For Teon Sul, war and combat had been a constant in his life since he was a child. Even when the Galaxy at large had entered periods of peace, he found himself unable to do so–unwilling to do so. Violence was all he knew, and he was good at it. With his new position in the Royal Guard, he needed to ensure that he was prepared to act at any moment, and that his skills were razor sharp. Which was why despite the challenge issued by Cryo, although unexpected, nonetheless captured his interest. The opportunity to test himself against the very soldier that he was trained to surpass seldom presented himself. As much as he hated the Imps for what they’d done to him and his people, Teon understood that they’d given him abilities that had proven themselves invaluable in his efforts to make the galaxy a safer place.
Standing across from the former Clone Trooper on the airspeeder pad, he switched his Relby V-10 to stun mode.
“Let’s begin,” he announced.
<@301514304845381632>
Cryo didn’t know what came over her when she issued the challenge to Teon. He hadn’t done anything to warrant a challenge of skills like this. Perhaps she was bored and wanted to test her mettle? Or maybe she wanted to prove to herself that she was still relevant and couldn’t be replaced, especially not by Teon of all beings. She was quite literally made for combat, to be the perfect soldier. And even then she managed to surpass her fellow clones and become an ARC Trooper, one of the best of the best.
Like Teon, the woman flicked her pair of DC-17s into stun mode and adjusted her grip one last time.
“Good luck,” she said, letting a small amount of defensive arrogance pushing through her filter.
And they were off. Cryo started off the fight by charging towards Teon, firing her blasters as she ran to a range better suited for her skill set.
The first shot struck the pauldron of Teon’s Royal Guard armor and knocked his shoulder backward. Gritting his teeth, he lowered his stance and strafed to the right while training his Relby on Cryo’s form. He squeezed the trigger and a flash of crimson exploded from weapon’s barrel.
Cryo responded to his movement with one of her own. She tossed her body to the left in a side flip to avoid the crimson bolt. When she landed she continued her dash forward, firing back with her own blue bolt
Teon narrowly avoided the blaster shot that flew from Cryo’s weapon. The Force was his guide, allowing him to “see” his surroundings in greater detail than any sighted person could ever hope to.
As the two combatants moved toward one another, he unsheathed the alchemically enhanced sword he’d gotten from the supply depot on Arx and wasted no time in swinging it at her. Carving a rising, diagonal path through the air the moment she was within melee range, the reinforced durasteel tip sliced into the pauldron of her arc trooper armor.
When Teon began to swing his blade, the clone turned her body to the side to minimize how deep he was able to cut. Cryo felt a mild amount of shame when she felt the blade slide through her armor. It was a sloppy move to get too close with her blasters to say the least. But she was here now, and she had to roll with it. She doubled back a few steps and fired her blasters again in quick succession, aiming for his upper mass.
The two blaster bolts landed flush against his chest. And luckily for him, Cryo had set her blasters to stun, because he would’ve died otherwise. When the energy dispersed across his body, he felt his muscles seize, and he collapsed to the ground shortly afterward. No matter how many times he’d been hit with a stun bolt. he never got used to it. Teon groaned as a wave of nausea and aching pain tore through him.
She’d won and proven herself the better combatant … in this match, at least.
Cryo held her blasters tight and continued to aim them at her current adversary. She watched his unmoving body for a few moments before relaxing her muscles and holstering her DC-17s. She didn’t know too much about this Teon guy but she could assume that he wouldn’t be the type to just play dead.
“…” She walked over to him and stood over him, looking down. Usually this is the part where she’d pull her general up and give them a hug and go get dinner or drinks. She hadnt ever fought a friendly since her days in the GAR. “Uh… want some help?”
“That … would be greatly appreciated,” he replied, struggling to speak as the unsettling cold spread across his chest.
It took him a while, but he managed to lift his hand high enough for Cryo to grab it. Once she pulled him to his feet, he placed a hand on her shoulder to keep himself upright until his legs stopped being numb.
“You’re a damn good shot,” he admitted, extending a hand to shake.
Cryo was definitely not expecting the hand on the shoulder but she didn’t push him away or anything. He had taken two stun bolts right to the chest, it was impressive that he was even standing.
“Why thank you” Cryo smiled under her helmet. She reached out and grabbed his hand “Dont feel bad though, you got a good shot in.” She said, referencing her currently bleeding shoulder.
Once he had his bearings back, Teon holstered any weapons he’d dropped after being stunned. Then, he shifted his attention to her shoulder wound.
“I have a med pack if you need it,” he said while gesturing to the trail of sanguine running down the cut in her pauldron.
“And there’s no reason to feel bad. It was a good spar, which I’ll learn from and apply so I can become a better soldier.”
Teon pointed to the blasters she’d used. “Those are DC-17’s, right? One of the best weapons the Grand Army of the Republic used. Yours looks modified, too.”
Unsurprisingly, the Miraluka had a working knowledge of most blasters, both present and past.
Cryo held her arm towards Teon’s side ever so slightly, preparing to catch him if he began to topple over. But thankfully, the man seemed to be okay enough for her to rest her arm down by her side once again.
She reached for her head and pulled her helmet off, revealing her purple painted lips and pale blue irises. Her black hair was tousled more than it usually was.
Her icy eyes turned along with her head to look at her shoulder, Inspecting the cut along her armor, showing more concern for the plating than the wound. “If you wouldn’t mind,” she said before looking back up at Teon. “Don’t need it scarring too bad.”
Her face had noticeably brightened the moment he mentioned her blasters and their history, and was excited to be able to gush about them. “Thank you. I modified Them myself with the help from a good friend of mine.” She pulled a DC-17 from its home on her thigh for closer inspection. “You’re definitely right in saying they’re the best blasters, though. Still can’t wrap my head around how people would choose a DC-15C or A instead of these. So much more versatility and easier to maneuver around with them.”
Teon nodded upon hearing her approval and took out his med pack. Although he was far from the best medic, he’d learned a thing or two about how to dress wounds over the years. After opening the pack, he rummaged through the items. Each time he picked up one of the small tubes, he ran his thumb across a line of textured tape placed across the front of each bottle.
“Helps me remember which one is which,” he noted, in case Cryo was wondering why the bottles were marked. “The Force allows me to see better than most species, but there are still some things I can’t do. Like reading labels.”
Once he found what he needed, he stood up again so he could apply them. He carefully detached the pauldron and peeled away the fabric underneath. Antiseptics came first, then a thin line of bacta. Finally, he placed a patch over the wound. While working on her arm, he continued talking about the weapons.
“Yeah, you’re right. You really can’t go wrong with DC-17s. I went with the BH-4 Double Blaster for my sidearm. Not as versatile as yours, but I love the design.”
Cryo was in fact a little confused by the tape at first, thankful for the explanation. She nodded in response “Makes sense. Guess I should be glad you’re blind, my hair’s probably a mess right now.” She giggled a little nervously, looking away from him. The clone didn’t expect him to do the patching up, she was fully capable of doing it herself.
She shivered when he rubbed the bacta onto her cut. It wasn’t painful by any means but the slimy substance had always felt gross to her after her injury. “You didn’t have to do that. But thank you,” she said, finally breaking the silence.
With a blushing face, she moved onto the topic of his blaster of choice “That's… surprising to say the least. What about the design makes it worth the clunkiness?”
Her comment managed to earn a smile from him. “Figured I owed you since I’m the one who caused the wound.”
When she commented about the clunkiness of the weapon’s design, Teon tilted his head in thought. He certainly hadn’t thought of it that way. It was fairly slim when compared to many blaster pistols. Though, he could understand how the twin pistol design could leave something to be desired.
“Ran with bounty hunters for a bit. Buddy of mine loved this thing,” he explained, “He passed, but he told me he wanted me to have it once he was gone. Been using it ever since.”
“Oh…” Cryo suddenly felt even more awkward with the whole situation. Not only was she being taken care of by someone else, all of a sudden, she’d gotten him to talk about his dead friend. “I’m uhm… I’m sorry to hear,” she struggled to say, finding it difficult to pick the proper words.
She built up the courage to turn her head to look at Teon once again. His covered, non-existent eyes made it difficult to read his emotions, not that Cryo was much good at that sort of thing anyway.
He waved his hand to dismiss her apology. “Hey, that’s life,” he said before putting his med pack away. “Besides, it was a long time ago.”
Teon stood upright against and lifted his arms above his head, leaning side to side at the waist to give his back and obliques a good stretch.
“Ahh. That’s better,” he smiled. “You’ve got skills. You’ll be a great asset to the clan, I’m sure. And more importantly, you’ll be able to help people. If you care about that sort of thing.”
A long time ago? He couldn’t be much older than her so all she could gather was that he had been through quite a lot of shit for the death of a friend to feel like a long time ago.
Cryo disrespectfully looked Teon over as he stretched. Even through his armor, she could tell that he was well built, and she wasn’t experienced enough in life to hide quick glances.
“The only reason I’m in the clan is to help people,” she admitted. “I go on missions from time to time but most of the time I work as a combat trainer.” She smiled softly to herself as an idea came to mind “You should come visit sometime. I can give you some pointers,” she giggled softly to her own joke
Of course, Teon was aware that she was staring at him. One of the benefits of his Force sight was that he didn’t have to be looking in a certain direction to know what was happening there. Tracing her line of sight back to his figure was a trivial task and, once he realized what she was doing, he spent a bit more time stretching than he otherwise would.
Well, that was reassuring to hear. Teon was far from a paragon of virtue, he understood that, but he ultimately cared about doing what was right. And for atoning for the sins he’d committed while under the boot of those Imp dogs who stole him from his family.
“A combat trainer, huh? That’s good. The new recruits could use a capable soldier to whip them into shape,” he agreed, cracking a sly grin at her last comment. “Maybe I’ll take you up on that one day.”
The woman continued to look, completely unaware that he was prolonging his stretch for her viewing pleasure. If she did know, she’d probably die of embarrassment. She closed her eyes and took a breath, a soft and steady one to calm the nerves, before refocusing her gaze back to his face.
“I just wanna give back without being stuck in battles or cooped up in a ship for the majority of my time. Want to be able to have time to live a little, away from the life of a soldier. Y’know?” she began to nervously fidget by rubbing her thumb along the grooves of her helmet. “It would be great to have you.” she paused. “Have you train with me” she clarified.
Teon stood upright again and folded his arms in front of his chest while they spoke. “Yeah, everyone needs to take time away from combat to relax and enjoy life,” he agreed, “I don’t have any intentions of stopping fighting the good fight, but over the years, I’ve learned how to get some R&R in between deployments.”
Moving over the nearest ledge on the rooftop, he kicked one foot up and brought it to rest on the duracrete border.
“I’m sure you’d get a kick out of that,” he replied, turning his head just enough so she could catch a glimpse of the grin on his face. “I trust you have a way of getting down from here?”
“it’s not stopping. It's… taking some time to take care of yourself.” she said, slightly defending herself. She’s had issues with the idea of sitting around and relaxing instead of fighting on the front lines for some don’t of battle.
She followed him to the ledge, curiosity biting at her heels. She assumed he was walking over to sit on the edge and she wasn’t about to be left behind.
“I was just planning on taking the lift that brought me up here. Why do you ask?” she questioned, curious as to why he was asking such a rhetorical question.
“Of course. But there’s nothing wrong with stopping, either. It’s a rough life.”
He leaned forward, laying one arm across his knee while they spoke.
“It’s about time I head out, so I can give you a lift down if you’d prefer.”
She nodded at his reassuring words. She knew he was right and did her best to convince herself of it every day, but it was a difficult task.
“A lift down?” She seemed a little confused as to what he meant but shrugged. “Sure,” she smiled.
Teon pressed against the ledge with his foot to lift himself high enough for the other foot to rest upon it, as well. The Miraluka possessed all the grace of an expert gymnast, so balancing on the building’s precipice was little more than a triviality for him.
“Grab onto me and hold on tight, unless you want to end up as a mess on the sidewalk,” he said, patting his torso to inform her of where to hold on.
Cryo was no stranger to ledges or heights, so she stepped up next to the man with ease. She took a moment to look out at the skyline, enjoying the view while she could. It was almost peaceful.
She slid her helmet over her head as it dawned on her that he must have a jetpack or something. The clone took a half step closer and nervously wrapped herself around him, holding on tight just as he had told her. “that’s the last thing we’d want,” she commented.
She tried and failed to put aside the thoughts of how close she was to him. Even separated by their armor, it was as if she could feel the heat of his body warming her own.
Once he was certain she was holding on tight, Teon tilted his head backward until he started to tilt over the edge of the roof. Then, he let gravity do the rest for them. They only fell for a moment or two before Teon suddenly rotated in mid air so they were facing the ground as it quickly approached. Then, he activated his jetpack’s wing-glider mode, causing two large metal wings to burst from the jetpack.
As soon as the wings deployed, they caught the wind beneath them and used it to keep them alof in midair. They glided to the ground as smoothly as an actual bird would.
Once they reached the ground, Teon let her onto her feet and took a step backward to deactivate the wing glider.
The woman took a long breath before Teon slowly tilted them off the rooftop. Cryo clutched tightly as they fell. The few moments without any form of flight support were nerve-wracking but enjoyable nonetheless. For all she knew, Teon could be planning on dropping her or just not activating his jetpack at all. Trusting him in this moment was just an added rush to the whole activity.
The ride down was smoother than any jetpack ride she had been on before. Teon’s wings were much quieter than a typical thruster, and it was rather peaceful. She took advantage of the longer descent time to look around at the city. It was moments like these that made her miss traveling the stars.
When they touched down, Cryo held on for a few extra moments while she gathered her balance. She released him and took a step and a half back, looking up at his face and grinning under her helmet. “Thank you,” she said.
“You don’t have to thank me,” he replied, taking another step backward. “Well, it’s been fun. Next time, we’ll see who has the upper hand.”
Teon lifted his hand in a wave goodbye before activating the thrusters on his jetpack, rapidly propelling himself up and away before he deployed his wings again, soaring off into the distance.
“Been lots of fun” She said before he blasted off. She waved back, the smile still under her helmet. This was the first time she had had a genuinely positive time with someone in a long time. She was looking forward to meeting him again