Beatrix Kiddo laid on the edge of a mountain, exhausted. It was the afternoon and the sun still shone its warmth, but her body screamed for rest.

And no wonder, considering the hell it had been through.

Scars; some fresh, some old and already scabbed over, littered her body. But the most noticeable ones were the scars that left her in a perpetual smile.

Images of that monster entered her mind. Shuddering, she tried to push it out with her memories of B.B.

That got a little difficult; however, as the monster himself stepped out of the bushes.

'It's nice to have another good look at you.' He licked his lips. 'And I do love my improvements, don't you?'

Beatrix got up unsteadily, but she managed to get into a battle stance. The Joker grinned, really grinned, and took out a knife. He gave it an experimental lick before advancing towards her.

It was then it dawned of Beatrix that she had a gun.

She took the gun out, but somehow the Joker was already in front of her, knife coming down. She sprung back, accidentally dropping the gun in the process. But despite this she cleanly dodged the slash.

Now the Joker was in between her and the gun. Beatrix made a move to grab her own knife, but as if anticipating it the Joker lunged forward, and Beatrix stumbled back.

Another strike, Beatrix moved to counter but the Joker froze, taking a step back to avoid her entirely.

Something felt wrong about this fight.

Beatrix couldn't quite place her finger on it, but there was something… off about the Joker; something had changed.

He acted as she remembered, except for his fighting.

Exhausted as her mind was, it was still able to notice how the Joker's attacks seemed to be purposefully slow, how there would be a sudden burst of speed when he avoided an attack.

He didn't even seem to be trying to win, just exhaust her.

And it was working.

Exhaustion was beginning to cloud her mind and reflexes, a step back to dodge a slash made her stumble on a tree root, the knife came down towards her foot.

And passed right through.

…Had she just imagined that? Perhaps even now she was dieing of blood loss.

And yet, there was no pain, no hole where the knife had plunged. And the Joker was striking again.

She decided not to dodge this time, but the Joker slashed out where she would have dodged.

Now that she thought about it, the Joker didn't seem to be disturbing so much as a twig under thick-soled shoes.

Calmly, she turned her back to it.

The insults, the bloodthirsty sounds, they seemed only to be pathetic. A mere imitation of what she had truly seen.

And indeed, the Joker said nothing very different from what she had heard before, it was like a recording; the same things repeated again and again.

Someone was after her, someone who could project images, someone who had probably watched everything she had done.

Perhaps someone who was running the tournament.

At any rate, it was probably best to keep moving.

Despite her exhaustion, injuries, despite everything, her will and determination kept her moving.

She didn't break.

It didn't make sense to him. He should have broken into her exhausted mind; she should even now be at peace knowing she was doing the true purpose of beings in the universe. And yet she still maintained control.

She denied him control without use of the Force. That meant only one thing.

She was an abomination, a slight irritation unfit to live. She had to be eliminated.

It was irritating, but one of the reasons for a Jedi.

Sighing, he got up. She would pay for this, oh yes she would.

He gave his robes a quick dusting off. With that, he walked in the most direct angle towards his opposition. Roots, insects, and everything close by seemed to shy away.

Beatrix rested on the trunk of a fallen tree.

Will and Determination only got her so far before common sense told her going further would be more damaging then good. So after about a kilometre, she had rested.

But Beatrix slept like a cat, and woke up when she heard a disturbance.

It was night time now, with only a crescent moon giving off light that barely reached the earth.

But she could hear it, footsteps. Slow, steady footsteps.

They knew she was there. She got up, gun in both hands and aiming in the direction of the noise.

A figure emerged from the forest, and Beatrix fired.

She heard the bang, but the wraith advanced closer, no sign of being injured.

'Another illusion?'

Come to think of it, the movement she heard wasn't quite where the figure was, it was displaced.

'You're a real son of a bitch, you know that?' Swinging her gun towards the noise, she fired again.

Still nothing.

Then again, she should probably have guessed that, the Joker illusion before also had sound effects.

'Weak…' A stern voice seemed to echo in the surrounding area, seemingly having no origin.

This was getting frustrating. She only had a fifteen bullet clip, and while she had some extras, reloading would leave her vulnerable. So that left thirteen bullets.

She had to be careful with her ammo.

Another movement, another figure leaping towards her. She allowed it close and, as she suspected, it passed right through.

'Going to have to do better then that.' She stated coldly.

The next one, however…

Swinging at the next noise, she fired.

This time, the figure crumpled, managing to drag himself next to a tree before ceasing to move. Even in the dim light, she could see the reddish tint of blood.

'Gotcha, you maniac.' Grinning, she moved to inspect the body, firing another shot into it just to be sure. No reaction.

It was as she moved her hand towards the prone figure when her mind screamed that something was wrong, she leapt back as some sort of solid beam of light structured like a staff went through the tree where her neck would have been.

And it was quite literally through the tree, as if it didn't exist.

Actually, it probably didn't. Even now she could see through it, and vaguely see a figure behind it.

'Well, you're just a naughty boy, aren't you?' She managed to force out amidst heavy breathing.

'Another illusion? Just how many of the bloody things are there?'

She was now becoming a bit conscious of just how loud the gun was. It rang out like thunder in a cave and could quite easily attract other contestants.

And there was the fact there was only eleven bullets left.

But considering she didn't know what her opponent was capable of, it was probably safer to use the gun and risk further opposition.

Besides, while she could possibly defeat the man in hand to hand combat, he kept his distance far enough to keep out of her fist range, but close enough so he was in his blade's range. His strikes were also swift enough to prevent any disarming attempts and really only gave her time to avoid them.

Bringing the gun forward, she fired again, using the light as a sort of indicator for the aiming.

The beam of light hissed, but the figure seemed unhurt. Perhaps it wasn't the best idea to shoot it; bullets didn't seem to be able to get through.

So it would be better to shoot around it.

A thought struck her as she aimed into the darkness. The beam of light wasn't actually illuminating as much as it should. It was as if the emanating from it was being contained.

Well, the man seemed to be able to create illusions, why not?

She almost laughed then, but caught herself before doing so. It was strange; laughing wasn't exactly in character for her. Not to mention laughing could be a good way for that man to decapitate her with the glowing blade.

This battle was doing something no battle had in a long time; it was making her lose focus.

'Well, you're a challenge, I'll give you that.' She grinned, although she wasn't sure if that would be visible to her opponent. 'Pity you had to be a crazy stalker who knows too much about me…'

Illumination or not, the blade was visible enough to give her a general idea where to shoot. '…And yet not enough to know you should stay the bloody hell away from me!'

Joruus chuckled, the voice once again didn't seem to come from any particular place. 'Oh, I have to punish those who disobey. But tell me, how did you disobey?'

'How… not why?' Despite the slight confusion Beatrix gave a fake laugh with her eyes open as she answered back 'I'm a bit defiant, if that's what you mean.'

She backed away slowly, keeping her gun ready to fire. Two shots on both sides of the blade, the blade intercepted one side but, as she expected, did not have the reflexes to block the other one.

And yet, still nothing. The indicating blade showed no sign of the figure collapsing. The shot had been slightly off, she supposed.

The blade swept towards her, quickly stepping back, she didn't see the leg coming until it struck her in the stomach, winding her and she collapsed to the ground.

She quickly brought her gun up to bear, firing seven times to stall for time, more than anything else, while she got up. The blade intercepted all the shots which were fired at the same angle with ease and didn't give her time to get up as the blade came down in a vertical strike. Beatrix reeled back, slamming against a tree, her elbow smashed against the bark, forcing her hand to the trigger and another bullet out of the chamber.

So Beatrix was rather surprised to see the blade suddenly fall to the floor and vanish from sight. That shot had worked when all else had failed. It almost made her laugh hysterically. All her training, and a shot she hadn't even intended had struck the blow when all else had failed?

Well, she could ponder that later. First she had to make sure the man was dead.

Standing up, Beatrix cautiously moved towards the man, hearing the faint breathing. She was prepared to avoid the blade should it appear again. The faint moonlight allowed her to see the faint outline of the man, and holding the pistol, she aimed it down at his head.

Then, she pulled the trigger.

There was an almost deafening noise as the gunshot rang out. There was little left of the man's head. A bullet at point blank range did its job well.

Sighing with relief, she turned around to check if anyone was watching.

And at that moment, she signed her own death warrant.

The blade came alive with a violent hiss and was in her chest before her weary reflexes had any time to react. She crumpled to the floor thinking of B.B., how she may survive this tournament. She certainly wasn't thinking of a sixteenth bullet in a fifteen bullet clip.

Joruus had stabbed her similar to a fencing technique, that was because he only had one good arm. The crazy woman had done the unthinkable and shot his left arm! Even now he felt the blood streaming out of his wound, and the searing jolts of bone fragments cutting further into his agonised flesh.

But, more importantly, he still had his head intact.

It was amazing what these lesser beings would do when not properly controlled. It was just further evidence to his point. They did what they wanted, which was always destructive and barbaric.

But it was over, he supposed. Now was not the time to dwell on it. In fact, now was the time to go back to his people. It seemed others were trying to take them away from him. And he couldn't allow that…

This was an interesting chapter to write. If a bit difficult. It seemed hard to pair those two off in a fight, but i think i managed decently well. I do hope it was an interesting read for all of you!

Joruus' Lightsaber was made by me, they never say if he had one in the book, but i always imagined him having a white one, it fitted. White symbolize: purity; which he thinks he is, death; which he causes plenty of; and insanity, which... Well take a wild guess.

Had never seen Kill Bill, so I based Beatrix off a few clips and the current chapters written by Kohaku, in which i made a (hopefully) accurate portrayal.

So yeah, hope you enjoyed and have a nice day.