"You've got that look again, sis."
"What look?"
"The one that says if you don't do something soon, you're going to explode."
"Explode? Well, yeah, I could like blowing something up about now," Sylvana looked at her bruised knuckles, pondering. Just what had happened earlier was beyond her. All she knew is one moment she was sneaking off with Thayer, the next she was running with Sci and Arrek, and after that... She shook her head, unable to recall. Only she knew was that her commanding officer had forced her hand, and she'd nearly exhausted herself in laying it out. But after performing surgery, her body was still awake. Still on Mendellian time.... "Just thinking, is all."
"About what?" Arrek moved to sit beside her.
"Just... hoping that Lady Leannan will make it," she lied. "The bacta has honestly already decided that for me... but she'll be floating for some days yet."
He nodded, "And so, now, after all that happened on Coruscant, a nice big battle, and doing surgery on that Lady - you're getting antsy."
"That's about the sum."
"Wanna go out and spar?"
"You're not trained like I am, I'd probably hurt you. Besides, you'd hold back."
"I'll try not to take offense at that remark. What about Captain Nolan? He looks pretty well trained."
She smiled at the mention of the Australian. "I think I might just well ask. He probably needs to set off some steam as well."
Arrek looked after his sister as she left to look for the Australian, Hope you get it all out of your system, Sis....
She found him sitting in a corner of the Home's cargo bay, staring fixedly at a point on the floor.
"Josh? Uhm, Captain Nolan, Sir?"
His head snapped up at her voice, a hunted expression briefly flickering across his face, vanishing when he finally took in who it was. He frowned, and gruffly asked, "What?"
She pulled her long braid around and twisted at it, confused at his attitude. "I heard you were hand to hand trained, and..."
"And what - you wanted me to show you some fancy moves?" His frown deepened.
He really wasn't acting like the same man she knew before things were shot to Kessel. She shook her head, "No. I wanted to know if you'd like to spar. You know, let off some steam." She smiled uncertainly at him.
He blinked at the smile for a few moments, as if something was caught in his eye. "Steam - I could lose some of that." He looked her in the eye. "I warn you, though - I'm not going to go easy on you."
She waved a hand, and he caught sight of bruised knuckles. She pushed her bangs behind her ear revealing a largly black eye above a long scar on her right cheek, "I don't want you to. That's why I'm not asking my brother." At that, she grinned.
He studied the black eye and scar for a few seconds, then closed his eyes, took a deep breath and held it for a moment. Then, he opened his eyes, exhaled, and nodded. "Right. Bring it."
At that, she grabbed his arm, dragged him to his feet, and slipped her hand in his as she started leading him from the ship. As they passed Nick and Kristy, she shot them a smile, "Gonna go let off some steam."
Nick smirked in reply, and Josh shot him a deadly glance before he followed Sylvana's lead, sullenly passive. Heading down the ramp at dawn, they saw four figures at the bottom.
"Sylvana?" Thayer queried as Becki asked, "Crispy?"
She tossed them a grin and Thayer a wink, waving her free hand before leading a silent Crispy off toward a distant rise. Good to see you figured it out, Milord....
When he showed signs of not running off on her, she dropped her hand from his, and walked alongside him. Once out of the Home's sight, she pointed, "How about just over that rise?"
He shrugged. "Wherever. Just as long as we're not going to throw each other over a cliff, I'm fine." As he spoke, he rotated his shoulders, stretching his neck to either side.
She laughed half-heartedly, "No, I don't think that'd be a problem. I just don't want to be interrupted." She started rolling up her sleeves as they walked. "Uhm..." how to word this? "I'm really glad to see you're alive," she turned another hesitant smile on him.
He chuckled sourly. "Yeah, me too, I guess. Can't imagine it'll last." He glanced at her expression, and his face softened. "Sorry. I'm not feeling the best right now."
"How's the leg doing, by the bye?"
"Oh, it's all right. It's been bacta'd, so I doubt it'll even ache in cold weather when I'm old." He bit back the thought, if I get there. "How'd you - oh yeah, that's right. You're the medic, huh?"
"Had a dream, and yeah, I'm the medic. I find myself a bit jealous though," Sylvana shrugged, stretching her arms up as she walked, "Can't have bacta."
"Did you ever pick the wrong outfit, then. Still, I know kind of how you feel - turns out I'm allergic to penicillin. Still, wouldn't want to swap."
She laughed, "Well, I'll be sure to remember that if you're infected." She waved a hand, "I heal pretty quickly, I wouldn't worry about it." Stepping over the rise, she stopped to look over their 'battle ground'. "Hmmm..."
"Looks like a place for Bonetti's Defense."
"I'm wracking my brain, but I can't recall if you're quoting Inigo or Westley," she tossed a wink at him as she bounces down to the depressed area. Once there, she went through a series of stretches.
"Westley. Inigo was the one who'd studied his Agrippa. So how are we going to do this? Count to three? Insult each other's ancestry?" He started going through his own stretch routine to distract himself from watching her go through hers.
She frowned, "Just, whenever you're ready." She dropped into a defensive stance. Insulting ancestry? she almost looked slightly panicked for a brief moment.
He dropped into a relaxed stance of his own. "Oh, I'm ready," he said, then added with a slight grin, "O son of a motherless goat."
"Monty Python now?" She shook her head and started moving slowly forward. "You're all over the quote charts today."
"Nope, Three Amigos." He began circling slightly, his eyes flickering over her form. "I got a million of 'em. Never had an original word in my mouth."
"Pity," she frowned as she saw his eyes flick, "You better be just watching my stance there, Aussie," she dashed forward, spinning in a roundhouse.
Her thigh met his shoulder as he barrelled in close and flicked her ear. "What shouldn't I be looking at?"
She used the block to spin herself back around, then dropped defensively, touching her ear briefly, Does he suspect? "Just fight," she frowned, a slightly panicked look in her eyes.
He quirked an eyebrow. "Touch a nerve?" He stepped forward, feinted with a low kick then lashed out with a high right.
She read his movements, crossing her arms to her left to block him. She pushed him back, and settled a punch toward his gut. "Quit baiting me."
"So you'd prefer..." He shuffled forward again, jabbing a right out to draw her arms away in the block, landing a double-tap punch from his left on her gut. "...something more like that?"
"Yes," she grunted as she folded over somewhat, stepping back, and eyeing him speculatively.
"Now if it were me, I'd prefer not, but it takes all sorts, eh?" He began circling again, his light tone at odds with the intensity of his gaze.
She flipped back out of his reach in an attempt to buy her a little more time to catch her breath, the headache was back, pounding her brain painfully. She winced momentarily, then grinned, "Just don't like being treated like I'm fragile," she said in a light tone, her face falling at his look. "Don't look at me like that."
"Stop that!" Kristy slapped Nick's hand away. As he adopted a hurt expression, she started giggling again. "Behave yourself."
Nick settled back into the lounge on the Red Home, grinning at her. "OK, no more tickling."
"Good." As Kristy went to sit down, Nick kept grinning. "Now what are you smirking about?"
"That's the first time you've smiled or laughed since I got here."
Kristy almost collapsed onto the couch, all trace of her levity disappearing. "You haven't been here that long."
"I know. And I know some of what happened. But that's all the more reason to look for all the positives we can."
A half-hearted smile answered Nick's renewed attempt at cheering Kristy up. "I know that. It's just. . ."
Kristy's weak smile disappeared as she looked down again. She curled her legs up on the couch, fighting against the memories of everything that had gone wrong here in Jerusalem, and the other disasters before that.
"Hey." Nick reached out, and gently cupping her jaw, brought Kristy's eyes up to meet his. "We're here. We're alive. We haven't lost anyone. That's a lot more important than anything else that has happened."
They remained like that for some time. Kristy reached up to Nick's hand, pressing it against her cheek as she fought down tears. "We're here. We're alive," she murmured.
"We're all alive," Nick repeated. Then, over his shoulder, he said, "I know you're there, Chief."
From his position just inside the hatchway, Sci replied, "I believe we have a few matters to discuss."
Nick looked back at Kristy. She was still looking at him. She squeezed his hand in reassurance, and then rose from the couch.
Sci shifted his attention to her. "Kristy, I need you to talk to Vickie. Find out what happened out there tonight. See if she has any ideas about where Cochran and Wells are likely to have gone, too."
As Kristy nodded, and headed down the passageway, both Nick's and Sci's eyes followed her. Then Sci turned back to the Australian and shook his head. "You know, you're one of the few people on this planet who can surprise me even slightly."
Nick grinned, and gave a sketchy bow. "All part of the service, Chief. Gotta have someone to keep you on your toes." Nick gestured in the general direction of the Red Home's outer hatch. "Shall we chat?"
"I've got something to do first. Meet me at Gaia in a few minutes."
Josh frowned, raising his stance slightly. "Like what?" Am I being too obvious? Do I have any right?
"Like... I'm a freak," she frowned, rushing forward and dodging beneath him to flip around behind and try to land a kidney punch.
He had begun twisting out of the way the moment she'd ducked, so the blow glanced off his hip. His fist came around in an arc, hammer-style, but had no real force behind it as he danced out of reach. "You're worried about being a freak? You really did join the wrong outfit."
She stood and glared, "Listen, it's not like I asked to join, I was asked. I didn't stay because I'm a freak, I stay to honour my best friend!" she almost yelled angrily.
"Sparring, remember? And who's your best friend?" He felt a brief moment of concern at the sudden flash of anger - she seemed to be taking this awfully personally. Maybe it was all for the best.
"Alison Sky," she replied, dashing forward in a flying kick.
He dropped into a crouch underneath the kick, standing up to throw the leap off with his shoulder, sending the woman sprawling. "You were a friend of Alison's? Geez, no wonder you're a freak." Oh, great. Tact-O-Rama, Josh.
She flipped to her feet and stretched before dropping to a defensive stance. "Don't talk about her that way! What's YOUR excuse?" she growled.
"For what? I usually find 'you had to be there' works for me - come on!" He lowered himself back into a combat-stance, beckoning insolently to her.
"Kriffing mouthy Australian," she muttered as she eyed him a few moments longer, circling like a wildcat.
"What's the matter - hurt your feeling?" He taunted as he ducked in, sneaking a slap on the face around her guard, and ducked out again. "You've gotta work on that defense. Gaps a mile wide."
"Feelings are a weakness," she said quietly, rubbing at her face as she eyed him intensely. "I try not to have them." She lowered down back to her defensive.
"Not doing a very good job from where I'm standing," he shot back. He felt a momentary chill at the words, seeing echoes of himself in them. What does she know? He covered his momentary pause by edging forward again, jabbing with his right.
"Yeah well, I have a few buttons you seem to have found," She dashed forward, ducking to flip, wrapping her legs around his neck and pulling him to sprawl on the ground before regaining her feet and setting one foot down on his neck.
He grinned ferally, eyeing her up and down appreciatively. "Are we talking about the pressing kind, here?" Insolently, he slowly moved his hands up behind his head, adding, "You know, you ought to be more careful. A fella could get to like this." When she raised a confused eyebrow, he twitched his leg, and scraping his foot on the gravel he distracted her for a moment - a moment which he used to grab the foot on his neck and twist it. Another moment, and he was crouched holding her foot while she rolled on the ground, trying to dislodge him.
When she found that not to be working, she glared at him as she thought. "Have a thing for feet?" she taunted, wagging her boot at him.
"It was the closest thing to hand. Have any better suggestions?"
"No. Do you?" she quirked an eyebrow at him, her earlier anger forgotten momentarily.
"Would I be mucking around with your boot if I did?" He wrinkled his nose. "When was the last time you aired 'em out?"
She didn't answer, concentrating a moment, then slipping her bare foot from the boot before flipping back and taking off her other, "I hate shoes," she stated simply, throwing the other at him as she dashed around behind.
He went into a backward somersault, the boot bouncing off his knees, and sprang elbow-first into her gut.
She folded around the punch, breath expelling from her lips before she fell to the ground again. Her left foot, bearing a tatooed star on the heel, came up and connected with his jaw, rattling him as she sprang out of the way, backing off into a patch of rough gravel.
"Good kick - but hope your calluses are as good."
She didn't answer, moving unslowed across the gravel, shoving a flat palm strike against his breastbone.
Maybe it's time to stop playing. He batted the blow away with his right arm, delivering his left fist to her chin just ahead of her block. His right fist followed up in her solar plexus, and he swayed away from the left she threw in reply, smacking her in the back of the neck with his left elbow as he disengaged behind her.
"That all you got?", he asked, trying to sound smug. "You seem to be a lady of hidden talents, what else are you hiding?"
She fell to the ground, motionless a moment before she rose slowly to her feet. Her eyes flickered from brown to silver. The blood-lust called to her once again, and she pulled her stilletto from her braid as her eyes narrowed.
"Hey - knives were never part of the deal - "
She circled him gracefully, "So?" Her voice was shatteringly cold.
The matter appeared to be slipping out of hand. Show no fear... "'So', put that away. You understand 'away', don't you?"
"Insulting my intelligence?" she taunted, tossing the blade back and forth between her hands.
"Only if you don't put it away - pulling a knife on me isn't the smartest idea, you know."
She only growled in response, the blade disappearing from sight, for the moment.
"That's better. Well done. You still up for this? Maybe we should head back."
". . .I don't know what would have happened if Arrek hadn't been there to calm her down."
"That's a doozy, Chief. I was impressed by what little I saw of her, and the stories I've been told by the others have backed up that opinion. Seems she's a top notch medico, too."
Sci nodded slowly. "That's basically what I think. But. . ."
"But a berserker isn't exactly the most reassuring thing to have in a fight, even if she is on our side." Nick's voice trailed off, as a disturbing thought skittered through his brain. "Berserker". The single word came out almost as a breath, rather than speech.
Nick's face hardened into the customary grim lines of mission readiness. In response to Sci's concerned look, he grated out, "Sylvana and Josh thought a bit of light sparring might be a good way to blow off some steam."
It didn't take Sci more than a moment to recognise the same concerns Nick had. "Oh." Sci looked at his subordinate. "Why are you still here?"
Before the second word was out of Sci's mouth, Nick was already halfway out of the ship, sprinting for the hills.
She continued stalking him, a feral grin in place, as though she didn't hear a word he said. Another device had appeared in her hand, one unfamiliar, looking not unlike a small cylinder.
"Great. Assault and battery. You going to charge?"
An angry yell emitted from her throat as she charged him, a blue blade about the same length of the stilletto emitting from the end of the device in her hand. "Alae'i balan ned i curon!"
The heel of his right hand impacted her chin as she closed, his left grabbing her wrist to keep the shining blade away from him. A searing line of pain burst across his back as she slammed into him. She cut me! Adrenaline hit like a bucket of cold water in the face, and Josh began to yield to instinct.
She spun away, her silver eyes flashing as she dropped to the ground and kicked his legs out from beneath him.
He took the fall on his shoulders, then twisted and slammed both booted feet into her face. He quickly withdrew his legs, receiving a slice across his right calf for the trouble, and scrambled away while Syl untangled herself.
She jumped up, growling as she went at him like an angry wildcat, not even acknowledging the pain her broken nose must be causing her.
He grabbed both wrists, keeping them away from him as he fended off her knees and feet with his own. Yanking on her wrists, he smashed his forehead into her already-broken nose, hoping to cause enough pain to stop her attack. "Quit it!" he yelled in her face, only to have her growl and try to bite his nose.
Just then, a knee got past his guard and slammed into his solar plexus, doubling him up and breaking his grip. She flipped out of his hold then.
Once away, she wiped the blood from her face with one scarred arm, spitting some out of her mouth before turning a feral grin upon him and dashing forward once again.
He began to back up, only to run into a boulder. With nowhere to run, he charged straight at her, ducking under her initial swipe and ramming a shoulder into her gut. He gasped as the stiletto glanced off a rib, and threw her away from him, assuming an offensive stance as his enemy climbed back to her feet.
She twirled the blades, one metal, one of energy, in either hand as she eyed her foe. She coughed once, spitting blood out of her mouth once again, and with a feral growl emitting from her throat, she charged him.
He stood his ground as she approached, swaying left at the last second, catching her right wrist and slamming a solid blow into the elbow. His enemy's arm gave way with a resounding crack, but she spun and cut a deep slice along his right tricep.
Her right arm hung at an odd angle, the bone sticking through the skin, blood trickling down as her nerveless fingers lost their grip on the laser-scalpel, the energy tool clattering to the stone ground. With a growl, she raised her left foot in a roundhouse kick.
Seeing it coming, he caught the ankle in his right hand, pivoting to bring his left elbow crashing down on the knee. There was a grisly pop as the joint dislocated, but his enemy still managed to pivot and drive her stiletto into his right shoulder. He jerked his left elbow upwards, catching the enemy on the jaw, and threw her backwards.
She rolled across the ground, coming to a stop against a large boulder. Unbelievably, she pushed herself to her feet, and began limping toward him once again.
He charged to meet her, the stiletto grazing his ribs as he drove his right forearm into her throat. Slamming her up against the boulder, he drove a hammer-blow into his enemy's face, once, twice, and then the stiletto slipped between two ribs.
Mutely, he threw his enemy bodily onto the ground, and kicked her chin hard enough to push her half a metre along the ground. He stooped, snatching up a rock in his left, gathering a handful of his enemy's shirt in his right.
He hauled his enemy into a sitting position, and she reached for his face, her thumb heading for his eye. Without hesitation, he smashed the rock across her face, causing her to twitch, aborting her attack. He slammed the rock into her face again on the back swing, and as her eyes faded to a warm, confused brown, the rock came down once more across her temple to be certain.
A sickening crack assaulted his ears as his enemy, defeated, slumped back on the desolate ground; her eyes gracefully fluttering shut as she lay still.
He heaved himself to his feet, leaving a bloody handprint on the ground as he gazed down upon his lifeless enemy.