Meet Me in the Grey (Reylo fanfiction) (COMPLETED)

Chapter 13: When a Plan Comes Together

A note from your humble author: Allow me to hand you some duct tape – you're gonna need it to hold onto your butts!  

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Zeego Hue was sitting at the bar in Maz's palace, sipping a Corellian brandy through a straw that went through the mouth guard of his helmet, when one of Maz's bouncers tapped him on the shoulder.

"Maz might have some information that may be valuable to you. She's in the back room," he said, pointing to a hallway past the bar.

Zeego was a Bothan, and usually wore a full helmet, because in the trade of bounty hunting, anonymity was a valuable asset. He hadn't had any good leads in days, but he made it a regular habit to visit Maz's tavern every other cycle because it was a good place to gather intelligence. Maz herself was not usually the one to pass along information; she preferred to remain neutral in the dealings of her patrons, it was better for business.

He had a naturally distrusting nature, but he hadn't received any other leads in such a long time, he decided to throw caution to the wind.

When he walked into the back room his suspicions rose even more as he noticed Maz was not alone, there was also an older human male and a young human female.

The door seemed to slam shut behind him all on its own and he instantly jumped. "What is this?" he asked.

"These are some friends of mine. They sort of need a bounty hunter and they sort of don't. They can make it worth your while," said Maz.

Zeego probably would have looked very confused if not for his mask. "What do you mean they do and they don't?"

The human male stood and approached him. "We don't need you; we need your identity, your ship, and your code for First Order clearance, and your silence when this is over. We know you've worked for the First Order in the past, you do still have your clearance don't you?"

Zeego did have a working clearance, though he hadn't used it in ages. It had been a long time since he had turned in any bounties for the First Order. He found their rewards to often be stingy for the type of people they wanted him to hunt down for them, usually resistance spies. He suspected these people were with the resistance.

"I have it. It should still work, but like hell I'm giving up my ship or my identity, whatever that means."

The older human looked shrewd, and not like someone to take 'no' lightly. Zeego was curious to at least hear what they had to offer.

"We'll give you twenty thousand credits, which is probably worth twice as much as you and your ship combined, and an extra ten thousand if you keep your mouth shut about all this. Rest assured, if you go back on that last part," he said as he switched on a deadly looking weapon, which looked like an old fashioned Jedi light saber. "I will be forced to find you, and make you very very sorry."

Zeego was instantly terrified, but he was also more than a little greedy. "Thirty? Seems a little low for ruining my reputation with the First Order. You realize you'll ruin my business with them from here on. That's a lot of business to lose!" he argued.

"Thirty five," he said and reached out his hand, suddenly Zeego's helmet snapped off his head and flew into the man's hand. "And we're taking this."

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"Thirty five?" Rey cried when they were on their way back to the base in a speeder. "Can the resistance even spare that?" She knew she hadn't much experience with credits, on Jakku almost everything was bartered in portions, but she knew enough to know that that was no small sum. She couldn't even comprehend how many portions that could buy.