After depositing Burg's unconscious—though miraculously still alive—body in Qin's abandoned cell, Kasia, Din, and Yrel slipped through the dark corridors, silent save the latter's murmured directions to Mando as he and Kasia steered the group in Xi'an's direction. While Kasia and Yrel could speak silently to each other and Mando could speak silently to both with thought projection, neither could speak to Mando, seeing as he wasn't an Eulentian. A major inconvenience if Kasia did say so herself.
Kasia came to the halt suddenly, glancing towards where Din and Yrel stood at her back. She could feel Xi'an's presence around the corner of the hallway, could sense her simmering thoughts and fear and budding wonder if Din would spare her.
For a moment, Kasia slipped inside the woman's head, watched as a lifetime of bitterness flashed before her eyes. Finally, Kasia blinked and pulled herself back to the present as she tightened and loosened her grip on her blasters before nodding at Din.
Together they turned the corner, creeping up upon the Twi'lek from behind.
Within moments, Kasia felt awareness snap inside Xi'an's mind, and she had just enough time to duck before one of the woman's knives whistled past her ear, another slamming into the blaster in Mando's hand and sending it flying.
Kasia jumped back to her feet, dodging as more blades whistled through the air rapid fire, aimed both at Mando and Kasia. But while the blade's ricocheted uselessly off of Mando's Beskar, Kasia was left with no other option but to dodge the flying knives. She grunted as one barely clipped the edge of her right arm, a small trickle of blood rising in the wake of the blade.
Ignoring the pain, Kasia raised her blasters and shot at the Twi'lek, aiming to decapacitate but unfortunately not to kill the girl—it had been decided after their skirmish with Burg that locking up the traitors and condemning them to a lifetime of imprisonment would be better than killing them. After all, they hadn't killed Mando when they had the chance, so there was a certain kind of symmetry in the act.
The Twi'lek dodged the plasma bolts with exaggerated difficulty—seriously Kasia had been aiming to maim not kill the woman, so the dramatics were really unnecessary—as Din used the cover to continue slowly approaching his ex-lover.
Spinning, Xi'an flung a dagger towards Din, and he staggered back a step as it caught him in the shoulder, where the Beskar didn't protect his skin.
Kasia's eyes widened, and she sucked in an unconscious breath as the Mandalorian gave a low grunt of pain. Still, Kasia didn't allow herself a moment to ponder it as she surged forward, ducking below one of the Twi'lek's poorly aimed knives and again unsheathing the knife she kept strapped at her side.
Xi'an gave a hiss of pain as Kasia drove the blade low into the flesh at her side, the injury certainly agonizing but sadly not deadly.
"I can either kill you now," Kasia murmured under her breath as she dug the blade in deeper, a whimper passing the Twi'lek's lips, "Or you can yield. Your choice, sweetheart."
The woman bared her teeth at Kasia, but finally snarled, "Fine."
Kasia's lips curled up in a satisfied grin as she yanked the knife from the Twi'lek's side. "Awesome." Not giving the Twi'lek a moment to act upon the thought which sprung to the forefront of her mind—that being unsheathing the hidden knife in her sleeve and splitting Kasia's jugular in two (a truly lovely image if Kasia did say so herself)—Kasia brough the bottom of her knife to hit the side of the woman's forehead.
At the impact, Xi'an eyes rolled into the back of her head as she collapsed with a small thud. Kasia fought her smirk.
Great, another body to carry, Yrel complained silently. Kasia ignored him.
"Are you okay?" she asked Din with wide eyes which fixed instantly on Xi'an's knife jutting out from his shoulder. Instinctively, Kasia made her way forward, her hand rising to the end of the protruding blade and grasping it before it occurred to her to check for his permission.
Din watched Kas with parted lips as she moved to pull the dagger from his shoulder, nodding once when she looked up at him in confirmation. As she yanked out the blade, he only winced, the pain minimal to that which he had endured in the past.
Still, he found himself saying, in a voice which held a little too much annoyance, "Ouch."
His heart did a somersault as Kas glanced up at him with an impish grin, her eyes crinkling at the corners as she retorted, "Wow, you got stabbed and it hurt? What a fucking surprise."
Din rolled his eyes under his helmet as Kasia turned back to Xi'an's unconscious body, the smile slipping from her lips as she sulked. "I don't suppose we can just leave her out here? There's a good chance she'll end up in a cell anyways."
"No."
Kasia pouted. "You're no fun."
"Says you."
"Oh please. I'm the motherfucking life of the party and we both know it."
*.*.*
Kasia could feel Mayfeld's anxiety rolling off of him in large waves long before she saw him through the flashing darkness. He was tense as he walked cautiously forward, blasters extended in both hands and his weird shooting-backpack-thingy also engaged.
"You should get one of those for your suit," Kasia whispered to Mando under her breath as they crept forward, nodding towards the configuration. "Might help compensate for the lacking jetpack."
Shut up, came his response, though Kasia knew the words were spoken silently with amusement rather than annoyance.
Kasia watched as Mayfeld jumped at a passing mouse droid, stifling a laugh as he gave a small exclamation of noise at the sudden scare. He really was a wimp. Not to mention a piss poor Sabacc player.
"I got this one," Kas whispered to Din before she strolled forward at a quicker rate, not allowing him a moment to argue.
Don't do anything stupid, he merely cautioned her silently.
In response as she made her way forward, melting into the onyx and crimson shadows between the periodic pulses of light, Kasia tossed one last look over her shoulder, her eyebrows raised as if to say, am I ever not cautious?
Era'lyn bwe ane, Yrel reminded her pointedly as he noticed the look, the words the first half of an Eulentian proverb.
The end of the phrase rose instinctively in Kasia's mind, and she finished the proverb silently, era'ebabwe yren.
Silent as a wraith, Kasia crept behind Mayfeld, the man turning around to look over his shoulder a beat too late; already behind him, Kasia stayed behind his back as the sharpshooter pivoted, his body tensing as the light once again flashed, illuminating Din and Yrel's forms in the darkness. A yell rose in his throat as he realized Kasia was not with the other two. Too late, he spun and found himself face to face with the barrel of Kasia's blasters.
She gave him her most winning smile. "Boo, asshole."
*.*.*
"I'm really going to be sore tomorrow from having to drag so many bodies through the corridors," Kasia complained as she, Din, and Yrel made their way towards the passageway where the entry hole to the Razor Crest lay—and therefore towards where Qin too was headed.
"Yrel did all the work," Mando responded dryly, his lips twitching up beneath his helmet at Kasia's squawk of outrage. She paused where she had raised her hands above her head to stretch, instead choosing to shove the Mandalorian in the side.
He didn't so much as budge. Kasia tried not to let it damage her pride.
Kasia and Yrel both straightened as they sensed Qin's presence, and Kasia found herself crinkling her nose at the very aura of the Twi'lek; he was perhaps one of the most self-serving men she had ever encountered, his greed making up practically his entire personality.
Taking the sudden shift in Kasia's mood as indication of Qin's nearness, Mando's easygoing smile fell off his face from underneath his helmet as well, his posture stiffening slightly as he called out, "Qin."
From where he had been positioned on the ladder leading back up to the Razor Crest, the lavender skinned Twi'lek stalled, his eyes scanning Mando, Yrel, and Kasia in turn. The latter fought down the noise of disgust that rose in the back of her throat as she heard and felt the thoughts that rose in Qin's mind upon seeing her. If they didn't need to deliver him alive, she might well have gutted the man on the spot. She doubted Din would make much of a move to stop her—in fact, if she told him even a percentage of the thoughts swirling in the Twi'lek's mind, she had a feeling he would join her.
Qin gave a small huff of feigned sorrow as he stepped down from the ladder, looking down at his feet before glancing towards where the trio stood. "You killed the others."
Mando paused a moment before correcting ambiguously, "They got what they deserved."
The Twi'lek snarled softly, and a jolt of sorrow did emanate from the man; Kasia supposed he did care for his sister somewhat, though certainly not as much as she had cared for him. Qin whirled to face the three of them as he snarled again, but they all three already had their blasters leveled on his chest, unflinching as they stared him down.
"Now, why should we not kill you right here and now?" Kasia asked contemplatively, already knowing that they were going to take Qin in regardless but wanting to make the Twi'lek sweat a little bit—she rather liked making men sweat.
Kasia felt the Twi'lek's brain run a mile a minute as he tried to plot a way to escape the transport ship with his life. Finally, he remarked with a sigh, "You kill me, you don't get your money." He shrugged with what might have appeared to an outsider as an air of resolve. Still, Kasia could feel him already planning to double-cross them the moment he got back to Ran's space station. But that didn't matter—they already had their own plan to deal with Ran anyways.
"Whatever Ran promised, I'll make sure you get it, and more," Qin vowed. His gaze shifted to Mando in particular as he scoffed. "Come on, Mando. Be reasonable. Huh?" he murmured in a soft voice as he tossed his blaster to the ground. "You were hired to do a job, right? So do it," the Twi'lek held his hands out in front of his body, as though asking for cuffs. "Isn't that your code? Aren't you a man of honor?"
Kasia rolled her eyes at the Twi'lek. "And here I was, under the impression that Mayfeld was the most annoying asshole on this ship," she quipped, smiling prettily at the glare Qin leveled on her. Still, he didn't dare snap at her, still too trepidatious about his own safety to risk it.
She strode past Qin, holstering her blasters and whistling a made-up toon. After climbing two rungs of the ladder, she glanced back down at the Twi'lek and winked. "Up we go, asshole."
I hate it when you try to rhyme, Din told her silently as she climbed through the hole into the Crest.
A noise from the top level of the Razor Crest, however, caused the laugh to die on her lips, and Kasia's breath caught as she placed the noise as that of one of the Crest's doors hissing open. Eyes wide, Kasia quickly scaled the Crest's ladder to the second level, her breath catching as she found Zero peering down at the child, the droid's blaster raised and priming to fire.
On instinct, Kasia drew the blaster at her side, firing it in a swift motion seconds before Zero did his own. She sighed a breath of relief as the droid collapsed and she rushed to the kid, picking him up in a quick hug as her heart hammered in her chest.
Kas, what was that? Din's panicked voice spoke in her mind a moment later, frantic from the sudden sound of a blaster going off in the cabin. He appeared from the ladder a moment later, his eyes widening under his visor as he first beheld Zero's unmoving metal body and then Kasia holding the child.
Din couldn't help but heave a sigh of relief as he realized that the two were both alright, his heart rate returning to normal at the reassurance.
"Apparently betrayal is a staple amongst this band of assholes," Kasia announced in response, turning to face Din as she continued to cradle the child. "Damned droid tried to kill him," she shook her head, her voice softening as she added, "I don't- if I had arrived one second later—"
She couldn't bring herself to finish the thought as the kid cooed softly in her arms, the noise eliciting a small smile from the girl.
His feet seemed to have a mind of their own as Din walked slowly over to Kasia and the kid, his gaze dipping to look at the child before his hand hesitantly found its way to awkwardly rest on her shoulder. "Luckily, you didn't."
Kasia stared in shock at the gloved hand resting on her shoulder, trying her best not to look like she was gawking at it and utterly failing. She fought to keep the heat from creeping onto her face, instead gazing up at Din's mask and pretending his own eyes were staring deeply into hers. Her mouth was dry as she forced herself to respond. "Well, looks like that's another tally against droids for you. And just when I thought we were making progress."
Din chuckled quietly at her small joke, and, after peering down at her and the child for another tender moment, brought his hand back to rest at his side. "I'm going to go power up the ship and get us away from this hellhole."
"Great, we get to go back to the space station of despair," Kasia groaned, referencing Ran's station.
Mando threw her an exasperated glance over his shoulder as he made his way to the cockpit. "We'll get paid there," he reminded her.
At the statement, Kasia nodded, still holding the kid as she followed him into the cockpit and flopped down on the copilot seat. "Thank the fucking Gods. We're broke as shit. Honestly, we might need to start selling some of your fancy weapons soon for fuel."
"You touch any of my weapons and you're dead."
"Nah, you like me too much."
"Not if you keep talking."
*.*.*
"Era'lyn bwe ane" means with caution lies a warrior in Eulentian (first half of Eulentian proverb).
"Era'ebabwe yren" means "with patience lies a victor" in Eulentian (second half of Eulentian proverb).
Two updates? In two days? Wow go me haha (sry if the next update takes a bit longer tho, cause now I only have one prewritten chapter hahahaha *starts sobbing*)
But also thank you guys so much for 10k reads!! It really means a lot <3