Unhinged - 8.327

[Lilaena De'Ville]

She only had a week of leave, and she had already spent half of it on Terephon. Hawkins Grime surely demanded more attention than she had to give to him, but allowing him to run unchecked on Onderon was not something she wanted. A short visit would be better than none at all.

Lilaena walked through Iziz with anonymity, cloaked and unrecognizable as the one the Onderon Mando'ade called Manda'lor. It was a simple matter to slip outside the massive walls that held the wilderness at bay, and head toward the Mando'ade town several klicks out. Once under the cover of the jungle, De'Ville located a speeder bike that had been left there for her use, and after pulling the plant debris away from it she threw her leg over and roared off.

Walking to the village was something she had done many times. It kept one sharp, surviving the trek through the tangle of lethal lifeforms that covered the planet. But not now, not with a time limit.

Her healing side protested as she leaned over the sleek profile of the bike, letting the wind blow her thoughts away, concentrating on the ride and on avoiding driving into any of the enormous trees. She pulled up short outside the wooden palisade of the Mando'ade encampment, her arrival seen by scouts and armored acolytes already coming to greet her.

[Hawkins Grime]

e'Drain curled over, falling to his knees before his shoulder then hit the ground when the kick that followed the punch to his stomach slammed him into the dirt. Morrolan winced, expecting the finishing contact that would put him out of the fight but instead heard a crunch of metal against flesh. He looked up to see his opponent be lifted off his feet and then hit the sparring floor on his neck.

e'Drain took what he could for a break and started to get up, looking behind him to see the cloaked figure catch a foot in his armored hand. The cloaked figure grabbed the other opponent by his thigh with his other leg and in a flurry of motion, both figures were in the air and then on the ground.

Hawkins Grime stood, withdrawing his fist from the cracked face plate of the Mandalorian that he had just taken down. He examined his fist, flexing the powerful exoskeleton before looking down at the still body of the Mandalorian. He glanced back to e'Drain's opponent who was standing now, but just barely. Morrolan was looking up at him with a smirk.

"Boss, you gotta let me finish mine off at least. The last three have gone like that."

"I'm merely adapting to your weaknesses. Maybe you should learn how to fight like a Mando on your own?"

e'Drain still wasn't use to the bold voice of his "new" boss. Grime was sleek now, sleek and fresh. Like a corpse that had just died but came out for the better. They'd been in this camp for months. The doctor and Averre had said it was best for him to wait, kind of like rehabilitating in his new body.

Grime turned to the approaching sound of running feet. He spoke in quick Mand'oa.

"A'den, she's coming."

Grime reached for his hood around his shoulders and pulled it up over his face. His other hand reached for the face plate that in a moment slid onto his new face with ease, slightly hissing as it locked. He nodded and then followed the young Mando towards the front of the camp. It was hard to tell if in that steady stride, e'Drain might have noticed some kind of excitement.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

She walked into the camp, back straight, shoulders squared. De'Ville greeted her warriors, spoke to Bretak for a moment, and then looked up to find a tall figure stalking towards her through the village.

Bretak nodded, stepping aside, and she steeled herself for this encounter with her apprentice. Her... new apprentice. His exoskeleton was lean and strong, the face almost human rather than the porcelain doll mask she was used to seeing. She could feel his confidence and swagger before he reached her.

"Hawkins," she said. "You are looking... well."

[Hawkins Grime]

Hawkins had removed the metal face plate, similar to the Mandalorian helmets with its slit visor, just before reaching where the small gathering was. E'drain trailed behind him, wiping the blood from his nose. He was preoccupied enough that he tried to act like the whole thing wasn't happening.

He licked his lips with his black synthetic tongue, enjoying the false gesture as if he was hesitating to say something.

"Lilaena... You... are feeling well, I would hope?"

The question was loaded. Grime could taste her pain. It seethed from her. Someone had been up to no good, it seemed. He loved it. Not like this new body kept him free from it. It just helped him manage beyond the broken clockwork doll he had been.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Her eyes narrowed imperceptibly at his polite question, reading the intent behind it. "Of course."

She pushed her cloak off her shoulders, letting it fall to the dusty ground as she walked a slow circle around her apprentice. "The Mando'ade have out done themselves with your new body, Grime." De'Ville reached out and ran her hand across the back of his shoulders, fingertips brushing the segmented armor plates that covered the suit.

"Truly a work of art." She stood in front of him, arms folding in front of her, and then she looked sideways at Bretak, her second in command. "My time is limited here, unfortunately. I need to speak with my apprentice. Alone."

She looked up at Hawkins, noting the clear blue eyes, and nodded her head toward the building she lived in when she was on Onderon. "If you will join me?"

[Hawkins Grime]

The smirk that slid across his face was meant to be obvious. The action still required effort but it was so much more than the poor attempt it had been before. He turned on his heel, glancing at Morrolan and turning him away with a curt hand signal. He brushed a strand of hair out of his face, still getting a hang of his new found agility and the simple distractions more likened to normal people. De'Ville led the way towards the building, with Grime following just a step beind.

He could practically taste her pain. She hadn't been this vulnerable, especially around him since after Coruscant. If only he could've been this aware of it then as he was now. It was, to say the least, sensational. From fighting with the Mandalorians in hand to hand combat, he knew how much better he was but he still knew just how vulnerable he was too. Grime's pain was his double edged sword that cut to the bone every time he wielded it against another, body and mind. De'Ville had said he was a work of art. He remembered, in another life time, someone saying that exact same thing in much different circumstances.

"Limited time? And why would the Mandalore be rushed this time?"

They reached the building, well out of earshot of anyone else.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

She blew out a long breath, opening the door and walking inside out of the sun. "As you know I have joined the Alliance. As part of one of their SpecOps teams, I have limited leave." It grated on her, just another layer of authority over her head, pushing down on her. And she had placed herself in that position on purpose.

She found a seat and took it, lifting her right arm awkwardly and feeling the tape on her side under her shirt. It seemed to still be stuck in place, covering the cuts she'd received during her fight with Callidus. With... Salem. A flicker of something undefinable crossed her face.

"How are the Mandos? Restless, no doubt, with my long absences. Probably only a matter of time before I am challenged in Battle Circle."

[Hawkins Grime]

"They fear I might. e'Drain keeps his ears to the ground."

That smirk remained as he thought of Morrolan lying on the ground only a short time ago.

"Still with those Alliance rats? They are just lucky that war makes for such profit. But... then again..."

Grime chose not to sit, his eyes glanced over her scars that appeared to bleed their pain to Grime's eyes.

"Its my turn to say that you truly are a piece of work. Did you thank whoever drew on your flesh like that?"

[Lilaena De'Ville]

"Many times," she said absently, lowering her arm and getting a little more comfortable.

De'Ville focused sharply on his new face. "Is your new body capable of wielding a lightsaber? Or is this all just an exercise in futility?" She got to her feet, brushing past him to the other side of the room where she found a bottle of water. She held it in her hand, turning to look at him again. "I feel I must learn you all over again. What you are capable of... or not, as the case may be."

[Hawkins Grime]

How easy it was to still define Hawkins Grime as a complicated piece of metal wrapped around an otherwise simple, nearly dead corpse?

"Would you like a demonstration?"

His blue eyes seared with contempt. He felt more than capable of wielding a lightsaber, especially at this very moment. He knew, in his previous "body", Grime would have likely done more harm to himself than anyone else with something as unwieldy as a light saber then. Now though...

"Why? Do I get some keepsake to think of my doting master once you depart to the front lines again? Doesn't it take a lifetime to learn something like that?"

Grime would much rather learn how to read someone's mind than wield the saber. Not that he wouldn't turn such instruction down either. Hawkins just had his own priorities in mind.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

She felt his hate seeping through his metal skin, something she was more than familiar with when dealing with her volatile apprentice. It was tempting to shrink back, to deflect his rage away from her, but she knew if she showed him weakness it would just invite more testing, if not outright rebellion.

Bad enough that he already knew the razor's edge she walked within her mind. He would not be pushing so hard, his attitude so cocky, if he did not sense the pain she had recently gone through.

He was not her confidant, however, he was her apprentice. Her green eyes flashed at him. "Even a child can learn the basic lightsaber forms, I trust you will be able to manage it." Lilaena turned her back on him, working the controls on a modern safe that had been implanted into the duracrete under their feet. She retrieved two training sabers, ones she had created herself many years ago.

They looked and felt like actual lightsabers, but the circuitry was such that the blade merely stung instead of cut. Put one up against a real lightsaber and the blade would short out, leaving the wielder defenseless. Lilaena tossed one to Grime.

[Hawkins Grime]

He caught it without any trouble, igniting the saber and spilling blue light across the room.

=======

CENSORED slid the cylinder between his fingers, examining its elegant master craftsmanship.

"How many forms are there?"

The bounty hunter across from him sipped from her drink before setting it back on the transparesteel table.

"7, I believe. Your Echani sword style appeared to be enough though didn't it."

"But for how much longer might I have lasted had we not sprung that trap on him?"

"I suppose we'll never know."

"I suppose."

=======

He felt her pain, just standing and so on. She was like some vintage he'd only had a taste of before and was now available in abundance. If not for her leaving, he feared the value of her pain might diminish for it was so readily available. The idea of her leaving again, and in such a state, also gave Grime a seemingly new idea. De'Ville might go out one of these times and not come back. Such a thing hadn't crossed his mind. Hawkins' dreams of how she might die by his hand had only amplified since acquiring his new body.

"This blade is shorter than some I've seen. Did you really give me a child's toy or is there some advantage to this?"

The black aura that was Grime's pain couldn't help but reach out to De'Ville, like tongues of shadow seeking mutual sensation.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

"Length varies," she said shortly. "As a male, I'm sure you are familiar with the phenomenon. In this case, it depends on the preference of the one who constructs it.

"When learning the forms, a shorter blade can be advantageous. However," she stepped closer, inside his reach and past the crackling blade, took his hand and turned it to expose a small switch on one side of the cylinder he held. "This one is adjustable." She adjusted the blade to one better suited to Grime's height.

Lilaena released him and stood back, feeling the familiar sensation of the physical pain he experienced just by living. It was not as strong as it usually was, no doubt because of his enhanced and modernized exoskeleton. His new face was almost handsome, and she found he was staring at her, and not at the blade in his hand.

She met his gaze, tilting her chin up a bit defiantly. "Do you have something you wish to say to me, apprentice?"

[Hawkins Grime]

His free hand raised just slightly before the metal fingers ground together into a fist and stay at his side. His lips curled back in something of a sneer and a smile at once, revealing his pearl teeth locked together. Looking down at her, at this proximity, he could actually smell her for the first time. Like sanitized bandages and her travel across Onderon on the speeder bike.

"Another life time perhaps, Lilaena..."

His fist slowly unclenched as Hawkins leaned forward towards her. The overwhelming sensation of his own pain clashed against what emanated from De'Ville and Hawkins could not deny that he relished it. What he had been holding back was unleashed with an audible sigh, the fire and ice of his hatred, so potent as it was nearly uncontrollable and without any other purpose but to destroy.

Grime leveled the saber at her, held in the basic Echani stance, an art form perverted by Grime's lethal passions, from before and now.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

She ignited the twin to the saber Hawkins held, standing ready as his fury peaked. His skill with a blade was something she had yet to test, but she was not unfamiliar with the Echani form he was using.

Lilaena made the first move in the cramped space, seeing no need to hold back and employing Vaapad against him, a series of whirling and exact strikes that pushed her apprentice to the doorway.

[Hawkins Grime]

The door burst open and Grime stepped through it backwards with ease, deflecting the whirling, crackling mess of light saber strikes that De'Ville hurled at him. It was not necessarily beyond him to handle this flurry of attacks but Grime had not fought an opponent of this caliber in some time, not in this life time at least.

He allowed them to get some distance from the building and into the clearing before his feet shifted and the stance adjusted. Like the Echani way, combat was merely another way to express oneself and had heard enough of what Lilaena had to 'say' for the moment. He laughed as he parried two blows and then exploded into a counter offensive. He could feel the strain in his body starting to build but he could see and taste De'Ville's as well.

e'Drain stood a relative ways off, shocked and a bit unsure of what was going on. Where did the Boss get a light saber and what was the angle here? Were they really fighting or just sorting out some differences? As long as the Boss didn't go thermonuclear or whatever he did with Malchiel. Morrolan almost hoped that De'Ville was just teaching Grime something and would end it before it got too far.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Her side was on fire, recently scabbed cuts pulling apart under the stress of her movements, but she shut aside the sensation of pain. "Your flexibility is impressive!" she called to him, a trace of a smile on her face as she parried his sudden offensive.

Lilaena pressed the attack slightly, testing his ability, their sabers crackling against each other. Mando'ade were gathering, watching the fight, not sure exactly what was going on. She found an opening and slammed the blade against his leg, the practice saber buzzing against the exoskeleton, though his circuitry was well shielded and not prone to shorting out.

[Hawkins Grime]

He only stuttered for a moment, quickly regaining his foot hold before pressing any kind of attack. It was taking significant focus just to keep her away from sliding another attack in. Hawkins did notice that her pain had dimmed ever so slightly.

"Again... Maybe in another life..."

Hawkins left it hanging as he flourished and just barely caught a strike at his face before it connected. A growl rose up from inside him before he roared into his next attack. Grime was defending at the fifth tier of the Echani defensive techniques but was only using the fourth tier, holding back, letting that pain that simmered in her wounds build.

A rush of hot air pushed out from Grime, the source, and he felt his rampant anger and putrid hatred explode from within, greedily stoking the visible pain of De'Ville's wounds. He lunged forward with the saber coming at her more vulnerable side.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Bretak was there, the acolytes and warriors surrounding them forming a loose circle. Lilaena spared them a glance, shouting, "Training!" and hoped they knew A'den was not battling her for supremacy.

But then, any training session or fight with Hawkins turned into a battle of wills, and as his skills grew so did his ambition. He was drawing on the Force, fueling his movements with anger, his hatred reaching out between them and causing her side to explode with sudden pain.

Lilaena hissed, her body twisting awkwardly, but managed to pull her guard up and block Grime's blow. She pushed him back, their sabers hissing and crackling against each other, their faces close. "Good... you exploit weakness in your opponent."

She shoved with the Force, throwing him backwards a few feet and then circling around him, her saber at the ready.

[Hawkins Grime]

Grime stumbled back and fell to a knee for just a moment before standing again; slowly turning, one step behind the next, almost like in a dance, to match De'Ville. The gesture looked so human in stark contrast to the shuddering skeleton that Grime had been before that e'Drain was still having a hard time grasping just how much better off the new body was.

Hawkins sighed, the most exertion his new exoskeleton would allow itself to display. What he felt on the inside wasn't anything beyond the normal threshold of pain; in fact it could even be relatively comfortable considering what it might have felt like before.

He turned his profile to her, his saber tilted away.

"Training? Are you sure this is training, De'Ville?"

=======

The black haired wookie looked up from the dash board she was working on to peer into the fighting ring. The white haired woman leveled the double bladed vibroblade at the lanky teenager, holding his own sword in a shaky grip.

"I do not teach you how to fight like an Echani, CENSORED..."

"You... teach me how to speak like an Echani."

She flew forward in a flurry of motion, the young man deflected what he could but red slits of blood still flew into the dust at their feet.

=======

The rage that exploded from Hawkins made the air instantly smell like burnt ozone. His feet left smoldering imprints in the dirt as he flew at De'Ville. He knew the pain was so much more than that, but he could still feel those razor thin scars that had cut to the bone so long ago. A wave of flame followed behind Grime.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

All the potential she had felt in him, that day they had met at the spaceport... it was being fullfilled before her eyes. His ferocity did not surprise her, but his new agility and obvious skill with a blade did.

As he came at her, fire behind him causing the observers to scatter, the air boiling around him as his rage detonated like a bomb. Her control nearly slipped, nearly giving into the blindness of anger herself at his arrogance, but she kept her feet and her head, channeling her fury down into a pit of ice inside her chest. De'Ville turned aside his blade, the heat enveloping her as he closed quarters with her, but the Force kept her unburnt.

She threw him back again, sweat pouring off her and slicking her short hair to her face. "Do not let your anger cause you to become predictable!"

[Hawkins Grime]

Thin, bloodless lips peeled back to reveal Grime's teeth. It was a brief convenience when he noted the simple ability to spit the blood that was rising from the back of his throat. The thick mass of tissue and blood hit the ground with a hiss from the heat; Grime's cloak billowed behind him as the exoskeleton's systems attempted to adapt to the rising temperature. The air between the two combatants wavered like a mirage.

=======

The sword clanged against the ground. The Rodian shook his head in disappointment as the white haired woman made an effortless somersault over the boy, twisted, and then stabbed downwards with her weapon. The shriek that came from the boy's mouth pierced the air. CENSORED was on his knees, one hand pinned to the dirt of the sparring floor where her blade held it to the ground. His other hand was wrapped around the blade, also bleeding from grasping its edge. His eyes were wide, teeth grinding, as he managed the pain.

"Say something... You need to learn how to speak with more than that sword."

Through a cough and a sob, CENSORED looked up to see the Echani sword mistress pull back her free hand. The punch connected with solid force to the side of his head, his pinned hand holding him in place. The sword withdrew and then a white boot connected with CENSORED's ribs.

"There are many ways to teach you how to speak like an Echani."

=======

Grime licked his lips, a wicked smile spreading across his face. The yellow, translucent lens wiped over his eye, clearing the blood from Hawkins' vision. Instead of attacking with his saber, Grime focuses on De'Ville's pain.

The image of her bare back, laying face down in a bed black silks, turning to face him, and then the fountain of blood that sprayed against the floor as he inflicted every scar she now had flashed to mind.

The aura of pain that wrapped around Grime like its own garment unfurled like serpents and raced towards Lilaena to feast. Grime wanted to rush behind it with a follow up attack however the best he could manage was sinking to one knee again. The tumultuous rage within him clawed and roared at his own mounting fear that his endurance might falter before he could make any effective dent against De'Ville.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

De'Ville took a step towards him as he spat on the ground, then another, her saber tip trailing in the smoking dust. Grime steeled himself, the Force swirling around him, and then her back erupted in agony. The attack was unexpected, and she arched backward and to the side, her body clenching up in protest at the overload on her nerves.

Her back was livid, the scars A'na Eldhil had inflicted on her burning with pain from top to bottom. Grime fell to his knees as she collapsed in the dirt, but she worked to channel the pain into anger and into power. Tears sprang to her eyes at memories too recently put to rest and now brought back to the forefront, and she poured that all into an energy attack, a wave of pressure that rippled out from her in a circle, blowing Hawkins and the Mando'ade gathered around all back three meters.

[Hawkins Grime]

CENSORED slumped to the ground in a heap of dripping muscle and barely clinging tissue. He gasped for air, hatred and rage kept him going, breathing in sick sobs that sounded more like a wound bleeding profusely than anything else. He was motionless, anything worth the effort of mobility had been rendered useless. The futility of the situation was hard to deny but the sheer, putrid bitterness of being betrayed and the deafening roar in his mind for revenge. What pain CENSORED would bring.

=======

Grime was on all fours, his metal fingers leaving trails from where he dug in when the energy wave hit him. His eyes rolled erratically for a moment while he tried to regain his focus. Grime felt and tasted the metallic tang of De'Ville's counter attack, her pain, focused in rebuttal. Or maybe that was just more blood.

He rose to one knee and then to both feet. The light saber whipped up from the dirt and Grime reignited it. He took one halting step forward before looking down at his hand, the metal plates reflecting the blue light of the saber held there. The saber suddenly disengaged and Grime sniffed the air.

"Are we finished destroying Bretak's camp then?"

Besides the luscious waves of pain and resolute will that Hawkins tasted from De'Ville, he could smell burnt skin and hair. He refused to admit the limits he secretly feared he was reaching with his pathetic corpse wrapped inside his perfect face but he could see De'Ville just as well. He liked Lilaena like this. He wanted her back in that bed. He wanted her to say his name and to feel, actually feel, with his bloody, bony claw of a hand, as he plunged that knife into her face.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

She stood, her unsteadiness not showing as she pulled it all deep inside. She would project only confidence. The Mando'ade were getting to their feet as well, some laughing and joking. No buildings had been damaged except for a door that had been blown off its hinges.

De'Ville pulled her saber back to her hand with the Force, the hilt slapping solidly against her palm. She could sense his flagging energy, but his hate was projecting like a shield around him, making it difficult to read him any further. From the look in his eyes, however, he was not having the same problems reading her.

"Protect yourself, apprentice." De'Ville advanced on him, lightsaber springing to life in her hand. "We will have to work on your endurance if this is as long as you can go. Any opponent would just have to weather the storm and then finish you while you pant for breath. Use your anger. Let it make you strong."

She stabbed toward him with the brilliant blade, prepared for his block and ready with a counter attack.

[Hawkins Grime]

The breath escaped from between his grinding teeth as De'Ville launched at him, blade pointed at him like a rapier. With an ease that still surprised even himself, Grime side stepped from the general direction of the attack and his light saber slid along the length of hers in sizzling resistance before Hawkins attempted to throw her off balance, lifting his saber high, his hatred pushing through his body as if his ruined flesh was a siphon being used to its limit. His chest felt on fire as he kicked out at De'Ville's side, hoping to catch her off guard and maintain some distance.

"Be careful... what you wish for, Lilaena."

The bottom of his vision was lined in dark red as the blood built up there beneath his eyes. It was the ongoing struggle with his own fury and his flesh, between attempting to use it to his advantage, 'letting it make him strong' as De'Ville had said and preventing it from tearing him apart from within. He strove to satisfy the rage with the destruction he wreaked, feeding the devouring entity that resided in his rage with Lilaena's seeping pain.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

She allowed him to push her back, but did not lose her balance. De'Ville circled him, forcing him to turn to face her, and then closed the distance between them, the rapid accurate strikes of Vaapad battering his defenses.

He was tiring, and she did not relent, striking a blow across his chest hard enough to send him back to his knees.

[Hawkins Grime]

The sand around Grime shifted in a wind that wasn't there. He blinked, the yellow lens wiping the blood away from his vision. It wasn't fast enough obviously as Grime noticed the few drops of blood in the dirt beneath him. He smeared it across his face as he wiped his metal hand under his eyes and then looked up at De'Ville.

=======

The crowd roared for blood. They roared for the end of the conflict when blade met flesh for the last time and only one of two individuals still standing was free to leave, at least for tonight.

CENSORED was kneeling in the sand of the arena, glancing upwards at the zabrak standing over him. The boy's sword lay meters away; a mess of blood trailing from it to the gash in CENSORED's forearm. The zabrak was soaking up the applause, grinning with his pointy teeth, free hand in the air, building towards the inevitable moment when he would decapitate the young man.

=======

Grime stood, reigniting his saber, positioning his feet and assuming a stance of the 11th tier, skipping quite a few in between. He almost coughed but was relieved to feel the exoskeleton continuing to manage his corpse, reassuring his faith in the Mandalorian technology. His rage resurfaced at the bitter idea that maybe, before the coming of Grime, this might have ended much sooner and far more in his favor. How pathetic reality was.

Grime stood very still, almost statuette-like, as slivers of flame flicker in the air between De'Ville and Hawkins.

=======

The zabrak lifted a hand up to fend off the next attack in futility as CENSORED slammed the zabrak's own maul down into his skull. Blackish blood splattered like a rupturing fruit and the crowd exploded. CENSORED placed his boot on the zabrak's twitching neck and hit the dead man's skull again and again; the crowd nearly deafening at this point.

The young boy looked up to the crowd, picking out the Rodian, Cager, who technically owned his contract and beside him on either side was a woman with stark, white hair in a gray cloak and a black haired wookie on the other side. The rodian was ecstatic, having just won quite a bit out of the victory but the two women to either side were eerily passive.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Her back still throbbed, but she ignored the pain, hardened it to steel and used it to strengthen her resolve. De'Ville held her saber in front of her in a guarding stance, her free hand clenching shut as she held it up at waist height.

The flickering fires between her apprentice and her were suddenly extinguished, and she nodded her head toward her back, slowly circling him again. "My master forced me to fight and learn when these scars were fresh. I learned to live with the agony. To embrace it... to become one with it."

She feinted toward him but he did not take the bait. She had little to teach him about fighting with a blade, though Vaapad was superior to the Echani style. In her opinion. "You have learned to live with your weaknesses, overcome them with technology, but your pain holds you back. Ignore it! You are the Force. You are either weak, or you are strong."

She slashed at him, blocked an attack and closed in with him, their blades hissing and crackling as she pressed against his, getting in his face. "I am strong. Are you strong, Grime?"

[Hawkins Grime]

The light sabers slid against each other as Grime pushed them slightly to the side, allowing his face to be only a breath away from hers. He sighed again, which he was learning was his new equivalent of the body wracking coughs he had suffered through in his previous exoskeleton. Hawkins barely noticed the blood dripping from the corners of his mouth, or how his cloak billowed behind him from the exhaust of the exoskeleton put hard to work. His ice blue eyes met Lilaena's burning green and he smiled, blood lining his pearl teeth and black artificial gums.

"I am pain, Master..."

She had seen the crippled mess of flesh and organs that remained of his other life before. De'Ville knew that the willpower to merely continue existing as such a thing was beyond most, much less continue as Grime had. Grime knew it wasn't a matter of technique at this point. Whatever technique she was using, it struck like a viper and found Grime's weaknesses by its mere nature. She struck harder and faster than any martial art Grime had before faced and given his state now; his rage swelled against his own lacking flesh. It was not his Echani skills that failed him but the other way around. Echani taught you to communicate through combat and De'Ville reeked of an alpha female reinforcing her dominant position. He knew he couldn't do much about it at this point, realistically, but there would come a time. Grime was no mystic and the Force had been something more difficult for him to digest, but he'd been a part of things since...

"Embrace me then, the Herald of the pain, Lilaena. And show me how you ignore it."

A wave of flame ignited in the air around them and the wavering heat of the mirage increased but it had no effect on either of them; it was only the after effect Grime's mental barriers to his own pain giving way. The black storm of hatred and need to destroy shrieked. Trees moaned around the camp and structures shuddered. Grime lifted his chin slightly at De'Ville but coughed, blood spluttering forth, a mist of it against her face. Grime attempted to not amplify her own pain, but share the brutal force that was his own.

Orar stood at the side of Bretak, his helmet on, and had been watching the entire fight. He thought he could see the ne'tra prudii* rise up from A'den and envelope the two fighters. He couldn't be sure though through the heat between them. The last time Orar had seen A'den do such a thing, the victim had clawed their own flesh off in a matter of minutes. Orar had no doubt that Mandalore would withstand and A'den would be back on his knees momentarily.

*ne'tra prudii - Black Shadow

[Lilaena De'Ville]

It was like being in the vortex of a tornado, and the lightsabers that still pressed between them were forgotten. She locked eyes with her apprentice, strong as steel... stronger than steel... she was beskar. Forged and reforged, broken and then made whole again, previous weaknesses hammered out, folded over, heated white hot and then plunged into despair for tempering.

Hawkins Grime's pain. It was like a living thing trying to gain entrance to her secret places with claws of agony. She knew his pain, but she did not flinch or look away, her hair whipping about her head in the wind. The training sabers shorted out and the two combatants ended up nearly in each other's arms; De'Ville reacted faster and grasped the front of his armor, locking her elbow to hold herself apart from him.

His pain was part of the Force. Energy that poked needles into nerve endings and... his rage was the conduit that delivered it. Images of his torn and skinned body flashed into her minds eye, small cracks in the mental barriers Salem had so recently helped her recreate.

De'Ville's green eyes bored into his bloodshot blue ones, tears streaming from hers in the wind, but she was not crying. Gritting her teeth she gathered his agony to herself, and then lifted her face and screamed, the dark energies he had brought forth streaming harmlessly up into the atmosphere where they would dissipate and be mixed with the clouds.

Her hand that held the front of his chest plate clenched, and she yanked him forward, then back, catching his foot with hers and spilling him back into the dirt.

[Hawkins Grime]

The heat vanished as soon as his body hit the ground. Grime's back arced, a hoarse gasp of air escaped his lips before he could turn to anything that might have resembled relaxing. He sat up on his elbows, breathing heavily, the exoskeleton pacing him at its own accord.

"What... did you do? I saw... a man with white eyes... and a woman with white hair... and then you... deflected-"

Grime rolled over onto all fours and vomited a black and yellow fluid into the dirt. This had happened a few times before while pushing himself in training, a mix of biochemical material that the exoskeleton had to purge after heavy exertion and being over tasked. Hawkins wiped his mouth, leaving streaks of it on his armored fore arm before he shakily stood, his back to her. He turned to her, tilting his head back, staring at the cloudless ceiling above him where he had felt his hatred and pain thrown towards. Hawkins sighed again, his face twitching uncontrollably as it calibrated.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

She was breathing heavily as she stood over him, her chin length hair in her eyes. "The Force is in everything. Even pain."

De'Ville's body wanted to tremble, but she refused to allow it. She would spend the night in anguish as her cramped muscles unkinked, lactic acid flooding her nerves. But for now...

"You still have much to learn, Apprentice." She wanted to throw something at him, but refrained, turning away and leaving him on all fours in the dirt as she walked back to her home.

[Hawkins Grime]

Grime closed his eyes and he could see the two, much clearer than he thought he might. A man with white eyes, a strong face, hardened in the shadows. A woman with white hair, arms folded across her chest as if eternally displeased. A smile turned upon Hawkins' bloodless lips.

"Boss, you gonna make it?"

e'Drain was beside him, watching De'Ville return to her building. Without opening his eyes, Hawkins licked his lips, feeling the dried blood.

"Yes, but I still have much to learn. Get the waif, Averre. She needs to run diagnostics and improve the physics dampeners."

"On it, Boss."