Predator and Prey

Chapter 2

6 months later

Zheth had been staying in the ruins of Jabba's Palace, hiding in the destruction a small scuffle and weather had caused in hopes that the Rebellion wouldn't find her. It was hard to survive with so little food and clean water, she knew she'd have to leave soon for a new hideout, but it was the occasional fighting of the other members who had survived an attack that killed Hutt that worried her the most. Sure they had time to establish a hierarchy but Zheth knew it was only a matter of time before something went bad and the older scum who still lived here decided to stop sharing their depleting resources with her. She constantly put that thought aside, she stuck to the shadows when scavenging the building for food and water, and they probably didn't even realize she was there.

That's how it seemed until later that night when she heard a gun clicking behind her. Zheth slowly dropped the container she'd been carrying and turned to stare at the barrel of the blaster, which wasn't in very good shape. Her eyes already adjusted to the dark, she could tell the bounty hunter himself wasn't in very good shape either and he seemed to be covered in dried mucus of some sort.

"Who else is here?" The bounty hunter growled.

Zheth backed up a few steps to stare at him, a scowl on her face. "Who says I'm not the only one?"

"A child doesn't just wander off all alone, especially not to a place like this."

Her glare turned colder. "They do if their parents were killed. Now I could ask you why you want to know who else is here."

"I could kill you right now."

"And I could die." She agreed. "It would rid the galaxy of another orphaned bastard, wouldn't it? But you're injured and don't even know if that blaster works, so you won't."

The man lowered the blaster slowly before leaning against the nearby wall and seemed to catch his breath before speaking again. "What's your name kid?"

"Zheth Crogh." She responded before crossing her arms. "Smuggler for the Empire."

The bounty hunter scoffed. "You're much too young."

"My parents taught me how."

"Still too young to do much on your own, can you even fly a ship?"

"For your information that's how I got here!" Zheth snapped back before turning away. "I would've left too if someone else hadn't stolen it..."

"You wanted to come here? Do you know what Jabba would've done with a girl like you?" She jumped slightly as he touched her shoulders, pulling her closer slightly. "You would've become his new form of entertainment, and in a few years, everyone's entertainment... if you survived that long. Jabba could get board easily with the same slave."

She shivered, remembering all those females who had gone in and out of the slave chains through the years. Every time she came here it was always someone new. She shook him off a bit. "At least I would be alive with a chance of escaping, I know how to fight. I could've escaped if that happened."

She was pretty sure there was a mocking look under that banged up helmet as he stared at her but all the bounty hunter did was shrug and give a simple comment. "Perhaps you're lucky that fat slug is dead."

"But you aren't." Zheth commented, finally recognizing his armor slightly from other times she'd been here. "You were employed by him."

"I can steal from him what I can't earn anymore." He started making his way down a relatively unused hallway.

Zheth hesitated a moment before running after him. "Wait, you never told me who you were."

The bounty hunter glanced back for a moment; almost like he was surprised she didn't know him. "Boba Fett."

"Are you from Mandalore?" She questioned, recognizing the name style. "My adoptive parents were killed there..."

This time Boba didn't respond right away and for a moment Zheth wondered if she'd hit a sensitive memory. With a sigh though the bounty hunter opened a room with a code before motioning for her to follow him inside. "I was born outside the outer rim but my father was Madalorian so I am, in a way."

It was silent for minutes on end as she watched him check the things in what she guessed had been his room before he finally took off his helmet to face her. "Your parents, they were the human and that Nautolan right?"

"Yeah..." She narrowed her eyes slightly, what was he getting at?

"Then consider yourself lucky they're dead. The female wasn't so bad if I'm remembering right but her partner... nasty temper, almost killed him myself a few times." Boba turned back away from her to dig out some clean armor. "Go see if my ship is still around, it's called Slave I. I'll join you in a moment."

Zheth didn't want to go find the ship, especially since all their talking was bound to have woken some residence up, but decided it was best to obey Boba for now considering he probably had some working weapons hiding somewhere in arms reach of where he stood. She went back out into the hallway, sneaking through the shadows and pausing at every sound she heard until she made it outside. The suns still weren't up yet but she could see the faint signs that the first one would be rising soon in the distance. Making her way over to where the ships usually landed she found several, though most looked like they wouldn't get off the ground, before seeing one that seemed to have been left alone... Zheth was relieved to see the correct name on it. She didn't know how Boba Fett would react if his ship was one of the ones torn up.

A series of inhuman speech was rattled off from behind her followed by the click of a blaster. Zheth didn't need a translation as she slowly turned around to stare at her attacker. The Twi'lek didn't seem too happy she'd been near the ship and Zheth backed away from it, her eyes never leaving the blaster.

"Uh, can we talk about this?" She gave a small laugh and continued stepping back. "You can keep the ship, I don't mind, I was just uh, just passing by."

The Twi'lek gave another round of angry words and matched her step for step.

Zheth ducked to the side as he fired at her before keeping a rusted ship between her and the Twi'lek. "Okay, okay, I'm going!"

Another blaster went off and she ducked down before realizing it hadn't come from her attacker's weapon. Glancing around the side of the ship she saw the Twi'lek dead on the ground while Boba Fett was walking over to his ship as though killing the man hadn't disturbed him... she could guess it probably hadn't considering what he was. Zheth slowly came out of hiding, not sure if the bounty hunter was going to take her out too, before coming to a stop still in close range to the rusted ship in case she needed to duck again.

"Don't stand there, more will be coming after that!" Boba's voice chided her as he turned around to walk over and grab her. "Follow me."

"What?" She pulled away from him slightly and scowled. "I'm not just going with you! Who says you won't just kill me?"

"If that was the case I would leave you here." Boba retorted before shoving her into the ship ahead of him. "Just don't touch the controls!"

Zheth sat in the copilot's seat as the bounty hunter took a seat beside her and made the ship take off with ease. After a few minutes of flying towards the atmosphere she spoke again. "Why?"

He glanced over at her. "You're a smart kid, I could use someone like you at times and with the proper training I can make you almost as great as I am."

"Almost?" She gave him a look, one eyebrow raised.

"No one is as good as I am." He said simply. "But if you want to argue about it I can always land the ship at the next planet and show you."

Zheth shook her head. "Uh, no, I believe you."

"Good." He continued facing forward."Now, why don't you tell me what you already know, this flight might take a while."