Private Allies

[Tydeus of Tion]

The door hissed open.

Tydeus, forehead leaned against the wall, frowned.

What?

Then he heard the sound of retching and vomiting behind him. The former prince of Tion spun around and saw through the steam the vague outline of Iona cradling the bowl... and staring up at him.

Tydeus ground his teeth together, muscles writhing in his jaw.

"What the hells are you doing?" he snapped, snatching a towel from the rack and wrapping it around his waist.

Then he looked at the way she clutched the bowl again and grimaced. It was quite obvious what she was doing. Carbonite sickness.

"Nevermind," he muttered.

I told her to go to the medbay.

Gray eyes glanced her over as if he was pulling apart every piece of her, evaluating it, and then putting her back together.

"Do you need stims?"

Iona Starchaser

 

[Iona Starchaser]

Location : Bathroom | Weapons : Force Pike | Interacting With : Tydeus of Tion
​

"Vomiting."

As if it wasn't obvious. Apparently there was only one refresher on the vessel or he just liked showering close to her room. Iona would take a moment to find a trash can or bucket or tool box to heave her guts into for the duration of the sickness. Finding a hair tie, she pulled her hair back before rinsing out her mouth, back turned to the man in the shower stall.

When she did turn around, hand was firmly across her eyes. She did not want to see the pale cheeks of her 'student' once again and this was the only way to clearly avoid it.

"Medbay. I can figure it out."

Not a lie. He did point it out previously but she had been dead on her feet.

Carefully shuffling towards the door - after tripping on his pants on the floor - Iona mercifully made it out of the refresher without further incident. Hand dropped from her eyes and she carefully made her way across the space to the medical bay. Eyesight was returning but words were fuzzy. If she held the medicine close enough to her face she could make out name and use.

Thankfully there was also a small trash can in the medbay she would be stealing to take back to her room. He was way, way too comfortable with nudity for her own liking, not that she expected Tydeus to scream and jump like a girl. Standing there though? Unnerving.

 

[Tydeus of Tion]

Shaking his head, Tydeus turned off the sanisteam, toweled himself off, and hit the lights. He collected his clothes and retreated to his room, where he tossed them in the hamper and then put on a new set of athletic pants and a loose shirt. All black.

She really should have gone to the med bay when he told her to, but at least she was doing it now. Tydeus sighed, lay down, and picked up his datapad.

He scrolled for another ten minutes, reading a dossier on Kainite stronghold vulnerabilities before passing out.

In the morning, he found himself sitting in the lounge after his morning routine, sipping a caf and finishing his study of the dossier.

It would take another day to reach the Wheel.

Iona Starchaser

 

[Iona Starchaser]

Location : Hyperspace | Weapons : Force Pike | Interacting With : Tydeus of Tion
​

Thankfully the trash can was used minimally after injecting herself with several hyposprays.

By morning she could see, although her eyes were sensitive to light and a bit fuzzy. A massive improvement than before, if she squinted hard enough smaller words could be read. With no datapad in her possession though she was testing her slow improvements on the back of the hypospray box.

Emerging from her room, hand was over her eyes. She could sense and hear him lounging around. Caf had been brewed.

"Hoping you're in a dressed state this time." Hand didn't lower as she called out. One couldn't be too cautious.

 

[Tydeus of Tion]

“Huh?”

Tydeus looked up from his datapad.

“Oh right.”

He gestured at his shirt and shorts, both black, with his mug of caf.

“Yeah,” Tydeus clicked the datapad off and set it down, gray eyes going over the woman, studying her with the gaze of an Echani battle master. Dissecting.

“You’re alive. Feeling any better?” He frowned, wondering how long she might be not in peak condition and what the impacts could be on their training schedule.

“There’s nutrient paste and caf on the table.”

Iona Starchaser

 

[Iona Starchaser]

Location : | Weapons : Force Pike | Interacting With : Tydeus of Tion
​

"Fine, thanks."

Hand slowly lowered, unsure. Apparently he was wearing clothes now, a blessing. Being the first time she truly saw him Iona took a moment to look him over. Just some random kid. Probably barely out of his teens looking to take on the galaxy himself. She considered him an idiot for his mission but when one was getting passage to another destination they often didn't criticize the Capitan.

Nutrient paste? Even if she had not vomited all evening the prospect of nutrient paste made her stomach churn.

Water would be an ideal alternative, even if her body was screaming for some sort of real food. Probably not best to test her intestinal fortitude until she knew the nausea had completely passed.

"Ready to train?"

She wasn't quite sure if she was but a debt was owed.

 

[Tydeus of Tion]

The mug clinked as Tydeus set it down. His steel-eyed gaze regarded her, skepticism plainly reflected in those hard depths.

"Are you?"

He stood up, bare feet padding silently across the floor until the soles passed from the cold deck to the soft pliable mat which lay across a good chunk of the floor of the main hold. Tydeus rolled his neck and unlimbered his arms.

The truth was that there was no optimal time to train for what Tydeus intended to do. When he felt his worst, his weakest, that was the best time in which to push himself even further. Otherwise, he could not hope to stand against a titan of evil who had more than a century of practice on him.

Tydeus pointed at the far wall, where two bo staffs sat on mounts.

"Straight into it?" he could respect that, "Or sparring first..."

Part of him still wondered if picking her up had been a mistake. So far, all this unfrozen Mirialan had done was throw tea in his face and then vomit in his refresher.

Iona Starchaser

 

[Iona Starchaser]

Location : | Weapons : Force Pike | Interacting With : Tydeus of Tion

​

"Let's find out."

Iona was unsure if she was truly ready. Frozen for four years, give or take. She was unsure if muscle memory would kick in or if she even remembered what to do.

On some level she was certain something would kick in. The memory had been there to walk, her reflexes with the tea were sharp, maybe fighting would have the same affect.

Iona wasn't a fighter. Her style was to deflect and weave and work with the energy output of her opponent. Something in her gut told her it would frustrate a man running off to kill a Sith Lord.

Quietly she went over to the wall and picked up the bo staff. The Mirialan turned it over in her hands, getting a feel for the weapon. As soon as she was able, force pikes would be one of her first purchases.

Standing in one edge of the mat, she turned to silently invite him to begin.

 

[Tydeus of Tion]

Stretching out his hand, Tydeus summoned the other staff from the wall with the Force and a slight exertion of his will. Once, untrained, he had struggled with this simple use of telekinesis. But over the years of relentless training it became as natural to him as breathing.

The staff smacked into his palm and he gave it a twirl behind his back then into a double-handed grip, holding it more like a spear than a staff. Iona just stood there, but he read her posture and expression with an Echani battle art trained eye. The tension in her body. The microexpressions on the face.

He would have to attack first.

So he did, stepping forward and striking down at her with the staff in a chop, then pulling back and thrusting forward. Fighting was about momentum as much as it was about anything. Once he learned how to maintain that with this a pike he would feel more comfortable with it in his hands.

"When did-" he grunted in between strikes, "you learn to fight with a pike."

Iona Starchaser

 

[Iona Starchaser]

Location : | Weapons : Force Pike | Interacting With : Tydeus of Tion
​

Tydeus attacked exactly as she expected him to.

Right out of the gate he came in hot, repeatedly striking. Iona had guessed he was less of the tactical type when they first met on Nordra. He had zero finesse just trying to get her into a vessel.

Iona used his strikes to her advantage, blocking and rolling with each movement. Letting him push the attacks, right now she was merely blocking and pushing back, or blocking and rolling into his movement.

Being a pacifist she had trained in form three, taking a defensive approach to battle. Letting her opponent wear themselves down and striking as needed. Lucky for her she tended to encounter hot-heads, just like this one.

Staff met his as she parried, taking a step back, quietly inviting a attack one more. A strategy that required patience was in play.

"Can't fire blasters on a boat."

Force pikes seemed the next logical option in her mind.

 

[Tydeus of Tion]

"No," he agreed with a grunt, the collision of their staves sending shivers through his palms. "Sonic weapons are best in such quarters."

Sunguard tactics, like many other small unit tactics, dictated blasters for most combat, slugthrowers depending on the target, and sonic for close quarters where the structure of the building - or ship - needed to remain intact.

"Before you became a Jedi?"

He did not think his grip was correct, holding it the way he would a sword or a lightsaber. Firm enough to keep a grip, but light enough to flick out with an edged cut.

This was different. This two-handed grip. The staff could snake forward and back in a blink of a thrust, reach doubled depending on the hand placement.

Drawing on the Force within him, Tydeus kept up a barrage of strikes, but observed the way she defended or slipped or rolled from every blow. Attacking could teach more than defense, so long as one's eyes were open.

Iona Starchaser

 

[Iona Starchaser]

Location : | Weapons : Force Pike | Interacting With : Tydeus of Tion
​

"Not a Jedi. Nor will I ever be."

Iona was incredibly insulted at the insinuation she was a Jedi. Or had been one. She found their order to be incredibly short sighted but somehow she doubted Tydeus would care.

Too busy worrying about how he was going to take down a Sith Lord. Which is why she wasn't going to get attached to having him around. He was going to be dead within a month.

Plus, after this little lesson he was mercifully dropping her off at a space station. Her plan? Join a crew and drift into obscurity.

Parrying the attack, she pushed forward in the counter attack, noticing his grip was off on the weapon. Weight pushed into her actions, wanting to catch him off guard to prove a point.

 

[Tydeus of Tion]

The staff struck him hard in the thigh and Tydeus grunted as the muscles twinged, leg partially buckling. The sting of the pain was nothing next to the knowledge that if Iona had landed a blow, then certainly Carnifex would have done the same. And taken his whole leg with it.

Another strike and then he felt her somehow trip him, butt of the staff hooking under the heel of his good foot. Weight on the bad leg, unable to support himself, he toppled backward.

Tydeus’ shoulders struck the mat and his lips thinned, gray eyes growing harsh with determination as he gazed up at Iona looming above him.

“Not a Jedi,” he repeated back, with a nod.

That was fine.

He didn’t care for Jedi much either

From where he lay on the ground, Tydeus snaked a foot forward and tried to trip her with a leg sweep to bring her down to his level.

Iona Starchaser

 

[Iona Starchaser]

Location : | Weapons : Force Pike | Interacting With : Tydeus of Tion
​

Iona's lips thinned into a grim line as she looked down upon Tydeus, wondering if he had gotten her point. He was too distracted in her opinion. Too wrapped in his own head. If anyone was going to face a Sith willingly and with the purpose of Tydeus, then the mind had to be clear of all distractions.

Just her professional opinion as a former instructor - granted that was Galactic History and not combat.

As she was moving to assist him up, his leg came, sweeping her down to fall. Trying to catch her balance was futile, dropping right down on top of Tydeus. At least the idiot broke her fall.

"That was because my head is still swimmy...not because I wasn't paying attention." A long pause. "I don't think I'm going to vomit on you."

A stretch of uncertainty as she gathered her bearings.

"No...you're good."