Bide - Part 2

Tech went on for a while, Zaiya was still listening, her chin resting on her knee and arms resting in front of her while she sat on the table beside the disassembled droid. After quite some time, Tech finally seemed to take a breath.

"Are you… really interested in this?" he asked, "no one has listened to me for so long before," he admitted shyly.

"No one is interested in playing with droids but you, Tech," Crosshair remarked snidely.

"You'll put her to sleep!" Wrecker laughed.

"I'm interested in your passion for things," she replied in a gentle counter argument. "I like seeing the way your eyes light up when you talk about this sort of thing." Suddenly Tech was quiet, his eyes wide behind his goggles.

"Why are you here?" Hunter asked suddenly, the quiet boy taking the moment to ask what had clearly been on his mind for a while.

"Oh am I interrupting?" she asked, raising a brow at him, "can I not come and visit?" Hunter seemed wary and she let her posture relax. "I'm training the ARCs, I have a break so I thought I would explore, doing so, I wanted to see if you were still here." she explained simply.

"What for?" Crosshair frowned, stepping over to her, puffing up his chest a little bit.

"Maybe I wanted to see what you could do," she said with a tilt of her head. A moment later she tapped his nose and sent him jerking back in shock. "Or maybe I missed you and wanted to see you." Crosshair seemed concerned and she let out a soft chuckle.

"You train the ARC Troopers, and the Commanders too?" Hunter asked, stepping closer and looking up at her with interest. There was something bothering him, she could tell, a question he wanted to ask.

"I haven't had the pleasure, as yet though I should see them soon. What about you boys, have they been putting you through paces?" The Nightsister tilted her head slightly and slid off the table to stand again.

"The training had been sufficient," Tech began, "the Kaminoans have-"

"What did you do last time?" Hunter blurted, stepping up to her, he was the shortest of his immediate brothers, and not quite at her eye level yet, but his mahogany eyes were burning with an insatiable curiosity, like the question had been eating at him

"What do you mean?" she asked with a frown.

"I have… I get… headaches," he explained with a slight wince, as though admitting any fault would be cause for decommission, "You did something and it stopped." The other three stared at her with interest, keen to hear her explanation.

"I'm a Siren in more than just name, you know."

"I did some research into that name, the only thing I could find was old stories from water worlds… they were supposedly sea creatures that would lure sailors to their deaths and drown them," Tech replied with a frown, "That doesn't sound very pleasant."

"Well, I never claimed to be pleasant," she shrugged, "The research mention any special powers for these sirens?" Zaiya asked.

"You mean the psychological control through aural stimuli?" Tech asked, adjusting his goggles again. She chuckled, her arms folded.

"Yeah, that."

"Does that mean you have such abilities…?" he frowned.

"Want to find out?" She leaned forward and Tech backed up.

"...not really."

"Wait… what abilities…?" Wrecker asked, looking between them in alarm.

"In layman's terms… singing," Tech clarified, "More specifically, singing that can control someone's mind." Zaiya looked between them with wide eyes, raised her hands and wiggled her fingers at them. Tech and Hunter pulled back slightly at her comical attempt to frighten them,

"Can you really…?" Wrecker asked with wide eyes, "you wouldn't… mind control us… would you?" he suddenly looked a little concerned.

"I don't need to, I could just give you an order," Zaiya shrugged in response. After a moment of silence, Wrecker began to laugh. Zaiya's mildly threatening expression broke and she too fell into laughter, leaning on the table behind her. The other three eventually followed, the weird tension and absurdity melting into something that ordinarily would not be funny, but for some reason it was relaxing.

After a moment, Zaiya checked her chrono beside her comm and sighed. She pushed off the table and tapped her hands together as she stepped towards the door.

"Well, I think I had better head back, boys," she said as she turned back to face them. Wrecker was most obviously upset about it, but even Hunter and Tech looked disappointed. Crosshair's face was neutral but he looked away so she could not see his eyes.

"But you just got here…!" Wrecker pouted.

"I know, Tiny, but at least I'm always around now, hm? You boys can come and find me whenever you want, alright?" she suggested, not minding the idea of these boys coming to talk to her. Wrecker seemed to perk up at that.

"How do we contact you?" Hunter asked, "It's a big facility," cheeky boy asking for her commlink frequency. She grinned and shot a finger gun at him.

"Oh I think your supergenius brother can find it," she grinned, "think of it as a challenge. Time him and let me know how fast it took." Tech's eyes lit up at the idea and she turned to the door, surprised to see a Kaminoan standing there. More specifically, two of them, Nala Se and Jeru Ti - the head of personnel. He was the one that had tried to persuade Zaiya into looking after the cadets. The Kaminoan that had spoken to her that day was his assistant. They'd met briefly when she had first arrived and he already seemed to dislike her for whatever reason. She couldn't say she blamed him, but she wasn't exactly about to roll over and let him just have his way just because he'd gotten his Kaminoan knickers in a twist.

"Lady Siren," Nala Se greeted in her usual eerie tone.

"Nala Se," Zaiya replied with a nod, "and Jeru Ti, what a pleasant surprise…!" she smiled widely, though not a speck of warmth in her expression at all.

"I did not expect you so far from your designated training grounds," Jeru Ti said plainly, his voice equally smooth and calm. Though there was something about it that grated on her nerves. He was also implying she was not meant to be here.

"Perhaps, but I simply had to visit these magnificent cadets Nala Se introduced me to last time," she replied smoothly. Jeru Ti's lip almost imperceptibly tightened, yes, Nala Se outranked him, especially when it came to these boys,

"I see they have made an impression upon you too," Nala Se commented.

Too? Zaiya thought.

"The experimental clones have asked about you a few times now," the Chief scientist elaborated.

"Is that right?" Zaiya asked, looking at the clones out of the corner of her eye, she then looked over Jeru Ti, and put two and two together. "I can hazard a guess that you are here to assign a trainer for these gentlemen…?" she asked and Nala Se seemed a little surprised.

"Yes, as it happens, we were."

"Do you have any candidates?" Zaiya tilted her head and as she suspected, Wrecker spoke up.

"Have Siren do it!" he cried suddenly, unable to control his little outburst. The two Kaminoans looked at him in surprise, she turned to see Crosshair elbowing the bigger boy into silence. Nala Se looked at Zaiya curiously.

"I understand you have begun your instruction of the ARC Alpha Company."

"Yes, ma'am," Zaiya replied, "They are a dedicated and strong group of men, as I understand it, the clone troopers slated for command are due for ARC training as of tomorrow."

"And you believe you are capable?" Nala Se asked.

"Absolutely."

"If you were to take on the task of training the experimental clones-"

"I would make these boys the best your Clone Army has to offer," she assured, folding her arms and jutting up her chin in defiance.

"If I might interject," Jeru Ti said coldly, "we know nothing of this… Siren, other than her recommendation from Fett." If he had lips he would have been curling them at her. "What proof do we have that they could benefit from her supervision?"

"Let me prove it," Zaiya suggested, tapping her arm with her fingers. The Kaminoans regarded her with a bit of suspicion, "Give me three months, if there are absolutely no changes, then find another instructor."

"That seems reasonable," Nala Se said with a sway of her long neck. Jeru Ti did not look pleased, though it was difficult to tell. Kaminoans gave off barely a ripple in the force and their faces were very hard to read, they certainly had emotions… usually disgust but they were good at suppressing them.

"Very well," he replied, his voice betraying more disdain than his eyes. "Three months. Will expect great things… from your boasting." With that it seemed he could no longer stand her in his sight and swiftly turned away.

"Tomorrow afternoon then," Nala Se told her, "we will ensure your schedule is updated."

"Thank you kindly." Zaiya replied with the same cold-eyed smile as before. Once Nala Se had left, she turned, the warmth flooding her expression again.

"Would you look at that…?" she told them with an exaggerated shrug. Wrecker let out a whoop and rushed over, punching her arm with his fist. It was a lot harder than she anticipated and only just managed to catch herself before stumbling. Dank, he was strong.

"Yeah! Now we get to see you all the time!" he beamed. She wasn't sure why he cared so much but it was nice that he seemed to want her around.

"You read my mind, Tiny," she grinned and his eyes widened dramatically and he leaned in to whisper far too loudly behind his hand.

"Is that one of the… mind things?" he asked and her grin just widened.

"Who knows?" she replied playfully. Wrecker leaned back again in awe.

"Whoaaa…" he breathed. Zaiya couldn't help but laugh, getting to hang out with him was going to be quite fun.

"But! You heard what they said; I only have a short time to get you guys to improve so… if you want me to stick around, you're gonna have to push yourselves a little bit, alright?" she looked between the four of them.

"And what if we don't want you to?" Crosshair stated, picking up a small box and popping a toothpick between his lips. She could tell it was a new habit, as he wiggled the sliver of wood around in his mouth, not having found a comfortable spot for it yet. Oh the old familiarities. She stepped forward with a swagger, meeting his hot gaze with a cool one of her own and placed a hand on her hip.

"If you don't want me…" she began, leaning in, "then just slack off for three months, and I'll be gone." She shrugged, then reached up and plucked the toothpick from his lips, "more's the pity if you do," using the technique Bane had taught her so many years ago, she curled her hand in a graceful fluid motion and ficked the toothpick in an arrow-straight trajectory, striking the bullseye of a flimsi target tacked to the wall. She didn't miss the way his eyes widened when they shot back to her from the target. His pupils dilated like a hunter locking onto prey. "I have deft hands of my own," she added, and shot him a wink; harkening back to his earlier comment. She stepped back and turned, she was almost late.

"I'll leave the rest to you, my boys, decide what you wish, and I suppose I will see you tomorrow." She could hear them immediately start talking the moment the doors closed, though the only thing not too muffled was Wreckers exclaim of; "did you see that?!" before the voices faded into obscurity. She laughed to herself, aside from these Kaminoans, she was rather enjoying Kamino thus far. She only wished she were here under better circumstances.


"No, you do not say that sort of thing around a lady!" She could hear the voices of the ARC troopers arguing from inside the training room and paused to listen.

"How would you know?" snapped the response, from what she could tell, it seemed like Jax, Havoc and Colt were arguing about… something.

"I know these things!" From the voice alone, she suspected that it was Jax.

"Oh so you know all about how to walk to women, then," the one she guessed to be Colt snorted,

"Well, not everything," Jax huffed, "but I know you're not supposed to say that sort of stuff… or swear."

"I thought you said it was like, fancy women you weren't supposed to say that around," Havoc spoke up this time, he seemed unsure.

"How would you know?!" Colt repeated. There was some shuffling.

"I overheard Jango saying it," Jax finally admitted, "he was telling someone that they have to be polite to a Lady and speak nicely…"

"You don't mean…?" Colt trailed off.

"She's hardly a Lady." Havoc grumbled and Zaiya stifled a laugh behind her hand.

"Reckon she'd give me her comm frequency?" Jax asked with a hint of mischief to his voice.

"No," Havoc snapped back, too quickly, "she probably hates clones." Zaiya frowned at this, was that the impression she gave? That certainly wasn't what she wanted.

"I don't think so…?" Colt began but then she heard footsteps.

"She doesn't treat us like the Kaminii do, that's for sure," that was unmistakably Alpha, the gruff tone to his voice was one that seemed to stand out.

"Think she'd be up for some visits in the barracks, Captain?" another trooper spoke up, she'd not had the chance to speak to him properly, if Zaiya recalled, this one's name was Dusk.

"Not on your life, and if you ask her, I'll break your ears off," Alpha retorted and Zaiya grinned to herself.

"Aw come on Captain, we've gotta ease the boredom somehow," Jax laughed.

"She is a superior officer, trooper," Alpha growled.

"She doesn't even have a rank!" Havos interjected. There was a silence and she could only assume the Alpha Company Captain was glaring.

"She's still the instructor, perhaps employ some of that advice you were prattling on about," the Captain scoffed.

"Heard enough?" Said a quiet voice beside her, she turned to see Jango standing there with an unamused expression.

"Oh it's very entertaining," she replied in an equally low tone, though she was actually smiling.

"You aren't going to let them get away with that, are you?" he asked, frowning.

"Oh I have a trick or two up my sleeve, I am sure they won't like it," she let out a laugh and winked. Jango shook his head and moved past her into the room where she followed a step behind. The room went quiet and most of the men looked a bit like children caught with their hands in the cookie jar, snapping to attention. Zaiya just smiled, and stood centre to the room, hands behind her back.

"Gentlemen," she addressed them. "In formation, if you please." she nodded to the space in front of her with her head. The men jumped into two rows, and she smiled a little wider. "At ease." They relaxed a little, but she knew it wouldn't be for long. "We're going to do something a little different today, spread out so that you can swing your arms out at full span and are not touching each other." She began to walk the line of them, a very slow pace as she waited, once they were in place, she spoke again. "Now, I want you to drop to your knees, shoulder width apart, back straight and hands behind your head, fingers laced together." There was a moment of confusion before she looked up, "now." she insisted. One after another, they did as they were told. She faced them and smiled

"Well done, now this is a position I want you to remember. It correlates to a word, that word, when I call it, anytime or anywhere, this is what you do." she gestured to Jax who was closest to her. "This, gentlemen, is called bitch position." There were mutterings and protests and she fought a smirk away from her lips. "Quiet," she insisted, though they seemed offended now, she hoped they would learn the lesson she was trying to teach them.

In her head she was already sure she was going to be able to train them well, perhaps not as hard as she did, but these boys were more enhanced than a regular human, they would do well!

"The next position, I want you to lie flat on the ground, arms covering your heads," she demonstrated the position of the arms while standing, and once they had that one set, she moved onto the next, then the next. There were only a handful of positions, all given humiliating names like dog, baby or cower. There was a reason for that but she wanted to see if they would figure it out on their own. Once she was sure they had it, she had them run laps.

Halfway through she just suddenly screamed, "BITCH," in the loudest most commanding voice she could. One or two, including Alpha, dropped to their knees, hands behind their heads. A few of them took a couple of seconds to remember. Then the rest. She checked her chrono and tsk'd, shaking her head.

"You'll have to do better than that, boys," she scolded, "We are gonna practice and for every second you take to respond I am penalising you with ten push-ups." There was a chorus of groans and she smirked, "make that twenty, and any further complaints will add to that number," suddenly they were silent. From there it continued, running laps, then the gauntlet, calling out the commands at random intervals and penalising the entire squad if they were too slow. They might grumble, but it was a light punishment and hopefully it would have them banding together to create a closer camaraderie between the brothers. She was sure they were already close, but she wanted to urge them to help each other and really get used to the positions. She had her own reasons for teaching them this, she only hoped they would figure it out.


She was pleased with the progress of Alpha Company, and eager to push them to be even better. It was an unusual feeling. Was this the happiness she had seen in the bounty hunters she had seen when they'd taught her about blasters or how to fly? Or flick toothpicks? That memory always made her smile. She would have to think of something to reward the Company with once they bested their times in the gauntlet.

The next challenge of course were the regular clones, the ones slated to become Commanders and Captains, they were not as powerful as the Alpha clones but they had all shown great merit and were almost battle-ready. Though not quite, apparently.

She'd had an update to the schedule on her communicator and was going over it, ensuring the training sessions aligned and she had plans for each. The time had come to train the commanding classes and she was to meet Jango there, though he was just supervising rather than training. She was surprised when she rounded one of the corners to spot a clone that stood out vastly.

"Ninety-Nine," she greeted as she saw the hunchback clone, he was once again working, and pushing a maintenance cart this time. The wrinkled clone looked up and his brown eyes lit up.

"Lady Siren…!" he gasped and his precious smile spread across his face. Though the left side drooped, his skin was wrinkled as though chemically burned and he walked with a limp, there was a real innocence and light in his eyes she had not really seen before. "You came back," he grinned and she just smiled back at him.

"'Course I did," she replied, approaching him and walking side by side towards her destination. He asked about her tasks and she explained her role, what she was doing and Ninety-Nine perked up quite a bit when he mentioned the enhanced clones. She was a little surprised initially when he regarded them so fondly, even though he seemed to have a great affinity for all of his brothers.

"I was the prototype, you know," he began to explain.

"Prototype?"

"Yeah, before they made the other clones, their CT numbers are 9901 to 9904… but I was the first," her eyes widened slightly as he spoke, "the uh, experiment didn't work, I was supposed to have all of the same skills as those four boys. But… well…" he shrugged and gestured to himself. Zaiya felt her hearts being tugged on, of all the souls she had encountered in this galaxy, Ninety-Nine was the sweetest and most kind. It seemed impossible that in such a sterile place, he could be this way. There was not an ounce of cruelty in him. At least none she could see.

"Oh, cante, I wouldn't call it a failure, who would care for all of your brothers as much as you do?" she nudged his arm gently. His expression lit up and he let out a soft laugh.

"Well, they can call me a failure if they want, I don't care, I will help my brothers in my own way," he nodded and she was a little awed. He was ostracised from his brothers and regarded as lesser, and where she had been filled with anger and a desire for revenge, Ninety-Nine was just full of compassion and caring for his brothers. It was polarising, Zaiya wasn't even sure how she felt about it. He was putting her to shame in a way, though… could she really do that? Could she ever be as magnanimous and kind? A glimmer in her nexus eye reminded her of the truth and she looked at her hands. No… she could never be as Ninety-Nine was. She was not like him. She was a monster and there was no point in hoping for better. There was no benefit in pretending to be something she wasn't. She could, however, do what she could to make sure he was protected, and kept smiling. That was something she could do.

"I admire you Ninety-Nine," she said with a soft smile, "you are every bit a man and soldier as your brothers, maybe even more." He seemed surprised at that and raised a hand to rub the back of his neck a little.

"That's very kind of you, Lady Siren," he replied bashfully. She wasn't so sure, it was more an observation than anything.

"I have to attend the next session, but I hope we can speak again," she told him with a nod and gentle expression. They stopped at the door of the training room she would be using, from what she could tell, the ARC trooper recruits were already inside.

"Well, if you need me to help, then comm me on the maintenance channel," Ninety-Nine told her, gesturing at her wrist.

"I shall do, and I shall try not to make too much of a mess for you," she replied with a chuckle, she laid one gloved hand on his shoulder, "thank you, Ninety-Nine, you have given me a great insight today." He seemed confused at that but she turned away, leaving him to his work. Now she had a whole new "class" to deal with. Though these faces were ones she recognised. And ones that would recognise her.

They, as some of the others, seemed surprised to recognise her as she entered, and while they had only seen part of her face during the first meeting, it seemed her voice gave her away the moment she spoke, though she no longer had her Dathomirian accent, these boys were clever enough to recognise her. There were some faces she knew, and others she didn't, and spent a few minutes getting to know their names before Jango entered behind her. Now the lesson would start proper.

It would be the same as the Alpha Company, though she was told these troopers were not as enhanced as the Alphas and had to adjust her timing and expectations. Still, they were stronger and had more stamina than regular humans did they not? She was sure she would be able to push them to their full potential. Though she was careful, she would not push them to do anything that she could or would not be willing to.

It was interesting to see the way the clones interacted with each other, and how different they all were, similar in ways, different in others, yet individual. None of them however were just like Jango. Fett had a mean streak and a sense of defiance these clones did not. It was a strange sensation but she could feel the difference in all of them.

Ninety-Nine seemed that he could tell them all apart too, he knew all of his brothers. The encounter weighed on her mind for quite a while, left in awe a little bit by how pure he seemed. She wanted to befriend him, and protect him, though… she barely knew him, and at the same time, knew that being near him could only really be dangerous. People around her always seemed to get hurt… and she certainly did not want to be the reason he -or any of the clones were harmed. She could not understand her sudden affinity for them but… there it was. Maybe it was Jango's blood. Whatever it was, they felt like family to her.


Notes

I love the clones. I know it's a Maul fic but the clones are cool and I like them and they are important dangit! DW there will be more Maul... though growing legs takes time... and also he probably would not want to be often seen like baby-leg Deadpool. ...I'm not entirely sorry for giving you that mental image.

ANYWAY! Things are going nicely and there was quite a bit to establish before the Clone Wars begin... which is soon. But ohhhhh what does it mean for Jango and Boba?! What do you think?

Let me know your thoughts in the comments, as always I love to read them like a greedy little idiot, hunched over my laptop like gollum reading the precioussssss commenttssssssss *ahem*. Either way! I would love to know your thoughts, feedback, predictions, ideas. If any of you wish, you can find me on tumblr under the username kimageddon, I have posted a masterlist of this fic, some of the others as well as art that I do and a thread of art work for this very story, so you can see how artists and myself depict Zaiya!

Next week's chapter is called 'Sleeper - Part 1' and in it we will have some lovely Boba and Zaiya quality time! I hope you guys will like it!

See you next week! Look after yourselves! 3