Phases of the Moon

Embers and Tundras ~ Part III of the Fire Series

"Oh, come on Celestia, he's cute."

"Couldn't care less, Raven."

"But look at those puppy eyes."

"Do I look like I care?"

"You really want to try to drop him again? He always catches up to us. Why not let him join our crew? There'd be no harm."

"What makes you so sure?"

"Well, it'd give us an extra set of hands. Icy can only do so much.... And Jinx has been trying to officially join up for the past year. Give the guy a break."

"What in the galaxy has he promised you?"

"....He's like us, Tia. What's so bad about joining forces?"

"Last I check, you wanted to steer clear of people like us more than I do."

"Then why in the galaxy are you so friendly with Ashla?"

"That is that, and this is this," Luna huffed in response, giving her partner a glare. Reva didn't mind, well used to the coldness that radiated from the Snow Queen—a nickname that had been coined what felt like ages ago, and one that had started becoming rather well known in the right areas of the underworld. They'd been working together for nearly six years now, and the ex-Imperial felt safe in saying that she more or less understood the enigma that made up her partner in crime—at least on a surface level that was. "Ashla helps us."

"Come on. His company would be nice," Reva pointed out. To be fair, her intention of bringing Jinx on board had a selfish motive behind it. She and the Twi'lek had been developing what Luna would have likely called a fling. The Snow Queen had had a couple herself before the accident a couple years back, but never failed to drop them the moment whoever even hinted at getting serious—often waking up Reva in the middle of the night to fly them to some other planet. Reva's fling, however, had lasted for a solid year.

It wasn't by chance Jinx always found his way back.

"Come on, what's the harm in picking him up officially? He's on the ship fifty percent of the time anyway. And you can't say a slicer isn't helpful to have around."

"The vendetta he has—"

"By that logic, you'd have dropped me a long time ago."

Luna didn't respond at first, instead taking a sip from her drink as her arctic ice left eye and her glowing silver prosthetic right eye, the former hidden under the long side of her opal like hair (the other side of her head was shaved and had cybernetic implants) roamed the room, more valiant than was truly warranted in Maz Kanata's cantina, but a precaution she always took regardless of their location. Despite Reva's advantages over Luna when it came to the Force, the Snow Queen was at least ten times more aware of her surroundings at all times than the Force sensitive. "I need a pilot."

Reva had to resist groaning. She was rather sure that Luna liked her despite how they'd first met. The Snow Queen had dropped or otherwise left behind plenty of other temporary allies over the years, never staying in one place or working with the same people consistently for too long, and Reva had remained the only purposeful exception to the rule. Luna's only explicit reasoning for this was that she needed a pilot to fly her ship. The ex-Inquisitor knew that couldn't be the only reason—Luna may have never flown in the other woman's presence, but someone like her must have learned to fly when she was a teenager if not youngling—but it was the only reason she ever gave and Reva wasn't a fan. It made her feel replaceable.

Then again, perhaps that was the intention. It was hard to know what was happening in the Snow Queen's head, even for the one person who'd been working with her for over half a decade. Luna was just so hard to read. Hard to get close to.