Romulus wasn’t a fan of Jackal, he’d acted like a child on the dinghy on the trip over. How could someone so immature know anything about combat? Not like Romulus thought he needs the training regardless.

“And? I’m just supposed to listen to you? What a joke. I can take my own battles, I don't need to be trained by anyone,” he snarls.

Jackal laughs once more, “Really? I was told you couldn’t last two seconds against Varian, so forgive me if I don’t believe you.”

Romulus clenches his teeth, averting his gaze away from Jackal. He would never admit Jackal was right, that would probably only make the guy laugh harder. That was all he seemed to do with every retort Romulus uttered thus far. “You get a kick from this don’t you?”

Jackal pinches his fingers together, leaving a little space inbetween, “Maybe a bit.” He drops his hands to his waist sides, “We should get started though, how about you show me what you can do and adjust from there?” Romulus glares, still leaning on the crates. “Or I can just stand here all night and laugh at you. Your choice.” He narrows his eyes further before scoffing and pulling himself from the crates.

“Where’s my dagger?” 

“MMMm no, I don’t feel like being stabbed. Do you not know any hand to hand?” 

Romulus tsks, insulted by the insinuation. He knew he probably wasn’t going to get the dagger back but it was worth a shot. “I like my blades.”

Jackal scratches the back of his head, his other hand on his hips as he sighs, “Starting from scratch then.” He steps closer, about five to seven feet from where Romulus was standing. “Throw a punch my way, let’s see what you’ve got.”

Jackal stares at him, awaiting anything from Romulus, but he doesn't see a point. What purpose would this serve anyway? They could just be doing this whole thing as a ploy. Keep your friends close and enemies closer.. Romulus narrows his eyes again. 

“You want to test my defense, not my offense right? Then why should I be punching?” 

Jackal rolls his eyes and draws closer, “I simply did not want to injure someone today,” his arm swings aiming towards Romulus’s face, “but if that’s what you want.” Romulus side steps, barely avoiding the fist brushing past his hair. Before he could react once more, Jackal’s left fist strikes under his chin causing him to stumble back.

Jackal wasn’t nearly as fast as Varian had been, nor as fluid with his movements. However, that served to make him a bit more unpredictable as his janky jabs were hard to avoid. Just that slight wavering that made it all the more difficult to guess exactly where he’d strike. Jackal makes another swing at Romulus's side with his shoulder to knock him off balance again. Jackal placed a knee behind Romulus’s unbalanced stance as he began to fall backwards, Jackal took the opportunity to shove on Romulus’s head back causing him to fall faster to the wooden floor.

“Shit-” Romulus utters as he makes contact with the floor.

Jackal chuckles again, “Well that was easy. You really do suck at this, no wonder Varian sent someone. Even if I don’t fully get why he’d waste my time on you.”

Romulus glares with gritted teeth, scraping himself up from the floor. “That bring you some sick enjoyment?”

“Calm down, just being honest here,” he held out a hand to Romulus. Romulus reluctantly takes it, fully getting up. “You’re just sloppy, which I can help with. Your reaction time is a bit slow but I only landed four out of my five jabs which is still okay.”

“Are you taunting me?” Romulus glares and lets go of Jackal’s hand.

Jackal waves his hands in front of himself, “No no, course not. But I do have a lot to teach you I guess.”

Romulus only glares with a scowl rampant on his face. This is a waste of time, I can’t spend these hours doing this- Romulus folds his arms to stare at the floor. What else can I do though? Not like I can wander anywhere outside this room, even if I tried I’d probably be caught.

“HELLO!” Jackal waves a hand in front of Romulus’s face, he’d been trapped in his head too much to notice. Romulus’s eye’s shot to Jackal.

He clears his throat, and mumbles with tightly wound brows, “Fine. Teach me whatever ‘defense’ you lot seem to claim I need.”

The pair spent the next few hours bickering as Jackal would tell Romulus his weak points. Romulus kept getting battered and bruised as they spared, he questioned why he was even doing this. Is finding the reason really all that important? It won’t change how much I despise Varian. I still want his head on a stick for what he did. But who’s to say they’d let me stay aboard if I don’t comply with such ridiculous things. I need to wait for the right opportunity, I won’t get one if I leave; if I even could leave.

Jackal’s fist connects with Romulus’s cheek, “Focus!” Romulus run’s his hand over the sore spot on his face but quickly recomposes himself, watching Jackal’s movements again. After a few more minutes, Jackal steps away, “I think I’m done for today.”

“Can’t handle a few more rounds?” Romulus taunts.

“More like you can’t, and I have other things to do tonight.”

Romulus rolls his eyes, “Right, cause you act so duty bound.”

Jackal merely chuckles as he turns to the stairway, “There’s still a few hours until morning, I suggest you rest unless you want to feel more sore than you probably already are.” He doesn’t wait for a reply before ascending the steps.

Romulus stretches his arms out, while he is not appreciative of the ‘training’ he didn’t want to be aching more than necessary later. He wonders how long will he have to wait for the answers? Sure he’d been there for twenty-four hours but how much longer will he have to resign himself to this room before he could receive anything of note? 

He peers behind himself to where the small poster still sat atop the crate. Everytime he discovered something new, more questions just began to fester in his mind. Who knows if the answer he’d receive would be fulfilling in any right. What would he do if it wasn’t? Well that question didn’t need an answer, the same he was planning on before. 

Remove Varian from the equation.

Romulus keeps pondering over his situation as hours pass, not like he could tell the time very well from the lack of light in the space. Only reason he knew was when he heard the door open and the thuds of heavy footsteps that followed it. But there was more than one pair, odd. 

He quickly got to his feet as one face he’d met prior rounded the corner with an unfamiliar one. The same giant stature from the previous day, held a portion of soup in his hands. Beside him was a women wearing a cloak similar to Romulus’s own, her hair an auburn trailing barely outside the hood of it. She held a large smirk.

“So this is the little lost guy!” She cackles. “Hard to believe you tried to attack Varian, most wouldn’t have the gall.”

Romulus scoffs and blatantly ignores her comments, meeting the towering man’s gaze instead. “Why are you feeding me exactly? What do you gain from this?” The man shrugs but holds out the bowl.

“Sorry stowaway, Howl’s a man of few words,” the girl inserts herself as if it weren’t clear he was ignoring her.

Romulus turns his head, glaring down at her, “He wasn’t near as quiet yesterday.” He took the bowl hesitantly from Howl, “What do you want anyway? Just to taunt me?”

She chuckles, “Call me curious! Not many have ever tried to stowaway aboard here, and none have tried to stab someone. Besides, I wanted to see the person who’s captivating our captain.” She pauses, folding her arms, “Name’s Marquette by the way. No ones told me your name.”

Romulus sips from the bowl. “Of course they haven’t, I haven’t given it.”

Marquette quirks a brow, “Well that won’t do.”

“Why do you care? I never asked your name, nor did I need it.”

She cackles again, “You’re gonna be aboard for a while, do you just want to be referred to as ‘the stowaway’ for all of it?”

Romulus looks from her up to Howl, even the bloke seemingly awaiting an answer to her query. He drinks the soup quickly in under a minute and chucks the bowl at Marquette, which she manages juggling to catch it. “Romulus, if that’s all can you leave?”

“Oooo you’re quite sassy too, how intriguing!” She laughs to herself, Howl rolling his eyes at her reaction. “Funny how you stay down here willingly, you aren’t constrained anymore from the looks of it.”

He grits his teeth, “Not like anything would change if I tried to leave now would it?” Romulus looks at Howl, “Is she this bothersome normally?” Howl shrugs again. “Can you only shrug?”

She wades close to Romulus, getting too close for comfort to his face, “Woah, that’s quite a scar. Bet it has quite a story to go along with it! Oh I want allll the details-” Her hand reaches towards Romulus’s face, he staggers back, fear tracing his face. No one had ever tried to touch his scar.

 Howl grabs the back of her cloak, pulling her away from him. “Leave it be Marquette.”

“Riiight, not an infobroker anymore,” She takes a deep breath. “It was nice meeting you, Romulus,” her smirk returns before Howl guides her back up the stairwell.

An infobroker.. What use does Varian have for one? Great. Another thing that doesn’t make sense aboard this ship.