She'd been tracking him for a bit, it was easier now that she had a connection with Grogu. She couldn't sense anything resembling danger or fear from him, so she found herself making her own stops along the way to the youngling.
As a result of this laid-back tracking process, she had finally gotten her droid up and running and quickly created a friendly bond with the charismatic tin can. It made navigating much easier, while she did think of herself as a 'damn good pilot' it did become tedious to do everything, especially after flying for this long.
Meanwhile the Mandalorian was busy trying to make a fraction of the number of credits that he would if he was still in the guild. As a result he had begrudgingly taken on a mission that put him far too close to an Imperial starship for his liking.
Mayfeld was holding the child, joking, making light of a situation that was much more tense than he understood. As he bounced the baby on his side the child let out some grumbly noises, sounding clearly displeased in his arms.
She could sense it when she was meditating in the cockpit. His unrest, his slight distress was only a slight disturbance in the force she could sense but it was enough for her to begin searching for him, and the Mandalorian again.
She was close enough to him as is, but she needed to find him. She closed her eyes for a moment to focus her intent on him as the droid beside her was frantically putting in coordinates she asked it to put in moments ago, and in a moment of clarity she reached out for the ships controls.
"I've got it from here MR-T3, can you start jamming our signal?" The statement was vague, and came off as more of a question than a statement resulting in what she could only interpret as a sassy beep in response as she began navigating the ship.
They had been flying for what seemed like an eternity when the Mandalorian's ship came into view, and with it a New Republic prison ship. She groaned loudly as she turned to her metal companion "please tell me we've jammed our signal?" MR sent back a beep of assurance in return giving her a happy shaky nod as he chirped, thank the heavens.
She turned back to the razor crest moving parking her ship beside it as quickly as possible. "stay here, keep jamming the signal." she advised her droid as she exited her ship quickly jumping on top of the Mandalorian ship. She made her way across the roof of the ship, staring down the hatch she was headed for before she arrived, opening the hatch with haste before she began making her way inside.
As she shut the hatch, she sensed another being in the ship other than the child, she neared the cockpit standing beneath the stairs listening quietly as the droid above frantically called out directions.
From what she could decipher from the droids rushed monotonous voice the Mandalorian was no longer apart of the mission. She made note of it before turning, averting her focus to the current task at hand. She opened the hatch of the small sleeping quarters to find Grogu, she smiled at him whispering softly for him to stay quiet and make no noise as she hid him behind a blanket and shut the door quickly.
She waited a moment to ensure the coast was clear from the droid before she headed out, begrudgingly making her way down from the Mandalorian's ship into the New Republic prison.
She quickly made her way through the prison, making her way to the control room. She sighed softly at the sight of the deceased man, stepping past him to find the coordinates most recently looked up. Once she retrieved the coordinates she made her way towards it and just as quickly as she found the control room, she found him.
He was locked in one of the prison cells, with no other remnants of his crew to be found. She smirked to herself, he's more foolish than she thought.
She took her saber out igniting it only for a moment to destroy the control bar, as it melted away into itself the door to the cell slid open.
"I told you to keep the child safe and you brought him to a New Republic prison ship?" Her tone came out sarcastic as she stared him down with curious eyes.
His beskar gleamed under the lights as he turned his head to the side looking at her in confusion, and with a baffled voice he said, "I-I needed the credits." He wanted to come off sterner, as if he wasn't just imprisoned by the people was helping, but he couldn't. He was too shocked.
She nodded and turned to leave, "Be careful of the companions you keep, not all of them are as kind as the child." She said as she began to leave turning back to him, her cloak just barely hiding a her face.
"Are you following me?"
"Yes. I was not keeping close, but I could sense that you two were in danger." She chimed as they both began walking down the Republic corridors, both on high alert even in this moment of shock.
"I can take care of him." He said matter of factly, his voice moderated by his visor.
"I know, but a little help doesn't hurt." She said as she sent a smile over at him, "I assume your friends are going to try escape on your ship?" she inquired as she turned towards him, he nodded in response.
There was nothing else that needed to be said as they made their way back into the control room. After a few moments he moved toward the control board to set off the comms and locked the ship down.
"You will need my help then." She felt awkward, it felt as if she was the only one to do the talking but to be fair, he did not seem like the talkative type anyways.
"I do not need your help." His was voice harsh, it came out through his visor, modulated and robotic.
"I know. Mandalorian's are revered as the greatest fighters in the galaxy." She complimented, her face expressionless as she glanced at him for a moment, "but correct me if my math is wrong but two is better than one, right?" her voice almost hopeful.
He huffed loudly, nodding in response as the two waited for the return of his 'crew' the red light enveloping them as the ship immersed itself into lockdown. It adding a certain gleam to his armour she couldn't help but admire, beskar though expensive sure was beautiful.
"We should split up then, would you like to take down the red one together?" Her question came out almost giddy. She hadn't had a real fight in what felt like years, but she need not think of these interactions as enjoyable fights, but more so a means to an end.
"You should get into the vents, attack him from above. I will hide behind the control board." She instructed as she moved adjusting her hooded cloak, hiding her face, her hand gripping the hilt of her saber as she kneeled down behind the command board.
Once the two were situated the Devaronian ran into the room frantically, the hallway door shutting behind him as he began looking around the room for Mando.
Once he was situated under the vent the Mandalorian shot out his grappling wire out and attempted to pull him up into a hanging position. But the man was both stronger and bigger than he looked, and as a result the man yanked him down out of the vents causing Asora to flinch.
Once the Mandalorian was out of the vent and in the open they began wrestling with each other. This proved to be a harder fight than anticipated and because of this the Mandalorian proceeded to get his helmet (and his head) bashed into the walls as they fought with eachother. After a few moments Asora decided to intervene with the force, pushing the Devaronian back off of the Mandalorian holding him a few feet away for a moment before she pushed him as hard as she could into the command board behind him.
This gave the Mandalorian enough time to ready himself for the man's next attack. But, as he neared the Devaronian threw him back into the control board again, walking over to him with an angry expression as he reached his hand out, picking him up by the neck.
"Let's see your face Mandalorian." He grumbled as he held him up by one arm, Asora moved forward and kicked him in the ribcage, raising her foot, channeling the force as she pushed him back again. She pulled him from the wall towards the door giving the Mandalorian enough leeway to bounce back and kick him into the vacant doorway closing the first command room door on top of him.
However, the Devaronian proved to be stronger than anticipated because within moments of the door falling onto him he picked it up, raising it on his shoulders in a smug manner. The Mandalorian pushed another button, closing the horizontal doors on him again.
"Well done." Asora complimented
"I can take it from here, you should focus on the others I will put him in his place." She commanded, she didn't want to come off demanding or better than him, but she couldn't help it. She was too used to calling the shots and doing things on her own or with her master.
He nodded, opening the doors again, stepping over the knocked out Devaronian as he headed off to find another one of his 'companions'.
She picked the Devaronian up over her shoulders, and quickly escorted him to a prison cell, laying his limp body down before exiting quietly.
While she knew the Mandalorian could handle himself she still wanted to help, in hopes of it possibly getting help on her 'help me find Han Solo' offer.
Just as she was about to set off to find another one of the scoundrels, she heard the child call out, he was scared. Not too scared but enough to alert her. She made her way towards the Mandalorian's ship, ignoring the current chaos taking place behind her as she began climbing up the ladder.
She entered the hull to find the droid holding a blaster at the child, stopping to turn to her as she entered.
She ignited her saber and quickly leaped towards it, pushing the vibrant green blade through its metal chest. Once it fell to the ground she quickly retracted her saber's blade, rushing to the child.
He stood brave on the bed in the ships sleeping nook where she left him, his tiny green hand up, ready to use the force and his big eyes looking at her in awe. She smiled softly at him, kneeling to look at him as she pushed her hood off of her head, "Hello again, little one." She greeted as she reached out her arms welcoming him into her embrace.
She turned, only to find the Mandalorian standing behind her, "Don't worry, he is safe." She said with a smile, looking down at him then glancing back towards the Mandalorian.
"Thank you." Is all he could muster up to say, what even was there to say?
"Of course." She nodded and went to hand him to the Mandalorian, but he held up a hand for a moment.
"I need to bring one of them up here, he was the mission." She nodded as he went back down, bringing a soft purple Twi'lek man back up with him.
As he came back, she handed him the child and smiled, sparing a short curt glance towards the Twi'lek man.
"Goodbye for now." She smiled, moving up to open the hatch above again and briskly jumping out, entering her own ship.
They didn't need to linger, or say more, once she entered her ship, once she started her ship up, instructing the droid to direct them to the nearest planet as she began to prepare a transmission.
"Mandalorian, I expect you know I will be tracking you; I may not stay close but do not hesitate to contact me if you are in need of help. Keep the child safe, and may the force be with you." She ended the transmission with a nod.
Once it ended, she turned to her droid and smiled "that wasn't too bad was it?" she asked, the droid beeping in response, its head shaking slightly. She smiled and patted its head lightly and sent the Mandalorian ship the transmission.
Now we wait.
－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－－
word count: 1947
𝐚𝐡𝐡! 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐦𝐞𝐞𝐭 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧, 𝐢 𝐡𝐨𝐩𝐞 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐭 𝐬𝐨 𝐟𝐚𝐫!
𝐚𝐬 𝐮𝐬𝐮𝐚𝐥, 𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐦𝐞 𝐬𝐨 𝐢𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐮𝐞𝐬 𝐢 𝐚𝐩𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐢𝐳𝐞!