Battlefield Etiquette

[idontneedluck]

Chirrut is in a temper.

Winter is coming for NiJedha, crouching at its door, and the desert wind blows shrill over the city. The pitch makes meditation an impossibility for Chirrut, making him tetchy, making him restless. He's been in the training hall all day, taking challenger after challenger. Those around him are growing wary of his fey mood, and the challenges are coming slower. This... is not helping matters.

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[iprotectyou]

Eiko is concerned about her teacher. That's an understatement. She's never seen him in such a temper before, and she's wary and worried that he won't wear himself out now that the challengers are drying up. She's been too scared to fight him herself.

But her worry is eclipsed by Baze's. He has seen his friend like this before, and knows that the only way to calm him down is to beat him into submission. Which is why he confers with Eiko before approaching Chirrut on the mat.

"Hoi, Chirrut!" Baze says, staff slung over his shoulder as he draws nearer. "How about you fight Eiko and me? A three-way spar."

Eiko shadows Baze, her steps light and her grip on her staff determined.

[idontneedluck]

Normally he would prefer one-on-one, to learn as much as teach. Fighting Baze is always a fun challenge, pitting his speed against Baze's strength.

Today he grins, feral and sharp.

"That sounds like a proper challenge, no one will fight today." He complains as he backs up, giving them room to prepare, his movements quick and light.

His statement is a lie. When word first got 'round that he was accepting all comers, they came fast and furious. Then Chirrut sent a few to the Infirmary.

[iprotectyou]

So many lies, Chirrut. So many.

Baze disapproves, but chooses not to reprimand his friend when he's in such a dangerous mood. He spins his staff in his hands, testing the weight of it. He's going to need to be on his best today, and so his weapon has to be perfectly balanced. It is.

He charges without warning--at the same time as Eiko. She strikes at Baze first, and he blocks hard, sending her skittering off to the side. Then he plants his foot and swings his staff at Chirrut, aiming for a disabling strike to his ribs.

Eiko recovers and charges again. Her staff whistles in the air, the only warning Chirrut has.

[idontneedluck]

The crack of wood on wood when Chirrut blocks is thunderous. With the bracing of their staves, Chirrut launches up, sending a flying kick at Baze's face and leaving Eiko to strike air.

She staggers, overbalanced, and then turns in hot pursuit.

[iprotectyou]

Baze pushes back on their staves, using Chirrut's own momentum against him to bend backwards. The tip of Chirrut's boot narrowly misses Baze's nose, and he barely has time to breathe before Eiko strikes the back of his calves in a stinging blow.

He turns, keeping his shoulder facing towards Chirrut while he thrusts the tip of his staff at Eiko's face. It's a feint. Once she ducks, he's back on Chirrut again, focusing on his friend to the point where Baze turns his back on Chirrut's flower.

It's foolish. It's necessary. Baze can hold his ground.

Eiko changes tactics, walloping Baze across the back before aiming her staff awkwardly over his shoulder in a jab at Chirrut's face again.

[idontneedluck]

The thump crunches into his nose, sending head-splitting pain radiating from the point of impact and promptly turning his breaths into harsh pants. Blood oozes down his face, tears run from his eyes, making his appearance even more wild.

He doesn't pause. He does, however, laugh, soft and low, the sound made wet with blood, his teeth stained with it.

Baze is in the way of him getting at Eiko, so he closes, aiming sharp, quick blows at Baze's ribs.

Eiko, wide-eyed at her staff being blooded, nearly loses a step, but her training holds. She rounds on Baze, echoing her teacher's movements. She would hold back, lighten her blows, but she knows Chirrut would be able to hear the difference.

[iprotectyou]

Oh, Chirrut.

Baze staggers back under their combined percussive strikes, blocking when he can by spinning his staff as quick as he's able, but taking most of the hits. He gasps, and Eiko draws back, just enough for him to recover his footing.

There's a brief moment in between Chirrut's hammering, in which Baze nods at Eiko. She nods back.

She sweeps her staff at Chirrut's legs while Baze goes on the offensive, shoving his friend's staff back and taking aim at his temple.

[idontneedluck]

Chirrut is fast, devilishly fast, but there's only so many directions to dodge. He makes a choice, and Eiko's staff crashes into the backs of his knees, sending him reeling to the floor. It is better, so much better, than catching Baze's staff with his head.

But the fall spikes the pain in his head.

He comes up snarling.

She hasn't pulled her staff out of his reach so he grabs it, whirling it away from her grasp and launching into a raging offensive while she backpedals frantically.

[iprotectyou]

"Chirrut!" Baze shouts, trying to interpose himself between him and Eiko. He's not fast enough. She takes more than one hit to her upraised forearms--and Baze wonders for a horrifying moment if Chirrut has broken them. But she doesn't cry out, merely staggers under the blows.

Once Baze slams his staff into Chirrut's, shielding her with the larger man's bulk, she's off to recover her staff. She glares at Chirrut, tears in her eyes, and launches into a flurry of strikes at his ribs, while Baze aims a jab at his chin.

[idontneedluck]

The reverberation of Baze's block sends shockwaves up his arms. It feels good, so his grin widens, all bared teeth and blood. He dodges under Baze's blow and spins, slamming back against Baze's chest to block Eiko's attack.

The heel of his foot lands hard, deliberately hard, on Baze's foot.

[iprotectyou]

Baze howls. He grits his teeth against the pain, looping his arms around Chirrut. Baze cages him in with his staff--which he slams into the underside of Chirrut's chin, choking him.

Then Baze falls. He throws his bulk forward, trying to land on Chirrut and tackle him to the floor.

Eiko nearly trips over herself to get out of the way.

[idontneedluck]

Chirrut's breath is driven out of his body as they hit the mat, his air already limited by Baze's chokehold. He thrashes, but cannot shift Baze's hold, and his own staff is digging into his ribs where he landed on it.

For a moment, for two, the world is almost serene. Muscles held tight for hours relax, slowly.

That damnedable wind howls, shredding soothed nerves. He snakes his hands free, and yanks on Baze's ears.

[iprotectyou]

Baze's ears tear, blood spurting from the bite of Chirrut's nails. His throaty scream drowns out Eiko's horrified gasp. She's never seen her teacher fight so filthy. So dishonorable.

Baze rolls off of Chirrut, taking his staff with him--which means dragging it up and over Chirrut's face. Eiko hauls Baze to his feet, and they both stand ready for Chirrut's next attack.

[idontneedluck]

Chirrut staggers to his feet, panting harshly, the most inelegant he's been all day. His face is a horror of blood, with tears streaming uncontrollably down his cheeks. The blood has stained his robes and streaked his hands.

And still he grins.

His staff is a blur of motion as he rushes them, crashing into Eiko's braced staff first to knock her down and back before rounding on Baze again.

Eiko regains her feet in a mad scramble, unwilling to stay down when her teacher is so maddened. She still cannot believe what she just saw, cannot reconcile it with the man she knows.

[iprotectyou]

Baze clenches his staff so hard his knuckles turn white. This turns out to be a mistake, as he knew it would be, as each hit to it rattles his hands. He forces himself to loosen his grip, just slightly, in between Chirrut's strikes.

He's so wild, Baze can barely catch his breath. He catches Eiko's eye again. He shoves forward, and she punishes Chirrut for turning his back on her, clobbering his shoulders while Baze has him engaged.

[idontneedluck]

His shoulders are on fire. They throb in agony, the distraction making him sloppy - he whirls away from Baze to switch his focus, and his block is set incorrectly. Baze's staff finds his ribs, and he feels something give, setting a new fire up his side.

He ignores it.

Eiko's world narrows to a furious dance of strike and counterstrike, her blocks keeping Chirrut from sending her flying but only just. She is desperate to keep him off of her, not wanting to find out what other tricks he may have up his sleeves.

[iprotectyou]

Baze is tired. It takes a lot of energy to block, and to hit, and to keep moving despite the pain he's in. His adrenaline rush died a long time ago, so now he's running on empty. But he continues to buffet Chirrut, slamming the larger man's staff into the smaller one's back and ribs. Chirrut can't last forever, and neither can Baze.

Neither can Eiko. She stumbles backward, pressed by Chirrut's viciousness--and trips. One mistep twists her ankle, and she falls, crying out and losing her ability to block Chirrut's attack.

"Eiko! No!" Baze barks, trying to get Chirrut to focus on him with a flurry of successive strikes aimed at his head and neck.

[idontneedluck]

Chirrut staggers forward under the blows, panting raggedly. He spins to block, leaving Eiko to retreat.

His muscles scream in agony. His heart screams to the beat of the wind outside. He roars into attack, ready to pour the last of his strength into a whirlwind attack.

When he forces his attack past Baze's defense, the crack of wood against bone is sickeningly loud.

[iprotectyou]

Baze hears the snap of his collarbone before he feels it. For him, the fight is over. His staff slips from his useless hands and lands on the mat with a muted clatter. He sinks to his knees, clutching his neck, which burns.

Eiko gasps. She tosses her staff aside and throws herself at Chirrut's feet, nose to the mat and arms thrown over her head to protect herself. "Teacher!" she shouts, and it's a strangled cry for mercy.

[idontneedluck]

For a long moment, he stands untamed, a wild thing with pain and shredded nerves driving him on. A few who stopped what they were doing look to each other, a silent agreement to risk Chirrut's wrath and rescue Eiko if he goes on the offensive again.

And then he feels it.

Fear. Revulsion. Pain. Horror.

Caused by him.

He can hear the pain in Baze's breathing, the hitch and tightness of it. He can hear the fear in Eiko's heartbeat - she doesn't expect him to stay his hand.

The combination is painfully sobering, washing away battle-madness and leaving him battered and sick of himself in its wake.

His staff hits the mat with a clatter.

Slowly, deliberately, he lowers himself - first to his knees, then down, prostrating himself on the mat. At his surrender the mat is rushed, two burly younger Guardians pinning Chirrut effectively while others move in to help Baze and Eiko.

[iprotectyou]

Baze comes to his senses slowly, rising up out of a fugue of pain to focus on the trembling Eiko. He struggles against the Guardians dragging him off to the infirmary.

"You filthy bastard!" he screams, tearing away from the Guardians and stalking over to Chirrut. He shoves at the Guardians pinning him with Baze's useless hands, not managing to dislodge them at all. "You attacked her while she was disarmed! How dare you?"

Baze was annoyed with his friend before. But this dishonorable conduct, beyond the pale, has him well and truly incensed. He spits on the mat, aiming away from his now-calmed friend. "Battle-mad or no, there's no excuse for that! What the hell is wrong with you?"

[idontneedluck]

He doesn't know. He's not sure he wants to know, not sure he likes the answer.

Not sure he likes himself, very much at all, after fights like these.

"I was wrong." His voice is strong, and steady, despite the way the mat muffles it. He forces it to be. To do otherwise would be to add disrespect on top of his current offences. "And I am shamed."

[iprotectyou]

Baze could kick him. It'd be easy--Chirrut is pinned, and wouldn't be able to retaliate. It's tempting.

But Baze Malbus does not kick a man when he's down.

"You should be," Baze grinds out. He opens his mouth to scream again, but stops at a gentle touch from Eiko on his arm. Her own are bruised and bleeding, and she has a black eye reddening, Baze notes, despairing.

"Baze," she says calmly, despite her eyes being a winter storm, "leave him be. His shame will temper him."

He swallows thickly and shifts his bulk to face away from Chirrut, trying not to move the larger man's broken collarbone. "Come to the infirmary, Eiko. You need bacta."

Eiko gives him a guilty look. Baze has no idea why. She glances to Chirrut. "So does he."

Baze sighs. He remembers beating Chirrut's nose into a pulp. "So does he."

[idontneedluck]

The men pinning Chirrut take it as a command, and haul Chirrut to his feet. He doesn't speak, his head hung low as they force him forward, toward the infirmary. He doesn't pick up his head when the whispering starts, a slowly growing crescendo that will ring through the temple before too long.

When they reach the infirmary, Master Sheotar is there, stony-faced. At a look the Guardians release Chirrut, and goes to his knees, then lower, bowing his face to the floor.

"Guardian Malbus, Acolyte Eiko, how do you fare?"

[iprotectyou]

Baze stiffens. Even now that he's older, Master Sheotar still inspires awe in him. "We... are bruised, Master, but still whole," he says, and sighs. She knows it's a lie. She knows everything. "I have a broken collarbone and a broken foot. Eiko has had her arms battered. Chirrut has a broken nose."

Master Sheotar's gaze snaps to Chirrut. "Explain yourself, Chirrut Imwe. Your friends aren't the only ones you've put into the infirmary this morning."