Lightsaber
Canderous kept pace with Pol easily as they walked. "You don't seem comfortable with your lightsaber. I could give you a few pointers before you face this fallen Jedi."
"Canderous, no offence but what do you know about lightsabers?"
"None taken. The best way to learn about a tool of rage some times is to be on the receiving end of its damage." He explained distinctly.
"It's not supposed to be a tool of rage… That kind of thinking leads to the darkside. Great now I sound like Vrook or Bastila."
"At least you recognize it. But I have faced many Jedi of differing alignment in my battles and I can tell you, point one, your stance is wrong. Not incorrect but wrong for you."
Pol stopped walking. "Well you know I value your opinion. And I would appreciate your tutelage if you're offering it. So what's wrong with my stance?"
"No doubt its one of the simple styles the Order commonly uses; but it has none of your own personal flair. Pol you're an amazing warrior and an incredible athlete, you should try to loosen it up a bit. I'll show you what I mean." Canderous drew his scimitar and held it loosely by his side. "Draw your weapon but don't attack me, this is a demonstration, not a sparring match."
Pol burst into a fit of giggles trying to imagine how a sparring match between the two of them would go. "What are you laughing at?" Canderous demanded impatiently.
"This, you, everything really, are you afraid to fight me?"
"Pol have you been in the sun too long! If I am its only because you may injure yourself flailing that thing about like an amateur." Canderous smirked dryly.
"Amateur? I'd kick your butt and we both know it." She teased.
"Your head's not on right." Canderous made the intergalactic gesture for madness at his own head to hammer his point home.
Ignoring the finger that Canderous wriggled at his ear Pol goaded him further, "I'd make you cry big man."
"You're all talk. You ever really want to take me on you let me know and I will be there." Canderous locked eyes with Pol in a way that was not unfriendly but unmistakably challenging.
"Since you Mandalorians don't make threats I am I to take that as a promise?"
"If you like, but for now draw your weapon."
Pol drew her lightsaber.
"Now look at the way that you are holding it. Focus."
Pol stood in the stance she had been taught, it still felt unnatural. Too slow cumbersome. The lightsaber felt heavier than a planet, a blunt instrument of accountability. She reached out to it with the Force and felt over burdened and off balance. It felt too heavy in the hilt and ineffective in the blade.
Canderous's next instruction bought her out of her reverie. "Ok now take my sword." He said offering her the hilt. Pol disarmed her lightsaber and took the scimitar in her hands.
"Hold it the way you would your old sword." Pol did as she was asked and the connection she felt between herself and the sword was near perfect. She felt a familiar freedom to her movements. Pol twirled about with it testing the air and showing off a little.
"Yeah yeah you're very clever now give it back." His voice was a growl but he smiled all the same beautiful.
Pol returned Canderous's blade. "Now tell me which is heavier? The lightsaber or my sword?"
"The lightsaber," Pol answered without a second thought.
"No it isn't. They're the same weight."
"Give me that back." Pol ordered with an outstretched arm. She did not believe a word of Canderous's claim. "Hmm you're right." Pol said as she compared the two.
"So why hold your lightsaber like it's a ten ton baton? Why do you move around it instead of moving it around you? I could tell you what else you're doing wrong but I can see from your expression that you're already working it out." Canderous smiled in approval.
"Yeah I think I do. I want to test this out though, so how about a quick sparring match? Then you can see exactly what I am doing wrong!" Pol drew her lightsaber and refocused herself.
The lightsaber felt completely different. Evenly balanced and beautifully crafted. The finest blade she had ever held. Capable of slicing a man clean in two. She tested herself, drawing on the Force to gauge her freedom of movement and felt triumphantI have faith in my weapon and I am free.
"No." Canderous said blandly.
"Huh? But you promised and now I am dying to test this out!" Pol complained holstering her weapon.
"If you want to fight me it has to be Mandalorian dueling rules, battle ring, hand to hand. I couldn't draw a weapon against you Pol; don't ask me to."
"Ok then what about Force powers?"
"Ha! If you think your going to need them to best me then sure you can try a little magic." Canderous laughed teasingly.
"You're twice my bodyweight," Pol pointed out. "And you have the height advantage."
"It's the size of the fight in the Kath hound not the size of the Kath hound in the fight. You don't need to challenge me Champ, I could beat you without throwing a single punch and you'd be lucky to hit me at all in the time it took me to disable you. We both know who the superior fighter is." Canderous grinned smugly pointing his thumb to his chest.
"One more smarmy arsed comment like that and you're going down!" Pol threatened her excitement building.
Canderous looked Pol up and down slowly and deliberately and said, "Valor, you wouldn't have the guts."
Pol threw herself at Canderous thumping him in the solar plexus. If Pol could have seen his face as he buckled over, she would have been blinded by his smile.
Canderous threw his arms wide to catch Pol before she leapt back for another attack, but found himself snatching air. A sixth sense made him duck just in time, and he narrowly missed being hit in the jaw by Pol's foot. That's one hit to youthought Canderous as he caught and blocked Pol's fist. That's a miss Pol.
Pol bought her free hand up and smacked Canderous on the back of his head, the shock caused him to let go of her other hand. Pol did a back flip to gain some distance from her opponent. "Ha-ha your going down man thing!" Pol laughed as she circled gracefully.
Canderous stood awaiting Pol's next assault. That's two hits to her. When it wasn't forthcoming he taunted her. "You've hardly hit me. What are you afraid to break a nail?"
"Why haven't you even tried to hit me Ordo, afraid you'll miss?" Pol teased back.
Canderous lunged at Pol suddenly, catching her this time. He pulled her arms behind her back and stood with his own arms wrapped about her in a constrictive embrace, his front to her back. Every time she tried to move he tightened his grip. And now you're mine.
"Nu huh ha, I got you now Valor. I win NO way out." Her hair was in his face.
"No I won because I hit you more than once." Pol could feel Canderous's breath on the back of her neck and her own breath being squeezed out of her lungs. The thought of both made her dizzy.
"But you won't be hitting me again because I have disabled you without throwing a punch, as promised. So I win."
His mouth is right close to my ear, maybe I can head butt him and get free that way? Pol wondered. I am not using Force powers, there must be another way. "I could get out of this hold easily." Pol gasped as she tried to break free. She squirmed a little to test the waters and then struggled with all her might.
Canderous laughed, enjoying his moment of victory. "You won't get away." He assured her as he held her back. From Pol's view it seemed effortless, but in truth his muscles were bulging enviably with the strain.
"Oh no, what if I do this?" Pol asked rhetorically as she stamped down on Canderous's boot, hard.
"Do what?" He asked nonchalantly. Frack's balls that hurts!
"Arrrrrrg." Trying a final bid for freedom Pol threw her whole body weight around, hoping that Canderous was growing tired from his efforts at restraining her. When her last ditch maneuver failed she asked in a pitiful voice "Uh Chief? Could ya lemme go now?"
"Ok Champ, but as I am the honorable victor, you have to say I won."
"I won." Said Pol with the barest giggle she could manage as oxygen starved as she was. Any more of this and I am going to pass out.
"That's great you just keep telling yourself that Pol cuz in about a minute you're going to start to feel sleepy." Canderous warned.
"Ok, you won, now lemme go." She conceded.
There was a twang of corporeal disappointment between them as Canderous released Pol from his grasp. Almost as if to ease the parting, they shook hands in a gesture of friendship and to consolidate the end of the bout.
Out of the blue Canderous said, "If you could remember your training, your initial Jedi training I mean, that might help you overcome your mental or emotional block about lightsabers."
"That's supposing I was a Jedi, and what makes you think my block is emotional or mental?" Pol inquired as they resumed their trek.
"Physically you have the potential to brandish a lightsaber better than any Jedi I have ever seen. So that leaves mental and emotional. You seem to be clearing that up pretty well on your own, but knowing more about your past might help."
"Then tell me about the Jedi you fought. It may jog something." Pol insisted.
"You know the more I see you as a Jedi the more familiar you look. And it's not just cuz I know you better."
"Do you think we faced each other in battle?" Pol asked feeling overwhelmed.
"We might have." Canderous dryly admitted.
"Any idea who I was?"
Canderous stopped in his tracks. "I don't want to sound like Carth but I have one theory. I would like to keep that to myself for now. Since you have banned me from spying on the council any further my theory will have to remain one old veteran's paranoid delusions."
"It's just as well you don't want to sound like Carth cause Carth gives me the gizkas he's like the dopey younger brother I never had…" Laughed Pol. "If I turn out to be who you think I might have been, will this affect our friendship?" Pol eyes said what she could not: don't leave me.
"No but I'm just speaking for myself. Look I don't care who you were or what you did, I doubt it could be any worse than the things I have done and seen. I don't even care what you do in the future. I enjoy your company and I respect you. You need some one you can trust Pol. I'll be that guy any way I can." Canderous returned her gaze reassuringly: I'll never leave you.
"Canderous that is the nicest thing that anyone has ever said to me," Pol said trying to dislodge the lump in her throat.
"You're not going to get all girly on me and cry now are you?"
"No but I might hug you." She looked down at her feet smiling and blushing.
"It's probably best if you don't." He said emptily.
"Why's that?" She asked, with an inviting smile. She figured hugging Canderous would be a challenge. Nothing about the Mandalorian said 'cuddle me' but Pol still thought it sounded like a worthy objective.
"No telling what ideas, I might get if you do." Canderous purred lightly, flirting back at her.
"I think I know why Jedi can be so aloof and uptight now." Pol groaned.
"Oh yeah?" Canderous mused, his face forming a wry grin.
"They are all frustrated, from lack of affection. No one hugs them. They never get any. And to avoid attachment means having almost no friends….Arg no wonder Bastila is so down all the time and so chaste. I'm going to have to be nicer to her."
"So this is what you are signing up for?" Canderous seemed sad, his grey eyes were looking a full fifty something years for once.
"Frack, pox, boma dung and a bucket of Hutt snot." Pol kicked the ground, stubbornly. "I don't know. I told them Jedi or no, I wouldn'tgive you up."
"Pol, you realize that makes me sound like your plaything?" Canderous asked screwing his face up in shock.
"Uh," Pol gave a nervous giggle. "Sorry, umm did you want to be?"
"Meh, the idea has a certain distorted appeal." Canderous took Pol's hand and drew her close. His tone was dry but his face revealed his unconditional affection for her.
With one hand on the small of her back and the other tilting her jaw gently upward he drew her close. "I shouldn't be doing this." Pol mumbled as Canderous leant towards her mouth.
He said, "You aren't a Jedi yet. And you're not doing this. I am." Right before he kissed her.
Juhani – Sometimes Redemption Has Claws, More Often It Has A Cute Accent.
The sun was setting when Canderous and Pol neared the fallen Jedi's dwelling. "She is just over this rise; I want to talk it out with her. Stay here and don't come after me no matter what you hear, your presence may only anger or frighten her further." Pol placated Canderous when she noticed his apprehension.
As if soothed by her words he calmly agreed to the plan, in part. "If you're sure, then I will wait. But I won't wait long, if you're not back in half an hour I come looking."
Seeing no way out of the arrangement Pol agreed with a smile and a short nod and left him to find the Jedi.
Juhani sat meditatively drawing energy from her environs. About her lay the bodies of several Mandalorian raiders who had strayed to close to her territory. While she seemed oblivious to the stench the corpses emitted, she keenly felt Pol's approach and leapt to a fighting stance with a war cry. "I will be your doom!" She yowled stunningly.
"Ah nuts." Pol said; as she drew her weapon. She threw up a gust of wind strong enough to knock the fallen Jedi to her backside, but it was annulled by Juhani's unnaturally fortified powers.
Their lightsabers came together with a drone of Force fueled energy; but the fallen Jedi's thrust and parry was quickly overwhelmed by Pol's regained artistic sweeps and mighty hacks. The clash was over as quickly as it had begun, and the fallen Jedi supplicated falling to her knees in defeat. The cat like woman's dark cloak of pride fell from her shoulders in a heap as she landed.
"You are so much stronger than me, even with my fill of dark energies." She murmured with a delightful Cathar accent.
"Who are you?" Pol asked delicately, she was deeply moved by the woman's inherent melancholy. It radiated throughout the grove and had been sending the animals into a frenzy as the sentient emotion overcame their innate instincts.
"I am Juhani and this is my grove, my place of dark power. If you have come to kill me please do it now." She lowered her yellow cat like eyes; shame spilled out of them the warm tears dampening the light fur that covered her entirely.
"I did not come to kill you." Said Pol. "I sensed you out on the plains and came to talk."
"Talk? Talk about what? I have slain my Master Quatra and fallen to the darkside. There is nothing else to say."
"How did you kill her?"
"I slew her in anger during my training. It was not my intent, but I could not control my emotions or stay my own hand." Juhani keened lightly sobs wracking her as she wept.
"Juhani, one accidental death does not the dark-lord make." Pol sleazed in a touch of her own humor, "I can tell you did not intend to kill her and that you regret it now. You are not evil; you are a beautiful and talented woman. Perhaps you should give yourself another chance?"
"You seem to know just how to affect me." Juhani said smiling sadly through her tears. "What should I do?"
"See the council for one; if you fear falling, you should always seek help. The path of the Jedi is not an easy one and walking it alone is nigh impossible."
"You are right I should be bought to judgment for my crimes."
"It may not be as bad as you think, though I have not known you long I sense you are your harshest critic. Redeem yourself in your own eyes, forgive yourself and allow others to do the same." Pol said helping the Cathar to her feet.
"I thank you, kind one, I will never forget you. I will return the council at once."
"I will come see you once you have met with them." Pol said as she grasped the woman's hand warmly. "Farewell Juhani. May the Force be with you."
As night fell washing the Dantooine sky with stars and shadows Juhani sprinted towards the enclave, boldly facing her future.
Pol switched on her stealth unit and made her way silently towards Canderous. This time for sure, I have darkness on my side and he can't be expecting me to have resolved this thing so quickly. I'm a get me a boot knife. She chuckled to herself.
Canderous was crouched his knees up and arms folded atop of them; even seated his imposing figure was statuesque in the moonlight. Pol approached from his left side, channeling a small amount of the Force she could see the shape of the dagger blow the leather of his boot outlined clearly in the inky blackness.
She moved closer, inching forwards soundlessly, watching Canderous for a sign that he had heard her. He sat perfectly still, so still Pol wondered if he was asleep. She snaked out her hand to thieve the knife not believing how close she was to her goal. I can do this. She looked up at Canderous as she prepared to lift the dagger and caught the gleam of his smile. His hand was on hers before she could make another move.
"Gotcha." He said.
"You knew I was there." Pol accused. "And I thought I was hot stuff." She pouted and Canderous snickered.
"Yeah, I knew, but it's a fantasy of mine to be disarmed by a beautiful girl." He confessed.
"Beautiful huh?" Pol said.
"Exquisite" Canderous growled undressing Pol with his gaze.
"You flatterer." Pol laughed as she nudged the warrior. "I didn't think you Mandalorians knew words like that."
"We do but they sound better in Mando'a." Switching to his native tongue Canderous said, "Mandalorians can be very romantic."
"Oh really? Ni Jorhaa'ir Mando'a, I speak a little Mando'a…" Pol returned perfectly in the same dialect.
"Yeah I saw that in your service records. You speak it with an accent it is…Exotic"
"Exotic, ha! I like that." Pol said, continuing the conversation in his language.
Canderous put his arm about Pol's shoulder. "We should head back." He spoke softly into her ear, breathing in the fragrance of her hair.
"Yeah, you know, I don't think anyone else in the crew speaks Mando'a…" Pol wrapped her arm about his waist twisting her fingers into a belt loop and they began the long walk back to the enclave totally rapt in each others company.
You Can't Do That With A Droid.
In full dark they approached the enclave, releasing each other and reverting to galactic basic. "There's some one near by." Pol pointed to a form in the darkness.
"Hmm I see her." Canderous said he was spoiling for a fight, unsated by his clash with Sherruk and having been denied a chance to smite the fallen Jedi.
"She's really upset about something too. I'll go talk to her, you hang back." Pol put her hand on Canderous's sword arm willfully.
"This is a common recurring theme…" He chided.
"Well you did try to take over the galaxy." Pol shrewdly pointed out.
"That would explain why no one is ever pleased to see me." Canderous growled grumpily. He was joking but there was weariness to his tone. For years after the war he had laughed at the fear and anger his presence incited. Now he was tired, of the misunderstanding that fueled it. They fear us for the wrong reasons; they know nothing of the true Mandalorian way. He thought with contempt. His consolation was that Pol understood. She could have been a great Mandalorian. Canderous switched on his stealth unit and moved closer to wait within audible range.
Pol approached the woman who was standing by a land speeder. "Excuse me ma'am, are you ok?"
"Oh please Jedi, you must help me, my companion has gone missing!" Elise told her tale, leaving little room for Pol to question her. After a brief conversation Pol was able to establish that Elise's missing companion was a droid.
"So this droid has sentimental value?" She asked in disbelief. The woman sounded dubiously smitten with the robot.
"More than that, he is my personal assistance droid, he is indispensable. The legacy of my late husband!" The woman wailed miserably.
"I see…And what did you use this droid for exactly? No don't answer that. Tell you what, I am probably going to be out on the plains again tomorrow, I will have a scout about. If I see your droid I will return it to you." Pol left the distraught woman and signaled discreetly to Canderous. He caught up with her near the enclave courtyard.
"Did I hear that correctly?" He asked eyes glittering mirthfully in the dark.
"Yes." Pol said sternly. Just because the woman's dealings with her droid were 'unusual' didn't mean she wasn't worthy of Pol's sympathy.
Canderous laughed aloud, "Oh no, a droid? That's just not right! Sentimental reasons? More like semi-mental."
Pol found the harder she tried not to laugh the more she wanted to. That's not the Jedi way. She told herself. Put yourself in her shoes. This idea inspired a short daydream that centered on Pol being romantically inclined towards her T3 unit. This was enough to send her over the edge and she giggled hysterically.I'm not going to be a good Jedi, she worried. I couldn't be a bad one but I definitely couldn't be a good one. Petty theft, Kissing Mandalorians and laughing at the misfortune of others…Arg I'm far too human for this line of work.
"Bastila wanted to see me I should go find her." Pol said when they arrived at the Hawk's landing pad.
"No war stories tonight?" Canderous asked.
"No, I'm afraid not."
Canderous said what they were both thinking in Mando'a with a sly grin. "It's probably just as well."