Blood and Money - The Mandalorian

New Threat

     "I should beat your ass." I snarled. "Come on we're leaving, let's go."

     "What the hell are you doing here? I didn't tell you that for you to show up." She smiled. "If we get caught, its because you showed up like an idiot."

     "What did you expect me to do? Sit around and wait until he recognized you and then decided to come looking for me? You know that man is still holding a grudge right? I don't think he's too happy about us blowing up his ship. Now get your ass up and let's go."

     "Well, since you're here, why not just sit down and have a drink with me. Like old times." She waved toward the barmaid who nodded in return.

     "You don't stand in the middle of a vipers pit and expect none of them to strike." I gritted my teeth.  "Now get your ass up so we can get out of here." My voice was low as I still glanced around trying not to attract attention.

     "Interesting analogy, but I still like playing with fire and I'm not done yet, so just sit down because you are attracting attention standing there." She stated. Sighing deeply at her stubbornness, I went ahead and sat opposite of her in the booth. Mando glanced around before he sat next to me on the edge of the chair. I then leaned in whispering softly.

     "Oh my god, you're going to get us caught." I rubbed my face and then sighed as I shook my head. "Okay? So? Where is he?" 

     "He's back there in the corner." She nodded her head in the direction over her left shoulder. I moved so I could look behind her leaning on Mando a bit, who looked at me as I did. There were other creatures and beings blocking my view so I waited until a couple of them move away and that's when I saw him. Looking as gorgeous as always sitting at a table near the back. His long dark hair still reminding me of soft feathers. 

It was him. I shook my head. 

        "Told you." She smiled taking a sip of her drink and watched Mando turn toward the same direction I had been looking.

     "There's no way that's really him, it can't be. We destroyed his ship, he was onboard when we did, right? We made sure, right?" I asked her glancing at the barmaid as she set the drink in front of me. Lane handed her the coins and she walked away. Mando was still looking around.

     "Well, then he must've escaped while we were watching it explode." she then took a sip from her cup.

     "What do you think he's doing here? There's no way he's looking for us, I mean he wouldn't even know we were here." I took a drink, finding out that it was really strong and I coughed from it. "Well that didn't taste like battery acid." I pushed the cup aside.

     "Well, I don't know love." She leaned in then grinned. "Should we just walk up to him and say hey good looking, whatcha doing here on our side of the universe?" she joked. "Care for a cuddle?"

     "Someone's got jokes." I shook my head still trying to figure out how he escaped. So many scenarios were rushing through my brain. Be it from him jumping into an escape pod, to him not even being on board. All of them made sense, but none of them really explained it, unless I asked him and that wasn't something I was willing to do at the moment. I sighed as I leaned in toward Mando who was still looking around. I turned toward Lane. "We need to get the hell outta here. Look you're worrying Mando, look at his face, he's worried. We need to go." Part of me was joking due to his helmet, but the other part was true because of the way he was acting. Lane shook her head at me as she took a drink. I leaned in toward Mando. "Do you see any of those Stormtroopers guys around?" He shook his head.

     "No."

     "Stormtroopers?" Lane repeated. 

     "The guys in the white armor, I guess they're some kind of super soldier." Mando turned to look at me, He didn't say anything. "What? am I wrong?" I asked confused. He just shook his head and turned away.

    "Oh, those blokes, no they left before you came in." She told us. "They went through that door back there." She pointed to another door toward the back of the room near the cheering crowd of people that I had noticed earlier.

     "I'll go check it out, I'll be right back." Mando spoke and got up, I watched him walk around the other side of the bar slowly heading toward the door. Creatures started walking in front of me and I couldn't see if he had gone in or not. I turned my attention toward Lane again.

     "Come on Lane, lets get outta here while we still can?" I leaned in. "I don't like being this close to him, it makes me nervous, you know what he can do."

     "I don't know why you're so nervous. If anything he should be scared of us." she leaning in a bit. "We did blow the hell out of his ship, all those Cartainion's are gone. He's by himself now." She sat back. "It doesn't look like he's got a leg to stand on."

     "Come on, you really think all the Cartainions are dead? There's one right back there and I'm sure there's more and if He's hanging around with new guys carrying weapons, do you really think he's scared of us? No that just means he's in with a new bunch of assholes that will be out to get us if he see us." I told her.  "Mando thinks he might be trying to get in with something called the Empire, something I can only assume has to be worse then the Cartainions." I took another glance toward the back where he was sitting peacefully, nursing his drink as he too looked around at all the creatures walking about the bar. I moved back out of his view. "And now you're putting us into this situation."

     "The Empire?" She repeated confused not paying attention to anything else I had mentioned. "Is that something else to worry about?"

     "I'm just gonna assume it's has to be something bad and he's obviously in with them." I leaned in again. "I don't want to take any chances here, we've got other people to think about, we need to go." I was becoming very nervous sitting there knowing Lord Clario wasn't but a few seats away from me. Even if she was right about him not having the same power as before. He was still a dangerous man that could get that power back easily by just talking his way into it. And who knows if he still held a grudge against those who blew up his planet killer ship that he worked hard to create.

I honestly still didn't understand how he survived that blast. Part of me wanted to rush up to him, grab him by the neck and force him to tell me. But the other half of me was telling me to just get out before he can see you and let the man do his thing on this side of the system and we go back where we belong and worry about it later. 

But right now, live the day.

A/N New chapter as promised. Want another?

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