Writer's note:
Yay! New chapter for you to view! Once more, no beta-reader, booo. xP
Enjoy!
Chapter Thirteen: A bit of information on him
Shika's fingers twitched impatiently as she watched the darkened world of Kashyyyk pass below her as Grievous' personal fighter zipped across the night sky. She pressed her head against the glass of the cockpit, watching the wars taking place; the world would have been a beautiful sight to see if it wasn't for all the battles, smoke and dead bodies covering the whole place. It seemed like this war was never going to end until the droids captured Tarfful. At first, it was just the Wookiees versus the droids, but now the Republic was getting involved.
A few moments before, Grievous had received a call from a Droid commander, it had said they spotted several groups of Clone Troopers moving about the area, mostly not a threat, but four clone troopers were giving the droids a hard time. Grievous had asked the current location of the four troopers, the droid answered the General with a simple reply: They're here for Tarfful.
The droid commander informed afterwards that they had successfully captured Tarfful and were holding him captive in a Trandoshan base towards the Northwest; Grievous was actually pleased for once. Shika didn't really didn't care about how Grievous was feeling, she just wanted out of the cockpit, she already had several cramps in various areas of her body. All she really cared about was getting the heck out of the ship to stretch her legs. Her eyes traveled towards the control panel as she watched Grievous' fingers press multiple buttons, those looked like the buttons for the landing gears. She blinked before she looked out her window to see the landing pad within the Trandoshan camp, very large, perfect enough for Grievous' ship to fit in. At last they were landing.
When the ship landed, the cockpit slid open and Grievous jumped out without wasting any time, Shika fell down into Grievous' seat and groaned. Finally, she thought, I'll finally get a leg stretch. She rolled her neck for a second before climbing out of the cockpit after Grievous. When she touched the ground, she slowly turned and saw a few Trandoshans and Geonosians staring at her in awe, as if they had never seen a human girl before. She gave a nervous wave and they all scampered off to work, Shika only shook her head before allowing her gaze to travel towards Grievous, he was having a conversation with… One of his magnaguards… How they get here? Did Grievous stash them away on random planets or something? She heard the magnaguards say something about Tarfful and Grievous actually congratulation the guard, which was rare to actually hear him say anything like that. It was a few moments before she heard blaster fire, her head snapped up, as did Grievous'. He looked towards a direction passed the ship before looking to his Magnaguard, he motion his head towards the direction and the Magnaguard took off. Grievous only ran to his ship.
"General?" Shika asked, partly confused to what was going on, Grievous looked over his shoulder before he grabbed her by the arm and threw her into the ship. She grunted once she hit the sit and then she was shoved aside for room. Grievous sat down and pressed multiple buttons at a high rate of speed. Shika watched." What are you doing? What about Tarfful?" She asked again.
"Never mind about him." Grievous snapped. The ships engines roared up and Shika saw the launch pad doors open, several bodyguards were dragging Tarfful in. Grievous muttered several curse words to himself before opening the cockpit again." Take him to the Trandoshan camp Southeast of here! Make sure he doesn't esc-" In that moment, a thermal detonator went off in the hall outside the landing pad, followed by several blaster fire. Grievous once more cursed under his breath before falling back down into his seat and closing the cockpit. Shika watched as four Clone Troopers entered the area, firing at the Magnaguards, one of them looked directly at her before the Starfighter lifted into the air and shot off to the southeast. Shika watched the trooper until she could no longer see him. There was something odd about him, he didn't look like the ordinary Clone Trooper, and nether did his comrades. And why did Grievous run from them? They must have been something special if Grievous actually ran from them. She only sighed and looked to Grievous, who muttered things to himself as he piloted the ship.
Grievous stormed though the halls of the Trandoshan camp that the Geonosians were currently using as a droid factory. Shika followed close behind the General as the two entered the Geonosian medical lab, a place where the Geonosians fixed up droids who weren't working correctly, and sometimes Trandoshans and some of they're own race, but that was only when they came back bloody and half dead. Grievous immediately marched to a Geonosian and began asking him questions. Shika didn't like getting involved with Grievous things. So she wandered off into the room, watching the Geonosians work away at multiple things at once. This bored her greatly, so she sat down in one of the un-used seats and waited patiently for Grievous to finish his conversation. And it ended sooner than she thought. He walked towards Shika and stood before her, his hands placed behind his back in the usual manner. Shika went to stand but he pushed her back into the seat.
"Don't bother to stand, you will be staying here." He said. Shika's jaw dropped half open.
"You can't be serious… Why can't I go with you?" She quickly answered. Grievous set his hands onto the back of her chair; he leaned forward to were he was close to her. A little too close, Shika gulped as he put his face in front of her own.
"You could not defeat that Wookiee when we first arrived, you couldn't defend yourself against a bug, I highly doubt you fighting against the Republics army will be any different. So you will sit here and wait for me to return, am I clear, woman?" He hissed. Shika wanted to shake her head and yell, but she nodded anyway, she really didn't want to start something, especially with the war going on. He backed up from her, releasing the back of the chair." Good." With that, he turned and walked right out. Shika's fists clenched, sometimes the General made her steam so badly. But her anger passed by quickly and she sat there, alone in the corner of the room, watching the others silently.
Several hours passed, still Grievous had not returned. Often the base would rumble, meaning the war was drawing closer to the base. Shika watched one of the Geonosians fuss over a super battle droid that wasn't working correctly. By the look of it, the droid was missing several parts, most likely lost them or the parts the Geonosian needed weren't anywhere in the facility. She smiled when the Geonosian dropped the arm of the battle droid on his foot, it screeched in pain before whacking its hand against the head of the droid, its head flew across the room and smacked into another Geonosian who was watching the factory at work through one of the view screens. His head had slammed into the computer screen before it looked back at the other. The two then began yelling at each other. Shika giggled, she didn't understand what they were saying, but it did look funny.
The doors to the room slid open and Shika snapped up, was it Grievous? Had he finally returned? Her hopes dropped when she only saw a large crate being pushed into the room slowly by one lone Geonosian. Shika only sighed and shook her head, for once she actually missed Grievous, watching these bugs work was more boring than the lectures she used to get from Obi-wan. She chuckled a bit, she remembered Obi-wan used to ramble on for hours about being a Jedi; he'd often forget she wasn't even listening and just talk to himself while she went off to train. Her thoughts slowly vanished when she saw the Geonosian still attempting to push the box; it was only halfway through the door now. She actually felt sorry for the little bug. She got up onto her feet and walked over to the box; the Geonosian looked at her and blinked.
"Let me help." She said with a faint smile. She then closed her eyes and held her hands out to the box; slowly it lifted into the air. The Geonosian backed up and gasped; the others working stopped to watch also. The box slowly moved across the air into a corner of the room, out of everyone's busy work routes. When the box safely landed on the ground, Shika's arms fell to her sides and she panted lightly, her eyes opening to see the Geonosians staring in wonder before they continued to work. The one who was originally pushing the box slowly crept up to her, tilting his head side to side. She watched him pace around her, trying to figure out how she made the box move. He looked to her and began speaking in the natural Geonosian tongue, Shika was only able to shrug, un-sure of what he said. He blinked before looking towards one of the tables in the room, he quickly sprinted across the room, in the same way Grievous always ran, and grabbed two small objects off it. He then ran back over and grabbed her hand, Shika make a light squeak, his hand felt somewhat disgusting, she wasn't sure why, it just felt gross. He set the two small objects into her hand and withdrew his own. She looked to him.
"What are they?" she asked. The Geonosian pointed to her ears and began speaking again, Shika thought for a moment before finally realizing what he wanted her to do." Oh!" She then placed one object in each ear.
"-And you should be able to understand the Geonosian tongue." He finished.
"Hey, I can understand you now." Shika gasped, almost surprised. The Geonosian laughed.
"We have such amazing technology, don't you agree?" Shika nodded. The Geonosian then led Shika to her chair again, she re-sat herself down and the Geonosian brought over a chair, he sat across from her, she knew exactly what was coming." How were you able to make that box float?" He asked. Shika shook her head grinning." I saw no switches or buttons; your arms are too thin for you to have super strength… Are you some kind of a telepath or something? Or are you using some new kind of technology that we aren't aware of?" Before he could continue, Shika held her hand out in front of his face as a sign for him to stop.
"I'm Force-sensitive." She answered as she withdrew her hand. He only cocked his head.
"Force-sensitive?... Oh so that means you're a Jedi?" Shika shook her head.
"No. I'm not a Jedi anymore…" She answered.
"You're an evil Jedi then." Shika looked to the Geonosian with a faint smile; he was a curious little guy.
"Well. In truth. I'm not really a Jedi and I was never a Sith, I work under Grievous, as his apprentice, and being Grievous doesn't have any midi-chlorians, he isn't able to teach me anything about the Force." The Geonosian blinked, cocking his head once more.
"So why work for Grievous if he can't teach you anything about the Force?" Shika laughed before reaching into her cloak pocket and pulling out her light saber. The Geonosian instantly snatched it away from her; he then began observing it closely." A Jedi weapon… Such a lovely peace of technology…" He muttered. Shika nodded.
"I was really only interested in learning to become the best light saber wielder in the universe… But no one really understood that. They thought that because I was Force sensitive, then that meant I wanted to learn everything about the Force, like other Jedi. At first I wanted to, but when I was able to hold my first saber, that was all I cared about… Perfecting my skills…" She sighed and shook her head." An old friend of mine knew I wanted perfection, and he often said I was too obsessive over it…" Shika stopped herself; she was beginning to ramble on just like Obi-wan would. She then looked to the Geonosian, who was still looking at her saber." What's your name, anyway?"
"Graka'tikru, just call me Graka." The Geonosian replied before handing her saber back." And you?"
"I'm Shika." She answered with a smile as she placed the saber into her cloak pocket again. Graka blinked before his gaze shifted around the room.
"So… Your Grievous' apprentice huh?..." Shika nodded and his gaze returned to her." Judging by your appearance, I'd say he likes you." Shika's shoulders dropped before she crossed her arms.
"Even Count Dooku said that," She hissed." If he LIKES me so much, why is he so mean to me? Why does he continue to treat me like dirt?" Graka chuckled before leaning back in his seat, drumming his long bulgy fingers against one another.
"For as far back as I can remember," Graka began." Grievous had always been nothing more than a cold hearted beast. But when it came to those of the female species, he'd be more assertive, always attempting to prove he wasn't weak. Most likely to impress or to scare." Shika blinked as Graka continued." I think it had something to do with his past life on Kalee." Shika slowly sat up right.
"Kalee? I think I've heard of that place before… Didn't it all die out because of some war?" She asked. Graka nodded." And what about his overly aggression towards everyone?" Graka shifted in his seat a bit before he answered.
"This was a long ways back on Geonosis. Count Dooku had brought back a bloody, half dead, cut up male belonging to the Kaleesh species. My brethren were ordered to create a new body for him, one more suitable for the man. I, however, was nothing more but a guard at the time… Anyway. I remember listening to some of the medical staff who were taking a break from working on Grievous; they talked about him being some sort of a warlord who had seen many battles in his time. But he had these problems…" Shika raised an eyebrow.
"Problems? What kind of problems?" She asked.
"Honor, pride and love." Graka answered. Shika's eyebrows narrowed in confusion. Graka continued." Those were his problems… You see, he was aggressive to begin with, but mixed in with the problems… He wasn't aggressive enough… Then months later, BOOM!" He flung his arms out, startling Shika a bit." This creature comes storming out of the medical room with a horrible attitude, tearing apart anything that tried to calm him down, wires and tubes still hooked up to him, asking what he was and what they had done to him. If it weren't for Count Dooku stunning him with his Force powers, I don't think Geonosis would have lasted up to the war."
Shika stared at Graka. Grievous was naturally aggressive, but the problems he had wasn't helping him be aggressive enough? And what kind of problems were honor, pride and love? They didn't sound like problems to her, it sounded almost like the Separatists molded Grievous into the General they needed to lead they're armies. But did Grievous know they made him more heartless? Did he actually ask them to do it? She couldn't ask Graka because it seemed that everything he had said was all he knew. But at least she knew a little more about him now, he was a Kaleesh male who seemed to have a thing for women, he had emotions back then but he doesn't now. And at one point he was humanoid. She nodded to her small knowledge of Grievous, at least she knew things now, and that was a good start.
"But like I was saying," Graka spoke up again." If Grievous hasn't killed you yet, then it must mean he likes you." Shika allowed those words flow through her head for a bit, he's threatened to kill her, so did that count? She didn't know; Grievous was just too complicated." Okay, now tell me something," Graka started, Shika looked to him." When Grievous yells at you and you fear him, does he seem more pleased?"
"By the way things are going, then yes." Shika answered. Graka nodded, looking as though he was allowing his own thoughts to fly through his mind. He went to ask more when the doors to the room slid open and Grievous stormed in. Shika's attention snapped to him as he immediately ran to her. He yanked her up from the chair and dragged her out of the room without saying one word to anyone. Shika waved to Graka and he returned the wave while also mouthing: Good luck. Then the doors slid close and Shika's view of her new friend was gone, just like that.
Grievous had led Shika into the control room of the base, inside, Droids and Trandoshans were buzzing about quickly, yelling things and pressing buttons quickly. Shika felt the earth rumble several times, the war was dragged here, which was most likely why Grievous returned. He shoved her aside and began barking orders immediately; Shika only stumbled to the side a bit before looking at Grievous with a puzzled look.
"Grievous what is happening?" She asked. Grievous' head snapped to her before he yanked her closer to him, she gasped before he grabbed her head and turned it to the view port that showed a large Neimoidian ship above them, four of they're own laser blasts were shooting at it. Shika gasped." That's not good…" She muttered before Grievous shoved her aside again.
"I WANTED THOSE BLASTERS SHUT DOWN SECONDS AGO!" He yelled. The Droids and Trandoshans began working faster and quicker. Grievous began pacing back and forth, waiting for results. Shika only watched the ship from the view port, the blasters continued to fire and Grievous began to lose more patience." Send our best warriors down to those blasters immediately!"
"Yes sir!" A droid answered. Grievous then looked to several of his Magnaguards who were lined up. Grievous pointed at five and pointed to the door, the five he chose ran out. Grievous began pacing again; the explosions began to get rougher and louder. Shika watched as the ship began rocking.
"General! LOOK!" She called out as she pointed to the ship. Grievous looked out the view port and cursed to himself, he slammed his fist down onto a computer, smashing it.
"SHUT THEM DOWN NOW!" Grievous yelled. It was too late; the ship began to explode in multiple areas, Shika backed up from the window as the ship began falling, swaying to the side, showing it was going to just barely miss the base. Shika continued to back up before Grievous shoved her down onto the floor." Cover your head!" He snapped. Shika stared up at him before covering her head like he had ordered her to do. In the moment she covered her head the earth rumbled greatly, she heard the droids say that some of the base had been demolished. Then things in the room began crashing and snapping, was the roof caving in? She had no idea; her arms were over her head, so she couldn't tell. She heard a few Trandoshans cry out in pain after a large crash. She also heard Grievous continue to bark his orders.
Shika slowly lifted her head after the shaking had stopped, half the room was caved in and the windows were shattered, the place was a horrid mess, dead Trandoshans and droids were in several areas of the room. The only ones standing were Grievous and a few droids.
"Sir, one of our groups of warriors has just informed us that they've captured one of the ones who were responsible for firing the cannons. They have also informed us it was a Republic solider, sir." Shika's head snapped to the droid that had spoken.
"Excellent. Bring him to me." Grievous ordered. The droid nodded and turned back to his computer. Shika blinked, they had captured the one who was responsible? She looked to Grievous who had a more pleased gaze in his eyes now. Only one thought floated about her mind now… What was he planning to do to the captured soldier?