Star Girl | Din Djarin

10 | the bounty hunter

The Mandalorian

ARVALA-7, OUTER-RIM

She used to be afraid of the dark. It used to scare her. Terrify her even. The endless possibilities of what was hiding there, lingering, waiting, watching.

The lack of light terrified her. The fact that she couldn't see an end or a beginning, it was just... dark.

With time she grew to embrace the darkness. To let it over take her. To let it control her.

That's what happens when the Empire controls you for your entire life.

But part of her is grateful- a fucked up part of her is grateful. Because as she sits here in darkness, eyes restricted by a blindfold, mouth gagged and hands bound, even with the shots from outside, she is not afraid. Not anymore.

The Empire made sure to erase all fear from her.

They just left the suffering.

With the blindfold over her eyes it makes it easier for her to imagine the blue light of the bounty puck she was presented with a few days ago. The one that got her in this situation. Never trust a pirate.

She had been drinking alone in a Cantina on some sleemo outer rim planet she'd never even heard of before when a puck had been placed in front of her.

Her face - a terrible old picture from when she was much younger - had stared back at her. With light words beneath it, Kenny Jinn, smuggler, mercenary, thief, murderer, traitor... The list went on and on, she barely made it past the second word.

She'd downed her drink and smashed the glass over the man's head. But in her drunken haze she hadn't realised the entire cantina was a team of pirates. Or that her drinks were spiked.

So now here she sits. Waiting as the blaster fire outside gets louder and closer. A blaster shot brings her from her thoughts. She's used to blaster shots, but the clanking sound of metal that meets her ears right after is what makes her flinch, making her finally sit a little straighter.

The following sound of boots, softly thudding along towards the doors she's hidden behind makes her curl in on herself. Her head tucked into her chest, hair falling around her face, it's long, showing the time she's been here since being taken out of her carbonite prison almost a full standard year ago. The blonde is almost all gone, the colour just at the bottom as her natural red shines through the top.

She had dyed it in a dingy half cantina half inn on one of the Yavin moons just after she was set out of carbonite. She was alone when she was let out, in an abandoned old Empire base on Endor.

Much like now she awoke to darkness, relying on her other sense for guidance. The woman can't see a thing, a mask restricting her vision, it's a simple black piece of fabric, a matching one shoved into her mouth.

The sound of the door sliding open makes her look up, her head tilting slightly towards the sound, sensing someone there above her.

Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.

Shit.

A bounty hunter.

Another one.

There's been eight the last week, none of them have made it this far.

There's no movement for a solid minute, she thinks maybe they've gone, maybe she's been sitting here for so long that she's just disappeared.

Or maybe this is a whole horrible dream.

Maybe she wasn't captured, maybe she didn't get taken back there, or maybe it's her father, maybe he has kept his promise and came to find her after all those years.