Instructor - Part 2

It seemed that the troopers could not help but chatter at the dinner, as the following morning, the viewing platform surrounding the training arena was full, and far more than just the ARC troopers were gathered to watch. Well, she supposed they might be interested for a while, though she was sure they would get bored after a while. It's not like it was anything they hadn't seen before. For her own run, she used one of her own pistols, she knew it as well as the Troopers knew theirs, Bane had drilled it into her head, that she had to know how to put the pistol together and take it apart blindfolded, that she had to know each part and the weight of it instinctively, that there would be so surprises. Zaiya had held to that, practising when they had time between jobs. She was confident that she would be able to do the initial part quickly at least. As for the rest, she would have to rely on what she knew of the course itself and rely on her instincts. Alpha stood at the top of the ramp, ready to give her the signals when she reached that point. She had also invited Wrecker, Hunter, Crosshair and Tech to join her. They knew the track well and Crosshair was in charge of counting her mistakes, Tech had an important job too, he had control of the room, she had instructed him to randomise the course with each run so as not to give her the chance to get used to it. He also could up the difficulty level if need be.

Zaiya stood waiting at the beginning of the course, hands behind her back and feet shoulder width apart, she had stretched and warmed up already, she'd chosen to wear her usual black attire, though her jacket and red sash were removed and Wrecker had so kindly offered to hold onto it, playing with the soft red fabric between his fingers, he seemed to like how it felt and had fixated on it. Instead of the jacket she had on a long sleeve top, rather comfortable with a high collar, it covered her tattoos and her small burn scar on her neck. She didn't need more questions, she already had enough to answer for.

[Ready?] Tech's voice spoke through the communicator in her ear.

"Ready," she replied curtly. A moment later the sound of the alert went off and her gloved hands were a blur as she set to taking the pistol apart and setting it on the platform before her in a set out manner, it was as neat as she could make it with this speed, and the moment the last piece left her hand she took off toward the climbing bars. She was not as strong in her arms as the men were, she was stronger in her legs and abdomen, so instead of climbing beneath, she swung, using her hips to push her momentum higher and she swung up, suddenly able to run across the bars and make her way to the platforms.

[What are the best defensive positions in Clone barracks 49?] Tech asked simply.

"Behind the south entrance, in the third bay and in the fourth sleeping pod down in bay six," she replied after a moment. The bars cleared, and she watched the platforms for a moment, assessing the pattern before leaping to the first one, then the second, higher and higher in graceful bounds until she reached the shooting gallery.

"Under fire," she called into the comm. She peered up at Alpha and remained still until he told her to move. She skidded to a halt at the second shelter when the next question came. She assumed it was one Cross suggested as it was about elevation on a target. She was not an expert marksman but she answered to her experience, not taking her eyes off Alpha's large hand. The next two barriers were fine, then another question from Tech asking about weak points for battle droids. It was new information, they had not even known who their enemy would be until the war began proper on Geonosis. She'd scanned through the technical readouts of the droids as known by the republic, and was able to answer.

"They have a weak neck, and limited armour on the chassis, best point of neutralisation is their heads," she answered, the last signal given and she cleared the gallery. The next part had her down the ramp against the droids. Her mila hanska awaited her at her hip and she drew them swiftly, countering each strike with precision. After all, these moves were based on those she trained with for years, this was one of the easy tasks.

"Enemy neutralised," she stated, all the usual commands. There was one more question which she paused to answer before calling "going radio silent," before entering the tunnel. She was swift and silent, as her Nightsister training demanded of her and she made it through without incident.

Finally she was back at the blaster and as soon as she touched it again, she made her last call of the run, "confirm targets." Tech called back for the blue targets just as she raised the blaster. Three shots. All hits. Pause.

"Reset the course," she called and Tech hit the commands. The course reassembled, the only thing remaining the same was the location of the blaster and her targets. The buzzer sounded again and the blaster was apart, barely a minute between the finish of the first course and the beginning of the second. This time the knife course was first, and all uphill.

"Enemy neutralised." Then the bars which she crossed in a similar fashion as the first. Then the tunnel. "Going silent," she emerged to the shooting gallery for Alpha to guide her through. "Under fire." Each question she answered swiftly. Things Bane taught her, things in the newly formed Grand Army of the Republic manuals, some things Jango taught her. She crossed the moving platforms and made her way back to the blaster. "Confirm targets." Blue targets again. She fired. "Reset the course." And again.

"Under fire."

"Going silent"

"Enemy neutralised." More questions. Directions, trajectory, weapon specs, weak points.

"Confirm targets." Blue again.

"Reset the course." A minute to breathe. Then break down the blaster.

"Going silent."

"Enemy neutralised."

"Under fire." Questions about ship specifications, medical aid information, and the hardest ones, ones regarding command. Whether to continue a mission or abort to save a comrade. Whether she should order a force to split up or stay together. Whether a man should be punished for insubordination or carry on.

"Confirm targets." Red this time. She almost fired on blue.

"Reset the course."

She ran it again. And again, and again. She neared the seven run streak. But she was starting to wear down. She hadn't had to train so hard in a long time. That wasn't good. She was becoming weak?! Her responses were breathier as she panted for air, she was losing focus and began to make mistakes. A missed step, a slow answer, a moment of hesitation. Her reactions were slowing, her mind and body fatigued.

On the tenth run she reacted too slowly to Alpha's signal and she caught a shot to the shoulder. She ducked forward and grit her teeth. Old habits causing her to clamp down on the pain.

"Stop the course…!" Alpha snapped.

"Belay that!" she replied swiftly, and forced herself up and to the checkpoint, "I'm fine, continue on."

"You were just shot!" Alpha protested, he was right beside her now, only a step away from his post.

"It wasn't live fire, don't coddle me!" she retorted and that shut him up. He hated the idea of being coddled or protected. He seemed to dislike it, maybe he thought she had reached her limit? She had made mistakes though… this wasn't good enough. She would have to focus harder. If the men had been forced to run this… then she had to run until she was coughing up blood too, right? Talzin had ensured such punishments and they made sense to her, eye for an eye and all that. Her shoulder hurt, and pretty badly, the shots were designed for men wearing full armour. She would have to be more observant, though she couldn't rely on the Force too much, lest she garner too much attention from the wrong people. She continued the course, but when she finished this time, there was something of an argument on the reset.

[I think that further rounds would not do anything to improve your time, Lady Siren.] Tech said with a touch of… something in his voice.

"It's not about my time, Tech. This is penance."

[Penance?] he asked, sounding bewildered.

"I ran you boys too hard, and pushed too far. If I put one of you in the med bay…"

[If you say some osik like you have to run yourself into the ground too, I will put you in the medbay myself!] Alpha snapped, his voice coming through the comm angrily. She shot him a look across the hall.

"I can keep going," she huffed, wiping her brow, "It's just a little bump, it's not serious." He shook his head and lowered his gaze, he clearly wasn't happy. Tech reset the course.

Zaiya ran again, she seemed to get a second wind and managed to keep good time, and avoid any serious mistakes. She felt a little better about this one. Though her legs were aching, her lungs were burning, and she was so tired. But she could keep going. At least one more. She heard Alpha curse quietly and Tech reset again.

"Under fire," She should have been able to do more… Clearly her time in Zygerria had been detrimental and she had not trained enough to regain her strength since then.

"Going silent." She grit her teeth and that thought resonated in her head during the run. She was reaching the end of this one, she should be able to go again, surely? She should be able to- a vibroblade swung at her face and it was at the very last second she threw herself backwards as she ducked the blade, she was unsure if it nicked her chin as she dropped back. In anger she slashed with her own blade as she slid down the incline on her knees, the knives taking out all three droids on their posts. They dropped, no longer functioning.

[Well that's one way to do it,] she heard Wrecker say. She let out a disgusted noise in the back of her throat. They'd not be able to continue until they were repaired.

"Tica'los!" she cursed viciously and sheathed her blades, "enemy completely neutralised," it came out as a snarl. This time she didn't run, but took angered strides to the blaster pedestal. "Confirm targets," she said sharply. There was a pause and she clicked the last piece back. He finally spoke.

[All targets.] Good. She fired rapidly, hitting target after target. Though on the last shot she was out of charges. With a hiss of irritation she snatched one of her blades and threw. It zipped through the air and sank heavily into the target with a loud thud.

There was silence. She didn't call for another reset this time. But she was furious. She lapsed in concentration and messed up. She wanted to take that knife to the remainder of the droid to make herself feel better… but it would mean Ninety-Nine would have more to clean up. Damn… she'd already made a mess of things for him. She let out a sigh. Mutterings and murmurs began and it was then she remembered she was being watched by more than the few she spoke to. She'd made a fool of herself in front of all of them. Would they even respect her now? Had she screwed up her whole mission?!

"Feel better now?" Alpha asked as he approached. She looked up with a sigh.

"Hardly," she replied in a drawl.

"You did a full fifteen runs,"

"Yeah and maybe two of them were decent… I used to be able to run more… if it wasn't for-" she cut off in a growl as she leaned heavily on the pedestal.

"For what?" Crosshair asked as the other four enhanced clones approached. Zaiya shook her head.

"Unimportant. There was an incident a while ago… took me out of commission for a bit." she waved a hand dismissively.

"You get more deadly when you're pissed," Alpha said with a smirk. She couldn't even deny that, so she just shrugged. There was a cracking sound and they looked up sharply to see Wrecker wrestling with the knife in the target. It took him a second and a few solid tugs before he dislodged it, nearly breaking the hinge.

"I got it!" he called loudly and trotted over and he held it out, handle first.

"Thanks, Tiny," she nodded, Alpha regarded the four clones as he had when she had introduced them, with a mild interest.

"I suppose I was asking for that…" she grumbled, half to herself, "pride cometh before a fall,"

"I would not call that performance a fall," Tech began, adjusting his glasses, "you have endurance that rivals even the Alpha Troopers."

"I should have been able to run a few more-"

"What for?" Alpha snapped, "and don't give me this penance osik. If you think running yourself in the ground like a kriffing masochist will achieve anything then you'd better get your head checked instead because that's bantha shit." Zaiya blinked. Why did he sound so angry?

"You think so?" she retorted, "so abusing you and your brothers is acceptable, is it?"

"You weren't abusing us, woman, for kriffs sake. It's done. You know better now so just do better." She stared at him. He… made a good point. True she planned on doing just that but… perhaps she had made enough of a fuss.

"Very well," she replied.

"I though ya did a great job!" Wrecker announced and punched her arm as he always did. Luckily it wasn't the shoulder that got hit but she barely covered her wince that time. She had bruises from the other smacks he'd given her. When had she become so weak? With a sigh she just smiled. Wrecker was trying to cheer her up.

"Thank you, Wrecker," she replied with a nod.

"Right, now you need to get to the med bay," Alpha said firmly. Zaiya looked at him sharply.

"What? Why?" she asked a little too fast.

"That shoulder needs tending to," he said firmly and held up a hand, "I'm not taking no for an answer, having an injured instructor is both a detriment to us as well as you." Well… she couldn't really argue that. Despite her extreme dislike of medical bays, she needed to be able to do her job. She let out a heavy sigh, not wanting to argue with the stubborn Captain.

"Alright," she relented.

"Oh, Lady Siren?" she turned back to see Tech gesturing to her jacket, now in his hand.

"Ah, yes, thank you Tech," she nodded and addressed them, together. "Thank you for all your help today boys, you performed brilliantly." They gave her a salute and Wrecker grinned bashfully. She returned the salute but it was a little stiff because of her injury.

"Oh? And I didn't?" Alpha teased, smirking at her, his big arms crossed against his broad chest.

"Hm… you did alright," she retorted with a flat expression. Alpha laughed at that, seeing him smile and shake his head, that made her feel a little better.

"Come on, let's go," he gestured with his head to the door.

"You escorting me now, Captain?" she asked with a raised brow.

"Well I have to make sure you actually get to the med bay and don't just avoid it," damn… this clone was too smart for his own good. She rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, yeah," she scoffed and excused herself, walking side by side with the ARC Captain. She had a lot to think about.


N otes:

Hello lovelies! A bit shorter this time, apologies for that, BUT! Next week - Maul delves into his memories of his last mission. The lead up to the fall. I hope you guys are excited for that, I had a lot of fun writing it!

As always, I love comments and feedback and hearing from you all is just wonderful! Stay safe, be well and see you next week!