsaber must have overloaded. Grievous could only laugh at the realization as he strode through the tunnel to see his personal fighter waiting for him.

He clambered aboard and strapped himself in, while he tapped several keys and switches. He felt the shudder of his craft as it lifted off, taking him to the far reaches of space—to where he would find Count Dooku and present to him these new acquisitions. Perhaps he would even go so far as to impress the Count and be taught how to use these weapons.