"Who are you, Kenna?" He asks, stroking the back of her hand with his thumb as he stares at the lightsaber in his other hand.
~~~
She woke when the sled came to a sudden halt. She shot up and grabbed her blaster, pointing it at the closes target.
"Put that thing away before you hurt yourself with it," Din said, carrying boxes towards the Razor Crest. She sighed in relief and slowly put it away.
"Sorry, I thought you were..."
"The Bounty Hunter?" She nodded.
"So, we're leaving?"
"Yes," She saw the child next to her, sucking on her necklace. "He was also trying to take the kid, meaning he has to stay with us,"
"Wait, you were going to leave him?"
"Travelling with me is no life a child should endure but with the hunters constantly coming after him and you, he can't stay without being protected,"
"He was coming after me?"
"Yes,"
"Why?" He doesn't respond put reaches into her bag.
"I don't know. Maybe because of this," He pulls out the lightsaber that fell form her bag.
"How did you..."
"If this dammned thing is what is putting you and the kid at risk, leave it here or destroy it,"
"And if I don't want to?"
"I'll leave you," He chucks the saber at Kenna who catches it and pickes up another box to bring aboard the ship. She looks between the ship and weapon and turns it on. The blue beam seems to be happy to be enlighted as she skillfully waves it through the air. "So? Are you going to leave it? It's putting all of us at risk," He says bluntly from the top of the ramp, the child in his arm.
"I can't,"
"Kenna, I don't want..."
"It's not putting us at risk. He knows I'm here. He knows I'm alive,"
"Who does?" She turns off the lightsaber and turns to face Din.
"A bad person,"
"Who?"
"I don't know their name," LIE. Din stares at her for a long time and then glances at the weapon in her hand.
"Leave it,"
"I can't do that,"
"Leave it,"
"If I am to leave my father's lightsaber you leave your Beskar armour," She retorts, folding her arms and staring up at him. He doesn't respond again, causing Kenna to roll her eyes. "Are you going to stare at me or make a decision?" She asks, impatient.
"Why did the hunter call you 'princess',"
"I don't know. Probably a kink or something,"
"Kenna," She laughs.
"Sorry, but I'm being truthful, I don't know why," He turns away and walks into the ship. Kenna bites her lip and turns on her heel, ready to start her life on Sorgan.
"Where are you going? Let's get moving," She looks back at sees him waiting for her. A smile breaks on her face as she picks up her bag and runs on board.
~~~
"DIN!"
"I'm trying to shake it off!" She covers her ears as the ship behind them shoots again.
"Hand over the child and girl, Mando,"
"Woman!" Kenna corrects through gritted teeth as one of the engines is hit.
"I might let you live," The ship is hit again and bursts into flames before going out.
"Hold on," Kenna grabs onto the child as he rolls the ship out of the ship's blasters. "Come on!" He exclaims, flickering many buttons and switches.
"I can bring you in warm... or I can bring you in cold," Din hits the brakes hard, and the fighter overshoots, ending up in the Razor Crests crosshairs.
"That's my line," He shoots down the fighter with one simple blast. Kenna walks up to him and smacks him around the head. "Hey!"
"Next time you're gonna roll the ship, warn me!"
"I told you to hold on!"
"To what, there's nothing over here!" She sighs and looks down at the child who is reaching for her Jedi necklace again. Din rolls his eyes and smiles slightly before checking all the ships' stats.
"Losing fuel," The ship losses power and the child squeals happily from Kenna's arms. Din moves around her to try and restore some power, hitting buttons with frustration.
"Hey, maybe press the buttons gently,"
"I. Am,"
"Sure," She rolls her eyes and sits down, holding the child closer to her. He finally turns on the emergency power and sits back down.
"This is Mos Eisley Tower. We are tracking you. Head for bay three-five. Over,"
"WHAT!?"
"Copy that. Locked in for three-five,"
"Din, we can't go there, not now," He turns to her and then faces the controls. "Din, we can't go to Tatooine!"
"Closest planet,"
"There has to be somewhere closer than that hell hole,"
"Can you fix this ship in space? No, we are going to Tatooine,"
"Din, I can't fix what you've done to this ship full stop,"
"Seriously?"
"I didn't work with ships that came out of a shoot out!" He sighs and descends the Razor Crest on to Tatooine; Kenna's version of hell. Once landing, Din locks the child in its small room as it sleeps before lowering the ramp. "Do you have anything to put over my face?"
"You'll be fine," He watches as three old fashion droids pick up tools and start to move over to his ship. Din whips out his blaster and shoots at them, causing them to hide.
"Hey! HEY!!!" A fairly old woman with large, curly brown hair comes storming out of her office. "You damage one of my droids, you pay for it,"
"Just keep them away from my ship,"
"Yeah? You think that's a good idea, do ya? Let's look at your ship," She knocks on the side and it rattles and groans. "Oof... Look at that. Oh, you got a lot of carbon scoring building up top. Ya... If I didn't know better, I'd think you were in a shootout. Special tool for that one. Oh ya, I'm gonna have to rotate that... You got a fuel leak?! Look at that, this is a mess! How did you even land? That's gonna set you back,"
"Yeah, he's fucked up this time," Kenna says, examining the ship with the woman who nods with her.
"I've got 500 Imperial Credits," Din says, glaring at Kenna who starts pulling out different wires and repairing parts of the ship.
"D...Mando, I ain't got the tools to fix this pile of garbage,"
"Hey!"
"That's all you got? Well," She turns to her pit droids. "What do you guys think? That should at least cover the hangar," She takes the credits from Din.
"I'll get you your money,"
"Hmm... I've heard that before,"
"Just remember--"
"Ya. No droids. I heard ya. You don't have to say it twice," She watches as he walks away. "Womp rat,"
"I've called him worse,"
"You look familiar," She says.
"I have one of those faces," The woman smiles and sticks her hand out.
"Peli Motto,"
"Cora,"
"No last name?"
"No," Kenna leaves and catches up with Din. Blood-stained Stormtrooper helmets are dotted around on sticks and she instantly sees a wanted poster of herself. She tears it down and crumbles it up before he notices. She pulls down a small curtain of someone's house and wraps it around her face, they're still looking for her!? They enter Chalmun's Spaceport Cantina and they walk up to the EV-series supervisor droid bartender. She spots another poster hanging from the counter and tears it away.
"Hey, droid. I'm a hunter. I'm looking for some work,"
"Unfortunately, the Bounty Guild no longer operates from Tatooine,"
"Lies," She mumbles, seeing a few more of her face dotted around the cantina. 10,000,000 credits for Kenna Skywalker. Alive. Unharmed. She gulps and tightens the fabric around her face.
"I'm not looking for Guild work,"
"I am afraid that does not improve your situation. At least by my calculation,"
"Think again, tin can," Din and Kenna turn to look at a man lounging in a booth, feet on the table. "If you're looking for work, have a seat, my friend. Name's Toro. Toro Calican," Din hesitates. "Come on, relax," He takes his feet off the table as Kenna and Din walk over to sit. Kenna looks at him with her head tilted. He has dark brown hair that hangs just above his eyes and he was matching eyes. His jawline sharp and he has a slim figure. He winks in her direction before pushing forward a bounty puck to reveal another woman.
"Picked up this bounty puck before I left the Mid-Rim. Fennec Shand, an assassin. Heard she's been on the run ever since the New Republic put all her employers in lockdown,"
"I know the name,"
"Ya well, I followed this tracking fob here. Now the positional data suggests she'd headed out beyond the Dune Sea. Should be an easy job,"
"Well..." He gets up and motions for Kenna to do the same. "Good luck with that,"
"Wait, wait, wait, hey, I thought you needed work," He pouts as Din grabs Kenna's arm and starts moving her through the cantina, far away from this... other man.
"How long you been with the Guild?"
"Long enough,"
"Clearly not. Fennec Shand is an elite mercenary. She made her name killing for all the top crime syndicates, including the Hutts. If you go after her, you won't make it past sunrise," Din leaves with Kenna in front of him. Quickly, Toro goes after him, losing his confident facade.
"This is my first job. You can keep the money, all of it. I just need this job to get into the Guild. I can't do it alone," Din clearly considers the offer, looking between Kenna and Toro.
"Meet me at hangar three-five in half an hour. Bring two speeder bikes, and give me the tracking fob,"
"Three," Kenna says, pushing past Din and looking up at Toro who smirks down at her. "Bring three, I'm coming as well,"
"K...Please,"
"No, I'm sick and tired of you thinking I can't handle myself!"
"Give me the tracking fob," Din holds out his gloved hand but Toro destroys the tracking gob instead of giving it to the Mandalorian.
"Don't worry. Got it all memorized," He winks at Kenna again who smiles beneath her mask.
"Half an hour," He moves Kenna out of Toro's sight.
"Looks like you're stuck with me now, partners," They leave and she turns to Din.
"What was that in there, Mr Overprotective Mandalorian," Kenna hisses.
"I saw the way he looked at you,"
"Oh so now you can sense human emotions?" He doesn't respond. "Well, maybe I like him," Din stops in his tracks and turns to face her. "What, can I not like another man?"
"You're on the run, you shouldn't be having feelings for a man...like that,"
"Oh, but with Omera it was fine," He stalks up to Kenna, angry.
"I'm trying to protect you,"
"No, you're just trying to make sure no other man looks twice at me," She pushes past him, adjusting her mask as she heads towards the hanger, Din in tow.
Kenna enters his ship, suddenly seeing the safe room hatch open and the child gone. She turns around and sees Din racing out to of the ship.
"HEY!" He screams at Peli who wakes up, startled.
"I'm awake! I'm awake!"
"Where is he!?" He questions a pit droid that folds up in fear rather than answering.
"Quiet! Oh...," Rocking a now crying child in her arm. "Shh it's okay. You woke it up. Do you have any idea how long it took me to get it to sleep?"
"Give him to me," Din seethes however Kenna breathes in relief seeing the child is safe.
"Not so fast! You can't just leave a child all alone like that. You know... you've got an awful lot to learn about raising a young one," She glances at Kenna. "At least it has some form of a mother. Anyway, I started the repair on the fuel leak. There you go. I had a couple of setbacks I wanna talk to you about. You know I didn't use any droids as requested, so it took me a lot longer than I expected. But I figured you were good for the money since you have an extra mouth to feed," She turns to Din.
"Thank you," Peli looks surprised.
"Oh," She follows Kenna and Din as they leave the hanger. "Oh I guess I was right. You got a job, didn't you? You know it's costing me a lot of money to keep these droids even powered up," Toro waits with only two speeders.
"Hey, Mando, girlie. Whaddya think? Not too shabby, huh?" Din inspects the bike. "Whaddya expect? This ain't Corellia,"
"We said three," Din says, glaring at Toro.
"Sorry, I could only get two,"
"I'm still coming," Kenna says boldly and steps forward. The men share a look and Toro smiles widely.
"You can ride with me,"
"Sure," He gets on the bike and Kenna hops on behind him, wrapping her arms around his toned body. Din stares at them in jealousy as Toro sends him a cocky smile and wink and mouths the words 'You snooze you lose'. He growls and gets on his bike and Toro races off, Din following close behind. He tries to ignore the chattering and laughter coming from the wanna be guild members' bike but he cannot; why did Kenna have this impact on him? Why did he feel protective? Envious? Insecure? Wait, insecure? Why is Din Djarin, a Mandalorian, feeling insecure around a woman he's only known for a few days!? He looks over the dunes and stops, causing Toro to stop.
"What's going on?" He asks as Kenna unhooks her arms from around him.
"Look. Up ahead," Toro gets off his bike and uses his binoculars seeing two banthas with their riders beside them. Kenna leans against the handles of the speeder as Toro inspects them.
"Tusken Raiders. I heard the locals talking about this filth,"
"Tuskens think they are the locals. Everyone else is just trespassing,"
"Well, whatever they call themselves, they best keep their distance," He scoffs, removing the binoculars from his eyes.
"Yeah? Why don't you tell them yourself?" Din says. Toro turns around to two Tusken Raiders standing behind him. Kenna slightly jumps and moves to the opposite side of the speeder bike, a bit scared and nervous of those things. Toro reaches for his blaster but Din gets up and intercepts.
"Relax," Din uses sign language to communicate with the Tuskens.
"What are you doing?" Kenna asks as she watches from her side of the speeder with slight fascination.
"Negotiating," He continues to do more signing, smiling that he has caught Kenna's attention.
"What's going on?" Toro sighs impatiently.
"We need passage across their land," He turns to Toro after more signing with the Tuskens. "Let me see the binocs,"
"Why?" His response is just an outstretched hand. Toro hands the binocs over to Din who in turn throws it over to the Tuskens.
"Hey! What...?" Kenna laughs and claps her hands. Din turns to remount his bike. "Those were brand new,"
"Yeah. They were," Kenna laughs harder and wipes away fake tears.
"You got scammed...by...by two Tuskens and o...one Mandalorian," She holds her stomach as she laughs repeatedly.
"I'm glad my lost amuses you," Toro chuckles, sliding back on the speeder. Kenna turns and wraps her arms around him again and Din snarls before he leaves, Toro following behind.
~~~
Din suddenly stops and gets off his bike.
"Get down,"
"What? Oh..." Kenna and Toro get off the bike and crouch down behind a small sand ridge with Din. He moves between Toro and Kenna and watches the scene in front of him.
"All right. Tell me what you see,"
"Dewback. Looks like the rider is still attached," Kenna says, pulling out her blaster.
"Is that her? Is that the target?" Toro asks.
"I don't know. I'll go," He draws his blaster. "You cover me. Stay down,"
"Does he do that a lot? Run off without help?" Toro asks Kenna who nods sadly.
"Always has to be the hero,"
"Sounds like you need someone to rely on, someone who won't go anywhere without you,"
"I'm sure he's just making sure I don't get hurt,"
"I could protect you all the time and not leave you in the open," She adjusts the green mask and looks as Din rushes forward to the beast, approaching more carefully as he gets close. He turns over the body being dragged by the beast. A masked man.
"Is it her? Is she dead?" Toro asks, shifting closer to Kenna.
"It's another bounty hunter,"
"Hey, I hope you're not planning on keeping all that stuff for yourself. Can I at least have that blaster?" He asks. Kenna looks up at the ridge.
"Din..." He finds a tracking fob beeping from the man's chest and jumps down.
"Kenna, get down!" Just as a shot rings out, hitting him on the right pauldron as he turns to run. He goes down and the dewback runs off.
"Mando?" Toro calls out.
"D...Mando!" Kenna cries at as he manages to pull himself over the bank and slide back down for cover. "What happened?" She asks, checking him for any injuries.
"Sniper bolt. Only an MK-modified rifle could make that shot," She examines his beskar before checking his unarmoured areas.
"Are you all right?"
"Yeah. Hit me in the beskar. And at that range, beskar held up,"
"That's a good thing, would've needed more than stitches if that went through,"
"Wait, I don't wear any beskar," Toro says as Kenna pulls away from Din and walks back down to the speeders, getting out what looks like a medical kit from her bag.
"Nope,"
"So what do we do?"
"You see where that shot came from?"
"Yeah. Came from that ridge,"
"Okay. We're gonna wait until dark," Kenna goes through her kit and holds up some cream in triumph.
"What if she escapes?"
"She's got the high ground. She'll wait for us to make the first move. We're gonna rest. You take the first watch. Stay low," Din walks over to Kenna who turns to him.
"You've got some bruising let me put this on it,"
"Where do you need to put it?"
"Just lift up this part of your shirt," He complies and she gently applies the cool liquid to the purple patch on his side. "You are being reckless, we have a child to look after and here you are trying to be everyone's hero," She looks up to see his visor staring right at her.
"I just don't want you to get hurt, Kenna,"
"But why? Why do I mean so much to you?" He doesn't respond and she sighs putting away her medical supplies. "I'm going to watch out with Toro...um, you get some rest," She begins to walk away but he gently grabs her arm.
"Kenna, wait..." She turns to look at him as he debates on what to say. "I...I don't know why you mean so much to me, having someone on the Razor Crest is something new and I feel like I have this responsibility to ensure your safety. I know you can fight but you barely survived Grafton and I don't understand but if something was to happen to you...I...I would...I would feel like it was my fault and I'd never forgive myself," He looks away from her as she thinks about what to say and she sits beside him and snuggles into his side.
"You can protect me all you like then," She smiles and accidentally falls asleep on him. He smiles slightly and protectively wraps an arm around her.
'At least she'll allow me to protect her,' He thinks as he holds his blaster in his other hand in case anyone was to come and harm his Kenna.