Disclaimer: I don't own Star Wars.
Time-line: four years and two months after Naboo.
Chapter 28: Rae's Birthday Brawl
Obi-Wan was confused by Rae's choice of activity. "Okay. Please, for a woman who does not like senseless violence, explain to me why we are here?" he asked, eyeing the unsavory characters around him.
"I need to practice, Obi," Rae told him. "And really, this isn't that bad. It's just a martial arts tournament." One of the men nodded to her and she bowed back. "Warrior culture is a rich and varied thing, Obi-Wan. The Jedi are similar to the Samurai from Japan on Earth. Here... here I can see parallels to Hawaii, India, Korea, China, and the Maori of New Zealand. Oh look! An urumi wielder! I didn't think I'd see one out here! Yee~! So exciting!" Obi-Wan shook his head.
"I do not understand how your mind works, Rae," he remarked.
"Oh come on! It's my birthday, Obi-Wan! This tournament being in the neighborhood, today, is just too perfect to pass up! Besides, I've never participated in one of these before and ever since I met you, I've tried to make it a point to try out things I never got the chance to before," Rae said. "Plus, it'll give me the chance to work on my smack talk should I ever encounter a fleshy enemy that needs to get sassed." Obi-Wan shook his head and followed her to the registration table.
"And what makes you think these would be the best people to practice on?" he asked. Rae cackled as she signed her name with a flourish.
"Because they'll be doing the same to me. It's a time honored tradition. Also, if I come up against someone that would react the completely wrong way to getting sassed, I'd like to think I'd know," she told him.
"You sighing up too, handsome?" the woman behind the table asked Obi-Wan.
"No thank you," he told the woman. "I'm just here to offer support to Rae."
"Ah, young love. It's a beautiful thing," the woman said, nodding with a knowing look. Obi-Wan considered denying the claim, but decided that it would do no good to argue with the older woman as Rae tugged on his arm.
/*/
Adrenalin. Fear. Exhilaration. Blood. Sweat. Tears.
Honor. Diligence. Resilience. Respect.
Those words encompassed the entire atmosphere of the arena Obi-Wan was currently seated on the edge of. He stared down at the combatants in something approaching awe, carefully hiding his emotions behind a placid facade, as they fairly danced around each other. It was as beautiful as it was brutal. "HA! My thirteen year old student can move faster than that!" Rae taunted her very flexible and extremely well muscled opposition as she spun out of the way of his impressive jab and lashed out at his back.
"You are quite light on your feet as well, Fairy," the man remarked gruffly. "But speed and accuracy mean nothing if you do not strike with POWER!" Rae had to throw herself forward and roll between the man's legs to avoid his follow-up attack.
"Whoo! Haven't had to pull a maneuver like that since I was a purple belt back home!" Rae tossed out as she launched a spinning kick at the overbalanced fighter and sending him to the floor. "Still, you make a good point. Hitting fast and accurate is nice and all, but without a goodly amount of force it might as well be a fly, eh?"
"Nimble little Fairy, aren't you?" her opponent growled as he pulled himself up off the floor, rubbing a little blood from his mouth. Rae winced.
"Dude, if you wanted to demoralized me, you just succeeded. Brutally," she said, then sighed and folded her legs under her, dropping to the sandy floor of the arena. "Good fight, loved your adorable nick-name for me, but I'm done." He blinked down at the young woman who had proven to be the most interesting fighter he'd come across in a long time... then joined her on the floor.
"Then I am as well," he said. Rae jerked and Obi-Wan leaned forward in interest. See, this is where the admirable aspects came into play and the respect was earned. Rae stared at the large man for a moment before a truly evil smile took over her face.
"So... you're one of those types huh? The type that finds an interesting opponent and doesn't stop fighting until it is clear who is stronger than the other," she remarked. A nod and Rae stood with a sigh. "Then we're going to have to engage in some... back alley brawl style 'rules' in order to give you the type of fight you want," she said, adding air quotes to show just what she thought of back alley brawls when it came to rules.
(Rae was, however strange it seemed, in her element.)
/*/
The next opponent, after Rae had broken the other guy's joints when he asked for a no-holds barred match against her, was just what she'd been looking for in a target. In fact, he gave her the opening she needed by lobbing the first salvo. "I will make you wish for darkness," he growled, slowly bringing his tensed arms into a rather intimating stance. Rae scoffed.
"You speak as though I have yet to see darkness, but that is a lie. You merely adopted the dark while I was born to it. Molded by... wait, no, hang on. Wrong genre. Let me try again," she said, catching herself quoting The Dark Knight's Bane. "I may not be much to look at, but even the smallest being can change the course of the future," she said. Her opponent looked at her quizzically and she shrugged. "Eh, it's a work in progress," Rae admitted before launching herself into a whirlwind of limbs. Obi-Wan winced, partly due to the horrible comeback and partly because hot dog that was just down right savage!
/*/
Rae ended up winning the tournament and walking home with a thoroughly gobsmacked Obi-Wan and a few good mid-fight comebacks in her back pocket. "Thanks for coming with me, Obi. This was... fun," she told her carefully stoic Jedi companion.
"Never again," he moaned. "Never again am I taking you to an MMA tournament. I don't care how much you beg or plead, I'm not doing it. Ever. Again," Obi-Wan declared with all the weight and authority of the Courthouse bell. Rae frowned for a moment, then shrugged with a wince as her own collection of bruises and cuts ached and burned, respectively, in response to the motion.
"Chances are I won't enter one again. Not for a long while anyway. And if I were to enter a competition like this again, it would either be because someone I want to fight is competing or it's between my graduating class," she said. Obi-Wan felt his eye begin to twitch at the mention of Rae's Night Guard class.
"So. Many. Pies," he did not whimper. Rae cackled quietly as they entered her speeder.
"Ah, Obi, they were just having fun!" she chided, cranking the engine and easing the speeder into the air traffic lanes.
"... Panqui," Obi-Wan bit back. Of course, this just made Rae cackle harder, so his retort was pitiful at best but as he'd no doubt say if you pointed this out to him, 'it's the thought that counts!'
/?/
A/N: Okay, this one was inspired by a Guest reviewer on the original version of this fic who asked, and I'm paraphrasing, would Rae quote Bane to Count Dooku if she came face to face with him? The answer... she's still working on her Quote Fu at the moment.
