See Me, See You: A Mandalorian Story

C H A P T E R F O U R

"They want you to remove your weaponry." Kuiil translated.

"I'm a Mandalorian. Weapons are part of my religion."

"Please." Kuiil begged for the reconsideration.

"Mando, we need these parts. We're on their turf for now." Reina tried to ease her partner's growing frustration.

"They are willing to bargain for the ship parts they found." Kuiil explained.

"They didn't find them!" Mando corrected forcefully. "They stole them!"

The Jawas denied it, and Mando argued back the best he could in the Jawa language, at which the theives only chattered in amusement.

"They don't understand your Jawa language." Kuiil stated.

"Do you understand this?" Mando thrust his arm out and shot his flamethrower over the Jawas' heads. Even Reina thought that was a bit excessive. She tried resolving the matter at hand quickly. "What do they want to bargain for the parts?"

First, the Jawas wanted the child, which was completely off-limits. Then, they wanted Mando's Beskar armor. Mando didn't have to speak up, because Reina did first: "The Beskar armor is too valuable to the Mandalorian. There has to be something else." Mando only gazed at her from the side.

The Jawas bickered among each other, but then suddenly began chanting. Kuiil groaned and leaned his forehead into his hand.

"The Egg?" The two bounty hunters questioned. "What is that?"

REINA'S POV

"What do you mean I'm not going?" I spat, unbelieving of what I was hearing. "You are going to leave me here to...to baby-sit!"

"We don't know what this Egg belongs to, and I'm not taking any chances that there is not something to be dealt with. I'll be in and out. I don't need distractions." Mando stated, holstering his weapons. "Especially, since you are..." He stopped, but it was obvious what he wanted to say. I shook my head in disbelief.

The entire way we rode with the Jawas in their crawling fortress, we never spoke of a plan, and now I knew why...

"I thought we finally understood one another, Mando." I sighed, placing one hand on my hip, watching him walk away without a single word. I then looked down at the baby in its capsule, it looking right back at me. "We are not going to let him have all the fun." I decided.

With the baby in toll, I quietly followed Mando to the mudhorn's lair. There was no sign of him by the time we caught up since we had to keep our distance, so I assumed he had already entered the cave. I could sense movement in the rocky walls around us, especially right in front of me—that had to be where the mouth of the cave was. It was completely silent over than that. "Maybe Mando could've handled this on his own. I guess he was right about not needing my help." I muttered to myself, or rather, to the baby. In some way, I honestly thought it could understand me.

"What am I going to do?" I breathed.

As if on cue, blaster shots rang throughout the wide canyon, the echos bouncing off the rocky walls. "Mando!" I gasped when I sensed his presense. He was flung out of the cave, splattering across in the mud plain. I jumped into the fight towards my partner, reaching out to grab his arm. He noticed me, and when he called out to me, I actually hesitated. "What are you doing here?! Get out of here! Quick!"

It wasn't anger. It wasn't fear. Mando sounded worried.

The ground beneath me began to rumble harder and harder, and I was abruptly knocked into the mud by Mando just as a rush of wind hit my right side. The smell gave the mudhorn away if not the brute power of its charge I was sensing.

"Get out of here! Take the kid and go!"

"I can help!" I shouted back, but Mando didn't hear me, for he bolted in the opposite direction of me and the child. Then, terrifyingly, I lost sight of my partner...I couldn't move. I couldn't see anything. All I could feel were the mudhorn's thunderous charges in the ground, and I could hear its grunting and Mando's blasters and heaving. I felt so incredibly useless. I couldn't draw my rifle, in fear I'd hit him.

"MANDO!!!" I screamed.

Then, a cry from the Mandalorian reached me. I felt his pain, and I drew my katana. And then...the strangest occurence happened. I could see Mando again, bracing himself against the mudhorn. What was strange was that I could also see the charging monster, as plain as anyone could see. It was floating off the ground, and yet I could sense everything. Seizing this opportunity to strike, I whipped my blade over my head and it propelled and found its mark in the mudhorn's thick side. It suddenly dropped back to the surface, bellowing in pain, and Mando finished it off with his handheld knife.

It was over and I immediately sprinted to my partner's aid. "Are you alright? Here, give me your arm." I assisted him, which he didn't argue over for once. I decided I would be the first one to say it. "Thank you, Mando. For saving me."

"You're welcome. And thank you, too." He returned the compliment. "For showing up." I responded with a calm smile, but then felt puzzled.

"How did that thing float?" I wondered. "I also had a really strong feeling about it, too."

"It was the kid." Mando answered bluntly, which only puzzled me more, but then I realized that the child had mysteriously passed out into a deep sleep.

THIRD PERSON POV

The three of them returned with the Egg just in time before the Jawas gave up on them. They rejoiced at the delicacy and feasted upon it as Kuiil helped the bounty hunters gather all of the Razor Crest's parts on the trailer. When they arrived back at the Razor Crest, Kuiil offered more of his help, in Mando's pestimistic attitude, to fix the ship with them.

Side by side, Mando and Reina worked together with Kuiil's instruction, and the three of them finished in no time. It was finally ready to leave the planet and return to Nevarro to deliver the asset.

"I cannot thank you enough for your help." Mando showed his deepest gratitude to Kuiil. "I could use a crew member like you." Although the farmer declined politely, Mando really didn't want to leave without giving him some reward. "The only reward I wanted, I have received. Thank you for bringing peace to my valley."

"We are eternally grateful." Reina gave Kuiil a hug. She then boarded the Razor Crest with the baby in toll. Before Mando could follow behind her, Kuiil briefly stopped him. "Mandalorian, if you don't listen to what your heart tells you and only to your head, then you will always lose the battle."

"What does that mean, exactly?"

"I have spoken."

Mando knew he wasn't going to get an explanation and said his final farewells to the native. And with that, the Razor Crest made its trip back to Nevarro.