The hangar door in front of us opens up and I force myself to take a deep breath before stepping down the ramp. The soles of my boots thump against the metal ramp as I soak in the familiar terrain. My eyes admire my surroundings until I spot a familiar face that was spotting a wide grin. I clench my jaw at the sight of Greef Karga, but I don't say anything just yet.
Mando, Cara, and Kuiil follow close behind me on blurrgs. I decided to stay on my feet for a little longer, wanting to look Greef in the eye from the same level. I keep a straight face on while staring him down, my mind racing with words that I wanted to shout at him. I stop a good foot away from him and I just stare into his eyes for an achingly long moment.
"Sorry for the remote rendezvous, but things have gotten complicated since you guys were last here," he starts, sounding like he was trying to make light of the situation. I could see the light in his eyes, but there was something else hidden deep behind it.
"You fucking bastard," I breathe out before racing forward and pulling him into a tight hug. My arms wrap around his neck and he instantly hugs me back, holding onto me tight. "I thought you died, you asshole."
"Well, your partner did kind of shoot me right in front of you," he says, laughing a bit while quirking his head to the side.
"And you were the one threatening me with a blaster, so I think I'm going to have to give him a pass on that one," I say, pulling away from him with a taunting smile. He shakes his head, his smile still intact regardless of how much my words had seemed to bother him. "I'm glad to see that you're alive."
"Me too," he says, sounding a little sincere. He looks past me and spots the two new faces that we had brought along. "It appears that introductions are in order. It seems we've both provided a security detail. I recommend that the shock-trooper stays and guards the ship. These lava fields are lousy with Jawas."
"She's coming with us," I deadpan, shaking my head.
"But the town is now run by ex-Empire. If a rebel drooper is with us, they'll all get their hackles up," he tries, but I shake my head, letting him know that I wasn't going to take it from him.
"She's coming," Mando demands, backing me up. Greef's eyes flick between the four of us before he finally backs down. A deep sigh escapes him before he nods his head along.
"Fine, fine. At least cover your tattoo then. There's no need to flaunt it," he mutters, his eyes flicking over to Cara. He clasps his hands and looks back towards Mando. "Now, where's the little guy that's making all this trouble?"
The crib Kuiil had made on the journey floats forward and zips right past me. I take a small step back, trying to keep my eyes on both the kid and Greef. It slowly opens up and Greef takes a step forward. I rest my hand on my silver hilt, hoping that he wasn't planning on pulling anything rash.
"So, this little bogwing is what all the fuss was about, huh?" he mutters, slowly picking the child up so he was resting just around eye level with him. My body tenses up a bit, but I slowly relax, knowing that he wasn't ruthless or cruel enough to directly shoot a child. Not directly, at least. "What a precious little creature. I can see why you didn't want to harm a hair on his wrinkled head," he continues, setting the child back down.
I relax and take my hand off of my hilt, knowing that I had to learn to relax if we were really going to make it through this job. I needed to treat it like it was any other bounty job, or else I was going to start losing my mind. I just need to focus and stop worrying so damn much.
"He really is just the light of our lives," I tease, winking at him.
Greef snorts and shakes his head, knowing exactly how I felt about kids. I never really liked the idea of having them, but the kid in Greef's arm kind of changed my mind about it. He's not so bad to take care of and he's honestly grown on me. The carriage slowly closes back up and then floats back over to Mando's side, staying close to him.
"Well, I'm glad this matter will be put to rest once and for all," Greef adds, nodding his head once. I look in his eyes again, searching for the true meaning behind his words. He quickly looks away, his eyes meeting the still bright sky. "The sun drops fast on Nevarro. We can walk for a spell, camp out on the river bank, and then make our way back into town at first light."
"Sounds good to me," I say, sending him a fake salute as I turned back around and walked back towards my friends. I stand next to the blurrg that Mando was on and he holds his hand out to me. I grab onto it, letting him pull me up with ease. I straddle the blurrg in front of Mando and he slowly wraps his arms around my waist as we start to move around.
It was nice being this close to Mando again. Feeling his arms around me once more was comforting and it took my mind off of everything that had happened in the past week or so. It was... nice.
After a while of riding and constantly glancing over at the other bounty hunters that Greef had brought along, the sky had started to change into its darker hues. We decided to call it a night and we stop by the river bank just as Greef said we would. We huddled close to each other, still making sure to put a slightly significant distance between the two different groups. I watch as Kuiil starts to feed the child while everyone eyes each other with pure suspicion.
It was starting to annoy me that no one had the guts to just up and say something. They were all relying on their stupid glares to communicate the distrust that was settling in the air.
"I guess the little bugger's a carnivore. I've never seen anything like it," Greef says, interrupting the silence as he watched the kid eat. "They were ready to pay a kind's ransom for that thing. Must be for some kind of highfalutin menagerie."
Oh, I know exactly why they want him-
"How about we just go over the plan again," Mando says, obviously annoyed with Greef's comment.
"Alright. We both enter the common house, we show the client the bait, we join him at the table, and then you kill him," Greef explains, yet again. I feel like it's the tenth time he's explained it since it's the only subject that Mando seems to be able to go to every time he starts to feel a little uncomfortable.
"Now, tell us about his reinforcements again," I say, adding into the conversation.
"They're all ex-Empire. As soon as they lose their paycheck, they'll all scatter," he says, waving his hand in the air as if that were going to make them all disappear.
"And if they don't ?"
"They will," he reassures, nodding his head.
"That's not good enough and you know it," I sigh out, my eyes narrowing at him. His eyes meet mine and he nervously swallows. I could tell from his eyes that he knew that we knew it was a trap. Though, I couldn't tell how long he was trying to hold out on is.
We already walked into this plan, knowing that it was a trap, but how far was he going to take it before actually giving in and admitting it? We were the best bounty hunters in the Guild and he's crazy if he really thinks that he can outsmart us on this one.
"Alright, if for argument's sake, a few of them don't realize that I'm their best path to alternative employment and they elect to react impulsively, then the many Guild hunters here along with the battle-hardened shock trooper will cut down anyone who bucks," he says, trying yet again to reassure me. I roll my eyes and lean back.
"How many will there be?" I ask, narrowing my eyes even more. I could take a lot of stormtroopers on by myself, but I'm not the one I'm necessarily worried about.
I glance over at Mando and Cara for a moment, unsure as to whether or not I would be able to handle losing either of them. I then look over to Kuiil and the kid, my heart dropping even more. I wouldn't be able to lose them either. Regardless of the little time, I had come to know them and they had become family.
"No more than four," he answers as he starts to stand from his seated position, "He travels with, at most, a fire team. Trust me. Nothing could go wrong."
"That's still not exactly convincing to me," I mutter, leaning my head back a bit. My eyes carefully watch him as he walks towards the fire, but I tense up when I sense something flying nearby. I furrow my brows and look up at the dark sky, trying to spot whatever it was I was sensing. Mando sets his hand on mine, but I shake my head and continue to look around.
"Mae?" Mando mutters, tilting his head towards mine. He could sense that something was up with me and he was right. I hear the flap of a set of large wings and I instantly perk up some more. I snap my head over to where Greef was standing and I reach my hand out to him as I tried to pop up to my feet.
"Greef, get down!" I shout, but it was too late. The creature swooped down from the darkness, its claws digging into the meat of his arm. Everybody scrambles to their feet as Greef cries out in pain, falling to the floor as he clutched his arm. I watch as everyone starts shooting at the three-winged creatures that had surrounded us.
Mando pulls the kid's crib towards his side, whipping his blaster from his holster before he started shooting at the large creatures. I snatch my hilt off of my wait and look around, trying to evaluate the entire situation.
Everyone was shooting, yet no one was landing any fucking shots-
"What kind of rookie shit is this?" I mutter under my breath, wondering how these people were even considered to be bounty hunters. One of the winged creatures grab onto one of the blurrgs and my heart drops. Kuiil's attention instantly whips over to it and he tenses up.
"No! Let go of her! Drop her now!" Kuiil shouts, racing over to the creatures
Regardless of his shouts, the blurrg is carried away, and the scene falls silent. I hear one of the creatures flying near us from behind and I instantly whip around, throwing my lightsaber in its direction. It slices right through the middle of its wing, but it still somehow manages to grab onto one of Greef's hunters, struggling to fly away as it lugs the hunter along. I hold my hand out and bring my lightsaber back to my grip.
"Well, shit," I mutter, pursuing my lips while adjusting my grip on my silver hilt.
Another one swoops down and grabs another blurrg. Its claws sink into the tough skin of the blurrg and Kuiil practically snaps. He starts sending a line of blaster shots towards the creature, and well, would you look at that. He actually managed to kill the damn thing, but the blurrg falls limp alongside it as well.
The last winged creature swoops down to try and snap Mando up, but I whip my lightsaber up and swipe right at it, slicing right through its wing. It lets out a shriek and then tumbles to the ground, landing close to the fire we had started earlier. I clench my jaw and look over to Mando for a moment to make sure that he was alright and still with us.
He was standing there, his chest heaving for air while he stared at me. I shake my head and turn to face everyone else, keeping my lightsaber lit so I could have a decent source of light while I practically radiated with pure annoyance.
"You're kidding me, right? You guys were acting like a bunch of stormtroopers that were just sent on their first fucking mission! We had over five people shooting, yet you guys didn't even manage to hit something," I snap, letting the purple saber radiate near my leg. The hunters that had accompanied Greef stare at me in pure shock, their eyes constantly flicking down to my glowing purple lightsaber. I look down at Greef to see him cradling his arm in pain. "Now, somebody, please help him. And no, I will not be answering questions about the lightsaber."
Everyone crowds near him, but Cara's the only one that drops to her knees to help him.
"He's hurt badly," Kuiil says, examining Greef's arm from afar.
"I'm fine. I'm fine. I'm fine- ow!" Greef shouts, grasping tighter onto his own arm.
"Hold still, would you? They got you good," she says, wrapping a thin cloth around the top of his arm and tying it tight, trying to stop the flow of poison from spreading.
"How bad is it?" Mando asks, walking over to the group.
"It looks pretty damn bad," I mutter, shaking my head.
"So this... this is how it happens," Greef breathes out, leaning his head back in pain.
"Oh, don't be so dramatic," I say, rolling my eyes at him. If it comes down to it, I'll heal him myself. I just didn't want to have to drain my energy just yet, especially if Cara can manage to fix it herself with a few med-packs. I honestly feel like I should have a stronger sense of urgency for a situation like this, but for some reason, I just don't. I think it's because I was still a little ticked off that it even happened.
"I need another med-pack. Got any others? Anyone?" Cara asks, looking between all of the people in the group. As they search around, I spot the kid walking towards Greed. I eye him carefully as the others frantically move around, trying to help Greef in any way they could. "It's still spreading. None of this is working."
I go to take a step forward, but I notice the kid scoot closer to Greef's side while resting his tiny hand on the man's injured arm. I perk a brow and quickly come to a realization of what he was trying to do.
"Get this thing out of here," Cara commands through gritted teeth. I rest a gentle hand on her shoulder and shake my head, my eyes flicking down to hers for a quick moment.
"Let him do his thing," I whisper, watching as the kid closes his eyes. I could feel the energy flowing around him. He was stronger than I remember him being. The power that was radiating off of him was extraordinary, especially for the little to no training he's had.
"He's trying to eat me," Greef whines, trying to pull away from him. I sigh and kneel next to him, resting my hand on his shoulders to comfort him.
"Trust me. Let him do his thing," I reassure, nodding my head once. He slowly calms down and I could feel his muscles relax under my touch. My eyes trail over to his torn-up arm. It was slowly starting to heal back to its normal smooth figure.
Once his skin seals and the muscles were intact, the child fell backward, looking absolutely spent. I smile and carefully swoop him up in my arms, holding him close to my chest. The kid keeps his eyes closed, taking a few deep breaths. I could feel how exhausted and drained he was.
"Good job, buddy," I coo, patting his head gently to soothe him. Everyone looks over at us, but I ignore their confused and curious stares. "I guess you could count that as your first lesson," I hum.
"What the hell is that thing?" one of the hunters breathes out.
"Listen up," I snap, handing the kid over to Mando. Everyone continues to stare at me and I let out a small sigh, shoving my hilt back onto my waist before resting my hands on my hips. "How you guys acted during that whole ordeal was something I don't want to see ever again on this job. We have a kid's life at stake, as well as all of our freedom. So, we're going to watch each other's backs, get some rest, and then get this job done. Understood?"
"Understood."
I nod my head and turn towards the fire that we had lit earlier. I settle back down in my seat, wrapping my brown leather jacket around my body a little tighter to keep myself warm. Mando takes a seat next to me after settling the kid down in his crib. He shifts around a bit to be a little closer to him as well, leaning my head on his armored shoulder. Surprisingly, he slowly lifted his arm and wrapped it around my shoulders, pulling me in even more.
And I smile, regardless of our situation.
I just smile.
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Word count: 2981
Note: Hey guys! Sorry, this chapter is more of just a filler/a set-up for the next chapter. Anyway, I just got done writing chapter 46 and now I'm working on chapter 47. How are you guys doing? I hope you're all having a good day! I'll see you guys next chapter!