Bide - Part 1

It was a few days of the same routine before Zaiya truly stood up to enact her own lessons. Her first day of command had Jango walk up the line of ARC troopers and hand off the instruction to her, though they were at attention, there were a few glances and slight frowns sent her way. She ignored them for now and took her place before them, relaxed her shoulders, her hands clasped behind her back. She was dressed in her version of armour, even if they were only lined leather plates, it was lightweight, sleek and all in black other than a scarlet sash over her left shoulder and tucked into the wide belt at her waist. She regarded all the clones before her before speaking.

"Soldiers, today you will run what we have dubbed 'the gauntlet', it is an obstacle course designed to test your ability in a more realistic situation. Instead of one task you will have several." she tapped in the commands into the communicator on her inner left wrist, typing in some commands. The training room began to change positions and set up for a sort of trail. She gestured to the new changes with a gloved hand, pausing at a platform at waist-height for the six foot clones. "You will begin here," she laid her hand on the 'table' as she addressed them. "This platform here, you will take your blaster and break it down as if for cleaning. You will leave it disassembled on the platform, then follow this path," she gestured to a line of lights lit up on the panel floor, "and swing across these bars. If you touch the ground you stop, and move to the next obstacle immediately. Each completed obstacle earns points, each mistake loses points." She gestured to a set of platforms moving in and out of the wall, seemingly at random.

"From there you must navigate the platforms up to the top, from there, you must avoid fire from the droid, you aren't to shoot back, but avoid fire through that section, use the low walls as cover." She paused and smiled, holding up a finger, "But there is a twist; you must then guide your following team mate through after you using only hand signals. If a man is shot, both men lose points."

She stepped over to the otherside of the little table platform and gestured to the next area. In this there were three very slender droids on platforms leading downwards, and each of the droids had a knife in each hand, though for training purposes they weren't real vibroblades, and only made of plastoid, but would hurt if they took one to an unshielded face.

"The knives you must counter with your own, making your way down to the tunnel. In here you must get through as quickly and quietly as possible, there are sensors that will let us know if you go through too loudly." She stepped back to the table and tapped it gently. "Lastly, you will return to your blaster, reassemble it, and down range-" she gestured to a set of moving targets toward the back of the room, "you will then try to shoot as many targets as you can in twenty seconds." She turned back to face them, "Once you finish your run, you will head back up to guide the next man through the blaster avoidance." She paused, "and one last thing, you will be asked questions during this course. I will ask you simple requests into your comm, you must reply as soon as possible. These answers along with your time, the mistakes and the hand signals, will be calculated into a final score which we will reveal at the end."

It was an intense course, but one that she was sure, after witnessing what they currently drilled, was possible for them. It was challenging but she was sure that with practice, they would all have brilliant scores sooner rather than later. She clasped her hands behind her again and looked them over once more, they seemed to be antsy. Understandable since it seemed new and foreboding.

"Any questions?" she asked, stepping over to them. There seemed to be a few murmurs between them and she frowned, "If you have something to say Troopers, speak up." Her tone was firm and the murmurs stopped. After a moment of silence, then one of the men turned and looked at her with a glare.

"What qualifications do you have that you can stand there and teach us how to be soldiers?" he snapped.

"Havoc!" Alpha stepped forward, shooting a glare at the trooper. Zaiya held up her hand.

"It's alright Captain, let me handle this-" she walked slowly along the line until she reached the angry trooper. "Havoc, yes?"

"Yes… ma'am." he added the latter as an afterthought. She would have to punish him for disrespect somehow, though she knew respect was earned and not forced, so she would not be one of those tyrants.

"You disagree with the course I designed for you?"

"I disagree with some unknown woman coming in out of nowhere and with no experience being able to teach us something we don't know! It's ridiculous," he scoffed, "you're not even of the Republic! I heard what you said, some witch from the Outer Rim? How do we even know that this course is passable?"

"Alright, say I ignore the insubordination and disrespect here…" she began, "and assume that I am just some bounty hunter. In what way does my making an impossible task benefit me? If you fail, I fail. I have observed your skills over the last week and I think you will find this challenging, but not impossible." She folded her arms and smirked, "That being said, I think we have a volunteer for the first run!" The soldier blanched and moved to say something when she leaned forward.

"That was not a suggestion, trooper." Her tone left no room for argument and the commanding tone was one that had all the ARCs straightening up slightly. She turned to Alpha and noticed him eyeing her warily. "Captain, would you be so kind as to move to the top ramp to guide him through with hand signals please?" she flashed him a smile and noticed the clone frown. However he nodded and shoved his helmet on his head and headed up to the location she'd indicated.

She activated the course for all it's moving sections and the intimidating thing came to life before their eyes. She gestured to the spot where Havoc had to stand. He was the most hesitant of the troopers, and she supposed these Alpha series were more like Jango and a little less blindly obedient. The thought worried her a little. If the others were so obedient then she could not imagine what the wrong commander would do. It made her shiver.

For now however, she ignored it, and focused on the task at hand, switching her demeanour from jovial to serious. Havoc stood at the pedestal and once he looked at her, she hit the timer on her comm and commanded him to begin. He was quick, and managed to move from the gun to the next task and swung himself across the bars. It was then she asked her first question.

"Trooper, how do I get to the cafeteria from training room 4?" she asked, he faltered, both in answer and in his swing, losing momentum and nearly falling as he fumbled for the answer, telling her rough directions but missing a few points. He reached the end of the obstacle, his feet scraping the floor just before he landed. She asked her next question and it seemed he was having trouble switching focus, though it was still far better response time than any civilian. The task where he had to watch for hand signals and dodge enemy fire was his strongest, until she started asking him questions. He slowed down, and ended up taking two shots in the pauldron before clearing. The rest was the same, he was skilled and clever though there were a lot of mistakes. Had this been a real scenario, he likely would have gotten himself killed. In the final, he ran to his blaster and as he was putting it together she commed in with one more task.

"Only red targets-" she began but he'd fired off two shots before she'd finished speaking and he froze for a second before only hitting the remaining red targets. The instant he was done she stopped the timer.

"What was that?!" he snapped, yanking off his bucket, "you didn't say anything about specific targets…!"

"No I didn't, but command might not either," she replied, her serious expression melted away and she smiled, making the clone pause and raise a brow, "well done Trooper," she nodded, leaving him confused, she could feel it coming from him. Had he expected her to berate him for his mistakes? Of course he made errors, it was his first time doing such a thing, if he kept it up, he could only get better.

With one assessment complete, she turned to the rest of the Alpha Company and began directing them to choose the next participant. Things ran a little more smoothly after that. By the end of the session, each man had run the course and she issued each of their scores to their devices, letting them choose whether they wished to share their scores.

As she was returning the room to it's default manner, Havoc approached her with his bucket under his arm. He stood to her left, just waiting for her to acknowledge him. She was a little confused, he seemed antsy, what was he waiting for? He didn't have to- oh, he was a soldier, she was a trainer, he couldn't speak freely.

"Havoc you can just start talking if you have something to say," she told him, turning to face him, one hand on her hip.

"The protocol says-"

"Unless I am in the middle of a conversation, then -if you'll pardon my tongue- fuck the protocols." She gave him a flat look and he looked surprised.

"Uh… yes ma'am," he managed. Zaiya wrinkled her nose.

"I'm gonna have to make someone give me a rank or something, being called 'ma'am' makes me feel like some old crone," she ran a hand over her braid and she heard him choke on a laugh. Well, that was interesting, she hadn't expected him to crack so easily. "So, what can I help you with, Havoc?" She looked up at him with an amused smile and Havoc stared at her for a second and blinked like he forgot what he was doing.

"I… uh… uhm…" he looked a little flustered which only made her smile wider, "Will… will we get another chance? I want to beat my score," the trooper finally grunted and frowned.

"Of course, the course is meant to be challenging, but I know you boys will be able to get better and better, you'll be able to get over 90 in no time." She grinned and he looked bewildered. Her comm alerted her that the room was reset and she nudged the trooper's arm and he looked like his hackles were rising. Perhaps this was his attempt to try and intimidate her? Tell her off? She wasn't sure.

"Alright, head to the mess, soldier, you'll need a decent feed after that workout." He stood still and she tapped his chestplate with her knuckle, "go on then…!" He seemed to gather himself and go, she suspected he was trying to think of some insult that wouldn't get him in too much trouble, when he turned back and surprised her with what he said.

"Ma- uh… well… you… you don't look old. At all. Uhm… you're-" he cut himself off and cleared his throat, saluted her and all but ran from the room. Zaiya was left standing there with a tilted head, raised brow and utter confusion on her face. What was that? She blinked slowly, perhaps he was just trying to mess with her? She had no clue. With a shake of her head she turned away. They seemed like good men and she couldn't say she felt anything other than a gentle affection for them, she looked forward to seeing what they could do and how they would improve. With a soft hum, she finished up and headed out to the other office, Jango had headed there earlier. She would record all the scores into the terminal in order to keep a record. Paperwork wasn't something Jango had mentioned before, though she discovered that the Kaminoans seemed to like it for whatever reason. Well, better to get it done now rather than leaving it for later.


After the work had been done, Jango had wanted to spend time with his son and Zaiya was interested in exploring again, Tipoca City was huge, and she had only seen a small part of it. As she walked along, she realised there was one corridor she recognised from her first visit. If she were to follow the next hallway…

"That's not funny Wrecker…!" came a familiar irritated voice. Zaiya couldn't fight the grin that crossed her face as she rounded the corner.

"Aw come on! I'm just messin' with ya!" The bigger of the four special clones stood in the hallway. She recognised him at once but Holy Fanged God's sculpted ass! He was at least a foot taller than the last time she'd seen him! He turned and spotted her in the hall and she watched his face go from mild annoyance to shock at being caught, then surprise that she was not Kaminoan and it began to melt into recognition.

"Hey, Tiny," she grinned and his face lit up. Tech, who had been calling out to him, snatched whatever he had been holding from his hands, but Wrecker no longer cared and bounded toward her with intense energy. Zaiya blinked and a moment later the cadet scooped her up and gave her a tight squeezing hug, pinning her arms to her sides and picking her clean off the ground. She froze and tensed in alarm, looking at him in shock at first, not used to being touched like this… or … at all. True that she had allowed Maul to touch her though this was vastly different. And very alarming. After a few seconds, she forced her momentary panic aside and let out a soft laugh as Wrecker swung her around.

"Easy, big boy," she chuckled with a half-grin. Tech made his way over with curious steps, while Hunter poked his head out of the private barracks. She noted one absent member but for the moment, focused on the three in front of her for now.

"I wasn't sure you'd come back!" Wrecker boomed with the biggest grin she'd ever seen.

"Perish the thought, you think I wouldn't come back to see you boys?" She nudged his arm with her fist in a mock punch, "I am noticing a slight difference with you, though Wrecker…" she paused, looking him over as though she were thinking it over. "A haircut?" she asked, pretending not to notice how she had to look up at him now. His hair was in the same cropped style it was before and he grinned.

"I got taller!" he beamed proudly.

"Either that or I shrank," she smirked.

"You can do that?" he asked, blinking at her.

"I believe she is being sarcastic, Wrecker," Tech clarified, Wrecker frowned.

"Well, I dunno, Hunter said she wasn't human so I dunno whether she can shrink or not…!" he protested, Zaiya smiled, well that was clever of them.

"You could tell?" she asked curiously, looking at Hunter, she tilted her head, were those abilities of his that sensitive?

"You have two heart beats… uh, ma'am," he added politely. Zaiya let out a soft sigh, she would have to speak to Lama Su about getting some rank or title, she did not like being called ma'am all the time.

"So what are you?" Tech asked bluntly and she tilted her head slightly.

"Zabrak," she replied.

"Hm… I would have thought you'd have horns," Tech adjusted his goggles slightly.

"The females of my kind have theirs removed at about one year old."

"Does that account for the skin lightening as well?"

"And the tattoos, yes." She was having a sense of deja vu with this line of questioning. He looked like he was going to say more then she looked up and spotted a tall lanky boy peeking out from the doorway. Her lips curved into a smile as she stepped over. "There you are, Crosshair!" she beamed at him, "I was wondering where you were." The sullen looking boy gave her a wary look.

"Where else would I be?" he asked bluntly, looking like a pouty little child, Zaiya couldn't help but smile.

"Did your brother help you with a new weapon?" she asked, tilting her head to one side. Crosshair's dark eyes darted toward the room he had come from, "yeah? What did you choose?" she asked and Crosshair frowned again.

"Firepuncher…" he said finally. Zaiya grinned in approval.

"Now that's a weapon! A bit sensitive on the trigger, but I am sure you can handle it," she said with a slight nod. Crosshair narrowed his eyes at her then the corner of his mouth quirked upwards.

"Just need the right hands," he replied with a smirk, "and deft fingers," Zaiya let out a laugh, he seemed to be in a better mood already. Crosshair was now the same height as her, he likely would become much taller soon, the rate they grew, it was likely they were more enhanced than a regular clone with their growth cycle.

"I have no doubt of yours," she shot back with a smirk of her own, then turned to the others, "what have you been up to since our last meeting was so tragically cut short?" she asked with an amused smile.

"The only thing we're allowed to do," Crosshair replied, turning to re-enter the barracks, "training." Zaiya followed him, flanked by the others and made her way to the large table in the centre of the room. With a deft movement she perched herself on the ledge and looked over the maintenance droid in pieces on the table, no doubt Tech's handiwork.

"You working on something?" she asked the goggled cadet. At the prodding, he rushed forward, seemingly eager to tell her how he managed to improve upon the efficiency output as well as some other little bits and pieces. She listened, curious and mostly just watching how excited he got to be able to talk about his latest project. Though to her eye it seemed too basic for one with a mind like his. Perhaps she should find him something more challenging? She made a mental note to look into it.


Notes:

This one was a bit cute, I hope you enjoyed it. Havoc is indeed an OC, idk if there is a Trooper with that name but I thought it suited here. I do plan to have him in there a little while longer, lmk what you think of him! Also yay! We get to see the boys again! I missed them. And the toothpick trick comes full circle! I think Cross was impressed? Maybe? I have so much to get through, and next week we will see a little more of these boys and some of her tactics... the clones might not like her much for a while... oops haha

As always thank you for reading and I love to see when people have read my stuff and what they think, I love any and all comments and I read them all (though I may not reply promptly, I am still enamoured with them). So please, your feedback, thoughts, predictions are always great! I hope you enjoyed and I will see you all next week!

Stay safe and be well! 3