Dar'solus [Captain Rex x reader]

Chapter 43 - Susulur

"Susulur" = "To listen/ to hear"

"Vor entye" = "Thank you" or literally; "I accept a debt"

When I had hurriedly left the awkward encounter with Rex, I had traced down R2 and given him a stern warning of not doing that again. To which the stubbornly smug droid had simply replied with 'but it worked, didn't it?'.

Feeling frustrated, confused, angry and afraid, I decided to do what always calmed me down. Train. I went back to the training room with a tall glass window and round floor shape that I had been in before. Luckily for me, no one else was in there. I deactivated my comm and put away the tool belt on the floor. Walking over to the rack with long wooden sticks for training, I quickly put up my hair to keep it from falling in my face whilst I was training. Being worked up still about all the things that seemed to flutter its wings around me annoyingly, I had to breathe deeply to at least try and slow my heartbeat.

But as soon as my hands gripped the wooden staff, it was like a gust of wind blew every trouble away. All went quiet and there I stood, in the eye of the storm where nothing could touch me.

One step forward, blade out to block. Lean back and feel the counter attack fly past you. Think; where would the follow up come from? Duck down and sweep their feet to trip them. Be quick to parry in their desperation. Don't get overconfident now, let them strike out first.

"There you do, ad'ika. We do not pursue a quick and fatal end in our fights. Our life alongside the Force means balance. A balance that needs to be kept. No amount of light should overshadow the dark, and the dark should not embrace all light."

What began as ingrained movements in a slow and steady beat worked its way up to be faster and more determined. As the feelings of devious shadows came up to play, the staff created louder exhales as it flew through the air.

Crack! My staff met the jolting end of someone's parry. Opening my eyes that had been closed in concentration, I met the determined eyes of Rex in his training clothes.

Breathless I started to speak to him as if he was a ghost, "Rex? What are y–"

"We need to talk," as I went to lower my staff he countered with a quick step forwards in an attempt to land a hit against my ribs. Blocking it out of pure reflex, he continued, "Who are you?"

I swept my staff alongside his and flung the far end of it in an upwards arc towards his shoulders, "I'm (Y/N)! You know that!"

He ducked under and to the side, trying to land another hit on my arm, "Wrong!" as he took a step forward, I took one back to keep the distance between us, "Who are you?!"

"A mechanic working for the Jedi!" as our staff cracked against each other, I felt the true force of Rex. His attacks that I parried carried meaning, they were not just for the sake of exercise. Did I miss to parry it, the hit would hurt, "Rex! Why are you asking me this?!"

As we carried on fighting, our breaths became heavier and as we both put power into our blows, our replies became more strained and rough, "Osi Sobeck knew something about you," another sweep upwards to catch my jaw, "something that you haven't told us!"

Though his words sounded strained from our fighting, the underlying desperation was evidence enough that he just wanted answers. Feeling the overwhelming force of his blows, I had to continue to slowly back away towards the edge of the circle floor. He was surprisingly skilled with staff fighting.