Collecting the carcasses of dead voxyn was not the most glamourous assignment Jaina had ever been given, and she couldn't say she was entirely thrilled with herself for leaving Fandom specifically to do this, and dragging John along with her. But the fact of the matter was, it needed to be done and she had to find some way to help. The bonus was it wasn't even an easy job. Sure, they weren't going to attack her, being dead and all, but there were parts of the creatures they had to watch out for, because this part or another had proven to be covered in poisons or filled with communicable disease and was it any wonder she hated the Vong?

She'd even tried to stick around while they autopsied the voxyn after, watching Cilghal and Tekli dissect it to find another built-in weapon these animals held in their bodies. About twenty minutes in Jaina decided she'd had enough of biology class and there was a reason she stopped at just killing things.

She found herself in the area that had been set up for lightsaber practice, sort of feeling like with those things on the loose, she wanted to be really practiced. For a while she took things out on a couple of remotes, found it too easy, and started hunting for more.

"Finding anything interesting?"

Jaina looked over her shoulder, seeing Zekk standing at the doorway to the supply room. "Not really," she said. "I need more remotes."

He raised an eyebrow. "Plural?"

"Yes, plural. I've gotten to outgrow the easy stuff." She didn't know why, but she'd found herself really irritable around Zekk lately. Half the time she thought he was trying to annoy her on purpose, and the other half he was being perfectly nice, but she saw the way he was looking at her and it made her uncomfortable, especially with John around. It wasn't that she didn't love Zekk dearly. She'd spent a long time in her early teens pretty infatuated with him, in fact. But she didn't feel that way any more, even if he still did. And he wasn't even being overt about it or anything, he wasn't crossing any lines, she was just happier when she was clueless.

She sort of wanted to shake him and ask if he was so into her, why he didn't do something about this, oh, three years ago, but she really didn't want to have to have the conversation she was afraid might ruin the friendship altogether. It was easier to be snappish. He could handle snappish.

"You could just spar against a partner, you know," he pointed out.

"I'd beat them," Jaina said. No, she wasn't sure of that. Luke and Anakin could still kick her ass, and she was sure quite a few people not up to their level could, too.

"If you end up in a fight out here, you're not going to be fighting against machines."

She sighed, turning around to face him. "You're going to bug me about this until I agree, aren't you?"

Zekk nodded. "Probably."

He caught her eye, like he was daring her to blink first, and she did. He looked a little disappointed at that. "Fine," she said, unclipping her lightsaber from her belt. "I'm still going to beat you."

"Maybe, but I've learned some things since the last time we sparred," he said, allowing her to move past him out of the supply room. She made sure to have more than enough room between the two of them, in case he took an accidental arm brush or something as encouragement.

"I would hope so," she said, but Jaina was beginning to wonder if staying and watching the autopsy wouldn't have been more comfortable.


[NFB for distance, NFI, blah blah you've seen enough of these from me.]