I don't own star wars…
"The fuck did we just watch?!" I stared horrified as an unlucky gran warrior was devoured by some sort of horrific slug-like creature. I turned to Killa as she checked, and double-checked her gear from behind the bars that lead to the arena.
"Blood sport." She replied calmly, holding my extending sword. "…This isn't like the other ones that Short-round's clan sells, how does it work?"
"You have to snap it." I replied.
"Snap it?" she replied curiously. "What do you mean?"
"Here." I took the sword and with a flick, to the side the sword extended menacingly. Then pushing my thumb on the hidden switch it retracted, "Did you see? Snap." I replied, pacing nervously as the host, 'Crazy Candi' began addressing the crowd. "Why can't I have my sword?"
"Because you are the damsel. You don't get a weapon." She said firmly, attaching the sword back to her waist.
"Okay. Why don't we just shoot Blackjaw? You have a blaster, right?"
"One charge." She replied, pulling out her tri-barrel blaster. "We are given charges with one shot. This duel will be close combat anyway. One shot won't put Blackjaw down anyway."
"Okay… then go over the plan for me again?" I said, still pacing as she put on her mask.
"Stay behind me." She said simply, "Blackjaw will inevitably try to kill you. But he will be occupied with me…"
"…Your plans are as well thought out as Caradoc's," I said rubbing my hands through my hair. "What if you can't kill him?" I asked and she stood next to me as our cell began to open.
"Then we die like warriors and await him at the scorekeeper's side." She said coolly.
"You have issues." I noted sourly as the crowd roared at our appearance.
"I was raised by a trandoshan bounty hunter after he found me in the bed of a pedophile." She replied as I looked at her in shock, "I'm not your average twi'lek."
"Here they are!" Candi cooed, "Green-eyed Killa and her Damsel!" she said with a grin, the crowd cheering and laughing as we approached the center of the arena. Killa staring determinedly ahead at the fancy-looking door opposite us. "You know the routine!" she moaned, slowly rubbing herself as the words began to rise over the crowd. "Call him out!"
BLACK-JAW! BLACK-JAW! BLACK-JAW! BLACK-JAW! BLACK-JAW!
The opposite door opened and I stared at the doors as slowly a figure began to walk out to a cacophony of noise. He raised a gamorrean clever in one hand and a vibrosword in the other, roaring as the crowd continued to chant his name.
Which was correctly given, he was a massive trandoshan, easily the tallest and broadest I had ever seen. The entirety of his lower jaw, neck, and most of his torso was black as if long ago it was burned horrifically, and his nose was also heavily scarred as if he lost a fight with a kinyak.
Dad took on that guy?
"So… my dad beat him once?" I asked hesitantly as he slowly approached.
"The only man other than Ozjin Knights." She replied, her hands suddenly ejecting three, six-inch retractable claws on both hands. Then with a primal roar she charged him, her powersuit feet tearing the ground as she quickly closed the distance.
The crowd's cheers were deafening as they clashed. Blackjaw's cleaver easily deterred Killa's claws. Blocking, deflecting, he even looked bored. "Your claws should be longer." He said with a cold dismissive hiss, before slamming his fist hard into her masked face. Sending her skidding away as he planted the vibrosword, which was still tightly clasped in his said fist, into the ground and approached her as she fired a bola at him. He casually flicked his cleaver, slicing the durasteel cord like it was paper, the balls clattered aside him as he approached.
"Your armor has been poorly maintained as well." She swung her claws at his face, but he easily dodged, catching her wrist in his open hand as she struggled, "I told you if you were to depend on it…" she rammed her claws into his side. He closed his eyes, snarling as he took the pain, "To keep it maintained…"
Killa screamed as he crushed her armored arm, it surged electricity as the circuitry was heavily damaged before he let go and slammed his fist hard into her mask again… it cracked and splinted, pieces of it falling off as she scrambled away. Taking my mother's sword from her waist and flicking it out.
"At least you kept the mask up to date…" he snarled, then swung the ax in both hands smashing the sword away, sending it spiraling towards my feet.
He was practically toying with her, or training her… I didn't really know. He was hardly putting up a fight as she kept trying her hardest to fight him. He was leaking blood from his wound but it hardly stalled him. I looked down at the sword…
So… I could continue to follow my instincts and listen to the pretty girl. Or fight a man my father could barely beat. Killa screamed suddenly, knocking me out of my thoughts as she crawled on the ground in severely damaged armor. Blackjaw roughly grabbed her lekku, aiming his ax to align with the scars… he was going to scar her again….
My foot immediately slipped under the blade, kicking it up into my hand and charging at Blackjaw…
I surprised him, I surprised Killa… I surprised everyone as I swung my sword at him. He released her just in time to deflect the blow. But I managed to flick the blade of his ax and slice a small scratch on his arm.
"Oh My!" Candi cooed lustfully for the crowd as she stroked herself, "Looks like our damsel fancies himself a hero!"
"Finally…" Blackjaw said with a manic grin, "Son of Kane…"
"Firemane." I said slowly circling to place myself standing between him and Killa. "You okay?" I asked, not looking at her over my shoulder briefly.
"…My armor is shredded, my pride has been severely injured…" she flinched, getting slowly to her feet. "…And I think he broke some ribs…" she then glared at me, ripping away her mask as the crowd 'ooh'd and ah'd' at her face. "I said to stay behind me."
"Well…" I began slowly as he tossed away the ax and picked up the sword. "It makes it really hard when he's knocking you all over the place."
See Roland? That was clever.
She glared at me as Blackjaw approached, "…My only regret is that he will kill us before I can kill him." I stared at her, I honestly have no words. That was a special kind of crazy…
"Face me Son of Aiden…" Blackjaw said with a grin, "Are you worthy of my protégé?"
"I'm sorry what?" I asked, simultaneously with Killa. Although her's was more-
"What are you talking about!?" she growled, ripping off the broken gauntlet and rubbing her bruised wrist. "Damn armor."
Suddenly however Blackjaw gave off a blood-curdling roar and charged, "Crap!" I hissed, and deflected the oncoming blows…
Caradoc taught me how to fight against power. Mom taught me skill… Blackjaw was teaching me savagery. It took everything I had, including the ground under my feet to keep him from separating pieces of me from the rest of me.
Killa released a primal roar herself, bringing her claws back into the fight trying to strike him down as I tried to keep him from killing us. Even together our attempts were… flawed. It wasn't like we coordinated or anything. But Blackjaw's brutal nature managed to hold us both off… A heavy backhand suddenly smashed her away, before turning back towards me.
I could barely hold him off together with Killa. And dad fought this guy ALONE!?
He kicked me away. And yes, it fucking hurt. I got back to my feet, coughing violently as he sighed in disappointment.
"…You are your father's son." he snarled, "Weak. Cowardly. More concerned with his women than his skill. Did he teach you how to use the sword?"
"No. My mom did… I'm more like her." I said coolly, raising the blade in what mom told me was a 'jedi' stance.
"Oh…" he said with a smirk on his lizard face. "So are you a worthless cunt as well?"
…The entire arena went quiet… and even Killa, bleeding and bruised looked aghast. The only one who looked remotely entertained was Blackjaw. Yet I don't think he'll be entertained in a moment…
…You ever been so mad you blacked out? Like I mean so mad you don't remember what you did? I had that moment. A feeling I had never felt in my life… Pure unadulterated rage. With speed I could not I could not imagine I possessed I was on him and once again I managed to surprise him, even though he stopped the blow I still managed to pull up enough unknown strength to sink my blade into his shoulder. He was overconfident so he thought he could stop me one-handed… He won't fall for that again…
But I didn't really care about that honestly.
I sniffed, taking a character tick from Caradoc, "DON'T YOU TALK ABOUT MY MOTHER!!!" I roared, slamming the blade onto his sword again and again as he actually struggled to halt my attacks. His amazement however soon vanished and a look of utter joy appeared on his face. I was going to take that away.
He raised up the blade, laughing as he brought it down. I deflected it. Forcing it back up with strength from nowhere, then bringing it across his chest… then with a flourish and a spin I sunk the blade deep into his chest, pushing him to the ground as I pinned his body to the dirt.
The rage vanished as I stared into his fading eyes. His mouth stretched broadly in a smile… and went still. Covered in trandoshan blood my hearing seemed to come back… but there was still silence as the entire arena was still. Even Candi stared in utter shock as she dropped to her knees… apparently suffering from some sort of orgasm.
Killa gazed at me amazed. Her own legs gave out as I yanked out my sword and walked away from the body, grabbing her and lifting her from the ground. "…I want to go home." I said, completely exhausted.
She stared into my eyes, she looked confused, maybe a little amazed. But she nodded, "…Alright…" we walked towards the way we came into the arena, when suddenly there was a loud feedback sound as Candi began to talk.
"…It seems our damsel has slain the monster…" she said slowly, glaring at me. "…5000 credits to the one who brings him to me and kills the twi'lek."
"Oh no." we managed to say together in a monotone before giving strength to our feet and moving quickly as the crowd began to roar.
"I blame you!" I roared as we stumbled as fast as we could out of the arena, heading towards the nearby port.
"Run!" she replied angrily, flinching terribly as we approached her ship.
"Bring me the REDHEAD!" roared Candi on the microphone, the entire arena becoming alert as we approached the ship. "This is a red alert!"
"Please tell me this is a planet of gingers!" I groaned, moving forwards seconds before a wild hiss was heard. Then a shriek as a rocket slammed into Killa's engine. We were blown back from the explosion as a trio of figures appeared. Three Ratattaki. The Varlis. Dausut, Seis and Epta…
Dausut tossed away an RPG and began pulling out his repeater while approaching us as Seis strutted casually holding her little brother Epta back as he spun vibroknives in his hands.
"Killa." Seis smiled fondly, "…And you brought a friend…" she said looking at me, "…Cute kid." She noted with a hungry grin.
"Okay, is it the hair?!" I asked indignantly as I got to my feet. Helping Killa up as well as she groaned.
"Yes." She replied with a laugh, aiming a blaster at Killa. Who aimed her gauntlet at the ground and dropped a pair of bolas…
We stared at it for a moment, "Was that intended?" Dausut asked curiously as Killa covered her eyes and mine with her hands.
"FUCK!" the Varlis shouted with a pop and a bang as a smoke bomb and a flash bang went off. Killa dragged me off into a nearby alleyway. "Fucking damn it!" Seis shouted angrily, rubbing her eyes, "Don't lose them!"
"Get em! Gut em!" Epta snarled suddenly dashing off in the wrong direction.
"Damn it, Epta sniff them out first!" Dausut replied, trying to rub his eyes.
"That was clever." I said as I helped Killa forward and out of sight, "…And I know I should never say this to a lady… but you weigh a ton…" I said, hefting her on.
"My armor's systems are destroyed, the suit would normally power itself carrying its own weight for me…" she hissed as we ducked into an empty building. "Damn… I forgot my ribs are still broken."
"Okay. We need a real plan now. Not 'get us into a death match and work it from there' sort of plan…" I said, rubbing away the residue of blood from my face.
"…There are dozens of crashed ships in the jungle…" she said softly. Watching me rather hopelessly. "…Theoretically one of them could have working coms. But we'd probably die before we'd get to one. Lack of supplies, lack of weapons, I'm running low on tools, my armor's broken…"
"Okay. Take off the armor then, it's literally weighing us down."
She laughed… it was actually kind of a nice sound. "…A… Ka-Firemane… getting me to take off my armor? Blackjaw would roll in his grave."
I looked down at my own clothes, covered in Blackjaw blood. "…I don't think anyone will let me out of here looking like this. Just hang on." Scrounging around I found some old sheets, and while they weren't exactly durasteel plate they would work. Taking off my bloody shirt and leaving it aside I wrapped one around me. Helping Killa with her armor, leaving her only in her mesh under-suit. "Okay…" I said, wrapping her up in the sheet, and helping her up. Belting on her tri-barrel blaster and my sword, never know when one shot will come in handy…
"Other than these things, do we have anything else?" she held up a virboknife that she slipped into her boot and shook her head under the very crappy hood of the sheet. "Okay then…" I mumbled, carrying her along as the entire town seemed to thrive in uproar…
Getting out of the city wasn't so much of the problem. Taking the knife from her boot I slashed myself up a poncho, she tossed away the sheet, as we made our way through the jungle. "…How are the ribs?" I asked.
"Tender." She said bluntly, I couldn't help but laugh. She glared at me as we continued on.
"…So what should we expect in the jungle?" I asked as she shook her head, her lekku bouncing as she did.
"Death. Dismemberment… maybe a crazy hermit here or there…" she said softly, "Juggalo is filled with the offshoots of Candi's creatures. Killing each other and anyone dumb enough to go past the sentry turrets." She stared rather whimsically at the ever-shrinking town, now literally exploding as they continued to search for us.
"Hermits huh?" I said, that caught my interest. "They helpful hidden jedi kind of hermit?"
"More like eat you as much as shoot you Rattataki hermit…" she said emptily. Then after she was silent for a long time, "…Stop." She said, stopping abruptly.
"What… what's wrong?" I asked looking around as if expecting an ambush, she pulled out the vibroknife from the boot and handed it to me.
"…I need you to mark my lekku." She said firmly and very serious.
"I'm sorry what?" I asked, "We just got away from someone about to slice us to death and you want me to cut you?!"
"I failed." She said seriously, holding the knife by the blade. "…I need to be-"
"Okay. NO." I said firmly, picking her up and dragging her on. "Let's deal with ritual scarring when we're safe alright?" she scowled, but kept moving, slipping the knife back into her boot. "Besides you didn't fail, Blackjaw's dead." I said.
"But I didn't kill him." She replied, "…It was my duty as his…" she hesitated, not really finding the words. As if confused as to what to call him… I then realized that whether she wanted to do it or not, someone close to her had died… and I had forgotten that…
I sighed, "Lets just… keep going. And hope nothing tries to eat us." She was strangely quiet as I pulled her on, but she nodded and began to help me do so. "So… crashed ships?" I asked hesitantly as small pieces of wreckage began to pierce through the tree line.
"Junk. Stripped for parts." She said, "…We'll have to go fairly deep to find something we hope to use. Everything else would've been visited by scavengers… or perhaps are occupi-" we stopped as a first roar and an animal shriek of pain ripped through the air. She pulled the tri-barrel blaster from my belt as the very light around us dimmed.
"…What's the day-night cycle here?" I asked nervously as the jungle dimmed.
"…About 15 hours…" she said bitterly, "…We need shelter or a miracle." I pulled her into the jungle towards one of the many wrecked ships.
"Then we'll have to make do and hope nothing monstrous can fit in those ships." I noted, looking around the veritable graveyard of wrecked ships, "How did these even get here?" I asked picking one and pulling the ramp down to enter.
"The losers of the Arena won't need them when they're dead." She replied as we entered the tiny one man craft and I dropped her down on a ruined cot. "If they're in good shape she adds them to her 'fleet' and junks the rest…"
"…So… theoretically we wouldn't have to go far to find a fixed craft and we could jury rig this one for coms?" I asked looking at her as her eyes narrowed at me.
"Can you do that?" she asked softly, sounding impressed.
I sighed, shrugging, "No idea. But I'm willing to try, how hard can it be?"
"Intergalactic communication repair?" she said sarcastically, leaning against the wall gently as she pressed her hand to her ribs with a hiss. "…We're going to die out here…" I sighed, and shook my head, she probably wasn't wrong. We literally had nothing… no food, or water and everyone on this planet was looking for us.
"…Well then let's last as long as we can." I said, examining the ship communications panel, long ago stripped for parts. "…At least we have an ample selection." I said, looking out at the dozens of wrecks that could be seen. Frowning as I thought I saw something move… "… Let's see if the ramp still closes…" I said nervously. Managing to get it half shut.
End of Chapter.
Bonus.
"The boss says bury him…" someone said as my mind focused.
"So we're tossing him into the lake?" someone else said as my body ached and my mind screamed in pain. Such a feeling.
"I aint burying nothing." said the first voice.
"…Won't she get pissed?" the second voice said nervously. I could feel his gaze on me. "…Man I don't want to be the one who tosses him away."
"Quit your bitching…" came the first voice, and I felt his breath on my scales. "He's good and dead, little more than fish bai-" my clawed hand wrapped around his throat and my eyes opened as I stared into the terrified human's eyes while he gagged for air… then I sat up as the other man, a twi'lek, soiled himself and scrambled away. Screaming in terror.
I looked down, I was heavily wounded, in terrible pain, and even a little sore… it was exhilarating. I stared at the man as the life left his eyes, his fingers weakly scraping against the blaster at his waist. I casually took the blaster, examining it as I got off the trolly, bleeding onto the ground as I blocked out the pain…
"…Where is the slave's quarters?" I asked calmly, unsure where I was in the arena. He suddenly went limp however, I forgot I was strangling him… I let his lifeless body drop to the floor, "Never mind." I hissed walking off until I got my bearings.
I found them in good time, kicking the door down as the men and women inside shrieked in terror as I looked around. Found her. Boella cowered in the corner.
"M-My Champion…" she quivered as I approached, "But… you died!" I lifted her from the floor, and she whimpered as I sniffed her white scales and my tongue licked across her cheek. My hand rubbed her stomach, and I smiled coolly.
"We're leaving." I said firmly, looking her dead in the eyes as I continued to rub her stomach. "All of us…" I said, her eyes widening in surprise as she understood what I meant. Then wrapping her wrist tightly in my hand, but not enough to hurt, I dragged her out.
…I was proud of Killa… she stood admirably against me and while she couldn't defeat me without aid she brought an excellent tool to the fight. My only regret is that I would not be alive long enough to watch my true spawn kill Aiden's progeny.
"Still…" I had thought as I killed the men scrounging around my ship, "I will have to take it easy…" I needed to stay alive long enough for Boella's clutch to hatch, and train the strongest to face his 'sister'…" the mere thought of it brought a new feeling of pride to my spine. Who knows? Maybe Killa will have a protégé of her own to face my brood by the time they're ready."
…What fun that would be…
End of Bonus.