Astera:
Night had fallen over the polluted swamp when the stream finally diverged, both paths snaking off into the trees in opposite directions. The flow of the river had slowed so much it was almost stagnant now, and we were still too far out for me to sense Sylar's presence in our vicinity. Hunter's frustration was building - even he couldn't find anything that would allow him to pick up Sylar's track again. We'd hit a dead end.
"Well, tracker?" Fennec demanded from the back of the skiff when he straightened from the edge of the boat, lifting his macrobinocs to his visor and scanning the river for anything useful. "Which direction?"
"The currents are too calm to tell."
She cast an eye in my direction, almost like she wanted to say something directly to me, but apparently thought better of it and addressed the clones again. "Maybe I was wrong. Maybe you guys aren't cut out for this job."
It was clearly meant to goad us into a reaction, but Wrecker took the bait anyway, twisting to pin her with a glare. "Oh? You think you could do better without us?"
"I wouldn't be doing any worse."
"Even Omega got away from you."
"Apparently she got away from you too." Well, she had him there. Wrecker looked away with a quiet grunt - something Fennec noticed immediately, her head cocking to the side slightly and her next words surprisingly softer. "So what happened with the kid?"
"What's it to you?"
"Just seems odd." She was deceptively casual despite my snappy retort, but I could still feel the curiosity emanating off her, along with the infuriating superiority underlying it. "You're all willing to work for me, considering our... past. That information must really be important to you. And just so you know," she added in Wrecker's direction. "I let her go when the bounty was called off."
"By who?" Hunter finally lowered the macrobinoculars, tossing a clearly suspicious look over his shoulder.
"The client. They thought Omega would be safer with you." She scoffed quietly. "Guess they were wrong about that."
And whatever mild sense of civility had overtaken her was gone as quickly as it had appeared. We needed her, I knew that, but it didn't mean she wasn't irritating to the point I was almost tempted to Force-push her off the boat to join the reptiles. See how she liked it.
"And I guess you'll work for anybody as long as you get paid." Wrecker jabbed his blaster towards her, the derisive scorn clear in every word. But she only shrugged, completely unperturbed by his judgemental remarks.
"Good guys, bad guys. Their money's all the same."
"Well, money's not everything," Hunter told her, turning back to scan the waters again through his binocs. He was just as done with her as Wrecker and I were, but out of all of us, he was probably the most willing to put up with her snark. Being that desperate to find out what 'M-Count' was.
"That's 'cause you don't have any."
I snorted from the side of the boat. "Figures a bounty hunter wouldn't care about anything else."
"And I suppose you'd know all about bounty hunters?"
"I've met enough to know you're all the same."
"You don't know a lot then."
"Someone came through here." Hunter cut across me before I could fire off another sarcastic comment I'd probably regret later, gesturing to some distant point down the river, just barely visible under the cover of darkness. "Veer starboard up ahead."
She cast me one final look that I couldn't quite read before complying, the boat twisting towards the disturbed water and following the curve of the river to follow whatever path Hunter was seeing in the muck.
It was another klick before Hunter's next signal came - a silent wave of his gun to the left - but we were all on high alert now, Wrecker and I gripping our blasters tightly as we paced the boat and even Fennec's eyes darting from side to side like Sylar would come jumping out from the trees at any second. No one spoke, only the quiet sounds of tense breathing and jungle noises filling the air as the skiff drifted towards the edge of the river.
As soon as it neared the bank, Hunter turned back and swiftly drew his blaster across his throat, the silent message as clear as if he'd shouted it: Cut the engines. Fennec wasted no time in doing so, snatching up her rifle and joining me at the front of the skiff when both clones leaped for solid ground, catching the boat and easing it onto the dirt as gently as they could.
"Go check Sylar's hideout," she told them, making no move to get out of the boat herself. "Remember, I need him alive."
"Uh, what about you?" Wrecker demanded, immediately noting her lack of movement.
"His girlfriend and I are the lookouts." She jerked her head towards Hunter rather than me, and I rolled my eyes - leave it to her to give me orders without even addressing me directly. Nothing about her tone said it was a suggestion, but Wrecker scoffed anyway, stepping off the boat and glaring at her the entire way.
"Ohh, so we take all the risk, and you get all the reward?"
"Pretty much."
"Riiiight."
"Why isn't Ashe coming with us?" Hunter interrupted them, gesturing at me still on the boat with her.
"She's backup, isn't she?" That hadn't been what I'd said, but trying to correct her now would just be useless. "If you need her, I'll send her. But otherwise, she stays with me."
I didn't like the sound of that at all, but it wasn't like we really had another choice. I nodded once when Hunter glanced at me for confirmation, the clones reluctantly turned away and forged into the trees, quickly disappearing into the mess of undergrowth. I watched them go, unease growing in the pit of my stomach the further away they moved. Though whether it was just nerves or the Force warning me, I couldn't tell.
Tingles shot down my spine and I spun automatically, nearly leaping backwards in shock when I came face to face with Fennec, her head tilted and eyes narrowed behind her helmet as she considered me. "The Empire would pay a pretty price for a head like yours, little Jedi."
My lightsaber had ignited before I was fully aware of my reaction, sweeping it towards her neck in a clear threat. "Try me," I snarled. "I dare you."
I knew she couldn't have missed a glowing yellow blade or the croc being blasted off the boat by nothing visible, but she hadn't said anything until now. Was this why she wanted Hunter and Wrecker to go ahead? Distract them with Sylar so she could take down another, more valuable score? If that was the case, she wasn't going to take me in without a fight.
But she only glanced down at the yellow blade and raised her hands mockingly, completely unaffected. I could feel her smirk, even without using the Force. "Calm down. I doubt I could bring you in even if I wanted to. Jedi are out of my skill set. For now."
Her words, especially the added 'for now', did nothing to reassure me. I didn't trust her one bit, but I was stuck out here alone with her for now, with a potentially more imposing threat out there. And we still needed the information only she could get for us.
"I won't try to bring you in anyway," Fennec continued once I'd dropped the blade and extinguished it. "We made a deal, and I intend to honour it."
"Yeah, because the word of a bounty hunter is so reliable." The lightsaber disappeared under the folds of my cloak again and I sat down on the only free seat, blaster still gripped tight in my other hand.
"What is it about bounty hunters that you're so against?"
"I've never met a bounty hunter with morals." That wasn't entirely true - Sugi and the crew on Felucia had stuck by the farmers even after Hondo had offered them more money - but they'd still only helped them because they'd been paid. And the bad experiences still far outweighed one positive.
"Again, you haven't met enough."
"The target went underground!" Once again, any response I might have made was interrupted by Wrecker's urgent shout over the comms.
"Underground?" Fennec repeated, sounding just as confused as I felt. How would he get underground?
"You heard me!" I shut the comms off with a wince at his answering yell, and Fennec snatched up her rifle, leaping off the boat and towards the hut.
"Let's move." She was already halfway to the trees by the time I'd made it off the boat as well, rifle on her back and a pistol in hand instead. "And keep that hood up. You stick out too much."
Like that bright orange bucket she called a helmet blended in much better, but I flipped up the cowl anyway, tugging it over the violet and orange patterns and following her to just inside the treeline, where she crouched, hidden behind the bushes.
"Shouldn't we be looking for him?" I hissed, ducking down next to her. Every second we wasted here just meant another second he could get further away. Fennec shook her head, not once taking her eyes off the skiff we'd left on the riverside.
"Sylar's not stupid. He'll try to escape instead of taking all of us on."
He was more likely to go for his own skiff over the ridge, but before I could so much as open my mouth to say as much, a long limbed silhouette that definitely wasn't human slunk out onto the bank, darting straight for the pilot's seat. Dank farrik. She'd been right.
Sylar hissed something under his breath when the engines fizzled once and died, leaning over to fiddle with something by the side of the seat. Fennec took that as her opening, both of us silently getting up and planting ourselves in front of the boat with handguns raised. "You think I'd let you slip away from me again?"
"Fennec Shand," the bug rasped out with a dark laugh. Her only response was to fire a stun blast - the ring hit the side of the pilot's seat instead and promptly dissipated, Sylar stumbling backwards with a grunt before leaping upwards, higher than I thought possible. More stuns from both of us followed his trajectory, each one missing him as Sylar landed between us, knocking the blaster from my hand and backhanding Fennec into the water in one fluid move.
He was fast, and his reach was longer than mine, so much so it was nearly impossible for me to get close enough to hit back with both his arms swinging wildly at me. They were powerful too - if one strike was enough to throw Fennec all the way to the river, who knew what another could do to me. And now I was weaponless.
I ducked under another swing and blew him backwards with the Force, his feet cutting deep grooves in the mud with both hands hurriedly thrown up to protect his face.
"Jedi," he hissed, cutting through the air with both hands as he straightened.
"Former Jedi," I corrected, and he snarled, rushing for me with arms outstretched. His full weight caught me in the chest, knocking me off my feet before I could do so much as shout.
Sylar was gone before my back had even hit the ground, scaling the trees in a single jump and using them to launch himself towards the second skiff that had to be his. I vaulted to my feet with a groan, lightsaber hilts already in hand. I wasn't letting him escape.
My own jump sent me flying over his head, the humming of my lightsabers almost deafening in the quiet, landing in front of him and forcing him to an abrupt stop with a strangled noise of surprise. "You're not getting away so easily."
He didn't respond, attention darting up to my helmet. My hood had fallen back again, exposing the patterns on my helmet, and Sylar immediately zeroed in on them with a snarl of what sounded like recognition of all things. "Why is she after me when you're here? Your bounty could fetch more than double my price."
I blanched, lightsabers wavering unsteadily in the air. Me, a bounty? Fennec had already told me about the Empire paying her for turning me over, but she'd never said anything about an actual bounty. Though now that I thought about it, Isa Durand had mentioned something similar. At the time, I'd totally overlooked it, more focused on the threat she'd levelled at me. "What the hell are you talking about?"
His mandibles stretched out into a mocking grin, but before he could answer my question, a yelling Wrecker charged out of the trees, tackling Sylar to the ground with a heavy thump. The Yam'rii screeched and immediately began to struggle, spitting some green substance into his visor that had him rearing back and allowing Sylar to kick him backwards, yanking Wrecker's knife from his sheath as he did so. He was blinded, and now Sylar had the advantage.
I lunged between them, catching Sylar's first strike on my vambraces in a shower of sparks. The blow was so strong it nearly forced me to my knees again - it was all I could do to push him back and disengage, answering with slashes from my own blades and forcing him to retreat several steps to dodge the attacks. By then Wrecker had cleared whatever disgusting liquid Sylar had spat into his face and he charged in again, grabbing the bug around the middle and slamming him into the ground.
Both of them were struggling to their feet in a second, Sylar brandishing the knife in our direction with an unintelligible shriek, only to drop it and stumble forward when a stun blast hit him from behind - Hunter, finally catching up to us and ducking out from cover. Even Fennec had dragged herself from the river, water dripping off her helmet and pistol pointed at the squealing bug.
That damned exoskeleton of Sylar's made him more resistant to stuns - three more of them and he was still conscious, though half on the floor and swaying unsteadily. They weren't working and I'd had enough - I jabbed a button on my vambrace and jerked my wrist up, firing a dart at the clench of my fist.
The electroshock dart buried itself in the fleshy part of his neck, and Sylar seized instantly, muscles spasming uncontrollable as he collapsed to the dirt.
Wrecker groaned and stepped over Sylar's body, staring down at the twitching Yam'rii. "You were right to bring us along."
"I'm always right," Fennec snorted, holstering her pistol in a single fluid movement. "Grab him and let's go."
Wrecker obediently hauled Sylar over his shoulder, both him and Hunter making for Sylar's skiff on the other side of the ridge. Fennec didn't move, and neither did I - I had more pressing matters to deal with first.
"You knew." I whirled on her as soon as they were out of earshot, jabbing an accusing finger in her direction. She had to have known. That was the only reason why she would have reacted the way she did. "You knew I was a bounty."
"Of course I knew." Fennec shrugged like it was obvious, removing her helmet and tucking it under her arm. "The Empire offered a huge reward for any bounty hunter who could bring in a Jedi travelling with a group of rogue clones. Doesn't take a genius to know which clones."
"And you didn't say anything?"
"I thought you already knew." That was a lie and we both knew it. But she clearly wasn't interested in answering anything else, offering me the blaster I'd dropped earlier and starting after Hunter and Wrecker without another word.
*******
Our flight back to the space station was tense, silent and angry. Despite our agreement, Fennec hadn't given us any information on M-Count yet, and Hunter's irritation was growing with each passing minute that she still didn't say anything. Normally, I would have been right there with him, but Sylar's words had troubled me more than I cared to admit. I was already used to being on the run at this point, but at least I'd managed to stay hidden. A bounty changed everything. And it wasn't good.
If the paranoia from our arrival at the space station had been bad, it was even worse now when Fennec landed the ship next to the Marauder, my hood now so far over my head I could barely see out of it. Luckily there was no one else in the hangar bay - I wasn't sure what I would have done if there were.
"Pleasure doing business with you," Fennec told us, leaning casually against the entrance of her ship. I stiffened - after all the trouble we'd gone to getting her bounty for her, and she wasn't even going to give us the information? What happened to honouring her deals?
"Hang on." Hunter turned back, planting himself at the very end of the landing ramp to her ship with a glare. "You promised us information."
"I didn't say I had it on me, but I'll get it. After I deliver Sylar to my client." I snorted - of course. Despite what she said about me not knowing enough bounty hunters, she'd gone and done what could only be expected of them. Again.
"That wasn't our agreement," I reminded her harshly, but her expression didn't so much as twitch.
"You can either fight me or trust me. Take your pick." Aside from a look between the three of us, none of us moved or said anything. It really wasn't much of a choice she was offering us, and as usual, she knew it. "Good choice."
She pressed a button on the device at her hip and the landing ramp of her ship began to rise, forcing Hunter to step off it abruptly. "Good luck out there, little Jedi," she called out just before it shut completely, allowing me no time to respond to the thinly veiled threat. "You're going to need it."
Her ship fired up and I scowled at her when she reappeared in the cockpit, but she had an unfortunate point. There was a bounty on my head, a pricey one at that, and I had no idea who set it or why. It could just be nothing more than a kill order set by the Empire to wipe out another existing remnant of the Jedi, but the gnawing bad feeling in my gut told me otherwise. I needed to make some calls.