~~Breaking the Tension~~
The moment Grievous stepped onto the bridge, he found it in a complete and utter disarray. Total Chaos. On closer inspection it was found that it was the young Jedi's wolf, or rather dire wolf, daemon was the cause of the madness sweeping across the command center.
The coal black wolf was bounding about the bridge, weaving between battle droids, and on a few occasions, knocking them off their feet. Even the Magnaguards were having a hard time trying to subdue the unruly canine.
Grievous growled in obvious disdain at both the Jedi and daemon, before he signalled with a motion of his hand for Dimeria to intervene.
The white wolf sprinted onto the bridge and chased after the other daemon, who hastily scampered away from her and back towards his counterpart. Just before he could reach her, Dimeria pounced on Gallian and yet again pinned him to the floor, smirking triumphantly.
It was then that Grievous decided to fully enter the bridge and make his presence known if it had not already been noted. "And what did we say about controlling your daemon?" he asked with scolding hint in his tone, clasping his arms behind his back and slouching slightly.
His golden optics landed on the young Kaleesh as he regarded her in a similar stance to that of a predator eyeing up his prey. He only watched as she nervously ran a hand through her raven black hair before replying to his previous inquiry.
"It was an accident, we didn't mean to cause any trouble. We're really sorry," she assured him with a nervous smile, though he could tell she was trying her best to look reassuring rather than anxious.
The cyborg looked her dead in the eye, matching her golden reptile eyes with his own before replying, "Let's get one thing straight. I am not your babysitter, I have a war to run, and I will not have you , or your daemon, fooling about." he warned.
He watched as she recoiled slightly at the harshness of his voice, and how she momentarily frowned inward, before quickly banishing the look from her face and adopting a more neutral expression.
"Of course..." she said trailing off slightly and removing her gaze from his to settle on her daemon who was still pinned beneath the ominous figure of Dimeria.
"Dimeria, let him up," he commanded his daemon, also switching his gaze to his own daemon. She nodded before stepping off the younger daemon, giving him a Cheshire cat grin and appearing quite proud of herself all around as he slunk back over to Trysta in defeat.
Dimeria then padded over to where Grievous was stood, stopping by his side. He loosened his hands and gently ran a clawed hand over the skull of the snow white canine.
Grievous quickly snapped back to what they were doing with a shake of his head. He straightened up before giving his next command, "Prepare the fleet to jump into hyperspace," he droned, now addressing the entire bridge rather than just the padawan.
"What coordinates, sir?" one of the B1 battle droids commanding the ship asked, turning to stare at the cyborg general with its lifeless mechanical eyes.
"Take us to the Kalee system," he commanded. The droid hesitated a moment, causing Grievous to narrow his eyes at the droid in a malevolent glare. "What is it?" he demanded.
"But sir, the Kalee system is in Wild Space, there is barely any Republic or Separatist forces in the vicinity," the soon-to-be-unfortunate droid replied stating the indescribably obvious fact to the General.
Grievous continued his glare at the droid through his wild optics "I am well aware there is no Republic or Separatist presence there, now make the jump." he snapped. The growl the command accompanied was enough to convince the droid to do as told, not wanting to face the General's wrath.
With that the small handful of cruisers altered their trajectory before the engines came to life and within a few moments the fleet shot off into hyperspace.
They had been traveling for but a few minutes when Grievous took notice of the padawan slowly edging in his direction. His audio receptors flicked forward at her in eager inquisitiveness to what she wanted.
He didn't have to wait long until she spoke up, "I take it we're going to Kalee," she stated bluntly. He could see from her body language, the way she stood with her weight balanced evenly and her arms hanging loosely by her sides showed she was far more relaxed and confident.
He nodded to her statement, "Yes. There you will be able to learn more about your history," he confirmed, turning his whole body to face her, using one of his free hand to move his cape so that it sat draped behind him.
"But... How do you have the time to go there? Aren't you needed in some battle somewhere?" the young Kaleesh asked. He watched as she tilted her head to the side in question and pricked her ears in anticipation for him to make his response.
With a calm shake of his head he replied, "Not for another few rotations. The rest of my fleet is still being repaired, so we are only bringing three other ships which is not enough to continue engaging in military pursuits." he replied, taking his eyes off the padawan in favour of watching her daemon as it came over to accompany them.
Dimeria was also by them, except she was stood by Grievous rather than Trysta. The two daemons seemed rather uninterested with their counterparts conversations and both stood up and began play fighting.
Gallian was swiping at Dimeria with his large paws, trying to batter the older dog. She returned by playfully snapping at his paws as they passed by and bowing down into a pouncing position, wagging her tail.
The General was astounded by the behaviour of both daemons towards each other. From what he had seen of Gallian he presumed the daemon was not one for playing, and he was even more bewildered by Dimeria willingly playing with the younger daemon.
He considered scolding his daemon, but seeing Trysta's amused reaction to them play fighting he decided to cast a blind eye to his own daemon's unruly behaviour.
"Do you think I would be able to meet my mother?" Trysta asked, her eyes seemed to light up with hope at the proposition and she gave him perhaps one of the most honest smiles he had seen.
He couldn't quite grasp how she had managed to maintain her naivety for so long, but despite disapproving of it he couldn't find it in himself to spoil her moment of optimism. "Perhaps you will." he replied, looking back toward the two daemons to avert her gaze.
If she picked up on it she didn't let it show and instead also turned to gaze upon the canines. By now Gallian was mimicking Dimeria's pose, before he threw himself at the elder of the two. They ended up on a heap on the ground with Gallian on top nipping at Dimeria's neck.
"What do we do in the meanwhile?" the Jedi padawan asked looking back up at Grievous. Her expression appeared mostly neutral with only a subtle hint of amusement that he could detect from a glance.
Grievous wasn't sure what to reply with. He didn't usually do anything while waiting to reach a destination, but after seeing what he daemon did after being cooped up for too long he began thinking of something to entertain her with for the short trip.
"Perhaps we could do some training. Then perhaps I would be able to teach you how to fight properly," He suggested with a tiny hint of mockery evident in his voice, daring her to accept his challenge.
In response she gave him a smirk, "Sure, I don't see why not," she said , crossing he arms over her chest as a sign of stubbornness and defiance, and her eyes flashing with amusement.
He could tell she was still quite weary of him, but she was quite happy to join in with his teasing tone. Perhaps it was the fact that their daemons seemed to be getting along nicely that made her more relaxed, though he could not tell for certain that was the case.
"Then we shall head to the hangar. Come Dimeria," The cyborg called, signalling for his daemon to follow after him. On impulse she wriggled out from under Gallian and bounded after her counterpart, her tongue lolling out the side of her mouth drool dripping from its curved tip.
He quickly made his was off the bridge at a conceited gait with Dimeria creeping along beside her. He took a single glance back to see that the youngling and dire wolf were following before walking through the bridge doors and walking down the hall toward the hangar.
~~~~~~~~~~
Trysta reached down and ran her hand over the top of Gallian's head, giving the daemon a warm and loving smile as they made their way down the hall after the General.
She made sure to leave a reasonable gap between the Warlord and daemon in front of them, and themselves. She turned to Gallian with an amused spark in her eyes, "I thought you said you disliked Dimeria," she reminded him in a whisper with a sarcastic tone.
"I said I didn't trust her, I however never mentioned taking a disliking to her," was his rather dry response as he looked up at his girl with a disappointed frown.
"I was just kidding Gal," she assured him, ruffling his fur. She looked up with her slitted eyes and watched Grievous walking. She could see he had his arms as usual clasped behind his back in a confident gesture, with his long cape billowing behind him like a shadow.
A long walk followed, consisting mostly of long sparse corridors before they finally reached the hangar bay. Unlike the Republic cruisers this one was filled with droids of all shapes and sizes, rather than clones and their daemons. It felt rather lonely in comparison.
Trysta then took note of some Vulture-droids, the first ones she had ever seen up close. She had to admit they looked pretty cool to her, and much larger than she had imagined them too be, having only seen them at a distance. She suddenly had a much larger respect for the clones that had to face them.
Eventually Grievous led them to a large open area of the hangar that was unoccupied by any droids or ships. Gallian and Dimeria sat at the edge of the open area, close enough for there not to be the problem of pulling, but giving their two partners enough space to duel in.
Trysta took the opposite side to Grievous and waited for his instruction, leaning her weight to the one side in case he decided on a surprise attack rather than giving her a warning, as it would mean she was prepared to move out of the way or run.
She watched as he reached into his cloak and produced three lightsabers. He suddenly tossed one of them in Trysta's direction, which she caught with ease, she was about to ask why he had thrown another lightsaber to her when he answered her unspoken question.
"I noticed you are more comfortable holding your lightsaber in the one hand, however to wield a single blade you must use both hands to give it the power and stability it needs, so it would be better, and more comfortable, for you to have two blades," The General explained, straitening up and tightening his grip on his two lightsaber hilts.
Trysta was surprised he would take notice of something like that, her master had never mentioned it to her. She presumed it was because Grievous had been trained to identify the weaknesses in his enemy's techniques.
His logic also made sense and would explain why she kept loosing grip on her saber and becoming defenceless, now having two sabers it would be much easier to deflect enemy attacks and balance her fighting style.
"Ready?" The cyborg asked shifting his position into an attacking position. He activated both lightsabers, one green, and the other blue.
Trysta nodded an affirmative, "Ready as I'll ever be," she responded, moving herself into a strike position. She didn't want to be in a defensive position as defence was not her strong point, and so adopted an offensive stance. She activated both weapons, her usual black and purple saber ignited in her dominant right hand at the same time as a brilliant green one activated in her left.
She gave them both a spin in her hands, getting the feel for the weapons before launching herself at Grievous, blades held in diagonals forming a loose cross in front of her ready to attack.
A/N Well this chapter took longer than expected to post... I've had a flat out holiday period so far and haven't had the time to update. Anyway, hope you all enjoy and until next time. Enjoy!