A Match for the Mandalore

Bao Dur did the little ceremony thing again, and I used the time to study Canderous. He wasn’t crazed, or glassy-eyed, or even twitching. He was calm, and had a light of determination in his blue stare. I was so dead.



I was up to my ass in trouble as soon as the match began. I was using the Force to anticipate, but basically, I was on the defense from the beginning. I can’t really describe the fight; it went too fast. I hadn’t used my sight yet. I started simply dancing around him, keeping him after me, looking for openings, getting a blow in here and there that did nothing except put me in reach of his whirling fists and feet. I shifted to my sight, and discovered it was next to useless. He was quick normally; on stims, he was unbelievable. So I did something stupid. I closed my eyes.



Your eyes can fool you; don’t trust them, the mantra went through my mind, just as my dad and mom had taught me. It was one of the first things a Jedi learned, they had said.



I used it now, and utter clarity washed over me. I found myself blocking and spinning, punching and kicking and feeling Canderous bleeding near me. I ramped into high gear, and suddenly felt an exaltation take me; a joy that I wasn’t sure was entirely from me. I hurt just about everywhere now, but I didn’t care; I barely felt it. I blocked the pain entirely, squeezed my eyes tighter shut, and felt my body leave the ground as I willed the Force to assist me in a jump. The joy was still with me, seeming to intensify my Force abilities. I could feel Canderous’s life force around me; it was weakening. Mine was too; I ignored that, didn’t care about anything but the screaming pleasure of battle. Dimly, I tried to remind myself that this wasn’t a death match. The fire in me roared for blood.



The jump threw me over his head, and I struck down with my fist as I passed by. That had to have hurt, badly, but it didn’t stop him. And all of a sudden, I realized I couldn’t sense anything anymore. The feeling of sheer ecstasy drowned everything else, and I didn’t sense him spin around to face me as I landed. I opened my eyes, confused, in time to see one hand shoot toward my head. I danced sideways to avoid it. The rest of my senses gone, the battle joy was using me now. My foot snapped up, going for the throat; I was going to crush the life out of this enemy. I saw the shock on his face but his reflexes kicked in and he blocked me, viciously slamming aside my leg. Off balance, crazy with this singing death in my head, I somehow used that momentum to spin in a wild leap and come up with one hand aiming at his face, intent on breaking his nose upward. That it would likely kill him, I didn’t care; the song demanded it.



He blocked me again, and a series of blows whirled around me. Then something in me snapped back into place, and the feeling of exhilaration left so completely I was momentarily still. I saw Canderous’s fist come at me, heard a sickening crunch, and pain engulfed me before everything went black.



I came to I don’t know how many hours later, with Canderous’s face set in a – was that worried? - scowl above me. I smiled weakly.



“Your forfeit,” I said, trying to draw a breath that didn’t hurt. “How long was I out?”



“Woman, don’t do that ever again!” He didn’t roar, but he was loud all the same, and I winced.



“Can’t promise anything,” I muttered, and closed my eyes again.



I heard Bao Dur say somewhere in outer space, “You’ve only been out a few moments. Let me help you,” and Force energy flooded through my body. I felt it mend broken things inside me, and my head immediately felt better. I added my own Force push, and I was almost normal. I opened my eyes again, and saw felt Bao Dur start to use Force heal on me again.



“No, don’t…help Can…Mandalore,” I waved him off.



“I’m fine,” I heard Canderous snap.



“No, you’re not,” I snapped back, and sat up.



The rest of our little party was gathered around now, looking concerned and babbling questions. I felt a general use of Force power on both of us from several directions. Any more, and I was going to start dancing.



I stood up, gathered the excess energy that was making me light-headed, and siphoned it into the ground through my feet. I felt my head stop swimming, and opened my eyes. Canderous was fully healed now, but the stim was still in his system.



“You okay?” I asked rhetorically.



“Me?! I almost kill you, and you want to know how I am?” He savagely scowled again.



“Yes,” I said brightly. Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to bait him when he was still on stims, but I couldn’t help myself. “After all, I almost killed you, too.”



“You did not – well, yeah, you did, but I did it better.”



This was so nonsensical I laughed. “Come here,” I said.



“Why?”



“Because I want to help you get that stim out of you. You want to calm down, I can tell, but it won’t let you.”



“You can do that?”



“Yeah. Do you trust me?”



“I said I did, didn’t I?” He came over.



I put my hands over his heart. I can do this without touching, but it’s a lot harder. I told him to breathe deep, and focused on his heartbeat. I closed my eyes, imagining the tracks of his veins running through his body. I felt the alien energy of the stim circulating around and drew it down, sending it out of his feet to dissipate into the ground. I opened my eyes to his intent blue gaze. I swallowed, and took my hands away, backing up a pace.



“Better?”



“Yes.” He continued to look at me, and suddenly I was aware of our interested audience. Canderous didn’t seem to care.



“I need to beg your pardon,” he suddenly said, very formally.



“Huh?” I said. Snappy comeback queen, that’s me.



“I took stim, and nearly killed you. It was not my intention, but I let my pride get in the way of good sense. It was not worthy of me.”



He wasn’t begging, or prostrating himself, and his tone wasn’t particularly contrite. But in every line, his regret was evident, and he was apologizing to me in front of everyone. I felt very small. I wasn’t worth his pride.



“You didn’t do anything wrong. I don’t know exactly what happened, but it was me as much as you. I felt – something. It took me, and I almost killed you, and then it blinded me. It wasn’t even rage, it was – joy.” Remembering, I was suddenly frightened. I had never felt that before when fighting. Usually, I’m pretty calm, or sometimes, really pissed, and exaltation, sure, everyone who fights gets that rush. But never happy.



Something flickered in his eyes. I saw it, just before he suppressed it. He had an idea what had happened, and didn’t want to say it, at least not now, with the fascinated witnesses gathered around.



“Perhaps you’re right. But I am sorry all the same.”



“Forgiven. If you forgive me.”



“Done.” And then he kissed me.



I was shocked to my toes. He was awfully good at it, and I wondered who in the universe had taught him. I wanted to send the biggest bouquet of flowers I could find to her. Candy, too.



His mouth was warm, and hard, and his lips were soft. He kissed me like a warrior who wants to use his woman hard while he’s still high after a battle. I guess he was, come to that. I melted, and kissed back just as fiercely.



It was only a moment, and much too soon he set me down. “That was my forfeit,” he said in a low growl that carried around our little circle. Then he strode away, grabbing his stim pack and going back to the Ebon Hawk. I stared after him, speechless for once.



“Well,” Atton said gleefully. “That was unexpected.”



“Shut up, Atton,” Mira, Ladria, Visas, and I said, in four part harmony.



“I better go talk to him,” I said, uncertainly.



“Good idea. Can we watch? Sell tickets? Enter you two in the fight ring?” Atton asked hopefully.



“Fuck you, Rand,” I said, with my best death-head smile.



“You keep offering,” he said with a mock sigh. “Tease.”



“We’ll be busy…elsewhere,” Ladria said firmly, and looping her harm through Atton’s, towed him away. Bao Dur followed, winking at me, and Mira grinned as she turned to head after them. Visas and Disciple tagged behind. I watched them go, then went in to the ship.