Disclaimer: I don't own anything in the Star Wars franchise, but Bunt Kabor is mine (for all his likely only apperance may or may not be worth)
Maybe this hadn't been such a good idea after all.
Shortly after Aurra had arrived at her ship, shortening the way through loaning the Jedi's swoop bike, she was confronted with the complications brought by the little bundle of noisy life form in her arms. For example that fact that, while her ship did in fact have two seats, it was notably lacking a baby seat. The bounty hunter had considered the option of using rope to bind the baby to the seat, unfortunately at the moment her inventory of tools to subdue eventual captives consisted of two sets of shackles and a collar with electroshock function.
Besides, what was she supposed to feed the little thing? Forgetting the obvious circumstances that her breast currently did not did not hold any milk, nor had they at any point in her life. Moreover, what exactly was she supposed to feed a baby Togruta anyway? Considering the way their females looked, most likely were they breast feed like most other humanoid species, but for how long? How did their milk differ from T'wilek milk for example, and what other sorts of milk could their digestive systems stand? Were there any specific allergic reactions to look out for? How much sleep did they need? When did they hit puberty, with what consequences? How….
And not to forget, the most important question of all. How and where was SHE supposed to find it out? Research on weapons, starships, assassination targets, blueprints of all sorts, that she could get, no problem. But instructions for maternal tasks? Yeah, not exactly something her usual contacts could provide (not to forget her inability to ask most of them in the first place as long as she wanted to keep her dignity)
And of course the baby needed to start crying.
"You are so not helping your case." The annoyed bounty hunter snarled. Stars, those wails were annoying! What had she been thinking? She was a damned Bounty hunter, one of the best. And a slayer of Jedi to top it off. Why should she of all people waste time on a baby? Aside from all the unnecessary complications, it would most likely tremendously harm her reputation in the criminal world, making people believe she'd gone soft, resulting in fewer contracts and more wannabes trying to make a name for themselves by taking her out, and that stupid brats screams were getting louder, its tiny fists drumming against her body, and all this banta dung was giving her a headache and….
"SHUT UP!" was finally her way to release the frustration.
Unfortunately the infant didn't appreciate being screamed right in the face and voiced her displeasure by, to Aurra's eternal astonishment, increasing the volume of its screams.
Huffing in resigned defeat, the bounty hunter said:
"Alright, fine, you gain points for persistence. But I warn you, if you keep this up, I'll gag you, and should you suffocate because of it, see if I care!"
Turning away from her ship again while kicking a little stone as far away as possible, Aurra did her best to ignore the unnaturally high pitched noise and mounted the Swoop bike once again. Before she had raided the Jedi's starfighter and had found a few baby articles, specifically diapers (something she was hoping to avoid), a doll that she would use for target practice later and a bottle of what she assumed was milk. Unfortunately that one would most likely be emptied in a day. Anyhow, she was pretty sure that she could use the remains of her victim's corpse to help her current predicament. Curse herself for not thinking of it in the first place. Who'd have thought having a brat would be so distracting?
After she started the engine, the infant pleasantly surprised her through being quiet almost the instant they started moving. And remaining that way throughout the entire way, even when Aurra increased the speed and did some sharp turns to test if that was because of the driving or in spite of it.
"Now who would have expected that?" the pale woman thought to herself. "Wonder if all brats shut up while driving, just Togruta, or just this brat. Oh well, let's enjoy it while it lasts."
In the end the silence lasted longer than expected. After they arrived back at the Jedi Starfighter, Aurra placed the togruta infant on the ground. After all, there was no reason for something as mundane as a sort-of-kidnapping to keep the brat from learning how to crawl.
And indeed, the baby seemed to be content with exploring her new surroundings, examining rocks it could not properly grab and try to move, though it was rather an awkward variation of rolling from side to side. While the pale bounty hunter went over to the Kel-Dor corpse. Being grateful for lightsabers cauterizing wounds, she pulled the Jedi robe and shirt from the dead body. Not deeming said corpse worthy another look, she spread out the garments on the ground. Then she pulled out her lightsaber, activated it and used its tip to carefully cut both pieces of cloth into two long bands.
Satisfied with her work, she put the band made from the shirt on the swoop bike and secured it. Then she took the band made from the robe, far broader than the other, and scanned the ground for her, eh, the brat.
Said brat seemed to be making friends with a native lizard. Said animal was half as big as the baby, which was curiously poking its face while mesmerizing it with similar interest. Though the Rhen Orm biocomputer in Aurra's head told her that it was a harmless herbivore, she swiftly send it flying with a kick and picked the confused infant togruta up. Tuning out (or trying to) the protest against losing its latest friend, signaled with, what else, crying, the bounty hunter used the makeshift band to tie the baby with its back to her front. Surely beat carrying her around in her arms. And would you know it, the universe had mercy and once again driving shut the infant up.
Back at her own ship (only marginally bigger than the Jedi's starfigther), she quickly placed the infant in the passenger seat and gently (meaning trying to avoid cutting of the bloodstream, but quite intend of avoiding the possibility of her getting loose) used the shirt-rope to secure her. (1)
Satisfied with her work, Aurra activated the engines and left Shili behind her.
In the vastness of space, among the Stars, Aurra Sing finally found the time to lean back and muse over things. Like so many times before.
Well, not instantly, but after she had given the noisy thing the magazine of her rifle to play with, it had finally gone quiet.
Even though the infants wailing had proven to be one of the most annoying things she ever encountered, the bounty hunter was determined to keep her. She had already gone through enough needles trouble to let it go to waste now, and she'd be damned if she let baby screams stop her.
Still many issues were left. Now that she had a companion, no matter how tiny at the moment, she'd need a bigger ship. Preferably one to hold for an extended period, so far she had usually relied on rentals, cheap second rate or simply stolen ships. Like her current one. And of course all sorts of baby stuff, whatever that would be.
Seeing how she could easily improvise with the latter part, the ship would be the biggest issue. Since she always expected to die before retirement, she didn't have any hidden savings like most of her colleagues. The guy who had given her the contract for the Jedi master might have been an ignorant civilian who had paid her the whole fee upfront, but to get enough money for a decent ship that could function as a substitute home, along with proper security measures to keep babies inside and everyone else outside, she'd have to have killed three Jedi.
Hm, the best chance for a quick buck would naturally be Tatooine, that world was never short of jobs for people in her line of work. On the other hand, she doubted that the baby which had fallen asleep in the seat next to her would last long unsupervised in that place, not to mention unnoticed by her colleagues. No, she needed a better planet.
Mentally skimming through the list of her preferred places for unconventional purchases, the bounty hunter set course for the planet Mygetoo and activated lightspeed. She knew a shady merchant there who usually gave her a discount due to a favor he owed her and the planet was civilized enough to walk cross a street without passing three other bounty hunters. Though still corrupt enough for her to find employment. Fortunately she had yet to visit a planet where the latter part wasn't the case. She smirked. With all their differences, the one thing really binding all the species in the universe was greed.
Bunt Kabor had been sure this would just be one of those days which, while unpleasant, didn't leave any significant impact on his life. Unfortunately it seemed like today would be one of those days that were not only unpleasant, but far too weird to forget anytime soon instead.
And he truly despised weird things. What he wanted was (an illusion of) normalcy and overall, a calm, quiet, well scheduled life. That had worked pretty well when he was a simple accountant on his home world Skako for the Techno Union, until someone higher up in the food ladder had framed him for his own illegal operations. After a long, uncomfortably close and unpleasant escape through what felt like half the galaxy, with far too many risks and excitement involved, he somehow had ended up on Mygeeto. As a shabby merchant whose trademark was being able to sell Pretty much everything, thanks to ties with the local black market (the circumstances of how THAT came to be had been so harrowing, he had done his best to forget them). As it turned out, he was just important enough to the criminals here and not too important to the criminals back home that both parties didn't bother with him. And for better or worse, life tended to be good. He had regular customers (though most of them with outlandish demands) and a quite comfortable profit.
Unfortunately being a merchant who could get pretty much everything meant that every bounty hunter who happened to visit this system paid him a visit. He despised those people. Their whole lifestyle was the very essence of unpredictable, and he always felt like they were about to shot and rob him blind in the next moment.
And on top of that, his current visitor, the bounty hunter Aurra Sing, REALLY gave him the chills just looking at her. With her he feared that instead of just killing him and taking his stuff, she would rather torture him, then take his stuff, kill him and do unspeakable things to his corpse.
Granted, since he had done his best to forget a far too long portion of his life, he didn't know why exactly she gave him that reaction, but it probably had something to do with what she did to those Skakoan law enforcers she saved him from, at least that was what she always reminded him about.
Still, as already mentioned such visits may be unpleasant, but they went away and were quickly forgotten.
But how, HOW was he ever supposed to forget this woman coming to visit him in one of his secret warehouses with dark bags under her eyes, obviously sleep and nerve deprived. How she had, with a voice allowing no objection whatsoever, demanded he should immediately get her a child care droid(?), earplugs and diapers? When he then heard her murmur something about rope and gags(!), coupled with what sounded like cry's from a baby coming out of her ship(?), he had decided that he truly did not want to know what that sick person was up to and fled the scene in a haste to check his stock of droids.
To his eternal relief the bounty hunters next demands were far more reasonable. Namely getting her a contract (after all he was not restricted to material goods) and a freighter big enough to life in, preferably in the price range of the reward money from the contract.
Two weeks later
Aurra was grateful that the little bundle of energy still attached to her back was being quiet for the moment. While putting her Czerka Adventurer rifle together, she still wondered what had possessed her to bring the infant along in the first place. Even though she had calmed down in her frustration now that her new child care droid took care of any diaper related business and other uncomfortable things, and it was somewhat understandable being uncomfortable leaving a defenseless baby in the care of a shady person such as Bunt, she should have had the better sense to ignore that and NOT have a potential source of loud noise strapped to her while in the process of sniping someone.
On the other hand, the security detail of her target did have enough bad sense to even it out. While making sure that her rifle was loaded, she couldn't help but scoff at how ridiculous it was for them to not have men securing the roofs. Okay, the entrances to the buildings had been decently secured, and usually assassins didn't have force capabilities that allowed them to defy gravity enough to reach incredible high places. There weren't many force users in the galaxy not Jedi or Sith. The former would usually not use rifles or attempt to kill someone like her target, the latter were thought extinct.
Still, that left people with grappling hooks, jetpacks, and all the species naturally designed to scale walls. Yeah, the security was run by idiots.
Satisfied with the state of her weapon, Aurra went on her knees and crept towards the edge of the roof facing the rally held by her target.
It was a pretty standard job, really. Mygeeto was a planet locked in a constant winter, that had become very profitable when a buck load of extremely valuable diamonds had been found under its surface. Some of them could even be used to power light sabers. Unfortunately for the natives, they didn't see much of that value, since the whole planet was owned by the Bank Clan, who ruled over the natives, a race of furry, lemuroid mammels, almost half as tall as a human(2), with as much power it bordered on outright slavery. Though with enough bureaucracy and market value to keep ideological Republicans or Jedi away. Not to forget the fleet upholding a blockade around the planet, but she had done enough jobs for the Bank Clan before to have clearance.
And that was where her target, which she just found stepping into the scope of her visor, came into play. Some heart bleeding native who had made it into politics without turning against his own kind in favor of becoming a wealthy employee of the Bank Clan. One that used ever chance to try and rally the other natives to stand up to the Bank Clan, constantly pushing for better payment, status, equality and all those dreams.
"What a tool" the bounty hunter thought. Despite all his drive, the guy was a pacifist through and through, always advocating the peaceful protest. Well, thanks to his horrible security team, composed of human and Twi'lek mercenaries, soon he would only serve as another reminder to his supporters what happened to those who resisted the system.
Aiming at the point of her targets chest where the heart should be located, ignoring the brat tugging at her braid, Aurra pulled the trigger shortly after he had reached the podium and started his speech.
Her shot hit the target right in the chest, throwing him down. In seconds panicked screams filled the air and the crowd began to riot.
With a satisfied smirk, the pale bounty hunter moved away from the edge of the roof. Quickly she unbound the baby on her back, than bound her again, this time to her stomach, shortly afterwards shouldering her rifle. The suitcase she had transported its parts with before contained enough explosives to erase all evidence she may have left on the roof and provide enough of a distraction for an armed of planet woman to disappear with some big leaps.
But just as she was about to arm said explosives, the sound of several ignited rockets made her freeze. Whipping out her remaining dual triggered blaster pistol and assuming a defensive stance, she soon found the rooftop surrounded by a dozen security guards with jetpacks, all having their blasters trained on her.
"Freeze, Bank scum! On behalf of the native people of this planet, you and your employers will be held accountable for the crimes committed…."
The leading officer went on in his righteous (and obviously scripted) tirade against evil cooperation's while several of his men landed and cautiously moved towards the bounty hunter, but Aurra was too busy silently cursing herself to waste time on listening. Damn it, not her target was the tool, she was. Carefully, so not to spook the officers into shooting, she turned her head back to the rally, seeing her "victim" standing again and getting the crowd back under control. Off all the things that could go wrong with a contract, being used to support a political campaign was one of the worst.
But she could still make this work. As soon as she thought up a ways to get off the rooftop without blaster shots on her or the infant…..
Being stuck by inspiration, the bounty hunter swiftly moved the hand holding her blaster and planted its barrel at the little togrutas head.
"Back off, you Scarlac waste, or this brat gets a new hole to breathe!"
The officers in front of her gave her questioning looks for a moment, but soon they noticed what all of them had overlooked before because the very idea seemed to be so outlandish. But now that they realized the situation, the commanding officers shouted:
"Don't shoot, she has a hostage! I repeat, the hostile got a hostage, a baby!" One could hear the disgust for said circumstance in his voice.
Silently counting to four so that the information would sink in, Aurra pressed the button beneath the suitcases handle. Turing around she started running while flinging it behind her.
The guards smart enough to fly away were the lucky ones, those to inexperienced and confused stared dumbly at the suitcase until the explosion blew them from the roof and out of the sky. Aurra meanwhile, having made a beeline for a guard standing close to the edge, let the force of the explosion throw herself (shoulder first so not to harm Ahso… her protection) against him and carried both of them over the edge. Before he could react, she had already shot him through the throat.
While falling, the baby screaming like there was no tomorrow, even louder than the overwhelmed guards back on the roof and in the air, Aurra holstered her weapon while using her left hand to rip the jetpack from the guards back, with a little assistance of the force. Having gotten it free, she hastily managed to put it on herself, taking her rifle in her hands and activating the jetpack shortly before impacting on the ground.
Laughing like a mad harpy, coupled with infernal infant wailing, the pale woman flying over them made the crowd panic even more. Coming towards her target like the vengeful spirit of a Sith, Aurra smiled in satisfaction upon seeing the expression of someone who just realized that a severe miscalculation would end his very live on her targets face.
All it took was one rifle shoot into said face (what with the now visible blaster proof vest the guy had been wearing) and another contract was fulfilled.
Aurra was still laughing when she speed away from the rally. A few guards tried to follow her, but it didn't take her long to lose them. They didn't seem to be overly motivated, with their employer just getting killed due to their failure, their shoots missing on purpose due to the presence of an infant hostage, and that laughter was seriously creeping them out. Aurra had always liked good old psychological warfare.
Arriving back at the Bunt's warehouse, Aurra put the jetpack and her rifle away, then unbound the baby from her body. Naturally due to the last occurrences, she was still crying. And for the first time since acquiring her, the bounty hunter didn't try to ignore her or force her to shut up. Instead she gently held the infant to her chest, petted her head and made soothing noises. After a while, she succeeded in calming her little companion.
Placing the baby on a nearby table, she almost fondly looked down at the little ogruta, who in turn curiously looked up at her.
"Well, you brat, turns out that you can be pretty useful after all. Mind you, I naturally could have gotten away sooner or later, but having you acting as a shield did make things easier. Say, think we could do something like this again?"
A gurgling baby noise was all she got in response, but the little rascal seemed to be adequately happy. Especially after Aurra started to tickle its stomach with her index finger.
"Now then, keep in mind that on other planets like Tatooine, most people wouldn't give to shits about who is clinging to me. But I am sure I can think of some other ways for you to make yourself useful. So let's make a deal: You tone down on the crying and use your infant innocence thingy on people from time to time. In return I won't leave you behind, feed you, perhaps even exchange your diapers sometimes, and teach you how to be something more in this universe than a tool. Sounds good?"
And with Ahsoka mindlessly trying to grab Aurra's finger, though failing due to being like a month old, the contract was made.
AN: I am really sorry for the inexcusable delay, but after hearing that there would be new bounty hunters in the season's finale I decided to wait for their reveal to see if I could put them in the story later. And I think I will, certainly beats the OC's I made up. And well, after having watched the Clone Wars episode with the new bounty hunters, Mass Effect 3 came out and captured my attention. But now I am back in business, and the next chapter shouldn't take too long, since I had it planned out ever since I started this story. Though it has been revised after episode 24. Yup, next time our dynamic duo meets Aurra's colleagues. Who I better do some more research on now.
(1) Actually, now that I think about it, I don't remember ever seeing something like a seatbelt in a Star Wars space ship. Then again, I wasn't really looking.
(2) The natives of Mygeeto are those tiny pacifists' monkeys from that episode with the experimental Separatist weapon that burns organics and spares droids.
