Trance used her sais in her gardening. They were gardening tools, after all. She liked to walk on the large decks of soil she had made in the Hydroponics garden and tend to the plants growing in the same soil she was standing on, rather than have them all in pots. Ultimately the amount of care required was the same, but she liked to landscape the garden without the pots: the orderly appearance wasn't so obvious that way.
She was kneeling over a patch of soil in the centre of a small clearing she had made. She had plans for this barren circle, but first this small patch in the centre needed to become rich in nutrients to nurture the shoot that would grow from it. A shadow blocked out the patch's light. Trance looked up. Rommie was standing over her.
"We have a fight to finish."
Trance looked back at her soil. "We don't have to finish."
"You don't want to?"
Trance looked up again. "Why do you want to? You were losing."
"I don't like loose ends. It's been at the back of my mind for too long. It's getting on my nerves."
Trance dusted the soil off her hands and picked up her gloves. "Funny, me too." She sprung up to her feet and kicked away off Rommie's waist, putting distance between them. "Don't break my garden."
"It's my garden!" Rommie stepped forward and quickly closed in, aiming a series of strikes at Trance's head. Trance shifted low onto her back foot and parried the first few, then fell away into a backflip, kicking at Rommie as she went. Rommie swayed well back to avoid it and Trance landed and quickly leapt forward again, thrusting her right heel at Rommie's face as it came forward. It connected and the android stumbled back with Trance's footprint on her face.
The android wasn't fazed by the direct hit, only her pride was stung. She assumed a low poise and prepared for a more patient approach. Trance allowed her to slow the pace and closed slowly. Rommie gave ground and kept her distance.
"Ever since I came back to Andromeda I've been looking for an excuse to fight you," Trance said.
"You're a security risk," Rommie replied. "I was never quite sure what you were capable of, and you never gave anything away... until the Bokor." She stopped backing away.
Trance's look hardened. "Of course," Trance said, "You never really know someone, until you fight them." Rommie stepped forward behind a kick which Trance parried, then unleashed a flurry of punches at Trance's torso. Trance blocked with her sais, cutting at Rommie's sleeves and the skinbeneath, but the Android didn't let up. Then one of the strikes got through, knocking Trance's shoulder back. There was a look of shock on the pixie's face in the split second before Rommie's follow-up slapped her across the cheek. Then another came, but Trance was still slow. The palm strike from Rommie's cut-up arm landed square in her sternum and she fell back and down onto the dirt.
Rommie put her hands on her hips and smiled. "You know, there are other ways we can get to know each other if you're having difficulty concentrating."
Trance snarled and stood up. She raised both arms above her head and spun on her toes towards Rommie before bringing one sai down at a savage angle. Rommie's reactions were quick and she struck the inside of Trance's wrist with greater force. Trance gasped as her weapon was nearly knocked form her hand, and Rommie quickly seized Trance's other wrist with the same hand and pulled across, turning her around. She kneed Trance's backside first, unbalancing her, then wrapped one arm around Trance's neck and squeezed.
"What's the matter? distracted?" Trance felt Rommie's lips brush her ear as she asked the question, and then Rommie's hand was on her crotch, squeezing it.
Trance wriggled awkwardly and Rommie giggled, then she started struggling harder, jamming one of her sai's into the android's thigh. Eventually she got enough freedom to elbow her in the side of the head and throw her over her shoulder.
"Rommie stop it!" Trance said, standing defensively as the Avatar got up to her feet. Rommie ignored her and pulled the sai out of her thigh. She threw it, far, to one side and it clattered against the distant bulkhead of the garden. Then she turned to were Trance had backed away to and sauntered towards her.
"I've always thought our friendship was a bit of a charade. There was too much..." Rommie broke off mid-sentence and aimed a low drop-kick at Trance's knee, landing on her side as Trance jumped up gracefully. Trance landed with a foot on either side of Rommie's waist and thrust both sais at her head. Rommie parried both attacks upwards and drove two fists into Trance's gut with the same movement. Trance flew straight up, and Rommie jacknifed onto her feet, giggling, while the pixie landed several feet away.
Trance sat up. They made eye contact for a moment, Rommie's eyes were all mischief as she held the part of her hand that had grabbed Trance's crotch up to her lips. Then she leapt up, high and in Trance's direction. Trance stood up as Rommie came down one foot first, and as she stepped to one side Rommie corrected her descent with her inbuilt gravity harness. Trance had to roll aside at the last minute as Rommie's heel hit the ground, throwing up soil. Trance knew she wouldn't recover quickly enough to avoid the follow up. She felt a hard kick land in the small of her back as she was getting up and she was thrown violently onto her front. She started to spring up, but Rommie's foot came down fast and pinned her triumphantly.
Trance turned her head, trying to look up. "I don't get it..." she said, catching a glimpse of the Android standing over her in the corner of her eye.
Rommie dropped a small data disk on the ground within Trance's view.
"Harper!"
"It wasn't Harper's fault. He hid the library files on my system, and then when he tried to destroy them I caught him. I took some useful information, then made him give me some choice upgrades in exchange for not confiscating the disk."
"Rommie what did you read?" Trance demanded.
"Oh, the documentation on your species. Your history, theories on how you see the future, where you come from. Some of the known ways to prevent you from using your abilities." Trance clenched her jaw as Rommie spoke the last part. Even though she had already worked it out, Rommie's words clarified the reason for her arousal.
"Let me up."
"I like having a Goddess pinned under my foot. Not just yet. You sound scared, Trance. And you smell scared. And horny."
"Rommie stop it!"
"Why? I doubt you've ever felt so good." Rommie took her foot off Trance's back, and Trance rolled over. She stayed on her back.
"You shouldn't use pheromones on me like that, Rommie. It's not right."
Rommie folded her arms. "Why not? I do it to Harper all the time. And Dylan, Tyr and Beka. It's like being well dressed, or using body language and language suggestively. I use it to keep the people in me under control."
"I don't like it," Trance protested as Rommie straddled her waist. "I feel too vulnerable."
"Trance, we fought, you lost, I won. Vulnerability comes with being conquered. You have to accept the fact that you're mine."
"I never said that!"
"Losers don't make rules, Trance. Besides, you want this. Even a human could smell the want in you."
Rommie drew her force lance and burned through the laces on Trance's corset with its laser. Trance whimpered and put her hands on Romme's leather-clad thighs. She felt the hole in the leather where the sai had gone through. Rommie didn't flinch in the slightest when Trance pressed it.
"Be careful," Trance said quietly, as the heat from her burning corset neared her breasts. "Things hurt more when I'm... like this."
"I doubt I'll make mistakes, Trance. I'm controlling it remotely. It's a precision tool."
She worked quickly. Trance's corset came away and the remaining cothes were torn away from her breasts. Trance watched Rommie sit up and study her breasts rising and falling with her breathing. Rommie was making her wait. Trance squeezed Rommie's thighs.
"You want me now, don't you?" Rommie asked, and Trance nodded impatiently. "Do you know why?" she started to circle Trance's nipple with her force lance.
"Because you're making me want you," Trance's hands slid round Rommie's thighs to the cheeks of her ass, trying to pull her forwards.
Rommie leaned in close to Trance's face. She brushed her leather covered breasts lightly over Trance's nipples as she did. She brought her scent all the way up to Trance's nose and Trance shuddered and tried to pull her closer. Rommie stopped millimeters away from Trance's lips and smiled. "You're all mine now," she said cruelly. She sat up, holstering her force lance.
"What?" Trance reached up to try to pull Rommie back down, but Rommie brushed her hand aside as she stood. Trance screamed in frustration. "Rommie! You can't leave me like this!" She got up and followed Rommie towards the exit, trampling flowers recklessly as she went.
"Get back to work on my garden," Rommie said. The doors opened and she stepped out of the room and turned around.
"Rommie that is not fair!"
Rommie relented and her face softened. She drew her force lance and held it out. Trance took it, and pouted.
"Make lots of noise for me," Rommie said. Trance was still pouting as the door closed between them and deadlocked itself.