Kel Dor and the Kaleesh

Only One

Ever since Count Dooku departed his ship, General Grievous had grown more impatient than ever. He didn't know anything about this Nitonma mineral, only that it was some kind of indestructible material. The most frustrating part of this mission so far, was the fact that Dooku did not say what exact planet as to where he should start looking.

He just wants me to run around everywhere until I find it, and I won't even know what it looks like. How will I know that it's it? He thought, and the other part that had made him impatient, was the fact that this mineral could easily be converted into the crystals that were used to help create Malevolence's ion cannon. He coughed, my whole ship would have to be remodeled to fit a new ion cannon.

"Have you found anything?" He asked the nearest commando droid on the bridge,

"Nope, nothing yet General, this Nitonma you speak of is rare,"

"I know it's rare! There's only one planet that it can be mined from!"

"But sir, we've put up the map of the galaxy, and so far there is no planet that matches research of this mineral," Another battle droid in front of a computer said.

Grievous growled and pounded his metal fist on the arm of his chair. He had had enough of waiting.

"Come find me when you have found something!" He snarled with a cough ending his words, and then he got up and departed from the bridge.

As Grievous left the bridge, his Magna-guards followed him. He never went anywhere on the ship without them, and each one carried an electostaff, deadly to any opponent. I need my bodyguards, he thought, and that was one of the key things that made him perceived as a coward to many.

He made his way down the main hall and headed towards the elevator. The ship was full of his droids, and he never had enough of them. They guarded even the least vital areas, making it seem like all he needed was more droids to play with. As the elevator took him down one level, his mind began to fill with something familiar. Something he had come in and out from time to time: Voices, and the image of someone he knew over the years.

"She eludes me now," He muttered, and gazed at the elevator's ceiling. His Magna-guards did not budge, they were like statues.

"She'll turn up again one day, when the time is right," He said aloud as if his guards were listening.

The elevator came to a halt, Grievous parted with his guards once the door opened and entered through the single blast door in front of him.

The room was dark and dismal at first, but he had been here many times to be alone. A single console stood in the center and lit up the floor around it. Grievous approached and touched it, a hologram appeared, but it wasn't a contact terminal he was using.

The hologram was an image of a young woman in a black dress with auburn hair. A lightsaber was clipped onto the belt of her dress. The Jedi he had had countless run-ins with for a decade now. He often forgot her name at first, until it eventually became stuck in his implants permanently.

Emi Takori, so many years have we clashed, Grievous thought to himself. He remembered details from some of the times they had fought. He had more weapons wielded than her, but she was quicker.

Their first battle was in the droid factory's control room on Felucia, and one missed lunge of a lightsaber set off the self-destruct system. But that was his doing. He walked slowly towards her, spinning two of his lightsabers in front of him, but she jumped and he hit the self-destruct. Emi had run for the exit and he chased her through the factory alone. For a child during that time, he wasn't able to catch her at first. None of his droids seemed to stand in her way, and Grievous thought back then how could a child be able to impress him like that?

The battle came to a tight situation when he cornered her in the catacombs near the exit. He hid on the ceiling of the tunnel as she was making her way out of the cave, and waited for the right moment to strike. Then he grabbed her and pinned her to the wall, readying himself to strike her through the heart with her own lightsaber, that she had dropped upon being discovered. But still, Emi had outsmarted him at her young age, disarmed him, and escaped. Narrowly making his way out of the catacombs before the factory blew up, he found his starfighter and vowed that next time he encountered her, she would die.

Grievous paused in his thoughts as he looked at the hologram of Emi Takori. She doesn't run as much as she used to now, he thought. The many years they had battled, Emi fought him more than she tried to escape him.

The explosion from the self-destruct, and the charges set, had killed half a continent of Felucia's landscape. But Grievous didn't care about collateral damage as long as he was still in one piece. Then, between that event and now, Emi was the one who showed up to stop him, whatever he was assigned to do, and that made him think back to his very last encounter with her a year ago.

She was on board a frigate, preparing to go head to head with his Separatist fleet. He knew she was going to be there, so he laid a trap. His forces wore down hers, and he directed one of his commandoes to distract the frigates so he could board her ship. Once he made it on her ship with commando droids and his magnaguards, there she was, standing on the bridge with clone troopers. She was the only Jedi there, and that was the perfect opportunity to capture her.

Emi did not relent, she killed his commando droids first, and then his magnaguards who put up more of a fight were eventually put down. He ignited his many lightsabers and charged towards her, but after the brief duel, he gained the upper hand and disarmed her. One of his guards that was still alive, stunned her, and she was captured.

Grievous thought the time he had her as his prisoner, was the best moment ever. Every so often, he would visit her cell, and circle around her while she was bound by electrical cuffs. She was never afraid of him, and she would wait for him to kill her. He could not remember how long he had her captive, but he remembered that wanted information from her first. He tortured her, manipulated her, and held her for as long as he could, just to get what he wanted. But when her master came to save her, that all ended.

Emi and her master fought him together, when he stood in the way of them stealing a ship to get off his own. But he only wanted to kill her, so he kicked her master aside, knocking her out and thrust himself at her with everything he had. Weak from being tortured, Emi fought back, and this time, she had the upper hand as their lightsabers clashed once again. It was not long before her master woke up and the two of them made it off his ship before he could catch them.

That was the last time he captured and tortured her. Grievous knew the same thing would happen again, and again. One of them would escape and the other would be left with only hatred. But the hatred was mostly from him.

For a child, she put up a fight, her taunts always enraged him more, and somehow she had proven to be one of those Jedi he despised as much as Obi-Wan-Kenobi; who he also had history with. Now he wanted her dead just as much as the others he hated. He could just imagine adding her lightsaber to his collection as he took it from her corpse.

As Grievous closed the hologram display of Emi, he laughed. "I'll kill you for sure next time you try to stop me!"

Just then the door opened behind him, and he swung around only to see a single battle droid.

"What do you want?!" Grievous demanded,

The battle droid shook itself nervously, "General, we may have found something involving this mineral. If you want to see it, you should come to the bridge."